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+Project Gutenberg's A Voice in the Wilderness, by Grace Livingston Hill
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Voice in the Wilderness
+
+Author: Grace Livingston Hill
+
+Release Date: April 27, 2007 [EBook #21219]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+A VOICE in the WILDERNESS
+
+A NOVEL
+BY
+GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL
+
+AUTHOR OF
+MARCIA SCHUYLER, ETC.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+PUBLISHERS--NEW YORK
+
+Published by Arrangement with Harper and Brothers
+
+Made in the United States of America
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+A Voice in the Wilderness
+
+Copyright, 1916, by Harper & Brothers
+Printed in the United States of America
+Published September, 1916
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+With a lurch the train came to a dead stop and Margaret Earle, hastily
+gathering up her belongings, hurried down the aisle and got out into the
+night.
+
+It occurred to her, as she swung her heavy suit-case down the rather
+long step to the ground, and then carefully swung herself after it, that
+it was strange that neither conductor, brakeman, nor porter had come to
+help her off the train, when all three had taken the trouble to tell her
+that hers was the next station; but she could hear voices up ahead.
+Perhaps something was the matter with the engine that detained them and
+they had forgotten her for the moment.
+
+The ground was rough where she stood, and there seemed no sign of a
+platform. Did they not have platforms in this wild Western land, or was
+the train so long that her car had stopped before reaching it?
+
+She strained her eyes into the darkness, and tried to make out things
+from the two or three specks of light that danced about like fireflies
+in the distance. She could dimly see moving figures away up near the
+engine, and each one evidently carried a lantern. The train was
+tremendously long. A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her.
+Perhaps she ought not to have got out until some one came to help her.
+Perhaps the train had not pulled into the station yet and she ought to
+get back on it and wait. Yet if the train started before she found the
+conductor she might be carried on somewhere and be justly blame her for
+a fool.
+
+There did not seem to be any building on that side of the track. It was
+probably on the other, but she was standing too near the cars to see
+over. She tried to move back to look, but the ground sloped and she
+slipped and fell in the cinders, bruising her knee and cutting her
+wrist.
+
+In sudden panic she arose. She would get back into the train, no matter
+what the consequences. They had no right to put her out here, away off
+from the station, at night, in a strange country. If the train started
+before she could find the conductor she would tell him that he must back
+it up again and let her off. He certainly could not expect her to get
+out like this.
+
+She lifted the heavy suit-case up the high step that was even farther
+from the ground than it had been when she came down, because her fall
+had loosened some of the earth and caused it to slide away from the
+track. Then, reaching to the rail of the step, she tried to pull herself
+up, but as she did so the engine gave a long snort and the whole train,
+as if it were in league against her, lurched forward crazily, shaking
+off her hold. She slipped to her knees again, the suit-case, toppled
+from the lower step, descending upon her, and together they slid and
+rolled down the short bank, while the train, like an irresponsible nurse
+who had slapped her charge and left it to its fate, ran giddily off into
+the night.
+
+The horror of being deserted helped the girl to rise in spite of bruises
+and shock. She lifted imploring hands to the unresponsive cars as they
+hurried by her--one, two, three, with bright windows, each showing a
+passenger, comfortable and safe inside, unconscious of her need.
+
+A moment of useless screaming, running, trying to attract some one's
+attention, a sickening sense of terror and failure, and the last car
+slatted itself past with a mocking clatter, as if it enjoyed her
+discomfort.
+
+Margaret stood dazed, reaching out helpless hands, then dropped them at
+her sides and gazed after the fast-retreating train, the light on its
+last car swinging tauntingly, blinking now and then with a leer in its
+eye, rapidly vanishing from her sight into the depth of the night.
+
+She gasped and looked about her for the station that but a short moment
+before had been so real to her mind; and, lo! on this side and on that
+there was none!
+
+The night was wide like a great floor shut in by a low, vast dome of
+curving blue set with the largest, most wonderful stars she had ever
+seen. Heavy shadows of purple-green, smoke-like, hovered over earth
+darker and more intense than the unfathomable blue of the night sky. It
+seemed like the secret nesting-place of mysteries wherein no human foot
+might dare intrude. It was incredible that such could be but common
+sage-brush, sand, and greasewood wrapped about with the beauty of the
+lonely night.
+
+No building broke the inky outlines of the plain, nor friendly light
+streamed out to cheer her heart. Not even a tree was in sight, except on
+the far horizon, where a heavy line of deeper darkness might mean a
+forest. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the blue, deep, starry dome
+above and the bluer darkness of the earth below save one sharp shaft
+ahead like a black mast throwing out a dark arm across the track.
+
+As soon as she sighted it she picked up her baggage and made her painful
+way toward it, for her knees and wrist were bruised and her baggage was
+heavy.
+
+A soft drip, drip greeted her as she drew nearer; something plashing
+down among the cinders by the track. Then she saw the tall column with
+its arm outstretched, and looming darker among the sage-brush the
+outlines of a water-tank. It was so she recognized the engine's
+drinking-tank, and knew that she had mistaken a pause to water the
+engine for a regular stop at a station.
+
+Her soul sank within her as she came up to the dripping water and laid
+her hand upon the dark upright, as if in some way it could help her. She
+dropped her baggage and stood, trembling, gazing around upon the
+beautiful, lonely scene in horror; and then, like a mirage against the
+distance, there melted on her frightened eyes a vision of her father
+and mother sitting around the library lamp at home, as they sat every
+evening. They were probably reading and talking at this very minute, and
+trying not to miss her on this her first venture away from the home into
+the great world to teach. What would they say if they could see their
+beloved daughter, whom they had sheltered all these years and let go
+forth so reluctantly now, in all her confidence of youth, bound by
+almost absurd promises to be careful and not run any risks.
+
+Yet here she was, standing alone beside a water-tank in the midst of an
+Arizona plain, no knowing how many miles from anywhere, at somewhere
+between nine and ten o'clock at night! It seemed incredible that it had
+really happened! Perhaps she was dreaming! A few moments before in the
+bright car, surrounded by drowsy fellow-travelers, almost at her
+journey's end, as she supposed; and now, having merely done as she
+thought right, she was stranded here!
+
+She rubbed her eyes and looked again up the track, half expecting to see
+the train come back for her. Surely, surely the conductor, or the porter
+who had been so kind, would discover that she was gone, and do something
+about it. They couldn't leave her here alone on the prairie! It would be
+too dreadful!
+
+That vision of her father and mother off against the purple-green
+distance, how it shook her! The lamp looked bright and cheerful, and she
+could see her father's head with its heavy white hair. He turned to look
+at her mother to tell her of something he read in the paper. They were
+sitting there, feeling contented and almost happy about her, and she,
+their little girl--all her dignity as school-teacher dropped from her
+like a garment now--she was standing in this empty space alone, with
+only an engine's water-tank to keep her from dying, and only the barren,
+desolate track to connect her with the world of men and women. She
+dropped her head upon her breast and the tears came, sobbing, choking,
+raining down. Then off in the distance she heard a low, rising howl of
+some snarling, angry beast, and she lifted her head and stood in
+trembling terror, clinging to the tank.
+
+That sound was coyotes or wolves howling. She had read about them, but
+had not expected to experience them in such a situation. How confidently
+had she accepted the position which offered her the opening she had
+sought for the splendid career that she hoped was to follow! How
+fearless had she been! Coyotes, nor Indians, nor wild cowboy
+students--nothing had daunted her courage. Besides, she told her mother
+it was very different going to a town from what it would be if she were
+a missionary going to the wilds. It was an important school she was to
+teach, where her Latin and German and mathematical achievements had won
+her the place above several other applicants, and where her well-known
+tact was expected to work wonders. But what were Latin and German and
+mathematics now? Could they show her how to climb a water-tank? Would
+tact avail with a hungry wolf?
+
+The howl in the distance seemed to come nearer. She cast frightened eyes
+to the unresponsive water-tank looming high and dark above her. She
+must get up there somehow. It was not safe to stand here a minute.
+Besides, from that height she might be able to see farther, and perhaps
+there would be a light somewhere and she might cry for help.
+
+Investigation showed a set of rude spikes by which the trainmen were
+wont to climb up, and Margaret prepared to ascend them. She set her
+suit-case dubiously down at the foot. Would it be safe to leave it
+there? She had read how coyotes carried off a hatchet from a
+camping-party, just to get the leather thong which was bound about the
+handle. She could not afford to lose her things. Yet how could she climb
+and carry that heavy burden with her? A sudden thought came.
+
+Her simple traveling-gown was finished with a silken girdle, soft and
+long, wound twice about her waist and falling in tasseled ends. Swiftly
+she untied it and knotted one end firmly to the handle of her suit-case,
+tying the other end securely to her wrist. Then slowly, cautiously, with
+many a look upward, she began to climb.
+
+It seemed miles, though in reality it was but a short distance. The
+howling beasts in the distance sounded nearer now and continually,
+making her heart beat wildly. She was stiff and bruised from her falls,
+and weak with fright. The spikes were far apart, and each step of
+progress was painful and difficult. It was good at last to rise high
+enough to see over the water-tank and feel a certain confidence in her
+defense.
+
+But she had risen already beyond the short length of her silken tether,
+and the suit-case was dragging painfully on her arm. She was obliged to
+steady herself where she stood and pull it up before she could go on.
+Then she managed to get it swung up to the top of the tank in a
+comparatively safe place. One more long spike step and she was beside
+it.
+
+The tank was partly roofed over, so that she had room enough to sit on
+the edge without danger of falling in and drowning. For a few minutes
+she could only sit still and be thankful and try to get her breath back
+again after the climb; but presently the beauty of the night began to
+cast its spell over her. That wonderful blue of the sky! It hadn't ever
+before impressed her that skies were blue at night. She would have said
+they were black or gray. As a matter of fact, she didn't remember to
+have ever seen so much sky at once before, nor to have noticed skies in
+general until now.
+
+This sky was so deeply, wonderfully blue, the stars so real, alive and
+sparkling, that all other stars she had ever seen paled before them into
+mere imitations. The spot looked like one of Taylor's pictures of the
+Holy Land. She half expected to see a shepherd with his crook and sheep
+approaching her out of the dim shadows, or a turbaned, white-robed David
+with his lifted hands of prayer standing off among the depths of purple
+darkness. It would not have been out of keeping if a walled city with
+housetops should be hidden behind the clumps of sage-brush farther on.
+'Twas such a night and such a scene as this, perhaps, when the wise men
+started to follow the star!
+
+But one cannot sit on the edge of a water-tank in the desert night
+alone and muse long on art and history. It was cold up there, and the
+howling seemed nearer than before. There was no sign of a light or a
+house anywhere, and not even a freight-train sent its welcome clatter
+down the track. All was still and wide and lonely, save that terrifying
+sound of the beasts; such stillness as she had not ever thought could
+be--a fearful silence as a setting for the awful voices of the wilds.
+
+The bruises and scratches she had acquired set up a fine stinging, and
+the cold seemed to sweep down and take possession of her on her high,
+narrow seat. She was growing stiff and cramped, yet dared not move much.
+Would there be no train, nor any help? Would she have to sit there all
+night? It looked so very near to the ground now. Could wild beasts
+climb, she wondered?
+
+Then in the interval of silence that came between the calling of those
+wild creatures there stole a sound. She could not tell at first what it
+was. A slow, regular, plodding sound, and quite far away. She looked to
+find it, and thought she saw a shape move out of the sage-brush on the
+other side of the track, but she could not be sure. It might be but a
+figment of her brain, a foolish fancy from looking so long at the
+huddled bushes on the dark plain. Yet something prompted her to cry out,
+and when she heard her own voice she cried again and louder, wondering
+why she had not cried before.
+
+"Help! Help!" she called; and again: "Help! Help!"
+
+The dark shape paused and turned toward her. She was sure now. What if
+it were a beast instead of a human! Terrible fear took possession of
+her; then, to her infinite relief, a nasal voice sounded out:
+
+"Who's thar?"
+
+But when she opened her lips to answer, nothing but a sob would come to
+them for a minute, and then she could only cry, pitifully:
+
+"Help! Help!"
+
+"Whar be you?" twanged the voice; and now she could see a horse and
+rider like a shadow moving toward her down the track.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+The horse came to a standstill a little way from the track, and his
+rider let forth a stream of strange profanity. The girl shuddered and
+began to think a wild beast might be preferable to some men. However,
+these remarks seemed to be a mere formality. He paused and addressed
+her:
+
+"Heow'd yeh git up thar? D'j'yeh drap er climb?"
+
+He was a little, wiry man with a bristly, protruding chin. She could see
+that, even in the starlight. There was something about the point of that
+stubby chin that she shrank from inexpressibly. He was not a pleasant
+man to look upon, and even his voice was unprepossessing. She began to
+think that even the night with its loneliness and unknown perils was
+preferable to this man's company.
+
+"I got off the train by mistake, thinking it was my station, and before
+I discovered it the train had gone and left me," Margaret explained,
+with dignity.
+
+"Yeh didn't 'xpect it t' sit reound on th' plain while you was
+gallivantin' up water-tanks, did yeh?"
+
+Cold horror froze Margaret's veins. She was dumb for a second. "I am on
+my way to Ashland station. Can you tell me how far it is from here and
+how I can get there?" Her tone was like icicles.
+
+"It's a little matter o' twenty miles, more 'r less," said the man
+protruding his offensive chin. "The walkin's good. I don't know no other
+way from this p'int at this time o' night. Yeh might set still till th'
+mornin' freight goes by an' drap atop o' one of the kyars."
+
+"Sir!" said Margaret, remembering her dignity as a teacher.
+
+The man wheeled his horse clear around and looked up at her impudently.
+She could smell bad whisky on his breath.
+
+"Say, you must be some young highbrow, ain't yeh? Is thet all yeh want
+o' me? 'Cause ef 'tis I got t' git on t' camp. It's a good five mile
+yet, an' I 'ain't hed no grub sence noon."
+
+The tears suddenly rushed to the girl's eyes as the horror of being
+alone in the night again took possession of her. This dreadful man
+frightened her, but the thought of the loneliness filled her with
+dismay.
+
+"Oh!" she cried, forgetting her insulted dignity, "you're not going to
+leave me up here alone, are you? Isn't there some place near here where
+I could stay overnight?"
+
+"Thur ain't no palace hotel round these diggin's, ef that's what you
+mean," the man leered at her. "You c'n come along t' camp 'ith me ef you
+ain't too stuck up."
+
+"To camp!" faltered Margaret in dismay, wondering what her mother would
+say. "Are there any ladies there?"
+
+A loud guffaw greeted her question. "Wal, my woman's thar, sech es she
+is; but she ain't no highflier like you. We mostly don't hev ladies to
+camp, But I got t' git on. Ef you want to go too, you better light down
+pretty speedy, fer I can't wait."
+
+In fear and trembling Margaret descended her rude ladder step by step,
+primitive man seated calmly on his horse, making no attempt whatever to
+assist her.
+
+"This ain't no baggage-car," he grumbled, as he saw the suit-case in her
+hand. "Well, h'ist yerself up thar; I reckon we c'n pull through
+somehow. Gimme the luggage."
+
+Margaret stood appalled beside the bony horse and his uncouth rider. Did
+he actually expect her to ride with him? "Couldn't I walk?" she
+faltered, hoping he would offer to do so.
+
+"'T's up t' you," the man replied, indifferently. "Try 't an' see!"
+
+He spoke to the horse, and it started forward eagerly, while the girl in
+horror struggled on behind. Over rough, uneven ground, between
+greasewood, sage-brush, and cactus, back into the trail. The man,
+oblivious of her presence, rode contentedly on, a silent shadow on a
+dark horse wending a silent way between the purple-green clumps of other
+shadows, until, bewildered, the girl almost lost sight of them. Her
+breath came short, her ankle turned, and she fell with both hands in a
+stinging bed of cactus. She cried out then and begged him to stop.
+
+"L'arned yer lesson, hev yeh, sweety?" he jeered at her, foolishly.
+"Well, get in yer box, then."
+
+He let her struggle up to a seat behind himself with very little
+assistance, but when she was seated and started on her way she began to
+wish she had stayed behind and taken any perils of the way rather than
+trust herself in proximity to this creature.
+
+From time to time he took a bottle from his pocket and swallowed a
+portion of its contents, becoming fluent in his language as they
+proceeded on their way. Margaret remained silent, growing more and more
+frightened every time the bottle came out. At last he offered it to her.
+She declined it with cold politeness, which seemed to irritate the
+little man, for he turned suddenly fierce.
+
+"Oh, yer too fine to take a drap fer good comp'ny, are yeh? Wal, I'll
+show yeh a thing er two, my pretty lady. You'll give me a kiss with yer
+two cherry lips before we go another step. D'yeh hear, my sweetie?" And
+he turned with a silly leer to enforce his command; but with a cry of
+horror Margaret slid to the ground and ran back down the trail as hard
+as she could go, till she stumbled and fell in the shelter of a great
+sage-bush, and lay sobbing on the sand.
+
+The man turned bleared eyes toward her and watched until she
+disappeared. Then sticking his chin out wickedly, he slung her suit-case
+after her and called:
+
+"All right, my pretty lady; go yer own gait an' l'arn yer own lesson."
+He started on again, singing a drunken song.
+
+Under the blue, starry dome alone sat Margaret again, this time with no
+friendly water-tank for her defense, and took counsel with herself. The
+howling coyotes seemed to be silenced for the time; at least they had
+become a minor quantity in her equation of troubles. She felt now that
+man was her greatest menace, and to get away safely from him back to
+that friendly water-tank and the dear old railroad track she would have
+pledged her next year's salary. She stole softly to the place where she
+had heard the suit-case fall, and, picking it up, started on the weary
+road back to the tank. Could she ever find the way? The trail seemed so
+intangible a thing, her sense of direction so confused. Yet there was
+nothing else to do. She shuddered whenever she thought of the man who
+had been her companion on horseback.
+
+When the man reached camp he set his horse loose and stumbled into the
+door of the log bunk-house, calling loudly for something to eat.
+
+The men were sitting around the room on the rough benches and bunks,
+smoking their pipes or stolidly staring into the dying fire. Two smoky
+kerosene-lanterns that hung from spikes driven high in the logs cast a
+weird light over the company, eight men in all, rough and hardened with
+exposure to stormy life and weather. They were men with unkempt beards
+and uncombed hair, their coarse cotton shirts open at the neck, their
+brawny arms bare above the elbow, with crimes and sorrows and hard
+living written large across their faces.
+
+There was one, a boy in looks, with smooth face and white skin healthily
+flushed in places like a baby's. His face, too, was hard and set in
+sternness like a mask, as if life had used him badly; but behind it was
+a fineness of feature and spirit that could not be utterly hidden. They
+called him the Kid, and thought it was his youth that made him different
+from them all, for he was only twenty-four, and not one of the rest was
+under forty. They were doing their best to help him get over that innate
+fineness that was his natural inheritance, but although he stopped at
+nothing, and played his part always with the ease of one old in the ways
+of the world, yet he kept a quiet reserve about him, a kind of charm
+beyond which they had not been able to go.
+
+He was playing cards with three others at the table when the man came
+in, and did not look up at the entrance.
+
+The woman, white and hopeless, appeared at the door of the shed-room
+when the man came, and obediently set about getting his supper; but her
+lifeless face never changed expression.
+
+"Brung a gal 'long of me part way," boasted the man, as he flung himself
+into a seat by the table. "Thought you fellers might like t' see 'er,
+but she got too high an' mighty fer me, wouldn't take a pull at th'
+bottle 'ith me, 'n' shrieked like a catamount when I kissed 'er. Found
+'er hangin' on th' water-tank. Got off 't th' wrong place. One o' yer
+highbrows out o' th' parlor car! Good lesson fer 'er!"
+
+The Boy looked up from his cards sternly, his keen eyes boring through
+the man. "Where is she now?" he asked, quietly; and all the men in the
+room looked up uneasily. There was that tone and accent again that made
+the Boy alien from them. What was it?
+
+The man felt it and snarled his answer angrily. "Dropped 'er on th'
+trail, an' threw her fine-lady b'longin's after 'er. 'Ain't got no use
+fer thet kind. Wonder what they was created fer? Ain't no good to
+nobody, not even 'emselves." And he laughed a harsh cackle that was not
+pleasant to hear.
+
+The Boy threw down his cards and went out, shutting the door. In a few
+minutes the men heard two horses pass the end of the bunk-house toward
+the trail, but no one looked up nor spoke. You could not have told by
+the flicker of an eyelash that they knew where the Boy had gone.
+
+She was sitting in the deep shadow of a sage-bush that lay on the edge
+of the trail like a great blot, her suit-case beside her, her breath
+coming short with exertion and excitement, when she heard a cheery
+whistle in the distance. Just an old love-song dating back some years
+and discarded now as hackneyed even by the street pianos at home; but
+oh, how good it sounded!
+
+    From the desert I come to thee!
+
+The ground was cold, and struck a chill through her garments as she sat
+there alone in the night. On came the clear, musical whistle, and she
+peered out of the shadow with eager eyes and frightened heart. Dared she
+risk it again? Should she call, or should she hold her breath and keep
+still, hoping he would pass her by unnoticed? Before she could decide
+two horses stopped almost in front of her and a rider swung himself
+down. He stood before her as if it were day and he could see her quite
+plainly.
+
+"You needn't be afraid," he explained, calmly. "I thought I had better
+look you up after the old man got home and gave his report. He was
+pretty well tanked up and not exactly a fit escort for ladies. What's
+the trouble?"
+
+Like an angel of deliverance he looked to her as he stood in the
+starlight, outlined in silhouette against the wide, wonderful sky: broad
+shoulders, well-set head, close-cropped curls, handsome contour even in
+the darkness. There was about him an air of quiet strength which gave
+her confidence.
+
+"Oh, thank you!" she gasped, with a quick little relieved sob in her
+voice. "I am so glad you have come. I was--just a little--frightened, I
+think." She attempted to rise, but her foot caught in her skirt and she
+sank wearily back to the sand again.
+
+The Boy stooped over and lifted her to her feet. "You certainly are some
+plucky girl!" he commented, looking down at her slender height as she
+stood beside him. "A 'little frightened,' were you? Well, I should say
+you had a right to be."
+
+"Well, not exactly frightened, you know," said Margaret, taking a deep
+breath and trying to steady her voice. "I think perhaps I was more
+mortified than frightened, to think I made such a blunder as to get off
+the train before I reached my station. You see, I'd made up my mind not
+to be frightened, but when I heard that awful howl of some beast--And
+then that terrible man!" She shuddered and put her hands suddenly over
+her eyes as if to shut out all memory of it.
+
+"More than one kind of beasts!" commented the Boy, briefly. "Well, you
+needn't worry about him; he's having his supper and he'll be sound
+asleep by the time we get back."
+
+"Oh, have we got to go where he is?" gasped Margaret. "Isn't there some
+other place? Is Ashland very far away? That is where I am going."
+
+"No other place where you could go to-night. Ashland's a good
+twenty-five miles from here. But you'll be all right. Mom Wallis 'll
+look out for you. She isn't much of a looker, but she has a kind heart.
+She pulled me through once when I was just about flickering out. Come
+on. You'll be pretty tired. We better be getting back. Mom Wallis 'll
+make you comfortable, and then you can get off good and early in the
+morning."
+
+Without an apology, and as if it were the common courtesy of the desert,
+he stooped and lifted her easily to the saddle of the second horse,
+placed the bridle in her hands, then swung the suit-case up on his own
+horse and sprang into the saddle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+He turned the horses about and took charge of her just as if he were
+accustomed to managing stray ladies in the wilderness every day of his
+life and understood the situation perfectly; and Margaret settled
+wearily into her saddle and looked about her with content.
+
+Suddenly, again, the wide wonder of the night possessed her.
+Involuntarily she breathed a soft little exclamation of awe and delight.
+Her companion turned to her questioningly:
+
+"Does it always seem so big here--so--limitless?" she asked in
+explanation. "It is so far to everywhere it takes one's breath away, and
+yet the stars hang close, like a protection. It gives one the feeling of
+being alone in the great universe with God. Does it always seem so out
+here?"
+
+He looked at her curiously, her pure profile turned up to the wide dome
+of luminous blue above. His voice was strangely low and wondering as he
+answered, after a moment's silence:
+
+"No, it is not always so," he said. "I have seen it when it was more
+like being alone in the great universe with the devil."
+
+There was a tremendous earnestness in his tone that the girl felt meant
+more than was on the surface. She turned to look at the fine young face
+beside her. In the starlight she could not make out the bitter hardness
+of lines that were beginning to be carved about his sensitive mouth. But
+there was so much sadness in his voice that her heart went out to him in
+pity.
+
+"Oh," she said, gently, "it would be awful that way. Yes, I can
+understand. I felt so, a little, while that terrible man was with me."
+And she shuddered again at the remembrance.
+
+Again he gave her that curious look. "There are worse things than Pop
+Wallis out here," he said, gravely. "But I'll grant you there's some
+class to the skies. It's a case of 'Where every prospect pleases and
+only man is vile.'" And with the words his tone grew almost flippant. It
+hurt her sensitive nature, and without knowing it she half drew away a
+little farther from him and murmured, sadly:
+
+"Oh!" as if he had classed himself with the "man" he had been
+describing. Instantly he felt her withdrawal and grew grave again, as if
+he would atone.
+
+"Wait till you see this sky at the dawn," he said. "It will burn red
+fire off there in the east like a hearth in a palace, and all this dome
+will glow like a great pink jewel set in gold. If you want a classy sky,
+there you have it! Nothing like it in the East!"
+
+There was a strange mingling of culture and roughness in his speech. The
+girl could not make him out; yet there had been a palpitating
+earnestness in his description that showed he had felt the dawn in his
+very soul.
+
+"You are--a--poet, perhaps?" she asked, half shyly. "Or an artist?" she
+hazarded.
+
+He laughed roughly and seemed embarrassed. "No, I'm just a--bum! A sort
+of roughneck out of a job."
+
+She was silent, watching him against the starlight, a kind of
+embarrassment upon her after his last remark. "You--have been here
+long?" she asked, at last.
+
+"Three years." He said it almost curtly and turned his head away, as if
+there were something in his face he would hide.
+
+She knew there was something unhappy in his life. Unconsciously her tone
+took on a sympathetic sound. "And do you get homesick and want to go
+back, ever?" she asked.
+
+His tone was fairly savage now. "No!"
+
+The silence which followed became almost oppressive before the Boy
+finally turned and in his kindly tone began to question her about the
+happenings which had stranded her in the desert alone at night.
+
+So she came to tell him briefly and frankly about herself, as he
+questioned--how she came to be in Arizona all alone.
+
+"My father is a minister in a small town in New York State. When I
+finished college I had to do something, and I had an offer of this
+Ashland school through a friend of ours who had a brother out here.
+Father and mother would rather have kept me nearer home, of course, but
+everybody says the best opportunities are in the West, and this was a
+good opening, so they finally consented. They would send post-haste for
+me to come back if they knew what a mess I have made of things right at
+the start--getting out of the train in the desert."
+
+"But you're not discouraged?" said her companion, half wonderingly.
+"Some nerve you have with you. I guess you'll manage to hit it off in
+Ashland. It's the limit as far as discipline is concerned, I understand,
+but I guess you'll put one over on them. I'll bank on you after
+to-night, sure thing!"
+
+She turned a laughing face toward him. "Thank you!" she said. "But I
+don't see how you know all that. I'm sure I didn't do anything
+particularly nervy. There wasn't anything else to do but what I did, if
+I'd tried."
+
+"Most girls would have fainted and screamed, and fainted again when they
+were rescued," stated the Boy, out of a vast experience.
+
+"I never fainted in my life," said Margaret Earle, with disdain. "I
+don't think I should care to faint out in the vast universe like this.
+It would be rather inopportune, I should think."
+
+Then, because she suddenly realized that she was growing very chummy
+with this stranger in the dark, she asked the first question that came
+into her head.
+
+"What was your college?"
+
+That he had not been to college never entered her head. There was
+something in his speech and manner that made it a foregone conclusion.
+
+It was as if she had struck him forcibly in his face, so sudden and
+sharp a silence ensued for a second. Then he answered, gruffly, "Yale,"
+and plunged into an elaborate account of Arizona in its early ages,
+including a detailed description of the cliff-dwellers and their homes,
+which were still to be seen high in the rocks of the caņons not many
+miles to the west of where they were riding.
+
+Margaret was keen to hear it all, and asked many questions, declaring
+her intention of visiting those cliff-caves at her earliest opportunity.
+It was so wonderful to her to be actually out here where were all sorts
+of queer things about which she had read and wondered. It did not occur
+to her, until the next day, to realize that her companion had of
+intention led her off the topic of himself and kept her from asking any
+more personal questions.
+
+He told her of the petrified forest just over some low hills off to the
+left; acres and acres of agatized chips and trunks of great trees all
+turned to eternal stone, called by the Indians "Yeitso's bones," after
+the great giant of that name whom an ancient Indian hero killed. He
+described the coloring of the brilliant days in Arizona, where you stand
+on the edge of some flat-topped mesa and look off through the clear air
+to mountains that seem quite near by, but are in reality more than two
+hundred miles away. He pictured the strange colors and lights of the
+place; ledges of rock, yellow, white and green, drab and maroon, and
+tumbled piles of red boulders, shadowy buttes in the distance, serrated
+cliffs against the horizon, not blue, but rosy pink in the heated haze
+of the air, and perhaps a great, lonely eagle poised above the silent,
+brilliant waste.
+
+He told it not in book language, with turn of phrase and smoothly
+flowing sentences, but in simple, frank words, as a boy might describe a
+picture to one he knew would appreciate it--for her sake, and not
+because he loved to put it into words; but in a new, stumbling way
+letting out the beauty that had somehow crept into his heart in spite of
+all the rough attempts to keep all gentle things out of his nature.
+
+The girl, as she listened, marveled more and more what manner of youth
+this might be who had come to her out of the desert night.
+
+She forgot her weariness as she listened, in the thrill of wonder over
+the new mysterious country to which she had come. She forgot that she
+was riding through the great darkness with an utter stranger, to a place
+she knew not, and to experiences most dubious. Her fears had fled and
+she was actually enjoying herself, and responding to the wonderful story
+of the place with soft-murmured exclamations of delight and wonder.
+
+From time to time in the distance there sounded forth those awful
+blood-curdling howls of wild beasts that she had heard when she sat
+alone by the water-tank, and each time she heard a shudder passed
+through her and instinctively she swerved a trifle toward her companion,
+then straightened up again and tried to seem not to notice. The Boy saw
+and watched her brave attempts at self-control with deep appreciation.
+But suddenly, as they rode and talked, a dark form appeared across their
+way a little ahead, lithe and stealthy and furry, and two awful eyes
+like green lamps glared for an instant, then disappeared silently among
+the mesquite bushes.
+
+She did not cry out nor start. Her very veins seemed frozen with horror,
+and she could not have spoken if she tried. It was all over in a second
+and the creature gone, so that she almost doubted her senses and
+wondered if she had seen aright. Then one hand went swiftly to her
+throat and she shrank toward her companion.
+
+"There is nothing to fear," he said, reassuringly, and laid a strong
+hand comfortingly across the neck of her horse. "The pussy-cat was as
+unwilling for our company as we for hers. Besides, look here!"--and he
+raised his hand and shot into the air. "She'll not come near us now."
+
+"I am not afraid!" said the girl, bravely. "At least, I don't think I
+am--very! But it's all so new and unexpected, you know. Do people around
+here always shoot in that--well--unpremeditated fashion?"
+
+They laughed together.
+
+"Excuse me," he said. "I didn't realize the shot might startle you even
+more than the wildcat. It seems I'm not fit to have charge of a lady. I
+told you I was a roughneck."
+
+"You're taking care of me beautifully," said Margaret Earle, loyally,
+"and I'm glad to get used to shots if that's the thing to be expected
+often."
+
+Just then they came to the top of the low, rolling hill, and ahead in
+the darkness there gleamed a tiny, wizened light set in a blotch of
+blackness. Under the great white stars it burned a sickly red and seemed
+out of harmony with the night.
+
+"There we are!" said the Boy, pointing toward it. "That's the
+bunk-house. You needn't be afraid. Pop Wallis 'll be snoring by this
+time, and we'll come away before he's about in the morning. He always
+sleeps late after he's been off on a bout. He's been gone three days,
+selling some cattle, and he'll have a pretty good top on."
+
+The girl caught her breath, gave one wistful look up at the wide, starry
+sky, a furtive glance at the strong face of her protector, and
+submitted to being lifted down to the ground.
+
+Before her loomed the bunk-house, small and mean, built of logs, with
+only one window in which the flicker of the lanterns menaced, with
+unknown trials and possible perils for her to meet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+When Margaret Earle dawned upon that bunk-room the men sat up with one
+accord, ran their rough, red hands through their rough, tousled hair,
+smoothed their beards, took down their feet from the benches where they
+were resting. That was as far as their etiquette led them. Most of them
+continued to smoke their pipes, and all of them stared at her
+unreservedly. Such a sight of exquisite feminine beauty had not come to
+their eyes in many a long day. Even in the dim light of the smoky
+lanterns, and with the dust and weariness of travel upon her, Margaret
+Earle was a beautiful girl.
+
+"That's what's the matter, father," said her mother, when the subject of
+Margaret's going West to teach had first been mentioned. "She's too
+beautiful. Far too beautiful to go among savages! If she were homely and
+old, now, she might be safe. That would be a different matter."
+
+Yet Margaret had prevailed, and was here in the wild country. Now,
+standing on the threshold of the log cabin, she read, in the unveiled
+admiration that startled from the eyes of the men, the meaning of her
+mother's fears.
+
+Yet withal it was a kindly admiration not unmixed with awe. For there
+was about her beauty a touch of the spiritual which set her above the
+common run of women, making men feel her purity and sweetness, and
+inclining their hearts to worship rather than be bold.
+
+The Boy had been right. Pop Wallis was asleep and out of the way. From a
+little shed room at one end his snoring marked time in the silence that
+the advent of the girl made in the place.
+
+In the doorway of the kitchen offset Mom Wallis stood with her
+passionless face--a face from which all emotions had long ago been
+burned by cruel fires--and looked at the girl, whose expression was
+vivid with her opening life all haloed in a rosy glow.
+
+A kind of wistful contortion passed over Mom Wallis's hopeless
+countenance, as if she saw before her in all its possibility of
+perfection the life that she herself had lost. Perhaps it was no longer
+possible for her features to show tenderness, but a glow of something
+like it burned in her eyes, though she only turned away with the same
+old apathetic air, and without a word went about preparing a meal for
+the stranger.
+
+Margaret looked wildly, fearfully, around the rough assemblage when she
+first entered the long, low room, but instantly the boy introduced her
+as "the new teacher for the Ridge School beyond the Junction," and these
+were Long Bill, Big Jim, the Fiddling Boss, Jasper Kemp, Fade-away
+Forbes, Stocky, Croaker, and Fudge. An inspiration fell upon the
+frightened girl, and she acknowledged the introduction by a radiant
+smile, followed by the offering of her small gloved hand. Each man in
+dumb bewilderment instantly became her slave, and accepted the offered
+hand with more or less pleasure and embarrassment. The girl proved her
+right to be called tactful, and, seeing her advantage, followed it up
+quickly by a few bright words. These men were of an utterly different
+type from any she had ever met before, but they had in their eyes a kind
+of homage which Pop Wallis had not shown and they were not repulsive to
+her. Besides, the Boy was in the background, and her nerve had returned.
+The Boy knew how a lady should be treated. She was quite ready to "play
+up" to his lead.
+
+It was the Boy who brought the only chair the bunk-house afforded, a
+rude, home-made affair, and helped her off with her coat and hat in his
+easy, friendly way, as if he had known her all his life; while the men,
+to whom such gallant ways were foreign, sat awkwardly by and watched in
+wonder and amaze.
+
+Most of all they were astonished at "the Kid," that he could fall so
+naturally into intimate talk with this delicate, beautiful woman. She
+was another of his kind, a creature not made in the same mold as theirs.
+They saw it now, and watched the fairy play with almost childish
+interest. Just to hear her call him "Mr. Gardley"!--Lance Gardley, that
+was what he had told them was his name the day he came among them. They
+had not heard it since. The Kid! Mr. Gardley!
+
+There it was, the difference between them! They looked at the girl half
+jealously, yet proudly at the Boy. He was theirs--yes, in a way he was
+theirs--had they not found him in the wilderness, sick and nigh to
+death, and nursed him back to life again? He was theirs; but he knew
+how to drop into her world, too, and not be ashamed. They were glad that
+he could, even while it struck them with a pang that some day he would
+go back to the world to which he belonged--and where they could never be
+at home.
+
+It was a marvel to watch her eat the coarse corn-bread and pork that Mom
+Wallis brought her. It might have been a banquet, the pleasant way she
+seemed to look at it. Just like a bird she tasted it daintily, and
+smiled, showing her white teeth. There was nothing of the idea of
+greediness that each man knew he himself felt after a fast. It was all
+beautiful, the way she handled the two-tined fork and the old steel
+knife. They watched and dropped their eyes abashed as at a lovely
+sacrament. They had not felt before that eating could be an art. They
+did not know what art meant.
+
+Such strange talk, too! But the Kid seemed to understand. About the
+sky--their old, common sky, with stars that they saw every night--making
+such a fuss about that, with words like "wide," "infinite," "azure," and
+"gems." Each man went furtively out that night before he slept and took
+a new look at the sky to see if he could understand.
+
+The Boy was planning so the night would be but brief. He knew the girl
+was afraid. He kept the talk going enthusiastically, drawing in one or
+two of the men now and again. Long Bill forgot himself and laughed out a
+hoarse guffaw, then stopped as if he had been choked. Stocky, red in the
+face, told a funny story when commanded by the Boy, and then dissolved
+in mortification over his blunders. The Fiddling Boss obediently got
+down his fiddle from the smoky corner beside the fireplace and played a
+weird old tune or two, and then they sang. First the men, with hoarse,
+quavering approach and final roar of wild sweetness; then Margaret and
+the Boy in duet, and finally Margaret alone, with a few bashful chords
+on the fiddle, feeling their way as accompaniment.
+
+Mom Wallis had long ago stopped her work and was sitting huddled in the
+doorway on a nail-keg with weary, folded hands and a strange wistfulness
+on her apathetic face. A fine silence had settled over the group as the
+girl, recognizing her power, and the pleasure she was giving, sang on.
+Now and then the Boy, when he knew the song, would join in with his rich
+tenor.
+
+It was a strange night, and when she finally lay down to rest on a hard
+cot with a questionable-looking blanket for covering and Mom Wallis as
+her room-mate, Margaret Earle could not help wondering what her mother
+and father would think now if they could see her. Would they not,
+perhaps, almost prefer the water-tank and the lonely desert for her to
+her present surroundings?
+
+Nevertheless, she slept soundly after her terrible excitement, and woke
+with a start of wonder in the early morning, to hear the men outside
+splashing water and humming or whistling bits of the tunes she had sung
+to them the night before.
+
+Mom Wallis was standing over her, looking down with a hunger in her eyes
+at the bright waves of Margaret's hair and the soft, sleep-flushed
+cheeks.
+
+"You got dretful purty hair," said Mom Wallis, wistfully.
+
+Margaret looked up and smiled in acknowledgment of the compliment.
+
+"You wouldn't b'lieve it, but I was young an' purty oncet. Beats all how
+much it counts to be young--an' purty! But land! It don't last long.
+Make the most of it while you got it."
+
+Browning's immortal words came to Margaret's lips--
+
+    Grow old along with me,
+    The best is yet to be,
+    The last of life for which the first was made--
+
+but she checked them just in time and could only smile mutely. How could
+she speak such thoughts amid these intolerable surroundings? Then with
+sudden impulse she reached up to the astonished woman and, drawing her
+down, kissed her sallow cheek.
+
+"Oh!" said Mom Wallis, starting back and laying her bony hands upon the
+place where she had been kissed, as if it hurt her, while a dull red
+stole up from her neck over her cheeks and high forehead to the roots of
+her hay-colored hair. All at once she turned her back upon her visitor
+and the tears of the years streamed down her impassive face.
+
+"Don't mind me," she choked, after a minute. "I liked it real good, only
+it kind of give me a turn." Then, after a second: "It's time t' eat. You
+c'n wash outside after the men is done."
+
+That, thought Margaret, had been the scheme of this woman's whole
+life--"After the men is done!"
+
+So, after all, the night was passed in safety, and a wonderful dawning
+had come. The blue of the morning, so different from the blue of the
+night sky, was, nevertheless, just as unfathomable; the air seemed
+filled with straying star-beams, so sparkling was the clearness of the
+light.
+
+But now a mountain rose in the distance with heliotrope-and-purple
+bounds to stand across the vision and dispel the illusion of the night
+that the sky came down to the earth all around like a close-fitting
+dome. There were mountains on all sides, and a slender, dark line of
+mesquite set off the more delicate colorings of the plain.
+
+Into the morning they rode, Margaret and the Boy, before Pop Wallis was
+yet awake, while all the other men stood round and watched, eager,
+jealous for the handshake and the parting smile. They told her they
+hoped she would come again and sing for them, and each one had an
+awkward word of parting. Whatever Margaret Earle might do with her
+school, she had won seven loyal friends in the camp, and she rode away
+amid their admiring glances, which lingered, too, on the broad shoulders
+and wide sombrero of her escort riding by her side.
+
+"Wal, that's the end o' him, I 'spose," drawled Long Bill, with a deep
+sigh, as the riders passed into the valley out of their sight.
+
+"H'm!" said Jasper Kemp, hungrily. "I reck'n _he_ thinks it's jes' th'
+beginnin'!"
+
+"Maybe so! Maybe so!" said Big Jim, dreamily.
+
+The morning was full of wonder for the girl who had come straight from
+an Eastern city. The view from the top of the mesa, or the cool, dim
+entrance of a caņon where great ferns fringed and feathered its walls,
+and strange caves hollowed out in the rocks far above, made real the
+stories she had read of the cave-dwellers. It was a new world.
+
+The Boy was charming. She could not have picked out among her city
+acquaintances a man who would have done the honors of the desert more
+delightfully than he. She had thought him handsome in the starlight and
+in the lantern-light the night before, but now that the morning shone
+upon him she could not keep from looking at him. His fresh color, which
+no wind and weather could quite subdue, his gray-blue eyes with that
+mixture of thoughtfulness and reverence and daring, his crisp, brown
+curls glinting with gold in the sunlight--all made him good to look
+upon. There was something about the firm set of his lips and chin that
+made her feel a hidden strength about him.
+
+When they camped a little while for lunch he showed the thoughtfulness
+and care for her comfort that many an older man might not have had. Even
+his talk was a mixture of boyishness and experience and he seemed to
+know her thoughts before she had them fully spoken.
+
+"I do not understand it," she said, looking him frankly in the eyes at
+last. "How ever in the world did one like _you_ get landed among all
+those dreadful men! Of course, in their way, some of them are not so
+bad; but they are not like you, not in the least, and never could be."
+
+They were riding out upon the plain now in the full afternoon light, and
+a short time would bring them to her destination.
+
+A sad, set look came quickly into the Boy's eyes and his face grew
+almost hard.
+
+"It's an old story. I suppose you've heard it before," he said, and his
+voice tried to take on a careless note, but failed. "I didn't make good
+back there"--he waved his hand sharply toward the East--"so I came out
+here to begin again. But I guess I haven't made good here, either--not
+in the way I meant when I came."
+
+"You can't, you know," said Margaret. "Not here."
+
+"Why?" He looked at her earnestly, as if he felt the answer might help
+him.
+
+"Because you have to go back where you didn't make good and pick up the
+lost opportunities. You can't really make good till you do that _right
+where you left off_."
+
+"But suppose it's too late?"
+
+"It's never too late if we're in earnest and not too proud."
+
+There was a long silence then, while the Boy looked thoughtfully off at
+the mountains, and when he spoke again it was to call attention to the
+beauty of a silver cloud that floated lazily on the horizon. But
+Margaret Earle had seen the look in his gray eyes and was not deceived.
+
+A few minutes later they crossed another mesa and descended to the
+enterprising little town where the girl was to begin her winter's work.
+The very houses and streets seemed to rise briskly and hasten to meet
+them those last few minutes of their ride.
+
+Now that the experience was almost over, the girl realized that she had
+enjoyed it intensely, and that she dreaded inexpressibly that she must
+bid good-by to this friend of a few hours and face an unknown world. It
+had been a wonderful day, and now it was almost done. The two looked at
+each other and realized that their meeting had been an epoch in their
+lives that neither would soon forget--that neither wanted to forget.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Slower the horses walked, and slower. The voices of the Boy and girl
+were low when they spoke about the common things by the wayside. Once
+their eyes met, and they smiled with something both sad and glad in
+them.
+
+Margaret was watching the young man by her side and wondering at
+herself. He was different from any man whose life had come near to hers
+before. He was wild and worldly, she could see that, and unrestrained by
+many of the things that were vital principles with her, and yet she felt
+strangely drawn to him and wonderfully at home in his company. She could
+not understand herself nor him. It was as if his real soul had looked
+out of his eyes and spoken, untrammeled by the circumstances of birth or
+breeding or habit, and she knew him for a kindred spirit. And yet he was
+far from being one in whom she would have expected even to find a
+friend. Where was her confidence of yesterday? Why was it that she
+dreaded to have this strong young protector leave her to meet alone a
+world of strangers, whom yesterday at this time she would have gladly
+welcomed?
+
+Now, when his face grew thoughtful and sad, she saw the hard, bitter
+lines that were beginning to be graven about his lips, and her heart
+ached over what he had said about not making good. She wondered if there
+was anything else she could say to help him, but no words came to her,
+and the sad, set look about his lips warned her that perhaps she had
+said enough. He was not one who needed a long dissertation to bring a
+thought home to his consciousness.
+
+Gravely they rode to the station to see about Margaret's trunks and make
+inquiries for the school and the house where she had arranged to board.
+Then Margaret sent a telegram to her mother to say that she had arrived
+safely, and so, when all was done and there was no longer an excuse for
+lingering, the Boy realized that he must leave her.
+
+They stood alone for just a moment while the voluble landlady went to
+attend to something that was boiling over on the stove. It was an ugly
+little parlor that was to be her reception-room for the next year at
+least, with red-and-green ingrain carpet of ancient pattern, hideous
+chromos on the walls, and frantically common furniture setting up in its
+shining varnish to be pretentious; but the girl had not seen it yet. She
+was filled with a great homesickness that had not possessed her even
+when she said good-by to her dear ones at home. She suddenly realized
+that the people with whom she was to be thrown were of another world
+from hers, and this one friend whom she had found in the desert was
+leaving her.
+
+She tried to shake hands formally and tell him how grateful she was to
+him for rescuing her from the perils of the night, but somehow words
+seemed so inadequate, and tears kept crowding their way into her throat
+and eyes. Absurd it was, and he a stranger twenty hours before, and a
+man of other ways than hers, besides. Yet he was her friend and rescuer.
+
+She spoke her thanks as well as she could, and then looked up, a swift,
+timid glance, and found his eyes upon her earnestly and troubled.
+
+"Don't thank me," he said, huskily. "I guess it was the best thing I
+ever did, finding you. I sha'n't forget, even if you never let me see
+you again--and--I hope you will." His eyes searched hers wistfully.
+
+"Of course," she said. "Why not?"
+
+"I thank you," he said in quaint, courtly fashion, bending low over her
+hand. "I shall try to be worthy of the honor."
+
+And so saying, he left her and, mounting his horse, rode away into the
+lengthening shadows of the afternoon.
+
+She stood in the forlorn little room staring out of the window after her
+late companion, a sense of utter desolation upon her. For the moment all
+her brave hopes of the future had fled, and if she could have slipped
+unobserved out of the front door, down to the station, and boarded some
+waiting express to her home, she would gladly have done it then and
+there.
+
+Try as she would to summon her former reasons for coming to this wild,
+she could not think of one of them, and her eyes were very near to
+tears.
+
+But Margaret Earle was not given to tears, and as she felt them smart
+beneath her lids she turned in a panic to prevent them. She could not
+afford to cry now. Mrs. Tanner would be returning, and she must not find
+the "new schoolma'am" weeping.
+
+With a glance she swept the meager, pretentious room, and then,
+suddenly, became aware of other presences. In the doorway stood a man
+and a dog, both regarding her intently with open surprise, not unmixed
+with open appraisement and a marked degree of admiration.
+
+The man was of medium height, slight, with a putty complexion; cold,
+pale-blue eyes; pale, straw-colored hair, and a look of self-indulgence
+around his rather weak mouth. He was dressed in a city business suit of
+the latest cut, however, and looked as much out of place in that crude
+little house as did Margaret Earle herself in her simple gown of
+dark-blue crępe and her undeniable air of style and good taste.
+
+His eyes, as they regarded her, had in them a smile that the girl
+instinctively resented. Was it a shade too possessive and complacently
+sure for a stranger?
+
+The dog, a large collie, had great, liquid, brown eyes, menacing or
+loyal, as circumstances dictated, and regarded her with an air of brief
+indecision. She felt she was being weighed in the balance by both pairs
+of eyes. Of the two the girl preferred the dog.
+
+Perhaps the dog understood, for he came a pace nearer and waved his
+plumy tail tentatively. For the dog she felt a glow of friendliness at
+once, but for the man she suddenly, and most unreasonably, of course,
+conceived one of her violent and unexpected dislikes.
+
+Into this tableau bustled Mrs. Tanner. "Well, now, I didn't go to leave
+you by your lonesome all this time," she apologized, wiping her hands on
+her apron, "but them beans boiled clean over, and I hed to put 'em in a
+bigger kettle. You see, I put in more beans 'count o' you bein' here,
+an' I ain't uset to calca'latin' on two extry." She looked happily from
+the man to the girl and back again.
+
+"Mr. West, I 'spose, o' course, you interjuced yerself? Bein' a
+preacher, you don't hev to stan' on ceremony like the rest of mankind.
+You 'ain't? Well, let me hev the pleasure of interjucin' our new
+school-teacher, Miss Margaret Earle. I 'spect you two 'll be awful
+chummy right at the start, both bein' from the East that way, an' both
+hevin' ben to college."
+
+Margaret Earle acknowledged the bow with a cool little inclination of
+her head. She wondered why she didn't hate the garrulous woman who
+rattled on in this happy, take-it-for-granted way; but there was
+something so innocently pleased in her manner that she couldn't help
+putting all her wrath on the smiling man who came forward instantly with
+a low bow and a voice of fulsome flattery.
+
+"Indeed, Miss Earle, I assure you I am happily surprised. I am sure Mrs.
+Tanner's prophecy will come true and we shall be the best of friends.
+When they told me the new teacher was to board here I really hesitated.
+I have seen something of these Western teachers in my time, and scarcely
+thought I should find you congenial; but I can see at a glance that you
+are the exception to the rule."
+
+He presented a soft, unmanly white hand, and there was nothing to do but
+take it or seem rude to her hostess; but her manner was like icicles,
+and she was thankful she had not yet removed her gloves.
+
+If the reverend gentleman thought he was to enjoy a lingering hand-clasp
+he was mistaken, for the gloved finger-tips merely touched his hand and
+were withdrawn, and the girl turned to her hostess with a smile of
+finality as if he were dismissed. He did not seem disposed to take the
+hint and withdraw, however, until on a sudden the great dog came and
+stood between them with open-mouthed welcome and joyous greeting in the
+plumy, wagging tail. He pushed close to her and looked up into her face
+insistently, his hanging pink tongue and wide, smiling countenance
+proclaiming that he was satisfied with his investigation.
+
+Margaret looked down at him, and then stooped and put her arms about his
+neck. Something in his kindly dog expression made her feel suddenly as
+if she had a real friend.
+
+It seemed the man, however, did not like the situation. He kicked
+gingerly at the dog's hind legs, and said in a harsh voice:
+
+"Get out of the way, sir. You're annoying the lady. Get out, I say!"
+
+The dog, however, uttered a low growl and merely showed the whites of
+his menacing eyes at the man, turning his body slightly so that he stood
+across the lady's way protectingly, as if to keep the man from her.
+
+Margaret smiled at the dog and laid her hand on his head, as if to
+signify her acceptance of the friendship he had offered her, and he
+waved his plume once more and attended her from the room, neither of
+them giving further attention to the man.
+
+"Confound that dog!" said Rev. Frederick West, in a most unpreacher-like
+tone, as he walked to the window and looked out. Then to himself he
+mused: "A pretty girl. A _very pretty_ girl. I really think it'll be
+worth my while to stay a month at least."
+
+Up in her room the "very pretty girl" was unpacking her suit-case and
+struggling with the tears. Not since she was a wee little girl and went
+to school all alone for the first time had she felt so very forlorn, and
+it was the little bare bedroom that had done it. At least that had been
+the final straw that had made too great the burden of keeping down those
+threatening tears.
+
+It was only a bare, plain room with unfinished walls, rough woodwork, a
+cheap wooden bed, a bureau with a warped looking-glass, and on the floor
+was a braided rug of rags. A little wooden rocker, another small,
+straight wooden chair, a hanging wall-pocket decorated with purple
+roses, a hanging bookshelf composed of three thin boards strung together
+with maroon picture cord, a violently colored picture-card of "Moses in
+the Bulrushes" framed in straws and red worsted, and bright-blue paper
+shades at the windows. That was the room!
+
+How different from her room at home, simply and sweetly finished anew
+for her home-coming from college! It rose before her homesick vision
+now. Soft gray walls, rose-colored ceiling, blended by a wreath of
+exquisite wild roses, whose pattern was repeated in the border of the
+simple curtains and chair cushions, white-enamel furniture, pretty brass
+bed soft as down in its luxurious mattress, spotless and inviting
+always. She glanced at the humpy bed with its fringed gray spread and
+lumpy-looking pillows in dismay. She had not thought of little
+discomforts like that, yet how they loomed upon her weary vision now!
+
+The tiny wooden stand with its thick, white crockery seemed ill
+substitute for the dainty white bath-room at home. She had known she
+would not have her home luxuries, of course, but she had not realized
+until set down amid these barren surroundings what a difference they
+would make.
+
+Going to the window and looking out, she saw for the first tune the one
+luxury the little room possessed--a view! And such a view! Wide and
+wonderful and far it stretched, in colors unmatched by painter's brush,
+a purple mountain topped by rosy clouds in the distance. For the second
+time in Arizona her soul was lifted suddenly out of itself and its
+dismay by a vision of the things that God has made and the largeness of
+it all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+For some time she stood and gazed, marveling at the beauty and recalling
+some of the things her companion of the afternoon had said about his
+impressions of the place; then suddenly there loomed a dark speck in the
+near foreground of her meditation, and, looking down annoyed, she
+discovered the minister like a gnat between the eye and a grand
+spectacle, his face turned admiringly up to her window, his hand lifted
+in familiar greeting.
+
+Vexed at his familiarity, she turned quickly and jerked down the shade;
+then throwing herself on the bed, she had a good cry. Her nerves were
+terribly wrought up. Things seemed twisted in her mind, and she felt
+that she had reached the limit of her endurance. Here was she, Margaret
+Earle, newly elected teacher to the Ashland Ridge School, lying on her
+bed in tears, when she ought to be getting settled and planning her new
+life; when the situation demanded her best attention she was wrought up
+over a foolish little personal dislike. Why did she have to dislike a
+minister, anyway, and then take to a wild young fellow whose life thus
+far had been anything but satisfactory even to himself? Was it her
+perverse nature that caused her to remember the look in the eyes of the
+Boy who had rescued her from a night in the wilderness, and to feel
+there was far more manliness in his face than in the face of the man
+whose profession surely would lead one to suppose he was more worthy of
+her respect and interest? Well, she was tired. Perhaps things would
+assume their normal relation to one another in the morning. And so,
+after a few minutes, she bathed her face in the little, heavy,
+iron-stone wash-bowl, combed her hair, and freshened the collar and
+ruffles in her sleeves preparatory to going down for the evening meal.
+Then, with a swift thought, she searched through her suit-case for every
+available article wherewith to brighten that forlorn room.
+
+The dainty dressing-case of Dresden silk with rosy ribbons that her girl
+friends at home had given as a parting gift covered a generous portion
+of the pine bureau, and when she had spread it out and bestowed its
+silver-mounted brushes, combs, hand-glass, and pretty sachet, things
+seemed to brighten up a bit. She hung up a cobweb of a lace boudoir cap
+with its rose-colored ribbons over the bleary mirror, threw her kimono
+of flowered challis over the back of the rocker, arranged her soap and
+toothbrush, her own wash-rag and a towel brought from home on the
+wash-stand, and somehow felt better and more as if she belonged. Last
+she ranged her precious photographs of father and mother and the dear
+vine-covered church and manse across in front of the mirror. When her
+trunks came there would be other things, and she could bear it, perhaps,
+when she had this room buried deep in the home belongings. But this
+would have to do for to-night, for the trunk might not come till
+morning, and, anyhow, she was too weary to unpack.
+
+She ventured one more look out of her window, peering carefully at first
+to make sure her fellow-boarder was not still standing down below on the
+grass. A pang of compunction shot through her conscience. What would her
+dear father think of her feeling this way toward a minister, and before
+she knew the first thing about him, too? It was dreadful! She must shake
+it off. Of course he was a good man or he wouldn't be in the ministry,
+and she had doubtless mistaken mere friendliness for forwardness. She
+would forget it and try to go down and behave to him the way her father
+would want her to behave toward a fellow-minister.
+
+Cautiously she raised the shade again and looked out. The mountain was
+bathed in a wonderful ruby light fading into amethyst, and all the path
+between was many-colored like a pavement of jewels set in filigree.
+While she looked the picture changed, glowed, softened, and changed
+again, making her think of the chapter about the Holy City in
+Revelation.
+
+She started at last when some one knocked hesitatingly on the door, for
+the wonderful sunset light had made her forget for the moment where she
+was, and it seemed a desecration to have mere mortals step in and
+announce supper, although the odor of pork and cabbage had been
+proclaiming it dumbly for some time.
+
+She went to the door, and, opening it, found a dark figure standing in
+the hall. For a minute she half feared it was the minister, until a
+shy, reluctant backwardness in the whole stocky figure and the stirring
+of a large furry creature just behind him made her sure it was not.
+
+"Ma says you're to come to supper," said a gruff, untamed voice; and
+Margaret perceived that the person in the gathering gloom of the hall
+was a boy.
+
+"Oh!" said Margaret, with relief in her voice. "Thank you for coming to
+tell me. I meant to come down and not give that trouble, but I got to
+looking at the wonderful sunset. Have you been watching it?" She pointed
+across the room to the window. "Look! Isn't that a great color there on
+the tip of the mountain? I never saw anything like that at home. I
+suppose you're used to it, though."
+
+The boy came a step nearer the door and looked blankly, half
+wonderingly, across at the window, as if he expected to see some
+phenomenon. "Oh! _That!_" he exclaimed, carelessly. "Sure! We have them
+all the time."
+
+"But that wonderful silver light pouring down just in that one tiny
+spot!" exclaimed Margaret. "It makes the mountain seem alive and
+smiling!"
+
+The boy turned and looked at her curiously. "Gee!" said he, "I c'n show
+you plenty like that!" But he turned and looked at it a long, lingering
+minute again.
+
+"But we mustn't keep your mother waiting," said Margaret, remembering
+and turning reluctantly toward the door. "Is this your dog? Isn't he a
+beauty? He made me feel really as if he were glad to see me." She
+stooped and laid her hand on the dog's head and smiled brightly up at
+his master.
+
+The boy's face lit with a smile, and he turned a keen, appreciative look
+at the new teacher, for the first time genuinely interested in her.
+"Cap's a good old scout," he admitted.
+
+"So his name is Cap. Is that short for anything?"
+
+"Cap'n."
+
+"Captain. What a good name for him. He looks as if he were a captain,
+and he waves that tail grandly, almost as if it might be a badge of
+office. But who are you? You haven't told me your name yet. Are you Mrs.
+Tanner's son?"
+
+The boy nodded. "I'm just Bud Tanner."
+
+"Then you are one of my pupils, aren't you? We must shake hands on
+that." She put out her hand, but she was forced to go out after Bud's
+reluctant red fist, take it by force in a strange grasp, and do all the
+shaking; for Bud had never had that experience before in his life, and
+he emerged from it with a very red face and a feeling as if his right
+arm had been somehow lifted out of the same class with the rest of his
+body. It was rather awful, too, that it happened just in the open
+dining-room door, and that "preacher-boarder" watched the whole
+performance. Bud put on an extra-deep frown and shuffled away from the
+teacher, making a great show of putting Cap out of the dining-room,
+though he always sat behind his master's chair at meals, much to the
+discomfiture of the male boarder, who was slightly in awe of his
+dogship, not having been admitted into friendship as the lady had been.
+
+Mr. West stood back of his chair, awaiting the arrival of the new
+boarder, an expectant smile on his face, and rubbing his hands together
+with much the same effect as a wolf licking his lips in anticipation of
+a victim. In spite of her resolves to like the man, Margaret was again
+struck with aversion as she saw him standing there, and was intensely
+relieved when she found that the seat assigned to her was on the
+opposite side of the table from him, and beside Bud. West, however, did
+not seem to be pleased with the arrangement, and, stepping around the
+table, said to his landlady:
+
+"Did you mean me to sit over here?" and he placed a possessive hand on
+the back of the chair that was meant for Bud.
+
+"No, Mister West, you jest set where you ben settin'," responded Mrs.
+Tanner. She had thought the matter all out and decided that the minister
+could converse with the teacher to the better advantage of the whole
+table if he sat across from her. Mrs. Tanner was a born match-maker.
+This she felt was an opportunity not to be despised, even if it sometime
+robbed the Ridge School of a desirable teacher.
+
+But West did not immediately return to his place at the other side of
+the table. To Margaret's extreme annoyance he drew her chair and waited
+for her to sit down. The situation, however, was somewhat relieved of
+its intimacy by a sudden interference from Cap, who darted away from his
+frowning master and stepped up authoritatively to the minister's side
+with a low growl, as if to say:
+
+"Hands off that chair! That doesn't belong to you!"
+
+West suddenly released his hold on the chair without waiting to shove
+it up to the table, and precipitately retired to his own place. "That
+dog's a nuisance!" he said, testily, and was answered with a glare from
+Bud's dark eyes.
+
+Bud came to his seat with his eyes still set savagely on the minister,
+and Cap settled down protectingly behind Margaret's chair.
+
+Mrs. Tanner bustled in with the coffee-pot, and Mr. Tanner came last,
+having just finished his rather elaborate hair-comb at the kitchen glass
+with the kitchen comb, in full view of the assembled multitude. He was a
+little, thin, wiry, weather-beaten man, with skin like leather and
+sparse hair. Some of his teeth were missing, leaving deep hollows in his
+cheeks, and his kindly protruding chin was covered with scraggy gray
+whiskers, which stuck out ahead of him like a cow-catcher. He was in his
+shirt-sleeves and collarless, but looked neat and clean, and he greeted
+the new guest heartily before he sat down, and nodded to the minister:
+
+"Naow, Brother West, I reckon we're ready fer your part o' the
+performance. You'll please to say grace."
+
+Mr. West bowed his sleek, yellow head and muttered a formal blessing
+with an offhand manner, as if it were a mere ceremony. Bud stared
+contemptuously at him the while, and Cap uttered a low rumble as of a
+distant growl. Margaret felt a sudden desire to laugh, and tried to
+control herself, wondering what her father would feel about it all.
+
+The genial clatter of knives and forks broke the stiffness after the
+blessing. Mrs. Tanner bustled back and forth from the stove to the
+table, talking clamorously the while. Mr. Tanner joined in with his
+flat, nasal twang, responding, and the minister, with an air of utter
+contempt for them both, endeavored to set up a separate and altogether
+private conversation with Margaret across the narrow table; but Margaret
+innocently had begun a conversation with Bud about the school, and had
+to be addressed by name each time before Mr. West could get her
+attention. Bud, with a boy's keenness, noticed her aversion, and put
+aside his own backwardness, entering into the contest with remarkably
+voluble replies. The minister, if he would be in the talk at all, was
+forced to join in with theirs, and found himself worsted and
+contradicted by the boy at every turn.
+
+Strange to say, however, this state of things only served to make the
+man more eager to talk with the lady. She was not anxious for his
+attention. Ah! She was coy, and the acquaintance was to have the zest of
+being no lightly won friendship. All the better. He watched her as she
+talked, noted every charm of lash and lid and curving lip; stared so
+continually that she finally gave up looking his way at all, even when
+she was obliged to answer his questions.
+
+Thus, at last, the first meal in the new home was concluded, and
+Margaret, pleading excessive weariness, went to her room. She felt as if
+she could not endure another half-hour of contact with her present world
+until she had had some rest. If the world had been just Bud and the dog
+she could have stayed below stairs and found out a little more about the
+new life; but with that oily-mouthed minister continually butting in
+her soul was in a tumult.
+
+When she had prepared for rest she put out her light and drew up the
+shade. There before her spread the wide wonder of the heavens again,
+with the soft purple of the mountain under stars; and she was carried
+back to the experience of the night before with a vivid memory of her
+companion. Why, just _why_ couldn't she be as interested in the minister
+down there as in the wild young man? Well, she was too tired to-night to
+analyze it all, and she knelt beside her window in the starlight to
+pray. As she prayed her thoughts were on Lance Gardley once more, and
+she felt her heart go out in longing for him, that he might find a way
+to "make good," whatever his trouble had been.
+
+As she rose to retire she heard a step below, and, looking down, saw the
+minister stalking back and forth in the yard, his hands clasped behind,
+his head thrown back raptly. He could not see her in her dark room, but
+she pulled the shade down softly and fled to her hard little bed. Was
+that man going to obsess her vision everywhere, and must she try to like
+him just because he was a minister?
+
+So at last she fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+The next day was filled with unpacking and with writing letters home. By
+dint of being very busy Margaret managed to forget the minister, who
+seemed to obtrude himself at every possible turn of the day, and would
+have monopolized her if she had given him half a chance.
+
+The trunks, two delightful steamer ones, and a big packing-box with her
+books, arrived the next morning and caused great excitement in the
+household. Not since they moved into the new house had they seen so many
+things arrive. Bud helped carry them up-stairs, while Cap ran wildly
+back and forth, giving sharp barks, and the minister stood by the front
+door and gave ineffectual and unpractical advice to the man who had
+brought them. Margaret heard the man and Bud exchanging their opinion of
+West in low growls in the hall as they entered her door, and she
+couldn't help feeling that she agreed with them, though she might not
+have expressed her opinion in the same terms.
+
+The minister tapped at her door a little later and offered his services
+in opening her box and unstrapping her trunks; but she told him Bud had
+already performed that service for her, and thanked him with a finality
+that forbade him to linger. She half hoped he heard the vicious little
+click with which she locked the door after him, and then wondered if she
+were wicked to feel that way. But all such compunctions were presently
+forgotten in the work of making over her room.
+
+The trunks, after they were unpacked and repacked with the things she
+would not need at once, were disposed in front of the two windows with
+which the ugly little room was blessed. She covered them with two Bagdad
+rugs, relics of her college days, and piled several college pillows from
+the packing-box on each, which made the room instantly assume a homelike
+air. Then out of the box came other things. Framed pictures of home
+scenes, college friends and places, pennants, and flags from football,
+baseball, and basket-ball games she had attended; photographs; a few
+prints of rare paintings simply framed; a roll of rose-bordered white
+scrim like her curtains at home, wherewith she transformed the
+blue-shaded windows and the stiff little wooden rocker, and even made a
+valance and bed-cover over pink cambric for her bed. The bureau and
+wash-stand were given pink and white covers, and the ugly walls
+literally disappeared beneath pictures, pennants, banners, and symbols.
+
+When Bud came up to call her to dinner she flung the door open, and he
+paused in wide-eyed amazement over the transformation. His eyes kindled
+at a pair of golf-sticks, a hockey-stick, a tennis-racket, and a big
+basket-ball in the corner; and his whole look of surprise was so
+ridiculous that she had to laugh. He looked as if a miracle had been
+performed on the room, and actually stepped back into the hall to get
+his breath and be sure he was still in his father's house.
+
+"I want you to come in and see all my pictures and get acquainted with
+my friends when you have time," she said. "I wonder if you could make
+some more shelves for my books and help me unpack and set them up?"
+
+"Sure!" gasped Bud, heartily, albeit with awe. She hadn't asked the
+minister; she had asked _him_--_Bud!_ Just a boy! He looked around the
+room with anticipation. What wonder and delight he would have looking at
+all those things!
+
+Then Cap stepped into the middle of the room as if he belonged, mouth
+open, tongue lolling, smiling and panting a hearty approval, as he
+looked about at the strangeness for all the world as a human being might
+have done. It was plain he was pleased with the change.
+
+There was a proprietary air about Bud during dinner that was pleasant to
+Margaret and most annoying to West. It was plain that West looked on the
+boy as an upstart whom Miss Earle was using for the present to block his
+approach, and he was growing most impatient over the delay. He suggested
+that perhaps she would like his escort to see something of her
+surroundings that afternoon; but she smilingly told him that she would
+be very busy all the afternoon getting settled, and when he offered
+again to help her she cast a dazzling smile on Bud and said she didn't
+think she would need any more help, that Bud was going to do a few
+things for her, and that was all that was necessary.
+
+Bud straightened up and became two inches taller. He passed the bread,
+suggested two pieces of pie, and filled her glass of water as if she
+were his partner. Mr. Tanner beamed to see his son in high favor, but
+Mrs. Tanner looked a little troubled for the minister. She thought
+things weren't just progressing as fast as they ought to between him and
+the teacher.
+
+Bud, with Margaret's instructions, managed to make a very creditable
+bookcase out of the packing-box sawed in half, the pieces set side by
+side. She covered them deftly with green burlap left over from college
+days, like her other supplies, and then the two arranged the books. Bud
+was delighted over the prospect of reading some of the books, for they
+were not all school-books, by any means, and she had brought plenty of
+them to keep her from being lonesome on days when she longed to fly back
+to her home.
+
+At last the work was done, and they stood back to survey it. The books
+filled up every speck of space and overflowed to the three little
+hanging shelves over them; but they were all squeezed in at last except
+a pile of school-books that were saved out to take to the school-house.
+Margaret set a tiny vase on the top of one part of the packing-case and
+a small brass bowl on the top of the other, and Bud, after a knowing
+glance, scurried away for a few minutes and brought back a handful of
+gorgeous cactus blossoms to give the final touch.
+
+"Gee!" he said, admiringly, looking around the room. "Gee! You wouldn't
+know it fer the same place!"
+
+That evening after supper Margaret sat down to write a long letter home.
+She had written a brief letter, of course, the night before, but had
+been too weary to go into detail. The letter read:
+
+     DEAR MOTHER AND FATHER,--I'm unpacked and settled at last in my
+     room, and now I can't stand it another minute till I talk to you.
+
+     Last night, of course, I was pretty homesick, things all looked so
+     strange and new and different. I had known they would, but then I
+     didn't realize at all how different they would be. But I'm not
+     getting homesick already; don't think it. I'm not a bit sorry I
+     came, or at least I sha'n't be when I get started in school. One of
+     the scholars is Mrs. Tanner's son, and I like him. He's crude, of
+     course, but he has a brain, and he's been helping me this
+     afternoon. We made a bookcase for my books, and it looks fine. I
+     wish you could see it. I covered it with the green burlap, and the
+     books look real happy in smiling rows over on the other side of the
+     room. Bud Tanner got me some wonderful cactus blossoms for my brass
+     bowl. I wish I could send you some. They are gorgeous!
+
+     But you will want me to tell about my arrival. Well, to begin with,
+     I was late getting here [Margaret had decided to leave out the
+     incident of the desert altogether, for she knew by experience that
+     her mother would suffer terrors all during her absence if she once
+     heard of that wild adventure], which accounts for the lateness of
+     the telegram I sent you. I hope its delay didn't make you worry
+     any.
+
+     A very nice young man named Mr. Gardley piloted me to Mrs. Tanner's
+     house and looked after my trunks for me. He is from the East. It
+     was fortunate for me that he happened along, for he was most kind
+     and gentlemanly and helpful. Tell Jane not to worry lest I'll fall
+     in love with him; he doesn't live here. He belongs to a ranch or
+     camp or something twenty-five miles away. She was so afraid I'd
+     fall in love with an Arizona man and not come back home.
+
+     Mrs. Tanner is very kind and motherly according to her lights. She
+     has given me the best room in the house, and she talks a blue
+     streak. She has thin, brown hair turning gray, and she wears it in
+     a funny little knob on the tip-top of her round head to correspond
+     with the funny little tuft of hair on her husband's protruding
+     chin. Her head is set on her neck like a clothes-pin, only she is
+     squattier than a clothes-pin. She always wears her sleeves rolled
+     up (at least so far she has) and she always bustles around noisily
+     and apologizes for everything in the jolliest sort of way. I would
+     like her, I guess, if it wasn't for the other boarder; but she has
+     quite made up her mind that I shall like him, and I don't, of
+     course, so she is a bit disappointed in me so far.
+
+     Mr. Tanner is very kind and funny, and looks something like a
+     jack-knife with the blades half-open. He never disagrees with Mrs.
+     Tanner, and I really believe he's in love with her yet, though they
+     must have been married a good while. He calls her "Ma," and seems
+     restless unless she's in the room. When she goes out to the kitchen
+     to get some more soup or hash or bring in the pie, he shouts
+     remarks at her all the time she's gone, and she answers, utterly
+     regardless of the conversation the rest of the family are carrying
+     on. It's like a phonograph wound up for the day.
+
+     Bud Tanner is about fourteen, and I like him. He's well developed,
+     strong, and almost handsome; at least he would be if he were fixed
+     up a little. He has fine, dark eyes and a great shock of dark hair.
+     He and I are friends already. And so is the dog. The dog is a
+     peach! Excuse me, mother, but I just must use a little of the dear
+     old college slang somewhere, and your letters are the only
+     safety-valve, for I'm a schoolmarm now and must talk "good and
+     proper" all the time, you know.
+
+     The dog's name is Captain, and he looks the part. He has
+     constituted himself my bodyguard, and it's going to be very nice
+     having him. He's perfectly devoted already. He's a great, big,
+     fluffy fellow with keen, intelligent eyes, sensitive ears, and a
+     tail like a spreading plume. You'd love him, I know. He has a smile
+     like the morning sunshine.
+
+     And now I come to the only other member of the family, the boarder,
+     and I hesitate to approach the topic, because I have taken one of
+     my violent and naughty dislikes to him, and--awful thought--mother!
+     father! _he's a minister!_ Yes, he's a _Presbyterian minister_! I
+     know it will make you feel dreadfully, and I thought some of not
+     telling you, but my conscience hurt me so I had to. I just can't
+     _bear_ him, so there! Of course, I may get over it, but I don't see
+     how ever, for I can't think of anything that's more like him than
+     _soft soap_! Oh yes, there is one other word. Grandmother used to
+     use it about men she hadn't any use for, and that was "squash."
+     Mother, I can't help it, but he does seem something like a squash.
+     One of that crook-necked, yellow kind with warts all over it, and a
+     great, big, splurgy vine behind it to account for its being there
+     at all. Insipid and thready when it's cooked, you know, and has to
+     have a lot of salt and pepper and butter to make it go down at all.
+     Now I've told you the worst, and I'll try to describe him and see
+     what you think I'd better do about it. Oh, he isn't the regular
+     minister here, or missionary--I guess they call him. He's located
+     quite a distance off, and only comes once a month to preach here,
+     and, anyhow, _he's_ gone East now to take his wife to a hospital
+     for an operation, and won't be back for a couple of months,
+     perhaps, and this man isn't even taking his place. He's just here
+     for his health or for fun or something, I guess. He says he had a
+     large suburban church near New York, and had a nervous breakdown;
+     but I've been wondering if he didn't make a mistake, and it wasn't
+     the church had the nervous breakdown instead. He isn't very big nor
+     very little; he's just insignificant. His hair is like wet straw,
+     and his eyes like a fish's. His hand feels like a dead toad when
+     you have to shake hands, which I'm thankful doesn't have to be done
+     but once. He looks at you with a flat, sickening grin. He has an
+     acquired double chin, acquired to make him look pompous, and he
+     dresses stylishly and speaks of the inhabitants of this country
+     with contempt. He wants to be very affable, and offers to take me
+     to all sorts of places, but so far I've avoided him. I can't think
+     how they ever came to let him be a minister--I really can't! And
+     yet, I suppose it's all my horrid old prejudice, and father will be
+     grieved and you will think I am perverse. But, really, I'm sure
+     he's not one bit like father was when he was young. I never saw a
+     minister like him. Perhaps I'll get over it. I do sometimes, you
+     know, so don't begin to worry yet. I'll try real hard. I suppose
+     he'll preach Sunday, and then, perhaps, his sermon will be grand
+     and I'll forget how soft-soapy he looks and think only of his great
+     thoughts.
+
+     But I know it will be a sort of comfort to you to know that there
+     is a Presbyterian minister in the house with me, and I'll really
+     try to like him if I can.
+
+     There's nothing to complain of in the board. It isn't luxurious, of
+     course, but I didn't expect that. Everything is very plain, but
+     Mrs. Tanner manages to make it taste good. She makes fine
+     corn-bread, almost as good as yours--not quite.
+
+     My room is all lovely, now that I have covered its bareness with my
+     own things, but it has one great thing that can't compare with
+     anything at home, and that is its view. It is wonderful! I wish I
+     could make you see it. There is a mountain at the end of it that
+     has as many different garments as a queen. To-night, when sunset
+     came, it grew filmy as if a gauze of many colors had dropped upon
+     it and melted into it, and glowed and melted until it turned to
+     slate blue under the wide, starred blue of the wonderful night sky,
+     and all the dark about was velvet. Last night my mountain was all
+     pink and silver, and I have seen it purple and rose. But you can't
+     think the wideness of the sky, and I couldn't paint it for you with
+     words. You must see it to understand. A great, wide, dark sapphire
+     floor just simply ravished with stars like big jewels!
+
+     But I must stop and go to bed, for I find the air of this country
+     makes me very sleepy, and my wicked little kerosene-lamp is
+     smoking. I guess you would better send me my student-lamp, after
+     all, for I'm surely going to need it.
+
+     Now I must turn out the light and say good night to my mountain,
+     and then I will go to sleep thinking of you. Don't worry about the
+     minister. I'm very polite to him, but I shall never--_no,
+     never_--fall in love with _him_--tell Jane.
+
+                                                Your loving little girl,
+                                                     MARGARET.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Margaret had arranged with Bud to take her to the school-house the next
+morning, and he had promised to have a horse hitched up and ready at ten
+o'clock, as it seemed the school was a magnificent distance from her
+boarding-place. In fact, everything seemed to be located with a view to
+being as far from everywhere else as possible. Even the town was
+scattering and widespread and sparse.
+
+When she came down to breakfast she was disappointed to find that Bud
+was not there, and she was obliged to suffer a breakfast tęte-ā-tęte
+with West. By dint, however, of asking him questions instead of allowing
+him to take the initiative, she hurried through her breakfast quite
+successfully, acquiring a superficial knowledge of her fellow-boarder
+quite distant and satisfactory. She knew where he spent his college days
+and at what theological seminary he had prepared for the ministry. He
+had served three years in a prosperous church of a fat little suburb of
+New York, and was taking a winter off from his severe, strenuous
+pastoral labors to recuperate his strength, get a new stock of sermons
+ready, and possibly to write a book of some of his experiences. He
+flattened his weak, pink chin learnedly as he said this, and tried to
+look at her impressively. He said that he should probably take a large
+city church as his next pastorate when his health was fully recuperated.
+He had come out to study the West and enjoy its freedom, as he
+understood it was a good place to rest and do as you please unhampered
+by what people thought. He wanted to get as far away from churches and
+things clerical as possible. He felt it was due himself and his work
+that he should. He spoke of the people he had met in Arizona as a kind
+of tamed savages, and Mrs. Tanner, sitting behind her coffee-pot for a
+moment between bustles, heard his comments meekly and looked at him with
+awe. What a great man he must be, and how fortunate for the new teacher
+that he should be there when she came!
+
+Margaret drew a breath of relief as she hurried away from the
+breakfast-table to her room. She was really anticipating the ride to the
+school with Bud. She liked boys, and Bud had taken her fancy. But when
+she came down-stairs with her hat and sweater on she found West standing
+out in front, holding the horse.
+
+"Bud had to go in another direction, Miss Earle," he said, touching his
+hat gracefully, "and he has delegated to me the pleasant task of driving
+you to the school."
+
+Dismay filled Margaret's soul, and rage with young Bud. He had deserted
+her and left her in the hands of the enemy! And she had thought he
+understood! Well, there was nothing for it but to go with this man, much
+as she disliked it. Her father's daughter could not be rude to a
+minister.
+
+She climbed into the buckboard quickly to get the ceremony over, for her
+escort was inclined to be too officious about helping her in, and
+somehow she couldn't bear to have him touch her. Why was it that she
+felt so about him? Of course he must be a good man.
+
+West made a serious mistake at the very outset of that ride. He took it
+for granted that all girls like flattery, and he proceeded to try it on
+Margaret. But Margaret did not enjoy being told how delighted he was to
+find that instead of the loud, bold "old maid" he had expected, she had
+turned out to be "so beautiful and young and altogether congenial"; and,
+coolly ignoring his compliments, she began a fire of questions again.
+
+She asked about the country, because that was the most obvious topic of
+conversation. What plants were those that grew by the wayside? She found
+he knew greasewood from sage-brush, and that was about all. To some of
+her questions he hazarded answers that were absurd in the light of the
+explanations given her by Gardley two days before. However, she
+reflected that he had been in the country but a short time, and that he
+was by nature a man not interested in such topics. She tried religious
+matters, thinking that here at least they must have common interests.
+She asked him what he thought of Christianity in the West as compared
+with the East. Did he find these Western people more alive and awake to
+the things of the Kingdom?
+
+West gave a startled look at the clear profile of the young woman beside
+him, thought he perceived that she was testing him on his clerical side,
+flattened his chin in his most learned, self-conscious manner, cleared
+his throat, and put on wisdom.
+
+"Well, now, Miss Earle," he began, condescendingly, "I really don't know
+that I have thought much about the matter. Ah--you know I have been
+resting absolutely, and I really haven't had opportunity to study the
+situation out here in detail; but, on the whole, I should say that
+everything was decidedly primitive; yes--ah--I might say--ah--well,
+crude. Yes, _crude_ in the extreme! Why, take it in this mission
+district. The missionary who is in charge seems to be teaching the most
+absurd of the old dogmas such as our forefathers used to teach. I
+haven't met him, of course. He is in the East with his wife for a time.
+I am told she had to go under some kind of an operation. I have never
+met him, and really don't care to do so; but to judge from all I hear,
+he is a most unfit man for a position of the kind. For example, he is
+teaching such exploded doctrines as the old view of the atonement, the
+infallibility of the Scriptures, the deity of Christ, belief in
+miracles, and the like. Of course, in one sense it really matters very
+little what the poor Indians believe, or what such people as the Tanners
+are taught. They have but little mind, and would scarcely know the
+difference; but you can readily see that with such a primitive,
+unenlightened man at the head of religious affairs, there could scarcely
+be much broadening and real religious growth. Ignorance, of course,
+holds sway out here. I fancy you will find that to be the case soon
+enough. What in the world ever led you to come to a field like this to
+labor? Surely there must have been many more congenial places open to
+such as you." He leaned forward and cast a sentimental glance at her,
+his eyes looking more "fishy" than ever.
+
+"I came out here because I wanted to get acquainted with this great
+country, and because I thought there was an opportunity to do good,"
+said Margaret, coldly. She did not care to discuss her own affairs with
+this man. "But, Mr. West, I don't know that I altogether understand you.
+Didn't you tell me that you were a Presbyterian minister?"
+
+"I certainly did," he answered, complacently, as though he were honoring
+the whole great body of Presbyterians by making the statement.
+
+"Well, then, what in the world did you mean? All Presbyterians, of
+course, believe in the infallibility of the Scriptures and the deity of
+Jesus--and the atonement!"
+
+"Not necessarily," answered the young man, loftily. "You will find, my
+dear young lady, that there is a wide, growing feeling in our church in
+favor of a broader view. The younger men, and the great student body of
+our church, have thrown to the winds all their former beliefs and are
+ready to accept new light with open minds. The findings of science have
+opened up a vast store of knowledge, and all thinking men must
+acknowledge that the old dogmas are rapidly vanishing away. Your father
+doubtless still holds to the old faith, perhaps, and we must be lenient
+with the older men who have done the best they could with the light they
+had; but all younger, broad-minded men are coming to the new way of
+looking at things. We have had enough of the days of preaching hell-fire
+and damnation. We need a religion of love to man, and good works. You
+should read some of the books that have been written on this subject if
+you care to understand. I really think it would be worth your while. You
+look to me like a young woman with a mind. I have a few of the latest
+with me. I shall be glad to read and discuss them with you if you are
+interested."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. West," said Margaret, coolly, though her eyes burned
+with battle. "I think I have probably read most of those books and
+discussed them with my father. He may be old, but he is not without
+'light,' as you call it, and he always believed in knowing all that the
+other side was saying. He brought me up to look into these things for
+myself. And, anyhow, I should not care to read and discuss any of these
+subjects with a man who denies the deity of my Saviour and does not
+believe in the infallibility of the Bible. It seems to me you have
+nothing left--"
+
+"Ah! Well--now--my dear young lady--you mustn't misjudge me! I should be
+sorry indeed to shake your faith, for an innocent faith is, of course, a
+most beautiful thing, even though it may be unfounded."
+
+"Indeed, Mr. West, that would not be possible. You could not shake my
+faith in my Christ, because _I know Him_. If I had not ever felt His
+presence, nor been guided by His leading, such words might possibly
+trouble me, but having seen 'Him that is invisible,' _I know_."
+Margaret's voice was steady and gentle. It was impossible for even that
+man not to be impressed by her words.
+
+"Well, let us not quarrel about it," he said, indulgently, as to a
+little child. "I'm sure you have a very charming way of stating it, and
+I'm not sure that it is not a relief to find a woman of the
+old-fashioned type now and then. It really is man's place to look into
+these deeper questions, anyway. It is woman's sphere to live and love
+and make a happy home--"
+
+His voice took on a sentimental purr, and Margaret was fairly boiling
+with rage at him; but she would not let her temper give way, especially
+when she was talking on the sacred theme of the Christ. She felt as if
+she must scream or jump out over the wheel and run away from this
+obnoxious man, but she knew she would do neither. She knew she would sit
+calmly through the expedition and somehow control that conversation.
+There was one relief, anyway. Her father would no longer expect respect
+and honor and liking toward a minister who denied the very life and
+foundation of his faith.
+
+"It can't be possible that the school-house is so far from the town,"
+she said, suddenly looking around at the widening desert in front of
+them. "Haven't you made some mistake?"
+
+"Why, I thought we should have the pleasure of a little drive first,"
+said West, with a cunning smile. "I was sure you would enjoy seeing the
+country before you get down to work, and I was not averse myself to a
+drive in such delightful company."
+
+"I would like to go back to the school-house at once, please," said
+Margaret, decidedly, and there was that in her voice that caused the man
+to turn the horse around and head it toward the village.
+
+"Why, yes, of course, if you prefer to see the school-house first, we
+can go back and look it over, and then, perhaps, you will like to ride a
+little farther," he said. "We have plenty of time. In fact, Mrs. Tanner
+told me she would not expect us home to dinner, and she put a very
+promising-looking basket of lunch under the seat for us in case we got
+hungry before we came back."
+
+"Thank you," said Margaret, quite freezingly now. "I really do not care
+to drive this morning. I would like to see the school-house, and then I
+must return to the house at once. I have a great many things to do this
+morning."
+
+Her manner at last penetrated even the thick skin of the self-centered
+man, and he realized that he had gone a step too far in his attentions.
+He set himself to undo the mischief, hoping perhaps to melt her yet to
+take the all-day drive with him. But she sat silent during the return to
+the village, answering his volubility only by yes or no when absolutely
+necessary. She let him babble away about college life and tell incidents
+of his late pastorate, at some of which he laughed immoderately; but he
+could not even bring a smile to her dignified lips.
+
+He hoped she would change her mind when they got to the school building,
+and he even stooped to praise it in a kind of contemptuous way as they
+drew up in front of the large adobe building.
+
+"I suppose you will want to go through the building," he said, affably,
+producing the key from his pocket and putting on a pleasant anticipatory
+smile, but Margaret shook her head. She simply would not go into the
+building with that man.
+
+"It is not necessary," she said again, coldly. "I think I will go home
+now, please." And he was forced to turn the horse toward the Tanner
+house, crestfallen, and wonder why this beautiful girl was so extremely
+hard to win. He flattered himself that he had always been able to
+interest any girl he chose. It was really quite a bewildering type. But
+he would win her yet.
+
+He set her down silently at the Tanner door and drove off, lunch-basket
+and all, into the wilderness, vexed that she was so stubbornly
+unfriendly, and pondering how he might break down the dignity wherewith
+she had surrounded herself. There would be a way and he would find it.
+There was a stubbornness about that weak chin of his, when one observed
+it, and an ugliness in his pale-blue eye; or perhaps you would call it a
+hardness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+She watched him furtively from her bedroom window, whither she had fled
+from Mrs. Tanner's exclamations. He wore his stylish derby tilted down
+over his left eye and slightly to one side in a most unministerial
+manner, showing too much of his straw-colored back hair, which rose in a
+cowlick at the point of contact with the hat, and he looked a small,
+mean creature as he drove off into the vast beauty of the plain.
+Margaret, in her indignation, could not help comparing him with the
+young man who had ridden away from the house two days before.
+
+And he to set up to be a minister of Christ's gospel and talk like that
+about the Bible and Christ! Oh, what was the church of Christ coming to,
+to have ministers like that? How ever did he get into the ministry,
+anyway? Of course, she knew there were young men with honest doubts who
+sometimes slid through nowadays, but a mean little silly man like that?
+How ever did he get in? What a lot of ridiculous things he had said! He
+was one of those described in the Bible who "darken counsel with words."
+He was not worth noticing. And yet, what a lot of harm he could do in an
+unlearned community. Just see how Mrs. Tanner hung upon his words, as
+though they were law and gospel! How _could_ she?
+
+Margaret found herself trembling yet over the words he had spoken about
+Christ, the atonement, and the faith. They meant so much to her and to
+her mother and father. They were not mere empty words of tradition that
+she believed because she had been taught. She had lived her faith and
+proved it; and she could not help feeling it like a personal insult to
+have him speak so of her Saviour. She turned away and took her Bible to
+try and get a bit of calmness.
+
+She fluttered the leaves for something--she could not just tell
+what--and her eye caught some of the verses that her father had marked
+for her before she left home for college, in the days when he was
+troubled for her going forth into the world of unbelief.
+
+     As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
+     him: Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as
+     ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware
+     lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after
+     the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not
+     after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
+     bodily....
+
+How the verses crowded upon one another, standing out clearly from the
+pages as she turned them, marked with her father's own hand in clear ink
+underlinings. It almost seemed as if God had looked ahead to these times
+and set these words down just for the encouragement of his troubled
+servants who couldn't understand why faith was growing dim. God knew
+about it, had known it would be, all this doubt, and had put words here
+just for troubled hearts to be comforted thereby.
+
+     For I know whom I have believed [How her heart echoed to that
+     statement!], and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I
+     have committed unto him against that day.
+
+And on a little further:
+
+     Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal,
+     The Lord knoweth them that are his.
+
+There was a triumphant look to the words as she read them.
+
+Then over in Ephesians her eye caught a verse that just seemed to fit
+that poor blind minister:
+
+     Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of
+     God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness
+     of their heart.
+
+And yet he was set to guide the feet of the blind into the way of life!
+And he had looked on her as one of the ignorant. Poor fellow! He
+couldn't know the Christ who was her Saviour or he never would have
+spoken in that way about Him. What could such a man preach? What was
+there left to preach, but empty words, when one rejected all these
+doctrines? Would she have to listen to a man like that Sunday after
+Sunday? Did the scholars in her school, and their parents, and the young
+man out at the camp, and his rough, simple-hearted companions have to
+listen to preaching from that man, when they listened to any? Her heart
+grew sick within her, and she knelt beside her bed for a strengthening
+word with the Christ who since her little childhood had been a very
+real presence in her life.
+
+When she arose from her knees she heard the kitchen door slam
+down-stairs and the voice of Bud calling his mother. She went to her
+door and opened it, listening a moment, and then called the boy.
+
+There was a dead silence for an instant after her voice was heard, and
+then Bud appeared at the foot of the stairs, very frowning as to brow,
+and very surly as to tone:
+
+"What d'ye want?"
+
+It was plain that Bud was "sore."
+
+"Bud,"--Margaret's voice was sweet and a bit cool as she leaned over the
+railing and surveyed the boy; she hadn't yet got over her compulsory
+ride with that minister--"I wanted to ask you, please, next time you
+can't keep an appointment with me don't ask anybody else to take your
+place. I prefer to pick out my own companions. It was all right, of
+course, if you had to go somewhere else, but I could easily have gone
+alone or waited until another time. I'd rather not have you ask Mr. West
+to go anywhere with me again."
+
+Bud's face was a study. It cleared suddenly and his jaw dropped in
+surprise; his eyes fairly danced with dawning comprehension and
+pleasure, and then his brow drew down ominously.
+
+"I never ast him," he declared, vehemently. "He told me you wanted him
+to go, and fer me to get out of the way 'cause you didn't want to hurt
+my feelings. Didn't you say nothing to him about it at all this
+morning?"
+
+"No, indeed!" said Margaret, with flashing eyes.
+
+"Well, I just thought he was that kind of a guy. I told ma he was lying,
+but she said I didn't understand young ladies, and, of course, you
+didn't want me when there was a man, and especially a preacher, round.
+Some preacher he is! This 's the second time I've caught him lying. I
+think he's the limit. I just wish you'd see our missionary. If he was
+here he'd beat the dust out o' that poor stew. _He's_ some man, he is.
+He's a regular white man, _our missionary_! Just you wait till _he_ gets
+back."
+
+Margaret drew a breath of relief. Then the missionary was a real man,
+after all. Oh, for his return!
+
+"Well, I'm certainly very glad it wasn't your fault, Bud. I didn't feel
+very happy to be turned off that way," said the teacher, smiling down
+upon the rough head of the boy.
+
+"You bet it wasn't my fault!" said the boy, vigorously. "I was sore's a
+pup at you, after you'd made a date and all, to do like that; but I
+thought if you wanted to go with that guy it was up to you."
+
+"Well, I didn't and I don't. You'll please understand hereafter that I'd
+always rather have your company than his. How about going down to the
+school-house some time to-day? Have you time?"
+
+"Didn't you go yet?" The boy's face looked as if he had received a
+kingdom, and his voice had a ring of triumph.
+
+"We drove down there, but I didn't care to go in without you, so we came
+back."
+
+"Wanta go now?" The boy's face fairly shone.
+
+"I'd love to. I'll be ready in three minutes. Could we carry some books
+down?"
+
+"Sure! Oh--gee! That guy's got the buckboard. We'll have to walk.
+Doggone him!"
+
+"I shall enjoy a walk. I want to find out just how far it is, for I
+shall have to walk every day, you know."
+
+"No, you won't, neither, 'nless you wanta. I c'n always hitch up."
+
+"That'll be very nice sometimes, but I'm afraid I'd get spoiled if you
+babied me all the time that way. I'll be right down."
+
+They went out together into the sunshine and wideness of the morning,
+and it seemed a new day had been created since she got back from her
+ride with the minister. She looked at the sturdy, honest-eyed boy beside
+her, and was glad to have him for a companion.
+
+Just in front of the school-house Margaret paused. "Oh, I forgot! The
+key! Mr. West has the key in his pocket! We can't get in, can we?"
+
+"Aw, we don't need a key," said her escort. "Just you wait!" And he
+whisked around to the back of the building, and in about three minutes
+his shock head appeared at the window. He threw the sash open and
+dropped out a wooden box. "There!" he said, triumphantly, "you c'n climb
+up on that, cantcha? Here, I'll holdya steady. Take holta my hand."
+
+And so it was through the front window that the new teacher of the Ridge
+School first appeared on her future scene of action and surveyed her
+little kingdom.
+
+Bud threw open the shutters, letting the view of the plains and the
+sunshine into the big, dusty room, and showed her the new blackboard
+with great pride.
+
+"There's a whole box o' chalk up on the desk, too; 'ain't never been
+opened yet. Dad said that was your property. Want I should open it?"
+
+"Why, yes, you might, and then we'll try the blackboard, won't we?"
+
+Bud went to work gravely opening the chalk-box as if it were a small
+treasure-chest, and finally produced a long, smooth stick of chalk and
+handed it to her with shining eyes.
+
+"You try it first, Bud," said the teacher, seeing his eagerness; and the
+boy went forward awesomely, as if it were a sacred precinct and he
+unworthy to intrude.
+
+Shyly, awkwardly, with infinite painstaking, he wrote in a cramped hand,
+"William Budlong Tanner," and then, growing bolder, "Ashland, Arizona,"
+with a big flourish underneath.
+
+"Some class!" he said, standing back and regarding his handiwork with
+pride. "Say, I like the sound the chalk makes on it, don't you?"
+
+"Yes, I do," said Margaret, heartily, "so smooth and business-like,
+isn't it? You'll enjoy doing examples in algebra on it, won't you?"
+
+"Good night! Algebra! Me? No chance. I can't never get through the
+arithmetic. The last teacher said if he'd come back twenty years from
+now he'd still find me working compound interest."
+
+"Well, we'll prove to that man that he wasn't much of a judge of boys,"
+said Margaret, with a tilt of her chin and a glint of her teacher-mettle
+showing in her eyes. "If you're not in algebra before two months are
+over I'll miss my guess. We'll get at it right away and show him."
+
+Bud watched her, charmed. He was beginning to believe that almost
+anything she tried would come true.
+
+"Now, Bud, suppose we get to work. I'd like to get acquainted with my
+class a little before Monday. Isn't it Monday school opens? I thought
+so. Well, suppose you give me the names of the scholars and I'll write
+them down, and that will help me to remember them. Where will you begin?
+Here, suppose you sit down in the front seat and tell me who sits there
+and a little bit about him, and I'll write the name down; and then you
+move to the next seat and tell me about the next one, and so on. Will
+you?"
+
+"Sure!" said Bud, entering into the new game. "But it ain't a 'he' sits
+there. It's Susie Johnson. She's Bill Johnson's smallest girl. She has
+to sit front 'cause she giggles so much. She has yellow curls and she
+ducks her head down and snickers right out this way when anything funny
+happens in school." And Bud proceeded to duck and wriggle in perfect
+imitation of the small Susie.
+
+Margaret saw the boy's power of imitation was remarkable, and laughed
+heartily at his burlesque. Then she turned and wrote "Susie Johnson" on
+the board in beautiful script.
+
+Bud watched with admiration, saying softly under his breath; "Gee!
+that's great, that blackboard, ain't it?"
+
+Amelia Schwartz came next. She was long and lank, with the buttons off
+the back of her dress, and hands and feet too large for her garments.
+Margaret could not help but see her in the clever pantomime the boy
+carried on. Next was Rosa Rogers, daughter of a wealthy cattleman, the
+pink-cheeked, blue-eyed beauty of the school, with all the boys at her
+feet and a perfect knowledge of her power over them. Bud didn't, of
+course, state it that way, but Margaret gathered as much from his
+simpering smile and the coy way he looked out of the corner of his eyes
+as he described her.
+
+Down the long list of scholars he went, row after row, and when he came
+to the seats where the boys sat his tone changed. She could tell by the
+shading of his voice which boys were the ones to look out for.
+
+Jed Brower, it appeared, was a name to conjure with. He could ride any
+horse that ever stood on four legs, he could outshoot most of the boys
+in the neighborhood, and he never allowed any teacher to tell him what
+to do. He was Texas Brower's only boy, and always had his own way. His
+father was on the school board. Jed Brower was held in awe, even while
+his methods were despised, by some of the younger boys. He was big and
+powerful, and nobody dared fool with him. Bud did not exactly warn
+Margaret that she must keep on the right side of Jed Brower, but he
+conveyed that impression without words. Margaret understood. She knew
+also that Tad Brooks, Larry Parker, Jim Long, and Dake Foster were
+merely henchmen of the worthy Jed, and not negligible quantities when
+taken by themselves. But over the name of Timothy Forbes--"Delicate
+Forbes," Bud explained was his nickname--the boy lingered with that
+loving inflection of admiration that a younger boy will sometimes have
+for a husky, courageous older lad. The second time Bud spoke of him he
+called him "Forbeszy," and Margaret perceived that here was Bud's model
+of manhood. Delicate Forbes could outshoot and outride even Jed Brower
+when he chose, and his courage with cattle was that of a man. Moreover,
+he was good to the younger boys and wasn't above pitching baseball with
+them when he had nothing better afoot. It became evident from the
+general description that Delicate Forbes was not called so from any lack
+of inches to his stature. He had a record of having licked every man
+teacher in the school, and beaten by guile every woman teacher they had
+had in six years. Bud was loyal to his admiration, yet it could be
+plainly seen that he felt Margaret's greatest hindrance in the school
+would be Delicate Forbes.
+
+Margaret mentally underlined the names in her memory that belonged to
+the back seats in the first and second rows of desks, and went home
+praying that she might have wisdom and patience to deal with Jed Brower
+and Timothy Forbes, and through them to manage the rest of her school.
+
+She surprised Bud at the dinner-table by handing him a neat diagram of
+the school-room desks with the correct names of all but three or four of
+the scholars written on them. Such a feat of memory raised her several
+notches in his estimation.
+
+"Say, that's going some! Guess you won't forget nothing, no matter how
+much they try to make you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+The minister did not appear until late in the evening, after Margaret
+had gone to her room, for which she was sincerely thankful. She could
+hear his voice, fretful and complaining, as he called loudly for Bud to
+take the horse. It appeared he had lost his way and wandered many miles
+out of the trail. He blamed the country for having no better trails, and
+the horse for not being able to find his way better. Mr. Tanner had gone
+to bed, but Mrs. Tanner bustled about and tried to comfort him.
+
+"Now that's too bad! Dearie me! Bud oughta hev gone with you, so he
+ought. Bud! _Oh_, Bud, you 'ain't gonta sleep yet, hev you? Wake up and
+come down and take this horse to the barn."
+
+But Bud declined to descend. He shouted some sleepy directions from his
+loft where he slept, and said the minister could look after his own
+horse, he "wasn'ta gonta!" There was "plentya corn in the bin."
+
+The minister grumbled his way to the barn, highly incensed at Bud, and
+disturbed the calm of the evening view of Margaret's mountain by his
+complaints when he returned. He wasn't accustomed to handling horses,
+and he thought Bud might have stayed up and attended to it himself. Bud
+chuckled in his loft and stole down the back kitchen roof while the
+minister ate his late supper. Bud would never leave the old horse to
+that amateur's tender mercies, but he didn't intend to make it easy for
+the amateur. Margaret, from her window-seat watching the night in the
+darkness, saw Bud slip off the kitchen roof and run to the barn, and she
+smiled to herself. She liked that boy. He was going to be a good
+comrade.
+
+The Sabbath morning dawned brilliantly, and to the homesick girl there
+suddenly came a sense of desolation on waking. A strange land was this,
+without church-bells or sense of Sabbath fitness. The mountain, it is
+true, greeted her with a holy light of gladness, but mountains are not
+dependent upon humankind for being in the spirit on the Lord's day. They
+are "continually praising Him." Margaret wondered how she was to get
+through this day, this dreary first Sabbath away from her home and her
+Sabbath-school class, and her dear old church with father preaching. She
+had been away, of course, a great many times before, but never to a
+churchless community. It was beginning to dawn upon her that that was
+what Ashland was--a churchless community. As she recalled the walk to
+the school and the ride through the village she had seen nothing that
+looked like a church, and all the talk had been of the missionary. They
+must have services of some sort, of course, and probably that flabby,
+fish-eyed man, her fellow-boarder, was to preach; but her heart turned
+sick at thought of listening to a man who had confessed to the
+unbeliefs that he had. Of course, he would likely know enough to keep
+such doubts to himself; but he had told her, and nothing he could say
+now would help or uplift her in the least.
+
+She drew a deep sigh and looked at her watch. It was late. At home the
+early Sabbath-school bells would be ringing, and little girls in white,
+with bunches of late fall flowers for their teachers, and holding hands
+with their little brothers, would be hurrying down the street. Father
+was in his study, going over his morning sermon, and mother putting her
+little pearl pin in her collar, getting ready to go to her Bible class.
+Margaret decided it was time to get up and stop thinking of it all.
+
+She put on a little white dress that she wore to church at home and
+hurried down to discover what the family plans were for the day, but
+found, to her dismay, that the atmosphere below-stairs was just like
+that of other days. Mr. Tanner sat tilted back in a dining-room chair,
+reading the weekly paper, Mrs. Tanner was bustling in with hot
+corn-bread, Bud was on the front-door steps teasing the dog, and the
+minister came in with an air of weariness upon him, as if he quite
+intended taking it out on his companions that he had experienced a
+trying time on Saturday. He did not look in the least like a man who
+expected to preach in a few minutes. He declined to eat his egg because
+it was cooked too hard, and poor Mrs. Tanner had to try it twice before
+she succeeded in producing a soft-boiled egg to suit him. Only the
+radiant outline of the great mountain, which Margaret could see over the
+minister's head, looked peaceful and Sabbath-like.
+
+"What time do you have service?" Margaret asked, as she rose from the
+table.
+
+"Service?" It was Mr. Tanner who echoed her question as if he did not
+quite know what she meant.
+
+Mrs. Tanner raised her eyes from her belated breakfast with a worried
+look, like a hen stretching her neck about to see what she ought to do
+next for the comfort of the chickens under her care. It was apparent
+that she had no comprehension of what the question meant. It was the
+minister who answered, condescendingly:
+
+"Um! Ah! There is no church edifice here, you know, Miss Earle. The
+mission station is located some miles distant."
+
+"I know," said Margaret, "but they surely have some religious service?"
+
+"I really don't know," said the minister, loftily, as if it were
+something wholly beneath his notice.
+
+"Then you are not going to preach this morning?" In spite of herself
+there was relief in her tone.
+
+"Most certainly not," he replied, stiffly. "I came out here to rest, and
+I selected this place largely because it was so far from a church. I
+wanted to be where I should not be annoyed by requests to preach. Of
+course, ministers from the East would be a curiosity in these Western
+towns, and I should really get no rest at all if I had gone where my
+services would have been in constant demand. When I came out here I was
+in much the condition of our friend the minister of whom you have
+doubtless heard. He was starting on his vacation, and he said to a
+brother minister, with a smile of joy and relief, 'No preaching, no
+praying, no reading of the Bible for six whole weeks!'"
+
+"Indeed!" said Margaret, freezingly. "No, I am not familiar with
+ministers of that sort." She turned with dismissal in her manner and
+appealed to Mrs. Tanner. "Then you really have no Sabbath service of any
+sort whatever in town?" There was something almost tragic in her face.
+She stood aghast at the prospect before her.
+
+Mrs. Tanner's neck stretched up a little longer, and her lips dropped
+apart in her attempt to understand the situation. One would scarcely
+have been surprised to hear her say, "Cut-cut-cut-ca-daw-cut?" so
+fluttered did she seem.
+
+Then up spoke Bud. "We gotta Sunday-school, ma!" There was pride of
+possession in Bud's tone, and a kind of triumph over the minister,
+albeit Bud had adjured Sunday-school since his early infancy. He was
+ready now, however, to be offered on the altar of Sunday-school, even,
+if that would please the new teacher--and spite the minister. "I'll take
+you ef you wanta go." He looked defiantly at the minister as he said it.
+
+But at last Mrs. Tanner seemed to grasp what was the matter.
+"Why!--why!--why! You mean preaching service!" she clucked out. "Why,
+yes, Mr. West, wouldn't that be fine? You could preach for us. We could
+have it posted up at the saloon and the crossings, and out a ways on
+both trails, and you'd have quite a crowd. They'd come from over to the
+camp, and up the caņon way, and roundabouts. They'd do you credit, they
+surely would, Mr. West. And you could have the school-house for a
+meeting-house. Pa, there, is one of the school board. There wouldn't be
+a bit of trouble--"
+
+"Um! Ah! Mrs. Tanner, I assure you it's quite out of the question. I
+told you I was here for absolute rest. I couldn't think of preaching.
+Besides, it's against my principles to preach without remuneration. It's
+a wrong idea. The workman is worthy of his hire, you know, Mrs. Tanner,
+the Good Book says." Mr. West's tone took on a self-righteous
+inflection.
+
+"Oh! Ef that's all, that 'u'd be all right!" she said, with relief. "You
+could take up a collection. The boys would be real generous. They always
+are when any show comes along. They'd appreciate it, you know, and I'd
+like fer Miss Earle here to hear you preach. It 'u'd be a real treat to
+her, her being a preacher's daughter and all." She turned to Margaret
+for support, but that young woman was talking to Bud. She had promptly
+closed with his offer to take her to Sunday-school, and now she hurried
+away to get ready, leaving Mrs. Tanner to make her clerical arrangements
+without aid.
+
+The minister, meantime, looked after her doubtfully. Perhaps, after all,
+it would have been a good move to have preached. He might have impressed
+that difficult young woman better that way than any other, seeing she
+posed as being so interested in religious matters. He turned to Mrs.
+Tanner and began to ask questions about the feasibility of a church
+service. The word "collection" sounded good to him. He was not averse to
+replenishing his somewhat depleted treasury if it could be done so
+easily as that.
+
+Meantime Margaret, up in her room, was wondering again how such a man as
+Mr. West ever got into the Christian ministry.
+
+West was still endeavoring to impress the Tanners with the importance of
+his late charge in the East as Margaret came down-stairs. His pompous
+tones, raised to favor the deafness that he took for granted in Mr.
+Tanner, easily reached her ears.
+
+"I couldn't, of course, think of doing it every Sunday, you understand.
+It wouldn't be fair to myself nor my work which I have just left; but,
+of course, if there were sufficient inducement I might consent to preach
+some Sunday before I leave."
+
+Mrs. Tanner's little satisfied cluck was quite audible as the girl
+closed the front door and went out to the waiting Bud.
+
+The Sunday-school was a desolate affair, presided over by an elderly and
+very illiterate man, who nursed his elbows and rubbed his chin
+meditatively between the slow questions which he read out of the
+lesson-leaf. The woman who usually taught the children was called away
+to nurse a sick neighbor, and the children were huddled together in a
+restless group. The singing was poor, and the whole of the exercises
+dreary, including the prayer. The few women present sat and stared in a
+kind of awe at the visitor, half belligerently, as if she were an
+intruder. Bud lingered outside the door and finally disappeared
+altogether, reappearing when the last hymn was sung. Altogether the new
+teacher felt exceedingly homesick as she wended her way back to the
+Tanners' beside Bud.
+
+"What do you do with yourself on Sunday afternoons, Bud?" she asked, as
+soon as they were out of hearing of the rest of the group.
+
+The boy turned wondering eyes toward her. "Do?" he repeated, puzzled.
+"Why, we pass the time away, like 'most any day. There ain't much
+difference."
+
+A great desolation possessed her. No church! Worse than no minister! No
+Sabbath! What kind of a land was this to which she had come?
+
+The boy beside her smelled of tobacco smoke. He had been off somewhere
+smoking while she was in the dreary little Sunday-school. She looked at
+his careless boy-face furtively as they walked along. He smoked, of
+course, like most boys of his age, probably, and he did a lot of other
+things he ought not to do. He had no interest in God or righteousness,
+and he did not take it for granted that the Sabbath was different from
+any other day. A sudden heart-sinking came upon her. What was the use of
+trying to do anything for such as he? Why not give it up now and go back
+where there was more promising material to work upon and where she would
+be welcome indeed? Of course, she had known things would be
+discouraging, but somehow it had seemed different from a distance. It
+all looked utterly hopeless now, and herself crazy to have thought she
+could do any good in a place like this.
+
+And yet the place needed somebody! That pitiful little Sunday-school!
+How forlorn it all was! She was almost sorry she had gone. It gave her
+an unhappy feeling for the morrow, which was to be her first day of
+school.
+
+Then, all suddenly, just as they were nearing the Tanner house, there
+came one riding down the street with all the glory of the radiant
+morning in his face, and a light in his eyes at seeing her that lifted
+away her desolation, for here at last was a friend!
+
+She wondered at herself. An unknown stranger, and a self-confessed
+failure so far in his young life, and yet he seemed so good a sight to
+her amid these uncongenial surroundings!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+This stranger of royal bearing, riding a rough Western pony as if it
+were decked with golden trappings, with his bright hair gleaming like
+Roman gold in the sun, and his blue-gray eyes looking into hers with the
+gladness of his youth; this one who had come to her out of the
+night-shadows of the wilderness and led her into safety! Yes, she was
+glad to see him.
+
+He dismounted and greeted her, his wide hat in his hand, his eyes upon
+her face, and Bud stepped back, watching them in pleased surprise. This
+was the man who had shot all the lights out the night of the big riot in
+the saloon. He had also risked his life in a number of foolish ways at
+recent festal carouses. Bud would not have been a boy had he not admired
+the young man beyond measure; and his boy worship of the teacher yielded
+her to a fitting rival. He stepped behind and walked beside the pony,
+who was following his master meekly, as though he, too, were under the
+young man's charm.
+
+"Oh, and this is my friend, William Tanner," spoke Margaret, turning
+toward the boy loyally, (Whatever good angel made her call him William?
+Bud's soul swelled with new dignity as he blushed and acknowledged the
+introduction by a grin.)
+
+"Glad to know you, Will," said the new-comer, extending his hand in a
+hearty shake that warmed the boy's heart in a trice. "I'm glad Miss
+Earle has so good a protector. You'll have to look out for her. She's
+pretty plucky and is apt to stray around the wilderness by herself. It
+isn't safe, you know, boy, for such as her. Look after her, will you?"
+
+"Right I will," said Bud, accepting the commission as if it were
+Heaven-sent, and thereafter walked behind the two with his head in the
+clouds. He felt that he understood this great hero of the plains and was
+one with him at heart. There could be no higher honor than to be the
+servitor of this man's lady. Bud did not stop to question how the new
+teacher became acquainted with the young rider of the plains. It was
+enough that both were young and handsome and seemed to belong together.
+He felt they were fitting friends.
+
+The little procession walked down the road slowly, glad to prolong the
+way. The young man had brought her handkerchief, a filmy trifle of an
+excuse that she had dropped behind her chair at the bunk-house, where it
+had lain unnoticed till she was gone. He produced it from his inner
+pocket, as though it had been too precious to carry anywhere but over
+his heart, yet there was in his manner nothing presuming, not a hint of
+any intimacy other than their chance acquaintance of the wilderness
+would warrant. He did not look at her with any such look as West had
+given every time he spoke to her. She felt no desire to resent his
+glance when it rested upon her almost worshipfully, for there was
+respect and utmost humility in his look.
+
+The men had sent gifts: some arrow-heads and a curiously fashioned
+vessel from the caņon of the cave-dwellers; some chips from the
+petrified forest; a fern with wonderful fronds, root and all; and a
+sheaf of strange, beautiful blossoms carefully wrapped in wet paper, and
+all fastened to the saddle.
+
+Margaret's face kindled with interest as he showed them to her one by
+one, and told her the history of each and a little message from the man
+who had sent it. Mom Wallis, too, had baked a queer little cake and sent
+it. The young man's face was tender as he spoke of it. The girl saw that
+he knew what her coming had meant to Mom Wallis. Her memory went quickly
+back to those few words the morning she had wakened in the bunk-house
+and found the withered old woman watching her with tears in her eyes.
+Poor Mom Wallis, with her pretty girlhood all behind her and such a
+blank, dull future ahead! Poor, tired, ill-used, worn-out Mom Wallis!
+Margaret's heart went out to her.
+
+"They want to know," said the young man, half hesitatingly, "if some
+time, when you get settled and have time, you would come to them again
+and sing? I tried to make them understand, of course, that you would be
+busy, your time taken with other friends and your work, and you would
+not want to come; but they wanted me to tell you they never enjoyed
+anything so much in years as your singing. Why, I heard Long Jim singing
+'Old Folks at Home' this morning when he was saddling his horse. And
+it's made a difference. The men sort of want to straighten up the
+bunk-room. Jasper made a new chair yesterday. He said it would do when
+you came again." Gardley laughed diffidently, as if he knew their hopes
+were all in vain.
+
+But Margaret looked up with sympathy in her face, "I'll come! Of course
+I'll come some time," she said, eagerly. "I'll come as soon as I can
+arrange it. You tell them we'll have more than one concert yet."
+
+The young man's face lit up with a quick appreciation, and the flash of
+his eyes as he looked at her would have told any onlooker that he felt
+here was a girl in a thousand, a girl with an angel spirit, if ever such
+a one walked the earth.
+
+Now it happened that Rev. Frederick West was walking impatiently up and
+down in front of the Tanner residence, looking down the road about that
+time. He had spent the morning in looking over the small bundle of "show
+sermons" he had brought with him in case of emergency, and had about
+decided to accede to Mrs. Tanner's request and preach in Ashland before
+he left. This decision had put him in so self-satisfied a mood that he
+was eager to announce it before his fellow-boarder. Moreover, he was
+hungry, and he could not understand why that impudent boy and that
+coquettish young woman should remain away at Sunday-school such an
+interminable time.
+
+Mrs. Tanner was frying chicken. He could smell it every time he took a
+turn toward the house. It really was ridiculous that they should keep
+dinner waiting this way. He took one more turn and began to think over
+the sermon he had decided to preach. He was just recalling a
+particularly eloquent passage when he happened to look down the road
+once more, and there they were, almost upon him! But Bud was no longer
+walking with the maiden. She had acquired a new escort, a man of broad
+shoulders and fine height. Where had he seen that fellow before? He
+watched them as they came up, his small, pale eyes narrowing under their
+yellow lashes with a glint of slyness, like some mean little animal that
+meant to take advantage of its prey. It was wonderful how many different
+things that man could look like for a person as insignificant as he
+really was!
+
+Well, he saw the look between the man and maiden; the look of sympathy
+and admiration and a fine kind of trust that is not founded on mere
+outward show, but has found some hidden fineness of the soul. Not that
+the reverend gentleman understood that, however. He had no fineness of
+soul himself. His mind had been too thoroughly taken up with himself all
+his life for him to have cultivated any.
+
+Simultaneous with the look came his recognition of the man or, at least,
+of where he had last seen him, and his little soul rejoiced at the
+advantage he instantly recognized.
+
+He drew himself up importantly, flattened his chin upward until his
+lower lip protruded in a pink roll across his mouth, drew down his
+yellow brows in a frown of displeasure, and came forward mentor-like to
+meet the little party as it neared the house. He had the air of coming
+to investigate and possibly oust the stranger, and he looked at him
+keenly, critically, offensively, as if he had the right to protect the
+lady. They might have been a pair of naughty children come back from a
+forbidden frolic, from the way he surveyed them. But the beauty of it
+was that neither of them saw him, being occupied with each other, until
+they were fairly upon him. Then, there he stood offensively, as if he
+were a great power to be reckoned with.
+
+"Well, well, well, Miss Margaret, you have got home at last!" he said,
+pompously and condescendingly, and then he looked into the eyes of her
+companion as if demanding an explanation of _his_ presence there.
+
+Margaret drew herself up haughtily. His use of her Christian name in
+that familiar tone annoyed her exceedingly. Her eyes flashed
+indignantly, but the whole of it was lost unless Bud saw it, for Gardley
+had faced his would-be adversary with a keen, surprised scrutiny, and
+was looking him over coolly. There was that in the young man's eye that
+made the eye of Frederick West quail before him. It was only an instant
+the two stood challenging each other, but in that short time each knew
+and marked the other for an enemy. Only a brief instant and then Gardley
+turned to Margaret, and before she had time to think what to say, he
+asked:
+
+"Is this man a friend of yours, Miss _Earle_?" with marked emphasis on
+the last word.
+
+"No," said Margaret, coolly, "not a friend--a boarder in the house."
+Then most formally, "Mr. West, my _friend_ Mr. Gardley."
+
+If the minister had not been possessed of the skin of a rhinoceros he
+would have understood himself to be dismissed at that; but he was not a
+man accustomed to accepting dismissal, as his recent church in New York
+State might have testified. He stood his ground, his chin flatter than
+ever, his little eyes mere slits of condemnation. He did not acknowledge
+the introduction by so much as the inclination of his head. His hands
+were clasped behind his back, and his whole attitude was one of
+righteous belligerence.
+
+Gardley gazed steadily at him for a moment, a look of mingled contempt
+and amusement gradually growing upon his face. Then he turned away as if
+the man were too small to notice.
+
+"You will come in and take dinner with me?" asked Margaret, eagerly. "I
+want to send a small package to Mrs. Wallis if you will be so good as to
+take it with you."
+
+"I'm sorry I can't stay to dinner, but I have an errand in another
+direction and at some distance. I am returning this way, however, and,
+if I may, will call and get the package toward evening."
+
+Margaret's eyes spoke her welcome, and with a few formal words the young
+man sprang on his horse, said, "So long, Will!" to Bud, and, ignoring
+the minister, rode away.
+
+They watched him for an instant, for, indeed, he was a goodly sight upon
+a horse, riding as if he and the horse were utterly one in spirit; then
+Margaret turned quickly to go into the house.
+
+"Um! Ah! Miss Margaret!" began the minister, with a commandatory gesture
+for her to stop.
+
+Margaret was the picture of haughtiness as she turned and said, "Miss
+_Earle_, if you please!"
+
+"Um! Ah! Why, certainly, Miss--ah--_Earle_, if you wish it. Will you
+kindly remain here for a moment? I wish to speak with you. Bud, you may
+go on."
+
+"I'll go when I like, and it's none of your business!" muttered Bud,
+ominously, under his breath. He looked at Margaret to see if she wished
+him to go. He had an idea that this might be one of the times when he
+was to look after her.
+
+She smiled at him understandingly. "William may remain, Mr. West," she
+said, sweetly. "Anything you have to say to me can surely be said in his
+presence," and she laid her hand lightly on Bud's sleeve.
+
+Bud looked down at the hand proudly and grew inches taller enjoying the
+minister's frown.
+
+"Um! Ah!" said West, unabashed. "Well, I merely wished to warn you
+concerning the character of that person who has just left us. He is
+really not a proper companion for you. Indeed, I may say he is quite the
+contrary, and that to my personal knowledge--"
+
+"He's as good as you are and better!" growled Bud, ominously.
+
+"Be quiet, boy! I wasn't speaking to you!" said West, as if he were
+addressing a slave. "If I hear another word from your lips I shall
+report it to your father!"
+
+"Go 's far 's you like and see how much I care!" taunted Bud, but was
+stopped by Margaret's gentle pressure on his arm.
+
+"Mr. West, I thought I made you understand that Mr. Gardley is my
+friend."
+
+"Um! Ah! Miss Earle, then all I have to say is that you have formed a
+most unwise friendship, and should let it proceed no further. Why, my
+dear young lady, if you knew all there is to know about him you would
+not think of speaking to that young man."
+
+"Indeed! Mr. West, I suppose that might be true of a good many people,
+might it not, _if we knew all there is to know about them_? Nobody but
+God could very well get along with some of us."
+
+"But, my dear young lady, you don't understand. This young person is
+nothing but a common ruffian, a gambler, in fact, and an habitué at the
+saloons. I have seen him myself sitting in a saloon at a very late hour
+playing with a vile, dirty pack of cards, and in the company of a lot of
+low-down creatures--"
+
+"May I ask how you came to be in a saloon at that hour, Mr. West?" There
+was a gleam of mischief in the girl's eyes, and her mouth looked as if
+she were going to laugh, but she controlled it.
+
+The minister turned very red indeed. "Well, I--ah--I had been called
+from my bed by shouts and the report of a pistol. There was a fight
+going on in the room adjoining the bar, and I didn't know but my
+assistance might be needed!" (At this juncture Bud uttered a sort of
+snort and, placing his hands over his heart, ducked down as if a sudden
+pain had seized him.) "But imagine my pain and astonishment when I was
+informed that the drunken brawl I was witnessing was but a nightly and
+common occurrence. I may say I remained for a few minutes, partly out of
+curiosity, as I wished to see all kinds of life in this new world for
+the sake of a book I am thinking of writing. I therefore took careful
+note of the persons present, and was thus able to identify the person
+who has just ridden away as one of the chief factors in that evening's
+entertainment. He was, in fact, the man who, when he had pocketed all
+the money on the gaming-table, arose and, taking out his pistol, shot
+out the lights in the room, a most dangerous and irregular proceeding--"
+
+"Yes, and you came within an ace of being shot, pa says. The Kid's a
+dead shot, he is, and you were right in the way. Served you right for
+going where you had no business!"
+
+"I did not remain longer in that place, as you may imagine," went on West,
+ignoring Bud, "for I found it was no place for a--for--a--ah--minister
+of the gospel; but I remained long enough to hear from the lips of this
+person with whom you have just been walking some of the most terrible
+language my ears have ever been permitted to--ah--witness!"
+
+But Margaret had heard all that she intended to listen to on that
+subject. With decided tone she interrupted the voluble speaker, who was
+evidently enjoying his own eloquence.
+
+"Mr. West, I think you have said all that it is necessary to say. There
+are still some things about Mr. Gardley that you evidently do not know,
+but I think you are in a fair way to learn them if you stay in this part
+of the country long. William, isn't that your mother calling us to
+dinner? Let us go in; I'm hungry."
+
+Bud followed her up the walk with a triumphant wink at the discomfited
+minister, and they disappeared into the house; but when Margaret went
+up to her room and took off her hat in front of the little warped
+looking-glass there were angry tears in her eyes. She never felt more
+like crying in her life. Chagrin and anger and disappointment were all
+struggling in her soul, yet she must not cry, for dinner would be ready
+and she must go down. Never should that mean little meddling man see
+that his words had pierced her soul.
+
+For, angry as she was at the minister, much as she loathed his petty,
+jealous nature and saw through his tale-bearing, something yet told her
+that his picture of young Gardley's wildness was probably true, and her
+soul sank within her at the thought. It was just what had come in
+shadowy, instinctive fear to her heart when he had hinted at his being a
+"roughneck," yet to have it put baldly into words by an enemy hurt her
+deeply, and she looked at herself in the glass half frightened.
+"Margaret Earle, have you come out to the wilderness to lose your heart
+to the first handsome sower of wild oats that you meet?" her true eyes
+asked her face in the glass, and Margaret Earle's heart turned sad at
+the question and shrank back. Then she dropped upon her knees beside her
+gay little rocking-chair and buried her face in its flowered cushions
+and cried to her Father in heaven:
+
+"Oh, my Father, let me not be weak, but with all my heart I cry to Thee
+to save this young, strong, courageous life and not let it be a failure.
+Help him to find Thee and serve Thee, and if his life has been all
+wrong--and I suppose it has--oh, make it right for Jesus' sake! If there
+is anything that I can do to help, show me how, and don't let me make
+mistakes. Oh, Jesus, Thy power is great. Let this young man feel it and
+yield himself to it."
+
+She remained silently praying for a moment more, putting her whole soul
+into the prayer and knowing that she had been called thus to pray for
+him until her prayer was answered.
+
+She came down to dinner a few minutes later with a calm, serene face, on
+which was no hint of her recent emotion, and she managed to keep the
+table conversation wholly in her own hands, telling Mr. Tanner about her
+home town and her father and mother. When the meal was finished the
+minister had no excuse to think that the new teacher was careless about
+her friends and associates, and he was well informed about the high
+principles of her family.
+
+But West had retired into a sulky mood and uttered not a word except to
+ask for more chicken and coffee and a second helping of pie. It was,
+perhaps, during that dinner that he decided it would be best for him to
+preach in Ashland on the following Sunday. The young lady could be
+properly impressed with his dignity in no other way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+When Lance Gardley came back to the Tanners' the sun was preparing the
+glory of its evening setting, and the mountain was robed in all its
+rosiest veils.
+
+Margaret was waiting for him, with the dog Captain beside her, wandering
+back and forth in the unfenced dooryard and watching her mountain. It
+was a relief to her to find that the minister occupied a room on the
+first floor in a kind of ell on the opposite side of the house from her
+own room and her mountain. He had not been visible that afternoon, and
+with Captain by her side and Bud on the front-door step reading _The Sky
+Pilot_ she felt comparatively safe. She had read to Bud for an hour and
+a half, and he was thoroughly interested in the story; but she was sure
+he would keep the minister away at all costs. As for Captain, he and the
+minister were sworn enemies by this time. He growled every time West
+came near or spoke to her.
+
+She made a picture standing with her hand on Captain's shaggy, noble
+head, the lace of her sleeve falling back from the white arm, her other
+hand raised to shade her face as she looked away to the glorified
+mountain, a slim, white figure looking wistfully off at the sunset. The
+young man took off his hat and rode his horse more softly, as if in the
+presence of the holy.
+
+The dog lifted one ear, and a tremor passed through his frame as the
+rider drew near; otherwise he did not stir from his position; but it was
+enough. The girl turned, on the alert at once, and met him with a smile,
+and the young man looked at her as if an angel had deigned to smile upon
+him. There was a humility in his fine face that sat well with the
+courage written there, and smoothed away all hardness for the time, so
+that the girl, looking at him in the light of the revelations of the
+morning, could hardly believe it had been true, yet an inner fineness of
+perception taught her that it was.
+
+The young man dismounted and left his horse standing quietly by the
+roadside. He would not stay, he said, yet lingered by her side, talking
+for a few minutes, watching the sunset and pointing out its changes.
+
+She gave him the little package for Mom Wallis. There was a simple lace
+collar in a little white box, and a tiny leather-bound book done in
+russet sučde with gold lettering.
+
+"Tell her to wear the collar and think of me whenever she dresses up."
+
+"I'm afraid that'll never be, then," said the young man, with a pitying
+smile. "Mom Wallis never dresses up."
+
+"Tell her I said she must dress up evenings for supper, and I'll make
+her another one to change with that and bring it when I come."
+
+He smiled upon her again, that wondering, almost worshipful smile, as if
+he wondered if she were real, after all, so different did she seem from
+his idea of girls.
+
+"And the little book," she went on, apologetically; "I suppose it was
+foolish to send it, but something she said made me think of some of the
+lines in the poem. I've marked them for her. She reads, doesn't she?"
+
+"A little, I think. I see her now and then read the papers that Pop
+brings home with him. I don't fancy her literary range is very wide,
+however."
+
+"Of course, I suppose it is ridiculous! And maybe she'll not understand
+any of it; but tell her I sent her a message. She must see if she can
+find it in the poem. Perhaps you can explain it to her. It's Browning's
+'Rabbi Ben Ezra.' You know it, don't you?"
+
+"I'm afraid not. I was intent on other things about the time when I was
+supposed to be giving my attention to Browning, or I wouldn't be what I
+am to-day, I suppose. But I'll do my best with what wits I have. What's
+it about? Couldn't you give me a pointer or two?"
+
+"It's the one beginning:
+
+    "Grow old along with me!
+    The best is yet to be,
+    The last of life, for which the first was made:
+    Our times are in His hand
+    Who saith, 'A whole I planned,
+    Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor
+    be afraid!'"
+
+He looked down at her still with that wondering smile. "Grow old along
+with you!" he said, gravely, and then sighed. "You don't look as if you
+ever would grow old."
+
+"That's it," she said, eagerly. "That's the whole idea. We don't ever
+grow old and get done with it all, we just go on to bigger things, wiser
+and better and more beautiful, till we come to understand and be a part
+of the whole great plan of God!"
+
+He did not attempt an answer, nor did he smile now, but just looked at
+her with that deeply quizzical, grave look as if his soul were turning
+over the matter seriously. She held her peace and waited, unable to find
+the right word to speak. Then he turned and looked off, an infinite
+regret growing in his face.
+
+"That makes living a different thing from the way most people take it,"
+he said, at last, and his tone showed that he was considering it deeply.
+
+"Does it?" she said, softly, and looked with him toward the sunset,
+still half seeing his quiet profile against the light. At last it came
+to her that she must speak. Half fearfully she began: "I've been
+thinking about what you said on the ride. You said you didn't make good.
+I--wish you would. I--I'm sure you could--"
+
+She looked up wistfully and saw the gentleness come into his face as if
+the fountain of his soul, long sealed, had broken up, and as if he saw a
+possibility before him for the first time through the words she had
+spoken.
+
+At last he turned to her with that wondering smile again. "Why should
+you care?" he asked. The words would have sounded harsh if his tone had
+not been so gentle.
+
+Margaret hesitated for an answer. "I don't know how to tell it," she
+said, slowly. "There's another verse, a few lines more in that poem,
+perhaps you know them?--
+
+    'All I never could be, All, men ignored in me,
+    This I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped.'
+
+I want it because--well, perhaps because I feel you are worth all that
+to God. I would like to see you be that."
+
+He looked down at her again, and was still so long that she felt she had
+failed miserably.
+
+"I hope you will excuse my speaking," she added. "I--It seems there are
+so many grand possibilities in life, and for you--I couldn't bear to
+have you say you hadn't made good, as if it were all over."
+
+"I'm glad you spoke," he said, quickly. "I guess perhaps I have been all
+kinds of a fool. You have made me feel how many kinds I have been."
+
+"Oh no!" she protested.
+
+"You don't know what I have been," he said, sadly, and then with sudden
+conviction, as if he read her thoughts: "You _do_ know! That prig of a
+parson has told you! Well, it's just as well you should know. It's
+right!"
+
+A wave of misery passed over his face and erased all its brightness and
+hope. Even the gentleness was gone. He looked haggard and drawn with
+hopelessness all in a moment.
+
+"Do you think it would matter to me--_anything_ that man would say?" she
+protested, all her woman's heart going out in pity.
+
+"But it was true, all he said, probably, and more--"
+
+"It doesn't matter," she said, eagerly. "The other is true, too. Just as
+the poem says, 'All that man ignores in you, just that you are worth to
+God!' And you _can_ be what He meant you to be. I have been praying all
+the afternoon that He would help you to be."
+
+"Have you?" he said, and his eyes lit up again as if the altar-fires of
+hope were burning once more. "Have you? I thank you."
+
+"You came to me when I was lost in the wilderness," she said, shyly. "I
+wanted to help _you_ back--if--I might."
+
+"You will help--you have!" he said, earnestly. "And I was far enough off
+the trail, too, but if there's any way to get back I'll get there." He
+grasped her hand and held it for a second. "Keep up that praying," he
+said. "I'll see what can be done."
+
+Margaret looked up. "Oh, I'm so glad, so glad!"
+
+He looked reverently into her eyes, all the manhood in him stirred to
+higher, better things. Then, suddenly, as they stood together, a sound
+smote their ears as from another world.
+
+"Um! Ah!--"
+
+The minister stood within the doorway, barred by Bud in scowling
+defiance, and guarded by Cap, who gave an answering growl.
+
+Gardley and Margaret looked at each other and smiled, then turned and
+walked slowly down to where the pony stood. They did not wish to talk
+here in that alien presence. Indeed, it seemed that more words were not
+needed--they would be a desecration.
+
+So he rode away into the sunset once more with just another look and a
+hand-clasp, and she turned, strangely happy at heart, to go back to her
+dull surroundings and her uncongenial company.
+
+"Come, William, let's have a praise service," she said, brightly,
+pausing at the doorway, but ignoring the scowling minister.
+
+"A praise service! What's a praise service?" asked the wondering Bud,
+shoving over to let her sit down beside him.
+
+She sat with her back to West, and Cap came and lay at her feet with the
+white of one eye on the minister and a growl ready to gleam between his
+teeth any minute. There was just no way for the minister to get out
+unless he jumped over them or went out the back door; but the people in
+the doorway had the advantage of not having to look at him, and he
+couldn't very well dominate the conversation standing so behind them.
+
+"Why, a praise service is a service of song and gladness, of course. You
+sing, don't you? Of course. Well, what shall we sing? Do you know this?"
+And she broke softly into song:
+
+    "When peace like a river attendeth my way;
+    When sorrows like sea-billows roll;
+    Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to say,
+    It is well, it is well with my soul."
+
+Bud did not know the song, but he did not intend to be balked with the
+minister standing right behind him, ready, no doubt, to jump in and take
+the precedence; so he growled away at a note in the bass, turning it
+over and over and trying to make it fit, like a dog gnawing at a bare
+bone; but he managed to keep time and make it sound a little like
+singing.
+
+The dusk was falling fast as they finished the last verse, Margaret
+singing the words clear and distinct, Bud growling unintelligibly and
+snatching at words he had never heard before. Once more Margaret sang:
+
+    "Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
+    The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide!
+    When other refuge fails and comforts flee,
+    Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me!"
+
+Out on the lonely trail wending his way toward the purple mountain--the
+silent way to the bunk-house at the camp--in that clear air where sound
+travels a long distance the traveler heard the song, and something
+thrilled his soul. A chord that never had been touched in him before was
+vibrating, and its echoes would be heard through all his life.
+
+On and on sang Margaret, just because she could not bear to stop and
+hear the commonplace talk which would be about her. Song after song
+thrilled through the night's wideness. The stars came out in thick
+clusters. Father Tanner had long ago dropped his weekly paper and tilted
+his chair back against the wall, with his eyes half closed to listen,
+and his wife had settled down comfortably on the carpet sofa, with her
+hands nicely folded in her lap, as if she were at church. The minister,
+after silently surveying the situation for a song or two, attempted to
+join his voice to the chorus. He had a voice like a cross-cut saw, but
+he didn't do much harm in the background that way, though Cap did growl
+now and then, as if it put his nerves on edge. And by and by Mr. Tanner
+quavered in with a note or two.
+
+Finally Margaret sang:
+
+    "Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear,
+    It is not night if Thou art near,
+    Oh, may no earth-born cloud arise
+    To hide Thee from Thy servant's eyes."
+
+During this hymn the minister had slipped out the back door and gone
+around to the front of the house. He could not stand being in the
+background any longer; but as the last note died away Margaret arose
+and, bidding Bud good night, slipped up to her room.
+
+There, presently, beside her darkened window, with her face toward the
+mountain, she knelt to pray for the wanderer who was trying to find his
+way out of the wilderness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Monday morning found Margaret at the school-house nerved for her new
+task.
+
+One by one the scholars trooped in, shyly or half defiantly, hung their
+hats on the hooks, put their dinner-pails on the shelf, looked furtively
+at her, and sank into their accustomed seats; that is, the seats they
+had occupied during the last term of school. The big boys remained
+outside until Bud, acting under instructions from Margaret--after she
+had been carefully taught the ways of the school by Bud himself--rang
+the big bell. Even then they entered reluctantly and as if it were a
+great condescension that they came at all, Jed and "Delicate" coming in
+last, with scarcely a casual glance toward the teacher's desk, as if she
+were a mere fraction in the scheme of the school. She did not need to be
+told which was Timothy and which was Jed. Bud's description had been
+perfect. Her heart, by the way, instantly went out to Timothy. Jed was
+another proposition. He had thick, overhanging eyebrows, and a mouth
+that loved to make trouble and laugh over it. He was going to be hard to
+conquer. She wasn't sure the conquering would be interesting, either.
+
+Margaret stood by the desk, watching them all with a pleasant smile. She
+did not frown at the unnecessary shuffling of feet nor the loud remarks
+of the boys as they settled into their seats. She just stood and watched
+them interestedly, as though her time had not yet come.
+
+Jed and Timothy were carrying on a rumbling conversation. Even after
+they took their seats they kept it up. It was no part of their plan to
+let the teacher suppose they saw her or minded her in the least. They
+were the dominating influences in that school, and they wanted her to
+know it, right at the start; then a lot of trouble would be saved. If
+they didn't like her and couldn't manage her they didn't intend she
+should stay, and she might as well understand that at once.
+
+Margaret understood it fully. Yet she stood quietly and watched them
+with a look of deep interest on her face and a light almost of mischief
+in her eyes, while Bud grew redder and redder over the way his two idols
+were treating the new teacher. One by one the school became aware of the
+twinkle in the teacher's eyes, and grew silent to watch, and one by one
+they began to smile over the coming scene when Jed and Timothy should
+discover it, and, worst of all, find out that it was actually directed
+against them. They would expect severity, or fear, or a desire to
+placate; but a twinkle--it was more than the school could decide what
+would happen under such circumstances. No one in that room would ever
+dare to laugh at either of those two boys. But the teacher was almost
+laughing now, and the twinkle had taken the rest of the room into the
+secret, while she waited amusedly until the two should finish the
+conversation.
+
+The room grew suddenly deathly still, except for the whispered growls of
+Jed and Timothy, and still the silence deepened, until the two young
+giants themselves perceived that it was time to look up and take account
+of stock.
+
+The perspiration by this time was rolling down the back of Bud's neck.
+He was about the only one in the room who was not on a broad grin, and
+he was wretched. What a fearful mistake the new teacher was making right
+at the start! She was antagonizing the two boys who held the whole
+school in their hands. There was no telling what they wouldn't do to her
+now. And he would have to stand up for her. Yes, no matter what they
+did, he would stand up for her! Even though he lost his best friends, he
+must be loyal to her; but the strain was terrible! He did not dare to
+look at them, but fastened his eyes upon Margaret, as if keeping them
+glued there was his only hope. Then suddenly he saw her face break into
+one of the sweetest, merriest smiles he ever witnessed, with not one
+single hint of reproach or offended dignity in it, just a smile of
+comradeship, understanding, and pleasure in the meeting; and it was
+directed to the two seats where Jed and Timothy sat.
+
+With wonder he turned toward the two big boys, and saw, to his
+amazement, an answering smile upon their faces; reluctant, 'tis true,
+half sheepish at first, but a smile with lifted eyebrows of astonishment
+and real enjoyment of the joke.
+
+A little ripple of approval went round in half-breathed syllables, but
+Margaret gave no time for any restlessness to start. She spoke at once,
+in her pleasantest partnership tone, such as she had used to Bud when
+she asked him to help her build her bookcase. So she spoke now to that
+school, and each one felt she was speaking just to him especially, and
+felt a leaping response in his soul. Here, at least, was something new
+and interesting, a new kind of teacher. They kept silence to listen.
+
+"Oh, I'm not going to make a speech now," she said, and her voice
+sounded glad to them all. "I'll wait till we know one another before I
+do that. I just want to say how do you do to you, and tell you how glad
+I am to be here. I hope we shall like one another immensely and have a
+great many good times together. But we've got to get acquainted first,
+of course, and perhaps we'd better give most of the time to that to-day.
+First, suppose we sing something. What shall it be? What do you sing?"
+
+Little Susan Johnson, by virtue of having seen the teacher at
+Sunday-school, made bold to raise her hand and suggest, "Thar-thpangle
+Banner, pleath!" And so they tried it; but when Margaret found that only
+a few seemed to know the words, she said, "Wait!" Lifting her arm with a
+pretty, imperative gesture, and taking a piece of chalk from the box on
+her desk, she went to the new blackboard that stretched its shining
+black length around the room.
+
+The school was breathlessly watching the graceful movement of the
+beautiful hand and arm over the smooth surface, leaving behind it the
+clear, perfect script. Such wonderful writing they had never seen; such
+perfect, easy curves and twirls. Every eye in the room was fastened on
+her, every breath was held as they watched and spelled out the words one
+by one. "Gee!" said Bud, softly, under his breath, nor knew that he had
+spoken, but no one else moved.
+
+"Now," she said, "let us sing," and when they started off again
+Margaret's strong, clear soprano leading, every voice in the room
+growled out the words and tried to get in step with the tune.
+
+They had gone thus through two verses when Jed seemed to think it was
+about time to start something. Things were going altogether too smoothly
+for an untried teacher, if she _was_ handsome and unabashed. If they
+went on like this the scholars would lose all respect for him. So, being
+quite able to sing a clear tenor, he nevertheless puckered his lips
+impertinently, drew his brows in an ominous frown, and began to whistle
+a somewhat erratic accompaniment to the song. He watched the teacher
+closely, expecting to see the color flame in her cheeks, the anger flash
+in her eyes; he had tried this trick on other teachers and it always
+worked. He gave the wink to Timothy, and he too left off his glorious
+bass and began to whistle.
+
+But instead of the anger and annoyance they expected, Margaret turned
+appreciative eyes toward the two back seats, nodding her head a trifle
+and smiling with her eyes as she sang; and when the verse was done she
+held up her hand for silence and said:
+
+"Why, boys, that's beautiful! Let's try that verse once more, and you
+two whistle the accompaniment a little stronger in the chorus; or how
+would it do if you just came in on the chorus? I believe that would be
+more effective. Let's try the first verse that way; you boys sing during
+the verse and then whistle the chorus just as you did now. We really
+need your voices in the verse part, they are so strong and splendid.
+Let's try it now." And she started off again, the two big astonished
+fellows meekly doing as they were told, and really the effect was
+beautiful. What was their surprise when the whole song was finished to
+have her say, "Now everybody whistle the chorus softly," and then pucker
+up her own soft lips to join in. That completely finished the whistling
+stunt. Jed realized that it would never work again, not while she was
+here, for she had turned the joke into beauty and made them all enjoy
+it. It hadn't annoyed her in the least.
+
+Somehow by that time they were all ready for anything she had to
+suggest, and they watched again breathlessly as she wrote another song
+on the blackboard, taking the other side of the room for it, and this
+time a hymn--"I Need Thee Every Hour."
+
+When they began to sing it, however, Margaret found the tune went
+slowly, uncertainly.
+
+"Oh, how we need a piano!" she exclaimed. "I wonder if we can't get up
+an entertainment and raise money to buy one. How many will help?"
+
+Every hand in the place went up, Jed's and Timothy's last and only a
+little way, but she noted with triumph that they went up.
+
+"All right; we'll do it! Now let's sing that verse correctly." And she
+began to sing again, while they all joined anxiously in, really trying
+to do their best.
+
+The instant the last verse died away, Margaret's voice took their
+attention.
+
+"Two years ago in Boston two young men, who belonged to a little group
+of Christian workers who were going around from place to place holding
+meetings, sat talking together in their room in the hotel one evening."
+
+There was instant quiet, a kind of a breathless quiet. This was not like
+the beginning of any lesson any other teacher had ever given them. Every
+eye was fixed on her.
+
+"They had been talking over the work of the day, and finally one of them
+suggested that they choose a Bible verse for the whole year--"
+
+There was a movement of impatience from one back seat, as if Jed had
+scented an incipient sermon, but the teacher's voice went steadily on:
+
+"They talked it over, and at last they settled on II Timothy ii:15. They
+made up their minds to use it on every possible occasion. It was time to
+go to bed, so the man whose room adjoined got up and, instead of saying
+good night, he said, 'Well, II Timothy ii:15,' and went to his room.
+Pretty soon, when he put out his light, he knocked on the wall and
+shouted 'II Timothy ii:15,' and the other man responded, heartily, 'All
+right, II Timothy ii:15.' The next morning when they wrote their letters
+each of them wrote 'II Timothy ii:15' on the lower left-hand corner of
+the envelope, and sent out a great handful of letters to all parts of
+the world. Those letters passed through the Boston post-office, and some
+of the clerks who sorted them saw that queer legend written down in the
+lower left-hand corner of the envelope, and they wondered at it, and one
+or two wrote it down, to look it up afterward. The letters reached
+other cities and were put into the hands of mail-carriers to distribute,
+and they saw the queer little sentence, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and they
+wondered, and some of them looked it up."
+
+By this time the entire attention of the school was upon the story, for
+they perceived that it was a story.
+
+"The men left Boston and went across the ocean to hold meetings in other
+cities, and one day at a little railway station in Europe a group of
+people were gathered, waiting for a train, and those two men were among
+them. Pretty soon the train came, and one of the men got on the back end
+of the last car, while the other stayed on the platform, and as the
+train moved off the man on the last car took off his hat and said, in a
+good, loud, clear tone, 'Well, take care of yourself, II Timothy ii:15,'
+and the other one smiled and waved his hat and answered, 'Yes, II
+Timothy ii:15.' The man on the train, which was moving fast now, shouted
+back, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and the man on the platform responded still
+louder, waving his hat, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and back and forth the queer
+sentence was flung until the train was too far away for them to hear
+each other's voices. In the mean time all the people on the platform had
+been standing there listening and wondering what in the world such a
+strange salutation could mean. Some of them recognized what it was, but
+many did not know, and yet the sentence was said over so many times that
+they could not help remembering it; and some went away to recall it and
+ask their friends what it meant. A young man from America was on that
+platform and heard it, and he knew it stood for a passage in the Bible,
+and his curiosity was so great that he went back to his boarding-house
+and hunted up the Bible his mother had packed in his trunk when he came
+away from home, and he hunted through the Bible until he found the
+place, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and read it; and it made him think about his
+life and decide that he wasn't doing as he ought to do. I can't tell you
+all the story about that queer Bible verse, how it went here and there
+and what a great work it did in people's hearts; but one day those
+Christian workers went to Australia to hold some meetings, and one
+night, when the great auditorium was crowded, a man who was leading the
+meeting got up and told the story of this verse, how it had been chosen,
+and how it had gone over the world in strange ways, even told about the
+morning at the little railway station when the two men said good-by.
+Just as he got to that place in his story a man in the audience stood up
+and said: 'Brother, just let me say a word, please. I never knew
+anything about all this before, but I was at that railway station, and I
+heard those two men shout that strange good-by, and I went home and read
+that verse, and it's made a great difference in my life.'
+
+"There was a great deal more to the story, how some Chicago policemen
+got to be good men through reading that verse, and how the story of the
+Australia meetings was printed in an Australian paper and sent to a lady
+in America who sent it to a friend in England to read about the
+meetings. And this friend in England had a son in the army in India, to
+whom she was sending a package, and she wrapped it around something in
+that package, and the young man read all about it, and it helped to
+change his life. Well, I thought of that story this morning when I was
+trying to decide what to read for our opening chapter, and it occurred
+to me that perhaps you would be interested to take that verse for our
+school verse this term, and so if you would like it I will put it on the
+blackboard. Would you like it, I wonder?"
+
+She paused wistfully, as if she expected an answer, and there was a low,
+almost inaudible growl of assent; a keen listener might almost have said
+it had an impatient quality in it, as if they were in a hurry to find
+out what the verse was that had made such a stir in the world.
+
+"Very well," said Margaret, turning to the board; "then I'll put it
+where we all can see it, and while I write it will you please say over
+where it is, so that you will remember it and hunt it up for yourselves
+in your Bibles at home?"
+
+There was a sort of snicker at that, for there were probably not half a
+dozen Bibles, if there were so many, represented in that school; but
+they took her hint as she wrote, and chanted, "II Timothy ii:15, II
+Timothy ii:15," and then spelled out after her rapid crayon, "Study to
+show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be
+ashamed."
+
+They read it together at her bidding, with a wondering, half-serious
+look in their faces, and then she said, "Now, shall we pray?"
+
+The former teacher had not opened her school with prayer. It had never
+been even suggested in that school. It might have been a dangerous
+experiment if Margaret had attempted it sooner in her program. As it
+was, there was a shuffling of feet in the back seats at her first word;
+but the room, grew quiet again, perhaps out of curiosity to hear a
+woman's voice in prayer:
+
+"Our Heavenly Father, we want to ask Thee to bless us in our work
+together, and to help us to be such workmen that we shall not need to be
+ashamed to show our work to Thee at the close of the day. For Christ's
+sake we ask it. Amen."
+
+They did not have time to resent that prayer before she had them
+interested in something else. In fact, she had planned her whole first
+day out so that there should not be a minute for misbehavior. She had
+argued that if she could just get time to become acquainted with them
+she might prevent a lot of trouble before it ever started. Her first
+business was to win her scholars. After that she could teach them easily
+if they were once willing to learn.
+
+She had a set of mental arithmetic problems ready which she propounded
+to them next, some of them difficult and some easy enough for the
+youngest child who could think, and she timed their answers and wrote on
+the board the names of those who raised their hands first and had the
+correct answers. The questions were put in a fascinating way, many of
+them having curious little catches in them for the scholars who were not
+on the alert, and Timothy presently discovered this and set himself to
+get every one, coming off victorious at the end. Even Jed roused
+himself and was interested, and some of the girls quite distinguished
+themselves.
+
+When a half-hour of this was over she put the word "TRANSFIGURATION" on
+the blackboard, and set them to playing a regular game out of it. If
+some of the school-board had come in just then they might have lifted up
+hands of horror at the idea of the new teacher setting the whole school
+to playing a game. But they certainly would have been delightfully
+surprised to see a quiet and orderly room with bent heads and knit
+brows, all intent upon papers and pencils. Never before in the annals of
+that school had the first day held a full period of quiet or
+orderliness. It was expected to be a day of battle; a day of trying out
+the soul of the teacher and proving whether he or she were worthy to
+cope with the active minds and bodies of the young bullies of Ashland.
+But the expected battle had been forgotten. Every mind was busy with the
+matter in hand.
+
+Margaret had given them three minutes to write as many words as they
+could think of, of three letters or more, beginning with T, and using
+only the letters in the word she had put on the board. When time was
+called there was a breathless rush to write a last word, and then each
+scholar had to tell how many words he had, and each was called upon to
+read his list. Some had only two or three, some had ten or eleven. They
+were allowed to mark their words, counting one for each person present
+who did not have that word and doubling if it were two syllables, and so
+on. Excitement ran high when it was discovered that some had actually
+made a count of thirty or forty, and when they started writing words
+beginning with R every head was bent intently from the minute time was
+started.
+
+Never had three minutes seemed so short to those unused brains, and Jed
+yelled out: "Aw, gee! I only got three!" when time was called next.
+
+It was recess-time when they finally finished every letter in that word,
+and, adding all up, found that Timothy had won the game. Was that
+school? Why, a barbecue couldn't be named beside it for fun! They rushed
+out to the school-yard with a shout, and the boys played leap-frog
+loudly for the first few minutes. Margaret, leaning her tired head in
+her hands, elbows on the window-seat, closing her eyes and gathering
+strength for the after-recess session, heard one boy say: "Wal, how d'ye
+like 'er?" And the answer came: "Gee! I didn't think she'd be that kind
+of a guy! I thought she'd be some stiff old Ike! Ain't she a peach,
+though?" She lifted up her head and laughed triumphantly to herself, her
+eyes alight, herself now strengthened for the fray. She wasn't wholly
+failing, then?
+
+After recess there was a spelling-match, choosing sides, of course,
+"Because this is only the first day, and we must get acquainted before
+we can do real work, you know," she explained.
+
+The spelling-match proved an exciting affair also, with new features
+that Ashland had never seen before. Here the girls began to shine into
+prominence, but there were very few good spellers, and they were
+presently reduced to two girls--Rosa Rogers, the beauty of the school,
+and Amanda Bounds, a stolid, homely girl with deep eyes and a broad
+brow.
+
+"I'm going to give this as a prize to the one who stands up the
+longest," said Margaret, with sudden inspiration as she saw the boys in
+their seats getting restless; and she unpinned a tiny blue-silk bow that
+fastened her white collar.
+
+The girls all said "Oh-h-h!" and immediately every one in the room
+straightened up. The next few minutes those two girls spelled for dear
+life, each with her eye fixed upon the tiny blue bow in the teacher's
+white hands. To own that bow, that wonderful, strange bow of the
+heavenly blue, with the graceful twist to the tie! What delight! The
+girl who won that would be the admired of all the school. Even the boys
+sat up and took notice, each secretly thinking that Rosa, the beauty,
+would get it, of course.
+
+But she didn't; she slipped up on the word "receive," after all, putting
+the i before the e; and her stolid companion, catching her breath
+awesomely, slowly spelled it right and received the blue prize, pinned
+gracefully at the throat of her old brown gingham by the teacher's own
+soft, white fingers, while the school looked on admiringly and the blood
+rolled hotly up the back of her neck and spread over her face and
+forehead. Rosa, the beauty, went crestfallen to her seat.
+
+It was at noon, while they ate their lunch, that Margaret tried to get
+acquainted with the girls, calling most of them by name, to their great
+surprise, and hinting of delightful possibilities in the winter's work.
+Then she slipped out among the boys and watched their sports, laughing
+and applauding when some one made a particularly fine play, as if she
+thoroughly understood and appreciated.
+
+She managed to stand near Jed and Timothy just before Bud rang the bell.
+"I've heard you are great sportsmen," she said to them, confidingly.
+"And I've been wondering if you'll teach me some things I want to learn?
+I want to know how to ride and shoot. Do you suppose I could learn?"
+
+"Sure!" they chorused, eagerly, their embarrassment forgotten. "Sure,
+you could learn fine! Sure, _we'll learn_ you!"
+
+And then the bell rang and they all went in.
+
+The afternoon was a rather informal arrangement of classes and schedule
+for the next day, Margaret giving out slips of paper with questions for
+each to answer, that she might find out just where to place them; and
+while they wrote she went from one to another, getting acquainted,
+advising, and suggesting about what they wanted to study. It was all so
+new and wonderful to them! They had not been used to caring what they
+were to study. Now it almost seemed interesting.
+
+But when the day was done, the school-house locked, and Bud and Margaret
+started for home, she realized that she was weary. Yet it was a
+weariness of success and not of failure, and she felt happy in looking
+forward to the morrow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+The minister had decided to preach in Ashland, and on the following
+Sabbath. It became apparent that if he wished to have any notice at all
+from the haughty new teacher he must do something at once to establish
+his superiority in her eyes. He had carefully gone over his store of
+sermons that he always carried with him, and decided to preach on "The
+Dynamics of Altruism."
+
+Notices had been posted up in saloons and stores and post-office. He had
+made them himself after completely tabooing Mr. Tanner's kindly and
+blundering attempt, and they gave full information concerning "the Rev.
+Frederick West, Ph.D., of the vicinity of New York City, who had kindly
+consented to preach in the school-house on 'The Dynamics of Altruism.'"
+
+Several of these elaborately printed announcements had been posted up on
+big trees along the trails, and in other conspicuous places, and there
+was no doubt but that the coming Sabbath services were more talked of
+than anything else in that neighborhood for miles around, except the new
+teacher and her extraordinary way of making all the scholars fall in
+love with her. It is quite possible that the Reverend Frederick might
+not have been so flattered at the size of his audience when the day
+came if he could have known how many of them came principally because
+they thought it would be a good opportunity to see the new teacher.
+
+However, the announcements were read, and the preacher became an object
+of deep interest to the community when he went abroad. Under this
+attention he swelled, grew pleased, bland, and condescending, wearing an
+oily smile and bowing most conceitedly whenever anybody noticed him. He
+even began to drop his severity and silence at the table, toward the end
+of the week, and expanded into dignified conversation, mainly addressed
+to Mr. Tanner about the political situation in the State of Arizona. He
+was trying to impress the teacher with the fact that he looked upon her
+as a most insignificant mortal who had forfeited her right to his smiles
+by her headstrong and unseemly conduct when he had warned her about
+"that young ruffian."
+
+Out on the trail Long Bill and Jasper Kemp paused before a tree that
+bore the Reverend Frederick's church notice, and read in silence while
+the wide wonder of the desert spread about them.
+
+"What d'ye make out o' them cuss words, Jap?" asked Long Bill, at
+length. "D'ye figger the parson's goin' to preach on swearin' ur
+gunpowder?"
+
+"Blowed ef I know," answered Jasper, eying the sign ungraciously; "but
+by the looks of him he can't say much to suit me on neither one. He
+resembles a yaller cactus bloom out in a rain-storm as to head, an' his
+smile is like some of them prickles on the plant. He can't be no
+'sky-pilot' to me, not just yet."
+
+"You don't allow he b'longs in any way to _her_?" asked Long Bill,
+anxiously, after they had been on their way for a half-hour.
+
+"B'long to _her_? Meanin' the schoolmarm?"
+
+"Yes; he ain't sweet on her nor nothin'?"
+
+"Wal, I guess not," said Jasper, contentedly. "She's got eyes sharp's a
+needle. You don't size her up so small she's goin' to take to a sickly
+parson with yaller hair an' sleek ways when she's seen the Kid, do you?"
+
+"Wal, no, it don't seem noways reasonable, but you never can tell. Women
+gets notions."
+
+"She ain't that kind! You mark my words, _she ain't that kind_. I'd lay
+she'd punch the breeze like a coyote ef he'd make up to her. Just you
+wait till you see him. He's the most no-'count, measleyest little thing
+that ever called himself a man. My word! I'd like to see him try to ride
+that colt o' mine. I really would. It would be some sight for sore eyes,
+it sure would."
+
+"Mebbe he's got a intellec'," suggested Long Bill, after another mile.
+"That goes a long ways with women-folks with a education."
+
+"No chance!" said Jasper, confidently. "'Ain't got room fer one under
+his yaller thatch. You wait till you set your lamps on him once before
+you go to gettin' excited. Why, he ain't one-two-three with our
+missionary! Gosh! I wish _he'd_ come back an' see to such goin's-on--I
+certainly do."
+
+"Was you figgerin' to go to that gatherin' Sunday?"
+
+"I sure was," said Jasper. "I want to see the show, an', besides, we
+might be needed ef things got too high-soundin'. It ain't good to have a
+creature at large that thinks he knows all there is to know. I heard
+him talk down to the post-office the day after that little party we had
+when the Kid shot out the lights to save Bunchy from killin' Crapster,
+an' it's my opinion he needs a good spankin'; but I'm agoin' to give him
+a fair show. I ain't much on religion myself, but I do like to see a
+square deal, especially in a parson. I've sized it up he needs a
+lesson."
+
+"I'm with ye, Jap," said Long Bill, and the two rode on their way in
+silence.
+
+Margaret was so busy and so happy with her school all the week that she
+quite forgot her annoyance at the minister. She really saw very little
+of him, for he was always late to breakfast, and she took hers early.
+She went to her room immediately after supper, and he had little
+opportunity for pursuing her acquaintance. Perhaps he judged that it
+would be wise to let her alone until after he had made his grand
+impression on Sunday, and let her "make up" to him.
+
+It was not until Sunday morning that she suddenly recalled that he was
+to preach that day. She had indeed seen the notices, for a very large
+and elaborate one was posted in front of the school-house, and some
+anonymous artist had produced a fine caricature of the preacher in red
+clay underneath his name. Margaret had been obliged to remain after
+school Friday and remove as much of this portrait as she was able, not
+having been willing to make it a matter of discipline to discover the
+artist. In fact, it was so true to the model that the young teacher felt
+a growing sympathy for the one who had perpetrated it.
+
+Margaret started to the school-house early Sunday morning, attended by
+the faithful Bud. Not that he had any more intention of going to
+Sunday-school than he had the week before, but it was pleasant to be the
+chosen escort of so popular a teacher. Even Jed and Timothy had walked
+home with her twice during the week. He did not intend to lose his place
+as nearest to her. There was only one to whom he would surrender that,
+and he was too far away to claim it often.
+
+Margaret had promised to help in the Sunday-school that morning, for the
+woman who taught the little ones was still away with her sick neighbor,
+and on the way she persuaded Bud to help her.
+
+"You'll be secretary for me, won't you, William?" she asked, brightly.
+"I'm going to take the left-front corner of the room for the children,
+and seat them on the recitation-benches, and that will leave all the
+back part of the room for the older people. Then I can use the
+blackboard and not disturb the rest."
+
+"Secretary?" asked the astonished Bud. He was, so to speak, growing
+accustomed to surprises. "Secretary" did not sound like being "a nice
+little Sunday-school boy."
+
+"Why, yes! take up the collection, and see who is absent, and so on. I
+don't know all the names, perhaps, and, anyhow, I don't like to do that
+when I have to teach!"
+
+Artful Margaret! She had no mind to leave Bud floating around outside
+the school-house, and though she had ostensibly prepared her lesson and
+her blackboard illustration for the little children, she had hidden in
+it a truth for Bud--poor, neglected, devoted Bud!
+
+The inefficient old man who taught the older people that day gathered
+his forces together and, seated with his back to the platform, his
+spectacles extended upon his long nose, he proceeded with the questions
+on the lesson-leaf, as usual, being more than ordinarily unfamiliar with
+them; but before he was half through he perceived by the long pauses
+between the questions and answers that he did not have the attention of
+his class. He turned slowly around to see what they were all looking at,
+and became so engaged in listening to the lesson the new teacher was
+drawing on the blackboard that he completely forgot to go on, until Bud,
+very important in his new position, rang the tiny desk-bell for the
+close of school, and Margaret, looking up, saw in dismay that she had
+been teaching the whole school.
+
+While they were singing a closing hymn the room began to fill up, and
+presently came the minister, walking importantly beside Mr. Tanner, his
+chin flattened upward as usual, but bent in till it made a double roll
+over his collar, his eyes rolling importantly, showing much of their
+whites, his sermon, in an elaborate leather cover, carried conspicuously
+under his arm, and the severest of clerical coats and collars setting
+out his insignificant face.
+
+Walking behind him in single file, measured step, just so far apart,
+came the eight men from the bunk-house--Long Bill, Big Jim, Fiddling
+Boss, Jasper Kemp, Fade-away Forbes, Stocky, Croaker, and Fudge; and
+behind them, looking like a scared rabbit, Mom Wallis scuttled into the
+back seat and sank out of sight. The eight men, however, ranged
+themselves across the front of the room on the recitation-bench,
+directly in front of the platform, removing a few small children for
+that purpose.
+
+They had been lined up in a scowling row along the path as the minister
+entered, looking at them askance under his aristocratic yellow eyebrows,
+and as he neared the door the last man followed in his wake, then the
+next, and so on.
+
+Margaret, in her seat half-way back at the side of the school-house near
+a window, saw through the trees a wide sombrero over a pair of broad
+shoulders; but, though she kept close watch, she did not see her friend
+of the wilderness enter the school-house. If he had really come to
+meeting, he was staying outside.
+
+The minister was rather nonplussed at first that there were no
+hymn-books. It almost seemed that he did not know how to go on with
+divine service without hymn-books, but at last he compromised on the
+long-meter Doxology, pronounced with deliberate unction. Then, looking
+about for a possible pipe-organ and choir, he finally started it
+himself; but it is doubtful whether any one would have recognized the
+tune enough to help it on if Margaret had not for very shame's sake
+taken it up and carried it along, and so they came to the prayer and
+Bible-reading.
+
+These were performed with a formal, perfunctory style calculated to
+impress the audience with the importance of the preacher rather than the
+words he was speaking. The audience was very quiet, having the air of
+reserving judgment for the sermon.
+
+Margaret could not just remember afterward how it was she missed the
+text. She had turned her eyes away from the minister, because it somehow
+made her feel homesick to compare him with her dear, dignified father.
+Her mind had wandered, perhaps, to the sombrero she had glimpsed
+outside, and she was wondering how its owner was coming on with his
+resolves, and just what change they would mean in his life, anyway. Then
+suddenly she awoke to the fact that the sermon had begun.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+"Considered in the world of physics," began the lordly tones of the
+Reverend Frederick, "dynamics is that branch of mechanics that treats of
+the effects of forces in producing motion, and of the laws of motion
+thus produced; sometimes called kinetics, opposed to statics. It is the
+science that treats of the laws of force, whether producing equilibrium
+or motion; in this sense including both statics and kinetics. It is also
+applied to the forces producing or governing activity or movement of any
+kind; also the methods of such activity."
+
+The big words rolled out magnificently over the awed gathering, and the
+minister flattened his chin and rolled his eyes up at the people in his
+most impressive way.
+
+Margaret's gaze hastily sought the row of rough men on the front seat,
+sitting with folded arms in an attitude of attention, each man with a
+pair of intelligent eyes under his shaggy brows regarding the preacher
+as they might have regarded an animal in a zoo. Did they understand what
+had been said? It was impossible to tell from their serious faces.
+
+"Philanthropy has been called the dynamics of Christianity; that is to
+say, it is Christianity in action," went on the preacher. "It is my
+purpose this morning to speak upon the dynamics of altruism. Now
+altruism is the theory that inculcates benevolence to others in
+subordination to self-interest; interested benevolence as opposed to
+disinterested; also, the practice of this theory."
+
+He lifted his eyes to the audience once more and nodded his head
+slightly, as if to emphasize the deep truth he had just given them, and
+the battery of keen eyes before him never flinched from his face. They
+were searching him through and through. Margaret wondered if he had no
+sense of the ridiculous, that he could, to such an audience, pour forth
+such a string of technical definitions. They sounded strangely like
+dictionary language. She wondered if anybody present besides herself
+knew what the man meant or got any inkling of what his subject was.
+Surely he would drop to simpler language, now that he had laid out his
+plan.
+
+It never occurred to her that the man was trying to impress _her_ with
+his wonderful fluency of language and his marvelous store of wisdom. On
+and on he went in much the same trend he had begun, with now and then a
+flowery sentence or whole paragraph of meaningless eloquence about the
+"brotherhood of man"--with a roll to the r's in brotherhood.
+
+Fifteen minutes of this profitless oratory those men of the wilderness
+endured, stolidly and with fixed attention; then, suddenly, a sentence
+of unusual simplicity struck them and an almost visible thrill went down
+the front seat.
+
+"For years the church has preached a dead faith, without works, my
+friends, and the time has come to stop preaching faith! I repeat
+it--fellow-men. I repeat it. The time has come _to stop preaching
+faith_ and begin to do good works!" He thumped the desk vehemently. "Men
+don't need a superstitious belief in a Saviour to save them from their
+sins; they need to go to work and save themselves! As if a man dying two
+thousand years ago on a cross could do any good to you and me to-day!"
+
+It was then that the thrill passed down that front line, and Long Bill,
+sitting at their head, leaned slightly forward and looked full and
+frowning into the face of Jasper Kemp; and the latter, frowning back,
+solemnly winked one eye. Margaret sat where she could see the whole
+thing.
+
+Immediately, still with studied gravity, Long Bill cleared his throat
+impressively, arose, and, giving the minister a full look in the eye, of
+the nature almost of a challenge, he turned and walked slowly, noisily
+down the aisle and out the front door.
+
+The minister was visibly annoyed, and for the moment a trifle flustered;
+but, concluding his remarks had been too deep for the rough creature, he
+gathered up the thread of his argument and proceeded:
+
+"We need to get to work at our duty toward our fellow-men. We need to
+down trusts and give the laboring-man a chance. We need to stop
+insisting that men shall believe in the inspiration of the entire Bible
+and get to work at something practical!"
+
+The impressive pause after this sentence was interrupted by a sharp,
+rasping sound of Big Jim clearing his throat and shuffling to his feet.
+He, too, looked the minister full in the face with a searching gaze,
+shook his head sadly, and walked leisurely down the aisle and out of
+the door. The minister paused again and frowned. This was becoming
+annoying.
+
+Margaret sat in startled wonder. Could it be possible that these rough
+men were objecting to the sermon from a theological point of view, or
+was it just a happening that they had gone out at such pointed moments.
+She sat back after a minute, telling herself that of course the men must
+just have been weary of the long sentences, which no doubt they could
+not understand. She began to hope that Gardley was not within hearing.
+It was not probable that many others understood enough to get harm from
+the sermon, but her soul boiled with indignation that a man could go
+forth and call himself a minister of an evangelical church and yet talk
+such terrible heresy.
+
+Big Jim's steps died slowly away on the clay path outside, and the
+preacher resumed his discourse.
+
+"We have preached long enough of hell and torment. It is time for a
+gospel of love to our brothers. Hell is a superstition of the Dark Ages.
+_There is no hell!_"
+
+Fiddling Boss turned sharply toward Jasper Kemp, as if waiting for a
+signal, and Jasper gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod. Whereupon
+Fiddling Boss cleared his throat loudly and arose, faced the minister,
+and marched down the aisle, while Jasper Kemp remained quietly seated as
+if nothing had happened, a vacancy each side of him.
+
+By this time the color began to rise in the minister's cheeks. He looked
+at the retreating back of Fiddling Boss, and then suspiciously down at
+the row of men, but every one of them sat with folded arms and eyes
+intent upon the sermon, as if their comrades had not left them. The
+minister thought he must have been mistaken and took up the broken
+thread once more, or tried to, but he had hopelessly lost the place in
+his manuscript, and the only clue that offered was a quotation of a poem
+about the devil; to be sure, the connection was somewhat abrupt, but he
+clutched it with his eye gratefully and began reading it dramatically:
+
+    "'Men don't believe in the devil now
+    As their fathers used to do--'"
+
+But he had got no further when a whole clearing-house of throats
+sounded, and Fade-away Forbes stumbled to his feet frantically, bolting
+down the aisle as if he had been sent for. He had not quite reached the
+door when Stocky clumped after him, followed at intervals by Croaker and
+Fudge, and each just as the minister had begun:
+
+"Um! Ah! To resume--"
+
+And now only Jasper Kemp remained of the front-seaters, his fine gray
+eyes boring through and through the minister as he floundered through
+the remaining portion of his manuscript up to the point where it began,
+"And finally--" which opened with another poem:
+
+    "'I need no Christ to die for me.'"
+
+The sturdy, gray-haired Scotchman suddenly lowered his folded arms,
+slapping a hand resoundingly on each knee, bent his shoulders the better
+to pull himself to his feet, pressing his weight on his hands till his
+elbows were akimbo, uttered a deep sigh and a, "Yes--well--_ah_!"
+
+With that he got to his feet and dragged them slowly out of the
+school-house.
+
+By this time the minister was ready to burst with indignation. Never
+before in all the bombastic days of his egotism had he been so grossly
+insulted, and by such rude creatures! And yet there was really nothing
+that could be said or done. These men appeared to be simple creatures
+who had wandered in idly, perhaps for a few moments' amusement, and,
+finding the discourse above their caliber, had innocently wandered out
+again. That was the way it had been made to appear. But his plans had
+been cruelly upset by such actions, and he was mortified in the extreme.
+His face was purple with his emotions, and he struggled and spluttered
+for a way out of his trying dilemma. At last he spoke, and his voice was
+absurdly dignified:
+
+"Is there--ah--any other--ah--auditor--ah--who is desirous of
+withdrawing before the close of service? If so he may do so now,
+or--ah--" He paused for a suitable ending, and familiar words rushed to
+his lips without consciousness for the moment of their meaning--"or
+forever after hold their peace--ah!"
+
+There was a deathly silence in the school-house. No one offered to go
+out, and Margaret suddenly turned her head and looked out of the window.
+Her emotions were almost beyond her control.
+
+Thus the closing eloquence proceeded to its finish, and at last the
+service was over. Margaret looked about for Mom Wallis, but she had
+disappeared. She signed to Bud, and together they hastened out; but a
+quiet Sabbath peace reigned about the door of the school-house, and not
+a man from the camp was in sight; no, nor even the horses upon which
+they had come.
+
+And yet, when the minister had finished shaking hands with the
+worshipful women and a few men and children, and came with Mr. Tanner to
+the door of the school-house, those eight men stood in a solemn row,
+four on each side of the walk, each holding his chin in his right hand,
+his right elbow in his left hand, and all eyes on Jasper Kemp, who kept
+his eyes thoughtfully up in the sky.
+
+"H'w aire yeh, Tanner? Pleasant 'casion. Mind steppin' on a bit? We men
+wanta have a word with the parson."
+
+Mr. Tanner stepped on hurriedly, and the minister was left standing
+nonplussed and alone in the doorway of the school-house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+"Um! Ah!" began the minister, trying to summon his best clerical manner
+to meet--what? He did not know. It was best to assume they were a
+penitent band of inquirers for the truth. But the memory of their recent
+exodus from the service was rather too clearly in his mind for his
+pleasantest expression to be uppermost toward these rough creatures.
+Insolent fellows! He ought to give them a good lesson in behavior!
+
+"Um! Ah!" he began again, but found to his surprise that his remarks
+thus far had had no effect whatever on the eight stolid countenances
+before him. In fact, they seemed to have grown grim and menacing even in
+their quiet attitude, and their eyes were fulfilling the promise of the
+look they had given him when they left the service.
+
+"What does all this mean, anyway?" he burst forth, suddenly.
+
+"Calm yourself, elder! Calm yourself," spoke up Long Bill. "There ain't
+any occasion to get excited."
+
+"I'm not an elder; I'm a minister of the gospel," exploded West, in his
+most pompous tones. "I should like to know who you are and what all this
+means?"
+
+"Yes, parson, we understand who you are. We understand quite well, an'
+we're agoin' to tell you who we are. We're a band of al-tru-ists! That's
+what we are. We're _altruists_!" It was Jasper Kemp of the keen eyes and
+sturdy countenance who spoke. "And we've come here in brotherly love to
+exercise a little of that dynamic force of altruism you was talkin'
+about. We just thought we'd begin on you so's you could see that we got
+some works to go 'long with our faith."
+
+"What do you mean, sir?" said West, looking from one grim countenance to
+another. "I--I don't quite understand." The minister was beginning to be
+frightened, he couldn't exactly tell why. He wished he had kept Brother
+Tanner with him. It was the first time he had ever thought of Mr. Tanner
+as "brother."
+
+"We mean just this, parson; you been talkin' a lot of lies in there
+about there bein' no Saviour an' no hell, ner no devil, an' while we
+ain't much credit to God ourselves, bein' just common men, we know all
+that stuff you said ain't true about the Bible an' the devil bein'
+superstitions, an' we thought we better exercise a little of that there
+altruism you was talkin' about an' teach you better. You see, it's real
+brotherly kindness, parson. An' now we're goin' to give you a sample of
+that dynamics you spoke about. Are you ready, boys?"
+
+"All ready," they cried as one man.
+
+There seemed to be no concerted motion, nor was there warning. Swifter
+than the weaver's shuttle, sudden as the lightning's flash, the minister
+was caught from where he stood pompously in that doorway, hat in hand,
+all grandly as he was attired, and hurled from man to man. Across the
+walk and back; across and back; across and back; until it seemed to him
+it was a thousand miles all in a minute of time. He had no opportunity
+to prepare for the onslaught. He jammed his high silk hat, wherewith he
+had thought to overawe the community, upon his sleek head, and grasped
+his precious sermon-case to his breast; the sermon, as it well deserved,
+was flung to the four winds of heaven and fortunately was no more--that
+is, existing as a whole. The time came when each of those eight men
+recovered and retained a portion of that learned oration, and Mom
+Wallis, not quite understanding, pinned up and used as a sort of shrine
+the portion about doubting the devil; but as a sermon the parts were
+never assembled on this earth, nor could be, for some of it was ground
+to powder under eight pairs of ponderous heels. But the minister at that
+trying moment was too much otherwise engaged to notice that the child of
+his brain lay scattered on the ground.
+
+Seven times he made the round up and down, up and down that merciless
+group, tossed like a thistle-down from man to man. And at last, when his
+breath was gone, when the world had grown black before him, and he felt
+smaller and more inadequate than he had ever felt in his whole conceited
+life before, he found himself bound, helplessly bound, and cast
+ignominiously into a wagon. And it was a strange thing that, though
+seemingly but five short minutes before the place had been swarming with
+worshipful admirers thanking him for his sermon, now there did not seem
+to be a creature within hearing, for he called and cried aloud and
+roared with his raucous voice until it would seem that all the
+surrounding States might have heard that cry from Arizona, yet none came
+to his relief.
+
+They carried him away somewhere, he did not know where; it was a lonely
+spot and near a water-hole. When he protested and loudly blamed them,
+threatening all the law in the land upon them, they regarded him as one
+might a naughty child who needed chastisement, leniently and with
+sorrow, but also with determination.
+
+They took him down by the water's side and stood him up among them. He
+began to tremble with fear as he looked from one to another, for he was
+not a man of courage, and he had heard strange tales of this wild, free
+land, where every man was a law unto himself. Were they going to drown
+him then and there? Then up spoke Jasper Kemp:
+
+"Mr. Parson," he said, and his voice was kind but firm; one might almost
+say there was a hint of humor in it, and there surely was a twinkle in
+his eye; but the sternness of his lips belied it, and the minister was
+in no state to appreciate humor--"Mr. Parson, we've brought you here to
+do you good, an' you oughtn't to complain. This is altruism, an' we're
+but actin' out what you been preachin'. You're our brother an' we're
+tryin' to do you good; an' now we're about to show you what a dynamic
+force we are. You see, Mr. Parson, I was brought up by a good Scotch
+grandmother, an' I know a lie when I hear it, an' when I hear a man
+preach error I know it's time to set him straight; so now we're agoin'
+to set you straight. I don't know where you come from, nor who brang you
+up, nor what church set you afloat, but I know enough by all my
+grandmother taught me--even if I hadn't been a-listenin' off and on for
+two years back to Mr. Brownleigh, our missionary--to know you're a
+dangerous man to have at large. I'd as soon have a mad dog let loose.
+Why, what you preach ain't the gospel, an' it ain't the truth, and the
+time has come for you to know it, an' own it and recant. Recant! That's
+what they call it. That's what we're here to see 't you do, or we'll
+know the reason why. That's the _dynamics_ of it. See?"
+
+The minister saw. He saw the deep, muddy water-hole. He saw nothing
+more.
+
+"Folks are all too ready to believe them there things you was gettin'
+off without havin' 'em _preached_ to justify 'em in their evil ways. We
+gotta think of those poor ignorant brothers of ours that might listen to
+you. See? That's the _altruism_ of it!"
+
+"What do you want me to do?" The wretched man's tone was not merely
+humble--it was abject. His grand Prince Albert coat was torn in three
+places; one tail hung down dejectedly over his hip; one sleeve was
+ripped half-way out. His collar was unbuttoned and the ends rode up
+hilariously over his cheeks. His necktie was gone. His sleek hair stuck
+out in damp wisps about his frightened eyes, and his hat had been "stove
+in" and jammed down as far as it would go until his ample ears stuck out
+like sails at half-mast. His feet were imbedded in the heavy mud on the
+margin of the water-hole, and his fine silk socks, which had showed at
+one time above the erstwhile neat tyings, were torn and covered with
+mud.
+
+"Well, in the first place," said Jasper Kemp, with a slow wink around at
+the company, "that little matter about hell needs adjustin'. Hell ain't
+no superstition. I ain't dictatin' what kind of a hell there is; you can
+make it fire or water or anything else you like, but _there is a hell_,
+an' _you believe in it_. D'ye understand? We'd just like to have you
+make that statement publicly right here an' now."
+
+"But how can I say what I don't believe?" whined West, almost ready to
+cry. He had come proudly through a trial by Presbytery on these very
+same points, and had posed as being a man who had the courage of his
+convictions. He could not thus easily surrender his pride of original
+thought and broad-mindedness. He had received congratulations from a
+number of noble martyrs who had left their chosen church for just such
+reasons, congratulating him on his brave stand. It had been the first
+notice from big men he had ever been able to attract to himself, and it
+had gone to his head like wine. Give that up for a few miserable
+cowboys! It might get into the papers and go back East. He must think of
+his reputation.
+
+"That's just where the dynamics of the thing comes in, brother," said
+Jasper Kemp, patronizingly. "We're here to _make_ you believe in a hell.
+We're the force that will bring you back into the right way of thinkin'
+again. Are you ready, boys?"
+
+The quiet utterance brought goose-flesh up to West's very ears, and his
+eyes bulged with horror.
+
+"Oh, that isn't necessary! I believe--yes, I believe in hell!" he
+shouted, as they seized him.
+
+But it was too late. The Rev. Frederick West was plunged into the
+water-hole, from whose sheep-muddied waters he came up spluttering,
+"Yes, I believe in _hell_!" and for the first time in his life, perhaps,
+he really did believe in it, and thought that he was in it.
+
+The men were standing knee-deep in the water and holding their captive
+lightly by his arms and legs, their eyes upon their leader, waiting now.
+
+Jasper Kemp stood in the water, also, looking down benevolently upon his
+victim, his chin in his hand, his elbow in his other hand, an attitude
+which carried a feeling of hopelessness to the frightened minister.
+
+"An' now there's that little matter of the devil," said Jasper Kemp,
+reflectively. "We'll just fix that up next while we're near his place of
+residence. You believe in the devil, Mr. Parson, from now on? If you'd
+ever tried resistin' him I figger you'd have b'lieved in him long ago.
+But _you believe in him_ from _now on_, an' you _don't preach against
+him any more_! We're not goin' to have our Arizona men gettin' off their
+guard an' thinkin' their enemy is dead. There _is_ a devil, parson, and
+you believe in him! Duck him, boys!"
+
+Down went the minister into the water again, and came up spluttering,
+"Yes, I--I--I--believe--in-the--devil." Even in this strait he was loath
+to surrender his pet theme--no devil.
+
+"Very well, so far as it goes," said Jasper Kemp, thoughtfully. "But
+now, boys, we're comin' to the most important of all, and you better
+put him under about three times, for there mustn't be no mistake about
+this matter. You believe in the Bible, parson--_the whole Bible_?"
+
+"Yes!" gasped West, as he went down the first time and got a mouthful of
+the bitter water, "I believe--" The voice was fairly anguished. Down he
+went again. Another mouthful of water. "_I believe in the whole Bible!_"
+he screamed, and went down the third time. His voice was growing weaker,
+but he came up and reiterated it without request, and was lifted out
+upon the mud for a brief respite. The men of the bunk-house were
+succeeding better than the Presbytery back in the East had been able to
+do. The conceit was no longer visible in the face of the Reverend
+Frederick. His teeth were chattering, and he was beginning to see one
+really needed to believe in something when one came as near to his end
+as this.
+
+"There's just one more thing to reckon with," said Jasper Kemp,
+thoughtfully. "That line of talk you was handin' out about a man dyin'
+on a cross two thousand years ago bein' nothin' to you. You said you
+_an' me_, but you can speak for _yourself_. We may not be much to look
+at, but we ain't goin' to stand for no such slander as that. Our
+missionary preaches all about that Man on the Cross, an' if you don't
+need Him before you get through this little campaign of life I'll miss
+my guess. Mebbe we haven't been all we might have been, but we ain't
+agoin' to let you ner no one else go back on that there Cross!"
+
+Jasper Kemp's tone was tender and solemn. As the minister lay panting
+upon his back in the mud he was forced to acknowledge that at only two
+other times in his life had a tone of voice so arrested his attention
+and filled him with awe; once when as a boy he had been caught copying
+off another's paper at examination-time, and he had been sent to the
+principal's office; and again on the occasion of his mother's funeral,
+as he sat in the dim church a few years ago and listened to the old
+minister. For a moment now he was impressed with the wonder of the
+Cross, and it suddenly seemed as if he were being arraigned before the
+eyes of Him with Whom we all have to do. A kind of shame stole into his
+pale, flabby face, all the smugness and complacence gone, and he a poor
+wretch in the hands of his accusers. Jasper Kemp, standing over him on
+the bank, looking down grimly upon him, seemed like the emissary of God
+sent to condemn him, and his little, self-centered soul quailed within
+him.
+
+"Along near the end of that discourse of yours you mentioned that sin
+was only misplaced energy. Well, if that's so there's a heap of your
+energy gone astray this mornin', an' the time has come for you to pay
+up. Speak up now an' say what you believe or whether you want another
+duckin'--an' it'll be seven times this time!"
+
+The man on the ground shut his eyes and gasped. The silence was very
+solemn. There seemed no hint of the ridiculous in the situation. It was
+serious business now to all those men. Their eyes were on their leader.
+
+"Do you solemnly declare before God--I s'pose you still believe in a
+God, as you didn't say nothin' to the contrary--that from now on you'll
+stand for that there Cross and for Him that hung on it?"
+
+The minister opened his eyes and looked up into the wide brightness of
+the sky, as if he half expected to see horses and chariots of fire
+standing about to do battle with him then and there, and his voice was
+awed and frightened as he said:
+
+"I do!"
+
+There was silence, and the men stood with half-bowed heads, as if some
+solemn service were being performed that they did not quite understand,
+but in which they fully sympathized. Then Jasper Kemp said, softly:
+
+"Amen!" And after a pause: "I ain't any sort of a Christian myself, but
+I just can't stand it to see a parson floatin' round that don't even
+know the name of the firm he's workin' for. Now, parson, there's just
+one more requirement, an' then you can go home."
+
+The minister opened his eyes and looked around with a frightened appeal,
+but no one moved, and Jasper Kemp went on:
+
+"You say you had a church in New York. What was the name and address
+of your workin'-boss up there?"
+
+"What do you mean? I hadn't any boss."
+
+"Why, him that hired you an' paid you. The chief elder or whatever you
+called him."
+
+"Oh!" The minister's tone expressed lack of interest in the subject, but
+he answered, languidly, "Ezekiel Newbold, Hazelton."
+
+"Very good. Now, parson, you'll just kindly write two copies of a letter
+to Mr. Ezekiel Newbold statin' what you've just said to us concernin'
+your change of faith, sign your name, address one to Mr. Newbold, an'
+give the duplicate to me. We just want this little matter put on record
+so you can't change your mind any in future. Do you get my idea?"
+
+"Yes," said the minister, dispiritedly.
+
+"Will you do it?"
+
+"Yes," apathetically.
+
+"Well, now I got a piece of advice for you. It would be just as well for
+your health for you to leave Arizona about as quick as you can find it
+convenient to pack, but you won't be allowed to leave this town, day or
+night, cars or afoot, until them there letters are all O.K. Do you get
+me?"
+
+"Yes," pathetically.
+
+"I might add, by way of explainin', that if you had come to Arizona an'
+minded your own business you wouldn't have been interfered with. You
+mighta preached whatever bosh you darned pleased so far as we was
+concerned, only you wouldn't have had no sorta audience after the first
+try of that stuff you give to-day. But when you come to Arizona an' put
+your fingers in other folks' pie, when you tried to 'squeal' on the
+young gentleman who was keen enough to shoot out the lights to save a
+man's life, why, we 'ain't no further use for you. In the first place,
+you was all wrong. You thought the Kid shot out the lights to steal the
+gamin'-money; but he didn't. He put it all in the hands of the sheriff
+some hours before your 'private information' reached him through the
+mail. You thought you were awful sharp, you little sneak! But I wasn't
+the only man present who saw you put your foot out an' cover a gold
+piece that rolled on the floor just when the fight began. You thought
+nobody was a-lookin', but you'll favor us, please, with that identical
+gold piece along with the letter before you leave. Well, boys, that'll
+be about all, then. Untie him!"
+
+In silence and with a kind of contemptuous pity in their faces the
+strong men stooped and unbound him; then, without another word, they
+left him, tramping solemnly away single file to their horses, standing
+at a little distance.
+
+Jasper Kemp lingered for a moment, looking down at the wretched man.
+"Would you care to have us carry you back to the house?" he asked,
+reflectively.
+
+"No!" said the minister, bitterly. "No!" And without another word Jasper
+Kemp left him.
+
+Into the mesquite-bushes crept the minister, his glory all departed, and
+hid his misery from the light, groaning in bitterness of spirit. He who
+had made the hearts of a score of old ministers to sorrow for Zion, who
+had split in two a pleasantly united congregation, disrupted a session,
+and brought about a scandalous trial in Presbytery was at last
+conquered. The Rev. Frederick West had recanted!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+When Margaret left the school-house with Bud she had walked but a few
+steps when she remembered Mom Wallis and turned back to search for her;
+but nowhere could she find a trace of her, and the front of the
+school-house was as empty of any people from the camp as if they had not
+been there that morning. The curtain had not yet risen for the scene of
+the undoing of West.
+
+"I suppose she must have gone home with them," said the girl, wistfully.
+"I'm sorry not to have spoken with her. She was good to me."
+
+"You mean Mom Wallis?" said the boy. "No, she ain't gone home. She's
+hiking 'long to our house to see you. The Kid went along of her. See,
+there--down by those cottonwood-trees? That's them."
+
+Margaret turned with eagerness and hurried along with Bud now. She knew
+who it was they called the Kid in that tone of voice. It was the way the
+men had spoken of and to him, a mingling of respect and gentling that
+showed how much beloved he was. Her cheeks wore a heightened color, and
+her heart gave a pleasant flutter of interest.
+
+They walked rapidly and caught up with their guests before they had
+reached the Tanner house, and Margaret had the pleasure of seeing Mom
+Wallis's face flush with shy delight when she caught her softly round
+the waist, stealing quietly up behind, and greeted her with a kiss.
+There had not been many kisses for Mom Wallis in the later years, and
+the two that were to Margaret Earle's account seemed very sweet to her.
+Mom Wallis's eyes shone as if she had been a young girl as she turned
+with a smothered "Oh!" She was a woman not given to expressing herself;
+indeed, it might be said that the last twenty years of her life had been
+mainly of self-repression. She gave that one little gasp of recognition
+and pleasure, and then she relapsed into embarrassed silence beside the
+two young people who found pleasure in their own greetings. Bud,
+boy-like, was after a cottontail, along with Cap, who had appeared from
+no one knew where and was attending the party joyously.
+
+Mom Wallis, in her big, rough shoes, on the heels of which her scant
+brown calico gown was lifted as she walked, trudged shyly along between
+the two young people, as carefully watched and helped over the humps and
+bumps of the way as if she had been a princess. Margaret noticed with a
+happy approval how Gardley's hand was ready under the old woman's elbow
+to assist her as politely as he might have done for her own mother had
+she been walking by his side.
+
+Presently Bud and Cap returned, and Bud, with observant eye, soon timed
+his step to Margaret's on her other side and touched her elbow lightly
+to help her over the next rut. This was his second lesson in manners
+from Gardley. He had his first the Sunday before, watching the two
+while he and Cap walked behind. Bud was learning. He had keen eyes and
+an alert brain. Margaret smiled understandingly at him, and his face
+grew deep red with pleasure.
+
+"He was bringin' me to see where you was livin'," explained Mom Wallis,
+suddenly, nodding toward Gardley as if he had been a king. "We wasn't
+hopin' to see you, except mebbe just as you come by goin' in."
+
+"Oh, then I'm so glad I caught up with you in time. I wouldn't have
+missed you for anything. I went back to look for you. Now you're coming
+in to dinner with me, both of you," declared Margaret, joyfully.
+"William, your mother will have enough dinner for us all, won't she?"
+
+"Sure!" said Bud, with that assurance born of his life acquaintance with
+his mother, who had never failed him in a trying situation so far as
+things to eat were concerned.
+
+Margaret looked happily from one of her invited guests to the other, and
+Gardley forgot to answer for himself in watching the brightness of her
+face, and wondering why it was so different from the faces of all other
+girls he knew anywhere.
+
+But Mom Wallis was overwhelmed. A wave of red rolled dully up from her
+withered neck in its gala collar over her leathery face to the roots of
+her thin, gray hair.
+
+"Me! Stay to dinner! Oh, I couldn't do that nohow! Not in these here
+clo'es. 'Course I got that pretty collar you give me, but I couldn't
+never go out to dinner in this old dress an' these shoes. I know what
+folks ought to look like an' I ain't goin' to shame you."
+
+"Shame me? Nonsense! Your dress is all right, and who is going to see
+your shoes? Besides, I've just set my heart on it. I want to take you up
+to my room and show you the pictures of my father and mother and home
+and the church where I was christened, and everything."
+
+Mom Wallis looked at her with wistful eyes, but still shook her head.
+"Oh, I'd like to mighty well. It's good of you to ast me. But I
+couldn't. I just couldn't. 'Sides, I gotta go home an' git the men's
+grub ready."
+
+"Oh, can't she stay this time, Mr. Gardley?" appealed Margaret. "The men
+won't mind for once, will they?"
+
+Gardley looked into her true eyes and saw she really meant the
+invitation. He turned to the withered old woman by his side. "Mom, we're
+going to stay," he declared, joyously. "She wants us, and we have to do
+whatever she says. The men will rub along. They all know how to cook.
+Mom, _we're going to stay_."
+
+"That's beautiful!" declared Margaret. "It's so nice to have some
+company of my own." Then her face suddenly sobered. "Mr. Wallis won't
+mind, will he?" And she looked with troubled eyes from one of her guests
+to the other. She did not want to prepare trouble for poor Mom Wallis
+when she went back.
+
+Mom Wallis turned startled eyes toward her. There was contempt in her
+face and outraged womanhood. "Pop's gone off," she said, significantly.
+"He went yist'day. But he 'ain't got no call t' mind. I ben waitin' on
+Pop nigh on to twenty year, an' I guess I'm goin' to a dinner-party, now
+'t I'm invited. Pop 'd better _not_ mind, I guess!"
+
+And Margaret suddenly saw how much, how very much, her invitation had
+been to the starved old soul. Margaret took her guests into the stiff
+little parlor and slipped out to interview her landlady. She found Mrs.
+Tanner, as she had expected, a large-minded woman who was quite pleased
+to have more guests to sit down to her generous dinner, particularly as
+her delightful boarder had hinted of ample recompense in the way of
+board money; and she fluttered about, sending Tanner after another jar
+of pickles, some more apple-butter, and added another pie to the menu.
+
+Well pleased, Margaret left Mrs. Tanner and slipped back to her guests.
+She found Gardley making arrangements with Bud to run back to the church
+and tell the men to leave the buckboard for them, as they would not be
+home for dinner. While this was going on she took Mom Wallis up to her
+room to remove her bonnet and smooth her hair.
+
+It is doubtful whether Mom Wallis ever did see such a room in her life;
+for when Margaret swung open the door the poor little woman stopped
+short on the threshold, abashed, and caught her breath, looking around
+with wondering eyes and putting out a trembling hand to steady herself
+against the door-frame. She wasn't quite sure whether things in that
+room were real, or whether she might not by chance have caught a glimpse
+into heaven, so beautiful did it seem to her. It was not till her eyes,
+in the roving, suddenly rested on the great mountain framed in the open
+window that she felt anchored and sure that this was a tangible place.
+Then she ventured to step her heavy shoe inside the door. Even then she
+drew her ugly calico back apologetically, as if it were a desecration to
+the lovely room.
+
+But Margaret seized her and drew her into the room, placing her gently
+in the rose-ruffled rocking-chair as if it were a throne and she a
+queen, and the poor little woman sat entranced, with tears springing to
+her eyes and trickling down her cheeks.
+
+Perhaps it was an impossibility for Margaret to conceive what the vision
+of that room meant to Mom Wallis. The realization of all the dreams of a
+starved soul concentrated into a small space; the actual, tangible proof
+that there might be a heaven some day--who knew?--since beauties and
+comforts like these could be real in Arizona.
+
+Margaret brought the pictures of her father and mother, of her dear home
+and the dear old church. She took her about the room and showed her the
+various pictures and reminders of her college days, and when she saw
+that the poor creature was overwhelmed and speechless she turned her
+about and showed her the great mountain again, like an anchorage for her
+soul.
+
+Mom Wallis looked at everything speechlessly, gasping as her attention
+was turned from one object to another, as if she were unable to rise
+beyond her excitement; but when she saw the mountain again her tongue
+was loosed, and she turned and looked back at the girl wonderingly.
+
+"Now, ain't it strange! Even that old mounting looks diffrunt--it do
+look diffrunt from a room like this. Why, it looks like it got its hair
+combed an' its best collar on!" And Mom Wallis looked down with pride
+and patted the simple net ruffle about her withered throat. "Why, it
+looks like a picter painted an' hung up on this yere wall, that's what
+that mounting looks like! It kinda ain't no mounting any more; it's jest
+a picter in your room!"
+
+Margaret smiled. "It is a picture, isn't it? Just look at that silver
+light over the purple place. Isn't it wonderful? I like to think it's
+mine--my mountain. And yet the beautiful thing about it is that it's
+just as much yours, too. It will make a picture of itself framed in your
+bunk-house window if you let it. Try it. You just need to let it."
+
+Mom Wallis looked at her wonderingly. "Do you mean," she said, studying
+the girl's lovely face, "that ef I should wash them there bunk-house
+winders, an' string up some posy caliker, an' stuff a chair, an' have a
+pin-cushion, I could make that there mounting come in an' set fer me
+like a picter the way it does here fer you?"
+
+"Yes, that's what I mean," said Margaret, softly, marveling how the
+uncouth woman had caught the thought. "That's exactly what I mean. God's
+gifts will be as much to us as we will let them, always. Try it and
+see."
+
+Mom Wallis stood for some minutes looking out reflectively at the
+mountain. "Wal, mebbe I'll try it!" she said, and turned back to survey
+the room again.
+
+And now the mirror caught her eye, and she saw herself, a strange self
+in a soft white collar, and went up to get a nearer view, laying a
+toil-worn finger on the lace and looking half embarrassed at sight of
+her own face.
+
+"It's a real purty collar," she said, softly, with a choke in her voice.
+"It's too purty fer me. I told him so, but he said as how you wanted I
+should dress up every night fer supper in it. It's 'most as strange as
+havin' a mounting come an' live with you, to wear a collar like
+that--me!"
+
+Margaret's eyes were suddenly bright with tears. Who would have
+suspected Mom Wallis of having poetry in her nature? Then, as if her
+thoughts anticipated the question in Margaret's mind, Mom Wallis went
+on:
+
+"He brang me your little book," she said. "I ain't goin' to say thank
+yeh, it ain't a big-'nuf word. An' he read me the poetry words it says.
+I got it wropped in a hankercher on the top o' the beam over my bed. I'm
+goin' to have it buried with me when I die. Oh, I _read_ it. I couldn't
+make much out of it, but I read the words thorough. An' then _he_ read
+'em--the Kid did. He reads just beautiful. He's got education, he has.
+He read it, and he talked a lot about it. Was this what you mean? Was it
+that we ain't really growin' old at all, we're jest goin' on, _gettin_'
+there, if we go right? Did you mean you think Him as planned it all
+wanted some old woman right thar in the bunk-house, an' it's _me_? Did
+you mean there was agoin' to be a chanct fer me to be young an'
+beautiful somewheres in creation yit, 'fore I git through?"
+
+The old woman had turned around from looking into the mirror and was
+facing her hostess. Her eyes were very bright; her cheeks had taken on
+an excited flush, and her knotted hands were clutching the bureau. She
+looked into Margaret's eyes earnestly, as though her very life depended
+upon the answer; and Margaret, with a great leap of her heart, smiled
+and answered:
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Wallis, yes, that is just what I meant. Listen, these are
+God's own words about it: 'For I reckon that the sufferings of this
+present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be
+revealed in us.'"
+
+A kind of glory shone in the withered old face now. "Did you say them
+was God's words?" she asked in an awed voice.
+
+"Yes," said Margaret; "they are in the Bible."
+
+"But you couldn't be sure it meant _me_?" she asked, eagerly. "They
+wouldn't go to put _me_ in the Bible, o' course."
+
+"Oh yes, you could be quite sure, Mrs. Wallis," said Margaret, gently.
+"Because if God was making you and had a plan for you, as the poem says,
+He would be sure to put down something in His book about it, don't you
+think? He would want you to know."
+
+"It does sound reasonable-like now, don't it?" said the woman,
+wistfully. "Say them glory words again, won't you?"
+
+Margaret repeated the text slowly and distinctly.
+
+"Glory!" repeated Mom Wallis, wonderingly. "Glory! Me!" and turned
+incredulously toward the glass. She looked a long tune wistfully at
+herself, as if she could not believe it, and pulled reproachfully at
+the tight hair drawn away from her weather-beaten face. "I useta have
+purty hair onct," she said, sadly.
+
+"Why, you have pretty hair now!" said Margaret, eagerly. "It just wants
+a chance to show its beauty, Here, let me fix it for dinner, will you?"
+
+She whisked the bewildered old woman into a chair and began unwinding
+the hard, tight knot of hair at the back of her head and shaking it out.
+The hair was thin and gray now, but it showed signs of having been fine
+and thick once.
+
+"It's easy to keep your hair looking pretty," said the girl, as she
+worked. "I'm going to give you a little box of my nice sweet-smelling
+soap-powder that I use to shampoo my hair. You take it home and wash
+your hair with it every two or three weeks and you'll see it will make a
+difference in a little while. You just haven't taken time to take care
+of it, that's all. Do you mind if I wave the front here a little? I'd
+like to fix your hair the way my mother wears hers."
+
+Now nothing could have been further apart than this little
+weather-beaten old woman and Margaret's gentle, dove-like mother, with
+her abundant soft gray hair, her cameo features, and her pretty, gray
+dresses; but Margaret had a vision of what glory might bring to Mom
+Wallis, and she wanted to help it along. She believed that heavenly
+glory can be hastened a good deal on earth if one only tries, and so she
+set to work. Glancing out the window, she saw with relief that Gardley
+was talking interestedly with Mr. Tanner and seemed entirely content
+with their absence.
+
+Mom Wallis hadn't any idea what "waving" her hair meant, but she readily
+consented to anything this wonderful girl proposed, and she sat
+entranced, looking at her mountain and thrilling with every touch of
+Margaret's satin fingers against her leathery old temples. And so,
+Sunday though it was, Margaret lighted her little alcohol-lamp and
+heated a tiny curling-iron which she kept for emergencies. In a few
+minutes' time Mom Wallis's astonished old gray locks lay soft and fluffy
+about her face, and pinned in a smooth coil behind, instead of the tight
+knot, making the most wonderful difference in the world in her old,
+tired face.
+
+"Now look!" said Margaret, and turned her about to the mirror. "If
+there's anything at all you don't like about it I can change it, you
+know. You don't have to wear it so if you don't like it."
+
+The old woman looked, and then looked back at Margaret with frightened
+eyes, and back to the vision in the mirror again.
+
+"My soul!" she exclaimed in an awed voice. "My soul! It's come a'ready!
+Glory! I didn't think I could look like that! I wonder what Pop 'd say!
+My land! Would you mind ef I kep' it on a while an' wore it back to camp
+this way? Pop might uv come home an' I'd like to see ef he'd take notice
+to it. I used to be purty onct, but I never expected no sech thing like
+this again on earth. Glory! Glory! Mebbe I _could_ get some glory,
+_too_."
+
+"'The glory that shall be revealed' is a great deal more wonderful than
+this," said Margaret, gently. "This was here all the time, only you
+didn't let it come out. Wear it home that way, of course, and wear it
+so all the time. It's very little trouble, and you'll find your family
+will like it. Men always like to see a woman looking her best, even when
+she's working. It helps to make them good. Before you go home I'll show
+you how to fix it. It's quite simple. Come, now, shall we go
+down-stairs? We don't want to leave Mr. Gardley alone too long, and,
+besides, I smell the dinner. I think they'll be waiting for us pretty
+soon. I'm going to take a few of these pictures down to show Mr.
+Gardley."
+
+She hastily gathered a few photographs together and led the bewildered
+little woman down-stairs again, and out in the yard, where Gardley was
+walking up and down now, looking off at the mountain. It came to
+Margaret, suddenly, that the minister would be returning to the house
+soon, and she wished he wouldn't come. He would be a false note in the
+pleasant harmony of the little company. He would be disagreeable to
+manage, and perhaps hurt poor Mom Wallis's feelings. Perhaps he had
+already come. She looked furtively around as she came out the door, but
+no minister was in sight, and then she forgot him utterly in the look of
+bewildered astonishment with which Gardley was regarding Mom Wallis.
+
+He had stopped short in his walk across the little yard, and was staring
+at Mom Wallis, recognition gradually growing in his gaze. When he was
+fully convinced he turned his eyes to Margaret, as if to ask: "How did
+you do it? Wonderful woman!" and a look of deep reverence for her came
+over his face.
+
+Then suddenly he noticed the shy embarrassment on the old woman's face,
+and swiftly came toward her, his hands outstretched, and, taking her
+bony hands in his, bowed low over them as a courtier might do.
+
+"Mom Wallis, you are beautiful. Did you know it?" he said, gently, and
+led her to a little stumpy rocking-chair with a gay red-and-blue rag
+cushion that Mrs. Tanner always kept sitting by the front door in
+pleasant weather. Then he stood off and surveyed her, while the red
+stole into her cheeks becomingly. "What has Miss Earle been doing to
+glorify you?" he asked, again looking at her earnestly.
+
+The old woman looked at him in awed silence. There was that word
+again--glory! He had said the girl had glorified her. There was then
+some glory in her, and it had been brought out by so simple a thing as
+the arrangement of her hair. It frightened her, and tears came and stood
+in her tired old eyes.
+
+It was well for Mom Wallis's equilibrium that Mr. Tanner came out just
+then with the paper he had gone after, for the stolidity of her lifetime
+was about breaking up. But, as he turned, Gardley gave her one of the
+rarest smiles of sympathy and understanding that a young man can give to
+an old woman; and Margaret, watching, loved him for it. It seemed to her
+one of the most beautiful things a young man had ever done.
+
+They had discussed the article in the paper thoroughly, and had looked
+at the photographs that Margaret had brought down; and Mrs. Tanner had
+come to the door numberless times, looking out in a troubled way down
+the road, only to trot back again, look in the oven, peep in the kettle,
+sigh, and trot out to the door again. At last she came and stood, arms
+akimbo, and looked down the road once more.
+
+"Pa, I don't just see how I can keep the dinner waitin' a minute longer,
+The potatoes 'll be sp'iled. I don't see what's keepin' that
+preacher-man. He musta been invited out, though I don't see why he
+didn't send me word."
+
+"That's it, likely, Ma," said Tanner. He was growing hungry. "I saw Mis'
+Bacon talkin' to him. She's likely invited him there. She's always
+tryin' to get ahead o' you, Ma, you know, 'cause you got the prize fer
+your marble cake."
+
+Mrs. Tanner blushed and looked down apologetically at her guests. "Well,
+then, ef you'll just come in and set down, I'll dish up. My land! Ain't
+that Bud comin' down the road, Pa? He's likely sent word by Bud. I'll
+hurry in an' dish up."
+
+Bud slid into his seat hurriedly after a brief ablution in the kitchen,
+and his mother questioned him sharply.
+
+"Bud, wher you be'n? Did the minister get invited out?"
+
+The boy grinned and slowly winked one eye at Gardley. "Yes, he's invited
+out, all right," he said, meaningly. "You don't need to wait fer him. He
+won't be home fer some time, I don't reckon."
+
+Gardley looked keenly, steadily, at the boy's dancing eyes, and resolved
+to have a fuller understanding later, and his own eyes met the boy's in
+a gleam of mischief and sympathy.
+
+It was the first time in twenty years that Mom Wallis had eaten anything
+which she had not prepared herself, and now, with fried chicken and
+company preserves before her, she could scarcely swallow a mouthful. To
+be seated beside Gardley and waited on like a queen! To be smiled at by
+the beautiful young girl across the table, and deferred to by Mr. and
+Mrs. Tanner as "Mrs. Wallis," and asked to have more pickles and another
+helping of jelly, and did she take cream and sugar in her coffee! It was
+too much, and Mom Wallis was struggling with the tears. Even Bud's
+round, blue eyes regarded her with approval and interest. She couldn't
+help thinking, if her own baby boy had lived, would he ever have been
+like Bud? And once she smiled at him, and Bud smiled back, a real
+boy-like, frank, hearty grin. It was all like taking dinner in the
+Kingdom of Heaven to Mom Wallis, and getting glory aforetime.
+
+It was a wonderful afternoon, and seemed to go on swift wings. Gardley
+went back to the school-house, where the horses had been left, and Bud
+went with him to give further particulars about that wink at the
+dinner-table. Mom Wallis went up to the rose-garlanded room and learned
+how to wash her hair, and received a roll of flowered scrim wherewith to
+make curtains for the bunk-house. Margaret had originally intended it
+for the school-house windows in case it proved necessary to make that
+place habitable, but the school-room could wait.
+
+And there in the rose-room, with the new curtains in her trembling
+hands, and the great old mountain in full view, Mom Wallis knelt beside
+the little gay rocking-chair, while Margaret knelt beside her and prayed
+that the Heavenly Father would show Mom Wallis how to let the glory be
+revealed in her now on the earth.
+
+Then Mom Wallis wiped the furtive tears away with her calico sleeve,
+tied on her funny old bonnet, and rode away with her handsome young
+escort into the silence of the desert, with the glory beginning to be
+revealed already in her countenance.
+
+Quite late that evening the minister returned.
+
+He came in slowly and wearily, as if every step were a pain to him, and
+he avoided the light. His coat was torn and his garments were
+mud-covered. He murmured of a "slight accident" to Mrs. Tanner, who met
+him solicitously in a flowered dressing-gown with a candle in her hand.
+He accepted greedily the half a pie, with cheese and cold chicken and
+other articles, she proffered on a plate at his door, and in the reply
+to her query as to where he had been for dinner, and if he had a
+pleasant time, he said:
+
+"Very pleasant, indeed, thank you! The name? Um--ah--I disremember! I
+really didn't ask--That is--"
+
+The minister did not get up to breakfast, In fact, he remained in bed
+for several days, professing to be suffering with an attack of
+rheumatism. He was solicitously watched over and fed by the anxious Mrs.
+Tanner, who was much disconcerted at the state of affairs, and couldn't
+understand why she could not get the school-teacher more interested in
+the invalid.
+
+On the fourth day, however, the Reverend Frederick crept forth, white
+and shaken, with his sleek hair elaborately combed to cover a long
+scratch on his forehead, and announced his intention of departing from
+the State of Arizona that evening.
+
+He crept forth cautiously to the station as the shades of evening drew
+on, but found Long Bill awaiting him, and Jasper Kemp not far away. He
+had the two letters ready in his pocket, with the gold piece, though he
+had entertained hopes of escaping without forfeiting them, but he was
+obliged to wait patiently until Jasper Kemp had read both letters
+through twice, with the train in momentary danger of departing without
+him, before he was finally allowed to get on board. Jasper Kemp's
+parting word to him was:
+
+"Watch your steps spry, parson. I'm agoin' to see that you're shadowed
+wherever you go. You needn't think you can get shy on the Bible again.
+It won't pay."
+
+There was menace in the dry remark, and the Reverend Frederick's
+professional egotism withered before it. He bowed his head, climbed on
+board the train, and vanished from the scene of his recent discomfiture.
+But the bitterest thing about it all was that he had gone without
+capturing the heart or even the attention of that haughty little
+school-teacher. "And she was such a pretty girl," he said, regretfully,
+to himself. "Such a _very_ pretty girl!" He sighed deeply to himself as
+he watched Arizona speed by the window. "Still," he reflected,
+comfortably, after a moment, "there are always plenty more! What was
+that remarkably witty saying I heard just before I left home? 'Never run
+after a street-car or a woman. There'll be another one along in a
+minute.' Um--ah--yes--very true--there'll be another one along in a
+minute."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+School had settled down to real work by the opening of the new week.
+Margaret knew her scholars and had gained a personal hold on most of
+them already. There was enough novelty in her teaching to keep the
+entire school in a pleasant state of excitement and wonder as to what
+she would do next, and the word had gone out through all the country
+round about that the new teacher had taken the school by storm. It was
+not infrequent for men to turn out of their way on the trail to get a
+glimpse of the school as they were passing, just to make sure the
+reports were true. Rumor stated that the teacher was exceedingly pretty;
+that she would take no nonsense, not even from the big boys; that she
+never threatened nor punished, but that every one of the boys was her
+devoted slave. There had been no uprising, and it almost seemed as if
+that popular excitement was to be omitted this season, and school was to
+sail along in an orderly and proper manner. In fact, the entire school
+as well as the surrounding population were eagerly talking about the new
+piano, which seemed really to be a coming fact. Not that there had been
+anything done toward it yet, but the teacher had promised that just as
+soon as every one was really studying hard and doing his best, she was
+going to begin to get them ready for an entertainment to raise money for
+that piano. They couldn't begin until everybody was in good working
+order, because they didn't want to take the interest away from the real
+business of school; but it was going to be a Shakespeare play, whatever
+that was, and therefore of grave import. Some people talked learnedly
+about Shakespeare and hinted of poetry; but the main part of the
+community spoke the name joyously and familiarly and without awe, as if
+it were milk and honey in their mouths. Why should they reverence
+Shakespeare more than any one else?
+
+Margaret had grown used to seeing a head appear suddenly at one of the
+school-room windows and look long and frowningly first at her, then at
+the school, and then back to her again, as if it were a nine days'
+wonder. Whoever the visitor was, he would stand quietly, watching the
+process of the hour as if he were at a play, and Margaret would turn and
+smile pleasantly, then go right on with her work. The visitor would
+generally take off a wide hat and wave it cordially, smile back a
+curious, softened smile, and by and by he would mount his horse and pass
+on reflectively down the trail, wishing he could be a boy and go back
+again to school--such a school!
+
+Oh, it was not all smooth, the way that Margaret walked. There were
+hitches, and unpleasant days when nothing went right, and when some of
+the girls got silly and rebellious, and the boys followed in their lead.
+She had her trials like any teacher, skilful as she was, and not the
+least of them became Rosa Rogers, the petted beauty, who presently
+manifested a childish jealousy of her in her influence over the boys.
+Noting this, Margaret went out of her way to win Rosa, but found it a
+difficult matter.
+
+Rosa was proud, selfish, and unprincipled. She never forgave any one who
+frustrated her plans. She resented being made to study like the rest.
+She had always compelled the teacher to let her do as she pleased and
+still give her a good report. This she found she could not do with
+Margaret, and for the first time in her career she was compelled to work
+or fall behind. It presently became not a question of how the new
+teacher was to manage the big boys and the bad boys of the Ashland Ridge
+School, but how she was to prevent Rosa Rogers and a few girls who
+followed her from upsetting all her plans. The trouble was, Rosa was
+pretty and knew her power over the boys. If she chose she could put them
+all in a state of insubordination, and this she chose very often during
+those first few weeks.
+
+But there was one visitor who did not confine himself to looking in at
+the window.
+
+One morning a fine black horse came galloping up to the school-house at
+recess-time, and a well-set-up young man in wide sombrero and jaunty
+leather trappings sprang off and came into the building. His shining
+spurs caught the sunlight and flashed as he moved. He walked with the
+air of one who regards himself of far more importance than all who may
+be watching him. The boys in the yard stopped their ball-game, and the
+girls huddled close in whispering groups and drew near to the door. He
+was a young man from a ranch near the fort some thirty miles away, and
+he had brought an invitation for the new school-teacher to come over to
+dinner on Friday evening and stay until the following Monday morning.
+The invitation was from his sister, the wife of a wealthy cattleman
+whose home and hospitality were noted for miles around. She had heard of
+the coming of the beautiful young teacher, and wanted to attach her to
+her social circle.
+
+The young man was deference itself to Margaret, openly admiring her as
+he talked, and said the most gracious things to her; and then, while she
+was answering the note, he smiled over at Rosa Rogers, who had slipped
+into her seat and was studiously preparing her algebra with the book
+upside down.
+
+Margaret, looking up, caught Rosa's smiling glance and the tail end of a
+look from the young man's eyes, and felt a passing wonder whether he had
+ever met the girl before. Something in the boldness of his look made her
+feel that he had not. Yet he was all smiles and deference to herself,
+and his open admiration and pleasure that she was to come to help
+brighten this lonely country, and that she was going to accept the
+invitation, was really pleasant to the girl, for it was desolate being
+tied down to only the Tanner household and the school, and she welcomed
+any bit of social life.
+
+The young man had light hair, combed very smooth, and light-blue eyes.
+They were bolder and handsomer than the minister's, but the girl had a
+feeling that they were the very same cold color. She wondered at her
+comparison, for she liked the handsome young man, and in spite of
+herself was a little flattered at the nice things he had said to her.
+Nevertheless, when she remembered him afterward it was always with that
+uncomfortable feeling that if he hadn't been so handsome and polished in
+his appearance he would have seemed just a little bit like that
+minister, and she couldn't for the life of her tell why.
+
+After he was gone she looked back at Rosa, and there was a narrowing of
+the girl's eyes and a frown of hate on her brows. Margaret turned with a
+sigh back to her school problem--what to do with Rosa Rogers?
+
+But Rosa did not stay in the school-house. She slipped out and walked
+arm in arm with Amanda Bounds down the road.
+
+Margaret went to the door and watched. Presently she saw the rider wheel
+and come galloping back to the door. He had forgotten to tell her that
+an escort would be sent to bring her as early on Friday afternoon as she
+would be ready to leave the school, and he intimated that he hoped he
+might be detailed for that pleasant duty.
+
+Margaret looked into his face and warmed to his pleasant smile. How
+could she have thought him like West? He touched his hat and rode away,
+and a moment later she saw him draw rein beside Rosa and Amanda, and
+presently dismount.
+
+Bud rang the bell just then, and Margaret went back to her desk with a
+lingering look at the three figures in the distance. It was full half an
+hour before Rosa came in, with Amanda looking scared behind her; and
+troubled Margaret watched the sly look in the girl's eyes and wondered
+what she ought to do about it. As Rosa was passing out of the door after
+school she called her to the desk.
+
+"You were late in coming in after recess, Rosa," said Margaret, gently.
+"Have you any excuse?"
+
+"I was talking to a friend," said Rosa, with a toss of her head which
+said, as plainly as words could have done, "I don't intend to give an
+excuse."
+
+"Were you talking to the gentleman who was here?"
+
+"Well, if I was, what is that to you, Miss Earle?" said Rosa, haughtily.
+"Did you think you could have all the men and boys to yourself?"
+
+"Rosa," said Margaret, trying to speak calmly, but her voice trembling
+with suppressed indignation, "don't talk that way to me. Child, did you
+ever meet Mr. Forsythe before?"
+
+"I'm not a child, and it's none of your business!" flouted Rosa,
+angrily, and she twitched away and flung herself out of the
+school-house.
+
+Margaret, trembling from the disagreeable encounter, stood at the window
+and watched the girl going down the road, and felt for the moment that
+she would rather give up her school and go back home than face the
+situation. She knew in her heart that this girl, once an enemy, would be
+a bitter one, and this her last move had been a most unfortunate one,
+coming out, as it did, with Rosa in the lead. She could, of course,
+complain to Rosa's family, or to the school-board, but such was not the
+policy she had chosen. She wanted to be able to settle her own
+difficulties. It seemed strange that she could not reach this one
+girl--who was in a way the key to the situation. Perhaps the play would
+be able to help her. She spent a long time that evening going over the
+different plays in her library, and finally, with a look of apology
+toward a little photographed head of Shakespeare, she decided on
+"Midsummer-Night's Dream." What if it was away above the heads of them
+all, wouldn't a few get something from it? And wasn't it better to take
+a great thing and try to make her scholars and a few of the community
+understand it, rather than to take a silly little play that would not
+amount to anything in the end? Of course, they couldn't do it well; that
+went without saying. Of course it would be away beyond them all, but at
+least it would be a study of something great for her pupils, and she
+could meantime teach them a little about Shakespeare and perhaps help
+some of them to learn to love his plays and study them.
+
+The play she had selected was one in which she herself had acted the
+part of Puck, and she knew it by heart. She felt reasonably sure that
+she could help some of the more adaptable scholars to interpret their
+parts, and, at least, it would be good for them just as a study in
+literature. As for the audience, they would not be critics. Perhaps they
+would not even be able to comprehend the meaning of the play, but they
+would come and they would listen, and the experiment was one worth
+trying.
+
+Carefully she went over the parts, trying to find the one which she
+thought would best fit Rosa Rogers, and please her as well, because it
+gave her opportunity to display her beauty and charm. She really was a
+pretty girl, and would do well. Margaret wondered whether she were
+altogether right in attempting to win the girl through her vanity, and
+yet what other weak place was there in which to storm the silly little
+citadel of her soul?
+
+And so the work of assigning parts and learning them began that very
+week, though no one was allowed a part until his work for the day had
+all been handed in.
+
+At noon Margaret made one more attempt with Rosa Rogers. She drew her to
+a seat beside her and put aside as much as possible her own remembrance
+of the girl's disagreeable actions and impudent words.
+
+"Rosa," she said, and her voice was very gentle, "I want to have a
+little talk with you. You seem to feel that you and I are enemies, and I
+don't want you to have that attitude. I hoped we'd be the best of
+friends. You see, there isn't any other way for us to work well
+together. And I want to explain why I spoke to you as I did yesterday.
+It was not, as you hinted, that I want to keep all my acquaintances to
+myself. I have no desire to do that. It was because I feel responsible
+for the girls and boys in my care, and I was troubled lest perhaps you
+had been foolish--"
+
+Margaret paused. She could see by the bright hardness of the girl's eyes
+that she was accomplishing nothing. Rosa evidently did not believe her.
+
+"Well, Rosa," she said, suddenly, putting an impulsive, kindly hand on
+the girl's arm, "suppose we forget it this time, put it all away, and be
+friends. Let's learn to understand each other if we can, but in the
+mean time I want to talk to you about the play."
+
+And then, indeed, Rosa's hard manner broke, and she looked up with
+interest, albeit there was some suspicion in the glance. She wanted to
+be in that play with all her heart; she wanted the very showiest part in
+it, too; and she meant to have it, although she had a strong suspicion
+that the teacher would want to keep that part for herself, whatever it
+was.
+
+But Margaret had been wise. She had decided to take time and explain the
+play to her, and then let her choose her own part. She wisely judged
+that Rosa would do better in the part in which her interest centered,
+and perhaps the choice would help her to understand her pupil better.
+
+And so for an hour she patiently stayed after school and went over the
+play, explaining it carefully, and it seemed at one time as though Rosa
+was about to choose to be Puck, because with quick perception she caught
+the importance of that character; but when she learned that the costume
+must be a quiet hood and skirt of green and brown she scorned it, and
+chose, at last, to be Titania, queen of the fairies. So, with a sigh of
+relief, and a keen insight into the shallow nature, Margaret began to
+teach the girl some of the fairy steps, and found her quick and eager to
+learn. In the first lesson Rosa forgot for a little while her animosity
+and became almost as one of the other pupils. The play was going to
+prove a great means of bringing them all together.
+
+Before Friday afternoon came the parts had all been assigned and the
+plans for the entertainment were well under way.
+
+Jed and Timothy had been as good as their word about giving the teacher
+riding-lessons, each vying with the other to bring a horse and make her
+ride at noon hour, and she had already had several good lessons and a
+long ride or two in company with both her teachers.
+
+The thirty-mile ride for Friday, then, was not such an undertaking as it
+might otherwise have been, and Margaret looked forward to it with
+eagerness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+The little party of escort arrived before school was closed on Friday
+afternoon, and came down to the school-house in full force to take her
+away with them. The young man Forsythe, with his sister, the hostess
+herself, and a young army officer from the fort, comprised the party.
+Margaret dismissed school ten minutes early and went back with them to
+the Tanners' to make a hurried change in her dress and pick up her
+suit-case, which was already packed. As they rode away from the
+school-house Margaret looked back and saw Rosa Rogers posing in one of
+her sprite dances in the school-yard, saw her kiss her hand laughingly
+toward their party, and saw the flutter of a handkerchief in young
+Forsythe's hand. It was all very general and elusive, a passing bit of
+fun, but it left an uncomfortable impression on the teacher's mind. She
+looked keenly at the young man as he rode up smiling beside her, and
+once more experienced that strange, sudden change of feeling about him.
+
+She took opportunity during that long ride to find out if the young man
+had known Rosa Rogers before; but he frankly told her that he had just
+come West to visit his sister, was bored to death because he didn't know
+a soul in the whole State, and until he had seen her had not laid eyes
+on one whom he cared to know. Yet while she could not help enjoying the
+gay badinage, she carried a sense of uneasiness whenever she thought of
+the young girl Rosa in her pretty fairy pose, with her fluttering pink
+fingers and her saucy, smiling eyes. There was something untrustworthy,
+too, in the handsome face of the man beside her.
+
+There was just one shadow over this bit of a holiday. Margaret had a
+little feeling that possibly some one from the camp might come down on
+Saturday or Sunday, and she would miss him. Yet nothing had been said
+about it, and she had no way of sending word that she would be away. She
+had meant to send Mom Wallis a letter by the next messenger that came
+that way. It was all written and lying on her bureau, but no one had
+been down all the week. She was, therefore, greatly pleased when an
+approaching rider in the distance proved to be Gardley, and with a
+joyful little greeting she drew rein and hailed him, giving him a
+message for Mom Wallis.
+
+Only Gardley's eyes told what this meeting was to him. His demeanor was
+grave and dignified. He acknowledged the introductions to the rest of
+the party gracefully, touched his hat with the ease of one to the manner
+born, and rode away, flashing her one gleam of a smile that told her he
+was glad of the meeting; but throughout the brief interview there had
+been an air of question and hostility between the two men, Forsythe and
+Gardley. Forsythe surveyed Gardley rudely, almost insolently, as if his
+position beside the lady gave him rights beyond the other, and he
+resented the coming of the stranger. Gardley's gaze was cold, too, as he
+met the look, and his eyes searched Forsythe's face keenly, as though
+they would find out what manner of man was riding with his friend.
+
+When he was gone Margaret had the feeling that he was somehow
+disappointed, and once she turned in the saddle and looked wistfully
+after him; but he was riding furiously into the distance, sitting his
+horse as straight as an arrow and already far away upon the desert.
+
+"Your friend is a reckless rider," said Forsythe, with a sneer in his
+voice that Margaret did not like, as they watched the speck in the
+distance clear a steep descent from the mesa at a bound and disappear
+from sight in the mesquite beyond.
+
+"Isn't he fine-looking? Where did you find him, Miss Earle?" asked Mrs.
+Temple, eagerly. "I wish I'd asked him to join us. He left so suddenly I
+didn't realize he was going."
+
+Margaret felt a wondering and pleasant sense of possession and pride in
+Gardley as she watched, but she quietly explained that the young
+stranger was from the East, and that he was engaged in some kind of
+cattle business at a distance from Ashland. Her manner was reserved, and
+the matter dropped. She naturally felt a reluctance to tell how her
+acquaintance with Gardley began. It seemed something between themselves.
+She could fancy the gushing Mrs. Temple saying, "How romantic!" She was
+that kind of a woman. It was evident that she was romantically inclined
+herself, for she used her fine eyes with effect on the young officer who
+rode with her, and Margaret found herself wondering what kind of a
+husband she had and what her mother would think of a woman like this.
+
+There was no denying that the luxury of the ranch was a happy relief
+from the simplicity of life at the Tanners'. Iced drinks and cushions
+and easy-chairs, feasting and music and laughter! There were books, too,
+and magazines, and all the little things that go to make up a cultured
+life; and yet they were not people of Margaret's world, and when
+Saturday evening was over she sat alone in the room they had given her
+and, facing herself in the glass, confessed to herself that she looked
+back with more pleasure to the Sabbath spent with Mom Wallis than she
+could look forward to a Sabbath here. The morning proved her forebodings
+well founded.
+
+Breakfast was a late, informal affair, filled with hilarious gaiety.
+There was no mention of any church service, and Margaret found it was
+quite too late to suggest such a thing when breakfast was over, even if
+she had been sure there was any service.
+
+After breakfast was over there were various forms of amusement proposed
+for her pleasure, and she really felt very much embarrassed for a few
+moments to know how to avoid what to her was pure Sabbath-breaking. Yet
+she did not wish to be rude to these people who were really trying to be
+kind to her. She managed at last to get them interested in music, and,
+grouping them around the piano after a few preliminary performances by
+herself at their earnest solicitation, coaxed them into singing hymns.
+
+After all, they really seemed to enjoy it, though they had to get along
+with one hymn-book for the whole company; but Margaret knew how to make
+hymn-singing interesting, and her exquisite voice was never more at its
+best than when she led off with "My Jesus, as Thou Wilt," or "Jesus,
+Saviour, Pilot Me."
+
+"You would be the delight of Mr. Brownleigh's heart," said the hostess,
+gushingly, at last, after Margaret had finished singing "Abide With Me"
+with wonderful feeling.
+
+"And who is Mr. Brownleigh?" asked Margaret. "Why should I delight his
+heart?"
+
+"Why, he is our missionary--that is, the missionary for this region--and
+you would delight his heart because you are so religious and sing so
+well," said the superficial little woman. "Mr. Brownleigh is really a
+very cultured man. Of course, he's narrow. All clergymen are narrow,
+don't you think? They have to be to a certain extent. He's really
+_quite_ narrow. Why, he believes in the Bible _literally_, the whale and
+Jonah, and the Flood, and making bread out of stones, and all that sort
+of thing, you know. Imagine it! But he does. He's sincere! Perfectly
+sincere. I suppose he has to be. It's his business. But sometimes one
+feels it a pity that he can't relax a little, just among us here, you
+know. We'd never tell. Why, he won't even play a little game of poker!
+And he doesn't smoke! _Imagine_ it--_not even when he's by himself_, and
+_no one would know_! Isn't that odd? But he can preach. He's really very
+interesting; only a little too Utopian in his ideas. He thinks everybody
+ought to be good, you know, and all that sort of thing. He really
+thinks it's possible, and he lives that way himself. He really does. But
+he is a wonderful person; only I feel sorry for his wife sometimes.
+She's quite a cultured person. Has been wealthy, you know. She was a New
+York society girl. Just imagine it; out in these wilds taking gruel to
+the dirty little Indians! How she ever came to do it! Of course she
+adores him, but I can't really believe she is happy. No woman could be
+quite blind enough to give up everything in the world for one man, no
+matter how good he was. Do you think she could? It wasn't as if she
+didn't have plenty of other chances. She gave them all up to come out
+and marry him. She's a pretty good sport, too; she never lets you know
+she isn't perfectly happy."
+
+"She _is_ happy; mother, she's happier than _anybody_ I ever saw,"
+declared the fourteen-year-old daughter of the house, who was home from
+boarding-school for a brief visit during an epidemic of measles in the
+school.
+
+"Oh yes, she manages to make people think she's happy," said her mother,
+indulgently; "but you can't make me believe she's satisfied to give up
+her house on Fifth Avenue and live in a two-roomed log cabin in the
+desert, with no society."
+
+"Mother, you don't know! Why, _any_ woman would be satisfied if her
+husband adored her the way Mr. Brownleigh does her."
+
+"Well, Ada, you're a romantic girl, and Mr. Brownleigh is a handsome
+man. You've got a few things to learn yet. Mark my words, I don't
+believe you'll see Mrs. Brownleigh coming back next month with her
+husband. This operation was all well enough to talk about, but I'll not
+be surprised to hear that he has come back alone or else that he has
+accepted a call to some big city church. And he's equal to the city
+church, too; that's the wonder of it. He comes of a fine family himself,
+I've heard. Oh, people can't keep up the pose of saints forever, even
+though they do adore each other. But Mr. Brownleigh _certainly is_ a
+good man!"
+
+The vapid little woman sat looking reflectively out of the window for a
+whole minute after this deliverance. Yes, certainly Mr. Brownleigh was a
+good man. He was the one man of culture, education, refinement, who had
+come her way in many a year who had patiently and persistently and
+gloriously refused her advances at a mild flirtation, and refused to
+understand them, yet remained her friend and reverenced hero. He was a
+good man, and she knew it, for she was a very pretty woman and
+understood her art well.
+
+Before the day was over Margaret had reason to feel that a Sabbath in
+Arizona was a very hard thing to find. The singing could not last all
+day, and her friends seemed to find more amusements on Sunday that did
+not come into Margaret's code of Sabbath-keeping than one knew how to
+say no to. Neither could they understand her feeling, and she found it
+hard not to be rude in gently declining one plan after another.
+
+She drew the children into a wide, cozy corner after dinner and began a
+Bible story in the guise of a fairy-tale, while the hostess slipped away
+to take a nap. However, several other guests lingered about, and Mr.
+Temple strayed in. They sat with newspapers before their faces and got
+into the story, too, seeming to be deeply interested, so that, after
+all, Margaret did not have an unprofitable Sabbath.
+
+But altogether, though she had a gay and somewhat frivolous time, a good
+deal of admiration and many invitations to return as often as possible,
+Margaret was not sorry when she said good night to know that she was to
+return in the early morning to her work.
+
+Mr. Temple himself was going part way with them, accompanied by his
+niece, Forsythe, and the young officer who came over with them. Margaret
+rode beside Mr. Temple until his way parted from theirs, and had a
+delightful talk about Arizona. He was a kindly old fellow who adored his
+frivolous little wife and let her go her own gait, seeming not to mind
+how much she flirted.
+
+The morning was pink and silver, gold and azure, a wonderful specimen of
+an Arizona sunrise for Margaret's benefit, and a glorious beginning for
+her day's work in spite of the extremely early hour. The company was gay
+and blithe, and the Eastern girl felt as if she were passing through a
+wonderful experience.
+
+They loitered a little on the way to show Margaret the wonders of a
+fern-plumed caņon, and it was almost school-time when they came up the
+street, so that Margaret rode straight to the school-house instead of
+stopping at Tanners'. On the way to the school they passed a group of
+girls, of whom Rosa Rogers was the center. A certain something in Rosa's
+narrowed eyelids as she said good morning caused Margaret to look back
+uneasily, and she distinctly saw the girl give a signal to young
+Forsythe, who, for answer, only tipped his hat and gave her a peculiar
+smile.
+
+In a moment more they had said good-by, and Margaret was left at the
+school-house door with a cluster of eager children about her, and
+several shy boys in the background, ready to welcome her back as if she
+had been gone a month.
+
+In the flutter of opening school Margaret failed to notice that Rosa
+Rogers did not appear. It was not until the roll was called that she
+noticed her absence, and she looked uneasily toward the door many times
+during the morning, but Rosa did not come until after recess, when she
+stole smilingly in, as if it were quite the thing to come to school
+late. When questioned about her tardiness she said she had torn her
+dress and had to go home and change it. Margaret knew by the look in her
+eyes that the girl was not telling the truth, but what was she to do? It
+troubled her all the morning and went with her to a sleepless pillow
+that night. She was beginning to see that life as a school-teacher in
+the far West was not all she had imagined it to be. Her father had been
+right. There would likely be more thorns than roses on her way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+The first time Lance Gardley met Rosa Rogers riding with Archie
+Forsythe he thought little of it. He knew the girl by sight, because he
+knew her father in a business way. That she was very young and one of
+Margaret's pupils was all he knew about her. For the young man he had
+conceived a strong dislike, but as there was no reason whatever for it
+he put it out of his mind as quickly as possible.
+
+The second time he met them it was toward evening and they were so
+wholly absorbed in each other's society that they did not see him until
+he was close upon them. Forsythe looked up with a frown and a quick hand
+to his hip, where gleamed a weapon.
+
+He scarcely returned the slight salute given by Gardley, and the two
+young people touched up their horses and were soon out of sight in the
+mesquite. But something in the frightened look of the girl's eyes caused
+Gardley to turn and look after the two.
+
+Where could they be going at that hour of the evening? It was not a
+trail usually chosen for rides. It was lonely and unfrequented, and led
+out of the way of travelers. Gardley himself had been a far errand for
+Jasper Kemp, and had taken this short trail back because it cut off
+several miles and he was weary. Also, he was anxious to stop in Ashland
+and leave Mom Wallis's request that Margaret would spend the next
+Sabbath at the camp and see the new curtains. He was thinking what he
+should say to her when he saw her in a little while now, and this
+interruption to his thoughts was unwelcome. Nevertheless, he could not
+get away from that frightened look in the girl's eyes. Where could they
+have been going? That fellow was a new-comer in the region; perhaps he
+had lost his way. Perhaps he did not know that the road he was taking
+the girl led into a region of outlaws, and that the only habitation
+along the way was a cabin belonging to an old woman of weird reputation,
+where wild orgies were sometimes celebrated, and where men went who
+loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
+
+Twice Gardley turned in his saddle and scanned the desert. The sky was
+darkening, and one or two pale stars were impatiently shadowing forth
+their presence. And now he could see the two riders again. They had come
+up out of the mesquite to the top of the mesa, and were outlined against
+the sky sharply. They were still on the trail to old Ouida's cabin!
+
+With a quick jerk Gardley reined in his horse and wheeled about,
+watching the riders for a moment; and then, setting spurs to his beast,
+he was off down the trail after them on one of his wild, reckless rides.
+Down through the mesquite he plunged, through the darkening grove, out,
+and up to the top of the mesa. He had lost sight of his quarry for the
+time, but now he could see them again riding more slowly in the valley
+below, their horses close together, and even as he watched the sky took
+on its wide night look and the stars blazed forth.
+
+Suddenly Gardley turned sharply from the trail and made a detour through
+a grove of trees, riding with reckless speed, his head down to escape
+low branches; and in a minute or two he came with unerring instinct back
+to the trail some distance ahead of Forsythe and Rosa. Then he wheeled
+his horse and stopped stock-still, awaiting their coming.
+
+By this time the great full moon was risen and, strangely enough, was at
+Gardley's back, making a silhouette of man and horse as the two riders
+came on toward him.
+
+They rode out from the cover of the grove, and there he was across their
+path. Rosa gave a scream, drawing nearer her companion, and her horse
+swerved and reared; but Gardley's black stood like an image carved in
+ebony against the silver of the moon, and Gardley's quiet voice was in
+strong contrast to the quick, unguarded exclamation of Forsythe, as he
+sharply drew rein and put his hand hastily to his hip for his weapon.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Forsythe"--Gardley had an excellent memory for
+names--"but I thought you might not be aware, being a new-comer in these
+parts, that the trail you are taking leads to a place where ladies do
+not like to go."
+
+"Really! You don't say so!" answered the young man, insolently. "It is
+very kind of you, I'm sure, but you might have saved yourself the
+trouble. I know perfectly where I am going, and so does the lady, and
+we choose to go this way. Move out of the way, please. You are detaining
+us."
+
+But Gardley did not move out of the way. "I am sure the lady does not
+know where she is going," he said, firmly. "I am sure that she does not
+know that it is a place of bad reputation, even in this unconventional
+land. At least, if she knows, I am sure that _her father_ does not know,
+and I am well acquainted with her father."
+
+"Get out of the way, sir," said Forsythe, hotly. "It certainly is none
+of your business, anyway, whoever knows what. Get out of the way or I
+shall shoot. This lady and I intend to ride where we please."
+
+"Then I shall have to say you _cannot_," said Gardley; and his voice
+still had that calm that made his opponent think him easy to conquer.
+
+"Just how do you propose to stop us?" sneered Forsythe, pulling out his
+pistol.
+
+"This way," said Gardley, lifting a tiny silver whistle to his lips and
+sending forth a peculiar, shrilling blast. "And this way," went on
+Gardley, calmly lifting both hands and showing a weapon in each,
+wherewith he covered the two.
+
+Rosa screamed and covered her face with her hands, cowering in her
+saddle.
+
+Forsythe lifted his weapon, but looked around nervously. "Dead men tell
+no tales," he said, angrily.
+
+"It depends upon the man," said Gardley, meaningly, "especially if he
+were found on this road. I fancy a few tales could be told if you
+happened to be the man. Turn your horses around at once and take this
+lady back to her home. My men are not far off, and if you do not wish
+the whole story to be known among your friends and hers you would better
+make haste."
+
+Forsythe dropped his weapon and obeyed. He decidedly did not wish his
+escapade to be known among his friends. There were financial reasons why
+he did not care to have it come to the ears of his brother-in-law just
+now.
+
+Silently in the moonlight the little procession took its way down the
+trail, the girl and the man side by side, their captor close behind, and
+when the girl summoned courage to glance fearsomely behind her she saw
+three more men riding like three grim shadows yet behind. They had
+fallen into the trail so quietly that she had not heard them when they
+came. They were Jasper Kemp, Long Bill, and Big Jim. They had been out
+for other purposes, but without question followed the call of the
+signal.
+
+It was a long ride back to Rogers's ranch, and Forsythe glanced
+nervously behind now and then. It seemed to him that the company was
+growing larger all the time. He half expected to see a regiment each
+time he turned. He tried hurrying his horse, but when he did so the
+followers were just as close without any seeming effort. He tried to
+laugh it all off.
+
+Once he turned and tried to placate Gardley with a few shakily jovial
+words:
+
+"Look here, old fellow, aren't you the man I met on the trail the day
+Miss Earle went over to the fort? I guess you've made a mistake in your
+calculations. I was merely out on a pleasure ride with Miss Rogers. We
+weren't going anywhere in particular, you know. Miss Rogers chose this
+way, and I wanted to please her. No man likes to have his pleasure
+interfered with, you know. I guess you didn't recognize me?"
+
+"I recognized you," said Gardley. "It would be well for you to be
+careful where you ride with ladies, especially at night. The matter,
+however, is one that you would better settle with Mr. Rogers. My duty
+will be done when I have put it into his hands."
+
+"Now, my good fellow," said Forsythe, patronizingly, "you surely don't
+intend to make a great fuss about this and go telling tales to Mr.
+Rogers about a trifling matter--"
+
+"I intend to do my duty, Mr. Forsythe," said Gardley; and Forsythe
+noticed that the young man still held his weapons. "I was set this night
+to guard Mr. Rogers's property. That I did not expect his daughter would
+be a part of the evening's guarding has nothing to do with the matter. I
+shall certainly put the matter into Mr. Rogers's hands."
+
+Rosa began to cry softly.
+
+"Well, if you want to be a fool, of course," laughed Forsythe,
+disagreeably; "but you will soon see Mr. Rogers will accept my
+explanation."
+
+"That is for Mr. Rogers to decide," answered Gardley, and said no more.
+
+The reflections of Forsythe during the rest of that silent ride were not
+pleasant, and Rosa's intermittent crying did not tend to make him more
+comfortable.
+
+The silent procession at last turned in at the great ranch gate and rode
+up to the house. Just as they stopped and the door of the house swung
+open, letting out a flood of light, Rosa leaned toward Gardley and
+whispered:
+
+"Please, Mr. Gardley, don't tell papa. I'll do _anything_ in the world
+for you if you won't tell papa."
+
+He looked at the pretty, pitiful child in the moonlight. "I'm sorry,
+Miss Rosa," he said, firmly. "But you don't understand. I must do my
+duty."
+
+"Then I shall hate you!" she hissed. "Do you hear? I shall _hate_ you
+forever, and you don't know what that means. It means I'll take my
+_revenge_ on you and on _everybody you like_."
+
+He looked at her half pityingly as he swung off his horse and went up
+the steps to meet Mr. Rogers, who had come out and was standing on the
+top step of the ranch-house in the square of light that flickered from a
+great fire on the hearth of the wide fireplace. He was looking from one
+to another of the silent group, and as his eyes rested on his daughter
+he said, sternly:
+
+"Why, Rosa, what does this mean? You told me you were going to bed with
+a headache!"
+
+Gardley drew his employer aside and told what had happened in a few
+low-toned sentences; and then stepped down and back into the shadow, his
+horse by his side, the three men from the camp grouped behind him. He
+had the delicacy to withdraw after his duty was done.
+
+Mr. Rogers, his face stern with sudden anger and alarm, stepped down and
+stood beside his daughter. "Rosa, you may get down and go into the house
+to your own room. I will talk with you later," he said. And then to the
+young man, "You, sir, will step into my office. I wish to have a plain
+talk with you."
+
+A half-hour later Forsythe came out of the Rogers house and mounted his
+horse, while Mr. Rogers stood silently and watched him.
+
+"I will bid you good evening, sir," he said, formally, as the young man
+mounted his horse and silently rode away. His back had a defiant look in
+the moonlight as he passed the group of men in the shadow; but they did
+not turn to watch him.
+
+"That will be all to-night, Gardley, and I thank you very much," called
+the clear voice of Mr. Rogers from his front steps.
+
+The four men mounted their horses silently and rode down a little
+distance behind the young man, who wondered in his heart just how much
+or how little Gardley had told Rosa's father.
+
+The interview to which young Forsythe had just been subjected had been
+chastening in character, of a kind to baffle curiosity concerning the
+father's knowledge of details, and to discourage any further romantic
+rides with Miss Rosa. It had been left in abeyance whether or not the
+Temples should be made acquainted with the episode, dependent upon the
+future conduct of both young people. It had not been satisfactory from
+Forsythe's point of view; that is, he had not been so easily able to
+disabuse the father's mind of suspicion, nor to establish his own
+guileless character as he had hoped; and some of the remarks Rogers made
+led Forsythe to think that the father understood just how unpleasant it
+might become for him if his brother-in-law found out about the
+escapade.
+
+This is why Archie Forsythe feared Lance Gardley, although there was
+nothing in the least triumphant about the set of that young man's
+shoulders as he rode away in the moonlight on the trail toward Ashland.
+And this is how it came about that Rosa Rogers hated Lance Gardley,
+handsome and daring though he was; and because of him hated her teacher,
+Margaret Earle.
+
+An hour later Lance Gardley stood in the little dim Tanner parlor,
+talking to Margaret.
+
+"You look tired," said the girl, compassionately, as she saw the haggard
+shadows on the young face, showing in spite of the light of pleasure in
+his eyes. "You look _very_ tired. What in the world have you been
+doing?"
+
+"I went out to catch cattle-thieves," he said, with a sigh, "but I found
+there were other kinds of thieves abroad. It's all in the day's work.
+I'm not tired now." And he smiled at her with beautiful reverence.
+
+Margaret, as she watched him, could not help thinking that the lines in
+his face had softened and strengthened since she had first seen him, and
+her eyes let him know that she was glad he had come.
+
+"And so you will really come to us, and it isn't going to be asking too
+much?" he said, wistfully. "You can't think what it's going to be to the
+men--to _us_! And Mom Wallis is so excited she can hardly get her work
+done. If you had said no I would be almost afraid to go back." He
+laughed, but she could see there was deep earnestness under his tone.
+
+"Indeed I will come," said Margaret. "I'm just looking forward to it.
+I'm going to bring Mom Wallis a new bonnet like one I made for mother;
+and I'm going to teach her how to make corn gems and steamed apple
+dumplings. I'm bringing some songs and some music for the violin; and
+I've got something for you to help me do, too, if you will?"
+
+He smiled tenderly down on her. What a wonderful girl she was, to be
+willing to come out to the old shack among a lot of rough men and one
+uncultured old woman and make them happy, when she was fit for the
+finest in the land!
+
+"You're _wonderful_!" he said, taking her hand with a quick pressure for
+good-by. "You make every one want to do his best."
+
+He hurried out to his horse and rode away in the moonlight. Margaret
+went up to her "mountain window" and watched him far out on the trail,
+her heart swelling with an unnamed gladness over his last words.
+
+"Oh, God, keep him, and help him to make good!" she prayed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+The visit to the camp was a time to be remembered long by all the
+inhabitants of the bunk-house, and even by Margaret herself. Margaret
+wondered Friday evening, as she sat up late, working away braiding a
+lovely gray bonnet out of folds of malines, and fashioning it into form
+for Mom Wallis, why she was looking forward to the visit with so much
+more real pleasure than she had done to the one the week before at the
+Temples'. And so subtle is the heart of a maid that she never fathomed
+the real reason.
+
+The Temples', of course, was interesting and delightful as being
+something utterly new in her experience. It was comparatively luxurious,
+and there were pleasant, cultured people there, more from her own social
+class in life. But it was going to be such fun to surprise Mom Wallis
+with that bonnet and see her old face light up when she saw herself in
+the little folding three-leaved mirror she was taking along with her and
+meant to leave for Mom Wallis's log boudoir. She was quite excited over
+selecting some little thing for each one of the men--books, pictures, a
+piece of music, a bright cushion, and a pile of picture magazines. It
+made a big bundle when she had them together, and she was dubious if she
+ought to try to carry them all; but Bud, whom she consulted on the
+subject, said, loftily, it "wasn't a flea-bite for the Kid; he could
+carry anything on a horse."
+
+Bud was just a little jealous to have his beloved teacher away from home
+so much, and rejoiced greatly when Gardley, Friday afternoon, suggested
+that he come along, too. He made quick time to his home, and secured a
+hasty permission and wardrobe, appearing like a footman on his father's
+old horse when they were half a mile down the trail.
+
+Mom Wallis was out at the door to greet her guest when she arrived, for
+Margaret had chosen to make her visit last from Friday afternoon after
+school, until Monday morning. It was the generosity of her nature that
+she gave to her utmost when she gave.
+
+The one fear she had entertained about coming had been set at rest on
+the way when Gardley told her that Pop Wallis was off on one of his long
+trips, selling cattle, and would probably not return for a week.
+Margaret, much as she trusted Gardley and the men, could not help
+dreading to meet Pop Wallis again.
+
+There was a new trimness about the old bunk-house. The clearing had been
+cleaned up and made neat, the grass cut, some vines set out and trained
+up limply about the door, and the windows shone with Mom Wallis's
+washing.
+
+Mom Wallis herself was wearing her best white apron, stiff with starch,
+her lace collar, and her hair in her best imitation of the way Margaret
+had fixed it, although it must be confessed she hadn't quite caught the
+knack of arrangement yet. But the one great difference Margaret noticed
+in the old woman was the illuminating smile on her face. Mom Wallis had
+learned how to let the glory gleam through all the hard sordidness of
+her life, and make earth brighter for those about her.
+
+The curtains certainly made a great difference in the looks of the
+bunk-house, together with a few other changes. The men had made some
+chairs--three of them, one out of a barrel; and together they had
+upholstered them roughly. The cots around the walls were blazing with
+their red blankets folded smoothly and neatly over them, and on the
+floor in front of the hearth, which had been scrubbed, Gardley had
+spread a Navajo blanket he had bought of an Indian.
+
+The fireplace was piled with logs ready for the lighting at night, and
+from somewhere a lamp had been rigged up and polished till it shone in
+the setting sun that slanted long rays in at the shining windows.
+
+The men were washed and combed, and had been huddled at the back of the
+bunk-house for an hour, watching the road, and now they came forward
+awkwardly to greet their guest, their horny hands scrubbed to an
+unbelievable whiteness. They did not say much, but they looked their
+pleasure, and Margaret greeted every one as if he were an old friend,
+the charming part about it all to the men being that she remembered
+every one's name and used it.
+
+Bud hovered in the background and watched with starry eyes. Bud was
+having the time of his life. He preferred the teacher's visiting the
+camp rather than the fort. The "Howdy, sonny!" which he had received
+from the men, and the "Make yourself at home, Bill" from Gardley, had
+given him great joy; and the whole thing seemed somehow to link him to
+the teacher in a most distinguishing manner.
+
+Supper was ready almost immediately, and Mom Wallis had done her best to
+make it appetizing. There was a lamb stew with potatoes, and fresh corn
+bread with coffee. The men ate with relish, and watched their guest of
+honor as if she had been an angel come down to abide with them for a
+season. There was a tablecloth on the old table, too--a _white_
+tablecloth. It looked remarkably like an old sheet, to be sure, with a
+seam through the middle where it had been worn and turned and sewed
+together; but it was a tablecloth now, and a marvel to the men. And the
+wonder about Margaret was that she could eat at such a table and make it
+seem as though that tablecloth were the finest damask, and the two-tined
+forks the heaviest of silver.
+
+After the supper was cleared away and the lamp lighted, the gifts were
+brought out. A book of Scotch poetry for Jasper Kemp, bound in tartan
+covers of the Campbell clan; a small illustrated pamphlet of Niagara
+Falls for Big Jim, because he had said he wanted to see the place and
+never could manage it; a little pictured folder of Washington City for
+Big Jim; a book of old ballad music for Fiddling Boss; a book of jokes
+for Fade-away Forbes; a framed picture of a beautiful shepherd dog for
+Stocky; a big, red, ruffled denim pillow for Croaker, because when she
+was there before he was always complaining about the seats being hard;
+a great blazing crimson pennant bearing the name HARVARD in big letters
+for Fudge, because she had remembered he was from Boston; and for Mom
+Wallis a framed text beautifully painted in water-colors, done in rustic
+letters twined with stray forget-me-nots, the words, "Come unto Me, all
+ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Margaret
+had made that during the week and framed it in a simple raffia braid of
+brown and green.
+
+It was marvelous how these men liked their presents; and while they were
+examining them and laughing about them and putting their pictures and
+Mom Wallis's text on the walls, and the pillow on a bunk, and the
+pennant over the fireplace, Margaret shyly held out a tiny box to
+Gardley.
+
+"I thought perhaps you would let me give you this," she said. "It isn't
+much; it isn't even new, and it has some marks in it; but I thought it
+might help with your new undertaking."
+
+Gardley took it with a lighting of his face and opened the box. In it
+was a little, soft, leather-bound Testament, showing the marks of usage,
+yet not worn. It was a tiny thing, very thin, easily fitting in a
+vest-pocket, and not a burden to carry. He took the little book in his
+hand, removed the silken rubber band that bound it, and turned the
+leaves reverently in his fingers, noting that there were pencil-marks
+here and there. His face was all emotion as he looked up at the giver.
+
+"I thank you," he said, in a low tone, glancing about to see that no one
+was noticing them. "I shall prize it greatly. It surely will help. I
+will read it every day. Was that what you wanted? And I will carry it
+with me always."
+
+His voice was very earnest, and he looked at her as though she had given
+him a fortune. With another glance about at the preoccupied room--even
+Bud was busy studying Jasper Kemp's oldest gun--he snapped the band on
+the book again and put it carefully in his inner breast-pocket. The book
+would henceforth travel next his heart and be his guide. She thought he
+meant her to understand that, as he put out his hand unobtrusively and
+pressed her fingers gently with a quick, low "Thank you!"
+
+Then Mom Wallis's bonnet was brought out and tied on her, and the poor
+old woman blushed like a girl when she stood with meek hands folded at
+her waist and looked primly about on the family for their approval at
+Margaret's request. But that was nothing to the way she stared when
+Margaret got out the threefold mirror and showed her herself in the new
+headgear. She trotted away at last, the wonderful bonnet in one hand,
+the box in the other, a look of awe on her face, and Margaret heard her
+murmur as she put it away: "Glory! _Me!_ Glory!"
+
+Then Margaret had to read one or two of the poems for Jasper Kemp, while
+they all sat and listened to her Scotch and marveled at her. A woman
+like that condescending to come to visit them!
+
+She gave a lesson in note-reading to the Fiddling Boss, pointing one by
+one with her white fingers to the notes until he was able to creep along
+and pick out "Suwanee River" and "Old Folks at Home" to the intense
+delight of the audience.
+
+Margaret never knew just how it was that she came to be telling the men
+a story, one she had read not long before in a magazine, a story with a
+thrilling national interest and a keen personal touch that searched the
+hearts of men; but they listened as they had never listened to anything
+in their lives before.
+
+And then there was singing, more singing, until it bade fair to be
+morning before they slept, and the little teacher was weary indeed when
+she lay down on the cot in Mom Wallis's room, after having knelt beside
+the old woman and prayed.
+
+The next day there was a wonderful ride with Gardley and Bud to the
+caņon of the cave-dwellers, and a coming home to the apple dumplings she
+had taught Mom Wallis to make before she went away. All day Gardley and
+she, with Bud for delighted audience, had talked over the play she was
+getting up at the school, Gardley suggesting about costumes and tree
+boughs for scenery, and promising to help in any way she wanted. Then
+after supper there were jokes and songs around the big fire, and some
+popcorn one of the men had gone a long ride that day to get. They called
+for another story, too, and it was forthcoming.
+
+It was Sunday morning after breakfast, however, that Margaret suddenly
+wondered how she was going to make the day helpful and different from
+the other days.
+
+She stood for a moment looking out of the clear little window
+thoughtfully, with just the shadow of a sigh on her lips, and as she
+turned back to the room she met Gardley's questioning glance.
+
+"Are you homesick?" he asked, with a sorry smile. "This must all be
+very different from what you are accustomed to."
+
+"Oh no, it isn't that." She smiled, brightly. "I'm not a baby for home,
+but I do get a bit homesick about church-time. Sunday is such a strange
+day to me without a service."
+
+"Why not have one, then?" he suggested, eagerly. "We can sing and--you
+could--do the rest!"
+
+Her eyes lighted at the suggestion, and she cast a quick glance at the
+men. Would they stand for that sort of thing?
+
+Gardley followed her glance and caught her meaning. "Let them answer for
+themselves," he said quickly in a low tone, and then, raising his voice:
+"Speak up, men. Do you want to have church? Miss Earle here is homesick
+for a service, and I suggest that we have one, and she conduct it."
+
+"Sure!" said Jasper Kemp, his face lighting. "I'll miss my guess if she
+can't do better than the parson we had last Sunday. Get into your seats,
+boys; we're goin' to church."
+
+Margaret's face was a study of embarrassment and delight as she saw the
+alacrity with which the men moved to get ready for "church." Her quick
+brain turned over the possibility of what she could read or say to help
+this strange congregation thus suddenly thrust upon her.
+
+It was a testimony to her upbringing by a father whose great business of
+life was to preach the gospel that she never thought once of hesitating
+or declining the opportunity, but welcomed it as an opportunity, and
+only deprecated her unreadiness for the work.
+
+The men stirred about, donned their coats, furtively brushing their
+hair, and Long Bill insisted that Mom Wallis put on her new bonnet;
+which she obligingly did, and sat down carefully in the barrel-chair,
+her hands neatly crossed in her lap, supremely happy. It really was
+wonderful what a difference that bonnet made in Mom Wallis.
+
+Gardley arranged a comfortable seat for Margaret at the table and put in
+front of her one of the hymn-books she had brought. Then, after she was
+seated, he took the chair beside her and brought out the little
+Testament from his breast-pocket, gravely laying it on the hymn-book.
+
+Margaret met his eyes with a look of quick appreciation. It was
+wonderful the way these two were growing to understand each other. It
+gave the girl a thrill of wonder and delight to have him do this simple
+little thing for her, and the smile that passed between them was
+beautiful to see. Long Bill turned away his head and looked out of the
+window with an improvised sneeze to excuse the sudden mist that came
+into his eyes.
+
+Margaret chose "My Faith looks up to Thee" for the first hymn, because
+Fiddling Boss could play it, and while he was tuning up his fiddle she
+hastily wrote out two more copies of the words. And so the queer service
+started with a quaver of the old fiddle and the clear, sweet voices of
+Margaret and Gardley leading off, while the men growled on their way
+behind, and Mom Wallis, in her new gray bonnet, with her hair all
+fluffed softly gray under it, sat with eyes shining like a girl's.
+
+So absorbed in the song were they all that they failed to hear the sound
+of a horse coming into the clearing. But just as the last words of the
+final verse died away the door of the bunk-house swung open, and there
+in the doorway stood Pop Wallis!
+
+The men sprang to their feet with one accord, ominous frowns on their
+brows, and poor old Mom Wallis sat petrified where she was, the smile of
+relaxation frozen on her face, a look of fear growing in her tired old
+eyes.
+
+Now Pop Wallis, through an unusual combination of circumstances, had
+been for some hours without liquor and was comparatively sober. He stood
+for a moment staring amazedly at the group around his fireside. Perhaps
+because he had been so long without his usual stimulant his mind was
+weakened and things appeared as a strange vision to him. At any rate, he
+stood and stared, and as he looked from one to another of the men, at
+the beautiful stranger, and across to the strangely unfamiliar face of
+his wife in her new bonnet, his eyes took on a frightened look. He
+slowly took his hand from the door-frame and passed it over his eyes,
+then looked again, from one to another, and back to his glorified wife.
+
+Margaret had half risen at her end of the table, and Gardley stood
+beside her as if to reassure her; but Pop Wallis was not looking at any
+of them any more. His eyes were on his wife. He passed his hand once
+more over his eyes and took one step gropingly into the room, a hand
+reached out in front of him, as if he were not sure but he might run
+into something on the way, the other hand on his forehead, a dazed look
+in his face.
+
+"Why, Mom--that ain't really--_you_, now, _is_ it?" he said, in a
+gentle, insinuating voice like one long unaccustomed making a hasty
+prayer.
+
+The tone made a swift change in the old woman. She gripped her bony
+hands tight and a look of beatific joy came into her wrinkled face.
+
+"Yes, it's really _me_, Pop!" she said, with a kind of triumphant ring
+to her voice.
+
+"But--but--you're right _here_, ain't you? You ain't _dead_,
+an'--an'--gone to--gl-oo-ry, be you? You're right _here_?"
+
+"Yes, I'm right _here_, Pop. I ain't dead! Pop--glory's _come to me_!"
+
+"Glory?" repeated the man, dazedly. "Glory?" And he gazed around the
+room and took in the new curtains, the pictures on the wall, the
+cushions and chairs, and the bright, shining windows. "You don't mean
+it's _heav'n_, do you, Mom? 'Cause I better go back--_I_ don't belong in
+heav'n. Why, Mom, it can't be glory, 'cause it's the same old
+bunk-house outside, anyhow."
+
+"Yes, it's the same old bunk-house, and it ain't heaven, but it's
+_goin_' to be. The glory's come all right. You sit down, Pop; we're
+goin' to have church, and this is my new bonnet. _She_ brang it. This is
+the new school-teacher, Miss Earle, and she's goin' to have church. She
+done it _all_! You sit down and listen."
+
+Pop Wallis took a few hesitating steps into the room and dropped into
+the nearest chair. He looked at Margaret as if she might be an angel
+holding open the portal to a kingdom in the sky. He looked and wondered
+and admired, and then he looked back to his glorified old wife again in
+wonder.
+
+Jasper Kemp shut the door, and the company dropped back into their
+places. Margaret, because of her deep embarrassment, and a kind of
+inward trembling that had taken possession of her, announced another
+hymn.
+
+It was a solemn little service, quite unique, with a brief, simple
+prayer and an expository reading of the story of the blind man from the
+sixth chapter of John. The men sat attentively, their eyes upon her face
+as she read; but Pop Wallis sat staring at his wife, an awed light upon
+his scared old face, the wickedness and cunning all faded out, and only
+fear and wonder written there.
+
+In the early dawning of the pink-and-silver morning Margaret went back
+to her work, Gardley riding by her side, and Bud riding at a discreet
+distance behind, now and then going off at a tangent after a stray
+cottontail. It was wonderful what good sense Bud seemed to have on
+occasion.
+
+The horse that Margaret rode, a sturdy little Western pony, with nerve
+and grit and a gentle common sense for humans, was to remain with her in
+Ashland, a gift from the men of the bunk-house. During the week that
+followed Archie Forsythe came riding over with a beautiful shining
+saddle-horse for her use during her stay in the West; but when he went
+riding back to the ranch the shining saddle-horse was still in his
+train, riderless, for Margaret told him that she already had a horse of
+her own. Neither had Margaret accepted the invitation to the Temples'
+for the next week-end. She had other plans for the Sabbath, and that
+week there appeared on all the trees and posts about the town, and on
+the trails, a little notice of a Bible class and vesper-service to be
+held in the school-house on the following Sabbath afternoon; and so
+Margaret, true daughter of her minister-father, took up her mission in
+Ashland for the Sabbaths that were to follow; for the school-board had
+agreed with alacrity to such use of the school-house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+Now when it became noised abroad that the new teacher wanted above all
+things to purchase a piano, and that to that end she was getting up a
+wonderful Shakespeare play in which the scholars were to act upon a
+stage set with tree boughs after the manner of some new kind of players,
+the whole community round about began to be excited.
+
+Mrs. Tanner talked much about it. Was not Bud to be a prominent
+character? Mr. Tanner talked about it everywhere he went. The mothers
+and fathers and sisters talked about it, and the work of preparing the
+play went on.
+
+Margaret had discovered that one of the men at the bunk-house played a
+flute, and she was working hard to teach him and Fiddling Boss and
+Croaker to play a portion of the elfin dance to accompany the players.
+The work of making costumes and training the actors became more and more
+strenuous, and in this Gardley proved a fine assistant. He undertook to
+train some of the older boys for their parts, and did it so well that he
+was presently in the forefront of the battle of preparation and working
+almost as hard as Margaret herself.
+
+The beauty of the whole thing was that every boy in the school adored
+him, even Jed and Timothy, and life took on a different aspect to them
+in company with this high-born college-bred, Eastern young man who yet
+could ride and shoot with the daringest among the Westerners.
+
+Far and wide went forth the fame of the play that was to be. The news of
+it reached to the fort and the ranches, and brought offers of assistance
+and costumes and orders for tickets. Margaret purchased a small
+duplicator and set her school to printing tickets and selling them, and
+before the play was half ready to be acted tickets enough were sold for
+two performances, and people were planning to come from fifty miles
+around. The young teacher began to quake at the thought of her big
+audience and her poor little amateur players; and yet for children they
+were doing wonderfully well, and were growing quite Shakespearian in
+their manner of conversation.
+
+"What say you, sweet Amanda?" would be a form of frequent address to
+that stolid maiden Amanda Bounds; and Jed, instead of shouting for
+"Delicate" at recess, as in former times, would say, "My good Timothy, I
+swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow; by his best arrow with the
+golden head"--until all the school-yard rang with classic phrases; and
+the whole country round was being addressed in phrases of another
+century by the younger members of their households.
+
+Then Rosa Rogers's father one day stopped at the Tanners' and left a
+contribution with the teacher of fifty dollars toward the new piano; and
+after that it was rumored that the teacher said the piano could be sent
+for in time to be used at the play. Then other contributions of smaller
+amounts came in, and before the date of the play had been set there was
+money enough to make a first payment on the piano. That day the English
+exercise for the whole school was to compose the letter to the Eastern
+piano firm where the piano was to be purchased, ordering it to be sent
+on at once. Weeks before this Margaret had sent for a number of piano
+catalogues beautifully illustrated, showing by cuts how the whole
+instruments were made, with full illustrations of the factories where
+they were manufactured, and she had discussed the selection with the
+scholars, showing them what points were to be considered in selecting a
+good piano. At last the order was sent out, the actual selection itself
+to be made by a musical friend of Margaret's in New York, and the school
+waited in anxious suspense to hear that it had started on its way.
+
+The piano arrived at last, three weeks before the time set for the play,
+which was coming on finely now and seemed to the eager scholars quite
+ready for public performance. Not so to Margaret and Gardley, as daily
+they pruned, trained, and patiently went over and over again each part,
+drawing all the while nearer to the ideal they had set. It could not be
+done perfectly, of course, and when they had done all they could there
+would yet be many crudities; but Margaret's hope was to bring out the
+meaning of the play and give both audience and performers the true idea
+of what Shakespeare meant when he wrote it.
+
+The arrival of the piano was naturally a great event in the school. For
+three days in succession the entire school marched in procession down to
+the incoming Eastern train to see if their expected treasure had
+arrived, and when at last it was lifted from the freight-car and set
+upon the station platform the school stood awe-struck and silent, with
+half-bowed heads and bated breath, as though at the arrival of some
+great and honorable guest.
+
+They attended it on the roadside as it was carted by the biggest wagon
+in town to the school-house door; they stood in silent rows while the
+great box was peeled off and the instrument taken out and carried into
+the school-room; then they filed in soulfully and took their accustomed
+seats without being told, touching shyly the shining case as they
+passed. By common consent they waited to hear its voice for the first
+time. Margaret took the little key from the envelope tied to the frame,
+unlocked the cover, and, sitting down, began to play. The rough men who
+had brought it stood in awesome adoration around the platform; the
+silence that spread over that room would have done honor to Paderewski
+or Josef Hoffman.
+
+Margaret played and played, and they could not hear enough. They would
+have stayed all night listening, perhaps, so wonderful was it to them.
+And then the teacher called each one and let him or her touch a few
+chords, just to say they had played on it. After which she locked the
+instrument and sent them all home. That was the only afternoon during
+that term that the play was forgotten for a while.
+
+After the arrival of the piano the play went forward with great
+strides, for now Margaret accompanied some of the parts with the music,
+and the flute and violin were also practised in their elfin dance with
+much better effect. It was about this time that Archie Forsythe
+discovered the rehearsals and offered his assistance, and, although it
+was declined, he frequently managed to ride over about rehearsal time,
+finding ways to make himself useful in spite of Margaret's polite
+refusals. Margaret always felt annoyed when he came, because Rosa Rogers
+instantly became another creature on his arrival, and because Gardley
+simply froze into a polite statue, never speaking except when spoken to.
+As for Forsythe, his attitude toward Gardley was that of a contemptuous
+master toward a slave, and yet he took care to cover it always with a
+form of courtesy, so that Margaret could say or do nothing to show her
+displeasure, except to be grave and dignified. At such times Rosa
+Rogers's eyes would be upon her with a gleam of hatred, and the teacher
+felt that the scholar was taking advantage of the situation. Altogether
+it was a trying time for Margaret when Forsythe came to the
+school-house. Also, he discovered to them that he played the violin, and
+offered to assist in the orchestral parts. Margaret really could think
+of no reason to decline this offer, but she was sadly upset by the whole
+thing. His manner to her was too pronounced, and she felt continually
+uncomfortable under it, what with Rosa Rogers's jealous eyes upon her
+and Gardley's eyes turned haughtily away.
+
+She planned a number of special rehearsals in the evenings, when it was
+difficult for Forsythe to get there, and managed in this way to avoid
+his presence; but the whole matter became a source of much vexation, and
+Margaret even shed a few tears wearily into her pillow one night when
+things had gone particularly hard and Forsythe had hurt the feelings of
+Fiddling Boss with his insolent directions about playing. She could not
+say or do anything much in the matter, because the Temples had been very
+kind in helping to get the piano, and Mr. Temple seemed to think he was
+doing the greatest possible kindness to her in letting Forsythe off duty
+so much to help with the play. The matter became more and more of a
+distress to Margaret, and the Sabbath was the only day of real delight.
+
+The first Sunday after the arrival of the piano was a great day.
+Everybody in the neighborhood turned out to the Sunday-afternoon class
+and vesper service, which had been growing more and more in popularity,
+until now the school-room was crowded. Every man from the bunk-house
+came regularly, often including Pop Wallis, who had not yet recovered
+fully from the effect of his wife's new bonnet and fluffy arrangement of
+hair, but treated her like a lady visitor and deferred to her absolutely
+when he was at home. He wasn't quite sure even yet but he had strayed by
+mistake into the outermost courts of heaven and ought to get shooed out.
+He always looked at the rose-wreathed curtains with a mingling of pride
+and awe.
+
+Margaret had put several hymns on the blackboard in clear, bold
+printing, and the singing that day was wonderful. Not the least part of
+the service was her own playing over of the hymns before the singing
+began, which was listened to with reverence as if it had been the music
+of an angel playing on a heavenly harp.
+
+Gardley always came to the Sunday services, and helped her with the
+singing, and often they two sang duets together.
+
+The service was not always of set form. Usually Margaret taught a short
+Bible lesson, beginning with the general outline of the Bible, its
+books, their form, substance, authors, etc.--all very brief and
+exceedingly simple, putting a wide space of music between this and the
+vesper service, into which she wove songs, bits of poems, passages from
+the Bible, and often a story which she told dramatically, illustrating
+the scripture read.
+
+But the very Sunday before the play, just the time Margaret had looked
+forward to as being her rest from all the perplexities of the week, a
+company from the fort, including the Temples, arrived at the
+school-house right in the midst of the Bible lesson.
+
+The ladies were daintily dressed, and settled their frills and ribbons
+amusedly as they watched the embarrassed young teacher trying to forget
+that there was company present. They were in a distinct sense "company,"
+for they had the air, as they entered, of having come to look on and be
+amused, not to partake in the worship with the rest.
+
+Margaret found herself trembling inwardly as she saw the supercilious
+smile on the lips of Mrs. Temple and the amused stares of the other
+ladies of the party. They did not take any notice of the other people
+present any more than if they had been so many puppets set up to show
+off the teacher; their air of superiority was offensive. Not until Rosa
+Rogers entered with her father, a little later, did they condescend to
+bow in recognition, and then with that pretty little atmosphere as if
+they would say, "Oh, you've come, too, to be amused."
+
+Gardley was sitting up in front, listening to her talk, and she thought
+he had not noticed the strangers. Suddenly it came to her to try to keep
+her nerve and let him see that they were nothing to her; and with a
+strong effort and a swift prayer for help she called for a hymn. She sat
+coolly down at the piano, touching the keys with a tender chord or two
+and beginning to sing almost at once. She had sent home for some old
+hymn-books from the Christian Endeavor Society in her father's church,
+so the congregation were supplied with the notes and words now, and
+everybody took part eagerly, even the people from the fort
+condescendingly joining in.
+
+But Gardley was too much alive to every expression on that vivid face of
+Margaret's to miss knowing that she was annoyed and upset. He did not
+need to turn and look back to immediately discover the cause. He was a
+young person of keen intuition. It suddenly gave him great satisfaction
+to see that look of consternation on Margaret's face. It settled for him
+a question he had been in great and anxious doubt about, and his soul
+was lifted up with peace within him. When, presently, according to
+arrangement, he rose to sing a duet with Margaret, no one could have
+possibly told by so much as the lifting of an eyelash that he knew there
+was an enemy of his in the back of the room. He sang, as did Margaret,
+to the immediate audience in front of him, those admiring children and
+adoring men in the forefront who felt the school-house had become for
+them the gate of heaven for the time being; and he sang with marvelous
+feeling and sympathy, letting out his voice at its best.
+
+"Really," said Mrs. Temple, in a loud whisper to the wife of one of the
+officers, "that young man has a fine voice, and he isn't bad-looking,
+either. I think he'd be worth cultivating. We must have him up and try
+him out."
+
+But when she repeated this remark in another stage whisper to Forsythe
+he frowned haughtily.
+
+The one glimpse Margaret caught of Forsythe during that afternoon's
+service was when he was smiling meaningly at Rosa Rogers; and she had to
+resolutely put the memory of their look from her mind or the story which
+she was about to tell would have fled.
+
+It was the hunger in Jasper Kemp's eyes that finally anchored Margaret's
+thoughts and helped her to forget the company at the back of the room.
+She told her story, and she told it wonderfully and with power,
+interpreting it now and then for the row of men who sat in the center of
+the room drinking in her every word; and when the simple service was
+concluded with another song, in which Gardley's voice rang forth with
+peculiar tenderness and strength, the men filed forth silently,
+solemnly, with bowed heads and thoughtful eyes. But the company from the
+fort flowed up around Margaret like flood-tide let loose and gushed upon
+her.
+
+"Oh, my dear!" said Mrs. Temple. "How beautifully you do it! And such
+attention as they give you! No wonder you are willing to forego all
+other amusements to stay here and preach! But it was perfectly sweet the
+way you made them listen and the way you told that story. I don't see
+how you do it. I'd be scared to death!"
+
+They babbled about her awhile, much to her annoyance, for there were
+several people to whom she had wanted to speak, who drew away and
+disappeared when the new-comers took possession of her. At last,
+however, they mounted and rode away, to her great relief. Forsythe, it
+is true, tried to make her go home with them; tried to escort her to the
+Tanners'; tried to remain in the school-house with her awhile when she
+told him she had something to do there; but she would not let him, and
+he rode away half sulky at the last, a look of injured pride upon his
+face.
+
+Margaret went to the door finally, and looked down the road. He was
+gone, and she was alone. A shade of sadness came over her face. She was
+sorry that Gardley had not waited. She had wanted to tell him how much
+she liked his singing, what a pleasure it was to sing with him, and how
+glad she was that he came up to her need so well with the strangers
+there and helped to make it easy. But Gardley had melted away as soon as
+the service was over, and had probably gone home with the rest of the
+men. It was disappointing, for she had come to consider their little
+time together on Sunday as a very pleasant hour, this few minutes after
+the service when they would talk about real living and the vital things
+of existence. But he was gone!
+
+She turned, and there he was, quite near the door, coming toward her.
+Her face lighted up with a joy that was unmistakable, and his own smile
+in answer was a revelation of his deeper self.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad you are not gone!" she said, eagerly. "I wanted to tell
+you--" And then she stopped, and the color flooded her face rosily, for
+she saw in his eyes how glad he was and forgot to finish her sentence.
+
+He came up gravely, after all, and, standing just a minute so beside the
+door, took both her hands in both his. It was only for a second that he
+stood so, looking down into her eyes. I doubt if either of them knew
+till afterward that they had been holding hands. It seemed the right and
+natural thing to do, and meant so much to each of them. Both were glad
+beyond their own understanding over that moment and its tenderness.
+
+It was all very decorous, and over in a second, but it meant much to
+remember afterward, that look and hand-clasp.
+
+"I wanted to tell you," he said, tenderly, "how much that story did for
+me. It was wonderful, and it helped me to decide something I have been
+perplexed over--"
+
+"Oh, I am glad!" she said, half breathlessly.
+
+So, talking in low, broken sentences, they went back to the piano and
+tried over several songs for the next Sunday, lingering together, just
+happy to be there with each other, and not half knowing the significance
+of it all. As the purple lights on the school-room wall grew long and
+rose-edged, they walked slowly to the Tanner house and said good night.
+
+There was a beauty about the young man as he stood for a moment looking
+down upon the girl in parting, the kind of beauty there is in any
+strong, wild thing made tame and tender for a great love by a great
+uplift. Gardley had that look of self-surrender, and power made
+subservient to right, that crowns a man with strength and more than
+physical beauty. In his fine face there glowed high purpose, and deep
+devotion to the one who had taught it to him. Margaret, looking up at
+him, felt her heart go out with that great love, half maiden, half
+divine, that comes to some favored women even here on earth, and she
+watched him down the road toward the mountain in the evening light and
+marveled how her trust had grown since first she met him; marveled and
+reflected that she had not told her mother and father much about him
+yet. It was growing time to do so; yes--_it was growing time_! Her
+cheeks grew pink in the darkness and she turned and fled to her room.
+
+That was the last time she saw him before the play.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+The play was set for Tuesday. Monday afternoon and evening were to be
+the final rehearsals, but Gardley did not come to them. Fiddling Boss
+came late and said the men had been off all day and had not yet
+returned. He himself found it hard to come at all. They had important
+work on. But there was no word from Gardley.
+
+Margaret was disappointed. She couldn't get away from it. Of course they
+could go on with the rehearsal without him. He had done his work well,
+and there was no real reason why he had to be there. He knew every part
+by heart, and could take any boy's place if any one failed in any way.
+There was nothing further really for him to do until the performance, as
+far as that was concerned, except be there and encourage her. But she
+missed him, and an uneasiness grew in her mind. She had so looked
+forward to seeing him, and now to have no word! He might at least have
+sent her a note when he found he could not come.
+
+Still she knew this was unreasonable. His work, whatever it was--he had
+never explained it very thoroughly to her, perhaps because she had never
+asked--must, of course, have kept him. She must excuse him without
+question and go on with the business of the hour.
+
+Her hands were full enough, for Forsythe came presently and was more
+trying than usual. She had to be very decided and put her foot down
+about one or two things, or some of her actors would have gone home in
+the sulks, and Fiddling Boss, whose part in the program meant much to
+him, would have given it up entirely.
+
+She hurried everything through as soon as possible, knowing she was
+weary, and longing to get to her room and rest. Gardley would come and
+explain to-morrow, likely in the morning on his way somewhere.
+
+But the morning came and no word. Afternoon came and he had not sent a
+sign yet. Some of the little things that he had promised to do about the
+setting of the stage would have to remain undone, for it was too late
+now to do it herself, and there was no one else to call upon.
+
+Into the midst of her perplexity and anxiety came the news that Jed on
+his way home had been thrown from his horse, which was a young and
+vicious one, and had broken his leg. Jed was to act the part of Nick
+Bottom that evening, and he did it well! Now what in the world was she
+to do? If only Gardley would come!
+
+Just at this moment Forsythe arrived.
+
+"Oh, it is you, Mr. Forsythe!" And her tone showed plainly her
+disappointment. "Haven't you seen Mr. Gardley to-day? I don't know what
+I shall do without him."
+
+"I certainly have seen Gardley," said Forsythe, a spice of
+vindictiveness and satisfaction in his tone. "I saw him not two hours
+ago, drunk as a fish, out at a place called Old Ouida's Cabin, as I was
+passing. He's in for a regular spree. You'll not see him for several
+days, I fancy. He's utterly helpless for the present, and out of the
+question. What is there I can do for you? Present your request. It's
+yours--to the half of my kingdom."
+
+Margaret's heart grew cold as ice and then like fire. Her blood seemed
+to stop utterly and then to go pounding through her veins in leaps and
+torrents. Her eyes grew dark, and things swam before her. She reached
+out to a desk and caught at it for support, and her white face looked at
+him a moment as if she had not heard. But when in a second she spoke,
+she said, quite steadily:
+
+"I thank you, Mr. Forsythe; there is nothing just at present--or, yes,
+there is, if you wouldn't mind helping Timothy put up those curtains.
+Now, I think I'll go home and rest a few minutes; I am very tired."
+
+It wasn't exactly the job Forsythe coveted, to stay in the school-house
+and fuss over those curtains; but she made him do it, then disappeared,
+and he didn't like the memory of her white face. He hadn't thought she
+would take it that way. He had expected to have her exclaim with horror
+and disgust. He watched her out of the door, and then turned impatiently
+to the waiting Timothy.
+
+Margaret went outside the school-house to call Bud, who had been sent to
+gather sage-brush for filling in the background, but Bud was already out
+of sight far on the trail toward the camp on Forsythe's horse, riding
+for dear life. Bud had come near to the school-house door with his
+armful of sage-brush just in time to hear Forsythe's flippant speech
+about Gardley and see Margaret's white face. Bud had gone for help!
+
+But Margaret did not go home to rest. She did not even get half-way
+home. When she had gone a very short distance outside the school-house
+she saw some one coming toward her, and in her distress of mind she
+could not tell who it was. Her eyes were blinded with tears, her breath
+was constricted, and it seemed to her that a demon unseen was gripping
+her heart. She had not yet taken her bearings to know what she thought.
+She had only just come dazed from the shock of Forsythe's words, and had
+not the power to think. Over and over to herself, as she walked along,
+she kept repeating the words: "I _do not_ believe it! It is _not_ true!"
+but her inner consciousness had not had time to analyze her soul and be
+sure that she believed the words wherewith she was comforting herself.
+
+So now, when she saw some one coming, she felt the necessity of bringing
+her telltale face to order and getting ready to answer whoever she was
+to meet. As she drew nearer she became suddenly aware that it was Rosa
+Rogers coming with her arms full of bundles and more piled up in front
+of her on her pony. Margaret knew at once that Rosa must have seen
+Forsythe go by her house, and had returned promptly to the school-house
+on some pretext or other. It would not do to let her go there alone with
+the young man; she must go back and stay with them. She could not be
+sure that if she sent Rosa home with orders to rest she would be obeyed.
+Doubtless the girl would take another way around and return to the
+school again. There was nothing for it but to go back and stay as long
+as Rosa did.
+
+Margaret stooped and, hastily plucking a great armful of sage-brush,
+turned around and retraced her steps, her heart like lead, her feet
+suddenly grown heavy. How could she go back and hear them laugh and
+chatter, answer their many silly, unnecessary questions, and stand it
+all? How could she, with that great weight at her heart?
+
+She went back with a wonderful self-control. Forsythe's face lighted,
+and his reluctant hand grew suddenly eager as he worked. Rosa came
+presently, and others, and the laughing chatter went on quite as
+Margaret had known it would. And she--so great is the power of human
+will under pressure--went calmly about and directed here and there;
+planned and executed; put little, dainty, wholly unnecessary touches to
+the stage; and never let any one know that her heart was being crushed
+with the weight of a great, awful fear, and yet steadily upborne by the
+rising of a great, deep trust. As she worked and smiled and ordered, she
+was praying: "Oh, God, don't let it be true! Keep him! Save him! Bring
+him! Make him true! I _know_ he is true! Oh, God, bring him safely
+_soon_!"
+
+Meantime there was nothing she could do. She could not send Forsythe
+after him. She could not speak of the matter to one of those present,
+and Bud--where was Bud? It was the first time since she came to Arizona
+that Bud had failed her. She might not leave the school-house, with
+Forsythe and Rosa there, to go and find him, and she might not do
+anything else. There was nothing to do but work on feverishly and pray
+as she had never prayed before.
+
+By and by one of the smaller boys came, and she sent him back to the
+Tanners' to find Bud, but he returned with the message that Bud had not
+been home since morning; and so the last hours before the evening, that
+would otherwise have been so brief for all there was to be done, dragged
+their weary length away and Margaret worked on.
+
+She did not even go back for supper at the last, but sent one of the
+girls to her room for a few things she needed, and declined even the
+nice little chicken sandwich that thoughtful Mrs. Tanner sent back along
+with the things. And then, at last, the audience began to gather.
+
+By this time her anxiety was so great for Gardley that all thought of
+how she was to supply the place of the absent Jed had gone from her
+mind, which was in a whirl. Gardley! Gardley! If only Gardley would
+come! That was her one thought. What should she do if he didn't come at
+all? How should she explain things to herself afterward? What if it had
+been true? What if he were the kind of man Forsythe had suggested? How
+terrible life would look to her! But it was not true. No, it was not
+true! She trusted him! With her soul she trusted him! He would come back
+some time and he would explain all. She could not remember his last look
+at her on Sunday and not trust him. He was true! He would come!
+
+Somehow she managed to get through the terrible interval, to slip into
+the dressing-room and make herself sweet and comely in the little white
+gown she had sent for, with its delicate blue ribbons and soft lace
+ruffles. Somehow she managed the expected smiles as one and another of
+the audience came around to the platform to speak to her. There were
+dark hollows under her eyes, and her mouth was drawn and weary, but they
+laid that to the excitement. Two bright-red spots glowed on her cheeks;
+but she smiled and talked with her usual gaiety. People looked at her
+and said how beautiful she was, and how bright and untiring; and how
+wonderful it was that Ashland School had drawn such a prize of a
+teacher. The seats filled, the noise and the clatter went on. Still no
+sign of Gardley or any one from the camp, and still Bud had not
+returned! What could it mean?
+
+But the minutes were rushing rapidly now. It was more than time to
+begin. The girls were in a flutter in one cloak-room at the right of the
+stage, asking more questions in a minute than one could answer in an
+hour; the boys in the other cloak-room wanted all sorts of help; and
+three or four of the actors were attacked with stage-fright as they
+peered through a hole in the curtain and saw some friend or relative
+arrive and sit down in the audience. It was all a mad whirl of seemingly
+useless noise and excitement, and she could not, no, she _could not_, go
+on and do the necessary things to start that awful play. Why, oh, _why_
+had she ever been left to think of getting up a play?
+
+Forsythe, up behind the piano, whispered to her that it was time to
+begin. The house was full. There was not room for another soul. Margaret
+explained that Fiddling Boss had not yet arrived, and caught a glimpse
+of the cunning designs of Forsythe in the shifty turning away of his
+eyes as he answered that they could not wait all night for him; that if
+he wanted to get into it he ought to have come early. But even as she
+turned away she saw the little, bobbing, eager faces of Pop and Mom
+Wallis away back by the door, and the grim, towering figure of the Boss,
+his fiddle held high, making his way to the front amid the crowd.
+
+She sat down and touched the keys, her eyes watching eagerly for a
+chance to speak to the Boss and see if he knew anything of Gardley; but
+Forsythe was close beside her all the time, and there was no
+opportunity. She struck the opening chords of the overture they were to
+attempt to play, and somehow got through it. Of course, the audience was
+not a critical one, and there were few real judges of music present; but
+it may be that the truly wonderful effect she produced upon the
+listeners was due to the fact that she was playing a prayer with her
+heart as her fingers touched the keys, and that instead of a preliminary
+to a fairy revel the music told the story of a great soul struggle, and
+reached hearts as it tinkled and rolled and swelled on to the end. It
+may be, too, that Fiddling Boss was more in sympathy that night with his
+accompanist than was the other violinist, and that was why his old
+fiddle brought forth such weird and tender tones.
+
+Almost to the end, with her heart sobbing its trouble to the keys,
+Margaret looked up sadly, and there, straight before her through a hole
+in the curtain made by some rash youth to glimpse the audience, or
+perhaps even put there by the owner of the nose itself, she saw the
+little, freckled, turned-up member belonging to Bud's face. A second
+more and a big, bright eye appeared and solemnly winked at her twice, as
+if to say, "Don't you worry; it's all right!"
+
+She almost started from the stool, but kept her head enough to finish
+the chords, and as they died away she heard a hoarse whisper in Bud's
+familiar voice:
+
+"Whoop her up, Miss Earle. We're all ready. Raise the curtain there, you
+guy. Let her rip. Everything's O. K."
+
+With a leap of light into her eyes Margaret turned the leaves of the
+music and went on playing as she should have done if nothing had been
+the matter. Bud was there, anyway, and that somehow cheered her heart.
+Perhaps Gardley had come or Bud had heard of him--and yet, Bud didn't
+know he had been missing, for Bud had been away himself.
+
+Nevertheless, she summoned courage to go on playing. Nick Bottom wasn't
+in this first scene, anyway, and this would have to be gone through with
+somehow. By this time she was in a state of daze that only thought from
+moment to moment. The end of the evening seemed now to her as far off as
+the end of a hale old age seems at the beginning of a lifetime. Somehow
+she must walk through it; but she could only see a step at a time.
+
+Once she turned half sideways to the audience and gave a hurried glance
+about, catching sight of Fudge's round, near-sighted face, and that gave
+her encouragement. Perhaps the others were somewhere present. If only
+she could get a chance to whisper to some one from the camp and ask
+when they had seen Gardley last! But there was no chance, of course!
+
+The curtain was rapidly raised and the opening scene of the play began,
+the actors going through their parts with marvelous ease and dexterity,
+and the audience silent and charmed, watching those strangers in queer
+costumes that were their own children, marching around there at their
+ease and talking weird language that was not used in any class of
+society they had ever come across on sea or land before.
+
+But Margaret, watching her music as best she could, and playing
+mechanically rather than with her mind, could not tell if they were
+doing well or ill, so loudly did her heart pound out her fears--so
+stoutly did her heart proclaim her trust.
+
+And thus, without a flaw or mistake in the execution of the work she had
+struggled so hard to teach them, the first scene of the first act drew
+to its close, and Margaret struck the final chords of the music and felt
+that in another minute she must reel and fall from that piano-stool. And
+yet she sat and watched the curtain fall with a face as controlled as if
+nothing at all were the matter.
+
+A second later she suddenly knew that to sit in that place calmly
+another second was a physical impossibility. She must get somewhere to
+the air at once or her senses would desert her.
+
+With a movement so quick that no one could have anticipated it, she
+slipped from her piano-stool, under the curtain to the stage, and was
+gone before the rest of the orchestra had noticed her intention.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+Since the day that he had given Margaret his promise to make good,
+Gardley had been regularly employed by Mr. Rogers, looking after
+important matters of his ranch. Before that he had lived a free and easy
+life, working a little now and then when it seemed desirable to him,
+having no set interest in life, and only endeavoring from day to day to
+put as far as possible from his mind the life he had left behind him.
+Now, however, all things became different. He brought to his service the
+keen mind and ready ability that had made him easily a winner at any
+game, a brave rider, and a never-failing shot. Within a few days Rogers
+saw what material was in him, and as the weeks went by grew to depend
+more and more upon his advice in matters.
+
+There had been much trouble with cattle thieves, and so far no method of
+stopping the loss or catching the thieves had been successful. Rogers
+finally put the matter into Gardley's hands to carry out his own ideas,
+with the men of the camp at his command to help him, the camp itself
+being only a part of Rogers's outlying possessions, one of several such
+centers from which he worked his growing interests.
+
+Gardley had formulated a scheme by which he hoped eventually to get
+hold of the thieves and put a stop to the trouble, and he was pretty
+sure he was on the right track; but his plan required slow and cautious
+work, that the enemy might not suspect and take to cover. He had for
+several weeks suspected that the thieves made their headquarters in the
+region of Old Ouida's Cabin, and made their raids from that direction.
+It was for this reason that of late the woods and trails in the vicinity
+of Ouida's had been secretly patrolled day and night, and every
+passer-by taken note of, until Gardley knew just who were the
+frequenters of that way and mostly what was their business. This work
+was done alternately by the men of the Wallis camp and two other camps,
+Gardley being the head of all and carrying all responsibility; and not
+the least of that young man's offenses in the eyes of Rosa Rogers was
+that he was so constantly at her father's house and yet never lifted an
+eye in admiration of her pretty face. She longed to humiliate him, and
+through him to humiliate Margaret, who presumed to interfere with her
+flirtations, for it was a bitter thing to Rosa that Forsythe had no eyes
+for her when Margaret was about.
+
+When the party from the fort rode homeward that Sunday after the service
+at the school-house, Forsythe lingered behind to talk to Margaret, and
+then rode around by the Rogers place, where Rosa and he had long ago
+established a trysting-place.
+
+Rosa was watching for his passing, and he stopped a half-hour or so to
+talk to her. During this time she casually disclosed to Forsythe some of
+the plans she had overheard Gardley laying before her father. Rosa had
+very little idea of the importance of Gardley's work to her father, or
+perhaps she would not have so readily prattled of his affairs. Her main
+idea was to pay back Gardley for his part in her humiliation with
+Forsythe. She suggested that it would be a great thing if Gardley could
+be prevented from being at the play Tuesday evening, and told what she
+had overheard him saying to her father merely to show Forsythe how easy
+it would be to have Gardley detained on Tuesday. Forsythe questioned
+Rosa keenly. Did she know whom they suspected? Did she know what they
+were planning to do to catch them, and when?
+
+Rosa innocently enough disclosed all she knew, little thinking how
+dishonorable to her father it was, and perhaps caring as little, for
+Rosa had ever been a spoiled child, accustomed to subordinating
+everything within reach to her own uses. As for Forsythe, he was nothing
+loath to get rid of Gardley, and he saw more possibilities in Rosa's
+suggestion than she had seen herself. When at last he bade Rosa good
+night and rode unobtrusively back to the trail he was already
+formulating a plan.
+
+It was, therefore, quite in keeping with his wishes that he should meet
+a dark-browed rider a few miles farther up the trail whose identity he
+had happened to learn a few days before.
+
+Now Forsythe would, perhaps, not have dared to enter into any compact
+against Gardley with men of such ill-repute had it been a matter of
+money and bribery, but, armed as he was with information valuable to the
+criminals, he could so word his suggestion about Gardley's detention as
+to make the hunted men think it to their advantage to catch Gardley
+some time the next day when he passed their way and imprison him for a
+while. This would appear to be but a friendly bit of advice from a
+disinterested party deserving a good turn some time in the future and
+not get Forsythe into any trouble. As such it was received by the
+wretch, who clutched at the information with ill-concealed delight and
+rode away into the twilight like a serpent threading his secret, gliding
+way among the darkest places, scarcely rippling the air, so stealthily
+did he pass.
+
+As for Forsythe, he rode blithely to the Temple ranch, with no thought
+of the forces he had set going, his life as yet one round of trying to
+please himself at others' expense, if need be, but please himself,
+_anyway_, with whatever amusement the hour afforded.
+
+At home in the East, where his early life had been spent, a splendid
+girl awaited his dilatory letters and set herself patiently to endure
+the months of separation until he should have attained a home and a
+living and be ready for her to come to him.
+
+In the South, where he had idled six months before he went West, another
+lovely girl cherished mementoes of his tarrying and wrote him loving
+letters in reply to his occasional erratic epistles.
+
+Out on the Californian shore a girl with whom he had traveled West in
+her uncle's luxurious private car, with a gay party of friends and
+relatives, cherished fond hopes of a visit he had promised to make her
+during the winter.
+
+Innumerable maidens of this world, wise in the wisdom that crushes
+hearts, remembered him with a sigh now and then, but held no illusions
+concerning his kind.
+
+Pretty little Rosa Rogers cried her eyes out every time he cast a
+languishing look at her teacher, and several of the ladies of the fort
+sighed that the glance of his eye and the gentle pressure of his hand
+could only be a passing joy. But the gay Lothario passed on his way as
+yet without a scratch on the hard enamel of his heart, till one wondered
+if it were a heart, indeed, or perhaps only a metal imitation. But girls
+like Margaret Earle, though they sometimes were attracted by him,
+invariably distrusted him. He was like a beautiful spotted snake that
+was often caught menacing something precious, but you could put him down
+anywhere after punishment or imprisonment and he would slide on his same
+slippery way and still be a spotted, deadly snake.
+
+When Gardley left the camp that Monday morning following the walk home
+with Margaret from the Sabbath service, he fully intended to be back at
+the school-house Monday by the time the afternoon rehearsal began. His
+plans were so laid that he thought relays from other camps were to guard
+the suspected ground for the next three days and he could be free. It
+had been a part of the information that Forsythe had given the stranger
+that Gardley would likely pass a certain lonely crossing of the trail at
+about three o'clock that afternoon, and, had that arrangement been
+carried out, the men who lay in wait for him would doubtless have been
+pleased to have their plans mature so easily; but they would not have
+been pleased long, for Gardley's men were so near at hand at that time,
+watching that very spot with eyes and ears and long-distance glasses,
+that their chief would soon have been rescued and the captors be
+themselves the captured.
+
+But the men from the farther camp, called "Lone Fox" men, did not arrive
+on time, perhaps through some misunderstanding, and Gardley and Kemp and
+their men had to do double time. At last, later in the afternoon,
+Gardley volunteered to go to Lone Fox and bring back the men.
+
+As he rode his thoughts were of Margaret, and he was seeing again the
+look of gladness in her eyes when she found he had not gone yesterday;
+feeling again the thrill of her hands in his, the trust of her smile! It
+was incredible, wonderful, that God had sent a veritable angel into the
+wilderness to bring him to himself; and now he was wondering, could it
+be that there was really hope that he could ever make good enough to
+dare to ask her to marry him. The sky and the air were rare, but his
+thoughts were rarer still, and his soul was lifted up with joy. He was
+earning good wages now. In two more weeks he would have enough to pay
+back the paltry sum for the lack of which he had fled from his old home
+and come to the wilderness. He would go back, of course, and straighten
+out the old score. Then what? Should he stay in the East and go back to
+the old business wherewith he had hoped to make his name honored and
+gain wealth, or should he return to this wild, free land again and start
+anew?
+
+His mother was dead. Perhaps if she had lived and cared he would have
+made good in the first place. His sisters were both married to wealthy
+men and not deeply interested in him. He had disappointed and mortified
+them; their lives were filled with social duties; they had never missed
+him. His father had been dead many years. As for his uncle, his mother's
+brother, whose heir he was to have been before he got himself into
+disgrace, he decided not to go near him. He would stay as long as he
+must to undo the wrong he had done. He would call on his sisters and
+then come back; come back and let Margaret decide what she wanted him to
+do--that is, if she would consent to link her life with one who had been
+once a failure. Margaret! How wonderful she was! If Margaret said he
+ought to go back and be a lawyer, he would go--yes, even if he had to
+enter his uncle's office as an underling to do it. His soul loathed the
+idea, but he would do it for Margaret, if she thought it best. And so he
+mused as he rode!
+
+When the Lone Fox camp was reached and the men sent out on their belated
+task, Gardley decided not to go with them back to meet Kemp and the
+other men, but sent word to Kemp that he had gone the short cut to
+Ashland, hoping to get to a part of the evening rehearsal yet.
+
+Now that short cut led him to the lonely crossing of the trail much
+sooner than Kemp and the others could reach it from the rendezvous; and
+there in cramped positions, and with much unnecessary cursing and
+impatience, four strong masked men had been concealed for four long
+hours.
+
+Through the stillness of the twilight rode Gardley, thinking of
+Margaret, and for once utterly off his guard. His long day's work was
+done, and though he had not been able to get back when he planned, he
+was free now, free until the day after to-morrow. He would go at once to
+her and see if there was anything she wanted him to do.
+
+Then, as if to help along his enemies, he began to hum a song, his
+clear, high voice reaching keenly to the ears of the men in ambush:
+
+    "'Oh, the time is long, mavourneen,
+    Till I come again, O mavourneen--'"
+
+"And the toime 'll be longer thun iver, oim thinkin', ma purty little
+voorneen!" said an unmistakable voice of Erin through the gathering
+dusk.
+
+Gardley's horse stopped and Gardley's hand went to his revolver, while
+his other hand lifted the silver whistle to his lips; but four guns
+bristled at him in the twilight, the whistle was knocked from his lips
+before his breath had even reached it, some one caught his arms from
+behind, and his own weapon was wrenched from his hand as it went off.
+The cry which he at once sent forth was stifled in its first whisper in
+a great muffling garment flung over his head and drawn tightly about his
+neck. He was in a fair way to strangle, and his vigorous efforts at
+escape were useless in the hands of so many. He might have been plunged
+at once into a great abyss of limitless, soundless depths, so futile did
+any resistance seem. And so, as it was useless to struggle, he lay like
+one dead and put all his powers into listening. But neither could he
+hear much, muffled as he was, and bound hand and foot now, with a gag in
+his mouth and little care taken whether he could even breathe.
+
+They were leading him off the trail and up over rough ground; so much he
+knew, for the horse stumbled and jolted and strained to carry him. To
+keep his whirling senses alive and alert he tried to think where they
+might be leading him; but the darkness and the suffocation dulled his
+powers. He wondered idly if his men would miss him and come back when
+they got home to search for him, and then remembered with a pang that
+they would think him safely in Ashland, helping Margaret. They would not
+be alarmed if he did not return that night, for they would suppose he
+had stopped at Rogers's on the way and perhaps stayed all night, as he
+had done once or twice before. _Margaret!_ When should he see Margaret
+now? What would she think?
+
+And then he swooned away.
+
+When he came somewhat to himself he was in a close, stifling room where
+candle-light from a distance threw weird shadows over the adobe walls.
+The witch-like voices of a woman and a girl in harsh, cackling laughter,
+half suppressed, were not far away, and some one, whose face was
+covered, was holding a glass to his lips. The smell was sickening, and
+he remembered that he hated the thought of liquor. It did not fit with
+those who companied with Margaret. He had never cared for it, and had
+resolved never to taste it again. But whether he chose or not, the
+liquor was poured down his throat. Huge hands held him and forced it,
+and he was still bound and too weak to resist, even if he had realized
+the necessity.
+
+The liquid burned its way down his throat and seethed into his brain,
+and a great darkness, mingled with men's wrangling voices and much
+cursing, swirled about him like some furious torrent of angry waters
+that finally submerged his consciousness. Then came deeper darkness and
+a blank relief from pain.
+
+Hours passed. He heard sounds sometimes, and dreamed dreams which he
+could not tell from reality. He saw his friends with terror written on
+their faces, while he lay apathetically and could not stir. He saw tears
+on Margaret's face; and once he was sure he heard Forsythe's voice in
+contempt: "Well, he seems to be well occupied for the present! No danger
+of his waking up for a while!" and then the voices all grew dim and far
+away again, and only an old crone and the harsh girl's whisper over him;
+and then Margaret's tears--tears that fell on his heart from far above,
+and seemed to melt out all his early sins and flood him with their
+horror. Tears and the consciousness that he ought to be doing something
+for Margaret now and could not. Tears--and more darkness!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+When Margaret arrived behind the curtain she was aware of many cries and
+questions hurled at her like an avalanche, but, ignoring them all, she
+sprang past the noisy, excited group of young people, darted through the
+dressing-room to the right and out into the night and coolness. Her head
+was swimming, and things went black before her eyes. She felt that her
+breath was going, going, and she must get to the air.
+
+But when she passed the hot wave of the school-room, and the sharp air
+of the night struck her face, consciousness seemed to turn and come back
+into her again; for there over her head was the wideness of the vast,
+starry Arizona night, and there, before her, in Nick Bottom's somber
+costume, eating one of the chicken sandwiches that Mrs. Tanner had sent
+down to her, stood Gardley! He was pale and shaken from his recent
+experience; but he was undaunted, and when he saw Margaret coming toward
+him through the doorway with her soul in her eyes and her spirit all
+aflame with joy and relief, he came to meet her under the stars, and,
+forgetting everything else, just folded her gently in his arms!
+
+It was a most astonishing thing to do, of course, right there outside
+the dressing-room door, with the curtain just about to rise on the scene
+and Gardley's wig was not on yet. He had not even asked nor obtained
+permission. But the soul sometimes grows impatient waiting for the lips
+to speak, and Margaret felt her trust had been justified and her heart
+had found its home. Right there behind the school-house, out in the
+great wide night, while the crowded, clamoring audience waited for them,
+and the young actors grew frantic, they plighted their troth, his lips
+upon hers, and with not a word spoken.
+
+Voices from the dressing-room roused them. "Come in quick, Mr. Gardley;
+it's time for the curtain to rise, and everybody is ready. Where on
+earth has Miss Earle vanished? Miss Earle! Oh, Miss Earle!"
+
+There was a rush to the dressing-room to find the missing ones; but Bud,
+as ever, present where was the most need, stood with his back to the
+outside world in the door of the dressing-room and called loudly:
+
+"They're comin', all right. Go on! Get to your places. Miss Earle says
+to get to your places."
+
+The two in the darkness groped for each other's hands as they stood
+suddenly apart, and with one quick pressure and a glance hurried in.
+There was not any need for words. They understood, these two, and
+trusted.
+
+With her cheeks glowing now, and her eyes like two stars, Margaret fled
+across the stage and took her place at the piano again, just as the
+curtain began to be drawn; and Forsythe, who had been slightly uneasy at
+the look on her face as she left them, wondered now and leaned forward
+to tell her how well she was looking.
+
+He kept his honeyed phrase to himself, however, for she was not heeding
+him. Her eyes were on the rising curtain, and Forsythe suddenly
+remembered that this was the scene in which Jed was to have
+appeared--and Jed had a broken leg! What had Margaret done about it? It
+was scarcely a part that could be left out. Why hadn't he thought of it
+sooner and offered to take it? He could have bluffed it out somehow--he
+had heard it so much--made up words where he couldn't remember them all,
+and it would have been a splendid opportunity to do some real
+love-making with Rosa. Why hadn't he thought of it? Why hadn't Rosa?
+Perhaps she hadn't heard about Jed soon enough to suggest it.
+
+The curtain was fully open now, and Bud's voice as Peter Quince, a
+trifle high and cracked with excitement, broke the stillness, while the
+awed audience gazed upon this new, strange world presented to them.
+
+"Is all our company here?" lilted out Bud, excitedly, and Nick Bottom
+replied with Gardley's voice:
+
+"You were best to call them generally, man by man, according to the
+scrip."
+
+Forsythe turned deadly white. Jasper Kemp, whose keen eye was upon him,
+saw it through the tan, saw his lips go pale and purple points of fear
+start in his eyes, as he looked and looked again, and could not believe
+his senses.
+
+Furtively he darted a glance around, like one about to steal away; then,
+seeing Jasper Kemp's eyes upon him, settled back with a strained look
+upon his face. Once he stole a look at Margaret and caught her face all
+transfigured with great joy; looked again and felt rebuked somehow by
+the pureness of her maiden joy and trust.
+
+Not once had she turned her eyes to his. He was forgotten, and somehow
+he knew the look he would get if she should see him. It would be
+contempt and scorn that would burn his very soul. It is only a maid now
+and then to whom it is given thus to pierce and bruise the soul of a man
+who plays with love and trust and womanhood for selfishness. Such a
+woman never knows her power. She punishes all unconscious to herself. It
+was so that Margaret Earle, without being herself aware, and by her very
+indifference and contempt, showed the little soul of this puppet man to
+himself.
+
+He stole away at last when he thought no one was looking, and reached
+the back of the school-house at the open door of the girls'
+dressing-room, where he knew Titania would be posing in between the
+acts. He beckoned her to his side and began to question her in quick,
+eager, almost angry tones, as if the failure of their plans were her
+fault. Had her father been at home all day? Had anything happened--any
+one been there? Did Gardley come? Had there been any report from the
+men? Had that short, thick-set Scotchman with the ugly grin been there?
+She must remember that she was the one to suggest the scheme in the
+first place, and it was her business to keep a watch. There was no
+telling now what might happen. He turned, and there stood Jasper Kemp
+close to his elbow, his short stature drawn to its full, his thick-set
+shoulders squaring themselves, his ugly grin standing out in bold
+relief, menacingly, in the night.
+
+The young man let forth some words not in a gentleman's code, and turned
+to leave the frightened girl, who by this time was almost crying; but
+Jasper Kemp kept pace with Forsythe as he walked.
+
+"Was you addressing me?" he asked, politely; "because I could tell you a
+few things a sight more appropriate for you than what you just handed to
+me."
+
+Forsythe hurried around to the front of the school-house, making no
+reply.
+
+"Nice, pleasant evening to be _free_," went on Jasper Kemp, looking up
+at the stars. "Rather onpleasant for some folks that have to be shut up
+in jail."
+
+Forsythe wheeled upon him. "What do you mean?" he demanded, angrily,
+albeit he was white with fear.
+
+"Oh, nothing much," drawled Jasper, affably. "I was just thinking how
+much pleasanter it was to be a free man than shut up in prison on a
+night like this. It's so much healthier, you know."
+
+Forsythe looked at him a moment, a kind of panic of intelligence growing
+in his face; then he turned and went toward the back of the
+school-house, where he had left his horse some hours before.
+
+"Where are you going?" demanded Jasper. "It's 'most time you went back
+to your fiddling, ain't it?"
+
+But Forsythe answered him not a word. He was mounting his horse
+hurriedly--his horse, which, all unknown to him, had been many miles
+since he last rode him.
+
+"You think you have to go, then?" said Jasper, deprecatingly. "Well,
+now, that's a pity, seeing you was fiddling so nice an' all. Shall I
+tell them you've gone for your health?"
+
+Thus recalled, Forsythe stared at his tormentor wildly for a second.
+"Tell her--tell her"--he muttered, hoarsely--"tell her I've been taken
+suddenly ill." And he was off on a wild gallop toward the fort.
+
+"I'll tell her you've gone for your health!" called Jasper Kemp, with
+his hands to his mouth like a megaphone. "I reckon he won't return again
+very soon, either," he chuckled. "This country's better off without such
+pests as him an' that measley parson." Then, turning, he beheld Titania,
+the queen of the fairies, white and frightened, staring wildly into the
+starry darkness after the departed rider. "Poor little fool!" he
+muttered under his breath as he looked at the girl and turned away.
+"Poor, pretty little fool!" Suddenly he stepped up to her side and
+touched her white-clad shoulder gently. "Don't you go for to care,
+lassie," he said in a tender tone. "He ain't worth a tear from your
+pretty eye. He ain't fit to wipe your feet on--your pretty wee feet!"
+
+But Rosa turned angrily and stamped her foot.
+
+"Go away! You bad old man!" she shrieked. "Go away! I shall tell my
+father!" And she flouted herself into the school-house.
+
+Jasper stood looking ruefully after her, shaking his head. "The little
+de'il!" he said aloud; "the poor, pretty little de'il. She'll get her
+dues aplenty afore she's done." And Jasper went back to the play.
+
+Meantime, inside the school-house, the play went gloriously on to the
+finish, and Gardley as Nick Bottom took the house by storm. Poor absent
+Jed's father, sent by the sufferer to report it all, stood at the back
+of the house while tears of pride and disappointment rolled down his
+cheeks--pride that Jed had been so well represented, disappointment that
+it couldn't have been his son up there play-acting like that.
+
+The hour was late when the play was over, and Margaret stood at last in
+front of the stage to receive the congratulations of the entire
+countryside, while the young actors posed and laughed and chattered
+excitedly, then went away by two and threes, their tired, happy voices
+sounding back along the road. The people from the fort had been the
+first to surge around Margaret with their eager congratulations and
+gushing sentiments: "So sweet, my dear! So perfectly wonderful! You
+really have got some dandy actors!" And, "Why don't you try something
+lighter--something simpler, don't you know. Something really popular
+that these poor people could understand and appreciate? A little farce!
+I could help you pick one out!"
+
+And all the while they gushed Jasper Kemp and his men, grim and
+forbidding, stood like a cordon drawn about her to protect her, with
+Gardley in the center, just behind her, as though he had a right there
+and meant to stay; till at last the fort people hurried away and the
+school-house grew suddenly empty with just those two and the eight men
+behind; and by the door Bud, talking to Pop and Mom Wallis in the
+buckboard outside.
+
+Amid this admiring bodyguard at last Gardley took Margaret home.
+Perhaps she wondered a little that they all went along, but she laid it
+to their pride in the play and their desire to talk it over.
+
+They had sent Mom and Pop Wallis home horseback, after all, and put
+Margaret and Gardley in the buckboard, Margaret never dreaming that it
+was because Gardley was not fit to walk. Indeed, he did not realize
+himself why they all stuck so closely to him. He had lived through so
+much since Jasper and his men had burst into his prison and freed him,
+bringing him in hot haste to the school-house, with Bud wildly riding
+ahead. But it was enough for him to sit beside Margaret in the sweet
+night and remember how she had come out to him under the stars. Her hand
+lay beside him on the seat, and without intending it his own brushed it.
+Then he laid his gently, reverently, down upon hers with a quiet
+pressure, and her smaller fingers thrilled and nestled in his grasp.
+
+In the shadow of a big tree beside the house he bade her good-by, the
+men busying themselves with turning about the buckboard noisily, and Bud
+discreetly taking himself to the back door to get one of the men a drink
+of water.
+
+"You have been suffering in some way," said Margaret, with sudden
+intuition, as she looked up into Gardley's face. "You have been in
+peril, somehow--"
+
+"A little," he answered, lightly. "I'll tell you about it to-morrow. I
+mustn't keep the men waiting now. I shall have a great deal to tell you
+to-morrow--if you will let me. Good night, _Margaret_!" Their hands
+lingered in a clasp, and then he rode away with his bodyguard.
+
+But Margaret did not have to wait until the morrow to hear the story,
+for Bud was just fairly bursting.
+
+Mrs. Tanner had prepared a nice little supper--more cold chicken, pie,
+doughnuts, coffee, some of her famous marble cake, and preserves--and
+she insisted on Margaret's coming into the dining-room and eating it,
+though the girl would much rather have gone with her happy heart up to
+her own room by herself.
+
+Bud did not wait on ceremony. He began at once when Margaret was seated,
+even before his mother could get her properly waited on.
+
+"Well, we had _some ride_, we sure did! The Kid's a great old scout."
+
+Margaret perceived that this was a leader. "Why, that's so, what became
+of you, William? I hunted everywhere for you. Things were pretty
+strenuous there for a while, and I needed you dreadfully."
+
+"Well, I know," Bud apologized. "I'd oughta let you know before I went,
+but there wasn't time. You see, I had to pinch that guy's horse to go,
+and I knew it was just a chance if we could get back, anyway; but I had
+to take it. You see, if I could 'a' gone right to the cabin it would
+have been a dead cinch, but I had to ride to camp for the men, and then,
+taking the short trail across, it was some ride to Ouida's Cabin!"
+
+Mrs. Tanner stepped aghast as she was cutting a piece of dried-apple pie
+for Margaret. "Now, Buddie--mother's boy--you don't mean to tell me
+_you_ went to _Ouida's Cabin_? Why, sonnie, that's an _awful place_!
+Don't you know your pa told you he'd whip you if you ever went on that
+trail?"
+
+"I should worry, Ma! I _had_ to go. They had Mr. Gardley tied up there,
+and we had to go and get him rescued."
+
+"_You_ had to go, Buddie--now what could _you_ do in that awful place?"
+Mrs. Tanner was almost reduced to tears. She saw her offspring at the
+edge of perdition at once.
+
+But Bud ignored his mother and went on with his tale. "You jest oughta
+seen Jap Kemp's face when I told him what that guy said to you! Some
+face, b'lieve me! He saw right through the whole thing, too. I could see
+that! He ner the men hadn't had a bite o' supper yet; they'd just got
+back from somewheres. They thought the Kid was over here all day helping
+you. He said yesterday when he left 'em here's where he's
+a-comin'"--Bud's mouth was so full he could hardly articulate--"an' when
+I told 'em, he jest blew his little whistle--like what they all
+carry--three times, and those men every one jest stopped right where
+they was, whatever they was doin'. Long Bill had the comb in the air
+gettin' ready to comb his hair, an' he left it there and come away, and
+Big Jim never stopped to wipe his face on the roller-towel, he just let
+the wind dry it; and they all hustled on their horses fast as ever they
+could and beat it after Jap Kemp. Jap, he rode alongside o' me and asked
+me questions. He made me tell all what the guy from the fort said over
+again, three or four times, and then he ast what time he got to the
+school-house, and whether the Kid had been there at all yest'iday ur
+t'day; and a lot of other questions, and then he rode alongside each man
+and told him in just a few words where we was goin' and what the guy
+from the fort had said. Gee! but you'd oughta heard what the men said
+when he told 'em! Gee! but they was some mad! Bimeby we came to the
+woods round the cabin, and Jap Kemp made me stick alongside Long Bill,
+and he sent the men off in different directions all in a _big_ circle,
+and waited till each man was in his place, and then we all rode hard as we
+could and came softly up round that cabin just as the sun was goin' down.
+Gee! but you'd oughta seen the scairt look on them women's faces; there
+was two of 'em--an old un an' a skinny-looking long-drink-o'-pump-water.
+I guess she was a girl. I don't know. Her eyes looked real old. There
+was only three men in the cabin; the rest was off somewheres. They
+wasn't looking for anybody to come that time o' day, I guess. One of the
+men was sick on a bunk in the corner. He had his head tied up, and his
+arm, like he'd been shot, and the other two men came jumping up to the
+door with their guns, but when they saw how many men _we_ had they
+looked awful scairt. _We_ all had _our_ guns out, too!--Jap Kemp gave me
+one to carry--" Bud tried not to swagger as he told this, but it was
+almost too much for him. "Two of our men held the horses, and all the
+rest of us got down and went into the cabin. Jap Kemp, sounded his
+whistle and all our men done the same just as they went in the
+door--some kind of signals they have for the Lone Fox Camp! The two men
+in the doorway aimed straight at Jap Kemp and fired, but Jap was onto
+'em and jumped one side and our men fired, too, and we soon had 'em tied
+up and went in--that is, Jap and me and Long Bill went in, the rest
+stayed by the door--and it wasn't long 'fore their other men came riding
+back hot haste; they'd heard the shots, you know--and some more of _our_
+men--why, most twenty or thirty there was, I guess, altogether; some
+from Lone Fox Camp that was watching off in the woods came and when we
+got outside again there they all were, like a big army. Most of the men
+belonging to the cabin was tied and harmless by that time, for our men
+took 'em one at a time as they came riding in. Two of 'em got away, but
+Jap Kemp said they couldn't go far without being caught, 'cause there
+was a watch out for 'em--they'd been stealing cattle long back something
+terrible. Well, so Jap Kemp and Long Bill and I went into the cabin
+after the two men that shot was tied with ropes we'd brung along, and
+handcuffs, and we went hunting for the Kid. At first we couldn't find
+him at all. Gee! It was something fierce! And the old woman kep'
+a-crying and saying we'd kill her sick son, and she didn't know nothing
+about the man we was hunting for. But pretty soon I spied the Kid's foot
+stickin' out from under the cot where the sick man was, and when I told
+Jap Kemp that sick man pulled out a gun he had under the blanket and
+aimed it right at me!"
+
+"Oh, mother's little Buddie!" whimpered Mrs. Tanner, with her apron to
+her eyes.
+
+"_Aw, Ma_, cut it out! _he_ didn't _hurt_ me! The gun just went off
+crooked, and grazed Jap Kemp's hand a little, not much. Jap knocked it
+out of the sick man's hand just as he was pullin' the trigger. Say, Ma,
+ain't you got any more of those cucumber pickles? It makes a man mighty
+hungry to do all that riding and shooting. Well, it certainly was
+something fierce--Say, Miss Earle, you take that last piece o' pie. Oh,
+g'wan! _Take_ it! _You_ worked hard. No, I don't want it, really! Well,
+if you won't take it _anyway_, I might eat it just to save it. Got any
+more coffee, Ma?"
+
+But Margaret was not eating. Her face was pale and her eyes were starry
+with unshed tears, and she waited in patient but breathless suspense for
+the vagaries of the story to work out to the finish.
+
+"Yes, it certainly was something fierce, that cabin," went on the
+narrator. "Why, Ma, it looked as if it had never been swept under that
+cot when we hauled the Kid out. He was tied all up in knots, and great
+heavy ropes wound tight from his shoulders down to his ankles. Why, they
+were bound so tight they made great heavy welts in his wrists and
+shoulders and round his ankles when we took 'em off; and they had a
+great big rag stuffed into his mouth so he couldn't yell. Gee! It was
+something fierce! He was 'most dippy, too; but Jap Kemp brought him
+round pretty quick and got him outside in the air. That was the worst
+place I ever was in myself. You couldn't breathe, and the dirt was
+something fierce. It was like a pigpen. I sure was glad to get outdoors
+again. And then--well, the Kid came around all right and they got him on
+a horse and gave him something out of a bottle Jap Kemp had, and pretty
+soon he could ride again. Why, you'd oughta seen his nerve. He just sat
+up there as straight, his lips all white yet and his eyes looked some
+queer; but he straightened up and he looked those rascals right in the
+eye, and told 'em a few things, and he gave orders to the other men from
+Lone Fox Camp what to do with 'em; and he had the two women
+disarmed--they had guns, too--and carried away, and the cabin nailed up,
+and a notice put on the door, and every one of those men were
+handcuffed--the sick one and all--and he told 'em to bring a wagon and
+put the sick one's cot in and take 'em over to Ashland to the jail, and
+he sent word to Mr. Rogers. Then we rode home and got to the
+school-house just when you was playing the last chords of the ov'rtcher.
+Gee! It was some fierce ride and some _close shave_! The Kid he hadn't
+had a thing to eat since Monday noon, and he was some hungry! I found a
+sandwich on the window of the dressing-room, and he ate it while he got
+togged up--'course I told him 'bout Jed soon's we left the cabin, and
+Jap Kemp said he'd oughta go right home to camp after all he had been
+through; but he wouldn't; he said he was goin' to _act_. So 'course he
+had his way! But, gee! You could see it wasn't any cinch game for him!
+He 'most fell over every time after the curtain fell. You see, they gave
+him some kind of drugged whisky up there at the cabin that made his head
+feel queer. Say, he thinks that guy from the fort came in and looked at
+him once while he was asleep. He says it was only a dream, but I bet he
+did. Say, Ma, ain't you gonta give me another doughnut?"
+
+In the quiet of her chamber at last, Margaret knelt before her window
+toward the purple, shadowy mountain under the starry dome, and gave
+thanks for the deliverance of Gardley; while Bud, in his comfortable
+loft, lay down to his well-earned rest and dreamed of pirates and angels
+and a hero who looked like the Kid.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+The Sunday before Lance Gardley started East on his journey of
+reparation two strangers slipped quietly into the back of the
+school-house during the singing of the first hymn and sat down in the
+shadow by the door.
+
+Margaret was playing the piano when they came in, and did not see them,
+and when she turned back to her Scripture lesson she had time for but
+the briefest of glances. She supposed they must be some visitors from
+the fort, as they were speaking to the captain's wife----who came over
+occasionally to the Sunday service, perhaps because it afforded an
+opportunity for a ride with one of the young officers. These occasional
+visitors who came for amusement and curiosity had ceased to trouble
+Margaret. Her real work was with the men and women and children who
+loved the services for their own sake, and she tried as much as possible
+to forget outsiders. So, that day everything went on just as usual,
+Margaret putting her heart into the prayer, the simple, storylike
+reading of the Scripture, and the other story-sermon which followed it.
+Gardley sang unusually well at the close, a wonderful bit from an
+oratorio that he and Margaret had been practising.
+
+But when toward the close of the little vesper service Margaret gave
+opportunity, as she often did, for others to take part in sentence
+prayers, one of the strangers from the back of the room stood up and
+began to pray. And such a prayer! Heaven seemed to bend low, and earth
+to kneel and beseech as the stranger-man, with a face like an archangel,
+and a body of an athlete clothed in a brown-flannel shirt and khakis,
+besought the Lord of heaven for a blessing on this gathering and on the
+leader of this little company who had so wonderfully led them to see the
+Christ and their need of salvation through the lesson of the day. And it
+did not need Bud's low-breathed whisper, "The missionary!" to tell
+Margaret who he was. His face told her. His prayer thrilled her, and his
+strong, young, true voice made her sure that here was a man of God in
+truth.
+
+When the prayer was over and Margaret stood once more shyly facing her
+audience, she could scarcely keep the tremble out of her voice:
+
+"Oh," said she, casting aside ceremony, "if I had known the missionary
+was here I should not have dared to try and lead this meeting to-day.
+Won't you please come up here and talk to us for a little while now, Mr.
+Brownleigh?"
+
+At once he came forward eagerly, as if each opportunity were a pleasure.
+"Why, surely, I want to speak a word to you, just to say how glad I am
+to see you all, and to experience what a wonderful teacher you have
+found since I went away; but I wouldn't have missed this meeting to-day
+for all the sermons I ever wrote or preached. You don't need any more
+sermon than the remarkable story you've just been listening to, and I've
+only one word to add; and that is, that I've found since I went away
+that Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, is just the same Jesus
+to me to-day that He was the last time I spoke to you. He is just as
+ready to forgive your sin, to comfort you in sorrow, to help you in
+temptation, to raise your body in the resurrection, and to take you home
+to a mansion in His Father's house as He was the day He hung upon the
+cross to save your soul from death. I've found I can rest just as
+securely upon the Bible as the word of God as when I first tested its
+promises. Heaven and earth may pass away, but His word shall _never_
+pass away."
+
+"_Go to it!_" said Jasper Kemp under his breath in the tone some men say
+"Amen!" and his brows were drawn as if he were watching a battle.
+Margaret couldn't help wondering if he were thinking of the Rev.
+Frederick West just then.
+
+When the service was over the missionary brought his wife forward to
+Margaret, and they loved each other at once. Just another sweet girl
+like Margaret. She was lovely, with a delicacy of feature that betokened
+the high-born and high-bred, but dressed in a dainty khaki riding
+costume, if that uncompromising fabric could ever be called dainty.
+Margaret, remembering it afterward, wondered what it had been that gave
+it that unique individuality, and decided it was perhaps a combination
+of cut and finish and little dainty accessories. A bit of creamy lace at
+the throat of the rolling collar, a touch of golden-brown velvet in a
+golden clasp, the flash of a wonderful jewel on her finger, the modeling
+of the small, brown cap with its two eagle quills--all set the little
+woman apart and made her fit to enter any well-dressed company of riders
+in some great city park or fashionable drive. Yet here in the wilderness
+she was not overdressed.
+
+The eight men from the camp stood in solemn row, waiting to be
+recognized, and behind them, abashed and grinning with embarrassment,
+stood Pop and Mom Wallis, Mom with her new gray bonnet glorifying her
+old face till the missionary's wife had to look twice to be sure who she
+was.
+
+"And now, surely, Hazel, we must have these dear people come over and
+help us with the singing sometimes. Can't we try something right now?"
+said the missionary, looking first at his wife and then at Margaret and
+Gardley. "This man is a new-comer since I went away, but I'm mighty sure
+he is the right kind, and I'm glad to welcome him--or perhaps I would
+better ask if he will welcome me?" And with his rare smile the
+missionary put out his hand to Gardley, who took it with an eager grasp.
+The two men stood looking at each other for a moment, as rare men,
+rarely met, sometimes do even on a sinful earth; and after that clasp
+and that look they turned away, brothers for life.
+
+That was a most interesting song rehearsal that followed. It would be
+rare to find four voices like those even in a cultivated musical center,
+and they blended as if they had been made for one another. The men from
+the bunk-house and a lot of other people silently dropped again into
+their seats to listen as the four sang on. The missionary took the bass,
+and his wife the alto, and the four made music worth listening to. The
+rare and lovely thing about it was that they sang to souls, not alone
+for ears, and so their music, classical though it was and of the highest
+order, appealed keenly to the hearts of these rough men, and made them
+feel that heaven had opened for them, as once before for untaught
+shepherds, and let down a ladder of angelic voices.
+
+"I shall feel better about leaving you out here while I am gone, since
+they have come," said Gardley that night when he was bidding Margaret
+good night. "I couldn't bear to think there were none of your own kind
+about you. The others are devoted and would do for you with their lives
+if need be, as far as they know; but I like you to have _real
+friends_--real _Christian_ friends. This man is what I call a Christian.
+I'm not sure but he is the first minister that I have ever come close to
+who has impressed me as believing what he preaches, and living it. I
+suppose there are others. I haven't known many. That man West that was
+here when you came was a mistake!"
+
+"He didn't even preach much," smiled Margaret, "so how could he live it?
+This man is real. And there are others. Oh, I have known a lot of them
+that are living lives of sacrifice and loving service and are yet just
+as strong and happy and delightful as if they were millionaires. But
+they are the men who have not thrown away their Bibles and their Christ.
+They believe every promise in God's word, and rest on them day by day,
+testing them and proving them over and over. I wish you knew my father!"
+
+"I am going to," said Gardley, proudly. "_I_ am going to him just as
+soon as I have finished my business and straightened out my affairs;
+and I am going to tell him _everything_--with your permission,
+Margaret!"
+
+"Oh, how beautiful!" cried Margaret, with happy tears in her eyes. "To
+think you are going to see father and mother. I have wanted them to know
+the real you. I couldn't half _tell_ you, the real you, in a letter!"
+
+"Perhaps they won't look on me with your sweet blindness, dear," he
+said, smiling tenderly down on her. "Perhaps they will see only my dark,
+past life--for I mean to tell your father everything. I'm not going to
+have any skeletons in the closet to cause pain hereafter. Perhaps your
+father and mother will not feel like giving their daughter to me after
+they know. Remember, I realize just what a rare prize she is."
+
+"No, father is not like that, Lance," said Margaret, with her rare smile
+lighting up her happy eyes. "Father and mother will understand."
+
+"But if they should not?" There was the shadow of sadness in Gardley's
+eyes as he asked the question.
+
+"I belong to you, dear, anyway," she said, with sweet surrender. "I
+trust you though the whole world were against you!"
+
+For answer Gardley took her in his arms, a look of awe upon his face,
+and, stooping, laid his lips upon hers in tender reverence.
+
+"Margaret--you wonderful Margaret!" he said. "God has blessed me more
+than other men in sending you to me! With His help I will be worthy of
+you!"
+
+Three days more and Margaret was alone with her school work, her two
+missionary friends thirty miles away, her eager watching for the mail
+to come, her faithful attendant Bud, and for comfort the purple mountain
+with its changing glory in the distance.
+
+A few days before Gardley left for the East he had been offered a
+position by Rogers as general manager of his estate at a fine salary,
+and after consultation with Margaret he decided to accept it, but the
+question of their marriage they had left by common consent unsettled
+until Gardley should return and be able to offer his future wife a
+record made as fair and clean as human effort could make it after human
+mistakes had unmade it. As Margaret worked and waited, wrote her
+charming letters to father and mother and lover, and thought her happy
+thoughts with only the mountain for confidant, she did not plan for the
+future except in a dim and dreamy way. She would make those plans with
+Gardley when he returned. Probably they must wait some time before they
+could be married. Gardley would have to earn some money, and she must
+earn, too. She must keep the Ashland School for another year. It had
+been rather understood, when she came out, that if at all possible she
+would remain two years at least. It was hard to think of not going home
+for the summer vacation; but the trip cost a great deal and was not to
+be thought of. There was already a plan suggested to have a summer
+session of the school, and if that went through, of course she must stay
+right in Ashland. It was hard to think of not seeing her father and
+mother for another long year, but perhaps Gardley would be returning
+before the summer was over, and then it would not be so hard. However,
+she tried to put these thoughts out of her mind and do her work happily.
+It was incredible that Arizona should have become suddenly so blank and
+uninteresting since the departure of a man whom she had not known a few
+short months before.
+
+Margaret had long since written to her father and mother about Gardley's
+first finding her in the desert. The thing had become history and was
+not likely to alarm them. She had been in Arizona long enough to be
+acquainted with things, and they would not be always thinking of her as
+sitting on stray water-tanks in the desert; so she told them about it,
+for she wanted them to know Gardley as he had been to her. The letters
+that had traveled back and forth between New York and Arizona had been
+full of Gardley; and still Margaret had not told her parents how it was
+between them. Gardley had asked that he might do that. Yet it had been a
+blind father and mother who had not long ago read between the lines of
+those letters and understood. Margaret fancied she detected a certain
+sense of relief in her mother's letters after she knew that Gardley had
+gone East. Were they worrying about him, she wondered, or was it just
+the natural dread of a mother to lose her child?
+
+So Margaret settled down to school routine, and more and more made a
+confidant of Bud concerning little matters of the school. If it had not
+been for Bud at that time Margaret would have been lonely indeed.
+
+Two or three times since Gardley left, the Brownleighs had ridden over
+to Sunday service, and once had stopped for a few minutes during the
+week on their way to visit some distant need. These occasions were a
+delight to Margaret, for Hazel Brownleigh was a kindred spirit. She was
+looking forward with pleasure to the visit she was to make them at the
+mission station as soon as school closed. She had been there once with
+Gardley before he left, but the ride was too long to go often, and the
+only escort available was Bud. Besides, she could not get away from
+school and the Sunday service at present; but it was pleasant to have
+something to look forward to.
+
+Meantime the spring Commencement was coming on and Margaret had her
+hands full. She had undertaken to inaugurate a real Commencement with
+class day and as much form and ceremony as she could introduce in order
+to create a good school spirit; but such things are not done with the
+turn of a hand, and the young teacher sadly missed Gardley in all these
+preparations.
+
+At this time Rosa Rogers was Margaret's particular thorn in the flesh.
+
+Since the night that Forsythe had quit the play and ridden forth into
+the darkness Rosa had regarded her teacher with baleful eyes. Gardley,
+too, she hated, and was only waiting with smoldering wrath until her
+wild, ungoverned soul could take its revenge. She felt that but for
+those two Forsythe would still have been with her.
+
+Margaret, realizing the passionate, untaught nature of the motherless
+girl and her great need of a friend to guide her, made attempt after
+attempt to reach and befriend her; but every attempt was met with
+repulse and the sharp word of scorn. Rosa had been too long the petted
+darling of a father who was utterly blind to her faults to be other than
+spoiled. Her own way was the one thing that ruled her. By her will she
+had ruled every nurse and servant about the place, and wheedled her
+father into letting her do anything the whim prompted. Twice her father,
+through the advice of friends, had tried the experiment of sending her
+away to school, once to an Eastern finishing school, and once to a
+convent on the Pacific coast, only to have her return shortly by request
+of the school, more wilful than when she had gone away. And now she
+ruled supreme in her father's home, disliked by most of the servants
+save those whom she chose to favor because they could be made to serve
+her purposes. Her father, engrossed in his business and away much of the
+time, was bound up in her and saw few of her faults. It is true that
+when a fault of hers did come to his notice, however, he dealt with it
+most severely, and grieved over it in secret, for the girl was much like
+the mother whose loss had emptied the world of its joy for him. But Rosa
+knew well how to manage her father and wheedle him, and also how to hide
+her own doings from his knowledge.
+
+Rosa's eyes, dimples, pink cheeks, and coquettish little mouth were not
+idle in these days. She knew how to have every pupil at her feet and
+ready to obey her slightest wish. She wielded her power to its fullest
+extent as the summer drew near, and day after day saw a slow torture for
+Margaret. Some days the menacing air of insurrection fairly bristled in
+the room, and Margaret could not understand how some of her most devoted
+followers seemed to be in the forefront of battle, until one day she
+looked up quickly and caught the lynx-eyed glance of Rosa as she turned
+from smiling at the boys in the back seat. Then she understood. Rosa had
+cast her spell upon the boys, and they were acting under it and not of
+their own clear judgment. It was the world-old battle of sex, of woman
+against woman for the winning of the man to do her will. Margaret, using
+all the charm of her lovely personality to uphold standards of right,
+truth, purity, high living, and earnest thinking; Rosa striving with her
+impish beauty to lure them into _any_ mischief so it foiled the other's
+purposes. And one day Margaret faced the girl alone, looking steadily
+into her eyes with sad, searching gaze, and almost a yearning to try to
+lead the pretty child to finer things.
+
+"Rosa, why do you always act as if I were your enemy?" she said, sadly.
+
+"Because you are!" said Rosa, with a toss of her independent head.
+
+"Indeed I'm not, dear child," she said, putting out her hand to lay it
+on the girl's shoulder kindly. "I want to be your friend."
+
+"I'm not a child!" snapped Rosa, jerking her shoulder angrily away; "and
+you can _never_ be my friend, because I _hate_ you!"
+
+"Rosa, look here!" said Margaret, following the girl toward the door,
+the color rising in her cheeks and a desire growing in her heart to
+conquer this poor, passionate creature and win her for better things.
+"Rosa, I cannot have you say such things. Tell me why you hate me? What
+have I done that you should feel that way? I'm sure if we should talk it
+over we might come to some better understanding."
+
+Rosa stood defiant in the doorway. "We could never come to any better
+understanding, Miss Earle," she declared in a cold, hard tone, "because
+I understand you now and I hate you. You tried your best to get my
+friend away from me, but you couldn't do it; and you would like to keep
+me from having any boy friends at all, but you can't do that, either.
+You think you are very popular, but you'll find out I always do what I
+like, and you needn't try to stop me. I don't have to come to school
+unless I choose, and as long as I don't break your rules you have no
+complaint coming; but you needn't think you can pull the wool over my
+eyes the way you do the others by pretending to be friends. I won't be
+friends! I hate you!" And Rosa turned grandly and marched out of the
+school-house.
+
+Margaret stood gazing sadly after her and wondering if her failure here
+were her fault--if there was anything else she ought to have done--if
+she had let her personal dislike of the girl influence her conduct. She
+sat for some time at her desk, her chin in her hands, her eyes fixed on
+vacancy with a hopeless, discouraged expression in them, before she
+became aware of another presence in the room. Looking around quickly,
+she saw that Bud was sitting motionless at his desk, his forehead
+wrinkled in a fierce frown, his jaw set belligerently, and a look of
+such, unutterable pity and devotion in his eyes that her heart warmed to
+him at once and a smile of comradeship broke over her face.
+
+"Oh, William! Were you here? Did you hear all that? What do you suppose
+is the matter? Where have I failed?"
+
+"You 'ain't failed anywhere! You should worry 'bout her! She's a nut! If
+she was a boy I'd punch her head for her! But seeing she's only a girl,
+_you should worry_! She always was the limit!"
+
+Bud's tone was forcible. He was the only one of all the boys who never
+yielded to Rosa's charms, but sat in glowering silence when she
+exercised her powers on the school and created pandemonium for the
+teacher. Bud's attitude was comforting. It had a touch of manliness and
+gentleness about it quite unwonted for him. It suggested beautiful
+possibilities for the future of his character, and Margaret smiled
+tenderly.
+
+"Thank you, dear boy!" she said, gently. "You certainly are a comfort.
+If every one was as splendid as you are we should have a model school.
+But I do wish I could help Rosa. I can't see why she should hate me so!
+I must have made some big mistake with her in the first place to
+antagonize her."
+
+"Naw!" said Bud, roughly. "No chance! She's just a _nut_, that's all.
+She's got a case on that Forsythe guy, the worst kind, and she's afraid
+somebody 'll get him away from her, the poor stew, as if anybody would
+get a case on a tough guy like that! Gee! You should worry! Come on,
+let's take a ride over t' camp!"
+
+With a sigh and a smile Margaret accepted Bud's consolations and went on
+her way, trying to find some manner of showing Rosa what a real friend
+she was willing to be. But Rosa continued obdurate and hateful,
+regarding her teacher with haughty indifference except when she was
+called upon to recite, which she did sometimes with scornful
+condescension, sometimes with pert perfection, and sometimes with saucy
+humor which convulsed the whole room. Margaret's patience was almost
+ceasing to be a virtue, and she meditated often whether she ought not to
+request that the girl be withdrawn from the school. Yet she reflected
+that it was a very short time now until Commencement, and that Rosa had
+not openly defied any rules. It was merely a personal antagonism. Then,
+too, if Rosa were taken from the school there was really no other good
+influence in the girl's life at present. Day by day Margaret prayed
+about the matter and hoped that something would develop to make plain
+her way.
+
+After much thought in the matter she decided to go on with her plans,
+letting Rosa have her place in the Commencement program and her part in
+the class-day doings as if nothing were the matter. Certainly there was
+nothing laid down in the rules of a public school that proscribed a
+scholar who did not love her teacher. Why should the fact that one had
+incurred the hate of a pupil unfit that pupil for her place in her class
+so long as she did her duties? And Rosa did hers promptly and deftly,
+with a certain piquant originality that Margaret could not help but
+admire.
+
+Sometimes, as the teacher cast a furtive look at the pretty girl working
+away at her desk, she wondered what was going on behind the lovely mask.
+But the look in Rosa's eyes, when she raised them, was both deep and
+sly.
+
+Rosa's hatred was indeed deep rooted. Whatever heart she had not
+frivoled away in wilfulness had been caught and won by Forsythe, the
+first grown man who had ever dared to make real love to her. Her
+jealousy of Margaret was the most intense thing that had ever come into
+her life. To think of him looking at Margaret, talking to Margaret,
+smiling at Margaret, walking or riding with Margaret, was enough to send
+her writhing upon her bed in the darkness of a wakeful night. She would
+clench her pretty hands until the nails dug into the flesh and brought
+the blood. She would bite the pillow or the blankets with an almost
+fiendish clenching of her teeth upon them and mutter, as she did so: "I
+hate her! I _hate_ her! I could _kill_ her!"
+
+The day her first letter came from Forsythe, Rosa held her head high and
+went about the school as if she were a princess royal and Margaret were
+the dust under her feet. Triumph sat upon her like a crown and looked
+forth regally from her eyes. She laid her hand upon her heart and felt
+the crackle of his letter inside her blouse. She dreamed with her eyes
+upon the distant mountain and thought of the tender names he had called
+her: "Little wild Rose of his heart," "No rose in all the world until
+you came," and a lot of other meaningful sentences. A real love-letter
+all her own! No sharing him with any hateful teachers! He had implied in
+her letter that she was the only one of all the people in that region
+to whom he cared to write. He had said he was coming back some day to
+get her. Her young, wild heart throbbed exultantly, and her eyes looked
+forth their triumph malignantly. When he did come she would take care
+that he stayed close by her. No conceited teacher from the East should
+lure him from her side. She would prepare her guiles and smile her
+sweetest. She would wear fine garments from abroad, and show him she
+could far outshine that quiet, common Miss Earle, with all her airs. Yet
+to this end she studied hard. It was no part of her plan to be left
+behind at graduating-time. She would please her father by taking a
+prominent part in things and outdoing all the others. Then he would give
+her what she liked--jewels and silk dresses, and all the things a girl
+should have who had won a lover like hers.
+
+The last busy days before Commencement were especially trying for
+Margaret. It seemed as if the children were possessed with the very
+spirit of mischief, and she could not help but see that it was Rosa who,
+sitting demurely in her desk, was the center of it all. Only Bud's
+steady, frowning countenance of all that rollicking, roistering crowd
+kept loyalty with the really beloved teacher. For, indeed, they loved
+her, every one but Rosa, and would have stood by her to a man and girl
+when it really came to the pinch, but in a matter like a little bit of
+fun in these last few days of school, and when challenged to it by the
+school beauty who did not usually condescend to any but a few of the
+older boys, where was the harm? They were so flattered by Rosa's smiles
+that they failed to see Margaret's worn, weary wistfulness.
+
+Bud, coming into the school-house late one afternoon in search of her
+after the other scholars had gone, found Margaret with her head down
+upon the desk and her shoulders shaken with soundless sobs. He stood for
+a second silent in the doorway, gazing helplessly at her grief, then
+with the delicacy of one boy for another he slipped back outside the
+door and stood in the shadow, grinding his teeth.
+
+"Gee!" he said, under his breath. "Oh, gee! I'd like to punch her fool
+head. I don't care if she is a girl! She needs it. Gee! if she was a boy
+wouldn't I settle her, the little darned mean sneak!"
+
+His remarks, it is needless to say, did not have reference to his
+beloved teacher.
+
+It was in the atmosphere everywhere that something was bound to happen
+if this strain kept up. Margaret knew it and felt utterly inadequate to
+meet it. Rosa knew it and was awaiting her opportunity. Bud knew it and
+could only stand and watch where the blow was to strike first and be
+ready to ward it off. In these days he wished fervently for Gardley's
+return. He did not know just what Gardley could do about "that little
+fool," as he called Rosa, but it would be a relief to be able to tell
+some one all about it. If he only dared leave he would go over and tell
+Jasper Kemp about it, just to share his burden with somebody. But as it
+was he must stick to the job for the present and bear his great
+responsibility, and so the days hastened by to the last Sunday before
+Commencement, which was to be on Monday.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+Margaret had spent Saturday in rehearsals, so that there had been no
+rest for her. Sunday morning she slept late, and awoke from a troubled
+dream, unrested. She almost meditated whether she would not ask some one
+to read a sermon at the afternoon service and let her go on sleeping.
+Then a memory of the lonely old woman at the camp, and the men, who came
+so regularly to the service, roused her to effort once more, and she
+arose and tried to prepare a little something for them.
+
+She came into the school-house at the hour, looking fagged, with dark
+circles under her eyes; and the loving eyes of Mom Wallis already in her
+front seat watched her keenly.
+
+"It's time for _him_ to come back," she said, in her heart. "She's
+gettin' peeked! I wisht he'd come!"
+
+Margaret had hoped that Rosa would not come. The girl was not always
+there, but of late she had been quite regular, coming in late with her
+father just a little after the story had begun, and attracting attention
+by her smiles and bows and giggling whispers, which sometimes were so
+audible as to create quite a diversion from the speaker.
+
+But Rosa came in early to-day and took a seat directly in front of
+Margaret, in about the middle of the house, fixing her eyes on her
+teacher with a kind of settled intention that made Margaret shrink as if
+from a danger she was not able to meet. There was something bright and
+hard and daring in Rosa's eyes as she stared unwinkingly, as if she had
+come to search out a weak spot for her evil purposes, and Margaret was
+so tired she wanted to lay her head down on her desk and cry. She drew
+some comfort from the reflection that if she should do so childish a
+thing she would be at once surrounded by a strong battalion of friends
+from the camp, who would shield her with their lives if necessary.
+
+It was silly, of course, and she must control this choking in her
+throat, only how was she ever going to talk, with Rosa looking at her
+that way? It was like a nightmare pursuing her. She turned to the piano
+and kept them all singing for a while, so that she might pray in her
+heart and grow calm; and when, after her brief, earnest prayer, she
+lifted her eyes to the audience, she saw with intense relief that the
+Brownleighs were in the audience.
+
+She started a hymn that they all knew, and when they were well in the
+midst of the first verse she slipped from the piano-stool and walked
+swiftly down the aisle to Brownleigh's side.
+
+"Would you please talk to them a little while?" she pleaded, wistfully.
+"I am so tired I feel as if I just couldn't, to-day."
+
+Instantly Brownleigh followed her back to the desk and took her place,
+pulling out his little, worn Bible and opening it with familiar fingers
+to a beloved passage:
+
+     "'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
+     give you rest.'"
+
+The words fell on Margaret's tired heart like balm, and she rested her
+head back against the wall and closed her eyes to listen. Sitting so
+away from Rosa's stare, she could forget for a while the absurd burdens
+that had got on her nerves, and could rest down hard upon her Saviour.
+Every word that the man of God spoke seemed meant just for her, and
+brought strength, courage, and new trust to her heart. She forgot the
+little crowd of other listeners and took the message to herself,
+drinking it in eagerly as one who has been a long time ministering
+accepts a much-needed ministry. When she moved to the piano again for
+the closing hymn she felt new strength within her to bear the trials of
+the week that were before her. She turned, smiling and brave, to speak
+to those who always crowded around to shake hands and have a word before
+leaving.
+
+Hazel, putting a loving arm around her as soon as she could get up to
+the front, began to speak soothingly: "You poor, tired child!" she said;
+"you are almost worn to a frazzle. You need a big change, and I'm going
+to plan it for you just as soon as I possibly can. How would you like to
+go with us on our trip among the Indians? Wouldn't it be great? It'll be
+several days, depending on how far we go, but John wants to visit the
+Hopi reservation, if possible, and it'll be so interesting. They are a
+most strange people. We'll have a delightful trip, sleeping out under
+the stars, you know. Don't you just love it? I do. I wouldn't miss it
+for the world. I can't be sure, for a few days yet, when we can go, for
+John has to make a journey in the other direction first, and he isn't
+sure when he can return; but it might be this week. How soon can you
+come to us? How I wish we could take you right home with us to-night.
+You need to get away and rest. But your Commencement is to-morrow, isn't
+it? I'm so sorry we can't be here, but this other matter is important,
+and John has to go early in the morning. Some one very sick who wants to
+see him before he dies--an old Indian who didn't know a thing about
+Jesus till John found him one day. I suppose you haven't anybody who
+could bring you over to us after your work is done here to-morrow night
+or Tuesday, have you? Well, we'll see if we can't find some one to send
+for you soon. There's an old Indian who often comes this way, but he's
+away buying cattle. Maybe John can think of a way we could send for you
+early in the week. Then you would be ready to go with us on the trip.
+You would like to go, wouldn't you?"
+
+"Oh, so much!" said Margaret, with a sigh of wistfulness. "I can't think
+of anything pleasanter!"
+
+Margaret turned suddenly, and there, just behind her, almost touching
+her, stood Rosa, that strange, baleful gleam in her eyes like a serpent
+who was biding her time, drawing nearer and nearer, knowing she had her
+victim where she could not move before she struck.
+
+It was a strange fancy, of course, and one that was caused by sick
+nerves, but Margaret drew back and almost cried out, as if for some one
+to protect her. Then her strong common sense came to the rescue and she
+rallied and smiled at Rosa a faint little sorry smile. It was hard to
+smile at the bright, baleful face with the menace in the eyes.
+
+Hazel was watching her. "You poor child! You're quite worn out! I'm
+afraid you're going to be sick."
+
+"Oh no," said Margaret, trying to speak cheerfully; "things have just
+got on my nerves, that's all. It's been a particularly trying time. I
+shall be all right when to-morrow night is over."
+
+"Well, we're going to send for you very soon, so be ready!" and Hazel
+followed her husband, waving her hand in gay parting.
+
+Rosa was still standing just behind her when Margaret turned back to her
+desk, and the younger girl gave her one last dagger look, a glitter in
+her eyes so sinister and vindictive that Margaret felt a shudder run
+through her whole body, and was glad that just then Rosa's father called
+to her that they must be starting home. Only one more day now of Rosa,
+and she would be done with her, perhaps forever. The girl was through
+the school course and was graduating. It was not likely she would return
+another year. Her opportunity was over to help her. She had failed. Why,
+she couldn't tell, but she had strangely failed, and all she asked now
+was not to have to endure the hard, cold, young presence any longer.
+
+"Sick nerves, Margaret!" she said to herself. "Go home and go to bed.
+You'll be all right to-morrow!" And she locked the school-house door and
+walked quietly home with the faithful Bud.
+
+The past month had been a trying time also for Rosa. Young, wild, and
+motherless, passionate, wilful and impetuous, she was finding life
+tremendously exciting just now. With no one to restrain her or warn her
+she was playing with forces that she did not understand.
+
+She had subjugated easily all the boys in school, keeping them exactly
+where she wanted them for her purpose, and using methods that would have
+done credit to a woman of the world. But by far the greatest force in
+her life was her infatuation for Forsythe.
+
+The letters had traveled back and forth many times between them since
+Forsythe wrote that first love-letter. He found a whimsical pleasure in
+her deep devotion and naïve readiness to follow as far as he cared to
+lead her. He realized that, young as she was, she was no innocent, which
+made the acquaintance all the more interesting. He, meantime, idled away
+a few months on the Pacific coast, making mild love to a rich California
+girl and considering whether or not he was ready yet to settle down.
+
+In the mean time his correspondence with Rosa took on such a nature that
+his volatile, impulsive nature was stirred with a desire to see her
+again. It was not often that once out of sight he looked back to a
+victim, but Rosa had shown a daring and a spirit in her letters that
+sent a challenge to his sated senses. Moreover, the California heiress
+was going on a journey; besides, an old enemy of his who knew altogether
+too much of his past had appeared on the scene; and as Gardley had been
+removed from the Ashland vicinity for a time, Forsythe felt it might be
+safe to venture back again. There was always that pretty, spirited
+little teacher if Rosa failed to charm. But why should Rosa not charm?
+And why should he not yield? Rosa's father was a good sort and had all
+kinds of property. Rosa was her father's only heir. On the whole,
+Forsythe decided that the best move he could make next would be to
+return to Arizona. If things turned out well he might even think of
+marrying Rosa.
+
+This was somewhat the train of thought that led Forsythe at last to
+write to Rosa that he was coming, throwing Rosa into a panic of joy and
+alarm. For Rosa's father had been most explicit about her ever going out
+with Forsythe again. It had been the most relentless command he had ever
+laid upon her, spoken in a tone she hardly ever disobeyed. Moreover,
+Rosa was fearfully jealous of Margaret. If Forsythe should come and
+begin to hang around the teacher Rosa felt she would go wild, or do
+something terrible, perhaps even kill somebody. She shut her sharp
+little white teeth fiercely down into her red under lip and vowed with
+flashing eyes that he should never see Margaret again if power of hers
+could prevent it.
+
+The letter from Forsythe had reached her on Saturday evening, and she
+had come to the Sunday service with the distinct idea of trying to plan
+how she might get rid of Margaret. It would be hard enough to evade her
+father's vigilance if he once found out the young man had returned; but
+to have him begin to go and see Margaret again was a thing she could not
+and would not stand.
+
+The idea obsessed her to the exclusion of all others, and made her watch
+her teacher as if by her very concentration of thought upon her some way
+out of the difficulty might be evolved; as if Margaret herself might
+give forth a hint of weakness somewhere that would show her how to plan.
+
+To that intent she had come close in the group with the others around
+the teacher at the close of meeting, and, so standing, had overheard all
+that the Brownleighs had said. The lightning flash of triumph that she
+cast at Margaret as she left the school-house was her own signal that
+she had found a way at last. Her opportunity had come, and just in time.
+Forsythe was to arrive in Arizona some time on Tuesday, and wanted Rosa
+to meet him at one of their old trysting-places, out some distance from
+her father's house. He knew that school would just be over, for she had
+written him about Commencement, and so he understood that she would be
+free. But he did not know that the place he had selected to meet her was
+on one of Margaret's favorite trails where she and Bud often rode in the
+late afternoons, and that above all things Rosa wished to avoid any
+danger of meeting her teacher; for she not only feared that Forsythe's
+attention would be drawn away from her, but also that Margaret might
+feel it her duty to report to her father about her clandestine meeting.
+
+Rosa's heart beat high as she rode demurely home with her father,
+answering his pleasantries with smiles and dimples and a coaxing word,
+just as he loved to have her. But she was not thinking of her father,
+though she kept well her mask of interest in what he had to say. She was
+trying to plan how she might use what she had heard to get rid of
+Margaret Earle. If only Mrs. Brownleigh would do as she had hinted and
+send some one Tuesday morning to escort Miss Earle over to her home, all
+would be clear sailing for Rosa; but she dared not trust to such a
+possibility. There were not many escorts coming their way from Ganado,
+and Rosa happened to know that the old Indian who frequently escorted
+parties was off in another direction. She could not rest on any such
+hope. When she reached home she went at once to her room and sat beside
+her window, gazing off at the purple mountains in deep thought. Then she
+lighted a candle and went in search of a certain little Testament, long
+since neglected and covered with dust. She found it at last on the top
+of a pile of books in a dark closet, and dragged it forth, eagerly
+turning the pages. Yes, there it was, and in it a small envelope
+directed to "Miss Rosa Rogers" in a fine angular handwriting. The letter
+was from the missionary's wife to the little girl who had recited her
+texts so beautifully as to earn the Testament.
+
+Rosa carried it to her desk, secured a good light, and sat down to read
+it over carefully.
+
+No thought of her innocent childish exultation over that letter came to
+her now. She was intent on one thing--the handwriting. Could she seize
+the secret of it and reproduce it? She had before often done so with
+great success. She could imitate Miss Earle's writing so perfectly that
+she often took an impish pleasure in changing words in the questions on
+the blackboard and making them read absurdly for the benefit of the
+school. It was such good sport to see the amazement on Margaret's face
+when her attention would be called to it by a hilarious class, and to
+watch her troubled brow when she read what she supposed she had written.
+
+When Rosa was but a little child she used to boast that she could write
+her father's name in perfect imitation of his signature; and often
+signed some trifling receipt for him just for amusement. A dangerous
+gift in the hands of a conscienceless girl! Yet this was the first time
+that Rosa had really planned to use her art in any serious way. Perhaps
+it never occurred to her that she was doing wrong. At present her heart
+was too full of hate and fear and jealous love to care for right or
+wrong or anything else. It is doubtful if she would have hesitated a
+second even if the thing she was planning had suddenly appeared to her
+in the light of a great crime. She seemed sometimes almost like a
+creature without moral sense, so swayed was she by her own desires and
+feelings. She was blind now to everything but her great desire to get
+Margaret out of the way and have Forsythe to herself.
+
+Long after her father and the servants were asleep Rosa's light burned
+while she bent over her desk, writing. Page after page she covered with
+careful copies of Mrs. Brownleigh's letter written to herself almost
+three years before. Finally she wrote out the alphabet, bit by bit as
+she picked it from the words, learning just how each letter was
+habitually formed, the small letters and the capitals, with the
+peculiarities of connection and ending. At last, when she lay down to
+rest, she felt herself capable of writing a pretty fair letter in Mrs.
+Brownleigh's handwriting. The next thing was to make her plan and
+compose her letter. She lay staring into the darkness and trying to
+think just what she could do.
+
+In the first place, she settled it that Margaret must be gotten to Walpi
+at least. It would not do to send her to Ganado, where the mission
+station was, for that was a comparatively short journey, and she could
+easily go in a day. When the fraud was discovered, as of course it would
+be when Mrs. Brownleigh heard of it, Margaret would perhaps return to
+find out who had done it. No, she must be sent all the way to Walpi if
+possible. That would take at least two nights and the most of two days
+to get there. Forsythe had said his stay was to be short. By the time
+Margaret got back from Walpi Forsythe would be gone.
+
+But how manage to get her to Walpi without her suspicions being aroused?
+She might word the note so that Margaret would be told to come half-way,
+expecting to meet the missionaries, say at Keams. There was a trail
+straight up from Ashland to Keams, cutting off quite a distance and
+leaving Ganado off at the right. Keams was nearly forty miles west of
+Ganado. That would do nicely. Then if she could manage to have another
+note left at Keams, saying they could not wait and had gone on, Margaret
+would suspect nothing and go all the way to Walpi. That would be fine
+and would give the school-teacher an interesting experience which
+wouldn't hurt her in the least. Rosa thought it might be rather
+interesting than otherwise. She had no compunctions whatever about how
+Margaret might feel when she arrived in that strange Indian town and
+found no friends awaiting her. Her only worry was where she was to find
+a suitable escort, for she felt assured that Margaret would not start
+out alone with one man servant on an expedition that would keep her out
+overnight. And where in all that region could she find a woman whom she
+could trust to send on the errand? It almost looked as though the thing
+were an impossibility. She lay tossing and puzzling over it till gray
+dawn stole into the room. She mentally reviewed every servant on the
+place on whom she could rely to do her bidding and keep her secret, but
+there was some reason why each one would not do. She scanned the
+country, even considering old Ouida, who had been living in a shack over
+beyond the fort ever since her cabin had been raided; but old Ouida was
+too notorious. Mrs. Tanner would keep Margaret from going with her, even
+if Margaret herself did not know the old woman's reputation. Rosa
+considered if there were any way of wheedling Mom Wallis into the
+affair, and gave that up, remembering the suspicious little twinkling
+eyes of Jasper Kemp. At last she fell asleep, with her plan still
+unformed but her determination to carry it through just as strong as
+ever. If worst came to worst she would send the half-breed cook from the
+ranch kitchen and put something in the note about his expecting to meet
+his sister an hour's ride out on the trail. The half-breed would do
+anything in the world for money, and Rosa had no trouble in getting all
+she wanted of that commodity. But the half-breed was an evil-looking
+fellow, and she feared lest Margaret would not like to go with him.
+However, he should be a last resort. She would not be balked in her
+purpose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+Rosa awoke very early, for her sleep had been light and troubled. She
+dressed hastily and sat down to compose a note which could be altered
+slightly in case she found some one better than the half-breed; but
+before she was half through the phrasing she heard a slight disturbance
+below her window and a muttering in guttural tones from a strange voice.
+Glancing hastily out, she saw some Indians below, talking with one of
+the men, who was shaking his head and motioning to them that they must
+go on, that this was no place for them to stop. The Indian motioned to
+his squaw, sitting on a dilapidated little moth-eaten burro with a small
+papoose in her arms and looking both dirty and miserable. He muttered as
+though he were pleading for something.
+
+We believe that God's angels follow the feet of little children and
+needy ones to protect them; does the devil also send his angels to lead
+unwary ones astray, and to protect the plan's of the erring ones? If so
+then he must have sent these Indians that morning to further Rosa's
+plans, and instantly she recognized her opportunity. She leaned out of
+her window and spoke in a clear, reproving voice:
+
+"James, what does he want? Breakfast? You know father wouldn't want any
+hungry person to be turned away. Let them sit down on the bench there
+and tell Dorset I said to give them a good hot breakfast, and get some
+milk for the baby. Be quick about it, too!"
+
+James started and frowned at the clear, commanding voice. The squaw
+turned grateful animal eyes up to the little beauty in the window,
+muttering some inarticulate thanks, while the stolid Indian's eyes
+glittered hopefully, though the muscles of his mask-like countenance
+changed not an atom.
+
+Rosa smiled radiantly and ran down to see that her orders were obeyed.
+She tried to talk a little with the squaw, but found she understood very
+little English. The Indian spoke better and gave her their brief story.
+They were on their way to the Navajo reservation to the far north. They
+had been unfortunate enough to lose their last scanty provisions by
+prowling coyotes during the night, and were in need of food. Rosa gave
+them a place to sit down and a plentiful breakfast, and ordered that a
+small store of provisions should be prepared for their journey after
+they had rested. Then she hurried up to her room to finish her letter.
+She had her plan well fixed now. These strangers should be her willing
+messengers. Now and then, as she wrote she lifted her head and gazed out
+of the window, where she could see the squaw busy with her little one,
+and her eyes fairly glittered with satisfaction. Nothing could have been
+better planned than this.
+
+She wrote her note carefully:
+
+     DEAR MARGARET [she had heard Hazel call Margaret by her first name,
+     and rightly judged that their new friendship was already strong
+     enough to justify this intimacy],--I have found just the
+     opportunity I wanted for you to come to us. These Indians are
+     thoroughly trustworthy and are coming in just the direction to
+     bring you to a point where we will meet you. We have decided to go
+     on to Walpi at once, and will probably meet you near Keams, or a
+     little farther on. The Indian knows the way, and you need not be
+     afraid. I trust him perfectly. Start at once, please, so that you
+     will meet us in time. John has to go on as fast as possible. I know
+     you will enjoy the trip, and am so glad you are coming.
+
+                                                 Lovingly,
+                                             HAZEL RADCLIFFE BROWNLEIGH.
+
+Rosa read it over, comparing it carefully with the little yellow note
+from her Testament, and decided that it was a very good imitation. She
+could almost hear Mrs. Brownleigh saying what she had written. Rosa
+really was quite clever. She had done it well.
+
+She hastily sealed and addressed her letter, and then hurried down to
+talk with the Indians again.
+
+The place she had ordered for them to rest was at some distance from the
+kitchen door, a sort of outshed for the shelter of certain implements
+used about the ranch. A long bench ran in front of it, and a big tree
+made a goodly shade. The Indians had found their temporary camp quite
+inviting.
+
+Rosa made a detour of the shed, satisfied herself that no one was within
+hearing, and then sat down on the bench, ostensibly playing with the
+papoose, dangling a red ball on a ribbon before his dazzled, bead-like
+eyes and bringing forth a gurgle of delight from the dusky little mummy.
+While she played she talked idly with the Indians. Had they money enough
+for their journey? Would they like to earn some? Would they act as
+guide to a lady who wanted to go to Walpi? At least she wanted to go as
+far as Keams, where she might meet friends, missionaries, who were going
+on with her to Walpi to visit the Indians. If they didn't meet her she
+wanted to be guided all the way to Walpi? Would they undertake it? It
+would pay them well. They would get money enough for their journey and
+have some left when they got to the reservation. And Rosa displayed two
+gold pieces temptingly in her small palms.
+
+The Indian uttered a guttural sort of gasp at sight of so much money,
+and sat upright. He gasped again, indicating by a solemn nod that he was
+agreeable to the task before him, and the girl went gaily on with her
+instructions:
+
+"You will have to take some things along to make the lady comfortable. I
+will see that those are got ready. Then you can have the things for your
+own when you leave the lady at Walpi. You will have to take a letter to
+the lady and tell her you are going this afternoon, and she must be
+ready to start at once or she will not meet the missionary. Tell her you
+can only wait until three o'clock to start. You will find the lady at
+the school-house at noon. You must not come till noon--" Rosa pointed to
+the sun and then straight overhead. The Indian watched her keenly and
+nodded.
+
+"You must ask for Miss Earle and give her this letter. She is the
+school-teacher."
+
+The Indian grunted and looked at the white missive in Rosa's hand,
+noting once more the gleam of the gold pieces.
+
+"You must wait till the teacher goes to her boarding-house and packs her
+things and eats her dinner. If anybody asks where you came from you must
+say the missionary's wife from Ganado sent you. Don't tell anybody
+anything else. Do you understand? More money if you don't say anything?"
+Rosa clinked the gold pieces softly.
+
+The strange, sphinx-like gaze of the Indian narrowed comprehensively. He
+understood. His native cunning was being bought for this girl's own
+purposes. He looked greedily at the money. Rosa had put her hand in her
+pocket and brought out yet another gold piece.
+
+"See! I give you this one now"--she laid one gold piece in the Indian's
+hand--"and these two I put in an envelope and pack with some provisions
+and blankets on another horse. I will leave the horse tied to a tree up
+where the big trail crosses this big trail out that way. You know?"
+
+Rosa pointed in the direction she meant, and the Indian looked and
+grunted, his eyes returning to the two gold pieces in her hand. It was a
+great deal of money for the little lady to give. Was she trying to cheat
+him? He looked down at the gold he already held. It was good money. He
+was sure of that. He looked at her keenly.
+
+"I shall be watching and I shall know whether you have the lady or not,"
+went on the girl, sharply. "If you do not bring the lady with you there
+will be no money and no provisions waiting for you. But if you bring the
+lady you can untie the horse and take him with you. You will need the
+horse to carry the things. When you get to Walpi you can set him free.
+He is branded and he will likely come back. We shall find him. See, I
+will put the gold pieces in this tin can."
+
+She picked up a sardine-tin that lay at her feet, slipped the gold
+pieces in an envelope from her pocket, stuffed it in the tin, bent down
+the cover, and held it up.
+
+"This can will be packed on the top of the other provisions, and you can
+open it and take the money out when you untie the horse. Then hurry on
+as fast as you can and get as far along the trail as possible to-night
+before you camp. Do you understand?"
+
+The Indian nodded once more, and Rosa felt that she had a confederate
+worthy of her need.
+
+She stayed a few minutes more, going carefully over her directions,
+telling the Indian to be sure his squaw was kind to the lady, and that
+on no account he should let the lady get uneasy or have cause to
+complain of her treatment, or trouble would surely come to him. At last
+she felt sure she had made him understand, and she hurried away to slip
+into her pretty white dress and rose-colored ribbons and ride to school.
+Before she left her room she glanced out of the window at the Indians,
+and saw them sitting motionless, like a group of bronze. Once the Indian
+stirred and, putting his hand in his bosom, drew forth the white letter
+she had given him, gazed at it a moment, and hid it in his breast again.
+She nodded her satisfaction as she turned from the window. The next
+thing was to get to school and play her own part in the Commencement
+exercises.
+
+The morning was bright, and the school-house was already filled to
+overflowing when Rosa arrived. Her coming, as always, made a little stir
+among admiring groups, for even those who feared her admired her from
+afar. She fluttered into the school-house and up the aisle with the air
+of a princess who knew she had been waited for and was condescending to
+come at all.
+
+Rosa was in everything--the drills, the march, the choruses, and the
+crowning oration. She went through it all with the perfection of a
+bright mind and an adaptable nature. One would never have dreamed, to
+look at her pretty dimpling face and her sparkling eyes, what diabolical
+things were moving in her mind, nor how those eyes, lynx-soft with
+lurking sweetness and treachery, were watching all the time furtively
+for the appearance of the old Indian.
+
+At last she saw him, standing in a group just outside the window near
+the platform, his tall form and stern countenance marking him among the
+crowd of familiar faces. She was receiving her diploma from the hand of
+Margaret when she caught his eye, and her hand trembled just a quiver as
+she took the dainty roll tied with blue and white ribbons. That he
+recognized her she was sure; that he knew she did not wish him to make
+known his connection with her she felt equally convinced he understood.
+His eye had that comprehending look of withdrawal. She did not look up
+directly at him again. Her eyes were daintily downward. Nevertheless,
+she missed not a turn of his head, not a glance from that stern eye, and
+she knew the moment when he stood at the front door of the school-house
+with the letter in his hand, stolid and indifferent, yet a great force
+to be reckoned with.
+
+Some one looked at the letter, pointed to Margaret, called her, and she
+came. Rosa was not far away all the time, talking with Jed; her eyes
+downcast, her cheeks dimpling, missing nothing that could be heard or
+seen.
+
+Margaret read the letter. Rosa watched her, knew every curve of every
+letter and syllable as she read, held her breath, and watched Margaret's
+expression. Did she suspect? No. A look of intense relief and pleasure
+had come into her eyes. She was glad to have found a way to go. She
+turned to Mrs. Tanner.
+
+"What do you think of this, Mrs. Tanner? I'm to go with Mrs. Brownleigh
+on a trip to Walpi. Isn't that delicious? I'm to start at once. Do you
+suppose I could have a bite to eat? I won't need much. I'm too tired to
+eat and too anxious to be off. If you give me a cup of tea and a
+sandwich I'll be all right. I've got things about ready to go, for Mrs.
+Brownleigh told me she would send some one for me."
+
+"H'm!" said Mrs. Tanner, disapprovingly. "Who you goin' with? Just
+_him_? I don't much like _his_ looks!"
+
+She spoke in a low tone so the Indian would not hear, and it was almost
+in Rosa's very ear, who stood just behind. Rosa's heart stopped a beat
+and she frowned at the toe of her slipper. Was this common little Tanner
+woman going to be the one to balk her plans?
+
+Margaret raised her head now for her first good look at the Indian, and
+it must be admitted a chill came into her heart. Then, as if he
+comprehended what was at stake, the Indian turned slightly and pointed
+down the path toward the road. By common consent the few who were
+standing about the door stepped back and made a vista for Margaret to
+see the squaw sitting statue-like on her scraggy little pony, gazing off
+at the mountain in the distance, as if she were sitting for her picture,
+her solemn little papoose strapped to her back.
+
+Margaret's troubled eyes cleared. The family aspect made things all
+right again. "You see, he has his wife and child," she said. "It's all
+right. Mrs. Brownleigh says she trusts him perfectly, and I'm to meet
+them on the way. Read the letter."
+
+She thrust the letter into Mrs. Tanner's hand, and Rosa trembled for her
+scheme once more. Surely, surely Mrs. Tanner would not be able to detect
+the forgery!
+
+"H'm! Well, I s'pose it's all right if she says so, but I'm sure I don't
+relish them pesky Injuns, and I don't think that squaw wife of his looks
+any great shakes, either. They look to me like they needed a good scrub
+with Bristol brick. But then, if you're set on going, you'll go,
+'course. I jest wish Bud hadn't 'a' gone home with that Jasper Kemp. He
+might 'a' gone along, an' then you'd 'a' had somebody to speak English
+to."
+
+"Yes, it would have been nice to have William along," said Margaret;
+"but I think I'll be all right. Mrs. Brownleigh wouldn't send anybody
+that wasn't nice."
+
+"H'm! I dun'no'! She's an awful crank. She just loves them Injuns, they
+say. But I, fer one, draw the line at holdin' 'em in my lap. I don't
+b'lieve in mixin' folks up that way. Preach to 'em if you like, but let
+'em keep their distance, I say."
+
+Margaret laughed and went off to pick up her things. Rosa stood smiling
+and talking to Jed until she saw Margaret and Mrs. Tanner go off
+together, the Indians riding slowly along behind.
+
+Rosa waited until the Indians had turned off the road down toward the
+Tanners', and then she mounted her own pony and rode swiftly home.
+
+She rushed up to her room and took off her fine apparel, arraying
+herself quickly in a plain little gown, and went down to prepare the
+provisions. There was none too much time, and she must work rapidly. It
+was well for her plans that she was all-powerful with the servants and
+could send them about at will to get them out of her way. She invented a
+duty for each now that would take them for a few minutes well out of
+sight and sound; then she hurried together the provisions in a basket,
+making two trips to get them to the shelter where she had told the
+Indian he would find the horse tied. She had to make a third trip to
+bring the blankets and a few other things she knew would be
+indispensable, but the whole outfit was really but carelessly gotten
+together, and it was just by chance that some things got in at all.
+
+It was not difficult to find the old cayuse she intended using for a
+pack-horse. He was browsing around in the corral, and she soon had a
+halter over his head, for she had been quite used to horses from her
+babyhood.
+
+She packed the canned things, tinned meats, vegetables, and fruit into a
+couple of large sacks, adding some fodder for the horses, a box of
+matches, some corn bread, of which there was always plenty on hand in
+the house, some salt pork, and a few tin dishes. These she slung pack
+fashion over the old horse, fastened the sardine-tin containing the gold
+pieces where it would be easily found, tied the horse to a tree, and
+retired behind a shelter of sage-brush to watch.
+
+It was not long before the little caravan came, the Indians riding ahead
+single file, like two graven images, moving not a muscle of their faces,
+and Margaret a little way behind on her own pony, her face as happy and
+relieved as if she were a child let out from a hard task to play.
+
+The Indian stopped beside the horse, a glitter of satisfaction in his
+eyes as he saw that the little lady had fulfilled her part of the
+bargain. He indicated to the squaw and the lady that they might move on
+down the trail, and he would catch up with them; and then dismounted,
+pouncing warily upon the sardine-tin at once. He looked furtively about,
+then took out the money and tested it with his teeth to make sure it was
+genuine.
+
+He grunted his further satisfaction, looked over the pack-horse, made
+more secure the fastenings of the load, and, taking the halter, mounted
+and rode stolidly away toward the north.
+
+Rosa waited in her covert until they were far out of sight, then made
+her way hurriedly back to the house and climbed to a window where she
+could watch the trail for several miles. There, with a field-glass, she
+kept watch until the procession had filed across the plains, down into a
+valley, up over a hill, and dropped to a farther valley out of sight.
+She looked at the sun and drew a breath of satisfaction. She had done it
+at last! She had got Margaret away before Forsythe came! There was no
+likelihood that the fraud would be discovered until her rival was far
+enough away to be safe. A kind of reaction came upon Rosa's overwrought
+nerves. She laughed out harshly, and her voice had a cruel ring to it.
+Then she threw herself upon the bed and burst into a passionate fit of
+weeping, and so, by and by, fell asleep. She dreamed that Margaret had
+returned like a shining, fiery angel, a two-edged sword in her hand and
+all the Wallis camp at her heels, with vengeance in their wake. That
+hateful little boy, Bud Tanner, danced around and made faces at her,
+while Forsythe had forgotten her to gaze at Margaret's face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+To Margaret the day was very fair, and the omens all auspicious. She
+carried with her close to her heart two precious letters received that
+morning and scarcely glanced at as yet, one from Gardley and one from
+her mother. She had had only time to open them and be sure that all was
+well with her dear ones, and had left the rest to read on the way.
+
+She was dressed in the khaki riding-habit she always wore when she went
+on horseback; and in the bag strapped on behind she carried a couple of
+fresh white blouses, a thin, white dress, a little soft dark silk gown
+that folded away almost into a cobweb, and a few other necessities. She
+had also slipped in a new book her mother had sent her, into which she
+had had as yet no time to look, and her chessmen and board, besides
+writing materials. She prided herself on having got so many necessaries
+into so small a compass. She would need the extra clothing if she stayed
+at Ganado with the missionaries for a week on her return from the trip,
+and the book and chessmen would amuse them all by the way. She had heard
+Brownleigh say he loved to play chess.
+
+Margaret rode on the familiar trail, and for the first hour just let
+herself be glad that school was over and she could rest and have no
+responsibility. The sun shimmered down brilliantly on the white, hot
+sand and gray-green of the greasewood and sage-brush. Tall spikes of
+cactus like lonely spires shot up now and again to vary the scene. It
+was all familiar ground to Margaret around here, for she had taken many
+rides with Gardley and Bud, and for the first part of the way every turn
+and bit of view was fraught with pleasant memories that brought a smile
+to her eyes as she recalled some quotation of Gardley's or some prank of
+Bud's. Here was where they first sighted the little cottontail the day
+she took her initial ride on her own pony. Off there was the mountain
+where they saw the sun drawing silver water above a frowning storm.
+Yonder was the group of cedars where they had stopped to eat their lunch
+once, and this water-hole they were approaching was the one where
+Gardley had given her a drink from his hat.
+
+She was almost glad that Bud was not along, for she was too tired to
+talk and liked to be alone with her thoughts for this few minutes. Poor
+Bud! He would be disappointed when he got back to find her gone, but
+then he had expected she was going in a few days, anyway, and she had
+promised to take long rides with him when she returned. She had left a
+little note for him, asking him to read a certain book in her bookcase
+while she was gone, and be ready to discuss it with her when she got
+back, and Bud would be fascinated with it, she knew. Bud had been dear
+and faithful, and she would miss him, but just for this little while
+she was glad to have the great out-of-doors to herself.
+
+She was practically alone. The two sphinx-like figures riding ahead of
+her made no sign, but stolidly rode on hour after hour, nor turned their
+heads even to see if she were coming. She knew that Indians were this
+way; still, as the time went by she began to feel an uneasy sense of
+being alone in the universe with a couple of bronze statues. Even the
+papoose had erased itself in sleep, and when it awoke partook so fully
+of its racial peculiarities as to hold its little peace and make no
+fuss. Margaret began to feel the baby was hardly human, more like a
+little brown doll set up in a missionary meeting to teach white children
+what a papoose was like.
+
+By and by she got out her letters and read them over carefully, dreaming
+and smiling over them, and getting precious bits by heart. Gardley
+hinted that he might be able very soon to visit her parents, as it
+looked as though he might have to make a trip on business in their
+direction before he could go further with what he was doing in his old
+home. He gave no hint of soon returning to the West. He said he was
+awaiting the return of one man who might soon be coming from abroad.
+Margaret sighed and wondered how many weary months it would be before
+she would see him. Perhaps, after all, she ought to have gone home and
+stayed them out with her mother and father. If the school-board could be
+made to see that it would be better to have no summer session, perhaps
+she would even yet go when she returned from the Brownleighs'. She would
+see. She would decide nothing until she was rested.
+
+Suddenly she felt herself overwhelmingly weary, and wished that the
+Indians would stop and rest for a while; but when she stirred up her
+sleepy pony and spurred ahead to broach the matter to her guide he shook
+his solemn head and pointed to the sun:
+
+"No get Keams good time. No meet Aneshodi."
+
+"Aneshodi," she knew, was the Indians' name for the missionary, and she
+smiled her acquiescence. Of course they must meet the Brownleighs and
+not detain them. What was it Hazel had said about having to hurry? She
+searched her pocket for the letter, and then remembered she had left it
+with Mrs. Tanner. What a pity she had not brought it! Perhaps there was
+some caution or advice in it that she had not taken note of. But then
+the Indian likely knew all about it, and she could trust to him. She
+glanced at his stolid face and wished she could make him smile. She cast
+a sunny smile at him and said something pleasant about the beautiful
+day, but he only looked her through as if she were not there, and after
+one or two more attempts she fell back and tried to talk to the squaw;
+but the squaw only looked stolid, too, and shook her head. She did not
+seem friendly. Margaret drew back into her old position and feasted her
+eyes upon the distant hills.
+
+The road was growing unfamiliar now. They were crossing rough ridges
+with cliffs of red sandstone, and every step of the way was interesting.
+Yet Margaret felt more and more how much she wanted to lie down and
+sleep, and when at last in the dusk the Indians halted not far from a
+little pool of rainwater and indicated that here they would camp for
+the night, Margaret was too weary to question the decision. It had not
+occurred to her that she would be on the way overnight before she met
+her friends. Her knowledge of the way, and of distances, was but vague.
+It is doubtful if she would have ventured had she known that she must
+pass the night thus in the company of two strange savage creatures. Yet,
+now that she was here and it was inevitable, she would not shrink, but
+make the best of it. She tried to be friendly once more, and offered to
+look out for the baby while the squaw gathered wood and made a fire. The
+Indian was off looking after the horses, evidently expecting his wife to
+do all the work.
+
+Margaret watched a few minutes, while pretending to play with the baby,
+who was both sleepy and hungry, yet held his emotions as stolidly as if
+he were a grown person. Then she decided to take a hand in the supper.
+She was hungry and could not bear that those dusky, dirty hands should
+set forth her food, so she went to work cheerfully, giving directions as
+if the Indian woman understood her, though she very soon discovered that
+all her talk was as mere babbling to the other, and she might as well
+hold her peace. The woman set a kettle of water over the fire, and
+Margaret forestalled her next movement by cutting some pork and putting
+it to cook in a little skillet she found among the provisions. The woman
+watched her solemnly, not seeming to care; and so, silently, each went
+about her own preparations.
+
+The supper was a silent affair, and when it was over the squaw handed
+Margaret a blanket. Suddenly she understood that this, and this alone,
+was to be her bed for the night. The earth was there for a mattress,
+and the sage-brush lent a partial shelter, the canopy of stars was
+overhead.
+
+A kind of panic took possession of her. She stared at the squaw and
+found herself longing to cry out for help. It seemed as if she could not
+bear this awful silence of the mortals who were her only company. Yet
+her common sense came to her aid, and she realized that there was
+nothing for it but to make the best of things. So she took the blanket
+and, spreading it out, sat down upon it and wrapped it about her
+shoulders and feet. She would not lie down until she saw what the rest
+did. Somehow she shrank from asking the bronze man how to fold a blanket
+for a bed on the ground. She tried to remember what Gardley had told her
+about folding the blanket bed so as best to keep out snakes and ants.
+She shuddered at the thought of snakes. Would she dare call for help
+from those stolid companions of hers if a snake should attempt to molest
+her in the night? And would she ever dare to go to sleep?
+
+She remembered her first night in Arizona out among the stars, alone on
+the water-tank, and her first frenzy of loneliness. Was this as bad? No,
+for these Indians were trustworthy and well known by her dear friends.
+It might be unpleasant, but this, too, would pass and the morrow would
+soon be here.
+
+The dusk dropped down and the stars loomed out. All the world grew
+wonderful, like a blue jeweled dome of a palace with the lights turned
+low. The fire burned brightly as the man threw sticks upon it, and the
+two Indians moved stealthily about in the darkness, passing silhouetted
+before the fire this way and that, and then at last lying down wrapped
+in their blankets to sleep.
+
+It was very quiet about her. The air was so still she could hear the
+hobbled horses munching away in the distance, and moving now and then
+with the halting gait a hobble gives a horse. Off in the farther
+distance the blood-curdling howl of the coyotes rose, but Margaret was
+used to them, and knew they would not come near a fire.
+
+She was growing very weary, and at last wrapped her blanket closer and
+lay down, her head pillowed on one corner of it. Committing herself to
+her Heavenly Father, and breathing a prayer for father, mother, and
+lover, she fell asleep.
+
+It was still almost dark when she awoke. For a moment she thought it was
+still night and the sunset was not gone yet, the clouds were so rosy
+tinted.
+
+The squaw was standing by her, touching her shoulder roughly and
+grunting something. She perceived, as she rubbed her eyes and tried to
+summon back her senses, that she was expected to get up and eat
+breakfast. There was a smell of pork and coffee in the air, and there
+was scorched corn bread beside the fire on a pan.
+
+Margaret got up quickly and ran down to the water-hole to get some
+water, dashing it in her face and over her arms and hands, the squaw
+meanwhile standing at a little distance, watching her curiously, as if
+she thought this some kind of an oblation paid to the white woman's god
+before she ate. Margaret pulled the hair-pins out of her hair, letting
+it down and combing it with one of her side combs; twisted it up again
+in its soft, fluffy waves; straightened her collar, set on her hat, and
+was ready for the day. The squaw looked at her with both awe and
+contempt for a moment, then turned and stalked back to her papoose and
+began preparing it for the journey.
+
+Margaret made a hurried meal and was scarcely done before she found her
+guides were waiting like two pillars of the desert, but watching keenly,
+impatiently, her every mouthful, and anxious to be off.
+
+The sky was still pink-tinted with the semblance of a sunset, and
+Margaret felt, as she mounted her pony and followed her companions, as
+if the day was all turned upside down. She almost wondered whether she
+hadn't slept through a whole twenty-four hours, and it were not, after
+all, evening again, till by and by the sun rose clear and the wonder of
+the cloud-tinting melted into day.
+
+The road lay through sage-brush and old barren cedar-trees, with rabbits
+darting now and then between the rocks. Suddenly from the top of a
+little hill they came out to a spot where they could see far over the
+desert. Forty miles away three square, flat hills, or mesas, looked like
+a gigantic train of cars, and the clear air gave everything a strange
+vastness. Farther on beyond the mesas dimly dawned the Black Mountains.
+One could even see the shadowed head of "Round Rock," almost a hundred
+miles away. Before them and around was a great plain of sage-brush, and
+here and there was a small bush that the Indians call "the weed that was
+not scared." Margaret had learned all these things during her winter in
+Arizona, and keenly enjoyed the vast, splendid view spread before her.
+
+They passed several little mud-plastered hogans that Margaret knew for
+Indian dwellings. A fine band of ponies off in the distance made an
+interesting spot on the landscape, and twice they passed bands of sheep.
+She had a feeling of great isolation from everything she had ever known,
+and seemed going farther and farther from life and all she loved. Once
+she ventured to ask the Indian what time he expected to meet her
+friends, the missionaries, but he only shook his head and murmured
+something unintelligible about "Keams" and pointed to the sun. She
+dropped behind again, vaguely uneasy, she could not tell why. There
+seemed something so altogether sly and wary and unfriendly in the faces
+of the two that she almost wished she had not come. Yet the way was
+beautiful enough and nothing very unpleasant was happening to her. Once
+she dropped the envelope of her mother's letter and was about to
+dismount and recover it. Then some strange impulse made her leave it on
+the sand of the desert. What if they should be lost and that paper
+should guide them back? The notion stayed by her, and once in a while
+she dropped other bits of paper by the way.
+
+About noon the trail dropped off into a caņon, with high, yellow-rock
+walls on either side, and stifling heat, so that she felt as if she
+could scarcely stand it. She was glad when they emerged once more and
+climbed to higher ground. The noon camp was a hasty affair, for the
+Indian seemed in a hurry. He scanned the horizon far and wide and
+seemed searching keenly for some one or something. Once they met a
+lonely Indian, and he held a muttered conversation with him, pointing
+off ahead and gesticulating angrily. But the words were unintelligible
+to Margaret. Her feeling of uneasiness was growing, and yet she could
+not for the life of her tell why, and laid it down to her tired nerves.
+She was beginning to think she had been very foolish to start on such a
+long trip before she had had a chance to get rested from her last days
+of school. She longed to lie down under a tree and sleep for days.
+
+Toward night they sighted a great blue mesa about fifty miles south, and
+at sunset they could just see the San Francisco peaks more than a
+hundred and twenty-five miles away. Margaret, as she stopped her horse
+and gazed, felt a choking in her heart and throat and a great desire to
+cry. The glory and awe of the mountains, mingled with her own weariness
+and nervous fear, were almost too much for her. She was glad to get down
+and eat a little supper and go to sleep again. As she fell asleep she
+comforted herself with repeating over a few precious words from her
+Bible:
+
+     "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him and
+     delivereth them. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is
+     stayed on Thee because he trusteth in Thee. I will both lay me down
+     in peace and sleep, for Thou Lord only makest me to dwell in
+     safety...."
+
+The voice of the coyotes, now far, now near, boomed out on the night;
+great stars shot dartling pathways across the heavens; the fire snapped
+and crackled, died down and flickered feebly; but Margaret slept, tired
+out, and dreamed the angels kept close vigil around her lowly couch.
+
+She did not know what time the stars disappeared and the rain began to
+fall. She was too tired to notice the drops that fell upon her face. Too
+tired to hear the coyotes coming nearer, nearer, yet in the morning
+there lay one dead, stretched not thirty feet from where she lay. The
+Indian had shot him through the heart.
+
+Somehow things looked very dismal that morning, in spite of the
+brightness of the sun after the rain. She was stiff and sore with lying
+in the dampness. Her hair was wet, her blanket was wet, and she woke
+without feeling rested. Almost the trip seemed more than she could bear.
+If she could have wished herself back that morning and have stayed at
+Tanners' all summer she certainly would have done it rather than to be
+where and how she was.
+
+The Indians seemed excited--the man grim and forbidding, the woman
+appealing, frightened, anxious. They were near to Keams Caņon.
+"Aneshodi" would be somewhere about. The Indian hoped to be rid of his
+burden then and travel on his interrupted journey. He was growing
+impatient. He felt he had earned his money.
+
+But when they tried to go down Keam's Caņon they found the road all
+washed away by flood, and must needs go a long way around. This made the
+Indian surly. His countenance was more forbidding than ever. Margaret,
+as she watched him with sinking heart, altered her ideas of the Indian
+as a whole to suit the situation. She had always felt pity for the poor
+Indian, whose land had been seized and whose kindred had been
+slaughtered. But this Indian was not an object of pity. He was the most
+disagreeable, cruel-looking Indian Margaret had ever laid eyes on. She
+had felt it innately the first time she saw him, but now, as the
+situation began to bring him out, she knew that she was dreadfully
+afraid of him. She had a feeling that he might scalp her if he got tired
+of her. She began to alter her opinion of Hazel Brownleigh's judgment as
+regarded Indians. She did not feel that she would ever send this Indian
+to any one for a guide and say he was perfectly trustworthy. He hadn't
+done anything very dreadful yet, but she felt he was going to.
+
+He had a number of angry confabs with his wife that morning. At least,
+he did the confabbing and the squaw protested. Margaret gathered after a
+while that it was something about herself. The furtive, frightened
+glances that the squaw cast in her direction sometimes, when the man was
+not looking, made her think so. She tried to say it was all imagination,
+and that her nerves were getting the upper hand of her, but in spite of
+her she shuddered sometimes, just as she had done when Rosa looked at
+her. She decided that she must be going to have a fit of sickness, and
+that just as soon as she got in the neighborhood of Mrs. Tanner's again
+she would pack her trunk and go home to her mother. If she was going to
+be sick she wanted her mother.
+
+About noon things came to a climax. They halted on the top of the mesa,
+and the Indians had another altercation, which ended in the man
+descending the trail a fearfully steep way, down four hundred feet to
+the trading-post in the caņon. Margaret looked down and gasped and
+thanked a kind Providence that had not made it necessary for her to make
+that descent; but the squaw stood at the top with her baby and looked
+down in silent sorrow--agony perhaps would be a better name. Her face
+was terrible to look upon.
+
+Margaret could not understand it, and she went to the woman and put her
+hand out sympathetically, asking, gently: "What is the matter, you poor
+little thing? Oh, what is it?"
+
+Perhaps the woman understood the tenderness in the tone, for she
+suddenly turned and rested her forehead against Margaret's shoulder,
+giving one great, gasping sob, then lifted her dry, miserable eyes to
+the girl's face as if to thank her for her kindness.
+
+Margaret's heart was touched. She threw her arms around the poor woman
+and drew her, papoose and all, comfortingly toward her, patting her
+shoulder and saying gentle, soothing words as she would to a little
+child. And by and by the woman lifted her head again, the tears coursing
+down her face, and tried to explain, muttering her queer gutturals and
+making eloquent gestures until Margaret felt she understood. She
+gathered that the man had gone down to the trading-post to find the
+"Aneshodi," and that the squaw feared that he would somehow procure
+firewater either from the trader or from some Indian he might meet, and
+would come back angrier than he had gone, and without his money.
+
+If Margaret also suspected that the Indian had desired to get rid of her
+by leaving her at that desolate little trading-station down in the caņon
+until such time as her friends should call for her, she resolutely put
+the thought out of her mind and set herself to cheer the poor Indian
+woman.
+
+She took a bright, soft, rosy silk tie from her own neck and knotted it
+about the astonished woman's dusky throat, and then she put a silver
+dollar in her hand, and was thrilled with wonder to see what a change
+came over the poor, dark face. It reminded her of Mom Wallis when she
+got on her new bonnet, and once again she felt the thrill of knowing the
+whole world kin.
+
+The squaw cheered up after a little, got sticks and made a fire, and
+together they had quite a pleasant meal. Margaret exerted herself to
+make the poor woman laugh, and finally succeeded by dangling a
+bright-red knight from her chessmen in front of the delighted baby's
+eyes till he gurgled out a real baby crow of joy.
+
+It was the middle of the afternoon before the Indian returned, sitting
+crazily his struggling beast as he climbed the trail once more.
+Margaret, watching, caught her breath and prayed. Was this the
+trustworthy man, this drunken, reeling creature, clubbing his horse and
+pouring forth a torrent of indistinguishable gutturals? It was evident
+that his wife's worst fears were verified. He had found the firewater.
+
+The frightened squaw set to work putting things together as fast as she
+could. She well knew what to expect, and when the man reached the top of
+the mesa he found his party packed and mounted, waiting fearsomely to
+take the trail.
+
+Silently, timorously, they rode behind him, west across the great wide
+plain.
+
+In the distance gradually there appeared dim mesas like great fingers
+stretching out against the sky; miles away they seemed, and nothing
+intervening but a stretch of varying color where sage-brush melted into
+sand, and sage-brush and greasewood grew again, with tall cactus
+startling here and there like bayonets at rest but bristling with
+menace.
+
+The Indian had grown silent and sullen. His eyes were like deep fires of
+burning volcanoes. One shrank from looking at them. His massive, cruel
+profile stood out like bronze against the evening sky. It was growing
+night again, and still they had not come to anywhere or anything, and
+still her friends seemed just as far away.
+
+Since they had left the top of Keams Caņon Margaret had been sure all
+was not right. Aside from the fact that the guide was drunk at present,
+she was convinced that there had been something wrong with him all
+along. He did not act like the Indians around Ashland. He did not act
+like a trusted guide that her friends would send for her. She wished
+once more that she had kept Hazel Brownleigh's letter. She wondered how
+her friends would find her if they came after her. It was then she began
+in earnest to systematically plan to leave a trail behind her all the
+rest of the way. If she had only done it thoroughly when she first began
+to be uneasy. But now she was so far away, so many miles from anywhere!
+Oh, if she had not come at all!
+
+And first she dropped her handkerchief, because she happened to have it
+in her hand--a dainty thing with lace on the edge and her name written
+in tiny script by her mother's careful hand on the narrow hem. And then
+after a little, as soon as she could scrawl it without being noticed,
+she wrote a note which she twisted around the neck of a red chessman,
+and left behind her. After that scraps of paper, as she could reach them
+out of the bag tied on behind her saddle; then a stocking, a bedroom
+slipper, more chessmen, and so, when they halted at dusk and prepared to
+strike camp, she had quite a good little trail blazed behind her over
+that wide, empty plain. She shuddered as she looked into the gathering
+darkness ahead, where those long, dark lines of mesas looked like
+barriers in the way. Then, suddenly, the Indian pointed ahead to the
+first mesa and uttered one word--"Walpi!" So that was the Indian village
+to which she was bound? What was before her on the morrow? After eating
+a pretense of supper she lay down. The Indian had more firewater with
+him. He drank, he uttered cruel gutturals at his squaw, and even kicked
+the feet of the sleeping papoose as he passed by till it awoke and cried
+sharply, which made him more angry, so he struck the squaw.
+
+It seemed hours before all was quiet. Margaret's nerves were strained to
+such a pitch she scarcely dared to breathe, but at last, when the fire
+had almost died down, the man lay quiet, and she could relax and close
+her eyes.
+
+Not to sleep. She must not go to sleep. The fire was almost gone and the
+coyotes would be around. She must wake and watch!
+
+That was the last thought she remembered--that and a prayer that the
+angels would keep watch once again.
+
+When she awoke it was broad daylight and far into the morning, for the
+sun was high overhead and the mesas in the distance were clear and
+distinct against the sky.
+
+She sat up and looked about her, bewildered, not knowing at first where
+she was. It was so still and wide and lonely.
+
+She turned to find the Indians, but there was no trace of them anywhere.
+The fire lay smoldering in its place, a thin trickle of smoke curling
+away from a dying stick, but that was all. A tin cup half full of coffee
+was beside the stick, and a piece of blackened corn bread. She turned
+frightened eyes to east, to west, to north, to south, but there was no
+one in sight, and out over the distant mesa there poised a great eagle
+alone in the vast sky keeping watch over the brilliant, silent waste.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+
+When Margaret was a very little girl her father and mother had left her
+alone for an hour with a stranger while they went out to make a call in
+a strange city through which they were passing on a summer trip. The
+stranger was kind, and gave to the child a large green box of bits of
+old black lace and purple ribbons to play with, but she turned
+sorrowfully from the somber array of finery, which was the only thing in
+the way of a plaything the woman had at hand, and stood looking drearily
+out of the window on the strange, new town, a feeling of utter
+loneliness upon her. Her little heart was almost choked with the
+awfulness of the thought that she was a human atom drifted apart from
+every other atom she had ever known, that she had a personality and a
+responsibility of her own, and that she must face this thought of
+herself and her aloneness for evermore. It was the child's first
+realization that she was a separate being apart from her father and
+mother, and she was almost consumed with the terror of it.
+
+As she rose now from her bed on the ground and looked out across that
+vast waste, in which the only other living creature was that sinister,
+watching eagle, the same feeling returned to her and made her tremble
+like the little child who had turned from her box of ancient finery to
+realize her own little self and its terrible aloneness.
+
+For an instant even her realization of God, which had from early
+childhood been present with her, seemed to have departed. She could not
+grasp anything save the vast empty silence that loomed about her so
+awfully. She was alone, and about as far from anywhere or anything as
+she could possibly be in the State of Arizona. Would she ever get back
+to human habitations? Would her friends ever be able to find her?
+
+Then her heart flew back to its habitual refuge, and she spoke aloud and
+said, "God is here!" and the thought seemed to comfort her. She looked
+about once more on the bright waste, and now it did not seem so dreary.
+
+"God is here!" she repeated, and tried to realize that this was a part
+of His habitation. She could not be lost where God was. He knew the way
+out. She had only to trust. So she dropped upon her knees in the sand
+and prayed for trust and courage.
+
+When she rose again she walked steadily to a height a little above the
+camp-fire, and, shading her eyes, looked carefully in every direction.
+No, there was not a sign of her recent companions. They must have stolen
+away in the night quite soon after she fell asleep, and have gone fast
+and far, so that they were now beyond the reach of her eyes, and not
+anywhere was there sign of living thing, save that eagle still sweeping
+in great curves and poising again above the distant mesa.
+
+Where was her horse? Had the Indians taken that, too? She searched the
+valley, but saw no horse at first. With sinking heart she went back to
+where her things were and sat down by the dying fire to think, putting a
+few loose twigs and sticks together to keep the embers bright while she
+could. She reflected that she had no matches, and this was probably the
+last fire she would have until somebody came to her rescue or she got
+somewhere by herself. What was she to do? Stay right where she was or
+start out on foot? And should she go backward or forward? Surely, surely
+the Brownleighs would miss her pretty soon and send out a search-party
+for her. How could it be that they trusted an Indian who had done such a
+cruel thing as to leave a woman unprotected in the desert? And yet,
+perhaps, they did not know his temptation to drink. Perhaps they had
+thought he could not get any firewater. Perhaps he would return when he
+came to himself and realized what he had done.
+
+And now she noticed what she had not seen at first--a small bottle of
+water on a stone beside the blackened bread. Realizing that she was very
+hungry and that this was the only food at hand, she sat down beside the
+fire to eat the dry bread and drink the miserable coffee. She must have
+strength to do whatever was before her. She tried not to think how her
+mother would feel if she never came back, how anxious they would be as
+they waited day by day for her letters that did not come. She reflected
+with a sinking heart that she had, just before leaving, written a hasty
+note to her mother telling her not to expect anything for several days,
+perhaps even as much as two weeks, as she was going out of civilization
+for a little while. How had she unwittingly sealed her fate by that! For
+now not even by way of her alarmed home could help come to her.
+
+She put the last bit of hard corn bread in her pocket for a further time
+of need, and began to look about her again. Then she spied with delight
+a moving object far below her in the valley, and decided it was a horse,
+perhaps her own. He was a mile away, at least, but he was there, and she
+cried out with sudden joy and relief.
+
+She went over to her blanket and bags, which had been beside her during
+the night, and stood a moment trying to think what to do. Should she
+carry the things to the horse or risk leaving them here while she went
+after the horse and brought him to the things? No, that would not be
+safe. Some one might come along and take them, or she might not be able
+to find her way back again in this strange, wild waste. Besides, she
+might not get the horse, after all, and would lose everything. She must
+carry her things to the horse. She stooped to gather them up, and
+something bright beside her bag attracted her. It was the sun shining on
+the silver dollar she had given to the Indian woman. A sudden rush of
+tears came to her eyes. The poor creature had tried to make all the
+reparation she could for thus hastily leaving the white woman in the
+desert. She had given back the money--all she had that was valuable!
+Beside the dollar rippled a little chain of beads curiously wrought, an
+inanimate appeal for forgiveness and a grateful return for the kindness
+shown her. Margaret smiled as she stooped again to pick up her things.
+There had been a heart, after all, behind that stolid countenance, and
+some sense of righteousness and justice. Margaret decided that Indians
+were not all treacherous. Poor woman! What a life was hers--to follow
+her grim lord whither he would lead, even as her white sister must
+sometimes, sorrowing, rebelling, crying out, but following! She wondered
+if into the heart of this dark sister there ever crept any of the
+rebellion which led some of her white sisters to cry aloud for "rights"
+and "emancipation."
+
+But it was all a passing thought to be remembered and turned over at a
+more propitious time. Margaret's whole thoughts now were bent on her
+present predicament.
+
+The packing was short work. She stuffed everything into the two bags
+that were usually hung across the horse, and settled them carefully
+across her shoulders. Then she rolled the blanket, took it in her arms,
+and started. It was a heavy burden to carry, but she could not make up
+her mind to part with any of her things until she had at least made an
+effort to save them. If she should be left alone in the desert for the
+night the blanket was indispensable, and her clothes would at least do
+to drop as a trail by which her friends might find her. She must carry
+them as far as possible. So she started.
+
+It was already high day, and the sun was intolerably hot. Her heavy
+burden was not only cumbersome, but very warm, and she felt her strength
+going from her as she went; but her nerve was up and her courage was
+strong. Moreover, she prayed as she walked, and she felt now the
+presence of her Guide and was not afraid. As she walked she faced a
+number of possibilities in the immediate future which were startling,
+and to say the least, undesirable. There were wild animals in this land,
+not so much in the daylight, but what of the night? She had heard that a
+woman was always safe in that wild Western land; but what of the
+prowling Indians? What of a possible exception to the Western rule of
+chivalry toward a decent woman? One small piece of corn bread and less
+than a pint of water were small provision on which to withstand a siege.
+How far was it to anywhere?
+
+It was then she remembered for the first time that one word--"Walpi!"
+uttered by the Indian as he came to a halt the night before and pointed
+far to the mesa--"Walpi." She lifted her eyes now and scanned the dark
+mesa. It loomed like a great battlement of rock against the sky. Could
+it be possible there were people dwelling there? She had heard, of
+course, about the curious Hopi villages, each village a gigantic house
+of many rooms, called pueblos, built upon the lofty crags, sometimes
+five or six hundred feet above the desert.
+
+Could it be that that great castle-looking outline against the sky
+before her, standing out on the end of the mesa like a promontory above
+the sea, was Walpi? And if it was, how was she to get up there? The rock
+rose sheer and steep from the desert floor. The narrow neck of land
+behind it looked like a slender thread. Her heart sank at thought of
+trying to storm and enter, single-handed, such an impregnable fortress.
+And yet, if her friends were there, perhaps they would see her when she
+drew near and come to show her the way. Strange that they should have
+gone on and left her with those treacherous Indians! Strange that they
+should have trusted them so, in the first place! Her own instincts had
+been against trusting the man from the beginning. It must be confessed
+that during her reflections at this point her opinion of the wisdom and
+judgment of the Brownleighs was lowered several notches. Then she began
+to berate herself for having so easily been satisfied about her escort.
+She should have read the letter more carefully. She should have asked
+the Indians more questions. She should, perhaps, have asked Jasper
+Kemp's advice, or got him to talk to the Indian. She wished with all her
+heart for Bud, now. If Bud were along he would be saying some comical
+boy-thing, and be finding a way out of the difficulty. Dear, faithful
+Bud!
+
+The sun rose higher and the morning grew hotter. As she descended to the
+valley her burdens grew intolerable, and several times she almost cast
+them aside. Once she lost sight of her pony among the sage-brush, and it
+was two hours before she came to him and was able to capture him and
+strap on her burdens. She was almost too exhausted to climb into the
+saddle when all was ready; but she managed to mount at last and started
+out toward the rugged crag ahead of her.
+
+The pony had a long, hot climb out of the valley to a hill where she
+could see very far again, but still that vast emptiness reigned. Even
+the eagle had disappeared, and she fancied he must be resting like a
+great emblem of freedom on one of the points of the castle-like
+battlement against the sky. It seemed as if the end of the world had
+come, and she was the only one left in the universe, forgotten, riding
+on her weary horse across an endless desert in search of a home she
+would never see again.
+
+Below the hill there stretched a wide, white strip of sand, perhaps two
+miles in extent, but shimmering in the sun and seeming to recede ahead
+of her as she advanced. Beyond was soft greenness--something
+growing--not near enough to be discerned as cornfields. The girl drooped
+her tired head upon her horse's mane and wept, her courage going from
+her with her tears. In all that wide universe there seemed no way to go,
+and she was so very tired, hungry, hot, and discouraged! There was
+always that bit of bread in her pocket and that muddy-looking, warm
+water for a last resort; but she must save them as long as possible, for
+there was no telling how long it would be before she had more.
+
+There was no trail now to follow. She had started from the spot where
+she had found the horse, and her inexperienced eyes could not have
+searched out a trail if she had tried. She was going toward that distant
+castle on the crag as to a goal, but when she reached it, if she ever
+did, would she find anything there but crags and lonesomeness and the
+eagle?
+
+Drying her tears at last, she started the horse on down the hill, and
+perhaps her tears blinded her, or because she was dizzy with hunger and
+the long stretch of anxiety and fatigue she was not looking closely.
+There was a steep place, a sharp falling away of the ground unexpectedly
+as they emerged from a thicket of sage-brush, and the horse plunged
+several feet down, striking sharply on some loose rocks, and slipping to
+his knees; snorting, scrambling, making brave effort, but slipping, half
+rolling, at last he was brought down with his frightened rider, and lay
+upon his side with her foot under him and a sensation like a red-hot
+knife running through her ankle.
+
+Margaret caught her breath in quick gasps as they fell, lifting a prayer
+in her heart for help. Then came the crash and the sharp pain, and with
+a quick conviction that all was over she dropped back unconscious on the
+sand, a blessed oblivion of darkness rushing over her.
+
+When she came to herself once more the hot sun was pouring down upon her
+unprotected face, and she was conscious of intense pain and suffering in
+every part of her body. She opened her eyes wildly and looked around.
+There was sage-brush up above, waving over the crag down which they had
+fallen, its gray-greenness shimmering hotly in the sun; the sky was
+mercilessly blue without a cloud. The great beast, heavy and quivering,
+lay solidly against her, half pinning her to earth, and the helplessness
+of her position was like an awful nightmare from which she felt she
+might waken if she could only cry out. But when at last she raised her
+voice its empty echo frightened her, and there, above her, with
+wide-spread wings, circling for an instant, then poised in motionless
+survey of her, with cruel eyes upon her, loomed that eagle--so large, so
+fearful, so suggestive in its curious stare, the monarch of the desert
+come to see who had invaded his precincts and fallen into one of his
+snares.
+
+With sudden frenzy burning in her veins Margaret struggled and tried to
+get free, but she could only move the slightest bit each time, and every
+motion was an agony to the hurt ankle.
+
+It seemed hours before she writhed herself free from that great,
+motionless horse, whose labored breath only showed that he was still
+alive. Something terrible must have happened to the horse or he would
+have tried to rise, for she had coaxed, patted, cajoled, tried in every
+way to rouse him. When at last she crawled free from the hot, horrible
+body and crept with pained progress around in front of him, she saw that
+both his forelegs lay limp and helpless. He must have broken them in
+falling. Poor fellow! He, too, was suffering and she had nothing to give
+him! There was nothing she could do for him!
+
+Then she thought of the bottle of water, but, searching for it, found
+that her good intention of dividing it with him was useless, for the
+bottle was broken and the water already soaked into the sand. Only a
+damp spot on the saddle-bag showed where it had departed.
+
+Then indeed did Margaret sink down in the sand in despair and begin to
+pray as she had never prayed before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+
+The morning after Margaret's departure Rosa awoke with no feelings of
+self-reproach, but rather a great exultation at the way in which she had
+been able to get rid of her rival.
+
+She lay for a few minutes thinking of Forsythe, and trying to decide
+what she would wear when she went forth to meet him, for she wanted to
+charm him as she had never charmed any one before.
+
+She spent some time arraying herself in different costumes, but at last
+decided on her Commencement gown of fine white organdie,
+hand-embroidered and frilled with filmy lace, the product of a famous
+house of gowns in the Eastern city where she had attended school for a
+while and acquired expensive tastes.
+
+Daintily slippered, beribboned with coral-silk girdle, and with a rose
+from the vine over her window in her hair, she sallied forth at last to
+the trysting-place.
+
+Forsythe was a whole hour late, as became a languid gentleman who had
+traveled the day before and idled at his sister's house over a late
+breakfast until nearly noon. Already his fluttering fancy was apathetic
+about Rosa, and he wondered, as he rode along, what had become of the
+interesting young teacher who had charmed him for more than a passing
+moment. Would he dare to call upon her, now that Gardley was out of the
+way? Was she still in Ashland or had she gone home for vacation? He must
+ask Rosa about her.
+
+Then he came in sight of Rosa sitting picturesquely in the shade of an
+old cedar, reading poetry, a little lady in the wilderness, and he
+forgot everything else in his delight over the change in her. For Rosa
+had changed. There was no mistake about it. She had bloomed out into
+maturity in those few short months of his absence. Her soft figure had
+rounded and developed, her bewitching curls were put up on her head,
+with only a stray tendril here and there to emphasize a dainty ear or
+call attention to a smooth, round neck; and when she raised her lovely
+head and lifted limpid eyes to his there was about her a demureness, a
+coolness and charm that he had fancied only ladies of the city could
+attain. Oh, Rosa knew her charms, and had practised many a day before
+her mirror till she had appraised the value of every curving eyelash,
+every hidden dimple, every cupid's curve of lip. Rosa had watched well
+and learned from all with whom she had come in contact. No woman's guile
+was left untried by her.
+
+And Rosa was very sweet and charming. She knew just when to lift up
+innocent eyes of wonder; when to not understand suggestions; when to
+exclaim softly with delight or shrink with shyness that nevertheless did
+not repulse.
+
+Forsythe studied her with wonder and delight. No maiden of the city had
+ever charmed him more, and withal she seemed so innocent and young, so
+altogether pliable in his hands. His pulses beat high, his heart was
+inflamed, and passion came and sat within his handsome eyes.
+
+It was easy to persuade her, after her first seemingly shy reserve was
+overcome, and before an hour was passed she had promised to go away with
+him. He had very little money, but what of that? When he spoke of that
+feature Rosa declared she could easily get some. Her father gave her
+free access to his safe, and kept her plentifully supplied for the
+household use. It was nothing to her--a passing incident. What should it
+matter whose money took them on their way?
+
+When she went demurely back to the ranch a little before sunset she
+thought she was very happy, poor little silly sinner! She met her father
+with her most alluring but most furtive smile. She was charming at
+supper, and blushed as her mother used to do when he praised her new
+gown and told her how well she looked in it. But she professed to be
+weary yet from the last days of school--to have a headache--and so she
+went early to her room and asked that the servants keep the house quiet
+in the morning, that she might sleep late and get really rested. Her
+father kissed her tenderly and thought what a dear child she was and
+what a comfort to his ripening years; and the house settled down into
+quiet.
+
+Rosa packed a bag with some of her most elaborate garments, arrayed
+herself in a charming little outfit of silk for the journey, dropped her
+baggage out of the window; and when the moon rose and the household were
+quietly sleeping she paid a visit to her father's safe, and then stole
+forth, taking her shadowy way to the trail by a winding route known well
+to herself and secure from the watch of vigilant servants who were ever
+on the lookout for cattle thieves.
+
+Thus she left her father's house and went forth to put her trust in a
+man whose promises were as ropes of sand and whose fancy was like a wave
+of the sea, tossed to and fro by every breath that blew. Long ere the
+sun rose the next morning the guarded, beloved child was as far from her
+safe home and her father's sheltering love as if alone she had started
+for the mouth of the bottomless pit. Two days later, while Margaret lay
+unconscious beneath the sage-brush, with a hovering eagle for watch,
+Rosa in the streets of a great city suddenly realized that she was more
+alone in the universe than ever she could have been in a wide desert,
+and her plight was far worse than the girl's with whose fate she had so
+lightly played.
+
+Quite early on the morning after Rosa left, while the household was
+still keeping quiet for the supposed sleeper, Gardley rode into the
+inclosure about the house and asked for Rogers.
+
+Gardley had been traveling night and day to get back. Matters had
+suddenly arranged themselves so that he could finish up his business at
+his old home and go on to see Margaret's father and mother, and he had
+made his visit there and hurried back to Arizona, hoping to reach
+Ashland in time for Commencement. A delay on account of a washout on the
+road had brought him back two days late for Commencement. He had ridden
+to camp from a junction forty miles away to get there the sooner, and
+this morning had ridden straight to the Tanners' to surprise Margaret.
+It was, therefore, a deep disappointment to find her gone and only Mrs.
+Tanner's voluble explanations for comfort. Mrs. Tanner exhausted her
+vocabulary in trying to describe the "Injuns," her own feeling of
+protest against them, and Mrs. Brownleigh's foolishness in making so
+much of them; and then she bustled in to the old pine desk in the
+dining-room and produced the letter that had started Margaret off as
+soon as commencement was over.
+
+Gardley took the letter eagerly, as though it were something to connect
+him with Margaret, and read it through carefully to make sure just how
+matters stood. He had looked troubled when Mrs. Tanner told how tired
+Margaret was, and how worried she seemed about her school and glad to
+get away from it all; and he agreed that the trip was probably a good
+thing.
+
+"I wish Bud could have gone along, though," he said, thoughtfully, as he
+turned away from the door. "I don't like her to go with just Indians,
+though I suppose it is all right. You say he had his wife and child
+along? Of course Mrs. Brownleigh wouldn't send anybody that wasn't
+perfectly all right. Well, I suppose the trip will be a rest for her.
+I'm sorry I didn't get home a few days sooner. I might have looked out
+for her myself."
+
+He rode away from the Tanners', promising to return later with a gift he
+had brought for Bud that he wanted to present himself, and Mrs. Tanner
+bustled back to her work again.
+
+"Well, I'm glad he's got home, anyway," she remarked, aloud, to herself
+as she hung her dish-cloth tidily over the upturned dish-pan and took up
+her broom. "I 'ain't felt noways easy 'bout her sence she left, though I
+do suppose there ain't any sense to it. But I'm _glad he's back_!"
+
+Meantime Gardley was riding toward Rogers's ranch, meditating whether he
+should venture to follow the expedition and enjoy at least the return
+trip with Margaret, or whether he ought to remain patiently until she
+came back and go to work at once. There was nothing really important
+demanding his attention immediately, for Rogers had arranged to keep the
+present overseer of affairs until he was ready to undertake the work. He
+was on his way now to report on a small business matter which he had
+been attending to in New York for Rogers. When that was over he would be
+free to do as he pleased for a few days more if he liked, and the
+temptation was great to go at once to Margaret.
+
+As he stood waiting beside his horse in front of the house while the
+servant went to call Rogers, he looked about with delight on the beauty
+of the day. How glad he was to be back in Arizona again! Was it the
+charm of the place or because Margaret was there, he wondered, that he
+felt so happy? By all means he must follow her. Why should he not?
+
+He looked at the clambering rose-vine that covered one end of the house,
+and noticed how it crept close to the window casement and caressed the
+white curtain as it blew. Margaret must have such a vine at her window
+in the house he would build for her. It might be but a modest house that
+he could give her now, but it should have a rose-vine just like that;
+and he would train it round her window where she could smell the
+fragrance from it every morning when she awoke, and where it would
+breathe upon her as she slept.
+
+Margaret! How impatient he was to see her again! To look upon her dear
+face and know that she was his! That her father and mother had been
+satisfied about him and sent their blessing, and he might tell her so.
+It was wonderful! His heart thrilled with the thought of it. Of course
+he would go to her at once. He would start as soon as Rogers was through
+with him. He would go to Ganado. No, Keams. Which was it? He drew the
+letter out of his pocket and read it again, then replaced it.
+
+The fluttering curtain up at the window blew out and in, and when it
+blew out again it brought with it a flurry of papers like white leaves.
+The curtain had knocked over a paper-weight or vase or something that
+held them and set the papers free. The breeze caught them and flung them
+about erratically, tossing one almost at his feet. He stooped to pick it
+up, thinking it might be of value to some one, and caught the name
+"Margaret" and "Dear Margaret" written several times on the sheet, with
+"Walpi, Walpi, Walpi," filling the lower half of the page, as if some
+one had been practising it.
+
+And because these two words were just now keenly in his mind he reached
+for the second paper just a foot or two away and found more sentences
+and words. A third paper contained an exact reproduction of the letter
+which Mrs. Tanner had given him purporting to come from Mrs. Brownleigh
+to Margaret. What could it possibly mean?
+
+In great astonishment he pulled out the other letter and compared them.
+They were almost identical save for a word here and there crossed out
+and rewritten. He stood looking mutely at the papers and then up at the
+window, as though an explanation might somehow be wafted down to him,
+not knowing what to think, his mind filled with vague alarm.
+
+Just at that moment the servant appeared.
+
+"Mr. Rogers says would you mind coming down to the corral. Miss Rosa has
+a headache, and we're keeping the house still for her to sleep. That's
+her window up there--" And he indicated the rose-bowered window with the
+fluttering curtain.
+
+Dazed and half suspicious of something, Gardley folded the two letters
+together and crushed them into his pocket, wondering what he ought to do
+about it. The thought of it troubled him so that he only half gave
+attention to the business in hand; but he gave his report and handed
+over certain documents. He was thinking that perhaps he ought to see
+Miss Rosa and find out what she knew of Margaret's going and ask how she
+came in possession of this other letter.
+
+"Now," said Rogers, as the matter was concluded, "I owe you some money.
+If you'll just step up to the house with me I'll give it to you. I'd
+like to settle matters up at once."
+
+"Oh, let it go till I come again," said Gardley, impatient to be off. He
+wanted to get by himself and think out a solution of the two letters. He
+was more than uneasy about Margaret without being able to give any
+suitable explanation of why he should be. His main desire now was to
+ride to Ganado and find out if the missionaries had left home, which way
+they had gone, and whether they had met Margaret as planned.
+
+"No, step right up to the house with me," insisted Rogers. "It won't
+take long, and I have the money in my safe."
+
+Gardley saw that the quickest way was to please Rogers, and he did not
+wish to arouse any questions, because he supposed, of course, his alarm
+was mere foolishness. So they went together into Rogers's private
+office, where his desk and safe were the principal furniture, and where
+no servants ventured to come without orders.
+
+Rogers shoved a chair for Gardley and went over to his safe, turning the
+little nickel knob this way and that with the skill of one long
+accustomed, and in a moment the thick door swung open and Rogers drew
+out a japanned cash-box and unlocked it. But when he threw the cover
+back he uttered an exclamation of angry surprise. The box was empty!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+
+Mr. Rogers strode to the door, forgetful of his sleeping daughter
+overhead, and thundered out his call for James. The servant appeared at
+once, but he knew nothing about the safe, and had not been in the office
+that morning. Other servants were summoned and put through a rigid
+examination. Then Rogers turned to the woman who had answered the door
+for Gardley and sent her up to call Rosa.
+
+But the woman returned presently with word that Miss Rosa was not in her
+room, and there was no sign that her bed had been slept in during the
+night. The woman's face was sullen. She did not like Rosa, but was
+afraid of her. This to her was only another of Miss Rosa's pranks, and
+very likely her doting father would manage to blame the servants with
+the affair.
+
+Mr. Rogers's face grew stern. His eyes flashed angrily as he turned and
+strode up the stairs to his daughter's room, but when he came down again
+he was holding a note in his trembling hand and his face was ashen
+white.
+
+"Read that, Gardley," he said, thrusting the note into Gardley's hands
+and motioning at the same time for the servants to go away.
+
+Gardley took the note, yet even as he read he noticed that the paper
+was the same as those he carried in his pocket. There was a peculiar
+watermark that made it noticeable.
+
+The note was a flippant little affair from Rosa, telling her father she
+had gone away to be married and that she would let him know where she
+was as soon as they were located. She added that he had forced her to
+this step by being so severe with her and not allowing her lover to come
+to see her. If he had been reasonable she would have stayed at home and
+let him give her a grand wedding; but as it was she had only this way of
+seeking her happiness. She added that she knew he would forgive her, and
+she hoped he would come to see that her way had been best, and Forsythe
+was all that he could desire as a son-in-law.
+
+Gardley uttered an exclamation of dismay as he read, and, looking up,
+found the miserable eyes of the stricken father upon him. For the moment
+his own alarm concerning Margaret and his perplexity about the letters
+was forgotten in the grief of the man who had been his friend.
+
+"When did she go?" asked Gardley, quickly looking up.
+
+"She took supper with me and then went to her room, complaining of a
+headache," said the father, his voice showing his utter hopelessness.
+"She may have gone early in the evening, perhaps, for we all turned in
+about nine o'clock to keep the house quiet on her account."
+
+"Have you any idea which way they went, east or west?" Gardley was the
+keen adviser in a crisis now, his every sense on the alert.
+
+The old man shook his head. "It is too late now," he said, still in that
+colorless voice. "They will have reached the railroad somewhere. They
+will have been married by this time. See, it is after ten o'clock!"
+
+"Yes, if he marries her," said Gardley, fiercely. He had no faith in
+Forsythe.
+
+"You think--you don't think he would _dare_!" The old man straightened
+up and fairly blazed in his righteous wrath.
+
+"I think he would dare anything if he thought he would not be caught. He
+is a coward, of course."
+
+"What can we do?"
+
+"Telegraph to detectives at all points where they would be likely to
+arrive and have them shadowed. Come, we will ride to the station at
+once; but, first, could I go up in her room and look around? There might
+be some clue."
+
+"Certainly," said Rogers, pointing hopelessly up the stairs; "the first
+door to the left. But you'll find nothing. I looked everywhere. She
+wouldn't have left a clue. While you're up there I'll interview the
+servants. Then we'll go."
+
+As he went up-stairs Gardley was wondering whether he ought to tell
+Rogers of the circumstance of the two letters. What possible connection
+could there be between Margaret Earle's trip to Walpi with the
+Brownleighs and Rosa Rogers's elopement? When you come to think of it,
+what possible explanation was there for a copy of Mrs. Brownleigh's
+letter to blow out of Rosa Rogers's bedroom window? How could it have
+got there?
+
+Rosa's room was in beautiful order, the roses nodding in at the window,
+the curtain blowing back and forth in the breeze and rippling open the
+leaves of a tiny Testament lying on her desk, as if it had been recently
+read. There was nothing to show that the owner of the room had taken a
+hasty flight. On the desk lay several sheets of note-paper with the
+peculiar watermark. These caught his attention, and he took them up and
+compared them with the papers in his pocket. It was a strange thing that
+that letter which had sent Margaret off into the wilderness with an
+unknown Indian should be written on the same kind of paper as this; and
+yet, perhaps, it was not so strange, after all. It probably was the only
+note-paper to be had in that region, and must all have been purchased at
+the same place.
+
+The rippling leaves of the Testament fluttered open at the fly-leaf and
+revealed Rosa's name and a date with Mrs. Brownleigh's name written
+below, and Gardley took it up, startled again to find Hazel Brownleigh
+mixed up with the Rogers. He had not known that they had anything to do
+with each other. And yet, of course, they would, being the missionaries
+of the region.
+
+The almost empty waste-basket next caught his eye, and here again were
+several sheets of paper written over with words and phrases, words which
+at once he recognized as part of the letter Mrs. Tanner had given him.
+He emptied the waste-basket out on the desk, thinking perhaps there
+might be something there that would give a clue to where the elopers had
+gone; but there was not much else in it except a little yellowed note
+with the signature "Hazel Brownleigh" at the bottom. He glanced through
+the brief note, gathered its purport, and then spread it out
+deliberately on the desk and compared the writing with the others, a
+wild fear clutching at his heart. Yet he could not in any way explain
+why he was so uneasy. What possible reason could Rosa Rogers have for
+forging a letter to Margaret from Hazel Brownleigh?
+
+Suddenly Rogers stood behind him looking over his shoulder. "What is it,
+Gardley? What have you found? Any clue?"
+
+"No clue," said Gardley, uneasily, "but something strange I cannot
+understand. I don't suppose it can possibly have anything to do with
+your daughter, and yet it seems almost uncanny. This morning I stopped
+at the Tanners' to let Miss Earle know I had returned, and was told she
+had gone yesterday with a couple of Indians as guide to meet the
+Brownleighs at Keams or somewhere near there, and take a trip with them
+to Walpi to see the Hopi Indians. Mrs. Tanner gave me this letter from
+Mrs. Brownleigh, which Miss Earle had left behind. But when I reached
+here and was waiting for you some papers blew out of your daughter's
+window. When I picked them up I was startled to find that one of them
+was an exact copy of the letter I had in my pocket. See! Here they are!
+I don't suppose there is anything to it, but in spite of me I am a
+trifle uneasy about Miss Earle. I just can't understand how that copy of
+the letter came to be here."
+
+Rogers was leaning over, looking at the papers. "What's this?" he asked,
+picking up the note that came with the Testament. He read each paper
+carefully, took in the little Testament with its fluttering fly-leaf
+and inscription, studied the pages of words and alphabet, then suddenly
+turned away and groaned, hiding his face in his hands.
+
+"What is it?" asked Gardley, awed with the awful sorrow in the strong
+man's attitude.
+
+"My poor baby!" groaned the father. "My poor little baby girl! I've
+always been afraid of that fatal gift of hers. Gardley, she could copy
+any handwriting in the world perfectly. She could write my name so it
+could not be told from my own signature. She's evidently written that
+letter. Why, I don't know, unless she wanted to get Miss Earle out of
+the way so it would be easier for her to carry out her plans."
+
+"It can't be!" said Gardley, shaking his head. "I can't see what her
+object would be. Besides, where would she find the Indians? Mrs. Tanner
+saw the Indians. They came to the school after her with the letter, and
+waited for her. Mrs. Tanner saw them ride off together."
+
+"There were a couple of strange Indians here yesterday, begging
+something to eat," said Rogers, settling down on a chair and resting his
+head against the desk as if he had suddenly lost the strength to stand.
+
+"This won't do!" said Gardley. "We've got to get down to the
+telegraph-office, you and I. Now try to brace up. Are the horses ready?
+Then we'll go right away."
+
+"You better question the servants about those Indians first," said
+Rogers; and Gardley, as he hurried down the stairs, heard groan after
+groan from Rosa's room, where her father lingered in agony.
+
+Gardley got all the information he could about the Indians, and then the
+two men started away on a gallop to the station. As they passed the
+Tanner house Gardley drew rein to call to Bud, who hurried out joyfully
+to greet his friend, his face lighting with pleasure.
+
+"Bill, get on your horse in double-quick time and beat it out to camp
+for me, will you?" said Gardley, as he reached down and gripped Bud's
+rough young paw. "Tell Jasper Kemp to come back with you and meet me at
+the station as quick as he can. Tell him to have the men where he can
+signal them. We may have to hustle out on a long hunt; and, Bill, keep
+your head steady and get back yourself right away. Perhaps I'll want you
+to help me. I'm a little anxious about Miss Earle, but you needn't tell
+anybody that but old Jasper. Tell him to hurry for all he's worth."
+
+Bud, with his eyes large with loyalty and trouble, nodded
+understandingly, returned the grip of the young man's hand with a clumsy
+squeeze, and sprang away to get his horse and do Gardley's bidding.
+Gardley knew he would ride as for his life, now that he knew Margaret's
+safety was at stake.
+
+Then Gardley rode on to the station and was indefatigable for two hours
+hunting out addresses, writing telegrams, and calling up long-distance
+telephones.
+
+When all had been done that was possible Rogers turned a haggard face to
+the young man. "I've been thinking, Gardley, that rash little girl of
+mine may have got Miss Earle into some kind of a dangerous position.
+You ought to look after her. What can we do?"
+
+"I'm going to, sir," said Gardley, "just as soon as I've done everything
+I can for you. I've already sent for Jasper Kemp, and we'll make a plan
+between us and find out if Miss Earle is all right. Can you spare Jasper
+or will you need him?"
+
+"By all means! Take all the men you need. I sha'n't rest easy till I
+know Miss Earle is safe."
+
+He sank down on a truck that stood on the station platform, his
+shoulders slumping, his whole attitude as of one who was fatally
+stricken. It came over Gardley how suddenly old he looked, and haggard
+and gray! What a thing for the selfish child to have done to her father!
+Poor, silly child, whose fate with Forsythe would in all probability be
+anything but enviable!
+
+But there was no time for sorrowful reflections. Jasper Kemp, stern,
+alert, anxious, came riding furiously down the street, Bud keeping even
+pace with him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+
+While Gardley briefly told his tale to Jasper Kemp, and the Scotchman
+was hastily scanning the papers with his keen, bright eyes, Bud stood
+frowning and listening intently.
+
+"Gee!" he burst forth. "That girl's a mess! 'Course she did it! You
+oughta seen what all she didn't do the last six weeks of school. Miss
+Mar'get got so she shivered every time that girl came near her or looked
+at her. She sure had her goat! Some nights after school, when she
+thought she's all alone, she just cried, she did. Why, Rosa had every
+one of those guys in the back seat acting like the devil, and nobody
+knew what was the matter. She wrote things on the blackboard right in
+the questions, so's it looked like Miss Mar'get's writing; fierce
+things, sometimes; and Miss Mar'get didn't know who did it. And she was
+as jealous as a cat of Miss Mar'get. You all know what a case she had on
+that guy from over by the fort; and she didn't like to have him even
+look at Miss Mar'get. Well, she didn't forget how he went away that
+night of the play. I caught her looking at her like she would like to
+murder her. _Good night!_ Some look! The guy had a case on Miss Mar'get,
+all right, too, only she was onto him and wouldn't look at him nor let
+him spoon nor nothing. But Rosa saw it all, and she just hated Miss
+Mar'get. Then once Miss Mar'get stopped her from going out to meet that
+guy, too. Oh, she hated her, all right! And you can bet she wrote the
+letter! Sure she did! She wanted to get her away when that guy came
+back. He was back yesterday. I saw him over by the run on that trail
+that crosses the trail to the old cabin. He didn't see me. I got my eye
+on him first, and I chucked behind some sage-brush, but he was here, all
+right, and he didn't mean any good. I follahed him awhile till he
+stopped and fixed up a place to camp. I guess he must 'a' stayed out
+last night--"
+
+A heavy hand was suddenly laid from behind on Bud's shoulder, and Rogers
+stood over him, his dark eyes on fire, his lips trembling.
+
+"Boy, can you show me where that was?" he asked, and there was an
+intensity in his voice that showed Bud that something serious was the
+matter. Boylike he dropped his eyes indifferently before this great
+emotion.
+
+"Sure!"
+
+"Best take Long Bill with you, Mr. Rogers," advised Jasper Kemp, keenly
+alive to the whole situation. "I reckon we'll all have to work together.
+My men ain't far off," and he lifted his whistle to his lips and blew
+the signal blasts. "The Kid here 'll want to ride to Keams to see if the
+lady is all safe and has met her friends. I reckon mebbe I better go
+straight to Ganado and find out if them mission folks really got
+started, and put 'em wise to what's been going on. They'll mebbe know
+who them Injuns was. I have my suspicions they weren't any friendlies.
+I didn't like that Injun the minute I set eyes on him hanging round the
+school-house, but I wouldn't have stirred a step toward camp if I'd 'a'
+suspected he was come fur the lady. 'Spose you take Bud and Long Bill
+and go find that camping-place and see if you find any trail showing
+which way they took. If you do, you fire three shots, and the men 'll be
+with you. If you want the Kid, fire four shots. He can't be so fur away
+by that time that he can't hear. He's got to get provisioned 'fore he
+starts. Lead him out, Bud. We 'ain't got no time to lose."
+
+Bud gave one despairing look at Gardley and turned to obey.
+
+"That's all right, Bud," said Gardley, with an understanding glance.
+"You tell Mr. Rogers all you know and show him the place, and then when
+Long Bill comes you can take the cross-cut to the Long Trail and go with
+me. I'll just stop at the house as I go by and tell your mother I need
+you."
+
+Bud gave one radiant, grateful look and sprang upon his horse, and
+Rogers had hard work to keep up with him at first, till Bud got
+interested in giving him a detailed account of Forsythe's looks and
+acts.
+
+In less than an hour the relief expedition had started. Before night had
+fallen Jasper Kemp, riding hard, arrived at the mission, told his story,
+procured a fresh horse, and after a couple of hours, rest started with
+Brownleigh and his wife for Keams Caņon.
+
+Gardley and Bud, riding for all they were worth, said little by the way.
+Now and then the boy stole glances at the man's face, and the dead
+weight of sorrow settled like lead, the heavier, upon his heart. Too
+well he knew the dangers of the desert. He could almost read Gardley's
+fears in the white, drawn look about his lips, the ashen circles under
+his eyes, the tense, strained pose of his whole figure. Gardley's mind
+was urging ahead of his steed, and his body could not relax. He was
+anxious to go a little faster, yet his judgment knew it would not do,
+for his horse would play out before he could get another. They ate their
+corn bread in the saddle, and only turned aside from the trail once to
+drink at a water-hole and fill their cans. They rode late into the
+night, with only the stars and their wits to guide them. When they
+stopped to rest they did not wait to make a fire, but hobbled the horses
+where they might feed, and, rolling quickly in their blankets, lay down
+upon the ground.
+
+Bud, with the fatigue of healthy youth, would have slept till morning in
+spite of his fears, but Gardley woke him in a couple of hours, made him
+drink some water and eat a bite of food, and they went on their way
+again. When morning broke they were almost to the entrance of Keams
+Caņon and both looked haggard and worn. Bud seemed to have aged in the
+night, and Gardley looked at him almost tenderly.
+
+"Are you all in, kid?" he asked.
+
+"Naw!" answered Bud, promptly, with an assumed cheerfulness. "Feeling
+like a four-year-old. Get on to that sky? Guess we're going to have some
+day! Pretty as a red wagon!"
+
+Gardley smiled sadly. What would that day bring forth for the two who
+went in search of her they loved? His great anxiety was to get to Keams
+Caņon and inquire. They would surely know at the trading-post whether
+the missionary and his party had gone that way.
+
+The road was still almost impassable from the flood; the two dauntless
+riders picked their way slowly down the trail to the post.
+
+But the trader could tell them nothing comforting. The missionary had
+not been that way in two months, and there had been no party and no lady
+there that week. A single strange Indian had come down the trail above
+the day before, stayed awhile, picked a quarrel with some men who were
+there, and then ridden back up the steep trail again. He might have had
+a party with him up on the mesa, waiting. He had said something about
+his squaw. The trader admitted that he might have been drunk, but he
+frowned as he spoke of him. He called him a "bad Indian." Something
+unpleasant had evidently happened.
+
+The trader gave them a good, hot dinner, of which they stood sorely in
+need, and because they realized that they must keep up their strength
+they took the time to eat it. Then, procuring fresh horses, they climbed
+the steep trail in the direction the trader said the Indian had taken.
+It was a slender clue, but it was all they had, and they must follow it.
+And now the travelers were very silent, as if they felt they were
+drawing near to some knowledge that would settle the question for them
+one way or the other. As they reached the top at last, where they could
+see out across the plain, each drew a long breath like a gasp and
+looked about, half fearing what he might see.
+
+Yes, there was the sign of a recent camp-fire, and a few tin cans and
+bits of refuse, nothing more. Gardley got down and searched carefully.
+Bud even crept about upon his hands and knees, but a single tiny blue
+bead like a grain of sand was all that rewarded his efforts. Some Indian
+had doubtless camped here. That was all the evidence. Standing thus in
+hopeless uncertainty what to do next, they suddenly heard voices.
+Something familiar once or twice made Gardley lift his whistle and blow
+a blast. Instantly a silvery answer came ringing from the mesa a mile or
+so away and woke the echoes in the caņon. Jasper Kemp and his party had
+taken the longer way around instead of going down the caņon, and were
+just arriving at the spot where Margaret and the squaw had waited two
+days before for their drunken guide. But Jasper Kemp's whistle rang out
+again, and he shot three times into the air, their signal to wait for
+some important news.
+
+Breathlessly and in silence the two waited till the coming of the rest
+of the party, and cast themselves down on the ground, feeling the sudden
+need of support. Now that there was a possibility of some news, they
+felt hardly able to bear it, and the waiting for it was intolerable, to
+such a point of anxious tension were they strained.
+
+But when the party from Ganado came in sight their faces wore no
+brightness of good news. Their greetings were quiet, sad, anxious, and
+Jasper Kemp held out to Gardley an envelope. It was the one from
+Margaret's mother's letter that she had dropped upon the trail.
+
+"We found it on the way from Ganado, just as we entered Steamboat
+Caņon," explained Jasper.
+
+"And didn't you search for a trail off in any other direction?" asked
+Gardley, almost sharply. "They have not been here. At least only one
+Indian has been down to the trader's."
+
+"There was no other trail. We looked," said Jasper, sadly. "There was a
+camp-fire twice, and signs of a camp. We felt sure they had come this
+way."
+
+Gardley shook his head and a look of abject despair came over his face.
+"There is no sign here," he said. "They must have gone some other way.
+Perhaps the Indian has carried her off. Are the other men following?"
+
+"No, Rogers sent them in the other direction after his girl. They found
+the camp all right. Bud tell you? We made sure we had found our trail
+and would not need them."
+
+Gardley dropped his head and almost groaned.
+
+Meanwhile the missionary had been riding around in radiating circles
+from the dead camp-fire, searching every step of the way; and Bud,
+taking his cue from him, looked off toward the mesa a minute, then
+struck out in a straight line for it and rode off like mad. Suddenly
+there was heard a shout loud and long, and Bud came riding back, waving
+something small and white above his head.
+
+They gathered in a little knot, waiting for the boy, not speaking; and
+when he halted in their midst he fluttered down the handkerchief to
+Gardley.
+
+"It's hers, all right. Gotter name all written out on the edge!" he
+declared, radiantly.
+
+The sky grew brighter to them all now. Eagerly Gardley sprang into his
+saddle, no longer weary, but alert and eager for the trail.
+
+"You folks better go down to the trader's and get some dinner. You'll
+need it! Bud and I'll go on. Mrs. Brownleigh looks all in."
+
+"No," declared Hazel, decidedly. "We'll just snatch a bite here and
+follow you at once. I couldn't enjoy a dinner till I know she is safe."
+And so, though both Jasper Kemp and her husband urged her otherwise, she
+would take a hasty meal by the way and hurry on.
+
+But Bud and Gardley waited not for others. They plunged wildly ahead.
+
+It seemed a long way to the eager hunters, from the place where Bud had
+found the handkerchief to the little note twisted around the red
+chessman. It was perhaps nearly a mile, and both the riders had searched
+in all directions for some time before Gardley spied it. Eagerly he
+seized upon the note, recognizing the little red manikin with which he
+had whiled away an hour with Margaret during one of her visits at the
+camp.
+
+The note was written large and clear upon a sheet of writing-paper:
+
+"I am Margaret Earle, school-teacher at Ashland. I am supposed to be
+traveling to Walpi, by way of Keams, to meet Mr. and Mrs. Brownleigh of
+Ganado. I am with an Indian, his squaw and papoose. The Indian said he
+was sent to guide me, but he is drunk now and I am frightened. He has
+acted strangely all the way. I do not know where I am. Please come and
+help me."
+
+Bud, sitting anxious like a statue upon his horse, read Gardley's face
+as Gardley read the note. Then Gardley read it aloud to Bud, and before
+the last word was fairly out of his mouth both man and boy started as if
+they had heard Margaret's beloved voice calling them. It was not long
+before Bud found another scrap of paper a half-mile farther on, and then
+another and another, scattered at great distances along the way. The
+only way they had of being sure she had dropped them was that they
+seemed to be the same kind of paper as that upon which the note was
+written.
+
+How that note with its brave, frightened appeal wrung the heart of
+Gardley as he thought of Margaret, unprotected, in terror and perhaps in
+peril, riding on she knew not where. What trials and fears had she not
+already passed through! What might she not be experiencing even now
+while he searched for her?
+
+It was perhaps two hours before he found the little white stocking
+dropped where the trail divided, showing which way she had taken.
+Gardley folded it reverently and put it in his pocket. An hour later Bud
+pounced upon the bedroom slipper and carried it gleefully to Gardley;
+and so by slow degrees, finding here and there a chessman or more paper,
+they came at last to the camp where the Indians had abandoned their
+trust and fled, leaving Margaret alone in the wilderness.
+
+It was then that Gardley searched in vain for any further clue, and,
+riding wide in every direction, stopped and called her name again and
+again, while the sun grew lower and lower and shadows crept in
+lurking-places waiting for the swift-coming night. It was then that Bud,
+flying frantically from one spot to another, got down upon his knees
+behind a sage-bush when Gardley was not looking and mumbled a rough,
+hasty prayer for help. He felt like the old woman who, on being told
+that nothing but God could save the ship, exclaimed, "And has it come to
+that?" Bud had felt all his life that there was a remote time in every
+life when one might need to believe in prayer. The time had come for
+Bud.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Margaret, on her knees in the sand of the desert praying for help,
+remembered the promise, "Before they call I will answer, and while they
+are yet speaking I will hear," and knew not that her deliverers were on
+the way.
+
+The sun had been hot as it beat down upon the whiteness of the sand, and
+the girl had crept under a sage-bush for shelter from it. The pain in
+her ankle was sickening. She had removed her shoe and bound the ankle
+about with a handkerchief soaked with half of her bottle of witch-hazel,
+and so, lying quiet, had fallen asleep, too exhausted with pain and
+anxiety to stay awake any longer.
+
+When she awoke again the softness of evening was hovering over
+everything, and she started up and listened. Surely, surely, she had
+heard a voice calling her! She sat up sharply and listened. Ah! There it
+was again, a faint echo in the distance. Was it a voice, or was it only
+her dreams mingling with her fancies?
+
+Travelers in deserts, she had read, took all sorts of fancies, saw
+mirages, heard sounds that were not. But she had not been out long
+enough to have caught such a desert fever. Perhaps she was going to be
+sick. Still that faint echo made her heart beat wildly. She dragged
+herself to her knees, then to her feet, standing painfully with the
+weight on her well foot.
+
+The suffering horse turned his anguished eyes and whinnied. Her heart
+ached for him, yet there was no way she could assuage his pain or put
+him out of his misery. But she must make sure if she had heard a voice.
+Could she possibly scale that rock down which she and her horse had
+fallen? For then she might look out farther and see if there were any
+one in sight.
+
+Painfully she crawled and crept, up and up, inch by inch, until at last
+she gained the little height and could look afar.
+
+There was no living thing in sight. The air was very clear. The eagle
+had found his evening rest somewhere in a quiet crag. The long corn
+waved on the distant plain, and all was deathly still once more. There
+was a hint of coming sunset in the sky. Her heart sank, and she was
+about to give up hope entirely, when, rich and clear, there it came
+again! A voice in the wilderness calling her name: "Margaret! Margaret!"
+
+The tears rushed to her eyes and crowded in her throat. She could not
+answer, she was so overwhelmed; and though she tried twice to call out,
+she could make no sound. But the call kept coming again and again:
+"Margaret! Margaret!" and it was Gardley's voice. Impossible! For
+Gardley was far away and could not know her need. Yet it was his voice.
+Had she died, or was she in delirium that she seemed to hear him calling
+her name?
+
+But the call came clearer now: "Margaret! Margaret! I am coming!" and
+like a flash her mind went back to the first night in Arizona when she
+heard him singing, "From the Desert I Come to Thee!"
+
+Now she struggled to her feet again and shouted, inarticulately and
+gladly through her tears. She could see him. It was Gardley. He was
+riding fast toward her, and he shot three shots into the air above him
+as he rode, and three shrill blasts of his whistle rang out on the still
+evening air.
+
+She tore the scarf from her neck that she had tied about it to keep the
+sun from blistering her, and waved it wildly in the air now, shouting in
+happy, choking sobs.
+
+And so he came to her across the desert!
+
+He sprang down before the horse had fairly reached her side, and,
+rushing to her, took her in his arms.
+
+"Margaret! My darling! I have found you at last!"
+
+She swayed and would have fallen but for his arms, and then he saw her
+white face and knew she must be suffering.
+
+"You are hurt!" he cried. "Oh, what have they done to you?" And he laid
+her gently down upon the sand and dropped on his knees beside her.
+
+"Oh no," she gasped, joyously, with white lips. "I'm all right now.
+Only my ankle hurts a little. We had a fall, the horse and I. Oh, go to
+him at once and put him out of his pain. I'm sure his legs are broken."
+
+For answer Gardley put the whistle to his lips and blew a blast. He
+would not leave her for an instant. He was not sure yet that she was not
+more hurt than she had said. He set about discovering at once, for he
+had brought with him supplies for all emergencies.
+
+It was Bud who came riding madly across the mesa in answer to the call,
+reaching Gardley before any one else. Bud with his eyes shining, his
+cheeks blazing with excitement, his hair wildly flying in the breeze,
+his young, boyish face suddenly grown old with lines of anxiety. But you
+wouldn't have known from his greeting that it was anything more than a
+pleasure excursion he had been on the past two days.
+
+"Good work, Kid! Whatcha want me t' do?"
+
+It was Bud who arranged the camp and went back to tell the other
+detachments that Margaret was found; Bud who led the pack-horse up,
+unpacked the provisions, and gathered wood to start a fire. Bud was
+everywhere, with a smudged face, a weary, gray look around his eyes, and
+his hair sticking "seven ways for Sunday." Yet once, when his labors led
+him near to where Margaret lay weak and happy on a couch of blankets, he
+gave her an unwonted pat on her shoulder and said in a low tone: "Hello,
+Gang! See you kept your nerve with you!" and then he gave her a grin all
+across his dirty, tired face, and moved away as if he were half ashamed
+of his emotion. But it was Bud again who came and talked with her to
+divert her so that she wouldn't notice when they shot her horse. He
+talked loudly about a coyote they shot the night before, and a
+cottontail they saw at Keams, and when he saw that she understood what
+the shot meant, and there were tears in her eyes, he gave her hand a
+rough, bear squeeze and said, gruffly: "You should worry! He's better
+off now!" And when Gardley came back he took himself thoughtfully to a
+distance and busied himself opening tins of meat and soup.
+
+In another hour the Brownleighs arrived, having heard the signals, and
+they had a supper around the camp-fire, everybody so rejoiced that there
+were still quivers in their voices; and when any one laughed it sounded
+like the echo of a sob, so great had been the strain of their anxiety.
+
+Gardley, sitting beside Margaret in the starlight afterward, her hand in
+his, listened to the story of her journey, the strong, tender pressure
+of his fingers telling her how deeply it affected him to know the peril
+through which she had passed. Later, when the others were telling gay
+stories about the fire, and Bud lying full length in their midst had
+fallen fast asleep, these two, a little apart from the rest, were
+murmuring their innermost thoughts in low tones to each other, and
+rejoicing that they were together once more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+
+They talked it over the next morning at breakfast as they sat around the
+fire. Jasper Kemp thought he ought to get right back to attend to
+things. Mr. Rogers was all broken up, and might even need him to search
+for Rosa if they had not found out her whereabouts yet. He and Fiddling
+Boss, who had come along, would start back at once. They had had a good
+night's rest and had found their dear lady. What more did they need?
+Besides, there were not provisions for an indefinite stay for such a
+large party, and there were none too many sources of supply in this
+region.
+
+The missionary thought that, now he was here, he ought to go on to
+Walpi. It was not more than two hours' ride there, and Hazel could stay
+with the camp while Margaret's ankle had a chance to rest and let the
+swelling subside under treatment.
+
+Margaret, however, rebelled. She did not wish to be an invalid, and was
+very sure she could ride without injury to her ankle. She wanted to see
+Walpi and the queer Hopi Indians, now she was so near. So a compromise
+was agreed upon. They would all wait in camp a couple of days, and then
+if Margaret felt well enough they would go on, visit the Hopis, and so
+go home together.
+
+Bud pleaded to be allowed to stay with them, and Jasper Kemp promised to
+make it all right with his parents.
+
+So for two whole, long, lovely days the little party of five camped on
+the mesa and enjoyed sweet converse. It is safe to say that never in all
+Bud's life will he forget or get away from the influences of that day in
+such company.
+
+Gardley and the missionary proved to be the best of physicians, and
+Margaret's ankle improved hourly under their united treatment of
+compresses, lotions, and rest. About noon on Saturday they broke camp,
+mounted their horses, and rode away across the stretch of white sand,
+through tall cornfields growing right up out of the sand, closer and
+closer to the great mesa with the castle-like pueblos five hundred feet
+above them on the top. It seemed to Margaret like suddenly being dropped
+into Egypt or the Holy Land, or some of the Babylonian excavations, so
+curious and primitive and altogether different from anything else she
+had ever seen did it all appear. She listened, fascinated, while
+Brownleigh told about this strange Hopi land, the strangest spot in
+America. Spanish explorers found them away back years before the
+Pilgrims landed, and called the country Tuscayan. They built their homes
+up high for protection from their enemies. They lived on the corn,
+pumpkins, peaches, and melons which they raised in the valley, planting
+the seeds with their hands. It is supposed they got their seeds first
+from the Spaniards years ago. They make pottery, cloth, and baskets, and
+are a busy people.
+
+There are seven villages built on three mesas in the northern desert.
+One of the largest, Orabi, has a thousand inhabitants. Walpi numbers
+about two hundred and thirty people, all living in this one great
+building of many rooms. They are divided into brotherhoods, or
+phratries, and each brotherhood has several large families. They are
+ruled by a speaker chief and a war chief elected by a council of clan
+elders.
+
+Margaret learned with wonder that all the water these people used had to
+be carried by the women in jars on their backs five hundred feet up the
+steep trail.
+
+Presently, as they drew nearer, a curious man with his hair "banged"
+like a child's, and garments much like those usually worn by
+scarecrows--a shapeless kind of shirt and trousers--appeared along the
+steep and showed them the way up. Margaret and the missionary's wife
+exclaimed in horror over the little children playing along the very edge
+of the cliffs above as carelessly as birds in trees.
+
+High up on the mesa at last, how strange and weird it seemed! Far below
+the yellow sand of the valley; fifteen miles away a second mesa
+stretching dark; to the southwest, a hundred miles distant, the dim
+outlines of the San Francisco peaks. Some little children on burros
+crossing the sand below looked as if they were part of a curious
+moving-picture, not as if they were little living beings taking life as
+seriously as other children do. The great, wide desert stretching far!
+The bare, solid rocks beneath their feet! The curious houses behind
+them! It all seemed unreal to Margaret, like a great picture-book
+spread out for her to see. She turned from gazing and found Gardley's
+eyes upon her adoringly, a tender understanding of her mood in his
+glance. She thrilled with pleasure to be here with him; a soft flush
+spread over her cheeks and a light came into her eyes.
+
+They found the Indians preparing for one of their most famous
+ceremonies, the snake dance, which was to take place in a few days. For
+almost a week the snake priests had been busy hunting rattlesnakes,
+building altars, drawing figures in the sand, and singing weird songs.
+On the ninth day the snakes are washed in a pool and driven near a pile
+of sand. The priests, arrayed in paint, feathers, and charms, come out
+in line and, taking the live snakes in their mouths, parade up and down
+the rocks, while the people crowd the roofs and terraces of the pueblos
+to watch. There are helpers to whip the snakes and keep them from
+biting, and catchers to see that none get away. In a little while the
+priests take the snakes down on the desert and set them free, sending
+them north, south, east, and west, where it is supposed they will take
+the people's prayers for rain to the water serpent in the underworld,
+who is in some way connected with the god of the rain-clouds.
+
+It was a strange experience, that night in Walpi: the primitive
+accommodations; the picturesque, uncivilized people; the shy glances
+from dark, eager eyes. To watch two girls grinding corn between two
+stones, and a little farther off their mother rolling out her dough with
+an ear of corn, and cooking over an open fire, her pot slung from a
+crude crane over the blaze--it was all too unreal to be true.
+
+But the most interesting thing about it was to watch the "Aneshodi"
+going about among them, his face alight with warm, human love; his
+hearty laugh ringing out in a joke that the Hopis seemed to understand,
+making himself one with them. It came to Margaret suddenly to remember
+the pompous little figure of the Rev. Frederick West, and to fancy him
+going about among these people and trying to do them good. Before she
+knew what she was doing she laughed aloud at the thought. Then, of
+course, she had to explain to Bud and Gardley, who looked at her
+inquiringly.
+
+"Aw! Gee! _Him?_ _He_ wasn't a minister! He was a _mistake_! Fergit him,
+the poor simp!" growled Bud, sympathetically. Then his eyes softened as
+he watched Brownleigh playing with three little Indian maids, having a
+fine romp. "Gee! he certainly is a peach, isn't he?" he murmured, his
+whole face kindling appreciatively. "Gee! I bet that kid never forgets
+that!"
+
+The Sunday was a wonderful day, when the missionary gathered the people
+together and spoke to them in simple words of God--their god who made
+the sky, the stars, the mountains, and the sun, whom they call by
+different names, but whom He called God. He spoke of the Book of Heaven
+that told about God and His great love for men, so great that He sent
+His son to save them from their sin. It was not a long sermon, but a
+very beautiful one; and, listening to the simple, wonderful words of
+life that fell from the missionary's earnest lips and were translated by
+his faithful Indian interpreter, who always went with him on his
+expeditions, watching the faces of the dark, strange people as they
+took in the marvelous meaning, the little company of visitors was
+strangely moved. Even Bud, awed beyond his wont, said, shyly, to
+Margaret:
+
+"Gee! It's something fierce not to be born a Christian and know all
+that, ain't it?"
+
+Margaret and Gardley walked a little way down the narrow path that led
+out over the neck of rock less than a rod wide that connects the great
+promontory with the mesa. The sun was setting in majesty over the
+desert, and the scene was one of breathless beauty. One might fancy it
+might look so to stand on the hills of God and look out over creation
+when all things have been made new.
+
+They stood for a while in silence. Then Margaret looked down at the
+narrow path worn more than a foot deep in the solid rock by the ten
+generations of feet that had been passing over it.
+
+"Just think," she said, "of all the feet, little and big, that have
+walked here in all the years, and of all the souls that have stood and
+looked out over this wonderful sight! It must be that somehow in spite
+of their darkness they have reached out to the God who made this, and
+have found a way to His heart. They couldn't look at this and not feel
+Him, could they? It seems to me that perhaps some of those poor
+creatures who have stood here and reached up blindly after the Creator
+of their souls have, perhaps, been as pleasing to Him as those who have
+known about Him from childhood."
+
+Gardley was used to her talking this way. He had not been in her Sunday
+meetings for nothing. He understood and sympathized, and now his hand
+reached softly for hers and held it tenderly. After a moment of silence
+he said:
+
+"I surely think if God could reach and find me in the desert of my life,
+He must have found them. I sometimes think I was a greater heathen than
+all these, because I knew and would not see."
+
+Margaret nestled her hand in his and looked up joyfully into his face.
+"I'm so glad you know Him now!" she murmured, happily.
+
+They stood for some time looking out over the changing scene, till the
+crimson faded into rose, the silver into gray; till the stars bloomed
+out one by one, and down in the valley across the desert a light
+twinkled faintly here and there from the camps of the Hopi shepherds.
+
+They started home at daybreak the next morning, the whole company of
+Indians standing on the rocks to send them royally on their way,
+pressing simple, homely gifts upon them and begging them to return soon
+again and tell the blessed story.
+
+A wonderful ride they had back to Ganado, where Gardley left Margaret
+for a short visit, promising to return for her in a few days when she
+was rested, and hastened back to Ashland to his work; for his soul was
+happy now and at ease, and he felt he must get to work at once. Rogers
+would need him. Poor Rogers! Had he found his daughter yet? Poor, silly
+child-prodigal!
+
+But when Gardley reached Ashland he found among his mail awaiting him a
+telegram. His uncle was dead, and the fortune which he had been brought
+up to believe was his, and which he had idly tossed away in a moment of
+recklessness, had been restored to him by the uncle's last will, made
+since Gardley's recent visit home. The fortune was his again!
+
+Gardley sat in his office on the Rogers ranch and stared hard at the
+adobe wall opposite his desk. That fortune would be great! He could do
+such wonderful things for Margaret now. They could work out their dreams
+together for the people they loved. He could see the shadows of those
+dreams--a beautiful home for Margaret out on the trail she loved, where
+wildness and beauty and the mountain she called hers were not far away;
+horses in plenty and a luxurious car when they wanted to take a trip;
+journeys East as often as they wished; some of the ideal appliances for
+the school that Margaret loved; a church for the missionary and
+convenient halls where he could speak at his outlying districts; a trip
+to the city for Mom Wallis, where she might see a real picture-gallery,
+her one expressed desire this side of heaven, now that she had taken to
+reading Browning and had some of it explained to her. Oh, and a lot of
+wonderful things! These all hung in the dream-picture before Gardley's
+eyes as he sat at his desk with that bit of yellow paper in his hand.
+
+He thought of what that money had represented to him in the past.
+Reckless days and nights of folly as a boy and young man at college;
+ruthless waste of time, money, youth; shriveling of soul, till Margaret
+came and found and rescued him! How wonderful that he had been rescued!
+That he had come to his senses at last, and was here in a man's
+position, doing a man's work in the world! Now, with all that money,
+there was no need for him to work and earn more. He could live idly all
+his days and just have a good time--make others happy, too. But still he
+would not have this exhilarating feeling that he was supplying his own
+and Margaret's necessities by the labor of hand and brain. The little
+telegram in his hand seemed somehow to be trying to snatch from him all
+this material prosperity that was the symbol of that spiritual
+regeneration which had become so dear to him.
+
+He put his head down on his clasped hands upon the desk then and prayed.
+Perhaps it was the first great prayer of his life.
+
+"O God, let me be strong enough to stand this that has come upon me.
+Help me to be a man in spite of money! Don't let me lose my manhood and
+my right to work. Help me to use the money in the right way and not to
+dwarf myself, nor spoil our lives with it." It was a great prayer for a
+man such as Gardley had been, and the answer came swiftly in his
+conviction.
+
+He lifted up his head with purpose in his expression, and, folding the
+telegram, put it safely back into his pocket. He would not tell Margaret
+of it--not just yet. He would think it out--just the right way--and he
+did not believe he meant to give up his position with Rogers. He had
+accepted it for a year in good faith, and it was his business to fulfil
+the contract. Meantime, this money would perhaps make possible his
+marriage with Margaret sooner than he had hoped.
+
+Five minutes later Rogers telephoned to the office.
+
+"I've decided to take that shipment of cattle and try that new stock,
+provided you will go out and look at them and see that everything is
+all O. K. I couldn't go myself now. Don't feel like going anywhere, you
+know. You wouldn't need to go for a couple of weeks. I've just had a
+letter from the man, and he says he won't be ready sooner. Say, why
+don't you and Miss Earle get married and make this a wedding-trip? She
+could go to the Pacific coast with you. It would be a nice trip. Then I
+could spare you for a month or six weeks when you got back if you wanted
+to take her East for a little visit."
+
+Why not? Gardley stumbled out his thanks and hung up the receiver, his
+face full of the light of a great joy. How were the blessings pouring
+down upon his head these days? Was it a sign that God was pleased with
+his action in making good what he could where he had failed? And Rogers!
+How kind he was! Poor Rogers, with his broken heart and his stricken
+home! For Rosa had come home again a sadder, wiser child; and her father
+seemed crushed with the disgrace of it all.
+
+Gardley went to Margaret that very afternoon. He told her only that he
+had had some money left him by his uncle, which would make it possible
+for him to marry at once and keep her comfortably now. He was to be sent
+to California on a business trip. Would she be married and go with him?
+
+Margaret studied the telegram in wonder. She had never asked Gardley
+much about his circumstances. The telegram merely stated that his
+uncle's estate was left to him. To her simple mind an estate might be a
+few hundred dollars, enough to furnish a plain little home; and her face
+lighted with joy over it. She asked no questions, and Gardley said no
+more about the money. He had forgotten that question, comparatively, in
+the greater possibility of joy.
+
+Would she be married in ten days and go with him?
+
+Her eyes met his with an answering joy, and yet he could see that there
+was a trouble hiding somewhere. He presently saw what it was without
+needing to be told. Her father and mother! Of course, they would be
+disappointed! They would want her to be married at home!
+
+"But Rogers said we could go and visit them for several weeks on our
+return," he said; and Margaret's face lighted up.
+
+"Oh, that would be beautiful," she said, wistfully; "and perhaps they
+won't mind so much--though I always expected father would marry me if I
+was ever married; still, if we can go home so soon and for so long--and
+Mr. Brownleigh would be next best, of course."
+
+"But, of course, your father must marry you," said Gardley,
+determinedly. "Perhaps we could persuade him to come, and your mother,
+too."
+
+"Oh no, they couldn't possibly," said Margaret, quickly, a shade of
+sadness in her eyes. "You know it costs a lot to come out here, and
+ministers are never rich."
+
+It was then that Gardley's eyes lighted with joy. His money could take
+this bugbear away, at least. However, he said nothing about the money.
+
+"Suppose we write to your father and mother and put the matter before
+them. See what they say. We'll send the letters to-night. You write
+your mother and I'll write your father."
+
+Margaret agreed and sat down at once to write her letter, while Gardley,
+on the other side of the room, wrote his, scratching away contentedly
+with his fountain-pen and looking furtively now and then toward the
+bowed head over at the desk.
+
+Gardley did not read his letter to Margaret. She wondered a little at
+this, but did not ask, and the letters were mailed, with
+special-delivery stamps on them. Gardley awaited their replies with
+great impatience.
+
+He filled in the days of waiting with business. There were letters to
+write connected with his fortune, and there were arrangements to be made
+for his trip. But the thing that occupied the most of his time and
+thought was the purchase and refitting of a roomy old ranch-house in a
+charming location, not more than three miles from Ashland, on the road
+to the camp.
+
+It had been vacant for a couple of years past, the owner having gone
+abroad permanently and the place having been offered for sale. Margaret
+had often admired it in her trips to and from the camp, and Gardley
+thought of it at once when it became possible for him to think of
+purchasing a home in the West.
+
+There was a great stone fireplace, and the beams of the ceilings and
+pillars of the porch and wide, hospitable rooms were of tree-trunks with
+the bark on them. With a little work it could be made roughly but
+artistically habitable. Gardley had it cleaned up, not disturbing the
+tangle of vines and shrubbery that had had their way since the last
+owner had left them and which had made a perfect screen from the road
+for the house.
+
+Behind this screen the men worked--most of them the men from the
+bunk-house, whom Gardley took into his confidence.
+
+The floors were carefully scrubbed under the direction of Mom Wallis,
+and the windows made shining. Then the men spent a day bringing great
+loads of tree-boughs and filling the place with green fragrance, until
+the big living-room looked like a woodland bower. Gardley made a raid
+upon some Indian friends of his and came back with several fine Navajo
+rugs and blankets, which he spread about the room luxuriously on the
+floor and over the rude benches which the men had constructed. They
+piled the fireplace with big logs, and Gardley took over some of his own
+personal possessions that he had brought back from the East with him to
+give the place a livable look. Then he stood back satisfied. The place
+was fit to bring his bride and her friends to. Not that it was as it
+should be. That would be for Margaret to do, but it would serve as a
+temporary stopping-place if there came need. If no need came, why, the
+place was there, anyway, hers and his. A tender light grew in his eyes
+as he looked it over in the dying light of the afternoon. Then he went
+out and rode swiftly to the telegraph-office and found these two
+telegrams, according to the request in his own letter to Mr. Earle.
+
+Gardley's telegram read:
+
+     Congratulations. Will come as you desire. We await your advice.
+     Have written.--FATHER.
+
+He saddled his horse and hurried to Margaret with hers, and together
+they read:
+
+     Dear child! So glad for you. Of course you will go. I am sending
+     you some things. Don't take a thought for us. We shall look forward
+     to your visit. Our love to you both.--MOTHER.
+
+Margaret, folded in her lover's arms, cried out her sorrow and her joy,
+and lifted up her face with happiness. Then Gardley, with great joy,
+thought of the surprise he had in store for her and laid his face
+against hers to hide the telltale smile in his eyes.
+
+For Gardley, in his letter to his future father-in-law, had written of
+his newly inherited fortune, and had not only inclosed a check for a
+good sum to cover all extra expense of the journey, but had said that a
+private car would be at their disposal, not only for themselves, but for
+any of Margaret's friends and relatives whom they might choose to
+invite. As he had written this letter he was filled with deep
+thanksgiving that it was in his power to do this thing for his dear
+girl-bride.
+
+The morning after the telegrams arrived Gardley spent several hours
+writing telegrams and receiving them from a big department store in the
+nearest great city, and before noon a big shipment of goods was on its
+way to Ashland. Beds, bureaus, wash-stands, chairs, tables, dishes,
+kitchen utensils, and all kinds of bedding, even to sheets and
+pillow-cases, he ordered with lavish hand. After all, he must furnish
+the house himself, and let Margaret weed it out or give it away
+afterward, if she did not like it. He was going to have a house party
+and he must be ready. When all was done and he was just about to mount
+his horse again he turned back and sent another message, ordering a
+piano.
+
+"Why, it's _great_!" he said to himself, as he rode back to his office.
+"It's simply great to be able to do things just when I need them! I
+never knew what fun money was before. But then I never had Margaret to
+spend it for, and she's worth the whole of it at once!"
+
+The next thing he ordered was a great easy carriage with plenty of room
+to convey Mother Earle and her friends from the train to the house.
+
+The days went by rapidly enough, and Margaret was so busy that she had
+little time to wonder and worry why her mother did not write her the
+long, loving, motherly good-by letter to her little girlhood that she
+had expected to get. Not until three days before the wedding did it come
+over her that she had had but three brief, scrappy letters from her
+mother, and they not a whole page apiece. What could be the matter with
+mother? She was almost on the point of panic when Gardley came and
+bundled her on to her horse for a ride.
+
+Strangely enough, he directed their way through Ashland and down to the
+station, and it was just about the time of the arrival of the evening
+train.
+
+Gardley excused himself for a moment, saying something about an errand,
+and went into the station. Margaret sat on her horse, watching the
+oncoming train, the great connecting link between East and West, and
+wondered if it would bring a letter from mother.
+
+The train rushed to a halt, and behold some passengers were getting off
+from a private car! Margaret watched them idly, thinking more about an
+expected letter than about the people. Then suddenly she awoke to the
+fact that Gardley was greeting them. Who could they be?
+
+There were five of them, and one of them looked like Jane! Dear Jane!
+She had forgotten to write her about this hurried wedding. How different
+it all was going to be from what she and Jane had planned for each other
+in their dear old school-day dreams! And that young man that Gardley was
+shaking hands with now looked like Cousin Dick! She hadn't seen him for
+three years, but he must look like that now; and the younger girl beside
+him might be Cousin Emily! But, oh, who were the others? _Father!_ And
+MOTHER!
+
+Margaret sprang from her horse with a bound and rushed into her mother's
+arms. The interested passengers craned their necks and looked their fill
+with smiles of appreciation as the train took up its way again, having
+dropped the private car on the side track.
+
+Dick and Emily rode the ponies to the house, while Margaret nestled in
+the back seat of the carriage between her father and mother, and Jane
+got acquainted with Gardley in the front seat of the carriage. Margaret
+never even noticed where they were going until the carriage turned in
+and stopped before the door of the new house, and Mrs. Tanner, furtively
+casting behind her the checked apron she had worn, came out to shake
+hands with the company and tell them supper was all ready, before she
+went back to her deserted boarding-house. Even Bud was going to stay at
+the new house that night, in some cooked-up capacity or other, and all
+the men from the bunk-house were hiding out among the trees to see
+Margaret's father and mother and shake hands if the opportunity offered.
+
+The wonder and delight of Margaret when she saw the house inside and
+knew that it was hers, the tears she shed and smiles that grew almost
+into hysterics when she saw some of the incongruous furnishings, are all
+past describing. Margaret was too happy to think. She rushed from one
+room to another. She hugged her mother and linked her arm in her
+father's for a walk across the long piazza; she talked to Emily and Dick
+and Jane; and then rushed out to find Gardley and thank him again. And
+all this time she could not understand how Gardley had done it, for she
+had not yet comprehended his fortune.
+
+Gardley had asked his sisters to come to the wedding, not much expecting
+they would accept, but they had telegraphed at the last minute they
+would be there. They arrived an hour or so before the ceremony; gushed
+over Margaret; told Gardley she was a "sweet thing"; said the house was
+"dandy for a house party if one had plenty of servants, but they should
+think it would be dull in winter"; gave Margaret a diamond sunburst pin,
+a string of pearls, and an emerald bracelet set in diamond chips; and
+departed immediately after the ceremony. They had thought they were the
+chief guests, but the relief that overspread the faces of those guests
+who were best beloved by both bride and groom was at once visible on
+their departure. Jasper Kemp drew a long breath and declared to Long
+Bill that he was glad the air was growing pure again. Then all those old
+friends from the bunk-house filed in to the great tables heavily loaded
+with good things, the abundant gift of the neighborhood, and sat down to
+the wedding supper, heartily glad that the "city lady and her gals"--as
+Mom Wallis called them in a suppressed whisper--had chosen not to stay
+over a train.
+
+The wedding had been in the school-house, embowered in foliage and all
+the flowers the land afforded, decorated by the loving hands of
+Margaret's pupils, old and young. She was attended by the entire school
+marching double file before her, strewing flowers in her way. The
+missionary's wife played the wedding-march, and the missionary assisted
+the bride's father with the ceremony. Margaret's dress was a simple
+white muslin, with a little real lace and embroidery handed down from
+former generations, the whole called into being by Margaret's mother.
+Even Gardley's sisters had said it was "perfectly dear." The whole
+neighborhood was at the wedding.
+
+And when the bountiful wedding-supper was eaten the entire company of
+favored guests stood about the new piano and sang "Blest Be the Tie that
+Binds"--with Margaret playing for them.
+
+Then there was a little hurry at the last, Margaret getting into the
+pretty traveling dress and hat her mother had brought, and kissing her
+mother good-by--though happily not for long this time.
+
+Mother and father and the rest of the home party were to wait until
+morning, and the missionary and his wife were to stay with them that
+night and see them to their car the next day.
+
+So, waving and throwing kisses back to the others, they rode away to the
+station, Bud pridefully driving the team from the front seat.
+
+Gardley had arranged for a private apartment on the train, and nothing
+could have been more luxurious in traveling than the place where he led
+his bride. Bud, scuttling behind with a suit-case, looked around him
+with all his eyes before he said a hurried good-by, and murmured under
+his breath: "Gee! Wisht I was goin' all the way!"
+
+Bud hustled off as the train got under way, and Margaret and Gardley
+went out to the observation platform to wave a last farewell.
+
+The few little blurring lights of Ashland died soon in the distance, and
+the desert took on its vast wideness beneath a starry dome; but off in
+the East a purple shadow loomed, mighty and majestic, and rising slowly
+over its crest a great silver disk appeared, brightening as it came and
+pouring a silver mist over the purple peak.
+
+"My mountain!" said Margaret, softly.
+
+And Gardley, drawing her close to him, stooped to lay his lips upon
+hers.
+
+"My darling!" he answered.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Voice in the Wilderness, by Grace Livingston Hill
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+Project Gutenberg's A Voice in the Wilderness, by Grace Livingston Hill
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Voice in the Wilderness
+
+Author: Grace Livingston Hill
+
+Release Date: April 27, 2007 [EBook #21219]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+A VOICE in the WILDERNESS
+
+A NOVEL
+BY
+GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL
+
+AUTHOR OF
+MARCIA SCHUYLER, ETC.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+PUBLISHERS--NEW YORK
+
+Published by Arrangement with Harper and Brothers
+
+Made in the United States of America
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+A Voice in the Wilderness
+
+Copyright, 1916, by Harper & Brothers
+Printed in the United States of America
+Published September, 1916
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+With a lurch the train came to a dead stop and Margaret Earle, hastily
+gathering up her belongings, hurried down the aisle and got out into the
+night.
+
+It occurred to her, as she swung her heavy suit-case down the rather
+long step to the ground, and then carefully swung herself after it, that
+it was strange that neither conductor, brakeman, nor porter had come to
+help her off the train, when all three had taken the trouble to tell her
+that hers was the next station; but she could hear voices up ahead.
+Perhaps something was the matter with the engine that detained them and
+they had forgotten her for the moment.
+
+The ground was rough where she stood, and there seemed no sign of a
+platform. Did they not have platforms in this wild Western land, or was
+the train so long that her car had stopped before reaching it?
+
+She strained her eyes into the darkness, and tried to make out things
+from the two or three specks of light that danced about like fireflies
+in the distance. She could dimly see moving figures away up near the
+engine, and each one evidently carried a lantern. The train was
+tremendously long. A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her.
+Perhaps she ought not to have got out until some one came to help her.
+Perhaps the train had not pulled into the station yet and she ought to
+get back on it and wait. Yet if the train started before she found the
+conductor she might be carried on somewhere and be justly blame her for
+a fool.
+
+There did not seem to be any building on that side of the track. It was
+probably on the other, but she was standing too near the cars to see
+over. She tried to move back to look, but the ground sloped and she
+slipped and fell in the cinders, bruising her knee and cutting her
+wrist.
+
+In sudden panic she arose. She would get back into the train, no matter
+what the consequences. They had no right to put her out here, away off
+from the station, at night, in a strange country. If the train started
+before she could find the conductor she would tell him that he must back
+it up again and let her off. He certainly could not expect her to get
+out like this.
+
+She lifted the heavy suit-case up the high step that was even farther
+from the ground than it had been when she came down, because her fall
+had loosened some of the earth and caused it to slide away from the
+track. Then, reaching to the rail of the step, she tried to pull herself
+up, but as she did so the engine gave a long snort and the whole train,
+as if it were in league against her, lurched forward crazily, shaking
+off her hold. She slipped to her knees again, the suit-case, toppled
+from the lower step, descending upon her, and together they slid and
+rolled down the short bank, while the train, like an irresponsible nurse
+who had slapped her charge and left it to its fate, ran giddily off into
+the night.
+
+The horror of being deserted helped the girl to rise in spite of bruises
+and shock. She lifted imploring hands to the unresponsive cars as they
+hurried by her--one, two, three, with bright windows, each showing a
+passenger, comfortable and safe inside, unconscious of her need.
+
+A moment of useless screaming, running, trying to attract some one's
+attention, a sickening sense of terror and failure, and the last car
+slatted itself past with a mocking clatter, as if it enjoyed her
+discomfort.
+
+Margaret stood dazed, reaching out helpless hands, then dropped them at
+her sides and gazed after the fast-retreating train, the light on its
+last car swinging tauntingly, blinking now and then with a leer in its
+eye, rapidly vanishing from her sight into the depth of the night.
+
+She gasped and looked about her for the station that but a short moment
+before had been so real to her mind; and, lo! on this side and on that
+there was none!
+
+The night was wide like a great floor shut in by a low, vast dome of
+curving blue set with the largest, most wonderful stars she had ever
+seen. Heavy shadows of purple-green, smoke-like, hovered over earth
+darker and more intense than the unfathomable blue of the night sky. It
+seemed like the secret nesting-place of mysteries wherein no human foot
+might dare intrude. It was incredible that such could be but common
+sage-brush, sand, and greasewood wrapped about with the beauty of the
+lonely night.
+
+No building broke the inky outlines of the plain, nor friendly light
+streamed out to cheer her heart. Not even a tree was in sight, except on
+the far horizon, where a heavy line of deeper darkness might mean a
+forest. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the blue, deep, starry dome
+above and the bluer darkness of the earth below save one sharp shaft
+ahead like a black mast throwing out a dark arm across the track.
+
+As soon as she sighted it she picked up her baggage and made her painful
+way toward it, for her knees and wrist were bruised and her baggage was
+heavy.
+
+A soft drip, drip greeted her as she drew nearer; something plashing
+down among the cinders by the track. Then she saw the tall column with
+its arm outstretched, and looming darker among the sage-brush the
+outlines of a water-tank. It was so she recognized the engine's
+drinking-tank, and knew that she had mistaken a pause to water the
+engine for a regular stop at a station.
+
+Her soul sank within her as she came up to the dripping water and laid
+her hand upon the dark upright, as if in some way it could help her. She
+dropped her baggage and stood, trembling, gazing around upon the
+beautiful, lonely scene in horror; and then, like a mirage against the
+distance, there melted on her frightened eyes a vision of her father
+and mother sitting around the library lamp at home, as they sat every
+evening. They were probably reading and talking at this very minute, and
+trying not to miss her on this her first venture away from the home into
+the great world to teach. What would they say if they could see their
+beloved daughter, whom they had sheltered all these years and let go
+forth so reluctantly now, in all her confidence of youth, bound by
+almost absurd promises to be careful and not run any risks.
+
+Yet here she was, standing alone beside a water-tank in the midst of an
+Arizona plain, no knowing how many miles from anywhere, at somewhere
+between nine and ten o'clock at night! It seemed incredible that it had
+really happened! Perhaps she was dreaming! A few moments before in the
+bright car, surrounded by drowsy fellow-travelers, almost at her
+journey's end, as she supposed; and now, having merely done as she
+thought right, she was stranded here!
+
+She rubbed her eyes and looked again up the track, half expecting to see
+the train come back for her. Surely, surely the conductor, or the porter
+who had been so kind, would discover that she was gone, and do something
+about it. They couldn't leave her here alone on the prairie! It would be
+too dreadful!
+
+That vision of her father and mother off against the purple-green
+distance, how it shook her! The lamp looked bright and cheerful, and she
+could see her father's head with its heavy white hair. He turned to look
+at her mother to tell her of something he read in the paper. They were
+sitting there, feeling contented and almost happy about her, and she,
+their little girl--all her dignity as school-teacher dropped from her
+like a garment now--she was standing in this empty space alone, with
+only an engine's water-tank to keep her from dying, and only the barren,
+desolate track to connect her with the world of men and women. She
+dropped her head upon her breast and the tears came, sobbing, choking,
+raining down. Then off in the distance she heard a low, rising howl of
+some snarling, angry beast, and she lifted her head and stood in
+trembling terror, clinging to the tank.
+
+That sound was coyotes or wolves howling. She had read about them, but
+had not expected to experience them in such a situation. How confidently
+had she accepted the position which offered her the opening she had
+sought for the splendid career that she hoped was to follow! How
+fearless had she been! Coyotes, nor Indians, nor wild cowboy
+students--nothing had daunted her courage. Besides, she told her mother
+it was very different going to a town from what it would be if she were
+a missionary going to the wilds. It was an important school she was to
+teach, where her Latin and German and mathematical achievements had won
+her the place above several other applicants, and where her well-known
+tact was expected to work wonders. But what were Latin and German and
+mathematics now? Could they show her how to climb a water-tank? Would
+tact avail with a hungry wolf?
+
+The howl in the distance seemed to come nearer. She cast frightened eyes
+to the unresponsive water-tank looming high and dark above her. She
+must get up there somehow. It was not safe to stand here a minute.
+Besides, from that height she might be able to see farther, and perhaps
+there would be a light somewhere and she might cry for help.
+
+Investigation showed a set of rude spikes by which the trainmen were
+wont to climb up, and Margaret prepared to ascend them. She set her
+suit-case dubiously down at the foot. Would it be safe to leave it
+there? She had read how coyotes carried off a hatchet from a
+camping-party, just to get the leather thong which was bound about the
+handle. She could not afford to lose her things. Yet how could she climb
+and carry that heavy burden with her? A sudden thought came.
+
+Her simple traveling-gown was finished with a silken girdle, soft and
+long, wound twice about her waist and falling in tasseled ends. Swiftly
+she untied it and knotted one end firmly to the handle of her suit-case,
+tying the other end securely to her wrist. Then slowly, cautiously, with
+many a look upward, she began to climb.
+
+It seemed miles, though in reality it was but a short distance. The
+howling beasts in the distance sounded nearer now and continually,
+making her heart beat wildly. She was stiff and bruised from her falls,
+and weak with fright. The spikes were far apart, and each step of
+progress was painful and difficult. It was good at last to rise high
+enough to see over the water-tank and feel a certain confidence in her
+defense.
+
+But she had risen already beyond the short length of her silken tether,
+and the suit-case was dragging painfully on her arm. She was obliged to
+steady herself where she stood and pull it up before she could go on.
+Then she managed to get it swung up to the top of the tank in a
+comparatively safe place. One more long spike step and she was beside
+it.
+
+The tank was partly roofed over, so that she had room enough to sit on
+the edge without danger of falling in and drowning. For a few minutes
+she could only sit still and be thankful and try to get her breath back
+again after the climb; but presently the beauty of the night began to
+cast its spell over her. That wonderful blue of the sky! It hadn't ever
+before impressed her that skies were blue at night. She would have said
+they were black or gray. As a matter of fact, she didn't remember to
+have ever seen so much sky at once before, nor to have noticed skies in
+general until now.
+
+This sky was so deeply, wonderfully blue, the stars so real, alive and
+sparkling, that all other stars she had ever seen paled before them into
+mere imitations. The spot looked like one of Taylor's pictures of the
+Holy Land. She half expected to see a shepherd with his crook and sheep
+approaching her out of the dim shadows, or a turbaned, white-robed David
+with his lifted hands of prayer standing off among the depths of purple
+darkness. It would not have been out of keeping if a walled city with
+housetops should be hidden behind the clumps of sage-brush farther on.
+'Twas such a night and such a scene as this, perhaps, when the wise men
+started to follow the star!
+
+But one cannot sit on the edge of a water-tank in the desert night
+alone and muse long on art and history. It was cold up there, and the
+howling seemed nearer than before. There was no sign of a light or a
+house anywhere, and not even a freight-train sent its welcome clatter
+down the track. All was still and wide and lonely, save that terrifying
+sound of the beasts; such stillness as she had not ever thought could
+be--a fearful silence as a setting for the awful voices of the wilds.
+
+The bruises and scratches she had acquired set up a fine stinging, and
+the cold seemed to sweep down and take possession of her on her high,
+narrow seat. She was growing stiff and cramped, yet dared not move much.
+Would there be no train, nor any help? Would she have to sit there all
+night? It looked so very near to the ground now. Could wild beasts
+climb, she wondered?
+
+Then in the interval of silence that came between the calling of those
+wild creatures there stole a sound. She could not tell at first what it
+was. A slow, regular, plodding sound, and quite far away. She looked to
+find it, and thought she saw a shape move out of the sage-brush on the
+other side of the track, but she could not be sure. It might be but a
+figment of her brain, a foolish fancy from looking so long at the
+huddled bushes on the dark plain. Yet something prompted her to cry out,
+and when she heard her own voice she cried again and louder, wondering
+why she had not cried before.
+
+"Help! Help!" she called; and again: "Help! Help!"
+
+The dark shape paused and turned toward her. She was sure now. What if
+it were a beast instead of a human! Terrible fear took possession of
+her; then, to her infinite relief, a nasal voice sounded out:
+
+"Who's thar?"
+
+But when she opened her lips to answer, nothing but a sob would come to
+them for a minute, and then she could only cry, pitifully:
+
+"Help! Help!"
+
+"Whar be you?" twanged the voice; and now she could see a horse and
+rider like a shadow moving toward her down the track.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+The horse came to a standstill a little way from the track, and his
+rider let forth a stream of strange profanity. The girl shuddered and
+began to think a wild beast might be preferable to some men. However,
+these remarks seemed to be a mere formality. He paused and addressed
+her:
+
+"Heow'd yeh git up thar? D'j'yeh drap er climb?"
+
+He was a little, wiry man with a bristly, protruding chin. She could see
+that, even in the starlight. There was something about the point of that
+stubby chin that she shrank from inexpressibly. He was not a pleasant
+man to look upon, and even his voice was unprepossessing. She began to
+think that even the night with its loneliness and unknown perils was
+preferable to this man's company.
+
+"I got off the train by mistake, thinking it was my station, and before
+I discovered it the train had gone and left me," Margaret explained,
+with dignity.
+
+"Yeh didn't 'xpect it t' sit reound on th' plain while you was
+gallivantin' up water-tanks, did yeh?"
+
+Cold horror froze Margaret's veins. She was dumb for a second. "I am on
+my way to Ashland station. Can you tell me how far it is from here and
+how I can get there?" Her tone was like icicles.
+
+"It's a little matter o' twenty miles, more 'r less," said the man
+protruding his offensive chin. "The walkin's good. I don't know no other
+way from this p'int at this time o' night. Yeh might set still till th'
+mornin' freight goes by an' drap atop o' one of the kyars."
+
+"Sir!" said Margaret, remembering her dignity as a teacher.
+
+The man wheeled his horse clear around and looked up at her impudently.
+She could smell bad whisky on his breath.
+
+"Say, you must be some young highbrow, ain't yeh? Is thet all yeh want
+o' me? 'Cause ef 'tis I got t' git on t' camp. It's a good five mile
+yet, an' I 'ain't hed no grub sence noon."
+
+The tears suddenly rushed to the girl's eyes as the horror of being
+alone in the night again took possession of her. This dreadful man
+frightened her, but the thought of the loneliness filled her with
+dismay.
+
+"Oh!" she cried, forgetting her insulted dignity, "you're not going to
+leave me up here alone, are you? Isn't there some place near here where
+I could stay overnight?"
+
+"Thur ain't no palace hotel round these diggin's, ef that's what you
+mean," the man leered at her. "You c'n come along t' camp 'ith me ef you
+ain't too stuck up."
+
+"To camp!" faltered Margaret in dismay, wondering what her mother would
+say. "Are there any ladies there?"
+
+A loud guffaw greeted her question. "Wal, my woman's thar, sech es she
+is; but she ain't no highflier like you. We mostly don't hev ladies to
+camp, But I got t' git on. Ef you want to go too, you better light down
+pretty speedy, fer I can't wait."
+
+In fear and trembling Margaret descended her rude ladder step by step,
+primitive man seated calmly on his horse, making no attempt whatever to
+assist her.
+
+"This ain't no baggage-car," he grumbled, as he saw the suit-case in her
+hand. "Well, h'ist yerself up thar; I reckon we c'n pull through
+somehow. Gimme the luggage."
+
+Margaret stood appalled beside the bony horse and his uncouth rider. Did
+he actually expect her to ride with him? "Couldn't I walk?" she
+faltered, hoping he would offer to do so.
+
+"'T's up t' you," the man replied, indifferently. "Try 't an' see!"
+
+He spoke to the horse, and it started forward eagerly, while the girl in
+horror struggled on behind. Over rough, uneven ground, between
+greasewood, sage-brush, and cactus, back into the trail. The man,
+oblivious of her presence, rode contentedly on, a silent shadow on a
+dark horse wending a silent way between the purple-green clumps of other
+shadows, until, bewildered, the girl almost lost sight of them. Her
+breath came short, her ankle turned, and she fell with both hands in a
+stinging bed of cactus. She cried out then and begged him to stop.
+
+"L'arned yer lesson, hev yeh, sweety?" he jeered at her, foolishly.
+"Well, get in yer box, then."
+
+He let her struggle up to a seat behind himself with very little
+assistance, but when she was seated and started on her way she began to
+wish she had stayed behind and taken any perils of the way rather than
+trust herself in proximity to this creature.
+
+From time to time he took a bottle from his pocket and swallowed a
+portion of its contents, becoming fluent in his language as they
+proceeded on their way. Margaret remained silent, growing more and more
+frightened every time the bottle came out. At last he offered it to her.
+She declined it with cold politeness, which seemed to irritate the
+little man, for he turned suddenly fierce.
+
+"Oh, yer too fine to take a drap fer good comp'ny, are yeh? Wal, I'll
+show yeh a thing er two, my pretty lady. You'll give me a kiss with yer
+two cherry lips before we go another step. D'yeh hear, my sweetie?" And
+he turned with a silly leer to enforce his command; but with a cry of
+horror Margaret slid to the ground and ran back down the trail as hard
+as she could go, till she stumbled and fell in the shelter of a great
+sage-bush, and lay sobbing on the sand.
+
+The man turned bleared eyes toward her and watched until she
+disappeared. Then sticking his chin out wickedly, he slung her suit-case
+after her and called:
+
+"All right, my pretty lady; go yer own gait an' l'arn yer own lesson."
+He started on again, singing a drunken song.
+
+Under the blue, starry dome alone sat Margaret again, this time with no
+friendly water-tank for her defense, and took counsel with herself. The
+howling coyotes seemed to be silenced for the time; at least they had
+become a minor quantity in her equation of troubles. She felt now that
+man was her greatest menace, and to get away safely from him back to
+that friendly water-tank and the dear old railroad track she would have
+pledged her next year's salary. She stole softly to the place where she
+had heard the suit-case fall, and, picking it up, started on the weary
+road back to the tank. Could she ever find the way? The trail seemed so
+intangible a thing, her sense of direction so confused. Yet there was
+nothing else to do. She shuddered whenever she thought of the man who
+had been her companion on horseback.
+
+When the man reached camp he set his horse loose and stumbled into the
+door of the log bunk-house, calling loudly for something to eat.
+
+The men were sitting around the room on the rough benches and bunks,
+smoking their pipes or stolidly staring into the dying fire. Two smoky
+kerosene-lanterns that hung from spikes driven high in the logs cast a
+weird light over the company, eight men in all, rough and hardened with
+exposure to stormy life and weather. They were men with unkempt beards
+and uncombed hair, their coarse cotton shirts open at the neck, their
+brawny arms bare above the elbow, with crimes and sorrows and hard
+living written large across their faces.
+
+There was one, a boy in looks, with smooth face and white skin healthily
+flushed in places like a baby's. His face, too, was hard and set in
+sternness like a mask, as if life had used him badly; but behind it was
+a fineness of feature and spirit that could not be utterly hidden. They
+called him the Kid, and thought it was his youth that made him different
+from them all, for he was only twenty-four, and not one of the rest was
+under forty. They were doing their best to help him get over that innate
+fineness that was his natural inheritance, but although he stopped at
+nothing, and played his part always with the ease of one old in the ways
+of the world, yet he kept a quiet reserve about him, a kind of charm
+beyond which they had not been able to go.
+
+He was playing cards with three others at the table when the man came
+in, and did not look up at the entrance.
+
+The woman, white and hopeless, appeared at the door of the shed-room
+when the man came, and obediently set about getting his supper; but her
+lifeless face never changed expression.
+
+"Brung a gal 'long of me part way," boasted the man, as he flung himself
+into a seat by the table. "Thought you fellers might like t' see 'er,
+but she got too high an' mighty fer me, wouldn't take a pull at th'
+bottle 'ith me, 'n' shrieked like a catamount when I kissed 'er. Found
+'er hangin' on th' water-tank. Got off 't th' wrong place. One o' yer
+highbrows out o' th' parlor car! Good lesson fer 'er!"
+
+The Boy looked up from his cards sternly, his keen eyes boring through
+the man. "Where is she now?" he asked, quietly; and all the men in the
+room looked up uneasily. There was that tone and accent again that made
+the Boy alien from them. What was it?
+
+The man felt it and snarled his answer angrily. "Dropped 'er on th'
+trail, an' threw her fine-lady b'longin's after 'er. 'Ain't got no use
+fer thet kind. Wonder what they was created fer? Ain't no good to
+nobody, not even 'emselves." And he laughed a harsh cackle that was not
+pleasant to hear.
+
+The Boy threw down his cards and went out, shutting the door. In a few
+minutes the men heard two horses pass the end of the bunk-house toward
+the trail, but no one looked up nor spoke. You could not have told by
+the flicker of an eyelash that they knew where the Boy had gone.
+
+She was sitting in the deep shadow of a sage-bush that lay on the edge
+of the trail like a great blot, her suit-case beside her, her breath
+coming short with exertion and excitement, when she heard a cheery
+whistle in the distance. Just an old love-song dating back some years
+and discarded now as hackneyed even by the street pianos at home; but
+oh, how good it sounded!
+
+    From the desert I come to thee!
+
+The ground was cold, and struck a chill through her garments as she sat
+there alone in the night. On came the clear, musical whistle, and she
+peered out of the shadow with eager eyes and frightened heart. Dared she
+risk it again? Should she call, or should she hold her breath and keep
+still, hoping he would pass her by unnoticed? Before she could decide
+two horses stopped almost in front of her and a rider swung himself
+down. He stood before her as if it were day and he could see her quite
+plainly.
+
+"You needn't be afraid," he explained, calmly. "I thought I had better
+look you up after the old man got home and gave his report. He was
+pretty well tanked up and not exactly a fit escort for ladies. What's
+the trouble?"
+
+Like an angel of deliverance he looked to her as he stood in the
+starlight, outlined in silhouette against the wide, wonderful sky: broad
+shoulders, well-set head, close-cropped curls, handsome contour even in
+the darkness. There was about him an air of quiet strength which gave
+her confidence.
+
+"Oh, thank you!" she gasped, with a quick little relieved sob in her
+voice. "I am so glad you have come. I was--just a little--frightened, I
+think." She attempted to rise, but her foot caught in her skirt and she
+sank wearily back to the sand again.
+
+The Boy stooped over and lifted her to her feet. "You certainly are some
+plucky girl!" he commented, looking down at her slender height as she
+stood beside him. "A 'little frightened,' were you? Well, I should say
+you had a right to be."
+
+"Well, not exactly frightened, you know," said Margaret, taking a deep
+breath and trying to steady her voice. "I think perhaps I was more
+mortified than frightened, to think I made such a blunder as to get off
+the train before I reached my station. You see, I'd made up my mind not
+to be frightened, but when I heard that awful howl of some beast--And
+then that terrible man!" She shuddered and put her hands suddenly over
+her eyes as if to shut out all memory of it.
+
+"More than one kind of beasts!" commented the Boy, briefly. "Well, you
+needn't worry about him; he's having his supper and he'll be sound
+asleep by the time we get back."
+
+"Oh, have we got to go where he is?" gasped Margaret. "Isn't there some
+other place? Is Ashland very far away? That is where I am going."
+
+"No other place where you could go to-night. Ashland's a good
+twenty-five miles from here. But you'll be all right. Mom Wallis 'll
+look out for you. She isn't much of a looker, but she has a kind heart.
+She pulled me through once when I was just about flickering out. Come
+on. You'll be pretty tired. We better be getting back. Mom Wallis 'll
+make you comfortable, and then you can get off good and early in the
+morning."
+
+Without an apology, and as if it were the common courtesy of the desert,
+he stooped and lifted her easily to the saddle of the second horse,
+placed the bridle in her hands, then swung the suit-case up on his own
+horse and sprang into the saddle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+He turned the horses about and took charge of her just as if he were
+accustomed to managing stray ladies in the wilderness every day of his
+life and understood the situation perfectly; and Margaret settled
+wearily into her saddle and looked about her with content.
+
+Suddenly, again, the wide wonder of the night possessed her.
+Involuntarily she breathed a soft little exclamation of awe and delight.
+Her companion turned to her questioningly:
+
+"Does it always seem so big here--so--limitless?" she asked in
+explanation. "It is so far to everywhere it takes one's breath away, and
+yet the stars hang close, like a protection. It gives one the feeling of
+being alone in the great universe with God. Does it always seem so out
+here?"
+
+He looked at her curiously, her pure profile turned up to the wide dome
+of luminous blue above. His voice was strangely low and wondering as he
+answered, after a moment's silence:
+
+"No, it is not always so," he said. "I have seen it when it was more
+like being alone in the great universe with the devil."
+
+There was a tremendous earnestness in his tone that the girl felt meant
+more than was on the surface. She turned to look at the fine young face
+beside her. In the starlight she could not make out the bitter hardness
+of lines that were beginning to be carved about his sensitive mouth. But
+there was so much sadness in his voice that her heart went out to him in
+pity.
+
+"Oh," she said, gently, "it would be awful that way. Yes, I can
+understand. I felt so, a little, while that terrible man was with me."
+And she shuddered again at the remembrance.
+
+Again he gave her that curious look. "There are worse things than Pop
+Wallis out here," he said, gravely. "But I'll grant you there's some
+class to the skies. It's a case of 'Where every prospect pleases and
+only man is vile.'" And with the words his tone grew almost flippant. It
+hurt her sensitive nature, and without knowing it she half drew away a
+little farther from him and murmured, sadly:
+
+"Oh!" as if he had classed himself with the "man" he had been
+describing. Instantly he felt her withdrawal and grew grave again, as if
+he would atone.
+
+"Wait till you see this sky at the dawn," he said. "It will burn red
+fire off there in the east like a hearth in a palace, and all this dome
+will glow like a great pink jewel set in gold. If you want a classy sky,
+there you have it! Nothing like it in the East!"
+
+There was a strange mingling of culture and roughness in his speech. The
+girl could not make him out; yet there had been a palpitating
+earnestness in his description that showed he had felt the dawn in his
+very soul.
+
+"You are--a--poet, perhaps?" she asked, half shyly. "Or an artist?" she
+hazarded.
+
+He laughed roughly and seemed embarrassed. "No, I'm just a--bum! A sort
+of roughneck out of a job."
+
+She was silent, watching him against the starlight, a kind of
+embarrassment upon her after his last remark. "You--have been here
+long?" she asked, at last.
+
+"Three years." He said it almost curtly and turned his head away, as if
+there were something in his face he would hide.
+
+She knew there was something unhappy in his life. Unconsciously her tone
+took on a sympathetic sound. "And do you get homesick and want to go
+back, ever?" she asked.
+
+His tone was fairly savage now. "No!"
+
+The silence which followed became almost oppressive before the Boy
+finally turned and in his kindly tone began to question her about the
+happenings which had stranded her in the desert alone at night.
+
+So she came to tell him briefly and frankly about herself, as he
+questioned--how she came to be in Arizona all alone.
+
+"My father is a minister in a small town in New York State. When I
+finished college I had to do something, and I had an offer of this
+Ashland school through a friend of ours who had a brother out here.
+Father and mother would rather have kept me nearer home, of course, but
+everybody says the best opportunities are in the West, and this was a
+good opening, so they finally consented. They would send post-haste for
+me to come back if they knew what a mess I have made of things right at
+the start--getting out of the train in the desert."
+
+"But you're not discouraged?" said her companion, half wonderingly.
+"Some nerve you have with you. I guess you'll manage to hit it off in
+Ashland. It's the limit as far as discipline is concerned, I understand,
+but I guess you'll put one over on them. I'll bank on you after
+to-night, sure thing!"
+
+She turned a laughing face toward him. "Thank you!" she said. "But I
+don't see how you know all that. I'm sure I didn't do anything
+particularly nervy. There wasn't anything else to do but what I did, if
+I'd tried."
+
+"Most girls would have fainted and screamed, and fainted again when they
+were rescued," stated the Boy, out of a vast experience.
+
+"I never fainted in my life," said Margaret Earle, with disdain. "I
+don't think I should care to faint out in the vast universe like this.
+It would be rather inopportune, I should think."
+
+Then, because she suddenly realized that she was growing very chummy
+with this stranger in the dark, she asked the first question that came
+into her head.
+
+"What was your college?"
+
+That he had not been to college never entered her head. There was
+something in his speech and manner that made it a foregone conclusion.
+
+It was as if she had struck him forcibly in his face, so sudden and
+sharp a silence ensued for a second. Then he answered, gruffly, "Yale,"
+and plunged into an elaborate account of Arizona in its early ages,
+including a detailed description of the cliff-dwellers and their homes,
+which were still to be seen high in the rocks of the caņons not many
+miles to the west of where they were riding.
+
+Margaret was keen to hear it all, and asked many questions, declaring
+her intention of visiting those cliff-caves at her earliest opportunity.
+It was so wonderful to her to be actually out here where were all sorts
+of queer things about which she had read and wondered. It did not occur
+to her, until the next day, to realize that her companion had of
+intention led her off the topic of himself and kept her from asking any
+more personal questions.
+
+He told her of the petrified forest just over some low hills off to the
+left; acres and acres of agatized chips and trunks of great trees all
+turned to eternal stone, called by the Indians "Yeitso's bones," after
+the great giant of that name whom an ancient Indian hero killed. He
+described the coloring of the brilliant days in Arizona, where you stand
+on the edge of some flat-topped mesa and look off through the clear air
+to mountains that seem quite near by, but are in reality more than two
+hundred miles away. He pictured the strange colors and lights of the
+place; ledges of rock, yellow, white and green, drab and maroon, and
+tumbled piles of red boulders, shadowy buttes in the distance, serrated
+cliffs against the horizon, not blue, but rosy pink in the heated haze
+of the air, and perhaps a great, lonely eagle poised above the silent,
+brilliant waste.
+
+He told it not in book language, with turn of phrase and smoothly
+flowing sentences, but in simple, frank words, as a boy might describe a
+picture to one he knew would appreciate it--for her sake, and not
+because he loved to put it into words; but in a new, stumbling way
+letting out the beauty that had somehow crept into his heart in spite of
+all the rough attempts to keep all gentle things out of his nature.
+
+The girl, as she listened, marveled more and more what manner of youth
+this might be who had come to her out of the desert night.
+
+She forgot her weariness as she listened, in the thrill of wonder over
+the new mysterious country to which she had come. She forgot that she
+was riding through the great darkness with an utter stranger, to a place
+she knew not, and to experiences most dubious. Her fears had fled and
+she was actually enjoying herself, and responding to the wonderful story
+of the place with soft-murmured exclamations of delight and wonder.
+
+From time to time in the distance there sounded forth those awful
+blood-curdling howls of wild beasts that she had heard when she sat
+alone by the water-tank, and each time she heard a shudder passed
+through her and instinctively she swerved a trifle toward her companion,
+then straightened up again and tried to seem not to notice. The Boy saw
+and watched her brave attempts at self-control with deep appreciation.
+But suddenly, as they rode and talked, a dark form appeared across their
+way a little ahead, lithe and stealthy and furry, and two awful eyes
+like green lamps glared for an instant, then disappeared silently among
+the mesquite bushes.
+
+She did not cry out nor start. Her very veins seemed frozen with horror,
+and she could not have spoken if she tried. It was all over in a second
+and the creature gone, so that she almost doubted her senses and
+wondered if she had seen aright. Then one hand went swiftly to her
+throat and she shrank toward her companion.
+
+"There is nothing to fear," he said, reassuringly, and laid a strong
+hand comfortingly across the neck of her horse. "The pussy-cat was as
+unwilling for our company as we for hers. Besides, look here!"--and he
+raised his hand and shot into the air. "She'll not come near us now."
+
+"I am not afraid!" said the girl, bravely. "At least, I don't think I
+am--very! But it's all so new and unexpected, you know. Do people around
+here always shoot in that--well--unpremeditated fashion?"
+
+They laughed together.
+
+"Excuse me," he said. "I didn't realize the shot might startle you even
+more than the wildcat. It seems I'm not fit to have charge of a lady. I
+told you I was a roughneck."
+
+"You're taking care of me beautifully," said Margaret Earle, loyally,
+"and I'm glad to get used to shots if that's the thing to be expected
+often."
+
+Just then they came to the top of the low, rolling hill, and ahead in
+the darkness there gleamed a tiny, wizened light set in a blotch of
+blackness. Under the great white stars it burned a sickly red and seemed
+out of harmony with the night.
+
+"There we are!" said the Boy, pointing toward it. "That's the
+bunk-house. You needn't be afraid. Pop Wallis 'll be snoring by this
+time, and we'll come away before he's about in the morning. He always
+sleeps late after he's been off on a bout. He's been gone three days,
+selling some cattle, and he'll have a pretty good top on."
+
+The girl caught her breath, gave one wistful look up at the wide, starry
+sky, a furtive glance at the strong face of her protector, and
+submitted to being lifted down to the ground.
+
+Before her loomed the bunk-house, small and mean, built of logs, with
+only one window in which the flicker of the lanterns menaced, with
+unknown trials and possible perils for her to meet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+When Margaret Earle dawned upon that bunk-room the men sat up with one
+accord, ran their rough, red hands through their rough, tousled hair,
+smoothed their beards, took down their feet from the benches where they
+were resting. That was as far as their etiquette led them. Most of them
+continued to smoke their pipes, and all of them stared at her
+unreservedly. Such a sight of exquisite feminine beauty had not come to
+their eyes in many a long day. Even in the dim light of the smoky
+lanterns, and with the dust and weariness of travel upon her, Margaret
+Earle was a beautiful girl.
+
+"That's what's the matter, father," said her mother, when the subject of
+Margaret's going West to teach had first been mentioned. "She's too
+beautiful. Far too beautiful to go among savages! If she were homely and
+old, now, she might be safe. That would be a different matter."
+
+Yet Margaret had prevailed, and was here in the wild country. Now,
+standing on the threshold of the log cabin, she read, in the unveiled
+admiration that startled from the eyes of the men, the meaning of her
+mother's fears.
+
+Yet withal it was a kindly admiration not unmixed with awe. For there
+was about her beauty a touch of the spiritual which set her above the
+common run of women, making men feel her purity and sweetness, and
+inclining their hearts to worship rather than be bold.
+
+The Boy had been right. Pop Wallis was asleep and out of the way. From a
+little shed room at one end his snoring marked time in the silence that
+the advent of the girl made in the place.
+
+In the doorway of the kitchen offset Mom Wallis stood with her
+passionless face--a face from which all emotions had long ago been
+burned by cruel fires--and looked at the girl, whose expression was
+vivid with her opening life all haloed in a rosy glow.
+
+A kind of wistful contortion passed over Mom Wallis's hopeless
+countenance, as if she saw before her in all its possibility of
+perfection the life that she herself had lost. Perhaps it was no longer
+possible for her features to show tenderness, but a glow of something
+like it burned in her eyes, though she only turned away with the same
+old apathetic air, and without a word went about preparing a meal for
+the stranger.
+
+Margaret looked wildly, fearfully, around the rough assemblage when she
+first entered the long, low room, but instantly the boy introduced her
+as "the new teacher for the Ridge School beyond the Junction," and these
+were Long Bill, Big Jim, the Fiddling Boss, Jasper Kemp, Fade-away
+Forbes, Stocky, Croaker, and Fudge. An inspiration fell upon the
+frightened girl, and she acknowledged the introduction by a radiant
+smile, followed by the offering of her small gloved hand. Each man in
+dumb bewilderment instantly became her slave, and accepted the offered
+hand with more or less pleasure and embarrassment. The girl proved her
+right to be called tactful, and, seeing her advantage, followed it up
+quickly by a few bright words. These men were of an utterly different
+type from any she had ever met before, but they had in their eyes a kind
+of homage which Pop Wallis had not shown and they were not repulsive to
+her. Besides, the Boy was in the background, and her nerve had returned.
+The Boy knew how a lady should be treated. She was quite ready to "play
+up" to his lead.
+
+It was the Boy who brought the only chair the bunk-house afforded, a
+rude, home-made affair, and helped her off with her coat and hat in his
+easy, friendly way, as if he had known her all his life; while the men,
+to whom such gallant ways were foreign, sat awkwardly by and watched in
+wonder and amaze.
+
+Most of all they were astonished at "the Kid," that he could fall so
+naturally into intimate talk with this delicate, beautiful woman. She
+was another of his kind, a creature not made in the same mold as theirs.
+They saw it now, and watched the fairy play with almost childish
+interest. Just to hear her call him "Mr. Gardley"!--Lance Gardley, that
+was what he had told them was his name the day he came among them. They
+had not heard it since. The Kid! Mr. Gardley!
+
+There it was, the difference between them! They looked at the girl half
+jealously, yet proudly at the Boy. He was theirs--yes, in a way he was
+theirs--had they not found him in the wilderness, sick and nigh to
+death, and nursed him back to life again? He was theirs; but he knew
+how to drop into her world, too, and not be ashamed. They were glad that
+he could, even while it struck them with a pang that some day he would
+go back to the world to which he belonged--and where they could never be
+at home.
+
+It was a marvel to watch her eat the coarse corn-bread and pork that Mom
+Wallis brought her. It might have been a banquet, the pleasant way she
+seemed to look at it. Just like a bird she tasted it daintily, and
+smiled, showing her white teeth. There was nothing of the idea of
+greediness that each man knew he himself felt after a fast. It was all
+beautiful, the way she handled the two-tined fork and the old steel
+knife. They watched and dropped their eyes abashed as at a lovely
+sacrament. They had not felt before that eating could be an art. They
+did not know what art meant.
+
+Such strange talk, too! But the Kid seemed to understand. About the
+sky--their old, common sky, with stars that they saw every night--making
+such a fuss about that, with words like "wide," "infinite," "azure," and
+"gems." Each man went furtively out that night before he slept and took
+a new look at the sky to see if he could understand.
+
+The Boy was planning so the night would be but brief. He knew the girl
+was afraid. He kept the talk going enthusiastically, drawing in one or
+two of the men now and again. Long Bill forgot himself and laughed out a
+hoarse guffaw, then stopped as if he had been choked. Stocky, red in the
+face, told a funny story when commanded by the Boy, and then dissolved
+in mortification over his blunders. The Fiddling Boss obediently got
+down his fiddle from the smoky corner beside the fireplace and played a
+weird old tune or two, and then they sang. First the men, with hoarse,
+quavering approach and final roar of wild sweetness; then Margaret and
+the Boy in duet, and finally Margaret alone, with a few bashful chords
+on the fiddle, feeling their way as accompaniment.
+
+Mom Wallis had long ago stopped her work and was sitting huddled in the
+doorway on a nail-keg with weary, folded hands and a strange wistfulness
+on her apathetic face. A fine silence had settled over the group as the
+girl, recognizing her power, and the pleasure she was giving, sang on.
+Now and then the Boy, when he knew the song, would join in with his rich
+tenor.
+
+It was a strange night, and when she finally lay down to rest on a hard
+cot with a questionable-looking blanket for covering and Mom Wallis as
+her room-mate, Margaret Earle could not help wondering what her mother
+and father would think now if they could see her. Would they not,
+perhaps, almost prefer the water-tank and the lonely desert for her to
+her present surroundings?
+
+Nevertheless, she slept soundly after her terrible excitement, and woke
+with a start of wonder in the early morning, to hear the men outside
+splashing water and humming or whistling bits of the tunes she had sung
+to them the night before.
+
+Mom Wallis was standing over her, looking down with a hunger in her eyes
+at the bright waves of Margaret's hair and the soft, sleep-flushed
+cheeks.
+
+"You got dretful purty hair," said Mom Wallis, wistfully.
+
+Margaret looked up and smiled in acknowledgment of the compliment.
+
+"You wouldn't b'lieve it, but I was young an' purty oncet. Beats all how
+much it counts to be young--an' purty! But land! It don't last long.
+Make the most of it while you got it."
+
+Browning's immortal words came to Margaret's lips--
+
+    Grow old along with me,
+    The best is yet to be,
+    The last of life for which the first was made--
+
+but she checked them just in time and could only smile mutely. How could
+she speak such thoughts amid these intolerable surroundings? Then with
+sudden impulse she reached up to the astonished woman and, drawing her
+down, kissed her sallow cheek.
+
+"Oh!" said Mom Wallis, starting back and laying her bony hands upon the
+place where she had been kissed, as if it hurt her, while a dull red
+stole up from her neck over her cheeks and high forehead to the roots of
+her hay-colored hair. All at once she turned her back upon her visitor
+and the tears of the years streamed down her impassive face.
+
+"Don't mind me," she choked, after a minute. "I liked it real good, only
+it kind of give me a turn." Then, after a second: "It's time t' eat. You
+c'n wash outside after the men is done."
+
+That, thought Margaret, had been the scheme of this woman's whole
+life--"After the men is done!"
+
+So, after all, the night was passed in safety, and a wonderful dawning
+had come. The blue of the morning, so different from the blue of the
+night sky, was, nevertheless, just as unfathomable; the air seemed
+filled with straying star-beams, so sparkling was the clearness of the
+light.
+
+But now a mountain rose in the distance with heliotrope-and-purple
+bounds to stand across the vision and dispel the illusion of the night
+that the sky came down to the earth all around like a close-fitting
+dome. There were mountains on all sides, and a slender, dark line of
+mesquite set off the more delicate colorings of the plain.
+
+Into the morning they rode, Margaret and the Boy, before Pop Wallis was
+yet awake, while all the other men stood round and watched, eager,
+jealous for the handshake and the parting smile. They told her they
+hoped she would come again and sing for them, and each one had an
+awkward word of parting. Whatever Margaret Earle might do with her
+school, she had won seven loyal friends in the camp, and she rode away
+amid their admiring glances, which lingered, too, on the broad shoulders
+and wide sombrero of her escort riding by her side.
+
+"Wal, that's the end o' him, I 'spose," drawled Long Bill, with a deep
+sigh, as the riders passed into the valley out of their sight.
+
+"H'm!" said Jasper Kemp, hungrily. "I reck'n _he_ thinks it's jes' th'
+beginnin'!"
+
+"Maybe so! Maybe so!" said Big Jim, dreamily.
+
+The morning was full of wonder for the girl who had come straight from
+an Eastern city. The view from the top of the mesa, or the cool, dim
+entrance of a caņon where great ferns fringed and feathered its walls,
+and strange caves hollowed out in the rocks far above, made real the
+stories she had read of the cave-dwellers. It was a new world.
+
+The Boy was charming. She could not have picked out among her city
+acquaintances a man who would have done the honors of the desert more
+delightfully than he. She had thought him handsome in the starlight and
+in the lantern-light the night before, but now that the morning shone
+upon him she could not keep from looking at him. His fresh color, which
+no wind and weather could quite subdue, his gray-blue eyes with that
+mixture of thoughtfulness and reverence and daring, his crisp, brown
+curls glinting with gold in the sunlight--all made him good to look
+upon. There was something about the firm set of his lips and chin that
+made her feel a hidden strength about him.
+
+When they camped a little while for lunch he showed the thoughtfulness
+and care for her comfort that many an older man might not have had. Even
+his talk was a mixture of boyishness and experience and he seemed to
+know her thoughts before she had them fully spoken.
+
+"I do not understand it," she said, looking him frankly in the eyes at
+last. "How ever in the world did one like _you_ get landed among all
+those dreadful men! Of course, in their way, some of them are not so
+bad; but they are not like you, not in the least, and never could be."
+
+They were riding out upon the plain now in the full afternoon light, and
+a short time would bring them to her destination.
+
+A sad, set look came quickly into the Boy's eyes and his face grew
+almost hard.
+
+"It's an old story. I suppose you've heard it before," he said, and his
+voice tried to take on a careless note, but failed. "I didn't make good
+back there"--he waved his hand sharply toward the East--"so I came out
+here to begin again. But I guess I haven't made good here, either--not
+in the way I meant when I came."
+
+"You can't, you know," said Margaret. "Not here."
+
+"Why?" He looked at her earnestly, as if he felt the answer might help
+him.
+
+"Because you have to go back where you didn't make good and pick up the
+lost opportunities. You can't really make good till you do that _right
+where you left off_."
+
+"But suppose it's too late?"
+
+"It's never too late if we're in earnest and not too proud."
+
+There was a long silence then, while the Boy looked thoughtfully off at
+the mountains, and when he spoke again it was to call attention to the
+beauty of a silver cloud that floated lazily on the horizon. But
+Margaret Earle had seen the look in his gray eyes and was not deceived.
+
+A few minutes later they crossed another mesa and descended to the
+enterprising little town where the girl was to begin her winter's work.
+The very houses and streets seemed to rise briskly and hasten to meet
+them those last few minutes of their ride.
+
+Now that the experience was almost over, the girl realized that she had
+enjoyed it intensely, and that she dreaded inexpressibly that she must
+bid good-by to this friend of a few hours and face an unknown world. It
+had been a wonderful day, and now it was almost done. The two looked at
+each other and realized that their meeting had been an epoch in their
+lives that neither would soon forget--that neither wanted to forget.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Slower the horses walked, and slower. The voices of the Boy and girl
+were low when they spoke about the common things by the wayside. Once
+their eyes met, and they smiled with something both sad and glad in
+them.
+
+Margaret was watching the young man by her side and wondering at
+herself. He was different from any man whose life had come near to hers
+before. He was wild and worldly, she could see that, and unrestrained by
+many of the things that were vital principles with her, and yet she felt
+strangely drawn to him and wonderfully at home in his company. She could
+not understand herself nor him. It was as if his real soul had looked
+out of his eyes and spoken, untrammeled by the circumstances of birth or
+breeding or habit, and she knew him for a kindred spirit. And yet he was
+far from being one in whom she would have expected even to find a
+friend. Where was her confidence of yesterday? Why was it that she
+dreaded to have this strong young protector leave her to meet alone a
+world of strangers, whom yesterday at this time she would have gladly
+welcomed?
+
+Now, when his face grew thoughtful and sad, she saw the hard, bitter
+lines that were beginning to be graven about his lips, and her heart
+ached over what he had said about not making good. She wondered if there
+was anything else she could say to help him, but no words came to her,
+and the sad, set look about his lips warned her that perhaps she had
+said enough. He was not one who needed a long dissertation to bring a
+thought home to his consciousness.
+
+Gravely they rode to the station to see about Margaret's trunks and make
+inquiries for the school and the house where she had arranged to board.
+Then Margaret sent a telegram to her mother to say that she had arrived
+safely, and so, when all was done and there was no longer an excuse for
+lingering, the Boy realized that he must leave her.
+
+They stood alone for just a moment while the voluble landlady went to
+attend to something that was boiling over on the stove. It was an ugly
+little parlor that was to be her reception-room for the next year at
+least, with red-and-green ingrain carpet of ancient pattern, hideous
+chromos on the walls, and frantically common furniture setting up in its
+shining varnish to be pretentious; but the girl had not seen it yet. She
+was filled with a great homesickness that had not possessed her even
+when she said good-by to her dear ones at home. She suddenly realized
+that the people with whom she was to be thrown were of another world
+from hers, and this one friend whom she had found in the desert was
+leaving her.
+
+She tried to shake hands formally and tell him how grateful she was to
+him for rescuing her from the perils of the night, but somehow words
+seemed so inadequate, and tears kept crowding their way into her throat
+and eyes. Absurd it was, and he a stranger twenty hours before, and a
+man of other ways than hers, besides. Yet he was her friend and rescuer.
+
+She spoke her thanks as well as she could, and then looked up, a swift,
+timid glance, and found his eyes upon her earnestly and troubled.
+
+"Don't thank me," he said, huskily. "I guess it was the best thing I
+ever did, finding you. I sha'n't forget, even if you never let me see
+you again--and--I hope you will." His eyes searched hers wistfully.
+
+"Of course," she said. "Why not?"
+
+"I thank you," he said in quaint, courtly fashion, bending low over her
+hand. "I shall try to be worthy of the honor."
+
+And so saying, he left her and, mounting his horse, rode away into the
+lengthening shadows of the afternoon.
+
+She stood in the forlorn little room staring out of the window after her
+late companion, a sense of utter desolation upon her. For the moment all
+her brave hopes of the future had fled, and if she could have slipped
+unobserved out of the front door, down to the station, and boarded some
+waiting express to her home, she would gladly have done it then and
+there.
+
+Try as she would to summon her former reasons for coming to this wild,
+she could not think of one of them, and her eyes were very near to
+tears.
+
+But Margaret Earle was not given to tears, and as she felt them smart
+beneath her lids she turned in a panic to prevent them. She could not
+afford to cry now. Mrs. Tanner would be returning, and she must not find
+the "new schoolma'am" weeping.
+
+With a glance she swept the meager, pretentious room, and then,
+suddenly, became aware of other presences. In the doorway stood a man
+and a dog, both regarding her intently with open surprise, not unmixed
+with open appraisement and a marked degree of admiration.
+
+The man was of medium height, slight, with a putty complexion; cold,
+pale-blue eyes; pale, straw-colored hair, and a look of self-indulgence
+around his rather weak mouth. He was dressed in a city business suit of
+the latest cut, however, and looked as much out of place in that crude
+little house as did Margaret Earle herself in her simple gown of
+dark-blue crępe and her undeniable air of style and good taste.
+
+His eyes, as they regarded her, had in them a smile that the girl
+instinctively resented. Was it a shade too possessive and complacently
+sure for a stranger?
+
+The dog, a large collie, had great, liquid, brown eyes, menacing or
+loyal, as circumstances dictated, and regarded her with an air of brief
+indecision. She felt she was being weighed in the balance by both pairs
+of eyes. Of the two the girl preferred the dog.
+
+Perhaps the dog understood, for he came a pace nearer and waved his
+plumy tail tentatively. For the dog she felt a glow of friendliness at
+once, but for the man she suddenly, and most unreasonably, of course,
+conceived one of her violent and unexpected dislikes.
+
+Into this tableau bustled Mrs. Tanner. "Well, now, I didn't go to leave
+you by your lonesome all this time," she apologized, wiping her hands on
+her apron, "but them beans boiled clean over, and I hed to put 'em in a
+bigger kettle. You see, I put in more beans 'count o' you bein' here,
+an' I ain't uset to calca'latin' on two extry." She looked happily from
+the man to the girl and back again.
+
+"Mr. West, I 'spose, o' course, you interjuced yerself? Bein' a
+preacher, you don't hev to stan' on ceremony like the rest of mankind.
+You 'ain't? Well, let me hev the pleasure of interjucin' our new
+school-teacher, Miss Margaret Earle. I 'spect you two 'll be awful
+chummy right at the start, both bein' from the East that way, an' both
+hevin' ben to college."
+
+Margaret Earle acknowledged the bow with a cool little inclination of
+her head. She wondered why she didn't hate the garrulous woman who
+rattled on in this happy, take-it-for-granted way; but there was
+something so innocently pleased in her manner that she couldn't help
+putting all her wrath on the smiling man who came forward instantly with
+a low bow and a voice of fulsome flattery.
+
+"Indeed, Miss Earle, I assure you I am happily surprised. I am sure Mrs.
+Tanner's prophecy will come true and we shall be the best of friends.
+When they told me the new teacher was to board here I really hesitated.
+I have seen something of these Western teachers in my time, and scarcely
+thought I should find you congenial; but I can see at a glance that you
+are the exception to the rule."
+
+He presented a soft, unmanly white hand, and there was nothing to do but
+take it or seem rude to her hostess; but her manner was like icicles,
+and she was thankful she had not yet removed her gloves.
+
+If the reverend gentleman thought he was to enjoy a lingering hand-clasp
+he was mistaken, for the gloved finger-tips merely touched his hand and
+were withdrawn, and the girl turned to her hostess with a smile of
+finality as if he were dismissed. He did not seem disposed to take the
+hint and withdraw, however, until on a sudden the great dog came and
+stood between them with open-mouthed welcome and joyous greeting in the
+plumy, wagging tail. He pushed close to her and looked up into her face
+insistently, his hanging pink tongue and wide, smiling countenance
+proclaiming that he was satisfied with his investigation.
+
+Margaret looked down at him, and then stooped and put her arms about his
+neck. Something in his kindly dog expression made her feel suddenly as
+if she had a real friend.
+
+It seemed the man, however, did not like the situation. He kicked
+gingerly at the dog's hind legs, and said in a harsh voice:
+
+"Get out of the way, sir. You're annoying the lady. Get out, I say!"
+
+The dog, however, uttered a low growl and merely showed the whites of
+his menacing eyes at the man, turning his body slightly so that he stood
+across the lady's way protectingly, as if to keep the man from her.
+
+Margaret smiled at the dog and laid her hand on his head, as if to
+signify her acceptance of the friendship he had offered her, and he
+waved his plume once more and attended her from the room, neither of
+them giving further attention to the man.
+
+"Confound that dog!" said Rev. Frederick West, in a most unpreacher-like
+tone, as he walked to the window and looked out. Then to himself he
+mused: "A pretty girl. A _very pretty_ girl. I really think it'll be
+worth my while to stay a month at least."
+
+Up in her room the "very pretty girl" was unpacking her suit-case and
+struggling with the tears. Not since she was a wee little girl and went
+to school all alone for the first time had she felt so very forlorn, and
+it was the little bare bedroom that had done it. At least that had been
+the final straw that had made too great the burden of keeping down those
+threatening tears.
+
+It was only a bare, plain room with unfinished walls, rough woodwork, a
+cheap wooden bed, a bureau with a warped looking-glass, and on the floor
+was a braided rug of rags. A little wooden rocker, another small,
+straight wooden chair, a hanging wall-pocket decorated with purple
+roses, a hanging bookshelf composed of three thin boards strung together
+with maroon picture cord, a violently colored picture-card of "Moses in
+the Bulrushes" framed in straws and red worsted, and bright-blue paper
+shades at the windows. That was the room!
+
+How different from her room at home, simply and sweetly finished anew
+for her home-coming from college! It rose before her homesick vision
+now. Soft gray walls, rose-colored ceiling, blended by a wreath of
+exquisite wild roses, whose pattern was repeated in the border of the
+simple curtains and chair cushions, white-enamel furniture, pretty brass
+bed soft as down in its luxurious mattress, spotless and inviting
+always. She glanced at the humpy bed with its fringed gray spread and
+lumpy-looking pillows in dismay. She had not thought of little
+discomforts like that, yet how they loomed upon her weary vision now!
+
+The tiny wooden stand with its thick, white crockery seemed ill
+substitute for the dainty white bath-room at home. She had known she
+would not have her home luxuries, of course, but she had not realized
+until set down amid these barren surroundings what a difference they
+would make.
+
+Going to the window and looking out, she saw for the first tune the one
+luxury the little room possessed--a view! And such a view! Wide and
+wonderful and far it stretched, in colors unmatched by painter's brush,
+a purple mountain topped by rosy clouds in the distance. For the second
+time in Arizona her soul was lifted suddenly out of itself and its
+dismay by a vision of the things that God has made and the largeness of
+it all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+For some time she stood and gazed, marveling at the beauty and recalling
+some of the things her companion of the afternoon had said about his
+impressions of the place; then suddenly there loomed a dark speck in the
+near foreground of her meditation, and, looking down annoyed, she
+discovered the minister like a gnat between the eye and a grand
+spectacle, his face turned admiringly up to her window, his hand lifted
+in familiar greeting.
+
+Vexed at his familiarity, she turned quickly and jerked down the shade;
+then throwing herself on the bed, she had a good cry. Her nerves were
+terribly wrought up. Things seemed twisted in her mind, and she felt
+that she had reached the limit of her endurance. Here was she, Margaret
+Earle, newly elected teacher to the Ashland Ridge School, lying on her
+bed in tears, when she ought to be getting settled and planning her new
+life; when the situation demanded her best attention she was wrought up
+over a foolish little personal dislike. Why did she have to dislike a
+minister, anyway, and then take to a wild young fellow whose life thus
+far had been anything but satisfactory even to himself? Was it her
+perverse nature that caused her to remember the look in the eyes of the
+Boy who had rescued her from a night in the wilderness, and to feel
+there was far more manliness in his face than in the face of the man
+whose profession surely would lead one to suppose he was more worthy of
+her respect and interest? Well, she was tired. Perhaps things would
+assume their normal relation to one another in the morning. And so,
+after a few minutes, she bathed her face in the little, heavy,
+iron-stone wash-bowl, combed her hair, and freshened the collar and
+ruffles in her sleeves preparatory to going down for the evening meal.
+Then, with a swift thought, she searched through her suit-case for every
+available article wherewith to brighten that forlorn room.
+
+The dainty dressing-case of Dresden silk with rosy ribbons that her girl
+friends at home had given as a parting gift covered a generous portion
+of the pine bureau, and when she had spread it out and bestowed its
+silver-mounted brushes, combs, hand-glass, and pretty sachet, things
+seemed to brighten up a bit. She hung up a cobweb of a lace boudoir cap
+with its rose-colored ribbons over the bleary mirror, threw her kimono
+of flowered challis over the back of the rocker, arranged her soap and
+toothbrush, her own wash-rag and a towel brought from home on the
+wash-stand, and somehow felt better and more as if she belonged. Last
+she ranged her precious photographs of father and mother and the dear
+vine-covered church and manse across in front of the mirror. When her
+trunks came there would be other things, and she could bear it, perhaps,
+when she had this room buried deep in the home belongings. But this
+would have to do for to-night, for the trunk might not come till
+morning, and, anyhow, she was too weary to unpack.
+
+She ventured one more look out of her window, peering carefully at first
+to make sure her fellow-boarder was not still standing down below on the
+grass. A pang of compunction shot through her conscience. What would her
+dear father think of her feeling this way toward a minister, and before
+she knew the first thing about him, too? It was dreadful! She must shake
+it off. Of course he was a good man or he wouldn't be in the ministry,
+and she had doubtless mistaken mere friendliness for forwardness. She
+would forget it and try to go down and behave to him the way her father
+would want her to behave toward a fellow-minister.
+
+Cautiously she raised the shade again and looked out. The mountain was
+bathed in a wonderful ruby light fading into amethyst, and all the path
+between was many-colored like a pavement of jewels set in filigree.
+While she looked the picture changed, glowed, softened, and changed
+again, making her think of the chapter about the Holy City in
+Revelation.
+
+She started at last when some one knocked hesitatingly on the door, for
+the wonderful sunset light had made her forget for the moment where she
+was, and it seemed a desecration to have mere mortals step in and
+announce supper, although the odor of pork and cabbage had been
+proclaiming it dumbly for some time.
+
+She went to the door, and, opening it, found a dark figure standing in
+the hall. For a minute she half feared it was the minister, until a
+shy, reluctant backwardness in the whole stocky figure and the stirring
+of a large furry creature just behind him made her sure it was not.
+
+"Ma says you're to come to supper," said a gruff, untamed voice; and
+Margaret perceived that the person in the gathering gloom of the hall
+was a boy.
+
+"Oh!" said Margaret, with relief in her voice. "Thank you for coming to
+tell me. I meant to come down and not give that trouble, but I got to
+looking at the wonderful sunset. Have you been watching it?" She pointed
+across the room to the window. "Look! Isn't that a great color there on
+the tip of the mountain? I never saw anything like that at home. I
+suppose you're used to it, though."
+
+The boy came a step nearer the door and looked blankly, half
+wonderingly, across at the window, as if he expected to see some
+phenomenon. "Oh! _That!_" he exclaimed, carelessly. "Sure! We have them
+all the time."
+
+"But that wonderful silver light pouring down just in that one tiny
+spot!" exclaimed Margaret. "It makes the mountain seem alive and
+smiling!"
+
+The boy turned and looked at her curiously. "Gee!" said he, "I c'n show
+you plenty like that!" But he turned and looked at it a long, lingering
+minute again.
+
+"But we mustn't keep your mother waiting," said Margaret, remembering
+and turning reluctantly toward the door. "Is this your dog? Isn't he a
+beauty? He made me feel really as if he were glad to see me." She
+stooped and laid her hand on the dog's head and smiled brightly up at
+his master.
+
+The boy's face lit with a smile, and he turned a keen, appreciative look
+at the new teacher, for the first time genuinely interested in her.
+"Cap's a good old scout," he admitted.
+
+"So his name is Cap. Is that short for anything?"
+
+"Cap'n."
+
+"Captain. What a good name for him. He looks as if he were a captain,
+and he waves that tail grandly, almost as if it might be a badge of
+office. But who are you? You haven't told me your name yet. Are you Mrs.
+Tanner's son?"
+
+The boy nodded. "I'm just Bud Tanner."
+
+"Then you are one of my pupils, aren't you? We must shake hands on
+that." She put out her hand, but she was forced to go out after Bud's
+reluctant red fist, take it by force in a strange grasp, and do all the
+shaking; for Bud had never had that experience before in his life, and
+he emerged from it with a very red face and a feeling as if his right
+arm had been somehow lifted out of the same class with the rest of his
+body. It was rather awful, too, that it happened just in the open
+dining-room door, and that "preacher-boarder" watched the whole
+performance. Bud put on an extra-deep frown and shuffled away from the
+teacher, making a great show of putting Cap out of the dining-room,
+though he always sat behind his master's chair at meals, much to the
+discomfiture of the male boarder, who was slightly in awe of his
+dogship, not having been admitted into friendship as the lady had been.
+
+Mr. West stood back of his chair, awaiting the arrival of the new
+boarder, an expectant smile on his face, and rubbing his hands together
+with much the same effect as a wolf licking his lips in anticipation of
+a victim. In spite of her resolves to like the man, Margaret was again
+struck with aversion as she saw him standing there, and was intensely
+relieved when she found that the seat assigned to her was on the
+opposite side of the table from him, and beside Bud. West, however, did
+not seem to be pleased with the arrangement, and, stepping around the
+table, said to his landlady:
+
+"Did you mean me to sit over here?" and he placed a possessive hand on
+the back of the chair that was meant for Bud.
+
+"No, Mister West, you jest set where you ben settin'," responded Mrs.
+Tanner. She had thought the matter all out and decided that the minister
+could converse with the teacher to the better advantage of the whole
+table if he sat across from her. Mrs. Tanner was a born match-maker.
+This she felt was an opportunity not to be despised, even if it sometime
+robbed the Ridge School of a desirable teacher.
+
+But West did not immediately return to his place at the other side of
+the table. To Margaret's extreme annoyance he drew her chair and waited
+for her to sit down. The situation, however, was somewhat relieved of
+its intimacy by a sudden interference from Cap, who darted away from his
+frowning master and stepped up authoritatively to the minister's side
+with a low growl, as if to say:
+
+"Hands off that chair! That doesn't belong to you!"
+
+West suddenly released his hold on the chair without waiting to shove
+it up to the table, and precipitately retired to his own place. "That
+dog's a nuisance!" he said, testily, and was answered with a glare from
+Bud's dark eyes.
+
+Bud came to his seat with his eyes still set savagely on the minister,
+and Cap settled down protectingly behind Margaret's chair.
+
+Mrs. Tanner bustled in with the coffee-pot, and Mr. Tanner came last,
+having just finished his rather elaborate hair-comb at the kitchen glass
+with the kitchen comb, in full view of the assembled multitude. He was a
+little, thin, wiry, weather-beaten man, with skin like leather and
+sparse hair. Some of his teeth were missing, leaving deep hollows in his
+cheeks, and his kindly protruding chin was covered with scraggy gray
+whiskers, which stuck out ahead of him like a cow-catcher. He was in his
+shirt-sleeves and collarless, but looked neat and clean, and he greeted
+the new guest heartily before he sat down, and nodded to the minister:
+
+"Naow, Brother West, I reckon we're ready fer your part o' the
+performance. You'll please to say grace."
+
+Mr. West bowed his sleek, yellow head and muttered a formal blessing
+with an offhand manner, as if it were a mere ceremony. Bud stared
+contemptuously at him the while, and Cap uttered a low rumble as of a
+distant growl. Margaret felt a sudden desire to laugh, and tried to
+control herself, wondering what her father would feel about it all.
+
+The genial clatter of knives and forks broke the stiffness after the
+blessing. Mrs. Tanner bustled back and forth from the stove to the
+table, talking clamorously the while. Mr. Tanner joined in with his
+flat, nasal twang, responding, and the minister, with an air of utter
+contempt for them both, endeavored to set up a separate and altogether
+private conversation with Margaret across the narrow table; but Margaret
+innocently had begun a conversation with Bud about the school, and had
+to be addressed by name each time before Mr. West could get her
+attention. Bud, with a boy's keenness, noticed her aversion, and put
+aside his own backwardness, entering into the contest with remarkably
+voluble replies. The minister, if he would be in the talk at all, was
+forced to join in with theirs, and found himself worsted and
+contradicted by the boy at every turn.
+
+Strange to say, however, this state of things only served to make the
+man more eager to talk with the lady. She was not anxious for his
+attention. Ah! She was coy, and the acquaintance was to have the zest of
+being no lightly won friendship. All the better. He watched her as she
+talked, noted every charm of lash and lid and curving lip; stared so
+continually that she finally gave up looking his way at all, even when
+she was obliged to answer his questions.
+
+Thus, at last, the first meal in the new home was concluded, and
+Margaret, pleading excessive weariness, went to her room. She felt as if
+she could not endure another half-hour of contact with her present world
+until she had had some rest. If the world had been just Bud and the dog
+she could have stayed below stairs and found out a little more about the
+new life; but with that oily-mouthed minister continually butting in
+her soul was in a tumult.
+
+When she had prepared for rest she put out her light and drew up the
+shade. There before her spread the wide wonder of the heavens again,
+with the soft purple of the mountain under stars; and she was carried
+back to the experience of the night before with a vivid memory of her
+companion. Why, just _why_ couldn't she be as interested in the minister
+down there as in the wild young man? Well, she was too tired to-night to
+analyze it all, and she knelt beside her window in the starlight to
+pray. As she prayed her thoughts were on Lance Gardley once more, and
+she felt her heart go out in longing for him, that he might find a way
+to "make good," whatever his trouble had been.
+
+As she rose to retire she heard a step below, and, looking down, saw the
+minister stalking back and forth in the yard, his hands clasped behind,
+his head thrown back raptly. He could not see her in her dark room, but
+she pulled the shade down softly and fled to her hard little bed. Was
+that man going to obsess her vision everywhere, and must she try to like
+him just because he was a minister?
+
+So at last she fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+The next day was filled with unpacking and with writing letters home. By
+dint of being very busy Margaret managed to forget the minister, who
+seemed to obtrude himself at every possible turn of the day, and would
+have monopolized her if she had given him half a chance.
+
+The trunks, two delightful steamer ones, and a big packing-box with her
+books, arrived the next morning and caused great excitement in the
+household. Not since they moved into the new house had they seen so many
+things arrive. Bud helped carry them up-stairs, while Cap ran wildly
+back and forth, giving sharp barks, and the minister stood by the front
+door and gave ineffectual and unpractical advice to the man who had
+brought them. Margaret heard the man and Bud exchanging their opinion of
+West in low growls in the hall as they entered her door, and she
+couldn't help feeling that she agreed with them, though she might not
+have expressed her opinion in the same terms.
+
+The minister tapped at her door a little later and offered his services
+in opening her box and unstrapping her trunks; but she told him Bud had
+already performed that service for her, and thanked him with a finality
+that forbade him to linger. She half hoped he heard the vicious little
+click with which she locked the door after him, and then wondered if she
+were wicked to feel that way. But all such compunctions were presently
+forgotten in the work of making over her room.
+
+The trunks, after they were unpacked and repacked with the things she
+would not need at once, were disposed in front of the two windows with
+which the ugly little room was blessed. She covered them with two Bagdad
+rugs, relics of her college days, and piled several college pillows from
+the packing-box on each, which made the room instantly assume a homelike
+air. Then out of the box came other things. Framed pictures of home
+scenes, college friends and places, pennants, and flags from football,
+baseball, and basket-ball games she had attended; photographs; a few
+prints of rare paintings simply framed; a roll of rose-bordered white
+scrim like her curtains at home, wherewith she transformed the
+blue-shaded windows and the stiff little wooden rocker, and even made a
+valance and bed-cover over pink cambric for her bed. The bureau and
+wash-stand were given pink and white covers, and the ugly walls
+literally disappeared beneath pictures, pennants, banners, and symbols.
+
+When Bud came up to call her to dinner she flung the door open, and he
+paused in wide-eyed amazement over the transformation. His eyes kindled
+at a pair of golf-sticks, a hockey-stick, a tennis-racket, and a big
+basket-ball in the corner; and his whole look of surprise was so
+ridiculous that she had to laugh. He looked as if a miracle had been
+performed on the room, and actually stepped back into the hall to get
+his breath and be sure he was still in his father's house.
+
+"I want you to come in and see all my pictures and get acquainted with
+my friends when you have time," she said. "I wonder if you could make
+some more shelves for my books and help me unpack and set them up?"
+
+"Sure!" gasped Bud, heartily, albeit with awe. She hadn't asked the
+minister; she had asked _him_--_Bud!_ Just a boy! He looked around the
+room with anticipation. What wonder and delight he would have looking at
+all those things!
+
+Then Cap stepped into the middle of the room as if he belonged, mouth
+open, tongue lolling, smiling and panting a hearty approval, as he
+looked about at the strangeness for all the world as a human being might
+have done. It was plain he was pleased with the change.
+
+There was a proprietary air about Bud during dinner that was pleasant to
+Margaret and most annoying to West. It was plain that West looked on the
+boy as an upstart whom Miss Earle was using for the present to block his
+approach, and he was growing most impatient over the delay. He suggested
+that perhaps she would like his escort to see something of her
+surroundings that afternoon; but she smilingly told him that she would
+be very busy all the afternoon getting settled, and when he offered
+again to help her she cast a dazzling smile on Bud and said she didn't
+think she would need any more help, that Bud was going to do a few
+things for her, and that was all that was necessary.
+
+Bud straightened up and became two inches taller. He passed the bread,
+suggested two pieces of pie, and filled her glass of water as if she
+were his partner. Mr. Tanner beamed to see his son in high favor, but
+Mrs. Tanner looked a little troubled for the minister. She thought
+things weren't just progressing as fast as they ought to between him and
+the teacher.
+
+Bud, with Margaret's instructions, managed to make a very creditable
+bookcase out of the packing-box sawed in half, the pieces set side by
+side. She covered them deftly with green burlap left over from college
+days, like her other supplies, and then the two arranged the books. Bud
+was delighted over the prospect of reading some of the books, for they
+were not all school-books, by any means, and she had brought plenty of
+them to keep her from being lonesome on days when she longed to fly back
+to her home.
+
+At last the work was done, and they stood back to survey it. The books
+filled up every speck of space and overflowed to the three little
+hanging shelves over them; but they were all squeezed in at last except
+a pile of school-books that were saved out to take to the school-house.
+Margaret set a tiny vase on the top of one part of the packing-case and
+a small brass bowl on the top of the other, and Bud, after a knowing
+glance, scurried away for a few minutes and brought back a handful of
+gorgeous cactus blossoms to give the final touch.
+
+"Gee!" he said, admiringly, looking around the room. "Gee! You wouldn't
+know it fer the same place!"
+
+That evening after supper Margaret sat down to write a long letter home.
+She had written a brief letter, of course, the night before, but had
+been too weary to go into detail. The letter read:
+
+     DEAR MOTHER AND FATHER,--I'm unpacked and settled at last in my
+     room, and now I can't stand it another minute till I talk to you.
+
+     Last night, of course, I was pretty homesick, things all looked so
+     strange and new and different. I had known they would, but then I
+     didn't realize at all how different they would be. But I'm not
+     getting homesick already; don't think it. I'm not a bit sorry I
+     came, or at least I sha'n't be when I get started in school. One of
+     the scholars is Mrs. Tanner's son, and I like him. He's crude, of
+     course, but he has a brain, and he's been helping me this
+     afternoon. We made a bookcase for my books, and it looks fine. I
+     wish you could see it. I covered it with the green burlap, and the
+     books look real happy in smiling rows over on the other side of the
+     room. Bud Tanner got me some wonderful cactus blossoms for my brass
+     bowl. I wish I could send you some. They are gorgeous!
+
+     But you will want me to tell about my arrival. Well, to begin with,
+     I was late getting here [Margaret had decided to leave out the
+     incident of the desert altogether, for she knew by experience that
+     her mother would suffer terrors all during her absence if she once
+     heard of that wild adventure], which accounts for the lateness of
+     the telegram I sent you. I hope its delay didn't make you worry
+     any.
+
+     A very nice young man named Mr. Gardley piloted me to Mrs. Tanner's
+     house and looked after my trunks for me. He is from the East. It
+     was fortunate for me that he happened along, for he was most kind
+     and gentlemanly and helpful. Tell Jane not to worry lest I'll fall
+     in love with him; he doesn't live here. He belongs to a ranch or
+     camp or something twenty-five miles away. She was so afraid I'd
+     fall in love with an Arizona man and not come back home.
+
+     Mrs. Tanner is very kind and motherly according to her lights. She
+     has given me the best room in the house, and she talks a blue
+     streak. She has thin, brown hair turning gray, and she wears it in
+     a funny little knob on the tip-top of her round head to correspond
+     with the funny little tuft of hair on her husband's protruding
+     chin. Her head is set on her neck like a clothes-pin, only she is
+     squattier than a clothes-pin. She always wears her sleeves rolled
+     up (at least so far she has) and she always bustles around noisily
+     and apologizes for everything in the jolliest sort of way. I would
+     like her, I guess, if it wasn't for the other boarder; but she has
+     quite made up her mind that I shall like him, and I don't, of
+     course, so she is a bit disappointed in me so far.
+
+     Mr. Tanner is very kind and funny, and looks something like a
+     jack-knife with the blades half-open. He never disagrees with Mrs.
+     Tanner, and I really believe he's in love with her yet, though they
+     must have been married a good while. He calls her "Ma," and seems
+     restless unless she's in the room. When she goes out to the kitchen
+     to get some more soup or hash or bring in the pie, he shouts
+     remarks at her all the time she's gone, and she answers, utterly
+     regardless of the conversation the rest of the family are carrying
+     on. It's like a phonograph wound up for the day.
+
+     Bud Tanner is about fourteen, and I like him. He's well developed,
+     strong, and almost handsome; at least he would be if he were fixed
+     up a little. He has fine, dark eyes and a great shock of dark hair.
+     He and I are friends already. And so is the dog. The dog is a
+     peach! Excuse me, mother, but I just must use a little of the dear
+     old college slang somewhere, and your letters are the only
+     safety-valve, for I'm a schoolmarm now and must talk "good and
+     proper" all the time, you know.
+
+     The dog's name is Captain, and he looks the part. He has
+     constituted himself my bodyguard, and it's going to be very nice
+     having him. He's perfectly devoted already. He's a great, big,
+     fluffy fellow with keen, intelligent eyes, sensitive ears, and a
+     tail like a spreading plume. You'd love him, I know. He has a smile
+     like the morning sunshine.
+
+     And now I come to the only other member of the family, the boarder,
+     and I hesitate to approach the topic, because I have taken one of
+     my violent and naughty dislikes to him, and--awful thought--mother!
+     father! _he's a minister!_ Yes, he's a _Presbyterian minister_! I
+     know it will make you feel dreadfully, and I thought some of not
+     telling you, but my conscience hurt me so I had to. I just can't
+     _bear_ him, so there! Of course, I may get over it, but I don't see
+     how ever, for I can't think of anything that's more like him than
+     _soft soap_! Oh yes, there is one other word. Grandmother used to
+     use it about men she hadn't any use for, and that was "squash."
+     Mother, I can't help it, but he does seem something like a squash.
+     One of that crook-necked, yellow kind with warts all over it, and a
+     great, big, splurgy vine behind it to account for its being there
+     at all. Insipid and thready when it's cooked, you know, and has to
+     have a lot of salt and pepper and butter to make it go down at all.
+     Now I've told you the worst, and I'll try to describe him and see
+     what you think I'd better do about it. Oh, he isn't the regular
+     minister here, or missionary--I guess they call him. He's located
+     quite a distance off, and only comes once a month to preach here,
+     and, anyhow, _he's_ gone East now to take his wife to a hospital
+     for an operation, and won't be back for a couple of months,
+     perhaps, and this man isn't even taking his place. He's just here
+     for his health or for fun or something, I guess. He says he had a
+     large suburban church near New York, and had a nervous breakdown;
+     but I've been wondering if he didn't make a mistake, and it wasn't
+     the church had the nervous breakdown instead. He isn't very big nor
+     very little; he's just insignificant. His hair is like wet straw,
+     and his eyes like a fish's. His hand feels like a dead toad when
+     you have to shake hands, which I'm thankful doesn't have to be done
+     but once. He looks at you with a flat, sickening grin. He has an
+     acquired double chin, acquired to make him look pompous, and he
+     dresses stylishly and speaks of the inhabitants of this country
+     with contempt. He wants to be very affable, and offers to take me
+     to all sorts of places, but so far I've avoided him. I can't think
+     how they ever came to let him be a minister--I really can't! And
+     yet, I suppose it's all my horrid old prejudice, and father will be
+     grieved and you will think I am perverse. But, really, I'm sure
+     he's not one bit like father was when he was young. I never saw a
+     minister like him. Perhaps I'll get over it. I do sometimes, you
+     know, so don't begin to worry yet. I'll try real hard. I suppose
+     he'll preach Sunday, and then, perhaps, his sermon will be grand
+     and I'll forget how soft-soapy he looks and think only of his great
+     thoughts.
+
+     But I know it will be a sort of comfort to you to know that there
+     is a Presbyterian minister in the house with me, and I'll really
+     try to like him if I can.
+
+     There's nothing to complain of in the board. It isn't luxurious, of
+     course, but I didn't expect that. Everything is very plain, but
+     Mrs. Tanner manages to make it taste good. She makes fine
+     corn-bread, almost as good as yours--not quite.
+
+     My room is all lovely, now that I have covered its bareness with my
+     own things, but it has one great thing that can't compare with
+     anything at home, and that is its view. It is wonderful! I wish I
+     could make you see it. There is a mountain at the end of it that
+     has as many different garments as a queen. To-night, when sunset
+     came, it grew filmy as if a gauze of many colors had dropped upon
+     it and melted into it, and glowed and melted until it turned to
+     slate blue under the wide, starred blue of the wonderful night sky,
+     and all the dark about was velvet. Last night my mountain was all
+     pink and silver, and I have seen it purple and rose. But you can't
+     think the wideness of the sky, and I couldn't paint it for you with
+     words. You must see it to understand. A great, wide, dark sapphire
+     floor just simply ravished with stars like big jewels!
+
+     But I must stop and go to bed, for I find the air of this country
+     makes me very sleepy, and my wicked little kerosene-lamp is
+     smoking. I guess you would better send me my student-lamp, after
+     all, for I'm surely going to need it.
+
+     Now I must turn out the light and say good night to my mountain,
+     and then I will go to sleep thinking of you. Don't worry about the
+     minister. I'm very polite to him, but I shall never--_no,
+     never_--fall in love with _him_--tell Jane.
+
+                                                Your loving little girl,
+                                                     MARGARET.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Margaret had arranged with Bud to take her to the school-house the next
+morning, and he had promised to have a horse hitched up and ready at ten
+o'clock, as it seemed the school was a magnificent distance from her
+boarding-place. In fact, everything seemed to be located with a view to
+being as far from everywhere else as possible. Even the town was
+scattering and widespread and sparse.
+
+When she came down to breakfast she was disappointed to find that Bud
+was not there, and she was obliged to suffer a breakfast tęte-ā-tęte
+with West. By dint, however, of asking him questions instead of allowing
+him to take the initiative, she hurried through her breakfast quite
+successfully, acquiring a superficial knowledge of her fellow-boarder
+quite distant and satisfactory. She knew where he spent his college days
+and at what theological seminary he had prepared for the ministry. He
+had served three years in a prosperous church of a fat little suburb of
+New York, and was taking a winter off from his severe, strenuous
+pastoral labors to recuperate his strength, get a new stock of sermons
+ready, and possibly to write a book of some of his experiences. He
+flattened his weak, pink chin learnedly as he said this, and tried to
+look at her impressively. He said that he should probably take a large
+city church as his next pastorate when his health was fully recuperated.
+He had come out to study the West and enjoy its freedom, as he
+understood it was a good place to rest and do as you please unhampered
+by what people thought. He wanted to get as far away from churches and
+things clerical as possible. He felt it was due himself and his work
+that he should. He spoke of the people he had met in Arizona as a kind
+of tamed savages, and Mrs. Tanner, sitting behind her coffee-pot for a
+moment between bustles, heard his comments meekly and looked at him with
+awe. What a great man he must be, and how fortunate for the new teacher
+that he should be there when she came!
+
+Margaret drew a breath of relief as she hurried away from the
+breakfast-table to her room. She was really anticipating the ride to the
+school with Bud. She liked boys, and Bud had taken her fancy. But when
+she came down-stairs with her hat and sweater on she found West standing
+out in front, holding the horse.
+
+"Bud had to go in another direction, Miss Earle," he said, touching his
+hat gracefully, "and he has delegated to me the pleasant task of driving
+you to the school."
+
+Dismay filled Margaret's soul, and rage with young Bud. He had deserted
+her and left her in the hands of the enemy! And she had thought he
+understood! Well, there was nothing for it but to go with this man, much
+as she disliked it. Her father's daughter could not be rude to a
+minister.
+
+She climbed into the buckboard quickly to get the ceremony over, for her
+escort was inclined to be too officious about helping her in, and
+somehow she couldn't bear to have him touch her. Why was it that she
+felt so about him? Of course he must be a good man.
+
+West made a serious mistake at the very outset of that ride. He took it
+for granted that all girls like flattery, and he proceeded to try it on
+Margaret. But Margaret did not enjoy being told how delighted he was to
+find that instead of the loud, bold "old maid" he had expected, she had
+turned out to be "so beautiful and young and altogether congenial"; and,
+coolly ignoring his compliments, she began a fire of questions again.
+
+She asked about the country, because that was the most obvious topic of
+conversation. What plants were those that grew by the wayside? She found
+he knew greasewood from sage-brush, and that was about all. To some of
+her questions he hazarded answers that were absurd in the light of the
+explanations given her by Gardley two days before. However, she
+reflected that he had been in the country but a short time, and that he
+was by nature a man not interested in such topics. She tried religious
+matters, thinking that here at least they must have common interests.
+She asked him what he thought of Christianity in the West as compared
+with the East. Did he find these Western people more alive and awake to
+the things of the Kingdom?
+
+West gave a startled look at the clear profile of the young woman beside
+him, thought he perceived that she was testing him on his clerical side,
+flattened his chin in his most learned, self-conscious manner, cleared
+his throat, and put on wisdom.
+
+"Well, now, Miss Earle," he began, condescendingly, "I really don't know
+that I have thought much about the matter. Ah--you know I have been
+resting absolutely, and I really haven't had opportunity to study the
+situation out here in detail; but, on the whole, I should say that
+everything was decidedly primitive; yes--ah--I might say--ah--well,
+crude. Yes, _crude_ in the extreme! Why, take it in this mission
+district. The missionary who is in charge seems to be teaching the most
+absurd of the old dogmas such as our forefathers used to teach. I
+haven't met him, of course. He is in the East with his wife for a time.
+I am told she had to go under some kind of an operation. I have never
+met him, and really don't care to do so; but to judge from all I hear,
+he is a most unfit man for a position of the kind. For example, he is
+teaching such exploded doctrines as the old view of the atonement, the
+infallibility of the Scriptures, the deity of Christ, belief in
+miracles, and the like. Of course, in one sense it really matters very
+little what the poor Indians believe, or what such people as the Tanners
+are taught. They have but little mind, and would scarcely know the
+difference; but you can readily see that with such a primitive,
+unenlightened man at the head of religious affairs, there could scarcely
+be much broadening and real religious growth. Ignorance, of course,
+holds sway out here. I fancy you will find that to be the case soon
+enough. What in the world ever led you to come to a field like this to
+labor? Surely there must have been many more congenial places open to
+such as you." He leaned forward and cast a sentimental glance at her,
+his eyes looking more "fishy" than ever.
+
+"I came out here because I wanted to get acquainted with this great
+country, and because I thought there was an opportunity to do good,"
+said Margaret, coldly. She did not care to discuss her own affairs with
+this man. "But, Mr. West, I don't know that I altogether understand you.
+Didn't you tell me that you were a Presbyterian minister?"
+
+"I certainly did," he answered, complacently, as though he were honoring
+the whole great body of Presbyterians by making the statement.
+
+"Well, then, what in the world did you mean? All Presbyterians, of
+course, believe in the infallibility of the Scriptures and the deity of
+Jesus--and the atonement!"
+
+"Not necessarily," answered the young man, loftily. "You will find, my
+dear young lady, that there is a wide, growing feeling in our church in
+favor of a broader view. The younger men, and the great student body of
+our church, have thrown to the winds all their former beliefs and are
+ready to accept new light with open minds. The findings of science have
+opened up a vast store of knowledge, and all thinking men must
+acknowledge that the old dogmas are rapidly vanishing away. Your father
+doubtless still holds to the old faith, perhaps, and we must be lenient
+with the older men who have done the best they could with the light they
+had; but all younger, broad-minded men are coming to the new way of
+looking at things. We have had enough of the days of preaching hell-fire
+and damnation. We need a religion of love to man, and good works. You
+should read some of the books that have been written on this subject if
+you care to understand. I really think it would be worth your while. You
+look to me like a young woman with a mind. I have a few of the latest
+with me. I shall be glad to read and discuss them with you if you are
+interested."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. West," said Margaret, coolly, though her eyes burned
+with battle. "I think I have probably read most of those books and
+discussed them with my father. He may be old, but he is not without
+'light,' as you call it, and he always believed in knowing all that the
+other side was saying. He brought me up to look into these things for
+myself. And, anyhow, I should not care to read and discuss any of these
+subjects with a man who denies the deity of my Saviour and does not
+believe in the infallibility of the Bible. It seems to me you have
+nothing left--"
+
+"Ah! Well--now--my dear young lady--you mustn't misjudge me! I should be
+sorry indeed to shake your faith, for an innocent faith is, of course, a
+most beautiful thing, even though it may be unfounded."
+
+"Indeed, Mr. West, that would not be possible. You could not shake my
+faith in my Christ, because _I know Him_. If I had not ever felt His
+presence, nor been guided by His leading, such words might possibly
+trouble me, but having seen 'Him that is invisible,' _I know_."
+Margaret's voice was steady and gentle. It was impossible for even that
+man not to be impressed by her words.
+
+"Well, let us not quarrel about it," he said, indulgently, as to a
+little child. "I'm sure you have a very charming way of stating it, and
+I'm not sure that it is not a relief to find a woman of the
+old-fashioned type now and then. It really is man's place to look into
+these deeper questions, anyway. It is woman's sphere to live and love
+and make a happy home--"
+
+His voice took on a sentimental purr, and Margaret was fairly boiling
+with rage at him; but she would not let her temper give way, especially
+when she was talking on the sacred theme of the Christ. She felt as if
+she must scream or jump out over the wheel and run away from this
+obnoxious man, but she knew she would do neither. She knew she would sit
+calmly through the expedition and somehow control that conversation.
+There was one relief, anyway. Her father would no longer expect respect
+and honor and liking toward a minister who denied the very life and
+foundation of his faith.
+
+"It can't be possible that the school-house is so far from the town,"
+she said, suddenly looking around at the widening desert in front of
+them. "Haven't you made some mistake?"
+
+"Why, I thought we should have the pleasure of a little drive first,"
+said West, with a cunning smile. "I was sure you would enjoy seeing the
+country before you get down to work, and I was not averse myself to a
+drive in such delightful company."
+
+"I would like to go back to the school-house at once, please," said
+Margaret, decidedly, and there was that in her voice that caused the man
+to turn the horse around and head it toward the village.
+
+"Why, yes, of course, if you prefer to see the school-house first, we
+can go back and look it over, and then, perhaps, you will like to ride a
+little farther," he said. "We have plenty of time. In fact, Mrs. Tanner
+told me she would not expect us home to dinner, and she put a very
+promising-looking basket of lunch under the seat for us in case we got
+hungry before we came back."
+
+"Thank you," said Margaret, quite freezingly now. "I really do not care
+to drive this morning. I would like to see the school-house, and then I
+must return to the house at once. I have a great many things to do this
+morning."
+
+Her manner at last penetrated even the thick skin of the self-centered
+man, and he realized that he had gone a step too far in his attentions.
+He set himself to undo the mischief, hoping perhaps to melt her yet to
+take the all-day drive with him. But she sat silent during the return to
+the village, answering his volubility only by yes or no when absolutely
+necessary. She let him babble away about college life and tell incidents
+of his late pastorate, at some of which he laughed immoderately; but he
+could not even bring a smile to her dignified lips.
+
+He hoped she would change her mind when they got to the school building,
+and he even stooped to praise it in a kind of contemptuous way as they
+drew up in front of the large adobe building.
+
+"I suppose you will want to go through the building," he said, affably,
+producing the key from his pocket and putting on a pleasant anticipatory
+smile, but Margaret shook her head. She simply would not go into the
+building with that man.
+
+"It is not necessary," she said again, coldly. "I think I will go home
+now, please." And he was forced to turn the horse toward the Tanner
+house, crestfallen, and wonder why this beautiful girl was so extremely
+hard to win. He flattered himself that he had always been able to
+interest any girl he chose. It was really quite a bewildering type. But
+he would win her yet.
+
+He set her down silently at the Tanner door and drove off, lunch-basket
+and all, into the wilderness, vexed that she was so stubbornly
+unfriendly, and pondering how he might break down the dignity wherewith
+she had surrounded herself. There would be a way and he would find it.
+There was a stubbornness about that weak chin of his, when one observed
+it, and an ugliness in his pale-blue eye; or perhaps you would call it a
+hardness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+She watched him furtively from her bedroom window, whither she had fled
+from Mrs. Tanner's exclamations. He wore his stylish derby tilted down
+over his left eye and slightly to one side in a most unministerial
+manner, showing too much of his straw-colored back hair, which rose in a
+cowlick at the point of contact with the hat, and he looked a small,
+mean creature as he drove off into the vast beauty of the plain.
+Margaret, in her indignation, could not help comparing him with the
+young man who had ridden away from the house two days before.
+
+And he to set up to be a minister of Christ's gospel and talk like that
+about the Bible and Christ! Oh, what was the church of Christ coming to,
+to have ministers like that? How ever did he get into the ministry,
+anyway? Of course, she knew there were young men with honest doubts who
+sometimes slid through nowadays, but a mean little silly man like that?
+How ever did he get in? What a lot of ridiculous things he had said! He
+was one of those described in the Bible who "darken counsel with words."
+He was not worth noticing. And yet, what a lot of harm he could do in an
+unlearned community. Just see how Mrs. Tanner hung upon his words, as
+though they were law and gospel! How _could_ she?
+
+Margaret found herself trembling yet over the words he had spoken about
+Christ, the atonement, and the faith. They meant so much to her and to
+her mother and father. They were not mere empty words of tradition that
+she believed because she had been taught. She had lived her faith and
+proved it; and she could not help feeling it like a personal insult to
+have him speak so of her Saviour. She turned away and took her Bible to
+try and get a bit of calmness.
+
+She fluttered the leaves for something--she could not just tell
+what--and her eye caught some of the verses that her father had marked
+for her before she left home for college, in the days when he was
+troubled for her going forth into the world of unbelief.
+
+     As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
+     him: Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as
+     ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware
+     lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after
+     the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not
+     after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
+     bodily....
+
+How the verses crowded upon one another, standing out clearly from the
+pages as she turned them, marked with her father's own hand in clear ink
+underlinings. It almost seemed as if God had looked ahead to these times
+and set these words down just for the encouragement of his troubled
+servants who couldn't understand why faith was growing dim. God knew
+about it, had known it would be, all this doubt, and had put words here
+just for troubled hearts to be comforted thereby.
+
+     For I know whom I have believed [How her heart echoed to that
+     statement!], and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I
+     have committed unto him against that day.
+
+And on a little further:
+
+     Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal,
+     The Lord knoweth them that are his.
+
+There was a triumphant look to the words as she read them.
+
+Then over in Ephesians her eye caught a verse that just seemed to fit
+that poor blind minister:
+
+     Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of
+     God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness
+     of their heart.
+
+And yet he was set to guide the feet of the blind into the way of life!
+And he had looked on her as one of the ignorant. Poor fellow! He
+couldn't know the Christ who was her Saviour or he never would have
+spoken in that way about Him. What could such a man preach? What was
+there left to preach, but empty words, when one rejected all these
+doctrines? Would she have to listen to a man like that Sunday after
+Sunday? Did the scholars in her school, and their parents, and the young
+man out at the camp, and his rough, simple-hearted companions have to
+listen to preaching from that man, when they listened to any? Her heart
+grew sick within her, and she knelt beside her bed for a strengthening
+word with the Christ who since her little childhood had been a very
+real presence in her life.
+
+When she arose from her knees she heard the kitchen door slam
+down-stairs and the voice of Bud calling his mother. She went to her
+door and opened it, listening a moment, and then called the boy.
+
+There was a dead silence for an instant after her voice was heard, and
+then Bud appeared at the foot of the stairs, very frowning as to brow,
+and very surly as to tone:
+
+"What d'ye want?"
+
+It was plain that Bud was "sore."
+
+"Bud,"--Margaret's voice was sweet and a bit cool as she leaned over the
+railing and surveyed the boy; she hadn't yet got over her compulsory
+ride with that minister--"I wanted to ask you, please, next time you
+can't keep an appointment with me don't ask anybody else to take your
+place. I prefer to pick out my own companions. It was all right, of
+course, if you had to go somewhere else, but I could easily have gone
+alone or waited until another time. I'd rather not have you ask Mr. West
+to go anywhere with me again."
+
+Bud's face was a study. It cleared suddenly and his jaw dropped in
+surprise; his eyes fairly danced with dawning comprehension and
+pleasure, and then his brow drew down ominously.
+
+"I never ast him," he declared, vehemently. "He told me you wanted him
+to go, and fer me to get out of the way 'cause you didn't want to hurt
+my feelings. Didn't you say nothing to him about it at all this
+morning?"
+
+"No, indeed!" said Margaret, with flashing eyes.
+
+"Well, I just thought he was that kind of a guy. I told ma he was lying,
+but she said I didn't understand young ladies, and, of course, you
+didn't want me when there was a man, and especially a preacher, round.
+Some preacher he is! This 's the second time I've caught him lying. I
+think he's the limit. I just wish you'd see our missionary. If he was
+here he'd beat the dust out o' that poor stew. _He's_ some man, he is.
+He's a regular white man, _our missionary_! Just you wait till _he_ gets
+back."
+
+Margaret drew a breath of relief. Then the missionary was a real man,
+after all. Oh, for his return!
+
+"Well, I'm certainly very glad it wasn't your fault, Bud. I didn't feel
+very happy to be turned off that way," said the teacher, smiling down
+upon the rough head of the boy.
+
+"You bet it wasn't my fault!" said the boy, vigorously. "I was sore's a
+pup at you, after you'd made a date and all, to do like that; but I
+thought if you wanted to go with that guy it was up to you."
+
+"Well, I didn't and I don't. You'll please understand hereafter that I'd
+always rather have your company than his. How about going down to the
+school-house some time to-day? Have you time?"
+
+"Didn't you go yet?" The boy's face looked as if he had received a
+kingdom, and his voice had a ring of triumph.
+
+"We drove down there, but I didn't care to go in without you, so we came
+back."
+
+"Wanta go now?" The boy's face fairly shone.
+
+"I'd love to. I'll be ready in three minutes. Could we carry some books
+down?"
+
+"Sure! Oh--gee! That guy's got the buckboard. We'll have to walk.
+Doggone him!"
+
+"I shall enjoy a walk. I want to find out just how far it is, for I
+shall have to walk every day, you know."
+
+"No, you won't, neither, 'nless you wanta. I c'n always hitch up."
+
+"That'll be very nice sometimes, but I'm afraid I'd get spoiled if you
+babied me all the time that way. I'll be right down."
+
+They went out together into the sunshine and wideness of the morning,
+and it seemed a new day had been created since she got back from her
+ride with the minister. She looked at the sturdy, honest-eyed boy beside
+her, and was glad to have him for a companion.
+
+Just in front of the school-house Margaret paused. "Oh, I forgot! The
+key! Mr. West has the key in his pocket! We can't get in, can we?"
+
+"Aw, we don't need a key," said her escort. "Just you wait!" And he
+whisked around to the back of the building, and in about three minutes
+his shock head appeared at the window. He threw the sash open and
+dropped out a wooden box. "There!" he said, triumphantly, "you c'n climb
+up on that, cantcha? Here, I'll holdya steady. Take holta my hand."
+
+And so it was through the front window that the new teacher of the Ridge
+School first appeared on her future scene of action and surveyed her
+little kingdom.
+
+Bud threw open the shutters, letting the view of the plains and the
+sunshine into the big, dusty room, and showed her the new blackboard
+with great pride.
+
+"There's a whole box o' chalk up on the desk, too; 'ain't never been
+opened yet. Dad said that was your property. Want I should open it?"
+
+"Why, yes, you might, and then we'll try the blackboard, won't we?"
+
+Bud went to work gravely opening the chalk-box as if it were a small
+treasure-chest, and finally produced a long, smooth stick of chalk and
+handed it to her with shining eyes.
+
+"You try it first, Bud," said the teacher, seeing his eagerness; and the
+boy went forward awesomely, as if it were a sacred precinct and he
+unworthy to intrude.
+
+Shyly, awkwardly, with infinite painstaking, he wrote in a cramped hand,
+"William Budlong Tanner," and then, growing bolder, "Ashland, Arizona,"
+with a big flourish underneath.
+
+"Some class!" he said, standing back and regarding his handiwork with
+pride. "Say, I like the sound the chalk makes on it, don't you?"
+
+"Yes, I do," said Margaret, heartily, "so smooth and business-like,
+isn't it? You'll enjoy doing examples in algebra on it, won't you?"
+
+"Good night! Algebra! Me? No chance. I can't never get through the
+arithmetic. The last teacher said if he'd come back twenty years from
+now he'd still find me working compound interest."
+
+"Well, we'll prove to that man that he wasn't much of a judge of boys,"
+said Margaret, with a tilt of her chin and a glint of her teacher-mettle
+showing in her eyes. "If you're not in algebra before two months are
+over I'll miss my guess. We'll get at it right away and show him."
+
+Bud watched her, charmed. He was beginning to believe that almost
+anything she tried would come true.
+
+"Now, Bud, suppose we get to work. I'd like to get acquainted with my
+class a little before Monday. Isn't it Monday school opens? I thought
+so. Well, suppose you give me the names of the scholars and I'll write
+them down, and that will help me to remember them. Where will you begin?
+Here, suppose you sit down in the front seat and tell me who sits there
+and a little bit about him, and I'll write the name down; and then you
+move to the next seat and tell me about the next one, and so on. Will
+you?"
+
+"Sure!" said Bud, entering into the new game. "But it ain't a 'he' sits
+there. It's Susie Johnson. She's Bill Johnson's smallest girl. She has
+to sit front 'cause she giggles so much. She has yellow curls and she
+ducks her head down and snickers right out this way when anything funny
+happens in school." And Bud proceeded to duck and wriggle in perfect
+imitation of the small Susie.
+
+Margaret saw the boy's power of imitation was remarkable, and laughed
+heartily at his burlesque. Then she turned and wrote "Susie Johnson" on
+the board in beautiful script.
+
+Bud watched with admiration, saying softly under his breath; "Gee!
+that's great, that blackboard, ain't it?"
+
+Amelia Schwartz came next. She was long and lank, with the buttons off
+the back of her dress, and hands and feet too large for her garments.
+Margaret could not help but see her in the clever pantomime the boy
+carried on. Next was Rosa Rogers, daughter of a wealthy cattleman, the
+pink-cheeked, blue-eyed beauty of the school, with all the boys at her
+feet and a perfect knowledge of her power over them. Bud didn't, of
+course, state it that way, but Margaret gathered as much from his
+simpering smile and the coy way he looked out of the corner of his eyes
+as he described her.
+
+Down the long list of scholars he went, row after row, and when he came
+to the seats where the boys sat his tone changed. She could tell by the
+shading of his voice which boys were the ones to look out for.
+
+Jed Brower, it appeared, was a name to conjure with. He could ride any
+horse that ever stood on four legs, he could outshoot most of the boys
+in the neighborhood, and he never allowed any teacher to tell him what
+to do. He was Texas Brower's only boy, and always had his own way. His
+father was on the school board. Jed Brower was held in awe, even while
+his methods were despised, by some of the younger boys. He was big and
+powerful, and nobody dared fool with him. Bud did not exactly warn
+Margaret that she must keep on the right side of Jed Brower, but he
+conveyed that impression without words. Margaret understood. She knew
+also that Tad Brooks, Larry Parker, Jim Long, and Dake Foster were
+merely henchmen of the worthy Jed, and not negligible quantities when
+taken by themselves. But over the name of Timothy Forbes--"Delicate
+Forbes," Bud explained was his nickname--the boy lingered with that
+loving inflection of admiration that a younger boy will sometimes have
+for a husky, courageous older lad. The second time Bud spoke of him he
+called him "Forbeszy," and Margaret perceived that here was Bud's model
+of manhood. Delicate Forbes could outshoot and outride even Jed Brower
+when he chose, and his courage with cattle was that of a man. Moreover,
+he was good to the younger boys and wasn't above pitching baseball with
+them when he had nothing better afoot. It became evident from the
+general description that Delicate Forbes was not called so from any lack
+of inches to his stature. He had a record of having licked every man
+teacher in the school, and beaten by guile every woman teacher they had
+had in six years. Bud was loyal to his admiration, yet it could be
+plainly seen that he felt Margaret's greatest hindrance in the school
+would be Delicate Forbes.
+
+Margaret mentally underlined the names in her memory that belonged to
+the back seats in the first and second rows of desks, and went home
+praying that she might have wisdom and patience to deal with Jed Brower
+and Timothy Forbes, and through them to manage the rest of her school.
+
+She surprised Bud at the dinner-table by handing him a neat diagram of
+the school-room desks with the correct names of all but three or four of
+the scholars written on them. Such a feat of memory raised her several
+notches in his estimation.
+
+"Say, that's going some! Guess you won't forget nothing, no matter how
+much they try to make you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+The minister did not appear until late in the evening, after Margaret
+had gone to her room, for which she was sincerely thankful. She could
+hear his voice, fretful and complaining, as he called loudly for Bud to
+take the horse. It appeared he had lost his way and wandered many miles
+out of the trail. He blamed the country for having no better trails, and
+the horse for not being able to find his way better. Mr. Tanner had gone
+to bed, but Mrs. Tanner bustled about and tried to comfort him.
+
+"Now that's too bad! Dearie me! Bud oughta hev gone with you, so he
+ought. Bud! _Oh_, Bud, you 'ain't gonta sleep yet, hev you? Wake up and
+come down and take this horse to the barn."
+
+But Bud declined to descend. He shouted some sleepy directions from his
+loft where he slept, and said the minister could look after his own
+horse, he "wasn'ta gonta!" There was "plentya corn in the bin."
+
+The minister grumbled his way to the barn, highly incensed at Bud, and
+disturbed the calm of the evening view of Margaret's mountain by his
+complaints when he returned. He wasn't accustomed to handling horses,
+and he thought Bud might have stayed up and attended to it himself. Bud
+chuckled in his loft and stole down the back kitchen roof while the
+minister ate his late supper. Bud would never leave the old horse to
+that amateur's tender mercies, but he didn't intend to make it easy for
+the amateur. Margaret, from her window-seat watching the night in the
+darkness, saw Bud slip off the kitchen roof and run to the barn, and she
+smiled to herself. She liked that boy. He was going to be a good
+comrade.
+
+The Sabbath morning dawned brilliantly, and to the homesick girl there
+suddenly came a sense of desolation on waking. A strange land was this,
+without church-bells or sense of Sabbath fitness. The mountain, it is
+true, greeted her with a holy light of gladness, but mountains are not
+dependent upon humankind for being in the spirit on the Lord's day. They
+are "continually praising Him." Margaret wondered how she was to get
+through this day, this dreary first Sabbath away from her home and her
+Sabbath-school class, and her dear old church with father preaching. She
+had been away, of course, a great many times before, but never to a
+churchless community. It was beginning to dawn upon her that that was
+what Ashland was--a churchless community. As she recalled the walk to
+the school and the ride through the village she had seen nothing that
+looked like a church, and all the talk had been of the missionary. They
+must have services of some sort, of course, and probably that flabby,
+fish-eyed man, her fellow-boarder, was to preach; but her heart turned
+sick at thought of listening to a man who had confessed to the
+unbeliefs that he had. Of course, he would likely know enough to keep
+such doubts to himself; but he had told her, and nothing he could say
+now would help or uplift her in the least.
+
+She drew a deep sigh and looked at her watch. It was late. At home the
+early Sabbath-school bells would be ringing, and little girls in white,
+with bunches of late fall flowers for their teachers, and holding hands
+with their little brothers, would be hurrying down the street. Father
+was in his study, going over his morning sermon, and mother putting her
+little pearl pin in her collar, getting ready to go to her Bible class.
+Margaret decided it was time to get up and stop thinking of it all.
+
+She put on a little white dress that she wore to church at home and
+hurried down to discover what the family plans were for the day, but
+found, to her dismay, that the atmosphere below-stairs was just like
+that of other days. Mr. Tanner sat tilted back in a dining-room chair,
+reading the weekly paper, Mrs. Tanner was bustling in with hot
+corn-bread, Bud was on the front-door steps teasing the dog, and the
+minister came in with an air of weariness upon him, as if he quite
+intended taking it out on his companions that he had experienced a
+trying time on Saturday. He did not look in the least like a man who
+expected to preach in a few minutes. He declined to eat his egg because
+it was cooked too hard, and poor Mrs. Tanner had to try it twice before
+she succeeded in producing a soft-boiled egg to suit him. Only the
+radiant outline of the great mountain, which Margaret could see over the
+minister's head, looked peaceful and Sabbath-like.
+
+"What time do you have service?" Margaret asked, as she rose from the
+table.
+
+"Service?" It was Mr. Tanner who echoed her question as if he did not
+quite know what she meant.
+
+Mrs. Tanner raised her eyes from her belated breakfast with a worried
+look, like a hen stretching her neck about to see what she ought to do
+next for the comfort of the chickens under her care. It was apparent
+that she had no comprehension of what the question meant. It was the
+minister who answered, condescendingly:
+
+"Um! Ah! There is no church edifice here, you know, Miss Earle. The
+mission station is located some miles distant."
+
+"I know," said Margaret, "but they surely have some religious service?"
+
+"I really don't know," said the minister, loftily, as if it were
+something wholly beneath his notice.
+
+"Then you are not going to preach this morning?" In spite of herself
+there was relief in her tone.
+
+"Most certainly not," he replied, stiffly. "I came out here to rest, and
+I selected this place largely because it was so far from a church. I
+wanted to be where I should not be annoyed by requests to preach. Of
+course, ministers from the East would be a curiosity in these Western
+towns, and I should really get no rest at all if I had gone where my
+services would have been in constant demand. When I came out here I was
+in much the condition of our friend the minister of whom you have
+doubtless heard. He was starting on his vacation, and he said to a
+brother minister, with a smile of joy and relief, 'No preaching, no
+praying, no reading of the Bible for six whole weeks!'"
+
+"Indeed!" said Margaret, freezingly. "No, I am not familiar with
+ministers of that sort." She turned with dismissal in her manner and
+appealed to Mrs. Tanner. "Then you really have no Sabbath service of any
+sort whatever in town?" There was something almost tragic in her face.
+She stood aghast at the prospect before her.
+
+Mrs. Tanner's neck stretched up a little longer, and her lips dropped
+apart in her attempt to understand the situation. One would scarcely
+have been surprised to hear her say, "Cut-cut-cut-ca-daw-cut?" so
+fluttered did she seem.
+
+Then up spoke Bud. "We gotta Sunday-school, ma!" There was pride of
+possession in Bud's tone, and a kind of triumph over the minister,
+albeit Bud had adjured Sunday-school since his early infancy. He was
+ready now, however, to be offered on the altar of Sunday-school, even,
+if that would please the new teacher--and spite the minister. "I'll take
+you ef you wanta go." He looked defiantly at the minister as he said it.
+
+But at last Mrs. Tanner seemed to grasp what was the matter.
+"Why!--why!--why! You mean preaching service!" she clucked out. "Why,
+yes, Mr. West, wouldn't that be fine? You could preach for us. We could
+have it posted up at the saloon and the crossings, and out a ways on
+both trails, and you'd have quite a crowd. They'd come from over to the
+camp, and up the caņon way, and roundabouts. They'd do you credit, they
+surely would, Mr. West. And you could have the school-house for a
+meeting-house. Pa, there, is one of the school board. There wouldn't be
+a bit of trouble--"
+
+"Um! Ah! Mrs. Tanner, I assure you it's quite out of the question. I
+told you I was here for absolute rest. I couldn't think of preaching.
+Besides, it's against my principles to preach without remuneration. It's
+a wrong idea. The workman is worthy of his hire, you know, Mrs. Tanner,
+the Good Book says." Mr. West's tone took on a self-righteous
+inflection.
+
+"Oh! Ef that's all, that 'u'd be all right!" she said, with relief. "You
+could take up a collection. The boys would be real generous. They always
+are when any show comes along. They'd appreciate it, you know, and I'd
+like fer Miss Earle here to hear you preach. It 'u'd be a real treat to
+her, her being a preacher's daughter and all." She turned to Margaret
+for support, but that young woman was talking to Bud. She had promptly
+closed with his offer to take her to Sunday-school, and now she hurried
+away to get ready, leaving Mrs. Tanner to make her clerical arrangements
+without aid.
+
+The minister, meantime, looked after her doubtfully. Perhaps, after all,
+it would have been a good move to have preached. He might have impressed
+that difficult young woman better that way than any other, seeing she
+posed as being so interested in religious matters. He turned to Mrs.
+Tanner and began to ask questions about the feasibility of a church
+service. The word "collection" sounded good to him. He was not averse to
+replenishing his somewhat depleted treasury if it could be done so
+easily as that.
+
+Meantime Margaret, up in her room, was wondering again how such a man as
+Mr. West ever got into the Christian ministry.
+
+West was still endeavoring to impress the Tanners with the importance of
+his late charge in the East as Margaret came down-stairs. His pompous
+tones, raised to favor the deafness that he took for granted in Mr.
+Tanner, easily reached her ears.
+
+"I couldn't, of course, think of doing it every Sunday, you understand.
+It wouldn't be fair to myself nor my work which I have just left; but,
+of course, if there were sufficient inducement I might consent to preach
+some Sunday before I leave."
+
+Mrs. Tanner's little satisfied cluck was quite audible as the girl
+closed the front door and went out to the waiting Bud.
+
+The Sunday-school was a desolate affair, presided over by an elderly and
+very illiterate man, who nursed his elbows and rubbed his chin
+meditatively between the slow questions which he read out of the
+lesson-leaf. The woman who usually taught the children was called away
+to nurse a sick neighbor, and the children were huddled together in a
+restless group. The singing was poor, and the whole of the exercises
+dreary, including the prayer. The few women present sat and stared in a
+kind of awe at the visitor, half belligerently, as if she were an
+intruder. Bud lingered outside the door and finally disappeared
+altogether, reappearing when the last hymn was sung. Altogether the new
+teacher felt exceedingly homesick as she wended her way back to the
+Tanners' beside Bud.
+
+"What do you do with yourself on Sunday afternoons, Bud?" she asked, as
+soon as they were out of hearing of the rest of the group.
+
+The boy turned wondering eyes toward her. "Do?" he repeated, puzzled.
+"Why, we pass the time away, like 'most any day. There ain't much
+difference."
+
+A great desolation possessed her. No church! Worse than no minister! No
+Sabbath! What kind of a land was this to which she had come?
+
+The boy beside her smelled of tobacco smoke. He had been off somewhere
+smoking while she was in the dreary little Sunday-school. She looked at
+his careless boy-face furtively as they walked along. He smoked, of
+course, like most boys of his age, probably, and he did a lot of other
+things he ought not to do. He had no interest in God or righteousness,
+and he did not take it for granted that the Sabbath was different from
+any other day. A sudden heart-sinking came upon her. What was the use of
+trying to do anything for such as he? Why not give it up now and go back
+where there was more promising material to work upon and where she would
+be welcome indeed? Of course, she had known things would be
+discouraging, but somehow it had seemed different from a distance. It
+all looked utterly hopeless now, and herself crazy to have thought she
+could do any good in a place like this.
+
+And yet the place needed somebody! That pitiful little Sunday-school!
+How forlorn it all was! She was almost sorry she had gone. It gave her
+an unhappy feeling for the morrow, which was to be her first day of
+school.
+
+Then, all suddenly, just as they were nearing the Tanner house, there
+came one riding down the street with all the glory of the radiant
+morning in his face, and a light in his eyes at seeing her that lifted
+away her desolation, for here at last was a friend!
+
+She wondered at herself. An unknown stranger, and a self-confessed
+failure so far in his young life, and yet he seemed so good a sight to
+her amid these uncongenial surroundings!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+This stranger of royal bearing, riding a rough Western pony as if it
+were decked with golden trappings, with his bright hair gleaming like
+Roman gold in the sun, and his blue-gray eyes looking into hers with the
+gladness of his youth; this one who had come to her out of the
+night-shadows of the wilderness and led her into safety! Yes, she was
+glad to see him.
+
+He dismounted and greeted her, his wide hat in his hand, his eyes upon
+her face, and Bud stepped back, watching them in pleased surprise. This
+was the man who had shot all the lights out the night of the big riot in
+the saloon. He had also risked his life in a number of foolish ways at
+recent festal carouses. Bud would not have been a boy had he not admired
+the young man beyond measure; and his boy worship of the teacher yielded
+her to a fitting rival. He stepped behind and walked beside the pony,
+who was following his master meekly, as though he, too, were under the
+young man's charm.
+
+"Oh, and this is my friend, William Tanner," spoke Margaret, turning
+toward the boy loyally, (Whatever good angel made her call him William?
+Bud's soul swelled with new dignity as he blushed and acknowledged the
+introduction by a grin.)
+
+"Glad to know you, Will," said the new-comer, extending his hand in a
+hearty shake that warmed the boy's heart in a trice. "I'm glad Miss
+Earle has so good a protector. You'll have to look out for her. She's
+pretty plucky and is apt to stray around the wilderness by herself. It
+isn't safe, you know, boy, for such as her. Look after her, will you?"
+
+"Right I will," said Bud, accepting the commission as if it were
+Heaven-sent, and thereafter walked behind the two with his head in the
+clouds. He felt that he understood this great hero of the plains and was
+one with him at heart. There could be no higher honor than to be the
+servitor of this man's lady. Bud did not stop to question how the new
+teacher became acquainted with the young rider of the plains. It was
+enough that both were young and handsome and seemed to belong together.
+He felt they were fitting friends.
+
+The little procession walked down the road slowly, glad to prolong the
+way. The young man had brought her handkerchief, a filmy trifle of an
+excuse that she had dropped behind her chair at the bunk-house, where it
+had lain unnoticed till she was gone. He produced it from his inner
+pocket, as though it had been too precious to carry anywhere but over
+his heart, yet there was in his manner nothing presuming, not a hint of
+any intimacy other than their chance acquaintance of the wilderness
+would warrant. He did not look at her with any such look as West had
+given every time he spoke to her. She felt no desire to resent his
+glance when it rested upon her almost worshipfully, for there was
+respect and utmost humility in his look.
+
+The men had sent gifts: some arrow-heads and a curiously fashioned
+vessel from the caņon of the cave-dwellers; some chips from the
+petrified forest; a fern with wonderful fronds, root and all; and a
+sheaf of strange, beautiful blossoms carefully wrapped in wet paper, and
+all fastened to the saddle.
+
+Margaret's face kindled with interest as he showed them to her one by
+one, and told her the history of each and a little message from the man
+who had sent it. Mom Wallis, too, had baked a queer little cake and sent
+it. The young man's face was tender as he spoke of it. The girl saw that
+he knew what her coming had meant to Mom Wallis. Her memory went quickly
+back to those few words the morning she had wakened in the bunk-house
+and found the withered old woman watching her with tears in her eyes.
+Poor Mom Wallis, with her pretty girlhood all behind her and such a
+blank, dull future ahead! Poor, tired, ill-used, worn-out Mom Wallis!
+Margaret's heart went out to her.
+
+"They want to know," said the young man, half hesitatingly, "if some
+time, when you get settled and have time, you would come to them again
+and sing? I tried to make them understand, of course, that you would be
+busy, your time taken with other friends and your work, and you would
+not want to come; but they wanted me to tell you they never enjoyed
+anything so much in years as your singing. Why, I heard Long Jim singing
+'Old Folks at Home' this morning when he was saddling his horse. And
+it's made a difference. The men sort of want to straighten up the
+bunk-room. Jasper made a new chair yesterday. He said it would do when
+you came again." Gardley laughed diffidently, as if he knew their hopes
+were all in vain.
+
+But Margaret looked up with sympathy in her face, "I'll come! Of course
+I'll come some time," she said, eagerly. "I'll come as soon as I can
+arrange it. You tell them we'll have more than one concert yet."
+
+The young man's face lit up with a quick appreciation, and the flash of
+his eyes as he looked at her would have told any onlooker that he felt
+here was a girl in a thousand, a girl with an angel spirit, if ever such
+a one walked the earth.
+
+Now it happened that Rev. Frederick West was walking impatiently up and
+down in front of the Tanner residence, looking down the road about that
+time. He had spent the morning in looking over the small bundle of "show
+sermons" he had brought with him in case of emergency, and had about
+decided to accede to Mrs. Tanner's request and preach in Ashland before
+he left. This decision had put him in so self-satisfied a mood that he
+was eager to announce it before his fellow-boarder. Moreover, he was
+hungry, and he could not understand why that impudent boy and that
+coquettish young woman should remain away at Sunday-school such an
+interminable time.
+
+Mrs. Tanner was frying chicken. He could smell it every time he took a
+turn toward the house. It really was ridiculous that they should keep
+dinner waiting this way. He took one more turn and began to think over
+the sermon he had decided to preach. He was just recalling a
+particularly eloquent passage when he happened to look down the road
+once more, and there they were, almost upon him! But Bud was no longer
+walking with the maiden. She had acquired a new escort, a man of broad
+shoulders and fine height. Where had he seen that fellow before? He
+watched them as they came up, his small, pale eyes narrowing under their
+yellow lashes with a glint of slyness, like some mean little animal that
+meant to take advantage of its prey. It was wonderful how many different
+things that man could look like for a person as insignificant as he
+really was!
+
+Well, he saw the look between the man and maiden; the look of sympathy
+and admiration and a fine kind of trust that is not founded on mere
+outward show, but has found some hidden fineness of the soul. Not that
+the reverend gentleman understood that, however. He had no fineness of
+soul himself. His mind had been too thoroughly taken up with himself all
+his life for him to have cultivated any.
+
+Simultaneous with the look came his recognition of the man or, at least,
+of where he had last seen him, and his little soul rejoiced at the
+advantage he instantly recognized.
+
+He drew himself up importantly, flattened his chin upward until his
+lower lip protruded in a pink roll across his mouth, drew down his
+yellow brows in a frown of displeasure, and came forward mentor-like to
+meet the little party as it neared the house. He had the air of coming
+to investigate and possibly oust the stranger, and he looked at him
+keenly, critically, offensively, as if he had the right to protect the
+lady. They might have been a pair of naughty children come back from a
+forbidden frolic, from the way he surveyed them. But the beauty of it
+was that neither of them saw him, being occupied with each other, until
+they were fairly upon him. Then, there he stood offensively, as if he
+were a great power to be reckoned with.
+
+"Well, well, well, Miss Margaret, you have got home at last!" he said,
+pompously and condescendingly, and then he looked into the eyes of her
+companion as if demanding an explanation of _his_ presence there.
+
+Margaret drew herself up haughtily. His use of her Christian name in
+that familiar tone annoyed her exceedingly. Her eyes flashed
+indignantly, but the whole of it was lost unless Bud saw it, for Gardley
+had faced his would-be adversary with a keen, surprised scrutiny, and
+was looking him over coolly. There was that in the young man's eye that
+made the eye of Frederick West quail before him. It was only an instant
+the two stood challenging each other, but in that short time each knew
+and marked the other for an enemy. Only a brief instant and then Gardley
+turned to Margaret, and before she had time to think what to say, he
+asked:
+
+"Is this man a friend of yours, Miss _Earle_?" with marked emphasis on
+the last word.
+
+"No," said Margaret, coolly, "not a friend--a boarder in the house."
+Then most formally, "Mr. West, my _friend_ Mr. Gardley."
+
+If the minister had not been possessed of the skin of a rhinoceros he
+would have understood himself to be dismissed at that; but he was not a
+man accustomed to accepting dismissal, as his recent church in New York
+State might have testified. He stood his ground, his chin flatter than
+ever, his little eyes mere slits of condemnation. He did not acknowledge
+the introduction by so much as the inclination of his head. His hands
+were clasped behind his back, and his whole attitude was one of
+righteous belligerence.
+
+Gardley gazed steadily at him for a moment, a look of mingled contempt
+and amusement gradually growing upon his face. Then he turned away as if
+the man were too small to notice.
+
+"You will come in and take dinner with me?" asked Margaret, eagerly. "I
+want to send a small package to Mrs. Wallis if you will be so good as to
+take it with you."
+
+"I'm sorry I can't stay to dinner, but I have an errand in another
+direction and at some distance. I am returning this way, however, and,
+if I may, will call and get the package toward evening."
+
+Margaret's eyes spoke her welcome, and with a few formal words the young
+man sprang on his horse, said, "So long, Will!" to Bud, and, ignoring
+the minister, rode away.
+
+They watched him for an instant, for, indeed, he was a goodly sight upon
+a horse, riding as if he and the horse were utterly one in spirit; then
+Margaret turned quickly to go into the house.
+
+"Um! Ah! Miss Margaret!" began the minister, with a commandatory gesture
+for her to stop.
+
+Margaret was the picture of haughtiness as she turned and said, "Miss
+_Earle_, if you please!"
+
+"Um! Ah! Why, certainly, Miss--ah--_Earle_, if you wish it. Will you
+kindly remain here for a moment? I wish to speak with you. Bud, you may
+go on."
+
+"I'll go when I like, and it's none of your business!" muttered Bud,
+ominously, under his breath. He looked at Margaret to see if she wished
+him to go. He had an idea that this might be one of the times when he
+was to look after her.
+
+She smiled at him understandingly. "William may remain, Mr. West," she
+said, sweetly. "Anything you have to say to me can surely be said in his
+presence," and she laid her hand lightly on Bud's sleeve.
+
+Bud looked down at the hand proudly and grew inches taller enjoying the
+minister's frown.
+
+"Um! Ah!" said West, unabashed. "Well, I merely wished to warn you
+concerning the character of that person who has just left us. He is
+really not a proper companion for you. Indeed, I may say he is quite the
+contrary, and that to my personal knowledge--"
+
+"He's as good as you are and better!" growled Bud, ominously.
+
+"Be quiet, boy! I wasn't speaking to you!" said West, as if he were
+addressing a slave. "If I hear another word from your lips I shall
+report it to your father!"
+
+"Go 's far 's you like and see how much I care!" taunted Bud, but was
+stopped by Margaret's gentle pressure on his arm.
+
+"Mr. West, I thought I made you understand that Mr. Gardley is my
+friend."
+
+"Um! Ah! Miss Earle, then all I have to say is that you have formed a
+most unwise friendship, and should let it proceed no further. Why, my
+dear young lady, if you knew all there is to know about him you would
+not think of speaking to that young man."
+
+"Indeed! Mr. West, I suppose that might be true of a good many people,
+might it not, _if we knew all there is to know about them_? Nobody but
+God could very well get along with some of us."
+
+"But, my dear young lady, you don't understand. This young person is
+nothing but a common ruffian, a gambler, in fact, and an habitué at the
+saloons. I have seen him myself sitting in a saloon at a very late hour
+playing with a vile, dirty pack of cards, and in the company of a lot of
+low-down creatures--"
+
+"May I ask how you came to be in a saloon at that hour, Mr. West?" There
+was a gleam of mischief in the girl's eyes, and her mouth looked as if
+she were going to laugh, but she controlled it.
+
+The minister turned very red indeed. "Well, I--ah--I had been called
+from my bed by shouts and the report of a pistol. There was a fight
+going on in the room adjoining the bar, and I didn't know but my
+assistance might be needed!" (At this juncture Bud uttered a sort of
+snort and, placing his hands over his heart, ducked down as if a sudden
+pain had seized him.) "But imagine my pain and astonishment when I was
+informed that the drunken brawl I was witnessing was but a nightly and
+common occurrence. I may say I remained for a few minutes, partly out of
+curiosity, as I wished to see all kinds of life in this new world for
+the sake of a book I am thinking of writing. I therefore took careful
+note of the persons present, and was thus able to identify the person
+who has just ridden away as one of the chief factors in that evening's
+entertainment. He was, in fact, the man who, when he had pocketed all
+the money on the gaming-table, arose and, taking out his pistol, shot
+out the lights in the room, a most dangerous and irregular proceeding--"
+
+"Yes, and you came within an ace of being shot, pa says. The Kid's a
+dead shot, he is, and you were right in the way. Served you right for
+going where you had no business!"
+
+"I did not remain longer in that place, as you may imagine," went on West,
+ignoring Bud, "for I found it was no place for a--for--a--ah--minister
+of the gospel; but I remained long enough to hear from the lips of this
+person with whom you have just been walking some of the most terrible
+language my ears have ever been permitted to--ah--witness!"
+
+But Margaret had heard all that she intended to listen to on that
+subject. With decided tone she interrupted the voluble speaker, who was
+evidently enjoying his own eloquence.
+
+"Mr. West, I think you have said all that it is necessary to say. There
+are still some things about Mr. Gardley that you evidently do not know,
+but I think you are in a fair way to learn them if you stay in this part
+of the country long. William, isn't that your mother calling us to
+dinner? Let us go in; I'm hungry."
+
+Bud followed her up the walk with a triumphant wink at the discomfited
+minister, and they disappeared into the house; but when Margaret went
+up to her room and took off her hat in front of the little warped
+looking-glass there were angry tears in her eyes. She never felt more
+like crying in her life. Chagrin and anger and disappointment were all
+struggling in her soul, yet she must not cry, for dinner would be ready
+and she must go down. Never should that mean little meddling man see
+that his words had pierced her soul.
+
+For, angry as she was at the minister, much as she loathed his petty,
+jealous nature and saw through his tale-bearing, something yet told her
+that his picture of young Gardley's wildness was probably true, and her
+soul sank within her at the thought. It was just what had come in
+shadowy, instinctive fear to her heart when he had hinted at his being a
+"roughneck," yet to have it put baldly into words by an enemy hurt her
+deeply, and she looked at herself in the glass half frightened.
+"Margaret Earle, have you come out to the wilderness to lose your heart
+to the first handsome sower of wild oats that you meet?" her true eyes
+asked her face in the glass, and Margaret Earle's heart turned sad at
+the question and shrank back. Then she dropped upon her knees beside her
+gay little rocking-chair and buried her face in its flowered cushions
+and cried to her Father in heaven:
+
+"Oh, my Father, let me not be weak, but with all my heart I cry to Thee
+to save this young, strong, courageous life and not let it be a failure.
+Help him to find Thee and serve Thee, and if his life has been all
+wrong--and I suppose it has--oh, make it right for Jesus' sake! If there
+is anything that I can do to help, show me how, and don't let me make
+mistakes. Oh, Jesus, Thy power is great. Let this young man feel it and
+yield himself to it."
+
+She remained silently praying for a moment more, putting her whole soul
+into the prayer and knowing that she had been called thus to pray for
+him until her prayer was answered.
+
+She came down to dinner a few minutes later with a calm, serene face, on
+which was no hint of her recent emotion, and she managed to keep the
+table conversation wholly in her own hands, telling Mr. Tanner about her
+home town and her father and mother. When the meal was finished the
+minister had no excuse to think that the new teacher was careless about
+her friends and associates, and he was well informed about the high
+principles of her family.
+
+But West had retired into a sulky mood and uttered not a word except to
+ask for more chicken and coffee and a second helping of pie. It was,
+perhaps, during that dinner that he decided it would be best for him to
+preach in Ashland on the following Sunday. The young lady could be
+properly impressed with his dignity in no other way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+When Lance Gardley came back to the Tanners' the sun was preparing the
+glory of its evening setting, and the mountain was robed in all its
+rosiest veils.
+
+Margaret was waiting for him, with the dog Captain beside her, wandering
+back and forth in the unfenced dooryard and watching her mountain. It
+was a relief to her to find that the minister occupied a room on the
+first floor in a kind of ell on the opposite side of the house from her
+own room and her mountain. He had not been visible that afternoon, and
+with Captain by her side and Bud on the front-door step reading _The Sky
+Pilot_ she felt comparatively safe. She had read to Bud for an hour and
+a half, and he was thoroughly interested in the story; but she was sure
+he would keep the minister away at all costs. As for Captain, he and the
+minister were sworn enemies by this time. He growled every time West
+came near or spoke to her.
+
+She made a picture standing with her hand on Captain's shaggy, noble
+head, the lace of her sleeve falling back from the white arm, her other
+hand raised to shade her face as she looked away to the glorified
+mountain, a slim, white figure looking wistfully off at the sunset. The
+young man took off his hat and rode his horse more softly, as if in the
+presence of the holy.
+
+The dog lifted one ear, and a tremor passed through his frame as the
+rider drew near; otherwise he did not stir from his position; but it was
+enough. The girl turned, on the alert at once, and met him with a smile,
+and the young man looked at her as if an angel had deigned to smile upon
+him. There was a humility in his fine face that sat well with the
+courage written there, and smoothed away all hardness for the time, so
+that the girl, looking at him in the light of the revelations of the
+morning, could hardly believe it had been true, yet an inner fineness of
+perception taught her that it was.
+
+The young man dismounted and left his horse standing quietly by the
+roadside. He would not stay, he said, yet lingered by her side, talking
+for a few minutes, watching the sunset and pointing out its changes.
+
+She gave him the little package for Mom Wallis. There was a simple lace
+collar in a little white box, and a tiny leather-bound book done in
+russet sučde with gold lettering.
+
+"Tell her to wear the collar and think of me whenever she dresses up."
+
+"I'm afraid that'll never be, then," said the young man, with a pitying
+smile. "Mom Wallis never dresses up."
+
+"Tell her I said she must dress up evenings for supper, and I'll make
+her another one to change with that and bring it when I come."
+
+He smiled upon her again, that wondering, almost worshipful smile, as if
+he wondered if she were real, after all, so different did she seem from
+his idea of girls.
+
+"And the little book," she went on, apologetically; "I suppose it was
+foolish to send it, but something she said made me think of some of the
+lines in the poem. I've marked them for her. She reads, doesn't she?"
+
+"A little, I think. I see her now and then read the papers that Pop
+brings home with him. I don't fancy her literary range is very wide,
+however."
+
+"Of course, I suppose it is ridiculous! And maybe she'll not understand
+any of it; but tell her I sent her a message. She must see if she can
+find it in the poem. Perhaps you can explain it to her. It's Browning's
+'Rabbi Ben Ezra.' You know it, don't you?"
+
+"I'm afraid not. I was intent on other things about the time when I was
+supposed to be giving my attention to Browning, or I wouldn't be what I
+am to-day, I suppose. But I'll do my best with what wits I have. What's
+it about? Couldn't you give me a pointer or two?"
+
+"It's the one beginning:
+
+    "Grow old along with me!
+    The best is yet to be,
+    The last of life, for which the first was made:
+    Our times are in His hand
+    Who saith, 'A whole I planned,
+    Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor
+    be afraid!'"
+
+He looked down at her still with that wondering smile. "Grow old along
+with you!" he said, gravely, and then sighed. "You don't look as if you
+ever would grow old."
+
+"That's it," she said, eagerly. "That's the whole idea. We don't ever
+grow old and get done with it all, we just go on to bigger things, wiser
+and better and more beautiful, till we come to understand and be a part
+of the whole great plan of God!"
+
+He did not attempt an answer, nor did he smile now, but just looked at
+her with that deeply quizzical, grave look as if his soul were turning
+over the matter seriously. She held her peace and waited, unable to find
+the right word to speak. Then he turned and looked off, an infinite
+regret growing in his face.
+
+"That makes living a different thing from the way most people take it,"
+he said, at last, and his tone showed that he was considering it deeply.
+
+"Does it?" she said, softly, and looked with him toward the sunset,
+still half seeing his quiet profile against the light. At last it came
+to her that she must speak. Half fearfully she began: "I've been
+thinking about what you said on the ride. You said you didn't make good.
+I--wish you would. I--I'm sure you could--"
+
+She looked up wistfully and saw the gentleness come into his face as if
+the fountain of his soul, long sealed, had broken up, and as if he saw a
+possibility before him for the first time through the words she had
+spoken.
+
+At last he turned to her with that wondering smile again. "Why should
+you care?" he asked. The words would have sounded harsh if his tone had
+not been so gentle.
+
+Margaret hesitated for an answer. "I don't know how to tell it," she
+said, slowly. "There's another verse, a few lines more in that poem,
+perhaps you know them?--
+
+    'All I never could be, All, men ignored in me,
+    This I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped.'
+
+I want it because--well, perhaps because I feel you are worth all that
+to God. I would like to see you be that."
+
+He looked down at her again, and was still so long that she felt she had
+failed miserably.
+
+"I hope you will excuse my speaking," she added. "I--It seems there are
+so many grand possibilities in life, and for you--I couldn't bear to
+have you say you hadn't made good, as if it were all over."
+
+"I'm glad you spoke," he said, quickly. "I guess perhaps I have been all
+kinds of a fool. You have made me feel how many kinds I have been."
+
+"Oh no!" she protested.
+
+"You don't know what I have been," he said, sadly, and then with sudden
+conviction, as if he read her thoughts: "You _do_ know! That prig of a
+parson has told you! Well, it's just as well you should know. It's
+right!"
+
+A wave of misery passed over his face and erased all its brightness and
+hope. Even the gentleness was gone. He looked haggard and drawn with
+hopelessness all in a moment.
+
+"Do you think it would matter to me--_anything_ that man would say?" she
+protested, all her woman's heart going out in pity.
+
+"But it was true, all he said, probably, and more--"
+
+"It doesn't matter," she said, eagerly. "The other is true, too. Just as
+the poem says, 'All that man ignores in you, just that you are worth to
+God!' And you _can_ be what He meant you to be. I have been praying all
+the afternoon that He would help you to be."
+
+"Have you?" he said, and his eyes lit up again as if the altar-fires of
+hope were burning once more. "Have you? I thank you."
+
+"You came to me when I was lost in the wilderness," she said, shyly. "I
+wanted to help _you_ back--if--I might."
+
+"You will help--you have!" he said, earnestly. "And I was far enough off
+the trail, too, but if there's any way to get back I'll get there." He
+grasped her hand and held it for a second. "Keep up that praying," he
+said. "I'll see what can be done."
+
+Margaret looked up. "Oh, I'm so glad, so glad!"
+
+He looked reverently into her eyes, all the manhood in him stirred to
+higher, better things. Then, suddenly, as they stood together, a sound
+smote their ears as from another world.
+
+"Um! Ah!--"
+
+The minister stood within the doorway, barred by Bud in scowling
+defiance, and guarded by Cap, who gave an answering growl.
+
+Gardley and Margaret looked at each other and smiled, then turned and
+walked slowly down to where the pony stood. They did not wish to talk
+here in that alien presence. Indeed, it seemed that more words were not
+needed--they would be a desecration.
+
+So he rode away into the sunset once more with just another look and a
+hand-clasp, and she turned, strangely happy at heart, to go back to her
+dull surroundings and her uncongenial company.
+
+"Come, William, let's have a praise service," she said, brightly,
+pausing at the doorway, but ignoring the scowling minister.
+
+"A praise service! What's a praise service?" asked the wondering Bud,
+shoving over to let her sit down beside him.
+
+She sat with her back to West, and Cap came and lay at her feet with the
+white of one eye on the minister and a growl ready to gleam between his
+teeth any minute. There was just no way for the minister to get out
+unless he jumped over them or went out the back door; but the people in
+the doorway had the advantage of not having to look at him, and he
+couldn't very well dominate the conversation standing so behind them.
+
+"Why, a praise service is a service of song and gladness, of course. You
+sing, don't you? Of course. Well, what shall we sing? Do you know this?"
+And she broke softly into song:
+
+    "When peace like a river attendeth my way;
+    When sorrows like sea-billows roll;
+    Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to say,
+    It is well, it is well with my soul."
+
+Bud did not know the song, but he did not intend to be balked with the
+minister standing right behind him, ready, no doubt, to jump in and take
+the precedence; so he growled away at a note in the bass, turning it
+over and over and trying to make it fit, like a dog gnawing at a bare
+bone; but he managed to keep time and make it sound a little like
+singing.
+
+The dusk was falling fast as they finished the last verse, Margaret
+singing the words clear and distinct, Bud growling unintelligibly and
+snatching at words he had never heard before. Once more Margaret sang:
+
+    "Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
+    The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide!
+    When other refuge fails and comforts flee,
+    Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me!"
+
+Out on the lonely trail wending his way toward the purple mountain--the
+silent way to the bunk-house at the camp--in that clear air where sound
+travels a long distance the traveler heard the song, and something
+thrilled his soul. A chord that never had been touched in him before was
+vibrating, and its echoes would be heard through all his life.
+
+On and on sang Margaret, just because she could not bear to stop and
+hear the commonplace talk which would be about her. Song after song
+thrilled through the night's wideness. The stars came out in thick
+clusters. Father Tanner had long ago dropped his weekly paper and tilted
+his chair back against the wall, with his eyes half closed to listen,
+and his wife had settled down comfortably on the carpet sofa, with her
+hands nicely folded in her lap, as if she were at church. The minister,
+after silently surveying the situation for a song or two, attempted to
+join his voice to the chorus. He had a voice like a cross-cut saw, but
+he didn't do much harm in the background that way, though Cap did growl
+now and then, as if it put his nerves on edge. And by and by Mr. Tanner
+quavered in with a note or two.
+
+Finally Margaret sang:
+
+    "Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear,
+    It is not night if Thou art near,
+    Oh, may no earth-born cloud arise
+    To hide Thee from Thy servant's eyes."
+
+During this hymn the minister had slipped out the back door and gone
+around to the front of the house. He could not stand being in the
+background any longer; but as the last note died away Margaret arose
+and, bidding Bud good night, slipped up to her room.
+
+There, presently, beside her darkened window, with her face toward the
+mountain, she knelt to pray for the wanderer who was trying to find his
+way out of the wilderness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Monday morning found Margaret at the school-house nerved for her new
+task.
+
+One by one the scholars trooped in, shyly or half defiantly, hung their
+hats on the hooks, put their dinner-pails on the shelf, looked furtively
+at her, and sank into their accustomed seats; that is, the seats they
+had occupied during the last term of school. The big boys remained
+outside until Bud, acting under instructions from Margaret--after she
+had been carefully taught the ways of the school by Bud himself--rang
+the big bell. Even then they entered reluctantly and as if it were a
+great condescension that they came at all, Jed and "Delicate" coming in
+last, with scarcely a casual glance toward the teacher's desk, as if she
+were a mere fraction in the scheme of the school. She did not need to be
+told which was Timothy and which was Jed. Bud's description had been
+perfect. Her heart, by the way, instantly went out to Timothy. Jed was
+another proposition. He had thick, overhanging eyebrows, and a mouth
+that loved to make trouble and laugh over it. He was going to be hard to
+conquer. She wasn't sure the conquering would be interesting, either.
+
+Margaret stood by the desk, watching them all with a pleasant smile. She
+did not frown at the unnecessary shuffling of feet nor the loud remarks
+of the boys as they settled into their seats. She just stood and watched
+them interestedly, as though her time had not yet come.
+
+Jed and Timothy were carrying on a rumbling conversation. Even after
+they took their seats they kept it up. It was no part of their plan to
+let the teacher suppose they saw her or minded her in the least. They
+were the dominating influences in that school, and they wanted her to
+know it, right at the start; then a lot of trouble would be saved. If
+they didn't like her and couldn't manage her they didn't intend she
+should stay, and she might as well understand that at once.
+
+Margaret understood it fully. Yet she stood quietly and watched them
+with a look of deep interest on her face and a light almost of mischief
+in her eyes, while Bud grew redder and redder over the way his two idols
+were treating the new teacher. One by one the school became aware of the
+twinkle in the teacher's eyes, and grew silent to watch, and one by one
+they began to smile over the coming scene when Jed and Timothy should
+discover it, and, worst of all, find out that it was actually directed
+against them. They would expect severity, or fear, or a desire to
+placate; but a twinkle--it was more than the school could decide what
+would happen under such circumstances. No one in that room would ever
+dare to laugh at either of those two boys. But the teacher was almost
+laughing now, and the twinkle had taken the rest of the room into the
+secret, while she waited amusedly until the two should finish the
+conversation.
+
+The room grew suddenly deathly still, except for the whispered growls of
+Jed and Timothy, and still the silence deepened, until the two young
+giants themselves perceived that it was time to look up and take account
+of stock.
+
+The perspiration by this time was rolling down the back of Bud's neck.
+He was about the only one in the room who was not on a broad grin, and
+he was wretched. What a fearful mistake the new teacher was making right
+at the start! She was antagonizing the two boys who held the whole
+school in their hands. There was no telling what they wouldn't do to her
+now. And he would have to stand up for her. Yes, no matter what they
+did, he would stand up for her! Even though he lost his best friends, he
+must be loyal to her; but the strain was terrible! He did not dare to
+look at them, but fastened his eyes upon Margaret, as if keeping them
+glued there was his only hope. Then suddenly he saw her face break into
+one of the sweetest, merriest smiles he ever witnessed, with not one
+single hint of reproach or offended dignity in it, just a smile of
+comradeship, understanding, and pleasure in the meeting; and it was
+directed to the two seats where Jed and Timothy sat.
+
+With wonder he turned toward the two big boys, and saw, to his
+amazement, an answering smile upon their faces; reluctant, 'tis true,
+half sheepish at first, but a smile with lifted eyebrows of astonishment
+and real enjoyment of the joke.
+
+A little ripple of approval went round in half-breathed syllables, but
+Margaret gave no time for any restlessness to start. She spoke at once,
+in her pleasantest partnership tone, such as she had used to Bud when
+she asked him to help her build her bookcase. So she spoke now to that
+school, and each one felt she was speaking just to him especially, and
+felt a leaping response in his soul. Here, at least, was something new
+and interesting, a new kind of teacher. They kept silence to listen.
+
+"Oh, I'm not going to make a speech now," she said, and her voice
+sounded glad to them all. "I'll wait till we know one another before I
+do that. I just want to say how do you do to you, and tell you how glad
+I am to be here. I hope we shall like one another immensely and have a
+great many good times together. But we've got to get acquainted first,
+of course, and perhaps we'd better give most of the time to that to-day.
+First, suppose we sing something. What shall it be? What do you sing?"
+
+Little Susan Johnson, by virtue of having seen the teacher at
+Sunday-school, made bold to raise her hand and suggest, "Thar-thpangle
+Banner, pleath!" And so they tried it; but when Margaret found that only
+a few seemed to know the words, she said, "Wait!" Lifting her arm with a
+pretty, imperative gesture, and taking a piece of chalk from the box on
+her desk, she went to the new blackboard that stretched its shining
+black length around the room.
+
+The school was breathlessly watching the graceful movement of the
+beautiful hand and arm over the smooth surface, leaving behind it the
+clear, perfect script. Such wonderful writing they had never seen; such
+perfect, easy curves and twirls. Every eye in the room was fastened on
+her, every breath was held as they watched and spelled out the words one
+by one. "Gee!" said Bud, softly, under his breath, nor knew that he had
+spoken, but no one else moved.
+
+"Now," she said, "let us sing," and when they started off again
+Margaret's strong, clear soprano leading, every voice in the room
+growled out the words and tried to get in step with the tune.
+
+They had gone thus through two verses when Jed seemed to think it was
+about time to start something. Things were going altogether too smoothly
+for an untried teacher, if she _was_ handsome and unabashed. If they
+went on like this the scholars would lose all respect for him. So, being
+quite able to sing a clear tenor, he nevertheless puckered his lips
+impertinently, drew his brows in an ominous frown, and began to whistle
+a somewhat erratic accompaniment to the song. He watched the teacher
+closely, expecting to see the color flame in her cheeks, the anger flash
+in her eyes; he had tried this trick on other teachers and it always
+worked. He gave the wink to Timothy, and he too left off his glorious
+bass and began to whistle.
+
+But instead of the anger and annoyance they expected, Margaret turned
+appreciative eyes toward the two back seats, nodding her head a trifle
+and smiling with her eyes as she sang; and when the verse was done she
+held up her hand for silence and said:
+
+"Why, boys, that's beautiful! Let's try that verse once more, and you
+two whistle the accompaniment a little stronger in the chorus; or how
+would it do if you just came in on the chorus? I believe that would be
+more effective. Let's try the first verse that way; you boys sing during
+the verse and then whistle the chorus just as you did now. We really
+need your voices in the verse part, they are so strong and splendid.
+Let's try it now." And she started off again, the two big astonished
+fellows meekly doing as they were told, and really the effect was
+beautiful. What was their surprise when the whole song was finished to
+have her say, "Now everybody whistle the chorus softly," and then pucker
+up her own soft lips to join in. That completely finished the whistling
+stunt. Jed realized that it would never work again, not while she was
+here, for she had turned the joke into beauty and made them all enjoy
+it. It hadn't annoyed her in the least.
+
+Somehow by that time they were all ready for anything she had to
+suggest, and they watched again breathlessly as she wrote another song
+on the blackboard, taking the other side of the room for it, and this
+time a hymn--"I Need Thee Every Hour."
+
+When they began to sing it, however, Margaret found the tune went
+slowly, uncertainly.
+
+"Oh, how we need a piano!" she exclaimed. "I wonder if we can't get up
+an entertainment and raise money to buy one. How many will help?"
+
+Every hand in the place went up, Jed's and Timothy's last and only a
+little way, but she noted with triumph that they went up.
+
+"All right; we'll do it! Now let's sing that verse correctly." And she
+began to sing again, while they all joined anxiously in, really trying
+to do their best.
+
+The instant the last verse died away, Margaret's voice took their
+attention.
+
+"Two years ago in Boston two young men, who belonged to a little group
+of Christian workers who were going around from place to place holding
+meetings, sat talking together in their room in the hotel one evening."
+
+There was instant quiet, a kind of a breathless quiet. This was not like
+the beginning of any lesson any other teacher had ever given them. Every
+eye was fixed on her.
+
+"They had been talking over the work of the day, and finally one of them
+suggested that they choose a Bible verse for the whole year--"
+
+There was a movement of impatience from one back seat, as if Jed had
+scented an incipient sermon, but the teacher's voice went steadily on:
+
+"They talked it over, and at last they settled on II Timothy ii:15. They
+made up their minds to use it on every possible occasion. It was time to
+go to bed, so the man whose room adjoined got up and, instead of saying
+good night, he said, 'Well, II Timothy ii:15,' and went to his room.
+Pretty soon, when he put out his light, he knocked on the wall and
+shouted 'II Timothy ii:15,' and the other man responded, heartily, 'All
+right, II Timothy ii:15.' The next morning when they wrote their letters
+each of them wrote 'II Timothy ii:15' on the lower left-hand corner of
+the envelope, and sent out a great handful of letters to all parts of
+the world. Those letters passed through the Boston post-office, and some
+of the clerks who sorted them saw that queer legend written down in the
+lower left-hand corner of the envelope, and they wondered at it, and one
+or two wrote it down, to look it up afterward. The letters reached
+other cities and were put into the hands of mail-carriers to distribute,
+and they saw the queer little sentence, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and they
+wondered, and some of them looked it up."
+
+By this time the entire attention of the school was upon the story, for
+they perceived that it was a story.
+
+"The men left Boston and went across the ocean to hold meetings in other
+cities, and one day at a little railway station in Europe a group of
+people were gathered, waiting for a train, and those two men were among
+them. Pretty soon the train came, and one of the men got on the back end
+of the last car, while the other stayed on the platform, and as the
+train moved off the man on the last car took off his hat and said, in a
+good, loud, clear tone, 'Well, take care of yourself, II Timothy ii:15,'
+and the other one smiled and waved his hat and answered, 'Yes, II
+Timothy ii:15.' The man on the train, which was moving fast now, shouted
+back, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and the man on the platform responded still
+louder, waving his hat, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and back and forth the queer
+sentence was flung until the train was too far away for them to hear
+each other's voices. In the mean time all the people on the platform had
+been standing there listening and wondering what in the world such a
+strange salutation could mean. Some of them recognized what it was, but
+many did not know, and yet the sentence was said over so many times that
+they could not help remembering it; and some went away to recall it and
+ask their friends what it meant. A young man from America was on that
+platform and heard it, and he knew it stood for a passage in the Bible,
+and his curiosity was so great that he went back to his boarding-house
+and hunted up the Bible his mother had packed in his trunk when he came
+away from home, and he hunted through the Bible until he found the
+place, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and read it; and it made him think about his
+life and decide that he wasn't doing as he ought to do. I can't tell you
+all the story about that queer Bible verse, how it went here and there
+and what a great work it did in people's hearts; but one day those
+Christian workers went to Australia to hold some meetings, and one
+night, when the great auditorium was crowded, a man who was leading the
+meeting got up and told the story of this verse, how it had been chosen,
+and how it had gone over the world in strange ways, even told about the
+morning at the little railway station when the two men said good-by.
+Just as he got to that place in his story a man in the audience stood up
+and said: 'Brother, just let me say a word, please. I never knew
+anything about all this before, but I was at that railway station, and I
+heard those two men shout that strange good-by, and I went home and read
+that verse, and it's made a great difference in my life.'
+
+"There was a great deal more to the story, how some Chicago policemen
+got to be good men through reading that verse, and how the story of the
+Australia meetings was printed in an Australian paper and sent to a lady
+in America who sent it to a friend in England to read about the
+meetings. And this friend in England had a son in the army in India, to
+whom she was sending a package, and she wrapped it around something in
+that package, and the young man read all about it, and it helped to
+change his life. Well, I thought of that story this morning when I was
+trying to decide what to read for our opening chapter, and it occurred
+to me that perhaps you would be interested to take that verse for our
+school verse this term, and so if you would like it I will put it on the
+blackboard. Would you like it, I wonder?"
+
+She paused wistfully, as if she expected an answer, and there was a low,
+almost inaudible growl of assent; a keen listener might almost have said
+it had an impatient quality in it, as if they were in a hurry to find
+out what the verse was that had made such a stir in the world.
+
+"Very well," said Margaret, turning to the board; "then I'll put it
+where we all can see it, and while I write it will you please say over
+where it is, so that you will remember it and hunt it up for yourselves
+in your Bibles at home?"
+
+There was a sort of snicker at that, for there were probably not half a
+dozen Bibles, if there were so many, represented in that school; but
+they took her hint as she wrote, and chanted, "II Timothy ii:15, II
+Timothy ii:15," and then spelled out after her rapid crayon, "Study to
+show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be
+ashamed."
+
+They read it together at her bidding, with a wondering, half-serious
+look in their faces, and then she said, "Now, shall we pray?"
+
+The former teacher had not opened her school with prayer. It had never
+been even suggested in that school. It might have been a dangerous
+experiment if Margaret had attempted it sooner in her program. As it
+was, there was a shuffling of feet in the back seats at her first word;
+but the room, grew quiet again, perhaps out of curiosity to hear a
+woman's voice in prayer:
+
+"Our Heavenly Father, we want to ask Thee to bless us in our work
+together, and to help us to be such workmen that we shall not need to be
+ashamed to show our work to Thee at the close of the day. For Christ's
+sake we ask it. Amen."
+
+They did not have time to resent that prayer before she had them
+interested in something else. In fact, she had planned her whole first
+day out so that there should not be a minute for misbehavior. She had
+argued that if she could just get time to become acquainted with them
+she might prevent a lot of trouble before it ever started. Her first
+business was to win her scholars. After that she could teach them easily
+if they were once willing to learn.
+
+She had a set of mental arithmetic problems ready which she propounded
+to them next, some of them difficult and some easy enough for the
+youngest child who could think, and she timed their answers and wrote on
+the board the names of those who raised their hands first and had the
+correct answers. The questions were put in a fascinating way, many of
+them having curious little catches in them for the scholars who were not
+on the alert, and Timothy presently discovered this and set himself to
+get every one, coming off victorious at the end. Even Jed roused
+himself and was interested, and some of the girls quite distinguished
+themselves.
+
+When a half-hour of this was over she put the word "TRANSFIGURATION" on
+the blackboard, and set them to playing a regular game out of it. If
+some of the school-board had come in just then they might have lifted up
+hands of horror at the idea of the new teacher setting the whole school
+to playing a game. But they certainly would have been delightfully
+surprised to see a quiet and orderly room with bent heads and knit
+brows, all intent upon papers and pencils. Never before in the annals of
+that school had the first day held a full period of quiet or
+orderliness. It was expected to be a day of battle; a day of trying out
+the soul of the teacher and proving whether he or she were worthy to
+cope with the active minds and bodies of the young bullies of Ashland.
+But the expected battle had been forgotten. Every mind was busy with the
+matter in hand.
+
+Margaret had given them three minutes to write as many words as they
+could think of, of three letters or more, beginning with T, and using
+only the letters in the word she had put on the board. When time was
+called there was a breathless rush to write a last word, and then each
+scholar had to tell how many words he had, and each was called upon to
+read his list. Some had only two or three, some had ten or eleven. They
+were allowed to mark their words, counting one for each person present
+who did not have that word and doubling if it were two syllables, and so
+on. Excitement ran high when it was discovered that some had actually
+made a count of thirty or forty, and when they started writing words
+beginning with R every head was bent intently from the minute time was
+started.
+
+Never had three minutes seemed so short to those unused brains, and Jed
+yelled out: "Aw, gee! I only got three!" when time was called next.
+
+It was recess-time when they finally finished every letter in that word,
+and, adding all up, found that Timothy had won the game. Was that
+school? Why, a barbecue couldn't be named beside it for fun! They rushed
+out to the school-yard with a shout, and the boys played leap-frog
+loudly for the first few minutes. Margaret, leaning her tired head in
+her hands, elbows on the window-seat, closing her eyes and gathering
+strength for the after-recess session, heard one boy say: "Wal, how d'ye
+like 'er?" And the answer came: "Gee! I didn't think she'd be that kind
+of a guy! I thought she'd be some stiff old Ike! Ain't she a peach,
+though?" She lifted up her head and laughed triumphantly to herself, her
+eyes alight, herself now strengthened for the fray. She wasn't wholly
+failing, then?
+
+After recess there was a spelling-match, choosing sides, of course,
+"Because this is only the first day, and we must get acquainted before
+we can do real work, you know," she explained.
+
+The spelling-match proved an exciting affair also, with new features
+that Ashland had never seen before. Here the girls began to shine into
+prominence, but there were very few good spellers, and they were
+presently reduced to two girls--Rosa Rogers, the beauty of the school,
+and Amanda Bounds, a stolid, homely girl with deep eyes and a broad
+brow.
+
+"I'm going to give this as a prize to the one who stands up the
+longest," said Margaret, with sudden inspiration as she saw the boys in
+their seats getting restless; and she unpinned a tiny blue-silk bow that
+fastened her white collar.
+
+The girls all said "Oh-h-h!" and immediately every one in the room
+straightened up. The next few minutes those two girls spelled for dear
+life, each with her eye fixed upon the tiny blue bow in the teacher's
+white hands. To own that bow, that wonderful, strange bow of the
+heavenly blue, with the graceful twist to the tie! What delight! The
+girl who won that would be the admired of all the school. Even the boys
+sat up and took notice, each secretly thinking that Rosa, the beauty,
+would get it, of course.
+
+But she didn't; she slipped up on the word "receive," after all, putting
+the i before the e; and her stolid companion, catching her breath
+awesomely, slowly spelled it right and received the blue prize, pinned
+gracefully at the throat of her old brown gingham by the teacher's own
+soft, white fingers, while the school looked on admiringly and the blood
+rolled hotly up the back of her neck and spread over her face and
+forehead. Rosa, the beauty, went crestfallen to her seat.
+
+It was at noon, while they ate their lunch, that Margaret tried to get
+acquainted with the girls, calling most of them by name, to their great
+surprise, and hinting of delightful possibilities in the winter's work.
+Then she slipped out among the boys and watched their sports, laughing
+and applauding when some one made a particularly fine play, as if she
+thoroughly understood and appreciated.
+
+She managed to stand near Jed and Timothy just before Bud rang the bell.
+"I've heard you are great sportsmen," she said to them, confidingly.
+"And I've been wondering if you'll teach me some things I want to learn?
+I want to know how to ride and shoot. Do you suppose I could learn?"
+
+"Sure!" they chorused, eagerly, their embarrassment forgotten. "Sure,
+you could learn fine! Sure, _we'll learn_ you!"
+
+And then the bell rang and they all went in.
+
+The afternoon was a rather informal arrangement of classes and schedule
+for the next day, Margaret giving out slips of paper with questions for
+each to answer, that she might find out just where to place them; and
+while they wrote she went from one to another, getting acquainted,
+advising, and suggesting about what they wanted to study. It was all so
+new and wonderful to them! They had not been used to caring what they
+were to study. Now it almost seemed interesting.
+
+But when the day was done, the school-house locked, and Bud and Margaret
+started for home, she realized that she was weary. Yet it was a
+weariness of success and not of failure, and she felt happy in looking
+forward to the morrow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+The minister had decided to preach in Ashland, and on the following
+Sabbath. It became apparent that if he wished to have any notice at all
+from the haughty new teacher he must do something at once to establish
+his superiority in her eyes. He had carefully gone over his store of
+sermons that he always carried with him, and decided to preach on "The
+Dynamics of Altruism."
+
+Notices had been posted up in saloons and stores and post-office. He had
+made them himself after completely tabooing Mr. Tanner's kindly and
+blundering attempt, and they gave full information concerning "the Rev.
+Frederick West, Ph.D., of the vicinity of New York City, who had kindly
+consented to preach in the school-house on 'The Dynamics of Altruism.'"
+
+Several of these elaborately printed announcements had been posted up on
+big trees along the trails, and in other conspicuous places, and there
+was no doubt but that the coming Sabbath services were more talked of
+than anything else in that neighborhood for miles around, except the new
+teacher and her extraordinary way of making all the scholars fall in
+love with her. It is quite possible that the Reverend Frederick might
+not have been so flattered at the size of his audience when the day
+came if he could have known how many of them came principally because
+they thought it would be a good opportunity to see the new teacher.
+
+However, the announcements were read, and the preacher became an object
+of deep interest to the community when he went abroad. Under this
+attention he swelled, grew pleased, bland, and condescending, wearing an
+oily smile and bowing most conceitedly whenever anybody noticed him. He
+even began to drop his severity and silence at the table, toward the end
+of the week, and expanded into dignified conversation, mainly addressed
+to Mr. Tanner about the political situation in the State of Arizona. He
+was trying to impress the teacher with the fact that he looked upon her
+as a most insignificant mortal who had forfeited her right to his smiles
+by her headstrong and unseemly conduct when he had warned her about
+"that young ruffian."
+
+Out on the trail Long Bill and Jasper Kemp paused before a tree that
+bore the Reverend Frederick's church notice, and read in silence while
+the wide wonder of the desert spread about them.
+
+"What d'ye make out o' them cuss words, Jap?" asked Long Bill, at
+length. "D'ye figger the parson's goin' to preach on swearin' ur
+gunpowder?"
+
+"Blowed ef I know," answered Jasper, eying the sign ungraciously; "but
+by the looks of him he can't say much to suit me on neither one. He
+resembles a yaller cactus bloom out in a rain-storm as to head, an' his
+smile is like some of them prickles on the plant. He can't be no
+'sky-pilot' to me, not just yet."
+
+"You don't allow he b'longs in any way to _her_?" asked Long Bill,
+anxiously, after they had been on their way for a half-hour.
+
+"B'long to _her_? Meanin' the schoolmarm?"
+
+"Yes; he ain't sweet on her nor nothin'?"
+
+"Wal, I guess not," said Jasper, contentedly. "She's got eyes sharp's a
+needle. You don't size her up so small she's goin' to take to a sickly
+parson with yaller hair an' sleek ways when she's seen the Kid, do you?"
+
+"Wal, no, it don't seem noways reasonable, but you never can tell. Women
+gets notions."
+
+"She ain't that kind! You mark my words, _she ain't that kind_. I'd lay
+she'd punch the breeze like a coyote ef he'd make up to her. Just you
+wait till you see him. He's the most no-'count, measleyest little thing
+that ever called himself a man. My word! I'd like to see him try to ride
+that colt o' mine. I really would. It would be some sight for sore eyes,
+it sure would."
+
+"Mebbe he's got a intellec'," suggested Long Bill, after another mile.
+"That goes a long ways with women-folks with a education."
+
+"No chance!" said Jasper, confidently. "'Ain't got room fer one under
+his yaller thatch. You wait till you set your lamps on him once before
+you go to gettin' excited. Why, he ain't one-two-three with our
+missionary! Gosh! I wish _he'd_ come back an' see to such goin's-on--I
+certainly do."
+
+"Was you figgerin' to go to that gatherin' Sunday?"
+
+"I sure was," said Jasper. "I want to see the show, an', besides, we
+might be needed ef things got too high-soundin'. It ain't good to have a
+creature at large that thinks he knows all there is to know. I heard
+him talk down to the post-office the day after that little party we had
+when the Kid shot out the lights to save Bunchy from killin' Crapster,
+an' it's my opinion he needs a good spankin'; but I'm agoin' to give him
+a fair show. I ain't much on religion myself, but I do like to see a
+square deal, especially in a parson. I've sized it up he needs a
+lesson."
+
+"I'm with ye, Jap," said Long Bill, and the two rode on their way in
+silence.
+
+Margaret was so busy and so happy with her school all the week that she
+quite forgot her annoyance at the minister. She really saw very little
+of him, for he was always late to breakfast, and she took hers early.
+She went to her room immediately after supper, and he had little
+opportunity for pursuing her acquaintance. Perhaps he judged that it
+would be wise to let her alone until after he had made his grand
+impression on Sunday, and let her "make up" to him.
+
+It was not until Sunday morning that she suddenly recalled that he was
+to preach that day. She had indeed seen the notices, for a very large
+and elaborate one was posted in front of the school-house, and some
+anonymous artist had produced a fine caricature of the preacher in red
+clay underneath his name. Margaret had been obliged to remain after
+school Friday and remove as much of this portrait as she was able, not
+having been willing to make it a matter of discipline to discover the
+artist. In fact, it was so true to the model that the young teacher felt
+a growing sympathy for the one who had perpetrated it.
+
+Margaret started to the school-house early Sunday morning, attended by
+the faithful Bud. Not that he had any more intention of going to
+Sunday-school than he had the week before, but it was pleasant to be the
+chosen escort of so popular a teacher. Even Jed and Timothy had walked
+home with her twice during the week. He did not intend to lose his place
+as nearest to her. There was only one to whom he would surrender that,
+and he was too far away to claim it often.
+
+Margaret had promised to help in the Sunday-school that morning, for the
+woman who taught the little ones was still away with her sick neighbor,
+and on the way she persuaded Bud to help her.
+
+"You'll be secretary for me, won't you, William?" she asked, brightly.
+"I'm going to take the left-front corner of the room for the children,
+and seat them on the recitation-benches, and that will leave all the
+back part of the room for the older people. Then I can use the
+blackboard and not disturb the rest."
+
+"Secretary?" asked the astonished Bud. He was, so to speak, growing
+accustomed to surprises. "Secretary" did not sound like being "a nice
+little Sunday-school boy."
+
+"Why, yes! take up the collection, and see who is absent, and so on. I
+don't know all the names, perhaps, and, anyhow, I don't like to do that
+when I have to teach!"
+
+Artful Margaret! She had no mind to leave Bud floating around outside
+the school-house, and though she had ostensibly prepared her lesson and
+her blackboard illustration for the little children, she had hidden in
+it a truth for Bud--poor, neglected, devoted Bud!
+
+The inefficient old man who taught the older people that day gathered
+his forces together and, seated with his back to the platform, his
+spectacles extended upon his long nose, he proceeded with the questions
+on the lesson-leaf, as usual, being more than ordinarily unfamiliar with
+them; but before he was half through he perceived by the long pauses
+between the questions and answers that he did not have the attention of
+his class. He turned slowly around to see what they were all looking at,
+and became so engaged in listening to the lesson the new teacher was
+drawing on the blackboard that he completely forgot to go on, until Bud,
+very important in his new position, rang the tiny desk-bell for the
+close of school, and Margaret, looking up, saw in dismay that she had
+been teaching the whole school.
+
+While they were singing a closing hymn the room began to fill up, and
+presently came the minister, walking importantly beside Mr. Tanner, his
+chin flattened upward as usual, but bent in till it made a double roll
+over his collar, his eyes rolling importantly, showing much of their
+whites, his sermon, in an elaborate leather cover, carried conspicuously
+under his arm, and the severest of clerical coats and collars setting
+out his insignificant face.
+
+Walking behind him in single file, measured step, just so far apart,
+came the eight men from the bunk-house--Long Bill, Big Jim, Fiddling
+Boss, Jasper Kemp, Fade-away Forbes, Stocky, Croaker, and Fudge; and
+behind them, looking like a scared rabbit, Mom Wallis scuttled into the
+back seat and sank out of sight. The eight men, however, ranged
+themselves across the front of the room on the recitation-bench,
+directly in front of the platform, removing a few small children for
+that purpose.
+
+They had been lined up in a scowling row along the path as the minister
+entered, looking at them askance under his aristocratic yellow eyebrows,
+and as he neared the door the last man followed in his wake, then the
+next, and so on.
+
+Margaret, in her seat half-way back at the side of the school-house near
+a window, saw through the trees a wide sombrero over a pair of broad
+shoulders; but, though she kept close watch, she did not see her friend
+of the wilderness enter the school-house. If he had really come to
+meeting, he was staying outside.
+
+The minister was rather nonplussed at first that there were no
+hymn-books. It almost seemed that he did not know how to go on with
+divine service without hymn-books, but at last he compromised on the
+long-meter Doxology, pronounced with deliberate unction. Then, looking
+about for a possible pipe-organ and choir, he finally started it
+himself; but it is doubtful whether any one would have recognized the
+tune enough to help it on if Margaret had not for very shame's sake
+taken it up and carried it along, and so they came to the prayer and
+Bible-reading.
+
+These were performed with a formal, perfunctory style calculated to
+impress the audience with the importance of the preacher rather than the
+words he was speaking. The audience was very quiet, having the air of
+reserving judgment for the sermon.
+
+Margaret could not just remember afterward how it was she missed the
+text. She had turned her eyes away from the minister, because it somehow
+made her feel homesick to compare him with her dear, dignified father.
+Her mind had wandered, perhaps, to the sombrero she had glimpsed
+outside, and she was wondering how its owner was coming on with his
+resolves, and just what change they would mean in his life, anyway. Then
+suddenly she awoke to the fact that the sermon had begun.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+"Considered in the world of physics," began the lordly tones of the
+Reverend Frederick, "dynamics is that branch of mechanics that treats of
+the effects of forces in producing motion, and of the laws of motion
+thus produced; sometimes called kinetics, opposed to statics. It is the
+science that treats of the laws of force, whether producing equilibrium
+or motion; in this sense including both statics and kinetics. It is also
+applied to the forces producing or governing activity or movement of any
+kind; also the methods of such activity."
+
+The big words rolled out magnificently over the awed gathering, and the
+minister flattened his chin and rolled his eyes up at the people in his
+most impressive way.
+
+Margaret's gaze hastily sought the row of rough men on the front seat,
+sitting with folded arms in an attitude of attention, each man with a
+pair of intelligent eyes under his shaggy brows regarding the preacher
+as they might have regarded an animal in a zoo. Did they understand what
+had been said? It was impossible to tell from their serious faces.
+
+"Philanthropy has been called the dynamics of Christianity; that is to
+say, it is Christianity in action," went on the preacher. "It is my
+purpose this morning to speak upon the dynamics of altruism. Now
+altruism is the theory that inculcates benevolence to others in
+subordination to self-interest; interested benevolence as opposed to
+disinterested; also, the practice of this theory."
+
+He lifted his eyes to the audience once more and nodded his head
+slightly, as if to emphasize the deep truth he had just given them, and
+the battery of keen eyes before him never flinched from his face. They
+were searching him through and through. Margaret wondered if he had no
+sense of the ridiculous, that he could, to such an audience, pour forth
+such a string of technical definitions. They sounded strangely like
+dictionary language. She wondered if anybody present besides herself
+knew what the man meant or got any inkling of what his subject was.
+Surely he would drop to simpler language, now that he had laid out his
+plan.
+
+It never occurred to her that the man was trying to impress _her_ with
+his wonderful fluency of language and his marvelous store of wisdom. On
+and on he went in much the same trend he had begun, with now and then a
+flowery sentence or whole paragraph of meaningless eloquence about the
+"brotherhood of man"--with a roll to the r's in brotherhood.
+
+Fifteen minutes of this profitless oratory those men of the wilderness
+endured, stolidly and with fixed attention; then, suddenly, a sentence
+of unusual simplicity struck them and an almost visible thrill went down
+the front seat.
+
+"For years the church has preached a dead faith, without works, my
+friends, and the time has come to stop preaching faith! I repeat
+it--fellow-men. I repeat it. The time has come _to stop preaching
+faith_ and begin to do good works!" He thumped the desk vehemently. "Men
+don't need a superstitious belief in a Saviour to save them from their
+sins; they need to go to work and save themselves! As if a man dying two
+thousand years ago on a cross could do any good to you and me to-day!"
+
+It was then that the thrill passed down that front line, and Long Bill,
+sitting at their head, leaned slightly forward and looked full and
+frowning into the face of Jasper Kemp; and the latter, frowning back,
+solemnly winked one eye. Margaret sat where she could see the whole
+thing.
+
+Immediately, still with studied gravity, Long Bill cleared his throat
+impressively, arose, and, giving the minister a full look in the eye, of
+the nature almost of a challenge, he turned and walked slowly, noisily
+down the aisle and out the front door.
+
+The minister was visibly annoyed, and for the moment a trifle flustered;
+but, concluding his remarks had been too deep for the rough creature, he
+gathered up the thread of his argument and proceeded:
+
+"We need to get to work at our duty toward our fellow-men. We need to
+down trusts and give the laboring-man a chance. We need to stop
+insisting that men shall believe in the inspiration of the entire Bible
+and get to work at something practical!"
+
+The impressive pause after this sentence was interrupted by a sharp,
+rasping sound of Big Jim clearing his throat and shuffling to his feet.
+He, too, looked the minister full in the face with a searching gaze,
+shook his head sadly, and walked leisurely down the aisle and out of
+the door. The minister paused again and frowned. This was becoming
+annoying.
+
+Margaret sat in startled wonder. Could it be possible that these rough
+men were objecting to the sermon from a theological point of view, or
+was it just a happening that they had gone out at such pointed moments.
+She sat back after a minute, telling herself that of course the men must
+just have been weary of the long sentences, which no doubt they could
+not understand. She began to hope that Gardley was not within hearing.
+It was not probable that many others understood enough to get harm from
+the sermon, but her soul boiled with indignation that a man could go
+forth and call himself a minister of an evangelical church and yet talk
+such terrible heresy.
+
+Big Jim's steps died slowly away on the clay path outside, and the
+preacher resumed his discourse.
+
+"We have preached long enough of hell and torment. It is time for a
+gospel of love to our brothers. Hell is a superstition of the Dark Ages.
+_There is no hell!_"
+
+Fiddling Boss turned sharply toward Jasper Kemp, as if waiting for a
+signal, and Jasper gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod. Whereupon
+Fiddling Boss cleared his throat loudly and arose, faced the minister,
+and marched down the aisle, while Jasper Kemp remained quietly seated as
+if nothing had happened, a vacancy each side of him.
+
+By this time the color began to rise in the minister's cheeks. He looked
+at the retreating back of Fiddling Boss, and then suspiciously down at
+the row of men, but every one of them sat with folded arms and eyes
+intent upon the sermon, as if their comrades had not left them. The
+minister thought he must have been mistaken and took up the broken
+thread once more, or tried to, but he had hopelessly lost the place in
+his manuscript, and the only clue that offered was a quotation of a poem
+about the devil; to be sure, the connection was somewhat abrupt, but he
+clutched it with his eye gratefully and began reading it dramatically:
+
+    "'Men don't believe in the devil now
+    As their fathers used to do--'"
+
+But he had got no further when a whole clearing-house of throats
+sounded, and Fade-away Forbes stumbled to his feet frantically, bolting
+down the aisle as if he had been sent for. He had not quite reached the
+door when Stocky clumped after him, followed at intervals by Croaker and
+Fudge, and each just as the minister had begun:
+
+"Um! Ah! To resume--"
+
+And now only Jasper Kemp remained of the front-seaters, his fine gray
+eyes boring through and through the minister as he floundered through
+the remaining portion of his manuscript up to the point where it began,
+"And finally--" which opened with another poem:
+
+    "'I need no Christ to die for me.'"
+
+The sturdy, gray-haired Scotchman suddenly lowered his folded arms,
+slapping a hand resoundingly on each knee, bent his shoulders the better
+to pull himself to his feet, pressing his weight on his hands till his
+elbows were akimbo, uttered a deep sigh and a, "Yes--well--_ah_!"
+
+With that he got to his feet and dragged them slowly out of the
+school-house.
+
+By this time the minister was ready to burst with indignation. Never
+before in all the bombastic days of his egotism had he been so grossly
+insulted, and by such rude creatures! And yet there was really nothing
+that could be said or done. These men appeared to be simple creatures
+who had wandered in idly, perhaps for a few moments' amusement, and,
+finding the discourse above their caliber, had innocently wandered out
+again. That was the way it had been made to appear. But his plans had
+been cruelly upset by such actions, and he was mortified in the extreme.
+His face was purple with his emotions, and he struggled and spluttered
+for a way out of his trying dilemma. At last he spoke, and his voice was
+absurdly dignified:
+
+"Is there--ah--any other--ah--auditor--ah--who is desirous of
+withdrawing before the close of service? If so he may do so now,
+or--ah--" He paused for a suitable ending, and familiar words rushed to
+his lips without consciousness for the moment of their meaning--"or
+forever after hold their peace--ah!"
+
+There was a deathly silence in the school-house. No one offered to go
+out, and Margaret suddenly turned her head and looked out of the window.
+Her emotions were almost beyond her control.
+
+Thus the closing eloquence proceeded to its finish, and at last the
+service was over. Margaret looked about for Mom Wallis, but she had
+disappeared. She signed to Bud, and together they hastened out; but a
+quiet Sabbath peace reigned about the door of the school-house, and not
+a man from the camp was in sight; no, nor even the horses upon which
+they had come.
+
+And yet, when the minister had finished shaking hands with the
+worshipful women and a few men and children, and came with Mr. Tanner to
+the door of the school-house, those eight men stood in a solemn row,
+four on each side of the walk, each holding his chin in his right hand,
+his right elbow in his left hand, and all eyes on Jasper Kemp, who kept
+his eyes thoughtfully up in the sky.
+
+"H'w aire yeh, Tanner? Pleasant 'casion. Mind steppin' on a bit? We men
+wanta have a word with the parson."
+
+Mr. Tanner stepped on hurriedly, and the minister was left standing
+nonplussed and alone in the doorway of the school-house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+"Um! Ah!" began the minister, trying to summon his best clerical manner
+to meet--what? He did not know. It was best to assume they were a
+penitent band of inquirers for the truth. But the memory of their recent
+exodus from the service was rather too clearly in his mind for his
+pleasantest expression to be uppermost toward these rough creatures.
+Insolent fellows! He ought to give them a good lesson in behavior!
+
+"Um! Ah!" he began again, but found to his surprise that his remarks
+thus far had had no effect whatever on the eight stolid countenances
+before him. In fact, they seemed to have grown grim and menacing even in
+their quiet attitude, and their eyes were fulfilling the promise of the
+look they had given him when they left the service.
+
+"What does all this mean, anyway?" he burst forth, suddenly.
+
+"Calm yourself, elder! Calm yourself," spoke up Long Bill. "There ain't
+any occasion to get excited."
+
+"I'm not an elder; I'm a minister of the gospel," exploded West, in his
+most pompous tones. "I should like to know who you are and what all this
+means?"
+
+"Yes, parson, we understand who you are. We understand quite well, an'
+we're agoin' to tell you who we are. We're a band of al-tru-ists! That's
+what we are. We're _altruists_!" It was Jasper Kemp of the keen eyes and
+sturdy countenance who spoke. "And we've come here in brotherly love to
+exercise a little of that dynamic force of altruism you was talkin'
+about. We just thought we'd begin on you so's you could see that we got
+some works to go 'long with our faith."
+
+"What do you mean, sir?" said West, looking from one grim countenance to
+another. "I--I don't quite understand." The minister was beginning to be
+frightened, he couldn't exactly tell why. He wished he had kept Brother
+Tanner with him. It was the first time he had ever thought of Mr. Tanner
+as "brother."
+
+"We mean just this, parson; you been talkin' a lot of lies in there
+about there bein' no Saviour an' no hell, ner no devil, an' while we
+ain't much credit to God ourselves, bein' just common men, we know all
+that stuff you said ain't true about the Bible an' the devil bein'
+superstitions, an' we thought we better exercise a little of that there
+altruism you was talkin' about an' teach you better. You see, it's real
+brotherly kindness, parson. An' now we're goin' to give you a sample of
+that dynamics you spoke about. Are you ready, boys?"
+
+"All ready," they cried as one man.
+
+There seemed to be no concerted motion, nor was there warning. Swifter
+than the weaver's shuttle, sudden as the lightning's flash, the minister
+was caught from where he stood pompously in that doorway, hat in hand,
+all grandly as he was attired, and hurled from man to man. Across the
+walk and back; across and back; across and back; until it seemed to him
+it was a thousand miles all in a minute of time. He had no opportunity
+to prepare for the onslaught. He jammed his high silk hat, wherewith he
+had thought to overawe the community, upon his sleek head, and grasped
+his precious sermon-case to his breast; the sermon, as it well deserved,
+was flung to the four winds of heaven and fortunately was no more--that
+is, existing as a whole. The time came when each of those eight men
+recovered and retained a portion of that learned oration, and Mom
+Wallis, not quite understanding, pinned up and used as a sort of shrine
+the portion about doubting the devil; but as a sermon the parts were
+never assembled on this earth, nor could be, for some of it was ground
+to powder under eight pairs of ponderous heels. But the minister at that
+trying moment was too much otherwise engaged to notice that the child of
+his brain lay scattered on the ground.
+
+Seven times he made the round up and down, up and down that merciless
+group, tossed like a thistle-down from man to man. And at last, when his
+breath was gone, when the world had grown black before him, and he felt
+smaller and more inadequate than he had ever felt in his whole conceited
+life before, he found himself bound, helplessly bound, and cast
+ignominiously into a wagon. And it was a strange thing that, though
+seemingly but five short minutes before the place had been swarming with
+worshipful admirers thanking him for his sermon, now there did not seem
+to be a creature within hearing, for he called and cried aloud and
+roared with his raucous voice until it would seem that all the
+surrounding States might have heard that cry from Arizona, yet none came
+to his relief.
+
+They carried him away somewhere, he did not know where; it was a lonely
+spot and near a water-hole. When he protested and loudly blamed them,
+threatening all the law in the land upon them, they regarded him as one
+might a naughty child who needed chastisement, leniently and with
+sorrow, but also with determination.
+
+They took him down by the water's side and stood him up among them. He
+began to tremble with fear as he looked from one to another, for he was
+not a man of courage, and he had heard strange tales of this wild, free
+land, where every man was a law unto himself. Were they going to drown
+him then and there? Then up spoke Jasper Kemp:
+
+"Mr. Parson," he said, and his voice was kind but firm; one might almost
+say there was a hint of humor in it, and there surely was a twinkle in
+his eye; but the sternness of his lips belied it, and the minister was
+in no state to appreciate humor--"Mr. Parson, we've brought you here to
+do you good, an' you oughtn't to complain. This is altruism, an' we're
+but actin' out what you been preachin'. You're our brother an' we're
+tryin' to do you good; an' now we're about to show you what a dynamic
+force we are. You see, Mr. Parson, I was brought up by a good Scotch
+grandmother, an' I know a lie when I hear it, an' when I hear a man
+preach error I know it's time to set him straight; so now we're agoin'
+to set you straight. I don't know where you come from, nor who brang you
+up, nor what church set you afloat, but I know enough by all my
+grandmother taught me--even if I hadn't been a-listenin' off and on for
+two years back to Mr. Brownleigh, our missionary--to know you're a
+dangerous man to have at large. I'd as soon have a mad dog let loose.
+Why, what you preach ain't the gospel, an' it ain't the truth, and the
+time has come for you to know it, an' own it and recant. Recant! That's
+what they call it. That's what we're here to see 't you do, or we'll
+know the reason why. That's the _dynamics_ of it. See?"
+
+The minister saw. He saw the deep, muddy water-hole. He saw nothing
+more.
+
+"Folks are all too ready to believe them there things you was gettin'
+off without havin' 'em _preached_ to justify 'em in their evil ways. We
+gotta think of those poor ignorant brothers of ours that might listen to
+you. See? That's the _altruism_ of it!"
+
+"What do you want me to do?" The wretched man's tone was not merely
+humble--it was abject. His grand Prince Albert coat was torn in three
+places; one tail hung down dejectedly over his hip; one sleeve was
+ripped half-way out. His collar was unbuttoned and the ends rode up
+hilariously over his cheeks. His necktie was gone. His sleek hair stuck
+out in damp wisps about his frightened eyes, and his hat had been "stove
+in" and jammed down as far as it would go until his ample ears stuck out
+like sails at half-mast. His feet were imbedded in the heavy mud on the
+margin of the water-hole, and his fine silk socks, which had showed at
+one time above the erstwhile neat tyings, were torn and covered with
+mud.
+
+"Well, in the first place," said Jasper Kemp, with a slow wink around at
+the company, "that little matter about hell needs adjustin'. Hell ain't
+no superstition. I ain't dictatin' what kind of a hell there is; you can
+make it fire or water or anything else you like, but _there is a hell_,
+an' _you believe in it_. D'ye understand? We'd just like to have you
+make that statement publicly right here an' now."
+
+"But how can I say what I don't believe?" whined West, almost ready to
+cry. He had come proudly through a trial by Presbytery on these very
+same points, and had posed as being a man who had the courage of his
+convictions. He could not thus easily surrender his pride of original
+thought and broad-mindedness. He had received congratulations from a
+number of noble martyrs who had left their chosen church for just such
+reasons, congratulating him on his brave stand. It had been the first
+notice from big men he had ever been able to attract to himself, and it
+had gone to his head like wine. Give that up for a few miserable
+cowboys! It might get into the papers and go back East. He must think of
+his reputation.
+
+"That's just where the dynamics of the thing comes in, brother," said
+Jasper Kemp, patronizingly. "We're here to _make_ you believe in a hell.
+We're the force that will bring you back into the right way of thinkin'
+again. Are you ready, boys?"
+
+The quiet utterance brought goose-flesh up to West's very ears, and his
+eyes bulged with horror.
+
+"Oh, that isn't necessary! I believe--yes, I believe in hell!" he
+shouted, as they seized him.
+
+But it was too late. The Rev. Frederick West was plunged into the
+water-hole, from whose sheep-muddied waters he came up spluttering,
+"Yes, I believe in _hell_!" and for the first time in his life, perhaps,
+he really did believe in it, and thought that he was in it.
+
+The men were standing knee-deep in the water and holding their captive
+lightly by his arms and legs, their eyes upon their leader, waiting now.
+
+Jasper Kemp stood in the water, also, looking down benevolently upon his
+victim, his chin in his hand, his elbow in his other hand, an attitude
+which carried a feeling of hopelessness to the frightened minister.
+
+"An' now there's that little matter of the devil," said Jasper Kemp,
+reflectively. "We'll just fix that up next while we're near his place of
+residence. You believe in the devil, Mr. Parson, from now on? If you'd
+ever tried resistin' him I figger you'd have b'lieved in him long ago.
+But _you believe in him_ from _now on_, an' you _don't preach against
+him any more_! We're not goin' to have our Arizona men gettin' off their
+guard an' thinkin' their enemy is dead. There _is_ a devil, parson, and
+you believe in him! Duck him, boys!"
+
+Down went the minister into the water again, and came up spluttering,
+"Yes, I--I--I--believe--in-the--devil." Even in this strait he was loath
+to surrender his pet theme--no devil.
+
+"Very well, so far as it goes," said Jasper Kemp, thoughtfully. "But
+now, boys, we're comin' to the most important of all, and you better
+put him under about three times, for there mustn't be no mistake about
+this matter. You believe in the Bible, parson--_the whole Bible_?"
+
+"Yes!" gasped West, as he went down the first time and got a mouthful of
+the bitter water, "I believe--" The voice was fairly anguished. Down he
+went again. Another mouthful of water. "_I believe in the whole Bible!_"
+he screamed, and went down the third time. His voice was growing weaker,
+but he came up and reiterated it without request, and was lifted out
+upon the mud for a brief respite. The men of the bunk-house were
+succeeding better than the Presbytery back in the East had been able to
+do. The conceit was no longer visible in the face of the Reverend
+Frederick. His teeth were chattering, and he was beginning to see one
+really needed to believe in something when one came as near to his end
+as this.
+
+"There's just one more thing to reckon with," said Jasper Kemp,
+thoughtfully. "That line of talk you was handin' out about a man dyin'
+on a cross two thousand years ago bein' nothin' to you. You said you
+_an' me_, but you can speak for _yourself_. We may not be much to look
+at, but we ain't goin' to stand for no such slander as that. Our
+missionary preaches all about that Man on the Cross, an' if you don't
+need Him before you get through this little campaign of life I'll miss
+my guess. Mebbe we haven't been all we might have been, but we ain't
+agoin' to let you ner no one else go back on that there Cross!"
+
+Jasper Kemp's tone was tender and solemn. As the minister lay panting
+upon his back in the mud he was forced to acknowledge that at only two
+other times in his life had a tone of voice so arrested his attention
+and filled him with awe; once when as a boy he had been caught copying
+off another's paper at examination-time, and he had been sent to the
+principal's office; and again on the occasion of his mother's funeral,
+as he sat in the dim church a few years ago and listened to the old
+minister. For a moment now he was impressed with the wonder of the
+Cross, and it suddenly seemed as if he were being arraigned before the
+eyes of Him with Whom we all have to do. A kind of shame stole into his
+pale, flabby face, all the smugness and complacence gone, and he a poor
+wretch in the hands of his accusers. Jasper Kemp, standing over him on
+the bank, looking down grimly upon him, seemed like the emissary of God
+sent to condemn him, and his little, self-centered soul quailed within
+him.
+
+"Along near the end of that discourse of yours you mentioned that sin
+was only misplaced energy. Well, if that's so there's a heap of your
+energy gone astray this mornin', an' the time has come for you to pay
+up. Speak up now an' say what you believe or whether you want another
+duckin'--an' it'll be seven times this time!"
+
+The man on the ground shut his eyes and gasped. The silence was very
+solemn. There seemed no hint of the ridiculous in the situation. It was
+serious business now to all those men. Their eyes were on their leader.
+
+"Do you solemnly declare before God--I s'pose you still believe in a
+God, as you didn't say nothin' to the contrary--that from now on you'll
+stand for that there Cross and for Him that hung on it?"
+
+The minister opened his eyes and looked up into the wide brightness of
+the sky, as if he half expected to see horses and chariots of fire
+standing about to do battle with him then and there, and his voice was
+awed and frightened as he said:
+
+"I do!"
+
+There was silence, and the men stood with half-bowed heads, as if some
+solemn service were being performed that they did not quite understand,
+but in which they fully sympathized. Then Jasper Kemp said, softly:
+
+"Amen!" And after a pause: "I ain't any sort of a Christian myself, but
+I just can't stand it to see a parson floatin' round that don't even
+know the name of the firm he's workin' for. Now, parson, there's just
+one more requirement, an' then you can go home."
+
+The minister opened his eyes and looked around with a frightened appeal,
+but no one moved, and Jasper Kemp went on:
+
+"You say you had a church in New York. What was the name and address
+of your workin'-boss up there?"
+
+"What do you mean? I hadn't any boss."
+
+"Why, him that hired you an' paid you. The chief elder or whatever you
+called him."
+
+"Oh!" The minister's tone expressed lack of interest in the subject, but
+he answered, languidly, "Ezekiel Newbold, Hazelton."
+
+"Very good. Now, parson, you'll just kindly write two copies of a letter
+to Mr. Ezekiel Newbold statin' what you've just said to us concernin'
+your change of faith, sign your name, address one to Mr. Newbold, an'
+give the duplicate to me. We just want this little matter put on record
+so you can't change your mind any in future. Do you get my idea?"
+
+"Yes," said the minister, dispiritedly.
+
+"Will you do it?"
+
+"Yes," apathetically.
+
+"Well, now I got a piece of advice for you. It would be just as well for
+your health for you to leave Arizona about as quick as you can find it
+convenient to pack, but you won't be allowed to leave this town, day or
+night, cars or afoot, until them there letters are all O.K. Do you get
+me?"
+
+"Yes," pathetically.
+
+"I might add, by way of explainin', that if you had come to Arizona an'
+minded your own business you wouldn't have been interfered with. You
+mighta preached whatever bosh you darned pleased so far as we was
+concerned, only you wouldn't have had no sorta audience after the first
+try of that stuff you give to-day. But when you come to Arizona an' put
+your fingers in other folks' pie, when you tried to 'squeal' on the
+young gentleman who was keen enough to shoot out the lights to save a
+man's life, why, we 'ain't no further use for you. In the first place,
+you was all wrong. You thought the Kid shot out the lights to steal the
+gamin'-money; but he didn't. He put it all in the hands of the sheriff
+some hours before your 'private information' reached him through the
+mail. You thought you were awful sharp, you little sneak! But I wasn't
+the only man present who saw you put your foot out an' cover a gold
+piece that rolled on the floor just when the fight began. You thought
+nobody was a-lookin', but you'll favor us, please, with that identical
+gold piece along with the letter before you leave. Well, boys, that'll
+be about all, then. Untie him!"
+
+In silence and with a kind of contemptuous pity in their faces the
+strong men stooped and unbound him; then, without another word, they
+left him, tramping solemnly away single file to their horses, standing
+at a little distance.
+
+Jasper Kemp lingered for a moment, looking down at the wretched man.
+"Would you care to have us carry you back to the house?" he asked,
+reflectively.
+
+"No!" said the minister, bitterly. "No!" And without another word Jasper
+Kemp left him.
+
+Into the mesquite-bushes crept the minister, his glory all departed, and
+hid his misery from the light, groaning in bitterness of spirit. He who
+had made the hearts of a score of old ministers to sorrow for Zion, who
+had split in two a pleasantly united congregation, disrupted a session,
+and brought about a scandalous trial in Presbytery was at last
+conquered. The Rev. Frederick West had recanted!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+When Margaret left the school-house with Bud she had walked but a few
+steps when she remembered Mom Wallis and turned back to search for her;
+but nowhere could she find a trace of her, and the front of the
+school-house was as empty of any people from the camp as if they had not
+been there that morning. The curtain had not yet risen for the scene of
+the undoing of West.
+
+"I suppose she must have gone home with them," said the girl, wistfully.
+"I'm sorry not to have spoken with her. She was good to me."
+
+"You mean Mom Wallis?" said the boy. "No, she ain't gone home. She's
+hiking 'long to our house to see you. The Kid went along of her. See,
+there--down by those cottonwood-trees? That's them."
+
+Margaret turned with eagerness and hurried along with Bud now. She knew
+who it was they called the Kid in that tone of voice. It was the way the
+men had spoken of and to him, a mingling of respect and gentling that
+showed how much beloved he was. Her cheeks wore a heightened color, and
+her heart gave a pleasant flutter of interest.
+
+They walked rapidly and caught up with their guests before they had
+reached the Tanner house, and Margaret had the pleasure of seeing Mom
+Wallis's face flush with shy delight when she caught her softly round
+the waist, stealing quietly up behind, and greeted her with a kiss.
+There had not been many kisses for Mom Wallis in the later years, and
+the two that were to Margaret Earle's account seemed very sweet to her.
+Mom Wallis's eyes shone as if she had been a young girl as she turned
+with a smothered "Oh!" She was a woman not given to expressing herself;
+indeed, it might be said that the last twenty years of her life had been
+mainly of self-repression. She gave that one little gasp of recognition
+and pleasure, and then she relapsed into embarrassed silence beside the
+two young people who found pleasure in their own greetings. Bud,
+boy-like, was after a cottontail, along with Cap, who had appeared from
+no one knew where and was attending the party joyously.
+
+Mom Wallis, in her big, rough shoes, on the heels of which her scant
+brown calico gown was lifted as she walked, trudged shyly along between
+the two young people, as carefully watched and helped over the humps and
+bumps of the way as if she had been a princess. Margaret noticed with a
+happy approval how Gardley's hand was ready under the old woman's elbow
+to assist her as politely as he might have done for her own mother had
+she been walking by his side.
+
+Presently Bud and Cap returned, and Bud, with observant eye, soon timed
+his step to Margaret's on her other side and touched her elbow lightly
+to help her over the next rut. This was his second lesson in manners
+from Gardley. He had his first the Sunday before, watching the two
+while he and Cap walked behind. Bud was learning. He had keen eyes and
+an alert brain. Margaret smiled understandingly at him, and his face
+grew deep red with pleasure.
+
+"He was bringin' me to see where you was livin'," explained Mom Wallis,
+suddenly, nodding toward Gardley as if he had been a king. "We wasn't
+hopin' to see you, except mebbe just as you come by goin' in."
+
+"Oh, then I'm so glad I caught up with you in time. I wouldn't have
+missed you for anything. I went back to look for you. Now you're coming
+in to dinner with me, both of you," declared Margaret, joyfully.
+"William, your mother will have enough dinner for us all, won't she?"
+
+"Sure!" said Bud, with that assurance born of his life acquaintance with
+his mother, who had never failed him in a trying situation so far as
+things to eat were concerned.
+
+Margaret looked happily from one of her invited guests to the other, and
+Gardley forgot to answer for himself in watching the brightness of her
+face, and wondering why it was so different from the faces of all other
+girls he knew anywhere.
+
+But Mom Wallis was overwhelmed. A wave of red rolled dully up from her
+withered neck in its gala collar over her leathery face to the roots of
+her thin, gray hair.
+
+"Me! Stay to dinner! Oh, I couldn't do that nohow! Not in these here
+clo'es. 'Course I got that pretty collar you give me, but I couldn't
+never go out to dinner in this old dress an' these shoes. I know what
+folks ought to look like an' I ain't goin' to shame you."
+
+"Shame me? Nonsense! Your dress is all right, and who is going to see
+your shoes? Besides, I've just set my heart on it. I want to take you up
+to my room and show you the pictures of my father and mother and home
+and the church where I was christened, and everything."
+
+Mom Wallis looked at her with wistful eyes, but still shook her head.
+"Oh, I'd like to mighty well. It's good of you to ast me. But I
+couldn't. I just couldn't. 'Sides, I gotta go home an' git the men's
+grub ready."
+
+"Oh, can't she stay this time, Mr. Gardley?" appealed Margaret. "The men
+won't mind for once, will they?"
+
+Gardley looked into her true eyes and saw she really meant the
+invitation. He turned to the withered old woman by his side. "Mom, we're
+going to stay," he declared, joyously. "She wants us, and we have to do
+whatever she says. The men will rub along. They all know how to cook.
+Mom, _we're going to stay_."
+
+"That's beautiful!" declared Margaret. "It's so nice to have some
+company of my own." Then her face suddenly sobered. "Mr. Wallis won't
+mind, will he?" And she looked with troubled eyes from one of her guests
+to the other. She did not want to prepare trouble for poor Mom Wallis
+when she went back.
+
+Mom Wallis turned startled eyes toward her. There was contempt in her
+face and outraged womanhood. "Pop's gone off," she said, significantly.
+"He went yist'day. But he 'ain't got no call t' mind. I ben waitin' on
+Pop nigh on to twenty year, an' I guess I'm goin' to a dinner-party, now
+'t I'm invited. Pop 'd better _not_ mind, I guess!"
+
+And Margaret suddenly saw how much, how very much, her invitation had
+been to the starved old soul. Margaret took her guests into the stiff
+little parlor and slipped out to interview her landlady. She found Mrs.
+Tanner, as she had expected, a large-minded woman who was quite pleased
+to have more guests to sit down to her generous dinner, particularly as
+her delightful boarder had hinted of ample recompense in the way of
+board money; and she fluttered about, sending Tanner after another jar
+of pickles, some more apple-butter, and added another pie to the menu.
+
+Well pleased, Margaret left Mrs. Tanner and slipped back to her guests.
+She found Gardley making arrangements with Bud to run back to the church
+and tell the men to leave the buckboard for them, as they would not be
+home for dinner. While this was going on she took Mom Wallis up to her
+room to remove her bonnet and smooth her hair.
+
+It is doubtful whether Mom Wallis ever did see such a room in her life;
+for when Margaret swung open the door the poor little woman stopped
+short on the threshold, abashed, and caught her breath, looking around
+with wondering eyes and putting out a trembling hand to steady herself
+against the door-frame. She wasn't quite sure whether things in that
+room were real, or whether she might not by chance have caught a glimpse
+into heaven, so beautiful did it seem to her. It was not till her eyes,
+in the roving, suddenly rested on the great mountain framed in the open
+window that she felt anchored and sure that this was a tangible place.
+Then she ventured to step her heavy shoe inside the door. Even then she
+drew her ugly calico back apologetically, as if it were a desecration to
+the lovely room.
+
+But Margaret seized her and drew her into the room, placing her gently
+in the rose-ruffled rocking-chair as if it were a throne and she a
+queen, and the poor little woman sat entranced, with tears springing to
+her eyes and trickling down her cheeks.
+
+Perhaps it was an impossibility for Margaret to conceive what the vision
+of that room meant to Mom Wallis. The realization of all the dreams of a
+starved soul concentrated into a small space; the actual, tangible proof
+that there might be a heaven some day--who knew?--since beauties and
+comforts like these could be real in Arizona.
+
+Margaret brought the pictures of her father and mother, of her dear home
+and the dear old church. She took her about the room and showed her the
+various pictures and reminders of her college days, and when she saw
+that the poor creature was overwhelmed and speechless she turned her
+about and showed her the great mountain again, like an anchorage for her
+soul.
+
+Mom Wallis looked at everything speechlessly, gasping as her attention
+was turned from one object to another, as if she were unable to rise
+beyond her excitement; but when she saw the mountain again her tongue
+was loosed, and she turned and looked back at the girl wonderingly.
+
+"Now, ain't it strange! Even that old mounting looks diffrunt--it do
+look diffrunt from a room like this. Why, it looks like it got its hair
+combed an' its best collar on!" And Mom Wallis looked down with pride
+and patted the simple net ruffle about her withered throat. "Why, it
+looks like a picter painted an' hung up on this yere wall, that's what
+that mounting looks like! It kinda ain't no mounting any more; it's jest
+a picter in your room!"
+
+Margaret smiled. "It is a picture, isn't it? Just look at that silver
+light over the purple place. Isn't it wonderful? I like to think it's
+mine--my mountain. And yet the beautiful thing about it is that it's
+just as much yours, too. It will make a picture of itself framed in your
+bunk-house window if you let it. Try it. You just need to let it."
+
+Mom Wallis looked at her wonderingly. "Do you mean," she said, studying
+the girl's lovely face, "that ef I should wash them there bunk-house
+winders, an' string up some posy caliker, an' stuff a chair, an' have a
+pin-cushion, I could make that there mounting come in an' set fer me
+like a picter the way it does here fer you?"
+
+"Yes, that's what I mean," said Margaret, softly, marveling how the
+uncouth woman had caught the thought. "That's exactly what I mean. God's
+gifts will be as much to us as we will let them, always. Try it and
+see."
+
+Mom Wallis stood for some minutes looking out reflectively at the
+mountain. "Wal, mebbe I'll try it!" she said, and turned back to survey
+the room again.
+
+And now the mirror caught her eye, and she saw herself, a strange self
+in a soft white collar, and went up to get a nearer view, laying a
+toil-worn finger on the lace and looking half embarrassed at sight of
+her own face.
+
+"It's a real purty collar," she said, softly, with a choke in her voice.
+"It's too purty fer me. I told him so, but he said as how you wanted I
+should dress up every night fer supper in it. It's 'most as strange as
+havin' a mounting come an' live with you, to wear a collar like
+that--me!"
+
+Margaret's eyes were suddenly bright with tears. Who would have
+suspected Mom Wallis of having poetry in her nature? Then, as if her
+thoughts anticipated the question in Margaret's mind, Mom Wallis went
+on:
+
+"He brang me your little book," she said. "I ain't goin' to say thank
+yeh, it ain't a big-'nuf word. An' he read me the poetry words it says.
+I got it wropped in a hankercher on the top o' the beam over my bed. I'm
+goin' to have it buried with me when I die. Oh, I _read_ it. I couldn't
+make much out of it, but I read the words thorough. An' then _he_ read
+'em--the Kid did. He reads just beautiful. He's got education, he has.
+He read it, and he talked a lot about it. Was this what you mean? Was it
+that we ain't really growin' old at all, we're jest goin' on, _gettin_'
+there, if we go right? Did you mean you think Him as planned it all
+wanted some old woman right thar in the bunk-house, an' it's _me_? Did
+you mean there was agoin' to be a chanct fer me to be young an'
+beautiful somewheres in creation yit, 'fore I git through?"
+
+The old woman had turned around from looking into the mirror and was
+facing her hostess. Her eyes were very bright; her cheeks had taken on
+an excited flush, and her knotted hands were clutching the bureau. She
+looked into Margaret's eyes earnestly, as though her very life depended
+upon the answer; and Margaret, with a great leap of her heart, smiled
+and answered:
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Wallis, yes, that is just what I meant. Listen, these are
+God's own words about it: 'For I reckon that the sufferings of this
+present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be
+revealed in us.'"
+
+A kind of glory shone in the withered old face now. "Did you say them
+was God's words?" she asked in an awed voice.
+
+"Yes," said Margaret; "they are in the Bible."
+
+"But you couldn't be sure it meant _me_?" she asked, eagerly. "They
+wouldn't go to put _me_ in the Bible, o' course."
+
+"Oh yes, you could be quite sure, Mrs. Wallis," said Margaret, gently.
+"Because if God was making you and had a plan for you, as the poem says,
+He would be sure to put down something in His book about it, don't you
+think? He would want you to know."
+
+"It does sound reasonable-like now, don't it?" said the woman,
+wistfully. "Say them glory words again, won't you?"
+
+Margaret repeated the text slowly and distinctly.
+
+"Glory!" repeated Mom Wallis, wonderingly. "Glory! Me!" and turned
+incredulously toward the glass. She looked a long tune wistfully at
+herself, as if she could not believe it, and pulled reproachfully at
+the tight hair drawn away from her weather-beaten face. "I useta have
+purty hair onct," she said, sadly.
+
+"Why, you have pretty hair now!" said Margaret, eagerly. "It just wants
+a chance to show its beauty, Here, let me fix it for dinner, will you?"
+
+She whisked the bewildered old woman into a chair and began unwinding
+the hard, tight knot of hair at the back of her head and shaking it out.
+The hair was thin and gray now, but it showed signs of having been fine
+and thick once.
+
+"It's easy to keep your hair looking pretty," said the girl, as she
+worked. "I'm going to give you a little box of my nice sweet-smelling
+soap-powder that I use to shampoo my hair. You take it home and wash
+your hair with it every two or three weeks and you'll see it will make a
+difference in a little while. You just haven't taken time to take care
+of it, that's all. Do you mind if I wave the front here a little? I'd
+like to fix your hair the way my mother wears hers."
+
+Now nothing could have been further apart than this little
+weather-beaten old woman and Margaret's gentle, dove-like mother, with
+her abundant soft gray hair, her cameo features, and her pretty, gray
+dresses; but Margaret had a vision of what glory might bring to Mom
+Wallis, and she wanted to help it along. She believed that heavenly
+glory can be hastened a good deal on earth if one only tries, and so she
+set to work. Glancing out the window, she saw with relief that Gardley
+was talking interestedly with Mr. Tanner and seemed entirely content
+with their absence.
+
+Mom Wallis hadn't any idea what "waving" her hair meant, but she readily
+consented to anything this wonderful girl proposed, and she sat
+entranced, looking at her mountain and thrilling with every touch of
+Margaret's satin fingers against her leathery old temples. And so,
+Sunday though it was, Margaret lighted her little alcohol-lamp and
+heated a tiny curling-iron which she kept for emergencies. In a few
+minutes' time Mom Wallis's astonished old gray locks lay soft and fluffy
+about her face, and pinned in a smooth coil behind, instead of the tight
+knot, making the most wonderful difference in the world in her old,
+tired face.
+
+"Now look!" said Margaret, and turned her about to the mirror. "If
+there's anything at all you don't like about it I can change it, you
+know. You don't have to wear it so if you don't like it."
+
+The old woman looked, and then looked back at Margaret with frightened
+eyes, and back to the vision in the mirror again.
+
+"My soul!" she exclaimed in an awed voice. "My soul! It's come a'ready!
+Glory! I didn't think I could look like that! I wonder what Pop 'd say!
+My land! Would you mind ef I kep' it on a while an' wore it back to camp
+this way? Pop might uv come home an' I'd like to see ef he'd take notice
+to it. I used to be purty onct, but I never expected no sech thing like
+this again on earth. Glory! Glory! Mebbe I _could_ get some glory,
+_too_."
+
+"'The glory that shall be revealed' is a great deal more wonderful than
+this," said Margaret, gently. "This was here all the time, only you
+didn't let it come out. Wear it home that way, of course, and wear it
+so all the time. It's very little trouble, and you'll find your family
+will like it. Men always like to see a woman looking her best, even when
+she's working. It helps to make them good. Before you go home I'll show
+you how to fix it. It's quite simple. Come, now, shall we go
+down-stairs? We don't want to leave Mr. Gardley alone too long, and,
+besides, I smell the dinner. I think they'll be waiting for us pretty
+soon. I'm going to take a few of these pictures down to show Mr.
+Gardley."
+
+She hastily gathered a few photographs together and led the bewildered
+little woman down-stairs again, and out in the yard, where Gardley was
+walking up and down now, looking off at the mountain. It came to
+Margaret, suddenly, that the minister would be returning to the house
+soon, and she wished he wouldn't come. He would be a false note in the
+pleasant harmony of the little company. He would be disagreeable to
+manage, and perhaps hurt poor Mom Wallis's feelings. Perhaps he had
+already come. She looked furtively around as she came out the door, but
+no minister was in sight, and then she forgot him utterly in the look of
+bewildered astonishment with which Gardley was regarding Mom Wallis.
+
+He had stopped short in his walk across the little yard, and was staring
+at Mom Wallis, recognition gradually growing in his gaze. When he was
+fully convinced he turned his eyes to Margaret, as if to ask: "How did
+you do it? Wonderful woman!" and a look of deep reverence for her came
+over his face.
+
+Then suddenly he noticed the shy embarrassment on the old woman's face,
+and swiftly came toward her, his hands outstretched, and, taking her
+bony hands in his, bowed low over them as a courtier might do.
+
+"Mom Wallis, you are beautiful. Did you know it?" he said, gently, and
+led her to a little stumpy rocking-chair with a gay red-and-blue rag
+cushion that Mrs. Tanner always kept sitting by the front door in
+pleasant weather. Then he stood off and surveyed her, while the red
+stole into her cheeks becomingly. "What has Miss Earle been doing to
+glorify you?" he asked, again looking at her earnestly.
+
+The old woman looked at him in awed silence. There was that word
+again--glory! He had said the girl had glorified her. There was then
+some glory in her, and it had been brought out by so simple a thing as
+the arrangement of her hair. It frightened her, and tears came and stood
+in her tired old eyes.
+
+It was well for Mom Wallis's equilibrium that Mr. Tanner came out just
+then with the paper he had gone after, for the stolidity of her lifetime
+was about breaking up. But, as he turned, Gardley gave her one of the
+rarest smiles of sympathy and understanding that a young man can give to
+an old woman; and Margaret, watching, loved him for it. It seemed to her
+one of the most beautiful things a young man had ever done.
+
+They had discussed the article in the paper thoroughly, and had looked
+at the photographs that Margaret had brought down; and Mrs. Tanner had
+come to the door numberless times, looking out in a troubled way down
+the road, only to trot back again, look in the oven, peep in the kettle,
+sigh, and trot out to the door again. At last she came and stood, arms
+akimbo, and looked down the road once more.
+
+"Pa, I don't just see how I can keep the dinner waitin' a minute longer,
+The potatoes 'll be sp'iled. I don't see what's keepin' that
+preacher-man. He musta been invited out, though I don't see why he
+didn't send me word."
+
+"That's it, likely, Ma," said Tanner. He was growing hungry. "I saw Mis'
+Bacon talkin' to him. She's likely invited him there. She's always
+tryin' to get ahead o' you, Ma, you know, 'cause you got the prize fer
+your marble cake."
+
+Mrs. Tanner blushed and looked down apologetically at her guests. "Well,
+then, ef you'll just come in and set down, I'll dish up. My land! Ain't
+that Bud comin' down the road, Pa? He's likely sent word by Bud. I'll
+hurry in an' dish up."
+
+Bud slid into his seat hurriedly after a brief ablution in the kitchen,
+and his mother questioned him sharply.
+
+"Bud, wher you be'n? Did the minister get invited out?"
+
+The boy grinned and slowly winked one eye at Gardley. "Yes, he's invited
+out, all right," he said, meaningly. "You don't need to wait fer him. He
+won't be home fer some time, I don't reckon."
+
+Gardley looked keenly, steadily, at the boy's dancing eyes, and resolved
+to have a fuller understanding later, and his own eyes met the boy's in
+a gleam of mischief and sympathy.
+
+It was the first time in twenty years that Mom Wallis had eaten anything
+which she had not prepared herself, and now, with fried chicken and
+company preserves before her, she could scarcely swallow a mouthful. To
+be seated beside Gardley and waited on like a queen! To be smiled at by
+the beautiful young girl across the table, and deferred to by Mr. and
+Mrs. Tanner as "Mrs. Wallis," and asked to have more pickles and another
+helping of jelly, and did she take cream and sugar in her coffee! It was
+too much, and Mom Wallis was struggling with the tears. Even Bud's
+round, blue eyes regarded her with approval and interest. She couldn't
+help thinking, if her own baby boy had lived, would he ever have been
+like Bud? And once she smiled at him, and Bud smiled back, a real
+boy-like, frank, hearty grin. It was all like taking dinner in the
+Kingdom of Heaven to Mom Wallis, and getting glory aforetime.
+
+It was a wonderful afternoon, and seemed to go on swift wings. Gardley
+went back to the school-house, where the horses had been left, and Bud
+went with him to give further particulars about that wink at the
+dinner-table. Mom Wallis went up to the rose-garlanded room and learned
+how to wash her hair, and received a roll of flowered scrim wherewith to
+make curtains for the bunk-house. Margaret had originally intended it
+for the school-house windows in case it proved necessary to make that
+place habitable, but the school-room could wait.
+
+And there in the rose-room, with the new curtains in her trembling
+hands, and the great old mountain in full view, Mom Wallis knelt beside
+the little gay rocking-chair, while Margaret knelt beside her and prayed
+that the Heavenly Father would show Mom Wallis how to let the glory be
+revealed in her now on the earth.
+
+Then Mom Wallis wiped the furtive tears away with her calico sleeve,
+tied on her funny old bonnet, and rode away with her handsome young
+escort into the silence of the desert, with the glory beginning to be
+revealed already in her countenance.
+
+Quite late that evening the minister returned.
+
+He came in slowly and wearily, as if every step were a pain to him, and
+he avoided the light. His coat was torn and his garments were
+mud-covered. He murmured of a "slight accident" to Mrs. Tanner, who met
+him solicitously in a flowered dressing-gown with a candle in her hand.
+He accepted greedily the half a pie, with cheese and cold chicken and
+other articles, she proffered on a plate at his door, and in the reply
+to her query as to where he had been for dinner, and if he had a
+pleasant time, he said:
+
+"Very pleasant, indeed, thank you! The name? Um--ah--I disremember! I
+really didn't ask--That is--"
+
+The minister did not get up to breakfast, In fact, he remained in bed
+for several days, professing to be suffering with an attack of
+rheumatism. He was solicitously watched over and fed by the anxious Mrs.
+Tanner, who was much disconcerted at the state of affairs, and couldn't
+understand why she could not get the school-teacher more interested in
+the invalid.
+
+On the fourth day, however, the Reverend Frederick crept forth, white
+and shaken, with his sleek hair elaborately combed to cover a long
+scratch on his forehead, and announced his intention of departing from
+the State of Arizona that evening.
+
+He crept forth cautiously to the station as the shades of evening drew
+on, but found Long Bill awaiting him, and Jasper Kemp not far away. He
+had the two letters ready in his pocket, with the gold piece, though he
+had entertained hopes of escaping without forfeiting them, but he was
+obliged to wait patiently until Jasper Kemp had read both letters
+through twice, with the train in momentary danger of departing without
+him, before he was finally allowed to get on board. Jasper Kemp's
+parting word to him was:
+
+"Watch your steps spry, parson. I'm agoin' to see that you're shadowed
+wherever you go. You needn't think you can get shy on the Bible again.
+It won't pay."
+
+There was menace in the dry remark, and the Reverend Frederick's
+professional egotism withered before it. He bowed his head, climbed on
+board the train, and vanished from the scene of his recent discomfiture.
+But the bitterest thing about it all was that he had gone without
+capturing the heart or even the attention of that haughty little
+school-teacher. "And she was such a pretty girl," he said, regretfully,
+to himself. "Such a _very_ pretty girl!" He sighed deeply to himself as
+he watched Arizona speed by the window. "Still," he reflected,
+comfortably, after a moment, "there are always plenty more! What was
+that remarkably witty saying I heard just before I left home? 'Never run
+after a street-car or a woman. There'll be another one along in a
+minute.' Um--ah--yes--very true--there'll be another one along in a
+minute."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+School had settled down to real work by the opening of the new week.
+Margaret knew her scholars and had gained a personal hold on most of
+them already. There was enough novelty in her teaching to keep the
+entire school in a pleasant state of excitement and wonder as to what
+she would do next, and the word had gone out through all the country
+round about that the new teacher had taken the school by storm. It was
+not infrequent for men to turn out of their way on the trail to get a
+glimpse of the school as they were passing, just to make sure the
+reports were true. Rumor stated that the teacher was exceedingly pretty;
+that she would take no nonsense, not even from the big boys; that she
+never threatened nor punished, but that every one of the boys was her
+devoted slave. There had been no uprising, and it almost seemed as if
+that popular excitement was to be omitted this season, and school was to
+sail along in an orderly and proper manner. In fact, the entire school
+as well as the surrounding population were eagerly talking about the new
+piano, which seemed really to be a coming fact. Not that there had been
+anything done toward it yet, but the teacher had promised that just as
+soon as every one was really studying hard and doing his best, she was
+going to begin to get them ready for an entertainment to raise money for
+that piano. They couldn't begin until everybody was in good working
+order, because they didn't want to take the interest away from the real
+business of school; but it was going to be a Shakespeare play, whatever
+that was, and therefore of grave import. Some people talked learnedly
+about Shakespeare and hinted of poetry; but the main part of the
+community spoke the name joyously and familiarly and without awe, as if
+it were milk and honey in their mouths. Why should they reverence
+Shakespeare more than any one else?
+
+Margaret had grown used to seeing a head appear suddenly at one of the
+school-room windows and look long and frowningly first at her, then at
+the school, and then back to her again, as if it were a nine days'
+wonder. Whoever the visitor was, he would stand quietly, watching the
+process of the hour as if he were at a play, and Margaret would turn and
+smile pleasantly, then go right on with her work. The visitor would
+generally take off a wide hat and wave it cordially, smile back a
+curious, softened smile, and by and by he would mount his horse and pass
+on reflectively down the trail, wishing he could be a boy and go back
+again to school--such a school!
+
+Oh, it was not all smooth, the way that Margaret walked. There were
+hitches, and unpleasant days when nothing went right, and when some of
+the girls got silly and rebellious, and the boys followed in their lead.
+She had her trials like any teacher, skilful as she was, and not the
+least of them became Rosa Rogers, the petted beauty, who presently
+manifested a childish jealousy of her in her influence over the boys.
+Noting this, Margaret went out of her way to win Rosa, but found it a
+difficult matter.
+
+Rosa was proud, selfish, and unprincipled. She never forgave any one who
+frustrated her plans. She resented being made to study like the rest.
+She had always compelled the teacher to let her do as she pleased and
+still give her a good report. This she found she could not do with
+Margaret, and for the first time in her career she was compelled to work
+or fall behind. It presently became not a question of how the new
+teacher was to manage the big boys and the bad boys of the Ashland Ridge
+School, but how she was to prevent Rosa Rogers and a few girls who
+followed her from upsetting all her plans. The trouble was, Rosa was
+pretty and knew her power over the boys. If she chose she could put them
+all in a state of insubordination, and this she chose very often during
+those first few weeks.
+
+But there was one visitor who did not confine himself to looking in at
+the window.
+
+One morning a fine black horse came galloping up to the school-house at
+recess-time, and a well-set-up young man in wide sombrero and jaunty
+leather trappings sprang off and came into the building. His shining
+spurs caught the sunlight and flashed as he moved. He walked with the
+air of one who regards himself of far more importance than all who may
+be watching him. The boys in the yard stopped their ball-game, and the
+girls huddled close in whispering groups and drew near to the door. He
+was a young man from a ranch near the fort some thirty miles away, and
+he had brought an invitation for the new school-teacher to come over to
+dinner on Friday evening and stay until the following Monday morning.
+The invitation was from his sister, the wife of a wealthy cattleman
+whose home and hospitality were noted for miles around. She had heard of
+the coming of the beautiful young teacher, and wanted to attach her to
+her social circle.
+
+The young man was deference itself to Margaret, openly admiring her as
+he talked, and said the most gracious things to her; and then, while she
+was answering the note, he smiled over at Rosa Rogers, who had slipped
+into her seat and was studiously preparing her algebra with the book
+upside down.
+
+Margaret, looking up, caught Rosa's smiling glance and the tail end of a
+look from the young man's eyes, and felt a passing wonder whether he had
+ever met the girl before. Something in the boldness of his look made her
+feel that he had not. Yet he was all smiles and deference to herself,
+and his open admiration and pleasure that she was to come to help
+brighten this lonely country, and that she was going to accept the
+invitation, was really pleasant to the girl, for it was desolate being
+tied down to only the Tanner household and the school, and she welcomed
+any bit of social life.
+
+The young man had light hair, combed very smooth, and light-blue eyes.
+They were bolder and handsomer than the minister's, but the girl had a
+feeling that they were the very same cold color. She wondered at her
+comparison, for she liked the handsome young man, and in spite of
+herself was a little flattered at the nice things he had said to her.
+Nevertheless, when she remembered him afterward it was always with that
+uncomfortable feeling that if he hadn't been so handsome and polished in
+his appearance he would have seemed just a little bit like that
+minister, and she couldn't for the life of her tell why.
+
+After he was gone she looked back at Rosa, and there was a narrowing of
+the girl's eyes and a frown of hate on her brows. Margaret turned with a
+sigh back to her school problem--what to do with Rosa Rogers?
+
+But Rosa did not stay in the school-house. She slipped out and walked
+arm in arm with Amanda Bounds down the road.
+
+Margaret went to the door and watched. Presently she saw the rider wheel
+and come galloping back to the door. He had forgotten to tell her that
+an escort would be sent to bring her as early on Friday afternoon as she
+would be ready to leave the school, and he intimated that he hoped he
+might be detailed for that pleasant duty.
+
+Margaret looked into his face and warmed to his pleasant smile. How
+could she have thought him like West? He touched his hat and rode away,
+and a moment later she saw him draw rein beside Rosa and Amanda, and
+presently dismount.
+
+Bud rang the bell just then, and Margaret went back to her desk with a
+lingering look at the three figures in the distance. It was full half an
+hour before Rosa came in, with Amanda looking scared behind her; and
+troubled Margaret watched the sly look in the girl's eyes and wondered
+what she ought to do about it. As Rosa was passing out of the door after
+school she called her to the desk.
+
+"You were late in coming in after recess, Rosa," said Margaret, gently.
+"Have you any excuse?"
+
+"I was talking to a friend," said Rosa, with a toss of her head which
+said, as plainly as words could have done, "I don't intend to give an
+excuse."
+
+"Were you talking to the gentleman who was here?"
+
+"Well, if I was, what is that to you, Miss Earle?" said Rosa, haughtily.
+"Did you think you could have all the men and boys to yourself?"
+
+"Rosa," said Margaret, trying to speak calmly, but her voice trembling
+with suppressed indignation, "don't talk that way to me. Child, did you
+ever meet Mr. Forsythe before?"
+
+"I'm not a child, and it's none of your business!" flouted Rosa,
+angrily, and she twitched away and flung herself out of the
+school-house.
+
+Margaret, trembling from the disagreeable encounter, stood at the window
+and watched the girl going down the road, and felt for the moment that
+she would rather give up her school and go back home than face the
+situation. She knew in her heart that this girl, once an enemy, would be
+a bitter one, and this her last move had been a most unfortunate one,
+coming out, as it did, with Rosa in the lead. She could, of course,
+complain to Rosa's family, or to the school-board, but such was not the
+policy she had chosen. She wanted to be able to settle her own
+difficulties. It seemed strange that she could not reach this one
+girl--who was in a way the key to the situation. Perhaps the play would
+be able to help her. She spent a long time that evening going over the
+different plays in her library, and finally, with a look of apology
+toward a little photographed head of Shakespeare, she decided on
+"Midsummer-Night's Dream." What if it was away above the heads of them
+all, wouldn't a few get something from it? And wasn't it better to take
+a great thing and try to make her scholars and a few of the community
+understand it, rather than to take a silly little play that would not
+amount to anything in the end? Of course, they couldn't do it well; that
+went without saying. Of course it would be away beyond them all, but at
+least it would be a study of something great for her pupils, and she
+could meantime teach them a little about Shakespeare and perhaps help
+some of them to learn to love his plays and study them.
+
+The play she had selected was one in which she herself had acted the
+part of Puck, and she knew it by heart. She felt reasonably sure that
+she could help some of the more adaptable scholars to interpret their
+parts, and, at least, it would be good for them just as a study in
+literature. As for the audience, they would not be critics. Perhaps they
+would not even be able to comprehend the meaning of the play, but they
+would come and they would listen, and the experiment was one worth
+trying.
+
+Carefully she went over the parts, trying to find the one which she
+thought would best fit Rosa Rogers, and please her as well, because it
+gave her opportunity to display her beauty and charm. She really was a
+pretty girl, and would do well. Margaret wondered whether she were
+altogether right in attempting to win the girl through her vanity, and
+yet what other weak place was there in which to storm the silly little
+citadel of her soul?
+
+And so the work of assigning parts and learning them began that very
+week, though no one was allowed a part until his work for the day had
+all been handed in.
+
+At noon Margaret made one more attempt with Rosa Rogers. She drew her to
+a seat beside her and put aside as much as possible her own remembrance
+of the girl's disagreeable actions and impudent words.
+
+"Rosa," she said, and her voice was very gentle, "I want to have a
+little talk with you. You seem to feel that you and I are enemies, and I
+don't want you to have that attitude. I hoped we'd be the best of
+friends. You see, there isn't any other way for us to work well
+together. And I want to explain why I spoke to you as I did yesterday.
+It was not, as you hinted, that I want to keep all my acquaintances to
+myself. I have no desire to do that. It was because I feel responsible
+for the girls and boys in my care, and I was troubled lest perhaps you
+had been foolish--"
+
+Margaret paused. She could see by the bright hardness of the girl's eyes
+that she was accomplishing nothing. Rosa evidently did not believe her.
+
+"Well, Rosa," she said, suddenly, putting an impulsive, kindly hand on
+the girl's arm, "suppose we forget it this time, put it all away, and be
+friends. Let's learn to understand each other if we can, but in the
+mean time I want to talk to you about the play."
+
+And then, indeed, Rosa's hard manner broke, and she looked up with
+interest, albeit there was some suspicion in the glance. She wanted to
+be in that play with all her heart; she wanted the very showiest part in
+it, too; and she meant to have it, although she had a strong suspicion
+that the teacher would want to keep that part for herself, whatever it
+was.
+
+But Margaret had been wise. She had decided to take time and explain the
+play to her, and then let her choose her own part. She wisely judged
+that Rosa would do better in the part in which her interest centered,
+and perhaps the choice would help her to understand her pupil better.
+
+And so for an hour she patiently stayed after school and went over the
+play, explaining it carefully, and it seemed at one time as though Rosa
+was about to choose to be Puck, because with quick perception she caught
+the importance of that character; but when she learned that the costume
+must be a quiet hood and skirt of green and brown she scorned it, and
+chose, at last, to be Titania, queen of the fairies. So, with a sigh of
+relief, and a keen insight into the shallow nature, Margaret began to
+teach the girl some of the fairy steps, and found her quick and eager to
+learn. In the first lesson Rosa forgot for a little while her animosity
+and became almost as one of the other pupils. The play was going to
+prove a great means of bringing them all together.
+
+Before Friday afternoon came the parts had all been assigned and the
+plans for the entertainment were well under way.
+
+Jed and Timothy had been as good as their word about giving the teacher
+riding-lessons, each vying with the other to bring a horse and make her
+ride at noon hour, and she had already had several good lessons and a
+long ride or two in company with both her teachers.
+
+The thirty-mile ride for Friday, then, was not such an undertaking as it
+might otherwise have been, and Margaret looked forward to it with
+eagerness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+The little party of escort arrived before school was closed on Friday
+afternoon, and came down to the school-house in full force to take her
+away with them. The young man Forsythe, with his sister, the hostess
+herself, and a young army officer from the fort, comprised the party.
+Margaret dismissed school ten minutes early and went back with them to
+the Tanners' to make a hurried change in her dress and pick up her
+suit-case, which was already packed. As they rode away from the
+school-house Margaret looked back and saw Rosa Rogers posing in one of
+her sprite dances in the school-yard, saw her kiss her hand laughingly
+toward their party, and saw the flutter of a handkerchief in young
+Forsythe's hand. It was all very general and elusive, a passing bit of
+fun, but it left an uncomfortable impression on the teacher's mind. She
+looked keenly at the young man as he rode up smiling beside her, and
+once more experienced that strange, sudden change of feeling about him.
+
+She took opportunity during that long ride to find out if the young man
+had known Rosa Rogers before; but he frankly told her that he had just
+come West to visit his sister, was bored to death because he didn't know
+a soul in the whole State, and until he had seen her had not laid eyes
+on one whom he cared to know. Yet while she could not help enjoying the
+gay badinage, she carried a sense of uneasiness whenever she thought of
+the young girl Rosa in her pretty fairy pose, with her fluttering pink
+fingers and her saucy, smiling eyes. There was something untrustworthy,
+too, in the handsome face of the man beside her.
+
+There was just one shadow over this bit of a holiday. Margaret had a
+little feeling that possibly some one from the camp might come down on
+Saturday or Sunday, and she would miss him. Yet nothing had been said
+about it, and she had no way of sending word that she would be away. She
+had meant to send Mom Wallis a letter by the next messenger that came
+that way. It was all written and lying on her bureau, but no one had
+been down all the week. She was, therefore, greatly pleased when an
+approaching rider in the distance proved to be Gardley, and with a
+joyful little greeting she drew rein and hailed him, giving him a
+message for Mom Wallis.
+
+Only Gardley's eyes told what this meeting was to him. His demeanor was
+grave and dignified. He acknowledged the introductions to the rest of
+the party gracefully, touched his hat with the ease of one to the manner
+born, and rode away, flashing her one gleam of a smile that told her he
+was glad of the meeting; but throughout the brief interview there had
+been an air of question and hostility between the two men, Forsythe and
+Gardley. Forsythe surveyed Gardley rudely, almost insolently, as if his
+position beside the lady gave him rights beyond the other, and he
+resented the coming of the stranger. Gardley's gaze was cold, too, as he
+met the look, and his eyes searched Forsythe's face keenly, as though
+they would find out what manner of man was riding with his friend.
+
+When he was gone Margaret had the feeling that he was somehow
+disappointed, and once she turned in the saddle and looked wistfully
+after him; but he was riding furiously into the distance, sitting his
+horse as straight as an arrow and already far away upon the desert.
+
+"Your friend is a reckless rider," said Forsythe, with a sneer in his
+voice that Margaret did not like, as they watched the speck in the
+distance clear a steep descent from the mesa at a bound and disappear
+from sight in the mesquite beyond.
+
+"Isn't he fine-looking? Where did you find him, Miss Earle?" asked Mrs.
+Temple, eagerly. "I wish I'd asked him to join us. He left so suddenly I
+didn't realize he was going."
+
+Margaret felt a wondering and pleasant sense of possession and pride in
+Gardley as she watched, but she quietly explained that the young
+stranger was from the East, and that he was engaged in some kind of
+cattle business at a distance from Ashland. Her manner was reserved, and
+the matter dropped. She naturally felt a reluctance to tell how her
+acquaintance with Gardley began. It seemed something between themselves.
+She could fancy the gushing Mrs. Temple saying, "How romantic!" She was
+that kind of a woman. It was evident that she was romantically inclined
+herself, for she used her fine eyes with effect on the young officer who
+rode with her, and Margaret found herself wondering what kind of a
+husband she had and what her mother would think of a woman like this.
+
+There was no denying that the luxury of the ranch was a happy relief
+from the simplicity of life at the Tanners'. Iced drinks and cushions
+and easy-chairs, feasting and music and laughter! There were books, too,
+and magazines, and all the little things that go to make up a cultured
+life; and yet they were not people of Margaret's world, and when
+Saturday evening was over she sat alone in the room they had given her
+and, facing herself in the glass, confessed to herself that she looked
+back with more pleasure to the Sabbath spent with Mom Wallis than she
+could look forward to a Sabbath here. The morning proved her forebodings
+well founded.
+
+Breakfast was a late, informal affair, filled with hilarious gaiety.
+There was no mention of any church service, and Margaret found it was
+quite too late to suggest such a thing when breakfast was over, even if
+she had been sure there was any service.
+
+After breakfast was over there were various forms of amusement proposed
+for her pleasure, and she really felt very much embarrassed for a few
+moments to know how to avoid what to her was pure Sabbath-breaking. Yet
+she did not wish to be rude to these people who were really trying to be
+kind to her. She managed at last to get them interested in music, and,
+grouping them around the piano after a few preliminary performances by
+herself at their earnest solicitation, coaxed them into singing hymns.
+
+After all, they really seemed to enjoy it, though they had to get along
+with one hymn-book for the whole company; but Margaret knew how to make
+hymn-singing interesting, and her exquisite voice was never more at its
+best than when she led off with "My Jesus, as Thou Wilt," or "Jesus,
+Saviour, Pilot Me."
+
+"You would be the delight of Mr. Brownleigh's heart," said the hostess,
+gushingly, at last, after Margaret had finished singing "Abide With Me"
+with wonderful feeling.
+
+"And who is Mr. Brownleigh?" asked Margaret. "Why should I delight his
+heart?"
+
+"Why, he is our missionary--that is, the missionary for this region--and
+you would delight his heart because you are so religious and sing so
+well," said the superficial little woman. "Mr. Brownleigh is really a
+very cultured man. Of course, he's narrow. All clergymen are narrow,
+don't you think? They have to be to a certain extent. He's really
+_quite_ narrow. Why, he believes in the Bible _literally_, the whale and
+Jonah, and the Flood, and making bread out of stones, and all that sort
+of thing, you know. Imagine it! But he does. He's sincere! Perfectly
+sincere. I suppose he has to be. It's his business. But sometimes one
+feels it a pity that he can't relax a little, just among us here, you
+know. We'd never tell. Why, he won't even play a little game of poker!
+And he doesn't smoke! _Imagine_ it--_not even when he's by himself_, and
+_no one would know_! Isn't that odd? But he can preach. He's really very
+interesting; only a little too Utopian in his ideas. He thinks everybody
+ought to be good, you know, and all that sort of thing. He really
+thinks it's possible, and he lives that way himself. He really does. But
+he is a wonderful person; only I feel sorry for his wife sometimes.
+She's quite a cultured person. Has been wealthy, you know. She was a New
+York society girl. Just imagine it; out in these wilds taking gruel to
+the dirty little Indians! How she ever came to do it! Of course she
+adores him, but I can't really believe she is happy. No woman could be
+quite blind enough to give up everything in the world for one man, no
+matter how good he was. Do you think she could? It wasn't as if she
+didn't have plenty of other chances. She gave them all up to come out
+and marry him. She's a pretty good sport, too; she never lets you know
+she isn't perfectly happy."
+
+"She _is_ happy; mother, she's happier than _anybody_ I ever saw,"
+declared the fourteen-year-old daughter of the house, who was home from
+boarding-school for a brief visit during an epidemic of measles in the
+school.
+
+"Oh yes, she manages to make people think she's happy," said her mother,
+indulgently; "but you can't make me believe she's satisfied to give up
+her house on Fifth Avenue and live in a two-roomed log cabin in the
+desert, with no society."
+
+"Mother, you don't know! Why, _any_ woman would be satisfied if her
+husband adored her the way Mr. Brownleigh does her."
+
+"Well, Ada, you're a romantic girl, and Mr. Brownleigh is a handsome
+man. You've got a few things to learn yet. Mark my words, I don't
+believe you'll see Mrs. Brownleigh coming back next month with her
+husband. This operation was all well enough to talk about, but I'll not
+be surprised to hear that he has come back alone or else that he has
+accepted a call to some big city church. And he's equal to the city
+church, too; that's the wonder of it. He comes of a fine family himself,
+I've heard. Oh, people can't keep up the pose of saints forever, even
+though they do adore each other. But Mr. Brownleigh _certainly is_ a
+good man!"
+
+The vapid little woman sat looking reflectively out of the window for a
+whole minute after this deliverance. Yes, certainly Mr. Brownleigh was a
+good man. He was the one man of culture, education, refinement, who had
+come her way in many a year who had patiently and persistently and
+gloriously refused her advances at a mild flirtation, and refused to
+understand them, yet remained her friend and reverenced hero. He was a
+good man, and she knew it, for she was a very pretty woman and
+understood her art well.
+
+Before the day was over Margaret had reason to feel that a Sabbath in
+Arizona was a very hard thing to find. The singing could not last all
+day, and her friends seemed to find more amusements on Sunday that did
+not come into Margaret's code of Sabbath-keeping than one knew how to
+say no to. Neither could they understand her feeling, and she found it
+hard not to be rude in gently declining one plan after another.
+
+She drew the children into a wide, cozy corner after dinner and began a
+Bible story in the guise of a fairy-tale, while the hostess slipped away
+to take a nap. However, several other guests lingered about, and Mr.
+Temple strayed in. They sat with newspapers before their faces and got
+into the story, too, seeming to be deeply interested, so that, after
+all, Margaret did not have an unprofitable Sabbath.
+
+But altogether, though she had a gay and somewhat frivolous time, a good
+deal of admiration and many invitations to return as often as possible,
+Margaret was not sorry when she said good night to know that she was to
+return in the early morning to her work.
+
+Mr. Temple himself was going part way with them, accompanied by his
+niece, Forsythe, and the young officer who came over with them. Margaret
+rode beside Mr. Temple until his way parted from theirs, and had a
+delightful talk about Arizona. He was a kindly old fellow who adored his
+frivolous little wife and let her go her own gait, seeming not to mind
+how much she flirted.
+
+The morning was pink and silver, gold and azure, a wonderful specimen of
+an Arizona sunrise for Margaret's benefit, and a glorious beginning for
+her day's work in spite of the extremely early hour. The company was gay
+and blithe, and the Eastern girl felt as if she were passing through a
+wonderful experience.
+
+They loitered a little on the way to show Margaret the wonders of a
+fern-plumed caņon, and it was almost school-time when they came up the
+street, so that Margaret rode straight to the school-house instead of
+stopping at Tanners'. On the way to the school they passed a group of
+girls, of whom Rosa Rogers was the center. A certain something in Rosa's
+narrowed eyelids as she said good morning caused Margaret to look back
+uneasily, and she distinctly saw the girl give a signal to young
+Forsythe, who, for answer, only tipped his hat and gave her a peculiar
+smile.
+
+In a moment more they had said good-by, and Margaret was left at the
+school-house door with a cluster of eager children about her, and
+several shy boys in the background, ready to welcome her back as if she
+had been gone a month.
+
+In the flutter of opening school Margaret failed to notice that Rosa
+Rogers did not appear. It was not until the roll was called that she
+noticed her absence, and she looked uneasily toward the door many times
+during the morning, but Rosa did not come until after recess, when she
+stole smilingly in, as if it were quite the thing to come to school
+late. When questioned about her tardiness she said she had torn her
+dress and had to go home and change it. Margaret knew by the look in her
+eyes that the girl was not telling the truth, but what was she to do? It
+troubled her all the morning and went with her to a sleepless pillow
+that night. She was beginning to see that life as a school-teacher in
+the far West was not all she had imagined it to be. Her father had been
+right. There would likely be more thorns than roses on her way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+The first time Lance Gardley met Rosa Rogers riding with Archie
+Forsythe he thought little of it. He knew the girl by sight, because he
+knew her father in a business way. That she was very young and one of
+Margaret's pupils was all he knew about her. For the young man he had
+conceived a strong dislike, but as there was no reason whatever for it
+he put it out of his mind as quickly as possible.
+
+The second time he met them it was toward evening and they were so
+wholly absorbed in each other's society that they did not see him until
+he was close upon them. Forsythe looked up with a frown and a quick hand
+to his hip, where gleamed a weapon.
+
+He scarcely returned the slight salute given by Gardley, and the two
+young people touched up their horses and were soon out of sight in the
+mesquite. But something in the frightened look of the girl's eyes caused
+Gardley to turn and look after the two.
+
+Where could they be going at that hour of the evening? It was not a
+trail usually chosen for rides. It was lonely and unfrequented, and led
+out of the way of travelers. Gardley himself had been a far errand for
+Jasper Kemp, and had taken this short trail back because it cut off
+several miles and he was weary. Also, he was anxious to stop in Ashland
+and leave Mom Wallis's request that Margaret would spend the next
+Sabbath at the camp and see the new curtains. He was thinking what he
+should say to her when he saw her in a little while now, and this
+interruption to his thoughts was unwelcome. Nevertheless, he could not
+get away from that frightened look in the girl's eyes. Where could they
+have been going? That fellow was a new-comer in the region; perhaps he
+had lost his way. Perhaps he did not know that the road he was taking
+the girl led into a region of outlaws, and that the only habitation
+along the way was a cabin belonging to an old woman of weird reputation,
+where wild orgies were sometimes celebrated, and where men went who
+loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
+
+Twice Gardley turned in his saddle and scanned the desert. The sky was
+darkening, and one or two pale stars were impatiently shadowing forth
+their presence. And now he could see the two riders again. They had come
+up out of the mesquite to the top of the mesa, and were outlined against
+the sky sharply. They were still on the trail to old Ouida's cabin!
+
+With a quick jerk Gardley reined in his horse and wheeled about,
+watching the riders for a moment; and then, setting spurs to his beast,
+he was off down the trail after them on one of his wild, reckless rides.
+Down through the mesquite he plunged, through the darkening grove, out,
+and up to the top of the mesa. He had lost sight of his quarry for the
+time, but now he could see them again riding more slowly in the valley
+below, their horses close together, and even as he watched the sky took
+on its wide night look and the stars blazed forth.
+
+Suddenly Gardley turned sharply from the trail and made a detour through
+a grove of trees, riding with reckless speed, his head down to escape
+low branches; and in a minute or two he came with unerring instinct back
+to the trail some distance ahead of Forsythe and Rosa. Then he wheeled
+his horse and stopped stock-still, awaiting their coming.
+
+By this time the great full moon was risen and, strangely enough, was at
+Gardley's back, making a silhouette of man and horse as the two riders
+came on toward him.
+
+They rode out from the cover of the grove, and there he was across their
+path. Rosa gave a scream, drawing nearer her companion, and her horse
+swerved and reared; but Gardley's black stood like an image carved in
+ebony against the silver of the moon, and Gardley's quiet voice was in
+strong contrast to the quick, unguarded exclamation of Forsythe, as he
+sharply drew rein and put his hand hastily to his hip for his weapon.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Forsythe"--Gardley had an excellent memory for
+names--"but I thought you might not be aware, being a new-comer in these
+parts, that the trail you are taking leads to a place where ladies do
+not like to go."
+
+"Really! You don't say so!" answered the young man, insolently. "It is
+very kind of you, I'm sure, but you might have saved yourself the
+trouble. I know perfectly where I am going, and so does the lady, and
+we choose to go this way. Move out of the way, please. You are detaining
+us."
+
+But Gardley did not move out of the way. "I am sure the lady does not
+know where she is going," he said, firmly. "I am sure that she does not
+know that it is a place of bad reputation, even in this unconventional
+land. At least, if she knows, I am sure that _her father_ does not know,
+and I am well acquainted with her father."
+
+"Get out of the way, sir," said Forsythe, hotly. "It certainly is none
+of your business, anyway, whoever knows what. Get out of the way or I
+shall shoot. This lady and I intend to ride where we please."
+
+"Then I shall have to say you _cannot_," said Gardley; and his voice
+still had that calm that made his opponent think him easy to conquer.
+
+"Just how do you propose to stop us?" sneered Forsythe, pulling out his
+pistol.
+
+"This way," said Gardley, lifting a tiny silver whistle to his lips and
+sending forth a peculiar, shrilling blast. "And this way," went on
+Gardley, calmly lifting both hands and showing a weapon in each,
+wherewith he covered the two.
+
+Rosa screamed and covered her face with her hands, cowering in her
+saddle.
+
+Forsythe lifted his weapon, but looked around nervously. "Dead men tell
+no tales," he said, angrily.
+
+"It depends upon the man," said Gardley, meaningly, "especially if he
+were found on this road. I fancy a few tales could be told if you
+happened to be the man. Turn your horses around at once and take this
+lady back to her home. My men are not far off, and if you do not wish
+the whole story to be known among your friends and hers you would better
+make haste."
+
+Forsythe dropped his weapon and obeyed. He decidedly did not wish his
+escapade to be known among his friends. There were financial reasons why
+he did not care to have it come to the ears of his brother-in-law just
+now.
+
+Silently in the moonlight the little procession took its way down the
+trail, the girl and the man side by side, their captor close behind, and
+when the girl summoned courage to glance fearsomely behind her she saw
+three more men riding like three grim shadows yet behind. They had
+fallen into the trail so quietly that she had not heard them when they
+came. They were Jasper Kemp, Long Bill, and Big Jim. They had been out
+for other purposes, but without question followed the call of the
+signal.
+
+It was a long ride back to Rogers's ranch, and Forsythe glanced
+nervously behind now and then. It seemed to him that the company was
+growing larger all the time. He half expected to see a regiment each
+time he turned. He tried hurrying his horse, but when he did so the
+followers were just as close without any seeming effort. He tried to
+laugh it all off.
+
+Once he turned and tried to placate Gardley with a few shakily jovial
+words:
+
+"Look here, old fellow, aren't you the man I met on the trail the day
+Miss Earle went over to the fort? I guess you've made a mistake in your
+calculations. I was merely out on a pleasure ride with Miss Rogers. We
+weren't going anywhere in particular, you know. Miss Rogers chose this
+way, and I wanted to please her. No man likes to have his pleasure
+interfered with, you know. I guess you didn't recognize me?"
+
+"I recognized you," said Gardley. "It would be well for you to be
+careful where you ride with ladies, especially at night. The matter,
+however, is one that you would better settle with Mr. Rogers. My duty
+will be done when I have put it into his hands."
+
+"Now, my good fellow," said Forsythe, patronizingly, "you surely don't
+intend to make a great fuss about this and go telling tales to Mr.
+Rogers about a trifling matter--"
+
+"I intend to do my duty, Mr. Forsythe," said Gardley; and Forsythe
+noticed that the young man still held his weapons. "I was set this night
+to guard Mr. Rogers's property. That I did not expect his daughter would
+be a part of the evening's guarding has nothing to do with the matter. I
+shall certainly put the matter into Mr. Rogers's hands."
+
+Rosa began to cry softly.
+
+"Well, if you want to be a fool, of course," laughed Forsythe,
+disagreeably; "but you will soon see Mr. Rogers will accept my
+explanation."
+
+"That is for Mr. Rogers to decide," answered Gardley, and said no more.
+
+The reflections of Forsythe during the rest of that silent ride were not
+pleasant, and Rosa's intermittent crying did not tend to make him more
+comfortable.
+
+The silent procession at last turned in at the great ranch gate and rode
+up to the house. Just as they stopped and the door of the house swung
+open, letting out a flood of light, Rosa leaned toward Gardley and
+whispered:
+
+"Please, Mr. Gardley, don't tell papa. I'll do _anything_ in the world
+for you if you won't tell papa."
+
+He looked at the pretty, pitiful child in the moonlight. "I'm sorry,
+Miss Rosa," he said, firmly. "But you don't understand. I must do my
+duty."
+
+"Then I shall hate you!" she hissed. "Do you hear? I shall _hate_ you
+forever, and you don't know what that means. It means I'll take my
+_revenge_ on you and on _everybody you like_."
+
+He looked at her half pityingly as he swung off his horse and went up
+the steps to meet Mr. Rogers, who had come out and was standing on the
+top step of the ranch-house in the square of light that flickered from a
+great fire on the hearth of the wide fireplace. He was looking from one
+to another of the silent group, and as his eyes rested on his daughter
+he said, sternly:
+
+"Why, Rosa, what does this mean? You told me you were going to bed with
+a headache!"
+
+Gardley drew his employer aside and told what had happened in a few
+low-toned sentences; and then stepped down and back into the shadow, his
+horse by his side, the three men from the camp grouped behind him. He
+had the delicacy to withdraw after his duty was done.
+
+Mr. Rogers, his face stern with sudden anger and alarm, stepped down and
+stood beside his daughter. "Rosa, you may get down and go into the house
+to your own room. I will talk with you later," he said. And then to the
+young man, "You, sir, will step into my office. I wish to have a plain
+talk with you."
+
+A half-hour later Forsythe came out of the Rogers house and mounted his
+horse, while Mr. Rogers stood silently and watched him.
+
+"I will bid you good evening, sir," he said, formally, as the young man
+mounted his horse and silently rode away. His back had a defiant look in
+the moonlight as he passed the group of men in the shadow; but they did
+not turn to watch him.
+
+"That will be all to-night, Gardley, and I thank you very much," called
+the clear voice of Mr. Rogers from his front steps.
+
+The four men mounted their horses silently and rode down a little
+distance behind the young man, who wondered in his heart just how much
+or how little Gardley had told Rosa's father.
+
+The interview to which young Forsythe had just been subjected had been
+chastening in character, of a kind to baffle curiosity concerning the
+father's knowledge of details, and to discourage any further romantic
+rides with Miss Rosa. It had been left in abeyance whether or not the
+Temples should be made acquainted with the episode, dependent upon the
+future conduct of both young people. It had not been satisfactory from
+Forsythe's point of view; that is, he had not been so easily able to
+disabuse the father's mind of suspicion, nor to establish his own
+guileless character as he had hoped; and some of the remarks Rogers made
+led Forsythe to think that the father understood just how unpleasant it
+might become for him if his brother-in-law found out about the
+escapade.
+
+This is why Archie Forsythe feared Lance Gardley, although there was
+nothing in the least triumphant about the set of that young man's
+shoulders as he rode away in the moonlight on the trail toward Ashland.
+And this is how it came about that Rosa Rogers hated Lance Gardley,
+handsome and daring though he was; and because of him hated her teacher,
+Margaret Earle.
+
+An hour later Lance Gardley stood in the little dim Tanner parlor,
+talking to Margaret.
+
+"You look tired," said the girl, compassionately, as she saw the haggard
+shadows on the young face, showing in spite of the light of pleasure in
+his eyes. "You look _very_ tired. What in the world have you been
+doing?"
+
+"I went out to catch cattle-thieves," he said, with a sigh, "but I found
+there were other kinds of thieves abroad. It's all in the day's work.
+I'm not tired now." And he smiled at her with beautiful reverence.
+
+Margaret, as she watched him, could not help thinking that the lines in
+his face had softened and strengthened since she had first seen him, and
+her eyes let him know that she was glad he had come.
+
+"And so you will really come to us, and it isn't going to be asking too
+much?" he said, wistfully. "You can't think what it's going to be to the
+men--to _us_! And Mom Wallis is so excited she can hardly get her work
+done. If you had said no I would be almost afraid to go back." He
+laughed, but she could see there was deep earnestness under his tone.
+
+"Indeed I will come," said Margaret. "I'm just looking forward to it.
+I'm going to bring Mom Wallis a new bonnet like one I made for mother;
+and I'm going to teach her how to make corn gems and steamed apple
+dumplings. I'm bringing some songs and some music for the violin; and
+I've got something for you to help me do, too, if you will?"
+
+He smiled tenderly down on her. What a wonderful girl she was, to be
+willing to come out to the old shack among a lot of rough men and one
+uncultured old woman and make them happy, when she was fit for the
+finest in the land!
+
+"You're _wonderful_!" he said, taking her hand with a quick pressure for
+good-by. "You make every one want to do his best."
+
+He hurried out to his horse and rode away in the moonlight. Margaret
+went up to her "mountain window" and watched him far out on the trail,
+her heart swelling with an unnamed gladness over his last words.
+
+"Oh, God, keep him, and help him to make good!" she prayed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+The visit to the camp was a time to be remembered long by all the
+inhabitants of the bunk-house, and even by Margaret herself. Margaret
+wondered Friday evening, as she sat up late, working away braiding a
+lovely gray bonnet out of folds of malines, and fashioning it into form
+for Mom Wallis, why she was looking forward to the visit with so much
+more real pleasure than she had done to the one the week before at the
+Temples'. And so subtle is the heart of a maid that she never fathomed
+the real reason.
+
+The Temples', of course, was interesting and delightful as being
+something utterly new in her experience. It was comparatively luxurious,
+and there were pleasant, cultured people there, more from her own social
+class in life. But it was going to be such fun to surprise Mom Wallis
+with that bonnet and see her old face light up when she saw herself in
+the little folding three-leaved mirror she was taking along with her and
+meant to leave for Mom Wallis's log boudoir. She was quite excited over
+selecting some little thing for each one of the men--books, pictures, a
+piece of music, a bright cushion, and a pile of picture magazines. It
+made a big bundle when she had them together, and she was dubious if she
+ought to try to carry them all; but Bud, whom she consulted on the
+subject, said, loftily, it "wasn't a flea-bite for the Kid; he could
+carry anything on a horse."
+
+Bud was just a little jealous to have his beloved teacher away from home
+so much, and rejoiced greatly when Gardley, Friday afternoon, suggested
+that he come along, too. He made quick time to his home, and secured a
+hasty permission and wardrobe, appearing like a footman on his father's
+old horse when they were half a mile down the trail.
+
+Mom Wallis was out at the door to greet her guest when she arrived, for
+Margaret had chosen to make her visit last from Friday afternoon after
+school, until Monday morning. It was the generosity of her nature that
+she gave to her utmost when she gave.
+
+The one fear she had entertained about coming had been set at rest on
+the way when Gardley told her that Pop Wallis was off on one of his long
+trips, selling cattle, and would probably not return for a week.
+Margaret, much as she trusted Gardley and the men, could not help
+dreading to meet Pop Wallis again.
+
+There was a new trimness about the old bunk-house. The clearing had been
+cleaned up and made neat, the grass cut, some vines set out and trained
+up limply about the door, and the windows shone with Mom Wallis's
+washing.
+
+Mom Wallis herself was wearing her best white apron, stiff with starch,
+her lace collar, and her hair in her best imitation of the way Margaret
+had fixed it, although it must be confessed she hadn't quite caught the
+knack of arrangement yet. But the one great difference Margaret noticed
+in the old woman was the illuminating smile on her face. Mom Wallis had
+learned how to let the glory gleam through all the hard sordidness of
+her life, and make earth brighter for those about her.
+
+The curtains certainly made a great difference in the looks of the
+bunk-house, together with a few other changes. The men had made some
+chairs--three of them, one out of a barrel; and together they had
+upholstered them roughly. The cots around the walls were blazing with
+their red blankets folded smoothly and neatly over them, and on the
+floor in front of the hearth, which had been scrubbed, Gardley had
+spread a Navajo blanket he had bought of an Indian.
+
+The fireplace was piled with logs ready for the lighting at night, and
+from somewhere a lamp had been rigged up and polished till it shone in
+the setting sun that slanted long rays in at the shining windows.
+
+The men were washed and combed, and had been huddled at the back of the
+bunk-house for an hour, watching the road, and now they came forward
+awkwardly to greet their guest, their horny hands scrubbed to an
+unbelievable whiteness. They did not say much, but they looked their
+pleasure, and Margaret greeted every one as if he were an old friend,
+the charming part about it all to the men being that she remembered
+every one's name and used it.
+
+Bud hovered in the background and watched with starry eyes. Bud was
+having the time of his life. He preferred the teacher's visiting the
+camp rather than the fort. The "Howdy, sonny!" which he had received
+from the men, and the "Make yourself at home, Bill" from Gardley, had
+given him great joy; and the whole thing seemed somehow to link him to
+the teacher in a most distinguishing manner.
+
+Supper was ready almost immediately, and Mom Wallis had done her best to
+make it appetizing. There was a lamb stew with potatoes, and fresh corn
+bread with coffee. The men ate with relish, and watched their guest of
+honor as if she had been an angel come down to abide with them for a
+season. There was a tablecloth on the old table, too--a _white_
+tablecloth. It looked remarkably like an old sheet, to be sure, with a
+seam through the middle where it had been worn and turned and sewed
+together; but it was a tablecloth now, and a marvel to the men. And the
+wonder about Margaret was that she could eat at such a table and make it
+seem as though that tablecloth were the finest damask, and the two-tined
+forks the heaviest of silver.
+
+After the supper was cleared away and the lamp lighted, the gifts were
+brought out. A book of Scotch poetry for Jasper Kemp, bound in tartan
+covers of the Campbell clan; a small illustrated pamphlet of Niagara
+Falls for Big Jim, because he had said he wanted to see the place and
+never could manage it; a little pictured folder of Washington City for
+Big Jim; a book of old ballad music for Fiddling Boss; a book of jokes
+for Fade-away Forbes; a framed picture of a beautiful shepherd dog for
+Stocky; a big, red, ruffled denim pillow for Croaker, because when she
+was there before he was always complaining about the seats being hard;
+a great blazing crimson pennant bearing the name HARVARD in big letters
+for Fudge, because she had remembered he was from Boston; and for Mom
+Wallis a framed text beautifully painted in water-colors, done in rustic
+letters twined with stray forget-me-nots, the words, "Come unto Me, all
+ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Margaret
+had made that during the week and framed it in a simple raffia braid of
+brown and green.
+
+It was marvelous how these men liked their presents; and while they were
+examining them and laughing about them and putting their pictures and
+Mom Wallis's text on the walls, and the pillow on a bunk, and the
+pennant over the fireplace, Margaret shyly held out a tiny box to
+Gardley.
+
+"I thought perhaps you would let me give you this," she said. "It isn't
+much; it isn't even new, and it has some marks in it; but I thought it
+might help with your new undertaking."
+
+Gardley took it with a lighting of his face and opened the box. In it
+was a little, soft, leather-bound Testament, showing the marks of usage,
+yet not worn. It was a tiny thing, very thin, easily fitting in a
+vest-pocket, and not a burden to carry. He took the little book in his
+hand, removed the silken rubber band that bound it, and turned the
+leaves reverently in his fingers, noting that there were pencil-marks
+here and there. His face was all emotion as he looked up at the giver.
+
+"I thank you," he said, in a low tone, glancing about to see that no one
+was noticing them. "I shall prize it greatly. It surely will help. I
+will read it every day. Was that what you wanted? And I will carry it
+with me always."
+
+His voice was very earnest, and he looked at her as though she had given
+him a fortune. With another glance about at the preoccupied room--even
+Bud was busy studying Jasper Kemp's oldest gun--he snapped the band on
+the book again and put it carefully in his inner breast-pocket. The book
+would henceforth travel next his heart and be his guide. She thought he
+meant her to understand that, as he put out his hand unobtrusively and
+pressed her fingers gently with a quick, low "Thank you!"
+
+Then Mom Wallis's bonnet was brought out and tied on her, and the poor
+old woman blushed like a girl when she stood with meek hands folded at
+her waist and looked primly about on the family for their approval at
+Margaret's request. But that was nothing to the way she stared when
+Margaret got out the threefold mirror and showed her herself in the new
+headgear. She trotted away at last, the wonderful bonnet in one hand,
+the box in the other, a look of awe on her face, and Margaret heard her
+murmur as she put it away: "Glory! _Me!_ Glory!"
+
+Then Margaret had to read one or two of the poems for Jasper Kemp, while
+they all sat and listened to her Scotch and marveled at her. A woman
+like that condescending to come to visit them!
+
+She gave a lesson in note-reading to the Fiddling Boss, pointing one by
+one with her white fingers to the notes until he was able to creep along
+and pick out "Suwanee River" and "Old Folks at Home" to the intense
+delight of the audience.
+
+Margaret never knew just how it was that she came to be telling the men
+a story, one she had read not long before in a magazine, a story with a
+thrilling national interest and a keen personal touch that searched the
+hearts of men; but they listened as they had never listened to anything
+in their lives before.
+
+And then there was singing, more singing, until it bade fair to be
+morning before they slept, and the little teacher was weary indeed when
+she lay down on the cot in Mom Wallis's room, after having knelt beside
+the old woman and prayed.
+
+The next day there was a wonderful ride with Gardley and Bud to the
+caņon of the cave-dwellers, and a coming home to the apple dumplings she
+had taught Mom Wallis to make before she went away. All day Gardley and
+she, with Bud for delighted audience, had talked over the play she was
+getting up at the school, Gardley suggesting about costumes and tree
+boughs for scenery, and promising to help in any way she wanted. Then
+after supper there were jokes and songs around the big fire, and some
+popcorn one of the men had gone a long ride that day to get. They called
+for another story, too, and it was forthcoming.
+
+It was Sunday morning after breakfast, however, that Margaret suddenly
+wondered how she was going to make the day helpful and different from
+the other days.
+
+She stood for a moment looking out of the clear little window
+thoughtfully, with just the shadow of a sigh on her lips, and as she
+turned back to the room she met Gardley's questioning glance.
+
+"Are you homesick?" he asked, with a sorry smile. "This must all be
+very different from what you are accustomed to."
+
+"Oh no, it isn't that." She smiled, brightly. "I'm not a baby for home,
+but I do get a bit homesick about church-time. Sunday is such a strange
+day to me without a service."
+
+"Why not have one, then?" he suggested, eagerly. "We can sing and--you
+could--do the rest!"
+
+Her eyes lighted at the suggestion, and she cast a quick glance at the
+men. Would they stand for that sort of thing?
+
+Gardley followed her glance and caught her meaning. "Let them answer for
+themselves," he said quickly in a low tone, and then, raising his voice:
+"Speak up, men. Do you want to have church? Miss Earle here is homesick
+for a service, and I suggest that we have one, and she conduct it."
+
+"Sure!" said Jasper Kemp, his face lighting. "I'll miss my guess if she
+can't do better than the parson we had last Sunday. Get into your seats,
+boys; we're goin' to church."
+
+Margaret's face was a study of embarrassment and delight as she saw the
+alacrity with which the men moved to get ready for "church." Her quick
+brain turned over the possibility of what she could read or say to help
+this strange congregation thus suddenly thrust upon her.
+
+It was a testimony to her upbringing by a father whose great business of
+life was to preach the gospel that she never thought once of hesitating
+or declining the opportunity, but welcomed it as an opportunity, and
+only deprecated her unreadiness for the work.
+
+The men stirred about, donned their coats, furtively brushing their
+hair, and Long Bill insisted that Mom Wallis put on her new bonnet;
+which she obligingly did, and sat down carefully in the barrel-chair,
+her hands neatly crossed in her lap, supremely happy. It really was
+wonderful what a difference that bonnet made in Mom Wallis.
+
+Gardley arranged a comfortable seat for Margaret at the table and put in
+front of her one of the hymn-books she had brought. Then, after she was
+seated, he took the chair beside her and brought out the little
+Testament from his breast-pocket, gravely laying it on the hymn-book.
+
+Margaret met his eyes with a look of quick appreciation. It was
+wonderful the way these two were growing to understand each other. It
+gave the girl a thrill of wonder and delight to have him do this simple
+little thing for her, and the smile that passed between them was
+beautiful to see. Long Bill turned away his head and looked out of the
+window with an improvised sneeze to excuse the sudden mist that came
+into his eyes.
+
+Margaret chose "My Faith looks up to Thee" for the first hymn, because
+Fiddling Boss could play it, and while he was tuning up his fiddle she
+hastily wrote out two more copies of the words. And so the queer service
+started with a quaver of the old fiddle and the clear, sweet voices of
+Margaret and Gardley leading off, while the men growled on their way
+behind, and Mom Wallis, in her new gray bonnet, with her hair all
+fluffed softly gray under it, sat with eyes shining like a girl's.
+
+So absorbed in the song were they all that they failed to hear the sound
+of a horse coming into the clearing. But just as the last words of the
+final verse died away the door of the bunk-house swung open, and there
+in the doorway stood Pop Wallis!
+
+The men sprang to their feet with one accord, ominous frowns on their
+brows, and poor old Mom Wallis sat petrified where she was, the smile of
+relaxation frozen on her face, a look of fear growing in her tired old
+eyes.
+
+Now Pop Wallis, through an unusual combination of circumstances, had
+been for some hours without liquor and was comparatively sober. He stood
+for a moment staring amazedly at the group around his fireside. Perhaps
+because he had been so long without his usual stimulant his mind was
+weakened and things appeared as a strange vision to him. At any rate, he
+stood and stared, and as he looked from one to another of the men, at
+the beautiful stranger, and across to the strangely unfamiliar face of
+his wife in her new bonnet, his eyes took on a frightened look. He
+slowly took his hand from the door-frame and passed it over his eyes,
+then looked again, from one to another, and back to his glorified wife.
+
+Margaret had half risen at her end of the table, and Gardley stood
+beside her as if to reassure her; but Pop Wallis was not looking at any
+of them any more. His eyes were on his wife. He passed his hand once
+more over his eyes and took one step gropingly into the room, a hand
+reached out in front of him, as if he were not sure but he might run
+into something on the way, the other hand on his forehead, a dazed look
+in his face.
+
+"Why, Mom--that ain't really--_you_, now, _is_ it?" he said, in a
+gentle, insinuating voice like one long unaccustomed making a hasty
+prayer.
+
+The tone made a swift change in the old woman. She gripped her bony
+hands tight and a look of beatific joy came into her wrinkled face.
+
+"Yes, it's really _me_, Pop!" she said, with a kind of triumphant ring
+to her voice.
+
+"But--but--you're right _here_, ain't you? You ain't _dead_,
+an'--an'--gone to--gl-oo-ry, be you? You're right _here_?"
+
+"Yes, I'm right _here_, Pop. I ain't dead! Pop--glory's _come to me_!"
+
+"Glory?" repeated the man, dazedly. "Glory?" And he gazed around the
+room and took in the new curtains, the pictures on the wall, the
+cushions and chairs, and the bright, shining windows. "You don't mean
+it's _heav'n_, do you, Mom? 'Cause I better go back--_I_ don't belong in
+heav'n. Why, Mom, it can't be glory, 'cause it's the same old
+bunk-house outside, anyhow."
+
+"Yes, it's the same old bunk-house, and it ain't heaven, but it's
+_goin_' to be. The glory's come all right. You sit down, Pop; we're
+goin' to have church, and this is my new bonnet. _She_ brang it. This is
+the new school-teacher, Miss Earle, and she's goin' to have church. She
+done it _all_! You sit down and listen."
+
+Pop Wallis took a few hesitating steps into the room and dropped into
+the nearest chair. He looked at Margaret as if she might be an angel
+holding open the portal to a kingdom in the sky. He looked and wondered
+and admired, and then he looked back to his glorified old wife again in
+wonder.
+
+Jasper Kemp shut the door, and the company dropped back into their
+places. Margaret, because of her deep embarrassment, and a kind of
+inward trembling that had taken possession of her, announced another
+hymn.
+
+It was a solemn little service, quite unique, with a brief, simple
+prayer and an expository reading of the story of the blind man from the
+sixth chapter of John. The men sat attentively, their eyes upon her face
+as she read; but Pop Wallis sat staring at his wife, an awed light upon
+his scared old face, the wickedness and cunning all faded out, and only
+fear and wonder written there.
+
+In the early dawning of the pink-and-silver morning Margaret went back
+to her work, Gardley riding by her side, and Bud riding at a discreet
+distance behind, now and then going off at a tangent after a stray
+cottontail. It was wonderful what good sense Bud seemed to have on
+occasion.
+
+The horse that Margaret rode, a sturdy little Western pony, with nerve
+and grit and a gentle common sense for humans, was to remain with her in
+Ashland, a gift from the men of the bunk-house. During the week that
+followed Archie Forsythe came riding over with a beautiful shining
+saddle-horse for her use during her stay in the West; but when he went
+riding back to the ranch the shining saddle-horse was still in his
+train, riderless, for Margaret told him that she already had a horse of
+her own. Neither had Margaret accepted the invitation to the Temples'
+for the next week-end. She had other plans for the Sabbath, and that
+week there appeared on all the trees and posts about the town, and on
+the trails, a little notice of a Bible class and vesper-service to be
+held in the school-house on the following Sabbath afternoon; and so
+Margaret, true daughter of her minister-father, took up her mission in
+Ashland for the Sabbaths that were to follow; for the school-board had
+agreed with alacrity to such use of the school-house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+Now when it became noised abroad that the new teacher wanted above all
+things to purchase a piano, and that to that end she was getting up a
+wonderful Shakespeare play in which the scholars were to act upon a
+stage set with tree boughs after the manner of some new kind of players,
+the whole community round about began to be excited.
+
+Mrs. Tanner talked much about it. Was not Bud to be a prominent
+character? Mr. Tanner talked about it everywhere he went. The mothers
+and fathers and sisters talked about it, and the work of preparing the
+play went on.
+
+Margaret had discovered that one of the men at the bunk-house played a
+flute, and she was working hard to teach him and Fiddling Boss and
+Croaker to play a portion of the elfin dance to accompany the players.
+The work of making costumes and training the actors became more and more
+strenuous, and in this Gardley proved a fine assistant. He undertook to
+train some of the older boys for their parts, and did it so well that he
+was presently in the forefront of the battle of preparation and working
+almost as hard as Margaret herself.
+
+The beauty of the whole thing was that every boy in the school adored
+him, even Jed and Timothy, and life took on a different aspect to them
+in company with this high-born college-bred, Eastern young man who yet
+could ride and shoot with the daringest among the Westerners.
+
+Far and wide went forth the fame of the play that was to be. The news of
+it reached to the fort and the ranches, and brought offers of assistance
+and costumes and orders for tickets. Margaret purchased a small
+duplicator and set her school to printing tickets and selling them, and
+before the play was half ready to be acted tickets enough were sold for
+two performances, and people were planning to come from fifty miles
+around. The young teacher began to quake at the thought of her big
+audience and her poor little amateur players; and yet for children they
+were doing wonderfully well, and were growing quite Shakespearian in
+their manner of conversation.
+
+"What say you, sweet Amanda?" would be a form of frequent address to
+that stolid maiden Amanda Bounds; and Jed, instead of shouting for
+"Delicate" at recess, as in former times, would say, "My good Timothy, I
+swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow; by his best arrow with the
+golden head"--until all the school-yard rang with classic phrases; and
+the whole country round was being addressed in phrases of another
+century by the younger members of their households.
+
+Then Rosa Rogers's father one day stopped at the Tanners' and left a
+contribution with the teacher of fifty dollars toward the new piano; and
+after that it was rumored that the teacher said the piano could be sent
+for in time to be used at the play. Then other contributions of smaller
+amounts came in, and before the date of the play had been set there was
+money enough to make a first payment on the piano. That day the English
+exercise for the whole school was to compose the letter to the Eastern
+piano firm where the piano was to be purchased, ordering it to be sent
+on at once. Weeks before this Margaret had sent for a number of piano
+catalogues beautifully illustrated, showing by cuts how the whole
+instruments were made, with full illustrations of the factories where
+they were manufactured, and she had discussed the selection with the
+scholars, showing them what points were to be considered in selecting a
+good piano. At last the order was sent out, the actual selection itself
+to be made by a musical friend of Margaret's in New York, and the school
+waited in anxious suspense to hear that it had started on its way.
+
+The piano arrived at last, three weeks before the time set for the play,
+which was coming on finely now and seemed to the eager scholars quite
+ready for public performance. Not so to Margaret and Gardley, as daily
+they pruned, trained, and patiently went over and over again each part,
+drawing all the while nearer to the ideal they had set. It could not be
+done perfectly, of course, and when they had done all they could there
+would yet be many crudities; but Margaret's hope was to bring out the
+meaning of the play and give both audience and performers the true idea
+of what Shakespeare meant when he wrote it.
+
+The arrival of the piano was naturally a great event in the school. For
+three days in succession the entire school marched in procession down to
+the incoming Eastern train to see if their expected treasure had
+arrived, and when at last it was lifted from the freight-car and set
+upon the station platform the school stood awe-struck and silent, with
+half-bowed heads and bated breath, as though at the arrival of some
+great and honorable guest.
+
+They attended it on the roadside as it was carted by the biggest wagon
+in town to the school-house door; they stood in silent rows while the
+great box was peeled off and the instrument taken out and carried into
+the school-room; then they filed in soulfully and took their accustomed
+seats without being told, touching shyly the shining case as they
+passed. By common consent they waited to hear its voice for the first
+time. Margaret took the little key from the envelope tied to the frame,
+unlocked the cover, and, sitting down, began to play. The rough men who
+had brought it stood in awesome adoration around the platform; the
+silence that spread over that room would have done honor to Paderewski
+or Josef Hoffman.
+
+Margaret played and played, and they could not hear enough. They would
+have stayed all night listening, perhaps, so wonderful was it to them.
+And then the teacher called each one and let him or her touch a few
+chords, just to say they had played on it. After which she locked the
+instrument and sent them all home. That was the only afternoon during
+that term that the play was forgotten for a while.
+
+After the arrival of the piano the play went forward with great
+strides, for now Margaret accompanied some of the parts with the music,
+and the flute and violin were also practised in their elfin dance with
+much better effect. It was about this time that Archie Forsythe
+discovered the rehearsals and offered his assistance, and, although it
+was declined, he frequently managed to ride over about rehearsal time,
+finding ways to make himself useful in spite of Margaret's polite
+refusals. Margaret always felt annoyed when he came, because Rosa Rogers
+instantly became another creature on his arrival, and because Gardley
+simply froze into a polite statue, never speaking except when spoken to.
+As for Forsythe, his attitude toward Gardley was that of a contemptuous
+master toward a slave, and yet he took care to cover it always with a
+form of courtesy, so that Margaret could say or do nothing to show her
+displeasure, except to be grave and dignified. At such times Rosa
+Rogers's eyes would be upon her with a gleam of hatred, and the teacher
+felt that the scholar was taking advantage of the situation. Altogether
+it was a trying time for Margaret when Forsythe came to the
+school-house. Also, he discovered to them that he played the violin, and
+offered to assist in the orchestral parts. Margaret really could think
+of no reason to decline this offer, but she was sadly upset by the whole
+thing. His manner to her was too pronounced, and she felt continually
+uncomfortable under it, what with Rosa Rogers's jealous eyes upon her
+and Gardley's eyes turned haughtily away.
+
+She planned a number of special rehearsals in the evenings, when it was
+difficult for Forsythe to get there, and managed in this way to avoid
+his presence; but the whole matter became a source of much vexation, and
+Margaret even shed a few tears wearily into her pillow one night when
+things had gone particularly hard and Forsythe had hurt the feelings of
+Fiddling Boss with his insolent directions about playing. She could not
+say or do anything much in the matter, because the Temples had been very
+kind in helping to get the piano, and Mr. Temple seemed to think he was
+doing the greatest possible kindness to her in letting Forsythe off duty
+so much to help with the play. The matter became more and more of a
+distress to Margaret, and the Sabbath was the only day of real delight.
+
+The first Sunday after the arrival of the piano was a great day.
+Everybody in the neighborhood turned out to the Sunday-afternoon class
+and vesper service, which had been growing more and more in popularity,
+until now the school-room was crowded. Every man from the bunk-house
+came regularly, often including Pop Wallis, who had not yet recovered
+fully from the effect of his wife's new bonnet and fluffy arrangement of
+hair, but treated her like a lady visitor and deferred to her absolutely
+when he was at home. He wasn't quite sure even yet but he had strayed by
+mistake into the outermost courts of heaven and ought to get shooed out.
+He always looked at the rose-wreathed curtains with a mingling of pride
+and awe.
+
+Margaret had put several hymns on the blackboard in clear, bold
+printing, and the singing that day was wonderful. Not the least part of
+the service was her own playing over of the hymns before the singing
+began, which was listened to with reverence as if it had been the music
+of an angel playing on a heavenly harp.
+
+Gardley always came to the Sunday services, and helped her with the
+singing, and often they two sang duets together.
+
+The service was not always of set form. Usually Margaret taught a short
+Bible lesson, beginning with the general outline of the Bible, its
+books, their form, substance, authors, etc.--all very brief and
+exceedingly simple, putting a wide space of music between this and the
+vesper service, into which she wove songs, bits of poems, passages from
+the Bible, and often a story which she told dramatically, illustrating
+the scripture read.
+
+But the very Sunday before the play, just the time Margaret had looked
+forward to as being her rest from all the perplexities of the week, a
+company from the fort, including the Temples, arrived at the
+school-house right in the midst of the Bible lesson.
+
+The ladies were daintily dressed, and settled their frills and ribbons
+amusedly as they watched the embarrassed young teacher trying to forget
+that there was company present. They were in a distinct sense "company,"
+for they had the air, as they entered, of having come to look on and be
+amused, not to partake in the worship with the rest.
+
+Margaret found herself trembling inwardly as she saw the supercilious
+smile on the lips of Mrs. Temple and the amused stares of the other
+ladies of the party. They did not take any notice of the other people
+present any more than if they had been so many puppets set up to show
+off the teacher; their air of superiority was offensive. Not until Rosa
+Rogers entered with her father, a little later, did they condescend to
+bow in recognition, and then with that pretty little atmosphere as if
+they would say, "Oh, you've come, too, to be amused."
+
+Gardley was sitting up in front, listening to her talk, and she thought
+he had not noticed the strangers. Suddenly it came to her to try to keep
+her nerve and let him see that they were nothing to her; and with a
+strong effort and a swift prayer for help she called for a hymn. She sat
+coolly down at the piano, touching the keys with a tender chord or two
+and beginning to sing almost at once. She had sent home for some old
+hymn-books from the Christian Endeavor Society in her father's church,
+so the congregation were supplied with the notes and words now, and
+everybody took part eagerly, even the people from the fort
+condescendingly joining in.
+
+But Gardley was too much alive to every expression on that vivid face of
+Margaret's to miss knowing that she was annoyed and upset. He did not
+need to turn and look back to immediately discover the cause. He was a
+young person of keen intuition. It suddenly gave him great satisfaction
+to see that look of consternation on Margaret's face. It settled for him
+a question he had been in great and anxious doubt about, and his soul
+was lifted up with peace within him. When, presently, according to
+arrangement, he rose to sing a duet with Margaret, no one could have
+possibly told by so much as the lifting of an eyelash that he knew there
+was an enemy of his in the back of the room. He sang, as did Margaret,
+to the immediate audience in front of him, those admiring children and
+adoring men in the forefront who felt the school-house had become for
+them the gate of heaven for the time being; and he sang with marvelous
+feeling and sympathy, letting out his voice at its best.
+
+"Really," said Mrs. Temple, in a loud whisper to the wife of one of the
+officers, "that young man has a fine voice, and he isn't bad-looking,
+either. I think he'd be worth cultivating. We must have him up and try
+him out."
+
+But when she repeated this remark in another stage whisper to Forsythe
+he frowned haughtily.
+
+The one glimpse Margaret caught of Forsythe during that afternoon's
+service was when he was smiling meaningly at Rosa Rogers; and she had to
+resolutely put the memory of their look from her mind or the story which
+she was about to tell would have fled.
+
+It was the hunger in Jasper Kemp's eyes that finally anchored Margaret's
+thoughts and helped her to forget the company at the back of the room.
+She told her story, and she told it wonderfully and with power,
+interpreting it now and then for the row of men who sat in the center of
+the room drinking in her every word; and when the simple service was
+concluded with another song, in which Gardley's voice rang forth with
+peculiar tenderness and strength, the men filed forth silently,
+solemnly, with bowed heads and thoughtful eyes. But the company from the
+fort flowed up around Margaret like flood-tide let loose and gushed upon
+her.
+
+"Oh, my dear!" said Mrs. Temple. "How beautifully you do it! And such
+attention as they give you! No wonder you are willing to forego all
+other amusements to stay here and preach! But it was perfectly sweet the
+way you made them listen and the way you told that story. I don't see
+how you do it. I'd be scared to death!"
+
+They babbled about her awhile, much to her annoyance, for there were
+several people to whom she had wanted to speak, who drew away and
+disappeared when the new-comers took possession of her. At last,
+however, they mounted and rode away, to her great relief. Forsythe, it
+is true, tried to make her go home with them; tried to escort her to the
+Tanners'; tried to remain in the school-house with her awhile when she
+told him she had something to do there; but she would not let him, and
+he rode away half sulky at the last, a look of injured pride upon his
+face.
+
+Margaret went to the door finally, and looked down the road. He was
+gone, and she was alone. A shade of sadness came over her face. She was
+sorry that Gardley had not waited. She had wanted to tell him how much
+she liked his singing, what a pleasure it was to sing with him, and how
+glad she was that he came up to her need so well with the strangers
+there and helped to make it easy. But Gardley had melted away as soon as
+the service was over, and had probably gone home with the rest of the
+men. It was disappointing, for she had come to consider their little
+time together on Sunday as a very pleasant hour, this few minutes after
+the service when they would talk about real living and the vital things
+of existence. But he was gone!
+
+She turned, and there he was, quite near the door, coming toward her.
+Her face lighted up with a joy that was unmistakable, and his own smile
+in answer was a revelation of his deeper self.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad you are not gone!" she said, eagerly. "I wanted to tell
+you--" And then she stopped, and the color flooded her face rosily, for
+she saw in his eyes how glad he was and forgot to finish her sentence.
+
+He came up gravely, after all, and, standing just a minute so beside the
+door, took both her hands in both his. It was only for a second that he
+stood so, looking down into her eyes. I doubt if either of them knew
+till afterward that they had been holding hands. It seemed the right and
+natural thing to do, and meant so much to each of them. Both were glad
+beyond their own understanding over that moment and its tenderness.
+
+It was all very decorous, and over in a second, but it meant much to
+remember afterward, that look and hand-clasp.
+
+"I wanted to tell you," he said, tenderly, "how much that story did for
+me. It was wonderful, and it helped me to decide something I have been
+perplexed over--"
+
+"Oh, I am glad!" she said, half breathlessly.
+
+So, talking in low, broken sentences, they went back to the piano and
+tried over several songs for the next Sunday, lingering together, just
+happy to be there with each other, and not half knowing the significance
+of it all. As the purple lights on the school-room wall grew long and
+rose-edged, they walked slowly to the Tanner house and said good night.
+
+There was a beauty about the young man as he stood for a moment looking
+down upon the girl in parting, the kind of beauty there is in any
+strong, wild thing made tame and tender for a great love by a great
+uplift. Gardley had that look of self-surrender, and power made
+subservient to right, that crowns a man with strength and more than
+physical beauty. In his fine face there glowed high purpose, and deep
+devotion to the one who had taught it to him. Margaret, looking up at
+him, felt her heart go out with that great love, half maiden, half
+divine, that comes to some favored women even here on earth, and she
+watched him down the road toward the mountain in the evening light and
+marveled how her trust had grown since first she met him; marveled and
+reflected that she had not told her mother and father much about him
+yet. It was growing time to do so; yes--_it was growing time_! Her
+cheeks grew pink in the darkness and she turned and fled to her room.
+
+That was the last time she saw him before the play.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+The play was set for Tuesday. Monday afternoon and evening were to be
+the final rehearsals, but Gardley did not come to them. Fiddling Boss
+came late and said the men had been off all day and had not yet
+returned. He himself found it hard to come at all. They had important
+work on. But there was no word from Gardley.
+
+Margaret was disappointed. She couldn't get away from it. Of course they
+could go on with the rehearsal without him. He had done his work well,
+and there was no real reason why he had to be there. He knew every part
+by heart, and could take any boy's place if any one failed in any way.
+There was nothing further really for him to do until the performance, as
+far as that was concerned, except be there and encourage her. But she
+missed him, and an uneasiness grew in her mind. She had so looked
+forward to seeing him, and now to have no word! He might at least have
+sent her a note when he found he could not come.
+
+Still she knew this was unreasonable. His work, whatever it was--he had
+never explained it very thoroughly to her, perhaps because she had never
+asked--must, of course, have kept him. She must excuse him without
+question and go on with the business of the hour.
+
+Her hands were full enough, for Forsythe came presently and was more
+trying than usual. She had to be very decided and put her foot down
+about one or two things, or some of her actors would have gone home in
+the sulks, and Fiddling Boss, whose part in the program meant much to
+him, would have given it up entirely.
+
+She hurried everything through as soon as possible, knowing she was
+weary, and longing to get to her room and rest. Gardley would come and
+explain to-morrow, likely in the morning on his way somewhere.
+
+But the morning came and no word. Afternoon came and he had not sent a
+sign yet. Some of the little things that he had promised to do about the
+setting of the stage would have to remain undone, for it was too late
+now to do it herself, and there was no one else to call upon.
+
+Into the midst of her perplexity and anxiety came the news that Jed on
+his way home had been thrown from his horse, which was a young and
+vicious one, and had broken his leg. Jed was to act the part of Nick
+Bottom that evening, and he did it well! Now what in the world was she
+to do? If only Gardley would come!
+
+Just at this moment Forsythe arrived.
+
+"Oh, it is you, Mr. Forsythe!" And her tone showed plainly her
+disappointment. "Haven't you seen Mr. Gardley to-day? I don't know what
+I shall do without him."
+
+"I certainly have seen Gardley," said Forsythe, a spice of
+vindictiveness and satisfaction in his tone. "I saw him not two hours
+ago, drunk as a fish, out at a place called Old Ouida's Cabin, as I was
+passing. He's in for a regular spree. You'll not see him for several
+days, I fancy. He's utterly helpless for the present, and out of the
+question. What is there I can do for you? Present your request. It's
+yours--to the half of my kingdom."
+
+Margaret's heart grew cold as ice and then like fire. Her blood seemed
+to stop utterly and then to go pounding through her veins in leaps and
+torrents. Her eyes grew dark, and things swam before her. She reached
+out to a desk and caught at it for support, and her white face looked at
+him a moment as if she had not heard. But when in a second she spoke,
+she said, quite steadily:
+
+"I thank you, Mr. Forsythe; there is nothing just at present--or, yes,
+there is, if you wouldn't mind helping Timothy put up those curtains.
+Now, I think I'll go home and rest a few minutes; I am very tired."
+
+It wasn't exactly the job Forsythe coveted, to stay in the school-house
+and fuss over those curtains; but she made him do it, then disappeared,
+and he didn't like the memory of her white face. He hadn't thought she
+would take it that way. He had expected to have her exclaim with horror
+and disgust. He watched her out of the door, and then turned impatiently
+to the waiting Timothy.
+
+Margaret went outside the school-house to call Bud, who had been sent to
+gather sage-brush for filling in the background, but Bud was already out
+of sight far on the trail toward the camp on Forsythe's horse, riding
+for dear life. Bud had come near to the school-house door with his
+armful of sage-brush just in time to hear Forsythe's flippant speech
+about Gardley and see Margaret's white face. Bud had gone for help!
+
+But Margaret did not go home to rest. She did not even get half-way
+home. When she had gone a very short distance outside the school-house
+she saw some one coming toward her, and in her distress of mind she
+could not tell who it was. Her eyes were blinded with tears, her breath
+was constricted, and it seemed to her that a demon unseen was gripping
+her heart. She had not yet taken her bearings to know what she thought.
+She had only just come dazed from the shock of Forsythe's words, and had
+not the power to think. Over and over to herself, as she walked along,
+she kept repeating the words: "I _do not_ believe it! It is _not_ true!"
+but her inner consciousness had not had time to analyze her soul and be
+sure that she believed the words wherewith she was comforting herself.
+
+So now, when she saw some one coming, she felt the necessity of bringing
+her telltale face to order and getting ready to answer whoever she was
+to meet. As she drew nearer she became suddenly aware that it was Rosa
+Rogers coming with her arms full of bundles and more piled up in front
+of her on her pony. Margaret knew at once that Rosa must have seen
+Forsythe go by her house, and had returned promptly to the school-house
+on some pretext or other. It would not do to let her go there alone with
+the young man; she must go back and stay with them. She could not be
+sure that if she sent Rosa home with orders to rest she would be obeyed.
+Doubtless the girl would take another way around and return to the
+school again. There was nothing for it but to go back and stay as long
+as Rosa did.
+
+Margaret stooped and, hastily plucking a great armful of sage-brush,
+turned around and retraced her steps, her heart like lead, her feet
+suddenly grown heavy. How could she go back and hear them laugh and
+chatter, answer their many silly, unnecessary questions, and stand it
+all? How could she, with that great weight at her heart?
+
+She went back with a wonderful self-control. Forsythe's face lighted,
+and his reluctant hand grew suddenly eager as he worked. Rosa came
+presently, and others, and the laughing chatter went on quite as
+Margaret had known it would. And she--so great is the power of human
+will under pressure--went calmly about and directed here and there;
+planned and executed; put little, dainty, wholly unnecessary touches to
+the stage; and never let any one know that her heart was being crushed
+with the weight of a great, awful fear, and yet steadily upborne by the
+rising of a great, deep trust. As she worked and smiled and ordered, she
+was praying: "Oh, God, don't let it be true! Keep him! Save him! Bring
+him! Make him true! I _know_ he is true! Oh, God, bring him safely
+_soon_!"
+
+Meantime there was nothing she could do. She could not send Forsythe
+after him. She could not speak of the matter to one of those present,
+and Bud--where was Bud? It was the first time since she came to Arizona
+that Bud had failed her. She might not leave the school-house, with
+Forsythe and Rosa there, to go and find him, and she might not do
+anything else. There was nothing to do but work on feverishly and pray
+as she had never prayed before.
+
+By and by one of the smaller boys came, and she sent him back to the
+Tanners' to find Bud, but he returned with the message that Bud had not
+been home since morning; and so the last hours before the evening, that
+would otherwise have been so brief for all there was to be done, dragged
+their weary length away and Margaret worked on.
+
+She did not even go back for supper at the last, but sent one of the
+girls to her room for a few things she needed, and declined even the
+nice little chicken sandwich that thoughtful Mrs. Tanner sent back along
+with the things. And then, at last, the audience began to gather.
+
+By this time her anxiety was so great for Gardley that all thought of
+how she was to supply the place of the absent Jed had gone from her
+mind, which was in a whirl. Gardley! Gardley! If only Gardley would
+come! That was her one thought. What should she do if he didn't come at
+all? How should she explain things to herself afterward? What if it had
+been true? What if he were the kind of man Forsythe had suggested? How
+terrible life would look to her! But it was not true. No, it was not
+true! She trusted him! With her soul she trusted him! He would come back
+some time and he would explain all. She could not remember his last look
+at her on Sunday and not trust him. He was true! He would come!
+
+Somehow she managed to get through the terrible interval, to slip into
+the dressing-room and make herself sweet and comely in the little white
+gown she had sent for, with its delicate blue ribbons and soft lace
+ruffles. Somehow she managed the expected smiles as one and another of
+the audience came around to the platform to speak to her. There were
+dark hollows under her eyes, and her mouth was drawn and weary, but they
+laid that to the excitement. Two bright-red spots glowed on her cheeks;
+but she smiled and talked with her usual gaiety. People looked at her
+and said how beautiful she was, and how bright and untiring; and how
+wonderful it was that Ashland School had drawn such a prize of a
+teacher. The seats filled, the noise and the clatter went on. Still no
+sign of Gardley or any one from the camp, and still Bud had not
+returned! What could it mean?
+
+But the minutes were rushing rapidly now. It was more than time to
+begin. The girls were in a flutter in one cloak-room at the right of the
+stage, asking more questions in a minute than one could answer in an
+hour; the boys in the other cloak-room wanted all sorts of help; and
+three or four of the actors were attacked with stage-fright as they
+peered through a hole in the curtain and saw some friend or relative
+arrive and sit down in the audience. It was all a mad whirl of seemingly
+useless noise and excitement, and she could not, no, she _could not_, go
+on and do the necessary things to start that awful play. Why, oh, _why_
+had she ever been left to think of getting up a play?
+
+Forsythe, up behind the piano, whispered to her that it was time to
+begin. The house was full. There was not room for another soul. Margaret
+explained that Fiddling Boss had not yet arrived, and caught a glimpse
+of the cunning designs of Forsythe in the shifty turning away of his
+eyes as he answered that they could not wait all night for him; that if
+he wanted to get into it he ought to have come early. But even as she
+turned away she saw the little, bobbing, eager faces of Pop and Mom
+Wallis away back by the door, and the grim, towering figure of the Boss,
+his fiddle held high, making his way to the front amid the crowd.
+
+She sat down and touched the keys, her eyes watching eagerly for a
+chance to speak to the Boss and see if he knew anything of Gardley; but
+Forsythe was close beside her all the time, and there was no
+opportunity. She struck the opening chords of the overture they were to
+attempt to play, and somehow got through it. Of course, the audience was
+not a critical one, and there were few real judges of music present; but
+it may be that the truly wonderful effect she produced upon the
+listeners was due to the fact that she was playing a prayer with her
+heart as her fingers touched the keys, and that instead of a preliminary
+to a fairy revel the music told the story of a great soul struggle, and
+reached hearts as it tinkled and rolled and swelled on to the end. It
+may be, too, that Fiddling Boss was more in sympathy that night with his
+accompanist than was the other violinist, and that was why his old
+fiddle brought forth such weird and tender tones.
+
+Almost to the end, with her heart sobbing its trouble to the keys,
+Margaret looked up sadly, and there, straight before her through a hole
+in the curtain made by some rash youth to glimpse the audience, or
+perhaps even put there by the owner of the nose itself, she saw the
+little, freckled, turned-up member belonging to Bud's face. A second
+more and a big, bright eye appeared and solemnly winked at her twice, as
+if to say, "Don't you worry; it's all right!"
+
+She almost started from the stool, but kept her head enough to finish
+the chords, and as they died away she heard a hoarse whisper in Bud's
+familiar voice:
+
+"Whoop her up, Miss Earle. We're all ready. Raise the curtain there, you
+guy. Let her rip. Everything's O. K."
+
+With a leap of light into her eyes Margaret turned the leaves of the
+music and went on playing as she should have done if nothing had been
+the matter. Bud was there, anyway, and that somehow cheered her heart.
+Perhaps Gardley had come or Bud had heard of him--and yet, Bud didn't
+know he had been missing, for Bud had been away himself.
+
+Nevertheless, she summoned courage to go on playing. Nick Bottom wasn't
+in this first scene, anyway, and this would have to be gone through with
+somehow. By this time she was in a state of daze that only thought from
+moment to moment. The end of the evening seemed now to her as far off as
+the end of a hale old age seems at the beginning of a lifetime. Somehow
+she must walk through it; but she could only see a step at a time.
+
+Once she turned half sideways to the audience and gave a hurried glance
+about, catching sight of Fudge's round, near-sighted face, and that gave
+her encouragement. Perhaps the others were somewhere present. If only
+she could get a chance to whisper to some one from the camp and ask
+when they had seen Gardley last! But there was no chance, of course!
+
+The curtain was rapidly raised and the opening scene of the play began,
+the actors going through their parts with marvelous ease and dexterity,
+and the audience silent and charmed, watching those strangers in queer
+costumes that were their own children, marching around there at their
+ease and talking weird language that was not used in any class of
+society they had ever come across on sea or land before.
+
+But Margaret, watching her music as best she could, and playing
+mechanically rather than with her mind, could not tell if they were
+doing well or ill, so loudly did her heart pound out her fears--so
+stoutly did her heart proclaim her trust.
+
+And thus, without a flaw or mistake in the execution of the work she had
+struggled so hard to teach them, the first scene of the first act drew
+to its close, and Margaret struck the final chords of the music and felt
+that in another minute she must reel and fall from that piano-stool. And
+yet she sat and watched the curtain fall with a face as controlled as if
+nothing at all were the matter.
+
+A second later she suddenly knew that to sit in that place calmly
+another second was a physical impossibility. She must get somewhere to
+the air at once or her senses would desert her.
+
+With a movement so quick that no one could have anticipated it, she
+slipped from her piano-stool, under the curtain to the stage, and was
+gone before the rest of the orchestra had noticed her intention.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+Since the day that he had given Margaret his promise to make good,
+Gardley had been regularly employed by Mr. Rogers, looking after
+important matters of his ranch. Before that he had lived a free and easy
+life, working a little now and then when it seemed desirable to him,
+having no set interest in life, and only endeavoring from day to day to
+put as far as possible from his mind the life he had left behind him.
+Now, however, all things became different. He brought to his service the
+keen mind and ready ability that had made him easily a winner at any
+game, a brave rider, and a never-failing shot. Within a few days Rogers
+saw what material was in him, and as the weeks went by grew to depend
+more and more upon his advice in matters.
+
+There had been much trouble with cattle thieves, and so far no method of
+stopping the loss or catching the thieves had been successful. Rogers
+finally put the matter into Gardley's hands to carry out his own ideas,
+with the men of the camp at his command to help him, the camp itself
+being only a part of Rogers's outlying possessions, one of several such
+centers from which he worked his growing interests.
+
+Gardley had formulated a scheme by which he hoped eventually to get
+hold of the thieves and put a stop to the trouble, and he was pretty
+sure he was on the right track; but his plan required slow and cautious
+work, that the enemy might not suspect and take to cover. He had for
+several weeks suspected that the thieves made their headquarters in the
+region of Old Ouida's Cabin, and made their raids from that direction.
+It was for this reason that of late the woods and trails in the vicinity
+of Ouida's had been secretly patrolled day and night, and every
+passer-by taken note of, until Gardley knew just who were the
+frequenters of that way and mostly what was their business. This work
+was done alternately by the men of the Wallis camp and two other camps,
+Gardley being the head of all and carrying all responsibility; and not
+the least of that young man's offenses in the eyes of Rosa Rogers was
+that he was so constantly at her father's house and yet never lifted an
+eye in admiration of her pretty face. She longed to humiliate him, and
+through him to humiliate Margaret, who presumed to interfere with her
+flirtations, for it was a bitter thing to Rosa that Forsythe had no eyes
+for her when Margaret was about.
+
+When the party from the fort rode homeward that Sunday after the service
+at the school-house, Forsythe lingered behind to talk to Margaret, and
+then rode around by the Rogers place, where Rosa and he had long ago
+established a trysting-place.
+
+Rosa was watching for his passing, and he stopped a half-hour or so to
+talk to her. During this time she casually disclosed to Forsythe some of
+the plans she had overheard Gardley laying before her father. Rosa had
+very little idea of the importance of Gardley's work to her father, or
+perhaps she would not have so readily prattled of his affairs. Her main
+idea was to pay back Gardley for his part in her humiliation with
+Forsythe. She suggested that it would be a great thing if Gardley could
+be prevented from being at the play Tuesday evening, and told what she
+had overheard him saying to her father merely to show Forsythe how easy
+it would be to have Gardley detained on Tuesday. Forsythe questioned
+Rosa keenly. Did she know whom they suspected? Did she know what they
+were planning to do to catch them, and when?
+
+Rosa innocently enough disclosed all she knew, little thinking how
+dishonorable to her father it was, and perhaps caring as little, for
+Rosa had ever been a spoiled child, accustomed to subordinating
+everything within reach to her own uses. As for Forsythe, he was nothing
+loath to get rid of Gardley, and he saw more possibilities in Rosa's
+suggestion than she had seen herself. When at last he bade Rosa good
+night and rode unobtrusively back to the trail he was already
+formulating a plan.
+
+It was, therefore, quite in keeping with his wishes that he should meet
+a dark-browed rider a few miles farther up the trail whose identity he
+had happened to learn a few days before.
+
+Now Forsythe would, perhaps, not have dared to enter into any compact
+against Gardley with men of such ill-repute had it been a matter of
+money and bribery, but, armed as he was with information valuable to the
+criminals, he could so word his suggestion about Gardley's detention as
+to make the hunted men think it to their advantage to catch Gardley
+some time the next day when he passed their way and imprison him for a
+while. This would appear to be but a friendly bit of advice from a
+disinterested party deserving a good turn some time in the future and
+not get Forsythe into any trouble. As such it was received by the
+wretch, who clutched at the information with ill-concealed delight and
+rode away into the twilight like a serpent threading his secret, gliding
+way among the darkest places, scarcely rippling the air, so stealthily
+did he pass.
+
+As for Forsythe, he rode blithely to the Temple ranch, with no thought
+of the forces he had set going, his life as yet one round of trying to
+please himself at others' expense, if need be, but please himself,
+_anyway_, with whatever amusement the hour afforded.
+
+At home in the East, where his early life had been spent, a splendid
+girl awaited his dilatory letters and set herself patiently to endure
+the months of separation until he should have attained a home and a
+living and be ready for her to come to him.
+
+In the South, where he had idled six months before he went West, another
+lovely girl cherished mementoes of his tarrying and wrote him loving
+letters in reply to his occasional erratic epistles.
+
+Out on the Californian shore a girl with whom he had traveled West in
+her uncle's luxurious private car, with a gay party of friends and
+relatives, cherished fond hopes of a visit he had promised to make her
+during the winter.
+
+Innumerable maidens of this world, wise in the wisdom that crushes
+hearts, remembered him with a sigh now and then, but held no illusions
+concerning his kind.
+
+Pretty little Rosa Rogers cried her eyes out every time he cast a
+languishing look at her teacher, and several of the ladies of the fort
+sighed that the glance of his eye and the gentle pressure of his hand
+could only be a passing joy. But the gay Lothario passed on his way as
+yet without a scratch on the hard enamel of his heart, till one wondered
+if it were a heart, indeed, or perhaps only a metal imitation. But girls
+like Margaret Earle, though they sometimes were attracted by him,
+invariably distrusted him. He was like a beautiful spotted snake that
+was often caught menacing something precious, but you could put him down
+anywhere after punishment or imprisonment and he would slide on his same
+slippery way and still be a spotted, deadly snake.
+
+When Gardley left the camp that Monday morning following the walk home
+with Margaret from the Sabbath service, he fully intended to be back at
+the school-house Monday by the time the afternoon rehearsal began. His
+plans were so laid that he thought relays from other camps were to guard
+the suspected ground for the next three days and he could be free. It
+had been a part of the information that Forsythe had given the stranger
+that Gardley would likely pass a certain lonely crossing of the trail at
+about three o'clock that afternoon, and, had that arrangement been
+carried out, the men who lay in wait for him would doubtless have been
+pleased to have their plans mature so easily; but they would not have
+been pleased long, for Gardley's men were so near at hand at that time,
+watching that very spot with eyes and ears and long-distance glasses,
+that their chief would soon have been rescued and the captors be
+themselves the captured.
+
+But the men from the farther camp, called "Lone Fox" men, did not arrive
+on time, perhaps through some misunderstanding, and Gardley and Kemp and
+their men had to do double time. At last, later in the afternoon,
+Gardley volunteered to go to Lone Fox and bring back the men.
+
+As he rode his thoughts were of Margaret, and he was seeing again the
+look of gladness in her eyes when she found he had not gone yesterday;
+feeling again the thrill of her hands in his, the trust of her smile! It
+was incredible, wonderful, that God had sent a veritable angel into the
+wilderness to bring him to himself; and now he was wondering, could it
+be that there was really hope that he could ever make good enough to
+dare to ask her to marry him. The sky and the air were rare, but his
+thoughts were rarer still, and his soul was lifted up with joy. He was
+earning good wages now. In two more weeks he would have enough to pay
+back the paltry sum for the lack of which he had fled from his old home
+and come to the wilderness. He would go back, of course, and straighten
+out the old score. Then what? Should he stay in the East and go back to
+the old business wherewith he had hoped to make his name honored and
+gain wealth, or should he return to this wild, free land again and start
+anew?
+
+His mother was dead. Perhaps if she had lived and cared he would have
+made good in the first place. His sisters were both married to wealthy
+men and not deeply interested in him. He had disappointed and mortified
+them; their lives were filled with social duties; they had never missed
+him. His father had been dead many years. As for his uncle, his mother's
+brother, whose heir he was to have been before he got himself into
+disgrace, he decided not to go near him. He would stay as long as he
+must to undo the wrong he had done. He would call on his sisters and
+then come back; come back and let Margaret decide what she wanted him to
+do--that is, if she would consent to link her life with one who had been
+once a failure. Margaret! How wonderful she was! If Margaret said he
+ought to go back and be a lawyer, he would go--yes, even if he had to
+enter his uncle's office as an underling to do it. His soul loathed the
+idea, but he would do it for Margaret, if she thought it best. And so he
+mused as he rode!
+
+When the Lone Fox camp was reached and the men sent out on their belated
+task, Gardley decided not to go with them back to meet Kemp and the
+other men, but sent word to Kemp that he had gone the short cut to
+Ashland, hoping to get to a part of the evening rehearsal yet.
+
+Now that short cut led him to the lonely crossing of the trail much
+sooner than Kemp and the others could reach it from the rendezvous; and
+there in cramped positions, and with much unnecessary cursing and
+impatience, four strong masked men had been concealed for four long
+hours.
+
+Through the stillness of the twilight rode Gardley, thinking of
+Margaret, and for once utterly off his guard. His long day's work was
+done, and though he had not been able to get back when he planned, he
+was free now, free until the day after to-morrow. He would go at once to
+her and see if there was anything she wanted him to do.
+
+Then, as if to help along his enemies, he began to hum a song, his
+clear, high voice reaching keenly to the ears of the men in ambush:
+
+    "'Oh, the time is long, mavourneen,
+    Till I come again, O mavourneen--'"
+
+"And the toime 'll be longer thun iver, oim thinkin', ma purty little
+voorneen!" said an unmistakable voice of Erin through the gathering
+dusk.
+
+Gardley's horse stopped and Gardley's hand went to his revolver, while
+his other hand lifted the silver whistle to his lips; but four guns
+bristled at him in the twilight, the whistle was knocked from his lips
+before his breath had even reached it, some one caught his arms from
+behind, and his own weapon was wrenched from his hand as it went off.
+The cry which he at once sent forth was stifled in its first whisper in
+a great muffling garment flung over his head and drawn tightly about his
+neck. He was in a fair way to strangle, and his vigorous efforts at
+escape were useless in the hands of so many. He might have been plunged
+at once into a great abyss of limitless, soundless depths, so futile did
+any resistance seem. And so, as it was useless to struggle, he lay like
+one dead and put all his powers into listening. But neither could he
+hear much, muffled as he was, and bound hand and foot now, with a gag in
+his mouth and little care taken whether he could even breathe.
+
+They were leading him off the trail and up over rough ground; so much he
+knew, for the horse stumbled and jolted and strained to carry him. To
+keep his whirling senses alive and alert he tried to think where they
+might be leading him; but the darkness and the suffocation dulled his
+powers. He wondered idly if his men would miss him and come back when
+they got home to search for him, and then remembered with a pang that
+they would think him safely in Ashland, helping Margaret. They would not
+be alarmed if he did not return that night, for they would suppose he
+had stopped at Rogers's on the way and perhaps stayed all night, as he
+had done once or twice before. _Margaret!_ When should he see Margaret
+now? What would she think?
+
+And then he swooned away.
+
+When he came somewhat to himself he was in a close, stifling room where
+candle-light from a distance threw weird shadows over the adobe walls.
+The witch-like voices of a woman and a girl in harsh, cackling laughter,
+half suppressed, were not far away, and some one, whose face was
+covered, was holding a glass to his lips. The smell was sickening, and
+he remembered that he hated the thought of liquor. It did not fit with
+those who companied with Margaret. He had never cared for it, and had
+resolved never to taste it again. But whether he chose or not, the
+liquor was poured down his throat. Huge hands held him and forced it,
+and he was still bound and too weak to resist, even if he had realized
+the necessity.
+
+The liquid burned its way down his throat and seethed into his brain,
+and a great darkness, mingled with men's wrangling voices and much
+cursing, swirled about him like some furious torrent of angry waters
+that finally submerged his consciousness. Then came deeper darkness and
+a blank relief from pain.
+
+Hours passed. He heard sounds sometimes, and dreamed dreams which he
+could not tell from reality. He saw his friends with terror written on
+their faces, while he lay apathetically and could not stir. He saw tears
+on Margaret's face; and once he was sure he heard Forsythe's voice in
+contempt: "Well, he seems to be well occupied for the present! No danger
+of his waking up for a while!" and then the voices all grew dim and far
+away again, and only an old crone and the harsh girl's whisper over him;
+and then Margaret's tears--tears that fell on his heart from far above,
+and seemed to melt out all his early sins and flood him with their
+horror. Tears and the consciousness that he ought to be doing something
+for Margaret now and could not. Tears--and more darkness!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+When Margaret arrived behind the curtain she was aware of many cries and
+questions hurled at her like an avalanche, but, ignoring them all, she
+sprang past the noisy, excited group of young people, darted through the
+dressing-room to the right and out into the night and coolness. Her head
+was swimming, and things went black before her eyes. She felt that her
+breath was going, going, and she must get to the air.
+
+But when she passed the hot wave of the school-room, and the sharp air
+of the night struck her face, consciousness seemed to turn and come back
+into her again; for there over her head was the wideness of the vast,
+starry Arizona night, and there, before her, in Nick Bottom's somber
+costume, eating one of the chicken sandwiches that Mrs. Tanner had sent
+down to her, stood Gardley! He was pale and shaken from his recent
+experience; but he was undaunted, and when he saw Margaret coming toward
+him through the doorway with her soul in her eyes and her spirit all
+aflame with joy and relief, he came to meet her under the stars, and,
+forgetting everything else, just folded her gently in his arms!
+
+It was a most astonishing thing to do, of course, right there outside
+the dressing-room door, with the curtain just about to rise on the scene
+and Gardley's wig was not on yet. He had not even asked nor obtained
+permission. But the soul sometimes grows impatient waiting for the lips
+to speak, and Margaret felt her trust had been justified and her heart
+had found its home. Right there behind the school-house, out in the
+great wide night, while the crowded, clamoring audience waited for them,
+and the young actors grew frantic, they plighted their troth, his lips
+upon hers, and with not a word spoken.
+
+Voices from the dressing-room roused them. "Come in quick, Mr. Gardley;
+it's time for the curtain to rise, and everybody is ready. Where on
+earth has Miss Earle vanished? Miss Earle! Oh, Miss Earle!"
+
+There was a rush to the dressing-room to find the missing ones; but Bud,
+as ever, present where was the most need, stood with his back to the
+outside world in the door of the dressing-room and called loudly:
+
+"They're comin', all right. Go on! Get to your places. Miss Earle says
+to get to your places."
+
+The two in the darkness groped for each other's hands as they stood
+suddenly apart, and with one quick pressure and a glance hurried in.
+There was not any need for words. They understood, these two, and
+trusted.
+
+With her cheeks glowing now, and her eyes like two stars, Margaret fled
+across the stage and took her place at the piano again, just as the
+curtain began to be drawn; and Forsythe, who had been slightly uneasy at
+the look on her face as she left them, wondered now and leaned forward
+to tell her how well she was looking.
+
+He kept his honeyed phrase to himself, however, for she was not heeding
+him. Her eyes were on the rising curtain, and Forsythe suddenly
+remembered that this was the scene in which Jed was to have
+appeared--and Jed had a broken leg! What had Margaret done about it? It
+was scarcely a part that could be left out. Why hadn't he thought of it
+sooner and offered to take it? He could have bluffed it out somehow--he
+had heard it so much--made up words where he couldn't remember them all,
+and it would have been a splendid opportunity to do some real
+love-making with Rosa. Why hadn't he thought of it? Why hadn't Rosa?
+Perhaps she hadn't heard about Jed soon enough to suggest it.
+
+The curtain was fully open now, and Bud's voice as Peter Quince, a
+trifle high and cracked with excitement, broke the stillness, while the
+awed audience gazed upon this new, strange world presented to them.
+
+"Is all our company here?" lilted out Bud, excitedly, and Nick Bottom
+replied with Gardley's voice:
+
+"You were best to call them generally, man by man, according to the
+scrip."
+
+Forsythe turned deadly white. Jasper Kemp, whose keen eye was upon him,
+saw it through the tan, saw his lips go pale and purple points of fear
+start in his eyes, as he looked and looked again, and could not believe
+his senses.
+
+Furtively he darted a glance around, like one about to steal away; then,
+seeing Jasper Kemp's eyes upon him, settled back with a strained look
+upon his face. Once he stole a look at Margaret and caught her face all
+transfigured with great joy; looked again and felt rebuked somehow by
+the pureness of her maiden joy and trust.
+
+Not once had she turned her eyes to his. He was forgotten, and somehow
+he knew the look he would get if she should see him. It would be
+contempt and scorn that would burn his very soul. It is only a maid now
+and then to whom it is given thus to pierce and bruise the soul of a man
+who plays with love and trust and womanhood for selfishness. Such a
+woman never knows her power. She punishes all unconscious to herself. It
+was so that Margaret Earle, without being herself aware, and by her very
+indifference and contempt, showed the little soul of this puppet man to
+himself.
+
+He stole away at last when he thought no one was looking, and reached
+the back of the school-house at the open door of the girls'
+dressing-room, where he knew Titania would be posing in between the
+acts. He beckoned her to his side and began to question her in quick,
+eager, almost angry tones, as if the failure of their plans were her
+fault. Had her father been at home all day? Had anything happened--any
+one been there? Did Gardley come? Had there been any report from the
+men? Had that short, thick-set Scotchman with the ugly grin been there?
+She must remember that she was the one to suggest the scheme in the
+first place, and it was her business to keep a watch. There was no
+telling now what might happen. He turned, and there stood Jasper Kemp
+close to his elbow, his short stature drawn to its full, his thick-set
+shoulders squaring themselves, his ugly grin standing out in bold
+relief, menacingly, in the night.
+
+The young man let forth some words not in a gentleman's code, and turned
+to leave the frightened girl, who by this time was almost crying; but
+Jasper Kemp kept pace with Forsythe as he walked.
+
+"Was you addressing me?" he asked, politely; "because I could tell you a
+few things a sight more appropriate for you than what you just handed to
+me."
+
+Forsythe hurried around to the front of the school-house, making no
+reply.
+
+"Nice, pleasant evening to be _free_," went on Jasper Kemp, looking up
+at the stars. "Rather onpleasant for some folks that have to be shut up
+in jail."
+
+Forsythe wheeled upon him. "What do you mean?" he demanded, angrily,
+albeit he was white with fear.
+
+"Oh, nothing much," drawled Jasper, affably. "I was just thinking how
+much pleasanter it was to be a free man than shut up in prison on a
+night like this. It's so much healthier, you know."
+
+Forsythe looked at him a moment, a kind of panic of intelligence growing
+in his face; then he turned and went toward the back of the
+school-house, where he had left his horse some hours before.
+
+"Where are you going?" demanded Jasper. "It's 'most time you went back
+to your fiddling, ain't it?"
+
+But Forsythe answered him not a word. He was mounting his horse
+hurriedly--his horse, which, all unknown to him, had been many miles
+since he last rode him.
+
+"You think you have to go, then?" said Jasper, deprecatingly. "Well,
+now, that's a pity, seeing you was fiddling so nice an' all. Shall I
+tell them you've gone for your health?"
+
+Thus recalled, Forsythe stared at his tormentor wildly for a second.
+"Tell her--tell her"--he muttered, hoarsely--"tell her I've been taken
+suddenly ill." And he was off on a wild gallop toward the fort.
+
+"I'll tell her you've gone for your health!" called Jasper Kemp, with
+his hands to his mouth like a megaphone. "I reckon he won't return again
+very soon, either," he chuckled. "This country's better off without such
+pests as him an' that measley parson." Then, turning, he beheld Titania,
+the queen of the fairies, white and frightened, staring wildly into the
+starry darkness after the departed rider. "Poor little fool!" he
+muttered under his breath as he looked at the girl and turned away.
+"Poor, pretty little fool!" Suddenly he stepped up to her side and
+touched her white-clad shoulder gently. "Don't you go for to care,
+lassie," he said in a tender tone. "He ain't worth a tear from your
+pretty eye. He ain't fit to wipe your feet on--your pretty wee feet!"
+
+But Rosa turned angrily and stamped her foot.
+
+"Go away! You bad old man!" she shrieked. "Go away! I shall tell my
+father!" And she flouted herself into the school-house.
+
+Jasper stood looking ruefully after her, shaking his head. "The little
+de'il!" he said aloud; "the poor, pretty little de'il. She'll get her
+dues aplenty afore she's done." And Jasper went back to the play.
+
+Meantime, inside the school-house, the play went gloriously on to the
+finish, and Gardley as Nick Bottom took the house by storm. Poor absent
+Jed's father, sent by the sufferer to report it all, stood at the back
+of the house while tears of pride and disappointment rolled down his
+cheeks--pride that Jed had been so well represented, disappointment that
+it couldn't have been his son up there play-acting like that.
+
+The hour was late when the play was over, and Margaret stood at last in
+front of the stage to receive the congratulations of the entire
+countryside, while the young actors posed and laughed and chattered
+excitedly, then went away by two and threes, their tired, happy voices
+sounding back along the road. The people from the fort had been the
+first to surge around Margaret with their eager congratulations and
+gushing sentiments: "So sweet, my dear! So perfectly wonderful! You
+really have got some dandy actors!" And, "Why don't you try something
+lighter--something simpler, don't you know. Something really popular
+that these poor people could understand and appreciate? A little farce!
+I could help you pick one out!"
+
+And all the while they gushed Jasper Kemp and his men, grim and
+forbidding, stood like a cordon drawn about her to protect her, with
+Gardley in the center, just behind her, as though he had a right there
+and meant to stay; till at last the fort people hurried away and the
+school-house grew suddenly empty with just those two and the eight men
+behind; and by the door Bud, talking to Pop and Mom Wallis in the
+buckboard outside.
+
+Amid this admiring bodyguard at last Gardley took Margaret home.
+Perhaps she wondered a little that they all went along, but she laid it
+to their pride in the play and their desire to talk it over.
+
+They had sent Mom and Pop Wallis home horseback, after all, and put
+Margaret and Gardley in the buckboard, Margaret never dreaming that it
+was because Gardley was not fit to walk. Indeed, he did not realize
+himself why they all stuck so closely to him. He had lived through so
+much since Jasper and his men had burst into his prison and freed him,
+bringing him in hot haste to the school-house, with Bud wildly riding
+ahead. But it was enough for him to sit beside Margaret in the sweet
+night and remember how she had come out to him under the stars. Her hand
+lay beside him on the seat, and without intending it his own brushed it.
+Then he laid his gently, reverently, down upon hers with a quiet
+pressure, and her smaller fingers thrilled and nestled in his grasp.
+
+In the shadow of a big tree beside the house he bade her good-by, the
+men busying themselves with turning about the buckboard noisily, and Bud
+discreetly taking himself to the back door to get one of the men a drink
+of water.
+
+"You have been suffering in some way," said Margaret, with sudden
+intuition, as she looked up into Gardley's face. "You have been in
+peril, somehow--"
+
+"A little," he answered, lightly. "I'll tell you about it to-morrow. I
+mustn't keep the men waiting now. I shall have a great deal to tell you
+to-morrow--if you will let me. Good night, _Margaret_!" Their hands
+lingered in a clasp, and then he rode away with his bodyguard.
+
+But Margaret did not have to wait until the morrow to hear the story,
+for Bud was just fairly bursting.
+
+Mrs. Tanner had prepared a nice little supper--more cold chicken, pie,
+doughnuts, coffee, some of her famous marble cake, and preserves--and
+she insisted on Margaret's coming into the dining-room and eating it,
+though the girl would much rather have gone with her happy heart up to
+her own room by herself.
+
+Bud did not wait on ceremony. He began at once when Margaret was seated,
+even before his mother could get her properly waited on.
+
+"Well, we had _some ride_, we sure did! The Kid's a great old scout."
+
+Margaret perceived that this was a leader. "Why, that's so, what became
+of you, William? I hunted everywhere for you. Things were pretty
+strenuous there for a while, and I needed you dreadfully."
+
+"Well, I know," Bud apologized. "I'd oughta let you know before I went,
+but there wasn't time. You see, I had to pinch that guy's horse to go,
+and I knew it was just a chance if we could get back, anyway; but I had
+to take it. You see, if I could 'a' gone right to the cabin it would
+have been a dead cinch, but I had to ride to camp for the men, and then,
+taking the short trail across, it was some ride to Ouida's Cabin!"
+
+Mrs. Tanner stepped aghast as she was cutting a piece of dried-apple pie
+for Margaret. "Now, Buddie--mother's boy--you don't mean to tell me
+_you_ went to _Ouida's Cabin_? Why, sonnie, that's an _awful place_!
+Don't you know your pa told you he'd whip you if you ever went on that
+trail?"
+
+"I should worry, Ma! I _had_ to go. They had Mr. Gardley tied up there,
+and we had to go and get him rescued."
+
+"_You_ had to go, Buddie--now what could _you_ do in that awful place?"
+Mrs. Tanner was almost reduced to tears. She saw her offspring at the
+edge of perdition at once.
+
+But Bud ignored his mother and went on with his tale. "You jest oughta
+seen Jap Kemp's face when I told him what that guy said to you! Some
+face, b'lieve me! He saw right through the whole thing, too. I could see
+that! He ner the men hadn't had a bite o' supper yet; they'd just got
+back from somewheres. They thought the Kid was over here all day helping
+you. He said yesterday when he left 'em here's where he's
+a-comin'"--Bud's mouth was so full he could hardly articulate--"an' when
+I told 'em, he jest blew his little whistle--like what they all
+carry--three times, and those men every one jest stopped right where
+they was, whatever they was doin'. Long Bill had the comb in the air
+gettin' ready to comb his hair, an' he left it there and come away, and
+Big Jim never stopped to wipe his face on the roller-towel, he just let
+the wind dry it; and they all hustled on their horses fast as ever they
+could and beat it after Jap Kemp. Jap, he rode alongside o' me and asked
+me questions. He made me tell all what the guy from the fort said over
+again, three or four times, and then he ast what time he got to the
+school-house, and whether the Kid had been there at all yest'iday ur
+t'day; and a lot of other questions, and then he rode alongside each man
+and told him in just a few words where we was goin' and what the guy
+from the fort had said. Gee! but you'd oughta heard what the men said
+when he told 'em! Gee! but they was some mad! Bimeby we came to the
+woods round the cabin, and Jap Kemp made me stick alongside Long Bill,
+and he sent the men off in different directions all in a _big_ circle,
+and waited till each man was in his place, and then we all rode hard as we
+could and came softly up round that cabin just as the sun was goin' down.
+Gee! but you'd oughta seen the scairt look on them women's faces; there
+was two of 'em--an old un an' a skinny-looking long-drink-o'-pump-water.
+I guess she was a girl. I don't know. Her eyes looked real old. There
+was only three men in the cabin; the rest was off somewheres. They
+wasn't looking for anybody to come that time o' day, I guess. One of the
+men was sick on a bunk in the corner. He had his head tied up, and his
+arm, like he'd been shot, and the other two men came jumping up to the
+door with their guns, but when they saw how many men _we_ had they
+looked awful scairt. _We_ all had _our_ guns out, too!--Jap Kemp gave me
+one to carry--" Bud tried not to swagger as he told this, but it was
+almost too much for him. "Two of our men held the horses, and all the
+rest of us got down and went into the cabin. Jap Kemp, sounded his
+whistle and all our men done the same just as they went in the
+door--some kind of signals they have for the Lone Fox Camp! The two men
+in the doorway aimed straight at Jap Kemp and fired, but Jap was onto
+'em and jumped one side and our men fired, too, and we soon had 'em tied
+up and went in--that is, Jap and me and Long Bill went in, the rest
+stayed by the door--and it wasn't long 'fore their other men came riding
+back hot haste; they'd heard the shots, you know--and some more of _our_
+men--why, most twenty or thirty there was, I guess, altogether; some
+from Lone Fox Camp that was watching off in the woods came and when we
+got outside again there they all were, like a big army. Most of the men
+belonging to the cabin was tied and harmless by that time, for our men
+took 'em one at a time as they came riding in. Two of 'em got away, but
+Jap Kemp said they couldn't go far without being caught, 'cause there
+was a watch out for 'em--they'd been stealing cattle long back something
+terrible. Well, so Jap Kemp and Long Bill and I went into the cabin
+after the two men that shot was tied with ropes we'd brung along, and
+handcuffs, and we went hunting for the Kid. At first we couldn't find
+him at all. Gee! It was something fierce! And the old woman kep'
+a-crying and saying we'd kill her sick son, and she didn't know nothing
+about the man we was hunting for. But pretty soon I spied the Kid's foot
+stickin' out from under the cot where the sick man was, and when I told
+Jap Kemp that sick man pulled out a gun he had under the blanket and
+aimed it right at me!"
+
+"Oh, mother's little Buddie!" whimpered Mrs. Tanner, with her apron to
+her eyes.
+
+"_Aw, Ma_, cut it out! _he_ didn't _hurt_ me! The gun just went off
+crooked, and grazed Jap Kemp's hand a little, not much. Jap knocked it
+out of the sick man's hand just as he was pullin' the trigger. Say, Ma,
+ain't you got any more of those cucumber pickles? It makes a man mighty
+hungry to do all that riding and shooting. Well, it certainly was
+something fierce--Say, Miss Earle, you take that last piece o' pie. Oh,
+g'wan! _Take_ it! _You_ worked hard. No, I don't want it, really! Well,
+if you won't take it _anyway_, I might eat it just to save it. Got any
+more coffee, Ma?"
+
+But Margaret was not eating. Her face was pale and her eyes were starry
+with unshed tears, and she waited in patient but breathless suspense for
+the vagaries of the story to work out to the finish.
+
+"Yes, it certainly was something fierce, that cabin," went on the
+narrator. "Why, Ma, it looked as if it had never been swept under that
+cot when we hauled the Kid out. He was tied all up in knots, and great
+heavy ropes wound tight from his shoulders down to his ankles. Why, they
+were bound so tight they made great heavy welts in his wrists and
+shoulders and round his ankles when we took 'em off; and they had a
+great big rag stuffed into his mouth so he couldn't yell. Gee! It was
+something fierce! He was 'most dippy, too; but Jap Kemp brought him
+round pretty quick and got him outside in the air. That was the worst
+place I ever was in myself. You couldn't breathe, and the dirt was
+something fierce. It was like a pigpen. I sure was glad to get outdoors
+again. And then--well, the Kid came around all right and they got him on
+a horse and gave him something out of a bottle Jap Kemp had, and pretty
+soon he could ride again. Why, you'd oughta seen his nerve. He just sat
+up there as straight, his lips all white yet and his eyes looked some
+queer; but he straightened up and he looked those rascals right in the
+eye, and told 'em a few things, and he gave orders to the other men from
+Lone Fox Camp what to do with 'em; and he had the two women
+disarmed--they had guns, too--and carried away, and the cabin nailed up,
+and a notice put on the door, and every one of those men were
+handcuffed--the sick one and all--and he told 'em to bring a wagon and
+put the sick one's cot in and take 'em over to Ashland to the jail, and
+he sent word to Mr. Rogers. Then we rode home and got to the
+school-house just when you was playing the last chords of the ov'rtcher.
+Gee! It was some fierce ride and some _close shave_! The Kid he hadn't
+had a thing to eat since Monday noon, and he was some hungry! I found a
+sandwich on the window of the dressing-room, and he ate it while he got
+togged up--'course I told him 'bout Jed soon's we left the cabin, and
+Jap Kemp said he'd oughta go right home to camp after all he had been
+through; but he wouldn't; he said he was goin' to _act_. So 'course he
+had his way! But, gee! You could see it wasn't any cinch game for him!
+He 'most fell over every time after the curtain fell. You see, they gave
+him some kind of drugged whisky up there at the cabin that made his head
+feel queer. Say, he thinks that guy from the fort came in and looked at
+him once while he was asleep. He says it was only a dream, but I bet he
+did. Say, Ma, ain't you gonta give me another doughnut?"
+
+In the quiet of her chamber at last, Margaret knelt before her window
+toward the purple, shadowy mountain under the starry dome, and gave
+thanks for the deliverance of Gardley; while Bud, in his comfortable
+loft, lay down to his well-earned rest and dreamed of pirates and angels
+and a hero who looked like the Kid.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+The Sunday before Lance Gardley started East on his journey of
+reparation two strangers slipped quietly into the back of the
+school-house during the singing of the first hymn and sat down in the
+shadow by the door.
+
+Margaret was playing the piano when they came in, and did not see them,
+and when she turned back to her Scripture lesson she had time for but
+the briefest of glances. She supposed they must be some visitors from
+the fort, as they were speaking to the captain's wife----who came over
+occasionally to the Sunday service, perhaps because it afforded an
+opportunity for a ride with one of the young officers. These occasional
+visitors who came for amusement and curiosity had ceased to trouble
+Margaret. Her real work was with the men and women and children who
+loved the services for their own sake, and she tried as much as possible
+to forget outsiders. So, that day everything went on just as usual,
+Margaret putting her heart into the prayer, the simple, storylike
+reading of the Scripture, and the other story-sermon which followed it.
+Gardley sang unusually well at the close, a wonderful bit from an
+oratorio that he and Margaret had been practising.
+
+But when toward the close of the little vesper service Margaret gave
+opportunity, as she often did, for others to take part in sentence
+prayers, one of the strangers from the back of the room stood up and
+began to pray. And such a prayer! Heaven seemed to bend low, and earth
+to kneel and beseech as the stranger-man, with a face like an archangel,
+and a body of an athlete clothed in a brown-flannel shirt and khakis,
+besought the Lord of heaven for a blessing on this gathering and on the
+leader of this little company who had so wonderfully led them to see the
+Christ and their need of salvation through the lesson of the day. And it
+did not need Bud's low-breathed whisper, "The missionary!" to tell
+Margaret who he was. His face told her. His prayer thrilled her, and his
+strong, young, true voice made her sure that here was a man of God in
+truth.
+
+When the prayer was over and Margaret stood once more shyly facing her
+audience, she could scarcely keep the tremble out of her voice:
+
+"Oh," said she, casting aside ceremony, "if I had known the missionary
+was here I should not have dared to try and lead this meeting to-day.
+Won't you please come up here and talk to us for a little while now, Mr.
+Brownleigh?"
+
+At once he came forward eagerly, as if each opportunity were a pleasure.
+"Why, surely, I want to speak a word to you, just to say how glad I am
+to see you all, and to experience what a wonderful teacher you have
+found since I went away; but I wouldn't have missed this meeting to-day
+for all the sermons I ever wrote or preached. You don't need any more
+sermon than the remarkable story you've just been listening to, and I've
+only one word to add; and that is, that I've found since I went away
+that Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, is just the same Jesus
+to me to-day that He was the last time I spoke to you. He is just as
+ready to forgive your sin, to comfort you in sorrow, to help you in
+temptation, to raise your body in the resurrection, and to take you home
+to a mansion in His Father's house as He was the day He hung upon the
+cross to save your soul from death. I've found I can rest just as
+securely upon the Bible as the word of God as when I first tested its
+promises. Heaven and earth may pass away, but His word shall _never_
+pass away."
+
+"_Go to it!_" said Jasper Kemp under his breath in the tone some men say
+"Amen!" and his brows were drawn as if he were watching a battle.
+Margaret couldn't help wondering if he were thinking of the Rev.
+Frederick West just then.
+
+When the service was over the missionary brought his wife forward to
+Margaret, and they loved each other at once. Just another sweet girl
+like Margaret. She was lovely, with a delicacy of feature that betokened
+the high-born and high-bred, but dressed in a dainty khaki riding
+costume, if that uncompromising fabric could ever be called dainty.
+Margaret, remembering it afterward, wondered what it had been that gave
+it that unique individuality, and decided it was perhaps a combination
+of cut and finish and little dainty accessories. A bit of creamy lace at
+the throat of the rolling collar, a touch of golden-brown velvet in a
+golden clasp, the flash of a wonderful jewel on her finger, the modeling
+of the small, brown cap with its two eagle quills--all set the little
+woman apart and made her fit to enter any well-dressed company of riders
+in some great city park or fashionable drive. Yet here in the wilderness
+she was not overdressed.
+
+The eight men from the camp stood in solemn row, waiting to be
+recognized, and behind them, abashed and grinning with embarrassment,
+stood Pop and Mom Wallis, Mom with her new gray bonnet glorifying her
+old face till the missionary's wife had to look twice to be sure who she
+was.
+
+"And now, surely, Hazel, we must have these dear people come over and
+help us with the singing sometimes. Can't we try something right now?"
+said the missionary, looking first at his wife and then at Margaret and
+Gardley. "This man is a new-comer since I went away, but I'm mighty sure
+he is the right kind, and I'm glad to welcome him--or perhaps I would
+better ask if he will welcome me?" And with his rare smile the
+missionary put out his hand to Gardley, who took it with an eager grasp.
+The two men stood looking at each other for a moment, as rare men,
+rarely met, sometimes do even on a sinful earth; and after that clasp
+and that look they turned away, brothers for life.
+
+That was a most interesting song rehearsal that followed. It would be
+rare to find four voices like those even in a cultivated musical center,
+and they blended as if they had been made for one another. The men from
+the bunk-house and a lot of other people silently dropped again into
+their seats to listen as the four sang on. The missionary took the bass,
+and his wife the alto, and the four made music worth listening to. The
+rare and lovely thing about it was that they sang to souls, not alone
+for ears, and so their music, classical though it was and of the highest
+order, appealed keenly to the hearts of these rough men, and made them
+feel that heaven had opened for them, as once before for untaught
+shepherds, and let down a ladder of angelic voices.
+
+"I shall feel better about leaving you out here while I am gone, since
+they have come," said Gardley that night when he was bidding Margaret
+good night. "I couldn't bear to think there were none of your own kind
+about you. The others are devoted and would do for you with their lives
+if need be, as far as they know; but I like you to have _real
+friends_--real _Christian_ friends. This man is what I call a Christian.
+I'm not sure but he is the first minister that I have ever come close to
+who has impressed me as believing what he preaches, and living it. I
+suppose there are others. I haven't known many. That man West that was
+here when you came was a mistake!"
+
+"He didn't even preach much," smiled Margaret, "so how could he live it?
+This man is real. And there are others. Oh, I have known a lot of them
+that are living lives of sacrifice and loving service and are yet just
+as strong and happy and delightful as if they were millionaires. But
+they are the men who have not thrown away their Bibles and their Christ.
+They believe every promise in God's word, and rest on them day by day,
+testing them and proving them over and over. I wish you knew my father!"
+
+"I am going to," said Gardley, proudly. "_I_ am going to him just as
+soon as I have finished my business and straightened out my affairs;
+and I am going to tell him _everything_--with your permission,
+Margaret!"
+
+"Oh, how beautiful!" cried Margaret, with happy tears in her eyes. "To
+think you are going to see father and mother. I have wanted them to know
+the real you. I couldn't half _tell_ you, the real you, in a letter!"
+
+"Perhaps they won't look on me with your sweet blindness, dear," he
+said, smiling tenderly down on her. "Perhaps they will see only my dark,
+past life--for I mean to tell your father everything. I'm not going to
+have any skeletons in the closet to cause pain hereafter. Perhaps your
+father and mother will not feel like giving their daughter to me after
+they know. Remember, I realize just what a rare prize she is."
+
+"No, father is not like that, Lance," said Margaret, with her rare smile
+lighting up her happy eyes. "Father and mother will understand."
+
+"But if they should not?" There was the shadow of sadness in Gardley's
+eyes as he asked the question.
+
+"I belong to you, dear, anyway," she said, with sweet surrender. "I
+trust you though the whole world were against you!"
+
+For answer Gardley took her in his arms, a look of awe upon his face,
+and, stooping, laid his lips upon hers in tender reverence.
+
+"Margaret--you wonderful Margaret!" he said. "God has blessed me more
+than other men in sending you to me! With His help I will be worthy of
+you!"
+
+Three days more and Margaret was alone with her school work, her two
+missionary friends thirty miles away, her eager watching for the mail
+to come, her faithful attendant Bud, and for comfort the purple mountain
+with its changing glory in the distance.
+
+A few days before Gardley left for the East he had been offered a
+position by Rogers as general manager of his estate at a fine salary,
+and after consultation with Margaret he decided to accept it, but the
+question of their marriage they had left by common consent unsettled
+until Gardley should return and be able to offer his future wife a
+record made as fair and clean as human effort could make it after human
+mistakes had unmade it. As Margaret worked and waited, wrote her
+charming letters to father and mother and lover, and thought her happy
+thoughts with only the mountain for confidant, she did not plan for the
+future except in a dim and dreamy way. She would make those plans with
+Gardley when he returned. Probably they must wait some time before they
+could be married. Gardley would have to earn some money, and she must
+earn, too. She must keep the Ashland School for another year. It had
+been rather understood, when she came out, that if at all possible she
+would remain two years at least. It was hard to think of not going home
+for the summer vacation; but the trip cost a great deal and was not to
+be thought of. There was already a plan suggested to have a summer
+session of the school, and if that went through, of course she must stay
+right in Ashland. It was hard to think of not seeing her father and
+mother for another long year, but perhaps Gardley would be returning
+before the summer was over, and then it would not be so hard. However,
+she tried to put these thoughts out of her mind and do her work happily.
+It was incredible that Arizona should have become suddenly so blank and
+uninteresting since the departure of a man whom she had not known a few
+short months before.
+
+Margaret had long since written to her father and mother about Gardley's
+first finding her in the desert. The thing had become history and was
+not likely to alarm them. She had been in Arizona long enough to be
+acquainted with things, and they would not be always thinking of her as
+sitting on stray water-tanks in the desert; so she told them about it,
+for she wanted them to know Gardley as he had been to her. The letters
+that had traveled back and forth between New York and Arizona had been
+full of Gardley; and still Margaret had not told her parents how it was
+between them. Gardley had asked that he might do that. Yet it had been a
+blind father and mother who had not long ago read between the lines of
+those letters and understood. Margaret fancied she detected a certain
+sense of relief in her mother's letters after she knew that Gardley had
+gone East. Were they worrying about him, she wondered, or was it just
+the natural dread of a mother to lose her child?
+
+So Margaret settled down to school routine, and more and more made a
+confidant of Bud concerning little matters of the school. If it had not
+been for Bud at that time Margaret would have been lonely indeed.
+
+Two or three times since Gardley left, the Brownleighs had ridden over
+to Sunday service, and once had stopped for a few minutes during the
+week on their way to visit some distant need. These occasions were a
+delight to Margaret, for Hazel Brownleigh was a kindred spirit. She was
+looking forward with pleasure to the visit she was to make them at the
+mission station as soon as school closed. She had been there once with
+Gardley before he left, but the ride was too long to go often, and the
+only escort available was Bud. Besides, she could not get away from
+school and the Sunday service at present; but it was pleasant to have
+something to look forward to.
+
+Meantime the spring Commencement was coming on and Margaret had her
+hands full. She had undertaken to inaugurate a real Commencement with
+class day and as much form and ceremony as she could introduce in order
+to create a good school spirit; but such things are not done with the
+turn of a hand, and the young teacher sadly missed Gardley in all these
+preparations.
+
+At this time Rosa Rogers was Margaret's particular thorn in the flesh.
+
+Since the night that Forsythe had quit the play and ridden forth into
+the darkness Rosa had regarded her teacher with baleful eyes. Gardley,
+too, she hated, and was only waiting with smoldering wrath until her
+wild, ungoverned soul could take its revenge. She felt that but for
+those two Forsythe would still have been with her.
+
+Margaret, realizing the passionate, untaught nature of the motherless
+girl and her great need of a friend to guide her, made attempt after
+attempt to reach and befriend her; but every attempt was met with
+repulse and the sharp word of scorn. Rosa had been too long the petted
+darling of a father who was utterly blind to her faults to be other than
+spoiled. Her own way was the one thing that ruled her. By her will she
+had ruled every nurse and servant about the place, and wheedled her
+father into letting her do anything the whim prompted. Twice her father,
+through the advice of friends, had tried the experiment of sending her
+away to school, once to an Eastern finishing school, and once to a
+convent on the Pacific coast, only to have her return shortly by request
+of the school, more wilful than when she had gone away. And now she
+ruled supreme in her father's home, disliked by most of the servants
+save those whom she chose to favor because they could be made to serve
+her purposes. Her father, engrossed in his business and away much of the
+time, was bound up in her and saw few of her faults. It is true that
+when a fault of hers did come to his notice, however, he dealt with it
+most severely, and grieved over it in secret, for the girl was much like
+the mother whose loss had emptied the world of its joy for him. But Rosa
+knew well how to manage her father and wheedle him, and also how to hide
+her own doings from his knowledge.
+
+Rosa's eyes, dimples, pink cheeks, and coquettish little mouth were not
+idle in these days. She knew how to have every pupil at her feet and
+ready to obey her slightest wish. She wielded her power to its fullest
+extent as the summer drew near, and day after day saw a slow torture for
+Margaret. Some days the menacing air of insurrection fairly bristled in
+the room, and Margaret could not understand how some of her most devoted
+followers seemed to be in the forefront of battle, until one day she
+looked up quickly and caught the lynx-eyed glance of Rosa as she turned
+from smiling at the boys in the back seat. Then she understood. Rosa had
+cast her spell upon the boys, and they were acting under it and not of
+their own clear judgment. It was the world-old battle of sex, of woman
+against woman for the winning of the man to do her will. Margaret, using
+all the charm of her lovely personality to uphold standards of right,
+truth, purity, high living, and earnest thinking; Rosa striving with her
+impish beauty to lure them into _any_ mischief so it foiled the other's
+purposes. And one day Margaret faced the girl alone, looking steadily
+into her eyes with sad, searching gaze, and almost a yearning to try to
+lead the pretty child to finer things.
+
+"Rosa, why do you always act as if I were your enemy?" she said, sadly.
+
+"Because you are!" said Rosa, with a toss of her independent head.
+
+"Indeed I'm not, dear child," she said, putting out her hand to lay it
+on the girl's shoulder kindly. "I want to be your friend."
+
+"I'm not a child!" snapped Rosa, jerking her shoulder angrily away; "and
+you can _never_ be my friend, because I _hate_ you!"
+
+"Rosa, look here!" said Margaret, following the girl toward the door,
+the color rising in her cheeks and a desire growing in her heart to
+conquer this poor, passionate creature and win her for better things.
+"Rosa, I cannot have you say such things. Tell me why you hate me? What
+have I done that you should feel that way? I'm sure if we should talk it
+over we might come to some better understanding."
+
+Rosa stood defiant in the doorway. "We could never come to any better
+understanding, Miss Earle," she declared in a cold, hard tone, "because
+I understand you now and I hate you. You tried your best to get my
+friend away from me, but you couldn't do it; and you would like to keep
+me from having any boy friends at all, but you can't do that, either.
+You think you are very popular, but you'll find out I always do what I
+like, and you needn't try to stop me. I don't have to come to school
+unless I choose, and as long as I don't break your rules you have no
+complaint coming; but you needn't think you can pull the wool over my
+eyes the way you do the others by pretending to be friends. I won't be
+friends! I hate you!" And Rosa turned grandly and marched out of the
+school-house.
+
+Margaret stood gazing sadly after her and wondering if her failure here
+were her fault--if there was anything else she ought to have done--if
+she had let her personal dislike of the girl influence her conduct. She
+sat for some time at her desk, her chin in her hands, her eyes fixed on
+vacancy with a hopeless, discouraged expression in them, before she
+became aware of another presence in the room. Looking around quickly,
+she saw that Bud was sitting motionless at his desk, his forehead
+wrinkled in a fierce frown, his jaw set belligerently, and a look of
+such, unutterable pity and devotion in his eyes that her heart warmed to
+him at once and a smile of comradeship broke over her face.
+
+"Oh, William! Were you here? Did you hear all that? What do you suppose
+is the matter? Where have I failed?"
+
+"You 'ain't failed anywhere! You should worry 'bout her! She's a nut! If
+she was a boy I'd punch her head for her! But seeing she's only a girl,
+_you should worry_! She always was the limit!"
+
+Bud's tone was forcible. He was the only one of all the boys who never
+yielded to Rosa's charms, but sat in glowering silence when she
+exercised her powers on the school and created pandemonium for the
+teacher. Bud's attitude was comforting. It had a touch of manliness and
+gentleness about it quite unwonted for him. It suggested beautiful
+possibilities for the future of his character, and Margaret smiled
+tenderly.
+
+"Thank you, dear boy!" she said, gently. "You certainly are a comfort.
+If every one was as splendid as you are we should have a model school.
+But I do wish I could help Rosa. I can't see why she should hate me so!
+I must have made some big mistake with her in the first place to
+antagonize her."
+
+"Naw!" said Bud, roughly. "No chance! She's just a _nut_, that's all.
+She's got a case on that Forsythe guy, the worst kind, and she's afraid
+somebody 'll get him away from her, the poor stew, as if anybody would
+get a case on a tough guy like that! Gee! You should worry! Come on,
+let's take a ride over t' camp!"
+
+With a sigh and a smile Margaret accepted Bud's consolations and went on
+her way, trying to find some manner of showing Rosa what a real friend
+she was willing to be. But Rosa continued obdurate and hateful,
+regarding her teacher with haughty indifference except when she was
+called upon to recite, which she did sometimes with scornful
+condescension, sometimes with pert perfection, and sometimes with saucy
+humor which convulsed the whole room. Margaret's patience was almost
+ceasing to be a virtue, and she meditated often whether she ought not to
+request that the girl be withdrawn from the school. Yet she reflected
+that it was a very short time now until Commencement, and that Rosa had
+not openly defied any rules. It was merely a personal antagonism. Then,
+too, if Rosa were taken from the school there was really no other good
+influence in the girl's life at present. Day by day Margaret prayed
+about the matter and hoped that something would develop to make plain
+her way.
+
+After much thought in the matter she decided to go on with her plans,
+letting Rosa have her place in the Commencement program and her part in
+the class-day doings as if nothing were the matter. Certainly there was
+nothing laid down in the rules of a public school that proscribed a
+scholar who did not love her teacher. Why should the fact that one had
+incurred the hate of a pupil unfit that pupil for her place in her class
+so long as she did her duties? And Rosa did hers promptly and deftly,
+with a certain piquant originality that Margaret could not help but
+admire.
+
+Sometimes, as the teacher cast a furtive look at the pretty girl working
+away at her desk, she wondered what was going on behind the lovely mask.
+But the look in Rosa's eyes, when she raised them, was both deep and
+sly.
+
+Rosa's hatred was indeed deep rooted. Whatever heart she had not
+frivoled away in wilfulness had been caught and won by Forsythe, the
+first grown man who had ever dared to make real love to her. Her
+jealousy of Margaret was the most intense thing that had ever come into
+her life. To think of him looking at Margaret, talking to Margaret,
+smiling at Margaret, walking or riding with Margaret, was enough to send
+her writhing upon her bed in the darkness of a wakeful night. She would
+clench her pretty hands until the nails dug into the flesh and brought
+the blood. She would bite the pillow or the blankets with an almost
+fiendish clenching of her teeth upon them and mutter, as she did so: "I
+hate her! I _hate_ her! I could _kill_ her!"
+
+The day her first letter came from Forsythe, Rosa held her head high and
+went about the school as if she were a princess royal and Margaret were
+the dust under her feet. Triumph sat upon her like a crown and looked
+forth regally from her eyes. She laid her hand upon her heart and felt
+the crackle of his letter inside her blouse. She dreamed with her eyes
+upon the distant mountain and thought of the tender names he had called
+her: "Little wild Rose of his heart," "No rose in all the world until
+you came," and a lot of other meaningful sentences. A real love-letter
+all her own! No sharing him with any hateful teachers! He had implied in
+her letter that she was the only one of all the people in that region
+to whom he cared to write. He had said he was coming back some day to
+get her. Her young, wild heart throbbed exultantly, and her eyes looked
+forth their triumph malignantly. When he did come she would take care
+that he stayed close by her. No conceited teacher from the East should
+lure him from her side. She would prepare her guiles and smile her
+sweetest. She would wear fine garments from abroad, and show him she
+could far outshine that quiet, common Miss Earle, with all her airs. Yet
+to this end she studied hard. It was no part of her plan to be left
+behind at graduating-time. She would please her father by taking a
+prominent part in things and outdoing all the others. Then he would give
+her what she liked--jewels and silk dresses, and all the things a girl
+should have who had won a lover like hers.
+
+The last busy days before Commencement were especially trying for
+Margaret. It seemed as if the children were possessed with the very
+spirit of mischief, and she could not help but see that it was Rosa who,
+sitting demurely in her desk, was the center of it all. Only Bud's
+steady, frowning countenance of all that rollicking, roistering crowd
+kept loyalty with the really beloved teacher. For, indeed, they loved
+her, every one but Rosa, and would have stood by her to a man and girl
+when it really came to the pinch, but in a matter like a little bit of
+fun in these last few days of school, and when challenged to it by the
+school beauty who did not usually condescend to any but a few of the
+older boys, where was the harm? They were so flattered by Rosa's smiles
+that they failed to see Margaret's worn, weary wistfulness.
+
+Bud, coming into the school-house late one afternoon in search of her
+after the other scholars had gone, found Margaret with her head down
+upon the desk and her shoulders shaken with soundless sobs. He stood for
+a second silent in the doorway, gazing helplessly at her grief, then
+with the delicacy of one boy for another he slipped back outside the
+door and stood in the shadow, grinding his teeth.
+
+"Gee!" he said, under his breath. "Oh, gee! I'd like to punch her fool
+head. I don't care if she is a girl! She needs it. Gee! if she was a boy
+wouldn't I settle her, the little darned mean sneak!"
+
+His remarks, it is needless to say, did not have reference to his
+beloved teacher.
+
+It was in the atmosphere everywhere that something was bound to happen
+if this strain kept up. Margaret knew it and felt utterly inadequate to
+meet it. Rosa knew it and was awaiting her opportunity. Bud knew it and
+could only stand and watch where the blow was to strike first and be
+ready to ward it off. In these days he wished fervently for Gardley's
+return. He did not know just what Gardley could do about "that little
+fool," as he called Rosa, but it would be a relief to be able to tell
+some one all about it. If he only dared leave he would go over and tell
+Jasper Kemp about it, just to share his burden with somebody. But as it
+was he must stick to the job for the present and bear his great
+responsibility, and so the days hastened by to the last Sunday before
+Commencement, which was to be on Monday.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+Margaret had spent Saturday in rehearsals, so that there had been no
+rest for her. Sunday morning she slept late, and awoke from a troubled
+dream, unrested. She almost meditated whether she would not ask some one
+to read a sermon at the afternoon service and let her go on sleeping.
+Then a memory of the lonely old woman at the camp, and the men, who came
+so regularly to the service, roused her to effort once more, and she
+arose and tried to prepare a little something for them.
+
+She came into the school-house at the hour, looking fagged, with dark
+circles under her eyes; and the loving eyes of Mom Wallis already in her
+front seat watched her keenly.
+
+"It's time for _him_ to come back," she said, in her heart. "She's
+gettin' peeked! I wisht he'd come!"
+
+Margaret had hoped that Rosa would not come. The girl was not always
+there, but of late she had been quite regular, coming in late with her
+father just a little after the story had begun, and attracting attention
+by her smiles and bows and giggling whispers, which sometimes were so
+audible as to create quite a diversion from the speaker.
+
+But Rosa came in early to-day and took a seat directly in front of
+Margaret, in about the middle of the house, fixing her eyes on her
+teacher with a kind of settled intention that made Margaret shrink as if
+from a danger she was not able to meet. There was something bright and
+hard and daring in Rosa's eyes as she stared unwinkingly, as if she had
+come to search out a weak spot for her evil purposes, and Margaret was
+so tired she wanted to lay her head down on her desk and cry. She drew
+some comfort from the reflection that if she should do so childish a
+thing she would be at once surrounded by a strong battalion of friends
+from the camp, who would shield her with their lives if necessary.
+
+It was silly, of course, and she must control this choking in her
+throat, only how was she ever going to talk, with Rosa looking at her
+that way? It was like a nightmare pursuing her. She turned to the piano
+and kept them all singing for a while, so that she might pray in her
+heart and grow calm; and when, after her brief, earnest prayer, she
+lifted her eyes to the audience, she saw with intense relief that the
+Brownleighs were in the audience.
+
+She started a hymn that they all knew, and when they were well in the
+midst of the first verse she slipped from the piano-stool and walked
+swiftly down the aisle to Brownleigh's side.
+
+"Would you please talk to them a little while?" she pleaded, wistfully.
+"I am so tired I feel as if I just couldn't, to-day."
+
+Instantly Brownleigh followed her back to the desk and took her place,
+pulling out his little, worn Bible and opening it with familiar fingers
+to a beloved passage:
+
+     "'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
+     give you rest.'"
+
+The words fell on Margaret's tired heart like balm, and she rested her
+head back against the wall and closed her eyes to listen. Sitting so
+away from Rosa's stare, she could forget for a while the absurd burdens
+that had got on her nerves, and could rest down hard upon her Saviour.
+Every word that the man of God spoke seemed meant just for her, and
+brought strength, courage, and new trust to her heart. She forgot the
+little crowd of other listeners and took the message to herself,
+drinking it in eagerly as one who has been a long time ministering
+accepts a much-needed ministry. When she moved to the piano again for
+the closing hymn she felt new strength within her to bear the trials of
+the week that were before her. She turned, smiling and brave, to speak
+to those who always crowded around to shake hands and have a word before
+leaving.
+
+Hazel, putting a loving arm around her as soon as she could get up to
+the front, began to speak soothingly: "You poor, tired child!" she said;
+"you are almost worn to a frazzle. You need a big change, and I'm going
+to plan it for you just as soon as I possibly can. How would you like to
+go with us on our trip among the Indians? Wouldn't it be great? It'll be
+several days, depending on how far we go, but John wants to visit the
+Hopi reservation, if possible, and it'll be so interesting. They are a
+most strange people. We'll have a delightful trip, sleeping out under
+the stars, you know. Don't you just love it? I do. I wouldn't miss it
+for the world. I can't be sure, for a few days yet, when we can go, for
+John has to make a journey in the other direction first, and he isn't
+sure when he can return; but it might be this week. How soon can you
+come to us? How I wish we could take you right home with us to-night.
+You need to get away and rest. But your Commencement is to-morrow, isn't
+it? I'm so sorry we can't be here, but this other matter is important,
+and John has to go early in the morning. Some one very sick who wants to
+see him before he dies--an old Indian who didn't know a thing about
+Jesus till John found him one day. I suppose you haven't anybody who
+could bring you over to us after your work is done here to-morrow night
+or Tuesday, have you? Well, we'll see if we can't find some one to send
+for you soon. There's an old Indian who often comes this way, but he's
+away buying cattle. Maybe John can think of a way we could send for you
+early in the week. Then you would be ready to go with us on the trip.
+You would like to go, wouldn't you?"
+
+"Oh, so much!" said Margaret, with a sigh of wistfulness. "I can't think
+of anything pleasanter!"
+
+Margaret turned suddenly, and there, just behind her, almost touching
+her, stood Rosa, that strange, baleful gleam in her eyes like a serpent
+who was biding her time, drawing nearer and nearer, knowing she had her
+victim where she could not move before she struck.
+
+It was a strange fancy, of course, and one that was caused by sick
+nerves, but Margaret drew back and almost cried out, as if for some one
+to protect her. Then her strong common sense came to the rescue and she
+rallied and smiled at Rosa a faint little sorry smile. It was hard to
+smile at the bright, baleful face with the menace in the eyes.
+
+Hazel was watching her. "You poor child! You're quite worn out! I'm
+afraid you're going to be sick."
+
+"Oh no," said Margaret, trying to speak cheerfully; "things have just
+got on my nerves, that's all. It's been a particularly trying time. I
+shall be all right when to-morrow night is over."
+
+"Well, we're going to send for you very soon, so be ready!" and Hazel
+followed her husband, waving her hand in gay parting.
+
+Rosa was still standing just behind her when Margaret turned back to her
+desk, and the younger girl gave her one last dagger look, a glitter in
+her eyes so sinister and vindictive that Margaret felt a shudder run
+through her whole body, and was glad that just then Rosa's father called
+to her that they must be starting home. Only one more day now of Rosa,
+and she would be done with her, perhaps forever. The girl was through
+the school course and was graduating. It was not likely she would return
+another year. Her opportunity was over to help her. She had failed. Why,
+she couldn't tell, but she had strangely failed, and all she asked now
+was not to have to endure the hard, cold, young presence any longer.
+
+"Sick nerves, Margaret!" she said to herself. "Go home and go to bed.
+You'll be all right to-morrow!" And she locked the school-house door and
+walked quietly home with the faithful Bud.
+
+The past month had been a trying time also for Rosa. Young, wild, and
+motherless, passionate, wilful and impetuous, she was finding life
+tremendously exciting just now. With no one to restrain her or warn her
+she was playing with forces that she did not understand.
+
+She had subjugated easily all the boys in school, keeping them exactly
+where she wanted them for her purpose, and using methods that would have
+done credit to a woman of the world. But by far the greatest force in
+her life was her infatuation for Forsythe.
+
+The letters had traveled back and forth many times between them since
+Forsythe wrote that first love-letter. He found a whimsical pleasure in
+her deep devotion and naïve readiness to follow as far as he cared to
+lead her. He realized that, young as she was, she was no innocent, which
+made the acquaintance all the more interesting. He, meantime, idled away
+a few months on the Pacific coast, making mild love to a rich California
+girl and considering whether or not he was ready yet to settle down.
+
+In the mean time his correspondence with Rosa took on such a nature that
+his volatile, impulsive nature was stirred with a desire to see her
+again. It was not often that once out of sight he looked back to a
+victim, but Rosa had shown a daring and a spirit in her letters that
+sent a challenge to his sated senses. Moreover, the California heiress
+was going on a journey; besides, an old enemy of his who knew altogether
+too much of his past had appeared on the scene; and as Gardley had been
+removed from the Ashland vicinity for a time, Forsythe felt it might be
+safe to venture back again. There was always that pretty, spirited
+little teacher if Rosa failed to charm. But why should Rosa not charm?
+And why should he not yield? Rosa's father was a good sort and had all
+kinds of property. Rosa was her father's only heir. On the whole,
+Forsythe decided that the best move he could make next would be to
+return to Arizona. If things turned out well he might even think of
+marrying Rosa.
+
+This was somewhat the train of thought that led Forsythe at last to
+write to Rosa that he was coming, throwing Rosa into a panic of joy and
+alarm. For Rosa's father had been most explicit about her ever going out
+with Forsythe again. It had been the most relentless command he had ever
+laid upon her, spoken in a tone she hardly ever disobeyed. Moreover,
+Rosa was fearfully jealous of Margaret. If Forsythe should come and
+begin to hang around the teacher Rosa felt she would go wild, or do
+something terrible, perhaps even kill somebody. She shut her sharp
+little white teeth fiercely down into her red under lip and vowed with
+flashing eyes that he should never see Margaret again if power of hers
+could prevent it.
+
+The letter from Forsythe had reached her on Saturday evening, and she
+had come to the Sunday service with the distinct idea of trying to plan
+how she might get rid of Margaret. It would be hard enough to evade her
+father's vigilance if he once found out the young man had returned; but
+to have him begin to go and see Margaret again was a thing she could not
+and would not stand.
+
+The idea obsessed her to the exclusion of all others, and made her watch
+her teacher as if by her very concentration of thought upon her some way
+out of the difficulty might be evolved; as if Margaret herself might
+give forth a hint of weakness somewhere that would show her how to plan.
+
+To that intent she had come close in the group with the others around
+the teacher at the close of meeting, and, so standing, had overheard all
+that the Brownleighs had said. The lightning flash of triumph that she
+cast at Margaret as she left the school-house was her own signal that
+she had found a way at last. Her opportunity had come, and just in time.
+Forsythe was to arrive in Arizona some time on Tuesday, and wanted Rosa
+to meet him at one of their old trysting-places, out some distance from
+her father's house. He knew that school would just be over, for she had
+written him about Commencement, and so he understood that she would be
+free. But he did not know that the place he had selected to meet her was
+on one of Margaret's favorite trails where she and Bud often rode in the
+late afternoons, and that above all things Rosa wished to avoid any
+danger of meeting her teacher; for she not only feared that Forsythe's
+attention would be drawn away from her, but also that Margaret might
+feel it her duty to report to her father about her clandestine meeting.
+
+Rosa's heart beat high as she rode demurely home with her father,
+answering his pleasantries with smiles and dimples and a coaxing word,
+just as he loved to have her. But she was not thinking of her father,
+though she kept well her mask of interest in what he had to say. She was
+trying to plan how she might use what she had heard to get rid of
+Margaret Earle. If only Mrs. Brownleigh would do as she had hinted and
+send some one Tuesday morning to escort Miss Earle over to her home, all
+would be clear sailing for Rosa; but she dared not trust to such a
+possibility. There were not many escorts coming their way from Ganado,
+and Rosa happened to know that the old Indian who frequently escorted
+parties was off in another direction. She could not rest on any such
+hope. When she reached home she went at once to her room and sat beside
+her window, gazing off at the purple mountains in deep thought. Then she
+lighted a candle and went in search of a certain little Testament, long
+since neglected and covered with dust. She found it at last on the top
+of a pile of books in a dark closet, and dragged it forth, eagerly
+turning the pages. Yes, there it was, and in it a small envelope
+directed to "Miss Rosa Rogers" in a fine angular handwriting. The letter
+was from the missionary's wife to the little girl who had recited her
+texts so beautifully as to earn the Testament.
+
+Rosa carried it to her desk, secured a good light, and sat down to read
+it over carefully.
+
+No thought of her innocent childish exultation over that letter came to
+her now. She was intent on one thing--the handwriting. Could she seize
+the secret of it and reproduce it? She had before often done so with
+great success. She could imitate Miss Earle's writing so perfectly that
+she often took an impish pleasure in changing words in the questions on
+the blackboard and making them read absurdly for the benefit of the
+school. It was such good sport to see the amazement on Margaret's face
+when her attention would be called to it by a hilarious class, and to
+watch her troubled brow when she read what she supposed she had written.
+
+When Rosa was but a little child she used to boast that she could write
+her father's name in perfect imitation of his signature; and often
+signed some trifling receipt for him just for amusement. A dangerous
+gift in the hands of a conscienceless girl! Yet this was the first time
+that Rosa had really planned to use her art in any serious way. Perhaps
+it never occurred to her that she was doing wrong. At present her heart
+was too full of hate and fear and jealous love to care for right or
+wrong or anything else. It is doubtful if she would have hesitated a
+second even if the thing she was planning had suddenly appeared to her
+in the light of a great crime. She seemed sometimes almost like a
+creature without moral sense, so swayed was she by her own desires and
+feelings. She was blind now to everything but her great desire to get
+Margaret out of the way and have Forsythe to herself.
+
+Long after her father and the servants were asleep Rosa's light burned
+while she bent over her desk, writing. Page after page she covered with
+careful copies of Mrs. Brownleigh's letter written to herself almost
+three years before. Finally she wrote out the alphabet, bit by bit as
+she picked it from the words, learning just how each letter was
+habitually formed, the small letters and the capitals, with the
+peculiarities of connection and ending. At last, when she lay down to
+rest, she felt herself capable of writing a pretty fair letter in Mrs.
+Brownleigh's handwriting. The next thing was to make her plan and
+compose her letter. She lay staring into the darkness and trying to
+think just what she could do.
+
+In the first place, she settled it that Margaret must be gotten to Walpi
+at least. It would not do to send her to Ganado, where the mission
+station was, for that was a comparatively short journey, and she could
+easily go in a day. When the fraud was discovered, as of course it would
+be when Mrs. Brownleigh heard of it, Margaret would perhaps return to
+find out who had done it. No, she must be sent all the way to Walpi if
+possible. That would take at least two nights and the most of two days
+to get there. Forsythe had said his stay was to be short. By the time
+Margaret got back from Walpi Forsythe would be gone.
+
+But how manage to get her to Walpi without her suspicions being aroused?
+She might word the note so that Margaret would be told to come half-way,
+expecting to meet the missionaries, say at Keams. There was a trail
+straight up from Ashland to Keams, cutting off quite a distance and
+leaving Ganado off at the right. Keams was nearly forty miles west of
+Ganado. That would do nicely. Then if she could manage to have another
+note left at Keams, saying they could not wait and had gone on, Margaret
+would suspect nothing and go all the way to Walpi. That would be fine
+and would give the school-teacher an interesting experience which
+wouldn't hurt her in the least. Rosa thought it might be rather
+interesting than otherwise. She had no compunctions whatever about how
+Margaret might feel when she arrived in that strange Indian town and
+found no friends awaiting her. Her only worry was where she was to find
+a suitable escort, for she felt assured that Margaret would not start
+out alone with one man servant on an expedition that would keep her out
+overnight. And where in all that region could she find a woman whom she
+could trust to send on the errand? It almost looked as though the thing
+were an impossibility. She lay tossing and puzzling over it till gray
+dawn stole into the room. She mentally reviewed every servant on the
+place on whom she could rely to do her bidding and keep her secret, but
+there was some reason why each one would not do. She scanned the
+country, even considering old Ouida, who had been living in a shack over
+beyond the fort ever since her cabin had been raided; but old Ouida was
+too notorious. Mrs. Tanner would keep Margaret from going with her, even
+if Margaret herself did not know the old woman's reputation. Rosa
+considered if there were any way of wheedling Mom Wallis into the
+affair, and gave that up, remembering the suspicious little twinkling
+eyes of Jasper Kemp. At last she fell asleep, with her plan still
+unformed but her determination to carry it through just as strong as
+ever. If worst came to worst she would send the half-breed cook from the
+ranch kitchen and put something in the note about his expecting to meet
+his sister an hour's ride out on the trail. The half-breed would do
+anything in the world for money, and Rosa had no trouble in getting all
+she wanted of that commodity. But the half-breed was an evil-looking
+fellow, and she feared lest Margaret would not like to go with him.
+However, he should be a last resort. She would not be balked in her
+purpose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+Rosa awoke very early, for her sleep had been light and troubled. She
+dressed hastily and sat down to compose a note which could be altered
+slightly in case she found some one better than the half-breed; but
+before she was half through the phrasing she heard a slight disturbance
+below her window and a muttering in guttural tones from a strange voice.
+Glancing hastily out, she saw some Indians below, talking with one of
+the men, who was shaking his head and motioning to them that they must
+go on, that this was no place for them to stop. The Indian motioned to
+his squaw, sitting on a dilapidated little moth-eaten burro with a small
+papoose in her arms and looking both dirty and miserable. He muttered as
+though he were pleading for something.
+
+We believe that God's angels follow the feet of little children and
+needy ones to protect them; does the devil also send his angels to lead
+unwary ones astray, and to protect the plan's of the erring ones? If so
+then he must have sent these Indians that morning to further Rosa's
+plans, and instantly she recognized her opportunity. She leaned out of
+her window and spoke in a clear, reproving voice:
+
+"James, what does he want? Breakfast? You know father wouldn't want any
+hungry person to be turned away. Let them sit down on the bench there
+and tell Dorset I said to give them a good hot breakfast, and get some
+milk for the baby. Be quick about it, too!"
+
+James started and frowned at the clear, commanding voice. The squaw
+turned grateful animal eyes up to the little beauty in the window,
+muttering some inarticulate thanks, while the stolid Indian's eyes
+glittered hopefully, though the muscles of his mask-like countenance
+changed not an atom.
+
+Rosa smiled radiantly and ran down to see that her orders were obeyed.
+She tried to talk a little with the squaw, but found she understood very
+little English. The Indian spoke better and gave her their brief story.
+They were on their way to the Navajo reservation to the far north. They
+had been unfortunate enough to lose their last scanty provisions by
+prowling coyotes during the night, and were in need of food. Rosa gave
+them a place to sit down and a plentiful breakfast, and ordered that a
+small store of provisions should be prepared for their journey after
+they had rested. Then she hurried up to her room to finish her letter.
+She had her plan well fixed now. These strangers should be her willing
+messengers. Now and then, as she wrote she lifted her head and gazed out
+of the window, where she could see the squaw busy with her little one,
+and her eyes fairly glittered with satisfaction. Nothing could have been
+better planned than this.
+
+She wrote her note carefully:
+
+     DEAR MARGARET [she had heard Hazel call Margaret by her first name,
+     and rightly judged that their new friendship was already strong
+     enough to justify this intimacy],--I have found just the
+     opportunity I wanted for you to come to us. These Indians are
+     thoroughly trustworthy and are coming in just the direction to
+     bring you to a point where we will meet you. We have decided to go
+     on to Walpi at once, and will probably meet you near Keams, or a
+     little farther on. The Indian knows the way, and you need not be
+     afraid. I trust him perfectly. Start at once, please, so that you
+     will meet us in time. John has to go on as fast as possible. I know
+     you will enjoy the trip, and am so glad you are coming.
+
+                                                 Lovingly,
+                                             HAZEL RADCLIFFE BROWNLEIGH.
+
+Rosa read it over, comparing it carefully with the little yellow note
+from her Testament, and decided that it was a very good imitation. She
+could almost hear Mrs. Brownleigh saying what she had written. Rosa
+really was quite clever. She had done it well.
+
+She hastily sealed and addressed her letter, and then hurried down to
+talk with the Indians again.
+
+The place she had ordered for them to rest was at some distance from the
+kitchen door, a sort of outshed for the shelter of certain implements
+used about the ranch. A long bench ran in front of it, and a big tree
+made a goodly shade. The Indians had found their temporary camp quite
+inviting.
+
+Rosa made a detour of the shed, satisfied herself that no one was within
+hearing, and then sat down on the bench, ostensibly playing with the
+papoose, dangling a red ball on a ribbon before his dazzled, bead-like
+eyes and bringing forth a gurgle of delight from the dusky little mummy.
+While she played she talked idly with the Indians. Had they money enough
+for their journey? Would they like to earn some? Would they act as
+guide to a lady who wanted to go to Walpi? At least she wanted to go as
+far as Keams, where she might meet friends, missionaries, who were going
+on with her to Walpi to visit the Indians. If they didn't meet her she
+wanted to be guided all the way to Walpi? Would they undertake it? It
+would pay them well. They would get money enough for their journey and
+have some left when they got to the reservation. And Rosa displayed two
+gold pieces temptingly in her small palms.
+
+The Indian uttered a guttural sort of gasp at sight of so much money,
+and sat upright. He gasped again, indicating by a solemn nod that he was
+agreeable to the task before him, and the girl went gaily on with her
+instructions:
+
+"You will have to take some things along to make the lady comfortable. I
+will see that those are got ready. Then you can have the things for your
+own when you leave the lady at Walpi. You will have to take a letter to
+the lady and tell her you are going this afternoon, and she must be
+ready to start at once or she will not meet the missionary. Tell her you
+can only wait until three o'clock to start. You will find the lady at
+the school-house at noon. You must not come till noon--" Rosa pointed to
+the sun and then straight overhead. The Indian watched her keenly and
+nodded.
+
+"You must ask for Miss Earle and give her this letter. She is the
+school-teacher."
+
+The Indian grunted and looked at the white missive in Rosa's hand,
+noting once more the gleam of the gold pieces.
+
+"You must wait till the teacher goes to her boarding-house and packs her
+things and eats her dinner. If anybody asks where you came from you must
+say the missionary's wife from Ganado sent you. Don't tell anybody
+anything else. Do you understand? More money if you don't say anything?"
+Rosa clinked the gold pieces softly.
+
+The strange, sphinx-like gaze of the Indian narrowed comprehensively. He
+understood. His native cunning was being bought for this girl's own
+purposes. He looked greedily at the money. Rosa had put her hand in her
+pocket and brought out yet another gold piece.
+
+"See! I give you this one now"--she laid one gold piece in the Indian's
+hand--"and these two I put in an envelope and pack with some provisions
+and blankets on another horse. I will leave the horse tied to a tree up
+where the big trail crosses this big trail out that way. You know?"
+
+Rosa pointed in the direction she meant, and the Indian looked and
+grunted, his eyes returning to the two gold pieces in her hand. It was a
+great deal of money for the little lady to give. Was she trying to cheat
+him? He looked down at the gold he already held. It was good money. He
+was sure of that. He looked at her keenly.
+
+"I shall be watching and I shall know whether you have the lady or not,"
+went on the girl, sharply. "If you do not bring the lady with you there
+will be no money and no provisions waiting for you. But if you bring the
+lady you can untie the horse and take him with you. You will need the
+horse to carry the things. When you get to Walpi you can set him free.
+He is branded and he will likely come back. We shall find him. See, I
+will put the gold pieces in this tin can."
+
+She picked up a sardine-tin that lay at her feet, slipped the gold
+pieces in an envelope from her pocket, stuffed it in the tin, bent down
+the cover, and held it up.
+
+"This can will be packed on the top of the other provisions, and you can
+open it and take the money out when you untie the horse. Then hurry on
+as fast as you can and get as far along the trail as possible to-night
+before you camp. Do you understand?"
+
+The Indian nodded once more, and Rosa felt that she had a confederate
+worthy of her need.
+
+She stayed a few minutes more, going carefully over her directions,
+telling the Indian to be sure his squaw was kind to the lady, and that
+on no account he should let the lady get uneasy or have cause to
+complain of her treatment, or trouble would surely come to him. At last
+she felt sure she had made him understand, and she hurried away to slip
+into her pretty white dress and rose-colored ribbons and ride to school.
+Before she left her room she glanced out of the window at the Indians,
+and saw them sitting motionless, like a group of bronze. Once the Indian
+stirred and, putting his hand in his bosom, drew forth the white letter
+she had given him, gazed at it a moment, and hid it in his breast again.
+She nodded her satisfaction as she turned from the window. The next
+thing was to get to school and play her own part in the Commencement
+exercises.
+
+The morning was bright, and the school-house was already filled to
+overflowing when Rosa arrived. Her coming, as always, made a little stir
+among admiring groups, for even those who feared her admired her from
+afar. She fluttered into the school-house and up the aisle with the air
+of a princess who knew she had been waited for and was condescending to
+come at all.
+
+Rosa was in everything--the drills, the march, the choruses, and the
+crowning oration. She went through it all with the perfection of a
+bright mind and an adaptable nature. One would never have dreamed, to
+look at her pretty dimpling face and her sparkling eyes, what diabolical
+things were moving in her mind, nor how those eyes, lynx-soft with
+lurking sweetness and treachery, were watching all the time furtively
+for the appearance of the old Indian.
+
+At last she saw him, standing in a group just outside the window near
+the platform, his tall form and stern countenance marking him among the
+crowd of familiar faces. She was receiving her diploma from the hand of
+Margaret when she caught his eye, and her hand trembled just a quiver as
+she took the dainty roll tied with blue and white ribbons. That he
+recognized her she was sure; that he knew she did not wish him to make
+known his connection with her she felt equally convinced he understood.
+His eye had that comprehending look of withdrawal. She did not look up
+directly at him again. Her eyes were daintily downward. Nevertheless,
+she missed not a turn of his head, not a glance from that stern eye, and
+she knew the moment when he stood at the front door of the school-house
+with the letter in his hand, stolid and indifferent, yet a great force
+to be reckoned with.
+
+Some one looked at the letter, pointed to Margaret, called her, and she
+came. Rosa was not far away all the time, talking with Jed; her eyes
+downcast, her cheeks dimpling, missing nothing that could be heard or
+seen.
+
+Margaret read the letter. Rosa watched her, knew every curve of every
+letter and syllable as she read, held her breath, and watched Margaret's
+expression. Did she suspect? No. A look of intense relief and pleasure
+had come into her eyes. She was glad to have found a way to go. She
+turned to Mrs. Tanner.
+
+"What do you think of this, Mrs. Tanner? I'm to go with Mrs. Brownleigh
+on a trip to Walpi. Isn't that delicious? I'm to start at once. Do you
+suppose I could have a bite to eat? I won't need much. I'm too tired to
+eat and too anxious to be off. If you give me a cup of tea and a
+sandwich I'll be all right. I've got things about ready to go, for Mrs.
+Brownleigh told me she would send some one for me."
+
+"H'm!" said Mrs. Tanner, disapprovingly. "Who you goin' with? Just
+_him_? I don't much like _his_ looks!"
+
+She spoke in a low tone so the Indian would not hear, and it was almost
+in Rosa's very ear, who stood just behind. Rosa's heart stopped a beat
+and she frowned at the toe of her slipper. Was this common little Tanner
+woman going to be the one to balk her plans?
+
+Margaret raised her head now for her first good look at the Indian, and
+it must be admitted a chill came into her heart. Then, as if he
+comprehended what was at stake, the Indian turned slightly and pointed
+down the path toward the road. By common consent the few who were
+standing about the door stepped back and made a vista for Margaret to
+see the squaw sitting statue-like on her scraggy little pony, gazing off
+at the mountain in the distance, as if she were sitting for her picture,
+her solemn little papoose strapped to her back.
+
+Margaret's troubled eyes cleared. The family aspect made things all
+right again. "You see, he has his wife and child," she said. "It's all
+right. Mrs. Brownleigh says she trusts him perfectly, and I'm to meet
+them on the way. Read the letter."
+
+She thrust the letter into Mrs. Tanner's hand, and Rosa trembled for her
+scheme once more. Surely, surely Mrs. Tanner would not be able to detect
+the forgery!
+
+"H'm! Well, I s'pose it's all right if she says so, but I'm sure I don't
+relish them pesky Injuns, and I don't think that squaw wife of his looks
+any great shakes, either. They look to me like they needed a good scrub
+with Bristol brick. But then, if you're set on going, you'll go,
+'course. I jest wish Bud hadn't 'a' gone home with that Jasper Kemp. He
+might 'a' gone along, an' then you'd 'a' had somebody to speak English
+to."
+
+"Yes, it would have been nice to have William along," said Margaret;
+"but I think I'll be all right. Mrs. Brownleigh wouldn't send anybody
+that wasn't nice."
+
+"H'm! I dun'no'! She's an awful crank. She just loves them Injuns, they
+say. But I, fer one, draw the line at holdin' 'em in my lap. I don't
+b'lieve in mixin' folks up that way. Preach to 'em if you like, but let
+'em keep their distance, I say."
+
+Margaret laughed and went off to pick up her things. Rosa stood smiling
+and talking to Jed until she saw Margaret and Mrs. Tanner go off
+together, the Indians riding slowly along behind.
+
+Rosa waited until the Indians had turned off the road down toward the
+Tanners', and then she mounted her own pony and rode swiftly home.
+
+She rushed up to her room and took off her fine apparel, arraying
+herself quickly in a plain little gown, and went down to prepare the
+provisions. There was none too much time, and she must work rapidly. It
+was well for her plans that she was all-powerful with the servants and
+could send them about at will to get them out of her way. She invented a
+duty for each now that would take them for a few minutes well out of
+sight and sound; then she hurried together the provisions in a basket,
+making two trips to get them to the shelter where she had told the
+Indian he would find the horse tied. She had to make a third trip to
+bring the blankets and a few other things she knew would be
+indispensable, but the whole outfit was really but carelessly gotten
+together, and it was just by chance that some things got in at all.
+
+It was not difficult to find the old cayuse she intended using for a
+pack-horse. He was browsing around in the corral, and she soon had a
+halter over his head, for she had been quite used to horses from her
+babyhood.
+
+She packed the canned things, tinned meats, vegetables, and fruit into a
+couple of large sacks, adding some fodder for the horses, a box of
+matches, some corn bread, of which there was always plenty on hand in
+the house, some salt pork, and a few tin dishes. These she slung pack
+fashion over the old horse, fastened the sardine-tin containing the gold
+pieces where it would be easily found, tied the horse to a tree, and
+retired behind a shelter of sage-brush to watch.
+
+It was not long before the little caravan came, the Indians riding ahead
+single file, like two graven images, moving not a muscle of their faces,
+and Margaret a little way behind on her own pony, her face as happy and
+relieved as if she were a child let out from a hard task to play.
+
+The Indian stopped beside the horse, a glitter of satisfaction in his
+eyes as he saw that the little lady had fulfilled her part of the
+bargain. He indicated to the squaw and the lady that they might move on
+down the trail, and he would catch up with them; and then dismounted,
+pouncing warily upon the sardine-tin at once. He looked furtively about,
+then took out the money and tested it with his teeth to make sure it was
+genuine.
+
+He grunted his further satisfaction, looked over the pack-horse, made
+more secure the fastenings of the load, and, taking the halter, mounted
+and rode stolidly away toward the north.
+
+Rosa waited in her covert until they were far out of sight, then made
+her way hurriedly back to the house and climbed to a window where she
+could watch the trail for several miles. There, with a field-glass, she
+kept watch until the procession had filed across the plains, down into a
+valley, up over a hill, and dropped to a farther valley out of sight.
+She looked at the sun and drew a breath of satisfaction. She had done it
+at last! She had got Margaret away before Forsythe came! There was no
+likelihood that the fraud would be discovered until her rival was far
+enough away to be safe. A kind of reaction came upon Rosa's overwrought
+nerves. She laughed out harshly, and her voice had a cruel ring to it.
+Then she threw herself upon the bed and burst into a passionate fit of
+weeping, and so, by and by, fell asleep. She dreamed that Margaret had
+returned like a shining, fiery angel, a two-edged sword in her hand and
+all the Wallis camp at her heels, with vengeance in their wake. That
+hateful little boy, Bud Tanner, danced around and made faces at her,
+while Forsythe had forgotten her to gaze at Margaret's face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+To Margaret the day was very fair, and the omens all auspicious. She
+carried with her close to her heart two precious letters received that
+morning and scarcely glanced at as yet, one from Gardley and one from
+her mother. She had had only time to open them and be sure that all was
+well with her dear ones, and had left the rest to read on the way.
+
+She was dressed in the khaki riding-habit she always wore when she went
+on horseback; and in the bag strapped on behind she carried a couple of
+fresh white blouses, a thin, white dress, a little soft dark silk gown
+that folded away almost into a cobweb, and a few other necessities. She
+had also slipped in a new book her mother had sent her, into which she
+had had as yet no time to look, and her chessmen and board, besides
+writing materials. She prided herself on having got so many necessaries
+into so small a compass. She would need the extra clothing if she stayed
+at Ganado with the missionaries for a week on her return from the trip,
+and the book and chessmen would amuse them all by the way. She had heard
+Brownleigh say he loved to play chess.
+
+Margaret rode on the familiar trail, and for the first hour just let
+herself be glad that school was over and she could rest and have no
+responsibility. The sun shimmered down brilliantly on the white, hot
+sand and gray-green of the greasewood and sage-brush. Tall spikes of
+cactus like lonely spires shot up now and again to vary the scene. It
+was all familiar ground to Margaret around here, for she had taken many
+rides with Gardley and Bud, and for the first part of the way every turn
+and bit of view was fraught with pleasant memories that brought a smile
+to her eyes as she recalled some quotation of Gardley's or some prank of
+Bud's. Here was where they first sighted the little cottontail the day
+she took her initial ride on her own pony. Off there was the mountain
+where they saw the sun drawing silver water above a frowning storm.
+Yonder was the group of cedars where they had stopped to eat their lunch
+once, and this water-hole they were approaching was the one where
+Gardley had given her a drink from his hat.
+
+She was almost glad that Bud was not along, for she was too tired to
+talk and liked to be alone with her thoughts for this few minutes. Poor
+Bud! He would be disappointed when he got back to find her gone, but
+then he had expected she was going in a few days, anyway, and she had
+promised to take long rides with him when she returned. She had left a
+little note for him, asking him to read a certain book in her bookcase
+while she was gone, and be ready to discuss it with her when she got
+back, and Bud would be fascinated with it, she knew. Bud had been dear
+and faithful, and she would miss him, but just for this little while
+she was glad to have the great out-of-doors to herself.
+
+She was practically alone. The two sphinx-like figures riding ahead of
+her made no sign, but stolidly rode on hour after hour, nor turned their
+heads even to see if she were coming. She knew that Indians were this
+way; still, as the time went by she began to feel an uneasy sense of
+being alone in the universe with a couple of bronze statues. Even the
+papoose had erased itself in sleep, and when it awoke partook so fully
+of its racial peculiarities as to hold its little peace and make no
+fuss. Margaret began to feel the baby was hardly human, more like a
+little brown doll set up in a missionary meeting to teach white children
+what a papoose was like.
+
+By and by she got out her letters and read them over carefully, dreaming
+and smiling over them, and getting precious bits by heart. Gardley
+hinted that he might be able very soon to visit her parents, as it
+looked as though he might have to make a trip on business in their
+direction before he could go further with what he was doing in his old
+home. He gave no hint of soon returning to the West. He said he was
+awaiting the return of one man who might soon be coming from abroad.
+Margaret sighed and wondered how many weary months it would be before
+she would see him. Perhaps, after all, she ought to have gone home and
+stayed them out with her mother and father. If the school-board could be
+made to see that it would be better to have no summer session, perhaps
+she would even yet go when she returned from the Brownleighs'. She would
+see. She would decide nothing until she was rested.
+
+Suddenly she felt herself overwhelmingly weary, and wished that the
+Indians would stop and rest for a while; but when she stirred up her
+sleepy pony and spurred ahead to broach the matter to her guide he shook
+his solemn head and pointed to the sun:
+
+"No get Keams good time. No meet Aneshodi."
+
+"Aneshodi," she knew, was the Indians' name for the missionary, and she
+smiled her acquiescence. Of course they must meet the Brownleighs and
+not detain them. What was it Hazel had said about having to hurry? She
+searched her pocket for the letter, and then remembered she had left it
+with Mrs. Tanner. What a pity she had not brought it! Perhaps there was
+some caution or advice in it that she had not taken note of. But then
+the Indian likely knew all about it, and she could trust to him. She
+glanced at his stolid face and wished she could make him smile. She cast
+a sunny smile at him and said something pleasant about the beautiful
+day, but he only looked her through as if she were not there, and after
+one or two more attempts she fell back and tried to talk to the squaw;
+but the squaw only looked stolid, too, and shook her head. She did not
+seem friendly. Margaret drew back into her old position and feasted her
+eyes upon the distant hills.
+
+The road was growing unfamiliar now. They were crossing rough ridges
+with cliffs of red sandstone, and every step of the way was interesting.
+Yet Margaret felt more and more how much she wanted to lie down and
+sleep, and when at last in the dusk the Indians halted not far from a
+little pool of rainwater and indicated that here they would camp for
+the night, Margaret was too weary to question the decision. It had not
+occurred to her that she would be on the way overnight before she met
+her friends. Her knowledge of the way, and of distances, was but vague.
+It is doubtful if she would have ventured had she known that she must
+pass the night thus in the company of two strange savage creatures. Yet,
+now that she was here and it was inevitable, she would not shrink, but
+make the best of it. She tried to be friendly once more, and offered to
+look out for the baby while the squaw gathered wood and made a fire. The
+Indian was off looking after the horses, evidently expecting his wife to
+do all the work.
+
+Margaret watched a few minutes, while pretending to play with the baby,
+who was both sleepy and hungry, yet held his emotions as stolidly as if
+he were a grown person. Then she decided to take a hand in the supper.
+She was hungry and could not bear that those dusky, dirty hands should
+set forth her food, so she went to work cheerfully, giving directions as
+if the Indian woman understood her, though she very soon discovered that
+all her talk was as mere babbling to the other, and she might as well
+hold her peace. The woman set a kettle of water over the fire, and
+Margaret forestalled her next movement by cutting some pork and putting
+it to cook in a little skillet she found among the provisions. The woman
+watched her solemnly, not seeming to care; and so, silently, each went
+about her own preparations.
+
+The supper was a silent affair, and when it was over the squaw handed
+Margaret a blanket. Suddenly she understood that this, and this alone,
+was to be her bed for the night. The earth was there for a mattress,
+and the sage-brush lent a partial shelter, the canopy of stars was
+overhead.
+
+A kind of panic took possession of her. She stared at the squaw and
+found herself longing to cry out for help. It seemed as if she could not
+bear this awful silence of the mortals who were her only company. Yet
+her common sense came to her aid, and she realized that there was
+nothing for it but to make the best of things. So she took the blanket
+and, spreading it out, sat down upon it and wrapped it about her
+shoulders and feet. She would not lie down until she saw what the rest
+did. Somehow she shrank from asking the bronze man how to fold a blanket
+for a bed on the ground. She tried to remember what Gardley had told her
+about folding the blanket bed so as best to keep out snakes and ants.
+She shuddered at the thought of snakes. Would she dare call for help
+from those stolid companions of hers if a snake should attempt to molest
+her in the night? And would she ever dare to go to sleep?
+
+She remembered her first night in Arizona out among the stars, alone on
+the water-tank, and her first frenzy of loneliness. Was this as bad? No,
+for these Indians were trustworthy and well known by her dear friends.
+It might be unpleasant, but this, too, would pass and the morrow would
+soon be here.
+
+The dusk dropped down and the stars loomed out. All the world grew
+wonderful, like a blue jeweled dome of a palace with the lights turned
+low. The fire burned brightly as the man threw sticks upon it, and the
+two Indians moved stealthily about in the darkness, passing silhouetted
+before the fire this way and that, and then at last lying down wrapped
+in their blankets to sleep.
+
+It was very quiet about her. The air was so still she could hear the
+hobbled horses munching away in the distance, and moving now and then
+with the halting gait a hobble gives a horse. Off in the farther
+distance the blood-curdling howl of the coyotes rose, but Margaret was
+used to them, and knew they would not come near a fire.
+
+She was growing very weary, and at last wrapped her blanket closer and
+lay down, her head pillowed on one corner of it. Committing herself to
+her Heavenly Father, and breathing a prayer for father, mother, and
+lover, she fell asleep.
+
+It was still almost dark when she awoke. For a moment she thought it was
+still night and the sunset was not gone yet, the clouds were so rosy
+tinted.
+
+The squaw was standing by her, touching her shoulder roughly and
+grunting something. She perceived, as she rubbed her eyes and tried to
+summon back her senses, that she was expected to get up and eat
+breakfast. There was a smell of pork and coffee in the air, and there
+was scorched corn bread beside the fire on a pan.
+
+Margaret got up quickly and ran down to the water-hole to get some
+water, dashing it in her face and over her arms and hands, the squaw
+meanwhile standing at a little distance, watching her curiously, as if
+she thought this some kind of an oblation paid to the white woman's god
+before she ate. Margaret pulled the hair-pins out of her hair, letting
+it down and combing it with one of her side combs; twisted it up again
+in its soft, fluffy waves; straightened her collar, set on her hat, and
+was ready for the day. The squaw looked at her with both awe and
+contempt for a moment, then turned and stalked back to her papoose and
+began preparing it for the journey.
+
+Margaret made a hurried meal and was scarcely done before she found her
+guides were waiting like two pillars of the desert, but watching keenly,
+impatiently, her every mouthful, and anxious to be off.
+
+The sky was still pink-tinted with the semblance of a sunset, and
+Margaret felt, as she mounted her pony and followed her companions, as
+if the day was all turned upside down. She almost wondered whether she
+hadn't slept through a whole twenty-four hours, and it were not, after
+all, evening again, till by and by the sun rose clear and the wonder of
+the cloud-tinting melted into day.
+
+The road lay through sage-brush and old barren cedar-trees, with rabbits
+darting now and then between the rocks. Suddenly from the top of a
+little hill they came out to a spot where they could see far over the
+desert. Forty miles away three square, flat hills, or mesas, looked like
+a gigantic train of cars, and the clear air gave everything a strange
+vastness. Farther on beyond the mesas dimly dawned the Black Mountains.
+One could even see the shadowed head of "Round Rock," almost a hundred
+miles away. Before them and around was a great plain of sage-brush, and
+here and there was a small bush that the Indians call "the weed that was
+not scared." Margaret had learned all these things during her winter in
+Arizona, and keenly enjoyed the vast, splendid view spread before her.
+
+They passed several little mud-plastered hogans that Margaret knew for
+Indian dwellings. A fine band of ponies off in the distance made an
+interesting spot on the landscape, and twice they passed bands of sheep.
+She had a feeling of great isolation from everything she had ever known,
+and seemed going farther and farther from life and all she loved. Once
+she ventured to ask the Indian what time he expected to meet her
+friends, the missionaries, but he only shook his head and murmured
+something unintelligible about "Keams" and pointed to the sun. She
+dropped behind again, vaguely uneasy, she could not tell why. There
+seemed something so altogether sly and wary and unfriendly in the faces
+of the two that she almost wished she had not come. Yet the way was
+beautiful enough and nothing very unpleasant was happening to her. Once
+she dropped the envelope of her mother's letter and was about to
+dismount and recover it. Then some strange impulse made her leave it on
+the sand of the desert. What if they should be lost and that paper
+should guide them back? The notion stayed by her, and once in a while
+she dropped other bits of paper by the way.
+
+About noon the trail dropped off into a caņon, with high, yellow-rock
+walls on either side, and stifling heat, so that she felt as if she
+could scarcely stand it. She was glad when they emerged once more and
+climbed to higher ground. The noon camp was a hasty affair, for the
+Indian seemed in a hurry. He scanned the horizon far and wide and
+seemed searching keenly for some one or something. Once they met a
+lonely Indian, and he held a muttered conversation with him, pointing
+off ahead and gesticulating angrily. But the words were unintelligible
+to Margaret. Her feeling of uneasiness was growing, and yet she could
+not for the life of her tell why, and laid it down to her tired nerves.
+She was beginning to think she had been very foolish to start on such a
+long trip before she had had a chance to get rested from her last days
+of school. She longed to lie down under a tree and sleep for days.
+
+Toward night they sighted a great blue mesa about fifty miles south, and
+at sunset they could just see the San Francisco peaks more than a
+hundred and twenty-five miles away. Margaret, as she stopped her horse
+and gazed, felt a choking in her heart and throat and a great desire to
+cry. The glory and awe of the mountains, mingled with her own weariness
+and nervous fear, were almost too much for her. She was glad to get down
+and eat a little supper and go to sleep again. As she fell asleep she
+comforted herself with repeating over a few precious words from her
+Bible:
+
+     "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him and
+     delivereth them. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is
+     stayed on Thee because he trusteth in Thee. I will both lay me down
+     in peace and sleep, for Thou Lord only makest me to dwell in
+     safety...."
+
+The voice of the coyotes, now far, now near, boomed out on the night;
+great stars shot dartling pathways across the heavens; the fire snapped
+and crackled, died down and flickered feebly; but Margaret slept, tired
+out, and dreamed the angels kept close vigil around her lowly couch.
+
+She did not know what time the stars disappeared and the rain began to
+fall. She was too tired to notice the drops that fell upon her face. Too
+tired to hear the coyotes coming nearer, nearer, yet in the morning
+there lay one dead, stretched not thirty feet from where she lay. The
+Indian had shot him through the heart.
+
+Somehow things looked very dismal that morning, in spite of the
+brightness of the sun after the rain. She was stiff and sore with lying
+in the dampness. Her hair was wet, her blanket was wet, and she woke
+without feeling rested. Almost the trip seemed more than she could bear.
+If she could have wished herself back that morning and have stayed at
+Tanners' all summer she certainly would have done it rather than to be
+where and how she was.
+
+The Indians seemed excited--the man grim and forbidding, the woman
+appealing, frightened, anxious. They were near to Keams Caņon.
+"Aneshodi" would be somewhere about. The Indian hoped to be rid of his
+burden then and travel on his interrupted journey. He was growing
+impatient. He felt he had earned his money.
+
+But when they tried to go down Keam's Caņon they found the road all
+washed away by flood, and must needs go a long way around. This made the
+Indian surly. His countenance was more forbidding than ever. Margaret,
+as she watched him with sinking heart, altered her ideas of the Indian
+as a whole to suit the situation. She had always felt pity for the poor
+Indian, whose land had been seized and whose kindred had been
+slaughtered. But this Indian was not an object of pity. He was the most
+disagreeable, cruel-looking Indian Margaret had ever laid eyes on. She
+had felt it innately the first time she saw him, but now, as the
+situation began to bring him out, she knew that she was dreadfully
+afraid of him. She had a feeling that he might scalp her if he got tired
+of her. She began to alter her opinion of Hazel Brownleigh's judgment as
+regarded Indians. She did not feel that she would ever send this Indian
+to any one for a guide and say he was perfectly trustworthy. He hadn't
+done anything very dreadful yet, but she felt he was going to.
+
+He had a number of angry confabs with his wife that morning. At least,
+he did the confabbing and the squaw protested. Margaret gathered after a
+while that it was something about herself. The furtive, frightened
+glances that the squaw cast in her direction sometimes, when the man was
+not looking, made her think so. She tried to say it was all imagination,
+and that her nerves were getting the upper hand of her, but in spite of
+her she shuddered sometimes, just as she had done when Rosa looked at
+her. She decided that she must be going to have a fit of sickness, and
+that just as soon as she got in the neighborhood of Mrs. Tanner's again
+she would pack her trunk and go home to her mother. If she was going to
+be sick she wanted her mother.
+
+About noon things came to a climax. They halted on the top of the mesa,
+and the Indians had another altercation, which ended in the man
+descending the trail a fearfully steep way, down four hundred feet to
+the trading-post in the caņon. Margaret looked down and gasped and
+thanked a kind Providence that had not made it necessary for her to make
+that descent; but the squaw stood at the top with her baby and looked
+down in silent sorrow--agony perhaps would be a better name. Her face
+was terrible to look upon.
+
+Margaret could not understand it, and she went to the woman and put her
+hand out sympathetically, asking, gently: "What is the matter, you poor
+little thing? Oh, what is it?"
+
+Perhaps the woman understood the tenderness in the tone, for she
+suddenly turned and rested her forehead against Margaret's shoulder,
+giving one great, gasping sob, then lifted her dry, miserable eyes to
+the girl's face as if to thank her for her kindness.
+
+Margaret's heart was touched. She threw her arms around the poor woman
+and drew her, papoose and all, comfortingly toward her, patting her
+shoulder and saying gentle, soothing words as she would to a little
+child. And by and by the woman lifted her head again, the tears coursing
+down her face, and tried to explain, muttering her queer gutturals and
+making eloquent gestures until Margaret felt she understood. She
+gathered that the man had gone down to the trading-post to find the
+"Aneshodi," and that the squaw feared that he would somehow procure
+firewater either from the trader or from some Indian he might meet, and
+would come back angrier than he had gone, and without his money.
+
+If Margaret also suspected that the Indian had desired to get rid of her
+by leaving her at that desolate little trading-station down in the caņon
+until such time as her friends should call for her, she resolutely put
+the thought out of her mind and set herself to cheer the poor Indian
+woman.
+
+She took a bright, soft, rosy silk tie from her own neck and knotted it
+about the astonished woman's dusky throat, and then she put a silver
+dollar in her hand, and was thrilled with wonder to see what a change
+came over the poor, dark face. It reminded her of Mom Wallis when she
+got on her new bonnet, and once again she felt the thrill of knowing the
+whole world kin.
+
+The squaw cheered up after a little, got sticks and made a fire, and
+together they had quite a pleasant meal. Margaret exerted herself to
+make the poor woman laugh, and finally succeeded by dangling a
+bright-red knight from her chessmen in front of the delighted baby's
+eyes till he gurgled out a real baby crow of joy.
+
+It was the middle of the afternoon before the Indian returned, sitting
+crazily his struggling beast as he climbed the trail once more.
+Margaret, watching, caught her breath and prayed. Was this the
+trustworthy man, this drunken, reeling creature, clubbing his horse and
+pouring forth a torrent of indistinguishable gutturals? It was evident
+that his wife's worst fears were verified. He had found the firewater.
+
+The frightened squaw set to work putting things together as fast as she
+could. She well knew what to expect, and when the man reached the top of
+the mesa he found his party packed and mounted, waiting fearsomely to
+take the trail.
+
+Silently, timorously, they rode behind him, west across the great wide
+plain.
+
+In the distance gradually there appeared dim mesas like great fingers
+stretching out against the sky; miles away they seemed, and nothing
+intervening but a stretch of varying color where sage-brush melted into
+sand, and sage-brush and greasewood grew again, with tall cactus
+startling here and there like bayonets at rest but bristling with
+menace.
+
+The Indian had grown silent and sullen. His eyes were like deep fires of
+burning volcanoes. One shrank from looking at them. His massive, cruel
+profile stood out like bronze against the evening sky. It was growing
+night again, and still they had not come to anywhere or anything, and
+still her friends seemed just as far away.
+
+Since they had left the top of Keams Caņon Margaret had been sure all
+was not right. Aside from the fact that the guide was drunk at present,
+she was convinced that there had been something wrong with him all
+along. He did not act like the Indians around Ashland. He did not act
+like a trusted guide that her friends would send for her. She wished
+once more that she had kept Hazel Brownleigh's letter. She wondered how
+her friends would find her if they came after her. It was then she began
+in earnest to systematically plan to leave a trail behind her all the
+rest of the way. If she had only done it thoroughly when she first began
+to be uneasy. But now she was so far away, so many miles from anywhere!
+Oh, if she had not come at all!
+
+And first she dropped her handkerchief, because she happened to have it
+in her hand--a dainty thing with lace on the edge and her name written
+in tiny script by her mother's careful hand on the narrow hem. And then
+after a little, as soon as she could scrawl it without being noticed,
+she wrote a note which she twisted around the neck of a red chessman,
+and left behind her. After that scraps of paper, as she could reach them
+out of the bag tied on behind her saddle; then a stocking, a bedroom
+slipper, more chessmen, and so, when they halted at dusk and prepared to
+strike camp, she had quite a good little trail blazed behind her over
+that wide, empty plain. She shuddered as she looked into the gathering
+darkness ahead, where those long, dark lines of mesas looked like
+barriers in the way. Then, suddenly, the Indian pointed ahead to the
+first mesa and uttered one word--"Walpi!" So that was the Indian village
+to which she was bound? What was before her on the morrow? After eating
+a pretense of supper she lay down. The Indian had more firewater with
+him. He drank, he uttered cruel gutturals at his squaw, and even kicked
+the feet of the sleeping papoose as he passed by till it awoke and cried
+sharply, which made him more angry, so he struck the squaw.
+
+It seemed hours before all was quiet. Margaret's nerves were strained to
+such a pitch she scarcely dared to breathe, but at last, when the fire
+had almost died down, the man lay quiet, and she could relax and close
+her eyes.
+
+Not to sleep. She must not go to sleep. The fire was almost gone and the
+coyotes would be around. She must wake and watch!
+
+That was the last thought she remembered--that and a prayer that the
+angels would keep watch once again.
+
+When she awoke it was broad daylight and far into the morning, for the
+sun was high overhead and the mesas in the distance were clear and
+distinct against the sky.
+
+She sat up and looked about her, bewildered, not knowing at first where
+she was. It was so still and wide and lonely.
+
+She turned to find the Indians, but there was no trace of them anywhere.
+The fire lay smoldering in its place, a thin trickle of smoke curling
+away from a dying stick, but that was all. A tin cup half full of coffee
+was beside the stick, and a piece of blackened corn bread. She turned
+frightened eyes to east, to west, to north, to south, but there was no
+one in sight, and out over the distant mesa there poised a great eagle
+alone in the vast sky keeping watch over the brilliant, silent waste.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+
+When Margaret was a very little girl her father and mother had left her
+alone for an hour with a stranger while they went out to make a call in
+a strange city through which they were passing on a summer trip. The
+stranger was kind, and gave to the child a large green box of bits of
+old black lace and purple ribbons to play with, but she turned
+sorrowfully from the somber array of finery, which was the only thing in
+the way of a plaything the woman had at hand, and stood looking drearily
+out of the window on the strange, new town, a feeling of utter
+loneliness upon her. Her little heart was almost choked with the
+awfulness of the thought that she was a human atom drifted apart from
+every other atom she had ever known, that she had a personality and a
+responsibility of her own, and that she must face this thought of
+herself and her aloneness for evermore. It was the child's first
+realization that she was a separate being apart from her father and
+mother, and she was almost consumed with the terror of it.
+
+As she rose now from her bed on the ground and looked out across that
+vast waste, in which the only other living creature was that sinister,
+watching eagle, the same feeling returned to her and made her tremble
+like the little child who had turned from her box of ancient finery to
+realize her own little self and its terrible aloneness.
+
+For an instant even her realization of God, which had from early
+childhood been present with her, seemed to have departed. She could not
+grasp anything save the vast empty silence that loomed about her so
+awfully. She was alone, and about as far from anywhere or anything as
+she could possibly be in the State of Arizona. Would she ever get back
+to human habitations? Would her friends ever be able to find her?
+
+Then her heart flew back to its habitual refuge, and she spoke aloud and
+said, "God is here!" and the thought seemed to comfort her. She looked
+about once more on the bright waste, and now it did not seem so dreary.
+
+"God is here!" she repeated, and tried to realize that this was a part
+of His habitation. She could not be lost where God was. He knew the way
+out. She had only to trust. So she dropped upon her knees in the sand
+and prayed for trust and courage.
+
+When she rose again she walked steadily to a height a little above the
+camp-fire, and, shading her eyes, looked carefully in every direction.
+No, there was not a sign of her recent companions. They must have stolen
+away in the night quite soon after she fell asleep, and have gone fast
+and far, so that they were now beyond the reach of her eyes, and not
+anywhere was there sign of living thing, save that eagle still sweeping
+in great curves and poising again above the distant mesa.
+
+Where was her horse? Had the Indians taken that, too? She searched the
+valley, but saw no horse at first. With sinking heart she went back to
+where her things were and sat down by the dying fire to think, putting a
+few loose twigs and sticks together to keep the embers bright while she
+could. She reflected that she had no matches, and this was probably the
+last fire she would have until somebody came to her rescue or she got
+somewhere by herself. What was she to do? Stay right where she was or
+start out on foot? And should she go backward or forward? Surely, surely
+the Brownleighs would miss her pretty soon and send out a search-party
+for her. How could it be that they trusted an Indian who had done such a
+cruel thing as to leave a woman unprotected in the desert? And yet,
+perhaps, they did not know his temptation to drink. Perhaps they had
+thought he could not get any firewater. Perhaps he would return when he
+came to himself and realized what he had done.
+
+And now she noticed what she had not seen at first--a small bottle of
+water on a stone beside the blackened bread. Realizing that she was very
+hungry and that this was the only food at hand, she sat down beside the
+fire to eat the dry bread and drink the miserable coffee. She must have
+strength to do whatever was before her. She tried not to think how her
+mother would feel if she never came back, how anxious they would be as
+they waited day by day for her letters that did not come. She reflected
+with a sinking heart that she had, just before leaving, written a hasty
+note to her mother telling her not to expect anything for several days,
+perhaps even as much as two weeks, as she was going out of civilization
+for a little while. How had she unwittingly sealed her fate by that! For
+now not even by way of her alarmed home could help come to her.
+
+She put the last bit of hard corn bread in her pocket for a further time
+of need, and began to look about her again. Then she spied with delight
+a moving object far below her in the valley, and decided it was a horse,
+perhaps her own. He was a mile away, at least, but he was there, and she
+cried out with sudden joy and relief.
+
+She went over to her blanket and bags, which had been beside her during
+the night, and stood a moment trying to think what to do. Should she
+carry the things to the horse or risk leaving them here while she went
+after the horse and brought him to the things? No, that would not be
+safe. Some one might come along and take them, or she might not be able
+to find her way back again in this strange, wild waste. Besides, she
+might not get the horse, after all, and would lose everything. She must
+carry her things to the horse. She stooped to gather them up, and
+something bright beside her bag attracted her. It was the sun shining on
+the silver dollar she had given to the Indian woman. A sudden rush of
+tears came to her eyes. The poor creature had tried to make all the
+reparation she could for thus hastily leaving the white woman in the
+desert. She had given back the money--all she had that was valuable!
+Beside the dollar rippled a little chain of beads curiously wrought, an
+inanimate appeal for forgiveness and a grateful return for the kindness
+shown her. Margaret smiled as she stooped again to pick up her things.
+There had been a heart, after all, behind that stolid countenance, and
+some sense of righteousness and justice. Margaret decided that Indians
+were not all treacherous. Poor woman! What a life was hers--to follow
+her grim lord whither he would lead, even as her white sister must
+sometimes, sorrowing, rebelling, crying out, but following! She wondered
+if into the heart of this dark sister there ever crept any of the
+rebellion which led some of her white sisters to cry aloud for "rights"
+and "emancipation."
+
+But it was all a passing thought to be remembered and turned over at a
+more propitious time. Margaret's whole thoughts now were bent on her
+present predicament.
+
+The packing was short work. She stuffed everything into the two bags
+that were usually hung across the horse, and settled them carefully
+across her shoulders. Then she rolled the blanket, took it in her arms,
+and started. It was a heavy burden to carry, but she could not make up
+her mind to part with any of her things until she had at least made an
+effort to save them. If she should be left alone in the desert for the
+night the blanket was indispensable, and her clothes would at least do
+to drop as a trail by which her friends might find her. She must carry
+them as far as possible. So she started.
+
+It was already high day, and the sun was intolerably hot. Her heavy
+burden was not only cumbersome, but very warm, and she felt her strength
+going from her as she went; but her nerve was up and her courage was
+strong. Moreover, she prayed as she walked, and she felt now the
+presence of her Guide and was not afraid. As she walked she faced a
+number of possibilities in the immediate future which were startling,
+and to say the least, undesirable. There were wild animals in this land,
+not so much in the daylight, but what of the night? She had heard that a
+woman was always safe in that wild Western land; but what of the
+prowling Indians? What of a possible exception to the Western rule of
+chivalry toward a decent woman? One small piece of corn bread and less
+than a pint of water were small provision on which to withstand a siege.
+How far was it to anywhere?
+
+It was then she remembered for the first time that one word--"Walpi!"
+uttered by the Indian as he came to a halt the night before and pointed
+far to the mesa--"Walpi." She lifted her eyes now and scanned the dark
+mesa. It loomed like a great battlement of rock against the sky. Could
+it be possible there were people dwelling there? She had heard, of
+course, about the curious Hopi villages, each village a gigantic house
+of many rooms, called pueblos, built upon the lofty crags, sometimes
+five or six hundred feet above the desert.
+
+Could it be that that great castle-looking outline against the sky
+before her, standing out on the end of the mesa like a promontory above
+the sea, was Walpi? And if it was, how was she to get up there? The rock
+rose sheer and steep from the desert floor. The narrow neck of land
+behind it looked like a slender thread. Her heart sank at thought of
+trying to storm and enter, single-handed, such an impregnable fortress.
+And yet, if her friends were there, perhaps they would see her when she
+drew near and come to show her the way. Strange that they should have
+gone on and left her with those treacherous Indians! Strange that they
+should have trusted them so, in the first place! Her own instincts had
+been against trusting the man from the beginning. It must be confessed
+that during her reflections at this point her opinion of the wisdom and
+judgment of the Brownleighs was lowered several notches. Then she began
+to berate herself for having so easily been satisfied about her escort.
+She should have read the letter more carefully. She should have asked
+the Indians more questions. She should, perhaps, have asked Jasper
+Kemp's advice, or got him to talk to the Indian. She wished with all her
+heart for Bud, now. If Bud were along he would be saying some comical
+boy-thing, and be finding a way out of the difficulty. Dear, faithful
+Bud!
+
+The sun rose higher and the morning grew hotter. As she descended to the
+valley her burdens grew intolerable, and several times she almost cast
+them aside. Once she lost sight of her pony among the sage-brush, and it
+was two hours before she came to him and was able to capture him and
+strap on her burdens. She was almost too exhausted to climb into the
+saddle when all was ready; but she managed to mount at last and started
+out toward the rugged crag ahead of her.
+
+The pony had a long, hot climb out of the valley to a hill where she
+could see very far again, but still that vast emptiness reigned. Even
+the eagle had disappeared, and she fancied he must be resting like a
+great emblem of freedom on one of the points of the castle-like
+battlement against the sky. It seemed as if the end of the world had
+come, and she was the only one left in the universe, forgotten, riding
+on her weary horse across an endless desert in search of a home she
+would never see again.
+
+Below the hill there stretched a wide, white strip of sand, perhaps two
+miles in extent, but shimmering in the sun and seeming to recede ahead
+of her as she advanced. Beyond was soft greenness--something
+growing--not near enough to be discerned as cornfields. The girl drooped
+her tired head upon her horse's mane and wept, her courage going from
+her with her tears. In all that wide universe there seemed no way to go,
+and she was so very tired, hungry, hot, and discouraged! There was
+always that bit of bread in her pocket and that muddy-looking, warm
+water for a last resort; but she must save them as long as possible, for
+there was no telling how long it would be before she had more.
+
+There was no trail now to follow. She had started from the spot where
+she had found the horse, and her inexperienced eyes could not have
+searched out a trail if she had tried. She was going toward that distant
+castle on the crag as to a goal, but when she reached it, if she ever
+did, would she find anything there but crags and lonesomeness and the
+eagle?
+
+Drying her tears at last, she started the horse on down the hill, and
+perhaps her tears blinded her, or because she was dizzy with hunger and
+the long stretch of anxiety and fatigue she was not looking closely.
+There was a steep place, a sharp falling away of the ground unexpectedly
+as they emerged from a thicket of sage-brush, and the horse plunged
+several feet down, striking sharply on some loose rocks, and slipping to
+his knees; snorting, scrambling, making brave effort, but slipping, half
+rolling, at last he was brought down with his frightened rider, and lay
+upon his side with her foot under him and a sensation like a red-hot
+knife running through her ankle.
+
+Margaret caught her breath in quick gasps as they fell, lifting a prayer
+in her heart for help. Then came the crash and the sharp pain, and with
+a quick conviction that all was over she dropped back unconscious on the
+sand, a blessed oblivion of darkness rushing over her.
+
+When she came to herself once more the hot sun was pouring down upon her
+unprotected face, and she was conscious of intense pain and suffering in
+every part of her body. She opened her eyes wildly and looked around.
+There was sage-brush up above, waving over the crag down which they had
+fallen, its gray-greenness shimmering hotly in the sun; the sky was
+mercilessly blue without a cloud. The great beast, heavy and quivering,
+lay solidly against her, half pinning her to earth, and the helplessness
+of her position was like an awful nightmare from which she felt she
+might waken if she could only cry out. But when at last she raised her
+voice its empty echo frightened her, and there, above her, with
+wide-spread wings, circling for an instant, then poised in motionless
+survey of her, with cruel eyes upon her, loomed that eagle--so large, so
+fearful, so suggestive in its curious stare, the monarch of the desert
+come to see who had invaded his precincts and fallen into one of his
+snares.
+
+With sudden frenzy burning in her veins Margaret struggled and tried to
+get free, but she could only move the slightest bit each time, and every
+motion was an agony to the hurt ankle.
+
+It seemed hours before she writhed herself free from that great,
+motionless horse, whose labored breath only showed that he was still
+alive. Something terrible must have happened to the horse or he would
+have tried to rise, for she had coaxed, patted, cajoled, tried in every
+way to rouse him. When at last she crawled free from the hot, horrible
+body and crept with pained progress around in front of him, she saw that
+both his forelegs lay limp and helpless. He must have broken them in
+falling. Poor fellow! He, too, was suffering and she had nothing to give
+him! There was nothing she could do for him!
+
+Then she thought of the bottle of water, but, searching for it, found
+that her good intention of dividing it with him was useless, for the
+bottle was broken and the water already soaked into the sand. Only a
+damp spot on the saddle-bag showed where it had departed.
+
+Then indeed did Margaret sink down in the sand in despair and begin to
+pray as she had never prayed before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+
+The morning after Margaret's departure Rosa awoke with no feelings of
+self-reproach, but rather a great exultation at the way in which she had
+been able to get rid of her rival.
+
+She lay for a few minutes thinking of Forsythe, and trying to decide
+what she would wear when she went forth to meet him, for she wanted to
+charm him as she had never charmed any one before.
+
+She spent some time arraying herself in different costumes, but at last
+decided on her Commencement gown of fine white organdie,
+hand-embroidered and frilled with filmy lace, the product of a famous
+house of gowns in the Eastern city where she had attended school for a
+while and acquired expensive tastes.
+
+Daintily slippered, beribboned with coral-silk girdle, and with a rose
+from the vine over her window in her hair, she sallied forth at last to
+the trysting-place.
+
+Forsythe was a whole hour late, as became a languid gentleman who had
+traveled the day before and idled at his sister's house over a late
+breakfast until nearly noon. Already his fluttering fancy was apathetic
+about Rosa, and he wondered, as he rode along, what had become of the
+interesting young teacher who had charmed him for more than a passing
+moment. Would he dare to call upon her, now that Gardley was out of the
+way? Was she still in Ashland or had she gone home for vacation? He must
+ask Rosa about her.
+
+Then he came in sight of Rosa sitting picturesquely in the shade of an
+old cedar, reading poetry, a little lady in the wilderness, and he
+forgot everything else in his delight over the change in her. For Rosa
+had changed. There was no mistake about it. She had bloomed out into
+maturity in those few short months of his absence. Her soft figure had
+rounded and developed, her bewitching curls were put up on her head,
+with only a stray tendril here and there to emphasize a dainty ear or
+call attention to a smooth, round neck; and when she raised her lovely
+head and lifted limpid eyes to his there was about her a demureness, a
+coolness and charm that he had fancied only ladies of the city could
+attain. Oh, Rosa knew her charms, and had practised many a day before
+her mirror till she had appraised the value of every curving eyelash,
+every hidden dimple, every cupid's curve of lip. Rosa had watched well
+and learned from all with whom she had come in contact. No woman's guile
+was left untried by her.
+
+And Rosa was very sweet and charming. She knew just when to lift up
+innocent eyes of wonder; when to not understand suggestions; when to
+exclaim softly with delight or shrink with shyness that nevertheless did
+not repulse.
+
+Forsythe studied her with wonder and delight. No maiden of the city had
+ever charmed him more, and withal she seemed so innocent and young, so
+altogether pliable in his hands. His pulses beat high, his heart was
+inflamed, and passion came and sat within his handsome eyes.
+
+It was easy to persuade her, after her first seemingly shy reserve was
+overcome, and before an hour was passed she had promised to go away with
+him. He had very little money, but what of that? When he spoke of that
+feature Rosa declared she could easily get some. Her father gave her
+free access to his safe, and kept her plentifully supplied for the
+household use. It was nothing to her--a passing incident. What should it
+matter whose money took them on their way?
+
+When she went demurely back to the ranch a little before sunset she
+thought she was very happy, poor little silly sinner! She met her father
+with her most alluring but most furtive smile. She was charming at
+supper, and blushed as her mother used to do when he praised her new
+gown and told her how well she looked in it. But she professed to be
+weary yet from the last days of school--to have a headache--and so she
+went early to her room and asked that the servants keep the house quiet
+in the morning, that she might sleep late and get really rested. Her
+father kissed her tenderly and thought what a dear child she was and
+what a comfort to his ripening years; and the house settled down into
+quiet.
+
+Rosa packed a bag with some of her most elaborate garments, arrayed
+herself in a charming little outfit of silk for the journey, dropped her
+baggage out of the window; and when the moon rose and the household were
+quietly sleeping she paid a visit to her father's safe, and then stole
+forth, taking her shadowy way to the trail by a winding route known well
+to herself and secure from the watch of vigilant servants who were ever
+on the lookout for cattle thieves.
+
+Thus she left her father's house and went forth to put her trust in a
+man whose promises were as ropes of sand and whose fancy was like a wave
+of the sea, tossed to and fro by every breath that blew. Long ere the
+sun rose the next morning the guarded, beloved child was as far from her
+safe home and her father's sheltering love as if alone she had started
+for the mouth of the bottomless pit. Two days later, while Margaret lay
+unconscious beneath the sage-brush, with a hovering eagle for watch,
+Rosa in the streets of a great city suddenly realized that she was more
+alone in the universe than ever she could have been in a wide desert,
+and her plight was far worse than the girl's with whose fate she had so
+lightly played.
+
+Quite early on the morning after Rosa left, while the household was
+still keeping quiet for the supposed sleeper, Gardley rode into the
+inclosure about the house and asked for Rogers.
+
+Gardley had been traveling night and day to get back. Matters had
+suddenly arranged themselves so that he could finish up his business at
+his old home and go on to see Margaret's father and mother, and he had
+made his visit there and hurried back to Arizona, hoping to reach
+Ashland in time for Commencement. A delay on account of a washout on the
+road had brought him back two days late for Commencement. He had ridden
+to camp from a junction forty miles away to get there the sooner, and
+this morning had ridden straight to the Tanners' to surprise Margaret.
+It was, therefore, a deep disappointment to find her gone and only Mrs.
+Tanner's voluble explanations for comfort. Mrs. Tanner exhausted her
+vocabulary in trying to describe the "Injuns," her own feeling of
+protest against them, and Mrs. Brownleigh's foolishness in making so
+much of them; and then she bustled in to the old pine desk in the
+dining-room and produced the letter that had started Margaret off as
+soon as commencement was over.
+
+Gardley took the letter eagerly, as though it were something to connect
+him with Margaret, and read it through carefully to make sure just how
+matters stood. He had looked troubled when Mrs. Tanner told how tired
+Margaret was, and how worried she seemed about her school and glad to
+get away from it all; and he agreed that the trip was probably a good
+thing.
+
+"I wish Bud could have gone along, though," he said, thoughtfully, as he
+turned away from the door. "I don't like her to go with just Indians,
+though I suppose it is all right. You say he had his wife and child
+along? Of course Mrs. Brownleigh wouldn't send anybody that wasn't
+perfectly all right. Well, I suppose the trip will be a rest for her.
+I'm sorry I didn't get home a few days sooner. I might have looked out
+for her myself."
+
+He rode away from the Tanners', promising to return later with a gift he
+had brought for Bud that he wanted to present himself, and Mrs. Tanner
+bustled back to her work again.
+
+"Well, I'm glad he's got home, anyway," she remarked, aloud, to herself
+as she hung her dish-cloth tidily over the upturned dish-pan and took up
+her broom. "I 'ain't felt noways easy 'bout her sence she left, though I
+do suppose there ain't any sense to it. But I'm _glad he's back_!"
+
+Meantime Gardley was riding toward Rogers's ranch, meditating whether he
+should venture to follow the expedition and enjoy at least the return
+trip with Margaret, or whether he ought to remain patiently until she
+came back and go to work at once. There was nothing really important
+demanding his attention immediately, for Rogers had arranged to keep the
+present overseer of affairs until he was ready to undertake the work. He
+was on his way now to report on a small business matter which he had
+been attending to in New York for Rogers. When that was over he would be
+free to do as he pleased for a few days more if he liked, and the
+temptation was great to go at once to Margaret.
+
+As he stood waiting beside his horse in front of the house while the
+servant went to call Rogers, he looked about with delight on the beauty
+of the day. How glad he was to be back in Arizona again! Was it the
+charm of the place or because Margaret was there, he wondered, that he
+felt so happy? By all means he must follow her. Why should he not?
+
+He looked at the clambering rose-vine that covered one end of the house,
+and noticed how it crept close to the window casement and caressed the
+white curtain as it blew. Margaret must have such a vine at her window
+in the house he would build for her. It might be but a modest house that
+he could give her now, but it should have a rose-vine just like that;
+and he would train it round her window where she could smell the
+fragrance from it every morning when she awoke, and where it would
+breathe upon her as she slept.
+
+Margaret! How impatient he was to see her again! To look upon her dear
+face and know that she was his! That her father and mother had been
+satisfied about him and sent their blessing, and he might tell her so.
+It was wonderful! His heart thrilled with the thought of it. Of course
+he would go to her at once. He would start as soon as Rogers was through
+with him. He would go to Ganado. No, Keams. Which was it? He drew the
+letter out of his pocket and read it again, then replaced it.
+
+The fluttering curtain up at the window blew out and in, and when it
+blew out again it brought with it a flurry of papers like white leaves.
+The curtain had knocked over a paper-weight or vase or something that
+held them and set the papers free. The breeze caught them and flung them
+about erratically, tossing one almost at his feet. He stooped to pick it
+up, thinking it might be of value to some one, and caught the name
+"Margaret" and "Dear Margaret" written several times on the sheet, with
+"Walpi, Walpi, Walpi," filling the lower half of the page, as if some
+one had been practising it.
+
+And because these two words were just now keenly in his mind he reached
+for the second paper just a foot or two away and found more sentences
+and words. A third paper contained an exact reproduction of the letter
+which Mrs. Tanner had given him purporting to come from Mrs. Brownleigh
+to Margaret. What could it possibly mean?
+
+In great astonishment he pulled out the other letter and compared them.
+They were almost identical save for a word here and there crossed out
+and rewritten. He stood looking mutely at the papers and then up at the
+window, as though an explanation might somehow be wafted down to him,
+not knowing what to think, his mind filled with vague alarm.
+
+Just at that moment the servant appeared.
+
+"Mr. Rogers says would you mind coming down to the corral. Miss Rosa has
+a headache, and we're keeping the house still for her to sleep. That's
+her window up there--" And he indicated the rose-bowered window with the
+fluttering curtain.
+
+Dazed and half suspicious of something, Gardley folded the two letters
+together and crushed them into his pocket, wondering what he ought to do
+about it. The thought of it troubled him so that he only half gave
+attention to the business in hand; but he gave his report and handed
+over certain documents. He was thinking that perhaps he ought to see
+Miss Rosa and find out what she knew of Margaret's going and ask how she
+came in possession of this other letter.
+
+"Now," said Rogers, as the matter was concluded, "I owe you some money.
+If you'll just step up to the house with me I'll give it to you. I'd
+like to settle matters up at once."
+
+"Oh, let it go till I come again," said Gardley, impatient to be off. He
+wanted to get by himself and think out a solution of the two letters. He
+was more than uneasy about Margaret without being able to give any
+suitable explanation of why he should be. His main desire now was to
+ride to Ganado and find out if the missionaries had left home, which way
+they had gone, and whether they had met Margaret as planned.
+
+"No, step right up to the house with me," insisted Rogers. "It won't
+take long, and I have the money in my safe."
+
+Gardley saw that the quickest way was to please Rogers, and he did not
+wish to arouse any questions, because he supposed, of course, his alarm
+was mere foolishness. So they went together into Rogers's private
+office, where his desk and safe were the principal furniture, and where
+no servants ventured to come without orders.
+
+Rogers shoved a chair for Gardley and went over to his safe, turning the
+little nickel knob this way and that with the skill of one long
+accustomed, and in a moment the thick door swung open and Rogers drew
+out a japanned cash-box and unlocked it. But when he threw the cover
+back he uttered an exclamation of angry surprise. The box was empty!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+
+Mr. Rogers strode to the door, forgetful of his sleeping daughter
+overhead, and thundered out his call for James. The servant appeared at
+once, but he knew nothing about the safe, and had not been in the office
+that morning. Other servants were summoned and put through a rigid
+examination. Then Rogers turned to the woman who had answered the door
+for Gardley and sent her up to call Rosa.
+
+But the woman returned presently with word that Miss Rosa was not in her
+room, and there was no sign that her bed had been slept in during the
+night. The woman's face was sullen. She did not like Rosa, but was
+afraid of her. This to her was only another of Miss Rosa's pranks, and
+very likely her doting father would manage to blame the servants with
+the affair.
+
+Mr. Rogers's face grew stern. His eyes flashed angrily as he turned and
+strode up the stairs to his daughter's room, but when he came down again
+he was holding a note in his trembling hand and his face was ashen
+white.
+
+"Read that, Gardley," he said, thrusting the note into Gardley's hands
+and motioning at the same time for the servants to go away.
+
+Gardley took the note, yet even as he read he noticed that the paper
+was the same as those he carried in his pocket. There was a peculiar
+watermark that made it noticeable.
+
+The note was a flippant little affair from Rosa, telling her father she
+had gone away to be married and that she would let him know where she
+was as soon as they were located. She added that he had forced her to
+this step by being so severe with her and not allowing her lover to come
+to see her. If he had been reasonable she would have stayed at home and
+let him give her a grand wedding; but as it was she had only this way of
+seeking her happiness. She added that she knew he would forgive her, and
+she hoped he would come to see that her way had been best, and Forsythe
+was all that he could desire as a son-in-law.
+
+Gardley uttered an exclamation of dismay as he read, and, looking up,
+found the miserable eyes of the stricken father upon him. For the moment
+his own alarm concerning Margaret and his perplexity about the letters
+was forgotten in the grief of the man who had been his friend.
+
+"When did she go?" asked Gardley, quickly looking up.
+
+"She took supper with me and then went to her room, complaining of a
+headache," said the father, his voice showing his utter hopelessness.
+"She may have gone early in the evening, perhaps, for we all turned in
+about nine o'clock to keep the house quiet on her account."
+
+"Have you any idea which way they went, east or west?" Gardley was the
+keen adviser in a crisis now, his every sense on the alert.
+
+The old man shook his head. "It is too late now," he said, still in that
+colorless voice. "They will have reached the railroad somewhere. They
+will have been married by this time. See, it is after ten o'clock!"
+
+"Yes, if he marries her," said Gardley, fiercely. He had no faith in
+Forsythe.
+
+"You think--you don't think he would _dare_!" The old man straightened
+up and fairly blazed in his righteous wrath.
+
+"I think he would dare anything if he thought he would not be caught. He
+is a coward, of course."
+
+"What can we do?"
+
+"Telegraph to detectives at all points where they would be likely to
+arrive and have them shadowed. Come, we will ride to the station at
+once; but, first, could I go up in her room and look around? There might
+be some clue."
+
+"Certainly," said Rogers, pointing hopelessly up the stairs; "the first
+door to the left. But you'll find nothing. I looked everywhere. She
+wouldn't have left a clue. While you're up there I'll interview the
+servants. Then we'll go."
+
+As he went up-stairs Gardley was wondering whether he ought to tell
+Rogers of the circumstance of the two letters. What possible connection
+could there be between Margaret Earle's trip to Walpi with the
+Brownleighs and Rosa Rogers's elopement? When you come to think of it,
+what possible explanation was there for a copy of Mrs. Brownleigh's
+letter to blow out of Rosa Rogers's bedroom window? How could it have
+got there?
+
+Rosa's room was in beautiful order, the roses nodding in at the window,
+the curtain blowing back and forth in the breeze and rippling open the
+leaves of a tiny Testament lying on her desk, as if it had been recently
+read. There was nothing to show that the owner of the room had taken a
+hasty flight. On the desk lay several sheets of note-paper with the
+peculiar watermark. These caught his attention, and he took them up and
+compared them with the papers in his pocket. It was a strange thing that
+that letter which had sent Margaret off into the wilderness with an
+unknown Indian should be written on the same kind of paper as this; and
+yet, perhaps, it was not so strange, after all. It probably was the only
+note-paper to be had in that region, and must all have been purchased at
+the same place.
+
+The rippling leaves of the Testament fluttered open at the fly-leaf and
+revealed Rosa's name and a date with Mrs. Brownleigh's name written
+below, and Gardley took it up, startled again to find Hazel Brownleigh
+mixed up with the Rogers. He had not known that they had anything to do
+with each other. And yet, of course, they would, being the missionaries
+of the region.
+
+The almost empty waste-basket next caught his eye, and here again were
+several sheets of paper written over with words and phrases, words which
+at once he recognized as part of the letter Mrs. Tanner had given him.
+He emptied the waste-basket out on the desk, thinking perhaps there
+might be something there that would give a clue to where the elopers had
+gone; but there was not much else in it except a little yellowed note
+with the signature "Hazel Brownleigh" at the bottom. He glanced through
+the brief note, gathered its purport, and then spread it out
+deliberately on the desk and compared the writing with the others, a
+wild fear clutching at his heart. Yet he could not in any way explain
+why he was so uneasy. What possible reason could Rosa Rogers have for
+forging a letter to Margaret from Hazel Brownleigh?
+
+Suddenly Rogers stood behind him looking over his shoulder. "What is it,
+Gardley? What have you found? Any clue?"
+
+"No clue," said Gardley, uneasily, "but something strange I cannot
+understand. I don't suppose it can possibly have anything to do with
+your daughter, and yet it seems almost uncanny. This morning I stopped
+at the Tanners' to let Miss Earle know I had returned, and was told she
+had gone yesterday with a couple of Indians as guide to meet the
+Brownleighs at Keams or somewhere near there, and take a trip with them
+to Walpi to see the Hopi Indians. Mrs. Tanner gave me this letter from
+Mrs. Brownleigh, which Miss Earle had left behind. But when I reached
+here and was waiting for you some papers blew out of your daughter's
+window. When I picked them up I was startled to find that one of them
+was an exact copy of the letter I had in my pocket. See! Here they are!
+I don't suppose there is anything to it, but in spite of me I am a
+trifle uneasy about Miss Earle. I just can't understand how that copy of
+the letter came to be here."
+
+Rogers was leaning over, looking at the papers. "What's this?" he asked,
+picking up the note that came with the Testament. He read each paper
+carefully, took in the little Testament with its fluttering fly-leaf
+and inscription, studied the pages of words and alphabet, then suddenly
+turned away and groaned, hiding his face in his hands.
+
+"What is it?" asked Gardley, awed with the awful sorrow in the strong
+man's attitude.
+
+"My poor baby!" groaned the father. "My poor little baby girl! I've
+always been afraid of that fatal gift of hers. Gardley, she could copy
+any handwriting in the world perfectly. She could write my name so it
+could not be told from my own signature. She's evidently written that
+letter. Why, I don't know, unless she wanted to get Miss Earle out of
+the way so it would be easier for her to carry out her plans."
+
+"It can't be!" said Gardley, shaking his head. "I can't see what her
+object would be. Besides, where would she find the Indians? Mrs. Tanner
+saw the Indians. They came to the school after her with the letter, and
+waited for her. Mrs. Tanner saw them ride off together."
+
+"There were a couple of strange Indians here yesterday, begging
+something to eat," said Rogers, settling down on a chair and resting his
+head against the desk as if he had suddenly lost the strength to stand.
+
+"This won't do!" said Gardley. "We've got to get down to the
+telegraph-office, you and I. Now try to brace up. Are the horses ready?
+Then we'll go right away."
+
+"You better question the servants about those Indians first," said
+Rogers; and Gardley, as he hurried down the stairs, heard groan after
+groan from Rosa's room, where her father lingered in agony.
+
+Gardley got all the information he could about the Indians, and then the
+two men started away on a gallop to the station. As they passed the
+Tanner house Gardley drew rein to call to Bud, who hurried out joyfully
+to greet his friend, his face lighting with pleasure.
+
+"Bill, get on your horse in double-quick time and beat it out to camp
+for me, will you?" said Gardley, as he reached down and gripped Bud's
+rough young paw. "Tell Jasper Kemp to come back with you and meet me at
+the station as quick as he can. Tell him to have the men where he can
+signal them. We may have to hustle out on a long hunt; and, Bill, keep
+your head steady and get back yourself right away. Perhaps I'll want you
+to help me. I'm a little anxious about Miss Earle, but you needn't tell
+anybody that but old Jasper. Tell him to hurry for all he's worth."
+
+Bud, with his eyes large with loyalty and trouble, nodded
+understandingly, returned the grip of the young man's hand with a clumsy
+squeeze, and sprang away to get his horse and do Gardley's bidding.
+Gardley knew he would ride as for his life, now that he knew Margaret's
+safety was at stake.
+
+Then Gardley rode on to the station and was indefatigable for two hours
+hunting out addresses, writing telegrams, and calling up long-distance
+telephones.
+
+When all had been done that was possible Rogers turned a haggard face to
+the young man. "I've been thinking, Gardley, that rash little girl of
+mine may have got Miss Earle into some kind of a dangerous position.
+You ought to look after her. What can we do?"
+
+"I'm going to, sir," said Gardley, "just as soon as I've done everything
+I can for you. I've already sent for Jasper Kemp, and we'll make a plan
+between us and find out if Miss Earle is all right. Can you spare Jasper
+or will you need him?"
+
+"By all means! Take all the men you need. I sha'n't rest easy till I
+know Miss Earle is safe."
+
+He sank down on a truck that stood on the station platform, his
+shoulders slumping, his whole attitude as of one who was fatally
+stricken. It came over Gardley how suddenly old he looked, and haggard
+and gray! What a thing for the selfish child to have done to her father!
+Poor, silly child, whose fate with Forsythe would in all probability be
+anything but enviable!
+
+But there was no time for sorrowful reflections. Jasper Kemp, stern,
+alert, anxious, came riding furiously down the street, Bud keeping even
+pace with him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+
+While Gardley briefly told his tale to Jasper Kemp, and the Scotchman
+was hastily scanning the papers with his keen, bright eyes, Bud stood
+frowning and listening intently.
+
+"Gee!" he burst forth. "That girl's a mess! 'Course she did it! You
+oughta seen what all she didn't do the last six weeks of school. Miss
+Mar'get got so she shivered every time that girl came near her or looked
+at her. She sure had her goat! Some nights after school, when she
+thought she's all alone, she just cried, she did. Why, Rosa had every
+one of those guys in the back seat acting like the devil, and nobody
+knew what was the matter. She wrote things on the blackboard right in
+the questions, so's it looked like Miss Mar'get's writing; fierce
+things, sometimes; and Miss Mar'get didn't know who did it. And she was
+as jealous as a cat of Miss Mar'get. You all know what a case she had on
+that guy from over by the fort; and she didn't like to have him even
+look at Miss Mar'get. Well, she didn't forget how he went away that
+night of the play. I caught her looking at her like she would like to
+murder her. _Good night!_ Some look! The guy had a case on Miss Mar'get,
+all right, too, only she was onto him and wouldn't look at him nor let
+him spoon nor nothing. But Rosa saw it all, and she just hated Miss
+Mar'get. Then once Miss Mar'get stopped her from going out to meet that
+guy, too. Oh, she hated her, all right! And you can bet she wrote the
+letter! Sure she did! She wanted to get her away when that guy came
+back. He was back yesterday. I saw him over by the run on that trail
+that crosses the trail to the old cabin. He didn't see me. I got my eye
+on him first, and I chucked behind some sage-brush, but he was here, all
+right, and he didn't mean any good. I follahed him awhile till he
+stopped and fixed up a place to camp. I guess he must 'a' stayed out
+last night--"
+
+A heavy hand was suddenly laid from behind on Bud's shoulder, and Rogers
+stood over him, his dark eyes on fire, his lips trembling.
+
+"Boy, can you show me where that was?" he asked, and there was an
+intensity in his voice that showed Bud that something serious was the
+matter. Boylike he dropped his eyes indifferently before this great
+emotion.
+
+"Sure!"
+
+"Best take Long Bill with you, Mr. Rogers," advised Jasper Kemp, keenly
+alive to the whole situation. "I reckon we'll all have to work together.
+My men ain't far off," and he lifted his whistle to his lips and blew
+the signal blasts. "The Kid here 'll want to ride to Keams to see if the
+lady is all safe and has met her friends. I reckon mebbe I better go
+straight to Ganado and find out if them mission folks really got
+started, and put 'em wise to what's been going on. They'll mebbe know
+who them Injuns was. I have my suspicions they weren't any friendlies.
+I didn't like that Injun the minute I set eyes on him hanging round the
+school-house, but I wouldn't have stirred a step toward camp if I'd 'a'
+suspected he was come fur the lady. 'Spose you take Bud and Long Bill
+and go find that camping-place and see if you find any trail showing
+which way they took. If you do, you fire three shots, and the men 'll be
+with you. If you want the Kid, fire four shots. He can't be so fur away
+by that time that he can't hear. He's got to get provisioned 'fore he
+starts. Lead him out, Bud. We 'ain't got no time to lose."
+
+Bud gave one despairing look at Gardley and turned to obey.
+
+"That's all right, Bud," said Gardley, with an understanding glance.
+"You tell Mr. Rogers all you know and show him the place, and then when
+Long Bill comes you can take the cross-cut to the Long Trail and go with
+me. I'll just stop at the house as I go by and tell your mother I need
+you."
+
+Bud gave one radiant, grateful look and sprang upon his horse, and
+Rogers had hard work to keep up with him at first, till Bud got
+interested in giving him a detailed account of Forsythe's looks and
+acts.
+
+In less than an hour the relief expedition had started. Before night had
+fallen Jasper Kemp, riding hard, arrived at the mission, told his story,
+procured a fresh horse, and after a couple of hours, rest started with
+Brownleigh and his wife for Keams Caņon.
+
+Gardley and Bud, riding for all they were worth, said little by the way.
+Now and then the boy stole glances at the man's face, and the dead
+weight of sorrow settled like lead, the heavier, upon his heart. Too
+well he knew the dangers of the desert. He could almost read Gardley's
+fears in the white, drawn look about his lips, the ashen circles under
+his eyes, the tense, strained pose of his whole figure. Gardley's mind
+was urging ahead of his steed, and his body could not relax. He was
+anxious to go a little faster, yet his judgment knew it would not do,
+for his horse would play out before he could get another. They ate their
+corn bread in the saddle, and only turned aside from the trail once to
+drink at a water-hole and fill their cans. They rode late into the
+night, with only the stars and their wits to guide them. When they
+stopped to rest they did not wait to make a fire, but hobbled the horses
+where they might feed, and, rolling quickly in their blankets, lay down
+upon the ground.
+
+Bud, with the fatigue of healthy youth, would have slept till morning in
+spite of his fears, but Gardley woke him in a couple of hours, made him
+drink some water and eat a bite of food, and they went on their way
+again. When morning broke they were almost to the entrance of Keams
+Caņon and both looked haggard and worn. Bud seemed to have aged in the
+night, and Gardley looked at him almost tenderly.
+
+"Are you all in, kid?" he asked.
+
+"Naw!" answered Bud, promptly, with an assumed cheerfulness. "Feeling
+like a four-year-old. Get on to that sky? Guess we're going to have some
+day! Pretty as a red wagon!"
+
+Gardley smiled sadly. What would that day bring forth for the two who
+went in search of her they loved? His great anxiety was to get to Keams
+Caņon and inquire. They would surely know at the trading-post whether
+the missionary and his party had gone that way.
+
+The road was still almost impassable from the flood; the two dauntless
+riders picked their way slowly down the trail to the post.
+
+But the trader could tell them nothing comforting. The missionary had
+not been that way in two months, and there had been no party and no lady
+there that week. A single strange Indian had come down the trail above
+the day before, stayed awhile, picked a quarrel with some men who were
+there, and then ridden back up the steep trail again. He might have had
+a party with him up on the mesa, waiting. He had said something about
+his squaw. The trader admitted that he might have been drunk, but he
+frowned as he spoke of him. He called him a "bad Indian." Something
+unpleasant had evidently happened.
+
+The trader gave them a good, hot dinner, of which they stood sorely in
+need, and because they realized that they must keep up their strength
+they took the time to eat it. Then, procuring fresh horses, they climbed
+the steep trail in the direction the trader said the Indian had taken.
+It was a slender clue, but it was all they had, and they must follow it.
+And now the travelers were very silent, as if they felt they were
+drawing near to some knowledge that would settle the question for them
+one way or the other. As they reached the top at last, where they could
+see out across the plain, each drew a long breath like a gasp and
+looked about, half fearing what he might see.
+
+Yes, there was the sign of a recent camp-fire, and a few tin cans and
+bits of refuse, nothing more. Gardley got down and searched carefully.
+Bud even crept about upon his hands and knees, but a single tiny blue
+bead like a grain of sand was all that rewarded his efforts. Some Indian
+had doubtless camped here. That was all the evidence. Standing thus in
+hopeless uncertainty what to do next, they suddenly heard voices.
+Something familiar once or twice made Gardley lift his whistle and blow
+a blast. Instantly a silvery answer came ringing from the mesa a mile or
+so away and woke the echoes in the caņon. Jasper Kemp and his party had
+taken the longer way around instead of going down the caņon, and were
+just arriving at the spot where Margaret and the squaw had waited two
+days before for their drunken guide. But Jasper Kemp's whistle rang out
+again, and he shot three times into the air, their signal to wait for
+some important news.
+
+Breathlessly and in silence the two waited till the coming of the rest
+of the party, and cast themselves down on the ground, feeling the sudden
+need of support. Now that there was a possibility of some news, they
+felt hardly able to bear it, and the waiting for it was intolerable, to
+such a point of anxious tension were they strained.
+
+But when the party from Ganado came in sight their faces wore no
+brightness of good news. Their greetings were quiet, sad, anxious, and
+Jasper Kemp held out to Gardley an envelope. It was the one from
+Margaret's mother's letter that she had dropped upon the trail.
+
+"We found it on the way from Ganado, just as we entered Steamboat
+Caņon," explained Jasper.
+
+"And didn't you search for a trail off in any other direction?" asked
+Gardley, almost sharply. "They have not been here. At least only one
+Indian has been down to the trader's."
+
+"There was no other trail. We looked," said Jasper, sadly. "There was a
+camp-fire twice, and signs of a camp. We felt sure they had come this
+way."
+
+Gardley shook his head and a look of abject despair came over his face.
+"There is no sign here," he said. "They must have gone some other way.
+Perhaps the Indian has carried her off. Are the other men following?"
+
+"No, Rogers sent them in the other direction after his girl. They found
+the camp all right. Bud tell you? We made sure we had found our trail
+and would not need them."
+
+Gardley dropped his head and almost groaned.
+
+Meanwhile the missionary had been riding around in radiating circles
+from the dead camp-fire, searching every step of the way; and Bud,
+taking his cue from him, looked off toward the mesa a minute, then
+struck out in a straight line for it and rode off like mad. Suddenly
+there was heard a shout loud and long, and Bud came riding back, waving
+something small and white above his head.
+
+They gathered in a little knot, waiting for the boy, not speaking; and
+when he halted in their midst he fluttered down the handkerchief to
+Gardley.
+
+"It's hers, all right. Gotter name all written out on the edge!" he
+declared, radiantly.
+
+The sky grew brighter to them all now. Eagerly Gardley sprang into his
+saddle, no longer weary, but alert and eager for the trail.
+
+"You folks better go down to the trader's and get some dinner. You'll
+need it! Bud and I'll go on. Mrs. Brownleigh looks all in."
+
+"No," declared Hazel, decidedly. "We'll just snatch a bite here and
+follow you at once. I couldn't enjoy a dinner till I know she is safe."
+And so, though both Jasper Kemp and her husband urged her otherwise, she
+would take a hasty meal by the way and hurry on.
+
+But Bud and Gardley waited not for others. They plunged wildly ahead.
+
+It seemed a long way to the eager hunters, from the place where Bud had
+found the handkerchief to the little note twisted around the red
+chessman. It was perhaps nearly a mile, and both the riders had searched
+in all directions for some time before Gardley spied it. Eagerly he
+seized upon the note, recognizing the little red manikin with which he
+had whiled away an hour with Margaret during one of her visits at the
+camp.
+
+The note was written large and clear upon a sheet of writing-paper:
+
+"I am Margaret Earle, school-teacher at Ashland. I am supposed to be
+traveling to Walpi, by way of Keams, to meet Mr. and Mrs. Brownleigh of
+Ganado. I am with an Indian, his squaw and papoose. The Indian said he
+was sent to guide me, but he is drunk now and I am frightened. He has
+acted strangely all the way. I do not know where I am. Please come and
+help me."
+
+Bud, sitting anxious like a statue upon his horse, read Gardley's face
+as Gardley read the note. Then Gardley read it aloud to Bud, and before
+the last word was fairly out of his mouth both man and boy started as if
+they had heard Margaret's beloved voice calling them. It was not long
+before Bud found another scrap of paper a half-mile farther on, and then
+another and another, scattered at great distances along the way. The
+only way they had of being sure she had dropped them was that they
+seemed to be the same kind of paper as that upon which the note was
+written.
+
+How that note with its brave, frightened appeal wrung the heart of
+Gardley as he thought of Margaret, unprotected, in terror and perhaps in
+peril, riding on she knew not where. What trials and fears had she not
+already passed through! What might she not be experiencing even now
+while he searched for her?
+
+It was perhaps two hours before he found the little white stocking
+dropped where the trail divided, showing which way she had taken.
+Gardley folded it reverently and put it in his pocket. An hour later Bud
+pounced upon the bedroom slipper and carried it gleefully to Gardley;
+and so by slow degrees, finding here and there a chessman or more paper,
+they came at last to the camp where the Indians had abandoned their
+trust and fled, leaving Margaret alone in the wilderness.
+
+It was then that Gardley searched in vain for any further clue, and,
+riding wide in every direction, stopped and called her name again and
+again, while the sun grew lower and lower and shadows crept in
+lurking-places waiting for the swift-coming night. It was then that Bud,
+flying frantically from one spot to another, got down upon his knees
+behind a sage-bush when Gardley was not looking and mumbled a rough,
+hasty prayer for help. He felt like the old woman who, on being told
+that nothing but God could save the ship, exclaimed, "And has it come to
+that?" Bud had felt all his life that there was a remote time in every
+life when one might need to believe in prayer. The time had come for
+Bud.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Margaret, on her knees in the sand of the desert praying for help,
+remembered the promise, "Before they call I will answer, and while they
+are yet speaking I will hear," and knew not that her deliverers were on
+the way.
+
+The sun had been hot as it beat down upon the whiteness of the sand, and
+the girl had crept under a sage-bush for shelter from it. The pain in
+her ankle was sickening. She had removed her shoe and bound the ankle
+about with a handkerchief soaked with half of her bottle of witch-hazel,
+and so, lying quiet, had fallen asleep, too exhausted with pain and
+anxiety to stay awake any longer.
+
+When she awoke again the softness of evening was hovering over
+everything, and she started up and listened. Surely, surely, she had
+heard a voice calling her! She sat up sharply and listened. Ah! There it
+was again, a faint echo in the distance. Was it a voice, or was it only
+her dreams mingling with her fancies?
+
+Travelers in deserts, she had read, took all sorts of fancies, saw
+mirages, heard sounds that were not. But she had not been out long
+enough to have caught such a desert fever. Perhaps she was going to be
+sick. Still that faint echo made her heart beat wildly. She dragged
+herself to her knees, then to her feet, standing painfully with the
+weight on her well foot.
+
+The suffering horse turned his anguished eyes and whinnied. Her heart
+ached for him, yet there was no way she could assuage his pain or put
+him out of his misery. But she must make sure if she had heard a voice.
+Could she possibly scale that rock down which she and her horse had
+fallen? For then she might look out farther and see if there were any
+one in sight.
+
+Painfully she crawled and crept, up and up, inch by inch, until at last
+she gained the little height and could look afar.
+
+There was no living thing in sight. The air was very clear. The eagle
+had found his evening rest somewhere in a quiet crag. The long corn
+waved on the distant plain, and all was deathly still once more. There
+was a hint of coming sunset in the sky. Her heart sank, and she was
+about to give up hope entirely, when, rich and clear, there it came
+again! A voice in the wilderness calling her name: "Margaret! Margaret!"
+
+The tears rushed to her eyes and crowded in her throat. She could not
+answer, she was so overwhelmed; and though she tried twice to call out,
+she could make no sound. But the call kept coming again and again:
+"Margaret! Margaret!" and it was Gardley's voice. Impossible! For
+Gardley was far away and could not know her need. Yet it was his voice.
+Had she died, or was she in delirium that she seemed to hear him calling
+her name?
+
+But the call came clearer now: "Margaret! Margaret! I am coming!" and
+like a flash her mind went back to the first night in Arizona when she
+heard him singing, "From the Desert I Come to Thee!"
+
+Now she struggled to her feet again and shouted, inarticulately and
+gladly through her tears. She could see him. It was Gardley. He was
+riding fast toward her, and he shot three shots into the air above him
+as he rode, and three shrill blasts of his whistle rang out on the still
+evening air.
+
+She tore the scarf from her neck that she had tied about it to keep the
+sun from blistering her, and waved it wildly in the air now, shouting in
+happy, choking sobs.
+
+And so he came to her across the desert!
+
+He sprang down before the horse had fairly reached her side, and,
+rushing to her, took her in his arms.
+
+"Margaret! My darling! I have found you at last!"
+
+She swayed and would have fallen but for his arms, and then he saw her
+white face and knew she must be suffering.
+
+"You are hurt!" he cried. "Oh, what have they done to you?" And he laid
+her gently down upon the sand and dropped on his knees beside her.
+
+"Oh no," she gasped, joyously, with white lips. "I'm all right now.
+Only my ankle hurts a little. We had a fall, the horse and I. Oh, go to
+him at once and put him out of his pain. I'm sure his legs are broken."
+
+For answer Gardley put the whistle to his lips and blew a blast. He
+would not leave her for an instant. He was not sure yet that she was not
+more hurt than she had said. He set about discovering at once, for he
+had brought with him supplies for all emergencies.
+
+It was Bud who came riding madly across the mesa in answer to the call,
+reaching Gardley before any one else. Bud with his eyes shining, his
+cheeks blazing with excitement, his hair wildly flying in the breeze,
+his young, boyish face suddenly grown old with lines of anxiety. But you
+wouldn't have known from his greeting that it was anything more than a
+pleasure excursion he had been on the past two days.
+
+"Good work, Kid! Whatcha want me t' do?"
+
+It was Bud who arranged the camp and went back to tell the other
+detachments that Margaret was found; Bud who led the pack-horse up,
+unpacked the provisions, and gathered wood to start a fire. Bud was
+everywhere, with a smudged face, a weary, gray look around his eyes, and
+his hair sticking "seven ways for Sunday." Yet once, when his labors led
+him near to where Margaret lay weak and happy on a couch of blankets, he
+gave her an unwonted pat on her shoulder and said in a low tone: "Hello,
+Gang! See you kept your nerve with you!" and then he gave her a grin all
+across his dirty, tired face, and moved away as if he were half ashamed
+of his emotion. But it was Bud again who came and talked with her to
+divert her so that she wouldn't notice when they shot her horse. He
+talked loudly about a coyote they shot the night before, and a
+cottontail they saw at Keams, and when he saw that she understood what
+the shot meant, and there were tears in her eyes, he gave her hand a
+rough, bear squeeze and said, gruffly: "You should worry! He's better
+off now!" And when Gardley came back he took himself thoughtfully to a
+distance and busied himself opening tins of meat and soup.
+
+In another hour the Brownleighs arrived, having heard the signals, and
+they had a supper around the camp-fire, everybody so rejoiced that there
+were still quivers in their voices; and when any one laughed it sounded
+like the echo of a sob, so great had been the strain of their anxiety.
+
+Gardley, sitting beside Margaret in the starlight afterward, her hand in
+his, listened to the story of her journey, the strong, tender pressure
+of his fingers telling her how deeply it affected him to know the peril
+through which she had passed. Later, when the others were telling gay
+stories about the fire, and Bud lying full length in their midst had
+fallen fast asleep, these two, a little apart from the rest, were
+murmuring their innermost thoughts in low tones to each other, and
+rejoicing that they were together once more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+
+They talked it over the next morning at breakfast as they sat around the
+fire. Jasper Kemp thought he ought to get right back to attend to
+things. Mr. Rogers was all broken up, and might even need him to search
+for Rosa if they had not found out her whereabouts yet. He and Fiddling
+Boss, who had come along, would start back at once. They had had a good
+night's rest and had found their dear lady. What more did they need?
+Besides, there were not provisions for an indefinite stay for such a
+large party, and there were none too many sources of supply in this
+region.
+
+The missionary thought that, now he was here, he ought to go on to
+Walpi. It was not more than two hours' ride there, and Hazel could stay
+with the camp while Margaret's ankle had a chance to rest and let the
+swelling subside under treatment.
+
+Margaret, however, rebelled. She did not wish to be an invalid, and was
+very sure she could ride without injury to her ankle. She wanted to see
+Walpi and the queer Hopi Indians, now she was so near. So a compromise
+was agreed upon. They would all wait in camp a couple of days, and then
+if Margaret felt well enough they would go on, visit the Hopis, and so
+go home together.
+
+Bud pleaded to be allowed to stay with them, and Jasper Kemp promised to
+make it all right with his parents.
+
+So for two whole, long, lovely days the little party of five camped on
+the mesa and enjoyed sweet converse. It is safe to say that never in all
+Bud's life will he forget or get away from the influences of that day in
+such company.
+
+Gardley and the missionary proved to be the best of physicians, and
+Margaret's ankle improved hourly under their united treatment of
+compresses, lotions, and rest. About noon on Saturday they broke camp,
+mounted their horses, and rode away across the stretch of white sand,
+through tall cornfields growing right up out of the sand, closer and
+closer to the great mesa with the castle-like pueblos five hundred feet
+above them on the top. It seemed to Margaret like suddenly being dropped
+into Egypt or the Holy Land, or some of the Babylonian excavations, so
+curious and primitive and altogether different from anything else she
+had ever seen did it all appear. She listened, fascinated, while
+Brownleigh told about this strange Hopi land, the strangest spot in
+America. Spanish explorers found them away back years before the
+Pilgrims landed, and called the country Tuscayan. They built their homes
+up high for protection from their enemies. They lived on the corn,
+pumpkins, peaches, and melons which they raised in the valley, planting
+the seeds with their hands. It is supposed they got their seeds first
+from the Spaniards years ago. They make pottery, cloth, and baskets, and
+are a busy people.
+
+There are seven villages built on three mesas in the northern desert.
+One of the largest, Orabi, has a thousand inhabitants. Walpi numbers
+about two hundred and thirty people, all living in this one great
+building of many rooms. They are divided into brotherhoods, or
+phratries, and each brotherhood has several large families. They are
+ruled by a speaker chief and a war chief elected by a council of clan
+elders.
+
+Margaret learned with wonder that all the water these people used had to
+be carried by the women in jars on their backs five hundred feet up the
+steep trail.
+
+Presently, as they drew nearer, a curious man with his hair "banged"
+like a child's, and garments much like those usually worn by
+scarecrows--a shapeless kind of shirt and trousers--appeared along the
+steep and showed them the way up. Margaret and the missionary's wife
+exclaimed in horror over the little children playing along the very edge
+of the cliffs above as carelessly as birds in trees.
+
+High up on the mesa at last, how strange and weird it seemed! Far below
+the yellow sand of the valley; fifteen miles away a second mesa
+stretching dark; to the southwest, a hundred miles distant, the dim
+outlines of the San Francisco peaks. Some little children on burros
+crossing the sand below looked as if they were part of a curious
+moving-picture, not as if they were little living beings taking life as
+seriously as other children do. The great, wide desert stretching far!
+The bare, solid rocks beneath their feet! The curious houses behind
+them! It all seemed unreal to Margaret, like a great picture-book
+spread out for her to see. She turned from gazing and found Gardley's
+eyes upon her adoringly, a tender understanding of her mood in his
+glance. She thrilled with pleasure to be here with him; a soft flush
+spread over her cheeks and a light came into her eyes.
+
+They found the Indians preparing for one of their most famous
+ceremonies, the snake dance, which was to take place in a few days. For
+almost a week the snake priests had been busy hunting rattlesnakes,
+building altars, drawing figures in the sand, and singing weird songs.
+On the ninth day the snakes are washed in a pool and driven near a pile
+of sand. The priests, arrayed in paint, feathers, and charms, come out
+in line and, taking the live snakes in their mouths, parade up and down
+the rocks, while the people crowd the roofs and terraces of the pueblos
+to watch. There are helpers to whip the snakes and keep them from
+biting, and catchers to see that none get away. In a little while the
+priests take the snakes down on the desert and set them free, sending
+them north, south, east, and west, where it is supposed they will take
+the people's prayers for rain to the water serpent in the underworld,
+who is in some way connected with the god of the rain-clouds.
+
+It was a strange experience, that night in Walpi: the primitive
+accommodations; the picturesque, uncivilized people; the shy glances
+from dark, eager eyes. To watch two girls grinding corn between two
+stones, and a little farther off their mother rolling out her dough with
+an ear of corn, and cooking over an open fire, her pot slung from a
+crude crane over the blaze--it was all too unreal to be true.
+
+But the most interesting thing about it was to watch the "Aneshodi"
+going about among them, his face alight with warm, human love; his
+hearty laugh ringing out in a joke that the Hopis seemed to understand,
+making himself one with them. It came to Margaret suddenly to remember
+the pompous little figure of the Rev. Frederick West, and to fancy him
+going about among these people and trying to do them good. Before she
+knew what she was doing she laughed aloud at the thought. Then, of
+course, she had to explain to Bud and Gardley, who looked at her
+inquiringly.
+
+"Aw! Gee! _Him?_ _He_ wasn't a minister! He was a _mistake_! Fergit him,
+the poor simp!" growled Bud, sympathetically. Then his eyes softened as
+he watched Brownleigh playing with three little Indian maids, having a
+fine romp. "Gee! he certainly is a peach, isn't he?" he murmured, his
+whole face kindling appreciatively. "Gee! I bet that kid never forgets
+that!"
+
+The Sunday was a wonderful day, when the missionary gathered the people
+together and spoke to them in simple words of God--their god who made
+the sky, the stars, the mountains, and the sun, whom they call by
+different names, but whom He called God. He spoke of the Book of Heaven
+that told about God and His great love for men, so great that He sent
+His son to save them from their sin. It was not a long sermon, but a
+very beautiful one; and, listening to the simple, wonderful words of
+life that fell from the missionary's earnest lips and were translated by
+his faithful Indian interpreter, who always went with him on his
+expeditions, watching the faces of the dark, strange people as they
+took in the marvelous meaning, the little company of visitors was
+strangely moved. Even Bud, awed beyond his wont, said, shyly, to
+Margaret:
+
+"Gee! It's something fierce not to be born a Christian and know all
+that, ain't it?"
+
+Margaret and Gardley walked a little way down the narrow path that led
+out over the neck of rock less than a rod wide that connects the great
+promontory with the mesa. The sun was setting in majesty over the
+desert, and the scene was one of breathless beauty. One might fancy it
+might look so to stand on the hills of God and look out over creation
+when all things have been made new.
+
+They stood for a while in silence. Then Margaret looked down at the
+narrow path worn more than a foot deep in the solid rock by the ten
+generations of feet that had been passing over it.
+
+"Just think," she said, "of all the feet, little and big, that have
+walked here in all the years, and of all the souls that have stood and
+looked out over this wonderful sight! It must be that somehow in spite
+of their darkness they have reached out to the God who made this, and
+have found a way to His heart. They couldn't look at this and not feel
+Him, could they? It seems to me that perhaps some of those poor
+creatures who have stood here and reached up blindly after the Creator
+of their souls have, perhaps, been as pleasing to Him as those who have
+known about Him from childhood."
+
+Gardley was used to her talking this way. He had not been in her Sunday
+meetings for nothing. He understood and sympathized, and now his hand
+reached softly for hers and held it tenderly. After a moment of silence
+he said:
+
+"I surely think if God could reach and find me in the desert of my life,
+He must have found them. I sometimes think I was a greater heathen than
+all these, because I knew and would not see."
+
+Margaret nestled her hand in his and looked up joyfully into his face.
+"I'm so glad you know Him now!" she murmured, happily.
+
+They stood for some time looking out over the changing scene, till the
+crimson faded into rose, the silver into gray; till the stars bloomed
+out one by one, and down in the valley across the desert a light
+twinkled faintly here and there from the camps of the Hopi shepherds.
+
+They started home at daybreak the next morning, the whole company of
+Indians standing on the rocks to send them royally on their way,
+pressing simple, homely gifts upon them and begging them to return soon
+again and tell the blessed story.
+
+A wonderful ride they had back to Ganado, where Gardley left Margaret
+for a short visit, promising to return for her in a few days when she
+was rested, and hastened back to Ashland to his work; for his soul was
+happy now and at ease, and he felt he must get to work at once. Rogers
+would need him. Poor Rogers! Had he found his daughter yet? Poor, silly
+child-prodigal!
+
+But when Gardley reached Ashland he found among his mail awaiting him a
+telegram. His uncle was dead, and the fortune which he had been brought
+up to believe was his, and which he had idly tossed away in a moment of
+recklessness, had been restored to him by the uncle's last will, made
+since Gardley's recent visit home. The fortune was his again!
+
+Gardley sat in his office on the Rogers ranch and stared hard at the
+adobe wall opposite his desk. That fortune would be great! He could do
+such wonderful things for Margaret now. They could work out their dreams
+together for the people they loved. He could see the shadows of those
+dreams--a beautiful home for Margaret out on the trail she loved, where
+wildness and beauty and the mountain she called hers were not far away;
+horses in plenty and a luxurious car when they wanted to take a trip;
+journeys East as often as they wished; some of the ideal appliances for
+the school that Margaret loved; a church for the missionary and
+convenient halls where he could speak at his outlying districts; a trip
+to the city for Mom Wallis, where she might see a real picture-gallery,
+her one expressed desire this side of heaven, now that she had taken to
+reading Browning and had some of it explained to her. Oh, and a lot of
+wonderful things! These all hung in the dream-picture before Gardley's
+eyes as he sat at his desk with that bit of yellow paper in his hand.
+
+He thought of what that money had represented to him in the past.
+Reckless days and nights of folly as a boy and young man at college;
+ruthless waste of time, money, youth; shriveling of soul, till Margaret
+came and found and rescued him! How wonderful that he had been rescued!
+That he had come to his senses at last, and was here in a man's
+position, doing a man's work in the world! Now, with all that money,
+there was no need for him to work and earn more. He could live idly all
+his days and just have a good time--make others happy, too. But still he
+would not have this exhilarating feeling that he was supplying his own
+and Margaret's necessities by the labor of hand and brain. The little
+telegram in his hand seemed somehow to be trying to snatch from him all
+this material prosperity that was the symbol of that spiritual
+regeneration which had become so dear to him.
+
+He put his head down on his clasped hands upon the desk then and prayed.
+Perhaps it was the first great prayer of his life.
+
+"O God, let me be strong enough to stand this that has come upon me.
+Help me to be a man in spite of money! Don't let me lose my manhood and
+my right to work. Help me to use the money in the right way and not to
+dwarf myself, nor spoil our lives with it." It was a great prayer for a
+man such as Gardley had been, and the answer came swiftly in his
+conviction.
+
+He lifted up his head with purpose in his expression, and, folding the
+telegram, put it safely back into his pocket. He would not tell Margaret
+of it--not just yet. He would think it out--just the right way--and he
+did not believe he meant to give up his position with Rogers. He had
+accepted it for a year in good faith, and it was his business to fulfil
+the contract. Meantime, this money would perhaps make possible his
+marriage with Margaret sooner than he had hoped.
+
+Five minutes later Rogers telephoned to the office.
+
+"I've decided to take that shipment of cattle and try that new stock,
+provided you will go out and look at them and see that everything is
+all O. K. I couldn't go myself now. Don't feel like going anywhere, you
+know. You wouldn't need to go for a couple of weeks. I've just had a
+letter from the man, and he says he won't be ready sooner. Say, why
+don't you and Miss Earle get married and make this a wedding-trip? She
+could go to the Pacific coast with you. It would be a nice trip. Then I
+could spare you for a month or six weeks when you got back if you wanted
+to take her East for a little visit."
+
+Why not? Gardley stumbled out his thanks and hung up the receiver, his
+face full of the light of a great joy. How were the blessings pouring
+down upon his head these days? Was it a sign that God was pleased with
+his action in making good what he could where he had failed? And Rogers!
+How kind he was! Poor Rogers, with his broken heart and his stricken
+home! For Rosa had come home again a sadder, wiser child; and her father
+seemed crushed with the disgrace of it all.
+
+Gardley went to Margaret that very afternoon. He told her only that he
+had had some money left him by his uncle, which would make it possible
+for him to marry at once and keep her comfortably now. He was to be sent
+to California on a business trip. Would she be married and go with him?
+
+Margaret studied the telegram in wonder. She had never asked Gardley
+much about his circumstances. The telegram merely stated that his
+uncle's estate was left to him. To her simple mind an estate might be a
+few hundred dollars, enough to furnish a plain little home; and her face
+lighted with joy over it. She asked no questions, and Gardley said no
+more about the money. He had forgotten that question, comparatively, in
+the greater possibility of joy.
+
+Would she be married in ten days and go with him?
+
+Her eyes met his with an answering joy, and yet he could see that there
+was a trouble hiding somewhere. He presently saw what it was without
+needing to be told. Her father and mother! Of course, they would be
+disappointed! They would want her to be married at home!
+
+"But Rogers said we could go and visit them for several weeks on our
+return," he said; and Margaret's face lighted up.
+
+"Oh, that would be beautiful," she said, wistfully; "and perhaps they
+won't mind so much--though I always expected father would marry me if I
+was ever married; still, if we can go home so soon and for so long--and
+Mr. Brownleigh would be next best, of course."
+
+"But, of course, your father must marry you," said Gardley,
+determinedly. "Perhaps we could persuade him to come, and your mother,
+too."
+
+"Oh no, they couldn't possibly," said Margaret, quickly, a shade of
+sadness in her eyes. "You know it costs a lot to come out here, and
+ministers are never rich."
+
+It was then that Gardley's eyes lighted with joy. His money could take
+this bugbear away, at least. However, he said nothing about the money.
+
+"Suppose we write to your father and mother and put the matter before
+them. See what they say. We'll send the letters to-night. You write
+your mother and I'll write your father."
+
+Margaret agreed and sat down at once to write her letter, while Gardley,
+on the other side of the room, wrote his, scratching away contentedly
+with his fountain-pen and looking furtively now and then toward the
+bowed head over at the desk.
+
+Gardley did not read his letter to Margaret. She wondered a little at
+this, but did not ask, and the letters were mailed, with
+special-delivery stamps on them. Gardley awaited their replies with
+great impatience.
+
+He filled in the days of waiting with business. There were letters to
+write connected with his fortune, and there were arrangements to be made
+for his trip. But the thing that occupied the most of his time and
+thought was the purchase and refitting of a roomy old ranch-house in a
+charming location, not more than three miles from Ashland, on the road
+to the camp.
+
+It had been vacant for a couple of years past, the owner having gone
+abroad permanently and the place having been offered for sale. Margaret
+had often admired it in her trips to and from the camp, and Gardley
+thought of it at once when it became possible for him to think of
+purchasing a home in the West.
+
+There was a great stone fireplace, and the beams of the ceilings and
+pillars of the porch and wide, hospitable rooms were of tree-trunks with
+the bark on them. With a little work it could be made roughly but
+artistically habitable. Gardley had it cleaned up, not disturbing the
+tangle of vines and shrubbery that had had their way since the last
+owner had left them and which had made a perfect screen from the road
+for the house.
+
+Behind this screen the men worked--most of them the men from the
+bunk-house, whom Gardley took into his confidence.
+
+The floors were carefully scrubbed under the direction of Mom Wallis,
+and the windows made shining. Then the men spent a day bringing great
+loads of tree-boughs and filling the place with green fragrance, until
+the big living-room looked like a woodland bower. Gardley made a raid
+upon some Indian friends of his and came back with several fine Navajo
+rugs and blankets, which he spread about the room luxuriously on the
+floor and over the rude benches which the men had constructed. They
+piled the fireplace with big logs, and Gardley took over some of his own
+personal possessions that he had brought back from the East with him to
+give the place a livable look. Then he stood back satisfied. The place
+was fit to bring his bride and her friends to. Not that it was as it
+should be. That would be for Margaret to do, but it would serve as a
+temporary stopping-place if there came need. If no need came, why, the
+place was there, anyway, hers and his. A tender light grew in his eyes
+as he looked it over in the dying light of the afternoon. Then he went
+out and rode swiftly to the telegraph-office and found these two
+telegrams, according to the request in his own letter to Mr. Earle.
+
+Gardley's telegram read:
+
+     Congratulations. Will come as you desire. We await your advice.
+     Have written.--FATHER.
+
+He saddled his horse and hurried to Margaret with hers, and together
+they read:
+
+     Dear child! So glad for you. Of course you will go. I am sending
+     you some things. Don't take a thought for us. We shall look forward
+     to your visit. Our love to you both.--MOTHER.
+
+Margaret, folded in her lover's arms, cried out her sorrow and her joy,
+and lifted up her face with happiness. Then Gardley, with great joy,
+thought of the surprise he had in store for her and laid his face
+against hers to hide the telltale smile in his eyes.
+
+For Gardley, in his letter to his future father-in-law, had written of
+his newly inherited fortune, and had not only inclosed a check for a
+good sum to cover all extra expense of the journey, but had said that a
+private car would be at their disposal, not only for themselves, but for
+any of Margaret's friends and relatives whom they might choose to
+invite. As he had written this letter he was filled with deep
+thanksgiving that it was in his power to do this thing for his dear
+girl-bride.
+
+The morning after the telegrams arrived Gardley spent several hours
+writing telegrams and receiving them from a big department store in the
+nearest great city, and before noon a big shipment of goods was on its
+way to Ashland. Beds, bureaus, wash-stands, chairs, tables, dishes,
+kitchen utensils, and all kinds of bedding, even to sheets and
+pillow-cases, he ordered with lavish hand. After all, he must furnish
+the house himself, and let Margaret weed it out or give it away
+afterward, if she did not like it. He was going to have a house party
+and he must be ready. When all was done and he was just about to mount
+his horse again he turned back and sent another message, ordering a
+piano.
+
+"Why, it's _great_!" he said to himself, as he rode back to his office.
+"It's simply great to be able to do things just when I need them! I
+never knew what fun money was before. But then I never had Margaret to
+spend it for, and she's worth the whole of it at once!"
+
+The next thing he ordered was a great easy carriage with plenty of room
+to convey Mother Earle and her friends from the train to the house.
+
+The days went by rapidly enough, and Margaret was so busy that she had
+little time to wonder and worry why her mother did not write her the
+long, loving, motherly good-by letter to her little girlhood that she
+had expected to get. Not until three days before the wedding did it come
+over her that she had had but three brief, scrappy letters from her
+mother, and they not a whole page apiece. What could be the matter with
+mother? She was almost on the point of panic when Gardley came and
+bundled her on to her horse for a ride.
+
+Strangely enough, he directed their way through Ashland and down to the
+station, and it was just about the time of the arrival of the evening
+train.
+
+Gardley excused himself for a moment, saying something about an errand,
+and went into the station. Margaret sat on her horse, watching the
+oncoming train, the great connecting link between East and West, and
+wondered if it would bring a letter from mother.
+
+The train rushed to a halt, and behold some passengers were getting off
+from a private car! Margaret watched them idly, thinking more about an
+expected letter than about the people. Then suddenly she awoke to the
+fact that Gardley was greeting them. Who could they be?
+
+There were five of them, and one of them looked like Jane! Dear Jane!
+She had forgotten to write her about this hurried wedding. How different
+it all was going to be from what she and Jane had planned for each other
+in their dear old school-day dreams! And that young man that Gardley was
+shaking hands with now looked like Cousin Dick! She hadn't seen him for
+three years, but he must look like that now; and the younger girl beside
+him might be Cousin Emily! But, oh, who were the others? _Father!_ And
+MOTHER!
+
+Margaret sprang from her horse with a bound and rushed into her mother's
+arms. The interested passengers craned their necks and looked their fill
+with smiles of appreciation as the train took up its way again, having
+dropped the private car on the side track.
+
+Dick and Emily rode the ponies to the house, while Margaret nestled in
+the back seat of the carriage between her father and mother, and Jane
+got acquainted with Gardley in the front seat of the carriage. Margaret
+never even noticed where they were going until the carriage turned in
+and stopped before the door of the new house, and Mrs. Tanner, furtively
+casting behind her the checked apron she had worn, came out to shake
+hands with the company and tell them supper was all ready, before she
+went back to her deserted boarding-house. Even Bud was going to stay at
+the new house that night, in some cooked-up capacity or other, and all
+the men from the bunk-house were hiding out among the trees to see
+Margaret's father and mother and shake hands if the opportunity offered.
+
+The wonder and delight of Margaret when she saw the house inside and
+knew that it was hers, the tears she shed and smiles that grew almost
+into hysterics when she saw some of the incongruous furnishings, are all
+past describing. Margaret was too happy to think. She rushed from one
+room to another. She hugged her mother and linked her arm in her
+father's for a walk across the long piazza; she talked to Emily and Dick
+and Jane; and then rushed out to find Gardley and thank him again. And
+all this time she could not understand how Gardley had done it, for she
+had not yet comprehended his fortune.
+
+Gardley had asked his sisters to come to the wedding, not much expecting
+they would accept, but they had telegraphed at the last minute they
+would be there. They arrived an hour or so before the ceremony; gushed
+over Margaret; told Gardley she was a "sweet thing"; said the house was
+"dandy for a house party if one had plenty of servants, but they should
+think it would be dull in winter"; gave Margaret a diamond sunburst pin,
+a string of pearls, and an emerald bracelet set in diamond chips; and
+departed immediately after the ceremony. They had thought they were the
+chief guests, but the relief that overspread the faces of those guests
+who were best beloved by both bride and groom was at once visible on
+their departure. Jasper Kemp drew a long breath and declared to Long
+Bill that he was glad the air was growing pure again. Then all those old
+friends from the bunk-house filed in to the great tables heavily loaded
+with good things, the abundant gift of the neighborhood, and sat down to
+the wedding supper, heartily glad that the "city lady and her gals"--as
+Mom Wallis called them in a suppressed whisper--had chosen not to stay
+over a train.
+
+The wedding had been in the school-house, embowered in foliage and all
+the flowers the land afforded, decorated by the loving hands of
+Margaret's pupils, old and young. She was attended by the entire school
+marching double file before her, strewing flowers in her way. The
+missionary's wife played the wedding-march, and the missionary assisted
+the bride's father with the ceremony. Margaret's dress was a simple
+white muslin, with a little real lace and embroidery handed down from
+former generations, the whole called into being by Margaret's mother.
+Even Gardley's sisters had said it was "perfectly dear." The whole
+neighborhood was at the wedding.
+
+And when the bountiful wedding-supper was eaten the entire company of
+favored guests stood about the new piano and sang "Blest Be the Tie that
+Binds"--with Margaret playing for them.
+
+Then there was a little hurry at the last, Margaret getting into the
+pretty traveling dress and hat her mother had brought, and kissing her
+mother good-by--though happily not for long this time.
+
+Mother and father and the rest of the home party were to wait until
+morning, and the missionary and his wife were to stay with them that
+night and see them to their car the next day.
+
+So, waving and throwing kisses back to the others, they rode away to the
+station, Bud pridefully driving the team from the front seat.
+
+Gardley had arranged for a private apartment on the train, and nothing
+could have been more luxurious in traveling than the place where he led
+his bride. Bud, scuttling behind with a suit-case, looked around him
+with all his eyes before he said a hurried good-by, and murmured under
+his breath: "Gee! Wisht I was goin' all the way!"
+
+Bud hustled off as the train got under way, and Margaret and Gardley
+went out to the observation platform to wave a last farewell.
+
+The few little blurring lights of Ashland died soon in the distance, and
+the desert took on its vast wideness beneath a starry dome; but off in
+the East a purple shadow loomed, mighty and majestic, and rising slowly
+over its crest a great silver disk appeared, brightening as it came and
+pouring a silver mist over the purple peak.
+
+"My mountain!" said Margaret, softly.
+
+And Gardley, drawing her close to him, stooped to lay his lips upon
+hers.
+
+"My darling!" he answered.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Voice in the Wilderness, by Grace Livingston Hill
+
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diff --git a/old/21219-h/21219-h.htm b/old/21219-h/21219-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2a22ec1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/21219-h/21219-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,10970 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Voice in the Wilderness, by Grace Livingston Hill.
+    </title>
+  <style type="text/css">
+    /*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+    p                 {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    body              {margin-left: 11%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    a                 {text-decoration: none;}
+    hr.major          {width: 65%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;}
+    .blockquot        {margin-left: 6%; margin-right: 6%;}
+    .smcap            {font-variant: small-caps;}
+    h1                {text-align: center; clear: both;}
+    h2                {text-align: center; clear: both;}
+    h2.toc            {margin-top: 1em;}
+    .pagenum          {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: x-small;
+                      font-weight: normal; font-variant:normal;
+                      font-style: normal; text-indent: 0; color: silver; background-color: inherit;}
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+  </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's A Voice in the Wilderness, by Grace Livingston Hill
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Voice in the Wilderness
+
+Author: Grace Livingston Hill
+
+Release Date: April 27, 2007 [EBook #21219]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<table style="margin: auto; border: black 1px solid; width: 400px;" summary=""><tr><td>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 220%; margin-top: 30px;">A VOICE <i>in the</i></p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 220%;">WILDERNESS</p>
+<hr style="width:60%; margin-bottom: 60px;" />
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 40px;"><i>A NOVEL</i></p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 80%;">BY</p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 110%; margin-bottom: 40px;">GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL</p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 80%;">AUTHOR OF</p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 80%; margin-bottom: 100px;">MARCIA SCHUYLER, <span class="smcap">Etc.</span></p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 120%; letter-spacing: .2em;">GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP</p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: .1em; margin-bottom: 30px;">PUBLISHERS&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;NEW YORK</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+
+<p class="titlepage">
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">Published by Arrangement with Harper and Brothers</span><br />
+<span style="font-size: 70%">Made in the United States of America</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+
+<p class="titlepage" style="margin-bottom: 20px; font-size: 80%">
+A Voice in the Wilderness<br />
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+Copyright, 1916, by Harper &amp; Brothers<br />
+Printed in the United States of America<br />
+Published September, 1916
+</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+
+<h2 class="toc"><a name="Contents" id="Contents"></a>Contents</h2>
+
+<table border="0" width="500" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">
+<col style="width:85%;" />
+<col style="width:15%;" />
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER I</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER II</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">11</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER III</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">20</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER IV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">28</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER V</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">38</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER VI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">46</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER VII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">55</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER VIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">63</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER IX</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">72</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER X</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">82</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">91</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">103</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">112</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XIV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">127</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">135</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XVI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">142</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XVII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">154</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XVIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">171</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XIX</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">181</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XX</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">190</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">200</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">213</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">225</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXIV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">235</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">245</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXVI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">260</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXVII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">277</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXVIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">289</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXIX</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">301</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXX</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">318</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXXI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">328</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXXII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">337</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXXIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">345</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXXIV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">359</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+
+<h1>A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS</h1>
+
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="1" name="page_1" id="page_1"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>With a lurch the train came to a dead stop and Margaret Earle, hastily
+gathering up her belongings, hurried down the aisle and got out into the
+night.</p>
+
+<p>It occurred to her, as she swung her heavy suit-case down the rather
+long step to the ground, and then carefully swung herself after it, that
+it was strange that neither conductor, brakeman, nor porter had come to
+help her off the train, when all three had taken the trouble to tell her
+that hers was the next station; but she could hear voices up ahead.
+Perhaps something was the matter with the engine that detained them and
+they had forgotten her for the moment.</p>
+
+<p>The ground was rough where she stood, and there seemed no sign of a
+platform. Did they not have platforms in this wild Western land, or was
+the train so long that her car had stopped before reaching it?<a class="pagenum" title="2" name="page_2" id="page_2"></a></p>
+
+<p>She strained her eyes into the darkness, and tried to make out things
+from the two or three specks of light that danced about like fireflies
+in the distance. She could dimly see moving figures away up near the
+engine, and each one evidently carried a lantern. The train was
+tremendously long. A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her.
+Perhaps she ought not to have got out until some one came to help her.
+Perhaps the train had not pulled into the station yet and she ought to
+get back on it and wait. Yet if the train started before she found the
+conductor she might be carried on somewhere and be justly blame her for
+a fool.</p>
+
+<p>There did not seem to be any building on that side of the track. It was
+probably on the other, but she was standing too near the cars to see
+over. She tried to move back to look, but the ground sloped and she
+slipped and fell in the cinders, bruising her knee and cutting her
+wrist.</p>
+
+<p>In sudden panic she arose. She would get back into the train, no matter
+what the consequences. They had no right to put her out here, away off
+from the station, at night, in a strange country. If the train started
+before she could find the conductor she would tell him that he must back
+it up again and let her off. He certainly could not expect her to get
+out like this.</p>
+
+<p>She lifted the heavy suit-case up the high step that was even farther
+from the ground than it had been when she came down, because her fall
+had loosened some of the earth and caused it to slide away from the
+track. Then, reaching to the rail of the step, she tried to pull herself
+up, but as she did so the<a class="pagenum" title="3" name="page_3" id="page_3"></a> engine gave a long snort and the whole train,
+as if it were in league against her, lurched forward crazily, shaking
+off her hold. She slipped to her knees again, the suit-case, toppled
+from the lower step, descending upon her, and together they slid and
+rolled down the short bank, while the train, like an irresponsible nurse
+who had slapped her charge and left it to its fate, ran giddily off into
+the night.</p>
+
+<p>The horror of being deserted helped the girl to rise in spite of bruises
+and shock. She lifted imploring hands to the unresponsive cars as they
+hurried by her&mdash;one, two, three, with bright windows, each showing a
+passenger, comfortable and safe inside, unconscious of her need.</p>
+
+<p>A moment of useless screaming, running, trying to attract some one's
+attention, a sickening sense of terror and failure, and the last car
+slatted itself past with a mocking clatter, as if it enjoyed her
+discomfort.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret stood dazed, reaching out helpless hands, then dropped them at
+her sides and gazed after the fast-retreating train, the light on its
+last car swinging tauntingly, blinking now and then with a leer in its
+eye, rapidly vanishing from her sight into the depth of the night.</p>
+
+<p>She gasped and looked about her for the station that but a short moment
+before had been so real to her mind; and, lo! on this side and on that
+there was none!</p>
+
+<p>The night was wide like a great floor shut in by a low, vast dome of
+curving blue set with the largest, most wonderful stars she had ever
+seen. Heavy shadows of purple-green, smoke-like, hovered over<a class="pagenum" title="4" name="page_4" id="page_4"></a> earth
+darker and more intense than the unfathomable blue of the night sky. It
+seemed like the secret nesting-place of mysteries wherein no human foot
+might dare intrude. It was incredible that such could be but common
+sage-brush, sand, and greasewood wrapped about with the beauty of the
+lonely night.</p>
+
+<p>No building broke the inky outlines of the plain, nor friendly light
+streamed out to cheer her heart. Not even a tree was in sight, except on
+the far horizon, where a heavy line of deeper darkness might mean a
+forest. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the blue, deep, starry dome
+above and the bluer darkness of the earth below save one sharp shaft
+ahead like a black mast throwing out a dark arm across the track.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as she sighted it she picked up her baggage and made her painful
+way toward it, for her knees and wrist were bruised and her baggage was
+heavy.</p>
+
+<p>A soft drip, drip greeted her as she drew nearer; something plashing
+down among the cinders by the track. Then she saw the tall column with
+its arm outstretched, and looming darker among the sage-brush the
+outlines of a water-tank. It was so she recognized the engine's
+drinking-tank, and knew that she had mistaken a pause to water the
+engine for a regular stop at a station.</p>
+
+<p>Her soul sank within her as she came up to the dripping water and laid
+her hand upon the dark upright, as if in some way it could help her. She
+dropped her baggage and stood, trembling, gazing around upon the
+beautiful, lonely scene in horror; and then, like a mirage against the
+distance, there<a class="pagenum" title="5" name="page_5" id="page_5"></a> melted on her frightened eyes a vision of her father
+and mother sitting around the library lamp at home, as they sat every
+evening. They were probably reading and talking at this very minute, and
+trying not to miss her on this her first venture away from the home into
+the great world to teach. What would they say if they could see their
+beloved daughter, whom they had sheltered all these years and let go
+forth so reluctantly now, in all her confidence of youth, bound by
+almost absurd promises to be careful and not run any risks.</p>
+
+<p>Yet here she was, standing alone beside a water-tank in the midst of an
+Arizona plain, no knowing how many miles from anywhere, at somewhere
+between nine and ten o'clock at night! It seemed incredible that it had
+really happened! Perhaps she was dreaming! A few moments before in the
+bright car, surrounded by drowsy fellow-travelers, almost at her
+journey's end, as she supposed; and now, having merely done as she
+thought right, she was stranded here!</p>
+
+<p>She rubbed her eyes and looked again up the track, half expecting to see
+the train come back for her. Surely, surely the conductor, or the porter
+who had been so kind, would discover that she was gone, and do something
+about it. They couldn't leave her here alone on the prairie! It would be
+too dreadful!</p>
+
+<p>That vision of her father and mother off against the purple-green
+distance, how it shook her! The lamp looked bright and cheerful, and she
+could see her father's head with its heavy white hair. He turned to look
+at her mother to tell her of something<a class="pagenum" title="6" name="page_6" id="page_6"></a> he read in the paper. They were
+sitting there, feeling contented and almost happy about her, and she,
+their little girl&mdash;all her dignity as school-teacher dropped from her
+like a garment now&mdash;she was standing in this empty space alone, with
+only an engine's water-tank to keep her from dying, and only the barren,
+desolate track to connect her with the world of men and women. She
+dropped her head upon her breast and the tears came, sobbing, choking,
+raining down. Then off in the distance she heard a low, rising howl of
+some snarling, angry beast, and she lifted her head and stood in
+trembling terror, clinging to the tank.</p>
+
+<p>That sound was coyotes or wolves howling. She had read about them, but
+had not expected to experience them in such a situation. How confidently
+had she accepted the position which offered her the opening she had
+sought for the splendid career that she hoped was to follow! How
+fearless had she been! Coyotes, nor Indians, nor wild cowboy
+students&mdash;nothing had daunted her courage. Besides, she told her mother
+it was very different going to a town from what it would be if she were
+a missionary going to the wilds. It was an important school she was to
+teach, where her Latin and German and mathematical achievements had won
+her the place above several other applicants, and where her well-known
+tact was expected to work wonders. But what were Latin and German and
+mathematics now? Could they show her how to climb a water-tank? Would
+tact avail with a hungry wolf?</p>
+
+<p>The howl in the distance seemed to come nearer. She cast frightened eyes
+to the unresponsive water-tank<a class="pagenum" title="7" name="page_7" id="page_7"></a> looming high and dark above her. She
+must get up there somehow. It was not safe to stand here a minute.
+Besides, from that height she might be able to see farther, and perhaps
+there would be a light somewhere and she might cry for help.</p>
+
+<p>Investigation showed a set of rude spikes by which the trainmen were
+wont to climb up, and Margaret prepared to ascend them. She set her
+suit-case dubiously down at the foot. Would it be safe to leave it
+there? She had read how coyotes carried off a hatchet from a
+camping-party, just to get the leather thong which was bound about the
+handle. She could not afford to lose her things. Yet how could she climb
+and carry that heavy burden with her? A sudden thought came.</p>
+
+<p>Her simple traveling-gown was finished with a silken girdle, soft and
+long, wound twice about her waist and falling in tasseled ends. Swiftly
+she untied it and knotted one end firmly to the handle of her suit-case,
+tying the other end securely to her wrist. Then slowly, cautiously, with
+many a look upward, she began to climb.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed miles, though in reality it was but a short distance. The
+howling beasts in the distance sounded nearer now and continually,
+making her heart beat wildly. She was stiff and bruised from her falls,
+and weak with fright. The spikes were far apart, and each step of
+progress was painful and difficult. It was good at last to rise high
+enough to see over the water-tank and feel a certain confidence in her
+defense.</p>
+
+<p>But she had risen already beyond the short length of her silken tether,
+and the suit-case was dragging<a class="pagenum" title="8" name="page_8" id="page_8"></a> painfully on her arm. She was obliged to
+steady herself where she stood and pull it up before she could go on.
+Then she managed to get it swung up to the top of the tank in a
+comparatively safe place. One more long spike step and she was beside
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The tank was partly roofed over, so that she had room enough to sit on
+the edge without danger of falling in and drowning. For a few minutes
+she could only sit still and be thankful and try to get her breath back
+again after the climb; but presently the beauty of the night began to
+cast its spell over her. That wonderful blue of the sky! It hadn't ever
+before impressed her that skies were blue at night. She would have said
+they were black or gray. As a matter of fact, she didn't remember to
+have ever seen so much sky at once before, nor to have noticed skies in
+general until now.</p>
+
+<p>This sky was so deeply, wonderfully blue, the stars so real, alive and
+sparkling, that all other stars she had ever seen paled before them into
+mere imitations. The spot looked like one of Taylor's pictures of the
+Holy Land. She half expected to see a shepherd with his crook and sheep
+approaching her out of the dim shadows, or a turbaned, white-robed David
+with his lifted hands of prayer standing off among the depths of purple
+darkness. It would not have been out of keeping if a walled city with
+housetops should be hidden behind the clumps of sage-brush farther on.
+'Twas such a night and such a scene as this, perhaps, when the wise men
+started to follow the star!</p>
+
+<p>But one cannot sit on the edge of a water-tank<a class="pagenum" title="9" name="page_9" id="page_9"></a> in the desert night
+alone and muse long on art and history. It was cold up there, and the
+howling seemed nearer than before. There was no sign of a light or a
+house anywhere, and not even a freight-train sent its welcome clatter
+down the track. All was still and wide and lonely, save that terrifying
+sound of the beasts; such stillness as she had not ever thought could
+be&mdash;a fearful silence as a setting for the awful voices of the wilds.</p>
+
+<p>The bruises and scratches she had acquired set up a fine stinging, and
+the cold seemed to sweep down and take possession of her on her high,
+narrow seat. She was growing stiff and cramped, yet dared not move much.
+Would there be no train, nor any help? Would she have to sit there all
+night? It looked so very near to the ground now. Could wild beasts
+climb, she wondered?</p>
+
+<p>Then in the interval of silence that came between the calling of those
+wild creatures there stole a sound. She could not tell at first what it
+was. A slow, regular, plodding sound, and quite far away. She looked to
+find it, and thought she saw a shape move out of the sage-brush on the
+other side of the track, but she could not be sure. It might be but a
+figment of her brain, a foolish fancy from looking so long at the
+huddled bushes on the dark plain. Yet something prompted her to cry out,
+and when she heard her own voice she cried again and louder, wondering
+why she had not cried before.</p>
+
+<p>"Help! Help!" she called; and again: "Help! Help!"</p>
+
+<p>The dark shape paused and turned toward her. She was sure now. What if
+it were a beast instead<a class="pagenum" title="10" name="page_10" id="page_10"></a> of a human! Terrible fear took possession of
+her; then, to her infinite relief, a nasal voice sounded out:</p>
+
+<p>"Who's thar?"</p>
+
+<p>But when she opened her lips to answer, nothing but a sob would come to
+them for a minute, and then she could only cry, pitifully:</p>
+
+<p>"Help! Help!"</p>
+
+<p>"Whar be you?" twanged the voice; and now she could see a horse and
+rider like a shadow moving toward her down the track.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="11" name="page_11" id="page_11"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The horse came to a standstill a little way from the track, and his
+rider let forth a stream of strange profanity. The girl shuddered and
+began to think a wild beast might be preferable to some men. However,
+these remarks seemed to be a mere formality. He paused and addressed
+her:</p>
+
+<p>"Heow'd yeh git up thar? D'j'yeh drap er climb?"</p>
+
+<p>He was a little, wiry man with a bristly, protruding chin. She could see
+that, even in the starlight. There was something about the point of that
+stubby chin that she shrank from inexpressibly. He was not a pleasant
+man to look upon, and even his voice was unprepossessing. She began to
+think that even the night with its loneliness and unknown perils was
+preferable to this man's company.</p>
+
+<p>"I got off the train by mistake, thinking it was my station, and before
+I discovered it the train had gone and left me," Margaret explained,
+with dignity.</p>
+
+<p>"Yeh didn't 'xpect it t' sit reound on th' plain while you was
+gallivantin' up water-tanks, did yeh?"</p>
+
+<p>Cold horror froze Margaret's veins. She was dumb for a second. "I am on
+my way to Ashland station. Can you tell me how far it is from here and
+how I can get there?" Her tone was like icicles.<a class="pagenum" title="12" name="page_12" id="page_12"></a></p>
+
+<p>"It's a little matter o' twenty miles, more 'r less," said the man
+protruding his offensive chin. "The walkin's good. I don't know no other
+way from this p'int at this time o' night. Yeh might set still till th'
+mornin' freight goes by an' drap atop o' one of the kyars."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir!" said Margaret, remembering her dignity as a teacher.</p>
+
+<p>The man wheeled his horse clear around and looked up at her impudently.
+She could smell bad whisky on his breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Say, you must be some young highbrow, ain't yeh? Is thet all yeh want
+o' me? 'Cause ef 'tis I got t' git on t' camp. It's a good five mile
+yet, an' I 'ain't hed no grub sence noon."</p>
+
+<p>The tears suddenly rushed to the girl's eyes as the horror of being
+alone in the night again took possession of her. This dreadful man
+frightened her, but the thought of the loneliness filled her with
+dismay.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" she cried, forgetting her insulted dignity, "you're not going to
+leave me up here alone, are you? Isn't there some place near here where
+I could stay overnight?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thur ain't no palace hotel round these diggin's, ef that's what you
+mean," the man leered at her. "You c'n come along t' camp 'ith me ef you
+ain't too stuck up."</p>
+
+<p>"To camp!" faltered Margaret in dismay, wondering what her mother would
+say. "Are there any ladies there?"</p>
+
+<p>A loud guffaw greeted her question. "Wal, my woman's thar, sech es she
+is; but she ain't no highflier<a class="pagenum" title="13" name="page_13" id="page_13"></a> like you. We mostly don't hev ladies to
+camp, But I got t' git on. Ef you want to go too, you better light down
+pretty speedy, fer I can't wait."</p>
+
+<p>In fear and trembling Margaret descended her rude ladder step by step,
+primitive man seated calmly on his horse, making no attempt whatever to
+assist her.</p>
+
+<p>"This ain't no baggage-car," he grumbled, as he saw the suit-case in her
+hand. "Well, h'ist yerself up thar; I reckon we c'n pull through
+somehow. Gimme the luggage."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret stood appalled beside the bony horse and his uncouth rider. Did
+he actually expect her to ride with him? "Couldn't I walk?" she
+faltered, hoping he would offer to do so.</p>
+
+<p>"'T's up t' you," the man replied, indifferently. "Try 't an' see!"</p>
+
+<p>He spoke to the horse, and it started forward eagerly, while the girl in
+horror struggled on behind. Over rough, uneven ground, between
+greasewood, sage-brush, and cactus, back into the trail. The man,
+oblivious of her presence, rode contentedly on, a silent shadow on a
+dark horse wending a silent way between the purple-green clumps of other
+shadows, until, bewildered, the girl almost lost sight of them. Her
+breath came short, her ankle turned, and she fell with both hands in a
+stinging bed of cactus. She cried out then and begged him to stop.</p>
+
+<p>"L'arned yer lesson, hev yeh, sweety?" he jeered at her, foolishly.
+"Well, get in yer box, then."</p>
+
+<p>He let her struggle up to a seat behind himself with very little
+assistance, but when she was seated and started on her way she began to
+wish she had<a class="pagenum" title="14" name="page_14" id="page_14"></a> stayed behind and taken any perils of the way rather than
+trust herself in proximity to this creature.</p>
+
+<p>From time to time he took a bottle from his pocket and swallowed a
+portion of its contents, becoming fluent in his language as they
+proceeded on their way. Margaret remained silent, growing more and more
+frightened every time the bottle came out. At last he offered it to her.
+She declined it with cold politeness, which seemed to irritate the
+little man, for he turned suddenly fierce.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yer too fine to take a drap fer good comp'ny, are yeh? Wal, I'll
+show yeh a thing er two, my pretty lady. You'll give me a kiss with yer
+two cherry lips before we go another step. D'yeh hear, my sweetie?" And
+he turned with a silly leer to enforce his command; but with a cry of
+horror Margaret slid to the ground and ran back down the trail as hard
+as she could go, till she stumbled and fell in the shelter of a great
+sage-bush, and lay sobbing on the sand.</p>
+
+<p>The man turned bleared eyes toward her and watched until she
+disappeared. Then sticking his chin out wickedly, he slung her suit-case
+after her and called:</p>
+
+<p>"All right, my pretty lady; go yer own gait an' l'arn yer own lesson."
+He started on again, singing a drunken song.</p>
+
+<p>Under the blue, starry dome alone sat Margaret again, this time with no
+friendly water-tank for her defense, and took counsel with herself. The
+howling coyotes seemed to be silenced for the time; at least they had
+become a minor quantity in her equation of troubles. She felt now that
+man was her greatest<a class="pagenum" title="15" name="page_15" id="page_15"></a> menace, and to get away safely from him back to
+that friendly water-tank and the dear old railroad track she would have
+pledged her next year's salary. She stole softly to the place where she
+had heard the suit-case fall, and, picking it up, started on the weary
+road back to the tank. Could she ever find the way? The trail seemed so
+intangible a thing, her sense of direction so confused. Yet there was
+nothing else to do. She shuddered whenever she thought of the man who
+had been her companion on horseback.</p>
+
+<p>When the man reached camp he set his horse loose and stumbled into the
+door of the log bunk-house, calling loudly for something to eat.</p>
+
+<p>The men were sitting around the room on the rough benches and bunks,
+smoking their pipes or stolidly staring into the dying fire. Two smoky
+kerosene-lanterns that hung from spikes driven high in the logs cast a
+weird light over the company, eight men in all, rough and hardened with
+exposure to stormy life and weather. They were men with unkempt beards
+and uncombed hair, their coarse cotton shirts open at the neck, their
+brawny arms bare above the elbow, with crimes and sorrows and hard
+living written large across their faces.</p>
+
+<p>There was one, a boy in looks, with smooth face and white skin healthily
+flushed in places like a baby's. His face, too, was hard and set in
+sternness like a mask, as if life had used him badly; but behind it was
+a fineness of feature and spirit that could not be utterly hidden. They
+called him the Kid, and thought it was his youth that made him different
+from them all, for he was only twenty-four, and not<a class="pagenum" title="16" name="page_16" id="page_16"></a> one of the rest was
+under forty. They were doing their best to help him get over that innate
+fineness that was his natural inheritance, but although he stopped at
+nothing, and played his part always with the ease of one old in the ways
+of the world, yet he kept a quiet reserve about him, a kind of charm
+beyond which they had not been able to go.</p>
+
+<p>He was playing cards with three others at the table when the man came
+in, and did not look up at the entrance.</p>
+
+<p>The woman, white and hopeless, appeared at the door of the shed-room
+when the man came, and obediently set about getting his supper; but her
+lifeless face never changed expression.</p>
+
+<p>"Brung a gal 'long of me part way," boasted the man, as he flung himself
+into a seat by the table. "Thought you fellers might like t' see 'er,
+but she got too high an' mighty fer me, wouldn't take a pull at th'
+bottle 'ith me, 'n' shrieked like a catamount when I kissed 'er. Found
+'er hangin' on th' water-tank. Got off 't th' wrong place. One o' yer
+highbrows out o' th' parlor car! Good lesson fer 'er!"</p>
+
+<p>The Boy looked up from his cards sternly, his keen eyes boring through
+the man. "Where is she now?" he asked, quietly; and all the men in the
+room looked up uneasily. There was that tone and accent again that made
+the Boy alien from them. What was it?</p>
+
+<p>The man felt it and snarled his answer angrily. "Dropped 'er on th'
+trail, an' threw her fine-lady b'longin's after 'er. 'Ain't got no use
+fer thet kind. Wonder what they was created fer? Ain't no good<a class="pagenum" title="17" name="page_17" id="page_17"></a> to
+nobody, not even 'emselves." And he laughed a harsh cackle that was not
+pleasant to hear.</p>
+
+<p>The Boy threw down his cards and went out, shutting the door. In a few
+minutes the men heard two horses pass the end of the bunk-house toward
+the trail, but no one looked up nor spoke. You could not have told by
+the flicker of an eyelash that they knew where the Boy had gone.</p>
+
+<p>She was sitting in the deep shadow of a sage-bush that lay on the edge
+of the trail like a great blot, her suit-case beside her, her breath
+coming short with exertion and excitement, when she heard a cheery
+whistle in the distance. Just an old love-song dating back some years
+and discarded now as hackneyed even by the street pianos at home; but
+oh, how good it sounded!</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">From the desert I come to thee!</p>
+
+<p>The ground was cold, and struck a chill through her garments as she sat
+there alone in the night. On came the clear, musical whistle, and she
+peered out of the shadow with eager eyes and frightened heart. Dared she
+risk it again? Should she call, or should she hold her breath and keep
+still, hoping he would pass her by unnoticed? Before she could decide
+two horses stopped almost in front of her and a rider swung himself
+down. He stood before her as if it were day and he could see her quite
+plainly.</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't be afraid," he explained, calmly. "I thought I had better
+look you up after the old man got home and gave his report. He was
+pretty well tanked up and not exactly a fit escort for ladies. What's
+the trouble?"<a class="pagenum" title="18" name="page_18" id="page_18"></a></p>
+
+<p>Like an angel of deliverance he looked to her as he stood in the
+starlight, outlined in silhouette against the wide, wonderful sky: broad
+shoulders, well-set head, close-cropped curls, handsome contour even in
+the darkness. There was about him an air of quiet strength which gave
+her confidence.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you!" she gasped, with a quick little relieved sob in her
+voice. "I am so glad you have come. I was&mdash;just a little&mdash;frightened, I
+think." She attempted to rise, but her foot caught in her skirt and she
+sank wearily back to the sand again.</p>
+
+<p>The Boy stooped over and lifted her to her feet. "You certainly are some
+plucky girl!" he commented, looking down at her slender height as she
+stood beside him. "A 'little frightened,' were you? Well, I should say
+you had a right to be."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, not exactly frightened, you know," said Margaret, taking a deep
+breath and trying to steady her voice. "I think perhaps I was more
+mortified than frightened, to think I made such a blunder as to get off
+the train before I reached my station. You see, I'd made up my mind not
+to be frightened, but when I heard that awful howl of some beast&mdash;And
+then that terrible man!" She shuddered and put her hands suddenly over
+her eyes as if to shut out all memory of it.</p>
+
+<p>"More than one kind of beasts!" commented the Boy, briefly. "Well, you
+needn't worry about him; he's having his supper and he'll be sound
+asleep by the time we get back."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, have we got to go where he is?" gasped Margaret. "Isn't there some
+other place? Is Ashland very far away? That is where I am going."<a class="pagenum" title="19" name="page_19" id="page_19"></a></p>
+
+<p>"No other place where you could go to-night. Ashland's a good
+twenty-five miles from here. But you'll be all right. Mom Wallis 'll
+look out for you. She isn't much of a looker, but she has a kind heart.
+She pulled me through once when I was just about flickering out. Come
+on. You'll be pretty tired. We better be getting back. Mom Wallis 'll
+make you comfortable, and then you can get off good and early in the
+morning."</p>
+
+<p>Without an apology, and as if it were the common courtesy of the desert,
+he stooped and lifted her easily to the saddle of the second horse,
+placed the bridle in her hands, then swung the suit-case up on his own
+horse and sprang into the saddle.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="20" name="page_20" id="page_20"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>He turned the horses about and took charge of her just as if he were
+accustomed to managing stray ladies in the wilderness every day of his
+life and understood the situation perfectly; and Margaret settled
+wearily into her saddle and looked about her with content.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, again, the wide wonder of the night possessed her.
+Involuntarily she breathed a soft little exclamation of awe and delight.
+Her companion turned to her questioningly:</p>
+
+<p>"Does it always seem so big here&mdash;so&mdash;limitless?" she asked in
+explanation. "It is so far to everywhere it takes one's breath away, and
+yet the stars hang close, like a protection. It gives one the feeling of
+being alone in the great universe with God. Does it always seem so out
+here?"</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her curiously, her pure profile turned up to the wide dome
+of luminous blue above. His voice was strangely low and wondering as he
+answered, after a moment's silence:</p>
+
+<p>"No, it is not always so," he said. "I have seen it when it was more
+like being alone in the great universe with the devil."</p>
+
+<p>There was a tremendous earnestness in his tone that the girl felt meant
+more than was on the surface.<a class="pagenum" title="21" name="page_21" id="page_21"></a> She turned to look at the fine young face
+beside her. In the starlight she could not make out the bitter hardness
+of lines that were beginning to be carved about his sensitive mouth. But
+there was so much sadness in his voice that her heart went out to him in
+pity.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she said, gently, "it would be awful that way. Yes, I can
+understand. I felt so, a little, while that terrible man was with me."
+And she shuddered again at the remembrance.</p>
+
+<p>Again he gave her that curious look. "There are worse things than Pop
+Wallis out here," he said, gravely. "But I'll grant you there's some
+class to the skies. It's a case of 'Where every prospect pleases and
+only man is vile.'" And with the words his tone grew almost flippant. It
+hurt her sensitive nature, and without knowing it she half drew away a
+little farther from him and murmured, sadly:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" as if he had classed himself with the "man" he had been
+describing. Instantly he felt her withdrawal and grew grave again, as if
+he would atone.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait till you see this sky at the dawn," he said. "It will burn red
+fire off there in the east like a hearth in a palace, and all this dome
+will glow like a great pink jewel set in gold. If you want a classy sky,
+there you have it! Nothing like it in the East!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a strange mingling of culture and roughness in his speech. The
+girl could not make him out; yet there had been a palpitating
+earnestness in his description that showed he had felt the dawn in his
+very soul.</p>
+
+<p>"You are&mdash;a&mdash;poet, perhaps?" she asked, half shyly. "Or an artist?" she
+hazarded.<a class="pagenum" title="22" name="page_22" id="page_22"></a></p>
+
+<p>He laughed roughly and seemed embarrassed. "No, I'm just a&mdash;bum! A sort
+of roughneck out of a job."</p>
+
+<p>She was silent, watching him against the starlight, a kind of
+embarrassment upon her after his last remark. "You&mdash;have been here
+long?" she asked, at last.</p>
+
+<p>"Three years." He said it almost curtly and turned his head away, as if
+there were something in his face he would hide.</p>
+
+<p>She knew there was something unhappy in his life. Unconsciously her tone
+took on a sympathetic sound. "And do you get homesick and want to go
+back, ever?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>His tone was fairly savage now. "No!"</p>
+
+<p>The silence which followed became almost oppressive before the Boy
+finally turned and in his kindly tone began to question her about the
+happenings which had stranded her in the desert alone at night.</p>
+
+<p>So she came to tell him briefly and frankly about herself, as he
+questioned&mdash;how she came to be in Arizona all alone.</p>
+
+<p>"My father is a minister in a small town in New York State. When I
+finished college I had to do something, and I had an offer of this
+Ashland school through a friend of ours who had a brother out here.
+Father and mother would rather have kept me nearer home, of course, but
+everybody says the best opportunities are in the West, and this was a
+good opening, so they finally consented. They would send post-haste for
+me to come back if they knew what a mess I have made of things right at
+the start&mdash;getting out of the train in the desert."</p>
+
+<p>"But you're not discouraged?" said her companion,<a class="pagenum" title="23" name="page_23" id="page_23"></a> half wonderingly.
+"Some nerve you have with you. I guess you'll manage to hit it off in
+Ashland. It's the limit as far as discipline is concerned, I understand,
+but I guess you'll put one over on them. I'll bank on you after
+to-night, sure thing!"</p>
+
+<p>She turned a laughing face toward him. "Thank you!" she said. "But I
+don't see how you know all that. I'm sure I didn't do anything
+particularly nervy. There wasn't anything else to do but what I did, if
+I'd tried."</p>
+
+<p>"Most girls would have fainted and screamed, and fainted again when they
+were rescued," stated the Boy, out of a vast experience.</p>
+
+<p>"I never fainted in my life," said Margaret Earle, with disdain. "I
+don't think I should care to faint out in the vast universe like this.
+It would be rather inopportune, I should think."</p>
+
+<p>Then, because she suddenly realized that she was growing very chummy
+with this stranger in the dark, she asked the first question that came
+into her head.</p>
+
+<p>"What was your college?"</p>
+
+<p>That he had not been to college never entered her head. There was
+something in his speech and manner that made it a foregone conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>It was as if she had struck him forcibly in his face, so sudden and
+sharp a silence ensued for a second. Then he answered, gruffly, "Yale,"
+and plunged into an elaborate account of Arizona in its early ages,
+including a detailed description of the cliff-dwellers and their homes,
+which were still to be seen high in the rocks of the ca&ntilde;ons not many
+miles to the west of where they were riding.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret was keen to hear it all, and asked many<a class="pagenum" title="24" name="page_24" id="page_24"></a> questions, declaring
+her intention of visiting those cliff-caves at her earliest opportunity.
+It was so wonderful to her to be actually out here where were all sorts
+of queer things about which she had read and wondered. It did not occur
+to her, until the next day, to realize that her companion had of
+intention led her off the topic of himself and kept her from asking any
+more personal questions.</p>
+
+<p>He told her of the petrified forest just over some low hills off to the
+left; acres and acres of agatized chips and trunks of great trees all
+turned to eternal stone, called by the Indians "Yeitso's bones," after
+the great giant of that name whom an ancient Indian hero killed. He
+described the coloring of the brilliant days in Arizona, where you stand
+on the edge of some flat-topped mesa and look off through the clear air
+to mountains that seem quite near by, but are in reality more than two
+hundred miles away. He pictured the strange colors and lights of the
+place; ledges of rock, yellow, white and green, drab and maroon, and
+tumbled piles of red boulders, shadowy buttes in the distance, serrated
+cliffs against the horizon, not blue, but rosy pink in the heated haze
+of the air, and perhaps a great, lonely eagle poised above the silent,
+brilliant waste.</p>
+
+<p>He told it not in book language, with turn of phrase and smoothly
+flowing sentences, but in simple, frank words, as a boy might describe a
+picture to one he knew would appreciate it&mdash;for her sake, and not
+because he loved to put it into words; but in a new, stumbling way
+letting out the beauty that had somehow crept into his heart in spite of
+all the rough attempts to keep all gentle things out of his nature.<a class="pagenum" title="25" name="page_25" id="page_25"></a></p>
+
+<p>The girl, as she listened, marveled more and more what manner of youth
+this might be who had come to her out of the desert night.</p>
+
+<p>She forgot her weariness as she listened, in the thrill of wonder over
+the new mysterious country to which she had come. She forgot that she
+was riding through the great darkness with an utter stranger, to a place
+she knew not, and to experiences most dubious. Her fears had fled and
+she was actually enjoying herself, and responding to the wonderful story
+of the place with soft-murmured exclamations of delight and wonder.</p>
+
+<p>From time to time in the distance there sounded forth those awful
+blood-curdling howls of wild beasts that she had heard when she sat
+alone by the water-tank, and each time she heard a shudder passed
+through her and instinctively she swerved a trifle toward her companion,
+then straightened up again and tried to seem not to notice. The Boy saw
+and watched her brave attempts at self-control with deep appreciation.
+But suddenly, as they rode and talked, a dark form appeared across their
+way a little ahead, lithe and stealthy and furry, and two awful eyes
+like green lamps glared for an instant, then disappeared silently among
+the mesquite bushes.</p>
+
+<p>She did not cry out nor start. Her very veins seemed frozen with horror,
+and she could not have spoken if she tried. It was all over in a second
+and the creature gone, so that she almost doubted her senses and
+wondered if she had seen aright. Then one hand went swiftly to her
+throat and she shrank toward her companion.</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing to fear," he said, reassuringly,<a class="pagenum" title="26" name="page_26" id="page_26"></a> and laid a strong
+hand comfortingly across the neck of her horse. "The pussy-cat was as
+unwilling for our company as we for hers. Besides, look here!"&mdash;and he
+raised his hand and shot into the air. "She'll not come near us now."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not afraid!" said the girl, bravely. "At least, I don't think I
+am&mdash;very! But it's all so new and unexpected, you know. Do people around
+here always shoot in that&mdash;well&mdash;unpremeditated fashion?"</p>
+
+<p>They laughed together.</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me," he said. "I didn't realize the shot might startle you even
+more than the wildcat. It seems I'm not fit to have charge of a lady. I
+told you I was a roughneck."</p>
+
+<p>"You're taking care of me beautifully," said Margaret Earle, loyally,
+"and I'm glad to get used to shots if that's the thing to be expected
+often."</p>
+
+<p>Just then they came to the top of the low, rolling hill, and ahead in
+the darkness there gleamed a tiny, wizened light set in a blotch of
+blackness. Under the great white stars it burned a sickly red and seemed
+out of harmony with the night.</p>
+
+<p>"There we are!" said the Boy, pointing toward it. "That's the
+bunk-house. You needn't be afraid. Pop Wallis 'll be snoring by this
+time, and we'll come away before he's about in the morning. He always
+sleeps late after he's been off on a bout. He's been gone three days,
+selling some cattle, and he'll have a pretty good top on."</p>
+
+<p>The girl caught her breath, gave one wistful look up at the wide, starry
+sky, a furtive glance at the<a class="pagenum" title="27" name="page_27" id="page_27"></a> strong face of her protector, and
+submitted to being lifted down to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Before her loomed the bunk-house, small and mean, built of logs, with
+only one window in which the flicker of the lanterns menaced, with
+unknown trials and possible perils for her to meet.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="28" name="page_28" id="page_28"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>When Margaret Earle dawned upon that bunk-room the men sat up with one
+accord, ran their rough, red hands through their rough, tousled hair,
+smoothed their beards, took down their feet from the benches where they
+were resting. That was as far as their etiquette led them. Most of them
+continued to smoke their pipes, and all of them stared at her
+unreservedly. Such a sight of exquisite feminine beauty had not come to
+their eyes in many a long day. Even in the dim light of the smoky
+lanterns, and with the dust and weariness of travel upon her, Margaret
+Earle was a beautiful girl.</p>
+
+<p>"That's what's the matter, father," said her mother, when the subject of
+Margaret's going West to teach had first been mentioned. "She's too
+beautiful. Far too beautiful to go among savages! If she were homely and
+old, now, she might be safe. That would be a different matter."</p>
+
+<p>Yet Margaret had prevailed, and was here in the wild country. Now,
+standing on the threshold of the log cabin, she read, in the unveiled
+admiration that startled from the eyes of the men, the meaning of her
+mother's fears.</p>
+
+<p>Yet withal it was a kindly admiration not unmixed with awe. For there
+was about her beauty<a class="pagenum" title="29" name="page_29" id="page_29"></a> a touch of the spiritual which set her above the
+common run of women, making men feel her purity and sweetness, and
+inclining their hearts to worship rather than be bold.</p>
+
+<p>The Boy had been right. Pop Wallis was asleep and out of the way. From a
+little shed room at one end his snoring marked time in the silence that
+the advent of the girl made in the place.</p>
+
+<p>In the doorway of the kitchen offset Mom Wallis stood with her
+passionless face&mdash;a face from which all emotions had long ago been
+burned by cruel fires&mdash;and looked at the girl, whose expression was
+vivid with her opening life all haloed in a rosy glow.</p>
+
+<p>A kind of wistful contortion passed over Mom Wallis's hopeless
+countenance, as if she saw before her in all its possibility of
+perfection the life that she herself had lost. Perhaps it was no longer
+possible for her features to show tenderness, but a glow of something
+like it burned in her eyes, though she only turned away with the same
+old apathetic air, and without a word went about preparing a meal for
+the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret looked wildly, fearfully, around the rough assemblage when she
+first entered the long, low room, but instantly the boy introduced her
+as "the new teacher for the Ridge School beyond the Junction," and these
+were Long Bill, Big Jim, the Fiddling Boss, Jasper Kemp, Fade-away
+Forbes, Stocky, Croaker, and Fudge. An inspiration fell upon the
+frightened girl, and she acknowledged the introduction by a radiant
+smile, followed by the offering of her small gloved hand. Each man in
+dumb bewilderment instantly became her slave, and<a class="pagenum" title="30" name="page_30" id="page_30"></a> accepted the offered
+hand with more or less pleasure and embarrassment. The girl proved her
+right to be called tactful, and, seeing her advantage, followed it up
+quickly by a few bright words. These men were of an utterly different
+type from any she had ever met before, but they had in their eyes a kind
+of homage which Pop Wallis had not shown and they were not repulsive to
+her. Besides, the Boy was in the background, and her nerve had returned.
+The Boy knew how a lady should be treated. She was quite ready to "play
+up" to his lead.</p>
+
+<p>It was the Boy who brought the only chair the bunk-house afforded, a
+rude, home-made affair, and helped her off with her coat and hat in his
+easy, friendly way, as if he had known her all his life; while the men,
+to whom such gallant ways were foreign, sat awkwardly by and watched in
+wonder and amaze.</p>
+
+<p>Most of all they were astonished at "the Kid," that he could fall so
+naturally into intimate talk with this delicate, beautiful woman. She
+was another of his kind, a creature not made in the same mold as theirs.
+They saw it now, and watched the fairy play with almost childish
+interest. Just to hear her call him "Mr. Gardley"!&mdash;Lance Gardley, that
+was what he had told them was his name the day he came among them. They
+had not heard it since. The Kid! Mr. Gardley!</p>
+
+<p>There it was, the difference between them! They looked at the girl half
+jealously, yet proudly at the Boy. He was theirs&mdash;yes, in a way he was
+theirs&mdash;had they not found him in the wilderness, sick and nigh to
+death, and nursed him back to life again?<a class="pagenum" title="31" name="page_31" id="page_31"></a> He was theirs; but he knew
+how to drop into her world, too, and not be ashamed. They were glad that
+he could, even while it struck them with a pang that some day he would
+go back to the world to which he belonged&mdash;and where they could never be
+at home.</p>
+
+<p>It was a marvel to watch her eat the coarse corn-bread and pork that Mom
+Wallis brought her. It might have been a banquet, the pleasant way she
+seemed to look at it. Just like a bird she tasted it daintily, and
+smiled, showing her white teeth. There was nothing of the idea of
+greediness that each man knew he himself felt after a fast. It was all
+beautiful, the way she handled the two-tined fork and the old steel
+knife. They watched and dropped their eyes abashed as at a lovely
+sacrament. They had not felt before that eating could be an art. They
+did not know what art meant.</p>
+
+<p>Such strange talk, too! But the Kid seemed to understand. About the
+sky&mdash;their old, common sky, with stars that they saw every night&mdash;making
+such a fuss about that, with words like "wide," "infinite," "azure," and
+"gems." Each man went furtively out that night before he slept and took
+a new look at the sky to see if he could understand.</p>
+
+<p>The Boy was planning so the night would be but brief. He knew the girl
+was afraid. He kept the talk going enthusiastically, drawing in one or
+two of the men now and again. Long Bill forgot himself and laughed out a
+hoarse guffaw, then stopped as if he had been choked. Stocky, red in the
+face, told a funny story when commanded by the Boy, and then dissolved
+in mortification over his blunders.<a class="pagenum" title="32" name="page_32" id="page_32"></a> The Fiddling Boss obediently got
+down his fiddle from the smoky corner beside the fireplace and played a
+weird old tune or two, and then they sang. First the men, with hoarse,
+quavering approach and final roar of wild sweetness; then Margaret and
+the Boy in duet, and finally Margaret alone, with a few bashful chords
+on the fiddle, feeling their way as accompaniment.</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis had long ago stopped her work and was sitting huddled in the
+doorway on a nail-keg with weary, folded hands and a strange wistfulness
+on her apathetic face. A fine silence had settled over the group as the
+girl, recognizing her power, and the pleasure she was giving, sang on.
+Now and then the Boy, when he knew the song, would join in with his rich
+tenor.</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange night, and when she finally lay down to rest on a hard
+cot with a questionable-looking blanket for covering and Mom Wallis as
+her room-mate, Margaret Earle could not help wondering what her mother
+and father would think now if they could see her. Would they not,
+perhaps, almost prefer the water-tank and the lonely desert for her to
+her present surroundings?</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, she slept soundly after her terrible excitement, and woke
+with a start of wonder in the early morning, to hear the men outside
+splashing water and humming or whistling bits of the tunes she had sung
+to them the night before.</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis was standing over her, looking down with a hunger in her eyes
+at the bright waves of Margaret's hair and the soft, sleep-flushed
+cheeks.<a class="pagenum" title="33" name="page_33" id="page_33"></a></p>
+
+<p>"You got dretful purty hair," said Mom Wallis, wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret looked up and smiled in acknowledgment of the compliment.</p>
+
+<p>"You wouldn't b'lieve it, but I was young an' purty oncet. Beats all how
+much it counts to be young&mdash;an' purty! But land! It don't last long.
+Make the most of it while you got it."</p>
+
+<p>Browning's immortal words came to Margaret's lips&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">Grow old along with me,<br />
+The best is yet to be,<br />
+The last of life for which the first was made&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>but she checked them just in time and could only smile mutely. How could
+she speak such thoughts amid these intolerable surroundings? Then with
+sudden impulse she reached up to the astonished woman and, drawing her
+down, kissed her sallow cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said Mom Wallis, starting back and laying her bony hands upon the
+place where she had been kissed, as if it hurt her, while a dull red
+stole up from her neck over her cheeks and high forehead to the roots of
+her hay-colored hair. All at once she turned her back upon her visitor
+and the tears of the years streamed down her impassive face.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't mind me," she choked, after a minute. "I liked it real good, only
+it kind of give me a turn." Then, after a second: "It's time t' eat. You
+c'n wash outside after the men is done."</p>
+
+<p>That, thought Margaret, had been the scheme of this woman's whole
+life&mdash;"After the men is done!"<a class="pagenum" title="34" name="page_34" id="page_34"></a></p>
+
+<p>So, after all, the night was passed in safety, and a wonderful dawning
+had come. The blue of the morning, so different from the blue of the
+night sky, was, nevertheless, just as unfathomable; the air seemed
+filled with straying star-beams, so sparkling was the clearness of the
+light.</p>
+
+<p>But now a mountain rose in the distance with heliotrope-and-purple
+bounds to stand across the vision and dispel the illusion of the night
+that the sky came down to the earth all around like a close-fitting
+dome. There were mountains on all sides, and a slender, dark line of
+mesquite set off the more delicate colorings of the plain.</p>
+
+<p>Into the morning they rode, Margaret and the Boy, before Pop Wallis was
+yet awake, while all the other men stood round and watched, eager,
+jealous for the handshake and the parting smile. They told her they
+hoped she would come again and sing for them, and each one had an
+awkward word of parting. Whatever Margaret Earle might do with her
+school, she had won seven loyal friends in the camp, and she rode away
+amid their admiring glances, which lingered, too, on the broad shoulders
+and wide sombrero of her escort riding by her side.</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, that's the end o' him, I 'spose," drawled Long Bill, with a deep
+sigh, as the riders passed into the valley out of their sight.</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" said Jasper Kemp, hungrily. "I reck'n <i>he</i> thinks it's jes' th'
+beginnin'!"</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe so! Maybe so!" said Big Jim, dreamily.</p>
+
+<p>The morning was full of wonder for the girl who had come straight from
+an Eastern city. The view from the top of the mesa, or the cool, dim
+entrance<a class="pagenum" title="35" name="page_35" id="page_35"></a> of a ca&ntilde;on where great ferns fringed and feathered its walls,
+and strange caves hollowed out in the rocks far above, made real the
+stories she had read of the cave-dwellers. It was a new world.</p>
+
+<p>The Boy was charming. She could not have picked out among her city
+acquaintances a man who would have done the honors of the desert more
+delightfully than he. She had thought him handsome in the starlight and
+in the lantern-light the night before, but now that the morning shone
+upon him she could not keep from looking at him. His fresh color, which
+no wind and weather could quite subdue, his gray-blue eyes with that
+mixture of thoughtfulness and reverence and daring, his crisp, brown
+curls glinting with gold in the sunlight&mdash;all made him good to look
+upon. There was something about the firm set of his lips and chin that
+made her feel a hidden strength about him.</p>
+
+<p>When they camped a little while for lunch he showed the thoughtfulness
+and care for her comfort that many an older man might not have had. Even
+his talk was a mixture of boyishness and experience and he seemed to
+know her thoughts before she had them fully spoken.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand it," she said, looking him frankly in the eyes at
+last. "How ever in the world did one like <i>you</i> get landed among all
+those dreadful men! Of course, in their way, some of them are not so
+bad; but they are not like you, not in the least, and never could be."</p>
+
+<p>They were riding out upon the plain now in the full afternoon light, and
+a short time would bring them to her destination.<a class="pagenum" title="36" name="page_36" id="page_36"></a></p>
+
+<p>A sad, set look came quickly into the Boy's eyes and his face grew
+almost hard.</p>
+
+<p>"It's an old story. I suppose you've heard it before," he said, and his
+voice tried to take on a careless note, but failed. "I didn't make good
+back there"&mdash;he waved his hand sharply toward the East&mdash;"so I came out
+here to begin again. But I guess I haven't made good here, either&mdash;not
+in the way I meant when I came."</p>
+
+<p>"You can't, you know," said Margaret. "Not here."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" He looked at her earnestly, as if he felt the answer might help
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Because you have to go back where you didn't make good and pick up the
+lost opportunities. You can't really make good till you do that <i>right
+where you left off</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"But suppose it's too late?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's never too late if we're in earnest and not too proud."</p>
+
+<p>There was a long silence then, while the Boy looked thoughtfully off at
+the mountains, and when he spoke again it was to call attention to the
+beauty of a silver cloud that floated lazily on the horizon. But
+Margaret Earle had seen the look in his gray eyes and was not deceived.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes later they crossed another mesa and descended to the
+enterprising little town where the girl was to begin her winter's work.
+The very houses and streets seemed to rise briskly and hasten to meet
+them those last few minutes of their ride.</p>
+
+<p>Now that the experience was almost over, the girl realized that she had
+enjoyed it intensely, and<a class="pagenum" title="37" name="page_37" id="page_37"></a> that she dreaded inexpressibly that she must
+bid good-by to this friend of a few hours and face an unknown world. It
+had been a wonderful day, and now it was almost done. The two looked at
+each other and realized that their meeting had been an epoch in their
+lives that neither would soon forget&mdash;that neither wanted to forget.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="38" name="page_38" id="page_38"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Slower the horses walked, and slower. The voices of the Boy and girl
+were low when they spoke about the common things by the wayside. Once
+their eyes met, and they smiled with something both sad and glad in
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret was watching the young man by her side and wondering at
+herself. He was different from any man whose life had come near to hers
+before. He was wild and worldly, she could see that, and unrestrained by
+many of the things that were vital principles with her, and yet she felt
+strangely drawn to him and wonderfully at home in his company. She could
+not understand herself nor him. It was as if his real soul had looked
+out of his eyes and spoken, untrammeled by the circumstances of birth or
+breeding or habit, and she knew him for a kindred spirit. And yet he was
+far from being one in whom she would have expected even to find a
+friend. Where was her confidence of yesterday? Why was it that she
+dreaded to have this strong young protector leave her to meet alone a
+world of strangers, whom yesterday at this time she would have gladly
+welcomed?</p>
+
+<p>Now, when his face grew thoughtful and sad, she saw the hard, bitter
+lines that were beginning to be<a class="pagenum" title="39" name="page_39" id="page_39"></a> graven about his lips, and her heart
+ached over what he had said about not making good. She wondered if there
+was anything else she could say to help him, but no words came to her,
+and the sad, set look about his lips warned her that perhaps she had
+said enough. He was not one who needed a long dissertation to bring a
+thought home to his consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>Gravely they rode to the station to see about Margaret's trunks and make
+inquiries for the school and the house where she had arranged to board.
+Then Margaret sent a telegram to her mother to say that she had arrived
+safely, and so, when all was done and there was no longer an excuse for
+lingering, the Boy realized that he must leave her.</p>
+
+<p>They stood alone for just a moment while the voluble landlady went to
+attend to something that was boiling over on the stove. It was an ugly
+little parlor that was to be her reception-room for the next year at
+least, with red-and-green ingrain carpet of ancient pattern, hideous
+chromos on the walls, and frantically common furniture setting up in its
+shining varnish to be pretentious; but the girl had not seen it yet. She
+was filled with a great homesickness that had not possessed her even
+when she said good-by to her dear ones at home. She suddenly realized
+that the people with whom she was to be thrown were of another world
+from hers, and this one friend whom she had found in the desert was
+leaving her.</p>
+
+<p>She tried to shake hands formally and tell him how grateful she was to
+him for rescuing her from the perils of the night, but somehow words
+seemed so<a class="pagenum" title="40" name="page_40" id="page_40"></a> inadequate, and tears kept crowding their way into her throat
+and eyes. Absurd it was, and he a stranger twenty hours before, and a
+man of other ways than hers, besides. Yet he was her friend and rescuer.</p>
+
+<p>She spoke her thanks as well as she could, and then looked up, a swift,
+timid glance, and found his eyes upon her earnestly and troubled.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't thank me," he said, huskily. "I guess it was the best thing I
+ever did, finding you. I sha'n't forget, even if you never let me see
+you again&mdash;and&mdash;I hope you will." His eyes searched hers wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," she said. "Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you," he said in quaint, courtly fashion, bending low over her
+hand. "I shall try to be worthy of the honor."</p>
+
+<p>And so saying, he left her and, mounting his horse, rode away into the
+lengthening shadows of the afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>She stood in the forlorn little room staring out of the window after her
+late companion, a sense of utter desolation upon her. For the moment all
+her brave hopes of the future had fled, and if she could have slipped
+unobserved out of the front door, down to the station, and boarded some
+waiting express to her home, she would gladly have done it then and
+there.</p>
+
+<p>Try as she would to summon her former reasons for coming to this wild,
+she could not think of one of them, and her eyes were very near to
+tears.</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret Earle was not given to tears, and as she felt them smart
+beneath her lids she turned<a class="pagenum" title="41" name="page_41" id="page_41"></a> in a panic to prevent them. She could not
+afford to cry now. Mrs. Tanner would be returning, and she must not find
+the "new schoolma'am" weeping.</p>
+
+<p>With a glance she swept the meager, pretentious room, and then,
+suddenly, became aware of other presences. In the doorway stood a man
+and a dog, both regarding her intently with open surprise, not unmixed
+with open appraisement and a marked degree of admiration.</p>
+
+<p>The man was of medium height, slight, with a putty complexion; cold,
+pale-blue eyes; pale, straw-colored hair, and a look of self-indulgence
+around his rather weak mouth. He was dressed in a city business suit of
+the latest cut, however, and looked as much out of place in that crude
+little house as did Margaret Earle herself in her simple gown of
+dark-blue cr&ecirc;pe and her undeniable air of style and good taste.</p>
+
+<p>His eyes, as they regarded her, had in them a smile that the girl
+instinctively resented. Was it a shade too possessive and complacently
+sure for a stranger?</p>
+
+<p>The dog, a large collie, had great, liquid, brown eyes, menacing or
+loyal, as circumstances dictated, and regarded her with an air of brief
+indecision. She felt she was being weighed in the balance by both pairs
+of eyes. Of the two the girl preferred the dog.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the dog understood, for he came a pace nearer and waved his
+plumy tail tentatively. For the dog she felt a glow of friendliness at
+once, but for the man she suddenly, and most unreasonably, of course,
+conceived one of her violent and unexpected dislikes.<a class="pagenum" title="42" name="page_42" id="page_42"></a></p>
+
+<p>Into this tableau bustled Mrs. Tanner. "Well, now, I didn't go to leave
+you by your lonesome all this time," she apologized, wiping her hands on
+her apron, "but them beans boiled clean over, and I hed to put 'em in a
+bigger kettle. You see, I put in more beans 'count o' you bein' here,
+an' I ain't uset to calca'latin' on two extry." She looked happily from
+the man to the girl and back again.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. West, I 'spose, o' course, you interjuced yerself? Bein' a
+preacher, you don't hev to stan' on ceremony like the rest of mankind.
+You 'ain't? Well, let me hev the pleasure of interjucin' our new
+school-teacher, Miss Margaret Earle. I 'spect you two 'll be awful
+chummy right at the start, both bein' from the East that way, an' both
+hevin' ben to college."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret Earle acknowledged the bow with a cool little inclination of
+her head. She wondered why she didn't hate the garrulous woman who
+rattled on in this happy, take-it-for-granted way; but there was
+something so innocently pleased in her manner that she couldn't help
+putting all her wrath on the smiling man who came forward instantly with
+a low bow and a voice of fulsome flattery.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, Miss Earle, I assure you I am happily surprised. I am sure Mrs.
+Tanner's prophecy will come true and we shall be the best of friends.
+When they told me the new teacher was to board here I really hesitated.
+I have seen something of these Western teachers in my time, and scarcely
+thought I should find you congenial; but I can see at a glance that you
+are the exception to the rule."<a class="pagenum" title="43" name="page_43" id="page_43"></a></p>
+
+<p>He presented a soft, unmanly white hand, and there was nothing to do but
+take it or seem rude to her hostess; but her manner was like icicles,
+and she was thankful she had not yet removed her gloves.</p>
+
+<p>If the reverend gentleman thought he was to enjoy a lingering hand-clasp
+he was mistaken, for the gloved finger-tips merely touched his hand and
+were withdrawn, and the girl turned to her hostess with a smile of
+finality as if he were dismissed. He did not seem disposed to take the
+hint and withdraw, however, until on a sudden the great dog came and
+stood between them with open-mouthed welcome and joyous greeting in the
+plumy, wagging tail. He pushed close to her and looked up into her face
+insistently, his hanging pink tongue and wide, smiling countenance
+proclaiming that he was satisfied with his investigation.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret looked down at him, and then stooped and put her arms about his
+neck. Something in his kindly dog expression made her feel suddenly as
+if she had a real friend.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed the man, however, did not like the situation. He kicked
+gingerly at the dog's hind legs, and said in a harsh voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Get out of the way, sir. You're annoying the lady. Get out, I say!"</p>
+
+<p>The dog, however, uttered a low growl and merely showed the whites of
+his menacing eyes at the man, turning his body slightly so that he stood
+across the lady's way protectingly, as if to keep the man from her.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret smiled at the dog and laid her hand on<a class="pagenum" title="44" name="page_44" id="page_44"></a> his head, as if to
+signify her acceptance of the friendship he had offered her, and he
+waved his plume once more and attended her from the room, neither of
+them giving further attention to the man.</p>
+
+<p>"Confound that dog!" said Rev. Frederick West, in a most unpreacher-like
+tone, as he walked to the window and looked out. Then to himself he
+mused: "A pretty girl. A <i>very pretty</i> girl. I really think it'll be
+worth my while to stay a month at least."</p>
+
+<p>Up in her room the "very pretty girl" was unpacking her suit-case and
+struggling with the tears. Not since she was a wee little girl and went
+to school all alone for the first time had she felt so very forlorn, and
+it was the little bare bedroom that had done it. At least that had been
+the final straw that had made too great the burden of keeping down those
+threatening tears.</p>
+
+<p>It was only a bare, plain room with unfinished walls, rough woodwork, a
+cheap wooden bed, a bureau with a warped looking-glass, and on the floor
+was a braided rug of rags. A little wooden rocker, another small,
+straight wooden chair, a hanging wall-pocket decorated with purple
+roses, a hanging bookshelf composed of three thin boards strung together
+with maroon picture cord, a violently colored picture-card of "Moses in
+the Bulrushes" framed in straws and red worsted, and bright-blue paper
+shades at the windows. That was the room!</p>
+
+<p>How different from her room at home, simply and sweetly finished anew
+for her home-coming from college! It rose before her homesick vision
+now. Soft gray walls, rose-colored ceiling, blended by a wreath of
+exquisite wild roses, whose pattern was<a class="pagenum" title="45" name="page_45" id="page_45"></a> repeated in the border of the
+simple curtains and chair cushions, white-enamel furniture, pretty brass
+bed soft as down in its luxurious mattress, spotless and inviting
+always. She glanced at the humpy bed with its fringed gray spread and
+lumpy-looking pillows in dismay. She had not thought of little
+discomforts like that, yet how they loomed upon her weary vision now!</p>
+
+<p>The tiny wooden stand with its thick, white crockery seemed ill
+substitute for the dainty white bath-room at home. She had known she
+would not have her home luxuries, of course, but she had not realized
+until set down amid these barren surroundings what a difference they
+would make.</p>
+
+<p>Going to the window and looking out, she saw for the first tune the one
+luxury the little room possessed&mdash;a view! And such a view! Wide and
+wonderful and far it stretched, in colors unmatched by painter's brush,
+a purple mountain topped by rosy clouds in the distance. For the second
+time in Arizona her soul was lifted suddenly out of itself and its
+dismay by a vision of the things that God has made and the largeness of
+it all.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="46" name="page_46" id="page_46"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>For some time she stood and gazed, marveling at the beauty and recalling
+some of the things her companion of the afternoon had said about his
+impressions of the place; then suddenly there loomed a dark speck in the
+near foreground of her meditation, and, looking down annoyed, she
+discovered the minister like a gnat between the eye and a grand
+spectacle, his face turned admiringly up to her window, his hand lifted
+in familiar greeting.</p>
+
+<p>Vexed at his familiarity, she turned quickly and jerked down the shade;
+then throwing herself on the bed, she had a good cry. Her nerves were
+terribly wrought up. Things seemed twisted in her mind, and she felt
+that she had reached the limit of her endurance. Here was she, Margaret
+Earle, newly elected teacher to the Ashland Ridge School, lying on her
+bed in tears, when she ought to be getting settled and planning her new
+life; when the situation demanded her best attention she was wrought up
+over a foolish little personal dislike. Why did she have to dislike a
+minister, anyway, and then take to a wild young fellow whose life thus
+far had been anything but satisfactory even to himself? Was it her
+perverse nature that caused<a class="pagenum" title="47" name="page_47" id="page_47"></a> her to remember the look in the eyes of the
+Boy who had rescued her from a night in the wilderness, and to feel
+there was far more manliness in his face than in the face of the man
+whose profession surely would lead one to suppose he was more worthy of
+her respect and interest? Well, she was tired. Perhaps things would
+assume their normal relation to one another in the morning. And so,
+after a few minutes, she bathed her face in the little, heavy,
+iron-stone wash-bowl, combed her hair, and freshened the collar and
+ruffles in her sleeves preparatory to going down for the evening meal.
+Then, with a swift thought, she searched through her suit-case for every
+available article wherewith to brighten that forlorn room.</p>
+
+<p>The dainty dressing-case of Dresden silk with rosy ribbons that her girl
+friends at home had given as a parting gift covered a generous portion
+of the pine bureau, and when she had spread it out and bestowed its
+silver-mounted brushes, combs, hand-glass, and pretty sachet, things
+seemed to brighten up a bit. She hung up a cobweb of a lace boudoir cap
+with its rose-colored ribbons over the bleary mirror, threw her kimono
+of flowered challis over the back of the rocker, arranged her soap and
+toothbrush, her own wash-rag and a towel brought from home on the
+wash-stand, and somehow felt better and more as if she belonged. Last
+she ranged her precious photographs of father and mother and the dear
+vine-covered church and manse across in front of the mirror. When her
+trunks came there would be other things, and she could bear it, perhaps,
+when she had this room buried deep in the home<a class="pagenum" title="48" name="page_48" id="page_48"></a> belongings. But this
+would have to do for to-night, for the trunk might not come till
+morning, and, anyhow, she was too weary to unpack.</p>
+
+<p>She ventured one more look out of her window, peering carefully at first
+to make sure her fellow-boarder was not still standing down below on the
+grass. A pang of compunction shot through her conscience. What would her
+dear father think of her feeling this way toward a minister, and before
+she knew the first thing about him, too? It was dreadful! She must shake
+it off. Of course he was a good man or he wouldn't be in the ministry,
+and she had doubtless mistaken mere friendliness for forwardness. She
+would forget it and try to go down and behave to him the way her father
+would want her to behave toward a fellow-minister.</p>
+
+<p>Cautiously she raised the shade again and looked out. The mountain was
+bathed in a wonderful ruby light fading into amethyst, and all the path
+between was many-colored like a pavement of jewels set in filigree.
+While she looked the picture changed, glowed, softened, and changed
+again, making her think of the chapter about the Holy City in
+Revelation.</p>
+
+<p>She started at last when some one knocked hesitatingly on the door, for
+the wonderful sunset light had made her forget for the moment where she
+was, and it seemed a desecration to have mere mortals step in and
+announce supper, although the odor of pork and cabbage had been
+proclaiming it dumbly for some time.</p>
+
+<p>She went to the door, and, opening it, found a dark figure standing in
+the hall. For a minute she<a class="pagenum" title="49" name="page_49" id="page_49"></a> half feared it was the minister, until a
+shy, reluctant backwardness in the whole stocky figure and the stirring
+of a large furry creature just behind him made her sure it was not.</p>
+
+<p>"Ma says you're to come to supper," said a gruff, untamed voice; and
+Margaret perceived that the person in the gathering gloom of the hall
+was a boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said Margaret, with relief in her voice. "Thank you for coming to
+tell me. I meant to come down and not give that trouble, but I got to
+looking at the wonderful sunset. Have you been watching it?" She pointed
+across the room to the window. "Look! Isn't that a great color there on
+the tip of the mountain? I never saw anything like that at home. I
+suppose you're used to it, though."</p>
+
+<p>The boy came a step nearer the door and looked blankly, half
+wonderingly, across at the window, as if he expected to see some
+phenomenon. "Oh! <i>That!</i>" he exclaimed, carelessly. "Sure! We have them
+all the time."</p>
+
+<p>"But that wonderful silver light pouring down just in that one tiny
+spot!" exclaimed Margaret. "It makes the mountain seem alive and
+smiling!"</p>
+
+<p>The boy turned and looked at her curiously. "Gee!" said he, "I c'n show
+you plenty like that!" But he turned and looked at it a long, lingering
+minute again.</p>
+
+<p>"But we mustn't keep your mother waiting," said Margaret, remembering
+and turning reluctantly toward the door. "Is this your dog? Isn't he a
+beauty? He made me feel really as if he were glad to see me." She
+stooped and laid her hand on the dog's head and smiled brightly up at
+his master.<a class="pagenum" title="50" name="page_50" id="page_50"></a></p>
+
+<p>The boy's face lit with a smile, and he turned a keen, appreciative look
+at the new teacher, for the first time genuinely interested in her.
+"Cap's a good old scout," he admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"So his name is Cap. Is that short for anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"Cap'n."</p>
+
+<p>"Captain. What a good name for him. He looks as if he were a captain,
+and he waves that tail grandly, almost as if it might be a badge of
+office. But who are you? You haven't told me your name yet. Are you Mrs.
+Tanner's son?"</p>
+
+<p>The boy nodded. "I'm just Bud Tanner."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are one of my pupils, aren't you? We must shake hands on
+that." She put out her hand, but she was forced to go out after Bud's
+reluctant red fist, take it by force in a strange grasp, and do all the
+shaking; for Bud had never had that experience before in his life, and
+he emerged from it with a very red face and a feeling as if his right
+arm had been somehow lifted out of the same class with the rest of his
+body. It was rather awful, too, that it happened just in the open
+dining-room door, and that "preacher-boarder" watched the whole
+performance. Bud put on an extra-deep frown and shuffled away from the
+teacher, making a great show of putting Cap out of the dining-room,
+though he always sat behind his master's chair at meals, much to the
+discomfiture of the male boarder, who was slightly in awe of his
+dogship, not having been admitted into friendship as the lady had been.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. West stood back of his chair, awaiting the arrival of the new
+boarder, an expectant smile on<a class="pagenum" title="51" name="page_51" id="page_51"></a> his face, and rubbing his hands together
+with much the same effect as a wolf licking his lips in anticipation of
+a victim. In spite of her resolves to like the man, Margaret was again
+struck with aversion as she saw him standing there, and was intensely
+relieved when she found that the seat assigned to her was on the
+opposite side of the table from him, and beside Bud. West, however, did
+not seem to be pleased with the arrangement, and, stepping around the
+table, said to his landlady:</p>
+
+<p>"Did you mean me to sit over here?" and he placed a possessive hand on
+the back of the chair that was meant for Bud.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mister West, you jest set where you ben settin'," responded Mrs.
+Tanner. She had thought the matter all out and decided that the minister
+could converse with the teacher to the better advantage of the whole
+table if he sat across from her. Mrs. Tanner was a born match-maker.
+This she felt was an opportunity not to be despised, even if it sometime
+robbed the Ridge School of a desirable teacher.</p>
+
+<p>But West did not immediately return to his place at the other side of
+the table. To Margaret's extreme annoyance he drew her chair and waited
+for her to sit down. The situation, however, was somewhat relieved of
+its intimacy by a sudden interference from Cap, who darted away from his
+frowning master and stepped up authoritatively to the minister's side
+with a low growl, as if to say:</p>
+
+<p>"Hands off that chair! That doesn't belong to you!"</p>
+
+<p>West suddenly released his hold on the chair without<a class="pagenum" title="52" name="page_52" id="page_52"></a> waiting to shove
+it up to the table, and precipitately retired to his own place. "That
+dog's a nuisance!" he said, testily, and was answered with a glare from
+Bud's dark eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Bud came to his seat with his eyes still set savagely on the minister,
+and Cap settled down protectingly behind Margaret's chair.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner bustled in with the coffee-pot, and Mr. Tanner came last,
+having just finished his rather elaborate hair-comb at the kitchen glass
+with the kitchen comb, in full view of the assembled multitude. He was a
+little, thin, wiry, weather-beaten man, with skin like leather and
+sparse hair. Some of his teeth were missing, leaving deep hollows in his
+cheeks, and his kindly protruding chin was covered with scraggy gray
+whiskers, which stuck out ahead of him like a cow-catcher. He was in his
+shirt-sleeves and collarless, but looked neat and clean, and he greeted
+the new guest heartily before he sat down, and nodded to the minister:</p>
+
+<p>"Naow, Brother West, I reckon we're ready fer your part o' the
+performance. You'll please to say grace."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. West bowed his sleek, yellow head and muttered a formal blessing
+with an offhand manner, as if it were a mere ceremony. Bud stared
+contemptuously at him the while, and Cap uttered a low rumble as of a
+distant growl. Margaret felt a sudden desire to laugh, and tried to
+control herself, wondering what her father would feel about it all.</p>
+
+<p>The genial clatter of knives and forks broke the stiffness after the
+blessing. Mrs. Tanner bustled back and forth from the stove to the
+table, talking<a class="pagenum" title="53" name="page_53" id="page_53"></a> clamorously the while. Mr. Tanner joined in with his
+flat, nasal twang, responding, and the minister, with an air of utter
+contempt for them both, endeavored to set up a separate and altogether
+private conversation with Margaret across the narrow table; but Margaret
+innocently had begun a conversation with Bud about the school, and had
+to be addressed by name each time before Mr. West could get her
+attention. Bud, with a boy's keenness, noticed her aversion, and put
+aside his own backwardness, entering into the contest with remarkably
+voluble replies. The minister, if he would be in the talk at all, was
+forced to join in with theirs, and found himself worsted and
+contradicted by the boy at every turn.</p>
+
+<p>Strange to say, however, this state of things only served to make the
+man more eager to talk with the lady. She was not anxious for his
+attention. Ah! She was coy, and the acquaintance was to have the zest of
+being no lightly won friendship. All the better. He watched her as she
+talked, noted every charm of lash and lid and curving lip; stared so
+continually that she finally gave up looking his way at all, even when
+she was obliged to answer his questions.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, at last, the first meal in the new home was concluded, and
+Margaret, pleading excessive weariness, went to her room. She felt as if
+she could not endure another half-hour of contact with her present world
+until she had had some rest. If the world had been just Bud and the dog
+she could have stayed below stairs and found out a little more about the
+new life; but with that oily-mouthed<a class="pagenum" title="54" name="page_54" id="page_54"></a> minister continually butting in
+her soul was in a tumult.</p>
+
+<p>When she had prepared for rest she put out her light and drew up the
+shade. There before her spread the wide wonder of the heavens again,
+with the soft purple of the mountain under stars; and she was carried
+back to the experience of the night before with a vivid memory of her
+companion. Why, just <i>why</i> couldn't she be as interested in the minister
+down there as in the wild young man? Well, she was too tired to-night to
+analyze it all, and she knelt beside her window in the starlight to
+pray. As she prayed her thoughts were on Lance Gardley once more, and
+she felt her heart go out in longing for him, that he might find a way
+to "make good," whatever his trouble had been.</p>
+
+<p>As she rose to retire she heard a step below, and, looking down, saw the
+minister stalking back and forth in the yard, his hands clasped behind,
+his head thrown back raptly. He could not see her in her dark room, but
+she pulled the shade down softly and fled to her hard little bed. Was
+that man going to obsess her vision everywhere, and must she try to like
+him just because he was a minister?</p>
+
+<p>So at last she fell asleep.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="55" name="page_55" id="page_55"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The next day was filled with unpacking and with writing letters home. By
+dint of being very busy Margaret managed to forget the minister, who
+seemed to obtrude himself at every possible turn of the day, and would
+have monopolized her if she had given him half a chance.</p>
+
+<p>The trunks, two delightful steamer ones, and a big packing-box with her
+books, arrived the next morning and caused great excitement in the
+household. Not since they moved into the new house had they seen so many
+things arrive. Bud helped carry them up-stairs, while Cap ran wildly
+back and forth, giving sharp barks, and the minister stood by the front
+door and gave ineffectual and unpractical advice to the man who had
+brought them. Margaret heard the man and Bud exchanging their opinion of
+West in low growls in the hall as they entered her door, and she
+couldn't help feeling that she agreed with them, though she might not
+have expressed her opinion in the same terms.</p>
+
+<p>The minister tapped at her door a little later and offered his services
+in opening her box and unstrapping her trunks; but she told him Bud had
+already performed that service for her, and thanked him with a finality
+that forbade him to linger. She half<a class="pagenum" title="56" name="page_56" id="page_56"></a> hoped he heard the vicious little
+click with which she locked the door after him, and then wondered if she
+were wicked to feel that way. But all such compunctions were presently
+forgotten in the work of making over her room.</p>
+
+<p>The trunks, after they were unpacked and repacked with the things she
+would not need at once, were disposed in front of the two windows with
+which the ugly little room was blessed. She covered them with two Bagdad
+rugs, relics of her college days, and piled several college pillows from
+the packing-box on each, which made the room instantly assume a homelike
+air. Then out of the box came other things. Framed pictures of home
+scenes, college friends and places, pennants, and flags from football,
+baseball, and basket-ball games she had attended; photographs; a few
+prints of rare paintings simply framed; a roll of rose-bordered white
+scrim like her curtains at home, wherewith she transformed the
+blue-shaded windows and the stiff little wooden rocker, and even made a
+valance and bed-cover over pink cambric for her bed. The bureau and
+wash-stand were given pink and white covers, and the ugly walls
+literally disappeared beneath pictures, pennants, banners, and symbols.</p>
+
+<p>When Bud came up to call her to dinner she flung the door open, and he
+paused in wide-eyed amazement over the transformation. His eyes kindled
+at a pair of golf-sticks, a hockey-stick, a tennis-racket, and a big
+basket-ball in the corner; and his whole look of surprise was so
+ridiculous that she had to laugh. He looked as if a miracle had been
+performed on the room, and actually stepped back into<a class="pagenum" title="57" name="page_57" id="page_57"></a> the hall to get
+his breath and be sure he was still in his father's house.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to come in and see all my pictures and get acquainted with
+my friends when you have time," she said. "I wonder if you could make
+some more shelves for my books and help me unpack and set them up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!" gasped Bud, heartily, albeit with awe. She hadn't asked the
+minister; she had asked <i>him</i>&mdash;<i>Bud!</i> Just a boy! He looked around the
+room with anticipation. What wonder and delight he would have looking at
+all those things!</p>
+
+<p>Then Cap stepped into the middle of the room as if he belonged, mouth
+open, tongue lolling, smiling and panting a hearty approval, as he
+looked about at the strangeness for all the world as a human being might
+have done. It was plain he was pleased with the change.</p>
+
+<p>There was a proprietary air about Bud during dinner that was pleasant to
+Margaret and most annoying to West. It was plain that West looked on the
+boy as an upstart whom Miss Earle was using for the present to block his
+approach, and he was growing most impatient over the delay. He suggested
+that perhaps she would like his escort to see something of her
+surroundings that afternoon; but she smilingly told him that she would
+be very busy all the afternoon getting settled, and when he offered
+again to help her she cast a dazzling smile on Bud and said she didn't
+think she would need any more help, that Bud was going to do a few
+things for her, and that was all that was necessary.<a class="pagenum" title="58" name="page_58" id="page_58"></a></p>
+
+<p>Bud straightened up and became two inches taller. He passed the bread,
+suggested two pieces of pie, and filled her glass of water as if she
+were his partner. Mr. Tanner beamed to see his son in high favor, but
+Mrs. Tanner looked a little troubled for the minister. She thought
+things weren't just progressing as fast as they ought to between him and
+the teacher.</p>
+
+<p>Bud, with Margaret's instructions, managed to make a very creditable
+bookcase out of the packing-box sawed in half, the pieces set side by
+side. She covered them deftly with green burlap left over from college
+days, like her other supplies, and then the two arranged the books. Bud
+was delighted over the prospect of reading some of the books, for they
+were not all school-books, by any means, and she had brought plenty of
+them to keep her from being lonesome on days when she longed to fly back
+to her home.</p>
+
+<p>At last the work was done, and they stood back to survey it. The books
+filled up every speck of space and overflowed to the three little
+hanging shelves over them; but they were all squeezed in at last except
+a pile of school-books that were saved out to take to the school-house.
+Margaret set a tiny vase on the top of one part of the packing-case and
+a small brass bowl on the top of the other, and Bud, after a knowing
+glance, scurried away for a few minutes and brought back a handful of
+gorgeous cactus blossoms to give the final touch.</p>
+
+<p>"Gee!" he said, admiringly, looking around the room. "Gee! You wouldn't
+know it fer the same place!"<a class="pagenum" title="59" name="page_59" id="page_59"></a></p>
+
+<p>That evening after supper Margaret sat down to write a long letter home.
+She had written a brief letter, of course, the night before, but had
+been too weary to go into detail. The letter read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mother and Father</span>,&mdash;I'm unpacked and settled at last in my
+room, and now I can't stand it another minute till I talk to you.</p>
+
+<p>Last night, of course, I was pretty homesick, things all looked so
+strange and new and different. I had known they would, but then I
+didn't realize at all how different they would be. But I'm not
+getting homesick already; don't think it. I'm not a bit sorry I
+came, or at least I sha'n't be when I get started in school. One of
+the scholars is Mrs. Tanner's son, and I like him. He's crude, of
+course, but he has a brain, and he's been helping me this
+afternoon. We made a bookcase for my books, and it looks fine. I
+wish you could see it. I covered it with the green burlap, and the
+books look real happy in smiling rows over on the other side of the
+room. Bud Tanner got me some wonderful cactus blossoms for my brass
+bowl. I wish I could send you some. They are gorgeous!</p>
+
+<p>But you will want me to tell about my arrival. Well, to begin with,
+I was late getting here [Margaret had decided to leave out the
+incident of the desert altogether, for she knew by experience that
+her mother would suffer terrors all during her absence if she once
+heard of that wild adventure], which accounts for the lateness of
+the telegram I sent you. I hope its delay didn't make you worry
+any.</p>
+
+<p>A very nice young man named Mr. Gardley piloted me to Mrs. Tanner's
+house and looked after my trunks for me. He is from the East. It
+was fortunate for me that he happened along, for he was most kind
+and gentlemanly and helpful. Tell Jane not to worry lest I'll fall
+in love with him; he doesn't live here. He belongs to a ranch or
+camp or something twenty-five miles away. She was so afraid I'd
+fall in love with an Arizona man and not come back home.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner is very kind and motherly according to her lights. She
+has given me the best room in the house, and she talks a blue streak.
+<a class="pagenum" title="60" name="page_60" id="page_60"></a>
+She has thin, brown hair turning gray, and she wears it in
+a funny little knob on the tip-top of her round head to correspond
+with the funny little tuft of hair on her husband's protruding
+chin. Her head is set on her neck like a clothes-pin, only she is
+squattier than a clothes-pin. She always wears her sleeves rolled
+up (at least so far she has) and she always bustles around noisily
+and apologizes for everything in the jolliest sort of way. I would
+like her, I guess, if it wasn't for the other boarder; but she has
+quite made up her mind that I shall like him, and I don't, of
+course, so she is a bit disappointed in me so far.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tanner is very kind and funny, and looks something like a
+jack-knife with the blades half-open. He never disagrees with Mrs.
+Tanner, and I really believe he's in love with her yet, though they
+must have been married a good while. He calls her "Ma," and seems
+restless unless she's in the room. When she goes out to the kitchen
+to get some more soup or hash or bring in the pie, he shouts
+remarks at her all the time she's gone, and she answers, utterly
+regardless of the conversation the rest of the family are carrying
+on. It's like a phonograph wound up for the day.</p>
+
+<p>Bud Tanner is about fourteen, and I like him. He's well developed,
+strong, and almost handsome; at least he would be if he were fixed
+up a little. He has fine, dark eyes and a great shock of dark hair.
+He and I are friends already. And so is the dog. The dog is a
+peach! Excuse me, mother, but I just must use a little of the dear
+old college slang somewhere, and your letters are the only
+safety-valve, for I'm a schoolmarm now and must talk "good and
+proper" all the time, you know.</p>
+
+<p>The dog's name is Captain, and he looks the part. He has
+constituted himself my bodyguard, and it's going to be very nice
+having him. He's perfectly devoted already. He's a great, big,
+fluffy fellow with keen, intelligent eyes, sensitive ears, and a
+tail like a spreading plume. You'd love him, I know. He has a smile
+like the morning sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>And now I come to the only other member of the family, the boarder,
+and I hesitate to approach the topic, because I have taken one of
+my violent and naughty dislikes to him, and&mdash;awful thought&mdash;mother!
+father! <i>he's a minister!</i> Yes, he's a <i>Presbyterian minister</i>! I
+<a class="pagenum" title="61" name="page_61" id="page_61"></a>
+know it will make you feel dreadfully, and I thought some of not
+telling you, but my conscience hurt me so I had to. I just can't
+<i>bear</i> him, so there! Of course, I may get over it, but I don't see
+how ever, for I can't think of anything that's more like him than
+<i>soft soap</i>! Oh yes, there is one other word. Grandmother used to
+use it about men she hadn't any use for, and that was "squash."
+Mother, I can't help it, but he does seem something like a squash.
+One of that crook-necked, yellow kind with warts all over it, and a
+great, big, splurgy vine behind it to account for its being there
+at all. Insipid and thready when it's cooked, you know, and has to
+have a lot of salt and pepper and butter to make it go down at all.
+Now I've told you the worst, and I'll try to describe him and see
+what you think I'd better do about it. Oh, he isn't the regular
+minister here, or missionary&mdash;I guess they call him. He's located
+quite a distance off, and only comes once a month to preach here,
+and, anyhow, <i>he's</i> gone East now to take his wife to a hospital
+for an operation, and won't be back for a couple of months,
+perhaps, and this man isn't even taking his place. He's just here
+for his health or for fun or something, I guess. He says he had a
+large suburban church near New York, and had a nervous breakdown;
+but I've been wondering if he didn't make a mistake, and it wasn't
+the church had the nervous breakdown instead. He isn't very big nor
+very little; he's just insignificant. His hair is like wet straw,
+and his eyes like a fish's. His hand feels like a dead toad when
+you have to shake hands, which I'm thankful doesn't have to be done
+but once. He looks at you with a flat, sickening grin. He has an
+acquired double chin, acquired to make him look pompous, and he
+dresses stylishly and speaks of the inhabitants of this country
+with contempt. He wants to be very affable, and offers to take me
+to all sorts of places, but so far I've avoided him. I can't think
+how they ever came to let him be a minister&mdash;I really can't! And
+yet, I suppose it's all my horrid old prejudice, and father will be
+grieved and you will think I am perverse. But, really, I'm sure
+he's not one bit like father was when he was young. I never saw a
+minister like him. Perhaps I'll get over it. I do sometimes, you
+know, so don't begin to worry yet. I'll try real hard. I suppose
+<a class="pagenum" title="62" name="page_62" id="page_62"></a>
+he'll preach Sunday, and then, perhaps, his sermon will be grand
+and I'll forget how soft-soapy he looks and think only of his great
+thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>But I know it will be a sort of comfort to you to know that there
+is a Presbyterian minister in the house with me, and I'll really
+try to like him if I can.</p>
+
+<p>There's nothing to complain of in the board. It isn't luxurious, of
+course, but I didn't expect that. Everything is very plain, but
+Mrs. Tanner manages to make it taste good. She makes fine
+corn-bread, almost as good as yours&mdash;not quite.</p>
+
+<p>My room is all lovely, now that I have covered its bareness with my
+own things, but it has one great thing that can't compare with
+anything at home, and that is its view. It is wonderful! I wish I
+could make you see it. There is a mountain at the end of it that
+has as many different garments as a queen. To-night, when sunset
+came, it grew filmy as if a gauze of many colors had dropped upon
+it and melted into it, and glowed and melted until it turned to
+slate blue under the wide, starred blue of the wonderful night sky,
+and all the dark about was velvet. Last night my mountain was all
+pink and silver, and I have seen it purple and rose. But you can't
+think the wideness of the sky, and I couldn't paint it for you with
+words. You must see it to understand. A great, wide, dark sapphire
+floor just simply ravished with stars like big jewels!</p>
+
+<p>But I must stop and go to bed, for I find the air of this country
+makes me very sleepy, and my wicked little kerosene-lamp is
+smoking. I guess you would better send me my student-lamp, after
+all, for I'm surely going to need it.</p>
+
+<p>Now I must turn out the light and say good night to my mountain,
+and then I will go to sleep thinking of you. Don't worry about the
+minister. I'm very polite to him, but I shall never&mdash;<i>no,</i>
+<i>never</i>&mdash;fall in love with <i>him</i>&mdash;tell Jane.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left:60%;">Your loving little girl,<br />
+<span class="smcap">Margaret</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="63" name="page_63" id="page_63"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Margaret had arranged with Bud to take her to the school-house the next
+morning, and he had promised to have a horse hitched up and ready at ten
+o'clock, as it seemed the school was a magnificent distance from her
+boarding-place. In fact, everything seemed to be located with a view to
+being as far from everywhere else as possible. Even the town was
+scattering and widespread and sparse.</p>
+
+<p>When she came down to breakfast she was disappointed to find that Bud
+was not there, and she was obliged to suffer a breakfast t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te
+with West. By dint, however, of asking him questions instead of allowing
+him to take the initiative, she hurried through her breakfast quite
+successfully, acquiring a superficial knowledge of her fellow-boarder
+quite distant and satisfactory. She knew where he spent his college days
+and at what theological seminary he had prepared for the ministry. He
+had served three years in a prosperous church of a fat little suburb of
+New York, and was taking a winter off from his severe, strenuous
+pastoral labors to recuperate his strength, get a new stock of sermons
+ready, and possibly to write a book of some of his experiences. He
+flattened his weak, pink chin<a class="pagenum" title="64" name="page_64" id="page_64"></a> learnedly as he said this, and tried to
+look at her impressively. He said that he should probably take a large
+city church as his next pastorate when his health was fully recuperated.
+He had come out to study the West and enjoy its freedom, as he
+understood it was a good place to rest and do as you please unhampered
+by what people thought. He wanted to get as far away from churches and
+things clerical as possible. He felt it was due himself and his work
+that he should. He spoke of the people he had met in Arizona as a kind
+of tamed savages, and Mrs. Tanner, sitting behind her coffee-pot for a
+moment between bustles, heard his comments meekly and looked at him with
+awe. What a great man he must be, and how fortunate for the new teacher
+that he should be there when she came!</p>
+
+<p>Margaret drew a breath of relief as she hurried away from the
+breakfast-table to her room. She was really anticipating the ride to the
+school with Bud. She liked boys, and Bud had taken her fancy. But when
+she came down-stairs with her hat and sweater on she found West standing
+out in front, holding the horse.</p>
+
+<p>"Bud had to go in another direction, Miss Earle," he said, touching his
+hat gracefully, "and he has delegated to me the pleasant task of driving
+you to the school."</p>
+
+<p>Dismay filled Margaret's soul, and rage with young Bud. He had deserted
+her and left her in the hands of the enemy! And she had thought he
+understood! Well, there was nothing for it but to go with this man, much
+as she disliked it. Her father's daughter could not be rude to a
+minister.<a class="pagenum" title="65" name="page_65" id="page_65"></a></p>
+
+<p>She climbed into the buckboard quickly to get the ceremony over, for her
+escort was inclined to be too officious about helping her in, and
+somehow she couldn't bear to have him touch her. Why was it that she
+felt so about him? Of course he must be a good man.</p>
+
+<p>West made a serious mistake at the very outset of that ride. He took it
+for granted that all girls like flattery, and he proceeded to try it on
+Margaret. But Margaret did not enjoy being told how delighted he was to
+find that instead of the loud, bold "old maid" he had expected, she had
+turned out to be "so beautiful and young and altogether congenial"; and,
+coolly ignoring his compliments, she began a fire of questions again.</p>
+
+<p>She asked about the country, because that was the most obvious topic of
+conversation. What plants were those that grew by the wayside? She found
+he knew greasewood from sage-brush, and that was about all. To some of
+her questions he hazarded answers that were absurd in the light of the
+explanations given her by Gardley two days before. However, she
+reflected that he had been in the country but a short time, and that he
+was by nature a man not interested in such topics. She tried religious
+matters, thinking that here at least they must have common interests.
+She asked him what he thought of Christianity in the West as compared
+with the East. Did he find these Western people more alive and awake to
+the things of the Kingdom?</p>
+
+<p>West gave a startled look at the clear profile of the young woman beside
+him, thought he perceived that she was testing him on his clerical side,
+flattened<a class="pagenum" title="66" name="page_66" id="page_66"></a> his chin in his most learned, self-conscious manner, cleared
+his throat, and put on wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, Miss Earle," he began, condescendingly, "I really don't know
+that I have thought much about the matter. Ah&mdash;you know I have been
+resting absolutely, and I really haven't had opportunity to study the
+situation out here in detail; but, on the whole, I should say that
+everything was decidedly primitive; yes&mdash;ah&mdash;I might say&mdash;ah&mdash;well,
+crude. Yes, <i>crude</i> in the extreme! Why, take it in this mission
+district. The missionary who is in charge seems to be teaching the most
+absurd of the old dogmas such as our forefathers used to teach. I
+haven't met him, of course. He is in the East with his wife for a time.
+I am told she had to go under some kind of an operation. I have never
+met him, and really don't care to do so; but to judge from all I hear,
+he is a most unfit man for a position of the kind. For example, he is
+teaching such exploded doctrines as the old view of the atonement, the
+infallibility of the Scriptures, the deity of Christ, belief in
+miracles, and the like. Of course, in one sense it really matters very
+little what the poor Indians believe, or what such people as the Tanners
+are taught. They have but little mind, and would scarcely know the
+difference; but you can readily see that with such a primitive,
+unenlightened man at the head of religious affairs, there could scarcely
+be much broadening and real religious growth. Ignorance, of course,
+holds sway out here. I fancy you will find that to be the case soon
+enough. What in the world ever led you to come to a field like this to
+labor? Surely there must<a class="pagenum" title="67" name="page_67" id="page_67"></a> have been many more congenial places open to
+such as you." He leaned forward and cast a sentimental glance at her,
+his eyes looking more "fishy" than ever.</p>
+
+<p>"I came out here because I wanted to get acquainted with this great
+country, and because I thought there was an opportunity to do good,"
+said Margaret, coldly. She did not care to discuss her own affairs with
+this man. "But, Mr. West, I don't know that I altogether understand you.
+Didn't you tell me that you were a Presbyterian minister?"</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly did," he answered, complacently, as though he were honoring
+the whole great body of Presbyterians by making the statement.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, what in the world did you mean? All Presbyterians, of
+course, believe in the infallibility of the Scriptures and the deity of
+Jesus&mdash;and the atonement!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not necessarily," answered the young man, loftily. "You will find, my
+dear young lady, that there is a wide, growing feeling in our church in
+favor of a broader view. The younger men, and the great student body of
+our church, have thrown to the winds all their former beliefs and are
+ready to accept new light with open minds. The findings of science have
+opened up a vast store of knowledge, and all thinking men must
+acknowledge that the old dogmas are rapidly vanishing away. Your father
+doubtless still holds to the old faith, perhaps, and we must be lenient
+with the older men who have done the best they could with the light they
+had; but all younger, broad-minded men are coming to the new way of
+looking at things. We have had enough of the days of preaching hell-fire
+and damnation.<a class="pagenum" title="68" name="page_68" id="page_68"></a> We need a religion of love to man, and good works. You
+should read some of the books that have been written on this subject if
+you care to understand. I really think it would be worth your while. You
+look to me like a young woman with a mind. I have a few of the latest
+with me. I shall be glad to read and discuss them with you if you are
+interested."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Mr. West," said Margaret, coolly, though her eyes burned
+with battle. "I think I have probably read most of those books and
+discussed them with my father. He may be old, but he is not without
+'light,' as you call it, and he always believed in knowing all that the
+other side was saying. He brought me up to look into these things for
+myself. And, anyhow, I should not care to read and discuss any of these
+subjects with a man who denies the deity of my Saviour and does not
+believe in the infallibility of the Bible. It seems to me you have
+nothing left&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! Well&mdash;now&mdash;my dear young lady&mdash;you mustn't misjudge me! I should be
+sorry indeed to shake your faith, for an innocent faith is, of course, a
+most beautiful thing, even though it may be unfounded."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, Mr. West, that would not be possible. You could not shake my
+faith in my Christ, because <i>I know Him</i>. If I had not ever felt His
+presence, nor been guided by His leading, such words might possibly
+trouble me, but having seen 'Him that is invisible,' <i>I know</i>."
+Margaret's voice was steady and gentle. It was impossible for even that
+man not to be impressed by her words.<a class="pagenum" title="69" name="page_69" id="page_69"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Well, let us not quarrel about it," he said, indulgently, as to a
+little child. "I'm sure you have a very charming way of stating it, and
+I'm not sure that it is not a relief to find a woman of the
+old-fashioned type now and then. It really is man's place to look into
+these deeper questions, anyway. It is woman's sphere to live and love
+and make a happy home&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His voice took on a sentimental purr, and Margaret was fairly boiling
+with rage at him; but she would not let her temper give way, especially
+when she was talking on the sacred theme of the Christ. She felt as if
+she must scream or jump out over the wheel and run away from this
+obnoxious man, but she knew she would do neither. She knew she would sit
+calmly through the expedition and somehow control that conversation.
+There was one relief, anyway. Her father would no longer expect respect
+and honor and liking toward a minister who denied the very life and
+foundation of his faith.</p>
+
+<p>"It can't be possible that the school-house is so far from the town,"
+she said, suddenly looking around at the widening desert in front of
+them. "Haven't you made some mistake?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I thought we should have the pleasure of a little drive first,"
+said West, with a cunning smile. "I was sure you would enjoy seeing the
+country before you get down to work, and I was not averse myself to a
+drive in such delightful company."</p>
+
+<p>"I would like to go back to the school-house at once, please," said
+Margaret, decidedly, and there was that in her voice that caused the man
+to turn the horse around and head it toward the village.<a class="pagenum" title="70" name="page_70" id="page_70"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, of course, if you prefer to see the school-house first, we
+can go back and look it over, and then, perhaps, you will like to ride a
+little farther," he said. "We have plenty of time. In fact, Mrs. Tanner
+told me she would not expect us home to dinner, and she put a very
+promising-looking basket of lunch under the seat for us in case we got
+hungry before we came back."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Margaret, quite freezingly now. "I really do not care
+to drive this morning. I would like to see the school-house, and then I
+must return to the house at once. I have a great many things to do this
+morning."</p>
+
+<p>Her manner at last penetrated even the thick skin of the self-centered
+man, and he realized that he had gone a step too far in his attentions.
+He set himself to undo the mischief, hoping perhaps to melt her yet to
+take the all-day drive with him. But she sat silent during the return to
+the village, answering his volubility only by yes or no when absolutely
+necessary. She let him babble away about college life and tell incidents
+of his late pastorate, at some of which he laughed immoderately; but he
+could not even bring a smile to her dignified lips.</p>
+
+<p>He hoped she would change her mind when they got to the school building,
+and he even stooped to praise it in a kind of contemptuous way as they
+drew up in front of the large adobe building.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you will want to go through the building," he said, affably,
+producing the key from his pocket and putting on a pleasant anticipatory
+smile, but Margaret shook her head. She simply would not go into the
+building with that man.<a class="pagenum" title="71" name="page_71" id="page_71"></a></p>
+
+<p>"It is not necessary," she said again, coldly. "I think I will go home
+now, please." And he was forced to turn the horse toward the Tanner
+house, crestfallen, and wonder why this beautiful girl was so extremely
+hard to win. He flattered himself that he had always been able to
+interest any girl he chose. It was really quite a bewildering type. But
+he would win her yet.</p>
+
+<p>He set her down silently at the Tanner door and drove off, lunch-basket
+and all, into the wilderness, vexed that she was so stubbornly
+unfriendly, and pondering how he might break down the dignity wherewith
+she had surrounded herself. There would be a way and he would find it.
+There was a stubbornness about that weak chin of his, when one observed
+it, and an ugliness in his pale-blue eye; or perhaps you would call it a
+hardness.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="72" name="page_72" id="page_72"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>She watched him furtively from her bedroom window, whither she had fled
+from Mrs. Tanner's exclamations. He wore his stylish derby tilted down
+over his left eye and slightly to one side in a most unministerial
+manner, showing too much of his straw-colored back hair, which rose in a
+cowlick at the point of contact with the hat, and he looked a small,
+mean creature as he drove off into the vast beauty of the plain.
+Margaret, in her indignation, could not help comparing him with the
+young man who had ridden away from the house two days before.</p>
+
+<p>And he to set up to be a minister of Christ's gospel and talk like that
+about the Bible and Christ! Oh, what was the church of Christ coming to,
+to have ministers like that? How ever did he get into the ministry,
+anyway? Of course, she knew there were young men with honest doubts who
+sometimes slid through nowadays, but a mean little silly man like that?
+How ever did he get in? What a lot of ridiculous things he had said! He
+was one of those described in the Bible who "darken counsel with words."
+He was not worth noticing. And yet, what a lot of harm he could do in an
+unlearned community. Just see how Mrs. Tanner hung upon his<a class="pagenum" title="73" name="page_73" id="page_73"></a> words, as
+though they were law and gospel! How <i>could</i> she?</p>
+
+<p>Margaret found herself trembling yet over the words he had spoken about
+Christ, the atonement, and the faith. They meant so much to her and to
+her mother and father. They were not mere empty words of tradition that
+she believed because she had been taught. She had lived her faith and
+proved it; and she could not help feeling it like a personal insult to
+have him speak so of her Saviour. She turned away and took her Bible to
+try and get a bit of calmness.</p>
+
+<p>She fluttered the leaves for something&mdash;she could not just tell
+what&mdash;and her eye caught some of the verses that her father had marked
+for her before she left home for college, in the days when he was
+troubled for her going forth into the world of unbelief.</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
+him: Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as
+ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware
+lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after
+the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not
+after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
+bodily....</p>
+
+<p>How the verses crowded upon one another, standing out clearly from the
+pages as she turned them, marked with her father's own hand in clear ink
+underlinings. It almost seemed as if God had looked ahead to these times
+and set these words down just for the encouragement of his troubled
+servants who couldn't understand why faith was growing dim. God knew
+about it, had known it<a class="pagenum" title="74" name="page_74" id="page_74"></a> would be, all this doubt, and had put words here
+just for troubled hearts to be comforted thereby.</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">For I know whom I have believed [How her heart echoed to that
+statement!], and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I
+have committed unto him against that day.</p>
+
+<p>And on a little further:</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal,
+The Lord knoweth them that are his.</p>
+
+<p>There was a triumphant look to the words as she read them.</p>
+
+<p>Then over in Ephesians her eye caught a verse that just seemed to fit
+that poor blind minister:</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of
+God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness
+of their heart.</p>
+
+<p>And yet he was set to guide the feet of the blind into the way of life!
+And he had looked on her as one of the ignorant. Poor fellow! He
+couldn't know the Christ who was her Saviour or he never would have
+spoken in that way about Him. What could such a man preach? What was
+there left to preach, but empty words, when one rejected all these
+doctrines? Would she have to listen to a man like that Sunday after
+Sunday? Did the scholars in her school, and their parents, and the young
+man out at the camp, and his rough, simple-hearted companions have to
+listen to preaching from that man, when they listened to any? Her heart
+grew sick within her, and she knelt beside her bed for a strengthening
+word with the Christ who since<a class="pagenum" title="75" name="page_75" id="page_75"></a> her little childhood had been a very
+real presence in her life.</p>
+
+<p>When she arose from her knees she heard the kitchen door slam
+down-stairs and the voice of Bud calling his mother. She went to her
+door and opened it, listening a moment, and then called the boy.</p>
+
+<p>There was a dead silence for an instant after her voice was heard, and
+then Bud appeared at the foot of the stairs, very frowning as to brow,
+and very surly as to tone:</p>
+
+<p>"What d'ye want?"</p>
+
+<p>It was plain that Bud was "sore."</p>
+
+<p>"Bud,"&mdash;Margaret's voice was sweet and a bit cool as she leaned over the
+railing and surveyed the boy; she hadn't yet got over her compulsory
+ride with that minister&mdash;"I wanted to ask you, please, next time you
+can't keep an appointment with me don't ask anybody else to take your
+place. I prefer to pick out my own companions. It was all right, of
+course, if you had to go somewhere else, but I could easily have gone
+alone or waited until another time. I'd rather not have you ask Mr. West
+to go anywhere with me again."</p>
+
+<p>Bud's face was a study. It cleared suddenly and his jaw dropped in
+surprise; his eyes fairly danced with dawning comprehension and
+pleasure, and then his brow drew down ominously.</p>
+
+<p>"I never ast him," he declared, vehemently. "He told me you wanted him
+to go, and fer me to get out of the way 'cause you didn't want to hurt
+my feelings. Didn't you say nothing to him about it at all this
+morning?"<a class="pagenum" title="76" name="page_76" id="page_76"></a></p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed!" said Margaret, with flashing eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I just thought he was that kind of a guy. I told ma he was lying,
+but she said I didn't understand young ladies, and, of course, you
+didn't want me when there was a man, and especially a preacher, round.
+Some preacher he is! This 's the second time I've caught him lying. I
+think he's the limit. I just wish you'd see our missionary. If he was
+here he'd beat the dust out o' that poor stew. <i>He's</i> some man, he is.
+He's a regular white man, <i>our missionary</i>! Just you wait till <i>he</i> gets
+back."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret drew a breath of relief. Then the missionary was a real man,
+after all. Oh, for his return!</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm certainly very glad it wasn't your fault, Bud. I didn't feel
+very happy to be turned off that way," said the teacher, smiling down
+upon the rough head of the boy.</p>
+
+<p>"You bet it wasn't my fault!" said the boy, vigorously. "I was sore's a
+pup at you, after you'd made a date and all, to do like that; but I
+thought if you wanted to go with that guy it was up to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I didn't and I don't. You'll please understand hereafter that I'd
+always rather have your company than his. How about going down to the
+school-house some time to-day? Have you time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you go yet?" The boy's face looked as if he had received a
+kingdom, and his voice had a ring of triumph.</p>
+
+<p>"We drove down there, but I didn't care to go in without you, so we came
+back."</p>
+
+<p>"Wanta go now?" The boy's face fairly shone.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd love to. I'll be ready in three minutes. Could we carry some books
+down?"<a class="pagenum" title="77" name="page_77" id="page_77"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Sure! Oh&mdash;gee! That guy's got the buckboard. We'll have to walk.
+Doggone him!"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall enjoy a walk. I want to find out just how far it is, for I
+shall have to walk every day, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you won't, neither, 'nless you wanta. I c'n always hitch up."</p>
+
+<p>"That'll be very nice sometimes, but I'm afraid I'd get spoiled if you
+babied me all the time that way. I'll be right down."</p>
+
+<p>They went out together into the sunshine and wideness of the morning,
+and it seemed a new day had been created since she got back from her
+ride with the minister. She looked at the sturdy, honest-eyed boy beside
+her, and was glad to have him for a companion.</p>
+
+<p>Just in front of the school-house Margaret paused. "Oh, I forgot! The
+key! Mr. West has the key in his pocket! We can't get in, can we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aw, we don't need a key," said her escort. "Just you wait!" And he
+whisked around to the back of the building, and in about three minutes
+his shock head appeared at the window. He threw the sash open and
+dropped out a wooden box. "There!" he said, triumphantly, "you c'n climb
+up on that, cantcha? Here, I'll holdya steady. Take holta my hand."</p>
+
+<p>And so it was through the front window that the new teacher of the Ridge
+School first appeared on her future scene of action and surveyed her
+little kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>Bud threw open the shutters, letting the view of the plains and the
+sunshine into the big, dusty room,<a class="pagenum" title="78" name="page_78" id="page_78"></a> and showed her the new blackboard
+with great pride.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a whole box o' chalk up on the desk, too; 'ain't never been
+opened yet. Dad said that was your property. Want I should open it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, you might, and then we'll try the blackboard, won't we?"</p>
+
+<p>Bud went to work gravely opening the chalk-box as if it were a small
+treasure-chest, and finally produced a long, smooth stick of chalk and
+handed it to her with shining eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"You try it first, Bud," said the teacher, seeing his eagerness; and the
+boy went forward awesomely, as if it were a sacred precinct and he
+unworthy to intrude.</p>
+
+<p>Shyly, awkwardly, with infinite painstaking, he wrote in a cramped hand,
+"William Budlong Tanner," and then, growing bolder, "Ashland, Arizona,"
+with a big flourish underneath.</p>
+
+<p>"Some class!" he said, standing back and regarding his handiwork with
+pride. "Say, I like the sound the chalk makes on it, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I do," said Margaret, heartily, "so smooth and business-like,
+isn't it? You'll enjoy doing examples in algebra on it, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Good night! Algebra! Me? No chance. I can't never get through the
+arithmetic. The last teacher said if he'd come back twenty years from
+now he'd still find me working compound interest."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we'll prove to that man that he wasn't much of a judge of boys,"
+said Margaret, with a tilt of her chin and a glint of her teacher-mettle
+showing in her eyes. "If you're not in algebra before two<a class="pagenum" title="79" name="page_79" id="page_79"></a> months are
+over I'll miss my guess. We'll get at it right away and show him."</p>
+
+<p>Bud watched her, charmed. He was beginning to believe that almost
+anything she tried would come true.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Bud, suppose we get to work. I'd like to get acquainted with my
+class a little before Monday. Isn't it Monday school opens? I thought
+so. Well, suppose you give me the names of the scholars and I'll write
+them down, and that will help me to remember them. Where will you begin?
+Here, suppose you sit down in the front seat and tell me who sits there
+and a little bit about him, and I'll write the name down; and then you
+move to the next seat and tell me about the next one, and so on. Will
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!" said Bud, entering into the new game. "But it ain't a 'he' sits
+there. It's Susie Johnson. She's Bill Johnson's smallest girl. She has
+to sit front 'cause she giggles so much. She has yellow curls and she
+ducks her head down and snickers right out this way when anything funny
+happens in school." And Bud proceeded to duck and wriggle in perfect
+imitation of the small Susie.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret saw the boy's power of imitation was remarkable, and laughed
+heartily at his burlesque. Then she turned and wrote "Susie Johnson" on
+the board in beautiful script.</p>
+
+<p>Bud watched with admiration, saying softly under his breath; "Gee!
+that's great, that blackboard, ain't it?"</p>
+
+<p>Amelia Schwartz came next. She was long and lank, with the buttons off
+the back of her dress, and<a class="pagenum" title="80" name="page_80" id="page_80"></a> hands and feet too large for her garments.
+Margaret could not help but see her in the clever pantomime the boy
+carried on. Next was Rosa Rogers, daughter of a wealthy cattleman, the
+pink-cheeked, blue-eyed beauty of the school, with all the boys at her
+feet and a perfect knowledge of her power over them. Bud didn't, of
+course, state it that way, but Margaret gathered as much from his
+simpering smile and the coy way he looked out of the corner of his eyes
+as he described her.</p>
+
+<p>Down the long list of scholars he went, row after row, and when he came
+to the seats where the boys sat his tone changed. She could tell by the
+shading of his voice which boys were the ones to look out for.</p>
+
+<p>Jed Brower, it appeared, was a name to conjure with. He could ride any
+horse that ever stood on four legs, he could outshoot most of the boys
+in the neighborhood, and he never allowed any teacher to tell him what
+to do. He was Texas Brower's only boy, and always had his own way. His
+father was on the school board. Jed Brower was held in awe, even while
+his methods were despised, by some of the younger boys. He was big and
+powerful, and nobody dared fool with him. Bud did not exactly warn
+Margaret that she must keep on the right side of Jed Brower, but he
+conveyed that impression without words. Margaret understood. She knew
+also that Tad Brooks, Larry Parker, Jim Long, and Dake Foster were
+merely henchmen of the worthy Jed, and not negligible quantities when
+taken by themselves. But over the name of Timothy Forbes&mdash;"Delicate
+Forbes," Bud explained was his nickname&mdash;the boy lingered with that
+loving inflection<a class="pagenum" title="81" name="page_81" id="page_81"></a> of admiration that a younger boy will sometimes have
+for a husky, courageous older lad. The second time Bud spoke of him he
+called him "Forbeszy," and Margaret perceived that here was Bud's model
+of manhood. Delicate Forbes could outshoot and outride even Jed Brower
+when he chose, and his courage with cattle was that of a man. Moreover,
+he was good to the younger boys and wasn't above pitching baseball with
+them when he had nothing better afoot. It became evident from the
+general description that Delicate Forbes was not called so from any lack
+of inches to his stature. He had a record of having licked every man
+teacher in the school, and beaten by guile every woman teacher they had
+had in six years. Bud was loyal to his admiration, yet it could be
+plainly seen that he felt Margaret's greatest hindrance in the school
+would be Delicate Forbes.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret mentally underlined the names in her memory that belonged to
+the back seats in the first and second rows of desks, and went home
+praying that she might have wisdom and patience to deal with Jed Brower
+and Timothy Forbes, and through them to manage the rest of her school.</p>
+
+<p>She surprised Bud at the dinner-table by handing him a neat diagram of
+the school-room desks with the correct names of all but three or four of
+the scholars written on them. Such a feat of memory raised her several
+notches in his estimation.</p>
+
+<p>"Say, that's going some! Guess you won't forget nothing, no matter how
+much they try to make you."</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="82" name="page_82" id="page_82"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The minister did not appear until late in the evening, after Margaret
+had gone to her room, for which she was sincerely thankful. She could
+hear his voice, fretful and complaining, as he called loudly for Bud to
+take the horse. It appeared he had lost his way and wandered many miles
+out of the trail. He blamed the country for having no better trails, and
+the horse for not being able to find his way better. Mr. Tanner had gone
+to bed, but Mrs. Tanner bustled about and tried to comfort him.</p>
+
+<p>"Now that's too bad! Dearie me! Bud oughta hev gone with you, so he
+ought. Bud! <i>Oh</i>, Bud, you 'ain't gonta sleep yet, hev you? Wake up and
+come down and take this horse to the barn."</p>
+
+<p>But Bud declined to descend. He shouted some sleepy directions from his
+loft where he slept, and said the minister could look after his own
+horse, he "wasn'ta gonta!" There was "plentya corn in the bin."</p>
+
+<p>The minister grumbled his way to the barn, highly incensed at Bud, and
+disturbed the calm of the evening view of Margaret's mountain by his
+complaints when he returned. He wasn't accustomed to handling horses,
+and he thought Bud might have<a class="pagenum" title="83" name="page_83" id="page_83"></a> stayed up and attended to it himself. Bud
+chuckled in his loft and stole down the back kitchen roof while the
+minister ate his late supper. Bud would never leave the old horse to
+that amateur's tender mercies, but he didn't intend to make it easy for
+the amateur. Margaret, from her window-seat watching the night in the
+darkness, saw Bud slip off the kitchen roof and run to the barn, and she
+smiled to herself. She liked that boy. He was going to be a good
+comrade.</p>
+
+<p>The Sabbath morning dawned brilliantly, and to the homesick girl there
+suddenly came a sense of desolation on waking. A strange land was this,
+without church-bells or sense of Sabbath fitness. The mountain, it is
+true, greeted her with a holy light of gladness, but mountains are not
+dependent upon humankind for being in the spirit on the Lord's day. They
+are "continually praising Him." Margaret wondered how she was to get
+through this day, this dreary first Sabbath away from her home and her
+Sabbath-school class, and her dear old church with father preaching. She
+had been away, of course, a great many times before, but never to a
+churchless community. It was beginning to dawn upon her that that was
+what Ashland was&mdash;a churchless community. As she recalled the walk to
+the school and the ride through the village she had seen nothing that
+looked like a church, and all the talk had been of the missionary. They
+must have services of some sort, of course, and probably that flabby,
+fish-eyed man, her fellow-boarder, was to preach; but her heart turned
+sick at thought of listening to a man who had confessed to the
+unbeliefs<a class="pagenum" title="84" name="page_84" id="page_84"></a> that he had. Of course, he would likely know enough to keep
+such doubts to himself; but he had told her, and nothing he could say
+now would help or uplift her in the least.</p>
+
+<p>She drew a deep sigh and looked at her watch. It was late. At home the
+early Sabbath-school bells would be ringing, and little girls in white,
+with bunches of late fall flowers for their teachers, and holding hands
+with their little brothers, would be hurrying down the street. Father
+was in his study, going over his morning sermon, and mother putting her
+little pearl pin in her collar, getting ready to go to her Bible class.
+Margaret decided it was time to get up and stop thinking of it all.</p>
+
+<p>She put on a little white dress that she wore to church at home and
+hurried down to discover what the family plans were for the day, but
+found, to her dismay, that the atmosphere below-stairs was just like
+that of other days. Mr. Tanner sat tilted back in a dining-room chair,
+reading the weekly paper, Mrs. Tanner was bustling in with hot
+corn-bread, Bud was on the front-door steps teasing the dog, and the
+minister came in with an air of weariness upon him, as if he quite
+intended taking it out on his companions that he had experienced a
+trying time on Saturday. He did not look in the least like a man who
+expected to preach in a few minutes. He declined to eat his egg because
+it was cooked too hard, and poor Mrs. Tanner had to try it twice before
+she succeeded in producing a soft-boiled egg to suit him. Only the
+radiant outline of the great mountain, which Margaret could see over the
+minister's head, looked peaceful and Sabbath-like.<a class="pagenum" title="85" name="page_85" id="page_85"></a></p>
+
+<p>"What time do you have service?" Margaret asked, as she rose from the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>"Service?" It was Mr. Tanner who echoed her question as if he did not
+quite know what she meant.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner raised her eyes from her belated breakfast with a worried
+look, like a hen stretching her neck about to see what she ought to do
+next for the comfort of the chickens under her care. It was apparent
+that she had no comprehension of what the question meant. It was the
+minister who answered, condescendingly:</p>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah! There is no church edifice here, you know, Miss Earle. The
+mission station is located some miles distant."</p>
+
+<p>"I know," said Margaret, "but they surely have some religious service?"</p>
+
+<p>"I really don't know," said the minister, loftily, as if it were
+something wholly beneath his notice.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are not going to preach this morning?" In spite of herself
+there was relief in her tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Most certainly not," he replied, stiffly. "I came out here to rest, and
+I selected this place largely because it was so far from a church. I
+wanted to be where I should not be annoyed by requests to preach. Of
+course, ministers from the East would be a curiosity in these Western
+towns, and I should really get no rest at all if I had gone where my
+services would have been in constant demand. When I came out here I was
+in much the condition of our friend the minister of whom you have
+doubtless heard. He was starting on his vacation, and he said to a
+brother minister, with a smile of joy and<a class="pagenum" title="86" name="page_86" id="page_86"></a> relief, 'No preaching, no
+praying, no reading of the Bible for six whole weeks!'"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" said Margaret, freezingly. "No, I am not familiar with
+ministers of that sort." She turned with dismissal in her manner and
+appealed to Mrs. Tanner. "Then you really have no Sabbath service of any
+sort whatever in town?" There was something almost tragic in her face.
+She stood aghast at the prospect before her.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner's neck stretched up a little longer, and her lips dropped
+apart in her attempt to understand the situation. One would scarcely
+have been surprised to hear her say, "Cut-cut-cut-ca-daw-cut?" so
+fluttered did she seem.</p>
+
+<p>Then up spoke Bud. "We gotta Sunday-school, ma!" There was pride of
+possession in Bud's tone, and a kind of triumph over the minister,
+albeit Bud had adjured Sunday-school since his early infancy. He was
+ready now, however, to be offered on the altar of Sunday-school, even,
+if that would please the new teacher&mdash;and spite the minister. "I'll take
+you ef you wanta go." He looked defiantly at the minister as he said it.</p>
+
+<p>But at last Mrs. Tanner seemed to grasp what was the matter.
+"Why!&mdash;why!&mdash;why! You mean preaching service!" she clucked out. "Why,
+yes, Mr. West, wouldn't that be fine? You could preach for us. We could
+have it posted up at the saloon and the crossings, and out a ways on
+both trails, and you'd have quite a crowd. They'd come from over to the
+camp, and up the ca&ntilde;on way, and roundabouts. They'd do you credit, they
+surely would, Mr. West. And you could have the school-house<a class="pagenum" title="87" name="page_87" id="page_87"></a> for a
+meeting-house. Pa, there, is one of the school board. There wouldn't be
+a bit of trouble&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah! Mrs. Tanner, I assure you it's quite out of the question. I
+told you I was here for absolute rest. I couldn't think of preaching.
+Besides, it's against my principles to preach without remuneration. It's
+a wrong idea. The workman is worthy of his hire, you know, Mrs. Tanner,
+the Good Book says." Mr. West's tone took on a self-righteous
+inflection.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Ef that's all, that 'u'd be all right!" she said, with relief. "You
+could take up a collection. The boys would be real generous. They always
+are when any show comes along. They'd appreciate it, you know, and I'd
+like fer Miss Earle here to hear you preach. It 'u'd be a real treat to
+her, her being a preacher's daughter and all." She turned to Margaret
+for support, but that young woman was talking to Bud. She had promptly
+closed with his offer to take her to Sunday-school, and now she hurried
+away to get ready, leaving Mrs. Tanner to make her clerical arrangements
+without aid.</p>
+
+<p>The minister, meantime, looked after her doubtfully. Perhaps, after all,
+it would have been a good move to have preached. He might have impressed
+that difficult young woman better that way than any other, seeing she
+posed as being so interested in religious matters. He turned to Mrs.
+Tanner and began to ask questions about the feasibility of a church
+service. The word "collection" sounded good to him. He was not averse to
+replenishing his somewhat depleted treasury if it could be done so
+easily as that.<a class="pagenum" title="88" name="page_88" id="page_88"></a></p>
+
+<p>Meantime Margaret, up in her room, was wondering again how such a man as
+Mr. West ever got into the Christian ministry.</p>
+
+<p>West was still endeavoring to impress the Tanners with the importance of
+his late charge in the East as Margaret came down-stairs. His pompous
+tones, raised to favor the deafness that he took for granted in Mr.
+Tanner, easily reached her ears.</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't, of course, think of doing it every Sunday, you understand.
+It wouldn't be fair to myself nor my work which I have just left; but,
+of course, if there were sufficient inducement I might consent to preach
+some Sunday before I leave."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner's little satisfied cluck was quite audible as the girl
+closed the front door and went out to the waiting Bud.</p>
+
+<p>The Sunday-school was a desolate affair, presided over by an elderly and
+very illiterate man, who nursed his elbows and rubbed his chin
+meditatively between the slow questions which he read out of the
+lesson-leaf. The woman who usually taught the children was called away
+to nurse a sick neighbor, and the children were huddled together in a
+restless group. The singing was poor, and the whole of the exercises
+dreary, including the prayer. The few women present sat and stared in a
+kind of awe at the visitor, half belligerently, as if she were an
+intruder. Bud lingered outside the door and finally disappeared
+altogether, reappearing when the last hymn was sung. Altogether the new
+teacher felt exceedingly homesick as she wended her way back to the
+Tanners' beside Bud.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you do with yourself on Sunday afternoons,<a class="pagenum" title="89" name="page_89" id="page_89"></a> Bud?" she asked, as
+soon as they were out of hearing of the rest of the group.</p>
+
+<p>The boy turned wondering eyes toward her. "Do?" he repeated, puzzled.
+"Why, we pass the time away, like 'most any day. There ain't much
+difference."</p>
+
+<p>A great desolation possessed her. No church! Worse than no minister! No
+Sabbath! What kind of a land was this to which she had come?</p>
+
+<p>The boy beside her smelled of tobacco smoke. He had been off somewhere
+smoking while she was in the dreary little Sunday-school. She looked at
+his careless boy-face furtively as they walked along. He smoked, of
+course, like most boys of his age, probably, and he did a lot of other
+things he ought not to do. He had no interest in God or righteousness,
+and he did not take it for granted that the Sabbath was different from
+any other day. A sudden heart-sinking came upon her. What was the use of
+trying to do anything for such as he? Why not give it up now and go back
+where there was more promising material to work upon and where she would
+be welcome indeed? Of course, she had known things would be
+discouraging, but somehow it had seemed different from a distance. It
+all looked utterly hopeless now, and herself crazy to have thought she
+could do any good in a place like this.</p>
+
+<p>And yet the place needed somebody! That pitiful little Sunday-school!
+How forlorn it all was! She was almost sorry she had gone. It gave her
+an unhappy feeling for the morrow, which was to be her first day of
+school.<a class="pagenum" title="90" name="page_90" id="page_90"></a></p>
+
+<p>Then, all suddenly, just as they were nearing the Tanner house, there
+came one riding down the street with all the glory of the radiant
+morning in his face, and a light in his eyes at seeing her that lifted
+away her desolation, for here at last was a friend!</p>
+
+<p>She wondered at herself. An unknown stranger, and a self-confessed
+failure so far in his young life, and yet he seemed so good a sight to
+her amid these uncongenial surroundings!</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="91" name="page_91" id="page_91"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>This stranger of royal bearing, riding a rough Western pony as if it
+were decked with golden trappings, with his bright hair gleaming like
+Roman gold in the sun, and his blue-gray eyes looking into hers with the
+gladness of his youth; this one who had come to her out of the
+night-shadows of the wilderness and led her into safety! Yes, she was
+glad to see him.</p>
+
+<p>He dismounted and greeted her, his wide hat in his hand, his eyes upon
+her face, and Bud stepped back, watching them in pleased surprise. This
+was the man who had shot all the lights out the night of the big riot in
+the saloon. He had also risked his life in a number of foolish ways at
+recent festal carouses. Bud would not have been a boy had he not admired
+the young man beyond measure; and his boy worship of the teacher yielded
+her to a fitting rival. He stepped behind and walked beside the pony,
+who was following his master meekly, as though he, too, were under the
+young man's charm.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, and this is my friend, William Tanner," spoke Margaret, turning
+toward the boy loyally, (Whatever good angel made her call him William?
+Bud's soul swelled with new dignity as he blushed and acknowledged the
+introduction by a grin.)<a class="pagenum" title="92" name="page_92" id="page_92"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Glad to know you, Will," said the new-comer, extending his hand in a
+hearty shake that warmed the boy's heart in a trice. "I'm glad Miss
+Earle has so good a protector. You'll have to look out for her. She's
+pretty plucky and is apt to stray around the wilderness by herself. It
+isn't safe, you know, boy, for such as her. Look after her, will you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Right I will," said Bud, accepting the commission as if it were
+Heaven-sent, and thereafter walked behind the two with his head in the
+clouds. He felt that he understood this great hero of the plains and was
+one with him at heart. There could be no higher honor than to be the
+servitor of this man's lady. Bud did not stop to question how the new
+teacher became acquainted with the young rider of the plains. It was
+enough that both were young and handsome and seemed to belong together.
+He felt they were fitting friends.</p>
+
+<p>The little procession walked down the road slowly, glad to prolong the
+way. The young man had brought her handkerchief, a filmy trifle of an
+excuse that she had dropped behind her chair at the bunk-house, where it
+had lain unnoticed till she was gone. He produced it from his inner
+pocket, as though it had been too precious to carry anywhere but over
+his heart, yet there was in his manner nothing presuming, not a hint of
+any intimacy other than their chance acquaintance of the wilderness
+would warrant. He did not look at her with any such look as West had
+given every time he spoke to her. She felt no desire to resent his
+glance when it rested upon her almost worshipfully, for there was
+respect and utmost humility in his look.<a class="pagenum" title="93" name="page_93" id="page_93"></a></p>
+
+<p>The men had sent gifts: some arrow-heads and a curiously fashioned
+vessel from the ca&ntilde;on of the cave-dwellers; some chips from the
+petrified forest; a fern with wonderful fronds, root and all; and a
+sheaf of strange, beautiful blossoms carefully wrapped in wet paper, and
+all fastened to the saddle.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret's face kindled with interest as he showed them to her one by
+one, and told her the history of each and a little message from the man
+who had sent it. Mom Wallis, too, had baked a queer little cake and sent
+it. The young man's face was tender as he spoke of it. The girl saw that
+he knew what her coming had meant to Mom Wallis. Her memory went quickly
+back to those few words the morning she had wakened in the bunk-house
+and found the withered old woman watching her with tears in her eyes.
+Poor Mom Wallis, with her pretty girlhood all behind her and such a
+blank, dull future ahead! Poor, tired, ill-used, worn-out Mom Wallis!
+Margaret's heart went out to her.</p>
+
+<p>"They want to know," said the young man, half hesitatingly, "if some
+time, when you get settled and have time, you would come to them again
+and sing? I tried to make them understand, of course, that you would be
+busy, your time taken with other friends and your work, and you would
+not want to come; but they wanted me to tell you they never enjoyed
+anything so much in years as your singing. Why, I heard Long Jim singing
+'Old Folks at Home' this morning when he was saddling his horse. And
+it's made a difference. The men sort of want to straighten up the
+bunk-room. Jasper<a class="pagenum" title="94" name="page_94" id="page_94"></a> made a new chair yesterday. He said it would do when
+you came again." Gardley laughed diffidently, as if he knew their hopes
+were all in vain.</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret looked up with sympathy in her face, "I'll come! Of course
+I'll come some time," she said, eagerly. "I'll come as soon as I can
+arrange it. You tell them we'll have more than one concert yet."</p>
+
+<p>The young man's face lit up with a quick appreciation, and the flash of
+his eyes as he looked at her would have told any onlooker that he felt
+here was a girl in a thousand, a girl with an angel spirit, if ever such
+a one walked the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Now it happened that Rev. Frederick West was walking impatiently up and
+down in front of the Tanner residence, looking down the road about that
+time. He had spent the morning in looking over the small bundle of "show
+sermons" he had brought with him in case of emergency, and had about
+decided to accede to Mrs. Tanner's request and preach in Ashland before
+he left. This decision had put him in so self-satisfied a mood that he
+was eager to announce it before his fellow-boarder. Moreover, he was
+hungry, and he could not understand why that impudent boy and that
+coquettish young woman should remain away at Sunday-school such an
+interminable time.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner was frying chicken. He could smell it every time he took a
+turn toward the house. It really was ridiculous that they should keep
+dinner waiting this way. He took one more turn and began to think over
+the sermon he had decided to preach. He was just recalling a
+particularly eloquent<a class="pagenum" title="95" name="page_95" id="page_95"></a> passage when he happened to look down the road
+once more, and there they were, almost upon him! But Bud was no longer
+walking with the maiden. She had acquired a new escort, a man of broad
+shoulders and fine height. Where had he seen that fellow before? He
+watched them as they came up, his small, pale eyes narrowing under their
+yellow lashes with a glint of slyness, like some mean little animal that
+meant to take advantage of its prey. It was wonderful how many different
+things that man could look like for a person as insignificant as he
+really was!</p>
+
+<p>Well, he saw the look between the man and maiden; the look of sympathy
+and admiration and a fine kind of trust that is not founded on mere
+outward show, but has found some hidden fineness of the soul. Not that
+the reverend gentleman understood that, however. He had no fineness of
+soul himself. His mind had been too thoroughly taken up with himself all
+his life for him to have cultivated any.</p>
+
+<p>Simultaneous with the look came his recognition of the man or, at least,
+of where he had last seen him, and his little soul rejoiced at the
+advantage he instantly recognized.</p>
+
+<p>He drew himself up importantly, flattened his chin upward until his
+lower lip protruded in a pink roll across his mouth, drew down his
+yellow brows in a frown of displeasure, and came forward mentor-like to
+meet the little party as it neared the house. He had the air of coming
+to investigate and possibly oust the stranger, and he looked at him
+keenly, critically, offensively, as if he had the right to protect<a class="pagenum" title="96" name="page_96" id="page_96"></a> the
+lady. They might have been a pair of naughty children come back from a
+forbidden frolic, from the way he surveyed them. But the beauty of it
+was that neither of them saw him, being occupied with each other, until
+they were fairly upon him. Then, there he stood offensively, as if he
+were a great power to be reckoned with.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, well, Miss Margaret, you have got home at last!" he said,
+pompously and condescendingly, and then he looked into the eyes of her
+companion as if demanding an explanation of <i>his</i> presence there.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret drew herself up haughtily. His use of her Christian name in
+that familiar tone annoyed her exceedingly. Her eyes flashed
+indignantly, but the whole of it was lost unless Bud saw it, for Gardley
+had faced his would-be adversary with a keen, surprised scrutiny, and
+was looking him over coolly. There was that in the young man's eye that
+made the eye of Frederick West quail before him. It was only an instant
+the two stood challenging each other, but in that short time each knew
+and marked the other for an enemy. Only a brief instant and then Gardley
+turned to Margaret, and before she had time to think what to say, he
+asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Is this man a friend of yours, Miss <i>Earle</i>?" with marked emphasis on
+the last word.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Margaret, coolly, "not a friend&mdash;a boarder in the house."
+Then most formally, "Mr. West, my <i>friend</i> Mr. Gardley."</p>
+
+<p>If the minister had not been possessed of the skin of a rhinoceros he
+would have understood himself to be dismissed at that; but he was not a
+man<a class="pagenum" title="97" name="page_97" id="page_97"></a> accustomed to accepting dismissal, as his recent church in New York
+State might have testified. He stood his ground, his chin flatter than
+ever, his little eyes mere slits of condemnation. He did not acknowledge
+the introduction by so much as the inclination of his head. His hands
+were clasped behind his back, and his whole attitude was one of
+righteous belligerence.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley gazed steadily at him for a moment, a look of mingled contempt
+and amusement gradually growing upon his face. Then he turned away as if
+the man were too small to notice.</p>
+
+<p>"You will come in and take dinner with me?" asked Margaret, eagerly. "I
+want to send a small package to Mrs. Wallis if you will be so good as to
+take it with you."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry I can't stay to dinner, but I have an errand in another
+direction and at some distance. I am returning this way, however, and,
+if I may, will call and get the package toward evening."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret's eyes spoke her welcome, and with a few formal words the young
+man sprang on his horse, said, "So long, Will!" to Bud, and, ignoring
+the minister, rode away.</p>
+
+<p>They watched him for an instant, for, indeed, he was a goodly sight upon
+a horse, riding as if he and the horse were utterly one in spirit; then
+Margaret turned quickly to go into the house.</p>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah! Miss Margaret!" began the minister, with a commandatory gesture
+for her to stop.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret was the picture of haughtiness as she turned and said, "Miss
+<i>Earle</i>, if you please!"</p>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah! Why, certainly, Miss&mdash;ah&mdash;<i>Earle</i>,<a class="pagenum" title="98" name="page_98" id="page_98"></a> if you wish it. Will you
+kindly remain here for a moment? I wish to speak with you. Bud, you may
+go on."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go when I like, and it's none of your business!" muttered Bud,
+ominously, under his breath. He looked at Margaret to see if she wished
+him to go. He had an idea that this might be one of the times when he
+was to look after her.</p>
+
+<p>She smiled at him understandingly. "William may remain, Mr. West," she
+said, sweetly. "Anything you have to say to me can surely be said in his
+presence," and she laid her hand lightly on Bud's sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>Bud looked down at the hand proudly and grew inches taller enjoying the
+minister's frown.</p>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah!" said West, unabashed. "Well, I merely wished to warn you
+concerning the character of that person who has just left us. He is
+really not a proper companion for you. Indeed, I may say he is quite the
+contrary, and that to my personal knowledge&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He's as good as you are and better!" growled Bud, ominously.</p>
+
+<p>"Be quiet, boy! I wasn't speaking to you!" said West, as if he were
+addressing a slave. "If I hear another word from your lips I shall
+report it to your father!"</p>
+
+<p>"Go 's far 's you like and see how much I care!" taunted Bud, but was
+stopped by Margaret's gentle pressure on his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. West, I thought I made you understand that Mr. Gardley is my
+friend."</p>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah! Miss Earle, then all I have to say<a class="pagenum" title="99" name="page_99" id="page_99"></a> is that you have formed a
+most unwise friendship, and should let it proceed no further. Why, my
+dear young lady, if you knew all there is to know about him you would
+not think of speaking to that young man."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! Mr. West, I suppose that might be true of a good many people,
+might it not, <i>if we knew all there is to know about them</i>? Nobody but
+God could very well get along with some of us."</p>
+
+<p>"But, my dear young lady, you don't understand. This young person is
+nothing but a common ruffian, a gambler, in fact, and an habitu&eacute; at the
+saloons. I have seen him myself sitting in a saloon at a very late hour
+playing with a vile, dirty pack of cards, and in the company of a lot of
+low-down creatures&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"May I ask how you came to be in a saloon at that hour, Mr. West?" There
+was a gleam of mischief in the girl's eyes, and her mouth looked as if
+she were going to laugh, but she controlled it.</p>
+
+<p>The minister turned very red indeed. "Well, I&mdash;ah&mdash;I had been called
+from my bed by shouts and the report of a pistol. There was a fight
+going on in the room adjoining the bar, and I didn't know but my
+assistance might be needed!" (At this juncture Bud uttered a sort of
+snort and, placing his hands over his heart, ducked down as if a sudden
+pain had seized him.) "But imagine my pain and astonishment when I was
+informed that the drunken brawl I was witnessing was but a nightly and
+common occurrence. I may say I remained for a few minutes, partly out of
+curiosity, as I wished to see all kinds of life in this new world for
+the sake of a<a class="pagenum" title="100" name="page_100" id="page_100"></a> book I am thinking of writing. I therefore took careful
+note of the persons present, and was thus able to identify the person
+who has just ridden away as one of the chief factors in that evening's
+entertainment. He was, in fact, the man who, when he had pocketed all
+the money on the gaming-table, arose and, taking out his pistol, shot
+out the lights in the room, a most dangerous and irregular proceeding&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and you came within an ace of being shot, pa says. The Kid's a
+dead shot, he is, and you were right in the way. Served you right for
+going where you had no business!"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not remain longer in that place, as you may imagine," went on West,
+ignoring Bud, "for I found it was no place for a&mdash;for&mdash;a&mdash;ah&mdash;minister
+of the gospel; but I remained long enough to hear from the lips of this
+person with whom you have just been walking some of the most terrible
+language my ears have ever been permitted to&mdash;ah&mdash;witness!"</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret had heard all that she intended to listen to on that
+subject. With decided tone she interrupted the voluble speaker, who was
+evidently enjoying his own eloquence.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. West, I think you have said all that it is necessary to say. There
+are still some things about Mr. Gardley that you evidently do not know,
+but I think you are in a fair way to learn them if you stay in this part
+of the country long. William, isn't that your mother calling us to
+dinner? Let us go in; I'm hungry."</p>
+
+<p>Bud followed her up the walk with a triumphant wink at the discomfited
+minister, and they disappeared<a class="pagenum" title="101" name="page_101" id="page_101"></a> into the house; but when Margaret went
+up to her room and took off her hat in front of the little warped
+looking-glass there were angry tears in her eyes. She never felt more
+like crying in her life. Chagrin and anger and disappointment were all
+struggling in her soul, yet she must not cry, for dinner would be ready
+and she must go down. Never should that mean little meddling man see
+that his words had pierced her soul.</p>
+
+<p>For, angry as she was at the minister, much as she loathed his petty,
+jealous nature and saw through his tale-bearing, something yet told her
+that his picture of young Gardley's wildness was probably true, and her
+soul sank within her at the thought. It was just what had come in
+shadowy, instinctive fear to her heart when he had hinted at his being a
+"roughneck," yet to have it put baldly into words by an enemy hurt her
+deeply, and she looked at herself in the glass half frightened.
+"Margaret Earle, have you come out to the wilderness to lose your heart
+to the first handsome sower of wild oats that you meet?" her true eyes
+asked her face in the glass, and Margaret Earle's heart turned sad at
+the question and shrank back. Then she dropped upon her knees beside her
+gay little rocking-chair and buried her face in its flowered cushions
+and cried to her Father in heaven:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my Father, let me not be weak, but with all my heart I cry to Thee
+to save this young, strong, courageous life and not let it be a failure.
+Help him to find Thee and serve Thee, and if his life has been all
+wrong&mdash;and I suppose it has&mdash;oh, make it right for Jesus' sake! If there
+is anything that I<a class="pagenum" title="102" name="page_102" id="page_102"></a> can do to help, show me how, and don't let me make
+mistakes. Oh, Jesus, Thy power is great. Let this young man feel it and
+yield himself to it."</p>
+
+<p>She remained silently praying for a moment more, putting her whole soul
+into the prayer and knowing that she had been called thus to pray for
+him until her prayer was answered.</p>
+
+<p>She came down to dinner a few minutes later with a calm, serene face, on
+which was no hint of her recent emotion, and she managed to keep the
+table conversation wholly in her own hands, telling Mr. Tanner about her
+home town and her father and mother. When the meal was finished the
+minister had no excuse to think that the new teacher was careless about
+her friends and associates, and he was well informed about the high
+principles of her family.</p>
+
+<p>But West had retired into a sulky mood and uttered not a word except to
+ask for more chicken and coffee and a second helping of pie. It was,
+perhaps, during that dinner that he decided it would be best for him to
+preach in Ashland on the following Sunday. The young lady could be
+properly impressed with his dignity in no other way.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="103" name="page_103" id="page_103"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>When Lance Gardley came back to the Tanners' the sun was preparing the
+glory of its evening setting, and the mountain was robed in all its
+rosiest veils.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret was waiting for him, with the dog Captain beside her, wandering
+back and forth in the unfenced dooryard and watching her mountain. It
+was a relief to her to find that the minister occupied a room on the
+first floor in a kind of ell on the opposite side of the house from her
+own room and her mountain. He had not been visible that afternoon, and
+with Captain by her side and Bud on the front-door step reading <i>The Sky
+Pilot</i> she felt comparatively safe. She had read to Bud for an hour and
+a half, and he was thoroughly interested in the story; but she was sure
+he would keep the minister away at all costs. As for Captain, he and the
+minister were sworn enemies by this time. He growled every time West
+came near or spoke to her.</p>
+
+<p>She made a picture standing with her hand on Captain's shaggy, noble
+head, the lace of her sleeve falling back from the white arm, her other
+hand raised to shade her face as she looked away to the glorified
+mountain, a slim, white figure looking wistfully off at the sunset. The
+young man took off<a class="pagenum" title="104" name="page_104" id="page_104"></a> his hat and rode his horse more softly, as if in the
+presence of the holy.</p>
+
+<p>The dog lifted one ear, and a tremor passed through his frame as the
+rider drew near; otherwise he did not stir from his position; but it was
+enough. The girl turned, on the alert at once, and met him with a smile,
+and the young man looked at her as if an angel had deigned to smile upon
+him. There was a humility in his fine face that sat well with the
+courage written there, and smoothed away all hardness for the time, so
+that the girl, looking at him in the light of the revelations of the
+morning, could hardly believe it had been true, yet an inner fineness of
+perception taught her that it was.</p>
+
+<p>The young man dismounted and left his horse standing quietly by the
+roadside. He would not stay, he said, yet lingered by her side, talking
+for a few minutes, watching the sunset and pointing out its changes.</p>
+
+<p>She gave him the little package for Mom Wallis. There was a simple lace
+collar in a little white box, and a tiny leather-bound book done in
+russet su&egrave;de with gold lettering.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell her to wear the collar and think of me whenever she dresses up."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid that'll never be, then," said the young man, with a pitying
+smile. "Mom Wallis never dresses up."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell her I said she must dress up evenings for supper, and I'll make
+her another one to change with that and bring it when I come."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled upon her again, that wondering, almost worshipful smile, as if
+he wondered if she were real,<a class="pagenum" title="105" name="page_105" id="page_105"></a> after all, so different did she seem from
+his idea of girls.</p>
+
+<p>"And the little book," she went on, apologetically; "I suppose it was
+foolish to send it, but something she said made me think of some of the
+lines in the poem. I've marked them for her. She reads, doesn't she?"</p>
+
+<p>"A little, I think. I see her now and then read the papers that Pop
+brings home with him. I don't fancy her literary range is very wide,
+however."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, I suppose it is ridiculous! And maybe she'll not understand
+any of it; but tell her I sent her a message. She must see if she can
+find it in the poem. Perhaps you can explain it to her. It's Browning's
+'Rabbi Ben Ezra.' You know it, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid not. I was intent on other things about the time when I was
+supposed to be giving my attention to Browning, or I wouldn't be what I
+am to-day, I suppose. But I'll do my best with what wits I have. What's
+it about? Couldn't you give me a pointer or two?"</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's the one beginning:</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">"Grow old along with me!<br />
+The best is yet to be,<br />
+The last of life, for which the first was made:<br />
+Our times are in His hand<br />
+Who saith, 'A whole I planned,<br />
+Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!'"</p>
+
+<p>He looked down at her still with that wondering smile. "Grow old along
+with you!" he said, gravely,<a class="pagenum" title="106" name="page_106" id="page_106"></a> and then sighed. "You don't look as if you
+ever would grow old."</p>
+
+<p>"That's it," she said, eagerly. "That's the whole idea. We don't ever
+grow old and get done with it all, we just go on to bigger things, wiser
+and better and more beautiful, till we come to understand and be a part
+of the whole great plan of God!"</p>
+
+<p>He did not attempt an answer, nor did he smile now, but just looked at
+her with that deeply quizzical, grave look as if his soul were turning
+over the matter seriously. She held her peace and waited, unable to find
+the right word to speak. Then he turned and looked off, an infinite
+regret growing in his face.</p>
+
+<p>"That makes living a different thing from the way most people take it,"
+he said, at last, and his tone showed that he was considering it deeply.</p>
+
+<p>"Does it?" she said, softly, and looked with him toward the sunset,
+still half seeing his quiet profile against the light. At last it came
+to her that she must speak. Half fearfully she began: "I've been
+thinking about what you said on the ride. You said you didn't make good.
+I&mdash;wish you would. I&mdash;I'm sure you could&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She looked up wistfully and saw the gentleness come into his face as if
+the fountain of his soul, long sealed, had broken up, and as if he saw a
+possibility before him for the first time through the words she had
+spoken.</p>
+
+<p>At last he turned to her with that wondering smile again. "Why should
+you care?" he asked. The words would have sounded harsh if his tone had
+not been so gentle.<a class="pagenum" title="107" name="page_107" id="page_107"></a></p>
+
+<p>Margaret hesitated for an answer. "I don't know how to tell it," she
+said, slowly. "There's another verse, a few lines more in that poem,
+perhaps you know them?&mdash;</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;">'All I never could be, All, men ignored in me,<br />
+This I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped.'</p>
+
+<p>I want it because&mdash;well, perhaps because I feel you are worth all that
+to God. I would like to see you be that."</p>
+
+<p>He looked down at her again, and was still so long that she felt she had
+failed miserably.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you will excuse my speaking," she added. "I&mdash;It seems there are
+so many grand possibilities in life, and for you&mdash;I couldn't bear to
+have you say you hadn't made good, as if it were all over."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad you spoke," he said, quickly. "I guess perhaps I have been all
+kinds of a fool. You have made me feel how many kinds I have been."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no!" she protested.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know what I have been," he said, sadly, and then with sudden
+conviction, as if he read her thoughts: "You <i>do</i> know! That prig of a
+parson has told you! Well, it's just as well you should know. It's
+right!"</p>
+
+<p>A wave of misery passed over his face and erased all its brightness and
+hope. Even the gentleness was gone. He looked haggard and drawn with
+hopelessness all in a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think it would matter to me&mdash;<i>anything</i> that man would say?" she
+protested, all her woman's heart going out in pity.<a class="pagenum" title="108" name="page_108" id="page_108"></a></p>
+
+<p>"But it was true, all he said, probably, and more&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't matter," she said, eagerly. "The other is true, too. Just as
+the poem says, 'All that man ignores in you, just that you are worth to
+God!' And you <i>can</i> be what He meant you to be. I have been praying all
+the afternoon that He would help you to be."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you?" he said, and his eyes lit up again as if the altar-fires of
+hope were burning once more. "Have you? I thank you."</p>
+
+<p>"You came to me when I was lost in the wilderness," she said, shyly. "I
+wanted to help <i>you</i> back&mdash;if&mdash;I might."</p>
+
+<p>"You will help&mdash;you have!" he said, earnestly. "And I was far enough off
+the trail, too, but if there's any way to get back I'll get there." He
+grasped her hand and held it for a second. "Keep up that praying," he
+said. "I'll see what can be done."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret looked up. "Oh, I'm so glad, so glad!"</p>
+
+<p>He looked reverently into her eyes, all the manhood in him stirred to
+higher, better things. Then, suddenly, as they stood together, a sound
+smote their ears as from another world.</p>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah!&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The minister stood within the doorway, barred by Bud in scowling
+defiance, and guarded by Cap, who gave an answering growl.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley and Margaret looked at each other and smiled, then turned and
+walked slowly down to where the pony stood. They did not wish to talk
+here in that alien presence. Indeed, it seemed that<a class="pagenum" title="109" name="page_109" id="page_109"></a> more words were not
+needed&mdash;they would be a desecration.</p>
+
+<p>So he rode away into the sunset once more with just another look and a
+hand-clasp, and she turned, strangely happy at heart, to go back to her
+dull surroundings and her uncongenial company.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, William, let's have a praise service," she said, brightly,
+pausing at the doorway, but ignoring the scowling minister.</p>
+
+<p>"A praise service! What's a praise service?" asked the wondering Bud,
+shoving over to let her sit down beside him.</p>
+
+<p>She sat with her back to West, and Cap came and lay at her feet with the
+white of one eye on the minister and a growl ready to gleam between his
+teeth any minute. There was just no way for the minister to get out
+unless he jumped over them or went out the back door; but the people in
+the doorway had the advantage of not having to look at him, and he
+couldn't very well dominate the conversation standing so behind them.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, a praise service is a service of song and gladness, of course. You
+sing, don't you? Of course. Well, what shall we sing? Do you know this?"
+And she broke softly into song:</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;">"When peace like a river attendeth my way;<br />
+When sorrows like sea-billows roll;<br />
+Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to say,<br />
+It is well, it is well with my soul."</p>
+
+<p>Bud did not know the song, but he did not intend to be balked with the
+minister standing right behind him, ready, no doubt, to jump in and take
+the precedence;<a class="pagenum" title="110" name="page_110" id="page_110"></a> so he growled away at a note in the bass, turning it
+over and over and trying to make it fit, like a dog gnawing at a bare
+bone; but he managed to keep time and make it sound a little like
+singing.</p>
+
+<p>The dusk was falling fast as they finished the last verse, Margaret
+singing the words clear and distinct, Bud growling unintelligibly and
+snatching at words he had never heard before. Once more Margaret sang:</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;">"Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;<br />
+The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide!<br />
+When other refuge fails and comforts flee,<br />
+Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me!"</p>
+
+<p>Out on the lonely trail wending his way toward the purple mountain&mdash;the
+silent way to the bunk-house at the camp&mdash;in that clear air where sound
+travels a long distance the traveler heard the song, and something
+thrilled his soul. A chord that never had been touched in him before was
+vibrating, and its echoes would be heard through all his life.</p>
+
+<p>On and on sang Margaret, just because she could not bear to stop and
+hear the commonplace talk which would be about her. Song after song
+thrilled through the night's wideness. The stars came out in thick
+clusters. Father Tanner had long ago dropped his weekly paper and tilted
+his chair back against the wall, with his eyes half closed to listen,
+and his wife had settled down comfortably on the carpet sofa, with her
+hands nicely folded in her lap, as if she were at church. The minister,
+after silently surveying the situation for a song or two, attempted to
+join his voice to the chorus. He had a voice like a cross-cut saw, but
+he didn't do much harm in the<a class="pagenum" title="111" name="page_111" id="page_111"></a> background that way, though Cap did growl
+now and then, as if it put his nerves on edge. And by and by Mr. Tanner
+quavered in with a note or two.</p>
+
+<p>Finally Margaret sang:</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;">"Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear,<br />
+It is not night if Thou art near,<br />
+Oh, may no earth-born cloud arise<br />
+To hide Thee from Thy servant's eyes."</p>
+
+<p>During this hymn the minister had slipped out the back door and gone
+around to the front of the house. He could not stand being in the
+background any longer; but as the last note died away Margaret arose
+and, bidding Bud good night, slipped up to her room.</p>
+
+<p>There, presently, beside her darkened window, with her face toward the
+mountain, she knelt to pray for the wanderer who was trying to find his
+way out of the wilderness.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="112" name="page_112" id="page_112"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Monday morning found Margaret at the school-house nerved for her new
+task.</p>
+
+<p>One by one the scholars trooped in, shyly or half defiantly, hung their
+hats on the hooks, put their dinner-pails on the shelf, looked furtively
+at her, and sank into their accustomed seats; that is, the seats they
+had occupied during the last term of school. The big boys remained
+outside until Bud, acting under instructions from Margaret&mdash;after she
+had been carefully taught the ways of the school by Bud himself&mdash;rang
+the big bell. Even then they entered reluctantly and as if it were a
+great condescension that they came at all, Jed and "Delicate" coming in
+last, with scarcely a casual glance toward the teacher's desk, as if she
+were a mere fraction in the scheme of the school. She did not need to be
+told which was Timothy and which was Jed. Bud's description had been
+perfect. Her heart, by the way, instantly went out to Timothy. Jed was
+another proposition. He had thick, overhanging eyebrows, and a mouth
+that loved to make trouble and laugh over it. He was going to be hard to
+conquer. She wasn't sure the conquering would be interesting, either.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret stood by the desk, watching them all with a pleasant smile. She
+did not frown at the<a class="pagenum" title="113" name="page_113" id="page_113"></a> unnecessary shuffling of feet nor the loud remarks
+of the boys as they settled into their seats. She just stood and watched
+them interestedly, as though her time had not yet come.</p>
+
+<p>Jed and Timothy were carrying on a rumbling conversation. Even after
+they took their seats they kept it up. It was no part of their plan to
+let the teacher suppose they saw her or minded her in the least. They
+were the dominating influences in that school, and they wanted her to
+know it, right at the start; then a lot of trouble would be saved. If
+they didn't like her and couldn't manage her they didn't intend she
+should stay, and she might as well understand that at once.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret understood it fully. Yet she stood quietly and watched them
+with a look of deep interest on her face and a light almost of mischief
+in her eyes, while Bud grew redder and redder over the way his two idols
+were treating the new teacher. One by one the school became aware of the
+twinkle in the teacher's eyes, and grew silent to watch, and one by one
+they began to smile over the coming scene when Jed and Timothy should
+discover it, and, worst of all, find out that it was actually directed
+against them. They would expect severity, or fear, or a desire to
+placate; but a twinkle&mdash;it was more than the school could decide what
+would happen under such circumstances. No one in that room would ever
+dare to laugh at either of those two boys. But the teacher was almost
+laughing now, and the twinkle had taken the rest of the room into the
+secret, while she waited amusedly until the two should finish the
+conversation.<a class="pagenum" title="114" name="page_114" id="page_114"></a></p>
+
+<p>The room grew suddenly deathly still, except for the whispered growls of
+Jed and Timothy, and still the silence deepened, until the two young
+giants themselves perceived that it was time to look up and take account
+of stock.</p>
+
+<p>The perspiration by this time was rolling down the back of Bud's neck.
+He was about the only one in the room who was not on a broad grin, and
+he was wretched. What a fearful mistake the new teacher was making right
+at the start! She was antagonizing the two boys who held the whole
+school in their hands. There was no telling what they wouldn't do to her
+now. And he would have to stand up for her. Yes, no matter what they
+did, he would stand up for her! Even though he lost his best friends, he
+must be loyal to her; but the strain was terrible! He did not dare to
+look at them, but fastened his eyes upon Margaret, as if keeping them
+glued there was his only hope. Then suddenly he saw her face break into
+one of the sweetest, merriest smiles he ever witnessed, with not one
+single hint of reproach or offended dignity in it, just a smile of
+comradeship, understanding, and pleasure in the meeting; and it was
+directed to the two seats where Jed and Timothy sat.</p>
+
+<p>With wonder he turned toward the two big boys, and saw, to his
+amazement, an answering smile upon their faces; reluctant, 'tis true,
+half sheepish at first, but a smile with lifted eyebrows of astonishment
+and real enjoyment of the joke.</p>
+
+<p>A little ripple of approval went round in half-breathed syllables, but
+Margaret gave no time for any restlessness to start. She spoke at once,
+in her<a class="pagenum" title="115" name="page_115" id="page_115"></a> pleasantest partnership tone, such as she had used to Bud when
+she asked him to help her build her bookcase. So she spoke now to that
+school, and each one felt she was speaking just to him especially, and
+felt a leaping response in his soul. Here, at least, was something new
+and interesting, a new kind of teacher. They kept silence to listen.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm not going to make a speech now," she said, and her voice
+sounded glad to them all. "I'll wait till we know one another before I
+do that. I just want to say how do you do to you, and tell you how glad
+I am to be here. I hope we shall like one another immensely and have a
+great many good times together. But we've got to get acquainted first,
+of course, and perhaps we'd better give most of the time to that to-day.
+First, suppose we sing something. What shall it be? What do you sing?"</p>
+
+<p>Little Susan Johnson, by virtue of having seen the teacher at
+Sunday-school, made bold to raise her hand and suggest, "Thar-thpangle
+Banner, pleath!" And so they tried it; but when Margaret found that only
+a few seemed to know the words, she said, "Wait!" Lifting her arm with a
+pretty, imperative gesture, and taking a piece of chalk from the box on
+her desk, she went to the new blackboard that stretched its shining
+black length around the room.</p>
+
+<p>The school was breathlessly watching the graceful movement of the
+beautiful hand and arm over the smooth surface, leaving behind it the
+clear, perfect script. Such wonderful writing they had never seen; such
+perfect, easy curves and twirls. Every eye in the room was fastened on
+her, every breath was held as they watched and spelled out the words one
+by one.<a class="pagenum" title="116" name="page_116" id="page_116"></a> "Gee!" said Bud, softly, under his breath, nor knew that he had
+spoken, but no one else moved.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," she said, "let us sing," and when they started off again
+Margaret's strong, clear soprano leading, every voice in the room
+growled out the words and tried to get in step with the tune.</p>
+
+<p>They had gone thus through two verses when Jed seemed to think it was
+about time to start something. Things were going altogether too smoothly
+for an untried teacher, if she <i>was</i> handsome and unabashed. If they
+went on like this the scholars would lose all respect for him. So, being
+quite able to sing a clear tenor, he nevertheless puckered his lips
+impertinently, drew his brows in an ominous frown, and began to whistle
+a somewhat erratic accompaniment to the song. He watched the teacher
+closely, expecting to see the color flame in her cheeks, the anger flash
+in her eyes; he had tried this trick on other teachers and it always
+worked. He gave the wink to Timothy, and he too left off his glorious
+bass and began to whistle.</p>
+
+<p>But instead of the anger and annoyance they expected, Margaret turned
+appreciative eyes toward the two back seats, nodding her head a trifle
+and smiling with her eyes as she sang; and when the verse was done she
+held up her hand for silence and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Why, boys, that's beautiful! Let's try that verse once more, and you
+two whistle the accompaniment a little stronger in the chorus; or how
+would it do if you just came in on the chorus? I believe that would be
+more effective. Let's try the first verse that way; you boys sing during
+the verse<a class="pagenum" title="117" name="page_117" id="page_117"></a> and then whistle the chorus just as you did now. We really
+need your voices in the verse part, they are so strong and splendid.
+Let's try it now." And she started off again, the two big astonished
+fellows meekly doing as they were told, and really the effect was
+beautiful. What was their surprise when the whole song was finished to
+have her say, "Now everybody whistle the chorus softly," and then pucker
+up her own soft lips to join in. That completely finished the whistling
+stunt. Jed realized that it would never work again, not while she was
+here, for she had turned the joke into beauty and made them all enjoy
+it. It hadn't annoyed her in the least.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow by that time they were all ready for anything she had to
+suggest, and they watched again breathlessly as she wrote another song
+on the blackboard, taking the other side of the room for it, and this
+time a hymn&mdash;"I Need Thee Every Hour."</p>
+
+<p>When they began to sing it, however, Margaret found the tune went
+slowly, uncertainly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how we need a piano!" she exclaimed. "I wonder if we can't get up
+an entertainment and raise money to buy one. How many will help?"</p>
+
+<p>Every hand in the place went up, Jed's and Timothy's last and only a
+little way, but she noted with triumph that they went up.</p>
+
+<p>"All right; we'll do it! Now let's sing that verse correctly." And she
+began to sing again, while they all joined anxiously in, really trying
+to do their best.</p>
+
+<p>The instant the last verse died away, Margaret's voice took their
+attention.<a class="pagenum" title="118" name="page_118" id="page_118"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Two years ago in Boston two young men, who belonged to a little group
+of Christian workers who were going around from place to place holding
+meetings, sat talking together in their room in the hotel one evening."</p>
+
+<p>There was instant quiet, a kind of a breathless quiet. This was not like
+the beginning of any lesson any other teacher had ever given them. Every
+eye was fixed on her.</p>
+
+<p>"They had been talking over the work of the day, and finally one of them
+suggested that they choose a Bible verse for the whole year&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>There was a movement of impatience from one back seat, as if Jed had
+scented an incipient sermon, but the teacher's voice went steadily on:</p>
+
+<p>"They talked it over, and at last they settled on II Timothy ii:15. They
+made up their minds to use it on every possible occasion. It was time to
+go to bed, so the man whose room adjoined got up and, instead of saying
+good night, he said, 'Well, II Timothy ii:15,' and went to his room.
+Pretty soon, when he put out his light, he knocked on the wall and
+shouted 'II Timothy ii:15,' and the other man responded, heartily, 'All
+right, II Timothy ii:15.' The next morning when they wrote their letters
+each of them wrote 'II Timothy ii:15' on the lower left-hand corner of
+the envelope, and sent out a great handful of letters to all parts of
+the world. Those letters passed through the Boston post-office, and some
+of the clerks who sorted them saw that queer legend written down in the
+lower left-hand corner of the envelope, and they wondered at it, and one
+or two wrote it down, to<a class="pagenum" title="119" name="page_119" id="page_119"></a> look it up afterward. The letters reached
+other cities and were put into the hands of mail-carriers to distribute,
+and they saw the queer little sentence, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and they
+wondered, and some of them looked it up."</p>
+
+<p>By this time the entire attention of the school was upon the story, for
+they perceived that it was a story.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The men left Boston and went across the ocean to hold meetings in other
+cities, and one day at a little railway station in Europe a group of
+people were gathered, waiting for a train, and those two men were among
+them. Pretty soon the train came, and one of the men got on the back end
+of the last car, while the other stayed on the platform, and as the
+train moved off the man on the last car took off his hat and said, in a
+good, loud, clear tone, 'Well, take care of yourself, II Timothy ii:15,'
+and the other one smiled and waved his hat and answered, 'Yes, II
+Timothy ii:15.' The man on the train, which was moving fast now, shouted
+back, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and the man on the platform responded still
+louder, waving his hat, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and back and forth the queer
+sentence was flung until the train was too far away for them to hear
+each other's voices. In the mean time all the people on the platform had
+been standing there listening and wondering what in the world such a
+strange salutation could mean. Some of them recognized what it was, but
+many did not know, and yet the sentence was said over so many times that
+they could not help remembering it; and some went away to recall it and
+ask their friends what it meant.<a class="pagenum" title="120" name="page_120" id="page_120"></a> A young man from America was on that
+platform and heard it, and he knew it stood for a passage in the Bible,
+and his curiosity was so great that he went back to his boarding-house
+and hunted up the Bible his mother had packed in his trunk when he came
+away from home, and he hunted through the Bible until he found the
+place, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and read it; and it made him think about his
+life and decide that he wasn't doing as he ought to do. I can't tell you
+all the story about that queer Bible verse, how it went here and there
+and what a great work it did in people's hearts; but one day those
+Christian workers went to Australia to hold some meetings, and one
+night, when the great auditorium was crowded, a man who was leading the
+meeting got up and told the story of this verse, how it had been chosen,
+and how it had gone over the world in strange ways, even told about the
+morning at the little railway station when the two men said good-by.
+Just as he got to that place in his story a man in the audience stood up
+and said: 'Brother, just let me say a word, please. I never knew
+anything about all this before, but I was at that railway station, and I
+heard those two men shout that strange good-by, and I went home and read
+that verse, and it's made a great difference in my life.'</p>
+
+<p>"There was a great deal more to the story, how some Chicago policemen
+got to be good men through reading that verse, and how the story of the
+Australia meetings was printed in an Australian paper and sent to a lady
+in America who sent it to a friend in England to read about the
+meetings. And this friend in England had a son in the army in India,<a class="pagenum" title="121" name="page_121" id="page_121"></a> to
+whom she was sending a package, and she wrapped it around something in
+that package, and the young man read all about it, and it helped to
+change his life. Well, I thought of that story this morning when I was
+trying to decide what to read for our opening chapter, and it occurred
+to me that perhaps you would be interested to take that verse for our
+school verse this term, and so if you would like it I will put it on the
+blackboard. Would you like it, I wonder?"</p>
+
+<p>She paused wistfully, as if she expected an answer, and there was a low,
+almost inaudible growl of assent; a keen listener might almost have said
+it had an impatient quality in it, as if they were in a hurry to find
+out what the verse was that had made such a stir in the world.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Margaret, turning to the board; "then I'll put it
+where we all can see it, and while I write it will you please say over
+where it is, so that you will remember it and hunt it up for yourselves
+in your Bibles at home?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a sort of snicker at that, for there were probably not half a
+dozen Bibles, if there were so many, represented in that school; but
+they took her hint as she wrote, and chanted, "II Timothy ii:15, II
+Timothy ii:15," and then spelled out after her rapid crayon, "Study to
+show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be
+ashamed."</p>
+
+<p>They read it together at her bidding, with a wondering, half-serious
+look in their faces, and then she said, "Now, shall we pray?"</p>
+
+<p>The former teacher had not opened her school<a class="pagenum" title="122" name="page_122" id="page_122"></a> with prayer. It had never
+been even suggested in that school. It might have been a dangerous
+experiment if Margaret had attempted it sooner in her program. As it
+was, there was a shuffling of feet in the back seats at her first word;
+but the room, grew quiet again, perhaps out of curiosity to hear a
+woman's voice in prayer:</p>
+
+<p>"Our Heavenly Father, we want to ask Thee to bless us in our work
+together, and to help us to be such workmen that we shall not need to be
+ashamed to show our work to Thee at the close of the day. For Christ's
+sake we ask it. Amen."</p>
+
+<p>They did not have time to resent that prayer before she had them
+interested in something else. In fact, she had planned her whole first
+day out so that there should not be a minute for misbehavior. She had
+argued that if she could just get time to become acquainted with them
+she might prevent a lot of trouble before it ever started. Her first
+business was to win her scholars. After that she could teach them easily
+if they were once willing to learn.</p>
+
+<p>She had a set of mental arithmetic problems ready which she propounded
+to them next, some of them difficult and some easy enough for the
+youngest child who could think, and she timed their answers and wrote on
+the board the names of those who raised their hands first and had the
+correct answers. The questions were put in a fascinating way, many of
+them having curious little catches in them for the scholars who were not
+on the alert, and Timothy presently discovered this and set himself to
+get every one, coming off victorious at the end. Even<a class="pagenum" title="123" name="page_123" id="page_123"></a> Jed roused
+himself and was interested, and some of the girls quite distinguished
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p>When a half-hour of this was over she put the word "<span class="smcap">transfiguration</span>" on
+the blackboard, and set them to playing a regular game out of it. If
+some of the school-board had come in just then they might have lifted up
+hands of horror at the idea of the new teacher setting the whole school
+to playing a game. But they certainly would have been delightfully
+surprised to see a quiet and orderly room with bent heads and knit
+brows, all intent upon papers and pencils. Never before in the annals of
+that school had the first day held a full period of quiet or
+orderliness. It was expected to be a day of battle; a day of trying out
+the soul of the teacher and proving whether he or she were worthy to
+cope with the active minds and bodies of the young bullies of Ashland.
+But the expected battle had been forgotten. Every mind was busy with the
+matter in hand.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret had given them three minutes to write as many words as they
+could think of, of three letters or more, beginning with T, and using
+only the letters in the word she had put on the board. When time was
+called there was a breathless rush to write a last word, and then each
+scholar had to tell how many words he had, and each was called upon to
+read his list. Some had only two or three, some had ten or eleven. They
+were allowed to mark their words, counting one for each person present
+who did not have that word and doubling if it were two syllables, and so
+on. Excitement ran high when it was discovered that some had actually
+made<a class="pagenum" title="124" name="page_124" id="page_124"></a> a count of thirty or forty, and when they started writing words
+beginning with R every head was bent intently from the minute time was
+started.</p>
+
+<p>Never had three minutes seemed so short to those unused brains, and Jed
+yelled out: "Aw, gee! I only got three!" when time was called next.</p>
+
+<p>It was recess-time when they finally finished every letter in that word,
+and, adding all up, found that Timothy had won the game. Was that
+school? Why, a barbecue couldn't be named beside it for fun! They rushed
+out to the school-yard with a shout, and the boys played leap-frog
+loudly for the first few minutes. Margaret, leaning her tired head in
+her hands, elbows on the window-seat, closing her eyes and gathering
+strength for the after-recess session, heard one boy say: "Wal, how d'ye
+like 'er?" And the answer came: "Gee! I didn't think she'd be that kind
+of a guy! I thought she'd be some stiff old Ike! Ain't she a peach,
+though?" She lifted up her head and laughed triumphantly to herself, her
+eyes alight, herself now strengthened for the fray. She wasn't wholly
+failing, then?</p>
+
+<p>After recess there was a spelling-match, choosing sides, of course,
+"Because this is only the first day, and we must get acquainted before
+we can do real work, you know," she explained.</p>
+
+<p>The spelling-match proved an exciting affair also, with new features
+that Ashland had never seen before. Here the girls began to shine into
+prominence, but there were very few good spellers, and they were
+presently reduced to two girls&mdash;Rosa Rogers, the beauty of the school,
+and Amanda Bounds, a stolid, homely girl with deep eyes and a broad
+brow.<a class="pagenum" title="125" name="page_125" id="page_125"></a></p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to give this as a prize to the one who stands up the
+longest," said Margaret, with sudden inspiration as she saw the boys in
+their seats getting restless; and she unpinned a tiny blue-silk bow that
+fastened her white collar.</p>
+
+<p>The girls all said "Oh-h-h!" and immediately every one in the room
+straightened up. The next few minutes those two girls spelled for dear
+life, each with her eye fixed upon the tiny blue bow in the teacher's
+white hands. To own that bow, that wonderful, strange bow of the
+heavenly blue, with the graceful twist to the tie! What delight! The
+girl who won that would be the admired of all the school. Even the boys
+sat up and took notice, each secretly thinking that Rosa, the beauty,
+would get it, of course.</p>
+
+<p>But she didn't; she slipped up on the word "receive," after all, putting
+the i before the e; and her stolid companion, catching her breath
+awesomely, slowly spelled it right and received the blue prize, pinned
+gracefully at the throat of her old brown gingham by the teacher's own
+soft, white fingers, while the school looked on admiringly and the blood
+rolled hotly up the back of her neck and spread over her face and
+forehead. Rosa, the beauty, went crestfallen to her seat.</p>
+
+<p>It was at noon, while they ate their lunch, that Margaret tried to get
+acquainted with the girls, calling most of them by name, to their great
+surprise, and hinting of delightful possibilities in the winter's work.
+Then she slipped out among the boys and watched their sports, laughing
+and applauding when some one made a particularly fine play, as if she
+thoroughly understood and appreciated.<a class="pagenum" title="126" name="page_126" id="page_126"></a></p>
+
+<p>She managed to stand near Jed and Timothy just before Bud rang the bell.
+"I've heard you are great sportsmen," she said to them, confidingly.
+"And I've been wondering if you'll teach me some things I want to learn?
+I want to know how to ride and shoot. Do you suppose I could learn?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!" they chorused, eagerly, their embarrassment forgotten. "Sure,
+you could learn fine! Sure, <i>we'll learn</i> you!"</p>
+
+<p>And then the bell rang and they all went in.</p>
+
+<p>The afternoon was a rather informal arrangement of classes and schedule
+for the next day, Margaret giving out slips of paper with questions for
+each to answer, that she might find out just where to place them; and
+while they wrote she went from one to another, getting acquainted,
+advising, and suggesting about what they wanted to study. It was all so
+new and wonderful to them! They had not been used to caring what they
+were to study. Now it almost seemed interesting.</p>
+
+<p>But when the day was done, the school-house locked, and Bud and Margaret
+started for home, she realized that she was weary. Yet it was a
+weariness of success and not of failure, and she felt happy in looking
+forward to the morrow.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="127" name="page_127" id="page_127"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The minister had decided to preach in Ashland, and on the following
+Sabbath. It became apparent that if he wished to have any notice at all
+from the haughty new teacher he must do something at once to establish
+his superiority in her eyes. He had carefully gone over his store of
+sermons that he always carried with him, and decided to preach on "The
+Dynamics of Altruism."</p>
+
+<p>Notices had been posted up in saloons and stores and post-office. He had
+made them himself after completely tabooing Mr. Tanner's kindly and
+blundering attempt, and they gave full information concerning "the Rev.
+Frederick West, Ph.D., of the vicinity of New York City, who had kindly
+consented to preach in the school-house on 'The Dynamics of Altruism.'"</p>
+
+<p>Several of these elaborately printed announcements had been posted up on
+big trees along the trails, and in other conspicuous places, and there
+was no doubt but that the coming Sabbath services were more talked of
+than anything else in that neighborhood for miles around, except the new
+teacher and her extraordinary way of making all the scholars fall in
+love with her. It is quite possible that the Reverend Frederick might
+not have been so flattered<a class="pagenum" title="128" name="page_128" id="page_128"></a> at the size of his audience when the day
+came if he could have known how many of them came principally because
+they thought it would be a good opportunity to see the new teacher.</p>
+
+<p>However, the announcements were read, and the preacher became an object
+of deep interest to the community when he went abroad. Under this
+attention he swelled, grew pleased, bland, and condescending, wearing an
+oily smile and bowing most conceitedly whenever anybody noticed him. He
+even began to drop his severity and silence at the table, toward the end
+of the week, and expanded into dignified conversation, mainly addressed
+to Mr. Tanner about the political situation in the State of Arizona. He
+was trying to impress the teacher with the fact that he looked upon her
+as a most insignificant mortal who had forfeited her right to his smiles
+by her headstrong and unseemly conduct when he had warned her about
+"that young ruffian."</p>
+
+<p>Out on the trail Long Bill and Jasper Kemp paused before a tree that
+bore the Reverend Frederick's church notice, and read in silence while
+the wide wonder of the desert spread about them.</p>
+
+<p>"What d'ye make out o' them cuss words, Jap?" asked Long Bill, at
+length. "D'ye figger the parson's goin' to preach on swearin' ur
+gunpowder?"</p>
+
+<p>"Blowed ef I know," answered Jasper, eying the sign ungraciously; "but
+by the looks of him he can't say much to suit me on neither one. He
+resembles a yaller cactus bloom out in a rain-storm as to head, an' his
+smile is like some of them prickles on the plant. He can't be no
+'sky-pilot' to me, not just yet."<a class="pagenum" title="129" name="page_129" id="page_129"></a></p>
+
+<p>"You don't allow he b'longs in any way to <i>her</i>?" asked Long Bill,
+anxiously, after they had been on their way for a half-hour.</p>
+
+<p>"B'long to <i>her</i>? Meanin' the schoolmarm?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; he ain't sweet on her nor nothin'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, I guess not," said Jasper, contentedly. "She's got eyes sharp's a
+needle. You don't size her up so small she's goin' to take to a sickly
+parson with yaller hair an' sleek ways when she's seen the Kid, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, no, it don't seem noways reasonable, but you never can tell. Women
+gets notions."</p>
+
+<p>"She ain't that kind! You mark my words, <i>she ain't that kind</i>. I'd lay
+she'd punch the breeze like a coyote ef he'd make up to her. Just you
+wait till you see him. He's the most no-'count, measleyest little thing
+that ever called himself a man. My word! I'd like to see him try to ride
+that colt o' mine. I really would. It would be some sight for sore eyes,
+it sure would."</p>
+
+<p>"Mebbe he's got a intellec'," suggested Long Bill, after another mile.
+"That goes a long ways with women-folks with a education."</p>
+
+<p>"No chance!" said Jasper, confidently. "'Ain't got room fer one under
+his yaller thatch. You wait till you set your lamps on him once before
+you go to gettin' excited. Why, he ain't one-two-three with our
+missionary! Gosh! I wish <i>he'd</i> come back an' see to such goin's-on&mdash;I
+certainly do."</p>
+
+<p>"Was you figgerin' to go to that gatherin' Sunday?"</p>
+
+<p>"I sure was," said Jasper. "I want to see the show, an', besides, we
+might be needed ef things got too high-soundin'. It ain't good to have a
+creature<a class="pagenum" title="130" name="page_130" id="page_130"></a> at large that thinks he knows all there is to know. I heard
+him talk down to the post-office the day after that little party we had
+when the Kid shot out the lights to save Bunchy from killin' Crapster,
+an' it's my opinion he needs a good spankin'; but I'm agoin' to give him
+a fair show. I ain't much on religion myself, but I do like to see a
+square deal, especially in a parson. I've sized it up he needs a
+lesson."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm with ye, Jap," said Long Bill, and the two rode on their way in
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret was so busy and so happy with her school all the week that she
+quite forgot her annoyance at the minister. She really saw very little
+of him, for he was always late to breakfast, and she took hers early.
+She went to her room immediately after supper, and he had little
+opportunity for pursuing her acquaintance. Perhaps he judged that it
+would be wise to let her alone until after he had made his grand
+impression on Sunday, and let her "make up" to him.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until Sunday morning that she suddenly recalled that he was
+to preach that day. She had indeed seen the notices, for a very large
+and elaborate one was posted in front of the school-house, and some
+anonymous artist had produced a fine caricature of the preacher in red
+clay underneath his name. Margaret had been obliged to remain after
+school Friday and remove as much of this portrait as she was able, not
+having been willing to make it a matter of discipline to discover the
+artist. In fact, it was so true to the model that the young teacher felt
+a growing sympathy for the one who had perpetrated it.<a class="pagenum" title="131" name="page_131" id="page_131"></a></p>
+
+<p>Margaret started to the school-house early Sunday morning, attended by
+the faithful Bud. Not that he had any more intention of going to
+Sunday-school than he had the week before, but it was pleasant to be the
+chosen escort of so popular a teacher. Even Jed and Timothy had walked
+home with her twice during the week. He did not intend to lose his place
+as nearest to her. There was only one to whom he would surrender that,
+and he was too far away to claim it often.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret had promised to help in the Sunday-school that morning, for the
+woman who taught the little ones was still away with her sick neighbor,
+and on the way she persuaded Bud to help her.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll be secretary for me, won't you, William?" she asked, brightly.
+"I'm going to take the left-front corner of the room for the children,
+and seat them on the recitation-benches, and that will leave all the
+back part of the room for the older people. Then I can use the
+blackboard and not disturb the rest."</p>
+
+<p>"Secretary?" asked the astonished Bud. He was, so to speak, growing
+accustomed to surprises. "Secretary" did not sound like being "a nice
+little Sunday-school boy."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes! take up the collection, and see who is absent, and so on. I
+don't know all the names, perhaps, and, anyhow, I don't like to do that
+when I have to teach!"</p>
+
+<p>Artful Margaret! She had no mind to leave Bud floating around outside
+the school-house, and though she had ostensibly prepared her lesson and
+her blackboard illustration for the little children, she had<a class="pagenum" title="132" name="page_132" id="page_132"></a> hidden in
+it a truth for Bud&mdash;poor, neglected, devoted Bud!</p>
+
+<p>The inefficient old man who taught the older people that day gathered
+his forces together and, seated with his back to the platform, his
+spectacles extended upon his long nose, he proceeded with the questions
+on the lesson-leaf, as usual, being more than ordinarily unfamiliar with
+them; but before he was half through he perceived by the long pauses
+between the questions and answers that he did not have the attention of
+his class. He turned slowly around to see what they were all looking at,
+and became so engaged in listening to the lesson the new teacher was
+drawing on the blackboard that he completely forgot to go on, until Bud,
+very important in his new position, rang the tiny desk-bell for the
+close of school, and Margaret, looking up, saw in dismay that she had
+been teaching the whole school.</p>
+
+<p>While they were singing a closing hymn the room began to fill up, and
+presently came the minister, walking importantly beside Mr. Tanner, his
+chin flattened upward as usual, but bent in till it made a double roll
+over his collar, his eyes rolling importantly, showing much of their
+whites, his sermon, in an elaborate leather cover, carried conspicuously
+under his arm, and the severest of clerical coats and collars setting
+out his insignificant face.</p>
+
+<p>Walking behind him in single file, measured step, just so far apart,
+came the eight men from the bunk-house&mdash;Long Bill, Big Jim, Fiddling
+Boss, Jasper Kemp, Fade-away Forbes, Stocky, Croaker, and Fudge; and
+behind them, looking like a scared rabbit, Mom Wallis scuttled into the
+back seat and sank out<a class="pagenum" title="133" name="page_133" id="page_133"></a> of sight. The eight men, however, ranged
+themselves across the front of the room on the recitation-bench,
+directly in front of the platform, removing a few small children for
+that purpose.</p>
+
+<p>They had been lined up in a scowling row along the path as the minister
+entered, looking at them askance under his aristocratic yellow eyebrows,
+and as he neared the door the last man followed in his wake, then the
+next, and so on.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret, in her seat half-way back at the side of the school-house near
+a window, saw through the trees a wide sombrero over a pair of broad
+shoulders; but, though she kept close watch, she did not see her friend
+of the wilderness enter the school-house. If he had really come to
+meeting, he was staying outside.</p>
+
+<p>The minister was rather nonplussed at first that there were no
+hymn-books. It almost seemed that he did not know how to go on with
+divine service without hymn-books, but at last he compromised on the
+long-meter Doxology, pronounced with deliberate unction. Then, looking
+about for a possible pipe-organ and choir, he finally started it
+himself; but it is doubtful whether any one would have recognized the
+tune enough to help it on if Margaret had not for very shame's sake
+taken it up and carried it along, and so they came to the prayer and
+Bible-reading.</p>
+
+<p>These were performed with a formal, perfunctory style calculated to
+impress the audience with the importance of the preacher rather than the
+words he was speaking. The audience was very quiet, having the air of
+reserving judgment for the sermon.<a class="pagenum" title="134" name="page_134" id="page_134"></a></p>
+
+<p>Margaret could not just remember afterward how it was she missed the
+text. She had turned her eyes away from the minister, because it somehow
+made her feel homesick to compare him with her dear, dignified father.
+Her mind had wandered, perhaps, to the sombrero she had glimpsed
+outside, and she was wondering how its owner was coming on with his
+resolves, and just what change they would mean in his life, anyway. Then
+suddenly she awoke to the fact that the sermon had begun.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="135" name="page_135" id="page_135"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Considered in the world of physics," began the lordly tones of the
+Reverend Frederick, "dynamics is that branch of mechanics that treats of
+the effects of forces in producing motion, and of the laws of motion
+thus produced; sometimes called kinetics, opposed to statics. It is the
+science that treats of the laws of force, whether producing equilibrium
+or motion; in this sense including both statics and kinetics. It is also
+applied to the forces producing or governing activity or movement of any
+kind; also the methods of such activity."</p>
+
+<p>The big words rolled out magnificently over the awed gathering, and the
+minister flattened his chin and rolled his eyes up at the people in his
+most impressive way.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret's gaze hastily sought the row of rough men on the front seat,
+sitting with folded arms in an attitude of attention, each man with a
+pair of intelligent eyes under his shaggy brows regarding the preacher
+as they might have regarded an animal in a zoo. Did they understand what
+had been said? It was impossible to tell from their serious faces.</p>
+
+<p>"Philanthropy has been called the dynamics of Christianity; that is to
+say, it is Christianity in action," went on the preacher. "It is my
+purpose<a class="pagenum" title="136" name="page_136" id="page_136"></a> this morning to speak upon the dynamics of altruism. Now
+altruism is the theory that inculcates benevolence to others in
+subordination to self-interest; interested benevolence as opposed to
+disinterested; also, the practice of this theory."</p>
+
+<p>He lifted his eyes to the audience once more and nodded his head
+slightly, as if to emphasize the deep truth he had just given them, and
+the battery of keen eyes before him never flinched from his face. They
+were searching him through and through. Margaret wondered if he had no
+sense of the ridiculous, that he could, to such an audience, pour forth
+such a string of technical definitions. They sounded strangely like
+dictionary language. She wondered if anybody present besides herself
+knew what the man meant or got any inkling of what his subject was.
+Surely he would drop to simpler language, now that he had laid out his
+plan.</p>
+
+<p>It never occurred to her that the man was trying to impress <i>her</i> with
+his wonderful fluency of language and his marvelous store of wisdom. On
+and on he went in much the same trend he had begun, with now and then a
+flowery sentence or whole paragraph of meaningless eloquence about the
+"brotherhood of man"&mdash;with a roll to the r's in brotherhood.</p>
+
+<p>Fifteen minutes of this profitless oratory those men of the wilderness
+endured, stolidly and with fixed attention; then, suddenly, a sentence
+of unusual simplicity struck them and an almost visible thrill went down
+the front seat.</p>
+
+<p>"For years the church has preached a dead faith, without works, my
+friends, and the time has come to stop preaching faith! I repeat
+it&mdash;fellow-men.<a class="pagenum" title="137" name="page_137" id="page_137"></a> I repeat it. The time has come <i>to stop preaching
+faith</i> and begin to do good works!" He thumped the desk vehemently. "Men
+don't need a superstitious belief in a Saviour to save them from their
+sins; they need to go to work and save themselves! As if a man dying two
+thousand years ago on a cross could do any good to you and me to-day!"</p>
+
+<p>It was then that the thrill passed down that front line, and Long Bill,
+sitting at their head, leaned slightly forward and looked full and
+frowning into the face of Jasper Kemp; and the latter, frowning back,
+solemnly winked one eye. Margaret sat where she could see the whole
+thing.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately, still with studied gravity, Long Bill cleared his throat
+impressively, arose, and, giving the minister a full look in the eye, of
+the nature almost of a challenge, he turned and walked slowly, noisily
+down the aisle and out the front door.</p>
+
+<p>The minister was visibly annoyed, and for the moment a trifle flustered;
+but, concluding his remarks had been too deep for the rough creature, he
+gathered up the thread of his argument and proceeded:</p>
+
+<p>"We need to get to work at our duty toward our fellow-men. We need to
+down trusts and give the laboring-man a chance. We need to stop
+insisting that men shall believe in the inspiration of the entire Bible
+and get to work at something practical!"</p>
+
+<p>The impressive pause after this sentence was interrupted by a sharp,
+rasping sound of Big Jim clearing his throat and shuffling to his feet.
+He, too, looked the minister full in the face with a searching gaze,
+shook his head sadly, and walked leisurely<a class="pagenum" title="138" name="page_138" id="page_138"></a> down the aisle and out of
+the door. The minister paused again and frowned. This was becoming
+annoying.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret sat in startled wonder. Could it be possible that these rough
+men were objecting to the sermon from a theological point of view, or
+was it just a happening that they had gone out at such pointed moments.
+She sat back after a minute, telling herself that of course the men must
+just have been weary of the long sentences, which no doubt they could
+not understand. She began to hope that Gardley was not within hearing.
+It was not probable that many others understood enough to get harm from
+the sermon, but her soul boiled with indignation that a man could go
+forth and call himself a minister of an evangelical church and yet talk
+such terrible heresy.</p>
+
+<p>Big Jim's steps died slowly away on the clay path outside, and the
+preacher resumed his discourse.</p>
+
+<p>"We have preached long enough of hell and torment. It is time for a
+gospel of love to our brothers. Hell is a superstition of the Dark Ages.
+<i>There is no hell!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Fiddling Boss turned sharply toward Jasper Kemp, as if waiting for a
+signal, and Jasper gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod. Whereupon
+Fiddling Boss cleared his throat loudly and arose, faced the minister,
+and marched down the aisle, while Jasper Kemp remained quietly seated as
+if nothing had happened, a vacancy each side of him.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the color began to rise in the minister's cheeks. He looked
+at the retreating back of Fiddling Boss, and then suspiciously down at<a class="pagenum" title="139" name="page_139" id="page_139"></a>
+the row of men, but every one of them sat with folded arms and eyes
+intent upon the sermon, as if their comrades had not left them. The
+minister thought he must have been mistaken and took up the broken
+thread once more, or tried to, but he had hopelessly lost the place in
+his manuscript, and the only clue that offered was a quotation of a poem
+about the devil; to be sure, the connection was somewhat abrupt, but he
+clutched it with his eye gratefully and began reading it dramatically:</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;">"'Men don't believe in the devil now<br />
+As their fathers used to do&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>But he had got no further when a whole clearing-house of throats
+sounded, and Fade-away Forbes stumbled to his feet frantically, bolting
+down the aisle as if he had been sent for. He had not quite reached the
+door when Stocky clumped after him, followed at intervals by Croaker and
+Fudge, and each just as the minister had begun:</p>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah! To resume&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>And now only Jasper Kemp remained of the front-seaters, his fine gray
+eyes boring through and through the minister as he floundered through
+the remaining portion of his manuscript up to the point where it began,
+"And finally&mdash;" which opened with another poem:</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;">"'I need no Christ to die for me.'"</p>
+
+<p>The sturdy, gray-haired Scotchman suddenly lowered his folded arms,
+slapping a hand resoundingly on each knee, bent his shoulders the better
+to pull himself to his feet, pressing his weight on his hands<a class="pagenum" title="140" name="page_140" id="page_140"></a> till his
+elbows were akimbo, uttered a deep sigh and a, "Yes&mdash;well&mdash;<i>ah</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>With that he got to his feet and dragged them slowly out of the
+school-house.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the minister was ready to burst with indignation. Never
+before in all the bombastic days of his egotism had he been so grossly
+insulted, and by such rude creatures! And yet there was really nothing
+that could be said or done. These men appeared to be simple creatures
+who had wandered in idly, perhaps for a few moments' amusement, and,
+finding the discourse above their caliber, had innocently wandered out
+again. That was the way it had been made to appear. But his plans had
+been cruelly upset by such actions, and he was mortified in the extreme.
+His face was purple with his emotions, and he struggled and spluttered
+for a way out of his trying dilemma. At last he spoke, and his voice was
+absurdly dignified:</p>
+
+<p>"Is there&mdash;ah&mdash;any other&mdash;ah&mdash;auditor&mdash;ah&mdash;who is desirous of
+withdrawing before the close of service? If so he may do so now,
+or&mdash;ah&mdash;" He paused for a suitable ending, and familiar words rushed to
+his lips without consciousness for the moment of their meaning&mdash;"or
+forever after hold their peace&mdash;ah!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a deathly silence in the school-house. No one offered to go
+out, and Margaret suddenly turned her head and looked out of the window.
+Her emotions were almost beyond her control.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the closing eloquence proceeded to its finish, and at last the
+service was over. Margaret looked about for Mom Wallis, but she had
+disappeared.<a class="pagenum" title="141" name="page_141" id="page_141"></a> She signed to Bud, and together they hastened out; but a
+quiet Sabbath peace reigned about the door of the school-house, and not
+a man from the camp was in sight; no, nor even the horses upon which
+they had come.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, when the minister had finished shaking hands with the
+worshipful women and a few men and children, and came with Mr. Tanner to
+the door of the school-house, those eight men stood in a solemn row,
+four on each side of the walk, each holding his chin in his right hand,
+his right elbow in his left hand, and all eyes on Jasper Kemp, who kept
+his eyes thoughtfully up in the sky.</p>
+
+<p>"H'w aire yeh, Tanner? Pleasant 'casion. Mind steppin' on a bit? We men
+wanta have a word with the parson."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tanner stepped on hurriedly, and the minister was left standing
+nonplussed and alone in the doorway of the school-house.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="142" name="page_142" id="page_142"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah!" began the minister, trying to summon his best clerical manner
+to meet&mdash;what? He did not know. It was best to assume they were a
+penitent band of inquirers for the truth. But the memory of their recent
+exodus from the service was rather too clearly in his mind for his
+pleasantest expression to be uppermost toward these rough creatures.
+Insolent fellows! He ought to give them a good lesson in behavior!</p>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah!" he began again, but found to his surprise that his remarks
+thus far had had no effect whatever on the eight stolid countenances
+before him. In fact, they seemed to have grown grim and menacing even in
+their quiet attitude, and their eyes were fulfilling the promise of the
+look they had given him when they left the service.</p>
+
+<p>"What does all this mean, anyway?" he burst forth, suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Calm yourself, elder! Calm yourself," spoke up Long Bill. "There ain't
+any occasion to get excited."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not an elder; I'm a minister of the gospel," exploded West, in his
+most pompous tones. "I should like to know who you are and what all this
+means?"<a class="pagenum" title="143" name="page_143" id="page_143"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, parson, we understand who you are. We understand quite well, an'
+we're agoin' to tell you who we are. We're a band of al-tru-ists! That's
+what we are. We're <i>altruists</i>!" It was Jasper Kemp of the keen eyes and
+sturdy countenance who spoke. "And we've come here in brotherly love to
+exercise a little of that dynamic force of altruism you was talkin'
+about. We just thought we'd begin on you so's you could see that we got
+some works to go 'long with our faith."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, sir?" said West, looking from one grim countenance to
+another. "I&mdash;I don't quite understand." The minister was beginning to be
+frightened, he couldn't exactly tell why. He wished he had kept Brother
+Tanner with him. It was the first time he had ever thought of Mr. Tanner
+as "brother."</p>
+
+<p>"We mean just this, parson; you been talkin' a lot of lies in there
+about there bein' no Saviour an' no hell, ner no devil, an' while we
+ain't much credit to God ourselves, bein' just common men, we know all
+that stuff you said ain't true about the Bible an' the devil bein'
+superstitions, an' we thought we better exercise a little of that there
+altruism you was talkin' about an' teach you better. You see, it's real
+brotherly kindness, parson. An' now we're goin' to give you a sample of
+that dynamics you spoke about. Are you ready, boys?"</p>
+
+<p>"All ready," they cried as one man.</p>
+
+<p>There seemed to be no concerted motion, nor was there warning. Swifter
+than the weaver's shuttle, sudden as the lightning's flash, the minister
+was caught from where he stood pompously in that<a class="pagenum" title="144" name="page_144" id="page_144"></a> doorway, hat in hand,
+all grandly as he was attired, and hurled from man to man. Across the
+walk and back; across and back; across and back; until it seemed to him
+it was a thousand miles all in a minute of time. He had no opportunity
+to prepare for the onslaught. He jammed his high silk hat, wherewith he
+had thought to overawe the community, upon his sleek head, and grasped
+his precious sermon-case to his breast; the sermon, as it well deserved,
+was flung to the four winds of heaven and fortunately was no more&mdash;that
+is, existing as a whole. The time came when each of those eight men
+recovered and retained a portion of that learned oration, and Mom
+Wallis, not quite understanding, pinned up and used as a sort of shrine
+the portion about doubting the devil; but as a sermon the parts were
+never assembled on this earth, nor could be, for some of it was ground
+to powder under eight pairs of ponderous heels. But the minister at that
+trying moment was too much otherwise engaged to notice that the child of
+his brain lay scattered on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Seven times he made the round up and down, up and down that merciless
+group, tossed like a thistle-down from man to man. And at last, when his
+breath was gone, when the world had grown black before him, and he felt
+smaller and more inadequate than he had ever felt in his whole conceited
+life before, he found himself bound, helplessly bound, and cast
+ignominiously into a wagon. And it was a strange thing that, though
+seemingly but five short minutes before the place had been swarming with
+worshipful admirers thanking him for his<a class="pagenum" title="145" name="page_145" id="page_145"></a> sermon, now there did not seem
+to be a creature within hearing, for he called and cried aloud and
+roared with his raucous voice until it would seem that all the
+surrounding States might have heard that cry from Arizona, yet none came
+to his relief.</p>
+
+<p>They carried him away somewhere, he did not know where; it was a lonely
+spot and near a water-hole. When he protested and loudly blamed them,
+threatening all the law in the land upon them, they regarded him as one
+might a naughty child who needed chastisement, leniently and with
+sorrow, but also with determination.</p>
+
+<p>They took him down by the water's side and stood him up among them. He
+began to tremble with fear as he looked from one to another, for he was
+not a man of courage, and he had heard strange tales of this wild, free
+land, where every man was a law unto himself. Were they going to drown
+him then and there? Then up spoke Jasper Kemp:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Parson," he said, and his voice was kind but firm; one might almost
+say there was a hint of humor in it, and there surely was a twinkle in
+his eye; but the sternness of his lips belied it, and the minister was
+in no state to appreciate humor&mdash;"Mr. Parson, we've brought you here to
+do you good, an' you oughtn't to complain. This is altruism, an' we're
+but actin' out what you been preachin'. You're our brother an' we're
+tryin' to do you good; an' now we're about to show you what a dynamic
+force we are. You see, Mr. Parson, I was brought up by a good Scotch
+grandmother, an' I know a lie when I hear it, an' when I hear a man
+preach error I know it's time to set him straight; so now we're<a class="pagenum" title="146" name="page_146" id="page_146"></a> agoin'
+to set you straight. I don't know where you come from, nor who brang you
+up, nor what church set you afloat, but I know enough by all my
+grandmother taught me&mdash;even if I hadn't been a-listenin' off and on for
+two years back to Mr. Brownleigh, our missionary&mdash;to know you're a
+dangerous man to have at large. I'd as soon have a mad dog let loose.
+Why, what you preach ain't the gospel, an' it ain't the truth, and the
+time has come for you to know it, an' own it and recant. Recant! That's
+what they call it. That's what we're here to see 't you do, or we'll
+know the reason why. That's the <i>dynamics</i> of it. See?"</p>
+
+<p>The minister saw. He saw the deep, muddy water-hole. He saw nothing
+more.</p>
+
+<p>"Folks are all too ready to believe them there things you was gettin'
+off without havin' 'em <i>preached</i> to justify 'em in their evil ways. We
+gotta think of those poor ignorant brothers of ours that might listen to
+you. See? That's the <i>altruism</i> of it!"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want me to do?" The wretched man's tone was not merely
+humble&mdash;it was abject. His grand Prince Albert coat was torn in three
+places; one tail hung down dejectedly over his hip; one sleeve was
+ripped half-way out. His collar was unbuttoned and the ends rode up
+hilariously over his cheeks. His necktie was gone. His sleek hair stuck
+out in damp wisps about his frightened eyes, and his hat had been "stove
+in" and jammed down as far as it would go until his ample ears stuck out
+like sails at half-mast. His feet were imbedded in the heavy mud on the
+margin of the water-hole, and his fine silk socks, which had showed at
+one<a class="pagenum" title="147" name="page_147" id="page_147"></a> time above the erstwhile neat tyings, were torn and covered with
+mud.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, in the first place," said Jasper Kemp, with a slow wink around at
+the company, "that little matter about hell needs adjustin'. Hell ain't
+no superstition. I ain't dictatin' what kind of a hell there is; you can
+make it fire or water or anything else you like, but <i>there is a hell</i>,
+an' <i>you believe in it</i>. D'ye understand? We'd just like to have you
+make that statement publicly right here an' now."</p>
+
+<p>"But how can I say what I don't believe?" whined West, almost ready to
+cry. He had come proudly through a trial by Presbytery on these very
+same points, and had posed as being a man who had the courage of his
+convictions. He could not thus easily surrender his pride of original
+thought and broad-mindedness. He had received congratulations from a
+number of noble martyrs who had left their chosen church for just such
+reasons, congratulating him on his brave stand. It had been the first
+notice from big men he had ever been able to attract to himself, and it
+had gone to his head like wine. Give that up for a few miserable
+cowboys! It might get into the papers and go back East. He must think of
+his reputation.</p>
+
+<p>"That's just where the dynamics of the thing comes in, brother," said
+Jasper Kemp, patronizingly. "We're here to <i>make</i> you believe in a hell.
+We're the force that will bring you back into the right way of thinkin'
+again. Are you ready, boys?"</p>
+
+<p>The quiet utterance brought goose-flesh up to West's very ears, and his
+eyes bulged with horror.<a class="pagenum" title="148" name="page_148" id="page_148"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that isn't necessary! I believe&mdash;yes, I believe in hell!" he
+shouted, as they seized him.</p>
+
+<p>But it was too late. The Rev. Frederick West was plunged into the
+water-hole, from whose sheep-muddied waters he came up spluttering,
+"Yes, I believe in <i>hell</i>!" and for the first time in his life, perhaps,
+he really did believe in it, and thought that he was in it.</p>
+
+<p>The men were standing knee-deep in the water and holding their captive
+lightly by his arms and legs, their eyes upon their leader, waiting now.</p>
+
+<p>Jasper Kemp stood in the water, also, looking down benevolently upon his
+victim, his chin in his hand, his elbow in his other hand, an attitude
+which carried a feeling of hopelessness to the frightened minister.</p>
+
+<p>"An' now there's that little matter of the devil," said Jasper Kemp,
+reflectively. "We'll just fix that up next while we're near his place of
+residence. You believe in the devil, Mr. Parson, from now on? If you'd
+ever tried resistin' him I figger you'd have b'lieved in him long ago.
+But <i>you believe in him</i> from <i>now on</i>, an' you <i>don't preach against
+him any more</i>! We're not goin' to have our Arizona men gettin' off their
+guard an' thinkin' their enemy is dead. There <i>is</i> a devil, parson, and
+you believe in him! Duck him, boys!"</p>
+
+<p>Down went the minister into the water again, and came up spluttering,
+"Yes, I&mdash;I&mdash;I&mdash;believe&mdash;in-the&mdash;devil." Even in this strait he was loath
+to surrender his pet theme&mdash;no devil.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, so far as it goes," said Jasper Kemp, thoughtfully. "But
+now, boys, we're comin' to the<a class="pagenum" title="149" name="page_149" id="page_149"></a> most important of all, and you better
+put him under about three times, for there mustn't be no mistake about
+this matter. You believe in the Bible, parson&mdash;<i>the whole Bible</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes!" gasped West, as he went down the first time and got a mouthful of
+the bitter water, "I believe&mdash;" The voice was fairly anguished. Down he
+went again. Another mouthful of water. "<i>I believe in the whole Bible!</i>"
+he screamed, and went down the third time. His voice was growing weaker,
+but he came up and reiterated it without request, and was lifted out
+upon the mud for a brief respite. The men of the bunk-house were
+succeeding better than the Presbytery back in the East had been able to
+do. The conceit was no longer visible in the face of the Reverend
+Frederick. His teeth were chattering, and he was beginning to see one
+really needed to believe in something when one came as near to his end
+as this.</p>
+
+<p>"There's just one more thing to reckon with," said Jasper Kemp,
+thoughtfully. "That line of talk you was handin' out about a man dyin'
+on a cross two thousand years ago bein' nothin' to you. You said you
+<i>an' me</i>, but you can speak for <i>yourself</i>. We may not be much to look
+at, but we ain't goin' to stand for no such slander as that. Our
+missionary preaches all about that Man on the Cross, an' if you don't
+need Him before you get through this little campaign of life I'll miss
+my guess. Mebbe we haven't been all we might have been, but we ain't
+agoin' to let you ner no one else go back on that there Cross!"</p>
+
+<p>Jasper Kemp's tone was tender and solemn. As<a class="pagenum" title="150" name="page_150" id="page_150"></a> the minister lay panting
+upon his back in the mud he was forced to acknowledge that at only two
+other times in his life had a tone of voice so arrested his attention
+and filled him with awe; once when as a boy he had been caught copying
+off another's paper at examination-time, and he had been sent to the
+principal's office; and again on the occasion of his mother's funeral,
+as he sat in the dim church a few years ago and listened to the old
+minister. For a moment now he was impressed with the wonder of the
+Cross, and it suddenly seemed as if he were being arraigned before the
+eyes of Him with Whom we all have to do. A kind of shame stole into his
+pale, flabby face, all the smugness and complacence gone, and he a poor
+wretch in the hands of his accusers. Jasper Kemp, standing over him on
+the bank, looking down grimly upon him, seemed like the emissary of God
+sent to condemn him, and his little, self-centered soul quailed within
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Along near the end of that discourse of yours you mentioned that sin
+was only misplaced energy. Well, if that's so there's a heap of your
+energy gone astray this mornin', an' the time has come for you to pay
+up. Speak up now an' say what you believe or whether you want another
+duckin'&mdash;an' it'll be seven times this time!"</p>
+
+<p>The man on the ground shut his eyes and gasped. The silence was very
+solemn. There seemed no hint of the ridiculous in the situation. It was
+serious business now to all those men. Their eyes were on their leader.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you solemnly declare before God&mdash;I s'pose you still believe in a
+God, as you didn't say nothin'<a class="pagenum" title="151" name="page_151" id="page_151"></a> to the contrary&mdash;that from now on you'll
+stand for that there Cross and for Him that hung on it?"</p>
+
+<p>The minister opened his eyes and looked up into the wide brightness of
+the sky, as if he half expected to see horses and chariots of fire
+standing about to do battle with him then and there, and his voice was
+awed and frightened as he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I do!"</p>
+
+<p>There was silence, and the men stood with half-bowed heads, as if some
+solemn service were being performed that they did not quite understand,
+but in which they fully sympathized. Then Jasper Kemp said, softly:</p>
+
+<p>"Amen!" And after a pause: "I ain't any sort of a Christian myself, but
+I just can't stand it to see a parson floatin' round that don't even
+know the name of the firm he's workin' for. Now, parson, there's just
+one more requirement, an' then you can go home."</p>
+
+<p>The minister opened his eyes and looked around with a frightened appeal,
+but no one moved, and Jasper Kemp went on:</p>
+
+<p>"You say you had a church in New York. What was the name and address
+of your workin'-boss up there?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean? I hadn't any boss."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, him that hired you an' paid you. The chief elder or whatever you
+called him."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" The minister's tone expressed lack of interest in the subject, but
+he answered, languidly, "Ezekiel Newbold, Hazelton."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good. Now, parson, you'll just kindly write two copies of a letter
+to Mr. Ezekiel Newbold<a class="pagenum" title="152" name="page_152" id="page_152"></a> statin' what you've just said to us concernin'
+your change of faith, sign your name, address one to Mr. Newbold, an'
+give the duplicate to me. We just want this little matter put on record
+so you can't change your mind any in future. Do you get my idea?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the minister, dispiritedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you do it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," apathetically.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now I got a piece of advice for you. It would be just as well for
+your health for you to leave Arizona about as quick as you can find it
+convenient to pack, but you won't be allowed to leave this town, day or
+night, cars or afoot, until them there letters are all O.K. Do you get
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," pathetically.</p>
+
+<p>"I might add, by way of explainin', that if you had come to Arizona an'
+minded your own business you wouldn't have been interfered with. You
+mighta preached whatever bosh you darned pleased so far as we was
+concerned, only you wouldn't have had no sorta audience after the first
+try of that stuff you give to-day. But when you come to Arizona an' put
+your fingers in other folks' pie, when you tried to 'squeal' on the
+young gentleman who was keen enough to shoot out the lights to save a
+man's life, why, we 'ain't no further use for you. In the first place,
+you was all wrong. You thought the Kid shot out the lights to steal the
+gamin'-money; but he didn't. He put it all in the hands of the sheriff
+some hours before your 'private information' reached him through the
+mail. You thought you were awful sharp, you little sneak!<a class="pagenum" title="153" name="page_153" id="page_153"></a> But I wasn't
+the only man present who saw you put your foot out an' cover a gold
+piece that rolled on the floor just when the fight began. You thought
+nobody was a-lookin', but you'll favor us, please, with that identical
+gold piece along with the letter before you leave. Well, boys, that'll
+be about all, then. Untie him!"</p>
+
+<p>In silence and with a kind of contemptuous pity in their faces the
+strong men stooped and unbound him; then, without another word, they
+left him, tramping solemnly away single file to their horses, standing
+at a little distance.</p>
+
+<p>Jasper Kemp lingered for a moment, looking down at the wretched man.
+"Would you care to have us carry you back to the house?" he asked,
+reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>"No!" said the minister, bitterly. "No!" And without another word Jasper
+Kemp left him.</p>
+
+<p>Into the mesquite-bushes crept the minister, his glory all departed, and
+hid his misery from the light, groaning in bitterness of spirit. He who
+had made the hearts of a score of old ministers to sorrow for Zion, who
+had split in two a pleasantly united congregation, disrupted a session,
+and brought about a scandalous trial in Presbytery was at last
+conquered. The Rev. Frederick West had recanted!</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="154" name="page_154" id="page_154"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>When Margaret left the school-house with Bud she had walked but a few
+steps when she remembered Mom Wallis and turned back to search for her;
+but nowhere could she find a trace of her, and the front of the
+school-house was as empty of any people from the camp as if they had not
+been there that morning. The curtain had not yet risen for the scene of
+the undoing of West.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose she must have gone home with them," said the girl, wistfully.
+"I'm sorry not to have spoken with her. She was good to me."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean Mom Wallis?" said the boy. "No, she ain't gone home. She's
+hiking 'long to our house to see you. The Kid went along of her. See,
+there&mdash;down by those cottonwood-trees? That's them."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret turned with eagerness and hurried along with Bud now. She knew
+who it was they called the Kid in that tone of voice. It was the way the
+men had spoken of and to him, a mingling of respect and gentling that
+showed how much beloved he was. Her cheeks wore a heightened color, and
+her heart gave a pleasant flutter of interest.</p>
+
+<p>They walked rapidly and caught up with their guests before they had
+reached the Tanner house,<a class="pagenum" title="155" name="page_155" id="page_155"></a> and Margaret had the pleasure of seeing Mom
+Wallis's face flush with shy delight when she caught her softly round
+the waist, stealing quietly up behind, and greeted her with a kiss.
+There had not been many kisses for Mom Wallis in the later years, and
+the two that were to Margaret Earle's account seemed very sweet to her.
+Mom Wallis's eyes shone as if she had been a young girl as she turned
+with a smothered "Oh!" She was a woman not given to expressing herself;
+indeed, it might be said that the last twenty years of her life had been
+mainly of self-repression. She gave that one little gasp of recognition
+and pleasure, and then she relapsed into embarrassed silence beside the
+two young people who found pleasure in their own greetings. Bud,
+boy-like, was after a cottontail, along with Cap, who had appeared from
+no one knew where and was attending the party joyously.</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis, in her big, rough shoes, on the heels of which her scant
+brown calico gown was lifted as she walked, trudged shyly along between
+the two young people, as carefully watched and helped over the humps and
+bumps of the way as if she had been a princess. Margaret noticed with a
+happy approval how Gardley's hand was ready under the old woman's elbow
+to assist her as politely as he might have done for her own mother had
+she been walking by his side.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Bud and Cap returned, and Bud, with observant eye, soon timed
+his step to Margaret's on her other side and touched her elbow lightly
+to help her over the next rut. This was his second lesson in manners
+from Gardley. He had his first<a class="pagenum" title="156" name="page_156" id="page_156"></a> the Sunday before, watching the two
+while he and Cap walked behind. Bud was learning. He had keen eyes and
+an alert brain. Margaret smiled understandingly at him, and his face
+grew deep red with pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"He was bringin' me to see where you was livin'," explained Mom Wallis,
+suddenly, nodding toward Gardley as if he had been a king. "We wasn't
+hopin' to see you, except mebbe just as you come by goin' in."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, then I'm so glad I caught up with you in time. I wouldn't have
+missed you for anything. I went back to look for you. Now you're coming
+in to dinner with me, both of you," declared Margaret, joyfully.
+"William, your mother will have enough dinner for us all, won't she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!" said Bud, with that assurance born of his life acquaintance with
+his mother, who had never failed him in a trying situation so far as
+things to eat were concerned.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret looked happily from one of her invited guests to the other, and
+Gardley forgot to answer for himself in watching the brightness of her
+face, and wondering why it was so different from the faces of all other
+girls he knew anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>But Mom Wallis was overwhelmed. A wave of red rolled dully up from her
+withered neck in its gala collar over her leathery face to the roots of
+her thin, gray hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Me! Stay to dinner! Oh, I couldn't do that nohow! Not in these here
+clo'es. 'Course I got that pretty collar you give me, but I couldn't
+never go out to dinner in this old dress an' these shoes. I<a class="pagenum" title="157" name="page_157" id="page_157"></a> know what
+folks ought to look like an' I ain't goin' to shame you."</p>
+
+<p>"Shame me? Nonsense! Your dress is all right, and who is going to see
+your shoes? Besides, I've just set my heart on it. I want to take you up
+to my room and show you the pictures of my father and mother and home
+and the church where I was christened, and everything."</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis looked at her with wistful eyes, but still shook her head.
+"Oh, I'd like to mighty well. It's good of you to ast me. But I
+couldn't. I just couldn't. 'Sides, I gotta go home an' git the men's
+grub ready."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, can't she stay this time, Mr. Gardley?" appealed Margaret. "The men
+won't mind for once, will they?"</p>
+
+<p>Gardley looked into her true eyes and saw she really meant the
+invitation. He turned to the withered old woman by his side. "Mom, we're
+going to stay," he declared, joyously. "She wants us, and we have to do
+whatever she says. The men will rub along. They all know how to cook.
+Mom, <i>we're going to stay</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"That's beautiful!" declared Margaret. "It's so nice to have some
+company of my own." Then her face suddenly sobered. "Mr. Wallis won't
+mind, will he?" And she looked with troubled eyes from one of her guests
+to the other. She did not want to prepare trouble for poor Mom Wallis
+when she went back.</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis turned startled eyes toward her. There was contempt in her
+face and outraged womanhood. "Pop's gone off," she said, significantly.<a class="pagenum" title="158" name="page_158" id="page_158"></a>
+"He went yist'day. But he 'ain't got no call t' mind. I ben waitin' on
+Pop nigh on to twenty year, an' I guess I'm goin' to a dinner-party, now
+'t I'm invited. Pop 'd better <i>not</i> mind, I guess!"</p>
+
+<p>And Margaret suddenly saw how much, how very much, her invitation had
+been to the starved old soul. Margaret took her guests into the stiff
+little parlor and slipped out to interview her landlady. She found Mrs.
+Tanner, as she had expected, a large-minded woman who was quite pleased
+to have more guests to sit down to her generous dinner, particularly as
+her delightful boarder had hinted of ample recompense in the way of
+board money; and she fluttered about, sending Tanner after another jar
+of pickles, some more apple-butter, and added another pie to the menu.</p>
+
+<p>Well pleased, Margaret left Mrs. Tanner and slipped back to her guests.
+She found Gardley making arrangements with Bud to run back to the church
+and tell the men to leave the buckboard for them, as they would not be
+home for dinner. While this was going on she took Mom Wallis up to her
+room to remove her bonnet and smooth her hair.</p>
+
+<p>It is doubtful whether Mom Wallis ever did see such a room in her life;
+for when Margaret swung open the door the poor little woman stopped
+short on the threshold, abashed, and caught her breath, looking around
+with wondering eyes and putting out a trembling hand to steady herself
+against the door-frame. She wasn't quite sure whether things in that
+room were real, or whether she might not by chance have caught a glimpse
+into heaven, so beautiful did it seem to her. It was not till her eyes,
+in the<a class="pagenum" title="159" name="page_159" id="page_159"></a> roving, suddenly rested on the great mountain framed in the open
+window that she felt anchored and sure that this was a tangible place.
+Then she ventured to step her heavy shoe inside the door. Even then she
+drew her ugly calico back apologetically, as if it were a desecration to
+the lovely room.</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret seized her and drew her into the room, placing her gently
+in the rose-ruffled rocking-chair as if it were a throne and she a
+queen, and the poor little woman sat entranced, with tears springing to
+her eyes and trickling down her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps it was an impossibility for Margaret to conceive what the vision
+of that room meant to Mom Wallis. The realization of all the dreams of a
+starved soul concentrated into a small space; the actual, tangible proof
+that there might be a heaven some day&mdash;who knew?&mdash;since beauties and
+comforts like these could be real in Arizona.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret brought the pictures of her father and mother, of her dear home
+and the dear old church. She took her about the room and showed her the
+various pictures and reminders of her college days, and when she saw
+that the poor creature was overwhelmed and speechless she turned her
+about and showed her the great mountain again, like an anchorage for her
+soul.</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis looked at everything speechlessly, gasping as her attention
+was turned from one object to another, as if she were unable to rise
+beyond her excitement; but when she saw the mountain again her tongue
+was loosed, and she turned and looked back at the girl wonderingly.<a class="pagenum" title="160" name="page_160" id="page_160"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Now, ain't it strange! Even that old mounting looks diffrunt&mdash;it do
+look diffrunt from a room like this. Why, it looks like it got its hair
+combed an' its best collar on!" And Mom Wallis looked down with pride
+and patted the simple net ruffle about her withered throat. "Why, it
+looks like a picter painted an' hung up on this yere wall, that's what
+that mounting looks like! It kinda ain't no mounting any more; it's jest
+a picter in your room!"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret smiled. "It is a picture, isn't it? Just look at that silver
+light over the purple place. Isn't it wonderful? I like to think it's
+mine&mdash;my mountain. And yet the beautiful thing about it is that it's
+just as much yours, too. It will make a picture of itself framed in your
+bunk-house window if you let it. Try it. You just need to let it."</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis looked at her wonderingly. "Do you mean," she said, studying
+the girl's lovely face, "that ef I should wash them there bunk-house
+winders, an' string up some posy caliker, an' stuff a chair, an' have a
+pin-cushion, I could make that there mounting come in an' set fer me
+like a picter the way it does here fer you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's what I mean," said Margaret, softly, marveling how the
+uncouth woman had caught the thought. "That's exactly what I mean. God's
+gifts will be as much to us as we will let them, always. Try it and
+see."</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis stood for some minutes looking out reflectively at the
+mountain. "Wal, mebbe I'll try it!" she said, and turned back to survey
+the room again.</p>
+
+<p>And now the mirror caught her eye, and she saw<a class="pagenum" title="161" name="page_161" id="page_161"></a> herself, a strange self
+in a soft white collar, and went up to get a nearer view, laying a
+toil-worn finger on the lace and looking half embarrassed at sight of
+her own face.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a real purty collar," she said, softly, with a choke in her voice.
+"It's too purty fer me. I told him so, but he said as how you wanted I
+should dress up every night fer supper in it. It's 'most as strange as
+havin' a mounting come an' live with you, to wear a collar like
+that&mdash;me!"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret's eyes were suddenly bright with tears. Who would have
+suspected Mom Wallis of having poetry in her nature? Then, as if her
+thoughts anticipated the question in Margaret's mind, Mom Wallis went
+on:</p>
+
+<p>"He brang me your little book," she said. "I ain't goin' to say thank
+yeh, it ain't a big-'nuf word. An' he read me the poetry words it says.
+I got it wropped in a hankercher on the top o' the beam over my bed. I'm
+goin' to have it buried with me when I die. Oh, I <i>read</i> it. I couldn't
+make much out of it, but I read the words thorough. An' then <i>he</i> read
+'em&mdash;the Kid did. He reads just beautiful. He's got education, he has.
+He read it, and he talked a lot about it. Was this what you mean? Was it
+that we ain't really growin' old at all, we're jest goin' on, <i>gettin</i>'
+there, if we go right? Did you mean you think Him as planned it all
+wanted some old woman right thar in the bunk-house, an' it's <i>me</i>? Did
+you mean there was agoin' to be a chanct fer me to be young an'
+beautiful somewheres in creation yit, 'fore I git through?"</p>
+
+<p>The old woman had turned around from looking<a class="pagenum" title="162" name="page_162" id="page_162"></a> into the mirror and was
+facing her hostess. Her eyes were very bright; her cheeks had taken on
+an excited flush, and her knotted hands were clutching the bureau. She
+looked into Margaret's eyes earnestly, as though her very life depended
+upon the answer; and Margaret, with a great leap of her heart, smiled
+and answered:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Mrs. Wallis, yes, that is just what I meant. Listen, these are
+God's own words about it: 'For I reckon that the sufferings of this
+present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be
+revealed in us.'"</p>
+
+<p>A kind of glory shone in the withered old face now. "Did you say them
+was God's words?" she asked in an awed voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Margaret; "they are in the Bible."</p>
+
+<p>"But you couldn't be sure it meant <i>me</i>?" she asked, eagerly. "They
+wouldn't go to put <i>me</i> in the Bible, o' course."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, you could be quite sure, Mrs. Wallis," said Margaret, gently.
+"Because if God was making you and had a plan for you, as the poem says,
+He would be sure to put down something in His book about it, don't you
+think? He would want you to know."</p>
+
+<p>"It does sound reasonable-like now, don't it?" said the woman,
+wistfully. "Say them glory words again, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret repeated the text slowly and distinctly.</p>
+
+<p>"Glory!" repeated Mom Wallis, wonderingly. "Glory! Me!" and turned
+incredulously toward the glass. She looked a long tune wistfully at
+herself, as if she could not believe it, and pulled reproachfully<a class="pagenum" title="163" name="page_163" id="page_163"></a> at
+the tight hair drawn away from her weather-beaten face. "I useta have
+purty hair onct," she said, sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you have pretty hair now!" said Margaret, eagerly. "It just wants
+a chance to show its beauty, Here, let me fix it for dinner, will you?"</p>
+
+<p>She whisked the bewildered old woman into a chair and began unwinding
+the hard, tight knot of hair at the back of her head and shaking it out.
+The hair was thin and gray now, but it showed signs of having been fine
+and thick once.</p>
+
+<p>"It's easy to keep your hair looking pretty," said the girl, as she
+worked. "I'm going to give you a little box of my nice sweet-smelling
+soap-powder that I use to shampoo my hair. You take it home and wash
+your hair with it every two or three weeks and you'll see it will make a
+difference in a little while. You just haven't taken time to take care
+of it, that's all. Do you mind if I wave the front here a little? I'd
+like to fix your hair the way my mother wears hers."</p>
+
+<p>Now nothing could have been further apart than this little
+weather-beaten old woman and Margaret's gentle, dove-like mother, with
+her abundant soft gray hair, her cameo features, and her pretty, gray
+dresses; but Margaret had a vision of what glory might bring to Mom
+Wallis, and she wanted to help it along. She believed that heavenly
+glory can be hastened a good deal on earth if one only tries, and so she
+set to work. Glancing out the window, she saw with relief that Gardley
+was talking interestedly with Mr. Tanner and seemed entirely content
+with their absence.<a class="pagenum" title="164" name="page_164" id="page_164"></a></p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis hadn't any idea what "waving" her hair meant, but she readily
+consented to anything this wonderful girl proposed, and she sat
+entranced, looking at her mountain and thrilling with every touch of
+Margaret's satin fingers against her leathery old temples. And so,
+Sunday though it was, Margaret lighted her little alcohol-lamp and
+heated a tiny curling-iron which she kept for emergencies. In a few
+minutes' time Mom Wallis's astonished old gray locks lay soft and fluffy
+about her face, and pinned in a smooth coil behind, instead of the tight
+knot, making the most wonderful difference in the world in her old,
+tired face.</p>
+
+<p>"Now look!" said Margaret, and turned her about to the mirror. "If
+there's anything at all you don't like about it I can change it, you
+know. You don't have to wear it so if you don't like it."</p>
+
+<p>The old woman looked, and then looked back at Margaret with frightened
+eyes, and back to the vision in the mirror again.</p>
+
+<p>"My soul!" she exclaimed in an awed voice. "My soul! It's come a'ready!
+Glory! I didn't think I could look like that! I wonder what Pop 'd say!
+My land! Would you mind ef I kep' it on a while an' wore it back to camp
+this way? Pop might uv come home an' I'd like to see ef he'd take notice
+to it. I used to be purty onct, but I never expected no sech thing like
+this again on earth. Glory! Glory! Mebbe I <i>could</i> get some glory,
+<i>too</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"'The glory that shall be revealed' is a great deal more wonderful than
+this," said Margaret, gently. "This was here all the time, only you
+didn't let it come out. Wear it home that way, of course, and<a class="pagenum" title="165" name="page_165" id="page_165"></a> wear it
+so all the time. It's very little trouble, and you'll find your family
+will like it. Men always like to see a woman looking her best, even when
+she's working. It helps to make them good. Before you go home I'll show
+you how to fix it. It's quite simple. Come, now, shall we go
+down-stairs? We don't want to leave Mr. Gardley alone too long, and,
+besides, I smell the dinner. I think they'll be waiting for us pretty
+soon. I'm going to take a few of these pictures down to show Mr.
+Gardley."</p>
+
+<p>She hastily gathered a few photographs together and led the bewildered
+little woman down-stairs again, and out in the yard, where Gardley was
+walking up and down now, looking off at the mountain. It came to
+Margaret, suddenly, that the minister would be returning to the house
+soon, and she wished he wouldn't come. He would be a false note in the
+pleasant harmony of the little company. He would be disagreeable to
+manage, and perhaps hurt poor Mom Wallis's feelings. Perhaps he had
+already come. She looked furtively around as she came out the door, but
+no minister was in sight, and then she forgot him utterly in the look of
+bewildered astonishment with which Gardley was regarding Mom Wallis.</p>
+
+<p>He had stopped short in his walk across the little yard, and was staring
+at Mom Wallis, recognition gradually growing in his gaze. When he was
+fully convinced he turned his eyes to Margaret, as if to ask: "How did
+you do it? Wonderful woman!" and a look of deep reverence for her came
+over his face.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly he noticed the shy embarrassment on the old woman's face,
+and swiftly came toward<a class="pagenum" title="166" name="page_166" id="page_166"></a> her, his hands outstretched, and, taking her
+bony hands in his, bowed low over them as a courtier might do.</p>
+
+<p>"Mom Wallis, you are beautiful. Did you know it?" he said, gently, and
+led her to a little stumpy rocking-chair with a gay red-and-blue rag
+cushion that Mrs. Tanner always kept sitting by the front door in
+pleasant weather. Then he stood off and surveyed her, while the red
+stole into her cheeks becomingly. "What has Miss Earle been doing to
+glorify you?" he asked, again looking at her earnestly.</p>
+
+<p>The old woman looked at him in awed silence. There was that word
+again&mdash;glory! He had said the girl had glorified her. There was then
+some glory in her, and it had been brought out by so simple a thing as
+the arrangement of her hair. It frightened her, and tears came and stood
+in her tired old eyes.</p>
+
+<p>It was well for Mom Wallis's equilibrium that Mr. Tanner came out just
+then with the paper he had gone after, for the stolidity of her lifetime
+was about breaking up. But, as he turned, Gardley gave her one of the
+rarest smiles of sympathy and understanding that a young man can give to
+an old woman; and Margaret, watching, loved him for it. It seemed to her
+one of the most beautiful things a young man had ever done.</p>
+
+<p>They had discussed the article in the paper thoroughly, and had looked
+at the photographs that Margaret had brought down; and Mrs. Tanner had
+come to the door numberless times, looking out in a troubled way down
+the road, only to trot back again, look in the oven, peep in the kettle,
+sigh, and trot out to the door again. At last she came and stood, arms
+akimbo, and looked down the road once more.<a class="pagenum" title="167" name="page_167" id="page_167"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Pa, I don't just see how I can keep the dinner waitin' a minute longer,
+The potatoes 'll be sp'iled. I don't see what's keepin' that
+preacher-man. He musta been invited out, though I don't see why he
+didn't send me word."</p>
+
+<p>"That's it, likely, Ma," said Tanner. He was growing hungry. "I saw Mis'
+Bacon talkin' to him. She's likely invited him there. She's always
+tryin' to get ahead o' you, Ma, you know, 'cause you got the prize fer
+your marble cake."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner blushed and looked down apologetically at her guests. "Well,
+then, ef you'll just come in and set down, I'll dish up. My land! Ain't
+that Bud comin' down the road, Pa? He's likely sent word by Bud. I'll
+hurry in an' dish up."</p>
+
+<p>Bud slid into his seat hurriedly after a brief ablution in the kitchen,
+and his mother questioned him sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Bud, wher you be'n? Did the minister get invited out?"</p>
+
+<p>The boy grinned and slowly winked one eye at Gardley. "Yes, he's invited
+out, all right," he said, meaningly. "You don't need to wait fer him. He
+won't be home fer some time, I don't reckon."</p>
+
+<p>Gardley looked keenly, steadily, at the boy's dancing eyes, and resolved
+to have a fuller understanding later, and his own eyes met the boy's in
+a gleam of mischief and sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first time in twenty years that Mom Wallis had eaten anything
+which she had not prepared herself, and now, with fried chicken and
+company preserves before her, she could scarcely swallow a mouthful. To
+be seated beside Gardley and<a class="pagenum" title="168" name="page_168" id="page_168"></a> waited on like a queen! To be smiled at by
+the beautiful young girl across the table, and deferred to by Mr. and
+Mrs. Tanner as "Mrs. Wallis," and asked to have more pickles and another
+helping of jelly, and did she take cream and sugar in her coffee! It was
+too much, and Mom Wallis was struggling with the tears. Even Bud's
+round, blue eyes regarded her with approval and interest. She couldn't
+help thinking, if her own baby boy had lived, would he ever have been
+like Bud? And once she smiled at him, and Bud smiled back, a real
+boy-like, frank, hearty grin. It was all like taking dinner in the
+Kingdom of Heaven to Mom Wallis, and getting glory aforetime.</p>
+
+<p>It was a wonderful afternoon, and seemed to go on swift wings. Gardley
+went back to the school-house, where the horses had been left, and Bud
+went with him to give further particulars about that wink at the
+dinner-table. Mom Wallis went up to the rose-garlanded room and learned
+how to wash her hair, and received a roll of flowered scrim wherewith to
+make curtains for the bunk-house. Margaret had originally intended it
+for the school-house windows in case it proved necessary to make that
+place habitable, but the school-room could wait.</p>
+
+<p>And there in the rose-room, with the new curtains in her trembling
+hands, and the great old mountain in full view, Mom Wallis knelt beside
+the little gay rocking-chair, while Margaret knelt beside her and prayed
+that the Heavenly Father would show Mom Wallis how to let the glory be
+revealed in her now on the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Then Mom Wallis wiped the furtive tears away<a class="pagenum" title="169" name="page_169" id="page_169"></a> with her calico sleeve,
+tied on her funny old bonnet, and rode away with her handsome young
+escort into the silence of the desert, with the glory beginning to be
+revealed already in her countenance.</p>
+
+<p>Quite late that evening the minister returned.</p>
+
+<p>He came in slowly and wearily, as if every step were a pain to him, and
+he avoided the light. His coat was torn and his garments were
+mud-covered. He murmured of a "slight accident" to Mrs. Tanner, who met
+him solicitously in a flowered dressing-gown with a candle in her hand.
+He accepted greedily the half a pie, with cheese and cold chicken and
+other articles, she proffered on a plate at his door, and in the reply
+to her query as to where he had been for dinner, and if he had a
+pleasant time, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Very pleasant, indeed, thank you! The name? Um&mdash;ah&mdash;I disremember! I
+really didn't ask&mdash;That is&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The minister did not get up to breakfast, In fact, he remained in bed
+for several days, professing to be suffering with an attack of
+rheumatism. He was solicitously watched over and fed by the anxious Mrs.
+Tanner, who was much disconcerted at the state of affairs, and couldn't
+understand why she could not get the school-teacher more interested in
+the invalid.</p>
+
+<p>On the fourth day, however, the Reverend Frederick crept forth, white
+and shaken, with his sleek hair elaborately combed to cover a long
+scratch on his forehead, and announced his intention of departing from
+the State of Arizona that evening.</p>
+
+<p>He crept forth cautiously to the station as the<a class="pagenum" title="170" name="page_170" id="page_170"></a> shades of evening drew
+on, but found Long Bill awaiting him, and Jasper Kemp not far away. He
+had the two letters ready in his pocket, with the gold piece, though he
+had entertained hopes of escaping without forfeiting them, but he was
+obliged to wait patiently until Jasper Kemp had read both letters
+through twice, with the train in momentary danger of departing without
+him, before he was finally allowed to get on board. Jasper Kemp's
+parting word to him was:</p>
+
+<p>"Watch your steps spry, parson. I'm agoin' to see that you're shadowed
+wherever you go. You needn't think you can get shy on the Bible again.
+It won't pay."</p>
+
+<p>There was menace in the dry remark, and the Reverend Frederick's
+professional egotism withered before it. He bowed his head, climbed on
+board the train, and vanished from the scene of his recent discomfiture.
+But the bitterest thing about it all was that he had gone without
+capturing the heart or even the attention of that haughty little
+school-teacher. "And she was such a pretty girl," he said, regretfully,
+to himself. "Such a <i>very</i> pretty girl!" He sighed deeply to himself as
+he watched Arizona speed by the window. "Still," he reflected,
+comfortably, after a moment, "there are always plenty more! What was
+that remarkably witty saying I heard just before I left home? 'Never run
+after a street-car or a woman. There'll be another one along in a
+minute.' Um&mdash;ah&mdash;yes&mdash;very true&mdash;there'll be another one along in a
+minute."</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="171" name="page_171" id="page_171"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>School had settled down to real work by the opening of the new week.
+Margaret knew her scholars and had gained a personal hold on most of
+them already. There was enough novelty in her teaching to keep the
+entire school in a pleasant state of excitement and wonder as to what
+she would do next, and the word had gone out through all the country
+round about that the new teacher had taken the school by storm. It was
+not infrequent for men to turn out of their way on the trail to get a
+glimpse of the school as they were passing, just to make sure the
+reports were true. Rumor stated that the teacher was exceedingly pretty;
+that she would take no nonsense, not even from the big boys; that she
+never threatened nor punished, but that every one of the boys was her
+devoted slave. There had been no uprising, and it almost seemed as if
+that popular excitement was to be omitted this season, and school was to
+sail along in an orderly and proper manner. In fact, the entire school
+as well as the surrounding population were eagerly talking about the new
+piano, which seemed really to be a coming fact. Not that there had been
+anything done toward it yet, but the teacher had promised<a class="pagenum" title="172" name="page_172" id="page_172"></a> that just as
+soon as every one was really studying hard and doing his best, she was
+going to begin to get them ready for an entertainment to raise money for
+that piano. They couldn't begin until everybody was in good working
+order, because they didn't want to take the interest away from the real
+business of school; but it was going to be a Shakespeare play, whatever
+that was, and therefore of grave import. Some people talked learnedly
+about Shakespeare and hinted of poetry; but the main part of the
+community spoke the name joyously and familiarly and without awe, as if
+it were milk and honey in their mouths. Why should they reverence
+Shakespeare more than any one else?</p>
+
+<p>Margaret had grown used to seeing a head appear suddenly at one of the
+school-room windows and look long and frowningly first at her, then at
+the school, and then back to her again, as if it were a nine days'
+wonder. Whoever the visitor was, he would stand quietly, watching the
+process of the hour as if he were at a play, and Margaret would turn and
+smile pleasantly, then go right on with her work. The visitor would
+generally take off a wide hat and wave it cordially, smile back a
+curious, softened smile, and by and by he would mount his horse and pass
+on reflectively down the trail, wishing he could be a boy and go back
+again to school&mdash;such a school!</p>
+
+<p>Oh, it was not all smooth, the way that Margaret walked. There were
+hitches, and unpleasant days when nothing went right, and when some of
+the girls got silly and rebellious, and the boys followed in their lead.
+She had her trials like any teacher,<a class="pagenum" title="173" name="page_173" id="page_173"></a> skilful as she was, and not the
+least of them became Rosa Rogers, the petted beauty, who presently
+manifested a childish jealousy of her in her influence over the boys.
+Noting this, Margaret went out of her way to win Rosa, but found it a
+difficult matter.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa was proud, selfish, and unprincipled. She never forgave any one who
+frustrated her plans. She resented being made to study like the rest.
+She had always compelled the teacher to let her do as she pleased and
+still give her a good report. This she found she could not do with
+Margaret, and for the first time in her career she was compelled to work
+or fall behind. It presently became not a question of how the new
+teacher was to manage the big boys and the bad boys of the Ashland Ridge
+School, but how she was to prevent Rosa Rogers and a few girls who
+followed her from upsetting all her plans. The trouble was, Rosa was
+pretty and knew her power over the boys. If she chose she could put them
+all in a state of insubordination, and this she chose very often during
+those first few weeks.</p>
+
+<p>But there was one visitor who did not confine himself to looking in at
+the window.</p>
+
+<p>One morning a fine black horse came galloping up to the school-house at
+recess-time, and a well-set-up young man in wide sombrero and jaunty
+leather trappings sprang off and came into the building. His shining
+spurs caught the sunlight and flashed as he moved. He walked with the
+air of one who regards himself of far more importance than all who may
+be watching him. The boys in the yard stopped their ball-game, and the
+girls huddled close in whispering groups and drew near to the door.<a class="pagenum" title="174" name="page_174" id="page_174"></a> He
+was a young man from a ranch near the fort some thirty miles away, and
+he had brought an invitation for the new school-teacher to come over to
+dinner on Friday evening and stay until the following Monday morning.
+The invitation was from his sister, the wife of a wealthy cattleman
+whose home and hospitality were noted for miles around. She had heard of
+the coming of the beautiful young teacher, and wanted to attach her to
+her social circle.</p>
+
+<p>The young man was deference itself to Margaret, openly admiring her as
+he talked, and said the most gracious things to her; and then, while she
+was answering the note, he smiled over at Rosa Rogers, who had slipped
+into her seat and was studiously preparing her algebra with the book
+upside down.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret, looking up, caught Rosa's smiling glance and the tail end of a
+look from the young man's eyes, and felt a passing wonder whether he had
+ever met the girl before. Something in the boldness of his look made her
+feel that he had not. Yet he was all smiles and deference to herself,
+and his open admiration and pleasure that she was to come to help
+brighten this lonely country, and that she was going to accept the
+invitation, was really pleasant to the girl, for it was desolate being
+tied down to only the Tanner household and the school, and she welcomed
+any bit of social life.</p>
+
+<p>The young man had light hair, combed very smooth, and light-blue eyes.
+They were bolder and handsomer than the minister's, but the girl had a
+feeling that they were the very same cold color. She wondered at her
+comparison, for she liked the<a class="pagenum" title="175" name="page_175" id="page_175"></a> handsome young man, and in spite of
+herself was a little flattered at the nice things he had said to her.
+Nevertheless, when she remembered him afterward it was always with that
+uncomfortable feeling that if he hadn't been so handsome and polished in
+his appearance he would have seemed just a little bit like that
+minister, and she couldn't for the life of her tell why.</p>
+
+<p>After he was gone she looked back at Rosa, and there was a narrowing of
+the girl's eyes and a frown of hate on her brows. Margaret turned with a
+sigh back to her school problem&mdash;what to do with Rosa Rogers?</p>
+
+<p>But Rosa did not stay in the school-house. She slipped out and walked
+arm in arm with Amanda Bounds down the road.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret went to the door and watched. Presently she saw the rider wheel
+and come galloping back to the door. He had forgotten to tell her that
+an escort would be sent to bring her as early on Friday afternoon as she
+would be ready to leave the school, and he intimated that he hoped he
+might be detailed for that pleasant duty.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret looked into his face and warmed to his pleasant smile. How
+could she have thought him like West? He touched his hat and rode away,
+and a moment later she saw him draw rein beside Rosa and Amanda, and
+presently dismount.</p>
+
+<p>Bud rang the bell just then, and Margaret went back to her desk with a
+lingering look at the three figures in the distance. It was full half an
+hour before Rosa came in, with Amanda looking scared behind her; and
+troubled Margaret watched the sly<a class="pagenum" title="176" name="page_176" id="page_176"></a> look in the girl's eyes and wondered
+what she ought to do about it. As Rosa was passing out of the door after
+school she called her to the desk.</p>
+
+<p>"You were late in coming in after recess, Rosa," said Margaret, gently.
+"Have you any excuse?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was talking to a friend," said Rosa, with a toss of her head which
+said, as plainly as words could have done, "I don't intend to give an
+excuse."</p>
+
+<p>"Were you talking to the gentleman who was here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if I was, what is that to you, Miss Earle?" said Rosa, haughtily.
+"Did you think you could have all the men and boys to yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rosa," said Margaret, trying to speak calmly, but her voice trembling
+with suppressed indignation, "don't talk that way to me. Child, did you
+ever meet Mr. Forsythe before?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not a child, and it's none of your business!" flouted Rosa,
+angrily, and she twitched away and flung herself out of the
+school-house.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret, trembling from the disagreeable encounter, stood at the window
+and watched the girl going down the road, and felt for the moment that
+she would rather give up her school and go back home than face the
+situation. She knew in her heart that this girl, once an enemy, would be
+a bitter one, and this her last move had been a most unfortunate one,
+coming out, as it did, with Rosa in the lead. She could, of course,
+complain to Rosa's family, or to the school-board, but such was not the
+policy she had chosen. She wanted to be able to settle her own
+difficulties. It seemed strange that she could not reach this one
+girl&mdash;who was in a way<a class="pagenum" title="177" name="page_177" id="page_177"></a> the key to the situation. Perhaps the play would
+be able to help her. She spent a long time that evening going over the
+different plays in her library, and finally, with a look of apology
+toward a little photographed head of Shakespeare, she decided on
+"Midsummer-Night's Dream." What if it was away above the heads of them
+all, wouldn't a few get something from it? And wasn't it better to take
+a great thing and try to make her scholars and a few of the community
+understand it, rather than to take a silly little play that would not
+amount to anything in the end? Of course, they couldn't do it well; that
+went without saying. Of course it would be away beyond them all, but at
+least it would be a study of something great for her pupils, and she
+could meantime teach them a little about Shakespeare and perhaps help
+some of them to learn to love his plays and study them.</p>
+
+<p>The play she had selected was one in which she herself had acted the
+part of Puck, and she knew it by heart. She felt reasonably sure that
+she could help some of the more adaptable scholars to interpret their
+parts, and, at least, it would be good for them just as a study in
+literature. As for the audience, they would not be critics. Perhaps they
+would not even be able to comprehend the meaning of the play, but they
+would come and they would listen, and the experiment was one worth
+trying.</p>
+
+<p>Carefully she went over the parts, trying to find the one which she
+thought would best fit Rosa Rogers, and please her as well, because it
+gave her opportunity to display her beauty and charm. She really was a
+pretty girl, and would do well. Margaret<a class="pagenum" title="178" name="page_178" id="page_178"></a> wondered whether she were
+altogether right in attempting to win the girl through her vanity, and
+yet what other weak place was there in which to storm the silly little
+citadel of her soul?</p>
+
+<p>And so the work of assigning parts and learning them began that very
+week, though no one was allowed a part until his work for the day had
+all been handed in.</p>
+
+<p>At noon Margaret made one more attempt with Rosa Rogers. She drew her to
+a seat beside her and put aside as much as possible her own remembrance
+of the girl's disagreeable actions and impudent words.</p>
+
+<p>"Rosa," she said, and her voice was very gentle, "I want to have a
+little talk with you. You seem to feel that you and I are enemies, and I
+don't want you to have that attitude. I hoped we'd be the best of
+friends. You see, there isn't any other way for us to work well
+together. And I want to explain why I spoke to you as I did yesterday.
+It was not, as you hinted, that I want to keep all my acquaintances to
+myself. I have no desire to do that. It was because I feel responsible
+for the girls and boys in my care, and I was troubled lest perhaps you
+had been foolish&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret paused. She could see by the bright hardness of the girl's eyes
+that she was accomplishing nothing. Rosa evidently did not believe her.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Rosa," she said, suddenly, putting an impulsive, kindly hand on
+the girl's arm, "suppose we forget it this time, put it all away, and be
+friends. Let's learn to understand each other if we can, but<a class="pagenum" title="179" name="page_179" id="page_179"></a> in the
+mean time I want to talk to you about the play."</p>
+
+<p>And then, indeed, Rosa's hard manner broke, and she looked up with
+interest, albeit there was some suspicion in the glance. She wanted to
+be in that play with all her heart; she wanted the very showiest part in
+it, too; and she meant to have it, although she had a strong suspicion
+that the teacher would want to keep that part for herself, whatever it
+was.</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret had been wise. She had decided to take time and explain the
+play to her, and then let her choose her own part. She wisely judged
+that Rosa would do better in the part in which her interest centered,
+and perhaps the choice would help her to understand her pupil better.</p>
+
+<p>And so for an hour she patiently stayed after school and went over the
+play, explaining it carefully, and it seemed at one time as though Rosa
+was about to choose to be Puck, because with quick perception she caught
+the importance of that character; but when she learned that the costume
+must be a quiet hood and skirt of green and brown she scorned it, and
+chose, at last, to be Titania, queen of the fairies. So, with a sigh of
+relief, and a keen insight into the shallow nature, Margaret began to
+teach the girl some of the fairy steps, and found her quick and eager to
+learn. In the first lesson Rosa forgot for a little while her animosity
+and became almost as one of the other pupils. The play was going to
+prove a great means of bringing them all together.</p>
+
+<p>Before Friday afternoon came the parts had all been assigned and the
+plans for the entertainment were well under way.<a class="pagenum" title="180" name="page_180" id="page_180"></a></p>
+
+<p>Jed and Timothy had been as good as their word about giving the teacher
+riding-lessons, each vying with the other to bring a horse and make her
+ride at noon hour, and she had already had several good lessons and a
+long ride or two in company with both her teachers.</p>
+
+<p>The thirty-mile ride for Friday, then, was not such an undertaking as it
+might otherwise have been, and Margaret looked forward to it with
+eagerness.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="181" name="page_181" id="page_181"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The little party of escort arrived before school was closed on Friday
+afternoon, and came down to the school-house in full force to take her
+away with them. The young man Forsythe, with his sister, the hostess
+herself, and a young army officer from the fort, comprised the party.
+Margaret dismissed school ten minutes early and went back with them to
+the Tanners' to make a hurried change in her dress and pick up her
+suit-case, which was already packed. As they rode away from the
+school-house Margaret looked back and saw Rosa Rogers posing in one of
+her sprite dances in the school-yard, saw her kiss her hand laughingly
+toward their party, and saw the flutter of a handkerchief in young
+Forsythe's hand. It was all very general and elusive, a passing bit of
+fun, but it left an uncomfortable impression on the teacher's mind. She
+looked keenly at the young man as he rode up smiling beside her, and
+once more experienced that strange, sudden change of feeling about him.</p>
+
+<p>She took opportunity during that long ride to find out if the young man
+had known Rosa Rogers before; but he frankly told her that he had just
+come West to visit his sister, was bored to death because he didn't know
+a soul in the whole State,<a class="pagenum" title="182" name="page_182" id="page_182"></a> and until he had seen her had not laid eyes
+on one whom he cared to know. Yet while she could not help enjoying the
+gay badinage, she carried a sense of uneasiness whenever she thought of
+the young girl Rosa in her pretty fairy pose, with her fluttering pink
+fingers and her saucy, smiling eyes. There was something untrustworthy,
+too, in the handsome face of the man beside her.</p>
+
+<p>There was just one shadow over this bit of a holiday. Margaret had a
+little feeling that possibly some one from the camp might come down on
+Saturday or Sunday, and she would miss him. Yet nothing had been said
+about it, and she had no way of sending word that she would be away. She
+had meant to send Mom Wallis a letter by the next messenger that came
+that way. It was all written and lying on her bureau, but no one had
+been down all the week. She was, therefore, greatly pleased when an
+approaching rider in the distance proved to be Gardley, and with a
+joyful little greeting she drew rein and hailed him, giving him a
+message for Mom Wallis.</p>
+
+<p>Only Gardley's eyes told what this meeting was to him. His demeanor was
+grave and dignified. He acknowledged the introductions to the rest of
+the party gracefully, touched his hat with the ease of one to the manner
+born, and rode away, flashing her one gleam of a smile that told her he
+was glad of the meeting; but throughout the brief interview there had
+been an air of question and hostility between the two men, Forsythe and
+Gardley. Forsythe surveyed Gardley rudely, almost insolently, as if his
+position beside the lady gave him rights beyond<a class="pagenum" title="183" name="page_183" id="page_183"></a> the other, and he
+resented the coming of the stranger. Gardley's gaze was cold, too, as he
+met the look, and his eyes searched Forsythe's face keenly, as though
+they would find out what manner of man was riding with his friend.</p>
+
+<p>When he was gone Margaret had the feeling that he was somehow
+disappointed, and once she turned in the saddle and looked wistfully
+after him; but he was riding furiously into the distance, sitting his
+horse as straight as an arrow and already far away upon the desert.</p>
+
+<p>"Your friend is a reckless rider," said Forsythe, with a sneer in his
+voice that Margaret did not like, as they watched the speck in the
+distance clear a steep descent from the mesa at a bound and disappear
+from sight in the mesquite beyond.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't he fine-looking? Where did you find him, Miss Earle?" asked Mrs.
+Temple, eagerly. "I wish I'd asked him to join us. He left so suddenly I
+didn't realize he was going."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret felt a wondering and pleasant sense of possession and pride in
+Gardley as she watched, but she quietly explained that the young
+stranger was from the East, and that he was engaged in some kind of
+cattle business at a distance from Ashland. Her manner was reserved, and
+the matter dropped. She naturally felt a reluctance to tell how her
+acquaintance with Gardley began. It seemed something between themselves.
+She could fancy the gushing Mrs. Temple saying, "How romantic!" She was
+that kind of a woman. It was evident that she was romantically inclined
+herself, for she used her fine eyes with effect on the young officer who
+rode with<a class="pagenum" title="184" name="page_184" id="page_184"></a> her, and Margaret found herself wondering what kind of a
+husband she had and what her mother would think of a woman like this.</p>
+
+<p>There was no denying that the luxury of the ranch was a happy relief
+from the simplicity of life at the Tanners'. Iced drinks and cushions
+and easy-chairs, feasting and music and laughter! There were books, too,
+and magazines, and all the little things that go to make up a cultured
+life; and yet they were not people of Margaret's world, and when
+Saturday evening was over she sat alone in the room they had given her
+and, facing herself in the glass, confessed to herself that she looked
+back with more pleasure to the Sabbath spent with Mom Wallis than she
+could look forward to a Sabbath here. The morning proved her forebodings
+well founded.</p>
+
+<p>Breakfast was a late, informal affair, filled with hilarious gaiety.
+There was no mention of any church service, and Margaret found it was
+quite too late to suggest such a thing when breakfast was over, even if
+she had been sure there was any service.</p>
+
+<p>After breakfast was over there were various forms of amusement proposed
+for her pleasure, and she really felt very much embarrassed for a few
+moments to know how to avoid what to her was pure Sabbath-breaking. Yet
+she did not wish to be rude to these people who were really trying to be
+kind to her. She managed at last to get them interested in music, and,
+grouping them around the piano after a few preliminary performances by
+herself at their earnest solicitation, coaxed them into singing hymns.<a class="pagenum" title="185" name="page_185" id="page_185"></a></p>
+
+<p>After all, they really seemed to enjoy it, though they had to get along
+with one hymn-book for the whole company; but Margaret knew how to make
+hymn-singing interesting, and her exquisite voice was never more at its
+best than when she led off with "My Jesus, as Thou Wilt," or "Jesus,
+Saviour, Pilot Me."</p>
+
+<p>"You would be the delight of Mr. Brownleigh's heart," said the hostess,
+gushingly, at last, after Margaret had finished singing "Abide With Me"
+with wonderful feeling.</p>
+
+<p>"And who is Mr. Brownleigh?" asked Margaret. "Why should I delight his
+heart?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, he is our missionary&mdash;that is, the missionary for this region&mdash;and
+you would delight his heart because you are so religious and sing so
+well," said the superficial little woman. "Mr. Brownleigh is really a
+very cultured man. Of course, he's narrow. All clergymen are narrow,
+don't you think? They have to be to a certain extent. He's really
+<i>quite</i> narrow. Why, he believes in the Bible <i>literally</i>, the whale and
+Jonah, and the Flood, and making bread out of stones, and all that sort
+of thing, you know. Imagine it! But he does. He's sincere! Perfectly
+sincere. I suppose he has to be. It's his business. But sometimes one
+feels it a pity that he can't relax a little, just among us here, you
+know. We'd never tell. Why, he won't even play a little game of poker!
+And he doesn't smoke! <i>Imagine</i> it&mdash;<i>not even when he's by himself</i>, and
+<i>no one would know</i>! Isn't that odd? But he can preach. He's really very
+interesting; only a little too Utopian in his ideas. He thinks everybody
+ought to be good,<a class="pagenum" title="186" name="page_186" id="page_186"></a> you know, and all that sort of thing. He really
+thinks it's possible, and he lives that way himself. He really does. But
+he is a wonderful person; only I feel sorry for his wife sometimes.
+She's quite a cultured person. Has been wealthy, you know. She was a New
+York society girl. Just imagine it; out in these wilds taking gruel to
+the dirty little Indians! How she ever came to do it! Of course she
+adores him, but I can't really believe she is happy. No woman could be
+quite blind enough to give up everything in the world for one man, no
+matter how good he was. Do you think she could? It wasn't as if she
+didn't have plenty of other chances. She gave them all up to come out
+and marry him. She's a pretty good sport, too; she never lets you know
+she isn't perfectly happy."</p>
+
+<p>"She <i>is</i> happy; mother, she's happier than <i>anybody</i> I ever saw,"
+declared the fourteen-year-old daughter of the house, who was home from
+boarding-school for a brief visit during an epidemic of measles in the
+school.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, she manages to make people think she's happy," said her mother,
+indulgently; "but you can't make me believe she's satisfied to give up
+her house on Fifth Avenue and live in a two-roomed log cabin in the
+desert, with no society."</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, you don't know! Why, <i>any</i> woman would be satisfied if her
+husband adored her the way Mr. Brownleigh does her."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Ada, you're a romantic girl, and Mr. Brownleigh is a handsome
+man. You've got a few things to learn yet. Mark my words, I don't
+believe you'll see Mrs. Brownleigh coming back next month<a class="pagenum" title="187" name="page_187" id="page_187"></a> with her
+husband. This operation was all well enough to talk about, but I'll not
+be surprised to hear that he has come back alone or else that he has
+accepted a call to some big city church. And he's equal to the city
+church, too; that's the wonder of it. He comes of a fine family himself,
+I've heard. Oh, people can't keep up the pose of saints forever, even
+though they do adore each other. But Mr. Brownleigh <i>certainly is</i> a
+good man!"</p>
+
+<p>The vapid little woman sat looking reflectively out of the window for a
+whole minute after this deliverance. Yes, certainly Mr. Brownleigh was a
+good man. He was the one man of culture, education, refinement, who had
+come her way in many a year who had patiently and persistently and
+gloriously refused her advances at a mild flirtation, and refused to
+understand them, yet remained her friend and reverenced hero. He was a
+good man, and she knew it, for she was a very pretty woman and
+understood her art well.</p>
+
+<p>Before the day was over Margaret had reason to feel that a Sabbath in
+Arizona was a very hard thing to find. The singing could not last all
+day, and her friends seemed to find more amusements on Sunday that did
+not come into Margaret's code of Sabbath-keeping than one knew how to
+say no to. Neither could they understand her feeling, and she found it
+hard not to be rude in gently declining one plan after another.</p>
+
+<p>She drew the children into a wide, cozy corner after dinner and began a
+Bible story in the guise of a fairy-tale, while the hostess slipped away
+to take a nap. However, several other guests lingered<a class="pagenum" title="188" name="page_188" id="page_188"></a> about, and Mr.
+Temple strayed in. They sat with newspapers before their faces and got
+into the story, too, seeming to be deeply interested, so that, after
+all, Margaret did not have an unprofitable Sabbath.</p>
+
+<p>But altogether, though she had a gay and somewhat frivolous time, a good
+deal of admiration and many invitations to return as often as possible,
+Margaret was not sorry when she said good night to know that she was to
+return in the early morning to her work.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Temple himself was going part way with them, accompanied by his
+niece, Forsythe, and the young officer who came over with them. Margaret
+rode beside Mr. Temple until his way parted from theirs, and had a
+delightful talk about Arizona. He was a kindly old fellow who adored his
+frivolous little wife and let her go her own gait, seeming not to mind
+how much she flirted.</p>
+
+<p>The morning was pink and silver, gold and azure, a wonderful specimen of
+an Arizona sunrise for Margaret's benefit, and a glorious beginning for
+her day's work in spite of the extremely early hour. The company was gay
+and blithe, and the Eastern girl felt as if she were passing through a
+wonderful experience.</p>
+
+<p>They loitered a little on the way to show Margaret the wonders of a
+fern-plumed ca&ntilde;on, and it was almost school-time when they came up the
+street, so that Margaret rode straight to the school-house instead of
+stopping at Tanners'. On the way to the school they passed a group of
+girls, of whom Rosa Rogers was the center. A certain something in Rosa's
+narrowed eyelids as she said good morning<a class="pagenum" title="189" name="page_189" id="page_189"></a> caused Margaret to look back
+uneasily, and she distinctly saw the girl give a signal to young
+Forsythe, who, for answer, only tipped his hat and gave her a peculiar
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>In a moment more they had said good-by, and Margaret was left at the
+school-house door with a cluster of eager children about her, and
+several shy boys in the background, ready to welcome her back as if she
+had been gone a month.</p>
+
+<p>In the flutter of opening school Margaret failed to notice that Rosa
+Rogers did not appear. It was not until the roll was called that she
+noticed her absence, and she looked uneasily toward the door many times
+during the morning, but Rosa did not come until after recess, when she
+stole smilingly in, as if it were quite the thing to come to school
+late. When questioned about her tardiness she said she had torn her
+dress and had to go home and change it. Margaret knew by the look in her
+eyes that the girl was not telling the truth, but what was she to do? It
+troubled her all the morning and went with her to a sleepless pillow
+that night. She was beginning to see that life as a school-teacher in
+the far West was not all she had imagined it to be. Her father had been
+right. There would likely be more thorns than roses on her way.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="190" name="page_190" id="page_190"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The first time Lance Gardley met Rosa Rogers riding with Archie
+Forsythe he thought little of it. He knew the girl by sight, because he
+knew her father in a business way. That she was very young and one of
+Margaret's pupils was all he knew about her. For the young man he had
+conceived a strong dislike, but as there was no reason whatever for it
+he put it out of his mind as quickly as possible.</p>
+
+<p>The second time he met them it was toward evening and they were so
+wholly absorbed in each other's society that they did not see him until
+he was close upon them. Forsythe looked up with a frown and a quick hand
+to his hip, where gleamed a weapon.</p>
+
+<p>He scarcely returned the slight salute given by Gardley, and the two
+young people touched up their horses and were soon out of sight in the
+mesquite. But something in the frightened look of the girl's eyes caused
+Gardley to turn and look after the two.</p>
+
+<p>Where could they be going at that hour of the evening? It was not a
+trail usually chosen for rides. It was lonely and unfrequented, and led
+out of the way of travelers. Gardley himself had been a far errand for
+Jasper Kemp, and had taken this short trail back because it cut off
+several miles and he<a class="pagenum" title="191" name="page_191" id="page_191"></a> was weary. Also, he was anxious to stop in Ashland
+and leave Mom Wallis's request that Margaret would spend the next
+Sabbath at the camp and see the new curtains. He was thinking what he
+should say to her when he saw her in a little while now, and this
+interruption to his thoughts was unwelcome. Nevertheless, he could not
+get away from that frightened look in the girl's eyes. Where could they
+have been going? That fellow was a new-comer in the region; perhaps he
+had lost his way. Perhaps he did not know that the road he was taking
+the girl led into a region of outlaws, and that the only habitation
+along the way was a cabin belonging to an old woman of weird reputation,
+where wild orgies were sometimes celebrated, and where men went who
+loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.</p>
+
+<p>Twice Gardley turned in his saddle and scanned the desert. The sky was
+darkening, and one or two pale stars were impatiently shadowing forth
+their presence. And now he could see the two riders again. They had come
+up out of the mesquite to the top of the mesa, and were outlined against
+the sky sharply. They were still on the trail to old Ouida's cabin!</p>
+
+<p>With a quick jerk Gardley reined in his horse and wheeled about,
+watching the riders for a moment; and then, setting spurs to his beast,
+he was off down the trail after them on one of his wild, reckless rides.
+Down through the mesquite he plunged, through the darkening grove, out,
+and up to the top of the mesa. He had lost sight of his quarry for the
+time, but now he could see them<a class="pagenum" title="192" name="page_192" id="page_192"></a> again riding more slowly in the valley
+below, their horses close together, and even as he watched the sky took
+on its wide night look and the stars blazed forth.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Gardley turned sharply from the trail and made a detour through
+a grove of trees, riding with reckless speed, his head down to escape
+low branches; and in a minute or two he came with unerring instinct back
+to the trail some distance ahead of Forsythe and Rosa. Then he wheeled
+his horse and stopped stock-still, awaiting their coming.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the great full moon was risen and, strangely enough, was at
+Gardley's back, making a silhouette of man and horse as the two riders
+came on toward him.</p>
+
+<p>They rode out from the cover of the grove, and there he was across their
+path. Rosa gave a scream, drawing nearer her companion, and her horse
+swerved and reared; but Gardley's black stood like an image carved in
+ebony against the silver of the moon, and Gardley's quiet voice was in
+strong contrast to the quick, unguarded exclamation of Forsythe, as he
+sharply drew rein and put his hand hastily to his hip for his weapon.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, Mr. Forsythe"&mdash;Gardley had an excellent memory for
+names&mdash;"but I thought you might not be aware, being a new-comer in these
+parts, that the trail you are taking leads to a place where ladies do
+not like to go."</p>
+
+<p>"Really! You don't say so!" answered the young man, insolently. "It is
+very kind of you, I'm sure, but you might have saved yourself the
+trouble. I know perfectly where I am going, and so does the<a class="pagenum" title="193" name="page_193" id="page_193"></a> lady, and
+we choose to go this way. Move out of the way, please. You are detaining
+us."</p>
+
+<p>But Gardley did not move out of the way. "I am sure the lady does not
+know where she is going," he said, firmly. "I am sure that she does not
+know that it is a place of bad reputation, even in this unconventional
+land. At least, if she knows, I am sure that <i>her father</i> does not know,
+and I am well acquainted with her father."</p>
+
+<p>"Get out of the way, sir," said Forsythe, hotly. "It certainly is none
+of your business, anyway, whoever knows what. Get out of the way or I
+shall shoot. This lady and I intend to ride where we please."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall have to say you <i>cannot</i>," said Gardley; and his voice
+still had that calm that made his opponent think him easy to conquer.</p>
+
+<p>"Just how do you propose to stop us?" sneered Forsythe, pulling out his
+pistol.</p>
+
+<p>"This way," said Gardley, lifting a tiny silver whistle to his lips and
+sending forth a peculiar, shrilling blast. "And this way," went on
+Gardley, calmly lifting both hands and showing a weapon in each,
+wherewith he covered the two.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa screamed and covered her face with her hands, cowering in her
+saddle.</p>
+
+<p>Forsythe lifted his weapon, but looked around nervously. "Dead men tell
+no tales," he said, angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"It depends upon the man," said Gardley, meaningly, "especially if he
+were found on this road. I fancy a few tales could be told if you
+happened to be the man. Turn your horses around at once<a class="pagenum" title="194" name="page_194" id="page_194"></a> and take this
+lady back to her home. My men are not far off, and if you do not wish
+the whole story to be known among your friends and hers you would better
+make haste."</p>
+
+<p>Forsythe dropped his weapon and obeyed. He decidedly did not wish his
+escapade to be known among his friends. There were financial reasons why
+he did not care to have it come to the ears of his brother-in-law just
+now.</p>
+
+<p>Silently in the moonlight the little procession took its way down the
+trail, the girl and the man side by side, their captor close behind, and
+when the girl summoned courage to glance fearsomely behind her she saw
+three more men riding like three grim shadows yet behind. They had
+fallen into the trail so quietly that she had not heard them when they
+came. They were Jasper Kemp, Long Bill, and Big Jim. They had been out
+for other purposes, but without question followed the call of the
+signal.</p>
+
+<p>It was a long ride back to Rogers's ranch, and Forsythe glanced
+nervously behind now and then. It seemed to him that the company was
+growing larger all the time. He half expected to see a regiment each
+time he turned. He tried hurrying his horse, but when he did so the
+followers were just as close without any seeming effort. He tried to
+laugh it all off.</p>
+
+<p>Once he turned and tried to placate Gardley with a few shakily jovial
+words:</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, old fellow, aren't you the man I met on the trail the day
+Miss Earle went over to the fort? I guess you've made a mistake in your
+calculations. I was merely out on a pleasure ride with<a class="pagenum" title="195" name="page_195" id="page_195"></a> Miss Rogers. We
+weren't going anywhere in particular, you know. Miss Rogers chose this
+way, and I wanted to please her. No man likes to have his pleasure
+interfered with, you know. I guess you didn't recognize me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I recognized you," said Gardley. "It would be well for you to be
+careful where you ride with ladies, especially at night. The matter,
+however, is one that you would better settle with Mr. Rogers. My duty
+will be done when I have put it into his hands."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, my good fellow," said Forsythe, patronizingly, "you surely don't
+intend to make a great fuss about this and go telling tales to Mr.
+Rogers about a trifling matter&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I intend to do my duty, Mr. Forsythe," said Gardley; and Forsythe
+noticed that the young man still held his weapons. "I was set this night
+to guard Mr. Rogers's property. That I did not expect his daughter would
+be a part of the evening's guarding has nothing to do with the matter. I
+shall certainly put the matter into Mr. Rogers's hands."</p>
+
+<p>Rosa began to cry softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you want to be a fool, of course," laughed Forsythe,
+disagreeably; "but you will soon see Mr. Rogers will accept my
+explanation."</p>
+
+<p>"That is for Mr. Rogers to decide," answered Gardley, and said no more.</p>
+
+<p>The reflections of Forsythe during the rest of that silent ride were not
+pleasant, and Rosa's intermittent crying did not tend to make him more
+comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>The silent procession at last turned in at the great ranch gate and rode
+up to the house. Just as they<a class="pagenum" title="196" name="page_196" id="page_196"></a> stopped and the door of the house swung
+open, letting out a flood of light, Rosa leaned toward Gardley and
+whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"Please, Mr. Gardley, don't tell papa. I'll do <i>anything</i> in the world
+for you if you won't tell papa."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at the pretty, pitiful child in the moonlight. "I'm sorry,
+Miss Rosa," he said, firmly. "But you don't understand. I must do my
+duty."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall hate you!" she hissed. "Do you hear? I shall <i>hate</i> you
+forever, and you don't know what that means. It means I'll take my
+<i>revenge</i> on you and on <i>everybody you like</i>."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her half pityingly as he swung off his horse and went up
+the steps to meet Mr. Rogers, who had come out and was standing on the
+top step of the ranch-house in the square of light that flickered from a
+great fire on the hearth of the wide fireplace. He was looking from one
+to another of the silent group, and as his eyes rested on his daughter
+he said, sternly:</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Rosa, what does this mean? You told me you were going to bed with
+a headache!"</p>
+
+<p>Gardley drew his employer aside and told what had happened in a few
+low-toned sentences; and then stepped down and back into the shadow, his
+horse by his side, the three men from the camp grouped behind him. He
+had the delicacy to withdraw after his duty was done.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Rogers, his face stern with sudden anger and alarm, stepped down and
+stood beside his daughter. "Rosa, you may get down and go into the house
+to your own room. I will talk with you later," he said. And then to the
+young man, "You, sir, will<a class="pagenum" title="197" name="page_197" id="page_197"></a> step into my office. I wish to have a plain
+talk with you."</p>
+
+<p>A half-hour later Forsythe came out of the Rogers house and mounted his
+horse, while Mr. Rogers stood silently and watched him.</p>
+
+<p>"I will bid you good evening, sir," he said, formally, as the young man
+mounted his horse and silently rode away. His back had a defiant look in
+the moonlight as he passed the group of men in the shadow; but they did
+not turn to watch him.</p>
+
+<p>"That will be all to-night, Gardley, and I thank you very much," called
+the clear voice of Mr. Rogers from his front steps.</p>
+
+<p>The four men mounted their horses silently and rode down a little
+distance behind the young man, who wondered in his heart just how much
+or how little Gardley had told Rosa's father.</p>
+
+<p>The interview to which young Forsythe had just been subjected had been
+chastening in character, of a kind to baffle curiosity concerning the
+father's knowledge of details, and to discourage any further romantic
+rides with Miss Rosa. It had been left in abeyance whether or not the
+Temples should be made acquainted with the episode, dependent upon the
+future conduct of both young people. It had not been satisfactory from
+Forsythe's point of view; that is, he had not been so easily able to
+disabuse the father's mind of suspicion, nor to establish his own
+guileless character as he had hoped; and some of the remarks Rogers made
+led Forsythe to think that the father understood just how unpleasant it
+might become for him if his brother-in-law found out about the
+escapade.<a class="pagenum" title="198" name="page_198" id="page_198"></a></p>
+
+<p>This is why Archie Forsythe feared Lance Gardley, although there was
+nothing in the least triumphant about the set of that young man's
+shoulders as he rode away in the moonlight on the trail toward Ashland.
+And this is how it came about that Rosa Rogers hated Lance Gardley,
+handsome and daring though he was; and because of him hated her teacher,
+Margaret Earle.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later Lance Gardley stood in the little dim Tanner parlor,
+talking to Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>"You look tired," said the girl, compassionately, as she saw the haggard
+shadows on the young face, showing in spite of the light of pleasure in
+his eyes. "You look <i>very</i> tired. What in the world have you been
+doing?"</p>
+
+<p>"I went out to catch cattle-thieves," he said, with a sigh, "but I found
+there were other kinds of thieves abroad. It's all in the day's work.
+I'm not tired now." And he smiled at her with beautiful reverence.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret, as she watched him, could not help thinking that the lines in
+his face had softened and strengthened since she had first seen him, and
+her eyes let him know that she was glad he had come.</p>
+
+<p>"And so you will really come to us, and it isn't going to be asking too
+much?" he said, wistfully. "You can't think what it's going to be to the
+men&mdash;to <i>us</i>! And Mom Wallis is so excited she can hardly get her work
+done. If you had said no I would be almost afraid to go back." He
+laughed, but she could see there was deep earnestness under his tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I will come," said Margaret. "I'm just looking forward to it.
+I'm going to bring Mom<a class="pagenum" title="199" name="page_199" id="page_199"></a> Wallis a new bonnet like one I made for mother;
+and I'm going to teach her how to make corn gems and steamed apple
+dumplings. I'm bringing some songs and some music for the violin; and
+I've got something for you to help me do, too, if you will?"</p>
+
+<p>He smiled tenderly down on her. What a wonderful girl she was, to be
+willing to come out to the old shack among a lot of rough men and one
+uncultured old woman and make them happy, when she was fit for the
+finest in the land!</p>
+
+<p>"You're <i>wonderful</i>!" he said, taking her hand with a quick pressure for
+good-by. "You make every one want to do his best."</p>
+
+<p>He hurried out to his horse and rode away in the moonlight. Margaret
+went up to her "mountain window" and watched him far out on the trail,
+her heart swelling with an unnamed gladness over his last words.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, God, keep him, and help him to make good!" she prayed.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="200" name="page_200" id="page_200"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The visit to the camp was a time to be remembered long by all the
+inhabitants of the bunk-house, and even by Margaret herself. Margaret
+wondered Friday evening, as she sat up late, working away braiding a
+lovely gray bonnet out of folds of malines, and fashioning it into form
+for Mom Wallis, why she was looking forward to the visit with so much
+more real pleasure than she had done to the one the week before at the
+Temples'. And so subtle is the heart of a maid that she never fathomed
+the real reason.</p>
+
+<p>The Temples', of course, was interesting and delightful as being
+something utterly new in her experience. It was comparatively luxurious,
+and there were pleasant, cultured people there, more from her own social
+class in life. But it was going to be such fun to surprise Mom Wallis
+with that bonnet and see her old face light up when she saw herself in
+the little folding three-leaved mirror she was taking along with her and
+meant to leave for Mom Wallis's log boudoir. She was quite excited over
+selecting some little thing for each one of the men&mdash;books, pictures, a
+piece of music, a bright cushion, and a pile of picture magazines. It
+made a big bundle when she had them together, and she was dubious if she
+ought<a class="pagenum" title="201" name="page_201" id="page_201"></a> to try to carry them all; but Bud, whom she consulted on the
+subject, said, loftily, it "wasn't a flea-bite for the Kid; he could
+carry anything on a horse."</p>
+
+<p>Bud was just a little jealous to have his beloved teacher away from home
+so much, and rejoiced greatly when Gardley, Friday afternoon, suggested
+that he come along, too. He made quick time to his home, and secured a
+hasty permission and wardrobe, appearing like a footman on his father's
+old horse when they were half a mile down the trail.</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis was out at the door to greet her guest when she arrived, for
+Margaret had chosen to make her visit last from Friday afternoon after
+school, until Monday morning. It was the generosity of her nature that
+she gave to her utmost when she gave.</p>
+
+<p>The one fear she had entertained about coming had been set at rest on
+the way when Gardley told her that Pop Wallis was off on one of his long
+trips, selling cattle, and would probably not return for a week.
+Margaret, much as she trusted Gardley and the men, could not help
+dreading to meet Pop Wallis again.</p>
+
+<p>There was a new trimness about the old bunk-house. The clearing had been
+cleaned up and made neat, the grass cut, some vines set out and trained
+up limply about the door, and the windows shone with Mom Wallis's
+washing.</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis herself was wearing her best white apron, stiff with starch,
+her lace collar, and her hair in her best imitation of the way Margaret
+had fixed it, although it must be confessed she hadn't quite<a class="pagenum" title="202" name="page_202" id="page_202"></a> caught the
+knack of arrangement yet. But the one great difference Margaret noticed
+in the old woman was the illuminating smile on her face. Mom Wallis had
+learned how to let the glory gleam through all the hard sordidness of
+her life, and make earth brighter for those about her.</p>
+
+<p>The curtains certainly made a great difference in the looks of the
+bunk-house, together with a few other changes. The men had made some
+chairs&mdash;three of them, one out of a barrel; and together they had
+upholstered them roughly. The cots around the walls were blazing with
+their red blankets folded smoothly and neatly over them, and on the
+floor in front of the hearth, which had been scrubbed, Gardley had
+spread a Navajo blanket he had bought of an Indian.</p>
+
+<p>The fireplace was piled with logs ready for the lighting at night, and
+from somewhere a lamp had been rigged up and polished till it shone in
+the setting sun that slanted long rays in at the shining windows.</p>
+
+<p>The men were washed and combed, and had been huddled at the back of the
+bunk-house for an hour, watching the road, and now they came forward
+awkwardly to greet their guest, their horny hands scrubbed to an
+unbelievable whiteness. They did not say much, but they looked their
+pleasure, and Margaret greeted every one as if he were an old friend,
+the charming part about it all to the men being that she remembered
+every one's name and used it.</p>
+
+<p>Bud hovered in the background and watched with starry eyes. Bud was
+having the time of his life. He preferred the teacher's visiting the
+camp rather than<a class="pagenum" title="203" name="page_203" id="page_203"></a> the fort. The "Howdy, sonny!" which he had received
+from the men, and the "Make yourself at home, Bill" from Gardley, had
+given him great joy; and the whole thing seemed somehow to link him to
+the teacher in a most distinguishing manner.</p>
+
+<p>Supper was ready almost immediately, and Mom Wallis had done her best to
+make it appetizing. There was a lamb stew with potatoes, and fresh corn
+bread with coffee. The men ate with relish, and watched their guest of
+honor as if she had been an angel come down to abide with them for a
+season. There was a tablecloth on the old table, too&mdash;a <i>white</i>
+tablecloth. It looked remarkably like an old sheet, to be sure, with a
+seam through the middle where it had been worn and turned and sewed
+together; but it was a tablecloth now, and a marvel to the men. And the
+wonder about Margaret was that she could eat at such a table and make it
+seem as though that tablecloth were the finest damask, and the two-tined
+forks the heaviest of silver.</p>
+
+<p>After the supper was cleared away and the lamp lighted, the gifts were
+brought out. A book of Scotch poetry for Jasper Kemp, bound in tartan
+covers of the Campbell clan; a small illustrated pamphlet of Niagara
+Falls for Big Jim, because he had said he wanted to see the place and
+never could manage it; a little pictured folder of Washington City for
+Big Jim; a book of old ballad music for Fiddling Boss; a book of jokes
+for Fade-away Forbes; a framed picture of a beautiful shepherd dog for
+Stocky; a big, red, ruffled denim pillow for Croaker, because when she
+was there before he was always complaining about the seats being hard;<a class="pagenum" title="204" name="page_204" id="page_204"></a>
+a great blazing crimson pennant bearing the name <span class="smcap">HARVARD</span> in big letters
+for Fudge, because she had remembered he was from Boston; and for Mom
+Wallis a framed text beautifully painted in water-colors, done in rustic
+letters twined with stray forget-me-nots, the words, "Come unto Me, all
+ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Margaret
+had made that during the week and framed it in a simple raffia braid of
+brown and green.</p>
+
+<p>It was marvelous how these men liked their presents; and while they were
+examining them and laughing about them and putting their pictures and
+Mom Wallis's text on the walls, and the pillow on a bunk, and the
+pennant over the fireplace, Margaret shyly held out a tiny box to
+Gardley.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought perhaps you would let me give you this," she said. "It isn't
+much; it isn't even new, and it has some marks in it; but I thought it
+might help with your new undertaking."</p>
+
+<p>Gardley took it with a lighting of his face and opened the box. In it
+was a little, soft, leather-bound Testament, showing the marks of usage,
+yet not worn. It was a tiny thing, very thin, easily fitting in a
+vest-pocket, and not a burden to carry. He took the little book in his
+hand, removed the silken rubber band that bound it, and turned the
+leaves reverently in his fingers, noting that there were pencil-marks
+here and there. His face was all emotion as he looked up at the giver.</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you," he said, in a low tone, glancing about to see that no one
+was noticing them. "I shall prize it greatly. It surely will help. I
+will<a class="pagenum" title="205" name="page_205" id="page_205"></a> read it every day. Was that what you wanted? And I will carry it
+with me always."</p>
+
+<p>His voice was very earnest, and he looked at her as though she had given
+him a fortune. With another glance about at the preoccupied room&mdash;even
+Bud was busy studying Jasper Kemp's oldest gun&mdash;he snapped the band on
+the book again and put it carefully in his inner breast-pocket. The book
+would henceforth travel next his heart and be his guide. She thought he
+meant her to understand that, as he put out his hand unobtrusively and
+pressed her fingers gently with a quick, low "Thank you!"</p>
+
+<p>Then Mom Wallis's bonnet was brought out and tied on her, and the poor
+old woman blushed like a girl when she stood with meek hands folded at
+her waist and looked primly about on the family for their approval at
+Margaret's request. But that was nothing to the way she stared when
+Margaret got out the threefold mirror and showed her herself in the new
+headgear. She trotted away at last, the wonderful bonnet in one hand,
+the box in the other, a look of awe on her face, and Margaret heard her
+murmur as she put it away: "Glory! <i>Me!</i> Glory!"</p>
+
+<p>Then Margaret had to read one or two of the poems for Jasper Kemp, while
+they all sat and listened to her Scotch and marveled at her. A woman
+like that condescending to come to visit them!</p>
+
+<p>She gave a lesson in note-reading to the Fiddling Boss, pointing one by
+one with her white fingers to the notes until he was able to creep along
+and pick out "Suwanee River" and "Old Folks at Home" to the intense
+delight of the audience.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret never knew just how it was that she<a class="pagenum" title="206" name="page_206" id="page_206"></a> came to be telling the men
+a story, one she had read not long before in a magazine, a story with a
+thrilling national interest and a keen personal touch that searched the
+hearts of men; but they listened as they had never listened to anything
+in their lives before.</p>
+
+<p>And then there was singing, more singing, until it bade fair to be
+morning before they slept, and the little teacher was weary indeed when
+she lay down on the cot in Mom Wallis's room, after having knelt beside
+the old woman and prayed.</p>
+
+<p>The next day there was a wonderful ride with Gardley and Bud to the
+ca&ntilde;on of the cave-dwellers, and a coming home to the apple dumplings she
+had taught Mom Wallis to make before she went away. All day Gardley and
+she, with Bud for delighted audience, had talked over the play she was
+getting up at the school, Gardley suggesting about costumes and tree
+boughs for scenery, and promising to help in any way she wanted. Then
+after supper there were jokes and songs around the big fire, and some
+popcorn one of the men had gone a long ride that day to get. They called
+for another story, too, and it was forthcoming.</p>
+
+<p>It was Sunday morning after breakfast, however, that Margaret suddenly
+wondered how she was going to make the day helpful and different from
+the other days.</p>
+
+<p>She stood for a moment looking out of the clear little window
+thoughtfully, with just the shadow of a sigh on her lips, and as she
+turned back to the room she met Gardley's questioning glance.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you homesick?" he asked, with a sorry<a class="pagenum" title="207" name="page_207" id="page_207"></a> smile. "This must all be
+very different from what you are accustomed to."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, it isn't that." She smiled, brightly. "I'm not a baby for home,
+but I do get a bit homesick about church-time. Sunday is such a strange
+day to me without a service."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not have one, then?" he suggested, eagerly. "We can sing and&mdash;you
+could&mdash;do the rest!"</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes lighted at the suggestion, and she cast a quick glance at the
+men. Would they stand for that sort of thing?</p>
+
+<p>Gardley followed her glance and caught her meaning. "Let them answer for
+themselves," he said quickly in a low tone, and then, raising his voice:
+"Speak up, men. Do you want to have church? Miss Earle here is homesick
+for a service, and I suggest that we have one, and she conduct it."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!" said Jasper Kemp, his face lighting. "I'll miss my guess if she
+can't do better than the parson we had last Sunday. Get into your seats,
+boys; we're goin' to church."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret's face was a study of embarrassment and delight as she saw the
+alacrity with which the men moved to get ready for "church." Her quick
+brain turned over the possibility of what she could read or say to help
+this strange congregation thus suddenly thrust upon her.</p>
+
+<p>It was a testimony to her upbringing by a father whose great business of
+life was to preach the gospel that she never thought once of hesitating
+or declining the opportunity, but welcomed it as an opportunity, and
+only deprecated her unreadiness for the work.</p>
+
+<p>The men stirred about, donned their coats, furtively<a class="pagenum" title="208" name="page_208" id="page_208"></a> brushing their
+hair, and Long Bill insisted that Mom Wallis put on her new bonnet;
+which she obligingly did, and sat down carefully in the barrel-chair,
+her hands neatly crossed in her lap, supremely happy. It really was
+wonderful what a difference that bonnet made in Mom Wallis.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley arranged a comfortable seat for Margaret at the table and put in
+front of her one of the hymn-books she had brought. Then, after she was
+seated, he took the chair beside her and brought out the little
+Testament from his breast-pocket, gravely laying it on the hymn-book.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret met his eyes with a look of quick appreciation. It was
+wonderful the way these two were growing to understand each other. It
+gave the girl a thrill of wonder and delight to have him do this simple
+little thing for her, and the smile that passed between them was
+beautiful to see. Long Bill turned away his head and looked out of the
+window with an improvised sneeze to excuse the sudden mist that came
+into his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret chose "My Faith looks up to Thee" for the first hymn, because
+Fiddling Boss could play it, and while he was tuning up his fiddle she
+hastily wrote out two more copies of the words. And so the queer service
+started with a quaver of the old fiddle and the clear, sweet voices of
+Margaret and Gardley leading off, while the men growled on their way
+behind, and Mom Wallis, in her new gray bonnet, with her hair all
+fluffed softly gray under it, sat with eyes shining like a girl's.</p>
+
+<p>So absorbed in the song were they all that they failed to hear the sound
+of a horse coming into the<a class="pagenum" title="209" name="page_209" id="page_209"></a> clearing. But just as the last words of the
+final verse died away the door of the bunk-house swung open, and there
+in the doorway stood Pop Wallis!</p>
+
+<p>The men sprang to their feet with one accord, ominous frowns on their
+brows, and poor old Mom Wallis sat petrified where she was, the smile of
+relaxation frozen on her face, a look of fear growing in her tired old
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Now Pop Wallis, through an unusual combination of circumstances, had
+been for some hours without liquor and was comparatively sober. He stood
+for a moment staring amazedly at the group around his fireside. Perhaps
+because he had been so long without his usual stimulant his mind was
+weakened and things appeared as a strange vision to him. At any rate, he
+stood and stared, and as he looked from one to another of the men, at
+the beautiful stranger, and across to the strangely unfamiliar face of
+his wife in her new bonnet, his eyes took on a frightened look. He
+slowly took his hand from the door-frame and passed it over his eyes,
+then looked again, from one to another, and back to his glorified wife.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret had half risen at her end of the table, and Gardley stood
+beside her as if to reassure her; but Pop Wallis was not looking at any
+of them any more. His eyes were on his wife. He passed his hand once
+more over his eyes and took one step gropingly into the room, a hand
+reached out in front of him, as if he were not sure but he might run
+into something on the way, the other hand on his forehead, a dazed look
+in his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Mom&mdash;that ain't really&mdash;<i>you</i>, now, <i>is</i> it?"<a class="pagenum" title="210" name="page_210" id="page_210"></a> he said, in a
+gentle, insinuating voice like one long unaccustomed making a hasty
+prayer.</p>
+
+<p>The tone made a swift change in the old woman. She gripped her bony
+hands tight and a look of beatific joy came into her wrinkled face.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it's really <i>me</i>, Pop!" she said, with a kind of triumphant ring
+to her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;but&mdash;you're right <i>here</i>, ain't you? You ain't <i>dead</i>,
+an'&mdash;an'&mdash;gone to&mdash;gl-oo-ry, be you? You're right <i>here</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I'm right <i>here</i>, Pop. I ain't dead! Pop&mdash;glory's <i>come to me</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"Glory?" repeated the man, dazedly. "Glory?" And he gazed around the
+room and took in the new curtains, the pictures on the wall, the
+cushions and chairs, and the bright, shining windows. "You don't mean
+it's <i>heav'n</i>, do you, Mom? 'Cause I better go back&mdash;<i>I</i> don't belong in
+heav'n. Why, Mom, it can't be glory, 'cause it's the same old
+bunk-house outside, anyhow."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it's the same old bunk-house, and it ain't heaven, but it's
+<i>goin</i>' to be. The glory's come all right. You sit down, Pop; we're
+goin' to have church, and this is my new bonnet. <i>She</i> brang it. This is
+the new school-teacher, Miss Earle, and she's goin' to have church. She
+done it <i>all</i>! You sit down and listen."</p>
+
+<p>Pop Wallis took a few hesitating steps into the room and dropped into
+the nearest chair. He looked at Margaret as if she might be an angel
+holding open the portal to a kingdom in the sky. He looked and wondered
+and admired, and then he looked back to his glorified old wife again in
+wonder.<a class="pagenum" title="211" name="page_211" id="page_211"></a></p>
+
+<p>Jasper Kemp shut the door, and the company dropped back into their
+places. Margaret, because of her deep embarrassment, and a kind of
+inward trembling that had taken possession of her, announced another
+hymn.</p>
+
+<p>It was a solemn little service, quite unique, with a brief, simple
+prayer and an expository reading of the story of the blind man from the
+sixth chapter of John. The men sat attentively, their eyes upon her face
+as she read; but Pop Wallis sat staring at his wife, an awed light upon
+his scared old face, the wickedness and cunning all faded out, and only
+fear and wonder written there.</p>
+
+<p>In the early dawning of the pink-and-silver morning Margaret went back
+to her work, Gardley riding by her side, and Bud riding at a discreet
+distance behind, now and then going off at a tangent after a stray
+cottontail. It was wonderful what good sense Bud seemed to have on
+occasion.</p>
+
+<p>The horse that Margaret rode, a sturdy little Western pony, with nerve
+and grit and a gentle common sense for humans, was to remain with her in
+Ashland, a gift from the men of the bunk-house. During the week that
+followed Archie Forsythe came riding over with a beautiful shining
+saddle-horse for her use during her stay in the West; but when he went
+riding back to the ranch the shining saddle-horse was still in his
+train, riderless, for Margaret told him that she already had a horse of
+her own. Neither had Margaret accepted the invitation to the Temples'
+for the next week-end. She had other plans for the Sabbath, and that
+week there appeared on all the trees and posts about the town, and on<a class="pagenum" title="212" name="page_212" id="page_212"></a>
+the trails, a little notice of a Bible class and vesper-service to be
+held in the school-house on the following Sabbath afternoon; and so
+Margaret, true daughter of her minister-father, took up her mission in
+Ashland for the Sabbaths that were to follow; for the school-board had
+agreed with alacrity to such use of the school-house.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="213" name="page_213" id="page_213"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Now when it became noised abroad that the new teacher wanted above all
+things to purchase a piano, and that to that end she was getting up a
+wonderful Shakespeare play in which the scholars were to act upon a
+stage set with tree boughs after the manner of some new kind of players,
+the whole community round about began to be excited.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner talked much about it. Was not Bud to be a prominent
+character? Mr. Tanner talked about it everywhere he went. The mothers
+and fathers and sisters talked about it, and the work of preparing the
+play went on.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret had discovered that one of the men at the bunk-house played a
+flute, and she was working hard to teach him and Fiddling Boss and
+Croaker to play a portion of the elfin dance to accompany the players.
+The work of making costumes and training the actors became more and more
+strenuous, and in this Gardley proved a fine assistant. He undertook to
+train some of the older boys for their parts, and did it so well that he
+was presently in the forefront of the battle of preparation and working
+almost as hard as Margaret herself.</p>
+
+<p>The beauty of the whole thing was that every<a class="pagenum" title="214" name="page_214" id="page_214"></a> boy in the school adored
+him, even Jed and Timothy, and life took on a different aspect to them
+in company with this high-born college-bred, Eastern young man who yet
+could ride and shoot with the daringest among the Westerners.</p>
+
+<p>Far and wide went forth the fame of the play that was to be. The news of
+it reached to the fort and the ranches, and brought offers of assistance
+and costumes and orders for tickets. Margaret purchased a small
+duplicator and set her school to printing tickets and selling them, and
+before the play was half ready to be acted tickets enough were sold for
+two performances, and people were planning to come from fifty miles
+around. The young teacher began to quake at the thought of her big
+audience and her poor little amateur players; and yet for children they
+were doing wonderfully well, and were growing quite Shakespearian in
+their manner of conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"What say you, sweet Amanda?" would be a form of frequent address to
+that stolid maiden Amanda Bounds; and Jed, instead of shouting for
+"Delicate" at recess, as in former times, would say, "My good Timothy, I
+swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow; by his best arrow with the
+golden head"&mdash;until all the school-yard rang with classic phrases; and
+the whole country round was being addressed in phrases of another
+century by the younger members of their households.</p>
+
+<p>Then Rosa Rogers's father one day stopped at the Tanners' and left a
+contribution with the teacher of fifty dollars toward the new piano; and
+after that it was rumored that the teacher said the piano<a class="pagenum" title="215" name="page_215" id="page_215"></a> could be sent
+for in time to be used at the play. Then other contributions of smaller
+amounts came in, and before the date of the play had been set there was
+money enough to make a first payment on the piano. That day the English
+exercise for the whole school was to compose the letter to the Eastern
+piano firm where the piano was to be purchased, ordering it to be sent
+on at once. Weeks before this Margaret had sent for a number of piano
+catalogues beautifully illustrated, showing by cuts how the whole
+instruments were made, with full illustrations of the factories where
+they were manufactured, and she had discussed the selection with the
+scholars, showing them what points were to be considered in selecting a
+good piano. At last the order was sent out, the actual selection itself
+to be made by a musical friend of Margaret's in New York, and the school
+waited in anxious suspense to hear that it had started on its way.</p>
+
+<p>The piano arrived at last, three weeks before the time set for the play,
+which was coming on finely now and seemed to the eager scholars quite
+ready for public performance. Not so to Margaret and Gardley, as daily
+they pruned, trained, and patiently went over and over again each part,
+drawing all the while nearer to the ideal they had set. It could not be
+done perfectly, of course, and when they had done all they could there
+would yet be many crudities; but Margaret's hope was to bring out the
+meaning of the play and give both audience and performers the true idea
+of what Shakespeare meant when he wrote it.</p>
+
+<p>The arrival of the piano was naturally a great<a class="pagenum" title="216" name="page_216" id="page_216"></a> event in the school. For
+three days in succession the entire school marched in procession down to
+the incoming Eastern train to see if their expected treasure had
+arrived, and when at last it was lifted from the freight-car and set
+upon the station platform the school stood awe-struck and silent, with
+half-bowed heads and bated breath, as though at the arrival of some
+great and honorable guest.</p>
+
+<p>They attended it on the roadside as it was carted by the biggest wagon
+in town to the school-house door; they stood in silent rows while the
+great box was peeled off and the instrument taken out and carried into
+the school-room; then they filed in soulfully and took their accustomed
+seats without being told, touching shyly the shining case as they
+passed. By common consent they waited to hear its voice for the first
+time. Margaret took the little key from the envelope tied to the frame,
+unlocked the cover, and, sitting down, began to play. The rough men who
+had brought it stood in awesome adoration around the platform; the
+silence that spread over that room would have done honor to Paderewski
+or Josef Hoffman.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret played and played, and they could not hear enough. They would
+have stayed all night listening, perhaps, so wonderful was it to them.
+And then the teacher called each one and let him or her touch a few
+chords, just to say they had played on it. After which she locked the
+instrument and sent them all home. That was the only afternoon during
+that term that the play was forgotten for a while.</p>
+
+<p>After the arrival of the piano the play went forward<a class="pagenum" title="217" name="page_217" id="page_217"></a> with great
+strides, for now Margaret accompanied some of the parts with the music,
+and the flute and violin were also practised in their elfin dance with
+much better effect. It was about this time that Archie Forsythe
+discovered the rehearsals and offered his assistance, and, although it
+was declined, he frequently managed to ride over about rehearsal time,
+finding ways to make himself useful in spite of Margaret's polite
+refusals. Margaret always felt annoyed when he came, because Rosa Rogers
+instantly became another creature on his arrival, and because Gardley
+simply froze into a polite statue, never speaking except when spoken to.
+As for Forsythe, his attitude toward Gardley was that of a contemptuous
+master toward a slave, and yet he took care to cover it always with a
+form of courtesy, so that Margaret could say or do nothing to show her
+displeasure, except to be grave and dignified. At such times Rosa
+Rogers's eyes would be upon her with a gleam of hatred, and the teacher
+felt that the scholar was taking advantage of the situation. Altogether
+it was a trying time for Margaret when Forsythe came to the
+school-house. Also, he discovered to them that he played the violin, and
+offered to assist in the orchestral parts. Margaret really could think
+of no reason to decline this offer, but she was sadly upset by the whole
+thing. His manner to her was too pronounced, and she felt continually
+uncomfortable under it, what with Rosa Rogers's jealous eyes upon her
+and Gardley's eyes turned haughtily away.</p>
+
+<p>She planned a number of special rehearsals in the evenings, when it was
+difficult for Forsythe to get<a class="pagenum" title="218" name="page_218" id="page_218"></a> there, and managed in this way to avoid
+his presence; but the whole matter became a source of much vexation, and
+Margaret even shed a few tears wearily into her pillow one night when
+things had gone particularly hard and Forsythe had hurt the feelings of
+Fiddling Boss with his insolent directions about playing. She could not
+say or do anything much in the matter, because the Temples had been very
+kind in helping to get the piano, and Mr. Temple seemed to think he was
+doing the greatest possible kindness to her in letting Forsythe off duty
+so much to help with the play. The matter became more and more of a
+distress to Margaret, and the Sabbath was the only day of real delight.</p>
+
+<p>The first Sunday after the arrival of the piano was a great day.
+Everybody in the neighborhood turned out to the Sunday-afternoon class
+and vesper service, which had been growing more and more in popularity,
+until now the school-room was crowded. Every man from the bunk-house
+came regularly, often including Pop Wallis, who had not yet recovered
+fully from the effect of his wife's new bonnet and fluffy arrangement of
+hair, but treated her like a lady visitor and deferred to her absolutely
+when he was at home. He wasn't quite sure even yet but he had strayed by
+mistake into the outermost courts of heaven and ought to get shooed out.
+He always looked at the rose-wreathed curtains with a mingling of pride
+and awe.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret had put several hymns on the blackboard in clear, bold
+printing, and the singing that day was wonderful. Not the least part of
+the service was her own playing over of the hymns before<a class="pagenum" title="219" name="page_219" id="page_219"></a> the singing
+began, which was listened to with reverence as if it had been the music
+of an angel playing on a heavenly harp.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley always came to the Sunday services, and helped her with the
+singing, and often they two sang duets together.</p>
+
+<p>The service was not always of set form. Usually Margaret taught a short
+Bible lesson, beginning with the general outline of the Bible, its
+books, their form, substance, authors, etc.&mdash;all very brief and
+exceedingly simple, putting a wide space of music between this and the
+vesper service, into which she wove songs, bits of poems, passages from
+the Bible, and often a story which she told dramatically, illustrating
+the scripture read.</p>
+
+<p>But the very Sunday before the play, just the time Margaret had looked
+forward to as being her rest from all the perplexities of the week, a
+company from the fort, including the Temples, arrived at the
+school-house right in the midst of the Bible lesson.</p>
+
+<p>The ladies were daintily dressed, and settled their frills and ribbons
+amusedly as they watched the embarrassed young teacher trying to forget
+that there was company present. They were in a distinct sense "company,"
+for they had the air, as they entered, of having come to look on and be
+amused, not to partake in the worship with the rest.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret found herself trembling inwardly as she saw the supercilious
+smile on the lips of Mrs. Temple and the amused stares of the other
+ladies of the party. They did not take any notice of the other people
+present any more than if they had been so many puppets set up to show
+off the teacher; their<a class="pagenum" title="220" name="page_220" id="page_220"></a> air of superiority was offensive. Not until Rosa
+Rogers entered with her father, a little later, did they condescend to
+bow in recognition, and then with that pretty little atmosphere as if
+they would say, "Oh, you've come, too, to be amused."</p>
+
+<p>Gardley was sitting up in front, listening to her talk, and she thought
+he had not noticed the strangers. Suddenly it came to her to try to keep
+her nerve and let him see that they were nothing to her; and with a
+strong effort and a swift prayer for help she called for a hymn. She sat
+coolly down at the piano, touching the keys with a tender chord or two
+and beginning to sing almost at once. She had sent home for some old
+hymn-books from the Christian Endeavor Society in her father's church,
+so the congregation were supplied with the notes and words now, and
+everybody took part eagerly, even the people from the fort
+condescendingly joining in.</p>
+
+<p>But Gardley was too much alive to every expression on that vivid face of
+Margaret's to miss knowing that she was annoyed and upset. He did not
+need to turn and look back to immediately discover the cause. He was a
+young person of keen intuition. It suddenly gave him great satisfaction
+to see that look of consternation on Margaret's face. It settled for him
+a question he had been in great and anxious doubt about, and his soul
+was lifted up with peace within him. When, presently, according to
+arrangement, he rose to sing a duet with Margaret, no one could have
+possibly told by so much as the lifting of an eyelash that he knew there
+was an enemy of his in the back of the room. He sang,<a class="pagenum" title="221" name="page_221" id="page_221"></a> as did Margaret,
+to the immediate audience in front of him, those admiring children and
+adoring men in the forefront who felt the school-house had become for
+them the gate of heaven for the time being; and he sang with marvelous
+feeling and sympathy, letting out his voice at its best.</p>
+
+<p>"Really," said Mrs. Temple, in a loud whisper to the wife of one of the
+officers, "that young man has a fine voice, and he isn't bad-looking,
+either. I think he'd be worth cultivating. We must have him up and try
+him out."</p>
+
+<p>But when she repeated this remark in another stage whisper to Forsythe
+he frowned haughtily.</p>
+
+<p>The one glimpse Margaret caught of Forsythe during that afternoon's
+service was when he was smiling meaningly at Rosa Rogers; and she had to
+resolutely put the memory of their look from her mind or the story which
+she was about to tell would have fled.</p>
+
+<p>It was the hunger in Jasper Kemp's eyes that finally anchored Margaret's
+thoughts and helped her to forget the company at the back of the room.
+She told her story, and she told it wonderfully and with power,
+interpreting it now and then for the row of men who sat in the center of
+the room drinking in her every word; and when the simple service was
+concluded with another song, in which Gardley's voice rang forth with
+peculiar tenderness and strength, the men filed forth silently,
+solemnly, with bowed heads and thoughtful eyes. But the company from the
+fort flowed up around Margaret like flood-tide let loose and gushed upon
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my dear!" said Mrs. Temple. "How beautifully<a class="pagenum" title="222" name="page_222" id="page_222"></a> you do it! And such
+attention as they give you! No wonder you are willing to forego all
+other amusements to stay here and preach! But it was perfectly sweet the
+way you made them listen and the way you told that story. I don't see
+how you do it. I'd be scared to death!"</p>
+
+<p>They babbled about her awhile, much to her annoyance, for there were
+several people to whom she had wanted to speak, who drew away and
+disappeared when the new-comers took possession of her. At last,
+however, they mounted and rode away, to her great relief. Forsythe, it
+is true, tried to make her go home with them; tried to escort her to the
+Tanners'; tried to remain in the school-house with her awhile when she
+told him she had something to do there; but she would not let him, and
+he rode away half sulky at the last, a look of injured pride upon his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret went to the door finally, and looked down the road. He was
+gone, and she was alone. A shade of sadness came over her face. She was
+sorry that Gardley had not waited. She had wanted to tell him how much
+she liked his singing, what a pleasure it was to sing with him, and how
+glad she was that he came up to her need so well with the strangers
+there and helped to make it easy. But Gardley had melted away as soon as
+the service was over, and had probably gone home with the rest of the
+men. It was disappointing, for she had come to consider their little
+time together on Sunday as a very pleasant hour, this few minutes after
+the service when they would talk about real living and the vital things
+of existence. But he was gone!<a class="pagenum" title="223" name="page_223" id="page_223"></a></p>
+
+<p>She turned, and there he was, quite near the door, coming toward her.
+Her face lighted up with a joy that was unmistakable, and his own smile
+in answer was a revelation of his deeper self.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm so glad you are not gone!" she said, eagerly. "I wanted to tell
+you&mdash;" And then she stopped, and the color flooded her face rosily, for
+she saw in his eyes how glad he was and forgot to finish her sentence.</p>
+
+<p>He came up gravely, after all, and, standing just a minute so beside the
+door, took both her hands in both his. It was only for a second that he
+stood so, looking down into her eyes. I doubt if either of them knew
+till afterward that they had been holding hands. It seemed the right and
+natural thing to do, and meant so much to each of them. Both were glad
+beyond their own understanding over that moment and its tenderness.</p>
+
+<p>It was all very decorous, and over in a second, but it meant much to
+remember afterward, that look and hand-clasp.</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted to tell you," he said, tenderly, "how much that story did for
+me. It was wonderful, and it helped me to decide something I have been
+perplexed over&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am glad!" she said, half breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>So, talking in low, broken sentences, they went back to the piano and
+tried over several songs for the next Sunday, lingering together, just
+happy to be there with each other, and not half knowing the significance
+of it all. As the purple lights on the school-room wall grew long and
+rose-edged, they walked slowly to the Tanner house and said good night.<a class="pagenum" title="224" name="page_224" id="page_224"></a></p>
+
+<p>There was a beauty about the young man as he stood for a moment looking
+down upon the girl in parting, the kind of beauty there is in any
+strong, wild thing made tame and tender for a great love by a great
+uplift. Gardley had that look of self-surrender, and power made
+subservient to right, that crowns a man with strength and more than
+physical beauty. In his fine face there glowed high purpose, and deep
+devotion to the one who had taught it to him. Margaret, looking up at
+him, felt her heart go out with that great love, half maiden, half
+divine, that comes to some favored women even here on earth, and she
+watched him down the road toward the mountain in the evening light and
+marveled how her trust had grown since first she met him; marveled and
+reflected that she had not told her mother and father much about him
+yet. It was growing time to do so; yes&mdash;<i>it was growing time</i>! Her
+cheeks grew pink in the darkness and she turned and fled to her room.</p>
+
+<p>That was the last time she saw him before the play.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="225" name="page_225" id="page_225"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The play was set for Tuesday. Monday afternoon and evening were to be
+the final rehearsals, but Gardley did not come to them. Fiddling Boss
+came late and said the men had been off all day and had not yet
+returned. He himself found it hard to come at all. They had important
+work on. But there was no word from Gardley.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret was disappointed. She couldn't get away from it. Of course they
+could go on with the rehearsal without him. He had done his work well,
+and there was no real reason why he had to be there. He knew every part
+by heart, and could take any boy's place if any one failed in any way.
+There was nothing further really for him to do until the performance, as
+far as that was concerned, except be there and encourage her. But she
+missed him, and an uneasiness grew in her mind. She had so looked
+forward to seeing him, and now to have no word! He might at least have
+sent her a note when he found he could not come.</p>
+
+<p>Still she knew this was unreasonable. His work, whatever it was&mdash;he had
+never explained it very thoroughly to her, perhaps because she had never
+asked&mdash;must, of course, have kept him. She must excuse him without
+question and go on with the business of the hour.<a class="pagenum" title="226" name="page_226" id="page_226"></a></p>
+
+<p>Her hands were full enough, for Forsythe came presently and was more
+trying than usual. She had to be very decided and put her foot down
+about one or two things, or some of her actors would have gone home in
+the sulks, and Fiddling Boss, whose part in the program meant much to
+him, would have given it up entirely.</p>
+
+<p>She hurried everything through as soon as possible, knowing she was
+weary, and longing to get to her room and rest. Gardley would come and
+explain to-morrow, likely in the morning on his way somewhere.</p>
+
+<p>But the morning came and no word. Afternoon came and he had not sent a
+sign yet. Some of the little things that he had promised to do about the
+setting of the stage would have to remain undone, for it was too late
+now to do it herself, and there was no one else to call upon.</p>
+
+<p>Into the midst of her perplexity and anxiety came the news that Jed on
+his way home had been thrown from his horse, which was a young and
+vicious one, and had broken his leg. Jed was to act the part of Nick
+Bottom that evening, and he did it well! Now what in the world was she
+to do? If only Gardley would come!</p>
+
+<p>Just at this moment Forsythe arrived.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it is you, Mr. Forsythe!" And her tone showed plainly her
+disappointment. "Haven't you seen Mr. Gardley to-day? I don't know what
+I shall do without him."</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly have seen Gardley," said Forsythe, a spice of
+vindictiveness and satisfaction in his tone. "I saw him not two hours
+ago, drunk as a fish, out<a class="pagenum" title="227" name="page_227" id="page_227"></a> at a place called Old Ouida's Cabin, as I was
+passing. He's in for a regular spree. You'll not see him for several
+days, I fancy. He's utterly helpless for the present, and out of the
+question. What is there I can do for you? Present your request. It's
+yours&mdash;to the half of my kingdom."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret's heart grew cold as ice and then like fire. Her blood seemed
+to stop utterly and then to go pounding through her veins in leaps and
+torrents. Her eyes grew dark, and things swam before her. She reached
+out to a desk and caught at it for support, and her white face looked at
+him a moment as if she had not heard. But when in a second she spoke,
+she said, quite steadily:</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you, Mr. Forsythe; there is nothing just at present&mdash;or, yes,
+there is, if you wouldn't mind helping Timothy put up those curtains.
+Now, I think I'll go home and rest a few minutes; I am very tired."</p>
+
+<p>It wasn't exactly the job Forsythe coveted, to stay in the school-house
+and fuss over those curtains; but she made him do it, then disappeared,
+and he didn't like the memory of her white face. He hadn't thought she
+would take it that way. He had expected to have her exclaim with horror
+and disgust. He watched her out of the door, and then turned impatiently
+to the waiting Timothy.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret went outside the school-house to call Bud, who had been sent to
+gather sage-brush for filling in the background, but Bud was already out
+of sight far on the trail toward the camp on Forsythe's horse, riding
+for dear life. Bud had come near to the school-house door with his
+armful of sage-brush<a class="pagenum" title="228" name="page_228" id="page_228"></a> just in time to hear Forsythe's flippant speech
+about Gardley and see Margaret's white face. Bud had gone for help!</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret did not go home to rest. She did not even get half-way
+home. When she had gone a very short distance outside the school-house
+she saw some one coming toward her, and in her distress of mind she
+could not tell who it was. Her eyes were blinded with tears, her breath
+was constricted, and it seemed to her that a demon unseen was gripping
+her heart. She had not yet taken her bearings to know what she thought.
+She had only just come dazed from the shock of Forsythe's words, and had
+not the power to think. Over and over to herself, as she walked along,
+she kept repeating the words: "I <i>do not</i> believe it! It is <i>not</i> true!"
+but her inner consciousness had not had time to analyze her soul and be
+sure that she believed the words wherewith she was comforting herself.</p>
+
+<p>So now, when she saw some one coming, she felt the necessity of bringing
+her telltale face to order and getting ready to answer whoever she was
+to meet. As she drew nearer she became suddenly aware that it was Rosa
+Rogers coming with her arms full of bundles and more piled up in front
+of her on her pony. Margaret knew at once that Rosa must have seen
+Forsythe go by her house, and had returned promptly to the school-house
+on some pretext or other. It would not do to let her go there alone with
+the young man; she must go back and stay with them. She could not be
+sure that if she sent Rosa home with orders to rest she would be obeyed.
+Doubtless the girl would take another<a class="pagenum" title="229" name="page_229" id="page_229"></a> way around and return to the
+school again. There was nothing for it but to go back and stay as long
+as Rosa did.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret stooped and, hastily plucking a great armful of sage-brush,
+turned around and retraced her steps, her heart like lead, her feet
+suddenly grown heavy. How could she go back and hear them laugh and
+chatter, answer their many silly, unnecessary questions, and stand it
+all? How could she, with that great weight at her heart?</p>
+
+<p>She went back with a wonderful self-control. Forsythe's face lighted,
+and his reluctant hand grew suddenly eager as he worked. Rosa came
+presently, and others, and the laughing chatter went on quite as
+Margaret had known it would. And she&mdash;so great is the power of human
+will under pressure&mdash;went calmly about and directed here and there;
+planned and executed; put little, dainty, wholly unnecessary touches to
+the stage; and never let any one know that her heart was being crushed
+with the weight of a great, awful fear, and yet steadily upborne by the
+rising of a great, deep trust. As she worked and smiled and ordered, she
+was praying: "Oh, God, don't let it be true! Keep him! Save him! Bring
+him! Make him true! I <i>know</i> he is true! Oh, God, bring him safely
+<i>soon</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>Meantime there was nothing she could do. She could not send Forsythe
+after him. She could not speak of the matter to one of those present,
+and Bud&mdash;where was Bud? It was the first time since she came to Arizona
+that Bud had failed her. She might not leave the school-house, with
+Forsythe and Rosa there, to go and find him, and she might<a class="pagenum" title="230" name="page_230" id="page_230"></a> not do
+anything else. There was nothing to do but work on feverishly and pray
+as she had never prayed before.</p>
+
+<p>By and by one of the smaller boys came, and she sent him back to the
+Tanners' to find Bud, but he returned with the message that Bud had not
+been home since morning; and so the last hours before the evening, that
+would otherwise have been so brief for all there was to be done, dragged
+their weary length away and Margaret worked on.</p>
+
+<p>She did not even go back for supper at the last, but sent one of the
+girls to her room for a few things she needed, and declined even the
+nice little chicken sandwich that thoughtful Mrs. Tanner sent back along
+with the things. And then, at last, the audience began to gather.</p>
+
+<p>By this time her anxiety was so great for Gardley that all thought of
+how she was to supply the place of the absent Jed had gone from her
+mind, which was in a whirl. Gardley! Gardley! If only Gardley would
+come! That was her one thought. What should she do if he didn't come at
+all? How should she explain things to herself afterward? What if it had
+been true? What if he were the kind of man Forsythe had suggested? How
+terrible life would look to her! But it was not true. No, it was not
+true! She trusted him! With her soul she trusted him! He would come back
+some time and he would explain all. She could not remember his last look
+at her on Sunday and not trust him. He was true! He would come!</p>
+
+<p>Somehow she managed to get through the terrible interval, to slip into
+the dressing-room and make<a class="pagenum" title="231" name="page_231" id="page_231"></a> herself sweet and comely in the little white
+gown she had sent for, with its delicate blue ribbons and soft lace
+ruffles. Somehow she managed the expected smiles as one and another of
+the audience came around to the platform to speak to her. There were
+dark hollows under her eyes, and her mouth was drawn and weary, but they
+laid that to the excitement. Two bright-red spots glowed on her cheeks;
+but she smiled and talked with her usual gaiety. People looked at her
+and said how beautiful she was, and how bright and untiring; and how
+wonderful it was that Ashland School had drawn such a prize of a
+teacher. The seats filled, the noise and the clatter went on. Still no
+sign of Gardley or any one from the camp, and still Bud had not
+returned! What could it mean?</p>
+
+<p>But the minutes were rushing rapidly now. It was more than time to
+begin. The girls were in a flutter in one cloak-room at the right of the
+stage, asking more questions in a minute than one could answer in an
+hour; the boys in the other cloak-room wanted all sorts of help; and
+three or four of the actors were attacked with stage-fright as they
+peered through a hole in the curtain and saw some friend or relative
+arrive and sit down in the audience. It was all a mad whirl of seemingly
+useless noise and excitement, and she could not, no, she <i>could not</i>, go
+on and do the necessary things to start that awful play. Why, oh, <i>why</i>
+had she ever been left to think of getting up a play?</p>
+
+<p>Forsythe, up behind the piano, whispered to her that it was time to
+begin. The house was full. There was not room for another soul. Margaret
+explained<a class="pagenum" title="232" name="page_232" id="page_232"></a> that Fiddling Boss had not yet arrived, and caught a glimpse
+of the cunning designs of Forsythe in the shifty turning away of his
+eyes as he answered that they could not wait all night for him; that if
+he wanted to get into it he ought to have come early. But even as she
+turned away she saw the little, bobbing, eager faces of Pop and Mom
+Wallis away back by the door, and the grim, towering figure of the Boss,
+his fiddle held high, making his way to the front amid the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>She sat down and touched the keys, her eyes watching eagerly for a
+chance to speak to the Boss and see if he knew anything of Gardley; but
+Forsythe was close beside her all the time, and there was no
+opportunity. She struck the opening chords of the overture they were to
+attempt to play, and somehow got through it. Of course, the audience was
+not a critical one, and there were few real judges of music present; but
+it may be that the truly wonderful effect she produced upon the
+listeners was due to the fact that she was playing a prayer with her
+heart as her fingers touched the keys, and that instead of a preliminary
+to a fairy revel the music told the story of a great soul struggle, and
+reached hearts as it tinkled and rolled and swelled on to the end. It
+may be, too, that Fiddling Boss was more in sympathy that night with his
+accompanist than was the other violinist, and that was why his old
+fiddle brought forth such weird and tender tones.</p>
+
+<p>Almost to the end, with her heart sobbing its trouble to the keys,
+Margaret looked up sadly, and there, straight before her through a hole
+in the curtain made by some rash youth to glimpse the<a class="pagenum" title="233" name="page_233" id="page_233"></a> audience, or
+perhaps even put there by the owner of the nose itself, she saw the
+little, freckled, turned-up member belonging to Bud's face. A second
+more and a big, bright eye appeared and solemnly winked at her twice, as
+if to say, "Don't you worry; it's all right!"</p>
+
+<p>She almost started from the stool, but kept her head enough to finish
+the chords, and as they died away she heard a hoarse whisper in Bud's
+familiar voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Whoop her up, Miss Earle. We're all ready. Raise the curtain there, you
+guy. Let her rip. Everything's O. K."</p>
+
+<p>With a leap of light into her eyes Margaret turned the leaves of the
+music and went on playing as she should have done if nothing had been
+the matter. Bud was there, anyway, and that somehow cheered her heart.
+Perhaps Gardley had come or Bud had heard of him&mdash;and yet, Bud didn't
+know he had been missing, for Bud had been away himself.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, she summoned courage to go on playing. Nick Bottom wasn't
+in this first scene, anyway, and this would have to be gone through with
+somehow. By this time she was in a state of daze that only thought from
+moment to moment. The end of the evening seemed now to her as far off as
+the end of a hale old age seems at the beginning of a lifetime. Somehow
+she must walk through it; but she could only see a step at a time.</p>
+
+<p>Once she turned half sideways to the audience and gave a hurried glance
+about, catching sight of Fudge's round, near-sighted face, and that gave
+her encouragement. Perhaps the others were somewhere present. If only
+she could get a chance to<a class="pagenum" title="234" name="page_234" id="page_234"></a> whisper to some one from the camp and ask
+when they had seen Gardley last! But there was no chance, of course!</p>
+
+<p>The curtain was rapidly raised and the opening scene of the play began,
+the actors going through their parts with marvelous ease and dexterity,
+and the audience silent and charmed, watching those strangers in queer
+costumes that were their own children, marching around there at their
+ease and talking weird language that was not used in any class of
+society they had ever come across on sea or land before.</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret, watching her music as best she could, and playing
+mechanically rather than with her mind, could not tell if they were
+doing well or ill, so loudly did her heart pound out her fears&mdash;so
+stoutly did her heart proclaim her trust.</p>
+
+<p>And thus, without a flaw or mistake in the execution of the work she had
+struggled so hard to teach them, the first scene of the first act drew
+to its close, and Margaret struck the final chords of the music and felt
+that in another minute she must reel and fall from that piano-stool. And
+yet she sat and watched the curtain fall with a face as controlled as if
+nothing at all were the matter.</p>
+
+<p>A second later she suddenly knew that to sit in that place calmly
+another second was a physical impossibility. She must get somewhere to
+the air at once or her senses would desert her.</p>
+
+<p>With a movement so quick that no one could have anticipated it, she
+slipped from her piano-stool, under the curtain to the stage, and was
+gone before the rest of the orchestra had noticed her intention.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="235" name="page_235" id="page_235"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Since the day that he had given Margaret his promise to make good,
+Gardley had been regularly employed by Mr. Rogers, looking after
+important matters of his ranch. Before that he had lived a free and easy
+life, working a little now and then when it seemed desirable to him,
+having no set interest in life, and only endeavoring from day to day to
+put as far as possible from his mind the life he had left behind him.
+Now, however, all things became different. He brought to his service the
+keen mind and ready ability that had made him easily a winner at any
+game, a brave rider, and a never-failing shot. Within a few days Rogers
+saw what material was in him, and as the weeks went by grew to depend
+more and more upon his advice in matters.</p>
+
+<p>There had been much trouble with cattle thieves, and so far no method of
+stopping the loss or catching the thieves had been successful. Rogers
+finally put the matter into Gardley's hands to carry out his own ideas,
+with the men of the camp at his command to help him, the camp itself
+being only a part of Rogers's outlying possessions, one of several such
+centers from which he worked his growing interests.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley had formulated a scheme by which he<a class="pagenum" title="236" name="page_236" id="page_236"></a> hoped eventually to get
+hold of the thieves and put a stop to the trouble, and he was pretty
+sure he was on the right track; but his plan required slow and cautious
+work, that the enemy might not suspect and take to cover. He had for
+several weeks suspected that the thieves made their headquarters in the
+region of Old Ouida's Cabin, and made their raids from that direction.
+It was for this reason that of late the woods and trails in the vicinity
+of Ouida's had been secretly patrolled day and night, and every
+passer-by taken note of, until Gardley knew just who were the
+frequenters of that way and mostly what was their business. This work
+was done alternately by the men of the Wallis camp and two other camps,
+Gardley being the head of all and carrying all responsibility; and not
+the least of that young man's offenses in the eyes of Rosa Rogers was
+that he was so constantly at her father's house and yet never lifted an
+eye in admiration of her pretty face. She longed to humiliate him, and
+through him to humiliate Margaret, who presumed to interfere with her
+flirtations, for it was a bitter thing to Rosa that Forsythe had no eyes
+for her when Margaret was about.</p>
+
+<p>When the party from the fort rode homeward that Sunday after the service
+at the school-house, Forsythe lingered behind to talk to Margaret, and
+then rode around by the Rogers place, where Rosa and he had long ago
+established a trysting-place.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa was watching for his passing, and he stopped a half-hour or so to
+talk to her. During this time she casually disclosed to Forsythe some of
+the plans she had overheard Gardley laying before her father.<a class="pagenum" title="237" name="page_237" id="page_237"></a> Rosa had
+very little idea of the importance of Gardley's work to her father, or
+perhaps she would not have so readily prattled of his affairs. Her main
+idea was to pay back Gardley for his part in her humiliation with
+Forsythe. She suggested that it would be a great thing if Gardley could
+be prevented from being at the play Tuesday evening, and told what she
+had overheard him saying to her father merely to show Forsythe how easy
+it would be to have Gardley detained on Tuesday. Forsythe questioned
+Rosa keenly. Did she know whom they suspected? Did she know what they
+were planning to do to catch them, and when?</p>
+
+<p>Rosa innocently enough disclosed all she knew, little thinking how
+dishonorable to her father it was, and perhaps caring as little, for
+Rosa had ever been a spoiled child, accustomed to subordinating
+everything within reach to her own uses. As for Forsythe, he was nothing
+loath to get rid of Gardley, and he saw more possibilities in Rosa's
+suggestion than she had seen herself. When at last he bade Rosa good
+night and rode unobtrusively back to the trail he was already
+formulating a plan.</p>
+
+<p>It was, therefore, quite in keeping with his wishes that he should meet
+a dark-browed rider a few miles farther up the trail whose identity he
+had happened to learn a few days before.</p>
+
+<p>Now Forsythe would, perhaps, not have dared to enter into any compact
+against Gardley with men of such ill-repute had it been a matter of
+money and bribery, but, armed as he was with information valuable to the
+criminals, he could so word his suggestion about Gardley's detention as
+to make the<a class="pagenum" title="238" name="page_238" id="page_238"></a> hunted men think it to their advantage to catch Gardley
+some time the next day when he passed their way and imprison him for a
+while. This would appear to be but a friendly bit of advice from a
+disinterested party deserving a good turn some time in the future and
+not get Forsythe into any trouble. As such it was received by the
+wretch, who clutched at the information with ill-concealed delight and
+rode away into the twilight like a serpent threading his secret, gliding
+way among the darkest places, scarcely rippling the air, so stealthily
+did he pass.</p>
+
+<p>As for Forsythe, he rode blithely to the Temple ranch, with no thought
+of the forces he had set going, his life as yet one round of trying to
+please himself at others' expense, if need be, but please himself,
+<i>anyway</i>, with whatever amusement the hour afforded.</p>
+
+<p>At home in the East, where his early life had been spent, a splendid
+girl awaited his dilatory letters and set herself patiently to endure
+the months of separation until he should have attained a home and a
+living and be ready for her to come to him.</p>
+
+<p>In the South, where he had idled six months before he went West, another
+lovely girl cherished mementoes of his tarrying and wrote him loving
+letters in reply to his occasional erratic epistles.</p>
+
+<p>Out on the Californian shore a girl with whom he had traveled West in
+her uncle's luxurious private car, with a gay party of friends and
+relatives, cherished fond hopes of a visit he had promised to make her
+during the winter.</p>
+
+<p>Innumerable maidens of this world, wise in the<a class="pagenum" title="239" name="page_239" id="page_239"></a> wisdom that crushes
+hearts, remembered him with a sigh now and then, but held no illusions
+concerning his kind.</p>
+
+<p>Pretty little Rosa Rogers cried her eyes out every time he cast a
+languishing look at her teacher, and several of the ladies of the fort
+sighed that the glance of his eye and the gentle pressure of his hand
+could only be a passing joy. But the gay Lothario passed on his way as
+yet without a scratch on the hard enamel of his heart, till one wondered
+if it were a heart, indeed, or perhaps only a metal imitation. But girls
+like Margaret Earle, though they sometimes were attracted by him,
+invariably distrusted him. He was like a beautiful spotted snake that
+was often caught menacing something precious, but you could put him down
+anywhere after punishment or imprisonment and he would slide on his same
+slippery way and still be a spotted, deadly snake.</p>
+
+<p>When Gardley left the camp that Monday morning following the walk home
+with Margaret from the Sabbath service, he fully intended to be back at
+the school-house Monday by the time the afternoon rehearsal began. His
+plans were so laid that he thought relays from other camps were to guard
+the suspected ground for the next three days and he could be free. It
+had been a part of the information that Forsythe had given the stranger
+that Gardley would likely pass a certain lonely crossing of the trail at
+about three o'clock that afternoon, and, had that arrangement been
+carried out, the men who lay in wait for him would doubtless have been
+pleased to have their plans mature so easily; but they would not have
+been pleased long, for Gardley's men were<a class="pagenum" title="240" name="page_240" id="page_240"></a> so near at hand at that time,
+watching that very spot with eyes and ears and long-distance glasses,
+that their chief would soon have been rescued and the captors be
+themselves the captured.</p>
+
+<p>But the men from the farther camp, called "Lone Fox" men, did not arrive
+on time, perhaps through some misunderstanding, and Gardley and Kemp and
+their men had to do double time. At last, later in the afternoon,
+Gardley volunteered to go to Lone Fox and bring back the men.</p>
+
+<p>As he rode his thoughts were of Margaret, and he was seeing again the
+look of gladness in her eyes when she found he had not gone yesterday;
+feeling again the thrill of her hands in his, the trust of her smile! It
+was incredible, wonderful, that God had sent a veritable angel into the
+wilderness to bring him to himself; and now he was wondering, could it
+be that there was really hope that he could ever make good enough to
+dare to ask her to marry him. The sky and the air were rare, but his
+thoughts were rarer still, and his soul was lifted up with joy. He was
+earning good wages now. In two more weeks he would have enough to pay
+back the paltry sum for the lack of which he had fled from his old home
+and come to the wilderness. He would go back, of course, and straighten
+out the old score. Then what? Should he stay in the East and go back to
+the old business wherewith he had hoped to make his name honored and
+gain wealth, or should he return to this wild, free land again and start
+anew?</p>
+
+<p>His mother was dead. Perhaps if she had lived and cared he would have
+made good in the first place.<a class="pagenum" title="241" name="page_241" id="page_241"></a> His sisters were both married to wealthy
+men and not deeply interested in him. He had disappointed and mortified
+them; their lives were filled with social duties; they had never missed
+him. His father had been dead many years. As for his uncle, his mother's
+brother, whose heir he was to have been before he got himself into
+disgrace, he decided not to go near him. He would stay as long as he
+must to undo the wrong he had done. He would call on his sisters and
+then come back; come back and let Margaret decide what she wanted him to
+do&mdash;that is, if she would consent to link her life with one who had been
+once a failure. Margaret! How wonderful she was! If Margaret said he
+ought to go back and be a lawyer, he would go&mdash;yes, even if he had to
+enter his uncle's office as an underling to do it. His soul loathed the
+idea, but he would do it for Margaret, if she thought it best. And so he
+mused as he rode!</p>
+
+<p>When the Lone Fox camp was reached and the men sent out on their belated
+task, Gardley decided not to go with them back to meet Kemp and the
+other men, but sent word to Kemp that he had gone the short cut to
+Ashland, hoping to get to a part of the evening rehearsal yet.</p>
+
+<p>Now that short cut led him to the lonely crossing of the trail much
+sooner than Kemp and the others could reach it from the rendezvous; and
+there in cramped positions, and with much unnecessary cursing and
+impatience, four strong masked men had been concealed for four long
+hours.</p>
+
+<p>Through the stillness of the twilight rode Gardley, thinking of
+Margaret, and for once utterly off his guard. His long day's work was
+done, and though<a class="pagenum" title="242" name="page_242" id="page_242"></a> he had not been able to get back when he planned, he
+was free now, free until the day after to-morrow. He would go at once to
+her and see if there was anything she wanted him to do.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as if to help along his enemies, he began to hum a song, his
+clear, high voice reaching keenly to the ears of the men in ambush:</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;">"'Oh, the time is long, mavourneen,<br />
+Till I come again, O mavourneen&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>"And the toime 'll be longer thun iver, oim thinkin', ma purty little
+voorneen!" said an unmistakable voice of Erin through the gathering
+dusk.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley's horse stopped and Gardley's hand went to his revolver, while
+his other hand lifted the silver whistle to his lips; but four guns
+bristled at him in the twilight, the whistle was knocked from his lips
+before his breath had even reached it, some one caught his arms from
+behind, and his own weapon was wrenched from his hand as it went off.
+The cry which he at once sent forth was stifled in its first whisper in
+a great muffling garment flung over his head and drawn tightly about his
+neck. He was in a fair way to strangle, and his vigorous efforts at
+escape were useless in the hands of so many. He might have been plunged
+at once into a great abyss of limitless, soundless depths, so futile did
+any resistance seem. And so, as it was useless to struggle, he lay like
+one dead and put all his powers into listening. But neither could he
+hear much, muffled as he was, and bound hand and foot now, with a gag in
+his mouth and little care taken whether he could even breathe.<a class="pagenum" title="243" name="page_243" id="page_243"></a></p>
+
+<p>They were leading him off the trail and up over rough ground; so much he
+knew, for the horse stumbled and jolted and strained to carry him. To
+keep his whirling senses alive and alert he tried to think where they
+might be leading him; but the darkness and the suffocation dulled his
+powers. He wondered idly if his men would miss him and come back when
+they got home to search for him, and then remembered with a pang that
+they would think him safely in Ashland, helping Margaret. They would not
+be alarmed if he did not return that night, for they would suppose he
+had stopped at Rogers's on the way and perhaps stayed all night, as he
+had done once or twice before. <i>Margaret!</i> When should he see Margaret
+now? What would she think?</p>
+
+<p>And then he swooned away.</p>
+
+<p>When he came somewhat to himself he was in a close, stifling room where
+candle-light from a distance threw weird shadows over the adobe walls.
+The witch-like voices of a woman and a girl in harsh, cackling laughter,
+half suppressed, were not far away, and some one, whose face was
+covered, was holding a glass to his lips. The smell was sickening, and
+he remembered that he hated the thought of liquor. It did not fit with
+those who companied with Margaret. He had never cared for it, and had
+resolved never to taste it again. But whether he chose or not, the
+liquor was poured down his throat. Huge hands held him and forced it,
+and he was still bound and too weak to resist, even if he had realized
+the necessity.</p>
+
+<p>The liquid burned its way down his throat and<a class="pagenum" title="244" name="page_244" id="page_244"></a> seethed into his brain,
+and a great darkness, mingled with men's wrangling voices and much
+cursing, swirled about him like some furious torrent of angry waters
+that finally submerged his consciousness. Then came deeper darkness and
+a blank relief from pain.</p>
+
+<p>Hours passed. He heard sounds sometimes, and dreamed dreams which he
+could not tell from reality. He saw his friends with terror written on
+their faces, while he lay apathetically and could not stir. He saw tears
+on Margaret's face; and once he was sure he heard Forsythe's voice in
+contempt: "Well, he seems to be well occupied for the present! No danger
+of his waking up for a while!" and then the voices all grew dim and far
+away again, and only an old crone and the harsh girl's whisper over him;
+and then Margaret's tears&mdash;tears that fell on his heart from far above,
+and seemed to melt out all his early sins and flood him with their
+horror. Tears and the consciousness that he ought to be doing something
+for Margaret now and could not. Tears&mdash;and more darkness!</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="245" name="page_245" id="page_245"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>When Margaret arrived behind the curtain she was aware of many cries and
+questions hurled at her like an avalanche, but, ignoring them all, she
+sprang past the noisy, excited group of young people, darted through the
+dressing-room to the right and out into the night and coolness. Her head
+was swimming, and things went black before her eyes. She felt that her
+breath was going, going, and she must get to the air.</p>
+
+<p>But when she passed the hot wave of the school-room, and the sharp air
+of the night struck her face, consciousness seemed to turn and come back
+into her again; for there over her head was the wideness of the vast,
+starry Arizona night, and there, before her, in Nick Bottom's somber
+costume, eating one of the chicken sandwiches that Mrs. Tanner had sent
+down to her, stood Gardley! He was pale and shaken from his recent
+experience; but he was undaunted, and when he saw Margaret coming toward
+him through the doorway with her soul in her eyes and her spirit all
+aflame with joy and relief, he came to meet her under the stars, and,
+forgetting everything else, just folded her gently in his arms!</p>
+
+<p>It was a most astonishing thing to do, of course, right there outside
+the dressing-room door, with the curtain just about to rise on the scene
+and Gardley's<a class="pagenum" title="246" name="page_246" id="page_246"></a> wig was not on yet. He had not even asked nor obtained
+permission. But the soul sometimes grows impatient waiting for the lips
+to speak, and Margaret felt her trust had been justified and her heart
+had found its home. Right there behind the school-house, out in the
+great wide night, while the crowded, clamoring audience waited for them,
+and the young actors grew frantic, they plighted their troth, his lips
+upon hers, and with not a word spoken.</p>
+
+<p>Voices from the dressing-room roused them. "Come in quick, Mr. Gardley;
+it's time for the curtain to rise, and everybody is ready. Where on
+earth has Miss Earle vanished? Miss Earle! Oh, Miss Earle!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a rush to the dressing-room to find the missing ones; but Bud,
+as ever, present where was the most need, stood with his back to the
+outside world in the door of the dressing-room and called loudly:</p>
+
+<p>"They're comin', all right. Go on! Get to your places. Miss Earle says
+to get to your places."</p>
+
+<p>The two in the darkness groped for each other's hands as they stood
+suddenly apart, and with one quick pressure and a glance hurried in.
+There was not any need for words. They understood, these two, and
+trusted.</p>
+
+<p>With her cheeks glowing now, and her eyes like two stars, Margaret fled
+across the stage and took her place at the piano again, just as the
+curtain began to be drawn; and Forsythe, who had been slightly uneasy at
+the look on her face as she left them, wondered now and leaned forward
+to tell her how well she was looking.<a class="pagenum" title="247" name="page_247" id="page_247"></a></p>
+
+<p>He kept his honeyed phrase to himself, however, for she was not heeding
+him. Her eyes were on the rising curtain, and Forsythe suddenly
+remembered that this was the scene in which Jed was to have
+appeared&mdash;and Jed had a broken leg! What had Margaret done about it? It
+was scarcely a part that could be left out. Why hadn't he thought of it
+sooner and offered to take it? He could have bluffed it out somehow&mdash;he
+had heard it so much&mdash;made up words where he couldn't remember them all,
+and it would have been a splendid opportunity to do some real
+love-making with Rosa. Why hadn't he thought of it? Why hadn't Rosa?
+Perhaps she hadn't heard about Jed soon enough to suggest it.</p>
+
+<p>The curtain was fully open now, and Bud's voice as Peter Quince, a
+trifle high and cracked with excitement, broke the stillness, while the
+awed audience gazed upon this new, strange world presented to them.</p>
+
+<p>"Is all our company here?" lilted out Bud, excitedly, and Nick Bottom
+replied with Gardley's voice:</p>
+
+<p>"You were best to call them generally, man by man, according to the
+scrip."</p>
+
+<p>Forsythe turned deadly white. Jasper Kemp, whose keen eye was upon him,
+saw it through the tan, saw his lips go pale and purple points of fear
+start in his eyes, as he looked and looked again, and could not believe
+his senses.</p>
+
+<p>Furtively he darted a glance around, like one about to steal away; then,
+seeing Jasper Kemp's eyes upon him, settled back with a strained look<a class="pagenum" title="248" name="page_248" id="page_248"></a>
+upon his face. Once he stole a look at Margaret and caught her face all
+transfigured with great joy; looked again and felt rebuked somehow by
+the pureness of her maiden joy and trust.</p>
+
+<p>Not once had she turned her eyes to his. He was forgotten, and somehow
+he knew the look he would get if she should see him. It would be
+contempt and scorn that would burn his very soul. It is only a maid now
+and then to whom it is given thus to pierce and bruise the soul of a man
+who plays with love and trust and womanhood for selfishness. Such a
+woman never knows her power. She punishes all unconscious to herself. It
+was so that Margaret Earle, without being herself aware, and by her very
+indifference and contempt, showed the little soul of this puppet man to
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>He stole away at last when he thought no one was looking, and reached
+the back of the school-house at the open door of the girls'
+dressing-room, where he knew Titania would be posing in between the
+acts. He beckoned her to his side and began to question her in quick,
+eager, almost angry tones, as if the failure of their plans were her
+fault. Had her father been at home all day? Had anything happened&mdash;any
+one been there? Did Gardley come? Had there been any report from the
+men? Had that short, thick-set Scotchman with the ugly grin been there?
+She must remember that she was the one to suggest the scheme in the
+first place, and it was her business to keep a watch. There was no
+telling now what might happen. He turned, and there stood Jasper Kemp
+close to his elbow, his short stature drawn to its full, his thick-set
+shoulders squaring<a class="pagenum" title="249" name="page_249" id="page_249"></a> themselves, his ugly grin standing out in bold
+relief, menacingly, in the night.</p>
+
+<p>The young man let forth some words not in a gentleman's code, and turned
+to leave the frightened girl, who by this time was almost crying; but
+Jasper Kemp kept pace with Forsythe as he walked.</p>
+
+<p>"Was you addressing me?" he asked, politely; "because I could tell you a
+few things a sight more appropriate for you than what you just handed to
+me."</p>
+
+<p>Forsythe hurried around to the front of the school-house, making no
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Nice, pleasant evening to be <i>free</i>," went on Jasper Kemp, looking up
+at the stars. "Rather onpleasant for some folks that have to be shut up
+in jail."</p>
+
+<p>Forsythe wheeled upon him. "What do you mean?" he demanded, angrily,
+albeit he was white with fear.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing much," drawled Jasper, affably. "I was just thinking how
+much pleasanter it was to be a free man than shut up in prison on a
+night like this. It's so much healthier, you know."</p>
+
+<p>Forsythe looked at him a moment, a kind of panic of intelligence growing
+in his face; then he turned and went toward the back of the
+school-house, where he had left his horse some hours before.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going?" demanded Jasper. "It's 'most time you went back
+to your fiddling, ain't it?"</p>
+
+<p>But Forsythe answered him not a word. He was mounting his horse
+hurriedly&mdash;his horse, which, all unknown to him, had been many miles
+since he last rode him.</p>
+
+<p>"You think you have to go, then?" said Jasper,<a class="pagenum" title="250" name="page_250" id="page_250"></a> deprecatingly. "Well,
+now, that's a pity, seeing you was fiddling so nice an' all. Shall I
+tell them you've gone for your health?"</p>
+
+<p>Thus recalled, Forsythe stared at his tormentor wildly for a second.
+"Tell her&mdash;tell her"&mdash;he muttered, hoarsely&mdash;"tell her I've been taken
+suddenly ill." And he was off on a wild gallop toward the fort.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell her you've gone for your health!" called Jasper Kemp, with
+his hands to his mouth like a megaphone. "I reckon he won't return again
+very soon, either," he chuckled. "This country's better off without such
+pests as him an' that measley parson." Then, turning, he beheld Titania,
+the queen of the fairies, white and frightened, staring wildly into the
+starry darkness after the departed rider. "Poor little fool!" he
+muttered under his breath as he looked at the girl and turned away.
+"Poor, pretty little fool!" Suddenly he stepped up to her side and
+touched her white-clad shoulder gently. "Don't you go for to care,
+lassie," he said in a tender tone. "He ain't worth a tear from your
+pretty eye. He ain't fit to wipe your feet on&mdash;your pretty wee feet!"</p>
+
+<p>But Rosa turned angrily and stamped her foot.</p>
+
+<p>"Go away! You bad old man!" she shrieked. "Go away! I shall tell my
+father!" And she flouted herself into the school-house.</p>
+
+<p>Jasper stood looking ruefully after her, shaking his head. "The little
+de'il!" he said aloud; "the poor, pretty little de'il. She'll get her
+dues aplenty afore she's done." And Jasper went back to the play.<a class="pagenum" title="251" name="page_251" id="page_251"></a></p>
+
+<p>Meantime, inside the school-house, the play went gloriously on to the
+finish, and Gardley as Nick Bottom took the house by storm. Poor absent
+Jed's father, sent by the sufferer to report it all, stood at the back
+of the house while tears of pride and disappointment rolled down his
+cheeks&mdash;pride that Jed had been so well represented, disappointment that
+it couldn't have been his son up there play-acting like that.</p>
+
+<p>The hour was late when the play was over, and Margaret stood at last in
+front of the stage to receive the congratulations of the entire
+countryside, while the young actors posed and laughed and chattered
+excitedly, then went away by two and threes, their tired, happy voices
+sounding back along the road. The people from the fort had been the
+first to surge around Margaret with their eager congratulations and
+gushing sentiments: "So sweet, my dear! So perfectly wonderful! You
+really have got some dandy actors!" And, "Why don't you try something
+lighter&mdash;something simpler, don't you know. Something really popular
+that these poor people could understand and appreciate? A little farce!
+I could help you pick one out!"</p>
+
+<p>And all the while they gushed Jasper Kemp and his men, grim and
+forbidding, stood like a cordon drawn about her to protect her, with
+Gardley in the center, just behind her, as though he had a right there
+and meant to stay; till at last the fort people hurried away and the
+school-house grew suddenly empty with just those two and the eight men
+behind; and by the door Bud, talking to Pop and Mom Wallis in the
+buckboard outside.<a class="pagenum" title="252" name="page_252" id="page_252"></a></p>
+
+<p>Amid this admiring bodyguard at last Gardley took Margaret home.
+Perhaps she wondered a little that they all went along, but she laid it
+to their pride in the play and their desire to talk it over.</p>
+
+<p>They had sent Mom and Pop Wallis home horseback, after all, and put
+Margaret and Gardley in the buckboard, Margaret never dreaming that it
+was because Gardley was not fit to walk. Indeed, he did not realize
+himself why they all stuck so closely to him. He had lived through so
+much since Jasper and his men had burst into his prison and freed him,
+bringing him in hot haste to the school-house, with Bud wildly riding
+ahead. But it was enough for him to sit beside Margaret in the sweet
+night and remember how she had come out to him under the stars. Her hand
+lay beside him on the seat, and without intending it his own brushed it.
+Then he laid his gently, reverently, down upon hers with a quiet
+pressure, and her smaller fingers thrilled and nestled in his grasp.</p>
+
+<p>In the shadow of a big tree beside the house he bade her good-by, the
+men busying themselves with turning about the buckboard noisily, and Bud
+discreetly taking himself to the back door to get one of the men a drink
+of water.</p>
+
+<p>"You have been suffering in some way," said Margaret, with sudden
+intuition, as she looked up into Gardley's face. "You have been in
+peril, somehow&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A little," he answered, lightly. "I'll tell you about it to-morrow. I
+mustn't keep the men waiting now. I shall have a great deal to tell you
+to-morrow&mdash;if you will let me. Good night, <i>Margaret</i>!"<a class="pagenum" title="253" name="page_253" id="page_253"></a> Their hands
+lingered in a clasp, and then he rode away with his bodyguard.</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret did not have to wait until the morrow to hear the story,
+for Bud was just fairly bursting.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner had prepared a nice little supper&mdash;more cold chicken, pie,
+doughnuts, coffee, some of her famous marble cake, and preserves&mdash;and
+she insisted on Margaret's coming into the dining-room and eating it,
+though the girl would much rather have gone with her happy heart up to
+her own room by herself.</p>
+
+<p>Bud did not wait on ceremony. He began at once when Margaret was seated,
+even before his mother could get her properly waited on.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we had <i>some ride</i>, we sure did! The Kid's a great old scout."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret perceived that this was a leader. "Why, that's so, what became
+of you, William? I hunted everywhere for you. Things were pretty
+strenuous there for a while, and I needed you dreadfully."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I know," Bud apologized. "I'd oughta let you know before I went,
+but there wasn't time. You see, I had to pinch that guy's horse to go,
+and I knew it was just a chance if we could get back, anyway; but I had
+to take it. You see, if I could 'a' gone right to the cabin it would
+have been a dead cinch, but I had to ride to camp for the men, and then,
+taking the short trail across, it was some ride to Ouida's Cabin!"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner stepped aghast as she was cutting a piece of dried-apple pie
+for Margaret. "Now, Buddie&mdash;mother's boy&mdash;you don't mean to tell me<a class="pagenum" title="254" name="page_254" id="page_254"></a>
+<i>you</i> went to <i>Ouida's Cabin</i>? Why, sonnie, that's an <i>awful place</i>!
+Don't you know your pa told you he'd whip you if you ever went on that
+trail?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should worry, Ma! I <i>had</i> to go. They had Mr. Gardley tied up there,
+and we had to go and get him rescued."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You</i> had to go, Buddie&mdash;now what could <i>you</i> do in that awful place?"
+Mrs. Tanner was almost reduced to tears. She saw her offspring at the
+edge of perdition at once.</p>
+
+<p>But Bud ignored his mother and went on with his tale. "You jest oughta
+seen Jap Kemp's face when I told him what that guy said to you! Some
+face, b'lieve me! He saw right through the whole thing, too. I could see
+that! He ner the men hadn't had a bite o' supper yet; they'd just got
+back from somewheres. They thought the Kid was over here all day helping
+you. He said yesterday when he left 'em here's where he's
+a-comin'"&mdash;Bud's mouth was so full he could hardly articulate&mdash;"an' when
+I told 'em, he jest blew his little whistle&mdash;like what they all
+carry&mdash;three times, and those men every one jest stopped right where
+they was, whatever they was doin'. Long Bill had the comb in the air
+gettin' ready to comb his hair, an' he left it there and come away, and
+Big Jim never stopped to wipe his face on the roller-towel, he just let
+the wind dry it; and they all hustled on their horses fast as ever they
+could and beat it after Jap Kemp. Jap, he rode alongside o' me and asked
+me questions. He made me tell all what the guy from the fort said over
+again, three or four times, and then he ast what time he got to the
+school-house, and whether the<a class="pagenum" title="255" name="page_255" id="page_255"></a> Kid had been there at all yest'iday ur
+t'day; and a lot of other questions, and then he rode alongside each man
+and told him in just a few words where we was goin' and what the guy
+from the fort had said. Gee! but you'd oughta heard what the men said
+when he told 'em! Gee! but they was some mad! Bimeby we came to the
+woods round the cabin, and Jap Kemp made me stick alongside Long Bill,
+and he sent the men off in different directions all in a <i>big</i> circle,
+and waited till each man was in his place, and then we all rode hard as we
+could and came softly up round that cabin just as the sun was goin' down.
+Gee! but you'd oughta seen the scairt look on them women's faces; there
+was two of 'em&mdash;an old un an' a skinny-looking long-drink-o'-pump-water.
+I guess she was a girl. I don't know. Her eyes looked real old. There
+was only three men in the cabin; the rest was off somewheres. They
+wasn't looking for anybody to come that time o' day, I guess. One of the
+men was sick on a bunk in the corner. He had his head tied up, and his
+arm, like he'd been shot, and the other two men came jumping up to the
+door with their guns, but when they saw how many men <i>we</i> had they
+looked awful scairt. <i>We</i> all had <i>our</i> guns out, too!&mdash;Jap Kemp gave me
+one to carry&mdash;" Bud tried not to swagger as he told this, but it was
+almost too much for him. "Two of our men held the horses, and all the
+rest of us got down and went into the cabin. Jap Kemp, sounded his
+whistle and all our men done the same just as they went in the
+door&mdash;some kind of signals they have for the Lone Fox Camp! The two men
+in the doorway aimed straight at Jap Kemp and<a class="pagenum" title="256" name="page_256" id="page_256"></a> fired, but Jap was onto
+'em and jumped one side and our men fired, too, and we soon had 'em tied
+up and went in&mdash;that is, Jap and me and Long Bill went in, the rest
+stayed by the door&mdash;and it wasn't long 'fore their other men came riding
+back hot haste; they'd heard the shots, you know&mdash;and some more of <i>our</i>
+men&mdash;why, most twenty or thirty there was, I guess, altogether; some
+from Lone Fox Camp that was watching off in the woods came and when we
+got outside again there they all were, like a big army. Most of the men
+belonging to the cabin was tied and harmless by that time, for our men
+took 'em one at a time as they came riding in. Two of 'em got away, but
+Jap Kemp said they couldn't go far without being caught, 'cause there
+was a watch out for 'em&mdash;they'd been stealing cattle long back something
+terrible. Well, so Jap Kemp and Long Bill and I went into the cabin
+after the two men that shot was tied with ropes we'd brung along, and
+handcuffs, and we went hunting for the Kid. At first we couldn't find
+him at all. Gee! It was something fierce! And the old woman kep'
+a-crying and saying we'd kill her sick son, and she didn't know nothing
+about the man we was hunting for. But pretty soon I spied the Kid's foot
+stickin' out from under the cot where the sick man was, and when I told
+Jap Kemp that sick man pulled out a gun he had under the blanket and
+aimed it right at me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mother's little Buddie!" whimpered Mrs. Tanner, with her apron to
+her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Aw, Ma</i>, cut it out! <i>he</i> didn't <i>hurt</i> me! The gun just went off
+crooked, and grazed Jap Kemp's hand<a class="pagenum" title="257" name="page_257" id="page_257"></a> a little, not much. Jap knocked it
+out of the sick man's hand just as he was pullin' the trigger. Say, Ma,
+ain't you got any more of those cucumber pickles? It makes a man mighty
+hungry to do all that riding and shooting. Well, it certainly was
+something fierce&mdash;Say, Miss Earle, you take that last piece o' pie. Oh,
+g'wan! <i>Take</i> it! <i>You</i> worked hard. No, I don't want it, really! Well,
+if you won't take it <i>anyway</i>, I might eat it just to save it. Got any
+more coffee, Ma?"</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret was not eating. Her face was pale and her eyes were starry
+with unshed tears, and she waited in patient but breathless suspense for
+the vagaries of the story to work out to the finish.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it certainly was something fierce, that cabin," went on the
+narrator. "Why, Ma, it looked as if it had never been swept under that
+cot when we hauled the Kid out. He was tied all up in knots, and great
+heavy ropes wound tight from his shoulders down to his ankles. Why, they
+were bound so tight they made great heavy welts in his wrists and
+shoulders and round his ankles when we took 'em off; and they had a
+great big rag stuffed into his mouth so he couldn't yell. Gee! It was
+something fierce! He was 'most dippy, too; but Jap Kemp brought him
+round pretty quick and got him outside in the air. That was the worst
+place I ever was in myself. You couldn't breathe, and the dirt was
+something fierce. It was like a pigpen. I sure was glad to get outdoors
+again. And then&mdash;well, the Kid came around all right and they got him on
+a horse and gave him something out of a bottle Jap Kemp had, and pretty
+soon he could ride<a class="pagenum" title="258" name="page_258" id="page_258"></a> again. Why, you'd oughta seen his nerve. He just sat
+up there as straight, his lips all white yet and his eyes looked some
+queer; but he straightened up and he looked those rascals right in the
+eye, and told 'em a few things, and he gave orders to the other men from
+Lone Fox Camp what to do with 'em; and he had the two women
+disarmed&mdash;they had guns, too&mdash;and carried away, and the cabin nailed up,
+and a notice put on the door, and every one of those men were
+handcuffed&mdash;the sick one and all&mdash;and he told 'em to bring a wagon and
+put the sick one's cot in and take 'em over to Ashland to the jail, and
+he sent word to Mr. Rogers. Then we rode home and got to the
+school-house just when you was playing the last chords of the ov'rtcher.
+Gee! It was some fierce ride and some <i>close shave</i>! The Kid he hadn't
+had a thing to eat since Monday noon, and he was some hungry! I found a
+sandwich on the window of the dressing-room, and he ate it while he got
+togged up&mdash;'course I told him 'bout Jed soon's we left the cabin, and
+Jap Kemp said he'd oughta go right home to camp after all he had been
+through; but he wouldn't; he said he was goin' to <i>act</i>. So 'course he
+had his way! But, gee! You could see it wasn't any cinch game for him!
+He 'most fell over every time after the curtain fell. You see, they gave
+him some kind of drugged whisky up there at the cabin that made his head
+feel queer. Say, he thinks that guy from the fort came in and looked at
+him once while he was asleep. He says it was only a dream, but I bet he
+did. Say, Ma, ain't you gonta give me another doughnut?"</p>
+
+<p>In the quiet of her chamber at last, Margaret<a class="pagenum" title="259" name="page_259" id="page_259"></a> knelt before her window
+toward the purple, shadowy mountain under the starry dome, and gave
+thanks for the deliverance of Gardley; while Bud, in his comfortable
+loft, lay down to his well-earned rest and dreamed of pirates and angels
+and a hero who looked like the Kid.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="260" name="page_260" id="page_260"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Sunday before Lance Gardley started East on his journey of
+reparation two strangers slipped quietly into the back of the
+school-house during the singing of the first hymn and sat down in the
+shadow by the door.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret was playing the piano when they came in, and did not see them,
+and when she turned back to her Scripture lesson she had time for but
+the briefest of glances. She supposed they must be some visitors from
+the fort, as they were speaking to the captain's wife&mdash;&mdash;who came over
+occasionally to the Sunday service, perhaps because it afforded an
+opportunity for a ride with one of the young officers. These occasional
+visitors who came for amusement and curiosity had ceased to trouble
+Margaret. Her real work was with the men and women and children who
+loved the services for their own sake, and she tried as much as possible
+to forget outsiders. So, that day everything went on just as usual,
+Margaret putting her heart into the prayer, the simple, storylike
+reading of the Scripture, and the other story-sermon which followed it.
+Gardley sang unusually well at the close, a wonderful bit from an
+oratorio that he and Margaret had been practising.</p>
+
+<p>But when toward the close of the little vesper<a class="pagenum" title="261" name="page_261" id="page_261"></a> service Margaret gave
+opportunity, as she often did, for others to take part in sentence
+prayers, one of the strangers from the back of the room stood up and
+began to pray. And such a prayer! Heaven seemed to bend low, and earth
+to kneel and beseech as the stranger-man, with a face like an archangel,
+and a body of an athlete clothed in a brown-flannel shirt and khakis,
+besought the Lord of heaven for a blessing on this gathering and on the
+leader of this little company who had so wonderfully led them to see the
+Christ and their need of salvation through the lesson of the day. And it
+did not need Bud's low-breathed whisper, "The missionary!" to tell
+Margaret who he was. His face told her. His prayer thrilled her, and his
+strong, young, true voice made her sure that here was a man of God in
+truth.</p>
+
+<p>When the prayer was over and Margaret stood once more shyly facing her
+audience, she could scarcely keep the tremble out of her voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said she, casting aside ceremony, "if I had known the missionary
+was here I should not have dared to try and lead this meeting to-day.
+Won't you please come up here and talk to us for a little while now, Mr.
+Brownleigh?"</p>
+
+<p>At once he came forward eagerly, as if each opportunity were a pleasure.
+"Why, surely, I want to speak a word to you, just to say how glad I am
+to see you all, and to experience what a wonderful teacher you have
+found since I went away; but I wouldn't have missed this meeting to-day
+for all the sermons I ever wrote or preached. You don't need any more
+sermon than the remarkable story you've just been listening to, and I've
+only one word<a class="pagenum" title="262" name="page_262" id="page_262"></a> to add; and that is, that I've found since I went away
+that Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, is just the same Jesus
+to me to-day that He was the last time I spoke to you. He is just as
+ready to forgive your sin, to comfort you in sorrow, to help you in
+temptation, to raise your body in the resurrection, and to take you home
+to a mansion in His Father's house as He was the day He hung upon the
+cross to save your soul from death. I've found I can rest just as
+securely upon the Bible as the word of God as when I first tested its
+promises. Heaven and earth may pass away, but His word shall <i>never</i>
+pass away."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Go to it!</i>" said Jasper Kemp under his breath in the tone some men say
+"Amen!" and his brows were drawn as if he were watching a battle.
+Margaret couldn't help wondering if he were thinking of the Rev.
+Frederick West just then.</p>
+
+<p>When the service was over the missionary brought his wife forward to
+Margaret, and they loved each other at once. Just another sweet girl
+like Margaret. She was lovely, with a delicacy of feature that betokened
+the high-born and high-bred, but dressed in a dainty khaki riding
+costume, if that uncompromising fabric could ever be called dainty.
+Margaret, remembering it afterward, wondered what it had been that gave
+it that unique individuality, and decided it was perhaps a combination
+of cut and finish and little dainty accessories. A bit of creamy lace at
+the throat of the rolling collar, a touch of golden-brown velvet in a
+golden clasp, the flash of a wonderful jewel on her finger, the modeling
+of the small, brown cap with its two eagle quills&mdash;all<a class="pagenum" title="263" name="page_263" id="page_263"></a> set the little
+woman apart and made her fit to enter any well-dressed company of riders
+in some great city park or fashionable drive. Yet here in the wilderness
+she was not overdressed.</p>
+
+<p>The eight men from the camp stood in solemn row, waiting to be
+recognized, and behind them, abashed and grinning with embarrassment,
+stood Pop and Mom Wallis, Mom with her new gray bonnet glorifying her
+old face till the missionary's wife had to look twice to be sure who she
+was.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, surely, Hazel, we must have these dear people come over and
+help us with the singing sometimes. Can't we try something right now?"
+said the missionary, looking first at his wife and then at Margaret and
+Gardley. "This man is a new-comer since I went away, but I'm mighty sure
+he is the right kind, and I'm glad to welcome him&mdash;or perhaps I would
+better ask if he will welcome me?" And with his rare smile the
+missionary put out his hand to Gardley, who took it with an eager grasp.
+The two men stood looking at each other for a moment, as rare men,
+rarely met, sometimes do even on a sinful earth; and after that clasp
+and that look they turned away, brothers for life.</p>
+
+<p>That was a most interesting song rehearsal that followed. It would be
+rare to find four voices like those even in a cultivated musical center,
+and they blended as if they had been made for one another. The men from
+the bunk-house and a lot of other people silently dropped again into
+their seats to listen as the four sang on. The missionary took the bass,
+and his wife the alto, and the four made music worth listening to. The
+rare and lovely thing about<a class="pagenum" title="264" name="page_264" id="page_264"></a> it was that they sang to souls, not alone
+for ears, and so their music, classical though it was and of the highest
+order, appealed keenly to the hearts of these rough men, and made them
+feel that heaven had opened for them, as once before for untaught
+shepherds, and let down a ladder of angelic voices.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall feel better about leaving you out here while I am gone, since
+they have come," said Gardley that night when he was bidding Margaret
+good night. "I couldn't bear to think there were none of your own kind
+about you. The others are devoted and would do for you with their lives
+if need be, as far as they know; but I like you to have <i>real
+friends</i>&mdash;real <i>Christian</i> friends. This man is what I call a Christian.
+I'm not sure but he is the first minister that I have ever come close to
+who has impressed me as believing what he preaches, and living it. I
+suppose there are others. I haven't known many. That man West that was
+here when you came was a mistake!"</p>
+
+<p>"He didn't even preach much," smiled Margaret, "so how could he live it?
+This man is real. And there are others. Oh, I have known a lot of them
+that are living lives of sacrifice and loving service and are yet just
+as strong and happy and delightful as if they were millionaires. But
+they are the men who have not thrown away their Bibles and their Christ.
+They believe every promise in God's word, and rest on them day by day,
+testing them and proving them over and over. I wish you knew my father!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to," said Gardley, proudly. "<i>I</i> am going to him just as
+soon as I have finished my<a class="pagenum" title="265" name="page_265" id="page_265"></a> business and straightened out my affairs;
+and I am going to tell him <i>everything</i>&mdash;with your permission,
+Margaret!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how beautiful!" cried Margaret, with happy tears in her eyes. "To
+think you are going to see father and mother. I have wanted them to know
+the real you. I couldn't half <i>tell</i> you, the real you, in a letter!"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps they won't look on me with your sweet blindness, dear," he
+said, smiling tenderly down on her. "Perhaps they will see only my dark,
+past life&mdash;for I mean to tell your father everything. I'm not going to
+have any skeletons in the closet to cause pain hereafter. Perhaps your
+father and mother will not feel like giving their daughter to me after
+they know. Remember, I realize just what a rare prize she is."</p>
+
+<p>"No, father is not like that, Lance," said Margaret, with her rare smile
+lighting up her happy eyes. "Father and mother will understand."</p>
+
+<p>"But if they should not?" There was the shadow of sadness in Gardley's
+eyes as he asked the question.</p>
+
+<p>"I belong to you, dear, anyway," she said, with sweet surrender. "I
+trust you though the whole world were against you!"</p>
+
+<p>For answer Gardley took her in his arms, a look of awe upon his face,
+and, stooping, laid his lips upon hers in tender reverence.</p>
+
+<p>"Margaret&mdash;you wonderful Margaret!" he said. "God has blessed me more
+than other men in sending you to me! With His help I will be worthy of
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>Three days more and Margaret was alone with her school work, her two
+missionary friends thirty<a class="pagenum" title="266" name="page_266" id="page_266"></a> miles away, her eager watching for the mail
+to come, her faithful attendant Bud, and for comfort the purple mountain
+with its changing glory in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>A few days before Gardley left for the East he had been offered a
+position by Rogers as general manager of his estate at a fine salary,
+and after consultation with Margaret he decided to accept it, but the
+question of their marriage they had left by common consent unsettled
+until Gardley should return and be able to offer his future wife a
+record made as fair and clean as human effort could make it after human
+mistakes had unmade it. As Margaret worked and waited, wrote her
+charming letters to father and mother and lover, and thought her happy
+thoughts with only the mountain for confidant, she did not plan for the
+future except in a dim and dreamy way. She would make those plans with
+Gardley when he returned. Probably they must wait some time before they
+could be married. Gardley would have to earn some money, and she must
+earn, too. She must keep the Ashland School for another year. It had
+been rather understood, when she came out, that if at all possible she
+would remain two years at least. It was hard to think of not going home
+for the summer vacation; but the trip cost a great deal and was not to
+be thought of. There was already a plan suggested to have a summer
+session of the school, and if that went through, of course she must stay
+right in Ashland. It was hard to think of not seeing her father and
+mother for another long year, but perhaps Gardley would be returning
+before the summer was over,<a class="pagenum" title="267" name="page_267" id="page_267"></a> and then it would not be so hard. However,
+she tried to put these thoughts out of her mind and do her work happily.
+It was incredible that Arizona should have become suddenly so blank and
+uninteresting since the departure of a man whom she had not known a few
+short months before.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret had long since written to her father and mother about Gardley's
+first finding her in the desert. The thing had become history and was
+not likely to alarm them. She had been in Arizona long enough to be
+acquainted with things, and they would not be always thinking of her as
+sitting on stray water-tanks in the desert; so she told them about it,
+for she wanted them to know Gardley as he had been to her. The letters
+that had traveled back and forth between New York and Arizona had been
+full of Gardley; and still Margaret had not told her parents how it was
+between them. Gardley had asked that he might do that. Yet it had been a
+blind father and mother who had not long ago read between the lines of
+those letters and understood. Margaret fancied she detected a certain
+sense of relief in her mother's letters after she knew that Gardley had
+gone East. Were they worrying about him, she wondered, or was it just
+the natural dread of a mother to lose her child?</p>
+
+<p>So Margaret settled down to school routine, and more and more made a
+confidant of Bud concerning little matters of the school. If it had not
+been for Bud at that time Margaret would have been lonely indeed.</p>
+
+<p>Two or three times since Gardley left, the Brownleighs had ridden over
+to Sunday service, and once<a class="pagenum" title="268" name="page_268" id="page_268"></a> had stopped for a few minutes during the
+week on their way to visit some distant need. These occasions were a
+delight to Margaret, for Hazel Brownleigh was a kindred spirit. She was
+looking forward with pleasure to the visit she was to make them at the
+mission station as soon as school closed. She had been there once with
+Gardley before he left, but the ride was too long to go often, and the
+only escort available was Bud. Besides, she could not get away from
+school and the Sunday service at present; but it was pleasant to have
+something to look forward to.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the spring Commencement was coming on and Margaret had her
+hands full. She had undertaken to inaugurate a real Commencement with
+class day and as much form and ceremony as she could introduce in order
+to create a good school spirit; but such things are not done with the
+turn of a hand, and the young teacher sadly missed Gardley in all these
+preparations.</p>
+
+<p>At this time Rosa Rogers was Margaret's particular thorn in the flesh.</p>
+
+<p>Since the night that Forsythe had quit the play and ridden forth into
+the darkness Rosa had regarded her teacher with baleful eyes. Gardley,
+too, she hated, and was only waiting with smoldering wrath until her
+wild, ungoverned soul could take its revenge. She felt that but for
+those two Forsythe would still have been with her.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret, realizing the passionate, untaught nature of the motherless
+girl and her great need of a friend to guide her, made attempt after
+attempt to reach and befriend her; but every attempt was<a class="pagenum" title="269" name="page_269" id="page_269"></a> met with
+repulse and the sharp word of scorn. Rosa had been too long the petted
+darling of a father who was utterly blind to her faults to be other than
+spoiled. Her own way was the one thing that ruled her. By her will she
+had ruled every nurse and servant about the place, and wheedled her
+father into letting her do anything the whim prompted. Twice her father,
+through the advice of friends, had tried the experiment of sending her
+away to school, once to an Eastern finishing school, and once to a
+convent on the Pacific coast, only to have her return shortly by request
+of the school, more wilful than when she had gone away. And now she
+ruled supreme in her father's home, disliked by most of the servants
+save those whom she chose to favor because they could be made to serve
+her purposes. Her father, engrossed in his business and away much of the
+time, was bound up in her and saw few of her faults. It is true that
+when a fault of hers did come to his notice, however, he dealt with it
+most severely, and grieved over it in secret, for the girl was much like
+the mother whose loss had emptied the world of its joy for him. But Rosa
+knew well how to manage her father and wheedle him, and also how to hide
+her own doings from his knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa's eyes, dimples, pink cheeks, and coquettish little mouth were not
+idle in these days. She knew how to have every pupil at her feet and
+ready to obey her slightest wish. She wielded her power to its fullest
+extent as the summer drew near, and day after day saw a slow torture for
+Margaret. Some days the menacing air of insurrection fairly<a class="pagenum" title="270" name="page_270" id="page_270"></a> bristled in
+the room, and Margaret could not understand how some of her most devoted
+followers seemed to be in the forefront of battle, until one day she
+looked up quickly and caught the lynx-eyed glance of Rosa as she turned
+from smiling at the boys in the back seat. Then she understood. Rosa had
+cast her spell upon the boys, and they were acting under it and not of
+their own clear judgment. It was the world-old battle of sex, of woman
+against woman for the winning of the man to do her will. Margaret, using
+all the charm of her lovely personality to uphold standards of right,
+truth, purity, high living, and earnest thinking; Rosa striving with her
+impish beauty to lure them into <i>any</i> mischief so it foiled the other's
+purposes. And one day Margaret faced the girl alone, looking steadily
+into her eyes with sad, searching gaze, and almost a yearning to try to
+lead the pretty child to finer things.</p>
+
+<p>"Rosa, why do you always act as if I were your enemy?" she said, sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"Because you are!" said Rosa, with a toss of her independent head.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I'm not, dear child," she said, putting out her hand to lay it
+on the girl's shoulder kindly. "I want to be your friend."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not a child!" snapped Rosa, jerking her shoulder angrily away; "and
+you can <i>never</i> be my friend, because I <i>hate</i> you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Rosa, look here!" said Margaret, following the girl toward the door,
+the color rising in her cheeks and a desire growing in her heart to
+conquer this poor, passionate creature and win her for better<a class="pagenum" title="271" name="page_271" id="page_271"></a> things.
+"Rosa, I cannot have you say such things. Tell me why you hate me? What
+have I done that you should feel that way? I'm sure if we should talk it
+over we might come to some better understanding."</p>
+
+<p>Rosa stood defiant in the doorway. "We could never come to any better
+understanding, Miss Earle," she declared in a cold, hard tone, "because
+I understand you now and I hate you. You tried your best to get my
+friend away from me, but you couldn't do it; and you would like to keep
+me from having any boy friends at all, but you can't do that, either.
+You think you are very popular, but you'll find out I always do what I
+like, and you needn't try to stop me. I don't have to come to school
+unless I choose, and as long as I don't break your rules you have no
+complaint coming; but you needn't think you can pull the wool over my
+eyes the way you do the others by pretending to be friends. I won't be
+friends! I hate you!" And Rosa turned grandly and marched out of the
+school-house.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret stood gazing sadly after her and wondering if her failure here
+were her fault&mdash;if there was anything else she ought to have done&mdash;if
+she had let her personal dislike of the girl influence her conduct. She
+sat for some time at her desk, her chin in her hands, her eyes fixed on
+vacancy with a hopeless, discouraged expression in them, before she
+became aware of another presence in the room. Looking around quickly,
+she saw that Bud was sitting motionless at his desk, his forehead
+wrinkled in a fierce frown, his jaw set belligerently, and a look of<a class="pagenum" title="272" name="page_272" id="page_272"></a>
+such, unutterable pity and devotion in his eyes that her heart warmed to
+him at once and a smile of comradeship broke over her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, William! Were you here? Did you hear all that? What do you suppose
+is the matter? Where have I failed?"</p>
+
+<p>"You 'ain't failed anywhere! You should worry 'bout her! She's a nut! If
+she was a boy I'd punch her head for her! But seeing she's only a girl,
+<i>you should worry</i>! She always was the limit!"</p>
+
+<p>Bud's tone was forcible. He was the only one of all the boys who never
+yielded to Rosa's charms, but sat in glowering silence when she
+exercised her powers on the school and created pandemonium for the
+teacher. Bud's attitude was comforting. It had a touch of manliness and
+gentleness about it quite unwonted for him. It suggested beautiful
+possibilities for the future of his character, and Margaret smiled
+tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, dear boy!" she said, gently. "You certainly are a comfort.
+If every one was as splendid as you are we should have a model school.
+But I do wish I could help Rosa. I can't see why she should hate me so!
+I must have made some big mistake with her in the first place to
+antagonize her."</p>
+
+<p>"Naw!" said Bud, roughly. "No chance! She's just a <i>nut</i>, that's all.
+She's got a case on that Forsythe guy, the worst kind, and she's afraid
+somebody 'll get him away from her, the poor stew, as if anybody would
+get a case on a tough guy like that! Gee! You should worry! Come on,
+let's take a ride over t' camp!"<a class="pagenum" title="273" name="page_273" id="page_273"></a></p>
+
+<p>With a sigh and a smile Margaret accepted Bud's consolations and went on
+her way, trying to find some manner of showing Rosa what a real friend
+she was willing to be. But Rosa continued obdurate and hateful,
+regarding her teacher with haughty indifference except when she was
+called upon to recite, which she did sometimes with scornful
+condescension, sometimes with pert perfection, and sometimes with saucy
+humor which convulsed the whole room. Margaret's patience was almost
+ceasing to be a virtue, and she meditated often whether she ought not to
+request that the girl be withdrawn from the school. Yet she reflected
+that it was a very short time now until Commencement, and that Rosa had
+not openly defied any rules. It was merely a personal antagonism. Then,
+too, if Rosa were taken from the school there was really no other good
+influence in the girl's life at present. Day by day Margaret prayed
+about the matter and hoped that something would develop to make plain
+her way.</p>
+
+<p>After much thought in the matter she decided to go on with her plans,
+letting Rosa have her place in the Commencement program and her part in
+the class-day doings as if nothing were the matter. Certainly there was
+nothing laid down in the rules of a public school that proscribed a
+scholar who did not love her teacher. Why should the fact that one had
+incurred the hate of a pupil unfit that pupil for her place in her class
+so long as she did her duties? And Rosa did hers promptly and deftly,
+with a certain piquant originality that Margaret could not help but
+admire.<a class="pagenum" title="274" name="page_274" id="page_274"></a></p>
+
+<p>Sometimes, as the teacher cast a furtive look at the pretty girl working
+away at her desk, she wondered what was going on behind the lovely mask.
+But the look in Rosa's eyes, when she raised them, was both deep and
+sly.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa's hatred was indeed deep rooted. Whatever heart she had not
+frivoled away in wilfulness had been caught and won by Forsythe, the
+first grown man who had ever dared to make real love to her. Her
+jealousy of Margaret was the most intense thing that had ever come into
+her life. To think of him looking at Margaret, talking to Margaret,
+smiling at Margaret, walking or riding with Margaret, was enough to send
+her writhing upon her bed in the darkness of a wakeful night. She would
+clench her pretty hands until the nails dug into the flesh and brought
+the blood. She would bite the pillow or the blankets with an almost
+fiendish clenching of her teeth upon them and mutter, as she did so: "I
+hate her! I <i>hate</i> her! I could <i>kill</i> her!"</p>
+
+<p>The day her first letter came from Forsythe, Rosa held her head high and
+went about the school as if she were a princess royal and Margaret were
+the dust under her feet. Triumph sat upon her like a crown and looked
+forth regally from her eyes. She laid her hand upon her heart and felt
+the crackle of his letter inside her blouse. She dreamed with her eyes
+upon the distant mountain and thought of the tender names he had called
+her: "Little wild Rose of his heart," "No rose in all the world until
+you came," and a lot of other meaningful sentences. A real love-letter
+all her own! No sharing him with any hateful teachers! He had implied in
+her<a class="pagenum" title="275" name="page_275" id="page_275"></a> letter that she was the only one of all the people in that region
+to whom he cared to write. He had said he was coming back some day to
+get her. Her young, wild heart throbbed exultantly, and her eyes looked
+forth their triumph malignantly. When he did come she would take care
+that he stayed close by her. No conceited teacher from the East should
+lure him from her side. She would prepare her guiles and smile her
+sweetest. She would wear fine garments from abroad, and show him she
+could far outshine that quiet, common Miss Earle, with all her airs. Yet
+to this end she studied hard. It was no part of her plan to be left
+behind at graduating-time. She would please her father by taking a
+prominent part in things and outdoing all the others. Then he would give
+her what she liked&mdash;jewels and silk dresses, and all the things a girl
+should have who had won a lover like hers.</p>
+
+<p>The last busy days before Commencement were especially trying for
+Margaret. It seemed as if the children were possessed with the very
+spirit of mischief, and she could not help but see that it was Rosa who,
+sitting demurely in her desk, was the center of it all. Only Bud's
+steady, frowning countenance of all that rollicking, roistering crowd
+kept loyalty with the really beloved teacher. For, indeed, they loved
+her, every one but Rosa, and would have stood by her to a man and girl
+when it really came to the pinch, but in a matter like a little bit of
+fun in these last few days of school, and when challenged to it by the
+school beauty who did not usually condescend to any but a few of the
+older boys, where was the harm? They were so flattered<a class="pagenum" title="276" name="page_276" id="page_276"></a> by Rosa's smiles
+that they failed to see Margaret's worn, weary wistfulness.</p>
+
+<p>Bud, coming into the school-house late one afternoon in search of her
+after the other scholars had gone, found Margaret with her head down
+upon the desk and her shoulders shaken with soundless sobs. He stood for
+a second silent in the doorway, gazing helplessly at her grief, then
+with the delicacy of one boy for another he slipped back outside the
+door and stood in the shadow, grinding his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"Gee!" he said, under his breath. "Oh, gee! I'd like to punch her fool
+head. I don't care if she is a girl! She needs it. Gee! if she was a boy
+wouldn't I settle her, the little darned mean sneak!"</p>
+
+<p>His remarks, it is needless to say, did not have reference to his
+beloved teacher.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the atmosphere everywhere that something was bound to happen
+if this strain kept up. Margaret knew it and felt utterly inadequate to
+meet it. Rosa knew it and was awaiting her opportunity. Bud knew it and
+could only stand and watch where the blow was to strike first and be
+ready to ward it off. In these days he wished fervently for Gardley's
+return. He did not know just what Gardley could do about "that little
+fool," as he called Rosa, but it would be a relief to be able to tell
+some one all about it. If he only dared leave he would go over and tell
+Jasper Kemp about it, just to share his burden with somebody. But as it
+was he must stick to the job for the present and bear his great
+responsibility, and so the days hastened by to the last Sunday before
+Commencement, which was to be on Monday.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="277" name="page_277" id="page_277"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Margaret had spent Saturday in rehearsals, so that there had been no
+rest for her. Sunday morning she slept late, and awoke from a troubled
+dream, unrested. She almost meditated whether she would not ask some one
+to read a sermon at the afternoon service and let her go on sleeping.
+Then a memory of the lonely old woman at the camp, and the men, who came
+so regularly to the service, roused her to effort once more, and she
+arose and tried to prepare a little something for them.</p>
+
+<p>She came into the school-house at the hour, looking fagged, with dark
+circles under her eyes; and the loving eyes of Mom Wallis already in her
+front seat watched her keenly.</p>
+
+<p>"It's time for <i>him</i> to come back," she said, in her heart. "She's
+gettin' peeked! I wisht he'd come!"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret had hoped that Rosa would not come. The girl was not always
+there, but of late she had been quite regular, coming in late with her
+father just a little after the story had begun, and attracting attention
+by her smiles and bows and giggling whispers, which sometimes were so
+audible as to create quite a diversion from the speaker.</p>
+
+<p>But Rosa came in early to-day and took a seat<a class="pagenum" title="278" name="page_278" id="page_278"></a> directly in front of
+Margaret, in about the middle of the house, fixing her eyes on her
+teacher with a kind of settled intention that made Margaret shrink as if
+from a danger she was not able to meet. There was something bright and
+hard and daring in Rosa's eyes as she stared unwinkingly, as if she had
+come to search out a weak spot for her evil purposes, and Margaret was
+so tired she wanted to lay her head down on her desk and cry. She drew
+some comfort from the reflection that if she should do so childish a
+thing she would be at once surrounded by a strong battalion of friends
+from the camp, who would shield her with their lives if necessary.</p>
+
+<p>It was silly, of course, and she must control this choking in her
+throat, only how was she ever going to talk, with Rosa looking at her
+that way? It was like a nightmare pursuing her. She turned to the piano
+and kept them all singing for a while, so that she might pray in her
+heart and grow calm; and when, after her brief, earnest prayer, she
+lifted her eyes to the audience, she saw with intense relief that the
+Brownleighs were in the audience.</p>
+
+<p>She started a hymn that they all knew, and when they were well in the
+midst of the first verse she slipped from the piano-stool and walked
+swiftly down the aisle to Brownleigh's side.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you please talk to them a little while?" she pleaded, wistfully.
+"I am so tired I feel as if I just couldn't, to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Instantly Brownleigh followed her back to the desk and took her place,
+pulling out his little, worn Bible and opening it with familiar fingers
+to a beloved passage:<a class="pagenum" title="279" name="page_279" id="page_279"></a></p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">"'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
+give you rest.'"</p>
+
+<p>The words fell on Margaret's tired heart like balm, and she rested her
+head back against the wall and closed her eyes to listen. Sitting so
+away from Rosa's stare, she could forget for a while the absurd burdens
+that had got on her nerves, and could rest down hard upon her Saviour.
+Every word that the man of God spoke seemed meant just for her, and
+brought strength, courage, and new trust to her heart. She forgot the
+little crowd of other listeners and took the message to herself,
+drinking it in eagerly as one who has been a long time ministering
+accepts a much-needed ministry. When she moved to the piano again for
+the closing hymn she felt new strength within her to bear the trials of
+the week that were before her. She turned, smiling and brave, to speak
+to those who always crowded around to shake hands and have a word before
+leaving.</p>
+
+<p>Hazel, putting a loving arm around her as soon as she could get up to
+the front, began to speak soothingly: "You poor, tired child!" she said;
+"you are almost worn to a frazzle. You need a big change, and I'm going
+to plan it for you just as soon as I possibly can. How would you like to
+go with us on our trip among the Indians? Wouldn't it be great? It'll be
+several days, depending on how far we go, but John wants to visit the
+Hopi reservation, if possible, and it'll be so interesting. They are a
+most strange people. We'll have a delightful trip, sleeping out under
+the stars, you know. Don't you just love it? I do. I wouldn't miss it
+for the world. I can't be sure, for a few days yet, when we<a class="pagenum" title="280" name="page_280" id="page_280"></a> can go, for
+John has to make a journey in the other direction first, and he isn't
+sure when he can return; but it might be this week. How soon can you
+come to us? How I wish we could take you right home with us to-night.
+You need to get away and rest. But your Commencement is to-morrow, isn't
+it? I'm so sorry we can't be here, but this other matter is important,
+and John has to go early in the morning. Some one very sick who wants to
+see him before he dies&mdash;an old Indian who didn't know a thing about
+Jesus till John found him one day. I suppose you haven't anybody who
+could bring you over to us after your work is done here to-morrow night
+or Tuesday, have you? Well, we'll see if we can't find some one to send
+for you soon. There's an old Indian who often comes this way, but he's
+away buying cattle. Maybe John can think of a way we could send for you
+early in the week. Then you would be ready to go with us on the trip.
+You would like to go, wouldn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, so much!" said Margaret, with a sigh of wistfulness. "I can't think
+of anything pleasanter!"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret turned suddenly, and there, just behind her, almost touching
+her, stood Rosa, that strange, baleful gleam in her eyes like a serpent
+who was biding her time, drawing nearer and nearer, knowing she had her
+victim where she could not move before she struck.</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange fancy, of course, and one that was caused by sick
+nerves, but Margaret drew back and almost cried out, as if for some one
+to protect her. Then her strong common sense came to the rescue and she
+rallied and smiled at Rosa a faint little sorry<a class="pagenum" title="281" name="page_281" id="page_281"></a> smile. It was hard to
+smile at the bright, baleful face with the menace in the eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Hazel was watching her. "You poor child! You're quite worn out! I'm
+afraid you're going to be sick."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no," said Margaret, trying to speak cheerfully; "things have just
+got on my nerves, that's all. It's been a particularly trying time. I
+shall be all right when to-morrow night is over."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we're going to send for you very soon, so be ready!" and Hazel
+followed her husband, waving her hand in gay parting.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa was still standing just behind her when Margaret turned back to her
+desk, and the younger girl gave her one last dagger look, a glitter in
+her eyes so sinister and vindictive that Margaret felt a shudder run
+through her whole body, and was glad that just then Rosa's father called
+to her that they must be starting home. Only one more day now of Rosa,
+and she would be done with her, perhaps forever. The girl was through
+the school course and was graduating. It was not likely she would return
+another year. Her opportunity was over to help her. She had failed. Why,
+she couldn't tell, but she had strangely failed, and all she asked now
+was not to have to endure the hard, cold, young presence any longer.</p>
+
+<p>"Sick nerves, Margaret!" she said to herself. "Go home and go to bed.
+You'll be all right to-morrow!" And she locked the school-house door and
+walked quietly home with the faithful Bud.</p>
+
+<p>The past month had been a trying time also for Rosa. Young, wild, and
+motherless, passionate, wilful and impetuous, she was finding life
+tremendously<a class="pagenum" title="282" name="page_282" id="page_282"></a> exciting just now. With no one to restrain her or warn her
+she was playing with forces that she did not understand.</p>
+
+<p>She had subjugated easily all the boys in school, keeping them exactly
+where she wanted them for her purpose, and using methods that would have
+done credit to a woman of the world. But by far the greatest force in
+her life was her infatuation for Forsythe.</p>
+
+<p>The letters had traveled back and forth many times between them since
+Forsythe wrote that first love-letter. He found a whimsical pleasure in
+her deep devotion and na&iuml;ve readiness to follow as far as he cared to
+lead her. He realized that, young as she was, she was no innocent, which
+made the acquaintance all the more interesting. He, meantime, idled away
+a few months on the Pacific coast, making mild love to a rich California
+girl and considering whether or not he was ready yet to settle down.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time his correspondence with Rosa took on such a nature that
+his volatile, impulsive nature was stirred with a desire to see her
+again. It was not often that once out of sight he looked back to a
+victim, but Rosa had shown a daring and a spirit in her letters that
+sent a challenge to his sated senses. Moreover, the California heiress
+was going on a journey; besides, an old enemy of his who knew altogether
+too much of his past had appeared on the scene; and as Gardley had been
+removed from the Ashland vicinity for a time, Forsythe felt it might be
+safe to venture back again. There was always that pretty, spirited
+little teacher if Rosa failed to<a class="pagenum" title="283" name="page_283" id="page_283"></a> charm. But why should Rosa not charm?
+And why should he not yield? Rosa's father was a good sort and had all
+kinds of property. Rosa was her father's only heir. On the whole,
+Forsythe decided that the best move he could make next would be to
+return to Arizona. If things turned out well he might even think of
+marrying Rosa.</p>
+
+<p>This was somewhat the train of thought that led Forsythe at last to
+write to Rosa that he was coming, throwing Rosa into a panic of joy and
+alarm. For Rosa's father had been most explicit about her ever going out
+with Forsythe again. It had been the most relentless command he had ever
+laid upon her, spoken in a tone she hardly ever disobeyed. Moreover,
+Rosa was fearfully jealous of Margaret. If Forsythe should come and
+begin to hang around the teacher Rosa felt she would go wild, or do
+something terrible, perhaps even kill somebody. She shut her sharp
+little white teeth fiercely down into her red under lip and vowed with
+flashing eyes that he should never see Margaret again if power of hers
+could prevent it.</p>
+
+<p>The letter from Forsythe had reached her on Saturday evening, and she
+had come to the Sunday service with the distinct idea of trying to plan
+how she might get rid of Margaret. It would be hard enough to evade her
+father's vigilance if he once found out the young man had returned; but
+to have him begin to go and see Margaret again was a thing she could not
+and would not stand.</p>
+
+<p>The idea obsessed her to the exclusion of all others, and made her watch
+her teacher as if by her very concentration of thought upon her some way
+out<a class="pagenum" title="284" name="page_284" id="page_284"></a> of the difficulty might be evolved; as if Margaret herself might
+give forth a hint of weakness somewhere that would show her how to plan.</p>
+
+<p>To that intent she had come close in the group with the others around
+the teacher at the close of meeting, and, so standing, had overheard all
+that the Brownleighs had said. The lightning flash of triumph that she
+cast at Margaret as she left the school-house was her own signal that
+she had found a way at last. Her opportunity had come, and just in time.
+Forsythe was to arrive in Arizona some time on Tuesday, and wanted Rosa
+to meet him at one of their old trysting-places, out some distance from
+her father's house. He knew that school would just be over, for she had
+written him about Commencement, and so he understood that she would be
+free. But he did not know that the place he had selected to meet her was
+on one of Margaret's favorite trails where she and Bud often rode in the
+late afternoons, and that above all things Rosa wished to avoid any
+danger of meeting her teacher; for she not only feared that Forsythe's
+attention would be drawn away from her, but also that Margaret might
+feel it her duty to report to her father about her clandestine meeting.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa's heart beat high as she rode demurely home with her father,
+answering his pleasantries with smiles and dimples and a coaxing word,
+just as he loved to have her. But she was not thinking of her father,
+though she kept well her mask of interest in what he had to say. She was
+trying to plan how she might use what she had heard to get rid of
+Margaret Earle. If only Mrs. Brownleigh would do<a class="pagenum" title="285" name="page_285" id="page_285"></a> as she had hinted and
+send some one Tuesday morning to escort Miss Earle over to her home, all
+would be clear sailing for Rosa; but she dared not trust to such a
+possibility. There were not many escorts coming their way from Ganado,
+and Rosa happened to know that the old Indian who frequently escorted
+parties was off in another direction. She could not rest on any such
+hope. When she reached home she went at once to her room and sat beside
+her window, gazing off at the purple mountains in deep thought. Then she
+lighted a candle and went in search of a certain little Testament, long
+since neglected and covered with dust. She found it at last on the top
+of a pile of books in a dark closet, and dragged it forth, eagerly
+turning the pages. Yes, there it was, and in it a small envelope
+directed to "Miss Rosa Rogers" in a fine angular handwriting. The letter
+was from the missionary's wife to the little girl who had recited her
+texts so beautifully as to earn the Testament.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa carried it to her desk, secured a good light, and sat down to read
+it over carefully.</p>
+
+<p>No thought of her innocent childish exultation over that letter came to
+her now. She was intent on one thing&mdash;the handwriting. Could she seize
+the secret of it and reproduce it? She had before often done so with
+great success. She could imitate Miss Earle's writing so perfectly that
+she often took an impish pleasure in changing words in the questions on
+the blackboard and making them read absurdly for the benefit of the
+school. It was such good sport to see the amazement on Margaret's face
+when her attention would be called to it by a hilarious class,<a class="pagenum" title="286" name="page_286" id="page_286"></a> and to
+watch her troubled brow when she read what she supposed she had written.</p>
+
+<p>When Rosa was but a little child she used to boast that she could write
+her father's name in perfect imitation of his signature; and often
+signed some trifling receipt for him just for amusement. A dangerous
+gift in the hands of a conscienceless girl! Yet this was the first time
+that Rosa had really planned to use her art in any serious way. Perhaps
+it never occurred to her that she was doing wrong. At present her heart
+was too full of hate and fear and jealous love to care for right or
+wrong or anything else. It is doubtful if she would have hesitated a
+second even if the thing she was planning had suddenly appeared to her
+in the light of a great crime. She seemed sometimes almost like a
+creature without moral sense, so swayed was she by her own desires and
+feelings. She was blind now to everything but her great desire to get
+Margaret out of the way and have Forsythe to herself.</p>
+
+<p>Long after her father and the servants were asleep Rosa's light burned
+while she bent over her desk, writing. Page after page she covered with
+careful copies of Mrs. Brownleigh's letter written to herself almost
+three years before. Finally she wrote out the alphabet, bit by bit as
+she picked it from the words, learning just how each letter was
+habitually formed, the small letters and the capitals, with the
+peculiarities of connection and ending. At last, when she lay down to
+rest, she felt herself capable of writing a pretty fair letter in Mrs.
+Brownleigh's handwriting. The next thing was to make her plan and
+compose her letter. She lay staring into<a class="pagenum" title="287" name="page_287" id="page_287"></a> the darkness and trying to
+think just what she could do.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, she settled it that Margaret must be gotten to Walpi
+at least. It would not do to send her to Ganado, where the mission
+station was, for that was a comparatively short journey, and she could
+easily go in a day. When the fraud was discovered, as of course it would
+be when Mrs. Brownleigh heard of it, Margaret would perhaps return to
+find out who had done it. No, she must be sent all the way to Walpi if
+possible. That would take at least two nights and the most of two days
+to get there. Forsythe had said his stay was to be short. By the time
+Margaret got back from Walpi Forsythe would be gone.</p>
+
+<p>But how manage to get her to Walpi without her suspicions being aroused?
+She might word the note so that Margaret would be told to come half-way,
+expecting to meet the missionaries, say at Keams. There was a trail
+straight up from Ashland to Keams, cutting off quite a distance and
+leaving Ganado off at the right. Keams was nearly forty miles west of
+Ganado. That would do nicely. Then if she could manage to have another
+note left at Keams, saying they could not wait and had gone on, Margaret
+would suspect nothing and go all the way to Walpi. That would be fine
+and would give the school-teacher an interesting experience which
+wouldn't hurt her in the least. Rosa thought it might be rather
+interesting than otherwise. She had no compunctions whatever about how
+Margaret might feel when she arrived in that strange Indian town and
+found no friends awaiting her. Her only worry was where<a class="pagenum" title="288" name="page_288" id="page_288"></a> she was to find
+a suitable escort, for she felt assured that Margaret would not start
+out alone with one man servant on an expedition that would keep her out
+overnight. And where in all that region could she find a woman whom she
+could trust to send on the errand? It almost looked as though the thing
+were an impossibility. She lay tossing and puzzling over it till gray
+dawn stole into the room. She mentally reviewed every servant on the
+place on whom she could rely to do her bidding and keep her secret, but
+there was some reason why each one would not do. She scanned the
+country, even considering old Ouida, who had been living in a shack over
+beyond the fort ever since her cabin had been raided; but old Ouida was
+too notorious. Mrs. Tanner would keep Margaret from going with her, even
+if Margaret herself did not know the old woman's reputation. Rosa
+considered if there were any way of wheedling Mom Wallis into the
+affair, and gave that up, remembering the suspicious little twinkling
+eyes of Jasper Kemp. At last she fell asleep, with her plan still
+unformed but her determination to carry it through just as strong as
+ever. If worst came to worst she would send the half-breed cook from the
+ranch kitchen and put something in the note about his expecting to meet
+his sister an hour's ride out on the trail. The half-breed would do
+anything in the world for money, and Rosa had no trouble in getting all
+she wanted of that commodity. But the half-breed was an evil-looking
+fellow, and she feared lest Margaret would not like to go with him.
+However, he should be a last resort. She would not be balked in her
+purpose.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="289" name="page_289" id="page_289"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Rosa awoke very early, for her sleep had been light and troubled. She
+dressed hastily and sat down to compose a note which could be altered
+slightly in case she found some one better than the half-breed; but
+before she was half through the phrasing she heard a slight disturbance
+below her window and a muttering in guttural tones from a strange voice.
+Glancing hastily out, she saw some Indians below, talking with one of
+the men, who was shaking his head and motioning to them that they must
+go on, that this was no place for them to stop. The Indian motioned to
+his squaw, sitting on a dilapidated little moth-eaten burro with a small
+papoose in her arms and looking both dirty and miserable. He muttered as
+though he were pleading for something.</p>
+
+<p>We believe that God's angels follow the feet of little children and
+needy ones to protect them; does the devil also send his angels to lead
+unwary ones astray, and to protect the plan's of the erring ones? If so
+then he must have sent these Indians that morning to further Rosa's
+plans, and instantly she recognized her opportunity. She leaned out of
+her window and spoke in a clear, reproving voice:<a class="pagenum" title="290" name="page_290" id="page_290"></a></p>
+
+<p>"James, what does he want? Breakfast? You know father wouldn't want any
+hungry person to be turned away. Let them sit down on the bench there
+and tell Dorset I said to give them a good hot breakfast, and get some
+milk for the baby. Be quick about it, too!"</p>
+
+<p>James started and frowned at the clear, commanding voice. The squaw
+turned grateful animal eyes up to the little beauty in the window,
+muttering some inarticulate thanks, while the stolid Indian's eyes
+glittered hopefully, though the muscles of his mask-like countenance
+changed not an atom.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa smiled radiantly and ran down to see that her orders were obeyed.
+She tried to talk a little with the squaw, but found she understood very
+little English. The Indian spoke better and gave her their brief story.
+They were on their way to the Navajo reservation to the far north. They
+had been unfortunate enough to lose their last scanty provisions by
+prowling coyotes during the night, and were in need of food. Rosa gave
+them a place to sit down and a plentiful breakfast, and ordered that a
+small store of provisions should be prepared for their journey after
+they had rested. Then she hurried up to her room to finish her letter.
+She had her plan well fixed now. These strangers should be her willing
+messengers. Now and then, as she wrote she lifted her head and gazed out
+of the window, where she could see the squaw busy with her little one,
+and her eyes fairly glittered with satisfaction. Nothing could have been
+better planned than this.</p>
+
+<p>She wrote her note carefully:<a class="pagenum" title="291" name="page_291" id="page_291"></a></p>
+
+<p class="blockquot"><span class="smcap">Dear Margaret</span> [she had heard Hazel call Margaret by her first name,
+and rightly judged that their new friendship was already strong
+enough to justify this intimacy],&mdash;I have found just the
+opportunity I wanted for you to come to us. These Indians are
+thoroughly trustworthy and are coming in just the direction to
+bring you to a point where we will meet you. We have decided to go
+on to Walpi at once, and will probably meet you near Keams, or a
+little farther on. The Indian knows the way, and you need not be
+afraid. I trust him perfectly. Start at once, please, so that you
+will meet us in time. John has to go on as fast as possible. I know
+you will enjoy the trip, and am so glad you are coming.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 60%;">Lovingly,<br />
+<span class="smcap">Hazel Radcliffe Brownleigh</span>.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa read it over, comparing it carefully with the little yellow note
+from her Testament, and decided that it was a very good imitation. She
+could almost hear Mrs. Brownleigh saying what she had written. Rosa
+really was quite clever. She had done it well.</p>
+
+<p>She hastily sealed and addressed her letter, and then hurried down to
+talk with the Indians again.</p>
+
+<p>The place she had ordered for them to rest was at some distance from the
+kitchen door, a sort of outshed for the shelter of certain implements
+used about the ranch. A long bench ran in front of it, and a big tree
+made a goodly shade. The Indians had found their temporary camp quite
+inviting.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa made a detour of the shed, satisfied herself that no one was within
+hearing, and then sat down on the bench, ostensibly playing with the
+papoose, dangling a red ball on a ribbon before his dazzled, bead-like
+eyes and bringing forth a gurgle of delight from the dusky little mummy.
+While she played she talked idly with the Indians. Had they money enough
+for their journey? Would they like to earn<a class="pagenum" title="292" name="page_292" id="page_292"></a> some? Would they act as
+guide to a lady who wanted to go to Walpi? At least she wanted to go as
+far as Keams, where she might meet friends, missionaries, who were going
+on with her to Walpi to visit the Indians. If they didn't meet her she
+wanted to be guided all the way to Walpi? Would they undertake it? It
+would pay them well. They would get money enough for their journey and
+have some left when they got to the reservation. And Rosa displayed two
+gold pieces temptingly in her small palms.</p>
+
+<p>The Indian uttered a guttural sort of gasp at sight of so much money,
+and sat upright. He gasped again, indicating by a solemn nod that he was
+agreeable to the task before him, and the girl went gaily on with her
+instructions:</p>
+
+<p>"You will have to take some things along to make the lady comfortable. I
+will see that those are got ready. Then you can have the things for your
+own when you leave the lady at Walpi. You will have to take a letter to
+the lady and tell her you are going this afternoon, and she must be
+ready to start at once or she will not meet the missionary. Tell her you
+can only wait until three o'clock to start. You will find the lady at
+the school-house at noon. You must not come till noon&mdash;" Rosa pointed to
+the sun and then straight overhead. The Indian watched her keenly and
+nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"You must ask for Miss Earle and give her this letter. She is the
+school-teacher."</p>
+
+<p>The Indian grunted and looked at the white missive in Rosa's hand,
+noting once more the gleam of the gold pieces.<a class="pagenum" title="293" name="page_293" id="page_293"></a></p>
+
+<p>"You must wait till the teacher goes to her boarding-house and packs her
+things and eats her dinner. If anybody asks where you came from you must
+say the missionary's wife from Ganado sent you. Don't tell anybody
+anything else. Do you understand? More money if you don't say anything?"
+Rosa clinked the gold pieces softly.</p>
+
+<p>The strange, sphinx-like gaze of the Indian narrowed comprehensively. He
+understood. His native cunning was being bought for this girl's own
+purposes. He looked greedily at the money. Rosa had put her hand in her
+pocket and brought out yet another gold piece.</p>
+
+<p>"See! I give you this one now"&mdash;she laid one gold piece in the Indian's
+hand&mdash;"and these two I put in an envelope and pack with some provisions
+and blankets on another horse. I will leave the horse tied to a tree up
+where the big trail crosses this big trail out that way. You know?"</p>
+
+<p>Rosa pointed in the direction she meant, and the Indian looked and
+grunted, his eyes returning to the two gold pieces in her hand. It was a
+great deal of money for the little lady to give. Was she trying to cheat
+him? He looked down at the gold he already held. It was good money. He
+was sure of that. He looked at her keenly.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be watching and I shall know whether you have the lady or not,"
+went on the girl, sharply. "If you do not bring the lady with you there
+will be no money and no provisions waiting for you. But if you bring the
+lady you can untie the horse and take him with you. You will need the
+horse to carry the things. When you get to Walpi you can<a class="pagenum" title="294" name="page_294" id="page_294"></a> set him free.
+He is branded and he will likely come back. We shall find him. See, I
+will put the gold pieces in this tin can."</p>
+
+<p>She picked up a sardine-tin that lay at her feet, slipped the gold
+pieces in an envelope from her pocket, stuffed it in the tin, bent down
+the cover, and held it up.</p>
+
+<p>"This can will be packed on the top of the other provisions, and you can
+open it and take the money out when you untie the horse. Then hurry on
+as fast as you can and get as far along the trail as possible to-night
+before you camp. Do you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>The Indian nodded once more, and Rosa felt that she had a confederate
+worthy of her need.</p>
+
+<p>She stayed a few minutes more, going carefully over her directions,
+telling the Indian to be sure his squaw was kind to the lady, and that
+on no account he should let the lady get uneasy or have cause to
+complain of her treatment, or trouble would surely come to him. At last
+she felt sure she had made him understand, and she hurried away to slip
+into her pretty white dress and rose-colored ribbons and ride to school.
+Before she left her room she glanced out of the window at the Indians,
+and saw them sitting motionless, like a group of bronze. Once the Indian
+stirred and, putting his hand in his bosom, drew forth the white letter
+she had given him, gazed at it a moment, and hid it in his breast again.
+She nodded her satisfaction as she turned from the window. The next
+thing was to get to school and play her own part in the Commencement
+exercises.</p>
+
+<p>The morning was bright, and the school-house was<a class="pagenum" title="295" name="page_295" id="page_295"></a> already filled to
+overflowing when Rosa arrived. Her coming, as always, made a little stir
+among admiring groups, for even those who feared her admired her from
+afar. She fluttered into the school-house and up the aisle with the air
+of a princess who knew she had been waited for and was condescending to
+come at all.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa was in everything&mdash;the drills, the march, the choruses, and the
+crowning oration. She went through it all with the perfection of a
+bright mind and an adaptable nature. One would never have dreamed, to
+look at her pretty dimpling face and her sparkling eyes, what diabolical
+things were moving in her mind, nor how those eyes, lynx-soft with
+lurking sweetness and treachery, were watching all the time furtively
+for the appearance of the old Indian.</p>
+
+<p>At last she saw him, standing in a group just outside the window near
+the platform, his tall form and stern countenance marking him among the
+crowd of familiar faces. She was receiving her diploma from the hand of
+Margaret when she caught his eye, and her hand trembled just a quiver as
+she took the dainty roll tied with blue and white ribbons. That he
+recognized her she was sure; that he knew she did not wish him to make
+known his connection with her she felt equally convinced he understood.
+His eye had that comprehending look of withdrawal. She did not look up
+directly at him again. Her eyes were daintily downward. Nevertheless,
+she missed not a turn of his head, not a glance from that stern eye, and
+she knew the moment when he stood at the front door of the school-house
+with the letter in<a class="pagenum" title="296" name="page_296" id="page_296"></a> his hand, stolid and indifferent, yet a great force
+to be reckoned with.</p>
+
+<p>Some one looked at the letter, pointed to Margaret, called her, and she
+came. Rosa was not far away all the time, talking with Jed; her eyes
+downcast, her cheeks dimpling, missing nothing that could be heard or
+seen.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret read the letter. Rosa watched her, knew every curve of every
+letter and syllable as she read, held her breath, and watched Margaret's
+expression. Did she suspect? No. A look of intense relief and pleasure
+had come into her eyes. She was glad to have found a way to go. She
+turned to Mrs. Tanner.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of this, Mrs. Tanner? I'm to go with Mrs. Brownleigh
+on a trip to Walpi. Isn't that delicious? I'm to start at once. Do you
+suppose I could have a bite to eat? I won't need much. I'm too tired to
+eat and too anxious to be off. If you give me a cup of tea and a
+sandwich I'll be all right. I've got things about ready to go, for Mrs.
+Brownleigh told me she would send some one for me."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" said Mrs. Tanner, disapprovingly. "Who you goin' with? Just
+<i>him</i>? I don't much like <i>his</i> looks!"</p>
+
+<p>She spoke in a low tone so the Indian would not hear, and it was almost
+in Rosa's very ear, who stood just behind. Rosa's heart stopped a beat
+and she frowned at the toe of her slipper. Was this common little Tanner
+woman going to be the one to balk her plans?</p>
+
+<p>Margaret raised her head now for her first good<a class="pagenum" title="297" name="page_297" id="page_297"></a> look at the Indian, and
+it must be admitted a chill came into her heart. Then, as if he
+comprehended what was at stake, the Indian turned slightly and pointed
+down the path toward the road. By common consent the few who were
+standing about the door stepped back and made a vista for Margaret to
+see the squaw sitting statue-like on her scraggy little pony, gazing off
+at the mountain in the distance, as if she were sitting for her picture,
+her solemn little papoose strapped to her back.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret's troubled eyes cleared. The family aspect made things all
+right again. "You see, he has his wife and child," she said. "It's all
+right. Mrs. Brownleigh says she trusts him perfectly, and I'm to meet
+them on the way. Read the letter."</p>
+
+<p>She thrust the letter into Mrs. Tanner's hand, and Rosa trembled for her
+scheme once more. Surely, surely Mrs. Tanner would not be able to detect
+the forgery!</p>
+
+<p>"H'm! Well, I s'pose it's all right if she says so, but I'm sure I don't
+relish them pesky Injuns, and I don't think that squaw wife of his looks
+any great shakes, either. They look to me like they needed a good scrub
+with Bristol brick. But then, if you're set on going, you'll go,
+'course. I jest wish Bud hadn't 'a' gone home with that Jasper Kemp. He
+might 'a' gone along, an' then you'd 'a' had somebody to speak English
+to."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it would have been nice to have William along," said Margaret;
+"but I think I'll be all right. Mrs. Brownleigh wouldn't send anybody
+that wasn't nice."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm! I dun'no'! She's an awful crank. She<a class="pagenum" title="298" name="page_298" id="page_298"></a> just loves them Injuns, they
+say. But I, fer one, draw the line at holdin' 'em in my lap. I don't
+b'lieve in mixin' folks up that way. Preach to 'em if you like, but let
+'em keep their distance, I say."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret laughed and went off to pick up her things. Rosa stood smiling
+and talking to Jed until she saw Margaret and Mrs. Tanner go off
+together, the Indians riding slowly along behind.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa waited until the Indians had turned off the road down toward the
+Tanners', and then she mounted her own pony and rode swiftly home.</p>
+
+<p>She rushed up to her room and took off her fine apparel, arraying
+herself quickly in a plain little gown, and went down to prepare the
+provisions. There was none too much time, and she must work rapidly. It
+was well for her plans that she was all-powerful with the servants and
+could send them about at will to get them out of her way. She invented a
+duty for each now that would take them for a few minutes well out of
+sight and sound; then she hurried together the provisions in a basket,
+making two trips to get them to the shelter where she had told the
+Indian he would find the horse tied. She had to make a third trip to
+bring the blankets and a few other things she knew would be
+indispensable, but the whole outfit was really but carelessly gotten
+together, and it was just by chance that some things got in at all.</p>
+
+<p>It was not difficult to find the old cayuse she intended using for a
+pack-horse. He was browsing around in the corral, and she soon had a
+halter over his head, for she had been quite used to horses from her
+babyhood.<a class="pagenum" title="299" name="page_299" id="page_299"></a></p>
+
+<p>She packed the canned things, tinned meats, vegetables, and fruit into a
+couple of large sacks, adding some fodder for the horses, a box of
+matches, some corn bread, of which there was always plenty on hand in
+the house, some salt pork, and a few tin dishes. These she slung pack
+fashion over the old horse, fastened the sardine-tin containing the gold
+pieces where it would be easily found, tied the horse to a tree, and
+retired behind a shelter of sage-brush to watch.</p>
+
+<p>It was not long before the little caravan came, the Indians riding ahead
+single file, like two graven images, moving not a muscle of their faces,
+and Margaret a little way behind on her own pony, her face as happy and
+relieved as if she were a child let out from a hard task to play.</p>
+
+<p>The Indian stopped beside the horse, a glitter of satisfaction in his
+eyes as he saw that the little lady had fulfilled her part of the
+bargain. He indicated to the squaw and the lady that they might move on
+down the trail, and he would catch up with them; and then dismounted,
+pouncing warily upon the sardine-tin at once. He looked furtively about,
+then took out the money and tested it with his teeth to make sure it was
+genuine.</p>
+
+<p>He grunted his further satisfaction, looked over the pack-horse, made
+more secure the fastenings of the load, and, taking the halter, mounted
+and rode stolidly away toward the north.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa waited in her covert until they were far out of sight, then made
+her way hurriedly back to the house and climbed to a window where she
+could watch the trail for several miles. There, with<a class="pagenum" title="300" name="page_300" id="page_300"></a> a field-glass, she
+kept watch until the procession had filed across the plains, down into a
+valley, up over a hill, and dropped to a farther valley out of sight.
+She looked at the sun and drew a breath of satisfaction. She had done it
+at last! She had got Margaret away before Forsythe came! There was no
+likelihood that the fraud would be discovered until her rival was far
+enough away to be safe. A kind of reaction came upon Rosa's overwrought
+nerves. She laughed out harshly, and her voice had a cruel ring to it.
+Then she threw herself upon the bed and burst into a passionate fit of
+weeping, and so, by and by, fell asleep. She dreamed that Margaret had
+returned like a shining, fiery angel, a two-edged sword in her hand and
+all the Wallis camp at her heels, with vengeance in their wake. That
+hateful little boy, Bud Tanner, danced around and made faces at her,
+while Forsythe had forgotten her to gaze at Margaret's face.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="301" name="page_301" id="page_301"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>To Margaret the day was very fair, and the omens all auspicious. She
+carried with her close to her heart two precious letters received that
+morning and scarcely glanced at as yet, one from Gardley and one from
+her mother. She had had only time to open them and be sure that all was
+well with her dear ones, and had left the rest to read on the way.</p>
+
+<p>She was dressed in the khaki riding-habit she always wore when she went
+on horseback; and in the bag strapped on behind she carried a couple of
+fresh white blouses, a thin, white dress, a little soft dark silk gown
+that folded away almost into a cobweb, and a few other necessities. She
+had also slipped in a new book her mother had sent her, into which she
+had had as yet no time to look, and her chessmen and board, besides
+writing materials. She prided herself on having got so many necessaries
+into so small a compass. She would need the extra clothing if she stayed
+at Ganado with the missionaries for a week on her return from the trip,
+and the book and chessmen would amuse them all by the way. She had heard
+Brownleigh say he loved to play chess.<a class="pagenum" title="302" name="page_302" id="page_302"></a></p>
+
+<p>Margaret rode on the familiar trail, and for the first hour just let
+herself be glad that school was over and she could rest and have no
+responsibility. The sun shimmered down brilliantly on the white, hot
+sand and gray-green of the greasewood and sage-brush. Tall spikes of
+cactus like lonely spires shot up now and again to vary the scene. It
+was all familiar ground to Margaret around here, for she had taken many
+rides with Gardley and Bud, and for the first part of the way every turn
+and bit of view was fraught with pleasant memories that brought a smile
+to her eyes as she recalled some quotation of Gardley's or some prank of
+Bud's. Here was where they first sighted the little cottontail the day
+she took her initial ride on her own pony. Off there was the mountain
+where they saw the sun drawing silver water above a frowning storm.
+Yonder was the group of cedars where they had stopped to eat their lunch
+once, and this water-hole they were approaching was the one where
+Gardley had given her a drink from his hat.</p>
+
+<p>She was almost glad that Bud was not along, for she was too tired to
+talk and liked to be alone with her thoughts for this few minutes. Poor
+Bud! He would be disappointed when he got back to find her gone, but
+then he had expected she was going in a few days, anyway, and she had
+promised to take long rides with him when she returned. She had left a
+little note for him, asking him to read a certain book in her bookcase
+while she was gone, and be ready to discuss it with her when she got
+back, and Bud would be fascinated with it, she knew. Bud had been dear
+and faithful, and she would miss<a class="pagenum" title="303" name="page_303" id="page_303"></a> him, but just for this little while
+she was glad to have the great out-of-doors to herself.</p>
+
+<p>She was practically alone. The two sphinx-like figures riding ahead of
+her made no sign, but stolidly rode on hour after hour, nor turned their
+heads even to see if she were coming. She knew that Indians were this
+way; still, as the time went by she began to feel an uneasy sense of
+being alone in the universe with a couple of bronze statues. Even the
+papoose had erased itself in sleep, and when it awoke partook so fully
+of its racial peculiarities as to hold its little peace and make no
+fuss. Margaret began to feel the baby was hardly human, more like a
+little brown doll set up in a missionary meeting to teach white children
+what a papoose was like.</p>
+
+<p>By and by she got out her letters and read them over carefully, dreaming
+and smiling over them, and getting precious bits by heart. Gardley
+hinted that he might be able very soon to visit her parents, as it
+looked as though he might have to make a trip on business in their
+direction before he could go further with what he was doing in his old
+home. He gave no hint of soon returning to the West. He said he was
+awaiting the return of one man who might soon be coming from abroad.
+Margaret sighed and wondered how many weary months it would be before
+she would see him. Perhaps, after all, she ought to have gone home and
+stayed them out with her mother and father. If the school-board could be
+made to see that it would be better to have no summer session, perhaps
+she would even yet go when she returned from the Brownleighs'. She would
+see. She would decide nothing until she was rested.<a class="pagenum" title="304" name="page_304" id="page_304"></a></p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she felt herself overwhelmingly weary, and wished that the
+Indians would stop and rest for a while; but when she stirred up her
+sleepy pony and spurred ahead to broach the matter to her guide he shook
+his solemn head and pointed to the sun:</p>
+
+<p>"No get Keams good time. No meet Aneshodi."</p>
+
+<p>"Aneshodi," she knew, was the Indians' name for the missionary, and she
+smiled her acquiescence. Of course they must meet the Brownleighs and
+not detain them. What was it Hazel had said about having to hurry? She
+searched her pocket for the letter, and then remembered she had left it
+with Mrs. Tanner. What a pity she had not brought it! Perhaps there was
+some caution or advice in it that she had not taken note of. But then
+the Indian likely knew all about it, and she could trust to him. She
+glanced at his stolid face and wished she could make him smile. She cast
+a sunny smile at him and said something pleasant about the beautiful
+day, but he only looked her through as if she were not there, and after
+one or two more attempts she fell back and tried to talk to the squaw;
+but the squaw only looked stolid, too, and shook her head. She did not
+seem friendly. Margaret drew back into her old position and feasted her
+eyes upon the distant hills.</p>
+
+<p>The road was growing unfamiliar now. They were crossing rough ridges
+with cliffs of red sandstone, and every step of the way was interesting.
+Yet Margaret felt more and more how much she wanted to lie down and
+sleep, and when at last in the dusk the Indians halted not far from a
+little pool of rainwater and indicated that here they would camp for<a class="pagenum" title="305" name="page_305" id="page_305"></a>
+the night, Margaret was too weary to question the decision. It had not
+occurred to her that she would be on the way overnight before she met
+her friends. Her knowledge of the way, and of distances, was but vague.
+It is doubtful if she would have ventured had she known that she must
+pass the night thus in the company of two strange savage creatures. Yet,
+now that she was here and it was inevitable, she would not shrink, but
+make the best of it. She tried to be friendly once more, and offered to
+look out for the baby while the squaw gathered wood and made a fire. The
+Indian was off looking after the horses, evidently expecting his wife to
+do all the work.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret watched a few minutes, while pretending to play with the baby,
+who was both sleepy and hungry, yet held his emotions as stolidly as if
+he were a grown person. Then she decided to take a hand in the supper.
+She was hungry and could not bear that those dusky, dirty hands should
+set forth her food, so she went to work cheerfully, giving directions as
+if the Indian woman understood her, though she very soon discovered that
+all her talk was as mere babbling to the other, and she might as well
+hold her peace. The woman set a kettle of water over the fire, and
+Margaret forestalled her next movement by cutting some pork and putting
+it to cook in a little skillet she found among the provisions. The woman
+watched her solemnly, not seeming to care; and so, silently, each went
+about her own preparations.</p>
+
+<p>The supper was a silent affair, and when it was over the squaw handed
+Margaret a blanket. Suddenly she understood that this, and this alone,
+was<a class="pagenum" title="306" name="page_306" id="page_306"></a> to be her bed for the night. The earth was there for a mattress,
+and the sage-brush lent a partial shelter, the canopy of stars was
+overhead.</p>
+
+<p>A kind of panic took possession of her. She stared at the squaw and
+found herself longing to cry out for help. It seemed as if she could not
+bear this awful silence of the mortals who were her only company. Yet
+her common sense came to her aid, and she realized that there was
+nothing for it but to make the best of things. So she took the blanket
+and, spreading it out, sat down upon it and wrapped it about her
+shoulders and feet. She would not lie down until she saw what the rest
+did. Somehow she shrank from asking the bronze man how to fold a blanket
+for a bed on the ground. She tried to remember what Gardley had told her
+about folding the blanket bed so as best to keep out snakes and ants.
+She shuddered at the thought of snakes. Would she dare call for help
+from those stolid companions of hers if a snake should attempt to molest
+her in the night? And would she ever dare to go to sleep?</p>
+
+<p>She remembered her first night in Arizona out among the stars, alone on
+the water-tank, and her first frenzy of loneliness. Was this as bad? No,
+for these Indians were trustworthy and well known by her dear friends.
+It might be unpleasant, but this, too, would pass and the morrow would
+soon be here.</p>
+
+<p>The dusk dropped down and the stars loomed out. All the world grew
+wonderful, like a blue jeweled dome of a palace with the lights turned
+low. The fire burned brightly as the man threw sticks upon it,<a class="pagenum" title="307" name="page_307" id="page_307"></a> and the
+two Indians moved stealthily about in the darkness, passing silhouetted
+before the fire this way and that, and then at last lying down wrapped
+in their blankets to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>It was very quiet about her. The air was so still she could hear the
+hobbled horses munching away in the distance, and moving now and then
+with the halting gait a hobble gives a horse. Off in the farther
+distance the blood-curdling howl of the coyotes rose, but Margaret was
+used to them, and knew they would not come near a fire.</p>
+
+<p>She was growing very weary, and at last wrapped her blanket closer and
+lay down, her head pillowed on one corner of it. Committing herself to
+her Heavenly Father, and breathing a prayer for father, mother, and
+lover, she fell asleep.</p>
+
+<p>It was still almost dark when she awoke. For a moment she thought it was
+still night and the sunset was not gone yet, the clouds were so rosy
+tinted.</p>
+
+<p>The squaw was standing by her, touching her shoulder roughly and
+grunting something. She perceived, as she rubbed her eyes and tried to
+summon back her senses, that she was expected to get up and eat
+breakfast. There was a smell of pork and coffee in the air, and there
+was scorched corn bread beside the fire on a pan.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret got up quickly and ran down to the water-hole to get some
+water, dashing it in her face and over her arms and hands, the squaw
+meanwhile standing at a little distance, watching her curiously, as if
+she thought this some kind of an oblation paid to the white woman's god
+before she ate. Margaret pulled the hair-pins out of her hair, letting
+it<a class="pagenum" title="308" name="page_308" id="page_308"></a> down and combing it with one of her side combs; twisted it up again
+in its soft, fluffy waves; straightened her collar, set on her hat, and
+was ready for the day. The squaw looked at her with both awe and
+contempt for a moment, then turned and stalked back to her papoose and
+began preparing it for the journey.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret made a hurried meal and was scarcely done before she found her
+guides were waiting like two pillars of the desert, but watching keenly,
+impatiently, her every mouthful, and anxious to be off.</p>
+
+<p>The sky was still pink-tinted with the semblance of a sunset, and
+Margaret felt, as she mounted her pony and followed her companions, as
+if the day was all turned upside down. She almost wondered whether she
+hadn't slept through a whole twenty-four hours, and it were not, after
+all, evening again, till by and by the sun rose clear and the wonder of
+the cloud-tinting melted into day.</p>
+
+<p>The road lay through sage-brush and old barren cedar-trees, with rabbits
+darting now and then between the rocks. Suddenly from the top of a
+little hill they came out to a spot where they could see far over the
+desert. Forty miles away three square, flat hills, or mesas, looked like
+a gigantic train of cars, and the clear air gave everything a strange
+vastness. Farther on beyond the mesas dimly dawned the Black Mountains.
+One could even see the shadowed head of "Round Rock," almost a hundred
+miles away. Before them and around was a great plain of sage-brush, and
+here and there was a small bush that the Indians call "the weed that was
+not scared." Margaret had learned all these<a class="pagenum" title="309" name="page_309" id="page_309"></a> things during her winter in
+Arizona, and keenly enjoyed the vast, splendid view spread before her.</p>
+
+<p>They passed several little mud-plastered hogans that Margaret knew for
+Indian dwellings. A fine band of ponies off in the distance made an
+interesting spot on the landscape, and twice they passed bands of sheep.
+She had a feeling of great isolation from everything she had ever known,
+and seemed going farther and farther from life and all she loved. Once
+she ventured to ask the Indian what time he expected to meet her
+friends, the missionaries, but he only shook his head and murmured
+something unintelligible about "Keams" and pointed to the sun. She
+dropped behind again, vaguely uneasy, she could not tell why. There
+seemed something so altogether sly and wary and unfriendly in the faces
+of the two that she almost wished she had not come. Yet the way was
+beautiful enough and nothing very unpleasant was happening to her. Once
+she dropped the envelope of her mother's letter and was about to
+dismount and recover it. Then some strange impulse made her leave it on
+the sand of the desert. What if they should be lost and that paper
+should guide them back? The notion stayed by her, and once in a while
+she dropped other bits of paper by the way.</p>
+
+<p>About noon the trail dropped off into a ca&ntilde;on, with high, yellow-rock
+walls on either side, and stifling heat, so that she felt as if she
+could scarcely stand it. She was glad when they emerged once more and
+climbed to higher ground. The noon camp was a hasty affair, for the
+Indian seemed in a hurry. He scanned the horizon far and wide and<a class="pagenum" title="310" name="page_310" id="page_310"></a>
+seemed searching keenly for some one or something. Once they met a
+lonely Indian, and he held a muttered conversation with him, pointing
+off ahead and gesticulating angrily. But the words were unintelligible
+to Margaret. Her feeling of uneasiness was growing, and yet she could
+not for the life of her tell why, and laid it down to her tired nerves.
+She was beginning to think she had been very foolish to start on such a
+long trip before she had had a chance to get rested from her last days
+of school. She longed to lie down under a tree and sleep for days.</p>
+
+<p>Toward night they sighted a great blue mesa about fifty miles south, and
+at sunset they could just see the San Francisco peaks more than a
+hundred and twenty-five miles away. Margaret, as she stopped her horse
+and gazed, felt a choking in her heart and throat and a great desire to
+cry. The glory and awe of the mountains, mingled with her own weariness
+and nervous fear, were almost too much for her. She was glad to get down
+and eat a little supper and go to sleep again. As she fell asleep she
+comforted herself with repeating over a few precious words from her
+Bible:</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">"The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him and
+delivereth them. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is
+stayed on Thee because he trusteth in Thee. I will both lay me down
+in peace and sleep, for Thou Lord only makest me to dwell in
+safety...."</p>
+
+<p>The voice of the coyotes, now far, now near, boomed out on the night;
+great stars shot dartling pathways across the heavens; the fire snapped
+and crackled, died down and flickered feebly; but Margaret<a class="pagenum" title="311" name="page_311" id="page_311"></a> slept, tired
+out, and dreamed the angels kept close vigil around her lowly couch.</p>
+
+<p>She did not know what time the stars disappeared and the rain began to
+fall. She was too tired to notice the drops that fell upon her face. Too
+tired to hear the coyotes coming nearer, nearer, yet in the morning
+there lay one dead, stretched not thirty feet from where she lay. The
+Indian had shot him through the heart.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow things looked very dismal that morning, in spite of the
+brightness of the sun after the rain. She was stiff and sore with lying
+in the dampness. Her hair was wet, her blanket was wet, and she woke
+without feeling rested. Almost the trip seemed more than she could bear.
+If she could have wished herself back that morning and have stayed at
+Tanners' all summer she certainly would have done it rather than to be
+where and how she was.</p>
+
+<p>The Indians seemed excited&mdash;the man grim and forbidding, the woman
+appealing, frightened, anxious. They were near to Keams Ca&ntilde;on.
+"Aneshodi" would be somewhere about. The Indian hoped to be rid of his
+burden then and travel on his interrupted journey. He was growing
+impatient. He felt he had earned his money.</p>
+
+<p>But when they tried to go down Keam's Ca&ntilde;on they found the road all
+washed away by flood, and must needs go a long way around. This made the
+Indian surly. His countenance was more forbidding than ever. Margaret,
+as she watched him with sinking heart, altered her ideas of the Indian
+as a whole to suit the situation. She had always felt pity for the poor
+Indian, whose land had been seized<a class="pagenum" title="312" name="page_312" id="page_312"></a> and whose kindred had been
+slaughtered. But this Indian was not an object of pity. He was the most
+disagreeable, cruel-looking Indian Margaret had ever laid eyes on. She
+had felt it innately the first time she saw him, but now, as the
+situation began to bring him out, she knew that she was dreadfully
+afraid of him. She had a feeling that he might scalp her if he got tired
+of her. She began to alter her opinion of Hazel Brownleigh's judgment as
+regarded Indians. She did not feel that she would ever send this Indian
+to any one for a guide and say he was perfectly trustworthy. He hadn't
+done anything very dreadful yet, but she felt he was going to.</p>
+
+<p>He had a number of angry confabs with his wife that morning. At least,
+he did the confabbing and the squaw protested. Margaret gathered after a
+while that it was something about herself. The furtive, frightened
+glances that the squaw cast in her direction sometimes, when the man was
+not looking, made her think so. She tried to say it was all imagination,
+and that her nerves were getting the upper hand of her, but in spite of
+her she shuddered sometimes, just as she had done when Rosa looked at
+her. She decided that she must be going to have a fit of sickness, and
+that just as soon as she got in the neighborhood of Mrs. Tanner's again
+she would pack her trunk and go home to her mother. If she was going to
+be sick she wanted her mother.</p>
+
+<p>About noon things came to a climax. They halted on the top of the mesa,
+and the Indians had another altercation, which ended in the man
+descending the trail a fearfully steep way, down four hundred feet to
+the trading-post in the ca&ntilde;on. Margaret looked<a class="pagenum" title="313" name="page_313" id="page_313"></a> down and gasped and
+thanked a kind Providence that had not made it necessary for her to make
+that descent; but the squaw stood at the top with her baby and looked
+down in silent sorrow&mdash;agony perhaps would be a better name. Her face
+was terrible to look upon.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret could not understand it, and she went to the woman and put her
+hand out sympathetically, asking, gently: "What is the matter, you poor
+little thing? Oh, what is it?"</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the woman understood the tenderness in the tone, for she
+suddenly turned and rested her forehead against Margaret's shoulder,
+giving one great, gasping sob, then lifted her dry, miserable eyes to
+the girl's face as if to thank her for her kindness.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret's heart was touched. She threw her arms around the poor woman
+and drew her, papoose and all, comfortingly toward her, patting her
+shoulder and saying gentle, soothing words as she would to a little
+child. And by and by the woman lifted her head again, the tears coursing
+down her face, and tried to explain, muttering her queer gutturals and
+making eloquent gestures until Margaret felt she understood. She
+gathered that the man had gone down to the trading-post to find the
+"Aneshodi," and that the squaw feared that he would somehow procure
+firewater either from the trader or from some Indian he might meet, and
+would come back angrier than he had gone, and without his money.</p>
+
+<p>If Margaret also suspected that the Indian had desired to get rid of her
+by leaving her at that desolate little trading-station down in the ca&ntilde;on
+until such time as her friends should call for her, she resolutely<a class="pagenum" title="314" name="page_314" id="page_314"></a> put
+the thought out of her mind and set herself to cheer the poor Indian
+woman.</p>
+
+<p>She took a bright, soft, rosy silk tie from her own neck and knotted it
+about the astonished woman's dusky throat, and then she put a silver
+dollar in her hand, and was thrilled with wonder to see what a change
+came over the poor, dark face. It reminded her of Mom Wallis when she
+got on her new bonnet, and once again she felt the thrill of knowing the
+whole world kin.</p>
+
+<p>The squaw cheered up after a little, got sticks and made a fire, and
+together they had quite a pleasant meal. Margaret exerted herself to
+make the poor woman laugh, and finally succeeded by dangling a
+bright-red knight from her chessmen in front of the delighted baby's
+eyes till he gurgled out a real baby crow of joy.</p>
+
+<p>It was the middle of the afternoon before the Indian returned, sitting
+crazily his struggling beast as he climbed the trail once more.
+Margaret, watching, caught her breath and prayed. Was this the
+trustworthy man, this drunken, reeling creature, clubbing his horse and
+pouring forth a torrent of indistinguishable gutturals? It was evident
+that his wife's worst fears were verified. He had found the firewater.</p>
+
+<p>The frightened squaw set to work putting things together as fast as she
+could. She well knew what to expect, and when the man reached the top of
+the mesa he found his party packed and mounted, waiting fearsomely to
+take the trail.</p>
+
+<p>Silently, timorously, they rode behind him, west across the great wide
+plain.<a class="pagenum" title="315" name="page_315" id="page_315"></a></p>
+
+<p>In the distance gradually there appeared dim mesas like great fingers
+stretching out against the sky; miles away they seemed, and nothing
+intervening but a stretch of varying color where sage-brush melted into
+sand, and sage-brush and greasewood grew again, with tall cactus
+startling here and there like bayonets at rest but bristling with
+menace.</p>
+
+<p>The Indian had grown silent and sullen. His eyes were like deep fires of
+burning volcanoes. One shrank from looking at them. His massive, cruel
+profile stood out like bronze against the evening sky. It was growing
+night again, and still they had not come to anywhere or anything, and
+still her friends seemed just as far away.</p>
+
+<p>Since they had left the top of Keams Ca&ntilde;on Margaret had been sure all
+was not right. Aside from the fact that the guide was drunk at present,
+she was convinced that there had been something wrong with him all
+along. He did not act like the Indians around Ashland. He did not act
+like a trusted guide that her friends would send for her. She wished
+once more that she had kept Hazel Brownleigh's letter. She wondered how
+her friends would find her if they came after her. It was then she began
+in earnest to systematically plan to leave a trail behind her all the
+rest of the way. If she had only done it thoroughly when she first began
+to be uneasy. But now she was so far away, so many miles from anywhere!
+Oh, if she had not come at all!</p>
+
+<p>And first she dropped her handkerchief, because she happened to have it
+in her hand&mdash;a dainty thing with lace on the edge and her name written
+in tiny script by her mother's careful hand on the narrow<a class="pagenum" title="316" name="page_316" id="page_316"></a> hem. And then
+after a little, as soon as she could scrawl it without being noticed,
+she wrote a note which she twisted around the neck of a red chessman,
+and left behind her. After that scraps of paper, as she could reach them
+out of the bag tied on behind her saddle; then a stocking, a bedroom
+slipper, more chessmen, and so, when they halted at dusk and prepared to
+strike camp, she had quite a good little trail blazed behind her over
+that wide, empty plain. She shuddered as she looked into the gathering
+darkness ahead, where those long, dark lines of mesas looked like
+barriers in the way. Then, suddenly, the Indian pointed ahead to the
+first mesa and uttered one word&mdash;"Walpi!" So that was the Indian village
+to which she was bound? What was before her on the morrow? After eating
+a pretense of supper she lay down. The Indian had more firewater with
+him. He drank, he uttered cruel gutturals at his squaw, and even kicked
+the feet of the sleeping papoose as he passed by till it awoke and cried
+sharply, which made him more angry, so he struck the squaw.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed hours before all was quiet. Margaret's nerves were strained to
+such a pitch she scarcely dared to breathe, but at last, when the fire
+had almost died down, the man lay quiet, and she could relax and close
+her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Not to sleep. She must not go to sleep. The fire was almost gone and the
+coyotes would be around. She must wake and watch!</p>
+
+<p>That was the last thought she remembered&mdash;that and a prayer that the
+angels would keep watch once again.<a class="pagenum" title="317" name="page_317" id="page_317"></a></p>
+
+<p>When she awoke it was broad daylight and far into the morning, for the
+sun was high overhead and the mesas in the distance were clear and
+distinct against the sky.</p>
+
+<p>She sat up and looked about her, bewildered, not knowing at first where
+she was. It was so still and wide and lonely.</p>
+
+<p>She turned to find the Indians, but there was no trace of them anywhere.
+The fire lay smoldering in its place, a thin trickle of smoke curling
+away from a dying stick, but that was all. A tin cup half full of coffee
+was beside the stick, and a piece of blackened corn bread. She turned
+frightened eyes to east, to west, to north, to south, but there was no
+one in sight, and out over the distant mesa there poised a great eagle
+alone in the vast sky keeping watch over the brilliant, silent waste.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="318" name="page_318" id="page_318"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>When Margaret was a very little girl her father and mother had left her
+alone for an hour with a stranger while they went out to make a call in
+a strange city through which they were passing on a summer trip. The
+stranger was kind, and gave to the child a large green box of bits of
+old black lace and purple ribbons to play with, but she turned
+sorrowfully from the somber array of finery, which was the only thing in
+the way of a plaything the woman had at hand, and stood looking drearily
+out of the window on the strange, new town, a feeling of utter
+loneliness upon her. Her little heart was almost choked with the
+awfulness of the thought that she was a human atom drifted apart from
+every other atom she had ever known, that she had a personality and a
+responsibility of her own, and that she must face this thought of
+herself and her aloneness for evermore. It was the child's first
+realization that she was a separate being apart from her father and
+mother, and she was almost consumed with the terror of it.</p>
+
+<p>As she rose now from her bed on the ground and looked out across that
+vast waste, in which the only other living creature was that sinister,
+watching eagle, the same feeling returned to her and made<a class="pagenum" title="319" name="page_319" id="page_319"></a> her tremble
+like the little child who had turned from her box of ancient finery to
+realize her own little self and its terrible aloneness.</p>
+
+<p>For an instant even her realization of God, which had from early
+childhood been present with her, seemed to have departed. She could not
+grasp anything save the vast empty silence that loomed about her so
+awfully. She was alone, and about as far from anywhere or anything as
+she could possibly be in the State of Arizona. Would she ever get back
+to human habitations? Would her friends ever be able to find her?</p>
+
+<p>Then her heart flew back to its habitual refuge, and she spoke aloud and
+said, "God is here!" and the thought seemed to comfort her. She looked
+about once more on the bright waste, and now it did not seem so dreary.</p>
+
+<p>"God is here!" she repeated, and tried to realize that this was a part
+of His habitation. She could not be lost where God was. He knew the way
+out. She had only to trust. So she dropped upon her knees in the sand
+and prayed for trust and courage.</p>
+
+<p>When she rose again she walked steadily to a height a little above the
+camp-fire, and, shading her eyes, looked carefully in every direction.
+No, there was not a sign of her recent companions. They must have stolen
+away in the night quite soon after she fell asleep, and have gone fast
+and far, so that they were now beyond the reach of her eyes, and not
+anywhere was there sign of living thing, save that eagle still sweeping
+in great curves and poising again above the distant mesa.</p>
+
+<p>Where was her horse? Had the Indians taken<a class="pagenum" title="320" name="page_320" id="page_320"></a> that, too? She searched the
+valley, but saw no horse at first. With sinking heart she went back to
+where her things were and sat down by the dying fire to think, putting a
+few loose twigs and sticks together to keep the embers bright while she
+could. She reflected that she had no matches, and this was probably the
+last fire she would have until somebody came to her rescue or she got
+somewhere by herself. What was she to do? Stay right where she was or
+start out on foot? And should she go backward or forward? Surely, surely
+the Brownleighs would miss her pretty soon and send out a search-party
+for her. How could it be that they trusted an Indian who had done such a
+cruel thing as to leave a woman unprotected in the desert? And yet,
+perhaps, they did not know his temptation to drink. Perhaps they had
+thought he could not get any firewater. Perhaps he would return when he
+came to himself and realized what he had done.</p>
+
+<p>And now she noticed what she had not seen at first&mdash;a small bottle of
+water on a stone beside the blackened bread. Realizing that she was very
+hungry and that this was the only food at hand, she sat down beside the
+fire to eat the dry bread and drink the miserable coffee. She must have
+strength to do whatever was before her. She tried not to think how her
+mother would feel if she never came back, how anxious they would be as
+they waited day by day for her letters that did not come. She reflected
+with a sinking heart that she had, just before leaving, written a hasty
+note to her mother telling her not to expect anything for several days,
+perhaps even as much as two weeks, as she was<a class="pagenum" title="321" name="page_321" id="page_321"></a> going out of civilization
+for a little while. How had she unwittingly sealed her fate by that! For
+now not even by way of her alarmed home could help come to her.</p>
+
+<p>She put the last bit of hard corn bread in her pocket for a further time
+of need, and began to look about her again. Then she spied with delight
+a moving object far below her in the valley, and decided it was a horse,
+perhaps her own. He was a mile away, at least, but he was there, and she
+cried out with sudden joy and relief.</p>
+
+<p>She went over to her blanket and bags, which had been beside her during
+the night, and stood a moment trying to think what to do. Should she
+carry the things to the horse or risk leaving them here while she went
+after the horse and brought him to the things? No, that would not be
+safe. Some one might come along and take them, or she might not be able
+to find her way back again in this strange, wild waste. Besides, she
+might not get the horse, after all, and would lose everything. She must
+carry her things to the horse. She stooped to gather them up, and
+something bright beside her bag attracted her. It was the sun shining on
+the silver dollar she had given to the Indian woman. A sudden rush of
+tears came to her eyes. The poor creature had tried to make all the
+reparation she could for thus hastily leaving the white woman in the
+desert. She had given back the money&mdash;all she had that was valuable!
+Beside the dollar rippled a little chain of beads curiously wrought, an
+inanimate appeal for forgiveness and a grateful return for the kindness
+shown her. Margaret smiled as she stooped<a class="pagenum" title="322" name="page_322" id="page_322"></a> again to pick up her things.
+There had been a heart, after all, behind that stolid countenance, and
+some sense of righteousness and justice. Margaret decided that Indians
+were not all treacherous. Poor woman! What a life was hers&mdash;to follow
+her grim lord whither he would lead, even as her white sister must
+sometimes, sorrowing, rebelling, crying out, but following! She wondered
+if into the heart of this dark sister there ever crept any of the
+rebellion which led some of her white sisters to cry aloud for "rights"
+and "emancipation."</p>
+
+<p>But it was all a passing thought to be remembered and turned over at a
+more propitious time. Margaret's whole thoughts now were bent on her
+present predicament.</p>
+
+<p>The packing was short work. She stuffed everything into the two bags
+that were usually hung across the horse, and settled them carefully
+across her shoulders. Then she rolled the blanket, took it in her arms,
+and started. It was a heavy burden to carry, but she could not make up
+her mind to part with any of her things until she had at least made an
+effort to save them. If she should be left alone in the desert for the
+night the blanket was indispensable, and her clothes would at least do
+to drop as a trail by which her friends might find her. She must carry
+them as far as possible. So she started.</p>
+
+<p>It was already high day, and the sun was intolerably hot. Her heavy
+burden was not only cumbersome, but very warm, and she felt her strength
+going from her as she went; but her nerve was up and her courage was
+strong. Moreover, she prayed as she walked, and she felt now the
+presence of her Guide<a class="pagenum" title="323" name="page_323" id="page_323"></a> and was not afraid. As she walked she faced a
+number of possibilities in the immediate future which were startling,
+and to say the least, undesirable. There were wild animals in this land,
+not so much in the daylight, but what of the night? She had heard that a
+woman was always safe in that wild Western land; but what of the
+prowling Indians? What of a possible exception to the Western rule of
+chivalry toward a decent woman? One small piece of corn bread and less
+than a pint of water were small provision on which to withstand a siege.
+How far was it to anywhere?</p>
+
+<p>It was then she remembered for the first time that one word&mdash;"Walpi!"
+uttered by the Indian as he came to a halt the night before and pointed
+far to the mesa&mdash;"Walpi." She lifted her eyes now and scanned the dark
+mesa. It loomed like a great battlement of rock against the sky. Could
+it be possible there were people dwelling there? She had heard, of
+course, about the curious Hopi villages, each village a gigantic house
+of many rooms, called pueblos, built upon the lofty crags, sometimes
+five or six hundred feet above the desert.</p>
+
+<p>Could it be that that great castle-looking outline against the sky
+before her, standing out on the end of the mesa like a promontory above
+the sea, was Walpi? And if it was, how was she to get up there? The rock
+rose sheer and steep from the desert floor. The narrow neck of land
+behind it looked like a slender thread. Her heart sank at thought of
+trying to storm and enter, single-handed, such an impregnable fortress.
+And yet, if her friends were there, perhaps they would see her when she
+drew<a class="pagenum" title="324" name="page_324" id="page_324"></a> near and come to show her the way. Strange that they should have
+gone on and left her with those treacherous Indians! Strange that they
+should have trusted them so, in the first place! Her own instincts had
+been against trusting the man from the beginning. It must be confessed
+that during her reflections at this point her opinion of the wisdom and
+judgment of the Brownleighs was lowered several notches. Then she began
+to berate herself for having so easily been satisfied about her escort.
+She should have read the letter more carefully. She should have asked
+the Indians more questions. She should, perhaps, have asked Jasper
+Kemp's advice, or got him to talk to the Indian. She wished with all her
+heart for Bud, now. If Bud were along he would be saying some comical
+boy-thing, and be finding a way out of the difficulty. Dear, faithful
+Bud!</p>
+
+<p>The sun rose higher and the morning grew hotter. As she descended to the
+valley her burdens grew intolerable, and several times she almost cast
+them aside. Once she lost sight of her pony among the sage-brush, and it
+was two hours before she came to him and was able to capture him and
+strap on her burdens. She was almost too exhausted to climb into the
+saddle when all was ready; but she managed to mount at last and started
+out toward the rugged crag ahead of her.</p>
+
+<p>The pony had a long, hot climb out of the valley to a hill where she
+could see very far again, but still that vast emptiness reigned. Even
+the eagle had disappeared, and she fancied he must be resting like a
+great emblem of freedom on one of the points<a class="pagenum" title="325" name="page_325" id="page_325"></a> of the castle-like
+battlement against the sky. It seemed as if the end of the world had
+come, and she was the only one left in the universe, forgotten, riding
+on her weary horse across an endless desert in search of a home she
+would never see again.</p>
+
+<p>Below the hill there stretched a wide, white strip of sand, perhaps two
+miles in extent, but shimmering in the sun and seeming to recede ahead
+of her as she advanced. Beyond was soft greenness&mdash;something
+growing&mdash;not near enough to be discerned as cornfields. The girl drooped
+her tired head upon her horse's mane and wept, her courage going from
+her with her tears. In all that wide universe there seemed no way to go,
+and she was so very tired, hungry, hot, and discouraged! There was
+always that bit of bread in her pocket and that muddy-looking, warm
+water for a last resort; but she must save them as long as possible, for
+there was no telling how long it would be before she had more.</p>
+
+<p>There was no trail now to follow. She had started from the spot where
+she had found the horse, and her inexperienced eyes could not have
+searched out a trail if she had tried. She was going toward that distant
+castle on the crag as to a goal, but when she reached it, if she ever
+did, would she find anything there but crags and lonesomeness and the
+eagle?</p>
+
+<p>Drying her tears at last, she started the horse on down the hill, and
+perhaps her tears blinded her, or because she was dizzy with hunger and
+the long stretch of anxiety and fatigue she was not looking closely.
+There was a steep place, a sharp falling away of the ground unexpectedly
+as they emerged from a thicket of sage-brush, and the horse<a class="pagenum" title="326" name="page_326" id="page_326"></a> plunged
+several feet down, striking sharply on some loose rocks, and slipping to
+his knees; snorting, scrambling, making brave effort, but slipping, half
+rolling, at last he was brought down with his frightened rider, and lay
+upon his side with her foot under him and a sensation like a red-hot
+knife running through her ankle.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret caught her breath in quick gasps as they fell, lifting a prayer
+in her heart for help. Then came the crash and the sharp pain, and with
+a quick conviction that all was over she dropped back unconscious on the
+sand, a blessed oblivion of darkness rushing over her.</p>
+
+<p>When she came to herself once more the hot sun was pouring down upon her
+unprotected face, and she was conscious of intense pain and suffering in
+every part of her body. She opened her eyes wildly and looked around.
+There was sage-brush up above, waving over the crag down which they had
+fallen, its gray-greenness shimmering hotly in the sun; the sky was
+mercilessly blue without a cloud. The great beast, heavy and quivering,
+lay solidly against her, half pinning her to earth, and the helplessness
+of her position was like an awful nightmare from which she felt she
+might waken if she could only cry out. But when at last she raised her
+voice its empty echo frightened her, and there, above her, with
+wide-spread wings, circling for an instant, then poised in motionless
+survey of her, with cruel eyes upon her, loomed that eagle&mdash;so large, so
+fearful, so suggestive in its curious stare, the monarch of the desert
+come to see who had invaded his precincts and fallen into one of his
+snares.<a class="pagenum" title="327" name="page_327" id="page_327"></a></p>
+
+<p>With sudden frenzy burning in her veins Margaret struggled and tried to
+get free, but she could only move the slightest bit each time, and every
+motion was an agony to the hurt ankle.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed hours before she writhed herself free from that great,
+motionless horse, whose labored breath only showed that he was still
+alive. Something terrible must have happened to the horse or he would
+have tried to rise, for she had coaxed, patted, cajoled, tried in every
+way to rouse him. When at last she crawled free from the hot, horrible
+body and crept with pained progress around in front of him, she saw that
+both his forelegs lay limp and helpless. He must have broken them in
+falling. Poor fellow! He, too, was suffering and she had nothing to give
+him! There was nothing she could do for him!</p>
+
+<p>Then she thought of the bottle of water, but, searching for it, found
+that her good intention of dividing it with him was useless, for the
+bottle was broken and the water already soaked into the sand. Only a
+damp spot on the saddle-bag showed where it had departed.</p>
+
+<p>Then indeed did Margaret sink down in the sand in despair and begin to
+pray as she had never prayed before.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="328" name="page_328" id="page_328"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The morning after Margaret's departure Rosa awoke with no feelings of
+self-reproach, but rather a great exultation at the way in which she had
+been able to get rid of her rival.</p>
+
+<p>She lay for a few minutes thinking of Forsythe, and trying to decide
+what she would wear when she went forth to meet him, for she wanted to
+charm him as she had never charmed any one before.</p>
+
+<p>She spent some time arraying herself in different costumes, but at last
+decided on her Commencement gown of fine white organdie,
+hand-embroidered and frilled with filmy lace, the product of a famous
+house of gowns in the Eastern city where she had attended school for a
+while and acquired expensive tastes.</p>
+
+<p>Daintily slippered, beribboned with coral-silk girdle, and with a rose
+from the vine over her window in her hair, she sallied forth at last to
+the trysting-place.</p>
+
+<p>Forsythe was a whole hour late, as became a languid gentleman who had
+traveled the day before and idled at his sister's house over a late
+breakfast until nearly noon. Already his fluttering fancy was apathetic
+about Rosa, and he wondered, as he rode along, what had become of the
+interesting young teacher who had charmed him for more than a passing<a class="pagenum" title="329" name="page_329" id="page_329"></a>
+moment. Would he dare to call upon her, now that Gardley was out of the
+way? Was she still in Ashland or had she gone home for vacation? He must
+ask Rosa about her.</p>
+
+<p>Then he came in sight of Rosa sitting picturesquely in the shade of an
+old cedar, reading poetry, a little lady in the wilderness, and he
+forgot everything else in his delight over the change in her. For Rosa
+had changed. There was no mistake about it. She had bloomed out into
+maturity in those few short months of his absence. Her soft figure had
+rounded and developed, her bewitching curls were put up on her head,
+with only a stray tendril here and there to emphasize a dainty ear or
+call attention to a smooth, round neck; and when she raised her lovely
+head and lifted limpid eyes to his there was about her a demureness, a
+coolness and charm that he had fancied only ladies of the city could
+attain. Oh, Rosa knew her charms, and had practised many a day before
+her mirror till she had appraised the value of every curving eyelash,
+every hidden dimple, every cupid's curve of lip. Rosa had watched well
+and learned from all with whom she had come in contact. No woman's guile
+was left untried by her.</p>
+
+<p>And Rosa was very sweet and charming. She knew just when to lift up
+innocent eyes of wonder; when to not understand suggestions; when to
+exclaim softly with delight or shrink with shyness that nevertheless did
+not repulse.</p>
+
+<p>Forsythe studied her with wonder and delight. No maiden of the city had
+ever charmed him more, and withal she seemed so innocent and young, so<a class="pagenum" title="330" name="page_330" id="page_330"></a>
+altogether pliable in his hands. His pulses beat high, his heart was
+inflamed, and passion came and sat within his handsome eyes.</p>
+
+<p>It was easy to persuade her, after her first seemingly shy reserve was
+overcome, and before an hour was passed she had promised to go away with
+him. He had very little money, but what of that? When he spoke of that
+feature Rosa declared she could easily get some. Her father gave her
+free access to his safe, and kept her plentifully supplied for the
+household use. It was nothing to her&mdash;a passing incident. What should it
+matter whose money took them on their way?</p>
+
+<p>When she went demurely back to the ranch a little before sunset she
+thought she was very happy, poor little silly sinner! She met her father
+with her most alluring but most furtive smile. She was charming at
+supper, and blushed as her mother used to do when he praised her new
+gown and told her how well she looked in it. But she professed to be
+weary yet from the last days of school&mdash;to have a headache&mdash;and so she
+went early to her room and asked that the servants keep the house quiet
+in the morning, that she might sleep late and get really rested. Her
+father kissed her tenderly and thought what a dear child she was and
+what a comfort to his ripening years; and the house settled down into
+quiet.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa packed a bag with some of her most elaborate garments, arrayed
+herself in a charming little outfit of silk for the journey, dropped her
+baggage out of the window; and when the moon rose and the household were
+quietly sleeping she paid a visit to<a class="pagenum" title="331" name="page_331" id="page_331"></a> her father's safe, and then stole
+forth, taking her shadowy way to the trail by a winding route known well
+to herself and secure from the watch of vigilant servants who were ever
+on the lookout for cattle thieves.</p>
+
+<p>Thus she left her father's house and went forth to put her trust in a
+man whose promises were as ropes of sand and whose fancy was like a wave
+of the sea, tossed to and fro by every breath that blew. Long ere the
+sun rose the next morning the guarded, beloved child was as far from her
+safe home and her father's sheltering love as if alone she had started
+for the mouth of the bottomless pit. Two days later, while Margaret lay
+unconscious beneath the sage-brush, with a hovering eagle for watch,
+Rosa in the streets of a great city suddenly realized that she was more
+alone in the universe than ever she could have been in a wide desert,
+and her plight was far worse than the girl's with whose fate she had so
+lightly played.</p>
+
+<p>Quite early on the morning after Rosa left, while the household was
+still keeping quiet for the supposed sleeper, Gardley rode into the
+inclosure about the house and asked for Rogers.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley had been traveling night and day to get back. Matters had
+suddenly arranged themselves so that he could finish up his business at
+his old home and go on to see Margaret's father and mother, and he had
+made his visit there and hurried back to Arizona, hoping to reach
+Ashland in time for Commencement. A delay on account of a washout on the
+road had brought him back two days late for Commencement. He had ridden
+to camp from a<a class="pagenum" title="332" name="page_332" id="page_332"></a> junction forty miles away to get there the sooner, and
+this morning had ridden straight to the Tanners' to surprise Margaret.
+It was, therefore, a deep disappointment to find her gone and only Mrs.
+Tanner's voluble explanations for comfort. Mrs. Tanner exhausted her
+vocabulary in trying to describe the "Injuns," her own feeling of
+protest against them, and Mrs. Brownleigh's foolishness in making so
+much of them; and then she bustled in to the old pine desk in the
+dining-room and produced the letter that had started Margaret off as
+soon as commencement was over.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley took the letter eagerly, as though it were something to connect
+him with Margaret, and read it through carefully to make sure just how
+matters stood. He had looked troubled when Mrs. Tanner told how tired
+Margaret was, and how worried she seemed about her school and glad to
+get away from it all; and he agreed that the trip was probably a good
+thing.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish Bud could have gone along, though," he said, thoughtfully, as he
+turned away from the door. "I don't like her to go with just Indians,
+though I suppose it is all right. You say he had his wife and child
+along? Of course Mrs. Brownleigh wouldn't send anybody that wasn't
+perfectly all right. Well, I suppose the trip will be a rest for her.
+I'm sorry I didn't get home a few days sooner. I might have looked out
+for her myself."</p>
+
+<p>He rode away from the Tanners', promising to return later with a gift he
+had brought for Bud that he wanted to present himself, and Mrs. Tanner
+bustled back to her work again.<a class="pagenum" title="333" name="page_333" id="page_333"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm glad he's got home, anyway," she remarked, aloud, to herself
+as she hung her dish-cloth tidily over the upturned dish-pan and took up
+her broom. "I 'ain't felt noways easy 'bout her sence she left, though I
+do suppose there ain't any sense to it. But I'm <i>glad he's back</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Gardley was riding toward Rogers's ranch, meditating whether he
+should venture to follow the expedition and enjoy at least the return
+trip with Margaret, or whether he ought to remain patiently until she
+came back and go to work at once. There was nothing really important
+demanding his attention immediately, for Rogers had arranged to keep the
+present overseer of affairs until he was ready to undertake the work. He
+was on his way now to report on a small business matter which he had
+been attending to in New York for Rogers. When that was over he would be
+free to do as he pleased for a few days more if he liked, and the
+temptation was great to go at once to Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>As he stood waiting beside his horse in front of the house while the
+servant went to call Rogers, he looked about with delight on the beauty
+of the day. How glad he was to be back in Arizona again! Was it the
+charm of the place or because Margaret was there, he wondered, that he
+felt so happy? By all means he must follow her. Why should he not?</p>
+
+<p>He looked at the clambering rose-vine that covered one end of the house,
+and noticed how it crept close to the window casement and caressed the
+white curtain as it blew. Margaret must have such a vine at her window
+in the house he would build for her. It might be but a modest house that
+he could give<a class="pagenum" title="334" name="page_334" id="page_334"></a> her now, but it should have a rose-vine just like that;
+and he would train it round her window where she could smell the
+fragrance from it every morning when she awoke, and where it would
+breathe upon her as she slept.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret! How impatient he was to see her again! To look upon her dear
+face and know that she was his! That her father and mother had been
+satisfied about him and sent their blessing, and he might tell her so.
+It was wonderful! His heart thrilled with the thought of it. Of course
+he would go to her at once. He would start as soon as Rogers was through
+with him. He would go to Ganado. No, Keams. Which was it? He drew the
+letter out of his pocket and read it again, then replaced it.</p>
+
+<p>The fluttering curtain up at the window blew out and in, and when it
+blew out again it brought with it a flurry of papers like white leaves.
+The curtain had knocked over a paper-weight or vase or something that
+held them and set the papers free. The breeze caught them and flung them
+about erratically, tossing one almost at his feet. He stooped to pick it
+up, thinking it might be of value to some one, and caught the name
+"Margaret" and "Dear Margaret" written several times on the sheet, with
+"Walpi, Walpi, Walpi," filling the lower half of the page, as if some
+one had been practising it.</p>
+
+<p>And because these two words were just now keenly in his mind he reached
+for the second paper just a foot or two away and found more sentences
+and words. A third paper contained an exact reproduction of the letter
+which Mrs. Tanner had<a class="pagenum" title="335" name="page_335" id="page_335"></a> given him purporting to come from Mrs. Brownleigh
+to Margaret. What could it possibly mean?</p>
+
+<p>In great astonishment he pulled out the other letter and compared them.
+They were almost identical save for a word here and there crossed out
+and rewritten. He stood looking mutely at the papers and then up at the
+window, as though an explanation might somehow be wafted down to him,
+not knowing what to think, his mind filled with vague alarm.</p>
+
+<p>Just at that moment the servant appeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Rogers says would you mind coming down to the corral. Miss Rosa has
+a headache, and we're keeping the house still for her to sleep. That's
+her window up there&mdash;" And he indicated the rose-bowered window with the
+fluttering curtain.</p>
+
+<p>Dazed and half suspicious of something, Gardley folded the two letters
+together and crushed them into his pocket, wondering what he ought to do
+about it. The thought of it troubled him so that he only half gave
+attention to the business in hand; but he gave his report and handed
+over certain documents. He was thinking that perhaps he ought to see
+Miss Rosa and find out what she knew of Margaret's going and ask how she
+came in possession of this other letter.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Rogers, as the matter was concluded, "I owe you some money.
+If you'll just step up to the house with me I'll give it to you. I'd
+like to settle matters up at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, let it go till I come again," said Gardley, impatient to be off. He
+wanted to get by himself and think out a solution of the two letters. He
+was<a class="pagenum" title="336" name="page_336" id="page_336"></a> more than uneasy about Margaret without being able to give any
+suitable explanation of why he should be. His main desire now was to
+ride to Ganado and find out if the missionaries had left home, which way
+they had gone, and whether they had met Margaret as planned.</p>
+
+<p>"No, step right up to the house with me," insisted Rogers. "It won't
+take long, and I have the money in my safe."</p>
+
+<p>Gardley saw that the quickest way was to please Rogers, and he did not
+wish to arouse any questions, because he supposed, of course, his alarm
+was mere foolishness. So they went together into Rogers's private
+office, where his desk and safe were the principal furniture, and where
+no servants ventured to come without orders.</p>
+
+<p>Rogers shoved a chair for Gardley and went over to his safe, turning the
+little nickel knob this way and that with the skill of one long
+accustomed, and in a moment the thick door swung open and Rogers drew
+out a japanned cash-box and unlocked it. But when he threw the cover
+back he uttered an exclamation of angry surprise. The box was empty!</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="337" name="page_337" id="page_337"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mr. Rogers strode to the door, forgetful of his sleeping daughter
+overhead, and thundered out his call for James. The servant appeared at
+once, but he knew nothing about the safe, and had not been in the office
+that morning. Other servants were summoned and put through a rigid
+examination. Then Rogers turned to the woman who had answered the door
+for Gardley and sent her up to call Rosa.</p>
+
+<p>But the woman returned presently with word that Miss Rosa was not in her
+room, and there was no sign that her bed had been slept in during the
+night. The woman's face was sullen. She did not like Rosa, but was
+afraid of her. This to her was only another of Miss Rosa's pranks, and
+very likely her doting father would manage to blame the servants with
+the affair.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Rogers's face grew stern. His eyes flashed angrily as he turned and
+strode up the stairs to his daughter's room, but when he came down again
+he was holding a note in his trembling hand and his face was ashen
+white.</p>
+
+<p>"Read that, Gardley," he said, thrusting the note into Gardley's hands
+and motioning at the same time for the servants to go away.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley took the note, yet even as he read he<a class="pagenum" title="338" name="page_338" id="page_338"></a> noticed that the paper
+was the same as those he carried in his pocket. There was a peculiar
+watermark that made it noticeable.</p>
+
+<p>The note was a flippant little affair from Rosa, telling her father she
+had gone away to be married and that she would let him know where she
+was as soon as they were located. She added that he had forced her to
+this step by being so severe with her and not allowing her lover to come
+to see her. If he had been reasonable she would have stayed at home and
+let him give her a grand wedding; but as it was she had only this way of
+seeking her happiness. She added that she knew he would forgive her, and
+she hoped he would come to see that her way had been best, and Forsythe
+was all that he could desire as a son-in-law.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley uttered an exclamation of dismay as he read, and, looking up,
+found the miserable eyes of the stricken father upon him. For the moment
+his own alarm concerning Margaret and his perplexity about the letters
+was forgotten in the grief of the man who had been his friend.</p>
+
+<p>"When did she go?" asked Gardley, quickly looking up.</p>
+
+<p>"She took supper with me and then went to her room, complaining of a
+headache," said the father, his voice showing his utter hopelessness.
+"She may have gone early in the evening, perhaps, for we all turned in
+about nine o'clock to keep the house quiet on her account."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any idea which way they went, east or west?" Gardley was the
+keen adviser in a crisis now, his every sense on the alert.<a class="pagenum" title="339" name="page_339" id="page_339"></a></p>
+
+<p>The old man shook his head. "It is too late now," he said, still in that
+colorless voice. "They will have reached the railroad somewhere. They
+will have been married by this time. See, it is after ten o'clock!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if he marries her," said Gardley, fiercely. He had no faith in
+Forsythe.</p>
+
+<p>"You think&mdash;you don't think he would <i>dare</i>!" The old man straightened
+up and fairly blazed in his righteous wrath.</p>
+
+<p>"I think he would dare anything if he thought he would not be caught. He
+is a coward, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"What can we do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Telegraph to detectives at all points where they would be likely to
+arrive and have them shadowed. Come, we will ride to the station at
+once; but, first, could I go up in her room and look around? There might
+be some clue."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said Rogers, pointing hopelessly up the stairs; "the first
+door to the left. But you'll find nothing. I looked everywhere. She
+wouldn't have left a clue. While you're up there I'll interview the
+servants. Then we'll go."</p>
+
+<p>As he went up-stairs Gardley was wondering whether he ought to tell
+Rogers of the circumstance of the two letters. What possible connection
+could there be between Margaret Earle's trip to Walpi with the
+Brownleighs and Rosa Rogers's elopement? When you come to think of it,
+what possible explanation was there for a copy of Mrs. Brownleigh's
+letter to blow out of Rosa Rogers's bedroom window? How could it have
+got there?</p>
+
+<p>Rosa's room was in beautiful order, the roses<a class="pagenum" title="340" name="page_340" id="page_340"></a> nodding in at the window,
+the curtain blowing back and forth in the breeze and rippling open the
+leaves of a tiny Testament lying on her desk, as if it had been recently
+read. There was nothing to show that the owner of the room had taken a
+hasty flight. On the desk lay several sheets of note-paper with the
+peculiar watermark. These caught his attention, and he took them up and
+compared them with the papers in his pocket. It was a strange thing that
+that letter which had sent Margaret off into the wilderness with an
+unknown Indian should be written on the same kind of paper as this; and
+yet, perhaps, it was not so strange, after all. It probably was the only
+note-paper to be had in that region, and must all have been purchased at
+the same place.</p>
+
+<p>The rippling leaves of the Testament fluttered open at the fly-leaf and
+revealed Rosa's name and a date with Mrs. Brownleigh's name written
+below, and Gardley took it up, startled again to find Hazel Brownleigh
+mixed up with the Rogers. He had not known that they had anything to do
+with each other. And yet, of course, they would, being the missionaries
+of the region.</p>
+
+<p>The almost empty waste-basket next caught his eye, and here again were
+several sheets of paper written over with words and phrases, words which
+at once he recognized as part of the letter Mrs. Tanner had given him.
+He emptied the waste-basket out on the desk, thinking perhaps there
+might be something there that would give a clue to where the elopers had
+gone; but there was not much else in it except a little yellowed note
+with the signature "Hazel Brownleigh" at the bottom. He glanced<a class="pagenum" title="341" name="page_341" id="page_341"></a> through
+the brief note, gathered its purport, and then spread it out
+deliberately on the desk and compared the writing with the others, a
+wild fear clutching at his heart. Yet he could not in any way explain
+why he was so uneasy. What possible reason could Rosa Rogers have for
+forging a letter to Margaret from Hazel Brownleigh?</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Rogers stood behind him looking over his shoulder. "What is it,
+Gardley? What have you found? Any clue?"</p>
+
+<p>"No clue," said Gardley, uneasily, "but something strange I cannot
+understand. I don't suppose it can possibly have anything to do with
+your daughter, and yet it seems almost uncanny. This morning I stopped
+at the Tanners' to let Miss Earle know I had returned, and was told she
+had gone yesterday with a couple of Indians as guide to meet the
+Brownleighs at Keams or somewhere near there, and take a trip with them
+to Walpi to see the Hopi Indians. Mrs. Tanner gave me this letter from
+Mrs. Brownleigh, which Miss Earle had left behind. But when I reached
+here and was waiting for you some papers blew out of your daughter's
+window. When I picked them up I was startled to find that one of them
+was an exact copy of the letter I had in my pocket. See! Here they are!
+I don't suppose there is anything to it, but in spite of me I am a
+trifle uneasy about Miss Earle. I just can't understand how that copy of
+the letter came to be here."</p>
+
+<p>Rogers was leaning over, looking at the papers. "What's this?" he asked,
+picking up the note that came with the Testament. He read each paper
+carefully, took in the little Testament with its fluttering<a class="pagenum" title="342" name="page_342" id="page_342"></a> fly-leaf
+and inscription, studied the pages of words and alphabet, then suddenly
+turned away and groaned, hiding his face in his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" asked Gardley, awed with the awful sorrow in the strong
+man's attitude.</p>
+
+<p>"My poor baby!" groaned the father. "My poor little baby girl! I've
+always been afraid of that fatal gift of hers. Gardley, she could copy
+any handwriting in the world perfectly. She could write my name so it
+could not be told from my own signature. She's evidently written that
+letter. Why, I don't know, unless she wanted to get Miss Earle out of
+the way so it would be easier for her to carry out her plans."</p>
+
+<p>"It can't be!" said Gardley, shaking his head. "I can't see what her
+object would be. Besides, where would she find the Indians? Mrs. Tanner
+saw the Indians. They came to the school after her with the letter, and
+waited for her. Mrs. Tanner saw them ride off together."</p>
+
+<p>"There were a couple of strange Indians here yesterday, begging
+something to eat," said Rogers, settling down on a chair and resting his
+head against the desk as if he had suddenly lost the strength to stand.</p>
+
+<p>"This won't do!" said Gardley. "We've got to get down to the
+telegraph-office, you and I. Now try to brace up. Are the horses ready?
+Then we'll go right away."</p>
+
+<p>"You better question the servants about those Indians first," said
+Rogers; and Gardley, as he hurried down the stairs, heard groan after
+groan from Rosa's room, where her father lingered in agony.<a class="pagenum" title="343" name="page_343" id="page_343"></a></p>
+
+<p>Gardley got all the information he could about the Indians, and then the
+two men started away on a gallop to the station. As they passed the
+Tanner house Gardley drew rein to call to Bud, who hurried out joyfully
+to greet his friend, his face lighting with pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"Bill, get on your horse in double-quick time and beat it out to camp
+for me, will you?" said Gardley, as he reached down and gripped Bud's
+rough young paw. "Tell Jasper Kemp to come back with you and meet me at
+the station as quick as he can. Tell him to have the men where he can
+signal them. We may have to hustle out on a long hunt; and, Bill, keep
+your head steady and get back yourself right away. Perhaps I'll want you
+to help me. I'm a little anxious about Miss Earle, but you needn't tell
+anybody that but old Jasper. Tell him to hurry for all he's worth."</p>
+
+<p>Bud, with his eyes large with loyalty and trouble, nodded
+understandingly, returned the grip of the young man's hand with a clumsy
+squeeze, and sprang away to get his horse and do Gardley's bidding.
+Gardley knew he would ride as for his life, now that he knew Margaret's
+safety was at stake.</p>
+
+<p>Then Gardley rode on to the station and was indefatigable for two hours
+hunting out addresses, writing telegrams, and calling up long-distance
+telephones.</p>
+
+<p>When all had been done that was possible Rogers turned a haggard face to
+the young man. "I've been thinking, Gardley, that rash little girl of
+mine may have got Miss Earle into some kind of a dangerous<a class="pagenum" title="344" name="page_344" id="page_344"></a> position.
+You ought to look after her. What can we do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to, sir," said Gardley, "just as soon as I've done everything
+I can for you. I've already sent for Jasper Kemp, and we'll make a plan
+between us and find out if Miss Earle is all right. Can you spare Jasper
+or will you need him?"</p>
+
+<p>"By all means! Take all the men you need. I sha'n't rest easy till I
+know Miss Earle is safe."</p>
+
+<p>He sank down on a truck that stood on the station platform, his
+shoulders slumping, his whole attitude as of one who was fatally
+stricken. It came over Gardley how suddenly old he looked, and haggard
+and gray! What a thing for the selfish child to have done to her father!
+Poor, silly child, whose fate with Forsythe would in all probability be
+anything but enviable!</p>
+
+<p>But there was no time for sorrowful reflections. Jasper Kemp, stern,
+alert, anxious, came riding furiously down the street, Bud keeping even
+pace with him.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="345" name="page_345" id="page_345"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>While Gardley briefly told his tale to Jasper Kemp, and the Scotchman
+was hastily scanning the papers with his keen, bright eyes, Bud stood
+frowning and listening intently.</p>
+
+<p>"Gee!" he burst forth. "That girl's a mess! 'Course she did it! You
+oughta seen what all she didn't do the last six weeks of school. Miss
+Mar'get got so she shivered every time that girl came near her or looked
+at her. She sure had her goat! Some nights after school, when she
+thought she's all alone, she just cried, she did. Why, Rosa had every
+one of those guys in the back seat acting like the devil, and nobody
+knew what was the matter. She wrote things on the blackboard right in
+the questions, so's it looked like Miss Mar'get's writing; fierce
+things, sometimes; and Miss Mar'get didn't know who did it. And she was
+as jealous as a cat of Miss Mar'get. You all know what a case she had on
+that guy from over by the fort; and she didn't like to have him even
+look at Miss Mar'get. Well, she didn't forget how he went away that
+night of the play. I caught her looking at her like she would like to
+murder her. <i>Good night!</i> Some look! The guy had a case on Miss Mar'get,
+all right, too, only she was onto him and wouldn't look at him nor<a class="pagenum" title="346" name="page_346" id="page_346"></a> let
+him spoon nor nothing. But Rosa saw it all, and she just hated Miss
+Mar'get. Then once Miss Mar'get stopped her from going out to meet that
+guy, too. Oh, she hated her, all right! And you can bet she wrote the
+letter! Sure she did! She wanted to get her away when that guy came
+back. He was back yesterday. I saw him over by the run on that trail
+that crosses the trail to the old cabin. He didn't see me. I got my eye
+on him first, and I chucked behind some sage-brush, but he was here, all
+right, and he didn't mean any good. I follahed him awhile till he
+stopped and fixed up a place to camp. I guess he must 'a' stayed out
+last night&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A heavy hand was suddenly laid from behind on Bud's shoulder, and Rogers
+stood over him, his dark eyes on fire, his lips trembling.</p>
+
+<p>"Boy, can you show me where that was?" he asked, and there was an
+intensity in his voice that showed Bud that something serious was the
+matter. Boylike he dropped his eyes indifferently before this great
+emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!"</p>
+
+<p>"Best take Long Bill with you, Mr. Rogers," advised Jasper Kemp, keenly
+alive to the whole situation. "I reckon we'll all have to work together.
+My men ain't far off," and he lifted his whistle to his lips and blew
+the signal blasts. "The Kid here 'll want to ride to Keams to see if the
+lady is all safe and has met her friends. I reckon mebbe I better go
+straight to Ganado and find out if them mission folks really got
+started, and put 'em wise to what's been going on. They'll mebbe know
+who them<a class="pagenum" title="347" name="page_347" id="page_347"></a> Injuns was. I have my suspicions they weren't any friendlies.
+I didn't like that Injun the minute I set eyes on him hanging round the
+school-house, but I wouldn't have stirred a step toward camp if I'd 'a'
+suspected he was come fur the lady. 'Spose you take Bud and Long Bill
+and go find that camping-place and see if you find any trail showing
+which way they took. If you do, you fire three shots, and the men 'll be
+with you. If you want the Kid, fire four shots. He can't be so fur away
+by that time that he can't hear. He's got to get provisioned 'fore he
+starts. Lead him out, Bud. We 'ain't got no time to lose."</p>
+
+<p>Bud gave one despairing look at Gardley and turned to obey.</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right, Bud," said Gardley, with an understanding glance.
+"You tell Mr. Rogers all you know and show him the place, and then when
+Long Bill comes you can take the cross-cut to the Long Trail and go with
+me. I'll just stop at the house as I go by and tell your mother I need
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Bud gave one radiant, grateful look and sprang upon his horse, and
+Rogers had hard work to keep up with him at first, till Bud got
+interested in giving him a detailed account of Forsythe's looks and
+acts.</p>
+
+<p>In less than an hour the relief expedition had started. Before night had
+fallen Jasper Kemp, riding hard, arrived at the mission, told his story,
+procured a fresh horse, and after a couple of hours, rest started with
+Brownleigh and his wife for Keams Ca&ntilde;on.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley and Bud, riding for all they were worth, said little by the way.
+Now and then the boy stole<a class="pagenum" title="348" name="page_348" id="page_348"></a> glances at the man's face, and the dead
+weight of sorrow settled like lead, the heavier, upon his heart. Too
+well he knew the dangers of the desert. He could almost read Gardley's
+fears in the white, drawn look about his lips, the ashen circles under
+his eyes, the tense, strained pose of his whole figure. Gardley's mind
+was urging ahead of his steed, and his body could not relax. He was
+anxious to go a little faster, yet his judgment knew it would not do,
+for his horse would play out before he could get another. They ate their
+corn bread in the saddle, and only turned aside from the trail once to
+drink at a water-hole and fill their cans. They rode late into the
+night, with only the stars and their wits to guide them. When they
+stopped to rest they did not wait to make a fire, but hobbled the horses
+where they might feed, and, rolling quickly in their blankets, lay down
+upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Bud, with the fatigue of healthy youth, would have slept till morning in
+spite of his fears, but Gardley woke him in a couple of hours, made him
+drink some water and eat a bite of food, and they went on their way
+again. When morning broke they were almost to the entrance of Keams
+Ca&ntilde;on and both looked haggard and worn. Bud seemed to have aged in the
+night, and Gardley looked at him almost tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you all in, kid?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Naw!" answered Bud, promptly, with an assumed cheerfulness. "Feeling
+like a four-year-old. Get on to that sky? Guess we're going to have some
+day! Pretty as a red wagon!"</p>
+
+<p>Gardley smiled sadly. What would that day bring<a class="pagenum" title="349" name="page_349" id="page_349"></a> forth for the two who
+went in search of her they loved? His great anxiety was to get to Keams
+Ca&ntilde;on and inquire. They would surely know at the trading-post whether
+the missionary and his party had gone that way.</p>
+
+<p>The road was still almost impassable from the flood; the two dauntless
+riders picked their way slowly down the trail to the post.</p>
+
+<p>But the trader could tell them nothing comforting. The missionary had
+not been that way in two months, and there had been no party and no lady
+there that week. A single strange Indian had come down the trail above
+the day before, stayed awhile, picked a quarrel with some men who were
+there, and then ridden back up the steep trail again. He might have had
+a party with him up on the mesa, waiting. He had said something about
+his squaw. The trader admitted that he might have been drunk, but he
+frowned as he spoke of him. He called him a "bad Indian." Something
+unpleasant had evidently happened.</p>
+
+<p>The trader gave them a good, hot dinner, of which they stood sorely in
+need, and because they realized that they must keep up their strength
+they took the time to eat it. Then, procuring fresh horses, they climbed
+the steep trail in the direction the trader said the Indian had taken.
+It was a slender clue, but it was all they had, and they must follow it.
+And now the travelers were very silent, as if they felt they were
+drawing near to some knowledge that would settle the question for them
+one way or the other. As they reached the top at last, where they could
+see out across the plain, each drew a<a class="pagenum" title="350" name="page_350" id="page_350"></a> long breath like a gasp and
+looked about, half fearing what he might see.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, there was the sign of a recent camp-fire, and a few tin cans and
+bits of refuse, nothing more. Gardley got down and searched carefully.
+Bud even crept about upon his hands and knees, but a single tiny blue
+bead like a grain of sand was all that rewarded his efforts. Some Indian
+had doubtless camped here. That was all the evidence. Standing thus in
+hopeless uncertainty what to do next, they suddenly heard voices.
+Something familiar once or twice made Gardley lift his whistle and blow
+a blast. Instantly a silvery answer came ringing from the mesa a mile or
+so away and woke the echoes in the ca&ntilde;on. Jasper Kemp and his party had
+taken the longer way around instead of going down the ca&ntilde;on, and were
+just arriving at the spot where Margaret and the squaw had waited two
+days before for their drunken guide. But Jasper Kemp's whistle rang out
+again, and he shot three times into the air, their signal to wait for
+some important news.</p>
+
+<p>Breathlessly and in silence the two waited till the coming of the rest
+of the party, and cast themselves down on the ground, feeling the sudden
+need of support. Now that there was a possibility of some news, they
+felt hardly able to bear it, and the waiting for it was intolerable, to
+such a point of anxious tension were they strained.</p>
+
+<p>But when the party from Ganado came in sight their faces wore no
+brightness of good news. Their greetings were quiet, sad, anxious, and
+Jasper Kemp held out to Gardley an envelope. It was the one<a class="pagenum" title="351" name="page_351" id="page_351"></a> from
+Margaret's mother's letter that she had dropped upon the trail.</p>
+
+<p>"We found it on the way from Ganado, just as we entered Steamboat
+Ca&ntilde;on," explained Jasper.</p>
+
+<p>"And didn't you search for a trail off in any other direction?" asked
+Gardley, almost sharply. "They have not been here. At least only one
+Indian has been down to the trader's."</p>
+
+<p>"There was no other trail. We looked," said Jasper, sadly. "There was a
+camp-fire twice, and signs of a camp. We felt sure they had come this
+way."</p>
+
+<p>Gardley shook his head and a look of abject despair came over his face.
+"There is no sign here," he said. "They must have gone some other way.
+Perhaps the Indian has carried her off. Are the other men following?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Rogers sent them in the other direction after his girl. They found
+the camp all right. Bud tell you? We made sure we had found our trail
+and would not need them."</p>
+
+<p>Gardley dropped his head and almost groaned.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the missionary had been riding around in radiating circles
+from the dead camp-fire, searching every step of the way; and Bud,
+taking his cue from him, looked off toward the mesa a minute, then
+struck out in a straight line for it and rode off like mad. Suddenly
+there was heard a shout loud and long, and Bud came riding back, waving
+something small and white above his head.</p>
+
+<p>They gathered in a little knot, waiting for the boy, not speaking; and
+when he halted in their midst he fluttered down the handkerchief to
+Gardley.<a class="pagenum" title="352" name="page_352" id="page_352"></a></p>
+
+<p>"It's hers, all right. Gotter name all written out on the edge!" he
+declared, radiantly.</p>
+
+<p>The sky grew brighter to them all now. Eagerly Gardley sprang into his
+saddle, no longer weary, but alert and eager for the trail.</p>
+
+<p>"You folks better go down to the trader's and get some dinner. You'll
+need it! Bud and I'll go on. Mrs. Brownleigh looks all in."</p>
+
+<p>"No," declared Hazel, decidedly. "We'll just snatch a bite here and
+follow you at once. I couldn't enjoy a dinner till I know she is safe."
+And so, though both Jasper Kemp and her husband urged her otherwise, she
+would take a hasty meal by the way and hurry on.</p>
+
+<p>But Bud and Gardley waited not for others. They plunged wildly ahead.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed a long way to the eager hunters, from the place where Bud had
+found the handkerchief to the little note twisted around the red
+chessman. It was perhaps nearly a mile, and both the riders had searched
+in all directions for some time before Gardley spied it. Eagerly he
+seized upon the note, recognizing the little red manikin with which he
+had whiled away an hour with Margaret during one of her visits at the
+camp.</p>
+
+<p>The note was written large and clear upon a sheet of writing-paper:</p>
+
+<p>"I am Margaret Earle, school-teacher at Ashland. I am supposed to be
+traveling to Walpi, by way of Keams, to meet Mr. and Mrs. Brownleigh of
+Ganado. I am with an Indian, his squaw and papoose. The Indian said he
+was sent to guide me, but he is drunk now and I am frightened. He has
+acted strangely<a class="pagenum" title="353" name="page_353" id="page_353"></a> all the way. I do not know where I am. Please come and
+help me."</p>
+
+<p>Bud, sitting anxious like a statue upon his horse, read Gardley's face
+as Gardley read the note. Then Gardley read it aloud to Bud, and before
+the last word was fairly out of his mouth both man and boy started as if
+they had heard Margaret's beloved voice calling them. It was not long
+before Bud found another scrap of paper a half-mile farther on, and then
+another and another, scattered at great distances along the way. The
+only way they had of being sure she had dropped them was that they
+seemed to be the same kind of paper as that upon which the note was
+written.</p>
+
+<p>How that note with its brave, frightened appeal wrung the heart of
+Gardley as he thought of Margaret, unprotected, in terror and perhaps in
+peril, riding on she knew not where. What trials and fears had she not
+already passed through! What might she not be experiencing even now
+while he searched for her?</p>
+
+<p>It was perhaps two hours before he found the little white stocking
+dropped where the trail divided, showing which way she had taken.
+Gardley folded it reverently and put it in his pocket. An hour later Bud
+pounced upon the bedroom slipper and carried it gleefully to Gardley;
+and so by slow degrees, finding here and there a chessman or more paper,
+they came at last to the camp where the Indians had abandoned their
+trust and fled, leaving Margaret alone in the wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>It was then that Gardley searched in vain for any further clue, and,
+riding wide in every direction,<a class="pagenum" title="354" name="page_354" id="page_354"></a> stopped and called her name again and
+again, while the sun grew lower and lower and shadows crept in
+lurking-places waiting for the swift-coming night. It was then that Bud,
+flying frantically from one spot to another, got down upon his knees
+behind a sage-bush when Gardley was not looking and mumbled a rough,
+hasty prayer for help. He felt like the old woman who, on being told
+that nothing but God could save the ship, exclaimed, "And has it come to
+that?" Bud had felt all his life that there was a remote time in every
+life when one might need to believe in prayer. The time had come for
+Bud.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Margaret, on her knees in the sand of the desert praying for help,
+remembered the promise, "Before they call I will answer, and while they
+are yet speaking I will hear," and knew not that her deliverers were on
+the way.</p>
+
+<p>The sun had been hot as it beat down upon the whiteness of the sand, and
+the girl had crept under a sage-bush for shelter from it. The pain in
+her ankle was sickening. She had removed her shoe and bound the ankle
+about with a handkerchief soaked with half of her bottle of witch-hazel,
+and so, lying quiet, had fallen asleep, too exhausted with pain and
+anxiety to stay awake any longer.</p>
+
+<p>When she awoke again the softness of evening was hovering over
+everything, and she started up and listened. Surely, surely, she had
+heard a voice calling her! She sat up sharply and listened. Ah! There it
+was again, a faint echo in the distance.<a class="pagenum" title="355" name="page_355" id="page_355"></a> Was it a voice, or was it only
+her dreams mingling with her fancies?</p>
+
+<p>Travelers in deserts, she had read, took all sorts of fancies, saw
+mirages, heard sounds that were not. But she had not been out long
+enough to have caught such a desert fever. Perhaps she was going to be
+sick. Still that faint echo made her heart beat wildly. She dragged
+herself to her knees, then to her feet, standing painfully with the
+weight on her well foot.</p>
+
+<p>The suffering horse turned his anguished eyes and whinnied. Her heart
+ached for him, yet there was no way she could assuage his pain or put
+him out of his misery. But she must make sure if she had heard a voice.
+Could she possibly scale that rock down which she and her horse had
+fallen? For then she might look out farther and see if there were any
+one in sight.</p>
+
+<p>Painfully she crawled and crept, up and up, inch by inch, until at last
+she gained the little height and could look afar.</p>
+
+<p>There was no living thing in sight. The air was very clear. The eagle
+had found his evening rest somewhere in a quiet crag. The long corn
+waved on the distant plain, and all was deathly still once more. There
+was a hint of coming sunset in the sky. Her heart sank, and she was
+about to give up hope entirely, when, rich and clear, there it came
+again! A voice in the wilderness calling her name: "Margaret! Margaret!"</p>
+
+<p>The tears rushed to her eyes and crowded in her throat. She could not
+answer, she was so overwhelmed; and though she tried twice to call out,
+she<a class="pagenum" title="356" name="page_356" id="page_356"></a> could make no sound. But the call kept coming again and again:
+"Margaret! Margaret!" and it was Gardley's voice. Impossible! For
+Gardley was far away and could not know her need. Yet it was his voice.
+Had she died, or was she in delirium that she seemed to hear him calling
+her name?</p>
+
+<p>But the call came clearer now: "Margaret! Margaret! I am coming!" and
+like a flash her mind went back to the first night in Arizona when she
+heard him singing, "From the Desert I Come to Thee!"</p>
+
+<p>Now she struggled to her feet again and shouted, inarticulately and
+gladly through her tears. She could see him. It was Gardley. He was
+riding fast toward her, and he shot three shots into the air above him
+as he rode, and three shrill blasts of his whistle rang out on the still
+evening air.</p>
+
+<p>She tore the scarf from her neck that she had tied about it to keep the
+sun from blistering her, and waved it wildly in the air now, shouting in
+happy, choking sobs.</p>
+
+<p>And so he came to her across the desert!</p>
+
+<p>He sprang down before the horse had fairly reached her side, and,
+rushing to her, took her in his arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Margaret! My darling! I have found you at last!"</p>
+
+<p>She swayed and would have fallen but for his arms, and then he saw her
+white face and knew she must be suffering.</p>
+
+<p>"You are hurt!" he cried. "Oh, what have they done to you?" And he laid
+her gently down upon the sand and dropped on his knees beside her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no," she gasped, joyously, with white lips.<a class="pagenum" title="357" name="page_357" id="page_357"></a> "I'm all right now.
+Only my ankle hurts a little. We had a fall, the horse and I. Oh, go to
+him at once and put him out of his pain. I'm sure his legs are broken."</p>
+
+<p>For answer Gardley put the whistle to his lips and blew a blast. He
+would not leave her for an instant. He was not sure yet that she was not
+more hurt than she had said. He set about discovering at once, for he
+had brought with him supplies for all emergencies.</p>
+
+<p>It was Bud who came riding madly across the mesa in answer to the call,
+reaching Gardley before any one else. Bud with his eyes shining, his
+cheeks blazing with excitement, his hair wildly flying in the breeze,
+his young, boyish face suddenly grown old with lines of anxiety. But you
+wouldn't have known from his greeting that it was anything more than a
+pleasure excursion he had been on the past two days.</p>
+
+<p>"Good work, Kid! Whatcha want me t' do?"</p>
+
+<p>It was Bud who arranged the camp and went back to tell the other
+detachments that Margaret was found; Bud who led the pack-horse up,
+unpacked the provisions, and gathered wood to start a fire. Bud was
+everywhere, with a smudged face, a weary, gray look around his eyes, and
+his hair sticking "seven ways for Sunday." Yet once, when his labors led
+him near to where Margaret lay weak and happy on a couch of blankets, he
+gave her an unwonted pat on her shoulder and said in a low tone: "Hello,
+Gang! See you kept your nerve with you!" and then he gave her a grin all
+across his dirty, tired face, and moved away as if he were half ashamed
+of his emotion. But it was Bud again who came and<a class="pagenum" title="358" name="page_358" id="page_358"></a> talked with her to
+divert her so that she wouldn't notice when they shot her horse. He
+talked loudly about a coyote they shot the night before, and a
+cottontail they saw at Keams, and when he saw that she understood what
+the shot meant, and there were tears in her eyes, he gave her hand a
+rough, bear squeeze and said, gruffly: "You should worry! He's better
+off now!" And when Gardley came back he took himself thoughtfully to a
+distance and busied himself opening tins of meat and soup.</p>
+
+<p>In another hour the Brownleighs arrived, having heard the signals, and
+they had a supper around the camp-fire, everybody so rejoiced that there
+were still quivers in their voices; and when any one laughed it sounded
+like the echo of a sob, so great had been the strain of their anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley, sitting beside Margaret in the starlight afterward, her hand in
+his, listened to the story of her journey, the strong, tender pressure
+of his fingers telling her how deeply it affected him to know the peril
+through which she had passed. Later, when the others were telling gay
+stories about the fire, and Bud lying full length in their midst had
+fallen fast asleep, these two, a little apart from the rest, were
+murmuring their innermost thoughts in low tones to each other, and
+rejoicing that they were together once more.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="359" name="page_359" id="page_359"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>They talked it over the next morning at breakfast as they sat around the
+fire. Jasper Kemp thought he ought to get right back to attend to
+things. Mr. Rogers was all broken up, and might even need him to search
+for Rosa if they had not found out her whereabouts yet. He and Fiddling
+Boss, who had come along, would start back at once. They had had a good
+night's rest and had found their dear lady. What more did they need?
+Besides, there were not provisions for an indefinite stay for such a
+large party, and there were none too many sources of supply in this
+region.</p>
+
+<p>The missionary thought that, now he was here, he ought to go on to
+Walpi. It was not more than two hours' ride there, and Hazel could stay
+with the camp while Margaret's ankle had a chance to rest and let the
+swelling subside under treatment.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret, however, rebelled. She did not wish to be an invalid, and was
+very sure she could ride without injury to her ankle. She wanted to see
+Walpi and the queer Hopi Indians, now she was so near. So a compromise
+was agreed upon. They would all wait in camp a couple of days, and then
+if Margaret felt well enough they would go on, visit the Hopis, and so
+go home together.<a class="pagenum" title="360" name="page_360" id="page_360"></a></p>
+
+<p>Bud pleaded to be allowed to stay with them, and Jasper Kemp promised to
+make it all right with his parents.</p>
+
+<p>So for two whole, long, lovely days the little party of five camped on
+the mesa and enjoyed sweet converse. It is safe to say that never in all
+Bud's life will he forget or get away from the influences of that day in
+such company.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley and the missionary proved to be the best of physicians, and
+Margaret's ankle improved hourly under their united treatment of
+compresses, lotions, and rest. About noon on Saturday they broke camp,
+mounted their horses, and rode away across the stretch of white sand,
+through tall cornfields growing right up out of the sand, closer and
+closer to the great mesa with the castle-like pueblos five hundred feet
+above them on the top. It seemed to Margaret like suddenly being dropped
+into Egypt or the Holy Land, or some of the Babylonian excavations, so
+curious and primitive and altogether different from anything else she
+had ever seen did it all appear. She listened, fascinated, while
+Brownleigh told about this strange Hopi land, the strangest spot in
+America. Spanish explorers found them away back years before the
+Pilgrims landed, and called the country Tuscayan. They built their homes
+up high for protection from their enemies. They lived on the corn,
+pumpkins, peaches, and melons which they raised in the valley, planting
+the seeds with their hands. It is supposed they got their seeds first
+from the Spaniards years ago. They make pottery, cloth, and baskets, and
+are a busy people.<a class="pagenum" title="361" name="page_361" id="page_361"></a></p>
+
+<p>There are seven villages built on three mesas in the northern desert.
+One of the largest, Orabi, has a thousand inhabitants. Walpi numbers
+about two hundred and thirty people, all living in this one great
+building of many rooms. They are divided into brotherhoods, or
+phratries, and each brotherhood has several large families. They are
+ruled by a speaker chief and a war chief elected by a council of clan
+elders.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret learned with wonder that all the water these people used had to
+be carried by the women in jars on their backs five hundred feet up the
+steep trail.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, as they drew nearer, a curious man with his hair "banged"
+like a child's, and garments much like those usually worn by
+scarecrows&mdash;a shapeless kind of shirt and trousers&mdash;appeared along the
+steep and showed them the way up. Margaret and the missionary's wife
+exclaimed in horror over the little children playing along the very edge
+of the cliffs above as carelessly as birds in trees.</p>
+
+<p>High up on the mesa at last, how strange and weird it seemed! Far below
+the yellow sand of the valley; fifteen miles away a second mesa
+stretching dark; to the southwest, a hundred miles distant, the dim
+outlines of the San Francisco peaks. Some little children on burros
+crossing the sand below looked as if they were part of a curious
+moving-picture, not as if they were little living beings taking life as
+seriously as other children do. The great, wide desert stretching far!
+The bare, solid rocks beneath their feet! The curious houses behind
+them! It all seemed unreal to Margaret, like a great picture-book
+spread<a class="pagenum" title="362" name="page_362" id="page_362"></a> out for her to see. She turned from gazing and found Gardley's
+eyes upon her adoringly, a tender understanding of her mood in his
+glance. She thrilled with pleasure to be here with him; a soft flush
+spread over her cheeks and a light came into her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>They found the Indians preparing for one of their most famous
+ceremonies, the snake dance, which was to take place in a few days. For
+almost a week the snake priests had been busy hunting rattlesnakes,
+building altars, drawing figures in the sand, and singing weird songs.
+On the ninth day the snakes are washed in a pool and driven near a pile
+of sand. The priests, arrayed in paint, feathers, and charms, come out
+in line and, taking the live snakes in their mouths, parade up and down
+the rocks, while the people crowd the roofs and terraces of the pueblos
+to watch. There are helpers to whip the snakes and keep them from
+biting, and catchers to see that none get away. In a little while the
+priests take the snakes down on the desert and set them free, sending
+them north, south, east, and west, where it is supposed they will take
+the people's prayers for rain to the water serpent in the underworld,
+who is in some way connected with the god of the rain-clouds.</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange experience, that night in Walpi: the primitive
+accommodations; the picturesque, uncivilized people; the shy glances
+from dark, eager eyes. To watch two girls grinding corn between two
+stones, and a little farther off their mother rolling out her dough with
+an ear of corn, and cooking over an open fire, her pot slung from a
+crude crane over the blaze&mdash;it was all too unreal to be true.<a class="pagenum" title="363" name="page_363" id="page_363"></a></p>
+
+<p>But the most interesting thing about it was to watch the "Aneshodi"
+going about among them, his face alight with warm, human love; his
+hearty laugh ringing out in a joke that the Hopis seemed to understand,
+making himself one with them. It came to Margaret suddenly to remember
+the pompous little figure of the Rev. Frederick West, and to fancy him
+going about among these people and trying to do them good. Before she
+knew what she was doing she laughed aloud at the thought. Then, of
+course, she had to explain to Bud and Gardley, who looked at her
+inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"Aw! Gee! <i>Him?</i> <i>He</i> wasn't a minister! He was a <i>mistake</i>! Fergit him,
+the poor simp!" growled Bud, sympathetically. Then his eyes softened as
+he watched Brownleigh playing with three little Indian maids, having a
+fine romp. "Gee! he certainly is a peach, isn't he?" he murmured, his
+whole face kindling appreciatively. "Gee! I bet that kid never forgets
+that!"</p>
+
+<p>The Sunday was a wonderful day, when the missionary gathered the people
+together and spoke to them in simple words of God&mdash;their god who made
+the sky, the stars, the mountains, and the sun, whom they call by
+different names, but whom He called God. He spoke of the Book of Heaven
+that told about God and His great love for men, so great that He sent
+His son to save them from their sin. It was not a long sermon, but a
+very beautiful one; and, listening to the simple, wonderful words of
+life that fell from the missionary's earnest lips and were translated by
+his faithful Indian interpreter, who always went with him on his
+expeditions, watching<a class="pagenum" title="364" name="page_364" id="page_364"></a> the faces of the dark, strange people as they
+took in the marvelous meaning, the little company of visitors was
+strangely moved. Even Bud, awed beyond his wont, said, shyly, to
+Margaret:</p>
+
+<p>"Gee! It's something fierce not to be born a Christian and know all
+that, ain't it?"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret and Gardley walked a little way down the narrow path that led
+out over the neck of rock less than a rod wide that connects the great
+promontory with the mesa. The sun was setting in majesty over the
+desert, and the scene was one of breathless beauty. One might fancy it
+might look so to stand on the hills of God and look out over creation
+when all things have been made new.</p>
+
+<p>They stood for a while in silence. Then Margaret looked down at the
+narrow path worn more than a foot deep in the solid rock by the ten
+generations of feet that had been passing over it.</p>
+
+<p>"Just think," she said, "of all the feet, little and big, that have
+walked here in all the years, and of all the souls that have stood and
+looked out over this wonderful sight! It must be that somehow in spite
+of their darkness they have reached out to the God who made this, and
+have found a way to His heart. They couldn't look at this and not feel
+Him, could they? It seems to me that perhaps some of those poor
+creatures who have stood here and reached up blindly after the Creator
+of their souls have, perhaps, been as pleasing to Him as those who have
+known about Him from childhood."</p>
+
+<p>Gardley was used to her talking this way. He had not been in her Sunday
+meetings for nothing. He understood and sympathized, and now his hand<a class="pagenum" title="365" name="page_365" id="page_365"></a>
+reached softly for hers and held it tenderly. After a moment of silence
+he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I surely think if God could reach and find me in the desert of my life,
+He must have found them. I sometimes think I was a greater heathen than
+all these, because I knew and would not see."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret nestled her hand in his and looked up joyfully into his face.
+"I'm so glad you know Him now!" she murmured, happily.</p>
+
+<p>They stood for some time looking out over the changing scene, till the
+crimson faded into rose, the silver into gray; till the stars bloomed
+out one by one, and down in the valley across the desert a light
+twinkled faintly here and there from the camps of the Hopi shepherds.</p>
+
+<p>They started home at daybreak the next morning, the whole company of
+Indians standing on the rocks to send them royally on their way,
+pressing simple, homely gifts upon them and begging them to return soon
+again and tell the blessed story.</p>
+
+<p>A wonderful ride they had back to Ganado, where Gardley left Margaret
+for a short visit, promising to return for her in a few days when she
+was rested, and hastened back to Ashland to his work; for his soul was
+happy now and at ease, and he felt he must get to work at once. Rogers
+would need him. Poor Rogers! Had he found his daughter yet? Poor, silly
+child-prodigal!</p>
+
+<p>But when Gardley reached Ashland he found among his mail awaiting him a
+telegram. His uncle was dead, and the fortune which he had been brought
+up to believe was his, and which he had idly tossed<a class="pagenum" title="366" name="page_366" id="page_366"></a> away in a moment of
+recklessness, had been restored to him by the uncle's last will, made
+since Gardley's recent visit home. The fortune was his again!</p>
+
+<p>Gardley sat in his office on the Rogers ranch and stared hard at the
+adobe wall opposite his desk. That fortune would be great! He could do
+such wonderful things for Margaret now. They could work out their dreams
+together for the people they loved. He could see the shadows of those
+dreams&mdash;a beautiful home for Margaret out on the trail she loved, where
+wildness and beauty and the mountain she called hers were not far away;
+horses in plenty and a luxurious car when they wanted to take a trip;
+journeys East as often as they wished; some of the ideal appliances for
+the school that Margaret loved; a church for the missionary and
+convenient halls where he could speak at his outlying districts; a trip
+to the city for Mom Wallis, where she might see a real picture-gallery,
+her one expressed desire this side of heaven, now that she had taken to
+reading Browning and had some of it explained to her. Oh, and a lot of
+wonderful things! These all hung in the dream-picture before Gardley's
+eyes as he sat at his desk with that bit of yellow paper in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>He thought of what that money had represented to him in the past.
+Reckless days and nights of folly as a boy and young man at college;
+ruthless waste of time, money, youth; shriveling of soul, till Margaret
+came and found and rescued him! How wonderful that he had been rescued!
+That he had come to his senses at last, and was here in a man's
+position, doing a man's work in the world! Now, with all that money,
+there was no need for him to<a class="pagenum" title="367" name="page_367" id="page_367"></a> work and earn more. He could live idly all
+his days and just have a good time&mdash;make others happy, too. But still he
+would not have this exhilarating feeling that he was supplying his own
+and Margaret's necessities by the labor of hand and brain. The little
+telegram in his hand seemed somehow to be trying to snatch from him all
+this material prosperity that was the symbol of that spiritual
+regeneration which had become so dear to him.</p>
+
+<p>He put his head down on his clasped hands upon the desk then and prayed.
+Perhaps it was the first great prayer of his life.</p>
+
+<p>"O God, let me be strong enough to stand this that has come upon me.
+Help me to be a man in spite of money! Don't let me lose my manhood and
+my right to work. Help me to use the money in the right way and not to
+dwarf myself, nor spoil our lives with it." It was a great prayer for a
+man such as Gardley had been, and the answer came swiftly in his
+conviction.</p>
+
+<p>He lifted up his head with purpose in his expression, and, folding the
+telegram, put it safely back into his pocket. He would not tell Margaret
+of it&mdash;not just yet. He would think it out&mdash;just the right way&mdash;and he
+did not believe he meant to give up his position with Rogers. He had
+accepted it for a year in good faith, and it was his business to fulfil
+the contract. Meantime, this money would perhaps make possible his
+marriage with Margaret sooner than he had hoped.</p>
+
+<p>Five minutes later Rogers telephoned to the office.</p>
+
+<p>"I've decided to take that shipment of cattle and try that new stock,
+provided you will go out and<a class="pagenum" title="368" name="page_368" id="page_368"></a> look at them and see that everything is
+all O. K. I couldn't go myself now. Don't feel like going anywhere, you
+know. You wouldn't need to go for a couple of weeks. I've just had a
+letter from the man, and he says he won't be ready sooner. Say, why
+don't you and Miss Earle get married and make this a wedding-trip? She
+could go to the Pacific coast with you. It would be a nice trip. Then I
+could spare you for a month or six weeks when you got back if you wanted
+to take her East for a little visit."</p>
+
+<p>Why not? Gardley stumbled out his thanks and hung up the receiver, his
+face full of the light of a great joy. How were the blessings pouring
+down upon his head these days? Was it a sign that God was pleased with
+his action in making good what he could where he had failed? And Rogers!
+How kind he was! Poor Rogers, with his broken heart and his stricken
+home! For Rosa had come home again a sadder, wiser child; and her father
+seemed crushed with the disgrace of it all.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley went to Margaret that very afternoon. He told her only that he
+had had some money left him by his uncle, which would make it possible
+for him to marry at once and keep her comfortably now. He was to be sent
+to California on a business trip. Would she be married and go with him?</p>
+
+<p>Margaret studied the telegram in wonder. She had never asked Gardley
+much about his circumstances. The telegram merely stated that his
+uncle's estate was left to him. To her simple mind an estate might be a
+few hundred dollars, enough to furnish a plain little home; and her face
+lighted with<a class="pagenum" title="369" name="page_369" id="page_369"></a> joy over it. She asked no questions, and Gardley said no
+more about the money. He had forgotten that question, comparatively, in
+the greater possibility of joy.</p>
+
+<p>Would she be married in ten days and go with him?</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes met his with an answering joy, and yet he could see that there
+was a trouble hiding somewhere. He presently saw what it was without
+needing to be told. Her father and mother! Of course, they would be
+disappointed! They would want her to be married at home!</p>
+
+<p>"But Rogers said we could go and visit them for several weeks on our
+return," he said; and Margaret's face lighted up.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that would be beautiful," she said, wistfully; "and perhaps they
+won't mind so much&mdash;though I always expected father would marry me if I
+was ever married; still, if we can go home so soon and for so long&mdash;and
+Mr. Brownleigh would be next best, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"But, of course, your father must marry you," said Gardley,
+determinedly. "Perhaps we could persuade him to come, and your mother,
+too."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, they couldn't possibly," said Margaret, quickly, a shade of
+sadness in her eyes. "You know it costs a lot to come out here, and
+ministers are never rich."</p>
+
+<p>It was then that Gardley's eyes lighted with joy. His money could take
+this bugbear away, at least. However, he said nothing about the money.</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose we write to your father and mother and put the matter before
+them. See what they<a class="pagenum" title="370" name="page_370" id="page_370"></a> say. We'll send the letters to-night. You write
+your mother and I'll write your father."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret agreed and sat down at once to write her letter, while Gardley,
+on the other side of the room, wrote his, scratching away contentedly
+with his fountain-pen and looking furtively now and then toward the
+bowed head over at the desk.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley did not read his letter to Margaret. She wondered a little at
+this, but did not ask, and the letters were mailed, with
+special-delivery stamps on them. Gardley awaited their replies with
+great impatience.</p>
+
+<p>He filled in the days of waiting with business. There were letters to
+write connected with his fortune, and there were arrangements to be made
+for his trip. But the thing that occupied the most of his time and
+thought was the purchase and refitting of a roomy old ranch-house in a
+charming location, not more than three miles from Ashland, on the road
+to the camp.</p>
+
+<p>It had been vacant for a couple of years past, the owner having gone
+abroad permanently and the place having been offered for sale. Margaret
+had often admired it in her trips to and from the camp, and Gardley
+thought of it at once when it became possible for him to think of
+purchasing a home in the West.</p>
+
+<p>There was a great stone fireplace, and the beams of the ceilings and
+pillars of the porch and wide, hospitable rooms were of tree-trunks with
+the bark on them. With a little work it could be made roughly but
+artistically habitable. Gardley had it cleaned up, not disturbing the
+tangle of vines and<a class="pagenum" title="371" name="page_371" id="page_371"></a> shrubbery that had had their way since the last
+owner had left them and which had made a perfect screen from the road
+for the house.</p>
+
+<p>Behind this screen the men worked&mdash;most of them the men from the
+bunk-house, whom Gardley took into his confidence.</p>
+
+<p>The floors were carefully scrubbed under the direction of Mom Wallis,
+and the windows made shining. Then the men spent a day bringing great
+loads of tree-boughs and filling the place with green fragrance, until
+the big living-room looked like a woodland bower. Gardley made a raid
+upon some Indian friends of his and came back with several fine Navajo
+rugs and blankets, which he spread about the room luxuriously on the
+floor and over the rude benches which the men had constructed. They
+piled the fireplace with big logs, and Gardley took over some of his own
+personal possessions that he had brought back from the East with him to
+give the place a livable look. Then he stood back satisfied. The place
+was fit to bring his bride and her friends to. Not that it was as it
+should be. That would be for Margaret to do, but it would serve as a
+temporary stopping-place if there came need. If no need came, why, the
+place was there, anyway, hers and his. A tender light grew in his eyes
+as he looked it over in the dying light of the afternoon. Then he went
+out and rode swiftly to the telegraph-office and found these two
+telegrams, according to the request in his own letter to Mr. Earle.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley's telegram read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Congratulations. Will come as you desire. We await your advice.<br />
+Have written.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Father</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" title="372" name="page_372" id="page_372"></a>He saddled his horse and hurried to Margaret with hers, and together
+they read:</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">Dear child! So glad for you. Of course you will go. I am sending
+you some things. Don't take a thought for us. We shall look forward
+to your visit. Our love to you both.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Mother</span>.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret, folded in her lover's arms, cried out her sorrow and her joy,
+and lifted up her face with happiness. Then Gardley, with great joy,
+thought of the surprise he had in store for her and laid his face
+against hers to hide the telltale smile in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>For Gardley, in his letter to his future father-in-law, had written of
+his newly inherited fortune, and had not only inclosed a check for a
+good sum to cover all extra expense of the journey, but had said that a
+private car would be at their disposal, not only for themselves, but for
+any of Margaret's friends and relatives whom they might choose to
+invite. As he had written this letter he was filled with deep
+thanksgiving that it was in his power to do this thing for his dear
+girl-bride.</p>
+
+<p>The morning after the telegrams arrived Gardley spent several hours
+writing telegrams and receiving them from a big department store in the
+nearest great city, and before noon a big shipment of goods was on its
+way to Ashland. Beds, bureaus, wash-stands, chairs, tables, dishes,
+kitchen utensils, and all kinds of bedding, even to sheets and
+pillow-cases, he ordered with lavish hand. After all, he must furnish
+the house himself, and let Margaret weed it out or give it away
+afterward, if she did not like it. He<a class="pagenum" title="373" name="page_373" id="page_373"></a> was going to have a house party
+and he must be ready. When all was done and he was just about to mount
+his horse again he turned back and sent another message, ordering a
+piano.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it's <i>great</i>!" he said to himself, as he rode back to his office.
+"It's simply great to be able to do things just when I need them! I
+never knew what fun money was before. But then I never had Margaret to
+spend it for, and she's worth the whole of it at once!"</p>
+
+<p>The next thing he ordered was a great easy carriage with plenty of room
+to convey Mother Earle and her friends from the train to the house.</p>
+
+<p>The days went by rapidly enough, and Margaret was so busy that she had
+little time to wonder and worry why her mother did not write her the
+long, loving, motherly good-by letter to her little girlhood that she
+had expected to get. Not until three days before the wedding did it come
+over her that she had had but three brief, scrappy letters from her
+mother, and they not a whole page apiece. What could be the matter with
+mother? She was almost on the point of panic when Gardley came and
+bundled her on to her horse for a ride.</p>
+
+<p>Strangely enough, he directed their way through Ashland and down to the
+station, and it was just about the time of the arrival of the evening
+train.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley excused himself for a moment, saying something about an errand,
+and went into the station. Margaret sat on her horse, watching the
+oncoming train, the great connecting link between East and West, and
+wondered if it would bring a letter from mother.<a class="pagenum" title="374" name="page_374" id="page_374"></a></p>
+
+<p>The train rushed to a halt, and behold some passengers were getting off
+from a private car! Margaret watched them idly, thinking more about an
+expected letter than about the people. Then suddenly she awoke to the
+fact that Gardley was greeting them. Who could they be?</p>
+
+<p>There were five of them, and one of them looked like Jane! Dear Jane!
+She had forgotten to write her about this hurried wedding. How different
+it all was going to be from what she and Jane had planned for each other
+in their dear old school-day dreams! And that young man that Gardley was
+shaking hands with now looked like Cousin Dick! She hadn't seen him for
+three years, but he must look like that now; and the younger girl beside
+him might be Cousin Emily! But, oh, who were the others? <i>Father!</i> And
+<span class="smcap">Mother</span>!</p>
+
+<p>Margaret sprang from her horse with a bound and rushed into her mother's
+arms. The interested passengers craned their necks and looked their fill
+with smiles of appreciation as the train took up its way again, having
+dropped the private car on the side track.</p>
+
+<p>Dick and Emily rode the ponies to the house, while Margaret nestled in
+the back seat of the carriage between her father and mother, and Jane
+got acquainted with Gardley in the front seat of the carriage. Margaret
+never even noticed where they were going until the carriage turned in
+and stopped before the door of the new house, and Mrs. Tanner, furtively
+casting behind her the checked apron she had worn, came out to shake
+hands with the company and tell them supper was all ready, before she<a class="pagenum" title="375" name="page_375" id="page_375"></a>
+went back to her deserted boarding-house. Even Bud was going to stay at
+the new house that night, in some cooked-up capacity or other, and all
+the men from the bunk-house were hiding out among the trees to see
+Margaret's father and mother and shake hands if the opportunity offered.</p>
+
+<p>The wonder and delight of Margaret when she saw the house inside and
+knew that it was hers, the tears she shed and smiles that grew almost
+into hysterics when she saw some of the incongruous furnishings, are all
+past describing. Margaret was too happy to think. She rushed from one
+room to another. She hugged her mother and linked her arm in her
+father's for a walk across the long piazza; she talked to Emily and Dick
+and Jane; and then rushed out to find Gardley and thank him again. And
+all this time she could not understand how Gardley had done it, for she
+had not yet comprehended his fortune.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley had asked his sisters to come to the wedding, not much expecting
+they would accept, but they had telegraphed at the last minute they
+would be there. They arrived an hour or so before the ceremony; gushed
+over Margaret; told Gardley she was a "sweet thing"; said the house was
+"dandy for a house party if one had plenty of servants, but they should
+think it would be dull in winter"; gave Margaret a diamond sunburst pin,
+a string of pearls, and an emerald bracelet set in diamond chips; and
+departed immediately after the ceremony. They had thought they were the
+chief guests, but the relief that overspread the faces of those guests
+who were best beloved by both bride<a class="pagenum" title="376" name="page_376" id="page_376"></a> and groom was at once visible on
+their departure. Jasper Kemp drew a long breath and declared to Long
+Bill that he was glad the air was growing pure again. Then all those old
+friends from the bunk-house filed in to the great tables heavily loaded
+with good things, the abundant gift of the neighborhood, and sat down to
+the wedding supper, heartily glad that the "city lady and her gals"&mdash;as
+Mom Wallis called them in a suppressed whisper&mdash;had chosen not to stay
+over a train.</p>
+
+<p>The wedding had been in the school-house, embowered in foliage and all
+the flowers the land afforded, decorated by the loving hands of
+Margaret's pupils, old and young. She was attended by the entire school
+marching double file before her, strewing flowers in her way. The
+missionary's wife played the wedding-march, and the missionary assisted
+the bride's father with the ceremony. Margaret's dress was a simple
+white muslin, with a little real lace and embroidery handed down from
+former generations, the whole called into being by Margaret's mother.
+Even Gardley's sisters had said it was "perfectly dear." The whole
+neighborhood was at the wedding.</p>
+
+<p>And when the bountiful wedding-supper was eaten the entire company of
+favored guests stood about the new piano and sang "Blest Be the Tie that
+Binds"&mdash;with Margaret playing for them.</p>
+
+<p>Then there was a little hurry at the last, Margaret getting into the
+pretty traveling dress and hat her mother had brought, and kissing her
+mother good-by&mdash;though happily not for long this time.</p>
+
+<p>Mother and father and the rest of the home party<a class="pagenum" title="377" name="page_377" id="page_377"></a> were to wait until
+morning, and the missionary and his wife were to stay with them that
+night and see them to their car the next day.</p>
+
+<p>So, waving and throwing kisses back to the others, they rode away to the
+station, Bud pridefully driving the team from the front seat.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley had arranged for a private apartment on the train, and nothing
+could have been more luxurious in traveling than the place where he led
+his bride. Bud, scuttling behind with a suit-case, looked around him
+with all his eyes before he said a hurried good-by, and murmured under
+his breath: "Gee! Wisht I was goin' all the way!"</p>
+
+<p>Bud hustled off as the train got under way, and Margaret and Gardley
+went out to the observation platform to wave a last farewell.</p>
+
+<p>The few little blurring lights of Ashland died soon in the distance, and
+the desert took on its vast wideness beneath a starry dome; but off in
+the East a purple shadow loomed, mighty and majestic, and rising slowly
+over its crest a great silver disk appeared, brightening as it came and
+pouring a silver mist over the purple peak.</p>
+
+<p>"My mountain!" said Margaret, softly.</p>
+
+<p>And Gardley, drawing her close to him, stooped to lay his lips upon
+hers.</p>
+
+<p>"My darling!" he answered.</p>
+
+<p style="text-align: center; margin-top: 2em;">THE END</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Voice in the Wilderness
+
+Author: Grace Livingston Hill
+
+Release Date: April 27, 2007 [EBook #21219]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<table style="margin: auto; border: black 1px solid; width: 400px;" summary=""><tr><td>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 220%; margin-top: 30px;">A VOICE <i>in the</i></p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 220%;">WILDERNESS</p>
+<hr style="width:60%; margin-bottom: 60px;" />
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 40px;"><i>A NOVEL</i></p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 80%;">BY</p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 110%; margin-bottom: 40px;">GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL</p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 80%;">AUTHOR OF</p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 80%; margin-bottom: 100px;">MARCIA SCHUYLER, <span class="smcap">Etc.</span></p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 120%; letter-spacing: .2em;">GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP</p>
+<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: .1em; margin-bottom: 30px;">PUBLISHERS&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;NEW YORK</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+
+<p class="titlepage">
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">Published by Arrangement with Harper and Brothers</span><br />
+<span style="font-size: 70%">Made in the United States of America</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+
+<p class="titlepage" style="margin-bottom: 20px; font-size: 80%">
+A Voice in the Wilderness<br />
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+Copyright, 1916, by Harper &amp; Brothers<br />
+Printed in the United States of America<br />
+Published September, 1916
+</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+
+<h2 class="toc"><a name="Contents" id="Contents"></a>Contents</h2>
+
+<table border="0" width="500" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">
+<col style="width:85%;" />
+<col style="width:15%;" />
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER I</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER II</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">11</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER III</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">20</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER IV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">28</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER V</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">38</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER VI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">46</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER VII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">55</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER VIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">63</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER IX</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">72</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER X</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">82</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">91</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">103</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">112</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XIV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">127</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">135</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XVI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">142</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XVII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">154</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XVIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">171</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XIX</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">181</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XX</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">190</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">200</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">213</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">225</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXIV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">235</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">245</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXVI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">260</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXVII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">277</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXVIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">289</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXIX</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">301</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXX</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">318</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXXI</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">328</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXXII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">337</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXXIII</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">345</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left">CHAPTER XXXIV</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">359</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+
+<h1>A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS</h1>
+
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="1" name="page_1" id="page_1"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>With a lurch the train came to a dead stop and Margaret Earle, hastily
+gathering up her belongings, hurried down the aisle and got out into the
+night.</p>
+
+<p>It occurred to her, as she swung her heavy suit-case down the rather
+long step to the ground, and then carefully swung herself after it, that
+it was strange that neither conductor, brakeman, nor porter had come to
+help her off the train, when all three had taken the trouble to tell her
+that hers was the next station; but she could hear voices up ahead.
+Perhaps something was the matter with the engine that detained them and
+they had forgotten her for the moment.</p>
+
+<p>The ground was rough where she stood, and there seemed no sign of a
+platform. Did they not have platforms in this wild Western land, or was
+the train so long that her car had stopped before reaching it?<a class="pagenum" title="2" name="page_2" id="page_2"></a></p>
+
+<p>She strained her eyes into the darkness, and tried to make out things
+from the two or three specks of light that danced about like fireflies
+in the distance. She could dimly see moving figures away up near the
+engine, and each one evidently carried a lantern. The train was
+tremendously long. A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her.
+Perhaps she ought not to have got out until some one came to help her.
+Perhaps the train had not pulled into the station yet and she ought to
+get back on it and wait. Yet if the train started before she found the
+conductor she might be carried on somewhere and be justly blame her for
+a fool.</p>
+
+<p>There did not seem to be any building on that side of the track. It was
+probably on the other, but she was standing too near the cars to see
+over. She tried to move back to look, but the ground sloped and she
+slipped and fell in the cinders, bruising her knee and cutting her
+wrist.</p>
+
+<p>In sudden panic she arose. She would get back into the train, no matter
+what the consequences. They had no right to put her out here, away off
+from the station, at night, in a strange country. If the train started
+before she could find the conductor she would tell him that he must back
+it up again and let her off. He certainly could not expect her to get
+out like this.</p>
+
+<p>She lifted the heavy suit-case up the high step that was even farther
+from the ground than it had been when she came down, because her fall
+had loosened some of the earth and caused it to slide away from the
+track. Then, reaching to the rail of the step, she tried to pull herself
+up, but as she did so the<a class="pagenum" title="3" name="page_3" id="page_3"></a> engine gave a long snort and the whole train,
+as if it were in league against her, lurched forward crazily, shaking
+off her hold. She slipped to her knees again, the suit-case, toppled
+from the lower step, descending upon her, and together they slid and
+rolled down the short bank, while the train, like an irresponsible nurse
+who had slapped her charge and left it to its fate, ran giddily off into
+the night.</p>
+
+<p>The horror of being deserted helped the girl to rise in spite of bruises
+and shock. She lifted imploring hands to the unresponsive cars as they
+hurried by her&mdash;one, two, three, with bright windows, each showing a
+passenger, comfortable and safe inside, unconscious of her need.</p>
+
+<p>A moment of useless screaming, running, trying to attract some one's
+attention, a sickening sense of terror and failure, and the last car
+slatted itself past with a mocking clatter, as if it enjoyed her
+discomfort.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret stood dazed, reaching out helpless hands, then dropped them at
+her sides and gazed after the fast-retreating train, the light on its
+last car swinging tauntingly, blinking now and then with a leer in its
+eye, rapidly vanishing from her sight into the depth of the night.</p>
+
+<p>She gasped and looked about her for the station that but a short moment
+before had been so real to her mind; and, lo! on this side and on that
+there was none!</p>
+
+<p>The night was wide like a great floor shut in by a low, vast dome of
+curving blue set with the largest, most wonderful stars she had ever
+seen. Heavy shadows of purple-green, smoke-like, hovered over<a class="pagenum" title="4" name="page_4" id="page_4"></a> earth
+darker and more intense than the unfathomable blue of the night sky. It
+seemed like the secret nesting-place of mysteries wherein no human foot
+might dare intrude. It was incredible that such could be but common
+sage-brush, sand, and greasewood wrapped about with the beauty of the
+lonely night.</p>
+
+<p>No building broke the inky outlines of the plain, nor friendly light
+streamed out to cheer her heart. Not even a tree was in sight, except on
+the far horizon, where a heavy line of deeper darkness might mean a
+forest. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the blue, deep, starry dome
+above and the bluer darkness of the earth below save one sharp shaft
+ahead like a black mast throwing out a dark arm across the track.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as she sighted it she picked up her baggage and made her painful
+way toward it, for her knees and wrist were bruised and her baggage was
+heavy.</p>
+
+<p>A soft drip, drip greeted her as she drew nearer; something plashing
+down among the cinders by the track. Then she saw the tall column with
+its arm outstretched, and looming darker among the sage-brush the
+outlines of a water-tank. It was so she recognized the engine's
+drinking-tank, and knew that she had mistaken a pause to water the
+engine for a regular stop at a station.</p>
+
+<p>Her soul sank within her as she came up to the dripping water and laid
+her hand upon the dark upright, as if in some way it could help her. She
+dropped her baggage and stood, trembling, gazing around upon the
+beautiful, lonely scene in horror; and then, like a mirage against the
+distance, there<a class="pagenum" title="5" name="page_5" id="page_5"></a> melted on her frightened eyes a vision of her father
+and mother sitting around the library lamp at home, as they sat every
+evening. They were probably reading and talking at this very minute, and
+trying not to miss her on this her first venture away from the home into
+the great world to teach. What would they say if they could see their
+beloved daughter, whom they had sheltered all these years and let go
+forth so reluctantly now, in all her confidence of youth, bound by
+almost absurd promises to be careful and not run any risks.</p>
+
+<p>Yet here she was, standing alone beside a water-tank in the midst of an
+Arizona plain, no knowing how many miles from anywhere, at somewhere
+between nine and ten o'clock at night! It seemed incredible that it had
+really happened! Perhaps she was dreaming! A few moments before in the
+bright car, surrounded by drowsy fellow-travelers, almost at her
+journey's end, as she supposed; and now, having merely done as she
+thought right, she was stranded here!</p>
+
+<p>She rubbed her eyes and looked again up the track, half expecting to see
+the train come back for her. Surely, surely the conductor, or the porter
+who had been so kind, would discover that she was gone, and do something
+about it. They couldn't leave her here alone on the prairie! It would be
+too dreadful!</p>
+
+<p>That vision of her father and mother off against the purple-green
+distance, how it shook her! The lamp looked bright and cheerful, and she
+could see her father's head with its heavy white hair. He turned to look
+at her mother to tell her of something<a class="pagenum" title="6" name="page_6" id="page_6"></a> he read in the paper. They were
+sitting there, feeling contented and almost happy about her, and she,
+their little girl&mdash;all her dignity as school-teacher dropped from her
+like a garment now&mdash;she was standing in this empty space alone, with
+only an engine's water-tank to keep her from dying, and only the barren,
+desolate track to connect her with the world of men and women. She
+dropped her head upon her breast and the tears came, sobbing, choking,
+raining down. Then off in the distance she heard a low, rising howl of
+some snarling, angry beast, and she lifted her head and stood in
+trembling terror, clinging to the tank.</p>
+
+<p>That sound was coyotes or wolves howling. She had read about them, but
+had not expected to experience them in such a situation. How confidently
+had she accepted the position which offered her the opening she had
+sought for the splendid career that she hoped was to follow! How
+fearless had she been! Coyotes, nor Indians, nor wild cowboy
+students&mdash;nothing had daunted her courage. Besides, she told her mother
+it was very different going to a town from what it would be if she were
+a missionary going to the wilds. It was an important school she was to
+teach, where her Latin and German and mathematical achievements had won
+her the place above several other applicants, and where her well-known
+tact was expected to work wonders. But what were Latin and German and
+mathematics now? Could they show her how to climb a water-tank? Would
+tact avail with a hungry wolf?</p>
+
+<p>The howl in the distance seemed to come nearer. She cast frightened eyes
+to the unresponsive water-tank<a class="pagenum" title="7" name="page_7" id="page_7"></a> looming high and dark above her. She
+must get up there somehow. It was not safe to stand here a minute.
+Besides, from that height she might be able to see farther, and perhaps
+there would be a light somewhere and she might cry for help.</p>
+
+<p>Investigation showed a set of rude spikes by which the trainmen were
+wont to climb up, and Margaret prepared to ascend them. She set her
+suit-case dubiously down at the foot. Would it be safe to leave it
+there? She had read how coyotes carried off a hatchet from a
+camping-party, just to get the leather thong which was bound about the
+handle. She could not afford to lose her things. Yet how could she climb
+and carry that heavy burden with her? A sudden thought came.</p>
+
+<p>Her simple traveling-gown was finished with a silken girdle, soft and
+long, wound twice about her waist and falling in tasseled ends. Swiftly
+she untied it and knotted one end firmly to the handle of her suit-case,
+tying the other end securely to her wrist. Then slowly, cautiously, with
+many a look upward, she began to climb.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed miles, though in reality it was but a short distance. The
+howling beasts in the distance sounded nearer now and continually,
+making her heart beat wildly. She was stiff and bruised from her falls,
+and weak with fright. The spikes were far apart, and each step of
+progress was painful and difficult. It was good at last to rise high
+enough to see over the water-tank and feel a certain confidence in her
+defense.</p>
+
+<p>But she had risen already beyond the short length of her silken tether,
+and the suit-case was dragging<a class="pagenum" title="8" name="page_8" id="page_8"></a> painfully on her arm. She was obliged to
+steady herself where she stood and pull it up before she could go on.
+Then she managed to get it swung up to the top of the tank in a
+comparatively safe place. One more long spike step and she was beside
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The tank was partly roofed over, so that she had room enough to sit on
+the edge without danger of falling in and drowning. For a few minutes
+she could only sit still and be thankful and try to get her breath back
+again after the climb; but presently the beauty of the night began to
+cast its spell over her. That wonderful blue of the sky! It hadn't ever
+before impressed her that skies were blue at night. She would have said
+they were black or gray. As a matter of fact, she didn't remember to
+have ever seen so much sky at once before, nor to have noticed skies in
+general until now.</p>
+
+<p>This sky was so deeply, wonderfully blue, the stars so real, alive and
+sparkling, that all other stars she had ever seen paled before them into
+mere imitations. The spot looked like one of Taylor's pictures of the
+Holy Land. She half expected to see a shepherd with his crook and sheep
+approaching her out of the dim shadows, or a turbaned, white-robed David
+with his lifted hands of prayer standing off among the depths of purple
+darkness. It would not have been out of keeping if a walled city with
+housetops should be hidden behind the clumps of sage-brush farther on.
+'Twas such a night and such a scene as this, perhaps, when the wise men
+started to follow the star!</p>
+
+<p>But one cannot sit on the edge of a water-tank<a class="pagenum" title="9" name="page_9" id="page_9"></a> in the desert night
+alone and muse long on art and history. It was cold up there, and the
+howling seemed nearer than before. There was no sign of a light or a
+house anywhere, and not even a freight-train sent its welcome clatter
+down the track. All was still and wide and lonely, save that terrifying
+sound of the beasts; such stillness as she had not ever thought could
+be&mdash;a fearful silence as a setting for the awful voices of the wilds.</p>
+
+<p>The bruises and scratches she had acquired set up a fine stinging, and
+the cold seemed to sweep down and take possession of her on her high,
+narrow seat. She was growing stiff and cramped, yet dared not move much.
+Would there be no train, nor any help? Would she have to sit there all
+night? It looked so very near to the ground now. Could wild beasts
+climb, she wondered?</p>
+
+<p>Then in the interval of silence that came between the calling of those
+wild creatures there stole a sound. She could not tell at first what it
+was. A slow, regular, plodding sound, and quite far away. She looked to
+find it, and thought she saw a shape move out of the sage-brush on the
+other side of the track, but she could not be sure. It might be but a
+figment of her brain, a foolish fancy from looking so long at the
+huddled bushes on the dark plain. Yet something prompted her to cry out,
+and when she heard her own voice she cried again and louder, wondering
+why she had not cried before.</p>
+
+<p>"Help! Help!" she called; and again: "Help! Help!"</p>
+
+<p>The dark shape paused and turned toward her. She was sure now. What if
+it were a beast instead<a class="pagenum" title="10" name="page_10" id="page_10"></a> of a human! Terrible fear took possession of
+her; then, to her infinite relief, a nasal voice sounded out:</p>
+
+<p>"Who's thar?"</p>
+
+<p>But when she opened her lips to answer, nothing but a sob would come to
+them for a minute, and then she could only cry, pitifully:</p>
+
+<p>"Help! Help!"</p>
+
+<p>"Whar be you?" twanged the voice; and now she could see a horse and
+rider like a shadow moving toward her down the track.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="11" name="page_11" id="page_11"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The horse came to a standstill a little way from the track, and his
+rider let forth a stream of strange profanity. The girl shuddered and
+began to think a wild beast might be preferable to some men. However,
+these remarks seemed to be a mere formality. He paused and addressed
+her:</p>
+
+<p>"Heow'd yeh git up thar? D'j'yeh drap er climb?"</p>
+
+<p>He was a little, wiry man with a bristly, protruding chin. She could see
+that, even in the starlight. There was something about the point of that
+stubby chin that she shrank from inexpressibly. He was not a pleasant
+man to look upon, and even his voice was unprepossessing. She began to
+think that even the night with its loneliness and unknown perils was
+preferable to this man's company.</p>
+
+<p>"I got off the train by mistake, thinking it was my station, and before
+I discovered it the train had gone and left me," Margaret explained,
+with dignity.</p>
+
+<p>"Yeh didn't 'xpect it t' sit reound on th' plain while you was
+gallivantin' up water-tanks, did yeh?"</p>
+
+<p>Cold horror froze Margaret's veins. She was dumb for a second. "I am on
+my way to Ashland station. Can you tell me how far it is from here and
+how I can get there?" Her tone was like icicles.<a class="pagenum" title="12" name="page_12" id="page_12"></a></p>
+
+<p>"It's a little matter o' twenty miles, more 'r less," said the man
+protruding his offensive chin. "The walkin's good. I don't know no other
+way from this p'int at this time o' night. Yeh might set still till th'
+mornin' freight goes by an' drap atop o' one of the kyars."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir!" said Margaret, remembering her dignity as a teacher.</p>
+
+<p>The man wheeled his horse clear around and looked up at her impudently.
+She could smell bad whisky on his breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Say, you must be some young highbrow, ain't yeh? Is thet all yeh want
+o' me? 'Cause ef 'tis I got t' git on t' camp. It's a good five mile
+yet, an' I 'ain't hed no grub sence noon."</p>
+
+<p>The tears suddenly rushed to the girl's eyes as the horror of being
+alone in the night again took possession of her. This dreadful man
+frightened her, but the thought of the loneliness filled her with
+dismay.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" she cried, forgetting her insulted dignity, "you're not going to
+leave me up here alone, are you? Isn't there some place near here where
+I could stay overnight?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thur ain't no palace hotel round these diggin's, ef that's what you
+mean," the man leered at her. "You c'n come along t' camp 'ith me ef you
+ain't too stuck up."</p>
+
+<p>"To camp!" faltered Margaret in dismay, wondering what her mother would
+say. "Are there any ladies there?"</p>
+
+<p>A loud guffaw greeted her question. "Wal, my woman's thar, sech es she
+is; but she ain't no highflier<a class="pagenum" title="13" name="page_13" id="page_13"></a> like you. We mostly don't hev ladies to
+camp, But I got t' git on. Ef you want to go too, you better light down
+pretty speedy, fer I can't wait."</p>
+
+<p>In fear and trembling Margaret descended her rude ladder step by step,
+primitive man seated calmly on his horse, making no attempt whatever to
+assist her.</p>
+
+<p>"This ain't no baggage-car," he grumbled, as he saw the suit-case in her
+hand. "Well, h'ist yerself up thar; I reckon we c'n pull through
+somehow. Gimme the luggage."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret stood appalled beside the bony horse and his uncouth rider. Did
+he actually expect her to ride with him? "Couldn't I walk?" she
+faltered, hoping he would offer to do so.</p>
+
+<p>"'T's up t' you," the man replied, indifferently. "Try 't an' see!"</p>
+
+<p>He spoke to the horse, and it started forward eagerly, while the girl in
+horror struggled on behind. Over rough, uneven ground, between
+greasewood, sage-brush, and cactus, back into the trail. The man,
+oblivious of her presence, rode contentedly on, a silent shadow on a
+dark horse wending a silent way between the purple-green clumps of other
+shadows, until, bewildered, the girl almost lost sight of them. Her
+breath came short, her ankle turned, and she fell with both hands in a
+stinging bed of cactus. She cried out then and begged him to stop.</p>
+
+<p>"L'arned yer lesson, hev yeh, sweety?" he jeered at her, foolishly.
+"Well, get in yer box, then."</p>
+
+<p>He let her struggle up to a seat behind himself with very little
+assistance, but when she was seated and started on her way she began to
+wish she had<a class="pagenum" title="14" name="page_14" id="page_14"></a> stayed behind and taken any perils of the way rather than
+trust herself in proximity to this creature.</p>
+
+<p>From time to time he took a bottle from his pocket and swallowed a
+portion of its contents, becoming fluent in his language as they
+proceeded on their way. Margaret remained silent, growing more and more
+frightened every time the bottle came out. At last he offered it to her.
+She declined it with cold politeness, which seemed to irritate the
+little man, for he turned suddenly fierce.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yer too fine to take a drap fer good comp'ny, are yeh? Wal, I'll
+show yeh a thing er two, my pretty lady. You'll give me a kiss with yer
+two cherry lips before we go another step. D'yeh hear, my sweetie?" And
+he turned with a silly leer to enforce his command; but with a cry of
+horror Margaret slid to the ground and ran back down the trail as hard
+as she could go, till she stumbled and fell in the shelter of a great
+sage-bush, and lay sobbing on the sand.</p>
+
+<p>The man turned bleared eyes toward her and watched until she
+disappeared. Then sticking his chin out wickedly, he slung her suit-case
+after her and called:</p>
+
+<p>"All right, my pretty lady; go yer own gait an' l'arn yer own lesson."
+He started on again, singing a drunken song.</p>
+
+<p>Under the blue, starry dome alone sat Margaret again, this time with no
+friendly water-tank for her defense, and took counsel with herself. The
+howling coyotes seemed to be silenced for the time; at least they had
+become a minor quantity in her equation of troubles. She felt now that
+man was her greatest<a class="pagenum" title="15" name="page_15" id="page_15"></a> menace, and to get away safely from him back to
+that friendly water-tank and the dear old railroad track she would have
+pledged her next year's salary. She stole softly to the place where she
+had heard the suit-case fall, and, picking it up, started on the weary
+road back to the tank. Could she ever find the way? The trail seemed so
+intangible a thing, her sense of direction so confused. Yet there was
+nothing else to do. She shuddered whenever she thought of the man who
+had been her companion on horseback.</p>
+
+<p>When the man reached camp he set his horse loose and stumbled into the
+door of the log bunk-house, calling loudly for something to eat.</p>
+
+<p>The men were sitting around the room on the rough benches and bunks,
+smoking their pipes or stolidly staring into the dying fire. Two smoky
+kerosene-lanterns that hung from spikes driven high in the logs cast a
+weird light over the company, eight men in all, rough and hardened with
+exposure to stormy life and weather. They were men with unkempt beards
+and uncombed hair, their coarse cotton shirts open at the neck, their
+brawny arms bare above the elbow, with crimes and sorrows and hard
+living written large across their faces.</p>
+
+<p>There was one, a boy in looks, with smooth face and white skin healthily
+flushed in places like a baby's. His face, too, was hard and set in
+sternness like a mask, as if life had used him badly; but behind it was
+a fineness of feature and spirit that could not be utterly hidden. They
+called him the Kid, and thought it was his youth that made him different
+from them all, for he was only twenty-four, and not<a class="pagenum" title="16" name="page_16" id="page_16"></a> one of the rest was
+under forty. They were doing their best to help him get over that innate
+fineness that was his natural inheritance, but although he stopped at
+nothing, and played his part always with the ease of one old in the ways
+of the world, yet he kept a quiet reserve about him, a kind of charm
+beyond which they had not been able to go.</p>
+
+<p>He was playing cards with three others at the table when the man came
+in, and did not look up at the entrance.</p>
+
+<p>The woman, white and hopeless, appeared at the door of the shed-room
+when the man came, and obediently set about getting his supper; but her
+lifeless face never changed expression.</p>
+
+<p>"Brung a gal 'long of me part way," boasted the man, as he flung himself
+into a seat by the table. "Thought you fellers might like t' see 'er,
+but she got too high an' mighty fer me, wouldn't take a pull at th'
+bottle 'ith me, 'n' shrieked like a catamount when I kissed 'er. Found
+'er hangin' on th' water-tank. Got off 't th' wrong place. One o' yer
+highbrows out o' th' parlor car! Good lesson fer 'er!"</p>
+
+<p>The Boy looked up from his cards sternly, his keen eyes boring through
+the man. "Where is she now?" he asked, quietly; and all the men in the
+room looked up uneasily. There was that tone and accent again that made
+the Boy alien from them. What was it?</p>
+
+<p>The man felt it and snarled his answer angrily. "Dropped 'er on th'
+trail, an' threw her fine-lady b'longin's after 'er. 'Ain't got no use
+fer thet kind. Wonder what they was created fer? Ain't no good<a class="pagenum" title="17" name="page_17" id="page_17"></a> to
+nobody, not even 'emselves." And he laughed a harsh cackle that was not
+pleasant to hear.</p>
+
+<p>The Boy threw down his cards and went out, shutting the door. In a few
+minutes the men heard two horses pass the end of the bunk-house toward
+the trail, but no one looked up nor spoke. You could not have told by
+the flicker of an eyelash that they knew where the Boy had gone.</p>
+
+<p>She was sitting in the deep shadow of a sage-bush that lay on the edge
+of the trail like a great blot, her suit-case beside her, her breath
+coming short with exertion and excitement, when she heard a cheery
+whistle in the distance. Just an old love-song dating back some years
+and discarded now as hackneyed even by the street pianos at home; but
+oh, how good it sounded!</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">From the desert I come to thee!</p>
+
+<p>The ground was cold, and struck a chill through her garments as she sat
+there alone in the night. On came the clear, musical whistle, and she
+peered out of the shadow with eager eyes and frightened heart. Dared she
+risk it again? Should she call, or should she hold her breath and keep
+still, hoping he would pass her by unnoticed? Before she could decide
+two horses stopped almost in front of her and a rider swung himself
+down. He stood before her as if it were day and he could see her quite
+plainly.</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't be afraid," he explained, calmly. "I thought I had better
+look you up after the old man got home and gave his report. He was
+pretty well tanked up and not exactly a fit escort for ladies. What's
+the trouble?"<a class="pagenum" title="18" name="page_18" id="page_18"></a></p>
+
+<p>Like an angel of deliverance he looked to her as he stood in the
+starlight, outlined in silhouette against the wide, wonderful sky: broad
+shoulders, well-set head, close-cropped curls, handsome contour even in
+the darkness. There was about him an air of quiet strength which gave
+her confidence.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you!" she gasped, with a quick little relieved sob in her
+voice. "I am so glad you have come. I was&mdash;just a little&mdash;frightened, I
+think." She attempted to rise, but her foot caught in her skirt and she
+sank wearily back to the sand again.</p>
+
+<p>The Boy stooped over and lifted her to her feet. "You certainly are some
+plucky girl!" he commented, looking down at her slender height as she
+stood beside him. "A 'little frightened,' were you? Well, I should say
+you had a right to be."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, not exactly frightened, you know," said Margaret, taking a deep
+breath and trying to steady her voice. "I think perhaps I was more
+mortified than frightened, to think I made such a blunder as to get off
+the train before I reached my station. You see, I'd made up my mind not
+to be frightened, but when I heard that awful howl of some beast&mdash;And
+then that terrible man!" She shuddered and put her hands suddenly over
+her eyes as if to shut out all memory of it.</p>
+
+<p>"More than one kind of beasts!" commented the Boy, briefly. "Well, you
+needn't worry about him; he's having his supper and he'll be sound
+asleep by the time we get back."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, have we got to go where he is?" gasped Margaret. "Isn't there some
+other place? Is Ashland very far away? That is where I am going."<a class="pagenum" title="19" name="page_19" id="page_19"></a></p>
+
+<p>"No other place where you could go to-night. Ashland's a good
+twenty-five miles from here. But you'll be all right. Mom Wallis 'll
+look out for you. She isn't much of a looker, but she has a kind heart.
+She pulled me through once when I was just about flickering out. Come
+on. You'll be pretty tired. We better be getting back. Mom Wallis 'll
+make you comfortable, and then you can get off good and early in the
+morning."</p>
+
+<p>Without an apology, and as if it were the common courtesy of the desert,
+he stooped and lifted her easily to the saddle of the second horse,
+placed the bridle in her hands, then swung the suit-case up on his own
+horse and sprang into the saddle.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="20" name="page_20" id="page_20"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>He turned the horses about and took charge of her just as if he were
+accustomed to managing stray ladies in the wilderness every day of his
+life and understood the situation perfectly; and Margaret settled
+wearily into her saddle and looked about her with content.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, again, the wide wonder of the night possessed her.
+Involuntarily she breathed a soft little exclamation of awe and delight.
+Her companion turned to her questioningly:</p>
+
+<p>"Does it always seem so big here&mdash;so&mdash;limitless?" she asked in
+explanation. "It is so far to everywhere it takes one's breath away, and
+yet the stars hang close, like a protection. It gives one the feeling of
+being alone in the great universe with God. Does it always seem so out
+here?"</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her curiously, her pure profile turned up to the wide dome
+of luminous blue above. His voice was strangely low and wondering as he
+answered, after a moment's silence:</p>
+
+<p>"No, it is not always so," he said. "I have seen it when it was more
+like being alone in the great universe with the devil."</p>
+
+<p>There was a tremendous earnestness in his tone that the girl felt meant
+more than was on the surface.<a class="pagenum" title="21" name="page_21" id="page_21"></a> She turned to look at the fine young face
+beside her. In the starlight she could not make out the bitter hardness
+of lines that were beginning to be carved about his sensitive mouth. But
+there was so much sadness in his voice that her heart went out to him in
+pity.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she said, gently, "it would be awful that way. Yes, I can
+understand. I felt so, a little, while that terrible man was with me."
+And she shuddered again at the remembrance.</p>
+
+<p>Again he gave her that curious look. "There are worse things than Pop
+Wallis out here," he said, gravely. "But I'll grant you there's some
+class to the skies. It's a case of 'Where every prospect pleases and
+only man is vile.'" And with the words his tone grew almost flippant. It
+hurt her sensitive nature, and without knowing it she half drew away a
+little farther from him and murmured, sadly:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" as if he had classed himself with the "man" he had been
+describing. Instantly he felt her withdrawal and grew grave again, as if
+he would atone.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait till you see this sky at the dawn," he said. "It will burn red
+fire off there in the east like a hearth in a palace, and all this dome
+will glow like a great pink jewel set in gold. If you want a classy sky,
+there you have it! Nothing like it in the East!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a strange mingling of culture and roughness in his speech. The
+girl could not make him out; yet there had been a palpitating
+earnestness in his description that showed he had felt the dawn in his
+very soul.</p>
+
+<p>"You are&mdash;a&mdash;poet, perhaps?" she asked, half shyly. "Or an artist?" she
+hazarded.<a class="pagenum" title="22" name="page_22" id="page_22"></a></p>
+
+<p>He laughed roughly and seemed embarrassed. "No, I'm just a&mdash;bum! A sort
+of roughneck out of a job."</p>
+
+<p>She was silent, watching him against the starlight, a kind of
+embarrassment upon her after his last remark. "You&mdash;have been here
+long?" she asked, at last.</p>
+
+<p>"Three years." He said it almost curtly and turned his head away, as if
+there were something in his face he would hide.</p>
+
+<p>She knew there was something unhappy in his life. Unconsciously her tone
+took on a sympathetic sound. "And do you get homesick and want to go
+back, ever?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>His tone was fairly savage now. "No!"</p>
+
+<p>The silence which followed became almost oppressive before the Boy
+finally turned and in his kindly tone began to question her about the
+happenings which had stranded her in the desert alone at night.</p>
+
+<p>So she came to tell him briefly and frankly about herself, as he
+questioned&mdash;how she came to be in Arizona all alone.</p>
+
+<p>"My father is a minister in a small town in New York State. When I
+finished college I had to do something, and I had an offer of this
+Ashland school through a friend of ours who had a brother out here.
+Father and mother would rather have kept me nearer home, of course, but
+everybody says the best opportunities are in the West, and this was a
+good opening, so they finally consented. They would send post-haste for
+me to come back if they knew what a mess I have made of things right at
+the start&mdash;getting out of the train in the desert."</p>
+
+<p>"But you're not discouraged?" said her companion,<a class="pagenum" title="23" name="page_23" id="page_23"></a> half wonderingly.
+"Some nerve you have with you. I guess you'll manage to hit it off in
+Ashland. It's the limit as far as discipline is concerned, I understand,
+but I guess you'll put one over on them. I'll bank on you after
+to-night, sure thing!"</p>
+
+<p>She turned a laughing face toward him. "Thank you!" she said. "But I
+don't see how you know all that. I'm sure I didn't do anything
+particularly nervy. There wasn't anything else to do but what I did, if
+I'd tried."</p>
+
+<p>"Most girls would have fainted and screamed, and fainted again when they
+were rescued," stated the Boy, out of a vast experience.</p>
+
+<p>"I never fainted in my life," said Margaret Earle, with disdain. "I
+don't think I should care to faint out in the vast universe like this.
+It would be rather inopportune, I should think."</p>
+
+<p>Then, because she suddenly realized that she was growing very chummy
+with this stranger in the dark, she asked the first question that came
+into her head.</p>
+
+<p>"What was your college?"</p>
+
+<p>That he had not been to college never entered her head. There was
+something in his speech and manner that made it a foregone conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>It was as if she had struck him forcibly in his face, so sudden and
+sharp a silence ensued for a second. Then he answered, gruffly, "Yale,"
+and plunged into an elaborate account of Arizona in its early ages,
+including a detailed description of the cliff-dwellers and their homes,
+which were still to be seen high in the rocks of the ca&ntilde;ons not many
+miles to the west of where they were riding.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret was keen to hear it all, and asked many<a class="pagenum" title="24" name="page_24" id="page_24"></a> questions, declaring
+her intention of visiting those cliff-caves at her earliest opportunity.
+It was so wonderful to her to be actually out here where were all sorts
+of queer things about which she had read and wondered. It did not occur
+to her, until the next day, to realize that her companion had of
+intention led her off the topic of himself and kept her from asking any
+more personal questions.</p>
+
+<p>He told her of the petrified forest just over some low hills off to the
+left; acres and acres of agatized chips and trunks of great trees all
+turned to eternal stone, called by the Indians "Yeitso's bones," after
+the great giant of that name whom an ancient Indian hero killed. He
+described the coloring of the brilliant days in Arizona, where you stand
+on the edge of some flat-topped mesa and look off through the clear air
+to mountains that seem quite near by, but are in reality more than two
+hundred miles away. He pictured the strange colors and lights of the
+place; ledges of rock, yellow, white and green, drab and maroon, and
+tumbled piles of red boulders, shadowy buttes in the distance, serrated
+cliffs against the horizon, not blue, but rosy pink in the heated haze
+of the air, and perhaps a great, lonely eagle poised above the silent,
+brilliant waste.</p>
+
+<p>He told it not in book language, with turn of phrase and smoothly
+flowing sentences, but in simple, frank words, as a boy might describe a
+picture to one he knew would appreciate it&mdash;for her sake, and not
+because he loved to put it into words; but in a new, stumbling way
+letting out the beauty that had somehow crept into his heart in spite of
+all the rough attempts to keep all gentle things out of his nature.<a class="pagenum" title="25" name="page_25" id="page_25"></a></p>
+
+<p>The girl, as she listened, marveled more and more what manner of youth
+this might be who had come to her out of the desert night.</p>
+
+<p>She forgot her weariness as she listened, in the thrill of wonder over
+the new mysterious country to which she had come. She forgot that she
+was riding through the great darkness with an utter stranger, to a place
+she knew not, and to experiences most dubious. Her fears had fled and
+she was actually enjoying herself, and responding to the wonderful story
+of the place with soft-murmured exclamations of delight and wonder.</p>
+
+<p>From time to time in the distance there sounded forth those awful
+blood-curdling howls of wild beasts that she had heard when she sat
+alone by the water-tank, and each time she heard a shudder passed
+through her and instinctively she swerved a trifle toward her companion,
+then straightened up again and tried to seem not to notice. The Boy saw
+and watched her brave attempts at self-control with deep appreciation.
+But suddenly, as they rode and talked, a dark form appeared across their
+way a little ahead, lithe and stealthy and furry, and two awful eyes
+like green lamps glared for an instant, then disappeared silently among
+the mesquite bushes.</p>
+
+<p>She did not cry out nor start. Her very veins seemed frozen with horror,
+and she could not have spoken if she tried. It was all over in a second
+and the creature gone, so that she almost doubted her senses and
+wondered if she had seen aright. Then one hand went swiftly to her
+throat and she shrank toward her companion.</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing to fear," he said, reassuringly,<a class="pagenum" title="26" name="page_26" id="page_26"></a> and laid a strong
+hand comfortingly across the neck of her horse. "The pussy-cat was as
+unwilling for our company as we for hers. Besides, look here!"&mdash;and he
+raised his hand and shot into the air. "She'll not come near us now."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not afraid!" said the girl, bravely. "At least, I don't think I
+am&mdash;very! But it's all so new and unexpected, you know. Do people around
+here always shoot in that&mdash;well&mdash;unpremeditated fashion?"</p>
+
+<p>They laughed together.</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me," he said. "I didn't realize the shot might startle you even
+more than the wildcat. It seems I'm not fit to have charge of a lady. I
+told you I was a roughneck."</p>
+
+<p>"You're taking care of me beautifully," said Margaret Earle, loyally,
+"and I'm glad to get used to shots if that's the thing to be expected
+often."</p>
+
+<p>Just then they came to the top of the low, rolling hill, and ahead in
+the darkness there gleamed a tiny, wizened light set in a blotch of
+blackness. Under the great white stars it burned a sickly red and seemed
+out of harmony with the night.</p>
+
+<p>"There we are!" said the Boy, pointing toward it. "That's the
+bunk-house. You needn't be afraid. Pop Wallis 'll be snoring by this
+time, and we'll come away before he's about in the morning. He always
+sleeps late after he's been off on a bout. He's been gone three days,
+selling some cattle, and he'll have a pretty good top on."</p>
+
+<p>The girl caught her breath, gave one wistful look up at the wide, starry
+sky, a furtive glance at the<a class="pagenum" title="27" name="page_27" id="page_27"></a> strong face of her protector, and
+submitted to being lifted down to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Before her loomed the bunk-house, small and mean, built of logs, with
+only one window in which the flicker of the lanterns menaced, with
+unknown trials and possible perils for her to meet.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="28" name="page_28" id="page_28"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>When Margaret Earle dawned upon that bunk-room the men sat up with one
+accord, ran their rough, red hands through their rough, tousled hair,
+smoothed their beards, took down their feet from the benches where they
+were resting. That was as far as their etiquette led them. Most of them
+continued to smoke their pipes, and all of them stared at her
+unreservedly. Such a sight of exquisite feminine beauty had not come to
+their eyes in many a long day. Even in the dim light of the smoky
+lanterns, and with the dust and weariness of travel upon her, Margaret
+Earle was a beautiful girl.</p>
+
+<p>"That's what's the matter, father," said her mother, when the subject of
+Margaret's going West to teach had first been mentioned. "She's too
+beautiful. Far too beautiful to go among savages! If she were homely and
+old, now, she might be safe. That would be a different matter."</p>
+
+<p>Yet Margaret had prevailed, and was here in the wild country. Now,
+standing on the threshold of the log cabin, she read, in the unveiled
+admiration that startled from the eyes of the men, the meaning of her
+mother's fears.</p>
+
+<p>Yet withal it was a kindly admiration not unmixed with awe. For there
+was about her beauty<a class="pagenum" title="29" name="page_29" id="page_29"></a> a touch of the spiritual which set her above the
+common run of women, making men feel her purity and sweetness, and
+inclining their hearts to worship rather than be bold.</p>
+
+<p>The Boy had been right. Pop Wallis was asleep and out of the way. From a
+little shed room at one end his snoring marked time in the silence that
+the advent of the girl made in the place.</p>
+
+<p>In the doorway of the kitchen offset Mom Wallis stood with her
+passionless face&mdash;a face from which all emotions had long ago been
+burned by cruel fires&mdash;and looked at the girl, whose expression was
+vivid with her opening life all haloed in a rosy glow.</p>
+
+<p>A kind of wistful contortion passed over Mom Wallis's hopeless
+countenance, as if she saw before her in all its possibility of
+perfection the life that she herself had lost. Perhaps it was no longer
+possible for her features to show tenderness, but a glow of something
+like it burned in her eyes, though she only turned away with the same
+old apathetic air, and without a word went about preparing a meal for
+the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret looked wildly, fearfully, around the rough assemblage when she
+first entered the long, low room, but instantly the boy introduced her
+as "the new teacher for the Ridge School beyond the Junction," and these
+were Long Bill, Big Jim, the Fiddling Boss, Jasper Kemp, Fade-away
+Forbes, Stocky, Croaker, and Fudge. An inspiration fell upon the
+frightened girl, and she acknowledged the introduction by a radiant
+smile, followed by the offering of her small gloved hand. Each man in
+dumb bewilderment instantly became her slave, and<a class="pagenum" title="30" name="page_30" id="page_30"></a> accepted the offered
+hand with more or less pleasure and embarrassment. The girl proved her
+right to be called tactful, and, seeing her advantage, followed it up
+quickly by a few bright words. These men were of an utterly different
+type from any she had ever met before, but they had in their eyes a kind
+of homage which Pop Wallis had not shown and they were not repulsive to
+her. Besides, the Boy was in the background, and her nerve had returned.
+The Boy knew how a lady should be treated. She was quite ready to "play
+up" to his lead.</p>
+
+<p>It was the Boy who brought the only chair the bunk-house afforded, a
+rude, home-made affair, and helped her off with her coat and hat in his
+easy, friendly way, as if he had known her all his life; while the men,
+to whom such gallant ways were foreign, sat awkwardly by and watched in
+wonder and amaze.</p>
+
+<p>Most of all they were astonished at "the Kid," that he could fall so
+naturally into intimate talk with this delicate, beautiful woman. She
+was another of his kind, a creature not made in the same mold as theirs.
+They saw it now, and watched the fairy play with almost childish
+interest. Just to hear her call him "Mr. Gardley"!&mdash;Lance Gardley, that
+was what he had told them was his name the day he came among them. They
+had not heard it since. The Kid! Mr. Gardley!</p>
+
+<p>There it was, the difference between them! They looked at the girl half
+jealously, yet proudly at the Boy. He was theirs&mdash;yes, in a way he was
+theirs&mdash;had they not found him in the wilderness, sick and nigh to
+death, and nursed him back to life again?<a class="pagenum" title="31" name="page_31" id="page_31"></a> He was theirs; but he knew
+how to drop into her world, too, and not be ashamed. They were glad that
+he could, even while it struck them with a pang that some day he would
+go back to the world to which he belonged&mdash;and where they could never be
+at home.</p>
+
+<p>It was a marvel to watch her eat the coarse corn-bread and pork that Mom
+Wallis brought her. It might have been a banquet, the pleasant way she
+seemed to look at it. Just like a bird she tasted it daintily, and
+smiled, showing her white teeth. There was nothing of the idea of
+greediness that each man knew he himself felt after a fast. It was all
+beautiful, the way she handled the two-tined fork and the old steel
+knife. They watched and dropped their eyes abashed as at a lovely
+sacrament. They had not felt before that eating could be an art. They
+did not know what art meant.</p>
+
+<p>Such strange talk, too! But the Kid seemed to understand. About the
+sky&mdash;their old, common sky, with stars that they saw every night&mdash;making
+such a fuss about that, with words like "wide," "infinite," "azure," and
+"gems." Each man went furtively out that night before he slept and took
+a new look at the sky to see if he could understand.</p>
+
+<p>The Boy was planning so the night would be but brief. He knew the girl
+was afraid. He kept the talk going enthusiastically, drawing in one or
+two of the men now and again. Long Bill forgot himself and laughed out a
+hoarse guffaw, then stopped as if he had been choked. Stocky, red in the
+face, told a funny story when commanded by the Boy, and then dissolved
+in mortification over his blunders.<a class="pagenum" title="32" name="page_32" id="page_32"></a> The Fiddling Boss obediently got
+down his fiddle from the smoky corner beside the fireplace and played a
+weird old tune or two, and then they sang. First the men, with hoarse,
+quavering approach and final roar of wild sweetness; then Margaret and
+the Boy in duet, and finally Margaret alone, with a few bashful chords
+on the fiddle, feeling their way as accompaniment.</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis had long ago stopped her work and was sitting huddled in the
+doorway on a nail-keg with weary, folded hands and a strange wistfulness
+on her apathetic face. A fine silence had settled over the group as the
+girl, recognizing her power, and the pleasure she was giving, sang on.
+Now and then the Boy, when he knew the song, would join in with his rich
+tenor.</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange night, and when she finally lay down to rest on a hard
+cot with a questionable-looking blanket for covering and Mom Wallis as
+her room-mate, Margaret Earle could not help wondering what her mother
+and father would think now if they could see her. Would they not,
+perhaps, almost prefer the water-tank and the lonely desert for her to
+her present surroundings?</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, she slept soundly after her terrible excitement, and woke
+with a start of wonder in the early morning, to hear the men outside
+splashing water and humming or whistling bits of the tunes she had sung
+to them the night before.</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis was standing over her, looking down with a hunger in her eyes
+at the bright waves of Margaret's hair and the soft, sleep-flushed
+cheeks.<a class="pagenum" title="33" name="page_33" id="page_33"></a></p>
+
+<p>"You got dretful purty hair," said Mom Wallis, wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret looked up and smiled in acknowledgment of the compliment.</p>
+
+<p>"You wouldn't b'lieve it, but I was young an' purty oncet. Beats all how
+much it counts to be young&mdash;an' purty! But land! It don't last long.
+Make the most of it while you got it."</p>
+
+<p>Browning's immortal words came to Margaret's lips&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">Grow old along with me,<br />
+The best is yet to be,<br />
+The last of life for which the first was made&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>but she checked them just in time and could only smile mutely. How could
+she speak such thoughts amid these intolerable surroundings? Then with
+sudden impulse she reached up to the astonished woman and, drawing her
+down, kissed her sallow cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said Mom Wallis, starting back and laying her bony hands upon the
+place where she had been kissed, as if it hurt her, while a dull red
+stole up from her neck over her cheeks and high forehead to the roots of
+her hay-colored hair. All at once she turned her back upon her visitor
+and the tears of the years streamed down her impassive face.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't mind me," she choked, after a minute. "I liked it real good, only
+it kind of give me a turn." Then, after a second: "It's time t' eat. You
+c'n wash outside after the men is done."</p>
+
+<p>That, thought Margaret, had been the scheme of this woman's whole
+life&mdash;"After the men is done!"<a class="pagenum" title="34" name="page_34" id="page_34"></a></p>
+
+<p>So, after all, the night was passed in safety, and a wonderful dawning
+had come. The blue of the morning, so different from the blue of the
+night sky, was, nevertheless, just as unfathomable; the air seemed
+filled with straying star-beams, so sparkling was the clearness of the
+light.</p>
+
+<p>But now a mountain rose in the distance with heliotrope-and-purple
+bounds to stand across the vision and dispel the illusion of the night
+that the sky came down to the earth all around like a close-fitting
+dome. There were mountains on all sides, and a slender, dark line of
+mesquite set off the more delicate colorings of the plain.</p>
+
+<p>Into the morning they rode, Margaret and the Boy, before Pop Wallis was
+yet awake, while all the other men stood round and watched, eager,
+jealous for the handshake and the parting smile. They told her they
+hoped she would come again and sing for them, and each one had an
+awkward word of parting. Whatever Margaret Earle might do with her
+school, she had won seven loyal friends in the camp, and she rode away
+amid their admiring glances, which lingered, too, on the broad shoulders
+and wide sombrero of her escort riding by her side.</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, that's the end o' him, I 'spose," drawled Long Bill, with a deep
+sigh, as the riders passed into the valley out of their sight.</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" said Jasper Kemp, hungrily. "I reck'n <i>he</i> thinks it's jes' th'
+beginnin'!"</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe so! Maybe so!" said Big Jim, dreamily.</p>
+
+<p>The morning was full of wonder for the girl who had come straight from
+an Eastern city. The view from the top of the mesa, or the cool, dim
+entrance<a class="pagenum" title="35" name="page_35" id="page_35"></a> of a ca&ntilde;on where great ferns fringed and feathered its walls,
+and strange caves hollowed out in the rocks far above, made real the
+stories she had read of the cave-dwellers. It was a new world.</p>
+
+<p>The Boy was charming. She could not have picked out among her city
+acquaintances a man who would have done the honors of the desert more
+delightfully than he. She had thought him handsome in the starlight and
+in the lantern-light the night before, but now that the morning shone
+upon him she could not keep from looking at him. His fresh color, which
+no wind and weather could quite subdue, his gray-blue eyes with that
+mixture of thoughtfulness and reverence and daring, his crisp, brown
+curls glinting with gold in the sunlight&mdash;all made him good to look
+upon. There was something about the firm set of his lips and chin that
+made her feel a hidden strength about him.</p>
+
+<p>When they camped a little while for lunch he showed the thoughtfulness
+and care for her comfort that many an older man might not have had. Even
+his talk was a mixture of boyishness and experience and he seemed to
+know her thoughts before she had them fully spoken.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand it," she said, looking him frankly in the eyes at
+last. "How ever in the world did one like <i>you</i> get landed among all
+those dreadful men! Of course, in their way, some of them are not so
+bad; but they are not like you, not in the least, and never could be."</p>
+
+<p>They were riding out upon the plain now in the full afternoon light, and
+a short time would bring them to her destination.<a class="pagenum" title="36" name="page_36" id="page_36"></a></p>
+
+<p>A sad, set look came quickly into the Boy's eyes and his face grew
+almost hard.</p>
+
+<p>"It's an old story. I suppose you've heard it before," he said, and his
+voice tried to take on a careless note, but failed. "I didn't make good
+back there"&mdash;he waved his hand sharply toward the East&mdash;"so I came out
+here to begin again. But I guess I haven't made good here, either&mdash;not
+in the way I meant when I came."</p>
+
+<p>"You can't, you know," said Margaret. "Not here."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" He looked at her earnestly, as if he felt the answer might help
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Because you have to go back where you didn't make good and pick up the
+lost opportunities. You can't really make good till you do that <i>right
+where you left off</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"But suppose it's too late?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's never too late if we're in earnest and not too proud."</p>
+
+<p>There was a long silence then, while the Boy looked thoughtfully off at
+the mountains, and when he spoke again it was to call attention to the
+beauty of a silver cloud that floated lazily on the horizon. But
+Margaret Earle had seen the look in his gray eyes and was not deceived.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes later they crossed another mesa and descended to the
+enterprising little town where the girl was to begin her winter's work.
+The very houses and streets seemed to rise briskly and hasten to meet
+them those last few minutes of their ride.</p>
+
+<p>Now that the experience was almost over, the girl realized that she had
+enjoyed it intensely, and<a class="pagenum" title="37" name="page_37" id="page_37"></a> that she dreaded inexpressibly that she must
+bid good-by to this friend of a few hours and face an unknown world. It
+had been a wonderful day, and now it was almost done. The two looked at
+each other and realized that their meeting had been an epoch in their
+lives that neither would soon forget&mdash;that neither wanted to forget.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="38" name="page_38" id="page_38"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Slower the horses walked, and slower. The voices of the Boy and girl
+were low when they spoke about the common things by the wayside. Once
+their eyes met, and they smiled with something both sad and glad in
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret was watching the young man by her side and wondering at
+herself. He was different from any man whose life had come near to hers
+before. He was wild and worldly, she could see that, and unrestrained by
+many of the things that were vital principles with her, and yet she felt
+strangely drawn to him and wonderfully at home in his company. She could
+not understand herself nor him. It was as if his real soul had looked
+out of his eyes and spoken, untrammeled by the circumstances of birth or
+breeding or habit, and she knew him for a kindred spirit. And yet he was
+far from being one in whom she would have expected even to find a
+friend. Where was her confidence of yesterday? Why was it that she
+dreaded to have this strong young protector leave her to meet alone a
+world of strangers, whom yesterday at this time she would have gladly
+welcomed?</p>
+
+<p>Now, when his face grew thoughtful and sad, she saw the hard, bitter
+lines that were beginning to be<a class="pagenum" title="39" name="page_39" id="page_39"></a> graven about his lips, and her heart
+ached over what he had said about not making good. She wondered if there
+was anything else she could say to help him, but no words came to her,
+and the sad, set look about his lips warned her that perhaps she had
+said enough. He was not one who needed a long dissertation to bring a
+thought home to his consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>Gravely they rode to the station to see about Margaret's trunks and make
+inquiries for the school and the house where she had arranged to board.
+Then Margaret sent a telegram to her mother to say that she had arrived
+safely, and so, when all was done and there was no longer an excuse for
+lingering, the Boy realized that he must leave her.</p>
+
+<p>They stood alone for just a moment while the voluble landlady went to
+attend to something that was boiling over on the stove. It was an ugly
+little parlor that was to be her reception-room for the next year at
+least, with red-and-green ingrain carpet of ancient pattern, hideous
+chromos on the walls, and frantically common furniture setting up in its
+shining varnish to be pretentious; but the girl had not seen it yet. She
+was filled with a great homesickness that had not possessed her even
+when she said good-by to her dear ones at home. She suddenly realized
+that the people with whom she was to be thrown were of another world
+from hers, and this one friend whom she had found in the desert was
+leaving her.</p>
+
+<p>She tried to shake hands formally and tell him how grateful she was to
+him for rescuing her from the perils of the night, but somehow words
+seemed so<a class="pagenum" title="40" name="page_40" id="page_40"></a> inadequate, and tears kept crowding their way into her throat
+and eyes. Absurd it was, and he a stranger twenty hours before, and a
+man of other ways than hers, besides. Yet he was her friend and rescuer.</p>
+
+<p>She spoke her thanks as well as she could, and then looked up, a swift,
+timid glance, and found his eyes upon her earnestly and troubled.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't thank me," he said, huskily. "I guess it was the best thing I
+ever did, finding you. I sha'n't forget, even if you never let me see
+you again&mdash;and&mdash;I hope you will." His eyes searched hers wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," she said. "Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you," he said in quaint, courtly fashion, bending low over her
+hand. "I shall try to be worthy of the honor."</p>
+
+<p>And so saying, he left her and, mounting his horse, rode away into the
+lengthening shadows of the afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>She stood in the forlorn little room staring out of the window after her
+late companion, a sense of utter desolation upon her. For the moment all
+her brave hopes of the future had fled, and if she could have slipped
+unobserved out of the front door, down to the station, and boarded some
+waiting express to her home, she would gladly have done it then and
+there.</p>
+
+<p>Try as she would to summon her former reasons for coming to this wild,
+she could not think of one of them, and her eyes were very near to
+tears.</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret Earle was not given to tears, and as she felt them smart
+beneath her lids she turned<a class="pagenum" title="41" name="page_41" id="page_41"></a> in a panic to prevent them. She could not
+afford to cry now. Mrs. Tanner would be returning, and she must not find
+the "new schoolma'am" weeping.</p>
+
+<p>With a glance she swept the meager, pretentious room, and then,
+suddenly, became aware of other presences. In the doorway stood a man
+and a dog, both regarding her intently with open surprise, not unmixed
+with open appraisement and a marked degree of admiration.</p>
+
+<p>The man was of medium height, slight, with a putty complexion; cold,
+pale-blue eyes; pale, straw-colored hair, and a look of self-indulgence
+around his rather weak mouth. He was dressed in a city business suit of
+the latest cut, however, and looked as much out of place in that crude
+little house as did Margaret Earle herself in her simple gown of
+dark-blue cr&ecirc;pe and her undeniable air of style and good taste.</p>
+
+<p>His eyes, as they regarded her, had in them a smile that the girl
+instinctively resented. Was it a shade too possessive and complacently
+sure for a stranger?</p>
+
+<p>The dog, a large collie, had great, liquid, brown eyes, menacing or
+loyal, as circumstances dictated, and regarded her with an air of brief
+indecision. She felt she was being weighed in the balance by both pairs
+of eyes. Of the two the girl preferred the dog.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the dog understood, for he came a pace nearer and waved his
+plumy tail tentatively. For the dog she felt a glow of friendliness at
+once, but for the man she suddenly, and most unreasonably, of course,
+conceived one of her violent and unexpected dislikes.<a class="pagenum" title="42" name="page_42" id="page_42"></a></p>
+
+<p>Into this tableau bustled Mrs. Tanner. "Well, now, I didn't go to leave
+you by your lonesome all this time," she apologized, wiping her hands on
+her apron, "but them beans boiled clean over, and I hed to put 'em in a
+bigger kettle. You see, I put in more beans 'count o' you bein' here,
+an' I ain't uset to calca'latin' on two extry." She looked happily from
+the man to the girl and back again.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. West, I 'spose, o' course, you interjuced yerself? Bein' a
+preacher, you don't hev to stan' on ceremony like the rest of mankind.
+You 'ain't? Well, let me hev the pleasure of interjucin' our new
+school-teacher, Miss Margaret Earle. I 'spect you two 'll be awful
+chummy right at the start, both bein' from the East that way, an' both
+hevin' ben to college."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret Earle acknowledged the bow with a cool little inclination of
+her head. She wondered why she didn't hate the garrulous woman who
+rattled on in this happy, take-it-for-granted way; but there was
+something so innocently pleased in her manner that she couldn't help
+putting all her wrath on the smiling man who came forward instantly with
+a low bow and a voice of fulsome flattery.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, Miss Earle, I assure you I am happily surprised. I am sure Mrs.
+Tanner's prophecy will come true and we shall be the best of friends.
+When they told me the new teacher was to board here I really hesitated.
+I have seen something of these Western teachers in my time, and scarcely
+thought I should find you congenial; but I can see at a glance that you
+are the exception to the rule."<a class="pagenum" title="43" name="page_43" id="page_43"></a></p>
+
+<p>He presented a soft, unmanly white hand, and there was nothing to do but
+take it or seem rude to her hostess; but her manner was like icicles,
+and she was thankful she had not yet removed her gloves.</p>
+
+<p>If the reverend gentleman thought he was to enjoy a lingering hand-clasp
+he was mistaken, for the gloved finger-tips merely touched his hand and
+were withdrawn, and the girl turned to her hostess with a smile of
+finality as if he were dismissed. He did not seem disposed to take the
+hint and withdraw, however, until on a sudden the great dog came and
+stood between them with open-mouthed welcome and joyous greeting in the
+plumy, wagging tail. He pushed close to her and looked up into her face
+insistently, his hanging pink tongue and wide, smiling countenance
+proclaiming that he was satisfied with his investigation.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret looked down at him, and then stooped and put her arms about his
+neck. Something in his kindly dog expression made her feel suddenly as
+if she had a real friend.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed the man, however, did not like the situation. He kicked
+gingerly at the dog's hind legs, and said in a harsh voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Get out of the way, sir. You're annoying the lady. Get out, I say!"</p>
+
+<p>The dog, however, uttered a low growl and merely showed the whites of
+his menacing eyes at the man, turning his body slightly so that he stood
+across the lady's way protectingly, as if to keep the man from her.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret smiled at the dog and laid her hand on<a class="pagenum" title="44" name="page_44" id="page_44"></a> his head, as if to
+signify her acceptance of the friendship he had offered her, and he
+waved his plume once more and attended her from the room, neither of
+them giving further attention to the man.</p>
+
+<p>"Confound that dog!" said Rev. Frederick West, in a most unpreacher-like
+tone, as he walked to the window and looked out. Then to himself he
+mused: "A pretty girl. A <i>very pretty</i> girl. I really think it'll be
+worth my while to stay a month at least."</p>
+
+<p>Up in her room the "very pretty girl" was unpacking her suit-case and
+struggling with the tears. Not since she was a wee little girl and went
+to school all alone for the first time had she felt so very forlorn, and
+it was the little bare bedroom that had done it. At least that had been
+the final straw that had made too great the burden of keeping down those
+threatening tears.</p>
+
+<p>It was only a bare, plain room with unfinished walls, rough woodwork, a
+cheap wooden bed, a bureau with a warped looking-glass, and on the floor
+was a braided rug of rags. A little wooden rocker, another small,
+straight wooden chair, a hanging wall-pocket decorated with purple
+roses, a hanging bookshelf composed of three thin boards strung together
+with maroon picture cord, a violently colored picture-card of "Moses in
+the Bulrushes" framed in straws and red worsted, and bright-blue paper
+shades at the windows. That was the room!</p>
+
+<p>How different from her room at home, simply and sweetly finished anew
+for her home-coming from college! It rose before her homesick vision
+now. Soft gray walls, rose-colored ceiling, blended by a wreath of
+exquisite wild roses, whose pattern was<a class="pagenum" title="45" name="page_45" id="page_45"></a> repeated in the border of the
+simple curtains and chair cushions, white-enamel furniture, pretty brass
+bed soft as down in its luxurious mattress, spotless and inviting
+always. She glanced at the humpy bed with its fringed gray spread and
+lumpy-looking pillows in dismay. She had not thought of little
+discomforts like that, yet how they loomed upon her weary vision now!</p>
+
+<p>The tiny wooden stand with its thick, white crockery seemed ill
+substitute for the dainty white bath-room at home. She had known she
+would not have her home luxuries, of course, but she had not realized
+until set down amid these barren surroundings what a difference they
+would make.</p>
+
+<p>Going to the window and looking out, she saw for the first tune the one
+luxury the little room possessed&mdash;a view! And such a view! Wide and
+wonderful and far it stretched, in colors unmatched by painter's brush,
+a purple mountain topped by rosy clouds in the distance. For the second
+time in Arizona her soul was lifted suddenly out of itself and its
+dismay by a vision of the things that God has made and the largeness of
+it all.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="46" name="page_46" id="page_46"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>For some time she stood and gazed, marveling at the beauty and recalling
+some of the things her companion of the afternoon had said about his
+impressions of the place; then suddenly there loomed a dark speck in the
+near foreground of her meditation, and, looking down annoyed, she
+discovered the minister like a gnat between the eye and a grand
+spectacle, his face turned admiringly up to her window, his hand lifted
+in familiar greeting.</p>
+
+<p>Vexed at his familiarity, she turned quickly and jerked down the shade;
+then throwing herself on the bed, she had a good cry. Her nerves were
+terribly wrought up. Things seemed twisted in her mind, and she felt
+that she had reached the limit of her endurance. Here was she, Margaret
+Earle, newly elected teacher to the Ashland Ridge School, lying on her
+bed in tears, when she ought to be getting settled and planning her new
+life; when the situation demanded her best attention she was wrought up
+over a foolish little personal dislike. Why did she have to dislike a
+minister, anyway, and then take to a wild young fellow whose life thus
+far had been anything but satisfactory even to himself? Was it her
+perverse nature that caused<a class="pagenum" title="47" name="page_47" id="page_47"></a> her to remember the look in the eyes of the
+Boy who had rescued her from a night in the wilderness, and to feel
+there was far more manliness in his face than in the face of the man
+whose profession surely would lead one to suppose he was more worthy of
+her respect and interest? Well, she was tired. Perhaps things would
+assume their normal relation to one another in the morning. And so,
+after a few minutes, she bathed her face in the little, heavy,
+iron-stone wash-bowl, combed her hair, and freshened the collar and
+ruffles in her sleeves preparatory to going down for the evening meal.
+Then, with a swift thought, she searched through her suit-case for every
+available article wherewith to brighten that forlorn room.</p>
+
+<p>The dainty dressing-case of Dresden silk with rosy ribbons that her girl
+friends at home had given as a parting gift covered a generous portion
+of the pine bureau, and when she had spread it out and bestowed its
+silver-mounted brushes, combs, hand-glass, and pretty sachet, things
+seemed to brighten up a bit. She hung up a cobweb of a lace boudoir cap
+with its rose-colored ribbons over the bleary mirror, threw her kimono
+of flowered challis over the back of the rocker, arranged her soap and
+toothbrush, her own wash-rag and a towel brought from home on the
+wash-stand, and somehow felt better and more as if she belonged. Last
+she ranged her precious photographs of father and mother and the dear
+vine-covered church and manse across in front of the mirror. When her
+trunks came there would be other things, and she could bear it, perhaps,
+when she had this room buried deep in the home<a class="pagenum" title="48" name="page_48" id="page_48"></a> belongings. But this
+would have to do for to-night, for the trunk might not come till
+morning, and, anyhow, she was too weary to unpack.</p>
+
+<p>She ventured one more look out of her window, peering carefully at first
+to make sure her fellow-boarder was not still standing down below on the
+grass. A pang of compunction shot through her conscience. What would her
+dear father think of her feeling this way toward a minister, and before
+she knew the first thing about him, too? It was dreadful! She must shake
+it off. Of course he was a good man or he wouldn't be in the ministry,
+and she had doubtless mistaken mere friendliness for forwardness. She
+would forget it and try to go down and behave to him the way her father
+would want her to behave toward a fellow-minister.</p>
+
+<p>Cautiously she raised the shade again and looked out. The mountain was
+bathed in a wonderful ruby light fading into amethyst, and all the path
+between was many-colored like a pavement of jewels set in filigree.
+While she looked the picture changed, glowed, softened, and changed
+again, making her think of the chapter about the Holy City in
+Revelation.</p>
+
+<p>She started at last when some one knocked hesitatingly on the door, for
+the wonderful sunset light had made her forget for the moment where she
+was, and it seemed a desecration to have mere mortals step in and
+announce supper, although the odor of pork and cabbage had been
+proclaiming it dumbly for some time.</p>
+
+<p>She went to the door, and, opening it, found a dark figure standing in
+the hall. For a minute she<a class="pagenum" title="49" name="page_49" id="page_49"></a> half feared it was the minister, until a
+shy, reluctant backwardness in the whole stocky figure and the stirring
+of a large furry creature just behind him made her sure it was not.</p>
+
+<p>"Ma says you're to come to supper," said a gruff, untamed voice; and
+Margaret perceived that the person in the gathering gloom of the hall
+was a boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said Margaret, with relief in her voice. "Thank you for coming to
+tell me. I meant to come down and not give that trouble, but I got to
+looking at the wonderful sunset. Have you been watching it?" She pointed
+across the room to the window. "Look! Isn't that a great color there on
+the tip of the mountain? I never saw anything like that at home. I
+suppose you're used to it, though."</p>
+
+<p>The boy came a step nearer the door and looked blankly, half
+wonderingly, across at the window, as if he expected to see some
+phenomenon. "Oh! <i>That!</i>" he exclaimed, carelessly. "Sure! We have them
+all the time."</p>
+
+<p>"But that wonderful silver light pouring down just in that one tiny
+spot!" exclaimed Margaret. "It makes the mountain seem alive and
+smiling!"</p>
+
+<p>The boy turned and looked at her curiously. "Gee!" said he, "I c'n show
+you plenty like that!" But he turned and looked at it a long, lingering
+minute again.</p>
+
+<p>"But we mustn't keep your mother waiting," said Margaret, remembering
+and turning reluctantly toward the door. "Is this your dog? Isn't he a
+beauty? He made me feel really as if he were glad to see me." She
+stooped and laid her hand on the dog's head and smiled brightly up at
+his master.<a class="pagenum" title="50" name="page_50" id="page_50"></a></p>
+
+<p>The boy's face lit with a smile, and he turned a keen, appreciative look
+at the new teacher, for the first time genuinely interested in her.
+"Cap's a good old scout," he admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"So his name is Cap. Is that short for anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"Cap'n."</p>
+
+<p>"Captain. What a good name for him. He looks as if he were a captain,
+and he waves that tail grandly, almost as if it might be a badge of
+office. But who are you? You haven't told me your name yet. Are you Mrs.
+Tanner's son?"</p>
+
+<p>The boy nodded. "I'm just Bud Tanner."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are one of my pupils, aren't you? We must shake hands on
+that." She put out her hand, but she was forced to go out after Bud's
+reluctant red fist, take it by force in a strange grasp, and do all the
+shaking; for Bud had never had that experience before in his life, and
+he emerged from it with a very red face and a feeling as if his right
+arm had been somehow lifted out of the same class with the rest of his
+body. It was rather awful, too, that it happened just in the open
+dining-room door, and that "preacher-boarder" watched the whole
+performance. Bud put on an extra-deep frown and shuffled away from the
+teacher, making a great show of putting Cap out of the dining-room,
+though he always sat behind his master's chair at meals, much to the
+discomfiture of the male boarder, who was slightly in awe of his
+dogship, not having been admitted into friendship as the lady had been.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. West stood back of his chair, awaiting the arrival of the new
+boarder, an expectant smile on<a class="pagenum" title="51" name="page_51" id="page_51"></a> his face, and rubbing his hands together
+with much the same effect as a wolf licking his lips in anticipation of
+a victim. In spite of her resolves to like the man, Margaret was again
+struck with aversion as she saw him standing there, and was intensely
+relieved when she found that the seat assigned to her was on the
+opposite side of the table from him, and beside Bud. West, however, did
+not seem to be pleased with the arrangement, and, stepping around the
+table, said to his landlady:</p>
+
+<p>"Did you mean me to sit over here?" and he placed a possessive hand on
+the back of the chair that was meant for Bud.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mister West, you jest set where you ben settin'," responded Mrs.
+Tanner. She had thought the matter all out and decided that the minister
+could converse with the teacher to the better advantage of the whole
+table if he sat across from her. Mrs. Tanner was a born match-maker.
+This she felt was an opportunity not to be despised, even if it sometime
+robbed the Ridge School of a desirable teacher.</p>
+
+<p>But West did not immediately return to his place at the other side of
+the table. To Margaret's extreme annoyance he drew her chair and waited
+for her to sit down. The situation, however, was somewhat relieved of
+its intimacy by a sudden interference from Cap, who darted away from his
+frowning master and stepped up authoritatively to the minister's side
+with a low growl, as if to say:</p>
+
+<p>"Hands off that chair! That doesn't belong to you!"</p>
+
+<p>West suddenly released his hold on the chair without<a class="pagenum" title="52" name="page_52" id="page_52"></a> waiting to shove
+it up to the table, and precipitately retired to his own place. "That
+dog's a nuisance!" he said, testily, and was answered with a glare from
+Bud's dark eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Bud came to his seat with his eyes still set savagely on the minister,
+and Cap settled down protectingly behind Margaret's chair.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner bustled in with the coffee-pot, and Mr. Tanner came last,
+having just finished his rather elaborate hair-comb at the kitchen glass
+with the kitchen comb, in full view of the assembled multitude. He was a
+little, thin, wiry, weather-beaten man, with skin like leather and
+sparse hair. Some of his teeth were missing, leaving deep hollows in his
+cheeks, and his kindly protruding chin was covered with scraggy gray
+whiskers, which stuck out ahead of him like a cow-catcher. He was in his
+shirt-sleeves and collarless, but looked neat and clean, and he greeted
+the new guest heartily before he sat down, and nodded to the minister:</p>
+
+<p>"Naow, Brother West, I reckon we're ready fer your part o' the
+performance. You'll please to say grace."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. West bowed his sleek, yellow head and muttered a formal blessing
+with an offhand manner, as if it were a mere ceremony. Bud stared
+contemptuously at him the while, and Cap uttered a low rumble as of a
+distant growl. Margaret felt a sudden desire to laugh, and tried to
+control herself, wondering what her father would feel about it all.</p>
+
+<p>The genial clatter of knives and forks broke the stiffness after the
+blessing. Mrs. Tanner bustled back and forth from the stove to the
+table, talking<a class="pagenum" title="53" name="page_53" id="page_53"></a> clamorously the while. Mr. Tanner joined in with his
+flat, nasal twang, responding, and the minister, with an air of utter
+contempt for them both, endeavored to set up a separate and altogether
+private conversation with Margaret across the narrow table; but Margaret
+innocently had begun a conversation with Bud about the school, and had
+to be addressed by name each time before Mr. West could get her
+attention. Bud, with a boy's keenness, noticed her aversion, and put
+aside his own backwardness, entering into the contest with remarkably
+voluble replies. The minister, if he would be in the talk at all, was
+forced to join in with theirs, and found himself worsted and
+contradicted by the boy at every turn.</p>
+
+<p>Strange to say, however, this state of things only served to make the
+man more eager to talk with the lady. She was not anxious for his
+attention. Ah! She was coy, and the acquaintance was to have the zest of
+being no lightly won friendship. All the better. He watched her as she
+talked, noted every charm of lash and lid and curving lip; stared so
+continually that she finally gave up looking his way at all, even when
+she was obliged to answer his questions.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, at last, the first meal in the new home was concluded, and
+Margaret, pleading excessive weariness, went to her room. She felt as if
+she could not endure another half-hour of contact with her present world
+until she had had some rest. If the world had been just Bud and the dog
+she could have stayed below stairs and found out a little more about the
+new life; but with that oily-mouthed<a class="pagenum" title="54" name="page_54" id="page_54"></a> minister continually butting in
+her soul was in a tumult.</p>
+
+<p>When she had prepared for rest she put out her light and drew up the
+shade. There before her spread the wide wonder of the heavens again,
+with the soft purple of the mountain under stars; and she was carried
+back to the experience of the night before with a vivid memory of her
+companion. Why, just <i>why</i> couldn't she be as interested in the minister
+down there as in the wild young man? Well, she was too tired to-night to
+analyze it all, and she knelt beside her window in the starlight to
+pray. As she prayed her thoughts were on Lance Gardley once more, and
+she felt her heart go out in longing for him, that he might find a way
+to "make good," whatever his trouble had been.</p>
+
+<p>As she rose to retire she heard a step below, and, looking down, saw the
+minister stalking back and forth in the yard, his hands clasped behind,
+his head thrown back raptly. He could not see her in her dark room, but
+she pulled the shade down softly and fled to her hard little bed. Was
+that man going to obsess her vision everywhere, and must she try to like
+him just because he was a minister?</p>
+
+<p>So at last she fell asleep.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="55" name="page_55" id="page_55"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The next day was filled with unpacking and with writing letters home. By
+dint of being very busy Margaret managed to forget the minister, who
+seemed to obtrude himself at every possible turn of the day, and would
+have monopolized her if she had given him half a chance.</p>
+
+<p>The trunks, two delightful steamer ones, and a big packing-box with her
+books, arrived the next morning and caused great excitement in the
+household. Not since they moved into the new house had they seen so many
+things arrive. Bud helped carry them up-stairs, while Cap ran wildly
+back and forth, giving sharp barks, and the minister stood by the front
+door and gave ineffectual and unpractical advice to the man who had
+brought them. Margaret heard the man and Bud exchanging their opinion of
+West in low growls in the hall as they entered her door, and she
+couldn't help feeling that she agreed with them, though she might not
+have expressed her opinion in the same terms.</p>
+
+<p>The minister tapped at her door a little later and offered his services
+in opening her box and unstrapping her trunks; but she told him Bud had
+already performed that service for her, and thanked him with a finality
+that forbade him to linger. She half<a class="pagenum" title="56" name="page_56" id="page_56"></a> hoped he heard the vicious little
+click with which she locked the door after him, and then wondered if she
+were wicked to feel that way. But all such compunctions were presently
+forgotten in the work of making over her room.</p>
+
+<p>The trunks, after they were unpacked and repacked with the things she
+would not need at once, were disposed in front of the two windows with
+which the ugly little room was blessed. She covered them with two Bagdad
+rugs, relics of her college days, and piled several college pillows from
+the packing-box on each, which made the room instantly assume a homelike
+air. Then out of the box came other things. Framed pictures of home
+scenes, college friends and places, pennants, and flags from football,
+baseball, and basket-ball games she had attended; photographs; a few
+prints of rare paintings simply framed; a roll of rose-bordered white
+scrim like her curtains at home, wherewith she transformed the
+blue-shaded windows and the stiff little wooden rocker, and even made a
+valance and bed-cover over pink cambric for her bed. The bureau and
+wash-stand were given pink and white covers, and the ugly walls
+literally disappeared beneath pictures, pennants, banners, and symbols.</p>
+
+<p>When Bud came up to call her to dinner she flung the door open, and he
+paused in wide-eyed amazement over the transformation. His eyes kindled
+at a pair of golf-sticks, a hockey-stick, a tennis-racket, and a big
+basket-ball in the corner; and his whole look of surprise was so
+ridiculous that she had to laugh. He looked as if a miracle had been
+performed on the room, and actually stepped back into<a class="pagenum" title="57" name="page_57" id="page_57"></a> the hall to get
+his breath and be sure he was still in his father's house.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to come in and see all my pictures and get acquainted with
+my friends when you have time," she said. "I wonder if you could make
+some more shelves for my books and help me unpack and set them up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!" gasped Bud, heartily, albeit with awe. She hadn't asked the
+minister; she had asked <i>him</i>&mdash;<i>Bud!</i> Just a boy! He looked around the
+room with anticipation. What wonder and delight he would have looking at
+all those things!</p>
+
+<p>Then Cap stepped into the middle of the room as if he belonged, mouth
+open, tongue lolling, smiling and panting a hearty approval, as he
+looked about at the strangeness for all the world as a human being might
+have done. It was plain he was pleased with the change.</p>
+
+<p>There was a proprietary air about Bud during dinner that was pleasant to
+Margaret and most annoying to West. It was plain that West looked on the
+boy as an upstart whom Miss Earle was using for the present to block his
+approach, and he was growing most impatient over the delay. He suggested
+that perhaps she would like his escort to see something of her
+surroundings that afternoon; but she smilingly told him that she would
+be very busy all the afternoon getting settled, and when he offered
+again to help her she cast a dazzling smile on Bud and said she didn't
+think she would need any more help, that Bud was going to do a few
+things for her, and that was all that was necessary.<a class="pagenum" title="58" name="page_58" id="page_58"></a></p>
+
+<p>Bud straightened up and became two inches taller. He passed the bread,
+suggested two pieces of pie, and filled her glass of water as if she
+were his partner. Mr. Tanner beamed to see his son in high favor, but
+Mrs. Tanner looked a little troubled for the minister. She thought
+things weren't just progressing as fast as they ought to between him and
+the teacher.</p>
+
+<p>Bud, with Margaret's instructions, managed to make a very creditable
+bookcase out of the packing-box sawed in half, the pieces set side by
+side. She covered them deftly with green burlap left over from college
+days, like her other supplies, and then the two arranged the books. Bud
+was delighted over the prospect of reading some of the books, for they
+were not all school-books, by any means, and she had brought plenty of
+them to keep her from being lonesome on days when she longed to fly back
+to her home.</p>
+
+<p>At last the work was done, and they stood back to survey it. The books
+filled up every speck of space and overflowed to the three little
+hanging shelves over them; but they were all squeezed in at last except
+a pile of school-books that were saved out to take to the school-house.
+Margaret set a tiny vase on the top of one part of the packing-case and
+a small brass bowl on the top of the other, and Bud, after a knowing
+glance, scurried away for a few minutes and brought back a handful of
+gorgeous cactus blossoms to give the final touch.</p>
+
+<p>"Gee!" he said, admiringly, looking around the room. "Gee! You wouldn't
+know it fer the same place!"<a class="pagenum" title="59" name="page_59" id="page_59"></a></p>
+
+<p>That evening after supper Margaret sat down to write a long letter home.
+She had written a brief letter, of course, the night before, but had
+been too weary to go into detail. The letter read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mother and Father</span>,&mdash;I'm unpacked and settled at last in my
+room, and now I can't stand it another minute till I talk to you.</p>
+
+<p>Last night, of course, I was pretty homesick, things all looked so
+strange and new and different. I had known they would, but then I
+didn't realize at all how different they would be. But I'm not
+getting homesick already; don't think it. I'm not a bit sorry I
+came, or at least I sha'n't be when I get started in school. One of
+the scholars is Mrs. Tanner's son, and I like him. He's crude, of
+course, but he has a brain, and he's been helping me this
+afternoon. We made a bookcase for my books, and it looks fine. I
+wish you could see it. I covered it with the green burlap, and the
+books look real happy in smiling rows over on the other side of the
+room. Bud Tanner got me some wonderful cactus blossoms for my brass
+bowl. I wish I could send you some. They are gorgeous!</p>
+
+<p>But you will want me to tell about my arrival. Well, to begin with,
+I was late getting here [Margaret had decided to leave out the
+incident of the desert altogether, for she knew by experience that
+her mother would suffer terrors all during her absence if she once
+heard of that wild adventure], which accounts for the lateness of
+the telegram I sent you. I hope its delay didn't make you worry
+any.</p>
+
+<p>A very nice young man named Mr. Gardley piloted me to Mrs. Tanner's
+house and looked after my trunks for me. He is from the East. It
+was fortunate for me that he happened along, for he was most kind
+and gentlemanly and helpful. Tell Jane not to worry lest I'll fall
+in love with him; he doesn't live here. He belongs to a ranch or
+camp or something twenty-five miles away. She was so afraid I'd
+fall in love with an Arizona man and not come back home.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner is very kind and motherly according to her lights. She
+has given me the best room in the house, and she talks a blue streak.
+<a class="pagenum" title="60" name="page_60" id="page_60"></a>
+She has thin, brown hair turning gray, and she wears it in
+a funny little knob on the tip-top of her round head to correspond
+with the funny little tuft of hair on her husband's protruding
+chin. Her head is set on her neck like a clothes-pin, only she is
+squattier than a clothes-pin. She always wears her sleeves rolled
+up (at least so far she has) and she always bustles around noisily
+and apologizes for everything in the jolliest sort of way. I would
+like her, I guess, if it wasn't for the other boarder; but she has
+quite made up her mind that I shall like him, and I don't, of
+course, so she is a bit disappointed in me so far.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tanner is very kind and funny, and looks something like a
+jack-knife with the blades half-open. He never disagrees with Mrs.
+Tanner, and I really believe he's in love with her yet, though they
+must have been married a good while. He calls her "Ma," and seems
+restless unless she's in the room. When she goes out to the kitchen
+to get some more soup or hash or bring in the pie, he shouts
+remarks at her all the time she's gone, and she answers, utterly
+regardless of the conversation the rest of the family are carrying
+on. It's like a phonograph wound up for the day.</p>
+
+<p>Bud Tanner is about fourteen, and I like him. He's well developed,
+strong, and almost handsome; at least he would be if he were fixed
+up a little. He has fine, dark eyes and a great shock of dark hair.
+He and I are friends already. And so is the dog. The dog is a
+peach! Excuse me, mother, but I just must use a little of the dear
+old college slang somewhere, and your letters are the only
+safety-valve, for I'm a schoolmarm now and must talk "good and
+proper" all the time, you know.</p>
+
+<p>The dog's name is Captain, and he looks the part. He has
+constituted himself my bodyguard, and it's going to be very nice
+having him. He's perfectly devoted already. He's a great, big,
+fluffy fellow with keen, intelligent eyes, sensitive ears, and a
+tail like a spreading plume. You'd love him, I know. He has a smile
+like the morning sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>And now I come to the only other member of the family, the boarder,
+and I hesitate to approach the topic, because I have taken one of
+my violent and naughty dislikes to him, and&mdash;awful thought&mdash;mother!
+father! <i>he's a minister!</i> Yes, he's a <i>Presbyterian minister</i>! I
+<a class="pagenum" title="61" name="page_61" id="page_61"></a>
+know it will make you feel dreadfully, and I thought some of not
+telling you, but my conscience hurt me so I had to. I just can't
+<i>bear</i> him, so there! Of course, I may get over it, but I don't see
+how ever, for I can't think of anything that's more like him than
+<i>soft soap</i>! Oh yes, there is one other word. Grandmother used to
+use it about men she hadn't any use for, and that was "squash."
+Mother, I can't help it, but he does seem something like a squash.
+One of that crook-necked, yellow kind with warts all over it, and a
+great, big, splurgy vine behind it to account for its being there
+at all. Insipid and thready when it's cooked, you know, and has to
+have a lot of salt and pepper and butter to make it go down at all.
+Now I've told you the worst, and I'll try to describe him and see
+what you think I'd better do about it. Oh, he isn't the regular
+minister here, or missionary&mdash;I guess they call him. He's located
+quite a distance off, and only comes once a month to preach here,
+and, anyhow, <i>he's</i> gone East now to take his wife to a hospital
+for an operation, and won't be back for a couple of months,
+perhaps, and this man isn't even taking his place. He's just here
+for his health or for fun or something, I guess. He says he had a
+large suburban church near New York, and had a nervous breakdown;
+but I've been wondering if he didn't make a mistake, and it wasn't
+the church had the nervous breakdown instead. He isn't very big nor
+very little; he's just insignificant. His hair is like wet straw,
+and his eyes like a fish's. His hand feels like a dead toad when
+you have to shake hands, which I'm thankful doesn't have to be done
+but once. He looks at you with a flat, sickening grin. He has an
+acquired double chin, acquired to make him look pompous, and he
+dresses stylishly and speaks of the inhabitants of this country
+with contempt. He wants to be very affable, and offers to take me
+to all sorts of places, but so far I've avoided him. I can't think
+how they ever came to let him be a minister&mdash;I really can't! And
+yet, I suppose it's all my horrid old prejudice, and father will be
+grieved and you will think I am perverse. But, really, I'm sure
+he's not one bit like father was when he was young. I never saw a
+minister like him. Perhaps I'll get over it. I do sometimes, you
+know, so don't begin to worry yet. I'll try real hard. I suppose
+<a class="pagenum" title="62" name="page_62" id="page_62"></a>
+he'll preach Sunday, and then, perhaps, his sermon will be grand
+and I'll forget how soft-soapy he looks and think only of his great
+thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>But I know it will be a sort of comfort to you to know that there
+is a Presbyterian minister in the house with me, and I'll really
+try to like him if I can.</p>
+
+<p>There's nothing to complain of in the board. It isn't luxurious, of
+course, but I didn't expect that. Everything is very plain, but
+Mrs. Tanner manages to make it taste good. She makes fine
+corn-bread, almost as good as yours&mdash;not quite.</p>
+
+<p>My room is all lovely, now that I have covered its bareness with my
+own things, but it has one great thing that can't compare with
+anything at home, and that is its view. It is wonderful! I wish I
+could make you see it. There is a mountain at the end of it that
+has as many different garments as a queen. To-night, when sunset
+came, it grew filmy as if a gauze of many colors had dropped upon
+it and melted into it, and glowed and melted until it turned to
+slate blue under the wide, starred blue of the wonderful night sky,
+and all the dark about was velvet. Last night my mountain was all
+pink and silver, and I have seen it purple and rose. But you can't
+think the wideness of the sky, and I couldn't paint it for you with
+words. You must see it to understand. A great, wide, dark sapphire
+floor just simply ravished with stars like big jewels!</p>
+
+<p>But I must stop and go to bed, for I find the air of this country
+makes me very sleepy, and my wicked little kerosene-lamp is
+smoking. I guess you would better send me my student-lamp, after
+all, for I'm surely going to need it.</p>
+
+<p>Now I must turn out the light and say good night to my mountain,
+and then I will go to sleep thinking of you. Don't worry about the
+minister. I'm very polite to him, but I shall never&mdash;<i>no,</i>
+<i>never</i>&mdash;fall in love with <i>him</i>&mdash;tell Jane.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left:60%;">Your loving little girl,<br />
+<span class="smcap">Margaret</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="63" name="page_63" id="page_63"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Margaret had arranged with Bud to take her to the school-house the next
+morning, and he had promised to have a horse hitched up and ready at ten
+o'clock, as it seemed the school was a magnificent distance from her
+boarding-place. In fact, everything seemed to be located with a view to
+being as far from everywhere else as possible. Even the town was
+scattering and widespread and sparse.</p>
+
+<p>When she came down to breakfast she was disappointed to find that Bud
+was not there, and she was obliged to suffer a breakfast t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te
+with West. By dint, however, of asking him questions instead of allowing
+him to take the initiative, she hurried through her breakfast quite
+successfully, acquiring a superficial knowledge of her fellow-boarder
+quite distant and satisfactory. She knew where he spent his college days
+and at what theological seminary he had prepared for the ministry. He
+had served three years in a prosperous church of a fat little suburb of
+New York, and was taking a winter off from his severe, strenuous
+pastoral labors to recuperate his strength, get a new stock of sermons
+ready, and possibly to write a book of some of his experiences. He
+flattened his weak, pink chin<a class="pagenum" title="64" name="page_64" id="page_64"></a> learnedly as he said this, and tried to
+look at her impressively. He said that he should probably take a large
+city church as his next pastorate when his health was fully recuperated.
+He had come out to study the West and enjoy its freedom, as he
+understood it was a good place to rest and do as you please unhampered
+by what people thought. He wanted to get as far away from churches and
+things clerical as possible. He felt it was due himself and his work
+that he should. He spoke of the people he had met in Arizona as a kind
+of tamed savages, and Mrs. Tanner, sitting behind her coffee-pot for a
+moment between bustles, heard his comments meekly and looked at him with
+awe. What a great man he must be, and how fortunate for the new teacher
+that he should be there when she came!</p>
+
+<p>Margaret drew a breath of relief as she hurried away from the
+breakfast-table to her room. She was really anticipating the ride to the
+school with Bud. She liked boys, and Bud had taken her fancy. But when
+she came down-stairs with her hat and sweater on she found West standing
+out in front, holding the horse.</p>
+
+<p>"Bud had to go in another direction, Miss Earle," he said, touching his
+hat gracefully, "and he has delegated to me the pleasant task of driving
+you to the school."</p>
+
+<p>Dismay filled Margaret's soul, and rage with young Bud. He had deserted
+her and left her in the hands of the enemy! And she had thought he
+understood! Well, there was nothing for it but to go with this man, much
+as she disliked it. Her father's daughter could not be rude to a
+minister.<a class="pagenum" title="65" name="page_65" id="page_65"></a></p>
+
+<p>She climbed into the buckboard quickly to get the ceremony over, for her
+escort was inclined to be too officious about helping her in, and
+somehow she couldn't bear to have him touch her. Why was it that she
+felt so about him? Of course he must be a good man.</p>
+
+<p>West made a serious mistake at the very outset of that ride. He took it
+for granted that all girls like flattery, and he proceeded to try it on
+Margaret. But Margaret did not enjoy being told how delighted he was to
+find that instead of the loud, bold "old maid" he had expected, she had
+turned out to be "so beautiful and young and altogether congenial"; and,
+coolly ignoring his compliments, she began a fire of questions again.</p>
+
+<p>She asked about the country, because that was the most obvious topic of
+conversation. What plants were those that grew by the wayside? She found
+he knew greasewood from sage-brush, and that was about all. To some of
+her questions he hazarded answers that were absurd in the light of the
+explanations given her by Gardley two days before. However, she
+reflected that he had been in the country but a short time, and that he
+was by nature a man not interested in such topics. She tried religious
+matters, thinking that here at least they must have common interests.
+She asked him what he thought of Christianity in the West as compared
+with the East. Did he find these Western people more alive and awake to
+the things of the Kingdom?</p>
+
+<p>West gave a startled look at the clear profile of the young woman beside
+him, thought he perceived that she was testing him on his clerical side,
+flattened<a class="pagenum" title="66" name="page_66" id="page_66"></a> his chin in his most learned, self-conscious manner, cleared
+his throat, and put on wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, Miss Earle," he began, condescendingly, "I really don't know
+that I have thought much about the matter. Ah&mdash;you know I have been
+resting absolutely, and I really haven't had opportunity to study the
+situation out here in detail; but, on the whole, I should say that
+everything was decidedly primitive; yes&mdash;ah&mdash;I might say&mdash;ah&mdash;well,
+crude. Yes, <i>crude</i> in the extreme! Why, take it in this mission
+district. The missionary who is in charge seems to be teaching the most
+absurd of the old dogmas such as our forefathers used to teach. I
+haven't met him, of course. He is in the East with his wife for a time.
+I am told she had to go under some kind of an operation. I have never
+met him, and really don't care to do so; but to judge from all I hear,
+he is a most unfit man for a position of the kind. For example, he is
+teaching such exploded doctrines as the old view of the atonement, the
+infallibility of the Scriptures, the deity of Christ, belief in
+miracles, and the like. Of course, in one sense it really matters very
+little what the poor Indians believe, or what such people as the Tanners
+are taught. They have but little mind, and would scarcely know the
+difference; but you can readily see that with such a primitive,
+unenlightened man at the head of religious affairs, there could scarcely
+be much broadening and real religious growth. Ignorance, of course,
+holds sway out here. I fancy you will find that to be the case soon
+enough. What in the world ever led you to come to a field like this to
+labor? Surely there must<a class="pagenum" title="67" name="page_67" id="page_67"></a> have been many more congenial places open to
+such as you." He leaned forward and cast a sentimental glance at her,
+his eyes looking more "fishy" than ever.</p>
+
+<p>"I came out here because I wanted to get acquainted with this great
+country, and because I thought there was an opportunity to do good,"
+said Margaret, coldly. She did not care to discuss her own affairs with
+this man. "But, Mr. West, I don't know that I altogether understand you.
+Didn't you tell me that you were a Presbyterian minister?"</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly did," he answered, complacently, as though he were honoring
+the whole great body of Presbyterians by making the statement.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, what in the world did you mean? All Presbyterians, of
+course, believe in the infallibility of the Scriptures and the deity of
+Jesus&mdash;and the atonement!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not necessarily," answered the young man, loftily. "You will find, my
+dear young lady, that there is a wide, growing feeling in our church in
+favor of a broader view. The younger men, and the great student body of
+our church, have thrown to the winds all their former beliefs and are
+ready to accept new light with open minds. The findings of science have
+opened up a vast store of knowledge, and all thinking men must
+acknowledge that the old dogmas are rapidly vanishing away. Your father
+doubtless still holds to the old faith, perhaps, and we must be lenient
+with the older men who have done the best they could with the light they
+had; but all younger, broad-minded men are coming to the new way of
+looking at things. We have had enough of the days of preaching hell-fire
+and damnation.<a class="pagenum" title="68" name="page_68" id="page_68"></a> We need a religion of love to man, and good works. You
+should read some of the books that have been written on this subject if
+you care to understand. I really think it would be worth your while. You
+look to me like a young woman with a mind. I have a few of the latest
+with me. I shall be glad to read and discuss them with you if you are
+interested."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Mr. West," said Margaret, coolly, though her eyes burned
+with battle. "I think I have probably read most of those books and
+discussed them with my father. He may be old, but he is not without
+'light,' as you call it, and he always believed in knowing all that the
+other side was saying. He brought me up to look into these things for
+myself. And, anyhow, I should not care to read and discuss any of these
+subjects with a man who denies the deity of my Saviour and does not
+believe in the infallibility of the Bible. It seems to me you have
+nothing left&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! Well&mdash;now&mdash;my dear young lady&mdash;you mustn't misjudge me! I should be
+sorry indeed to shake your faith, for an innocent faith is, of course, a
+most beautiful thing, even though it may be unfounded."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, Mr. West, that would not be possible. You could not shake my
+faith in my Christ, because <i>I know Him</i>. If I had not ever felt His
+presence, nor been guided by His leading, such words might possibly
+trouble me, but having seen 'Him that is invisible,' <i>I know</i>."
+Margaret's voice was steady and gentle. It was impossible for even that
+man not to be impressed by her words.<a class="pagenum" title="69" name="page_69" id="page_69"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Well, let us not quarrel about it," he said, indulgently, as to a
+little child. "I'm sure you have a very charming way of stating it, and
+I'm not sure that it is not a relief to find a woman of the
+old-fashioned type now and then. It really is man's place to look into
+these deeper questions, anyway. It is woman's sphere to live and love
+and make a happy home&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His voice took on a sentimental purr, and Margaret was fairly boiling
+with rage at him; but she would not let her temper give way, especially
+when she was talking on the sacred theme of the Christ. She felt as if
+she must scream or jump out over the wheel and run away from this
+obnoxious man, but she knew she would do neither. She knew she would sit
+calmly through the expedition and somehow control that conversation.
+There was one relief, anyway. Her father would no longer expect respect
+and honor and liking toward a minister who denied the very life and
+foundation of his faith.</p>
+
+<p>"It can't be possible that the school-house is so far from the town,"
+she said, suddenly looking around at the widening desert in front of
+them. "Haven't you made some mistake?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I thought we should have the pleasure of a little drive first,"
+said West, with a cunning smile. "I was sure you would enjoy seeing the
+country before you get down to work, and I was not averse myself to a
+drive in such delightful company."</p>
+
+<p>"I would like to go back to the school-house at once, please," said
+Margaret, decidedly, and there was that in her voice that caused the man
+to turn the horse around and head it toward the village.<a class="pagenum" title="70" name="page_70" id="page_70"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, of course, if you prefer to see the school-house first, we
+can go back and look it over, and then, perhaps, you will like to ride a
+little farther," he said. "We have plenty of time. In fact, Mrs. Tanner
+told me she would not expect us home to dinner, and she put a very
+promising-looking basket of lunch under the seat for us in case we got
+hungry before we came back."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Margaret, quite freezingly now. "I really do not care
+to drive this morning. I would like to see the school-house, and then I
+must return to the house at once. I have a great many things to do this
+morning."</p>
+
+<p>Her manner at last penetrated even the thick skin of the self-centered
+man, and he realized that he had gone a step too far in his attentions.
+He set himself to undo the mischief, hoping perhaps to melt her yet to
+take the all-day drive with him. But she sat silent during the return to
+the village, answering his volubility only by yes or no when absolutely
+necessary. She let him babble away about college life and tell incidents
+of his late pastorate, at some of which he laughed immoderately; but he
+could not even bring a smile to her dignified lips.</p>
+
+<p>He hoped she would change her mind when they got to the school building,
+and he even stooped to praise it in a kind of contemptuous way as they
+drew up in front of the large adobe building.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you will want to go through the building," he said, affably,
+producing the key from his pocket and putting on a pleasant anticipatory
+smile, but Margaret shook her head. She simply would not go into the
+building with that man.<a class="pagenum" title="71" name="page_71" id="page_71"></a></p>
+
+<p>"It is not necessary," she said again, coldly. "I think I will go home
+now, please." And he was forced to turn the horse toward the Tanner
+house, crestfallen, and wonder why this beautiful girl was so extremely
+hard to win. He flattered himself that he had always been able to
+interest any girl he chose. It was really quite a bewildering type. But
+he would win her yet.</p>
+
+<p>He set her down silently at the Tanner door and drove off, lunch-basket
+and all, into the wilderness, vexed that she was so stubbornly
+unfriendly, and pondering how he might break down the dignity wherewith
+she had surrounded herself. There would be a way and he would find it.
+There was a stubbornness about that weak chin of his, when one observed
+it, and an ugliness in his pale-blue eye; or perhaps you would call it a
+hardness.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="72" name="page_72" id="page_72"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>She watched him furtively from her bedroom window, whither she had fled
+from Mrs. Tanner's exclamations. He wore his stylish derby tilted down
+over his left eye and slightly to one side in a most unministerial
+manner, showing too much of his straw-colored back hair, which rose in a
+cowlick at the point of contact with the hat, and he looked a small,
+mean creature as he drove off into the vast beauty of the plain.
+Margaret, in her indignation, could not help comparing him with the
+young man who had ridden away from the house two days before.</p>
+
+<p>And he to set up to be a minister of Christ's gospel and talk like that
+about the Bible and Christ! Oh, what was the church of Christ coming to,
+to have ministers like that? How ever did he get into the ministry,
+anyway? Of course, she knew there were young men with honest doubts who
+sometimes slid through nowadays, but a mean little silly man like that?
+How ever did he get in? What a lot of ridiculous things he had said! He
+was one of those described in the Bible who "darken counsel with words."
+He was not worth noticing. And yet, what a lot of harm he could do in an
+unlearned community. Just see how Mrs. Tanner hung upon his<a class="pagenum" title="73" name="page_73" id="page_73"></a> words, as
+though they were law and gospel! How <i>could</i> she?</p>
+
+<p>Margaret found herself trembling yet over the words he had spoken about
+Christ, the atonement, and the faith. They meant so much to her and to
+her mother and father. They were not mere empty words of tradition that
+she believed because she had been taught. She had lived her faith and
+proved it; and she could not help feeling it like a personal insult to
+have him speak so of her Saviour. She turned away and took her Bible to
+try and get a bit of calmness.</p>
+
+<p>She fluttered the leaves for something&mdash;she could not just tell
+what&mdash;and her eye caught some of the verses that her father had marked
+for her before she left home for college, in the days when he was
+troubled for her going forth into the world of unbelief.</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
+him: Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as
+ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware
+lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after
+the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not
+after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
+bodily....</p>
+
+<p>How the verses crowded upon one another, standing out clearly from the
+pages as she turned them, marked with her father's own hand in clear ink
+underlinings. It almost seemed as if God had looked ahead to these times
+and set these words down just for the encouragement of his troubled
+servants who couldn't understand why faith was growing dim. God knew
+about it, had known it<a class="pagenum" title="74" name="page_74" id="page_74"></a> would be, all this doubt, and had put words here
+just for troubled hearts to be comforted thereby.</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">For I know whom I have believed [How her heart echoed to that
+statement!], and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I
+have committed unto him against that day.</p>
+
+<p>And on a little further:</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal,
+The Lord knoweth them that are his.</p>
+
+<p>There was a triumphant look to the words as she read them.</p>
+
+<p>Then over in Ephesians her eye caught a verse that just seemed to fit
+that poor blind minister:</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of
+God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness
+of their heart.</p>
+
+<p>And yet he was set to guide the feet of the blind into the way of life!
+And he had looked on her as one of the ignorant. Poor fellow! He
+couldn't know the Christ who was her Saviour or he never would have
+spoken in that way about Him. What could such a man preach? What was
+there left to preach, but empty words, when one rejected all these
+doctrines? Would she have to listen to a man like that Sunday after
+Sunday? Did the scholars in her school, and their parents, and the young
+man out at the camp, and his rough, simple-hearted companions have to
+listen to preaching from that man, when they listened to any? Her heart
+grew sick within her, and she knelt beside her bed for a strengthening
+word with the Christ who since<a class="pagenum" title="75" name="page_75" id="page_75"></a> her little childhood had been a very
+real presence in her life.</p>
+
+<p>When she arose from her knees she heard the kitchen door slam
+down-stairs and the voice of Bud calling his mother. She went to her
+door and opened it, listening a moment, and then called the boy.</p>
+
+<p>There was a dead silence for an instant after her voice was heard, and
+then Bud appeared at the foot of the stairs, very frowning as to brow,
+and very surly as to tone:</p>
+
+<p>"What d'ye want?"</p>
+
+<p>It was plain that Bud was "sore."</p>
+
+<p>"Bud,"&mdash;Margaret's voice was sweet and a bit cool as she leaned over the
+railing and surveyed the boy; she hadn't yet got over her compulsory
+ride with that minister&mdash;"I wanted to ask you, please, next time you
+can't keep an appointment with me don't ask anybody else to take your
+place. I prefer to pick out my own companions. It was all right, of
+course, if you had to go somewhere else, but I could easily have gone
+alone or waited until another time. I'd rather not have you ask Mr. West
+to go anywhere with me again."</p>
+
+<p>Bud's face was a study. It cleared suddenly and his jaw dropped in
+surprise; his eyes fairly danced with dawning comprehension and
+pleasure, and then his brow drew down ominously.</p>
+
+<p>"I never ast him," he declared, vehemently. "He told me you wanted him
+to go, and fer me to get out of the way 'cause you didn't want to hurt
+my feelings. Didn't you say nothing to him about it at all this
+morning?"<a class="pagenum" title="76" name="page_76" id="page_76"></a></p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed!" said Margaret, with flashing eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I just thought he was that kind of a guy. I told ma he was lying,
+but she said I didn't understand young ladies, and, of course, you
+didn't want me when there was a man, and especially a preacher, round.
+Some preacher he is! This 's the second time I've caught him lying. I
+think he's the limit. I just wish you'd see our missionary. If he was
+here he'd beat the dust out o' that poor stew. <i>He's</i> some man, he is.
+He's a regular white man, <i>our missionary</i>! Just you wait till <i>he</i> gets
+back."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret drew a breath of relief. Then the missionary was a real man,
+after all. Oh, for his return!</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm certainly very glad it wasn't your fault, Bud. I didn't feel
+very happy to be turned off that way," said the teacher, smiling down
+upon the rough head of the boy.</p>
+
+<p>"You bet it wasn't my fault!" said the boy, vigorously. "I was sore's a
+pup at you, after you'd made a date and all, to do like that; but I
+thought if you wanted to go with that guy it was up to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I didn't and I don't. You'll please understand hereafter that I'd
+always rather have your company than his. How about going down to the
+school-house some time to-day? Have you time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you go yet?" The boy's face looked as if he had received a
+kingdom, and his voice had a ring of triumph.</p>
+
+<p>"We drove down there, but I didn't care to go in without you, so we came
+back."</p>
+
+<p>"Wanta go now?" The boy's face fairly shone.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd love to. I'll be ready in three minutes. Could we carry some books
+down?"<a class="pagenum" title="77" name="page_77" id="page_77"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Sure! Oh&mdash;gee! That guy's got the buckboard. We'll have to walk.
+Doggone him!"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall enjoy a walk. I want to find out just how far it is, for I
+shall have to walk every day, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you won't, neither, 'nless you wanta. I c'n always hitch up."</p>
+
+<p>"That'll be very nice sometimes, but I'm afraid I'd get spoiled if you
+babied me all the time that way. I'll be right down."</p>
+
+<p>They went out together into the sunshine and wideness of the morning,
+and it seemed a new day had been created since she got back from her
+ride with the minister. She looked at the sturdy, honest-eyed boy beside
+her, and was glad to have him for a companion.</p>
+
+<p>Just in front of the school-house Margaret paused. "Oh, I forgot! The
+key! Mr. West has the key in his pocket! We can't get in, can we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aw, we don't need a key," said her escort. "Just you wait!" And he
+whisked around to the back of the building, and in about three minutes
+his shock head appeared at the window. He threw the sash open and
+dropped out a wooden box. "There!" he said, triumphantly, "you c'n climb
+up on that, cantcha? Here, I'll holdya steady. Take holta my hand."</p>
+
+<p>And so it was through the front window that the new teacher of the Ridge
+School first appeared on her future scene of action and surveyed her
+little kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>Bud threw open the shutters, letting the view of the plains and the
+sunshine into the big, dusty room,<a class="pagenum" title="78" name="page_78" id="page_78"></a> and showed her the new blackboard
+with great pride.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a whole box o' chalk up on the desk, too; 'ain't never been
+opened yet. Dad said that was your property. Want I should open it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, you might, and then we'll try the blackboard, won't we?"</p>
+
+<p>Bud went to work gravely opening the chalk-box as if it were a small
+treasure-chest, and finally produced a long, smooth stick of chalk and
+handed it to her with shining eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"You try it first, Bud," said the teacher, seeing his eagerness; and the
+boy went forward awesomely, as if it were a sacred precinct and he
+unworthy to intrude.</p>
+
+<p>Shyly, awkwardly, with infinite painstaking, he wrote in a cramped hand,
+"William Budlong Tanner," and then, growing bolder, "Ashland, Arizona,"
+with a big flourish underneath.</p>
+
+<p>"Some class!" he said, standing back and regarding his handiwork with
+pride. "Say, I like the sound the chalk makes on it, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I do," said Margaret, heartily, "so smooth and business-like,
+isn't it? You'll enjoy doing examples in algebra on it, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Good night! Algebra! Me? No chance. I can't never get through the
+arithmetic. The last teacher said if he'd come back twenty years from
+now he'd still find me working compound interest."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we'll prove to that man that he wasn't much of a judge of boys,"
+said Margaret, with a tilt of her chin and a glint of her teacher-mettle
+showing in her eyes. "If you're not in algebra before two<a class="pagenum" title="79" name="page_79" id="page_79"></a> months are
+over I'll miss my guess. We'll get at it right away and show him."</p>
+
+<p>Bud watched her, charmed. He was beginning to believe that almost
+anything she tried would come true.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Bud, suppose we get to work. I'd like to get acquainted with my
+class a little before Monday. Isn't it Monday school opens? I thought
+so. Well, suppose you give me the names of the scholars and I'll write
+them down, and that will help me to remember them. Where will you begin?
+Here, suppose you sit down in the front seat and tell me who sits there
+and a little bit about him, and I'll write the name down; and then you
+move to the next seat and tell me about the next one, and so on. Will
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!" said Bud, entering into the new game. "But it ain't a 'he' sits
+there. It's Susie Johnson. She's Bill Johnson's smallest girl. She has
+to sit front 'cause she giggles so much. She has yellow curls and she
+ducks her head down and snickers right out this way when anything funny
+happens in school." And Bud proceeded to duck and wriggle in perfect
+imitation of the small Susie.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret saw the boy's power of imitation was remarkable, and laughed
+heartily at his burlesque. Then she turned and wrote "Susie Johnson" on
+the board in beautiful script.</p>
+
+<p>Bud watched with admiration, saying softly under his breath; "Gee!
+that's great, that blackboard, ain't it?"</p>
+
+<p>Amelia Schwartz came next. She was long and lank, with the buttons off
+the back of her dress, and<a class="pagenum" title="80" name="page_80" id="page_80"></a> hands and feet too large for her garments.
+Margaret could not help but see her in the clever pantomime the boy
+carried on. Next was Rosa Rogers, daughter of a wealthy cattleman, the
+pink-cheeked, blue-eyed beauty of the school, with all the boys at her
+feet and a perfect knowledge of her power over them. Bud didn't, of
+course, state it that way, but Margaret gathered as much from his
+simpering smile and the coy way he looked out of the corner of his eyes
+as he described her.</p>
+
+<p>Down the long list of scholars he went, row after row, and when he came
+to the seats where the boys sat his tone changed. She could tell by the
+shading of his voice which boys were the ones to look out for.</p>
+
+<p>Jed Brower, it appeared, was a name to conjure with. He could ride any
+horse that ever stood on four legs, he could outshoot most of the boys
+in the neighborhood, and he never allowed any teacher to tell him what
+to do. He was Texas Brower's only boy, and always had his own way. His
+father was on the school board. Jed Brower was held in awe, even while
+his methods were despised, by some of the younger boys. He was big and
+powerful, and nobody dared fool with him. Bud did not exactly warn
+Margaret that she must keep on the right side of Jed Brower, but he
+conveyed that impression without words. Margaret understood. She knew
+also that Tad Brooks, Larry Parker, Jim Long, and Dake Foster were
+merely henchmen of the worthy Jed, and not negligible quantities when
+taken by themselves. But over the name of Timothy Forbes&mdash;"Delicate
+Forbes," Bud explained was his nickname&mdash;the boy lingered with that
+loving inflection<a class="pagenum" title="81" name="page_81" id="page_81"></a> of admiration that a younger boy will sometimes have
+for a husky, courageous older lad. The second time Bud spoke of him he
+called him "Forbeszy," and Margaret perceived that here was Bud's model
+of manhood. Delicate Forbes could outshoot and outride even Jed Brower
+when he chose, and his courage with cattle was that of a man. Moreover,
+he was good to the younger boys and wasn't above pitching baseball with
+them when he had nothing better afoot. It became evident from the
+general description that Delicate Forbes was not called so from any lack
+of inches to his stature. He had a record of having licked every man
+teacher in the school, and beaten by guile every woman teacher they had
+had in six years. Bud was loyal to his admiration, yet it could be
+plainly seen that he felt Margaret's greatest hindrance in the school
+would be Delicate Forbes.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret mentally underlined the names in her memory that belonged to
+the back seats in the first and second rows of desks, and went home
+praying that she might have wisdom and patience to deal with Jed Brower
+and Timothy Forbes, and through them to manage the rest of her school.</p>
+
+<p>She surprised Bud at the dinner-table by handing him a neat diagram of
+the school-room desks with the correct names of all but three or four of
+the scholars written on them. Such a feat of memory raised her several
+notches in his estimation.</p>
+
+<p>"Say, that's going some! Guess you won't forget nothing, no matter how
+much they try to make you."</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="82" name="page_82" id="page_82"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The minister did not appear until late in the evening, after Margaret
+had gone to her room, for which she was sincerely thankful. She could
+hear his voice, fretful and complaining, as he called loudly for Bud to
+take the horse. It appeared he had lost his way and wandered many miles
+out of the trail. He blamed the country for having no better trails, and
+the horse for not being able to find his way better. Mr. Tanner had gone
+to bed, but Mrs. Tanner bustled about and tried to comfort him.</p>
+
+<p>"Now that's too bad! Dearie me! Bud oughta hev gone with you, so he
+ought. Bud! <i>Oh</i>, Bud, you 'ain't gonta sleep yet, hev you? Wake up and
+come down and take this horse to the barn."</p>
+
+<p>But Bud declined to descend. He shouted some sleepy directions from his
+loft where he slept, and said the minister could look after his own
+horse, he "wasn'ta gonta!" There was "plentya corn in the bin."</p>
+
+<p>The minister grumbled his way to the barn, highly incensed at Bud, and
+disturbed the calm of the evening view of Margaret's mountain by his
+complaints when he returned. He wasn't accustomed to handling horses,
+and he thought Bud might have<a class="pagenum" title="83" name="page_83" id="page_83"></a> stayed up and attended to it himself. Bud
+chuckled in his loft and stole down the back kitchen roof while the
+minister ate his late supper. Bud would never leave the old horse to
+that amateur's tender mercies, but he didn't intend to make it easy for
+the amateur. Margaret, from her window-seat watching the night in the
+darkness, saw Bud slip off the kitchen roof and run to the barn, and she
+smiled to herself. She liked that boy. He was going to be a good
+comrade.</p>
+
+<p>The Sabbath morning dawned brilliantly, and to the homesick girl there
+suddenly came a sense of desolation on waking. A strange land was this,
+without church-bells or sense of Sabbath fitness. The mountain, it is
+true, greeted her with a holy light of gladness, but mountains are not
+dependent upon humankind for being in the spirit on the Lord's day. They
+are "continually praising Him." Margaret wondered how she was to get
+through this day, this dreary first Sabbath away from her home and her
+Sabbath-school class, and her dear old church with father preaching. She
+had been away, of course, a great many times before, but never to a
+churchless community. It was beginning to dawn upon her that that was
+what Ashland was&mdash;a churchless community. As she recalled the walk to
+the school and the ride through the village she had seen nothing that
+looked like a church, and all the talk had been of the missionary. They
+must have services of some sort, of course, and probably that flabby,
+fish-eyed man, her fellow-boarder, was to preach; but her heart turned
+sick at thought of listening to a man who had confessed to the
+unbeliefs<a class="pagenum" title="84" name="page_84" id="page_84"></a> that he had. Of course, he would likely know enough to keep
+such doubts to himself; but he had told her, and nothing he could say
+now would help or uplift her in the least.</p>
+
+<p>She drew a deep sigh and looked at her watch. It was late. At home the
+early Sabbath-school bells would be ringing, and little girls in white,
+with bunches of late fall flowers for their teachers, and holding hands
+with their little brothers, would be hurrying down the street. Father
+was in his study, going over his morning sermon, and mother putting her
+little pearl pin in her collar, getting ready to go to her Bible class.
+Margaret decided it was time to get up and stop thinking of it all.</p>
+
+<p>She put on a little white dress that she wore to church at home and
+hurried down to discover what the family plans were for the day, but
+found, to her dismay, that the atmosphere below-stairs was just like
+that of other days. Mr. Tanner sat tilted back in a dining-room chair,
+reading the weekly paper, Mrs. Tanner was bustling in with hot
+corn-bread, Bud was on the front-door steps teasing the dog, and the
+minister came in with an air of weariness upon him, as if he quite
+intended taking it out on his companions that he had experienced a
+trying time on Saturday. He did not look in the least like a man who
+expected to preach in a few minutes. He declined to eat his egg because
+it was cooked too hard, and poor Mrs. Tanner had to try it twice before
+she succeeded in producing a soft-boiled egg to suit him. Only the
+radiant outline of the great mountain, which Margaret could see over the
+minister's head, looked peaceful and Sabbath-like.<a class="pagenum" title="85" name="page_85" id="page_85"></a></p>
+
+<p>"What time do you have service?" Margaret asked, as she rose from the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>"Service?" It was Mr. Tanner who echoed her question as if he did not
+quite know what she meant.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner raised her eyes from her belated breakfast with a worried
+look, like a hen stretching her neck about to see what she ought to do
+next for the comfort of the chickens under her care. It was apparent
+that she had no comprehension of what the question meant. It was the
+minister who answered, condescendingly:</p>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah! There is no church edifice here, you know, Miss Earle. The
+mission station is located some miles distant."</p>
+
+<p>"I know," said Margaret, "but they surely have some religious service?"</p>
+
+<p>"I really don't know," said the minister, loftily, as if it were
+something wholly beneath his notice.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are not going to preach this morning?" In spite of herself
+there was relief in her tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Most certainly not," he replied, stiffly. "I came out here to rest, and
+I selected this place largely because it was so far from a church. I
+wanted to be where I should not be annoyed by requests to preach. Of
+course, ministers from the East would be a curiosity in these Western
+towns, and I should really get no rest at all if I had gone where my
+services would have been in constant demand. When I came out here I was
+in much the condition of our friend the minister of whom you have
+doubtless heard. He was starting on his vacation, and he said to a
+brother minister, with a smile of joy and<a class="pagenum" title="86" name="page_86" id="page_86"></a> relief, 'No preaching, no
+praying, no reading of the Bible for six whole weeks!'"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" said Margaret, freezingly. "No, I am not familiar with
+ministers of that sort." She turned with dismissal in her manner and
+appealed to Mrs. Tanner. "Then you really have no Sabbath service of any
+sort whatever in town?" There was something almost tragic in her face.
+She stood aghast at the prospect before her.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner's neck stretched up a little longer, and her lips dropped
+apart in her attempt to understand the situation. One would scarcely
+have been surprised to hear her say, "Cut-cut-cut-ca-daw-cut?" so
+fluttered did she seem.</p>
+
+<p>Then up spoke Bud. "We gotta Sunday-school, ma!" There was pride of
+possession in Bud's tone, and a kind of triumph over the minister,
+albeit Bud had adjured Sunday-school since his early infancy. He was
+ready now, however, to be offered on the altar of Sunday-school, even,
+if that would please the new teacher&mdash;and spite the minister. "I'll take
+you ef you wanta go." He looked defiantly at the minister as he said it.</p>
+
+<p>But at last Mrs. Tanner seemed to grasp what was the matter.
+"Why!&mdash;why!&mdash;why! You mean preaching service!" she clucked out. "Why,
+yes, Mr. West, wouldn't that be fine? You could preach for us. We could
+have it posted up at the saloon and the crossings, and out a ways on
+both trails, and you'd have quite a crowd. They'd come from over to the
+camp, and up the ca&ntilde;on way, and roundabouts. They'd do you credit, they
+surely would, Mr. West. And you could have the school-house<a class="pagenum" title="87" name="page_87" id="page_87"></a> for a
+meeting-house. Pa, there, is one of the school board. There wouldn't be
+a bit of trouble&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah! Mrs. Tanner, I assure you it's quite out of the question. I
+told you I was here for absolute rest. I couldn't think of preaching.
+Besides, it's against my principles to preach without remuneration. It's
+a wrong idea. The workman is worthy of his hire, you know, Mrs. Tanner,
+the Good Book says." Mr. West's tone took on a self-righteous
+inflection.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Ef that's all, that 'u'd be all right!" she said, with relief. "You
+could take up a collection. The boys would be real generous. They always
+are when any show comes along. They'd appreciate it, you know, and I'd
+like fer Miss Earle here to hear you preach. It 'u'd be a real treat to
+her, her being a preacher's daughter and all." She turned to Margaret
+for support, but that young woman was talking to Bud. She had promptly
+closed with his offer to take her to Sunday-school, and now she hurried
+away to get ready, leaving Mrs. Tanner to make her clerical arrangements
+without aid.</p>
+
+<p>The minister, meantime, looked after her doubtfully. Perhaps, after all,
+it would have been a good move to have preached. He might have impressed
+that difficult young woman better that way than any other, seeing she
+posed as being so interested in religious matters. He turned to Mrs.
+Tanner and began to ask questions about the feasibility of a church
+service. The word "collection" sounded good to him. He was not averse to
+replenishing his somewhat depleted treasury if it could be done so
+easily as that.<a class="pagenum" title="88" name="page_88" id="page_88"></a></p>
+
+<p>Meantime Margaret, up in her room, was wondering again how such a man as
+Mr. West ever got into the Christian ministry.</p>
+
+<p>West was still endeavoring to impress the Tanners with the importance of
+his late charge in the East as Margaret came down-stairs. His pompous
+tones, raised to favor the deafness that he took for granted in Mr.
+Tanner, easily reached her ears.</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't, of course, think of doing it every Sunday, you understand.
+It wouldn't be fair to myself nor my work which I have just left; but,
+of course, if there were sufficient inducement I might consent to preach
+some Sunday before I leave."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner's little satisfied cluck was quite audible as the girl
+closed the front door and went out to the waiting Bud.</p>
+
+<p>The Sunday-school was a desolate affair, presided over by an elderly and
+very illiterate man, who nursed his elbows and rubbed his chin
+meditatively between the slow questions which he read out of the
+lesson-leaf. The woman who usually taught the children was called away
+to nurse a sick neighbor, and the children were huddled together in a
+restless group. The singing was poor, and the whole of the exercises
+dreary, including the prayer. The few women present sat and stared in a
+kind of awe at the visitor, half belligerently, as if she were an
+intruder. Bud lingered outside the door and finally disappeared
+altogether, reappearing when the last hymn was sung. Altogether the new
+teacher felt exceedingly homesick as she wended her way back to the
+Tanners' beside Bud.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you do with yourself on Sunday afternoons,<a class="pagenum" title="89" name="page_89" id="page_89"></a> Bud?" she asked, as
+soon as they were out of hearing of the rest of the group.</p>
+
+<p>The boy turned wondering eyes toward her. "Do?" he repeated, puzzled.
+"Why, we pass the time away, like 'most any day. There ain't much
+difference."</p>
+
+<p>A great desolation possessed her. No church! Worse than no minister! No
+Sabbath! What kind of a land was this to which she had come?</p>
+
+<p>The boy beside her smelled of tobacco smoke. He had been off somewhere
+smoking while she was in the dreary little Sunday-school. She looked at
+his careless boy-face furtively as they walked along. He smoked, of
+course, like most boys of his age, probably, and he did a lot of other
+things he ought not to do. He had no interest in God or righteousness,
+and he did not take it for granted that the Sabbath was different from
+any other day. A sudden heart-sinking came upon her. What was the use of
+trying to do anything for such as he? Why not give it up now and go back
+where there was more promising material to work upon and where she would
+be welcome indeed? Of course, she had known things would be
+discouraging, but somehow it had seemed different from a distance. It
+all looked utterly hopeless now, and herself crazy to have thought she
+could do any good in a place like this.</p>
+
+<p>And yet the place needed somebody! That pitiful little Sunday-school!
+How forlorn it all was! She was almost sorry she had gone. It gave her
+an unhappy feeling for the morrow, which was to be her first day of
+school.<a class="pagenum" title="90" name="page_90" id="page_90"></a></p>
+
+<p>Then, all suddenly, just as they were nearing the Tanner house, there
+came one riding down the street with all the glory of the radiant
+morning in his face, and a light in his eyes at seeing her that lifted
+away her desolation, for here at last was a friend!</p>
+
+<p>She wondered at herself. An unknown stranger, and a self-confessed
+failure so far in his young life, and yet he seemed so good a sight to
+her amid these uncongenial surroundings!</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="91" name="page_91" id="page_91"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>This stranger of royal bearing, riding a rough Western pony as if it
+were decked with golden trappings, with his bright hair gleaming like
+Roman gold in the sun, and his blue-gray eyes looking into hers with the
+gladness of his youth; this one who had come to her out of the
+night-shadows of the wilderness and led her into safety! Yes, she was
+glad to see him.</p>
+
+<p>He dismounted and greeted her, his wide hat in his hand, his eyes upon
+her face, and Bud stepped back, watching them in pleased surprise. This
+was the man who had shot all the lights out the night of the big riot in
+the saloon. He had also risked his life in a number of foolish ways at
+recent festal carouses. Bud would not have been a boy had he not admired
+the young man beyond measure; and his boy worship of the teacher yielded
+her to a fitting rival. He stepped behind and walked beside the pony,
+who was following his master meekly, as though he, too, were under the
+young man's charm.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, and this is my friend, William Tanner," spoke Margaret, turning
+toward the boy loyally, (Whatever good angel made her call him William?
+Bud's soul swelled with new dignity as he blushed and acknowledged the
+introduction by a grin.)<a class="pagenum" title="92" name="page_92" id="page_92"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Glad to know you, Will," said the new-comer, extending his hand in a
+hearty shake that warmed the boy's heart in a trice. "I'm glad Miss
+Earle has so good a protector. You'll have to look out for her. She's
+pretty plucky and is apt to stray around the wilderness by herself. It
+isn't safe, you know, boy, for such as her. Look after her, will you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Right I will," said Bud, accepting the commission as if it were
+Heaven-sent, and thereafter walked behind the two with his head in the
+clouds. He felt that he understood this great hero of the plains and was
+one with him at heart. There could be no higher honor than to be the
+servitor of this man's lady. Bud did not stop to question how the new
+teacher became acquainted with the young rider of the plains. It was
+enough that both were young and handsome and seemed to belong together.
+He felt they were fitting friends.</p>
+
+<p>The little procession walked down the road slowly, glad to prolong the
+way. The young man had brought her handkerchief, a filmy trifle of an
+excuse that she had dropped behind her chair at the bunk-house, where it
+had lain unnoticed till she was gone. He produced it from his inner
+pocket, as though it had been too precious to carry anywhere but over
+his heart, yet there was in his manner nothing presuming, not a hint of
+any intimacy other than their chance acquaintance of the wilderness
+would warrant. He did not look at her with any such look as West had
+given every time he spoke to her. She felt no desire to resent his
+glance when it rested upon her almost worshipfully, for there was
+respect and utmost humility in his look.<a class="pagenum" title="93" name="page_93" id="page_93"></a></p>
+
+<p>The men had sent gifts: some arrow-heads and a curiously fashioned
+vessel from the ca&ntilde;on of the cave-dwellers; some chips from the
+petrified forest; a fern with wonderful fronds, root and all; and a
+sheaf of strange, beautiful blossoms carefully wrapped in wet paper, and
+all fastened to the saddle.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret's face kindled with interest as he showed them to her one by
+one, and told her the history of each and a little message from the man
+who had sent it. Mom Wallis, too, had baked a queer little cake and sent
+it. The young man's face was tender as he spoke of it. The girl saw that
+he knew what her coming had meant to Mom Wallis. Her memory went quickly
+back to those few words the morning she had wakened in the bunk-house
+and found the withered old woman watching her with tears in her eyes.
+Poor Mom Wallis, with her pretty girlhood all behind her and such a
+blank, dull future ahead! Poor, tired, ill-used, worn-out Mom Wallis!
+Margaret's heart went out to her.</p>
+
+<p>"They want to know," said the young man, half hesitatingly, "if some
+time, when you get settled and have time, you would come to them again
+and sing? I tried to make them understand, of course, that you would be
+busy, your time taken with other friends and your work, and you would
+not want to come; but they wanted me to tell you they never enjoyed
+anything so much in years as your singing. Why, I heard Long Jim singing
+'Old Folks at Home' this morning when he was saddling his horse. And
+it's made a difference. The men sort of want to straighten up the
+bunk-room. Jasper<a class="pagenum" title="94" name="page_94" id="page_94"></a> made a new chair yesterday. He said it would do when
+you came again." Gardley laughed diffidently, as if he knew their hopes
+were all in vain.</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret looked up with sympathy in her face, "I'll come! Of course
+I'll come some time," she said, eagerly. "I'll come as soon as I can
+arrange it. You tell them we'll have more than one concert yet."</p>
+
+<p>The young man's face lit up with a quick appreciation, and the flash of
+his eyes as he looked at her would have told any onlooker that he felt
+here was a girl in a thousand, a girl with an angel spirit, if ever such
+a one walked the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Now it happened that Rev. Frederick West was walking impatiently up and
+down in front of the Tanner residence, looking down the road about that
+time. He had spent the morning in looking over the small bundle of "show
+sermons" he had brought with him in case of emergency, and had about
+decided to accede to Mrs. Tanner's request and preach in Ashland before
+he left. This decision had put him in so self-satisfied a mood that he
+was eager to announce it before his fellow-boarder. Moreover, he was
+hungry, and he could not understand why that impudent boy and that
+coquettish young woman should remain away at Sunday-school such an
+interminable time.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner was frying chicken. He could smell it every time he took a
+turn toward the house. It really was ridiculous that they should keep
+dinner waiting this way. He took one more turn and began to think over
+the sermon he had decided to preach. He was just recalling a
+particularly eloquent<a class="pagenum" title="95" name="page_95" id="page_95"></a> passage when he happened to look down the road
+once more, and there they were, almost upon him! But Bud was no longer
+walking with the maiden. She had acquired a new escort, a man of broad
+shoulders and fine height. Where had he seen that fellow before? He
+watched them as they came up, his small, pale eyes narrowing under their
+yellow lashes with a glint of slyness, like some mean little animal that
+meant to take advantage of its prey. It was wonderful how many different
+things that man could look like for a person as insignificant as he
+really was!</p>
+
+<p>Well, he saw the look between the man and maiden; the look of sympathy
+and admiration and a fine kind of trust that is not founded on mere
+outward show, but has found some hidden fineness of the soul. Not that
+the reverend gentleman understood that, however. He had no fineness of
+soul himself. His mind had been too thoroughly taken up with himself all
+his life for him to have cultivated any.</p>
+
+<p>Simultaneous with the look came his recognition of the man or, at least,
+of where he had last seen him, and his little soul rejoiced at the
+advantage he instantly recognized.</p>
+
+<p>He drew himself up importantly, flattened his chin upward until his
+lower lip protruded in a pink roll across his mouth, drew down his
+yellow brows in a frown of displeasure, and came forward mentor-like to
+meet the little party as it neared the house. He had the air of coming
+to investigate and possibly oust the stranger, and he looked at him
+keenly, critically, offensively, as if he had the right to protect<a class="pagenum" title="96" name="page_96" id="page_96"></a> the
+lady. They might have been a pair of naughty children come back from a
+forbidden frolic, from the way he surveyed them. But the beauty of it
+was that neither of them saw him, being occupied with each other, until
+they were fairly upon him. Then, there he stood offensively, as if he
+were a great power to be reckoned with.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, well, Miss Margaret, you have got home at last!" he said,
+pompously and condescendingly, and then he looked into the eyes of her
+companion as if demanding an explanation of <i>his</i> presence there.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret drew herself up haughtily. His use of her Christian name in
+that familiar tone annoyed her exceedingly. Her eyes flashed
+indignantly, but the whole of it was lost unless Bud saw it, for Gardley
+had faced his would-be adversary with a keen, surprised scrutiny, and
+was looking him over coolly. There was that in the young man's eye that
+made the eye of Frederick West quail before him. It was only an instant
+the two stood challenging each other, but in that short time each knew
+and marked the other for an enemy. Only a brief instant and then Gardley
+turned to Margaret, and before she had time to think what to say, he
+asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Is this man a friend of yours, Miss <i>Earle</i>?" with marked emphasis on
+the last word.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Margaret, coolly, "not a friend&mdash;a boarder in the house."
+Then most formally, "Mr. West, my <i>friend</i> Mr. Gardley."</p>
+
+<p>If the minister had not been possessed of the skin of a rhinoceros he
+would have understood himself to be dismissed at that; but he was not a
+man<a class="pagenum" title="97" name="page_97" id="page_97"></a> accustomed to accepting dismissal, as his recent church in New York
+State might have testified. He stood his ground, his chin flatter than
+ever, his little eyes mere slits of condemnation. He did not acknowledge
+the introduction by so much as the inclination of his head. His hands
+were clasped behind his back, and his whole attitude was one of
+righteous belligerence.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley gazed steadily at him for a moment, a look of mingled contempt
+and amusement gradually growing upon his face. Then he turned away as if
+the man were too small to notice.</p>
+
+<p>"You will come in and take dinner with me?" asked Margaret, eagerly. "I
+want to send a small package to Mrs. Wallis if you will be so good as to
+take it with you."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry I can't stay to dinner, but I have an errand in another
+direction and at some distance. I am returning this way, however, and,
+if I may, will call and get the package toward evening."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret's eyes spoke her welcome, and with a few formal words the young
+man sprang on his horse, said, "So long, Will!" to Bud, and, ignoring
+the minister, rode away.</p>
+
+<p>They watched him for an instant, for, indeed, he was a goodly sight upon
+a horse, riding as if he and the horse were utterly one in spirit; then
+Margaret turned quickly to go into the house.</p>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah! Miss Margaret!" began the minister, with a commandatory gesture
+for her to stop.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret was the picture of haughtiness as she turned and said, "Miss
+<i>Earle</i>, if you please!"</p>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah! Why, certainly, Miss&mdash;ah&mdash;<i>Earle</i>,<a class="pagenum" title="98" name="page_98" id="page_98"></a> if you wish it. Will you
+kindly remain here for a moment? I wish to speak with you. Bud, you may
+go on."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go when I like, and it's none of your business!" muttered Bud,
+ominously, under his breath. He looked at Margaret to see if she wished
+him to go. He had an idea that this might be one of the times when he
+was to look after her.</p>
+
+<p>She smiled at him understandingly. "William may remain, Mr. West," she
+said, sweetly. "Anything you have to say to me can surely be said in his
+presence," and she laid her hand lightly on Bud's sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>Bud looked down at the hand proudly and grew inches taller enjoying the
+minister's frown.</p>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah!" said West, unabashed. "Well, I merely wished to warn you
+concerning the character of that person who has just left us. He is
+really not a proper companion for you. Indeed, I may say he is quite the
+contrary, and that to my personal knowledge&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He's as good as you are and better!" growled Bud, ominously.</p>
+
+<p>"Be quiet, boy! I wasn't speaking to you!" said West, as if he were
+addressing a slave. "If I hear another word from your lips I shall
+report it to your father!"</p>
+
+<p>"Go 's far 's you like and see how much I care!" taunted Bud, but was
+stopped by Margaret's gentle pressure on his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. West, I thought I made you understand that Mr. Gardley is my
+friend."</p>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah! Miss Earle, then all I have to say<a class="pagenum" title="99" name="page_99" id="page_99"></a> is that you have formed a
+most unwise friendship, and should let it proceed no further. Why, my
+dear young lady, if you knew all there is to know about him you would
+not think of speaking to that young man."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! Mr. West, I suppose that might be true of a good many people,
+might it not, <i>if we knew all there is to know about them</i>? Nobody but
+God could very well get along with some of us."</p>
+
+<p>"But, my dear young lady, you don't understand. This young person is
+nothing but a common ruffian, a gambler, in fact, and an habitu&eacute; at the
+saloons. I have seen him myself sitting in a saloon at a very late hour
+playing with a vile, dirty pack of cards, and in the company of a lot of
+low-down creatures&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"May I ask how you came to be in a saloon at that hour, Mr. West?" There
+was a gleam of mischief in the girl's eyes, and her mouth looked as if
+she were going to laugh, but she controlled it.</p>
+
+<p>The minister turned very red indeed. "Well, I&mdash;ah&mdash;I had been called
+from my bed by shouts and the report of a pistol. There was a fight
+going on in the room adjoining the bar, and I didn't know but my
+assistance might be needed!" (At this juncture Bud uttered a sort of
+snort and, placing his hands over his heart, ducked down as if a sudden
+pain had seized him.) "But imagine my pain and astonishment when I was
+informed that the drunken brawl I was witnessing was but a nightly and
+common occurrence. I may say I remained for a few minutes, partly out of
+curiosity, as I wished to see all kinds of life in this new world for
+the sake of a<a class="pagenum" title="100" name="page_100" id="page_100"></a> book I am thinking of writing. I therefore took careful
+note of the persons present, and was thus able to identify the person
+who has just ridden away as one of the chief factors in that evening's
+entertainment. He was, in fact, the man who, when he had pocketed all
+the money on the gaming-table, arose and, taking out his pistol, shot
+out the lights in the room, a most dangerous and irregular proceeding&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and you came within an ace of being shot, pa says. The Kid's a
+dead shot, he is, and you were right in the way. Served you right for
+going where you had no business!"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not remain longer in that place, as you may imagine," went on West,
+ignoring Bud, "for I found it was no place for a&mdash;for&mdash;a&mdash;ah&mdash;minister
+of the gospel; but I remained long enough to hear from the lips of this
+person with whom you have just been walking some of the most terrible
+language my ears have ever been permitted to&mdash;ah&mdash;witness!"</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret had heard all that she intended to listen to on that
+subject. With decided tone she interrupted the voluble speaker, who was
+evidently enjoying his own eloquence.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. West, I think you have said all that it is necessary to say. There
+are still some things about Mr. Gardley that you evidently do not know,
+but I think you are in a fair way to learn them if you stay in this part
+of the country long. William, isn't that your mother calling us to
+dinner? Let us go in; I'm hungry."</p>
+
+<p>Bud followed her up the walk with a triumphant wink at the discomfited
+minister, and they disappeared<a class="pagenum" title="101" name="page_101" id="page_101"></a> into the house; but when Margaret went
+up to her room and took off her hat in front of the little warped
+looking-glass there were angry tears in her eyes. She never felt more
+like crying in her life. Chagrin and anger and disappointment were all
+struggling in her soul, yet she must not cry, for dinner would be ready
+and she must go down. Never should that mean little meddling man see
+that his words had pierced her soul.</p>
+
+<p>For, angry as she was at the minister, much as she loathed his petty,
+jealous nature and saw through his tale-bearing, something yet told her
+that his picture of young Gardley's wildness was probably true, and her
+soul sank within her at the thought. It was just what had come in
+shadowy, instinctive fear to her heart when he had hinted at his being a
+"roughneck," yet to have it put baldly into words by an enemy hurt her
+deeply, and she looked at herself in the glass half frightened.
+"Margaret Earle, have you come out to the wilderness to lose your heart
+to the first handsome sower of wild oats that you meet?" her true eyes
+asked her face in the glass, and Margaret Earle's heart turned sad at
+the question and shrank back. Then she dropped upon her knees beside her
+gay little rocking-chair and buried her face in its flowered cushions
+and cried to her Father in heaven:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my Father, let me not be weak, but with all my heart I cry to Thee
+to save this young, strong, courageous life and not let it be a failure.
+Help him to find Thee and serve Thee, and if his life has been all
+wrong&mdash;and I suppose it has&mdash;oh, make it right for Jesus' sake! If there
+is anything that I<a class="pagenum" title="102" name="page_102" id="page_102"></a> can do to help, show me how, and don't let me make
+mistakes. Oh, Jesus, Thy power is great. Let this young man feel it and
+yield himself to it."</p>
+
+<p>She remained silently praying for a moment more, putting her whole soul
+into the prayer and knowing that she had been called thus to pray for
+him until her prayer was answered.</p>
+
+<p>She came down to dinner a few minutes later with a calm, serene face, on
+which was no hint of her recent emotion, and she managed to keep the
+table conversation wholly in her own hands, telling Mr. Tanner about her
+home town and her father and mother. When the meal was finished the
+minister had no excuse to think that the new teacher was careless about
+her friends and associates, and he was well informed about the high
+principles of her family.</p>
+
+<p>But West had retired into a sulky mood and uttered not a word except to
+ask for more chicken and coffee and a second helping of pie. It was,
+perhaps, during that dinner that he decided it would be best for him to
+preach in Ashland on the following Sunday. The young lady could be
+properly impressed with his dignity in no other way.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="103" name="page_103" id="page_103"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>When Lance Gardley came back to the Tanners' the sun was preparing the
+glory of its evening setting, and the mountain was robed in all its
+rosiest veils.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret was waiting for him, with the dog Captain beside her, wandering
+back and forth in the unfenced dooryard and watching her mountain. It
+was a relief to her to find that the minister occupied a room on the
+first floor in a kind of ell on the opposite side of the house from her
+own room and her mountain. He had not been visible that afternoon, and
+with Captain by her side and Bud on the front-door step reading <i>The Sky
+Pilot</i> she felt comparatively safe. She had read to Bud for an hour and
+a half, and he was thoroughly interested in the story; but she was sure
+he would keep the minister away at all costs. As for Captain, he and the
+minister were sworn enemies by this time. He growled every time West
+came near or spoke to her.</p>
+
+<p>She made a picture standing with her hand on Captain's shaggy, noble
+head, the lace of her sleeve falling back from the white arm, her other
+hand raised to shade her face as she looked away to the glorified
+mountain, a slim, white figure looking wistfully off at the sunset. The
+young man took off<a class="pagenum" title="104" name="page_104" id="page_104"></a> his hat and rode his horse more softly, as if in the
+presence of the holy.</p>
+
+<p>The dog lifted one ear, and a tremor passed through his frame as the
+rider drew near; otherwise he did not stir from his position; but it was
+enough. The girl turned, on the alert at once, and met him with a smile,
+and the young man looked at her as if an angel had deigned to smile upon
+him. There was a humility in his fine face that sat well with the
+courage written there, and smoothed away all hardness for the time, so
+that the girl, looking at him in the light of the revelations of the
+morning, could hardly believe it had been true, yet an inner fineness of
+perception taught her that it was.</p>
+
+<p>The young man dismounted and left his horse standing quietly by the
+roadside. He would not stay, he said, yet lingered by her side, talking
+for a few minutes, watching the sunset and pointing out its changes.</p>
+
+<p>She gave him the little package for Mom Wallis. There was a simple lace
+collar in a little white box, and a tiny leather-bound book done in
+russet su&egrave;de with gold lettering.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell her to wear the collar and think of me whenever she dresses up."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid that'll never be, then," said the young man, with a pitying
+smile. "Mom Wallis never dresses up."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell her I said she must dress up evenings for supper, and I'll make
+her another one to change with that and bring it when I come."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled upon her again, that wondering, almost worshipful smile, as if
+he wondered if she were real,<a class="pagenum" title="105" name="page_105" id="page_105"></a> after all, so different did she seem from
+his idea of girls.</p>
+
+<p>"And the little book," she went on, apologetically; "I suppose it was
+foolish to send it, but something she said made me think of some of the
+lines in the poem. I've marked them for her. She reads, doesn't she?"</p>
+
+<p>"A little, I think. I see her now and then read the papers that Pop
+brings home with him. I don't fancy her literary range is very wide,
+however."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, I suppose it is ridiculous! And maybe she'll not understand
+any of it; but tell her I sent her a message. She must see if she can
+find it in the poem. Perhaps you can explain it to her. It's Browning's
+'Rabbi Ben Ezra.' You know it, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid not. I was intent on other things about the time when I was
+supposed to be giving my attention to Browning, or I wouldn't be what I
+am to-day, I suppose. But I'll do my best with what wits I have. What's
+it about? Couldn't you give me a pointer or two?"</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's the one beginning:</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">"Grow old along with me!<br />
+The best is yet to be,<br />
+The last of life, for which the first was made:<br />
+Our times are in His hand<br />
+Who saith, 'A whole I planned,<br />
+Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!'"</p>
+
+<p>He looked down at her still with that wondering smile. "Grow old along
+with you!" he said, gravely,<a class="pagenum" title="106" name="page_106" id="page_106"></a> and then sighed. "You don't look as if you
+ever would grow old."</p>
+
+<p>"That's it," she said, eagerly. "That's the whole idea. We don't ever
+grow old and get done with it all, we just go on to bigger things, wiser
+and better and more beautiful, till we come to understand and be a part
+of the whole great plan of God!"</p>
+
+<p>He did not attempt an answer, nor did he smile now, but just looked at
+her with that deeply quizzical, grave look as if his soul were turning
+over the matter seriously. She held her peace and waited, unable to find
+the right word to speak. Then he turned and looked off, an infinite
+regret growing in his face.</p>
+
+<p>"That makes living a different thing from the way most people take it,"
+he said, at last, and his tone showed that he was considering it deeply.</p>
+
+<p>"Does it?" she said, softly, and looked with him toward the sunset,
+still half seeing his quiet profile against the light. At last it came
+to her that she must speak. Half fearfully she began: "I've been
+thinking about what you said on the ride. You said you didn't make good.
+I&mdash;wish you would. I&mdash;I'm sure you could&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She looked up wistfully and saw the gentleness come into his face as if
+the fountain of his soul, long sealed, had broken up, and as if he saw a
+possibility before him for the first time through the words she had
+spoken.</p>
+
+<p>At last he turned to her with that wondering smile again. "Why should
+you care?" he asked. The words would have sounded harsh if his tone had
+not been so gentle.<a class="pagenum" title="107" name="page_107" id="page_107"></a></p>
+
+<p>Margaret hesitated for an answer. "I don't know how to tell it," she
+said, slowly. "There's another verse, a few lines more in that poem,
+perhaps you know them?&mdash;</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;">'All I never could be, All, men ignored in me,<br />
+This I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped.'</p>
+
+<p>I want it because&mdash;well, perhaps because I feel you are worth all that
+to God. I would like to see you be that."</p>
+
+<p>He looked down at her again, and was still so long that she felt she had
+failed miserably.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you will excuse my speaking," she added. "I&mdash;It seems there are
+so many grand possibilities in life, and for you&mdash;I couldn't bear to
+have you say you hadn't made good, as if it were all over."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad you spoke," he said, quickly. "I guess perhaps I have been all
+kinds of a fool. You have made me feel how many kinds I have been."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no!" she protested.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know what I have been," he said, sadly, and then with sudden
+conviction, as if he read her thoughts: "You <i>do</i> know! That prig of a
+parson has told you! Well, it's just as well you should know. It's
+right!"</p>
+
+<p>A wave of misery passed over his face and erased all its brightness and
+hope. Even the gentleness was gone. He looked haggard and drawn with
+hopelessness all in a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think it would matter to me&mdash;<i>anything</i> that man would say?" she
+protested, all her woman's heart going out in pity.<a class="pagenum" title="108" name="page_108" id="page_108"></a></p>
+
+<p>"But it was true, all he said, probably, and more&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't matter," she said, eagerly. "The other is true, too. Just as
+the poem says, 'All that man ignores in you, just that you are worth to
+God!' And you <i>can</i> be what He meant you to be. I have been praying all
+the afternoon that He would help you to be."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you?" he said, and his eyes lit up again as if the altar-fires of
+hope were burning once more. "Have you? I thank you."</p>
+
+<p>"You came to me when I was lost in the wilderness," she said, shyly. "I
+wanted to help <i>you</i> back&mdash;if&mdash;I might."</p>
+
+<p>"You will help&mdash;you have!" he said, earnestly. "And I was far enough off
+the trail, too, but if there's any way to get back I'll get there." He
+grasped her hand and held it for a second. "Keep up that praying," he
+said. "I'll see what can be done."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret looked up. "Oh, I'm so glad, so glad!"</p>
+
+<p>He looked reverently into her eyes, all the manhood in him stirred to
+higher, better things. Then, suddenly, as they stood together, a sound
+smote their ears as from another world.</p>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah!&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The minister stood within the doorway, barred by Bud in scowling
+defiance, and guarded by Cap, who gave an answering growl.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley and Margaret looked at each other and smiled, then turned and
+walked slowly down to where the pony stood. They did not wish to talk
+here in that alien presence. Indeed, it seemed that<a class="pagenum" title="109" name="page_109" id="page_109"></a> more words were not
+needed&mdash;they would be a desecration.</p>
+
+<p>So he rode away into the sunset once more with just another look and a
+hand-clasp, and she turned, strangely happy at heart, to go back to her
+dull surroundings and her uncongenial company.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, William, let's have a praise service," she said, brightly,
+pausing at the doorway, but ignoring the scowling minister.</p>
+
+<p>"A praise service! What's a praise service?" asked the wondering Bud,
+shoving over to let her sit down beside him.</p>
+
+<p>She sat with her back to West, and Cap came and lay at her feet with the
+white of one eye on the minister and a growl ready to gleam between his
+teeth any minute. There was just no way for the minister to get out
+unless he jumped over them or went out the back door; but the people in
+the doorway had the advantage of not having to look at him, and he
+couldn't very well dominate the conversation standing so behind them.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, a praise service is a service of song and gladness, of course. You
+sing, don't you? Of course. Well, what shall we sing? Do you know this?"
+And she broke softly into song:</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;">"When peace like a river attendeth my way;<br />
+When sorrows like sea-billows roll;<br />
+Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to say,<br />
+It is well, it is well with my soul."</p>
+
+<p>Bud did not know the song, but he did not intend to be balked with the
+minister standing right behind him, ready, no doubt, to jump in and take
+the precedence;<a class="pagenum" title="110" name="page_110" id="page_110"></a> so he growled away at a note in the bass, turning it
+over and over and trying to make it fit, like a dog gnawing at a bare
+bone; but he managed to keep time and make it sound a little like
+singing.</p>
+
+<p>The dusk was falling fast as they finished the last verse, Margaret
+singing the words clear and distinct, Bud growling unintelligibly and
+snatching at words he had never heard before. Once more Margaret sang:</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;">"Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;<br />
+The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide!<br />
+When other refuge fails and comforts flee,<br />
+Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me!"</p>
+
+<p>Out on the lonely trail wending his way toward the purple mountain&mdash;the
+silent way to the bunk-house at the camp&mdash;in that clear air where sound
+travels a long distance the traveler heard the song, and something
+thrilled his soul. A chord that never had been touched in him before was
+vibrating, and its echoes would be heard through all his life.</p>
+
+<p>On and on sang Margaret, just because she could not bear to stop and
+hear the commonplace talk which would be about her. Song after song
+thrilled through the night's wideness. The stars came out in thick
+clusters. Father Tanner had long ago dropped his weekly paper and tilted
+his chair back against the wall, with his eyes half closed to listen,
+and his wife had settled down comfortably on the carpet sofa, with her
+hands nicely folded in her lap, as if she were at church. The minister,
+after silently surveying the situation for a song or two, attempted to
+join his voice to the chorus. He had a voice like a cross-cut saw, but
+he didn't do much harm in the<a class="pagenum" title="111" name="page_111" id="page_111"></a> background that way, though Cap did growl
+now and then, as if it put his nerves on edge. And by and by Mr. Tanner
+quavered in with a note or two.</p>
+
+<p>Finally Margaret sang:</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;">"Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear,<br />
+It is not night if Thou art near,<br />
+Oh, may no earth-born cloud arise<br />
+To hide Thee from Thy servant's eyes."</p>
+
+<p>During this hymn the minister had slipped out the back door and gone
+around to the front of the house. He could not stand being in the
+background any longer; but as the last note died away Margaret arose
+and, bidding Bud good night, slipped up to her room.</p>
+
+<p>There, presently, beside her darkened window, with her face toward the
+mountain, she knelt to pray for the wanderer who was trying to find his
+way out of the wilderness.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="112" name="page_112" id="page_112"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Monday morning found Margaret at the school-house nerved for her new
+task.</p>
+
+<p>One by one the scholars trooped in, shyly or half defiantly, hung their
+hats on the hooks, put their dinner-pails on the shelf, looked furtively
+at her, and sank into their accustomed seats; that is, the seats they
+had occupied during the last term of school. The big boys remained
+outside until Bud, acting under instructions from Margaret&mdash;after she
+had been carefully taught the ways of the school by Bud himself&mdash;rang
+the big bell. Even then they entered reluctantly and as if it were a
+great condescension that they came at all, Jed and "Delicate" coming in
+last, with scarcely a casual glance toward the teacher's desk, as if she
+were a mere fraction in the scheme of the school. She did not need to be
+told which was Timothy and which was Jed. Bud's description had been
+perfect. Her heart, by the way, instantly went out to Timothy. Jed was
+another proposition. He had thick, overhanging eyebrows, and a mouth
+that loved to make trouble and laugh over it. He was going to be hard to
+conquer. She wasn't sure the conquering would be interesting, either.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret stood by the desk, watching them all with a pleasant smile. She
+did not frown at the<a class="pagenum" title="113" name="page_113" id="page_113"></a> unnecessary shuffling of feet nor the loud remarks
+of the boys as they settled into their seats. She just stood and watched
+them interestedly, as though her time had not yet come.</p>
+
+<p>Jed and Timothy were carrying on a rumbling conversation. Even after
+they took their seats they kept it up. It was no part of their plan to
+let the teacher suppose they saw her or minded her in the least. They
+were the dominating influences in that school, and they wanted her to
+know it, right at the start; then a lot of trouble would be saved. If
+they didn't like her and couldn't manage her they didn't intend she
+should stay, and she might as well understand that at once.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret understood it fully. Yet she stood quietly and watched them
+with a look of deep interest on her face and a light almost of mischief
+in her eyes, while Bud grew redder and redder over the way his two idols
+were treating the new teacher. One by one the school became aware of the
+twinkle in the teacher's eyes, and grew silent to watch, and one by one
+they began to smile over the coming scene when Jed and Timothy should
+discover it, and, worst of all, find out that it was actually directed
+against them. They would expect severity, or fear, or a desire to
+placate; but a twinkle&mdash;it was more than the school could decide what
+would happen under such circumstances. No one in that room would ever
+dare to laugh at either of those two boys. But the teacher was almost
+laughing now, and the twinkle had taken the rest of the room into the
+secret, while she waited amusedly until the two should finish the
+conversation.<a class="pagenum" title="114" name="page_114" id="page_114"></a></p>
+
+<p>The room grew suddenly deathly still, except for the whispered growls of
+Jed and Timothy, and still the silence deepened, until the two young
+giants themselves perceived that it was time to look up and take account
+of stock.</p>
+
+<p>The perspiration by this time was rolling down the back of Bud's neck.
+He was about the only one in the room who was not on a broad grin, and
+he was wretched. What a fearful mistake the new teacher was making right
+at the start! She was antagonizing the two boys who held the whole
+school in their hands. There was no telling what they wouldn't do to her
+now. And he would have to stand up for her. Yes, no matter what they
+did, he would stand up for her! Even though he lost his best friends, he
+must be loyal to her; but the strain was terrible! He did not dare to
+look at them, but fastened his eyes upon Margaret, as if keeping them
+glued there was his only hope. Then suddenly he saw her face break into
+one of the sweetest, merriest smiles he ever witnessed, with not one
+single hint of reproach or offended dignity in it, just a smile of
+comradeship, understanding, and pleasure in the meeting; and it was
+directed to the two seats where Jed and Timothy sat.</p>
+
+<p>With wonder he turned toward the two big boys, and saw, to his
+amazement, an answering smile upon their faces; reluctant, 'tis true,
+half sheepish at first, but a smile with lifted eyebrows of astonishment
+and real enjoyment of the joke.</p>
+
+<p>A little ripple of approval went round in half-breathed syllables, but
+Margaret gave no time for any restlessness to start. She spoke at once,
+in her<a class="pagenum" title="115" name="page_115" id="page_115"></a> pleasantest partnership tone, such as she had used to Bud when
+she asked him to help her build her bookcase. So she spoke now to that
+school, and each one felt she was speaking just to him especially, and
+felt a leaping response in his soul. Here, at least, was something new
+and interesting, a new kind of teacher. They kept silence to listen.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm not going to make a speech now," she said, and her voice
+sounded glad to them all. "I'll wait till we know one another before I
+do that. I just want to say how do you do to you, and tell you how glad
+I am to be here. I hope we shall like one another immensely and have a
+great many good times together. But we've got to get acquainted first,
+of course, and perhaps we'd better give most of the time to that to-day.
+First, suppose we sing something. What shall it be? What do you sing?"</p>
+
+<p>Little Susan Johnson, by virtue of having seen the teacher at
+Sunday-school, made bold to raise her hand and suggest, "Thar-thpangle
+Banner, pleath!" And so they tried it; but when Margaret found that only
+a few seemed to know the words, she said, "Wait!" Lifting her arm with a
+pretty, imperative gesture, and taking a piece of chalk from the box on
+her desk, she went to the new blackboard that stretched its shining
+black length around the room.</p>
+
+<p>The school was breathlessly watching the graceful movement of the
+beautiful hand and arm over the smooth surface, leaving behind it the
+clear, perfect script. Such wonderful writing they had never seen; such
+perfect, easy curves and twirls. Every eye in the room was fastened on
+her, every breath was held as they watched and spelled out the words one
+by one.<a class="pagenum" title="116" name="page_116" id="page_116"></a> "Gee!" said Bud, softly, under his breath, nor knew that he had
+spoken, but no one else moved.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," she said, "let us sing," and when they started off again
+Margaret's strong, clear soprano leading, every voice in the room
+growled out the words and tried to get in step with the tune.</p>
+
+<p>They had gone thus through two verses when Jed seemed to think it was
+about time to start something. Things were going altogether too smoothly
+for an untried teacher, if she <i>was</i> handsome and unabashed. If they
+went on like this the scholars would lose all respect for him. So, being
+quite able to sing a clear tenor, he nevertheless puckered his lips
+impertinently, drew his brows in an ominous frown, and began to whistle
+a somewhat erratic accompaniment to the song. He watched the teacher
+closely, expecting to see the color flame in her cheeks, the anger flash
+in her eyes; he had tried this trick on other teachers and it always
+worked. He gave the wink to Timothy, and he too left off his glorious
+bass and began to whistle.</p>
+
+<p>But instead of the anger and annoyance they expected, Margaret turned
+appreciative eyes toward the two back seats, nodding her head a trifle
+and smiling with her eyes as she sang; and when the verse was done she
+held up her hand for silence and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Why, boys, that's beautiful! Let's try that verse once more, and you
+two whistle the accompaniment a little stronger in the chorus; or how
+would it do if you just came in on the chorus? I believe that would be
+more effective. Let's try the first verse that way; you boys sing during
+the verse<a class="pagenum" title="117" name="page_117" id="page_117"></a> and then whistle the chorus just as you did now. We really
+need your voices in the verse part, they are so strong and splendid.
+Let's try it now." And she started off again, the two big astonished
+fellows meekly doing as they were told, and really the effect was
+beautiful. What was their surprise when the whole song was finished to
+have her say, "Now everybody whistle the chorus softly," and then pucker
+up her own soft lips to join in. That completely finished the whistling
+stunt. Jed realized that it would never work again, not while she was
+here, for she had turned the joke into beauty and made them all enjoy
+it. It hadn't annoyed her in the least.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow by that time they were all ready for anything she had to
+suggest, and they watched again breathlessly as she wrote another song
+on the blackboard, taking the other side of the room for it, and this
+time a hymn&mdash;"I Need Thee Every Hour."</p>
+
+<p>When they began to sing it, however, Margaret found the tune went
+slowly, uncertainly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how we need a piano!" she exclaimed. "I wonder if we can't get up
+an entertainment and raise money to buy one. How many will help?"</p>
+
+<p>Every hand in the place went up, Jed's and Timothy's last and only a
+little way, but she noted with triumph that they went up.</p>
+
+<p>"All right; we'll do it! Now let's sing that verse correctly." And she
+began to sing again, while they all joined anxiously in, really trying
+to do their best.</p>
+
+<p>The instant the last verse died away, Margaret's voice took their
+attention.<a class="pagenum" title="118" name="page_118" id="page_118"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Two years ago in Boston two young men, who belonged to a little group
+of Christian workers who were going around from place to place holding
+meetings, sat talking together in their room in the hotel one evening."</p>
+
+<p>There was instant quiet, a kind of a breathless quiet. This was not like
+the beginning of any lesson any other teacher had ever given them. Every
+eye was fixed on her.</p>
+
+<p>"They had been talking over the work of the day, and finally one of them
+suggested that they choose a Bible verse for the whole year&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>There was a movement of impatience from one back seat, as if Jed had
+scented an incipient sermon, but the teacher's voice went steadily on:</p>
+
+<p>"They talked it over, and at last they settled on II Timothy ii:15. They
+made up their minds to use it on every possible occasion. It was time to
+go to bed, so the man whose room adjoined got up and, instead of saying
+good night, he said, 'Well, II Timothy ii:15,' and went to his room.
+Pretty soon, when he put out his light, he knocked on the wall and
+shouted 'II Timothy ii:15,' and the other man responded, heartily, 'All
+right, II Timothy ii:15.' The next morning when they wrote their letters
+each of them wrote 'II Timothy ii:15' on the lower left-hand corner of
+the envelope, and sent out a great handful of letters to all parts of
+the world. Those letters passed through the Boston post-office, and some
+of the clerks who sorted them saw that queer legend written down in the
+lower left-hand corner of the envelope, and they wondered at it, and one
+or two wrote it down, to<a class="pagenum" title="119" name="page_119" id="page_119"></a> look it up afterward. The letters reached
+other cities and were put into the hands of mail-carriers to distribute,
+and they saw the queer little sentence, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and they
+wondered, and some of them looked it up."</p>
+
+<p>By this time the entire attention of the school was upon the story, for
+they perceived that it was a story.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The men left Boston and went across the ocean to hold meetings in other
+cities, and one day at a little railway station in Europe a group of
+people were gathered, waiting for a train, and those two men were among
+them. Pretty soon the train came, and one of the men got on the back end
+of the last car, while the other stayed on the platform, and as the
+train moved off the man on the last car took off his hat and said, in a
+good, loud, clear tone, 'Well, take care of yourself, II Timothy ii:15,'
+and the other one smiled and waved his hat and answered, 'Yes, II
+Timothy ii:15.' The man on the train, which was moving fast now, shouted
+back, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and the man on the platform responded still
+louder, waving his hat, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and back and forth the queer
+sentence was flung until the train was too far away for them to hear
+each other's voices. In the mean time all the people on the platform had
+been standing there listening and wondering what in the world such a
+strange salutation could mean. Some of them recognized what it was, but
+many did not know, and yet the sentence was said over so many times that
+they could not help remembering it; and some went away to recall it and
+ask their friends what it meant.<a class="pagenum" title="120" name="page_120" id="page_120"></a> A young man from America was on that
+platform and heard it, and he knew it stood for a passage in the Bible,
+and his curiosity was so great that he went back to his boarding-house
+and hunted up the Bible his mother had packed in his trunk when he came
+away from home, and he hunted through the Bible until he found the
+place, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and read it; and it made him think about his
+life and decide that he wasn't doing as he ought to do. I can't tell you
+all the story about that queer Bible verse, how it went here and there
+and what a great work it did in people's hearts; but one day those
+Christian workers went to Australia to hold some meetings, and one
+night, when the great auditorium was crowded, a man who was leading the
+meeting got up and told the story of this verse, how it had been chosen,
+and how it had gone over the world in strange ways, even told about the
+morning at the little railway station when the two men said good-by.
+Just as he got to that place in his story a man in the audience stood up
+and said: 'Brother, just let me say a word, please. I never knew
+anything about all this before, but I was at that railway station, and I
+heard those two men shout that strange good-by, and I went home and read
+that verse, and it's made a great difference in my life.'</p>
+
+<p>"There was a great deal more to the story, how some Chicago policemen
+got to be good men through reading that verse, and how the story of the
+Australia meetings was printed in an Australian paper and sent to a lady
+in America who sent it to a friend in England to read about the
+meetings. And this friend in England had a son in the army in India,<a class="pagenum" title="121" name="page_121" id="page_121"></a> to
+whom she was sending a package, and she wrapped it around something in
+that package, and the young man read all about it, and it helped to
+change his life. Well, I thought of that story this morning when I was
+trying to decide what to read for our opening chapter, and it occurred
+to me that perhaps you would be interested to take that verse for our
+school verse this term, and so if you would like it I will put it on the
+blackboard. Would you like it, I wonder?"</p>
+
+<p>She paused wistfully, as if she expected an answer, and there was a low,
+almost inaudible growl of assent; a keen listener might almost have said
+it had an impatient quality in it, as if they were in a hurry to find
+out what the verse was that had made such a stir in the world.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Margaret, turning to the board; "then I'll put it
+where we all can see it, and while I write it will you please say over
+where it is, so that you will remember it and hunt it up for yourselves
+in your Bibles at home?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a sort of snicker at that, for there were probably not half a
+dozen Bibles, if there were so many, represented in that school; but
+they took her hint as she wrote, and chanted, "II Timothy ii:15, II
+Timothy ii:15," and then spelled out after her rapid crayon, "Study to
+show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be
+ashamed."</p>
+
+<p>They read it together at her bidding, with a wondering, half-serious
+look in their faces, and then she said, "Now, shall we pray?"</p>
+
+<p>The former teacher had not opened her school<a class="pagenum" title="122" name="page_122" id="page_122"></a> with prayer. It had never
+been even suggested in that school. It might have been a dangerous
+experiment if Margaret had attempted it sooner in her program. As it
+was, there was a shuffling of feet in the back seats at her first word;
+but the room, grew quiet again, perhaps out of curiosity to hear a
+woman's voice in prayer:</p>
+
+<p>"Our Heavenly Father, we want to ask Thee to bless us in our work
+together, and to help us to be such workmen that we shall not need to be
+ashamed to show our work to Thee at the close of the day. For Christ's
+sake we ask it. Amen."</p>
+
+<p>They did not have time to resent that prayer before she had them
+interested in something else. In fact, she had planned her whole first
+day out so that there should not be a minute for misbehavior. She had
+argued that if she could just get time to become acquainted with them
+she might prevent a lot of trouble before it ever started. Her first
+business was to win her scholars. After that she could teach them easily
+if they were once willing to learn.</p>
+
+<p>She had a set of mental arithmetic problems ready which she propounded
+to them next, some of them difficult and some easy enough for the
+youngest child who could think, and she timed their answers and wrote on
+the board the names of those who raised their hands first and had the
+correct answers. The questions were put in a fascinating way, many of
+them having curious little catches in them for the scholars who were not
+on the alert, and Timothy presently discovered this and set himself to
+get every one, coming off victorious at the end. Even<a class="pagenum" title="123" name="page_123" id="page_123"></a> Jed roused
+himself and was interested, and some of the girls quite distinguished
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p>When a half-hour of this was over she put the word "<span class="smcap">transfiguration</span>" on
+the blackboard, and set them to playing a regular game out of it. If
+some of the school-board had come in just then they might have lifted up
+hands of horror at the idea of the new teacher setting the whole school
+to playing a game. But they certainly would have been delightfully
+surprised to see a quiet and orderly room with bent heads and knit
+brows, all intent upon papers and pencils. Never before in the annals of
+that school had the first day held a full period of quiet or
+orderliness. It was expected to be a day of battle; a day of trying out
+the soul of the teacher and proving whether he or she were worthy to
+cope with the active minds and bodies of the young bullies of Ashland.
+But the expected battle had been forgotten. Every mind was busy with the
+matter in hand.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret had given them three minutes to write as many words as they
+could think of, of three letters or more, beginning with T, and using
+only the letters in the word she had put on the board. When time was
+called there was a breathless rush to write a last word, and then each
+scholar had to tell how many words he had, and each was called upon to
+read his list. Some had only two or three, some had ten or eleven. They
+were allowed to mark their words, counting one for each person present
+who did not have that word and doubling if it were two syllables, and so
+on. Excitement ran high when it was discovered that some had actually
+made<a class="pagenum" title="124" name="page_124" id="page_124"></a> a count of thirty or forty, and when they started writing words
+beginning with R every head was bent intently from the minute time was
+started.</p>
+
+<p>Never had three minutes seemed so short to those unused brains, and Jed
+yelled out: "Aw, gee! I only got three!" when time was called next.</p>
+
+<p>It was recess-time when they finally finished every letter in that word,
+and, adding all up, found that Timothy had won the game. Was that
+school? Why, a barbecue couldn't be named beside it for fun! They rushed
+out to the school-yard with a shout, and the boys played leap-frog
+loudly for the first few minutes. Margaret, leaning her tired head in
+her hands, elbows on the window-seat, closing her eyes and gathering
+strength for the after-recess session, heard one boy say: "Wal, how d'ye
+like 'er?" And the answer came: "Gee! I didn't think she'd be that kind
+of a guy! I thought she'd be some stiff old Ike! Ain't she a peach,
+though?" She lifted up her head and laughed triumphantly to herself, her
+eyes alight, herself now strengthened for the fray. She wasn't wholly
+failing, then?</p>
+
+<p>After recess there was a spelling-match, choosing sides, of course,
+"Because this is only the first day, and we must get acquainted before
+we can do real work, you know," she explained.</p>
+
+<p>The spelling-match proved an exciting affair also, with new features
+that Ashland had never seen before. Here the girls began to shine into
+prominence, but there were very few good spellers, and they were
+presently reduced to two girls&mdash;Rosa Rogers, the beauty of the school,
+and Amanda Bounds, a stolid, homely girl with deep eyes and a broad
+brow.<a class="pagenum" title="125" name="page_125" id="page_125"></a></p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to give this as a prize to the one who stands up the
+longest," said Margaret, with sudden inspiration as she saw the boys in
+their seats getting restless; and she unpinned a tiny blue-silk bow that
+fastened her white collar.</p>
+
+<p>The girls all said "Oh-h-h!" and immediately every one in the room
+straightened up. The next few minutes those two girls spelled for dear
+life, each with her eye fixed upon the tiny blue bow in the teacher's
+white hands. To own that bow, that wonderful, strange bow of the
+heavenly blue, with the graceful twist to the tie! What delight! The
+girl who won that would be the admired of all the school. Even the boys
+sat up and took notice, each secretly thinking that Rosa, the beauty,
+would get it, of course.</p>
+
+<p>But she didn't; she slipped up on the word "receive," after all, putting
+the i before the e; and her stolid companion, catching her breath
+awesomely, slowly spelled it right and received the blue prize, pinned
+gracefully at the throat of her old brown gingham by the teacher's own
+soft, white fingers, while the school looked on admiringly and the blood
+rolled hotly up the back of her neck and spread over her face and
+forehead. Rosa, the beauty, went crestfallen to her seat.</p>
+
+<p>It was at noon, while they ate their lunch, that Margaret tried to get
+acquainted with the girls, calling most of them by name, to their great
+surprise, and hinting of delightful possibilities in the winter's work.
+Then she slipped out among the boys and watched their sports, laughing
+and applauding when some one made a particularly fine play, as if she
+thoroughly understood and appreciated.<a class="pagenum" title="126" name="page_126" id="page_126"></a></p>
+
+<p>She managed to stand near Jed and Timothy just before Bud rang the bell.
+"I've heard you are great sportsmen," she said to them, confidingly.
+"And I've been wondering if you'll teach me some things I want to learn?
+I want to know how to ride and shoot. Do you suppose I could learn?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!" they chorused, eagerly, their embarrassment forgotten. "Sure,
+you could learn fine! Sure, <i>we'll learn</i> you!"</p>
+
+<p>And then the bell rang and they all went in.</p>
+
+<p>The afternoon was a rather informal arrangement of classes and schedule
+for the next day, Margaret giving out slips of paper with questions for
+each to answer, that she might find out just where to place them; and
+while they wrote she went from one to another, getting acquainted,
+advising, and suggesting about what they wanted to study. It was all so
+new and wonderful to them! They had not been used to caring what they
+were to study. Now it almost seemed interesting.</p>
+
+<p>But when the day was done, the school-house locked, and Bud and Margaret
+started for home, she realized that she was weary. Yet it was a
+weariness of success and not of failure, and she felt happy in looking
+forward to the morrow.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="127" name="page_127" id="page_127"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The minister had decided to preach in Ashland, and on the following
+Sabbath. It became apparent that if he wished to have any notice at all
+from the haughty new teacher he must do something at once to establish
+his superiority in her eyes. He had carefully gone over his store of
+sermons that he always carried with him, and decided to preach on "The
+Dynamics of Altruism."</p>
+
+<p>Notices had been posted up in saloons and stores and post-office. He had
+made them himself after completely tabooing Mr. Tanner's kindly and
+blundering attempt, and they gave full information concerning "the Rev.
+Frederick West, Ph.D., of the vicinity of New York City, who had kindly
+consented to preach in the school-house on 'The Dynamics of Altruism.'"</p>
+
+<p>Several of these elaborately printed announcements had been posted up on
+big trees along the trails, and in other conspicuous places, and there
+was no doubt but that the coming Sabbath services were more talked of
+than anything else in that neighborhood for miles around, except the new
+teacher and her extraordinary way of making all the scholars fall in
+love with her. It is quite possible that the Reverend Frederick might
+not have been so flattered<a class="pagenum" title="128" name="page_128" id="page_128"></a> at the size of his audience when the day
+came if he could have known how many of them came principally because
+they thought it would be a good opportunity to see the new teacher.</p>
+
+<p>However, the announcements were read, and the preacher became an object
+of deep interest to the community when he went abroad. Under this
+attention he swelled, grew pleased, bland, and condescending, wearing an
+oily smile and bowing most conceitedly whenever anybody noticed him. He
+even began to drop his severity and silence at the table, toward the end
+of the week, and expanded into dignified conversation, mainly addressed
+to Mr. Tanner about the political situation in the State of Arizona. He
+was trying to impress the teacher with the fact that he looked upon her
+as a most insignificant mortal who had forfeited her right to his smiles
+by her headstrong and unseemly conduct when he had warned her about
+"that young ruffian."</p>
+
+<p>Out on the trail Long Bill and Jasper Kemp paused before a tree that
+bore the Reverend Frederick's church notice, and read in silence while
+the wide wonder of the desert spread about them.</p>
+
+<p>"What d'ye make out o' them cuss words, Jap?" asked Long Bill, at
+length. "D'ye figger the parson's goin' to preach on swearin' ur
+gunpowder?"</p>
+
+<p>"Blowed ef I know," answered Jasper, eying the sign ungraciously; "but
+by the looks of him he can't say much to suit me on neither one. He
+resembles a yaller cactus bloom out in a rain-storm as to head, an' his
+smile is like some of them prickles on the plant. He can't be no
+'sky-pilot' to me, not just yet."<a class="pagenum" title="129" name="page_129" id="page_129"></a></p>
+
+<p>"You don't allow he b'longs in any way to <i>her</i>?" asked Long Bill,
+anxiously, after they had been on their way for a half-hour.</p>
+
+<p>"B'long to <i>her</i>? Meanin' the schoolmarm?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; he ain't sweet on her nor nothin'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, I guess not," said Jasper, contentedly. "She's got eyes sharp's a
+needle. You don't size her up so small she's goin' to take to a sickly
+parson with yaller hair an' sleek ways when she's seen the Kid, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, no, it don't seem noways reasonable, but you never can tell. Women
+gets notions."</p>
+
+<p>"She ain't that kind! You mark my words, <i>she ain't that kind</i>. I'd lay
+she'd punch the breeze like a coyote ef he'd make up to her. Just you
+wait till you see him. He's the most no-'count, measleyest little thing
+that ever called himself a man. My word! I'd like to see him try to ride
+that colt o' mine. I really would. It would be some sight for sore eyes,
+it sure would."</p>
+
+<p>"Mebbe he's got a intellec'," suggested Long Bill, after another mile.
+"That goes a long ways with women-folks with a education."</p>
+
+<p>"No chance!" said Jasper, confidently. "'Ain't got room fer one under
+his yaller thatch. You wait till you set your lamps on him once before
+you go to gettin' excited. Why, he ain't one-two-three with our
+missionary! Gosh! I wish <i>he'd</i> come back an' see to such goin's-on&mdash;I
+certainly do."</p>
+
+<p>"Was you figgerin' to go to that gatherin' Sunday?"</p>
+
+<p>"I sure was," said Jasper. "I want to see the show, an', besides, we
+might be needed ef things got too high-soundin'. It ain't good to have a
+creature<a class="pagenum" title="130" name="page_130" id="page_130"></a> at large that thinks he knows all there is to know. I heard
+him talk down to the post-office the day after that little party we had
+when the Kid shot out the lights to save Bunchy from killin' Crapster,
+an' it's my opinion he needs a good spankin'; but I'm agoin' to give him
+a fair show. I ain't much on religion myself, but I do like to see a
+square deal, especially in a parson. I've sized it up he needs a
+lesson."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm with ye, Jap," said Long Bill, and the two rode on their way in
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret was so busy and so happy with her school all the week that she
+quite forgot her annoyance at the minister. She really saw very little
+of him, for he was always late to breakfast, and she took hers early.
+She went to her room immediately after supper, and he had little
+opportunity for pursuing her acquaintance. Perhaps he judged that it
+would be wise to let her alone until after he had made his grand
+impression on Sunday, and let her "make up" to him.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until Sunday morning that she suddenly recalled that he was
+to preach that day. She had indeed seen the notices, for a very large
+and elaborate one was posted in front of the school-house, and some
+anonymous artist had produced a fine caricature of the preacher in red
+clay underneath his name. Margaret had been obliged to remain after
+school Friday and remove as much of this portrait as she was able, not
+having been willing to make it a matter of discipline to discover the
+artist. In fact, it was so true to the model that the young teacher felt
+a growing sympathy for the one who had perpetrated it.<a class="pagenum" title="131" name="page_131" id="page_131"></a></p>
+
+<p>Margaret started to the school-house early Sunday morning, attended by
+the faithful Bud. Not that he had any more intention of going to
+Sunday-school than he had the week before, but it was pleasant to be the
+chosen escort of so popular a teacher. Even Jed and Timothy had walked
+home with her twice during the week. He did not intend to lose his place
+as nearest to her. There was only one to whom he would surrender that,
+and he was too far away to claim it often.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret had promised to help in the Sunday-school that morning, for the
+woman who taught the little ones was still away with her sick neighbor,
+and on the way she persuaded Bud to help her.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll be secretary for me, won't you, William?" she asked, brightly.
+"I'm going to take the left-front corner of the room for the children,
+and seat them on the recitation-benches, and that will leave all the
+back part of the room for the older people. Then I can use the
+blackboard and not disturb the rest."</p>
+
+<p>"Secretary?" asked the astonished Bud. He was, so to speak, growing
+accustomed to surprises. "Secretary" did not sound like being "a nice
+little Sunday-school boy."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes! take up the collection, and see who is absent, and so on. I
+don't know all the names, perhaps, and, anyhow, I don't like to do that
+when I have to teach!"</p>
+
+<p>Artful Margaret! She had no mind to leave Bud floating around outside
+the school-house, and though she had ostensibly prepared her lesson and
+her blackboard illustration for the little children, she had<a class="pagenum" title="132" name="page_132" id="page_132"></a> hidden in
+it a truth for Bud&mdash;poor, neglected, devoted Bud!</p>
+
+<p>The inefficient old man who taught the older people that day gathered
+his forces together and, seated with his back to the platform, his
+spectacles extended upon his long nose, he proceeded with the questions
+on the lesson-leaf, as usual, being more than ordinarily unfamiliar with
+them; but before he was half through he perceived by the long pauses
+between the questions and answers that he did not have the attention of
+his class. He turned slowly around to see what they were all looking at,
+and became so engaged in listening to the lesson the new teacher was
+drawing on the blackboard that he completely forgot to go on, until Bud,
+very important in his new position, rang the tiny desk-bell for the
+close of school, and Margaret, looking up, saw in dismay that she had
+been teaching the whole school.</p>
+
+<p>While they were singing a closing hymn the room began to fill up, and
+presently came the minister, walking importantly beside Mr. Tanner, his
+chin flattened upward as usual, but bent in till it made a double roll
+over his collar, his eyes rolling importantly, showing much of their
+whites, his sermon, in an elaborate leather cover, carried conspicuously
+under his arm, and the severest of clerical coats and collars setting
+out his insignificant face.</p>
+
+<p>Walking behind him in single file, measured step, just so far apart,
+came the eight men from the bunk-house&mdash;Long Bill, Big Jim, Fiddling
+Boss, Jasper Kemp, Fade-away Forbes, Stocky, Croaker, and Fudge; and
+behind them, looking like a scared rabbit, Mom Wallis scuttled into the
+back seat and sank out<a class="pagenum" title="133" name="page_133" id="page_133"></a> of sight. The eight men, however, ranged
+themselves across the front of the room on the recitation-bench,
+directly in front of the platform, removing a few small children for
+that purpose.</p>
+
+<p>They had been lined up in a scowling row along the path as the minister
+entered, looking at them askance under his aristocratic yellow eyebrows,
+and as he neared the door the last man followed in his wake, then the
+next, and so on.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret, in her seat half-way back at the side of the school-house near
+a window, saw through the trees a wide sombrero over a pair of broad
+shoulders; but, though she kept close watch, she did not see her friend
+of the wilderness enter the school-house. If he had really come to
+meeting, he was staying outside.</p>
+
+<p>The minister was rather nonplussed at first that there were no
+hymn-books. It almost seemed that he did not know how to go on with
+divine service without hymn-books, but at last he compromised on the
+long-meter Doxology, pronounced with deliberate unction. Then, looking
+about for a possible pipe-organ and choir, he finally started it
+himself; but it is doubtful whether any one would have recognized the
+tune enough to help it on if Margaret had not for very shame's sake
+taken it up and carried it along, and so they came to the prayer and
+Bible-reading.</p>
+
+<p>These were performed with a formal, perfunctory style calculated to
+impress the audience with the importance of the preacher rather than the
+words he was speaking. The audience was very quiet, having the air of
+reserving judgment for the sermon.<a class="pagenum" title="134" name="page_134" id="page_134"></a></p>
+
+<p>Margaret could not just remember afterward how it was she missed the
+text. She had turned her eyes away from the minister, because it somehow
+made her feel homesick to compare him with her dear, dignified father.
+Her mind had wandered, perhaps, to the sombrero she had glimpsed
+outside, and she was wondering how its owner was coming on with his
+resolves, and just what change they would mean in his life, anyway. Then
+suddenly she awoke to the fact that the sermon had begun.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="135" name="page_135" id="page_135"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Considered in the world of physics," began the lordly tones of the
+Reverend Frederick, "dynamics is that branch of mechanics that treats of
+the effects of forces in producing motion, and of the laws of motion
+thus produced; sometimes called kinetics, opposed to statics. It is the
+science that treats of the laws of force, whether producing equilibrium
+or motion; in this sense including both statics and kinetics. It is also
+applied to the forces producing or governing activity or movement of any
+kind; also the methods of such activity."</p>
+
+<p>The big words rolled out magnificently over the awed gathering, and the
+minister flattened his chin and rolled his eyes up at the people in his
+most impressive way.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret's gaze hastily sought the row of rough men on the front seat,
+sitting with folded arms in an attitude of attention, each man with a
+pair of intelligent eyes under his shaggy brows regarding the preacher
+as they might have regarded an animal in a zoo. Did they understand what
+had been said? It was impossible to tell from their serious faces.</p>
+
+<p>"Philanthropy has been called the dynamics of Christianity; that is to
+say, it is Christianity in action," went on the preacher. "It is my
+purpose<a class="pagenum" title="136" name="page_136" id="page_136"></a> this morning to speak upon the dynamics of altruism. Now
+altruism is the theory that inculcates benevolence to others in
+subordination to self-interest; interested benevolence as opposed to
+disinterested; also, the practice of this theory."</p>
+
+<p>He lifted his eyes to the audience once more and nodded his head
+slightly, as if to emphasize the deep truth he had just given them, and
+the battery of keen eyes before him never flinched from his face. They
+were searching him through and through. Margaret wondered if he had no
+sense of the ridiculous, that he could, to such an audience, pour forth
+such a string of technical definitions. They sounded strangely like
+dictionary language. She wondered if anybody present besides herself
+knew what the man meant or got any inkling of what his subject was.
+Surely he would drop to simpler language, now that he had laid out his
+plan.</p>
+
+<p>It never occurred to her that the man was trying to impress <i>her</i> with
+his wonderful fluency of language and his marvelous store of wisdom. On
+and on he went in much the same trend he had begun, with now and then a
+flowery sentence or whole paragraph of meaningless eloquence about the
+"brotherhood of man"&mdash;with a roll to the r's in brotherhood.</p>
+
+<p>Fifteen minutes of this profitless oratory those men of the wilderness
+endured, stolidly and with fixed attention; then, suddenly, a sentence
+of unusual simplicity struck them and an almost visible thrill went down
+the front seat.</p>
+
+<p>"For years the church has preached a dead faith, without works, my
+friends, and the time has come to stop preaching faith! I repeat
+it&mdash;fellow-men.<a class="pagenum" title="137" name="page_137" id="page_137"></a> I repeat it. The time has come <i>to stop preaching
+faith</i> and begin to do good works!" He thumped the desk vehemently. "Men
+don't need a superstitious belief in a Saviour to save them from their
+sins; they need to go to work and save themselves! As if a man dying two
+thousand years ago on a cross could do any good to you and me to-day!"</p>
+
+<p>It was then that the thrill passed down that front line, and Long Bill,
+sitting at their head, leaned slightly forward and looked full and
+frowning into the face of Jasper Kemp; and the latter, frowning back,
+solemnly winked one eye. Margaret sat where she could see the whole
+thing.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately, still with studied gravity, Long Bill cleared his throat
+impressively, arose, and, giving the minister a full look in the eye, of
+the nature almost of a challenge, he turned and walked slowly, noisily
+down the aisle and out the front door.</p>
+
+<p>The minister was visibly annoyed, and for the moment a trifle flustered;
+but, concluding his remarks had been too deep for the rough creature, he
+gathered up the thread of his argument and proceeded:</p>
+
+<p>"We need to get to work at our duty toward our fellow-men. We need to
+down trusts and give the laboring-man a chance. We need to stop
+insisting that men shall believe in the inspiration of the entire Bible
+and get to work at something practical!"</p>
+
+<p>The impressive pause after this sentence was interrupted by a sharp,
+rasping sound of Big Jim clearing his throat and shuffling to his feet.
+He, too, looked the minister full in the face with a searching gaze,
+shook his head sadly, and walked leisurely<a class="pagenum" title="138" name="page_138" id="page_138"></a> down the aisle and out of
+the door. The minister paused again and frowned. This was becoming
+annoying.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret sat in startled wonder. Could it be possible that these rough
+men were objecting to the sermon from a theological point of view, or
+was it just a happening that they had gone out at such pointed moments.
+She sat back after a minute, telling herself that of course the men must
+just have been weary of the long sentences, which no doubt they could
+not understand. She began to hope that Gardley was not within hearing.
+It was not probable that many others understood enough to get harm from
+the sermon, but her soul boiled with indignation that a man could go
+forth and call himself a minister of an evangelical church and yet talk
+such terrible heresy.</p>
+
+<p>Big Jim's steps died slowly away on the clay path outside, and the
+preacher resumed his discourse.</p>
+
+<p>"We have preached long enough of hell and torment. It is time for a
+gospel of love to our brothers. Hell is a superstition of the Dark Ages.
+<i>There is no hell!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Fiddling Boss turned sharply toward Jasper Kemp, as if waiting for a
+signal, and Jasper gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod. Whereupon
+Fiddling Boss cleared his throat loudly and arose, faced the minister,
+and marched down the aisle, while Jasper Kemp remained quietly seated as
+if nothing had happened, a vacancy each side of him.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the color began to rise in the minister's cheeks. He looked
+at the retreating back of Fiddling Boss, and then suspiciously down at<a class="pagenum" title="139" name="page_139" id="page_139"></a>
+the row of men, but every one of them sat with folded arms and eyes
+intent upon the sermon, as if their comrades had not left them. The
+minister thought he must have been mistaken and took up the broken
+thread once more, or tried to, but he had hopelessly lost the place in
+his manuscript, and the only clue that offered was a quotation of a poem
+about the devil; to be sure, the connection was somewhat abrupt, but he
+clutched it with his eye gratefully and began reading it dramatically:</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;">"'Men don't believe in the devil now<br />
+As their fathers used to do&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>But he had got no further when a whole clearing-house of throats
+sounded, and Fade-away Forbes stumbled to his feet frantically, bolting
+down the aisle as if he had been sent for. He had not quite reached the
+door when Stocky clumped after him, followed at intervals by Croaker and
+Fudge, and each just as the minister had begun:</p>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah! To resume&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>And now only Jasper Kemp remained of the front-seaters, his fine gray
+eyes boring through and through the minister as he floundered through
+the remaining portion of his manuscript up to the point where it began,
+"And finally&mdash;" which opened with another poem:</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;">"'I need no Christ to die for me.'"</p>
+
+<p>The sturdy, gray-haired Scotchman suddenly lowered his folded arms,
+slapping a hand resoundingly on each knee, bent his shoulders the better
+to pull himself to his feet, pressing his weight on his hands<a class="pagenum" title="140" name="page_140" id="page_140"></a> till his
+elbows were akimbo, uttered a deep sigh and a, "Yes&mdash;well&mdash;<i>ah</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>With that he got to his feet and dragged them slowly out of the
+school-house.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the minister was ready to burst with indignation. Never
+before in all the bombastic days of his egotism had he been so grossly
+insulted, and by such rude creatures! And yet there was really nothing
+that could be said or done. These men appeared to be simple creatures
+who had wandered in idly, perhaps for a few moments' amusement, and,
+finding the discourse above their caliber, had innocently wandered out
+again. That was the way it had been made to appear. But his plans had
+been cruelly upset by such actions, and he was mortified in the extreme.
+His face was purple with his emotions, and he struggled and spluttered
+for a way out of his trying dilemma. At last he spoke, and his voice was
+absurdly dignified:</p>
+
+<p>"Is there&mdash;ah&mdash;any other&mdash;ah&mdash;auditor&mdash;ah&mdash;who is desirous of
+withdrawing before the close of service? If so he may do so now,
+or&mdash;ah&mdash;" He paused for a suitable ending, and familiar words rushed to
+his lips without consciousness for the moment of their meaning&mdash;"or
+forever after hold their peace&mdash;ah!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a deathly silence in the school-house. No one offered to go
+out, and Margaret suddenly turned her head and looked out of the window.
+Her emotions were almost beyond her control.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the closing eloquence proceeded to its finish, and at last the
+service was over. Margaret looked about for Mom Wallis, but she had
+disappeared.<a class="pagenum" title="141" name="page_141" id="page_141"></a> She signed to Bud, and together they hastened out; but a
+quiet Sabbath peace reigned about the door of the school-house, and not
+a man from the camp was in sight; no, nor even the horses upon which
+they had come.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, when the minister had finished shaking hands with the
+worshipful women and a few men and children, and came with Mr. Tanner to
+the door of the school-house, those eight men stood in a solemn row,
+four on each side of the walk, each holding his chin in his right hand,
+his right elbow in his left hand, and all eyes on Jasper Kemp, who kept
+his eyes thoughtfully up in the sky.</p>
+
+<p>"H'w aire yeh, Tanner? Pleasant 'casion. Mind steppin' on a bit? We men
+wanta have a word with the parson."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tanner stepped on hurriedly, and the minister was left standing
+nonplussed and alone in the doorway of the school-house.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="142" name="page_142" id="page_142"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah!" began the minister, trying to summon his best clerical manner
+to meet&mdash;what? He did not know. It was best to assume they were a
+penitent band of inquirers for the truth. But the memory of their recent
+exodus from the service was rather too clearly in his mind for his
+pleasantest expression to be uppermost toward these rough creatures.
+Insolent fellows! He ought to give them a good lesson in behavior!</p>
+
+<p>"Um! Ah!" he began again, but found to his surprise that his remarks
+thus far had had no effect whatever on the eight stolid countenances
+before him. In fact, they seemed to have grown grim and menacing even in
+their quiet attitude, and their eyes were fulfilling the promise of the
+look they had given him when they left the service.</p>
+
+<p>"What does all this mean, anyway?" he burst forth, suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Calm yourself, elder! Calm yourself," spoke up Long Bill. "There ain't
+any occasion to get excited."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not an elder; I'm a minister of the gospel," exploded West, in his
+most pompous tones. "I should like to know who you are and what all this
+means?"<a class="pagenum" title="143" name="page_143" id="page_143"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, parson, we understand who you are. We understand quite well, an'
+we're agoin' to tell you who we are. We're a band of al-tru-ists! That's
+what we are. We're <i>altruists</i>!" It was Jasper Kemp of the keen eyes and
+sturdy countenance who spoke. "And we've come here in brotherly love to
+exercise a little of that dynamic force of altruism you was talkin'
+about. We just thought we'd begin on you so's you could see that we got
+some works to go 'long with our faith."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, sir?" said West, looking from one grim countenance to
+another. "I&mdash;I don't quite understand." The minister was beginning to be
+frightened, he couldn't exactly tell why. He wished he had kept Brother
+Tanner with him. It was the first time he had ever thought of Mr. Tanner
+as "brother."</p>
+
+<p>"We mean just this, parson; you been talkin' a lot of lies in there
+about there bein' no Saviour an' no hell, ner no devil, an' while we
+ain't much credit to God ourselves, bein' just common men, we know all
+that stuff you said ain't true about the Bible an' the devil bein'
+superstitions, an' we thought we better exercise a little of that there
+altruism you was talkin' about an' teach you better. You see, it's real
+brotherly kindness, parson. An' now we're goin' to give you a sample of
+that dynamics you spoke about. Are you ready, boys?"</p>
+
+<p>"All ready," they cried as one man.</p>
+
+<p>There seemed to be no concerted motion, nor was there warning. Swifter
+than the weaver's shuttle, sudden as the lightning's flash, the minister
+was caught from where he stood pompously in that<a class="pagenum" title="144" name="page_144" id="page_144"></a> doorway, hat in hand,
+all grandly as he was attired, and hurled from man to man. Across the
+walk and back; across and back; across and back; until it seemed to him
+it was a thousand miles all in a minute of time. He had no opportunity
+to prepare for the onslaught. He jammed his high silk hat, wherewith he
+had thought to overawe the community, upon his sleek head, and grasped
+his precious sermon-case to his breast; the sermon, as it well deserved,
+was flung to the four winds of heaven and fortunately was no more&mdash;that
+is, existing as a whole. The time came when each of those eight men
+recovered and retained a portion of that learned oration, and Mom
+Wallis, not quite understanding, pinned up and used as a sort of shrine
+the portion about doubting the devil; but as a sermon the parts were
+never assembled on this earth, nor could be, for some of it was ground
+to powder under eight pairs of ponderous heels. But the minister at that
+trying moment was too much otherwise engaged to notice that the child of
+his brain lay scattered on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Seven times he made the round up and down, up and down that merciless
+group, tossed like a thistle-down from man to man. And at last, when his
+breath was gone, when the world had grown black before him, and he felt
+smaller and more inadequate than he had ever felt in his whole conceited
+life before, he found himself bound, helplessly bound, and cast
+ignominiously into a wagon. And it was a strange thing that, though
+seemingly but five short minutes before the place had been swarming with
+worshipful admirers thanking him for his<a class="pagenum" title="145" name="page_145" id="page_145"></a> sermon, now there did not seem
+to be a creature within hearing, for he called and cried aloud and
+roared with his raucous voice until it would seem that all the
+surrounding States might have heard that cry from Arizona, yet none came
+to his relief.</p>
+
+<p>They carried him away somewhere, he did not know where; it was a lonely
+spot and near a water-hole. When he protested and loudly blamed them,
+threatening all the law in the land upon them, they regarded him as one
+might a naughty child who needed chastisement, leniently and with
+sorrow, but also with determination.</p>
+
+<p>They took him down by the water's side and stood him up among them. He
+began to tremble with fear as he looked from one to another, for he was
+not a man of courage, and he had heard strange tales of this wild, free
+land, where every man was a law unto himself. Were they going to drown
+him then and there? Then up spoke Jasper Kemp:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Parson," he said, and his voice was kind but firm; one might almost
+say there was a hint of humor in it, and there surely was a twinkle in
+his eye; but the sternness of his lips belied it, and the minister was
+in no state to appreciate humor&mdash;"Mr. Parson, we've brought you here to
+do you good, an' you oughtn't to complain. This is altruism, an' we're
+but actin' out what you been preachin'. You're our brother an' we're
+tryin' to do you good; an' now we're about to show you what a dynamic
+force we are. You see, Mr. Parson, I was brought up by a good Scotch
+grandmother, an' I know a lie when I hear it, an' when I hear a man
+preach error I know it's time to set him straight; so now we're<a class="pagenum" title="146" name="page_146" id="page_146"></a> agoin'
+to set you straight. I don't know where you come from, nor who brang you
+up, nor what church set you afloat, but I know enough by all my
+grandmother taught me&mdash;even if I hadn't been a-listenin' off and on for
+two years back to Mr. Brownleigh, our missionary&mdash;to know you're a
+dangerous man to have at large. I'd as soon have a mad dog let loose.
+Why, what you preach ain't the gospel, an' it ain't the truth, and the
+time has come for you to know it, an' own it and recant. Recant! That's
+what they call it. That's what we're here to see 't you do, or we'll
+know the reason why. That's the <i>dynamics</i> of it. See?"</p>
+
+<p>The minister saw. He saw the deep, muddy water-hole. He saw nothing
+more.</p>
+
+<p>"Folks are all too ready to believe them there things you was gettin'
+off without havin' 'em <i>preached</i> to justify 'em in their evil ways. We
+gotta think of those poor ignorant brothers of ours that might listen to
+you. See? That's the <i>altruism</i> of it!"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want me to do?" The wretched man's tone was not merely
+humble&mdash;it was abject. His grand Prince Albert coat was torn in three
+places; one tail hung down dejectedly over his hip; one sleeve was
+ripped half-way out. His collar was unbuttoned and the ends rode up
+hilariously over his cheeks. His necktie was gone. His sleek hair stuck
+out in damp wisps about his frightened eyes, and his hat had been "stove
+in" and jammed down as far as it would go until his ample ears stuck out
+like sails at half-mast. His feet were imbedded in the heavy mud on the
+margin of the water-hole, and his fine silk socks, which had showed at
+one<a class="pagenum" title="147" name="page_147" id="page_147"></a> time above the erstwhile neat tyings, were torn and covered with
+mud.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, in the first place," said Jasper Kemp, with a slow wink around at
+the company, "that little matter about hell needs adjustin'. Hell ain't
+no superstition. I ain't dictatin' what kind of a hell there is; you can
+make it fire or water or anything else you like, but <i>there is a hell</i>,
+an' <i>you believe in it</i>. D'ye understand? We'd just like to have you
+make that statement publicly right here an' now."</p>
+
+<p>"But how can I say what I don't believe?" whined West, almost ready to
+cry. He had come proudly through a trial by Presbytery on these very
+same points, and had posed as being a man who had the courage of his
+convictions. He could not thus easily surrender his pride of original
+thought and broad-mindedness. He had received congratulations from a
+number of noble martyrs who had left their chosen church for just such
+reasons, congratulating him on his brave stand. It had been the first
+notice from big men he had ever been able to attract to himself, and it
+had gone to his head like wine. Give that up for a few miserable
+cowboys! It might get into the papers and go back East. He must think of
+his reputation.</p>
+
+<p>"That's just where the dynamics of the thing comes in, brother," said
+Jasper Kemp, patronizingly. "We're here to <i>make</i> you believe in a hell.
+We're the force that will bring you back into the right way of thinkin'
+again. Are you ready, boys?"</p>
+
+<p>The quiet utterance brought goose-flesh up to West's very ears, and his
+eyes bulged with horror.<a class="pagenum" title="148" name="page_148" id="page_148"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that isn't necessary! I believe&mdash;yes, I believe in hell!" he
+shouted, as they seized him.</p>
+
+<p>But it was too late. The Rev. Frederick West was plunged into the
+water-hole, from whose sheep-muddied waters he came up spluttering,
+"Yes, I believe in <i>hell</i>!" and for the first time in his life, perhaps,
+he really did believe in it, and thought that he was in it.</p>
+
+<p>The men were standing knee-deep in the water and holding their captive
+lightly by his arms and legs, their eyes upon their leader, waiting now.</p>
+
+<p>Jasper Kemp stood in the water, also, looking down benevolently upon his
+victim, his chin in his hand, his elbow in his other hand, an attitude
+which carried a feeling of hopelessness to the frightened minister.</p>
+
+<p>"An' now there's that little matter of the devil," said Jasper Kemp,
+reflectively. "We'll just fix that up next while we're near his place of
+residence. You believe in the devil, Mr. Parson, from now on? If you'd
+ever tried resistin' him I figger you'd have b'lieved in him long ago.
+But <i>you believe in him</i> from <i>now on</i>, an' you <i>don't preach against
+him any more</i>! We're not goin' to have our Arizona men gettin' off their
+guard an' thinkin' their enemy is dead. There <i>is</i> a devil, parson, and
+you believe in him! Duck him, boys!"</p>
+
+<p>Down went the minister into the water again, and came up spluttering,
+"Yes, I&mdash;I&mdash;I&mdash;believe&mdash;in-the&mdash;devil." Even in this strait he was loath
+to surrender his pet theme&mdash;no devil.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, so far as it goes," said Jasper Kemp, thoughtfully. "But
+now, boys, we're comin' to the<a class="pagenum" title="149" name="page_149" id="page_149"></a> most important of all, and you better
+put him under about three times, for there mustn't be no mistake about
+this matter. You believe in the Bible, parson&mdash;<i>the whole Bible</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes!" gasped West, as he went down the first time and got a mouthful of
+the bitter water, "I believe&mdash;" The voice was fairly anguished. Down he
+went again. Another mouthful of water. "<i>I believe in the whole Bible!</i>"
+he screamed, and went down the third time. His voice was growing weaker,
+but he came up and reiterated it without request, and was lifted out
+upon the mud for a brief respite. The men of the bunk-house were
+succeeding better than the Presbytery back in the East had been able to
+do. The conceit was no longer visible in the face of the Reverend
+Frederick. His teeth were chattering, and he was beginning to see one
+really needed to believe in something when one came as near to his end
+as this.</p>
+
+<p>"There's just one more thing to reckon with," said Jasper Kemp,
+thoughtfully. "That line of talk you was handin' out about a man dyin'
+on a cross two thousand years ago bein' nothin' to you. You said you
+<i>an' me</i>, but you can speak for <i>yourself</i>. We may not be much to look
+at, but we ain't goin' to stand for no such slander as that. Our
+missionary preaches all about that Man on the Cross, an' if you don't
+need Him before you get through this little campaign of life I'll miss
+my guess. Mebbe we haven't been all we might have been, but we ain't
+agoin' to let you ner no one else go back on that there Cross!"</p>
+
+<p>Jasper Kemp's tone was tender and solemn. As<a class="pagenum" title="150" name="page_150" id="page_150"></a> the minister lay panting
+upon his back in the mud he was forced to acknowledge that at only two
+other times in his life had a tone of voice so arrested his attention
+and filled him with awe; once when as a boy he had been caught copying
+off another's paper at examination-time, and he had been sent to the
+principal's office; and again on the occasion of his mother's funeral,
+as he sat in the dim church a few years ago and listened to the old
+minister. For a moment now he was impressed with the wonder of the
+Cross, and it suddenly seemed as if he were being arraigned before the
+eyes of Him with Whom we all have to do. A kind of shame stole into his
+pale, flabby face, all the smugness and complacence gone, and he a poor
+wretch in the hands of his accusers. Jasper Kemp, standing over him on
+the bank, looking down grimly upon him, seemed like the emissary of God
+sent to condemn him, and his little, self-centered soul quailed within
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Along near the end of that discourse of yours you mentioned that sin
+was only misplaced energy. Well, if that's so there's a heap of your
+energy gone astray this mornin', an' the time has come for you to pay
+up. Speak up now an' say what you believe or whether you want another
+duckin'&mdash;an' it'll be seven times this time!"</p>
+
+<p>The man on the ground shut his eyes and gasped. The silence was very
+solemn. There seemed no hint of the ridiculous in the situation. It was
+serious business now to all those men. Their eyes were on their leader.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you solemnly declare before God&mdash;I s'pose you still believe in a
+God, as you didn't say nothin'<a class="pagenum" title="151" name="page_151" id="page_151"></a> to the contrary&mdash;that from now on you'll
+stand for that there Cross and for Him that hung on it?"</p>
+
+<p>The minister opened his eyes and looked up into the wide brightness of
+the sky, as if he half expected to see horses and chariots of fire
+standing about to do battle with him then and there, and his voice was
+awed and frightened as he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I do!"</p>
+
+<p>There was silence, and the men stood with half-bowed heads, as if some
+solemn service were being performed that they did not quite understand,
+but in which they fully sympathized. Then Jasper Kemp said, softly:</p>
+
+<p>"Amen!" And after a pause: "I ain't any sort of a Christian myself, but
+I just can't stand it to see a parson floatin' round that don't even
+know the name of the firm he's workin' for. Now, parson, there's just
+one more requirement, an' then you can go home."</p>
+
+<p>The minister opened his eyes and looked around with a frightened appeal,
+but no one moved, and Jasper Kemp went on:</p>
+
+<p>"You say you had a church in New York. What was the name and address
+of your workin'-boss up there?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean? I hadn't any boss."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, him that hired you an' paid you. The chief elder or whatever you
+called him."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" The minister's tone expressed lack of interest in the subject, but
+he answered, languidly, "Ezekiel Newbold, Hazelton."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good. Now, parson, you'll just kindly write two copies of a letter
+to Mr. Ezekiel Newbold<a class="pagenum" title="152" name="page_152" id="page_152"></a> statin' what you've just said to us concernin'
+your change of faith, sign your name, address one to Mr. Newbold, an'
+give the duplicate to me. We just want this little matter put on record
+so you can't change your mind any in future. Do you get my idea?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the minister, dispiritedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you do it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," apathetically.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now I got a piece of advice for you. It would be just as well for
+your health for you to leave Arizona about as quick as you can find it
+convenient to pack, but you won't be allowed to leave this town, day or
+night, cars or afoot, until them there letters are all O.K. Do you get
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," pathetically.</p>
+
+<p>"I might add, by way of explainin', that if you had come to Arizona an'
+minded your own business you wouldn't have been interfered with. You
+mighta preached whatever bosh you darned pleased so far as we was
+concerned, only you wouldn't have had no sorta audience after the first
+try of that stuff you give to-day. But when you come to Arizona an' put
+your fingers in other folks' pie, when you tried to 'squeal' on the
+young gentleman who was keen enough to shoot out the lights to save a
+man's life, why, we 'ain't no further use for you. In the first place,
+you was all wrong. You thought the Kid shot out the lights to steal the
+gamin'-money; but he didn't. He put it all in the hands of the sheriff
+some hours before your 'private information' reached him through the
+mail. You thought you were awful sharp, you little sneak!<a class="pagenum" title="153" name="page_153" id="page_153"></a> But I wasn't
+the only man present who saw you put your foot out an' cover a gold
+piece that rolled on the floor just when the fight began. You thought
+nobody was a-lookin', but you'll favor us, please, with that identical
+gold piece along with the letter before you leave. Well, boys, that'll
+be about all, then. Untie him!"</p>
+
+<p>In silence and with a kind of contemptuous pity in their faces the
+strong men stooped and unbound him; then, without another word, they
+left him, tramping solemnly away single file to their horses, standing
+at a little distance.</p>
+
+<p>Jasper Kemp lingered for a moment, looking down at the wretched man.
+"Would you care to have us carry you back to the house?" he asked,
+reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>"No!" said the minister, bitterly. "No!" And without another word Jasper
+Kemp left him.</p>
+
+<p>Into the mesquite-bushes crept the minister, his glory all departed, and
+hid his misery from the light, groaning in bitterness of spirit. He who
+had made the hearts of a score of old ministers to sorrow for Zion, who
+had split in two a pleasantly united congregation, disrupted a session,
+and brought about a scandalous trial in Presbytery was at last
+conquered. The Rev. Frederick West had recanted!</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="154" name="page_154" id="page_154"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>When Margaret left the school-house with Bud she had walked but a few
+steps when she remembered Mom Wallis and turned back to search for her;
+but nowhere could she find a trace of her, and the front of the
+school-house was as empty of any people from the camp as if they had not
+been there that morning. The curtain had not yet risen for the scene of
+the undoing of West.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose she must have gone home with them," said the girl, wistfully.
+"I'm sorry not to have spoken with her. She was good to me."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean Mom Wallis?" said the boy. "No, she ain't gone home. She's
+hiking 'long to our house to see you. The Kid went along of her. See,
+there&mdash;down by those cottonwood-trees? That's them."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret turned with eagerness and hurried along with Bud now. She knew
+who it was they called the Kid in that tone of voice. It was the way the
+men had spoken of and to him, a mingling of respect and gentling that
+showed how much beloved he was. Her cheeks wore a heightened color, and
+her heart gave a pleasant flutter of interest.</p>
+
+<p>They walked rapidly and caught up with their guests before they had
+reached the Tanner house,<a class="pagenum" title="155" name="page_155" id="page_155"></a> and Margaret had the pleasure of seeing Mom
+Wallis's face flush with shy delight when she caught her softly round
+the waist, stealing quietly up behind, and greeted her with a kiss.
+There had not been many kisses for Mom Wallis in the later years, and
+the two that were to Margaret Earle's account seemed very sweet to her.
+Mom Wallis's eyes shone as if she had been a young girl as she turned
+with a smothered "Oh!" She was a woman not given to expressing herself;
+indeed, it might be said that the last twenty years of her life had been
+mainly of self-repression. She gave that one little gasp of recognition
+and pleasure, and then she relapsed into embarrassed silence beside the
+two young people who found pleasure in their own greetings. Bud,
+boy-like, was after a cottontail, along with Cap, who had appeared from
+no one knew where and was attending the party joyously.</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis, in her big, rough shoes, on the heels of which her scant
+brown calico gown was lifted as she walked, trudged shyly along between
+the two young people, as carefully watched and helped over the humps and
+bumps of the way as if she had been a princess. Margaret noticed with a
+happy approval how Gardley's hand was ready under the old woman's elbow
+to assist her as politely as he might have done for her own mother had
+she been walking by his side.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Bud and Cap returned, and Bud, with observant eye, soon timed
+his step to Margaret's on her other side and touched her elbow lightly
+to help her over the next rut. This was his second lesson in manners
+from Gardley. He had his first<a class="pagenum" title="156" name="page_156" id="page_156"></a> the Sunday before, watching the two
+while he and Cap walked behind. Bud was learning. He had keen eyes and
+an alert brain. Margaret smiled understandingly at him, and his face
+grew deep red with pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"He was bringin' me to see where you was livin'," explained Mom Wallis,
+suddenly, nodding toward Gardley as if he had been a king. "We wasn't
+hopin' to see you, except mebbe just as you come by goin' in."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, then I'm so glad I caught up with you in time. I wouldn't have
+missed you for anything. I went back to look for you. Now you're coming
+in to dinner with me, both of you," declared Margaret, joyfully.
+"William, your mother will have enough dinner for us all, won't she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!" said Bud, with that assurance born of his life acquaintance with
+his mother, who had never failed him in a trying situation so far as
+things to eat were concerned.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret looked happily from one of her invited guests to the other, and
+Gardley forgot to answer for himself in watching the brightness of her
+face, and wondering why it was so different from the faces of all other
+girls he knew anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>But Mom Wallis was overwhelmed. A wave of red rolled dully up from her
+withered neck in its gala collar over her leathery face to the roots of
+her thin, gray hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Me! Stay to dinner! Oh, I couldn't do that nohow! Not in these here
+clo'es. 'Course I got that pretty collar you give me, but I couldn't
+never go out to dinner in this old dress an' these shoes. I<a class="pagenum" title="157" name="page_157" id="page_157"></a> know what
+folks ought to look like an' I ain't goin' to shame you."</p>
+
+<p>"Shame me? Nonsense! Your dress is all right, and who is going to see
+your shoes? Besides, I've just set my heart on it. I want to take you up
+to my room and show you the pictures of my father and mother and home
+and the church where I was christened, and everything."</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis looked at her with wistful eyes, but still shook her head.
+"Oh, I'd like to mighty well. It's good of you to ast me. But I
+couldn't. I just couldn't. 'Sides, I gotta go home an' git the men's
+grub ready."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, can't she stay this time, Mr. Gardley?" appealed Margaret. "The men
+won't mind for once, will they?"</p>
+
+<p>Gardley looked into her true eyes and saw she really meant the
+invitation. He turned to the withered old woman by his side. "Mom, we're
+going to stay," he declared, joyously. "She wants us, and we have to do
+whatever she says. The men will rub along. They all know how to cook.
+Mom, <i>we're going to stay</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"That's beautiful!" declared Margaret. "It's so nice to have some
+company of my own." Then her face suddenly sobered. "Mr. Wallis won't
+mind, will he?" And she looked with troubled eyes from one of her guests
+to the other. She did not want to prepare trouble for poor Mom Wallis
+when she went back.</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis turned startled eyes toward her. There was contempt in her
+face and outraged womanhood. "Pop's gone off," she said, significantly.<a class="pagenum" title="158" name="page_158" id="page_158"></a>
+"He went yist'day. But he 'ain't got no call t' mind. I ben waitin' on
+Pop nigh on to twenty year, an' I guess I'm goin' to a dinner-party, now
+'t I'm invited. Pop 'd better <i>not</i> mind, I guess!"</p>
+
+<p>And Margaret suddenly saw how much, how very much, her invitation had
+been to the starved old soul. Margaret took her guests into the stiff
+little parlor and slipped out to interview her landlady. She found Mrs.
+Tanner, as she had expected, a large-minded woman who was quite pleased
+to have more guests to sit down to her generous dinner, particularly as
+her delightful boarder had hinted of ample recompense in the way of
+board money; and she fluttered about, sending Tanner after another jar
+of pickles, some more apple-butter, and added another pie to the menu.</p>
+
+<p>Well pleased, Margaret left Mrs. Tanner and slipped back to her guests.
+She found Gardley making arrangements with Bud to run back to the church
+and tell the men to leave the buckboard for them, as they would not be
+home for dinner. While this was going on she took Mom Wallis up to her
+room to remove her bonnet and smooth her hair.</p>
+
+<p>It is doubtful whether Mom Wallis ever did see such a room in her life;
+for when Margaret swung open the door the poor little woman stopped
+short on the threshold, abashed, and caught her breath, looking around
+with wondering eyes and putting out a trembling hand to steady herself
+against the door-frame. She wasn't quite sure whether things in that
+room were real, or whether she might not by chance have caught a glimpse
+into heaven, so beautiful did it seem to her. It was not till her eyes,
+in the<a class="pagenum" title="159" name="page_159" id="page_159"></a> roving, suddenly rested on the great mountain framed in the open
+window that she felt anchored and sure that this was a tangible place.
+Then she ventured to step her heavy shoe inside the door. Even then she
+drew her ugly calico back apologetically, as if it were a desecration to
+the lovely room.</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret seized her and drew her into the room, placing her gently
+in the rose-ruffled rocking-chair as if it were a throne and she a
+queen, and the poor little woman sat entranced, with tears springing to
+her eyes and trickling down her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps it was an impossibility for Margaret to conceive what the vision
+of that room meant to Mom Wallis. The realization of all the dreams of a
+starved soul concentrated into a small space; the actual, tangible proof
+that there might be a heaven some day&mdash;who knew?&mdash;since beauties and
+comforts like these could be real in Arizona.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret brought the pictures of her father and mother, of her dear home
+and the dear old church. She took her about the room and showed her the
+various pictures and reminders of her college days, and when she saw
+that the poor creature was overwhelmed and speechless she turned her
+about and showed her the great mountain again, like an anchorage for her
+soul.</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis looked at everything speechlessly, gasping as her attention
+was turned from one object to another, as if she were unable to rise
+beyond her excitement; but when she saw the mountain again her tongue
+was loosed, and she turned and looked back at the girl wonderingly.<a class="pagenum" title="160" name="page_160" id="page_160"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Now, ain't it strange! Even that old mounting looks diffrunt&mdash;it do
+look diffrunt from a room like this. Why, it looks like it got its hair
+combed an' its best collar on!" And Mom Wallis looked down with pride
+and patted the simple net ruffle about her withered throat. "Why, it
+looks like a picter painted an' hung up on this yere wall, that's what
+that mounting looks like! It kinda ain't no mounting any more; it's jest
+a picter in your room!"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret smiled. "It is a picture, isn't it? Just look at that silver
+light over the purple place. Isn't it wonderful? I like to think it's
+mine&mdash;my mountain. And yet the beautiful thing about it is that it's
+just as much yours, too. It will make a picture of itself framed in your
+bunk-house window if you let it. Try it. You just need to let it."</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis looked at her wonderingly. "Do you mean," she said, studying
+the girl's lovely face, "that ef I should wash them there bunk-house
+winders, an' string up some posy caliker, an' stuff a chair, an' have a
+pin-cushion, I could make that there mounting come in an' set fer me
+like a picter the way it does here fer you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's what I mean," said Margaret, softly, marveling how the
+uncouth woman had caught the thought. "That's exactly what I mean. God's
+gifts will be as much to us as we will let them, always. Try it and
+see."</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis stood for some minutes looking out reflectively at the
+mountain. "Wal, mebbe I'll try it!" she said, and turned back to survey
+the room again.</p>
+
+<p>And now the mirror caught her eye, and she saw<a class="pagenum" title="161" name="page_161" id="page_161"></a> herself, a strange self
+in a soft white collar, and went up to get a nearer view, laying a
+toil-worn finger on the lace and looking half embarrassed at sight of
+her own face.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a real purty collar," she said, softly, with a choke in her voice.
+"It's too purty fer me. I told him so, but he said as how you wanted I
+should dress up every night fer supper in it. It's 'most as strange as
+havin' a mounting come an' live with you, to wear a collar like
+that&mdash;me!"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret's eyes were suddenly bright with tears. Who would have
+suspected Mom Wallis of having poetry in her nature? Then, as if her
+thoughts anticipated the question in Margaret's mind, Mom Wallis went
+on:</p>
+
+<p>"He brang me your little book," she said. "I ain't goin' to say thank
+yeh, it ain't a big-'nuf word. An' he read me the poetry words it says.
+I got it wropped in a hankercher on the top o' the beam over my bed. I'm
+goin' to have it buried with me when I die. Oh, I <i>read</i> it. I couldn't
+make much out of it, but I read the words thorough. An' then <i>he</i> read
+'em&mdash;the Kid did. He reads just beautiful. He's got education, he has.
+He read it, and he talked a lot about it. Was this what you mean? Was it
+that we ain't really growin' old at all, we're jest goin' on, <i>gettin</i>'
+there, if we go right? Did you mean you think Him as planned it all
+wanted some old woman right thar in the bunk-house, an' it's <i>me</i>? Did
+you mean there was agoin' to be a chanct fer me to be young an'
+beautiful somewheres in creation yit, 'fore I git through?"</p>
+
+<p>The old woman had turned around from looking<a class="pagenum" title="162" name="page_162" id="page_162"></a> into the mirror and was
+facing her hostess. Her eyes were very bright; her cheeks had taken on
+an excited flush, and her knotted hands were clutching the bureau. She
+looked into Margaret's eyes earnestly, as though her very life depended
+upon the answer; and Margaret, with a great leap of her heart, smiled
+and answered:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Mrs. Wallis, yes, that is just what I meant. Listen, these are
+God's own words about it: 'For I reckon that the sufferings of this
+present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be
+revealed in us.'"</p>
+
+<p>A kind of glory shone in the withered old face now. "Did you say them
+was God's words?" she asked in an awed voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Margaret; "they are in the Bible."</p>
+
+<p>"But you couldn't be sure it meant <i>me</i>?" she asked, eagerly. "They
+wouldn't go to put <i>me</i> in the Bible, o' course."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, you could be quite sure, Mrs. Wallis," said Margaret, gently.
+"Because if God was making you and had a plan for you, as the poem says,
+He would be sure to put down something in His book about it, don't you
+think? He would want you to know."</p>
+
+<p>"It does sound reasonable-like now, don't it?" said the woman,
+wistfully. "Say them glory words again, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret repeated the text slowly and distinctly.</p>
+
+<p>"Glory!" repeated Mom Wallis, wonderingly. "Glory! Me!" and turned
+incredulously toward the glass. She looked a long tune wistfully at
+herself, as if she could not believe it, and pulled reproachfully<a class="pagenum" title="163" name="page_163" id="page_163"></a> at
+the tight hair drawn away from her weather-beaten face. "I useta have
+purty hair onct," she said, sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you have pretty hair now!" said Margaret, eagerly. "It just wants
+a chance to show its beauty, Here, let me fix it for dinner, will you?"</p>
+
+<p>She whisked the bewildered old woman into a chair and began unwinding
+the hard, tight knot of hair at the back of her head and shaking it out.
+The hair was thin and gray now, but it showed signs of having been fine
+and thick once.</p>
+
+<p>"It's easy to keep your hair looking pretty," said the girl, as she
+worked. "I'm going to give you a little box of my nice sweet-smelling
+soap-powder that I use to shampoo my hair. You take it home and wash
+your hair with it every two or three weeks and you'll see it will make a
+difference in a little while. You just haven't taken time to take care
+of it, that's all. Do you mind if I wave the front here a little? I'd
+like to fix your hair the way my mother wears hers."</p>
+
+<p>Now nothing could have been further apart than this little
+weather-beaten old woman and Margaret's gentle, dove-like mother, with
+her abundant soft gray hair, her cameo features, and her pretty, gray
+dresses; but Margaret had a vision of what glory might bring to Mom
+Wallis, and she wanted to help it along. She believed that heavenly
+glory can be hastened a good deal on earth if one only tries, and so she
+set to work. Glancing out the window, she saw with relief that Gardley
+was talking interestedly with Mr. Tanner and seemed entirely content
+with their absence.<a class="pagenum" title="164" name="page_164" id="page_164"></a></p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis hadn't any idea what "waving" her hair meant, but she readily
+consented to anything this wonderful girl proposed, and she sat
+entranced, looking at her mountain and thrilling with every touch of
+Margaret's satin fingers against her leathery old temples. And so,
+Sunday though it was, Margaret lighted her little alcohol-lamp and
+heated a tiny curling-iron which she kept for emergencies. In a few
+minutes' time Mom Wallis's astonished old gray locks lay soft and fluffy
+about her face, and pinned in a smooth coil behind, instead of the tight
+knot, making the most wonderful difference in the world in her old,
+tired face.</p>
+
+<p>"Now look!" said Margaret, and turned her about to the mirror. "If
+there's anything at all you don't like about it I can change it, you
+know. You don't have to wear it so if you don't like it."</p>
+
+<p>The old woman looked, and then looked back at Margaret with frightened
+eyes, and back to the vision in the mirror again.</p>
+
+<p>"My soul!" she exclaimed in an awed voice. "My soul! It's come a'ready!
+Glory! I didn't think I could look like that! I wonder what Pop 'd say!
+My land! Would you mind ef I kep' it on a while an' wore it back to camp
+this way? Pop might uv come home an' I'd like to see ef he'd take notice
+to it. I used to be purty onct, but I never expected no sech thing like
+this again on earth. Glory! Glory! Mebbe I <i>could</i> get some glory,
+<i>too</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"'The glory that shall be revealed' is a great deal more wonderful than
+this," said Margaret, gently. "This was here all the time, only you
+didn't let it come out. Wear it home that way, of course, and<a class="pagenum" title="165" name="page_165" id="page_165"></a> wear it
+so all the time. It's very little trouble, and you'll find your family
+will like it. Men always like to see a woman looking her best, even when
+she's working. It helps to make them good. Before you go home I'll show
+you how to fix it. It's quite simple. Come, now, shall we go
+down-stairs? We don't want to leave Mr. Gardley alone too long, and,
+besides, I smell the dinner. I think they'll be waiting for us pretty
+soon. I'm going to take a few of these pictures down to show Mr.
+Gardley."</p>
+
+<p>She hastily gathered a few photographs together and led the bewildered
+little woman down-stairs again, and out in the yard, where Gardley was
+walking up and down now, looking off at the mountain. It came to
+Margaret, suddenly, that the minister would be returning to the house
+soon, and she wished he wouldn't come. He would be a false note in the
+pleasant harmony of the little company. He would be disagreeable to
+manage, and perhaps hurt poor Mom Wallis's feelings. Perhaps he had
+already come. She looked furtively around as she came out the door, but
+no minister was in sight, and then she forgot him utterly in the look of
+bewildered astonishment with which Gardley was regarding Mom Wallis.</p>
+
+<p>He had stopped short in his walk across the little yard, and was staring
+at Mom Wallis, recognition gradually growing in his gaze. When he was
+fully convinced he turned his eyes to Margaret, as if to ask: "How did
+you do it? Wonderful woman!" and a look of deep reverence for her came
+over his face.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly he noticed the shy embarrassment on the old woman's face,
+and swiftly came toward<a class="pagenum" title="166" name="page_166" id="page_166"></a> her, his hands outstretched, and, taking her
+bony hands in his, bowed low over them as a courtier might do.</p>
+
+<p>"Mom Wallis, you are beautiful. Did you know it?" he said, gently, and
+led her to a little stumpy rocking-chair with a gay red-and-blue rag
+cushion that Mrs. Tanner always kept sitting by the front door in
+pleasant weather. Then he stood off and surveyed her, while the red
+stole into her cheeks becomingly. "What has Miss Earle been doing to
+glorify you?" he asked, again looking at her earnestly.</p>
+
+<p>The old woman looked at him in awed silence. There was that word
+again&mdash;glory! He had said the girl had glorified her. There was then
+some glory in her, and it had been brought out by so simple a thing as
+the arrangement of her hair. It frightened her, and tears came and stood
+in her tired old eyes.</p>
+
+<p>It was well for Mom Wallis's equilibrium that Mr. Tanner came out just
+then with the paper he had gone after, for the stolidity of her lifetime
+was about breaking up. But, as he turned, Gardley gave her one of the
+rarest smiles of sympathy and understanding that a young man can give to
+an old woman; and Margaret, watching, loved him for it. It seemed to her
+one of the most beautiful things a young man had ever done.</p>
+
+<p>They had discussed the article in the paper thoroughly, and had looked
+at the photographs that Margaret had brought down; and Mrs. Tanner had
+come to the door numberless times, looking out in a troubled way down
+the road, only to trot back again, look in the oven, peep in the kettle,
+sigh, and trot out to the door again. At last she came and stood, arms
+akimbo, and looked down the road once more.<a class="pagenum" title="167" name="page_167" id="page_167"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Pa, I don't just see how I can keep the dinner waitin' a minute longer,
+The potatoes 'll be sp'iled. I don't see what's keepin' that
+preacher-man. He musta been invited out, though I don't see why he
+didn't send me word."</p>
+
+<p>"That's it, likely, Ma," said Tanner. He was growing hungry. "I saw Mis'
+Bacon talkin' to him. She's likely invited him there. She's always
+tryin' to get ahead o' you, Ma, you know, 'cause you got the prize fer
+your marble cake."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner blushed and looked down apologetically at her guests. "Well,
+then, ef you'll just come in and set down, I'll dish up. My land! Ain't
+that Bud comin' down the road, Pa? He's likely sent word by Bud. I'll
+hurry in an' dish up."</p>
+
+<p>Bud slid into his seat hurriedly after a brief ablution in the kitchen,
+and his mother questioned him sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Bud, wher you be'n? Did the minister get invited out?"</p>
+
+<p>The boy grinned and slowly winked one eye at Gardley. "Yes, he's invited
+out, all right," he said, meaningly. "You don't need to wait fer him. He
+won't be home fer some time, I don't reckon."</p>
+
+<p>Gardley looked keenly, steadily, at the boy's dancing eyes, and resolved
+to have a fuller understanding later, and his own eyes met the boy's in
+a gleam of mischief and sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first time in twenty years that Mom Wallis had eaten anything
+which she had not prepared herself, and now, with fried chicken and
+company preserves before her, she could scarcely swallow a mouthful. To
+be seated beside Gardley and<a class="pagenum" title="168" name="page_168" id="page_168"></a> waited on like a queen! To be smiled at by
+the beautiful young girl across the table, and deferred to by Mr. and
+Mrs. Tanner as "Mrs. Wallis," and asked to have more pickles and another
+helping of jelly, and did she take cream and sugar in her coffee! It was
+too much, and Mom Wallis was struggling with the tears. Even Bud's
+round, blue eyes regarded her with approval and interest. She couldn't
+help thinking, if her own baby boy had lived, would he ever have been
+like Bud? And once she smiled at him, and Bud smiled back, a real
+boy-like, frank, hearty grin. It was all like taking dinner in the
+Kingdom of Heaven to Mom Wallis, and getting glory aforetime.</p>
+
+<p>It was a wonderful afternoon, and seemed to go on swift wings. Gardley
+went back to the school-house, where the horses had been left, and Bud
+went with him to give further particulars about that wink at the
+dinner-table. Mom Wallis went up to the rose-garlanded room and learned
+how to wash her hair, and received a roll of flowered scrim wherewith to
+make curtains for the bunk-house. Margaret had originally intended it
+for the school-house windows in case it proved necessary to make that
+place habitable, but the school-room could wait.</p>
+
+<p>And there in the rose-room, with the new curtains in her trembling
+hands, and the great old mountain in full view, Mom Wallis knelt beside
+the little gay rocking-chair, while Margaret knelt beside her and prayed
+that the Heavenly Father would show Mom Wallis how to let the glory be
+revealed in her now on the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Then Mom Wallis wiped the furtive tears away<a class="pagenum" title="169" name="page_169" id="page_169"></a> with her calico sleeve,
+tied on her funny old bonnet, and rode away with her handsome young
+escort into the silence of the desert, with the glory beginning to be
+revealed already in her countenance.</p>
+
+<p>Quite late that evening the minister returned.</p>
+
+<p>He came in slowly and wearily, as if every step were a pain to him, and
+he avoided the light. His coat was torn and his garments were
+mud-covered. He murmured of a "slight accident" to Mrs. Tanner, who met
+him solicitously in a flowered dressing-gown with a candle in her hand.
+He accepted greedily the half a pie, with cheese and cold chicken and
+other articles, she proffered on a plate at his door, and in the reply
+to her query as to where he had been for dinner, and if he had a
+pleasant time, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Very pleasant, indeed, thank you! The name? Um&mdash;ah&mdash;I disremember! I
+really didn't ask&mdash;That is&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The minister did not get up to breakfast, In fact, he remained in bed
+for several days, professing to be suffering with an attack of
+rheumatism. He was solicitously watched over and fed by the anxious Mrs.
+Tanner, who was much disconcerted at the state of affairs, and couldn't
+understand why she could not get the school-teacher more interested in
+the invalid.</p>
+
+<p>On the fourth day, however, the Reverend Frederick crept forth, white
+and shaken, with his sleek hair elaborately combed to cover a long
+scratch on his forehead, and announced his intention of departing from
+the State of Arizona that evening.</p>
+
+<p>He crept forth cautiously to the station as the<a class="pagenum" title="170" name="page_170" id="page_170"></a> shades of evening drew
+on, but found Long Bill awaiting him, and Jasper Kemp not far away. He
+had the two letters ready in his pocket, with the gold piece, though he
+had entertained hopes of escaping without forfeiting them, but he was
+obliged to wait patiently until Jasper Kemp had read both letters
+through twice, with the train in momentary danger of departing without
+him, before he was finally allowed to get on board. Jasper Kemp's
+parting word to him was:</p>
+
+<p>"Watch your steps spry, parson. I'm agoin' to see that you're shadowed
+wherever you go. You needn't think you can get shy on the Bible again.
+It won't pay."</p>
+
+<p>There was menace in the dry remark, and the Reverend Frederick's
+professional egotism withered before it. He bowed his head, climbed on
+board the train, and vanished from the scene of his recent discomfiture.
+But the bitterest thing about it all was that he had gone without
+capturing the heart or even the attention of that haughty little
+school-teacher. "And she was such a pretty girl," he said, regretfully,
+to himself. "Such a <i>very</i> pretty girl!" He sighed deeply to himself as
+he watched Arizona speed by the window. "Still," he reflected,
+comfortably, after a moment, "there are always plenty more! What was
+that remarkably witty saying I heard just before I left home? 'Never run
+after a street-car or a woman. There'll be another one along in a
+minute.' Um&mdash;ah&mdash;yes&mdash;very true&mdash;there'll be another one along in a
+minute."</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="171" name="page_171" id="page_171"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>School had settled down to real work by the opening of the new week.
+Margaret knew her scholars and had gained a personal hold on most of
+them already. There was enough novelty in her teaching to keep the
+entire school in a pleasant state of excitement and wonder as to what
+she would do next, and the word had gone out through all the country
+round about that the new teacher had taken the school by storm. It was
+not infrequent for men to turn out of their way on the trail to get a
+glimpse of the school as they were passing, just to make sure the
+reports were true. Rumor stated that the teacher was exceedingly pretty;
+that she would take no nonsense, not even from the big boys; that she
+never threatened nor punished, but that every one of the boys was her
+devoted slave. There had been no uprising, and it almost seemed as if
+that popular excitement was to be omitted this season, and school was to
+sail along in an orderly and proper manner. In fact, the entire school
+as well as the surrounding population were eagerly talking about the new
+piano, which seemed really to be a coming fact. Not that there had been
+anything done toward it yet, but the teacher had promised<a class="pagenum" title="172" name="page_172" id="page_172"></a> that just as
+soon as every one was really studying hard and doing his best, she was
+going to begin to get them ready for an entertainment to raise money for
+that piano. They couldn't begin until everybody was in good working
+order, because they didn't want to take the interest away from the real
+business of school; but it was going to be a Shakespeare play, whatever
+that was, and therefore of grave import. Some people talked learnedly
+about Shakespeare and hinted of poetry; but the main part of the
+community spoke the name joyously and familiarly and without awe, as if
+it were milk and honey in their mouths. Why should they reverence
+Shakespeare more than any one else?</p>
+
+<p>Margaret had grown used to seeing a head appear suddenly at one of the
+school-room windows and look long and frowningly first at her, then at
+the school, and then back to her again, as if it were a nine days'
+wonder. Whoever the visitor was, he would stand quietly, watching the
+process of the hour as if he were at a play, and Margaret would turn and
+smile pleasantly, then go right on with her work. The visitor would
+generally take off a wide hat and wave it cordially, smile back a
+curious, softened smile, and by and by he would mount his horse and pass
+on reflectively down the trail, wishing he could be a boy and go back
+again to school&mdash;such a school!</p>
+
+<p>Oh, it was not all smooth, the way that Margaret walked. There were
+hitches, and unpleasant days when nothing went right, and when some of
+the girls got silly and rebellious, and the boys followed in their lead.
+She had her trials like any teacher,<a class="pagenum" title="173" name="page_173" id="page_173"></a> skilful as she was, and not the
+least of them became Rosa Rogers, the petted beauty, who presently
+manifested a childish jealousy of her in her influence over the boys.
+Noting this, Margaret went out of her way to win Rosa, but found it a
+difficult matter.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa was proud, selfish, and unprincipled. She never forgave any one who
+frustrated her plans. She resented being made to study like the rest.
+She had always compelled the teacher to let her do as she pleased and
+still give her a good report. This she found she could not do with
+Margaret, and for the first time in her career she was compelled to work
+or fall behind. It presently became not a question of how the new
+teacher was to manage the big boys and the bad boys of the Ashland Ridge
+School, but how she was to prevent Rosa Rogers and a few girls who
+followed her from upsetting all her plans. The trouble was, Rosa was
+pretty and knew her power over the boys. If she chose she could put them
+all in a state of insubordination, and this she chose very often during
+those first few weeks.</p>
+
+<p>But there was one visitor who did not confine himself to looking in at
+the window.</p>
+
+<p>One morning a fine black horse came galloping up to the school-house at
+recess-time, and a well-set-up young man in wide sombrero and jaunty
+leather trappings sprang off and came into the building. His shining
+spurs caught the sunlight and flashed as he moved. He walked with the
+air of one who regards himself of far more importance than all who may
+be watching him. The boys in the yard stopped their ball-game, and the
+girls huddled close in whispering groups and drew near to the door.<a class="pagenum" title="174" name="page_174" id="page_174"></a> He
+was a young man from a ranch near the fort some thirty miles away, and
+he had brought an invitation for the new school-teacher to come over to
+dinner on Friday evening and stay until the following Monday morning.
+The invitation was from his sister, the wife of a wealthy cattleman
+whose home and hospitality were noted for miles around. She had heard of
+the coming of the beautiful young teacher, and wanted to attach her to
+her social circle.</p>
+
+<p>The young man was deference itself to Margaret, openly admiring her as
+he talked, and said the most gracious things to her; and then, while she
+was answering the note, he smiled over at Rosa Rogers, who had slipped
+into her seat and was studiously preparing her algebra with the book
+upside down.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret, looking up, caught Rosa's smiling glance and the tail end of a
+look from the young man's eyes, and felt a passing wonder whether he had
+ever met the girl before. Something in the boldness of his look made her
+feel that he had not. Yet he was all smiles and deference to herself,
+and his open admiration and pleasure that she was to come to help
+brighten this lonely country, and that she was going to accept the
+invitation, was really pleasant to the girl, for it was desolate being
+tied down to only the Tanner household and the school, and she welcomed
+any bit of social life.</p>
+
+<p>The young man had light hair, combed very smooth, and light-blue eyes.
+They were bolder and handsomer than the minister's, but the girl had a
+feeling that they were the very same cold color. She wondered at her
+comparison, for she liked the<a class="pagenum" title="175" name="page_175" id="page_175"></a> handsome young man, and in spite of
+herself was a little flattered at the nice things he had said to her.
+Nevertheless, when she remembered him afterward it was always with that
+uncomfortable feeling that if he hadn't been so handsome and polished in
+his appearance he would have seemed just a little bit like that
+minister, and she couldn't for the life of her tell why.</p>
+
+<p>After he was gone she looked back at Rosa, and there was a narrowing of
+the girl's eyes and a frown of hate on her brows. Margaret turned with a
+sigh back to her school problem&mdash;what to do with Rosa Rogers?</p>
+
+<p>But Rosa did not stay in the school-house. She slipped out and walked
+arm in arm with Amanda Bounds down the road.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret went to the door and watched. Presently she saw the rider wheel
+and come galloping back to the door. He had forgotten to tell her that
+an escort would be sent to bring her as early on Friday afternoon as she
+would be ready to leave the school, and he intimated that he hoped he
+might be detailed for that pleasant duty.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret looked into his face and warmed to his pleasant smile. How
+could she have thought him like West? He touched his hat and rode away,
+and a moment later she saw him draw rein beside Rosa and Amanda, and
+presently dismount.</p>
+
+<p>Bud rang the bell just then, and Margaret went back to her desk with a
+lingering look at the three figures in the distance. It was full half an
+hour before Rosa came in, with Amanda looking scared behind her; and
+troubled Margaret watched the sly<a class="pagenum" title="176" name="page_176" id="page_176"></a> look in the girl's eyes and wondered
+what she ought to do about it. As Rosa was passing out of the door after
+school she called her to the desk.</p>
+
+<p>"You were late in coming in after recess, Rosa," said Margaret, gently.
+"Have you any excuse?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was talking to a friend," said Rosa, with a toss of her head which
+said, as plainly as words could have done, "I don't intend to give an
+excuse."</p>
+
+<p>"Were you talking to the gentleman who was here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if I was, what is that to you, Miss Earle?" said Rosa, haughtily.
+"Did you think you could have all the men and boys to yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rosa," said Margaret, trying to speak calmly, but her voice trembling
+with suppressed indignation, "don't talk that way to me. Child, did you
+ever meet Mr. Forsythe before?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not a child, and it's none of your business!" flouted Rosa,
+angrily, and she twitched away and flung herself out of the
+school-house.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret, trembling from the disagreeable encounter, stood at the window
+and watched the girl going down the road, and felt for the moment that
+she would rather give up her school and go back home than face the
+situation. She knew in her heart that this girl, once an enemy, would be
+a bitter one, and this her last move had been a most unfortunate one,
+coming out, as it did, with Rosa in the lead. She could, of course,
+complain to Rosa's family, or to the school-board, but such was not the
+policy she had chosen. She wanted to be able to settle her own
+difficulties. It seemed strange that she could not reach this one
+girl&mdash;who was in a way<a class="pagenum" title="177" name="page_177" id="page_177"></a> the key to the situation. Perhaps the play would
+be able to help her. She spent a long time that evening going over the
+different plays in her library, and finally, with a look of apology
+toward a little photographed head of Shakespeare, she decided on
+"Midsummer-Night's Dream." What if it was away above the heads of them
+all, wouldn't a few get something from it? And wasn't it better to take
+a great thing and try to make her scholars and a few of the community
+understand it, rather than to take a silly little play that would not
+amount to anything in the end? Of course, they couldn't do it well; that
+went without saying. Of course it would be away beyond them all, but at
+least it would be a study of something great for her pupils, and she
+could meantime teach them a little about Shakespeare and perhaps help
+some of them to learn to love his plays and study them.</p>
+
+<p>The play she had selected was one in which she herself had acted the
+part of Puck, and she knew it by heart. She felt reasonably sure that
+she could help some of the more adaptable scholars to interpret their
+parts, and, at least, it would be good for them just as a study in
+literature. As for the audience, they would not be critics. Perhaps they
+would not even be able to comprehend the meaning of the play, but they
+would come and they would listen, and the experiment was one worth
+trying.</p>
+
+<p>Carefully she went over the parts, trying to find the one which she
+thought would best fit Rosa Rogers, and please her as well, because it
+gave her opportunity to display her beauty and charm. She really was a
+pretty girl, and would do well. Margaret<a class="pagenum" title="178" name="page_178" id="page_178"></a> wondered whether she were
+altogether right in attempting to win the girl through her vanity, and
+yet what other weak place was there in which to storm the silly little
+citadel of her soul?</p>
+
+<p>And so the work of assigning parts and learning them began that very
+week, though no one was allowed a part until his work for the day had
+all been handed in.</p>
+
+<p>At noon Margaret made one more attempt with Rosa Rogers. She drew her to
+a seat beside her and put aside as much as possible her own remembrance
+of the girl's disagreeable actions and impudent words.</p>
+
+<p>"Rosa," she said, and her voice was very gentle, "I want to have a
+little talk with you. You seem to feel that you and I are enemies, and I
+don't want you to have that attitude. I hoped we'd be the best of
+friends. You see, there isn't any other way for us to work well
+together. And I want to explain why I spoke to you as I did yesterday.
+It was not, as you hinted, that I want to keep all my acquaintances to
+myself. I have no desire to do that. It was because I feel responsible
+for the girls and boys in my care, and I was troubled lest perhaps you
+had been foolish&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret paused. She could see by the bright hardness of the girl's eyes
+that she was accomplishing nothing. Rosa evidently did not believe her.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Rosa," she said, suddenly, putting an impulsive, kindly hand on
+the girl's arm, "suppose we forget it this time, put it all away, and be
+friends. Let's learn to understand each other if we can, but<a class="pagenum" title="179" name="page_179" id="page_179"></a> in the
+mean time I want to talk to you about the play."</p>
+
+<p>And then, indeed, Rosa's hard manner broke, and she looked up with
+interest, albeit there was some suspicion in the glance. She wanted to
+be in that play with all her heart; she wanted the very showiest part in
+it, too; and she meant to have it, although she had a strong suspicion
+that the teacher would want to keep that part for herself, whatever it
+was.</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret had been wise. She had decided to take time and explain the
+play to her, and then let her choose her own part. She wisely judged
+that Rosa would do better in the part in which her interest centered,
+and perhaps the choice would help her to understand her pupil better.</p>
+
+<p>And so for an hour she patiently stayed after school and went over the
+play, explaining it carefully, and it seemed at one time as though Rosa
+was about to choose to be Puck, because with quick perception she caught
+the importance of that character; but when she learned that the costume
+must be a quiet hood and skirt of green and brown she scorned it, and
+chose, at last, to be Titania, queen of the fairies. So, with a sigh of
+relief, and a keen insight into the shallow nature, Margaret began to
+teach the girl some of the fairy steps, and found her quick and eager to
+learn. In the first lesson Rosa forgot for a little while her animosity
+and became almost as one of the other pupils. The play was going to
+prove a great means of bringing them all together.</p>
+
+<p>Before Friday afternoon came the parts had all been assigned and the
+plans for the entertainment were well under way.<a class="pagenum" title="180" name="page_180" id="page_180"></a></p>
+
+<p>Jed and Timothy had been as good as their word about giving the teacher
+riding-lessons, each vying with the other to bring a horse and make her
+ride at noon hour, and she had already had several good lessons and a
+long ride or two in company with both her teachers.</p>
+
+<p>The thirty-mile ride for Friday, then, was not such an undertaking as it
+might otherwise have been, and Margaret looked forward to it with
+eagerness.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="181" name="page_181" id="page_181"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The little party of escort arrived before school was closed on Friday
+afternoon, and came down to the school-house in full force to take her
+away with them. The young man Forsythe, with his sister, the hostess
+herself, and a young army officer from the fort, comprised the party.
+Margaret dismissed school ten minutes early and went back with them to
+the Tanners' to make a hurried change in her dress and pick up her
+suit-case, which was already packed. As they rode away from the
+school-house Margaret looked back and saw Rosa Rogers posing in one of
+her sprite dances in the school-yard, saw her kiss her hand laughingly
+toward their party, and saw the flutter of a handkerchief in young
+Forsythe's hand. It was all very general and elusive, a passing bit of
+fun, but it left an uncomfortable impression on the teacher's mind. She
+looked keenly at the young man as he rode up smiling beside her, and
+once more experienced that strange, sudden change of feeling about him.</p>
+
+<p>She took opportunity during that long ride to find out if the young man
+had known Rosa Rogers before; but he frankly told her that he had just
+come West to visit his sister, was bored to death because he didn't know
+a soul in the whole State,<a class="pagenum" title="182" name="page_182" id="page_182"></a> and until he had seen her had not laid eyes
+on one whom he cared to know. Yet while she could not help enjoying the
+gay badinage, she carried a sense of uneasiness whenever she thought of
+the young girl Rosa in her pretty fairy pose, with her fluttering pink
+fingers and her saucy, smiling eyes. There was something untrustworthy,
+too, in the handsome face of the man beside her.</p>
+
+<p>There was just one shadow over this bit of a holiday. Margaret had a
+little feeling that possibly some one from the camp might come down on
+Saturday or Sunday, and she would miss him. Yet nothing had been said
+about it, and she had no way of sending word that she would be away. She
+had meant to send Mom Wallis a letter by the next messenger that came
+that way. It was all written and lying on her bureau, but no one had
+been down all the week. She was, therefore, greatly pleased when an
+approaching rider in the distance proved to be Gardley, and with a
+joyful little greeting she drew rein and hailed him, giving him a
+message for Mom Wallis.</p>
+
+<p>Only Gardley's eyes told what this meeting was to him. His demeanor was
+grave and dignified. He acknowledged the introductions to the rest of
+the party gracefully, touched his hat with the ease of one to the manner
+born, and rode away, flashing her one gleam of a smile that told her he
+was glad of the meeting; but throughout the brief interview there had
+been an air of question and hostility between the two men, Forsythe and
+Gardley. Forsythe surveyed Gardley rudely, almost insolently, as if his
+position beside the lady gave him rights beyond<a class="pagenum" title="183" name="page_183" id="page_183"></a> the other, and he
+resented the coming of the stranger. Gardley's gaze was cold, too, as he
+met the look, and his eyes searched Forsythe's face keenly, as though
+they would find out what manner of man was riding with his friend.</p>
+
+<p>When he was gone Margaret had the feeling that he was somehow
+disappointed, and once she turned in the saddle and looked wistfully
+after him; but he was riding furiously into the distance, sitting his
+horse as straight as an arrow and already far away upon the desert.</p>
+
+<p>"Your friend is a reckless rider," said Forsythe, with a sneer in his
+voice that Margaret did not like, as they watched the speck in the
+distance clear a steep descent from the mesa at a bound and disappear
+from sight in the mesquite beyond.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't he fine-looking? Where did you find him, Miss Earle?" asked Mrs.
+Temple, eagerly. "I wish I'd asked him to join us. He left so suddenly I
+didn't realize he was going."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret felt a wondering and pleasant sense of possession and pride in
+Gardley as she watched, but she quietly explained that the young
+stranger was from the East, and that he was engaged in some kind of
+cattle business at a distance from Ashland. Her manner was reserved, and
+the matter dropped. She naturally felt a reluctance to tell how her
+acquaintance with Gardley began. It seemed something between themselves.
+She could fancy the gushing Mrs. Temple saying, "How romantic!" She was
+that kind of a woman. It was evident that she was romantically inclined
+herself, for she used her fine eyes with effect on the young officer who
+rode with<a class="pagenum" title="184" name="page_184" id="page_184"></a> her, and Margaret found herself wondering what kind of a
+husband she had and what her mother would think of a woman like this.</p>
+
+<p>There was no denying that the luxury of the ranch was a happy relief
+from the simplicity of life at the Tanners'. Iced drinks and cushions
+and easy-chairs, feasting and music and laughter! There were books, too,
+and magazines, and all the little things that go to make up a cultured
+life; and yet they were not people of Margaret's world, and when
+Saturday evening was over she sat alone in the room they had given her
+and, facing herself in the glass, confessed to herself that she looked
+back with more pleasure to the Sabbath spent with Mom Wallis than she
+could look forward to a Sabbath here. The morning proved her forebodings
+well founded.</p>
+
+<p>Breakfast was a late, informal affair, filled with hilarious gaiety.
+There was no mention of any church service, and Margaret found it was
+quite too late to suggest such a thing when breakfast was over, even if
+she had been sure there was any service.</p>
+
+<p>After breakfast was over there were various forms of amusement proposed
+for her pleasure, and she really felt very much embarrassed for a few
+moments to know how to avoid what to her was pure Sabbath-breaking. Yet
+she did not wish to be rude to these people who were really trying to be
+kind to her. She managed at last to get them interested in music, and,
+grouping them around the piano after a few preliminary performances by
+herself at their earnest solicitation, coaxed them into singing hymns.<a class="pagenum" title="185" name="page_185" id="page_185"></a></p>
+
+<p>After all, they really seemed to enjoy it, though they had to get along
+with one hymn-book for the whole company; but Margaret knew how to make
+hymn-singing interesting, and her exquisite voice was never more at its
+best than when she led off with "My Jesus, as Thou Wilt," or "Jesus,
+Saviour, Pilot Me."</p>
+
+<p>"You would be the delight of Mr. Brownleigh's heart," said the hostess,
+gushingly, at last, after Margaret had finished singing "Abide With Me"
+with wonderful feeling.</p>
+
+<p>"And who is Mr. Brownleigh?" asked Margaret. "Why should I delight his
+heart?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, he is our missionary&mdash;that is, the missionary for this region&mdash;and
+you would delight his heart because you are so religious and sing so
+well," said the superficial little woman. "Mr. Brownleigh is really a
+very cultured man. Of course, he's narrow. All clergymen are narrow,
+don't you think? They have to be to a certain extent. He's really
+<i>quite</i> narrow. Why, he believes in the Bible <i>literally</i>, the whale and
+Jonah, and the Flood, and making bread out of stones, and all that sort
+of thing, you know. Imagine it! But he does. He's sincere! Perfectly
+sincere. I suppose he has to be. It's his business. But sometimes one
+feels it a pity that he can't relax a little, just among us here, you
+know. We'd never tell. Why, he won't even play a little game of poker!
+And he doesn't smoke! <i>Imagine</i> it&mdash;<i>not even when he's by himself</i>, and
+<i>no one would know</i>! Isn't that odd? But he can preach. He's really very
+interesting; only a little too Utopian in his ideas. He thinks everybody
+ought to be good,<a class="pagenum" title="186" name="page_186" id="page_186"></a> you know, and all that sort of thing. He really
+thinks it's possible, and he lives that way himself. He really does. But
+he is a wonderful person; only I feel sorry for his wife sometimes.
+She's quite a cultured person. Has been wealthy, you know. She was a New
+York society girl. Just imagine it; out in these wilds taking gruel to
+the dirty little Indians! How she ever came to do it! Of course she
+adores him, but I can't really believe she is happy. No woman could be
+quite blind enough to give up everything in the world for one man, no
+matter how good he was. Do you think she could? It wasn't as if she
+didn't have plenty of other chances. She gave them all up to come out
+and marry him. She's a pretty good sport, too; she never lets you know
+she isn't perfectly happy."</p>
+
+<p>"She <i>is</i> happy; mother, she's happier than <i>anybody</i> I ever saw,"
+declared the fourteen-year-old daughter of the house, who was home from
+boarding-school for a brief visit during an epidemic of measles in the
+school.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, she manages to make people think she's happy," said her mother,
+indulgently; "but you can't make me believe she's satisfied to give up
+her house on Fifth Avenue and live in a two-roomed log cabin in the
+desert, with no society."</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, you don't know! Why, <i>any</i> woman would be satisfied if her
+husband adored her the way Mr. Brownleigh does her."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Ada, you're a romantic girl, and Mr. Brownleigh is a handsome
+man. You've got a few things to learn yet. Mark my words, I don't
+believe you'll see Mrs. Brownleigh coming back next month<a class="pagenum" title="187" name="page_187" id="page_187"></a> with her
+husband. This operation was all well enough to talk about, but I'll not
+be surprised to hear that he has come back alone or else that he has
+accepted a call to some big city church. And he's equal to the city
+church, too; that's the wonder of it. He comes of a fine family himself,
+I've heard. Oh, people can't keep up the pose of saints forever, even
+though they do adore each other. But Mr. Brownleigh <i>certainly is</i> a
+good man!"</p>
+
+<p>The vapid little woman sat looking reflectively out of the window for a
+whole minute after this deliverance. Yes, certainly Mr. Brownleigh was a
+good man. He was the one man of culture, education, refinement, who had
+come her way in many a year who had patiently and persistently and
+gloriously refused her advances at a mild flirtation, and refused to
+understand them, yet remained her friend and reverenced hero. He was a
+good man, and she knew it, for she was a very pretty woman and
+understood her art well.</p>
+
+<p>Before the day was over Margaret had reason to feel that a Sabbath in
+Arizona was a very hard thing to find. The singing could not last all
+day, and her friends seemed to find more amusements on Sunday that did
+not come into Margaret's code of Sabbath-keeping than one knew how to
+say no to. Neither could they understand her feeling, and she found it
+hard not to be rude in gently declining one plan after another.</p>
+
+<p>She drew the children into a wide, cozy corner after dinner and began a
+Bible story in the guise of a fairy-tale, while the hostess slipped away
+to take a nap. However, several other guests lingered<a class="pagenum" title="188" name="page_188" id="page_188"></a> about, and Mr.
+Temple strayed in. They sat with newspapers before their faces and got
+into the story, too, seeming to be deeply interested, so that, after
+all, Margaret did not have an unprofitable Sabbath.</p>
+
+<p>But altogether, though she had a gay and somewhat frivolous time, a good
+deal of admiration and many invitations to return as often as possible,
+Margaret was not sorry when she said good night to know that she was to
+return in the early morning to her work.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Temple himself was going part way with them, accompanied by his
+niece, Forsythe, and the young officer who came over with them. Margaret
+rode beside Mr. Temple until his way parted from theirs, and had a
+delightful talk about Arizona. He was a kindly old fellow who adored his
+frivolous little wife and let her go her own gait, seeming not to mind
+how much she flirted.</p>
+
+<p>The morning was pink and silver, gold and azure, a wonderful specimen of
+an Arizona sunrise for Margaret's benefit, and a glorious beginning for
+her day's work in spite of the extremely early hour. The company was gay
+and blithe, and the Eastern girl felt as if she were passing through a
+wonderful experience.</p>
+
+<p>They loitered a little on the way to show Margaret the wonders of a
+fern-plumed ca&ntilde;on, and it was almost school-time when they came up the
+street, so that Margaret rode straight to the school-house instead of
+stopping at Tanners'. On the way to the school they passed a group of
+girls, of whom Rosa Rogers was the center. A certain something in Rosa's
+narrowed eyelids as she said good morning<a class="pagenum" title="189" name="page_189" id="page_189"></a> caused Margaret to look back
+uneasily, and she distinctly saw the girl give a signal to young
+Forsythe, who, for answer, only tipped his hat and gave her a peculiar
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>In a moment more they had said good-by, and Margaret was left at the
+school-house door with a cluster of eager children about her, and
+several shy boys in the background, ready to welcome her back as if she
+had been gone a month.</p>
+
+<p>In the flutter of opening school Margaret failed to notice that Rosa
+Rogers did not appear. It was not until the roll was called that she
+noticed her absence, and she looked uneasily toward the door many times
+during the morning, but Rosa did not come until after recess, when she
+stole smilingly in, as if it were quite the thing to come to school
+late. When questioned about her tardiness she said she had torn her
+dress and had to go home and change it. Margaret knew by the look in her
+eyes that the girl was not telling the truth, but what was she to do? It
+troubled her all the morning and went with her to a sleepless pillow
+that night. She was beginning to see that life as a school-teacher in
+the far West was not all she had imagined it to be. Her father had been
+right. There would likely be more thorns than roses on her way.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="190" name="page_190" id="page_190"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The first time Lance Gardley met Rosa Rogers riding with Archie
+Forsythe he thought little of it. He knew the girl by sight, because he
+knew her father in a business way. That she was very young and one of
+Margaret's pupils was all he knew about her. For the young man he had
+conceived a strong dislike, but as there was no reason whatever for it
+he put it out of his mind as quickly as possible.</p>
+
+<p>The second time he met them it was toward evening and they were so
+wholly absorbed in each other's society that they did not see him until
+he was close upon them. Forsythe looked up with a frown and a quick hand
+to his hip, where gleamed a weapon.</p>
+
+<p>He scarcely returned the slight salute given by Gardley, and the two
+young people touched up their horses and were soon out of sight in the
+mesquite. But something in the frightened look of the girl's eyes caused
+Gardley to turn and look after the two.</p>
+
+<p>Where could they be going at that hour of the evening? It was not a
+trail usually chosen for rides. It was lonely and unfrequented, and led
+out of the way of travelers. Gardley himself had been a far errand for
+Jasper Kemp, and had taken this short trail back because it cut off
+several miles and he<a class="pagenum" title="191" name="page_191" id="page_191"></a> was weary. Also, he was anxious to stop in Ashland
+and leave Mom Wallis's request that Margaret would spend the next
+Sabbath at the camp and see the new curtains. He was thinking what he
+should say to her when he saw her in a little while now, and this
+interruption to his thoughts was unwelcome. Nevertheless, he could not
+get away from that frightened look in the girl's eyes. Where could they
+have been going? That fellow was a new-comer in the region; perhaps he
+had lost his way. Perhaps he did not know that the road he was taking
+the girl led into a region of outlaws, and that the only habitation
+along the way was a cabin belonging to an old woman of weird reputation,
+where wild orgies were sometimes celebrated, and where men went who
+loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.</p>
+
+<p>Twice Gardley turned in his saddle and scanned the desert. The sky was
+darkening, and one or two pale stars were impatiently shadowing forth
+their presence. And now he could see the two riders again. They had come
+up out of the mesquite to the top of the mesa, and were outlined against
+the sky sharply. They were still on the trail to old Ouida's cabin!</p>
+
+<p>With a quick jerk Gardley reined in his horse and wheeled about,
+watching the riders for a moment; and then, setting spurs to his beast,
+he was off down the trail after them on one of his wild, reckless rides.
+Down through the mesquite he plunged, through the darkening grove, out,
+and up to the top of the mesa. He had lost sight of his quarry for the
+time, but now he could see them<a class="pagenum" title="192" name="page_192" id="page_192"></a> again riding more slowly in the valley
+below, their horses close together, and even as he watched the sky took
+on its wide night look and the stars blazed forth.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Gardley turned sharply from the trail and made a detour through
+a grove of trees, riding with reckless speed, his head down to escape
+low branches; and in a minute or two he came with unerring instinct back
+to the trail some distance ahead of Forsythe and Rosa. Then he wheeled
+his horse and stopped stock-still, awaiting their coming.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the great full moon was risen and, strangely enough, was at
+Gardley's back, making a silhouette of man and horse as the two riders
+came on toward him.</p>
+
+<p>They rode out from the cover of the grove, and there he was across their
+path. Rosa gave a scream, drawing nearer her companion, and her horse
+swerved and reared; but Gardley's black stood like an image carved in
+ebony against the silver of the moon, and Gardley's quiet voice was in
+strong contrast to the quick, unguarded exclamation of Forsythe, as he
+sharply drew rein and put his hand hastily to his hip for his weapon.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, Mr. Forsythe"&mdash;Gardley had an excellent memory for
+names&mdash;"but I thought you might not be aware, being a new-comer in these
+parts, that the trail you are taking leads to a place where ladies do
+not like to go."</p>
+
+<p>"Really! You don't say so!" answered the young man, insolently. "It is
+very kind of you, I'm sure, but you might have saved yourself the
+trouble. I know perfectly where I am going, and so does the<a class="pagenum" title="193" name="page_193" id="page_193"></a> lady, and
+we choose to go this way. Move out of the way, please. You are detaining
+us."</p>
+
+<p>But Gardley did not move out of the way. "I am sure the lady does not
+know where she is going," he said, firmly. "I am sure that she does not
+know that it is a place of bad reputation, even in this unconventional
+land. At least, if she knows, I am sure that <i>her father</i> does not know,
+and I am well acquainted with her father."</p>
+
+<p>"Get out of the way, sir," said Forsythe, hotly. "It certainly is none
+of your business, anyway, whoever knows what. Get out of the way or I
+shall shoot. This lady and I intend to ride where we please."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall have to say you <i>cannot</i>," said Gardley; and his voice
+still had that calm that made his opponent think him easy to conquer.</p>
+
+<p>"Just how do you propose to stop us?" sneered Forsythe, pulling out his
+pistol.</p>
+
+<p>"This way," said Gardley, lifting a tiny silver whistle to his lips and
+sending forth a peculiar, shrilling blast. "And this way," went on
+Gardley, calmly lifting both hands and showing a weapon in each,
+wherewith he covered the two.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa screamed and covered her face with her hands, cowering in her
+saddle.</p>
+
+<p>Forsythe lifted his weapon, but looked around nervously. "Dead men tell
+no tales," he said, angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"It depends upon the man," said Gardley, meaningly, "especially if he
+were found on this road. I fancy a few tales could be told if you
+happened to be the man. Turn your horses around at once<a class="pagenum" title="194" name="page_194" id="page_194"></a> and take this
+lady back to her home. My men are not far off, and if you do not wish
+the whole story to be known among your friends and hers you would better
+make haste."</p>
+
+<p>Forsythe dropped his weapon and obeyed. He decidedly did not wish his
+escapade to be known among his friends. There were financial reasons why
+he did not care to have it come to the ears of his brother-in-law just
+now.</p>
+
+<p>Silently in the moonlight the little procession took its way down the
+trail, the girl and the man side by side, their captor close behind, and
+when the girl summoned courage to glance fearsomely behind her she saw
+three more men riding like three grim shadows yet behind. They had
+fallen into the trail so quietly that she had not heard them when they
+came. They were Jasper Kemp, Long Bill, and Big Jim. They had been out
+for other purposes, but without question followed the call of the
+signal.</p>
+
+<p>It was a long ride back to Rogers's ranch, and Forsythe glanced
+nervously behind now and then. It seemed to him that the company was
+growing larger all the time. He half expected to see a regiment each
+time he turned. He tried hurrying his horse, but when he did so the
+followers were just as close without any seeming effort. He tried to
+laugh it all off.</p>
+
+<p>Once he turned and tried to placate Gardley with a few shakily jovial
+words:</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, old fellow, aren't you the man I met on the trail the day
+Miss Earle went over to the fort? I guess you've made a mistake in your
+calculations. I was merely out on a pleasure ride with<a class="pagenum" title="195" name="page_195" id="page_195"></a> Miss Rogers. We
+weren't going anywhere in particular, you know. Miss Rogers chose this
+way, and I wanted to please her. No man likes to have his pleasure
+interfered with, you know. I guess you didn't recognize me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I recognized you," said Gardley. "It would be well for you to be
+careful where you ride with ladies, especially at night. The matter,
+however, is one that you would better settle with Mr. Rogers. My duty
+will be done when I have put it into his hands."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, my good fellow," said Forsythe, patronizingly, "you surely don't
+intend to make a great fuss about this and go telling tales to Mr.
+Rogers about a trifling matter&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I intend to do my duty, Mr. Forsythe," said Gardley; and Forsythe
+noticed that the young man still held his weapons. "I was set this night
+to guard Mr. Rogers's property. That I did not expect his daughter would
+be a part of the evening's guarding has nothing to do with the matter. I
+shall certainly put the matter into Mr. Rogers's hands."</p>
+
+<p>Rosa began to cry softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you want to be a fool, of course," laughed Forsythe,
+disagreeably; "but you will soon see Mr. Rogers will accept my
+explanation."</p>
+
+<p>"That is for Mr. Rogers to decide," answered Gardley, and said no more.</p>
+
+<p>The reflections of Forsythe during the rest of that silent ride were not
+pleasant, and Rosa's intermittent crying did not tend to make him more
+comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>The silent procession at last turned in at the great ranch gate and rode
+up to the house. Just as they<a class="pagenum" title="196" name="page_196" id="page_196"></a> stopped and the door of the house swung
+open, letting out a flood of light, Rosa leaned toward Gardley and
+whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"Please, Mr. Gardley, don't tell papa. I'll do <i>anything</i> in the world
+for you if you won't tell papa."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at the pretty, pitiful child in the moonlight. "I'm sorry,
+Miss Rosa," he said, firmly. "But you don't understand. I must do my
+duty."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall hate you!" she hissed. "Do you hear? I shall <i>hate</i> you
+forever, and you don't know what that means. It means I'll take my
+<i>revenge</i> on you and on <i>everybody you like</i>."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her half pityingly as he swung off his horse and went up
+the steps to meet Mr. Rogers, who had come out and was standing on the
+top step of the ranch-house in the square of light that flickered from a
+great fire on the hearth of the wide fireplace. He was looking from one
+to another of the silent group, and as his eyes rested on his daughter
+he said, sternly:</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Rosa, what does this mean? You told me you were going to bed with
+a headache!"</p>
+
+<p>Gardley drew his employer aside and told what had happened in a few
+low-toned sentences; and then stepped down and back into the shadow, his
+horse by his side, the three men from the camp grouped behind him. He
+had the delicacy to withdraw after his duty was done.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Rogers, his face stern with sudden anger and alarm, stepped down and
+stood beside his daughter. "Rosa, you may get down and go into the house
+to your own room. I will talk with you later," he said. And then to the
+young man, "You, sir, will<a class="pagenum" title="197" name="page_197" id="page_197"></a> step into my office. I wish to have a plain
+talk with you."</p>
+
+<p>A half-hour later Forsythe came out of the Rogers house and mounted his
+horse, while Mr. Rogers stood silently and watched him.</p>
+
+<p>"I will bid you good evening, sir," he said, formally, as the young man
+mounted his horse and silently rode away. His back had a defiant look in
+the moonlight as he passed the group of men in the shadow; but they did
+not turn to watch him.</p>
+
+<p>"That will be all to-night, Gardley, and I thank you very much," called
+the clear voice of Mr. Rogers from his front steps.</p>
+
+<p>The four men mounted their horses silently and rode down a little
+distance behind the young man, who wondered in his heart just how much
+or how little Gardley had told Rosa's father.</p>
+
+<p>The interview to which young Forsythe had just been subjected had been
+chastening in character, of a kind to baffle curiosity concerning the
+father's knowledge of details, and to discourage any further romantic
+rides with Miss Rosa. It had been left in abeyance whether or not the
+Temples should be made acquainted with the episode, dependent upon the
+future conduct of both young people. It had not been satisfactory from
+Forsythe's point of view; that is, he had not been so easily able to
+disabuse the father's mind of suspicion, nor to establish his own
+guileless character as he had hoped; and some of the remarks Rogers made
+led Forsythe to think that the father understood just how unpleasant it
+might become for him if his brother-in-law found out about the
+escapade.<a class="pagenum" title="198" name="page_198" id="page_198"></a></p>
+
+<p>This is why Archie Forsythe feared Lance Gardley, although there was
+nothing in the least triumphant about the set of that young man's
+shoulders as he rode away in the moonlight on the trail toward Ashland.
+And this is how it came about that Rosa Rogers hated Lance Gardley,
+handsome and daring though he was; and because of him hated her teacher,
+Margaret Earle.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later Lance Gardley stood in the little dim Tanner parlor,
+talking to Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>"You look tired," said the girl, compassionately, as she saw the haggard
+shadows on the young face, showing in spite of the light of pleasure in
+his eyes. "You look <i>very</i> tired. What in the world have you been
+doing?"</p>
+
+<p>"I went out to catch cattle-thieves," he said, with a sigh, "but I found
+there were other kinds of thieves abroad. It's all in the day's work.
+I'm not tired now." And he smiled at her with beautiful reverence.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret, as she watched him, could not help thinking that the lines in
+his face had softened and strengthened since she had first seen him, and
+her eyes let him know that she was glad he had come.</p>
+
+<p>"And so you will really come to us, and it isn't going to be asking too
+much?" he said, wistfully. "You can't think what it's going to be to the
+men&mdash;to <i>us</i>! And Mom Wallis is so excited she can hardly get her work
+done. If you had said no I would be almost afraid to go back." He
+laughed, but she could see there was deep earnestness under his tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I will come," said Margaret. "I'm just looking forward to it.
+I'm going to bring Mom<a class="pagenum" title="199" name="page_199" id="page_199"></a> Wallis a new bonnet like one I made for mother;
+and I'm going to teach her how to make corn gems and steamed apple
+dumplings. I'm bringing some songs and some music for the violin; and
+I've got something for you to help me do, too, if you will?"</p>
+
+<p>He smiled tenderly down on her. What a wonderful girl she was, to be
+willing to come out to the old shack among a lot of rough men and one
+uncultured old woman and make them happy, when she was fit for the
+finest in the land!</p>
+
+<p>"You're <i>wonderful</i>!" he said, taking her hand with a quick pressure for
+good-by. "You make every one want to do his best."</p>
+
+<p>He hurried out to his horse and rode away in the moonlight. Margaret
+went up to her "mountain window" and watched him far out on the trail,
+her heart swelling with an unnamed gladness over his last words.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, God, keep him, and help him to make good!" she prayed.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="200" name="page_200" id="page_200"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The visit to the camp was a time to be remembered long by all the
+inhabitants of the bunk-house, and even by Margaret herself. Margaret
+wondered Friday evening, as she sat up late, working away braiding a
+lovely gray bonnet out of folds of malines, and fashioning it into form
+for Mom Wallis, why she was looking forward to the visit with so much
+more real pleasure than she had done to the one the week before at the
+Temples'. And so subtle is the heart of a maid that she never fathomed
+the real reason.</p>
+
+<p>The Temples', of course, was interesting and delightful as being
+something utterly new in her experience. It was comparatively luxurious,
+and there were pleasant, cultured people there, more from her own social
+class in life. But it was going to be such fun to surprise Mom Wallis
+with that bonnet and see her old face light up when she saw herself in
+the little folding three-leaved mirror she was taking along with her and
+meant to leave for Mom Wallis's log boudoir. She was quite excited over
+selecting some little thing for each one of the men&mdash;books, pictures, a
+piece of music, a bright cushion, and a pile of picture magazines. It
+made a big bundle when she had them together, and she was dubious if she
+ought<a class="pagenum" title="201" name="page_201" id="page_201"></a> to try to carry them all; but Bud, whom she consulted on the
+subject, said, loftily, it "wasn't a flea-bite for the Kid; he could
+carry anything on a horse."</p>
+
+<p>Bud was just a little jealous to have his beloved teacher away from home
+so much, and rejoiced greatly when Gardley, Friday afternoon, suggested
+that he come along, too. He made quick time to his home, and secured a
+hasty permission and wardrobe, appearing like a footman on his father's
+old horse when they were half a mile down the trail.</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis was out at the door to greet her guest when she arrived, for
+Margaret had chosen to make her visit last from Friday afternoon after
+school, until Monday morning. It was the generosity of her nature that
+she gave to her utmost when she gave.</p>
+
+<p>The one fear she had entertained about coming had been set at rest on
+the way when Gardley told her that Pop Wallis was off on one of his long
+trips, selling cattle, and would probably not return for a week.
+Margaret, much as she trusted Gardley and the men, could not help
+dreading to meet Pop Wallis again.</p>
+
+<p>There was a new trimness about the old bunk-house. The clearing had been
+cleaned up and made neat, the grass cut, some vines set out and trained
+up limply about the door, and the windows shone with Mom Wallis's
+washing.</p>
+
+<p>Mom Wallis herself was wearing her best white apron, stiff with starch,
+her lace collar, and her hair in her best imitation of the way Margaret
+had fixed it, although it must be confessed she hadn't quite<a class="pagenum" title="202" name="page_202" id="page_202"></a> caught the
+knack of arrangement yet. But the one great difference Margaret noticed
+in the old woman was the illuminating smile on her face. Mom Wallis had
+learned how to let the glory gleam through all the hard sordidness of
+her life, and make earth brighter for those about her.</p>
+
+<p>The curtains certainly made a great difference in the looks of the
+bunk-house, together with a few other changes. The men had made some
+chairs&mdash;three of them, one out of a barrel; and together they had
+upholstered them roughly. The cots around the walls were blazing with
+their red blankets folded smoothly and neatly over them, and on the
+floor in front of the hearth, which had been scrubbed, Gardley had
+spread a Navajo blanket he had bought of an Indian.</p>
+
+<p>The fireplace was piled with logs ready for the lighting at night, and
+from somewhere a lamp had been rigged up and polished till it shone in
+the setting sun that slanted long rays in at the shining windows.</p>
+
+<p>The men were washed and combed, and had been huddled at the back of the
+bunk-house for an hour, watching the road, and now they came forward
+awkwardly to greet their guest, their horny hands scrubbed to an
+unbelievable whiteness. They did not say much, but they looked their
+pleasure, and Margaret greeted every one as if he were an old friend,
+the charming part about it all to the men being that she remembered
+every one's name and used it.</p>
+
+<p>Bud hovered in the background and watched with starry eyes. Bud was
+having the time of his life. He preferred the teacher's visiting the
+camp rather than<a class="pagenum" title="203" name="page_203" id="page_203"></a> the fort. The "Howdy, sonny!" which he had received
+from the men, and the "Make yourself at home, Bill" from Gardley, had
+given him great joy; and the whole thing seemed somehow to link him to
+the teacher in a most distinguishing manner.</p>
+
+<p>Supper was ready almost immediately, and Mom Wallis had done her best to
+make it appetizing. There was a lamb stew with potatoes, and fresh corn
+bread with coffee. The men ate with relish, and watched their guest of
+honor as if she had been an angel come down to abide with them for a
+season. There was a tablecloth on the old table, too&mdash;a <i>white</i>
+tablecloth. It looked remarkably like an old sheet, to be sure, with a
+seam through the middle where it had been worn and turned and sewed
+together; but it was a tablecloth now, and a marvel to the men. And the
+wonder about Margaret was that she could eat at such a table and make it
+seem as though that tablecloth were the finest damask, and the two-tined
+forks the heaviest of silver.</p>
+
+<p>After the supper was cleared away and the lamp lighted, the gifts were
+brought out. A book of Scotch poetry for Jasper Kemp, bound in tartan
+covers of the Campbell clan; a small illustrated pamphlet of Niagara
+Falls for Big Jim, because he had said he wanted to see the place and
+never could manage it; a little pictured folder of Washington City for
+Big Jim; a book of old ballad music for Fiddling Boss; a book of jokes
+for Fade-away Forbes; a framed picture of a beautiful shepherd dog for
+Stocky; a big, red, ruffled denim pillow for Croaker, because when she
+was there before he was always complaining about the seats being hard;<a class="pagenum" title="204" name="page_204" id="page_204"></a>
+a great blazing crimson pennant bearing the name <span class="smcap">HARVARD</span> in big letters
+for Fudge, because she had remembered he was from Boston; and for Mom
+Wallis a framed text beautifully painted in water-colors, done in rustic
+letters twined with stray forget-me-nots, the words, "Come unto Me, all
+ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Margaret
+had made that during the week and framed it in a simple raffia braid of
+brown and green.</p>
+
+<p>It was marvelous how these men liked their presents; and while they were
+examining them and laughing about them and putting their pictures and
+Mom Wallis's text on the walls, and the pillow on a bunk, and the
+pennant over the fireplace, Margaret shyly held out a tiny box to
+Gardley.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought perhaps you would let me give you this," she said. "It isn't
+much; it isn't even new, and it has some marks in it; but I thought it
+might help with your new undertaking."</p>
+
+<p>Gardley took it with a lighting of his face and opened the box. In it
+was a little, soft, leather-bound Testament, showing the marks of usage,
+yet not worn. It was a tiny thing, very thin, easily fitting in a
+vest-pocket, and not a burden to carry. He took the little book in his
+hand, removed the silken rubber band that bound it, and turned the
+leaves reverently in his fingers, noting that there were pencil-marks
+here and there. His face was all emotion as he looked up at the giver.</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you," he said, in a low tone, glancing about to see that no one
+was noticing them. "I shall prize it greatly. It surely will help. I
+will<a class="pagenum" title="205" name="page_205" id="page_205"></a> read it every day. Was that what you wanted? And I will carry it
+with me always."</p>
+
+<p>His voice was very earnest, and he looked at her as though she had given
+him a fortune. With another glance about at the preoccupied room&mdash;even
+Bud was busy studying Jasper Kemp's oldest gun&mdash;he snapped the band on
+the book again and put it carefully in his inner breast-pocket. The book
+would henceforth travel next his heart and be his guide. She thought he
+meant her to understand that, as he put out his hand unobtrusively and
+pressed her fingers gently with a quick, low "Thank you!"</p>
+
+<p>Then Mom Wallis's bonnet was brought out and tied on her, and the poor
+old woman blushed like a girl when she stood with meek hands folded at
+her waist and looked primly about on the family for their approval at
+Margaret's request. But that was nothing to the way she stared when
+Margaret got out the threefold mirror and showed her herself in the new
+headgear. She trotted away at last, the wonderful bonnet in one hand,
+the box in the other, a look of awe on her face, and Margaret heard her
+murmur as she put it away: "Glory! <i>Me!</i> Glory!"</p>
+
+<p>Then Margaret had to read one or two of the poems for Jasper Kemp, while
+they all sat and listened to her Scotch and marveled at her. A woman
+like that condescending to come to visit them!</p>
+
+<p>She gave a lesson in note-reading to the Fiddling Boss, pointing one by
+one with her white fingers to the notes until he was able to creep along
+and pick out "Suwanee River" and "Old Folks at Home" to the intense
+delight of the audience.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret never knew just how it was that she<a class="pagenum" title="206" name="page_206" id="page_206"></a> came to be telling the men
+a story, one she had read not long before in a magazine, a story with a
+thrilling national interest and a keen personal touch that searched the
+hearts of men; but they listened as they had never listened to anything
+in their lives before.</p>
+
+<p>And then there was singing, more singing, until it bade fair to be
+morning before they slept, and the little teacher was weary indeed when
+she lay down on the cot in Mom Wallis's room, after having knelt beside
+the old woman and prayed.</p>
+
+<p>The next day there was a wonderful ride with Gardley and Bud to the
+ca&ntilde;on of the cave-dwellers, and a coming home to the apple dumplings she
+had taught Mom Wallis to make before she went away. All day Gardley and
+she, with Bud for delighted audience, had talked over the play she was
+getting up at the school, Gardley suggesting about costumes and tree
+boughs for scenery, and promising to help in any way she wanted. Then
+after supper there were jokes and songs around the big fire, and some
+popcorn one of the men had gone a long ride that day to get. They called
+for another story, too, and it was forthcoming.</p>
+
+<p>It was Sunday morning after breakfast, however, that Margaret suddenly
+wondered how she was going to make the day helpful and different from
+the other days.</p>
+
+<p>She stood for a moment looking out of the clear little window
+thoughtfully, with just the shadow of a sigh on her lips, and as she
+turned back to the room she met Gardley's questioning glance.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you homesick?" he asked, with a sorry<a class="pagenum" title="207" name="page_207" id="page_207"></a> smile. "This must all be
+very different from what you are accustomed to."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, it isn't that." She smiled, brightly. "I'm not a baby for home,
+but I do get a bit homesick about church-time. Sunday is such a strange
+day to me without a service."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not have one, then?" he suggested, eagerly. "We can sing and&mdash;you
+could&mdash;do the rest!"</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes lighted at the suggestion, and she cast a quick glance at the
+men. Would they stand for that sort of thing?</p>
+
+<p>Gardley followed her glance and caught her meaning. "Let them answer for
+themselves," he said quickly in a low tone, and then, raising his voice:
+"Speak up, men. Do you want to have church? Miss Earle here is homesick
+for a service, and I suggest that we have one, and she conduct it."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!" said Jasper Kemp, his face lighting. "I'll miss my guess if she
+can't do better than the parson we had last Sunday. Get into your seats,
+boys; we're goin' to church."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret's face was a study of embarrassment and delight as she saw the
+alacrity with which the men moved to get ready for "church." Her quick
+brain turned over the possibility of what she could read or say to help
+this strange congregation thus suddenly thrust upon her.</p>
+
+<p>It was a testimony to her upbringing by a father whose great business of
+life was to preach the gospel that she never thought once of hesitating
+or declining the opportunity, but welcomed it as an opportunity, and
+only deprecated her unreadiness for the work.</p>
+
+<p>The men stirred about, donned their coats, furtively<a class="pagenum" title="208" name="page_208" id="page_208"></a> brushing their
+hair, and Long Bill insisted that Mom Wallis put on her new bonnet;
+which she obligingly did, and sat down carefully in the barrel-chair,
+her hands neatly crossed in her lap, supremely happy. It really was
+wonderful what a difference that bonnet made in Mom Wallis.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley arranged a comfortable seat for Margaret at the table and put in
+front of her one of the hymn-books she had brought. Then, after she was
+seated, he took the chair beside her and brought out the little
+Testament from his breast-pocket, gravely laying it on the hymn-book.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret met his eyes with a look of quick appreciation. It was
+wonderful the way these two were growing to understand each other. It
+gave the girl a thrill of wonder and delight to have him do this simple
+little thing for her, and the smile that passed between them was
+beautiful to see. Long Bill turned away his head and looked out of the
+window with an improvised sneeze to excuse the sudden mist that came
+into his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret chose "My Faith looks up to Thee" for the first hymn, because
+Fiddling Boss could play it, and while he was tuning up his fiddle she
+hastily wrote out two more copies of the words. And so the queer service
+started with a quaver of the old fiddle and the clear, sweet voices of
+Margaret and Gardley leading off, while the men growled on their way
+behind, and Mom Wallis, in her new gray bonnet, with her hair all
+fluffed softly gray under it, sat with eyes shining like a girl's.</p>
+
+<p>So absorbed in the song were they all that they failed to hear the sound
+of a horse coming into the<a class="pagenum" title="209" name="page_209" id="page_209"></a> clearing. But just as the last words of the
+final verse died away the door of the bunk-house swung open, and there
+in the doorway stood Pop Wallis!</p>
+
+<p>The men sprang to their feet with one accord, ominous frowns on their
+brows, and poor old Mom Wallis sat petrified where she was, the smile of
+relaxation frozen on her face, a look of fear growing in her tired old
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Now Pop Wallis, through an unusual combination of circumstances, had
+been for some hours without liquor and was comparatively sober. He stood
+for a moment staring amazedly at the group around his fireside. Perhaps
+because he had been so long without his usual stimulant his mind was
+weakened and things appeared as a strange vision to him. At any rate, he
+stood and stared, and as he looked from one to another of the men, at
+the beautiful stranger, and across to the strangely unfamiliar face of
+his wife in her new bonnet, his eyes took on a frightened look. He
+slowly took his hand from the door-frame and passed it over his eyes,
+then looked again, from one to another, and back to his glorified wife.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret had half risen at her end of the table, and Gardley stood
+beside her as if to reassure her; but Pop Wallis was not looking at any
+of them any more. His eyes were on his wife. He passed his hand once
+more over his eyes and took one step gropingly into the room, a hand
+reached out in front of him, as if he were not sure but he might run
+into something on the way, the other hand on his forehead, a dazed look
+in his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Mom&mdash;that ain't really&mdash;<i>you</i>, now, <i>is</i> it?"<a class="pagenum" title="210" name="page_210" id="page_210"></a> he said, in a
+gentle, insinuating voice like one long unaccustomed making a hasty
+prayer.</p>
+
+<p>The tone made a swift change in the old woman. She gripped her bony
+hands tight and a look of beatific joy came into her wrinkled face.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it's really <i>me</i>, Pop!" she said, with a kind of triumphant ring
+to her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;but&mdash;you're right <i>here</i>, ain't you? You ain't <i>dead</i>,
+an'&mdash;an'&mdash;gone to&mdash;gl-oo-ry, be you? You're right <i>here</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I'm right <i>here</i>, Pop. I ain't dead! Pop&mdash;glory's <i>come to me</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"Glory?" repeated the man, dazedly. "Glory?" And he gazed around the
+room and took in the new curtains, the pictures on the wall, the
+cushions and chairs, and the bright, shining windows. "You don't mean
+it's <i>heav'n</i>, do you, Mom? 'Cause I better go back&mdash;<i>I</i> don't belong in
+heav'n. Why, Mom, it can't be glory, 'cause it's the same old
+bunk-house outside, anyhow."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it's the same old bunk-house, and it ain't heaven, but it's
+<i>goin</i>' to be. The glory's come all right. You sit down, Pop; we're
+goin' to have church, and this is my new bonnet. <i>She</i> brang it. This is
+the new school-teacher, Miss Earle, and she's goin' to have church. She
+done it <i>all</i>! You sit down and listen."</p>
+
+<p>Pop Wallis took a few hesitating steps into the room and dropped into
+the nearest chair. He looked at Margaret as if she might be an angel
+holding open the portal to a kingdom in the sky. He looked and wondered
+and admired, and then he looked back to his glorified old wife again in
+wonder.<a class="pagenum" title="211" name="page_211" id="page_211"></a></p>
+
+<p>Jasper Kemp shut the door, and the company dropped back into their
+places. Margaret, because of her deep embarrassment, and a kind of
+inward trembling that had taken possession of her, announced another
+hymn.</p>
+
+<p>It was a solemn little service, quite unique, with a brief, simple
+prayer and an expository reading of the story of the blind man from the
+sixth chapter of John. The men sat attentively, their eyes upon her face
+as she read; but Pop Wallis sat staring at his wife, an awed light upon
+his scared old face, the wickedness and cunning all faded out, and only
+fear and wonder written there.</p>
+
+<p>In the early dawning of the pink-and-silver morning Margaret went back
+to her work, Gardley riding by her side, and Bud riding at a discreet
+distance behind, now and then going off at a tangent after a stray
+cottontail. It was wonderful what good sense Bud seemed to have on
+occasion.</p>
+
+<p>The horse that Margaret rode, a sturdy little Western pony, with nerve
+and grit and a gentle common sense for humans, was to remain with her in
+Ashland, a gift from the men of the bunk-house. During the week that
+followed Archie Forsythe came riding over with a beautiful shining
+saddle-horse for her use during her stay in the West; but when he went
+riding back to the ranch the shining saddle-horse was still in his
+train, riderless, for Margaret told him that she already had a horse of
+her own. Neither had Margaret accepted the invitation to the Temples'
+for the next week-end. She had other plans for the Sabbath, and that
+week there appeared on all the trees and posts about the town, and on<a class="pagenum" title="212" name="page_212" id="page_212"></a>
+the trails, a little notice of a Bible class and vesper-service to be
+held in the school-house on the following Sabbath afternoon; and so
+Margaret, true daughter of her minister-father, took up her mission in
+Ashland for the Sabbaths that were to follow; for the school-board had
+agreed with alacrity to such use of the school-house.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="213" name="page_213" id="page_213"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Now when it became noised abroad that the new teacher wanted above all
+things to purchase a piano, and that to that end she was getting up a
+wonderful Shakespeare play in which the scholars were to act upon a
+stage set with tree boughs after the manner of some new kind of players,
+the whole community round about began to be excited.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner talked much about it. Was not Bud to be a prominent
+character? Mr. Tanner talked about it everywhere he went. The mothers
+and fathers and sisters talked about it, and the work of preparing the
+play went on.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret had discovered that one of the men at the bunk-house played a
+flute, and she was working hard to teach him and Fiddling Boss and
+Croaker to play a portion of the elfin dance to accompany the players.
+The work of making costumes and training the actors became more and more
+strenuous, and in this Gardley proved a fine assistant. He undertook to
+train some of the older boys for their parts, and did it so well that he
+was presently in the forefront of the battle of preparation and working
+almost as hard as Margaret herself.</p>
+
+<p>The beauty of the whole thing was that every<a class="pagenum" title="214" name="page_214" id="page_214"></a> boy in the school adored
+him, even Jed and Timothy, and life took on a different aspect to them
+in company with this high-born college-bred, Eastern young man who yet
+could ride and shoot with the daringest among the Westerners.</p>
+
+<p>Far and wide went forth the fame of the play that was to be. The news of
+it reached to the fort and the ranches, and brought offers of assistance
+and costumes and orders for tickets. Margaret purchased a small
+duplicator and set her school to printing tickets and selling them, and
+before the play was half ready to be acted tickets enough were sold for
+two performances, and people were planning to come from fifty miles
+around. The young teacher began to quake at the thought of her big
+audience and her poor little amateur players; and yet for children they
+were doing wonderfully well, and were growing quite Shakespearian in
+their manner of conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"What say you, sweet Amanda?" would be a form of frequent address to
+that stolid maiden Amanda Bounds; and Jed, instead of shouting for
+"Delicate" at recess, as in former times, would say, "My good Timothy, I
+swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow; by his best arrow with the
+golden head"&mdash;until all the school-yard rang with classic phrases; and
+the whole country round was being addressed in phrases of another
+century by the younger members of their households.</p>
+
+<p>Then Rosa Rogers's father one day stopped at the Tanners' and left a
+contribution with the teacher of fifty dollars toward the new piano; and
+after that it was rumored that the teacher said the piano<a class="pagenum" title="215" name="page_215" id="page_215"></a> could be sent
+for in time to be used at the play. Then other contributions of smaller
+amounts came in, and before the date of the play had been set there was
+money enough to make a first payment on the piano. That day the English
+exercise for the whole school was to compose the letter to the Eastern
+piano firm where the piano was to be purchased, ordering it to be sent
+on at once. Weeks before this Margaret had sent for a number of piano
+catalogues beautifully illustrated, showing by cuts how the whole
+instruments were made, with full illustrations of the factories where
+they were manufactured, and she had discussed the selection with the
+scholars, showing them what points were to be considered in selecting a
+good piano. At last the order was sent out, the actual selection itself
+to be made by a musical friend of Margaret's in New York, and the school
+waited in anxious suspense to hear that it had started on its way.</p>
+
+<p>The piano arrived at last, three weeks before the time set for the play,
+which was coming on finely now and seemed to the eager scholars quite
+ready for public performance. Not so to Margaret and Gardley, as daily
+they pruned, trained, and patiently went over and over again each part,
+drawing all the while nearer to the ideal they had set. It could not be
+done perfectly, of course, and when they had done all they could there
+would yet be many crudities; but Margaret's hope was to bring out the
+meaning of the play and give both audience and performers the true idea
+of what Shakespeare meant when he wrote it.</p>
+
+<p>The arrival of the piano was naturally a great<a class="pagenum" title="216" name="page_216" id="page_216"></a> event in the school. For
+three days in succession the entire school marched in procession down to
+the incoming Eastern train to see if their expected treasure had
+arrived, and when at last it was lifted from the freight-car and set
+upon the station platform the school stood awe-struck and silent, with
+half-bowed heads and bated breath, as though at the arrival of some
+great and honorable guest.</p>
+
+<p>They attended it on the roadside as it was carted by the biggest wagon
+in town to the school-house door; they stood in silent rows while the
+great box was peeled off and the instrument taken out and carried into
+the school-room; then they filed in soulfully and took their accustomed
+seats without being told, touching shyly the shining case as they
+passed. By common consent they waited to hear its voice for the first
+time. Margaret took the little key from the envelope tied to the frame,
+unlocked the cover, and, sitting down, began to play. The rough men who
+had brought it stood in awesome adoration around the platform; the
+silence that spread over that room would have done honor to Paderewski
+or Josef Hoffman.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret played and played, and they could not hear enough. They would
+have stayed all night listening, perhaps, so wonderful was it to them.
+And then the teacher called each one and let him or her touch a few
+chords, just to say they had played on it. After which she locked the
+instrument and sent them all home. That was the only afternoon during
+that term that the play was forgotten for a while.</p>
+
+<p>After the arrival of the piano the play went forward<a class="pagenum" title="217" name="page_217" id="page_217"></a> with great
+strides, for now Margaret accompanied some of the parts with the music,
+and the flute and violin were also practised in their elfin dance with
+much better effect. It was about this time that Archie Forsythe
+discovered the rehearsals and offered his assistance, and, although it
+was declined, he frequently managed to ride over about rehearsal time,
+finding ways to make himself useful in spite of Margaret's polite
+refusals. Margaret always felt annoyed when he came, because Rosa Rogers
+instantly became another creature on his arrival, and because Gardley
+simply froze into a polite statue, never speaking except when spoken to.
+As for Forsythe, his attitude toward Gardley was that of a contemptuous
+master toward a slave, and yet he took care to cover it always with a
+form of courtesy, so that Margaret could say or do nothing to show her
+displeasure, except to be grave and dignified. At such times Rosa
+Rogers's eyes would be upon her with a gleam of hatred, and the teacher
+felt that the scholar was taking advantage of the situation. Altogether
+it was a trying time for Margaret when Forsythe came to the
+school-house. Also, he discovered to them that he played the violin, and
+offered to assist in the orchestral parts. Margaret really could think
+of no reason to decline this offer, but she was sadly upset by the whole
+thing. His manner to her was too pronounced, and she felt continually
+uncomfortable under it, what with Rosa Rogers's jealous eyes upon her
+and Gardley's eyes turned haughtily away.</p>
+
+<p>She planned a number of special rehearsals in the evenings, when it was
+difficult for Forsythe to get<a class="pagenum" title="218" name="page_218" id="page_218"></a> there, and managed in this way to avoid
+his presence; but the whole matter became a source of much vexation, and
+Margaret even shed a few tears wearily into her pillow one night when
+things had gone particularly hard and Forsythe had hurt the feelings of
+Fiddling Boss with his insolent directions about playing. She could not
+say or do anything much in the matter, because the Temples had been very
+kind in helping to get the piano, and Mr. Temple seemed to think he was
+doing the greatest possible kindness to her in letting Forsythe off duty
+so much to help with the play. The matter became more and more of a
+distress to Margaret, and the Sabbath was the only day of real delight.</p>
+
+<p>The first Sunday after the arrival of the piano was a great day.
+Everybody in the neighborhood turned out to the Sunday-afternoon class
+and vesper service, which had been growing more and more in popularity,
+until now the school-room was crowded. Every man from the bunk-house
+came regularly, often including Pop Wallis, who had not yet recovered
+fully from the effect of his wife's new bonnet and fluffy arrangement of
+hair, but treated her like a lady visitor and deferred to her absolutely
+when he was at home. He wasn't quite sure even yet but he had strayed by
+mistake into the outermost courts of heaven and ought to get shooed out.
+He always looked at the rose-wreathed curtains with a mingling of pride
+and awe.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret had put several hymns on the blackboard in clear, bold
+printing, and the singing that day was wonderful. Not the least part of
+the service was her own playing over of the hymns before<a class="pagenum" title="219" name="page_219" id="page_219"></a> the singing
+began, which was listened to with reverence as if it had been the music
+of an angel playing on a heavenly harp.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley always came to the Sunday services, and helped her with the
+singing, and often they two sang duets together.</p>
+
+<p>The service was not always of set form. Usually Margaret taught a short
+Bible lesson, beginning with the general outline of the Bible, its
+books, their form, substance, authors, etc.&mdash;all very brief and
+exceedingly simple, putting a wide space of music between this and the
+vesper service, into which she wove songs, bits of poems, passages from
+the Bible, and often a story which she told dramatically, illustrating
+the scripture read.</p>
+
+<p>But the very Sunday before the play, just the time Margaret had looked
+forward to as being her rest from all the perplexities of the week, a
+company from the fort, including the Temples, arrived at the
+school-house right in the midst of the Bible lesson.</p>
+
+<p>The ladies were daintily dressed, and settled their frills and ribbons
+amusedly as they watched the embarrassed young teacher trying to forget
+that there was company present. They were in a distinct sense "company,"
+for they had the air, as they entered, of having come to look on and be
+amused, not to partake in the worship with the rest.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret found herself trembling inwardly as she saw the supercilious
+smile on the lips of Mrs. Temple and the amused stares of the other
+ladies of the party. They did not take any notice of the other people
+present any more than if they had been so many puppets set up to show
+off the teacher; their<a class="pagenum" title="220" name="page_220" id="page_220"></a> air of superiority was offensive. Not until Rosa
+Rogers entered with her father, a little later, did they condescend to
+bow in recognition, and then with that pretty little atmosphere as if
+they would say, "Oh, you've come, too, to be amused."</p>
+
+<p>Gardley was sitting up in front, listening to her talk, and she thought
+he had not noticed the strangers. Suddenly it came to her to try to keep
+her nerve and let him see that they were nothing to her; and with a
+strong effort and a swift prayer for help she called for a hymn. She sat
+coolly down at the piano, touching the keys with a tender chord or two
+and beginning to sing almost at once. She had sent home for some old
+hymn-books from the Christian Endeavor Society in her father's church,
+so the congregation were supplied with the notes and words now, and
+everybody took part eagerly, even the people from the fort
+condescendingly joining in.</p>
+
+<p>But Gardley was too much alive to every expression on that vivid face of
+Margaret's to miss knowing that she was annoyed and upset. He did not
+need to turn and look back to immediately discover the cause. He was a
+young person of keen intuition. It suddenly gave him great satisfaction
+to see that look of consternation on Margaret's face. It settled for him
+a question he had been in great and anxious doubt about, and his soul
+was lifted up with peace within him. When, presently, according to
+arrangement, he rose to sing a duet with Margaret, no one could have
+possibly told by so much as the lifting of an eyelash that he knew there
+was an enemy of his in the back of the room. He sang,<a class="pagenum" title="221" name="page_221" id="page_221"></a> as did Margaret,
+to the immediate audience in front of him, those admiring children and
+adoring men in the forefront who felt the school-house had become for
+them the gate of heaven for the time being; and he sang with marvelous
+feeling and sympathy, letting out his voice at its best.</p>
+
+<p>"Really," said Mrs. Temple, in a loud whisper to the wife of one of the
+officers, "that young man has a fine voice, and he isn't bad-looking,
+either. I think he'd be worth cultivating. We must have him up and try
+him out."</p>
+
+<p>But when she repeated this remark in another stage whisper to Forsythe
+he frowned haughtily.</p>
+
+<p>The one glimpse Margaret caught of Forsythe during that afternoon's
+service was when he was smiling meaningly at Rosa Rogers; and she had to
+resolutely put the memory of their look from her mind or the story which
+she was about to tell would have fled.</p>
+
+<p>It was the hunger in Jasper Kemp's eyes that finally anchored Margaret's
+thoughts and helped her to forget the company at the back of the room.
+She told her story, and she told it wonderfully and with power,
+interpreting it now and then for the row of men who sat in the center of
+the room drinking in her every word; and when the simple service was
+concluded with another song, in which Gardley's voice rang forth with
+peculiar tenderness and strength, the men filed forth silently,
+solemnly, with bowed heads and thoughtful eyes. But the company from the
+fort flowed up around Margaret like flood-tide let loose and gushed upon
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my dear!" said Mrs. Temple. "How beautifully<a class="pagenum" title="222" name="page_222" id="page_222"></a> you do it! And such
+attention as they give you! No wonder you are willing to forego all
+other amusements to stay here and preach! But it was perfectly sweet the
+way you made them listen and the way you told that story. I don't see
+how you do it. I'd be scared to death!"</p>
+
+<p>They babbled about her awhile, much to her annoyance, for there were
+several people to whom she had wanted to speak, who drew away and
+disappeared when the new-comers took possession of her. At last,
+however, they mounted and rode away, to her great relief. Forsythe, it
+is true, tried to make her go home with them; tried to escort her to the
+Tanners'; tried to remain in the school-house with her awhile when she
+told him she had something to do there; but she would not let him, and
+he rode away half sulky at the last, a look of injured pride upon his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret went to the door finally, and looked down the road. He was
+gone, and she was alone. A shade of sadness came over her face. She was
+sorry that Gardley had not waited. She had wanted to tell him how much
+she liked his singing, what a pleasure it was to sing with him, and how
+glad she was that he came up to her need so well with the strangers
+there and helped to make it easy. But Gardley had melted away as soon as
+the service was over, and had probably gone home with the rest of the
+men. It was disappointing, for she had come to consider their little
+time together on Sunday as a very pleasant hour, this few minutes after
+the service when they would talk about real living and the vital things
+of existence. But he was gone!<a class="pagenum" title="223" name="page_223" id="page_223"></a></p>
+
+<p>She turned, and there he was, quite near the door, coming toward her.
+Her face lighted up with a joy that was unmistakable, and his own smile
+in answer was a revelation of his deeper self.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm so glad you are not gone!" she said, eagerly. "I wanted to tell
+you&mdash;" And then she stopped, and the color flooded her face rosily, for
+she saw in his eyes how glad he was and forgot to finish her sentence.</p>
+
+<p>He came up gravely, after all, and, standing just a minute so beside the
+door, took both her hands in both his. It was only for a second that he
+stood so, looking down into her eyes. I doubt if either of them knew
+till afterward that they had been holding hands. It seemed the right and
+natural thing to do, and meant so much to each of them. Both were glad
+beyond their own understanding over that moment and its tenderness.</p>
+
+<p>It was all very decorous, and over in a second, but it meant much to
+remember afterward, that look and hand-clasp.</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted to tell you," he said, tenderly, "how much that story did for
+me. It was wonderful, and it helped me to decide something I have been
+perplexed over&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am glad!" she said, half breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>So, talking in low, broken sentences, they went back to the piano and
+tried over several songs for the next Sunday, lingering together, just
+happy to be there with each other, and not half knowing the significance
+of it all. As the purple lights on the school-room wall grew long and
+rose-edged, they walked slowly to the Tanner house and said good night.<a class="pagenum" title="224" name="page_224" id="page_224"></a></p>
+
+<p>There was a beauty about the young man as he stood for a moment looking
+down upon the girl in parting, the kind of beauty there is in any
+strong, wild thing made tame and tender for a great love by a great
+uplift. Gardley had that look of self-surrender, and power made
+subservient to right, that crowns a man with strength and more than
+physical beauty. In his fine face there glowed high purpose, and deep
+devotion to the one who had taught it to him. Margaret, looking up at
+him, felt her heart go out with that great love, half maiden, half
+divine, that comes to some favored women even here on earth, and she
+watched him down the road toward the mountain in the evening light and
+marveled how her trust had grown since first she met him; marveled and
+reflected that she had not told her mother and father much about him
+yet. It was growing time to do so; yes&mdash;<i>it was growing time</i>! Her
+cheeks grew pink in the darkness and she turned and fled to her room.</p>
+
+<p>That was the last time she saw him before the play.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="225" name="page_225" id="page_225"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The play was set for Tuesday. Monday afternoon and evening were to be
+the final rehearsals, but Gardley did not come to them. Fiddling Boss
+came late and said the men had been off all day and had not yet
+returned. He himself found it hard to come at all. They had important
+work on. But there was no word from Gardley.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret was disappointed. She couldn't get away from it. Of course they
+could go on with the rehearsal without him. He had done his work well,
+and there was no real reason why he had to be there. He knew every part
+by heart, and could take any boy's place if any one failed in any way.
+There was nothing further really for him to do until the performance, as
+far as that was concerned, except be there and encourage her. But she
+missed him, and an uneasiness grew in her mind. She had so looked
+forward to seeing him, and now to have no word! He might at least have
+sent her a note when he found he could not come.</p>
+
+<p>Still she knew this was unreasonable. His work, whatever it was&mdash;he had
+never explained it very thoroughly to her, perhaps because she had never
+asked&mdash;must, of course, have kept him. She must excuse him without
+question and go on with the business of the hour.<a class="pagenum" title="226" name="page_226" id="page_226"></a></p>
+
+<p>Her hands were full enough, for Forsythe came presently and was more
+trying than usual. She had to be very decided and put her foot down
+about one or two things, or some of her actors would have gone home in
+the sulks, and Fiddling Boss, whose part in the program meant much to
+him, would have given it up entirely.</p>
+
+<p>She hurried everything through as soon as possible, knowing she was
+weary, and longing to get to her room and rest. Gardley would come and
+explain to-morrow, likely in the morning on his way somewhere.</p>
+
+<p>But the morning came and no word. Afternoon came and he had not sent a
+sign yet. Some of the little things that he had promised to do about the
+setting of the stage would have to remain undone, for it was too late
+now to do it herself, and there was no one else to call upon.</p>
+
+<p>Into the midst of her perplexity and anxiety came the news that Jed on
+his way home had been thrown from his horse, which was a young and
+vicious one, and had broken his leg. Jed was to act the part of Nick
+Bottom that evening, and he did it well! Now what in the world was she
+to do? If only Gardley would come!</p>
+
+<p>Just at this moment Forsythe arrived.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it is you, Mr. Forsythe!" And her tone showed plainly her
+disappointment. "Haven't you seen Mr. Gardley to-day? I don't know what
+I shall do without him."</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly have seen Gardley," said Forsythe, a spice of
+vindictiveness and satisfaction in his tone. "I saw him not two hours
+ago, drunk as a fish, out<a class="pagenum" title="227" name="page_227" id="page_227"></a> at a place called Old Ouida's Cabin, as I was
+passing. He's in for a regular spree. You'll not see him for several
+days, I fancy. He's utterly helpless for the present, and out of the
+question. What is there I can do for you? Present your request. It's
+yours&mdash;to the half of my kingdom."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret's heart grew cold as ice and then like fire. Her blood seemed
+to stop utterly and then to go pounding through her veins in leaps and
+torrents. Her eyes grew dark, and things swam before her. She reached
+out to a desk and caught at it for support, and her white face looked at
+him a moment as if she had not heard. But when in a second she spoke,
+she said, quite steadily:</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you, Mr. Forsythe; there is nothing just at present&mdash;or, yes,
+there is, if you wouldn't mind helping Timothy put up those curtains.
+Now, I think I'll go home and rest a few minutes; I am very tired."</p>
+
+<p>It wasn't exactly the job Forsythe coveted, to stay in the school-house
+and fuss over those curtains; but she made him do it, then disappeared,
+and he didn't like the memory of her white face. He hadn't thought she
+would take it that way. He had expected to have her exclaim with horror
+and disgust. He watched her out of the door, and then turned impatiently
+to the waiting Timothy.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret went outside the school-house to call Bud, who had been sent to
+gather sage-brush for filling in the background, but Bud was already out
+of sight far on the trail toward the camp on Forsythe's horse, riding
+for dear life. Bud had come near to the school-house door with his
+armful of sage-brush<a class="pagenum" title="228" name="page_228" id="page_228"></a> just in time to hear Forsythe's flippant speech
+about Gardley and see Margaret's white face. Bud had gone for help!</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret did not go home to rest. She did not even get half-way
+home. When she had gone a very short distance outside the school-house
+she saw some one coming toward her, and in her distress of mind she
+could not tell who it was. Her eyes were blinded with tears, her breath
+was constricted, and it seemed to her that a demon unseen was gripping
+her heart. She had not yet taken her bearings to know what she thought.
+She had only just come dazed from the shock of Forsythe's words, and had
+not the power to think. Over and over to herself, as she walked along,
+she kept repeating the words: "I <i>do not</i> believe it! It is <i>not</i> true!"
+but her inner consciousness had not had time to analyze her soul and be
+sure that she believed the words wherewith she was comforting herself.</p>
+
+<p>So now, when she saw some one coming, she felt the necessity of bringing
+her telltale face to order and getting ready to answer whoever she was
+to meet. As she drew nearer she became suddenly aware that it was Rosa
+Rogers coming with her arms full of bundles and more piled up in front
+of her on her pony. Margaret knew at once that Rosa must have seen
+Forsythe go by her house, and had returned promptly to the school-house
+on some pretext or other. It would not do to let her go there alone with
+the young man; she must go back and stay with them. She could not be
+sure that if she sent Rosa home with orders to rest she would be obeyed.
+Doubtless the girl would take another<a class="pagenum" title="229" name="page_229" id="page_229"></a> way around and return to the
+school again. There was nothing for it but to go back and stay as long
+as Rosa did.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret stooped and, hastily plucking a great armful of sage-brush,
+turned around and retraced her steps, her heart like lead, her feet
+suddenly grown heavy. How could she go back and hear them laugh and
+chatter, answer their many silly, unnecessary questions, and stand it
+all? How could she, with that great weight at her heart?</p>
+
+<p>She went back with a wonderful self-control. Forsythe's face lighted,
+and his reluctant hand grew suddenly eager as he worked. Rosa came
+presently, and others, and the laughing chatter went on quite as
+Margaret had known it would. And she&mdash;so great is the power of human
+will under pressure&mdash;went calmly about and directed here and there;
+planned and executed; put little, dainty, wholly unnecessary touches to
+the stage; and never let any one know that her heart was being crushed
+with the weight of a great, awful fear, and yet steadily upborne by the
+rising of a great, deep trust. As she worked and smiled and ordered, she
+was praying: "Oh, God, don't let it be true! Keep him! Save him! Bring
+him! Make him true! I <i>know</i> he is true! Oh, God, bring him safely
+<i>soon</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>Meantime there was nothing she could do. She could not send Forsythe
+after him. She could not speak of the matter to one of those present,
+and Bud&mdash;where was Bud? It was the first time since she came to Arizona
+that Bud had failed her. She might not leave the school-house, with
+Forsythe and Rosa there, to go and find him, and she might<a class="pagenum" title="230" name="page_230" id="page_230"></a> not do
+anything else. There was nothing to do but work on feverishly and pray
+as she had never prayed before.</p>
+
+<p>By and by one of the smaller boys came, and she sent him back to the
+Tanners' to find Bud, but he returned with the message that Bud had not
+been home since morning; and so the last hours before the evening, that
+would otherwise have been so brief for all there was to be done, dragged
+their weary length away and Margaret worked on.</p>
+
+<p>She did not even go back for supper at the last, but sent one of the
+girls to her room for a few things she needed, and declined even the
+nice little chicken sandwich that thoughtful Mrs. Tanner sent back along
+with the things. And then, at last, the audience began to gather.</p>
+
+<p>By this time her anxiety was so great for Gardley that all thought of
+how she was to supply the place of the absent Jed had gone from her
+mind, which was in a whirl. Gardley! Gardley! If only Gardley would
+come! That was her one thought. What should she do if he didn't come at
+all? How should she explain things to herself afterward? What if it had
+been true? What if he were the kind of man Forsythe had suggested? How
+terrible life would look to her! But it was not true. No, it was not
+true! She trusted him! With her soul she trusted him! He would come back
+some time and he would explain all. She could not remember his last look
+at her on Sunday and not trust him. He was true! He would come!</p>
+
+<p>Somehow she managed to get through the terrible interval, to slip into
+the dressing-room and make<a class="pagenum" title="231" name="page_231" id="page_231"></a> herself sweet and comely in the little white
+gown she had sent for, with its delicate blue ribbons and soft lace
+ruffles. Somehow she managed the expected smiles as one and another of
+the audience came around to the platform to speak to her. There were
+dark hollows under her eyes, and her mouth was drawn and weary, but they
+laid that to the excitement. Two bright-red spots glowed on her cheeks;
+but she smiled and talked with her usual gaiety. People looked at her
+and said how beautiful she was, and how bright and untiring; and how
+wonderful it was that Ashland School had drawn such a prize of a
+teacher. The seats filled, the noise and the clatter went on. Still no
+sign of Gardley or any one from the camp, and still Bud had not
+returned! What could it mean?</p>
+
+<p>But the minutes were rushing rapidly now. It was more than time to
+begin. The girls were in a flutter in one cloak-room at the right of the
+stage, asking more questions in a minute than one could answer in an
+hour; the boys in the other cloak-room wanted all sorts of help; and
+three or four of the actors were attacked with stage-fright as they
+peered through a hole in the curtain and saw some friend or relative
+arrive and sit down in the audience. It was all a mad whirl of seemingly
+useless noise and excitement, and she could not, no, she <i>could not</i>, go
+on and do the necessary things to start that awful play. Why, oh, <i>why</i>
+had she ever been left to think of getting up a play?</p>
+
+<p>Forsythe, up behind the piano, whispered to her that it was time to
+begin. The house was full. There was not room for another soul. Margaret
+explained<a class="pagenum" title="232" name="page_232" id="page_232"></a> that Fiddling Boss had not yet arrived, and caught a glimpse
+of the cunning designs of Forsythe in the shifty turning away of his
+eyes as he answered that they could not wait all night for him; that if
+he wanted to get into it he ought to have come early. But even as she
+turned away she saw the little, bobbing, eager faces of Pop and Mom
+Wallis away back by the door, and the grim, towering figure of the Boss,
+his fiddle held high, making his way to the front amid the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>She sat down and touched the keys, her eyes watching eagerly for a
+chance to speak to the Boss and see if he knew anything of Gardley; but
+Forsythe was close beside her all the time, and there was no
+opportunity. She struck the opening chords of the overture they were to
+attempt to play, and somehow got through it. Of course, the audience was
+not a critical one, and there were few real judges of music present; but
+it may be that the truly wonderful effect she produced upon the
+listeners was due to the fact that she was playing a prayer with her
+heart as her fingers touched the keys, and that instead of a preliminary
+to a fairy revel the music told the story of a great soul struggle, and
+reached hearts as it tinkled and rolled and swelled on to the end. It
+may be, too, that Fiddling Boss was more in sympathy that night with his
+accompanist than was the other violinist, and that was why his old
+fiddle brought forth such weird and tender tones.</p>
+
+<p>Almost to the end, with her heart sobbing its trouble to the keys,
+Margaret looked up sadly, and there, straight before her through a hole
+in the curtain made by some rash youth to glimpse the<a class="pagenum" title="233" name="page_233" id="page_233"></a> audience, or
+perhaps even put there by the owner of the nose itself, she saw the
+little, freckled, turned-up member belonging to Bud's face. A second
+more and a big, bright eye appeared and solemnly winked at her twice, as
+if to say, "Don't you worry; it's all right!"</p>
+
+<p>She almost started from the stool, but kept her head enough to finish
+the chords, and as they died away she heard a hoarse whisper in Bud's
+familiar voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Whoop her up, Miss Earle. We're all ready. Raise the curtain there, you
+guy. Let her rip. Everything's O. K."</p>
+
+<p>With a leap of light into her eyes Margaret turned the leaves of the
+music and went on playing as she should have done if nothing had been
+the matter. Bud was there, anyway, and that somehow cheered her heart.
+Perhaps Gardley had come or Bud had heard of him&mdash;and yet, Bud didn't
+know he had been missing, for Bud had been away himself.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, she summoned courage to go on playing. Nick Bottom wasn't
+in this first scene, anyway, and this would have to be gone through with
+somehow. By this time she was in a state of daze that only thought from
+moment to moment. The end of the evening seemed now to her as far off as
+the end of a hale old age seems at the beginning of a lifetime. Somehow
+she must walk through it; but she could only see a step at a time.</p>
+
+<p>Once she turned half sideways to the audience and gave a hurried glance
+about, catching sight of Fudge's round, near-sighted face, and that gave
+her encouragement. Perhaps the others were somewhere present. If only
+she could get a chance to<a class="pagenum" title="234" name="page_234" id="page_234"></a> whisper to some one from the camp and ask
+when they had seen Gardley last! But there was no chance, of course!</p>
+
+<p>The curtain was rapidly raised and the opening scene of the play began,
+the actors going through their parts with marvelous ease and dexterity,
+and the audience silent and charmed, watching those strangers in queer
+costumes that were their own children, marching around there at their
+ease and talking weird language that was not used in any class of
+society they had ever come across on sea or land before.</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret, watching her music as best she could, and playing
+mechanically rather than with her mind, could not tell if they were
+doing well or ill, so loudly did her heart pound out her fears&mdash;so
+stoutly did her heart proclaim her trust.</p>
+
+<p>And thus, without a flaw or mistake in the execution of the work she had
+struggled so hard to teach them, the first scene of the first act drew
+to its close, and Margaret struck the final chords of the music and felt
+that in another minute she must reel and fall from that piano-stool. And
+yet she sat and watched the curtain fall with a face as controlled as if
+nothing at all were the matter.</p>
+
+<p>A second later she suddenly knew that to sit in that place calmly
+another second was a physical impossibility. She must get somewhere to
+the air at once or her senses would desert her.</p>
+
+<p>With a movement so quick that no one could have anticipated it, she
+slipped from her piano-stool, under the curtain to the stage, and was
+gone before the rest of the orchestra had noticed her intention.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="235" name="page_235" id="page_235"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Since the day that he had given Margaret his promise to make good,
+Gardley had been regularly employed by Mr. Rogers, looking after
+important matters of his ranch. Before that he had lived a free and easy
+life, working a little now and then when it seemed desirable to him,
+having no set interest in life, and only endeavoring from day to day to
+put as far as possible from his mind the life he had left behind him.
+Now, however, all things became different. He brought to his service the
+keen mind and ready ability that had made him easily a winner at any
+game, a brave rider, and a never-failing shot. Within a few days Rogers
+saw what material was in him, and as the weeks went by grew to depend
+more and more upon his advice in matters.</p>
+
+<p>There had been much trouble with cattle thieves, and so far no method of
+stopping the loss or catching the thieves had been successful. Rogers
+finally put the matter into Gardley's hands to carry out his own ideas,
+with the men of the camp at his command to help him, the camp itself
+being only a part of Rogers's outlying possessions, one of several such
+centers from which he worked his growing interests.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley had formulated a scheme by which he<a class="pagenum" title="236" name="page_236" id="page_236"></a> hoped eventually to get
+hold of the thieves and put a stop to the trouble, and he was pretty
+sure he was on the right track; but his plan required slow and cautious
+work, that the enemy might not suspect and take to cover. He had for
+several weeks suspected that the thieves made their headquarters in the
+region of Old Ouida's Cabin, and made their raids from that direction.
+It was for this reason that of late the woods and trails in the vicinity
+of Ouida's had been secretly patrolled day and night, and every
+passer-by taken note of, until Gardley knew just who were the
+frequenters of that way and mostly what was their business. This work
+was done alternately by the men of the Wallis camp and two other camps,
+Gardley being the head of all and carrying all responsibility; and not
+the least of that young man's offenses in the eyes of Rosa Rogers was
+that he was so constantly at her father's house and yet never lifted an
+eye in admiration of her pretty face. She longed to humiliate him, and
+through him to humiliate Margaret, who presumed to interfere with her
+flirtations, for it was a bitter thing to Rosa that Forsythe had no eyes
+for her when Margaret was about.</p>
+
+<p>When the party from the fort rode homeward that Sunday after the service
+at the school-house, Forsythe lingered behind to talk to Margaret, and
+then rode around by the Rogers place, where Rosa and he had long ago
+established a trysting-place.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa was watching for his passing, and he stopped a half-hour or so to
+talk to her. During this time she casually disclosed to Forsythe some of
+the plans she had overheard Gardley laying before her father.<a class="pagenum" title="237" name="page_237" id="page_237"></a> Rosa had
+very little idea of the importance of Gardley's work to her father, or
+perhaps she would not have so readily prattled of his affairs. Her main
+idea was to pay back Gardley for his part in her humiliation with
+Forsythe. She suggested that it would be a great thing if Gardley could
+be prevented from being at the play Tuesday evening, and told what she
+had overheard him saying to her father merely to show Forsythe how easy
+it would be to have Gardley detained on Tuesday. Forsythe questioned
+Rosa keenly. Did she know whom they suspected? Did she know what they
+were planning to do to catch them, and when?</p>
+
+<p>Rosa innocently enough disclosed all she knew, little thinking how
+dishonorable to her father it was, and perhaps caring as little, for
+Rosa had ever been a spoiled child, accustomed to subordinating
+everything within reach to her own uses. As for Forsythe, he was nothing
+loath to get rid of Gardley, and he saw more possibilities in Rosa's
+suggestion than she had seen herself. When at last he bade Rosa good
+night and rode unobtrusively back to the trail he was already
+formulating a plan.</p>
+
+<p>It was, therefore, quite in keeping with his wishes that he should meet
+a dark-browed rider a few miles farther up the trail whose identity he
+had happened to learn a few days before.</p>
+
+<p>Now Forsythe would, perhaps, not have dared to enter into any compact
+against Gardley with men of such ill-repute had it been a matter of
+money and bribery, but, armed as he was with information valuable to the
+criminals, he could so word his suggestion about Gardley's detention as
+to make the<a class="pagenum" title="238" name="page_238" id="page_238"></a> hunted men think it to their advantage to catch Gardley
+some time the next day when he passed their way and imprison him for a
+while. This would appear to be but a friendly bit of advice from a
+disinterested party deserving a good turn some time in the future and
+not get Forsythe into any trouble. As such it was received by the
+wretch, who clutched at the information with ill-concealed delight and
+rode away into the twilight like a serpent threading his secret, gliding
+way among the darkest places, scarcely rippling the air, so stealthily
+did he pass.</p>
+
+<p>As for Forsythe, he rode blithely to the Temple ranch, with no thought
+of the forces he had set going, his life as yet one round of trying to
+please himself at others' expense, if need be, but please himself,
+<i>anyway</i>, with whatever amusement the hour afforded.</p>
+
+<p>At home in the East, where his early life had been spent, a splendid
+girl awaited his dilatory letters and set herself patiently to endure
+the months of separation until he should have attained a home and a
+living and be ready for her to come to him.</p>
+
+<p>In the South, where he had idled six months before he went West, another
+lovely girl cherished mementoes of his tarrying and wrote him loving
+letters in reply to his occasional erratic epistles.</p>
+
+<p>Out on the Californian shore a girl with whom he had traveled West in
+her uncle's luxurious private car, with a gay party of friends and
+relatives, cherished fond hopes of a visit he had promised to make her
+during the winter.</p>
+
+<p>Innumerable maidens of this world, wise in the<a class="pagenum" title="239" name="page_239" id="page_239"></a> wisdom that crushes
+hearts, remembered him with a sigh now and then, but held no illusions
+concerning his kind.</p>
+
+<p>Pretty little Rosa Rogers cried her eyes out every time he cast a
+languishing look at her teacher, and several of the ladies of the fort
+sighed that the glance of his eye and the gentle pressure of his hand
+could only be a passing joy. But the gay Lothario passed on his way as
+yet without a scratch on the hard enamel of his heart, till one wondered
+if it were a heart, indeed, or perhaps only a metal imitation. But girls
+like Margaret Earle, though they sometimes were attracted by him,
+invariably distrusted him. He was like a beautiful spotted snake that
+was often caught menacing something precious, but you could put him down
+anywhere after punishment or imprisonment and he would slide on his same
+slippery way and still be a spotted, deadly snake.</p>
+
+<p>When Gardley left the camp that Monday morning following the walk home
+with Margaret from the Sabbath service, he fully intended to be back at
+the school-house Monday by the time the afternoon rehearsal began. His
+plans were so laid that he thought relays from other camps were to guard
+the suspected ground for the next three days and he could be free. It
+had been a part of the information that Forsythe had given the stranger
+that Gardley would likely pass a certain lonely crossing of the trail at
+about three o'clock that afternoon, and, had that arrangement been
+carried out, the men who lay in wait for him would doubtless have been
+pleased to have their plans mature so easily; but they would not have
+been pleased long, for Gardley's men were<a class="pagenum" title="240" name="page_240" id="page_240"></a> so near at hand at that time,
+watching that very spot with eyes and ears and long-distance glasses,
+that their chief would soon have been rescued and the captors be
+themselves the captured.</p>
+
+<p>But the men from the farther camp, called "Lone Fox" men, did not arrive
+on time, perhaps through some misunderstanding, and Gardley and Kemp and
+their men had to do double time. At last, later in the afternoon,
+Gardley volunteered to go to Lone Fox and bring back the men.</p>
+
+<p>As he rode his thoughts were of Margaret, and he was seeing again the
+look of gladness in her eyes when she found he had not gone yesterday;
+feeling again the thrill of her hands in his, the trust of her smile! It
+was incredible, wonderful, that God had sent a veritable angel into the
+wilderness to bring him to himself; and now he was wondering, could it
+be that there was really hope that he could ever make good enough to
+dare to ask her to marry him. The sky and the air were rare, but his
+thoughts were rarer still, and his soul was lifted up with joy. He was
+earning good wages now. In two more weeks he would have enough to pay
+back the paltry sum for the lack of which he had fled from his old home
+and come to the wilderness. He would go back, of course, and straighten
+out the old score. Then what? Should he stay in the East and go back to
+the old business wherewith he had hoped to make his name honored and
+gain wealth, or should he return to this wild, free land again and start
+anew?</p>
+
+<p>His mother was dead. Perhaps if she had lived and cared he would have
+made good in the first place.<a class="pagenum" title="241" name="page_241" id="page_241"></a> His sisters were both married to wealthy
+men and not deeply interested in him. He had disappointed and mortified
+them; their lives were filled with social duties; they had never missed
+him. His father had been dead many years. As for his uncle, his mother's
+brother, whose heir he was to have been before he got himself into
+disgrace, he decided not to go near him. He would stay as long as he
+must to undo the wrong he had done. He would call on his sisters and
+then come back; come back and let Margaret decide what she wanted him to
+do&mdash;that is, if she would consent to link her life with one who had been
+once a failure. Margaret! How wonderful she was! If Margaret said he
+ought to go back and be a lawyer, he would go&mdash;yes, even if he had to
+enter his uncle's office as an underling to do it. His soul loathed the
+idea, but he would do it for Margaret, if she thought it best. And so he
+mused as he rode!</p>
+
+<p>When the Lone Fox camp was reached and the men sent out on their belated
+task, Gardley decided not to go with them back to meet Kemp and the
+other men, but sent word to Kemp that he had gone the short cut to
+Ashland, hoping to get to a part of the evening rehearsal yet.</p>
+
+<p>Now that short cut led him to the lonely crossing of the trail much
+sooner than Kemp and the others could reach it from the rendezvous; and
+there in cramped positions, and with much unnecessary cursing and
+impatience, four strong masked men had been concealed for four long
+hours.</p>
+
+<p>Through the stillness of the twilight rode Gardley, thinking of
+Margaret, and for once utterly off his guard. His long day's work was
+done, and though<a class="pagenum" title="242" name="page_242" id="page_242"></a> he had not been able to get back when he planned, he
+was free now, free until the day after to-morrow. He would go at once to
+her and see if there was anything she wanted him to do.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as if to help along his enemies, he began to hum a song, his
+clear, high voice reaching keenly to the ears of the men in ambush:</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;">"'Oh, the time is long, mavourneen,<br />
+Till I come again, O mavourneen&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>"And the toime 'll be longer thun iver, oim thinkin', ma purty little
+voorneen!" said an unmistakable voice of Erin through the gathering
+dusk.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley's horse stopped and Gardley's hand went to his revolver, while
+his other hand lifted the silver whistle to his lips; but four guns
+bristled at him in the twilight, the whistle was knocked from his lips
+before his breath had even reached it, some one caught his arms from
+behind, and his own weapon was wrenched from his hand as it went off.
+The cry which he at once sent forth was stifled in its first whisper in
+a great muffling garment flung over his head and drawn tightly about his
+neck. He was in a fair way to strangle, and his vigorous efforts at
+escape were useless in the hands of so many. He might have been plunged
+at once into a great abyss of limitless, soundless depths, so futile did
+any resistance seem. And so, as it was useless to struggle, he lay like
+one dead and put all his powers into listening. But neither could he
+hear much, muffled as he was, and bound hand and foot now, with a gag in
+his mouth and little care taken whether he could even breathe.<a class="pagenum" title="243" name="page_243" id="page_243"></a></p>
+
+<p>They were leading him off the trail and up over rough ground; so much he
+knew, for the horse stumbled and jolted and strained to carry him. To
+keep his whirling senses alive and alert he tried to think where they
+might be leading him; but the darkness and the suffocation dulled his
+powers. He wondered idly if his men would miss him and come back when
+they got home to search for him, and then remembered with a pang that
+they would think him safely in Ashland, helping Margaret. They would not
+be alarmed if he did not return that night, for they would suppose he
+had stopped at Rogers's on the way and perhaps stayed all night, as he
+had done once or twice before. <i>Margaret!</i> When should he see Margaret
+now? What would she think?</p>
+
+<p>And then he swooned away.</p>
+
+<p>When he came somewhat to himself he was in a close, stifling room where
+candle-light from a distance threw weird shadows over the adobe walls.
+The witch-like voices of a woman and a girl in harsh, cackling laughter,
+half suppressed, were not far away, and some one, whose face was
+covered, was holding a glass to his lips. The smell was sickening, and
+he remembered that he hated the thought of liquor. It did not fit with
+those who companied with Margaret. He had never cared for it, and had
+resolved never to taste it again. But whether he chose or not, the
+liquor was poured down his throat. Huge hands held him and forced it,
+and he was still bound and too weak to resist, even if he had realized
+the necessity.</p>
+
+<p>The liquid burned its way down his throat and<a class="pagenum" title="244" name="page_244" id="page_244"></a> seethed into his brain,
+and a great darkness, mingled with men's wrangling voices and much
+cursing, swirled about him like some furious torrent of angry waters
+that finally submerged his consciousness. Then came deeper darkness and
+a blank relief from pain.</p>
+
+<p>Hours passed. He heard sounds sometimes, and dreamed dreams which he
+could not tell from reality. He saw his friends with terror written on
+their faces, while he lay apathetically and could not stir. He saw tears
+on Margaret's face; and once he was sure he heard Forsythe's voice in
+contempt: "Well, he seems to be well occupied for the present! No danger
+of his waking up for a while!" and then the voices all grew dim and far
+away again, and only an old crone and the harsh girl's whisper over him;
+and then Margaret's tears&mdash;tears that fell on his heart from far above,
+and seemed to melt out all his early sins and flood him with their
+horror. Tears and the consciousness that he ought to be doing something
+for Margaret now and could not. Tears&mdash;and more darkness!</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="245" name="page_245" id="page_245"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>When Margaret arrived behind the curtain she was aware of many cries and
+questions hurled at her like an avalanche, but, ignoring them all, she
+sprang past the noisy, excited group of young people, darted through the
+dressing-room to the right and out into the night and coolness. Her head
+was swimming, and things went black before her eyes. She felt that her
+breath was going, going, and she must get to the air.</p>
+
+<p>But when she passed the hot wave of the school-room, and the sharp air
+of the night struck her face, consciousness seemed to turn and come back
+into her again; for there over her head was the wideness of the vast,
+starry Arizona night, and there, before her, in Nick Bottom's somber
+costume, eating one of the chicken sandwiches that Mrs. Tanner had sent
+down to her, stood Gardley! He was pale and shaken from his recent
+experience; but he was undaunted, and when he saw Margaret coming toward
+him through the doorway with her soul in her eyes and her spirit all
+aflame with joy and relief, he came to meet her under the stars, and,
+forgetting everything else, just folded her gently in his arms!</p>
+
+<p>It was a most astonishing thing to do, of course, right there outside
+the dressing-room door, with the curtain just about to rise on the scene
+and Gardley's<a class="pagenum" title="246" name="page_246" id="page_246"></a> wig was not on yet. He had not even asked nor obtained
+permission. But the soul sometimes grows impatient waiting for the lips
+to speak, and Margaret felt her trust had been justified and her heart
+had found its home. Right there behind the school-house, out in the
+great wide night, while the crowded, clamoring audience waited for them,
+and the young actors grew frantic, they plighted their troth, his lips
+upon hers, and with not a word spoken.</p>
+
+<p>Voices from the dressing-room roused them. "Come in quick, Mr. Gardley;
+it's time for the curtain to rise, and everybody is ready. Where on
+earth has Miss Earle vanished? Miss Earle! Oh, Miss Earle!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a rush to the dressing-room to find the missing ones; but Bud,
+as ever, present where was the most need, stood with his back to the
+outside world in the door of the dressing-room and called loudly:</p>
+
+<p>"They're comin', all right. Go on! Get to your places. Miss Earle says
+to get to your places."</p>
+
+<p>The two in the darkness groped for each other's hands as they stood
+suddenly apart, and with one quick pressure and a glance hurried in.
+There was not any need for words. They understood, these two, and
+trusted.</p>
+
+<p>With her cheeks glowing now, and her eyes like two stars, Margaret fled
+across the stage and took her place at the piano again, just as the
+curtain began to be drawn; and Forsythe, who had been slightly uneasy at
+the look on her face as she left them, wondered now and leaned forward
+to tell her how well she was looking.<a class="pagenum" title="247" name="page_247" id="page_247"></a></p>
+
+<p>He kept his honeyed phrase to himself, however, for she was not heeding
+him. Her eyes were on the rising curtain, and Forsythe suddenly
+remembered that this was the scene in which Jed was to have
+appeared&mdash;and Jed had a broken leg! What had Margaret done about it? It
+was scarcely a part that could be left out. Why hadn't he thought of it
+sooner and offered to take it? He could have bluffed it out somehow&mdash;he
+had heard it so much&mdash;made up words where he couldn't remember them all,
+and it would have been a splendid opportunity to do some real
+love-making with Rosa. Why hadn't he thought of it? Why hadn't Rosa?
+Perhaps she hadn't heard about Jed soon enough to suggest it.</p>
+
+<p>The curtain was fully open now, and Bud's voice as Peter Quince, a
+trifle high and cracked with excitement, broke the stillness, while the
+awed audience gazed upon this new, strange world presented to them.</p>
+
+<p>"Is all our company here?" lilted out Bud, excitedly, and Nick Bottom
+replied with Gardley's voice:</p>
+
+<p>"You were best to call them generally, man by man, according to the
+scrip."</p>
+
+<p>Forsythe turned deadly white. Jasper Kemp, whose keen eye was upon him,
+saw it through the tan, saw his lips go pale and purple points of fear
+start in his eyes, as he looked and looked again, and could not believe
+his senses.</p>
+
+<p>Furtively he darted a glance around, like one about to steal away; then,
+seeing Jasper Kemp's eyes upon him, settled back with a strained look<a class="pagenum" title="248" name="page_248" id="page_248"></a>
+upon his face. Once he stole a look at Margaret and caught her face all
+transfigured with great joy; looked again and felt rebuked somehow by
+the pureness of her maiden joy and trust.</p>
+
+<p>Not once had she turned her eyes to his. He was forgotten, and somehow
+he knew the look he would get if she should see him. It would be
+contempt and scorn that would burn his very soul. It is only a maid now
+and then to whom it is given thus to pierce and bruise the soul of a man
+who plays with love and trust and womanhood for selfishness. Such a
+woman never knows her power. She punishes all unconscious to herself. It
+was so that Margaret Earle, without being herself aware, and by her very
+indifference and contempt, showed the little soul of this puppet man to
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>He stole away at last when he thought no one was looking, and reached
+the back of the school-house at the open door of the girls'
+dressing-room, where he knew Titania would be posing in between the
+acts. He beckoned her to his side and began to question her in quick,
+eager, almost angry tones, as if the failure of their plans were her
+fault. Had her father been at home all day? Had anything happened&mdash;any
+one been there? Did Gardley come? Had there been any report from the
+men? Had that short, thick-set Scotchman with the ugly grin been there?
+She must remember that she was the one to suggest the scheme in the
+first place, and it was her business to keep a watch. There was no
+telling now what might happen. He turned, and there stood Jasper Kemp
+close to his elbow, his short stature drawn to its full, his thick-set
+shoulders squaring<a class="pagenum" title="249" name="page_249" id="page_249"></a> themselves, his ugly grin standing out in bold
+relief, menacingly, in the night.</p>
+
+<p>The young man let forth some words not in a gentleman's code, and turned
+to leave the frightened girl, who by this time was almost crying; but
+Jasper Kemp kept pace with Forsythe as he walked.</p>
+
+<p>"Was you addressing me?" he asked, politely; "because I could tell you a
+few things a sight more appropriate for you than what you just handed to
+me."</p>
+
+<p>Forsythe hurried around to the front of the school-house, making no
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Nice, pleasant evening to be <i>free</i>," went on Jasper Kemp, looking up
+at the stars. "Rather onpleasant for some folks that have to be shut up
+in jail."</p>
+
+<p>Forsythe wheeled upon him. "What do you mean?" he demanded, angrily,
+albeit he was white with fear.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing much," drawled Jasper, affably. "I was just thinking how
+much pleasanter it was to be a free man than shut up in prison on a
+night like this. It's so much healthier, you know."</p>
+
+<p>Forsythe looked at him a moment, a kind of panic of intelligence growing
+in his face; then he turned and went toward the back of the
+school-house, where he had left his horse some hours before.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going?" demanded Jasper. "It's 'most time you went back
+to your fiddling, ain't it?"</p>
+
+<p>But Forsythe answered him not a word. He was mounting his horse
+hurriedly&mdash;his horse, which, all unknown to him, had been many miles
+since he last rode him.</p>
+
+<p>"You think you have to go, then?" said Jasper,<a class="pagenum" title="250" name="page_250" id="page_250"></a> deprecatingly. "Well,
+now, that's a pity, seeing you was fiddling so nice an' all. Shall I
+tell them you've gone for your health?"</p>
+
+<p>Thus recalled, Forsythe stared at his tormentor wildly for a second.
+"Tell her&mdash;tell her"&mdash;he muttered, hoarsely&mdash;"tell her I've been taken
+suddenly ill." And he was off on a wild gallop toward the fort.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell her you've gone for your health!" called Jasper Kemp, with
+his hands to his mouth like a megaphone. "I reckon he won't return again
+very soon, either," he chuckled. "This country's better off without such
+pests as him an' that measley parson." Then, turning, he beheld Titania,
+the queen of the fairies, white and frightened, staring wildly into the
+starry darkness after the departed rider. "Poor little fool!" he
+muttered under his breath as he looked at the girl and turned away.
+"Poor, pretty little fool!" Suddenly he stepped up to her side and
+touched her white-clad shoulder gently. "Don't you go for to care,
+lassie," he said in a tender tone. "He ain't worth a tear from your
+pretty eye. He ain't fit to wipe your feet on&mdash;your pretty wee feet!"</p>
+
+<p>But Rosa turned angrily and stamped her foot.</p>
+
+<p>"Go away! You bad old man!" she shrieked. "Go away! I shall tell my
+father!" And she flouted herself into the school-house.</p>
+
+<p>Jasper stood looking ruefully after her, shaking his head. "The little
+de'il!" he said aloud; "the poor, pretty little de'il. She'll get her
+dues aplenty afore she's done." And Jasper went back to the play.<a class="pagenum" title="251" name="page_251" id="page_251"></a></p>
+
+<p>Meantime, inside the school-house, the play went gloriously on to the
+finish, and Gardley as Nick Bottom took the house by storm. Poor absent
+Jed's father, sent by the sufferer to report it all, stood at the back
+of the house while tears of pride and disappointment rolled down his
+cheeks&mdash;pride that Jed had been so well represented, disappointment that
+it couldn't have been his son up there play-acting like that.</p>
+
+<p>The hour was late when the play was over, and Margaret stood at last in
+front of the stage to receive the congratulations of the entire
+countryside, while the young actors posed and laughed and chattered
+excitedly, then went away by two and threes, their tired, happy voices
+sounding back along the road. The people from the fort had been the
+first to surge around Margaret with their eager congratulations and
+gushing sentiments: "So sweet, my dear! So perfectly wonderful! You
+really have got some dandy actors!" And, "Why don't you try something
+lighter&mdash;something simpler, don't you know. Something really popular
+that these poor people could understand and appreciate? A little farce!
+I could help you pick one out!"</p>
+
+<p>And all the while they gushed Jasper Kemp and his men, grim and
+forbidding, stood like a cordon drawn about her to protect her, with
+Gardley in the center, just behind her, as though he had a right there
+and meant to stay; till at last the fort people hurried away and the
+school-house grew suddenly empty with just those two and the eight men
+behind; and by the door Bud, talking to Pop and Mom Wallis in the
+buckboard outside.<a class="pagenum" title="252" name="page_252" id="page_252"></a></p>
+
+<p>Amid this admiring bodyguard at last Gardley took Margaret home.
+Perhaps she wondered a little that they all went along, but she laid it
+to their pride in the play and their desire to talk it over.</p>
+
+<p>They had sent Mom and Pop Wallis home horseback, after all, and put
+Margaret and Gardley in the buckboard, Margaret never dreaming that it
+was because Gardley was not fit to walk. Indeed, he did not realize
+himself why they all stuck so closely to him. He had lived through so
+much since Jasper and his men had burst into his prison and freed him,
+bringing him in hot haste to the school-house, with Bud wildly riding
+ahead. But it was enough for him to sit beside Margaret in the sweet
+night and remember how she had come out to him under the stars. Her hand
+lay beside him on the seat, and without intending it his own brushed it.
+Then he laid his gently, reverently, down upon hers with a quiet
+pressure, and her smaller fingers thrilled and nestled in his grasp.</p>
+
+<p>In the shadow of a big tree beside the house he bade her good-by, the
+men busying themselves with turning about the buckboard noisily, and Bud
+discreetly taking himself to the back door to get one of the men a drink
+of water.</p>
+
+<p>"You have been suffering in some way," said Margaret, with sudden
+intuition, as she looked up into Gardley's face. "You have been in
+peril, somehow&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A little," he answered, lightly. "I'll tell you about it to-morrow. I
+mustn't keep the men waiting now. I shall have a great deal to tell you
+to-morrow&mdash;if you will let me. Good night, <i>Margaret</i>!"<a class="pagenum" title="253" name="page_253" id="page_253"></a> Their hands
+lingered in a clasp, and then he rode away with his bodyguard.</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret did not have to wait until the morrow to hear the story,
+for Bud was just fairly bursting.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner had prepared a nice little supper&mdash;more cold chicken, pie,
+doughnuts, coffee, some of her famous marble cake, and preserves&mdash;and
+she insisted on Margaret's coming into the dining-room and eating it,
+though the girl would much rather have gone with her happy heart up to
+her own room by herself.</p>
+
+<p>Bud did not wait on ceremony. He began at once when Margaret was seated,
+even before his mother could get her properly waited on.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we had <i>some ride</i>, we sure did! The Kid's a great old scout."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret perceived that this was a leader. "Why, that's so, what became
+of you, William? I hunted everywhere for you. Things were pretty
+strenuous there for a while, and I needed you dreadfully."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I know," Bud apologized. "I'd oughta let you know before I went,
+but there wasn't time. You see, I had to pinch that guy's horse to go,
+and I knew it was just a chance if we could get back, anyway; but I had
+to take it. You see, if I could 'a' gone right to the cabin it would
+have been a dead cinch, but I had to ride to camp for the men, and then,
+taking the short trail across, it was some ride to Ouida's Cabin!"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Tanner stepped aghast as she was cutting a piece of dried-apple pie
+for Margaret. "Now, Buddie&mdash;mother's boy&mdash;you don't mean to tell me<a class="pagenum" title="254" name="page_254" id="page_254"></a>
+<i>you</i> went to <i>Ouida's Cabin</i>? Why, sonnie, that's an <i>awful place</i>!
+Don't you know your pa told you he'd whip you if you ever went on that
+trail?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should worry, Ma! I <i>had</i> to go. They had Mr. Gardley tied up there,
+and we had to go and get him rescued."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You</i> had to go, Buddie&mdash;now what could <i>you</i> do in that awful place?"
+Mrs. Tanner was almost reduced to tears. She saw her offspring at the
+edge of perdition at once.</p>
+
+<p>But Bud ignored his mother and went on with his tale. "You jest oughta
+seen Jap Kemp's face when I told him what that guy said to you! Some
+face, b'lieve me! He saw right through the whole thing, too. I could see
+that! He ner the men hadn't had a bite o' supper yet; they'd just got
+back from somewheres. They thought the Kid was over here all day helping
+you. He said yesterday when he left 'em here's where he's
+a-comin'"&mdash;Bud's mouth was so full he could hardly articulate&mdash;"an' when
+I told 'em, he jest blew his little whistle&mdash;like what they all
+carry&mdash;three times, and those men every one jest stopped right where
+they was, whatever they was doin'. Long Bill had the comb in the air
+gettin' ready to comb his hair, an' he left it there and come away, and
+Big Jim never stopped to wipe his face on the roller-towel, he just let
+the wind dry it; and they all hustled on their horses fast as ever they
+could and beat it after Jap Kemp. Jap, he rode alongside o' me and asked
+me questions. He made me tell all what the guy from the fort said over
+again, three or four times, and then he ast what time he got to the
+school-house, and whether the<a class="pagenum" title="255" name="page_255" id="page_255"></a> Kid had been there at all yest'iday ur
+t'day; and a lot of other questions, and then he rode alongside each man
+and told him in just a few words where we was goin' and what the guy
+from the fort had said. Gee! but you'd oughta heard what the men said
+when he told 'em! Gee! but they was some mad! Bimeby we came to the
+woods round the cabin, and Jap Kemp made me stick alongside Long Bill,
+and he sent the men off in different directions all in a <i>big</i> circle,
+and waited till each man was in his place, and then we all rode hard as we
+could and came softly up round that cabin just as the sun was goin' down.
+Gee! but you'd oughta seen the scairt look on them women's faces; there
+was two of 'em&mdash;an old un an' a skinny-looking long-drink-o'-pump-water.
+I guess she was a girl. I don't know. Her eyes looked real old. There
+was only three men in the cabin; the rest was off somewheres. They
+wasn't looking for anybody to come that time o' day, I guess. One of the
+men was sick on a bunk in the corner. He had his head tied up, and his
+arm, like he'd been shot, and the other two men came jumping up to the
+door with their guns, but when they saw how many men <i>we</i> had they
+looked awful scairt. <i>We</i> all had <i>our</i> guns out, too!&mdash;Jap Kemp gave me
+one to carry&mdash;" Bud tried not to swagger as he told this, but it was
+almost too much for him. "Two of our men held the horses, and all the
+rest of us got down and went into the cabin. Jap Kemp, sounded his
+whistle and all our men done the same just as they went in the
+door&mdash;some kind of signals they have for the Lone Fox Camp! The two men
+in the doorway aimed straight at Jap Kemp and<a class="pagenum" title="256" name="page_256" id="page_256"></a> fired, but Jap was onto
+'em and jumped one side and our men fired, too, and we soon had 'em tied
+up and went in&mdash;that is, Jap and me and Long Bill went in, the rest
+stayed by the door&mdash;and it wasn't long 'fore their other men came riding
+back hot haste; they'd heard the shots, you know&mdash;and some more of <i>our</i>
+men&mdash;why, most twenty or thirty there was, I guess, altogether; some
+from Lone Fox Camp that was watching off in the woods came and when we
+got outside again there they all were, like a big army. Most of the men
+belonging to the cabin was tied and harmless by that time, for our men
+took 'em one at a time as they came riding in. Two of 'em got away, but
+Jap Kemp said they couldn't go far without being caught, 'cause there
+was a watch out for 'em&mdash;they'd been stealing cattle long back something
+terrible. Well, so Jap Kemp and Long Bill and I went into the cabin
+after the two men that shot was tied with ropes we'd brung along, and
+handcuffs, and we went hunting for the Kid. At first we couldn't find
+him at all. Gee! It was something fierce! And the old woman kep'
+a-crying and saying we'd kill her sick son, and she didn't know nothing
+about the man we was hunting for. But pretty soon I spied the Kid's foot
+stickin' out from under the cot where the sick man was, and when I told
+Jap Kemp that sick man pulled out a gun he had under the blanket and
+aimed it right at me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mother's little Buddie!" whimpered Mrs. Tanner, with her apron to
+her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Aw, Ma</i>, cut it out! <i>he</i> didn't <i>hurt</i> me! The gun just went off
+crooked, and grazed Jap Kemp's hand<a class="pagenum" title="257" name="page_257" id="page_257"></a> a little, not much. Jap knocked it
+out of the sick man's hand just as he was pullin' the trigger. Say, Ma,
+ain't you got any more of those cucumber pickles? It makes a man mighty
+hungry to do all that riding and shooting. Well, it certainly was
+something fierce&mdash;Say, Miss Earle, you take that last piece o' pie. Oh,
+g'wan! <i>Take</i> it! <i>You</i> worked hard. No, I don't want it, really! Well,
+if you won't take it <i>anyway</i>, I might eat it just to save it. Got any
+more coffee, Ma?"</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret was not eating. Her face was pale and her eyes were starry
+with unshed tears, and she waited in patient but breathless suspense for
+the vagaries of the story to work out to the finish.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it certainly was something fierce, that cabin," went on the
+narrator. "Why, Ma, it looked as if it had never been swept under that
+cot when we hauled the Kid out. He was tied all up in knots, and great
+heavy ropes wound tight from his shoulders down to his ankles. Why, they
+were bound so tight they made great heavy welts in his wrists and
+shoulders and round his ankles when we took 'em off; and they had a
+great big rag stuffed into his mouth so he couldn't yell. Gee! It was
+something fierce! He was 'most dippy, too; but Jap Kemp brought him
+round pretty quick and got him outside in the air. That was the worst
+place I ever was in myself. You couldn't breathe, and the dirt was
+something fierce. It was like a pigpen. I sure was glad to get outdoors
+again. And then&mdash;well, the Kid came around all right and they got him on
+a horse and gave him something out of a bottle Jap Kemp had, and pretty
+soon he could ride<a class="pagenum" title="258" name="page_258" id="page_258"></a> again. Why, you'd oughta seen his nerve. He just sat
+up there as straight, his lips all white yet and his eyes looked some
+queer; but he straightened up and he looked those rascals right in the
+eye, and told 'em a few things, and he gave orders to the other men from
+Lone Fox Camp what to do with 'em; and he had the two women
+disarmed&mdash;they had guns, too&mdash;and carried away, and the cabin nailed up,
+and a notice put on the door, and every one of those men were
+handcuffed&mdash;the sick one and all&mdash;and he told 'em to bring a wagon and
+put the sick one's cot in and take 'em over to Ashland to the jail, and
+he sent word to Mr. Rogers. Then we rode home and got to the
+school-house just when you was playing the last chords of the ov'rtcher.
+Gee! It was some fierce ride and some <i>close shave</i>! The Kid he hadn't
+had a thing to eat since Monday noon, and he was some hungry! I found a
+sandwich on the window of the dressing-room, and he ate it while he got
+togged up&mdash;'course I told him 'bout Jed soon's we left the cabin, and
+Jap Kemp said he'd oughta go right home to camp after all he had been
+through; but he wouldn't; he said he was goin' to <i>act</i>. So 'course he
+had his way! But, gee! You could see it wasn't any cinch game for him!
+He 'most fell over every time after the curtain fell. You see, they gave
+him some kind of drugged whisky up there at the cabin that made his head
+feel queer. Say, he thinks that guy from the fort came in and looked at
+him once while he was asleep. He says it was only a dream, but I bet he
+did. Say, Ma, ain't you gonta give me another doughnut?"</p>
+
+<p>In the quiet of her chamber at last, Margaret<a class="pagenum" title="259" name="page_259" id="page_259"></a> knelt before her window
+toward the purple, shadowy mountain under the starry dome, and gave
+thanks for the deliverance of Gardley; while Bud, in his comfortable
+loft, lay down to his well-earned rest and dreamed of pirates and angels
+and a hero who looked like the Kid.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="260" name="page_260" id="page_260"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Sunday before Lance Gardley started East on his journey of
+reparation two strangers slipped quietly into the back of the
+school-house during the singing of the first hymn and sat down in the
+shadow by the door.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret was playing the piano when they came in, and did not see them,
+and when she turned back to her Scripture lesson she had time for but
+the briefest of glances. She supposed they must be some visitors from
+the fort, as they were speaking to the captain's wife&mdash;&mdash;who came over
+occasionally to the Sunday service, perhaps because it afforded an
+opportunity for a ride with one of the young officers. These occasional
+visitors who came for amusement and curiosity had ceased to trouble
+Margaret. Her real work was with the men and women and children who
+loved the services for their own sake, and she tried as much as possible
+to forget outsiders. So, that day everything went on just as usual,
+Margaret putting her heart into the prayer, the simple, storylike
+reading of the Scripture, and the other story-sermon which followed it.
+Gardley sang unusually well at the close, a wonderful bit from an
+oratorio that he and Margaret had been practising.</p>
+
+<p>But when toward the close of the little vesper<a class="pagenum" title="261" name="page_261" id="page_261"></a> service Margaret gave
+opportunity, as she often did, for others to take part in sentence
+prayers, one of the strangers from the back of the room stood up and
+began to pray. And such a prayer! Heaven seemed to bend low, and earth
+to kneel and beseech as the stranger-man, with a face like an archangel,
+and a body of an athlete clothed in a brown-flannel shirt and khakis,
+besought the Lord of heaven for a blessing on this gathering and on the
+leader of this little company who had so wonderfully led them to see the
+Christ and their need of salvation through the lesson of the day. And it
+did not need Bud's low-breathed whisper, "The missionary!" to tell
+Margaret who he was. His face told her. His prayer thrilled her, and his
+strong, young, true voice made her sure that here was a man of God in
+truth.</p>
+
+<p>When the prayer was over and Margaret stood once more shyly facing her
+audience, she could scarcely keep the tremble out of her voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said she, casting aside ceremony, "if I had known the missionary
+was here I should not have dared to try and lead this meeting to-day.
+Won't you please come up here and talk to us for a little while now, Mr.
+Brownleigh?"</p>
+
+<p>At once he came forward eagerly, as if each opportunity were a pleasure.
+"Why, surely, I want to speak a word to you, just to say how glad I am
+to see you all, and to experience what a wonderful teacher you have
+found since I went away; but I wouldn't have missed this meeting to-day
+for all the sermons I ever wrote or preached. You don't need any more
+sermon than the remarkable story you've just been listening to, and I've
+only one word<a class="pagenum" title="262" name="page_262" id="page_262"></a> to add; and that is, that I've found since I went away
+that Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, is just the same Jesus
+to me to-day that He was the last time I spoke to you. He is just as
+ready to forgive your sin, to comfort you in sorrow, to help you in
+temptation, to raise your body in the resurrection, and to take you home
+to a mansion in His Father's house as He was the day He hung upon the
+cross to save your soul from death. I've found I can rest just as
+securely upon the Bible as the word of God as when I first tested its
+promises. Heaven and earth may pass away, but His word shall <i>never</i>
+pass away."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Go to it!</i>" said Jasper Kemp under his breath in the tone some men say
+"Amen!" and his brows were drawn as if he were watching a battle.
+Margaret couldn't help wondering if he were thinking of the Rev.
+Frederick West just then.</p>
+
+<p>When the service was over the missionary brought his wife forward to
+Margaret, and they loved each other at once. Just another sweet girl
+like Margaret. She was lovely, with a delicacy of feature that betokened
+the high-born and high-bred, but dressed in a dainty khaki riding
+costume, if that uncompromising fabric could ever be called dainty.
+Margaret, remembering it afterward, wondered what it had been that gave
+it that unique individuality, and decided it was perhaps a combination
+of cut and finish and little dainty accessories. A bit of creamy lace at
+the throat of the rolling collar, a touch of golden-brown velvet in a
+golden clasp, the flash of a wonderful jewel on her finger, the modeling
+of the small, brown cap with its two eagle quills&mdash;all<a class="pagenum" title="263" name="page_263" id="page_263"></a> set the little
+woman apart and made her fit to enter any well-dressed company of riders
+in some great city park or fashionable drive. Yet here in the wilderness
+she was not overdressed.</p>
+
+<p>The eight men from the camp stood in solemn row, waiting to be
+recognized, and behind them, abashed and grinning with embarrassment,
+stood Pop and Mom Wallis, Mom with her new gray bonnet glorifying her
+old face till the missionary's wife had to look twice to be sure who she
+was.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, surely, Hazel, we must have these dear people come over and
+help us with the singing sometimes. Can't we try something right now?"
+said the missionary, looking first at his wife and then at Margaret and
+Gardley. "This man is a new-comer since I went away, but I'm mighty sure
+he is the right kind, and I'm glad to welcome him&mdash;or perhaps I would
+better ask if he will welcome me?" And with his rare smile the
+missionary put out his hand to Gardley, who took it with an eager grasp.
+The two men stood looking at each other for a moment, as rare men,
+rarely met, sometimes do even on a sinful earth; and after that clasp
+and that look they turned away, brothers for life.</p>
+
+<p>That was a most interesting song rehearsal that followed. It would be
+rare to find four voices like those even in a cultivated musical center,
+and they blended as if they had been made for one another. The men from
+the bunk-house and a lot of other people silently dropped again into
+their seats to listen as the four sang on. The missionary took the bass,
+and his wife the alto, and the four made music worth listening to. The
+rare and lovely thing about<a class="pagenum" title="264" name="page_264" id="page_264"></a> it was that they sang to souls, not alone
+for ears, and so their music, classical though it was and of the highest
+order, appealed keenly to the hearts of these rough men, and made them
+feel that heaven had opened for them, as once before for untaught
+shepherds, and let down a ladder of angelic voices.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall feel better about leaving you out here while I am gone, since
+they have come," said Gardley that night when he was bidding Margaret
+good night. "I couldn't bear to think there were none of your own kind
+about you. The others are devoted and would do for you with their lives
+if need be, as far as they know; but I like you to have <i>real
+friends</i>&mdash;real <i>Christian</i> friends. This man is what I call a Christian.
+I'm not sure but he is the first minister that I have ever come close to
+who has impressed me as believing what he preaches, and living it. I
+suppose there are others. I haven't known many. That man West that was
+here when you came was a mistake!"</p>
+
+<p>"He didn't even preach much," smiled Margaret, "so how could he live it?
+This man is real. And there are others. Oh, I have known a lot of them
+that are living lives of sacrifice and loving service and are yet just
+as strong and happy and delightful as if they were millionaires. But
+they are the men who have not thrown away their Bibles and their Christ.
+They believe every promise in God's word, and rest on them day by day,
+testing them and proving them over and over. I wish you knew my father!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to," said Gardley, proudly. "<i>I</i> am going to him just as
+soon as I have finished my<a class="pagenum" title="265" name="page_265" id="page_265"></a> business and straightened out my affairs;
+and I am going to tell him <i>everything</i>&mdash;with your permission,
+Margaret!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how beautiful!" cried Margaret, with happy tears in her eyes. "To
+think you are going to see father and mother. I have wanted them to know
+the real you. I couldn't half <i>tell</i> you, the real you, in a letter!"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps they won't look on me with your sweet blindness, dear," he
+said, smiling tenderly down on her. "Perhaps they will see only my dark,
+past life&mdash;for I mean to tell your father everything. I'm not going to
+have any skeletons in the closet to cause pain hereafter. Perhaps your
+father and mother will not feel like giving their daughter to me after
+they know. Remember, I realize just what a rare prize she is."</p>
+
+<p>"No, father is not like that, Lance," said Margaret, with her rare smile
+lighting up her happy eyes. "Father and mother will understand."</p>
+
+<p>"But if they should not?" There was the shadow of sadness in Gardley's
+eyes as he asked the question.</p>
+
+<p>"I belong to you, dear, anyway," she said, with sweet surrender. "I
+trust you though the whole world were against you!"</p>
+
+<p>For answer Gardley took her in his arms, a look of awe upon his face,
+and, stooping, laid his lips upon hers in tender reverence.</p>
+
+<p>"Margaret&mdash;you wonderful Margaret!" he said. "God has blessed me more
+than other men in sending you to me! With His help I will be worthy of
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>Three days more and Margaret was alone with her school work, her two
+missionary friends thirty<a class="pagenum" title="266" name="page_266" id="page_266"></a> miles away, her eager watching for the mail
+to come, her faithful attendant Bud, and for comfort the purple mountain
+with its changing glory in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>A few days before Gardley left for the East he had been offered a
+position by Rogers as general manager of his estate at a fine salary,
+and after consultation with Margaret he decided to accept it, but the
+question of their marriage they had left by common consent unsettled
+until Gardley should return and be able to offer his future wife a
+record made as fair and clean as human effort could make it after human
+mistakes had unmade it. As Margaret worked and waited, wrote her
+charming letters to father and mother and lover, and thought her happy
+thoughts with only the mountain for confidant, she did not plan for the
+future except in a dim and dreamy way. She would make those plans with
+Gardley when he returned. Probably they must wait some time before they
+could be married. Gardley would have to earn some money, and she must
+earn, too. She must keep the Ashland School for another year. It had
+been rather understood, when she came out, that if at all possible she
+would remain two years at least. It was hard to think of not going home
+for the summer vacation; but the trip cost a great deal and was not to
+be thought of. There was already a plan suggested to have a summer
+session of the school, and if that went through, of course she must stay
+right in Ashland. It was hard to think of not seeing her father and
+mother for another long year, but perhaps Gardley would be returning
+before the summer was over,<a class="pagenum" title="267" name="page_267" id="page_267"></a> and then it would not be so hard. However,
+she tried to put these thoughts out of her mind and do her work happily.
+It was incredible that Arizona should have become suddenly so blank and
+uninteresting since the departure of a man whom she had not known a few
+short months before.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret had long since written to her father and mother about Gardley's
+first finding her in the desert. The thing had become history and was
+not likely to alarm them. She had been in Arizona long enough to be
+acquainted with things, and they would not be always thinking of her as
+sitting on stray water-tanks in the desert; so she told them about it,
+for she wanted them to know Gardley as he had been to her. The letters
+that had traveled back and forth between New York and Arizona had been
+full of Gardley; and still Margaret had not told her parents how it was
+between them. Gardley had asked that he might do that. Yet it had been a
+blind father and mother who had not long ago read between the lines of
+those letters and understood. Margaret fancied she detected a certain
+sense of relief in her mother's letters after she knew that Gardley had
+gone East. Were they worrying about him, she wondered, or was it just
+the natural dread of a mother to lose her child?</p>
+
+<p>So Margaret settled down to school routine, and more and more made a
+confidant of Bud concerning little matters of the school. If it had not
+been for Bud at that time Margaret would have been lonely indeed.</p>
+
+<p>Two or three times since Gardley left, the Brownleighs had ridden over
+to Sunday service, and once<a class="pagenum" title="268" name="page_268" id="page_268"></a> had stopped for a few minutes during the
+week on their way to visit some distant need. These occasions were a
+delight to Margaret, for Hazel Brownleigh was a kindred spirit. She was
+looking forward with pleasure to the visit she was to make them at the
+mission station as soon as school closed. She had been there once with
+Gardley before he left, but the ride was too long to go often, and the
+only escort available was Bud. Besides, she could not get away from
+school and the Sunday service at present; but it was pleasant to have
+something to look forward to.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the spring Commencement was coming on and Margaret had her
+hands full. She had undertaken to inaugurate a real Commencement with
+class day and as much form and ceremony as she could introduce in order
+to create a good school spirit; but such things are not done with the
+turn of a hand, and the young teacher sadly missed Gardley in all these
+preparations.</p>
+
+<p>At this time Rosa Rogers was Margaret's particular thorn in the flesh.</p>
+
+<p>Since the night that Forsythe had quit the play and ridden forth into
+the darkness Rosa had regarded her teacher with baleful eyes. Gardley,
+too, she hated, and was only waiting with smoldering wrath until her
+wild, ungoverned soul could take its revenge. She felt that but for
+those two Forsythe would still have been with her.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret, realizing the passionate, untaught nature of the motherless
+girl and her great need of a friend to guide her, made attempt after
+attempt to reach and befriend her; but every attempt was<a class="pagenum" title="269" name="page_269" id="page_269"></a> met with
+repulse and the sharp word of scorn. Rosa had been too long the petted
+darling of a father who was utterly blind to her faults to be other than
+spoiled. Her own way was the one thing that ruled her. By her will she
+had ruled every nurse and servant about the place, and wheedled her
+father into letting her do anything the whim prompted. Twice her father,
+through the advice of friends, had tried the experiment of sending her
+away to school, once to an Eastern finishing school, and once to a
+convent on the Pacific coast, only to have her return shortly by request
+of the school, more wilful than when she had gone away. And now she
+ruled supreme in her father's home, disliked by most of the servants
+save those whom she chose to favor because they could be made to serve
+her purposes. Her father, engrossed in his business and away much of the
+time, was bound up in her and saw few of her faults. It is true that
+when a fault of hers did come to his notice, however, he dealt with it
+most severely, and grieved over it in secret, for the girl was much like
+the mother whose loss had emptied the world of its joy for him. But Rosa
+knew well how to manage her father and wheedle him, and also how to hide
+her own doings from his knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa's eyes, dimples, pink cheeks, and coquettish little mouth were not
+idle in these days. She knew how to have every pupil at her feet and
+ready to obey her slightest wish. She wielded her power to its fullest
+extent as the summer drew near, and day after day saw a slow torture for
+Margaret. Some days the menacing air of insurrection fairly<a class="pagenum" title="270" name="page_270" id="page_270"></a> bristled in
+the room, and Margaret could not understand how some of her most devoted
+followers seemed to be in the forefront of battle, until one day she
+looked up quickly and caught the lynx-eyed glance of Rosa as she turned
+from smiling at the boys in the back seat. Then she understood. Rosa had
+cast her spell upon the boys, and they were acting under it and not of
+their own clear judgment. It was the world-old battle of sex, of woman
+against woman for the winning of the man to do her will. Margaret, using
+all the charm of her lovely personality to uphold standards of right,
+truth, purity, high living, and earnest thinking; Rosa striving with her
+impish beauty to lure them into <i>any</i> mischief so it foiled the other's
+purposes. And one day Margaret faced the girl alone, looking steadily
+into her eyes with sad, searching gaze, and almost a yearning to try to
+lead the pretty child to finer things.</p>
+
+<p>"Rosa, why do you always act as if I were your enemy?" she said, sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"Because you are!" said Rosa, with a toss of her independent head.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I'm not, dear child," she said, putting out her hand to lay it
+on the girl's shoulder kindly. "I want to be your friend."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not a child!" snapped Rosa, jerking her shoulder angrily away; "and
+you can <i>never</i> be my friend, because I <i>hate</i> you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Rosa, look here!" said Margaret, following the girl toward the door,
+the color rising in her cheeks and a desire growing in her heart to
+conquer this poor, passionate creature and win her for better<a class="pagenum" title="271" name="page_271" id="page_271"></a> things.
+"Rosa, I cannot have you say such things. Tell me why you hate me? What
+have I done that you should feel that way? I'm sure if we should talk it
+over we might come to some better understanding."</p>
+
+<p>Rosa stood defiant in the doorway. "We could never come to any better
+understanding, Miss Earle," she declared in a cold, hard tone, "because
+I understand you now and I hate you. You tried your best to get my
+friend away from me, but you couldn't do it; and you would like to keep
+me from having any boy friends at all, but you can't do that, either.
+You think you are very popular, but you'll find out I always do what I
+like, and you needn't try to stop me. I don't have to come to school
+unless I choose, and as long as I don't break your rules you have no
+complaint coming; but you needn't think you can pull the wool over my
+eyes the way you do the others by pretending to be friends. I won't be
+friends! I hate you!" And Rosa turned grandly and marched out of the
+school-house.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret stood gazing sadly after her and wondering if her failure here
+were her fault&mdash;if there was anything else she ought to have done&mdash;if
+she had let her personal dislike of the girl influence her conduct. She
+sat for some time at her desk, her chin in her hands, her eyes fixed on
+vacancy with a hopeless, discouraged expression in them, before she
+became aware of another presence in the room. Looking around quickly,
+she saw that Bud was sitting motionless at his desk, his forehead
+wrinkled in a fierce frown, his jaw set belligerently, and a look of<a class="pagenum" title="272" name="page_272" id="page_272"></a>
+such, unutterable pity and devotion in his eyes that her heart warmed to
+him at once and a smile of comradeship broke over her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, William! Were you here? Did you hear all that? What do you suppose
+is the matter? Where have I failed?"</p>
+
+<p>"You 'ain't failed anywhere! You should worry 'bout her! She's a nut! If
+she was a boy I'd punch her head for her! But seeing she's only a girl,
+<i>you should worry</i>! She always was the limit!"</p>
+
+<p>Bud's tone was forcible. He was the only one of all the boys who never
+yielded to Rosa's charms, but sat in glowering silence when she
+exercised her powers on the school and created pandemonium for the
+teacher. Bud's attitude was comforting. It had a touch of manliness and
+gentleness about it quite unwonted for him. It suggested beautiful
+possibilities for the future of his character, and Margaret smiled
+tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, dear boy!" she said, gently. "You certainly are a comfort.
+If every one was as splendid as you are we should have a model school.
+But I do wish I could help Rosa. I can't see why she should hate me so!
+I must have made some big mistake with her in the first place to
+antagonize her."</p>
+
+<p>"Naw!" said Bud, roughly. "No chance! She's just a <i>nut</i>, that's all.
+She's got a case on that Forsythe guy, the worst kind, and she's afraid
+somebody 'll get him away from her, the poor stew, as if anybody would
+get a case on a tough guy like that! Gee! You should worry! Come on,
+let's take a ride over t' camp!"<a class="pagenum" title="273" name="page_273" id="page_273"></a></p>
+
+<p>With a sigh and a smile Margaret accepted Bud's consolations and went on
+her way, trying to find some manner of showing Rosa what a real friend
+she was willing to be. But Rosa continued obdurate and hateful,
+regarding her teacher with haughty indifference except when she was
+called upon to recite, which she did sometimes with scornful
+condescension, sometimes with pert perfection, and sometimes with saucy
+humor which convulsed the whole room. Margaret's patience was almost
+ceasing to be a virtue, and she meditated often whether she ought not to
+request that the girl be withdrawn from the school. Yet she reflected
+that it was a very short time now until Commencement, and that Rosa had
+not openly defied any rules. It was merely a personal antagonism. Then,
+too, if Rosa were taken from the school there was really no other good
+influence in the girl's life at present. Day by day Margaret prayed
+about the matter and hoped that something would develop to make plain
+her way.</p>
+
+<p>After much thought in the matter she decided to go on with her plans,
+letting Rosa have her place in the Commencement program and her part in
+the class-day doings as if nothing were the matter. Certainly there was
+nothing laid down in the rules of a public school that proscribed a
+scholar who did not love her teacher. Why should the fact that one had
+incurred the hate of a pupil unfit that pupil for her place in her class
+so long as she did her duties? And Rosa did hers promptly and deftly,
+with a certain piquant originality that Margaret could not help but
+admire.<a class="pagenum" title="274" name="page_274" id="page_274"></a></p>
+
+<p>Sometimes, as the teacher cast a furtive look at the pretty girl working
+away at her desk, she wondered what was going on behind the lovely mask.
+But the look in Rosa's eyes, when she raised them, was both deep and
+sly.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa's hatred was indeed deep rooted. Whatever heart she had not
+frivoled away in wilfulness had been caught and won by Forsythe, the
+first grown man who had ever dared to make real love to her. Her
+jealousy of Margaret was the most intense thing that had ever come into
+her life. To think of him looking at Margaret, talking to Margaret,
+smiling at Margaret, walking or riding with Margaret, was enough to send
+her writhing upon her bed in the darkness of a wakeful night. She would
+clench her pretty hands until the nails dug into the flesh and brought
+the blood. She would bite the pillow or the blankets with an almost
+fiendish clenching of her teeth upon them and mutter, as she did so: "I
+hate her! I <i>hate</i> her! I could <i>kill</i> her!"</p>
+
+<p>The day her first letter came from Forsythe, Rosa held her head high and
+went about the school as if she were a princess royal and Margaret were
+the dust under her feet. Triumph sat upon her like a crown and looked
+forth regally from her eyes. She laid her hand upon her heart and felt
+the crackle of his letter inside her blouse. She dreamed with her eyes
+upon the distant mountain and thought of the tender names he had called
+her: "Little wild Rose of his heart," "No rose in all the world until
+you came," and a lot of other meaningful sentences. A real love-letter
+all her own! No sharing him with any hateful teachers! He had implied in
+her<a class="pagenum" title="275" name="page_275" id="page_275"></a> letter that she was the only one of all the people in that region
+to whom he cared to write. He had said he was coming back some day to
+get her. Her young, wild heart throbbed exultantly, and her eyes looked
+forth their triumph malignantly. When he did come she would take care
+that he stayed close by her. No conceited teacher from the East should
+lure him from her side. She would prepare her guiles and smile her
+sweetest. She would wear fine garments from abroad, and show him she
+could far outshine that quiet, common Miss Earle, with all her airs. Yet
+to this end she studied hard. It was no part of her plan to be left
+behind at graduating-time. She would please her father by taking a
+prominent part in things and outdoing all the others. Then he would give
+her what she liked&mdash;jewels and silk dresses, and all the things a girl
+should have who had won a lover like hers.</p>
+
+<p>The last busy days before Commencement were especially trying for
+Margaret. It seemed as if the children were possessed with the very
+spirit of mischief, and she could not help but see that it was Rosa who,
+sitting demurely in her desk, was the center of it all. Only Bud's
+steady, frowning countenance of all that rollicking, roistering crowd
+kept loyalty with the really beloved teacher. For, indeed, they loved
+her, every one but Rosa, and would have stood by her to a man and girl
+when it really came to the pinch, but in a matter like a little bit of
+fun in these last few days of school, and when challenged to it by the
+school beauty who did not usually condescend to any but a few of the
+older boys, where was the harm? They were so flattered<a class="pagenum" title="276" name="page_276" id="page_276"></a> by Rosa's smiles
+that they failed to see Margaret's worn, weary wistfulness.</p>
+
+<p>Bud, coming into the school-house late one afternoon in search of her
+after the other scholars had gone, found Margaret with her head down
+upon the desk and her shoulders shaken with soundless sobs. He stood for
+a second silent in the doorway, gazing helplessly at her grief, then
+with the delicacy of one boy for another he slipped back outside the
+door and stood in the shadow, grinding his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"Gee!" he said, under his breath. "Oh, gee! I'd like to punch her fool
+head. I don't care if she is a girl! She needs it. Gee! if she was a boy
+wouldn't I settle her, the little darned mean sneak!"</p>
+
+<p>His remarks, it is needless to say, did not have reference to his
+beloved teacher.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the atmosphere everywhere that something was bound to happen
+if this strain kept up. Margaret knew it and felt utterly inadequate to
+meet it. Rosa knew it and was awaiting her opportunity. Bud knew it and
+could only stand and watch where the blow was to strike first and be
+ready to ward it off. In these days he wished fervently for Gardley's
+return. He did not know just what Gardley could do about "that little
+fool," as he called Rosa, but it would be a relief to be able to tell
+some one all about it. If he only dared leave he would go over and tell
+Jasper Kemp about it, just to share his burden with somebody. But as it
+was he must stick to the job for the present and bear his great
+responsibility, and so the days hastened by to the last Sunday before
+Commencement, which was to be on Monday.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="277" name="page_277" id="page_277"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Margaret had spent Saturday in rehearsals, so that there had been no
+rest for her. Sunday morning she slept late, and awoke from a troubled
+dream, unrested. She almost meditated whether she would not ask some one
+to read a sermon at the afternoon service and let her go on sleeping.
+Then a memory of the lonely old woman at the camp, and the men, who came
+so regularly to the service, roused her to effort once more, and she
+arose and tried to prepare a little something for them.</p>
+
+<p>She came into the school-house at the hour, looking fagged, with dark
+circles under her eyes; and the loving eyes of Mom Wallis already in her
+front seat watched her keenly.</p>
+
+<p>"It's time for <i>him</i> to come back," she said, in her heart. "She's
+gettin' peeked! I wisht he'd come!"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret had hoped that Rosa would not come. The girl was not always
+there, but of late she had been quite regular, coming in late with her
+father just a little after the story had begun, and attracting attention
+by her smiles and bows and giggling whispers, which sometimes were so
+audible as to create quite a diversion from the speaker.</p>
+
+<p>But Rosa came in early to-day and took a seat<a class="pagenum" title="278" name="page_278" id="page_278"></a> directly in front of
+Margaret, in about the middle of the house, fixing her eyes on her
+teacher with a kind of settled intention that made Margaret shrink as if
+from a danger she was not able to meet. There was something bright and
+hard and daring in Rosa's eyes as she stared unwinkingly, as if she had
+come to search out a weak spot for her evil purposes, and Margaret was
+so tired she wanted to lay her head down on her desk and cry. She drew
+some comfort from the reflection that if she should do so childish a
+thing she would be at once surrounded by a strong battalion of friends
+from the camp, who would shield her with their lives if necessary.</p>
+
+<p>It was silly, of course, and she must control this choking in her
+throat, only how was she ever going to talk, with Rosa looking at her
+that way? It was like a nightmare pursuing her. She turned to the piano
+and kept them all singing for a while, so that she might pray in her
+heart and grow calm; and when, after her brief, earnest prayer, she
+lifted her eyes to the audience, she saw with intense relief that the
+Brownleighs were in the audience.</p>
+
+<p>She started a hymn that they all knew, and when they were well in the
+midst of the first verse she slipped from the piano-stool and walked
+swiftly down the aisle to Brownleigh's side.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you please talk to them a little while?" she pleaded, wistfully.
+"I am so tired I feel as if I just couldn't, to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Instantly Brownleigh followed her back to the desk and took her place,
+pulling out his little, worn Bible and opening it with familiar fingers
+to a beloved passage:<a class="pagenum" title="279" name="page_279" id="page_279"></a></p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">"'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
+give you rest.'"</p>
+
+<p>The words fell on Margaret's tired heart like balm, and she rested her
+head back against the wall and closed her eyes to listen. Sitting so
+away from Rosa's stare, she could forget for a while the absurd burdens
+that had got on her nerves, and could rest down hard upon her Saviour.
+Every word that the man of God spoke seemed meant just for her, and
+brought strength, courage, and new trust to her heart. She forgot the
+little crowd of other listeners and took the message to herself,
+drinking it in eagerly as one who has been a long time ministering
+accepts a much-needed ministry. When she moved to the piano again for
+the closing hymn she felt new strength within her to bear the trials of
+the week that were before her. She turned, smiling and brave, to speak
+to those who always crowded around to shake hands and have a word before
+leaving.</p>
+
+<p>Hazel, putting a loving arm around her as soon as she could get up to
+the front, began to speak soothingly: "You poor, tired child!" she said;
+"you are almost worn to a frazzle. You need a big change, and I'm going
+to plan it for you just as soon as I possibly can. How would you like to
+go with us on our trip among the Indians? Wouldn't it be great? It'll be
+several days, depending on how far we go, but John wants to visit the
+Hopi reservation, if possible, and it'll be so interesting. They are a
+most strange people. We'll have a delightful trip, sleeping out under
+the stars, you know. Don't you just love it? I do. I wouldn't miss it
+for the world. I can't be sure, for a few days yet, when we<a class="pagenum" title="280" name="page_280" id="page_280"></a> can go, for
+John has to make a journey in the other direction first, and he isn't
+sure when he can return; but it might be this week. How soon can you
+come to us? How I wish we could take you right home with us to-night.
+You need to get away and rest. But your Commencement is to-morrow, isn't
+it? I'm so sorry we can't be here, but this other matter is important,
+and John has to go early in the morning. Some one very sick who wants to
+see him before he dies&mdash;an old Indian who didn't know a thing about
+Jesus till John found him one day. I suppose you haven't anybody who
+could bring you over to us after your work is done here to-morrow night
+or Tuesday, have you? Well, we'll see if we can't find some one to send
+for you soon. There's an old Indian who often comes this way, but he's
+away buying cattle. Maybe John can think of a way we could send for you
+early in the week. Then you would be ready to go with us on the trip.
+You would like to go, wouldn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, so much!" said Margaret, with a sigh of wistfulness. "I can't think
+of anything pleasanter!"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret turned suddenly, and there, just behind her, almost touching
+her, stood Rosa, that strange, baleful gleam in her eyes like a serpent
+who was biding her time, drawing nearer and nearer, knowing she had her
+victim where she could not move before she struck.</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange fancy, of course, and one that was caused by sick
+nerves, but Margaret drew back and almost cried out, as if for some one
+to protect her. Then her strong common sense came to the rescue and she
+rallied and smiled at Rosa a faint little sorry<a class="pagenum" title="281" name="page_281" id="page_281"></a> smile. It was hard to
+smile at the bright, baleful face with the menace in the eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Hazel was watching her. "You poor child! You're quite worn out! I'm
+afraid you're going to be sick."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no," said Margaret, trying to speak cheerfully; "things have just
+got on my nerves, that's all. It's been a particularly trying time. I
+shall be all right when to-morrow night is over."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we're going to send for you very soon, so be ready!" and Hazel
+followed her husband, waving her hand in gay parting.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa was still standing just behind her when Margaret turned back to her
+desk, and the younger girl gave her one last dagger look, a glitter in
+her eyes so sinister and vindictive that Margaret felt a shudder run
+through her whole body, and was glad that just then Rosa's father called
+to her that they must be starting home. Only one more day now of Rosa,
+and she would be done with her, perhaps forever. The girl was through
+the school course and was graduating. It was not likely she would return
+another year. Her opportunity was over to help her. She had failed. Why,
+she couldn't tell, but she had strangely failed, and all she asked now
+was not to have to endure the hard, cold, young presence any longer.</p>
+
+<p>"Sick nerves, Margaret!" she said to herself. "Go home and go to bed.
+You'll be all right to-morrow!" And she locked the school-house door and
+walked quietly home with the faithful Bud.</p>
+
+<p>The past month had been a trying time also for Rosa. Young, wild, and
+motherless, passionate, wilful and impetuous, she was finding life
+tremendously<a class="pagenum" title="282" name="page_282" id="page_282"></a> exciting just now. With no one to restrain her or warn her
+she was playing with forces that she did not understand.</p>
+
+<p>She had subjugated easily all the boys in school, keeping them exactly
+where she wanted them for her purpose, and using methods that would have
+done credit to a woman of the world. But by far the greatest force in
+her life was her infatuation for Forsythe.</p>
+
+<p>The letters had traveled back and forth many times between them since
+Forsythe wrote that first love-letter. He found a whimsical pleasure in
+her deep devotion and na&iuml;ve readiness to follow as far as he cared to
+lead her. He realized that, young as she was, she was no innocent, which
+made the acquaintance all the more interesting. He, meantime, idled away
+a few months on the Pacific coast, making mild love to a rich California
+girl and considering whether or not he was ready yet to settle down.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time his correspondence with Rosa took on such a nature that
+his volatile, impulsive nature was stirred with a desire to see her
+again. It was not often that once out of sight he looked back to a
+victim, but Rosa had shown a daring and a spirit in her letters that
+sent a challenge to his sated senses. Moreover, the California heiress
+was going on a journey; besides, an old enemy of his who knew altogether
+too much of his past had appeared on the scene; and as Gardley had been
+removed from the Ashland vicinity for a time, Forsythe felt it might be
+safe to venture back again. There was always that pretty, spirited
+little teacher if Rosa failed to<a class="pagenum" title="283" name="page_283" id="page_283"></a> charm. But why should Rosa not charm?
+And why should he not yield? Rosa's father was a good sort and had all
+kinds of property. Rosa was her father's only heir. On the whole,
+Forsythe decided that the best move he could make next would be to
+return to Arizona. If things turned out well he might even think of
+marrying Rosa.</p>
+
+<p>This was somewhat the train of thought that led Forsythe at last to
+write to Rosa that he was coming, throwing Rosa into a panic of joy and
+alarm. For Rosa's father had been most explicit about her ever going out
+with Forsythe again. It had been the most relentless command he had ever
+laid upon her, spoken in a tone she hardly ever disobeyed. Moreover,
+Rosa was fearfully jealous of Margaret. If Forsythe should come and
+begin to hang around the teacher Rosa felt she would go wild, or do
+something terrible, perhaps even kill somebody. She shut her sharp
+little white teeth fiercely down into her red under lip and vowed with
+flashing eyes that he should never see Margaret again if power of hers
+could prevent it.</p>
+
+<p>The letter from Forsythe had reached her on Saturday evening, and she
+had come to the Sunday service with the distinct idea of trying to plan
+how she might get rid of Margaret. It would be hard enough to evade her
+father's vigilance if he once found out the young man had returned; but
+to have him begin to go and see Margaret again was a thing she could not
+and would not stand.</p>
+
+<p>The idea obsessed her to the exclusion of all others, and made her watch
+her teacher as if by her very concentration of thought upon her some way
+out<a class="pagenum" title="284" name="page_284" id="page_284"></a> of the difficulty might be evolved; as if Margaret herself might
+give forth a hint of weakness somewhere that would show her how to plan.</p>
+
+<p>To that intent she had come close in the group with the others around
+the teacher at the close of meeting, and, so standing, had overheard all
+that the Brownleighs had said. The lightning flash of triumph that she
+cast at Margaret as she left the school-house was her own signal that
+she had found a way at last. Her opportunity had come, and just in time.
+Forsythe was to arrive in Arizona some time on Tuesday, and wanted Rosa
+to meet him at one of their old trysting-places, out some distance from
+her father's house. He knew that school would just be over, for she had
+written him about Commencement, and so he understood that she would be
+free. But he did not know that the place he had selected to meet her was
+on one of Margaret's favorite trails where she and Bud often rode in the
+late afternoons, and that above all things Rosa wished to avoid any
+danger of meeting her teacher; for she not only feared that Forsythe's
+attention would be drawn away from her, but also that Margaret might
+feel it her duty to report to her father about her clandestine meeting.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa's heart beat high as she rode demurely home with her father,
+answering his pleasantries with smiles and dimples and a coaxing word,
+just as he loved to have her. But she was not thinking of her father,
+though she kept well her mask of interest in what he had to say. She was
+trying to plan how she might use what she had heard to get rid of
+Margaret Earle. If only Mrs. Brownleigh would do<a class="pagenum" title="285" name="page_285" id="page_285"></a> as she had hinted and
+send some one Tuesday morning to escort Miss Earle over to her home, all
+would be clear sailing for Rosa; but she dared not trust to such a
+possibility. There were not many escorts coming their way from Ganado,
+and Rosa happened to know that the old Indian who frequently escorted
+parties was off in another direction. She could not rest on any such
+hope. When she reached home she went at once to her room and sat beside
+her window, gazing off at the purple mountains in deep thought. Then she
+lighted a candle and went in search of a certain little Testament, long
+since neglected and covered with dust. She found it at last on the top
+of a pile of books in a dark closet, and dragged it forth, eagerly
+turning the pages. Yes, there it was, and in it a small envelope
+directed to "Miss Rosa Rogers" in a fine angular handwriting. The letter
+was from the missionary's wife to the little girl who had recited her
+texts so beautifully as to earn the Testament.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa carried it to her desk, secured a good light, and sat down to read
+it over carefully.</p>
+
+<p>No thought of her innocent childish exultation over that letter came to
+her now. She was intent on one thing&mdash;the handwriting. Could she seize
+the secret of it and reproduce it? She had before often done so with
+great success. She could imitate Miss Earle's writing so perfectly that
+she often took an impish pleasure in changing words in the questions on
+the blackboard and making them read absurdly for the benefit of the
+school. It was such good sport to see the amazement on Margaret's face
+when her attention would be called to it by a hilarious class,<a class="pagenum" title="286" name="page_286" id="page_286"></a> and to
+watch her troubled brow when she read what she supposed she had written.</p>
+
+<p>When Rosa was but a little child she used to boast that she could write
+her father's name in perfect imitation of his signature; and often
+signed some trifling receipt for him just for amusement. A dangerous
+gift in the hands of a conscienceless girl! Yet this was the first time
+that Rosa had really planned to use her art in any serious way. Perhaps
+it never occurred to her that she was doing wrong. At present her heart
+was too full of hate and fear and jealous love to care for right or
+wrong or anything else. It is doubtful if she would have hesitated a
+second even if the thing she was planning had suddenly appeared to her
+in the light of a great crime. She seemed sometimes almost like a
+creature without moral sense, so swayed was she by her own desires and
+feelings. She was blind now to everything but her great desire to get
+Margaret out of the way and have Forsythe to herself.</p>
+
+<p>Long after her father and the servants were asleep Rosa's light burned
+while she bent over her desk, writing. Page after page she covered with
+careful copies of Mrs. Brownleigh's letter written to herself almost
+three years before. Finally she wrote out the alphabet, bit by bit as
+she picked it from the words, learning just how each letter was
+habitually formed, the small letters and the capitals, with the
+peculiarities of connection and ending. At last, when she lay down to
+rest, she felt herself capable of writing a pretty fair letter in Mrs.
+Brownleigh's handwriting. The next thing was to make her plan and
+compose her letter. She lay staring into<a class="pagenum" title="287" name="page_287" id="page_287"></a> the darkness and trying to
+think just what she could do.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, she settled it that Margaret must be gotten to Walpi
+at least. It would not do to send her to Ganado, where the mission
+station was, for that was a comparatively short journey, and she could
+easily go in a day. When the fraud was discovered, as of course it would
+be when Mrs. Brownleigh heard of it, Margaret would perhaps return to
+find out who had done it. No, she must be sent all the way to Walpi if
+possible. That would take at least two nights and the most of two days
+to get there. Forsythe had said his stay was to be short. By the time
+Margaret got back from Walpi Forsythe would be gone.</p>
+
+<p>But how manage to get her to Walpi without her suspicions being aroused?
+She might word the note so that Margaret would be told to come half-way,
+expecting to meet the missionaries, say at Keams. There was a trail
+straight up from Ashland to Keams, cutting off quite a distance and
+leaving Ganado off at the right. Keams was nearly forty miles west of
+Ganado. That would do nicely. Then if she could manage to have another
+note left at Keams, saying they could not wait and had gone on, Margaret
+would suspect nothing and go all the way to Walpi. That would be fine
+and would give the school-teacher an interesting experience which
+wouldn't hurt her in the least. Rosa thought it might be rather
+interesting than otherwise. She had no compunctions whatever about how
+Margaret might feel when she arrived in that strange Indian town and
+found no friends awaiting her. Her only worry was where<a class="pagenum" title="288" name="page_288" id="page_288"></a> she was to find
+a suitable escort, for she felt assured that Margaret would not start
+out alone with one man servant on an expedition that would keep her out
+overnight. And where in all that region could she find a woman whom she
+could trust to send on the errand? It almost looked as though the thing
+were an impossibility. She lay tossing and puzzling over it till gray
+dawn stole into the room. She mentally reviewed every servant on the
+place on whom she could rely to do her bidding and keep her secret, but
+there was some reason why each one would not do. She scanned the
+country, even considering old Ouida, who had been living in a shack over
+beyond the fort ever since her cabin had been raided; but old Ouida was
+too notorious. Mrs. Tanner would keep Margaret from going with her, even
+if Margaret herself did not know the old woman's reputation. Rosa
+considered if there were any way of wheedling Mom Wallis into the
+affair, and gave that up, remembering the suspicious little twinkling
+eyes of Jasper Kemp. At last she fell asleep, with her plan still
+unformed but her determination to carry it through just as strong as
+ever. If worst came to worst she would send the half-breed cook from the
+ranch kitchen and put something in the note about his expecting to meet
+his sister an hour's ride out on the trail. The half-breed would do
+anything in the world for money, and Rosa had no trouble in getting all
+she wanted of that commodity. But the half-breed was an evil-looking
+fellow, and she feared lest Margaret would not like to go with him.
+However, he should be a last resort. She would not be balked in her
+purpose.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="289" name="page_289" id="page_289"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Rosa awoke very early, for her sleep had been light and troubled. She
+dressed hastily and sat down to compose a note which could be altered
+slightly in case she found some one better than the half-breed; but
+before she was half through the phrasing she heard a slight disturbance
+below her window and a muttering in guttural tones from a strange voice.
+Glancing hastily out, she saw some Indians below, talking with one of
+the men, who was shaking his head and motioning to them that they must
+go on, that this was no place for them to stop. The Indian motioned to
+his squaw, sitting on a dilapidated little moth-eaten burro with a small
+papoose in her arms and looking both dirty and miserable. He muttered as
+though he were pleading for something.</p>
+
+<p>We believe that God's angels follow the feet of little children and
+needy ones to protect them; does the devil also send his angels to lead
+unwary ones astray, and to protect the plan's of the erring ones? If so
+then he must have sent these Indians that morning to further Rosa's
+plans, and instantly she recognized her opportunity. She leaned out of
+her window and spoke in a clear, reproving voice:<a class="pagenum" title="290" name="page_290" id="page_290"></a></p>
+
+<p>"James, what does he want? Breakfast? You know father wouldn't want any
+hungry person to be turned away. Let them sit down on the bench there
+and tell Dorset I said to give them a good hot breakfast, and get some
+milk for the baby. Be quick about it, too!"</p>
+
+<p>James started and frowned at the clear, commanding voice. The squaw
+turned grateful animal eyes up to the little beauty in the window,
+muttering some inarticulate thanks, while the stolid Indian's eyes
+glittered hopefully, though the muscles of his mask-like countenance
+changed not an atom.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa smiled radiantly and ran down to see that her orders were obeyed.
+She tried to talk a little with the squaw, but found she understood very
+little English. The Indian spoke better and gave her their brief story.
+They were on their way to the Navajo reservation to the far north. They
+had been unfortunate enough to lose their last scanty provisions by
+prowling coyotes during the night, and were in need of food. Rosa gave
+them a place to sit down and a plentiful breakfast, and ordered that a
+small store of provisions should be prepared for their journey after
+they had rested. Then she hurried up to her room to finish her letter.
+She had her plan well fixed now. These strangers should be her willing
+messengers. Now and then, as she wrote she lifted her head and gazed out
+of the window, where she could see the squaw busy with her little one,
+and her eyes fairly glittered with satisfaction. Nothing could have been
+better planned than this.</p>
+
+<p>She wrote her note carefully:<a class="pagenum" title="291" name="page_291" id="page_291"></a></p>
+
+<p class="blockquot"><span class="smcap">Dear Margaret</span> [she had heard Hazel call Margaret by her first name,
+and rightly judged that their new friendship was already strong
+enough to justify this intimacy],&mdash;I have found just the
+opportunity I wanted for you to come to us. These Indians are
+thoroughly trustworthy and are coming in just the direction to
+bring you to a point where we will meet you. We have decided to go
+on to Walpi at once, and will probably meet you near Keams, or a
+little farther on. The Indian knows the way, and you need not be
+afraid. I trust him perfectly. Start at once, please, so that you
+will meet us in time. John has to go on as fast as possible. I know
+you will enjoy the trip, and am so glad you are coming.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 60%;">Lovingly,<br />
+<span class="smcap">Hazel Radcliffe Brownleigh</span>.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa read it over, comparing it carefully with the little yellow note
+from her Testament, and decided that it was a very good imitation. She
+could almost hear Mrs. Brownleigh saying what she had written. Rosa
+really was quite clever. She had done it well.</p>
+
+<p>She hastily sealed and addressed her letter, and then hurried down to
+talk with the Indians again.</p>
+
+<p>The place she had ordered for them to rest was at some distance from the
+kitchen door, a sort of outshed for the shelter of certain implements
+used about the ranch. A long bench ran in front of it, and a big tree
+made a goodly shade. The Indians had found their temporary camp quite
+inviting.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa made a detour of the shed, satisfied herself that no one was within
+hearing, and then sat down on the bench, ostensibly playing with the
+papoose, dangling a red ball on a ribbon before his dazzled, bead-like
+eyes and bringing forth a gurgle of delight from the dusky little mummy.
+While she played she talked idly with the Indians. Had they money enough
+for their journey? Would they like to earn<a class="pagenum" title="292" name="page_292" id="page_292"></a> some? Would they act as
+guide to a lady who wanted to go to Walpi? At least she wanted to go as
+far as Keams, where she might meet friends, missionaries, who were going
+on with her to Walpi to visit the Indians. If they didn't meet her she
+wanted to be guided all the way to Walpi? Would they undertake it? It
+would pay them well. They would get money enough for their journey and
+have some left when they got to the reservation. And Rosa displayed two
+gold pieces temptingly in her small palms.</p>
+
+<p>The Indian uttered a guttural sort of gasp at sight of so much money,
+and sat upright. He gasped again, indicating by a solemn nod that he was
+agreeable to the task before him, and the girl went gaily on with her
+instructions:</p>
+
+<p>"You will have to take some things along to make the lady comfortable. I
+will see that those are got ready. Then you can have the things for your
+own when you leave the lady at Walpi. You will have to take a letter to
+the lady and tell her you are going this afternoon, and she must be
+ready to start at once or she will not meet the missionary. Tell her you
+can only wait until three o'clock to start. You will find the lady at
+the school-house at noon. You must not come till noon&mdash;" Rosa pointed to
+the sun and then straight overhead. The Indian watched her keenly and
+nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"You must ask for Miss Earle and give her this letter. She is the
+school-teacher."</p>
+
+<p>The Indian grunted and looked at the white missive in Rosa's hand,
+noting once more the gleam of the gold pieces.<a class="pagenum" title="293" name="page_293" id="page_293"></a></p>
+
+<p>"You must wait till the teacher goes to her boarding-house and packs her
+things and eats her dinner. If anybody asks where you came from you must
+say the missionary's wife from Ganado sent you. Don't tell anybody
+anything else. Do you understand? More money if you don't say anything?"
+Rosa clinked the gold pieces softly.</p>
+
+<p>The strange, sphinx-like gaze of the Indian narrowed comprehensively. He
+understood. His native cunning was being bought for this girl's own
+purposes. He looked greedily at the money. Rosa had put her hand in her
+pocket and brought out yet another gold piece.</p>
+
+<p>"See! I give you this one now"&mdash;she laid one gold piece in the Indian's
+hand&mdash;"and these two I put in an envelope and pack with some provisions
+and blankets on another horse. I will leave the horse tied to a tree up
+where the big trail crosses this big trail out that way. You know?"</p>
+
+<p>Rosa pointed in the direction she meant, and the Indian looked and
+grunted, his eyes returning to the two gold pieces in her hand. It was a
+great deal of money for the little lady to give. Was she trying to cheat
+him? He looked down at the gold he already held. It was good money. He
+was sure of that. He looked at her keenly.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be watching and I shall know whether you have the lady or not,"
+went on the girl, sharply. "If you do not bring the lady with you there
+will be no money and no provisions waiting for you. But if you bring the
+lady you can untie the horse and take him with you. You will need the
+horse to carry the things. When you get to Walpi you can<a class="pagenum" title="294" name="page_294" id="page_294"></a> set him free.
+He is branded and he will likely come back. We shall find him. See, I
+will put the gold pieces in this tin can."</p>
+
+<p>She picked up a sardine-tin that lay at her feet, slipped the gold
+pieces in an envelope from her pocket, stuffed it in the tin, bent down
+the cover, and held it up.</p>
+
+<p>"This can will be packed on the top of the other provisions, and you can
+open it and take the money out when you untie the horse. Then hurry on
+as fast as you can and get as far along the trail as possible to-night
+before you camp. Do you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>The Indian nodded once more, and Rosa felt that she had a confederate
+worthy of her need.</p>
+
+<p>She stayed a few minutes more, going carefully over her directions,
+telling the Indian to be sure his squaw was kind to the lady, and that
+on no account he should let the lady get uneasy or have cause to
+complain of her treatment, or trouble would surely come to him. At last
+she felt sure she had made him understand, and she hurried away to slip
+into her pretty white dress and rose-colored ribbons and ride to school.
+Before she left her room she glanced out of the window at the Indians,
+and saw them sitting motionless, like a group of bronze. Once the Indian
+stirred and, putting his hand in his bosom, drew forth the white letter
+she had given him, gazed at it a moment, and hid it in his breast again.
+She nodded her satisfaction as she turned from the window. The next
+thing was to get to school and play her own part in the Commencement
+exercises.</p>
+
+<p>The morning was bright, and the school-house was<a class="pagenum" title="295" name="page_295" id="page_295"></a> already filled to
+overflowing when Rosa arrived. Her coming, as always, made a little stir
+among admiring groups, for even those who feared her admired her from
+afar. She fluttered into the school-house and up the aisle with the air
+of a princess who knew she had been waited for and was condescending to
+come at all.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa was in everything&mdash;the drills, the march, the choruses, and the
+crowning oration. She went through it all with the perfection of a
+bright mind and an adaptable nature. One would never have dreamed, to
+look at her pretty dimpling face and her sparkling eyes, what diabolical
+things were moving in her mind, nor how those eyes, lynx-soft with
+lurking sweetness and treachery, were watching all the time furtively
+for the appearance of the old Indian.</p>
+
+<p>At last she saw him, standing in a group just outside the window near
+the platform, his tall form and stern countenance marking him among the
+crowd of familiar faces. She was receiving her diploma from the hand of
+Margaret when she caught his eye, and her hand trembled just a quiver as
+she took the dainty roll tied with blue and white ribbons. That he
+recognized her she was sure; that he knew she did not wish him to make
+known his connection with her she felt equally convinced he understood.
+His eye had that comprehending look of withdrawal. She did not look up
+directly at him again. Her eyes were daintily downward. Nevertheless,
+she missed not a turn of his head, not a glance from that stern eye, and
+she knew the moment when he stood at the front door of the school-house
+with the letter in<a class="pagenum" title="296" name="page_296" id="page_296"></a> his hand, stolid and indifferent, yet a great force
+to be reckoned with.</p>
+
+<p>Some one looked at the letter, pointed to Margaret, called her, and she
+came. Rosa was not far away all the time, talking with Jed; her eyes
+downcast, her cheeks dimpling, missing nothing that could be heard or
+seen.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret read the letter. Rosa watched her, knew every curve of every
+letter and syllable as she read, held her breath, and watched Margaret's
+expression. Did she suspect? No. A look of intense relief and pleasure
+had come into her eyes. She was glad to have found a way to go. She
+turned to Mrs. Tanner.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of this, Mrs. Tanner? I'm to go with Mrs. Brownleigh
+on a trip to Walpi. Isn't that delicious? I'm to start at once. Do you
+suppose I could have a bite to eat? I won't need much. I'm too tired to
+eat and too anxious to be off. If you give me a cup of tea and a
+sandwich I'll be all right. I've got things about ready to go, for Mrs.
+Brownleigh told me she would send some one for me."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" said Mrs. Tanner, disapprovingly. "Who you goin' with? Just
+<i>him</i>? I don't much like <i>his</i> looks!"</p>
+
+<p>She spoke in a low tone so the Indian would not hear, and it was almost
+in Rosa's very ear, who stood just behind. Rosa's heart stopped a beat
+and she frowned at the toe of her slipper. Was this common little Tanner
+woman going to be the one to balk her plans?</p>
+
+<p>Margaret raised her head now for her first good<a class="pagenum" title="297" name="page_297" id="page_297"></a> look at the Indian, and
+it must be admitted a chill came into her heart. Then, as if he
+comprehended what was at stake, the Indian turned slightly and pointed
+down the path toward the road. By common consent the few who were
+standing about the door stepped back and made a vista for Margaret to
+see the squaw sitting statue-like on her scraggy little pony, gazing off
+at the mountain in the distance, as if she were sitting for her picture,
+her solemn little papoose strapped to her back.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret's troubled eyes cleared. The family aspect made things all
+right again. "You see, he has his wife and child," she said. "It's all
+right. Mrs. Brownleigh says she trusts him perfectly, and I'm to meet
+them on the way. Read the letter."</p>
+
+<p>She thrust the letter into Mrs. Tanner's hand, and Rosa trembled for her
+scheme once more. Surely, surely Mrs. Tanner would not be able to detect
+the forgery!</p>
+
+<p>"H'm! Well, I s'pose it's all right if she says so, but I'm sure I don't
+relish them pesky Injuns, and I don't think that squaw wife of his looks
+any great shakes, either. They look to me like they needed a good scrub
+with Bristol brick. But then, if you're set on going, you'll go,
+'course. I jest wish Bud hadn't 'a' gone home with that Jasper Kemp. He
+might 'a' gone along, an' then you'd 'a' had somebody to speak English
+to."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it would have been nice to have William along," said Margaret;
+"but I think I'll be all right. Mrs. Brownleigh wouldn't send anybody
+that wasn't nice."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm! I dun'no'! She's an awful crank. She<a class="pagenum" title="298" name="page_298" id="page_298"></a> just loves them Injuns, they
+say. But I, fer one, draw the line at holdin' 'em in my lap. I don't
+b'lieve in mixin' folks up that way. Preach to 'em if you like, but let
+'em keep their distance, I say."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret laughed and went off to pick up her things. Rosa stood smiling
+and talking to Jed until she saw Margaret and Mrs. Tanner go off
+together, the Indians riding slowly along behind.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa waited until the Indians had turned off the road down toward the
+Tanners', and then she mounted her own pony and rode swiftly home.</p>
+
+<p>She rushed up to her room and took off her fine apparel, arraying
+herself quickly in a plain little gown, and went down to prepare the
+provisions. There was none too much time, and she must work rapidly. It
+was well for her plans that she was all-powerful with the servants and
+could send them about at will to get them out of her way. She invented a
+duty for each now that would take them for a few minutes well out of
+sight and sound; then she hurried together the provisions in a basket,
+making two trips to get them to the shelter where she had told the
+Indian he would find the horse tied. She had to make a third trip to
+bring the blankets and a few other things she knew would be
+indispensable, but the whole outfit was really but carelessly gotten
+together, and it was just by chance that some things got in at all.</p>
+
+<p>It was not difficult to find the old cayuse she intended using for a
+pack-horse. He was browsing around in the corral, and she soon had a
+halter over his head, for she had been quite used to horses from her
+babyhood.<a class="pagenum" title="299" name="page_299" id="page_299"></a></p>
+
+<p>She packed the canned things, tinned meats, vegetables, and fruit into a
+couple of large sacks, adding some fodder for the horses, a box of
+matches, some corn bread, of which there was always plenty on hand in
+the house, some salt pork, and a few tin dishes. These she slung pack
+fashion over the old horse, fastened the sardine-tin containing the gold
+pieces where it would be easily found, tied the horse to a tree, and
+retired behind a shelter of sage-brush to watch.</p>
+
+<p>It was not long before the little caravan came, the Indians riding ahead
+single file, like two graven images, moving not a muscle of their faces,
+and Margaret a little way behind on her own pony, her face as happy and
+relieved as if she were a child let out from a hard task to play.</p>
+
+<p>The Indian stopped beside the horse, a glitter of satisfaction in his
+eyes as he saw that the little lady had fulfilled her part of the
+bargain. He indicated to the squaw and the lady that they might move on
+down the trail, and he would catch up with them; and then dismounted,
+pouncing warily upon the sardine-tin at once. He looked furtively about,
+then took out the money and tested it with his teeth to make sure it was
+genuine.</p>
+
+<p>He grunted his further satisfaction, looked over the pack-horse, made
+more secure the fastenings of the load, and, taking the halter, mounted
+and rode stolidly away toward the north.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa waited in her covert until they were far out of sight, then made
+her way hurriedly back to the house and climbed to a window where she
+could watch the trail for several miles. There, with<a class="pagenum" title="300" name="page_300" id="page_300"></a> a field-glass, she
+kept watch until the procession had filed across the plains, down into a
+valley, up over a hill, and dropped to a farther valley out of sight.
+She looked at the sun and drew a breath of satisfaction. She had done it
+at last! She had got Margaret away before Forsythe came! There was no
+likelihood that the fraud would be discovered until her rival was far
+enough away to be safe. A kind of reaction came upon Rosa's overwrought
+nerves. She laughed out harshly, and her voice had a cruel ring to it.
+Then she threw herself upon the bed and burst into a passionate fit of
+weeping, and so, by and by, fell asleep. She dreamed that Margaret had
+returned like a shining, fiery angel, a two-edged sword in her hand and
+all the Wallis camp at her heels, with vengeance in their wake. That
+hateful little boy, Bud Tanner, danced around and made faces at her,
+while Forsythe had forgotten her to gaze at Margaret's face.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="301" name="page_301" id="page_301"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>To Margaret the day was very fair, and the omens all auspicious. She
+carried with her close to her heart two precious letters received that
+morning and scarcely glanced at as yet, one from Gardley and one from
+her mother. She had had only time to open them and be sure that all was
+well with her dear ones, and had left the rest to read on the way.</p>
+
+<p>She was dressed in the khaki riding-habit she always wore when she went
+on horseback; and in the bag strapped on behind she carried a couple of
+fresh white blouses, a thin, white dress, a little soft dark silk gown
+that folded away almost into a cobweb, and a few other necessities. She
+had also slipped in a new book her mother had sent her, into which she
+had had as yet no time to look, and her chessmen and board, besides
+writing materials. She prided herself on having got so many necessaries
+into so small a compass. She would need the extra clothing if she stayed
+at Ganado with the missionaries for a week on her return from the trip,
+and the book and chessmen would amuse them all by the way. She had heard
+Brownleigh say he loved to play chess.<a class="pagenum" title="302" name="page_302" id="page_302"></a></p>
+
+<p>Margaret rode on the familiar trail, and for the first hour just let
+herself be glad that school was over and she could rest and have no
+responsibility. The sun shimmered down brilliantly on the white, hot
+sand and gray-green of the greasewood and sage-brush. Tall spikes of
+cactus like lonely spires shot up now and again to vary the scene. It
+was all familiar ground to Margaret around here, for she had taken many
+rides with Gardley and Bud, and for the first part of the way every turn
+and bit of view was fraught with pleasant memories that brought a smile
+to her eyes as she recalled some quotation of Gardley's or some prank of
+Bud's. Here was where they first sighted the little cottontail the day
+she took her initial ride on her own pony. Off there was the mountain
+where they saw the sun drawing silver water above a frowning storm.
+Yonder was the group of cedars where they had stopped to eat their lunch
+once, and this water-hole they were approaching was the one where
+Gardley had given her a drink from his hat.</p>
+
+<p>She was almost glad that Bud was not along, for she was too tired to
+talk and liked to be alone with her thoughts for this few minutes. Poor
+Bud! He would be disappointed when he got back to find her gone, but
+then he had expected she was going in a few days, anyway, and she had
+promised to take long rides with him when she returned. She had left a
+little note for him, asking him to read a certain book in her bookcase
+while she was gone, and be ready to discuss it with her when she got
+back, and Bud would be fascinated with it, she knew. Bud had been dear
+and faithful, and she would miss<a class="pagenum" title="303" name="page_303" id="page_303"></a> him, but just for this little while
+she was glad to have the great out-of-doors to herself.</p>
+
+<p>She was practically alone. The two sphinx-like figures riding ahead of
+her made no sign, but stolidly rode on hour after hour, nor turned their
+heads even to see if she were coming. She knew that Indians were this
+way; still, as the time went by she began to feel an uneasy sense of
+being alone in the universe with a couple of bronze statues. Even the
+papoose had erased itself in sleep, and when it awoke partook so fully
+of its racial peculiarities as to hold its little peace and make no
+fuss. Margaret began to feel the baby was hardly human, more like a
+little brown doll set up in a missionary meeting to teach white children
+what a papoose was like.</p>
+
+<p>By and by she got out her letters and read them over carefully, dreaming
+and smiling over them, and getting precious bits by heart. Gardley
+hinted that he might be able very soon to visit her parents, as it
+looked as though he might have to make a trip on business in their
+direction before he could go further with what he was doing in his old
+home. He gave no hint of soon returning to the West. He said he was
+awaiting the return of one man who might soon be coming from abroad.
+Margaret sighed and wondered how many weary months it would be before
+she would see him. Perhaps, after all, she ought to have gone home and
+stayed them out with her mother and father. If the school-board could be
+made to see that it would be better to have no summer session, perhaps
+she would even yet go when she returned from the Brownleighs'. She would
+see. She would decide nothing until she was rested.<a class="pagenum" title="304" name="page_304" id="page_304"></a></p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she felt herself overwhelmingly weary, and wished that the
+Indians would stop and rest for a while; but when she stirred up her
+sleepy pony and spurred ahead to broach the matter to her guide he shook
+his solemn head and pointed to the sun:</p>
+
+<p>"No get Keams good time. No meet Aneshodi."</p>
+
+<p>"Aneshodi," she knew, was the Indians' name for the missionary, and she
+smiled her acquiescence. Of course they must meet the Brownleighs and
+not detain them. What was it Hazel had said about having to hurry? She
+searched her pocket for the letter, and then remembered she had left it
+with Mrs. Tanner. What a pity she had not brought it! Perhaps there was
+some caution or advice in it that she had not taken note of. But then
+the Indian likely knew all about it, and she could trust to him. She
+glanced at his stolid face and wished she could make him smile. She cast
+a sunny smile at him and said something pleasant about the beautiful
+day, but he only looked her through as if she were not there, and after
+one or two more attempts she fell back and tried to talk to the squaw;
+but the squaw only looked stolid, too, and shook her head. She did not
+seem friendly. Margaret drew back into her old position and feasted her
+eyes upon the distant hills.</p>
+
+<p>The road was growing unfamiliar now. They were crossing rough ridges
+with cliffs of red sandstone, and every step of the way was interesting.
+Yet Margaret felt more and more how much she wanted to lie down and
+sleep, and when at last in the dusk the Indians halted not far from a
+little pool of rainwater and indicated that here they would camp for<a class="pagenum" title="305" name="page_305" id="page_305"></a>
+the night, Margaret was too weary to question the decision. It had not
+occurred to her that she would be on the way overnight before she met
+her friends. Her knowledge of the way, and of distances, was but vague.
+It is doubtful if she would have ventured had she known that she must
+pass the night thus in the company of two strange savage creatures. Yet,
+now that she was here and it was inevitable, she would not shrink, but
+make the best of it. She tried to be friendly once more, and offered to
+look out for the baby while the squaw gathered wood and made a fire. The
+Indian was off looking after the horses, evidently expecting his wife to
+do all the work.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret watched a few minutes, while pretending to play with the baby,
+who was both sleepy and hungry, yet held his emotions as stolidly as if
+he were a grown person. Then she decided to take a hand in the supper.
+She was hungry and could not bear that those dusky, dirty hands should
+set forth her food, so she went to work cheerfully, giving directions as
+if the Indian woman understood her, though she very soon discovered that
+all her talk was as mere babbling to the other, and she might as well
+hold her peace. The woman set a kettle of water over the fire, and
+Margaret forestalled her next movement by cutting some pork and putting
+it to cook in a little skillet she found among the provisions. The woman
+watched her solemnly, not seeming to care; and so, silently, each went
+about her own preparations.</p>
+
+<p>The supper was a silent affair, and when it was over the squaw handed
+Margaret a blanket. Suddenly she understood that this, and this alone,
+was<a class="pagenum" title="306" name="page_306" id="page_306"></a> to be her bed for the night. The earth was there for a mattress,
+and the sage-brush lent a partial shelter, the canopy of stars was
+overhead.</p>
+
+<p>A kind of panic took possession of her. She stared at the squaw and
+found herself longing to cry out for help. It seemed as if she could not
+bear this awful silence of the mortals who were her only company. Yet
+her common sense came to her aid, and she realized that there was
+nothing for it but to make the best of things. So she took the blanket
+and, spreading it out, sat down upon it and wrapped it about her
+shoulders and feet. She would not lie down until she saw what the rest
+did. Somehow she shrank from asking the bronze man how to fold a blanket
+for a bed on the ground. She tried to remember what Gardley had told her
+about folding the blanket bed so as best to keep out snakes and ants.
+She shuddered at the thought of snakes. Would she dare call for help
+from those stolid companions of hers if a snake should attempt to molest
+her in the night? And would she ever dare to go to sleep?</p>
+
+<p>She remembered her first night in Arizona out among the stars, alone on
+the water-tank, and her first frenzy of loneliness. Was this as bad? No,
+for these Indians were trustworthy and well known by her dear friends.
+It might be unpleasant, but this, too, would pass and the morrow would
+soon be here.</p>
+
+<p>The dusk dropped down and the stars loomed out. All the world grew
+wonderful, like a blue jeweled dome of a palace with the lights turned
+low. The fire burned brightly as the man threw sticks upon it,<a class="pagenum" title="307" name="page_307" id="page_307"></a> and the
+two Indians moved stealthily about in the darkness, passing silhouetted
+before the fire this way and that, and then at last lying down wrapped
+in their blankets to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>It was very quiet about her. The air was so still she could hear the
+hobbled horses munching away in the distance, and moving now and then
+with the halting gait a hobble gives a horse. Off in the farther
+distance the blood-curdling howl of the coyotes rose, but Margaret was
+used to them, and knew they would not come near a fire.</p>
+
+<p>She was growing very weary, and at last wrapped her blanket closer and
+lay down, her head pillowed on one corner of it. Committing herself to
+her Heavenly Father, and breathing a prayer for father, mother, and
+lover, she fell asleep.</p>
+
+<p>It was still almost dark when she awoke. For a moment she thought it was
+still night and the sunset was not gone yet, the clouds were so rosy
+tinted.</p>
+
+<p>The squaw was standing by her, touching her shoulder roughly and
+grunting something. She perceived, as she rubbed her eyes and tried to
+summon back her senses, that she was expected to get up and eat
+breakfast. There was a smell of pork and coffee in the air, and there
+was scorched corn bread beside the fire on a pan.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret got up quickly and ran down to the water-hole to get some
+water, dashing it in her face and over her arms and hands, the squaw
+meanwhile standing at a little distance, watching her curiously, as if
+she thought this some kind of an oblation paid to the white woman's god
+before she ate. Margaret pulled the hair-pins out of her hair, letting
+it<a class="pagenum" title="308" name="page_308" id="page_308"></a> down and combing it with one of her side combs; twisted it up again
+in its soft, fluffy waves; straightened her collar, set on her hat, and
+was ready for the day. The squaw looked at her with both awe and
+contempt for a moment, then turned and stalked back to her papoose and
+began preparing it for the journey.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret made a hurried meal and was scarcely done before she found her
+guides were waiting like two pillars of the desert, but watching keenly,
+impatiently, her every mouthful, and anxious to be off.</p>
+
+<p>The sky was still pink-tinted with the semblance of a sunset, and
+Margaret felt, as she mounted her pony and followed her companions, as
+if the day was all turned upside down. She almost wondered whether she
+hadn't slept through a whole twenty-four hours, and it were not, after
+all, evening again, till by and by the sun rose clear and the wonder of
+the cloud-tinting melted into day.</p>
+
+<p>The road lay through sage-brush and old barren cedar-trees, with rabbits
+darting now and then between the rocks. Suddenly from the top of a
+little hill they came out to a spot where they could see far over the
+desert. Forty miles away three square, flat hills, or mesas, looked like
+a gigantic train of cars, and the clear air gave everything a strange
+vastness. Farther on beyond the mesas dimly dawned the Black Mountains.
+One could even see the shadowed head of "Round Rock," almost a hundred
+miles away. Before them and around was a great plain of sage-brush, and
+here and there was a small bush that the Indians call "the weed that was
+not scared." Margaret had learned all these<a class="pagenum" title="309" name="page_309" id="page_309"></a> things during her winter in
+Arizona, and keenly enjoyed the vast, splendid view spread before her.</p>
+
+<p>They passed several little mud-plastered hogans that Margaret knew for
+Indian dwellings. A fine band of ponies off in the distance made an
+interesting spot on the landscape, and twice they passed bands of sheep.
+She had a feeling of great isolation from everything she had ever known,
+and seemed going farther and farther from life and all she loved. Once
+she ventured to ask the Indian what time he expected to meet her
+friends, the missionaries, but he only shook his head and murmured
+something unintelligible about "Keams" and pointed to the sun. She
+dropped behind again, vaguely uneasy, she could not tell why. There
+seemed something so altogether sly and wary and unfriendly in the faces
+of the two that she almost wished she had not come. Yet the way was
+beautiful enough and nothing very unpleasant was happening to her. Once
+she dropped the envelope of her mother's letter and was about to
+dismount and recover it. Then some strange impulse made her leave it on
+the sand of the desert. What if they should be lost and that paper
+should guide them back? The notion stayed by her, and once in a while
+she dropped other bits of paper by the way.</p>
+
+<p>About noon the trail dropped off into a ca&ntilde;on, with high, yellow-rock
+walls on either side, and stifling heat, so that she felt as if she
+could scarcely stand it. She was glad when they emerged once more and
+climbed to higher ground. The noon camp was a hasty affair, for the
+Indian seemed in a hurry. He scanned the horizon far and wide and<a class="pagenum" title="310" name="page_310" id="page_310"></a>
+seemed searching keenly for some one or something. Once they met a
+lonely Indian, and he held a muttered conversation with him, pointing
+off ahead and gesticulating angrily. But the words were unintelligible
+to Margaret. Her feeling of uneasiness was growing, and yet she could
+not for the life of her tell why, and laid it down to her tired nerves.
+She was beginning to think she had been very foolish to start on such a
+long trip before she had had a chance to get rested from her last days
+of school. She longed to lie down under a tree and sleep for days.</p>
+
+<p>Toward night they sighted a great blue mesa about fifty miles south, and
+at sunset they could just see the San Francisco peaks more than a
+hundred and twenty-five miles away. Margaret, as she stopped her horse
+and gazed, felt a choking in her heart and throat and a great desire to
+cry. The glory and awe of the mountains, mingled with her own weariness
+and nervous fear, were almost too much for her. She was glad to get down
+and eat a little supper and go to sleep again. As she fell asleep she
+comforted herself with repeating over a few precious words from her
+Bible:</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">"The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him and
+delivereth them. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is
+stayed on Thee because he trusteth in Thee. I will both lay me down
+in peace and sleep, for Thou Lord only makest me to dwell in
+safety...."</p>
+
+<p>The voice of the coyotes, now far, now near, boomed out on the night;
+great stars shot dartling pathways across the heavens; the fire snapped
+and crackled, died down and flickered feebly; but Margaret<a class="pagenum" title="311" name="page_311" id="page_311"></a> slept, tired
+out, and dreamed the angels kept close vigil around her lowly couch.</p>
+
+<p>She did not know what time the stars disappeared and the rain began to
+fall. She was too tired to notice the drops that fell upon her face. Too
+tired to hear the coyotes coming nearer, nearer, yet in the morning
+there lay one dead, stretched not thirty feet from where she lay. The
+Indian had shot him through the heart.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow things looked very dismal that morning, in spite of the
+brightness of the sun after the rain. She was stiff and sore with lying
+in the dampness. Her hair was wet, her blanket was wet, and she woke
+without feeling rested. Almost the trip seemed more than she could bear.
+If she could have wished herself back that morning and have stayed at
+Tanners' all summer she certainly would have done it rather than to be
+where and how she was.</p>
+
+<p>The Indians seemed excited&mdash;the man grim and forbidding, the woman
+appealing, frightened, anxious. They were near to Keams Ca&ntilde;on.
+"Aneshodi" would be somewhere about. The Indian hoped to be rid of his
+burden then and travel on his interrupted journey. He was growing
+impatient. He felt he had earned his money.</p>
+
+<p>But when they tried to go down Keam's Ca&ntilde;on they found the road all
+washed away by flood, and must needs go a long way around. This made the
+Indian surly. His countenance was more forbidding than ever. Margaret,
+as she watched him with sinking heart, altered her ideas of the Indian
+as a whole to suit the situation. She had always felt pity for the poor
+Indian, whose land had been seized<a class="pagenum" title="312" name="page_312" id="page_312"></a> and whose kindred had been
+slaughtered. But this Indian was not an object of pity. He was the most
+disagreeable, cruel-looking Indian Margaret had ever laid eyes on. She
+had felt it innately the first time she saw him, but now, as the
+situation began to bring him out, she knew that she was dreadfully
+afraid of him. She had a feeling that he might scalp her if he got tired
+of her. She began to alter her opinion of Hazel Brownleigh's judgment as
+regarded Indians. She did not feel that she would ever send this Indian
+to any one for a guide and say he was perfectly trustworthy. He hadn't
+done anything very dreadful yet, but she felt he was going to.</p>
+
+<p>He had a number of angry confabs with his wife that morning. At least,
+he did the confabbing and the squaw protested. Margaret gathered after a
+while that it was something about herself. The furtive, frightened
+glances that the squaw cast in her direction sometimes, when the man was
+not looking, made her think so. She tried to say it was all imagination,
+and that her nerves were getting the upper hand of her, but in spite of
+her she shuddered sometimes, just as she had done when Rosa looked at
+her. She decided that she must be going to have a fit of sickness, and
+that just as soon as she got in the neighborhood of Mrs. Tanner's again
+she would pack her trunk and go home to her mother. If she was going to
+be sick she wanted her mother.</p>
+
+<p>About noon things came to a climax. They halted on the top of the mesa,
+and the Indians had another altercation, which ended in the man
+descending the trail a fearfully steep way, down four hundred feet to
+the trading-post in the ca&ntilde;on. Margaret looked<a class="pagenum" title="313" name="page_313" id="page_313"></a> down and gasped and
+thanked a kind Providence that had not made it necessary for her to make
+that descent; but the squaw stood at the top with her baby and looked
+down in silent sorrow&mdash;agony perhaps would be a better name. Her face
+was terrible to look upon.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret could not understand it, and she went to the woman and put her
+hand out sympathetically, asking, gently: "What is the matter, you poor
+little thing? Oh, what is it?"</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the woman understood the tenderness in the tone, for she
+suddenly turned and rested her forehead against Margaret's shoulder,
+giving one great, gasping sob, then lifted her dry, miserable eyes to
+the girl's face as if to thank her for her kindness.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret's heart was touched. She threw her arms around the poor woman
+and drew her, papoose and all, comfortingly toward her, patting her
+shoulder and saying gentle, soothing words as she would to a little
+child. And by and by the woman lifted her head again, the tears coursing
+down her face, and tried to explain, muttering her queer gutturals and
+making eloquent gestures until Margaret felt she understood. She
+gathered that the man had gone down to the trading-post to find the
+"Aneshodi," and that the squaw feared that he would somehow procure
+firewater either from the trader or from some Indian he might meet, and
+would come back angrier than he had gone, and without his money.</p>
+
+<p>If Margaret also suspected that the Indian had desired to get rid of her
+by leaving her at that desolate little trading-station down in the ca&ntilde;on
+until such time as her friends should call for her, she resolutely<a class="pagenum" title="314" name="page_314" id="page_314"></a> put
+the thought out of her mind and set herself to cheer the poor Indian
+woman.</p>
+
+<p>She took a bright, soft, rosy silk tie from her own neck and knotted it
+about the astonished woman's dusky throat, and then she put a silver
+dollar in her hand, and was thrilled with wonder to see what a change
+came over the poor, dark face. It reminded her of Mom Wallis when she
+got on her new bonnet, and once again she felt the thrill of knowing the
+whole world kin.</p>
+
+<p>The squaw cheered up after a little, got sticks and made a fire, and
+together they had quite a pleasant meal. Margaret exerted herself to
+make the poor woman laugh, and finally succeeded by dangling a
+bright-red knight from her chessmen in front of the delighted baby's
+eyes till he gurgled out a real baby crow of joy.</p>
+
+<p>It was the middle of the afternoon before the Indian returned, sitting
+crazily his struggling beast as he climbed the trail once more.
+Margaret, watching, caught her breath and prayed. Was this the
+trustworthy man, this drunken, reeling creature, clubbing his horse and
+pouring forth a torrent of indistinguishable gutturals? It was evident
+that his wife's worst fears were verified. He had found the firewater.</p>
+
+<p>The frightened squaw set to work putting things together as fast as she
+could. She well knew what to expect, and when the man reached the top of
+the mesa he found his party packed and mounted, waiting fearsomely to
+take the trail.</p>
+
+<p>Silently, timorously, they rode behind him, west across the great wide
+plain.<a class="pagenum" title="315" name="page_315" id="page_315"></a></p>
+
+<p>In the distance gradually there appeared dim mesas like great fingers
+stretching out against the sky; miles away they seemed, and nothing
+intervening but a stretch of varying color where sage-brush melted into
+sand, and sage-brush and greasewood grew again, with tall cactus
+startling here and there like bayonets at rest but bristling with
+menace.</p>
+
+<p>The Indian had grown silent and sullen. His eyes were like deep fires of
+burning volcanoes. One shrank from looking at them. His massive, cruel
+profile stood out like bronze against the evening sky. It was growing
+night again, and still they had not come to anywhere or anything, and
+still her friends seemed just as far away.</p>
+
+<p>Since they had left the top of Keams Ca&ntilde;on Margaret had been sure all
+was not right. Aside from the fact that the guide was drunk at present,
+she was convinced that there had been something wrong with him all
+along. He did not act like the Indians around Ashland. He did not act
+like a trusted guide that her friends would send for her. She wished
+once more that she had kept Hazel Brownleigh's letter. She wondered how
+her friends would find her if they came after her. It was then she began
+in earnest to systematically plan to leave a trail behind her all the
+rest of the way. If she had only done it thoroughly when she first began
+to be uneasy. But now she was so far away, so many miles from anywhere!
+Oh, if she had not come at all!</p>
+
+<p>And first she dropped her handkerchief, because she happened to have it
+in her hand&mdash;a dainty thing with lace on the edge and her name written
+in tiny script by her mother's careful hand on the narrow<a class="pagenum" title="316" name="page_316" id="page_316"></a> hem. And then
+after a little, as soon as she could scrawl it without being noticed,
+she wrote a note which she twisted around the neck of a red chessman,
+and left behind her. After that scraps of paper, as she could reach them
+out of the bag tied on behind her saddle; then a stocking, a bedroom
+slipper, more chessmen, and so, when they halted at dusk and prepared to
+strike camp, she had quite a good little trail blazed behind her over
+that wide, empty plain. She shuddered as she looked into the gathering
+darkness ahead, where those long, dark lines of mesas looked like
+barriers in the way. Then, suddenly, the Indian pointed ahead to the
+first mesa and uttered one word&mdash;"Walpi!" So that was the Indian village
+to which she was bound? What was before her on the morrow? After eating
+a pretense of supper she lay down. The Indian had more firewater with
+him. He drank, he uttered cruel gutturals at his squaw, and even kicked
+the feet of the sleeping papoose as he passed by till it awoke and cried
+sharply, which made him more angry, so he struck the squaw.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed hours before all was quiet. Margaret's nerves were strained to
+such a pitch she scarcely dared to breathe, but at last, when the fire
+had almost died down, the man lay quiet, and she could relax and close
+her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Not to sleep. She must not go to sleep. The fire was almost gone and the
+coyotes would be around. She must wake and watch!</p>
+
+<p>That was the last thought she remembered&mdash;that and a prayer that the
+angels would keep watch once again.<a class="pagenum" title="317" name="page_317" id="page_317"></a></p>
+
+<p>When she awoke it was broad daylight and far into the morning, for the
+sun was high overhead and the mesas in the distance were clear and
+distinct against the sky.</p>
+
+<p>She sat up and looked about her, bewildered, not knowing at first where
+she was. It was so still and wide and lonely.</p>
+
+<p>She turned to find the Indians, but there was no trace of them anywhere.
+The fire lay smoldering in its place, a thin trickle of smoke curling
+away from a dying stick, but that was all. A tin cup half full of coffee
+was beside the stick, and a piece of blackened corn bread. She turned
+frightened eyes to east, to west, to north, to south, but there was no
+one in sight, and out over the distant mesa there poised a great eagle
+alone in the vast sky keeping watch over the brilliant, silent waste.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="318" name="page_318" id="page_318"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>When Margaret was a very little girl her father and mother had left her
+alone for an hour with a stranger while they went out to make a call in
+a strange city through which they were passing on a summer trip. The
+stranger was kind, and gave to the child a large green box of bits of
+old black lace and purple ribbons to play with, but she turned
+sorrowfully from the somber array of finery, which was the only thing in
+the way of a plaything the woman had at hand, and stood looking drearily
+out of the window on the strange, new town, a feeling of utter
+loneliness upon her. Her little heart was almost choked with the
+awfulness of the thought that she was a human atom drifted apart from
+every other atom she had ever known, that she had a personality and a
+responsibility of her own, and that she must face this thought of
+herself and her aloneness for evermore. It was the child's first
+realization that she was a separate being apart from her father and
+mother, and she was almost consumed with the terror of it.</p>
+
+<p>As she rose now from her bed on the ground and looked out across that
+vast waste, in which the only other living creature was that sinister,
+watching eagle, the same feeling returned to her and made<a class="pagenum" title="319" name="page_319" id="page_319"></a> her tremble
+like the little child who had turned from her box of ancient finery to
+realize her own little self and its terrible aloneness.</p>
+
+<p>For an instant even her realization of God, which had from early
+childhood been present with her, seemed to have departed. She could not
+grasp anything save the vast empty silence that loomed about her so
+awfully. She was alone, and about as far from anywhere or anything as
+she could possibly be in the State of Arizona. Would she ever get back
+to human habitations? Would her friends ever be able to find her?</p>
+
+<p>Then her heart flew back to its habitual refuge, and she spoke aloud and
+said, "God is here!" and the thought seemed to comfort her. She looked
+about once more on the bright waste, and now it did not seem so dreary.</p>
+
+<p>"God is here!" she repeated, and tried to realize that this was a part
+of His habitation. She could not be lost where God was. He knew the way
+out. She had only to trust. So she dropped upon her knees in the sand
+and prayed for trust and courage.</p>
+
+<p>When she rose again she walked steadily to a height a little above the
+camp-fire, and, shading her eyes, looked carefully in every direction.
+No, there was not a sign of her recent companions. They must have stolen
+away in the night quite soon after she fell asleep, and have gone fast
+and far, so that they were now beyond the reach of her eyes, and not
+anywhere was there sign of living thing, save that eagle still sweeping
+in great curves and poising again above the distant mesa.</p>
+
+<p>Where was her horse? Had the Indians taken<a class="pagenum" title="320" name="page_320" id="page_320"></a> that, too? She searched the
+valley, but saw no horse at first. With sinking heart she went back to
+where her things were and sat down by the dying fire to think, putting a
+few loose twigs and sticks together to keep the embers bright while she
+could. She reflected that she had no matches, and this was probably the
+last fire she would have until somebody came to her rescue or she got
+somewhere by herself. What was she to do? Stay right where she was or
+start out on foot? And should she go backward or forward? Surely, surely
+the Brownleighs would miss her pretty soon and send out a search-party
+for her. How could it be that they trusted an Indian who had done such a
+cruel thing as to leave a woman unprotected in the desert? And yet,
+perhaps, they did not know his temptation to drink. Perhaps they had
+thought he could not get any firewater. Perhaps he would return when he
+came to himself and realized what he had done.</p>
+
+<p>And now she noticed what she had not seen at first&mdash;a small bottle of
+water on a stone beside the blackened bread. Realizing that she was very
+hungry and that this was the only food at hand, she sat down beside the
+fire to eat the dry bread and drink the miserable coffee. She must have
+strength to do whatever was before her. She tried not to think how her
+mother would feel if she never came back, how anxious they would be as
+they waited day by day for her letters that did not come. She reflected
+with a sinking heart that she had, just before leaving, written a hasty
+note to her mother telling her not to expect anything for several days,
+perhaps even as much as two weeks, as she was<a class="pagenum" title="321" name="page_321" id="page_321"></a> going out of civilization
+for a little while. How had she unwittingly sealed her fate by that! For
+now not even by way of her alarmed home could help come to her.</p>
+
+<p>She put the last bit of hard corn bread in her pocket for a further time
+of need, and began to look about her again. Then she spied with delight
+a moving object far below her in the valley, and decided it was a horse,
+perhaps her own. He was a mile away, at least, but he was there, and she
+cried out with sudden joy and relief.</p>
+
+<p>She went over to her blanket and bags, which had been beside her during
+the night, and stood a moment trying to think what to do. Should she
+carry the things to the horse or risk leaving them here while she went
+after the horse and brought him to the things? No, that would not be
+safe. Some one might come along and take them, or she might not be able
+to find her way back again in this strange, wild waste. Besides, she
+might not get the horse, after all, and would lose everything. She must
+carry her things to the horse. She stooped to gather them up, and
+something bright beside her bag attracted her. It was the sun shining on
+the silver dollar she had given to the Indian woman. A sudden rush of
+tears came to her eyes. The poor creature had tried to make all the
+reparation she could for thus hastily leaving the white woman in the
+desert. She had given back the money&mdash;all she had that was valuable!
+Beside the dollar rippled a little chain of beads curiously wrought, an
+inanimate appeal for forgiveness and a grateful return for the kindness
+shown her. Margaret smiled as she stooped<a class="pagenum" title="322" name="page_322" id="page_322"></a> again to pick up her things.
+There had been a heart, after all, behind that stolid countenance, and
+some sense of righteousness and justice. Margaret decided that Indians
+were not all treacherous. Poor woman! What a life was hers&mdash;to follow
+her grim lord whither he would lead, even as her white sister must
+sometimes, sorrowing, rebelling, crying out, but following! She wondered
+if into the heart of this dark sister there ever crept any of the
+rebellion which led some of her white sisters to cry aloud for "rights"
+and "emancipation."</p>
+
+<p>But it was all a passing thought to be remembered and turned over at a
+more propitious time. Margaret's whole thoughts now were bent on her
+present predicament.</p>
+
+<p>The packing was short work. She stuffed everything into the two bags
+that were usually hung across the horse, and settled them carefully
+across her shoulders. Then she rolled the blanket, took it in her arms,
+and started. It was a heavy burden to carry, but she could not make up
+her mind to part with any of her things until she had at least made an
+effort to save them. If she should be left alone in the desert for the
+night the blanket was indispensable, and her clothes would at least do
+to drop as a trail by which her friends might find her. She must carry
+them as far as possible. So she started.</p>
+
+<p>It was already high day, and the sun was intolerably hot. Her heavy
+burden was not only cumbersome, but very warm, and she felt her strength
+going from her as she went; but her nerve was up and her courage was
+strong. Moreover, she prayed as she walked, and she felt now the
+presence of her Guide<a class="pagenum" title="323" name="page_323" id="page_323"></a> and was not afraid. As she walked she faced a
+number of possibilities in the immediate future which were startling,
+and to say the least, undesirable. There were wild animals in this land,
+not so much in the daylight, but what of the night? She had heard that a
+woman was always safe in that wild Western land; but what of the
+prowling Indians? What of a possible exception to the Western rule of
+chivalry toward a decent woman? One small piece of corn bread and less
+than a pint of water were small provision on which to withstand a siege.
+How far was it to anywhere?</p>
+
+<p>It was then she remembered for the first time that one word&mdash;"Walpi!"
+uttered by the Indian as he came to a halt the night before and pointed
+far to the mesa&mdash;"Walpi." She lifted her eyes now and scanned the dark
+mesa. It loomed like a great battlement of rock against the sky. Could
+it be possible there were people dwelling there? She had heard, of
+course, about the curious Hopi villages, each village a gigantic house
+of many rooms, called pueblos, built upon the lofty crags, sometimes
+five or six hundred feet above the desert.</p>
+
+<p>Could it be that that great castle-looking outline against the sky
+before her, standing out on the end of the mesa like a promontory above
+the sea, was Walpi? And if it was, how was she to get up there? The rock
+rose sheer and steep from the desert floor. The narrow neck of land
+behind it looked like a slender thread. Her heart sank at thought of
+trying to storm and enter, single-handed, such an impregnable fortress.
+And yet, if her friends were there, perhaps they would see her when she
+drew<a class="pagenum" title="324" name="page_324" id="page_324"></a> near and come to show her the way. Strange that they should have
+gone on and left her with those treacherous Indians! Strange that they
+should have trusted them so, in the first place! Her own instincts had
+been against trusting the man from the beginning. It must be confessed
+that during her reflections at this point her opinion of the wisdom and
+judgment of the Brownleighs was lowered several notches. Then she began
+to berate herself for having so easily been satisfied about her escort.
+She should have read the letter more carefully. She should have asked
+the Indians more questions. She should, perhaps, have asked Jasper
+Kemp's advice, or got him to talk to the Indian. She wished with all her
+heart for Bud, now. If Bud were along he would be saying some comical
+boy-thing, and be finding a way out of the difficulty. Dear, faithful
+Bud!</p>
+
+<p>The sun rose higher and the morning grew hotter. As she descended to the
+valley her burdens grew intolerable, and several times she almost cast
+them aside. Once she lost sight of her pony among the sage-brush, and it
+was two hours before she came to him and was able to capture him and
+strap on her burdens. She was almost too exhausted to climb into the
+saddle when all was ready; but she managed to mount at last and started
+out toward the rugged crag ahead of her.</p>
+
+<p>The pony had a long, hot climb out of the valley to a hill where she
+could see very far again, but still that vast emptiness reigned. Even
+the eagle had disappeared, and she fancied he must be resting like a
+great emblem of freedom on one of the points<a class="pagenum" title="325" name="page_325" id="page_325"></a> of the castle-like
+battlement against the sky. It seemed as if the end of the world had
+come, and she was the only one left in the universe, forgotten, riding
+on her weary horse across an endless desert in search of a home she
+would never see again.</p>
+
+<p>Below the hill there stretched a wide, white strip of sand, perhaps two
+miles in extent, but shimmering in the sun and seeming to recede ahead
+of her as she advanced. Beyond was soft greenness&mdash;something
+growing&mdash;not near enough to be discerned as cornfields. The girl drooped
+her tired head upon her horse's mane and wept, her courage going from
+her with her tears. In all that wide universe there seemed no way to go,
+and she was so very tired, hungry, hot, and discouraged! There was
+always that bit of bread in her pocket and that muddy-looking, warm
+water for a last resort; but she must save them as long as possible, for
+there was no telling how long it would be before she had more.</p>
+
+<p>There was no trail now to follow. She had started from the spot where
+she had found the horse, and her inexperienced eyes could not have
+searched out a trail if she had tried. She was going toward that distant
+castle on the crag as to a goal, but when she reached it, if she ever
+did, would she find anything there but crags and lonesomeness and the
+eagle?</p>
+
+<p>Drying her tears at last, she started the horse on down the hill, and
+perhaps her tears blinded her, or because she was dizzy with hunger and
+the long stretch of anxiety and fatigue she was not looking closely.
+There was a steep place, a sharp falling away of the ground unexpectedly
+as they emerged from a thicket of sage-brush, and the horse<a class="pagenum" title="326" name="page_326" id="page_326"></a> plunged
+several feet down, striking sharply on some loose rocks, and slipping to
+his knees; snorting, scrambling, making brave effort, but slipping, half
+rolling, at last he was brought down with his frightened rider, and lay
+upon his side with her foot under him and a sensation like a red-hot
+knife running through her ankle.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret caught her breath in quick gasps as they fell, lifting a prayer
+in her heart for help. Then came the crash and the sharp pain, and with
+a quick conviction that all was over she dropped back unconscious on the
+sand, a blessed oblivion of darkness rushing over her.</p>
+
+<p>When she came to herself once more the hot sun was pouring down upon her
+unprotected face, and she was conscious of intense pain and suffering in
+every part of her body. She opened her eyes wildly and looked around.
+There was sage-brush up above, waving over the crag down which they had
+fallen, its gray-greenness shimmering hotly in the sun; the sky was
+mercilessly blue without a cloud. The great beast, heavy and quivering,
+lay solidly against her, half pinning her to earth, and the helplessness
+of her position was like an awful nightmare from which she felt she
+might waken if she could only cry out. But when at last she raised her
+voice its empty echo frightened her, and there, above her, with
+wide-spread wings, circling for an instant, then poised in motionless
+survey of her, with cruel eyes upon her, loomed that eagle&mdash;so large, so
+fearful, so suggestive in its curious stare, the monarch of the desert
+come to see who had invaded his precincts and fallen into one of his
+snares.<a class="pagenum" title="327" name="page_327" id="page_327"></a></p>
+
+<p>With sudden frenzy burning in her veins Margaret struggled and tried to
+get free, but she could only move the slightest bit each time, and every
+motion was an agony to the hurt ankle.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed hours before she writhed herself free from that great,
+motionless horse, whose labored breath only showed that he was still
+alive. Something terrible must have happened to the horse or he would
+have tried to rise, for she had coaxed, patted, cajoled, tried in every
+way to rouse him. When at last she crawled free from the hot, horrible
+body and crept with pained progress around in front of him, she saw that
+both his forelegs lay limp and helpless. He must have broken them in
+falling. Poor fellow! He, too, was suffering and she had nothing to give
+him! There was nothing she could do for him!</p>
+
+<p>Then she thought of the bottle of water, but, searching for it, found
+that her good intention of dividing it with him was useless, for the
+bottle was broken and the water already soaked into the sand. Only a
+damp spot on the saddle-bag showed where it had departed.</p>
+
+<p>Then indeed did Margaret sink down in the sand in despair and begin to
+pray as she had never prayed before.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="328" name="page_328" id="page_328"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The morning after Margaret's departure Rosa awoke with no feelings of
+self-reproach, but rather a great exultation at the way in which she had
+been able to get rid of her rival.</p>
+
+<p>She lay for a few minutes thinking of Forsythe, and trying to decide
+what she would wear when she went forth to meet him, for she wanted to
+charm him as she had never charmed any one before.</p>
+
+<p>She spent some time arraying herself in different costumes, but at last
+decided on her Commencement gown of fine white organdie,
+hand-embroidered and frilled with filmy lace, the product of a famous
+house of gowns in the Eastern city where she had attended school for a
+while and acquired expensive tastes.</p>
+
+<p>Daintily slippered, beribboned with coral-silk girdle, and with a rose
+from the vine over her window in her hair, she sallied forth at last to
+the trysting-place.</p>
+
+<p>Forsythe was a whole hour late, as became a languid gentleman who had
+traveled the day before and idled at his sister's house over a late
+breakfast until nearly noon. Already his fluttering fancy was apathetic
+about Rosa, and he wondered, as he rode along, what had become of the
+interesting young teacher who had charmed him for more than a passing<a class="pagenum" title="329" name="page_329" id="page_329"></a>
+moment. Would he dare to call upon her, now that Gardley was out of the
+way? Was she still in Ashland or had she gone home for vacation? He must
+ask Rosa about her.</p>
+
+<p>Then he came in sight of Rosa sitting picturesquely in the shade of an
+old cedar, reading poetry, a little lady in the wilderness, and he
+forgot everything else in his delight over the change in her. For Rosa
+had changed. There was no mistake about it. She had bloomed out into
+maturity in those few short months of his absence. Her soft figure had
+rounded and developed, her bewitching curls were put up on her head,
+with only a stray tendril here and there to emphasize a dainty ear or
+call attention to a smooth, round neck; and when she raised her lovely
+head and lifted limpid eyes to his there was about her a demureness, a
+coolness and charm that he had fancied only ladies of the city could
+attain. Oh, Rosa knew her charms, and had practised many a day before
+her mirror till she had appraised the value of every curving eyelash,
+every hidden dimple, every cupid's curve of lip. Rosa had watched well
+and learned from all with whom she had come in contact. No woman's guile
+was left untried by her.</p>
+
+<p>And Rosa was very sweet and charming. She knew just when to lift up
+innocent eyes of wonder; when to not understand suggestions; when to
+exclaim softly with delight or shrink with shyness that nevertheless did
+not repulse.</p>
+
+<p>Forsythe studied her with wonder and delight. No maiden of the city had
+ever charmed him more, and withal she seemed so innocent and young, so<a class="pagenum" title="330" name="page_330" id="page_330"></a>
+altogether pliable in his hands. His pulses beat high, his heart was
+inflamed, and passion came and sat within his handsome eyes.</p>
+
+<p>It was easy to persuade her, after her first seemingly shy reserve was
+overcome, and before an hour was passed she had promised to go away with
+him. He had very little money, but what of that? When he spoke of that
+feature Rosa declared she could easily get some. Her father gave her
+free access to his safe, and kept her plentifully supplied for the
+household use. It was nothing to her&mdash;a passing incident. What should it
+matter whose money took them on their way?</p>
+
+<p>When she went demurely back to the ranch a little before sunset she
+thought she was very happy, poor little silly sinner! She met her father
+with her most alluring but most furtive smile. She was charming at
+supper, and blushed as her mother used to do when he praised her new
+gown and told her how well she looked in it. But she professed to be
+weary yet from the last days of school&mdash;to have a headache&mdash;and so she
+went early to her room and asked that the servants keep the house quiet
+in the morning, that she might sleep late and get really rested. Her
+father kissed her tenderly and thought what a dear child she was and
+what a comfort to his ripening years; and the house settled down into
+quiet.</p>
+
+<p>Rosa packed a bag with some of her most elaborate garments, arrayed
+herself in a charming little outfit of silk for the journey, dropped her
+baggage out of the window; and when the moon rose and the household were
+quietly sleeping she paid a visit to<a class="pagenum" title="331" name="page_331" id="page_331"></a> her father's safe, and then stole
+forth, taking her shadowy way to the trail by a winding route known well
+to herself and secure from the watch of vigilant servants who were ever
+on the lookout for cattle thieves.</p>
+
+<p>Thus she left her father's house and went forth to put her trust in a
+man whose promises were as ropes of sand and whose fancy was like a wave
+of the sea, tossed to and fro by every breath that blew. Long ere the
+sun rose the next morning the guarded, beloved child was as far from her
+safe home and her father's sheltering love as if alone she had started
+for the mouth of the bottomless pit. Two days later, while Margaret lay
+unconscious beneath the sage-brush, with a hovering eagle for watch,
+Rosa in the streets of a great city suddenly realized that she was more
+alone in the universe than ever she could have been in a wide desert,
+and her plight was far worse than the girl's with whose fate she had so
+lightly played.</p>
+
+<p>Quite early on the morning after Rosa left, while the household was
+still keeping quiet for the supposed sleeper, Gardley rode into the
+inclosure about the house and asked for Rogers.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley had been traveling night and day to get back. Matters had
+suddenly arranged themselves so that he could finish up his business at
+his old home and go on to see Margaret's father and mother, and he had
+made his visit there and hurried back to Arizona, hoping to reach
+Ashland in time for Commencement. A delay on account of a washout on the
+road had brought him back two days late for Commencement. He had ridden
+to camp from a<a class="pagenum" title="332" name="page_332" id="page_332"></a> junction forty miles away to get there the sooner, and
+this morning had ridden straight to the Tanners' to surprise Margaret.
+It was, therefore, a deep disappointment to find her gone and only Mrs.
+Tanner's voluble explanations for comfort. Mrs. Tanner exhausted her
+vocabulary in trying to describe the "Injuns," her own feeling of
+protest against them, and Mrs. Brownleigh's foolishness in making so
+much of them; and then she bustled in to the old pine desk in the
+dining-room and produced the letter that had started Margaret off as
+soon as commencement was over.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley took the letter eagerly, as though it were something to connect
+him with Margaret, and read it through carefully to make sure just how
+matters stood. He had looked troubled when Mrs. Tanner told how tired
+Margaret was, and how worried she seemed about her school and glad to
+get away from it all; and he agreed that the trip was probably a good
+thing.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish Bud could have gone along, though," he said, thoughtfully, as he
+turned away from the door. "I don't like her to go with just Indians,
+though I suppose it is all right. You say he had his wife and child
+along? Of course Mrs. Brownleigh wouldn't send anybody that wasn't
+perfectly all right. Well, I suppose the trip will be a rest for her.
+I'm sorry I didn't get home a few days sooner. I might have looked out
+for her myself."</p>
+
+<p>He rode away from the Tanners', promising to return later with a gift he
+had brought for Bud that he wanted to present himself, and Mrs. Tanner
+bustled back to her work again.<a class="pagenum" title="333" name="page_333" id="page_333"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm glad he's got home, anyway," she remarked, aloud, to herself
+as she hung her dish-cloth tidily over the upturned dish-pan and took up
+her broom. "I 'ain't felt noways easy 'bout her sence she left, though I
+do suppose there ain't any sense to it. But I'm <i>glad he's back</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Gardley was riding toward Rogers's ranch, meditating whether he
+should venture to follow the expedition and enjoy at least the return
+trip with Margaret, or whether he ought to remain patiently until she
+came back and go to work at once. There was nothing really important
+demanding his attention immediately, for Rogers had arranged to keep the
+present overseer of affairs until he was ready to undertake the work. He
+was on his way now to report on a small business matter which he had
+been attending to in New York for Rogers. When that was over he would be
+free to do as he pleased for a few days more if he liked, and the
+temptation was great to go at once to Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>As he stood waiting beside his horse in front of the house while the
+servant went to call Rogers, he looked about with delight on the beauty
+of the day. How glad he was to be back in Arizona again! Was it the
+charm of the place or because Margaret was there, he wondered, that he
+felt so happy? By all means he must follow her. Why should he not?</p>
+
+<p>He looked at the clambering rose-vine that covered one end of the house,
+and noticed how it crept close to the window casement and caressed the
+white curtain as it blew. Margaret must have such a vine at her window
+in the house he would build for her. It might be but a modest house that
+he could give<a class="pagenum" title="334" name="page_334" id="page_334"></a> her now, but it should have a rose-vine just like that;
+and he would train it round her window where she could smell the
+fragrance from it every morning when she awoke, and where it would
+breathe upon her as she slept.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret! How impatient he was to see her again! To look upon her dear
+face and know that she was his! That her father and mother had been
+satisfied about him and sent their blessing, and he might tell her so.
+It was wonderful! His heart thrilled with the thought of it. Of course
+he would go to her at once. He would start as soon as Rogers was through
+with him. He would go to Ganado. No, Keams. Which was it? He drew the
+letter out of his pocket and read it again, then replaced it.</p>
+
+<p>The fluttering curtain up at the window blew out and in, and when it
+blew out again it brought with it a flurry of papers like white leaves.
+The curtain had knocked over a paper-weight or vase or something that
+held them and set the papers free. The breeze caught them and flung them
+about erratically, tossing one almost at his feet. He stooped to pick it
+up, thinking it might be of value to some one, and caught the name
+"Margaret" and "Dear Margaret" written several times on the sheet, with
+"Walpi, Walpi, Walpi," filling the lower half of the page, as if some
+one had been practising it.</p>
+
+<p>And because these two words were just now keenly in his mind he reached
+for the second paper just a foot or two away and found more sentences
+and words. A third paper contained an exact reproduction of the letter
+which Mrs. Tanner had<a class="pagenum" title="335" name="page_335" id="page_335"></a> given him purporting to come from Mrs. Brownleigh
+to Margaret. What could it possibly mean?</p>
+
+<p>In great astonishment he pulled out the other letter and compared them.
+They were almost identical save for a word here and there crossed out
+and rewritten. He stood looking mutely at the papers and then up at the
+window, as though an explanation might somehow be wafted down to him,
+not knowing what to think, his mind filled with vague alarm.</p>
+
+<p>Just at that moment the servant appeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Rogers says would you mind coming down to the corral. Miss Rosa has
+a headache, and we're keeping the house still for her to sleep. That's
+her window up there&mdash;" And he indicated the rose-bowered window with the
+fluttering curtain.</p>
+
+<p>Dazed and half suspicious of something, Gardley folded the two letters
+together and crushed them into his pocket, wondering what he ought to do
+about it. The thought of it troubled him so that he only half gave
+attention to the business in hand; but he gave his report and handed
+over certain documents. He was thinking that perhaps he ought to see
+Miss Rosa and find out what she knew of Margaret's going and ask how she
+came in possession of this other letter.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Rogers, as the matter was concluded, "I owe you some money.
+If you'll just step up to the house with me I'll give it to you. I'd
+like to settle matters up at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, let it go till I come again," said Gardley, impatient to be off. He
+wanted to get by himself and think out a solution of the two letters. He
+was<a class="pagenum" title="336" name="page_336" id="page_336"></a> more than uneasy about Margaret without being able to give any
+suitable explanation of why he should be. His main desire now was to
+ride to Ganado and find out if the missionaries had left home, which way
+they had gone, and whether they had met Margaret as planned.</p>
+
+<p>"No, step right up to the house with me," insisted Rogers. "It won't
+take long, and I have the money in my safe."</p>
+
+<p>Gardley saw that the quickest way was to please Rogers, and he did not
+wish to arouse any questions, because he supposed, of course, his alarm
+was mere foolishness. So they went together into Rogers's private
+office, where his desk and safe were the principal furniture, and where
+no servants ventured to come without orders.</p>
+
+<p>Rogers shoved a chair for Gardley and went over to his safe, turning the
+little nickel knob this way and that with the skill of one long
+accustomed, and in a moment the thick door swung open and Rogers drew
+out a japanned cash-box and unlocked it. But when he threw the cover
+back he uttered an exclamation of angry surprise. The box was empty!</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="337" name="page_337" id="page_337"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mr. Rogers strode to the door, forgetful of his sleeping daughter
+overhead, and thundered out his call for James. The servant appeared at
+once, but he knew nothing about the safe, and had not been in the office
+that morning. Other servants were summoned and put through a rigid
+examination. Then Rogers turned to the woman who had answered the door
+for Gardley and sent her up to call Rosa.</p>
+
+<p>But the woman returned presently with word that Miss Rosa was not in her
+room, and there was no sign that her bed had been slept in during the
+night. The woman's face was sullen. She did not like Rosa, but was
+afraid of her. This to her was only another of Miss Rosa's pranks, and
+very likely her doting father would manage to blame the servants with
+the affair.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Rogers's face grew stern. His eyes flashed angrily as he turned and
+strode up the stairs to his daughter's room, but when he came down again
+he was holding a note in his trembling hand and his face was ashen
+white.</p>
+
+<p>"Read that, Gardley," he said, thrusting the note into Gardley's hands
+and motioning at the same time for the servants to go away.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley took the note, yet even as he read he<a class="pagenum" title="338" name="page_338" id="page_338"></a> noticed that the paper
+was the same as those he carried in his pocket. There was a peculiar
+watermark that made it noticeable.</p>
+
+<p>The note was a flippant little affair from Rosa, telling her father she
+had gone away to be married and that she would let him know where she
+was as soon as they were located. She added that he had forced her to
+this step by being so severe with her and not allowing her lover to come
+to see her. If he had been reasonable she would have stayed at home and
+let him give her a grand wedding; but as it was she had only this way of
+seeking her happiness. She added that she knew he would forgive her, and
+she hoped he would come to see that her way had been best, and Forsythe
+was all that he could desire as a son-in-law.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley uttered an exclamation of dismay as he read, and, looking up,
+found the miserable eyes of the stricken father upon him. For the moment
+his own alarm concerning Margaret and his perplexity about the letters
+was forgotten in the grief of the man who had been his friend.</p>
+
+<p>"When did she go?" asked Gardley, quickly looking up.</p>
+
+<p>"She took supper with me and then went to her room, complaining of a
+headache," said the father, his voice showing his utter hopelessness.
+"She may have gone early in the evening, perhaps, for we all turned in
+about nine o'clock to keep the house quiet on her account."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any idea which way they went, east or west?" Gardley was the
+keen adviser in a crisis now, his every sense on the alert.<a class="pagenum" title="339" name="page_339" id="page_339"></a></p>
+
+<p>The old man shook his head. "It is too late now," he said, still in that
+colorless voice. "They will have reached the railroad somewhere. They
+will have been married by this time. See, it is after ten o'clock!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if he marries her," said Gardley, fiercely. He had no faith in
+Forsythe.</p>
+
+<p>"You think&mdash;you don't think he would <i>dare</i>!" The old man straightened
+up and fairly blazed in his righteous wrath.</p>
+
+<p>"I think he would dare anything if he thought he would not be caught. He
+is a coward, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"What can we do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Telegraph to detectives at all points where they would be likely to
+arrive and have them shadowed. Come, we will ride to the station at
+once; but, first, could I go up in her room and look around? There might
+be some clue."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said Rogers, pointing hopelessly up the stairs; "the first
+door to the left. But you'll find nothing. I looked everywhere. She
+wouldn't have left a clue. While you're up there I'll interview the
+servants. Then we'll go."</p>
+
+<p>As he went up-stairs Gardley was wondering whether he ought to tell
+Rogers of the circumstance of the two letters. What possible connection
+could there be between Margaret Earle's trip to Walpi with the
+Brownleighs and Rosa Rogers's elopement? When you come to think of it,
+what possible explanation was there for a copy of Mrs. Brownleigh's
+letter to blow out of Rosa Rogers's bedroom window? How could it have
+got there?</p>
+
+<p>Rosa's room was in beautiful order, the roses<a class="pagenum" title="340" name="page_340" id="page_340"></a> nodding in at the window,
+the curtain blowing back and forth in the breeze and rippling open the
+leaves of a tiny Testament lying on her desk, as if it had been recently
+read. There was nothing to show that the owner of the room had taken a
+hasty flight. On the desk lay several sheets of note-paper with the
+peculiar watermark. These caught his attention, and he took them up and
+compared them with the papers in his pocket. It was a strange thing that
+that letter which had sent Margaret off into the wilderness with an
+unknown Indian should be written on the same kind of paper as this; and
+yet, perhaps, it was not so strange, after all. It probably was the only
+note-paper to be had in that region, and must all have been purchased at
+the same place.</p>
+
+<p>The rippling leaves of the Testament fluttered open at the fly-leaf and
+revealed Rosa's name and a date with Mrs. Brownleigh's name written
+below, and Gardley took it up, startled again to find Hazel Brownleigh
+mixed up with the Rogers. He had not known that they had anything to do
+with each other. And yet, of course, they would, being the missionaries
+of the region.</p>
+
+<p>The almost empty waste-basket next caught his eye, and here again were
+several sheets of paper written over with words and phrases, words which
+at once he recognized as part of the letter Mrs. Tanner had given him.
+He emptied the waste-basket out on the desk, thinking perhaps there
+might be something there that would give a clue to where the elopers had
+gone; but there was not much else in it except a little yellowed note
+with the signature "Hazel Brownleigh" at the bottom. He glanced<a class="pagenum" title="341" name="page_341" id="page_341"></a> through
+the brief note, gathered its purport, and then spread it out
+deliberately on the desk and compared the writing with the others, a
+wild fear clutching at his heart. Yet he could not in any way explain
+why he was so uneasy. What possible reason could Rosa Rogers have for
+forging a letter to Margaret from Hazel Brownleigh?</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Rogers stood behind him looking over his shoulder. "What is it,
+Gardley? What have you found? Any clue?"</p>
+
+<p>"No clue," said Gardley, uneasily, "but something strange I cannot
+understand. I don't suppose it can possibly have anything to do with
+your daughter, and yet it seems almost uncanny. This morning I stopped
+at the Tanners' to let Miss Earle know I had returned, and was told she
+had gone yesterday with a couple of Indians as guide to meet the
+Brownleighs at Keams or somewhere near there, and take a trip with them
+to Walpi to see the Hopi Indians. Mrs. Tanner gave me this letter from
+Mrs. Brownleigh, which Miss Earle had left behind. But when I reached
+here and was waiting for you some papers blew out of your daughter's
+window. When I picked them up I was startled to find that one of them
+was an exact copy of the letter I had in my pocket. See! Here they are!
+I don't suppose there is anything to it, but in spite of me I am a
+trifle uneasy about Miss Earle. I just can't understand how that copy of
+the letter came to be here."</p>
+
+<p>Rogers was leaning over, looking at the papers. "What's this?" he asked,
+picking up the note that came with the Testament. He read each paper
+carefully, took in the little Testament with its fluttering<a class="pagenum" title="342" name="page_342" id="page_342"></a> fly-leaf
+and inscription, studied the pages of words and alphabet, then suddenly
+turned away and groaned, hiding his face in his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" asked Gardley, awed with the awful sorrow in the strong
+man's attitude.</p>
+
+<p>"My poor baby!" groaned the father. "My poor little baby girl! I've
+always been afraid of that fatal gift of hers. Gardley, she could copy
+any handwriting in the world perfectly. She could write my name so it
+could not be told from my own signature. She's evidently written that
+letter. Why, I don't know, unless she wanted to get Miss Earle out of
+the way so it would be easier for her to carry out her plans."</p>
+
+<p>"It can't be!" said Gardley, shaking his head. "I can't see what her
+object would be. Besides, where would she find the Indians? Mrs. Tanner
+saw the Indians. They came to the school after her with the letter, and
+waited for her. Mrs. Tanner saw them ride off together."</p>
+
+<p>"There were a couple of strange Indians here yesterday, begging
+something to eat," said Rogers, settling down on a chair and resting his
+head against the desk as if he had suddenly lost the strength to stand.</p>
+
+<p>"This won't do!" said Gardley. "We've got to get down to the
+telegraph-office, you and I. Now try to brace up. Are the horses ready?
+Then we'll go right away."</p>
+
+<p>"You better question the servants about those Indians first," said
+Rogers; and Gardley, as he hurried down the stairs, heard groan after
+groan from Rosa's room, where her father lingered in agony.<a class="pagenum" title="343" name="page_343" id="page_343"></a></p>
+
+<p>Gardley got all the information he could about the Indians, and then the
+two men started away on a gallop to the station. As they passed the
+Tanner house Gardley drew rein to call to Bud, who hurried out joyfully
+to greet his friend, his face lighting with pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"Bill, get on your horse in double-quick time and beat it out to camp
+for me, will you?" said Gardley, as he reached down and gripped Bud's
+rough young paw. "Tell Jasper Kemp to come back with you and meet me at
+the station as quick as he can. Tell him to have the men where he can
+signal them. We may have to hustle out on a long hunt; and, Bill, keep
+your head steady and get back yourself right away. Perhaps I'll want you
+to help me. I'm a little anxious about Miss Earle, but you needn't tell
+anybody that but old Jasper. Tell him to hurry for all he's worth."</p>
+
+<p>Bud, with his eyes large with loyalty and trouble, nodded
+understandingly, returned the grip of the young man's hand with a clumsy
+squeeze, and sprang away to get his horse and do Gardley's bidding.
+Gardley knew he would ride as for his life, now that he knew Margaret's
+safety was at stake.</p>
+
+<p>Then Gardley rode on to the station and was indefatigable for two hours
+hunting out addresses, writing telegrams, and calling up long-distance
+telephones.</p>
+
+<p>When all had been done that was possible Rogers turned a haggard face to
+the young man. "I've been thinking, Gardley, that rash little girl of
+mine may have got Miss Earle into some kind of a dangerous<a class="pagenum" title="344" name="page_344" id="page_344"></a> position.
+You ought to look after her. What can we do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to, sir," said Gardley, "just as soon as I've done everything
+I can for you. I've already sent for Jasper Kemp, and we'll make a plan
+between us and find out if Miss Earle is all right. Can you spare Jasper
+or will you need him?"</p>
+
+<p>"By all means! Take all the men you need. I sha'n't rest easy till I
+know Miss Earle is safe."</p>
+
+<p>He sank down on a truck that stood on the station platform, his
+shoulders slumping, his whole attitude as of one who was fatally
+stricken. It came over Gardley how suddenly old he looked, and haggard
+and gray! What a thing for the selfish child to have done to her father!
+Poor, silly child, whose fate with Forsythe would in all probability be
+anything but enviable!</p>
+
+<p>But there was no time for sorrowful reflections. Jasper Kemp, stern,
+alert, anxious, came riding furiously down the street, Bud keeping even
+pace with him.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="345" name="page_345" id="page_345"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>While Gardley briefly told his tale to Jasper Kemp, and the Scotchman
+was hastily scanning the papers with his keen, bright eyes, Bud stood
+frowning and listening intently.</p>
+
+<p>"Gee!" he burst forth. "That girl's a mess! 'Course she did it! You
+oughta seen what all she didn't do the last six weeks of school. Miss
+Mar'get got so she shivered every time that girl came near her or looked
+at her. She sure had her goat! Some nights after school, when she
+thought she's all alone, she just cried, she did. Why, Rosa had every
+one of those guys in the back seat acting like the devil, and nobody
+knew what was the matter. She wrote things on the blackboard right in
+the questions, so's it looked like Miss Mar'get's writing; fierce
+things, sometimes; and Miss Mar'get didn't know who did it. And she was
+as jealous as a cat of Miss Mar'get. You all know what a case she had on
+that guy from over by the fort; and she didn't like to have him even
+look at Miss Mar'get. Well, she didn't forget how he went away that
+night of the play. I caught her looking at her like she would like to
+murder her. <i>Good night!</i> Some look! The guy had a case on Miss Mar'get,
+all right, too, only she was onto him and wouldn't look at him nor<a class="pagenum" title="346" name="page_346" id="page_346"></a> let
+him spoon nor nothing. But Rosa saw it all, and she just hated Miss
+Mar'get. Then once Miss Mar'get stopped her from going out to meet that
+guy, too. Oh, she hated her, all right! And you can bet she wrote the
+letter! Sure she did! She wanted to get her away when that guy came
+back. He was back yesterday. I saw him over by the run on that trail
+that crosses the trail to the old cabin. He didn't see me. I got my eye
+on him first, and I chucked behind some sage-brush, but he was here, all
+right, and he didn't mean any good. I follahed him awhile till he
+stopped and fixed up a place to camp. I guess he must 'a' stayed out
+last night&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A heavy hand was suddenly laid from behind on Bud's shoulder, and Rogers
+stood over him, his dark eyes on fire, his lips trembling.</p>
+
+<p>"Boy, can you show me where that was?" he asked, and there was an
+intensity in his voice that showed Bud that something serious was the
+matter. Boylike he dropped his eyes indifferently before this great
+emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!"</p>
+
+<p>"Best take Long Bill with you, Mr. Rogers," advised Jasper Kemp, keenly
+alive to the whole situation. "I reckon we'll all have to work together.
+My men ain't far off," and he lifted his whistle to his lips and blew
+the signal blasts. "The Kid here 'll want to ride to Keams to see if the
+lady is all safe and has met her friends. I reckon mebbe I better go
+straight to Ganado and find out if them mission folks really got
+started, and put 'em wise to what's been going on. They'll mebbe know
+who them<a class="pagenum" title="347" name="page_347" id="page_347"></a> Injuns was. I have my suspicions they weren't any friendlies.
+I didn't like that Injun the minute I set eyes on him hanging round the
+school-house, but I wouldn't have stirred a step toward camp if I'd 'a'
+suspected he was come fur the lady. 'Spose you take Bud and Long Bill
+and go find that camping-place and see if you find any trail showing
+which way they took. If you do, you fire three shots, and the men 'll be
+with you. If you want the Kid, fire four shots. He can't be so fur away
+by that time that he can't hear. He's got to get provisioned 'fore he
+starts. Lead him out, Bud. We 'ain't got no time to lose."</p>
+
+<p>Bud gave one despairing look at Gardley and turned to obey.</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right, Bud," said Gardley, with an understanding glance.
+"You tell Mr. Rogers all you know and show him the place, and then when
+Long Bill comes you can take the cross-cut to the Long Trail and go with
+me. I'll just stop at the house as I go by and tell your mother I need
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Bud gave one radiant, grateful look and sprang upon his horse, and
+Rogers had hard work to keep up with him at first, till Bud got
+interested in giving him a detailed account of Forsythe's looks and
+acts.</p>
+
+<p>In less than an hour the relief expedition had started. Before night had
+fallen Jasper Kemp, riding hard, arrived at the mission, told his story,
+procured a fresh horse, and after a couple of hours, rest started with
+Brownleigh and his wife for Keams Ca&ntilde;on.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley and Bud, riding for all they were worth, said little by the way.
+Now and then the boy stole<a class="pagenum" title="348" name="page_348" id="page_348"></a> glances at the man's face, and the dead
+weight of sorrow settled like lead, the heavier, upon his heart. Too
+well he knew the dangers of the desert. He could almost read Gardley's
+fears in the white, drawn look about his lips, the ashen circles under
+his eyes, the tense, strained pose of his whole figure. Gardley's mind
+was urging ahead of his steed, and his body could not relax. He was
+anxious to go a little faster, yet his judgment knew it would not do,
+for his horse would play out before he could get another. They ate their
+corn bread in the saddle, and only turned aside from the trail once to
+drink at a water-hole and fill their cans. They rode late into the
+night, with only the stars and their wits to guide them. When they
+stopped to rest they did not wait to make a fire, but hobbled the horses
+where they might feed, and, rolling quickly in their blankets, lay down
+upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Bud, with the fatigue of healthy youth, would have slept till morning in
+spite of his fears, but Gardley woke him in a couple of hours, made him
+drink some water and eat a bite of food, and they went on their way
+again. When morning broke they were almost to the entrance of Keams
+Ca&ntilde;on and both looked haggard and worn. Bud seemed to have aged in the
+night, and Gardley looked at him almost tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you all in, kid?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Naw!" answered Bud, promptly, with an assumed cheerfulness. "Feeling
+like a four-year-old. Get on to that sky? Guess we're going to have some
+day! Pretty as a red wagon!"</p>
+
+<p>Gardley smiled sadly. What would that day bring<a class="pagenum" title="349" name="page_349" id="page_349"></a> forth for the two who
+went in search of her they loved? His great anxiety was to get to Keams
+Ca&ntilde;on and inquire. They would surely know at the trading-post whether
+the missionary and his party had gone that way.</p>
+
+<p>The road was still almost impassable from the flood; the two dauntless
+riders picked their way slowly down the trail to the post.</p>
+
+<p>But the trader could tell them nothing comforting. The missionary had
+not been that way in two months, and there had been no party and no lady
+there that week. A single strange Indian had come down the trail above
+the day before, stayed awhile, picked a quarrel with some men who were
+there, and then ridden back up the steep trail again. He might have had
+a party with him up on the mesa, waiting. He had said something about
+his squaw. The trader admitted that he might have been drunk, but he
+frowned as he spoke of him. He called him a "bad Indian." Something
+unpleasant had evidently happened.</p>
+
+<p>The trader gave them a good, hot dinner, of which they stood sorely in
+need, and because they realized that they must keep up their strength
+they took the time to eat it. Then, procuring fresh horses, they climbed
+the steep trail in the direction the trader said the Indian had taken.
+It was a slender clue, but it was all they had, and they must follow it.
+And now the travelers were very silent, as if they felt they were
+drawing near to some knowledge that would settle the question for them
+one way or the other. As they reached the top at last, where they could
+see out across the plain, each drew a<a class="pagenum" title="350" name="page_350" id="page_350"></a> long breath like a gasp and
+looked about, half fearing what he might see.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, there was the sign of a recent camp-fire, and a few tin cans and
+bits of refuse, nothing more. Gardley got down and searched carefully.
+Bud even crept about upon his hands and knees, but a single tiny blue
+bead like a grain of sand was all that rewarded his efforts. Some Indian
+had doubtless camped here. That was all the evidence. Standing thus in
+hopeless uncertainty what to do next, they suddenly heard voices.
+Something familiar once or twice made Gardley lift his whistle and blow
+a blast. Instantly a silvery answer came ringing from the mesa a mile or
+so away and woke the echoes in the ca&ntilde;on. Jasper Kemp and his party had
+taken the longer way around instead of going down the ca&ntilde;on, and were
+just arriving at the spot where Margaret and the squaw had waited two
+days before for their drunken guide. But Jasper Kemp's whistle rang out
+again, and he shot three times into the air, their signal to wait for
+some important news.</p>
+
+<p>Breathlessly and in silence the two waited till the coming of the rest
+of the party, and cast themselves down on the ground, feeling the sudden
+need of support. Now that there was a possibility of some news, they
+felt hardly able to bear it, and the waiting for it was intolerable, to
+such a point of anxious tension were they strained.</p>
+
+<p>But when the party from Ganado came in sight their faces wore no
+brightness of good news. Their greetings were quiet, sad, anxious, and
+Jasper Kemp held out to Gardley an envelope. It was the one<a class="pagenum" title="351" name="page_351" id="page_351"></a> from
+Margaret's mother's letter that she had dropped upon the trail.</p>
+
+<p>"We found it on the way from Ganado, just as we entered Steamboat
+Ca&ntilde;on," explained Jasper.</p>
+
+<p>"And didn't you search for a trail off in any other direction?" asked
+Gardley, almost sharply. "They have not been here. At least only one
+Indian has been down to the trader's."</p>
+
+<p>"There was no other trail. We looked," said Jasper, sadly. "There was a
+camp-fire twice, and signs of a camp. We felt sure they had come this
+way."</p>
+
+<p>Gardley shook his head and a look of abject despair came over his face.
+"There is no sign here," he said. "They must have gone some other way.
+Perhaps the Indian has carried her off. Are the other men following?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Rogers sent them in the other direction after his girl. They found
+the camp all right. Bud tell you? We made sure we had found our trail
+and would not need them."</p>
+
+<p>Gardley dropped his head and almost groaned.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the missionary had been riding around in radiating circles
+from the dead camp-fire, searching every step of the way; and Bud,
+taking his cue from him, looked off toward the mesa a minute, then
+struck out in a straight line for it and rode off like mad. Suddenly
+there was heard a shout loud and long, and Bud came riding back, waving
+something small and white above his head.</p>
+
+<p>They gathered in a little knot, waiting for the boy, not speaking; and
+when he halted in their midst he fluttered down the handkerchief to
+Gardley.<a class="pagenum" title="352" name="page_352" id="page_352"></a></p>
+
+<p>"It's hers, all right. Gotter name all written out on the edge!" he
+declared, radiantly.</p>
+
+<p>The sky grew brighter to them all now. Eagerly Gardley sprang into his
+saddle, no longer weary, but alert and eager for the trail.</p>
+
+<p>"You folks better go down to the trader's and get some dinner. You'll
+need it! Bud and I'll go on. Mrs. Brownleigh looks all in."</p>
+
+<p>"No," declared Hazel, decidedly. "We'll just snatch a bite here and
+follow you at once. I couldn't enjoy a dinner till I know she is safe."
+And so, though both Jasper Kemp and her husband urged her otherwise, she
+would take a hasty meal by the way and hurry on.</p>
+
+<p>But Bud and Gardley waited not for others. They plunged wildly ahead.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed a long way to the eager hunters, from the place where Bud had
+found the handkerchief to the little note twisted around the red
+chessman. It was perhaps nearly a mile, and both the riders had searched
+in all directions for some time before Gardley spied it. Eagerly he
+seized upon the note, recognizing the little red manikin with which he
+had whiled away an hour with Margaret during one of her visits at the
+camp.</p>
+
+<p>The note was written large and clear upon a sheet of writing-paper:</p>
+
+<p>"I am Margaret Earle, school-teacher at Ashland. I am supposed to be
+traveling to Walpi, by way of Keams, to meet Mr. and Mrs. Brownleigh of
+Ganado. I am with an Indian, his squaw and papoose. The Indian said he
+was sent to guide me, but he is drunk now and I am frightened. He has
+acted strangely<a class="pagenum" title="353" name="page_353" id="page_353"></a> all the way. I do not know where I am. Please come and
+help me."</p>
+
+<p>Bud, sitting anxious like a statue upon his horse, read Gardley's face
+as Gardley read the note. Then Gardley read it aloud to Bud, and before
+the last word was fairly out of his mouth both man and boy started as if
+they had heard Margaret's beloved voice calling them. It was not long
+before Bud found another scrap of paper a half-mile farther on, and then
+another and another, scattered at great distances along the way. The
+only way they had of being sure she had dropped them was that they
+seemed to be the same kind of paper as that upon which the note was
+written.</p>
+
+<p>How that note with its brave, frightened appeal wrung the heart of
+Gardley as he thought of Margaret, unprotected, in terror and perhaps in
+peril, riding on she knew not where. What trials and fears had she not
+already passed through! What might she not be experiencing even now
+while he searched for her?</p>
+
+<p>It was perhaps two hours before he found the little white stocking
+dropped where the trail divided, showing which way she had taken.
+Gardley folded it reverently and put it in his pocket. An hour later Bud
+pounced upon the bedroom slipper and carried it gleefully to Gardley;
+and so by slow degrees, finding here and there a chessman or more paper,
+they came at last to the camp where the Indians had abandoned their
+trust and fled, leaving Margaret alone in the wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>It was then that Gardley searched in vain for any further clue, and,
+riding wide in every direction,<a class="pagenum" title="354" name="page_354" id="page_354"></a> stopped and called her name again and
+again, while the sun grew lower and lower and shadows crept in
+lurking-places waiting for the swift-coming night. It was then that Bud,
+flying frantically from one spot to another, got down upon his knees
+behind a sage-bush when Gardley was not looking and mumbled a rough,
+hasty prayer for help. He felt like the old woman who, on being told
+that nothing but God could save the ship, exclaimed, "And has it come to
+that?" Bud had felt all his life that there was a remote time in every
+life when one might need to believe in prayer. The time had come for
+Bud.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Margaret, on her knees in the sand of the desert praying for help,
+remembered the promise, "Before they call I will answer, and while they
+are yet speaking I will hear," and knew not that her deliverers were on
+the way.</p>
+
+<p>The sun had been hot as it beat down upon the whiteness of the sand, and
+the girl had crept under a sage-bush for shelter from it. The pain in
+her ankle was sickening. She had removed her shoe and bound the ankle
+about with a handkerchief soaked with half of her bottle of witch-hazel,
+and so, lying quiet, had fallen asleep, too exhausted with pain and
+anxiety to stay awake any longer.</p>
+
+<p>When she awoke again the softness of evening was hovering over
+everything, and she started up and listened. Surely, surely, she had
+heard a voice calling her! She sat up sharply and listened. Ah! There it
+was again, a faint echo in the distance.<a class="pagenum" title="355" name="page_355" id="page_355"></a> Was it a voice, or was it only
+her dreams mingling with her fancies?</p>
+
+<p>Travelers in deserts, she had read, took all sorts of fancies, saw
+mirages, heard sounds that were not. But she had not been out long
+enough to have caught such a desert fever. Perhaps she was going to be
+sick. Still that faint echo made her heart beat wildly. She dragged
+herself to her knees, then to her feet, standing painfully with the
+weight on her well foot.</p>
+
+<p>The suffering horse turned his anguished eyes and whinnied. Her heart
+ached for him, yet there was no way she could assuage his pain or put
+him out of his misery. But she must make sure if she had heard a voice.
+Could she possibly scale that rock down which she and her horse had
+fallen? For then she might look out farther and see if there were any
+one in sight.</p>
+
+<p>Painfully she crawled and crept, up and up, inch by inch, until at last
+she gained the little height and could look afar.</p>
+
+<p>There was no living thing in sight. The air was very clear. The eagle
+had found his evening rest somewhere in a quiet crag. The long corn
+waved on the distant plain, and all was deathly still once more. There
+was a hint of coming sunset in the sky. Her heart sank, and she was
+about to give up hope entirely, when, rich and clear, there it came
+again! A voice in the wilderness calling her name: "Margaret! Margaret!"</p>
+
+<p>The tears rushed to her eyes and crowded in her throat. She could not
+answer, she was so overwhelmed; and though she tried twice to call out,
+she<a class="pagenum" title="356" name="page_356" id="page_356"></a> could make no sound. But the call kept coming again and again:
+"Margaret! Margaret!" and it was Gardley's voice. Impossible! For
+Gardley was far away and could not know her need. Yet it was his voice.
+Had she died, or was she in delirium that she seemed to hear him calling
+her name?</p>
+
+<p>But the call came clearer now: "Margaret! Margaret! I am coming!" and
+like a flash her mind went back to the first night in Arizona when she
+heard him singing, "From the Desert I Come to Thee!"</p>
+
+<p>Now she struggled to her feet again and shouted, inarticulately and
+gladly through her tears. She could see him. It was Gardley. He was
+riding fast toward her, and he shot three shots into the air above him
+as he rode, and three shrill blasts of his whistle rang out on the still
+evening air.</p>
+
+<p>She tore the scarf from her neck that she had tied about it to keep the
+sun from blistering her, and waved it wildly in the air now, shouting in
+happy, choking sobs.</p>
+
+<p>And so he came to her across the desert!</p>
+
+<p>He sprang down before the horse had fairly reached her side, and,
+rushing to her, took her in his arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Margaret! My darling! I have found you at last!"</p>
+
+<p>She swayed and would have fallen but for his arms, and then he saw her
+white face and knew she must be suffering.</p>
+
+<p>"You are hurt!" he cried. "Oh, what have they done to you?" And he laid
+her gently down upon the sand and dropped on his knees beside her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no," she gasped, joyously, with white lips.<a class="pagenum" title="357" name="page_357" id="page_357"></a> "I'm all right now.
+Only my ankle hurts a little. We had a fall, the horse and I. Oh, go to
+him at once and put him out of his pain. I'm sure his legs are broken."</p>
+
+<p>For answer Gardley put the whistle to his lips and blew a blast. He
+would not leave her for an instant. He was not sure yet that she was not
+more hurt than she had said. He set about discovering at once, for he
+had brought with him supplies for all emergencies.</p>
+
+<p>It was Bud who came riding madly across the mesa in answer to the call,
+reaching Gardley before any one else. Bud with his eyes shining, his
+cheeks blazing with excitement, his hair wildly flying in the breeze,
+his young, boyish face suddenly grown old with lines of anxiety. But you
+wouldn't have known from his greeting that it was anything more than a
+pleasure excursion he had been on the past two days.</p>
+
+<p>"Good work, Kid! Whatcha want me t' do?"</p>
+
+<p>It was Bud who arranged the camp and went back to tell the other
+detachments that Margaret was found; Bud who led the pack-horse up,
+unpacked the provisions, and gathered wood to start a fire. Bud was
+everywhere, with a smudged face, a weary, gray look around his eyes, and
+his hair sticking "seven ways for Sunday." Yet once, when his labors led
+him near to where Margaret lay weak and happy on a couch of blankets, he
+gave her an unwonted pat on her shoulder and said in a low tone: "Hello,
+Gang! See you kept your nerve with you!" and then he gave her a grin all
+across his dirty, tired face, and moved away as if he were half ashamed
+of his emotion. But it was Bud again who came and<a class="pagenum" title="358" name="page_358" id="page_358"></a> talked with her to
+divert her so that she wouldn't notice when they shot her horse. He
+talked loudly about a coyote they shot the night before, and a
+cottontail they saw at Keams, and when he saw that she understood what
+the shot meant, and there were tears in her eyes, he gave her hand a
+rough, bear squeeze and said, gruffly: "You should worry! He's better
+off now!" And when Gardley came back he took himself thoughtfully to a
+distance and busied himself opening tins of meat and soup.</p>
+
+<p>In another hour the Brownleighs arrived, having heard the signals, and
+they had a supper around the camp-fire, everybody so rejoiced that there
+were still quivers in their voices; and when any one laughed it sounded
+like the echo of a sob, so great had been the strain of their anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley, sitting beside Margaret in the starlight afterward, her hand in
+his, listened to the story of her journey, the strong, tender pressure
+of his fingers telling her how deeply it affected him to know the peril
+through which she had passed. Later, when the others were telling gay
+stories about the fire, and Bud lying full length in their midst had
+fallen fast asleep, these two, a little apart from the rest, were
+murmuring their innermost thoughts in low tones to each other, and
+rejoicing that they were together once more.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a class="pagenum" title="359" name="page_359" id="page_359"></a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>They talked it over the next morning at breakfast as they sat around the
+fire. Jasper Kemp thought he ought to get right back to attend to
+things. Mr. Rogers was all broken up, and might even need him to search
+for Rosa if they had not found out her whereabouts yet. He and Fiddling
+Boss, who had come along, would start back at once. They had had a good
+night's rest and had found their dear lady. What more did they need?
+Besides, there were not provisions for an indefinite stay for such a
+large party, and there were none too many sources of supply in this
+region.</p>
+
+<p>The missionary thought that, now he was here, he ought to go on to
+Walpi. It was not more than two hours' ride there, and Hazel could stay
+with the camp while Margaret's ankle had a chance to rest and let the
+swelling subside under treatment.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret, however, rebelled. She did not wish to be an invalid, and was
+very sure she could ride without injury to her ankle. She wanted to see
+Walpi and the queer Hopi Indians, now she was so near. So a compromise
+was agreed upon. They would all wait in camp a couple of days, and then
+if Margaret felt well enough they would go on, visit the Hopis, and so
+go home together.<a class="pagenum" title="360" name="page_360" id="page_360"></a></p>
+
+<p>Bud pleaded to be allowed to stay with them, and Jasper Kemp promised to
+make it all right with his parents.</p>
+
+<p>So for two whole, long, lovely days the little party of five camped on
+the mesa and enjoyed sweet converse. It is safe to say that never in all
+Bud's life will he forget or get away from the influences of that day in
+such company.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley and the missionary proved to be the best of physicians, and
+Margaret's ankle improved hourly under their united treatment of
+compresses, lotions, and rest. About noon on Saturday they broke camp,
+mounted their horses, and rode away across the stretch of white sand,
+through tall cornfields growing right up out of the sand, closer and
+closer to the great mesa with the castle-like pueblos five hundred feet
+above them on the top. It seemed to Margaret like suddenly being dropped
+into Egypt or the Holy Land, or some of the Babylonian excavations, so
+curious and primitive and altogether different from anything else she
+had ever seen did it all appear. She listened, fascinated, while
+Brownleigh told about this strange Hopi land, the strangest spot in
+America. Spanish explorers found them away back years before the
+Pilgrims landed, and called the country Tuscayan. They built their homes
+up high for protection from their enemies. They lived on the corn,
+pumpkins, peaches, and melons which they raised in the valley, planting
+the seeds with their hands. It is supposed they got their seeds first
+from the Spaniards years ago. They make pottery, cloth, and baskets, and
+are a busy people.<a class="pagenum" title="361" name="page_361" id="page_361"></a></p>
+
+<p>There are seven villages built on three mesas in the northern desert.
+One of the largest, Orabi, has a thousand inhabitants. Walpi numbers
+about two hundred and thirty people, all living in this one great
+building of many rooms. They are divided into brotherhoods, or
+phratries, and each brotherhood has several large families. They are
+ruled by a speaker chief and a war chief elected by a council of clan
+elders.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret learned with wonder that all the water these people used had to
+be carried by the women in jars on their backs five hundred feet up the
+steep trail.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, as they drew nearer, a curious man with his hair "banged"
+like a child's, and garments much like those usually worn by
+scarecrows&mdash;a shapeless kind of shirt and trousers&mdash;appeared along the
+steep and showed them the way up. Margaret and the missionary's wife
+exclaimed in horror over the little children playing along the very edge
+of the cliffs above as carelessly as birds in trees.</p>
+
+<p>High up on the mesa at last, how strange and weird it seemed! Far below
+the yellow sand of the valley; fifteen miles away a second mesa
+stretching dark; to the southwest, a hundred miles distant, the dim
+outlines of the San Francisco peaks. Some little children on burros
+crossing the sand below looked as if they were part of a curious
+moving-picture, not as if they were little living beings taking life as
+seriously as other children do. The great, wide desert stretching far!
+The bare, solid rocks beneath their feet! The curious houses behind
+them! It all seemed unreal to Margaret, like a great picture-book
+spread<a class="pagenum" title="362" name="page_362" id="page_362"></a> out for her to see. She turned from gazing and found Gardley's
+eyes upon her adoringly, a tender understanding of her mood in his
+glance. She thrilled with pleasure to be here with him; a soft flush
+spread over her cheeks and a light came into her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>They found the Indians preparing for one of their most famous
+ceremonies, the snake dance, which was to take place in a few days. For
+almost a week the snake priests had been busy hunting rattlesnakes,
+building altars, drawing figures in the sand, and singing weird songs.
+On the ninth day the snakes are washed in a pool and driven near a pile
+of sand. The priests, arrayed in paint, feathers, and charms, come out
+in line and, taking the live snakes in their mouths, parade up and down
+the rocks, while the people crowd the roofs and terraces of the pueblos
+to watch. There are helpers to whip the snakes and keep them from
+biting, and catchers to see that none get away. In a little while the
+priests take the snakes down on the desert and set them free, sending
+them north, south, east, and west, where it is supposed they will take
+the people's prayers for rain to the water serpent in the underworld,
+who is in some way connected with the god of the rain-clouds.</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange experience, that night in Walpi: the primitive
+accommodations; the picturesque, uncivilized people; the shy glances
+from dark, eager eyes. To watch two girls grinding corn between two
+stones, and a little farther off their mother rolling out her dough with
+an ear of corn, and cooking over an open fire, her pot slung from a
+crude crane over the blaze&mdash;it was all too unreal to be true.<a class="pagenum" title="363" name="page_363" id="page_363"></a></p>
+
+<p>But the most interesting thing about it was to watch the "Aneshodi"
+going about among them, his face alight with warm, human love; his
+hearty laugh ringing out in a joke that the Hopis seemed to understand,
+making himself one with them. It came to Margaret suddenly to remember
+the pompous little figure of the Rev. Frederick West, and to fancy him
+going about among these people and trying to do them good. Before she
+knew what she was doing she laughed aloud at the thought. Then, of
+course, she had to explain to Bud and Gardley, who looked at her
+inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"Aw! Gee! <i>Him?</i> <i>He</i> wasn't a minister! He was a <i>mistake</i>! Fergit him,
+the poor simp!" growled Bud, sympathetically. Then his eyes softened as
+he watched Brownleigh playing with three little Indian maids, having a
+fine romp. "Gee! he certainly is a peach, isn't he?" he murmured, his
+whole face kindling appreciatively. "Gee! I bet that kid never forgets
+that!"</p>
+
+<p>The Sunday was a wonderful day, when the missionary gathered the people
+together and spoke to them in simple words of God&mdash;their god who made
+the sky, the stars, the mountains, and the sun, whom they call by
+different names, but whom He called God. He spoke of the Book of Heaven
+that told about God and His great love for men, so great that He sent
+His son to save them from their sin. It was not a long sermon, but a
+very beautiful one; and, listening to the simple, wonderful words of
+life that fell from the missionary's earnest lips and were translated by
+his faithful Indian interpreter, who always went with him on his
+expeditions, watching<a class="pagenum" title="364" name="page_364" id="page_364"></a> the faces of the dark, strange people as they
+took in the marvelous meaning, the little company of visitors was
+strangely moved. Even Bud, awed beyond his wont, said, shyly, to
+Margaret:</p>
+
+<p>"Gee! It's something fierce not to be born a Christian and know all
+that, ain't it?"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret and Gardley walked a little way down the narrow path that led
+out over the neck of rock less than a rod wide that connects the great
+promontory with the mesa. The sun was setting in majesty over the
+desert, and the scene was one of breathless beauty. One might fancy it
+might look so to stand on the hills of God and look out over creation
+when all things have been made new.</p>
+
+<p>They stood for a while in silence. Then Margaret looked down at the
+narrow path worn more than a foot deep in the solid rock by the ten
+generations of feet that had been passing over it.</p>
+
+<p>"Just think," she said, "of all the feet, little and big, that have
+walked here in all the years, and of all the souls that have stood and
+looked out over this wonderful sight! It must be that somehow in spite
+of their darkness they have reached out to the God who made this, and
+have found a way to His heart. They couldn't look at this and not feel
+Him, could they? It seems to me that perhaps some of those poor
+creatures who have stood here and reached up blindly after the Creator
+of their souls have, perhaps, been as pleasing to Him as those who have
+known about Him from childhood."</p>
+
+<p>Gardley was used to her talking this way. He had not been in her Sunday
+meetings for nothing. He understood and sympathized, and now his hand<a class="pagenum" title="365" name="page_365" id="page_365"></a>
+reached softly for hers and held it tenderly. After a moment of silence
+he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I surely think if God could reach and find me in the desert of my life,
+He must have found them. I sometimes think I was a greater heathen than
+all these, because I knew and would not see."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret nestled her hand in his and looked up joyfully into his face.
+"I'm so glad you know Him now!" she murmured, happily.</p>
+
+<p>They stood for some time looking out over the changing scene, till the
+crimson faded into rose, the silver into gray; till the stars bloomed
+out one by one, and down in the valley across the desert a light
+twinkled faintly here and there from the camps of the Hopi shepherds.</p>
+
+<p>They started home at daybreak the next morning, the whole company of
+Indians standing on the rocks to send them royally on their way,
+pressing simple, homely gifts upon them and begging them to return soon
+again and tell the blessed story.</p>
+
+<p>A wonderful ride they had back to Ganado, where Gardley left Margaret
+for a short visit, promising to return for her in a few days when she
+was rested, and hastened back to Ashland to his work; for his soul was
+happy now and at ease, and he felt he must get to work at once. Rogers
+would need him. Poor Rogers! Had he found his daughter yet? Poor, silly
+child-prodigal!</p>
+
+<p>But when Gardley reached Ashland he found among his mail awaiting him a
+telegram. His uncle was dead, and the fortune which he had been brought
+up to believe was his, and which he had idly tossed<a class="pagenum" title="366" name="page_366" id="page_366"></a> away in a moment of
+recklessness, had been restored to him by the uncle's last will, made
+since Gardley's recent visit home. The fortune was his again!</p>
+
+<p>Gardley sat in his office on the Rogers ranch and stared hard at the
+adobe wall opposite his desk. That fortune would be great! He could do
+such wonderful things for Margaret now. They could work out their dreams
+together for the people they loved. He could see the shadows of those
+dreams&mdash;a beautiful home for Margaret out on the trail she loved, where
+wildness and beauty and the mountain she called hers were not far away;
+horses in plenty and a luxurious car when they wanted to take a trip;
+journeys East as often as they wished; some of the ideal appliances for
+the school that Margaret loved; a church for the missionary and
+convenient halls where he could speak at his outlying districts; a trip
+to the city for Mom Wallis, where she might see a real picture-gallery,
+her one expressed desire this side of heaven, now that she had taken to
+reading Browning and had some of it explained to her. Oh, and a lot of
+wonderful things! These all hung in the dream-picture before Gardley's
+eyes as he sat at his desk with that bit of yellow paper in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>He thought of what that money had represented to him in the past.
+Reckless days and nights of folly as a boy and young man at college;
+ruthless waste of time, money, youth; shriveling of soul, till Margaret
+came and found and rescued him! How wonderful that he had been rescued!
+That he had come to his senses at last, and was here in a man's
+position, doing a man's work in the world! Now, with all that money,
+there was no need for him to<a class="pagenum" title="367" name="page_367" id="page_367"></a> work and earn more. He could live idly all
+his days and just have a good time&mdash;make others happy, too. But still he
+would not have this exhilarating feeling that he was supplying his own
+and Margaret's necessities by the labor of hand and brain. The little
+telegram in his hand seemed somehow to be trying to snatch from him all
+this material prosperity that was the symbol of that spiritual
+regeneration which had become so dear to him.</p>
+
+<p>He put his head down on his clasped hands upon the desk then and prayed.
+Perhaps it was the first great prayer of his life.</p>
+
+<p>"O God, let me be strong enough to stand this that has come upon me.
+Help me to be a man in spite of money! Don't let me lose my manhood and
+my right to work. Help me to use the money in the right way and not to
+dwarf myself, nor spoil our lives with it." It was a great prayer for a
+man such as Gardley had been, and the answer came swiftly in his
+conviction.</p>
+
+<p>He lifted up his head with purpose in his expression, and, folding the
+telegram, put it safely back into his pocket. He would not tell Margaret
+of it&mdash;not just yet. He would think it out&mdash;just the right way&mdash;and he
+did not believe he meant to give up his position with Rogers. He had
+accepted it for a year in good faith, and it was his business to fulfil
+the contract. Meantime, this money would perhaps make possible his
+marriage with Margaret sooner than he had hoped.</p>
+
+<p>Five minutes later Rogers telephoned to the office.</p>
+
+<p>"I've decided to take that shipment of cattle and try that new stock,
+provided you will go out and<a class="pagenum" title="368" name="page_368" id="page_368"></a> look at them and see that everything is
+all O. K. I couldn't go myself now. Don't feel like going anywhere, you
+know. You wouldn't need to go for a couple of weeks. I've just had a
+letter from the man, and he says he won't be ready sooner. Say, why
+don't you and Miss Earle get married and make this a wedding-trip? She
+could go to the Pacific coast with you. It would be a nice trip. Then I
+could spare you for a month or six weeks when you got back if you wanted
+to take her East for a little visit."</p>
+
+<p>Why not? Gardley stumbled out his thanks and hung up the receiver, his
+face full of the light of a great joy. How were the blessings pouring
+down upon his head these days? Was it a sign that God was pleased with
+his action in making good what he could where he had failed? And Rogers!
+How kind he was! Poor Rogers, with his broken heart and his stricken
+home! For Rosa had come home again a sadder, wiser child; and her father
+seemed crushed with the disgrace of it all.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley went to Margaret that very afternoon. He told her only that he
+had had some money left him by his uncle, which would make it possible
+for him to marry at once and keep her comfortably now. He was to be sent
+to California on a business trip. Would she be married and go with him?</p>
+
+<p>Margaret studied the telegram in wonder. She had never asked Gardley
+much about his circumstances. The telegram merely stated that his
+uncle's estate was left to him. To her simple mind an estate might be a
+few hundred dollars, enough to furnish a plain little home; and her face
+lighted with<a class="pagenum" title="369" name="page_369" id="page_369"></a> joy over it. She asked no questions, and Gardley said no
+more about the money. He had forgotten that question, comparatively, in
+the greater possibility of joy.</p>
+
+<p>Would she be married in ten days and go with him?</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes met his with an answering joy, and yet he could see that there
+was a trouble hiding somewhere. He presently saw what it was without
+needing to be told. Her father and mother! Of course, they would be
+disappointed! They would want her to be married at home!</p>
+
+<p>"But Rogers said we could go and visit them for several weeks on our
+return," he said; and Margaret's face lighted up.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that would be beautiful," she said, wistfully; "and perhaps they
+won't mind so much&mdash;though I always expected father would marry me if I
+was ever married; still, if we can go home so soon and for so long&mdash;and
+Mr. Brownleigh would be next best, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"But, of course, your father must marry you," said Gardley,
+determinedly. "Perhaps we could persuade him to come, and your mother,
+too."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, they couldn't possibly," said Margaret, quickly, a shade of
+sadness in her eyes. "You know it costs a lot to come out here, and
+ministers are never rich."</p>
+
+<p>It was then that Gardley's eyes lighted with joy. His money could take
+this bugbear away, at least. However, he said nothing about the money.</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose we write to your father and mother and put the matter before
+them. See what they<a class="pagenum" title="370" name="page_370" id="page_370"></a> say. We'll send the letters to-night. You write
+your mother and I'll write your father."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret agreed and sat down at once to write her letter, while Gardley,
+on the other side of the room, wrote his, scratching away contentedly
+with his fountain-pen and looking furtively now and then toward the
+bowed head over at the desk.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley did not read his letter to Margaret. She wondered a little at
+this, but did not ask, and the letters were mailed, with
+special-delivery stamps on them. Gardley awaited their replies with
+great impatience.</p>
+
+<p>He filled in the days of waiting with business. There were letters to
+write connected with his fortune, and there were arrangements to be made
+for his trip. But the thing that occupied the most of his time and
+thought was the purchase and refitting of a roomy old ranch-house in a
+charming location, not more than three miles from Ashland, on the road
+to the camp.</p>
+
+<p>It had been vacant for a couple of years past, the owner having gone
+abroad permanently and the place having been offered for sale. Margaret
+had often admired it in her trips to and from the camp, and Gardley
+thought of it at once when it became possible for him to think of
+purchasing a home in the West.</p>
+
+<p>There was a great stone fireplace, and the beams of the ceilings and
+pillars of the porch and wide, hospitable rooms were of tree-trunks with
+the bark on them. With a little work it could be made roughly but
+artistically habitable. Gardley had it cleaned up, not disturbing the
+tangle of vines and<a class="pagenum" title="371" name="page_371" id="page_371"></a> shrubbery that had had their way since the last
+owner had left them and which had made a perfect screen from the road
+for the house.</p>
+
+<p>Behind this screen the men worked&mdash;most of them the men from the
+bunk-house, whom Gardley took into his confidence.</p>
+
+<p>The floors were carefully scrubbed under the direction of Mom Wallis,
+and the windows made shining. Then the men spent a day bringing great
+loads of tree-boughs and filling the place with green fragrance, until
+the big living-room looked like a woodland bower. Gardley made a raid
+upon some Indian friends of his and came back with several fine Navajo
+rugs and blankets, which he spread about the room luxuriously on the
+floor and over the rude benches which the men had constructed. They
+piled the fireplace with big logs, and Gardley took over some of his own
+personal possessions that he had brought back from the East with him to
+give the place a livable look. Then he stood back satisfied. The place
+was fit to bring his bride and her friends to. Not that it was as it
+should be. That would be for Margaret to do, but it would serve as a
+temporary stopping-place if there came need. If no need came, why, the
+place was there, anyway, hers and his. A tender light grew in his eyes
+as he looked it over in the dying light of the afternoon. Then he went
+out and rode swiftly to the telegraph-office and found these two
+telegrams, according to the request in his own letter to Mr. Earle.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley's telegram read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Congratulations. Will come as you desire. We await your advice.<br />
+Have written.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Father</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" title="372" name="page_372" id="page_372"></a>He saddled his horse and hurried to Margaret with hers, and together
+they read:</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">Dear child! So glad for you. Of course you will go. I am sending
+you some things. Don't take a thought for us. We shall look forward
+to your visit. Our love to you both.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Mother</span>.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret, folded in her lover's arms, cried out her sorrow and her joy,
+and lifted up her face with happiness. Then Gardley, with great joy,
+thought of the surprise he had in store for her and laid his face
+against hers to hide the telltale smile in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>For Gardley, in his letter to his future father-in-law, had written of
+his newly inherited fortune, and had not only inclosed a check for a
+good sum to cover all extra expense of the journey, but had said that a
+private car would be at their disposal, not only for themselves, but for
+any of Margaret's friends and relatives whom they might choose to
+invite. As he had written this letter he was filled with deep
+thanksgiving that it was in his power to do this thing for his dear
+girl-bride.</p>
+
+<p>The morning after the telegrams arrived Gardley spent several hours
+writing telegrams and receiving them from a big department store in the
+nearest great city, and before noon a big shipment of goods was on its
+way to Ashland. Beds, bureaus, wash-stands, chairs, tables, dishes,
+kitchen utensils, and all kinds of bedding, even to sheets and
+pillow-cases, he ordered with lavish hand. After all, he must furnish
+the house himself, and let Margaret weed it out or give it away
+afterward, if she did not like it. He<a class="pagenum" title="373" name="page_373" id="page_373"></a> was going to have a house party
+and he must be ready. When all was done and he was just about to mount
+his horse again he turned back and sent another message, ordering a
+piano.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it's <i>great</i>!" he said to himself, as he rode back to his office.
+"It's simply great to be able to do things just when I need them! I
+never knew what fun money was before. But then I never had Margaret to
+spend it for, and she's worth the whole of it at once!"</p>
+
+<p>The next thing he ordered was a great easy carriage with plenty of room
+to convey Mother Earle and her friends from the train to the house.</p>
+
+<p>The days went by rapidly enough, and Margaret was so busy that she had
+little time to wonder and worry why her mother did not write her the
+long, loving, motherly good-by letter to her little girlhood that she
+had expected to get. Not until three days before the wedding did it come
+over her that she had had but three brief, scrappy letters from her
+mother, and they not a whole page apiece. What could be the matter with
+mother? She was almost on the point of panic when Gardley came and
+bundled her on to her horse for a ride.</p>
+
+<p>Strangely enough, he directed their way through Ashland and down to the
+station, and it was just about the time of the arrival of the evening
+train.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley excused himself for a moment, saying something about an errand,
+and went into the station. Margaret sat on her horse, watching the
+oncoming train, the great connecting link between East and West, and
+wondered if it would bring a letter from mother.<a class="pagenum" title="374" name="page_374" id="page_374"></a></p>
+
+<p>The train rushed to a halt, and behold some passengers were getting off
+from a private car! Margaret watched them idly, thinking more about an
+expected letter than about the people. Then suddenly she awoke to the
+fact that Gardley was greeting them. Who could they be?</p>
+
+<p>There were five of them, and one of them looked like Jane! Dear Jane!
+She had forgotten to write her about this hurried wedding. How different
+it all was going to be from what she and Jane had planned for each other
+in their dear old school-day dreams! And that young man that Gardley was
+shaking hands with now looked like Cousin Dick! She hadn't seen him for
+three years, but he must look like that now; and the younger girl beside
+him might be Cousin Emily! But, oh, who were the others? <i>Father!</i> And
+<span class="smcap">Mother</span>!</p>
+
+<p>Margaret sprang from her horse with a bound and rushed into her mother's
+arms. The interested passengers craned their necks and looked their fill
+with smiles of appreciation as the train took up its way again, having
+dropped the private car on the side track.</p>
+
+<p>Dick and Emily rode the ponies to the house, while Margaret nestled in
+the back seat of the carriage between her father and mother, and Jane
+got acquainted with Gardley in the front seat of the carriage. Margaret
+never even noticed where they were going until the carriage turned in
+and stopped before the door of the new house, and Mrs. Tanner, furtively
+casting behind her the checked apron she had worn, came out to shake
+hands with the company and tell them supper was all ready, before she<a class="pagenum" title="375" name="page_375" id="page_375"></a>
+went back to her deserted boarding-house. Even Bud was going to stay at
+the new house that night, in some cooked-up capacity or other, and all
+the men from the bunk-house were hiding out among the trees to see
+Margaret's father and mother and shake hands if the opportunity offered.</p>
+
+<p>The wonder and delight of Margaret when she saw the house inside and
+knew that it was hers, the tears she shed and smiles that grew almost
+into hysterics when she saw some of the incongruous furnishings, are all
+past describing. Margaret was too happy to think. She rushed from one
+room to another. She hugged her mother and linked her arm in her
+father's for a walk across the long piazza; she talked to Emily and Dick
+and Jane; and then rushed out to find Gardley and thank him again. And
+all this time she could not understand how Gardley had done it, for she
+had not yet comprehended his fortune.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley had asked his sisters to come to the wedding, not much expecting
+they would accept, but they had telegraphed at the last minute they
+would be there. They arrived an hour or so before the ceremony; gushed
+over Margaret; told Gardley she was a "sweet thing"; said the house was
+"dandy for a house party if one had plenty of servants, but they should
+think it would be dull in winter"; gave Margaret a diamond sunburst pin,
+a string of pearls, and an emerald bracelet set in diamond chips; and
+departed immediately after the ceremony. They had thought they were the
+chief guests, but the relief that overspread the faces of those guests
+who were best beloved by both bride<a class="pagenum" title="376" name="page_376" id="page_376"></a> and groom was at once visible on
+their departure. Jasper Kemp drew a long breath and declared to Long
+Bill that he was glad the air was growing pure again. Then all those old
+friends from the bunk-house filed in to the great tables heavily loaded
+with good things, the abundant gift of the neighborhood, and sat down to
+the wedding supper, heartily glad that the "city lady and her gals"&mdash;as
+Mom Wallis called them in a suppressed whisper&mdash;had chosen not to stay
+over a train.</p>
+
+<p>The wedding had been in the school-house, embowered in foliage and all
+the flowers the land afforded, decorated by the loving hands of
+Margaret's pupils, old and young. She was attended by the entire school
+marching double file before her, strewing flowers in her way. The
+missionary's wife played the wedding-march, and the missionary assisted
+the bride's father with the ceremony. Margaret's dress was a simple
+white muslin, with a little real lace and embroidery handed down from
+former generations, the whole called into being by Margaret's mother.
+Even Gardley's sisters had said it was "perfectly dear." The whole
+neighborhood was at the wedding.</p>
+
+<p>And when the bountiful wedding-supper was eaten the entire company of
+favored guests stood about the new piano and sang "Blest Be the Tie that
+Binds"&mdash;with Margaret playing for them.</p>
+
+<p>Then there was a little hurry at the last, Margaret getting into the
+pretty traveling dress and hat her mother had brought, and kissing her
+mother good-by&mdash;though happily not for long this time.</p>
+
+<p>Mother and father and the rest of the home party<a class="pagenum" title="377" name="page_377" id="page_377"></a> were to wait until
+morning, and the missionary and his wife were to stay with them that
+night and see them to their car the next day.</p>
+
+<p>So, waving and throwing kisses back to the others, they rode away to the
+station, Bud pridefully driving the team from the front seat.</p>
+
+<p>Gardley had arranged for a private apartment on the train, and nothing
+could have been more luxurious in traveling than the place where he led
+his bride. Bud, scuttling behind with a suit-case, looked around him
+with all his eyes before he said a hurried good-by, and murmured under
+his breath: "Gee! Wisht I was goin' all the way!"</p>
+
+<p>Bud hustled off as the train got under way, and Margaret and Gardley
+went out to the observation platform to wave a last farewell.</p>
+
+<p>The few little blurring lights of Ashland died soon in the distance, and
+the desert took on its vast wideness beneath a starry dome; but off in
+the East a purple shadow loomed, mighty and majestic, and rising slowly
+over its crest a great silver disk appeared, brightening as it came and
+pouring a silver mist over the purple peak.</p>
+
+<p>"My mountain!" said Margaret, softly.</p>
+
+<p>And Gardley, drawing her close to him, stooped to lay his lips upon
+hers.</p>
+
+<p>"My darling!" he answered.</p>
+
+<p style="text-align: center; margin-top: 2em;">THE END</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Voice in the Wilderness, by Grace Livingston Hill
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+Project Gutenberg's A Voice in the Wilderness, by Grace Livingston Hill
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Voice in the Wilderness
+
+Author: Grace Livingston Hill
+
+Release Date: April 27, 2007 [EBook #21219]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+A VOICE in the WILDERNESS
+
+A NOVEL
+BY
+GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL
+
+AUTHOR OF
+MARCIA SCHUYLER, ETC.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+PUBLISHERS--NEW YORK
+
+Published by Arrangement with Harper and Brothers
+
+Made in the United States of America
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+A Voice in the Wilderness
+
+Copyright, 1916, by Harper & Brothers
+Printed in the United States of America
+Published September, 1916
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+With a lurch the train came to a dead stop and Margaret Earle, hastily
+gathering up her belongings, hurried down the aisle and got out into the
+night.
+
+It occurred to her, as she swung her heavy suit-case down the rather
+long step to the ground, and then carefully swung herself after it, that
+it was strange that neither conductor, brakeman, nor porter had come to
+help her off the train, when all three had taken the trouble to tell her
+that hers was the next station; but she could hear voices up ahead.
+Perhaps something was the matter with the engine that detained them and
+they had forgotten her for the moment.
+
+The ground was rough where she stood, and there seemed no sign of a
+platform. Did they not have platforms in this wild Western land, or was
+the train so long that her car had stopped before reaching it?
+
+She strained her eyes into the darkness, and tried to make out things
+from the two or three specks of light that danced about like fireflies
+in the distance. She could dimly see moving figures away up near the
+engine, and each one evidently carried a lantern. The train was
+tremendously long. A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her.
+Perhaps she ought not to have got out until some one came to help her.
+Perhaps the train had not pulled into the station yet and she ought to
+get back on it and wait. Yet if the train started before she found the
+conductor she might be carried on somewhere and be justly blame her for
+a fool.
+
+There did not seem to be any building on that side of the track. It was
+probably on the other, but she was standing too near the cars to see
+over. She tried to move back to look, but the ground sloped and she
+slipped and fell in the cinders, bruising her knee and cutting her
+wrist.
+
+In sudden panic she arose. She would get back into the train, no matter
+what the consequences. They had no right to put her out here, away off
+from the station, at night, in a strange country. If the train started
+before she could find the conductor she would tell him that he must back
+it up again and let her off. He certainly could not expect her to get
+out like this.
+
+She lifted the heavy suit-case up the high step that was even farther
+from the ground than it had been when she came down, because her fall
+had loosened some of the earth and caused it to slide away from the
+track. Then, reaching to the rail of the step, she tried to pull herself
+up, but as she did so the engine gave a long snort and the whole train,
+as if it were in league against her, lurched forward crazily, shaking
+off her hold. She slipped to her knees again, the suit-case, toppled
+from the lower step, descending upon her, and together they slid and
+rolled down the short bank, while the train, like an irresponsible nurse
+who had slapped her charge and left it to its fate, ran giddily off into
+the night.
+
+The horror of being deserted helped the girl to rise in spite of bruises
+and shock. She lifted imploring hands to the unresponsive cars as they
+hurried by her--one, two, three, with bright windows, each showing a
+passenger, comfortable and safe inside, unconscious of her need.
+
+A moment of useless screaming, running, trying to attract some one's
+attention, a sickening sense of terror and failure, and the last car
+slatted itself past with a mocking clatter, as if it enjoyed her
+discomfort.
+
+Margaret stood dazed, reaching out helpless hands, then dropped them at
+her sides and gazed after the fast-retreating train, the light on its
+last car swinging tauntingly, blinking now and then with a leer in its
+eye, rapidly vanishing from her sight into the depth of the night.
+
+She gasped and looked about her for the station that but a short moment
+before had been so real to her mind; and, lo! on this side and on that
+there was none!
+
+The night was wide like a great floor shut in by a low, vast dome of
+curving blue set with the largest, most wonderful stars she had ever
+seen. Heavy shadows of purple-green, smoke-like, hovered over earth
+darker and more intense than the unfathomable blue of the night sky. It
+seemed like the secret nesting-place of mysteries wherein no human foot
+might dare intrude. It was incredible that such could be but common
+sage-brush, sand, and greasewood wrapped about with the beauty of the
+lonely night.
+
+No building broke the inky outlines of the plain, nor friendly light
+streamed out to cheer her heart. Not even a tree was in sight, except on
+the far horizon, where a heavy line of deeper darkness might mean a
+forest. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the blue, deep, starry dome
+above and the bluer darkness of the earth below save one sharp shaft
+ahead like a black mast throwing out a dark arm across the track.
+
+As soon as she sighted it she picked up her baggage and made her painful
+way toward it, for her knees and wrist were bruised and her baggage was
+heavy.
+
+A soft drip, drip greeted her as she drew nearer; something plashing
+down among the cinders by the track. Then she saw the tall column with
+its arm outstretched, and looming darker among the sage-brush the
+outlines of a water-tank. It was so she recognized the engine's
+drinking-tank, and knew that she had mistaken a pause to water the
+engine for a regular stop at a station.
+
+Her soul sank within her as she came up to the dripping water and laid
+her hand upon the dark upright, as if in some way it could help her. She
+dropped her baggage and stood, trembling, gazing around upon the
+beautiful, lonely scene in horror; and then, like a mirage against the
+distance, there melted on her frightened eyes a vision of her father
+and mother sitting around the library lamp at home, as they sat every
+evening. They were probably reading and talking at this very minute, and
+trying not to miss her on this her first venture away from the home into
+the great world to teach. What would they say if they could see their
+beloved daughter, whom they had sheltered all these years and let go
+forth so reluctantly now, in all her confidence of youth, bound by
+almost absurd promises to be careful and not run any risks.
+
+Yet here she was, standing alone beside a water-tank in the midst of an
+Arizona plain, no knowing how many miles from anywhere, at somewhere
+between nine and ten o'clock at night! It seemed incredible that it had
+really happened! Perhaps she was dreaming! A few moments before in the
+bright car, surrounded by drowsy fellow-travelers, almost at her
+journey's end, as she supposed; and now, having merely done as she
+thought right, she was stranded here!
+
+She rubbed her eyes and looked again up the track, half expecting to see
+the train come back for her. Surely, surely the conductor, or the porter
+who had been so kind, would discover that she was gone, and do something
+about it. They couldn't leave her here alone on the prairie! It would be
+too dreadful!
+
+That vision of her father and mother off against the purple-green
+distance, how it shook her! The lamp looked bright and cheerful, and she
+could see her father's head with its heavy white hair. He turned to look
+at her mother to tell her of something he read in the paper. They were
+sitting there, feeling contented and almost happy about her, and she,
+their little girl--all her dignity as school-teacher dropped from her
+like a garment now--she was standing in this empty space alone, with
+only an engine's water-tank to keep her from dying, and only the barren,
+desolate track to connect her with the world of men and women. She
+dropped her head upon her breast and the tears came, sobbing, choking,
+raining down. Then off in the distance she heard a low, rising howl of
+some snarling, angry beast, and she lifted her head and stood in
+trembling terror, clinging to the tank.
+
+That sound was coyotes or wolves howling. She had read about them, but
+had not expected to experience them in such a situation. How confidently
+had she accepted the position which offered her the opening she had
+sought for the splendid career that she hoped was to follow! How
+fearless had she been! Coyotes, nor Indians, nor wild cowboy
+students--nothing had daunted her courage. Besides, she told her mother
+it was very different going to a town from what it would be if she were
+a missionary going to the wilds. It was an important school she was to
+teach, where her Latin and German and mathematical achievements had won
+her the place above several other applicants, and where her well-known
+tact was expected to work wonders. But what were Latin and German and
+mathematics now? Could they show her how to climb a water-tank? Would
+tact avail with a hungry wolf?
+
+The howl in the distance seemed to come nearer. She cast frightened eyes
+to the unresponsive water-tank looming high and dark above her. She
+must get up there somehow. It was not safe to stand here a minute.
+Besides, from that height she might be able to see farther, and perhaps
+there would be a light somewhere and she might cry for help.
+
+Investigation showed a set of rude spikes by which the trainmen were
+wont to climb up, and Margaret prepared to ascend them. She set her
+suit-case dubiously down at the foot. Would it be safe to leave it
+there? She had read how coyotes carried off a hatchet from a
+camping-party, just to get the leather thong which was bound about the
+handle. She could not afford to lose her things. Yet how could she climb
+and carry that heavy burden with her? A sudden thought came.
+
+Her simple traveling-gown was finished with a silken girdle, soft and
+long, wound twice about her waist and falling in tasseled ends. Swiftly
+she untied it and knotted one end firmly to the handle of her suit-case,
+tying the other end securely to her wrist. Then slowly, cautiously, with
+many a look upward, she began to climb.
+
+It seemed miles, though in reality it was but a short distance. The
+howling beasts in the distance sounded nearer now and continually,
+making her heart beat wildly. She was stiff and bruised from her falls,
+and weak with fright. The spikes were far apart, and each step of
+progress was painful and difficult. It was good at last to rise high
+enough to see over the water-tank and feel a certain confidence in her
+defense.
+
+But she had risen already beyond the short length of her silken tether,
+and the suit-case was dragging painfully on her arm. She was obliged to
+steady herself where she stood and pull it up before she could go on.
+Then she managed to get it swung up to the top of the tank in a
+comparatively safe place. One more long spike step and she was beside
+it.
+
+The tank was partly roofed over, so that she had room enough to sit on
+the edge without danger of falling in and drowning. For a few minutes
+she could only sit still and be thankful and try to get her breath back
+again after the climb; but presently the beauty of the night began to
+cast its spell over her. That wonderful blue of the sky! It hadn't ever
+before impressed her that skies were blue at night. She would have said
+they were black or gray. As a matter of fact, she didn't remember to
+have ever seen so much sky at once before, nor to have noticed skies in
+general until now.
+
+This sky was so deeply, wonderfully blue, the stars so real, alive and
+sparkling, that all other stars she had ever seen paled before them into
+mere imitations. The spot looked like one of Taylor's pictures of the
+Holy Land. She half expected to see a shepherd with his crook and sheep
+approaching her out of the dim shadows, or a turbaned, white-robed David
+with his lifted hands of prayer standing off among the depths of purple
+darkness. It would not have been out of keeping if a walled city with
+housetops should be hidden behind the clumps of sage-brush farther on.
+'Twas such a night and such a scene as this, perhaps, when the wise men
+started to follow the star!
+
+But one cannot sit on the edge of a water-tank in the desert night
+alone and muse long on art and history. It was cold up there, and the
+howling seemed nearer than before. There was no sign of a light or a
+house anywhere, and not even a freight-train sent its welcome clatter
+down the track. All was still and wide and lonely, save that terrifying
+sound of the beasts; such stillness as she had not ever thought could
+be--a fearful silence as a setting for the awful voices of the wilds.
+
+The bruises and scratches she had acquired set up a fine stinging, and
+the cold seemed to sweep down and take possession of her on her high,
+narrow seat. She was growing stiff and cramped, yet dared not move much.
+Would there be no train, nor any help? Would she have to sit there all
+night? It looked so very near to the ground now. Could wild beasts
+climb, she wondered?
+
+Then in the interval of silence that came between the calling of those
+wild creatures there stole a sound. She could not tell at first what it
+was. A slow, regular, plodding sound, and quite far away. She looked to
+find it, and thought she saw a shape move out of the sage-brush on the
+other side of the track, but she could not be sure. It might be but a
+figment of her brain, a foolish fancy from looking so long at the
+huddled bushes on the dark plain. Yet something prompted her to cry out,
+and when she heard her own voice she cried again and louder, wondering
+why she had not cried before.
+
+"Help! Help!" she called; and again: "Help! Help!"
+
+The dark shape paused and turned toward her. She was sure now. What if
+it were a beast instead of a human! Terrible fear took possession of
+her; then, to her infinite relief, a nasal voice sounded out:
+
+"Who's thar?"
+
+But when she opened her lips to answer, nothing but a sob would come to
+them for a minute, and then she could only cry, pitifully:
+
+"Help! Help!"
+
+"Whar be you?" twanged the voice; and now she could see a horse and
+rider like a shadow moving toward her down the track.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+The horse came to a standstill a little way from the track, and his
+rider let forth a stream of strange profanity. The girl shuddered and
+began to think a wild beast might be preferable to some men. However,
+these remarks seemed to be a mere formality. He paused and addressed
+her:
+
+"Heow'd yeh git up thar? D'j'yeh drap er climb?"
+
+He was a little, wiry man with a bristly, protruding chin. She could see
+that, even in the starlight. There was something about the point of that
+stubby chin that she shrank from inexpressibly. He was not a pleasant
+man to look upon, and even his voice was unprepossessing. She began to
+think that even the night with its loneliness and unknown perils was
+preferable to this man's company.
+
+"I got off the train by mistake, thinking it was my station, and before
+I discovered it the train had gone and left me," Margaret explained,
+with dignity.
+
+"Yeh didn't 'xpect it t' sit reound on th' plain while you was
+gallivantin' up water-tanks, did yeh?"
+
+Cold horror froze Margaret's veins. She was dumb for a second. "I am on
+my way to Ashland station. Can you tell me how far it is from here and
+how I can get there?" Her tone was like icicles.
+
+"It's a little matter o' twenty miles, more 'r less," said the man
+protruding his offensive chin. "The walkin's good. I don't know no other
+way from this p'int at this time o' night. Yeh might set still till th'
+mornin' freight goes by an' drap atop o' one of the kyars."
+
+"Sir!" said Margaret, remembering her dignity as a teacher.
+
+The man wheeled his horse clear around and looked up at her impudently.
+She could smell bad whisky on his breath.
+
+"Say, you must be some young highbrow, ain't yeh? Is thet all yeh want
+o' me? 'Cause ef 'tis I got t' git on t' camp. It's a good five mile
+yet, an' I 'ain't hed no grub sence noon."
+
+The tears suddenly rushed to the girl's eyes as the horror of being
+alone in the night again took possession of her. This dreadful man
+frightened her, but the thought of the loneliness filled her with
+dismay.
+
+"Oh!" she cried, forgetting her insulted dignity, "you're not going to
+leave me up here alone, are you? Isn't there some place near here where
+I could stay overnight?"
+
+"Thur ain't no palace hotel round these diggin's, ef that's what you
+mean," the man leered at her. "You c'n come along t' camp 'ith me ef you
+ain't too stuck up."
+
+"To camp!" faltered Margaret in dismay, wondering what her mother would
+say. "Are there any ladies there?"
+
+A loud guffaw greeted her question. "Wal, my woman's thar, sech es she
+is; but she ain't no highflier like you. We mostly don't hev ladies to
+camp, But I got t' git on. Ef you want to go too, you better light down
+pretty speedy, fer I can't wait."
+
+In fear and trembling Margaret descended her rude ladder step by step,
+primitive man seated calmly on his horse, making no attempt whatever to
+assist her.
+
+"This ain't no baggage-car," he grumbled, as he saw the suit-case in her
+hand. "Well, h'ist yerself up thar; I reckon we c'n pull through
+somehow. Gimme the luggage."
+
+Margaret stood appalled beside the bony horse and his uncouth rider. Did
+he actually expect her to ride with him? "Couldn't I walk?" she
+faltered, hoping he would offer to do so.
+
+"'T's up t' you," the man replied, indifferently. "Try 't an' see!"
+
+He spoke to the horse, and it started forward eagerly, while the girl in
+horror struggled on behind. Over rough, uneven ground, between
+greasewood, sage-brush, and cactus, back into the trail. The man,
+oblivious of her presence, rode contentedly on, a silent shadow on a
+dark horse wending a silent way between the purple-green clumps of other
+shadows, until, bewildered, the girl almost lost sight of them. Her
+breath came short, her ankle turned, and she fell with both hands in a
+stinging bed of cactus. She cried out then and begged him to stop.
+
+"L'arned yer lesson, hev yeh, sweety?" he jeered at her, foolishly.
+"Well, get in yer box, then."
+
+He let her struggle up to a seat behind himself with very little
+assistance, but when she was seated and started on her way she began to
+wish she had stayed behind and taken any perils of the way rather than
+trust herself in proximity to this creature.
+
+From time to time he took a bottle from his pocket and swallowed a
+portion of its contents, becoming fluent in his language as they
+proceeded on their way. Margaret remained silent, growing more and more
+frightened every time the bottle came out. At last he offered it to her.
+She declined it with cold politeness, which seemed to irritate the
+little man, for he turned suddenly fierce.
+
+"Oh, yer too fine to take a drap fer good comp'ny, are yeh? Wal, I'll
+show yeh a thing er two, my pretty lady. You'll give me a kiss with yer
+two cherry lips before we go another step. D'yeh hear, my sweetie?" And
+he turned with a silly leer to enforce his command; but with a cry of
+horror Margaret slid to the ground and ran back down the trail as hard
+as she could go, till she stumbled and fell in the shelter of a great
+sage-bush, and lay sobbing on the sand.
+
+The man turned bleared eyes toward her and watched until she
+disappeared. Then sticking his chin out wickedly, he slung her suit-case
+after her and called:
+
+"All right, my pretty lady; go yer own gait an' l'arn yer own lesson."
+He started on again, singing a drunken song.
+
+Under the blue, starry dome alone sat Margaret again, this time with no
+friendly water-tank for her defense, and took counsel with herself. The
+howling coyotes seemed to be silenced for the time; at least they had
+become a minor quantity in her equation of troubles. She felt now that
+man was her greatest menace, and to get away safely from him back to
+that friendly water-tank and the dear old railroad track she would have
+pledged her next year's salary. She stole softly to the place where she
+had heard the suit-case fall, and, picking it up, started on the weary
+road back to the tank. Could she ever find the way? The trail seemed so
+intangible a thing, her sense of direction so confused. Yet there was
+nothing else to do. She shuddered whenever she thought of the man who
+had been her companion on horseback.
+
+When the man reached camp he set his horse loose and stumbled into the
+door of the log bunk-house, calling loudly for something to eat.
+
+The men were sitting around the room on the rough benches and bunks,
+smoking their pipes or stolidly staring into the dying fire. Two smoky
+kerosene-lanterns that hung from spikes driven high in the logs cast a
+weird light over the company, eight men in all, rough and hardened with
+exposure to stormy life and weather. They were men with unkempt beards
+and uncombed hair, their coarse cotton shirts open at the neck, their
+brawny arms bare above the elbow, with crimes and sorrows and hard
+living written large across their faces.
+
+There was one, a boy in looks, with smooth face and white skin healthily
+flushed in places like a baby's. His face, too, was hard and set in
+sternness like a mask, as if life had used him badly; but behind it was
+a fineness of feature and spirit that could not be utterly hidden. They
+called him the Kid, and thought it was his youth that made him different
+from them all, for he was only twenty-four, and not one of the rest was
+under forty. They were doing their best to help him get over that innate
+fineness that was his natural inheritance, but although he stopped at
+nothing, and played his part always with the ease of one old in the ways
+of the world, yet he kept a quiet reserve about him, a kind of charm
+beyond which they had not been able to go.
+
+He was playing cards with three others at the table when the man came
+in, and did not look up at the entrance.
+
+The woman, white and hopeless, appeared at the door of the shed-room
+when the man came, and obediently set about getting his supper; but her
+lifeless face never changed expression.
+
+"Brung a gal 'long of me part way," boasted the man, as he flung himself
+into a seat by the table. "Thought you fellers might like t' see 'er,
+but she got too high an' mighty fer me, wouldn't take a pull at th'
+bottle 'ith me, 'n' shrieked like a catamount when I kissed 'er. Found
+'er hangin' on th' water-tank. Got off 't th' wrong place. One o' yer
+highbrows out o' th' parlor car! Good lesson fer 'er!"
+
+The Boy looked up from his cards sternly, his keen eyes boring through
+the man. "Where is she now?" he asked, quietly; and all the men in the
+room looked up uneasily. There was that tone and accent again that made
+the Boy alien from them. What was it?
+
+The man felt it and snarled his answer angrily. "Dropped 'er on th'
+trail, an' threw her fine-lady b'longin's after 'er. 'Ain't got no use
+fer thet kind. Wonder what they was created fer? Ain't no good to
+nobody, not even 'emselves." And he laughed a harsh cackle that was not
+pleasant to hear.
+
+The Boy threw down his cards and went out, shutting the door. In a few
+minutes the men heard two horses pass the end of the bunk-house toward
+the trail, but no one looked up nor spoke. You could not have told by
+the flicker of an eyelash that they knew where the Boy had gone.
+
+She was sitting in the deep shadow of a sage-bush that lay on the edge
+of the trail like a great blot, her suit-case beside her, her breath
+coming short with exertion and excitement, when she heard a cheery
+whistle in the distance. Just an old love-song dating back some years
+and discarded now as hackneyed even by the street pianos at home; but
+oh, how good it sounded!
+
+    From the desert I come to thee!
+
+The ground was cold, and struck a chill through her garments as she sat
+there alone in the night. On came the clear, musical whistle, and she
+peered out of the shadow with eager eyes and frightened heart. Dared she
+risk it again? Should she call, or should she hold her breath and keep
+still, hoping he would pass her by unnoticed? Before she could decide
+two horses stopped almost in front of her and a rider swung himself
+down. He stood before her as if it were day and he could see her quite
+plainly.
+
+"You needn't be afraid," he explained, calmly. "I thought I had better
+look you up after the old man got home and gave his report. He was
+pretty well tanked up and not exactly a fit escort for ladies. What's
+the trouble?"
+
+Like an angel of deliverance he looked to her as he stood in the
+starlight, outlined in silhouette against the wide, wonderful sky: broad
+shoulders, well-set head, close-cropped curls, handsome contour even in
+the darkness. There was about him an air of quiet strength which gave
+her confidence.
+
+"Oh, thank you!" she gasped, with a quick little relieved sob in her
+voice. "I am so glad you have come. I was--just a little--frightened, I
+think." She attempted to rise, but her foot caught in her skirt and she
+sank wearily back to the sand again.
+
+The Boy stooped over and lifted her to her feet. "You certainly are some
+plucky girl!" he commented, looking down at her slender height as she
+stood beside him. "A 'little frightened,' were you? Well, I should say
+you had a right to be."
+
+"Well, not exactly frightened, you know," said Margaret, taking a deep
+breath and trying to steady her voice. "I think perhaps I was more
+mortified than frightened, to think I made such a blunder as to get off
+the train before I reached my station. You see, I'd made up my mind not
+to be frightened, but when I heard that awful howl of some beast--And
+then that terrible man!" She shuddered and put her hands suddenly over
+her eyes as if to shut out all memory of it.
+
+"More than one kind of beasts!" commented the Boy, briefly. "Well, you
+needn't worry about him; he's having his supper and he'll be sound
+asleep by the time we get back."
+
+"Oh, have we got to go where he is?" gasped Margaret. "Isn't there some
+other place? Is Ashland very far away? That is where I am going."
+
+"No other place where you could go to-night. Ashland's a good
+twenty-five miles from here. But you'll be all right. Mom Wallis 'll
+look out for you. She isn't much of a looker, but she has a kind heart.
+She pulled me through once when I was just about flickering out. Come
+on. You'll be pretty tired. We better be getting back. Mom Wallis 'll
+make you comfortable, and then you can get off good and early in the
+morning."
+
+Without an apology, and as if it were the common courtesy of the desert,
+he stooped and lifted her easily to the saddle of the second horse,
+placed the bridle in her hands, then swung the suit-case up on his own
+horse and sprang into the saddle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+He turned the horses about and took charge of her just as if he were
+accustomed to managing stray ladies in the wilderness every day of his
+life and understood the situation perfectly; and Margaret settled
+wearily into her saddle and looked about her with content.
+
+Suddenly, again, the wide wonder of the night possessed her.
+Involuntarily she breathed a soft little exclamation of awe and delight.
+Her companion turned to her questioningly:
+
+"Does it always seem so big here--so--limitless?" she asked in
+explanation. "It is so far to everywhere it takes one's breath away, and
+yet the stars hang close, like a protection. It gives one the feeling of
+being alone in the great universe with God. Does it always seem so out
+here?"
+
+He looked at her curiously, her pure profile turned up to the wide dome
+of luminous blue above. His voice was strangely low and wondering as he
+answered, after a moment's silence:
+
+"No, it is not always so," he said. "I have seen it when it was more
+like being alone in the great universe with the devil."
+
+There was a tremendous earnestness in his tone that the girl felt meant
+more than was on the surface. She turned to look at the fine young face
+beside her. In the starlight she could not make out the bitter hardness
+of lines that were beginning to be carved about his sensitive mouth. But
+there was so much sadness in his voice that her heart went out to him in
+pity.
+
+"Oh," she said, gently, "it would be awful that way. Yes, I can
+understand. I felt so, a little, while that terrible man was with me."
+And she shuddered again at the remembrance.
+
+Again he gave her that curious look. "There are worse things than Pop
+Wallis out here," he said, gravely. "But I'll grant you there's some
+class to the skies. It's a case of 'Where every prospect pleases and
+only man is vile.'" And with the words his tone grew almost flippant. It
+hurt her sensitive nature, and without knowing it she half drew away a
+little farther from him and murmured, sadly:
+
+"Oh!" as if he had classed himself with the "man" he had been
+describing. Instantly he felt her withdrawal and grew grave again, as if
+he would atone.
+
+"Wait till you see this sky at the dawn," he said. "It will burn red
+fire off there in the east like a hearth in a palace, and all this dome
+will glow like a great pink jewel set in gold. If you want a classy sky,
+there you have it! Nothing like it in the East!"
+
+There was a strange mingling of culture and roughness in his speech. The
+girl could not make him out; yet there had been a palpitating
+earnestness in his description that showed he had felt the dawn in his
+very soul.
+
+"You are--a--poet, perhaps?" she asked, half shyly. "Or an artist?" she
+hazarded.
+
+He laughed roughly and seemed embarrassed. "No, I'm just a--bum! A sort
+of roughneck out of a job."
+
+She was silent, watching him against the starlight, a kind of
+embarrassment upon her after his last remark. "You--have been here
+long?" she asked, at last.
+
+"Three years." He said it almost curtly and turned his head away, as if
+there were something in his face he would hide.
+
+She knew there was something unhappy in his life. Unconsciously her tone
+took on a sympathetic sound. "And do you get homesick and want to go
+back, ever?" she asked.
+
+His tone was fairly savage now. "No!"
+
+The silence which followed became almost oppressive before the Boy
+finally turned and in his kindly tone began to question her about the
+happenings which had stranded her in the desert alone at night.
+
+So she came to tell him briefly and frankly about herself, as he
+questioned--how she came to be in Arizona all alone.
+
+"My father is a minister in a small town in New York State. When I
+finished college I had to do something, and I had an offer of this
+Ashland school through a friend of ours who had a brother out here.
+Father and mother would rather have kept me nearer home, of course, but
+everybody says the best opportunities are in the West, and this was a
+good opening, so they finally consented. They would send post-haste for
+me to come back if they knew what a mess I have made of things right at
+the start--getting out of the train in the desert."
+
+"But you're not discouraged?" said her companion, half wonderingly.
+"Some nerve you have with you. I guess you'll manage to hit it off in
+Ashland. It's the limit as far as discipline is concerned, I understand,
+but I guess you'll put one over on them. I'll bank on you after
+to-night, sure thing!"
+
+She turned a laughing face toward him. "Thank you!" she said. "But I
+don't see how you know all that. I'm sure I didn't do anything
+particularly nervy. There wasn't anything else to do but what I did, if
+I'd tried."
+
+"Most girls would have fainted and screamed, and fainted again when they
+were rescued," stated the Boy, out of a vast experience.
+
+"I never fainted in my life," said Margaret Earle, with disdain. "I
+don't think I should care to faint out in the vast universe like this.
+It would be rather inopportune, I should think."
+
+Then, because she suddenly realized that she was growing very chummy
+with this stranger in the dark, she asked the first question that came
+into her head.
+
+"What was your college?"
+
+That he had not been to college never entered her head. There was
+something in his speech and manner that made it a foregone conclusion.
+
+It was as if she had struck him forcibly in his face, so sudden and
+sharp a silence ensued for a second. Then he answered, gruffly, "Yale,"
+and plunged into an elaborate account of Arizona in its early ages,
+including a detailed description of the cliff-dwellers and their homes,
+which were still to be seen high in the rocks of the canons not many
+miles to the west of where they were riding.
+
+Margaret was keen to hear it all, and asked many questions, declaring
+her intention of visiting those cliff-caves at her earliest opportunity.
+It was so wonderful to her to be actually out here where were all sorts
+of queer things about which she had read and wondered. It did not occur
+to her, until the next day, to realize that her companion had of
+intention led her off the topic of himself and kept her from asking any
+more personal questions.
+
+He told her of the petrified forest just over some low hills off to the
+left; acres and acres of agatized chips and trunks of great trees all
+turned to eternal stone, called by the Indians "Yeitso's bones," after
+the great giant of that name whom an ancient Indian hero killed. He
+described the coloring of the brilliant days in Arizona, where you stand
+on the edge of some flat-topped mesa and look off through the clear air
+to mountains that seem quite near by, but are in reality more than two
+hundred miles away. He pictured the strange colors and lights of the
+place; ledges of rock, yellow, white and green, drab and maroon, and
+tumbled piles of red boulders, shadowy buttes in the distance, serrated
+cliffs against the horizon, not blue, but rosy pink in the heated haze
+of the air, and perhaps a great, lonely eagle poised above the silent,
+brilliant waste.
+
+He told it not in book language, with turn of phrase and smoothly
+flowing sentences, but in simple, frank words, as a boy might describe a
+picture to one he knew would appreciate it--for her sake, and not
+because he loved to put it into words; but in a new, stumbling way
+letting out the beauty that had somehow crept into his heart in spite of
+all the rough attempts to keep all gentle things out of his nature.
+
+The girl, as she listened, marveled more and more what manner of youth
+this might be who had come to her out of the desert night.
+
+She forgot her weariness as she listened, in the thrill of wonder over
+the new mysterious country to which she had come. She forgot that she
+was riding through the great darkness with an utter stranger, to a place
+she knew not, and to experiences most dubious. Her fears had fled and
+she was actually enjoying herself, and responding to the wonderful story
+of the place with soft-murmured exclamations of delight and wonder.
+
+From time to time in the distance there sounded forth those awful
+blood-curdling howls of wild beasts that she had heard when she sat
+alone by the water-tank, and each time she heard a shudder passed
+through her and instinctively she swerved a trifle toward her companion,
+then straightened up again and tried to seem not to notice. The Boy saw
+and watched her brave attempts at self-control with deep appreciation.
+But suddenly, as they rode and talked, a dark form appeared across their
+way a little ahead, lithe and stealthy and furry, and two awful eyes
+like green lamps glared for an instant, then disappeared silently among
+the mesquite bushes.
+
+She did not cry out nor start. Her very veins seemed frozen with horror,
+and she could not have spoken if she tried. It was all over in a second
+and the creature gone, so that she almost doubted her senses and
+wondered if she had seen aright. Then one hand went swiftly to her
+throat and she shrank toward her companion.
+
+"There is nothing to fear," he said, reassuringly, and laid a strong
+hand comfortingly across the neck of her horse. "The pussy-cat was as
+unwilling for our company as we for hers. Besides, look here!"--and he
+raised his hand and shot into the air. "She'll not come near us now."
+
+"I am not afraid!" said the girl, bravely. "At least, I don't think I
+am--very! But it's all so new and unexpected, you know. Do people around
+here always shoot in that--well--unpremeditated fashion?"
+
+They laughed together.
+
+"Excuse me," he said. "I didn't realize the shot might startle you even
+more than the wildcat. It seems I'm not fit to have charge of a lady. I
+told you I was a roughneck."
+
+"You're taking care of me beautifully," said Margaret Earle, loyally,
+"and I'm glad to get used to shots if that's the thing to be expected
+often."
+
+Just then they came to the top of the low, rolling hill, and ahead in
+the darkness there gleamed a tiny, wizened light set in a blotch of
+blackness. Under the great white stars it burned a sickly red and seemed
+out of harmony with the night.
+
+"There we are!" said the Boy, pointing toward it. "That's the
+bunk-house. You needn't be afraid. Pop Wallis 'll be snoring by this
+time, and we'll come away before he's about in the morning. He always
+sleeps late after he's been off on a bout. He's been gone three days,
+selling some cattle, and he'll have a pretty good top on."
+
+The girl caught her breath, gave one wistful look up at the wide, starry
+sky, a furtive glance at the strong face of her protector, and
+submitted to being lifted down to the ground.
+
+Before her loomed the bunk-house, small and mean, built of logs, with
+only one window in which the flicker of the lanterns menaced, with
+unknown trials and possible perils for her to meet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+When Margaret Earle dawned upon that bunk-room the men sat up with one
+accord, ran their rough, red hands through their rough, tousled hair,
+smoothed their beards, took down their feet from the benches where they
+were resting. That was as far as their etiquette led them. Most of them
+continued to smoke their pipes, and all of them stared at her
+unreservedly. Such a sight of exquisite feminine beauty had not come to
+their eyes in many a long day. Even in the dim light of the smoky
+lanterns, and with the dust and weariness of travel upon her, Margaret
+Earle was a beautiful girl.
+
+"That's what's the matter, father," said her mother, when the subject of
+Margaret's going West to teach had first been mentioned. "She's too
+beautiful. Far too beautiful to go among savages! If she were homely and
+old, now, she might be safe. That would be a different matter."
+
+Yet Margaret had prevailed, and was here in the wild country. Now,
+standing on the threshold of the log cabin, she read, in the unveiled
+admiration that startled from the eyes of the men, the meaning of her
+mother's fears.
+
+Yet withal it was a kindly admiration not unmixed with awe. For there
+was about her beauty a touch of the spiritual which set her above the
+common run of women, making men feel her purity and sweetness, and
+inclining their hearts to worship rather than be bold.
+
+The Boy had been right. Pop Wallis was asleep and out of the way. From a
+little shed room at one end his snoring marked time in the silence that
+the advent of the girl made in the place.
+
+In the doorway of the kitchen offset Mom Wallis stood with her
+passionless face--a face from which all emotions had long ago been
+burned by cruel fires--and looked at the girl, whose expression was
+vivid with her opening life all haloed in a rosy glow.
+
+A kind of wistful contortion passed over Mom Wallis's hopeless
+countenance, as if she saw before her in all its possibility of
+perfection the life that she herself had lost. Perhaps it was no longer
+possible for her features to show tenderness, but a glow of something
+like it burned in her eyes, though she only turned away with the same
+old apathetic air, and without a word went about preparing a meal for
+the stranger.
+
+Margaret looked wildly, fearfully, around the rough assemblage when she
+first entered the long, low room, but instantly the boy introduced her
+as "the new teacher for the Ridge School beyond the Junction," and these
+were Long Bill, Big Jim, the Fiddling Boss, Jasper Kemp, Fade-away
+Forbes, Stocky, Croaker, and Fudge. An inspiration fell upon the
+frightened girl, and she acknowledged the introduction by a radiant
+smile, followed by the offering of her small gloved hand. Each man in
+dumb bewilderment instantly became her slave, and accepted the offered
+hand with more or less pleasure and embarrassment. The girl proved her
+right to be called tactful, and, seeing her advantage, followed it up
+quickly by a few bright words. These men were of an utterly different
+type from any she had ever met before, but they had in their eyes a kind
+of homage which Pop Wallis had not shown and they were not repulsive to
+her. Besides, the Boy was in the background, and her nerve had returned.
+The Boy knew how a lady should be treated. She was quite ready to "play
+up" to his lead.
+
+It was the Boy who brought the only chair the bunk-house afforded, a
+rude, home-made affair, and helped her off with her coat and hat in his
+easy, friendly way, as if he had known her all his life; while the men,
+to whom such gallant ways were foreign, sat awkwardly by and watched in
+wonder and amaze.
+
+Most of all they were astonished at "the Kid," that he could fall so
+naturally into intimate talk with this delicate, beautiful woman. She
+was another of his kind, a creature not made in the same mold as theirs.
+They saw it now, and watched the fairy play with almost childish
+interest. Just to hear her call him "Mr. Gardley"!--Lance Gardley, that
+was what he had told them was his name the day he came among them. They
+had not heard it since. The Kid! Mr. Gardley!
+
+There it was, the difference between them! They looked at the girl half
+jealously, yet proudly at the Boy. He was theirs--yes, in a way he was
+theirs--had they not found him in the wilderness, sick and nigh to
+death, and nursed him back to life again? He was theirs; but he knew
+how to drop into her world, too, and not be ashamed. They were glad that
+he could, even while it struck them with a pang that some day he would
+go back to the world to which he belonged--and where they could never be
+at home.
+
+It was a marvel to watch her eat the coarse corn-bread and pork that Mom
+Wallis brought her. It might have been a banquet, the pleasant way she
+seemed to look at it. Just like a bird she tasted it daintily, and
+smiled, showing her white teeth. There was nothing of the idea of
+greediness that each man knew he himself felt after a fast. It was all
+beautiful, the way she handled the two-tined fork and the old steel
+knife. They watched and dropped their eyes abashed as at a lovely
+sacrament. They had not felt before that eating could be an art. They
+did not know what art meant.
+
+Such strange talk, too! But the Kid seemed to understand. About the
+sky--their old, common sky, with stars that they saw every night--making
+such a fuss about that, with words like "wide," "infinite," "azure," and
+"gems." Each man went furtively out that night before he slept and took
+a new look at the sky to see if he could understand.
+
+The Boy was planning so the night would be but brief. He knew the girl
+was afraid. He kept the talk going enthusiastically, drawing in one or
+two of the men now and again. Long Bill forgot himself and laughed out a
+hoarse guffaw, then stopped as if he had been choked. Stocky, red in the
+face, told a funny story when commanded by the Boy, and then dissolved
+in mortification over his blunders. The Fiddling Boss obediently got
+down his fiddle from the smoky corner beside the fireplace and played a
+weird old tune or two, and then they sang. First the men, with hoarse,
+quavering approach and final roar of wild sweetness; then Margaret and
+the Boy in duet, and finally Margaret alone, with a few bashful chords
+on the fiddle, feeling their way as accompaniment.
+
+Mom Wallis had long ago stopped her work and was sitting huddled in the
+doorway on a nail-keg with weary, folded hands and a strange wistfulness
+on her apathetic face. A fine silence had settled over the group as the
+girl, recognizing her power, and the pleasure she was giving, sang on.
+Now and then the Boy, when he knew the song, would join in with his rich
+tenor.
+
+It was a strange night, and when she finally lay down to rest on a hard
+cot with a questionable-looking blanket for covering and Mom Wallis as
+her room-mate, Margaret Earle could not help wondering what her mother
+and father would think now if they could see her. Would they not,
+perhaps, almost prefer the water-tank and the lonely desert for her to
+her present surroundings?
+
+Nevertheless, she slept soundly after her terrible excitement, and woke
+with a start of wonder in the early morning, to hear the men outside
+splashing water and humming or whistling bits of the tunes she had sung
+to them the night before.
+
+Mom Wallis was standing over her, looking down with a hunger in her eyes
+at the bright waves of Margaret's hair and the soft, sleep-flushed
+cheeks.
+
+"You got dretful purty hair," said Mom Wallis, wistfully.
+
+Margaret looked up and smiled in acknowledgment of the compliment.
+
+"You wouldn't b'lieve it, but I was young an' purty oncet. Beats all how
+much it counts to be young--an' purty! But land! It don't last long.
+Make the most of it while you got it."
+
+Browning's immortal words came to Margaret's lips--
+
+    Grow old along with me,
+    The best is yet to be,
+    The last of life for which the first was made--
+
+but she checked them just in time and could only smile mutely. How could
+she speak such thoughts amid these intolerable surroundings? Then with
+sudden impulse she reached up to the astonished woman and, drawing her
+down, kissed her sallow cheek.
+
+"Oh!" said Mom Wallis, starting back and laying her bony hands upon the
+place where she had been kissed, as if it hurt her, while a dull red
+stole up from her neck over her cheeks and high forehead to the roots of
+her hay-colored hair. All at once she turned her back upon her visitor
+and the tears of the years streamed down her impassive face.
+
+"Don't mind me," she choked, after a minute. "I liked it real good, only
+it kind of give me a turn." Then, after a second: "It's time t' eat. You
+c'n wash outside after the men is done."
+
+That, thought Margaret, had been the scheme of this woman's whole
+life--"After the men is done!"
+
+So, after all, the night was passed in safety, and a wonderful dawning
+had come. The blue of the morning, so different from the blue of the
+night sky, was, nevertheless, just as unfathomable; the air seemed
+filled with straying star-beams, so sparkling was the clearness of the
+light.
+
+But now a mountain rose in the distance with heliotrope-and-purple
+bounds to stand across the vision and dispel the illusion of the night
+that the sky came down to the earth all around like a close-fitting
+dome. There were mountains on all sides, and a slender, dark line of
+mesquite set off the more delicate colorings of the plain.
+
+Into the morning they rode, Margaret and the Boy, before Pop Wallis was
+yet awake, while all the other men stood round and watched, eager,
+jealous for the handshake and the parting smile. They told her they
+hoped she would come again and sing for them, and each one had an
+awkward word of parting. Whatever Margaret Earle might do with her
+school, she had won seven loyal friends in the camp, and she rode away
+amid their admiring glances, which lingered, too, on the broad shoulders
+and wide sombrero of her escort riding by her side.
+
+"Wal, that's the end o' him, I 'spose," drawled Long Bill, with a deep
+sigh, as the riders passed into the valley out of their sight.
+
+"H'm!" said Jasper Kemp, hungrily. "I reck'n _he_ thinks it's jes' th'
+beginnin'!"
+
+"Maybe so! Maybe so!" said Big Jim, dreamily.
+
+The morning was full of wonder for the girl who had come straight from
+an Eastern city. The view from the top of the mesa, or the cool, dim
+entrance of a canon where great ferns fringed and feathered its walls,
+and strange caves hollowed out in the rocks far above, made real the
+stories she had read of the cave-dwellers. It was a new world.
+
+The Boy was charming. She could not have picked out among her city
+acquaintances a man who would have done the honors of the desert more
+delightfully than he. She had thought him handsome in the starlight and
+in the lantern-light the night before, but now that the morning shone
+upon him she could not keep from looking at him. His fresh color, which
+no wind and weather could quite subdue, his gray-blue eyes with that
+mixture of thoughtfulness and reverence and daring, his crisp, brown
+curls glinting with gold in the sunlight--all made him good to look
+upon. There was something about the firm set of his lips and chin that
+made her feel a hidden strength about him.
+
+When they camped a little while for lunch he showed the thoughtfulness
+and care for her comfort that many an older man might not have had. Even
+his talk was a mixture of boyishness and experience and he seemed to
+know her thoughts before she had them fully spoken.
+
+"I do not understand it," she said, looking him frankly in the eyes at
+last. "How ever in the world did one like _you_ get landed among all
+those dreadful men! Of course, in their way, some of them are not so
+bad; but they are not like you, not in the least, and never could be."
+
+They were riding out upon the plain now in the full afternoon light, and
+a short time would bring them to her destination.
+
+A sad, set look came quickly into the Boy's eyes and his face grew
+almost hard.
+
+"It's an old story. I suppose you've heard it before," he said, and his
+voice tried to take on a careless note, but failed. "I didn't make good
+back there"--he waved his hand sharply toward the East--"so I came out
+here to begin again. But I guess I haven't made good here, either--not
+in the way I meant when I came."
+
+"You can't, you know," said Margaret. "Not here."
+
+"Why?" He looked at her earnestly, as if he felt the answer might help
+him.
+
+"Because you have to go back where you didn't make good and pick up the
+lost opportunities. You can't really make good till you do that _right
+where you left off_."
+
+"But suppose it's too late?"
+
+"It's never too late if we're in earnest and not too proud."
+
+There was a long silence then, while the Boy looked thoughtfully off at
+the mountains, and when he spoke again it was to call attention to the
+beauty of a silver cloud that floated lazily on the horizon. But
+Margaret Earle had seen the look in his gray eyes and was not deceived.
+
+A few minutes later they crossed another mesa and descended to the
+enterprising little town where the girl was to begin her winter's work.
+The very houses and streets seemed to rise briskly and hasten to meet
+them those last few minutes of their ride.
+
+Now that the experience was almost over, the girl realized that she had
+enjoyed it intensely, and that she dreaded inexpressibly that she must
+bid good-by to this friend of a few hours and face an unknown world. It
+had been a wonderful day, and now it was almost done. The two looked at
+each other and realized that their meeting had been an epoch in their
+lives that neither would soon forget--that neither wanted to forget.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Slower the horses walked, and slower. The voices of the Boy and girl
+were low when they spoke about the common things by the wayside. Once
+their eyes met, and they smiled with something both sad and glad in
+them.
+
+Margaret was watching the young man by her side and wondering at
+herself. He was different from any man whose life had come near to hers
+before. He was wild and worldly, she could see that, and unrestrained by
+many of the things that were vital principles with her, and yet she felt
+strangely drawn to him and wonderfully at home in his company. She could
+not understand herself nor him. It was as if his real soul had looked
+out of his eyes and spoken, untrammeled by the circumstances of birth or
+breeding or habit, and she knew him for a kindred spirit. And yet he was
+far from being one in whom she would have expected even to find a
+friend. Where was her confidence of yesterday? Why was it that she
+dreaded to have this strong young protector leave her to meet alone a
+world of strangers, whom yesterday at this time she would have gladly
+welcomed?
+
+Now, when his face grew thoughtful and sad, she saw the hard, bitter
+lines that were beginning to be graven about his lips, and her heart
+ached over what he had said about not making good. She wondered if there
+was anything else she could say to help him, but no words came to her,
+and the sad, set look about his lips warned her that perhaps she had
+said enough. He was not one who needed a long dissertation to bring a
+thought home to his consciousness.
+
+Gravely they rode to the station to see about Margaret's trunks and make
+inquiries for the school and the house where she had arranged to board.
+Then Margaret sent a telegram to her mother to say that she had arrived
+safely, and so, when all was done and there was no longer an excuse for
+lingering, the Boy realized that he must leave her.
+
+They stood alone for just a moment while the voluble landlady went to
+attend to something that was boiling over on the stove. It was an ugly
+little parlor that was to be her reception-room for the next year at
+least, with red-and-green ingrain carpet of ancient pattern, hideous
+chromos on the walls, and frantically common furniture setting up in its
+shining varnish to be pretentious; but the girl had not seen it yet. She
+was filled with a great homesickness that had not possessed her even
+when she said good-by to her dear ones at home. She suddenly realized
+that the people with whom she was to be thrown were of another world
+from hers, and this one friend whom she had found in the desert was
+leaving her.
+
+She tried to shake hands formally and tell him how grateful she was to
+him for rescuing her from the perils of the night, but somehow words
+seemed so inadequate, and tears kept crowding their way into her throat
+and eyes. Absurd it was, and he a stranger twenty hours before, and a
+man of other ways than hers, besides. Yet he was her friend and rescuer.
+
+She spoke her thanks as well as she could, and then looked up, a swift,
+timid glance, and found his eyes upon her earnestly and troubled.
+
+"Don't thank me," he said, huskily. "I guess it was the best thing I
+ever did, finding you. I sha'n't forget, even if you never let me see
+you again--and--I hope you will." His eyes searched hers wistfully.
+
+"Of course," she said. "Why not?"
+
+"I thank you," he said in quaint, courtly fashion, bending low over her
+hand. "I shall try to be worthy of the honor."
+
+And so saying, he left her and, mounting his horse, rode away into the
+lengthening shadows of the afternoon.
+
+She stood in the forlorn little room staring out of the window after her
+late companion, a sense of utter desolation upon her. For the moment all
+her brave hopes of the future had fled, and if she could have slipped
+unobserved out of the front door, down to the station, and boarded some
+waiting express to her home, she would gladly have done it then and
+there.
+
+Try as she would to summon her former reasons for coming to this wild,
+she could not think of one of them, and her eyes were very near to
+tears.
+
+But Margaret Earle was not given to tears, and as she felt them smart
+beneath her lids she turned in a panic to prevent them. She could not
+afford to cry now. Mrs. Tanner would be returning, and she must not find
+the "new schoolma'am" weeping.
+
+With a glance she swept the meager, pretentious room, and then,
+suddenly, became aware of other presences. In the doorway stood a man
+and a dog, both regarding her intently with open surprise, not unmixed
+with open appraisement and a marked degree of admiration.
+
+The man was of medium height, slight, with a putty complexion; cold,
+pale-blue eyes; pale, straw-colored hair, and a look of self-indulgence
+around his rather weak mouth. He was dressed in a city business suit of
+the latest cut, however, and looked as much out of place in that crude
+little house as did Margaret Earle herself in her simple gown of
+dark-blue crepe and her undeniable air of style and good taste.
+
+His eyes, as they regarded her, had in them a smile that the girl
+instinctively resented. Was it a shade too possessive and complacently
+sure for a stranger?
+
+The dog, a large collie, had great, liquid, brown eyes, menacing or
+loyal, as circumstances dictated, and regarded her with an air of brief
+indecision. She felt she was being weighed in the balance by both pairs
+of eyes. Of the two the girl preferred the dog.
+
+Perhaps the dog understood, for he came a pace nearer and waved his
+plumy tail tentatively. For the dog she felt a glow of friendliness at
+once, but for the man she suddenly, and most unreasonably, of course,
+conceived one of her violent and unexpected dislikes.
+
+Into this tableau bustled Mrs. Tanner. "Well, now, I didn't go to leave
+you by your lonesome all this time," she apologized, wiping her hands on
+her apron, "but them beans boiled clean over, and I hed to put 'em in a
+bigger kettle. You see, I put in more beans 'count o' you bein' here,
+an' I ain't uset to calca'latin' on two extry." She looked happily from
+the man to the girl and back again.
+
+"Mr. West, I 'spose, o' course, you interjuced yerself? Bein' a
+preacher, you don't hev to stan' on ceremony like the rest of mankind.
+You 'ain't? Well, let me hev the pleasure of interjucin' our new
+school-teacher, Miss Margaret Earle. I 'spect you two 'll be awful
+chummy right at the start, both bein' from the East that way, an' both
+hevin' ben to college."
+
+Margaret Earle acknowledged the bow with a cool little inclination of
+her head. She wondered why she didn't hate the garrulous woman who
+rattled on in this happy, take-it-for-granted way; but there was
+something so innocently pleased in her manner that she couldn't help
+putting all her wrath on the smiling man who came forward instantly with
+a low bow and a voice of fulsome flattery.
+
+"Indeed, Miss Earle, I assure you I am happily surprised. I am sure Mrs.
+Tanner's prophecy will come true and we shall be the best of friends.
+When they told me the new teacher was to board here I really hesitated.
+I have seen something of these Western teachers in my time, and scarcely
+thought I should find you congenial; but I can see at a glance that you
+are the exception to the rule."
+
+He presented a soft, unmanly white hand, and there was nothing to do but
+take it or seem rude to her hostess; but her manner was like icicles,
+and she was thankful she had not yet removed her gloves.
+
+If the reverend gentleman thought he was to enjoy a lingering hand-clasp
+he was mistaken, for the gloved finger-tips merely touched his hand and
+were withdrawn, and the girl turned to her hostess with a smile of
+finality as if he were dismissed. He did not seem disposed to take the
+hint and withdraw, however, until on a sudden the great dog came and
+stood between them with open-mouthed welcome and joyous greeting in the
+plumy, wagging tail. He pushed close to her and looked up into her face
+insistently, his hanging pink tongue and wide, smiling countenance
+proclaiming that he was satisfied with his investigation.
+
+Margaret looked down at him, and then stooped and put her arms about his
+neck. Something in his kindly dog expression made her feel suddenly as
+if she had a real friend.
+
+It seemed the man, however, did not like the situation. He kicked
+gingerly at the dog's hind legs, and said in a harsh voice:
+
+"Get out of the way, sir. You're annoying the lady. Get out, I say!"
+
+The dog, however, uttered a low growl and merely showed the whites of
+his menacing eyes at the man, turning his body slightly so that he stood
+across the lady's way protectingly, as if to keep the man from her.
+
+Margaret smiled at the dog and laid her hand on his head, as if to
+signify her acceptance of the friendship he had offered her, and he
+waved his plume once more and attended her from the room, neither of
+them giving further attention to the man.
+
+"Confound that dog!" said Rev. Frederick West, in a most unpreacher-like
+tone, as he walked to the window and looked out. Then to himself he
+mused: "A pretty girl. A _very pretty_ girl. I really think it'll be
+worth my while to stay a month at least."
+
+Up in her room the "very pretty girl" was unpacking her suit-case and
+struggling with the tears. Not since she was a wee little girl and went
+to school all alone for the first time had she felt so very forlorn, and
+it was the little bare bedroom that had done it. At least that had been
+the final straw that had made too great the burden of keeping down those
+threatening tears.
+
+It was only a bare, plain room with unfinished walls, rough woodwork, a
+cheap wooden bed, a bureau with a warped looking-glass, and on the floor
+was a braided rug of rags. A little wooden rocker, another small,
+straight wooden chair, a hanging wall-pocket decorated with purple
+roses, a hanging bookshelf composed of three thin boards strung together
+with maroon picture cord, a violently colored picture-card of "Moses in
+the Bulrushes" framed in straws and red worsted, and bright-blue paper
+shades at the windows. That was the room!
+
+How different from her room at home, simply and sweetly finished anew
+for her home-coming from college! It rose before her homesick vision
+now. Soft gray walls, rose-colored ceiling, blended by a wreath of
+exquisite wild roses, whose pattern was repeated in the border of the
+simple curtains and chair cushions, white-enamel furniture, pretty brass
+bed soft as down in its luxurious mattress, spotless and inviting
+always. She glanced at the humpy bed with its fringed gray spread and
+lumpy-looking pillows in dismay. She had not thought of little
+discomforts like that, yet how they loomed upon her weary vision now!
+
+The tiny wooden stand with its thick, white crockery seemed ill
+substitute for the dainty white bath-room at home. She had known she
+would not have her home luxuries, of course, but she had not realized
+until set down amid these barren surroundings what a difference they
+would make.
+
+Going to the window and looking out, she saw for the first tune the one
+luxury the little room possessed--a view! And such a view! Wide and
+wonderful and far it stretched, in colors unmatched by painter's brush,
+a purple mountain topped by rosy clouds in the distance. For the second
+time in Arizona her soul was lifted suddenly out of itself and its
+dismay by a vision of the things that God has made and the largeness of
+it all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+For some time she stood and gazed, marveling at the beauty and recalling
+some of the things her companion of the afternoon had said about his
+impressions of the place; then suddenly there loomed a dark speck in the
+near foreground of her meditation, and, looking down annoyed, she
+discovered the minister like a gnat between the eye and a grand
+spectacle, his face turned admiringly up to her window, his hand lifted
+in familiar greeting.
+
+Vexed at his familiarity, she turned quickly and jerked down the shade;
+then throwing herself on the bed, she had a good cry. Her nerves were
+terribly wrought up. Things seemed twisted in her mind, and she felt
+that she had reached the limit of her endurance. Here was she, Margaret
+Earle, newly elected teacher to the Ashland Ridge School, lying on her
+bed in tears, when she ought to be getting settled and planning her new
+life; when the situation demanded her best attention she was wrought up
+over a foolish little personal dislike. Why did she have to dislike a
+minister, anyway, and then take to a wild young fellow whose life thus
+far had been anything but satisfactory even to himself? Was it her
+perverse nature that caused her to remember the look in the eyes of the
+Boy who had rescued her from a night in the wilderness, and to feel
+there was far more manliness in his face than in the face of the man
+whose profession surely would lead one to suppose he was more worthy of
+her respect and interest? Well, she was tired. Perhaps things would
+assume their normal relation to one another in the morning. And so,
+after a few minutes, she bathed her face in the little, heavy,
+iron-stone wash-bowl, combed her hair, and freshened the collar and
+ruffles in her sleeves preparatory to going down for the evening meal.
+Then, with a swift thought, she searched through her suit-case for every
+available article wherewith to brighten that forlorn room.
+
+The dainty dressing-case of Dresden silk with rosy ribbons that her girl
+friends at home had given as a parting gift covered a generous portion
+of the pine bureau, and when she had spread it out and bestowed its
+silver-mounted brushes, combs, hand-glass, and pretty sachet, things
+seemed to brighten up a bit. She hung up a cobweb of a lace boudoir cap
+with its rose-colored ribbons over the bleary mirror, threw her kimono
+of flowered challis over the back of the rocker, arranged her soap and
+toothbrush, her own wash-rag and a towel brought from home on the
+wash-stand, and somehow felt better and more as if she belonged. Last
+she ranged her precious photographs of father and mother and the dear
+vine-covered church and manse across in front of the mirror. When her
+trunks came there would be other things, and she could bear it, perhaps,
+when she had this room buried deep in the home belongings. But this
+would have to do for to-night, for the trunk might not come till
+morning, and, anyhow, she was too weary to unpack.
+
+She ventured one more look out of her window, peering carefully at first
+to make sure her fellow-boarder was not still standing down below on the
+grass. A pang of compunction shot through her conscience. What would her
+dear father think of her feeling this way toward a minister, and before
+she knew the first thing about him, too? It was dreadful! She must shake
+it off. Of course he was a good man or he wouldn't be in the ministry,
+and she had doubtless mistaken mere friendliness for forwardness. She
+would forget it and try to go down and behave to him the way her father
+would want her to behave toward a fellow-minister.
+
+Cautiously she raised the shade again and looked out. The mountain was
+bathed in a wonderful ruby light fading into amethyst, and all the path
+between was many-colored like a pavement of jewels set in filigree.
+While she looked the picture changed, glowed, softened, and changed
+again, making her think of the chapter about the Holy City in
+Revelation.
+
+She started at last when some one knocked hesitatingly on the door, for
+the wonderful sunset light had made her forget for the moment where she
+was, and it seemed a desecration to have mere mortals step in and
+announce supper, although the odor of pork and cabbage had been
+proclaiming it dumbly for some time.
+
+She went to the door, and, opening it, found a dark figure standing in
+the hall. For a minute she half feared it was the minister, until a
+shy, reluctant backwardness in the whole stocky figure and the stirring
+of a large furry creature just behind him made her sure it was not.
+
+"Ma says you're to come to supper," said a gruff, untamed voice; and
+Margaret perceived that the person in the gathering gloom of the hall
+was a boy.
+
+"Oh!" said Margaret, with relief in her voice. "Thank you for coming to
+tell me. I meant to come down and not give that trouble, but I got to
+looking at the wonderful sunset. Have you been watching it?" She pointed
+across the room to the window. "Look! Isn't that a great color there on
+the tip of the mountain? I never saw anything like that at home. I
+suppose you're used to it, though."
+
+The boy came a step nearer the door and looked blankly, half
+wonderingly, across at the window, as if he expected to see some
+phenomenon. "Oh! _That!_" he exclaimed, carelessly. "Sure! We have them
+all the time."
+
+"But that wonderful silver light pouring down just in that one tiny
+spot!" exclaimed Margaret. "It makes the mountain seem alive and
+smiling!"
+
+The boy turned and looked at her curiously. "Gee!" said he, "I c'n show
+you plenty like that!" But he turned and looked at it a long, lingering
+minute again.
+
+"But we mustn't keep your mother waiting," said Margaret, remembering
+and turning reluctantly toward the door. "Is this your dog? Isn't he a
+beauty? He made me feel really as if he were glad to see me." She
+stooped and laid her hand on the dog's head and smiled brightly up at
+his master.
+
+The boy's face lit with a smile, and he turned a keen, appreciative look
+at the new teacher, for the first time genuinely interested in her.
+"Cap's a good old scout," he admitted.
+
+"So his name is Cap. Is that short for anything?"
+
+"Cap'n."
+
+"Captain. What a good name for him. He looks as if he were a captain,
+and he waves that tail grandly, almost as if it might be a badge of
+office. But who are you? You haven't told me your name yet. Are you Mrs.
+Tanner's son?"
+
+The boy nodded. "I'm just Bud Tanner."
+
+"Then you are one of my pupils, aren't you? We must shake hands on
+that." She put out her hand, but she was forced to go out after Bud's
+reluctant red fist, take it by force in a strange grasp, and do all the
+shaking; for Bud had never had that experience before in his life, and
+he emerged from it with a very red face and a feeling as if his right
+arm had been somehow lifted out of the same class with the rest of his
+body. It was rather awful, too, that it happened just in the open
+dining-room door, and that "preacher-boarder" watched the whole
+performance. Bud put on an extra-deep frown and shuffled away from the
+teacher, making a great show of putting Cap out of the dining-room,
+though he always sat behind his master's chair at meals, much to the
+discomfiture of the male boarder, who was slightly in awe of his
+dogship, not having been admitted into friendship as the lady had been.
+
+Mr. West stood back of his chair, awaiting the arrival of the new
+boarder, an expectant smile on his face, and rubbing his hands together
+with much the same effect as a wolf licking his lips in anticipation of
+a victim. In spite of her resolves to like the man, Margaret was again
+struck with aversion as she saw him standing there, and was intensely
+relieved when she found that the seat assigned to her was on the
+opposite side of the table from him, and beside Bud. West, however, did
+not seem to be pleased with the arrangement, and, stepping around the
+table, said to his landlady:
+
+"Did you mean me to sit over here?" and he placed a possessive hand on
+the back of the chair that was meant for Bud.
+
+"No, Mister West, you jest set where you ben settin'," responded Mrs.
+Tanner. She had thought the matter all out and decided that the minister
+could converse with the teacher to the better advantage of the whole
+table if he sat across from her. Mrs. Tanner was a born match-maker.
+This she felt was an opportunity not to be despised, even if it sometime
+robbed the Ridge School of a desirable teacher.
+
+But West did not immediately return to his place at the other side of
+the table. To Margaret's extreme annoyance he drew her chair and waited
+for her to sit down. The situation, however, was somewhat relieved of
+its intimacy by a sudden interference from Cap, who darted away from his
+frowning master and stepped up authoritatively to the minister's side
+with a low growl, as if to say:
+
+"Hands off that chair! That doesn't belong to you!"
+
+West suddenly released his hold on the chair without waiting to shove
+it up to the table, and precipitately retired to his own place. "That
+dog's a nuisance!" he said, testily, and was answered with a glare from
+Bud's dark eyes.
+
+Bud came to his seat with his eyes still set savagely on the minister,
+and Cap settled down protectingly behind Margaret's chair.
+
+Mrs. Tanner bustled in with the coffee-pot, and Mr. Tanner came last,
+having just finished his rather elaborate hair-comb at the kitchen glass
+with the kitchen comb, in full view of the assembled multitude. He was a
+little, thin, wiry, weather-beaten man, with skin like leather and
+sparse hair. Some of his teeth were missing, leaving deep hollows in his
+cheeks, and his kindly protruding chin was covered with scraggy gray
+whiskers, which stuck out ahead of him like a cow-catcher. He was in his
+shirt-sleeves and collarless, but looked neat and clean, and he greeted
+the new guest heartily before he sat down, and nodded to the minister:
+
+"Naow, Brother West, I reckon we're ready fer your part o' the
+performance. You'll please to say grace."
+
+Mr. West bowed his sleek, yellow head and muttered a formal blessing
+with an offhand manner, as if it were a mere ceremony. Bud stared
+contemptuously at him the while, and Cap uttered a low rumble as of a
+distant growl. Margaret felt a sudden desire to laugh, and tried to
+control herself, wondering what her father would feel about it all.
+
+The genial clatter of knives and forks broke the stiffness after the
+blessing. Mrs. Tanner bustled back and forth from the stove to the
+table, talking clamorously the while. Mr. Tanner joined in with his
+flat, nasal twang, responding, and the minister, with an air of utter
+contempt for them both, endeavored to set up a separate and altogether
+private conversation with Margaret across the narrow table; but Margaret
+innocently had begun a conversation with Bud about the school, and had
+to be addressed by name each time before Mr. West could get her
+attention. Bud, with a boy's keenness, noticed her aversion, and put
+aside his own backwardness, entering into the contest with remarkably
+voluble replies. The minister, if he would be in the talk at all, was
+forced to join in with theirs, and found himself worsted and
+contradicted by the boy at every turn.
+
+Strange to say, however, this state of things only served to make the
+man more eager to talk with the lady. She was not anxious for his
+attention. Ah! She was coy, and the acquaintance was to have the zest of
+being no lightly won friendship. All the better. He watched her as she
+talked, noted every charm of lash and lid and curving lip; stared so
+continually that she finally gave up looking his way at all, even when
+she was obliged to answer his questions.
+
+Thus, at last, the first meal in the new home was concluded, and
+Margaret, pleading excessive weariness, went to her room. She felt as if
+she could not endure another half-hour of contact with her present world
+until she had had some rest. If the world had been just Bud and the dog
+she could have stayed below stairs and found out a little more about the
+new life; but with that oily-mouthed minister continually butting in
+her soul was in a tumult.
+
+When she had prepared for rest she put out her light and drew up the
+shade. There before her spread the wide wonder of the heavens again,
+with the soft purple of the mountain under stars; and she was carried
+back to the experience of the night before with a vivid memory of her
+companion. Why, just _why_ couldn't she be as interested in the minister
+down there as in the wild young man? Well, she was too tired to-night to
+analyze it all, and she knelt beside her window in the starlight to
+pray. As she prayed her thoughts were on Lance Gardley once more, and
+she felt her heart go out in longing for him, that he might find a way
+to "make good," whatever his trouble had been.
+
+As she rose to retire she heard a step below, and, looking down, saw the
+minister stalking back and forth in the yard, his hands clasped behind,
+his head thrown back raptly. He could not see her in her dark room, but
+she pulled the shade down softly and fled to her hard little bed. Was
+that man going to obsess her vision everywhere, and must she try to like
+him just because he was a minister?
+
+So at last she fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+The next day was filled with unpacking and with writing letters home. By
+dint of being very busy Margaret managed to forget the minister, who
+seemed to obtrude himself at every possible turn of the day, and would
+have monopolized her if she had given him half a chance.
+
+The trunks, two delightful steamer ones, and a big packing-box with her
+books, arrived the next morning and caused great excitement in the
+household. Not since they moved into the new house had they seen so many
+things arrive. Bud helped carry them up-stairs, while Cap ran wildly
+back and forth, giving sharp barks, and the minister stood by the front
+door and gave ineffectual and unpractical advice to the man who had
+brought them. Margaret heard the man and Bud exchanging their opinion of
+West in low growls in the hall as they entered her door, and she
+couldn't help feeling that she agreed with them, though she might not
+have expressed her opinion in the same terms.
+
+The minister tapped at her door a little later and offered his services
+in opening her box and unstrapping her trunks; but she told him Bud had
+already performed that service for her, and thanked him with a finality
+that forbade him to linger. She half hoped he heard the vicious little
+click with which she locked the door after him, and then wondered if she
+were wicked to feel that way. But all such compunctions were presently
+forgotten in the work of making over her room.
+
+The trunks, after they were unpacked and repacked with the things she
+would not need at once, were disposed in front of the two windows with
+which the ugly little room was blessed. She covered them with two Bagdad
+rugs, relics of her college days, and piled several college pillows from
+the packing-box on each, which made the room instantly assume a homelike
+air. Then out of the box came other things. Framed pictures of home
+scenes, college friends and places, pennants, and flags from football,
+baseball, and basket-ball games she had attended; photographs; a few
+prints of rare paintings simply framed; a roll of rose-bordered white
+scrim like her curtains at home, wherewith she transformed the
+blue-shaded windows and the stiff little wooden rocker, and even made a
+valance and bed-cover over pink cambric for her bed. The bureau and
+wash-stand were given pink and white covers, and the ugly walls
+literally disappeared beneath pictures, pennants, banners, and symbols.
+
+When Bud came up to call her to dinner she flung the door open, and he
+paused in wide-eyed amazement over the transformation. His eyes kindled
+at a pair of golf-sticks, a hockey-stick, a tennis-racket, and a big
+basket-ball in the corner; and his whole look of surprise was so
+ridiculous that she had to laugh. He looked as if a miracle had been
+performed on the room, and actually stepped back into the hall to get
+his breath and be sure he was still in his father's house.
+
+"I want you to come in and see all my pictures and get acquainted with
+my friends when you have time," she said. "I wonder if you could make
+some more shelves for my books and help me unpack and set them up?"
+
+"Sure!" gasped Bud, heartily, albeit with awe. She hadn't asked the
+minister; she had asked _him_--_Bud!_ Just a boy! He looked around the
+room with anticipation. What wonder and delight he would have looking at
+all those things!
+
+Then Cap stepped into the middle of the room as if he belonged, mouth
+open, tongue lolling, smiling and panting a hearty approval, as he
+looked about at the strangeness for all the world as a human being might
+have done. It was plain he was pleased with the change.
+
+There was a proprietary air about Bud during dinner that was pleasant to
+Margaret and most annoying to West. It was plain that West looked on the
+boy as an upstart whom Miss Earle was using for the present to block his
+approach, and he was growing most impatient over the delay. He suggested
+that perhaps she would like his escort to see something of her
+surroundings that afternoon; but she smilingly told him that she would
+be very busy all the afternoon getting settled, and when he offered
+again to help her she cast a dazzling smile on Bud and said she didn't
+think she would need any more help, that Bud was going to do a few
+things for her, and that was all that was necessary.
+
+Bud straightened up and became two inches taller. He passed the bread,
+suggested two pieces of pie, and filled her glass of water as if she
+were his partner. Mr. Tanner beamed to see his son in high favor, but
+Mrs. Tanner looked a little troubled for the minister. She thought
+things weren't just progressing as fast as they ought to between him and
+the teacher.
+
+Bud, with Margaret's instructions, managed to make a very creditable
+bookcase out of the packing-box sawed in half, the pieces set side by
+side. She covered them deftly with green burlap left over from college
+days, like her other supplies, and then the two arranged the books. Bud
+was delighted over the prospect of reading some of the books, for they
+were not all school-books, by any means, and she had brought plenty of
+them to keep her from being lonesome on days when she longed to fly back
+to her home.
+
+At last the work was done, and they stood back to survey it. The books
+filled up every speck of space and overflowed to the three little
+hanging shelves over them; but they were all squeezed in at last except
+a pile of school-books that were saved out to take to the school-house.
+Margaret set a tiny vase on the top of one part of the packing-case and
+a small brass bowl on the top of the other, and Bud, after a knowing
+glance, scurried away for a few minutes and brought back a handful of
+gorgeous cactus blossoms to give the final touch.
+
+"Gee!" he said, admiringly, looking around the room. "Gee! You wouldn't
+know it fer the same place!"
+
+That evening after supper Margaret sat down to write a long letter home.
+She had written a brief letter, of course, the night before, but had
+been too weary to go into detail. The letter read:
+
+     DEAR MOTHER AND FATHER,--I'm unpacked and settled at last in my
+     room, and now I can't stand it another minute till I talk to you.
+
+     Last night, of course, I was pretty homesick, things all looked so
+     strange and new and different. I had known they would, but then I
+     didn't realize at all how different they would be. But I'm not
+     getting homesick already; don't think it. I'm not a bit sorry I
+     came, or at least I sha'n't be when I get started in school. One of
+     the scholars is Mrs. Tanner's son, and I like him. He's crude, of
+     course, but he has a brain, and he's been helping me this
+     afternoon. We made a bookcase for my books, and it looks fine. I
+     wish you could see it. I covered it with the green burlap, and the
+     books look real happy in smiling rows over on the other side of the
+     room. Bud Tanner got me some wonderful cactus blossoms for my brass
+     bowl. I wish I could send you some. They are gorgeous!
+
+     But you will want me to tell about my arrival. Well, to begin with,
+     I was late getting here [Margaret had decided to leave out the
+     incident of the desert altogether, for she knew by experience that
+     her mother would suffer terrors all during her absence if she once
+     heard of that wild adventure], which accounts for the lateness of
+     the telegram I sent you. I hope its delay didn't make you worry
+     any.
+
+     A very nice young man named Mr. Gardley piloted me to Mrs. Tanner's
+     house and looked after my trunks for me. He is from the East. It
+     was fortunate for me that he happened along, for he was most kind
+     and gentlemanly and helpful. Tell Jane not to worry lest I'll fall
+     in love with him; he doesn't live here. He belongs to a ranch or
+     camp or something twenty-five miles away. She was so afraid I'd
+     fall in love with an Arizona man and not come back home.
+
+     Mrs. Tanner is very kind and motherly according to her lights. She
+     has given me the best room in the house, and she talks a blue
+     streak. She has thin, brown hair turning gray, and she wears it in
+     a funny little knob on the tip-top of her round head to correspond
+     with the funny little tuft of hair on her husband's protruding
+     chin. Her head is set on her neck like a clothes-pin, only she is
+     squattier than a clothes-pin. She always wears her sleeves rolled
+     up (at least so far she has) and she always bustles around noisily
+     and apologizes for everything in the jolliest sort of way. I would
+     like her, I guess, if it wasn't for the other boarder; but she has
+     quite made up her mind that I shall like him, and I don't, of
+     course, so she is a bit disappointed in me so far.
+
+     Mr. Tanner is very kind and funny, and looks something like a
+     jack-knife with the blades half-open. He never disagrees with Mrs.
+     Tanner, and I really believe he's in love with her yet, though they
+     must have been married a good while. He calls her "Ma," and seems
+     restless unless she's in the room. When she goes out to the kitchen
+     to get some more soup or hash or bring in the pie, he shouts
+     remarks at her all the time she's gone, and she answers, utterly
+     regardless of the conversation the rest of the family are carrying
+     on. It's like a phonograph wound up for the day.
+
+     Bud Tanner is about fourteen, and I like him. He's well developed,
+     strong, and almost handsome; at least he would be if he were fixed
+     up a little. He has fine, dark eyes and a great shock of dark hair.
+     He and I are friends already. And so is the dog. The dog is a
+     peach! Excuse me, mother, but I just must use a little of the dear
+     old college slang somewhere, and your letters are the only
+     safety-valve, for I'm a schoolmarm now and must talk "good and
+     proper" all the time, you know.
+
+     The dog's name is Captain, and he looks the part. He has
+     constituted himself my bodyguard, and it's going to be very nice
+     having him. He's perfectly devoted already. He's a great, big,
+     fluffy fellow with keen, intelligent eyes, sensitive ears, and a
+     tail like a spreading plume. You'd love him, I know. He has a smile
+     like the morning sunshine.
+
+     And now I come to the only other member of the family, the boarder,
+     and I hesitate to approach the topic, because I have taken one of
+     my violent and naughty dislikes to him, and--awful thought--mother!
+     father! _he's a minister!_ Yes, he's a _Presbyterian minister_! I
+     know it will make you feel dreadfully, and I thought some of not
+     telling you, but my conscience hurt me so I had to. I just can't
+     _bear_ him, so there! Of course, I may get over it, but I don't see
+     how ever, for I can't think of anything that's more like him than
+     _soft soap_! Oh yes, there is one other word. Grandmother used to
+     use it about men she hadn't any use for, and that was "squash."
+     Mother, I can't help it, but he does seem something like a squash.
+     One of that crook-necked, yellow kind with warts all over it, and a
+     great, big, splurgy vine behind it to account for its being there
+     at all. Insipid and thready when it's cooked, you know, and has to
+     have a lot of salt and pepper and butter to make it go down at all.
+     Now I've told you the worst, and I'll try to describe him and see
+     what you think I'd better do about it. Oh, he isn't the regular
+     minister here, or missionary--I guess they call him. He's located
+     quite a distance off, and only comes once a month to preach here,
+     and, anyhow, _he's_ gone East now to take his wife to a hospital
+     for an operation, and won't be back for a couple of months,
+     perhaps, and this man isn't even taking his place. He's just here
+     for his health or for fun or something, I guess. He says he had a
+     large suburban church near New York, and had a nervous breakdown;
+     but I've been wondering if he didn't make a mistake, and it wasn't
+     the church had the nervous breakdown instead. He isn't very big nor
+     very little; he's just insignificant. His hair is like wet straw,
+     and his eyes like a fish's. His hand feels like a dead toad when
+     you have to shake hands, which I'm thankful doesn't have to be done
+     but once. He looks at you with a flat, sickening grin. He has an
+     acquired double chin, acquired to make him look pompous, and he
+     dresses stylishly and speaks of the inhabitants of this country
+     with contempt. He wants to be very affable, and offers to take me
+     to all sorts of places, but so far I've avoided him. I can't think
+     how they ever came to let him be a minister--I really can't! And
+     yet, I suppose it's all my horrid old prejudice, and father will be
+     grieved and you will think I am perverse. But, really, I'm sure
+     he's not one bit like father was when he was young. I never saw a
+     minister like him. Perhaps I'll get over it. I do sometimes, you
+     know, so don't begin to worry yet. I'll try real hard. I suppose
+     he'll preach Sunday, and then, perhaps, his sermon will be grand
+     and I'll forget how soft-soapy he looks and think only of his great
+     thoughts.
+
+     But I know it will be a sort of comfort to you to know that there
+     is a Presbyterian minister in the house with me, and I'll really
+     try to like him if I can.
+
+     There's nothing to complain of in the board. It isn't luxurious, of
+     course, but I didn't expect that. Everything is very plain, but
+     Mrs. Tanner manages to make it taste good. She makes fine
+     corn-bread, almost as good as yours--not quite.
+
+     My room is all lovely, now that I have covered its bareness with my
+     own things, but it has one great thing that can't compare with
+     anything at home, and that is its view. It is wonderful! I wish I
+     could make you see it. There is a mountain at the end of it that
+     has as many different garments as a queen. To-night, when sunset
+     came, it grew filmy as if a gauze of many colors had dropped upon
+     it and melted into it, and glowed and melted until it turned to
+     slate blue under the wide, starred blue of the wonderful night sky,
+     and all the dark about was velvet. Last night my mountain was all
+     pink and silver, and I have seen it purple and rose. But you can't
+     think the wideness of the sky, and I couldn't paint it for you with
+     words. You must see it to understand. A great, wide, dark sapphire
+     floor just simply ravished with stars like big jewels!
+
+     But I must stop and go to bed, for I find the air of this country
+     makes me very sleepy, and my wicked little kerosene-lamp is
+     smoking. I guess you would better send me my student-lamp, after
+     all, for I'm surely going to need it.
+
+     Now I must turn out the light and say good night to my mountain,
+     and then I will go to sleep thinking of you. Don't worry about the
+     minister. I'm very polite to him, but I shall never--_no,
+     never_--fall in love with _him_--tell Jane.
+
+                                                Your loving little girl,
+                                                     MARGARET.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Margaret had arranged with Bud to take her to the school-house the next
+morning, and he had promised to have a horse hitched up and ready at ten
+o'clock, as it seemed the school was a magnificent distance from her
+boarding-place. In fact, everything seemed to be located with a view to
+being as far from everywhere else as possible. Even the town was
+scattering and widespread and sparse.
+
+When she came down to breakfast she was disappointed to find that Bud
+was not there, and she was obliged to suffer a breakfast tete-a-tete
+with West. By dint, however, of asking him questions instead of allowing
+him to take the initiative, she hurried through her breakfast quite
+successfully, acquiring a superficial knowledge of her fellow-boarder
+quite distant and satisfactory. She knew where he spent his college days
+and at what theological seminary he had prepared for the ministry. He
+had served three years in a prosperous church of a fat little suburb of
+New York, and was taking a winter off from his severe, strenuous
+pastoral labors to recuperate his strength, get a new stock of sermons
+ready, and possibly to write a book of some of his experiences. He
+flattened his weak, pink chin learnedly as he said this, and tried to
+look at her impressively. He said that he should probably take a large
+city church as his next pastorate when his health was fully recuperated.
+He had come out to study the West and enjoy its freedom, as he
+understood it was a good place to rest and do as you please unhampered
+by what people thought. He wanted to get as far away from churches and
+things clerical as possible. He felt it was due himself and his work
+that he should. He spoke of the people he had met in Arizona as a kind
+of tamed savages, and Mrs. Tanner, sitting behind her coffee-pot for a
+moment between bustles, heard his comments meekly and looked at him with
+awe. What a great man he must be, and how fortunate for the new teacher
+that he should be there when she came!
+
+Margaret drew a breath of relief as she hurried away from the
+breakfast-table to her room. She was really anticipating the ride to the
+school with Bud. She liked boys, and Bud had taken her fancy. But when
+she came down-stairs with her hat and sweater on she found West standing
+out in front, holding the horse.
+
+"Bud had to go in another direction, Miss Earle," he said, touching his
+hat gracefully, "and he has delegated to me the pleasant task of driving
+you to the school."
+
+Dismay filled Margaret's soul, and rage with young Bud. He had deserted
+her and left her in the hands of the enemy! And she had thought he
+understood! Well, there was nothing for it but to go with this man, much
+as she disliked it. Her father's daughter could not be rude to a
+minister.
+
+She climbed into the buckboard quickly to get the ceremony over, for her
+escort was inclined to be too officious about helping her in, and
+somehow she couldn't bear to have him touch her. Why was it that she
+felt so about him? Of course he must be a good man.
+
+West made a serious mistake at the very outset of that ride. He took it
+for granted that all girls like flattery, and he proceeded to try it on
+Margaret. But Margaret did not enjoy being told how delighted he was to
+find that instead of the loud, bold "old maid" he had expected, she had
+turned out to be "so beautiful and young and altogether congenial"; and,
+coolly ignoring his compliments, she began a fire of questions again.
+
+She asked about the country, because that was the most obvious topic of
+conversation. What plants were those that grew by the wayside? She found
+he knew greasewood from sage-brush, and that was about all. To some of
+her questions he hazarded answers that were absurd in the light of the
+explanations given her by Gardley two days before. However, she
+reflected that he had been in the country but a short time, and that he
+was by nature a man not interested in such topics. She tried religious
+matters, thinking that here at least they must have common interests.
+She asked him what he thought of Christianity in the West as compared
+with the East. Did he find these Western people more alive and awake to
+the things of the Kingdom?
+
+West gave a startled look at the clear profile of the young woman beside
+him, thought he perceived that she was testing him on his clerical side,
+flattened his chin in his most learned, self-conscious manner, cleared
+his throat, and put on wisdom.
+
+"Well, now, Miss Earle," he began, condescendingly, "I really don't know
+that I have thought much about the matter. Ah--you know I have been
+resting absolutely, and I really haven't had opportunity to study the
+situation out here in detail; but, on the whole, I should say that
+everything was decidedly primitive; yes--ah--I might say--ah--well,
+crude. Yes, _crude_ in the extreme! Why, take it in this mission
+district. The missionary who is in charge seems to be teaching the most
+absurd of the old dogmas such as our forefathers used to teach. I
+haven't met him, of course. He is in the East with his wife for a time.
+I am told she had to go under some kind of an operation. I have never
+met him, and really don't care to do so; but to judge from all I hear,
+he is a most unfit man for a position of the kind. For example, he is
+teaching such exploded doctrines as the old view of the atonement, the
+infallibility of the Scriptures, the deity of Christ, belief in
+miracles, and the like. Of course, in one sense it really matters very
+little what the poor Indians believe, or what such people as the Tanners
+are taught. They have but little mind, and would scarcely know the
+difference; but you can readily see that with such a primitive,
+unenlightened man at the head of religious affairs, there could scarcely
+be much broadening and real religious growth. Ignorance, of course,
+holds sway out here. I fancy you will find that to be the case soon
+enough. What in the world ever led you to come to a field like this to
+labor? Surely there must have been many more congenial places open to
+such as you." He leaned forward and cast a sentimental glance at her,
+his eyes looking more "fishy" than ever.
+
+"I came out here because I wanted to get acquainted with this great
+country, and because I thought there was an opportunity to do good,"
+said Margaret, coldly. She did not care to discuss her own affairs with
+this man. "But, Mr. West, I don't know that I altogether understand you.
+Didn't you tell me that you were a Presbyterian minister?"
+
+"I certainly did," he answered, complacently, as though he were honoring
+the whole great body of Presbyterians by making the statement.
+
+"Well, then, what in the world did you mean? All Presbyterians, of
+course, believe in the infallibility of the Scriptures and the deity of
+Jesus--and the atonement!"
+
+"Not necessarily," answered the young man, loftily. "You will find, my
+dear young lady, that there is a wide, growing feeling in our church in
+favor of a broader view. The younger men, and the great student body of
+our church, have thrown to the winds all their former beliefs and are
+ready to accept new light with open minds. The findings of science have
+opened up a vast store of knowledge, and all thinking men must
+acknowledge that the old dogmas are rapidly vanishing away. Your father
+doubtless still holds to the old faith, perhaps, and we must be lenient
+with the older men who have done the best they could with the light they
+had; but all younger, broad-minded men are coming to the new way of
+looking at things. We have had enough of the days of preaching hell-fire
+and damnation. We need a religion of love to man, and good works. You
+should read some of the books that have been written on this subject if
+you care to understand. I really think it would be worth your while. You
+look to me like a young woman with a mind. I have a few of the latest
+with me. I shall be glad to read and discuss them with you if you are
+interested."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. West," said Margaret, coolly, though her eyes burned
+with battle. "I think I have probably read most of those books and
+discussed them with my father. He may be old, but he is not without
+'light,' as you call it, and he always believed in knowing all that the
+other side was saying. He brought me up to look into these things for
+myself. And, anyhow, I should not care to read and discuss any of these
+subjects with a man who denies the deity of my Saviour and does not
+believe in the infallibility of the Bible. It seems to me you have
+nothing left--"
+
+"Ah! Well--now--my dear young lady--you mustn't misjudge me! I should be
+sorry indeed to shake your faith, for an innocent faith is, of course, a
+most beautiful thing, even though it may be unfounded."
+
+"Indeed, Mr. West, that would not be possible. You could not shake my
+faith in my Christ, because _I know Him_. If I had not ever felt His
+presence, nor been guided by His leading, such words might possibly
+trouble me, but having seen 'Him that is invisible,' _I know_."
+Margaret's voice was steady and gentle. It was impossible for even that
+man not to be impressed by her words.
+
+"Well, let us not quarrel about it," he said, indulgently, as to a
+little child. "I'm sure you have a very charming way of stating it, and
+I'm not sure that it is not a relief to find a woman of the
+old-fashioned type now and then. It really is man's place to look into
+these deeper questions, anyway. It is woman's sphere to live and love
+and make a happy home--"
+
+His voice took on a sentimental purr, and Margaret was fairly boiling
+with rage at him; but she would not let her temper give way, especially
+when she was talking on the sacred theme of the Christ. She felt as if
+she must scream or jump out over the wheel and run away from this
+obnoxious man, but she knew she would do neither. She knew she would sit
+calmly through the expedition and somehow control that conversation.
+There was one relief, anyway. Her father would no longer expect respect
+and honor and liking toward a minister who denied the very life and
+foundation of his faith.
+
+"It can't be possible that the school-house is so far from the town,"
+she said, suddenly looking around at the widening desert in front of
+them. "Haven't you made some mistake?"
+
+"Why, I thought we should have the pleasure of a little drive first,"
+said West, with a cunning smile. "I was sure you would enjoy seeing the
+country before you get down to work, and I was not averse myself to a
+drive in such delightful company."
+
+"I would like to go back to the school-house at once, please," said
+Margaret, decidedly, and there was that in her voice that caused the man
+to turn the horse around and head it toward the village.
+
+"Why, yes, of course, if you prefer to see the school-house first, we
+can go back and look it over, and then, perhaps, you will like to ride a
+little farther," he said. "We have plenty of time. In fact, Mrs. Tanner
+told me she would not expect us home to dinner, and she put a very
+promising-looking basket of lunch under the seat for us in case we got
+hungry before we came back."
+
+"Thank you," said Margaret, quite freezingly now. "I really do not care
+to drive this morning. I would like to see the school-house, and then I
+must return to the house at once. I have a great many things to do this
+morning."
+
+Her manner at last penetrated even the thick skin of the self-centered
+man, and he realized that he had gone a step too far in his attentions.
+He set himself to undo the mischief, hoping perhaps to melt her yet to
+take the all-day drive with him. But she sat silent during the return to
+the village, answering his volubility only by yes or no when absolutely
+necessary. She let him babble away about college life and tell incidents
+of his late pastorate, at some of which he laughed immoderately; but he
+could not even bring a smile to her dignified lips.
+
+He hoped she would change her mind when they got to the school building,
+and he even stooped to praise it in a kind of contemptuous way as they
+drew up in front of the large adobe building.
+
+"I suppose you will want to go through the building," he said, affably,
+producing the key from his pocket and putting on a pleasant anticipatory
+smile, but Margaret shook her head. She simply would not go into the
+building with that man.
+
+"It is not necessary," she said again, coldly. "I think I will go home
+now, please." And he was forced to turn the horse toward the Tanner
+house, crestfallen, and wonder why this beautiful girl was so extremely
+hard to win. He flattered himself that he had always been able to
+interest any girl he chose. It was really quite a bewildering type. But
+he would win her yet.
+
+He set her down silently at the Tanner door and drove off, lunch-basket
+and all, into the wilderness, vexed that she was so stubbornly
+unfriendly, and pondering how he might break down the dignity wherewith
+she had surrounded herself. There would be a way and he would find it.
+There was a stubbornness about that weak chin of his, when one observed
+it, and an ugliness in his pale-blue eye; or perhaps you would call it a
+hardness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+She watched him furtively from her bedroom window, whither she had fled
+from Mrs. Tanner's exclamations. He wore his stylish derby tilted down
+over his left eye and slightly to one side in a most unministerial
+manner, showing too much of his straw-colored back hair, which rose in a
+cowlick at the point of contact with the hat, and he looked a small,
+mean creature as he drove off into the vast beauty of the plain.
+Margaret, in her indignation, could not help comparing him with the
+young man who had ridden away from the house two days before.
+
+And he to set up to be a minister of Christ's gospel and talk like that
+about the Bible and Christ! Oh, what was the church of Christ coming to,
+to have ministers like that? How ever did he get into the ministry,
+anyway? Of course, she knew there were young men with honest doubts who
+sometimes slid through nowadays, but a mean little silly man like that?
+How ever did he get in? What a lot of ridiculous things he had said! He
+was one of those described in the Bible who "darken counsel with words."
+He was not worth noticing. And yet, what a lot of harm he could do in an
+unlearned community. Just see how Mrs. Tanner hung upon his words, as
+though they were law and gospel! How _could_ she?
+
+Margaret found herself trembling yet over the words he had spoken about
+Christ, the atonement, and the faith. They meant so much to her and to
+her mother and father. They were not mere empty words of tradition that
+she believed because she had been taught. She had lived her faith and
+proved it; and she could not help feeling it like a personal insult to
+have him speak so of her Saviour. She turned away and took her Bible to
+try and get a bit of calmness.
+
+She fluttered the leaves for something--she could not just tell
+what--and her eye caught some of the verses that her father had marked
+for her before she left home for college, in the days when he was
+troubled for her going forth into the world of unbelief.
+
+     As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
+     him: Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as
+     ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware
+     lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after
+     the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not
+     after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
+     bodily....
+
+How the verses crowded upon one another, standing out clearly from the
+pages as she turned them, marked with her father's own hand in clear ink
+underlinings. It almost seemed as if God had looked ahead to these times
+and set these words down just for the encouragement of his troubled
+servants who couldn't understand why faith was growing dim. God knew
+about it, had known it would be, all this doubt, and had put words here
+just for troubled hearts to be comforted thereby.
+
+     For I know whom I have believed [How her heart echoed to that
+     statement!], and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I
+     have committed unto him against that day.
+
+And on a little further:
+
+     Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal,
+     The Lord knoweth them that are his.
+
+There was a triumphant look to the words as she read them.
+
+Then over in Ephesians her eye caught a verse that just seemed to fit
+that poor blind minister:
+
+     Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of
+     God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness
+     of their heart.
+
+And yet he was set to guide the feet of the blind into the way of life!
+And he had looked on her as one of the ignorant. Poor fellow! He
+couldn't know the Christ who was her Saviour or he never would have
+spoken in that way about Him. What could such a man preach? What was
+there left to preach, but empty words, when one rejected all these
+doctrines? Would she have to listen to a man like that Sunday after
+Sunday? Did the scholars in her school, and their parents, and the young
+man out at the camp, and his rough, simple-hearted companions have to
+listen to preaching from that man, when they listened to any? Her heart
+grew sick within her, and she knelt beside her bed for a strengthening
+word with the Christ who since her little childhood had been a very
+real presence in her life.
+
+When she arose from her knees she heard the kitchen door slam
+down-stairs and the voice of Bud calling his mother. She went to her
+door and opened it, listening a moment, and then called the boy.
+
+There was a dead silence for an instant after her voice was heard, and
+then Bud appeared at the foot of the stairs, very frowning as to brow,
+and very surly as to tone:
+
+"What d'ye want?"
+
+It was plain that Bud was "sore."
+
+"Bud,"--Margaret's voice was sweet and a bit cool as she leaned over the
+railing and surveyed the boy; she hadn't yet got over her compulsory
+ride with that minister--"I wanted to ask you, please, next time you
+can't keep an appointment with me don't ask anybody else to take your
+place. I prefer to pick out my own companions. It was all right, of
+course, if you had to go somewhere else, but I could easily have gone
+alone or waited until another time. I'd rather not have you ask Mr. West
+to go anywhere with me again."
+
+Bud's face was a study. It cleared suddenly and his jaw dropped in
+surprise; his eyes fairly danced with dawning comprehension and
+pleasure, and then his brow drew down ominously.
+
+"I never ast him," he declared, vehemently. "He told me you wanted him
+to go, and fer me to get out of the way 'cause you didn't want to hurt
+my feelings. Didn't you say nothing to him about it at all this
+morning?"
+
+"No, indeed!" said Margaret, with flashing eyes.
+
+"Well, I just thought he was that kind of a guy. I told ma he was lying,
+but she said I didn't understand young ladies, and, of course, you
+didn't want me when there was a man, and especially a preacher, round.
+Some preacher he is! This 's the second time I've caught him lying. I
+think he's the limit. I just wish you'd see our missionary. If he was
+here he'd beat the dust out o' that poor stew. _He's_ some man, he is.
+He's a regular white man, _our missionary_! Just you wait till _he_ gets
+back."
+
+Margaret drew a breath of relief. Then the missionary was a real man,
+after all. Oh, for his return!
+
+"Well, I'm certainly very glad it wasn't your fault, Bud. I didn't feel
+very happy to be turned off that way," said the teacher, smiling down
+upon the rough head of the boy.
+
+"You bet it wasn't my fault!" said the boy, vigorously. "I was sore's a
+pup at you, after you'd made a date and all, to do like that; but I
+thought if you wanted to go with that guy it was up to you."
+
+"Well, I didn't and I don't. You'll please understand hereafter that I'd
+always rather have your company than his. How about going down to the
+school-house some time to-day? Have you time?"
+
+"Didn't you go yet?" The boy's face looked as if he had received a
+kingdom, and his voice had a ring of triumph.
+
+"We drove down there, but I didn't care to go in without you, so we came
+back."
+
+"Wanta go now?" The boy's face fairly shone.
+
+"I'd love to. I'll be ready in three minutes. Could we carry some books
+down?"
+
+"Sure! Oh--gee! That guy's got the buckboard. We'll have to walk.
+Doggone him!"
+
+"I shall enjoy a walk. I want to find out just how far it is, for I
+shall have to walk every day, you know."
+
+"No, you won't, neither, 'nless you wanta. I c'n always hitch up."
+
+"That'll be very nice sometimes, but I'm afraid I'd get spoiled if you
+babied me all the time that way. I'll be right down."
+
+They went out together into the sunshine and wideness of the morning,
+and it seemed a new day had been created since she got back from her
+ride with the minister. She looked at the sturdy, honest-eyed boy beside
+her, and was glad to have him for a companion.
+
+Just in front of the school-house Margaret paused. "Oh, I forgot! The
+key! Mr. West has the key in his pocket! We can't get in, can we?"
+
+"Aw, we don't need a key," said her escort. "Just you wait!" And he
+whisked around to the back of the building, and in about three minutes
+his shock head appeared at the window. He threw the sash open and
+dropped out a wooden box. "There!" he said, triumphantly, "you c'n climb
+up on that, cantcha? Here, I'll holdya steady. Take holta my hand."
+
+And so it was through the front window that the new teacher of the Ridge
+School first appeared on her future scene of action and surveyed her
+little kingdom.
+
+Bud threw open the shutters, letting the view of the plains and the
+sunshine into the big, dusty room, and showed her the new blackboard
+with great pride.
+
+"There's a whole box o' chalk up on the desk, too; 'ain't never been
+opened yet. Dad said that was your property. Want I should open it?"
+
+"Why, yes, you might, and then we'll try the blackboard, won't we?"
+
+Bud went to work gravely opening the chalk-box as if it were a small
+treasure-chest, and finally produced a long, smooth stick of chalk and
+handed it to her with shining eyes.
+
+"You try it first, Bud," said the teacher, seeing his eagerness; and the
+boy went forward awesomely, as if it were a sacred precinct and he
+unworthy to intrude.
+
+Shyly, awkwardly, with infinite painstaking, he wrote in a cramped hand,
+"William Budlong Tanner," and then, growing bolder, "Ashland, Arizona,"
+with a big flourish underneath.
+
+"Some class!" he said, standing back and regarding his handiwork with
+pride. "Say, I like the sound the chalk makes on it, don't you?"
+
+"Yes, I do," said Margaret, heartily, "so smooth and business-like,
+isn't it? You'll enjoy doing examples in algebra on it, won't you?"
+
+"Good night! Algebra! Me? No chance. I can't never get through the
+arithmetic. The last teacher said if he'd come back twenty years from
+now he'd still find me working compound interest."
+
+"Well, we'll prove to that man that he wasn't much of a judge of boys,"
+said Margaret, with a tilt of her chin and a glint of her teacher-mettle
+showing in her eyes. "If you're not in algebra before two months are
+over I'll miss my guess. We'll get at it right away and show him."
+
+Bud watched her, charmed. He was beginning to believe that almost
+anything she tried would come true.
+
+"Now, Bud, suppose we get to work. I'd like to get acquainted with my
+class a little before Monday. Isn't it Monday school opens? I thought
+so. Well, suppose you give me the names of the scholars and I'll write
+them down, and that will help me to remember them. Where will you begin?
+Here, suppose you sit down in the front seat and tell me who sits there
+and a little bit about him, and I'll write the name down; and then you
+move to the next seat and tell me about the next one, and so on. Will
+you?"
+
+"Sure!" said Bud, entering into the new game. "But it ain't a 'he' sits
+there. It's Susie Johnson. She's Bill Johnson's smallest girl. She has
+to sit front 'cause she giggles so much. She has yellow curls and she
+ducks her head down and snickers right out this way when anything funny
+happens in school." And Bud proceeded to duck and wriggle in perfect
+imitation of the small Susie.
+
+Margaret saw the boy's power of imitation was remarkable, and laughed
+heartily at his burlesque. Then she turned and wrote "Susie Johnson" on
+the board in beautiful script.
+
+Bud watched with admiration, saying softly under his breath; "Gee!
+that's great, that blackboard, ain't it?"
+
+Amelia Schwartz came next. She was long and lank, with the buttons off
+the back of her dress, and hands and feet too large for her garments.
+Margaret could not help but see her in the clever pantomime the boy
+carried on. Next was Rosa Rogers, daughter of a wealthy cattleman, the
+pink-cheeked, blue-eyed beauty of the school, with all the boys at her
+feet and a perfect knowledge of her power over them. Bud didn't, of
+course, state it that way, but Margaret gathered as much from his
+simpering smile and the coy way he looked out of the corner of his eyes
+as he described her.
+
+Down the long list of scholars he went, row after row, and when he came
+to the seats where the boys sat his tone changed. She could tell by the
+shading of his voice which boys were the ones to look out for.
+
+Jed Brower, it appeared, was a name to conjure with. He could ride any
+horse that ever stood on four legs, he could outshoot most of the boys
+in the neighborhood, and he never allowed any teacher to tell him what
+to do. He was Texas Brower's only boy, and always had his own way. His
+father was on the school board. Jed Brower was held in awe, even while
+his methods were despised, by some of the younger boys. He was big and
+powerful, and nobody dared fool with him. Bud did not exactly warn
+Margaret that she must keep on the right side of Jed Brower, but he
+conveyed that impression without words. Margaret understood. She knew
+also that Tad Brooks, Larry Parker, Jim Long, and Dake Foster were
+merely henchmen of the worthy Jed, and not negligible quantities when
+taken by themselves. But over the name of Timothy Forbes--"Delicate
+Forbes," Bud explained was his nickname--the boy lingered with that
+loving inflection of admiration that a younger boy will sometimes have
+for a husky, courageous older lad. The second time Bud spoke of him he
+called him "Forbeszy," and Margaret perceived that here was Bud's model
+of manhood. Delicate Forbes could outshoot and outride even Jed Brower
+when he chose, and his courage with cattle was that of a man. Moreover,
+he was good to the younger boys and wasn't above pitching baseball with
+them when he had nothing better afoot. It became evident from the
+general description that Delicate Forbes was not called so from any lack
+of inches to his stature. He had a record of having licked every man
+teacher in the school, and beaten by guile every woman teacher they had
+had in six years. Bud was loyal to his admiration, yet it could be
+plainly seen that he felt Margaret's greatest hindrance in the school
+would be Delicate Forbes.
+
+Margaret mentally underlined the names in her memory that belonged to
+the back seats in the first and second rows of desks, and went home
+praying that she might have wisdom and patience to deal with Jed Brower
+and Timothy Forbes, and through them to manage the rest of her school.
+
+She surprised Bud at the dinner-table by handing him a neat diagram of
+the school-room desks with the correct names of all but three or four of
+the scholars written on them. Such a feat of memory raised her several
+notches in his estimation.
+
+"Say, that's going some! Guess you won't forget nothing, no matter how
+much they try to make you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+The minister did not appear until late in the evening, after Margaret
+had gone to her room, for which she was sincerely thankful. She could
+hear his voice, fretful and complaining, as he called loudly for Bud to
+take the horse. It appeared he had lost his way and wandered many miles
+out of the trail. He blamed the country for having no better trails, and
+the horse for not being able to find his way better. Mr. Tanner had gone
+to bed, but Mrs. Tanner bustled about and tried to comfort him.
+
+"Now that's too bad! Dearie me! Bud oughta hev gone with you, so he
+ought. Bud! _Oh_, Bud, you 'ain't gonta sleep yet, hev you? Wake up and
+come down and take this horse to the barn."
+
+But Bud declined to descend. He shouted some sleepy directions from his
+loft where he slept, and said the minister could look after his own
+horse, he "wasn'ta gonta!" There was "plentya corn in the bin."
+
+The minister grumbled his way to the barn, highly incensed at Bud, and
+disturbed the calm of the evening view of Margaret's mountain by his
+complaints when he returned. He wasn't accustomed to handling horses,
+and he thought Bud might have stayed up and attended to it himself. Bud
+chuckled in his loft and stole down the back kitchen roof while the
+minister ate his late supper. Bud would never leave the old horse to
+that amateur's tender mercies, but he didn't intend to make it easy for
+the amateur. Margaret, from her window-seat watching the night in the
+darkness, saw Bud slip off the kitchen roof and run to the barn, and she
+smiled to herself. She liked that boy. He was going to be a good
+comrade.
+
+The Sabbath morning dawned brilliantly, and to the homesick girl there
+suddenly came a sense of desolation on waking. A strange land was this,
+without church-bells or sense of Sabbath fitness. The mountain, it is
+true, greeted her with a holy light of gladness, but mountains are not
+dependent upon humankind for being in the spirit on the Lord's day. They
+are "continually praising Him." Margaret wondered how she was to get
+through this day, this dreary first Sabbath away from her home and her
+Sabbath-school class, and her dear old church with father preaching. She
+had been away, of course, a great many times before, but never to a
+churchless community. It was beginning to dawn upon her that that was
+what Ashland was--a churchless community. As she recalled the walk to
+the school and the ride through the village she had seen nothing that
+looked like a church, and all the talk had been of the missionary. They
+must have services of some sort, of course, and probably that flabby,
+fish-eyed man, her fellow-boarder, was to preach; but her heart turned
+sick at thought of listening to a man who had confessed to the
+unbeliefs that he had. Of course, he would likely know enough to keep
+such doubts to himself; but he had told her, and nothing he could say
+now would help or uplift her in the least.
+
+She drew a deep sigh and looked at her watch. It was late. At home the
+early Sabbath-school bells would be ringing, and little girls in white,
+with bunches of late fall flowers for their teachers, and holding hands
+with their little brothers, would be hurrying down the street. Father
+was in his study, going over his morning sermon, and mother putting her
+little pearl pin in her collar, getting ready to go to her Bible class.
+Margaret decided it was time to get up and stop thinking of it all.
+
+She put on a little white dress that she wore to church at home and
+hurried down to discover what the family plans were for the day, but
+found, to her dismay, that the atmosphere below-stairs was just like
+that of other days. Mr. Tanner sat tilted back in a dining-room chair,
+reading the weekly paper, Mrs. Tanner was bustling in with hot
+corn-bread, Bud was on the front-door steps teasing the dog, and the
+minister came in with an air of weariness upon him, as if he quite
+intended taking it out on his companions that he had experienced a
+trying time on Saturday. He did not look in the least like a man who
+expected to preach in a few minutes. He declined to eat his egg because
+it was cooked too hard, and poor Mrs. Tanner had to try it twice before
+she succeeded in producing a soft-boiled egg to suit him. Only the
+radiant outline of the great mountain, which Margaret could see over the
+minister's head, looked peaceful and Sabbath-like.
+
+"What time do you have service?" Margaret asked, as she rose from the
+table.
+
+"Service?" It was Mr. Tanner who echoed her question as if he did not
+quite know what she meant.
+
+Mrs. Tanner raised her eyes from her belated breakfast with a worried
+look, like a hen stretching her neck about to see what she ought to do
+next for the comfort of the chickens under her care. It was apparent
+that she had no comprehension of what the question meant. It was the
+minister who answered, condescendingly:
+
+"Um! Ah! There is no church edifice here, you know, Miss Earle. The
+mission station is located some miles distant."
+
+"I know," said Margaret, "but they surely have some religious service?"
+
+"I really don't know," said the minister, loftily, as if it were
+something wholly beneath his notice.
+
+"Then you are not going to preach this morning?" In spite of herself
+there was relief in her tone.
+
+"Most certainly not," he replied, stiffly. "I came out here to rest, and
+I selected this place largely because it was so far from a church. I
+wanted to be where I should not be annoyed by requests to preach. Of
+course, ministers from the East would be a curiosity in these Western
+towns, and I should really get no rest at all if I had gone where my
+services would have been in constant demand. When I came out here I was
+in much the condition of our friend the minister of whom you have
+doubtless heard. He was starting on his vacation, and he said to a
+brother minister, with a smile of joy and relief, 'No preaching, no
+praying, no reading of the Bible for six whole weeks!'"
+
+"Indeed!" said Margaret, freezingly. "No, I am not familiar with
+ministers of that sort." She turned with dismissal in her manner and
+appealed to Mrs. Tanner. "Then you really have no Sabbath service of any
+sort whatever in town?" There was something almost tragic in her face.
+She stood aghast at the prospect before her.
+
+Mrs. Tanner's neck stretched up a little longer, and her lips dropped
+apart in her attempt to understand the situation. One would scarcely
+have been surprised to hear her say, "Cut-cut-cut-ca-daw-cut?" so
+fluttered did she seem.
+
+Then up spoke Bud. "We gotta Sunday-school, ma!" There was pride of
+possession in Bud's tone, and a kind of triumph over the minister,
+albeit Bud had adjured Sunday-school since his early infancy. He was
+ready now, however, to be offered on the altar of Sunday-school, even,
+if that would please the new teacher--and spite the minister. "I'll take
+you ef you wanta go." He looked defiantly at the minister as he said it.
+
+But at last Mrs. Tanner seemed to grasp what was the matter.
+"Why!--why!--why! You mean preaching service!" she clucked out. "Why,
+yes, Mr. West, wouldn't that be fine? You could preach for us. We could
+have it posted up at the saloon and the crossings, and out a ways on
+both trails, and you'd have quite a crowd. They'd come from over to the
+camp, and up the canon way, and roundabouts. They'd do you credit, they
+surely would, Mr. West. And you could have the school-house for a
+meeting-house. Pa, there, is one of the school board. There wouldn't be
+a bit of trouble--"
+
+"Um! Ah! Mrs. Tanner, I assure you it's quite out of the question. I
+told you I was here for absolute rest. I couldn't think of preaching.
+Besides, it's against my principles to preach without remuneration. It's
+a wrong idea. The workman is worthy of his hire, you know, Mrs. Tanner,
+the Good Book says." Mr. West's tone took on a self-righteous
+inflection.
+
+"Oh! Ef that's all, that 'u'd be all right!" she said, with relief. "You
+could take up a collection. The boys would be real generous. They always
+are when any show comes along. They'd appreciate it, you know, and I'd
+like fer Miss Earle here to hear you preach. It 'u'd be a real treat to
+her, her being a preacher's daughter and all." She turned to Margaret
+for support, but that young woman was talking to Bud. She had promptly
+closed with his offer to take her to Sunday-school, and now she hurried
+away to get ready, leaving Mrs. Tanner to make her clerical arrangements
+without aid.
+
+The minister, meantime, looked after her doubtfully. Perhaps, after all,
+it would have been a good move to have preached. He might have impressed
+that difficult young woman better that way than any other, seeing she
+posed as being so interested in religious matters. He turned to Mrs.
+Tanner and began to ask questions about the feasibility of a church
+service. The word "collection" sounded good to him. He was not averse to
+replenishing his somewhat depleted treasury if it could be done so
+easily as that.
+
+Meantime Margaret, up in her room, was wondering again how such a man as
+Mr. West ever got into the Christian ministry.
+
+West was still endeavoring to impress the Tanners with the importance of
+his late charge in the East as Margaret came down-stairs. His pompous
+tones, raised to favor the deafness that he took for granted in Mr.
+Tanner, easily reached her ears.
+
+"I couldn't, of course, think of doing it every Sunday, you understand.
+It wouldn't be fair to myself nor my work which I have just left; but,
+of course, if there were sufficient inducement I might consent to preach
+some Sunday before I leave."
+
+Mrs. Tanner's little satisfied cluck was quite audible as the girl
+closed the front door and went out to the waiting Bud.
+
+The Sunday-school was a desolate affair, presided over by an elderly and
+very illiterate man, who nursed his elbows and rubbed his chin
+meditatively between the slow questions which he read out of the
+lesson-leaf. The woman who usually taught the children was called away
+to nurse a sick neighbor, and the children were huddled together in a
+restless group. The singing was poor, and the whole of the exercises
+dreary, including the prayer. The few women present sat and stared in a
+kind of awe at the visitor, half belligerently, as if she were an
+intruder. Bud lingered outside the door and finally disappeared
+altogether, reappearing when the last hymn was sung. Altogether the new
+teacher felt exceedingly homesick as she wended her way back to the
+Tanners' beside Bud.
+
+"What do you do with yourself on Sunday afternoons, Bud?" she asked, as
+soon as they were out of hearing of the rest of the group.
+
+The boy turned wondering eyes toward her. "Do?" he repeated, puzzled.
+"Why, we pass the time away, like 'most any day. There ain't much
+difference."
+
+A great desolation possessed her. No church! Worse than no minister! No
+Sabbath! What kind of a land was this to which she had come?
+
+The boy beside her smelled of tobacco smoke. He had been off somewhere
+smoking while she was in the dreary little Sunday-school. She looked at
+his careless boy-face furtively as they walked along. He smoked, of
+course, like most boys of his age, probably, and he did a lot of other
+things he ought not to do. He had no interest in God or righteousness,
+and he did not take it for granted that the Sabbath was different from
+any other day. A sudden heart-sinking came upon her. What was the use of
+trying to do anything for such as he? Why not give it up now and go back
+where there was more promising material to work upon and where she would
+be welcome indeed? Of course, she had known things would be
+discouraging, but somehow it had seemed different from a distance. It
+all looked utterly hopeless now, and herself crazy to have thought she
+could do any good in a place like this.
+
+And yet the place needed somebody! That pitiful little Sunday-school!
+How forlorn it all was! She was almost sorry she had gone. It gave her
+an unhappy feeling for the morrow, which was to be her first day of
+school.
+
+Then, all suddenly, just as they were nearing the Tanner house, there
+came one riding down the street with all the glory of the radiant
+morning in his face, and a light in his eyes at seeing her that lifted
+away her desolation, for here at last was a friend!
+
+She wondered at herself. An unknown stranger, and a self-confessed
+failure so far in his young life, and yet he seemed so good a sight to
+her amid these uncongenial surroundings!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+This stranger of royal bearing, riding a rough Western pony as if it
+were decked with golden trappings, with his bright hair gleaming like
+Roman gold in the sun, and his blue-gray eyes looking into hers with the
+gladness of his youth; this one who had come to her out of the
+night-shadows of the wilderness and led her into safety! Yes, she was
+glad to see him.
+
+He dismounted and greeted her, his wide hat in his hand, his eyes upon
+her face, and Bud stepped back, watching them in pleased surprise. This
+was the man who had shot all the lights out the night of the big riot in
+the saloon. He had also risked his life in a number of foolish ways at
+recent festal carouses. Bud would not have been a boy had he not admired
+the young man beyond measure; and his boy worship of the teacher yielded
+her to a fitting rival. He stepped behind and walked beside the pony,
+who was following his master meekly, as though he, too, were under the
+young man's charm.
+
+"Oh, and this is my friend, William Tanner," spoke Margaret, turning
+toward the boy loyally, (Whatever good angel made her call him William?
+Bud's soul swelled with new dignity as he blushed and acknowledged the
+introduction by a grin.)
+
+"Glad to know you, Will," said the new-comer, extending his hand in a
+hearty shake that warmed the boy's heart in a trice. "I'm glad Miss
+Earle has so good a protector. You'll have to look out for her. She's
+pretty plucky and is apt to stray around the wilderness by herself. It
+isn't safe, you know, boy, for such as her. Look after her, will you?"
+
+"Right I will," said Bud, accepting the commission as if it were
+Heaven-sent, and thereafter walked behind the two with his head in the
+clouds. He felt that he understood this great hero of the plains and was
+one with him at heart. There could be no higher honor than to be the
+servitor of this man's lady. Bud did not stop to question how the new
+teacher became acquainted with the young rider of the plains. It was
+enough that both were young and handsome and seemed to belong together.
+He felt they were fitting friends.
+
+The little procession walked down the road slowly, glad to prolong the
+way. The young man had brought her handkerchief, a filmy trifle of an
+excuse that she had dropped behind her chair at the bunk-house, where it
+had lain unnoticed till she was gone. He produced it from his inner
+pocket, as though it had been too precious to carry anywhere but over
+his heart, yet there was in his manner nothing presuming, not a hint of
+any intimacy other than their chance acquaintance of the wilderness
+would warrant. He did not look at her with any such look as West had
+given every time he spoke to her. She felt no desire to resent his
+glance when it rested upon her almost worshipfully, for there was
+respect and utmost humility in his look.
+
+The men had sent gifts: some arrow-heads and a curiously fashioned
+vessel from the canon of the cave-dwellers; some chips from the
+petrified forest; a fern with wonderful fronds, root and all; and a
+sheaf of strange, beautiful blossoms carefully wrapped in wet paper, and
+all fastened to the saddle.
+
+Margaret's face kindled with interest as he showed them to her one by
+one, and told her the history of each and a little message from the man
+who had sent it. Mom Wallis, too, had baked a queer little cake and sent
+it. The young man's face was tender as he spoke of it. The girl saw that
+he knew what her coming had meant to Mom Wallis. Her memory went quickly
+back to those few words the morning she had wakened in the bunk-house
+and found the withered old woman watching her with tears in her eyes.
+Poor Mom Wallis, with her pretty girlhood all behind her and such a
+blank, dull future ahead! Poor, tired, ill-used, worn-out Mom Wallis!
+Margaret's heart went out to her.
+
+"They want to know," said the young man, half hesitatingly, "if some
+time, when you get settled and have time, you would come to them again
+and sing? I tried to make them understand, of course, that you would be
+busy, your time taken with other friends and your work, and you would
+not want to come; but they wanted me to tell you they never enjoyed
+anything so much in years as your singing. Why, I heard Long Jim singing
+'Old Folks at Home' this morning when he was saddling his horse. And
+it's made a difference. The men sort of want to straighten up the
+bunk-room. Jasper made a new chair yesterday. He said it would do when
+you came again." Gardley laughed diffidently, as if he knew their hopes
+were all in vain.
+
+But Margaret looked up with sympathy in her face, "I'll come! Of course
+I'll come some time," she said, eagerly. "I'll come as soon as I can
+arrange it. You tell them we'll have more than one concert yet."
+
+The young man's face lit up with a quick appreciation, and the flash of
+his eyes as he looked at her would have told any onlooker that he felt
+here was a girl in a thousand, a girl with an angel spirit, if ever such
+a one walked the earth.
+
+Now it happened that Rev. Frederick West was walking impatiently up and
+down in front of the Tanner residence, looking down the road about that
+time. He had spent the morning in looking over the small bundle of "show
+sermons" he had brought with him in case of emergency, and had about
+decided to accede to Mrs. Tanner's request and preach in Ashland before
+he left. This decision had put him in so self-satisfied a mood that he
+was eager to announce it before his fellow-boarder. Moreover, he was
+hungry, and he could not understand why that impudent boy and that
+coquettish young woman should remain away at Sunday-school such an
+interminable time.
+
+Mrs. Tanner was frying chicken. He could smell it every time he took a
+turn toward the house. It really was ridiculous that they should keep
+dinner waiting this way. He took one more turn and began to think over
+the sermon he had decided to preach. He was just recalling a
+particularly eloquent passage when he happened to look down the road
+once more, and there they were, almost upon him! But Bud was no longer
+walking with the maiden. She had acquired a new escort, a man of broad
+shoulders and fine height. Where had he seen that fellow before? He
+watched them as they came up, his small, pale eyes narrowing under their
+yellow lashes with a glint of slyness, like some mean little animal that
+meant to take advantage of its prey. It was wonderful how many different
+things that man could look like for a person as insignificant as he
+really was!
+
+Well, he saw the look between the man and maiden; the look of sympathy
+and admiration and a fine kind of trust that is not founded on mere
+outward show, but has found some hidden fineness of the soul. Not that
+the reverend gentleman understood that, however. He had no fineness of
+soul himself. His mind had been too thoroughly taken up with himself all
+his life for him to have cultivated any.
+
+Simultaneous with the look came his recognition of the man or, at least,
+of where he had last seen him, and his little soul rejoiced at the
+advantage he instantly recognized.
+
+He drew himself up importantly, flattened his chin upward until his
+lower lip protruded in a pink roll across his mouth, drew down his
+yellow brows in a frown of displeasure, and came forward mentor-like to
+meet the little party as it neared the house. He had the air of coming
+to investigate and possibly oust the stranger, and he looked at him
+keenly, critically, offensively, as if he had the right to protect the
+lady. They might have been a pair of naughty children come back from a
+forbidden frolic, from the way he surveyed them. But the beauty of it
+was that neither of them saw him, being occupied with each other, until
+they were fairly upon him. Then, there he stood offensively, as if he
+were a great power to be reckoned with.
+
+"Well, well, well, Miss Margaret, you have got home at last!" he said,
+pompously and condescendingly, and then he looked into the eyes of her
+companion as if demanding an explanation of _his_ presence there.
+
+Margaret drew herself up haughtily. His use of her Christian name in
+that familiar tone annoyed her exceedingly. Her eyes flashed
+indignantly, but the whole of it was lost unless Bud saw it, for Gardley
+had faced his would-be adversary with a keen, surprised scrutiny, and
+was looking him over coolly. There was that in the young man's eye that
+made the eye of Frederick West quail before him. It was only an instant
+the two stood challenging each other, but in that short time each knew
+and marked the other for an enemy. Only a brief instant and then Gardley
+turned to Margaret, and before she had time to think what to say, he
+asked:
+
+"Is this man a friend of yours, Miss _Earle_?" with marked emphasis on
+the last word.
+
+"No," said Margaret, coolly, "not a friend--a boarder in the house."
+Then most formally, "Mr. West, my _friend_ Mr. Gardley."
+
+If the minister had not been possessed of the skin of a rhinoceros he
+would have understood himself to be dismissed at that; but he was not a
+man accustomed to accepting dismissal, as his recent church in New York
+State might have testified. He stood his ground, his chin flatter than
+ever, his little eyes mere slits of condemnation. He did not acknowledge
+the introduction by so much as the inclination of his head. His hands
+were clasped behind his back, and his whole attitude was one of
+righteous belligerence.
+
+Gardley gazed steadily at him for a moment, a look of mingled contempt
+and amusement gradually growing upon his face. Then he turned away as if
+the man were too small to notice.
+
+"You will come in and take dinner with me?" asked Margaret, eagerly. "I
+want to send a small package to Mrs. Wallis if you will be so good as to
+take it with you."
+
+"I'm sorry I can't stay to dinner, but I have an errand in another
+direction and at some distance. I am returning this way, however, and,
+if I may, will call and get the package toward evening."
+
+Margaret's eyes spoke her welcome, and with a few formal words the young
+man sprang on his horse, said, "So long, Will!" to Bud, and, ignoring
+the minister, rode away.
+
+They watched him for an instant, for, indeed, he was a goodly sight upon
+a horse, riding as if he and the horse were utterly one in spirit; then
+Margaret turned quickly to go into the house.
+
+"Um! Ah! Miss Margaret!" began the minister, with a commandatory gesture
+for her to stop.
+
+Margaret was the picture of haughtiness as she turned and said, "Miss
+_Earle_, if you please!"
+
+"Um! Ah! Why, certainly, Miss--ah--_Earle_, if you wish it. Will you
+kindly remain here for a moment? I wish to speak with you. Bud, you may
+go on."
+
+"I'll go when I like, and it's none of your business!" muttered Bud,
+ominously, under his breath. He looked at Margaret to see if she wished
+him to go. He had an idea that this might be one of the times when he
+was to look after her.
+
+She smiled at him understandingly. "William may remain, Mr. West," she
+said, sweetly. "Anything you have to say to me can surely be said in his
+presence," and she laid her hand lightly on Bud's sleeve.
+
+Bud looked down at the hand proudly and grew inches taller enjoying the
+minister's frown.
+
+"Um! Ah!" said West, unabashed. "Well, I merely wished to warn you
+concerning the character of that person who has just left us. He is
+really not a proper companion for you. Indeed, I may say he is quite the
+contrary, and that to my personal knowledge--"
+
+"He's as good as you are and better!" growled Bud, ominously.
+
+"Be quiet, boy! I wasn't speaking to you!" said West, as if he were
+addressing a slave. "If I hear another word from your lips I shall
+report it to your father!"
+
+"Go 's far 's you like and see how much I care!" taunted Bud, but was
+stopped by Margaret's gentle pressure on his arm.
+
+"Mr. West, I thought I made you understand that Mr. Gardley is my
+friend."
+
+"Um! Ah! Miss Earle, then all I have to say is that you have formed a
+most unwise friendship, and should let it proceed no further. Why, my
+dear young lady, if you knew all there is to know about him you would
+not think of speaking to that young man."
+
+"Indeed! Mr. West, I suppose that might be true of a good many people,
+might it not, _if we knew all there is to know about them_? Nobody but
+God could very well get along with some of us."
+
+"But, my dear young lady, you don't understand. This young person is
+nothing but a common ruffian, a gambler, in fact, and an habitue at the
+saloons. I have seen him myself sitting in a saloon at a very late hour
+playing with a vile, dirty pack of cards, and in the company of a lot of
+low-down creatures--"
+
+"May I ask how you came to be in a saloon at that hour, Mr. West?" There
+was a gleam of mischief in the girl's eyes, and her mouth looked as if
+she were going to laugh, but she controlled it.
+
+The minister turned very red indeed. "Well, I--ah--I had been called
+from my bed by shouts and the report of a pistol. There was a fight
+going on in the room adjoining the bar, and I didn't know but my
+assistance might be needed!" (At this juncture Bud uttered a sort of
+snort and, placing his hands over his heart, ducked down as if a sudden
+pain had seized him.) "But imagine my pain and astonishment when I was
+informed that the drunken brawl I was witnessing was but a nightly and
+common occurrence. I may say I remained for a few minutes, partly out of
+curiosity, as I wished to see all kinds of life in this new world for
+the sake of a book I am thinking of writing. I therefore took careful
+note of the persons present, and was thus able to identify the person
+who has just ridden away as one of the chief factors in that evening's
+entertainment. He was, in fact, the man who, when he had pocketed all
+the money on the gaming-table, arose and, taking out his pistol, shot
+out the lights in the room, a most dangerous and irregular proceeding--"
+
+"Yes, and you came within an ace of being shot, pa says. The Kid's a
+dead shot, he is, and you were right in the way. Served you right for
+going where you had no business!"
+
+"I did not remain longer in that place, as you may imagine," went on West,
+ignoring Bud, "for I found it was no place for a--for--a--ah--minister
+of the gospel; but I remained long enough to hear from the lips of this
+person with whom you have just been walking some of the most terrible
+language my ears have ever been permitted to--ah--witness!"
+
+But Margaret had heard all that she intended to listen to on that
+subject. With decided tone she interrupted the voluble speaker, who was
+evidently enjoying his own eloquence.
+
+"Mr. West, I think you have said all that it is necessary to say. There
+are still some things about Mr. Gardley that you evidently do not know,
+but I think you are in a fair way to learn them if you stay in this part
+of the country long. William, isn't that your mother calling us to
+dinner? Let us go in; I'm hungry."
+
+Bud followed her up the walk with a triumphant wink at the discomfited
+minister, and they disappeared into the house; but when Margaret went
+up to her room and took off her hat in front of the little warped
+looking-glass there were angry tears in her eyes. She never felt more
+like crying in her life. Chagrin and anger and disappointment were all
+struggling in her soul, yet she must not cry, for dinner would be ready
+and she must go down. Never should that mean little meddling man see
+that his words had pierced her soul.
+
+For, angry as she was at the minister, much as she loathed his petty,
+jealous nature and saw through his tale-bearing, something yet told her
+that his picture of young Gardley's wildness was probably true, and her
+soul sank within her at the thought. It was just what had come in
+shadowy, instinctive fear to her heart when he had hinted at his being a
+"roughneck," yet to have it put baldly into words by an enemy hurt her
+deeply, and she looked at herself in the glass half frightened.
+"Margaret Earle, have you come out to the wilderness to lose your heart
+to the first handsome sower of wild oats that you meet?" her true eyes
+asked her face in the glass, and Margaret Earle's heart turned sad at
+the question and shrank back. Then she dropped upon her knees beside her
+gay little rocking-chair and buried her face in its flowered cushions
+and cried to her Father in heaven:
+
+"Oh, my Father, let me not be weak, but with all my heart I cry to Thee
+to save this young, strong, courageous life and not let it be a failure.
+Help him to find Thee and serve Thee, and if his life has been all
+wrong--and I suppose it has--oh, make it right for Jesus' sake! If there
+is anything that I can do to help, show me how, and don't let me make
+mistakes. Oh, Jesus, Thy power is great. Let this young man feel it and
+yield himself to it."
+
+She remained silently praying for a moment more, putting her whole soul
+into the prayer and knowing that she had been called thus to pray for
+him until her prayer was answered.
+
+She came down to dinner a few minutes later with a calm, serene face, on
+which was no hint of her recent emotion, and she managed to keep the
+table conversation wholly in her own hands, telling Mr. Tanner about her
+home town and her father and mother. When the meal was finished the
+minister had no excuse to think that the new teacher was careless about
+her friends and associates, and he was well informed about the high
+principles of her family.
+
+But West had retired into a sulky mood and uttered not a word except to
+ask for more chicken and coffee and a second helping of pie. It was,
+perhaps, during that dinner that he decided it would be best for him to
+preach in Ashland on the following Sunday. The young lady could be
+properly impressed with his dignity in no other way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+When Lance Gardley came back to the Tanners' the sun was preparing the
+glory of its evening setting, and the mountain was robed in all its
+rosiest veils.
+
+Margaret was waiting for him, with the dog Captain beside her, wandering
+back and forth in the unfenced dooryard and watching her mountain. It
+was a relief to her to find that the minister occupied a room on the
+first floor in a kind of ell on the opposite side of the house from her
+own room and her mountain. He had not been visible that afternoon, and
+with Captain by her side and Bud on the front-door step reading _The Sky
+Pilot_ she felt comparatively safe. She had read to Bud for an hour and
+a half, and he was thoroughly interested in the story; but she was sure
+he would keep the minister away at all costs. As for Captain, he and the
+minister were sworn enemies by this time. He growled every time West
+came near or spoke to her.
+
+She made a picture standing with her hand on Captain's shaggy, noble
+head, the lace of her sleeve falling back from the white arm, her other
+hand raised to shade her face as she looked away to the glorified
+mountain, a slim, white figure looking wistfully off at the sunset. The
+young man took off his hat and rode his horse more softly, as if in the
+presence of the holy.
+
+The dog lifted one ear, and a tremor passed through his frame as the
+rider drew near; otherwise he did not stir from his position; but it was
+enough. The girl turned, on the alert at once, and met him with a smile,
+and the young man looked at her as if an angel had deigned to smile upon
+him. There was a humility in his fine face that sat well with the
+courage written there, and smoothed away all hardness for the time, so
+that the girl, looking at him in the light of the revelations of the
+morning, could hardly believe it had been true, yet an inner fineness of
+perception taught her that it was.
+
+The young man dismounted and left his horse standing quietly by the
+roadside. He would not stay, he said, yet lingered by her side, talking
+for a few minutes, watching the sunset and pointing out its changes.
+
+She gave him the little package for Mom Wallis. There was a simple lace
+collar in a little white box, and a tiny leather-bound book done in
+russet suede with gold lettering.
+
+"Tell her to wear the collar and think of me whenever she dresses up."
+
+"I'm afraid that'll never be, then," said the young man, with a pitying
+smile. "Mom Wallis never dresses up."
+
+"Tell her I said she must dress up evenings for supper, and I'll make
+her another one to change with that and bring it when I come."
+
+He smiled upon her again, that wondering, almost worshipful smile, as if
+he wondered if she were real, after all, so different did she seem from
+his idea of girls.
+
+"And the little book," she went on, apologetically; "I suppose it was
+foolish to send it, but something she said made me think of some of the
+lines in the poem. I've marked them for her. She reads, doesn't she?"
+
+"A little, I think. I see her now and then read the papers that Pop
+brings home with him. I don't fancy her literary range is very wide,
+however."
+
+"Of course, I suppose it is ridiculous! And maybe she'll not understand
+any of it; but tell her I sent her a message. She must see if she can
+find it in the poem. Perhaps you can explain it to her. It's Browning's
+'Rabbi Ben Ezra.' You know it, don't you?"
+
+"I'm afraid not. I was intent on other things about the time when I was
+supposed to be giving my attention to Browning, or I wouldn't be what I
+am to-day, I suppose. But I'll do my best with what wits I have. What's
+it about? Couldn't you give me a pointer or two?"
+
+"It's the one beginning:
+
+    "Grow old along with me!
+    The best is yet to be,
+    The last of life, for which the first was made:
+    Our times are in His hand
+    Who saith, 'A whole I planned,
+    Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor
+    be afraid!'"
+
+He looked down at her still with that wondering smile. "Grow old along
+with you!" he said, gravely, and then sighed. "You don't look as if you
+ever would grow old."
+
+"That's it," she said, eagerly. "That's the whole idea. We don't ever
+grow old and get done with it all, we just go on to bigger things, wiser
+and better and more beautiful, till we come to understand and be a part
+of the whole great plan of God!"
+
+He did not attempt an answer, nor did he smile now, but just looked at
+her with that deeply quizzical, grave look as if his soul were turning
+over the matter seriously. She held her peace and waited, unable to find
+the right word to speak. Then he turned and looked off, an infinite
+regret growing in his face.
+
+"That makes living a different thing from the way most people take it,"
+he said, at last, and his tone showed that he was considering it deeply.
+
+"Does it?" she said, softly, and looked with him toward the sunset,
+still half seeing his quiet profile against the light. At last it came
+to her that she must speak. Half fearfully she began: "I've been
+thinking about what you said on the ride. You said you didn't make good.
+I--wish you would. I--I'm sure you could--"
+
+She looked up wistfully and saw the gentleness come into his face as if
+the fountain of his soul, long sealed, had broken up, and as if he saw a
+possibility before him for the first time through the words she had
+spoken.
+
+At last he turned to her with that wondering smile again. "Why should
+you care?" he asked. The words would have sounded harsh if his tone had
+not been so gentle.
+
+Margaret hesitated for an answer. "I don't know how to tell it," she
+said, slowly. "There's another verse, a few lines more in that poem,
+perhaps you know them?--
+
+    'All I never could be, All, men ignored in me,
+    This I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped.'
+
+I want it because--well, perhaps because I feel you are worth all that
+to God. I would like to see you be that."
+
+He looked down at her again, and was still so long that she felt she had
+failed miserably.
+
+"I hope you will excuse my speaking," she added. "I--It seems there are
+so many grand possibilities in life, and for you--I couldn't bear to
+have you say you hadn't made good, as if it were all over."
+
+"I'm glad you spoke," he said, quickly. "I guess perhaps I have been all
+kinds of a fool. You have made me feel how many kinds I have been."
+
+"Oh no!" she protested.
+
+"You don't know what I have been," he said, sadly, and then with sudden
+conviction, as if he read her thoughts: "You _do_ know! That prig of a
+parson has told you! Well, it's just as well you should know. It's
+right!"
+
+A wave of misery passed over his face and erased all its brightness and
+hope. Even the gentleness was gone. He looked haggard and drawn with
+hopelessness all in a moment.
+
+"Do you think it would matter to me--_anything_ that man would say?" she
+protested, all her woman's heart going out in pity.
+
+"But it was true, all he said, probably, and more--"
+
+"It doesn't matter," she said, eagerly. "The other is true, too. Just as
+the poem says, 'All that man ignores in you, just that you are worth to
+God!' And you _can_ be what He meant you to be. I have been praying all
+the afternoon that He would help you to be."
+
+"Have you?" he said, and his eyes lit up again as if the altar-fires of
+hope were burning once more. "Have you? I thank you."
+
+"You came to me when I was lost in the wilderness," she said, shyly. "I
+wanted to help _you_ back--if--I might."
+
+"You will help--you have!" he said, earnestly. "And I was far enough off
+the trail, too, but if there's any way to get back I'll get there." He
+grasped her hand and held it for a second. "Keep up that praying," he
+said. "I'll see what can be done."
+
+Margaret looked up. "Oh, I'm so glad, so glad!"
+
+He looked reverently into her eyes, all the manhood in him stirred to
+higher, better things. Then, suddenly, as they stood together, a sound
+smote their ears as from another world.
+
+"Um! Ah!--"
+
+The minister stood within the doorway, barred by Bud in scowling
+defiance, and guarded by Cap, who gave an answering growl.
+
+Gardley and Margaret looked at each other and smiled, then turned and
+walked slowly down to where the pony stood. They did not wish to talk
+here in that alien presence. Indeed, it seemed that more words were not
+needed--they would be a desecration.
+
+So he rode away into the sunset once more with just another look and a
+hand-clasp, and she turned, strangely happy at heart, to go back to her
+dull surroundings and her uncongenial company.
+
+"Come, William, let's have a praise service," she said, brightly,
+pausing at the doorway, but ignoring the scowling minister.
+
+"A praise service! What's a praise service?" asked the wondering Bud,
+shoving over to let her sit down beside him.
+
+She sat with her back to West, and Cap came and lay at her feet with the
+white of one eye on the minister and a growl ready to gleam between his
+teeth any minute. There was just no way for the minister to get out
+unless he jumped over them or went out the back door; but the people in
+the doorway had the advantage of not having to look at him, and he
+couldn't very well dominate the conversation standing so behind them.
+
+"Why, a praise service is a service of song and gladness, of course. You
+sing, don't you? Of course. Well, what shall we sing? Do you know this?"
+And she broke softly into song:
+
+    "When peace like a river attendeth my way;
+    When sorrows like sea-billows roll;
+    Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to say,
+    It is well, it is well with my soul."
+
+Bud did not know the song, but he did not intend to be balked with the
+minister standing right behind him, ready, no doubt, to jump in and take
+the precedence; so he growled away at a note in the bass, turning it
+over and over and trying to make it fit, like a dog gnawing at a bare
+bone; but he managed to keep time and make it sound a little like
+singing.
+
+The dusk was falling fast as they finished the last verse, Margaret
+singing the words clear and distinct, Bud growling unintelligibly and
+snatching at words he had never heard before. Once more Margaret sang:
+
+    "Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
+    The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide!
+    When other refuge fails and comforts flee,
+    Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me!"
+
+Out on the lonely trail wending his way toward the purple mountain--the
+silent way to the bunk-house at the camp--in that clear air where sound
+travels a long distance the traveler heard the song, and something
+thrilled his soul. A chord that never had been touched in him before was
+vibrating, and its echoes would be heard through all his life.
+
+On and on sang Margaret, just because she could not bear to stop and
+hear the commonplace talk which would be about her. Song after song
+thrilled through the night's wideness. The stars came out in thick
+clusters. Father Tanner had long ago dropped his weekly paper and tilted
+his chair back against the wall, with his eyes half closed to listen,
+and his wife had settled down comfortably on the carpet sofa, with her
+hands nicely folded in her lap, as if she were at church. The minister,
+after silently surveying the situation for a song or two, attempted to
+join his voice to the chorus. He had a voice like a cross-cut saw, but
+he didn't do much harm in the background that way, though Cap did growl
+now and then, as if it put his nerves on edge. And by and by Mr. Tanner
+quavered in with a note or two.
+
+Finally Margaret sang:
+
+    "Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear,
+    It is not night if Thou art near,
+    Oh, may no earth-born cloud arise
+    To hide Thee from Thy servant's eyes."
+
+During this hymn the minister had slipped out the back door and gone
+around to the front of the house. He could not stand being in the
+background any longer; but as the last note died away Margaret arose
+and, bidding Bud good night, slipped up to her room.
+
+There, presently, beside her darkened window, with her face toward the
+mountain, she knelt to pray for the wanderer who was trying to find his
+way out of the wilderness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Monday morning found Margaret at the school-house nerved for her new
+task.
+
+One by one the scholars trooped in, shyly or half defiantly, hung their
+hats on the hooks, put their dinner-pails on the shelf, looked furtively
+at her, and sank into their accustomed seats; that is, the seats they
+had occupied during the last term of school. The big boys remained
+outside until Bud, acting under instructions from Margaret--after she
+had been carefully taught the ways of the school by Bud himself--rang
+the big bell. Even then they entered reluctantly and as if it were a
+great condescension that they came at all, Jed and "Delicate" coming in
+last, with scarcely a casual glance toward the teacher's desk, as if she
+were a mere fraction in the scheme of the school. She did not need to be
+told which was Timothy and which was Jed. Bud's description had been
+perfect. Her heart, by the way, instantly went out to Timothy. Jed was
+another proposition. He had thick, overhanging eyebrows, and a mouth
+that loved to make trouble and laugh over it. He was going to be hard to
+conquer. She wasn't sure the conquering would be interesting, either.
+
+Margaret stood by the desk, watching them all with a pleasant smile. She
+did not frown at the unnecessary shuffling of feet nor the loud remarks
+of the boys as they settled into their seats. She just stood and watched
+them interestedly, as though her time had not yet come.
+
+Jed and Timothy were carrying on a rumbling conversation. Even after
+they took their seats they kept it up. It was no part of their plan to
+let the teacher suppose they saw her or minded her in the least. They
+were the dominating influences in that school, and they wanted her to
+know it, right at the start; then a lot of trouble would be saved. If
+they didn't like her and couldn't manage her they didn't intend she
+should stay, and she might as well understand that at once.
+
+Margaret understood it fully. Yet she stood quietly and watched them
+with a look of deep interest on her face and a light almost of mischief
+in her eyes, while Bud grew redder and redder over the way his two idols
+were treating the new teacher. One by one the school became aware of the
+twinkle in the teacher's eyes, and grew silent to watch, and one by one
+they began to smile over the coming scene when Jed and Timothy should
+discover it, and, worst of all, find out that it was actually directed
+against them. They would expect severity, or fear, or a desire to
+placate; but a twinkle--it was more than the school could decide what
+would happen under such circumstances. No one in that room would ever
+dare to laugh at either of those two boys. But the teacher was almost
+laughing now, and the twinkle had taken the rest of the room into the
+secret, while she waited amusedly until the two should finish the
+conversation.
+
+The room grew suddenly deathly still, except for the whispered growls of
+Jed and Timothy, and still the silence deepened, until the two young
+giants themselves perceived that it was time to look up and take account
+of stock.
+
+The perspiration by this time was rolling down the back of Bud's neck.
+He was about the only one in the room who was not on a broad grin, and
+he was wretched. What a fearful mistake the new teacher was making right
+at the start! She was antagonizing the two boys who held the whole
+school in their hands. There was no telling what they wouldn't do to her
+now. And he would have to stand up for her. Yes, no matter what they
+did, he would stand up for her! Even though he lost his best friends, he
+must be loyal to her; but the strain was terrible! He did not dare to
+look at them, but fastened his eyes upon Margaret, as if keeping them
+glued there was his only hope. Then suddenly he saw her face break into
+one of the sweetest, merriest smiles he ever witnessed, with not one
+single hint of reproach or offended dignity in it, just a smile of
+comradeship, understanding, and pleasure in the meeting; and it was
+directed to the two seats where Jed and Timothy sat.
+
+With wonder he turned toward the two big boys, and saw, to his
+amazement, an answering smile upon their faces; reluctant, 'tis true,
+half sheepish at first, but a smile with lifted eyebrows of astonishment
+and real enjoyment of the joke.
+
+A little ripple of approval went round in half-breathed syllables, but
+Margaret gave no time for any restlessness to start. She spoke at once,
+in her pleasantest partnership tone, such as she had used to Bud when
+she asked him to help her build her bookcase. So she spoke now to that
+school, and each one felt she was speaking just to him especially, and
+felt a leaping response in his soul. Here, at least, was something new
+and interesting, a new kind of teacher. They kept silence to listen.
+
+"Oh, I'm not going to make a speech now," she said, and her voice
+sounded glad to them all. "I'll wait till we know one another before I
+do that. I just want to say how do you do to you, and tell you how glad
+I am to be here. I hope we shall like one another immensely and have a
+great many good times together. But we've got to get acquainted first,
+of course, and perhaps we'd better give most of the time to that to-day.
+First, suppose we sing something. What shall it be? What do you sing?"
+
+Little Susan Johnson, by virtue of having seen the teacher at
+Sunday-school, made bold to raise her hand and suggest, "Thar-thpangle
+Banner, pleath!" And so they tried it; but when Margaret found that only
+a few seemed to know the words, she said, "Wait!" Lifting her arm with a
+pretty, imperative gesture, and taking a piece of chalk from the box on
+her desk, she went to the new blackboard that stretched its shining
+black length around the room.
+
+The school was breathlessly watching the graceful movement of the
+beautiful hand and arm over the smooth surface, leaving behind it the
+clear, perfect script. Such wonderful writing they had never seen; such
+perfect, easy curves and twirls. Every eye in the room was fastened on
+her, every breath was held as they watched and spelled out the words one
+by one. "Gee!" said Bud, softly, under his breath, nor knew that he had
+spoken, but no one else moved.
+
+"Now," she said, "let us sing," and when they started off again
+Margaret's strong, clear soprano leading, every voice in the room
+growled out the words and tried to get in step with the tune.
+
+They had gone thus through two verses when Jed seemed to think it was
+about time to start something. Things were going altogether too smoothly
+for an untried teacher, if she _was_ handsome and unabashed. If they
+went on like this the scholars would lose all respect for him. So, being
+quite able to sing a clear tenor, he nevertheless puckered his lips
+impertinently, drew his brows in an ominous frown, and began to whistle
+a somewhat erratic accompaniment to the song. He watched the teacher
+closely, expecting to see the color flame in her cheeks, the anger flash
+in her eyes; he had tried this trick on other teachers and it always
+worked. He gave the wink to Timothy, and he too left off his glorious
+bass and began to whistle.
+
+But instead of the anger and annoyance they expected, Margaret turned
+appreciative eyes toward the two back seats, nodding her head a trifle
+and smiling with her eyes as she sang; and when the verse was done she
+held up her hand for silence and said:
+
+"Why, boys, that's beautiful! Let's try that verse once more, and you
+two whistle the accompaniment a little stronger in the chorus; or how
+would it do if you just came in on the chorus? I believe that would be
+more effective. Let's try the first verse that way; you boys sing during
+the verse and then whistle the chorus just as you did now. We really
+need your voices in the verse part, they are so strong and splendid.
+Let's try it now." And she started off again, the two big astonished
+fellows meekly doing as they were told, and really the effect was
+beautiful. What was their surprise when the whole song was finished to
+have her say, "Now everybody whistle the chorus softly," and then pucker
+up her own soft lips to join in. That completely finished the whistling
+stunt. Jed realized that it would never work again, not while she was
+here, for she had turned the joke into beauty and made them all enjoy
+it. It hadn't annoyed her in the least.
+
+Somehow by that time they were all ready for anything she had to
+suggest, and they watched again breathlessly as she wrote another song
+on the blackboard, taking the other side of the room for it, and this
+time a hymn--"I Need Thee Every Hour."
+
+When they began to sing it, however, Margaret found the tune went
+slowly, uncertainly.
+
+"Oh, how we need a piano!" she exclaimed. "I wonder if we can't get up
+an entertainment and raise money to buy one. How many will help?"
+
+Every hand in the place went up, Jed's and Timothy's last and only a
+little way, but she noted with triumph that they went up.
+
+"All right; we'll do it! Now let's sing that verse correctly." And she
+began to sing again, while they all joined anxiously in, really trying
+to do their best.
+
+The instant the last verse died away, Margaret's voice took their
+attention.
+
+"Two years ago in Boston two young men, who belonged to a little group
+of Christian workers who were going around from place to place holding
+meetings, sat talking together in their room in the hotel one evening."
+
+There was instant quiet, a kind of a breathless quiet. This was not like
+the beginning of any lesson any other teacher had ever given them. Every
+eye was fixed on her.
+
+"They had been talking over the work of the day, and finally one of them
+suggested that they choose a Bible verse for the whole year--"
+
+There was a movement of impatience from one back seat, as if Jed had
+scented an incipient sermon, but the teacher's voice went steadily on:
+
+"They talked it over, and at last they settled on II Timothy ii:15. They
+made up their minds to use it on every possible occasion. It was time to
+go to bed, so the man whose room adjoined got up and, instead of saying
+good night, he said, 'Well, II Timothy ii:15,' and went to his room.
+Pretty soon, when he put out his light, he knocked on the wall and
+shouted 'II Timothy ii:15,' and the other man responded, heartily, 'All
+right, II Timothy ii:15.' The next morning when they wrote their letters
+each of them wrote 'II Timothy ii:15' on the lower left-hand corner of
+the envelope, and sent out a great handful of letters to all parts of
+the world. Those letters passed through the Boston post-office, and some
+of the clerks who sorted them saw that queer legend written down in the
+lower left-hand corner of the envelope, and they wondered at it, and one
+or two wrote it down, to look it up afterward. The letters reached
+other cities and were put into the hands of mail-carriers to distribute,
+and they saw the queer little sentence, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and they
+wondered, and some of them looked it up."
+
+By this time the entire attention of the school was upon the story, for
+they perceived that it was a story.
+
+"The men left Boston and went across the ocean to hold meetings in other
+cities, and one day at a little railway station in Europe a group of
+people were gathered, waiting for a train, and those two men were among
+them. Pretty soon the train came, and one of the men got on the back end
+of the last car, while the other stayed on the platform, and as the
+train moved off the man on the last car took off his hat and said, in a
+good, loud, clear tone, 'Well, take care of yourself, II Timothy ii:15,'
+and the other one smiled and waved his hat and answered, 'Yes, II
+Timothy ii:15.' The man on the train, which was moving fast now, shouted
+back, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and the man on the platform responded still
+louder, waving his hat, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and back and forth the queer
+sentence was flung until the train was too far away for them to hear
+each other's voices. In the mean time all the people on the platform had
+been standing there listening and wondering what in the world such a
+strange salutation could mean. Some of them recognized what it was, but
+many did not know, and yet the sentence was said over so many times that
+they could not help remembering it; and some went away to recall it and
+ask their friends what it meant. A young man from America was on that
+platform and heard it, and he knew it stood for a passage in the Bible,
+and his curiosity was so great that he went back to his boarding-house
+and hunted up the Bible his mother had packed in his trunk when he came
+away from home, and he hunted through the Bible until he found the
+place, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and read it; and it made him think about his
+life and decide that he wasn't doing as he ought to do. I can't tell you
+all the story about that queer Bible verse, how it went here and there
+and what a great work it did in people's hearts; but one day those
+Christian workers went to Australia to hold some meetings, and one
+night, when the great auditorium was crowded, a man who was leading the
+meeting got up and told the story of this verse, how it had been chosen,
+and how it had gone over the world in strange ways, even told about the
+morning at the little railway station when the two men said good-by.
+Just as he got to that place in his story a man in the audience stood up
+and said: 'Brother, just let me say a word, please. I never knew
+anything about all this before, but I was at that railway station, and I
+heard those two men shout that strange good-by, and I went home and read
+that verse, and it's made a great difference in my life.'
+
+"There was a great deal more to the story, how some Chicago policemen
+got to be good men through reading that verse, and how the story of the
+Australia meetings was printed in an Australian paper and sent to a lady
+in America who sent it to a friend in England to read about the
+meetings. And this friend in England had a son in the army in India, to
+whom she was sending a package, and she wrapped it around something in
+that package, and the young man read all about it, and it helped to
+change his life. Well, I thought of that story this morning when I was
+trying to decide what to read for our opening chapter, and it occurred
+to me that perhaps you would be interested to take that verse for our
+school verse this term, and so if you would like it I will put it on the
+blackboard. Would you like it, I wonder?"
+
+She paused wistfully, as if she expected an answer, and there was a low,
+almost inaudible growl of assent; a keen listener might almost have said
+it had an impatient quality in it, as if they were in a hurry to find
+out what the verse was that had made such a stir in the world.
+
+"Very well," said Margaret, turning to the board; "then I'll put it
+where we all can see it, and while I write it will you please say over
+where it is, so that you will remember it and hunt it up for yourselves
+in your Bibles at home?"
+
+There was a sort of snicker at that, for there were probably not half a
+dozen Bibles, if there were so many, represented in that school; but
+they took her hint as she wrote, and chanted, "II Timothy ii:15, II
+Timothy ii:15," and then spelled out after her rapid crayon, "Study to
+show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be
+ashamed."
+
+They read it together at her bidding, with a wondering, half-serious
+look in their faces, and then she said, "Now, shall we pray?"
+
+The former teacher had not opened her school with prayer. It had never
+been even suggested in that school. It might have been a dangerous
+experiment if Margaret had attempted it sooner in her program. As it
+was, there was a shuffling of feet in the back seats at her first word;
+but the room, grew quiet again, perhaps out of curiosity to hear a
+woman's voice in prayer:
+
+"Our Heavenly Father, we want to ask Thee to bless us in our work
+together, and to help us to be such workmen that we shall not need to be
+ashamed to show our work to Thee at the close of the day. For Christ's
+sake we ask it. Amen."
+
+They did not have time to resent that prayer before she had them
+interested in something else. In fact, she had planned her whole first
+day out so that there should not be a minute for misbehavior. She had
+argued that if she could just get time to become acquainted with them
+she might prevent a lot of trouble before it ever started. Her first
+business was to win her scholars. After that she could teach them easily
+if they were once willing to learn.
+
+She had a set of mental arithmetic problems ready which she propounded
+to them next, some of them difficult and some easy enough for the
+youngest child who could think, and she timed their answers and wrote on
+the board the names of those who raised their hands first and had the
+correct answers. The questions were put in a fascinating way, many of
+them having curious little catches in them for the scholars who were not
+on the alert, and Timothy presently discovered this and set himself to
+get every one, coming off victorious at the end. Even Jed roused
+himself and was interested, and some of the girls quite distinguished
+themselves.
+
+When a half-hour of this was over she put the word "TRANSFIGURATION" on
+the blackboard, and set them to playing a regular game out of it. If
+some of the school-board had come in just then they might have lifted up
+hands of horror at the idea of the new teacher setting the whole school
+to playing a game. But they certainly would have been delightfully
+surprised to see a quiet and orderly room with bent heads and knit
+brows, all intent upon papers and pencils. Never before in the annals of
+that school had the first day held a full period of quiet or
+orderliness. It was expected to be a day of battle; a day of trying out
+the soul of the teacher and proving whether he or she were worthy to
+cope with the active minds and bodies of the young bullies of Ashland.
+But the expected battle had been forgotten. Every mind was busy with the
+matter in hand.
+
+Margaret had given them three minutes to write as many words as they
+could think of, of three letters or more, beginning with T, and using
+only the letters in the word she had put on the board. When time was
+called there was a breathless rush to write a last word, and then each
+scholar had to tell how many words he had, and each was called upon to
+read his list. Some had only two or three, some had ten or eleven. They
+were allowed to mark their words, counting one for each person present
+who did not have that word and doubling if it were two syllables, and so
+on. Excitement ran high when it was discovered that some had actually
+made a count of thirty or forty, and when they started writing words
+beginning with R every head was bent intently from the minute time was
+started.
+
+Never had three minutes seemed so short to those unused brains, and Jed
+yelled out: "Aw, gee! I only got three!" when time was called next.
+
+It was recess-time when they finally finished every letter in that word,
+and, adding all up, found that Timothy had won the game. Was that
+school? Why, a barbecue couldn't be named beside it for fun! They rushed
+out to the school-yard with a shout, and the boys played leap-frog
+loudly for the first few minutes. Margaret, leaning her tired head in
+her hands, elbows on the window-seat, closing her eyes and gathering
+strength for the after-recess session, heard one boy say: "Wal, how d'ye
+like 'er?" And the answer came: "Gee! I didn't think she'd be that kind
+of a guy! I thought she'd be some stiff old Ike! Ain't she a peach,
+though?" She lifted up her head and laughed triumphantly to herself, her
+eyes alight, herself now strengthened for the fray. She wasn't wholly
+failing, then?
+
+After recess there was a spelling-match, choosing sides, of course,
+"Because this is only the first day, and we must get acquainted before
+we can do real work, you know," she explained.
+
+The spelling-match proved an exciting affair also, with new features
+that Ashland had never seen before. Here the girls began to shine into
+prominence, but there were very few good spellers, and they were
+presently reduced to two girls--Rosa Rogers, the beauty of the school,
+and Amanda Bounds, a stolid, homely girl with deep eyes and a broad
+brow.
+
+"I'm going to give this as a prize to the one who stands up the
+longest," said Margaret, with sudden inspiration as she saw the boys in
+their seats getting restless; and she unpinned a tiny blue-silk bow that
+fastened her white collar.
+
+The girls all said "Oh-h-h!" and immediately every one in the room
+straightened up. The next few minutes those two girls spelled for dear
+life, each with her eye fixed upon the tiny blue bow in the teacher's
+white hands. To own that bow, that wonderful, strange bow of the
+heavenly blue, with the graceful twist to the tie! What delight! The
+girl who won that would be the admired of all the school. Even the boys
+sat up and took notice, each secretly thinking that Rosa, the beauty,
+would get it, of course.
+
+But she didn't; she slipped up on the word "receive," after all, putting
+the i before the e; and her stolid companion, catching her breath
+awesomely, slowly spelled it right and received the blue prize, pinned
+gracefully at the throat of her old brown gingham by the teacher's own
+soft, white fingers, while the school looked on admiringly and the blood
+rolled hotly up the back of her neck and spread over her face and
+forehead. Rosa, the beauty, went crestfallen to her seat.
+
+It was at noon, while they ate their lunch, that Margaret tried to get
+acquainted with the girls, calling most of them by name, to their great
+surprise, and hinting of delightful possibilities in the winter's work.
+Then she slipped out among the boys and watched their sports, laughing
+and applauding when some one made a particularly fine play, as if she
+thoroughly understood and appreciated.
+
+She managed to stand near Jed and Timothy just before Bud rang the bell.
+"I've heard you are great sportsmen," she said to them, confidingly.
+"And I've been wondering if you'll teach me some things I want to learn?
+I want to know how to ride and shoot. Do you suppose I could learn?"
+
+"Sure!" they chorused, eagerly, their embarrassment forgotten. "Sure,
+you could learn fine! Sure, _we'll learn_ you!"
+
+And then the bell rang and they all went in.
+
+The afternoon was a rather informal arrangement of classes and schedule
+for the next day, Margaret giving out slips of paper with questions for
+each to answer, that she might find out just where to place them; and
+while they wrote she went from one to another, getting acquainted,
+advising, and suggesting about what they wanted to study. It was all so
+new and wonderful to them! They had not been used to caring what they
+were to study. Now it almost seemed interesting.
+
+But when the day was done, the school-house locked, and Bud and Margaret
+started for home, she realized that she was weary. Yet it was a
+weariness of success and not of failure, and she felt happy in looking
+forward to the morrow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+The minister had decided to preach in Ashland, and on the following
+Sabbath. It became apparent that if he wished to have any notice at all
+from the haughty new teacher he must do something at once to establish
+his superiority in her eyes. He had carefully gone over his store of
+sermons that he always carried with him, and decided to preach on "The
+Dynamics of Altruism."
+
+Notices had been posted up in saloons and stores and post-office. He had
+made them himself after completely tabooing Mr. Tanner's kindly and
+blundering attempt, and they gave full information concerning "the Rev.
+Frederick West, Ph.D., of the vicinity of New York City, who had kindly
+consented to preach in the school-house on 'The Dynamics of Altruism.'"
+
+Several of these elaborately printed announcements had been posted up on
+big trees along the trails, and in other conspicuous places, and there
+was no doubt but that the coming Sabbath services were more talked of
+than anything else in that neighborhood for miles around, except the new
+teacher and her extraordinary way of making all the scholars fall in
+love with her. It is quite possible that the Reverend Frederick might
+not have been so flattered at the size of his audience when the day
+came if he could have known how many of them came principally because
+they thought it would be a good opportunity to see the new teacher.
+
+However, the announcements were read, and the preacher became an object
+of deep interest to the community when he went abroad. Under this
+attention he swelled, grew pleased, bland, and condescending, wearing an
+oily smile and bowing most conceitedly whenever anybody noticed him. He
+even began to drop his severity and silence at the table, toward the end
+of the week, and expanded into dignified conversation, mainly addressed
+to Mr. Tanner about the political situation in the State of Arizona. He
+was trying to impress the teacher with the fact that he looked upon her
+as a most insignificant mortal who had forfeited her right to his smiles
+by her headstrong and unseemly conduct when he had warned her about
+"that young ruffian."
+
+Out on the trail Long Bill and Jasper Kemp paused before a tree that
+bore the Reverend Frederick's church notice, and read in silence while
+the wide wonder of the desert spread about them.
+
+"What d'ye make out o' them cuss words, Jap?" asked Long Bill, at
+length. "D'ye figger the parson's goin' to preach on swearin' ur
+gunpowder?"
+
+"Blowed ef I know," answered Jasper, eying the sign ungraciously; "but
+by the looks of him he can't say much to suit me on neither one. He
+resembles a yaller cactus bloom out in a rain-storm as to head, an' his
+smile is like some of them prickles on the plant. He can't be no
+'sky-pilot' to me, not just yet."
+
+"You don't allow he b'longs in any way to _her_?" asked Long Bill,
+anxiously, after they had been on their way for a half-hour.
+
+"B'long to _her_? Meanin' the schoolmarm?"
+
+"Yes; he ain't sweet on her nor nothin'?"
+
+"Wal, I guess not," said Jasper, contentedly. "She's got eyes sharp's a
+needle. You don't size her up so small she's goin' to take to a sickly
+parson with yaller hair an' sleek ways when she's seen the Kid, do you?"
+
+"Wal, no, it don't seem noways reasonable, but you never can tell. Women
+gets notions."
+
+"She ain't that kind! You mark my words, _she ain't that kind_. I'd lay
+she'd punch the breeze like a coyote ef he'd make up to her. Just you
+wait till you see him. He's the most no-'count, measleyest little thing
+that ever called himself a man. My word! I'd like to see him try to ride
+that colt o' mine. I really would. It would be some sight for sore eyes,
+it sure would."
+
+"Mebbe he's got a intellec'," suggested Long Bill, after another mile.
+"That goes a long ways with women-folks with a education."
+
+"No chance!" said Jasper, confidently. "'Ain't got room fer one under
+his yaller thatch. You wait till you set your lamps on him once before
+you go to gettin' excited. Why, he ain't one-two-three with our
+missionary! Gosh! I wish _he'd_ come back an' see to such goin's-on--I
+certainly do."
+
+"Was you figgerin' to go to that gatherin' Sunday?"
+
+"I sure was," said Jasper. "I want to see the show, an', besides, we
+might be needed ef things got too high-soundin'. It ain't good to have a
+creature at large that thinks he knows all there is to know. I heard
+him talk down to the post-office the day after that little party we had
+when the Kid shot out the lights to save Bunchy from killin' Crapster,
+an' it's my opinion he needs a good spankin'; but I'm agoin' to give him
+a fair show. I ain't much on religion myself, but I do like to see a
+square deal, especially in a parson. I've sized it up he needs a
+lesson."
+
+"I'm with ye, Jap," said Long Bill, and the two rode on their way in
+silence.
+
+Margaret was so busy and so happy with her school all the week that she
+quite forgot her annoyance at the minister. She really saw very little
+of him, for he was always late to breakfast, and she took hers early.
+She went to her room immediately after supper, and he had little
+opportunity for pursuing her acquaintance. Perhaps he judged that it
+would be wise to let her alone until after he had made his grand
+impression on Sunday, and let her "make up" to him.
+
+It was not until Sunday morning that she suddenly recalled that he was
+to preach that day. She had indeed seen the notices, for a very large
+and elaborate one was posted in front of the school-house, and some
+anonymous artist had produced a fine caricature of the preacher in red
+clay underneath his name. Margaret had been obliged to remain after
+school Friday and remove as much of this portrait as she was able, not
+having been willing to make it a matter of discipline to discover the
+artist. In fact, it was so true to the model that the young teacher felt
+a growing sympathy for the one who had perpetrated it.
+
+Margaret started to the school-house early Sunday morning, attended by
+the faithful Bud. Not that he had any more intention of going to
+Sunday-school than he had the week before, but it was pleasant to be the
+chosen escort of so popular a teacher. Even Jed and Timothy had walked
+home with her twice during the week. He did not intend to lose his place
+as nearest to her. There was only one to whom he would surrender that,
+and he was too far away to claim it often.
+
+Margaret had promised to help in the Sunday-school that morning, for the
+woman who taught the little ones was still away with her sick neighbor,
+and on the way she persuaded Bud to help her.
+
+"You'll be secretary for me, won't you, William?" she asked, brightly.
+"I'm going to take the left-front corner of the room for the children,
+and seat them on the recitation-benches, and that will leave all the
+back part of the room for the older people. Then I can use the
+blackboard and not disturb the rest."
+
+"Secretary?" asked the astonished Bud. He was, so to speak, growing
+accustomed to surprises. "Secretary" did not sound like being "a nice
+little Sunday-school boy."
+
+"Why, yes! take up the collection, and see who is absent, and so on. I
+don't know all the names, perhaps, and, anyhow, I don't like to do that
+when I have to teach!"
+
+Artful Margaret! She had no mind to leave Bud floating around outside
+the school-house, and though she had ostensibly prepared her lesson and
+her blackboard illustration for the little children, she had hidden in
+it a truth for Bud--poor, neglected, devoted Bud!
+
+The inefficient old man who taught the older people that day gathered
+his forces together and, seated with his back to the platform, his
+spectacles extended upon his long nose, he proceeded with the questions
+on the lesson-leaf, as usual, being more than ordinarily unfamiliar with
+them; but before he was half through he perceived by the long pauses
+between the questions and answers that he did not have the attention of
+his class. He turned slowly around to see what they were all looking at,
+and became so engaged in listening to the lesson the new teacher was
+drawing on the blackboard that he completely forgot to go on, until Bud,
+very important in his new position, rang the tiny desk-bell for the
+close of school, and Margaret, looking up, saw in dismay that she had
+been teaching the whole school.
+
+While they were singing a closing hymn the room began to fill up, and
+presently came the minister, walking importantly beside Mr. Tanner, his
+chin flattened upward as usual, but bent in till it made a double roll
+over his collar, his eyes rolling importantly, showing much of their
+whites, his sermon, in an elaborate leather cover, carried conspicuously
+under his arm, and the severest of clerical coats and collars setting
+out his insignificant face.
+
+Walking behind him in single file, measured step, just so far apart,
+came the eight men from the bunk-house--Long Bill, Big Jim, Fiddling
+Boss, Jasper Kemp, Fade-away Forbes, Stocky, Croaker, and Fudge; and
+behind them, looking like a scared rabbit, Mom Wallis scuttled into the
+back seat and sank out of sight. The eight men, however, ranged
+themselves across the front of the room on the recitation-bench,
+directly in front of the platform, removing a few small children for
+that purpose.
+
+They had been lined up in a scowling row along the path as the minister
+entered, looking at them askance under his aristocratic yellow eyebrows,
+and as he neared the door the last man followed in his wake, then the
+next, and so on.
+
+Margaret, in her seat half-way back at the side of the school-house near
+a window, saw through the trees a wide sombrero over a pair of broad
+shoulders; but, though she kept close watch, she did not see her friend
+of the wilderness enter the school-house. If he had really come to
+meeting, he was staying outside.
+
+The minister was rather nonplussed at first that there were no
+hymn-books. It almost seemed that he did not know how to go on with
+divine service without hymn-books, but at last he compromised on the
+long-meter Doxology, pronounced with deliberate unction. Then, looking
+about for a possible pipe-organ and choir, he finally started it
+himself; but it is doubtful whether any one would have recognized the
+tune enough to help it on if Margaret had not for very shame's sake
+taken it up and carried it along, and so they came to the prayer and
+Bible-reading.
+
+These were performed with a formal, perfunctory style calculated to
+impress the audience with the importance of the preacher rather than the
+words he was speaking. The audience was very quiet, having the air of
+reserving judgment for the sermon.
+
+Margaret could not just remember afterward how it was she missed the
+text. She had turned her eyes away from the minister, because it somehow
+made her feel homesick to compare him with her dear, dignified father.
+Her mind had wandered, perhaps, to the sombrero she had glimpsed
+outside, and she was wondering how its owner was coming on with his
+resolves, and just what change they would mean in his life, anyway. Then
+suddenly she awoke to the fact that the sermon had begun.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+"Considered in the world of physics," began the lordly tones of the
+Reverend Frederick, "dynamics is that branch of mechanics that treats of
+the effects of forces in producing motion, and of the laws of motion
+thus produced; sometimes called kinetics, opposed to statics. It is the
+science that treats of the laws of force, whether producing equilibrium
+or motion; in this sense including both statics and kinetics. It is also
+applied to the forces producing or governing activity or movement of any
+kind; also the methods of such activity."
+
+The big words rolled out magnificently over the awed gathering, and the
+minister flattened his chin and rolled his eyes up at the people in his
+most impressive way.
+
+Margaret's gaze hastily sought the row of rough men on the front seat,
+sitting with folded arms in an attitude of attention, each man with a
+pair of intelligent eyes under his shaggy brows regarding the preacher
+as they might have regarded an animal in a zoo. Did they understand what
+had been said? It was impossible to tell from their serious faces.
+
+"Philanthropy has been called the dynamics of Christianity; that is to
+say, it is Christianity in action," went on the preacher. "It is my
+purpose this morning to speak upon the dynamics of altruism. Now
+altruism is the theory that inculcates benevolence to others in
+subordination to self-interest; interested benevolence as opposed to
+disinterested; also, the practice of this theory."
+
+He lifted his eyes to the audience once more and nodded his head
+slightly, as if to emphasize the deep truth he had just given them, and
+the battery of keen eyes before him never flinched from his face. They
+were searching him through and through. Margaret wondered if he had no
+sense of the ridiculous, that he could, to such an audience, pour forth
+such a string of technical definitions. They sounded strangely like
+dictionary language. She wondered if anybody present besides herself
+knew what the man meant or got any inkling of what his subject was.
+Surely he would drop to simpler language, now that he had laid out his
+plan.
+
+It never occurred to her that the man was trying to impress _her_ with
+his wonderful fluency of language and his marvelous store of wisdom. On
+and on he went in much the same trend he had begun, with now and then a
+flowery sentence or whole paragraph of meaningless eloquence about the
+"brotherhood of man"--with a roll to the r's in brotherhood.
+
+Fifteen minutes of this profitless oratory those men of the wilderness
+endured, stolidly and with fixed attention; then, suddenly, a sentence
+of unusual simplicity struck them and an almost visible thrill went down
+the front seat.
+
+"For years the church has preached a dead faith, without works, my
+friends, and the time has come to stop preaching faith! I repeat
+it--fellow-men. I repeat it. The time has come _to stop preaching
+faith_ and begin to do good works!" He thumped the desk vehemently. "Men
+don't need a superstitious belief in a Saviour to save them from their
+sins; they need to go to work and save themselves! As if a man dying two
+thousand years ago on a cross could do any good to you and me to-day!"
+
+It was then that the thrill passed down that front line, and Long Bill,
+sitting at their head, leaned slightly forward and looked full and
+frowning into the face of Jasper Kemp; and the latter, frowning back,
+solemnly winked one eye. Margaret sat where she could see the whole
+thing.
+
+Immediately, still with studied gravity, Long Bill cleared his throat
+impressively, arose, and, giving the minister a full look in the eye, of
+the nature almost of a challenge, he turned and walked slowly, noisily
+down the aisle and out the front door.
+
+The minister was visibly annoyed, and for the moment a trifle flustered;
+but, concluding his remarks had been too deep for the rough creature, he
+gathered up the thread of his argument and proceeded:
+
+"We need to get to work at our duty toward our fellow-men. We need to
+down trusts and give the laboring-man a chance. We need to stop
+insisting that men shall believe in the inspiration of the entire Bible
+and get to work at something practical!"
+
+The impressive pause after this sentence was interrupted by a sharp,
+rasping sound of Big Jim clearing his throat and shuffling to his feet.
+He, too, looked the minister full in the face with a searching gaze,
+shook his head sadly, and walked leisurely down the aisle and out of
+the door. The minister paused again and frowned. This was becoming
+annoying.
+
+Margaret sat in startled wonder. Could it be possible that these rough
+men were objecting to the sermon from a theological point of view, or
+was it just a happening that they had gone out at such pointed moments.
+She sat back after a minute, telling herself that of course the men must
+just have been weary of the long sentences, which no doubt they could
+not understand. She began to hope that Gardley was not within hearing.
+It was not probable that many others understood enough to get harm from
+the sermon, but her soul boiled with indignation that a man could go
+forth and call himself a minister of an evangelical church and yet talk
+such terrible heresy.
+
+Big Jim's steps died slowly away on the clay path outside, and the
+preacher resumed his discourse.
+
+"We have preached long enough of hell and torment. It is time for a
+gospel of love to our brothers. Hell is a superstition of the Dark Ages.
+_There is no hell!_"
+
+Fiddling Boss turned sharply toward Jasper Kemp, as if waiting for a
+signal, and Jasper gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod. Whereupon
+Fiddling Boss cleared his throat loudly and arose, faced the minister,
+and marched down the aisle, while Jasper Kemp remained quietly seated as
+if nothing had happened, a vacancy each side of him.
+
+By this time the color began to rise in the minister's cheeks. He looked
+at the retreating back of Fiddling Boss, and then suspiciously down at
+the row of men, but every one of them sat with folded arms and eyes
+intent upon the sermon, as if their comrades had not left them. The
+minister thought he must have been mistaken and took up the broken
+thread once more, or tried to, but he had hopelessly lost the place in
+his manuscript, and the only clue that offered was a quotation of a poem
+about the devil; to be sure, the connection was somewhat abrupt, but he
+clutched it with his eye gratefully and began reading it dramatically:
+
+    "'Men don't believe in the devil now
+    As their fathers used to do--'"
+
+But he had got no further when a whole clearing-house of throats
+sounded, and Fade-away Forbes stumbled to his feet frantically, bolting
+down the aisle as if he had been sent for. He had not quite reached the
+door when Stocky clumped after him, followed at intervals by Croaker and
+Fudge, and each just as the minister had begun:
+
+"Um! Ah! To resume--"
+
+And now only Jasper Kemp remained of the front-seaters, his fine gray
+eyes boring through and through the minister as he floundered through
+the remaining portion of his manuscript up to the point where it began,
+"And finally--" which opened with another poem:
+
+    "'I need no Christ to die for me.'"
+
+The sturdy, gray-haired Scotchman suddenly lowered his folded arms,
+slapping a hand resoundingly on each knee, bent his shoulders the better
+to pull himself to his feet, pressing his weight on his hands till his
+elbows were akimbo, uttered a deep sigh and a, "Yes--well--_ah_!"
+
+With that he got to his feet and dragged them slowly out of the
+school-house.
+
+By this time the minister was ready to burst with indignation. Never
+before in all the bombastic days of his egotism had he been so grossly
+insulted, and by such rude creatures! And yet there was really nothing
+that could be said or done. These men appeared to be simple creatures
+who had wandered in idly, perhaps for a few moments' amusement, and,
+finding the discourse above their caliber, had innocently wandered out
+again. That was the way it had been made to appear. But his plans had
+been cruelly upset by such actions, and he was mortified in the extreme.
+His face was purple with his emotions, and he struggled and spluttered
+for a way out of his trying dilemma. At last he spoke, and his voice was
+absurdly dignified:
+
+"Is there--ah--any other--ah--auditor--ah--who is desirous of
+withdrawing before the close of service? If so he may do so now,
+or--ah--" He paused for a suitable ending, and familiar words rushed to
+his lips without consciousness for the moment of their meaning--"or
+forever after hold their peace--ah!"
+
+There was a deathly silence in the school-house. No one offered to go
+out, and Margaret suddenly turned her head and looked out of the window.
+Her emotions were almost beyond her control.
+
+Thus the closing eloquence proceeded to its finish, and at last the
+service was over. Margaret looked about for Mom Wallis, but she had
+disappeared. She signed to Bud, and together they hastened out; but a
+quiet Sabbath peace reigned about the door of the school-house, and not
+a man from the camp was in sight; no, nor even the horses upon which
+they had come.
+
+And yet, when the minister had finished shaking hands with the
+worshipful women and a few men and children, and came with Mr. Tanner to
+the door of the school-house, those eight men stood in a solemn row,
+four on each side of the walk, each holding his chin in his right hand,
+his right elbow in his left hand, and all eyes on Jasper Kemp, who kept
+his eyes thoughtfully up in the sky.
+
+"H'w aire yeh, Tanner? Pleasant 'casion. Mind steppin' on a bit? We men
+wanta have a word with the parson."
+
+Mr. Tanner stepped on hurriedly, and the minister was left standing
+nonplussed and alone in the doorway of the school-house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+"Um! Ah!" began the minister, trying to summon his best clerical manner
+to meet--what? He did not know. It was best to assume they were a
+penitent band of inquirers for the truth. But the memory of their recent
+exodus from the service was rather too clearly in his mind for his
+pleasantest expression to be uppermost toward these rough creatures.
+Insolent fellows! He ought to give them a good lesson in behavior!
+
+"Um! Ah!" he began again, but found to his surprise that his remarks
+thus far had had no effect whatever on the eight stolid countenances
+before him. In fact, they seemed to have grown grim and menacing even in
+their quiet attitude, and their eyes were fulfilling the promise of the
+look they had given him when they left the service.
+
+"What does all this mean, anyway?" he burst forth, suddenly.
+
+"Calm yourself, elder! Calm yourself," spoke up Long Bill. "There ain't
+any occasion to get excited."
+
+"I'm not an elder; I'm a minister of the gospel," exploded West, in his
+most pompous tones. "I should like to know who you are and what all this
+means?"
+
+"Yes, parson, we understand who you are. We understand quite well, an'
+we're agoin' to tell you who we are. We're a band of al-tru-ists! That's
+what we are. We're _altruists_!" It was Jasper Kemp of the keen eyes and
+sturdy countenance who spoke. "And we've come here in brotherly love to
+exercise a little of that dynamic force of altruism you was talkin'
+about. We just thought we'd begin on you so's you could see that we got
+some works to go 'long with our faith."
+
+"What do you mean, sir?" said West, looking from one grim countenance to
+another. "I--I don't quite understand." The minister was beginning to be
+frightened, he couldn't exactly tell why. He wished he had kept Brother
+Tanner with him. It was the first time he had ever thought of Mr. Tanner
+as "brother."
+
+"We mean just this, parson; you been talkin' a lot of lies in there
+about there bein' no Saviour an' no hell, ner no devil, an' while we
+ain't much credit to God ourselves, bein' just common men, we know all
+that stuff you said ain't true about the Bible an' the devil bein'
+superstitions, an' we thought we better exercise a little of that there
+altruism you was talkin' about an' teach you better. You see, it's real
+brotherly kindness, parson. An' now we're goin' to give you a sample of
+that dynamics you spoke about. Are you ready, boys?"
+
+"All ready," they cried as one man.
+
+There seemed to be no concerted motion, nor was there warning. Swifter
+than the weaver's shuttle, sudden as the lightning's flash, the minister
+was caught from where he stood pompously in that doorway, hat in hand,
+all grandly as he was attired, and hurled from man to man. Across the
+walk and back; across and back; across and back; until it seemed to him
+it was a thousand miles all in a minute of time. He had no opportunity
+to prepare for the onslaught. He jammed his high silk hat, wherewith he
+had thought to overawe the community, upon his sleek head, and grasped
+his precious sermon-case to his breast; the sermon, as it well deserved,
+was flung to the four winds of heaven and fortunately was no more--that
+is, existing as a whole. The time came when each of those eight men
+recovered and retained a portion of that learned oration, and Mom
+Wallis, not quite understanding, pinned up and used as a sort of shrine
+the portion about doubting the devil; but as a sermon the parts were
+never assembled on this earth, nor could be, for some of it was ground
+to powder under eight pairs of ponderous heels. But the minister at that
+trying moment was too much otherwise engaged to notice that the child of
+his brain lay scattered on the ground.
+
+Seven times he made the round up and down, up and down that merciless
+group, tossed like a thistle-down from man to man. And at last, when his
+breath was gone, when the world had grown black before him, and he felt
+smaller and more inadequate than he had ever felt in his whole conceited
+life before, he found himself bound, helplessly bound, and cast
+ignominiously into a wagon. And it was a strange thing that, though
+seemingly but five short minutes before the place had been swarming with
+worshipful admirers thanking him for his sermon, now there did not seem
+to be a creature within hearing, for he called and cried aloud and
+roared with his raucous voice until it would seem that all the
+surrounding States might have heard that cry from Arizona, yet none came
+to his relief.
+
+They carried him away somewhere, he did not know where; it was a lonely
+spot and near a water-hole. When he protested and loudly blamed them,
+threatening all the law in the land upon them, they regarded him as one
+might a naughty child who needed chastisement, leniently and with
+sorrow, but also with determination.
+
+They took him down by the water's side and stood him up among them. He
+began to tremble with fear as he looked from one to another, for he was
+not a man of courage, and he had heard strange tales of this wild, free
+land, where every man was a law unto himself. Were they going to drown
+him then and there? Then up spoke Jasper Kemp:
+
+"Mr. Parson," he said, and his voice was kind but firm; one might almost
+say there was a hint of humor in it, and there surely was a twinkle in
+his eye; but the sternness of his lips belied it, and the minister was
+in no state to appreciate humor--"Mr. Parson, we've brought you here to
+do you good, an' you oughtn't to complain. This is altruism, an' we're
+but actin' out what you been preachin'. You're our brother an' we're
+tryin' to do you good; an' now we're about to show you what a dynamic
+force we are. You see, Mr. Parson, I was brought up by a good Scotch
+grandmother, an' I know a lie when I hear it, an' when I hear a man
+preach error I know it's time to set him straight; so now we're agoin'
+to set you straight. I don't know where you come from, nor who brang you
+up, nor what church set you afloat, but I know enough by all my
+grandmother taught me--even if I hadn't been a-listenin' off and on for
+two years back to Mr. Brownleigh, our missionary--to know you're a
+dangerous man to have at large. I'd as soon have a mad dog let loose.
+Why, what you preach ain't the gospel, an' it ain't the truth, and the
+time has come for you to know it, an' own it and recant. Recant! That's
+what they call it. That's what we're here to see 't you do, or we'll
+know the reason why. That's the _dynamics_ of it. See?"
+
+The minister saw. He saw the deep, muddy water-hole. He saw nothing
+more.
+
+"Folks are all too ready to believe them there things you was gettin'
+off without havin' 'em _preached_ to justify 'em in their evil ways. We
+gotta think of those poor ignorant brothers of ours that might listen to
+you. See? That's the _altruism_ of it!"
+
+"What do you want me to do?" The wretched man's tone was not merely
+humble--it was abject. His grand Prince Albert coat was torn in three
+places; one tail hung down dejectedly over his hip; one sleeve was
+ripped half-way out. His collar was unbuttoned and the ends rode up
+hilariously over his cheeks. His necktie was gone. His sleek hair stuck
+out in damp wisps about his frightened eyes, and his hat had been "stove
+in" and jammed down as far as it would go until his ample ears stuck out
+like sails at half-mast. His feet were imbedded in the heavy mud on the
+margin of the water-hole, and his fine silk socks, which had showed at
+one time above the erstwhile neat tyings, were torn and covered with
+mud.
+
+"Well, in the first place," said Jasper Kemp, with a slow wink around at
+the company, "that little matter about hell needs adjustin'. Hell ain't
+no superstition. I ain't dictatin' what kind of a hell there is; you can
+make it fire or water or anything else you like, but _there is a hell_,
+an' _you believe in it_. D'ye understand? We'd just like to have you
+make that statement publicly right here an' now."
+
+"But how can I say what I don't believe?" whined West, almost ready to
+cry. He had come proudly through a trial by Presbytery on these very
+same points, and had posed as being a man who had the courage of his
+convictions. He could not thus easily surrender his pride of original
+thought and broad-mindedness. He had received congratulations from a
+number of noble martyrs who had left their chosen church for just such
+reasons, congratulating him on his brave stand. It had been the first
+notice from big men he had ever been able to attract to himself, and it
+had gone to his head like wine. Give that up for a few miserable
+cowboys! It might get into the papers and go back East. He must think of
+his reputation.
+
+"That's just where the dynamics of the thing comes in, brother," said
+Jasper Kemp, patronizingly. "We're here to _make_ you believe in a hell.
+We're the force that will bring you back into the right way of thinkin'
+again. Are you ready, boys?"
+
+The quiet utterance brought goose-flesh up to West's very ears, and his
+eyes bulged with horror.
+
+"Oh, that isn't necessary! I believe--yes, I believe in hell!" he
+shouted, as they seized him.
+
+But it was too late. The Rev. Frederick West was plunged into the
+water-hole, from whose sheep-muddied waters he came up spluttering,
+"Yes, I believe in _hell_!" and for the first time in his life, perhaps,
+he really did believe in it, and thought that he was in it.
+
+The men were standing knee-deep in the water and holding their captive
+lightly by his arms and legs, their eyes upon their leader, waiting now.
+
+Jasper Kemp stood in the water, also, looking down benevolently upon his
+victim, his chin in his hand, his elbow in his other hand, an attitude
+which carried a feeling of hopelessness to the frightened minister.
+
+"An' now there's that little matter of the devil," said Jasper Kemp,
+reflectively. "We'll just fix that up next while we're near his place of
+residence. You believe in the devil, Mr. Parson, from now on? If you'd
+ever tried resistin' him I figger you'd have b'lieved in him long ago.
+But _you believe in him_ from _now on_, an' you _don't preach against
+him any more_! We're not goin' to have our Arizona men gettin' off their
+guard an' thinkin' their enemy is dead. There _is_ a devil, parson, and
+you believe in him! Duck him, boys!"
+
+Down went the minister into the water again, and came up spluttering,
+"Yes, I--I--I--believe--in-the--devil." Even in this strait he was loath
+to surrender his pet theme--no devil.
+
+"Very well, so far as it goes," said Jasper Kemp, thoughtfully. "But
+now, boys, we're comin' to the most important of all, and you better
+put him under about three times, for there mustn't be no mistake about
+this matter. You believe in the Bible, parson--_the whole Bible_?"
+
+"Yes!" gasped West, as he went down the first time and got a mouthful of
+the bitter water, "I believe--" The voice was fairly anguished. Down he
+went again. Another mouthful of water. "_I believe in the whole Bible!_"
+he screamed, and went down the third time. His voice was growing weaker,
+but he came up and reiterated it without request, and was lifted out
+upon the mud for a brief respite. The men of the bunk-house were
+succeeding better than the Presbytery back in the East had been able to
+do. The conceit was no longer visible in the face of the Reverend
+Frederick. His teeth were chattering, and he was beginning to see one
+really needed to believe in something when one came as near to his end
+as this.
+
+"There's just one more thing to reckon with," said Jasper Kemp,
+thoughtfully. "That line of talk you was handin' out about a man dyin'
+on a cross two thousand years ago bein' nothin' to you. You said you
+_an' me_, but you can speak for _yourself_. We may not be much to look
+at, but we ain't goin' to stand for no such slander as that. Our
+missionary preaches all about that Man on the Cross, an' if you don't
+need Him before you get through this little campaign of life I'll miss
+my guess. Mebbe we haven't been all we might have been, but we ain't
+agoin' to let you ner no one else go back on that there Cross!"
+
+Jasper Kemp's tone was tender and solemn. As the minister lay panting
+upon his back in the mud he was forced to acknowledge that at only two
+other times in his life had a tone of voice so arrested his attention
+and filled him with awe; once when as a boy he had been caught copying
+off another's paper at examination-time, and he had been sent to the
+principal's office; and again on the occasion of his mother's funeral,
+as he sat in the dim church a few years ago and listened to the old
+minister. For a moment now he was impressed with the wonder of the
+Cross, and it suddenly seemed as if he were being arraigned before the
+eyes of Him with Whom we all have to do. A kind of shame stole into his
+pale, flabby face, all the smugness and complacence gone, and he a poor
+wretch in the hands of his accusers. Jasper Kemp, standing over him on
+the bank, looking down grimly upon him, seemed like the emissary of God
+sent to condemn him, and his little, self-centered soul quailed within
+him.
+
+"Along near the end of that discourse of yours you mentioned that sin
+was only misplaced energy. Well, if that's so there's a heap of your
+energy gone astray this mornin', an' the time has come for you to pay
+up. Speak up now an' say what you believe or whether you want another
+duckin'--an' it'll be seven times this time!"
+
+The man on the ground shut his eyes and gasped. The silence was very
+solemn. There seemed no hint of the ridiculous in the situation. It was
+serious business now to all those men. Their eyes were on their leader.
+
+"Do you solemnly declare before God--I s'pose you still believe in a
+God, as you didn't say nothin' to the contrary--that from now on you'll
+stand for that there Cross and for Him that hung on it?"
+
+The minister opened his eyes and looked up into the wide brightness of
+the sky, as if he half expected to see horses and chariots of fire
+standing about to do battle with him then and there, and his voice was
+awed and frightened as he said:
+
+"I do!"
+
+There was silence, and the men stood with half-bowed heads, as if some
+solemn service were being performed that they did not quite understand,
+but in which they fully sympathized. Then Jasper Kemp said, softly:
+
+"Amen!" And after a pause: "I ain't any sort of a Christian myself, but
+I just can't stand it to see a parson floatin' round that don't even
+know the name of the firm he's workin' for. Now, parson, there's just
+one more requirement, an' then you can go home."
+
+The minister opened his eyes and looked around with a frightened appeal,
+but no one moved, and Jasper Kemp went on:
+
+"You say you had a church in New York. What was the name and address
+of your workin'-boss up there?"
+
+"What do you mean? I hadn't any boss."
+
+"Why, him that hired you an' paid you. The chief elder or whatever you
+called him."
+
+"Oh!" The minister's tone expressed lack of interest in the subject, but
+he answered, languidly, "Ezekiel Newbold, Hazelton."
+
+"Very good. Now, parson, you'll just kindly write two copies of a letter
+to Mr. Ezekiel Newbold statin' what you've just said to us concernin'
+your change of faith, sign your name, address one to Mr. Newbold, an'
+give the duplicate to me. We just want this little matter put on record
+so you can't change your mind any in future. Do you get my idea?"
+
+"Yes," said the minister, dispiritedly.
+
+"Will you do it?"
+
+"Yes," apathetically.
+
+"Well, now I got a piece of advice for you. It would be just as well for
+your health for you to leave Arizona about as quick as you can find it
+convenient to pack, but you won't be allowed to leave this town, day or
+night, cars or afoot, until them there letters are all O.K. Do you get
+me?"
+
+"Yes," pathetically.
+
+"I might add, by way of explainin', that if you had come to Arizona an'
+minded your own business you wouldn't have been interfered with. You
+mighta preached whatever bosh you darned pleased so far as we was
+concerned, only you wouldn't have had no sorta audience after the first
+try of that stuff you give to-day. But when you come to Arizona an' put
+your fingers in other folks' pie, when you tried to 'squeal' on the
+young gentleman who was keen enough to shoot out the lights to save a
+man's life, why, we 'ain't no further use for you. In the first place,
+you was all wrong. You thought the Kid shot out the lights to steal the
+gamin'-money; but he didn't. He put it all in the hands of the sheriff
+some hours before your 'private information' reached him through the
+mail. You thought you were awful sharp, you little sneak! But I wasn't
+the only man present who saw you put your foot out an' cover a gold
+piece that rolled on the floor just when the fight began. You thought
+nobody was a-lookin', but you'll favor us, please, with that identical
+gold piece along with the letter before you leave. Well, boys, that'll
+be about all, then. Untie him!"
+
+In silence and with a kind of contemptuous pity in their faces the
+strong men stooped and unbound him; then, without another word, they
+left him, tramping solemnly away single file to their horses, standing
+at a little distance.
+
+Jasper Kemp lingered for a moment, looking down at the wretched man.
+"Would you care to have us carry you back to the house?" he asked,
+reflectively.
+
+"No!" said the minister, bitterly. "No!" And without another word Jasper
+Kemp left him.
+
+Into the mesquite-bushes crept the minister, his glory all departed, and
+hid his misery from the light, groaning in bitterness of spirit. He who
+had made the hearts of a score of old ministers to sorrow for Zion, who
+had split in two a pleasantly united congregation, disrupted a session,
+and brought about a scandalous trial in Presbytery was at last
+conquered. The Rev. Frederick West had recanted!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+When Margaret left the school-house with Bud she had walked but a few
+steps when she remembered Mom Wallis and turned back to search for her;
+but nowhere could she find a trace of her, and the front of the
+school-house was as empty of any people from the camp as if they had not
+been there that morning. The curtain had not yet risen for the scene of
+the undoing of West.
+
+"I suppose she must have gone home with them," said the girl, wistfully.
+"I'm sorry not to have spoken with her. She was good to me."
+
+"You mean Mom Wallis?" said the boy. "No, she ain't gone home. She's
+hiking 'long to our house to see you. The Kid went along of her. See,
+there--down by those cottonwood-trees? That's them."
+
+Margaret turned with eagerness and hurried along with Bud now. She knew
+who it was they called the Kid in that tone of voice. It was the way the
+men had spoken of and to him, a mingling of respect and gentling that
+showed how much beloved he was. Her cheeks wore a heightened color, and
+her heart gave a pleasant flutter of interest.
+
+They walked rapidly and caught up with their guests before they had
+reached the Tanner house, and Margaret had the pleasure of seeing Mom
+Wallis's face flush with shy delight when she caught her softly round
+the waist, stealing quietly up behind, and greeted her with a kiss.
+There had not been many kisses for Mom Wallis in the later years, and
+the two that were to Margaret Earle's account seemed very sweet to her.
+Mom Wallis's eyes shone as if she had been a young girl as she turned
+with a smothered "Oh!" She was a woman not given to expressing herself;
+indeed, it might be said that the last twenty years of her life had been
+mainly of self-repression. She gave that one little gasp of recognition
+and pleasure, and then she relapsed into embarrassed silence beside the
+two young people who found pleasure in their own greetings. Bud,
+boy-like, was after a cottontail, along with Cap, who had appeared from
+no one knew where and was attending the party joyously.
+
+Mom Wallis, in her big, rough shoes, on the heels of which her scant
+brown calico gown was lifted as she walked, trudged shyly along between
+the two young people, as carefully watched and helped over the humps and
+bumps of the way as if she had been a princess. Margaret noticed with a
+happy approval how Gardley's hand was ready under the old woman's elbow
+to assist her as politely as he might have done for her own mother had
+she been walking by his side.
+
+Presently Bud and Cap returned, and Bud, with observant eye, soon timed
+his step to Margaret's on her other side and touched her elbow lightly
+to help her over the next rut. This was his second lesson in manners
+from Gardley. He had his first the Sunday before, watching the two
+while he and Cap walked behind. Bud was learning. He had keen eyes and
+an alert brain. Margaret smiled understandingly at him, and his face
+grew deep red with pleasure.
+
+"He was bringin' me to see where you was livin'," explained Mom Wallis,
+suddenly, nodding toward Gardley as if he had been a king. "We wasn't
+hopin' to see you, except mebbe just as you come by goin' in."
+
+"Oh, then I'm so glad I caught up with you in time. I wouldn't have
+missed you for anything. I went back to look for you. Now you're coming
+in to dinner with me, both of you," declared Margaret, joyfully.
+"William, your mother will have enough dinner for us all, won't she?"
+
+"Sure!" said Bud, with that assurance born of his life acquaintance with
+his mother, who had never failed him in a trying situation so far as
+things to eat were concerned.
+
+Margaret looked happily from one of her invited guests to the other, and
+Gardley forgot to answer for himself in watching the brightness of her
+face, and wondering why it was so different from the faces of all other
+girls he knew anywhere.
+
+But Mom Wallis was overwhelmed. A wave of red rolled dully up from her
+withered neck in its gala collar over her leathery face to the roots of
+her thin, gray hair.
+
+"Me! Stay to dinner! Oh, I couldn't do that nohow! Not in these here
+clo'es. 'Course I got that pretty collar you give me, but I couldn't
+never go out to dinner in this old dress an' these shoes. I know what
+folks ought to look like an' I ain't goin' to shame you."
+
+"Shame me? Nonsense! Your dress is all right, and who is going to see
+your shoes? Besides, I've just set my heart on it. I want to take you up
+to my room and show you the pictures of my father and mother and home
+and the church where I was christened, and everything."
+
+Mom Wallis looked at her with wistful eyes, but still shook her head.
+"Oh, I'd like to mighty well. It's good of you to ast me. But I
+couldn't. I just couldn't. 'Sides, I gotta go home an' git the men's
+grub ready."
+
+"Oh, can't she stay this time, Mr. Gardley?" appealed Margaret. "The men
+won't mind for once, will they?"
+
+Gardley looked into her true eyes and saw she really meant the
+invitation. He turned to the withered old woman by his side. "Mom, we're
+going to stay," he declared, joyously. "She wants us, and we have to do
+whatever she says. The men will rub along. They all know how to cook.
+Mom, _we're going to stay_."
+
+"That's beautiful!" declared Margaret. "It's so nice to have some
+company of my own." Then her face suddenly sobered. "Mr. Wallis won't
+mind, will he?" And she looked with troubled eyes from one of her guests
+to the other. She did not want to prepare trouble for poor Mom Wallis
+when she went back.
+
+Mom Wallis turned startled eyes toward her. There was contempt in her
+face and outraged womanhood. "Pop's gone off," she said, significantly.
+"He went yist'day. But he 'ain't got no call t' mind. I ben waitin' on
+Pop nigh on to twenty year, an' I guess I'm goin' to a dinner-party, now
+'t I'm invited. Pop 'd better _not_ mind, I guess!"
+
+And Margaret suddenly saw how much, how very much, her invitation had
+been to the starved old soul. Margaret took her guests into the stiff
+little parlor and slipped out to interview her landlady. She found Mrs.
+Tanner, as she had expected, a large-minded woman who was quite pleased
+to have more guests to sit down to her generous dinner, particularly as
+her delightful boarder had hinted of ample recompense in the way of
+board money; and she fluttered about, sending Tanner after another jar
+of pickles, some more apple-butter, and added another pie to the menu.
+
+Well pleased, Margaret left Mrs. Tanner and slipped back to her guests.
+She found Gardley making arrangements with Bud to run back to the church
+and tell the men to leave the buckboard for them, as they would not be
+home for dinner. While this was going on she took Mom Wallis up to her
+room to remove her bonnet and smooth her hair.
+
+It is doubtful whether Mom Wallis ever did see such a room in her life;
+for when Margaret swung open the door the poor little woman stopped
+short on the threshold, abashed, and caught her breath, looking around
+with wondering eyes and putting out a trembling hand to steady herself
+against the door-frame. She wasn't quite sure whether things in that
+room were real, or whether she might not by chance have caught a glimpse
+into heaven, so beautiful did it seem to her. It was not till her eyes,
+in the roving, suddenly rested on the great mountain framed in the open
+window that she felt anchored and sure that this was a tangible place.
+Then she ventured to step her heavy shoe inside the door. Even then she
+drew her ugly calico back apologetically, as if it were a desecration to
+the lovely room.
+
+But Margaret seized her and drew her into the room, placing her gently
+in the rose-ruffled rocking-chair as if it were a throne and she a
+queen, and the poor little woman sat entranced, with tears springing to
+her eyes and trickling down her cheeks.
+
+Perhaps it was an impossibility for Margaret to conceive what the vision
+of that room meant to Mom Wallis. The realization of all the dreams of a
+starved soul concentrated into a small space; the actual, tangible proof
+that there might be a heaven some day--who knew?--since beauties and
+comforts like these could be real in Arizona.
+
+Margaret brought the pictures of her father and mother, of her dear home
+and the dear old church. She took her about the room and showed her the
+various pictures and reminders of her college days, and when she saw
+that the poor creature was overwhelmed and speechless she turned her
+about and showed her the great mountain again, like an anchorage for her
+soul.
+
+Mom Wallis looked at everything speechlessly, gasping as her attention
+was turned from one object to another, as if she were unable to rise
+beyond her excitement; but when she saw the mountain again her tongue
+was loosed, and she turned and looked back at the girl wonderingly.
+
+"Now, ain't it strange! Even that old mounting looks diffrunt--it do
+look diffrunt from a room like this. Why, it looks like it got its hair
+combed an' its best collar on!" And Mom Wallis looked down with pride
+and patted the simple net ruffle about her withered throat. "Why, it
+looks like a picter painted an' hung up on this yere wall, that's what
+that mounting looks like! It kinda ain't no mounting any more; it's jest
+a picter in your room!"
+
+Margaret smiled. "It is a picture, isn't it? Just look at that silver
+light over the purple place. Isn't it wonderful? I like to think it's
+mine--my mountain. And yet the beautiful thing about it is that it's
+just as much yours, too. It will make a picture of itself framed in your
+bunk-house window if you let it. Try it. You just need to let it."
+
+Mom Wallis looked at her wonderingly. "Do you mean," she said, studying
+the girl's lovely face, "that ef I should wash them there bunk-house
+winders, an' string up some posy caliker, an' stuff a chair, an' have a
+pin-cushion, I could make that there mounting come in an' set fer me
+like a picter the way it does here fer you?"
+
+"Yes, that's what I mean," said Margaret, softly, marveling how the
+uncouth woman had caught the thought. "That's exactly what I mean. God's
+gifts will be as much to us as we will let them, always. Try it and
+see."
+
+Mom Wallis stood for some minutes looking out reflectively at the
+mountain. "Wal, mebbe I'll try it!" she said, and turned back to survey
+the room again.
+
+And now the mirror caught her eye, and she saw herself, a strange self
+in a soft white collar, and went up to get a nearer view, laying a
+toil-worn finger on the lace and looking half embarrassed at sight of
+her own face.
+
+"It's a real purty collar," she said, softly, with a choke in her voice.
+"It's too purty fer me. I told him so, but he said as how you wanted I
+should dress up every night fer supper in it. It's 'most as strange as
+havin' a mounting come an' live with you, to wear a collar like
+that--me!"
+
+Margaret's eyes were suddenly bright with tears. Who would have
+suspected Mom Wallis of having poetry in her nature? Then, as if her
+thoughts anticipated the question in Margaret's mind, Mom Wallis went
+on:
+
+"He brang me your little book," she said. "I ain't goin' to say thank
+yeh, it ain't a big-'nuf word. An' he read me the poetry words it says.
+I got it wropped in a hankercher on the top o' the beam over my bed. I'm
+goin' to have it buried with me when I die. Oh, I _read_ it. I couldn't
+make much out of it, but I read the words thorough. An' then _he_ read
+'em--the Kid did. He reads just beautiful. He's got education, he has.
+He read it, and he talked a lot about it. Was this what you mean? Was it
+that we ain't really growin' old at all, we're jest goin' on, _gettin_'
+there, if we go right? Did you mean you think Him as planned it all
+wanted some old woman right thar in the bunk-house, an' it's _me_? Did
+you mean there was agoin' to be a chanct fer me to be young an'
+beautiful somewheres in creation yit, 'fore I git through?"
+
+The old woman had turned around from looking into the mirror and was
+facing her hostess. Her eyes were very bright; her cheeks had taken on
+an excited flush, and her knotted hands were clutching the bureau. She
+looked into Margaret's eyes earnestly, as though her very life depended
+upon the answer; and Margaret, with a great leap of her heart, smiled
+and answered:
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Wallis, yes, that is just what I meant. Listen, these are
+God's own words about it: 'For I reckon that the sufferings of this
+present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be
+revealed in us.'"
+
+A kind of glory shone in the withered old face now. "Did you say them
+was God's words?" she asked in an awed voice.
+
+"Yes," said Margaret; "they are in the Bible."
+
+"But you couldn't be sure it meant _me_?" she asked, eagerly. "They
+wouldn't go to put _me_ in the Bible, o' course."
+
+"Oh yes, you could be quite sure, Mrs. Wallis," said Margaret, gently.
+"Because if God was making you and had a plan for you, as the poem says,
+He would be sure to put down something in His book about it, don't you
+think? He would want you to know."
+
+"It does sound reasonable-like now, don't it?" said the woman,
+wistfully. "Say them glory words again, won't you?"
+
+Margaret repeated the text slowly and distinctly.
+
+"Glory!" repeated Mom Wallis, wonderingly. "Glory! Me!" and turned
+incredulously toward the glass. She looked a long tune wistfully at
+herself, as if she could not believe it, and pulled reproachfully at
+the tight hair drawn away from her weather-beaten face. "I useta have
+purty hair onct," she said, sadly.
+
+"Why, you have pretty hair now!" said Margaret, eagerly. "It just wants
+a chance to show its beauty, Here, let me fix it for dinner, will you?"
+
+She whisked the bewildered old woman into a chair and began unwinding
+the hard, tight knot of hair at the back of her head and shaking it out.
+The hair was thin and gray now, but it showed signs of having been fine
+and thick once.
+
+"It's easy to keep your hair looking pretty," said the girl, as she
+worked. "I'm going to give you a little box of my nice sweet-smelling
+soap-powder that I use to shampoo my hair. You take it home and wash
+your hair with it every two or three weeks and you'll see it will make a
+difference in a little while. You just haven't taken time to take care
+of it, that's all. Do you mind if I wave the front here a little? I'd
+like to fix your hair the way my mother wears hers."
+
+Now nothing could have been further apart than this little
+weather-beaten old woman and Margaret's gentle, dove-like mother, with
+her abundant soft gray hair, her cameo features, and her pretty, gray
+dresses; but Margaret had a vision of what glory might bring to Mom
+Wallis, and she wanted to help it along. She believed that heavenly
+glory can be hastened a good deal on earth if one only tries, and so she
+set to work. Glancing out the window, she saw with relief that Gardley
+was talking interestedly with Mr. Tanner and seemed entirely content
+with their absence.
+
+Mom Wallis hadn't any idea what "waving" her hair meant, but she readily
+consented to anything this wonderful girl proposed, and she sat
+entranced, looking at her mountain and thrilling with every touch of
+Margaret's satin fingers against her leathery old temples. And so,
+Sunday though it was, Margaret lighted her little alcohol-lamp and
+heated a tiny curling-iron which she kept for emergencies. In a few
+minutes' time Mom Wallis's astonished old gray locks lay soft and fluffy
+about her face, and pinned in a smooth coil behind, instead of the tight
+knot, making the most wonderful difference in the world in her old,
+tired face.
+
+"Now look!" said Margaret, and turned her about to the mirror. "If
+there's anything at all you don't like about it I can change it, you
+know. You don't have to wear it so if you don't like it."
+
+The old woman looked, and then looked back at Margaret with frightened
+eyes, and back to the vision in the mirror again.
+
+"My soul!" she exclaimed in an awed voice. "My soul! It's come a'ready!
+Glory! I didn't think I could look like that! I wonder what Pop 'd say!
+My land! Would you mind ef I kep' it on a while an' wore it back to camp
+this way? Pop might uv come home an' I'd like to see ef he'd take notice
+to it. I used to be purty onct, but I never expected no sech thing like
+this again on earth. Glory! Glory! Mebbe I _could_ get some glory,
+_too_."
+
+"'The glory that shall be revealed' is a great deal more wonderful than
+this," said Margaret, gently. "This was here all the time, only you
+didn't let it come out. Wear it home that way, of course, and wear it
+so all the time. It's very little trouble, and you'll find your family
+will like it. Men always like to see a woman looking her best, even when
+she's working. It helps to make them good. Before you go home I'll show
+you how to fix it. It's quite simple. Come, now, shall we go
+down-stairs? We don't want to leave Mr. Gardley alone too long, and,
+besides, I smell the dinner. I think they'll be waiting for us pretty
+soon. I'm going to take a few of these pictures down to show Mr.
+Gardley."
+
+She hastily gathered a few photographs together and led the bewildered
+little woman down-stairs again, and out in the yard, where Gardley was
+walking up and down now, looking off at the mountain. It came to
+Margaret, suddenly, that the minister would be returning to the house
+soon, and she wished he wouldn't come. He would be a false note in the
+pleasant harmony of the little company. He would be disagreeable to
+manage, and perhaps hurt poor Mom Wallis's feelings. Perhaps he had
+already come. She looked furtively around as she came out the door, but
+no minister was in sight, and then she forgot him utterly in the look of
+bewildered astonishment with which Gardley was regarding Mom Wallis.
+
+He had stopped short in his walk across the little yard, and was staring
+at Mom Wallis, recognition gradually growing in his gaze. When he was
+fully convinced he turned his eyes to Margaret, as if to ask: "How did
+you do it? Wonderful woman!" and a look of deep reverence for her came
+over his face.
+
+Then suddenly he noticed the shy embarrassment on the old woman's face,
+and swiftly came toward her, his hands outstretched, and, taking her
+bony hands in his, bowed low over them as a courtier might do.
+
+"Mom Wallis, you are beautiful. Did you know it?" he said, gently, and
+led her to a little stumpy rocking-chair with a gay red-and-blue rag
+cushion that Mrs. Tanner always kept sitting by the front door in
+pleasant weather. Then he stood off and surveyed her, while the red
+stole into her cheeks becomingly. "What has Miss Earle been doing to
+glorify you?" he asked, again looking at her earnestly.
+
+The old woman looked at him in awed silence. There was that word
+again--glory! He had said the girl had glorified her. There was then
+some glory in her, and it had been brought out by so simple a thing as
+the arrangement of her hair. It frightened her, and tears came and stood
+in her tired old eyes.
+
+It was well for Mom Wallis's equilibrium that Mr. Tanner came out just
+then with the paper he had gone after, for the stolidity of her lifetime
+was about breaking up. But, as he turned, Gardley gave her one of the
+rarest smiles of sympathy and understanding that a young man can give to
+an old woman; and Margaret, watching, loved him for it. It seemed to her
+one of the most beautiful things a young man had ever done.
+
+They had discussed the article in the paper thoroughly, and had looked
+at the photographs that Margaret had brought down; and Mrs. Tanner had
+come to the door numberless times, looking out in a troubled way down
+the road, only to trot back again, look in the oven, peep in the kettle,
+sigh, and trot out to the door again. At last she came and stood, arms
+akimbo, and looked down the road once more.
+
+"Pa, I don't just see how I can keep the dinner waitin' a minute longer,
+The potatoes 'll be sp'iled. I don't see what's keepin' that
+preacher-man. He musta been invited out, though I don't see why he
+didn't send me word."
+
+"That's it, likely, Ma," said Tanner. He was growing hungry. "I saw Mis'
+Bacon talkin' to him. She's likely invited him there. She's always
+tryin' to get ahead o' you, Ma, you know, 'cause you got the prize fer
+your marble cake."
+
+Mrs. Tanner blushed and looked down apologetically at her guests. "Well,
+then, ef you'll just come in and set down, I'll dish up. My land! Ain't
+that Bud comin' down the road, Pa? He's likely sent word by Bud. I'll
+hurry in an' dish up."
+
+Bud slid into his seat hurriedly after a brief ablution in the kitchen,
+and his mother questioned him sharply.
+
+"Bud, wher you be'n? Did the minister get invited out?"
+
+The boy grinned and slowly winked one eye at Gardley. "Yes, he's invited
+out, all right," he said, meaningly. "You don't need to wait fer him. He
+won't be home fer some time, I don't reckon."
+
+Gardley looked keenly, steadily, at the boy's dancing eyes, and resolved
+to have a fuller understanding later, and his own eyes met the boy's in
+a gleam of mischief and sympathy.
+
+It was the first time in twenty years that Mom Wallis had eaten anything
+which she had not prepared herself, and now, with fried chicken and
+company preserves before her, she could scarcely swallow a mouthful. To
+be seated beside Gardley and waited on like a queen! To be smiled at by
+the beautiful young girl across the table, and deferred to by Mr. and
+Mrs. Tanner as "Mrs. Wallis," and asked to have more pickles and another
+helping of jelly, and did she take cream and sugar in her coffee! It was
+too much, and Mom Wallis was struggling with the tears. Even Bud's
+round, blue eyes regarded her with approval and interest. She couldn't
+help thinking, if her own baby boy had lived, would he ever have been
+like Bud? And once she smiled at him, and Bud smiled back, a real
+boy-like, frank, hearty grin. It was all like taking dinner in the
+Kingdom of Heaven to Mom Wallis, and getting glory aforetime.
+
+It was a wonderful afternoon, and seemed to go on swift wings. Gardley
+went back to the school-house, where the horses had been left, and Bud
+went with him to give further particulars about that wink at the
+dinner-table. Mom Wallis went up to the rose-garlanded room and learned
+how to wash her hair, and received a roll of flowered scrim wherewith to
+make curtains for the bunk-house. Margaret had originally intended it
+for the school-house windows in case it proved necessary to make that
+place habitable, but the school-room could wait.
+
+And there in the rose-room, with the new curtains in her trembling
+hands, and the great old mountain in full view, Mom Wallis knelt beside
+the little gay rocking-chair, while Margaret knelt beside her and prayed
+that the Heavenly Father would show Mom Wallis how to let the glory be
+revealed in her now on the earth.
+
+Then Mom Wallis wiped the furtive tears away with her calico sleeve,
+tied on her funny old bonnet, and rode away with her handsome young
+escort into the silence of the desert, with the glory beginning to be
+revealed already in her countenance.
+
+Quite late that evening the minister returned.
+
+He came in slowly and wearily, as if every step were a pain to him, and
+he avoided the light. His coat was torn and his garments were
+mud-covered. He murmured of a "slight accident" to Mrs. Tanner, who met
+him solicitously in a flowered dressing-gown with a candle in her hand.
+He accepted greedily the half a pie, with cheese and cold chicken and
+other articles, she proffered on a plate at his door, and in the reply
+to her query as to where he had been for dinner, and if he had a
+pleasant time, he said:
+
+"Very pleasant, indeed, thank you! The name? Um--ah--I disremember! I
+really didn't ask--That is--"
+
+The minister did not get up to breakfast, In fact, he remained in bed
+for several days, professing to be suffering with an attack of
+rheumatism. He was solicitously watched over and fed by the anxious Mrs.
+Tanner, who was much disconcerted at the state of affairs, and couldn't
+understand why she could not get the school-teacher more interested in
+the invalid.
+
+On the fourth day, however, the Reverend Frederick crept forth, white
+and shaken, with his sleek hair elaborately combed to cover a long
+scratch on his forehead, and announced his intention of departing from
+the State of Arizona that evening.
+
+He crept forth cautiously to the station as the shades of evening drew
+on, but found Long Bill awaiting him, and Jasper Kemp not far away. He
+had the two letters ready in his pocket, with the gold piece, though he
+had entertained hopes of escaping without forfeiting them, but he was
+obliged to wait patiently until Jasper Kemp had read both letters
+through twice, with the train in momentary danger of departing without
+him, before he was finally allowed to get on board. Jasper Kemp's
+parting word to him was:
+
+"Watch your steps spry, parson. I'm agoin' to see that you're shadowed
+wherever you go. You needn't think you can get shy on the Bible again.
+It won't pay."
+
+There was menace in the dry remark, and the Reverend Frederick's
+professional egotism withered before it. He bowed his head, climbed on
+board the train, and vanished from the scene of his recent discomfiture.
+But the bitterest thing about it all was that he had gone without
+capturing the heart or even the attention of that haughty little
+school-teacher. "And she was such a pretty girl," he said, regretfully,
+to himself. "Such a _very_ pretty girl!" He sighed deeply to himself as
+he watched Arizona speed by the window. "Still," he reflected,
+comfortably, after a moment, "there are always plenty more! What was
+that remarkably witty saying I heard just before I left home? 'Never run
+after a street-car or a woman. There'll be another one along in a
+minute.' Um--ah--yes--very true--there'll be another one along in a
+minute."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+School had settled down to real work by the opening of the new week.
+Margaret knew her scholars and had gained a personal hold on most of
+them already. There was enough novelty in her teaching to keep the
+entire school in a pleasant state of excitement and wonder as to what
+she would do next, and the word had gone out through all the country
+round about that the new teacher had taken the school by storm. It was
+not infrequent for men to turn out of their way on the trail to get a
+glimpse of the school as they were passing, just to make sure the
+reports were true. Rumor stated that the teacher was exceedingly pretty;
+that she would take no nonsense, not even from the big boys; that she
+never threatened nor punished, but that every one of the boys was her
+devoted slave. There had been no uprising, and it almost seemed as if
+that popular excitement was to be omitted this season, and school was to
+sail along in an orderly and proper manner. In fact, the entire school
+as well as the surrounding population were eagerly talking about the new
+piano, which seemed really to be a coming fact. Not that there had been
+anything done toward it yet, but the teacher had promised that just as
+soon as every one was really studying hard and doing his best, she was
+going to begin to get them ready for an entertainment to raise money for
+that piano. They couldn't begin until everybody was in good working
+order, because they didn't want to take the interest away from the real
+business of school; but it was going to be a Shakespeare play, whatever
+that was, and therefore of grave import. Some people talked learnedly
+about Shakespeare and hinted of poetry; but the main part of the
+community spoke the name joyously and familiarly and without awe, as if
+it were milk and honey in their mouths. Why should they reverence
+Shakespeare more than any one else?
+
+Margaret had grown used to seeing a head appear suddenly at one of the
+school-room windows and look long and frowningly first at her, then at
+the school, and then back to her again, as if it were a nine days'
+wonder. Whoever the visitor was, he would stand quietly, watching the
+process of the hour as if he were at a play, and Margaret would turn and
+smile pleasantly, then go right on with her work. The visitor would
+generally take off a wide hat and wave it cordially, smile back a
+curious, softened smile, and by and by he would mount his horse and pass
+on reflectively down the trail, wishing he could be a boy and go back
+again to school--such a school!
+
+Oh, it was not all smooth, the way that Margaret walked. There were
+hitches, and unpleasant days when nothing went right, and when some of
+the girls got silly and rebellious, and the boys followed in their lead.
+She had her trials like any teacher, skilful as she was, and not the
+least of them became Rosa Rogers, the petted beauty, who presently
+manifested a childish jealousy of her in her influence over the boys.
+Noting this, Margaret went out of her way to win Rosa, but found it a
+difficult matter.
+
+Rosa was proud, selfish, and unprincipled. She never forgave any one who
+frustrated her plans. She resented being made to study like the rest.
+She had always compelled the teacher to let her do as she pleased and
+still give her a good report. This she found she could not do with
+Margaret, and for the first time in her career she was compelled to work
+or fall behind. It presently became not a question of how the new
+teacher was to manage the big boys and the bad boys of the Ashland Ridge
+School, but how she was to prevent Rosa Rogers and a few girls who
+followed her from upsetting all her plans. The trouble was, Rosa was
+pretty and knew her power over the boys. If she chose she could put them
+all in a state of insubordination, and this she chose very often during
+those first few weeks.
+
+But there was one visitor who did not confine himself to looking in at
+the window.
+
+One morning a fine black horse came galloping up to the school-house at
+recess-time, and a well-set-up young man in wide sombrero and jaunty
+leather trappings sprang off and came into the building. His shining
+spurs caught the sunlight and flashed as he moved. He walked with the
+air of one who regards himself of far more importance than all who may
+be watching him. The boys in the yard stopped their ball-game, and the
+girls huddled close in whispering groups and drew near to the door. He
+was a young man from a ranch near the fort some thirty miles away, and
+he had brought an invitation for the new school-teacher to come over to
+dinner on Friday evening and stay until the following Monday morning.
+The invitation was from his sister, the wife of a wealthy cattleman
+whose home and hospitality were noted for miles around. She had heard of
+the coming of the beautiful young teacher, and wanted to attach her to
+her social circle.
+
+The young man was deference itself to Margaret, openly admiring her as
+he talked, and said the most gracious things to her; and then, while she
+was answering the note, he smiled over at Rosa Rogers, who had slipped
+into her seat and was studiously preparing her algebra with the book
+upside down.
+
+Margaret, looking up, caught Rosa's smiling glance and the tail end of a
+look from the young man's eyes, and felt a passing wonder whether he had
+ever met the girl before. Something in the boldness of his look made her
+feel that he had not. Yet he was all smiles and deference to herself,
+and his open admiration and pleasure that she was to come to help
+brighten this lonely country, and that she was going to accept the
+invitation, was really pleasant to the girl, for it was desolate being
+tied down to only the Tanner household and the school, and she welcomed
+any bit of social life.
+
+The young man had light hair, combed very smooth, and light-blue eyes.
+They were bolder and handsomer than the minister's, but the girl had a
+feeling that they were the very same cold color. She wondered at her
+comparison, for she liked the handsome young man, and in spite of
+herself was a little flattered at the nice things he had said to her.
+Nevertheless, when she remembered him afterward it was always with that
+uncomfortable feeling that if he hadn't been so handsome and polished in
+his appearance he would have seemed just a little bit like that
+minister, and she couldn't for the life of her tell why.
+
+After he was gone she looked back at Rosa, and there was a narrowing of
+the girl's eyes and a frown of hate on her brows. Margaret turned with a
+sigh back to her school problem--what to do with Rosa Rogers?
+
+But Rosa did not stay in the school-house. She slipped out and walked
+arm in arm with Amanda Bounds down the road.
+
+Margaret went to the door and watched. Presently she saw the rider wheel
+and come galloping back to the door. He had forgotten to tell her that
+an escort would be sent to bring her as early on Friday afternoon as she
+would be ready to leave the school, and he intimated that he hoped he
+might be detailed for that pleasant duty.
+
+Margaret looked into his face and warmed to his pleasant smile. How
+could she have thought him like West? He touched his hat and rode away,
+and a moment later she saw him draw rein beside Rosa and Amanda, and
+presently dismount.
+
+Bud rang the bell just then, and Margaret went back to her desk with a
+lingering look at the three figures in the distance. It was full half an
+hour before Rosa came in, with Amanda looking scared behind her; and
+troubled Margaret watched the sly look in the girl's eyes and wondered
+what she ought to do about it. As Rosa was passing out of the door after
+school she called her to the desk.
+
+"You were late in coming in after recess, Rosa," said Margaret, gently.
+"Have you any excuse?"
+
+"I was talking to a friend," said Rosa, with a toss of her head which
+said, as plainly as words could have done, "I don't intend to give an
+excuse."
+
+"Were you talking to the gentleman who was here?"
+
+"Well, if I was, what is that to you, Miss Earle?" said Rosa, haughtily.
+"Did you think you could have all the men and boys to yourself?"
+
+"Rosa," said Margaret, trying to speak calmly, but her voice trembling
+with suppressed indignation, "don't talk that way to me. Child, did you
+ever meet Mr. Forsythe before?"
+
+"I'm not a child, and it's none of your business!" flouted Rosa,
+angrily, and she twitched away and flung herself out of the
+school-house.
+
+Margaret, trembling from the disagreeable encounter, stood at the window
+and watched the girl going down the road, and felt for the moment that
+she would rather give up her school and go back home than face the
+situation. She knew in her heart that this girl, once an enemy, would be
+a bitter one, and this her last move had been a most unfortunate one,
+coming out, as it did, with Rosa in the lead. She could, of course,
+complain to Rosa's family, or to the school-board, but such was not the
+policy she had chosen. She wanted to be able to settle her own
+difficulties. It seemed strange that she could not reach this one
+girl--who was in a way the key to the situation. Perhaps the play would
+be able to help her. She spent a long time that evening going over the
+different plays in her library, and finally, with a look of apology
+toward a little photographed head of Shakespeare, she decided on
+"Midsummer-Night's Dream." What if it was away above the heads of them
+all, wouldn't a few get something from it? And wasn't it better to take
+a great thing and try to make her scholars and a few of the community
+understand it, rather than to take a silly little play that would not
+amount to anything in the end? Of course, they couldn't do it well; that
+went without saying. Of course it would be away beyond them all, but at
+least it would be a study of something great for her pupils, and she
+could meantime teach them a little about Shakespeare and perhaps help
+some of them to learn to love his plays and study them.
+
+The play she had selected was one in which she herself had acted the
+part of Puck, and she knew it by heart. She felt reasonably sure that
+she could help some of the more adaptable scholars to interpret their
+parts, and, at least, it would be good for them just as a study in
+literature. As for the audience, they would not be critics. Perhaps they
+would not even be able to comprehend the meaning of the play, but they
+would come and they would listen, and the experiment was one worth
+trying.
+
+Carefully she went over the parts, trying to find the one which she
+thought would best fit Rosa Rogers, and please her as well, because it
+gave her opportunity to display her beauty and charm. She really was a
+pretty girl, and would do well. Margaret wondered whether she were
+altogether right in attempting to win the girl through her vanity, and
+yet what other weak place was there in which to storm the silly little
+citadel of her soul?
+
+And so the work of assigning parts and learning them began that very
+week, though no one was allowed a part until his work for the day had
+all been handed in.
+
+At noon Margaret made one more attempt with Rosa Rogers. She drew her to
+a seat beside her and put aside as much as possible her own remembrance
+of the girl's disagreeable actions and impudent words.
+
+"Rosa," she said, and her voice was very gentle, "I want to have a
+little talk with you. You seem to feel that you and I are enemies, and I
+don't want you to have that attitude. I hoped we'd be the best of
+friends. You see, there isn't any other way for us to work well
+together. And I want to explain why I spoke to you as I did yesterday.
+It was not, as you hinted, that I want to keep all my acquaintances to
+myself. I have no desire to do that. It was because I feel responsible
+for the girls and boys in my care, and I was troubled lest perhaps you
+had been foolish--"
+
+Margaret paused. She could see by the bright hardness of the girl's eyes
+that she was accomplishing nothing. Rosa evidently did not believe her.
+
+"Well, Rosa," she said, suddenly, putting an impulsive, kindly hand on
+the girl's arm, "suppose we forget it this time, put it all away, and be
+friends. Let's learn to understand each other if we can, but in the
+mean time I want to talk to you about the play."
+
+And then, indeed, Rosa's hard manner broke, and she looked up with
+interest, albeit there was some suspicion in the glance. She wanted to
+be in that play with all her heart; she wanted the very showiest part in
+it, too; and she meant to have it, although she had a strong suspicion
+that the teacher would want to keep that part for herself, whatever it
+was.
+
+But Margaret had been wise. She had decided to take time and explain the
+play to her, and then let her choose her own part. She wisely judged
+that Rosa would do better in the part in which her interest centered,
+and perhaps the choice would help her to understand her pupil better.
+
+And so for an hour she patiently stayed after school and went over the
+play, explaining it carefully, and it seemed at one time as though Rosa
+was about to choose to be Puck, because with quick perception she caught
+the importance of that character; but when she learned that the costume
+must be a quiet hood and skirt of green and brown she scorned it, and
+chose, at last, to be Titania, queen of the fairies. So, with a sigh of
+relief, and a keen insight into the shallow nature, Margaret began to
+teach the girl some of the fairy steps, and found her quick and eager to
+learn. In the first lesson Rosa forgot for a little while her animosity
+and became almost as one of the other pupils. The play was going to
+prove a great means of bringing them all together.
+
+Before Friday afternoon came the parts had all been assigned and the
+plans for the entertainment were well under way.
+
+Jed and Timothy had been as good as their word about giving the teacher
+riding-lessons, each vying with the other to bring a horse and make her
+ride at noon hour, and she had already had several good lessons and a
+long ride or two in company with both her teachers.
+
+The thirty-mile ride for Friday, then, was not such an undertaking as it
+might otherwise have been, and Margaret looked forward to it with
+eagerness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+The little party of escort arrived before school was closed on Friday
+afternoon, and came down to the school-house in full force to take her
+away with them. The young man Forsythe, with his sister, the hostess
+herself, and a young army officer from the fort, comprised the party.
+Margaret dismissed school ten minutes early and went back with them to
+the Tanners' to make a hurried change in her dress and pick up her
+suit-case, which was already packed. As they rode away from the
+school-house Margaret looked back and saw Rosa Rogers posing in one of
+her sprite dances in the school-yard, saw her kiss her hand laughingly
+toward their party, and saw the flutter of a handkerchief in young
+Forsythe's hand. It was all very general and elusive, a passing bit of
+fun, but it left an uncomfortable impression on the teacher's mind. She
+looked keenly at the young man as he rode up smiling beside her, and
+once more experienced that strange, sudden change of feeling about him.
+
+She took opportunity during that long ride to find out if the young man
+had known Rosa Rogers before; but he frankly told her that he had just
+come West to visit his sister, was bored to death because he didn't know
+a soul in the whole State, and until he had seen her had not laid eyes
+on one whom he cared to know. Yet while she could not help enjoying the
+gay badinage, she carried a sense of uneasiness whenever she thought of
+the young girl Rosa in her pretty fairy pose, with her fluttering pink
+fingers and her saucy, smiling eyes. There was something untrustworthy,
+too, in the handsome face of the man beside her.
+
+There was just one shadow over this bit of a holiday. Margaret had a
+little feeling that possibly some one from the camp might come down on
+Saturday or Sunday, and she would miss him. Yet nothing had been said
+about it, and she had no way of sending word that she would be away. She
+had meant to send Mom Wallis a letter by the next messenger that came
+that way. It was all written and lying on her bureau, but no one had
+been down all the week. She was, therefore, greatly pleased when an
+approaching rider in the distance proved to be Gardley, and with a
+joyful little greeting she drew rein and hailed him, giving him a
+message for Mom Wallis.
+
+Only Gardley's eyes told what this meeting was to him. His demeanor was
+grave and dignified. He acknowledged the introductions to the rest of
+the party gracefully, touched his hat with the ease of one to the manner
+born, and rode away, flashing her one gleam of a smile that told her he
+was glad of the meeting; but throughout the brief interview there had
+been an air of question and hostility between the two men, Forsythe and
+Gardley. Forsythe surveyed Gardley rudely, almost insolently, as if his
+position beside the lady gave him rights beyond the other, and he
+resented the coming of the stranger. Gardley's gaze was cold, too, as he
+met the look, and his eyes searched Forsythe's face keenly, as though
+they would find out what manner of man was riding with his friend.
+
+When he was gone Margaret had the feeling that he was somehow
+disappointed, and once she turned in the saddle and looked wistfully
+after him; but he was riding furiously into the distance, sitting his
+horse as straight as an arrow and already far away upon the desert.
+
+"Your friend is a reckless rider," said Forsythe, with a sneer in his
+voice that Margaret did not like, as they watched the speck in the
+distance clear a steep descent from the mesa at a bound and disappear
+from sight in the mesquite beyond.
+
+"Isn't he fine-looking? Where did you find him, Miss Earle?" asked Mrs.
+Temple, eagerly. "I wish I'd asked him to join us. He left so suddenly I
+didn't realize he was going."
+
+Margaret felt a wondering and pleasant sense of possession and pride in
+Gardley as she watched, but she quietly explained that the young
+stranger was from the East, and that he was engaged in some kind of
+cattle business at a distance from Ashland. Her manner was reserved, and
+the matter dropped. She naturally felt a reluctance to tell how her
+acquaintance with Gardley began. It seemed something between themselves.
+She could fancy the gushing Mrs. Temple saying, "How romantic!" She was
+that kind of a woman. It was evident that she was romantically inclined
+herself, for she used her fine eyes with effect on the young officer who
+rode with her, and Margaret found herself wondering what kind of a
+husband she had and what her mother would think of a woman like this.
+
+There was no denying that the luxury of the ranch was a happy relief
+from the simplicity of life at the Tanners'. Iced drinks and cushions
+and easy-chairs, feasting and music and laughter! There were books, too,
+and magazines, and all the little things that go to make up a cultured
+life; and yet they were not people of Margaret's world, and when
+Saturday evening was over she sat alone in the room they had given her
+and, facing herself in the glass, confessed to herself that she looked
+back with more pleasure to the Sabbath spent with Mom Wallis than she
+could look forward to a Sabbath here. The morning proved her forebodings
+well founded.
+
+Breakfast was a late, informal affair, filled with hilarious gaiety.
+There was no mention of any church service, and Margaret found it was
+quite too late to suggest such a thing when breakfast was over, even if
+she had been sure there was any service.
+
+After breakfast was over there were various forms of amusement proposed
+for her pleasure, and she really felt very much embarrassed for a few
+moments to know how to avoid what to her was pure Sabbath-breaking. Yet
+she did not wish to be rude to these people who were really trying to be
+kind to her. She managed at last to get them interested in music, and,
+grouping them around the piano after a few preliminary performances by
+herself at their earnest solicitation, coaxed them into singing hymns.
+
+After all, they really seemed to enjoy it, though they had to get along
+with one hymn-book for the whole company; but Margaret knew how to make
+hymn-singing interesting, and her exquisite voice was never more at its
+best than when she led off with "My Jesus, as Thou Wilt," or "Jesus,
+Saviour, Pilot Me."
+
+"You would be the delight of Mr. Brownleigh's heart," said the hostess,
+gushingly, at last, after Margaret had finished singing "Abide With Me"
+with wonderful feeling.
+
+"And who is Mr. Brownleigh?" asked Margaret. "Why should I delight his
+heart?"
+
+"Why, he is our missionary--that is, the missionary for this region--and
+you would delight his heart because you are so religious and sing so
+well," said the superficial little woman. "Mr. Brownleigh is really a
+very cultured man. Of course, he's narrow. All clergymen are narrow,
+don't you think? They have to be to a certain extent. He's really
+_quite_ narrow. Why, he believes in the Bible _literally_, the whale and
+Jonah, and the Flood, and making bread out of stones, and all that sort
+of thing, you know. Imagine it! But he does. He's sincere! Perfectly
+sincere. I suppose he has to be. It's his business. But sometimes one
+feels it a pity that he can't relax a little, just among us here, you
+know. We'd never tell. Why, he won't even play a little game of poker!
+And he doesn't smoke! _Imagine_ it--_not even when he's by himself_, and
+_no one would know_! Isn't that odd? But he can preach. He's really very
+interesting; only a little too Utopian in his ideas. He thinks everybody
+ought to be good, you know, and all that sort of thing. He really
+thinks it's possible, and he lives that way himself. He really does. But
+he is a wonderful person; only I feel sorry for his wife sometimes.
+She's quite a cultured person. Has been wealthy, you know. She was a New
+York society girl. Just imagine it; out in these wilds taking gruel to
+the dirty little Indians! How she ever came to do it! Of course she
+adores him, but I can't really believe she is happy. No woman could be
+quite blind enough to give up everything in the world for one man, no
+matter how good he was. Do you think she could? It wasn't as if she
+didn't have plenty of other chances. She gave them all up to come out
+and marry him. She's a pretty good sport, too; she never lets you know
+she isn't perfectly happy."
+
+"She _is_ happy; mother, she's happier than _anybody_ I ever saw,"
+declared the fourteen-year-old daughter of the house, who was home from
+boarding-school for a brief visit during an epidemic of measles in the
+school.
+
+"Oh yes, she manages to make people think she's happy," said her mother,
+indulgently; "but you can't make me believe she's satisfied to give up
+her house on Fifth Avenue and live in a two-roomed log cabin in the
+desert, with no society."
+
+"Mother, you don't know! Why, _any_ woman would be satisfied if her
+husband adored her the way Mr. Brownleigh does her."
+
+"Well, Ada, you're a romantic girl, and Mr. Brownleigh is a handsome
+man. You've got a few things to learn yet. Mark my words, I don't
+believe you'll see Mrs. Brownleigh coming back next month with her
+husband. This operation was all well enough to talk about, but I'll not
+be surprised to hear that he has come back alone or else that he has
+accepted a call to some big city church. And he's equal to the city
+church, too; that's the wonder of it. He comes of a fine family himself,
+I've heard. Oh, people can't keep up the pose of saints forever, even
+though they do adore each other. But Mr. Brownleigh _certainly is_ a
+good man!"
+
+The vapid little woman sat looking reflectively out of the window for a
+whole minute after this deliverance. Yes, certainly Mr. Brownleigh was a
+good man. He was the one man of culture, education, refinement, who had
+come her way in many a year who had patiently and persistently and
+gloriously refused her advances at a mild flirtation, and refused to
+understand them, yet remained her friend and reverenced hero. He was a
+good man, and she knew it, for she was a very pretty woman and
+understood her art well.
+
+Before the day was over Margaret had reason to feel that a Sabbath in
+Arizona was a very hard thing to find. The singing could not last all
+day, and her friends seemed to find more amusements on Sunday that did
+not come into Margaret's code of Sabbath-keeping than one knew how to
+say no to. Neither could they understand her feeling, and she found it
+hard not to be rude in gently declining one plan after another.
+
+She drew the children into a wide, cozy corner after dinner and began a
+Bible story in the guise of a fairy-tale, while the hostess slipped away
+to take a nap. However, several other guests lingered about, and Mr.
+Temple strayed in. They sat with newspapers before their faces and got
+into the story, too, seeming to be deeply interested, so that, after
+all, Margaret did not have an unprofitable Sabbath.
+
+But altogether, though she had a gay and somewhat frivolous time, a good
+deal of admiration and many invitations to return as often as possible,
+Margaret was not sorry when she said good night to know that she was to
+return in the early morning to her work.
+
+Mr. Temple himself was going part way with them, accompanied by his
+niece, Forsythe, and the young officer who came over with them. Margaret
+rode beside Mr. Temple until his way parted from theirs, and had a
+delightful talk about Arizona. He was a kindly old fellow who adored his
+frivolous little wife and let her go her own gait, seeming not to mind
+how much she flirted.
+
+The morning was pink and silver, gold and azure, a wonderful specimen of
+an Arizona sunrise for Margaret's benefit, and a glorious beginning for
+her day's work in spite of the extremely early hour. The company was gay
+and blithe, and the Eastern girl felt as if she were passing through a
+wonderful experience.
+
+They loitered a little on the way to show Margaret the wonders of a
+fern-plumed canon, and it was almost school-time when they came up the
+street, so that Margaret rode straight to the school-house instead of
+stopping at Tanners'. On the way to the school they passed a group of
+girls, of whom Rosa Rogers was the center. A certain something in Rosa's
+narrowed eyelids as she said good morning caused Margaret to look back
+uneasily, and she distinctly saw the girl give a signal to young
+Forsythe, who, for answer, only tipped his hat and gave her a peculiar
+smile.
+
+In a moment more they had said good-by, and Margaret was left at the
+school-house door with a cluster of eager children about her, and
+several shy boys in the background, ready to welcome her back as if she
+had been gone a month.
+
+In the flutter of opening school Margaret failed to notice that Rosa
+Rogers did not appear. It was not until the roll was called that she
+noticed her absence, and she looked uneasily toward the door many times
+during the morning, but Rosa did not come until after recess, when she
+stole smilingly in, as if it were quite the thing to come to school
+late. When questioned about her tardiness she said she had torn her
+dress and had to go home and change it. Margaret knew by the look in her
+eyes that the girl was not telling the truth, but what was she to do? It
+troubled her all the morning and went with her to a sleepless pillow
+that night. She was beginning to see that life as a school-teacher in
+the far West was not all she had imagined it to be. Her father had been
+right. There would likely be more thorns than roses on her way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+The first time Lance Gardley met Rosa Rogers riding with Archie
+Forsythe he thought little of it. He knew the girl by sight, because he
+knew her father in a business way. That she was very young and one of
+Margaret's pupils was all he knew about her. For the young man he had
+conceived a strong dislike, but as there was no reason whatever for it
+he put it out of his mind as quickly as possible.
+
+The second time he met them it was toward evening and they were so
+wholly absorbed in each other's society that they did not see him until
+he was close upon them. Forsythe looked up with a frown and a quick hand
+to his hip, where gleamed a weapon.
+
+He scarcely returned the slight salute given by Gardley, and the two
+young people touched up their horses and were soon out of sight in the
+mesquite. But something in the frightened look of the girl's eyes caused
+Gardley to turn and look after the two.
+
+Where could they be going at that hour of the evening? It was not a
+trail usually chosen for rides. It was lonely and unfrequented, and led
+out of the way of travelers. Gardley himself had been a far errand for
+Jasper Kemp, and had taken this short trail back because it cut off
+several miles and he was weary. Also, he was anxious to stop in Ashland
+and leave Mom Wallis's request that Margaret would spend the next
+Sabbath at the camp and see the new curtains. He was thinking what he
+should say to her when he saw her in a little while now, and this
+interruption to his thoughts was unwelcome. Nevertheless, he could not
+get away from that frightened look in the girl's eyes. Where could they
+have been going? That fellow was a new-comer in the region; perhaps he
+had lost his way. Perhaps he did not know that the road he was taking
+the girl led into a region of outlaws, and that the only habitation
+along the way was a cabin belonging to an old woman of weird reputation,
+where wild orgies were sometimes celebrated, and where men went who
+loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
+
+Twice Gardley turned in his saddle and scanned the desert. The sky was
+darkening, and one or two pale stars were impatiently shadowing forth
+their presence. And now he could see the two riders again. They had come
+up out of the mesquite to the top of the mesa, and were outlined against
+the sky sharply. They were still on the trail to old Ouida's cabin!
+
+With a quick jerk Gardley reined in his horse and wheeled about,
+watching the riders for a moment; and then, setting spurs to his beast,
+he was off down the trail after them on one of his wild, reckless rides.
+Down through the mesquite he plunged, through the darkening grove, out,
+and up to the top of the mesa. He had lost sight of his quarry for the
+time, but now he could see them again riding more slowly in the valley
+below, their horses close together, and even as he watched the sky took
+on its wide night look and the stars blazed forth.
+
+Suddenly Gardley turned sharply from the trail and made a detour through
+a grove of trees, riding with reckless speed, his head down to escape
+low branches; and in a minute or two he came with unerring instinct back
+to the trail some distance ahead of Forsythe and Rosa. Then he wheeled
+his horse and stopped stock-still, awaiting their coming.
+
+By this time the great full moon was risen and, strangely enough, was at
+Gardley's back, making a silhouette of man and horse as the two riders
+came on toward him.
+
+They rode out from the cover of the grove, and there he was across their
+path. Rosa gave a scream, drawing nearer her companion, and her horse
+swerved and reared; but Gardley's black stood like an image carved in
+ebony against the silver of the moon, and Gardley's quiet voice was in
+strong contrast to the quick, unguarded exclamation of Forsythe, as he
+sharply drew rein and put his hand hastily to his hip for his weapon.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Forsythe"--Gardley had an excellent memory for
+names--"but I thought you might not be aware, being a new-comer in these
+parts, that the trail you are taking leads to a place where ladies do
+not like to go."
+
+"Really! You don't say so!" answered the young man, insolently. "It is
+very kind of you, I'm sure, but you might have saved yourself the
+trouble. I know perfectly where I am going, and so does the lady, and
+we choose to go this way. Move out of the way, please. You are detaining
+us."
+
+But Gardley did not move out of the way. "I am sure the lady does not
+know where she is going," he said, firmly. "I am sure that she does not
+know that it is a place of bad reputation, even in this unconventional
+land. At least, if she knows, I am sure that _her father_ does not know,
+and I am well acquainted with her father."
+
+"Get out of the way, sir," said Forsythe, hotly. "It certainly is none
+of your business, anyway, whoever knows what. Get out of the way or I
+shall shoot. This lady and I intend to ride where we please."
+
+"Then I shall have to say you _cannot_," said Gardley; and his voice
+still had that calm that made his opponent think him easy to conquer.
+
+"Just how do you propose to stop us?" sneered Forsythe, pulling out his
+pistol.
+
+"This way," said Gardley, lifting a tiny silver whistle to his lips and
+sending forth a peculiar, shrilling blast. "And this way," went on
+Gardley, calmly lifting both hands and showing a weapon in each,
+wherewith he covered the two.
+
+Rosa screamed and covered her face with her hands, cowering in her
+saddle.
+
+Forsythe lifted his weapon, but looked around nervously. "Dead men tell
+no tales," he said, angrily.
+
+"It depends upon the man," said Gardley, meaningly, "especially if he
+were found on this road. I fancy a few tales could be told if you
+happened to be the man. Turn your horses around at once and take this
+lady back to her home. My men are not far off, and if you do not wish
+the whole story to be known among your friends and hers you would better
+make haste."
+
+Forsythe dropped his weapon and obeyed. He decidedly did not wish his
+escapade to be known among his friends. There were financial reasons why
+he did not care to have it come to the ears of his brother-in-law just
+now.
+
+Silently in the moonlight the little procession took its way down the
+trail, the girl and the man side by side, their captor close behind, and
+when the girl summoned courage to glance fearsomely behind her she saw
+three more men riding like three grim shadows yet behind. They had
+fallen into the trail so quietly that she had not heard them when they
+came. They were Jasper Kemp, Long Bill, and Big Jim. They had been out
+for other purposes, but without question followed the call of the
+signal.
+
+It was a long ride back to Rogers's ranch, and Forsythe glanced
+nervously behind now and then. It seemed to him that the company was
+growing larger all the time. He half expected to see a regiment each
+time he turned. He tried hurrying his horse, but when he did so the
+followers were just as close without any seeming effort. He tried to
+laugh it all off.
+
+Once he turned and tried to placate Gardley with a few shakily jovial
+words:
+
+"Look here, old fellow, aren't you the man I met on the trail the day
+Miss Earle went over to the fort? I guess you've made a mistake in your
+calculations. I was merely out on a pleasure ride with Miss Rogers. We
+weren't going anywhere in particular, you know. Miss Rogers chose this
+way, and I wanted to please her. No man likes to have his pleasure
+interfered with, you know. I guess you didn't recognize me?"
+
+"I recognized you," said Gardley. "It would be well for you to be
+careful where you ride with ladies, especially at night. The matter,
+however, is one that you would better settle with Mr. Rogers. My duty
+will be done when I have put it into his hands."
+
+"Now, my good fellow," said Forsythe, patronizingly, "you surely don't
+intend to make a great fuss about this and go telling tales to Mr.
+Rogers about a trifling matter--"
+
+"I intend to do my duty, Mr. Forsythe," said Gardley; and Forsythe
+noticed that the young man still held his weapons. "I was set this night
+to guard Mr. Rogers's property. That I did not expect his daughter would
+be a part of the evening's guarding has nothing to do with the matter. I
+shall certainly put the matter into Mr. Rogers's hands."
+
+Rosa began to cry softly.
+
+"Well, if you want to be a fool, of course," laughed Forsythe,
+disagreeably; "but you will soon see Mr. Rogers will accept my
+explanation."
+
+"That is for Mr. Rogers to decide," answered Gardley, and said no more.
+
+The reflections of Forsythe during the rest of that silent ride were not
+pleasant, and Rosa's intermittent crying did not tend to make him more
+comfortable.
+
+The silent procession at last turned in at the great ranch gate and rode
+up to the house. Just as they stopped and the door of the house swung
+open, letting out a flood of light, Rosa leaned toward Gardley and
+whispered:
+
+"Please, Mr. Gardley, don't tell papa. I'll do _anything_ in the world
+for you if you won't tell papa."
+
+He looked at the pretty, pitiful child in the moonlight. "I'm sorry,
+Miss Rosa," he said, firmly. "But you don't understand. I must do my
+duty."
+
+"Then I shall hate you!" she hissed. "Do you hear? I shall _hate_ you
+forever, and you don't know what that means. It means I'll take my
+_revenge_ on you and on _everybody you like_."
+
+He looked at her half pityingly as he swung off his horse and went up
+the steps to meet Mr. Rogers, who had come out and was standing on the
+top step of the ranch-house in the square of light that flickered from a
+great fire on the hearth of the wide fireplace. He was looking from one
+to another of the silent group, and as his eyes rested on his daughter
+he said, sternly:
+
+"Why, Rosa, what does this mean? You told me you were going to bed with
+a headache!"
+
+Gardley drew his employer aside and told what had happened in a few
+low-toned sentences; and then stepped down and back into the shadow, his
+horse by his side, the three men from the camp grouped behind him. He
+had the delicacy to withdraw after his duty was done.
+
+Mr. Rogers, his face stern with sudden anger and alarm, stepped down and
+stood beside his daughter. "Rosa, you may get down and go into the house
+to your own room. I will talk with you later," he said. And then to the
+young man, "You, sir, will step into my office. I wish to have a plain
+talk with you."
+
+A half-hour later Forsythe came out of the Rogers house and mounted his
+horse, while Mr. Rogers stood silently and watched him.
+
+"I will bid you good evening, sir," he said, formally, as the young man
+mounted his horse and silently rode away. His back had a defiant look in
+the moonlight as he passed the group of men in the shadow; but they did
+not turn to watch him.
+
+"That will be all to-night, Gardley, and I thank you very much," called
+the clear voice of Mr. Rogers from his front steps.
+
+The four men mounted their horses silently and rode down a little
+distance behind the young man, who wondered in his heart just how much
+or how little Gardley had told Rosa's father.
+
+The interview to which young Forsythe had just been subjected had been
+chastening in character, of a kind to baffle curiosity concerning the
+father's knowledge of details, and to discourage any further romantic
+rides with Miss Rosa. It had been left in abeyance whether or not the
+Temples should be made acquainted with the episode, dependent upon the
+future conduct of both young people. It had not been satisfactory from
+Forsythe's point of view; that is, he had not been so easily able to
+disabuse the father's mind of suspicion, nor to establish his own
+guileless character as he had hoped; and some of the remarks Rogers made
+led Forsythe to think that the father understood just how unpleasant it
+might become for him if his brother-in-law found out about the
+escapade.
+
+This is why Archie Forsythe feared Lance Gardley, although there was
+nothing in the least triumphant about the set of that young man's
+shoulders as he rode away in the moonlight on the trail toward Ashland.
+And this is how it came about that Rosa Rogers hated Lance Gardley,
+handsome and daring though he was; and because of him hated her teacher,
+Margaret Earle.
+
+An hour later Lance Gardley stood in the little dim Tanner parlor,
+talking to Margaret.
+
+"You look tired," said the girl, compassionately, as she saw the haggard
+shadows on the young face, showing in spite of the light of pleasure in
+his eyes. "You look _very_ tired. What in the world have you been
+doing?"
+
+"I went out to catch cattle-thieves," he said, with a sigh, "but I found
+there were other kinds of thieves abroad. It's all in the day's work.
+I'm not tired now." And he smiled at her with beautiful reverence.
+
+Margaret, as she watched him, could not help thinking that the lines in
+his face had softened and strengthened since she had first seen him, and
+her eyes let him know that she was glad he had come.
+
+"And so you will really come to us, and it isn't going to be asking too
+much?" he said, wistfully. "You can't think what it's going to be to the
+men--to _us_! And Mom Wallis is so excited she can hardly get her work
+done. If you had said no I would be almost afraid to go back." He
+laughed, but she could see there was deep earnestness under his tone.
+
+"Indeed I will come," said Margaret. "I'm just looking forward to it.
+I'm going to bring Mom Wallis a new bonnet like one I made for mother;
+and I'm going to teach her how to make corn gems and steamed apple
+dumplings. I'm bringing some songs and some music for the violin; and
+I've got something for you to help me do, too, if you will?"
+
+He smiled tenderly down on her. What a wonderful girl she was, to be
+willing to come out to the old shack among a lot of rough men and one
+uncultured old woman and make them happy, when she was fit for the
+finest in the land!
+
+"You're _wonderful_!" he said, taking her hand with a quick pressure for
+good-by. "You make every one want to do his best."
+
+He hurried out to his horse and rode away in the moonlight. Margaret
+went up to her "mountain window" and watched him far out on the trail,
+her heart swelling with an unnamed gladness over his last words.
+
+"Oh, God, keep him, and help him to make good!" she prayed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+The visit to the camp was a time to be remembered long by all the
+inhabitants of the bunk-house, and even by Margaret herself. Margaret
+wondered Friday evening, as she sat up late, working away braiding a
+lovely gray bonnet out of folds of malines, and fashioning it into form
+for Mom Wallis, why she was looking forward to the visit with so much
+more real pleasure than she had done to the one the week before at the
+Temples'. And so subtle is the heart of a maid that she never fathomed
+the real reason.
+
+The Temples', of course, was interesting and delightful as being
+something utterly new in her experience. It was comparatively luxurious,
+and there were pleasant, cultured people there, more from her own social
+class in life. But it was going to be such fun to surprise Mom Wallis
+with that bonnet and see her old face light up when she saw herself in
+the little folding three-leaved mirror she was taking along with her and
+meant to leave for Mom Wallis's log boudoir. She was quite excited over
+selecting some little thing for each one of the men--books, pictures, a
+piece of music, a bright cushion, and a pile of picture magazines. It
+made a big bundle when she had them together, and she was dubious if she
+ought to try to carry them all; but Bud, whom she consulted on the
+subject, said, loftily, it "wasn't a flea-bite for the Kid; he could
+carry anything on a horse."
+
+Bud was just a little jealous to have his beloved teacher away from home
+so much, and rejoiced greatly when Gardley, Friday afternoon, suggested
+that he come along, too. He made quick time to his home, and secured a
+hasty permission and wardrobe, appearing like a footman on his father's
+old horse when they were half a mile down the trail.
+
+Mom Wallis was out at the door to greet her guest when she arrived, for
+Margaret had chosen to make her visit last from Friday afternoon after
+school, until Monday morning. It was the generosity of her nature that
+she gave to her utmost when she gave.
+
+The one fear she had entertained about coming had been set at rest on
+the way when Gardley told her that Pop Wallis was off on one of his long
+trips, selling cattle, and would probably not return for a week.
+Margaret, much as she trusted Gardley and the men, could not help
+dreading to meet Pop Wallis again.
+
+There was a new trimness about the old bunk-house. The clearing had been
+cleaned up and made neat, the grass cut, some vines set out and trained
+up limply about the door, and the windows shone with Mom Wallis's
+washing.
+
+Mom Wallis herself was wearing her best white apron, stiff with starch,
+her lace collar, and her hair in her best imitation of the way Margaret
+had fixed it, although it must be confessed she hadn't quite caught the
+knack of arrangement yet. But the one great difference Margaret noticed
+in the old woman was the illuminating smile on her face. Mom Wallis had
+learned how to let the glory gleam through all the hard sordidness of
+her life, and make earth brighter for those about her.
+
+The curtains certainly made a great difference in the looks of the
+bunk-house, together with a few other changes. The men had made some
+chairs--three of them, one out of a barrel; and together they had
+upholstered them roughly. The cots around the walls were blazing with
+their red blankets folded smoothly and neatly over them, and on the
+floor in front of the hearth, which had been scrubbed, Gardley had
+spread a Navajo blanket he had bought of an Indian.
+
+The fireplace was piled with logs ready for the lighting at night, and
+from somewhere a lamp had been rigged up and polished till it shone in
+the setting sun that slanted long rays in at the shining windows.
+
+The men were washed and combed, and had been huddled at the back of the
+bunk-house for an hour, watching the road, and now they came forward
+awkwardly to greet their guest, their horny hands scrubbed to an
+unbelievable whiteness. They did not say much, but they looked their
+pleasure, and Margaret greeted every one as if he were an old friend,
+the charming part about it all to the men being that she remembered
+every one's name and used it.
+
+Bud hovered in the background and watched with starry eyes. Bud was
+having the time of his life. He preferred the teacher's visiting the
+camp rather than the fort. The "Howdy, sonny!" which he had received
+from the men, and the "Make yourself at home, Bill" from Gardley, had
+given him great joy; and the whole thing seemed somehow to link him to
+the teacher in a most distinguishing manner.
+
+Supper was ready almost immediately, and Mom Wallis had done her best to
+make it appetizing. There was a lamb stew with potatoes, and fresh corn
+bread with coffee. The men ate with relish, and watched their guest of
+honor as if she had been an angel come down to abide with them for a
+season. There was a tablecloth on the old table, too--a _white_
+tablecloth. It looked remarkably like an old sheet, to be sure, with a
+seam through the middle where it had been worn and turned and sewed
+together; but it was a tablecloth now, and a marvel to the men. And the
+wonder about Margaret was that she could eat at such a table and make it
+seem as though that tablecloth were the finest damask, and the two-tined
+forks the heaviest of silver.
+
+After the supper was cleared away and the lamp lighted, the gifts were
+brought out. A book of Scotch poetry for Jasper Kemp, bound in tartan
+covers of the Campbell clan; a small illustrated pamphlet of Niagara
+Falls for Big Jim, because he had said he wanted to see the place and
+never could manage it; a little pictured folder of Washington City for
+Big Jim; a book of old ballad music for Fiddling Boss; a book of jokes
+for Fade-away Forbes; a framed picture of a beautiful shepherd dog for
+Stocky; a big, red, ruffled denim pillow for Croaker, because when she
+was there before he was always complaining about the seats being hard;
+a great blazing crimson pennant bearing the name HARVARD in big letters
+for Fudge, because she had remembered he was from Boston; and for Mom
+Wallis a framed text beautifully painted in water-colors, done in rustic
+letters twined with stray forget-me-nots, the words, "Come unto Me, all
+ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Margaret
+had made that during the week and framed it in a simple raffia braid of
+brown and green.
+
+It was marvelous how these men liked their presents; and while they were
+examining them and laughing about them and putting their pictures and
+Mom Wallis's text on the walls, and the pillow on a bunk, and the
+pennant over the fireplace, Margaret shyly held out a tiny box to
+Gardley.
+
+"I thought perhaps you would let me give you this," she said. "It isn't
+much; it isn't even new, and it has some marks in it; but I thought it
+might help with your new undertaking."
+
+Gardley took it with a lighting of his face and opened the box. In it
+was a little, soft, leather-bound Testament, showing the marks of usage,
+yet not worn. It was a tiny thing, very thin, easily fitting in a
+vest-pocket, and not a burden to carry. He took the little book in his
+hand, removed the silken rubber band that bound it, and turned the
+leaves reverently in his fingers, noting that there were pencil-marks
+here and there. His face was all emotion as he looked up at the giver.
+
+"I thank you," he said, in a low tone, glancing about to see that no one
+was noticing them. "I shall prize it greatly. It surely will help. I
+will read it every day. Was that what you wanted? And I will carry it
+with me always."
+
+His voice was very earnest, and he looked at her as though she had given
+him a fortune. With another glance about at the preoccupied room--even
+Bud was busy studying Jasper Kemp's oldest gun--he snapped the band on
+the book again and put it carefully in his inner breast-pocket. The book
+would henceforth travel next his heart and be his guide. She thought he
+meant her to understand that, as he put out his hand unobtrusively and
+pressed her fingers gently with a quick, low "Thank you!"
+
+Then Mom Wallis's bonnet was brought out and tied on her, and the poor
+old woman blushed like a girl when she stood with meek hands folded at
+her waist and looked primly about on the family for their approval at
+Margaret's request. But that was nothing to the way she stared when
+Margaret got out the threefold mirror and showed her herself in the new
+headgear. She trotted away at last, the wonderful bonnet in one hand,
+the box in the other, a look of awe on her face, and Margaret heard her
+murmur as she put it away: "Glory! _Me!_ Glory!"
+
+Then Margaret had to read one or two of the poems for Jasper Kemp, while
+they all sat and listened to her Scotch and marveled at her. A woman
+like that condescending to come to visit them!
+
+She gave a lesson in note-reading to the Fiddling Boss, pointing one by
+one with her white fingers to the notes until he was able to creep along
+and pick out "Suwanee River" and "Old Folks at Home" to the intense
+delight of the audience.
+
+Margaret never knew just how it was that she came to be telling the men
+a story, one she had read not long before in a magazine, a story with a
+thrilling national interest and a keen personal touch that searched the
+hearts of men; but they listened as they had never listened to anything
+in their lives before.
+
+And then there was singing, more singing, until it bade fair to be
+morning before they slept, and the little teacher was weary indeed when
+she lay down on the cot in Mom Wallis's room, after having knelt beside
+the old woman and prayed.
+
+The next day there was a wonderful ride with Gardley and Bud to the
+canon of the cave-dwellers, and a coming home to the apple dumplings she
+had taught Mom Wallis to make before she went away. All day Gardley and
+she, with Bud for delighted audience, had talked over the play she was
+getting up at the school, Gardley suggesting about costumes and tree
+boughs for scenery, and promising to help in any way she wanted. Then
+after supper there were jokes and songs around the big fire, and some
+popcorn one of the men had gone a long ride that day to get. They called
+for another story, too, and it was forthcoming.
+
+It was Sunday morning after breakfast, however, that Margaret suddenly
+wondered how she was going to make the day helpful and different from
+the other days.
+
+She stood for a moment looking out of the clear little window
+thoughtfully, with just the shadow of a sigh on her lips, and as she
+turned back to the room she met Gardley's questioning glance.
+
+"Are you homesick?" he asked, with a sorry smile. "This must all be
+very different from what you are accustomed to."
+
+"Oh no, it isn't that." She smiled, brightly. "I'm not a baby for home,
+but I do get a bit homesick about church-time. Sunday is such a strange
+day to me without a service."
+
+"Why not have one, then?" he suggested, eagerly. "We can sing and--you
+could--do the rest!"
+
+Her eyes lighted at the suggestion, and she cast a quick glance at the
+men. Would they stand for that sort of thing?
+
+Gardley followed her glance and caught her meaning. "Let them answer for
+themselves," he said quickly in a low tone, and then, raising his voice:
+"Speak up, men. Do you want to have church? Miss Earle here is homesick
+for a service, and I suggest that we have one, and she conduct it."
+
+"Sure!" said Jasper Kemp, his face lighting. "I'll miss my guess if she
+can't do better than the parson we had last Sunday. Get into your seats,
+boys; we're goin' to church."
+
+Margaret's face was a study of embarrassment and delight as she saw the
+alacrity with which the men moved to get ready for "church." Her quick
+brain turned over the possibility of what she could read or say to help
+this strange congregation thus suddenly thrust upon her.
+
+It was a testimony to her upbringing by a father whose great business of
+life was to preach the gospel that she never thought once of hesitating
+or declining the opportunity, but welcomed it as an opportunity, and
+only deprecated her unreadiness for the work.
+
+The men stirred about, donned their coats, furtively brushing their
+hair, and Long Bill insisted that Mom Wallis put on her new bonnet;
+which she obligingly did, and sat down carefully in the barrel-chair,
+her hands neatly crossed in her lap, supremely happy. It really was
+wonderful what a difference that bonnet made in Mom Wallis.
+
+Gardley arranged a comfortable seat for Margaret at the table and put in
+front of her one of the hymn-books she had brought. Then, after she was
+seated, he took the chair beside her and brought out the little
+Testament from his breast-pocket, gravely laying it on the hymn-book.
+
+Margaret met his eyes with a look of quick appreciation. It was
+wonderful the way these two were growing to understand each other. It
+gave the girl a thrill of wonder and delight to have him do this simple
+little thing for her, and the smile that passed between them was
+beautiful to see. Long Bill turned away his head and looked out of the
+window with an improvised sneeze to excuse the sudden mist that came
+into his eyes.
+
+Margaret chose "My Faith looks up to Thee" for the first hymn, because
+Fiddling Boss could play it, and while he was tuning up his fiddle she
+hastily wrote out two more copies of the words. And so the queer service
+started with a quaver of the old fiddle and the clear, sweet voices of
+Margaret and Gardley leading off, while the men growled on their way
+behind, and Mom Wallis, in her new gray bonnet, with her hair all
+fluffed softly gray under it, sat with eyes shining like a girl's.
+
+So absorbed in the song were they all that they failed to hear the sound
+of a horse coming into the clearing. But just as the last words of the
+final verse died away the door of the bunk-house swung open, and there
+in the doorway stood Pop Wallis!
+
+The men sprang to their feet with one accord, ominous frowns on their
+brows, and poor old Mom Wallis sat petrified where she was, the smile of
+relaxation frozen on her face, a look of fear growing in her tired old
+eyes.
+
+Now Pop Wallis, through an unusual combination of circumstances, had
+been for some hours without liquor and was comparatively sober. He stood
+for a moment staring amazedly at the group around his fireside. Perhaps
+because he had been so long without his usual stimulant his mind was
+weakened and things appeared as a strange vision to him. At any rate, he
+stood and stared, and as he looked from one to another of the men, at
+the beautiful stranger, and across to the strangely unfamiliar face of
+his wife in her new bonnet, his eyes took on a frightened look. He
+slowly took his hand from the door-frame and passed it over his eyes,
+then looked again, from one to another, and back to his glorified wife.
+
+Margaret had half risen at her end of the table, and Gardley stood
+beside her as if to reassure her; but Pop Wallis was not looking at any
+of them any more. His eyes were on his wife. He passed his hand once
+more over his eyes and took one step gropingly into the room, a hand
+reached out in front of him, as if he were not sure but he might run
+into something on the way, the other hand on his forehead, a dazed look
+in his face.
+
+"Why, Mom--that ain't really--_you_, now, _is_ it?" he said, in a
+gentle, insinuating voice like one long unaccustomed making a hasty
+prayer.
+
+The tone made a swift change in the old woman. She gripped her bony
+hands tight and a look of beatific joy came into her wrinkled face.
+
+"Yes, it's really _me_, Pop!" she said, with a kind of triumphant ring
+to her voice.
+
+"But--but--you're right _here_, ain't you? You ain't _dead_,
+an'--an'--gone to--gl-oo-ry, be you? You're right _here_?"
+
+"Yes, I'm right _here_, Pop. I ain't dead! Pop--glory's _come to me_!"
+
+"Glory?" repeated the man, dazedly. "Glory?" And he gazed around the
+room and took in the new curtains, the pictures on the wall, the
+cushions and chairs, and the bright, shining windows. "You don't mean
+it's _heav'n_, do you, Mom? 'Cause I better go back--_I_ don't belong in
+heav'n. Why, Mom, it can't be glory, 'cause it's the same old
+bunk-house outside, anyhow."
+
+"Yes, it's the same old bunk-house, and it ain't heaven, but it's
+_goin_' to be. The glory's come all right. You sit down, Pop; we're
+goin' to have church, and this is my new bonnet. _She_ brang it. This is
+the new school-teacher, Miss Earle, and she's goin' to have church. She
+done it _all_! You sit down and listen."
+
+Pop Wallis took a few hesitating steps into the room and dropped into
+the nearest chair. He looked at Margaret as if she might be an angel
+holding open the portal to a kingdom in the sky. He looked and wondered
+and admired, and then he looked back to his glorified old wife again in
+wonder.
+
+Jasper Kemp shut the door, and the company dropped back into their
+places. Margaret, because of her deep embarrassment, and a kind of
+inward trembling that had taken possession of her, announced another
+hymn.
+
+It was a solemn little service, quite unique, with a brief, simple
+prayer and an expository reading of the story of the blind man from the
+sixth chapter of John. The men sat attentively, their eyes upon her face
+as she read; but Pop Wallis sat staring at his wife, an awed light upon
+his scared old face, the wickedness and cunning all faded out, and only
+fear and wonder written there.
+
+In the early dawning of the pink-and-silver morning Margaret went back
+to her work, Gardley riding by her side, and Bud riding at a discreet
+distance behind, now and then going off at a tangent after a stray
+cottontail. It was wonderful what good sense Bud seemed to have on
+occasion.
+
+The horse that Margaret rode, a sturdy little Western pony, with nerve
+and grit and a gentle common sense for humans, was to remain with her in
+Ashland, a gift from the men of the bunk-house. During the week that
+followed Archie Forsythe came riding over with a beautiful shining
+saddle-horse for her use during her stay in the West; but when he went
+riding back to the ranch the shining saddle-horse was still in his
+train, riderless, for Margaret told him that she already had a horse of
+her own. Neither had Margaret accepted the invitation to the Temples'
+for the next week-end. She had other plans for the Sabbath, and that
+week there appeared on all the trees and posts about the town, and on
+the trails, a little notice of a Bible class and vesper-service to be
+held in the school-house on the following Sabbath afternoon; and so
+Margaret, true daughter of her minister-father, took up her mission in
+Ashland for the Sabbaths that were to follow; for the school-board had
+agreed with alacrity to such use of the school-house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+Now when it became noised abroad that the new teacher wanted above all
+things to purchase a piano, and that to that end she was getting up a
+wonderful Shakespeare play in which the scholars were to act upon a
+stage set with tree boughs after the manner of some new kind of players,
+the whole community round about began to be excited.
+
+Mrs. Tanner talked much about it. Was not Bud to be a prominent
+character? Mr. Tanner talked about it everywhere he went. The mothers
+and fathers and sisters talked about it, and the work of preparing the
+play went on.
+
+Margaret had discovered that one of the men at the bunk-house played a
+flute, and she was working hard to teach him and Fiddling Boss and
+Croaker to play a portion of the elfin dance to accompany the players.
+The work of making costumes and training the actors became more and more
+strenuous, and in this Gardley proved a fine assistant. He undertook to
+train some of the older boys for their parts, and did it so well that he
+was presently in the forefront of the battle of preparation and working
+almost as hard as Margaret herself.
+
+The beauty of the whole thing was that every boy in the school adored
+him, even Jed and Timothy, and life took on a different aspect to them
+in company with this high-born college-bred, Eastern young man who yet
+could ride and shoot with the daringest among the Westerners.
+
+Far and wide went forth the fame of the play that was to be. The news of
+it reached to the fort and the ranches, and brought offers of assistance
+and costumes and orders for tickets. Margaret purchased a small
+duplicator and set her school to printing tickets and selling them, and
+before the play was half ready to be acted tickets enough were sold for
+two performances, and people were planning to come from fifty miles
+around. The young teacher began to quake at the thought of her big
+audience and her poor little amateur players; and yet for children they
+were doing wonderfully well, and were growing quite Shakespearian in
+their manner of conversation.
+
+"What say you, sweet Amanda?" would be a form of frequent address to
+that stolid maiden Amanda Bounds; and Jed, instead of shouting for
+"Delicate" at recess, as in former times, would say, "My good Timothy, I
+swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow; by his best arrow with the
+golden head"--until all the school-yard rang with classic phrases; and
+the whole country round was being addressed in phrases of another
+century by the younger members of their households.
+
+Then Rosa Rogers's father one day stopped at the Tanners' and left a
+contribution with the teacher of fifty dollars toward the new piano; and
+after that it was rumored that the teacher said the piano could be sent
+for in time to be used at the play. Then other contributions of smaller
+amounts came in, and before the date of the play had been set there was
+money enough to make a first payment on the piano. That day the English
+exercise for the whole school was to compose the letter to the Eastern
+piano firm where the piano was to be purchased, ordering it to be sent
+on at once. Weeks before this Margaret had sent for a number of piano
+catalogues beautifully illustrated, showing by cuts how the whole
+instruments were made, with full illustrations of the factories where
+they were manufactured, and she had discussed the selection with the
+scholars, showing them what points were to be considered in selecting a
+good piano. At last the order was sent out, the actual selection itself
+to be made by a musical friend of Margaret's in New York, and the school
+waited in anxious suspense to hear that it had started on its way.
+
+The piano arrived at last, three weeks before the time set for the play,
+which was coming on finely now and seemed to the eager scholars quite
+ready for public performance. Not so to Margaret and Gardley, as daily
+they pruned, trained, and patiently went over and over again each part,
+drawing all the while nearer to the ideal they had set. It could not be
+done perfectly, of course, and when they had done all they could there
+would yet be many crudities; but Margaret's hope was to bring out the
+meaning of the play and give both audience and performers the true idea
+of what Shakespeare meant when he wrote it.
+
+The arrival of the piano was naturally a great event in the school. For
+three days in succession the entire school marched in procession down to
+the incoming Eastern train to see if their expected treasure had
+arrived, and when at last it was lifted from the freight-car and set
+upon the station platform the school stood awe-struck and silent, with
+half-bowed heads and bated breath, as though at the arrival of some
+great and honorable guest.
+
+They attended it on the roadside as it was carted by the biggest wagon
+in town to the school-house door; they stood in silent rows while the
+great box was peeled off and the instrument taken out and carried into
+the school-room; then they filed in soulfully and took their accustomed
+seats without being told, touching shyly the shining case as they
+passed. By common consent they waited to hear its voice for the first
+time. Margaret took the little key from the envelope tied to the frame,
+unlocked the cover, and, sitting down, began to play. The rough men who
+had brought it stood in awesome adoration around the platform; the
+silence that spread over that room would have done honor to Paderewski
+or Josef Hoffman.
+
+Margaret played and played, and they could not hear enough. They would
+have stayed all night listening, perhaps, so wonderful was it to them.
+And then the teacher called each one and let him or her touch a few
+chords, just to say they had played on it. After which she locked the
+instrument and sent them all home. That was the only afternoon during
+that term that the play was forgotten for a while.
+
+After the arrival of the piano the play went forward with great
+strides, for now Margaret accompanied some of the parts with the music,
+and the flute and violin were also practised in their elfin dance with
+much better effect. It was about this time that Archie Forsythe
+discovered the rehearsals and offered his assistance, and, although it
+was declined, he frequently managed to ride over about rehearsal time,
+finding ways to make himself useful in spite of Margaret's polite
+refusals. Margaret always felt annoyed when he came, because Rosa Rogers
+instantly became another creature on his arrival, and because Gardley
+simply froze into a polite statue, never speaking except when spoken to.
+As for Forsythe, his attitude toward Gardley was that of a contemptuous
+master toward a slave, and yet he took care to cover it always with a
+form of courtesy, so that Margaret could say or do nothing to show her
+displeasure, except to be grave and dignified. At such times Rosa
+Rogers's eyes would be upon her with a gleam of hatred, and the teacher
+felt that the scholar was taking advantage of the situation. Altogether
+it was a trying time for Margaret when Forsythe came to the
+school-house. Also, he discovered to them that he played the violin, and
+offered to assist in the orchestral parts. Margaret really could think
+of no reason to decline this offer, but she was sadly upset by the whole
+thing. His manner to her was too pronounced, and she felt continually
+uncomfortable under it, what with Rosa Rogers's jealous eyes upon her
+and Gardley's eyes turned haughtily away.
+
+She planned a number of special rehearsals in the evenings, when it was
+difficult for Forsythe to get there, and managed in this way to avoid
+his presence; but the whole matter became a source of much vexation, and
+Margaret even shed a few tears wearily into her pillow one night when
+things had gone particularly hard and Forsythe had hurt the feelings of
+Fiddling Boss with his insolent directions about playing. She could not
+say or do anything much in the matter, because the Temples had been very
+kind in helping to get the piano, and Mr. Temple seemed to think he was
+doing the greatest possible kindness to her in letting Forsythe off duty
+so much to help with the play. The matter became more and more of a
+distress to Margaret, and the Sabbath was the only day of real delight.
+
+The first Sunday after the arrival of the piano was a great day.
+Everybody in the neighborhood turned out to the Sunday-afternoon class
+and vesper service, which had been growing more and more in popularity,
+until now the school-room was crowded. Every man from the bunk-house
+came regularly, often including Pop Wallis, who had not yet recovered
+fully from the effect of his wife's new bonnet and fluffy arrangement of
+hair, but treated her like a lady visitor and deferred to her absolutely
+when he was at home. He wasn't quite sure even yet but he had strayed by
+mistake into the outermost courts of heaven and ought to get shooed out.
+He always looked at the rose-wreathed curtains with a mingling of pride
+and awe.
+
+Margaret had put several hymns on the blackboard in clear, bold
+printing, and the singing that day was wonderful. Not the least part of
+the service was her own playing over of the hymns before the singing
+began, which was listened to with reverence as if it had been the music
+of an angel playing on a heavenly harp.
+
+Gardley always came to the Sunday services, and helped her with the
+singing, and often they two sang duets together.
+
+The service was not always of set form. Usually Margaret taught a short
+Bible lesson, beginning with the general outline of the Bible, its
+books, their form, substance, authors, etc.--all very brief and
+exceedingly simple, putting a wide space of music between this and the
+vesper service, into which she wove songs, bits of poems, passages from
+the Bible, and often a story which she told dramatically, illustrating
+the scripture read.
+
+But the very Sunday before the play, just the time Margaret had looked
+forward to as being her rest from all the perplexities of the week, a
+company from the fort, including the Temples, arrived at the
+school-house right in the midst of the Bible lesson.
+
+The ladies were daintily dressed, and settled their frills and ribbons
+amusedly as they watched the embarrassed young teacher trying to forget
+that there was company present. They were in a distinct sense "company,"
+for they had the air, as they entered, of having come to look on and be
+amused, not to partake in the worship with the rest.
+
+Margaret found herself trembling inwardly as she saw the supercilious
+smile on the lips of Mrs. Temple and the amused stares of the other
+ladies of the party. They did not take any notice of the other people
+present any more than if they had been so many puppets set up to show
+off the teacher; their air of superiority was offensive. Not until Rosa
+Rogers entered with her father, a little later, did they condescend to
+bow in recognition, and then with that pretty little atmosphere as if
+they would say, "Oh, you've come, too, to be amused."
+
+Gardley was sitting up in front, listening to her talk, and she thought
+he had not noticed the strangers. Suddenly it came to her to try to keep
+her nerve and let him see that they were nothing to her; and with a
+strong effort and a swift prayer for help she called for a hymn. She sat
+coolly down at the piano, touching the keys with a tender chord or two
+and beginning to sing almost at once. She had sent home for some old
+hymn-books from the Christian Endeavor Society in her father's church,
+so the congregation were supplied with the notes and words now, and
+everybody took part eagerly, even the people from the fort
+condescendingly joining in.
+
+But Gardley was too much alive to every expression on that vivid face of
+Margaret's to miss knowing that she was annoyed and upset. He did not
+need to turn and look back to immediately discover the cause. He was a
+young person of keen intuition. It suddenly gave him great satisfaction
+to see that look of consternation on Margaret's face. It settled for him
+a question he had been in great and anxious doubt about, and his soul
+was lifted up with peace within him. When, presently, according to
+arrangement, he rose to sing a duet with Margaret, no one could have
+possibly told by so much as the lifting of an eyelash that he knew there
+was an enemy of his in the back of the room. He sang, as did Margaret,
+to the immediate audience in front of him, those admiring children and
+adoring men in the forefront who felt the school-house had become for
+them the gate of heaven for the time being; and he sang with marvelous
+feeling and sympathy, letting out his voice at its best.
+
+"Really," said Mrs. Temple, in a loud whisper to the wife of one of the
+officers, "that young man has a fine voice, and he isn't bad-looking,
+either. I think he'd be worth cultivating. We must have him up and try
+him out."
+
+But when she repeated this remark in another stage whisper to Forsythe
+he frowned haughtily.
+
+The one glimpse Margaret caught of Forsythe during that afternoon's
+service was when he was smiling meaningly at Rosa Rogers; and she had to
+resolutely put the memory of their look from her mind or the story which
+she was about to tell would have fled.
+
+It was the hunger in Jasper Kemp's eyes that finally anchored Margaret's
+thoughts and helped her to forget the company at the back of the room.
+She told her story, and she told it wonderfully and with power,
+interpreting it now and then for the row of men who sat in the center of
+the room drinking in her every word; and when the simple service was
+concluded with another song, in which Gardley's voice rang forth with
+peculiar tenderness and strength, the men filed forth silently,
+solemnly, with bowed heads and thoughtful eyes. But the company from the
+fort flowed up around Margaret like flood-tide let loose and gushed upon
+her.
+
+"Oh, my dear!" said Mrs. Temple. "How beautifully you do it! And such
+attention as they give you! No wonder you are willing to forego all
+other amusements to stay here and preach! But it was perfectly sweet the
+way you made them listen and the way you told that story. I don't see
+how you do it. I'd be scared to death!"
+
+They babbled about her awhile, much to her annoyance, for there were
+several people to whom she had wanted to speak, who drew away and
+disappeared when the new-comers took possession of her. At last,
+however, they mounted and rode away, to her great relief. Forsythe, it
+is true, tried to make her go home with them; tried to escort her to the
+Tanners'; tried to remain in the school-house with her awhile when she
+told him she had something to do there; but she would not let him, and
+he rode away half sulky at the last, a look of injured pride upon his
+face.
+
+Margaret went to the door finally, and looked down the road. He was
+gone, and she was alone. A shade of sadness came over her face. She was
+sorry that Gardley had not waited. She had wanted to tell him how much
+she liked his singing, what a pleasure it was to sing with him, and how
+glad she was that he came up to her need so well with the strangers
+there and helped to make it easy. But Gardley had melted away as soon as
+the service was over, and had probably gone home with the rest of the
+men. It was disappointing, for she had come to consider their little
+time together on Sunday as a very pleasant hour, this few minutes after
+the service when they would talk about real living and the vital things
+of existence. But he was gone!
+
+She turned, and there he was, quite near the door, coming toward her.
+Her face lighted up with a joy that was unmistakable, and his own smile
+in answer was a revelation of his deeper self.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad you are not gone!" she said, eagerly. "I wanted to tell
+you--" And then she stopped, and the color flooded her face rosily, for
+she saw in his eyes how glad he was and forgot to finish her sentence.
+
+He came up gravely, after all, and, standing just a minute so beside the
+door, took both her hands in both his. It was only for a second that he
+stood so, looking down into her eyes. I doubt if either of them knew
+till afterward that they had been holding hands. It seemed the right and
+natural thing to do, and meant so much to each of them. Both were glad
+beyond their own understanding over that moment and its tenderness.
+
+It was all very decorous, and over in a second, but it meant much to
+remember afterward, that look and hand-clasp.
+
+"I wanted to tell you," he said, tenderly, "how much that story did for
+me. It was wonderful, and it helped me to decide something I have been
+perplexed over--"
+
+"Oh, I am glad!" she said, half breathlessly.
+
+So, talking in low, broken sentences, they went back to the piano and
+tried over several songs for the next Sunday, lingering together, just
+happy to be there with each other, and not half knowing the significance
+of it all. As the purple lights on the school-room wall grew long and
+rose-edged, they walked slowly to the Tanner house and said good night.
+
+There was a beauty about the young man as he stood for a moment looking
+down upon the girl in parting, the kind of beauty there is in any
+strong, wild thing made tame and tender for a great love by a great
+uplift. Gardley had that look of self-surrender, and power made
+subservient to right, that crowns a man with strength and more than
+physical beauty. In his fine face there glowed high purpose, and deep
+devotion to the one who had taught it to him. Margaret, looking up at
+him, felt her heart go out with that great love, half maiden, half
+divine, that comes to some favored women even here on earth, and she
+watched him down the road toward the mountain in the evening light and
+marveled how her trust had grown since first she met him; marveled and
+reflected that she had not told her mother and father much about him
+yet. It was growing time to do so; yes--_it was growing time_! Her
+cheeks grew pink in the darkness and she turned and fled to her room.
+
+That was the last time she saw him before the play.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+The play was set for Tuesday. Monday afternoon and evening were to be
+the final rehearsals, but Gardley did not come to them. Fiddling Boss
+came late and said the men had been off all day and had not yet
+returned. He himself found it hard to come at all. They had important
+work on. But there was no word from Gardley.
+
+Margaret was disappointed. She couldn't get away from it. Of course they
+could go on with the rehearsal without him. He had done his work well,
+and there was no real reason why he had to be there. He knew every part
+by heart, and could take any boy's place if any one failed in any way.
+There was nothing further really for him to do until the performance, as
+far as that was concerned, except be there and encourage her. But she
+missed him, and an uneasiness grew in her mind. She had so looked
+forward to seeing him, and now to have no word! He might at least have
+sent her a note when he found he could not come.
+
+Still she knew this was unreasonable. His work, whatever it was--he had
+never explained it very thoroughly to her, perhaps because she had never
+asked--must, of course, have kept him. She must excuse him without
+question and go on with the business of the hour.
+
+Her hands were full enough, for Forsythe came presently and was more
+trying than usual. She had to be very decided and put her foot down
+about one or two things, or some of her actors would have gone home in
+the sulks, and Fiddling Boss, whose part in the program meant much to
+him, would have given it up entirely.
+
+She hurried everything through as soon as possible, knowing she was
+weary, and longing to get to her room and rest. Gardley would come and
+explain to-morrow, likely in the morning on his way somewhere.
+
+But the morning came and no word. Afternoon came and he had not sent a
+sign yet. Some of the little things that he had promised to do about the
+setting of the stage would have to remain undone, for it was too late
+now to do it herself, and there was no one else to call upon.
+
+Into the midst of her perplexity and anxiety came the news that Jed on
+his way home had been thrown from his horse, which was a young and
+vicious one, and had broken his leg. Jed was to act the part of Nick
+Bottom that evening, and he did it well! Now what in the world was she
+to do? If only Gardley would come!
+
+Just at this moment Forsythe arrived.
+
+"Oh, it is you, Mr. Forsythe!" And her tone showed plainly her
+disappointment. "Haven't you seen Mr. Gardley to-day? I don't know what
+I shall do without him."
+
+"I certainly have seen Gardley," said Forsythe, a spice of
+vindictiveness and satisfaction in his tone. "I saw him not two hours
+ago, drunk as a fish, out at a place called Old Ouida's Cabin, as I was
+passing. He's in for a regular spree. You'll not see him for several
+days, I fancy. He's utterly helpless for the present, and out of the
+question. What is there I can do for you? Present your request. It's
+yours--to the half of my kingdom."
+
+Margaret's heart grew cold as ice and then like fire. Her blood seemed
+to stop utterly and then to go pounding through her veins in leaps and
+torrents. Her eyes grew dark, and things swam before her. She reached
+out to a desk and caught at it for support, and her white face looked at
+him a moment as if she had not heard. But when in a second she spoke,
+she said, quite steadily:
+
+"I thank you, Mr. Forsythe; there is nothing just at present--or, yes,
+there is, if you wouldn't mind helping Timothy put up those curtains.
+Now, I think I'll go home and rest a few minutes; I am very tired."
+
+It wasn't exactly the job Forsythe coveted, to stay in the school-house
+and fuss over those curtains; but she made him do it, then disappeared,
+and he didn't like the memory of her white face. He hadn't thought she
+would take it that way. He had expected to have her exclaim with horror
+and disgust. He watched her out of the door, and then turned impatiently
+to the waiting Timothy.
+
+Margaret went outside the school-house to call Bud, who had been sent to
+gather sage-brush for filling in the background, but Bud was already out
+of sight far on the trail toward the camp on Forsythe's horse, riding
+for dear life. Bud had come near to the school-house door with his
+armful of sage-brush just in time to hear Forsythe's flippant speech
+about Gardley and see Margaret's white face. Bud had gone for help!
+
+But Margaret did not go home to rest. She did not even get half-way
+home. When she had gone a very short distance outside the school-house
+she saw some one coming toward her, and in her distress of mind she
+could not tell who it was. Her eyes were blinded with tears, her breath
+was constricted, and it seemed to her that a demon unseen was gripping
+her heart. She had not yet taken her bearings to know what she thought.
+She had only just come dazed from the shock of Forsythe's words, and had
+not the power to think. Over and over to herself, as she walked along,
+she kept repeating the words: "I _do not_ believe it! It is _not_ true!"
+but her inner consciousness had not had time to analyze her soul and be
+sure that she believed the words wherewith she was comforting herself.
+
+So now, when she saw some one coming, she felt the necessity of bringing
+her telltale face to order and getting ready to answer whoever she was
+to meet. As she drew nearer she became suddenly aware that it was Rosa
+Rogers coming with her arms full of bundles and more piled up in front
+of her on her pony. Margaret knew at once that Rosa must have seen
+Forsythe go by her house, and had returned promptly to the school-house
+on some pretext or other. It would not do to let her go there alone with
+the young man; she must go back and stay with them. She could not be
+sure that if she sent Rosa home with orders to rest she would be obeyed.
+Doubtless the girl would take another way around and return to the
+school again. There was nothing for it but to go back and stay as long
+as Rosa did.
+
+Margaret stooped and, hastily plucking a great armful of sage-brush,
+turned around and retraced her steps, her heart like lead, her feet
+suddenly grown heavy. How could she go back and hear them laugh and
+chatter, answer their many silly, unnecessary questions, and stand it
+all? How could she, with that great weight at her heart?
+
+She went back with a wonderful self-control. Forsythe's face lighted,
+and his reluctant hand grew suddenly eager as he worked. Rosa came
+presently, and others, and the laughing chatter went on quite as
+Margaret had known it would. And she--so great is the power of human
+will under pressure--went calmly about and directed here and there;
+planned and executed; put little, dainty, wholly unnecessary touches to
+the stage; and never let any one know that her heart was being crushed
+with the weight of a great, awful fear, and yet steadily upborne by the
+rising of a great, deep trust. As she worked and smiled and ordered, she
+was praying: "Oh, God, don't let it be true! Keep him! Save him! Bring
+him! Make him true! I _know_ he is true! Oh, God, bring him safely
+_soon_!"
+
+Meantime there was nothing she could do. She could not send Forsythe
+after him. She could not speak of the matter to one of those present,
+and Bud--where was Bud? It was the first time since she came to Arizona
+that Bud had failed her. She might not leave the school-house, with
+Forsythe and Rosa there, to go and find him, and she might not do
+anything else. There was nothing to do but work on feverishly and pray
+as she had never prayed before.
+
+By and by one of the smaller boys came, and she sent him back to the
+Tanners' to find Bud, but he returned with the message that Bud had not
+been home since morning; and so the last hours before the evening, that
+would otherwise have been so brief for all there was to be done, dragged
+their weary length away and Margaret worked on.
+
+She did not even go back for supper at the last, but sent one of the
+girls to her room for a few things she needed, and declined even the
+nice little chicken sandwich that thoughtful Mrs. Tanner sent back along
+with the things. And then, at last, the audience began to gather.
+
+By this time her anxiety was so great for Gardley that all thought of
+how she was to supply the place of the absent Jed had gone from her
+mind, which was in a whirl. Gardley! Gardley! If only Gardley would
+come! That was her one thought. What should she do if he didn't come at
+all? How should she explain things to herself afterward? What if it had
+been true? What if he were the kind of man Forsythe had suggested? How
+terrible life would look to her! But it was not true. No, it was not
+true! She trusted him! With her soul she trusted him! He would come back
+some time and he would explain all. She could not remember his last look
+at her on Sunday and not trust him. He was true! He would come!
+
+Somehow she managed to get through the terrible interval, to slip into
+the dressing-room and make herself sweet and comely in the little white
+gown she had sent for, with its delicate blue ribbons and soft lace
+ruffles. Somehow she managed the expected smiles as one and another of
+the audience came around to the platform to speak to her. There were
+dark hollows under her eyes, and her mouth was drawn and weary, but they
+laid that to the excitement. Two bright-red spots glowed on her cheeks;
+but she smiled and talked with her usual gaiety. People looked at her
+and said how beautiful she was, and how bright and untiring; and how
+wonderful it was that Ashland School had drawn such a prize of a
+teacher. The seats filled, the noise and the clatter went on. Still no
+sign of Gardley or any one from the camp, and still Bud had not
+returned! What could it mean?
+
+But the minutes were rushing rapidly now. It was more than time to
+begin. The girls were in a flutter in one cloak-room at the right of the
+stage, asking more questions in a minute than one could answer in an
+hour; the boys in the other cloak-room wanted all sorts of help; and
+three or four of the actors were attacked with stage-fright as they
+peered through a hole in the curtain and saw some friend or relative
+arrive and sit down in the audience. It was all a mad whirl of seemingly
+useless noise and excitement, and she could not, no, she _could not_, go
+on and do the necessary things to start that awful play. Why, oh, _why_
+had she ever been left to think of getting up a play?
+
+Forsythe, up behind the piano, whispered to her that it was time to
+begin. The house was full. There was not room for another soul. Margaret
+explained that Fiddling Boss had not yet arrived, and caught a glimpse
+of the cunning designs of Forsythe in the shifty turning away of his
+eyes as he answered that they could not wait all night for him; that if
+he wanted to get into it he ought to have come early. But even as she
+turned away she saw the little, bobbing, eager faces of Pop and Mom
+Wallis away back by the door, and the grim, towering figure of the Boss,
+his fiddle held high, making his way to the front amid the crowd.
+
+She sat down and touched the keys, her eyes watching eagerly for a
+chance to speak to the Boss and see if he knew anything of Gardley; but
+Forsythe was close beside her all the time, and there was no
+opportunity. She struck the opening chords of the overture they were to
+attempt to play, and somehow got through it. Of course, the audience was
+not a critical one, and there were few real judges of music present; but
+it may be that the truly wonderful effect she produced upon the
+listeners was due to the fact that she was playing a prayer with her
+heart as her fingers touched the keys, and that instead of a preliminary
+to a fairy revel the music told the story of a great soul struggle, and
+reached hearts as it tinkled and rolled and swelled on to the end. It
+may be, too, that Fiddling Boss was more in sympathy that night with his
+accompanist than was the other violinist, and that was why his old
+fiddle brought forth such weird and tender tones.
+
+Almost to the end, with her heart sobbing its trouble to the keys,
+Margaret looked up sadly, and there, straight before her through a hole
+in the curtain made by some rash youth to glimpse the audience, or
+perhaps even put there by the owner of the nose itself, she saw the
+little, freckled, turned-up member belonging to Bud's face. A second
+more and a big, bright eye appeared and solemnly winked at her twice, as
+if to say, "Don't you worry; it's all right!"
+
+She almost started from the stool, but kept her head enough to finish
+the chords, and as they died away she heard a hoarse whisper in Bud's
+familiar voice:
+
+"Whoop her up, Miss Earle. We're all ready. Raise the curtain there, you
+guy. Let her rip. Everything's O. K."
+
+With a leap of light into her eyes Margaret turned the leaves of the
+music and went on playing as she should have done if nothing had been
+the matter. Bud was there, anyway, and that somehow cheered her heart.
+Perhaps Gardley had come or Bud had heard of him--and yet, Bud didn't
+know he had been missing, for Bud had been away himself.
+
+Nevertheless, she summoned courage to go on playing. Nick Bottom wasn't
+in this first scene, anyway, and this would have to be gone through with
+somehow. By this time she was in a state of daze that only thought from
+moment to moment. The end of the evening seemed now to her as far off as
+the end of a hale old age seems at the beginning of a lifetime. Somehow
+she must walk through it; but she could only see a step at a time.
+
+Once she turned half sideways to the audience and gave a hurried glance
+about, catching sight of Fudge's round, near-sighted face, and that gave
+her encouragement. Perhaps the others were somewhere present. If only
+she could get a chance to whisper to some one from the camp and ask
+when they had seen Gardley last! But there was no chance, of course!
+
+The curtain was rapidly raised and the opening scene of the play began,
+the actors going through their parts with marvelous ease and dexterity,
+and the audience silent and charmed, watching those strangers in queer
+costumes that were their own children, marching around there at their
+ease and talking weird language that was not used in any class of
+society they had ever come across on sea or land before.
+
+But Margaret, watching her music as best she could, and playing
+mechanically rather than with her mind, could not tell if they were
+doing well or ill, so loudly did her heart pound out her fears--so
+stoutly did her heart proclaim her trust.
+
+And thus, without a flaw or mistake in the execution of the work she had
+struggled so hard to teach them, the first scene of the first act drew
+to its close, and Margaret struck the final chords of the music and felt
+that in another minute she must reel and fall from that piano-stool. And
+yet she sat and watched the curtain fall with a face as controlled as if
+nothing at all were the matter.
+
+A second later she suddenly knew that to sit in that place calmly
+another second was a physical impossibility. She must get somewhere to
+the air at once or her senses would desert her.
+
+With a movement so quick that no one could have anticipated it, she
+slipped from her piano-stool, under the curtain to the stage, and was
+gone before the rest of the orchestra had noticed her intention.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+Since the day that he had given Margaret his promise to make good,
+Gardley had been regularly employed by Mr. Rogers, looking after
+important matters of his ranch. Before that he had lived a free and easy
+life, working a little now and then when it seemed desirable to him,
+having no set interest in life, and only endeavoring from day to day to
+put as far as possible from his mind the life he had left behind him.
+Now, however, all things became different. He brought to his service the
+keen mind and ready ability that had made him easily a winner at any
+game, a brave rider, and a never-failing shot. Within a few days Rogers
+saw what material was in him, and as the weeks went by grew to depend
+more and more upon his advice in matters.
+
+There had been much trouble with cattle thieves, and so far no method of
+stopping the loss or catching the thieves had been successful. Rogers
+finally put the matter into Gardley's hands to carry out his own ideas,
+with the men of the camp at his command to help him, the camp itself
+being only a part of Rogers's outlying possessions, one of several such
+centers from which he worked his growing interests.
+
+Gardley had formulated a scheme by which he hoped eventually to get
+hold of the thieves and put a stop to the trouble, and he was pretty
+sure he was on the right track; but his plan required slow and cautious
+work, that the enemy might not suspect and take to cover. He had for
+several weeks suspected that the thieves made their headquarters in the
+region of Old Ouida's Cabin, and made their raids from that direction.
+It was for this reason that of late the woods and trails in the vicinity
+of Ouida's had been secretly patrolled day and night, and every
+passer-by taken note of, until Gardley knew just who were the
+frequenters of that way and mostly what was their business. This work
+was done alternately by the men of the Wallis camp and two other camps,
+Gardley being the head of all and carrying all responsibility; and not
+the least of that young man's offenses in the eyes of Rosa Rogers was
+that he was so constantly at her father's house and yet never lifted an
+eye in admiration of her pretty face. She longed to humiliate him, and
+through him to humiliate Margaret, who presumed to interfere with her
+flirtations, for it was a bitter thing to Rosa that Forsythe had no eyes
+for her when Margaret was about.
+
+When the party from the fort rode homeward that Sunday after the service
+at the school-house, Forsythe lingered behind to talk to Margaret, and
+then rode around by the Rogers place, where Rosa and he had long ago
+established a trysting-place.
+
+Rosa was watching for his passing, and he stopped a half-hour or so to
+talk to her. During this time she casually disclosed to Forsythe some of
+the plans she had overheard Gardley laying before her father. Rosa had
+very little idea of the importance of Gardley's work to her father, or
+perhaps she would not have so readily prattled of his affairs. Her main
+idea was to pay back Gardley for his part in her humiliation with
+Forsythe. She suggested that it would be a great thing if Gardley could
+be prevented from being at the play Tuesday evening, and told what she
+had overheard him saying to her father merely to show Forsythe how easy
+it would be to have Gardley detained on Tuesday. Forsythe questioned
+Rosa keenly. Did she know whom they suspected? Did she know what they
+were planning to do to catch them, and when?
+
+Rosa innocently enough disclosed all she knew, little thinking how
+dishonorable to her father it was, and perhaps caring as little, for
+Rosa had ever been a spoiled child, accustomed to subordinating
+everything within reach to her own uses. As for Forsythe, he was nothing
+loath to get rid of Gardley, and he saw more possibilities in Rosa's
+suggestion than she had seen herself. When at last he bade Rosa good
+night and rode unobtrusively back to the trail he was already
+formulating a plan.
+
+It was, therefore, quite in keeping with his wishes that he should meet
+a dark-browed rider a few miles farther up the trail whose identity he
+had happened to learn a few days before.
+
+Now Forsythe would, perhaps, not have dared to enter into any compact
+against Gardley with men of such ill-repute had it been a matter of
+money and bribery, but, armed as he was with information valuable to the
+criminals, he could so word his suggestion about Gardley's detention as
+to make the hunted men think it to their advantage to catch Gardley
+some time the next day when he passed their way and imprison him for a
+while. This would appear to be but a friendly bit of advice from a
+disinterested party deserving a good turn some time in the future and
+not get Forsythe into any trouble. As such it was received by the
+wretch, who clutched at the information with ill-concealed delight and
+rode away into the twilight like a serpent threading his secret, gliding
+way among the darkest places, scarcely rippling the air, so stealthily
+did he pass.
+
+As for Forsythe, he rode blithely to the Temple ranch, with no thought
+of the forces he had set going, his life as yet one round of trying to
+please himself at others' expense, if need be, but please himself,
+_anyway_, with whatever amusement the hour afforded.
+
+At home in the East, where his early life had been spent, a splendid
+girl awaited his dilatory letters and set herself patiently to endure
+the months of separation until he should have attained a home and a
+living and be ready for her to come to him.
+
+In the South, where he had idled six months before he went West, another
+lovely girl cherished mementoes of his tarrying and wrote him loving
+letters in reply to his occasional erratic epistles.
+
+Out on the Californian shore a girl with whom he had traveled West in
+her uncle's luxurious private car, with a gay party of friends and
+relatives, cherished fond hopes of a visit he had promised to make her
+during the winter.
+
+Innumerable maidens of this world, wise in the wisdom that crushes
+hearts, remembered him with a sigh now and then, but held no illusions
+concerning his kind.
+
+Pretty little Rosa Rogers cried her eyes out every time he cast a
+languishing look at her teacher, and several of the ladies of the fort
+sighed that the glance of his eye and the gentle pressure of his hand
+could only be a passing joy. But the gay Lothario passed on his way as
+yet without a scratch on the hard enamel of his heart, till one wondered
+if it were a heart, indeed, or perhaps only a metal imitation. But girls
+like Margaret Earle, though they sometimes were attracted by him,
+invariably distrusted him. He was like a beautiful spotted snake that
+was often caught menacing something precious, but you could put him down
+anywhere after punishment or imprisonment and he would slide on his same
+slippery way and still be a spotted, deadly snake.
+
+When Gardley left the camp that Monday morning following the walk home
+with Margaret from the Sabbath service, he fully intended to be back at
+the school-house Monday by the time the afternoon rehearsal began. His
+plans were so laid that he thought relays from other camps were to guard
+the suspected ground for the next three days and he could be free. It
+had been a part of the information that Forsythe had given the stranger
+that Gardley would likely pass a certain lonely crossing of the trail at
+about three o'clock that afternoon, and, had that arrangement been
+carried out, the men who lay in wait for him would doubtless have been
+pleased to have their plans mature so easily; but they would not have
+been pleased long, for Gardley's men were so near at hand at that time,
+watching that very spot with eyes and ears and long-distance glasses,
+that their chief would soon have been rescued and the captors be
+themselves the captured.
+
+But the men from the farther camp, called "Lone Fox" men, did not arrive
+on time, perhaps through some misunderstanding, and Gardley and Kemp and
+their men had to do double time. At last, later in the afternoon,
+Gardley volunteered to go to Lone Fox and bring back the men.
+
+As he rode his thoughts were of Margaret, and he was seeing again the
+look of gladness in her eyes when she found he had not gone yesterday;
+feeling again the thrill of her hands in his, the trust of her smile! It
+was incredible, wonderful, that God had sent a veritable angel into the
+wilderness to bring him to himself; and now he was wondering, could it
+be that there was really hope that he could ever make good enough to
+dare to ask her to marry him. The sky and the air were rare, but his
+thoughts were rarer still, and his soul was lifted up with joy. He was
+earning good wages now. In two more weeks he would have enough to pay
+back the paltry sum for the lack of which he had fled from his old home
+and come to the wilderness. He would go back, of course, and straighten
+out the old score. Then what? Should he stay in the East and go back to
+the old business wherewith he had hoped to make his name honored and
+gain wealth, or should he return to this wild, free land again and start
+anew?
+
+His mother was dead. Perhaps if she had lived and cared he would have
+made good in the first place. His sisters were both married to wealthy
+men and not deeply interested in him. He had disappointed and mortified
+them; their lives were filled with social duties; they had never missed
+him. His father had been dead many years. As for his uncle, his mother's
+brother, whose heir he was to have been before he got himself into
+disgrace, he decided not to go near him. He would stay as long as he
+must to undo the wrong he had done. He would call on his sisters and
+then come back; come back and let Margaret decide what she wanted him to
+do--that is, if she would consent to link her life with one who had been
+once a failure. Margaret! How wonderful she was! If Margaret said he
+ought to go back and be a lawyer, he would go--yes, even if he had to
+enter his uncle's office as an underling to do it. His soul loathed the
+idea, but he would do it for Margaret, if she thought it best. And so he
+mused as he rode!
+
+When the Lone Fox camp was reached and the men sent out on their belated
+task, Gardley decided not to go with them back to meet Kemp and the
+other men, but sent word to Kemp that he had gone the short cut to
+Ashland, hoping to get to a part of the evening rehearsal yet.
+
+Now that short cut led him to the lonely crossing of the trail much
+sooner than Kemp and the others could reach it from the rendezvous; and
+there in cramped positions, and with much unnecessary cursing and
+impatience, four strong masked men had been concealed for four long
+hours.
+
+Through the stillness of the twilight rode Gardley, thinking of
+Margaret, and for once utterly off his guard. His long day's work was
+done, and though he had not been able to get back when he planned, he
+was free now, free until the day after to-morrow. He would go at once to
+her and see if there was anything she wanted him to do.
+
+Then, as if to help along his enemies, he began to hum a song, his
+clear, high voice reaching keenly to the ears of the men in ambush:
+
+    "'Oh, the time is long, mavourneen,
+    Till I come again, O mavourneen--'"
+
+"And the toime 'll be longer thun iver, oim thinkin', ma purty little
+voorneen!" said an unmistakable voice of Erin through the gathering
+dusk.
+
+Gardley's horse stopped and Gardley's hand went to his revolver, while
+his other hand lifted the silver whistle to his lips; but four guns
+bristled at him in the twilight, the whistle was knocked from his lips
+before his breath had even reached it, some one caught his arms from
+behind, and his own weapon was wrenched from his hand as it went off.
+The cry which he at once sent forth was stifled in its first whisper in
+a great muffling garment flung over his head and drawn tightly about his
+neck. He was in a fair way to strangle, and his vigorous efforts at
+escape were useless in the hands of so many. He might have been plunged
+at once into a great abyss of limitless, soundless depths, so futile did
+any resistance seem. And so, as it was useless to struggle, he lay like
+one dead and put all his powers into listening. But neither could he
+hear much, muffled as he was, and bound hand and foot now, with a gag in
+his mouth and little care taken whether he could even breathe.
+
+They were leading him off the trail and up over rough ground; so much he
+knew, for the horse stumbled and jolted and strained to carry him. To
+keep his whirling senses alive and alert he tried to think where they
+might be leading him; but the darkness and the suffocation dulled his
+powers. He wondered idly if his men would miss him and come back when
+they got home to search for him, and then remembered with a pang that
+they would think him safely in Ashland, helping Margaret. They would not
+be alarmed if he did not return that night, for they would suppose he
+had stopped at Rogers's on the way and perhaps stayed all night, as he
+had done once or twice before. _Margaret!_ When should he see Margaret
+now? What would she think?
+
+And then he swooned away.
+
+When he came somewhat to himself he was in a close, stifling room where
+candle-light from a distance threw weird shadows over the adobe walls.
+The witch-like voices of a woman and a girl in harsh, cackling laughter,
+half suppressed, were not far away, and some one, whose face was
+covered, was holding a glass to his lips. The smell was sickening, and
+he remembered that he hated the thought of liquor. It did not fit with
+those who companied with Margaret. He had never cared for it, and had
+resolved never to taste it again. But whether he chose or not, the
+liquor was poured down his throat. Huge hands held him and forced it,
+and he was still bound and too weak to resist, even if he had realized
+the necessity.
+
+The liquid burned its way down his throat and seethed into his brain,
+and a great darkness, mingled with men's wrangling voices and much
+cursing, swirled about him like some furious torrent of angry waters
+that finally submerged his consciousness. Then came deeper darkness and
+a blank relief from pain.
+
+Hours passed. He heard sounds sometimes, and dreamed dreams which he
+could not tell from reality. He saw his friends with terror written on
+their faces, while he lay apathetically and could not stir. He saw tears
+on Margaret's face; and once he was sure he heard Forsythe's voice in
+contempt: "Well, he seems to be well occupied for the present! No danger
+of his waking up for a while!" and then the voices all grew dim and far
+away again, and only an old crone and the harsh girl's whisper over him;
+and then Margaret's tears--tears that fell on his heart from far above,
+and seemed to melt out all his early sins and flood him with their
+horror. Tears and the consciousness that he ought to be doing something
+for Margaret now and could not. Tears--and more darkness!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+When Margaret arrived behind the curtain she was aware of many cries and
+questions hurled at her like an avalanche, but, ignoring them all, she
+sprang past the noisy, excited group of young people, darted through the
+dressing-room to the right and out into the night and coolness. Her head
+was swimming, and things went black before her eyes. She felt that her
+breath was going, going, and she must get to the air.
+
+But when she passed the hot wave of the school-room, and the sharp air
+of the night struck her face, consciousness seemed to turn and come back
+into her again; for there over her head was the wideness of the vast,
+starry Arizona night, and there, before her, in Nick Bottom's somber
+costume, eating one of the chicken sandwiches that Mrs. Tanner had sent
+down to her, stood Gardley! He was pale and shaken from his recent
+experience; but he was undaunted, and when he saw Margaret coming toward
+him through the doorway with her soul in her eyes and her spirit all
+aflame with joy and relief, he came to meet her under the stars, and,
+forgetting everything else, just folded her gently in his arms!
+
+It was a most astonishing thing to do, of course, right there outside
+the dressing-room door, with the curtain just about to rise on the scene
+and Gardley's wig was not on yet. He had not even asked nor obtained
+permission. But the soul sometimes grows impatient waiting for the lips
+to speak, and Margaret felt her trust had been justified and her heart
+had found its home. Right there behind the school-house, out in the
+great wide night, while the crowded, clamoring audience waited for them,
+and the young actors grew frantic, they plighted their troth, his lips
+upon hers, and with not a word spoken.
+
+Voices from the dressing-room roused them. "Come in quick, Mr. Gardley;
+it's time for the curtain to rise, and everybody is ready. Where on
+earth has Miss Earle vanished? Miss Earle! Oh, Miss Earle!"
+
+There was a rush to the dressing-room to find the missing ones; but Bud,
+as ever, present where was the most need, stood with his back to the
+outside world in the door of the dressing-room and called loudly:
+
+"They're comin', all right. Go on! Get to your places. Miss Earle says
+to get to your places."
+
+The two in the darkness groped for each other's hands as they stood
+suddenly apart, and with one quick pressure and a glance hurried in.
+There was not any need for words. They understood, these two, and
+trusted.
+
+With her cheeks glowing now, and her eyes like two stars, Margaret fled
+across the stage and took her place at the piano again, just as the
+curtain began to be drawn; and Forsythe, who had been slightly uneasy at
+the look on her face as she left them, wondered now and leaned forward
+to tell her how well she was looking.
+
+He kept his honeyed phrase to himself, however, for she was not heeding
+him. Her eyes were on the rising curtain, and Forsythe suddenly
+remembered that this was the scene in which Jed was to have
+appeared--and Jed had a broken leg! What had Margaret done about it? It
+was scarcely a part that could be left out. Why hadn't he thought of it
+sooner and offered to take it? He could have bluffed it out somehow--he
+had heard it so much--made up words where he couldn't remember them all,
+and it would have been a splendid opportunity to do some real
+love-making with Rosa. Why hadn't he thought of it? Why hadn't Rosa?
+Perhaps she hadn't heard about Jed soon enough to suggest it.
+
+The curtain was fully open now, and Bud's voice as Peter Quince, a
+trifle high and cracked with excitement, broke the stillness, while the
+awed audience gazed upon this new, strange world presented to them.
+
+"Is all our company here?" lilted out Bud, excitedly, and Nick Bottom
+replied with Gardley's voice:
+
+"You were best to call them generally, man by man, according to the
+scrip."
+
+Forsythe turned deadly white. Jasper Kemp, whose keen eye was upon him,
+saw it through the tan, saw his lips go pale and purple points of fear
+start in his eyes, as he looked and looked again, and could not believe
+his senses.
+
+Furtively he darted a glance around, like one about to steal away; then,
+seeing Jasper Kemp's eyes upon him, settled back with a strained look
+upon his face. Once he stole a look at Margaret and caught her face all
+transfigured with great joy; looked again and felt rebuked somehow by
+the pureness of her maiden joy and trust.
+
+Not once had she turned her eyes to his. He was forgotten, and somehow
+he knew the look he would get if she should see him. It would be
+contempt and scorn that would burn his very soul. It is only a maid now
+and then to whom it is given thus to pierce and bruise the soul of a man
+who plays with love and trust and womanhood for selfishness. Such a
+woman never knows her power. She punishes all unconscious to herself. It
+was so that Margaret Earle, without being herself aware, and by her very
+indifference and contempt, showed the little soul of this puppet man to
+himself.
+
+He stole away at last when he thought no one was looking, and reached
+the back of the school-house at the open door of the girls'
+dressing-room, where he knew Titania would be posing in between the
+acts. He beckoned her to his side and began to question her in quick,
+eager, almost angry tones, as if the failure of their plans were her
+fault. Had her father been at home all day? Had anything happened--any
+one been there? Did Gardley come? Had there been any report from the
+men? Had that short, thick-set Scotchman with the ugly grin been there?
+She must remember that she was the one to suggest the scheme in the
+first place, and it was her business to keep a watch. There was no
+telling now what might happen. He turned, and there stood Jasper Kemp
+close to his elbow, his short stature drawn to its full, his thick-set
+shoulders squaring themselves, his ugly grin standing out in bold
+relief, menacingly, in the night.
+
+The young man let forth some words not in a gentleman's code, and turned
+to leave the frightened girl, who by this time was almost crying; but
+Jasper Kemp kept pace with Forsythe as he walked.
+
+"Was you addressing me?" he asked, politely; "because I could tell you a
+few things a sight more appropriate for you than what you just handed to
+me."
+
+Forsythe hurried around to the front of the school-house, making no
+reply.
+
+"Nice, pleasant evening to be _free_," went on Jasper Kemp, looking up
+at the stars. "Rather onpleasant for some folks that have to be shut up
+in jail."
+
+Forsythe wheeled upon him. "What do you mean?" he demanded, angrily,
+albeit he was white with fear.
+
+"Oh, nothing much," drawled Jasper, affably. "I was just thinking how
+much pleasanter it was to be a free man than shut up in prison on a
+night like this. It's so much healthier, you know."
+
+Forsythe looked at him a moment, a kind of panic of intelligence growing
+in his face; then he turned and went toward the back of the
+school-house, where he had left his horse some hours before.
+
+"Where are you going?" demanded Jasper. "It's 'most time you went back
+to your fiddling, ain't it?"
+
+But Forsythe answered him not a word. He was mounting his horse
+hurriedly--his horse, which, all unknown to him, had been many miles
+since he last rode him.
+
+"You think you have to go, then?" said Jasper, deprecatingly. "Well,
+now, that's a pity, seeing you was fiddling so nice an' all. Shall I
+tell them you've gone for your health?"
+
+Thus recalled, Forsythe stared at his tormentor wildly for a second.
+"Tell her--tell her"--he muttered, hoarsely--"tell her I've been taken
+suddenly ill." And he was off on a wild gallop toward the fort.
+
+"I'll tell her you've gone for your health!" called Jasper Kemp, with
+his hands to his mouth like a megaphone. "I reckon he won't return again
+very soon, either," he chuckled. "This country's better off without such
+pests as him an' that measley parson." Then, turning, he beheld Titania,
+the queen of the fairies, white and frightened, staring wildly into the
+starry darkness after the departed rider. "Poor little fool!" he
+muttered under his breath as he looked at the girl and turned away.
+"Poor, pretty little fool!" Suddenly he stepped up to her side and
+touched her white-clad shoulder gently. "Don't you go for to care,
+lassie," he said in a tender tone. "He ain't worth a tear from your
+pretty eye. He ain't fit to wipe your feet on--your pretty wee feet!"
+
+But Rosa turned angrily and stamped her foot.
+
+"Go away! You bad old man!" she shrieked. "Go away! I shall tell my
+father!" And she flouted herself into the school-house.
+
+Jasper stood looking ruefully after her, shaking his head. "The little
+de'il!" he said aloud; "the poor, pretty little de'il. She'll get her
+dues aplenty afore she's done." And Jasper went back to the play.
+
+Meantime, inside the school-house, the play went gloriously on to the
+finish, and Gardley as Nick Bottom took the house by storm. Poor absent
+Jed's father, sent by the sufferer to report it all, stood at the back
+of the house while tears of pride and disappointment rolled down his
+cheeks--pride that Jed had been so well represented, disappointment that
+it couldn't have been his son up there play-acting like that.
+
+The hour was late when the play was over, and Margaret stood at last in
+front of the stage to receive the congratulations of the entire
+countryside, while the young actors posed and laughed and chattered
+excitedly, then went away by two and threes, their tired, happy voices
+sounding back along the road. The people from the fort had been the
+first to surge around Margaret with their eager congratulations and
+gushing sentiments: "So sweet, my dear! So perfectly wonderful! You
+really have got some dandy actors!" And, "Why don't you try something
+lighter--something simpler, don't you know. Something really popular
+that these poor people could understand and appreciate? A little farce!
+I could help you pick one out!"
+
+And all the while they gushed Jasper Kemp and his men, grim and
+forbidding, stood like a cordon drawn about her to protect her, with
+Gardley in the center, just behind her, as though he had a right there
+and meant to stay; till at last the fort people hurried away and the
+school-house grew suddenly empty with just those two and the eight men
+behind; and by the door Bud, talking to Pop and Mom Wallis in the
+buckboard outside.
+
+Amid this admiring bodyguard at last Gardley took Margaret home.
+Perhaps she wondered a little that they all went along, but she laid it
+to their pride in the play and their desire to talk it over.
+
+They had sent Mom and Pop Wallis home horseback, after all, and put
+Margaret and Gardley in the buckboard, Margaret never dreaming that it
+was because Gardley was not fit to walk. Indeed, he did not realize
+himself why they all stuck so closely to him. He had lived through so
+much since Jasper and his men had burst into his prison and freed him,
+bringing him in hot haste to the school-house, with Bud wildly riding
+ahead. But it was enough for him to sit beside Margaret in the sweet
+night and remember how she had come out to him under the stars. Her hand
+lay beside him on the seat, and without intending it his own brushed it.
+Then he laid his gently, reverently, down upon hers with a quiet
+pressure, and her smaller fingers thrilled and nestled in his grasp.
+
+In the shadow of a big tree beside the house he bade her good-by, the
+men busying themselves with turning about the buckboard noisily, and Bud
+discreetly taking himself to the back door to get one of the men a drink
+of water.
+
+"You have been suffering in some way," said Margaret, with sudden
+intuition, as she looked up into Gardley's face. "You have been in
+peril, somehow--"
+
+"A little," he answered, lightly. "I'll tell you about it to-morrow. I
+mustn't keep the men waiting now. I shall have a great deal to tell you
+to-morrow--if you will let me. Good night, _Margaret_!" Their hands
+lingered in a clasp, and then he rode away with his bodyguard.
+
+But Margaret did not have to wait until the morrow to hear the story,
+for Bud was just fairly bursting.
+
+Mrs. Tanner had prepared a nice little supper--more cold chicken, pie,
+doughnuts, coffee, some of her famous marble cake, and preserves--and
+she insisted on Margaret's coming into the dining-room and eating it,
+though the girl would much rather have gone with her happy heart up to
+her own room by herself.
+
+Bud did not wait on ceremony. He began at once when Margaret was seated,
+even before his mother could get her properly waited on.
+
+"Well, we had _some ride_, we sure did! The Kid's a great old scout."
+
+Margaret perceived that this was a leader. "Why, that's so, what became
+of you, William? I hunted everywhere for you. Things were pretty
+strenuous there for a while, and I needed you dreadfully."
+
+"Well, I know," Bud apologized. "I'd oughta let you know before I went,
+but there wasn't time. You see, I had to pinch that guy's horse to go,
+and I knew it was just a chance if we could get back, anyway; but I had
+to take it. You see, if I could 'a' gone right to the cabin it would
+have been a dead cinch, but I had to ride to camp for the men, and then,
+taking the short trail across, it was some ride to Ouida's Cabin!"
+
+Mrs. Tanner stepped aghast as she was cutting a piece of dried-apple pie
+for Margaret. "Now, Buddie--mother's boy--you don't mean to tell me
+_you_ went to _Ouida's Cabin_? Why, sonnie, that's an _awful place_!
+Don't you know your pa told you he'd whip you if you ever went on that
+trail?"
+
+"I should worry, Ma! I _had_ to go. They had Mr. Gardley tied up there,
+and we had to go and get him rescued."
+
+"_You_ had to go, Buddie--now what could _you_ do in that awful place?"
+Mrs. Tanner was almost reduced to tears. She saw her offspring at the
+edge of perdition at once.
+
+But Bud ignored his mother and went on with his tale. "You jest oughta
+seen Jap Kemp's face when I told him what that guy said to you! Some
+face, b'lieve me! He saw right through the whole thing, too. I could see
+that! He ner the men hadn't had a bite o' supper yet; they'd just got
+back from somewheres. They thought the Kid was over here all day helping
+you. He said yesterday when he left 'em here's where he's
+a-comin'"--Bud's mouth was so full he could hardly articulate--"an' when
+I told 'em, he jest blew his little whistle--like what they all
+carry--three times, and those men every one jest stopped right where
+they was, whatever they was doin'. Long Bill had the comb in the air
+gettin' ready to comb his hair, an' he left it there and come away, and
+Big Jim never stopped to wipe his face on the roller-towel, he just let
+the wind dry it; and they all hustled on their horses fast as ever they
+could and beat it after Jap Kemp. Jap, he rode alongside o' me and asked
+me questions. He made me tell all what the guy from the fort said over
+again, three or four times, and then he ast what time he got to the
+school-house, and whether the Kid had been there at all yest'iday ur
+t'day; and a lot of other questions, and then he rode alongside each man
+and told him in just a few words where we was goin' and what the guy
+from the fort had said. Gee! but you'd oughta heard what the men said
+when he told 'em! Gee! but they was some mad! Bimeby we came to the
+woods round the cabin, and Jap Kemp made me stick alongside Long Bill,
+and he sent the men off in different directions all in a _big_ circle,
+and waited till each man was in his place, and then we all rode hard as we
+could and came softly up round that cabin just as the sun was goin' down.
+Gee! but you'd oughta seen the scairt look on them women's faces; there
+was two of 'em--an old un an' a skinny-looking long-drink-o'-pump-water.
+I guess she was a girl. I don't know. Her eyes looked real old. There
+was only three men in the cabin; the rest was off somewheres. They
+wasn't looking for anybody to come that time o' day, I guess. One of the
+men was sick on a bunk in the corner. He had his head tied up, and his
+arm, like he'd been shot, and the other two men came jumping up to the
+door with their guns, but when they saw how many men _we_ had they
+looked awful scairt. _We_ all had _our_ guns out, too!--Jap Kemp gave me
+one to carry--" Bud tried not to swagger as he told this, but it was
+almost too much for him. "Two of our men held the horses, and all the
+rest of us got down and went into the cabin. Jap Kemp, sounded his
+whistle and all our men done the same just as they went in the
+door--some kind of signals they have for the Lone Fox Camp! The two men
+in the doorway aimed straight at Jap Kemp and fired, but Jap was onto
+'em and jumped one side and our men fired, too, and we soon had 'em tied
+up and went in--that is, Jap and me and Long Bill went in, the rest
+stayed by the door--and it wasn't long 'fore their other men came riding
+back hot haste; they'd heard the shots, you know--and some more of _our_
+men--why, most twenty or thirty there was, I guess, altogether; some
+from Lone Fox Camp that was watching off in the woods came and when we
+got outside again there they all were, like a big army. Most of the men
+belonging to the cabin was tied and harmless by that time, for our men
+took 'em one at a time as they came riding in. Two of 'em got away, but
+Jap Kemp said they couldn't go far without being caught, 'cause there
+was a watch out for 'em--they'd been stealing cattle long back something
+terrible. Well, so Jap Kemp and Long Bill and I went into the cabin
+after the two men that shot was tied with ropes we'd brung along, and
+handcuffs, and we went hunting for the Kid. At first we couldn't find
+him at all. Gee! It was something fierce! And the old woman kep'
+a-crying and saying we'd kill her sick son, and she didn't know nothing
+about the man we was hunting for. But pretty soon I spied the Kid's foot
+stickin' out from under the cot where the sick man was, and when I told
+Jap Kemp that sick man pulled out a gun he had under the blanket and
+aimed it right at me!"
+
+"Oh, mother's little Buddie!" whimpered Mrs. Tanner, with her apron to
+her eyes.
+
+"_Aw, Ma_, cut it out! _he_ didn't _hurt_ me! The gun just went off
+crooked, and grazed Jap Kemp's hand a little, not much. Jap knocked it
+out of the sick man's hand just as he was pullin' the trigger. Say, Ma,
+ain't you got any more of those cucumber pickles? It makes a man mighty
+hungry to do all that riding and shooting. Well, it certainly was
+something fierce--Say, Miss Earle, you take that last piece o' pie. Oh,
+g'wan! _Take_ it! _You_ worked hard. No, I don't want it, really! Well,
+if you won't take it _anyway_, I might eat it just to save it. Got any
+more coffee, Ma?"
+
+But Margaret was not eating. Her face was pale and her eyes were starry
+with unshed tears, and she waited in patient but breathless suspense for
+the vagaries of the story to work out to the finish.
+
+"Yes, it certainly was something fierce, that cabin," went on the
+narrator. "Why, Ma, it looked as if it had never been swept under that
+cot when we hauled the Kid out. He was tied all up in knots, and great
+heavy ropes wound tight from his shoulders down to his ankles. Why, they
+were bound so tight they made great heavy welts in his wrists and
+shoulders and round his ankles when we took 'em off; and they had a
+great big rag stuffed into his mouth so he couldn't yell. Gee! It was
+something fierce! He was 'most dippy, too; but Jap Kemp brought him
+round pretty quick and got him outside in the air. That was the worst
+place I ever was in myself. You couldn't breathe, and the dirt was
+something fierce. It was like a pigpen. I sure was glad to get outdoors
+again. And then--well, the Kid came around all right and they got him on
+a horse and gave him something out of a bottle Jap Kemp had, and pretty
+soon he could ride again. Why, you'd oughta seen his nerve. He just sat
+up there as straight, his lips all white yet and his eyes looked some
+queer; but he straightened up and he looked those rascals right in the
+eye, and told 'em a few things, and he gave orders to the other men from
+Lone Fox Camp what to do with 'em; and he had the two women
+disarmed--they had guns, too--and carried away, and the cabin nailed up,
+and a notice put on the door, and every one of those men were
+handcuffed--the sick one and all--and he told 'em to bring a wagon and
+put the sick one's cot in and take 'em over to Ashland to the jail, and
+he sent word to Mr. Rogers. Then we rode home and got to the
+school-house just when you was playing the last chords of the ov'rtcher.
+Gee! It was some fierce ride and some _close shave_! The Kid he hadn't
+had a thing to eat since Monday noon, and he was some hungry! I found a
+sandwich on the window of the dressing-room, and he ate it while he got
+togged up--'course I told him 'bout Jed soon's we left the cabin, and
+Jap Kemp said he'd oughta go right home to camp after all he had been
+through; but he wouldn't; he said he was goin' to _act_. So 'course he
+had his way! But, gee! You could see it wasn't any cinch game for him!
+He 'most fell over every time after the curtain fell. You see, they gave
+him some kind of drugged whisky up there at the cabin that made his head
+feel queer. Say, he thinks that guy from the fort came in and looked at
+him once while he was asleep. He says it was only a dream, but I bet he
+did. Say, Ma, ain't you gonta give me another doughnut?"
+
+In the quiet of her chamber at last, Margaret knelt before her window
+toward the purple, shadowy mountain under the starry dome, and gave
+thanks for the deliverance of Gardley; while Bud, in his comfortable
+loft, lay down to his well-earned rest and dreamed of pirates and angels
+and a hero who looked like the Kid.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+The Sunday before Lance Gardley started East on his journey of
+reparation two strangers slipped quietly into the back of the
+school-house during the singing of the first hymn and sat down in the
+shadow by the door.
+
+Margaret was playing the piano when they came in, and did not see them,
+and when she turned back to her Scripture lesson she had time for but
+the briefest of glances. She supposed they must be some visitors from
+the fort, as they were speaking to the captain's wife----who came over
+occasionally to the Sunday service, perhaps because it afforded an
+opportunity for a ride with one of the young officers. These occasional
+visitors who came for amusement and curiosity had ceased to trouble
+Margaret. Her real work was with the men and women and children who
+loved the services for their own sake, and she tried as much as possible
+to forget outsiders. So, that day everything went on just as usual,
+Margaret putting her heart into the prayer, the simple, storylike
+reading of the Scripture, and the other story-sermon which followed it.
+Gardley sang unusually well at the close, a wonderful bit from an
+oratorio that he and Margaret had been practising.
+
+But when toward the close of the little vesper service Margaret gave
+opportunity, as she often did, for others to take part in sentence
+prayers, one of the strangers from the back of the room stood up and
+began to pray. And such a prayer! Heaven seemed to bend low, and earth
+to kneel and beseech as the stranger-man, with a face like an archangel,
+and a body of an athlete clothed in a brown-flannel shirt and khakis,
+besought the Lord of heaven for a blessing on this gathering and on the
+leader of this little company who had so wonderfully led them to see the
+Christ and their need of salvation through the lesson of the day. And it
+did not need Bud's low-breathed whisper, "The missionary!" to tell
+Margaret who he was. His face told her. His prayer thrilled her, and his
+strong, young, true voice made her sure that here was a man of God in
+truth.
+
+When the prayer was over and Margaret stood once more shyly facing her
+audience, she could scarcely keep the tremble out of her voice:
+
+"Oh," said she, casting aside ceremony, "if I had known the missionary
+was here I should not have dared to try and lead this meeting to-day.
+Won't you please come up here and talk to us for a little while now, Mr.
+Brownleigh?"
+
+At once he came forward eagerly, as if each opportunity were a pleasure.
+"Why, surely, I want to speak a word to you, just to say how glad I am
+to see you all, and to experience what a wonderful teacher you have
+found since I went away; but I wouldn't have missed this meeting to-day
+for all the sermons I ever wrote or preached. You don't need any more
+sermon than the remarkable story you've just been listening to, and I've
+only one word to add; and that is, that I've found since I went away
+that Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, is just the same Jesus
+to me to-day that He was the last time I spoke to you. He is just as
+ready to forgive your sin, to comfort you in sorrow, to help you in
+temptation, to raise your body in the resurrection, and to take you home
+to a mansion in His Father's house as He was the day He hung upon the
+cross to save your soul from death. I've found I can rest just as
+securely upon the Bible as the word of God as when I first tested its
+promises. Heaven and earth may pass away, but His word shall _never_
+pass away."
+
+"_Go to it!_" said Jasper Kemp under his breath in the tone some men say
+"Amen!" and his brows were drawn as if he were watching a battle.
+Margaret couldn't help wondering if he were thinking of the Rev.
+Frederick West just then.
+
+When the service was over the missionary brought his wife forward to
+Margaret, and they loved each other at once. Just another sweet girl
+like Margaret. She was lovely, with a delicacy of feature that betokened
+the high-born and high-bred, but dressed in a dainty khaki riding
+costume, if that uncompromising fabric could ever be called dainty.
+Margaret, remembering it afterward, wondered what it had been that gave
+it that unique individuality, and decided it was perhaps a combination
+of cut and finish and little dainty accessories. A bit of creamy lace at
+the throat of the rolling collar, a touch of golden-brown velvet in a
+golden clasp, the flash of a wonderful jewel on her finger, the modeling
+of the small, brown cap with its two eagle quills--all set the little
+woman apart and made her fit to enter any well-dressed company of riders
+in some great city park or fashionable drive. Yet here in the wilderness
+she was not overdressed.
+
+The eight men from the camp stood in solemn row, waiting to be
+recognized, and behind them, abashed and grinning with embarrassment,
+stood Pop and Mom Wallis, Mom with her new gray bonnet glorifying her
+old face till the missionary's wife had to look twice to be sure who she
+was.
+
+"And now, surely, Hazel, we must have these dear people come over and
+help us with the singing sometimes. Can't we try something right now?"
+said the missionary, looking first at his wife and then at Margaret and
+Gardley. "This man is a new-comer since I went away, but I'm mighty sure
+he is the right kind, and I'm glad to welcome him--or perhaps I would
+better ask if he will welcome me?" And with his rare smile the
+missionary put out his hand to Gardley, who took it with an eager grasp.
+The two men stood looking at each other for a moment, as rare men,
+rarely met, sometimes do even on a sinful earth; and after that clasp
+and that look they turned away, brothers for life.
+
+That was a most interesting song rehearsal that followed. It would be
+rare to find four voices like those even in a cultivated musical center,
+and they blended as if they had been made for one another. The men from
+the bunk-house and a lot of other people silently dropped again into
+their seats to listen as the four sang on. The missionary took the bass,
+and his wife the alto, and the four made music worth listening to. The
+rare and lovely thing about it was that they sang to souls, not alone
+for ears, and so their music, classical though it was and of the highest
+order, appealed keenly to the hearts of these rough men, and made them
+feel that heaven had opened for them, as once before for untaught
+shepherds, and let down a ladder of angelic voices.
+
+"I shall feel better about leaving you out here while I am gone, since
+they have come," said Gardley that night when he was bidding Margaret
+good night. "I couldn't bear to think there were none of your own kind
+about you. The others are devoted and would do for you with their lives
+if need be, as far as they know; but I like you to have _real
+friends_--real _Christian_ friends. This man is what I call a Christian.
+I'm not sure but he is the first minister that I have ever come close to
+who has impressed me as believing what he preaches, and living it. I
+suppose there are others. I haven't known many. That man West that was
+here when you came was a mistake!"
+
+"He didn't even preach much," smiled Margaret, "so how could he live it?
+This man is real. And there are others. Oh, I have known a lot of them
+that are living lives of sacrifice and loving service and are yet just
+as strong and happy and delightful as if they were millionaires. But
+they are the men who have not thrown away their Bibles and their Christ.
+They believe every promise in God's word, and rest on them day by day,
+testing them and proving them over and over. I wish you knew my father!"
+
+"I am going to," said Gardley, proudly. "_I_ am going to him just as
+soon as I have finished my business and straightened out my affairs;
+and I am going to tell him _everything_--with your permission,
+Margaret!"
+
+"Oh, how beautiful!" cried Margaret, with happy tears in her eyes. "To
+think you are going to see father and mother. I have wanted them to know
+the real you. I couldn't half _tell_ you, the real you, in a letter!"
+
+"Perhaps they won't look on me with your sweet blindness, dear," he
+said, smiling tenderly down on her. "Perhaps they will see only my dark,
+past life--for I mean to tell your father everything. I'm not going to
+have any skeletons in the closet to cause pain hereafter. Perhaps your
+father and mother will not feel like giving their daughter to me after
+they know. Remember, I realize just what a rare prize she is."
+
+"No, father is not like that, Lance," said Margaret, with her rare smile
+lighting up her happy eyes. "Father and mother will understand."
+
+"But if they should not?" There was the shadow of sadness in Gardley's
+eyes as he asked the question.
+
+"I belong to you, dear, anyway," she said, with sweet surrender. "I
+trust you though the whole world were against you!"
+
+For answer Gardley took her in his arms, a look of awe upon his face,
+and, stooping, laid his lips upon hers in tender reverence.
+
+"Margaret--you wonderful Margaret!" he said. "God has blessed me more
+than other men in sending you to me! With His help I will be worthy of
+you!"
+
+Three days more and Margaret was alone with her school work, her two
+missionary friends thirty miles away, her eager watching for the mail
+to come, her faithful attendant Bud, and for comfort the purple mountain
+with its changing glory in the distance.
+
+A few days before Gardley left for the East he had been offered a
+position by Rogers as general manager of his estate at a fine salary,
+and after consultation with Margaret he decided to accept it, but the
+question of their marriage they had left by common consent unsettled
+until Gardley should return and be able to offer his future wife a
+record made as fair and clean as human effort could make it after human
+mistakes had unmade it. As Margaret worked and waited, wrote her
+charming letters to father and mother and lover, and thought her happy
+thoughts with only the mountain for confidant, she did not plan for the
+future except in a dim and dreamy way. She would make those plans with
+Gardley when he returned. Probably they must wait some time before they
+could be married. Gardley would have to earn some money, and she must
+earn, too. She must keep the Ashland School for another year. It had
+been rather understood, when she came out, that if at all possible she
+would remain two years at least. It was hard to think of not going home
+for the summer vacation; but the trip cost a great deal and was not to
+be thought of. There was already a plan suggested to have a summer
+session of the school, and if that went through, of course she must stay
+right in Ashland. It was hard to think of not seeing her father and
+mother for another long year, but perhaps Gardley would be returning
+before the summer was over, and then it would not be so hard. However,
+she tried to put these thoughts out of her mind and do her work happily.
+It was incredible that Arizona should have become suddenly so blank and
+uninteresting since the departure of a man whom she had not known a few
+short months before.
+
+Margaret had long since written to her father and mother about Gardley's
+first finding her in the desert. The thing had become history and was
+not likely to alarm them. She had been in Arizona long enough to be
+acquainted with things, and they would not be always thinking of her as
+sitting on stray water-tanks in the desert; so she told them about it,
+for she wanted them to know Gardley as he had been to her. The letters
+that had traveled back and forth between New York and Arizona had been
+full of Gardley; and still Margaret had not told her parents how it was
+between them. Gardley had asked that he might do that. Yet it had been a
+blind father and mother who had not long ago read between the lines of
+those letters and understood. Margaret fancied she detected a certain
+sense of relief in her mother's letters after she knew that Gardley had
+gone East. Were they worrying about him, she wondered, or was it just
+the natural dread of a mother to lose her child?
+
+So Margaret settled down to school routine, and more and more made a
+confidant of Bud concerning little matters of the school. If it had not
+been for Bud at that time Margaret would have been lonely indeed.
+
+Two or three times since Gardley left, the Brownleighs had ridden over
+to Sunday service, and once had stopped for a few minutes during the
+week on their way to visit some distant need. These occasions were a
+delight to Margaret, for Hazel Brownleigh was a kindred spirit. She was
+looking forward with pleasure to the visit she was to make them at the
+mission station as soon as school closed. She had been there once with
+Gardley before he left, but the ride was too long to go often, and the
+only escort available was Bud. Besides, she could not get away from
+school and the Sunday service at present; but it was pleasant to have
+something to look forward to.
+
+Meantime the spring Commencement was coming on and Margaret had her
+hands full. She had undertaken to inaugurate a real Commencement with
+class day and as much form and ceremony as she could introduce in order
+to create a good school spirit; but such things are not done with the
+turn of a hand, and the young teacher sadly missed Gardley in all these
+preparations.
+
+At this time Rosa Rogers was Margaret's particular thorn in the flesh.
+
+Since the night that Forsythe had quit the play and ridden forth into
+the darkness Rosa had regarded her teacher with baleful eyes. Gardley,
+too, she hated, and was only waiting with smoldering wrath until her
+wild, ungoverned soul could take its revenge. She felt that but for
+those two Forsythe would still have been with her.
+
+Margaret, realizing the passionate, untaught nature of the motherless
+girl and her great need of a friend to guide her, made attempt after
+attempt to reach and befriend her; but every attempt was met with
+repulse and the sharp word of scorn. Rosa had been too long the petted
+darling of a father who was utterly blind to her faults to be other than
+spoiled. Her own way was the one thing that ruled her. By her will she
+had ruled every nurse and servant about the place, and wheedled her
+father into letting her do anything the whim prompted. Twice her father,
+through the advice of friends, had tried the experiment of sending her
+away to school, once to an Eastern finishing school, and once to a
+convent on the Pacific coast, only to have her return shortly by request
+of the school, more wilful than when she had gone away. And now she
+ruled supreme in her father's home, disliked by most of the servants
+save those whom she chose to favor because they could be made to serve
+her purposes. Her father, engrossed in his business and away much of the
+time, was bound up in her and saw few of her faults. It is true that
+when a fault of hers did come to his notice, however, he dealt with it
+most severely, and grieved over it in secret, for the girl was much like
+the mother whose loss had emptied the world of its joy for him. But Rosa
+knew well how to manage her father and wheedle him, and also how to hide
+her own doings from his knowledge.
+
+Rosa's eyes, dimples, pink cheeks, and coquettish little mouth were not
+idle in these days. She knew how to have every pupil at her feet and
+ready to obey her slightest wish. She wielded her power to its fullest
+extent as the summer drew near, and day after day saw a slow torture for
+Margaret. Some days the menacing air of insurrection fairly bristled in
+the room, and Margaret could not understand how some of her most devoted
+followers seemed to be in the forefront of battle, until one day she
+looked up quickly and caught the lynx-eyed glance of Rosa as she turned
+from smiling at the boys in the back seat. Then she understood. Rosa had
+cast her spell upon the boys, and they were acting under it and not of
+their own clear judgment. It was the world-old battle of sex, of woman
+against woman for the winning of the man to do her will. Margaret, using
+all the charm of her lovely personality to uphold standards of right,
+truth, purity, high living, and earnest thinking; Rosa striving with her
+impish beauty to lure them into _any_ mischief so it foiled the other's
+purposes. And one day Margaret faced the girl alone, looking steadily
+into her eyes with sad, searching gaze, and almost a yearning to try to
+lead the pretty child to finer things.
+
+"Rosa, why do you always act as if I were your enemy?" she said, sadly.
+
+"Because you are!" said Rosa, with a toss of her independent head.
+
+"Indeed I'm not, dear child," she said, putting out her hand to lay it
+on the girl's shoulder kindly. "I want to be your friend."
+
+"I'm not a child!" snapped Rosa, jerking her shoulder angrily away; "and
+you can _never_ be my friend, because I _hate_ you!"
+
+"Rosa, look here!" said Margaret, following the girl toward the door,
+the color rising in her cheeks and a desire growing in her heart to
+conquer this poor, passionate creature and win her for better things.
+"Rosa, I cannot have you say such things. Tell me why you hate me? What
+have I done that you should feel that way? I'm sure if we should talk it
+over we might come to some better understanding."
+
+Rosa stood defiant in the doorway. "We could never come to any better
+understanding, Miss Earle," she declared in a cold, hard tone, "because
+I understand you now and I hate you. You tried your best to get my
+friend away from me, but you couldn't do it; and you would like to keep
+me from having any boy friends at all, but you can't do that, either.
+You think you are very popular, but you'll find out I always do what I
+like, and you needn't try to stop me. I don't have to come to school
+unless I choose, and as long as I don't break your rules you have no
+complaint coming; but you needn't think you can pull the wool over my
+eyes the way you do the others by pretending to be friends. I won't be
+friends! I hate you!" And Rosa turned grandly and marched out of the
+school-house.
+
+Margaret stood gazing sadly after her and wondering if her failure here
+were her fault--if there was anything else she ought to have done--if
+she had let her personal dislike of the girl influence her conduct. She
+sat for some time at her desk, her chin in her hands, her eyes fixed on
+vacancy with a hopeless, discouraged expression in them, before she
+became aware of another presence in the room. Looking around quickly,
+she saw that Bud was sitting motionless at his desk, his forehead
+wrinkled in a fierce frown, his jaw set belligerently, and a look of
+such, unutterable pity and devotion in his eyes that her heart warmed to
+him at once and a smile of comradeship broke over her face.
+
+"Oh, William! Were you here? Did you hear all that? What do you suppose
+is the matter? Where have I failed?"
+
+"You 'ain't failed anywhere! You should worry 'bout her! She's a nut! If
+she was a boy I'd punch her head for her! But seeing she's only a girl,
+_you should worry_! She always was the limit!"
+
+Bud's tone was forcible. He was the only one of all the boys who never
+yielded to Rosa's charms, but sat in glowering silence when she
+exercised her powers on the school and created pandemonium for the
+teacher. Bud's attitude was comforting. It had a touch of manliness and
+gentleness about it quite unwonted for him. It suggested beautiful
+possibilities for the future of his character, and Margaret smiled
+tenderly.
+
+"Thank you, dear boy!" she said, gently. "You certainly are a comfort.
+If every one was as splendid as you are we should have a model school.
+But I do wish I could help Rosa. I can't see why she should hate me so!
+I must have made some big mistake with her in the first place to
+antagonize her."
+
+"Naw!" said Bud, roughly. "No chance! She's just a _nut_, that's all.
+She's got a case on that Forsythe guy, the worst kind, and she's afraid
+somebody 'll get him away from her, the poor stew, as if anybody would
+get a case on a tough guy like that! Gee! You should worry! Come on,
+let's take a ride over t' camp!"
+
+With a sigh and a smile Margaret accepted Bud's consolations and went on
+her way, trying to find some manner of showing Rosa what a real friend
+she was willing to be. But Rosa continued obdurate and hateful,
+regarding her teacher with haughty indifference except when she was
+called upon to recite, which she did sometimes with scornful
+condescension, sometimes with pert perfection, and sometimes with saucy
+humor which convulsed the whole room. Margaret's patience was almost
+ceasing to be a virtue, and she meditated often whether she ought not to
+request that the girl be withdrawn from the school. Yet she reflected
+that it was a very short time now until Commencement, and that Rosa had
+not openly defied any rules. It was merely a personal antagonism. Then,
+too, if Rosa were taken from the school there was really no other good
+influence in the girl's life at present. Day by day Margaret prayed
+about the matter and hoped that something would develop to make plain
+her way.
+
+After much thought in the matter she decided to go on with her plans,
+letting Rosa have her place in the Commencement program and her part in
+the class-day doings as if nothing were the matter. Certainly there was
+nothing laid down in the rules of a public school that proscribed a
+scholar who did not love her teacher. Why should the fact that one had
+incurred the hate of a pupil unfit that pupil for her place in her class
+so long as she did her duties? And Rosa did hers promptly and deftly,
+with a certain piquant originality that Margaret could not help but
+admire.
+
+Sometimes, as the teacher cast a furtive look at the pretty girl working
+away at her desk, she wondered what was going on behind the lovely mask.
+But the look in Rosa's eyes, when she raised them, was both deep and
+sly.
+
+Rosa's hatred was indeed deep rooted. Whatever heart she had not
+frivoled away in wilfulness had been caught and won by Forsythe, the
+first grown man who had ever dared to make real love to her. Her
+jealousy of Margaret was the most intense thing that had ever come into
+her life. To think of him looking at Margaret, talking to Margaret,
+smiling at Margaret, walking or riding with Margaret, was enough to send
+her writhing upon her bed in the darkness of a wakeful night. She would
+clench her pretty hands until the nails dug into the flesh and brought
+the blood. She would bite the pillow or the blankets with an almost
+fiendish clenching of her teeth upon them and mutter, as she did so: "I
+hate her! I _hate_ her! I could _kill_ her!"
+
+The day her first letter came from Forsythe, Rosa held her head high and
+went about the school as if she were a princess royal and Margaret were
+the dust under her feet. Triumph sat upon her like a crown and looked
+forth regally from her eyes. She laid her hand upon her heart and felt
+the crackle of his letter inside her blouse. She dreamed with her eyes
+upon the distant mountain and thought of the tender names he had called
+her: "Little wild Rose of his heart," "No rose in all the world until
+you came," and a lot of other meaningful sentences. A real love-letter
+all her own! No sharing him with any hateful teachers! He had implied in
+her letter that she was the only one of all the people in that region
+to whom he cared to write. He had said he was coming back some day to
+get her. Her young, wild heart throbbed exultantly, and her eyes looked
+forth their triumph malignantly. When he did come she would take care
+that he stayed close by her. No conceited teacher from the East should
+lure him from her side. She would prepare her guiles and smile her
+sweetest. She would wear fine garments from abroad, and show him she
+could far outshine that quiet, common Miss Earle, with all her airs. Yet
+to this end she studied hard. It was no part of her plan to be left
+behind at graduating-time. She would please her father by taking a
+prominent part in things and outdoing all the others. Then he would give
+her what she liked--jewels and silk dresses, and all the things a girl
+should have who had won a lover like hers.
+
+The last busy days before Commencement were especially trying for
+Margaret. It seemed as if the children were possessed with the very
+spirit of mischief, and she could not help but see that it was Rosa who,
+sitting demurely in her desk, was the center of it all. Only Bud's
+steady, frowning countenance of all that rollicking, roistering crowd
+kept loyalty with the really beloved teacher. For, indeed, they loved
+her, every one but Rosa, and would have stood by her to a man and girl
+when it really came to the pinch, but in a matter like a little bit of
+fun in these last few days of school, and when challenged to it by the
+school beauty who did not usually condescend to any but a few of the
+older boys, where was the harm? They were so flattered by Rosa's smiles
+that they failed to see Margaret's worn, weary wistfulness.
+
+Bud, coming into the school-house late one afternoon in search of her
+after the other scholars had gone, found Margaret with her head down
+upon the desk and her shoulders shaken with soundless sobs. He stood for
+a second silent in the doorway, gazing helplessly at her grief, then
+with the delicacy of one boy for another he slipped back outside the
+door and stood in the shadow, grinding his teeth.
+
+"Gee!" he said, under his breath. "Oh, gee! I'd like to punch her fool
+head. I don't care if she is a girl! She needs it. Gee! if she was a boy
+wouldn't I settle her, the little darned mean sneak!"
+
+His remarks, it is needless to say, did not have reference to his
+beloved teacher.
+
+It was in the atmosphere everywhere that something was bound to happen
+if this strain kept up. Margaret knew it and felt utterly inadequate to
+meet it. Rosa knew it and was awaiting her opportunity. Bud knew it and
+could only stand and watch where the blow was to strike first and be
+ready to ward it off. In these days he wished fervently for Gardley's
+return. He did not know just what Gardley could do about "that little
+fool," as he called Rosa, but it would be a relief to be able to tell
+some one all about it. If he only dared leave he would go over and tell
+Jasper Kemp about it, just to share his burden with somebody. But as it
+was he must stick to the job for the present and bear his great
+responsibility, and so the days hastened by to the last Sunday before
+Commencement, which was to be on Monday.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+Margaret had spent Saturday in rehearsals, so that there had been no
+rest for her. Sunday morning she slept late, and awoke from a troubled
+dream, unrested. She almost meditated whether she would not ask some one
+to read a sermon at the afternoon service and let her go on sleeping.
+Then a memory of the lonely old woman at the camp, and the men, who came
+so regularly to the service, roused her to effort once more, and she
+arose and tried to prepare a little something for them.
+
+She came into the school-house at the hour, looking fagged, with dark
+circles under her eyes; and the loving eyes of Mom Wallis already in her
+front seat watched her keenly.
+
+"It's time for _him_ to come back," she said, in her heart. "She's
+gettin' peeked! I wisht he'd come!"
+
+Margaret had hoped that Rosa would not come. The girl was not always
+there, but of late she had been quite regular, coming in late with her
+father just a little after the story had begun, and attracting attention
+by her smiles and bows and giggling whispers, which sometimes were so
+audible as to create quite a diversion from the speaker.
+
+But Rosa came in early to-day and took a seat directly in front of
+Margaret, in about the middle of the house, fixing her eyes on her
+teacher with a kind of settled intention that made Margaret shrink as if
+from a danger she was not able to meet. There was something bright and
+hard and daring in Rosa's eyes as she stared unwinkingly, as if she had
+come to search out a weak spot for her evil purposes, and Margaret was
+so tired she wanted to lay her head down on her desk and cry. She drew
+some comfort from the reflection that if she should do so childish a
+thing she would be at once surrounded by a strong battalion of friends
+from the camp, who would shield her with their lives if necessary.
+
+It was silly, of course, and she must control this choking in her
+throat, only how was she ever going to talk, with Rosa looking at her
+that way? It was like a nightmare pursuing her. She turned to the piano
+and kept them all singing for a while, so that she might pray in her
+heart and grow calm; and when, after her brief, earnest prayer, she
+lifted her eyes to the audience, she saw with intense relief that the
+Brownleighs were in the audience.
+
+She started a hymn that they all knew, and when they were well in the
+midst of the first verse she slipped from the piano-stool and walked
+swiftly down the aisle to Brownleigh's side.
+
+"Would you please talk to them a little while?" she pleaded, wistfully.
+"I am so tired I feel as if I just couldn't, to-day."
+
+Instantly Brownleigh followed her back to the desk and took her place,
+pulling out his little, worn Bible and opening it with familiar fingers
+to a beloved passage:
+
+     "'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
+     give you rest.'"
+
+The words fell on Margaret's tired heart like balm, and she rested her
+head back against the wall and closed her eyes to listen. Sitting so
+away from Rosa's stare, she could forget for a while the absurd burdens
+that had got on her nerves, and could rest down hard upon her Saviour.
+Every word that the man of God spoke seemed meant just for her, and
+brought strength, courage, and new trust to her heart. She forgot the
+little crowd of other listeners and took the message to herself,
+drinking it in eagerly as one who has been a long time ministering
+accepts a much-needed ministry. When she moved to the piano again for
+the closing hymn she felt new strength within her to bear the trials of
+the week that were before her. She turned, smiling and brave, to speak
+to those who always crowded around to shake hands and have a word before
+leaving.
+
+Hazel, putting a loving arm around her as soon as she could get up to
+the front, began to speak soothingly: "You poor, tired child!" she said;
+"you are almost worn to a frazzle. You need a big change, and I'm going
+to plan it for you just as soon as I possibly can. How would you like to
+go with us on our trip among the Indians? Wouldn't it be great? It'll be
+several days, depending on how far we go, but John wants to visit the
+Hopi reservation, if possible, and it'll be so interesting. They are a
+most strange people. We'll have a delightful trip, sleeping out under
+the stars, you know. Don't you just love it? I do. I wouldn't miss it
+for the world. I can't be sure, for a few days yet, when we can go, for
+John has to make a journey in the other direction first, and he isn't
+sure when he can return; but it might be this week. How soon can you
+come to us? How I wish we could take you right home with us to-night.
+You need to get away and rest. But your Commencement is to-morrow, isn't
+it? I'm so sorry we can't be here, but this other matter is important,
+and John has to go early in the morning. Some one very sick who wants to
+see him before he dies--an old Indian who didn't know a thing about
+Jesus till John found him one day. I suppose you haven't anybody who
+could bring you over to us after your work is done here to-morrow night
+or Tuesday, have you? Well, we'll see if we can't find some one to send
+for you soon. There's an old Indian who often comes this way, but he's
+away buying cattle. Maybe John can think of a way we could send for you
+early in the week. Then you would be ready to go with us on the trip.
+You would like to go, wouldn't you?"
+
+"Oh, so much!" said Margaret, with a sigh of wistfulness. "I can't think
+of anything pleasanter!"
+
+Margaret turned suddenly, and there, just behind her, almost touching
+her, stood Rosa, that strange, baleful gleam in her eyes like a serpent
+who was biding her time, drawing nearer and nearer, knowing she had her
+victim where she could not move before she struck.
+
+It was a strange fancy, of course, and one that was caused by sick
+nerves, but Margaret drew back and almost cried out, as if for some one
+to protect her. Then her strong common sense came to the rescue and she
+rallied and smiled at Rosa a faint little sorry smile. It was hard to
+smile at the bright, baleful face with the menace in the eyes.
+
+Hazel was watching her. "You poor child! You're quite worn out! I'm
+afraid you're going to be sick."
+
+"Oh no," said Margaret, trying to speak cheerfully; "things have just
+got on my nerves, that's all. It's been a particularly trying time. I
+shall be all right when to-morrow night is over."
+
+"Well, we're going to send for you very soon, so be ready!" and Hazel
+followed her husband, waving her hand in gay parting.
+
+Rosa was still standing just behind her when Margaret turned back to her
+desk, and the younger girl gave her one last dagger look, a glitter in
+her eyes so sinister and vindictive that Margaret felt a shudder run
+through her whole body, and was glad that just then Rosa's father called
+to her that they must be starting home. Only one more day now of Rosa,
+and she would be done with her, perhaps forever. The girl was through
+the school course and was graduating. It was not likely she would return
+another year. Her opportunity was over to help her. She had failed. Why,
+she couldn't tell, but she had strangely failed, and all she asked now
+was not to have to endure the hard, cold, young presence any longer.
+
+"Sick nerves, Margaret!" she said to herself. "Go home and go to bed.
+You'll be all right to-morrow!" And she locked the school-house door and
+walked quietly home with the faithful Bud.
+
+The past month had been a trying time also for Rosa. Young, wild, and
+motherless, passionate, wilful and impetuous, she was finding life
+tremendously exciting just now. With no one to restrain her or warn her
+she was playing with forces that she did not understand.
+
+She had subjugated easily all the boys in school, keeping them exactly
+where she wanted them for her purpose, and using methods that would have
+done credit to a woman of the world. But by far the greatest force in
+her life was her infatuation for Forsythe.
+
+The letters had traveled back and forth many times between them since
+Forsythe wrote that first love-letter. He found a whimsical pleasure in
+her deep devotion and naive readiness to follow as far as he cared to
+lead her. He realized that, young as she was, she was no innocent, which
+made the acquaintance all the more interesting. He, meantime, idled away
+a few months on the Pacific coast, making mild love to a rich California
+girl and considering whether or not he was ready yet to settle down.
+
+In the mean time his correspondence with Rosa took on such a nature that
+his volatile, impulsive nature was stirred with a desire to see her
+again. It was not often that once out of sight he looked back to a
+victim, but Rosa had shown a daring and a spirit in her letters that
+sent a challenge to his sated senses. Moreover, the California heiress
+was going on a journey; besides, an old enemy of his who knew altogether
+too much of his past had appeared on the scene; and as Gardley had been
+removed from the Ashland vicinity for a time, Forsythe felt it might be
+safe to venture back again. There was always that pretty, spirited
+little teacher if Rosa failed to charm. But why should Rosa not charm?
+And why should he not yield? Rosa's father was a good sort and had all
+kinds of property. Rosa was her father's only heir. On the whole,
+Forsythe decided that the best move he could make next would be to
+return to Arizona. If things turned out well he might even think of
+marrying Rosa.
+
+This was somewhat the train of thought that led Forsythe at last to
+write to Rosa that he was coming, throwing Rosa into a panic of joy and
+alarm. For Rosa's father had been most explicit about her ever going out
+with Forsythe again. It had been the most relentless command he had ever
+laid upon her, spoken in a tone she hardly ever disobeyed. Moreover,
+Rosa was fearfully jealous of Margaret. If Forsythe should come and
+begin to hang around the teacher Rosa felt she would go wild, or do
+something terrible, perhaps even kill somebody. She shut her sharp
+little white teeth fiercely down into her red under lip and vowed with
+flashing eyes that he should never see Margaret again if power of hers
+could prevent it.
+
+The letter from Forsythe had reached her on Saturday evening, and she
+had come to the Sunday service with the distinct idea of trying to plan
+how she might get rid of Margaret. It would be hard enough to evade her
+father's vigilance if he once found out the young man had returned; but
+to have him begin to go and see Margaret again was a thing she could not
+and would not stand.
+
+The idea obsessed her to the exclusion of all others, and made her watch
+her teacher as if by her very concentration of thought upon her some way
+out of the difficulty might be evolved; as if Margaret herself might
+give forth a hint of weakness somewhere that would show her how to plan.
+
+To that intent she had come close in the group with the others around
+the teacher at the close of meeting, and, so standing, had overheard all
+that the Brownleighs had said. The lightning flash of triumph that she
+cast at Margaret as she left the school-house was her own signal that
+she had found a way at last. Her opportunity had come, and just in time.
+Forsythe was to arrive in Arizona some time on Tuesday, and wanted Rosa
+to meet him at one of their old trysting-places, out some distance from
+her father's house. He knew that school would just be over, for she had
+written him about Commencement, and so he understood that she would be
+free. But he did not know that the place he had selected to meet her was
+on one of Margaret's favorite trails where she and Bud often rode in the
+late afternoons, and that above all things Rosa wished to avoid any
+danger of meeting her teacher; for she not only feared that Forsythe's
+attention would be drawn away from her, but also that Margaret might
+feel it her duty to report to her father about her clandestine meeting.
+
+Rosa's heart beat high as she rode demurely home with her father,
+answering his pleasantries with smiles and dimples and a coaxing word,
+just as he loved to have her. But she was not thinking of her father,
+though she kept well her mask of interest in what he had to say. She was
+trying to plan how she might use what she had heard to get rid of
+Margaret Earle. If only Mrs. Brownleigh would do as she had hinted and
+send some one Tuesday morning to escort Miss Earle over to her home, all
+would be clear sailing for Rosa; but she dared not trust to such a
+possibility. There were not many escorts coming their way from Ganado,
+and Rosa happened to know that the old Indian who frequently escorted
+parties was off in another direction. She could not rest on any such
+hope. When she reached home she went at once to her room and sat beside
+her window, gazing off at the purple mountains in deep thought. Then she
+lighted a candle and went in search of a certain little Testament, long
+since neglected and covered with dust. She found it at last on the top
+of a pile of books in a dark closet, and dragged it forth, eagerly
+turning the pages. Yes, there it was, and in it a small envelope
+directed to "Miss Rosa Rogers" in a fine angular handwriting. The letter
+was from the missionary's wife to the little girl who had recited her
+texts so beautifully as to earn the Testament.
+
+Rosa carried it to her desk, secured a good light, and sat down to read
+it over carefully.
+
+No thought of her innocent childish exultation over that letter came to
+her now. She was intent on one thing--the handwriting. Could she seize
+the secret of it and reproduce it? She had before often done so with
+great success. She could imitate Miss Earle's writing so perfectly that
+she often took an impish pleasure in changing words in the questions on
+the blackboard and making them read absurdly for the benefit of the
+school. It was such good sport to see the amazement on Margaret's face
+when her attention would be called to it by a hilarious class, and to
+watch her troubled brow when she read what she supposed she had written.
+
+When Rosa was but a little child she used to boast that she could write
+her father's name in perfect imitation of his signature; and often
+signed some trifling receipt for him just for amusement. A dangerous
+gift in the hands of a conscienceless girl! Yet this was the first time
+that Rosa had really planned to use her art in any serious way. Perhaps
+it never occurred to her that she was doing wrong. At present her heart
+was too full of hate and fear and jealous love to care for right or
+wrong or anything else. It is doubtful if she would have hesitated a
+second even if the thing she was planning had suddenly appeared to her
+in the light of a great crime. She seemed sometimes almost like a
+creature without moral sense, so swayed was she by her own desires and
+feelings. She was blind now to everything but her great desire to get
+Margaret out of the way and have Forsythe to herself.
+
+Long after her father and the servants were asleep Rosa's light burned
+while she bent over her desk, writing. Page after page she covered with
+careful copies of Mrs. Brownleigh's letter written to herself almost
+three years before. Finally she wrote out the alphabet, bit by bit as
+she picked it from the words, learning just how each letter was
+habitually formed, the small letters and the capitals, with the
+peculiarities of connection and ending. At last, when she lay down to
+rest, she felt herself capable of writing a pretty fair letter in Mrs.
+Brownleigh's handwriting. The next thing was to make her plan and
+compose her letter. She lay staring into the darkness and trying to
+think just what she could do.
+
+In the first place, she settled it that Margaret must be gotten to Walpi
+at least. It would not do to send her to Ganado, where the mission
+station was, for that was a comparatively short journey, and she could
+easily go in a day. When the fraud was discovered, as of course it would
+be when Mrs. Brownleigh heard of it, Margaret would perhaps return to
+find out who had done it. No, she must be sent all the way to Walpi if
+possible. That would take at least two nights and the most of two days
+to get there. Forsythe had said his stay was to be short. By the time
+Margaret got back from Walpi Forsythe would be gone.
+
+But how manage to get her to Walpi without her suspicions being aroused?
+She might word the note so that Margaret would be told to come half-way,
+expecting to meet the missionaries, say at Keams. There was a trail
+straight up from Ashland to Keams, cutting off quite a distance and
+leaving Ganado off at the right. Keams was nearly forty miles west of
+Ganado. That would do nicely. Then if she could manage to have another
+note left at Keams, saying they could not wait and had gone on, Margaret
+would suspect nothing and go all the way to Walpi. That would be fine
+and would give the school-teacher an interesting experience which
+wouldn't hurt her in the least. Rosa thought it might be rather
+interesting than otherwise. She had no compunctions whatever about how
+Margaret might feel when she arrived in that strange Indian town and
+found no friends awaiting her. Her only worry was where she was to find
+a suitable escort, for she felt assured that Margaret would not start
+out alone with one man servant on an expedition that would keep her out
+overnight. And where in all that region could she find a woman whom she
+could trust to send on the errand? It almost looked as though the thing
+were an impossibility. She lay tossing and puzzling over it till gray
+dawn stole into the room. She mentally reviewed every servant on the
+place on whom she could rely to do her bidding and keep her secret, but
+there was some reason why each one would not do. She scanned the
+country, even considering old Ouida, who had been living in a shack over
+beyond the fort ever since her cabin had been raided; but old Ouida was
+too notorious. Mrs. Tanner would keep Margaret from going with her, even
+if Margaret herself did not know the old woman's reputation. Rosa
+considered if there were any way of wheedling Mom Wallis into the
+affair, and gave that up, remembering the suspicious little twinkling
+eyes of Jasper Kemp. At last she fell asleep, with her plan still
+unformed but her determination to carry it through just as strong as
+ever. If worst came to worst she would send the half-breed cook from the
+ranch kitchen and put something in the note about his expecting to meet
+his sister an hour's ride out on the trail. The half-breed would do
+anything in the world for money, and Rosa had no trouble in getting all
+she wanted of that commodity. But the half-breed was an evil-looking
+fellow, and she feared lest Margaret would not like to go with him.
+However, he should be a last resort. She would not be balked in her
+purpose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+Rosa awoke very early, for her sleep had been light and troubled. She
+dressed hastily and sat down to compose a note which could be altered
+slightly in case she found some one better than the half-breed; but
+before she was half through the phrasing she heard a slight disturbance
+below her window and a muttering in guttural tones from a strange voice.
+Glancing hastily out, she saw some Indians below, talking with one of
+the men, who was shaking his head and motioning to them that they must
+go on, that this was no place for them to stop. The Indian motioned to
+his squaw, sitting on a dilapidated little moth-eaten burro with a small
+papoose in her arms and looking both dirty and miserable. He muttered as
+though he were pleading for something.
+
+We believe that God's angels follow the feet of little children and
+needy ones to protect them; does the devil also send his angels to lead
+unwary ones astray, and to protect the plan's of the erring ones? If so
+then he must have sent these Indians that morning to further Rosa's
+plans, and instantly she recognized her opportunity. She leaned out of
+her window and spoke in a clear, reproving voice:
+
+"James, what does he want? Breakfast? You know father wouldn't want any
+hungry person to be turned away. Let them sit down on the bench there
+and tell Dorset I said to give them a good hot breakfast, and get some
+milk for the baby. Be quick about it, too!"
+
+James started and frowned at the clear, commanding voice. The squaw
+turned grateful animal eyes up to the little beauty in the window,
+muttering some inarticulate thanks, while the stolid Indian's eyes
+glittered hopefully, though the muscles of his mask-like countenance
+changed not an atom.
+
+Rosa smiled radiantly and ran down to see that her orders were obeyed.
+She tried to talk a little with the squaw, but found she understood very
+little English. The Indian spoke better and gave her their brief story.
+They were on their way to the Navajo reservation to the far north. They
+had been unfortunate enough to lose their last scanty provisions by
+prowling coyotes during the night, and were in need of food. Rosa gave
+them a place to sit down and a plentiful breakfast, and ordered that a
+small store of provisions should be prepared for their journey after
+they had rested. Then she hurried up to her room to finish her letter.
+She had her plan well fixed now. These strangers should be her willing
+messengers. Now and then, as she wrote she lifted her head and gazed out
+of the window, where she could see the squaw busy with her little one,
+and her eyes fairly glittered with satisfaction. Nothing could have been
+better planned than this.
+
+She wrote her note carefully:
+
+     DEAR MARGARET [she had heard Hazel call Margaret by her first name,
+     and rightly judged that their new friendship was already strong
+     enough to justify this intimacy],--I have found just the
+     opportunity I wanted for you to come to us. These Indians are
+     thoroughly trustworthy and are coming in just the direction to
+     bring you to a point where we will meet you. We have decided to go
+     on to Walpi at once, and will probably meet you near Keams, or a
+     little farther on. The Indian knows the way, and you need not be
+     afraid. I trust him perfectly. Start at once, please, so that you
+     will meet us in time. John has to go on as fast as possible. I know
+     you will enjoy the trip, and am so glad you are coming.
+
+                                                 Lovingly,
+                                             HAZEL RADCLIFFE BROWNLEIGH.
+
+Rosa read it over, comparing it carefully with the little yellow note
+from her Testament, and decided that it was a very good imitation. She
+could almost hear Mrs. Brownleigh saying what she had written. Rosa
+really was quite clever. She had done it well.
+
+She hastily sealed and addressed her letter, and then hurried down to
+talk with the Indians again.
+
+The place she had ordered for them to rest was at some distance from the
+kitchen door, a sort of outshed for the shelter of certain implements
+used about the ranch. A long bench ran in front of it, and a big tree
+made a goodly shade. The Indians had found their temporary camp quite
+inviting.
+
+Rosa made a detour of the shed, satisfied herself that no one was within
+hearing, and then sat down on the bench, ostensibly playing with the
+papoose, dangling a red ball on a ribbon before his dazzled, bead-like
+eyes and bringing forth a gurgle of delight from the dusky little mummy.
+While she played she talked idly with the Indians. Had they money enough
+for their journey? Would they like to earn some? Would they act as
+guide to a lady who wanted to go to Walpi? At least she wanted to go as
+far as Keams, where she might meet friends, missionaries, who were going
+on with her to Walpi to visit the Indians. If they didn't meet her she
+wanted to be guided all the way to Walpi? Would they undertake it? It
+would pay them well. They would get money enough for their journey and
+have some left when they got to the reservation. And Rosa displayed two
+gold pieces temptingly in her small palms.
+
+The Indian uttered a guttural sort of gasp at sight of so much money,
+and sat upright. He gasped again, indicating by a solemn nod that he was
+agreeable to the task before him, and the girl went gaily on with her
+instructions:
+
+"You will have to take some things along to make the lady comfortable. I
+will see that those are got ready. Then you can have the things for your
+own when you leave the lady at Walpi. You will have to take a letter to
+the lady and tell her you are going this afternoon, and she must be
+ready to start at once or she will not meet the missionary. Tell her you
+can only wait until three o'clock to start. You will find the lady at
+the school-house at noon. You must not come till noon--" Rosa pointed to
+the sun and then straight overhead. The Indian watched her keenly and
+nodded.
+
+"You must ask for Miss Earle and give her this letter. She is the
+school-teacher."
+
+The Indian grunted and looked at the white missive in Rosa's hand,
+noting once more the gleam of the gold pieces.
+
+"You must wait till the teacher goes to her boarding-house and packs her
+things and eats her dinner. If anybody asks where you came from you must
+say the missionary's wife from Ganado sent you. Don't tell anybody
+anything else. Do you understand? More money if you don't say anything?"
+Rosa clinked the gold pieces softly.
+
+The strange, sphinx-like gaze of the Indian narrowed comprehensively. He
+understood. His native cunning was being bought for this girl's own
+purposes. He looked greedily at the money. Rosa had put her hand in her
+pocket and brought out yet another gold piece.
+
+"See! I give you this one now"--she laid one gold piece in the Indian's
+hand--"and these two I put in an envelope and pack with some provisions
+and blankets on another horse. I will leave the horse tied to a tree up
+where the big trail crosses this big trail out that way. You know?"
+
+Rosa pointed in the direction she meant, and the Indian looked and
+grunted, his eyes returning to the two gold pieces in her hand. It was a
+great deal of money for the little lady to give. Was she trying to cheat
+him? He looked down at the gold he already held. It was good money. He
+was sure of that. He looked at her keenly.
+
+"I shall be watching and I shall know whether you have the lady or not,"
+went on the girl, sharply. "If you do not bring the lady with you there
+will be no money and no provisions waiting for you. But if you bring the
+lady you can untie the horse and take him with you. You will need the
+horse to carry the things. When you get to Walpi you can set him free.
+He is branded and he will likely come back. We shall find him. See, I
+will put the gold pieces in this tin can."
+
+She picked up a sardine-tin that lay at her feet, slipped the gold
+pieces in an envelope from her pocket, stuffed it in the tin, bent down
+the cover, and held it up.
+
+"This can will be packed on the top of the other provisions, and you can
+open it and take the money out when you untie the horse. Then hurry on
+as fast as you can and get as far along the trail as possible to-night
+before you camp. Do you understand?"
+
+The Indian nodded once more, and Rosa felt that she had a confederate
+worthy of her need.
+
+She stayed a few minutes more, going carefully over her directions,
+telling the Indian to be sure his squaw was kind to the lady, and that
+on no account he should let the lady get uneasy or have cause to
+complain of her treatment, or trouble would surely come to him. At last
+she felt sure she had made him understand, and she hurried away to slip
+into her pretty white dress and rose-colored ribbons and ride to school.
+Before she left her room she glanced out of the window at the Indians,
+and saw them sitting motionless, like a group of bronze. Once the Indian
+stirred and, putting his hand in his bosom, drew forth the white letter
+she had given him, gazed at it a moment, and hid it in his breast again.
+She nodded her satisfaction as she turned from the window. The next
+thing was to get to school and play her own part in the Commencement
+exercises.
+
+The morning was bright, and the school-house was already filled to
+overflowing when Rosa arrived. Her coming, as always, made a little stir
+among admiring groups, for even those who feared her admired her from
+afar. She fluttered into the school-house and up the aisle with the air
+of a princess who knew she had been waited for and was condescending to
+come at all.
+
+Rosa was in everything--the drills, the march, the choruses, and the
+crowning oration. She went through it all with the perfection of a
+bright mind and an adaptable nature. One would never have dreamed, to
+look at her pretty dimpling face and her sparkling eyes, what diabolical
+things were moving in her mind, nor how those eyes, lynx-soft with
+lurking sweetness and treachery, were watching all the time furtively
+for the appearance of the old Indian.
+
+At last she saw him, standing in a group just outside the window near
+the platform, his tall form and stern countenance marking him among the
+crowd of familiar faces. She was receiving her diploma from the hand of
+Margaret when she caught his eye, and her hand trembled just a quiver as
+she took the dainty roll tied with blue and white ribbons. That he
+recognized her she was sure; that he knew she did not wish him to make
+known his connection with her she felt equally convinced he understood.
+His eye had that comprehending look of withdrawal. She did not look up
+directly at him again. Her eyes were daintily downward. Nevertheless,
+she missed not a turn of his head, not a glance from that stern eye, and
+she knew the moment when he stood at the front door of the school-house
+with the letter in his hand, stolid and indifferent, yet a great force
+to be reckoned with.
+
+Some one looked at the letter, pointed to Margaret, called her, and she
+came. Rosa was not far away all the time, talking with Jed; her eyes
+downcast, her cheeks dimpling, missing nothing that could be heard or
+seen.
+
+Margaret read the letter. Rosa watched her, knew every curve of every
+letter and syllable as she read, held her breath, and watched Margaret's
+expression. Did she suspect? No. A look of intense relief and pleasure
+had come into her eyes. She was glad to have found a way to go. She
+turned to Mrs. Tanner.
+
+"What do you think of this, Mrs. Tanner? I'm to go with Mrs. Brownleigh
+on a trip to Walpi. Isn't that delicious? I'm to start at once. Do you
+suppose I could have a bite to eat? I won't need much. I'm too tired to
+eat and too anxious to be off. If you give me a cup of tea and a
+sandwich I'll be all right. I've got things about ready to go, for Mrs.
+Brownleigh told me she would send some one for me."
+
+"H'm!" said Mrs. Tanner, disapprovingly. "Who you goin' with? Just
+_him_? I don't much like _his_ looks!"
+
+She spoke in a low tone so the Indian would not hear, and it was almost
+in Rosa's very ear, who stood just behind. Rosa's heart stopped a beat
+and she frowned at the toe of her slipper. Was this common little Tanner
+woman going to be the one to balk her plans?
+
+Margaret raised her head now for her first good look at the Indian, and
+it must be admitted a chill came into her heart. Then, as if he
+comprehended what was at stake, the Indian turned slightly and pointed
+down the path toward the road. By common consent the few who were
+standing about the door stepped back and made a vista for Margaret to
+see the squaw sitting statue-like on her scraggy little pony, gazing off
+at the mountain in the distance, as if she were sitting for her picture,
+her solemn little papoose strapped to her back.
+
+Margaret's troubled eyes cleared. The family aspect made things all
+right again. "You see, he has his wife and child," she said. "It's all
+right. Mrs. Brownleigh says she trusts him perfectly, and I'm to meet
+them on the way. Read the letter."
+
+She thrust the letter into Mrs. Tanner's hand, and Rosa trembled for her
+scheme once more. Surely, surely Mrs. Tanner would not be able to detect
+the forgery!
+
+"H'm! Well, I s'pose it's all right if she says so, but I'm sure I don't
+relish them pesky Injuns, and I don't think that squaw wife of his looks
+any great shakes, either. They look to me like they needed a good scrub
+with Bristol brick. But then, if you're set on going, you'll go,
+'course. I jest wish Bud hadn't 'a' gone home with that Jasper Kemp. He
+might 'a' gone along, an' then you'd 'a' had somebody to speak English
+to."
+
+"Yes, it would have been nice to have William along," said Margaret;
+"but I think I'll be all right. Mrs. Brownleigh wouldn't send anybody
+that wasn't nice."
+
+"H'm! I dun'no'! She's an awful crank. She just loves them Injuns, they
+say. But I, fer one, draw the line at holdin' 'em in my lap. I don't
+b'lieve in mixin' folks up that way. Preach to 'em if you like, but let
+'em keep their distance, I say."
+
+Margaret laughed and went off to pick up her things. Rosa stood smiling
+and talking to Jed until she saw Margaret and Mrs. Tanner go off
+together, the Indians riding slowly along behind.
+
+Rosa waited until the Indians had turned off the road down toward the
+Tanners', and then she mounted her own pony and rode swiftly home.
+
+She rushed up to her room and took off her fine apparel, arraying
+herself quickly in a plain little gown, and went down to prepare the
+provisions. There was none too much time, and she must work rapidly. It
+was well for her plans that she was all-powerful with the servants and
+could send them about at will to get them out of her way. She invented a
+duty for each now that would take them for a few minutes well out of
+sight and sound; then she hurried together the provisions in a basket,
+making two trips to get them to the shelter where she had told the
+Indian he would find the horse tied. She had to make a third trip to
+bring the blankets and a few other things she knew would be
+indispensable, but the whole outfit was really but carelessly gotten
+together, and it was just by chance that some things got in at all.
+
+It was not difficult to find the old cayuse she intended using for a
+pack-horse. He was browsing around in the corral, and she soon had a
+halter over his head, for she had been quite used to horses from her
+babyhood.
+
+She packed the canned things, tinned meats, vegetables, and fruit into a
+couple of large sacks, adding some fodder for the horses, a box of
+matches, some corn bread, of which there was always plenty on hand in
+the house, some salt pork, and a few tin dishes. These she slung pack
+fashion over the old horse, fastened the sardine-tin containing the gold
+pieces where it would be easily found, tied the horse to a tree, and
+retired behind a shelter of sage-brush to watch.
+
+It was not long before the little caravan came, the Indians riding ahead
+single file, like two graven images, moving not a muscle of their faces,
+and Margaret a little way behind on her own pony, her face as happy and
+relieved as if she were a child let out from a hard task to play.
+
+The Indian stopped beside the horse, a glitter of satisfaction in his
+eyes as he saw that the little lady had fulfilled her part of the
+bargain. He indicated to the squaw and the lady that they might move on
+down the trail, and he would catch up with them; and then dismounted,
+pouncing warily upon the sardine-tin at once. He looked furtively about,
+then took out the money and tested it with his teeth to make sure it was
+genuine.
+
+He grunted his further satisfaction, looked over the pack-horse, made
+more secure the fastenings of the load, and, taking the halter, mounted
+and rode stolidly away toward the north.
+
+Rosa waited in her covert until they were far out of sight, then made
+her way hurriedly back to the house and climbed to a window where she
+could watch the trail for several miles. There, with a field-glass, she
+kept watch until the procession had filed across the plains, down into a
+valley, up over a hill, and dropped to a farther valley out of sight.
+She looked at the sun and drew a breath of satisfaction. She had done it
+at last! She had got Margaret away before Forsythe came! There was no
+likelihood that the fraud would be discovered until her rival was far
+enough away to be safe. A kind of reaction came upon Rosa's overwrought
+nerves. She laughed out harshly, and her voice had a cruel ring to it.
+Then she threw herself upon the bed and burst into a passionate fit of
+weeping, and so, by and by, fell asleep. She dreamed that Margaret had
+returned like a shining, fiery angel, a two-edged sword in her hand and
+all the Wallis camp at her heels, with vengeance in their wake. That
+hateful little boy, Bud Tanner, danced around and made faces at her,
+while Forsythe had forgotten her to gaze at Margaret's face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+To Margaret the day was very fair, and the omens all auspicious. She
+carried with her close to her heart two precious letters received that
+morning and scarcely glanced at as yet, one from Gardley and one from
+her mother. She had had only time to open them and be sure that all was
+well with her dear ones, and had left the rest to read on the way.
+
+She was dressed in the khaki riding-habit she always wore when she went
+on horseback; and in the bag strapped on behind she carried a couple of
+fresh white blouses, a thin, white dress, a little soft dark silk gown
+that folded away almost into a cobweb, and a few other necessities. She
+had also slipped in a new book her mother had sent her, into which she
+had had as yet no time to look, and her chessmen and board, besides
+writing materials. She prided herself on having got so many necessaries
+into so small a compass. She would need the extra clothing if she stayed
+at Ganado with the missionaries for a week on her return from the trip,
+and the book and chessmen would amuse them all by the way. She had heard
+Brownleigh say he loved to play chess.
+
+Margaret rode on the familiar trail, and for the first hour just let
+herself be glad that school was over and she could rest and have no
+responsibility. The sun shimmered down brilliantly on the white, hot
+sand and gray-green of the greasewood and sage-brush. Tall spikes of
+cactus like lonely spires shot up now and again to vary the scene. It
+was all familiar ground to Margaret around here, for she had taken many
+rides with Gardley and Bud, and for the first part of the way every turn
+and bit of view was fraught with pleasant memories that brought a smile
+to her eyes as she recalled some quotation of Gardley's or some prank of
+Bud's. Here was where they first sighted the little cottontail the day
+she took her initial ride on her own pony. Off there was the mountain
+where they saw the sun drawing silver water above a frowning storm.
+Yonder was the group of cedars where they had stopped to eat their lunch
+once, and this water-hole they were approaching was the one where
+Gardley had given her a drink from his hat.
+
+She was almost glad that Bud was not along, for she was too tired to
+talk and liked to be alone with her thoughts for this few minutes. Poor
+Bud! He would be disappointed when he got back to find her gone, but
+then he had expected she was going in a few days, anyway, and she had
+promised to take long rides with him when she returned. She had left a
+little note for him, asking him to read a certain book in her bookcase
+while she was gone, and be ready to discuss it with her when she got
+back, and Bud would be fascinated with it, she knew. Bud had been dear
+and faithful, and she would miss him, but just for this little while
+she was glad to have the great out-of-doors to herself.
+
+She was practically alone. The two sphinx-like figures riding ahead of
+her made no sign, but stolidly rode on hour after hour, nor turned their
+heads even to see if she were coming. She knew that Indians were this
+way; still, as the time went by she began to feel an uneasy sense of
+being alone in the universe with a couple of bronze statues. Even the
+papoose had erased itself in sleep, and when it awoke partook so fully
+of its racial peculiarities as to hold its little peace and make no
+fuss. Margaret began to feel the baby was hardly human, more like a
+little brown doll set up in a missionary meeting to teach white children
+what a papoose was like.
+
+By and by she got out her letters and read them over carefully, dreaming
+and smiling over them, and getting precious bits by heart. Gardley
+hinted that he might be able very soon to visit her parents, as it
+looked as though he might have to make a trip on business in their
+direction before he could go further with what he was doing in his old
+home. He gave no hint of soon returning to the West. He said he was
+awaiting the return of one man who might soon be coming from abroad.
+Margaret sighed and wondered how many weary months it would be before
+she would see him. Perhaps, after all, she ought to have gone home and
+stayed them out with her mother and father. If the school-board could be
+made to see that it would be better to have no summer session, perhaps
+she would even yet go when she returned from the Brownleighs'. She would
+see. She would decide nothing until she was rested.
+
+Suddenly she felt herself overwhelmingly weary, and wished that the
+Indians would stop and rest for a while; but when she stirred up her
+sleepy pony and spurred ahead to broach the matter to her guide he shook
+his solemn head and pointed to the sun:
+
+"No get Keams good time. No meet Aneshodi."
+
+"Aneshodi," she knew, was the Indians' name for the missionary, and she
+smiled her acquiescence. Of course they must meet the Brownleighs and
+not detain them. What was it Hazel had said about having to hurry? She
+searched her pocket for the letter, and then remembered she had left it
+with Mrs. Tanner. What a pity she had not brought it! Perhaps there was
+some caution or advice in it that she had not taken note of. But then
+the Indian likely knew all about it, and she could trust to him. She
+glanced at his stolid face and wished she could make him smile. She cast
+a sunny smile at him and said something pleasant about the beautiful
+day, but he only looked her through as if she were not there, and after
+one or two more attempts she fell back and tried to talk to the squaw;
+but the squaw only looked stolid, too, and shook her head. She did not
+seem friendly. Margaret drew back into her old position and feasted her
+eyes upon the distant hills.
+
+The road was growing unfamiliar now. They were crossing rough ridges
+with cliffs of red sandstone, and every step of the way was interesting.
+Yet Margaret felt more and more how much she wanted to lie down and
+sleep, and when at last in the dusk the Indians halted not far from a
+little pool of rainwater and indicated that here they would camp for
+the night, Margaret was too weary to question the decision. It had not
+occurred to her that she would be on the way overnight before she met
+her friends. Her knowledge of the way, and of distances, was but vague.
+It is doubtful if she would have ventured had she known that she must
+pass the night thus in the company of two strange savage creatures. Yet,
+now that she was here and it was inevitable, she would not shrink, but
+make the best of it. She tried to be friendly once more, and offered to
+look out for the baby while the squaw gathered wood and made a fire. The
+Indian was off looking after the horses, evidently expecting his wife to
+do all the work.
+
+Margaret watched a few minutes, while pretending to play with the baby,
+who was both sleepy and hungry, yet held his emotions as stolidly as if
+he were a grown person. Then she decided to take a hand in the supper.
+She was hungry and could not bear that those dusky, dirty hands should
+set forth her food, so she went to work cheerfully, giving directions as
+if the Indian woman understood her, though she very soon discovered that
+all her talk was as mere babbling to the other, and she might as well
+hold her peace. The woman set a kettle of water over the fire, and
+Margaret forestalled her next movement by cutting some pork and putting
+it to cook in a little skillet she found among the provisions. The woman
+watched her solemnly, not seeming to care; and so, silently, each went
+about her own preparations.
+
+The supper was a silent affair, and when it was over the squaw handed
+Margaret a blanket. Suddenly she understood that this, and this alone,
+was to be her bed for the night. The earth was there for a mattress,
+and the sage-brush lent a partial shelter, the canopy of stars was
+overhead.
+
+A kind of panic took possession of her. She stared at the squaw and
+found herself longing to cry out for help. It seemed as if she could not
+bear this awful silence of the mortals who were her only company. Yet
+her common sense came to her aid, and she realized that there was
+nothing for it but to make the best of things. So she took the blanket
+and, spreading it out, sat down upon it and wrapped it about her
+shoulders and feet. She would not lie down until she saw what the rest
+did. Somehow she shrank from asking the bronze man how to fold a blanket
+for a bed on the ground. She tried to remember what Gardley had told her
+about folding the blanket bed so as best to keep out snakes and ants.
+She shuddered at the thought of snakes. Would she dare call for help
+from those stolid companions of hers if a snake should attempt to molest
+her in the night? And would she ever dare to go to sleep?
+
+She remembered her first night in Arizona out among the stars, alone on
+the water-tank, and her first frenzy of loneliness. Was this as bad? No,
+for these Indians were trustworthy and well known by her dear friends.
+It might be unpleasant, but this, too, would pass and the morrow would
+soon be here.
+
+The dusk dropped down and the stars loomed out. All the world grew
+wonderful, like a blue jeweled dome of a palace with the lights turned
+low. The fire burned brightly as the man threw sticks upon it, and the
+two Indians moved stealthily about in the darkness, passing silhouetted
+before the fire this way and that, and then at last lying down wrapped
+in their blankets to sleep.
+
+It was very quiet about her. The air was so still she could hear the
+hobbled horses munching away in the distance, and moving now and then
+with the halting gait a hobble gives a horse. Off in the farther
+distance the blood-curdling howl of the coyotes rose, but Margaret was
+used to them, and knew they would not come near a fire.
+
+She was growing very weary, and at last wrapped her blanket closer and
+lay down, her head pillowed on one corner of it. Committing herself to
+her Heavenly Father, and breathing a prayer for father, mother, and
+lover, she fell asleep.
+
+It was still almost dark when she awoke. For a moment she thought it was
+still night and the sunset was not gone yet, the clouds were so rosy
+tinted.
+
+The squaw was standing by her, touching her shoulder roughly and
+grunting something. She perceived, as she rubbed her eyes and tried to
+summon back her senses, that she was expected to get up and eat
+breakfast. There was a smell of pork and coffee in the air, and there
+was scorched corn bread beside the fire on a pan.
+
+Margaret got up quickly and ran down to the water-hole to get some
+water, dashing it in her face and over her arms and hands, the squaw
+meanwhile standing at a little distance, watching her curiously, as if
+she thought this some kind of an oblation paid to the white woman's god
+before she ate. Margaret pulled the hair-pins out of her hair, letting
+it down and combing it with one of her side combs; twisted it up again
+in its soft, fluffy waves; straightened her collar, set on her hat, and
+was ready for the day. The squaw looked at her with both awe and
+contempt for a moment, then turned and stalked back to her papoose and
+began preparing it for the journey.
+
+Margaret made a hurried meal and was scarcely done before she found her
+guides were waiting like two pillars of the desert, but watching keenly,
+impatiently, her every mouthful, and anxious to be off.
+
+The sky was still pink-tinted with the semblance of a sunset, and
+Margaret felt, as she mounted her pony and followed her companions, as
+if the day was all turned upside down. She almost wondered whether she
+hadn't slept through a whole twenty-four hours, and it were not, after
+all, evening again, till by and by the sun rose clear and the wonder of
+the cloud-tinting melted into day.
+
+The road lay through sage-brush and old barren cedar-trees, with rabbits
+darting now and then between the rocks. Suddenly from the top of a
+little hill they came out to a spot where they could see far over the
+desert. Forty miles away three square, flat hills, or mesas, looked like
+a gigantic train of cars, and the clear air gave everything a strange
+vastness. Farther on beyond the mesas dimly dawned the Black Mountains.
+One could even see the shadowed head of "Round Rock," almost a hundred
+miles away. Before them and around was a great plain of sage-brush, and
+here and there was a small bush that the Indians call "the weed that was
+not scared." Margaret had learned all these things during her winter in
+Arizona, and keenly enjoyed the vast, splendid view spread before her.
+
+They passed several little mud-plastered hogans that Margaret knew for
+Indian dwellings. A fine band of ponies off in the distance made an
+interesting spot on the landscape, and twice they passed bands of sheep.
+She had a feeling of great isolation from everything she had ever known,
+and seemed going farther and farther from life and all she loved. Once
+she ventured to ask the Indian what time he expected to meet her
+friends, the missionaries, but he only shook his head and murmured
+something unintelligible about "Keams" and pointed to the sun. She
+dropped behind again, vaguely uneasy, she could not tell why. There
+seemed something so altogether sly and wary and unfriendly in the faces
+of the two that she almost wished she had not come. Yet the way was
+beautiful enough and nothing very unpleasant was happening to her. Once
+she dropped the envelope of her mother's letter and was about to
+dismount and recover it. Then some strange impulse made her leave it on
+the sand of the desert. What if they should be lost and that paper
+should guide them back? The notion stayed by her, and once in a while
+she dropped other bits of paper by the way.
+
+About noon the trail dropped off into a canon, with high, yellow-rock
+walls on either side, and stifling heat, so that she felt as if she
+could scarcely stand it. She was glad when they emerged once more and
+climbed to higher ground. The noon camp was a hasty affair, for the
+Indian seemed in a hurry. He scanned the horizon far and wide and
+seemed searching keenly for some one or something. Once they met a
+lonely Indian, and he held a muttered conversation with him, pointing
+off ahead and gesticulating angrily. But the words were unintelligible
+to Margaret. Her feeling of uneasiness was growing, and yet she could
+not for the life of her tell why, and laid it down to her tired nerves.
+She was beginning to think she had been very foolish to start on such a
+long trip before she had had a chance to get rested from her last days
+of school. She longed to lie down under a tree and sleep for days.
+
+Toward night they sighted a great blue mesa about fifty miles south, and
+at sunset they could just see the San Francisco peaks more than a
+hundred and twenty-five miles away. Margaret, as she stopped her horse
+and gazed, felt a choking in her heart and throat and a great desire to
+cry. The glory and awe of the mountains, mingled with her own weariness
+and nervous fear, were almost too much for her. She was glad to get down
+and eat a little supper and go to sleep again. As she fell asleep she
+comforted herself with repeating over a few precious words from her
+Bible:
+
+     "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him and
+     delivereth them. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is
+     stayed on Thee because he trusteth in Thee. I will both lay me down
+     in peace and sleep, for Thou Lord only makest me to dwell in
+     safety...."
+
+The voice of the coyotes, now far, now near, boomed out on the night;
+great stars shot dartling pathways across the heavens; the fire snapped
+and crackled, died down and flickered feebly; but Margaret slept, tired
+out, and dreamed the angels kept close vigil around her lowly couch.
+
+She did not know what time the stars disappeared and the rain began to
+fall. She was too tired to notice the drops that fell upon her face. Too
+tired to hear the coyotes coming nearer, nearer, yet in the morning
+there lay one dead, stretched not thirty feet from where she lay. The
+Indian had shot him through the heart.
+
+Somehow things looked very dismal that morning, in spite of the
+brightness of the sun after the rain. She was stiff and sore with lying
+in the dampness. Her hair was wet, her blanket was wet, and she woke
+without feeling rested. Almost the trip seemed more than she could bear.
+If she could have wished herself back that morning and have stayed at
+Tanners' all summer she certainly would have done it rather than to be
+where and how she was.
+
+The Indians seemed excited--the man grim and forbidding, the woman
+appealing, frightened, anxious. They were near to Keams Canon.
+"Aneshodi" would be somewhere about. The Indian hoped to be rid of his
+burden then and travel on his interrupted journey. He was growing
+impatient. He felt he had earned his money.
+
+But when they tried to go down Keam's Canon they found the road all
+washed away by flood, and must needs go a long way around. This made the
+Indian surly. His countenance was more forbidding than ever. Margaret,
+as she watched him with sinking heart, altered her ideas of the Indian
+as a whole to suit the situation. She had always felt pity for the poor
+Indian, whose land had been seized and whose kindred had been
+slaughtered. But this Indian was not an object of pity. He was the most
+disagreeable, cruel-looking Indian Margaret had ever laid eyes on. She
+had felt it innately the first time she saw him, but now, as the
+situation began to bring him out, she knew that she was dreadfully
+afraid of him. She had a feeling that he might scalp her if he got tired
+of her. She began to alter her opinion of Hazel Brownleigh's judgment as
+regarded Indians. She did not feel that she would ever send this Indian
+to any one for a guide and say he was perfectly trustworthy. He hadn't
+done anything very dreadful yet, but she felt he was going to.
+
+He had a number of angry confabs with his wife that morning. At least,
+he did the confabbing and the squaw protested. Margaret gathered after a
+while that it was something about herself. The furtive, frightened
+glances that the squaw cast in her direction sometimes, when the man was
+not looking, made her think so. She tried to say it was all imagination,
+and that her nerves were getting the upper hand of her, but in spite of
+her she shuddered sometimes, just as she had done when Rosa looked at
+her. She decided that she must be going to have a fit of sickness, and
+that just as soon as she got in the neighborhood of Mrs. Tanner's again
+she would pack her trunk and go home to her mother. If she was going to
+be sick she wanted her mother.
+
+About noon things came to a climax. They halted on the top of the mesa,
+and the Indians had another altercation, which ended in the man
+descending the trail a fearfully steep way, down four hundred feet to
+the trading-post in the canon. Margaret looked down and gasped and
+thanked a kind Providence that had not made it necessary for her to make
+that descent; but the squaw stood at the top with her baby and looked
+down in silent sorrow--agony perhaps would be a better name. Her face
+was terrible to look upon.
+
+Margaret could not understand it, and she went to the woman and put her
+hand out sympathetically, asking, gently: "What is the matter, you poor
+little thing? Oh, what is it?"
+
+Perhaps the woman understood the tenderness in the tone, for she
+suddenly turned and rested her forehead against Margaret's shoulder,
+giving one great, gasping sob, then lifted her dry, miserable eyes to
+the girl's face as if to thank her for her kindness.
+
+Margaret's heart was touched. She threw her arms around the poor woman
+and drew her, papoose and all, comfortingly toward her, patting her
+shoulder and saying gentle, soothing words as she would to a little
+child. And by and by the woman lifted her head again, the tears coursing
+down her face, and tried to explain, muttering her queer gutturals and
+making eloquent gestures until Margaret felt she understood. She
+gathered that the man had gone down to the trading-post to find the
+"Aneshodi," and that the squaw feared that he would somehow procure
+firewater either from the trader or from some Indian he might meet, and
+would come back angrier than he had gone, and without his money.
+
+If Margaret also suspected that the Indian had desired to get rid of her
+by leaving her at that desolate little trading-station down in the canon
+until such time as her friends should call for her, she resolutely put
+the thought out of her mind and set herself to cheer the poor Indian
+woman.
+
+She took a bright, soft, rosy silk tie from her own neck and knotted it
+about the astonished woman's dusky throat, and then she put a silver
+dollar in her hand, and was thrilled with wonder to see what a change
+came over the poor, dark face. It reminded her of Mom Wallis when she
+got on her new bonnet, and once again she felt the thrill of knowing the
+whole world kin.
+
+The squaw cheered up after a little, got sticks and made a fire, and
+together they had quite a pleasant meal. Margaret exerted herself to
+make the poor woman laugh, and finally succeeded by dangling a
+bright-red knight from her chessmen in front of the delighted baby's
+eyes till he gurgled out a real baby crow of joy.
+
+It was the middle of the afternoon before the Indian returned, sitting
+crazily his struggling beast as he climbed the trail once more.
+Margaret, watching, caught her breath and prayed. Was this the
+trustworthy man, this drunken, reeling creature, clubbing his horse and
+pouring forth a torrent of indistinguishable gutturals? It was evident
+that his wife's worst fears were verified. He had found the firewater.
+
+The frightened squaw set to work putting things together as fast as she
+could. She well knew what to expect, and when the man reached the top of
+the mesa he found his party packed and mounted, waiting fearsomely to
+take the trail.
+
+Silently, timorously, they rode behind him, west across the great wide
+plain.
+
+In the distance gradually there appeared dim mesas like great fingers
+stretching out against the sky; miles away they seemed, and nothing
+intervening but a stretch of varying color where sage-brush melted into
+sand, and sage-brush and greasewood grew again, with tall cactus
+startling here and there like bayonets at rest but bristling with
+menace.
+
+The Indian had grown silent and sullen. His eyes were like deep fires of
+burning volcanoes. One shrank from looking at them. His massive, cruel
+profile stood out like bronze against the evening sky. It was growing
+night again, and still they had not come to anywhere or anything, and
+still her friends seemed just as far away.
+
+Since they had left the top of Keams Canon Margaret had been sure all
+was not right. Aside from the fact that the guide was drunk at present,
+she was convinced that there had been something wrong with him all
+along. He did not act like the Indians around Ashland. He did not act
+like a trusted guide that her friends would send for her. She wished
+once more that she had kept Hazel Brownleigh's letter. She wondered how
+her friends would find her if they came after her. It was then she began
+in earnest to systematically plan to leave a trail behind her all the
+rest of the way. If she had only done it thoroughly when she first began
+to be uneasy. But now she was so far away, so many miles from anywhere!
+Oh, if she had not come at all!
+
+And first she dropped her handkerchief, because she happened to have it
+in her hand--a dainty thing with lace on the edge and her name written
+in tiny script by her mother's careful hand on the narrow hem. And then
+after a little, as soon as she could scrawl it without being noticed,
+she wrote a note which she twisted around the neck of a red chessman,
+and left behind her. After that scraps of paper, as she could reach them
+out of the bag tied on behind her saddle; then a stocking, a bedroom
+slipper, more chessmen, and so, when they halted at dusk and prepared to
+strike camp, she had quite a good little trail blazed behind her over
+that wide, empty plain. She shuddered as she looked into the gathering
+darkness ahead, where those long, dark lines of mesas looked like
+barriers in the way. Then, suddenly, the Indian pointed ahead to the
+first mesa and uttered one word--"Walpi!" So that was the Indian village
+to which she was bound? What was before her on the morrow? After eating
+a pretense of supper she lay down. The Indian had more firewater with
+him. He drank, he uttered cruel gutturals at his squaw, and even kicked
+the feet of the sleeping papoose as he passed by till it awoke and cried
+sharply, which made him more angry, so he struck the squaw.
+
+It seemed hours before all was quiet. Margaret's nerves were strained to
+such a pitch she scarcely dared to breathe, but at last, when the fire
+had almost died down, the man lay quiet, and she could relax and close
+her eyes.
+
+Not to sleep. She must not go to sleep. The fire was almost gone and the
+coyotes would be around. She must wake and watch!
+
+That was the last thought she remembered--that and a prayer that the
+angels would keep watch once again.
+
+When she awoke it was broad daylight and far into the morning, for the
+sun was high overhead and the mesas in the distance were clear and
+distinct against the sky.
+
+She sat up and looked about her, bewildered, not knowing at first where
+she was. It was so still and wide and lonely.
+
+She turned to find the Indians, but there was no trace of them anywhere.
+The fire lay smoldering in its place, a thin trickle of smoke curling
+away from a dying stick, but that was all. A tin cup half full of coffee
+was beside the stick, and a piece of blackened corn bread. She turned
+frightened eyes to east, to west, to north, to south, but there was no
+one in sight, and out over the distant mesa there poised a great eagle
+alone in the vast sky keeping watch over the brilliant, silent waste.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+
+When Margaret was a very little girl her father and mother had left her
+alone for an hour with a stranger while they went out to make a call in
+a strange city through which they were passing on a summer trip. The
+stranger was kind, and gave to the child a large green box of bits of
+old black lace and purple ribbons to play with, but she turned
+sorrowfully from the somber array of finery, which was the only thing in
+the way of a plaything the woman had at hand, and stood looking drearily
+out of the window on the strange, new town, a feeling of utter
+loneliness upon her. Her little heart was almost choked with the
+awfulness of the thought that she was a human atom drifted apart from
+every other atom she had ever known, that she had a personality and a
+responsibility of her own, and that she must face this thought of
+herself and her aloneness for evermore. It was the child's first
+realization that she was a separate being apart from her father and
+mother, and she was almost consumed with the terror of it.
+
+As she rose now from her bed on the ground and looked out across that
+vast waste, in which the only other living creature was that sinister,
+watching eagle, the same feeling returned to her and made her tremble
+like the little child who had turned from her box of ancient finery to
+realize her own little self and its terrible aloneness.
+
+For an instant even her realization of God, which had from early
+childhood been present with her, seemed to have departed. She could not
+grasp anything save the vast empty silence that loomed about her so
+awfully. She was alone, and about as far from anywhere or anything as
+she could possibly be in the State of Arizona. Would she ever get back
+to human habitations? Would her friends ever be able to find her?
+
+Then her heart flew back to its habitual refuge, and she spoke aloud and
+said, "God is here!" and the thought seemed to comfort her. She looked
+about once more on the bright waste, and now it did not seem so dreary.
+
+"God is here!" she repeated, and tried to realize that this was a part
+of His habitation. She could not be lost where God was. He knew the way
+out. She had only to trust. So she dropped upon her knees in the sand
+and prayed for trust and courage.
+
+When she rose again she walked steadily to a height a little above the
+camp-fire, and, shading her eyes, looked carefully in every direction.
+No, there was not a sign of her recent companions. They must have stolen
+away in the night quite soon after she fell asleep, and have gone fast
+and far, so that they were now beyond the reach of her eyes, and not
+anywhere was there sign of living thing, save that eagle still sweeping
+in great curves and poising again above the distant mesa.
+
+Where was her horse? Had the Indians taken that, too? She searched the
+valley, but saw no horse at first. With sinking heart she went back to
+where her things were and sat down by the dying fire to think, putting a
+few loose twigs and sticks together to keep the embers bright while she
+could. She reflected that she had no matches, and this was probably the
+last fire she would have until somebody came to her rescue or she got
+somewhere by herself. What was she to do? Stay right where she was or
+start out on foot? And should she go backward or forward? Surely, surely
+the Brownleighs would miss her pretty soon and send out a search-party
+for her. How could it be that they trusted an Indian who had done such a
+cruel thing as to leave a woman unprotected in the desert? And yet,
+perhaps, they did not know his temptation to drink. Perhaps they had
+thought he could not get any firewater. Perhaps he would return when he
+came to himself and realized what he had done.
+
+And now she noticed what she had not seen at first--a small bottle of
+water on a stone beside the blackened bread. Realizing that she was very
+hungry and that this was the only food at hand, she sat down beside the
+fire to eat the dry bread and drink the miserable coffee. She must have
+strength to do whatever was before her. She tried not to think how her
+mother would feel if she never came back, how anxious they would be as
+they waited day by day for her letters that did not come. She reflected
+with a sinking heart that she had, just before leaving, written a hasty
+note to her mother telling her not to expect anything for several days,
+perhaps even as much as two weeks, as she was going out of civilization
+for a little while. How had she unwittingly sealed her fate by that! For
+now not even by way of her alarmed home could help come to her.
+
+She put the last bit of hard corn bread in her pocket for a further time
+of need, and began to look about her again. Then she spied with delight
+a moving object far below her in the valley, and decided it was a horse,
+perhaps her own. He was a mile away, at least, but he was there, and she
+cried out with sudden joy and relief.
+
+She went over to her blanket and bags, which had been beside her during
+the night, and stood a moment trying to think what to do. Should she
+carry the things to the horse or risk leaving them here while she went
+after the horse and brought him to the things? No, that would not be
+safe. Some one might come along and take them, or she might not be able
+to find her way back again in this strange, wild waste. Besides, she
+might not get the horse, after all, and would lose everything. She must
+carry her things to the horse. She stooped to gather them up, and
+something bright beside her bag attracted her. It was the sun shining on
+the silver dollar she had given to the Indian woman. A sudden rush of
+tears came to her eyes. The poor creature had tried to make all the
+reparation she could for thus hastily leaving the white woman in the
+desert. She had given back the money--all she had that was valuable!
+Beside the dollar rippled a little chain of beads curiously wrought, an
+inanimate appeal for forgiveness and a grateful return for the kindness
+shown her. Margaret smiled as she stooped again to pick up her things.
+There had been a heart, after all, behind that stolid countenance, and
+some sense of righteousness and justice. Margaret decided that Indians
+were not all treacherous. Poor woman! What a life was hers--to follow
+her grim lord whither he would lead, even as her white sister must
+sometimes, sorrowing, rebelling, crying out, but following! She wondered
+if into the heart of this dark sister there ever crept any of the
+rebellion which led some of her white sisters to cry aloud for "rights"
+and "emancipation."
+
+But it was all a passing thought to be remembered and turned over at a
+more propitious time. Margaret's whole thoughts now were bent on her
+present predicament.
+
+The packing was short work. She stuffed everything into the two bags
+that were usually hung across the horse, and settled them carefully
+across her shoulders. Then she rolled the blanket, took it in her arms,
+and started. It was a heavy burden to carry, but she could not make up
+her mind to part with any of her things until she had at least made an
+effort to save them. If she should be left alone in the desert for the
+night the blanket was indispensable, and her clothes would at least do
+to drop as a trail by which her friends might find her. She must carry
+them as far as possible. So she started.
+
+It was already high day, and the sun was intolerably hot. Her heavy
+burden was not only cumbersome, but very warm, and she felt her strength
+going from her as she went; but her nerve was up and her courage was
+strong. Moreover, she prayed as she walked, and she felt now the
+presence of her Guide and was not afraid. As she walked she faced a
+number of possibilities in the immediate future which were startling,
+and to say the least, undesirable. There were wild animals in this land,
+not so much in the daylight, but what of the night? She had heard that a
+woman was always safe in that wild Western land; but what of the
+prowling Indians? What of a possible exception to the Western rule of
+chivalry toward a decent woman? One small piece of corn bread and less
+than a pint of water were small provision on which to withstand a siege.
+How far was it to anywhere?
+
+It was then she remembered for the first time that one word--"Walpi!"
+uttered by the Indian as he came to a halt the night before and pointed
+far to the mesa--"Walpi." She lifted her eyes now and scanned the dark
+mesa. It loomed like a great battlement of rock against the sky. Could
+it be possible there were people dwelling there? She had heard, of
+course, about the curious Hopi villages, each village a gigantic house
+of many rooms, called pueblos, built upon the lofty crags, sometimes
+five or six hundred feet above the desert.
+
+Could it be that that great castle-looking outline against the sky
+before her, standing out on the end of the mesa like a promontory above
+the sea, was Walpi? And if it was, how was she to get up there? The rock
+rose sheer and steep from the desert floor. The narrow neck of land
+behind it looked like a slender thread. Her heart sank at thought of
+trying to storm and enter, single-handed, such an impregnable fortress.
+And yet, if her friends were there, perhaps they would see her when she
+drew near and come to show her the way. Strange that they should have
+gone on and left her with those treacherous Indians! Strange that they
+should have trusted them so, in the first place! Her own instincts had
+been against trusting the man from the beginning. It must be confessed
+that during her reflections at this point her opinion of the wisdom and
+judgment of the Brownleighs was lowered several notches. Then she began
+to berate herself for having so easily been satisfied about her escort.
+She should have read the letter more carefully. She should have asked
+the Indians more questions. She should, perhaps, have asked Jasper
+Kemp's advice, or got him to talk to the Indian. She wished with all her
+heart for Bud, now. If Bud were along he would be saying some comical
+boy-thing, and be finding a way out of the difficulty. Dear, faithful
+Bud!
+
+The sun rose higher and the morning grew hotter. As she descended to the
+valley her burdens grew intolerable, and several times she almost cast
+them aside. Once she lost sight of her pony among the sage-brush, and it
+was two hours before she came to him and was able to capture him and
+strap on her burdens. She was almost too exhausted to climb into the
+saddle when all was ready; but she managed to mount at last and started
+out toward the rugged crag ahead of her.
+
+The pony had a long, hot climb out of the valley to a hill where she
+could see very far again, but still that vast emptiness reigned. Even
+the eagle had disappeared, and she fancied he must be resting like a
+great emblem of freedom on one of the points of the castle-like
+battlement against the sky. It seemed as if the end of the world had
+come, and she was the only one left in the universe, forgotten, riding
+on her weary horse across an endless desert in search of a home she
+would never see again.
+
+Below the hill there stretched a wide, white strip of sand, perhaps two
+miles in extent, but shimmering in the sun and seeming to recede ahead
+of her as she advanced. Beyond was soft greenness--something
+growing--not near enough to be discerned as cornfields. The girl drooped
+her tired head upon her horse's mane and wept, her courage going from
+her with her tears. In all that wide universe there seemed no way to go,
+and she was so very tired, hungry, hot, and discouraged! There was
+always that bit of bread in her pocket and that muddy-looking, warm
+water for a last resort; but she must save them as long as possible, for
+there was no telling how long it would be before she had more.
+
+There was no trail now to follow. She had started from the spot where
+she had found the horse, and her inexperienced eyes could not have
+searched out a trail if she had tried. She was going toward that distant
+castle on the crag as to a goal, but when she reached it, if she ever
+did, would she find anything there but crags and lonesomeness and the
+eagle?
+
+Drying her tears at last, she started the horse on down the hill, and
+perhaps her tears blinded her, or because she was dizzy with hunger and
+the long stretch of anxiety and fatigue she was not looking closely.
+There was a steep place, a sharp falling away of the ground unexpectedly
+as they emerged from a thicket of sage-brush, and the horse plunged
+several feet down, striking sharply on some loose rocks, and slipping to
+his knees; snorting, scrambling, making brave effort, but slipping, half
+rolling, at last he was brought down with his frightened rider, and lay
+upon his side with her foot under him and a sensation like a red-hot
+knife running through her ankle.
+
+Margaret caught her breath in quick gasps as they fell, lifting a prayer
+in her heart for help. Then came the crash and the sharp pain, and with
+a quick conviction that all was over she dropped back unconscious on the
+sand, a blessed oblivion of darkness rushing over her.
+
+When she came to herself once more the hot sun was pouring down upon her
+unprotected face, and she was conscious of intense pain and suffering in
+every part of her body. She opened her eyes wildly and looked around.
+There was sage-brush up above, waving over the crag down which they had
+fallen, its gray-greenness shimmering hotly in the sun; the sky was
+mercilessly blue without a cloud. The great beast, heavy and quivering,
+lay solidly against her, half pinning her to earth, and the helplessness
+of her position was like an awful nightmare from which she felt she
+might waken if she could only cry out. But when at last she raised her
+voice its empty echo frightened her, and there, above her, with
+wide-spread wings, circling for an instant, then poised in motionless
+survey of her, with cruel eyes upon her, loomed that eagle--so large, so
+fearful, so suggestive in its curious stare, the monarch of the desert
+come to see who had invaded his precincts and fallen into one of his
+snares.
+
+With sudden frenzy burning in her veins Margaret struggled and tried to
+get free, but she could only move the slightest bit each time, and every
+motion was an agony to the hurt ankle.
+
+It seemed hours before she writhed herself free from that great,
+motionless horse, whose labored breath only showed that he was still
+alive. Something terrible must have happened to the horse or he would
+have tried to rise, for she had coaxed, patted, cajoled, tried in every
+way to rouse him. When at last she crawled free from the hot, horrible
+body and crept with pained progress around in front of him, she saw that
+both his forelegs lay limp and helpless. He must have broken them in
+falling. Poor fellow! He, too, was suffering and she had nothing to give
+him! There was nothing she could do for him!
+
+Then she thought of the bottle of water, but, searching for it, found
+that her good intention of dividing it with him was useless, for the
+bottle was broken and the water already soaked into the sand. Only a
+damp spot on the saddle-bag showed where it had departed.
+
+Then indeed did Margaret sink down in the sand in despair and begin to
+pray as she had never prayed before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+
+The morning after Margaret's departure Rosa awoke with no feelings of
+self-reproach, but rather a great exultation at the way in which she had
+been able to get rid of her rival.
+
+She lay for a few minutes thinking of Forsythe, and trying to decide
+what she would wear when she went forth to meet him, for she wanted to
+charm him as she had never charmed any one before.
+
+She spent some time arraying herself in different costumes, but at last
+decided on her Commencement gown of fine white organdie,
+hand-embroidered and frilled with filmy lace, the product of a famous
+house of gowns in the Eastern city where she had attended school for a
+while and acquired expensive tastes.
+
+Daintily slippered, beribboned with coral-silk girdle, and with a rose
+from the vine over her window in her hair, she sallied forth at last to
+the trysting-place.
+
+Forsythe was a whole hour late, as became a languid gentleman who had
+traveled the day before and idled at his sister's house over a late
+breakfast until nearly noon. Already his fluttering fancy was apathetic
+about Rosa, and he wondered, as he rode along, what had become of the
+interesting young teacher who had charmed him for more than a passing
+moment. Would he dare to call upon her, now that Gardley was out of the
+way? Was she still in Ashland or had she gone home for vacation? He must
+ask Rosa about her.
+
+Then he came in sight of Rosa sitting picturesquely in the shade of an
+old cedar, reading poetry, a little lady in the wilderness, and he
+forgot everything else in his delight over the change in her. For Rosa
+had changed. There was no mistake about it. She had bloomed out into
+maturity in those few short months of his absence. Her soft figure had
+rounded and developed, her bewitching curls were put up on her head,
+with only a stray tendril here and there to emphasize a dainty ear or
+call attention to a smooth, round neck; and when she raised her lovely
+head and lifted limpid eyes to his there was about her a demureness, a
+coolness and charm that he had fancied only ladies of the city could
+attain. Oh, Rosa knew her charms, and had practised many a day before
+her mirror till she had appraised the value of every curving eyelash,
+every hidden dimple, every cupid's curve of lip. Rosa had watched well
+and learned from all with whom she had come in contact. No woman's guile
+was left untried by her.
+
+And Rosa was very sweet and charming. She knew just when to lift up
+innocent eyes of wonder; when to not understand suggestions; when to
+exclaim softly with delight or shrink with shyness that nevertheless did
+not repulse.
+
+Forsythe studied her with wonder and delight. No maiden of the city had
+ever charmed him more, and withal she seemed so innocent and young, so
+altogether pliable in his hands. His pulses beat high, his heart was
+inflamed, and passion came and sat within his handsome eyes.
+
+It was easy to persuade her, after her first seemingly shy reserve was
+overcome, and before an hour was passed she had promised to go away with
+him. He had very little money, but what of that? When he spoke of that
+feature Rosa declared she could easily get some. Her father gave her
+free access to his safe, and kept her plentifully supplied for the
+household use. It was nothing to her--a passing incident. What should it
+matter whose money took them on their way?
+
+When she went demurely back to the ranch a little before sunset she
+thought she was very happy, poor little silly sinner! She met her father
+with her most alluring but most furtive smile. She was charming at
+supper, and blushed as her mother used to do when he praised her new
+gown and told her how well she looked in it. But she professed to be
+weary yet from the last days of school--to have a headache--and so she
+went early to her room and asked that the servants keep the house quiet
+in the morning, that she might sleep late and get really rested. Her
+father kissed her tenderly and thought what a dear child she was and
+what a comfort to his ripening years; and the house settled down into
+quiet.
+
+Rosa packed a bag with some of her most elaborate garments, arrayed
+herself in a charming little outfit of silk for the journey, dropped her
+baggage out of the window; and when the moon rose and the household were
+quietly sleeping she paid a visit to her father's safe, and then stole
+forth, taking her shadowy way to the trail by a winding route known well
+to herself and secure from the watch of vigilant servants who were ever
+on the lookout for cattle thieves.
+
+Thus she left her father's house and went forth to put her trust in a
+man whose promises were as ropes of sand and whose fancy was like a wave
+of the sea, tossed to and fro by every breath that blew. Long ere the
+sun rose the next morning the guarded, beloved child was as far from her
+safe home and her father's sheltering love as if alone she had started
+for the mouth of the bottomless pit. Two days later, while Margaret lay
+unconscious beneath the sage-brush, with a hovering eagle for watch,
+Rosa in the streets of a great city suddenly realized that she was more
+alone in the universe than ever she could have been in a wide desert,
+and her plight was far worse than the girl's with whose fate she had so
+lightly played.
+
+Quite early on the morning after Rosa left, while the household was
+still keeping quiet for the supposed sleeper, Gardley rode into the
+inclosure about the house and asked for Rogers.
+
+Gardley had been traveling night and day to get back. Matters had
+suddenly arranged themselves so that he could finish up his business at
+his old home and go on to see Margaret's father and mother, and he had
+made his visit there and hurried back to Arizona, hoping to reach
+Ashland in time for Commencement. A delay on account of a washout on the
+road had brought him back two days late for Commencement. He had ridden
+to camp from a junction forty miles away to get there the sooner, and
+this morning had ridden straight to the Tanners' to surprise Margaret.
+It was, therefore, a deep disappointment to find her gone and only Mrs.
+Tanner's voluble explanations for comfort. Mrs. Tanner exhausted her
+vocabulary in trying to describe the "Injuns," her own feeling of
+protest against them, and Mrs. Brownleigh's foolishness in making so
+much of them; and then she bustled in to the old pine desk in the
+dining-room and produced the letter that had started Margaret off as
+soon as commencement was over.
+
+Gardley took the letter eagerly, as though it were something to connect
+him with Margaret, and read it through carefully to make sure just how
+matters stood. He had looked troubled when Mrs. Tanner told how tired
+Margaret was, and how worried she seemed about her school and glad to
+get away from it all; and he agreed that the trip was probably a good
+thing.
+
+"I wish Bud could have gone along, though," he said, thoughtfully, as he
+turned away from the door. "I don't like her to go with just Indians,
+though I suppose it is all right. You say he had his wife and child
+along? Of course Mrs. Brownleigh wouldn't send anybody that wasn't
+perfectly all right. Well, I suppose the trip will be a rest for her.
+I'm sorry I didn't get home a few days sooner. I might have looked out
+for her myself."
+
+He rode away from the Tanners', promising to return later with a gift he
+had brought for Bud that he wanted to present himself, and Mrs. Tanner
+bustled back to her work again.
+
+"Well, I'm glad he's got home, anyway," she remarked, aloud, to herself
+as she hung her dish-cloth tidily over the upturned dish-pan and took up
+her broom. "I 'ain't felt noways easy 'bout her sence she left, though I
+do suppose there ain't any sense to it. But I'm _glad he's back_!"
+
+Meantime Gardley was riding toward Rogers's ranch, meditating whether he
+should venture to follow the expedition and enjoy at least the return
+trip with Margaret, or whether he ought to remain patiently until she
+came back and go to work at once. There was nothing really important
+demanding his attention immediately, for Rogers had arranged to keep the
+present overseer of affairs until he was ready to undertake the work. He
+was on his way now to report on a small business matter which he had
+been attending to in New York for Rogers. When that was over he would be
+free to do as he pleased for a few days more if he liked, and the
+temptation was great to go at once to Margaret.
+
+As he stood waiting beside his horse in front of the house while the
+servant went to call Rogers, he looked about with delight on the beauty
+of the day. How glad he was to be back in Arizona again! Was it the
+charm of the place or because Margaret was there, he wondered, that he
+felt so happy? By all means he must follow her. Why should he not?
+
+He looked at the clambering rose-vine that covered one end of the house,
+and noticed how it crept close to the window casement and caressed the
+white curtain as it blew. Margaret must have such a vine at her window
+in the house he would build for her. It might be but a modest house that
+he could give her now, but it should have a rose-vine just like that;
+and he would train it round her window where she could smell the
+fragrance from it every morning when she awoke, and where it would
+breathe upon her as she slept.
+
+Margaret! How impatient he was to see her again! To look upon her dear
+face and know that she was his! That her father and mother had been
+satisfied about him and sent their blessing, and he might tell her so.
+It was wonderful! His heart thrilled with the thought of it. Of course
+he would go to her at once. He would start as soon as Rogers was through
+with him. He would go to Ganado. No, Keams. Which was it? He drew the
+letter out of his pocket and read it again, then replaced it.
+
+The fluttering curtain up at the window blew out and in, and when it
+blew out again it brought with it a flurry of papers like white leaves.
+The curtain had knocked over a paper-weight or vase or something that
+held them and set the papers free. The breeze caught them and flung them
+about erratically, tossing one almost at his feet. He stooped to pick it
+up, thinking it might be of value to some one, and caught the name
+"Margaret" and "Dear Margaret" written several times on the sheet, with
+"Walpi, Walpi, Walpi," filling the lower half of the page, as if some
+one had been practising it.
+
+And because these two words were just now keenly in his mind he reached
+for the second paper just a foot or two away and found more sentences
+and words. A third paper contained an exact reproduction of the letter
+which Mrs. Tanner had given him purporting to come from Mrs. Brownleigh
+to Margaret. What could it possibly mean?
+
+In great astonishment he pulled out the other letter and compared them.
+They were almost identical save for a word here and there crossed out
+and rewritten. He stood looking mutely at the papers and then up at the
+window, as though an explanation might somehow be wafted down to him,
+not knowing what to think, his mind filled with vague alarm.
+
+Just at that moment the servant appeared.
+
+"Mr. Rogers says would you mind coming down to the corral. Miss Rosa has
+a headache, and we're keeping the house still for her to sleep. That's
+her window up there--" And he indicated the rose-bowered window with the
+fluttering curtain.
+
+Dazed and half suspicious of something, Gardley folded the two letters
+together and crushed them into his pocket, wondering what he ought to do
+about it. The thought of it troubled him so that he only half gave
+attention to the business in hand; but he gave his report and handed
+over certain documents. He was thinking that perhaps he ought to see
+Miss Rosa and find out what she knew of Margaret's going and ask how she
+came in possession of this other letter.
+
+"Now," said Rogers, as the matter was concluded, "I owe you some money.
+If you'll just step up to the house with me I'll give it to you. I'd
+like to settle matters up at once."
+
+"Oh, let it go till I come again," said Gardley, impatient to be off. He
+wanted to get by himself and think out a solution of the two letters. He
+was more than uneasy about Margaret without being able to give any
+suitable explanation of why he should be. His main desire now was to
+ride to Ganado and find out if the missionaries had left home, which way
+they had gone, and whether they had met Margaret as planned.
+
+"No, step right up to the house with me," insisted Rogers. "It won't
+take long, and I have the money in my safe."
+
+Gardley saw that the quickest way was to please Rogers, and he did not
+wish to arouse any questions, because he supposed, of course, his alarm
+was mere foolishness. So they went together into Rogers's private
+office, where his desk and safe were the principal furniture, and where
+no servants ventured to come without orders.
+
+Rogers shoved a chair for Gardley and went over to his safe, turning the
+little nickel knob this way and that with the skill of one long
+accustomed, and in a moment the thick door swung open and Rogers drew
+out a japanned cash-box and unlocked it. But when he threw the cover
+back he uttered an exclamation of angry surprise. The box was empty!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+
+Mr. Rogers strode to the door, forgetful of his sleeping daughter
+overhead, and thundered out his call for James. The servant appeared at
+once, but he knew nothing about the safe, and had not been in the office
+that morning. Other servants were summoned and put through a rigid
+examination. Then Rogers turned to the woman who had answered the door
+for Gardley and sent her up to call Rosa.
+
+But the woman returned presently with word that Miss Rosa was not in her
+room, and there was no sign that her bed had been slept in during the
+night. The woman's face was sullen. She did not like Rosa, but was
+afraid of her. This to her was only another of Miss Rosa's pranks, and
+very likely her doting father would manage to blame the servants with
+the affair.
+
+Mr. Rogers's face grew stern. His eyes flashed angrily as he turned and
+strode up the stairs to his daughter's room, but when he came down again
+he was holding a note in his trembling hand and his face was ashen
+white.
+
+"Read that, Gardley," he said, thrusting the note into Gardley's hands
+and motioning at the same time for the servants to go away.
+
+Gardley took the note, yet even as he read he noticed that the paper
+was the same as those he carried in his pocket. There was a peculiar
+watermark that made it noticeable.
+
+The note was a flippant little affair from Rosa, telling her father she
+had gone away to be married and that she would let him know where she
+was as soon as they were located. She added that he had forced her to
+this step by being so severe with her and not allowing her lover to come
+to see her. If he had been reasonable she would have stayed at home and
+let him give her a grand wedding; but as it was she had only this way of
+seeking her happiness. She added that she knew he would forgive her, and
+she hoped he would come to see that her way had been best, and Forsythe
+was all that he could desire as a son-in-law.
+
+Gardley uttered an exclamation of dismay as he read, and, looking up,
+found the miserable eyes of the stricken father upon him. For the moment
+his own alarm concerning Margaret and his perplexity about the letters
+was forgotten in the grief of the man who had been his friend.
+
+"When did she go?" asked Gardley, quickly looking up.
+
+"She took supper with me and then went to her room, complaining of a
+headache," said the father, his voice showing his utter hopelessness.
+"She may have gone early in the evening, perhaps, for we all turned in
+about nine o'clock to keep the house quiet on her account."
+
+"Have you any idea which way they went, east or west?" Gardley was the
+keen adviser in a crisis now, his every sense on the alert.
+
+The old man shook his head. "It is too late now," he said, still in that
+colorless voice. "They will have reached the railroad somewhere. They
+will have been married by this time. See, it is after ten o'clock!"
+
+"Yes, if he marries her," said Gardley, fiercely. He had no faith in
+Forsythe.
+
+"You think--you don't think he would _dare_!" The old man straightened
+up and fairly blazed in his righteous wrath.
+
+"I think he would dare anything if he thought he would not be caught. He
+is a coward, of course."
+
+"What can we do?"
+
+"Telegraph to detectives at all points where they would be likely to
+arrive and have them shadowed. Come, we will ride to the station at
+once; but, first, could I go up in her room and look around? There might
+be some clue."
+
+"Certainly," said Rogers, pointing hopelessly up the stairs; "the first
+door to the left. But you'll find nothing. I looked everywhere. She
+wouldn't have left a clue. While you're up there I'll interview the
+servants. Then we'll go."
+
+As he went up-stairs Gardley was wondering whether he ought to tell
+Rogers of the circumstance of the two letters. What possible connection
+could there be between Margaret Earle's trip to Walpi with the
+Brownleighs and Rosa Rogers's elopement? When you come to think of it,
+what possible explanation was there for a copy of Mrs. Brownleigh's
+letter to blow out of Rosa Rogers's bedroom window? How could it have
+got there?
+
+Rosa's room was in beautiful order, the roses nodding in at the window,
+the curtain blowing back and forth in the breeze and rippling open the
+leaves of a tiny Testament lying on her desk, as if it had been recently
+read. There was nothing to show that the owner of the room had taken a
+hasty flight. On the desk lay several sheets of note-paper with the
+peculiar watermark. These caught his attention, and he took them up and
+compared them with the papers in his pocket. It was a strange thing that
+that letter which had sent Margaret off into the wilderness with an
+unknown Indian should be written on the same kind of paper as this; and
+yet, perhaps, it was not so strange, after all. It probably was the only
+note-paper to be had in that region, and must all have been purchased at
+the same place.
+
+The rippling leaves of the Testament fluttered open at the fly-leaf and
+revealed Rosa's name and a date with Mrs. Brownleigh's name written
+below, and Gardley took it up, startled again to find Hazel Brownleigh
+mixed up with the Rogers. He had not known that they had anything to do
+with each other. And yet, of course, they would, being the missionaries
+of the region.
+
+The almost empty waste-basket next caught his eye, and here again were
+several sheets of paper written over with words and phrases, words which
+at once he recognized as part of the letter Mrs. Tanner had given him.
+He emptied the waste-basket out on the desk, thinking perhaps there
+might be something there that would give a clue to where the elopers had
+gone; but there was not much else in it except a little yellowed note
+with the signature "Hazel Brownleigh" at the bottom. He glanced through
+the brief note, gathered its purport, and then spread it out
+deliberately on the desk and compared the writing with the others, a
+wild fear clutching at his heart. Yet he could not in any way explain
+why he was so uneasy. What possible reason could Rosa Rogers have for
+forging a letter to Margaret from Hazel Brownleigh?
+
+Suddenly Rogers stood behind him looking over his shoulder. "What is it,
+Gardley? What have you found? Any clue?"
+
+"No clue," said Gardley, uneasily, "but something strange I cannot
+understand. I don't suppose it can possibly have anything to do with
+your daughter, and yet it seems almost uncanny. This morning I stopped
+at the Tanners' to let Miss Earle know I had returned, and was told she
+had gone yesterday with a couple of Indians as guide to meet the
+Brownleighs at Keams or somewhere near there, and take a trip with them
+to Walpi to see the Hopi Indians. Mrs. Tanner gave me this letter from
+Mrs. Brownleigh, which Miss Earle had left behind. But when I reached
+here and was waiting for you some papers blew out of your daughter's
+window. When I picked them up I was startled to find that one of them
+was an exact copy of the letter I had in my pocket. See! Here they are!
+I don't suppose there is anything to it, but in spite of me I am a
+trifle uneasy about Miss Earle. I just can't understand how that copy of
+the letter came to be here."
+
+Rogers was leaning over, looking at the papers. "What's this?" he asked,
+picking up the note that came with the Testament. He read each paper
+carefully, took in the little Testament with its fluttering fly-leaf
+and inscription, studied the pages of words and alphabet, then suddenly
+turned away and groaned, hiding his face in his hands.
+
+"What is it?" asked Gardley, awed with the awful sorrow in the strong
+man's attitude.
+
+"My poor baby!" groaned the father. "My poor little baby girl! I've
+always been afraid of that fatal gift of hers. Gardley, she could copy
+any handwriting in the world perfectly. She could write my name so it
+could not be told from my own signature. She's evidently written that
+letter. Why, I don't know, unless she wanted to get Miss Earle out of
+the way so it would be easier for her to carry out her plans."
+
+"It can't be!" said Gardley, shaking his head. "I can't see what her
+object would be. Besides, where would she find the Indians? Mrs. Tanner
+saw the Indians. They came to the school after her with the letter, and
+waited for her. Mrs. Tanner saw them ride off together."
+
+"There were a couple of strange Indians here yesterday, begging
+something to eat," said Rogers, settling down on a chair and resting his
+head against the desk as if he had suddenly lost the strength to stand.
+
+"This won't do!" said Gardley. "We've got to get down to the
+telegraph-office, you and I. Now try to brace up. Are the horses ready?
+Then we'll go right away."
+
+"You better question the servants about those Indians first," said
+Rogers; and Gardley, as he hurried down the stairs, heard groan after
+groan from Rosa's room, where her father lingered in agony.
+
+Gardley got all the information he could about the Indians, and then the
+two men started away on a gallop to the station. As they passed the
+Tanner house Gardley drew rein to call to Bud, who hurried out joyfully
+to greet his friend, his face lighting with pleasure.
+
+"Bill, get on your horse in double-quick time and beat it out to camp
+for me, will you?" said Gardley, as he reached down and gripped Bud's
+rough young paw. "Tell Jasper Kemp to come back with you and meet me at
+the station as quick as he can. Tell him to have the men where he can
+signal them. We may have to hustle out on a long hunt; and, Bill, keep
+your head steady and get back yourself right away. Perhaps I'll want you
+to help me. I'm a little anxious about Miss Earle, but you needn't tell
+anybody that but old Jasper. Tell him to hurry for all he's worth."
+
+Bud, with his eyes large with loyalty and trouble, nodded
+understandingly, returned the grip of the young man's hand with a clumsy
+squeeze, and sprang away to get his horse and do Gardley's bidding.
+Gardley knew he would ride as for his life, now that he knew Margaret's
+safety was at stake.
+
+Then Gardley rode on to the station and was indefatigable for two hours
+hunting out addresses, writing telegrams, and calling up long-distance
+telephones.
+
+When all had been done that was possible Rogers turned a haggard face to
+the young man. "I've been thinking, Gardley, that rash little girl of
+mine may have got Miss Earle into some kind of a dangerous position.
+You ought to look after her. What can we do?"
+
+"I'm going to, sir," said Gardley, "just as soon as I've done everything
+I can for you. I've already sent for Jasper Kemp, and we'll make a plan
+between us and find out if Miss Earle is all right. Can you spare Jasper
+or will you need him?"
+
+"By all means! Take all the men you need. I sha'n't rest easy till I
+know Miss Earle is safe."
+
+He sank down on a truck that stood on the station platform, his
+shoulders slumping, his whole attitude as of one who was fatally
+stricken. It came over Gardley how suddenly old he looked, and haggard
+and gray! What a thing for the selfish child to have done to her father!
+Poor, silly child, whose fate with Forsythe would in all probability be
+anything but enviable!
+
+But there was no time for sorrowful reflections. Jasper Kemp, stern,
+alert, anxious, came riding furiously down the street, Bud keeping even
+pace with him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+
+While Gardley briefly told his tale to Jasper Kemp, and the Scotchman
+was hastily scanning the papers with his keen, bright eyes, Bud stood
+frowning and listening intently.
+
+"Gee!" he burst forth. "That girl's a mess! 'Course she did it! You
+oughta seen what all she didn't do the last six weeks of school. Miss
+Mar'get got so she shivered every time that girl came near her or looked
+at her. She sure had her goat! Some nights after school, when she
+thought she's all alone, she just cried, she did. Why, Rosa had every
+one of those guys in the back seat acting like the devil, and nobody
+knew what was the matter. She wrote things on the blackboard right in
+the questions, so's it looked like Miss Mar'get's writing; fierce
+things, sometimes; and Miss Mar'get didn't know who did it. And she was
+as jealous as a cat of Miss Mar'get. You all know what a case she had on
+that guy from over by the fort; and she didn't like to have him even
+look at Miss Mar'get. Well, she didn't forget how he went away that
+night of the play. I caught her looking at her like she would like to
+murder her. _Good night!_ Some look! The guy had a case on Miss Mar'get,
+all right, too, only she was onto him and wouldn't look at him nor let
+him spoon nor nothing. But Rosa saw it all, and she just hated Miss
+Mar'get. Then once Miss Mar'get stopped her from going out to meet that
+guy, too. Oh, she hated her, all right! And you can bet she wrote the
+letter! Sure she did! She wanted to get her away when that guy came
+back. He was back yesterday. I saw him over by the run on that trail
+that crosses the trail to the old cabin. He didn't see me. I got my eye
+on him first, and I chucked behind some sage-brush, but he was here, all
+right, and he didn't mean any good. I follahed him awhile till he
+stopped and fixed up a place to camp. I guess he must 'a' stayed out
+last night--"
+
+A heavy hand was suddenly laid from behind on Bud's shoulder, and Rogers
+stood over him, his dark eyes on fire, his lips trembling.
+
+"Boy, can you show me where that was?" he asked, and there was an
+intensity in his voice that showed Bud that something serious was the
+matter. Boylike he dropped his eyes indifferently before this great
+emotion.
+
+"Sure!"
+
+"Best take Long Bill with you, Mr. Rogers," advised Jasper Kemp, keenly
+alive to the whole situation. "I reckon we'll all have to work together.
+My men ain't far off," and he lifted his whistle to his lips and blew
+the signal blasts. "The Kid here 'll want to ride to Keams to see if the
+lady is all safe and has met her friends. I reckon mebbe I better go
+straight to Ganado and find out if them mission folks really got
+started, and put 'em wise to what's been going on. They'll mebbe know
+who them Injuns was. I have my suspicions they weren't any friendlies.
+I didn't like that Injun the minute I set eyes on him hanging round the
+school-house, but I wouldn't have stirred a step toward camp if I'd 'a'
+suspected he was come fur the lady. 'Spose you take Bud and Long Bill
+and go find that camping-place and see if you find any trail showing
+which way they took. If you do, you fire three shots, and the men 'll be
+with you. If you want the Kid, fire four shots. He can't be so fur away
+by that time that he can't hear. He's got to get provisioned 'fore he
+starts. Lead him out, Bud. We 'ain't got no time to lose."
+
+Bud gave one despairing look at Gardley and turned to obey.
+
+"That's all right, Bud," said Gardley, with an understanding glance.
+"You tell Mr. Rogers all you know and show him the place, and then when
+Long Bill comes you can take the cross-cut to the Long Trail and go with
+me. I'll just stop at the house as I go by and tell your mother I need
+you."
+
+Bud gave one radiant, grateful look and sprang upon his horse, and
+Rogers had hard work to keep up with him at first, till Bud got
+interested in giving him a detailed account of Forsythe's looks and
+acts.
+
+In less than an hour the relief expedition had started. Before night had
+fallen Jasper Kemp, riding hard, arrived at the mission, told his story,
+procured a fresh horse, and after a couple of hours, rest started with
+Brownleigh and his wife for Keams Canon.
+
+Gardley and Bud, riding for all they were worth, said little by the way.
+Now and then the boy stole glances at the man's face, and the dead
+weight of sorrow settled like lead, the heavier, upon his heart. Too
+well he knew the dangers of the desert. He could almost read Gardley's
+fears in the white, drawn look about his lips, the ashen circles under
+his eyes, the tense, strained pose of his whole figure. Gardley's mind
+was urging ahead of his steed, and his body could not relax. He was
+anxious to go a little faster, yet his judgment knew it would not do,
+for his horse would play out before he could get another. They ate their
+corn bread in the saddle, and only turned aside from the trail once to
+drink at a water-hole and fill their cans. They rode late into the
+night, with only the stars and their wits to guide them. When they
+stopped to rest they did not wait to make a fire, but hobbled the horses
+where they might feed, and, rolling quickly in their blankets, lay down
+upon the ground.
+
+Bud, with the fatigue of healthy youth, would have slept till morning in
+spite of his fears, but Gardley woke him in a couple of hours, made him
+drink some water and eat a bite of food, and they went on their way
+again. When morning broke they were almost to the entrance of Keams
+Canon and both looked haggard and worn. Bud seemed to have aged in the
+night, and Gardley looked at him almost tenderly.
+
+"Are you all in, kid?" he asked.
+
+"Naw!" answered Bud, promptly, with an assumed cheerfulness. "Feeling
+like a four-year-old. Get on to that sky? Guess we're going to have some
+day! Pretty as a red wagon!"
+
+Gardley smiled sadly. What would that day bring forth for the two who
+went in search of her they loved? His great anxiety was to get to Keams
+Canon and inquire. They would surely know at the trading-post whether
+the missionary and his party had gone that way.
+
+The road was still almost impassable from the flood; the two dauntless
+riders picked their way slowly down the trail to the post.
+
+But the trader could tell them nothing comforting. The missionary had
+not been that way in two months, and there had been no party and no lady
+there that week. A single strange Indian had come down the trail above
+the day before, stayed awhile, picked a quarrel with some men who were
+there, and then ridden back up the steep trail again. He might have had
+a party with him up on the mesa, waiting. He had said something about
+his squaw. The trader admitted that he might have been drunk, but he
+frowned as he spoke of him. He called him a "bad Indian." Something
+unpleasant had evidently happened.
+
+The trader gave them a good, hot dinner, of which they stood sorely in
+need, and because they realized that they must keep up their strength
+they took the time to eat it. Then, procuring fresh horses, they climbed
+the steep trail in the direction the trader said the Indian had taken.
+It was a slender clue, but it was all they had, and they must follow it.
+And now the travelers were very silent, as if they felt they were
+drawing near to some knowledge that would settle the question for them
+one way or the other. As they reached the top at last, where they could
+see out across the plain, each drew a long breath like a gasp and
+looked about, half fearing what he might see.
+
+Yes, there was the sign of a recent camp-fire, and a few tin cans and
+bits of refuse, nothing more. Gardley got down and searched carefully.
+Bud even crept about upon his hands and knees, but a single tiny blue
+bead like a grain of sand was all that rewarded his efforts. Some Indian
+had doubtless camped here. That was all the evidence. Standing thus in
+hopeless uncertainty what to do next, they suddenly heard voices.
+Something familiar once or twice made Gardley lift his whistle and blow
+a blast. Instantly a silvery answer came ringing from the mesa a mile or
+so away and woke the echoes in the canon. Jasper Kemp and his party had
+taken the longer way around instead of going down the canon, and were
+just arriving at the spot where Margaret and the squaw had waited two
+days before for their drunken guide. But Jasper Kemp's whistle rang out
+again, and he shot three times into the air, their signal to wait for
+some important news.
+
+Breathlessly and in silence the two waited till the coming of the rest
+of the party, and cast themselves down on the ground, feeling the sudden
+need of support. Now that there was a possibility of some news, they
+felt hardly able to bear it, and the waiting for it was intolerable, to
+such a point of anxious tension were they strained.
+
+But when the party from Ganado came in sight their faces wore no
+brightness of good news. Their greetings were quiet, sad, anxious, and
+Jasper Kemp held out to Gardley an envelope. It was the one from
+Margaret's mother's letter that she had dropped upon the trail.
+
+"We found it on the way from Ganado, just as we entered Steamboat
+Canon," explained Jasper.
+
+"And didn't you search for a trail off in any other direction?" asked
+Gardley, almost sharply. "They have not been here. At least only one
+Indian has been down to the trader's."
+
+"There was no other trail. We looked," said Jasper, sadly. "There was a
+camp-fire twice, and signs of a camp. We felt sure they had come this
+way."
+
+Gardley shook his head and a look of abject despair came over his face.
+"There is no sign here," he said. "They must have gone some other way.
+Perhaps the Indian has carried her off. Are the other men following?"
+
+"No, Rogers sent them in the other direction after his girl. They found
+the camp all right. Bud tell you? We made sure we had found our trail
+and would not need them."
+
+Gardley dropped his head and almost groaned.
+
+Meanwhile the missionary had been riding around in radiating circles
+from the dead camp-fire, searching every step of the way; and Bud,
+taking his cue from him, looked off toward the mesa a minute, then
+struck out in a straight line for it and rode off like mad. Suddenly
+there was heard a shout loud and long, and Bud came riding back, waving
+something small and white above his head.
+
+They gathered in a little knot, waiting for the boy, not speaking; and
+when he halted in their midst he fluttered down the handkerchief to
+Gardley.
+
+"It's hers, all right. Gotter name all written out on the edge!" he
+declared, radiantly.
+
+The sky grew brighter to them all now. Eagerly Gardley sprang into his
+saddle, no longer weary, but alert and eager for the trail.
+
+"You folks better go down to the trader's and get some dinner. You'll
+need it! Bud and I'll go on. Mrs. Brownleigh looks all in."
+
+"No," declared Hazel, decidedly. "We'll just snatch a bite here and
+follow you at once. I couldn't enjoy a dinner till I know she is safe."
+And so, though both Jasper Kemp and her husband urged her otherwise, she
+would take a hasty meal by the way and hurry on.
+
+But Bud and Gardley waited not for others. They plunged wildly ahead.
+
+It seemed a long way to the eager hunters, from the place where Bud had
+found the handkerchief to the little note twisted around the red
+chessman. It was perhaps nearly a mile, and both the riders had searched
+in all directions for some time before Gardley spied it. Eagerly he
+seized upon the note, recognizing the little red manikin with which he
+had whiled away an hour with Margaret during one of her visits at the
+camp.
+
+The note was written large and clear upon a sheet of writing-paper:
+
+"I am Margaret Earle, school-teacher at Ashland. I am supposed to be
+traveling to Walpi, by way of Keams, to meet Mr. and Mrs. Brownleigh of
+Ganado. I am with an Indian, his squaw and papoose. The Indian said he
+was sent to guide me, but he is drunk now and I am frightened. He has
+acted strangely all the way. I do not know where I am. Please come and
+help me."
+
+Bud, sitting anxious like a statue upon his horse, read Gardley's face
+as Gardley read the note. Then Gardley read it aloud to Bud, and before
+the last word was fairly out of his mouth both man and boy started as if
+they had heard Margaret's beloved voice calling them. It was not long
+before Bud found another scrap of paper a half-mile farther on, and then
+another and another, scattered at great distances along the way. The
+only way they had of being sure she had dropped them was that they
+seemed to be the same kind of paper as that upon which the note was
+written.
+
+How that note with its brave, frightened appeal wrung the heart of
+Gardley as he thought of Margaret, unprotected, in terror and perhaps in
+peril, riding on she knew not where. What trials and fears had she not
+already passed through! What might she not be experiencing even now
+while he searched for her?
+
+It was perhaps two hours before he found the little white stocking
+dropped where the trail divided, showing which way she had taken.
+Gardley folded it reverently and put it in his pocket. An hour later Bud
+pounced upon the bedroom slipper and carried it gleefully to Gardley;
+and so by slow degrees, finding here and there a chessman or more paper,
+they came at last to the camp where the Indians had abandoned their
+trust and fled, leaving Margaret alone in the wilderness.
+
+It was then that Gardley searched in vain for any further clue, and,
+riding wide in every direction, stopped and called her name again and
+again, while the sun grew lower and lower and shadows crept in
+lurking-places waiting for the swift-coming night. It was then that Bud,
+flying frantically from one spot to another, got down upon his knees
+behind a sage-bush when Gardley was not looking and mumbled a rough,
+hasty prayer for help. He felt like the old woman who, on being told
+that nothing but God could save the ship, exclaimed, "And has it come to
+that?" Bud had felt all his life that there was a remote time in every
+life when one might need to believe in prayer. The time had come for
+Bud.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Margaret, on her knees in the sand of the desert praying for help,
+remembered the promise, "Before they call I will answer, and while they
+are yet speaking I will hear," and knew not that her deliverers were on
+the way.
+
+The sun had been hot as it beat down upon the whiteness of the sand, and
+the girl had crept under a sage-bush for shelter from it. The pain in
+her ankle was sickening. She had removed her shoe and bound the ankle
+about with a handkerchief soaked with half of her bottle of witch-hazel,
+and so, lying quiet, had fallen asleep, too exhausted with pain and
+anxiety to stay awake any longer.
+
+When she awoke again the softness of evening was hovering over
+everything, and she started up and listened. Surely, surely, she had
+heard a voice calling her! She sat up sharply and listened. Ah! There it
+was again, a faint echo in the distance. Was it a voice, or was it only
+her dreams mingling with her fancies?
+
+Travelers in deserts, she had read, took all sorts of fancies, saw
+mirages, heard sounds that were not. But she had not been out long
+enough to have caught such a desert fever. Perhaps she was going to be
+sick. Still that faint echo made her heart beat wildly. She dragged
+herself to her knees, then to her feet, standing painfully with the
+weight on her well foot.
+
+The suffering horse turned his anguished eyes and whinnied. Her heart
+ached for him, yet there was no way she could assuage his pain or put
+him out of his misery. But she must make sure if she had heard a voice.
+Could she possibly scale that rock down which she and her horse had
+fallen? For then she might look out farther and see if there were any
+one in sight.
+
+Painfully she crawled and crept, up and up, inch by inch, until at last
+she gained the little height and could look afar.
+
+There was no living thing in sight. The air was very clear. The eagle
+had found his evening rest somewhere in a quiet crag. The long corn
+waved on the distant plain, and all was deathly still once more. There
+was a hint of coming sunset in the sky. Her heart sank, and she was
+about to give up hope entirely, when, rich and clear, there it came
+again! A voice in the wilderness calling her name: "Margaret! Margaret!"
+
+The tears rushed to her eyes and crowded in her throat. She could not
+answer, she was so overwhelmed; and though she tried twice to call out,
+she could make no sound. But the call kept coming again and again:
+"Margaret! Margaret!" and it was Gardley's voice. Impossible! For
+Gardley was far away and could not know her need. Yet it was his voice.
+Had she died, or was she in delirium that she seemed to hear him calling
+her name?
+
+But the call came clearer now: "Margaret! Margaret! I am coming!" and
+like a flash her mind went back to the first night in Arizona when she
+heard him singing, "From the Desert I Come to Thee!"
+
+Now she struggled to her feet again and shouted, inarticulately and
+gladly through her tears. She could see him. It was Gardley. He was
+riding fast toward her, and he shot three shots into the air above him
+as he rode, and three shrill blasts of his whistle rang out on the still
+evening air.
+
+She tore the scarf from her neck that she had tied about it to keep the
+sun from blistering her, and waved it wildly in the air now, shouting in
+happy, choking sobs.
+
+And so he came to her across the desert!
+
+He sprang down before the horse had fairly reached her side, and,
+rushing to her, took her in his arms.
+
+"Margaret! My darling! I have found you at last!"
+
+She swayed and would have fallen but for his arms, and then he saw her
+white face and knew she must be suffering.
+
+"You are hurt!" he cried. "Oh, what have they done to you?" And he laid
+her gently down upon the sand and dropped on his knees beside her.
+
+"Oh no," she gasped, joyously, with white lips. "I'm all right now.
+Only my ankle hurts a little. We had a fall, the horse and I. Oh, go to
+him at once and put him out of his pain. I'm sure his legs are broken."
+
+For answer Gardley put the whistle to his lips and blew a blast. He
+would not leave her for an instant. He was not sure yet that she was not
+more hurt than she had said. He set about discovering at once, for he
+had brought with him supplies for all emergencies.
+
+It was Bud who came riding madly across the mesa in answer to the call,
+reaching Gardley before any one else. Bud with his eyes shining, his
+cheeks blazing with excitement, his hair wildly flying in the breeze,
+his young, boyish face suddenly grown old with lines of anxiety. But you
+wouldn't have known from his greeting that it was anything more than a
+pleasure excursion he had been on the past two days.
+
+"Good work, Kid! Whatcha want me t' do?"
+
+It was Bud who arranged the camp and went back to tell the other
+detachments that Margaret was found; Bud who led the pack-horse up,
+unpacked the provisions, and gathered wood to start a fire. Bud was
+everywhere, with a smudged face, a weary, gray look around his eyes, and
+his hair sticking "seven ways for Sunday." Yet once, when his labors led
+him near to where Margaret lay weak and happy on a couch of blankets, he
+gave her an unwonted pat on her shoulder and said in a low tone: "Hello,
+Gang! See you kept your nerve with you!" and then he gave her a grin all
+across his dirty, tired face, and moved away as if he were half ashamed
+of his emotion. But it was Bud again who came and talked with her to
+divert her so that she wouldn't notice when they shot her horse. He
+talked loudly about a coyote they shot the night before, and a
+cottontail they saw at Keams, and when he saw that she understood what
+the shot meant, and there were tears in her eyes, he gave her hand a
+rough, bear squeeze and said, gruffly: "You should worry! He's better
+off now!" And when Gardley came back he took himself thoughtfully to a
+distance and busied himself opening tins of meat and soup.
+
+In another hour the Brownleighs arrived, having heard the signals, and
+they had a supper around the camp-fire, everybody so rejoiced that there
+were still quivers in their voices; and when any one laughed it sounded
+like the echo of a sob, so great had been the strain of their anxiety.
+
+Gardley, sitting beside Margaret in the starlight afterward, her hand in
+his, listened to the story of her journey, the strong, tender pressure
+of his fingers telling her how deeply it affected him to know the peril
+through which she had passed. Later, when the others were telling gay
+stories about the fire, and Bud lying full length in their midst had
+fallen fast asleep, these two, a little apart from the rest, were
+murmuring their innermost thoughts in low tones to each other, and
+rejoicing that they were together once more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+
+They talked it over the next morning at breakfast as they sat around the
+fire. Jasper Kemp thought he ought to get right back to attend to
+things. Mr. Rogers was all broken up, and might even need him to search
+for Rosa if they had not found out her whereabouts yet. He and Fiddling
+Boss, who had come along, would start back at once. They had had a good
+night's rest and had found their dear lady. What more did they need?
+Besides, there were not provisions for an indefinite stay for such a
+large party, and there were none too many sources of supply in this
+region.
+
+The missionary thought that, now he was here, he ought to go on to
+Walpi. It was not more than two hours' ride there, and Hazel could stay
+with the camp while Margaret's ankle had a chance to rest and let the
+swelling subside under treatment.
+
+Margaret, however, rebelled. She did not wish to be an invalid, and was
+very sure she could ride without injury to her ankle. She wanted to see
+Walpi and the queer Hopi Indians, now she was so near. So a compromise
+was agreed upon. They would all wait in camp a couple of days, and then
+if Margaret felt well enough they would go on, visit the Hopis, and so
+go home together.
+
+Bud pleaded to be allowed to stay with them, and Jasper Kemp promised to
+make it all right with his parents.
+
+So for two whole, long, lovely days the little party of five camped on
+the mesa and enjoyed sweet converse. It is safe to say that never in all
+Bud's life will he forget or get away from the influences of that day in
+such company.
+
+Gardley and the missionary proved to be the best of physicians, and
+Margaret's ankle improved hourly under their united treatment of
+compresses, lotions, and rest. About noon on Saturday they broke camp,
+mounted their horses, and rode away across the stretch of white sand,
+through tall cornfields growing right up out of the sand, closer and
+closer to the great mesa with the castle-like pueblos five hundred feet
+above them on the top. It seemed to Margaret like suddenly being dropped
+into Egypt or the Holy Land, or some of the Babylonian excavations, so
+curious and primitive and altogether different from anything else she
+had ever seen did it all appear. She listened, fascinated, while
+Brownleigh told about this strange Hopi land, the strangest spot in
+America. Spanish explorers found them away back years before the
+Pilgrims landed, and called the country Tuscayan. They built their homes
+up high for protection from their enemies. They lived on the corn,
+pumpkins, peaches, and melons which they raised in the valley, planting
+the seeds with their hands. It is supposed they got their seeds first
+from the Spaniards years ago. They make pottery, cloth, and baskets, and
+are a busy people.
+
+There are seven villages built on three mesas in the northern desert.
+One of the largest, Orabi, has a thousand inhabitants. Walpi numbers
+about two hundred and thirty people, all living in this one great
+building of many rooms. They are divided into brotherhoods, or
+phratries, and each brotherhood has several large families. They are
+ruled by a speaker chief and a war chief elected by a council of clan
+elders.
+
+Margaret learned with wonder that all the water these people used had to
+be carried by the women in jars on their backs five hundred feet up the
+steep trail.
+
+Presently, as they drew nearer, a curious man with his hair "banged"
+like a child's, and garments much like those usually worn by
+scarecrows--a shapeless kind of shirt and trousers--appeared along the
+steep and showed them the way up. Margaret and the missionary's wife
+exclaimed in horror over the little children playing along the very edge
+of the cliffs above as carelessly as birds in trees.
+
+High up on the mesa at last, how strange and weird it seemed! Far below
+the yellow sand of the valley; fifteen miles away a second mesa
+stretching dark; to the southwest, a hundred miles distant, the dim
+outlines of the San Francisco peaks. Some little children on burros
+crossing the sand below looked as if they were part of a curious
+moving-picture, not as if they were little living beings taking life as
+seriously as other children do. The great, wide desert stretching far!
+The bare, solid rocks beneath their feet! The curious houses behind
+them! It all seemed unreal to Margaret, like a great picture-book
+spread out for her to see. She turned from gazing and found Gardley's
+eyes upon her adoringly, a tender understanding of her mood in his
+glance. She thrilled with pleasure to be here with him; a soft flush
+spread over her cheeks and a light came into her eyes.
+
+They found the Indians preparing for one of their most famous
+ceremonies, the snake dance, which was to take place in a few days. For
+almost a week the snake priests had been busy hunting rattlesnakes,
+building altars, drawing figures in the sand, and singing weird songs.
+On the ninth day the snakes are washed in a pool and driven near a pile
+of sand. The priests, arrayed in paint, feathers, and charms, come out
+in line and, taking the live snakes in their mouths, parade up and down
+the rocks, while the people crowd the roofs and terraces of the pueblos
+to watch. There are helpers to whip the snakes and keep them from
+biting, and catchers to see that none get away. In a little while the
+priests take the snakes down on the desert and set them free, sending
+them north, south, east, and west, where it is supposed they will take
+the people's prayers for rain to the water serpent in the underworld,
+who is in some way connected with the god of the rain-clouds.
+
+It was a strange experience, that night in Walpi: the primitive
+accommodations; the picturesque, uncivilized people; the shy glances
+from dark, eager eyes. To watch two girls grinding corn between two
+stones, and a little farther off their mother rolling out her dough with
+an ear of corn, and cooking over an open fire, her pot slung from a
+crude crane over the blaze--it was all too unreal to be true.
+
+But the most interesting thing about it was to watch the "Aneshodi"
+going about among them, his face alight with warm, human love; his
+hearty laugh ringing out in a joke that the Hopis seemed to understand,
+making himself one with them. It came to Margaret suddenly to remember
+the pompous little figure of the Rev. Frederick West, and to fancy him
+going about among these people and trying to do them good. Before she
+knew what she was doing she laughed aloud at the thought. Then, of
+course, she had to explain to Bud and Gardley, who looked at her
+inquiringly.
+
+"Aw! Gee! _Him?_ _He_ wasn't a minister! He was a _mistake_! Fergit him,
+the poor simp!" growled Bud, sympathetically. Then his eyes softened as
+he watched Brownleigh playing with three little Indian maids, having a
+fine romp. "Gee! he certainly is a peach, isn't he?" he murmured, his
+whole face kindling appreciatively. "Gee! I bet that kid never forgets
+that!"
+
+The Sunday was a wonderful day, when the missionary gathered the people
+together and spoke to them in simple words of God--their god who made
+the sky, the stars, the mountains, and the sun, whom they call by
+different names, but whom He called God. He spoke of the Book of Heaven
+that told about God and His great love for men, so great that He sent
+His son to save them from their sin. It was not a long sermon, but a
+very beautiful one; and, listening to the simple, wonderful words of
+life that fell from the missionary's earnest lips and were translated by
+his faithful Indian interpreter, who always went with him on his
+expeditions, watching the faces of the dark, strange people as they
+took in the marvelous meaning, the little company of visitors was
+strangely moved. Even Bud, awed beyond his wont, said, shyly, to
+Margaret:
+
+"Gee! It's something fierce not to be born a Christian and know all
+that, ain't it?"
+
+Margaret and Gardley walked a little way down the narrow path that led
+out over the neck of rock less than a rod wide that connects the great
+promontory with the mesa. The sun was setting in majesty over the
+desert, and the scene was one of breathless beauty. One might fancy it
+might look so to stand on the hills of God and look out over creation
+when all things have been made new.
+
+They stood for a while in silence. Then Margaret looked down at the
+narrow path worn more than a foot deep in the solid rock by the ten
+generations of feet that had been passing over it.
+
+"Just think," she said, "of all the feet, little and big, that have
+walked here in all the years, and of all the souls that have stood and
+looked out over this wonderful sight! It must be that somehow in spite
+of their darkness they have reached out to the God who made this, and
+have found a way to His heart. They couldn't look at this and not feel
+Him, could they? It seems to me that perhaps some of those poor
+creatures who have stood here and reached up blindly after the Creator
+of their souls have, perhaps, been as pleasing to Him as those who have
+known about Him from childhood."
+
+Gardley was used to her talking this way. He had not been in her Sunday
+meetings for nothing. He understood and sympathized, and now his hand
+reached softly for hers and held it tenderly. After a moment of silence
+he said:
+
+"I surely think if God could reach and find me in the desert of my life,
+He must have found them. I sometimes think I was a greater heathen than
+all these, because I knew and would not see."
+
+Margaret nestled her hand in his and looked up joyfully into his face.
+"I'm so glad you know Him now!" she murmured, happily.
+
+They stood for some time looking out over the changing scene, till the
+crimson faded into rose, the silver into gray; till the stars bloomed
+out one by one, and down in the valley across the desert a light
+twinkled faintly here and there from the camps of the Hopi shepherds.
+
+They started home at daybreak the next morning, the whole company of
+Indians standing on the rocks to send them royally on their way,
+pressing simple, homely gifts upon them and begging them to return soon
+again and tell the blessed story.
+
+A wonderful ride they had back to Ganado, where Gardley left Margaret
+for a short visit, promising to return for her in a few days when she
+was rested, and hastened back to Ashland to his work; for his soul was
+happy now and at ease, and he felt he must get to work at once. Rogers
+would need him. Poor Rogers! Had he found his daughter yet? Poor, silly
+child-prodigal!
+
+But when Gardley reached Ashland he found among his mail awaiting him a
+telegram. His uncle was dead, and the fortune which he had been brought
+up to believe was his, and which he had idly tossed away in a moment of
+recklessness, had been restored to him by the uncle's last will, made
+since Gardley's recent visit home. The fortune was his again!
+
+Gardley sat in his office on the Rogers ranch and stared hard at the
+adobe wall opposite his desk. That fortune would be great! He could do
+such wonderful things for Margaret now. They could work out their dreams
+together for the people they loved. He could see the shadows of those
+dreams--a beautiful home for Margaret out on the trail she loved, where
+wildness and beauty and the mountain she called hers were not far away;
+horses in plenty and a luxurious car when they wanted to take a trip;
+journeys East as often as they wished; some of the ideal appliances for
+the school that Margaret loved; a church for the missionary and
+convenient halls where he could speak at his outlying districts; a trip
+to the city for Mom Wallis, where she might see a real picture-gallery,
+her one expressed desire this side of heaven, now that she had taken to
+reading Browning and had some of it explained to her. Oh, and a lot of
+wonderful things! These all hung in the dream-picture before Gardley's
+eyes as he sat at his desk with that bit of yellow paper in his hand.
+
+He thought of what that money had represented to him in the past.
+Reckless days and nights of folly as a boy and young man at college;
+ruthless waste of time, money, youth; shriveling of soul, till Margaret
+came and found and rescued him! How wonderful that he had been rescued!
+That he had come to his senses at last, and was here in a man's
+position, doing a man's work in the world! Now, with all that money,
+there was no need for him to work and earn more. He could live idly all
+his days and just have a good time--make others happy, too. But still he
+would not have this exhilarating feeling that he was supplying his own
+and Margaret's necessities by the labor of hand and brain. The little
+telegram in his hand seemed somehow to be trying to snatch from him all
+this material prosperity that was the symbol of that spiritual
+regeneration which had become so dear to him.
+
+He put his head down on his clasped hands upon the desk then and prayed.
+Perhaps it was the first great prayer of his life.
+
+"O God, let me be strong enough to stand this that has come upon me.
+Help me to be a man in spite of money! Don't let me lose my manhood and
+my right to work. Help me to use the money in the right way and not to
+dwarf myself, nor spoil our lives with it." It was a great prayer for a
+man such as Gardley had been, and the answer came swiftly in his
+conviction.
+
+He lifted up his head with purpose in his expression, and, folding the
+telegram, put it safely back into his pocket. He would not tell Margaret
+of it--not just yet. He would think it out--just the right way--and he
+did not believe he meant to give up his position with Rogers. He had
+accepted it for a year in good faith, and it was his business to fulfil
+the contract. Meantime, this money would perhaps make possible his
+marriage with Margaret sooner than he had hoped.
+
+Five minutes later Rogers telephoned to the office.
+
+"I've decided to take that shipment of cattle and try that new stock,
+provided you will go out and look at them and see that everything is
+all O. K. I couldn't go myself now. Don't feel like going anywhere, you
+know. You wouldn't need to go for a couple of weeks. I've just had a
+letter from the man, and he says he won't be ready sooner. Say, why
+don't you and Miss Earle get married and make this a wedding-trip? She
+could go to the Pacific coast with you. It would be a nice trip. Then I
+could spare you for a month or six weeks when you got back if you wanted
+to take her East for a little visit."
+
+Why not? Gardley stumbled out his thanks and hung up the receiver, his
+face full of the light of a great joy. How were the blessings pouring
+down upon his head these days? Was it a sign that God was pleased with
+his action in making good what he could where he had failed? And Rogers!
+How kind he was! Poor Rogers, with his broken heart and his stricken
+home! For Rosa had come home again a sadder, wiser child; and her father
+seemed crushed with the disgrace of it all.
+
+Gardley went to Margaret that very afternoon. He told her only that he
+had had some money left him by his uncle, which would make it possible
+for him to marry at once and keep her comfortably now. He was to be sent
+to California on a business trip. Would she be married and go with him?
+
+Margaret studied the telegram in wonder. She had never asked Gardley
+much about his circumstances. The telegram merely stated that his
+uncle's estate was left to him. To her simple mind an estate might be a
+few hundred dollars, enough to furnish a plain little home; and her face
+lighted with joy over it. She asked no questions, and Gardley said no
+more about the money. He had forgotten that question, comparatively, in
+the greater possibility of joy.
+
+Would she be married in ten days and go with him?
+
+Her eyes met his with an answering joy, and yet he could see that there
+was a trouble hiding somewhere. He presently saw what it was without
+needing to be told. Her father and mother! Of course, they would be
+disappointed! They would want her to be married at home!
+
+"But Rogers said we could go and visit them for several weeks on our
+return," he said; and Margaret's face lighted up.
+
+"Oh, that would be beautiful," she said, wistfully; "and perhaps they
+won't mind so much--though I always expected father would marry me if I
+was ever married; still, if we can go home so soon and for so long--and
+Mr. Brownleigh would be next best, of course."
+
+"But, of course, your father must marry you," said Gardley,
+determinedly. "Perhaps we could persuade him to come, and your mother,
+too."
+
+"Oh no, they couldn't possibly," said Margaret, quickly, a shade of
+sadness in her eyes. "You know it costs a lot to come out here, and
+ministers are never rich."
+
+It was then that Gardley's eyes lighted with joy. His money could take
+this bugbear away, at least. However, he said nothing about the money.
+
+"Suppose we write to your father and mother and put the matter before
+them. See what they say. We'll send the letters to-night. You write
+your mother and I'll write your father."
+
+Margaret agreed and sat down at once to write her letter, while Gardley,
+on the other side of the room, wrote his, scratching away contentedly
+with his fountain-pen and looking furtively now and then toward the
+bowed head over at the desk.
+
+Gardley did not read his letter to Margaret. She wondered a little at
+this, but did not ask, and the letters were mailed, with
+special-delivery stamps on them. Gardley awaited their replies with
+great impatience.
+
+He filled in the days of waiting with business. There were letters to
+write connected with his fortune, and there were arrangements to be made
+for his trip. But the thing that occupied the most of his time and
+thought was the purchase and refitting of a roomy old ranch-house in a
+charming location, not more than three miles from Ashland, on the road
+to the camp.
+
+It had been vacant for a couple of years past, the owner having gone
+abroad permanently and the place having been offered for sale. Margaret
+had often admired it in her trips to and from the camp, and Gardley
+thought of it at once when it became possible for him to think of
+purchasing a home in the West.
+
+There was a great stone fireplace, and the beams of the ceilings and
+pillars of the porch and wide, hospitable rooms were of tree-trunks with
+the bark on them. With a little work it could be made roughly but
+artistically habitable. Gardley had it cleaned up, not disturbing the
+tangle of vines and shrubbery that had had their way since the last
+owner had left them and which had made a perfect screen from the road
+for the house.
+
+Behind this screen the men worked--most of them the men from the
+bunk-house, whom Gardley took into his confidence.
+
+The floors were carefully scrubbed under the direction of Mom Wallis,
+and the windows made shining. Then the men spent a day bringing great
+loads of tree-boughs and filling the place with green fragrance, until
+the big living-room looked like a woodland bower. Gardley made a raid
+upon some Indian friends of his and came back with several fine Navajo
+rugs and blankets, which he spread about the room luxuriously on the
+floor and over the rude benches which the men had constructed. They
+piled the fireplace with big logs, and Gardley took over some of his own
+personal possessions that he had brought back from the East with him to
+give the place a livable look. Then he stood back satisfied. The place
+was fit to bring his bride and her friends to. Not that it was as it
+should be. That would be for Margaret to do, but it would serve as a
+temporary stopping-place if there came need. If no need came, why, the
+place was there, anyway, hers and his. A tender light grew in his eyes
+as he looked it over in the dying light of the afternoon. Then he went
+out and rode swiftly to the telegraph-office and found these two
+telegrams, according to the request in his own letter to Mr. Earle.
+
+Gardley's telegram read:
+
+     Congratulations. Will come as you desire. We await your advice.
+     Have written.--FATHER.
+
+He saddled his horse and hurried to Margaret with hers, and together
+they read:
+
+     Dear child! So glad for you. Of course you will go. I am sending
+     you some things. Don't take a thought for us. We shall look forward
+     to your visit. Our love to you both.--MOTHER.
+
+Margaret, folded in her lover's arms, cried out her sorrow and her joy,
+and lifted up her face with happiness. Then Gardley, with great joy,
+thought of the surprise he had in store for her and laid his face
+against hers to hide the telltale smile in his eyes.
+
+For Gardley, in his letter to his future father-in-law, had written of
+his newly inherited fortune, and had not only inclosed a check for a
+good sum to cover all extra expense of the journey, but had said that a
+private car would be at their disposal, not only for themselves, but for
+any of Margaret's friends and relatives whom they might choose to
+invite. As he had written this letter he was filled with deep
+thanksgiving that it was in his power to do this thing for his dear
+girl-bride.
+
+The morning after the telegrams arrived Gardley spent several hours
+writing telegrams and receiving them from a big department store in the
+nearest great city, and before noon a big shipment of goods was on its
+way to Ashland. Beds, bureaus, wash-stands, chairs, tables, dishes,
+kitchen utensils, and all kinds of bedding, even to sheets and
+pillow-cases, he ordered with lavish hand. After all, he must furnish
+the house himself, and let Margaret weed it out or give it away
+afterward, if she did not like it. He was going to have a house party
+and he must be ready. When all was done and he was just about to mount
+his horse again he turned back and sent another message, ordering a
+piano.
+
+"Why, it's _great_!" he said to himself, as he rode back to his office.
+"It's simply great to be able to do things just when I need them! I
+never knew what fun money was before. But then I never had Margaret to
+spend it for, and she's worth the whole of it at once!"
+
+The next thing he ordered was a great easy carriage with plenty of room
+to convey Mother Earle and her friends from the train to the house.
+
+The days went by rapidly enough, and Margaret was so busy that she had
+little time to wonder and worry why her mother did not write her the
+long, loving, motherly good-by letter to her little girlhood that she
+had expected to get. Not until three days before the wedding did it come
+over her that she had had but three brief, scrappy letters from her
+mother, and they not a whole page apiece. What could be the matter with
+mother? She was almost on the point of panic when Gardley came and
+bundled her on to her horse for a ride.
+
+Strangely enough, he directed their way through Ashland and down to the
+station, and it was just about the time of the arrival of the evening
+train.
+
+Gardley excused himself for a moment, saying something about an errand,
+and went into the station. Margaret sat on her horse, watching the
+oncoming train, the great connecting link between East and West, and
+wondered if it would bring a letter from mother.
+
+The train rushed to a halt, and behold some passengers were getting off
+from a private car! Margaret watched them idly, thinking more about an
+expected letter than about the people. Then suddenly she awoke to the
+fact that Gardley was greeting them. Who could they be?
+
+There were five of them, and one of them looked like Jane! Dear Jane!
+She had forgotten to write her about this hurried wedding. How different
+it all was going to be from what she and Jane had planned for each other
+in their dear old school-day dreams! And that young man that Gardley was
+shaking hands with now looked like Cousin Dick! She hadn't seen him for
+three years, but he must look like that now; and the younger girl beside
+him might be Cousin Emily! But, oh, who were the others? _Father!_ And
+MOTHER!
+
+Margaret sprang from her horse with a bound and rushed into her mother's
+arms. The interested passengers craned their necks and looked their fill
+with smiles of appreciation as the train took up its way again, having
+dropped the private car on the side track.
+
+Dick and Emily rode the ponies to the house, while Margaret nestled in
+the back seat of the carriage between her father and mother, and Jane
+got acquainted with Gardley in the front seat of the carriage. Margaret
+never even noticed where they were going until the carriage turned in
+and stopped before the door of the new house, and Mrs. Tanner, furtively
+casting behind her the checked apron she had worn, came out to shake
+hands with the company and tell them supper was all ready, before she
+went back to her deserted boarding-house. Even Bud was going to stay at
+the new house that night, in some cooked-up capacity or other, and all
+the men from the bunk-house were hiding out among the trees to see
+Margaret's father and mother and shake hands if the opportunity offered.
+
+The wonder and delight of Margaret when she saw the house inside and
+knew that it was hers, the tears she shed and smiles that grew almost
+into hysterics when she saw some of the incongruous furnishings, are all
+past describing. Margaret was too happy to think. She rushed from one
+room to another. She hugged her mother and linked her arm in her
+father's for a walk across the long piazza; she talked to Emily and Dick
+and Jane; and then rushed out to find Gardley and thank him again. And
+all this time she could not understand how Gardley had done it, for she
+had not yet comprehended his fortune.
+
+Gardley had asked his sisters to come to the wedding, not much expecting
+they would accept, but they had telegraphed at the last minute they
+would be there. They arrived an hour or so before the ceremony; gushed
+over Margaret; told Gardley she was a "sweet thing"; said the house was
+"dandy for a house party if one had plenty of servants, but they should
+think it would be dull in winter"; gave Margaret a diamond sunburst pin,
+a string of pearls, and an emerald bracelet set in diamond chips; and
+departed immediately after the ceremony. They had thought they were the
+chief guests, but the relief that overspread the faces of those guests
+who were best beloved by both bride and groom was at once visible on
+their departure. Jasper Kemp drew a long breath and declared to Long
+Bill that he was glad the air was growing pure again. Then all those old
+friends from the bunk-house filed in to the great tables heavily loaded
+with good things, the abundant gift of the neighborhood, and sat down to
+the wedding supper, heartily glad that the "city lady and her gals"--as
+Mom Wallis called them in a suppressed whisper--had chosen not to stay
+over a train.
+
+The wedding had been in the school-house, embowered in foliage and all
+the flowers the land afforded, decorated by the loving hands of
+Margaret's pupils, old and young. She was attended by the entire school
+marching double file before her, strewing flowers in her way. The
+missionary's wife played the wedding-march, and the missionary assisted
+the bride's father with the ceremony. Margaret's dress was a simple
+white muslin, with a little real lace and embroidery handed down from
+former generations, the whole called into being by Margaret's mother.
+Even Gardley's sisters had said it was "perfectly dear." The whole
+neighborhood was at the wedding.
+
+And when the bountiful wedding-supper was eaten the entire company of
+favored guests stood about the new piano and sang "Blest Be the Tie that
+Binds"--with Margaret playing for them.
+
+Then there was a little hurry at the last, Margaret getting into the
+pretty traveling dress and hat her mother had brought, and kissing her
+mother good-by--though happily not for long this time.
+
+Mother and father and the rest of the home party were to wait until
+morning, and the missionary and his wife were to stay with them that
+night and see them to their car the next day.
+
+So, waving and throwing kisses back to the others, they rode away to the
+station, Bud pridefully driving the team from the front seat.
+
+Gardley had arranged for a private apartment on the train, and nothing
+could have been more luxurious in traveling than the place where he led
+his bride. Bud, scuttling behind with a suit-case, looked around him
+with all his eyes before he said a hurried good-by, and murmured under
+his breath: "Gee! Wisht I was goin' all the way!"
+
+Bud hustled off as the train got under way, and Margaret and Gardley
+went out to the observation platform to wave a last farewell.
+
+The few little blurring lights of Ashland died soon in the distance, and
+the desert took on its vast wideness beneath a starry dome; but off in
+the East a purple shadow loomed, mighty and majestic, and rising slowly
+over its crest a great silver disk appeared, brightening as it came and
+pouring a silver mist over the purple peak.
+
+"My mountain!" said Margaret, softly.
+
+And Gardley, drawing her close to him, stooped to lay his lips upon
+hers.
+
+"My darling!" he answered.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Voice in the Wilderness, by Grace Livingston Hill
+
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diff --git a/old/21219.txt~ b/old/21219.txt~
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fcb88b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/21219.txt~
@@ -0,0 +1,10729 @@
+Project Gutenberg's A Voice in the Wilderness, by Grace Livingston Hill
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Voice in the Wilderness
+
+Author: Grace Livingston Hill
+
+Release Date: April 27, 2007 [EBook #21219]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+A VOICE in the WILDERNESS
+
+A NOVEL
+BY
+GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL
+
+AUTHOR OF
+MARCIA SCHUYLER, ETC.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+PUBLISHERS--NEW YORK
+
+Published by Arrangement with Harper and Brothers
+
+Made in the United States of America
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+A Voice in the Wilderness
+
+Copyright, 1916, by Harper & Brothers
+Printed in the United States of America
+Published September, 1916
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+With a lurch the train came to a dead stop and Margaret Earle, hastily
+gathering up her belongings, hurried down the aisle and got out into the
+night.
+
+It occurred to her, as she swung her heavy suit-case down the rather
+long step to the ground, and then carefully swung herself after it, that
+it was strange that neither conductor, brakeman, nor porter had come to
+help her off the train, when all three had taken the trouble to tell her
+that hers was the next station; but she could hear voices up ahead.
+Perhaps something was the matter with the engine that detained them and
+they had forgotten her for the moment.
+
+The ground was rough where she stood, and there seemed no sign of a
+platform. Did they not have platforms in this wild Western land, or was
+the train so long that her car had stopped before reaching it?
+
+She strained her eyes into the darkness, and tried to make out things
+from the two or three specks of light that danced about like fireflies
+in the distance. She could dimly see moving figures away up near the
+engine, and each one evidently carried a lantern. The train was
+tremendously long. A sudden feeling of isolation took possession of her.
+Perhaps she ought not to have got out until some one came to help her.
+Perhaps the train had not pulled into the station yet and she ought to
+get back on it and wait. Yet if the train started before she found the
+conductor she might be carried on somewhere and be justly blame her for
+a fool.
+
+There did not seem to be any building on that side of the track. It was
+probably on the other, but she was standing too near the cars to see
+over. She tried to move back to look, but the ground sloped and she
+slipped and fell in the cinders, bruising her knee and cutting her
+wrist.
+
+In sudden panic she arose. She would get back into the train, no matter
+what the consequences. They had no right to put her out here, away off
+from the station, at night, in a strange country. If the train started
+before she could find the conductor she would tell him that he must back
+it up again and let her off. He certainly could not expect her to get
+out like this.
+
+She lifted the heavy suit-case up the high step that was even farther
+from the ground than it had been when she came down, because her fall
+had loosened some of the earth and caused it to slide away from the
+track. Then, reaching to the rail of the step, she tried to pull herself
+up, but as she did so the engine gave a long snort and the whole train,
+as if it were in league against her, lurched forward crazily, shaking
+off her hold. She slipped to her knees again, the suit-case, toppled
+from the lower step, descending upon her, and together they slid and
+rolled down the short bank, while the train, like an irresponsible nurse
+who had slapped her charge and left it to its fate, ran giddily off into
+the night.
+
+The horror of being deserted helped the girl to rise in spite of bruises
+and shock. She lifted imploring hands to the unresponsive cars as they
+hurried by her--one, two, three, with bright windows, each showing a
+passenger, comfortable and safe inside, unconscious of her need.
+
+A moment of useless screaming, running, trying to attract some one's
+attention, a sickening sense of terror and failure, and the last car
+slatted itself past with a mocking clatter, as if it enjoyed her
+discomfort.
+
+Margaret stood dazed, reaching out helpless hands, then dropped them at
+her sides and gazed after the fast-retreating train, the light on its
+last car swinging tauntingly, blinking now and then with a leer in its
+eye, rapidly vanishing from her sight into the depth of the night.
+
+She gasped and looked about her for the station that but a short moment
+before had been so real to her mind; and, lo! on this side and on that
+there was none!
+
+The night was wide like a great floor shut in by a low, vast dome of
+curving blue set with the largest, most wonderful stars she had ever
+seen. Heavy shadows of purple-green, smoke-like, hovered over earth
+darker and more intense than the unfathomable blue of the night sky. It
+seemed like the secret nesting-place of mysteries wherein no human foot
+might dare intrude. It was incredible that such could be but common
+sage-brush, sand, and greasewood wrapped about with the beauty of the
+lonely night.
+
+No building broke the inky outlines of the plain, nor friendly light
+streamed out to cheer her heart. Not even a tree was in sight, except on
+the far horizon, where a heavy line of deeper darkness might mean a
+forest. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the blue, deep, starry dome
+above and the bluer darkness of the earth below save one sharp shaft
+ahead like a black mast throwing out a dark arm across the track.
+
+As soon as she sighted it she picked up her baggage and made her painful
+way toward it, for her knees and wrist were bruised and her baggage was
+heavy.
+
+A soft drip, drip greeted her as she drew nearer; something plashing
+down among the cinders by the track. Then she saw the tall column with
+its arm outstretched, and looming darker among the sage-brush the
+outlines of a water-tank. It was so she recognized the engine's
+drinking-tank, and knew that she had mistaken a pause to water the
+engine for a regular stop at a station.
+
+Her soul sank within her as she came up to the dripping water and laid
+her hand upon the dark upright, as if in some way it could help her. She
+dropped her baggage and stood, trembling, gazing around upon the
+beautiful, lonely scene in horror; and then, like a mirage against the
+distance, there melted on her frightened eyes a vision of her father
+and mother sitting around the library lamp at home, as they sat every
+evening. They were probably reading and talking at this very minute, and
+trying not to miss her on this her first venture away from the home into
+the great world to teach. What would they say if they could see their
+beloved daughter, whom they had sheltered all these years and let go
+forth so reluctantly now, in all her confidence of youth, bound by
+almost absurd promises to be careful and not run any risks.
+
+Yet here she was, standing alone beside a water-tank in the midst of an
+Arizona plain, no knowing how many miles from anywhere, at somewhere
+between nine and ten o'clock at night! It seemed incredible that it had
+really happened! Perhaps she was dreaming! A few moments before in the
+bright car, surrounded by drowsy fellow-travelers, almost at her
+journey's end, as she supposed; and now, having merely done as she
+thought right, she was stranded here!
+
+She rubbed her eyes and looked again up the track, half expecting to see
+the train come back for her. Surely, surely the conductor, or the porter
+who had been so kind, would discover that she was gone, and do something
+about it. They couldn't leave her here alone on the prairie! It would be
+too dreadful!
+
+That vision of her father and mother off against the purple-green
+distance, how it shook her! The lamp looked bright and cheerful, and she
+could see her father's head with its heavy white hair. He turned to look
+at her mother to tell her of something he read in the paper. They were
+sitting there, feeling contented and almost happy about her, and she,
+their little girl--all her dignity as school-teacher dropped from her
+like a garment now--she was standing in this empty space alone, with
+only an engine's water-tank to keep her from dying, and only the barren,
+desolate track to connect her with the world of men and women. She
+dropped her head upon her breast and the tears came, sobbing, choking,
+raining down. Then off in the distance she heard a low, rising howl of
+some snarling, angry beast, and she lifted her head and stood in
+trembling terror, clinging to the tank.
+
+That sound was coyotes or wolves howling. She had read about them, but
+had not expected to experience them in such a situation. How confidently
+had she accepted the position which offered her the opening she had
+sought for the splendid career that she hoped was to follow! How
+fearless had she been! Coyotes, nor Indians, nor wild cowboy
+students--nothing had daunted her courage. Besides, she told her mother
+it was very different going to a town from what it would be if she were
+a missionary going to the wilds. It was an important school she was to
+teach, where her Latin and German and mathematical achievements had won
+her the place above several other applicants, and where her well-known
+tact was expected to work wonders. But what were Latin and German and
+mathematics now? Could they show her how to climb a water-tank? Would
+tact avail with a hungry wolf?
+
+The howl in the distance seemed to come nearer. She cast frightened eyes
+to the unresponsive water-tank looming high and dark above her. She
+must get up there somehow. It was not safe to stand here a minute.
+Besides, from that height she might be able to see farther, and perhaps
+there would be a light somewhere and she might cry for help.
+
+Investigation showed a set of rude spikes by which the trainmen were
+wont to climb up, and Margaret prepared to ascend them. She set her
+suit-case dubiously down at the foot. Would it be safe to leave it
+there? She had read how coyotes carried off a hatchet from a
+camping-party, just to get the leather thong which was bound about the
+handle. She could not afford to lose her things. Yet how could she climb
+and carry that heavy burden with her? A sudden thought came.
+
+Her simple traveling-gown was finished with a silken girdle, soft and
+long, wound twice about her waist and falling in tasseled ends. Swiftly
+she untied it and knotted one end firmly to the handle of her suit-case,
+tying the other end securely to her wrist. Then slowly, cautiously, with
+many a look upward, she began to climb.
+
+It seemed miles, though in reality it was but a short distance. The
+howling beasts in the distance sounded nearer now and continually,
+making her heart beat wildly. She was stiff and bruised from her falls,
+and weak with fright. The spikes were far apart, and each step of
+progress was painful and difficult. It was good at last to rise high
+enough to see over the water-tank and feel a certain confidence in her
+defense.
+
+But she had risen already beyond the short length of her silken tether,
+and the suit-case was dragging painfully on her arm. She was obliged to
+steady herself where she stood and pull it up before she could go on.
+Then she managed to get it swung up to the top of the tank in a
+comparatively safe place. One more long spike step and she was beside
+it.
+
+The tank was partly roofed over, so that she had room enough to sit on
+the edge without danger of falling in and drowning. For a few minutes
+she could only sit still and be thankful and try to get her breath back
+again after the climb; but presently the beauty of the night began to
+cast its spell over her. That wonderful blue of the sky! It hadn't ever
+before impressed her that skies were blue at night. She would have said
+they were black or gray. As a matter of fact, she didn't remember to
+have ever seen so much sky at once before, nor to have noticed skies in
+general until now.
+
+This sky was so deeply, wonderfully blue, the stars so real, alive and
+sparkling, that all other stars she had ever seen paled before them into
+mere imitations. The spot looked like one of Taylor's pictures of the
+Holy Land. She half expected to see a shepherd with his crook and sheep
+approaching her out of the dim shadows, or a turbaned, white-robed David
+with his lifted hands of prayer standing off among the depths of purple
+darkness. It would not have been out of keeping if a walled city with
+housetops should be hidden behind the clumps of sage-brush farther on.
+'Twas such a night and such a scene as this, perhaps, when the wise men
+started to follow the star!
+
+But one cannot sit on the edge of a water-tank in the desert night
+alone and muse long on art and history. It was cold up there, and the
+howling seemed nearer than before. There was no sign of a light or a
+house anywhere, and not even a freight-train sent its welcome clatter
+down the track. All was still and wide and lonely, save that terrifying
+sound of the beasts; such stillness as she had not ever thought could
+be--a fearful silence as a setting for the awful voices of the wilds.
+
+The bruises and scratches she had acquired set up a fine stinging, and
+the cold seemed to sweep down and take possession of her on her high,
+narrow seat. She was growing stiff and cramped, yet dared not move much.
+Would there be no train, nor any help? Would she have to sit there all
+night? It looked so very near to the ground now. Could wild beasts
+climb, she wondered?
+
+Then in the interval of silence that came between the calling of those
+wild creatures there stole a sound. She could not tell at first what it
+was. A slow, regular, plodding sound, and quite far away. She looked to
+find it, and thought she saw a shape move out of the sage-brush on the
+other side of the track, but she could not be sure. It might be but a
+figment of her brain, a foolish fancy from looking so long at the
+huddled bushes on the dark plain. Yet something prompted her to cry out,
+and when she heard her own voice she cried again and louder, wondering
+why she had not cried before.
+
+"Help! Help!" she called; and again: "Help! Help!"
+
+The dark shape paused and turned toward her. She was sure now. What if
+it were a beast instead of a human! Terrible fear took possession of
+her; then, to her infinite relief, a nasal voice sounded out:
+
+"Who's thar?"
+
+But when she opened her lips to answer, nothing but a sob would come to
+them for a minute, and then she could only cry, pitifully:
+
+"Help! Help!"
+
+"Whar be you?" twanged the voice; and now she could see a horse and
+rider like a shadow moving toward her down the track.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+The horse came to a standstill a little way from the track, and his
+rider let forth a stream of strange profanity. The girl shuddered and
+began to think a wild beast might be preferable to some men. However,
+these remarks seemed to be a mere formality. He paused and addressed
+her:
+
+"Heow'd yeh git up thar? D'j'yeh drap er climb?"
+
+He was a little, wiry man with a bristly, protruding chin. She could see
+that, even in the starlight. There was something about the point of that
+stubby chin that she shrank from inexpressibly. He was not a pleasant
+man to look upon, and even his voice was unprepossessing. She began to
+think that even the night with its loneliness and unknown perils was
+preferable to this man's company.
+
+"I got off the train by mistake, thinking it was my station, and before
+I discovered it the train had gone and left me," Margaret explained,
+with dignity.
+
+"Yeh didn't 'xpect it t' sit reound on th' plain while you was
+gallivantin' up water-tanks, did yeh?"
+
+Cold horror froze Margaret's veins. She was dumb for a second. "I am on
+my way to Ashland station. Can you tell me how far it is from here and
+how I can get there?" Her tone was like icicles.
+
+"It's a little matter o' twenty miles, more 'r less," said the man
+protruding his offensive chin. "The walkin's good. I don't know no other
+way from this p'int at this time o' night. Yeh might set still till th'
+mornin' freight goes by an' drap atop o' one of the kyars."
+
+"Sir!" said Margaret, remembering her dignity as a teacher.
+
+The man wheeled his horse clear around and looked up at her impudently.
+She could smell bad whisky on his breath.
+
+"Say, you must be some young highbrow, ain't yeh? Is thet all yeh want
+o' me? 'Cause ef 'tis I got t' git on t' camp. It's a good five mile
+yet, an' I 'ain't hed no grub sence noon."
+
+The tears suddenly rushed to the girl's eyes as the horror of being
+alone in the night again took possession of her. This dreadful man
+frightened her, but the thought of the loneliness filled her with
+dismay.
+
+"Oh!" she cried, forgetting her insulted dignity, "you're not going to
+leave me up here alone, are you? Isn't there some place near here where
+I could stay overnight?"
+
+"Thur ain't no palace hotel round these diggin's, ef that's what you
+mean," the man leered at her. "You c'n come along t' camp 'ith me ef you
+ain't too stuck up."
+
+"To camp!" faltered Margaret in dismay, wondering what her mother would
+say. "Are there any ladies there?"
+
+A loud guffaw greeted her question. "Wal, my woman's thar, sech es she
+is; but she ain't no highflier like you. We mostly don't hev ladies to
+camp, But I got t' git on. Ef you want to go too, you better light down
+pretty speedy, fer I can't wait."
+
+In fear and trembling Margaret descended her rude ladder step by step,
+primitive man seated calmly on his horse, making no attempt whatever to
+assist her.
+
+"This ain't no baggage-car," he grumbled, as he saw the suit-case in her
+hand. "Well, h'ist yerself up thar; I reckon we c'n pull through
+somehow. Gimme the luggage."
+
+Margaret stood appalled beside the bony horse and his uncouth rider. Did
+he actually expect her to ride with him? "Couldn't I walk?" she
+faltered, hoping he would offer to do so.
+
+"'T's up t' you," the man replied, indifferently. "Try 't an' see!"
+
+He spoke to the horse, and it started forward eagerly, while the girl in
+horror struggled on behind. Over rough, uneven ground, between
+greasewood, sage-brush, and cactus, back into the trail. The man,
+oblivious of her presence, rode contentedly on, a silent shadow on a
+dark horse wending a silent way between the purple-green clumps of other
+shadows, until, bewildered, the girl almost lost sight of them. Her
+breath came short, her ankle turned, and she fell with both hands in a
+stinging bed of cactus. She cried out then and begged him to stop.
+
+"L'arned yer lesson, hev yeh, sweety?" he jeered at her, foolishly.
+"Well, get in yer box, then."
+
+He let her struggle up to a seat behind himself with very little
+assistance, but when she was seated and started on her way she began to
+wish she had stayed behind and taken any perils of the way rather than
+trust herself in proximity to this creature.
+
+From time to time he took a bottle from his pocket and swallowed a
+portion of its contents, becoming fluent in his language as they
+proceeded on their way. Margaret remained silent, growing more and more
+frightened every time the bottle came out. At last he offered it to her.
+She declined it with cold politeness, which seemed to irritate the
+little man, for he turned suddenly fierce.
+
+"Oh, yer too fine to take a drap fer good comp'ny, are yeh? Wal, I'll
+show yeh a thing er two, my pretty lady. You'll give me a kiss with yer
+two cherry lips before we go another step. D'yeh hear, my sweetie?" And
+he turned with a silly leer to enforce his command; but with a cry of
+horror Margaret slid to the ground and ran back down the trail as hard
+as she could go, till she stumbled and fell in the shelter of a great
+sage-bush, and lay sobbing on the sand.
+
+The man turned bleared eyes toward her and watched until she
+disappeared. Then sticking his chin out wickedly, he slung her suit-case
+after her and called:
+
+"All right, my pretty lady; go yer own gait an' l'arn yer own lesson."
+He started on again, singing a drunken song.
+
+Under the blue, starry dome alone sat Margaret again, this time with no
+friendly water-tank for her defense, and took counsel with herself. The
+howling coyotes seemed to be silenced for the time; at least they had
+become a minor quantity in her equation of troubles. She felt now that
+man was her greatest menace, and to get away safely from him back to
+that friendly water-tank and the dear old railroad track she would have
+pledged her next year's salary. She stole softly to the place where she
+had heard the suit-case fall, and, picking it up, started on the weary
+road back to the tank. Could she ever find the way? The trail seemed so
+intangible a thing, her sense of direction so confused. Yet there was
+nothing else to do. She shuddered whenever she thought of the man who
+had been her companion on horseback.
+
+When the man reached camp he set his horse loose and stumbled into the
+door of the log bunk-house, calling loudly for something to eat.
+
+The men were sitting around the room on the rough benches and bunks,
+smoking their pipes or stolidly staring into the dying fire. Two smoky
+kerosene-lanterns that hung from spikes driven high in the logs cast a
+weird light over the company, eight men in all, rough and hardened with
+exposure to stormy life and weather. They were men with unkempt beards
+and uncombed hair, their coarse cotton shirts open at the neck, their
+brawny arms bare above the elbow, with crimes and sorrows and hard
+living written large across their faces.
+
+There was one, a boy in looks, with smooth face and white skin healthily
+flushed in places like a baby's. His face, too, was hard and set in
+sternness like a mask, as if life had used him badly; but behind it was
+a fineness of feature and spirit that could not be utterly hidden. They
+called him the Kid, and thought it was his youth that made him different
+from them all, for he was only twenty-four, and not one of the rest was
+under forty. They were doing their best to help him get over that innate
+fineness that was his natural inheritance, but although he stopped at
+nothing, and played his part always with the ease of one old in the ways
+of the world, yet he kept a quiet reserve about him, a kind of charm
+beyond which they had not been able to go.
+
+He was playing cards with three others at the table when the man came
+in, and did not look up at the entrance.
+
+The woman, white and hopeless, appeared at the door of the shed-room
+when the man came, and obediently set about getting his supper; but her
+lifeless face never changed expression.
+
+"Brung a gal 'long of me part way," boasted the man, as he flung himself
+into a seat by the table. "Thought you fellers might like t' see 'er,
+but she got too high an' mighty fer me, wouldn't take a pull at th'
+bottle 'ith me, 'n' shrieked like a catamount when I kissed 'er. Found
+'er hangin' on th' water-tank. Got off 't th' wrong place. One o' yer
+highbrows out o' th' parlor car! Good lesson fer 'er!"
+
+The Boy looked up from his cards sternly, his keen eyes boring through
+the man. "Where is she now?" he asked, quietly; and all the men in the
+room looked up uneasily. There was that tone and accent again that made
+the Boy alien from them. What was it?
+
+The man felt it and snarled his answer angrily. "Dropped 'er on th'
+trail, an' threw her fine-lady b'longin's after 'er. 'Ain't got no use
+fer thet kind. Wonder what they was created fer? Ain't no good to
+nobody, not even 'emselves." And he laughed a harsh cackle that was not
+pleasant to hear.
+
+The Boy threw down his cards and went out, shutting the door. In a few
+minutes the men heard two horses pass the end of the bunk-house toward
+the trail, but no one looked up nor spoke. You could not have told by
+the flicker of an eyelash that they knew where the Boy had gone.
+
+She was sitting in the deep shadow of a sage-bush that lay on the edge
+of the trail like a great blot, her suit-case beside her, her breath
+coming short with exertion and excitement, when she heard a cheery
+whistle in the distance. Just an old love-song dating back some years
+and discarded now as hackneyed even by the street pianos at home; but
+oh, how good it sounded!
+
+    From the desert I come to thee!
+
+The ground was cold, and struck a chill through her garments as she sat
+there alone in the night. On came the clear, musical whistle, and she
+peered out of the shadow with eager eyes and frightened heart. Dared she
+risk it again? Should she call, or should she hold her breath and keep
+still, hoping he would pass her by unnoticed? Before she could decide
+two horses stopped almost in front of her and a rider swung himself
+down. He stood before her as if it were day and he could see her quite
+plainly.
+
+"You needn't be afraid," he explained, calmly. "I thought I had better
+look you up after the old man got home and gave his report. He was
+pretty well tanked up and not exactly a fit escort for ladies. What's
+the trouble?"
+
+Like an angel of deliverance he looked to her as he stood in the
+starlight, outlined in silhouette against the wide, wonderful sky: broad
+shoulders, well-set head, close-cropped curls, handsome contour even in
+the darkness. There was about him an air of quiet strength which gave
+her confidence.
+
+"Oh, thank you!" she gasped, with a quick little relieved sob in her
+voice. "I am so glad you have come. I was--just a little--frightened, I
+think." She attempted to rise, but her foot caught in her skirt and she
+sank wearily back to the sand again.
+
+The Boy stooped over and lifted her to her feet. "You certainly are some
+plucky girl!" he commented, looking down at her slender height as she
+stood beside him. "A 'little frightened,' were you? Well, I should say
+you had a right to be."
+
+"Well, not exactly frightened, you know," said Margaret, taking a deep
+breath and trying to steady her voice. "I think perhaps I was more
+mortified than frightened, to think I made such a blunder as to get off
+the train before I reached my station. You see, I'd made up my mind not
+to be frightened, but when I heard that awful howl of some beast--And
+then that terrible man!" She shuddered and put her hands suddenly over
+her eyes as if to shut out all memory of it.
+
+"More than one kind of beasts!" commented the Boy, briefly. "Well, you
+needn't worry about him; he's having his supper and he'll be sound
+asleep by the time we get back."
+
+"Oh, have we got to go where he is?" gasped Margaret. "Isn't there some
+other place? Is Ashland very far away? That is where I am going."
+
+"No other place where you could go to-night. Ashland's a good
+twenty-five miles from here. But you'll be all right. Mom Wallis 'll
+look out for you. She isn't much of a looker, but she has a kind heart.
+She pulled me through once when I was just about flickering out. Come
+on. You'll be pretty tired. We better be getting back. Mom Wallis 'll
+make you comfortable, and then you can get off good and early in the
+morning."
+
+Without an apology, and as if it were the common courtesy of the desert,
+he stooped and lifted her easily to the saddle of the second horse,
+placed the bridle in her hands, then swung the suit-case up on his own
+horse and sprang into the saddle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+He turned the horses about and took charge of her just as if he were
+accustomed to managing stray ladies in the wilderness every day of his
+life and understood the situation perfectly; and Margaret settled
+wearily into her saddle and looked about her with content.
+
+Suddenly, again, the wide wonder of the night possessed her.
+Involuntarily she breathed a soft little exclamation of awe and delight.
+Her companion turned to her questioningly:
+
+"Does it always seem so big here--so--limitless?" she asked in
+explanation. "It is so far to everywhere it takes one's breath away, and
+yet the stars hang close, like a protection. It gives one the feeling of
+being alone in the great universe with God. Does it always seem so out
+here?"
+
+He looked at her curiously, her pure profile turned up to the wide dome
+of luminous blue above. His voice was strangely low and wondering as he
+answered, after a moment's silence:
+
+"No, it is not always so," he said. "I have seen it when it was more
+like being alone in the great universe with the devil."
+
+There was a tremendous earnestness in his tone that the girl felt meant
+more than was on the surface. She turned to look at the fine young face
+beside her. In the starlight she could not make out the bitter hardness
+of lines that were beginning to be carved about his sensitive mouth. But
+there was so much sadness in his voice that her heart went out to him in
+pity.
+
+"Oh," she said, gently, "it would be awful that way. Yes, I can
+understand. I felt so, a little, while that terrible man was with me."
+And she shuddered again at the remembrance.
+
+Again he gave her that curious look. "There are worse things than Pop
+Wallis out here," he said, gravely. "But I'll grant you there's some
+class to the skies. It's a case of 'Where every prospect pleases and
+only man is vile.'" And with the words his tone grew almost flippant. It
+hurt her sensitive nature, and without knowing it she half drew away a
+little farther from him and murmured, sadly:
+
+"Oh!" as if he had classed himself with the "man" he had been
+describing. Instantly he felt her withdrawal and grew grave again, as if
+he would atone.
+
+"Wait till you see this sky at the dawn," he said. "It will burn red
+fire off there in the east like a hearth in a palace, and all this dome
+will glow like a great pink jewel set in gold. If you want a classy sky,
+there you have it! Nothing like it in the East!"
+
+There was a strange mingling of culture and roughness in his speech. The
+girl could not make him out; yet there had been a palpitating
+earnestness in his description that showed he had felt the dawn in his
+very soul.
+
+"You are--a--poet, perhaps?" she asked, half shyly. "Or an artist?" she
+hazarded.
+
+He laughed roughly and seemed embarrassed. "No, I'm just a--bum! A sort
+of roughneck out of a job."
+
+She was silent, watching him against the starlight, a kind of
+embarrassment upon her after his last remark. "You--have been here
+long?" she asked, at last.
+
+"Three years." He said it almost curtly and turned his head away, as if
+there were something in his face he would hide.
+
+She knew there was something unhappy in his life. Unconsciously her tone
+took on a sympathetic sound. "And do you get homesick and want to go
+back, ever?" she asked.
+
+His tone was fairly savage now. "No!"
+
+The silence which followed became almost oppressive before the Boy
+finally turned and in his kindly tone began to question her about the
+happenings which had stranded her in the desert alone at night.
+
+So she came to tell him briefly and frankly about herself, as he
+questioned--how she came to be in Arizona all alone.
+
+"My father is a minister in a small town in New York State. When I
+finished college I had to do something, and I had an offer of this
+Ashland school through a friend of ours who had a brother out here.
+Father and mother would rather have kept me nearer home, of course, but
+everybody says the best opportunities are in the West, and this was a
+good opening, so they finally consented. They would send post-haste for
+me to come back if they knew what a mess I have made of things right at
+the start--getting out of the train in the desert."
+
+"But you're not discouraged?" said her companion, half wonderingly.
+"Some nerve you have with you. I guess you'll manage to hit it off in
+Ashland. It's the limit as far as discipline is concerned, I understand,
+but I guess you'll put one over on them. I'll bank on you after
+to-night, sure thing!"
+
+She turned a laughing face toward him. "Thank you!" she said. "But I
+don't see how you know all that. I'm sure I didn't do anything
+particularly nervy. There wasn't anything else to do but what I did, if
+I'd tried."
+
+"Most girls would have fainted and screamed, and fainted again when they
+were rescued," stated the Boy, out of a vast experience.
+
+"I never fainted in my life," said Margaret Earle, with disdain. "I
+don't think I should care to faint out in the vast universe like this.
+It would be rather inopportune, I should think."
+
+Then, because she suddenly realized that she was growing very chummy
+with this stranger in the dark, she asked the first question that came
+into her head.
+
+"What was your college?"
+
+That he had not been to college never entered her head. There was
+something in his speech and manner that made it a foregone conclusion.
+
+It was as if she had struck him forcibly in his face, so sudden and
+sharp a silence ensued for a second. Then he answered, gruffly, "Yale,"
+and plunged into an elaborate account of Arizona in its early ages,
+including a detailed description of the cliff-dwellers and their homes,
+which were still to be seen high in the rocks of the canons not many
+miles to the west of where they were riding.
+
+Margaret was keen to hear it all, and asked many questions, declaring
+her intention of visiting those cliff-caves at her earliest opportunity.
+It was so wonderful to her to be actually out here where were all sorts
+of queer things about which she had read and wondered. It did not occur
+to her, until the next day, to realize that her companion had of
+intention led her off the topic of himself and kept her from asking any
+more personal questions.
+
+He told her of the petrified forest just over some low hills off to the
+left; acres and acres of agatized chips and trunks of great trees all
+turned to eternal stone, called by the Indians "Yeitso's bones," after
+the great giant of that name whom an ancient Indian hero killed. He
+described the coloring of the brilliant days in Arizona, where you stand
+on the edge of some flat-topped mesa and look off through the clear air
+to mountains that seem quite near by, but are in reality more than two
+hundred miles away. He pictured the strange colors and lights of the
+place; ledges of rock, yellow, white and green, drab and maroon, and
+tumbled piles of red boulders, shadowy buttes in the distance, serrated
+cliffs against the horizon, not blue, but rosy pink in the heated haze
+of the air, and perhaps a great, lonely eagle poised above the silent,
+brilliant waste.
+
+He told it not in book language, with turn of phrase and smoothly
+flowing sentences, but in simple, frank words, as a boy might describe a
+picture to one he knew would appreciate it--for her sake, and not
+because he loved to put it into words; but in a new, stumbling way
+letting out the beauty that had somehow crept into his heart in spite of
+all the rough attempts to keep all gentle things out of his nature.
+
+The girl, as she listened, marveled more and more what manner of youth
+this might be who had come to her out of the desert night.
+
+She forgot her weariness as she listened, in the thrill of wonder over
+the new mysterious country to which she had come. She forgot that she
+was riding through the great darkness with an utter stranger, to a place
+she knew not, and to experiences most dubious. Her fears had fled and
+she was actually enjoying herself, and responding to the wonderful story
+of the place with soft-murmured exclamations of delight and wonder.
+
+From time to time in the distance there sounded forth those awful
+blood-curdling howls of wild beasts that she had heard when she sat
+alone by the water-tank, and each time she heard a shudder passed
+through her and instinctively she swerved a trifle toward her companion,
+then straightened up again and tried to seem not to notice. The Boy saw
+and watched her brave attempts at self-control with deep appreciation.
+But suddenly, as they rode and talked, a dark form appeared across their
+way a little ahead, lithe and stealthy and furry, and two awful eyes
+like green lamps glared for an instant, then disappeared silently among
+the mesquite bushes.
+
+She did not cry out nor start. Her very veins seemed frozen with horror,
+and she could not have spoken if she tried. It was all over in a second
+and the creature gone, so that she almost doubted her senses and
+wondered if she had seen aright. Then one hand went swiftly to her
+throat and she shrank toward her companion.
+
+"There is nothing to fear," he said, reassuringly, and laid a strong
+hand comfortingly across the neck of her horse. "The pussy-cat was as
+unwilling for our company as we for hers. Besides, look here!"--and he
+raised his hand and shot into the air. "She'll not come near us now."
+
+"I am not afraid!" said the girl, bravely. "At least, I don't think I
+am--very! But it's all so new and unexpected, you know. Do people around
+here always shoot in that--well--unpremeditated fashion?"
+
+They laughed together.
+
+"Excuse me," he said. "I didn't realize the shot might startle you even
+more than the wildcat. It seems I'm not fit to have charge of a lady. I
+told you I was a roughneck."
+
+"You're taking care of me beautifully," said Margaret Earle, loyally,
+"and I'm glad to get used to shots if that's the thing to be expected
+often."
+
+Just then they came to the top of the low, rolling hill, and ahead in
+the darkness there gleamed a tiny, wizened light set in a blotch of
+blackness. Under the great white stars it burned a sickly red and seemed
+out of harmony with the night.
+
+"There we are!" said the Boy, pointing toward it. "That's the
+bunk-house. You needn't be afraid. Pop Wallis 'll be snoring by this
+time, and we'll come away before he's about in the morning. He always
+sleeps late after he's been off on a bout. He's been gone three days,
+selling some cattle, and he'll have a pretty good top on."
+
+The girl caught her breath, gave one wistful look up at the wide, starry
+sky, a furtive glance at the strong face of her protector, and
+submitted to being lifted down to the ground.
+
+Before her loomed the bunk-house, small and mean, built of logs, with
+only one window in which the flicker of the lanterns menaced, with
+unknown trials and possible perils for her to meet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+When Margaret Earle dawned upon that bunk-room the men sat up with one
+accord, ran their rough, red hands through their rough, tousled hair,
+smoothed their beards, took down their feet from the benches where they
+were resting. That was as far as their etiquette led them. Most of them
+continued to smoke their pipes, and all of them stared at her
+unreservedly. Such a sight of exquisite feminine beauty had not come to
+their eyes in many a long day. Even in the dim light of the smoky
+lanterns, and with the dust and weariness of travel upon her, Margaret
+Earle was a beautiful girl.
+
+"That's what's the matter, father," said her mother, when the subject of
+Margaret's going West to teach had first been mentioned. "She's too
+beautiful. Far too beautiful to go among savages! If she were homely and
+old, now, she might be safe. That would be a different matter."
+
+Yet Margaret had prevailed, and was here in the wild country. Now,
+standing on the threshold of the log cabin, she read, in the unveiled
+admiration that startled from the eyes of the men, the meaning of her
+mother's fears.
+
+Yet withal it was a kindly admiration not unmixed with awe. For there
+was about her beauty a touch of the spiritual which set her above the
+common run of women, making men feel her purity and sweetness, and
+inclining their hearts to worship rather than be bold.
+
+The Boy had been right. Pop Wallis was asleep and out of the way. From a
+little shed room at one end his snoring marked time in the silence that
+the advent of the girl made in the place.
+
+In the doorway of the kitchen offset Mom Wallis stood with her
+passionless face--a face from which all emotions had long ago been
+burned by cruel fires--and looked at the girl, whose expression was
+vivid with her opening life all haloed in a rosy glow.
+
+A kind of wistful contortion passed over Mom Wallis's hopeless
+countenance, as if she saw before her in all its possibility of
+perfection the life that she herself had lost. Perhaps it was no longer
+possible for her features to show tenderness, but a glow of something
+like it burned in her eyes, though she only turned away with the same
+old apathetic air, and without a word went about preparing a meal for
+the stranger.
+
+Margaret looked wildly, fearfully, around the rough assemblage when she
+first entered the long, low room, but instantly the boy introduced her
+as "the new teacher for the Ridge School beyond the Junction," and these
+were Long Bill, Big Jim, the Fiddling Boss, Jasper Kemp, Fade-away
+Forbes, Stocky, Croaker, and Fudge. An inspiration fell upon the
+frightened girl, and she acknowledged the introduction by a radiant
+smile, followed by the offering of her small gloved hand. Each man in
+dumb bewilderment instantly became her slave, and accepted the offered
+hand with more or less pleasure and embarrassment. The girl proved her
+right to be called tactful, and, seeing her advantage, followed it up
+quickly by a few bright words. These men were of an utterly different
+type from any she had ever met before, but they had in their eyes a kind
+of homage which Pop Wallis had not shown and they were not repulsive to
+her. Besides, the Boy was in the background, and her nerve had returned.
+The Boy knew how a lady should be treated. She was quite ready to "play
+up" to his lead.
+
+It was the Boy who brought the only chair the bunk-house afforded, a
+rude, home-made affair, and helped her off with her coat and hat in his
+easy, friendly way, as if he had known her all his life; while the men,
+to whom such gallant ways were foreign, sat awkwardly by and watched in
+wonder and amaze.
+
+Most of all they were astonished at "the Kid," that he could fall so
+naturally into intimate talk with this delicate, beautiful woman. She
+was another of his kind, a creature not made in the same mold as theirs.
+They saw it now, and watched the fairy play with almost childish
+interest. Just to hear her call him "Mr. Gardley"!--Lance Gardley, that
+was what he had told them was his name the day he came among them. They
+had not heard it since. The Kid! Mr. Gardley!
+
+There it was, the difference between them! They looked at the girl half
+jealously, yet proudly at the Boy. He was theirs--yes, in a way he was
+theirs--had they not found him in the wilderness, sick and nigh to
+death, and nursed him back to life again? He was theirs; but he knew
+how to drop into her world, too, and not be ashamed. They were glad that
+he could, even while it struck them with a pang that some day he would
+go back to the world to which he belonged--and where they could never be
+at home.
+
+It was a marvel to watch her eat the coarse corn-bread and pork that Mom
+Wallis brought her. It might have been a banquet, the pleasant way she
+seemed to look at it. Just like a bird she tasted it daintily, and
+smiled, showing her white teeth. There was nothing of the idea of
+greediness that each man knew he himself felt after a fast. It was all
+beautiful, the way she handled the two-tined fork and the old steel
+knife. They watched and dropped their eyes abashed as at a lovely
+sacrament. They had not felt before that eating could be an art. They
+did not know what art meant.
+
+Such strange talk, too! But the Kid seemed to understand. About the
+sky--their old, common sky, with stars that they saw every night--making
+such a fuss about that, with words like "wide," "infinite," "azure," and
+"gems." Each man went furtively out that night before he slept and took
+a new look at the sky to see if he could understand.
+
+The Boy was planning so the night would be but brief. He knew the girl
+was afraid. He kept the talk going enthusiastically, drawing in one or
+two of the men now and again. Long Bill forgot himself and laughed out a
+hoarse guffaw, then stopped as if he had been choked. Stocky, red in the
+face, told a funny story when commanded by the Boy, and then dissolved
+in mortification over his blunders. The Fiddling Boss obediently got
+down his fiddle from the smoky corner beside the fireplace and played a
+weird old tune or two, and then they sang. First the men, with hoarse,
+quavering approach and final roar of wild sweetness; then Margaret and
+the Boy in duet, and finally Margaret alone, with a few bashful chords
+on the fiddle, feeling their way as accompaniment.
+
+Mom Wallis had long ago stopped her work and was sitting huddled in the
+doorway on a nail-keg with weary, folded hands and a strange wistfulness
+on her apathetic face. A fine silence had settled over the group as the
+girl, recognizing her power, and the pleasure she was giving, sang on.
+Now and then the Boy, when he knew the song, would join in with his rich
+tenor.
+
+It was a strange night, and when she finally lay down to rest on a hard
+cot with a questionable-looking blanket for covering and Mom Wallis as
+her room-mate, Margaret Earle could not help wondering what her mother
+and father would think now if they could see her. Would they not,
+perhaps, almost prefer the water-tank and the lonely desert for her to
+her present surroundings?
+
+Nevertheless, she slept soundly after her terrible excitement, and woke
+with a start of wonder in the early morning, to hear the men outside
+splashing water and humming or whistling bits of the tunes she had sung
+to them the night before.
+
+Mom Wallis was standing over her, looking down with a hunger in her eyes
+at the bright waves of Margaret's hair and the soft, sleep-flushed
+cheeks.
+
+"You got dretful purty hair," said Mom Wallis, wistfully.
+
+Margaret looked up and smiled in acknowledgment of the compliment.
+
+"You wouldn't b'lieve it, but I was young an' purty oncet. Beats all how
+much it counts to be young--an' purty! But land! It don't last long.
+Make the most of it while you got it."
+
+Browning's immortal words came to Margaret's lips--
+
+    Grow old along with me,
+    The best is yet to be,
+    The last of life for which the first was made--
+
+but she checked them just in time and could only smile mutely. How could
+she speak such thoughts amid these intolerable surroundings? Then with
+sudden impulse she reached up to the astonished woman and, drawing her
+down, kissed her sallow cheek.
+
+"Oh!" said Mom Wallis, starting back and laying her bony hands upon the
+place where she had been kissed, as if it hurt her, while a dull red
+stole up from her neck over her cheeks and high forehead to the roots of
+her hay-colored hair. All at once she turned her back upon her visitor
+and the tears of the years streamed down her impassive face.
+
+"Don't mind me," she choked, after a minute. "I liked it real good, only
+it kind of give me a turn." Then, after a second: "It's time t' eat. You
+c'n wash outside after the men is done."
+
+That, thought Margaret, had been the scheme of this woman's whole
+life--"After the men is done!"
+
+So, after all, the night was passed in safety, and a wonderful dawning
+had come. The blue of the morning, so different from the blue of the
+night sky, was, nevertheless, just as unfathomable; the air seemed
+filled with straying star-beams, so sparkling was the clearness of the
+light.
+
+But now a mountain rose in the distance with heliotrope-and-purple
+bounds to stand across the vision and dispel the illusion of the night
+that the sky came down to the earth all around like a close-fitting
+dome. There were mountains on all sides, and a slender, dark line of
+mesquite set off the more delicate colorings of the plain.
+
+Into the morning they rode, Margaret and the Boy, before Pop Wallis was
+yet awake, while all the other men stood round and watched, eager,
+jealous for the handshake and the parting smile. They told her they
+hoped she would come again and sing for them, and each one had an
+awkward word of parting. Whatever Margaret Earle might do with her
+school, she had won seven loyal friends in the camp, and she rode away
+amid their admiring glances, which lingered, too, on the broad shoulders
+and wide sombrero of her escort riding by her side.
+
+"Wal, that's the end o' him, I 'spose," drawled Long Bill, with a deep
+sigh, as the riders passed into the valley out of their sight.
+
+"H'm!" said Jasper Kemp, hungrily. "I reck'n _he_ thinks it's jes' th'
+beginnin'!"
+
+"Maybe so! Maybe so!" said Big Jim, dreamily.
+
+The morning was full of wonder for the girl who had come straight from
+an Eastern city. The view from the top of the mesa, or the cool, dim
+entrance of a canon where great ferns fringed and feathered its walls,
+and strange caves hollowed out in the rocks far above, made real the
+stories she had read of the cave-dwellers. It was a new world.
+
+The Boy was charming. She could not have picked out among her city
+acquaintances a man who would have done the honors of the desert more
+delightfully than he. She had thought him handsome in the starlight and
+in the lantern-light the night before, but now that the morning shone
+upon him she could not keep from looking at him. His fresh color, which
+no wind and weather could quite subdue, his gray-blue eyes with that
+mixture of thoughtfulness and reverence and daring, his crisp, brown
+curls glinting with gold in the sunlight--all made him good to look
+upon. There was something about the firm set of his lips and chin that
+made her feel a hidden strength about him.
+
+When they camped a little while for lunch he showed the thoughtfulness
+and care for her comfort that many an older man might not have had. Even
+his talk was a mixture of boyishness and experience and he seemed to
+know her thoughts before she had them fully spoken.
+
+"I do not understand it," she said, looking him frankly in the eyes at
+last. "How ever in the world did one like _you_ get landed among all
+those dreadful men! Of course, in their way, some of them are not so
+bad; but they are not like you, not in the least, and never could be."
+
+They were riding out upon the plain now in the full afternoon light, and
+a short time would bring them to her destination.
+
+A sad, set look came quickly into the Boy's eyes and his face grew
+almost hard.
+
+"It's an old story. I suppose you've heard it before," he said, and his
+voice tried to take on a careless note, but failed. "I didn't make good
+back there"--he waved his hand sharply toward the East--"so I came out
+here to begin again. But I guess I haven't made good here, either--not
+in the way I meant when I came."
+
+"You can't, you know," said Margaret. "Not here."
+
+"Why?" He looked at her earnestly, as if he felt the answer might help
+him.
+
+"Because you have to go back where you didn't make good and pick up the
+lost opportunities. You can't really make good till you do that _right
+where you left off_."
+
+"But suppose it's too late?"
+
+"It's never too late if we're in earnest and not too proud."
+
+There was a long silence then, while the Boy looked thoughtfully off at
+the mountains, and when he spoke again it was to call attention to the
+beauty of a silver cloud that floated lazily on the horizon. But
+Margaret Earle had seen the look in his gray eyes and was not deceived.
+
+A few minutes later they crossed another mesa and descended to the
+enterprising little town where the girl was to begin her winter's work.
+The very houses and streets seemed to rise briskly and hasten to meet
+them those last few minutes of their ride.
+
+Now that the experience was almost over, the girl realized that she had
+enjoyed it intensely, and that she dreaded inexpressibly that she must
+bid good-by to this friend of a few hours and face an unknown world. It
+had been a wonderful day, and now it was almost done. The two looked at
+each other and realized that their meeting had been an epoch in their
+lives that neither would soon forget--that neither wanted to forget.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Slower the horses walked, and slower. The voices of the Boy and girl
+were low when they spoke about the common things by the wayside. Once
+their eyes met, and they smiled with something both sad and glad in
+them.
+
+Margaret was watching the young man by her side and wondering at
+herself. He was different from any man whose life had come near to hers
+before. He was wild and worldly, she could see that, and unrestrained by
+many of the things that were vital principles with her, and yet she felt
+strangely drawn to him and wonderfully at home in his company. She could
+not understand herself nor him. It was as if his real soul had looked
+out of his eyes and spoken, untrammeled by the circumstances of birth or
+breeding or habit, and she knew him for a kindred spirit. And yet he was
+far from being one in whom she would have expected even to find a
+friend. Where was her confidence of yesterday? Why was it that she
+dreaded to have this strong young protector leave her to meet alone a
+world of strangers, whom yesterday at this time she would have gladly
+welcomed?
+
+Now, when his face grew thoughtful and sad, she saw the hard, bitter
+lines that were beginning to be graven about his lips, and her heart
+ached over what he had said about not making good. She wondered if there
+was anything else she could say to help him, but no words came to her,
+and the sad, set look about his lips warned her that perhaps she had
+said enough. He was not one who needed a long dissertation to bring a
+thought home to his consciousness.
+
+Gravely they rode to the station to see about Margaret's trunks and make
+inquiries for the school and the house where she had arranged to board.
+Then Margaret sent a telegram to her mother to say that she had arrived
+safely, and so, when all was done and there was no longer an excuse for
+lingering, the Boy realized that he must leave her.
+
+They stood alone for just a moment while the voluble landlady went to
+attend to something that was boiling over on the stove. It was an ugly
+little parlor that was to be her reception-room for the next year at
+least, with red-and-green ingrain carpet of ancient pattern, hideous
+chromos on the walls, and frantically common furniture setting up in its
+shining varnish to be pretentious; but the girl had not seen it yet. She
+was filled with a great homesickness that had not possessed her even
+when she said good-by to her dear ones at home. She suddenly realized
+that the people with whom she was to be thrown were of another world
+from hers, and this one friend whom she had found in the desert was
+leaving her.
+
+She tried to shake hands formally and tell him how grateful she was to
+him for rescuing her from the perils of the night, but somehow words
+seemed so inadequate, and tears kept crowding their way into her throat
+and eyes. Absurd it was, and he a stranger twenty hours before, and a
+man of other ways than hers, besides. Yet he was her friend and rescuer.
+
+She spoke her thanks as well as she could, and then looked up, a swift,
+timid glance, and found his eyes upon her earnestly and troubled.
+
+"Don't thank me," he said, huskily. "I guess it was the best thing I
+ever did, finding you. I sha'n't forget, even if you never let me see
+you again--and--I hope you will." His eyes searched hers wistfully.
+
+"Of course," she said. "Why not?"
+
+"I thank you," he said in quaint, courtly fashion, bending low over her
+hand. "I shall try to be worthy of the honor."
+
+And so saying, he left her and, mounting his horse, rode away into the
+lengthening shadows of the afternoon.
+
+She stood in the forlorn little room staring out of the window after her
+late companion, a sense of utter desolation upon her. For the moment all
+her brave hopes of the future had fled, and if she could have slipped
+unobserved out of the front door, down to the station, and boarded some
+waiting express to her home, she would gladly have done it then and
+there.
+
+Try as she would to summon her former reasons for coming to this wild,
+she could not think of one of them, and her eyes were very near to
+tears.
+
+But Margaret Earle was not given to tears, and as she felt them smart
+beneath her lids she turned in a panic to prevent them. She could not
+afford to cry now. Mrs. Tanner would be returning, and she must not find
+the "new schoolma'am" weeping.
+
+With a glance she swept the meager, pretentious room, and then,
+suddenly, became aware of other presences. In the doorway stood a man
+and a dog, both regarding her intently with open surprise, not unmixed
+with open appraisement and a marked degree of admiration.
+
+The man was of medium height, slight, with a putty complexion; cold,
+pale-blue eyes; pale, straw-colored hair, and a look of self-indulgence
+around his rather weak mouth. He was dressed in a city business suit of
+the latest cut, however, and looked as much out of place in that crude
+little house as did Margaret Earle herself in her simple gown of
+dark-blue crepe and her undeniable air of style and good taste.
+
+His eyes, as they regarded her, had in them a smile that the girl
+instinctively resented. Was it a shade too possessive and complacently
+sure for a stranger?
+
+The dog, a large collie, had great, liquid, brown eyes, menacing or
+loyal, as circumstances dictated, and regarded her with an air of brief
+indecision. She felt she was being weighed in the balance by both pairs
+of eyes. Of the two the girl preferred the dog.
+
+Perhaps the dog understood, for he came a pace nearer and waved his
+plumy tail tentatively. For the dog she felt a glow of friendliness at
+once, but for the man she suddenly, and most unreasonably, of course,
+conceived one of her violent and unexpected dislikes.
+
+Into this tableau bustled Mrs. Tanner. "Well, now, I didn't go to leave
+you by your lonesome all this time," she apologized, wiping her hands on
+her apron, "but them beans boiled clean over, and I hed to put 'em in a
+bigger kettle. You see, I put in more beans 'count o' you bein' here,
+an' I ain't uset to calca'latin' on two extry." She looked happily from
+the man to the girl and back again.
+
+"Mr. West, I 'spose, o' course, you interjuced yerself? Bein' a
+preacher, you don't hev to stan' on ceremony like the rest of mankind.
+You 'ain't? Well, let me hev the pleasure of interjucin' our new
+school-teacher, Miss Margaret Earle. I 'spect you two 'll be awful
+chummy right at the start, both bein' from the East that way, an' both
+hevin' ben to college."
+
+Margaret Earle acknowledged the bow with a cool little inclination of
+her head. She wondered why she didn't hate the garrulous woman who
+rattled on in this happy, take-it-for-granted way; but there was
+something so innocently pleased in her manner that she couldn't help
+putting all her wrath on the smiling man who came forward instantly with
+a low bow and a voice of fulsome flattery.
+
+"Indeed, Miss Earle, I assure you I am happily surprised. I am sure Mrs.
+Tanner's prophecy will come true and we shall be the best of friends.
+When they told me the new teacher was to board here I really hesitated.
+I have seen something of these Western teachers in my time, and scarcely
+thought I should find you congenial; but I can see at a glance that you
+are the exception to the rule."
+
+He presented a soft, unmanly white hand, and there was nothing to do but
+take it or seem rude to her hostess; but her manner was like icicles,
+and she was thankful she had not yet removed her gloves.
+
+If the reverend gentleman thought he was to enjoy a lingering hand-clasp
+he was mistaken, for the gloved finger-tips merely touched his hand and
+were withdrawn, and the girl turned to her hostess with a smile of
+finality as if he were dismissed. He did not seem disposed to take the
+hint and withdraw, however, until on a sudden the great dog came and
+stood between them with open-mouthed welcome and joyous greeting in the
+plumy, wagging tail. He pushed close to her and looked up into her face
+insistently, his hanging pink tongue and wide, smiling countenance
+proclaiming that he was satisfied with his investigation.
+
+Margaret looked down at him, and then stooped and put her arms about his
+neck. Something in his kindly dog expression made her feel suddenly as
+if she had a real friend.
+
+It seemed the man, however, did not like the situation. He kicked
+gingerly at the dog's hind legs, and said in a harsh voice:
+
+"Get out of the way, sir. You're annoying the lady. Get out, I say!"
+
+The dog, however, uttered a low growl and merely showed the whites of
+his menacing eyes at the man, turning his body slightly so that he stood
+across the lady's way protectingly, as if to keep the man from her.
+
+Margaret smiled at the dog and laid her hand on his head, as if to
+signify her acceptance of the friendship he had offered her, and he
+waved his plume once more and attended her from the room, neither of
+them giving further attention to the man.
+
+"Confound that dog!" said Rev. Frederick West, in a most unpreacher-like
+tone, as he walked to the window and looked out. Then to himself he
+mused: "A pretty girl. A _very pretty_ girl. I really think it'll be
+worth my while to stay a month at least."
+
+Up in her room the "very pretty girl" was unpacking her suit-case and
+struggling with the tears. Not since she was a wee little girl and went
+to school all alone for the first time had she felt so very forlorn, and
+it was the little bare bedroom that had done it. At least that had been
+the final straw that had made too great the burden of keeping down those
+threatening tears.
+
+It was only a bare, plain room with unfinished walls, rough woodwork, a
+cheap wooden bed, a bureau with a warped looking-glass, and on the floor
+was a braided rug of rags. A little wooden rocker, another small,
+straight wooden chair, a hanging wall-pocket decorated with purple
+roses, a hanging bookshelf composed of three thin boards strung together
+with maroon picture cord, a violently colored picture-card of "Moses in
+the Bulrushes" framed in straws and red worsted, and bright-blue paper
+shades at the windows. That was the room!
+
+How different from her room at home, simply and sweetly finished anew
+for her home-coming from college! It rose before her homesick vision
+now. Soft gray walls, rose-colored ceiling, blended by a wreath of
+exquisite wild roses, whose pattern was repeated in the border of the
+simple curtains and chair cushions, white-enamel furniture, pretty brass
+bed soft as down in its luxurious mattress, spotless and inviting
+always. She glanced at the humpy bed with its fringed gray spread and
+lumpy-looking pillows in dismay. She had not thought of little
+discomforts like that, yet how they loomed upon her weary vision now!
+
+The tiny wooden stand with its thick, white crockery seemed ill
+substitute for the dainty white bath-room at home. She had known she
+would not have her home luxuries, of course, but she had not realized
+until set down amid these barren surroundings what a difference they
+would make.
+
+Going to the window and looking out, she saw for the first tune the one
+luxury the little room possessed--a view! And such a view! Wide and
+wonderful and far it stretched, in colors unmatched by painter's brush,
+a purple mountain topped by rosy clouds in the distance. For the second
+time in Arizona her soul was lifted suddenly out of itself and its
+dismay by a vision of the things that God has made and the largeness of
+it all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+For some time she stood and gazed, marveling at the beauty and recalling
+some of the things her companion of the afternoon had said about his
+impressions of the place; then suddenly there loomed a dark speck in the
+near foreground of her meditation, and, looking down annoyed, she
+discovered the minister like a gnat between the eye and a grand
+spectacle, his face turned admiringly up to her window, his hand lifted
+in familiar greeting.
+
+Vexed at his familiarity, she turned quickly and jerked down the shade;
+then throwing herself on the bed, she had a good cry. Her nerves were
+terribly wrought up. Things seemed twisted in her mind, and she felt
+that she had reached the limit of her endurance. Here was she, Margaret
+Earle, newly elected teacher to the Ashland Ridge School, lying on her
+bed in tears, when she ought to be getting settled and planning her new
+life; when the situation demanded her best attention she was wrought up
+over a foolish little personal dislike. Why did she have to dislike a
+minister, anyway, and then take to a wild young fellow whose life thus
+far had been anything but satisfactory even to himself? Was it her
+perverse nature that caused her to remember the look in the eyes of the
+Boy who had rescued her from a night in the wilderness, and to feel
+there was far more manliness in his face than in the face of the man
+whose profession surely would lead one to suppose he was more worthy of
+her respect and interest? Well, she was tired. Perhaps things would
+assume their normal relation to one another in the morning. And so,
+after a few minutes, she bathed her face in the little, heavy,
+iron-stone wash-bowl, combed her hair, and freshened the collar and
+ruffles in her sleeves preparatory to going down for the evening meal.
+Then, with a swift thought, she searched through her suit-case for every
+available article wherewith to brighten that forlorn room.
+
+The dainty dressing-case of Dresden silk with rosy ribbons that her girl
+friends at home had given as a parting gift covered a generous portion
+of the pine bureau, and when she had spread it out and bestowed its
+silver-mounted brushes, combs, hand-glass, and pretty sachet, things
+seemed to brighten up a bit. She hung up a cobweb of a lace boudoir cap
+with its rose-colored ribbons over the bleary mirror, threw her kimono
+of flowered challis over the back of the rocker, arranged her soap and
+toothbrush, her own wash-rag and a towel brought from home on the
+wash-stand, and somehow felt better and more as if she belonged. Last
+she ranged her precious photographs of father and mother and the dear
+vine-covered church and manse across in front of the mirror. When her
+trunks came there would be other things, and she could bear it, perhaps,
+when she had this room buried deep in the home belongings. But this
+would have to do for to-night, for the trunk might not come till
+morning, and, anyhow, she was too weary to unpack.
+
+She ventured one more look out of her window, peering carefully at first
+to make sure her fellow-boarder was not still standing down below on the
+grass. A pang of compunction shot through her conscience. What would her
+dear father think of her feeling this way toward a minister, and before
+she knew the first thing about him, too? It was dreadful! She must shake
+it off. Of course he was a good man or he wouldn't be in the ministry,
+and she had doubtless mistaken mere friendliness for forwardness. She
+would forget it and try to go down and behave to him the way her father
+would want her to behave toward a fellow-minister.
+
+Cautiously she raised the shade again and looked out. The mountain was
+bathed in a wonderful ruby light fading into amethyst, and all the path
+between was many-colored like a pavement of jewels set in filigree.
+While she looked the picture changed, glowed, softened, and changed
+again, making her think of the chapter about the Holy City in
+Revelation.
+
+She started at last when some one knocked hesitatingly on the door, for
+the wonderful sunset light had made her forget for the moment where she
+was, and it seemed a desecration to have mere mortals step in and
+announce supper, although the odor of pork and cabbage had been
+proclaiming it dumbly for some time.
+
+She went to the door, and, opening it, found a dark figure standing in
+the hall. For a minute she half feared it was the minister, until a
+shy, reluctant backwardness in the whole stocky figure and the stirring
+of a large furry creature just behind him made her sure it was not.
+
+"Ma says you're to come to supper," said a gruff, untamed voice; and
+Margaret perceived that the person in the gathering gloom of the hall
+was a boy.
+
+"Oh!" said Margaret, with relief in her voice. "Thank you for coming to
+tell me. I meant to come down and not give that trouble, but I got to
+looking at the wonderful sunset. Have you been watching it?" She pointed
+across the room to the window. "Look! Isn't that a great color there on
+the tip of the mountain? I never saw anything like that at home. I
+suppose you're used to it, though."
+
+The boy came a step nearer the door and looked blankly, half
+wonderingly, across at the window, as if he expected to see some
+phenomenon. "Oh! _That!_" he exclaimed, carelessly. "Sure! We have them
+all the time."
+
+"But that wonderful silver light pouring down just in that one tiny
+spot!" exclaimed Margaret. "It makes the mountain seem alive and
+smiling!"
+
+The boy turned and looked at her curiously. "Gee!" said he, "I c'n show
+you plenty like that!" But he turned and looked at it a long, lingering
+minute again.
+
+"But we mustn't keep your mother waiting," said Margaret, remembering
+and turning reluctantly toward the door. "Is this your dog? Isn't he a
+beauty? He made me feel really as if he were glad to see me." She
+stooped and laid her hand on the dog's head and smiled brightly up at
+his master.
+
+The boy's face lit with a smile, and he turned a keen, appreciative look
+at the new teacher, for the first time genuinely interested in her.
+"Cap's a good old scout," he admitted.
+
+"So his name is Cap. Is that short for anything?"
+
+"Cap'n."
+
+"Captain. What a good name for him. He looks as if he were a captain,
+and he waves that tail grandly, almost as if it might be a badge of
+office. But who are you? You haven't told me your name yet. Are you Mrs.
+Tanner's son?"
+
+The boy nodded. "I'm just Bud Tanner."
+
+"Then you are one of my pupils, aren't you? We must shake hands on
+that." She put out her hand, but she was forced to go out after Bud's
+reluctant red fist, take it by force in a strange grasp, and do all the
+shaking; for Bud had never had that experience before in his life, and
+he emerged from it with a very red face and a feeling as if his right
+arm had been somehow lifted out of the same class with the rest of his
+body. It was rather awful, too, that it happened just in the open
+dining-room door, and that "preacher-boarder" watched the whole
+performance. Bud put on an extra-deep frown and shuffled away from the
+teacher, making a great show of putting Cap out of the dining-room,
+though he always sat behind his master's chair at meals, much to the
+discomfiture of the male boarder, who was slightly in awe of his
+dogship, not having been admitted into friendship as the lady had been.
+
+Mr. West stood back of his chair, awaiting the arrival of the new
+boarder, an expectant smile on his face, and rubbing his hands together
+with much the same effect as a wolf licking his lips in anticipation of
+a victim. In spite of her resolves to like the man, Margaret was again
+struck with aversion as she saw him standing there, and was intensely
+relieved when she found that the seat assigned to her was on the
+opposite side of the table from him, and beside Bud. West, however, did
+not seem to be pleased with the arrangement, and, stepping around the
+table, said to his landlady:
+
+"Did you mean me to sit over here?" and he placed a possessive hand on
+the back of the chair that was meant for Bud.
+
+"No, Mister West, you jest set where you ben settin'," responded Mrs.
+Tanner. She had thought the matter all out and decided that the minister
+could converse with the teacher to the better advantage of the whole
+table if he sat across from her. Mrs. Tanner was a born match-maker.
+This she felt was an opportunity not to be despised, even if it sometime
+robbed the Ridge School of a desirable teacher.
+
+But West did not immediately return to his place at the other side of
+the table. To Margaret's extreme annoyance he drew her chair and waited
+for her to sit down. The situation, however, was somewhat relieved of
+its intimacy by a sudden interference from Cap, who darted away from his
+frowning master and stepped up authoritatively to the minister's side
+with a low growl, as if to say:
+
+"Hands off that chair! That doesn't belong to you!"
+
+West suddenly released his hold on the chair without waiting to shove
+it up to the table, and precipitately retired to his own place. "That
+dog's a nuisance!" he said, testily, and was answered with a glare from
+Bud's dark eyes.
+
+Bud came to his seat with his eyes still set savagely on the minister,
+and Cap settled down protectingly behind Margaret's chair.
+
+Mrs. Tanner bustled in with the coffee-pot, and Mr. Tanner came last,
+having just finished his rather elaborate hair-comb at the kitchen glass
+with the kitchen comb, in full view of the assembled multitude. He was a
+little, thin, wiry, weather-beaten man, with skin like leather and
+sparse hair. Some of his teeth were missing, leaving deep hollows in his
+cheeks, and his kindly protruding chin was covered with scraggy gray
+whiskers, which stuck out ahead of him like a cow-catcher. He was in his
+shirt-sleeves and collarless, but looked neat and clean, and he greeted
+the new guest heartily before he sat down, and nodded to the minister:
+
+"Naow, Brother West, I reckon we're ready fer your part o' the
+performance. You'll please to say grace."
+
+Mr. West bowed his sleek, yellow head and muttered a formal blessing
+with an offhand manner, as if it were a mere ceremony. Bud stared
+contemptuously at him the while, and Cap uttered a low rumble as of a
+distant growl. Margaret felt a sudden desire to laugh, and tried to
+control herself, wondering what her father would feel about it all.
+
+The genial clatter of knives and forks broke the stiffness after the
+blessing. Mrs. Tanner bustled back and forth from the stove to the
+table, talking clamorously the while. Mr. Tanner joined in with his
+flat, nasal twang, responding, and the minister, with an air of utter
+contempt for them both, endeavored to set up a separate and altogether
+private conversation with Margaret across the narrow table; but Margaret
+innocently had begun a conversation with Bud about the school, and had
+to be addressed by name each time before Mr. West could get her
+attention. Bud, with a boy's keenness, noticed her aversion, and put
+aside his own backwardness, entering into the contest with remarkably
+voluble replies. The minister, if he would be in the talk at all, was
+forced to join in with theirs, and found himself worsted and
+contradicted by the boy at every turn.
+
+Strange to say, however, this state of things only served to make the
+man more eager to talk with the lady. She was not anxious for his
+attention. Ah! She was coy, and the acquaintance was to have the zest of
+being no lightly won friendship. All the better. He watched her as she
+talked, noted every charm of lash and lid and curving lip; stared so
+continually that she finally gave up looking his way at all, even when
+she was obliged to answer his questions.
+
+Thus, at last, the first meal in the new home was concluded, and
+Margaret, pleading excessive weariness, went to her room. She felt as if
+she could not endure another half-hour of contact with her present world
+until she had had some rest. If the world had been just Bud and the dog
+she could have stayed below stairs and found out a little more about the
+new life; but with that oily-mouthed minister continually butting in
+her soul was in a tumult.
+
+When she had prepared for rest she put out her light and drew up the
+shade. There before her spread the wide wonder of the heavens again,
+with the soft purple of the mountain under stars; and she was carried
+back to the experience of the night before with a vivid memory of her
+companion. Why, just _why_ couldn't she be as interested in the minister
+down there as in the wild young man? Well, she was too tired to-night to
+analyze it all, and she knelt beside her window in the starlight to
+pray. As she prayed her thoughts were on Lance Gardley once more, and
+she felt her heart go out in longing for him, that he might find a way
+to "make good," whatever his trouble had been.
+
+As she rose to retire she heard a step below, and, looking down, saw the
+minister stalking back and forth in the yard, his hands clasped behind,
+his head thrown back raptly. He could not see her in her dark room, but
+she pulled the shade down softly and fled to her hard little bed. Was
+that man going to obsess her vision everywhere, and must she try to like
+him just because he was a minister?
+
+So at last she fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+The next day was filled with unpacking and with writing letters home. By
+dint of being very busy Margaret managed to forget the minister, who
+seemed to obtrude himself at every possible turn of the day, and would
+have monopolized her if she had given him half a chance.
+
+The trunks, two delightful steamer ones, and a big packing-box with her
+books, arrived the next morning and caused great excitement in the
+household. Not since they moved into the new house had they seen so many
+things arrive. Bud helped carry them up-stairs, while Cap ran wildly
+back and forth, giving sharp barks, and the minister stood by the front
+door and gave ineffectual and unpractical advice to the man who had
+brought them. Margaret heard the man and Bud exchanging their opinion of
+West in low growls in the hall as they entered her door, and she
+couldn't help feeling that she agreed with them, though she might not
+have expressed her opinion in the same terms.
+
+The minister tapped at her door a little later and offered his services
+in opening her box and unstrapping her trunks; but she told him Bud had
+already performed that service for her, and thanked him with a finality
+that forbade him to linger. She half hoped he heard the vicious little
+click with which she locked the door after him, and then wondered if she
+were wicked to feel that way. But all such compunctions were presently
+forgotten in the work of making over her room.
+
+The trunks, after they were unpacked and repacked with the things she
+would not need at once, were disposed in front of the two windows with
+which the ugly little room was blessed. She covered them with two Bagdad
+rugs, relics of her college days, and piled several college pillows from
+the packing-box on each, which made the room instantly assume a homelike
+air. Then out of the box came other things. Framed pictures of home
+scenes, college friends and places, pennants, and flags from football,
+baseball, and basket-ball games she had attended; photographs; a few
+prints of rare paintings simply framed; a roll of rose-bordered white
+scrim like her curtains at home, wherewith she transformed the
+blue-shaded windows and the stiff little wooden rocker, and even made a
+valance and bed-cover over pink cambric for her bed. The bureau and
+wash-stand were given pink and white covers, and the ugly walls
+literally disappeared beneath pictures, pennants, banners, and symbols.
+
+When Bud came up to call her to dinner she flung the door open, and he
+paused in wide-eyed amazement over the transformation. His eyes kindled
+at a pair of golf-sticks, a hockey-stick, a tennis-racket, and a big
+basket-ball in the corner; and his whole look of surprise was so
+ridiculous that she had to laugh. He looked as if a miracle had been
+performed on the room, and actually stepped back into the hall to get
+his breath and be sure he was still in his father's house.
+
+"I want you to come in and see all my pictures and get acquainted with
+my friends when you have time," she said. "I wonder if you could make
+some more shelves for my books and help me unpack and set them up?"
+
+"Sure!" gasped Bud, heartily, albeit with awe. She hadn't asked the
+minister; she had asked _him_--_Bud!_ Just a boy! He looked around the
+room with anticipation. What wonder and delight he would have looking at
+all those things!
+
+Then Cap stepped into the middle of the room as if he belonged, mouth
+open, tongue lolling, smiling and panting a hearty approval, as he
+looked about at the strangeness for all the world as a human being might
+have done. It was plain he was pleased with the change.
+
+There was a proprietary air about Bud during dinner that was pleasant to
+Margaret and most annoying to West. It was plain that West looked on the
+boy as an upstart whom Miss Earle was using for the present to block his
+approach, and he was growing most impatient over the delay. He suggested
+that perhaps she would like his escort to see something of her
+surroundings that afternoon; but she smilingly told him that she would
+be very busy all the afternoon getting settled, and when he offered
+again to help her she cast a dazzling smile on Bud and said she didn't
+think she would need any more help, that Bud was going to do a few
+things for her, and that was all that was necessary.
+
+Bud straightened up and became two inches taller. He passed the bread,
+suggested two pieces of pie, and filled her glass of water as if she
+were his partner. Mr. Tanner beamed to see his son in high favor, but
+Mrs. Tanner looked a little troubled for the minister. She thought
+things weren't just progressing as fast as they ought to between him and
+the teacher.
+
+Bud, with Margaret's instructions, managed to make a very creditable
+bookcase out of the packing-box sawed in half, the pieces set side by
+side. She covered them deftly with green burlap left over from college
+days, like her other supplies, and then the two arranged the books. Bud
+was delighted over the prospect of reading some of the books, for they
+were not all school-books, by any means, and she had brought plenty of
+them to keep her from being lonesome on days when she longed to fly back
+to her home.
+
+At last the work was done, and they stood back to survey it. The books
+filled up every speck of space and overflowed to the three little
+hanging shelves over them; but they were all squeezed in at last except
+a pile of school-books that were saved out to take to the school-house.
+Margaret set a tiny vase on the top of one part of the packing-case and
+a small brass bowl on the top of the other, and Bud, after a knowing
+glance, scurried away for a few minutes and brought back a handful of
+gorgeous cactus blossoms to give the final touch.
+
+"Gee!" he said, admiringly, looking around the room. "Gee! You wouldn't
+know it fer the same place!"
+
+That evening after supper Margaret sat down to write a long letter home.
+She had written a brief letter, of course, the night before, but had
+been too weary to go into detail. The letter read:
+
+     DEAR MOTHER AND FATHER,--I'm unpacked and settled at last in my
+     room, and now I can't stand it another minute till I talk to you.
+
+     Last night, of course, I was pretty homesick, things all looked so
+     strange and new and different. I had known they would, but then I
+     didn't realize at all how different they would be. But I'm not
+     getting homesick already; don't think it. I'm not a bit sorry I
+     came, or at least I sha'n't be when I get started in school. One of
+     the scholars is Mrs. Tanner's son, and I like him. He's crude, of
+     course, but he has a brain, and he's been helping me this
+     afternoon. We made a bookcase for my books, and it looks fine. I
+     wish you could see it. I covered it with the green burlap, and the
+     books look real happy in smiling rows over on the other side of the
+     room. Bud Tanner got me some wonderful cactus blossoms for my brass
+     bowl. I wish I could send you some. They are gorgeous!
+
+     But you will want me to tell about my arrival. Well, to begin with,
+     I was late getting here [Margaret had decided to leave out the
+     incident of the desert altogether, for she knew by experience that
+     her mother would suffer terrors all during her absence if she once
+     heard of that wild adventure], which accounts for the lateness of
+     the telegram I sent you. I hope its delay didn't make you worry
+     any.
+
+     A very nice young man named Mr. Gardley piloted me to Mrs. Tanner's
+     house and looked after my trunks for me. He is from the East. It
+     was fortunate for me that he happened along, for he was most kind
+     and gentlemanly and helpful. Tell Jane not to worry lest I'll fall
+     in love with him; he doesn't live here. He belongs to a ranch or
+     camp or something twenty-five miles away. She was so afraid I'd
+     fall in love with an Arizona man and not come back home.
+
+     Mrs. Tanner is very kind and motherly according to her lights. She
+     has given me the best room in the house, and she talks a blue
+     streak. She has thin, brown hair turning gray, and she wears it in
+     a funny little knob on the tip-top of her round head to correspond
+     with the funny little tuft of hair on her husband's protruding
+     chin. Her head is set on her neck like a clothes-pin, only she is
+     squattier than a clothes-pin. She always wears her sleeves rolled
+     up (at least so far she has) and she always bustles around noisily
+     and apologizes for everything in the jolliest sort of way. I would
+     like her, I guess, if it wasn't for the other boarder; but she has
+     quite made up her mind that I shall like him, and I don't, of
+     course, so she is a bit disappointed in me so far.
+
+     Mr. Tanner is very kind and funny, and looks something like a
+     jack-knife with the blades half-open. He never disagrees with Mrs.
+     Tanner, and I really believe he's in love with her yet, though they
+     must have been married a good while. He calls her "Ma," and seems
+     restless unless she's in the room. When she goes out to the kitchen
+     to get some more soup or hash or bring in the pie, he shouts
+     remarks at her all the time she's gone, and she answers, utterly
+     regardless of the conversation the rest of the family are carrying
+     on. It's like a phonograph wound up for the day.
+
+     Bud Tanner is about fourteen, and I like him. He's well developed,
+     strong, and almost handsome; at least he would be if he were fixed
+     up a little. He has fine, dark eyes and a great shock of dark hair.
+     He and I are friends already. And so is the dog. The dog is a
+     peach! Excuse me, mother, but I just must use a little of the dear
+     old college slang somewhere, and your letters are the only
+     safety-valve, for I'm a schoolmarm now and must talk "good and
+     proper" all the time, you know.
+
+     The dog's name is Captain, and he looks the part. He has
+     constituted himself my bodyguard, and it's going to be very nice
+     having him. He's perfectly devoted already. He's a great, big,
+     fluffy fellow with keen, intelligent eyes, sensitive ears, and a
+     tail like a spreading plume. You'd love him, I know. He has a smile
+     like the morning sunshine.
+
+     And now I come to the only other member of the family, the boarder,
+     and I hesitate to approach the topic, because I have taken one of
+     my violent and naughty dislikes to him, and--awful thought--mother!
+     father! _he's a minister!_ Yes, he's a _Presbyterian minister_! I
+     know it will make you feel dreadfully, and I thought some of not
+     telling you, but my conscience hurt me so I had to. I just can't
+     _bear_ him, so there! Of course, I may get over it, but I don't see
+     how ever, for I can't think of anything that's more like him than
+     _soft soap_! Oh yes, there is one other word. Grandmother used to
+     use it about men she hadn't any use for, and that was "squash."
+     Mother, I can't help it, but he does seem something like a squash.
+     One of that crook-necked, yellow kind with warts all over it, and a
+     great, big, splurgy vine behind it to account for its being there
+     at all. Insipid and thready when it's cooked, you know, and has to
+     have a lot of salt and pepper and butter to make it go down at all.
+     Now I've told you the worst, and I'll try to describe him and see
+     what you think I'd better do about it. Oh, he isn't the regular
+     minister here, or missionary--I guess they call him. He's located
+     quite a distance off, and only comes once a month to preach here,
+     and, anyhow, _he's_ gone East now to take his wife to a hospital
+     for an operation, and won't be back for a couple of months,
+     perhaps, and this man isn't even taking his place. He's just here
+     for his health or for fun or something, I guess. He says he had a
+     large suburban church near New York, and had a nervous breakdown;
+     but I've been wondering if he didn't make a mistake, and it wasn't
+     the church had the nervous breakdown instead. He isn't very big nor
+     very little; he's just insignificant. His hair is like wet straw,
+     and his eyes like a fish's. His hand feels like a dead toad when
+     you have to shake hands, which I'm thankful doesn't have to be done
+     but once. He looks at you with a flat, sickening grin. He has an
+     acquired double chin, acquired to make him look pompous, and he
+     dresses stylishly and speaks of the inhabitants of this country
+     with contempt. He wants to be very affable, and offers to take me
+     to all sorts of places, but so far I've avoided him. I can't think
+     how they ever came to let him be a minister--I really can't! And
+     yet, I suppose it's all my horrid old prejudice, and father will be
+     grieved and you will think I am perverse. But, really, I'm sure
+     he's not one bit like father was when he was young. I never saw a
+     minister like him. Perhaps I'll get over it. I do sometimes, you
+     know, so don't begin to worry yet. I'll try real hard. I suppose
+     he'll preach Sunday, and then, perhaps, his sermon will be grand
+     and I'll forget how soft-soapy he looks and think only of his great
+     thoughts.
+
+     But I know it will be a sort of comfort to you to know that there
+     is a Presbyterian minister in the house with me, and I'll really
+     try to like him if I can.
+
+     There's nothing to complain of in the board. It isn't luxurious, of
+     course, but I didn't expect that. Everything is very plain, but
+     Mrs. Tanner manages to make it taste good. She makes fine
+     corn-bread, almost as good as yours--not quite.
+
+     My room is all lovely, now that I have covered its bareness with my
+     own things, but it has one great thing that can't compare with
+     anything at home, and that is its view. It is wonderful! I wish I
+     could make you see it. There is a mountain at the end of it that
+     has as many different garments as a queen. To-night, when sunset
+     came, it grew filmy as if a gauze of many colors had dropped upon
+     it and melted into it, and glowed and melted until it turned to
+     slate blue under the wide, starred blue of the wonderful night sky,
+     and all the dark about was velvet. Last night my mountain was all
+     pink and silver, and I have seen it purple and rose. But you can't
+     think the wideness of the sky, and I couldn't paint it for you with
+     words. You must see it to understand. A great, wide, dark sapphire
+     floor just simply ravished with stars like big jewels!
+
+     But I must stop and go to bed, for I find the air of this country
+     makes me very sleepy, and my wicked little kerosene-lamp is
+     smoking. I guess you would better send me my student-lamp, after
+     all, for I'm surely going to need it.
+
+     Now I must turn out the light and say good night to my mountain,
+     and then I will go to sleep thinking of you. Don't worry about the
+     minister. I'm very polite to him, but I shall never--_no,
+     never_--fall in love with _him_--tell Jane.
+
+                                                Your loving little girl,
+                                                     MARGARET.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Margaret had arranged with Bud to take her to the school-house the next
+morning, and he had promised to have a horse hitched up and ready at ten
+o'clock, as it seemed the school was a magnificent distance from her
+boarding-place. In fact, everything seemed to be located with a view to
+being as far from everywhere else as possible. Even the town was
+scattering and widespread and sparse.
+
+When she came down to breakfast she was disappointed to find that Bud
+was not there, and she was obliged to suffer a breakfast tete-a-tete
+with West. By dint, however, of asking him questions instead of allowing
+him to take the initiative, she hurried through her breakfast quite
+successfully, acquiring a superficial knowledge of her fellow-boarder
+quite distant and satisfactory. She knew where he spent his college days
+and at what theological seminary he had prepared for the ministry. He
+had served three years in a prosperous church of a fat little suburb of
+New York, and was taking a winter off from his severe, strenuous
+pastoral labors to recuperate his strength, get a new stock of sermons
+ready, and possibly to write a book of some of his experiences. He
+flattened his weak, pink chin learnedly as he said this, and tried to
+look at her impressively. He said that he should probably take a large
+city church as his next pastorate when his health was fully recuperated.
+He had come out to study the West and enjoy its freedom, as he
+understood it was a good place to rest and do as you please unhampered
+by what people thought. He wanted to get as far away from churches and
+things clerical as possible. He felt it was due himself and his work
+that he should. He spoke of the people he had met in Arizona as a kind
+of tamed savages, and Mrs. Tanner, sitting behind her coffee-pot for a
+moment between bustles, heard his comments meekly and looked at him with
+awe. What a great man he must be, and how fortunate for the new teacher
+that he should be there when she came!
+
+Margaret drew a breath of relief as she hurried away from the
+breakfast-table to her room. She was really anticipating the ride to the
+school with Bud. She liked boys, and Bud had taken her fancy. But when
+she came down-stairs with her hat and sweater on she found West standing
+out in front, holding the horse.
+
+"Bud had to go in another direction, Miss Earle," he said, touching his
+hat gracefully, "and he has delegated to me the pleasant task of driving
+you to the school."
+
+Dismay filled Margaret's soul, and rage with young Bud. He had deserted
+her and left her in the hands of the enemy! And she had thought he
+understood! Well, there was nothing for it but to go with this man, much
+as she disliked it. Her father's daughter could not be rude to a
+minister.
+
+She climbed into the buckboard quickly to get the ceremony over, for her
+escort was inclined to be too officious about helping her in, and
+somehow she couldn't bear to have him touch her. Why was it that she
+felt so about him? Of course he must be a good man.
+
+West made a serious mistake at the very outset of that ride. He took it
+for granted that all girls like flattery, and he proceeded to try it on
+Margaret. But Margaret did not enjoy being told how delighted he was to
+find that instead of the loud, bold "old maid" he had expected, she had
+turned out to be "so beautiful and young and altogether congenial"; and,
+coolly ignoring his compliments, she began a fire of questions again.
+
+She asked about the country, because that was the most obvious topic of
+conversation. What plants were those that grew by the wayside? She found
+he knew greasewood from sage-brush, and that was about all. To some of
+her questions he hazarded answers that were absurd in the light of the
+explanations given her by Gardley two days before. However, she
+reflected that he had been in the country but a short time, and that he
+was by nature a man not interested in such topics. She tried religious
+matters, thinking that here at least they must have common interests.
+She asked him what he thought of Christianity in the West as compared
+with the East. Did he find these Western people more alive and awake to
+the things of the Kingdom?
+
+West gave a startled look at the clear profile of the young woman beside
+him, thought he perceived that she was testing him on his clerical side,
+flattened his chin in his most learned, self-conscious manner, cleared
+his throat, and put on wisdom.
+
+"Well, now, Miss Earle," he began, condescendingly, "I really don't know
+that I have thought much about the matter. Ah--you know I have been
+resting absolutely, and I really haven't had opportunity to study the
+situation out here in detail; but, on the whole, I should say that
+everything was decidedly primitive; yes--ah--I might say--ah--well,
+crude. Yes, _crude_ in the extreme! Why, take it in this mission
+district. The missionary who is in charge seems to be teaching the most
+absurd of the old dogmas such as our forefathers used to teach. I
+haven't met him, of course. He is in the East with his wife for a time.
+I am told she had to go under some kind of an operation. I have never
+met him, and really don't care to do so; but to judge from all I hear,
+he is a most unfit man for a position of the kind. For example, he is
+teaching such exploded doctrines as the old view of the atonement, the
+infallibility of the Scriptures, the deity of Christ, belief in
+miracles, and the like. Of course, in one sense it really matters very
+little what the poor Indians believe, or what such people as the Tanners
+are taught. They have but little mind, and would scarcely know the
+difference; but you can readily see that with such a primitive,
+unenlightened man at the head of religious affairs, there could scarcely
+be much broadening and real religious growth. Ignorance, of course,
+holds sway out here. I fancy you will find that to be the case soon
+enough. What in the world ever led you to come to a field like this to
+labor? Surely there must have been many more congenial places open to
+such as you." He leaned forward and cast a sentimental glance at her,
+his eyes looking more "fishy" than ever.
+
+"I came out here because I wanted to get acquainted with this great
+country, and because I thought there was an opportunity to do good,"
+said Margaret, coldly. She did not care to discuss her own affairs with
+this man. "But, Mr. West, I don't know that I altogether understand you.
+Didn't you tell me that you were a Presbyterian minister?"
+
+"I certainly did," he answered, complacently, as though he were honoring
+the whole great body of Presbyterians by making the statement.
+
+"Well, then, what in the world did you mean? All Presbyterians, of
+course, believe in the infallibility of the Scriptures and the deity of
+Jesus--and the atonement!"
+
+"Not necessarily," answered the young man, loftily. "You will find, my
+dear young lady, that there is a wide, growing feeling in our church in
+favor of a broader view. The younger men, and the great student body of
+our church, have thrown to the winds all their former beliefs and are
+ready to accept new light with open minds. The findings of science have
+opened up a vast store of knowledge, and all thinking men must
+acknowledge that the old dogmas are rapidly vanishing away. Your father
+doubtless still holds to the old faith, perhaps, and we must be lenient
+with the older men who have done the best they could with the light they
+had; but all younger, broad-minded men are coming to the new way of
+looking at things. We have had enough of the days of preaching hell-fire
+and damnation. We need a religion of love to man, and good works. You
+should read some of the books that have been written on this subject if
+you care to understand. I really think it would be worth your while. You
+look to me like a young woman with a mind. I have a few of the latest
+with me. I shall be glad to read and discuss them with you if you are
+interested."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. West," said Margaret, coolly, though her eyes burned
+with battle. "I think I have probably read most of those books and
+discussed them with my father. He may be old, but he is not without
+'light,' as you call it, and he always believed in knowing all that the
+other side was saying. He brought me up to look into these things for
+myself. And, anyhow, I should not care to read and discuss any of these
+subjects with a man who denies the deity of my Saviour and does not
+believe in the infallibility of the Bible. It seems to me you have
+nothing left--"
+
+"Ah! Well--now--my dear young lady--you mustn't misjudge me! I should be
+sorry indeed to shake your faith, for an innocent faith is, of course, a
+most beautiful thing, even though it may be unfounded."
+
+"Indeed, Mr. West, that would not be possible. You could not shake my
+faith in my Christ, because _I know Him_. If I had not ever felt His
+presence, nor been guided by His leading, such words might possibly
+trouble me, but having seen 'Him that is invisible,' _I know_."
+Margaret's voice was steady and gentle. It was impossible for even that
+man not to be impressed by her words.
+
+"Well, let us not quarrel about it," he said, indulgently, as to a
+little child. "I'm sure you have a very charming way of stating it, and
+I'm not sure that it is not a relief to find a woman of the
+old-fashioned type now and then. It really is man's place to look into
+these deeper questions, anyway. It is woman's sphere to live and love
+and make a happy home--"
+
+His voice took on a sentimental purr, and Margaret was fairly boiling
+with rage at him; but she would not let her temper give way, especially
+when she was talking on the sacred theme of the Christ. She felt as if
+she must scream or jump out over the wheel and run away from this
+obnoxious man, but she knew she would do neither. She knew she would sit
+calmly through the expedition and somehow control that conversation.
+There was one relief, anyway. Her father would no longer expect respect
+and honor and liking toward a minister who denied the very life and
+foundation of his faith.
+
+"It can't be possible that the school-house is so far from the town,"
+she said, suddenly looking around at the widening desert in front of
+them. "Haven't you made some mistake?"
+
+"Why, I thought we should have the pleasure of a little drive first,"
+said West, with a cunning smile. "I was sure you would enjoy seeing the
+country before you get down to work, and I was not averse myself to a
+drive in such delightful company."
+
+"I would like to go back to the school-house at once, please," said
+Margaret, decidedly, and there was that in her voice that caused the man
+to turn the horse around and head it toward the village.
+
+"Why, yes, of course, if you prefer to see the school-house first, we
+can go back and look it over, and then, perhaps, you will like to ride a
+little farther," he said. "We have plenty of time. In fact, Mrs. Tanner
+told me she would not expect us home to dinner, and she put a very
+promising-looking basket of lunch under the seat for us in case we got
+hungry before we came back."
+
+"Thank you," said Margaret, quite freezingly now. "I really do not care
+to drive this morning. I would like to see the school-house, and then I
+must return to the house at once. I have a great many things to do this
+morning."
+
+Her manner at last penetrated even the thick skin of the self-centered
+man, and he realized that he had gone a step too far in his attentions.
+He set himself to undo the mischief, hoping perhaps to melt her yet to
+take the all-day drive with him. But she sat silent during the return to
+the village, answering his volubility only by yes or no when absolutely
+necessary. She let him babble away about college life and tell incidents
+of his late pastorate, at some of which he laughed immoderately; but he
+could not even bring a smile to her dignified lips.
+
+He hoped she would change her mind when they got to the school building,
+and he even stooped to praise it in a kind of contemptuous way as they
+drew up in front of the large adobe building.
+
+"I suppose you will want to go through the building," he said, affably,
+producing the key from his pocket and putting on a pleasant anticipatory
+smile, but Margaret shook her head. She simply would not go into the
+building with that man.
+
+"It is not necessary," she said again, coldly. "I think I will go home
+now, please." And he was forced to turn the horse toward the Tanner
+house, crestfallen, and wonder why this beautiful girl was so extremely
+hard to win. He flattered himself that he had always been able to
+interest any girl he chose. It was really quite a bewildering type. But
+he would win her yet.
+
+He set her down silently at the Tanner door and drove off, lunch-basket
+and all, into the wilderness, vexed that she was so stubbornly
+unfriendly, and pondering how he might break down the dignity wherewith
+she had surrounded herself. There would be a way and he would find it.
+There was a stubbornness about that weak chin of his, when one observed
+it, and an ugliness in his pale-blue eye; or perhaps you would call it a
+hardness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+She watched him furtively from her bedroom window, whither she had fled
+from Mrs. Tanner's exclamations. He wore his stylish derby tilted down
+over his left eye and slightly to one side in a most unministerial
+manner, showing too much of his straw-colored back hair, which rose in a
+cowlick at the point of contact with the hat, and he looked a small,
+mean creature as he drove off into the vast beauty of the plain.
+Margaret, in her indignation, could not help comparing him with the
+young man who had ridden away from the house two days before.
+
+And he to set up to be a minister of Christ's gospel and talk like that
+about the Bible and Christ! Oh, what was the church of Christ coming to,
+to have ministers like that? How ever did he get into the ministry,
+anyway? Of course, she knew there were young men with honest doubts who
+sometimes slid through nowadays, but a mean little silly man like that?
+How ever did he get in? What a lot of ridiculous things he had said! He
+was one of those described in the Bible who "darken counsel with words."
+He was not worth noticing. And yet, what a lot of harm he could do in an
+unlearned community. Just see how Mrs. Tanner hung upon his words, as
+though they were law and gospel! How _could_ she?
+
+Margaret found herself trembling yet over the words he had spoken about
+Christ, the atonement, and the faith. They meant so much to her and to
+her mother and father. They were not mere empty words of tradition that
+she believed because she had been taught. She had lived her faith and
+proved it; and she could not help feeling it like a personal insult to
+have him speak so of her Saviour. She turned away and took her Bible to
+try and get a bit of calmness.
+
+She fluttered the leaves for something--she could not just tell
+what--and her eye caught some of the verses that her father had marked
+for her before she left home for college, in the days when he was
+troubled for her going forth into the world of unbelief.
+
+     As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
+     him: Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as
+     ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware
+     lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after
+     the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not
+     after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
+     bodily....
+
+How the verses crowded upon one another, standing out clearly from the
+pages as she turned them, marked with her father's own hand in clear ink
+underlinings. It almost seemed as if God had looked ahead to these times
+and set these words down just for the encouragement of his troubled
+servants who couldn't understand why faith was growing dim. God knew
+about it, had known it would be, all this doubt, and had put words here
+just for troubled hearts to be comforted thereby.
+
+     For I know whom I have believed [How her heart echoed to that
+     statement!], and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I
+     have committed unto him against that day.
+
+And on a little further:
+
+     Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal,
+     The Lord knoweth them that are his.
+
+There was a triumphant look to the words as she read them.
+
+Then over in Ephesians her eye caught a verse that just seemed to fit
+that poor blind minister:
+
+     Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of
+     God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness
+     of their heart.
+
+And yet he was set to guide the feet of the blind into the way of life!
+And he had looked on her as one of the ignorant. Poor fellow! He
+couldn't know the Christ who was her Saviour or he never would have
+spoken in that way about Him. What could such a man preach? What was
+there left to preach, but empty words, when one rejected all these
+doctrines? Would she have to listen to a man like that Sunday after
+Sunday? Did the scholars in her school, and their parents, and the young
+man out at the camp, and his rough, simple-hearted companions have to
+listen to preaching from that man, when they listened to any? Her heart
+grew sick within her, and she knelt beside her bed for a strengthening
+word with the Christ who since her little childhood had been a very
+real presence in her life.
+
+When she arose from her knees she heard the kitchen door slam
+down-stairs and the voice of Bud calling his mother. She went to her
+door and opened it, listening a moment, and then called the boy.
+
+There was a dead silence for an instant after her voice was heard, and
+then Bud appeared at the foot of the stairs, very frowning as to brow,
+and very surly as to tone:
+
+"What d'ye want?"
+
+It was plain that Bud was "sore."
+
+"Bud,"--Margaret's voice was sweet and a bit cool as she leaned over the
+railing and surveyed the boy; she hadn't yet got over her compulsory
+ride with that minister--"I wanted to ask you, please, next time you
+can't keep an appointment with me don't ask anybody else to take your
+place. I prefer to pick out my own companions. It was all right, of
+course, if you had to go somewhere else, but I could easily have gone
+alone or waited until another time. I'd rather not have you ask Mr. West
+to go anywhere with me again."
+
+Bud's face was a study. It cleared suddenly and his jaw dropped in
+surprise; his eyes fairly danced with dawning comprehension and
+pleasure, and then his brow drew down ominously.
+
+"I never ast him," he declared, vehemently. "He told me you wanted him
+to go, and fer me to get out of the way 'cause you didn't want to hurt
+my feelings. Didn't you say nothing to him about it at all this
+morning?"
+
+"No, indeed!" said Margaret, with flashing eyes.
+
+"Well, I just thought he was that kind of a guy. I told ma he was lying,
+but she said I didn't understand young ladies, and, of course, you
+didn't want me when there was a man, and especially a preacher, round.
+Some preacher he is! This 's the second time I've caught him lying. I
+think he's the limit. I just wish you'd see our missionary. If he was
+here he'd beat the dust out o' that poor stew. _He's_ some man, he is.
+He's a regular white man, _our missionary_! Just you wait till _he_ gets
+back."
+
+Margaret drew a breath of relief. Then the missionary was a real man,
+after all. Oh, for his return!
+
+"Well, I'm certainly very glad it wasn't your fault, Bud. I didn't feel
+very happy to be turned off that way," said the teacher, smiling down
+upon the rough head of the boy.
+
+"You bet it wasn't my fault!" said the boy, vigorously. "I was sore's a
+pup at you, after you'd made a date and all, to do like that; but I
+thought if you wanted to go with that guy it was up to you."
+
+"Well, I didn't and I don't. You'll please understand hereafter that I'd
+always rather have your company than his. How about going down to the
+school-house some time to-day? Have you time?"
+
+"Didn't you go yet?" The boy's face looked as if he had received a
+kingdom, and his voice had a ring of triumph.
+
+"We drove down there, but I didn't care to go in without you, so we came
+back."
+
+"Wanta go now?" The boy's face fairly shone.
+
+"I'd love to. I'll be ready in three minutes. Could we carry some books
+down?"
+
+"Sure! Oh--gee! That guy's got the buckboard. We'll have to walk.
+Doggone him!"
+
+"I shall enjoy a walk. I want to find out just how far it is, for I
+shall have to walk every day, you know."
+
+"No, you won't, neither, 'nless you wanta. I c'n always hitch up."
+
+"That'll be very nice sometimes, but I'm afraid I'd get spoiled if you
+babied me all the time that way. I'll be right down."
+
+They went out together into the sunshine and wideness of the morning,
+and it seemed a new day had been created since she got back from her
+ride with the minister. She looked at the sturdy, honest-eyed boy beside
+her, and was glad to have him for a companion.
+
+Just in front of the school-house Margaret paused. "Oh, I forgot! The
+key! Mr. West has the key in his pocket! We can't get in, can we?"
+
+"Aw, we don't need a key," said her escort. "Just you wait!" And he
+whisked around to the back of the building, and in about three minutes
+his shock head appeared at the window. He threw the sash open and
+dropped out a wooden box. "There!" he said, triumphantly, "you c'n climb
+up on that, cantcha? Here, I'll holdya steady. Take holta my hand."
+
+And so it was through the front window that the new teacher of the Ridge
+School first appeared on her future scene of action and surveyed her
+little kingdom.
+
+Bud threw open the shutters, letting the view of the plains and the
+sunshine into the big, dusty room, and showed her the new blackboard
+with great pride.
+
+"There's a whole box o' chalk up on the desk, too; 'ain't never been
+opened yet. Dad said that was your property. Want I should open it?"
+
+"Why, yes, you might, and then we'll try the blackboard, won't we?"
+
+Bud went to work gravely opening the chalk-box as if it were a small
+treasure-chest, and finally produced a long, smooth stick of chalk and
+handed it to her with shining eyes.
+
+"You try it first, Bud," said the teacher, seeing his eagerness; and the
+boy went forward awesomely, as if it were a sacred precinct and he
+unworthy to intrude.
+
+Shyly, awkwardly, with infinite painstaking, he wrote in a cramped hand,
+"William Budlong Tanner," and then, growing bolder, "Ashland, Arizona,"
+with a big flourish underneath.
+
+"Some class!" he said, standing back and regarding his handiwork with
+pride. "Say, I like the sound the chalk makes on it, don't you?"
+
+"Yes, I do," said Margaret, heartily, "so smooth and business-like,
+isn't it? You'll enjoy doing examples in algebra on it, won't you?"
+
+"Good night! Algebra! Me? No chance. I can't never get through the
+arithmetic. The last teacher said if he'd come back twenty years from
+now he'd still find me working compound interest."
+
+"Well, we'll prove to that man that he wasn't much of a judge of boys,"
+said Margaret, with a tilt of her chin and a glint of her teacher-mettle
+showing in her eyes. "If you're not in algebra before two months are
+over I'll miss my guess. We'll get at it right away and show him."
+
+Bud watched her, charmed. He was beginning to believe that almost
+anything she tried would come true.
+
+"Now, Bud, suppose we get to work. I'd like to get acquainted with my
+class a little before Monday. Isn't it Monday school opens? I thought
+so. Well, suppose you give me the names of the scholars and I'll write
+them down, and that will help me to remember them. Where will you begin?
+Here, suppose you sit down in the front seat and tell me who sits there
+and a little bit about him, and I'll write the name down; and then you
+move to the next seat and tell me about the next one, and so on. Will
+you?"
+
+"Sure!" said Bud, entering into the new game. "But it ain't a 'he' sits
+there. It's Susie Johnson. She's Bill Johnson's smallest girl. She has
+to sit front 'cause she giggles so much. She has yellow curls and she
+ducks her head down and snickers right out this way when anything funny
+happens in school." And Bud proceeded to duck and wriggle in perfect
+imitation of the small Susie.
+
+Margaret saw the boy's power of imitation was remarkable, and laughed
+heartily at his burlesque. Then she turned and wrote "Susie Johnson" on
+the board in beautiful script.
+
+Bud watched with admiration, saying softly under his breath; "Gee!
+that's great, that blackboard, ain't it?"
+
+Amelia Schwartz came next. She was long and lank, with the buttons off
+the back of her dress, and hands and feet too large for her garments.
+Margaret could not help but see her in the clever pantomime the boy
+carried on. Next was Rosa Rogers, daughter of a wealthy cattleman, the
+pink-cheeked, blue-eyed beauty of the school, with all the boys at her
+feet and a perfect knowledge of her power over them. Bud didn't, of
+course, state it that way, but Margaret gathered as much from his
+simpering smile and the coy way he looked out of the corner of his eyes
+as he described her.
+
+Down the long list of scholars he went, row after row, and when he came
+to the seats where the boys sat his tone changed. She could tell by the
+shading of his voice which boys were the ones to look out for.
+
+Jed Brower, it appeared, was a name to conjure with. He could ride any
+horse that ever stood on four legs, he could outshoot most of the boys
+in the neighborhood, and he never allowed any teacher to tell him what
+to do. He was Texas Brower's only boy, and always had his own way. His
+father was on the school board. Jed Brower was held in awe, even while
+his methods were despised, by some of the younger boys. He was big and
+powerful, and nobody dared fool with him. Bud did not exactly warn
+Margaret that she must keep on the right side of Jed Brower, but he
+conveyed that impression without words. Margaret understood. She knew
+also that Tad Brooks, Larry Parker, Jim Long, and Dake Foster were
+merely henchmen of the worthy Jed, and not negligible quantities when
+taken by themselves. But over the name of Timothy Forbes--"Delicate
+Forbes," Bud explained was his nickname--the boy lingered with that
+loving inflection of admiration that a younger boy will sometimes have
+for a husky, courageous older lad. The second time Bud spoke of him he
+called him "Forbeszy," and Margaret perceived that here was Bud's model
+of manhood. Delicate Forbes could outshoot and outride even Jed Brower
+when he chose, and his courage with cattle was that of a man. Moreover,
+he was good to the younger boys and wasn't above pitching baseball with
+them when he had nothing better afoot. It became evident from the
+general description that Delicate Forbes was not called so from any lack
+of inches to his stature. He had a record of having licked every man
+teacher in the school, and beaten by guile every woman teacher they had
+had in six years. Bud was loyal to his admiration, yet it could be
+plainly seen that he felt Margaret's greatest hindrance in the school
+would be Delicate Forbes.
+
+Margaret mentally underlined the names in her memory that belonged to
+the back seats in the first and second rows of desks, and went home
+praying that she might have wisdom and patience to deal with Jed Brower
+and Timothy Forbes, and through them to manage the rest of her school.
+
+She surprised Bud at the dinner-table by handing him a neat diagram of
+the school-room desks with the correct names of all but three or four of
+the scholars written on them. Such a feat of memory raised her several
+notches in his estimation.
+
+"Say, that's going some! Guess you won't forget nothing, no matter how
+much they try to make you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+The minister did not appear until late in the evening, after Margaret
+had gone to her room, for which she was sincerely thankful. She could
+hear his voice, fretful and complaining, as he called loudly for Bud to
+take the horse. It appeared he had lost his way and wandered many miles
+out of the trail. He blamed the country for having no better trails, and
+the horse for not being able to find his way better. Mr. Tanner had gone
+to bed, but Mrs. Tanner bustled about and tried to comfort him.
+
+"Now that's too bad! Dearie me! Bud oughta hev gone with you, so he
+ought. Bud! _Oh_, Bud, you 'ain't gonta sleep yet, hev you? Wake up and
+come down and take this horse to the barn."
+
+But Bud declined to descend. He shouted some sleepy directions from his
+loft where he slept, and said the minister could look after his own
+horse, he "wasn'ta gonta!" There was "plentya corn in the bin."
+
+The minister grumbled his way to the barn, highly incensed at Bud, and
+disturbed the calm of the evening view of Margaret's mountain by his
+complaints when he returned. He wasn't accustomed to handling horses,
+and he thought Bud might have stayed up and attended to it himself. Bud
+chuckled in his loft and stole down the back kitchen roof while the
+minister ate his late supper. Bud would never leave the old horse to
+that amateur's tender mercies, but he didn't intend to make it easy for
+the amateur. Margaret, from her window-seat watching the night in the
+darkness, saw Bud slip off the kitchen roof and run to the barn, and she
+smiled to herself. She liked that boy. He was going to be a good
+comrade.
+
+The Sabbath morning dawned brilliantly, and to the homesick girl there
+suddenly came a sense of desolation on waking. A strange land was this,
+without church-bells or sense of Sabbath fitness. The mountain, it is
+true, greeted her with a holy light of gladness, but mountains are not
+dependent upon humankind for being in the spirit on the Lord's day. They
+are "continually praising Him." Margaret wondered how she was to get
+through this day, this dreary first Sabbath away from her home and her
+Sabbath-school class, and her dear old church with father preaching. She
+had been away, of course, a great many times before, but never to a
+churchless community. It was beginning to dawn upon her that that was
+what Ashland was--a churchless community. As she recalled the walk to
+the school and the ride through the village she had seen nothing that
+looked like a church, and all the talk had been of the missionary. They
+must have services of some sort, of course, and probably that flabby,
+fish-eyed man, her fellow-boarder, was to preach; but her heart turned
+sick at thought of listening to a man who had confessed to the
+unbeliefs that he had. Of course, he would likely know enough to keep
+such doubts to himself; but he had told her, and nothing he could say
+now would help or uplift her in the least.
+
+She drew a deep sigh and looked at her watch. It was late. At home the
+early Sabbath-school bells would be ringing, and little girls in white,
+with bunches of late fall flowers for their teachers, and holding hands
+with their little brothers, would be hurrying down the street. Father
+was in his study, going over his morning sermon, and mother putting her
+little pearl pin in her collar, getting ready to go to her Bible class.
+Margaret decided it was time to get up and stop thinking of it all.
+
+She put on a little white dress that she wore to church at home and
+hurried down to discover what the family plans were for the day, but
+found, to her dismay, that the atmosphere below-stairs was just like
+that of other days. Mr. Tanner sat tilted back in a dining-room chair,
+reading the weekly paper, Mrs. Tanner was bustling in with hot
+corn-bread, Bud was on the front-door steps teasing the dog, and the
+minister came in with an air of weariness upon him, as if he quite
+intended taking it out on his companions that he had experienced a
+trying time on Saturday. He did not look in the least like a man who
+expected to preach in a few minutes. He declined to eat his egg because
+it was cooked too hard, and poor Mrs. Tanner had to try it twice before
+she succeeded in producing a soft-boiled egg to suit him. Only the
+radiant outline of the great mountain, which Margaret could see over the
+minister's head, looked peaceful and Sabbath-like.
+
+"What time do you have service?" Margaret asked, as she rose from the
+table.
+
+"Service?" It was Mr. Tanner who echoed her question as if he did not
+quite know what she meant.
+
+Mrs. Tanner raised her eyes from her belated breakfast with a worried
+look, like a hen stretching her neck about to see what she ought to do
+next for the comfort of the chickens under her care. It was apparent
+that she had no comprehension of what the question meant. It was the
+minister who answered, condescendingly:
+
+"Um! Ah! There is no church edifice here, you know, Miss Earle. The
+mission station is located some miles distant."
+
+"I know," said Margaret, "but they surely have some religious service?"
+
+"I really don't know," said the minister, loftily, as if it were
+something wholly beneath his notice.
+
+"Then you are not going to preach this morning?" In spite of herself
+there was relief in her tone.
+
+"Most certainly not," he replied, stiffly. "I came out here to rest, and
+I selected this place largely because it was so far from a church. I
+wanted to be where I should not be annoyed by requests to preach. Of
+course, ministers from the East would be a curiosity in these Western
+towns, and I should really get no rest at all if I had gone where my
+services would have been in constant demand. When I came out here I was
+in much the condition of our friend the minister of whom you have
+doubtless heard. He was starting on his vacation, and he said to a
+brother minister, with a smile of joy and relief, 'No preaching, no
+praying, no reading of the Bible for six whole weeks!'"
+
+"Indeed!" said Margaret, freezingly. "No, I am not familiar with
+ministers of that sort." She turned with dismissal in her manner and
+appealed to Mrs. Tanner. "Then you really have no Sabbath service of any
+sort whatever in town?" There was something almost tragic in her face.
+She stood aghast at the prospect before her.
+
+Mrs. Tanner's neck stretched up a little longer, and her lips dropped
+apart in her attempt to understand the situation. One would scarcely
+have been surprised to hear her say, "Cut-cut-cut-ca-daw-cut?" so
+fluttered did she seem.
+
+Then up spoke Bud. "We gotta Sunday-school, ma!" There was pride of
+possession in Bud's tone, and a kind of triumph over the minister,
+albeit Bud had adjured Sunday-school since his early infancy. He was
+ready now, however, to be offered on the altar of Sunday-school, even,
+if that would please the new teacher--and spite the minister. "I'll take
+you ef you wanta go." He looked defiantly at the minister as he said it.
+
+But at last Mrs. Tanner seemed to grasp what was the matter.
+"Why!--why!--why! You mean preaching service!" she clucked out. "Why,
+yes, Mr. West, wouldn't that be fine? You could preach for us. We could
+have it posted up at the saloon and the crossings, and out a ways on
+both trails, and you'd have quite a crowd. They'd come from over to the
+camp, and up the canon way, and roundabouts. They'd do you credit, they
+surely would, Mr. West. And you could have the school-house for a
+meeting-house. Pa, there, is one of the school board. There wouldn't be
+a bit of trouble--"
+
+"Um! Ah! Mrs. Tanner, I assure you it's quite out of the question. I
+told you I was here for absolute rest. I couldn't think of preaching.
+Besides, it's against my principles to preach without remuneration. It's
+a wrong idea. The workman is worthy of his hire, you know, Mrs. Tanner,
+the Good Book says." Mr. West's tone took on a self-righteous
+inflection.
+
+"Oh! Ef that's all, that 'u'd be all right!" she said, with relief. "You
+could take up a collection. The boys would be real generous. They always
+are when any show comes along. They'd appreciate it, you know, and I'd
+like fer Miss Earle here to hear you preach. It 'u'd be a real treat to
+her, her being a preacher's daughter and all." She turned to Margaret
+for support, but that young woman was talking to Bud. She had promptly
+closed with his offer to take her to Sunday-school, and now she hurried
+away to get ready, leaving Mrs. Tanner to make her clerical arrangements
+without aid.
+
+The minister, meantime, looked after her doubtfully. Perhaps, after all,
+it would have been a good move to have preached. He might have impressed
+that difficult young woman better that way than any other, seeing she
+posed as being so interested in religious matters. He turned to Mrs.
+Tanner and began to ask questions about the feasibility of a church
+service. The word "collection" sounded good to him. He was not averse to
+replenishing his somewhat depleted treasury if it could be done so
+easily as that.
+
+Meantime Margaret, up in her room, was wondering again how such a man as
+Mr. West ever got into the Christian ministry.
+
+West was still endeavoring to impress the Tanners with the importance of
+his late charge in the East as Margaret came down-stairs. His pompous
+tones, raised to favor the deafness that he took for granted in Mr.
+Tanner, easily reached her ears.
+
+"I couldn't, of course, think of doing it every Sunday, you understand.
+It wouldn't be fair to myself nor my work which I have just left; but,
+of course, if there were sufficient inducement I might consent to preach
+some Sunday before I leave."
+
+Mrs. Tanner's little satisfied cluck was quite audible as the girl
+closed the front door and went out to the waiting Bud.
+
+The Sunday-school was a desolate affair, presided over by an elderly and
+very illiterate man, who nursed his elbows and rubbed his chin
+meditatively between the slow questions which he read out of the
+lesson-leaf. The woman who usually taught the children was called away
+to nurse a sick neighbor, and the children were huddled together in a
+restless group. The singing was poor, and the whole of the exercises
+dreary, including the prayer. The few women present sat and stared in a
+kind of awe at the visitor, half belligerently, as if she were an
+intruder. Bud lingered outside the door and finally disappeared
+altogether, reappearing when the last hymn was sung. Altogether the new
+teacher felt exceedingly homesick as she wended her way back to the
+Tanners' beside Bud.
+
+"What do you do with yourself on Sunday afternoons, Bud?" she asked, as
+soon as they were out of hearing of the rest of the group.
+
+The boy turned wondering eyes toward her. "Do?" he repeated, puzzled.
+"Why, we pass the time away, like 'most any day. There ain't much
+difference."
+
+A great desolation possessed her. No church! Worse than no minister! No
+Sabbath! What kind of a land was this to which she had come?
+
+The boy beside her smelled of tobacco smoke. He had been off somewhere
+smoking while she was in the dreary little Sunday-school. She looked at
+his careless boy-face furtively as they walked along. He smoked, of
+course, like most boys of his age, probably, and he did a lot of other
+things he ought not to do. He had no interest in God or righteousness,
+and he did not take it for granted that the Sabbath was different from
+any other day. A sudden heart-sinking came upon her. What was the use of
+trying to do anything for such as he? Why not give it up now and go back
+where there was more promising material to work upon and where she would
+be welcome indeed? Of course, she had known things would be
+discouraging, but somehow it had seemed different from a distance. It
+all looked utterly hopeless now, and herself crazy to have thought she
+could do any good in a place like this.
+
+And yet the place needed somebody! That pitiful little Sunday-school!
+How forlorn it all was! She was almost sorry she had gone. It gave her
+an unhappy feeling for the morrow, which was to be her first day of
+school.
+
+Then, all suddenly, just as they were nearing the Tanner house, there
+came one riding down the street with all the glory of the radiant
+morning in his face, and a light in his eyes at seeing her that lifted
+away her desolation, for here at last was a friend!
+
+She wondered at herself. An unknown stranger, and a self-confessed
+failure so far in his young life, and yet he seemed so good a sight to
+her amid these uncongenial surroundings!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+This stranger of royal bearing, riding a rough Western pony as if it
+were decked with golden trappings, with his bright hair gleaming like
+Roman gold in the sun, and his blue-gray eyes looking into hers with the
+gladness of his youth; this one who had come to her out of the
+night-shadows of the wilderness and led her into safety! Yes, she was
+glad to see him.
+
+He dismounted and greeted her, his wide hat in his hand, his eyes upon
+her face, and Bud stepped back, watching them in pleased surprise. This
+was the man who had shot all the lights out the night of the big riot in
+the saloon. He had also risked his life in a number of foolish ways at
+recent festal carouses. Bud would not have been a boy had he not admired
+the young man beyond measure; and his boy worship of the teacher yielded
+her to a fitting rival. He stepped behind and walked beside the pony,
+who was following his master meekly, as though he, too, were under the
+young man's charm.
+
+"Oh, and this is my friend, William Tanner," spoke Margaret, turning
+toward the boy loyally, (Whatever good angel made her call him William?
+Bud's soul swelled with new dignity as he blushed and acknowledged the
+introduction by a grin.)
+
+"Glad to know you, Will," said the new-comer, extending his hand in a
+hearty shake that warmed the boy's heart in a trice. "I'm glad Miss
+Earle has so good a protector. You'll have to look out for her. She's
+pretty plucky and is apt to stray around the wilderness by herself. It
+isn't safe, you know, boy, for such as her. Look after her, will you?"
+
+"Right I will," said Bud, accepting the commission as if it were
+Heaven-sent, and thereafter walked behind the two with his head in the
+clouds. He felt that he understood this great hero of the plains and was
+one with him at heart. There could be no higher honor than to be the
+servitor of this man's lady. Bud did not stop to question how the new
+teacher became acquainted with the young rider of the plains. It was
+enough that both were young and handsome and seemed to belong together.
+He felt they were fitting friends.
+
+The little procession walked down the road slowly, glad to prolong the
+way. The young man had brought her handkerchief, a filmy trifle of an
+excuse that she had dropped behind her chair at the bunk-house, where it
+had lain unnoticed till she was gone. He produced it from his inner
+pocket, as though it had been too precious to carry anywhere but over
+his heart, yet there was in his manner nothing presuming, not a hint of
+any intimacy other than their chance acquaintance of the wilderness
+would warrant. He did not look at her with any such look as West had
+given every time he spoke to her. She felt no desire to resent his
+glance when it rested upon her almost worshipfully, for there was
+respect and utmost humility in his look.
+
+The men had sent gifts: some arrow-heads and a curiously fashioned
+vessel from the canon of the cave-dwellers; some chips from the
+petrified forest; a fern with wonderful fronds, root and all; and a
+sheaf of strange, beautiful blossoms carefully wrapped in wet paper, and
+all fastened to the saddle.
+
+Margaret's face kindled with interest as he showed them to her one by
+one, and told her the history of each and a little message from the man
+who had sent it. Mom Wallis, too, had baked a queer little cake and sent
+it. The young man's face was tender as he spoke of it. The girl saw that
+he knew what her coming had meant to Mom Wallis. Her memory went quickly
+back to those few words the morning she had wakened in the bunk-house
+and found the withered old woman watching her with tears in her eyes.
+Poor Mom Wallis, with her pretty girlhood all behind her and such a
+blank, dull future ahead! Poor, tired, ill-used, worn-out Mom Wallis!
+Margaret's heart went out to her.
+
+"They want to know," said the young man, half hesitatingly, "if some
+time, when you get settled and have time, you would come to them again
+and sing? I tried to make them understand, of course, that you would be
+busy, your time taken with other friends and your work, and you would
+not want to come; but they wanted me to tell you they never enjoyed
+anything so much in years as your singing. Why, I heard Long Jim singing
+'Old Folks at Home' this morning when he was saddling his horse. And
+it's made a difference. The men sort of want to straighten up the
+bunk-room. Jasper made a new chair yesterday. He said it would do when
+you came again." Gardley laughed diffidently, as if he knew their hopes
+were all in vain.
+
+But Margaret looked up with sympathy in her face, "I'll come! Of course
+I'll come some time," she said, eagerly. "I'll come as soon as I can
+arrange it. You tell them we'll have more than one concert yet."
+
+The young man's face lit up with a quick appreciation, and the flash of
+his eyes as he looked at her would have told any onlooker that he felt
+here was a girl in a thousand, a girl with an angel spirit, if ever such
+a one walked the earth.
+
+Now it happened that Rev. Frederick West was walking impatiently up and
+down in front of the Tanner residence, looking down the road about that
+time. He had spent the morning in looking over the small bundle of "show
+sermons" he had brought with him in case of emergency, and had about
+decided to accede to Mrs. Tanner's request and preach in Ashland before
+he left. This decision had put him in so self-satisfied a mood that he
+was eager to announce it before his fellow-boarder. Moreover, he was
+hungry, and he could not understand why that impudent boy and that
+coquettish young woman should remain away at Sunday-school such an
+interminable time.
+
+Mrs. Tanner was frying chicken. He could smell it every time he took a
+turn toward the house. It really was ridiculous that they should keep
+dinner waiting this way. He took one more turn and began to think over
+the sermon he had decided to preach. He was just recalling a
+particularly eloquent passage when he happened to look down the road
+once more, and there they were, almost upon him! But Bud was no longer
+walking with the maiden. She had acquired a new escort, a man of broad
+shoulders and fine height. Where had he seen that fellow before? He
+watched them as they came up, his small, pale eyes narrowing under their
+yellow lashes with a glint of slyness, like some mean little animal that
+meant to take advantage of its prey. It was wonderful how many different
+things that man could look like for a person as insignificant as he
+really was!
+
+Well, he saw the look between the man and maiden; the look of sympathy
+and admiration and a fine kind of trust that is not founded on mere
+outward show, but has found some hidden fineness of the soul. Not that
+the reverend gentleman understood that, however. He had no fineness of
+soul himself. His mind had been too thoroughly taken up with himself all
+his life for him to have cultivated any.
+
+Simultaneous with the look came his recognition of the man or, at least,
+of where he had last seen him, and his little soul rejoiced at the
+advantage he instantly recognized.
+
+He drew himself up importantly, flattened his chin upward until his
+lower lip protruded in a pink roll across his mouth, drew down his
+yellow brows in a frown of displeasure, and came forward mentor-like to
+meet the little party as it neared the house. He had the air of coming
+to investigate and possibly oust the stranger, and he looked at him
+keenly, critically, offensively, as if he had the right to protect the
+lady. They might have been a pair of naughty children come back from a
+forbidden frolic, from the way he surveyed them. But the beauty of it
+was that neither of them saw him, being occupied with each other, until
+they were fairly upon him. Then, there he stood offensively, as if he
+were a great power to be reckoned with.
+
+"Well, well, well, Miss Margaret, you have got home at last!" he said,
+pompously and condescendingly, and then he looked into the eyes of her
+companion as if demanding an explanation of _his_ presence there.
+
+Margaret drew herself up haughtily. His use of her Christian name in
+that familiar tone annoyed her exceedingly. Her eyes flashed
+indignantly, but the whole of it was lost unless Bud saw it, for Gardley
+had faced his would-be adversary with a keen, surprised scrutiny, and
+was looking him over coolly. There was that in the young man's eye that
+made the eye of Frederick West quail before him. It was only an instant
+the two stood challenging each other, but in that short time each knew
+and marked the other for an enemy. Only a brief instant and then Gardley
+turned to Margaret, and before she had time to think what to say, he
+asked:
+
+"Is this man a friend of yours, Miss _Earle_?" with marked emphasis on
+the last word.
+
+"No," said Margaret, coolly, "not a friend--a boarder in the house."
+Then most formally, "Mr. West, my _friend_ Mr. Gardley."
+
+If the minister had not been possessed of the skin of a rhinoceros he
+would have understood himself to be dismissed at that; but he was not a
+man accustomed to accepting dismissal, as his recent church in New York
+State might have testified. He stood his ground, his chin flatter than
+ever, his little eyes mere slits of condemnation. He did not acknowledge
+the introduction by so much as the inclination of his head. His hands
+were clasped behind his back, and his whole attitude was one of
+righteous belligerence.
+
+Gardley gazed steadily at him for a moment, a look of mingled contempt
+and amusement gradually growing upon his face. Then he turned away as if
+the man were too small to notice.
+
+"You will come in and take dinner with me?" asked Margaret, eagerly. "I
+want to send a small package to Mrs. Wallis if you will be so good as to
+take it with you."
+
+"I'm sorry I can't stay to dinner, but I have an errand in another
+direction and at some distance. I am returning this way, however, and,
+if I may, will call and get the package toward evening."
+
+Margaret's eyes spoke her welcome, and with a few formal words the young
+man sprang on his horse, said, "So long, Will!" to Bud, and, ignoring
+the minister, rode away.
+
+They watched him for an instant, for, indeed, he was a goodly sight upon
+a horse, riding as if he and the horse were utterly one in spirit; then
+Margaret turned quickly to go into the house.
+
+"Um! Ah! Miss Margaret!" began the minister, with a commandatory gesture
+for her to stop.
+
+Margaret was the picture of haughtiness as she turned and said, "Miss
+_Earle_, if you please!"
+
+"Um! Ah! Why, certainly, Miss--ah--_Earle_, if you wish it. Will you
+kindly remain here for a moment? I wish to speak with you. Bud, you may
+go on."
+
+"I'll go when I like, and it's none of your business!" muttered Bud,
+ominously, under his breath. He looked at Margaret to see if she wished
+him to go. He had an idea that this might be one of the times when he
+was to look after her.
+
+She smiled at him understandingly. "William may remain, Mr. West," she
+said, sweetly. "Anything you have to say to me can surely be said in his
+presence," and she laid her hand lightly on Bud's sleeve.
+
+Bud looked down at the hand proudly and grew inches taller enjoying the
+minister's frown.
+
+"Um! Ah!" said West, unabashed. "Well, I merely wished to warn you
+concerning the character of that person who has just left us. He is
+really not a proper companion for you. Indeed, I may say he is quite the
+contrary, and that to my personal knowledge--"
+
+"He's as good as you are and better!" growled Bud, ominously.
+
+"Be quiet, boy! I wasn't speaking to you!" said West, as if he were
+addressing a slave. "If I hear another word from your lips I shall
+report it to your father!"
+
+"Go 's far 's you like and see how much I care!" taunted Bud, but was
+stopped by Margaret's gentle pressure on his arm.
+
+"Mr. West, I thought I made you understand that Mr. Gardley is my
+friend."
+
+"Um! Ah! Miss Earle, then all I have to say is that you have formed a
+most unwise friendship, and should let it proceed no further. Why, my
+dear young lady, if you knew all there is to know about him you would
+not think of speaking to that young man."
+
+"Indeed! Mr. West, I suppose that might be true of a good many people,
+might it not, _if we knew all there is to know about them_? Nobody but
+God could very well get along with some of us."
+
+"But, my dear young lady, you don't understand. This young person is
+nothing but a common ruffian, a gambler, in fact, and an habitue at the
+saloons. I have seen him myself sitting in a saloon at a very late hour
+playing with a vile, dirty pack of cards, and in the company of a lot of
+low-down creatures--"
+
+"May I ask how you came to be in a saloon at that hour, Mr. West?" There
+was a gleam of mischief in the girl's eyes, and her mouth looked as if
+she were going to laugh, but she controlled it.
+
+The minister turned very red indeed. "Well, I--ah--I had been called
+from my bed by shouts and the report of a pistol. There was a fight
+going on in the room adjoining the bar, and I didn't know but my
+assistance might be needed!" (At this juncture Bud uttered a sort of
+snort and, placing his hands over his heart, ducked down as if a sudden
+pain had seized him.) "But imagine my pain and astonishment when I was
+informed that the drunken brawl I was witnessing was but a nightly and
+common occurrence. I may say I remained for a few minutes, partly out of
+curiosity, as I wished to see all kinds of life in this new world for
+the sake of a book I am thinking of writing. I therefore took careful
+note of the persons present, and was thus able to identify the person
+who has just ridden away as one of the chief factors in that evening's
+entertainment. He was, in fact, the man who, when he had pocketed all
+the money on the gaming-table, arose and, taking out his pistol, shot
+out the lights in the room, a most dangerous and irregular proceeding--"
+
+"Yes, and you came within an ace of being shot, pa says. The Kid's a
+dead shot, he is, and you were right in the way. Served you right for
+going where you had no business!"
+
+"I did not remain longer in that place, as you may imagine," went on West,
+ignoring Bud, "for I found it was no place for a--for--a--ah--minister
+of the gospel; but I remained long enough to hear from the lips of this
+person with whom you have just been walking some of the most terrible
+language my ears have ever been permitted to--ah--witness!"
+
+But Margaret had heard all that she intended to listen to on that
+subject. With decided tone she interrupted the voluble speaker, who was
+evidently enjoying his own eloquence.
+
+"Mr. West, I think you have said all that it is necessary to say. There
+are still some things about Mr. Gardley that you evidently do not know,
+but I think you are in a fair way to learn them if you stay in this part
+of the country long. William, isn't that your mother calling us to
+dinner? Let us go in; I'm hungry."
+
+Bud followed her up the walk with a triumphant wink at the discomfited
+minister, and they disappeared into the house; but when Margaret went
+up to her room and took off her hat in front of the little warped
+looking-glass there were angry tears in her eyes. She never felt more
+like crying in her life. Chagrin and anger and disappointment were all
+struggling in her soul, yet she must not cry, for dinner would be ready
+and she must go down. Never should that mean little meddling man see
+that his words had pierced her soul.
+
+For, angry as she was at the minister, much as she loathed his petty,
+jealous nature and saw through his tale-bearing, something yet told her
+that his picture of young Gardley's wildness was probably true, and her
+soul sank within her at the thought. It was just what had come in
+shadowy, instinctive fear to her heart when he had hinted at his being a
+"roughneck," yet to have it put baldly into words by an enemy hurt her
+deeply, and she looked at herself in the glass half frightened.
+"Margaret Earle, have you come out to the wilderness to lose your heart
+to the first handsome sower of wild oats that you meet?" her true eyes
+asked her face in the glass, and Margaret Earle's heart turned sad at
+the question and shrank back. Then she dropped upon her knees beside her
+gay little rocking-chair and buried her face in its flowered cushions
+and cried to her Father in heaven:
+
+"Oh, my Father, let me not be weak, but with all my heart I cry to Thee
+to save this young, strong, courageous life and not let it be a failure.
+Help him to find Thee and serve Thee, and if his life has been all
+wrong--and I suppose it has--oh, make it right for Jesus' sake! If there
+is anything that I can do to help, show me how, and don't let me make
+mistakes. Oh, Jesus, Thy power is great. Let this young man feel it and
+yield himself to it."
+
+She remained silently praying for a moment more, putting her whole soul
+into the prayer and knowing that she had been called thus to pray for
+him until her prayer was answered.
+
+She came down to dinner a few minutes later with a calm, serene face, on
+which was no hint of her recent emotion, and she managed to keep the
+table conversation wholly in her own hands, telling Mr. Tanner about her
+home town and her father and mother. When the meal was finished the
+minister had no excuse to think that the new teacher was careless about
+her friends and associates, and he was well informed about the high
+principles of her family.
+
+But West had retired into a sulky mood and uttered not a word except to
+ask for more chicken and coffee and a second helping of pie. It was,
+perhaps, during that dinner that he decided it would be best for him to
+preach in Ashland on the following Sunday. The young lady could be
+properly impressed with his dignity in no other way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+When Lance Gardley came back to the Tanners' the sun was preparing the
+glory of its evening setting, and the mountain was robed in all its
+rosiest veils.
+
+Margaret was waiting for him, with the dog Captain beside her, wandering
+back and forth in the unfenced dooryard and watching her mountain. It
+was a relief to her to find that the minister occupied a room on the
+first floor in a kind of ell on the opposite side of the house from her
+own room and her mountain. He had not been visible that afternoon, and
+with Captain by her side and Bud on the front-door step reading _The Sky
+Pilot_ she felt comparatively safe. She had read to Bud for an hour and
+a half, and he was thoroughly interested in the story; but she was sure
+he would keep the minister away at all costs. As for Captain, he and the
+minister were sworn enemies by this time. He growled every time West
+came near or spoke to her.
+
+She made a picture standing with her hand on Captain's shaggy, noble
+head, the lace of her sleeve falling back from the white arm, her other
+hand raised to shade her face as she looked away to the glorified
+mountain, a slim, white figure looking wistfully off at the sunset. The
+young man took off his hat and rode his horse more softly, as if in the
+presence of the holy.
+
+The dog lifted one ear, and a tremor passed through his frame as the
+rider drew near; otherwise he did not stir from his position; but it was
+enough. The girl turned, on the alert at once, and met him with a smile,
+and the young man looked at her as if an angel had deigned to smile upon
+him. There was a humility in his fine face that sat well with the
+courage written there, and smoothed away all hardness for the time, so
+that the girl, looking at him in the light of the revelations of the
+morning, could hardly believe it had been true, yet an inner fineness of
+perception taught her that it was.
+
+The young man dismounted and left his horse standing quietly by the
+roadside. He would not stay, he said, yet lingered by her side, talking
+for a few minutes, watching the sunset and pointing out its changes.
+
+She gave him the little package for Mom Wallis. There was a simple lace
+collar in a little white box, and a tiny leather-bound book done in
+russet suede with gold lettering.
+
+"Tell her to wear the collar and think of me whenever she dresses up."
+
+"I'm afraid that'll never be, then," said the young man, with a pitying
+smile. "Mom Wallis never dresses up."
+
+"Tell her I said she must dress up evenings for supper, and I'll make
+her another one to change with that and bring it when I come."
+
+He smiled upon her again, that wondering, almost worshipful smile, as if
+he wondered if she were real, after all, so different did she seem from
+his idea of girls.
+
+"And the little book," she went on, apologetically; "I suppose it was
+foolish to send it, but something she said made me think of some of the
+lines in the poem. I've marked them for her. She reads, doesn't she?"
+
+"A little, I think. I see her now and then read the papers that Pop
+brings home with him. I don't fancy her literary range is very wide,
+however."
+
+"Of course, I suppose it is ridiculous! And maybe she'll not understand
+any of it; but tell her I sent her a message. She must see if she can
+find it in the poem. Perhaps you can explain it to her. It's Browning's
+'Rabbi Ben Ezra.' You know it, don't you?"
+
+"I'm afraid not. I was intent on other things about the time when I was
+supposed to be giving my attention to Browning, or I wouldn't be what I
+am to-day, I suppose. But I'll do my best with what wits I have. What's
+it about? Couldn't you give me a pointer or two?"
+
+"It's the one beginning:
+
+    "Grow old along with me!
+    The best is yet to be,
+    The last of life, for which the first was made:
+    Our times are in His hand
+    Who saith, 'A whole I planned,
+    Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor
+    be afraid!'"
+
+He looked down at her still with that wondering smile. "Grow old along
+with you!" he said, gravely, and then sighed. "You don't look as if you
+ever would grow old."
+
+"That's it," she said, eagerly. "That's the whole idea. We don't ever
+grow old and get done with it all, we just go on to bigger things, wiser
+and better and more beautiful, till we come to understand and be a part
+of the whole great plan of God!"
+
+He did not attempt an answer, nor did he smile now, but just looked at
+her with that deeply quizzical, grave look as if his soul were turning
+over the matter seriously. She held her peace and waited, unable to find
+the right word to speak. Then he turned and looked off, an infinite
+regret growing in his face.
+
+"That makes living a different thing from the way most people take it,"
+he said, at last, and his tone showed that he was considering it deeply.
+
+"Does it?" she said, softly, and looked with him toward the sunset,
+still half seeing his quiet profile against the light. At last it came
+to her that she must speak. Half fearfully she began: "I've been
+thinking about what you said on the ride. You said you didn't make good.
+I--wish you would. I--I'm sure you could--"
+
+She looked up wistfully and saw the gentleness come into his face as if
+the fountain of his soul, long sealed, had broken up, and as if he saw a
+possibility before him for the first time through the words she had
+spoken.
+
+At last he turned to her with that wondering smile again. "Why should
+you care?" he asked. The words would have sounded harsh if his tone had
+not been so gentle.
+
+Margaret hesitated for an answer. "I don't know how to tell it," she
+said, slowly. "There's another verse, a few lines more in that poem,
+perhaps you know them?--
+
+    'All I never could be, All, men ignored in me,
+    This I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped.'
+
+I want it because--well, perhaps because I feel you are worth all that
+to God. I would like to see you be that."
+
+He looked down at her again, and was still so long that she felt she had
+failed miserably.
+
+"I hope you will excuse my speaking," she added. "I--It seems there are
+so many grand possibilities in life, and for you--I couldn't bear to
+have you say you hadn't made good, as if it were all over."
+
+"I'm glad you spoke," he said, quickly. "I guess perhaps I have been all
+kinds of a fool. You have made me feel how many kinds I have been."
+
+"Oh no!" she protested.
+
+"You don't know what I have been," he said, sadly, and then with sudden
+conviction, as if he read her thoughts: "You _do_ know! That prig of a
+parson has told you! Well, it's just as well you should know. It's
+right!"
+
+A wave of misery passed over his face and erased all its brightness and
+hope. Even the gentleness was gone. He looked haggard and drawn with
+hopelessness all in a moment.
+
+"Do you think it would matter to me--_anything_ that man would say?" she
+protested, all her woman's heart going out in pity.
+
+"But it was true, all he said, probably, and more--"
+
+"It doesn't matter," she said, eagerly. "The other is true, too. Just as
+the poem says, 'All that man ignores in you, just that you are worth to
+God!' And you _can_ be what He meant you to be. I have been praying all
+the afternoon that He would help you to be."
+
+"Have you?" he said, and his eyes lit up again as if the altar-fires of
+hope were burning once more. "Have you? I thank you."
+
+"You came to me when I was lost in the wilderness," she said, shyly. "I
+wanted to help _you_ back--if--I might."
+
+"You will help--you have!" he said, earnestly. "And I was far enough off
+the trail, too, but if there's any way to get back I'll get there." He
+grasped her hand and held it for a second. "Keep up that praying," he
+said. "I'll see what can be done."
+
+Margaret looked up. "Oh, I'm so glad, so glad!"
+
+He looked reverently into her eyes, all the manhood in him stirred to
+higher, better things. Then, suddenly, as they stood together, a sound
+smote their ears as from another world.
+
+"Um! Ah!--"
+
+The minister stood within the doorway, barred by Bud in scowling
+defiance, and guarded by Cap, who gave an answering growl.
+
+Gardley and Margaret looked at each other and smiled, then turned and
+walked slowly down to where the pony stood. They did not wish to talk
+here in that alien presence. Indeed, it seemed that more words were not
+needed--they would be a desecration.
+
+So he rode away into the sunset once more with just another look and a
+hand-clasp, and she turned, strangely happy at heart, to go back to her
+dull surroundings and her uncongenial company.
+
+"Come, William, let's have a praise service," she said, brightly,
+pausing at the doorway, but ignoring the scowling minister.
+
+"A praise service! What's a praise service?" asked the wondering Bud,
+shoving over to let her sit down beside him.
+
+She sat with her back to West, and Cap came and lay at her feet with the
+white of one eye on the minister and a growl ready to gleam between his
+teeth any minute. There was just no way for the minister to get out
+unless he jumped over them or went out the back door; but the people in
+the doorway had the advantage of not having to look at him, and he
+couldn't very well dominate the conversation standing so behind them.
+
+"Why, a praise service is a service of song and gladness, of course. You
+sing, don't you? Of course. Well, what shall we sing? Do you know this?"
+And she broke softly into song:
+
+    "When peace like a river attendeth my way;
+    When sorrows like sea-billows roll;
+    Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to say,
+    It is well, it is well with my soul."
+
+Bud did not know the song, but he did not intend to be balked with the
+minister standing right behind him, ready, no doubt, to jump in and take
+the precedence; so he growled away at a note in the bass, turning it
+over and over and trying to make it fit, like a dog gnawing at a bare
+bone; but he managed to keep time and make it sound a little like
+singing.
+
+The dusk was falling fast as they finished the last verse, Margaret
+singing the words clear and distinct, Bud growling unintelligibly and
+snatching at words he had never heard before. Once more Margaret sang:
+
+    "Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
+    The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide!
+    When other refuge fails and comforts flee,
+    Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me!"
+
+Out on the lonely trail wending his way toward the purple mountain--the
+silent way to the bunk-house at the camp--in that clear air where sound
+travels a long distance the traveler heard the song, and something
+thrilled his soul. A chord that never had been touched in him before was
+vibrating, and its echoes would be heard through all his life.
+
+On and on sang Margaret, just because she could not bear to stop and
+hear the commonplace talk which would be about her. Song after song
+thrilled through the night's wideness. The stars came out in thick
+clusters. Father Tanner had long ago dropped his weekly paper and tilted
+his chair back against the wall, with his eyes half closed to listen,
+and his wife had settled down comfortably on the carpet sofa, with her
+hands nicely folded in her lap, as if she were at church. The minister,
+after silently surveying the situation for a song or two, attempted to
+join his voice to the chorus. He had a voice like a cross-cut saw, but
+he didn't do much harm in the background that way, though Cap did growl
+now and then, as if it put his nerves on edge. And by and by Mr. Tanner
+quavered in with a note or two.
+
+Finally Margaret sang:
+
+    "Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear,
+    It is not night if Thou art near,
+    Oh, may no earth-born cloud arise
+    To hide Thee from Thy servant's eyes."
+
+During this hymn the minister had slipped out the back door and gone
+around to the front of the house. He could not stand being in the
+background any longer; but as the last note died away Margaret arose
+and, bidding Bud good night, slipped up to her room.
+
+There, presently, beside her darkened window, with her face toward the
+mountain, she knelt to pray for the wanderer who was trying to find his
+way out of the wilderness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Monday morning found Margaret at the school-house nerved for her new
+task.
+
+One by one the scholars trooped in, shyly or half defiantly, hung their
+hats on the hooks, put their dinner-pails on the shelf, looked furtively
+at her, and sank into their accustomed seats; that is, the seats they
+had occupied during the last term of school. The big boys remained
+outside until Bud, acting under instructions from Margaret--after she
+had been carefully taught the ways of the school by Bud himself--rang
+the big bell. Even then they entered reluctantly and as if it were a
+great condescension that they came at all, Jed and "Delicate" coming in
+last, with scarcely a casual glance toward the teacher's desk, as if she
+were a mere fraction in the scheme of the school. She did not need to be
+told which was Timothy and which was Jed. Bud's description had been
+perfect. Her heart, by the way, instantly went out to Timothy. Jed was
+another proposition. He had thick, overhanging eyebrows, and a mouth
+that loved to make trouble and laugh over it. He was going to be hard to
+conquer. She wasn't sure the conquering would be interesting, either.
+
+Margaret stood by the desk, watching them all with a pleasant smile. She
+did not frown at the unnecessary shuffling of feet nor the loud remarks
+of the boys as they settled into their seats. She just stood and watched
+them interestedly, as though her time had not yet come.
+
+Jed and Timothy were carrying on a rumbling conversation. Even after
+they took their seats they kept it up. It was no part of their plan to
+let the teacher suppose they saw her or minded her in the least. They
+were the dominating influences in that school, and they wanted her to
+know it, right at the start; then a lot of trouble would be saved. If
+they didn't like her and couldn't manage her they didn't intend she
+should stay, and she might as well understand that at once.
+
+Margaret understood it fully. Yet she stood quietly and watched them
+with a look of deep interest on her face and a light almost of mischief
+in her eyes, while Bud grew redder and redder over the way his two idols
+were treating the new teacher. One by one the school became aware of the
+twinkle in the teacher's eyes, and grew silent to watch, and one by one
+they began to smile over the coming scene when Jed and Timothy should
+discover it, and, worst of all, find out that it was actually directed
+against them. They would expect severity, or fear, or a desire to
+placate; but a twinkle--it was more than the school could decide what
+would happen under such circumstances. No one in that room would ever
+dare to laugh at either of those two boys. But the teacher was almost
+laughing now, and the twinkle had taken the rest of the room into the
+secret, while she waited amusedly until the two should finish the
+conversation.
+
+The room grew suddenly deathly still, except for the whispered growls of
+Jed and Timothy, and still the silence deepened, until the two young
+giants themselves perceived that it was time to look up and take account
+of stock.
+
+The perspiration by this time was rolling down the back of Bud's neck.
+He was about the only one in the room who was not on a broad grin, and
+he was wretched. What a fearful mistake the new teacher was making right
+at the start! She was antagonizing the two boys who held the whole
+school in their hands. There was no telling what they wouldn't do to her
+now. And he would have to stand up for her. Yes, no matter what they
+did, he would stand up for her! Even though he lost his best friends, he
+must be loyal to her; but the strain was terrible! He did not dare to
+look at them, but fastened his eyes upon Margaret, as if keeping them
+glued there was his only hope. Then suddenly he saw her face break into
+one of the sweetest, merriest smiles he ever witnessed, with not one
+single hint of reproach or offended dignity in it, just a smile of
+comradeship, understanding, and pleasure in the meeting; and it was
+directed to the two seats where Jed and Timothy sat.
+
+With wonder he turned toward the two big boys, and saw, to his
+amazement, an answering smile upon their faces; reluctant, 'tis true,
+half sheepish at first, but a smile with lifted eyebrows of astonishment
+and real enjoyment of the joke.
+
+A little ripple of approval went round in half-breathed syllables, but
+Margaret gave no time for any restlessness to start. She spoke at once,
+in her pleasantest partnership tone, such as she had used to Bud when
+she asked him to help her build her bookcase. So she spoke now to that
+school, and each one felt she was speaking just to him especially, and
+felt a leaping response in his soul. Here, at least, was something new
+and interesting, a new kind of teacher. They kept silence to listen.
+
+"Oh, I'm not going to make a speech now," she said, and her voice
+sounded glad to them all. "I'll wait till we know one another before I
+do that. I just want to say how do you do to you, and tell you how glad
+I am to be here. I hope we shall like one another immensely and have a
+great many good times together. But we've got to get acquainted first,
+of course, and perhaps we'd better give most of the time to that to-day.
+First, suppose we sing something. What shall it be? What do you sing?"
+
+Little Susan Johnson, by virtue of having seen the teacher at
+Sunday-school, made bold to raise her hand and suggest, "Thar-thpangle
+Banner, pleath!" And so they tried it; but when Margaret found that only
+a few seemed to know the words, she said, "Wait!" Lifting her arm with a
+pretty, imperative gesture, and taking a piece of chalk from the box on
+her desk, she went to the new blackboard that stretched its shining
+black length around the room.
+
+The school was breathlessly watching the graceful movement of the
+beautiful hand and arm over the smooth surface, leaving behind it the
+clear, perfect script. Such wonderful writing they had never seen; such
+perfect, easy curves and twirls. Every eye in the room was fastened on
+her, every breath was held as they watched and spelled out the words one
+by one. "Gee!" said Bud, softly, under his breath, nor knew that he had
+spoken, but no one else moved.
+
+"Now," she said, "let us sing," and when they started off again
+Margaret's strong, clear soprano leading, every voice in the room
+growled out the words and tried to get in step with the tune.
+
+They had gone thus through two verses when Jed seemed to think it was
+about time to start something. Things were going altogether too smoothly
+for an untried teacher, if she _was_ handsome and unabashed. If they
+went on like this the scholars would lose all respect for him. So, being
+quite able to sing a clear tenor, he nevertheless puckered his lips
+impertinently, drew his brows in an ominous frown, and began to whistle
+a somewhat erratic accompaniment to the song. He watched the teacher
+closely, expecting to see the color flame in her cheeks, the anger flash
+in her eyes; he had tried this trick on other teachers and it always
+worked. He gave the wink to Timothy, and he too left off his glorious
+bass and began to whistle.
+
+But instead of the anger and annoyance they expected, Margaret turned
+appreciative eyes toward the two back seats, nodding her head a trifle
+and smiling with her eyes as she sang; and when the verse was done she
+held up her hand for silence and said:
+
+"Why, boys, that's beautiful! Let's try that verse once more, and you
+two whistle the accompaniment a little stronger in the chorus; or how
+would it do if you just came in on the chorus? I believe that would be
+more effective. Let's try the first verse that way; you boys sing during
+the verse and then whistle the chorus just as you did now. We really
+need your voices in the verse part, they are so strong and splendid.
+Let's try it now." And she started off again, the two big astonished
+fellows meekly doing as they were told, and really the effect was
+beautiful. What was their surprise when the whole song was finished to
+have her say, "Now everybody whistle the chorus softly," and then pucker
+up her own soft lips to join in. That completely finished the whistling
+stunt. Jed realized that it would never work again, not while she was
+here, for she had turned the joke into beauty and made them all enjoy
+it. It hadn't annoyed her in the least.
+
+Somehow by that time they were all ready for anything she had to
+suggest, and they watched again breathlessly as she wrote another song
+on the blackboard, taking the other side of the room for it, and this
+time a hymn--"I Need Thee Every Hour."
+
+When they began to sing it, however, Margaret found the tune went
+slowly, uncertainly.
+
+"Oh, how we need a piano!" she exclaimed. "I wonder if we can't get up
+an entertainment and raise money to buy one. How many will help?"
+
+Every hand in the place went up, Jed's and Timothy's last and only a
+little way, but she noted with triumph that they went up.
+
+"All right; we'll do it! Now let's sing that verse correctly." And she
+began to sing again, while they all joined anxiously in, really trying
+to do their best.
+
+The instant the last verse died away, Margaret's voice took their
+attention.
+
+"Two years ago in Boston two young men, who belonged to a little group
+of Christian workers who were going around from place to place holding
+meetings, sat talking together in their room in the hotel one evening."
+
+There was instant quiet, a kind of a breathless quiet. This was not like
+the beginning of any lesson any other teacher had ever given them. Every
+eye was fixed on her.
+
+"They had been talking over the work of the day, and finally one of them
+suggested that they choose a Bible verse for the whole year--"
+
+There was a movement of impatience from one back seat, as if Jed had
+scented an incipient sermon, but the teacher's voice went steadily on:
+
+"They talked it over, and at last they settled on II Timothy ii:15. They
+made up their minds to use it on every possible occasion. It was time to
+go to bed, so the man whose room adjoined got up and, instead of saying
+good night, he said, 'Well, II Timothy ii:15,' and went to his room.
+Pretty soon, when he put out his light, he knocked on the wall and
+shouted 'II Timothy ii:15,' and the other man responded, heartily, 'All
+right, II Timothy ii:15.' The next morning when they wrote their letters
+each of them wrote 'II Timothy ii:15' on the lower left-hand corner of
+the envelope, and sent out a great handful of letters to all parts of
+the world. Those letters passed through the Boston post-office, and some
+of the clerks who sorted them saw that queer legend written down in the
+lower left-hand corner of the envelope, and they wondered at it, and one
+or two wrote it down, to look it up afterward. The letters reached
+other cities and were put into the hands of mail-carriers to distribute,
+and they saw the queer little sentence, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and they
+wondered, and some of them looked it up."
+
+By this time the entire attention of the school was upon the story, for
+they perceived that it was a story.
+
+"The men left Boston and went across the ocean to hold meetings in other
+cities, and one day at a little railway station in Europe a group of
+people were gathered, waiting for a train, and those two men were among
+them. Pretty soon the train came, and one of the men got on the back end
+of the last car, while the other stayed on the platform, and as the
+train moved off the man on the last car took off his hat and said, in a
+good, loud, clear tone, 'Well, take care of yourself, II Timothy ii:15,'
+and the other one smiled and waved his hat and answered, 'Yes, II
+Timothy ii:15.' The man on the train, which was moving fast now, shouted
+back, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and the man on the platform responded still
+louder, waving his hat, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and back and forth the queer
+sentence was flung until the train was too far away for them to hear
+each other's voices. In the mean time all the people on the platform had
+been standing there listening and wondering what in the world such a
+strange salutation could mean. Some of them recognized what it was, but
+many did not know, and yet the sentence was said over so many times that
+they could not help remembering it; and some went away to recall it and
+ask their friends what it meant. A young man from America was on that
+platform and heard it, and he knew it stood for a passage in the Bible,
+and his curiosity was so great that he went back to his boarding-house
+and hunted up the Bible his mother had packed in his trunk when he came
+away from home, and he hunted through the Bible until he found the
+place, 'II Timothy ii:15,' and read it; and it made him think about his
+life and decide that he wasn't doing as he ought to do. I can't tell you
+all the story about that queer Bible verse, how it went here and there
+and what a great work it did in people's hearts; but one day those
+Christian workers went to Australia to hold some meetings, and one
+night, when the great auditorium was crowded, a man who was leading the
+meeting got up and told the story of this verse, how it had been chosen,
+and how it had gone over the world in strange ways, even told about the
+morning at the little railway station when the two men said good-by.
+Just as he got to that place in his story a man in the audience stood up
+and said: 'Brother, just let me say a word, please. I never knew
+anything about all this before, but I was at that railway station, and I
+heard those two men shout that strange good-by, and I went home and read
+that verse, and it's made a great difference in my life.'
+
+"There was a great deal more to the story, how some Chicago policemen
+got to be good men through reading that verse, and how the story of the
+Australia meetings was printed in an Australian paper and sent to a lady
+in America who sent it to a friend in England to read about the
+meetings. And this friend in England had a son in the army in India, to
+whom she was sending a package, and she wrapped it around something in
+that package, and the young man read all about it, and it helped to
+change his life. Well, I thought of that story this morning when I was
+trying to decide what to read for our opening chapter, and it occurred
+to me that perhaps you would be interested to take that verse for our
+school verse this term, and so if you would like it I will put it on the
+blackboard. Would you like it, I wonder?"
+
+She paused wistfully, as if she expected an answer, and there was a low,
+almost inaudible growl of assent; a keen listener might almost have said
+it had an impatient quality in it, as if they were in a hurry to find
+out what the verse was that had made such a stir in the world.
+
+"Very well," said Margaret, turning to the board; "then I'll put it
+where we all can see it, and while I write it will you please say over
+where it is, so that you will remember it and hunt it up for yourselves
+in your Bibles at home?"
+
+There was a sort of snicker at that, for there were probably not half a
+dozen Bibles, if there were so many, represented in that school; but
+they took her hint as she wrote, and chanted, "II Timothy ii:15, II
+Timothy ii:15," and then spelled out after her rapid crayon, "Study to
+show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be
+ashamed."
+
+They read it together at her bidding, with a wondering, half-serious
+look in their faces, and then she said, "Now, shall we pray?"
+
+The former teacher had not opened her school with prayer. It had never
+been even suggested in that school. It might have been a dangerous
+experiment if Margaret had attempted it sooner in her program. As it
+was, there was a shuffling of feet in the back seats at her first word;
+but the room, grew quiet again, perhaps out of curiosity to hear a
+woman's voice in prayer:
+
+"Our Heavenly Father, we want to ask Thee to bless us in our work
+together, and to help us to be such workmen that we shall not need to be
+ashamed to show our work to Thee at the close of the day. For Christ's
+sake we ask it. Amen."
+
+They did not have time to resent that prayer before she had them
+interested in something else. In fact, she had planned her whole first
+day out so that there should not be a minute for misbehavior. She had
+argued that if she could just get time to become acquainted with them
+she might prevent a lot of trouble before it ever started. Her first
+business was to win her scholars. After that she could teach them easily
+if they were once willing to learn.
+
+She had a set of mental arithmetic problems ready which she propounded
+to them next, some of them difficult and some easy enough for the
+youngest child who could think, and she timed their answers and wrote on
+the board the names of those who raised their hands first and had the
+correct answers. The questions were put in a fascinating way, many of
+them having curious little catches in them for the scholars who were not
+on the alert, and Timothy presently discovered this and set himself to
+get every one, coming off victorious at the end. Even Jed roused
+himself and was interested, and some of the girls quite distinguished
+themselves.
+
+When a half-hour of this was over she put the word "TRANSFIGURATION" on
+the blackboard, and set them to playing a regular game out of it. If
+some of the school-board had come in just then they might have lifted up
+hands of horror at the idea of the new teacher setting the whole school
+to playing a game. But they certainly would have been delightfully
+surprised to see a quiet and orderly room with bent heads and knit
+brows, all intent upon papers and pencils. Never before in the annals of
+that school had the first day held a full period of quiet or
+orderliness. It was expected to be a day of battle; a day of trying out
+the soul of the teacher and proving whether he or she were worthy to
+cope with the active minds and bodies of the young bullies of Ashland.
+But the expected battle had been forgotten. Every mind was busy with the
+matter in hand.
+
+Margaret had given them three minutes to write as many words as they
+could think of, of three letters or more, beginning with T, and using
+only the letters in the word she had put on the board. When time was
+called there was a breathless rush to write a last word, and then each
+scholar had to tell how many words he had, and each was called upon to
+read his list. Some had only two or three, some had ten or eleven. They
+were allowed to mark their words, counting one for each person present
+who did not have that word and doubling if it were two syllables, and so
+on. Excitement ran high when it was discovered that some had actually
+made a count of thirty or forty, and when they started writing words
+beginning with R every head was bent intently from the minute time was
+started.
+
+Never had three minutes seemed so short to those unused brains, and Jed
+yelled out: "Aw, gee! I only got three!" when time was called next.
+
+It was recess-time when they finally finished every letter in that word,
+and, adding all up, found that Timothy had won the game. Was that
+school? Why, a barbecue couldn't be named beside it for fun! They rushed
+out to the school-yard with a shout, and the boys played leap-frog
+loudly for the first few minutes. Margaret, leaning her tired head in
+her hands, elbows on the window-seat, closing her eyes and gathering
+strength for the after-recess session, heard one boy say: "Wal, how d'ye
+like 'er?" And the answer came: "Gee! I didn't think she'd be that kind
+of a guy! I thought she'd be some stiff old Ike! Ain't she a peach,
+though?" She lifted up her head and laughed triumphantly to herself, her
+eyes alight, herself now strengthened for the fray. She wasn't wholly
+failing, then?
+
+After recess there was a spelling-match, choosing sides, of course,
+"Because this is only the first day, and we must get acquainted before
+we can do real work, you know," she explained.
+
+The spelling-match proved an exciting affair also, with new features
+that Ashland had never seen before. Here the girls began to shine into
+prominence, but there were very few good spellers, and they were
+presently reduced to two girls--Rosa Rogers, the beauty of the school,
+and Amanda Bounds, a stolid, homely girl with deep eyes and a broad
+brow.
+
+"I'm going to give this as a prize to the one who stands up the
+longest," said Margaret, with sudden inspiration as she saw the boys in
+their seats getting restless; and she unpinned a tiny blue-silk bow that
+fastened her white collar.
+
+The girls all said "Oh-h-h!" and immediately every one in the room
+straightened up. The next few minutes those two girls spelled for dear
+life, each with her eye fixed upon the tiny blue bow in the teacher's
+white hands. To own that bow, that wonderful, strange bow of the
+heavenly blue, with the graceful twist to the tie! What delight! The
+girl who won that would be the admired of all the school. Even the boys
+sat up and took notice, each secretly thinking that Rosa, the beauty,
+would get it, of course.
+
+But she didn't; she slipped up on the word "receive," after all, putting
+the i before the e; and her stolid companion, catching her breath
+awesomely, slowly spelled it right and received the blue prize, pinned
+gracefully at the throat of her old brown gingham by the teacher's own
+soft, white fingers, while the school looked on admiringly and the blood
+rolled hotly up the back of her neck and spread over her face and
+forehead. Rosa, the beauty, went crestfallen to her seat.
+
+It was at noon, while they ate their lunch, that Margaret tried to get
+acquainted with the girls, calling most of them by name, to their great
+surprise, and hinting of delightful possibilities in the winter's work.
+Then she slipped out among the boys and watched their sports, laughing
+and applauding when some one made a particularly fine play, as if she
+thoroughly understood and appreciated.
+
+She managed to stand near Jed and Timothy just before Bud rang the bell.
+"I've heard you are great sportsmen," she said to them, confidingly.
+"And I've been wondering if you'll teach me some things I want to learn?
+I want to know how to ride and shoot. Do you suppose I could learn?"
+
+"Sure!" they chorused, eagerly, their embarrassment forgotten. "Sure,
+you could learn fine! Sure, _we'll learn_ you!"
+
+And then the bell rang and they all went in.
+
+The afternoon was a rather informal arrangement of classes and schedule
+for the next day, Margaret giving out slips of paper with questions for
+each to answer, that she might find out just where to place them; and
+while they wrote she went from one to another, getting acquainted,
+advising, and suggesting about what they wanted to study. It was all so
+new and wonderful to them! They had not been used to caring what they
+were to study. Now it almost seemed interesting.
+
+But when the day was done, the school-house locked, and Bud and Margaret
+started for home, she realized that she was weary. Yet it was a
+weariness of success and not of failure, and she felt happy in looking
+forward to the morrow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+The minister had decided to preach in Ashland, and on the following
+Sabbath. It became apparent that if he wished to have any notice at all
+from the haughty new teacher he must do something at once to establish
+his superiority in her eyes. He had carefully gone over his store of
+sermons that he always carried with him, and decided to preach on "The
+Dynamics of Altruism."
+
+Notices had been posted up in saloons and stores and post-office. He had
+made them himself after completely tabooing Mr. Tanner's kindly and
+blundering attempt, and they gave full information concerning "the Rev.
+Frederick West, Ph.D., of the vicinity of New York City, who had kindly
+consented to preach in the school-house on 'The Dynamics of Altruism.'"
+
+Several of these elaborately printed announcements had been posted up on
+big trees along the trails, and in other conspicuous places, and there
+was no doubt but that the coming Sabbath services were more talked of
+than anything else in that neighborhood for miles around, except the new
+teacher and her extraordinary way of making all the scholars fall in
+love with her. It is quite possible that the Reverend Frederick might
+not have been so flattered at the size of his audience when the day
+came if he could have known how many of them came principally because
+they thought it would be a good opportunity to see the new teacher.
+
+However, the announcements were read, and the preacher became an object
+of deep interest to the community when he went abroad. Under this
+attention he swelled, grew pleased, bland, and condescending, wearing an
+oily smile and bowing most conceitedly whenever anybody noticed him. He
+even began to drop his severity and silence at the table, toward the end
+of the week, and expanded into dignified conversation, mainly addressed
+to Mr. Tanner about the political situation in the State of Arizona. He
+was trying to impress the teacher with the fact that he looked upon her
+as a most insignificant mortal who had forfeited her right to his smiles
+by her headstrong and unseemly conduct when he had warned her about
+"that young ruffian."
+
+Out on the trail Long Bill and Jasper Kemp paused before a tree that
+bore the Reverend Frederick's church notice, and read in silence while
+the wide wonder of the desert spread about them.
+
+"What d'ye make out o' them cuss words, Jap?" asked Long Bill, at
+length. "D'ye figger the parson's goin' to preach on swearin' ur
+gunpowder?"
+
+"Blowed ef I know," answered Jasper, eying the sign ungraciously; "but
+by the looks of him he can't say much to suit me on neither one. He
+resembles a yaller cactus bloom out in a rain-storm as to head, an' his
+smile is like some of them prickles on the plant. He can't be no
+'sky-pilot' to me, not just yet."
+
+"You don't allow he b'longs in any way to _her_?" asked Long Bill,
+anxiously, after they had been on their way for a half-hour.
+
+"B'long to _her_? Meanin' the schoolmarm?"
+
+"Yes; he ain't sweet on her nor nothin'?"
+
+"Wal, I guess not," said Jasper, contentedly. "She's got eyes sharp's a
+needle. You don't size her up so small she's goin' to take to a sickly
+parson with yaller hair an' sleek ways when she's seen the Kid, do you?"
+
+"Wal, no, it don't seem noways reasonable, but you never can tell. Women
+gets notions."
+
+"She ain't that kind! You mark my words, _she ain't that kind_. I'd lay
+she'd punch the breeze like a coyote ef he'd make up to her. Just you
+wait till you see him. He's the most no-'count, measleyest little thing
+that ever called himself a man. My word! I'd like to see him try to ride
+that colt o' mine. I really would. It would be some sight for sore eyes,
+it sure would."
+
+"Mebbe he's got a intellec'," suggested Long Bill, after another mile.
+"That goes a long ways with women-folks with a education."
+
+"No chance!" said Jasper, confidently. "'Ain't got room fer one under
+his yaller thatch. You wait till you set your lamps on him once before
+you go to gettin' excited. Why, he ain't one-two-three with our
+missionary! Gosh! I wish _he'd_ come back an' see to such goin's-on--I
+certainly do."
+
+"Was you figgerin' to go to that gatherin' Sunday?"
+
+"I sure was," said Jasper. "I want to see the show, an', besides, we
+might be needed ef things got too high-soundin'. It ain't good to have a
+creature at large that thinks he knows all there is to know. I heard
+him talk down to the post-office the day after that little party we had
+when the Kid shot out the lights to save Bunchy from killin' Crapster,
+an' it's my opinion he needs a good spankin'; but I'm agoin' to give him
+a fair show. I ain't much on religion myself, but I do like to see a
+square deal, especially in a parson. I've sized it up he needs a
+lesson."
+
+"I'm with ye, Jap," said Long Bill, and the two rode on their way in
+silence.
+
+Margaret was so busy and so happy with her school all the week that she
+quite forgot her annoyance at the minister. She really saw very little
+of him, for he was always late to breakfast, and she took hers early.
+She went to her room immediately after supper, and he had little
+opportunity for pursuing her acquaintance. Perhaps he judged that it
+would be wise to let her alone until after he had made his grand
+impression on Sunday, and let her "make up" to him.
+
+It was not until Sunday morning that she suddenly recalled that he was
+to preach that day. She had indeed seen the notices, for a very large
+and elaborate one was posted in front of the school-house, and some
+anonymous artist had produced a fine caricature of the preacher in red
+clay underneath his name. Margaret had been obliged to remain after
+school Friday and remove as much of this portrait as she was able, not
+having been willing to make it a matter of discipline to discover the
+artist. In fact, it was so true to the model that the young teacher felt
+a growing sympathy for the one who had perpetrated it.
+
+Margaret started to the school-house early Sunday morning, attended by
+the faithful Bud. Not that he had any more intention of going to
+Sunday-school than he had the week before, but it was pleasant to be the
+chosen escort of so popular a teacher. Even Jed and Timothy had walked
+home with her twice during the week. He did not intend to lose his place
+as nearest to her. There was only one to whom he would surrender that,
+and he was too far away to claim it often.
+
+Margaret had promised to help in the Sunday-school that morning, for the
+woman who taught the little ones was still away with her sick neighbor,
+and on the way she persuaded Bud to help her.
+
+"You'll be secretary for me, won't you, William?" she asked, brightly.
+"I'm going to take the left-front corner of the room for the children,
+and seat them on the recitation-benches, and that will leave all the
+back part of the room for the older people. Then I can use the
+blackboard and not disturb the rest."
+
+"Secretary?" asked the astonished Bud. He was, so to speak, growing
+accustomed to surprises. "Secretary" did not sound like being "a nice
+little Sunday-school boy."
+
+"Why, yes! take up the collection, and see who is absent, and so on. I
+don't know all the names, perhaps, and, anyhow, I don't like to do that
+when I have to teach!"
+
+Artful Margaret! She had no mind to leave Bud floating around outside
+the school-house, and though she had ostensibly prepared her lesson and
+her blackboard illustration for the little children, she had hidden in
+it a truth for Bud--poor, neglected, devoted Bud!
+
+The inefficient old man who taught the older people that day gathered
+his forces together and, seated with his back to the platform, his
+spectacles extended upon his long nose, he proceeded with the questions
+on the lesson-leaf, as usual, being more than ordinarily unfamiliar with
+them; but before he was half through he perceived by the long pauses
+between the questions and answers that he did not have the attention of
+his class. He turned slowly around to see what they were all looking at,
+and became so engaged in listening to the lesson the new teacher was
+drawing on the blackboard that he completely forgot to go on, until Bud,
+very important in his new position, rang the tiny desk-bell for the
+close of school, and Margaret, looking up, saw in dismay that she had
+been teaching the whole school.
+
+While they were singing a closing hymn the room began to fill up, and
+presently came the minister, walking importantly beside Mr. Tanner, his
+chin flattened upward as usual, but bent in till it made a double roll
+over his collar, his eyes rolling importantly, showing much of their
+whites, his sermon, in an elaborate leather cover, carried conspicuously
+under his arm, and the severest of clerical coats and collars setting
+out his insignificant face.
+
+Walking behind him in single file, measured step, just so far apart,
+came the eight men from the bunk-house--Long Bill, Big Jim, Fiddling
+Boss, Jasper Kemp, Fade-away Forbes, Stocky, Croaker, and Fudge; and
+behind them, looking like a scared rabbit, Mom Wallis scuttled into the
+back seat and sank out of sight. The eight men, however, ranged
+themselves across the front of the room on the recitation-bench,
+directly in front of the platform, removing a few small children for
+that purpose.
+
+They had been lined up in a scowling row along the path as the minister
+entered, looking at them askance under his aristocratic yellow eyebrows,
+and as he neared the door the last man followed in his wake, then the
+next, and so on.
+
+Margaret, in her seat half-way back at the side of the school-house near
+a window, saw through the trees a wide sombrero over a pair of broad
+shoulders; but, though she kept close watch, she did not see her friend
+of the wilderness enter the school-house. If he had really come to
+meeting, he was staying outside.
+
+The minister was rather nonplussed at first that there were no
+hymn-books. It almost seemed that he did not know how to go on with
+divine service without hymn-books, but at last he compromised on the
+long-meter Doxology, pronounced with deliberate unction. Then, looking
+about for a possible pipe-organ and choir, he finally started it
+himself; but it is doubtful whether any one would have recognized the
+tune enough to help it on if Margaret had not for very shame's sake
+taken it up and carried it along, and so they came to the prayer and
+Bible-reading.
+
+These were performed with a formal, perfunctory style calculated to
+impress the audience with the importance of the preacher rather than the
+words he was speaking. The audience was very quiet, having the air of
+reserving judgment for the sermon.
+
+Margaret could not just remember afterward how it was she missed the
+text. She had turned her eyes away from the minister, because it somehow
+made her feel homesick to compare him with her dear, dignified father.
+Her mind had wandered, perhaps, to the sombrero she had glimpsed
+outside, and she was wondering how its owner was coming on with his
+resolves, and just what change they would mean in his life, anyway. Then
+suddenly she awoke to the fact that the sermon had begun.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+"Considered in the world of physics," began the lordly tones of the
+Reverend Frederick, "dynamics is that branch of mechanics that treats of
+the effects of forces in producing motion, and of the laws of motion
+thus produced; sometimes called kinetics, opposed to statics. It is the
+science that treats of the laws of force, whether producing equilibrium
+or motion; in this sense including both statics and kinetics. It is also
+applied to the forces producing or governing activity or movement of any
+kind; also the methods of such activity."
+
+The big words rolled out magnificently over the awed gathering, and the
+minister flattened his chin and rolled his eyes up at the people in his
+most impressive way.
+
+Margaret's gaze hastily sought the row of rough men on the front seat,
+sitting with folded arms in an attitude of attention, each man with a
+pair of intelligent eyes under his shaggy brows regarding the preacher
+as they might have regarded an animal in a zoo. Did they understand what
+had been said? It was impossible to tell from their serious faces.
+
+"Philanthropy has been called the dynamics of Christianity; that is to
+say, it is Christianity in action," went on the preacher. "It is my
+purpose this morning to speak upon the dynamics of altruism. Now
+altruism is the theory that inculcates benevolence to others in
+subordination to self-interest; interested benevolence as opposed to
+disinterested; also, the practice of this theory."
+
+He lifted his eyes to the audience once more and nodded his head
+slightly, as if to emphasize the deep truth he had just given them, and
+the battery of keen eyes before him never flinched from his face. They
+were searching him through and through. Margaret wondered if he had no
+sense of the ridiculous, that he could, to such an audience, pour forth
+such a string of technical definitions. They sounded strangely like
+dictionary language. She wondered if anybody present besides herself
+knew what the man meant or got any inkling of what his subject was.
+Surely he would drop to simpler language, now that he had laid out his
+plan.
+
+It never occurred to her that the man was trying to impress _her_ with
+his wonderful fluency of language and his marvelous store of wisdom. On
+and on he went in much the same trend he had begun, with now and then a
+flowery sentence or whole paragraph of meaningless eloquence about the
+"brotherhood of man"--with a roll to the r's in brotherhood.
+
+Fifteen minutes of this profitless oratory those men of the wilderness
+endured, stolidly and with fixed attention; then, suddenly, a sentence
+of unusual simplicity struck them and an almost visible thrill went down
+the front seat.
+
+"For years the church has preached a dead faith, without works, my
+friends, and the time has come to stop preaching faith! I repeat
+it--fellow-men. I repeat it. The time has come _to stop preaching
+faith_ and begin to do good works!" He thumped the desk vehemently. "Men
+don't need a superstitious belief in a Saviour to save them from their
+sins; they need to go to work and save themselves! As if a man dying two
+thousand years ago on a cross could do any good to you and me to-day!"
+
+It was then that the thrill passed down that front line, and Long Bill,
+sitting at their head, leaned slightly forward and looked full and
+frowning into the face of Jasper Kemp; and the latter, frowning back,
+solemnly winked one eye. Margaret sat where she could see the whole
+thing.
+
+Immediately, still with studied gravity, Long Bill cleared his throat
+impressively, arose, and, giving the minister a full look in the eye, of
+the nature almost of a challenge, he turned and walked slowly, noisily
+down the aisle and out the front door.
+
+The minister was visibly annoyed, and for the moment a trifle flustered;
+but, concluding his remarks had been too deep for the rough creature, he
+gathered up the thread of his argument and proceeded:
+
+"We need to get to work at our duty toward our fellow-men. We need to
+down trusts and give the laboring-man a chance. We need to stop
+insisting that men shall believe in the inspiration of the entire Bible
+and get to work at something practical!"
+
+The impressive pause after this sentence was interrupted by a sharp,
+rasping sound of Big Jim clearing his throat and shuffling to his feet.
+He, too, looked the minister full in the face with a searching gaze,
+shook his head sadly, and walked leisurely down the aisle and out of
+the door. The minister paused again and frowned. This was becoming
+annoying.
+
+Margaret sat in startled wonder. Could it be possible that these rough
+men were objecting to the sermon from a theological point of view, or
+was it just a happening that they had gone out at such pointed moments.
+She sat back after a minute, telling herself that of course the men must
+just have been weary of the long sentences, which no doubt they could
+not understand. She began to hope that Gardley was not within hearing.
+It was not probable that many others understood enough to get harm from
+the sermon, but her soul boiled with indignation that a man could go
+forth and call himself a minister of an evangelical church and yet talk
+such terrible heresy.
+
+Big Jim's steps died slowly away on the clay path outside, and the
+preacher resumed his discourse.
+
+"We have preached long enough of hell and torment. It is time for a
+gospel of love to our brothers. Hell is a superstition of the Dark Ages.
+_There is no hell!_"
+
+Fiddling Boss turned sharply toward Jasper Kemp, as if waiting for a
+signal, and Jasper gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod. Whereupon
+Fiddling Boss cleared his throat loudly and arose, faced the minister,
+and marched down the aisle, while Jasper Kemp remained quietly seated as
+if nothing had happened, a vacancy each side of him.
+
+By this time the color began to rise in the minister's cheeks. He looked
+at the retreating back of Fiddling Boss, and then suspiciously down at
+the row of men, but every one of them sat with folded arms and eyes
+intent upon the sermon, as if their comrades had not left them. The
+minister thought he must have been mistaken and took up the broken
+thread once more, or tried to, but he had hopelessly lost the place in
+his manuscript, and the only clue that offered was a quotation of a poem
+about the devil; to be sure, the connection was somewhat abrupt, but he
+clutched it with his eye gratefully and began reading it dramatically:
+
+    "'Men don't believe in the devil now
+    As their fathers used to do--'"
+
+But he had got no further when a whole clearing-house of throats
+sounded, and Fade-away Forbes stumbled to his feet frantically, bolting
+down the aisle as if he had been sent for. He had not quite reached the
+door when Stocky clumped after him, followed at intervals by Croaker and
+Fudge, and each just as the minister had begun:
+
+"Um! Ah! To resume--"
+
+And now only Jasper Kemp remained of the front-seaters, his fine gray
+eyes boring through and through the minister as he floundered through
+the remaining portion of his manuscript up to the point where it began,
+"And finally--" which opened with another poem:
+
+    "'I need no Christ to die for me.'"
+
+The sturdy, gray-haired Scotchman suddenly lowered his folded arms,
+slapping a hand resoundingly on each knee, bent his shoulders the better
+to pull himself to his feet, pressing his weight on his hands till his
+elbows were akimbo, uttered a deep sigh and a, "Yes--well--_ah_!"
+
+With that he got to his feet and dragged them slowly out of the
+school-house.
+
+By this time the minister was ready to burst with indignation. Never
+before in all the bombastic days of his egotism had he been so grossly
+insulted, and by such rude creatures! And yet there was really nothing
+that could be said or done. These men appeared to be simple creatures
+who had wandered in idly, perhaps for a few moments' amusement, and,
+finding the discourse above their caliber, had innocently wandered out
+again. That was the way it had been made to appear. But his plans had
+been cruelly upset by such actions, and he was mortified in the extreme.
+His face was purple with his emotions, and he struggled and spluttered
+for a way out of his trying dilemma. At last he spoke, and his voice was
+absurdly dignified:
+
+"Is there--ah--any other--ah--auditor--ah--who is desirous of
+withdrawing before the close of service? If so he may do so now,
+or--ah--" He paused for a suitable ending, and familiar words rushed to
+his lips without consciousness for the moment of their meaning--"or
+forever after hold their peace--ah!"
+
+There was a deathly silence in the school-house. No one offered to go
+out, and Margaret suddenly turned her head and looked out of the window.
+Her emotions were almost beyond her control.
+
+Thus the closing eloquence proceeded to its finish, and at last the
+service was over. Margaret looked about for Mom Wallis, but she had
+disappeared. She signed to Bud, and together they hastened out; but a
+quiet Sabbath peace reigned about the door of the school-house, and not
+a man from the camp was in sight; no, nor even the horses upon which
+they had come.
+
+And yet, when the minister had finished shaking hands with the
+worshipful women and a few men and children, and came with Mr. Tanner to
+the door of the school-house, those eight men stood in a solemn row,
+four on each side of the walk, each holding his chin in his right hand,
+his right elbow in his left hand, and all eyes on Jasper Kemp, who kept
+his eyes thoughtfully up in the sky.
+
+"H'w aire yeh, Tanner? Pleasant 'casion. Mind steppin' on a bit? We men
+wanta have a word with the parson."
+
+Mr. Tanner stepped on hurriedly, and the minister was left standing
+nonplussed and alone in the doorway of the school-house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+"Um! Ah!" began the minister, trying to summon his best clerical manner
+to meet--what? He did not know. It was best to assume they were a
+penitent band of inquirers for the truth. But the memory of their recent
+exodus from the service was rather too clearly in his mind for his
+pleasantest expression to be uppermost toward these rough creatures.
+Insolent fellows! He ought to give them a good lesson in behavior!
+
+"Um! Ah!" he began again, but found to his surprise that his remarks
+thus far had had no effect whatever on the eight stolid countenances
+before him. In fact, they seemed to have grown grim and menacing even in
+their quiet attitude, and their eyes were fulfilling the promise of the
+look they had given him when they left the service.
+
+"What does all this mean, anyway?" he burst forth, suddenly.
+
+"Calm yourself, elder! Calm yourself," spoke up Long Bill. "There ain't
+any occasion to get excited."
+
+"I'm not an elder; I'm a minister of the gospel," exploded West, in his
+most pompous tones. "I should like to know who you are and what all this
+means?"
+
+"Yes, parson, we understand who you are. We understand quite well, an'
+we're agoin' to tell you who we are. We're a band of al-tru-ists! That's
+what we are. We're _altruists_!" It was Jasper Kemp of the keen eyes and
+sturdy countenance who spoke. "And we've come here in brotherly love to
+exercise a little of that dynamic force of altruism you was talkin'
+about. We just thought we'd begin on you so's you could see that we got
+some works to go 'long with our faith."
+
+"What do you mean, sir?" said West, looking from one grim countenance to
+another. "I--I don't quite understand." The minister was beginning to be
+frightened, he couldn't exactly tell why. He wished he had kept Brother
+Tanner with him. It was the first time he had ever thought of Mr. Tanner
+as "brother."
+
+"We mean just this, parson; you been talkin' a lot of lies in there
+about there bein' no Saviour an' no hell, ner no devil, an' while we
+ain't much credit to God ourselves, bein' just common men, we know all
+that stuff you said ain't true about the Bible an' the devil bein'
+superstitions, an' we thought we better exercise a little of that there
+altruism you was talkin' about an' teach you better. You see, it's real
+brotherly kindness, parson. An' now we're goin' to give you a sample of
+that dynamics you spoke about. Are you ready, boys?"
+
+"All ready," they cried as one man.
+
+There seemed to be no concerted motion, nor was there warning. Swifter
+than the weaver's shuttle, sudden as the lightning's flash, the minister
+was caught from where he stood pompously in that doorway, hat in hand,
+all grandly as he was attired, and hurled from man to man. Across the
+walk and back; across and back; across and back; until it seemed to him
+it was a thousand miles all in a minute of time. He had no opportunity
+to prepare for the onslaught. He jammed his high silk hat, wherewith he
+had thought to overawe the community, upon his sleek head, and grasped
+his precious sermon-case to his breast; the sermon, as it well deserved,
+was flung to the four winds of heaven and fortunately was no more--that
+is, existing as a whole. The time came when each of those eight men
+recovered and retained a portion of that learned oration, and Mom
+Wallis, not quite understanding, pinned up and used as a sort of shrine
+the portion about doubting the devil; but as a sermon the parts were
+never assembled on this earth, nor could be, for some of it was ground
+to powder under eight pairs of ponderous heels. But the minister at that
+trying moment was too much otherwise engaged to notice that the child of
+his brain lay scattered on the ground.
+
+Seven times he made the round up and down, up and down that merciless
+group, tossed like a thistle-down from man to man. And at last, when his
+breath was gone, when the world had grown black before him, and he felt
+smaller and more inadequate than he had ever felt in his whole conceited
+life before, he found himself bound, helplessly bound, and cast
+ignominiously into a wagon. And it was a strange thing that, though
+seemingly but five short minutes before the place had been swarming with
+worshipful admirers thanking him for his sermon, now there did not seem
+to be a creature within hearing, for he called and cried aloud and
+roared with his raucous voice until it would seem that all the
+surrounding States might have heard that cry from Arizona, yet none came
+to his relief.
+
+They carried him away somewhere, he did not know where; it was a lonely
+spot and near a water-hole. When he protested and loudly blamed them,
+threatening all the law in the land upon them, they regarded him as one
+might a naughty child who needed chastisement, leniently and with
+sorrow, but also with determination.
+
+They took him down by the water's side and stood him up among them. He
+began to tremble with fear as he looked from one to another, for he was
+not a man of courage, and he had heard strange tales of this wild, free
+land, where every man was a law unto himself. Were they going to drown
+him then and there? Then up spoke Jasper Kemp:
+
+"Mr. Parson," he said, and his voice was kind but firm; one might almost
+say there was a hint of humor in it, and there surely was a twinkle in
+his eye; but the sternness of his lips belied it, and the minister was
+in no state to appreciate humor--"Mr. Parson, we've brought you here to
+do you good, an' you oughtn't to complain. This is altruism, an' we're
+but actin' out what you been preachin'. You're our brother an' we're
+tryin' to do you good; an' now we're about to show you what a dynamic
+force we are. You see, Mr. Parson, I was brought up by a good Scotch
+grandmother, an' I know a lie when I hear it, an' when I hear a man
+preach error I know it's time to set him straight; so now we're agoin'
+to set you straight. I don't know where you come from, nor who brang you
+up, nor what church set you afloat, but I know enough by all my
+grandmother taught me--even if I hadn't been a-listenin' off and on for
+two years back to Mr. Brownleigh, our missionary--to know you're a
+dangerous man to have at large. I'd as soon have a mad dog let loose.
+Why, what you preach ain't the gospel, an' it ain't the truth, and the
+time has come for you to know it, an' own it and recant. Recant! That's
+what they call it. That's what we're here to see 't you do, or we'll
+know the reason why. That's the _dynamics_ of it. See?"
+
+The minister saw. He saw the deep, muddy water-hole. He saw nothing
+more.
+
+"Folks are all too ready to believe them there things you was gettin'
+off without havin' 'em _preached_ to justify 'em in their evil ways. We
+gotta think of those poor ignorant brothers of ours that might listen to
+you. See? That's the _altruism_ of it!"
+
+"What do you want me to do?" The wretched man's tone was not merely
+humble--it was abject. His grand Prince Albert coat was torn in three
+places; one tail hung down dejectedly over his hip; one sleeve was
+ripped half-way out. His collar was unbuttoned and the ends rode up
+hilariously over his cheeks. His necktie was gone. His sleek hair stuck
+out in damp wisps about his frightened eyes, and his hat had been "stove
+in" and jammed down as far as it would go until his ample ears stuck out
+like sails at half-mast. His feet were imbedded in the heavy mud on the
+margin of the water-hole, and his fine silk socks, which had showed at
+one time above the erstwhile neat tyings, were torn and covered with
+mud.
+
+"Well, in the first place," said Jasper Kemp, with a slow wink around at
+the company, "that little matter about hell needs adjustin'. Hell ain't
+no superstition. I ain't dictatin' what kind of a hell there is; you can
+make it fire or water or anything else you like, but _there is a hell_,
+an' _you believe in it_. D'ye understand? We'd just like to have you
+make that statement publicly right here an' now."
+
+"But how can I say what I don't believe?" whined West, almost ready to
+cry. He had come proudly through a trial by Presbytery on these very
+same points, and had posed as being a man who had the courage of his
+convictions. He could not thus easily surrender his pride of original
+thought and broad-mindedness. He had received congratulations from a
+number of noble martyrs who had left their chosen church for just such
+reasons, congratulating him on his brave stand. It had been the first
+notice from big men he had ever been able to attract to himself, and it
+had gone to his head like wine. Give that up for a few miserable
+cowboys! It might get into the papers and go back East. He must think of
+his reputation.
+
+"That's just where the dynamics of the thing comes in, brother," said
+Jasper Kemp, patronizingly. "We're here to _make_ you believe in a hell.
+We're the force that will bring you back into the right way of thinkin'
+again. Are you ready, boys?"
+
+The quiet utterance brought goose-flesh up to West's very ears, and his
+eyes bulged with horror.
+
+"Oh, that isn't necessary! I believe--yes, I believe in hell!" he
+shouted, as they seized him.
+
+But it was too late. The Rev. Frederick West was plunged into the
+water-hole, from whose sheep-muddied waters he came up spluttering,
+"Yes, I believe in _hell_!" and for the first time in his life, perhaps,
+he really did believe in it, and thought that he was in it.
+
+The men were standing knee-deep in the water and holding their captive
+lightly by his arms and legs, their eyes upon their leader, waiting now.
+
+Jasper Kemp stood in the water, also, looking down benevolently upon his
+victim, his chin in his hand, his elbow in his other hand, an attitude
+which carried a feeling of hopelessness to the frightened minister.
+
+"An' now there's that little matter of the devil," said Jasper Kemp,
+reflectively. "We'll just fix that up next while we're near his place of
+residence. You believe in the devil, Mr. Parson, from now on? If you'd
+ever tried resistin' him I figger you'd have b'lieved in him long ago.
+But _you believe in him_ from _now on_, an' you _don't preach against
+him any more_! We're not goin' to have our Arizona men gettin' off their
+guard an' thinkin' their enemy is dead. There _is_ a devil, parson, and
+you believe in him! Duck him, boys!"
+
+Down went the minister into the water again, and came up spluttering,
+"Yes, I--I--I--believe--in-the--devil." Even in this strait he was loath
+to surrender his pet theme--no devil.
+
+"Very well, so far as it goes," said Jasper Kemp, thoughtfully. "But
+now, boys, we're comin' to the most important of all, and you better
+put him under about three times, for there mustn't be no mistake about
+this matter. You believe in the Bible, parson--_the whole Bible_?"
+
+"Yes!" gasped West, as he went down the first time and got a mouthful of
+the bitter water, "I believe--" The voice was fairly anguished. Down he
+went again. Another mouthful of water. "_I believe in the whole Bible!_"
+he screamed, and went down the third time. His voice was growing weaker,
+but he came up and reiterated it without request, and was lifted out
+upon the mud for a brief respite. The men of the bunk-house were
+succeeding better than the Presbytery back in the East had been able to
+do. The conceit was no longer visible in the face of the Reverend
+Frederick. His teeth were chattering, and he was beginning to see one
+really needed to believe in something when one came as near to his end
+as this.
+
+"There's just one more thing to reckon with," said Jasper Kemp,
+thoughtfully. "That line of talk you was handin' out about a man dyin'
+on a cross two thousand years ago bein' nothin' to you. You said you
+_an' me_, but you can speak for _yourself_. We may not be much to look
+at, but we ain't goin' to stand for no such slander as that. Our
+missionary preaches all about that Man on the Cross, an' if you don't
+need Him before you get through this little campaign of life I'll miss
+my guess. Mebbe we haven't been all we might have been, but we ain't
+agoin' to let you ner no one else go back on that there Cross!"
+
+Jasper Kemp's tone was tender and solemn. As the minister lay panting
+upon his back in the mud he was forced to acknowledge that at only two
+other times in his life had a tone of voice so arrested his attention
+and filled him with awe; once when as a boy he had been caught copying
+off another's paper at examination-time, and he had been sent to the
+principal's office; and again on the occasion of his mother's funeral,
+as he sat in the dim church a few years ago and listened to the old
+minister. For a moment now he was impressed with the wonder of the
+Cross, and it suddenly seemed as if he were being arraigned before the
+eyes of Him with Whom we all have to do. A kind of shame stole into his
+pale, flabby face, all the smugness and complacence gone, and he a poor
+wretch in the hands of his accusers. Jasper Kemp, standing over him on
+the bank, looking down grimly upon him, seemed like the emissary of God
+sent to condemn him, and his little, self-centered soul quailed within
+him.
+
+"Along near the end of that discourse of yours you mentioned that sin
+was only misplaced energy. Well, if that's so there's a heap of your
+energy gone astray this mornin', an' the time has come for you to pay
+up. Speak up now an' say what you believe or whether you want another
+duckin'--an' it'll be seven times this time!"
+
+The man on the ground shut his eyes and gasped. The silence was very
+solemn. There seemed no hint of the ridiculous in the situation. It was
+serious business now to all those men. Their eyes were on their leader.
+
+"Do you solemnly declare before God--I s'pose you still believe in a
+God, as you didn't say nothin' to the contrary--that from now on you'll
+stand for that there Cross and for Him that hung on it?"
+
+The minister opened his eyes and looked up into the wide brightness of
+the sky, as if he half expected to see horses and chariots of fire
+standing about to do battle with him then and there, and his voice was
+awed and frightened as he said:
+
+"I do!"
+
+There was silence, and the men stood with half-bowed heads, as if some
+solemn service were being performed that they did not quite understand,
+but in which they fully sympathized. Then Jasper Kemp said, softly:
+
+"Amen!" And after a pause: "I ain't any sort of a Christian myself, but
+I just can't stand it to see a parson floatin' round that don't even
+know the name of the firm he's workin' for. Now, parson, there's just
+one more requirement, an' then you can go home."
+
+The minister opened his eyes and looked around with a frightened appeal,
+but no one moved, and Jasper Kemp went on:
+
+"You say you had a church in New York. What was the name and address
+of your workin'-boss up there?"
+
+"What do you mean? I hadn't any boss."
+
+"Why, him that hired you an' paid you. The chief elder or whatever you
+called him."
+
+"Oh!" The minister's tone expressed lack of interest in the subject, but
+he answered, languidly, "Ezekiel Newbold, Hazelton."
+
+"Very good. Now, parson, you'll just kindly write two copies of a letter
+to Mr. Ezekiel Newbold statin' what you've just said to us concernin'
+your change of faith, sign your name, address one to Mr. Newbold, an'
+give the duplicate to me. We just want this little matter put on record
+so you can't change your mind any in future. Do you get my idea?"
+
+"Yes," said the minister, dispiritedly.
+
+"Will you do it?"
+
+"Yes," apathetically.
+
+"Well, now I got a piece of advice for you. It would be just as well for
+your health for you to leave Arizona about as quick as you can find it
+convenient to pack, but you won't be allowed to leave this town, day or
+night, cars or afoot, until them there letters are all O.K. Do you get
+me?"
+
+"Yes," pathetically.
+
+"I might add, by way of explainin', that if you had come to Arizona an'
+minded your own business you wouldn't have been interfered with. You
+mighta preached whatever bosh you darned pleased so far as we was
+concerned, only you wouldn't have had no sorta audience after the first
+try of that stuff you give to-day. But when you come to Arizona an' put
+your fingers in other folks' pie, when you tried to 'squeal' on the
+young gentleman who was keen enough to shoot out the lights to save a
+man's life, why, we 'ain't no further use for you. In the first place,
+you was all wrong. You thought the Kid shot out the lights to steal the
+gamin'-money; but he didn't. He put it all in the hands of the sheriff
+some hours before your 'private information' reached him through the
+mail. You thought you were awful sharp, you little sneak! But I wasn't
+the only man present who saw you put your foot out an' cover a gold
+piece that rolled on the floor just when the fight began. You thought
+nobody was a-lookin', but you'll favor us, please, with that identical
+gold piece along with the letter before you leave. Well, boys, that'll
+be about all, then. Untie him!"
+
+In silence and with a kind of contemptuous pity in their faces the
+strong men stooped and unbound him; then, without another word, they
+left him, tramping solemnly away single file to their horses, standing
+at a little distance.
+
+Jasper Kemp lingered for a moment, looking down at the wretched man.
+"Would you care to have us carry you back to the house?" he asked,
+reflectively.
+
+"No!" said the minister, bitterly. "No!" And without another word Jasper
+Kemp left him.
+
+Into the mesquite-bushes crept the minister, his glory all departed, and
+hid his misery from the light, groaning in bitterness of spirit. He who
+had made the hearts of a score of old ministers to sorrow for Zion, who
+had split in two a pleasantly united congregation, disrupted a session,
+and brought about a scandalous trial in Presbytery was at last
+conquered. The Rev. Frederick West had recanted!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+When Margaret left the school-house with Bud she had walked but a few
+steps when she remembered Mom Wallis and turned back to search for her;
+but nowhere could she find a trace of her, and the front of the
+school-house was as empty of any people from the camp as if they had not
+been there that morning. The curtain had not yet risen for the scene of
+the undoing of West.
+
+"I suppose she must have gone home with them," said the girl, wistfully.
+"I'm sorry not to have spoken with her. She was good to me."
+
+"You mean Mom Wallis?" said the boy. "No, she ain't gone home. She's
+hiking 'long to our house to see you. The Kid went along of her. See,
+there--down by those cottonwood-trees? That's them."
+
+Margaret turned with eagerness and hurried along with Bud now. She knew
+who it was they called the Kid in that tone of voice. It was the way the
+men had spoken of and to him, a mingling of respect and gentling that
+showed how much beloved he was. Her cheeks wore a heightened color, and
+her heart gave a pleasant flutter of interest.
+
+They walked rapidly and caught up with their guests before they had
+reached the Tanner house, and Margaret had the pleasure of seeing Mom
+Wallis's face flush with shy delight when she caught her softly round
+the waist, stealing quietly up behind, and greeted her with a kiss.
+There had not been many kisses for Mom Wallis in the later years, and
+the two that were to Margaret Earle's account seemed very sweet to her.
+Mom Wallis's eyes shone as if she had been a young girl as she turned
+with a smothered "Oh!" She was a woman not given to expressing herself;
+indeed, it might be said that the last twenty years of her life had been
+mainly of self-repression. She gave that one little gasp of recognition
+and pleasure, and then she relapsed into embarrassed silence beside the
+two young people who found pleasure in their own greetings. Bud,
+boy-like, was after a cottontail, along with Cap, who had appeared from
+no one knew where and was attending the party joyously.
+
+Mom Wallis, in her big, rough shoes, on the heels of which her scant
+brown calico gown was lifted as she walked, trudged shyly along between
+the two young people, as carefully watched and helped over the humps and
+bumps of the way as if she had been a princess. Margaret noticed with a
+happy approval how Gardley's hand was ready under the old woman's elbow
+to assist her as politely as he might have done for her own mother had
+she been walking by his side.
+
+Presently Bud and Cap returned, and Bud, with observant eye, soon timed
+his step to Margaret's on her other side and touched her elbow lightly
+to help her over the next rut. This was his second lesson in manners
+from Gardley. He had his first the Sunday before, watching the two
+while he and Cap walked behind. Bud was learning. He had keen eyes and
+an alert brain. Margaret smiled understandingly at him, and his face
+grew deep red with pleasure.
+
+"He was bringin' me to see where you was livin'," explained Mom Wallis,
+suddenly, nodding toward Gardley as if he had been a king. "We wasn't
+hopin' to see you, except mebbe just as you come by goin' in."
+
+"Oh, then I'm so glad I caught up with you in time. I wouldn't have
+missed you for anything. I went back to look for you. Now you're coming
+in to dinner with me, both of you," declared Margaret, joyfully.
+"William, your mother will have enough dinner for us all, won't she?"
+
+"Sure!" said Bud, with that assurance born of his life acquaintance with
+his mother, who had never failed him in a trying situation so far as
+things to eat were concerned.
+
+Margaret looked happily from one of her invited guests to the other, and
+Gardley forgot to answer for himself in watching the brightness of her
+face, and wondering why it was so different from the faces of all other
+girls he knew anywhere.
+
+But Mom Wallis was overwhelmed. A wave of red rolled dully up from her
+withered neck in its gala collar over her leathery face to the roots of
+her thin, gray hair.
+
+"Me! Stay to dinner! Oh, I couldn't do that nohow! Not in these here
+clo'es. 'Course I got that pretty collar you give me, but I couldn't
+never go out to dinner in this old dress an' these shoes. I know what
+folks ought to look like an' I ain't goin' to shame you."
+
+"Shame me? Nonsense! Your dress is all right, and who is going to see
+your shoes? Besides, I've just set my heart on it. I want to take you up
+to my room and show you the pictures of my father and mother and home
+and the church where I was christened, and everything."
+
+Mom Wallis looked at her with wistful eyes, but still shook her head.
+"Oh, I'd like to mighty well. It's good of you to ast me. But I
+couldn't. I just couldn't. 'Sides, I gotta go home an' git the men's
+grub ready."
+
+"Oh, can't she stay this time, Mr. Gardley?" appealed Margaret. "The men
+won't mind for once, will they?"
+
+Gardley looked into her true eyes and saw she really meant the
+invitation. He turned to the withered old woman by his side. "Mom, we're
+going to stay," he declared, joyously. "She wants us, and we have to do
+whatever she says. The men will rub along. They all know how to cook.
+Mom, _we're going to stay_."
+
+"That's beautiful!" declared Margaret. "It's so nice to have some
+company of my own." Then her face suddenly sobered. "Mr. Wallis won't
+mind, will he?" And she looked with troubled eyes from one of her guests
+to the other. She did not want to prepare trouble for poor Mom Wallis
+when she went back.
+
+Mom Wallis turned startled eyes toward her. There was contempt in her
+face and outraged womanhood. "Pop's gone off," she said, significantly.
+"He went yist'day. But he 'ain't got no call t' mind. I ben waitin' on
+Pop nigh on to twenty year, an' I guess I'm goin' to a dinner-party, now
+'t I'm invited. Pop 'd better _not_ mind, I guess!"
+
+And Margaret suddenly saw how much, how very much, her invitation had
+been to the starved old soul. Margaret took her guests into the stiff
+little parlor and slipped out to interview her landlady. She found Mrs.
+Tanner, as she had expected, a large-minded woman who was quite pleased
+to have more guests to sit down to her generous dinner, particularly as
+her delightful boarder had hinted of ample recompense in the way of
+board money; and she fluttered about, sending Tanner after another jar
+of pickles, some more apple-butter, and added another pie to the menu.
+
+Well pleased, Margaret left Mrs. Tanner and slipped back to her guests.
+She found Gardley making arrangements with Bud to run back to the church
+and tell the men to leave the buckboard for them, as they would not be
+home for dinner. While this was going on she took Mom Wallis up to her
+room to remove her bonnet and smooth her hair.
+
+It is doubtful whether Mom Wallis ever did see such a room in her life;
+for when Margaret swung open the door the poor little woman stopped
+short on the threshold, abashed, and caught her breath, looking around
+with wondering eyes and putting out a trembling hand to steady herself
+against the door-frame. She wasn't quite sure whether things in that
+room were real, or whether she might not by chance have caught a glimpse
+into heaven, so beautiful did it seem to her. It was not till her eyes,
+in the roving, suddenly rested on the great mountain framed in the open
+window that she felt anchored and sure that this was a tangible place.
+Then she ventured to step her heavy shoe inside the door. Even then she
+drew her ugly calico back apologetically, as if it were a desecration to
+the lovely room.
+
+But Margaret seized her and drew her into the room, placing her gently
+in the rose-ruffled rocking-chair as if it were a throne and she a
+queen, and the poor little woman sat entranced, with tears springing to
+her eyes and trickling down her cheeks.
+
+Perhaps it was an impossibility for Margaret to conceive what the vision
+of that room meant to Mom Wallis. The realization of all the dreams of a
+starved soul concentrated into a small space; the actual, tangible proof
+that there might be a heaven some day--who knew?--since beauties and
+comforts like these could be real in Arizona.
+
+Margaret brought the pictures of her father and mother, of her dear home
+and the dear old church. She took her about the room and showed her the
+various pictures and reminders of her college days, and when she saw
+that the poor creature was overwhelmed and speechless she turned her
+about and showed her the great mountain again, like an anchorage for her
+soul.
+
+Mom Wallis looked at everything speechlessly, gasping as her attention
+was turned from one object to another, as if she were unable to rise
+beyond her excitement; but when she saw the mountain again her tongue
+was loosed, and she turned and looked back at the girl wonderingly.
+
+"Now, ain't it strange! Even that old mounting looks diffrunt--it do
+look diffrunt from a room like this. Why, it looks like it got its hair
+combed an' its best collar on!" And Mom Wallis looked down with pride
+and patted the simple net ruffle about her withered throat. "Why, it
+looks like a picter painted an' hung up on this yere wall, that's what
+that mounting looks like! It kinda ain't no mounting any more; it's jest
+a picter in your room!"
+
+Margaret smiled. "It is a picture, isn't it? Just look at that silver
+light over the purple place. Isn't it wonderful? I like to think it's
+mine--my mountain. And yet the beautiful thing about it is that it's
+just as much yours, too. It will make a picture of itself framed in your
+bunk-house window if you let it. Try it. You just need to let it."
+
+Mom Wallis looked at her wonderingly. "Do you mean," she said, studying
+the girl's lovely face, "that ef I should wash them there bunk-house
+winders, an' string up some posy caliker, an' stuff a chair, an' have a
+pin-cushion, I could make that there mounting come in an' set fer me
+like a picter the way it does here fer you?"
+
+"Yes, that's what I mean," said Margaret, softly, marveling how the
+uncouth woman had caught the thought. "That's exactly what I mean. God's
+gifts will be as much to us as we will let them, always. Try it and
+see."
+
+Mom Wallis stood for some minutes looking out reflectively at the
+mountain. "Wal, mebbe I'll try it!" she said, and turned back to survey
+the room again.
+
+And now the mirror caught her eye, and she saw herself, a strange self
+in a soft white collar, and went up to get a nearer view, laying a
+toil-worn finger on the lace and looking half embarrassed at sight of
+her own face.
+
+"It's a real purty collar," she said, softly, with a choke in her voice.
+"It's too purty fer me. I told him so, but he said as how you wanted I
+should dress up every night fer supper in it. It's 'most as strange as
+havin' a mounting come an' live with you, to wear a collar like
+that--me!"
+
+Margaret's eyes were suddenly bright with tears. Who would have
+suspected Mom Wallis of having poetry in her nature? Then, as if her
+thoughts anticipated the question in Margaret's mind, Mom Wallis went
+on:
+
+"He brang me your little book," she said. "I ain't goin' to say thank
+yeh, it ain't a big-'nuf word. An' he read me the poetry words it says.
+I got it wropped in a hankercher on the top o' the beam over my bed. I'm
+goin' to have it buried with me when I die. Oh, I _read_ it. I couldn't
+make much out of it, but I read the words thorough. An' then _he_ read
+'em--the Kid did. He reads just beautiful. He's got education, he has.
+He read it, and he talked a lot about it. Was this what you mean? Was it
+that we ain't really growin' old at all, we're jest goin' on, _gettin_'
+there, if we go right? Did you mean you think Him as planned it all
+wanted some old woman right thar in the bunk-house, an' it's _me_? Did
+you mean there was agoin' to be a chanct fer me to be young an'
+beautiful somewheres in creation yit, 'fore I git through?"
+
+The old woman had turned around from looking into the mirror and was
+facing her hostess. Her eyes were very bright; her cheeks had taken on
+an excited flush, and her knotted hands were clutching the bureau. She
+looked into Margaret's eyes earnestly, as though her very life depended
+upon the answer; and Margaret, with a great leap of her heart, smiled
+and answered:
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Wallis, yes, that is just what I meant. Listen, these are
+God's own words about it: 'For I reckon that the sufferings of this
+present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be
+revealed in us.'"
+
+A kind of glory shone in the withered old face now. "Did you say them
+was God's words?" she asked in an awed voice.
+
+"Yes," said Margaret; "they are in the Bible."
+
+"But you couldn't be sure it meant _me_?" she asked, eagerly. "They
+wouldn't go to put _me_ in the Bible, o' course."
+
+"Oh yes, you could be quite sure, Mrs. Wallis," said Margaret, gently.
+"Because if God was making you and had a plan for you, as the poem says,
+He would be sure to put down something in His book about it, don't you
+think? He would want you to know."
+
+"It does sound reasonable-like now, don't it?" said the woman,
+wistfully. "Say them glory words again, won't you?"
+
+Margaret repeated the text slowly and distinctly.
+
+"Glory!" repeated Mom Wallis, wonderingly. "Glory! Me!" and turned
+incredulously toward the glass. She looked a long tune wistfully at
+herself, as if she could not believe it, and pulled reproachfully at
+the tight hair drawn away from her weather-beaten face. "I useta have
+purty hair onct," she said, sadly.
+
+"Why, you have pretty hair now!" said Margaret, eagerly. "It just wants
+a chance to show its beauty, Here, let me fix it for dinner, will you?"
+
+She whisked the bewildered old woman into a chair and began unwinding
+the hard, tight knot of hair at the back of her head and shaking it out.
+The hair was thin and gray now, but it showed signs of having been fine
+and thick once.
+
+"It's easy to keep your hair looking pretty," said the girl, as she
+worked. "I'm going to give you a little box of my nice sweet-smelling
+soap-powder that I use to shampoo my hair. You take it home and wash
+your hair with it every two or three weeks and you'll see it will make a
+difference in a little while. You just haven't taken time to take care
+of it, that's all. Do you mind if I wave the front here a little? I'd
+like to fix your hair the way my mother wears hers."
+
+Now nothing could have been further apart than this little
+weather-beaten old woman and Margaret's gentle, dove-like mother, with
+her abundant soft gray hair, her cameo features, and her pretty, gray
+dresses; but Margaret had a vision of what glory might bring to Mom
+Wallis, and she wanted to help it along. She believed that heavenly
+glory can be hastened a good deal on earth if one only tries, and so she
+set to work. Glancing out the window, she saw with relief that Gardley
+was talking interestedly with Mr. Tanner and seemed entirely content
+with their absence.
+
+Mom Wallis hadn't any idea what "waving" her hair meant, but she readily
+consented to anything this wonderful girl proposed, and she sat
+entranced, looking at her mountain and thrilling with every touch of
+Margaret's satin fingers against her leathery old temples. And so,
+Sunday though it was, Margaret lighted her little alcohol-lamp and
+heated a tiny curling-iron which she kept for emergencies. In a few
+minutes' time Mom Wallis's astonished old gray locks lay soft and fluffy
+about her face, and pinned in a smooth coil behind, instead of the tight
+knot, making the most wonderful difference in the world in her old,
+tired face.
+
+"Now look!" said Margaret, and turned her about to the mirror. "If
+there's anything at all you don't like about it I can change it, you
+know. You don't have to wear it so if you don't like it."
+
+The old woman looked, and then looked back at Margaret with frightened
+eyes, and back to the vision in the mirror again.
+
+"My soul!" she exclaimed in an awed voice. "My soul! It's come a'ready!
+Glory! I didn't think I could look like that! I wonder what Pop 'd say!
+My land! Would you mind ef I kep' it on a while an' wore it back to camp
+this way? Pop might uv come home an' I'd like to see ef he'd take notice
+to it. I used to be purty onct, but I never expected no sech thing like
+this again on earth. Glory! Glory! Mebbe I _could_ get some glory,
+_too_."
+
+"'The glory that shall be revealed' is a great deal more wonderful than
+this," said Margaret, gently. "This was here all the time, only you
+didn't let it come out. Wear it home that way, of course, and wear it
+so all the time. It's very little trouble, and you'll find your family
+will like it. Men always like to see a woman looking her best, even when
+she's working. It helps to make them good. Before you go home I'll show
+you how to fix it. It's quite simple. Come, now, shall we go
+down-stairs? We don't want to leave Mr. Gardley alone too long, and,
+besides, I smell the dinner. I think they'll be waiting for us pretty
+soon. I'm going to take a few of these pictures down to show Mr.
+Gardley."
+
+She hastily gathered a few photographs together and led the bewildered
+little woman down-stairs again, and out in the yard, where Gardley was
+walking up and down now, looking off at the mountain. It came to
+Margaret, suddenly, that the minister would be returning to the house
+soon, and she wished he wouldn't come. He would be a false note in the
+pleasant harmony of the little company. He would be disagreeable to
+manage, and perhaps hurt poor Mom Wallis's feelings. Perhaps he had
+already come. She looked furtively around as she came out the door, but
+no minister was in sight, and then she forgot him utterly in the look of
+bewildered astonishment with which Gardley was regarding Mom Wallis.
+
+He had stopped short in his walk across the little yard, and was staring
+at Mom Wallis, recognition gradually growing in his gaze. When he was
+fully convinced he turned his eyes to Margaret, as if to ask: "How did
+you do it? Wonderful woman!" and a look of deep reverence for her came
+over his face.
+
+Then suddenly he noticed the shy embarrassment on the old woman's face,
+and swiftly came toward her, his hands outstretched, and, taking her
+bony hands in his, bowed low over them as a courtier might do.
+
+"Mom Wallis, you are beautiful. Did you know it?" he said, gently, and
+led her to a little stumpy rocking-chair with a gay red-and-blue rag
+cushion that Mrs. Tanner always kept sitting by the front door in
+pleasant weather. Then he stood off and surveyed her, while the red
+stole into her cheeks becomingly. "What has Miss Earle been doing to
+glorify you?" he asked, again looking at her earnestly.
+
+The old woman looked at him in awed silence. There was that word
+again--glory! He had said the girl had glorified her. There was then
+some glory in her, and it had been brought out by so simple a thing as
+the arrangement of her hair. It frightened her, and tears came and stood
+in her tired old eyes.
+
+It was well for Mom Wallis's equilibrium that Mr. Tanner came out just
+then with the paper he had gone after, for the stolidity of her lifetime
+was about breaking up. But, as he turned, Gardley gave her one of the
+rarest smiles of sympathy and understanding that a young man can give to
+an old woman; and Margaret, watching, loved him for it. It seemed to her
+one of the most beautiful things a young man had ever done.
+
+They had discussed the article in the paper thoroughly, and had looked
+at the photographs that Margaret had brought down; and Mrs. Tanner had
+come to the door numberless times, looking out in a troubled way down
+the road, only to trot back again, look in the oven, peep in the kettle,
+sigh, and trot out to the door again. At last she came and stood, arms
+akimbo, and looked down the road once more.
+
+"Pa, I don't just see how I can keep the dinner waitin' a minute longer,
+The potatoes 'll be sp'iled. I don't see what's keepin' that
+preacher-man. He musta been invited out, though I don't see why he
+didn't send me word."
+
+"That's it, likely, Ma," said Tanner. He was growing hungry. "I saw Mis'
+Bacon talkin' to him. She's likely invited him there. She's always
+tryin' to get ahead o' you, Ma, you know, 'cause you got the prize fer
+your marble cake."
+
+Mrs. Tanner blushed and looked down apologetically at her guests. "Well,
+then, ef you'll just come in and set down, I'll dish up. My land! Ain't
+that Bud comin' down the road, Pa? He's likely sent word by Bud. I'll
+hurry in an' dish up."
+
+Bud slid into his seat hurriedly after a brief ablution in the kitchen,
+and his mother questioned him sharply.
+
+"Bud, wher you be'n? Did the minister get invited out?"
+
+The boy grinned and slowly winked one eye at Gardley. "Yes, he's invited
+out, all right," he said, meaningly. "You don't need to wait fer him. He
+won't be home fer some time, I don't reckon."
+
+Gardley looked keenly, steadily, at the boy's dancing eyes, and resolved
+to have a fuller understanding later, and his own eyes met the boy's in
+a gleam of mischief and sympathy.
+
+It was the first time in twenty years that Mom Wallis had eaten anything
+which she had not prepared herself, and now, with fried chicken and
+company preserves before her, she could scarcely swallow a mouthful. To
+be seated beside Gardley and waited on like a queen! To be smiled at by
+the beautiful young girl across the table, and deferred to by Mr. and
+Mrs. Tanner as "Mrs. Wallis," and asked to have more pickles and another
+helping of jelly, and did she take cream and sugar in her coffee! It was
+too much, and Mom Wallis was struggling with the tears. Even Bud's
+round, blue eyes regarded her with approval and interest. She couldn't
+help thinking, if her own baby boy had lived, would he ever have been
+like Bud? And once she smiled at him, and Bud smiled back, a real
+boy-like, frank, hearty grin. It was all like taking dinner in the
+Kingdom of Heaven to Mom Wallis, and getting glory aforetime.
+
+It was a wonderful afternoon, and seemed to go on swift wings. Gardley
+went back to the school-house, where the horses had been left, and Bud
+went with him to give further particulars about that wink at the
+dinner-table. Mom Wallis went up to the rose-garlanded room and learned
+how to wash her hair, and received a roll of flowered scrim wherewith to
+make curtains for the bunk-house. Margaret had originally intended it
+for the school-house windows in case it proved necessary to make that
+place habitable, but the school-room could wait.
+
+And there in the rose-room, with the new curtains in her trembling
+hands, and the great old mountain in full view, Mom Wallis knelt beside
+the little gay rocking-chair, while Margaret knelt beside her and prayed
+that the Heavenly Father would show Mom Wallis how to let the glory be
+revealed in her now on the earth.
+
+Then Mom Wallis wiped the furtive tears away with her calico sleeve,
+tied on her funny old bonnet, and rode away with her handsome young
+escort into the silence of the desert, with the glory beginning to be
+revealed already in her countenance.
+
+Quite late that evening the minister returned.
+
+He came in slowly and wearily, as if every step were a pain to him, and
+he avoided the light. His coat was torn and his garments were
+mud-covered. He murmured of a "slight accident" to Mrs. Tanner, who met
+him solicitously in a flowered dressing-gown with a candle in her hand.
+He accepted greedily the half a pie, with cheese and cold chicken and
+other articles, she proffered on a plate at his door, and in the reply
+to her query as to where he had been for dinner, and if he had a
+pleasant time, he said:
+
+"Very pleasant, indeed, thank you! The name? Um--ah--I disremember! I
+really didn't ask--That is--"
+
+The minister did not get up to breakfast, In fact, he remained in bed
+for several days, professing to be suffering with an attack of
+rheumatism. He was solicitously watched over and fed by the anxious Mrs.
+Tanner, who was much disconcerted at the state of affairs, and couldn't
+understand why she could not get the school-teacher more interested in
+the invalid.
+
+On the fourth day, however, the Reverend Frederick crept forth, white
+and shaken, with his sleek hair elaborately combed to cover a long
+scratch on his forehead, and announced his intention of departing from
+the State of Arizona that evening.
+
+He crept forth cautiously to the station as the shades of evening drew
+on, but found Long Bill awaiting him, and Jasper Kemp not far away. He
+had the two letters ready in his pocket, with the gold piece, though he
+had entertained hopes of escaping without forfeiting them, but he was
+obliged to wait patiently until Jasper Kemp had read both letters
+through twice, with the train in momentary danger of departing without
+him, before he was finally allowed to get on board. Jasper Kemp's
+parting word to him was:
+
+"Watch your steps spry, parson. I'm agoin' to see that you're shadowed
+wherever you go. You needn't think you can get shy on the Bible again.
+It won't pay."
+
+There was menace in the dry remark, and the Reverend Frederick's
+professional egotism withered before it. He bowed his head, climbed on
+board the train, and vanished from the scene of his recent discomfiture.
+But the bitterest thing about it all was that he had gone without
+capturing the heart or even the attention of that haughty little
+school-teacher. "And she was such a pretty girl," he said, regretfully,
+to himself. "Such a _very_ pretty girl!" He sighed deeply to himself as
+he watched Arizona speed by the window. "Still," he reflected,
+comfortably, after a moment, "there are always plenty more! What was
+that remarkably witty saying I heard just before I left home? 'Never run
+after a street-car or a woman. There'll be another one along in a
+minute.' Um--ah--yes--very true--there'll be another one along in a
+minute."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+School had settled down to real work by the opening of the new week.
+Margaret knew her scholars and had gained a personal hold on most of
+them already. There was enough novelty in her teaching to keep the
+entire school in a pleasant state of excitement and wonder as to what
+she would do next, and the word had gone out through all the country
+round about that the new teacher had taken the school by storm. It was
+not infrequent for men to turn out of their way on the trail to get a
+glimpse of the school as they were passing, just to make sure the
+reports were true. Rumor stated that the teacher was exceedingly pretty;
+that she would take no nonsense, not even from the big boys; that she
+never threatened nor punished, but that every one of the boys was her
+devoted slave. There had been no uprising, and it almost seemed as if
+that popular excitement was to be omitted this season, and school was to
+sail along in an orderly and proper manner. In fact, the entire school
+as well as the surrounding population were eagerly talking about the new
+piano, which seemed really to be a coming fact. Not that there had been
+anything done toward it yet, but the teacher had promised that just as
+soon as every one was really studying hard and doing his best, she was
+going to begin to get them ready for an entertainment to raise money for
+that piano. They couldn't begin until everybody was in good working
+order, because they didn't want to take the interest away from the real
+business of school; but it was going to be a Shakespeare play, whatever
+that was, and therefore of grave import. Some people talked learnedly
+about Shakespeare and hinted of poetry; but the main part of the
+community spoke the name joyously and familiarly and without awe, as if
+it were milk and honey in their mouths. Why should they reverence
+Shakespeare more than any one else?
+
+Margaret had grown used to seeing a head appear suddenly at one of the
+school-room windows and look long and frowningly first at her, then at
+the school, and then back to her again, as if it were a nine days'
+wonder. Whoever the visitor was, he would stand quietly, watching the
+process of the hour as if he were at a play, and Margaret would turn and
+smile pleasantly, then go right on with her work. The visitor would
+generally take off a wide hat and wave it cordially, smile back a
+curious, softened smile, and by and by he would mount his horse and pass
+on reflectively down the trail, wishing he could be a boy and go back
+again to school--such a school!
+
+Oh, it was not all smooth, the way that Margaret walked. There were
+hitches, and unpleasant days when nothing went right, and when some of
+the girls got silly and rebellious, and the boys followed in their lead.
+She had her trials like any teacher, skilful as she was, and not the
+least of them became Rosa Rogers, the petted beauty, who presently
+manifested a childish jealousy of her in her influence over the boys.
+Noting this, Margaret went out of her way to win Rosa, but found it a
+difficult matter.
+
+Rosa was proud, selfish, and unprincipled. She never forgave any one who
+frustrated her plans. She resented being made to study like the rest.
+She had always compelled the teacher to let her do as she pleased and
+still give her a good report. This she found she could not do with
+Margaret, and for the first time in her career she was compelled to work
+or fall behind. It presently became not a question of how the new
+teacher was to manage the big boys and the bad boys of the Ashland Ridge
+School, but how she was to prevent Rosa Rogers and a few girls who
+followed her from upsetting all her plans. The trouble was, Rosa was
+pretty and knew her power over the boys. If she chose she could put them
+all in a state of insubordination, and this she chose very often during
+those first few weeks.
+
+But there was one visitor who did not confine himself to looking in at
+the window.
+
+One morning a fine black horse came galloping up to the school-house at
+recess-time, and a well-set-up young man in wide sombrero and jaunty
+leather trappings sprang off and came into the building. His shining
+spurs caught the sunlight and flashed as he moved. He walked with the
+air of one who regards himself of far more importance than all who may
+be watching him. The boys in the yard stopped their ball-game, and the
+girls huddled close in whispering groups and drew near to the door. He
+was a young man from a ranch near the fort some thirty miles away, and
+he had brought an invitation for the new school-teacher to come over to
+dinner on Friday evening and stay until the following Monday morning.
+The invitation was from his sister, the wife of a wealthy cattleman
+whose home and hospitality were noted for miles around. She had heard of
+the coming of the beautiful young teacher, and wanted to attach her to
+her social circle.
+
+The young man was deference itself to Margaret, openly admiring her as
+he talked, and said the most gracious things to her; and then, while she
+was answering the note, he smiled over at Rosa Rogers, who had slipped
+into her seat and was studiously preparing her algebra with the book
+upside down.
+
+Margaret, looking up, caught Rosa's smiling glance and the tail end of a
+look from the young man's eyes, and felt a passing wonder whether he had
+ever met the girl before. Something in the boldness of his look made her
+feel that he had not. Yet he was all smiles and deference to herself,
+and his open admiration and pleasure that she was to come to help
+brighten this lonely country, and that she was going to accept the
+invitation, was really pleasant to the girl, for it was desolate being
+tied down to only the Tanner household and the school, and she welcomed
+any bit of social life.
+
+The young man had light hair, combed very smooth, and light-blue eyes.
+They were bolder and handsomer than the minister's, but the girl had a
+feeling that they were the very same cold color. She wondered at her
+comparison, for she liked the handsome young man, and in spite of
+herself was a little flattered at the nice things he had said to her.
+Nevertheless, when she remembered him afterward it was always with that
+uncomfortable feeling that if he hadn't been so handsome and polished in
+his appearance he would have seemed just a little bit like that
+minister, and she couldn't for the life of her tell why.
+
+After he was gone she looked back at Rosa, and there was a narrowing of
+the girl's eyes and a frown of hate on her brows. Margaret turned with a
+sigh back to her school problem--what to do with Rosa Rogers?
+
+But Rosa did not stay in the school-house. She slipped out and walked
+arm in arm with Amanda Bounds down the road.
+
+Margaret went to the door and watched. Presently she saw the rider wheel
+and come galloping back to the door. He had forgotten to tell her that
+an escort would be sent to bring her as early on Friday afternoon as she
+would be ready to leave the school, and he intimated that he hoped he
+might be detailed for that pleasant duty.
+
+Margaret looked into his face and warmed to his pleasant smile. How
+could she have thought him like West? He touched his hat and rode away,
+and a moment later she saw him draw rein beside Rosa and Amanda, and
+presently dismount.
+
+Bud rang the bell just then, and Margaret went back to her desk with a
+lingering look at the three figures in the distance. It was full half an
+hour before Rosa came in, with Amanda looking scared behind her; and
+troubled Margaret watched the sly look in the girl's eyes and wondered
+what she ought to do about it. As Rosa was passing out of the door after
+school she called her to the desk.
+
+"You were late in coming in after recess, Rosa," said Margaret, gently.
+"Have you any excuse?"
+
+"I was talking to a friend," said Rosa, with a toss of her head which
+said, as plainly as words could have done, "I don't intend to give an
+excuse."
+
+"Were you talking to the gentleman who was here?"
+
+"Well, if I was, what is that to you, Miss Earle?" said Rosa, haughtily.
+"Did you think you could have all the men and boys to yourself?"
+
+"Rosa," said Margaret, trying to speak calmly, but her voice trembling
+with suppressed indignation, "don't talk that way to me. Child, did you
+ever meet Mr. Forsythe before?"
+
+"I'm not a child, and it's none of your business!" flouted Rosa,
+angrily, and she twitched away and flung herself out of the
+school-house.
+
+Margaret, trembling from the disagreeable encounter, stood at the window
+and watched the girl going down the road, and felt for the moment that
+she would rather give up her school and go back home than face the
+situation. She knew in her heart that this girl, once an enemy, would be
+a bitter one, and this her last move had been a most unfortunate one,
+coming out, as it did, with Rosa in the lead. She could, of course,
+complain to Rosa's family, or to the school-board, but such was not the
+policy she had chosen. She wanted to be able to settle her own
+difficulties. It seemed strange that she could not reach this one
+girl--who was in a way the key to the situation. Perhaps the play would
+be able to help her. She spent a long time that evening going over the
+different plays in her library, and finally, with a look of apology
+toward a little photographed head of Shakespeare, she decided on
+"Midsummer-Night's Dream." What if it was away above the heads of them
+all, wouldn't a few get something from it? And wasn't it better to take
+a great thing and try to make her scholars and a few of the community
+understand it, rather than to take a silly little play that would not
+amount to anything in the end? Of course, they couldn't do it well; that
+went without saying. Of course it would be away beyond them all, but at
+least it would be a study of something great for her pupils, and she
+could meantime teach them a little about Shakespeare and perhaps help
+some of them to learn to love his plays and study them.
+
+The play she had selected was one in which she herself had acted the
+part of Puck, and she knew it by heart. She felt reasonably sure that
+she could help some of the more adaptable scholars to interpret their
+parts, and, at least, it would be good for them just as a study in
+literature. As for the audience, they would not be critics. Perhaps they
+would not even be able to comprehend the meaning of the play, but they
+would come and they would listen, and the experiment was one worth
+trying.
+
+Carefully she went over the parts, trying to find the one which she
+thought would best fit Rosa Rogers, and please her as well, because it
+gave her opportunity to display her beauty and charm. She really was a
+pretty girl, and would do well. Margaret wondered whether she were
+altogether right in attempting to win the girl through her vanity, and
+yet what other weak place was there in which to storm the silly little
+citadel of her soul?
+
+And so the work of assigning parts and learning them began that very
+week, though no one was allowed a part until his work for the day had
+all been handed in.
+
+At noon Margaret made one more attempt with Rosa Rogers. She drew her to
+a seat beside her and put aside as much as possible her own remembrance
+of the girl's disagreeable actions and impudent words.
+
+"Rosa," she said, and her voice was very gentle, "I want to have a
+little talk with you. You seem to feel that you and I are enemies, and I
+don't want you to have that attitude. I hoped we'd be the best of
+friends. You see, there isn't any other way for us to work well
+together. And I want to explain why I spoke to you as I did yesterday.
+It was not, as you hinted, that I want to keep all my acquaintances to
+myself. I have no desire to do that. It was because I feel responsible
+for the girls and boys in my care, and I was troubled lest perhaps you
+had been foolish--"
+
+Margaret paused. She could see by the bright hardness of the girl's eyes
+that she was accomplishing nothing. Rosa evidently did not believe her.
+
+"Well, Rosa," she said, suddenly, putting an impulsive, kindly hand on
+the girl's arm, "suppose we forget it this time, put it all away, and be
+friends. Let's learn to understand each other if we can, but in the
+mean time I want to talk to you about the play."
+
+And then, indeed, Rosa's hard manner broke, and she looked up with
+interest, albeit there was some suspicion in the glance. She wanted to
+be in that play with all her heart; she wanted the very showiest part in
+it, too; and she meant to have it, although she had a strong suspicion
+that the teacher would want to keep that part for herself, whatever it
+was.
+
+But Margaret had been wise. She had decided to take time and explain the
+play to her, and then let her choose her own part. She wisely judged
+that Rosa would do better in the part in which her interest centered,
+and perhaps the choice would help her to understand her pupil better.
+
+And so for an hour she patiently stayed after school and went over the
+play, explaining it carefully, and it seemed at one time as though Rosa
+was about to choose to be Puck, because with quick perception she caught
+the importance of that character; but when she learned that the costume
+must be a quiet hood and skirt of green and brown she scorned it, and
+chose, at last, to be Titania, queen of the fairies. So, with a sigh of
+relief, and a keen insight into the shallow nature, Margaret began to
+teach the girl some of the fairy steps, and found her quick and eager to
+learn. In the first lesson Rosa forgot for a little while her animosity
+and became almost as one of the other pupils. The play was going to
+prove a great means of bringing them all together.
+
+Before Friday afternoon came the parts had all been assigned and the
+plans for the entertainment were well under way.
+
+Jed and Timothy had been as good as their word about giving the teacher
+riding-lessons, each vying with the other to bring a horse and make her
+ride at noon hour, and she had already had several good lessons and a
+long ride or two in company with both her teachers.
+
+The thirty-mile ride for Friday, then, was not such an undertaking as it
+might otherwise have been, and Margaret looked forward to it with
+eagerness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+The little party of escort arrived before school was closed on Friday
+afternoon, and came down to the school-house in full force to take her
+away with them. The young man Forsythe, with his sister, the hostess
+herself, and a young army officer from the fort, comprised the party.
+Margaret dismissed school ten minutes early and went back with them to
+the Tanners' to make a hurried change in her dress and pick up her
+suit-case, which was already packed. As they rode away from the
+school-house Margaret looked back and saw Rosa Rogers posing in one of
+her sprite dances in the school-yard, saw her kiss her hand laughingly
+toward their party, and saw the flutter of a handkerchief in young
+Forsythe's hand. It was all very general and elusive, a passing bit of
+fun, but it left an uncomfortable impression on the teacher's mind. She
+looked keenly at the young man as he rode up smiling beside her, and
+once more experienced that strange, sudden change of feeling about him.
+
+She took opportunity during that long ride to find out if the young man
+had known Rosa Rogers before; but he frankly told her that he had just
+come West to visit his sister, was bored to death because he didn't know
+a soul in the whole State, and until he had seen her had not laid eyes
+on one whom he cared to know. Yet while she could not help enjoying the
+gay badinage, she carried a sense of uneasiness whenever she thought of
+the young girl Rosa in her pretty fairy pose, with her fluttering pink
+fingers and her saucy, smiling eyes. There was something untrustworthy,
+too, in the handsome face of the man beside her.
+
+There was just one shadow over this bit of a holiday. Margaret had a
+little feeling that possibly some one from the camp might come down on
+Saturday or Sunday, and she would miss him. Yet nothing had been said
+about it, and she had no way of sending word that she would be away. She
+had meant to send Mom Wallis a letter by the next messenger that came
+that way. It was all written and lying on her bureau, but no one had
+been down all the week. She was, therefore, greatly pleased when an
+approaching rider in the distance proved to be Gardley, and with a
+joyful little greeting she drew rein and hailed him, giving him a
+message for Mom Wallis.
+
+Only Gardley's eyes told what this meeting was to him. His demeanor was
+grave and dignified. He acknowledged the introductions to the rest of
+the party gracefully, touched his hat with the ease of one to the manner
+born, and rode away, flashing her one gleam of a smile that told her he
+was glad of the meeting; but throughout the brief interview there had
+been an air of question and hostility between the two men, Forsythe and
+Gardley. Forsythe surveyed Gardley rudely, almost insolently, as if his
+position beside the lady gave him rights beyond the other, and he
+resented the coming of the stranger. Gardley's gaze was cold, too, as he
+met the look, and his eyes searched Forsythe's face keenly, as though
+they would find out what manner of man was riding with his friend.
+
+When he was gone Margaret had the feeling that he was somehow
+disappointed, and once she turned in the saddle and looked wistfully
+after him; but he was riding furiously into the distance, sitting his
+horse as straight as an arrow and already far away upon the desert.
+
+"Your friend is a reckless rider," said Forsythe, with a sneer in his
+voice that Margaret did not like, as they watched the speck in the
+distance clear a steep descent from the mesa at a bound and disappear
+from sight in the mesquite beyond.
+
+"Isn't he fine-looking? Where did you find him, Miss Earle?" asked Mrs.
+Temple, eagerly. "I wish I'd asked him to join us. He left so suddenly I
+didn't realize he was going."
+
+Margaret felt a wondering and pleasant sense of possession and pride in
+Gardley as she watched, but she quietly explained that the young
+stranger was from the East, and that he was engaged in some kind of
+cattle business at a distance from Ashland. Her manner was reserved, and
+the matter dropped. She naturally felt a reluctance to tell how her
+acquaintance with Gardley began. It seemed something between themselves.
+She could fancy the gushing Mrs. Temple saying, "How romantic!" She was
+that kind of a woman. It was evident that she was romantically inclined
+herself, for she used her fine eyes with effect on the young officer who
+rode with her, and Margaret found herself wondering what kind of a
+husband she had and what her mother would think of a woman like this.
+
+There was no denying that the luxury of the ranch was a happy relief
+from the simplicity of life at the Tanners'. Iced drinks and cushions
+and easy-chairs, feasting and music and laughter! There were books, too,
+and magazines, and all the little things that go to make up a cultured
+life; and yet they were not people of Margaret's world, and when
+Saturday evening was over she sat alone in the room they had given her
+and, facing herself in the glass, confessed to herself that she looked
+back with more pleasure to the Sabbath spent with Mom Wallis than she
+could look forward to a Sabbath here. The morning proved her forebodings
+well founded.
+
+Breakfast was a late, informal affair, filled with hilarious gaiety.
+There was no mention of any church service, and Margaret found it was
+quite too late to suggest such a thing when breakfast was over, even if
+she had been sure there was any service.
+
+After breakfast was over there were various forms of amusement proposed
+for her pleasure, and she really felt very much embarrassed for a few
+moments to know how to avoid what to her was pure Sabbath-breaking. Yet
+she did not wish to be rude to these people who were really trying to be
+kind to her. She managed at last to get them interested in music, and,
+grouping them around the piano after a few preliminary performances by
+herself at their earnest solicitation, coaxed them into singing hymns.
+
+After all, they really seemed to enjoy it, though they had to get along
+with one hymn-book for the whole company; but Margaret knew how to make
+hymn-singing interesting, and her exquisite voice was never more at its
+best than when she led off with "My Jesus, as Thou Wilt," or "Jesus,
+Saviour, Pilot Me."
+
+"You would be the delight of Mr. Brownleigh's heart," said the hostess,
+gushingly, at last, after Margaret had finished singing "Abide With Me"
+with wonderful feeling.
+
+"And who is Mr. Brownleigh?" asked Margaret. "Why should I delight his
+heart?"
+
+"Why, he is our missionary--that is, the missionary for this region--and
+you would delight his heart because you are so religious and sing so
+well," said the superficial little woman. "Mr. Brownleigh is really a
+very cultured man. Of course, he's narrow. All clergymen are narrow,
+don't you think? They have to be to a certain extent. He's really
+_quite_ narrow. Why, he believes in the Bible _literally_, the whale and
+Jonah, and the Flood, and making bread out of stones, and all that sort
+of thing, you know. Imagine it! But he does. He's sincere! Perfectly
+sincere. I suppose he has to be. It's his business. But sometimes one
+feels it a pity that he can't relax a little, just among us here, you
+know. We'd never tell. Why, he won't even play a little game of poker!
+And he doesn't smoke! _Imagine_ it--_not even when he's by himself_, and
+_no one would know_! Isn't that odd? But he can preach. He's really very
+interesting; only a little too Utopian in his ideas. He thinks everybody
+ought to be good, you know, and all that sort of thing. He really
+thinks it's possible, and he lives that way himself. He really does. But
+he is a wonderful person; only I feel sorry for his wife sometimes.
+She's quite a cultured person. Has been wealthy, you know. She was a New
+York society girl. Just imagine it; out in these wilds taking gruel to
+the dirty little Indians! How she ever came to do it! Of course she
+adores him, but I can't really believe she is happy. No woman could be
+quite blind enough to give up everything in the world for one man, no
+matter how good he was. Do you think she could? It wasn't as if she
+didn't have plenty of other chances. She gave them all up to come out
+and marry him. She's a pretty good sport, too; she never lets you know
+she isn't perfectly happy."
+
+"She _is_ happy; mother, she's happier than _anybody_ I ever saw,"
+declared the fourteen-year-old daughter of the house, who was home from
+boarding-school for a brief visit during an epidemic of measles in the
+school.
+
+"Oh yes, she manages to make people think she's happy," said her mother,
+indulgently; "but you can't make me believe she's satisfied to give up
+her house on Fifth Avenue and live in a two-roomed log cabin in the
+desert, with no society."
+
+"Mother, you don't know! Why, _any_ woman would be satisfied if her
+husband adored her the way Mr. Brownleigh does her."
+
+"Well, Ada, you're a romantic girl, and Mr. Brownleigh is a handsome
+man. You've got a few things to learn yet. Mark my words, I don't
+believe you'll see Mrs. Brownleigh coming back next month with her
+husband. This operation was all well enough to talk about, but I'll not
+be surprised to hear that he has come back alone or else that he has
+accepted a call to some big city church. And he's equal to the city
+church, too; that's the wonder of it. He comes of a fine family himself,
+I've heard. Oh, people can't keep up the pose of saints forever, even
+though they do adore each other. But Mr. Brownleigh _certainly is_ a
+good man!"
+
+The vapid little woman sat looking reflectively out of the window for a
+whole minute after this deliverance. Yes, certainly Mr. Brownleigh was a
+good man. He was the one man of culture, education, refinement, who had
+come her way in many a year who had patiently and persistently and
+gloriously refused her advances at a mild flirtation, and refused to
+understand them, yet remained her friend and reverenced hero. He was a
+good man, and she knew it, for she was a very pretty woman and
+understood her art well.
+
+Before the day was over Margaret had reason to feel that a Sabbath in
+Arizona was a very hard thing to find. The singing could not last all
+day, and her friends seemed to find more amusements on Sunday that did
+not come into Margaret's code of Sabbath-keeping than one knew how to
+say no to. Neither could they understand her feeling, and she found it
+hard not to be rude in gently declining one plan after another.
+
+She drew the children into a wide, cozy corner after dinner and began a
+Bible story in the guise of a fairy-tale, while the hostess slipped away
+to take a nap. However, several other guests lingered about, and Mr.
+Temple strayed in. They sat with newspapers before their faces and got
+into the story, too, seeming to be deeply interested, so that, after
+all, Margaret did not have an unprofitable Sabbath.
+
+But altogether, though she had a gay and somewhat frivolous time, a good
+deal of admiration and many invitations to return as often as possible,
+Margaret was not sorry when she said good night to know that she was to
+return in the early morning to her work.
+
+Mr. Temple himself was going part way with them, accompanied by his
+niece, Forsythe, and the young officer who came over with them. Margaret
+rode beside Mr. Temple until his way parted from theirs, and had a
+delightful talk about Arizona. He was a kindly old fellow who adored his
+frivolous little wife and let her go her own gait, seeming not to mind
+how much she flirted.
+
+The morning was pink and silver, gold and azure, a wonderful specimen of
+an Arizona sunrise for Margaret's benefit, and a glorious beginning for
+her day's work in spite of the extremely early hour. The company was gay
+and blithe, and the Eastern girl felt as if she were passing through a
+wonderful experience.
+
+They loitered a little on the way to show Margaret the wonders of a
+fern-plumed canon, and it was almost school-time when they came up the
+street, so that Margaret rode straight to the school-house instead of
+stopping at Tanners'. On the way to the school they passed a group of
+girls, of whom Rosa Rogers was the center. A certain something in Rosa's
+narrowed eyelids as she said good morning caused Margaret to look back
+uneasily, and she distinctly saw the girl give a signal to young
+Forsythe, who, for answer, only tipped his hat and gave her a peculiar
+smile.
+
+In a moment more they had said good-by, and Margaret was left at the
+school-house door with a cluster of eager children about her, and
+several shy boys in the background, ready to welcome her back as if she
+had been gone a month.
+
+In the flutter of opening school Margaret failed to notice that Rosa
+Rogers did not appear. It was not until the roll was called that she
+noticed her absence, and she looked uneasily toward the door many times
+during the morning, but Rosa did not come until after recess, when she
+stole smilingly in, as if it were quite the thing to come to school
+late. When questioned about her tardiness she said she had torn her
+dress and had to go home and change it. Margaret knew by the look in her
+eyes that the girl was not telling the truth, but what was she to do? It
+troubled her all the morning and went with her to a sleepless pillow
+that night. She was beginning to see that life as a school-teacher in
+the far West was not all she had imagined it to be. Her father had been
+right. There would likely be more thorns than roses on her way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+The first time Lance Gardley met Rosa Rogers riding with Archie
+Forsythe he thought little of it. He knew the girl by sight, because he
+knew her father in a business way. That she was very young and one of
+Margaret's pupils was all he knew about her. For the young man he had
+conceived a strong dislike, but as there was no reason whatever for it
+he put it out of his mind as quickly as possible.
+
+The second time he met them it was toward evening and they were so
+wholly absorbed in each other's society that they did not see him until
+he was close upon them. Forsythe looked up with a frown and a quick hand
+to his hip, where gleamed a weapon.
+
+He scarcely returned the slight salute given by Gardley, and the two
+young people touched up their horses and were soon out of sight in the
+mesquite. But something in the frightened look of the girl's eyes caused
+Gardley to turn and look after the two.
+
+Where could they be going at that hour of the evening? It was not a
+trail usually chosen for rides. It was lonely and unfrequented, and led
+out of the way of travelers. Gardley himself had been a far errand for
+Jasper Kemp, and had taken this short trail back because it cut off
+several miles and he was weary. Also, he was anxious to stop in Ashland
+and leave Mom Wallis's request that Margaret would spend the next
+Sabbath at the camp and see the new curtains. He was thinking what he
+should say to her when he saw her in a little while now, and this
+interruption to his thoughts was unwelcome. Nevertheless, he could not
+get away from that frightened look in the girl's eyes. Where could they
+have been going? That fellow was a new-comer in the region; perhaps he
+had lost his way. Perhaps he did not know that the road he was taking
+the girl led into a region of outlaws, and that the only habitation
+along the way was a cabin belonging to an old woman of weird reputation,
+where wild orgies were sometimes celebrated, and where men went who
+loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
+
+Twice Gardley turned in his saddle and scanned the desert. The sky was
+darkening, and one or two pale stars were impatiently shadowing forth
+their presence. And now he could see the two riders again. They had come
+up out of the mesquite to the top of the mesa, and were outlined against
+the sky sharply. They were still on the trail to old Ouida's cabin!
+
+With a quick jerk Gardley reined in his horse and wheeled about,
+watching the riders for a moment; and then, setting spurs to his beast,
+he was off down the trail after them on one of his wild, reckless rides.
+Down through the mesquite he plunged, through the darkening grove, out,
+and up to the top of the mesa. He had lost sight of his quarry for the
+time, but now he could see them again riding more slowly in the valley
+below, their horses close together, and even as he watched the sky took
+on its wide night look and the stars blazed forth.
+
+Suddenly Gardley turned sharply from the trail and made a detour through
+a grove of trees, riding with reckless speed, his head down to escape
+low branches; and in a minute or two he came with unerring instinct back
+to the trail some distance ahead of Forsythe and Rosa. Then he wheeled
+his horse and stopped stock-still, awaiting their coming.
+
+By this time the great full moon was risen and, strangely enough, was at
+Gardley's back, making a silhouette of man and horse as the two riders
+came on toward him.
+
+They rode out from the cover of the grove, and there he was across their
+path. Rosa gave a scream, drawing nearer her companion, and her horse
+swerved and reared; but Gardley's black stood like an image carved in
+ebony against the silver of the moon, and Gardley's quiet voice was in
+strong contrast to the quick, unguarded exclamation of Forsythe, as he
+sharply drew rein and put his hand hastily to his hip for his weapon.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Forsythe"--Gardley had an excellent memory for
+names--"but I thought you might not be aware, being a new-comer in these
+parts, that the trail you are taking leads to a place where ladies do
+not like to go."
+
+"Really! You don't say so!" answered the young man, insolently. "It is
+very kind of you, I'm sure, but you might have saved yourself the
+trouble. I know perfectly where I am going, and so does the lady, and
+we choose to go this way. Move out of the way, please. You are detaining
+us."
+
+But Gardley did not move out of the way. "I am sure the lady does not
+know where she is going," he said, firmly. "I am sure that she does not
+know that it is a place of bad reputation, even in this unconventional
+land. At least, if she knows, I am sure that _her father_ does not know,
+and I am well acquainted with her father."
+
+"Get out of the way, sir," said Forsythe, hotly. "It certainly is none
+of your business, anyway, whoever knows what. Get out of the way or I
+shall shoot. This lady and I intend to ride where we please."
+
+"Then I shall have to say you _cannot_," said Gardley; and his voice
+still had that calm that made his opponent think him easy to conquer.
+
+"Just how do you propose to stop us?" sneered Forsythe, pulling out his
+pistol.
+
+"This way," said Gardley, lifting a tiny silver whistle to his lips and
+sending forth a peculiar, shrilling blast. "And this way," went on
+Gardley, calmly lifting both hands and showing a weapon in each,
+wherewith he covered the two.
+
+Rosa screamed and covered her face with her hands, cowering in her
+saddle.
+
+Forsythe lifted his weapon, but looked around nervously. "Dead men tell
+no tales," he said, angrily.
+
+"It depends upon the man," said Gardley, meaningly, "especially if he
+were found on this road. I fancy a few tales could be told if you
+happened to be the man. Turn your horses around at once and take this
+lady back to her home. My men are not far off, and if you do not wish
+the whole story to be known among your friends and hers you would better
+make haste."
+
+Forsythe dropped his weapon and obeyed. He decidedly did not wish his
+escapade to be known among his friends. There were financial reasons why
+he did not care to have it come to the ears of his brother-in-law just
+now.
+
+Silently in the moonlight the little procession took its way down the
+trail, the girl and the man side by side, their captor close behind, and
+when the girl summoned courage to glance fearsomely behind her she saw
+three more men riding like three grim shadows yet behind. They had
+fallen into the trail so quietly that she had not heard them when they
+came. They were Jasper Kemp, Long Bill, and Big Jim. They had been out
+for other purposes, but without question followed the call of the
+signal.
+
+It was a long ride back to Rogers's ranch, and Forsythe glanced
+nervously behind now and then. It seemed to him that the company was
+growing larger all the time. He half expected to see a regiment each
+time he turned. He tried hurrying his horse, but when he did so the
+followers were just as close without any seeming effort. He tried to
+laugh it all off.
+
+Once he turned and tried to placate Gardley with a few shakily jovial
+words:
+
+"Look here, old fellow, aren't you the man I met on the trail the day
+Miss Earle went over to the fort? I guess you've made a mistake in your
+calculations. I was merely out on a pleasure ride with Miss Rogers. We
+weren't going anywhere in particular, you know. Miss Rogers chose this
+way, and I wanted to please her. No man likes to have his pleasure
+interfered with, you know. I guess you didn't recognize me?"
+
+"I recognized you," said Gardley. "It would be well for you to be
+careful where you ride with ladies, especially at night. The matter,
+however, is one that you would better settle with Mr. Rogers. My duty
+will be done when I have put it into his hands."
+
+"Now, my good fellow," said Forsythe, patronizingly, "you surely don't
+intend to make a great fuss about this and go telling tales to Mr.
+Rogers about a trifling matter--"
+
+"I intend to do my duty, Mr. Forsythe," said Gardley; and Forsythe
+noticed that the young man still held his weapons. "I was set this night
+to guard Mr. Rogers's property. That I did not expect his daughter would
+be a part of the evening's guarding has nothing to do with the matter. I
+shall certainly put the matter into Mr. Rogers's hands."
+
+Rosa began to cry softly.
+
+"Well, if you want to be a fool, of course," laughed Forsythe,
+disagreeably; "but you will soon see Mr. Rogers will accept my
+explanation."
+
+"That is for Mr. Rogers to decide," answered Gardley, and said no more.
+
+The reflections of Forsythe during the rest of that silent ride were not
+pleasant, and Rosa's intermittent crying did not tend to make him more
+comfortable.
+
+The silent procession at last turned in at the great ranch gate and rode
+up to the house. Just as they stopped and the door of the house swung
+open, letting out a flood of light, Rosa leaned toward Gardley and
+whispered:
+
+"Please, Mr. Gardley, don't tell papa. I'll do _anything_ in the world
+for you if you won't tell papa."
+
+He looked at the pretty, pitiful child in the moonlight. "I'm sorry,
+Miss Rosa," he said, firmly. "But you don't understand. I must do my
+duty."
+
+"Then I shall hate you!" she hissed. "Do you hear? I shall _hate_ you
+forever, and you don't know what that means. It means I'll take my
+_revenge_ on you and on _everybody you like_."
+
+He looked at her half pityingly as he swung off his horse and went up
+the steps to meet Mr. Rogers, who had come out and was standing on the
+top step of the ranch-house in the square of light that flickered from a
+great fire on the hearth of the wide fireplace. He was looking from one
+to another of the silent group, and as his eyes rested on his daughter
+he said, sternly:
+
+"Why, Rosa, what does this mean? You told me you were going to bed with
+a headache!"
+
+Gardley drew his employer aside and told what had happened in a few
+low-toned sentences; and then stepped down and back into the shadow, his
+horse by his side, the three men from the camp grouped behind him. He
+had the delicacy to withdraw after his duty was done.
+
+Mr. Rogers, his face stern with sudden anger and alarm, stepped down and
+stood beside his daughter. "Rosa, you may get down and go into the house
+to your own room. I will talk with you later," he said. And then to the
+young man, "You, sir, will step into my office. I wish to have a plain
+talk with you."
+
+A half-hour later Forsythe came out of the Rogers house and mounted his
+horse, while Mr. Rogers stood silently and watched him.
+
+"I will bid you good evening, sir," he said, formally, as the young man
+mounted his horse and silently rode away. His back had a defiant look in
+the moonlight as he passed the group of men in the shadow; but they did
+not turn to watch him.
+
+"That will be all to-night, Gardley, and I thank you very much," called
+the clear voice of Mr. Rogers from his front steps.
+
+The four men mounted their horses silently and rode down a little
+distance behind the young man, who wondered in his heart just how much
+or how little Gardley had told Rosa's father.
+
+The interview to which young Forsythe had just been subjected had been
+chastening in character, of a kind to baffle curiosity concerning the
+father's knowledge of details, and to discourage any further romantic
+rides with Miss Rosa. It had been left in abeyance whether or not the
+Temples should be made acquainted with the episode, dependent upon the
+future conduct of both young people. It had not been satisfactory from
+Forsythe's point of view; that is, he had not been so easily able to
+disabuse the father's mind of suspicion, nor to establish his own
+guileless character as he had hoped; and some of the remarks Rogers made
+led Forsythe to think that the father understood just how unpleasant it
+might become for him if his brother-in-law found out about the
+escapade.
+
+This is why Archie Forsythe feared Lance Gardley, although there was
+nothing in the least triumphant about the set of that young man's
+shoulders as he rode away in the moonlight on the trail toward Ashland.
+And this is how it came about that Rosa Rogers hated Lance Gardley,
+handsome and daring though he was; and because of him hated her teacher,
+Margaret Earle.
+
+An hour later Lance Gardley stood in the little dim Tanner parlor,
+talking to Margaret.
+
+"You look tired," said the girl, compassionately, as she saw the haggard
+shadows on the young face, showing in spite of the light of pleasure in
+his eyes. "You look _very_ tired. What in the world have you been
+doing?"
+
+"I went out to catch cattle-thieves," he said, with a sigh, "but I found
+there were other kinds of thieves abroad. It's all in the day's work.
+I'm not tired now." And he smiled at her with beautiful reverence.
+
+Margaret, as she watched him, could not help thinking that the lines in
+his face had softened and strengthened since she had first seen him, and
+her eyes let him know that she was glad he had come.
+
+"And so you will really come to us, and it isn't going to be asking too
+much?" he said, wistfully. "You can't think what it's going to be to the
+men--to _us_! And Mom Wallis is so excited she can hardly get her work
+done. If you had said no I would be almost afraid to go back." He
+laughed, but she could see there was deep earnestness under his tone.
+
+"Indeed I will come," said Margaret. "I'm just looking forward to it.
+I'm going to bring Mom Wallis a new bonnet like one I made for mother;
+and I'm going to teach her how to make corn gems and steamed apple
+dumplings. I'm bringing some songs and some music for the violin; and
+I've got something for you to help me do, too, if you will?"
+
+He smiled tenderly down on her. What a wonderful girl she was, to be
+willing to come out to the old shack among a lot of rough men and one
+uncultured old woman and make them happy, when she was fit for the
+finest in the land!
+
+"You're _wonderful_!" he said, taking her hand with a quick pressure for
+good-by. "You make every one want to do his best."
+
+He hurried out to his horse and rode away in the moonlight. Margaret
+went up to her "mountain window" and watched him far out on the trail,
+her heart swelling with an unnamed gladness over his last words.
+
+"Oh, God, keep him, and help him to make good!" she prayed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+The visit to the camp was a time to be remembered long by all the
+inhabitants of the bunk-house, and even by Margaret herself. Margaret
+wondered Friday evening, as she sat up late, working away braiding a
+lovely gray bonnet out of folds of malines, and fashioning it into form
+for Mom Wallis, why she was looking forward to the visit with so much
+more real pleasure than she had done to the one the week before at the
+Temples'. And so subtle is the heart of a maid that she never fathomed
+the real reason.
+
+The Temples', of course, was interesting and delightful as being
+something utterly new in her experience. It was comparatively luxurious,
+and there were pleasant, cultured people there, more from her own social
+class in life. But it was going to be such fun to surprise Mom Wallis
+with that bonnet and see her old face light up when she saw herself in
+the little folding three-leaved mirror she was taking along with her and
+meant to leave for Mom Wallis's log boudoir. She was quite excited over
+selecting some little thing for each one of the men--books, pictures, a
+piece of music, a bright cushion, and a pile of picture magazines. It
+made a big bundle when she had them together, and she was dubious if she
+ought to try to carry them all; but Bud, whom she consulted on the
+subject, said, loftily, it "wasn't a flea-bite for the Kid; he could
+carry anything on a horse."
+
+Bud was just a little jealous to have his beloved teacher away from home
+so much, and rejoiced greatly when Gardley, Friday afternoon, suggested
+that he come along, too. He made quick time to his home, and secured a
+hasty permission and wardrobe, appearing like a footman on his father's
+old horse when they were half a mile down the trail.
+
+Mom Wallis was out at the door to greet her guest when she arrived, for
+Margaret had chosen to make her visit last from Friday afternoon after
+school, until Monday morning. It was the generosity of her nature that
+she gave to her utmost when she gave.
+
+The one fear she had entertained about coming had been set at rest on
+the way when Gardley told her that Pop Wallis was off on one of his long
+trips, selling cattle, and would probably not return for a week.
+Margaret, much as she trusted Gardley and the men, could not help
+dreading to meet Pop Wallis again.
+
+There was a new trimness about the old bunk-house. The clearing had been
+cleaned up and made neat, the grass cut, some vines set out and trained
+up limply about the door, and the windows shone with Mom Wallis's
+washing.
+
+Mom Wallis herself was wearing her best white apron, stiff with starch,
+her lace collar, and her hair in her best imitation of the way Margaret
+had fixed it, although it must be confessed she hadn't quite caught the
+knack of arrangement yet. But the one great difference Margaret noticed
+in the old woman was the illuminating smile on her face. Mom Wallis had
+learned how to let the glory gleam through all the hard sordidness of
+her life, and make earth brighter for those about her.
+
+The curtains certainly made a great difference in the looks of the
+bunk-house, together with a few other changes. The men had made some
+chairs--three of them, one out of a barrel; and together they had
+upholstered them roughly. The cots around the walls were blazing with
+their red blankets folded smoothly and neatly over them, and on the
+floor in front of the hearth, which had been scrubbed, Gardley had
+spread a Navajo blanket he had bought of an Indian.
+
+The fireplace was piled with logs ready for the lighting at night, and
+from somewhere a lamp had been rigged up and polished till it shone in
+the setting sun that slanted long rays in at the shining windows.
+
+The men were washed and combed, and had been huddled at the back of the
+bunk-house for an hour, watching the road, and now they came forward
+awkwardly to greet their guest, their horny hands scrubbed to an
+unbelievable whiteness. They did not say much, but they looked their
+pleasure, and Margaret greeted every one as if he were an old friend,
+the charming part about it all to the men being that she remembered
+every one's name and used it.
+
+Bud hovered in the background and watched with starry eyes. Bud was
+having the time of his life. He preferred the teacher's visiting the
+camp rather than the fort. The "Howdy, sonny!" which he had received
+from the men, and the "Make yourself at home, Bill" from Gardley, had
+given him great joy; and the whole thing seemed somehow to link him to
+the teacher in a most distinguishing manner.
+
+Supper was ready almost immediately, and Mom Wallis had done her best to
+make it appetizing. There was a lamb stew with potatoes, and fresh corn
+bread with coffee. The men ate with relish, and watched their guest of
+honor as if she had been an angel come down to abide with them for a
+season. There was a tablecloth on the old table, too--a _white_
+tablecloth. It looked remarkably like an old sheet, to be sure, with a
+seam through the middle where it had been worn and turned and sewed
+together; but it was a tablecloth now, and a marvel to the men. And the
+wonder about Margaret was that she could eat at such a table and make it
+seem as though that tablecloth were the finest damask, and the two-tined
+forks the heaviest of silver.
+
+After the supper was cleared away and the lamp lighted, the gifts were
+brought out. A book of Scotch poetry for Jasper Kemp, bound in tartan
+covers of the Campbell clan; a small illustrated pamphlet of Niagara
+Falls for Big Jim, because he had said he wanted to see the place and
+never could manage it; a little pictured folder of Washington City for
+Big Jim; a book of old ballad music for Fiddling Boss; a book of jokes
+for Fade-away Forbes; a framed picture of a beautiful shepherd dog for
+Stocky; a big, red, ruffled denim pillow for Croaker, because when she
+was there before he was always complaining about the seats being hard;
+a great blazing crimson pennant bearing the name HARVARD in big letters
+for Fudge, because she had remembered he was from Boston; and for Mom
+Wallis a framed text beautifully painted in water-colors, done in rustic
+letters twined with stray forget-me-nots, the words, "Come unto Me, all
+ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Margaret
+had made that during the week and framed it in a simple raffia braid of
+brown and green.
+
+It was marvelous how these men liked their presents; and while they were
+examining them and laughing about them and putting their pictures and
+Mom Wallis's text on the walls, and the pillow on a bunk, and the
+pennant over the fireplace, Margaret shyly held out a tiny box to
+Gardley.
+
+"I thought perhaps you would let me give you this," she said. "It isn't
+much; it isn't even new, and it has some marks in it; but I thought it
+might help with your new undertaking."
+
+Gardley took it with a lighting of his face and opened the box. In it
+was a little, soft, leather-bound Testament, showing the marks of usage,
+yet not worn. It was a tiny thing, very thin, easily fitting in a
+vest-pocket, and not a burden to carry. He took the little book in his
+hand, removed the silken rubber band that bound it, and turned the
+leaves reverently in his fingers, noting that there were pencil-marks
+here and there. His face was all emotion as he looked up at the giver.
+
+"I thank you," he said, in a low tone, glancing about to see that no one
+was noticing them. "I shall prize it greatly. It surely will help. I
+will read it every day. Was that what you wanted? And I will carry it
+with me always."
+
+His voice was very earnest, and he looked at her as though she had given
+him a fortune. With another glance about at the preoccupied room--even
+Bud was busy studying Jasper Kemp's oldest gun--he snapped the band on
+the book again and put it carefully in his inner breast-pocket. The book
+would henceforth travel next his heart and be his guide. She thought he
+meant her to understand that, as he put out his hand unobtrusively and
+pressed her fingers gently with a quick, low "Thank you!"
+
+Then Mom Wallis's bonnet was brought out and tied on her, and the poor
+old woman blushed like a girl when she stood with meek hands folded at
+her waist and looked primly about on the family for their approval at
+Margaret's request. But that was nothing to the way she stared when
+Margaret got out the threefold mirror and showed her herself in the new
+headgear. She trotted away at last, the wonderful bonnet in one hand,
+the box in the other, a look of awe on her face, and Margaret heard her
+murmur as she put it away: "Glory! _Me!_ Glory!"
+
+Then Margaret had to read one or two of the poems for Jasper Kemp, while
+they all sat and listened to her Scotch and marveled at her. A woman
+like that condescending to come to visit them!
+
+She gave a lesson in note-reading to the Fiddling Boss, pointing one by
+one with her white fingers to the notes until he was able to creep along
+and pick out "Suwanee River" and "Old Folks at Home" to the intense
+delight of the audience.
+
+Margaret never knew just how it was that she came to be telling the men
+a story, one she had read not long before in a magazine, a story with a
+thrilling national interest and a keen personal touch that searched the
+hearts of men; but they listened as they had never listened to anything
+in their lives before.
+
+And then there was singing, more singing, until it bade fair to be
+morning before they slept, and the little teacher was weary indeed when
+she lay down on the cot in Mom Wallis's room, after having knelt beside
+the old woman and prayed.
+
+The next day there was a wonderful ride with Gardley and Bud to the
+canon of the cave-dwellers, and a coming home to the apple dumplings she
+had taught Mom Wallis to make before she went away. All day Gardley and
+she, with Bud for delighted audience, had talked over the play she was
+getting up at the school, Gardley suggesting about costumes and tree
+boughs for scenery, and promising to help in any way she wanted. Then
+after supper there were jokes and songs around the big fire, and some
+popcorn one of the men had gone a long ride that day to get. They called
+for another story, too, and it was forthcoming.
+
+It was Sunday morning after breakfast, however, that Margaret suddenly
+wondered how she was going to make the day helpful and different from
+the other days.
+
+She stood for a moment looking out of the clear little window
+thoughtfully, with just the shadow of a sigh on her lips, and as she
+turned back to the room she met Gardley's questioning glance.
+
+"Are you homesick?" he asked, with a sorry smile. "This must all be
+very different from what you are accustomed to."
+
+"Oh no, it isn't that." She smiled, brightly. "I'm not a baby for home,
+but I do get a bit homesick about church-time. Sunday is such a strange
+day to me without a service."
+
+"Why not have one, then?" he suggested, eagerly. "We can sing and--you
+could--do the rest!"
+
+Her eyes lighted at the suggestion, and she cast a quick glance at the
+men. Would they stand for that sort of thing?
+
+Gardley followed her glance and caught her meaning. "Let them answer for
+themselves," he said quickly in a low tone, and then, raising his voice:
+"Speak up, men. Do you want to have church? Miss Earle here is homesick
+for a service, and I suggest that we have one, and she conduct it."
+
+"Sure!" said Jasper Kemp, his face lighting. "I'll miss my guess if she
+can't do better than the parson we had last Sunday. Get into your seats,
+boys; we're goin' to church."
+
+Margaret's face was a study of embarrassment and delight as she saw the
+alacrity with which the men moved to get ready for "church." Her quick
+brain turned over the possibility of what she could read or say to help
+this strange congregation thus suddenly thrust upon her.
+
+It was a testimony to her upbringing by a father whose great business of
+life was to preach the gospel that she never thought once of hesitating
+or declining the opportunity, but welcomed it as an opportunity, and
+only deprecated her unreadiness for the work.
+
+The men stirred about, donned their coats, furtively brushing their
+hair, and Long Bill insisted that Mom Wallis put on her new bonnet;
+which she obligingly did, and sat down carefully in the barrel-chair,
+her hands neatly crossed in her lap, supremely happy. It really was
+wonderful what a difference that bonnet made in Mom Wallis.
+
+Gardley arranged a comfortable seat for Margaret at the table and put in
+front of her one of the hymn-books she had brought. Then, after she was
+seated, he took the chair beside her and brought out the little
+Testament from his breast-pocket, gravely laying it on the hymn-book.
+
+Margaret met his eyes with a look of quick appreciation. It was
+wonderful the way these two were growing to understand each other. It
+gave the girl a thrill of wonder and delight to have him do this simple
+little thing for her, and the smile that passed between them was
+beautiful to see. Long Bill turned away his head and looked out of the
+window with an improvised sneeze to excuse the sudden mist that came
+into his eyes.
+
+Margaret chose "My Faith looks up to Thee" for the first hymn, because
+Fiddling Boss could play it, and while he was tuning up his fiddle she
+hastily wrote out two more copies of the words. And so the queer service
+started with a quaver of the old fiddle and the clear, sweet voices of
+Margaret and Gardley leading off, while the men growled on their way
+behind, and Mom Wallis, in her new gray bonnet, with her hair all
+fluffed softly gray under it, sat with eyes shining like a girl's.
+
+So absorbed in the song were they all that they failed to hear the sound
+of a horse coming into the clearing. But just as the last words of the
+final verse died away the door of the bunk-house swung open, and there
+in the doorway stood Pop Wallis!
+
+The men sprang to their feet with one accord, ominous frowns on their
+brows, and poor old Mom Wallis sat petrified where she was, the smile of
+relaxation frozen on her face, a look of fear growing in her tired old
+eyes.
+
+Now Pop Wallis, through an unusual combination of circumstances, had
+been for some hours without liquor and was comparatively sober. He stood
+for a moment staring amazedly at the group around his fireside. Perhaps
+because he had been so long without his usual stimulant his mind was
+weakened and things appeared as a strange vision to him. At any rate, he
+stood and stared, and as he looked from one to another of the men, at
+the beautiful stranger, and across to the strangely unfamiliar face of
+his wife in her new bonnet, his eyes took on a frightened look. He
+slowly took his hand from the door-frame and passed it over his eyes,
+then looked again, from one to another, and back to his glorified wife.
+
+Margaret had half risen at her end of the table, and Gardley stood
+beside her as if to reassure her; but Pop Wallis was not looking at any
+of them any more. His eyes were on his wife. He passed his hand once
+more over his eyes and took one step gropingly into the room, a hand
+reached out in front of him, as if he were not sure but he might run
+into something on the way, the other hand on his forehead, a dazed look
+in his face.
+
+"Why, Mom--that ain't really--_you_, now, _is_ it?" he said, in a
+gentle, insinuating voice like one long unaccustomed making a hasty
+prayer.
+
+The tone made a swift change in the old woman. She gripped her bony
+hands tight and a look of beatific joy came into her wrinkled face.
+
+"Yes, it's really _me_, Pop!" she said, with a kind of triumphant ring
+to her voice.
+
+"But--but--you're right _here_, ain't you? You ain't _dead_,
+an'--an'--gone to--gl-oo-ry, be you? You're right _here_?"
+
+"Yes, I'm right _here_, Pop. I ain't dead! Pop--glory's _come to me_!"
+
+"Glory?" repeated the man, dazedly. "Glory?" And he gazed around the
+room and took in the new curtains, the pictures on the wall, the
+cushions and chairs, and the bright, shining windows. "You don't mean
+it's _heav'n_, do you, Mom? 'Cause I better go back--_I_ don't belong in
+heav'n. Why, Mom, it can't be glory, 'cause it's the same old
+bunk-house outside, anyhow."
+
+"Yes, it's the same old bunk-house, and it ain't heaven, but it's
+_goin_' to be. The glory's come all right. You sit down, Pop; we're
+goin' to have church, and this is my new bonnet. _She_ brang it. This is
+the new school-teacher, Miss Earle, and she's goin' to have church. She
+done it _all_! You sit down and listen."
+
+Pop Wallis took a few hesitating steps into the room and dropped into
+the nearest chair. He looked at Margaret as if she might be an angel
+holding open the portal to a kingdom in the sky. He looked and wondered
+and admired, and then he looked back to his glorified old wife again in
+wonder.
+
+Jasper Kemp shut the door, and the company dropped back into their
+places. Margaret, because of her deep embarrassment, and a kind of
+inward trembling that had taken possession of her, announced another
+hymn.
+
+It was a solemn little service, quite unique, with a brief, simple
+prayer and an expository reading of the story of the blind man from the
+sixth chapter of John. The men sat attentively, their eyes upon her face
+as she read; but Pop Wallis sat staring at his wife, an awed light upon
+his scared old face, the wickedness and cunning all faded out, and only
+fear and wonder written there.
+
+In the early dawning of the pink-and-silver morning Margaret went back
+to her work, Gardley riding by her side, and Bud riding at a discreet
+distance behind, now and then going off at a tangent after a stray
+cottontail. It was wonderful what good sense Bud seemed to have on
+occasion.
+
+The horse that Margaret rode, a sturdy little Western pony, with nerve
+and grit and a gentle common sense for humans, was to remain with her in
+Ashland, a gift from the men of the bunk-house. During the week that
+followed Archie Forsythe came riding over with a beautiful shining
+saddle-horse for her use during her stay in the West; but when he went
+riding back to the ranch the shining saddle-horse was still in his
+train, riderless, for Margaret told him that she already had a horse of
+her own. Neither had Margaret accepted the invitation to the Temples'
+for the next week-end. She had other plans for the Sabbath, and that
+week there appeared on all the trees and posts about the town, and on
+the trails, a little notice of a Bible class and vesper-service to be
+held in the school-house on the following Sabbath afternoon; and so
+Margaret, true daughter of her minister-father, took up her mission in
+Ashland for the Sabbaths that were to follow; for the school-board had
+agreed with alacrity to such use of the school-house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+Now when it became noised abroad that the new teacher wanted above all
+things to purchase a piano, and that to that end she was getting up a
+wonderful Shakespeare play in which the scholars were to act upon a
+stage set with tree boughs after the manner of some new kind of players,
+the whole community round about began to be excited.
+
+Mrs. Tanner talked much about it. Was not Bud to be a prominent
+character? Mr. Tanner talked about it everywhere he went. The mothers
+and fathers and sisters talked about it, and the work of preparing the
+play went on.
+
+Margaret had discovered that one of the men at the bunk-house played a
+flute, and she was working hard to teach him and Fiddling Boss and
+Croaker to play a portion of the elfin dance to accompany the players.
+The work of making costumes and training the actors became more and more
+strenuous, and in this Gardley proved a fine assistant. He undertook to
+train some of the older boys for their parts, and did it so well that he
+was presently in the forefront of the battle of preparation and working
+almost as hard as Margaret herself.
+
+The beauty of the whole thing was that every boy in the school adored
+him, even Jed and Timothy, and life took on a different aspect to them
+in company with this high-born college-bred, Eastern young man who yet
+could ride and shoot with the daringest among the Westerners.
+
+Far and wide went forth the fame of the play that was to be. The news of
+it reached to the fort and the ranches, and brought offers of assistance
+and costumes and orders for tickets. Margaret purchased a small
+duplicator and set her school to printing tickets and selling them, and
+before the play was half ready to be acted tickets enough were sold for
+two performances, and people were planning to come from fifty miles
+around. The young teacher began to quake at the thought of her big
+audience and her poor little amateur players; and yet for children they
+were doing wonderfully well, and were growing quite Shakespearian in
+their manner of conversation.
+
+"What say you, sweet Amanda?" would be a form of frequent address to
+that stolid maiden Amanda Bounds; and Jed, instead of shouting for
+"Delicate" at recess, as in former times, would say, "My good Timothy, I
+swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow; by his best arrow with the
+golden head"--until all the school-yard rang with classic phrases; and
+the whole country round was being addressed in phrases of another
+century by the younger members of their households.
+
+Then Rosa Rogers's father one day stopped at the Tanners' and left a
+contribution with the teacher of fifty dollars toward the new piano; and
+after that it was rumored that the teacher said the piano could be sent
+for in time to be used at the play. Then other contributions of smaller
+amounts came in, and before the date of the play had been set there was
+money enough to make a first payment on the piano. That day the English
+exercise for the whole school was to compose the letter to the Eastern
+piano firm where the piano was to be purchased, ordering it to be sent
+on at once. Weeks before this Margaret had sent for a number of piano
+catalogues beautifully illustrated, showing by cuts how the whole
+instruments were made, with full illustrations of the factories where
+they were manufactured, and she had discussed the selection with the
+scholars, showing them what points were to be considered in selecting a
+good piano. At last the order was sent out, the actual selection itself
+to be made by a musical friend of Margaret's in New York, and the school
+waited in anxious suspense to hear that it had started on its way.
+
+The piano arrived at last, three weeks before the time set for the play,
+which was coming on finely now and seemed to the eager scholars quite
+ready for public performance. Not so to Margaret and Gardley, as daily
+they pruned, trained, and patiently went over and over again each part,
+drawing all the while nearer to the ideal they had set. It could not be
+done perfectly, of course, and when they had done all they could there
+would yet be many crudities; but Margaret's hope was to bring out the
+meaning of the play and give both audience and performers the true idea
+of what Shakespeare meant when he wrote it.
+
+The arrival of the piano was naturally a great event in the school. For
+three days in succession the entire school marched in procession down to
+the incoming Eastern train to see if their expected treasure had
+arrived, and when at last it was lifted from the freight-car and set
+upon the station platform the school stood awe-struck and silent, with
+half-bowed heads and bated breath, as though at the arrival of some
+great and honorable guest.
+
+They attended it on the roadside as it was carted by the biggest wagon
+in town to the school-house door; they stood in silent rows while the
+great box was peeled off and the instrument taken out and carried into
+the school-room; then they filed in soulfully and took their accustomed
+seats without being told, touching shyly the shining case as they
+passed. By common consent they waited to hear its voice for the first
+time. Margaret took the little key from the envelope tied to the frame,
+unlocked the cover, and, sitting down, began to play. The rough men who
+had brought it stood in awesome adoration around the platform; the
+silence that spread over that room would have done honor to Paderewski
+or Josef Hoffman.
+
+Margaret played and played, and they could not hear enough. They would
+have stayed all night listening, perhaps, so wonderful was it to them.
+And then the teacher called each one and let him or her touch a few
+chords, just to say they had played on it. After which she locked the
+instrument and sent them all home. That was the only afternoon during
+that term that the play was forgotten for a while.
+
+After the arrival of the piano the play went forward with great
+strides, for now Margaret accompanied some of the parts with the music,
+and the flute and violin were also practised in their elfin dance with
+much better effect. It was about this time that Archie Forsythe
+discovered the rehearsals and offered his assistance, and, although it
+was declined, he frequently managed to ride over about rehearsal time,
+finding ways to make himself useful in spite of Margaret's polite
+refusals. Margaret always felt annoyed when he came, because Rosa Rogers
+instantly became another creature on his arrival, and because Gardley
+simply froze into a polite statue, never speaking except when spoken to.
+As for Forsythe, his attitude toward Gardley was that of a contemptuous
+master toward a slave, and yet he took care to cover it always with a
+form of courtesy, so that Margaret could say or do nothing to show her
+displeasure, except to be grave and dignified. At such times Rosa
+Rogers's eyes would be upon her with a gleam of hatred, and the teacher
+felt that the scholar was taking advantage of the situation. Altogether
+it was a trying time for Margaret when Forsythe came to the
+school-house. Also, he discovered to them that he played the violin, and
+offered to assist in the orchestral parts. Margaret really could think
+of no reason to decline this offer, but she was sadly upset by the whole
+thing. His manner to her was too pronounced, and she felt continually
+uncomfortable under it, what with Rosa Rogers's jealous eyes upon her
+and Gardley's eyes turned haughtily away.
+
+She planned a number of special rehearsals in the evenings, when it was
+difficult for Forsythe to get there, and managed in this way to avoid
+his presence; but the whole matter became a source of much vexation, and
+Margaret even shed a few tears wearily into her pillow one night when
+things had gone particularly hard and Forsythe had hurt the feelings of
+Fiddling Boss with his insolent directions about playing. She could not
+say or do anything much in the matter, because the Temples had been very
+kind in helping to get the piano, and Mr. Temple seemed to think he was
+doing the greatest possible kindness to her in letting Forsythe off duty
+so much to help with the play. The matter became more and more of a
+distress to Margaret, and the Sabbath was the only day of real delight.
+
+The first Sunday after the arrival of the piano was a great day.
+Everybody in the neighborhood turned out to the Sunday-afternoon class
+and vesper service, which had been growing more and more in popularity,
+until now the school-room was crowded. Every man from the bunk-house
+came regularly, often including Pop Wallis, who had not yet recovered
+fully from the effect of his wife's new bonnet and fluffy arrangement of
+hair, but treated her like a lady visitor and deferred to her absolutely
+when he was at home. He wasn't quite sure even yet but he had strayed by
+mistake into the outermost courts of heaven and ought to get shooed out.
+He always looked at the rose-wreathed curtains with a mingling of pride
+and awe.
+
+Margaret had put several hymns on the blackboard in clear, bold
+printing, and the singing that day was wonderful. Not the least part of
+the service was her own playing over of the hymns before the singing
+began, which was listened to with reverence as if it had been the music
+of an angel playing on a heavenly harp.
+
+Gardley always came to the Sunday services, and helped her with the
+singing, and often they two sang duets together.
+
+The service was not always of set form. Usually Margaret taught a short
+Bible lesson, beginning with the general outline of the Bible, its
+books, their form, substance, authors, etc.--all very brief and
+exceedingly simple, putting a wide space of music between this and the
+vesper service, into which she wove songs, bits of poems, passages from
+the Bible, and often a story which she told dramatically, illustrating
+the scripture read.
+
+But the very Sunday before the play, just the time Margaret had looked
+forward to as being her rest from all the perplexities of the week, a
+company from the fort, including the Temples, arrived at the
+school-house right in the midst of the Bible lesson.
+
+The ladies were daintily dressed, and settled their frills and ribbons
+amusedly as they watched the embarrassed young teacher trying to forget
+that there was company present. They were in a distinct sense "company,"
+for they had the air, as they entered, of having come to look on and be
+amused, not to partake in the worship with the rest.
+
+Margaret found herself trembling inwardly as she saw the supercilious
+smile on the lips of Mrs. Temple and the amused stares of the other
+ladies of the party. They did not take any notice of the other people
+present any more than if they had been so many puppets set up to show
+off the teacher; their air of superiority was offensive. Not until Rosa
+Rogers entered with her father, a little later, did they condescend to
+bow in recognition, and then with that pretty little atmosphere as if
+they would say, "Oh, you've come, too, to be amused."
+
+Gardley was sitting up in front, listening to her talk, and she thought
+he had not noticed the strangers. Suddenly it came to her to try to keep
+her nerve and let him see that they were nothing to her; and with a
+strong effort and a swift prayer for help she called for a hymn. She sat
+coolly down at the piano, touching the keys with a tender chord or two
+and beginning to sing almost at once. She had sent home for some old
+hymn-books from the Christian Endeavor Society in her father's church,
+so the congregation were supplied with the notes and words now, and
+everybody took part eagerly, even the people from the fort
+condescendingly joining in.
+
+But Gardley was too much alive to every expression on that vivid face of
+Margaret's to miss knowing that she was annoyed and upset. He did not
+need to turn and look back to immediately discover the cause. He was a
+young person of keen intuition. It suddenly gave him great satisfaction
+to see that look of consternation on Margaret's face. It settled for him
+a question he had been in great and anxious doubt about, and his soul
+was lifted up with peace within him. When, presently, according to
+arrangement, he rose to sing a duet with Margaret, no one could have
+possibly told by so much as the lifting of an eyelash that he knew there
+was an enemy of his in the back of the room. He sang, as did Margaret,
+to the immediate audience in front of him, those admiring children and
+adoring men in the forefront who felt the school-house had become for
+them the gate of heaven for the time being; and he sang with marvelous
+feeling and sympathy, letting out his voice at its best.
+
+"Really," said Mrs. Temple, in a loud whisper to the wife of one of the
+officers, "that young man has a fine voice, and he isn't bad-looking,
+either. I think he'd be worth cultivating. We must have him up and try
+him out."
+
+But when she repeated this remark in another stage whisper to Forsythe
+he frowned haughtily.
+
+The one glimpse Margaret caught of Forsythe during that afternoon's
+service was when he was smiling meaningly at Rosa Rogers; and she had to
+resolutely put the memory of their look from her mind or the story which
+she was about to tell would have fled.
+
+It was the hunger in Jasper Kemp's eyes that finally anchored Margaret's
+thoughts and helped her to forget the company at the back of the room.
+She told her story, and she told it wonderfully and with power,
+interpreting it now and then for the row of men who sat in the center of
+the room drinking in her every word; and when the simple service was
+concluded with another song, in which Gardley's voice rang forth with
+peculiar tenderness and strength, the men filed forth silently,
+solemnly, with bowed heads and thoughtful eyes. But the company from the
+fort flowed up around Margaret like flood-tide let loose and gushed upon
+her.
+
+"Oh, my dear!" said Mrs. Temple. "How beautifully you do it! And such
+attention as they give you! No wonder you are willing to forego all
+other amusements to stay here and preach! But it was perfectly sweet the
+way you made them listen and the way you told that story. I don't see
+how you do it. I'd be scared to death!"
+
+They babbled about her awhile, much to her annoyance, for there were
+several people to whom she had wanted to speak, who drew away and
+disappeared when the new-comers took possession of her. At last,
+however, they mounted and rode away, to her great relief. Forsythe, it
+is true, tried to make her go home with them; tried to escort her to the
+Tanners'; tried to remain in the school-house with her awhile when she
+told him she had something to do there; but she would not let him, and
+he rode away half sulky at the last, a look of injured pride upon his
+face.
+
+Margaret went to the door finally, and looked down the road. He was
+gone, and she was alone. A shade of sadness came over her face. She was
+sorry that Gardley had not waited. She had wanted to tell him how much
+she liked his singing, what a pleasure it was to sing with him, and how
+glad she was that he came up to her need so well with the strangers
+there and helped to make it easy. But Gardley had melted away as soon as
+the service was over, and had probably gone home with the rest of the
+men. It was disappointing, for she had come to consider their little
+time together on Sunday as a very pleasant hour, this few minutes after
+the service when they would talk about real living and the vital things
+of existence. But he was gone!
+
+She turned, and there he was, quite near the door, coming toward her.
+Her face lighted up with a joy that was unmistakable, and his own smile
+in answer was a revelation of his deeper self.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad you are not gone!" she said, eagerly. "I wanted to tell
+you--" And then she stopped, and the color flooded her face rosily, for
+she saw in his eyes how glad he was and forgot to finish her sentence.
+
+He came up gravely, after all, and, standing just a minute so beside the
+door, took both her hands in both his. It was only for a second that he
+stood so, looking down into her eyes. I doubt if either of them knew
+till afterward that they had been holding hands. It seemed the right and
+natural thing to do, and meant so much to each of them. Both were glad
+beyond their own understanding over that moment and its tenderness.
+
+It was all very decorous, and over in a second, but it meant much to
+remember afterward, that look and hand-clasp.
+
+"I wanted to tell you," he said, tenderly, "how much that story did for
+me. It was wonderful, and it helped me to decide something I have been
+perplexed over--"
+
+"Oh, I am glad!" she said, half breathlessly.
+
+So, talking in low, broken sentences, they went back to the piano and
+tried over several songs for the next Sunday, lingering together, just
+happy to be there with each other, and not half knowing the significance
+of it all. As the purple lights on the school-room wall grew long and
+rose-edged, they walked slowly to the Tanner house and said good night.
+
+There was a beauty about the young man as he stood for a moment looking
+down upon the girl in parting, the kind of beauty there is in any
+strong, wild thing made tame and tender for a great love by a great
+uplift. Gardley had that look of self-surrender, and power made
+subservient to right, that crowns a man with strength and more than
+physical beauty. In his fine face there glowed high purpose, and deep
+devotion to the one who had taught it to him. Margaret, looking up at
+him, felt her heart go out with that great love, half maiden, half
+divine, that comes to some favored women even here on earth, and she
+watched him down the road toward the mountain in the evening light and
+marveled how her trust had grown since first she met him; marveled and
+reflected that she had not told her mother and father much about him
+yet. It was growing time to do so; yes--_it was growing time_! Her
+cheeks grew pink in the darkness and she turned and fled to her room.
+
+That was the last time she saw him before the play.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+The play was set for Tuesday. Monday afternoon and evening were to be
+the final rehearsals, but Gardley did not come to them. Fiddling Boss
+came late and said the men had been off all day and had not yet
+returned. He himself found it hard to come at all. They had important
+work on. But there was no word from Gardley.
+
+Margaret was disappointed. She couldn't get away from it. Of course they
+could go on with the rehearsal without him. He had done his work well,
+and there was no real reason why he had to be there. He knew every part
+by heart, and could take any boy's place if any one failed in any way.
+There was nothing further really for him to do until the performance, as
+far as that was concerned, except be there and encourage her. But she
+missed him, and an uneasiness grew in her mind. She had so looked
+forward to seeing him, and now to have no word! He might at least have
+sent her a note when he found he could not come.
+
+Still she knew this was unreasonable. His work, whatever it was--he had
+never explained it very thoroughly to her, perhaps because she had never
+asked--must, of course, have kept him. She must excuse him without
+question and go on with the business of the hour.
+
+Her hands were full enough, for Forsythe came presently and was more
+trying than usual. She had to be very decided and put her foot down
+about one or two things, or some of her actors would have gone home in
+the sulks, and Fiddling Boss, whose part in the program meant much to
+him, would have given it up entirely.
+
+She hurried everything through as soon as possible, knowing she was
+weary, and longing to get to her room and rest. Gardley would come and
+explain to-morrow, likely in the morning on his way somewhere.
+
+But the morning came and no word. Afternoon came and he had not sent a
+sign yet. Some of the little things that he had promised to do about the
+setting of the stage would have to remain undone, for it was too late
+now to do it herself, and there was no one else to call upon.
+
+Into the midst of her perplexity and anxiety came the news that Jed on
+his way home had been thrown from his horse, which was a young and
+vicious one, and had broken his leg. Jed was to act the part of Nick
+Bottom that evening, and he did it well! Now what in the world was she
+to do? If only Gardley would come!
+
+Just at this moment Forsythe arrived.
+
+"Oh, it is you, Mr. Forsythe!" And her tone showed plainly her
+disappointment. "Haven't you seen Mr. Gardley to-day? I don't know what
+I shall do without him."
+
+"I certainly have seen Gardley," said Forsythe, a spice of
+vindictiveness and satisfaction in his tone. "I saw him not two hours
+ago, drunk as a fish, out at a place called Old Ouida's Cabin, as I was
+passing. He's in for a regular spree. You'll not see him for several
+days, I fancy. He's utterly helpless for the present, and out of the
+question. What is there I can do for you? Present your request. It's
+yours--to the half of my kingdom."
+
+Margaret's heart grew cold as ice and then like fire. Her blood seemed
+to stop utterly and then to go pounding through her veins in leaps and
+torrents. Her eyes grew dark, and things swam before her. She reached
+out to a desk and caught at it for support, and her white face looked at
+him a moment as if she had not heard. But when in a second she spoke,
+she said, quite steadily:
+
+"I thank you, Mr. Forsythe; there is nothing just at present--or, yes,
+there is, if you wouldn't mind helping Timothy put up those curtains.
+Now, I think I'll go home and rest a few minutes; I am very tired."
+
+It wasn't exactly the job Forsythe coveted, to stay in the school-house
+and fuss over those curtains; but she made him do it, then disappeared,
+and he didn't like the memory of her white face. He hadn't thought she
+would take it that way. He had expected to have her exclaim with horror
+and disgust. He watched her out of the door, and then turned impatiently
+to the waiting Timothy.
+
+Margaret went outside the school-house to call Bud, who had been sent to
+gather sage-brush for filling in the background, but Bud was already out
+of sight far on the trail toward the camp on Forsythe's horse, riding
+for dear life. Bud had come near to the school-house door with his
+armful of sage-brush just in time to hear Forsythe's flippant speech
+about Gardley and see Margaret's white face. Bud had gone for help!
+
+But Margaret did not go home to rest. She did not even get half-way
+home. When she had gone a very short distance outside the school-house
+she saw some one coming toward her, and in her distress of mind she
+could not tell who it was. Her eyes were blinded with tears, her breath
+was constricted, and it seemed to her that a demon unseen was gripping
+her heart. She had not yet taken her bearings to know what she thought.
+She had only just come dazed from the shock of Forsythe's words, and had
+not the power to think. Over and over to herself, as she walked along,
+she kept repeating the words: "I _do not_ believe it! It is _not_ true!"
+but her inner consciousness had not had time to analyze her soul and be
+sure that she believed the words wherewith she was comforting herself.
+
+So now, when she saw some one coming, she felt the necessity of bringing
+her telltale face to order and getting ready to answer whoever she was
+to meet. As she drew nearer she became suddenly aware that it was Rosa
+Rogers coming with her arms full of bundles and more piled up in front
+of her on her pony. Margaret knew at once that Rosa must have seen
+Forsythe go by her house, and had returned promptly to the school-house
+on some pretext or other. It would not do to let her go there alone with
+the young man; she must go back and stay with them. She could not be
+sure that if she sent Rosa home with orders to rest she would be obeyed.
+Doubtless the girl would take another way around and return to the
+school again. There was nothing for it but to go back and stay as long
+as Rosa did.
+
+Margaret stooped and, hastily plucking a great armful of sage-brush,
+turned around and retraced her steps, her heart like lead, her feet
+suddenly grown heavy. How could she go back and hear them laugh and
+chatter, answer their many silly, unnecessary questions, and stand it
+all? How could she, with that great weight at her heart?
+
+She went back with a wonderful self-control. Forsythe's face lighted,
+and his reluctant hand grew suddenly eager as he worked. Rosa came
+presently, and others, and the laughing chatter went on quite as
+Margaret had known it would. And she--so great is the power of human
+will under pressure--went calmly about and directed here and there;
+planned and executed; put little, dainty, wholly unnecessary touches to
+the stage; and never let any one know that her heart was being crushed
+with the weight of a great, awful fear, and yet steadily upborne by the
+rising of a great, deep trust. As she worked and smiled and ordered, she
+was praying: "Oh, God, don't let it be true! Keep him! Save him! Bring
+him! Make him true! I _know_ he is true! Oh, God, bring him safely
+_soon_!"
+
+Meantime there was nothing she could do. She could not send Forsythe
+after him. She could not speak of the matter to one of those present,
+and Bud--where was Bud? It was the first time since she came to Arizona
+that Bud had failed her. She might not leave the school-house, with
+Forsythe and Rosa there, to go and find him, and she might not do
+anything else. There was nothing to do but work on feverishly and pray
+as she had never prayed before.
+
+By and by one of the smaller boys came, and she sent him back to the
+Tanners' to find Bud, but he returned with the message that Bud had not
+been home since morning; and so the last hours before the evening, that
+would otherwise have been so brief for all there was to be done, dragged
+their weary length away and Margaret worked on.
+
+She did not even go back for supper at the last, but sent one of the
+girls to her room for a few things she needed, and declined even the
+nice little chicken sandwich that thoughtful Mrs. Tanner sent back along
+with the things. And then, at last, the audience began to gather.
+
+By this time her anxiety was so great for Gardley that all thought of
+how she was to supply the place of the absent Jed had gone from her
+mind, which was in a whirl. Gardley! Gardley! If only Gardley would
+come! That was her one thought. What should she do if he didn't come at
+all? How should she explain things to herself afterward? What if it had
+been true? What if he were the kind of man Forsythe had suggested? How
+terrible life would look to her! But it was not true. No, it was not
+true! She trusted him! With her soul she trusted him! He would come back
+some time and he would explain all. She could not remember his last look
+at her on Sunday and not trust him. He was true! He would come!
+
+Somehow she managed to get through the terrible interval, to slip into
+the dressing-room and make herself sweet and comely in the little white
+gown she had sent for, with its delicate blue ribbons and soft lace
+ruffles. Somehow she managed the expected smiles as one and another of
+the audience came around to the platform to speak to her. There were
+dark hollows under her eyes, and her mouth was drawn and weary, but they
+laid that to the excitement. Two bright-red spots glowed on her cheeks;
+but she smiled and talked with her usual gaiety. People looked at her
+and said how beautiful she was, and how bright and untiring; and how
+wonderful it was that Ashland School had drawn such a prize of a
+teacher. The seats filled, the noise and the clatter went on. Still no
+sign of Gardley or any one from the camp, and still Bud had not
+returned! What could it mean?
+
+But the minutes were rushing rapidly now. It was more than time to
+begin. The girls were in a flutter in one cloak-room at the right of the
+stage, asking more questions in a minute than one could answer in an
+hour; the boys in the other cloak-room wanted all sorts of help; and
+three or four of the actors were attacked with stage-fright as they
+peered through a hole in the curtain and saw some friend or relative
+arrive and sit down in the audience. It was all a mad whirl of seemingly
+useless noise and excitement, and she could not, no, she _could not_, go
+on and do the necessary things to start that awful play. Why, oh, _why_
+had she ever been left to think of getting up a play?
+
+Forsythe, up behind the piano, whispered to her that it was time to
+begin. The house was full. There was not room for another soul. Margaret
+explained that Fiddling Boss had not yet arrived, and caught a glimpse
+of the cunning designs of Forsythe in the shifty turning away of his
+eyes as he answered that they could not wait all night for him; that if
+he wanted to get into it he ought to have come early. But even as she
+turned away she saw the little, bobbing, eager faces of Pop and Mom
+Wallis away back by the door, and the grim, towering figure of the Boss,
+his fiddle held high, making his way to the front amid the crowd.
+
+She sat down and touched the keys, her eyes watching eagerly for a
+chance to speak to the Boss and see if he knew anything of Gardley; but
+Forsythe was close beside her all the time, and there was no
+opportunity. She struck the opening chords of the overture they were to
+attempt to play, and somehow got through it. Of course, the audience was
+not a critical one, and there were few real judges of music present; but
+it may be that the truly wonderful effect she produced upon the
+listeners was due to the fact that she was playing a prayer with her
+heart as her fingers touched the keys, and that instead of a preliminary
+to a fairy revel the music told the story of a great soul struggle, and
+reached hearts as it tinkled and rolled and swelled on to the end. It
+may be, too, that Fiddling Boss was more in sympathy that night with his
+accompanist than was the other violinist, and that was why his old
+fiddle brought forth such weird and tender tones.
+
+Almost to the end, with her heart sobbing its trouble to the keys,
+Margaret looked up sadly, and there, straight before her through a hole
+in the curtain made by some rash youth to glimpse the audience, or
+perhaps even put there by the owner of the nose itself, she saw the
+little, freckled, turned-up member belonging to Bud's face. A second
+more and a big, bright eye appeared and solemnly winked at her twice, as
+if to say, "Don't you worry; it's all right!"
+
+She almost started from the stool, but kept her head enough to finish
+the chords, and as they died away she heard a hoarse whisper in Bud's
+familiar voice:
+
+"Whoop her up, Miss Earle. We're all ready. Raise the curtain there, you
+guy. Let her rip. Everything's O. K."
+
+With a leap of light into her eyes Margaret turned the leaves of the
+music and went on playing as she should have done if nothing had been
+the matter. Bud was there, anyway, and that somehow cheered her heart.
+Perhaps Gardley had come or Bud had heard of him--and yet, Bud didn't
+know he had been missing, for Bud had been away himself.
+
+Nevertheless, she summoned courage to go on playing. Nick Bottom wasn't
+in this first scene, anyway, and this would have to be gone through with
+somehow. By this time she was in a state of daze that only thought from
+moment to moment. The end of the evening seemed now to her as far off as
+the end of a hale old age seems at the beginning of a lifetime. Somehow
+she must walk through it; but she could only see a step at a time.
+
+Once she turned half sideways to the audience and gave a hurried glance
+about, catching sight of Fudge's round, near-sighted face, and that gave
+her encouragement. Perhaps the others were somewhere present. If only
+she could get a chance to whisper to some one from the camp and ask
+when they had seen Gardley last! But there was no chance, of course!
+
+The curtain was rapidly raised and the opening scene of the play began,
+the actors going through their parts with marvelous ease and dexterity,
+and the audience silent and charmed, watching those strangers in queer
+costumes that were their own children, marching around there at their
+ease and talking weird language that was not used in any class of
+society they had ever come across on sea or land before.
+
+But Margaret, watching her music as best she could, and playing
+mechanically rather than with her mind, could not tell if they were
+doing well or ill, so loudly did her heart pound out her fears--so
+stoutly did her heart proclaim her trust.
+
+And thus, without a flaw or mistake in the execution of the work she had
+struggled so hard to teach them, the first scene of the first act drew
+to its close, and Margaret struck the final chords of the music and felt
+that in another minute she must reel and fall from that piano-stool. And
+yet she sat and watched the curtain fall with a face as controlled as if
+nothing at all were the matter.
+
+A second later she suddenly knew that to sit in that place calmly
+another second was a physical impossibility. She must get somewhere to
+the air at once or her senses would desert her.
+
+With a movement so quick that no one could have anticipated it, she
+slipped from her piano-stool, under the curtain to the stage, and was
+gone before the rest of the orchestra had noticed her intention.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+Since the day that he had given Margaret his promise to make good,
+Gardley had been regularly employed by Mr. Rogers, looking after
+important matters of his ranch. Before that he had lived a free and easy
+life, working a little now and then when it seemed desirable to him,
+having no set interest in life, and only endeavoring from day to day to
+put as far as possible from his mind the life he had left behind him.
+Now, however, all things became different. He brought to his service the
+keen mind and ready ability that had made him easily a winner at any
+game, a brave rider, and a never-failing shot. Within a few days Rogers
+saw what material was in him, and as the weeks went by grew to depend
+more and more upon his advice in matters.
+
+There had been much trouble with cattle thieves, and so far no method of
+stopping the loss or catching the thieves had been successful. Rogers
+finally put the matter into Gardley's hands to carry out his own ideas,
+with the men of the camp at his command to help him, the camp itself
+being only a part of Rogers's outlying possessions, one of several such
+centers from which he worked his growing interests.
+
+Gardley had formulated a scheme by which he hoped eventually to get
+hold of the thieves and put a stop to the trouble, and he was pretty
+sure he was on the right track; but his plan required slow and cautious
+work, that the enemy might not suspect and take to cover. He had for
+several weeks suspected that the thieves made their headquarters in the
+region of Old Ouida's Cabin, and made their raids from that direction.
+It was for this reason that of late the woods and trails in the vicinity
+of Ouida's had been secretly patrolled day and night, and every
+passer-by taken note of, until Gardley knew just who were the
+frequenters of that way and mostly what was their business. This work
+was done alternately by the men of the Wallis camp and two other camps,
+Gardley being the head of all and carrying all responsibility; and not
+the least of that young man's offenses in the eyes of Rosa Rogers was
+that he was so constantly at her father's house and yet never lifted an
+eye in admiration of her pretty face. She longed to humiliate him, and
+through him to humiliate Margaret, who presumed to interfere with her
+flirtations, for it was a bitter thing to Rosa that Forsythe had no eyes
+for her when Margaret was about.
+
+When the party from the fort rode homeward that Sunday after the service
+at the school-house, Forsythe lingered behind to talk to Margaret, and
+then rode around by the Rogers place, where Rosa and he had long ago
+established a trysting-place.
+
+Rosa was watching for his passing, and he stopped a half-hour or so to
+talk to her. During this time she casually disclosed to Forsythe some of
+the plans she had overheard Gardley laying before her father. Rosa had
+very little idea of the importance of Gardley's work to her father, or
+perhaps she would not have so readily prattled of his affairs. Her main
+idea was to pay back Gardley for his part in her humiliation with
+Forsythe. She suggested that it would be a great thing if Gardley could
+be prevented from being at the play Tuesday evening, and told what she
+had overheard him saying to her father merely to show Forsythe how easy
+it would be to have Gardley detained on Tuesday. Forsythe questioned
+Rosa keenly. Did she know whom they suspected? Did she know what they
+were planning to do to catch them, and when?
+
+Rosa innocently enough disclosed all she knew, little thinking how
+dishonorable to her father it was, and perhaps caring as little, for
+Rosa had ever been a spoiled child, accustomed to subordinating
+everything within reach to her own uses. As for Forsythe, he was nothing
+loath to get rid of Gardley, and he saw more possibilities in Rosa's
+suggestion than she had seen herself. When at last he bade Rosa good
+night and rode unobtrusively back to the trail he was already
+formulating a plan.
+
+It was, therefore, quite in keeping with his wishes that he should meet
+a dark-browed rider a few miles farther up the trail whose identity he
+had happened to learn a few days before.
+
+Now Forsythe would, perhaps, not have dared to enter into any compact
+against Gardley with men of such ill-repute had it been a matter of
+money and bribery, but, armed as he was with information valuable to the
+criminals, he could so word his suggestion about Gardley's detention as
+to make the hunted men think it to their advantage to catch Gardley
+some time the next day when he passed their way and imprison him for a
+while. This would appear to be but a friendly bit of advice from a
+disinterested party deserving a good turn some time in the future and
+not get Forsythe into any trouble. As such it was received by the
+wretch, who clutched at the information with ill-concealed delight and
+rode away into the twilight like a serpent threading his secret, gliding
+way among the darkest places, scarcely rippling the air, so stealthily
+did he pass.
+
+As for Forsythe, he rode blithely to the Temple ranch, with no thought
+of the forces he had set going, his life as yet one round of trying to
+please himself at others' expense, if need be, but please himself,
+_anyway_, with whatever amusement the hour afforded.
+
+At home in the East, where his early life had been spent, a splendid
+girl awaited his dilatory letters and set herself patiently to endure
+the months of separation until he should have attained a home and a
+living and be ready for her to come to him.
+
+In the South, where he had idled six months before he went West, another
+lovely girl cherished mementoes of his tarrying and wrote him loving
+letters in reply to his occasional erratic epistles.
+
+Out on the Californian shore a girl with whom he had traveled West in
+her uncle's luxurious private car, with a gay party of friends and
+relatives, cherished fond hopes of a visit he had promised to make her
+during the winter.
+
+Innumerable maidens of this world, wise in the wisdom that crushes
+hearts, remembered him with a sigh now and then, but held no illusions
+concerning his kind.
+
+Pretty little Rosa Rogers cried her eyes out every time he cast a
+languishing look at her teacher, and several of the ladies of the fort
+sighed that the glance of his eye and the gentle pressure of his hand
+could only be a passing joy. But the gay Lothario passed on his way as
+yet without a scratch on the hard enamel of his heart, till one wondered
+if it were a heart, indeed, or perhaps only a metal imitation. But girls
+like Margaret Earle, though they sometimes were attracted by him,
+invariably distrusted him. He was like a beautiful spotted snake that
+was often caught menacing something precious, but you could put him down
+anywhere after punishment or imprisonment and he would slide on his same
+slippery way and still be a spotted, deadly snake.
+
+When Gardley left the camp that Monday morning following the walk home
+with Margaret from the Sabbath service, he fully intended to be back at
+the school-house Monday by the time the afternoon rehearsal began. His
+plans were so laid that he thought relays from other camps were to guard
+the suspected ground for the next three days and he could be free. It
+had been a part of the information that Forsythe had given the stranger
+that Gardley would likely pass a certain lonely crossing of the trail at
+about three o'clock that afternoon, and, had that arrangement been
+carried out, the men who lay in wait for him would doubtless have been
+pleased to have their plans mature so easily; but they would not have
+been pleased long, for Gardley's men were so near at hand at that time,
+watching that very spot with eyes and ears and long-distance glasses,
+that their chief would soon have been rescued and the captors be
+themselves the captured.
+
+But the men from the farther camp, called "Lone Fox" men, did not arrive
+on time, perhaps through some misunderstanding, and Gardley and Kemp and
+their men had to do double time. At last, later in the afternoon,
+Gardley volunteered to go to Lone Fox and bring back the men.
+
+As he rode his thoughts were of Margaret, and he was seeing again the
+look of gladness in her eyes when she found he had not gone yesterday;
+feeling again the thrill of her hands in his, the trust of her smile! It
+was incredible, wonderful, that God had sent a veritable angel into the
+wilderness to bring him to himself; and now he was wondering, could it
+be that there was really hope that he could ever make good enough to
+dare to ask her to marry him. The sky and the air were rare, but his
+thoughts were rarer still, and his soul was lifted up with joy. He was
+earning good wages now. In two more weeks he would have enough to pay
+back the paltry sum for the lack of which he had fled from his old home
+and come to the wilderness. He would go back, of course, and straighten
+out the old score. Then what? Should he stay in the East and go back to
+the old business wherewith he had hoped to make his name honored and
+gain wealth, or should he return to this wild, free land again and start
+anew?
+
+His mother was dead. Perhaps if she had lived and cared he would have
+made good in the first place. His sisters were both married to wealthy
+men and not deeply interested in him. He had disappointed and mortified
+them; their lives were filled with social duties; they had never missed
+him. His father had been dead many years. As for his uncle, his mother's
+brother, whose heir he was to have been before he got himself into
+disgrace, he decided not to go near him. He would stay as long as he
+must to undo the wrong he had done. He would call on his sisters and
+then come back; come back and let Margaret decide what she wanted him to
+do--that is, if she would consent to link her life with one who had been
+once a failure. Margaret! How wonderful she was! If Margaret said he
+ought to go back and be a lawyer, he would go--yes, even if he had to
+enter his uncle's office as an underling to do it. His soul loathed the
+idea, but he would do it for Margaret, if she thought it best. And so he
+mused as he rode!
+
+When the Lone Fox camp was reached and the men sent out on their belated
+task, Gardley decided not to go with them back to meet Kemp and the
+other men, but sent word to Kemp that he had gone the short cut to
+Ashland, hoping to get to a part of the evening rehearsal yet.
+
+Now that short cut led him to the lonely crossing of the trail much
+sooner than Kemp and the others could reach it from the rendezvous; and
+there in cramped positions, and with much unnecessary cursing and
+impatience, four strong masked men had been concealed for four long
+hours.
+
+Through the stillness of the twilight rode Gardley, thinking of
+Margaret, and for once utterly off his guard. His long day's work was
+done, and though he had not been able to get back when he planned, he
+was free now, free until the day after to-morrow. He would go at once to
+her and see if there was anything she wanted him to do.
+
+Then, as if to help along his enemies, he began to hum a song, his
+clear, high voice reaching keenly to the ears of the men in ambush:
+
+    "'Oh, the time is long, mavourneen,
+    Till I come again, O mavourneen--'"
+
+"And the toime 'll be longer thun iver, oim thinkin', ma purty little
+voorneen!" said an unmistakable voice of Erin through the gathering
+dusk.
+
+Gardley's horse stopped and Gardley's hand went to his revolver, while
+his other hand lifted the silver whistle to his lips; but four guns
+bristled at him in the twilight, the whistle was knocked from his lips
+before his breath had even reached it, some one caught his arms from
+behind, and his own weapon was wrenched from his hand as it went off.
+The cry which he at once sent forth was stifled in its first whisper in
+a great muffling garment flung over his head and drawn tightly about his
+neck. He was in a fair way to strangle, and his vigorous efforts at
+escape were useless in the hands of so many. He might have been plunged
+at once into a great abyss of limitless, soundless depths, so futile did
+any resistance seem. And so, as it was useless to struggle, he lay like
+one dead and put all his powers into listening. But neither could he
+hear much, muffled as he was, and bound hand and foot now, with a gag in
+his mouth and little care taken whether he could even breathe.
+
+They were leading him off the trail and up over rough ground; so much he
+knew, for the horse stumbled and jolted and strained to carry him. To
+keep his whirling senses alive and alert he tried to think where they
+might be leading him; but the darkness and the suffocation dulled his
+powers. He wondered idly if his men would miss him and come back when
+they got home to search for him, and then remembered with a pang that
+they would think him safely in Ashland, helping Margaret. They would not
+be alarmed if he did not return that night, for they would suppose he
+had stopped at Rogers's on the way and perhaps stayed all night, as he
+had done once or twice before. _Margaret!_ When should he see Margaret
+now? What would she think?
+
+And then he swooned away.
+
+When he came somewhat to himself he was in a close, stifling room where
+candle-light from a distance threw weird shadows over the adobe walls.
+The witch-like voices of a woman and a girl in harsh, cackling laughter,
+half suppressed, were not far away, and some one, whose face was
+covered, was holding a glass to his lips. The smell was sickening, and
+he remembered that he hated the thought of liquor. It did not fit with
+those who companied with Margaret. He had never cared for it, and had
+resolved never to taste it again. But whether he chose or not, the
+liquor was poured down his throat. Huge hands held him and forced it,
+and he was still bound and too weak to resist, even if he had realized
+the necessity.
+
+The liquid burned its way down his throat and seethed into his brain,
+and a great darkness, mingled with men's wrangling voices and much
+cursing, swirled about him like some furious torrent of angry waters
+that finally submerged his consciousness. Then came deeper darkness and
+a blank relief from pain.
+
+Hours passed. He heard sounds sometimes, and dreamed dreams which he
+could not tell from reality. He saw his friends with terror written on
+their faces, while he lay apathetically and could not stir. He saw tears
+on Margaret's face; and once he was sure he heard Forsythe's voice in
+contempt: "Well, he seems to be well occupied for the present! No danger
+of his waking up for a while!" and then the voices all grew dim and far
+away again, and only an old crone and the harsh girl's whisper over him;
+and then Margaret's tears--tears that fell on his heart from far above,
+and seemed to melt out all his early sins and flood him with their
+horror. Tears and the consciousness that he ought to be doing something
+for Margaret now and could not. Tears--and more darkness!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+When Margaret arrived behind the curtain she was aware of many cries and
+questions hurled at her like an avalanche, but, ignoring them all, she
+sprang past the noisy, excited group of young people, darted through the
+dressing-room to the right and out into the night and coolness. Her head
+was swimming, and things went black before her eyes. She felt that her
+breath was going, going, and she must get to the air.
+
+But when she passed the hot wave of the school-room, and the sharp air
+of the night struck her face, consciousness seemed to turn and come back
+into her again; for there over her head was the wideness of the vast,
+starry Arizona night, and there, before her, in Nick Bottom's somber
+costume, eating one of the chicken sandwiches that Mrs. Tanner had sent
+down to her, stood Gardley! He was pale and shaken from his recent
+experience; but he was undaunted, and when he saw Margaret coming toward
+him through the doorway with her soul in her eyes and her spirit all
+aflame with joy and relief, he came to meet her under the stars, and,
+forgetting everything else, just folded her gently in his arms!
+
+It was a most astonishing thing to do, of course, right there outside
+the dressing-room door, with the curtain just about to rise on the scene
+and Gardley's wig was not on yet. He had not even asked nor obtained
+permission. But the soul sometimes grows impatient waiting for the lips
+to speak, and Margaret felt her trust had been justified and her heart
+had found its home. Right there behind the school-house, out in the
+great wide night, while the crowded, clamoring audience waited for them,
+and the young actors grew frantic, they plighted their troth, his lips
+upon hers, and with not a word spoken.
+
+Voices from the dressing-room roused them. "Come in quick, Mr. Gardley;
+it's time for the curtain to rise, and everybody is ready. Where on
+earth has Miss Earle vanished? Miss Earle! Oh, Miss Earle!"
+
+There was a rush to the dressing-room to find the missing ones; but Bud,
+as ever, present where was the most need, stood with his back to the
+outside world in the door of the dressing-room and called loudly:
+
+"They're comin', all right. Go on! Get to your places. Miss Earle says
+to get to your places."
+
+The two in the darkness groped for each other's hands as they stood
+suddenly apart, and with one quick pressure and a glance hurried in.
+There was not any need for words. They understood, these two, and
+trusted.
+
+With her cheeks glowing now, and her eyes like two stars, Margaret fled
+across the stage and took her place at the piano again, just as the
+curtain began to be drawn; and Forsythe, who had been slightly uneasy at
+the look on her face as she left them, wondered now and leaned forward
+to tell her how well she was looking.
+
+He kept his honeyed phrase to himself, however, for she was not heeding
+him. Her eyes were on the rising curtain, and Forsythe suddenly
+remembered that this was the scene in which Jed was to have
+appeared--and Jed had a broken leg! What had Margaret done about it? It
+was scarcely a part that could be left out. Why hadn't he thought of it
+sooner and offered to take it? He could have bluffed it out somehow--he
+had heard it so much--made up words where he couldn't remember them all,
+and it would have been a splendid opportunity to do some real
+love-making with Rosa. Why hadn't he thought of it? Why hadn't Rosa?
+Perhaps she hadn't heard about Jed soon enough to suggest it.
+
+The curtain was fully open now, and Bud's voice as Peter Quince, a
+trifle high and cracked with excitement, broke the stillness, while the
+awed audience gazed upon this new, strange world presented to them.
+
+"Is all our company here?" lilted out Bud, excitedly, and Nick Bottom
+replied with Gardley's voice:
+
+"You were best to call them generally, man by man, according to the
+scrip."
+
+Forsythe turned deadly white. Jasper Kemp, whose keen eye was upon him,
+saw it through the tan, saw his lips go pale and purple points of fear
+start in his eyes, as he looked and looked again, and could not believe
+his senses.
+
+Furtively he darted a glance around, like one about to steal away; then,
+seeing Jasper Kemp's eyes upon him, settled back with a strained look
+upon his face. Once he stole a look at Margaret and caught her face all
+transfigured with great joy; looked again and felt rebuked somehow by
+the pureness of her maiden joy and trust.
+
+Not once had she turned her eyes to his. He was forgotten, and somehow
+he knew the look he would get if she should see him. It would be
+contempt and scorn that would burn his very soul. It is only a maid now
+and then to whom it is given thus to pierce and bruise the soul of a man
+who plays with love and trust and womanhood for selfishness. Such a
+woman never knows her power. She punishes all unconscious to herself. It
+was so that Margaret Earle, without being herself aware, and by her very
+indifference and contempt, showed the little soul of this puppet man to
+himself.
+
+He stole away at last when he thought no one was looking, and reached
+the back of the school-house at the open door of the girls'
+dressing-room, where he knew Titania would be posing in between the
+acts. He beckoned her to his side and began to question her in quick,
+eager, almost angry tones, as if the failure of their plans were her
+fault. Had her father been at home all day? Had anything happened--any
+one been there? Did Gardley come? Had there been any report from the
+men? Had that short, thick-set Scotchman with the ugly grin been there?
+She must remember that she was the one to suggest the scheme in the
+first place, and it was her business to keep a watch. There was no
+telling now what might happen. He turned, and there stood Jasper Kemp
+close to his elbow, his short stature drawn to its full, his thick-set
+shoulders squaring themselves, his ugly grin standing out in bold
+relief, menacingly, in the night.
+
+The young man let forth some words not in a gentleman's code, and turned
+to leave the frightened girl, who by this time was almost crying; but
+Jasper Kemp kept pace with Forsythe as he walked.
+
+"Was you addressing me?" he asked, politely; "because I could tell you a
+few things a sight more appropriate for you than what you just handed to
+me."
+
+Forsythe hurried around to the front of the school-house, making no
+reply.
+
+"Nice, pleasant evening to be _free_," went on Jasper Kemp, looking up
+at the stars. "Rather onpleasant for some folks that have to be shut up
+in jail."
+
+Forsythe wheeled upon him. "What do you mean?" he demanded, angrily,
+albeit he was white with fear.
+
+"Oh, nothing much," drawled Jasper, affably. "I was just thinking how
+much pleasanter it was to be a free man than shut up in prison on a
+night like this. It's so much healthier, you know."
+
+Forsythe looked at him a moment, a kind of panic of intelligence growing
+in his face; then he turned and went toward the back of the
+school-house, where he had left his horse some hours before.
+
+"Where are you going?" demanded Jasper. "It's 'most time you went back
+to your fiddling, ain't it?"
+
+But Forsythe answered him not a word. He was mounting his horse
+hurriedly--his horse, which, all unknown to him, had been many miles
+since he last rode him.
+
+"You think you have to go, then?" said Jasper, deprecatingly. "Well,
+now, that's a pity, seeing you was fiddling so nice an' all. Shall I
+tell them you've gone for your health?"
+
+Thus recalled, Forsythe stared at his tormentor wildly for a second.
+"Tell her--tell her"--he muttered, hoarsely--"tell her I've been taken
+suddenly ill." And he was off on a wild gallop toward the fort.
+
+"I'll tell her you've gone for your health!" called Jasper Kemp, with
+his hands to his mouth like a megaphone. "I reckon he won't return again
+very soon, either," he chuckled. "This country's better off without such
+pests as him an' that measley parson." Then, turning, he beheld Titania,
+the queen of the fairies, white and frightened, staring wildly into the
+starry darkness after the departed rider. "Poor little fool!" he
+muttered under his breath as he looked at the girl and turned away.
+"Poor, pretty little fool!" Suddenly he stepped up to her side and
+touched her white-clad shoulder gently. "Don't you go for to care,
+lassie," he said in a tender tone. "He ain't worth a tear from your
+pretty eye. He ain't fit to wipe your feet on--your pretty wee feet!"
+
+But Rosa turned angrily and stamped her foot.
+
+"Go away! You bad old man!" she shrieked. "Go away! I shall tell my
+father!" And she flouted herself into the school-house.
+
+Jasper stood looking ruefully after her, shaking his head. "The little
+de'il!" he said aloud; "the poor, pretty little de'il. She'll get her
+dues aplenty afore she's done." And Jasper went back to the play.
+
+Meantime, inside the school-house, the play went gloriously on to the
+finish, and Gardley as Nick Bottom took the house by storm. Poor absent
+Jed's father, sent by the sufferer to report it all, stood at the back
+of the house while tears of pride and disappointment rolled down his
+cheeks--pride that Jed had been so well represented, disappointment that
+it couldn't have been his son up there play-acting like that.
+
+The hour was late when the play was over, and Margaret stood at last in
+front of the stage to receive the congratulations of the entire
+countryside, while the young actors posed and laughed and chattered
+excitedly, then went away by two and threes, their tired, happy voices
+sounding back along the road. The people from the fort had been the
+first to surge around Margaret with their eager congratulations and
+gushing sentiments: "So sweet, my dear! So perfectly wonderful! You
+really have got some dandy actors!" And, "Why don't you try something
+lighter--something simpler, don't you know. Something really popular
+that these poor people could understand and appreciate? A little farce!
+I could help you pick one out!"
+
+And all the while they gushed Jasper Kemp and his men, grim and
+forbidding, stood like a cordon drawn about her to protect her, with
+Gardley in the center, just behind her, as though he had a right there
+and meant to stay; till at last the fort people hurried away and the
+school-house grew suddenly empty with just those two and the eight men
+behind; and by the door Bud, talking to Pop and Mom Wallis in the
+buckboard outside.
+
+Amid this admiring bodyguard at last Gardley took Margaret home.
+Perhaps she wondered a little that they all went along, but she laid it
+to their pride in the play and their desire to talk it over.
+
+They had sent Mom and Pop Wallis home horseback, after all, and put
+Margaret and Gardley in the buckboard, Margaret never dreaming that it
+was because Gardley was not fit to walk. Indeed, he did not realize
+himself why they all stuck so closely to him. He had lived through so
+much since Jasper and his men had burst into his prison and freed him,
+bringing him in hot haste to the school-house, with Bud wildly riding
+ahead. But it was enough for him to sit beside Margaret in the sweet
+night and remember how she had come out to him under the stars. Her hand
+lay beside him on the seat, and without intending it his own brushed it.
+Then he laid his gently, reverently, down upon hers with a quiet
+pressure, and her smaller fingers thrilled and nestled in his grasp.
+
+In the shadow of a big tree beside the house he bade her good-by, the
+men busying themselves with turning about the buckboard noisily, and Bud
+discreetly taking himself to the back door to get one of the men a drink
+of water.
+
+"You have been suffering in some way," said Margaret, with sudden
+intuition, as she looked up into Gardley's face. "You have been in
+peril, somehow--"
+
+"A little," he answered, lightly. "I'll tell you about it to-morrow. I
+mustn't keep the men waiting now. I shall have a great deal to tell you
+to-morrow--if you will let me. Good night, _Margaret_!" Their hands
+lingered in a clasp, and then he rode away with his bodyguard.
+
+But Margaret did not have to wait until the morrow to hear the story,
+for Bud was just fairly bursting.
+
+Mrs. Tanner had prepared a nice little supper--more cold chicken, pie,
+doughnuts, coffee, some of her famous marble cake, and preserves--and
+she insisted on Margaret's coming into the dining-room and eating it,
+though the girl would much rather have gone with her happy heart up to
+her own room by herself.
+
+Bud did not wait on ceremony. He began at once when Margaret was seated,
+even before his mother could get her properly waited on.
+
+"Well, we had _some ride_, we sure did! The Kid's a great old scout."
+
+Margaret perceived that this was a leader. "Why, that's so, what became
+of you, William? I hunted everywhere for you. Things were pretty
+strenuous there for a while, and I needed you dreadfully."
+
+"Well, I know," Bud apologized. "I'd oughta let you know before I went,
+but there wasn't time. You see, I had to pinch that guy's horse to go,
+and I knew it was just a chance if we could get back, anyway; but I had
+to take it. You see, if I could 'a' gone right to the cabin it would
+have been a dead cinch, but I had to ride to camp for the men, and then,
+taking the short trail across, it was some ride to Ouida's Cabin!"
+
+Mrs. Tanner stepped aghast as she was cutting a piece of dried-apple pie
+for Margaret. "Now, Buddie--mother's boy--you don't mean to tell me
+_you_ went to _Ouida's Cabin_? Why, sonnie, that's an _awful place_!
+Don't you know your pa told you he'd whip you if you ever went on that
+trail?"
+
+"I should worry, Ma! I _had_ to go. They had Mr. Gardley tied up there,
+and we had to go and get him rescued."
+
+"_You_ had to go, Buddie--now what could _you_ do in that awful place?"
+Mrs. Tanner was almost reduced to tears. She saw her offspring at the
+edge of perdition at once.
+
+But Bud ignored his mother and went on with his tale. "You jest oughta
+seen Jap Kemp's face when I told him what that guy said to you! Some
+face, b'lieve me! He saw right through the whole thing, too. I could see
+that! He ner the men hadn't had a bite o' supper yet; they'd just got
+back from somewheres. They thought the Kid was over here all day helping
+you. He said yesterday when he left 'em here's where he's
+a-comin'"--Bud's mouth was so full he could hardly articulate--"an' when
+I told 'em, he jest blew his little whistle--like what they all
+carry--three times, and those men every one jest stopped right where
+they was, whatever they was doin'. Long Bill had the comb in the air
+gettin' ready to comb his hair, an' he left it there and come away, and
+Big Jim never stopped to wipe his face on the roller-towel, he just let
+the wind dry it; and they all hustled on their horses fast as ever they
+could and beat it after Jap Kemp. Jap, he rode alongside o' me and asked
+me questions. He made me tell all what the guy from the fort said over
+again, three or four times, and then he ast what time he got to the
+school-house, and whether the Kid had been there at all yest'iday ur
+t'day; and a lot of other questions, and then he rode alongside each man
+and told him in just a few words where we was goin' and what the guy
+from the fort had said. Gee! but you'd oughta heard what the men said
+when he told 'em! Gee! but they was some mad! Bimeby we came to the
+woods round the cabin, and Jap Kemp made me stick alongside Long Bill,
+and he sent the men off in different directions all in a _big_ circle,
+and waited till each man was in his place, and then we all rode hard as we
+could and came softly up round that cabin just as the sun was goin' down.
+Gee! but you'd oughta seen the scairt look on them women's faces; there
+was two of 'em--an old un an' a skinny-looking long-drink-o'-pump-water.
+I guess she was a girl. I don't know. Her eyes looked real old. There
+was only three men in the cabin; the rest was off somewheres. They
+wasn't looking for anybody to come that time o' day, I guess. One of the
+men was sick on a bunk in the corner. He had his head tied up, and his
+arm, like he'd been shot, and the other two men came jumping up to the
+door with their guns, but when they saw how many men _we_ had they
+looked awful scairt. _We_ all had _our_ guns out, too!--Jap Kemp gave me
+one to carry--" Bud tried not to swagger as he told this, but it was
+almost too much for him. "Two of our men held the horses, and all the
+rest of us got down and went into the cabin. Jap Kemp, sounded his
+whistle and all our men done the same just as they went in the
+door--some kind of signals they have for the Lone Fox Camp! The two men
+in the doorway aimed straight at Jap Kemp and fired, but Jap was onto
+'em and jumped one side and our men fired, too, and we soon had 'em tied
+up and went in--that is, Jap and me and Long Bill went in, the rest
+stayed by the door--and it wasn't long 'fore their other men came riding
+back hot haste; they'd heard the shots, you know--and some more of _our_
+men--why, most twenty or thirty there was, I guess, altogether; some
+from Lone Fox Camp that was watching off in the woods came and when we
+got outside again there they all were, like a big army. Most of the men
+belonging to the cabin was tied and harmless by that time, for our men
+took 'em one at a time as they came riding in. Two of 'em got away, but
+Jap Kemp said they couldn't go far without being caught, 'cause there
+was a watch out for 'em--they'd been stealing cattle long back something
+terrible. Well, so Jap Kemp and Long Bill and I went into the cabin
+after the two men that shot was tied with ropes we'd brung along, and
+handcuffs, and we went hunting for the Kid. At first we couldn't find
+him at all. Gee! It was something fierce! And the old woman kep'
+a-crying and saying we'd kill her sick son, and she didn't know nothing
+about the man we was hunting for. But pretty soon I spied the Kid's foot
+stickin' out from under the cot where the sick man was, and when I told
+Jap Kemp that sick man pulled out a gun he had under the blanket and
+aimed it right at me!"
+
+"Oh, mother's little Buddie!" whimpered Mrs. Tanner, with her apron to
+her eyes.
+
+"_Aw, Ma_, cut it out! _he_ didn't _hurt_ me! The gun just went off
+crooked, and grazed Jap Kemp's hand a little, not much. Jap knocked it
+out of the sick man's hand just as he was pullin' the trigger. Say, Ma,
+ain't you got any more of those cucumber pickles? It makes a man mighty
+hungry to do all that riding and shooting. Well, it certainly was
+something fierce--Say, Miss Earle, you take that last piece o' pie. Oh,
+g'wan! _Take_ it! _You_ worked hard. No, I don't want it, really! Well,
+if you won't take it _anyway_, I might eat it just to save it. Got any
+more coffee, Ma?"
+
+But Margaret was not eating. Her face was pale and her eyes were starry
+with unshed tears, and she waited in patient but breathless suspense for
+the vagaries of the story to work out to the finish.
+
+"Yes, it certainly was something fierce, that cabin," went on the
+narrator. "Why, Ma, it looked as if it had never been swept under that
+cot when we hauled the Kid out. He was tied all up in knots, and great
+heavy ropes wound tight from his shoulders down to his ankles. Why, they
+were bound so tight they made great heavy welts in his wrists and
+shoulders and round his ankles when we took 'em off; and they had a
+great big rag stuffed into his mouth so he couldn't yell. Gee! It was
+something fierce! He was 'most dippy, too; but Jap Kemp brought him
+round pretty quick and got him outside in the air. That was the worst
+place I ever was in myself. You couldn't breathe, and the dirt was
+something fierce. It was like a pigpen. I sure was glad to get outdoors
+again. And then--well, the Kid came around all right and they got him on
+a horse and gave him something out of a bottle Jap Kemp had, and pretty
+soon he could ride again. Why, you'd oughta seen his nerve. He just sat
+up there as straight, his lips all white yet and his eyes looked some
+queer; but he straightened up and he looked those rascals right in the
+eye, and told 'em a few things, and he gave orders to the other men from
+Lone Fox Camp what to do with 'em; and he had the two women
+disarmed--they had guns, too--and carried away, and the cabin nailed up,
+and a notice put on the door, and every one of those men were
+handcuffed--the sick one and all--and he told 'em to bring a wagon and
+put the sick one's cot in and take 'em over to Ashland to the jail, and
+he sent word to Mr. Rogers. Then we rode home and got to the
+school-house just when you was playing the last chords of the ov'rtcher.
+Gee! It was some fierce ride and some _close shave_! The Kid he hadn't
+had a thing to eat since Monday noon, and he was some hungry! I found a
+sandwich on the window of the dressing-room, and he ate it while he got
+togged up--'course I told him 'bout Jed soon's we left the cabin, and
+Jap Kemp said he'd oughta go right home to camp after all he had been
+through; but he wouldn't; he said he was goin' to _act_. So 'course he
+had his way! But, gee! You could see it wasn't any cinch game for him!
+He 'most fell over every time after the curtain fell. You see, they gave
+him some kind of drugged whisky up there at the cabin that made his head
+feel queer. Say, he thinks that guy from the fort came in and looked at
+him once while he was asleep. He says it was only a dream, but I bet he
+did. Say, Ma, ain't you gonta give me another doughnut?"
+
+In the quiet of her chamber at last, Margaret knelt before her window
+toward the purple, shadowy mountain under the starry dome, and gave
+thanks for the deliverance of Gardley; while Bud, in his comfortable
+loft, lay down to his well-earned rest and dreamed of pirates and angels
+and a hero who looked like the Kid.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+The Sunday before Lance Gardley started East on his journey of
+reparation two strangers slipped quietly into the back of the
+school-house during the singing of the first hymn and sat down in the
+shadow by the door.
+
+Margaret was playing the piano when they came in, and did not see them,
+and when she turned back to her Scripture lesson she had time for but
+the briefest of glances. She supposed they must be some visitors from
+the fort, as they were speaking to the captain's wife----who came over
+occasionally to the Sunday service, perhaps because it afforded an
+opportunity for a ride with one of the young officers. These occasional
+visitors who came for amusement and curiosity had ceased to trouble
+Margaret. Her real work was with the men and women and children who
+loved the services for their own sake, and she tried as much as possible
+to forget outsiders. So, that day everything went on just as usual,
+Margaret putting her heart into the prayer, the simple, storylike
+reading of the Scripture, and the other story-sermon which followed it.
+Gardley sang unusually well at the close, a wonderful bit from an
+oratorio that he and Margaret had been practising.
+
+But when toward the close of the little vesper service Margaret gave
+opportunity, as she often did, for others to take part in sentence
+prayers, one of the strangers from the back of the room stood up and
+began to pray. And such a prayer! Heaven seemed to bend low, and earth
+to kneel and beseech as the stranger-man, with a face like an archangel,
+and a body of an athlete clothed in a brown-flannel shirt and khakis,
+besought the Lord of heaven for a blessing on this gathering and on the
+leader of this little company who had so wonderfully led them to see the
+Christ and their need of salvation through the lesson of the day. And it
+did not need Bud's low-breathed whisper, "The missionary!" to tell
+Margaret who he was. His face told her. His prayer thrilled her, and his
+strong, young, true voice made her sure that here was a man of God in
+truth.
+
+When the prayer was over and Margaret stood once more shyly facing her
+audience, she could scarcely keep the tremble out of her voice:
+
+"Oh," said she, casting aside ceremony, "if I had known the missionary
+was here I should not have dared to try and lead this meeting to-day.
+Won't you please come up here and talk to us for a little while now, Mr.
+Brownleigh?"
+
+At once he came forward eagerly, as if each opportunity were a pleasure.
+"Why, surely, I want to speak a word to you, just to say how glad I am
+to see you all, and to experience what a wonderful teacher you have
+found since I went away; but I wouldn't have missed this meeting to-day
+for all the sermons I ever wrote or preached. You don't need any more
+sermon than the remarkable story you've just been listening to, and I've
+only one word to add; and that is, that I've found since I went away
+that Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, is just the same Jesus
+to me to-day that He was the last time I spoke to you. He is just as
+ready to forgive your sin, to comfort you in sorrow, to help you in
+temptation, to raise your body in the resurrection, and to take you home
+to a mansion in His Father's house as He was the day He hung upon the
+cross to save your soul from death. I've found I can rest just as
+securely upon the Bible as the word of God as when I first tested its
+promises. Heaven and earth may pass away, but His word shall _never_
+pass away."
+
+"_Go to it!_" said Jasper Kemp under his breath in the tone some men say
+"Amen!" and his brows were drawn as if he were watching a battle.
+Margaret couldn't help wondering if he were thinking of the Rev.
+Frederick West just then.
+
+When the service was over the missionary brought his wife forward to
+Margaret, and they loved each other at once. Just another sweet girl
+like Margaret. She was lovely, with a delicacy of feature that betokened
+the high-born and high-bred, but dressed in a dainty khaki riding
+costume, if that uncompromising fabric could ever be called dainty.
+Margaret, remembering it afterward, wondered what it had been that gave
+it that unique individuality, and decided it was perhaps a combination
+of cut and finish and little dainty accessories. A bit of creamy lace at
+the throat of the rolling collar, a touch of golden-brown velvet in a
+golden clasp, the flash of a wonderful jewel on her finger, the modeling
+of the small, brown cap with its two eagle quills--all set the little
+woman apart and made her fit to enter any well-dressed company of riders
+in some great city park or fashionable drive. Yet here in the wilderness
+she was not overdressed.
+
+The eight men from the camp stood in solemn row, waiting to be
+recognized, and behind them, abashed and grinning with embarrassment,
+stood Pop and Mom Wallis, Mom with her new gray bonnet glorifying her
+old face till the missionary's wife had to look twice to be sure who she
+was.
+
+"And now, surely, Hazel, we must have these dear people come over and
+help us with the singing sometimes. Can't we try something right now?"
+said the missionary, looking first at his wife and then at Margaret and
+Gardley. "This man is a new-comer since I went away, but I'm mighty sure
+he is the right kind, and I'm glad to welcome him--or perhaps I would
+better ask if he will welcome me?" And with his rare smile the
+missionary put out his hand to Gardley, who took it with an eager grasp.
+The two men stood looking at each other for a moment, as rare men,
+rarely met, sometimes do even on a sinful earth; and after that clasp
+and that look they turned away, brothers for life.
+
+That was a most interesting song rehearsal that followed. It would be
+rare to find four voices like those even in a cultivated musical center,
+and they blended as if they had been made for one another. The men from
+the bunk-house and a lot of other people silently dropped again into
+their seats to listen as the four sang on. The missionary took the bass,
+and his wife the alto, and the four made music worth listening to. The
+rare and lovely thing about it was that they sang to souls, not alone
+for ears, and so their music, classical though it was and of the highest
+order, appealed keenly to the hearts of these rough men, and made them
+feel that heaven had opened for them, as once before for untaught
+shepherds, and let down a ladder of angelic voices.
+
+"I shall feel better about leaving you out here while I am gone, since
+they have come," said Gardley that night when he was bidding Margaret
+good night. "I couldn't bear to think there were none of your own kind
+about you. The others are devoted and would do for you with their lives
+if need be, as far as they know; but I like you to have _real
+friends_--real _Christian_ friends. This man is what I call a Christian.
+I'm not sure but he is the first minister that I have ever come close to
+who has impressed me as believing what he preaches, and living it. I
+suppose there are others. I haven't known many. That man West that was
+here when you came was a mistake!"
+
+"He didn't even preach much," smiled Margaret, "so how could he live it?
+This man is real. And there are others. Oh, I have known a lot of them
+that are living lives of sacrifice and loving service and are yet just
+as strong and happy and delightful as if they were millionaires. But
+they are the men who have not thrown away their Bibles and their Christ.
+They believe every promise in God's word, and rest on them day by day,
+testing them and proving them over and over. I wish you knew my father!"
+
+"I am going to," said Gardley, proudly. "_I_ am going to him just as
+soon as I have finished my business and straightened out my affairs;
+and I am going to tell him _everything_--with your permission,
+Margaret!"
+
+"Oh, how beautiful!" cried Margaret, with happy tears in her eyes. "To
+think you are going to see father and mother. I have wanted them to know
+the real you. I couldn't half _tell_ you, the real you, in a letter!"
+
+"Perhaps they won't look on me with your sweet blindness, dear," he
+said, smiling tenderly down on her. "Perhaps they will see only my dark,
+past life--for I mean to tell your father everything. I'm not going to
+have any skeletons in the closet to cause pain hereafter. Perhaps your
+father and mother will not feel like giving their daughter to me after
+they know. Remember, I realize just what a rare prize she is."
+
+"No, father is not like that, Lance," said Margaret, with her rare smile
+lighting up her happy eyes. "Father and mother will understand."
+
+"But if they should not?" There was the shadow of sadness in Gardley's
+eyes as he asked the question.
+
+"I belong to you, dear, anyway," she said, with sweet surrender. "I
+trust you though the whole world were against you!"
+
+For answer Gardley took her in his arms, a look of awe upon his face,
+and, stooping, laid his lips upon hers in tender reverence.
+
+"Margaret--you wonderful Margaret!" he said. "God has blessed me more
+than other men in sending you to me! With His help I will be worthy of
+you!"
+
+Three days more and Margaret was alone with her school work, her two
+missionary friends thirty miles away, her eager watching for the mail
+to come, her faithful attendant Bud, and for comfort the purple mountain
+with its changing glory in the distance.
+
+A few days before Gardley left for the East he had been offered a
+position by Rogers as general manager of his estate at a fine salary,
+and after consultation with Margaret he decided to accept it, but the
+question of their marriage they had left by common consent unsettled
+until Gardley should return and be able to offer his future wife a
+record made as fair and clean as human effort could make it after human
+mistakes had unmade it. As Margaret worked and waited, wrote her
+charming letters to father and mother and lover, and thought her happy
+thoughts with only the mountain for confidant, she did not plan for the
+future except in a dim and dreamy way. She would make those plans with
+Gardley when he returned. Probably they must wait some time before they
+could be married. Gardley would have to earn some money, and she must
+earn, too. She must keep the Ashland School for another year. It had
+been rather understood, when she came out, that if at all possible she
+would remain two years at least. It was hard to think of not going home
+for the summer vacation; but the trip cost a great deal and was not to
+be thought of. There was already a plan suggested to have a summer
+session of the school, and if that went through, of course she must stay
+right in Ashland. It was hard to think of not seeing her father and
+mother for another long year, but perhaps Gardley would be returning
+before the summer was over, and then it would not be so hard. However,
+she tried to put these thoughts out of her mind and do her work happily.
+It was incredible that Arizona should have become suddenly so blank and
+uninteresting since the departure of a man whom she had not known a few
+short months before.
+
+Margaret had long since written to her father and mother about Gardley's
+first finding her in the desert. The thing had become history and was
+not likely to alarm them. She had been in Arizona long enough to be
+acquainted with things, and they would not be always thinking of her as
+sitting on stray water-tanks in the desert; so she told them about it,
+for she wanted them to know Gardley as he had been to her. The letters
+that had traveled back and forth between New York and Arizona had been
+full of Gardley; and still Margaret had not told her parents how it was
+between them. Gardley had asked that he might do that. Yet it had been a
+blind father and mother who had not long ago read between the lines of
+those letters and understood. Margaret fancied she detected a certain
+sense of relief in her mother's letters after she knew that Gardley had
+gone East. Were they worrying about him, she wondered, or was it just
+the natural dread of a mother to lose her child?
+
+So Margaret settled down to school routine, and more and more made a
+confidant of Bud concerning little matters of the school. If it had not
+been for Bud at that time Margaret would have been lonely indeed.
+
+Two or three times since Gardley left, the Brownleighs had ridden over
+to Sunday service, and once had stopped for a few minutes during the
+week on their way to visit some distant need. These occasions were a
+delight to Margaret, for Hazel Brownleigh was a kindred spirit. She was
+looking forward with pleasure to the visit she was to make them at the
+mission station as soon as school closed. She had been there once with
+Gardley before he left, but the ride was too long to go often, and the
+only escort available was Bud. Besides, she could not get away from
+school and the Sunday service at present; but it was pleasant to have
+something to look forward to.
+
+Meantime the spring Commencement was coming on and Margaret had her
+hands full. She had undertaken to inaugurate a real Commencement with
+class day and as much form and ceremony as she could introduce in order
+to create a good school spirit; but such things are not done with the
+turn of a hand, and the young teacher sadly missed Gardley in all these
+preparations.
+
+At this time Rosa Rogers was Margaret's particular thorn in the flesh.
+
+Since the night that Forsythe had quit the play and ridden forth into
+the darkness Rosa had regarded her teacher with baleful eyes. Gardley,
+too, she hated, and was only waiting with smoldering wrath until her
+wild, ungoverned soul could take its revenge. She felt that but for
+those two Forsythe would still have been with her.
+
+Margaret, realizing the passionate, untaught nature of the motherless
+girl and her great need of a friend to guide her, made attempt after
+attempt to reach and befriend her; but every attempt was met with
+repulse and the sharp word of scorn. Rosa had been too long the petted
+darling of a father who was utterly blind to her faults to be other than
+spoiled. Her own way was the one thing that ruled her. By her will she
+had ruled every nurse and servant about the place, and wheedled her
+father into letting her do anything the whim prompted. Twice her father,
+through the advice of friends, had tried the experiment of sending her
+away to school, once to an Eastern finishing school, and once to a
+convent on the Pacific coast, only to have her return shortly by request
+of the school, more wilful than when she had gone away. And now she
+ruled supreme in her father's home, disliked by most of the servants
+save those whom she chose to favor because they could be made to serve
+her purposes. Her father, engrossed in his business and away much of the
+time, was bound up in her and saw few of her faults. It is true that
+when a fault of hers did come to his notice, however, he dealt with it
+most severely, and grieved over it in secret, for the girl was much like
+the mother whose loss had emptied the world of its joy for him. But Rosa
+knew well how to manage her father and wheedle him, and also how to hide
+her own doings from his knowledge.
+
+Rosa's eyes, dimples, pink cheeks, and coquettish little mouth were not
+idle in these days. She knew how to have every pupil at her feet and
+ready to obey her slightest wish. She wielded her power to its fullest
+extent as the summer drew near, and day after day saw a slow torture for
+Margaret. Some days the menacing air of insurrection fairly bristled in
+the room, and Margaret could not understand how some of her most devoted
+followers seemed to be in the forefront of battle, until one day she
+looked up quickly and caught the lynx-eyed glance of Rosa as she turned
+from smiling at the boys in the back seat. Then she understood. Rosa had
+cast her spell upon the boys, and they were acting under it and not of
+their own clear judgment. It was the world-old battle of sex, of woman
+against woman for the winning of the man to do her will. Margaret, using
+all the charm of her lovely personality to uphold standards of right,
+truth, purity, high living, and earnest thinking; Rosa striving with her
+impish beauty to lure them into _any_ mischief so it foiled the other's
+purposes. And one day Margaret faced the girl alone, looking steadily
+into her eyes with sad, searching gaze, and almost a yearning to try to
+lead the pretty child to finer things.
+
+"Rosa, why do you always act as if I were your enemy?" she said, sadly.
+
+"Because you are!" said Rosa, with a toss of her independent head.
+
+"Indeed I'm not, dear child," she said, putting out her hand to lay it
+on the girl's shoulder kindly. "I want to be your friend."
+
+"I'm not a child!" snapped Rosa, jerking her shoulder angrily away; "and
+you can _never_ be my friend, because I _hate_ you!"
+
+"Rosa, look here!" said Margaret, following the girl toward the door,
+the color rising in her cheeks and a desire growing in her heart to
+conquer this poor, passionate creature and win her for better things.
+"Rosa, I cannot have you say such things. Tell me why you hate me? What
+have I done that you should feel that way? I'm sure if we should talk it
+over we might come to some better understanding."
+
+Rosa stood defiant in the doorway. "We could never come to any better
+understanding, Miss Earle," she declared in a cold, hard tone, "because
+I understand you now and I hate you. You tried your best to get my
+friend away from me, but you couldn't do it; and you would like to keep
+me from having any boy friends at all, but you can't do that, either.
+You think you are very popular, but you'll find out I always do what I
+like, and you needn't try to stop me. I don't have to come to school
+unless I choose, and as long as I don't break your rules you have no
+complaint coming; but you needn't think you can pull the wool over my
+eyes the way you do the others by pretending to be friends. I won't be
+friends! I hate you!" And Rosa turned grandly and marched out of the
+school-house.
+
+Margaret stood gazing sadly after her and wondering if her failure here
+were her fault--if there was anything else she ought to have done--if
+she had let her personal dislike of the girl influence her conduct. She
+sat for some time at her desk, her chin in her hands, her eyes fixed on
+vacancy with a hopeless, discouraged expression in them, before she
+became aware of another presence in the room. Looking around quickly,
+she saw that Bud was sitting motionless at his desk, his forehead
+wrinkled in a fierce frown, his jaw set belligerently, and a look of
+such, unutterable pity and devotion in his eyes that her heart warmed to
+him at once and a smile of comradeship broke over her face.
+
+"Oh, William! Were you here? Did you hear all that? What do you suppose
+is the matter? Where have I failed?"
+
+"You 'ain't failed anywhere! You should worry 'bout her! She's a nut! If
+she was a boy I'd punch her head for her! But seeing she's only a girl,
+_you should worry_! She always was the limit!"
+
+Bud's tone was forcible. He was the only one of all the boys who never
+yielded to Rosa's charms, but sat in glowering silence when she
+exercised her powers on the school and created pandemonium for the
+teacher. Bud's attitude was comforting. It had a touch of manliness and
+gentleness about it quite unwonted for him. It suggested beautiful
+possibilities for the future of his character, and Margaret smiled
+tenderly.
+
+"Thank you, dear boy!" she said, gently. "You certainly are a comfort.
+If every one was as splendid as you are we should have a model school.
+But I do wish I could help Rosa. I can't see why she should hate me so!
+I must have made some big mistake with her in the first place to
+antagonize her."
+
+"Naw!" said Bud, roughly. "No chance! She's just a _nut_, that's all.
+She's got a case on that Forsythe guy, the worst kind, and she's afraid
+somebody 'll get him away from her, the poor stew, as if anybody would
+get a case on a tough guy like that! Gee! You should worry! Come on,
+let's take a ride over t' camp!"
+
+With a sigh and a smile Margaret accepted Bud's consolations and went on
+her way, trying to find some manner of showing Rosa what a real friend
+she was willing to be. But Rosa continued obdurate and hateful,
+regarding her teacher with haughty indifference except when she was
+called upon to recite, which she did sometimes with scornful
+condescension, sometimes with pert perfection, and sometimes with saucy
+humor which convulsed the whole room. Margaret's patience was almost
+ceasing to be a virtue, and she meditated often whether she ought not to
+request that the girl be withdrawn from the school. Yet she reflected
+that it was a very short time now until Commencement, and that Rosa had
+not openly defied any rules. It was merely a personal antagonism. Then,
+too, if Rosa were taken from the school there was really no other good
+influence in the girl's life at present. Day by day Margaret prayed
+about the matter and hoped that something would develop to make plain
+her way.
+
+After much thought in the matter she decided to go on with her plans,
+letting Rosa have her place in the Commencement program and her part in
+the class-day doings as if nothing were the matter. Certainly there was
+nothing laid down in the rules of a public school that proscribed a
+scholar who did not love her teacher. Why should the fact that one had
+incurred the hate of a pupil unfit that pupil for her place in her class
+so long as she did her duties? And Rosa did hers promptly and deftly,
+with a certain piquant originality that Margaret could not help but
+admire.
+
+Sometimes, as the teacher cast a furtive look at the pretty girl working
+away at her desk, she wondered what was going on behind the lovely mask.
+But the look in Rosa's eyes, when she raised them, was both deep and
+sly.
+
+Rosa's hatred was indeed deep rooted. Whatever heart she had not
+frivoled away in wilfulness had been caught and won by Forsythe, the
+first grown man who had ever dared to make real love to her. Her
+jealousy of Margaret was the most intense thing that had ever come into
+her life. To think of him looking at Margaret, talking to Margaret,
+smiling at Margaret, walking or riding with Margaret, was enough to send
+her writhing upon her bed in the darkness of a wakeful night. She would
+clench her pretty hands until the nails dug into the flesh and brought
+the blood. She would bite the pillow or the blankets with an almost
+fiendish clenching of her teeth upon them and mutter, as she did so: "I
+hate her! I _hate_ her! I could _kill_ her!"
+
+The day her first letter came from Forsythe, Rosa held her head high and
+went about the school as if she were a princess royal and Margaret were
+the dust under her feet. Triumph sat upon her like a crown and looked
+forth regally from her eyes. She laid her hand upon her heart and felt
+the crackle of his letter inside her blouse. She dreamed with her eyes
+upon the distant mountain and thought of the tender names he had called
+her: "Little wild Rose of his heart," "No rose in all the world until
+you came," and a lot of other meaningful sentences. A real love-letter
+all her own! No sharing him with any hateful teachers! He had implied in
+her letter that she was the only one of all the people in that region
+to whom he cared to write. He had said he was coming back some day to
+get her. Her young, wild heart throbbed exultantly, and her eyes looked
+forth their triumph malignantly. When he did come she would take care
+that he stayed close by her. No conceited teacher from the East should
+lure him from her side. She would prepare her guiles and smile her
+sweetest. She would wear fine garments from abroad, and show him she
+could far outshine that quiet, common Miss Earle, with all her airs. Yet
+to this end she studied hard. It was no part of her plan to be left
+behind at graduating-time. She would please her father by taking a
+prominent part in things and outdoing all the others. Then he would give
+her what she liked--jewels and silk dresses, and all the things a girl
+should have who had won a lover like hers.
+
+The last busy days before Commencement were especially trying for
+Margaret. It seemed as if the children were possessed with the very
+spirit of mischief, and she could not help but see that it was Rosa who,
+sitting demurely in her desk, was the center of it all. Only Bud's
+steady, frowning countenance of all that rollicking, roistering crowd
+kept loyalty with the really beloved teacher. For, indeed, they loved
+her, every one but Rosa, and would have stood by her to a man and girl
+when it really came to the pinch, but in a matter like a little bit of
+fun in these last few days of school, and when challenged to it by the
+school beauty who did not usually condescend to any but a few of the
+older boys, where was the harm? They were so flattered by Rosa's smiles
+that they failed to see Margaret's worn, weary wistfulness.
+
+Bud, coming into the school-house late one afternoon in search of her
+after the other scholars had gone, found Margaret with her head down
+upon the desk and her shoulders shaken with soundless sobs. He stood for
+a second silent in the doorway, gazing helplessly at her grief, then
+with the delicacy of one boy for another he slipped back outside the
+door and stood in the shadow, grinding his teeth.
+
+"Gee!" he said, under his breath. "Oh, gee! I'd like to punch her fool
+head. I don't care if she is a girl! She needs it. Gee! if she was a boy
+wouldn't I settle her, the little darned mean sneak!"
+
+His remarks, it is needless to say, did not have reference to his
+beloved teacher.
+
+It was in the atmosphere everywhere that something was bound to happen
+if this strain kept up. Margaret knew it and felt utterly inadequate to
+meet it. Rosa knew it and was awaiting her opportunity. Bud knew it and
+could only stand and watch where the blow was to strike first and be
+ready to ward it off. In these days he wished fervently for Gardley's
+return. He did not know just what Gardley could do about "that little
+fool," as he called Rosa, but it would be a relief to be able to tell
+some one all about it. If he only dared leave he would go over and tell
+Jasper Kemp about it, just to share his burden with somebody. But as it
+was he must stick to the job for the present and bear his great
+responsibility, and so the days hastened by to the last Sunday before
+Commencement, which was to be on Monday.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+Margaret had spent Saturday in rehearsals, so that there had been no
+rest for her. Sunday morning she slept late, and awoke from a troubled
+dream, unrested. She almost meditated whether she would not ask some one
+to read a sermon at the afternoon service and let her go on sleeping.
+Then a memory of the lonely old woman at the camp, and the men, who came
+so regularly to the service, roused her to effort once more, and she
+arose and tried to prepare a little something for them.
+
+She came into the school-house at the hour, looking fagged, with dark
+circles under her eyes; and the loving eyes of Mom Wallis already in her
+front seat watched her keenly.
+
+"It's time for _him_ to come back," she said, in her heart. "She's
+gettin' peeked! I wisht he'd come!"
+
+Margaret had hoped that Rosa would not come. The girl was not always
+there, but of late she had been quite regular, coming in late with her
+father just a little after the story had begun, and attracting attention
+by her smiles and bows and giggling whispers, which sometimes were so
+audible as to create quite a diversion from the speaker.
+
+But Rosa came in early to-day and took a seat directly in front of
+Margaret, in about the middle of the house, fixing her eyes on her
+teacher with a kind of settled intention that made Margaret shrink as if
+from a danger she was not able to meet. There was something bright and
+hard and daring in Rosa's eyes as she stared unwinkingly, as if she had
+come to search out a weak spot for her evil purposes, and Margaret was
+so tired she wanted to lay her head down on her desk and cry. She drew
+some comfort from the reflection that if she should do so childish a
+thing she would be at once surrounded by a strong battalion of friends
+from the camp, who would shield her with their lives if necessary.
+
+It was silly, of course, and she must control this choking in her
+throat, only how was she ever going to talk, with Rosa looking at her
+that way? It was like a nightmare pursuing her. She turned to the piano
+and kept them all singing for a while, so that she might pray in her
+heart and grow calm; and when, after her brief, earnest prayer, she
+lifted her eyes to the audience, she saw with intense relief that the
+Brownleighs were in the audience.
+
+She started a hymn that they all knew, and when they were well in the
+midst of the first verse she slipped from the piano-stool and walked
+swiftly down the aisle to Brownleigh's side.
+
+"Would you please talk to them a little while?" she pleaded, wistfully.
+"I am so tired I feel as if I just couldn't, to-day."
+
+Instantly Brownleigh followed her back to the desk and took her place,
+pulling out his little, worn Bible and opening it with familiar fingers
+to a beloved passage:
+
+     "'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
+     give you rest.'"
+
+The words fell on Margaret's tired heart like balm, and she rested her
+head back against the wall and closed her eyes to listen. Sitting so
+away from Rosa's stare, she could forget for a while the absurd burdens
+that had got on her nerves, and could rest down hard upon her Saviour.
+Every word that the man of God spoke seemed meant just for her, and
+brought strength, courage, and new trust to her heart. She forgot the
+little crowd of other listeners and took the message to herself,
+drinking it in eagerly as one who has been a long time ministering
+accepts a much-needed ministry. When she moved to the piano again for
+the closing hymn she felt new strength within her to bear the trials of
+the week that were before her. She turned, smiling and brave, to speak
+to those who always crowded around to shake hands and have a word before
+leaving.
+
+Hazel, putting a loving arm around her as soon as she could get up to
+the front, began to speak soothingly: "You poor, tired child!" she said;
+"you are almost worn to a frazzle. You need a big change, and I'm going
+to plan it for you just as soon as I possibly can. How would you like to
+go with us on our trip among the Indians? Wouldn't it be great? It'll be
+several days, depending on how far we go, but John wants to visit the
+Hopi reservation, if possible, and it'll be so interesting. They are a
+most strange people. We'll have a delightful trip, sleeping out under
+the stars, you know. Don't you just love it? I do. I wouldn't miss it
+for the world. I can't be sure, for a few days yet, when we can go, for
+John has to make a journey in the other direction first, and he isn't
+sure when he can return; but it might be this week. How soon can you
+come to us? How I wish we could take you right home with us to-night.
+You need to get away and rest. But your Commencement is to-morrow, isn't
+it? I'm so sorry we can't be here, but this other matter is important,
+and John has to go early in the morning. Some one very sick who wants to
+see him before he dies--an old Indian who didn't know a thing about
+Jesus till John found him one day. I suppose you haven't anybody who
+could bring you over to us after your work is done here to-morrow night
+or Tuesday, have you? Well, we'll see if we can't find some one to send
+for you soon. There's an old Indian who often comes this way, but he's
+away buying cattle. Maybe John can think of a way we could send for you
+early in the week. Then you would be ready to go with us on the trip.
+You would like to go, wouldn't you?"
+
+"Oh, so much!" said Margaret, with a sigh of wistfulness. "I can't think
+of anything pleasanter!"
+
+Margaret turned suddenly, and there, just behind her, almost touching
+her, stood Rosa, that strange, baleful gleam in her eyes like a serpent
+who was biding her time, drawing nearer and nearer, knowing she had her
+victim where she could not move before she struck.
+
+It was a strange fancy, of course, and one that was caused by sick
+nerves, but Margaret drew back and almost cried out, as if for some one
+to protect her. Then her strong common sense came to the rescue and she
+rallied and smiled at Rosa a faint little sorry smile. It was hard to
+smile at the bright, baleful face with the menace in the eyes.
+
+Hazel was watching her. "You poor child! You're quite worn out! I'm
+afraid you're going to be sick."
+
+"Oh no," said Margaret, trying to speak cheerfully; "things have just
+got on my nerves, that's all. It's been a particularly trying time. I
+shall be all right when to-morrow night is over."
+
+"Well, we're going to send for you very soon, so be ready!" and Hazel
+followed her husband, waving her hand in gay parting.
+
+Rosa was still standing just behind her when Margaret turned back to her
+desk, and the younger girl gave her one last dagger look, a glitter in
+her eyes so sinister and vindictive that Margaret felt a shudder run
+through her whole body, and was glad that just then Rosa's father called
+to her that they must be starting home. Only one more day now of Rosa,
+and she would be done with her, perhaps forever. The girl was through
+the school course and was graduating. It was not likely she would return
+another year. Her opportunity was over to help her. She had failed. Why,
+she couldn't tell, but she had strangely failed, and all she asked now
+was not to have to endure the hard, cold, young presence any longer.
+
+"Sick nerves, Margaret!" she said to herself. "Go home and go to bed.
+You'll be all right to-morrow!" And she locked the school-house door and
+walked quietly home with the faithful Bud.
+
+The past month had been a trying time also for Rosa. Young, wild, and
+motherless, passionate, wilful and impetuous, she was finding life
+tremendously exciting just now. With no one to restrain her or warn her
+she was playing with forces that she did not understand.
+
+She had subjugated easily all the boys in school, keeping them exactly
+where she wanted them for her purpose, and using methods that would have
+done credit to a woman of the world. But by far the greatest force in
+her life was her infatuation for Forsythe.
+
+The letters had traveled back and forth many times between them since
+Forsythe wrote that first love-letter. He found a whimsical pleasure in
+her deep devotion and naive readiness to follow as far as he cared to
+lead her. He realized that, young as she was, she was no innocent, which
+made the acquaintance all the more interesting. He, meantime, idled away
+a few months on the Pacific coast, making mild love to a rich California
+girl and considering whether or not he was ready yet to settle down.
+
+In the mean time his correspondence with Rosa took on such a nature that
+his volatile, impulsive nature was stirred with a desire to see her
+again. It was not often that once out of sight he looked back to a
+victim, but Rosa had shown a daring and a spirit in her letters that
+sent a challenge to his sated senses. Moreover, the California heiress
+was going on a journey; besides, an old enemy of his who knew altogether
+too much of his past had appeared on the scene; and as Gardley had been
+removed from the Ashland vicinity for a time, Forsythe felt it might be
+safe to venture back again. There was always that pretty, spirited
+little teacher if Rosa failed to charm. But why should Rosa not charm?
+And why should he not yield? Rosa's father was a good sort and had all
+kinds of property. Rosa was her father's only heir. On the whole,
+Forsythe decided that the best move he could make next would be to
+return to Arizona. If things turned out well he might even think of
+marrying Rosa.
+
+This was somewhat the train of thought that led Forsythe at last to
+write to Rosa that he was coming, throwing Rosa into a panic of joy and
+alarm. For Rosa's father had been most explicit about her ever going out
+with Forsythe again. It had been the most relentless command he had ever
+laid upon her, spoken in a tone she hardly ever disobeyed. Moreover,
+Rosa was fearfully jealous of Margaret. If Forsythe should come and
+begin to hang around the teacher Rosa felt she would go wild, or do
+something terrible, perhaps even kill somebody. She shut her sharp
+little white teeth fiercely down into her red under lip and vowed with
+flashing eyes that he should never see Margaret again if power of hers
+could prevent it.
+
+The letter from Forsythe had reached her on Saturday evening, and she
+had come to the Sunday service with the distinct idea of trying to plan
+how she might get rid of Margaret. It would be hard enough to evade her
+father's vigilance if he once found out the young man had returned; but
+to have him begin to go and see Margaret again was a thing she could not
+and would not stand.
+
+The idea obsessed her to the exclusion of all others, and made her watch
+her teacher as if by her very concentration of thought upon her some way
+out of the difficulty might be evolved; as if Margaret herself might
+give forth a hint of weakness somewhere that would show her how to plan.
+
+To that intent she had come close in the group with the others around
+the teacher at the close of meeting, and, so standing, had overheard all
+that the Brownleighs had said. The lightning flash of triumph that she
+cast at Margaret as she left the school-house was her own signal that
+she had found a way at last. Her opportunity had come, and just in time.
+Forsythe was to arrive in Arizona some time on Tuesday, and wanted Rosa
+to meet him at one of their old trysting-places, out some distance from
+her father's house. He knew that school would just be over, for she had
+written him about Commencement, and so he understood that she would be
+free. But he did not know that the place he had selected to meet her was
+on one of Margaret's favorite trails where she and Bud often rode in the
+late afternoons, and that above all things Rosa wished to avoid any
+danger of meeting her teacher; for she not only feared that Forsythe's
+attention would be drawn away from her, but also that Margaret might
+feel it her duty to report to her father about her clandestine meeting.
+
+Rosa's heart beat high as she rode demurely home with her father,
+answering his pleasantries with smiles and dimples and a coaxing word,
+just as he loved to have her. But she was not thinking of her father,
+though she kept well her mask of interest in what he had to say. She was
+trying to plan how she might use what she had heard to get rid of
+Margaret Earle. If only Mrs. Brownleigh would do as she had hinted and
+send some one Tuesday morning to escort Miss Earle over to her home, all
+would be clear sailing for Rosa; but she dared not trust to such a
+possibility. There were not many escorts coming their way from Ganado,
+and Rosa happened to know that the old Indian who frequently escorted
+parties was off in another direction. She could not rest on any such
+hope. When she reached home she went at once to her room and sat beside
+her window, gazing off at the purple mountains in deep thought. Then she
+lighted a candle and went in search of a certain little Testament, long
+since neglected and covered with dust. She found it at last on the top
+of a pile of books in a dark closet, and dragged it forth, eagerly
+turning the pages. Yes, there it was, and in it a small envelope
+directed to "Miss Rosa Rogers" in a fine angular handwriting. The letter
+was from the missionary's wife to the little girl who had recited her
+texts so beautifully as to earn the Testament.
+
+Rosa carried it to her desk, secured a good light, and sat down to read
+it over carefully.
+
+No thought of her innocent childish exultation over that letter came to
+her now. She was intent on one thing--the handwriting. Could she seize
+the secret of it and reproduce it? She had before often done so with
+great success. She could imitate Miss Earle's writing so perfectly that
+she often took an impish pleasure in changing words in the questions on
+the blackboard and making them read absurdly for the benefit of the
+school. It was such good sport to see the amazement on Margaret's face
+when her attention would be called to it by a hilarious class, and to
+watch her troubled brow when she read what she supposed she had written.
+
+When Rosa was but a little child she used to boast that she could write
+her father's name in perfect imitation of his signature; and often
+signed some trifling receipt for him just for amusement. A dangerous
+gift in the hands of a conscienceless girl! Yet this was the first time
+that Rosa had really planned to use her art in any serious way. Perhaps
+it never occurred to her that she was doing wrong. At present her heart
+was too full of hate and fear and jealous love to care for right or
+wrong or anything else. It is doubtful if she would have hesitated a
+second even if the thing she was planning had suddenly appeared to her
+in the light of a great crime. She seemed sometimes almost like a
+creature without moral sense, so swayed was she by her own desires and
+feelings. She was blind now to everything but her great desire to get
+Margaret out of the way and have Forsythe to herself.
+
+Long after her father and the servants were asleep Rosa's light burned
+while she bent over her desk, writing. Page after page she covered with
+careful copies of Mrs. Brownleigh's letter written to herself almost
+three years before. Finally she wrote out the alphabet, bit by bit as
+she picked it from the words, learning just how each letter was
+habitually formed, the small letters and the capitals, with the
+peculiarities of connection and ending. At last, when she lay down to
+rest, she felt herself capable of writing a pretty fair letter in Mrs.
+Brownleigh's handwriting. The next thing was to make her plan and
+compose her letter. She lay staring into the darkness and trying to
+think just what she could do.
+
+In the first place, she settled it that Margaret must be gotten to Walpi
+at least. It would not do to send her to Ganado, where the mission
+station was, for that was a comparatively short journey, and she could
+easily go in a day. When the fraud was discovered, as of course it would
+be when Mrs. Brownleigh heard of it, Margaret would perhaps return to
+find out who had done it. No, she must be sent all the way to Walpi if
+possible. That would take at least two nights and the most of two days
+to get there. Forsythe had said his stay was to be short. By the time
+Margaret got back from Walpi Forsythe would be gone.
+
+But how manage to get her to Walpi without her suspicions being aroused?
+She might word the note so that Margaret would be told to come half-way,
+expecting to meet the missionaries, say at Keams. There was a trail
+straight up from Ashland to Keams, cutting off quite a distance and
+leaving Ganado off at the right. Keams was nearly forty miles west of
+Ganado. That would do nicely. Then if she could manage to have another
+note left at Keams, saying they could not wait and had gone on, Margaret
+would suspect nothing and go all the way to Walpi. That would be fine
+and would give the school-teacher an interesting experience which
+wouldn't hurt her in the least. Rosa thought it might be rather
+interesting than otherwise. She had no compunctions whatever about how
+Margaret might feel when she arrived in that strange Indian town and
+found no friends awaiting her. Her only worry was where she was to find
+a suitable escort, for she felt assured that Margaret would not start
+out alone with one man servant on an expedition that would keep her out
+overnight. And where in all that region could she find a woman whom she
+could trust to send on the errand? It almost looked as though the thing
+were an impossibility. She lay tossing and puzzling over it till gray
+dawn stole into the room. She mentally reviewed every servant on the
+place on whom she could rely to do her bidding and keep her secret, but
+there was some reason why each one would not do. She scanned the
+country, even considering old Ouida, who had been living in a shack over
+beyond the fort ever since her cabin had been raided; but old Ouida was
+too notorious. Mrs. Tanner would keep Margaret from going with her, even
+if Margaret herself did not know the old woman's reputation. Rosa
+considered if there were any way of wheedling Mom Wallis into the
+affair, and gave that up, remembering the suspicious little twinkling
+eyes of Jasper Kemp. At last she fell asleep, with her plan still
+unformed but her determination to carry it through just as strong as
+ever. If worst came to worst she would send the half-breed cook from the
+ranch kitchen and put something in the note about his expecting to meet
+his sister an hour's ride out on the trail. The half-breed would do
+anything in the world for money, and Rosa had no trouble in getting all
+she wanted of that commodity. But the half-breed was an evil-looking
+fellow, and she feared lest Margaret would not like to go with him.
+However, he should be a last resort. She would not be balked in her
+purpose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+Rosa awoke very early, for her sleep had been light and troubled. She
+dressed hastily and sat down to compose a note which could be altered
+slightly in case she found some one better than the half-breed; but
+before she was half through the phrasing she heard a slight disturbance
+below her window and a muttering in guttural tones from a strange voice.
+Glancing hastily out, she saw some Indians below, talking with one of
+the men, who was shaking his head and motioning to them that they must
+go on, that this was no place for them to stop. The Indian motioned to
+his squaw, sitting on a dilapidated little moth-eaten burro with a small
+papoose in her arms and looking both dirty and miserable. He muttered as
+though he were pleading for something.
+
+We believe that God's angels follow the feet of little children and
+needy ones to protect them; does the devil also send his angels to lead
+unwary ones astray, and to protect the plan's of the erring ones? If so
+then he must have sent these Indians that morning to further Rosa's
+plans, and instantly she recognized her opportunity. She leaned out of
+her window and spoke in a clear, reproving voice:
+
+"James, what does he want? Breakfast? You know father wouldn't want any
+hungry person to be turned away. Let them sit down on the bench there
+and tell Dorset I said to give them a good hot breakfast, and get some
+milk for the baby. Be quick about it, too!"
+
+James started and frowned at the clear, commanding voice. The squaw
+turned grateful animal eyes up to the little beauty in the window,
+muttering some inarticulate thanks, while the stolid Indian's eyes
+glittered hopefully, though the muscles of his mask-like countenance
+changed not an atom.
+
+Rosa smiled radiantly and ran down to see that her orders were obeyed.
+She tried to talk a little with the squaw, but found she understood very
+little English. The Indian spoke better and gave her their brief story.
+They were on their way to the Navajo reservation to the far north. They
+had been unfortunate enough to lose their last scanty provisions by
+prowling coyotes during the night, and were in need of food. Rosa gave
+them a place to sit down and a plentiful breakfast, and ordered that a
+small store of provisions should be prepared for their journey after
+they had rested. Then she hurried up to her room to finish her letter.
+She had her plan well fixed now. These strangers should be her willing
+messengers. Now and then, as she wrote she lifted her head and gazed out
+of the window, where she could see the squaw busy with her little one,
+and her eyes fairly glittered with satisfaction. Nothing could have been
+better planned than this.
+
+She wrote her note carefully:
+
+     DEAR MARGARET [she had heard Hazel call Margaret by her first name,
+     and rightly judged that their new friendship was already strong
+     enough to justify this intimacy],--I have found just the
+     opportunity I wanted for you to come to us. These Indians are
+     thoroughly trustworthy and are coming in just the direction to
+     bring you to a point where we will meet you. We have decided to go
+     on to Walpi at once, and will probably meet you near Keams, or a
+     little farther on. The Indian knows the way, and you need not be
+     afraid. I trust him perfectly. Start at once, please, so that you
+     will meet us in time. John has to go on as fast as possible. I know
+     you will enjoy the trip, and am so glad you are coming.
+
+                                                 Lovingly,
+                                             HAZEL RADCLIFFE BROWNLEIGH.
+
+Rosa read it over, comparing it carefully with the little yellow note
+from her Testament, and decided that it was a very good imitation. She
+could almost hear Mrs. Brownleigh saying what she had written. Rosa
+really was quite clever. She had done it well.
+
+She hastily sealed and addressed her letter, and then hurried down to
+talk with the Indians again.
+
+The place she had ordered for them to rest was at some distance from the
+kitchen door, a sort of outshed for the shelter of certain implements
+used about the ranch. A long bench ran in front of it, and a big tree
+made a goodly shade. The Indians had found their temporary camp quite
+inviting.
+
+Rosa made a detour of the shed, satisfied herself that no one was within
+hearing, and then sat down on the bench, ostensibly playing with the
+papoose, dangling a red ball on a ribbon before his dazzled, bead-like
+eyes and bringing forth a gurgle of delight from the dusky little mummy.
+While she played she talked idly with the Indians. Had they money enough
+for their journey? Would they like to earn some? Would they act as
+guide to a lady who wanted to go to Walpi? At least she wanted to go as
+far as Keams, where she might meet friends, missionaries, who were going
+on with her to Walpi to visit the Indians. If they didn't meet her she
+wanted to be guided all the way to Walpi? Would they undertake it? It
+would pay them well. They would get money enough for their journey and
+have some left when they got to the reservation. And Rosa displayed two
+gold pieces temptingly in her small palms.
+
+The Indian uttered a guttural sort of gasp at sight of so much money,
+and sat upright. He gasped again, indicating by a solemn nod that he was
+agreeable to the task before him, and the girl went gaily on with her
+instructions:
+
+"You will have to take some things along to make the lady comfortable. I
+will see that those are got ready. Then you can have the things for your
+own when you leave the lady at Walpi. You will have to take a letter to
+the lady and tell her you are going this afternoon, and she must be
+ready to start at once or she will not meet the missionary. Tell her you
+can only wait until three o'clock to start. You will find the lady at
+the school-house at noon. You must not come till noon--" Rosa pointed to
+the sun and then straight overhead. The Indian watched her keenly and
+nodded.
+
+"You must ask for Miss Earle and give her this letter. She is the
+school-teacher."
+
+The Indian grunted and looked at the white missive in Rosa's hand,
+noting once more the gleam of the gold pieces.
+
+"You must wait till the teacher goes to her boarding-house and packs her
+things and eats her dinner. If anybody asks where you came from you must
+say the missionary's wife from Ganado sent you. Don't tell anybody
+anything else. Do you understand? More money if you don't say anything?"
+Rosa clinked the gold pieces softly.
+
+The strange, sphinx-like gaze of the Indian narrowed comprehensively. He
+understood. His native cunning was being bought for this girl's own
+purposes. He looked greedily at the money. Rosa had put her hand in her
+pocket and brought out yet another gold piece.
+
+"See! I give you this one now"--she laid one gold piece in the Indian's
+hand--"and these two I put in an envelope and pack with some provisions
+and blankets on another horse. I will leave the horse tied to a tree up
+where the big trail crosses this big trail out that way. You know?"
+
+Rosa pointed in the direction she meant, and the Indian looked and
+grunted, his eyes returning to the two gold pieces in her hand. It was a
+great deal of money for the little lady to give. Was she trying to cheat
+him? He looked down at the gold he already held. It was good money. He
+was sure of that. He looked at her keenly.
+
+"I shall be watching and I shall know whether you have the lady or not,"
+went on the girl, sharply. "If you do not bring the lady with you there
+will be no money and no provisions waiting for you. But if you bring the
+lady you can untie the horse and take him with you. You will need the
+horse to carry the things. When you get to Walpi you can set him free.
+He is branded and he will likely come back. We shall find him. See, I
+will put the gold pieces in this tin can."
+
+She picked up a sardine-tin that lay at her feet, slipped the gold
+pieces in an envelope from her pocket, stuffed it in the tin, bent down
+the cover, and held it up.
+
+"This can will be packed on the top of the other provisions, and you can
+open it and take the money out when you untie the horse. Then hurry on
+as fast as you can and get as far along the trail as possible to-night
+before you camp. Do you understand?"
+
+The Indian nodded once more, and Rosa felt that she had a confederate
+worthy of her need.
+
+She stayed a few minutes more, going carefully over her directions,
+telling the Indian to be sure his squaw was kind to the lady, and that
+on no account he should let the lady get uneasy or have cause to
+complain of her treatment, or trouble would surely come to him. At last
+she felt sure she had made him understand, and she hurried away to slip
+into her pretty white dress and rose-colored ribbons and ride to school.
+Before she left her room she glanced out of the window at the Indians,
+and saw them sitting motionless, like a group of bronze. Once the Indian
+stirred and, putting his hand in his bosom, drew forth the white letter
+she had given him, gazed at it a moment, and hid it in his breast again.
+She nodded her satisfaction as she turned from the window. The next
+thing was to get to school and play her own part in the Commencement
+exercises.
+
+The morning was bright, and the school-house was already filled to
+overflowing when Rosa arrived. Her coming, as always, made a little stir
+among admiring groups, for even those who feared her admired her from
+afar. She fluttered into the school-house and up the aisle with the air
+of a princess who knew she had been waited for and was condescending to
+come at all.
+
+Rosa was in everything--the drills, the march, the choruses, and the
+crowning oration. She went through it all with the perfection of a
+bright mind and an adaptable nature. One would never have dreamed, to
+look at her pretty dimpling face and her sparkling eyes, what diabolical
+things were moving in her mind, nor how those eyes, lynx-soft with
+lurking sweetness and treachery, were watching all the time furtively
+for the appearance of the old Indian.
+
+At last she saw him, standing in a group just outside the window near
+the platform, his tall form and stern countenance marking him among the
+crowd of familiar faces. She was receiving her diploma from the hand of
+Margaret when she caught his eye, and her hand trembled just a quiver as
+she took the dainty roll tied with blue and white ribbons. That he
+recognized her she was sure; that he knew she did not wish him to make
+known his connection with her she felt equally convinced he understood.
+His eye had that comprehending look of withdrawal. She did not look up
+directly at him again. Her eyes were daintily downward. Nevertheless,
+she missed not a turn of his head, not a glance from that stern eye, and
+she knew the moment when he stood at the front door of the school-house
+with the letter in his hand, stolid and indifferent, yet a great force
+to be reckoned with.
+
+Some one looked at the letter, pointed to Margaret, called her, and she
+came. Rosa was not far away all the time, talking with Jed; her eyes
+downcast, her cheeks dimpling, missing nothing that could be heard or
+seen.
+
+Margaret read the letter. Rosa watched her, knew every curve of every
+letter and syllable as she read, held her breath, and watched Margaret's
+expression. Did she suspect? No. A look of intense relief and pleasure
+had come into her eyes. She was glad to have found a way to go. She
+turned to Mrs. Tanner.
+
+"What do you think of this, Mrs. Tanner? I'm to go with Mrs. Brownleigh
+on a trip to Walpi. Isn't that delicious? I'm to start at once. Do you
+suppose I could have a bite to eat? I won't need much. I'm too tired to
+eat and too anxious to be off. If you give me a cup of tea and a
+sandwich I'll be all right. I've got things about ready to go, for Mrs.
+Brownleigh told me she would send some one for me."
+
+"H'm!" said Mrs. Tanner, disapprovingly. "Who you goin' with? Just
+_him_? I don't much like _his_ looks!"
+
+She spoke in a low tone so the Indian would not hear, and it was almost
+in Rosa's very ear, who stood just behind. Rosa's heart stopped a beat
+and she frowned at the toe of her slipper. Was this common little Tanner
+woman going to be the one to balk her plans?
+
+Margaret raised her head now for her first good look at the Indian, and
+it must be admitted a chill came into her heart. Then, as if he
+comprehended what was at stake, the Indian turned slightly and pointed
+down the path toward the road. By common consent the few who were
+standing about the door stepped back and made a vista for Margaret to
+see the squaw sitting statue-like on her scraggy little pony, gazing off
+at the mountain in the distance, as if she were sitting for her picture,
+her solemn little papoose strapped to her back.
+
+Margaret's troubled eyes cleared. The family aspect made things all
+right again. "You see, he has his wife and child," she said. "It's all
+right. Mrs. Brownleigh says she trusts him perfectly, and I'm to meet
+them on the way. Read the letter."
+
+She thrust the letter into Mrs. Tanner's hand, and Rosa trembled for her
+scheme once more. Surely, surely Mrs. Tanner would not be able to detect
+the forgery!
+
+"H'm! Well, I s'pose it's all right if she says so, but I'm sure I don't
+relish them pesky Injuns, and I don't think that squaw wife of his looks
+any great shakes, either. They look to me like they needed a good scrub
+with Bristol brick. But then, if you're set on going, you'll go,
+'course. I jest wish Bud hadn't 'a' gone home with that Jasper Kemp. He
+might 'a' gone along, an' then you'd 'a' had somebody to speak English
+to."
+
+"Yes, it would have been nice to have William along," said Margaret;
+"but I think I'll be all right. Mrs. Brownleigh wouldn't send anybody
+that wasn't nice."
+
+"H'm! I dun'no'! She's an awful crank. She just loves them Injuns, they
+say. But I, fer one, draw the line at holdin' 'em in my lap. I don't
+b'lieve in mixin' folks up that way. Preach to 'em if you like, but let
+'em keep their distance, I say."
+
+Margaret laughed and went off to pick up her things. Rosa stood smiling
+and talking to Jed until she saw Margaret and Mrs. Tanner go off
+together, the Indians riding slowly along behind.
+
+Rosa waited until the Indians had turned off the road down toward the
+Tanners', and then she mounted her own pony and rode swiftly home.
+
+She rushed up to her room and took off her fine apparel, arraying
+herself quickly in a plain little gown, and went down to prepare the
+provisions. There was none too much time, and she must work rapidly. It
+was well for her plans that she was all-powerful with the servants and
+could send them about at will to get them out of her way. She invented a
+duty for each now that would take them for a few minutes well out of
+sight and sound; then she hurried together the provisions in a basket,
+making two trips to get them to the shelter where she had told the
+Indian he would find the horse tied. She had to make a third trip to
+bring the blankets and a few other things she knew would be
+indispensable, but the whole outfit was really but carelessly gotten
+together, and it was just by chance that some things got in at all.
+
+It was not difficult to find the old cayuse she intended using for a
+pack-horse. He was browsing around in the corral, and she soon had a
+halter over his head, for she had been quite used to horses from her
+babyhood.
+
+She packed the canned things, tinned meats, vegetables, and fruit into a
+couple of large sacks, adding some fodder for the horses, a box of
+matches, some corn bread, of which there was always plenty on hand in
+the house, some salt pork, and a few tin dishes. These she slung pack
+fashion over the old horse, fastened the sardine-tin containing the gold
+pieces where it would be easily found, tied the horse to a tree, and
+retired behind a shelter of sage-brush to watch.
+
+It was not long before the little caravan came, the Indians riding ahead
+single file, like two graven images, moving not a muscle of their faces,
+and Margaret a little way behind on her own pony, her face as happy and
+relieved as if she were a child let out from a hard task to play.
+
+The Indian stopped beside the horse, a glitter of satisfaction in his
+eyes as he saw that the little lady had fulfilled her part of the
+bargain. He indicated to the squaw and the lady that they might move on
+down the trail, and he would catch up with them; and then dismounted,
+pouncing warily upon the sardine-tin at once. He looked furtively about,
+then took out the money and tested it with his teeth to make sure it was
+genuine.
+
+He grunted his further satisfaction, looked over the pack-horse, made
+more secure the fastenings of the load, and, taking the halter, mounted
+and rode stolidly away toward the north.
+
+Rosa waited in her covert until they were far out of sight, then made
+her way hurriedly back to the house and climbed to a window where she
+could watch the trail for several miles. There, with a field-glass, she
+kept watch until the procession had filed across the plains, down into a
+valley, up over a hill, and dropped to a farther valley out of sight.
+She looked at the sun and drew a breath of satisfaction. She had done it
+at last! She had got Margaret away before Forsythe came! There was no
+likelihood that the fraud would be discovered until her rival was far
+enough away to be safe. A kind of reaction came upon Rosa's overwrought
+nerves. She laughed out harshly, and her voice had a cruel ring to it.
+Then she threw herself upon the bed and burst into a passionate fit of
+weeping, and so, by and by, fell asleep. She dreamed that Margaret had
+returned like a shining, fiery angel, a two-edged sword in her hand and
+all the Wallis camp at her heels, with vengeance in their wake. That
+hateful little boy, Bud Tanner, danced around and made faces at her,
+while Forsythe had forgotten her to gaze at Margaret's face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+To Margaret the day was very fair, and the omens all auspicious. She
+carried with her close to her heart two precious letters received that
+morning and scarcely glanced at as yet, one from Gardley and one from
+her mother. She had had only time to open them and be sure that all was
+well with her dear ones, and had left the rest to read on the way.
+
+She was dressed in the khaki riding-habit she always wore when she went
+on horseback; and in the bag strapped on behind she carried a couple of
+fresh white blouses, a thin, white dress, a little soft dark silk gown
+that folded away almost into a cobweb, and a few other necessities. She
+had also slipped in a new book her mother had sent her, into which she
+had had as yet no time to look, and her chessmen and board, besides
+writing materials. She prided herself on having got so many necessaries
+into so small a compass. She would need the extra clothing if she stayed
+at Ganado with the missionaries for a week on her return from the trip,
+and the book and chessmen would amuse them all by the way. She had heard
+Brownleigh say he loved to play chess.
+
+Margaret rode on the familiar trail, and for the first hour just let
+herself be glad that school was over and she could rest and have no
+responsibility. The sun shimmered down brilliantly on the white, hot
+sand and gray-green of the greasewood and sage-brush. Tall spikes of
+cactus like lonely spires shot up now and again to vary the scene. It
+was all familiar ground to Margaret around here, for she had taken many
+rides with Gardley and Bud, and for the first part of the way every turn
+and bit of view was fraught with pleasant memories that brought a smile
+to her eyes as she recalled some quotation of Gardley's or some prank of
+Bud's. Here was where they first sighted the little cottontail the day
+she took her initial ride on her own pony. Off there was the mountain
+where they saw the sun drawing silver water above a frowning storm.
+Yonder was the group of cedars where they had stopped to eat their lunch
+once, and this water-hole they were approaching was the one where
+Gardley had given her a drink from his hat.
+
+She was almost glad that Bud was not along, for she was too tired to
+talk and liked to be alone with her thoughts for this few minutes. Poor
+Bud! He would be disappointed when he got back to find her gone, but
+then he had expected she was going in a few days, anyway, and she had
+promised to take long rides with him when she returned. She had left a
+little note for him, asking him to read a certain book in her bookcase
+while she was gone, and be ready to discuss it with her when she got
+back, and Bud would be fascinated with it, she knew. Bud had been dear
+and faithful, and she would miss him, but just for this little while
+she was glad to have the great out-of-doors to herself.
+
+She was practically alone. The two sphinx-like figures riding ahead of
+her made no sign, but stolidly rode on hour after hour, nor turned their
+heads even to see if she were coming. She knew that Indians were this
+way; still, as the time went by she began to feel an uneasy sense of
+being alone in the universe with a couple of bronze statues. Even the
+papoose had erased itself in sleep, and when it awoke partook so fully
+of its racial peculiarities as to hold its little peace and make no
+fuss. Margaret began to feel the baby was hardly human, more like a
+little brown doll set up in a missionary meeting to teach white children
+what a papoose was like.
+
+By and by she got out her letters and read them over carefully, dreaming
+and smiling over them, and getting precious bits by heart. Gardley
+hinted that he might be able very soon to visit her parents, as it
+looked as though he might have to make a trip on business in their
+direction before he could go further with what he was doing in his old
+home. He gave no hint of soon returning to the West. He said he was
+awaiting the return of one man who might soon be coming from abroad.
+Margaret sighed and wondered how many weary months it would be before
+she would see him. Perhaps, after all, she ought to have gone home and
+stayed them out with her mother and father. If the school-board could be
+made to see that it would be better to have no summer session, perhaps
+she would even yet go when she returned from the Brownleighs'. She would
+see. She would decide nothing until she was rested.
+
+Suddenly she felt herself overwhelmingly weary, and wished that the
+Indians would stop and rest for a while; but when she stirred up her
+sleepy pony and spurred ahead to broach the matter to her guide he shook
+his solemn head and pointed to the sun:
+
+"No get Keams good time. No meet Aneshodi."
+
+"Aneshodi," she knew, was the Indians' name for the missionary, and she
+smiled her acquiescence. Of course they must meet the Brownleighs and
+not detain them. What was it Hazel had said about having to hurry? She
+searched her pocket for the letter, and then remembered she had left it
+with Mrs. Tanner. What a pity she had not brought it! Perhaps there was
+some caution or advice in it that she had not taken note of. But then
+the Indian likely knew all about it, and she could trust to him. She
+glanced at his stolid face and wished she could make him smile. She cast
+a sunny smile at him and said something pleasant about the beautiful
+day, but he only looked her through as if she were not there, and after
+one or two more attempts she fell back and tried to talk to the squaw;
+but the squaw only looked stolid, too, and shook her head. She did not
+seem friendly. Margaret drew back into her old position and feasted her
+eyes upon the distant hills.
+
+The road was growing unfamiliar now. They were crossing rough ridges
+with cliffs of red sandstone, and every step of the way was interesting.
+Yet Margaret felt more and more how much she wanted to lie down and
+sleep, and when at last in the dusk the Indians halted not far from a
+little pool of rainwater and indicated that here they would camp for
+the night, Margaret was too weary to question the decision. It had not
+occurred to her that she would be on the way overnight before she met
+her friends. Her knowledge of the way, and of distances, was but vague.
+It is doubtful if she would have ventured had she known that she must
+pass the night thus in the company of two strange savage creatures. Yet,
+now that she was here and it was inevitable, she would not shrink, but
+make the best of it. She tried to be friendly once more, and offered to
+look out for the baby while the squaw gathered wood and made a fire. The
+Indian was off looking after the horses, evidently expecting his wife to
+do all the work.
+
+Margaret watched a few minutes, while pretending to play with the baby,
+who was both sleepy and hungry, yet held his emotions as stolidly as if
+he were a grown person. Then she decided to take a hand in the supper.
+She was hungry and could not bear that those dusky, dirty hands should
+set forth her food, so she went to work cheerfully, giving directions as
+if the Indian woman understood her, though she very soon discovered that
+all her talk was as mere babbling to the other, and she might as well
+hold her peace. The woman set a kettle of water over the fire, and
+Margaret forestalled her next movement by cutting some pork and putting
+it to cook in a little skillet she found among the provisions. The woman
+watched her solemnly, not seeming to care; and so, silently, each went
+about her own preparations.
+
+The supper was a silent affair, and when it was over the squaw handed
+Margaret a blanket. Suddenly she understood that this, and this alone,
+was to be her bed for the night. The earth was there for a mattress,
+and the sage-brush lent a partial shelter, the canopy of stars was
+overhead.
+
+A kind of panic took possession of her. She stared at the squaw and
+found herself longing to cry out for help. It seemed as if she could not
+bear this awful silence of the mortals who were her only company. Yet
+her common sense came to her aid, and she realized that there was
+nothing for it but to make the best of things. So she took the blanket
+and, spreading it out, sat down upon it and wrapped it about her
+shoulders and feet. She would not lie down until she saw what the rest
+did. Somehow she shrank from asking the bronze man how to fold a blanket
+for a bed on the ground. She tried to remember what Gardley had told her
+about folding the blanket bed so as best to keep out snakes and ants.
+She shuddered at the thought of snakes. Would she dare call for help
+from those stolid companions of hers if a snake should attempt to molest
+her in the night? And would she ever dare to go to sleep?
+
+She remembered her first night in Arizona out among the stars, alone on
+the water-tank, and her first frenzy of loneliness. Was this as bad? No,
+for these Indians were trustworthy and well known by her dear friends.
+It might be unpleasant, but this, too, would pass and the morrow would
+soon be here.
+
+The dusk dropped down and the stars loomed out. All the world grew
+wonderful, like a blue jeweled dome of a palace with the lights turned
+low. The fire burned brightly as the man threw sticks upon it, and the
+two Indians moved stealthily about in the darkness, passing silhouetted
+before the fire this way and that, and then at last lying down wrapped
+in their blankets to sleep.
+
+It was very quiet about her. The air was so still she could hear the
+hobbled horses munching away in the distance, and moving now and then
+with the halting gait a hobble gives a horse. Off in the farther
+distance the blood-curdling howl of the coyotes rose, but Margaret was
+used to them, and knew they would not come near a fire.
+
+She was growing very weary, and at last wrapped her blanket closer and
+lay down, her head pillowed on one corner of it. Committing herself to
+her Heavenly Father, and breathing a prayer for father, mother, and
+lover, she fell asleep.
+
+It was still almost dark when she awoke. For a moment she thought it was
+still night and the sunset was not gone yet, the clouds were so rosy
+tinted.
+
+The squaw was standing by her, touching her shoulder roughly and
+grunting something. She perceived, as she rubbed her eyes and tried to
+summon back her senses, that she was expected to get up and eat
+breakfast. There was a smell of pork and coffee in the air, and there
+was scorched corn bread beside the fire on a pan.
+
+Margaret got up quickly and ran down to the water-hole to get some
+water, dashing it in her face and over her arms and hands, the squaw
+meanwhile standing at a little distance, watching her curiously, as if
+she thought this some kind of an oblation paid to the white woman's god
+before she ate. Margaret pulled the hair-pins out of her hair, letting
+it down and combing it with one of her side combs; twisted it up again
+in its soft, fluffy waves; straightened her collar, set on her hat, and
+was ready for the day. The squaw looked at her with both awe and
+contempt for a moment, then turned and stalked back to her papoose and
+began preparing it for the journey.
+
+Margaret made a hurried meal and was scarcely done before she found her
+guides were waiting like two pillars of the desert, but watching keenly,
+impatiently, her every mouthful, and anxious to be off.
+
+The sky was still pink-tinted with the semblance of a sunset, and
+Margaret felt, as she mounted her pony and followed her companions, as
+if the day was all turned upside down. She almost wondered whether she
+hadn't slept through a whole twenty-four hours, and it were not, after
+all, evening again, till by and by the sun rose clear and the wonder of
+the cloud-tinting melted into day.
+
+The road lay through sage-brush and old barren cedar-trees, with rabbits
+darting now and then between the rocks. Suddenly from the top of a
+little hill they came out to a spot where they could see far over the
+desert. Forty miles away three square, flat hills, or mesas, looked like
+a gigantic train of cars, and the clear air gave everything a strange
+vastness. Farther on beyond the mesas dimly dawned the Black Mountains.
+One could even see the shadowed head of "Round Rock," almost a hundred
+miles away. Before them and around was a great plain of sage-brush, and
+here and there was a small bush that the Indians call "the weed that was
+not scared." Margaret had learned all these things during her winter in
+Arizona, and keenly enjoyed the vast, splendid view spread before her.
+
+They passed several little mud-plastered hogans that Margaret knew for
+Indian dwellings. A fine band of ponies off in the distance made an
+interesting spot on the landscape, and twice they passed bands of sheep.
+She had a feeling of great isolation from everything she had ever known,
+and seemed going farther and farther from life and all she loved. Once
+she ventured to ask the Indian what time he expected to meet her
+friends, the missionaries, but he only shook his head and murmured
+something unintelligible about "Keams" and pointed to the sun. She
+dropped behind again, vaguely uneasy, she could not tell why. There
+seemed something so altogether sly and wary and unfriendly in the faces
+of the two that she almost wished she had not come. Yet the way was
+beautiful enough and nothing very unpleasant was happening to her. Once
+she dropped the envelope of her mother's letter and was about to
+dismount and recover it. Then some strange impulse made her leave it on
+the sand of the desert. What if they should be lost and that paper
+should guide them back? The notion stayed by her, and once in a while
+she dropped other bits of paper by the way.
+
+About noon the trail dropped off into a canon, with high, yellow-rock
+walls on either side, and stifling heat, so that she felt as if she
+could scarcely stand it. She was glad when they emerged once more and
+climbed to higher ground. The noon camp was a hasty affair, for the
+Indian seemed in a hurry. He scanned the horizon far and wide and
+seemed searching keenly for some one or something. Once they met a
+lonely Indian, and he held a muttered conversation with him, pointing
+off ahead and gesticulating angrily. But the words were unintelligible
+to Margaret. Her feeling of uneasiness was growing, and yet she could
+not for the life of her tell why, and laid it down to her tired nerves.
+She was beginning to think she had been very foolish to start on such a
+long trip before she had had a chance to get rested from her last days
+of school. She longed to lie down under a tree and sleep for days.
+
+Toward night they sighted a great blue mesa about fifty miles south, and
+at sunset they could just see the San Francisco peaks more than a
+hundred and twenty-five miles away. Margaret, as she stopped her horse
+and gazed, felt a choking in her heart and throat and a great desire to
+cry. The glory and awe of the mountains, mingled with her own weariness
+and nervous fear, were almost too much for her. She was glad to get down
+and eat a little supper and go to sleep again. As she fell asleep she
+comforted herself with repeating over a few precious words from her
+Bible:
+
+     "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him and
+     delivereth them. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is
+     stayed on Thee because he trusteth in Thee. I will both lay me down
+     in peace and sleep, for Thou Lord only makest me to dwell in
+     safety...."
+
+The voice of the coyotes, now far, now near, boomed out on the night;
+great stars shot dartling pathways across the heavens; the fire snapped
+and crackled, died down and flickered feebly; but Margaret slept, tired
+out, and dreamed the angels kept close vigil around her lowly couch.
+
+She did not know what time the stars disappeared and the rain began to
+fall. She was too tired to notice the drops that fell upon her face. Too
+tired to hear the coyotes coming nearer, nearer, yet in the morning
+there lay one dead, stretched not thirty feet from where she lay. The
+Indian had shot him through the heart.
+
+Somehow things looked very dismal that morning, in spite of the
+brightness of the sun after the rain. She was stiff and sore with lying
+in the dampness. Her hair was wet, her blanket was wet, and she woke
+without feeling rested. Almost the trip seemed more than she could bear.
+If she could have wished herself back that morning and have stayed at
+Tanners' all summer she certainly would have done it rather than to be
+where and how she was.
+
+The Indians seemed excited--the man grim and forbidding, the woman
+appealing, frightened, anxious. They were near to Keams Canon.
+"Aneshodi" would be somewhere about. The Indian hoped to be rid of his
+burden then and travel on his interrupted journey. He was growing
+impatient. He felt he had earned his money.
+
+But when they tried to go down Keam's Canon they found the road all
+washed away by flood, and must needs go a long way around. This made the
+Indian surly. His countenance was more forbidding than ever. Margaret,
+as she watched him with sinking heart, altered her ideas of the Indian
+as a whole to suit the situation. She had always felt pity for the poor
+Indian, whose land had been seized and whose kindred had been
+slaughtered. But this Indian was not an object of pity. He was the most
+disagreeable, cruel-looking Indian Margaret had ever laid eyes on. She
+had felt it innately the first time she saw him, but now, as the
+situation began to bring him out, she knew that she was dreadfully
+afraid of him. She had a feeling that he might scalp her if he got tired
+of her. She began to alter her opinion of Hazel Brownleigh's judgment as
+regarded Indians. She did not feel that she would ever send this Indian
+to any one for a guide and say he was perfectly trustworthy. He hadn't
+done anything very dreadful yet, but she felt he was going to.
+
+He had a number of angry confabs with his wife that morning. At least,
+he did the confabbing and the squaw protested. Margaret gathered after a
+while that it was something about herself. The furtive, frightened
+glances that the squaw cast in her direction sometimes, when the man was
+not looking, made her think so. She tried to say it was all imagination,
+and that her nerves were getting the upper hand of her, but in spite of
+her she shuddered sometimes, just as she had done when Rosa looked at
+her. She decided that she must be going to have a fit of sickness, and
+that just as soon as she got in the neighborhood of Mrs. Tanner's again
+she would pack her trunk and go home to her mother. If she was going to
+be sick she wanted her mother.
+
+About noon things came to a climax. They halted on the top of the mesa,
+and the Indians had another altercation, which ended in the man
+descending the trail a fearfully steep way, down four hundred feet to
+the trading-post in the canon. Margaret looked down and gasped and
+thanked a kind Providence that had not made it necessary for her to make
+that descent; but the squaw stood at the top with her baby and looked
+down in silent sorrow--agony perhaps would be a better name. Her face
+was terrible to look upon.
+
+Margaret could not understand it, and she went to the woman and put her
+hand out sympathetically, asking, gently: "What is the matter, you poor
+little thing? Oh, what is it?"
+
+Perhaps the woman understood the tenderness in the tone, for she
+suddenly turned and rested her forehead against Margaret's shoulder,
+giving one great, gasping sob, then lifted her dry, miserable eyes to
+the girl's face as if to thank her for her kindness.
+
+Margaret's heart was touched. She threw her arms around the poor woman
+and drew her, papoose and all, comfortingly toward her, patting her
+shoulder and saying gentle, soothing words as she would to a little
+child. And by and by the woman lifted her head again, the tears coursing
+down her face, and tried to explain, muttering her queer gutturals and
+making eloquent gestures until Margaret felt she understood. She
+gathered that the man had gone down to the trading-post to find the
+"Aneshodi," and that the squaw feared that he would somehow procure
+firewater either from the trader or from some Indian he might meet, and
+would come back angrier than he had gone, and without his money.
+
+If Margaret also suspected that the Indian had desired to get rid of her
+by leaving her at that desolate little trading-station down in the canon
+until such time as her friends should call for her, she resolutely put
+the thought out of her mind and set herself to cheer the poor Indian
+woman.
+
+She took a bright, soft, rosy silk tie from her own neck and knotted it
+about the astonished woman's dusky throat, and then she put a silver
+dollar in her hand, and was thrilled with wonder to see what a change
+came over the poor, dark face. It reminded her of Mom Wallis when she
+got on her new bonnet, and once again she felt the thrill of knowing the
+whole world kin.
+
+The squaw cheered up after a little, got sticks and made a fire, and
+together they had quite a pleasant meal. Margaret exerted herself to
+make the poor woman laugh, and finally succeeded by dangling a
+bright-red knight from her chessmen in front of the delighted baby's
+eyes till he gurgled out a real baby crow of joy.
+
+It was the middle of the afternoon before the Indian returned, sitting
+crazily his struggling beast as he climbed the trail once more.
+Margaret, watching, caught her breath and prayed. Was this the
+trustworthy man, this drunken, reeling creature, clubbing his horse and
+pouring forth a torrent of indistinguishable gutturals? It was evident
+that his wife's worst fears were verified. He had found the firewater.
+
+The frightened squaw set to work putting things together as fast as she
+could. She well knew what to expect, and when the man reached the top of
+the mesa he found his party packed and mounted, waiting fearsomely to
+take the trail.
+
+Silently, timorously, they rode behind him, west across the great wide
+plain.
+
+In the distance gradually there appeared dim mesas like great fingers
+stretching out against the sky; miles away they seemed, and nothing
+intervening but a stretch of varying color where sage-brush melted into
+sand, and sage-brush and greasewood grew again, with tall cactus
+startling here and there like bayonets at rest but bristling with
+menace.
+
+The Indian had grown silent and sullen. His eyes were like deep fires of
+burning volcanoes. One shrank from looking at them. His massive, cruel
+profile stood out like bronze against the evening sky. It was growing
+night again, and still they had not come to anywhere or anything, and
+still her friends seemed just as far away.
+
+Since they had left the top of Keams Canon Margaret had been sure all
+was not right. Aside from the fact that the guide was drunk at present,
+she was convinced that there had been something wrong with him all
+along. He did not act like the Indians around Ashland. He did not act
+like a trusted guide that her friends would send for her. She wished
+once more that she had kept Hazel Brownleigh's letter. She wondered how
+her friends would find her if they came after her. It was then she began
+in earnest to systematically plan to leave a trail behind her all the
+rest of the way. If she had only done it thoroughly when she first began
+to be uneasy. But now she was so far away, so many miles from anywhere!
+Oh, if she had not come at all!
+
+And first she dropped her handkerchief, because she happened to have it
+in her hand--a dainty thing with lace on the edge and her name written
+in tiny script by her mother's careful hand on the narrow hem. And then
+after a little, as soon as she could scrawl it without being noticed,
+she wrote a note which she twisted around the neck of a red chessman,
+and left behind her. After that scraps of paper, as she could reach them
+out of the bag tied on behind her saddle; then a stocking, a bedroom
+slipper, more chessmen, and so, when they halted at dusk and prepared to
+strike camp, she had quite a good little trail blazed behind her over
+that wide, empty plain. She shuddered as she looked into the gathering
+darkness ahead, where those long, dark lines of mesas looked like
+barriers in the way. Then, suddenly, the Indian pointed ahead to the
+first mesa and uttered one word--"Walpi!" So that was the Indian village
+to which she was bound? What was before her on the morrow? After eating
+a pretense of supper she lay down. The Indian had more firewater with
+him. He drank, he uttered cruel gutturals at his squaw, and even kicked
+the feet of the sleeping papoose as he passed by till it awoke and cried
+sharply, which made him more angry, so he struck the squaw.
+
+It seemed hours before all was quiet. Margaret's nerves were strained to
+such a pitch she scarcely dared to breathe, but at last, when the fire
+had almost died down, the man lay quiet, and she could relax and close
+her eyes.
+
+Not to sleep. She must not go to sleep. The fire was almost gone and the
+coyotes would be around. She must wake and watch!
+
+That was the last thought she remembered--that and a prayer that the
+angels would keep watch once again.
+
+When she awoke it was broad daylight and far into the morning, for the
+sun was high overhead and the mesas in the distance were clear and
+distinct against the sky.
+
+She sat up and looked about her, bewildered, not knowing at first where
+she was. It was so still and wide and lonely.
+
+She turned to find the Indians, but there was no trace of them anywhere.
+The fire lay smoldering in its place, a thin trickle of smoke curling
+away from a dying stick, but that was all. A tin cup half full of coffee
+was beside the stick, and a piece of blackened corn bread. She turned
+frightened eyes to east, to west, to north, to south, but there was no
+one in sight, and out over the distant mesa there poised a great eagle
+alone in the vast sky keeping watch over the brilliant, silent waste.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+
+When Margaret was a very little girl her father and mother had left her
+alone for an hour with a stranger while they went out to make a call in
+a strange city through which they were passing on a summer trip. The
+stranger was kind, and gave to the child a large green box of bits of
+old black lace and purple ribbons to play with, but she turned
+sorrowfully from the somber array of finery, which was the only thing in
+the way of a plaything the woman had at hand, and stood looking drearily
+out of the window on the strange, new town, a feeling of utter
+loneliness upon her. Her little heart was almost choked with the
+awfulness of the thought that she was a human atom drifted apart from
+every other atom she had ever known, that she had a personality and a
+responsibility of her own, and that she must face this thought of
+herself and her aloneness for evermore. It was the child's first
+realization that she was a separate being apart from her father and
+mother, and she was almost consumed with the terror of it.
+
+As she rose now from her bed on the ground and looked out across that
+vast waste, in which the only other living creature was that sinister,
+watching eagle, the same feeling returned to her and made her tremble
+like the little child who had turned from her box of ancient finery to
+realize her own little self and its terrible aloneness.
+
+For an instant even her realization of God, which had from early
+childhood been present with her, seemed to have departed. She could not
+grasp anything save the vast empty silence that loomed about her so
+awfully. She was alone, and about as far from anywhere or anything as
+she could possibly be in the State of Arizona. Would she ever get back
+to human habitations? Would her friends ever be able to find her?
+
+Then her heart flew back to its habitual refuge, and she spoke aloud and
+said, "God is here!" and the thought seemed to comfort her. She looked
+about once more on the bright waste, and now it did not seem so dreary.
+
+"God is here!" she repeated, and tried to realize that this was a part
+of His habitation. She could not be lost where God was. He knew the way
+out. She had only to trust. So she dropped upon her knees in the sand
+and prayed for trust and courage.
+
+When she rose again she walked steadily to a height a little above the
+camp-fire, and, shading her eyes, looked carefully in every direction.
+No, there was not a sign of her recent companions. They must have stolen
+away in the night quite soon after she fell asleep, and have gone fast
+and far, so that they were now beyond the reach of her eyes, and not
+anywhere was there sign of living thing, save that eagle still sweeping
+in great curves and poising again above the distant mesa.
+
+Where was her horse? Had the Indians taken that, too? She searched the
+valley, but saw no horse at first. With sinking heart she went back to
+where her things were and sat down by the dying fire to think, putting a
+few loose twigs and sticks together to keep the embers bright while she
+could. She reflected that she had no matches, and this was probably the
+last fire she would have until somebody came to her rescue or she got
+somewhere by herself. What was she to do? Stay right where she was or
+start out on foot? And should she go backward or forward? Surely, surely
+the Brownleighs would miss her pretty soon and send out a search-party
+for her. How could it be that they trusted an Indian who had done such a
+cruel thing as to leave a woman unprotected in the desert? And yet,
+perhaps, they did not know his temptation to drink. Perhaps they had
+thought he could not get any firewater. Perhaps he would return when he
+came to himself and realized what he had done.
+
+And now she noticed what she had not seen at first--a small bottle of
+water on a stone beside the blackened bread. Realizing that she was very
+hungry and that this was the only food at hand, she sat down beside the
+fire to eat the dry bread and drink the miserable coffee. She must have
+strength to do whatever was before her. She tried not to think how her
+mother would feel if she never came back, how anxious they would be as
+they waited day by day for her letters that did not come. She reflected
+with a sinking heart that she had, just before leaving, written a hasty
+note to her mother telling her not to expect anything for several days,
+perhaps even as much as two weeks, as she was going out of civilization
+for a little while. How had she unwittingly sealed her fate by that! For
+now not even by way of her alarmed home could help come to her.
+
+She put the last bit of hard corn bread in her pocket for a further time
+of need, and began to look about her again. Then she spied with delight
+a moving object far below her in the valley, and decided it was a horse,
+perhaps her own. He was a mile away, at least, but he was there, and she
+cried out with sudden joy and relief.
+
+She went over to her blanket and bags, which had been beside her during
+the night, and stood a moment trying to think what to do. Should she
+carry the things to the horse or risk leaving them here while she went
+after the horse and brought him to the things? No, that would not be
+safe. Some one might come along and take them, or she might not be able
+to find her way back again in this strange, wild waste. Besides, she
+might not get the horse, after all, and would lose everything. She must
+carry her things to the horse. She stooped to gather them up, and
+something bright beside her bag attracted her. It was the sun shining on
+the silver dollar she had given to the Indian woman. A sudden rush of
+tears came to her eyes. The poor creature had tried to make all the
+reparation she could for thus hastily leaving the white woman in the
+desert. She had given back the money--all she had that was valuable!
+Beside the dollar rippled a little chain of beads curiously wrought, an
+inanimate appeal for forgiveness and a grateful return for the kindness
+shown her. Margaret smiled as she stooped again to pick up her things.
+There had been a heart, after all, behind that stolid countenance, and
+some sense of righteousness and justice. Margaret decided that Indians
+were not all treacherous. Poor woman! What a life was hers--to follow
+her grim lord whither he would lead, even as her white sister must
+sometimes, sorrowing, rebelling, crying out, but following! She wondered
+if into the heart of this dark sister there ever crept any of the
+rebellion which led some of her white sisters to cry aloud for "rights"
+and "emancipation."
+
+But it was all a passing thought to be remembered and turned over at a
+more propitious time. Margaret's whole thoughts now were bent on her
+present predicament.
+
+The packing was short work. She stuffed everything into the two bags
+that were usually hung across the horse, and settled them carefully
+across her shoulders. Then she rolled the blanket, took it in her arms,
+and started. It was a heavy burden to carry, but she could not make up
+her mind to part with any of her things until she had at least made an
+effort to save them. If she should be left alone in the desert for the
+night the blanket was indispensable, and her clothes would at least do
+to drop as a trail by which her friends might find her. She must carry
+them as far as possible. So she started.
+
+It was already high day, and the sun was intolerably hot. Her heavy
+burden was not only cumbersome, but very warm, and she felt her strength
+going from her as she went; but her nerve was up and her courage was
+strong. Moreover, she prayed as she walked, and she felt now the
+presence of her Guide and was not afraid. As she walked she faced a
+number of possibilities in the immediate future which were startling,
+and to say the least, undesirable. There were wild animals in this land,
+not so much in the daylight, but what of the night? She had heard that a
+woman was always safe in that wild Western land; but what of the
+prowling Indians? What of a possible exception to the Western rule of
+chivalry toward a decent woman? One small piece of corn bread and less
+than a pint of water were small provision on which to withstand a siege.
+How far was it to anywhere?
+
+It was then she remembered for the first time that one word--"Walpi!"
+uttered by the Indian as he came to a halt the night before and pointed
+far to the mesa--"Walpi." She lifted her eyes now and scanned the dark
+mesa. It loomed like a great battlement of rock against the sky. Could
+it be possible there were people dwelling there? She had heard, of
+course, about the curious Hopi villages, each village a gigantic house
+of many rooms, called pueblos, built upon the lofty crags, sometimes
+five or six hundred feet above the desert.
+
+Could it be that that great castle-looking outline against the sky
+before her, standing out on the end of the mesa like a promontory above
+the sea, was Walpi? And if it was, how was she to get up there? The rock
+rose sheer and steep from the desert floor. The narrow neck of land
+behind it looked like a slender thread. Her heart sank at thought of
+trying to storm and enter, single-handed, such an impregnable fortress.
+And yet, if her friends were there, perhaps they would see her when she
+drew near and come to show her the way. Strange that they should have
+gone on and left her with those treacherous Indians! Strange that they
+should have trusted them so, in the first place! Her own instincts had
+been against trusting the man from the beginning. It must be confessed
+that during her reflections at this point her opinion of the wisdom and
+judgment of the Brownleighs was lowered several notches. Then she began
+to berate herself for having so easily been satisfied about her escort.
+She should have read the letter more carefully. She should have asked
+the Indians more questions. She should, perhaps, have asked Jasper
+Kemp's advice, or got him to talk to the Indian. She wished with all her
+heart for Bud, now. If Bud were along he would be saying some comical
+boy-thing, and be finding a way out of the difficulty. Dear, faithful
+Bud!
+
+The sun rose higher and the morning grew hotter. As she descended to the
+valley her burdens grew intolerable, and several times she almost cast
+them aside. Once she lost sight of her pony among the sage-brush, and it
+was two hours before she came to him and was able to capture him and
+strap on her burdens. She was almost too exhausted to climb into the
+saddle when all was ready; but she managed to mount at last and started
+out toward the rugged crag ahead of her.
+
+The pony had a long, hot climb out of the valley to a hill where she
+could see very far again, but still that vast emptiness reigned. Even
+the eagle had disappeared, and she fancied he must be resting like a
+great emblem of freedom on one of the points of the castle-like
+battlement against the sky. It seemed as if the end of the world had
+come, and she was the only one left in the universe, forgotten, riding
+on her weary horse across an endless desert in search of a home she
+would never see again.
+
+Below the hill there stretched a wide, white strip of sand, perhaps two
+miles in extent, but shimmering in the sun and seeming to recede ahead
+of her as she advanced. Beyond was soft greenness--something
+growing--not near enough to be discerned as cornfields. The girl drooped
+her tired head upon her horse's mane and wept, her courage going from
+her with her tears. In all that wide universe there seemed no way to go,
+and she was so very tired, hungry, hot, and discouraged! There was
+always that bit of bread in her pocket and that muddy-looking, warm
+water for a last resort; but she must save them as long as possible, for
+there was no telling how long it would be before she had more.
+
+There was no trail now to follow. She had started from the spot where
+she had found the horse, and her inexperienced eyes could not have
+searched out a trail if she had tried. She was going toward that distant
+castle on the crag as to a goal, but when she reached it, if she ever
+did, would she find anything there but crags and lonesomeness and the
+eagle?
+
+Drying her tears at last, she started the horse on down the hill, and
+perhaps her tears blinded her, or because she was dizzy with hunger and
+the long stretch of anxiety and fatigue she was not looking closely.
+There was a steep place, a sharp falling away of the ground unexpectedly
+as they emerged from a thicket of sage-brush, and the horse plunged
+several feet down, striking sharply on some loose rocks, and slipping to
+his knees; snorting, scrambling, making brave effort, but slipping, half
+rolling, at last he was brought down with his frightened rider, and lay
+upon his side with her foot under him and a sensation like a red-hot
+knife running through her ankle.
+
+Margaret caught her breath in quick gasps as they fell, lifting a prayer
+in her heart for help. Then came the crash and the sharp pain, and with
+a quick conviction that all was over she dropped back unconscious on the
+sand, a blessed oblivion of darkness rushing over her.
+
+When she came to herself once more the hot sun was pouring down upon her
+unprotected face, and she was conscious of intense pain and suffering in
+every part of her body. She opened her eyes wildly and looked around.
+There was sage-brush up above, waving over the crag down which they had
+fallen, its gray-greenness shimmering hotly in the sun; the sky was
+mercilessly blue without a cloud. The great beast, heavy and quivering,
+lay solidly against her, half pinning her to earth, and the helplessness
+of her position was like an awful nightmare from which she felt she
+might waken if she could only cry out. But when at last she raised her
+voice its empty echo frightened her, and there, above her, with
+wide-spread wings, circling for an instant, then poised in motionless
+survey of her, with cruel eyes upon her, loomed that eagle--so large, so
+fearful, so suggestive in its curious stare, the monarch of the desert
+come to see who had invaded his precincts and fallen into one of his
+snares.
+
+With sudden frenzy burning in her veins Margaret struggled and tried to
+get free, but she could only move the slightest bit each time, and every
+motion was an agony to the hurt ankle.
+
+It seemed hours before she writhed herself free from that great,
+motionless horse, whose labored breath only showed that he was still
+alive. Something terrible must have happened to the horse or he would
+have tried to rise, for she had coaxed, patted, cajoled, tried in every
+way to rouse him. When at last she crawled free from the hot, horrible
+body and crept with pained progress around in front of him, she saw that
+both his forelegs lay limp and helpless. He must have broken them in
+falling. Poor fellow! He, too, was suffering and she had nothing to give
+him! There was nothing she could do for him!
+
+Then she thought of the bottle of water, but, searching for it, found
+that her good intention of dividing it with him was useless, for the
+bottle was broken and the water already soaked into the sand. Only a
+damp spot on the saddle-bag showed where it had departed.
+
+Then indeed did Margaret sink down in the sand in despair and begin to
+pray as she had never prayed before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+
+The morning after Margaret's departure Rosa awoke with no feelings of
+self-reproach, but rather a great exultation at the way in which she had
+been able to get rid of her rival.
+
+She lay for a few minutes thinking of Forsythe, and trying to decide
+what she would wear when she went forth to meet him, for she wanted to
+charm him as she had never charmed any one before.
+
+She spent some time arraying herself in different costumes, but at last
+decided on her Commencement gown of fine white organdie,
+hand-embroidered and frilled with filmy lace, the product of a famous
+house of gowns in the Eastern city where she had attended school for a
+while and acquired expensive tastes.
+
+Daintily slippered, beribboned with coral-silk girdle, and with a rose
+from the vine over her window in her hair, she sallied forth at last to
+the trysting-place.
+
+Forsythe was a whole hour late, as became a languid gentleman who had
+traveled the day before and idled at his sister's house over a late
+breakfast until nearly noon. Already his fluttering fancy was apathetic
+about Rosa, and he wondered, as he rode along, what had become of the
+interesting young teacher who had charmed him for more than a passing
+moment. Would he dare to call upon her, now that Gardley was out of the
+way? Was she still in Ashland or had she gone home for vacation? He must
+ask Rosa about her.
+
+Then he came in sight of Rosa sitting picturesquely in the shade of an
+old cedar, reading poetry, a little lady in the wilderness, and he
+forgot everything else in his delight over the change in her. For Rosa
+had changed. There was no mistake about it. She had bloomed out into
+maturity in those few short months of his absence. Her soft figure had
+rounded and developed, her bewitching curls were put up on her head,
+with only a stray tendril here and there to emphasize a dainty ear or
+call attention to a smooth, round neck; and when she raised her lovely
+head and lifted limpid eyes to his there was about her a demureness, a
+coolness and charm that he had fancied only ladies of the city could
+attain. Oh, Rosa knew her charms, and had practised many a day before
+her mirror till she had appraised the value of every curving eyelash,
+every hidden dimple, every cupid's curve of lip. Rosa had watched well
+and learned from all with whom she had come in contact. No woman's guile
+was left untried by her.
+
+And Rosa was very sweet and charming. She knew just when to lift up
+innocent eyes of wonder; when to not understand suggestions; when to
+exclaim softly with delight or shrink with shyness that nevertheless did
+not repulse.
+
+Forsythe studied her with wonder and delight. No maiden of the city had
+ever charmed him more, and withal she seemed so innocent and young, so
+altogether pliable in his hands. His pulses beat high, his heart was
+inflamed, and passion came and sat within his handsome eyes.
+
+It was easy to persuade her, after her first seemingly shy reserve was
+overcome, and before an hour was passed she had promised to go away with
+him. He had very little money, but what of that? When he spoke of that
+feature Rosa declared she could easily get some. Her father gave her
+free access to his safe, and kept her plentifully supplied for the
+household use. It was nothing to her--a passing incident. What should it
+matter whose money took them on their way?
+
+When she went demurely back to the ranch a little before sunset she
+thought she was very happy, poor little silly sinner! She met her father
+with her most alluring but most furtive smile. She was charming at
+supper, and blushed as her mother used to do when he praised her new
+gown and told her how well she looked in it. But she professed to be
+weary yet from the last days of school--to have a headache--and so she
+went early to her room and asked that the servants keep the house quiet
+in the morning, that she might sleep late and get really rested. Her
+father kissed her tenderly and thought what a dear child she was and
+what a comfort to his ripening years; and the house settled down into
+quiet.
+
+Rosa packed a bag with some of her most elaborate garments, arrayed
+herself in a charming little outfit of silk for the journey, dropped her
+baggage out of the window; and when the moon rose and the household were
+quietly sleeping she paid a visit to her father's safe, and then stole
+forth, taking her shadowy way to the trail by a winding route known well
+to herself and secure from the watch of vigilant servants who were ever
+on the lookout for cattle thieves.
+
+Thus she left her father's house and went forth to put her trust in a
+man whose promises were as ropes of sand and whose fancy was like a wave
+of the sea, tossed to and fro by every breath that blew. Long ere the
+sun rose the next morning the guarded, beloved child was as far from her
+safe home and her father's sheltering love as if alone she had started
+for the mouth of the bottomless pit. Two days later, while Margaret lay
+unconscious beneath the sage-brush, with a hovering eagle for watch,
+Rosa in the streets of a great city suddenly realized that she was more
+alone in the universe than ever she could have been in a wide desert,
+and her plight was far worse than the girl's with whose fate she had so
+lightly played.
+
+Quite early on the morning after Rosa left, while the household was
+still keeping quiet for the supposed sleeper, Gardley rode into the
+inclosure about the house and asked for Rogers.
+
+Gardley had been traveling night and day to get back. Matters had
+suddenly arranged themselves so that he could finish up his business at
+his old home and go on to see Margaret's father and mother, and he had
+made his visit there and hurried back to Arizona, hoping to reach
+Ashland in time for Commencement. A delay on account of a washout on the
+road had brought him back two days late for Commencement. He had ridden
+to camp from a junction forty miles away to get there the sooner, and
+this morning had ridden straight to the Tanners' to surprise Margaret.
+It was, therefore, a deep disappointment to find her gone and only Mrs.
+Tanner's voluble explanations for comfort. Mrs. Tanner exhausted her
+vocabulary in trying to describe the "Injuns," her own feeling of
+protest against them, and Mrs. Brownleigh's foolishness in making so
+much of them; and then she bustled in to the old pine desk in the
+dining-room and produced the letter that had started Margaret off as
+soon as commencement was over.
+
+Gardley took the letter eagerly, as though it were something to connect
+him with Margaret, and read it through carefully to make sure just how
+matters stood. He had looked troubled when Mrs. Tanner told how tired
+Margaret was, and how worried she seemed about her school and glad to
+get away from it all; and he agreed that the trip was probably a good
+thing.
+
+"I wish Bud could have gone along, though," he said, thoughtfully, as he
+turned away from the door. "I don't like her to go with just Indians,
+though I suppose it is all right. You say he had his wife and child
+along? Of course Mrs. Brownleigh wouldn't send anybody that wasn't
+perfectly all right. Well, I suppose the trip will be a rest for her.
+I'm sorry I didn't get home a few days sooner. I might have looked out
+for her myself."
+
+He rode away from the Tanners', promising to return later with a gift he
+had brought for Bud that he wanted to present himself, and Mrs. Tanner
+bustled back to her work again.
+
+"Well, I'm glad he's got home, anyway," she remarked, aloud, to herself
+as she hung her dish-cloth tidily over the upturned dish-pan and took up
+her broom. "I 'ain't felt noways easy 'bout her sence she left, though I
+do suppose there ain't any sense to it. But I'm _glad he's back_!"
+
+Meantime Gardley was riding toward Rogers's ranch, meditating whether he
+should venture to follow the expedition and enjoy at least the return
+trip with Margaret, or whether he ought to remain patiently until she
+came back and go to work at once. There was nothing really important
+demanding his attention immediately, for Rogers had arranged to keep the
+present overseer of affairs until he was ready to undertake the work. He
+was on his way now to report on a small business matter which he had
+been attending to in New York for Rogers. When that was over he would be
+free to do as he pleased for a few days more if he liked, and the
+temptation was great to go at once to Margaret.
+
+As he stood waiting beside his horse in front of the house while the
+servant went to call Rogers, he looked about with delight on the beauty
+of the day. How glad he was to be back in Arizona again! Was it the
+charm of the place or because Margaret was there, he wondered, that he
+felt so happy? By all means he must follow her. Why should he not?
+
+He looked at the clambering rose-vine that covered one end of the house,
+and noticed how it crept close to the window casement and caressed the
+white curtain as it blew. Margaret must have such a vine at her window
+in the house he would build for her. It might be but a modest house that
+he could give her now, but it should have a rose-vine just like that;
+and he would train it round her window where she could smell the
+fragrance from it every morning when she awoke, and where it would
+breathe upon her as she slept.
+
+Margaret! How impatient he was to see her again! To look upon her dear
+face and know that she was his! That her father and mother had been
+satisfied about him and sent their blessing, and he might tell her so.
+It was wonderful! His heart thrilled with the thought of it. Of course
+he would go to her at once. He would start as soon as Rogers was through
+with him. He would go to Ganado. No, Keams. Which was it? He drew the
+letter out of his pocket and read it again, then replaced it.
+
+The fluttering curtain up at the window blew out and in, and when it
+blew out again it brought with it a flurry of papers like white leaves.
+The curtain had knocked over a paper-weight or vase or something that
+held them and set the papers free. The breeze caught them and flung them
+about erratically, tossing one almost at his feet. He stooped to pick it
+up, thinking it might be of value to some one, and caught the name
+"Margaret" and "Dear Margaret" written several times on the sheet, with
+"Walpi, Walpi, Walpi," filling the lower half of the page, as if some
+one had been practising it.
+
+And because these two words were just now keenly in his mind he reached
+for the second paper just a foot or two away and found more sentences
+and words. A third paper contained an exact reproduction of the letter
+which Mrs. Tanner had given him purporting to come from Mrs. Brownleigh
+to Margaret. What could it possibly mean?
+
+In great astonishment he pulled out the other letter and compared them.
+They were almost identical save for a word here and there crossed out
+and rewritten. He stood looking mutely at the papers and then up at the
+window, as though an explanation might somehow be wafted down to him,
+not knowing what to think, his mind filled with vague alarm.
+
+Just at that moment the servant appeared.
+
+"Mr. Rogers says would you mind coming down to the corral. Miss Rosa has
+a headache, and we're keeping the house still for her to sleep. That's
+her window up there--" And he indicated the rose-bowered window with the
+fluttering curtain.
+
+Dazed and half suspicious of something, Gardley folded the two letters
+together and crushed them into his pocket, wondering what he ought to do
+about it. The thought of it troubled him so that he only half gave
+attention to the business in hand; but he gave his report and handed
+over certain documents. He was thinking that perhaps he ought to see
+Miss Rosa and find out what she knew of Margaret's going and ask how she
+came in possession of this other letter.
+
+"Now," said Rogers, as the matter was concluded, "I owe you some money.
+If you'll just step up to the house with me I'll give it to you. I'd
+like to settle matters up at once."
+
+"Oh, let it go till I come again," said Gardley, impatient to be off. He
+wanted to get by himself and think out a solution of the two letters. He
+was more than uneasy about Margaret without being able to give any
+suitable explanation of why he should be. His main desire now was to
+ride to Ganado and find out if the missionaries had left home, which way
+they had gone, and whether they had met Margaret as planned.
+
+"No, step right up to the house with me," insisted Rogers. "It won't
+take long, and I have the money in my safe."
+
+Gardley saw that the quickest way was to please Rogers, and he did not
+wish to arouse any questions, because he supposed, of course, his alarm
+was mere foolishness. So they went together into Rogers's private
+office, where his desk and safe were the principal furniture, and where
+no servants ventured to come without orders.
+
+Rogers shoved a chair for Gardley and went over to his safe, turning the
+little nickel knob this way and that with the skill of one long
+accustomed, and in a moment the thick door swung open and Rogers drew
+out a japanned cash-box and unlocked it. But when he threw the cover
+back he uttered an exclamation of angry surprise. The box was empty!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+
+Mr. Rogers strode to the door, forgetful of his sleeping daughter
+overhead, and thundered out his call for James. The servant appeared at
+once, but he knew nothing about the safe, and had not been in the office
+that morning. Other servants were summoned and put through a rigid
+examination. Then Rogers turned to the woman who had answered the door
+for Gardley and sent her up to call Rosa.
+
+But the woman returned presently with word that Miss Rosa was not in her
+room, and there was no sign that her bed had been slept in during the
+night. The woman's face was sullen. She did not like Rosa, but was
+afraid of her. This to her was only another of Miss Rosa's pranks, and
+very likely her doting father would manage to blame the servants with
+the affair.
+
+Mr. Rogers's face grew stern. His eyes flashed angrily as he turned and
+strode up the stairs to his daughter's room, but when he came down again
+he was holding a note in his trembling hand and his face was ashen
+white.
+
+"Read that, Gardley," he said, thrusting the note into Gardley's hands
+and motioning at the same time for the servants to go away.
+
+Gardley took the note, yet even as he read he noticed that the paper
+was the same as those he carried in his pocket. There was a peculiar
+watermark that made it noticeable.
+
+The note was a flippant little affair from Rosa, telling her father she
+had gone away to be married and that she would let him know where she
+was as soon as they were located. She added that he had forced her to
+this step by being so severe with her and not allowing her lover to come
+to see her. If he had been reasonable she would have stayed at home and
+let him give her a grand wedding; but as it was she had only this way of
+seeking her happiness. She added that she knew he would forgive her, and
+she hoped he would come to see that her way had been best, and Forsythe
+was all that he could desire as a son-in-law.
+
+Gardley uttered an exclamation of dismay as he read, and, looking up,
+found the miserable eyes of the stricken father upon him. For the moment
+his own alarm concerning Margaret and his perplexity about the letters
+was forgotten in the grief of the man who had been his friend.
+
+"When did she go?" asked Gardley, quickly looking up.
+
+"She took supper with me and then went to her room, complaining of a
+headache," said the father, his voice showing his utter hopelessness.
+"She may have gone early in the evening, perhaps, for we all turned in
+about nine o'clock to keep the house quiet on her account."
+
+"Have you any idea which way they went, east or west?" Gardley was the
+keen adviser in a crisis now, his every sense on the alert.
+
+The old man shook his head. "It is too late now," he said, still in that
+colorless voice. "They will have reached the railroad somewhere. They
+will have been married by this time. See, it is after ten o'clock!"
+
+"Yes, if he marries her," said Gardley, fiercely. He had no faith in
+Forsythe.
+
+"You think--you don't think he would _dare_!" The old man straightened
+up and fairly blazed in his righteous wrath.
+
+"I think he would dare anything if he thought he would not be caught. He
+is a coward, of course."
+
+"What can we do?"
+
+"Telegraph to detectives at all points where they would be likely to
+arrive and have them shadowed. Come, we will ride to the station at
+once; but, first, could I go up in her room and look around? There might
+be some clue."
+
+"Certainly," said Rogers, pointing hopelessly up the stairs; "the first
+door to the left. But you'll find nothing. I looked everywhere. She
+wouldn't have left a clue. While you're up there I'll interview the
+servants. Then we'll go."
+
+As he went up-stairs Gardley was wondering whether he ought to tell
+Rogers of the circumstance of the two letters. What possible connection
+could there be between Margaret Earle's trip to Walpi with the
+Brownleighs and Rosa Rogers's elopement? When you come to think of it,
+what possible explanation was there for a copy of Mrs. Brownleigh's
+letter to blow out of Rosa Rogers's bedroom window? How could it have
+got there?
+
+Rosa's room was in beautiful order, the roses nodding in at the window,
+the curtain blowing back and forth in the breeze and rippling open the
+leaves of a tiny Testament lying on her desk, as if it had been recently
+read. There was nothing to show that the owner of the room had taken a
+hasty flight. On the desk lay several sheets of note-paper with the
+peculiar watermark. These caught his attention, and he took them up and
+compared them with the papers in his pocket. It was a strange thing that
+that letter which had sent Margaret off into the wilderness with an
+unknown Indian should be written on the same kind of paper as this; and
+yet, perhaps, it was not so strange, after all. It probably was the only
+note-paper to be had in that region, and must all have been purchased at
+the same place.
+
+The rippling leaves of the Testament fluttered open at the fly-leaf and
+revealed Rosa's name and a date with Mrs. Brownleigh's name written
+below, and Gardley took it up, startled again to find Hazel Brownleigh
+mixed up with the Rogers. He had not known that they had anything to do
+with each other. And yet, of course, they would, being the missionaries
+of the region.
+
+The almost empty waste-basket next caught his eye, and here again were
+several sheets of paper written over with words and phrases, words which
+at once he recognized as part of the letter Mrs. Tanner had given him.
+He emptied the waste-basket out on the desk, thinking perhaps there
+might be something there that would give a clue to where the elopers had
+gone; but there was not much else in it except a little yellowed note
+with the signature "Hazel Brownleigh" at the bottom. He glanced through
+the brief note, gathered its purport, and then spread it out
+deliberately on the desk and compared the writing with the others, a
+wild fear clutching at his heart. Yet he could not in any way explain
+why he was so uneasy. What possible reason could Rosa Rogers have for
+forging a letter to Margaret from Hazel Brownleigh?
+
+Suddenly Rogers stood behind him looking over his shoulder. "What is it,
+Gardley? What have you found? Any clue?"
+
+"No clue," said Gardley, uneasily, "but something strange I cannot
+understand. I don't suppose it can possibly have anything to do with
+your daughter, and yet it seems almost uncanny. This morning I stopped
+at the Tanners' to let Miss Earle know I had returned, and was told she
+had gone yesterday with a couple of Indians as guide to meet the
+Brownleighs at Keams or somewhere near there, and take a trip with them
+to Walpi to see the Hopi Indians. Mrs. Tanner gave me this letter from
+Mrs. Brownleigh, which Miss Earle had left behind. But when I reached
+here and was waiting for you some papers blew out of your daughter's
+window. When I picked them up I was startled to find that one of them
+was an exact copy of the letter I had in my pocket. See! Here they are!
+I don't suppose there is anything to it, but in spite of me I am a
+trifle uneasy about Miss Earle. I just can't understand how that copy of
+the letter came to be here."
+
+Rogers was leaning over, looking at the papers. "What's this?" he asked,
+picking up the note that came with the Testament. He read each paper
+carefully, took in the little Testament with its fluttering fly-leaf
+and inscription, studied the pages of words and alphabet, then suddenly
+turned away and groaned, hiding his face in his hands.
+
+"What is it?" asked Gardley, awed with the awful sorrow in the strong
+man's attitude.
+
+"My poor baby!" groaned the father. "My poor little baby girl! I've
+always been afraid of that fatal gift of hers. Gardley, she could copy
+any handwriting in the world perfectly. She could write my name so it
+could not be told from my own signature. She's evidently written that
+letter. Why, I don't know, unless she wanted to get Miss Earle out of
+the way so it would be easier for her to carry out her plans."
+
+"It can't be!" said Gardley, shaking his head. "I can't see what her
+object would be. Besides, where would she find the Indians? Mrs. Tanner
+saw the Indians. They came to the school after her with the letter, and
+waited for her. Mrs. Tanner saw them ride off together."
+
+"There were a couple of strange Indians here yesterday, begging
+something to eat," said Rogers, settling down on a chair and resting his
+head against the desk as if he had suddenly lost the strength to stand.
+
+"This won't do!" said Gardley. "We've got to get down to the
+telegraph-office, you and I. Now try to brace up. Are the horses ready?
+Then we'll go right away."
+
+"You better question the servants about those Indians first," said
+Rogers; and Gardley, as he hurried down the stairs, heard groan after
+groan from Rosa's room, where her father lingered in agony.
+
+Gardley got all the information he could about the Indians, and then the
+two men started away on a gallop to the station. As they passed the
+Tanner house Gardley drew rein to call to Bud, who hurried out joyfully
+to greet his friend, his face lighting with pleasure.
+
+"Bill, get on your horse in double-quick time and beat it out to camp
+for me, will you?" said Gardley, as he reached down and gripped Bud's
+rough young paw. "Tell Jasper Kemp to come back with you and meet me at
+the station as quick as he can. Tell him to have the men where he can
+signal them. We may have to hustle out on a long hunt; and, Bill, keep
+your head steady and get back yourself right away. Perhaps I'll want you
+to help me. I'm a little anxious about Miss Earle, but you needn't tell
+anybody that but old Jasper. Tell him to hurry for all he's worth."
+
+Bud, with his eyes large with loyalty and trouble, nodded
+understandingly, returned the grip of the young man's hand with a clumsy
+squeeze, and sprang away to get his horse and do Gardley's bidding.
+Gardley knew he would ride as for his life, now that he knew Margaret's
+safety was at stake.
+
+Then Gardley rode on to the station and was indefatigable for two hours
+hunting out addresses, writing telegrams, and calling up long-distance
+telephones.
+
+When all had been done that was possible Rogers turned a haggard face to
+the young man. "I've been thinking, Gardley, that rash little girl of
+mine may have got Miss Earle into some kind of a dangerous position.
+You ought to look after her. What can we do?"
+
+"I'm going to, sir," said Gardley, "just as soon as I've done everything
+I can for you. I've already sent for Jasper Kemp, and we'll make a plan
+between us and find out if Miss Earle is all right. Can you spare Jasper
+or will you need him?"
+
+"By all means! Take all the men you need. I sha'n't rest easy till I
+know Miss Earle is safe."
+
+He sank down on a truck that stood on the station platform, his
+shoulders slumping, his whole attitude as of one who was fatally
+stricken. It came over Gardley how suddenly old he looked, and haggard
+and gray! What a thing for the selfish child to have done to her father!
+Poor, silly child, whose fate with Forsythe would in all probability be
+anything but enviable!
+
+But there was no time for sorrowful reflections. Jasper Kemp, stern,
+alert, anxious, came riding furiously down the street, Bud keeping even
+pace with him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+
+While Gardley briefly told his tale to Jasper Kemp, and the Scotchman
+was hastily scanning the papers with his keen, bright eyes, Bud stood
+frowning and listening intently.
+
+"Gee!" he burst forth. "That girl's a mess! 'Course she did it! You
+oughta seen what all she didn't do the last six weeks of school. Miss
+Mar'get got so she shivered every time that girl came near her or looked
+at her. She sure had her goat! Some nights after school, when she
+thought she's all alone, she just cried, she did. Why, Rosa had every
+one of those guys in the back seat acting like the devil, and nobody
+knew what was the matter. She wrote things on the blackboard right in
+the questions, so's it looked like Miss Mar'get's writing; fierce
+things, sometimes; and Miss Mar'get didn't know who did it. And she was
+as jealous as a cat of Miss Mar'get. You all know what a case she had on
+that guy from over by the fort; and she didn't like to have him even
+look at Miss Mar'get. Well, she didn't forget how he went away that
+night of the play. I caught her looking at her like she would like to
+murder her. _Good night!_ Some look! The guy had a case on Miss Mar'get,
+all right, too, only she was onto him and wouldn't look at him nor let
+him spoon nor nothing. But Rosa saw it all, and she just hated Miss
+Mar'get. Then once Miss Mar'get stopped her from going out to meet that
+guy, too. Oh, she hated her, all right! And you can bet she wrote the
+letter! Sure she did! She wanted to get her away when that guy came
+back. He was back yesterday. I saw him over by the run on that trail
+that crosses the trail to the old cabin. He didn't see me. I got my eye
+on him first, and I chucked behind some sage-brush, but he was here, all
+right, and he didn't mean any good. I follahed him awhile till he
+stopped and fixed up a place to camp. I guess he must 'a' stayed out
+last night--"
+
+A heavy hand was suddenly laid from behind on Bud's shoulder, and Rogers
+stood over him, his dark eyes on fire, his lips trembling.
+
+"Boy, can you show me where that was?" he asked, and there was an
+intensity in his voice that showed Bud that something serious was the
+matter. Boylike he dropped his eyes indifferently before this great
+emotion.
+
+"Sure!"
+
+"Best take Long Bill with you, Mr. Rogers," advised Jasper Kemp, keenly
+alive to the whole situation. "I reckon we'll all have to work together.
+My men ain't far off," and he lifted his whistle to his lips and blew
+the signal blasts. "The Kid here 'll want to ride to Keams to see if the
+lady is all safe and has met her friends. I reckon mebbe I better go
+straight to Ganado and find out if them mission folks really got
+started, and put 'em wise to what's been going on. They'll mebbe know
+who them Injuns was. I have my suspicions they weren't any friendlies.
+I didn't like that Injun the minute I set eyes on him hanging round the
+school-house, but I wouldn't have stirred a step toward camp if I'd 'a'
+suspected he was come fur the lady. 'Spose you take Bud and Long Bill
+and go find that camping-place and see if you find any trail showing
+which way they took. If you do, you fire three shots, and the men 'll be
+with you. If you want the Kid, fire four shots. He can't be so fur away
+by that time that he can't hear. He's got to get provisioned 'fore he
+starts. Lead him out, Bud. We 'ain't got no time to lose."
+
+Bud gave one despairing look at Gardley and turned to obey.
+
+"That's all right, Bud," said Gardley, with an understanding glance.
+"You tell Mr. Rogers all you know and show him the place, and then when
+Long Bill comes you can take the cross-cut to the Long Trail and go with
+me. I'll just stop at the house as I go by and tell your mother I need
+you."
+
+Bud gave one radiant, grateful look and sprang upon his horse, and
+Rogers had hard work to keep up with him at first, till Bud got
+interested in giving him a detailed account of Forsythe's looks and
+acts.
+
+In less than an hour the relief expedition had started. Before night had
+fallen Jasper Kemp, riding hard, arrived at the mission, told his story,
+procured a fresh horse, and after a couple of hours, rest started with
+Brownleigh and his wife for Keams Canon.
+
+Gardley and Bud, riding for all they were worth, said little by the way.
+Now and then the boy stole glances at the man's face, and the dead
+weight of sorrow settled like lead, the heavier, upon his heart. Too
+well he knew the dangers of the desert. He could almost read Gardley's
+fears in the white, drawn look about his lips, the ashen circles under
+his eyes, the tense, strained pose of his whole figure. Gardley's mind
+was urging ahead of his steed, and his body could not relax. He was
+anxious to go a little faster, yet his judgment knew it would not do,
+for his horse would play out before he could get another. They ate their
+corn bread in the saddle, and only turned aside from the trail once to
+drink at a water-hole and fill their cans. They rode late into the
+night, with only the stars and their wits to guide them. When they
+stopped to rest they did not wait to make a fire, but hobbled the horses
+where they might feed, and, rolling quickly in their blankets, lay down
+upon the ground.
+
+Bud, with the fatigue of healthy youth, would have slept till morning in
+spite of his fears, but Gardley woke him in a couple of hours, made him
+drink some water and eat a bite of food, and they went on their way
+again. When morning broke they were almost to the entrance of Keams
+Canon and both looked haggard and worn. Bud seemed to have aged in the
+night, and Gardley looked at him almost tenderly.
+
+"Are you all in, kid?" he asked.
+
+"Naw!" answered Bud, promptly, with an assumed cheerfulness. "Feeling
+like a four-year-old. Get on to that sky? Guess we're going to have some
+day! Pretty as a red wagon!"
+
+Gardley smiled sadly. What would that day bring forth for the two who
+went in search of her they loved? His great anxiety was to get to Keams
+Canon and inquire. They would surely know at the trading-post whether
+the missionary and his party had gone that way.
+
+The road was still almost impassable from the flood; the two dauntless
+riders picked their way slowly down the trail to the post.
+
+But the trader could tell them nothing comforting. The missionary had
+not been that way in two months, and there had been no party and no lady
+there that week. A single strange Indian had come down the trail above
+the day before, stayed awhile, picked a quarrel with some men who were
+there, and then ridden back up the steep trail again. He might have had
+a party with him up on the mesa, waiting. He had said something about
+his squaw. The trader admitted that he might have been drunk, but he
+frowned as he spoke of him. He called him a "bad Indian." Something
+unpleasant had evidently happened.
+
+The trader gave them a good, hot dinner, of which they stood sorely in
+need, and because they realized that they must keep up their strength
+they took the time to eat it. Then, procuring fresh horses, they climbed
+the steep trail in the direction the trader said the Indian had taken.
+It was a slender clue, but it was all they had, and they must follow it.
+And now the travelers were very silent, as if they felt they were
+drawing near to some knowledge that would settle the question for them
+one way or the other. As they reached the top at last, where they could
+see out across the plain, each drew a long breath like a gasp and
+looked about, half fearing what he might see.
+
+Yes, there was the sign of a recent camp-fire, and a few tin cans and
+bits of refuse, nothing more. Gardley got down and searched carefully.
+Bud even crept about upon his hands and knees, but a single tiny blue
+bead like a grain of sand was all that rewarded his efforts. Some Indian
+had doubtless camped here. That was all the evidence. Standing thus in
+hopeless uncertainty what to do next, they suddenly heard voices.
+Something familiar once or twice made Gardley lift his whistle and blow
+a blast. Instantly a silvery answer came ringing from the mesa a mile or
+so away and woke the echoes in the canon. Jasper Kemp and his party had
+taken the longer way around instead of going down the canon, and were
+just arriving at the spot where Margaret and the squaw had waited two
+days before for their drunken guide. But Jasper Kemp's whistle rang out
+again, and he shot three times into the air, their signal to wait for
+some important news.
+
+Breathlessly and in silence the two waited till the coming of the rest
+of the party, and cast themselves down on the ground, feeling the sudden
+need of support. Now that there was a possibility of some news, they
+felt hardly able to bear it, and the waiting for it was intolerable, to
+such a point of anxious tension were they strained.
+
+But when the party from Ganado came in sight their faces wore no
+brightness of good news. Their greetings were quiet, sad, anxious, and
+Jasper Kemp held out to Gardley an envelope. It was the one from
+Margaret's mother's letter that she had dropped upon the trail.
+
+"We found it on the way from Ganado, just as we entered Steamboat
+Canon," explained Jasper.
+
+"And didn't you search for a trail off in any other direction?" asked
+Gardley, almost sharply. "They have not been here. At least only one
+Indian has been down to the trader's."
+
+"There was no other trail. We looked," said Jasper, sadly. "There was a
+camp-fire twice, and signs of a camp. We felt sure they had come this
+way."
+
+Gardley shook his head and a look of abject despair came over his face.
+"There is no sign here," he said. "They must have gone some other way.
+Perhaps the Indian has carried her off. Are the other men following?"
+
+"No, Rogers sent them in the other direction after his girl. They found
+the camp all right. Bud tell you? We made sure we had found our trail
+and would not need them."
+
+Gardley dropped his head and almost groaned.
+
+Meanwhile the missionary had been riding around in radiating circles
+from the dead camp-fire, searching every step of the way; and Bud,
+taking his cue from him, looked off toward the mesa a minute, then
+struck out in a straight line for it and rode off like mad. Suddenly
+there was heard a shout loud and long, and Bud came riding back, waving
+something small and white above his head.
+
+They gathered in a little knot, waiting for the boy, not speaking; and
+when he halted in their midst he fluttered down the handkerchief to
+Gardley.
+
+"It's hers, all right. Gotter name all written out on the edge!" he
+declared, radiantly.
+
+The sky grew brighter to them all now. Eagerly Gardley sprang into his
+saddle, no longer weary, but alert and eager for the trail.
+
+"You folks better go down to the trader's and get some dinner. You'll
+need it! Bud and I'll go on. Mrs. Brownleigh looks all in."
+
+"No," declared Hazel, decidedly. "We'll just snatch a bite here and
+follow you at once. I couldn't enjoy a dinner till I know she is safe."
+And so, though both Jasper Kemp and her husband urged her otherwise, she
+would take a hasty meal by the way and hurry on.
+
+But Bud and Gardley waited not for others. They plunged wildly ahead.
+
+It seemed a long way to the eager hunters, from the place where Bud had
+found the handkerchief to the little note twisted around the red
+chessman. It was perhaps nearly a mile, and both the riders had searched
+in all directions for some time before Gardley spied it. Eagerly he
+seized upon the note, recognizing the little red manikin with which he
+had whiled away an hour with Margaret during one of her visits at the
+camp.
+
+The note was written large and clear upon a sheet of writing-paper:
+
+"I am Margaret Earle, school-teacher at Ashland. I am supposed to be
+traveling to Walpi, by way of Keams, to meet Mr. and Mrs. Brownleigh of
+Ganado. I am with an Indian, his squaw and papoose. The Indian said he
+was sent to guide me, but he is drunk now and I am frightened. He has
+acted strangely all the way. I do not know where I am. Please come and
+help me."
+
+Bud, sitting anxious like a statue upon his horse, read Gardley's face
+as Gardley read the note. Then Gardley read it aloud to Bud, and before
+the last word was fairly out of his mouth both man and boy started as if
+they had heard Margaret's beloved voice calling them. It was not long
+before Bud found another scrap of paper a half-mile farther on, and then
+another and another, scattered at great distances along the way. The
+only way they had of being sure she had dropped them was that they
+seemed to be the same kind of paper as that upon which the note was
+written.
+
+How that note with its brave, frightened appeal wrung the heart of
+Gardley as he thought of Margaret, unprotected, in terror and perhaps in
+peril, riding on she knew not where. What trials and fears had she not
+already passed through! What might she not be experiencing even now
+while he searched for her?
+
+It was perhaps two hours before he found the little white stocking
+dropped where the trail divided, showing which way she had taken.
+Gardley folded it reverently and put it in his pocket. An hour later Bud
+pounced upon the bedroom slipper and carried it gleefully to Gardley;
+and so by slow degrees, finding here and there a chessman or more paper,
+they came at last to the camp where the Indians had abandoned their
+trust and fled, leaving Margaret alone in the wilderness.
+
+It was then that Gardley searched in vain for any further clue, and,
+riding wide in every direction, stopped and called her name again and
+again, while the sun grew lower and lower and shadows crept in
+lurking-places waiting for the swift-coming night. It was then that Bud,
+flying frantically from one spot to another, got down upon his knees
+behind a sage-bush when Gardley was not looking and mumbled a rough,
+hasty prayer for help. He felt like the old woman who, on being told
+that nothing but God could save the ship, exclaimed, "And has it come to
+that?" Bud had felt all his life that there was a remote time in every
+life when one might need to believe in prayer. The time had come for
+Bud.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Margaret, on her knees in the sand of the desert praying for help,
+remembered the promise, "Before they call I will answer, and while they
+are yet speaking I will hear," and knew not that her deliverers were on
+the way.
+
+The sun had been hot as it beat down upon the whiteness of the sand, and
+the girl had crept under a sage-bush for shelter from it. The pain in
+her ankle was sickening. She had removed her shoe and bound the ankle
+about with a handkerchief soaked with half of her bottle of witch-hazel,
+and so, lying quiet, had fallen asleep, too exhausted with pain and
+anxiety to stay awake any longer.
+
+When she awoke again the softness of evening was hovering over
+everything, and she started up and listened. Surely, surely, she had
+heard a voice calling her! She sat up sharply and listened. Ah! There it
+was again, a faint echo in the distance. Was it a voice, or was it only
+her dreams mingling with her fancies?
+
+Travelers in deserts, she had read, took all sorts of fancies, saw
+mirages, heard sounds that were not. But she had not been out long
+enough to have caught such a desert fever. Perhaps she was going to be
+sick. Still that faint echo made her heart beat wildly. She dragged
+herself to her knees, then to her feet, standing painfully with the
+weight on her well foot.
+
+The suffering horse turned his anguished eyes and whinnied. Her heart
+ached for him, yet there was no way she could assuage his pain or put
+him out of his misery. But she must make sure if she had heard a voice.
+Could she possibly scale that rock down which she and her horse had
+fallen? For then she might look out farther and see if there were any
+one in sight.
+
+Painfully she crawled and crept, up and up, inch by inch, until at last
+she gained the little height and could look afar.
+
+There was no living thing in sight. The air was very clear. The eagle
+had found his evening rest somewhere in a quiet crag. The long corn
+waved on the distant plain, and all was deathly still once more. There
+was a hint of coming sunset in the sky. Her heart sank, and she was
+about to give up hope entirely, when, rich and clear, there it came
+again! A voice in the wilderness calling her name: "Margaret! Margaret!"
+
+The tears rushed to her eyes and crowded in her throat. She could not
+answer, she was so overwhelmed; and though she tried twice to call out,
+she could make no sound. But the call kept coming again and again:
+"Margaret! Margaret!" and it was Gardley's voice. Impossible! For
+Gardley was far away and could not know her need. Yet it was his voice.
+Had she died, or was she in delirium that she seemed to hear him calling
+her name?
+
+But the call came clearer now: "Margaret! Margaret! I am coming!" and
+like a flash her mind went back to the first night in Arizona when she
+heard him singing, "From the Desert I Come to Thee!"
+
+Now she struggled to her feet again and shouted, inarticulately and
+gladly through her tears. She could see him. It was Gardley. He was
+riding fast toward her, and he shot three shots into the air above him
+as he rode, and three shrill blasts of his whistle rang out on the still
+evening air.
+
+She tore the scarf from her neck that she had tied about it to keep the
+sun from blistering her, and waved it wildly in the air now, shouting in
+happy, choking sobs.
+
+And so he came to her across the desert!
+
+He sprang down before the horse had fairly reached her side, and,
+rushing to her, took her in his arms.
+
+"Margaret! My darling! I have found you at last!"
+
+She swayed and would have fallen but for his arms, and then he saw her
+white face and knew she must be suffering.
+
+"You are hurt!" he cried. "Oh, what have they done to you?" And he laid
+her gently down upon the sand and dropped on his knees beside her.
+
+"Oh no," she gasped, joyously, with white lips. "I'm all right now.
+Only my ankle hurts a little. We had a fall, the horse and I. Oh, go to
+him at once and put him out of his pain. I'm sure his legs are broken."
+
+For answer Gardley put the whistle to his lips and blew a blast. He
+would not leave her for an instant. He was not sure yet that she was not
+more hurt than she had said. He set about discovering at once, for he
+had brought with him supplies for all emergencies.
+
+It was Bud who came riding madly across the mesa in answer to the call,
+reaching Gardley before any one else. Bud with his eyes shining, his
+cheeks blazing with excitement, his hair wildly flying in the breeze,
+his young, boyish face suddenly grown old with lines of anxiety. But you
+wouldn't have known from his greeting that it was anything more than a
+pleasure excursion he had been on the past two days.
+
+"Good work, Kid! Whatcha want me t' do?"
+
+It was Bud who arranged the camp and went back to tell the other
+detachments that Margaret was found; Bud who led the pack-horse up,
+unpacked the provisions, and gathered wood to start a fire. Bud was
+everywhere, with a smudged face, a weary, gray look around his eyes, and
+his hair sticking "seven ways for Sunday." Yet once, when his labors led
+him near to where Margaret lay weak and happy on a couch of blankets, he
+gave her an unwonted pat on her shoulder and said in a low tone: "Hello,
+Gang! See you kept your nerve with you!" and then he gave her a grin all
+across his dirty, tired face, and moved away as if he were half ashamed
+of his emotion. But it was Bud again who came and talked with her to
+divert her so that she wouldn't notice when they shot her horse. He
+talked loudly about a coyote they shot the night before, and a
+cottontail they saw at Keams, and when he saw that she understood what
+the shot meant, and there were tears in her eyes, he gave her hand a
+rough, bear squeeze and said, gruffly: "You should worry! He's better
+off now!" And when Gardley came back he took himself thoughtfully to a
+distance and busied himself opening tins of meat and soup.
+
+In another hour the Brownleighs arrived, having heard the signals, and
+they had a supper around the camp-fire, everybody so rejoiced that there
+were still quivers in their voices; and when any one laughed it sounded
+like the echo of a sob, so great had been the strain of their anxiety.
+
+Gardley, sitting beside Margaret in the starlight afterward, her hand in
+his, listened to the story of her journey, the strong, tender pressure
+of his fingers telling her how deeply it affected him to know the peril
+through which she had passed. Later, when the others were telling gay
+stories about the fire, and Bud lying full length in their midst had
+fallen fast asleep, these two, a little apart from the rest, were
+murmuring their innermost thoughts in low tones to each other, and
+rejoicing that they were together once more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+
+They talked it over the next morning at breakfast as they sat around the
+fire. Jasper Kemp thought he ought to get right back to attend to
+things. Mr. Rogers was all broken up, and might even need him to search
+for Rosa if they had not found out her whereabouts yet. He and Fiddling
+Boss, who had come along, would start back at once. They had had a good
+night's rest and had found their dear lady. What more did they need?
+Besides, there were not provisions for an indefinite stay for such a
+large party, and there were none too many sources of supply in this
+region.
+
+The missionary thought that, now he was here, he ought to go on to
+Walpi. It was not more than two hours' ride there, and Hazel could stay
+with the camp while Margaret's ankle had a chance to rest and let the
+swelling subside under treatment.
+
+Margaret, however, rebelled. She did not wish to be an invalid, and was
+very sure she could ride without injury to her ankle. She wanted to see
+Walpi and the queer Hopi Indians, now she was so near. So a compromise
+was agreed upon. They would all wait in camp a couple of days, and then
+if Margaret felt well enough they would go on, visit the Hopis, and so
+go home together.
+
+Bud pleaded to be allowed to stay with them, and Jasper Kemp promised to
+make it all right with his parents.
+
+So for two whole, long, lovely days the little party of five camped on
+the mesa and enjoyed sweet converse. It is safe to say that never in all
+Bud's life will he forget or get away from the influences of that day in
+such company.
+
+Gardley and the missionary proved to be the best of physicians, and
+Margaret's ankle improved hourly under their united treatment of
+compresses, lotions, and rest. About noon on Saturday they broke camp,
+mounted their horses, and rode away across the stretch of white sand,
+through tall cornfields growing right up out of the sand, closer and
+closer to the great mesa with the castle-like pueblos five hundred feet
+above them on the top. It seemed to Margaret like suddenly being dropped
+into Egypt or the Holy Land, or some of the Babylonian excavations, so
+curious and primitive and altogether different from anything else she
+had ever seen did it all appear. She listened, fascinated, while
+Brownleigh told about this strange Hopi land, the strangest spot in
+America. Spanish explorers found them away back years before the
+Pilgrims landed, and called the country Tuscayan. They built their homes
+up high for protection from their enemies. They lived on the corn,
+pumpkins, peaches, and melons which they raised in the valley, planting
+the seeds with their hands. It is supposed they got their seeds first
+from the Spaniards years ago. They make pottery, cloth, and baskets, and
+are a busy people.
+
+There are seven villages built on three mesas in the northern desert.
+One of the largest, Orabi, has a thousand inhabitants. Walpi numbers
+about two hundred and thirty people, all living in this one great
+building of many rooms. They are divided into brotherhoods, or
+phratries, and each brotherhood has several large families. They are
+ruled by a speaker chief and a war chief elected by a council of clan
+elders.
+
+Margaret learned with wonder that all the water these people used had to
+be carried by the women in jars on their backs five hundred feet up the
+steep trail.
+
+Presently, as they drew nearer, a curious man with his hair "banged"
+like a child's, and garments much like those usually worn by
+scarecrows--a shapeless kind of shirt and trousers--appeared along the
+steep and showed them the way up. Margaret and the missionary's wife
+exclaimed in horror over the little children playing along the very edge
+of the cliffs above as carelessly as birds in trees.
+
+High up on the mesa at last, how strange and weird it seemed! Far below
+the yellow sand of the valley; fifteen miles away a second mesa
+stretching dark; to the southwest, a hundred miles distant, the dim
+outlines of the San Francisco peaks. Some little children on burros
+crossing the sand below looked as if they were part of a curious
+moving-picture, not as if they were little living beings taking life as
+seriously as other children do. The great, wide desert stretching far!
+The bare, solid rocks beneath their feet! The curious houses behind
+them! It all seemed unreal to Margaret, like a great picture-book
+spread out for her to see. She turned from gazing and found Gardley's
+eyes upon her adoringly, a tender understanding of her mood in his
+glance. She thrilled with pleasure to be here with him; a soft flush
+spread over her cheeks and a light came into her eyes.
+
+They found the Indians preparing for one of their most famous
+ceremonies, the snake dance, which was to take place in a few days. For
+almost a week the snake priests had been busy hunting rattlesnakes,
+building altars, drawing figures in the sand, and singing weird songs.
+On the ninth day the snakes are washed in a pool and driven near a pile
+of sand. The priests, arrayed in paint, feathers, and charms, come out
+in line and, taking the live snakes in their mouths, parade up and down
+the rocks, while the people crowd the roofs and terraces of the pueblos
+to watch. There are helpers to whip the snakes and keep them from
+biting, and catchers to see that none get away. In a little while the
+priests take the snakes down on the desert and set them free, sending
+them north, south, east, and west, where it is supposed they will take
+the people's prayers for rain to the water serpent in the underworld,
+who is in some way connected with the god of the rain-clouds.
+
+It was a strange experience, that night in Walpi: the primitive
+accommodations; the picturesque, uncivilized people; the shy glances
+from dark, eager eyes. To watch two girls grinding corn between two
+stones, and a little farther off their mother rolling out her dough with
+an ear of corn, and cooking over an open fire, her pot slung from a
+crude crane over the blaze--it was all too unreal to be true.
+
+But the most interesting thing about it was to watch the "Aneshodi"
+going about among them, his face alight with warm, human love; his
+hearty laugh ringing out in a joke that the Hopis seemed to understand,
+making himself one with them. It came to Margaret suddenly to remember
+the pompous little figure of the Rev. Frederick West, and to fancy him
+going about among these people and trying to do them good. Before she
+knew what she was doing she laughed aloud at the thought. Then, of
+course, she had to explain to Bud and Gardley, who looked at her
+inquiringly.
+
+"Aw! Gee! _Him?_ _He_ wasn't a minister! He was a _mistake_! Fergit him,
+the poor simp!" growled Bud, sympathetically. Then his eyes softened as
+he watched Brownleigh playing with three little Indian maids, having a
+fine romp. "Gee! he certainly is a peach, isn't he?" he murmured, his
+whole face kindling appreciatively. "Gee! I bet that kid never forgets
+that!"
+
+The Sunday was a wonderful day, when the missionary gathered the people
+together and spoke to them in simple words of God--their god who made
+the sky, the stars, the mountains, and the sun, whom they call by
+different names, but whom He called God. He spoke of the Book of Heaven
+that told about God and His great love for men, so great that He sent
+His son to save them from their sin. It was not a long sermon, but a
+very beautiful one; and, listening to the simple, wonderful words of
+life that fell from the missionary's earnest lips and were translated by
+his faithful Indian interpreter, who always went with him on his
+expeditions, watching the faces of the dark, strange people as they
+took in the marvelous meaning, the little company of visitors was
+strangely moved. Even Bud, awed beyond his wont, said, shyly, to
+Margaret:
+
+"Gee! It's something fierce not to be born a Christian and know all
+that, ain't it?"
+
+Margaret and Gardley walked a little way down the narrow path that led
+out over the neck of rock less than a rod wide that connects the great
+promontory with the mesa. The sun was setting in majesty over the
+desert, and the scene was one of breathless beauty. One might fancy it
+might look so to stand on the hills of God and look out over creation
+when all things have been made new.
+
+They stood for a while in silence. Then Margaret looked down at the
+narrow path worn more than a foot deep in the solid rock by the ten
+generations of feet that had been passing over it.
+
+"Just think," she said, "of all the feet, little and big, that have
+walked here in all the years, and of all the souls that have stood and
+looked out over this wonderful sight! It must be that somehow in spite
+of their darkness they have reached out to the God who made this, and
+have found a way to His heart. They couldn't look at this and not feel
+Him, could they? It seems to me that perhaps some of those poor
+creatures who have stood here and reached up blindly after the Creator
+of their souls have, perhaps, been as pleasing to Him as those who have
+known about Him from childhood."
+
+Gardley was used to her talking this way. He had not been in her Sunday
+meetings for nothing. He understood and sympathized, and now his hand
+reached softly for hers and held it tenderly. After a moment of silence
+he said:
+
+"I surely think if God could reach and find me in the desert of my life,
+He must have found them. I sometimes think I was a greater heathen than
+all these, because I knew and would not see."
+
+Margaret nestled her hand in his and looked up joyfully into his face.
+"I'm so glad you know Him now!" she murmured, happily.
+
+They stood for some time looking out over the changing scene, till the
+crimson faded into rose, the silver into gray; till the stars bloomed
+out one by one, and down in the valley across the desert a light
+twinkled faintly here and there from the camps of the Hopi shepherds.
+
+They started home at daybreak the next morning, the whole company of
+Indians standing on the rocks to send them royally on their way,
+pressing simple, homely gifts upon them and begging them to return soon
+again and tell the blessed story.
+
+A wonderful ride they had back to Ganado, where Gardley left Margaret
+for a short visit, promising to return for her in a few days when she
+was rested, and hastened back to Ashland to his work; for his soul was
+happy now and at ease, and he felt he must get to work at once. Rogers
+would need him. Poor Rogers! Had he found his daughter yet? Poor, silly
+child-prodigal!
+
+But when Gardley reached Ashland he found among his mail awaiting him a
+telegram. His uncle was dead, and the fortune which he had been brought
+up to believe was his, and which he had idly tossed away in a moment of
+recklessness, had been restored to him by the uncle's last will, made
+since Gardley's recent visit home. The fortune was his again!
+
+Gardley sat in his office on the Rogers ranch and stared hard at the
+adobe wall opposite his desk. That fortune would be great! He could do
+such wonderful things for Margaret now. They could work out their dreams
+together for the people they loved. He could see the shadows of those
+dreams--a beautiful home for Margaret out on the trail she loved, where
+wildness and beauty and the mountain she called hers were not far away;
+horses in plenty and a luxurious car when they wanted to take a trip;
+journeys East as often as they wished; some of the ideal appliances for
+the school that Margaret loved; a church for the missionary and
+convenient halls where he could speak at his outlying districts; a trip
+to the city for Mom Wallis, where she might see a real picture-gallery,
+her one expressed desire this side of heaven, now that she had taken to
+reading Browning and had some of it explained to her. Oh, and a lot of
+wonderful things! These all hung in the dream-picture before Gardley's
+eyes as he sat at his desk with that bit of yellow paper in his hand.
+
+He thought of what that money had represented to him in the past.
+Reckless days and nights of folly as a boy and young man at college;
+ruthless waste of time, money, youth; shriveling of soul, till Margaret
+came and found and rescued him! How wonderful that he had been rescued!
+That he had come to his senses at last, and was here in a man's
+position, doing a man's work in the world! Now, with all that money,
+there was no need for him to work and earn more. He could live idly all
+his days and just have a good time--make others happy, too. But still he
+would not have this exhilarating feeling that he was supplying his own
+and Margaret's necessities by the labor of hand and brain. The little
+telegram in his hand seemed somehow to be trying to snatch from him all
+this material prosperity that was the symbol of that spiritual
+regeneration which had become so dear to him.
+
+He put his head down on his clasped hands upon the desk then and prayed.
+Perhaps it was the first great prayer of his life.
+
+"O God, let me be strong enough to stand this that has come upon me.
+Help me to be a man in spite of money! Don't let me lose my manhood and
+my right to work. Help me to use the money in the right way and not to
+dwarf myself, nor spoil our lives with it." It was a great prayer for a
+man such as Gardley had been, and the answer came swiftly in his
+conviction.
+
+He lifted up his head with purpose in his expression, and, folding the
+telegram, put it safely back into his pocket. He would not tell Margaret
+of it--not just yet. He would think it out--just the right way--and he
+did not believe he meant to give up his position with Rogers. He had
+accepted it for a year in good faith, and it was his business to fulfil
+the contract. Meantime, this money would perhaps make possible his
+marriage with Margaret sooner than he had hoped.
+
+Five minutes later Rogers telephoned to the office.
+
+"I've decided to take that shipment of cattle and try that new stock,
+provided you will go out and look at them and see that everything is
+all O. K. I couldn't go myself now. Don't feel like going anywhere, you
+know. You wouldn't need to go for a couple of weeks. I've just had a
+letter from the man, and he says he won't be ready sooner. Say, why
+don't you and Miss Earle get married and make this a wedding-trip? She
+could go to the Pacific coast with you. It would be a nice trip. Then I
+could spare you for a month or six weeks when you got back if you wanted
+to take her East for a little visit."
+
+Why not? Gardley stumbled out his thanks and hung up the receiver, his
+face full of the light of a great joy. How were the blessings pouring
+down upon his head these days? Was it a sign that God was pleased with
+his action in making good what he could where he had failed? And Rogers!
+How kind he was! Poor Rogers, with his broken heart and his stricken
+home! For Rosa had come home again a sadder, wiser child; and her father
+seemed crushed with the disgrace of it all.
+
+Gardley went to Margaret that very afternoon. He told her only that he
+had had some money left him by his uncle, which would make it possible
+for him to marry at once and keep her comfortably now. He was to be sent
+to California on a business trip. Would she be married and go with him?
+
+Margaret studied the telegram in wonder. She had never asked Gardley
+much about his circumstances. The telegram merely stated that his
+uncle's estate was left to him. To her simple mind an estate might be a
+few hundred dollars, enough to furnish a plain little home; and her face
+lighted with joy over it. She asked no questions, and Gardley said no
+more about the money. He had forgotten that question, comparatively, in
+the greater possibility of joy.
+
+Would she be married in ten days and go with him?
+
+Her eyes met his with an answering joy, and yet he could see that there
+was a trouble hiding somewhere. He presently saw what it was without
+needing to be told. Her father and mother! Of course, they would be
+disappointed! They would want her to be married at home!
+
+"But Rogers said we could go and visit them for several weeks on our
+return," he said; and Margaret's face lighted up.
+
+"Oh, that would be beautiful," she said, wistfully; "and perhaps they
+won't mind so much--though I always expected father would marry me if I
+was ever married; still, if we can go home so soon and for so long--and
+Mr. Brownleigh would be next best, of course."
+
+"But, of course, your father must marry you," said Gardley,
+determinedly. "Perhaps we could persuade him to come, and your mother,
+too."
+
+"Oh no, they couldn't possibly," said Margaret, quickly, a shade of
+sadness in her eyes. "You know it costs a lot to come out here, and
+ministers are never rich."
+
+It was then that Gardley's eyes lighted with joy. His money could take
+this bugbear away, at least. However, he said nothing about the money.
+
+"Suppose we write to your father and mother and put the matter before
+them. See what they say. We'll send the letters to-night. You write
+your mother and I'll write your father."
+
+Margaret agreed and sat down at once to write her letter, while Gardley,
+on the other side of the room, wrote his, scratching away contentedly
+with his fountain-pen and looking furtively now and then toward the
+bowed head over at the desk.
+
+Gardley did not read his letter to Margaret. She wondered a little at
+this, but did not ask, and the letters were mailed, with
+special-delivery stamps on them. Gardley awaited their replies with
+great impatience.
+
+He filled in the days of waiting with business. There were letters to
+write connected with his fortune, and there were arrangements to be made
+for his trip. But the thing that occupied the most of his time and
+thought was the purchase and refitting of a roomy old ranch-house in a
+charming location, not more than three miles from Ashland, on the road
+to the camp.
+
+It had been vacant for a couple of years past, the owner having gone
+abroad permanently and the place having been offered for sale. Margaret
+had often admired it in her trips to and from the camp, and Gardley
+thought of it at once when it became possible for him to think of
+purchasing a home in the West.
+
+There was a great stone fireplace, and the beams of the ceilings and
+pillars of the porch and wide, hospitable rooms were of tree-trunks with
+the bark on them. With a little work it could be made roughly but
+artistically habitable. Gardley had it cleaned up, not disturbing the
+tangle of vines and shrubbery that had had their way since the last
+owner had left them and which had made a perfect screen from the road
+for the house.
+
+Behind this screen the men worked--most of them the men from the
+bunk-house, whom Gardley took into his confidence.
+
+The floors were carefully scrubbed under the direction of Mom Wallis,
+and the windows made shining. Then the men spent a day bringing great
+loads of tree-boughs and filling the place with green fragrance, until
+the big living-room looked like a woodland bower. Gardley made a raid
+upon some Indian friends of his and came back with several fine Navajo
+rugs and blankets, which he spread about the room luxuriously on the
+floor and over the rude benches which the men had constructed. They
+piled the fireplace with big logs, and Gardley took over some of his own
+personal possessions that he had brought back from the East with him to
+give the place a livable look. Then he stood back satisfied. The place
+was fit to bring his bride and her friends to. Not that it was as it
+should be. That would be for Margaret to do, but it would serve as a
+temporary stopping-place if there came need. If no need came, why, the
+place was there, anyway, hers and his. A tender light grew in his eyes
+as he looked it over in the dying light of the afternoon. Then he went
+out and rode swiftly to the telegraph-office and found these two
+telegrams, according to the request in his own letter to Mr. Earle.
+
+Gardley's telegram read:
+
+     Congratulations. Will come as you desire. We await your advice.
+     Have written.--FATHER.
+
+He saddled his horse and hurried to Margaret with hers, and together
+they read:
+
+     Dear child! So glad for you. Of course you will go. I am sending
+     you some things. Don't take a thought for us. We shall look forward
+     to your visit. Our love to you both.--MOTHER.
+
+Margaret, folded in her lover's arms, cried out her sorrow and her joy,
+and lifted up her face with happiness. Then Gardley, with great joy,
+thought of the surprise he had in store for her and laid his face
+against hers to hide the telltale smile in his eyes.
+
+For Gardley, in his letter to his future father-in-law, had written of
+his newly inherited fortune, and had not only inclosed a check for a
+good sum to cover all extra expense of the journey, but had said that a
+private car would be at their disposal, not only for themselves, but for
+any of Margaret's friends and relatives whom they might choose to
+invite. As he had written this letter he was filled with deep
+thanksgiving that it was in his power to do this thing for his dear
+girl-bride.
+
+The morning after the telegrams arrived Gardley spent several hours
+writing telegrams and receiving them from a big department store in the
+nearest great city, and before noon a big shipment of goods was on its
+way to Ashland. Beds, bureaus, wash-stands, chairs, tables, dishes,
+kitchen utensils, and all kinds of bedding, even to sheets and
+pillow-cases, he ordered with lavish hand. After all, he must furnish
+the house himself, and let Margaret weed it out or give it away
+afterward, if she did not like it. He was going to have a house party
+and he must be ready. When all was done and he was just about to mount
+his horse again he turned back and sent another message, ordering a
+piano.
+
+"Why, it's _great_!" he said to himself, as he rode back to his office.
+"It's simply great to be able to do things just when I need them! I
+never knew what fun money was before. But then I never had Margaret to
+spend it for, and she's worth the whole of it at once!"
+
+The next thing he ordered was a great easy carriage with plenty of room
+to convey Mother Earle and her friends from the train to the house.
+
+The days went by rapidly enough, and Margaret was so busy that she had
+little time to wonder and worry why her mother did not write her the
+long, loving, motherly good-by letter to her little girlhood that she
+had expected to get. Not until three days before the wedding did it come
+over her that she had had but three brief, scrappy letters from her
+mother, and they not a whole page apiece. What could be the matter with
+mother? She was almost on the point of panic when Gardley came and
+bundled her on to her horse for a ride.
+
+Strangely enough, he directed their way through Ashland and down to the
+station, and it was just about the time of the arrival of the evening
+train.
+
+Gardley excused himself for a moment, saying something about an errand,
+and went into the station. Margaret sat on her horse, watching the
+oncoming train, the great connecting link between East and West, and
+wondered if it would bring a letter from mother.
+
+The train rushed to a halt, and behold some passengers were getting off
+from a private car! Margaret watched them idly, thinking more about an
+expected letter than about the people. Then suddenly she awoke to the
+fact that Gardley was greeting them. Who could they be?
+
+There were five of them, and one of them looked like Jane! Dear Jane!
+She had forgotten to write her about this hurried wedding. How different
+it all was going to be from what she and Jane had planned for each other
+in their dear old school-day dreams! And that young man that Gardley was
+shaking hands with now looked like Cousin Dick! She hadn't seen him for
+three years, but he must look like that now; and the younger girl beside
+him might be Cousin Emily! But, oh, who were the others? _Father!_ And
+MOTHER!
+
+Margaret sprang from her horse with a bound and rushed into her mother's
+arms. The interested passengers craned their necks and looked their fill
+with smiles of appreciation as the train took up its way again, having
+dropped the private car on the side track.
+
+Dick and Emily rode the ponies to the house, while Margaret nestled in
+the back seat of the carriage between her father and mother, and Jane
+got acquainted with Gardley in the front seat of the carriage. Margaret
+never even noticed where they were going until the carriage turned in
+and stopped before the door of the new house, and Mrs. Tanner, furtively
+casting behind her the checked apron she had worn, came out to shake
+hands with the company and tell them supper was all ready, before she
+went back to her deserted boarding-house. Even Bud was going to stay at
+the new house that night, in some cooked-up capacity or other, and all
+the men from the bunk-house were hiding out among the trees to see
+Margaret's father and mother and shake hands if the opportunity offered.
+
+The wonder and delight of Margaret when she saw the house inside and
+knew that it was hers, the tears she shed and smiles that grew almost
+into hysterics when she saw some of the incongruous furnishings, are all
+past describing. Margaret was too happy to think. She rushed from one
+room to another. She hugged her mother and linked her arm in her
+father's for a walk across the long piazza; she talked to Emily and Dick
+and Jane; and then rushed out to find Gardley and thank him again. And
+all this time she could not understand how Gardley had done it, for she
+had not yet comprehended his fortune.
+
+Gardley had asked his sisters to come to the wedding, not much expecting
+they would accept, but they had telegraphed at the last minute they
+would be there. They arrived an hour or so before the ceremony; gushed
+over Margaret; told Gardley she was a "sweet thing"; said the house was
+"dandy for a house party if one had plenty of servants, but they should
+think it would be dull in winter"; gave Margaret a diamond sunburst pin,
+a string of pearls, and an emerald bracelet set in diamond chips; and
+departed immediately after the ceremony. They had thought they were the
+chief guests, but the relief that overspread the faces of those guests
+who were best beloved by both bride and groom was at once visible on
+their departure. Jasper Kemp drew a long breath and declared to Long
+Bill that he was glad the air was growing pure again. Then all those old
+friends from the bunk-house filed in to the great tables heavily loaded
+with good things, the abundant gift of the neighborhood, and sat down to
+the wedding supper, heartily glad that the "city lady and her gals"--as
+Mom Wallis called them in a suppressed whisper--had chosen not to stay
+over a train.
+
+The wedding had been in the school-house, embowered in foliage and all
+the flowers the land afforded, decorated by the loving hands of
+Margaret's pupils, old and young. She was attended by the entire school
+marching double file before her, strewing flowers in her way. The
+missionary's wife played the wedding-march, and the missionary assisted
+the bride's father with the ceremony. Margaret's dress was a simple
+white muslin, with a little real lace and embroidery handed down from
+former generations, the whole called into being by Margaret's mother.
+Even Gardley's sisters had said it was "perfectly dear." The whole
+neighborhood was at the wedding.
+
+And when the bountiful wedding-supper was eaten the entire company of
+favored guests stood about the new piano and sang "Blest Be the Tie that
+Binds"--with Margaret playing for them.
+
+Then there was a little hurry at the last, Margaret getting into the
+pretty traveling dress and hat her mother had brought, and kissing her
+mother good-by--though happily not for long this time.
+
+Mother and father and the rest of the home party were to wait until
+morning, and the missionary and his wife were to stay with them that
+night and see them to their car the next day.
+
+So, waving and throwing kisses back to the others, they rode away to the
+station, Bud pridefully driving the team from the front seat.
+
+Gardley had arranged for a private apartment on the train, and nothing
+could have been more luxurious in traveling than the place where he led
+his bride. Bud, scuttling behind with a suit-case, looked around him
+with all his eyes before he said a hurried good-by, and murmured under
+his breath: "Gee! Wisht I was goin' all the way!"
+
+Bud hustled off as the train got under way, and Margaret and Gardley
+went out to the observation platform to wave a last farewell.
+
+The few little blurring lights of Ashland died soon in the distance, and
+the desert took on its vast wideness beneath a starry dome; but off in
+the East a purple shadow loomed, mighty and majestic, and rising slowly
+over its crest a great silver disk appeared, brightening as it came and
+pouring a silver mist over the purple peak.
+
+"My mountain!" said Margaret, softly.
+
+And Gardley, drawing her close to him, stooped to lay his lips upon
+hers.
+
+"My darling!" he answered.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Voice in the Wilderness, by Grace Livingston Hill
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