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diff --git a/34928.txt b/34928.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..91040ed --- /dev/null +++ b/34928.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5654 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Ranch Girls at Home Again, by Margaret Vandercook + +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: The Ranch Girls at Home Again + +Author: Margaret Vandercook + +Release Date: January 12, 2011 [EBook #34928] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RANCH GIRLS AT HOME AGAIN *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Emmy and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + +THE RANCH GIRLS SERIES + + + + +The Ranch Girls at Home Again + + + + +BOOKS BY MARGARET VANDERCOOK + + +THE RANCH GIRLS SERIES + + The Ranch Girls at Rainbow Lodge + The Ranch Girls' Pot of Gold + The Ranch Girls at Boarding School + The Ranch Girls in Europe + The Ranch Girls at Home Again + The Ranch Girls and their Great Adventure + The Ranch Girls and their Heart's Desire + The Ranch Girls and the Silver Arrow + The Ranch Girls and the Mystery of the Three Roads + + +STORIES ABOUT CAMP FIRE GIRLS + + The Camp Fire Girls at Sunrise Hill + The Camp Fire Girls Amid the Snows + The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World + The Camp Fire Girls Across the Sea + The Camp Fire Girls' Careers + The Camp Fire Girls in After Years + The Camp Fire Girls on the Edge of the Desert + The Camp Fire Girls at the End of the Trail + The Camp Fire Girls Behind the Lines + The Camp Fire Girls on the Field of Honor + The Camp Fire Girls in Glorious France + The Camp Fire Girls in Merrie England + The Camp Fire Girls at Half Moon Lake + The Camp Fire Girls by the Blue Lagoon + + +THE GIRL SCOUTS SERIES + + The Girl Scouts of the Eagle's Wing + The Girl Scouts in Beechwood Forest + The Girl Scouts of the Round Table + The Girl Scouts in Mystery Valley + The Girl Scouts and the Open Road + +[Illustration: "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, RALPH MERRITT?" SHE +DEMANDED] + + + + +THE RANCH GIRLS SERIES + + +The Ranch Girls at Home Again + +BY + +MARGARET VANDERCOOK + + +ILLUSTRATED BY + +RALPH P. COLEMAN + + THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY + PHILADELPHIA + + + + + Copyright, 1915, by + THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO. + + PRINTED IN U. S. A. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. THE RACE 9 + II. AN UNANSWERED QUESTION 21 + III. THE ENGINEER OF THE RAINBOW MINE 30 + IV. OLIVE COMES HOME 40 + V. THEIR RIDE TOGETHER 51 + VI. THAT SAME AFTERNOON 66 + VII. "COURAGE MAKES THE MAN" 79 + VIII. THE MIDNIGHT CONFERENCE 91 + IX. A DILEMMA AND A VISITOR 100 + X. CROSS PURPOSES 110 + XI. A DINNER PARTY 121 + XII. TWO CONVERSATIONS 134 + XIII. A VISIT TO RAINBOW MINE 146 + XIV. THE EXPLOSION 155 + XV. AN UNFORTUNATE DISCUSSION 165 + XVI. A DESERT STORM 187 + XVII. OLIVE'S REMORSE 200 + XVIII. JACK SURRENDERS AT LAST 210 + XIX. RAINBOW CASTLE 221 + XX. A PARTY AT THE NEW HOUSE 230 + XXI. MAIDS AND MEN 240 + XXII. OLD FRIENDS AND SOMETHING MORE 254 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, RALPH MERRITT?" SHE + DEMANDED _Frontispiece_ + PAGE + "SHE HAD HEARD THAT MASTERFUL TONE BEFORE" 84 + "THE STARS HAD DISAPPEARED AND BEYOND THE UNIVERSAL + GRAYNESS THERE WAS NOW A FAINT ROSE LIGHT" 211 + "YOU WOULD HAVE MARRIED ME ANYHOW" 241 + + + + +The Ranch Girls at Home Again + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE RACE + + +AN hour before sunset a number of persons were standing in a small group +facing the western horizon. But although the prairie was covered with a +crop of young grass, a pale green mirror to reflect the colors of the +sun, they were not looking at the landscape but toward two figures on +horseback, a girl and a boy who were riding across country as rapidly as +their horses could carry them. + +"Will Jack Ralston ever learn to be less reckless about her riding, +Jim?" Ruth Colter inquired. "Since we returned from Europe it seems to +me that she has grown more attached to the Rainbow ranch than ever +before. Yet at about the time we were married, dear, do you know I had a +fancy that Jack and Frank Kent were going to care for each other +seriously. Of course, I was mistaken since he has never been to see her +in almost a year." + +Then with both hands held out invitingly, Ruth received a small pink and +white bundle which Jim deposited in them with infinite care. For the +bundle consisted of an absurdly tiny person measuring its early +existence by weeks instead of months or years. And its face, though as +delicately shell pink as the blanket enveloping it, yet bore a +ridiculous resemblance to the tall man's in whose arms it had lately +been borne. + +A moment later and Jim Colter strode forward with a blond girl at his +side. For by this time the two riders were almost within hailing +distance, the girl's horse scarcely a neck in advance of her +companion's. + +"Carlos don't like Jack," Frieda Ralston remarked unexpectedly to her +guardian, "so I do wish that she would not keep on doing things to +irritate him. He perfectly hates to think that a girl can beat him at +any outdoor sport and yet he rarely gets ahead of Jack. Indians are so +strange and silent that sometimes I feel afraid he may try and revenge +himself upon her for some fancied wrong. See, he is furious now at her +having won their race!" + +"Well, I expect Miss Ralston will be able to manage him;" Jim returned. +"Nevertheless, the boy has not turned out as I had hoped; he is lazy and +proud and extremely ungrateful. Sometimes I have half an idea of turning +him off the ranch, and I came very near doing it the other day, only +Jack pleaded for him. Because he is Olive's friend she seems sentimental +about keeping him on here, at least, until Olive joins us. Bravo, Jack! +Be careful, you hoyden, don't you know you are a grown woman!" he cried. + +And with his tone divided between admiration and anger, Jim caught at +the flying figure of a girl as she landed lightly on the ground at his +feet. She had jumped from her pony while it was still going at full +speed and then run along beside it until she was able to stop without +losing her balance. + +"I wish you would not behave like a circus rider, Jack," Frieda scolded. +For at eighteen Frieda Ralston had become a far more dignified and +reposeful character than her older sister, who was now past twenty. + +Nevertheless Jack only made a slight grimace, calling back over her +shoulder carelessly, "Carlos, see to my horse, will you, when it gets to +the stable?" And then in a kinder tone, "Oh, never mind, I had +forgotten; some one else can look after him. Of course you will be +interested to hear the news from Olive--Miss Van Mater," she corrected +herself. "I am going to tell the family at once." Then she walked on +between Jim and Frieda, with an arm laid lightly across her sister's +shoulder. And without replying Carlos followed the little party. + +He was a beautiful slender Indian boy of about fifteen or sixteen, with +skin the color of bronze, with straight dark hair and moody, unsatisfied +black eyes--the same Indian boy who had formerly helped Olive to return +to the ranch after her enforced capture by old Laska, and had afterwards +sought refuge there himself. As a small lad, in spite of his pride and +difficult disposition, the Ranch girls and Ruth had been fond of him, +but since their return from Europe they had found Carlos a problem. He +was unwilling to work like the other men, either on the ranch or at the +mine, and was equally determined not to go to school except when forced +into it. Indeed, so far as possible, the boy had insisted upon living in +the midst of civilization like one of his chieftain ancestors. +Oftentimes he chose to sit idly in the sun doing nothing, save perhaps +to clean his gun or else gaze for hours at the sky overhead. Then again +he might without warning disappear on a hunting expedition, taking any +horse from the stables that he wished for his purpose, and usually +returning with game or furs, which he sometimes bestowed on Jean or +Frieda or Ruth, but never on Jack. + +At the present moment his manner was absurdly dignified and haughty, +since he particularly objected to being treated at any time as though he +were a servant, and considered Jack's request in that light. However, as +no one was paying the slightest attention to him, it was self-evident +that he was longing to hear Jacqueline Ralston's news. + +"Have you heaps of letters, Jack? Do please hurry and give them to us." +Jean Bruce called out, walking away from the two young men with whom she +had been recently talking. One of them was Ralph Merritt, the engineer +in charge of the Rainbow mine, and the other a visitor from one of the +neighboring ranches. For as Jack had always insisted, wherever Jean was +to be found there also was a masculine admirer, even in a wilderness. + +Over her shoulder Jack carried a small leather mail bag, which she now +opened; but before drawing forth her letters she leaned over and glanced +anxiously into the face of the small baby snuggled in Ruth's arms. + +"Nothing has happened to Jimmikins since I have been away? He has not +cut a tooth or anything, has he, Ruth?" she queried. And as the others +laughed, the baby being at the present hour only about seven weeks old, +Jack drew forth more than a dozen letters and began passing them around +to the different members of her family. + +"Here, Jean, of course there are more for you than for any of the rest +of us, and in so many handwritings that it looks as if you kept a +correspondence school for young men. And, Frieda, I am sorry I had to +discover this was from Tom. But the youth does send you so many boxes of +candy, I can't help recognizing the address. Ruth, won't you ask +everybody please to wait here a moment for I have something really +important to tell you." Then Jack's radiant face grew graver. + +"I have at last had a long letter from Olive," she explained. "And a +week after her grandmother's death the will was read." The girl glanced +about her. Ralph Merrit and their visitor had walked off several yards, +so that only the few persons interested were standing near. + +"Of course old Madame Van Mater has made the curious will that we might +have expected. For it seems that she has given Olive one more year to +make up her mind whether or not she will marry Donald Harmon. If she +does, of course they will then inherit the greater portion of the estate +with only a few legacies to be paid outside. But if she does not decide +to marry him--and here is the strange thing--at the end of the year +another will is to be read, which will divide the property differently. +And no one knows just how, for this second will is sealed and in the +possession of her executors. So Olive may finally be left penniless or +she may receive everything, or else Donald may suffer the same fate. It +is a queer and interesting state of things, isn't it?" Jack concluded. + +"Yes, and pretty well calculated to make everybody that had anything to +do with the old lady uncomfortable for another twelve months longer +anyhow," Jim Colter replied frowning. "Funny how the old woman arranged +to make her relatives and friends as miserable after her death as she +had before it. It is pretty hard on both Olive and Donald. In the end I +have an idea that the money will go to some charity." + +In reply Jean slowly shook her head, turning over the envelopes in her +hand with pretended interest, but with her thoughts plainly not centered +upon them. + +"Olive is very foolish," she remarked at length. "Really I can't see why +she does not make up her mind to do as her grandmother wished. Don is a +charming fellow and it is ridiculous not to appreciate the value of so +much money. Why the longer I live the more important it seems to me!" + +Too displeased with Jean's unexpected burst of worldliness to discuss +the question with her, Jim marched a few steps away. Ruth was +distressed, but being a woman she was not so unmindful of what lay +behind the girl's apparently careless speech, while Frieda became +immediately influenced by her cousin's point of view, just as she +always had been since they were small girls. So it was Jack who was the +one person in the group to take Jean's statement lightly, for she merely +laughed, saying: + +"Oh, of course we know that Jean is the really worldly person in our +family, so we must watch and see how she lives up to her sentiments! +Still you have not yet heard my most important piece of news. Olive has +also written that she is completely worn out with all the business and +worry of these last weeks and so she is coming to us at once. She asks +if she may bring Miss Winthrop along with her for a visit?" Jack paused +for a moment, looking inquiringly about at the faces of the others. "Of +course she may," she ended. "It will be a pleasure to have Miss +Winthrop, and besides I don't see how we possibly could refuse." + +Frieda held up two white hands protestingly. She was not an industrious +person and so devoted a great deal of her valuable time to her toilet +instead of to more serious labors. "Oh, dear," she began, "it will be +just like going back to Primrose Hall again to have Miss Winthrop +staying in our house. Goodness, how she will disapprove of me for +having no ambition to improve myself as Olive does. I shall have to lead +a changed life!" + +"Thank Providence, then. Do ask Miss Winthrop to come on the next +train," Jim chuckled, returning at this instant, while Ruth shook her +head thoughtfully. + +"Naturally it will be an opportunity for all of us to have a woman like +Miss Winthrop for our guest," she declared, in a slightly worried tone. +"But has it ever occurred to any one of you where we are to put her? The +poor old Lodge is so crowded now with babies and girls and Jim Colter +that we have not a single spare room. Oh, of course Olive can be tucked +in anywhere, but----" + +"Jim, do take your son and let us walk over and look at our new house," +Jack at once suggested. "Surely there will be enough bedrooms finished +by the time Olive and Miss Winthrop arrive, for some of the family, so +that we may give ours to our guests. Funny how we cling to the dear old +Rainbow Lodge in spite of our new grandeur." + +Then Jack moved on ahead, leading the way through the grove of +cottonwood trees almost up to the old house. She turned to the left and +about an eighth of a mile farther along came to a slight elevation, +recently planted with shrubs and evergreens. There, facing the little +party, was a splendid pile of stone and wood that was evidently growing +into an old-time colonial house. + +For of course now that the girls were older and wealthier, and Jim and +Ruth married, Rainbow Lodge was no longer suited to their needs. And as +the Rainbow Mine still continued to yield a handsome income, the new +house had occupied a great deal of the family's time and attention since +their return from Europe. For it had been both Jim's and Jack's desire +to build a wonderful colonial mansion here in their own beautiful +Western country, where in times past men and women had been content with +rude cabins. Since a colonial house meant to Jim Colter the beauty and +dignity of the old Virginia homes that he remembered in his boyhood and +since Jacqueline had long cherished a photograph of the place owned by +her Southern grandfather who had been killed in the Confederate army, +the new house was to be as nearly as possible a replica of the latter. + +In the interest of discussing what the workmen had accomplished since +their last visit to the new building, no one noticed that the Indian +boy, Carlos, who had followed the others up to this time, listening +intently to every word of their conversation, had stalked silently away +as soon as Olive's name ceased to be mentioned. His face wore a more +pleasing expression, and unlike his usual habit he afterwards joined old +Aunt Ellen in the kitchen, who was still the ranch girls' cook and +devoted friend. To her he at once imparted the information concerning +the expected visitors; then he retired to his own tent in the yard. For +Carlos had absolutely refused to live in the ranch house with the other +employees about the estate and had erected for himself an Indian tepee +at some distance. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +AN UNANSWERED QUESTION + + +ON a pile of boards in a great unfinished room Frieda Ralston stood +facing--the unknown future. + +In the family it was sometimes said that though on occasions the younger +Miss Ralston could assume the airs of a social queen, at very many other +times she was more of a baby than ever. For of course Frieda had not yet +been touched by any of life's hard realities, and since her sister's +recovery from her accident her way had been fairly plain sailing. For +did she not have health, youth, plenty of money and an adoring family? +What else was there to wish for? Thus far she had never taken any of her +mild love affairs with the least seriousness and had no idea of +"settling down," as she expressed it, for at least ten years to come. So +what was there for Frieda to do but each day to grow fairer and more +charming, like a lovely wax doll that had come to life and taken upon +itself the airs and graces of a really grown-up person. Because Jack +objected, Frieda some time ago had given up her former fashion of +wearing her heavy yellow hair in a Psyche knot, and in these months at +the ranch when no strangers were about had returned to her old childish +custom of two long braids. On dress occasions, however, her coiffure, +copied after a Paris model, could again be made bewilderingly lovely. + +On this particular occasion Frieda had unfortunately neglected to attire +herself for the role which she was about to play, as she happened to be +wearing an old blue and white middy blouse and a short duck skirt with +one long plait hanging over each shoulder. + +"I wonder," she began at this moment, though no one chanced to be +looking toward her, "which one of us will finally fall heir to this +grand new house we are building? I have just been thinking, houses are +not like clothes, meant for one person and to last through one or two +seasons: they may last through many generations and no telling what +changes in a family." + +"Hear! Hear!" cried Jean, straightway whirling around to regard her +cousin with astonishment and then striking an attitude of mock +admiration. "Listen, everybody, please, Frieda is making a speech! She +wants to know which of us shall become the royal family of Rainbow +Castle. It is an interesting question, dear; I never should have thought +it of you!" + +Frieda hesitated, but the next instant went on quite seriously. "Of +course it won't be you though, Jean, because of all of us, Ruth, Olive, +Jim, and Jack and me, why I think you love the Rainbow ranch the least. +You will never want to stay on in the West once you are married; that +visit you made the Princess Colonna in Rome has completely spoiled you." + +And now it was Jean's turn to endure the family laughter, and though she +made no reply, she showed more annoyance than the accusation merited. + +Still surprisingly thoughtful, Frieda continued: "I suppose that either +Jim or Jack and their children ought to inherit the new house, for of +course I am the youngest and have done nothing toward making the ranch a +success as Jim and Jack have. Ruth, you and Jim would want Jack to have +the place after she marries and has children, wouldn't you? And yet not +long ago, do you know, I believed that in spite of loving the ranch +best, Jack would be the first one of us to leave it for good. I don't +think so now," she added hastily, catching an expression on her sister's +face that she could not altogether understand. + +But by this time Jack had marched across the room and was gently but +firmly pulling Frieda down from her exalted position. + +"I suppose hearing the news of old Madame Van Mater's will has gone to +your head, Frieda darling," Jack protested. "But really no one of us +wants to hear you arranging our futures and talking about our +descendants, as if fifty years might suddenly pass away before tea time. +Of course 'Rainbow Castle,' as Jean calls our new home, shall belong to +the one of us who wishes it and needs it the most. But which of us that +may be--well, in the words of Mr. William Shakespeare, 'that is the +question.'" + +Jack now turned to her cousin, Jean, who was standing before one of the +unfinished windows looking out at the beautiful view. For the prospect +from the new house was far lovelier than any outlook from Rainbow Lodge, +since it stood on a higher incline and showed a wider sweep of the +prairies. + +"Jean," Jack asked, "I wonder if you happen to know where Ralph Merrit +is? There is something Jim and I want particularly to talk over with +him. I happened to notice he was with you last. Did he say whether he +was going to have dinner with us tonight or with the men at the Ranch +House?" + +The other girl shrugged her shoulders impatiently. + +"Really, Jack, I don't see why I should be expected to know Ralph +Merrit's plans because I was talking to him for ten minutes. But what is +all this mystery about anyway? What is going on down at the mine? Ralph +looks either as if he were working himself to death or as if he had the +weight of the world on his shoulders. To tell you the truth, I believe +he did ask me to tell you that he was going away for several days +perhaps. He preferred to talk over matters with you on his return. But +do come on home, Ruth," Jean finished crossly, "it is much too cold for +the baby to be outdoors now the sun is down. And Jim and Jack always +prefer to have their business secrets alone. I suppose we have no right +to be interested. But of course there can't be any serious trouble at +the Rainbow Mine while Ralph is managing things." Then Ruth, Jean, the +baby and Frieda walked on ahead, leaving Jim and Jack to follow slowly +behind. For in spite of the accusation in Jean's speech, her cousin had +made no denial. + +With her hand inside his, after the fashion she had as a little girl +when anything about the big ranch troubled her, Jack gazed earnestly up +into her old friend and guardian's strong and gentle countenance. + +"I am right not to speak of this trouble Ralph Merrit is having with the +men at Rainbow Mine, don't you think so, Jim?" she queried. "You see I +don't understand the situation anyhow, and it all may come to nothing in +the end. So any discussion does not seem to me fair to Ralph. Surely the +men are only grumbling! Why next to you I feel that we owe our fortune +to the splendid way Ralph Merrit has managed the mine. And you know you +have always liked him better than any other young man we have ever +known, better even than Frank Kent." + +Jim cleared his throat. "Have I said that I had changed my mind about +Merrit?" he demanded. "You are right, Jack; you just lie low and say +nothing even to the men who may come to you with their complaints. In +my opinion the trouble is this: The fellows at work on Rainbow Mine are +most of them middle-aged men, kind of down-and-out miners and a hard +lot, who have either given up the hope of discovering gold for +themselves or postponed searching for it for a while so as to first make +a good living out of us. Well, you see, compared to them Ralph Merrit is +a kid. And of course his being a real mining engineer graduated out of a +college and placed as the boss over them makes the older men kind of +sore. Then, besides paying our miners their regular wages we have been +giving them a percentage also of the amount of gold that is taken out of +the mine each month. There is still enough pay dirt for us to live +pretty comfortable, but the men say we ought to be getting a whole lot +more. Merrit isn't certain yet, he wants to make some more +investigations. The gold that is a whole lot deeper down under the earth +may prove either too dangerous or too expensive to get out. So at bottom +I believe that is what the real grievance is, they want Ralph to hurry +up. It is nothing to them to have us sink, say a hundred thousand +dollars, in new mining machinery and maybe get nothing back. So they +have been spreading ugly stories, say Merrit does not know his job and +that he is too busy speculating and trying to earn a fortune that way +for himself to care what becomes of the mine." + +After this speech Jack kept silent for several moments and they were +almost at the Lodge before she replied: + +"Look here, Jim, don't be angry with me if I say something. Of course I +know Ralph is doing the best he can for us at the mine. But about that +other story--really you ought to try and find out if it is true. John +Raines, one of the miners, said he wanted to tell me something; do let +him tell you instead. Because, Jim dear, if once you believe in a person +you know you believe in him forever, and yet maybe Ralph may have gotten +into mischief. You see I should not wish to be prying into his private +affairs, but it is as plain as the nose on your face to everybody but +you that Ralph is in love with Jean and always has been for that matter, +though I must confess he has been paying her a good deal less attention +lately. And as for Jean, well I don't believe she will marry any one who +cannot give her wealth and position; yet just the same it would be wiser +to know the truth about Ralph. Couldn't you ask him to tell you? I +believe he would. Oh dear me, I do hope we won't have a strike at the +mine or any other kind of trouble." + +"You sound pretty sensible, partner," Jim agreed, "maybe I had better +look into things a little more. It never hurts any fellow to keep his +eyes open. But let me tell you that I have never heard of a gold mine +yet, whether it was a good one or a poor one, that did not keep on +piling up trouble." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE ENGINEER OF THE RAINBOW MINE + + +READERS of the Ranch Girls' Series probably remember that the first +meeting between the members of the Rainbow Ranch family and Ralph Merrit +occurred several years before, while they were making a caravan journey +to the Yellowstone Park. + +And Jean Bruce had been Ralph's original acquaintance. How many times +since had they not laughed at the vision of the girl idly washing her +hair in an outdoor stream with no thought of a stranger in many miles. +Then there was the story of their first luncheon together with only +Frieda as chaperon and Ruth and Olive's return, the storm, and Jim and +Jack's disaster by the deserted mine. Within less than a week Ralph +Merrit had appeared like an old and tried friend. And from the hour of +his arrival to advise and assist Jim Colter in regard to the Rainbow +Mine he had seemed almost like one of the family. Only twice had he left +his work for any length of time--once to visit his mother and sister in +Chicago, and the second time to say farewell to the Ranch girls when +they sailed for Europe. His friends understood that a large part of his +generous salary went each month to the support of his people, and that +in his present position Ralph was not making his fortune so quickly in +the West as he had hoped. But was that the reason why he had been taking +so many short trips away from the ranch in the past few months and why +he had recently changed so decidedly in his appearance and manner? + +Though Jean may have had her own special reasons for observing these +changes most, no one else was wholly blind. Could it be possible that +Ralph Merrit's difficulties were graver than they suspected? + +There is a possibility that Jack Ralston's and even Jim's faith might +have been shaken had they been able to follow the young man's +proceedings on the afternoon of their conversation about him. + +He and the neighbor, who had simply been a visitor at the ranch for +afternoon tea, walked along without much conversation until they came to +within the neighborhood of Rainbow Creek--that portion of the creek +where important mining machinery had been set up and near which a shaft +had been sunk, forming a narrow entrance into the Rainbow Mine. + +As the hour for work had passed some time before, the place was now +deserted and Ralph Merrit showed no interest in lingering in its +vicinity. Yet the discovery of the surprising wealth contained in the +Rainbow Mine had never ceased being a subject of interest, of +speculation and oftentimes of acute envy to many of the ranch owners in +that end of Wyoming, and the young man, Hugo Manning, who was Ralph's +present companion, had only recently purchased a cattle ranch about ten +miles away. He had come from the western part of New York State and this +was his first sight of a gold mine. + +Plainly Ralph was at first simply bored by the stupid questions that his +neighbor asked of him. Then unexpectedly the young engineer's expression +changed and his face flushed angrily. + +"I hear that your famous Rainbow gold mine is panning out," the young +man had remarked carelessly. "They tell me around here that you have +already taken out all the gold that lies near enough to the surface to +be of value. They insist that it is going to cost you more to buy new +machinery and try out new methods of mining than the gold is worth. +Better advise your friends to sell out while selling is good and before +their mine loses its reputation." + +Ralph made a queer noise in his throat that was half anger, and yet he +did not positively deny the suggestion. "Oh, they say that, do they?" he +exclaimed. "It's funny how much sooner strangers find out about your +affairs than you do yourself! I don't believe Mr. Colter or Miss Ralston +have yet had to complain of any lack of money. When that time comes then +we shall decide what is best to do." + +And Ralph started to move along, but his companion waited, hesitating +for half a moment. "I say, Merrit," he continued, "if the Rainbow Mine +owners should make up their minds that they want to get out, I wish you +would let me hear the news first. Isn't it possible that they might be +willing to take a lump sum down and not run the risk of losing what they +have already got by investing in new machinery? I believe it mostly +belongs just to the two Ralston girls. But a company of men, say in New +York City, might look at the proposition differently. They could afford +to sink a few hundred thousands easier." + +Ralph nodded dryly and this time walked on so resolutely that his +companion was obliged to hurry in order to keep alongside and to hear +the answer to his request. + +All the reply he received was: "Thank you; it is kind of surprising to +meet a fellow who knows people who are willing to lose money." + +But when at the edge of the ranch the two men finally separated, Ralph +Merrit went on alone to the nearest railroad station. It was several +miles away and few persons from the Rainbow Ranch ever attempted walking +so great a distance. But Ralph had not ordered a horse for one reason +because he did not wish to have a boy accompany him to bring the animal +home again and also because he preferred not having any one know just +where he was going. That there was discussion and ill feeling concerning +him among the men at work on the Rainbow Mine he understood, although +Ralph was not yet aware how unkind the criticism was, nor just what was +being said. + +By midnight he had finally arrived at his destination, Laramie, the +largest city in Wyoming. He had then gone directly to a small, +out-of-the-way hotel. But after his arrival, instead of getting +immediately into bed as any tired, healthy fellow should, the young man +dropped into a chair before his open window, sitting there most of the +night. Now and then he dozed a few moments from sheer exhaustion, but +the greater part of the time he stared out into the lighted streets +below him, moody and restless and totally unlike the Ralph Merrit of +former days. + +If one trait of character had previously distinguished Ralph from the +Ranch girls' other young men friends, it had been his practical common +sense. Unlike Frank Kent and Donald Harmon, Ralph Merrit was a self-made +boy, who had earned his own way through college and had afterwards +suffered many disappointments and disillusions on coming West to seek +his fortune. Upon taking charge of the Rainbow Mine and making the +success of it, which he certainly had, for a time Ralph felt happy and +satisfied. He was doing work which many an older man might have envied +him. Then why had he recently become so disheartened and dissatisfied? +It was true that the Rainbow Mine was not yielding so much gold as it +formerly had and that he was beginning to feel fearful that the veins +near the surface, which had held valuable ore, were now nearly worked +out. Yet Ralph did not even try to pretend to himself that his +nervousness and discontent were due to conditions at Rainbow Mine. No, +his anxiety and despondency were entirely personal. + +For in the past six months Ralph had been overtaken by an ambition that +makes for more unhappiness and destroys the careers of more young men +than almost any other vice. He had developed an overpowering desire to +make a large fortune quickly, not by hard work or economy or any of the +ordinary, slow methods for gaining wealth, but by some single, brilliant +stroke of good luck that should make him a rich man at once. + +Yet this represented such a curious change in Ralph Merrit's former +nature, in his good sense and sound judgment, that surely some outside +influence must have been at work to render him so unlike himself. What +that influence really was Ralph Merrit alone knew perfectly well. + +Now it is idle to deny that while under most circumstances a refined +girl is an ennobling influence in a young fellow's life, now and then +there may be exceptions to this fact as to all others. At the very +beginning of their acquaintance Ralph Merrit had understood that he was +falling hopelessly in love with Jean Bruce. But in the two years of her +absence at school and in Europe he had fought the matter out with +himself and decided that he had mastered his impossible fancy. During +her short visits at the ranch they had remained especial friends as at +the start, but nothing more. Now, however, since Jean's return to live +at the Rainbow Lodge, Ralph had not only felt a return of his first +affection, but an emotion that was very much stronger and more serious. + +And he felt this in spite of recognizing that Jean herself had greatly +changed. No longer was she the fascinating unspoiled girl of his early +acquaintance; she was a far more worldly-minded and ambitious Jean than +he could have imagined. She was also far prettier and more alluring from +her experiences and opportunities, and there was no doubt but that she +was constantly yearning for the companionship of distinguished people, +for more society, broader social opportunities of every kind. During +the past year at the ranch she had not been altogether contented. Their +former life now seemed too simple and uneventful to her, she no longer +had Jack's intense interest in outdoor amusements. Yet to Ruth's and her +cousin's suggestions that she make a visit in the east to her friends, +Margaret and Cecil Belknap, Jean would not listen. Of course she was +happy at home, and whatever her family might say to the contrary they +would be absurdly lonely without her. Moreover, did they believe that +she would miss Olive's home-coming? But any other influence that may +have been at work in the back of the girl's heart or mind she did not +mention. And assuredly Ralph Merrit did not dream that his presence on +the ranch could be in any possible sense an added influence. + +For whatever Ralph's present weaknesses, he did not put the blame upon a +woman. Jean had given him no false encouragement, had shown him no +special favor. The fault was his, that moved by what he believed her +attitude toward wealth, he had used the wrong method for obtaining it. +He had not even given Jean the chance to say that his struggle was +unwise or unnecessary, since he had been paying her far less attention +recently. + +At ten o'clock the next morning Ralph learned from his stock broker that +instead of being nearer the fortune he so much desired, he was several +thousand dollars farther away. And this loss represented almost the last +dollar he had in the world. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +OLIVE COMES HOME + + +SOON after dinner Ruth and Jim Colter and of course the small son had +retired to their rooms in Rainbow Lodge, leaving Jack, Jean and Frieda +to amuse themselves in the living room until bedtime. A week had passed +since their visit to their new house and tonight Frieda and Jack were +busily studying over their original plans and discussing various +alterations which they felt were absolutely necessary, while Jean, +without seeming to regard them, was playing idly upon the piano. + +It was not cold, and one of the front windows was partly raised with the +blind drawn down; but a small fire was burning in the old fireplace, +since the Rainbow Lodge living room was never exactly the same +delightful abode without it. + +Except for a few handsome, additional pieces of furniture and some odd +pictures and china which the girls had brought home from abroad, there +was no material change in the beloved room. For Ruth and the girls had +the good taste to know that its primitive character with its decorations +of bright Indian rugs and simple furnishings was far more suitable and +beautiful than any alteration their money could bring. So the newer and +more splendid furnishings which they had purchased in New York and in +Europe had been safely stored away for the finishing of their new house. +And this evening in their former familiar surroundings Jack, Jean and +Frieda looked not unlike they had on that first evening years ago when +Jack had returned from her original meeting with Frank Kent and before +either Ruth or Olive had ever been seen at the Rainbow Lodge. + +"But, Frieda dear, it will be far too expensive to make such a change as +you suggest," Jack protested. "You know that we agreed to have the four +big bedrooms and two baths on one side of the house and just one +upstairs sitting room. Now if we try to arrange a private sitting room +off from your room, it will either make your bedroom too small or else +rob the rest of us. And another big bay window would cost hundreds of +dollars more." + +"Well, why not?" Frieda returned petulantly. "Here we have all been +living quietly at the ranch for nearly a year and spending no outside +money except on the house. It is only because you are suddenly growing +stingy, Jack. I heard you tell Ruth that we had better not order as many +new oriental rugs as we planned to have. Mr. Parker says that he can add +the extra space to my apartment without spoiling the effect of the house +in the least. Do let me have him do it, Jack darling, please? You know +you and Jean and Olive will often be talking about things in our big +sitting room that you won't wish me to hear and I do want a tiny den all +to myself." + +Because Jack did not agree at once to her sister's pleading the girl at +the piano ceased playing for an instant to glance at her cousin, and, +surprised by her expression, did not look immediately away. + +Jack was frowning and was a little pale. But she had been out all day +riding over the ranch and talking to the men at the mine, and naturally +might be expected to be tired. She had gone to her own room and +undressed almost immediately after dinner, and as there was no +possibility of any visitors arriving unexpectedly at the ranch, she was +now wearing a lovely old Chinese blue silk kimono and had her gold brown +hair in a loose knot on top of her head. Leaning over she suddenly +kissed Frieda, who sat on the other side of their small table puzzling +over the drawings for their new place. + +"It isn't fair to say that I am stingy, baby," Jack declared, "when you +know that our house is costing thousands of dollars more than we first +expected. People say that is just what all houses do, yet just the same +we have to set a limit somewhere. And of course I don't want you or Jean +to worry, but there is a possibility that we may not get as much money +out of Rainbow Mine in the future as we have for the past few years. And +you know we have not a large fortune stowed away in bank. Besides, we +have gotten into the habit of living pretty expensively and spending an +awful lot of money thinking that our mine would hold out forever. Today +Jim told me that frequently there were gold mines that ceased to yield +almost altogether when certain veins had been worked out. I don't think +he meant that this was going to happen to ours--only that our income +might be cut down." + +As Jack finished speaking Jean Bruce got up from her piano stool and +came across the room to face her cousin. + +"It's funny, Jack, that you let Jim give you all this information about +affairs at the mine, instead of Ralph Merrit. It seems to me that Ralph +must know more than Jim. And as he is head engineer you know you ought +to get your information from him," she protested. + +Rather wearily Jack leaned back in her chair; yet she answered without +any show of temper. "I thought you knew, Jean, that Ralph has not yet +come back to the ranch. Five or six days ago he wrote Jim not to expect +him for some little time as he had important business to look after. So +you see I could not very well discuss business with him while he is +away." + +With a little shrug Jean turned to stare into the fire. + +"Yes, but you could have waited until Ralph's return and then have had +the conversation with him. Besides, it isn't only Jim who has been +telling you that the gold in our mine will give out unless some new +method for mining it is employed. No, it is the other miners who have +been grumbling to both of you. I wonder if they can be dissatisfied with +Ralph's management? But, Frieda, for goodness sake don't be a baby and +don't worry Jack about spending more money on our new house than we can +afford. Dear me, I wonder how we shall behave if suddenly we should +become poor as church mice again. It would be my duty then, I suppose, +Jack, to let you get rid of supporting such an expensive cousin by some +means or other." + +Already won over by her sister's argument, since Jack's judgment was +almost always hers in the end, Frieda had left her chair and was sitting +on the arm of her sister's, pulling softly at the loose coils of her +hair and trying to rearrange them. + +She and Jack both stared at Jean in surprise and consternation. What was +the matter with her? Why should she talk in this absurd fashion? Had +they ever felt or shown any difference between her and themselves in the +right to everything they possessed? Something was making Jean unlike +herself tonight. + +Seeing the hurt and surprise in the other two faces Jean at once changed +the subject. + +"Jack, have you heard anything more about when Miss Winthrop and Olive +are planning to come for their visit to us?" she demanded. "Just think, +we have not seen Olive since our return from England! Won't it be +splendid for you to have her with you again, Jack dear? Frieda and I are +so dreadfully spoiled and lazy, we never do anything to help you about +the ranch and only complain if things go wrong and we haven't more money +to spend. I do wish somebody would show me how to be useful. I haven't +even the beds to make now we have another girl to help Aunt Ellen." + +Jack shook her head. "I am sorry you are bored. I wish I could think of +something to interest you. You seemed to like the ranch when we first +came back and the work at the mine. The only word I have heard from +Olive since her other letter was a short note in answer to my telegram +that begged her to come at once. She said that she and Miss Winthrop had +a lot of business matters to look after, but meant to run away as soon +as possible. What in the world was that?" And Jack, who seemed unusually +tired and nervous tonight, startled the other two girls by jumping up +unexpectedly. + +Jean had also heard the noise and turned in the direction from which it +came. + +"It is only that tiresome boy, Carlos," she explained. "I mean to tell +Jim that I don't like his sneaking up here and peering into our window +in that spooky fashion. Carlos can move more like a spirit than a human +being anyway! But what has become of him recently, for now I think of it +I have not seen him before for several days?" + +"He has been away from the ranch most of the time," Frieda answered +sleepily, "for I wanted him to do an errand for me the other day and +could not find him. But Aunt Ellen says he has come to her for food +several times and then has gone off with as much as she would give him. +Somehow I'm fond of Carlos--he was such a queer, handsome little boy +when he first came to us. I hope Olive will understand him better than +the rest of us do. But dear me, what does he mean by coming in at the +front door without knocking?" And Frieda also jumped up hurriedly. "I +hope he is not bringing us bad news!" + +Not only had the front door opened, which had not yet been locked for +the night, but the door of the living room was mysteriously unclosing +just half an inch at a time. + +The three girls were seriously annoyed and Jack spoke sharply: + +"Carlos, what do you mean by entering our room without asking +permission? Unless you have something important to say I should prefer +your waiting to speak to us until tomorrow." + +A soft voice, which was not that of the Indian boy, replied: "But I +can't wait till morning or not another moment, Jack dearest, when I have +traveled across a whole continent to see you. And please forgive Carlos +for my sake, because he and I have been planning this surprise together +ever since I left Primrose Hall." + +Afterwards Olive Van Mater could only get a few steps further inside the +old Lodge living room, because Frieda, Jean and Jack at once flung +themselves upon her. And the tears were gathering fast in the girl's big +star-like black eyes as she tried her best to explain the mystery of her +arrival and to embrace her three friends at the same instant. + +"You see, Miss Winthrop found that she could not leave home for some +time yet and I was so tired and so nearly dead to see you that she would +not let me wait until she could come. So I thought that I would rather +surprise you than anything else I could imagine. I wrote Carlos when to +expect me and to have a horse and carriage at the train. But the poor +lad has been at the station apparently for several days, fearing he +might make some mistake and that I should arrive without his knowing. +But you brought me home safely after all, didn't you, Carlos?" And Olive +disengaged her hand for a moment from the girls' hold to extend it to +the Indian boy. + +"Goodness, how you have grown, I haven't had a good look at you until +this moment," she ended admiringly. + +And surely Carlos made a handsome picture. In honor of Olive's +home-coming he wore a soft shirt of some yellow material and a pair of +clean khaki trousers with a bright sash knotted about his waist and a +crimson tie at his throat. All the surliness had disappeared from his +expression, his skin was like polished bronze and his eyes like shining +coals, as he took his old friend's hand and for a moment pressed it +reverently to his lips. + +Then Jack removed Olive's traveling hat and long broadcloth coat, with +every movement of her hands a caress. + +"But please, Carlos and Olive," she demanded, "I don't pretend to be +able to hear outdoor sounds as you can; yet I have fairly well trained +ears of my own. Would you mind telling me how you managed to drive a +rickety old hired carriage up to the very door of Rainbow Lodge with us +in the living room and yet never a sound heard we?" + +Olive laughed. "That is our secret, but if you must know, we did no such +thing. Half a mile away I sent the driver back to the station and Carlos +and I ran on tiptoes under the stars all the way home." The girl ended +her sentence with a slight catch in her breath. "Then please to remember +that we are both Indians, or at least I am almost one. And now won't +somebody go and find Ruth and Jim, for I just must see the baby this +minute even if he cries his eyes out the rest of the night." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THEIR RIDE TOGETHER + + +OLIVE and Jack had scarcely been alone for more than a half hour at a +time since Olive's arrival almost a week before. But before ten o'clock +this morning they had both started off on horseback with their lunch +boxes packed, leaving word at home that they were not to be expected +back until sundown. + +First of all they yearned for a long, uninterrupted gallop together over +the sweet-smelling, wild, rose-strewn prairies. For not since the very +first year of Olive's life at Rainbow Ranch had they enjoyed this +formerly well-loved entertainment. Soon after then had come Jack's +accident, and until this year she had not been in entirely good health +during any of their days at the ranch. + +And the beauty of this special windswept, sunlit day was nature's gift +to the two friends' reunion. + +Jack rode a little ahead on her own horse, Romeo, which she had bought +immediately after their return from abroad and christened "Romeo" in a +kind of joking recollection of their visit in Rome. Of course, he was +the fastest riding horse on Rainbow Ranch, but not a beautiful animal, +since he had been chosen for speed and endurance rather than appearance. +And in truth he was only a rough Western pony with sagacity and +knowledge of the country, dignified by the name of horse simply because +of his slightly greater size and length of limb. + +Following close behind, her pretty nose almost able to touch the other +animal's rough coat, came Olive's smaller mare, which Jean had named +"Juliet" by reason of following Jack's horse about whenever they were +permitted to graze in the open fields. + +Juliet had been no one's special property, since she had been born on +the place and no one had chosen her for personal use. So shortly after +Olive's return the other three girls had escorted her to the stables and +there solemnly presented her with "Juliet," avowing that no one else +should have the privilege of using the mare except with Olive's consent. + +The two friends rode for more than an hour after leaving the +neighborhood of the Lodge without speaking, except now and then to call +attention to some particularly beautiful effect in the landscape. First +they galloped to the farthest outskirts of the great thousand-acre +ranch, which was still as carefully and scientifically managed as during +the time when the Rainbow Mine was an undiscovered quantity and when the +girls and Jim's living depended entirely upon its success. There were +groups of cattle scattered here and there wherever the alfalfa grass was +ripe for eating, and mares with young colts were allowed free pasture. +But by and by when a far-off rim of hills could be seen, with their +summits glistening with caps of snow and the sky above them so scattered +with fleece-like clouds that snow and cloud seemed to touch and melt +into each other, Jack slowed down for a moment, waiting for her friend +to come up alongside her. + +"Is it because I am a Western girl and all this means childhood and home +to me that the country seems more beautiful and inspiring than anything +we saw in Europe, Olive dear?" Jack asked. + +And Olive looked into the other girl's face searchingly for an instant +before replying. She had been wondering for a good many months why +Frank Kent had never come to America to see Jack when on leaving England +she had believed that he and Jacqueline were almost on the point of +being engaged. Several times recently she had actually written and asked +Jack why on earth Frank had not made his promised visit to Rainbow +Lodge. Without really answering, Jack had always arranged to evade her +questioning. "Frank was too busy, he was thinking of running for +Parliament, he preferred waiting until Olive was also able to be at +home, so that they might be there together once again." None of these +replies had made a very profound impression upon the questioner. So +today Olive had planned in her own mind to get at the real truth. Jack +would not dare to refuse to answer her direct inquiry if once she had +the courage to demand it of her. Positively she must know whether +Frank's apparent indifference was due to a change in his own feeling or +to an unreasonable request on Jack's part for postponing her decision. + +Now at Jack's question, studying her friend's face, Olive feared that +this last idea must be the true one. Love of her old home, the grip +which the western country and atmosphere always had on the girl's +character and affections--these must have been waging a winning battle +against her former affection for Frank Kent. + +Must she ask Jack if this were true? No, Olive decided that she had best +refrain until later in the day. For Jack was not at the present moment +in the mood for confidences. She was just gloriously alive and filled +with the physical beauty and splendor of the morning. Later on, when +there had been opportunity for more conversation, Olive would make her +query. For there were dozens of intimate personal things which she and +her best beloved friend must get at the heart of before this ride of +theirs together was over. So now Olive only laughed, and leaning over +lightly stroked the neck of the other horse. + +"It is only because you are such a pagan, Jack, that Europe seems too +crowded for you," she answered. "Besides you know how dearly you finally +learned to love the English country, although it was the direct opposite +of all this! Doesn't its wonderful greenness, the splendid old trees and +the flowers and cultivated beauty of the fields make up to you for the +great wide spaces and the colors in your prairies?" + +Slowly Jack shook her head, in reply, at the same instant taking off her +soft brown felt hat and hanging it on the pommel of her saddle. "I don't +know," she answered, drawing in a deep, quiet breath. + +The past year of outdoor work and amusement on the ranch had brought +back to Jacqueline Ralston the glow and brilliant, healthy color of her +childhood. Her complexion was several shades darker than it had been the +summer before, her cheeks more vividly rose and her hair lighter from +exposure to the sun. Then Jack had again grown dreadfully indifferent to +clothes since their return home, much to Jean's and Frieda's disgust and +to Jim Colter's secret amusement. For quite forgetting their fortune and +the fact that she was now almost ready to cast her first vote in +Wyoming, Jack had returned to wearing the old brown corduroys or faded +khakis of her youth, together with almost any soft hat which she +happened to find convenient for her outdoor jaunts. And only when the +other girls insisted, or Ruth pleaded, or guests were expected to dinner +at the Lodge, would Jack return to wearing the pretty toilets which she +had brought home from Europe. For not one single dress had she given +time or thought to purchasing since then, although Jean and Frieda +frequently amused themselves by sending east for hats and gowns. + +So today, although Jack was actually the older and in times past had +looked it, Olive would have been considered her senior. For one reason +she was still weary from the shock and strain of her grandmother's death +and from the business difficulties resulting from her strange will. Then +there was a last and final interview with Donald Harmon which even yet +the girl did not like to recall. She was sorry not to be able to return +his affection. Moreover, Olive's new riding-habit was of black cloth, +which Miss Winthrop had ordered from a well-known New York tailor, +adding to her appearance of age and dignity. Yet in spite of the +elegance and decorum of her own riding attire, Olive did not feel the +objection to her friend's as Jean and Frieda undoubtedly would have. For +Jack's costume was eminently characteristic. Moreover, the old corduroy +skirt and leather leggings and slouch hat were not unbecoming now that +her coat was open showing the curve of her strong white throat. + +It was equally characteristic of Jack when they finally reached the +clump of trees where they were to have luncheon to jump first from her +horse and then lift Olive as carefully down as though she had been her +masculine escort. Afterwards it was she who led the horses to water, fed +them and then tied them. + +Coming back, she flung herself down on the ground by her friend and +taking one of the girl's hands in hers kissed it, saying carelessly: + +"Olive, child, did you hear any one or anything while I was away? I +thought we were going to have a perfectly peaceful and uninterrupted +day, but I have an idea that while I was looking after the horses I +heard some one stirring about not so very far off. Still I may have been +mistaken or it may have been a deer or a wildcat. This woods gets so +much denser as one goes further into it. This is near the same place +where I managed to break my poor little pony's legs several years ago. +It was when we were making that horrid visit at the Norton's before it +was finally decided that you were to come and live with us. I never have +been able to think of having to shoot 'Hotspur' without its giving me +the shivers." And Jack now took a small pistol out of a leather holster +fastened about her waist. "I never go on a long ride with either of the +girls without carrying this," she remarked carelessly, "but I don't +believe I am ever going to like hunting again as I did when I was +younger. That was one of the lessons I learned when I was ill so long--a +greater respect for life, anybody's or anything's." Then the girl's +voice grew suddenly hushed. + +"Didn't you hear a slight noise then?" she whispered. + +After a moment of enforced silence Olive shook her head. "No, or at +least nothing of importance," she replied. "Of course these woods must +have wild game in them, since it is the only place with running water +nearer than Rainbow Creek. But it is odd your having this impression +now. Several times I meant to tell you and forgot--that while we were +riding I kept having the idea that some one was following after us. Half +a dozen times I looked around thinking that it might possibly be either +Jean or Frieda. But I saw no one, so of course it must have been only a +fancy." + +"Well it certainly was neither Jean nor Frieda," Jack replied +laughingly. "They have both grown too lazy for such a journey as we are +taking. But come along, because if we are ever to get to your old Indian +village and back again this afternoon, we must hurry." + +For this had been the supposed object of Jack's and Olive's free day +together. Soon after her arrival at the Lodge Olive had suggested that +she would very much like to go back to the little Indian village where +she had lived as a child with old Laska, and see if the woman and her +son were yet alive. She desired also to pay a visit to her former +teacher and first friend, who was still at work among the Indian +children at the little Indian reservation school. + +Before the two girls had finally arrived at their destination, it was +Olive who discovered the ghost stealthily pursuing them. And it was he +whom Jack must have heard in the woods. + +Olive at once turned apologetically to her friend. "Don't be cross, +Jack, and don't scold if I tell you something," she began unexpectedly. +"But just now I saw at some distance behind us a brown shadow on a brown +horse. So I'm afraid it is Carlos who has been trailing after us. But +really it is my fault for having told him where we intended going. +Probably he won't trouble us if we don't wish to notice him." + +Frowning, Jacqueline returned: "I'm sorry to confess it to you, Olive +dear, but really, Carlos is getting to be rather a nuisance to Jim and +me. I do hope you may be able to influence him to settle down to some +kind of work or study--to anything he likes. Neither Jim nor I care so +much what except that his idleness is a bad influence among the men on +the place. There is no use in my trying to do anything with him, for he +has taken such a violent dislike to me. Frieda says that I am too much +of a boss and it has offended the boy's dignity. But I shan't scold +today since Carlos is only following us because he does not entirely +trust me to look after you and adores you so that he does not wish you +out of his sight." + +Just as though four or five years had not passed with its crowded and +ever changing experiences, walking up to old Indian Laska's dirty hut +alone Olive Van Mater found the Indian woman still sitting in her same +open doorway, smoking the apparently identical pipe and clothed in the +same old nondescript rags of former days with a brilliant Indian +blanket across her shoulders. But at the sight of her beautifully +dressed visitor the Indian woman showed not the slightest sign of +recognition. Nor did she do anything further than nod and grunt several +times in succession when Olive assured her that she had once been the +girl "Olilie," who had lived with her from the time she was a baby. + +Possibly Laska could neither understand nor believe what this charming +American girl was trying to explain to her, but certain it was that she +never once invited Olive inside her former home, nor showed the +slightest interest in her, except to smile at the handful of small +change that was bestowed upon her in parting. For of course Olive had +long since ceased to feel any bitterness against the old woman, whose +ignorance and greed had not been nearly so responsible for her past +unhappiness as her own grandmother's careless neglect of her. + +Olive's interview with her first teacher was such a great pleasure and +satisfaction to them both, that except for Jack's insistence that it was +already past time to go back to the ranch and that Olive and her old +friend could now meet each other frequently, the two girls would never +have started for home until nearly sundown. And as it was they were an +hour later than they should have been in leaving. + +They were not able to ride as rapidly as in the morning because neither +of the horses was so fresh. So that by and by, just as both girls had +wished, they fell into the first long, confidential talk they had +enjoyed in nearly a year. + +And there was so much to say! Olive had to repeat the strange terms of +her grandmother's will and her own positive intention not to marry +Donald Harmon, no matter what the second will might insist upon--even if +it left her penniless. + +Then Jack confided the present trouble at the Rainbow Mine. For during +Ralph's continued and unexplained absence the miners had grown uglier, +threatening that unless a new engineer was secured at once they would go +upon a strike. Moreover, they would see that no other men be allowed to +take their places. Already they insisted that there was not enough gold +in the former veins to make Rainbow Mine worth working. A new manager +and new machinery must be procured at once. + +Just how to quell the disturbance and set things right neither Jim +Colter nor Jacqueline could decide at present. Of course they were +awaiting with impatience Ralph Merrit's return in order to have a talk +with him. But afterwards what should they do? Would Ralph be forced by +the miners into advising them to buy more machinery before he knew just +what should be done? This might sink all their capital and make them +poor again. + +"Really it is Jean and Frieda about whom I am worrying the most if we do +lose our money," Jack frankly acknowledged. "For Ruth and Jim and I can +be happy living as we used to do. But then of course the building of our +new house must be completed, since the contract is already given for +finishing it." + +So the two friends talked on, and it was small wonder that the sun was +sinking as, followed by the ever watchful Carlos, they finally rode up +to the Lodge. But Olive had not yet satisfied herself in regard to the +state of affairs now existing between Jack and Frank Kent. + +In answer to a point-blank question Jack had simply replied that she and +Frank had not been engaged to be married. Also that she had too much +upon her mind at present to ask him to make them a visit. However, now +that Olive had arrived, perhaps Frank would wish to come in a short +time. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THAT SAME AFTERNOON + + +SINCE a short time after lunch Jean Bruce had been alone at the Rainbow +Lodge, except for the presence of Aunt Ellen and the housemaid. For at +about two o'clock Jim and Ruth, Frieda and the baby had driven off to +pay a long visit to some old-time friends. For Ruth had not entirely +recovered her strength since the baby's birth and therefore Jim was +unwilling to have her far away from him. + +But Jean was not lonely, or at least not for the first few hours. She +had letters to write--one to her New York friend, Margaret Belknap, and +another to her adored Princess, who had never wavered in her interest +and affection for the American girl since Jean's visit to her in Rome. + +Then, at about four o'clock, Jean strolled over to look at their new +house, which seemed to have been making tremendous strides in the last +few days, now that the outside had been entirely completed. She had one +or two suggestions that she wished to make to the architect about her +own room and this was the best hour for having a talk with him, as she +happened to know that he had been spending most of the day with his men. +The architect did not superintend their house building more than two or +three times a week. Determined to have their new home as beautiful and +as harmonious as possible, the girls, Jim and Ruth had decided upon +employing the most distinguished architect in that part of the country. +Theodore Parker was a Wyoming man with his central office in Laramie, +and yet his work on public buildings and his creation of certain types +of houses for western millionaires had given him a reputation throughout +the country. So it was scarcely possible to expect him to devote a large +portion of his valuable time even to the construction of "Rainbow +Castle." For Jean's laughing title for their new home had somehow clung +to it. + +The place would probably be almost, if not quite, as beautiful as many a +palace, Jean thought, as she slowly approached the front entrance. This +was to have a flight of broad, low stone steps leading up to it, while +the base of the house would be banked with low, close-growing evergreen +shrubs. + +For the outdoor work on their estate the girls had not consulted a +landscape gardener, but they had studied many books and pictures of +beautiful gardens and had then developed certain ideas of their own. In +order to keep the view of the rolling prairies to the distant line of +hills several miles beyond, the slope before the house was to be left +unchanged. Here and there were flower beds in the carefully planted and +tended blue grass lawn, which with constant watering and top soil might +be persuaded to grow. But on either side and toward the back of the +modified colonial mansion were to be the real gardens. Although the +flowers had not yet been planted, bushes had been set out that were +later to form green and blossoming aisles. In the preceding autumn a +dozen or more large evergreen trees had been transplanted from the +nearby forests, and zealously tended all through the winter, so that +already they showed signs of growth. + +Jean's interview with Mr. Parker was entirely satisfactory and the girl +would have liked to linger and talk at greater length with the big, +purposeful man, who seemed to bring to one of the noblest of all the +professions the spirit of the artist, and the executive ability of the +business man. But Mr. Parker was plainly too busy to give her more than +a few minutes of his attention, although in their conversation they did +wander from her errand far enough to permit their discussing a few of +their impressions of Europe. And, oddly enough, the architect who had +studied in Paris and traveled a great deal, had never been to Italy, the +mother of much that is most beautiful in modern architecture. + +A man of about thirty-five or six, Jean imagined he must be as she +returned to the Lodge, and assuredly extremely good-looking, with his +iron-gray hair, dark eyes and smooth face. One could hardly help +wondering why he had never married. + +At home once more, Jean suddenly had a sensation of feeling deserted and +forlorn. What could she do to amuse herself? Although she insisted upon +denying it to her family, certainly there were occasions lately when +their former life did seem dull and uninteresting to her. Yet perhaps +Jack was right in thinking that this was due to her paying no special +regard to the things that were happening on the ranch itself. Should +she take a walk now, or go down to Rainbow Mine to see if anything was +going on? Ralph Merrit was still away, certainly for an unaccountably +great length of time! And undoubtedly there was some kind of trouble +brewing among the workers in the mine, though what it was Jean had not +the remotest idea. Yet Jack and Jim had been plainly annoyed and +concerned over some disturbance, otherwise so many consultations between +them and their workmen would have been unnecessary. + +But at the present moment Jean did not find the subject of the mine of +sufficient interest to persuade her to walk down to it in an effort to +make her own investigations. Things would clear up soon enough without +her troubling. For there had to be friction every once and a while where +so many people were employed. + +Yawning several times, Jean finally dropped into a hammock that had been +swung for Ruth on the porch at Rainbow Lodge. She was holding a magazine +in her hand and reading it fitfully. + +Probably Jean would have assured you that she was wearing the oldest and +simplest dress in her entire wardrobe and that she really had not made +any kind of toilet for the afternoon. Yet with Jean Bruce pretty +clothes and a graceful and pleasing fashion of wearing them were second +nature. It is true her pale pink cashmere frock was not new and was made +in a straight piece with no trimming save a round lace collar and a +girdle of broad pink silk ribbon. Yet Jean had wound a ribbon of the +same color about her dark brown hair, until her usual pallor seemed to +be warmed by its glow. + +For a half moment she must have fallen asleep, for she was awakened by +thinking she heard some one coming toward the Lodge. The next moment +Ralph Merrit stood beside her. + +He looked entirely unlike himself; his clothes were untidy; he seemed +not to have slept for a number of nights; his face was worn and drawn. +Jean was startled into sudden pity and interest. For Ralph had always +seemed so capable and so efficient and if things worried him, he had +always kept them to himself. + +Now as Jean struggled to her feet he only said: "How do you do, Jean. +Will you tell me, please, whether Mr. Colter is at home or whether I may +be apt to find him anywhere about the ranch?" + +But Jean's eyes questioned, although her lips as yet said nothing, and +the young man flushed. + +"I must beg your pardon for my appearance," he began awkwardly, "but I +have been doing some rather hard traveling and I have not yet been to my +own quarters to fix up. I had no idea of running across you." Ralph +stared hard for a moment at the dainty girl slowly rising out of the +hammock and then at himself. She was like the inside of a sea shell in +her pink costume with her white skin and the pretty detached air she so +often wore. + +Ralph laughed uncomfortably and not very mirthfully. + +"Won't you wait a minute, please?" Jean asked quietly. "Jim is not here +and won't be for some little time perhaps. But I have an idea that you +are hungry as well as tired and I have been longing for some one to +drink afternoon tea with me." And before her companion could reply the +girl disappeared. + +Ralph Merrit fingered his hat uncertainly. He did not wish to remain and +yet it would seem singularly ungracious to have Jean return and find him +vanished. And since he had a confession to make, why not begin with her +to whom it would be hardest to say it? + +Ralph dropped into a chair on one side of a small rustic table and Jean +and the tea party had both arrived before he lifted his eyes again. +Under the influence of the tea, strawberries and cream and Aunt Ellen's +hot scones, with Jean making herself as charming as she knew how to be, +Ralph could not help forgetting for a few moments the things that were +weighing upon him, while he enjoyed the gifts that the fates provided. + +And Jean was truly kind, for she was shocked as well as a little bit +frightened by Ralph's appearance. Naturally she was not unaware that he +had once cared for her, even though he had not recently revealed it in +any open fashion. And of course Jean felt that she had always regarded +Ralph with the sincerest friendship. + +She was hoping now that he would tell her what was worrying him as a +sign that their old friendship was yet alive, when Ralph spoke. + +"Jean, I might as well tell you now as a little later," he began, "it +can't be delayed for any length of time at best. I am going to have to +say good-bye to you all pretty soon." + +Jean's hand shook a little, so that she first set down her teacup. + +"You mean that you are having to go home for a visit. I hope nothing has +happened to your mother or sister; I was afraid you were feeling +troubled," the girl answered. + +With the old decision that she remembered the young man shook his head. + +"No, it is not that," he returned, "but simply that I am going to resign +my position as engineer of Rainbow Mine. Fact of the matter is, I am not +making good. The men don't like me, don't want to work under me, and +things are in a muddle anyhow. My staying on would only embarrass Jim +and Miss Ralston." (Ralph only called Jack by her grown-up title when he +was considering her as his employer.) + +"So you are going to quit just because things at the mine are no longer +plain sailing. Is it because you have had a better position offered you? +Then of course I am sure, even though it makes everything much harder +for them, Jack and Jim would neither of them wish to stand in your way," +Jean answered with intentional cruelty. + +And the young man understood her. "That is not fair, Jean; you know +those are not my reasons," he declared. "I am leaving to _save_ Jim and +Jack the trouble, not to make things more difficult. If I clear out the +men will quiet down and perhaps they will get hold of some other +engineer who will understand the present situation better. The truth is +our old gold supply is giving out and we have got to find a different +method of getting at the gold deeper down. I have been away studying how +this might be done for the past ten days, but I have not yet made up my +mind." + +"Then stay on until you can decide, Ralph," Jean replied quietly, "or at +least until you are certain that you don't know what to do. Surely you +must know the situation at the Rainbow Mine better than any one else. I +have been guessing that both Jim and Jack were worried, but you know +they won't go back on you until the very last minute and not then unless +you say the word. So I don't think I would let the other miners frighten +me away. It seems to me that a man will never be able to manage other +men if he turns and runs at the first approach of a storm. I should +never have believed this of you, Ralph, of all people!" + +With a little, quickly suppressed sound that was almost a groan Ralph +suddenly dropped his head. "But a man isn't fit to govern other men if +he can't govern himself, Jean," he answered. + +Even the color of her pink gown did not now hide the pallor of the +girl's cheeks. + +"What are you talking about, Ralph Merrit?" she demanded a little +unsteadily. "You behave as though you had robbed a bank or taken more +than your share of gold out of the mine. I wish you would not be so +absurd--I do hate uncomfortable people." + +The man got up. "I am sorry, Jean, and I did not mean to trouble you +with my personal confession," he went on, "though I thought it only fair +that I should tell Jim Colter. No, I have not been robbing anyone except +myself and my own family, though the men may be saying even that of me +soon," he added bitterly. "But the truth is that I have been speculating +until I have lost every red cent that I have earned and I don't think a +man who has been as big a fool as I have has the right to try and hold +down a job the size of mine." + +"You have been speculating!" The girl repeated the words almost +foolishly, as though not understanding at first what they meant. Then +she flushed angrily. "Ralph, what a perfect goose you have been! For +goodness sake tell me what ever induced a sensible, level-headed fellow +like we all believed you were to do such a stupid thing?" Jean demanded. + +But this was the one question which of all the questions in the world +Ralph Merrit could never answer Jean truthfully. + +"Hush, never mind!" Jean interrupted hurriedly, for she could see what +her companion had evidently not yet observed and that was that another +man was at this moment approaching the house. His face had looked ugly +and forbidding, but at the sight of Jean he raised his hat. + +The girl recognized him as John Raines, a man of about fifty years of +age and a kind of leader and spokesman among the other miners. + +"Beg your pardon, Miss," he began stiffly, "but having just heard that +Mr. Merrit has returned to the ranch, I want to ask him if he will come +and have a little talk with some of us men. We've been waiting for this +talk for a considerable time." + +Ralph stepped down from the porch at once. "Certainly, I will come +along with you now," he answered quietly. And then turning to Jean and +with a gesture asking that she excuse him, the young man followed the +older one. And Jean could not but notice how slender and boyish and, +yes, how spent he looked as he walked behind the big, heavy miner, with +arms and chest so powerful that he seemed able actually to have crushed +the slighter man like a great bear, had he so desired. + +What could the miners be wishing with Ralph that they must see him at +once, now when they knew that Jim Colter was not on the ranch? + +Without trying to answer the question herself and only lingering long +enough to fasten a dark coat over her light frock Jean hurried after the +two figures, taking care, however, that neither of them became conscious +of her presence. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +"COURAGE MAKES THE MAN" + + +THERE were as many as twenty men waiting to talk to Ralph Merrit within +the vicinity of the Rainbow Mine. And they chanced to be standing close +together near one of the big rocks that rose like a miniature fortress +beside Rainbow Creek. After Ralph had entered the group, Jean managed +without being observed to slip behind this rock where she was in safe +hiding. + +But just why she had followed the two men and what her motive was for +concealing herself she did not try to explain to herself. Simply she had +yielded to an impulse of fear, of curiosity and perhaps to some other +instinct that was partly protective. One young fellow among so many +older, rougher and more lawless characters! What might not happen to +him? + +And yet Jean Bruce had not her cousin Jacqueline's physical bravery nor +determination of purpose, and moreover she had an openly expressed +dislike of mixing herself up in the things which she did not consider +essentially feminine. However, she had no idea now of letting anyone +guess her nearness, not even Ralph Merrit himself. + +Sitting down on the ground in a kind of scooped-out cave in a rock she +could occasionally manage to get a glimpse of the miners, although at +present while they were talking quietly she could only rarely catch a +word or so of what they were saying, and not a sound from Ralph, who +seemed the calmest and most self-controlled of them all. After a while +she realized that John Raines, the man who had been sent to summon her +companion, must now have been chosen as spokesman for the lot and was +evidently making his voice sufficiently loud for them all to hear +distinctly. And this of course included the unknown listener. + +"See here, Mr. Merrit," John Raines began quietly, "us men have been +talking things over among ourselves for some time past and we have done +come to the pretty positive conclusion that we don't like the way you're +running things at Rainbow Mine. And we thought it might be fairer to +you, all told, just to mention this little fact and to let you quit +without any kind of rumpus or trouble for nobody." + +Jean could not see Ralph Merrit's face or even his figure, he was so +closely surrounded, but because he too was speaking so that his entire +audience might hear, Jean understood every word. + +"What's the trouble with me, Raines, as a boss?" he asked with such +self-control and apparent lack of anger that Jean was both amazed and +pleased. + +Then there was a kind of low muttering among the other men and finally +their spokesman went on: + +"I guess you know most of our complaints pretty well by this time--we've +been tellin' 'em to you long enough and hard enough. If this is a +profit-sharing business, as you and Jim Colter and Miss Ralston said it +was goin' to be, then you ain't gettin' gold enough out of the Rainbow +Mine to suit us." + +"But we are getting all we can, aren't we? You men aren't loafing with +the work?" Ralph interrupted. + +John Raines scowled. "That's senseless talk! You know what the trouble +is; we have already gotten out most all the gold there is near the +surface of the earth around here. Now what we have got to do to make it +pay big again is to get more machinery and try different ways of +working. And we want a boss to tell Miss Ralston and Jim Colter to get +busy buying the new machinery and then to show us how to run it. We are +not going to waste any more time around here on a few dollars pay a +day." + +From her hiding place Jean did her best to hear Ralph. Here of course +was the time and place for him to make the same confession to the miners +that he had recently made to her. For he did intend to do just what the +men had demanded of him, resign his work and give way for a better man. +Nevertheless, he evidently intended delaying a bit longer before making +the confession. + +"But I have explained to you men before this why I have not done what +you ask," he went on, still in a reasonable tone of voice. "I told you +that I did not feel certain that it was the _best_ thing to do. We are +by no means sure that there is enough gold below the present mine to +make it worth while to go deeper. You men know what a lot of money the +machinery for certain kinds of gold digging takes. It would probably eat +up pretty much all the capital that the owners of the Rainbow Mine +have. And I don't want to tell them to buy this machinery until I am a +lot surer that the gold is down there waiting to be hauled out." + +John Raines glanced about at the faces surrounding him. It was easy +enough to take his tone from their expressions. + +"Then there is no use wasting any more of our time and yours in talk, +Merrit," the older man announced in a rougher manner than he had before +employed. "Your sentiments was pretty well known to us before you +spouted them forth. And that's just the point! You don't know what ought +to be done about things and we do. And we want a man to boss us that +knows same as we. Now, young man, you just get out pleasant and the +quicker the better." + +All over her body, to the very tips of her ears, Jean felt herself +tingling with sudden, overpowering anger. Why had Ralph Merrit not said +what he intended saying before now? To resign at this moment in the face +of this other man's insolence, which represented the same feeling in his +companions, was to behave like a small boy at school who had been stood +up in a corner and soundly thrashed by his schoolmaster and then made +to apologize for his pains. Jean felt that she would never care to look +Ralph in the face again. But he was speaking now for the third time. + +[Illustration: "SHE HAD HEARD THAT MASTERFUL TONE BEFORE"] + +"Have Miss Ralston and Mr. Colter told you that they wanted me to quit?" +he inquired. "It seems like they would have mentioned the matter to me +first. I have usually taken my orders from them and not from the men +_under_ me." + +There was quite a different ring in Ralph Merrit's voice during this +speech that made the girl behind the rock unexpectedly put up her cold +hands to cool her hot cheeks. She had heard that masterful tone before, +but not in some time. + +"No, they ain't said nothing yet," Raines admitted. "But it don't +matter; you got to quit just the same. You can't run a gold mine by +yourself with all your 'book larnin,' and it's either you or us that +gets out." + +"Then it'll be you," Ralph replied in such a matter-of-fact and +undisturbed fashion that Jean could hardly believe she had heard him +aright, or else she must have been dreaming less than an hour before. + +"Look here, fellows, don't be fools," Ralph went on, still showing no +loss of temper. "The hour Mr. Colter and Miss Ralston tell me they want +me to give up my job at the Rainbow Mine, that hour I go. And the minute +I am really convinced that another man is able to do my work better than +I can, that man gets my position, if I can persuade the Rainbow Mine +owners to try him. But I've got to study things out here a little +longer, I've got to make some new experiments and maybe kind of feel my +way slowly toward deciding what had best be done. I have been away for +the past ten days studying conditions at other mines and trying to find +out some of the latest ideas in mining machinery." + +But the other men were making no pretense of listening and were +muttering and talking among themselves as a direct and intentional +insult to the speaker. Ralph waited in silence, and Jean had an +intuition that the end of the discussion was about to take place. The +noises that the miners were making were ugly, vicious sounds entirely +unfamiliar to the girl's ears and she had no conception of what they +might portend. She had a sudden fear that they might mean some bodily +injury to the younger man. Then would she have the courage to rush out +to his defense as Jack undoubtedly would have, no matter what overtook +her? + +But she was mistaken in the form of her present uneasiness. + +"You can talk that way here, if it makes you feel better, young fellow," +one of the other miners announced contemptuously, "but it ain't goin' to +make a mite of difference in the way things has to go. We give you +thirty-six hours' notice to get clear of Rainbow Mine, and if you don't, +why you can stay around here and play by yourself as long as you like +provided your bosses are willing to give up the gold-mining business. +Because if you stay, we git out and that means there is not another +miner going to be allowed down a shaft in this here mine." + +"You mean," said Ralph, "that you are going to strike and make the other +men boycott us. I don't believe your union will stand for it. You +haven't got a kick coming to you about your hours of work, or your pay, +or any of the conditions about the mine. And just because you don't +think I've got brains enough for my job is no reason why you should +strike. I want you to know, you fellows," and here Ralph's voice was no +longer in the least conciliatory, but as firm and decisive as a judge's +sentence, "I am a union man myself, but you must understand once and for +all that if the Rainbow Mine owners agree to stand by me I am going to +keep on with the job of bossing this mine. And I am going to keep on +digging out the gold we can get with our old tools until there's a way +of knowing what ought to be done next. But I think in the future it is +going to suit me better to have another lot of men to work with me and I +think I'll be able to get hold of them. You may go to your quarters now. +I'll let you hear in the morning what Miss Ralston and Mr. Colter want +to do." + +And to Jean Bruce's immense amazement, though some of the men laughed +rudely and others muttered threats and curses, the entire number after +some delay and further discussion among themselves, walked off, leaving +Ralph Merrit entirely alone. Notwithstanding, the miners were evidently +unanimous in their intention. + +Jean snuggled closer than before in her rocky alcove, scarcely daring to +breathe for fear of their discovering her and so creating further ill +feeling. Then after they had gone, and the last man of them was +entirely out of sight, she still did not move. For Ralph Merrit had +never stirred from his position and she did not know whether she even +wished him to learn of her eavesdropping. + +Ralph did not move and Jean was growing bored with her cramped position, +now that events were no longer sufficiently exciting to make her forget +herself. Besides, did she not really wish to let Ralph know just how she +felt about him? + +Curiously he did not turn around until she was within a few feet of him. +Yet when he did, Jean laughed and clapped her hands childishly at the +change in his expression since their interview on the veranda. + +"Why, Jean, where have you come from? You did not see anybody, did you, +on your way from the house? This is not a place where you should be." + +Jean nodded. "Yes, I did see everybody and heard everything. Please +forgive me for being a horrid spy," she confessed, "but I was hiding +behind that rock the whole blessed time. And oh, Ralph, I am so pleased +and proud of you! Of course Jack and Jim will stand by you to the bitter +end--I should dare them not to; but then nobody need ever accuse Jim +and Jack of not enjoying a good, clean fight." + +Jean put her hand through the young man's arm. "Do come on back to the +Lodge with me. It is almost time for the others to be coming home. You +must rest a while first and have dinner and then tell them what you +intend to do." + +A little dazed by the girl's unexpected appearance and by her sudden +flow of words, and still deeply engrossed on what had just taken place, +Ralph Merrit allowed himself to be led along for a few steps in silence. + +"You must think I am a good deal of a turncoat, Jean, and don't know my +own mind for half an hour," he said finally. "Maybe I haven't the right +after all to get you people into trouble." + +Jean gave the young man's arm a vehement shake. "You haven't got the +right to be anything but--a man, Ralph Merrit!" she announced. +"Goodness, you don't know how ashamed I was of you and for you a while +ago! I suppose it is because I am such a coward myself, because I am so +afraid of rough things and rough places, that I love courage more than +anything else in the world." + +"Do you, Jean?" Ralph murmured almost to himself. "Well, I have been a +coward in more ways than one in these past six months." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE MIDNIGHT CONFERENCE + + +FOR hours after dinner the family at the Rainbow Lodge sat in their big +living room talking over matters with Ralph Merrit. Better than he had +been able to explain to Jean he now made the present situation clear to +his listeners. And by his frankness in acknowledging that he had not yet +been able to make up his mind as to what was best to be done for the +future of Rainbow Mine he restored Jim's and Jack's full confidence. + +The discussion was absorbing; only Frieda, after an hour or so of what +seemed to her a repetition of the same conversation, grew sleepy and now +and then dozed for a few moments with her yellow head nodding +uncomfortably. + +Why stay awake longer when she understood the state of things perfectly? +Ralph had said that they would probably have much less money out of the +Rainbow Mine for a time. Later, if he saw his way clear by spending +their capital and buying new machinery, they might become a great deal +wealthier. And while naturally the first of this information was +discouraging, the second idea had kept Frieda quite wide awake until ten +o'clock. Earlier in the evening she had felt frightened at the thought +of the miners striking and the trouble that they might be going to have +on the ranch for the next few days; but Jim and Jack did not appear +alarmed, so after a time her nervousness was partly allayed. + +They both had declared that Ralph must not for a moment consider +surrendering to the men; for apparently they intended not only to +dismiss him but thereafter to run the Rainbow Mine with no consideration +for its owners. It might take a few days for Ralph to get together +another group of capable miners, but the delay was the only annoyance. +For no one appeared to believe that the old men would make trouble. They +were merely trying to bluff and threaten Ralph. + +Jean, having seen with her own eyes the bitterness and dissatisfaction +among the workers, was not so completely convinced. Nevertheless she +said nothing of her own doubt, not regarding her opinion in the matter +as of special value. Moreover, she enjoyed seeing Ralph Merrit so sure +of himself once more and so determined to swing things to a successful +issue. It recalled the days when he had first been summoned to help them +with his judgment as to whether or not Rainbow Mine contained sufficient +gold to make it of importance. And what a change in their lives their +wealth had created for them! At least Jean had previously believed this +to be true, but studying the faces in the little group about her tonight +she was not so sure of the others. Assuredly Ruth and Jim, who were +sitting on a sofa with Ruth's hand slipped quietly and quite +unconsciously inside Jim's, were not dependent for their happiness on +the possession of a great deal of money. And there was Jack leaning both +elbows on a small table nearby with her face in her hands, listening +intently to every word Ralph was saying. Had she ever seen her cousin +more animated or more interested? Well, she had always known that the +mere spending of money had never given Jack the same degree of pleasure +that it had her. It was "making things happen" that Jack cared most for, +and now that difficulties were presenting themselves in regard to the +Rainbow Mine, actually Jack seemed almost to be enjoying the prospect. +Frieda was nodding, so that even she could not be very deeply concerned +at the prospect of poverty, and Olive could certainly not be accused of +being mercenary, since she was calmly turning her back on a large +fortune rather than fulfil the conditions of her grandmother's will. + +Jean smiled and sighed almost in the same breath. She could not pretend +to any such highmindedness, she was afraid that she was the kind of girl +whom she had heard people describe as "loving luxury like a cat." +Certainly she did care more than she should for beautiful clothes, +handsome houses, travel, society and everything that money alone could +buy. And yet, after all, the wealth of Rainbow Mine was not hers: it +belonged to Jack and Frieda, though they had always shared their income +with her as though she had been their sister instead of their cousin. +Whether their gold mine had now ceased to be of value or whether deeper +down under the earth it should hold a larger fortune, was it not still +her place to make her own future? With a start Jean came to herself. The +clock had just struck midnight and Ralph had risen. + +"As soon as things straighten out, Mr. Colter, I am going to ask you to +let me send for two or three of the big mining experts. For of course +you would want their opinion as well as mine. I will tell the men your +decision in the morning. Thank all of you for your faith in me and +good-night." + +But Ralph's movement must have awakened Frieda, for she sat up suddenly +and yawned. "Who is it you are going to send for to come to the ranch?" +she demanded unexpectedly. "Oh, I do hope some one who isn't a hundred +years old. Why can't you ever ask a young man's advice, Ralph +Merrit--you are young yourself?" + +And then as everybody laughed, Jack pinched her sister's inviting pink +cheek. + +"What a foolish baby you are, Frieda Ralston," she declared, "I hardly +think that Ralph's mining experts will be of the slightest interest to +you." + +After Jim and Ralph had gone out in the hall together and were talking +quietly Jean slipped out after them. + +"Don't you think, Jim," she asked, "that Ralph had better not go down to +his old quarters to sleep tonight? You know his room is in the same +house with half a dozen of the miners and of course nothing will +happen, but I don't believe the men are exactly devoted to him and--" +Jean put her hand coaxingly on the young man's coat sleeve. "Sleep on +the divan in the living room tonight, won't you? We haven't a spare +room, but I assure you it is most comfortable." + +Jim nodded. "That isn't a bad idea, Ralph." + +But the younger man shook his head, although his eyes thanked the girl +for her interest. + +"No, Jim," he said, "you and Jean are both awfully kind, but the one +thing that the fellows I disagreed with today must not think is that I +am in the least afraid of them. Oh, I realize I am up against a pretty +tough proposition--they are not the kind to back down easily and are +accustomed to getting their own way, but your faith and belief in +me----" + +Ralph stopped, his voice a little husky. "Good-night, Jean, and thank +you." Then he turned to Jim Colter. "I wonder if you would mind walking +a short distance with me. There is something else I must tell you that I +could not mention in there tonight." + +And as the two men disappeared Jean had a sudden feeling of +thankfulness. How curiously things turned out. If she had not chanced to +be on the porch at Rainbow Lodge that afternoon she might never have +heard Ralph Merrit's confession. If the men had not summoned him for +their talk just when they did, Ralph would have gone away from Rainbow +Mine feeling that he had made a failure of his life and of his work. + +And Jean's pretty brown eyes filled with tears. They had all been fond +of Ralph for several years and would have been sorry to have him vanish +out of their lives. She was glad too that he had recovered from the idea +that he once had of caring for her more than the other girls. Or at +least Jean believed that she was glad, for it is a very rare woman who +can honestly rejoice at the loss of a lover, even though he continues to +be her friend. + +Out in the dark together Jim Colter put his great arm across the younger +man's shoulder. "Yes, I know it is more serious, boy, than we pretended +in there, but I'm with you to the uttermost and things will turn out all +right. It may not hurt my girls to have less money for a while, though +of course it would come pretty hard on them now to be poor, after we +have taught them such extravagant tastes. But in any case, old fellow, +the fault will not be yours and you must not take the result too +seriously." + +Ralph had not spoken, but he now braced himself and drew a slow breath. + +"Look here, Jim, I didn't say all I ought to have said in there with +your wife and the girls--somehow I couldn't. For I let you say you would +stand by me and have faith in me when all the time I knew I wasn't worth +it." + +Then Ralph made the same confession to his man friend and employer as he +had to Jean earlier in the day. He told him that he had been speculating +steadily for the past six months. To Jim's question as to why he felt he +had to grow rich in such a hurry, again Ralph made no reply. When the +older man put out his hand to say good-night, Ralph Merrit held it for a +moment longer than usual. + +"Jim," he asked, "may I make a promise to you? This has been one of the +biggest days in my life. I came home this afternoon pretty well +down-and-out, intending to give up my work and pretty much everything I +want to attain in the world. Then--well, wonderful, unexpected things +began to happen. Now I hope I am a man again. So I want to promise, not +so much you as myself, that I am going to cut this speculating business +out absolutely and that I am going to keep on being a man if I can +manage it, no matter what happens." + +There was something in Ralph's words and in his manner that made Jim's +blue eyes shine and gave the extra warmth and heartiness to the farewell +clasp of his hand. Moreover, he had suddenly recalled a confidence that +Jack had made to him in regard to Ralph Merrit's feeling for Jean. And +if ever there was a man who knew how to offer sympathy and understanding +to a discouraged lover, that man was Jim Colter. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A DILEMMA AND A VISITOR + + +"GREAT SCOTT," muttered Jim Colter at the breakfast table some days +later, "if there was only another man around this place to take care of +you women, I would not let Ralph Merrit carry so much of this burden +alone. It's getting past a one-man's game to manage our present +affairs." + +In return Jack shook her fist at him with what was not all a pretense of +indignation. "Ruth, you may not object to hearing your husband speak of +you as a burden," she protested, "but I can't say I ever like hearing +that I am not able to look after myself. Oh, yes, I know what the family +thinks of my vanity! But seriously, Jim, there isn't any danger, no +matter what goes on down at the mine, of anybody's annoying us. You need +not worry over leaving us alone. I am quite sure we don't need 'another +man.' The ranch is too full of them already!" And Jack shrugged her +shoulders in the face of her guardian. + +But from her place at the head of the table behind a big silver coffee +urn, Ruth looked at the girl in the seat next her who had just finished +speaking. + +"I am sorry to hear you say that, Jack," she began quietly, "because +pretty soon we are going to have what you and Jim are pleased to call +'another man' as our guest at the Rainbow Lodge and one whom of all +others I most wish to see." + +Jack was puzzled, but Olive Van Mater, with a swift glance at the older +woman, felt the blood leaving her face and her hands turning cold. Her +lids drooped swiftly over her dark eyes and immediately she devoted +herself to eating her breakfast, though all the while she was studying +Jack's expression. + +At this moment a diversion was created by the entrance of a very fluffy, +blue-eyed person in a pale blue breakfast toilet, who after kissing Ruth +slipped into a place next her sister. + +"Sorry I'm late," she said, without any suggestion of real contrition, +"but since Jim makes us stay in the house so much lately there isn't any +reason for getting up." + +"Thank you, Frieda darling, for the pleasure you take in our society," +Jean murmured, setting down her coffee cup in mock indignation. "I am +sure that each and every member of your family feels grateful to you for +your flattering suggestion. But since we are of no interest to you, +perhaps you would like to hear that Ruth has just said we are to have an +unexpected visitor--a man!" + +Frieda first helped herself to the entire pile of griddle cakes. "I +suppose everyone else has nearly finished," she remarked by way of +explanation. And then: "Oh, I suppose the visitor is one of those +tiresome men who is coming to help Ralph about the mine. I do wish +things would quiet down, because as soon as our new house is finished +Jean and I are dying to have a houseparty. Ralph said himself that his +mining engineers were too old to be any fun--the youngest one is past +thirty!" + +"Yet I am still able to get about at that age, Frieda Ralston," Jim +Colter protested. + +At this instant Jack shook her head. "We are being very impolite to Ruth +by talking so much," she declared. "Ruth was going to tell us about a +new visitor and of course we are desperately anxious to hear. Who is +he, Ruth, a stranger or an old friend? And where are you going to find a +place for any one else at Rainbow Lodge?" + +Purposely Ruth waited a moment in the silence that followed. + +"I'll give you three guesses," she said finally. + +"Peter Drummond and Jessica! Wouldn't it be splendid if they came to us +on their wedding trip?" Jack answered immediately. + +"No," Ruth answered. + +"Tom, the chocolate-drop boy!" Jean exclaimed, laughing at Frieda's +sudden blush. + +But Olive Van Mater had put down her knife and fork and was looking +quietly at Ruth. "May I have a turn at guessing, please?" she asked in +her usual gentle fashion. "Isn't our visitor to be Frank Kent?" + +And then as Ruth nodded with a smile of pleasure every pair of eyes at +the table immediately turned upon Jacqueline Ralston. + +And Jack's cheeks grew suddenly a deeper pink, like the heart of a pink +rose, for she was too surprised for the present to be self-conscious. + +"You must be mistaken, Ruth dear," she insisted. "Frank hasn't written +me; I haven't said that he could come." And then seeing what her words +suggested, she went on in greater confusion, "I thought he was to wait +until our house was finished or until later in the summer or until some +time," she ended lamely. "I don't understand." + +"Perhaps Frank will explain to you, dear," Ruth replied carelessly. And +then turning toward the other girls: + +"You see Frank has been writing me about his visit for several weeks. +But he and I both wanted his coming to be a surprise. He has said that +he could not endure waiting longer to see his dearest friends. So a week +ago when he arrived in New York he telegraphed me to know when he could +come to the Rainbow Ranch and of course I said 'at once.' I rather think +he may be here some time this afternoon. You won't have to worry now, +Jim, about taking care of your wife and family, for Frank will----" + +But Frieda was clapping her hands together with much more pleasure than +that slightly selfish young person usually showed. + +"Oh, I am so glad, Jack. We do like Frank better than any one we know, +don't we? And if you don't, I am sure Olive does," she persisted. + +Jim got up from his place. "I don't like this fashion you have, Mrs. +Colter, of corresponding with gentlemen and not informing your husband, +but just the same I am delighted that Kent is coming to us. It's amazing +what a fine fellow he is for an Englishman, and certainly we owe him a +lot. When a man marries at another's house--and such a wedding--it's +hard work getting even with him!" + +Out to the door Ruth followed her husband. + +"I am dreadfully uneasy about this trouble at the mine. I did not dare +show how much I am worried before the girls. But you must tell me just +what the conditions are, Jim. You know we don't believe in marriages +where the woman is shut out from facts," Ruth insisted. + +For half a moment the man hesitated. Then he kissed the little woman who +had to stand on her tip-toes to be on a level with his chin. + +"I don't tell you the facts, Ruthie dear, because I don't know them," he +answered. "How can I tell what a lot of crazy, obstinate men are going +to do? But evidently the miners who deserted us have managed to +intimidate the other mine workers in this neighborhood. Ralph has not +been able to get hold of any men who want to work for us, and things at +the mine have been idle for some time, as you know. So far, all we have +been able to do is to have the cowboys do picket duty down at the mine +so as to keep the other fellows from wrecking our machinery or blowing +us up. There, don't turn white as a sheet, Ruth! I don't believe that +the old miners are that anxious to injure us; yet we have to be on the +look-out. Merrit has got to be away all day today hunting for men, so I +must be on the job. Sorry I can't meet Kent, but you'll see that he is +looked after all right and I'll be with you at dinner tonight. I'll +bring Merrit with me if I can persuade him--he is apt to be pretty well +fagged." + +The greater part of the day the four girls spent together in the garden +near the Lodge. It was a lovely June day, with the air full of the +scents of innumerable wild flowers. And everything within the immediate +neighborhood of the Lodge was as peaceful and undisturbed as though the +mine were a hundred miles away. Jean and Jack at least half a dozen +times confessed to the desire to walk over to the mine and see what was +taking place; but since Jim had given strict orders against it they did +not quite dare. + +A part of the time they spent helping Frieda gather great bunches of +violets from her old violet beds, which had never been allowed to die +out, until the Lodge was finally filled with them and the big living +room was fair and fragrant enough for any festival. + +Then, when other amusements failed, there was always the new house to be +investigated. It was now so nearly completed that when things quieted +down at the mine again, if they were still to have a sufficient income +to meet expenses, the moving into the new home was to take place. + +While the other three girls were rummaging about making suggestions Jack +managed to slip quietly away. She went directly to Ruth, who was in the +nursery with her little son. And as Jack was never used to evasions or +to trying to get her own way by indirect methods, she asked immediately: + +"Ruth dear, may Olive and I drive to the station and meet Frank Kent +this afternoon? I have a special reason for wishing to be there. You +see, dear, I don't want Frank to think that I am not delighted to see +him or that I have put off his coming to us because I had forgotten him. +You knew he had been wanting to come for a long time, didn't you?" + +Ruth nodded. "I had guessed it, Jack, though I did not know positively +until Frank's letter to me. Nor do I know now why you put off his visit. +I am not asking you to tell me," she added quickly. For, observing the +sudden look of reserve on the girl's face, she appreciated that it must +be respected. "Frank merely said that he wanted to see us so much, and I +did not see how his coming could fail to give pleasure. You don't mind, +do you, dear?" Ruth concluded, wondering if this might be the moment for +confidence. + +Although still keeping her clear, almost transparently honest gray eyes +on her friend, Jack flushed. + +"Yes dear, I do want Frank, now that Olive is here," she replied. "I +meant to write him and ask him just as soon as things were quiet at the +mine again. Now may we go to meet him?" + +Ruth looked worried. "I have been wondering what we ought to do about +going to the station all morning," she returned. "Of course some of the +family must meet Frank or he will feel deeply wounded, but I can't leave +the baby and yet there seems no man about the place to go with you +girls. Jim has taken possession of everybody." + +Jack kissed Ruth on the hair and then bent over and looked at the baby +with a new expression of wonder and reverence. She had always been much +more afraid of the "little Jimmikins" than the other girls. + +"Don't trouble over things a minute, Ruth. You know the danger that Jim +is fearful of for us is what may happen here on the ranch. But we shall +be leaving the ranch as soon as we drive through the gate. Moreover, we +can take Carlos with us for an escort; he is only a boy, but he will do +perfectly well. And if we don't take him, it won't make much difference +since he would be more than likely to follow us. As far as I can see he +trails constantly after Olive like a faithful dog. It would annoy me, +but I don't believe she has even noticed how much he does it. I wonder +what the boy's exact reason is? Nevertheless, as it gives Carlos a +regular occupation, I suppose we should be grateful." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +CROSS PURPOSES + + +OLIVE was not so unconscious of the Indian boy's attitude toward her as +Jack believed. Indeed she could not well be. And now as the three of +them drove together to the station she was pondering on whether or not +she should confide her experience to Jack. But Jack was not sympathetic +toward Carlos, for with her intense and forceful nature it was hard for +her to understand the boy's idleness and dreaming. Therefore to tell her +what had recently occurred would doubtless make her prejudice the +deeper. For she was almost sure to regard the boy's behavior as +impertinence and to wish to send him at once away from the ranch. + +Yet though Olive herself was annoyed, she did not wish matters to go so +far as that. For she had a peculiar appreciation and pity for the Indian +boy's difficulties which no one else could so readily have. Had she not +been raised among the Indian people and did she not comprehend their +shy, proud natures? For white people to realize that the Indian, even in +the midst of his overthrow and degradation, still considers himself +their superior is an almost impossible conception. Nevertheless Olive +knew this to be true. The white man's religion is to the Indian less +full of visions and of dreams. An educated Indian writes: + +"When we plant our plumes where the shrines are, our first prayer is for +good thoughts--that our children may be wise and strong, and that the +God of the sky may be glad of us. I have listened to the mission talk +many days, and nothing in the words of the missionary is more white than +the thought which we plant with the prayer plumes on our shrines." + +Neither does the Indian, though of course there are exceptions in his +race as in all other things, have the respect that we feel he should +have for the advantages of our education. What more does it teach him of +the woods and the fields, of the beauty and imagery of nature, of all +that he cares to know? Of a boy who had been to a government school an +Indian says: + +"He comes back to his people and knows that if he lives there it must be +as his father lived--except that now he has more cultivated tastes to +satisfy, and no further means or methods of earning the price of them. +To plant the corn, herd the sheep, hunt the rabbits, take care of his +share of his own village--these are the life-work of the Indian. The +schools teach him to do that no better than his fathers did it before +him. He is taught to read and write, and he asks 'for what?' + +"The cities of the mesa have no books, and have never felt the need of +them. Why should he read of the American life he lives apart from?" + +Therefore Olive understood that though the boy Carlos might not be able +to express himself in this fashion, in his heart of hearts this was +exactly the way that he felt. Why should he study what Jim Colter and +the girls wished him to learn? Books and figures had no possible +interest for him or relation to the life which he meant to lead. His +world was the outdoor one, among the animals and birds, under the new +moons of each succeeding month, and lifting up his eyes and his heart to +the sun when he wished to be glad. + +To work like the other men did about the ranch, digging under the earth +or plowing in the fields! This was not for the son and the grandson of +many chieftains! It was not merely laziness on Carlos' part that kept +him from making himself useful, but the feeling that any such labor as +he might be expected to do was beneath his dignity. Therefore the boy +could never really get into his mind the idea that the white people were +his masters, although in a vague way he knew that they felt themselves +to be. It was this thought that was always the foundation of Carlos' +sullenness and lack of gratitude. + +So Olive realized that the Indian boy's letter to her, which she had +found at her door one day hidden among a bunch of prairie roses, had not +been written in any spirit of presumption or audacity. Had she not at +one time seemed to be an Indian like himself? Had she not lived among +them, eaten their food and spoken their speech? And was it not for her +sake that Carlos had left his own tribe and taken upon himself many of +the ways of the white man? The boy had cared for his "Princess Olilie" +always, but in years past he had been a boy and felt as one. Now he was +a man! + +All this and more Carlos had put into his note. Olive remembered it at +the present moment almost word for word, for it had touched and hurt her +at the same time. Although Carlos was too young to mean all that he had +said, she knew that with his queer nature he must suffer from her reply. + +For he had written: + + MY LADY OF THE LONE TRAIL: + + Are you not weary of the life and the ways of the + white women and men? Are you not tired of having + your soul shut up between four walls of wood with + no vision for your eyes by day and no night wind + to touch your cheek as you lay asleep? You and I + have grown older now; there is no one in any + Indian tribe to hurt us. Have I not stayed quietly + here waiting and watching for you, learning many + things which I have hated, that we might not fail + to understand each other? For my love for you is + as the Tu-wa-ni-ne-ma, the sand of the desert. + + Therefore will you not come away with me back to + the wonderful, free outdoor world, where we lived + together for a little while when both of us were + children. Under a tree in a dim forest I shall + build for you such a nest as only a man shall + build for his mate. Then in the day time I shall + plant corn while you weave the beautiful Indian + blanket, which the Indian Laska taught you to + make. And in the night we shall listen to the + little night bird of the desert, the Hoetska. But + both day and night we shall be alone and away + from these people who do not understand me as you + do and who will never love you as I do. + + Whenever you will come with me, I shall have two + horses waiting. + +Olive stole a glimpse at Jacqueline's face. For a quarter of an hour +they had been sitting beside each other, and yet neither one of them had +uttered a word. But certainly she should not tell Jack of Carlos' +unhappy and impossible letter. For Jack might be amused, she might be +angry, and certainly she would be resentful. + +No, Olive decided that she must keep the boy's secret inviolate. Some +day she would have a chance to see him alone. Then she might be able to +explain how far she herself had traveled from the old Indian days--how +she could never again love the things that the boy did, nor endure the +life which he wished to lead. Besides, Carlos was only a boy, while she +was almost a woman--at least a good many years his senior! Perhaps she +might even tell Carlos that it would be best for him to go away from +Rainbow Ranch, back to his own people where he could live with Indian +boys and girls of his own age. There was the Indian village not far off +to which she herself might return after a few years. For one of these +days the Indians were to have a teacher who _could_ understand their +point of view as well as that of the white people. Perhaps Carlos might +by that time be married to a girl of his own race and be able to help +her with her chosen work. + +But she must not speak of this idea to Jacqueline either, for the +suggestion always made her friend unhappy. It was odd how utterly +devoted she and Jack were and how intimate; yet they did not often speak +of the deepest desires of their hearts to each other. Not once had Jack +voluntarily mentioned Frank Kent's name since their return from the +visit to Lord and Lady Kent the year before. + +Was Jack in love with Frank? Olive could not make up her mind. Because +if she were, what was standing in the way of their engagement? Of course +Jack could never have dreamed of her foolish, impossible affection for +Frank, who had never been anything except her good friend. Olive was +quite certain that she had never by any sign betrayed herself. She +believed that she had entirely recovered from her former feeling, and +was hoping with all her heart that Jack and Frank would now find out +that they truly loved each other. + +But what was making Jacqueline so unusually quiet? Olive's slender hand +slipped into her friend's larger and firmer one, and Jack's fingers +closed over it lovingly. + +They were now almost at the depot and Frank Kent's train would be due in +another quarter of an hour. If only Jack would not look so pale and +reserved--she was not nearly so pretty as usual! Her face was white and +her eyes had dark shadows under them. Jean and Frieda had insisted that +Jack wear a new silk suit that had recently been made for her, but it +was not half so becoming as her old brown corduroys or faded khaki; +neither was her cream-colored straw hat with its single brown rose so +picturesque as the ranch hat in which Frank had first seen her. + +Olive sighed, and the sigh attracted the other girl's attention. + +"I have been a dreadfully stupid companion, Olive dear. Forgive me," +Jack murmured penitently. And then: "How pretty you are looking! Frank +will be so glad to see you, I know!" + +At this moment Carlos stopped the carriage and pair of horses before the +station platform, where both girls got out without time for further +speech. Yet all this while Jacqueline had been thinking: "If Olive still +cares for Frank after this year of absence I am sure that her feeling +will never change. So if this be true I shall tell Frank that I do not +care for him enough to marry him. Olive has had too unhappy a life for +me to add to her unhappiness. Surely when Frank believes that I do not +love him, he will find out what Olive means to him and how immeasurably +she is my superior, in beauty, brains, sweetness and everything that +counts. Then he will know that he has liked her best all along!" + +Nevertheless and in spite of all her excellent reasoning as the whistle +blew announcing the approaching train, Jack caught her breath. She hoped +that Frank would not be angry with her for having refused to let him +come to Rainbow Ranch for almost a year. Could she dare to pretend that +she had forgotten the conversation which they had had in that last ride +together between the hawthorn hedges of an English lane? + +When Frank Kent came down the steps of the train with his grave, +handsome face flushed with eagerness--and something else--it was Olive +Van Mater whom he found waiting for him alone on the platform. With all +his old delightful friendliness and charm of manner he greeted her, +dropping his luggage to hold both her hands close for a moment. + +Yet Olive to save her life could not at once be equally friendly and +natural. For what in heaven's name had become of Jacqueline Ralston at +this critical moment? As the train drew in, she had been standing close +by her side. Here she was approaching them at last, holding out her hand +stiffly, with a frozen smile on her face. + +"Awfully glad to see you, Frank; you are looking very fit after a trip +across the continent. Sorry not to be here when your train got in, but I +had to attend to something about the horses. Give me your check and let +me see after your trunk. Everybody at the ranch is well and tremendously +anxious to see you." + +Frank smiled. Holding on to his trunk check he followed the girl a few +yards to the spot where his trunk had been thrown out. Olive waited +alone to watch his bags. + +"Hope you will be more enthusiastic over seeing me yourself, dear, when +I have a chance to talk to you," Frank remarked in the quiet fashion +that always had its effect on the girl's ardent nature. "You are glad, +aren't you?" + +And while Jack nodded, not entirely trusting herself to speak, Frank +laughed, saying: "Here comes a porter. I'll have him carry my stuff to +the carriage. It is like you, Miss America, to wish to start out by +taking care of me. But if I am an Englishman and too much accustomed to +being waited upon, at least I won't endure that!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A DINNER PARTY + + +DINNER at Rainbow Lodge on the evening of Frank Kent's arrival was +sufficiently gay and delightful to make up for many preceding weeks of +quietness. + +For not only was Frank's appearance an unexpected pleasure to the entire +family, but a few hours before sundown Ralph Merrit had returned home +with an old friend of his, whom quite by accident he had met in a nearby +town and persuaded to come with him for a short visit at the ranch. +Henry Tilford Russell was to be a new experience to the four girls, +since never in their wandering either at home or abroad had they met any +other young man in the least like him. + +Before bringing his guest up to the Lodge for dinner Ralph had managed +to escape from him for a few moments in order to see Ruth privately and +to explain to her a few of his friend's peculiarities, so that no member +of the family need be unnecessarily surprised. For one thing, the +stranger was inordinately shy, disliking girls more than anything in the +whole world. In fact Ralph was at last obliged to confess that had his +friend guessed how many maidens he would be obliged to face at dinner, +gladly would he have preferred starvation to joining them. But since +Russell had asked no uncomfortable questions, Ralph had not felt in duty +bound to forewarn him. Then, as his guest was about thirty years old, +according to Frieda Ralston's calculations he was much too elderly +anyhow for the Ranch girls' consideration. + +Yet notwithstanding all these drawbacks Ralph Merrit had been +exceedingly anxious to bring his friend to the Rainbow Ranch. For in +spite of the young man's shyness and social awkwardness, he was +exceptionally brilliant, and was regarded almost a genius in his chosen +line of work. Henry Tilford Russell was the assistant professor of +ancient languages in the University of Chicago and Ralph had known him +there in his own student days. However, he had recently suffered a +breakdown from overwork and was now in the West on a trip for his +health. But the fact about his former friend over which Ralph Merrit +was particularly enthusiastic and desired to have Ruth impart to the +girls, was that of his own free will Professor Russell had chosen the +life of a student. His father was a wealthy and prominent Chicago +lawyer, at one time the American Ambassador to Greece, so had the son +desired he might have followed the idle existence of most other rich +young men. + +In the midst of seeing that the baby was safely stored away in his +silk-lined crib and that the table was set for extra guests, and that +Aunt Ellen prepare a specially good dinner, Ruth had no time for +extended conversation with the girls. She did manage to mention to Jean +and Frieda that Ralph had brought home a stranger to whom they were to +try to be agreeable. But this bit of information was almost swallowed up +in the more important news that Ralph had at last succeeded in getting +hold of a new set of men and that work on Rainbow Mine was to begin +again within the next day or so. + +Then, soon after, Frank appeared, and everything else was forgotten in +the welcome to him. + +Just as though he had been her older brother and Frieda a little girl, +Frank kissed her, insisting that she had grown, although at eighteen +Frieda certainly considered herself quite past the growing stage. + +Introduced to the new baby, Frank did not seem in the least nervous or +abashed as most men are by such very tiny persons. Indeed, he apparently +had overcome all his old reserve and shyness and without this was simple +and charming, as persons of high birth and breeding are most apt to be. + +Fifteen minutes before dinner Ruth had positively to force the four +girls to dress. Then, as Jim was getting ready at the same time, she had +a few moments alone with Frank Kent. + +"You know what I have come for, don't you, Mrs. Colter--Ruth?" Frank +began with the directness that the woman had always admired in him. + +Ruth made no pretense of not understanding. "It would be hard for all of +us, and I don't see how Jim would be able to get along on the ranch +without Jack," she replied. "For you see he and Jack really are like +'partners,' their old name for each other. But if it is for Jack's +happiness you know how we should all feel. But, Frank, I feel I must +warn you that Jack won't be easy to win, and it is because I care for +you so much that I hope you will not be discouraged. She is not just +like most girls, and----" + +Frank nodded. "I have understood that all along," he interrupted. "Still +there is one thing, Ruth, that you do not know. Last summer I persuaded +Jack to confess that she did care for me. Yet she insisted that there +was something, she could not explain to me what it was, that stood in +our way--some barrier that had to be broken down before she could +consent to marry me. What it was I don't know and that is one of the +things I have come half way across the world to find out. Can you guess +of any possible obstacle to Jack's feeling for me?" + +In a puzzled fashion Ruth Colter drew her delicate brows together. +Frank's remark had startled and surprised her. "No, not unless it is her +affection for us and the ranch," she replied. + +Before another confidence could be exchanged, Jim had stamped into the +living room, looking bigger and more splendid than ever, suggesting the +strong wind from his own beloved prairies. A few moments later Ralph +Merrit and his guest followed, and afterwards Olive, Jean and Jack. + +Perhaps because she remembered that Frank had always liked her best in +white, Jack wore a plain white silk dress cut square in the neck and +with no trimming but the girdle and little ruffle of lace. It was a +dress which she had owned for over a year, and Frieda was annoyed with +her for wearing it on the evening of Frank's arrival. Notwithstanding, +as there was no time to change after her sister's protest, Frieda +finally conceded as Jack left the room that she did look fairly well. +For the truth was that no one of the older girl's more elaborate toilets +could have suited her half so well. + +Jack was pale and not altogether sure whether she was the more happy or +unhappy over Frank's presence, yet somehow her unusual pallor was not +unattractive, with her burnished brown and gold hair and the healthy +scarlet of her lips. Then in some indefinable fashion Jack's expression +had recently grown gentler, indeed tonight her manner held a certain +timidity, giving her one of the charms that she sometimes lacked. + +Both Olive and Jean were also simply dressed, since their dinner party +was an impromptu one and entirely informal. Olive had on a lavender +muslin with a bunch of Frieda's violets at her waist, while Jean was +dressed in a pale yellow voile frock with primroses embroidered upon it. + +Ralph Merrit frowned and then tried to smile as Jean came forward to +shake hands, congratulate him and meet his guest, "What right had a poor +fellow even to dream of a girl so fitted by beauty and grace to every +high position? Suppose by some miracle Jean should in time learn to care +for him, what would he have to offer her? Here was Frank Kent (and Ralph +was perfectly aware of Frank's intention), and if Jack cared for him she +would have all the things of this world that Jean so frankly loved, +wealth, a high social position and one day an old English title." + +But while Ralph Merrit was continuing to pursue this wholly futile train +of thought, Jean was every now and then glancing toward him demurely +from under her heavy shaded brown eyes with a look which he perfectly +understood. + +"What in the world is the matter with your friend, Mr. Russell?" the +look said plain as any words. For Jean was doing her level best to talk +to the stranger and in return for her efforts he would not even turn +towards her. + +On first being introduced to Jacqueline the Professor had turned crimson +to the tips of his large ears, though in a measure he had been prepared +for one girl, since Ralph had mentioned a "Miss Ralston" in connection +with the ownership of the Rainbow Mine. Later the meeting with Olive had +added resentment to his confusion. Why had Merrit not warned him of what +he would have to endure? Jean was an impossible third. Why, no such +misfortune as meeting with three girls had overtaken him since he +reached the great womanless West! For though the West did have its +tiresome quota of females, so far he had managed to escape speaking to +any of them except on strictly business matters. + +Well, he was in for it now, and would have to endure the evening as best +he could; yet already he had made up his mind to escape as soon as +daylight came in the morning. + +Jean's well-meant efforts to make herself agreeable to Ralph's friend +were entirely wasted; yet after dinner was announced the young Professor +found himself more at ease. For fortunately he had been placed on Mrs. +Colter's left and next him was an empty chair--evidently for some member +of the family not at home he thought with a suppressed sigh of relief. + +Overhearing Frank Kent ask some question of interest in regard to the +mine, Professor Russell forgot his embarrassment sufficiently to add +several questions and comments of his own. And it happened to be during +one of his own speeches that an unexpected movement near him made him +glance toward the empty chair. + +"Great Scott! Was this a big wax doll about to take her place next him?" + +Yet, though the doll was struggling with the chair and evidently trying +to draw it out from under the table, it never occurred to Henry Tilford +Russell to render her the slightest assistance, in spite of the fact +that she was smiling at him appealingly out of the very largest and +bluest eyes he had ever seen. + +The lateness of Frieda Ralston's entrance did not appear to have +surprised her family, who were entirely accustomed to it; however, the +magnificence of her dinner toilet plainly did. For whatever had inspired +Frieda to dress up as she had? It was small wonder that she was late. + +Even in the midst of her duties as hostess Ruth Colter's gray eyes +widened and it was on the tip of her tongue to scold Frieda for her +foolishness. Yet, recovering herself in time and recalling the presence +of their guests, she said nothing. + +With a faint suggestion of reproach Jack shook her head at her sister, +while Jean and Olive openly smiled at each other. So the situation would +have passed off without any unpleasantness if it had not been for Jim +Colter. When would Ruth teach Jim that he was not to tease the Ranch +girls before strangers just as if they were tiny children? + +With real astonishment and some mock admiration Jim stared at the latest +comer, at the same time giving a characteristic chuckle and low whistle. +Then, in spite of the fact that Jack, who was sitting near, gave his +foot a warning pressure, he exclaimed: + +"What in heaven's name, Baby, does all that finery mean? You aren't +going to a ball later on this evening, are you, and forgotten to mention +it?" + +Then, with everybody at the table staring at her, Frieda felt her lips +beginning to tremble and her eyes fill with tears, as at last she +slipped into her place. Why should her appearance create so much +comment? She had dressed up because she wished to and for no other +special reason. + +Often in the past year when things at the Lodge had been dull for a long +time she had amused herself in trying on her pretty clothes. No one had +ever objected before, but now, just because there were strangers, or at +least one stranger, present, she had to be made the object of family +criticism and ridicule. If only they were alone Frieda felt that she +would like to tell Jim and everybody just how hateful they were. For of +course there had been no thought in her mind of Ralph's guest when she +had put on her blue _crepe de chine_ dress with its low neck and elbow +sleeves and floating chiffon draperies. The costume had been a present +from her sister, Jack, who always could save more of her income than she +or Jean. She had only wished to find out whether it was becoming to her +and that was why she had also taken so much time and care in fixing her +hair. Certainly she knew that Ralph's guest would be as old as the +hills--Ralph had plainly stated that he would be. + +Frieda gave a little start, which she promptly repressed so that no one +should notice it, when she heard a pleasant voice whispering +unexpectedly close to her ear: + +"Don't mind their teasing you; I think you look--just jolly." + +And in reply Frieda smiled tremulously upon the newcomer. + +He was old, just as she had expected--his hair was already beginning to +grow thin upon the top of his head. He was slender and delicate looking +and of only medium height, yet his eyes were certainly the brownest and +almost the kindest that she had ever seen, in spite of the fact that +they had a kind of absent, far-away expression even while they seemed to +be fastened upon her. + +"Thank you," Frieda returned a second later, having by this time +regained both her lost dignity and self-possession. But this time the +younger Miss Ralston found their latest visitor displaying a curious +eccentricity. Now he was plainly laughing at her. Naturally Frieda could +not have dreamed that Professor Russell, whom Ruth had finally concluded +to introduce to her, considered her a little girl of about fourteen. +Otherwise, not for anything in the world, would he have made the speech +which he first addressed to her. + +The truth was that this old-young Professor was extremely fond of +children and only objected to girls after they had grown up. Then +because he was so shy himself he had a keen sympathy for embarrassment +in other people. So it was to these two causes that Frieda owed his +friendliness. + +Nevertheless, as she was entirely unconscious of this fact, Frieda +continued to talk to him very calmly and comfortably during the entire +meal. He did appear surprised over an occasional remark of hers, but as +he hardly ever answered, Frieda guessed that this might be his method of +revealing his appreciation of her attentions. Actually the two of them +were out on the porch with every one else vanished from sight for the +moment before Professor Russell entirely awoke to the fact that, though +his companion was still extremely young, she could not exactly be +regarded as a baby. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +TWO CONVERSATIONS + + +"JACK, you have not played fair with me; what is it that has happened?" +Frank Kent asked quietly. + +It was an hour since dinner time at the Lodge and Frank had so insisted +upon Jack's taking a walk with him that without rudeness she had not +been able to refuse. It was an enchanting June night, warmer than usual +in that part of the western country, and with a moon that shines perhaps +nowhere on this earth with exactly the same wide radiance. + +Jack and Frank had walked down the tall aisles of cottonwood trees near +the house and were now standing a few yards on the farther side of them +in a clear and revealing light. At Frank's words the girl flinched as he +had known that she would. For just that reason he had chosen them, since +nothing could hurt Jacqueline so much or make her come so immediately to +her own defence as any suggestion that she had not played fair. Other +girls might not suffer so greatly from this accusation; but honesty, +candor and a kind of straightforwardness, which some persons are pleased +to think as masculine traits, had always been Jack's leading +characteristics. Now, however, though her companion waited impatiently +for her reproach or her denial, for a moment he heard neither. + +"I am so sorry, Frank, that you feel in that way about me," Jack began +finally. Then, almost in a whisper: "I have not intended to be unfair to +you. I--I had not promised you anything." + +Jack was not looking into Frank's face as she spoke, but at the silvery +whiteness of the ground beneath her feet. + +"But nothing has happened, if you mean that I have become either angry +or disappointed in you," she added timidly. + +Difficult as the girl had anticipated this conversation might be, it was +more trying than she had expected. + +What could she say? How could she truthfully present the situation to +Frank, as it appeared to her, without putting Olive in an impossible +position? Because in spite of Olive's denial through the message to Jean +at the close of the last Ranch Girls' book, Jacqueline was still firmly +convinced that her friend felt so great an affection for Frank Kent that +it was influencing her whole life. Did it not explain why she absolutely +refused to consider Donald Harmon's proposal of marriage, in spite of +Don's devotion and her grandmother's expressed desire? Moreover, even if +Olive did not like Donald sufficiently well to consider marrying him, +why should she insist that she intended devoting her future to teaching +the Indian children? + +To Jack Ralston such a career suggested pure martyrdom. Olive might do +anything else in the world that she liked, even if her grandmother left +her no inheritance. For there was Miss Winthrop, who regarded Olive +almost as a daughter and who would do everything possible for her. She +might have almost any happiness and yet Olive actually talked as if she +meant to do what she had so long said she intended as soon as she was a +few years older and the proper arrangements could be made. + +Jack bit her lips until they positively hurt. Actually she felt a shiver +of repugnance at the idea of going away with Frank to every happiness if +her going involved leaving her dearest friend to such a fate. Could she +ever really be happy with this thought in the back of her mind? + +No, Jack decided once again that she was far stronger than Olive and +better able to look after herself and to bear, if need be, both loss and +loneliness. Besides, had she not had many joys in the past and Olive for +many years so few? Surely if Olive still cared for Frank, as she +believed, in a little while there need be no further doubt of it. In +that event it must be her duty to tell Frank that she did not love him +and would never consent to leave the ranch for his sake. After that +Frank would undoubtedly turn at once to Olive, who had always been his +friend and upon whose sympathy he could surely count. Olive, too, was so +much prettier, her nature so much gentler and sweeter, she would make a +far better wife. Frank might be angry with her at first, Jack +acknowledged to herself at this moment, but he would be more than +grateful in the end. + +Jack laid her hand pleadingly on the young man's coat sleeve. + +"Frank," she asked more wistfully than she herself realized, "won't you +promise not to talk about your feeling for me for a time? Won't you just +stay on here with us at the Rainbow Ranch as you used to do and let us +have a happy time together? I am worried about such a number of things. +Perhaps the money in Rainbow Mine is going to give out and we may have +no further income from it. Then there is this strike of our miners. Jim +and I don't say a great deal about it to the others, but we are so +afraid the old men may resort to violence when we try to get things to +running smoothly again and that Ralph or some one else may be seriously +hurt. Don't you see that I just can't think about anything else now?" + +"No, Jack dear, I can't honestly see why your having all these worries +and annoyances can affect your knowing whether or not you return my +love. It is not as though I had never spoken of it--you have had a whole +year to decide. But if you wish me to wait longer, of course I shall do +as you ask. Only please don't let it be too long." + +Then before the girl could reply she and her companion had both started, +and instinctively Jack clutched at the young man's arm. + +The next moment she gave a relieved laugh. + +"I don't see why I should jump in that fashion just because we heard a +slight noise behind us," she apologized. "I suppose other people have +just the same right that we have to be outdoors enjoying the moonlight." + +Jack then turned around, looking back into the grove of cottonwood +trees. "Jean, Olive, Frieda," she called lightly, but when no one +responded, thinking no more of the incident she moved on a few steps. + +"Come on, Frank, let us have a real walk, it is too lovely to go back to +the Lodge so soon. I want to ask you such a lot of questions and about +your mother and father and Kent Place," she pleaded. + +Frank's attention was not to be so easily diverted. For several moments +he continued staring at the spot where undoubtedly he had heard the +noise of light footsteps only a few seconds before. The sound had come +from the neighborhood of the trees nearest them; but why did no figure +emerge into the light or move off again in the opposite direction? The +night was so bright and the air so clear that no one could have escaped +without being either seen or heard. But Frank was too interested in the +prospect of a longer time in the moonlight alone with Jacqueline to +waste a great deal more thought upon a possible intruder. Once again he +glanced back, but as no one was in sight, he and Jack were soon deep in +an intimate and happy conversation. + +Notwithstanding, neither the girl nor the man were mistaken in their +original impression that some one had been in their neighborhood during +at least a part of their conversation. For when they were both safely +out of sight a slender figure stole from behind one of the largest +cottonwood trees and ran off with the fleetness and noiselessness of a +wild creature. There was an ugly expression on the face--one of +resentment and suspicion and yet of so great unhappiness that the other +emotions might have been forgiven. + +For the Indian boy, Carlos, fifteen minutes before had just concluded a +conversation with the only person in the world for whom he felt any real +affection. And foolish and mistaken as his dream had been, it hurt no +less to find it shattered. + +A few minutes after dinner, when all the family were together on the +veranda at Rainbow Lodge, Olive had several times noticed Carlos +hovering about in their vicinity, now on a pretence of bringing a +message to Jim Colter which might as easily have waited until morning, +then asking some perfectly unnecessary question of her. And finally with +the persistence and stoicism of his race he had planted himself like a +slender and upright column against a side of the house, deliberately to +wait until he could have his way. + +There was not the slightest use of pretending that Olive did not +understand what his intention was. Carlos wished to talk with her, +wished to have an immediate answer to the letter which he had lately +written her. Moreover, she feared that unless she gave in to him he +might show some trace of his feeling before the assembled company. + +Quietly Olive slipped over to Ruth Colter. + +"Ruth," she whispered, when no one was paying any especial attention to +either of them, "I have something rather important that I must say to +Carlos. He is here now waiting. Do you think it would make any +difference if I go and talk to him for a few moments? We won't go any +distance from the house, just to some place where no one may be +disturbed by us." + +And Ruth agreed to the girl's request without considering it seriously. +To the older woman Carlos was only a child, sometimes rather a difficult +one it was true, but at any rate only an idle, mischievous boy, whom the +Ranch girls in their usual impulsive generosity had befriended and in a +measure adopted. But that Carlos should think of himself as a man and +actually have the impertinence to consider himself in love with Olive, +Ruth simply could not have believed had she been told the truth at this +moment. + +So Olive, pretending to go to her own room for a scarf, had afterwards +stolen out of a side door and come close up to where the Indian boy was +standing. + +"Carlos," she said kindly, "I would rather you did not linger about the +veranda because you wish to speak to me. If you will come away with me +for a little distance we can talk. I received your letter and you want +to know what I think of it?" + +Without a word the boy nodded, but he followed the girl for a few yards +until they were standing ankle deep in the shimmering green foliage of +Frieda's violet beds which were not far from the Lodge. And although in +the path a few feet away there was a small bench where the girls often +rested after their work among the flowers, Olive would not consent to +sitting down. + +Slowly and patiently as she could, she explained to Carlos the utter +impossibility of his feeling for her. In the first place, he was a boy +while she was a number of years his senior. Then he was completely +mistaken in his idea that because she had been raised among Indian +people she cared for their life or habits. Not for anything on earth +would she return to their simple and primitive existence. Because Olive +was essentially gentle and because her sympathy and understanding of the +Indian boy's nature was a matter of experience as well as kindness of +heart, she did try to take the sting away from the present situation so +far as she could; yet she felt obliged to be firm, for there must be no +repetition of Carlos' foolish letter to her. He must appreciate that she +was fond of him because he had once befriended her in a difficulty, and +that she was grateful and would always be interested in his welfare. But +to care for him in any other fashion was absolutely out of the question. +Never again must he even dare to refer to the subject. + +Notwithstanding her resolute attitude and the arguments which she had +used so forcibly, at the end of their conversation Olive did not feel +sure that Carlos was as entirely convinced of the absurdity of his +desire as he should have been. For she had spared him the one course +open to her that might have brought him to his senses--sheer ridicule. +Therefore when Olive was back in her own room alone and undressing for +the night, since she had not felt in the mood for rejoining her friends, +she wondered if she had been altogether wise. Certainly she had not +liked Carlos' manner, and two remarks of his near the conclusion of +their talk had left her very angry. + +"It is Miss Ralston who has turned you against me," he had muttered +sullenly. "She don't like me, she don't understand. She thinks I am no +more than a servant about her place. If it had not been for her you +might have stayed always in the wilderness with me when both of us were +children. Then you would never have known of your people nor learned to +love the stupid white man's world. Miss Ralston is my enemy; therefore I +hate her." And with these words Carlos had drawn up his lean, boyish +frame with the majesty of a deposed king. + +Olive's sudden wrath had humbled him for the moment at least; yet just +before she turned to go he had said again with equal passion, although +his manner was quieter and more subdued. + +"Then if it is not Miss Ralston who has come between us, there is some +one you care for. I wonder if it can be the far-away guest and friend, +who arrived this afternoon by the iron trail of the prairies?" + +When Olive did not answer but walked quietly back to the Lodge, Carlos +stood for a time like a bronze statue, silent and unmoving; then swift +as a shadow he threaded his way between the cottonwood trees, actually +observing Jack and Frank from the beginning to the end of their +conversation, although hearing little of what they said. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A VISIT TO RAINBOW MINE + + +TWO days later, as things were once more in working order at the Rainbow +Mine, Ralph Merrit suggested that Jim Colter bring Ruth and the girls +and Frank Kent down to see how things were going. And soon after +luncheon the little party started. + +A trip to the mine was actually like an expedition to a foreign place, +so long a time had passed since the family had been allowed in its +vicinity, and so of course everybody was in especially fine spirits. It +was well to have Rainbow Mine running again and a relief to find that +the striking miners had yielded to circumstances so much more readily +and peaceably than their first threats suggested. They had influenced +the mine workers near at home to have nothing to do with Ralph Merrit's +management; nevertheless since the arrival of his new force the +atmosphere about Rainbow Ranch had remained serene and untroubled, so +that evidently the strikers were not to be heard from. + +True, a single ugly letter had mysteriously appeared at daylight this +morning left before the door of the new foreman, but except for +mentioning it to Ralph, the man had paid no further attention to it. And +Ralph, in the interest and excitement of getting things into working +order at the mine, had given it less consideration than it deserved. For +the annoyance was not so much in the threat of trouble that the letter +contained, as in the puzzle of its being found at the quarters built for +the Rainbow Mine workers, which were not far from the old Ranch house. +No outsider had been seen anywhere about the great ranch either on the +preceding day or night. + +Jim and Frank and Jack walked on ahead in order that they might have a +few moments' conversation with the new miners; for no one had yet gone +down the shaft into the mine. Before lunch they had been going over the +machinery and seeing that the elevators for the men and for the ore were +in good working order. + +Now Ralph Merrit was insisting that he be lowered first into the mining +pit and that his new men with their hammers and chisels and other +mining paraphernalia follow after him. However, observing that Ruth and +the other girls were coming nearer he went forward to speak to them. Not +since the evening when he and his friend had taken dinner at the Rainbow +Lodge had he seen any one of them. + +"We are awfully pleased, Ralph, that affairs are straightening out so +comfortably," Ruth began. "I think we owe you a vote of thanks." She had +not known what had been making Ralph Merrit so unlike himself for the +past few months, since neither Jim nor Jean had seen fit to confide +Ralph's weakness to any one else; but she did recognize the change for +the better in him today. She had never before thought of Ralph as +specially handsome, yet he looked so fine and capable; his expression +was so full of energy and ability that instinctively Ruth held out her +hand. + +"Go in and win, Ralph," she added, half laughing and half serious. "I +don't just know what it is that you are fighting for, except to make +more money for the girls who don't deserve it. But whatever it is I am +going to put my money on you, even though betting is against my Puritan +traditions; for you'll win in the end. Why, Ralph, you look like the +famous statue of 'The Minute Man' near Boston, except that you have not +his gun or knapsack. You're just as typical an American fighter and just +as ready for action." + +Crimsoning like a small boy at unexpected praise, Ralph crushed Ruth's +hand in reply until she had to repress a cry of pain. + +"I'm not worth the powder to blow me up if you really knew the truth +about me, Mrs. Colter; but just the same any kind of fellow likes a +compliment now and then, and I don't remember when I have had one," he +returned. + +A movement of Jean's graceful shoulders and a single glance from her +demure dark eyes made the young man swing half-way around to face her. + +"You are not disputing that statement, are you?" he demanded. "Why +shouldn't a fellow like a compliment as well as a girl?" + +Jean slipped off the big pink straw hat she had been wearing and with +the velvet ribbon about it, swung it on her arm like a basket. + +"Oh, I am not disputing _that_ part of your statement if you please, +sir," she answered. "I am only regretting that you have forgotten all +the other compliments which you have received in the past. For when I +remember how many I have bestowed upon you lately, it is discouraging +to think what a failure I have been in trying to make myself agreeable." + +Just why recently, indeed ever since their conversation together that +afternoon on the veranda at the Lodge and later here in the shadow of +one of the great rocks, Jean Bruce had been trying to make herself +particularly agreeable to Ralph Merrit and to win back his former +attention and friendship, the girl herself did not know. On her return +from Europe, after a few months at home, she had certainly discouraged +Ralph's devotion, feeling instinctively that his affection for her had +now become more serious than in the past when he had looked upon her as +only a half-grown girl. For Jean did not wish to be unkind or unfair, +and assuredly Ralph had none of the things to offer her which she +desired. Perhaps because of this she had talked more of wealth and of +worldly ambitions than she might otherwise have done. And Ralph had +either understood her intention or else had recovered from his former +affection, for in the past few months, during his foolish and futile +struggle for money through speculations, he had entirely ceased making +love to her or treating her in any way differently from the other +girls. + +At heart Jean was essentially a coquette, one of those girls and women +who, having once gained a man's admiration, cannot bear to find +themselves losing it. And surely Jack and Frieda and Olive had often +accused her of this vice. + +Now, knowing that Ralph cared at present more for the successful working +of the Rainbow Mine than for anything else, Jean pointed with apparently +the deepest concern toward the group of new men. + +"Tell us about the new miners, won't you please, Ralph," she asked, +"their names and where some of them came from--anything you know? They +are a splendid-looking lot of fellows!" + +But at this moment Frieda interrupted the conversation to ask a +question. "Who is that thin man over there all by himself in the blue +overalls and old hat? Why isn't he with the others who are being +introduced to Jim and Frank and Jack? I wonder if Jim knows him?" + +Then, quite unaccountably, Ralph Merrit appeared extremely +uncomfortable. + +"See here, Frieda, I might as well tell you, for you would be sure to +find out anyhow if I didn't. That fellow isn't one of the new miners. +He is Russell, the friend I brought up to the Lodge with me to dinner +the other night. You see----" + +But Frieda's eyes were widening and in truth the other three women +seemed almost equally surprised. + +"But I thought Professor Russell had gone away from Rainbow Ranch," +Frieda protested, "why he told us good-by the night he left and said +that he would have to be off so early the next morning that he could not +see any of us again." + +Ralph nodded. "I know," he conceded in some embarrassment. "And you're +still to think he has gone if you please. Don't any one of you go near +enough to Russell to speak to him or he will probably die of confusion +before your eyes. I am afraid I forgot he was around and he is under the +impression that he is safely disguised. You see the truth of the matter +is this. When Russell got me away from the Lodge the other night there +is nothing he did not say to me for having taken him unprepared to a +place where he had to meet four girls. He declared it nearly killed him +and he had every intention of sneaking away from the Ranch house the +next morning on foot rather than suffer the chance of meeting any one +of you again. He is an awful ass, but just the same he is a tremendously +clever fellow and I was awfully anxious to show him the mine and he +wanted to see it almost as much. So I persuaded him that he could just +stay on at the Ranch house with me for a few days, letting you believe +he had disappeared until he saw how things down here looked and worked. +I assured him no one of you ever came near the men's quarters, but now +he is hanging around the mine waiting for me as I promised to take him +down into the pit as soon as we start work. Don't scare him to death +beforehand." + +Ruth and Jean and Olive laughed, and Olive said sympathetically: + +"Poor fellow, I can feel for him. I used to feel so shy that nearly all +strangers made me wretched. But I don't see just why he should be so +specially severe upon girls?" + +"Because he is a goose," Frieda returned so sententiously that every one +else laughed. So plainly was she offended at her own failure to charm +their strange guest a night or so before. + +It was time for Ralph to say good-by. Arrangements at the pit shaft had +been made so that the first elevator could be lowered into it. He then +waved his hand in farewell to his friends, as he and the new foreman of +the mine and the odd-looking figure of Henry Russell climbed on to the +elevator. + +"I shall go away before they come up again, so that foolish fellow won't +even have to look at me," Frieda remarked scornfully, as without any +hitch or delay the car slowly disappeared into the bowels of the earth. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE EXPLOSION + + +THE new crowd of miners were anxiously waiting about the mouth of the +pit shaft, which led down into the deepest excavation that had yet been +dug in the neighborhood of the Rainbow Creek. + +There were other openings, but because this was the largest, Ralph +Merrit had desired that his workmen begin their labor here. For by +extending and deepening the passages in the lower part of this shaft he +hoped to make important discoveries of new veins of ore. And once +convinced that a quantity of new gold was actually to be found under +this ground the young engineer had no idea of giving up before he had +devised some intelligent and not too expensive method of bringing more +wealth to the surface of the earth. + +Not many feet from the company of men Jack Ralston and Frank Kent were +standing together talking of some detail in connection with the work, +while Jim Colter was hanging over the pit opening in company with the +men who had charge of the lowering and raising of the mine elevator. + +Evidently Ralph Merrit and his two companions had made a safe landing +below, for shortly after their disappearance there was a signal, and +slowly the lift traveled up into the daylight again, now ready to take +on another lot of passengers. + +"Steady, no crowding," Jim Colter called out as the next relay stepped +hastily forward. "Merrit will want to start things going in the tunnel +before you descend." + +One man had already gotten aboard, while another had one foot extended +toward the platform, when suddenly from underneath them there came a +tearing, splitting noise and then a muffled roar like the instantaneous +explosion of a thousand guns. + +The passengers in the elevator fell on their knees and all around the +opening of the pit there was powder and blackness and a fall of stones +like a swift rain of meteors. + +By accident Ruth Colter's back happened to be turned away from the scene +at the mine, so that the first sound she remembered hearing was her +husband's hoarse shout of horror and then as she turned the sight of +his great form lying prostrate on the ground with Jack and Frank trying +to drag him away from danger. + +But when Ruth would have rushed toward him, Olive and Frieda held her +fast, and the next instant a wave of weakness and darkness so +overwhelmed her that she had no strength to move. + +When she opened her eyes she could see Jean's face, white as a sheet, +dancing before her and hear her saying: + +"Jim isn't hurt, dear; only stunned by his fall. See, he is on his feet +again giving orders. And Jack and Frank must be all right, they were not +so near. But what could have happened, what caused the explosion? It's +the men down inside the mine who must be horribly hurt. Ralph----" + +But Jean shook with such nervous terror that Frieda's arm encircled her, +and the next moment the four women moved nearer the place of the +disaster. + +They were just in time, for at the moment of their approach, although +Jim Colter's face was so black that you could hardly distinguish him, +with his forehead bleeding from an ugly wound and his clothes torn and +burnt, he was giving orders like the general of an army and like trained +soldiers the miners were obeying him. + +"I'll take four of you men who will volunteer to go down inside the mine +with me. I don't know what has happened, but we are pretty apt to find +things serious. It sounded like a dynamite explosion and there may be +another. Fortunately for us the elevator is above ground and we can +lower it. Some of you see that stretchers are brought here. Jack, keep +your head and get hold of a doctor at once. I hope we may need him," the +man added grimly, as he swung his great length aboard the small car, his +companions crowding close against him. + +Unmindful of the awed silence that had followed the noise of the +explosion, unmindful of the two score of rough strange men, Ruth +breaking away from the girls now ran forward crying: + +"Jim, you can't go down into the mine first. I can't let you. There is +the baby and me, you must think of us and of the girls. You may be +horribly hurt." + +She was near enough now so that she could look straight into her +husband's blue eyes and something in Jim's expression calmed her +instantly. Then for the time he too seemed conscious of the presence of +no one else. + +"Don't be frightened, Ruth, I shall be all right, dear, and back again +with you in ten minutes perhaps. But in any case, girl, don't you see I +have got to go down before the others? This is our mine and two of the +men down there are almost boys." + +Some quiet order Jim then gave and slowly for the second time the lift +sank down toward the dark abyss under the earth. For Ruth had made no +other sound or protest, only keeping tight hold on Frieda's and Jean's +hands. Olive had gone with Jack and Frank Kent in the direction of the +Rainbow Lodge. + +To the watchers at the pit opening after the elevator had landed the +second time there was a moment when they believed that they could hear +voices below. Then the waiting seemed interminable. In point of fact +only a few moments more had passed before the signal indicated that the +car must be drawn up again. + +And this time it was Jean Bruce who covered her eyes with her hands. + +There was a grinding of the cables and then an unmistakable groan, so +it was not only the faces of the women that blanched whiter. Many of +these miners were middle-aged men who had been in mining disasters where +many hundreds of lives were at stake. Now, since no further disturbance +had followed the first brief explosion, they realized that only the +three men who had first gone down into the pit had been injured. Yet it +was nerve-racking not to be able to foretell whether these three men +would be brought up alive or dead. + +Jim Colter and one of his helpers were standing upright in the car and +Jim held in his arms a limp, crumpled figure, unconscious, his blue +overalls charred and blackened, his absurd old hat quite gone. Indeed, +the grave and learned professor of ancient languages looked like a +broken slip of a boy in the big man's keeping. + +There on the floor of the car another figure was resting. The face was +upturned to the light and though the eyes were closed the expression of +the mouth showed that the man had not fainted but was suffering great +pain. + +Frieda touched Jean Bruce on the arm. + +"It is not Ralph, but the new foreman who seems to be very badly hurt," +she whispered. "Look, the other men are carrying him off. I can't tell +about Ralph's friend, Mr. Russell. But where is Ralph? Why hasn't he +come up with the others?" + +And this last question of Frieda's was being echoed in the minds of the +waiting woman and girl. + +Why had Jim brought up two of the wounded men and left the third, their +oldest friend, still in the depth of Rainbow Mine? It was impossible not +to believe that Jim had done this because these men were not too badly +injured to be helped. + +For he had now placed his burden on the ground and was examining the +young man with the skill and care of a surgeon, while some one else +bathed the face. A stretcher had been secured for the foreman who was +now being taken to his own quarters to await the coming of a surgeon. + +"Jim," Ruth Colter put her hand on her husband's shoulder and her face +was almost as white and strained as it had been during her last speech +with him, "the elevator is going down again and you are not going with +it. Tell us, please, what has happened to Ralph?" + +Without waiting to hear her guardian's answer Frieda suddenly burst +into tears. Of course she had been dreadfully unnerved by the recent +accident and now this uncertainty about their friend, besides the sight +of their new acquaintance stretched out there at her feet as though he +were dead when the last time she had seen him he had been eating his +dinner, was more than she could bear. + +"Ralph? Great Scott, I am a brute, Ruth, Jean, Frieda!" Jim Colter +exclaimed. "Why didn't I tell you at once? Ralph isn't badly hurt at +all; he is bruised and burnt and shaken up, but nothing more, so far as +I could tell. So of course he insisted that we bring up the two other +fellows first. It's a plain miracle that there's anything left of the +three of them. So far as I could understand somebody had fixed a bomb +down at the end of the pit shaft, but the thing was clumsily made and +only half went off. Ralph said they were blown about a good deal and the +atmosphere was pretty thick, but unless the new foreman has been injured +internally there was no great harm done. I think this young man has +nothing more serious the matter with him than a broken leg. And I expect +we shall be able to mend that for him at Rainbow Lodge." + +At these words Henry Russell opened his eyes, but whether because of +Jim's suggestion or the pain he was enduring, or whether because the +sight of the girls, he groaned aloud and then closed his lips again. + +"I don't think he wants to be taken to the Lodge," Frieda suggested +mournfully. "You see he wants us to think he has gone away." + +Then possibly because Ruth's and Jim's nerves had both been strained +almost past endurance for the past half hour they laughed aloud at +Frieda's speech. + +Jean had slipped away and it was her white and yet happy face that Ralph +Merrit saw first as he came back into the world of daylight again. +There, though he was staggering and nearly blind and covered with blood +and grime from the shock he had just received, he found Jean's hands +before any others and held them close for a moment while she murmured: + +"I am so glad, so glad; it is because you have some big work to do in +the world that you have been saved, I am sure, Ralph." + +A moment later Ralph was quietly accepting the congratulations of his +workmen, while he tried to explain to them just how the explosion had +taken place. That the bomb had been placed down the shaft by one of the +former miners there could be no shadow of doubt. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +AN UNFORTUNATE DISCUSSION + + +"BUT why won't either Jean or Frieda come with us?" Olive asked a week +after the unfortunate accident at the Rainbow Mine. With a surprise that +she did not pretend to hide Jack Ralston turned to look at her friend. + +"I thought I had explained to you, dear," she protested, "that Jean said +she felt it her duty to write a long letter of sympathy to the Princess +Colonna. You see she only heard yesterday of the death of the old Prince +and though she does not feel that the Princess will be exactly +inconsolable (he was so much older and they thought so differently about +many things), yet of course Jean has to say that she is dreadfully sorry +and is there anything she can do and all that. It would not surprise me +in the least if the Princess came west and made us a visit. I told Jean +to invite her. She was born in this part of the country and I rather +think she will be glad to get away from Rome while she is in heavy +mourning. It is a pity she did not have a son, isn't it? The title will +have to go to her husband's nephew, Giovanni Colonna. You remember he +and Jean were such good friends." + +But although the two girls were walking along side by side toward the +stables back of the Rainbow Lodge, it was plain that Olive Van Mater was +not listening with any real interest to what her companion was saying. + +"Then why won't Frieda ride with us?" she expostulated. "I am sure it +has been ages since we four girls had a long ride together and it is a +wonderfully beautiful morning. What has become of Frieda lately +anyhow--I almost never see her except at meal times?" + +With a laugh Jack Ralston laid her arm lightly across her friend's +shoulder. + +"Poor Olive, to have only my poor society! But, dear, we have not had +but one other ride together, the one that we took to the Indian village +soon after your arrival. Does it bore you so dreadfully to have only me +as a companion? You must not come with me then, simply because I asked +you. I can get one of the boys to ride over the ranch with me; perhaps +Carlos would be willing to do that much! I don't know what has happened +to Frieda, but the child is making a perfect martyr of herself. That +poor young Professor seems not to wish anyone to do things for him +except Frieda or Ruth. You know he perfectly hates the sight of the rest +of us. And as Ruth is so busy with Jimmikins and the house she can't +nurse him a great deal. So he just lies in his room, which is Frieda's +by the way, and moans and groans until Frieda comes to amuse him. What +do you think I beheld our baby doing the other day? Reading him some +dreadful article on Egyptian Hieroglyphics from a learned magazine. She +hadn't the faintest idea what it was all about and she looked like a big +yellow butterfly imprisoned in a dark place. I am sure I am awfully +sorry the erudite young professor had to break his right leg in the +depth of Rainbow Mine and that we have him on our hands for six weeks or +more--almost as sorry as he is I expect. Still I am not going to have +Frieda sacrificing herself to him much longer. I mean to tell her +tomorrow that it is quite unnecessary. He is a dreadfully spoiled +person." + +"But wouldn't Frank have enjoyed this long ride with you this morning, +Jack?" Olive repeated, still refusing to take any interest in what Jack +was saying, but instead clinging obstinately to her own train of +thought. "I am sure Jim would have let Frank off from the trip with him +if he had known that you had to take this long ride to hunt up the lost +mares and colts." + +Jack nodded, but her expression was hurt and puzzled. "Of course Jim +would have let Frank come with me or would have come himself if he had +known of the trouble. But both Jim and Frank were away before I heard of +the loss. Besides, it does not make any difference, for I am sure I have +ridden over Rainbow Ranch looking up our lost horses and cattle ever +since I was fourteen or fifteen years old. But if you think the ride may +be too long for you, please don't come, Olive. I shan't be in the least +hurt if you don't feel like it. Kiss me good-by and go back to the +Lodge. Ruth will be overjoyed at your return and I'll be perfectly all +right with Carlos." + +But although Jack Ralston spoke so cheerfully and in such good temper +she was not truthful in pretending that Olive's present attitude was not +hurting her feelings. The truth is that she felt that Olive had not +been exactly the same toward her since Frank Kent's arrival. And if Jack +had needed any further proof to add to her past conviction this was +sufficient. Always before, Olive had loved her better than any one else, +even more than she did her friend, Miss Winthrop. And Jack was certain +that she had done nothing to make Olive angry or to wound her--she +herself was so utterly unchanged in her own affection. + +What a hopeless, horrid puzzle it all was and of all persons was not +Jacqueline Ralston the most inadequate for straightening it out? She had +no methods but those of frankness. If only she dared ask Olive how she +actually felt. + +But Olive would hardly have been able to explain to her, because in +these last few weeks the girl had not understood herself. Before Frank +Kent's coming to the Rainbow Lodge she had been sure of having entirely +recovered from her past fancy for him. Had she not fought it all out in +those final weeks in England when she had realized the extent of Frank's +devotion to Jack and the impossibility of her own position? And +now--well, whatever turn events might take, Olive felt the fault would +be largely Jacqueline's. For why did Jack fail to return Frank's +affection? Why did she continue to treat him with such disregard and yet +keep him lingering on at the ranch? Really Olive wondered if her own +emotion was not now one more of sympathy for Frank and impatience with +Jack. Surely Frank was too fine a fellow from every point of view to be +trifled with. And no one would ever have suspected Jack of being a girl +of such a character. + +Olive again looked closely into her friend's face and what she saw there +for the moment disarmed her. Of course she was more angry with Jack than +she had ever dreamed it possible that she could be and yet she had not +meant to wound her over this small question of their having another ride +together to search for lost stock. Perhaps this very morning Jack might +be in a humor to confide in her the cause of her mysterious conduct. She +must have some vital reason, it was so unlike her to be cruel or not to +know her own mind. + +"Of course I won't go back to the Lodge," Olive finally protested. "For +I do wish the ride immensely; it was only that I thought it might be a +pleasure for the others too." + +And to this half-hearted apology the other girl made no reply. + +A few moments later, having arrived at the beautiful new stables built +within the past year at the Rainbow Ranch, Jack and Olive found their +two horses already saddled. And a little while after, finding the Indian +boy, Carlos, at his own tent door, the three of them mounted and rode +away. + +Now riding with Jacqueline Ralston over their great thousand-acre +Wyoming ranch to seek for cattle or horses that had gone astray was apt +to be fairly strenuous, and no one unaccustomed to riding should ever +have thought of attempting it. Yet Olive had done the same thing dozens +of times in the years when she had first came to live at Rainbow Ranch, +and on starting out this morning had no idea of growing tired before her +friend did. + +The first part of their trip was easy enough, for although Jack cantered +along fairly rapidly she made no detours, only keeping a careful lookout +in all possible directions. For she had no thought of finding the lost +mares and their young colts anywhere within the immediate neighborhood +of that part of the ranch which was apt to be ridden over oftener than +the more distant fields. And Carlos had been asked to make the few +necessary excursions whenever a rise in the landscape or a group of +trees or rocks made a possible hiding place. + +But a short time before midday the three riders came to a distant part +of Rainbow Creek, where the character of the ranch land changed and +where there were frequent hummocks and sand hills and great boulders +split into natural caves and canyons. This part of the creek had no +connection with the Rainbow Mine but was sometimes used in an emergency +as a drinking place for the stock, although the stock was not supposed +to wander here without guidance, as there were many ravines and +dangerous places where especially the young cattle or colts were apt to +be injured. + +Here the riding under Jacqueline's guidance became more difficult and +fatiguing. For not only did she leave the ordinary beaten trail, but she +made her horse pick his way along what appeared an utterly impossible +track over rocks, in the deep loose sand, now following a partly dry +creek bed and occasionally splashing through water so deep that it +reached almost to her riding boots. For another hour Olive followed, +not realizing her own exhaustion, but wondering why her breath should be +coming in such short gasps and why her back should ache in such an +unaccountable fashion. + +Curiously enough it was Carlos who first discovered Olive's predicament. +For the past ten minutes he had been riding as close by her side as was +possible under the conditions, not speaking a single word, but examining +her closely with his small, burning black eyes. And when Olive, without +being conscious of it, turned a shade whiter, even then he did not speak +to her but instead rode silently forward until he was opposite Jack. + +"All women have not the strength of men!" he began sullenly. The girl +stared at him in amazement, not guessing what he meant. + +Then Carlos grew angry and his words came faster than usual. "If you +think more of lost animals than of her whom you call friend, it is well +that you should go on until she falls. Have I not often heard and now +see with my own eyes that there are squaws who care nothing for their +own sex." + +Half rising in her saddle Jacqueline Ralston lifted her riding whip, and +almost before realizing what she was doing she had struck the Indian boy +sharply across his lean shoulders. + +"You are not to speak of American women as squaws, Carlos. How often +have Mr. Colter and I told you that you were never to do it? And, +moreover, you are to understand that I will not endure your +impertinence. What has happened to put you in so evil a mood?" Jack +asked more quietly now, sorry for her own loss of temper. For she +realized in a small measure just how keenly an Indian feels the +degradation of a blow from an enemy, unless he is able to return it with +increased vengeance. And Jack had no illusion about Carlos' attitude +toward her. He had turned a kind of ashy white under his bronze skin and +his body had quivered once and then become perfectly tense, not from the +force of the blow, which had not cut deeply, but from his own passion. + +However, before either the boy or Jack could speak again, Olive had +ridden up between them, grieved and frightened over her friend's action +and wondering what could have occurred between them in so short a time. + +"Jack dear, what has Carlos done or said?" she demanded quickly. "It +was not fair of you to strike him, knowing that he could make no +defense." + +Instantly Jacqueline Ralston felt her face flushing with a swift rushing +of hot blood to her cheeks until her temples pounded and her eyes +flashed. Never before in their entire acquaintance had she remembered +being really angry with Olive. Yet had she not borne a good deal already +that day and for several weeks beforehand in Olive's indifference and +critical air toward her? Now in this trouble she had just had with +Carlos, Olive was immediately taking the Indian boy's part without even +asking her for an explanation. Nevertheless a second glance at her +friend's face made her instantly control her own emotion, appreciating +at the same time what Carlos' impertinent speech to her had meant. + +"You are tired, Olive. I am so sorry," she replied at once, instead of +answering the other girl's question. "I did not realize how hard we had +been riding, or that you are out of practice after a year in New York +while the rest of us were here at the ranch. We'll have luncheon and +rest and then maybe you'll feel better." + +Jack nodded curtly to Carlos to assist Olive in dismounting while she +slid off her own horse without help. Then she put her arm about the +other girl, leaving the boy to lead the three horses. In a little while +she and Olive had found a flat rock shadowed by a cliff from the sun. +Here Olive sat down while Jack opened up their luncheon boxes and made +the necessary preparations. But all the time she was reflecting upon +what she had best do or say to the Indian boy. She was sorry that she +had struck him, although still extremely angry at his manner and speech +to her. If Carlos had felt worried over Olive's exhaustion it would have +been simple enough to have told her in a more polite fashion. The truth +was that she and Jim were both getting extremely tired of the Indian +boy's presence on Rainbow Ranch. She would talk over this incident today +with her guardian and ask him if he felt that she owed Carlos an +apology. If he did she would make whatever reparation she could and +after that they would try and find another home for him. But at present +she was still too annoyed to wish to have the boy near her. + +"You can find water for our horses and tie them somewhere not far away, +Carlos," Jack ordered, leaving Olive and walking a few yards across the +sand to where the boy stood, still sullen and resentful in his manner. +"Then ride on for another half hour and see if you can find any of the +lost mares or colts. When you return we will have lunch saved for you." + +And so Jack Ralston temporarily dismissed the difficulty confronting +her. For in any case it was disagreeable to have Carlos staring at them +while she and Olive ate, and she did not wish him as a companion at +their luncheon. + +Carlos' society could hardly have increased the discomfort of their +meal. For Olive was either too weary or too vexed to wish to talk, and +Jack in too strange a tumult of feeling. + +Then suddenly, as the two girls were sitting there together in the warm, +caressing sunshine, hardly more than a few feet apart and yet sundered +by leagues of misunderstanding, it seemed to Jacqueline that she could +no longer endure all that she was suffering for her friend, unless Olive +made some sign that her sacrifice was worth while. For Jack made no +effort to hide from herself, however much she concealed it from other +people, that each day of her life she was learning to care more and more +for Frank Kent, for his love and his complete understanding and sympathy +with her temperament. She knew that she had many faults, but she also +knew that Frank was aware of them and forgave them. However, there was +one fault that she did not have and it was not fair that she should bear +the ignominy of it. She would no longer hurt and confuse the man she +cared for by her apparent inability to make up her mind. + +Jack's full red lips closed more tightly than was usual to them as she +lifted her head, showing the firm line of her throat and chin. Then she +took a deep breath, straightening her shoulders and glancing with her +wide open, heavily fringed gray eyes directly into the eyes of her +friend. + +Olive was more rested, was less pale, but was evidently still as much +estranged from her. And though the conviction had come upon her +suddenly, Jack felt convinced that this was the appointed moment when +she must wrest the truth from the other girl. She hated herself for her +own stupidity in not finding out by more subtle means and scarcely knew +now what she intended to do or say. It was as if she stood on the bank +of an icy stream with the shore of truth on the other side, a shore +which by some method she must reach. Therefore, with Jacqueline +Ralston's disposition, there appeared but one means. Boldly she must +plunge in, no matter what the result. + +"Olive dear," Jack began abruptly, not looking at her friend, but at a +small smoke-colored cloud over in the western sky, "I know you are angry +with me about Carlos and I am sorry. He was impertinent, but I don't +suppose you would think that justifies what I did. But it is not about +what happened just now that I want to talk. You have not felt like you +once did for me for several weeks--not since Frank Kent came to the +Lodge. Would you mind telling me why?" + +To Jack's directness of thought and speech her friend by this time +should have grown accustomed. And indeed until now Olive had always +loved and admired Jack for it. But today she was tired and her head +ached and this unexpected question had taken her completely by surprise. +The girl's dark cheeks flushed richly and her ordinarily gentle +expression changed. + +"Jack, you are absurd!" she answered irritably. "What right have you +anyhow to consider that my feeling for you has any connection with Frank +Kent? What does Frank mean to me?" + +Now if only Jack had been content with this answer or had possessed some +of Jean Bruce's tact and resourcefulness! She had neither. So her gray +eyes darkened and her face grew white and unhappy. + +"Forgive me, Olive," she murmured, humbly enough for proud, +high-tempered Jack, "but that is what I, oh, so much want you to tell +me. For sometimes I have thought that perhaps you do like Frank just a +little bit more than an ordinary friend. And if it is true, dear, don't +you feel that we have been close enough to each other to have you make +me your confidant?" + +It was very gently put, after all, and therefore Olive should not have +been so wounded or so angry. However, and perhaps because there was so +much of truth in the other girl's suggestion, Olive was both hurt and +embittered. + +"You have not the shadow of a right, Jacqueline Ralston, to say a thing +like that to me," she returned with the passion and protest of a too +sensitive nature. "How dare you sit there and calmly suggest to me that +I am in love with Frank Kent when you know perfectly well that he cares +for no one in this world but you. Do you suppose that I have no pride +and no self-respect?" + +And then, dropping her head in her hands, Olive began crying, hardly +understanding her own tears, so much were they a combination of pain and +of petulance. For the questions she had just put to Jack were the very +ones that she had so often asked herself. And if she had found no answer +to them, how could any one else? + +But Jack did not attempt making a reply. For a moment she was silent, +feeling miserably conscious of the failure she had just made. For had +she not merely succeeded in mortifying her friend without arriving one +bit nearer the truth which she sought? + +But by and by Jack laid her hand caressingly on the other girl's dark +hair. "Don't cry, Olive please," she begged. "You know what a stupid +person I am and how often Jean and Frieda think I do and say the wrong +thing. Here comes Carlos and when he has eaten his lunch you must let +him take you back to the Lodge. You are too tired to ride any farther +and I can manage very well by myself, or else you can send one of the +stable boys this way to find me." + +Without making a reply Olive continued to sob, only now a little more +quietly, and in the meanwhile allowing Jack to make all the arrangements +for her return home. It was unfortunate perhaps that she also paid so +little attention to the Indian boy, who was sitting within a few yards +of her, pretending to eat. In reality he was either keeping his eyes +fixed moodily upon her, or else turning them upon Jacqueline Ralston +with such an intensity of dislike that had she been aware of it, she +must have been vaguely disturbed. + +A little later Olive and Carlos started home together. In farewell Olive +simply nodded her head to Jack, showing no other sign of forgiveness or +affection; but she had only ridden for a comparatively short distance +when she was as bitterly sorry and as ashamed of herself as Jack had +previously been, and at the moment would have liked to turn back. She +realized that she had been both unreasonable and unkind. What could +have been the matter with her? Surely her fatigue must have had +something to do with it, for people were rarely sensible when +over-tired. Jack had not intended breaking down the barrier of her +reserve for no reason but idle curiosity. + +Then suddenly Olive's hands tightened on her bridle reins and her black +eyes softened. How unutterably blind she had been for so long! For was +not Jack's recent question to her the keynote of the whole puzzling +situation? Jack certainly must fear that she cared more for Frank than +she should. Would this not perfectly explain her attitude toward him +since the beginning of his love-making? Olive quickly recalled the final +weeks of their visit in England, then Jack's repeated efforts to thrust +her into Frank's society and so to evade him herself! Then since Jack +Ralston's return to the ranch had she not resolutely refused to let +Frank Kent come to see her until Olive was also at the Lodge? + +Sudden and relieving tears rolled down the girl's hot cheeks, which she +did not for the moment attempt wiping away. How like her quixotic Jack +to refuse to accept her own happiness at the price of her friend's! And +how near she, Olive, had come to permitting Jack to sacrifice all three +of them to her mistaken sense of loyalty and love! + +Well, tonight Olive intended straightening everything out by answering +the inquiry to which she had refused to reply to before. For in the +light of her present revelation had she not at last felt a weight +lifting itself from her own heart and a clear vision come to her mind? +Let her measure her affection for Frank Kent by that which she felt for +Jacqueline. Why she loved Jack a hundred times better than she ever +could Frank! Jack had been her first friend: all that she was she really +owed to her. If only she did not have to wait an hour longer before +making three persons happier than they had been in many weeks! + +Half-way around Olive turned her pony's head. But no, she was too tired +to go back to Jack and besides they could have no intimate conversation +under the present circumstances. Moreover, it had been growing much +warmer in this last half hour, in spite of the fact that every once and +a while there were unexpected gusts of wind blowing the sand into her +own eyes and her mare's. The truth was that she should never have +consented to leaving Jack. She should have insisted on her going home at +the same time with them. Ruth and Jim Colter would both be annoyed at +the idea of Jack's riding about the ranch alone, and any one of the men +whom she might send back to look for her would probably be several hours +in searching and perhaps never discover her at all. + +For the first time in half an hour Olive Van Mater glanced across at the +boy, Carlos. He had not spoken a dozen words to her in the course of +their trip, so how could she dream that all this while he had been +turning over and over in his mind the bitterness of Jack's insult? Then +not only was his animosity a personal one, but on coming back from the +needless errand upon which he had been driven away, had he not found his +one time Princess in tears and such sorrow that she had not yet ceased +from grieving? Her trouble could have but one source. Perhaps Miss +Ralston had even dared wound her in the same way that she had him! And +then Carlos had clenched his teeth, continuing more rigid and doggedly +quiet than before. For of course he should soon be revenged for both of +them! The only thing was to wait until his opportunity came. + +"Carlos," Olive said unexpectedly. "I am almost back at the Lodge now +and will have no difficulty in going the rest of the way alone. But I +wish you would go and find Miss Ralston. Tell her please to come home at +once, that I want to speak to her about something most important. And I +think you had better hurry, for I am a little bit afraid that a storm is +coming up." + +Possibly Olive had expected a demur. If so she was mistaken, for without +replying the boy wheeled his horse and started back in the direction +from which they had just come. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A DESERT STORM + + +PERHAPS no one except an Indian could have found Jack so swiftly, and +yet Carlos was engaged in the search for her over an hour. For the girl +had gone some distance beyond the place of their last meeting and still +had found no trace of their lost stock. + +She was vexed for a moment at Carlos' reappearance, but gave no sign. +Indeed she managed to say "Thank you" when he briefly explained that he +had taken Olive near enough home to have her make the rest of the +journey without an escort and then that she had sent him back to +continue the hunt. Not a suggestion did he give of Olive's real message +for Jack to return home immediately. + +A girl with Jacqueline Ralston's knowledge and experience of western +life should have required no such message had she taken her usual normal +interest in her surroundings. For there was a sufficient forewarning of +what was approaching for her to have understood. Nevertheless, for once +in her life Jack was almost completely oblivious of the landscape and of +the conditions of the sky and atmosphere. For her conversation with +Olive had made her more unhappy and puzzled than she had previously +been, since she had surely succeeded only in making the tangle harder +for any one of them to unravel. + +Now and then, as she continued her ride beyond the end of the Rainbow +Creek and into the broader sweep of their prairie lands, the girl almost +forgot the original object of her day's excursion, only feeling that +more than anything she desired to be outdoors and alone. So that instead +of leading the way as she had done in the morning she now allowed the +boy Carlos to take his own trail, following without much thought close +behind. + +By far the larger portion of the broad area of the Ralston ranch was +cultivated land, to the extent that the fields beyond the Lodge were +most of them planted with alfalfa grass and other grains according to +their fertility. Occasionally there were barren spaces of land where the +sands from the desert had settled too deeply for any growing thing, and +as these were at the outermost edges of the ranch Jim Colter had left +them undisturbed, waiting for a time when there should be less work +nearer home. + +Therefore when Jack suddenly discovered her horse ploughing heavily +through one of these sandy stretches she realized that they were farther +away from Rainbow Lodge than she had appreciated. And certainly it was +now time to turn back. She was afraid that she could hardly manage to +arrive at home before dinner time and that would mean a scolding from +Jim, who would hardly consider the rescue of a few lost mares and colts +a sufficient excuse for making the rest of them uncomfortable and +uneasy. + +Jack smiled a little ruefully, checking her horse and allowing him a few +moments of rest. She had not even that good excuse to take home with +her, for she had not seen a trace of the stray stock and had really +scarcely looked for them since luncheon. But then Carlos must have been +more attentive--she was really surprised at the boy's apparent interest +since he rejoined her. He had taken the entire initiative. Even now he +was some distance ahead and going too fast for his horse's strength in +such difficult ground. + +"Carlos, Carlos," the girl called as loudly as possible. Then she +patted Romeo's neck with swift penitence. Ordinarily she was quick to +remember the comfort of her own mount, but today she had been most +extraordinarily selfish. However, it was odd that in spite of his long +day's travel her horse did not seem to wish to stand still even for a +moment. He kept pawing the earth, sniffing and turning half way round in +his eagerness to start for home. + +The mystery needed only a little time for solving. All afternoon in a +subconscious fashion Jack had realized that the air was unpleasantly hot +and stifling and that the sun had not been shining since luncheon. The +little cloud which she had first noticed in the west, a queer +funnel-shaped cloud, had been constantly growing larger. Of course it +meant a storm, but it was still far enough away not to be immediately +alarming. However, they must get home as soon as possible, and Carlos +evidently had not heard her cry. + +Twice again Jack shouted his name, but as he did not turn his head she +touched her pony lightly with her riding whip and rode after him. She +regretted now that she had allowed the boy to get so far ahead of her, +for her own few minutes' delay had naturally increased the distance +between them. Yet Jack did not feel that it would be fair for her to +turn back without informing her companion. It seemed almost cruel to +force her jaded horse at such a pace through the loose sands; yet how +else could she ever hope to catch up with her escort? Carlos did not +usually show such poor judgment with his own steed. + +Then finally it occurred to the girl that the Indian boy was refusing +deliberately to answer her as a punishment for their trouble earlier in +the day. If this were true she was foolish to waste any more time and +energy in pursuit of him. She could get back home alone long before +bedtime by allowing her horse to walk for a part of the way. Then if the +storm should overtake her, she would not be far enough from the Lodge to +have it make any serious difference. As for her scolding, well, Jack +felt that she would have to accept that as philosophically as possible +under the circumstances. For Jim would have a double grievance, since he +did not like any one of them to ride for any distance with only Carlos +as a companion. + +Shrugging her shoulders, too tired really to be angry again that day, +Jack called once more. This time, to her surprise, Carlos actually rose +in his saddle, pointing with evident excitement toward some +indeterminate objects at a little distance off. Jack could not see what +they were, although she guessed at once. After all, their hard day's +work had not been in vain! Carlos had assuredly discovered the lost +stock. True they must have wandered beyond the confines of the Rainbow +ranch, since Jack was familiar enough with their own boundary line to +know that Carlos was even at this instant passing beyond the wire fence +which circumscribed it. + +Their stock oftentimes got outside the ranch by mysterious methods of +their own. Therefore if Carlos believed that he saw the mares they had +been searching for the entire day, it would be foolish to turn back +without them. It was unfortunate that the heavy cloud in the west seemed +to be driving toward them with so much greater speed in these last +fifteen minutes. Still if it should reach their vicinity before they +could get the lost mares and colts into some kind of shelter the animals +must perish. For the mares would never desert their young and the colts +could never endure the force of the wind and the great blankets of sand +that would probably sweep over and cover them. + +Jack was not mistaken in one point of view. She knew, as only a +Westerner could, that the storm approaching was not rain, but wind, and +that it might mean a sand storm in the desert. + +A saner judgment however would have suggested that Jacqueline Ralston +start back home at once, leaving Carlos to follow her. But she +appreciated the tremendous difficulty that the boy would have in +rounding up the frightened animals alone and forcing them into some +place of refuge. Really, it never occurred to Jack not to help. She had +been so accustomed to just such work on the ranch from the time she was +a small girl. + +So on she rode now, straight after the Indian boy, perhaps for an eighth +of a mile or more beyond their boundary, yet still the loose thick sands +which were whirling and eddying in gusts at her horse's feet. + +And always Carlos kept as far as possible ahead. + +Jack finally came to a position where she found out the mistake which +she believed both she and the Indian boy had innocently made. The dark +objects ahead of them had been only a group of close growing sage bushes +that they had mistaken for the lost stock. Crying out once more to the +boy to turn back, Jack now made no pretense of waiting to discover +whether or not he heeded her. For the wind was blowing more fiercely, +bringing with it the heat of a sirocco, and the sand was pouring into +her eyes and ears, almost blinding and choking her. Beyond her there +were small sand hills and ravines where a few moments before the earth +had lain smooth as a carpet. + +Jack perfectly understood that the full fury of the storm had not yet +reached her vicinity. Her effort must be to get beyond the sand plains, +back if possible to the neighborhood of Rainbow Creek, where behind one +of its great rocks she might find partial shelter. + +But her heart was pounding uncomfortably and her fair skin felt as +though it were being pricked by innumerable needles. Moreover, Jack was +frightened. She knew just what a sandstorm meant on the western +prairies. She was not far from the edge of a portion of barren lands +that formed a kind of miniature desert, and the worst of the situation +was that she herself was very tired and that through her own selfish +forgetfulness her horse was even more so. Every foot of the way the girl +strove to encourage the exhausted animal. Yet it was impossible to make +real headway in such a soil while buffeted by such a gale. + +Then Jacqueline Ralston heard a strange noise and, as she had heard it +once before in her life, she must have recognized it had not her other +senses also added their warning. + +The roar and rush behind her were seldom equalled by any other kind of +tempest. + +For half an instant rising in her saddle the girl glanced back. Carlos +was not far off now and spurring his horse remorselessly. + +For beyond the boy at no great distance and driving rapidly forward was +an immense dark yellow cloud. The peculiarity of this cloud was not +merely in its color, size and shape, but that instead of being overhead +it almost touched the surface of the land. + +The girl slid off her horse. + +"Down, down," she said quietly, pulling hard on her bridle. And then as +her horse's knees touched the ground before him, Jack flung herself face +downward, clutching at the loose earth for endurance and strength. + +The cloud would be upon them in another moment with terrible +destructive force. For not alone did it represent the fury of the wind, +but was formed of a mountain of sand driven before it. + +A sound, which the girl guessed must have come from Carlos, suggested +that he was following her example. Yet she dared not look back to see. +Now the sand storm was upon them. + +The thunder and terror of it are past understanding. + +One chance only Jack believed they had for their lives. If the sand +cloud was sufficiently high above the earth not to touch them they would +be safe. Otherwise they would be driven before it like chips of straw. +But of any actual, conscious sensation which she suffered as the cloud +passed over her, Jack was not aware. She knew that she was praying the +instant before, but at the time itself she only clung the closer and +sank deeper down into the earth, which is the final refuge of us all. + +The moment following, however, the girl felt as if she had been bruised +and beaten by a thousand furies. Her body ached with fatigue, her tongue +felt scorched and swollen and her eyes smarted with intense pain. There +was no further danger; storms of this character come with one terrible +driving blast of wind and then go straight on in their course. + +Jack blinked and stirred sufficiently to turn over and see that her +horse was safe. As well as its master a western broncho understands how +to meet strange weather conditions that would bring destruction to any +other animal. + +With a sigh of thankfulness the girl then stretched herself more +comfortably along the ground, resting one elbow in the sand and leaning +her head upon it. For Carlos and his pony were equally safe and +evidently not so frightened as she was, for the boy was already +staggering toward her dragging his horse by the bridle. + +The girl was not yet able to speak. Yet she watched Carlos with +indifference and entirely without suspicion as he came to within a few +feet of her and reaching downward pulled her horse on to his feet again. + +The horse staggered and Jack had half an inclination to ask the boy to +wait a little while before forcing him to stand. However she did not +seem to have strength enough even to make this protest. Nor did she +speak at first when she saw Carlos leading the two horses away from the +place where she was resting. + +What on earth did the boy have in mind to do? It was useless to try to +brush the sand from the horse's coats and there was no water near enough +to give them each a drink. + +Jack frowned, then she not only sat up but rose quickly on her feet. For +Carlos had mounted his own pony and without a word to her was riding +away, taking her horse with him. The girl called, but again the Indian +boy was afflicted with the curious deafness that had affected him all +afternoon. Then Jack ran after him, stumbling and crying as she ran. But +she was far too exhausted to make much headway and still Carlos would +not glance around. He was not even going in the direction of the Rainbow +Ranch. + +Just how long her futile chase actually continued Jacqueline Ralston did +not realize. So long as she could manage to keep the boy in sight she +followed him, floundering in the sands and uncertain of her direction. +However, when he was so far away that she could no longer see him, Jack +sat down again. What annoying freak had possessed Carlos to ride off +with her horse without offering any explanation? Well, he would +doubtless return within a short time, so there was nothing to do except +wait. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +OLIVE'S REMORSE + + +BACK at the Lodge Olive undressed and lay down upon the bed for a short +rest. Afterwards, when she felt that Jack must surely have received her +message she rose and put on the lavender frock that was the other girl's +especial favorite. + +Olive was by this time no longer tired, but in better spirits than she +had been for several weeks. For in less than an hour, perhaps, things +would be entirely cleared up between herself and her best friend. + +"Dear old Jack, was there ever anyone else in the world quite so +generous or so absurd? Did Jack really think that she had the privilege +of bestowing her lover upon her friend, simply because she was under the +impression that the friend desired him? What would Frank have had to say +in the matter?" + +Then Olive blushed. Possibly after all she had been more absurd in +allowing herself even for an hour or a day to think that she cared for +a man as far beyond her reach as the moon. Let her be honest with +herself at least! Had she not actually shed tears in secret? And this +when from the very beginning of their acquaintance, Frank Kent had +always been her only loyal and devoted friend and nothing else. Well, +matters would soon be sensibly adjusted. + +In the living room Olive found Ruth and Jean sewing, but in reality +devoting by far the greater portion of their time to admiring the baby, +who from inside his crib was placidly surveying the world with the +dignity of a philosopher. + +"Where is Jack, Olive?" Ruth inquired at once, frowning and glancing +toward an open window. "It is so hot I am afraid we are going to have a +storm and I have been reproaching myself all day for letting you girls +start out on such a wild goose chase this morning. Why on earth did Jack +not send the men after the stock?" + +Jean looked up from her work. "Oh, don't worry about Jack, she has been +doing this kind of thing ever since she could walk or ride and she began +both at about the same time. I believe Jack did send one of the cowboys +off in one direction while she and Olive and Carlos took the other. But +you know most of the men have gone with Jim and Frank to a round-up a +good many miles off. I wonder if they will be back in time for dinner?" + +During this speech the door of the living room had slowly opened and +Frieda in a white muslin frock with a big book under her arm had quietly +entered. Her cheeks were flushed and her expression so uncommonly +serious, that remembering Jack's story of her younger sister's devotion +to the Professor, Olive smiled. + +However, Frieda's first remark was an odd one. + +"I am sorry if you have left Jack and Carlos together, Olive," she +began, puckering her white brow. "I don't believe any one in this family +realizes how Carlos hates Jack. I think if he could he would like to do +her an injury. You see she tries to boss him and he perfectly loathes +having any one dare interfere with him. Then Carlos is so lazy and Jack +has no use for any one who is lazy, except me. I wish she would come +home. If I had not promised Mr. Russell to go on reading to him I should +go out and look for her." + +Frieda walked over to the front window and the next moment Ruth had +joined her. They both stood staring ahead of them hoping for a sight of +the familiar brown figure on horseback. For Jack usually rode up to the +house with such a splendid rush toward the end that even under ordinary +circumstances a vision of her was worth while. + +"Don't be tiresome, Baby, and frighten Ruth," Jean expostulated. + +Olive said nothing, but slipped out of the room and hall into the +garden. It would not be worth while to trouble the others with the story +of the difficulty between Jack and Carlos that morning. Nevertheless it +was not pleasant to recall the expression on the Indian boy's face +during their ride home, nor his long silence. Of course he rarely spoke +to other persons, but ordinarily he engaged in long confidences with +her, talking of the birds, wild flowers, any outside thing which he saw +and loved. + +Surely in ten or fifteen minutes more the two wayfarers must return. In +the meantime Olive would not go back to join the others as it would not +be wise to communicate her own nervousness to them. So for the next +quarter of an hour she walked up and down outside the Lodge, making +several trips to the stables to see if the stable men had any +suggestions to make and to inquire what they thought concerning the +possibility of a storm. For there was little use in trying to argue the +truth away. The atmospheric conditions were strange and depressing. +Unless the wind changed, driving the single black cloud in an opposite +direction, something out of the common was sure to occur. If only Frank +Kent or Jim Colter or even the cowboys belonging to the ranch were at +home, in order that they might go out and look up the wanderers! + +Finally Olive sent the two men who took care of the private stables to +reconnoiter. Then on her way back to the Lodge she found Jean hurrying +in the direction of the Ranch house. + +"I want to find Ralph Merrit and ask his advice as soon as possible," +Jean explained. "It is so late now he is sure to have quit work at the +mine. Ruth is convinced that we are going to have a cyclone and is +nearly frantic over Jack and Jim and Frank, all away from home. Yet I +hate having Ralph start out alone--he does not understand what the +weather out here means so well as the rest of us, even if he has been +here a good many years now. But I must confess I wish that Frieda had +not made that uncomfortable speech about Carlos' disliking Jack so much. +I am afraid it is true. Oh, Olive, what a pity it is that you happened +to leave them!" + +This was the only word of reproach that any member of the Rainbow ranch +family made to Olive Van Mater during all the excitement and distress +that came afterwards. And of course Jean did not mean her words to carry +a sting--they were only an obvious exclamation. + +Nevertheless Olive did not require outside censure to make her suffer as +keen remorse as was possible to her sensitive and devoted nature. For +she knew herself to be far more responsible for the day's catastrophe +than any one would ever dream. + +Only the edge of the sand storm swept the neighborhood of the Rainbow +Lodge. Half a mile from the house it veered in its unaccountable way, +carrying its destructive force straight across the adjoining ranch, +wrecking half a dozen valuable buildings and killing a large number of +cattle. Yet it came sufficiently near the Lodge for everybody inside the +house to understand what was happening, even if Jim Colter and Frank +Kent and a dozen of the cowboys had not ridden home furiously only five +or ten minutes before, having raced the wind storm across the prairies +and come off victorious. Both looked fairly worn out, as they came +clanking into the living room, still in their riding clothes and boots +and covered with a fine coating of yellow sand. + +"Jehoshaphat, but it is good to be indoors!" Jim exclaimed at once, +putting his arm about his wife and gazing around him. "It is a good +thing Frank isn't a tenderfoot, even if he is an Englishman. For if that +sand storm had struck us--well, I am not going to put on airs. I have +been a ranchman now for a good many years, but I never feel very hopeful +that anybody such a gale hits is going to come out alive." Then perhaps +in answer to the thought in the mind of every person in the room Jim +ended abruptly: "Where's Jack? Hasn't she manners enough to say 'howdy' +to two fellows who have nearly ridden themselves to death?" + +Following his speech, Jim was not immediately aware of the peculiar +strained silence in the room, although Frank knew instantly that +something had occurred in which Jack had a part. Under the western tan +of the past few weeks his face whitened. But he set his teeth and +straightened his broad shoulders. For his was a strength of will and of +character worthy to match with Jack and capable of longer endurance. + +For a moment no one seemed to dare to answer Jim's question. And then it +was not Ruth or any one of the three Ranch girls who replied, but Henry +Russell, who had hobbled into the living room on his crutches, +forgetting his terror and dislike of girls in his effort to offer his +friendly sympathy, and incidentally, though he himself was not aware of +it, to keep the lovely blond doll of his first acquaintance from making +herself more miserable than necessary. + +"I, I am afraid Mrs. Colter and--and the others are feeling a little +uneasy about Miss Ralston," he murmured. "She went out this morning with +the Indian boy, Carlos, to ride over the ranch and she has not come in +just yet. I have told them that she certainly must have taken refuge +with a neighbor or else that the storm has not come within her vicinity. +They tell me that these western siroccos are very freakish." + +But neither Jim Colter nor Frank had heard anything except the first +part of their visitor's speech. + +Afterwards Jim paid no attention to any one in the room except to lean +over and kiss Ruth. "We will find her in a little while, don't worry. +Jack is always getting into scrapes and being grown up seems to make +little difference," he remarked grimly as he marched off. + +But Olive clung desperately to Frank Kent's arm as he tried to follow +him. + +"Please let me speak to you a minute alone before you go," she pleaded. +Then when they were out in the yard and away from the others she put her +hand on Frank's arm and looked at him with an earnestness which he did +not in the least understand. + +"When you find Jack will you please give her this message from me," she +asked. "Tell her that she has been making a dreadful mistake all along +and that there is nothing in the world that will make me so happy as to +hear of her engagement to you. Please tell her this when you first find +her, don't wait until you are at home again." + +With a rather unusual show of emotion Frank pressed both of Olive's +hands in his. "You believe that Jack really cares for me?" he demanded. + +And then as Olive bowed her head without replying he mounted a fresh +horse, riding away in the direction that Olive had indicated. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +JACK SURRENDERS AT LAST + + +IT was almost dawn when Frank Kent believed that he heard a faint answer +to his last shouting. He was several miles from the outskirts of the +Rainbow Ranch and in a neighborhood where he might least expect to find +the girl he sought. But every acre of the ranch had been thoroughly gone +over during the night, and still the men under Jim Colter's leadership +were continuing the search along the track swept by the storm, but +without finding a trace of Jack or the Indian boy or of the two horses +which they were known to have been riding. + +[Illustration: "THE STARS HAD DISAPPEARED AND BEYOND THE UNIVERSAL +GRAYNESS THERE WAS NOW A FAINT ROSE LIGHT"] + +So, independently of the others, Frank had recently decided to try a new +neighborhood, not because he had any faith in its being the right one, +but because he felt that he must work alone. It was unendurable to +continue longer hearing the other men declare that there was little +chance of finding Jack or Carlos alive. For had they not been within +the track of the sand storm they must certainly have returned home +before this. Now Frank plunged on in the direction of the recent sound, +although he had heard nothing a second time in reply to his continued +calling. + +Deep in his heart he was devoutly grateful that the dawn was finally +breaking. The stars had disappeared, and beyond the universal grayness +there was now a faint rose light. A moment before a western lark had +risen before his aching eyes, poising, fluttering and then sailing +straight overhead, singing its song of praise at the approach of the +sun. + +So Frank in a measure could behold the objects ahead of him, though +among them he saw nothing to suggest Jacqueline Ralston. He was riding +over flat country with little before him but sand and low scrub plants. +And there were no signs of a horse's hoofs having lately struggled +through it. Finally, however, Frank got down off his own horse and, +stooping low, examined some faint tracings in the sands. He had not been +trained to making observations of this sort and even with the best of +scouts it is difficult to find footprints, in so fine and shifting a +soil. Nevertheless when Frank straightened up again his face was less +haggard and discouraged. For he had found a suggestion of a girl's +riding boot printed in the sand and now and then in curious circles +there were other such impressions. + +With her head resting on a sand dune as though it were nature's pillow +Frank at length came upon the girl. And even when within a few feet of +Jack it was impossible to tell whether she was asleep or had fainted--or +whether her silence and rigidity meant something worse. Yet the girl's +expression was too worn and exhausted for the last great mystery; it had +not the ineffable peace that comes after nature's final surrender. Even +before he could touch her Frank had recognized this. + +Quietly he began bathing her face with water poured upon his +handkerchief from the water flask which he had carried all night in his +pocket. Jack's own little water jug told its own story, since it was +lying empty at her side, drained to the last drop. Then, when the girl's +heavy lids fluttered slightly, Frank poured water between her scorched +lips. Her first sign of consciousness was when she put up her hands to +try and cling to his flask that she might have more. Yet the man drew it +away, telling her to keep quiet and close her eyes for a few moments +longer. Afterwards he allowed her another drink of water and then a few +drops of beef tea from a smaller bottle, which Ruth Colter had given +him. + +Finally, with Frank's arm about her, Jack managed to sit up. + +"I am so glad it was you who found me, Frank," she said a moment later. +"All night I have thought you would come." She did not even try to walk +or to explain what had happened, but let Frank lift her up on his horse, +where she leaned against him in utter weakness and dependence, while the +horse started slowly toward home. + +The ride needs must be a long and fatiguing one even though aid reach +them before their arrival at the Lodge. And Jack's pulse was still too +faint to have her suffer further exhaustion. But after a while Frank +leaned over, pressing his lips against the girl's heavy gold brown hair +which had become unloosened from her long wandering and hung in two +curled braids down her back. + +"Are you glad I found you because you care for me, Jack?" he whispered, +feeling that it was not altogether fair of him to ask such a question at +such a time, and yet too impatient to wait. + +The girl answered, "Yes" quite simply. A little later she added like a +child: "Besides I knew you wouldn't scold, Frank. And of course I have +been foolish and headstrong. I don't seem to know how to grow up. You'll +ask Ruth and Jim not to make me explain to them until I have rested." + +Frank smiled, but felt a curious lump in his throat--this new humility +and dependence were so unlike Jack. Unconsciously the arm that had been +holding her up closed more firmly about the girl's figure. + +"Jack, Jack," he murmured, leaning low down until his lips were not far +from her ear. "I have waited so long, I can wait no longer. You have +just said that you cared for me, and for the second time I have believed +you. Then you mean, you must mean that you are willing to be my wife." + +For just an instant the girl's body quivered as though with a weakness +beyond her power of control. The next moment she was shaking her head +quietly and firmly, and although her companion could not see her face he +heard her whisper, "No," with a measure of her old decision. + +"Very well then," Frank returned just as firmly, "you shall never be +troubled by my asking you that question again. As soon as possible I +shall go home to England." + +Once more the girl's shoulders trembled as if she had been struck an +unexpected blow, but she made no reply. Frank realized that he was not +playing fair and that she should not be troubled further. + +For five or ten minutes more they rode on in complete silence, while +Jack felt herself growing weaker and weaker. She was ashamed to be such +a burden and yet only her own will power and Frank's arm were sustaining +her. + +A little later and Jack had again to be put down on the ground in a half +fainting condition. By this time they had passed beyond the stretches of +sandy desert and were in one of the outlying meadows of the Rainbow +Ranch, not far from a branch of their creek. As Jack was almost +unconscious Frank was able to bathe her face more comfortably, pushing +back the tangled hair out of her eyes, that she might look more like the +girl he loved. Then he shut his lips close together and his chin became +squarer and his jaw firmer than ever Jacqueline's had been in her most +obstinate days. + +"I have just told a lie," he said to himself and yet rather grimly. +"For of course I shall go on asking Jack to marry me until she finally +consents. If she did not care for me that would be another matter and I +should be a cad to annoy her. But there can't be any other barrier real +or fancied that is big enough to come between us permanently." + +Then, as Jack opened her eyes for the second time, and sat straight up +as though vexed with her own weakness, Frank had a sudden recollection +of Olive's strange message to him when he had first started on his +search. + +"Tell her it has all been a dreadful mistake and that there is nothing +in the whole world that will make me so happy as her engagement to you." + +"What could Olive's words mean? Who had made a mistake? Had Jack been +under some cruelly false impression?" Frank was utterly mystified. Yet +he held out his hand. "Come, dear, we will walk for a few minutes," he +said gently, "and I will lead the horse. You will feel less stiff and +tired with a little exercise. See, the daylight has come. How beautiful +and fragrant the world is!" + +Some change in Frank's voice, or in his manner--the girl did not know or +care to think what the change might mean--made her take the hand held +out so quietly toward her and hold it close in her own cold fingers. How +exquisitely she could always be at peace with Frank, how perfectly he +understood things without having them explained to him! After all, he +was not going to be angry with her because of her unreasonable and +unkind behavior. She had felt his anger a little more than she was +willing to endure in her present state of exhaustion. + +So Jack looked overhead with more of her accustomed sparkle and +animation than she had yet showed. The sky was a radiant rose color, so +deeply pink that it cast its reflection on the ground at her feet. They +were near a group of trees and the birds were beginning to waken one +another with mild reproaches and then sudden bursts of eloquent song. + +"Frank," Jack began pensively enough, "I never saw a more wonderful +dawn. But do you happen to have anything in your pocket more substantial +than beef tea? I have not had anything to eat since yesterday at noon +and I think perhaps I am dying of hunger." + +With a laugh her companion let go her hand, drawing a package from his +pocket. "Ruth gave me this at midnight along with the beef tea, but I +have not been interested enough to see what was in it," he explained. + +Greedily Jack tore open the bundle and had devoured a large chicken +sandwich before good manners even suggested her sharing the luncheon +with its owner. Afterwards Frank also confessed to being hungry, and so +they walked on toward the Lodge like happy, runaway children, almost +safe at home again. + +Yet while he talked and laughed and ate Frank Kent was not forgetting +Olive's words nor her final injunction to him. "Please tell her what I +say when you first find her. Don't wait too long," she had begged. + +"Jack, dear," Frank began casually in the midst of something else they +had been discussing, "there is something I want to ask your forgiveness +for before another five minutes have passed. Because I don't think I can +hold out much longer. Back there on horseback when you were nearly dead +with fatigue I was angry with you and told you that I never meant to ask +you to marry me again. That was the most untruthful speech a man ever +made! Because if you are too tired to listen I may have to wait until +you have rested a little while, but not any longer. You know you care +for me, dear. You are not the kind of a girl who would deceive a man by +your words or your manner after all these years of friendship! There is +some mystery that is keeping you from showing me your real feelings. I +can't guess what it is. Yet Olive must think so too, for she told me to +tell you that you had been making a dreadful mistake about something or +other, heaven only knows what! And that our engagement would make her +happier than anything in the world." + +Jacqueline Ralston stood ankle deep in the rose-touched meadow grass +with her straight-forward, honest gray eyes looking into the blue eyes +of her companion. + +"Did Olive tell you to say that to me? Did she really and truly seem to +mean it?" she asked wonderingly. + +Frank Kent nodded, not trusting himself to speak, nor wishing to lose an +instant's vision of the girl's face, or an inflection of her voice. + +Jack had been pale before; but now her face had flushed with such a look +of exquisite gentleness and surrender, that in spite of all she had +recently endured she had never been so beautiful. + +Then it was like her to say with self-evident sincerity: "Of course you +are right, Frank dear, I could not hide how much I cared for you even +though I have done my best. It will be hard for me to leave the ranch +and the people I love, but it would be harder to stay on here--without +you!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +RAINBOW CASTLE + + +SOME weeks had passed, and it was now early fall at the ranch. But +another change had taken place besides that of the seasons, for Jim and +Ruth and the Ranch girls had moved away from the old Lodge into their +splendid new home. + +To everybody's satisfaction, however, the Lodge was not deserted; for +Ralph Merrit had changed into it from his old quarters, and his friend, +Henry Tilford Russell, was still with him--not that the young professor +had become an invalid owing to his accident at the Rainbow Mine, for his +broken leg was completely healed. But as he had come west for his +general health somehow the Rainbow Ranch seemed to hold more curative +properties than any other place. And Ralph was delighted to have his +society. The youthful professor of ancient languages appeared to have +recovered in a measure from his previous prejudice against girls, or at +least he was able to find the companionship of the four Ranch girls +endurable. + +The move to the big house had been somewhat hastened for several +reasons, the most important being that Jacqueline Ralston and Frank Kent +were to be married during the first part of October. Frank would not +consent to returning to England without Jack. He insisted that she was +far too uncertain a quantity to be left alone in her beloved western +lands, since her prairies were his most dangerous rival. Moreover, as he +had promised his father to stand for a Liberal seat in Parliament that +same winter, Jack was needed at Kent House to aid him in winning his +election. + +Now it seemed that all of the intimate friends that the girls had +acquired in their two years away from home, had suddenly decided to pay +visits to the Rainbow Ranch. Among them were the Princess Colonna and +her nephew, Giovanni, who, because of the death of her husband without +heir, had inherited the Prince's ancient title. + +Miss Katherine Winthrop had finally arrived, and her presence seemed to +compensate Olive for the loss of a good deal of Jack's companionship; +yet when the two friends were able to be together without any one else, +they were as intimate and as devoted as at any time in their lives. And +though Jack never referred to the subject of their unfortunate +conversation, she could find no trace in Olive of unhappiness or regret. + +It is true that Miss Winthrop and the girl, who was like a peculiarly +devoted and sympathetic daughter, spent numbers of afternoons in the +nearby Indian village discussing Olive's desire to become a teacher to +the Indians when she was old enough and sufficiently well trained for +the task. For the older woman was wise enough not to oppose the girl's +present fancy as Jack had done, only insisting that she wait until she +felt sure of her own fitness. + +But although Olive had frequent talks with old Laska, who never could +entirely connect the charming young American lady with the child she had +persecuted, there was a new member of the village community with whom +Olive would have no conversation. And this was her once devoted friend +and admirer, the Indian boy, Carlos. + +After Jacqueline Ralston's home-coming, when she had the opportunity to +explain her unaccountable disappearance, it was Jim Colter who at once +armed himself with a short whip and demanded that the business of +punishing Carlos be left entirely to him. Yet, notwithstanding her long +night of wandering about in the sand, too weary and too stupefied to +find her way home or to believe that the boy would not eventually return +with her horse, Jack immediately became Carlos' defender, finally +persuading her guardian to punish the boy no further than by not +permitting him again to set foot on Rainbow Ranch. She also confessed +her own share in the day's difficulties, taking a part of the blame upon +herself by insisting that if she had not struck the boy he would never +have attempted so ugly and dangerous a revenge. + +Jim and Frank, though at last agreeing to Jack's wish, did have one +interview with Carlos. But though they came away leaving the boy +frightened and submissive, he never was brought to confess just what he +had intended in riding off with Jack's horse. Perhaps during the long +afternoon he had vainly been trying to think of some form of vengeance +and then at the last moment the idea of stealing Jack's horse and +deserting her had come like a sudden inspiration. Or perhaps the boy +had meant to return--no one ever knew. He had gone on with the two +horses to the nearest Indian village and never again left it for any +other home. For the effort to civilize Carlos had been a vain one and he +cheerfully reverted to the habits and companionship of his own race. + +Nevertheless, he did not go unpunished, although no one ever knew in +what his punishment consisted. But the refusal of Olive's further +friendship was a sorrow which the Indian lad endured in silence to the +end of his days. For he never married and was that very rare figure +among his people--an old bachelor, looked after by old women and the +squaws of other men. And this when half a dozen Indian maidens would +gladly have mated with Carlos. For he was unusually handsome and was +always admired and reverenced by his own nation. + +At the time they moved into the new house Ruth and Jim and the girls +were feeling particularly happy and prosperous, because, not long after +the announcement of Jack's and Frank's engagement, Ralph Merrit had made +discoveries of fresh supplies of gold in Rainbow Mine. Also, he had +devised the long-sought-for method by which the gold could be extracted +without too great danger and expense. He had not trusted entirely to his +own judgment and experience, for three of the greatest mining experts in +the West had been sent for, who were open in their praises of Ralph's +idea and plan, predicting a big future for him and offering him +opportunities with them should he ever care to leave the Rainbow Mine. + +But this new "pot of gold at the end of the rainbow," Ralph had +straightway announced was to be his particular wedding gift to Jack and +Frank. Certainly he had no idea of deserting his old friends, now that +he was again able to prove his usefulness. So he was working on in +apparent contentment when the Princess and the young Prince appeared. +Then once more his dream faded and it was hard for Ralph not to think of +his work as mere drudgery in which the labor was almost all his and the +large rewards for others. + +For like lightning out of a clear sky, soon after the Princess Colonna's +installation in their new home, even before Ruth or the girls had become +accustomed to her presence, with entire formality she asked Jim Colter's +consent to Jean Bruce's marriage to her nephew, Giovanni, the young +Prince Colonna. When Jim was only barely able to express his surprise +and consternation at such a suggestion, she explained to him a complete +understanding of his feelings, that this method of procedure in a +question of marriage was the custom in Italy, her nephew's country. +Therefore the young Prince would never dream of speaking to Jean without +first obtaining her guardian's approval. Nevertheless, Mr. Colter must +not believe that there was any lack of affection on the Prince Colonna's +part, for he had never ceased thinking and talking of Jean from that +first hour of their meeting in the Pincio Gardens in Rome. + +In reply to the Princess, Jim could only flush and stammer, saying that +he would prefer first talking the matter over with Mrs. Colter before +giving his answer. For the truth was that Jim really wished to shout +aloud his refusal to consider such a proposition even for five minutes. +Jean to marry a wretched little Italian youth, no taller than she was +herself, when she might have almost any clean, hard working American +fellow! It was bad enough for his adored Jack to be going away with an +_Englishman_, but then Frank Kent was different! + +Nevertheless, Jim understood that the reply which he really wished to +make was not altogether fair and certainly not courteous to their +guests. Ruth must at once find some way of clearing up the situation. + +So soon as her husband had explained the matter to her Ruth was under +the impression that she did see a way. With the Princess' and the Prince +Colonna's consent she herself would first speak to Jean, letting them +hear later whether Miss Bruce was willing to listen to the Prince's +suit. + +Of course this was the best way out! Jim sighed with relief at his +wife's suggestion, for neither he nor Ruth had the faintest idea that +Jean would do anything but refuse even for a moment to consider the +Prince or his offer. Ruth believed that she had always understood Jean +better than any one of the four Ranch girls. + +Without comment the girl heard of the young nobleman's proposal, and +instead of declining, she asked to be allowed to consider it. In the +meantime the Prince and his aunt were to remain at the Rainbow Ranch in +order that Jean and the young man might learn to know each other better. + +They were frequently together and very soon the state of affairs was no +secret to any member of the family, or to their closest friends. And +although a number of persons were puzzled, no one said a word to Jean. +Could it be possible that she was going to marry solely for position? No +one believed that she could have come to care so deeply for the young +Italian prince in so brief a time. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A PARTY AT THE NEW HOUSE + + +THE society people in that part of Wyoming within the radius of the +Rainbow Ranch were deeply interested and some of them a good deal +excited over the fact that an American-Italian Princess and an Italian +Prince were being entertained in their midst. + +For some time previous to the coming of their guests Ruth and the girls +had planned giving a large evening party. Originally the idea had been +to make it a kind of house-warming as well as a formal announcement of +Jack's engagement. But as Jack begged not to be made specially +conspicuous in regard to the invitations, they were finally issued by +Mr. and Mrs. Colter asking that their friends do them the honor of +meeting Miss Katherine Winthrop, the Princess Colonna and her nephew, +the Prince Giovanni Colonna, on a certain September evening. According +to the desires of the Ranch girls the entertainment was to be both a +reception and dance, for the new home was large enough for both. For +while the older guests were talking to one another in the music room and +library, the big living room could be used for dancing. + +It was about six o'clock on the afternoon before the ball when the four +girls in dressing gowns of various shades slipped through the wide +colonial hall and entered the big parlor. Frieda dropped into a chair +set close against the wall and sighed deeply. Her yellow hair had been +washed only a few hours before and was now in a big loose knot on top of +her head, though it kept breaking forth into delicious curls about her +white forehead and neck. + +In answer to the sigh Jack sat down on the floor at her younger sister's +feet. "Isn't everything all right, Baby? Isn't the room as lovely as you +expected?" she asked anxiously. For although Jack had always been +unusually tender and devoted to Frieda, she was even more in these days, +with the thought of leaving her so close at hand. + +Again Frieda sighed, but this time she explained herself. "It is more +than all right. It is more beautiful than I ever expected any place +belonging to us could be. Not that I did not love the dear old Lodge, +but this house is, well--different. Isn't it dreadful that you are going +away so soon, Jack, dearest, after all our work and planning? It will +never seem just like home without you." + +With a sudden movement Jean crossed the room, placing her fingers +lightly upon Frieda's lips. + +"We have promised Jack not to say anything like that, Frieda dear," she +protested, "at least not tonight. We must all have the happiest evening +of our lives, one that none of us shall forget." + +The younger girl glanced up at her cousin wistfully with a question on +her lips, but instead of asking it she clapped her hands softly +together. + +"See that lovely light coming through our stained-glass window! Isn't it +like a rainbow! Oh, I hope it means good luck just as it always has in +the past! And somehow it makes this room more beautiful. I did not dream +anything could!" + +Naturally Frieda was prejudiced and an enthusiast, and yet she had ample +reason for her point of view. For a moment there was an unusual silence +as the four girls looked around them. Consciously or unconsciously they +realized that these next few weeks were to mark important changes in +their lives. For after they had slipped by things could never be exactly +the same. Jack would be married and that would represent the first +important break, and after that--well, they were not little girls any +longer, for even Frieda had lately shown unmistakable signs of being +grown-up. + +The walls of the long room were hung with western smilax and since the +party was to be a typical American one, the girls had been wildly +extravagant and used American Beauty roses for the decoration. Now the +air was fragrant with their rich and penetrating perfume. The old +colonial mantel was banked with them, and garlands of green swinging +from one white column to another had big baskets filled with roses +suspended between the posts. The room itself was fifty feet long and +three-fourths as broad. All the woodwork and the walls were a warm gray. +The greater part of the furniture had of course been removed and a white +tarpaulin covered the hardwood floor, but in the bay window there were +palms and vases of roses and an old-fashioned colonial sofa, besides +several chairs. Also there were occasional chairs along the walls for +the older persons who might care to watch the dancing. The music was to +be concealed in the hall behind a bank of evergreens just beneath the +wide mahogany stairs. + +"Well, if there is anything more that can be done to make this place +more attractive, I am sure I don't know what it is," Jean insisted at +last. "And I am especially glad that we asked Mr. Parker to come +tonight. Because of course he may have built more expensive houses than +ours, yet I am quite sure he has never made one more attractive. +Besides, he is awfully nice. Gracious, girls, who is that knocking? Ruth +thinks we are being nice and obedient and lying down until seven." + +But Olive had walked over to the closed door and opened it half-way. + +"Don't be alarmed," she laughed back. "It is only the flowers Frank is +sending us for tonight. Let's open them now and see what choice he has +made. Ruth told him about our dresses, so that he could not make any +serious mistake." + +Almost concealed by four great boxes reaching as high as her head, +Olive came back to where Jack was sitting and placed them in a great +pile before her. + +"You give them to us, Jack dear, since they are from Frank," she urged. + +The first was marked with Frieda's name, but as she took the top off the +box and lifted out a card her cheeks turned suddenly crimson. + +"These are not from Frank after all," Frieda remarked with a pretense of +unconcern, "Mr. Russell says that I was so kind about reading to him +when his leg was broken that he asked Frank as a special favor to let +him send me my bouquet for tonight." Her fingers fumbled nervously at +the tissue paper and her eyes were downcast, since she did not specially +care to have any one staring at her at this moment. She could imagine +Jack's puzzled and slightly worried expression and Jean's and Olive's +teasing looks. For the absurd friendship that had developed between the +solemn young Professor and Frieda was one of the ill-concealed jokes in +the family. + +"What do you suppose that a man who dabbles in Egyptology for an +amusement would send as a bouquet to a baby?" Jean inquired mockingly. +"Possibly a lotus flower, for there are learned persons who declare that +Cleopatra was a bewildering blond lady," and Jean pulled at Frieda's +yellow curls. + +The next moment along with the other girls she gave a cry of admiration. +Who would ever have suspected the Professor of such exquisite taste? For +in some way he had managed to make his bouquet suggest the girl to whom +it was offered. For it was formed of hundreds of tiny forget-me-nots set +close together and encircled with small white star-like flowers. + +Jean's roses were the deep pink color that she always loved and Olive's +were a wonderful golden yellow. But Jack hesitated a moment before +opening her box, which was the largest of the four and curiously heavy. + +Half guessing how she felt Olive laid her hand lovingly on her friend's. + +"Take your flowers up to your own room and look at them first by +yourself if you would rather," she suggested. However, Jean and Frieda +both raised a storm of protest. + +And Jack laughed. "It isn't that I am such a bashful person that I don't +want you to see even the flowers Frank has given me--I would not be so +absurd," she confessed. "But I have an idea that perhaps Frank has put +something more than flowers in my box. And I don't think I shall ever, +ever be able to wear them. Oh, children, what made me fall in love with +an Englishman and one who may inherit a title? Certainly I shall never +be able to live up to it!" Doing her best to hide her nervousness Jack +buried her hot cheeks in a great bunch of white jasmine flowers; but +Frieda's fingers were pointing inexorably to a white velvet jewel case +which still remained in the flower box half buried in evergreens. + +With a smile Jack picked it up, touching the spring. On the satin shone +a miniature crown of diamonds and pearls and an exquisite necklace of +the same jewels. + +"Gracious," Frieda gasped, "I didn't know Frank Kent was a millionaire! +Why he always has declared that he was a great deal poorer than lots of +American fellows! I wonder if he has been deceiving you all this time, +Jack, to keep you from marrying him for his money." + +"Goose!" Jack laughed; but Frieda's absurdity relieved the situation. +"Don't you know that these jewels are heirlooms in the Kent family, +that they always belong to the wife of the eldest son? I told Frank to +wait until our wedding day; but he seemed to wish me to wear them +tonight. I don't believe I possibly can, they are too lovely--and +somehow they don't seem to suit me." + +Olive placed the tiara on Jack's gold-brown head. The girl's gray eyes +were shining softly, her head was tilted back the least bit and a rich +color flooded her cheeks and lips. + +"I don't think Frank need be exactly ashamed of you, Lady Kent," Jean +murmured with teasing affectation. And then: "You funny Jack! Is there +any other girl in America who would not care more than you do for +Frank's splendid position and all the rest of it? Not for a single +instant do I believe that you gave it a thought! Dear me, I wish your +own sweet cousin were so high-minded!" + +"Girls," said a reproachful voice suddenly, "is this the way you keep +your sacred promise to me to rest until dinner time? Go back to your +rooms instantly," Ruth Colter scolded. Yet she was hardly an impressive +figure with her hair rolled up in a tight knot and a light shawl thrown +over her kimono. "I heard such a terrible chattering in here that I was +afraid a collection of magpies had gotten in an open window and thought +they had come upon an enchanted garden." Here Ruth ceased talking +suddenly, having caught sight of the beautiful ornament on Jack's hair. + +"Gracious, dear, what a wonderful possession! Do let me see it more +closely," she asked. "But take it off first and then come here and kiss +me. A diamond tiara is hardly appropriate with a dressing gown and I +can't bear to see you looking so regal and so far away from the rest of +us." + +And with a break in her voice, Ruth put her arm around Jack and then led +the small procession forth from the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +MAIDS AND MEN + + +"I WOULD give a great deal to have my people see you tonight, Jack," +Frank Kent whispered several hours later. + +[Illustration: "YOU WOULD HAVE MARRIED ME ANYHOW"] + +True to her promise Jacqueline had dressed before the others and come +down for a few moments alone with Frank. And it was small wonder that +the young man was proud of her. She had on a pure white tulle dress made +over silk and no ornament except the string of pearls and diamonds about +her throat. For she had persuaded Frank to let her wait until after +their marriage before wearing the more conspicuous jewels. Somehow she +felt that the tiara would look out of taste and inappropriate among her +old friends and neighbors. The bouquet of jasmine flowers with their +darkly shining green leaves were resting in her lap. + +"Your people will see enough of me, Frank, before very long," she +answered. "How glad I am that they already know me and that they do +not object very seriously to our marriage! Of course they must have +preferred your caring for one of your own countrywomen, but----" + +"You would have married me anyhow, wouldn't you, dear, even if they +_had_ objected?" Frank asked and then laughed at himself. "That's a +dreadfully unfilial speech, but I expect every man likes to feel that +the girl he cares for would have stuck to him through every kind of +obstacle--poverty, obscurity, the world's misunderstanding. Not that I +have much doubt of you, Jack. You are giving up more than most people +realize in turning your back on the dear old ranch and your beloved +family. But we'll come back as often as possible and have them come to +us, and after a while Ruth must let Frieda be with you for a year or so. +She is my little sister, and honestly I don't quite like her intimacy +with this fellow, Russell--he is much too cranky and old." Frank had +taken Jack's hand and was touching it to his lips when she made a quick +though silent signal. She and Frank were sitting in the bay window +almost hidden by evergreens and at this moment Ruth and Jim, the other +three girls and their guests were entering the ball room. + +Olive wore a yellow crepe dress and carried the yellow roses. Jean was +in deep pink, her costume of shimmering satin and lace, and had one of +Frank's flowers in her dark brown hair. Her bouquet was not the same +that it had been two hours before, when she had first removed it from +its wrappings; for now encircled by Frank's roses were a dozen purple +orchids. + +"Do you think, Frank, that Jean intends--" Jack whispered softly, +inclining her head toward her cousin to indicate what she meant to say. +Then when her companion made no reply, fearing to be overheard, she +continued. "It is Jean I am most worried about. How can she make up her +mind to marry a foreigner instead of an American? Just look at the +Prince and then at Jim or Ralph Merrit. He is so little and so dark and +so kind of different. Even that scar on his face from a duel he once +fought makes me have almost a dislike for him, though I know it is +foolish of me." + +"But Jean isn't really going to marry him!" Frank protested. + +This time Jack nodded uneasily. "I am afraid so; indeed she almost told +me that she intended to accept him; and I suppose she means to do it +this evening. I wish I could have said something to influence her, but I +did not dare. Besides, it would have done no good. You know Jean might +have said that I too was marrying a foreigner and had no right to say +anything to her. Only the difference is that Jean does not love +Giovanni--and then an Englishman isn't the same and--" + +Frank was now smiling over Jack's effort at an apology and explanation. +She had slipped her hand into his and was holding it fast. At this +moment a splendidly handsome figure marched across the floor with +surprising swiftness and now stood looking down upon the girl and man +with an expression that was a combination of wrath, sympathy and +devotion. + +"Jacqueline Ralston," Jim began so unexpectedly that to save her life +Jack could not restrain a guilty start, "have I not told you and Frank +Kent at least a dozen times that I would not have any stealing off by +yourselves or any spooning until you were safely away from the Rainbow +Ranch? It is bad enough, Kent, when I think of your taking my 'partner' +from me and leaving me to look after this great place without her. But I +tell you I can't stand _looking_ at you doing it." + +And Jim gave a mournful sigh that was part pretense and part reality. + +Its effect was to make Jack at once jump to her feet and throw her arms +about him, regardless of his immaculate shirt. Then she ran for +protection to Ruth. + +Happiness had made Ruth grow a year younger each month, her husband had +stoutly declared, and though this statement was not strictly true, she +did look very little older than the four Ranch girls as she stood +waiting to receive their guests tonight. For the girls and Jim had +insisted that she discard her nun-like fondness for gray and drab colors +at least for this one evening and wear white. So Ruth's costume of heavy +white corded silk with silver trimming was both youthful and becoming. + +On one side of the hostess stood Miss Katherine Winthrop, looking +singularly handsome and imposing in a gray satin evening gown trimmed +with duchess lace and with a bunch of Frieda's violets at her waist. +Olive was next in line, and then Jean, while on Ruth's other side the +Princess Colonna was made more radiantly fair by a wonderful black gown +and a diamond star in her hair. Jack stood beside her, and then Frieda. + +The Princess seemed far more at ease and better able to appreciate and +make herself popular with the hundred or more visitors than Miss +Winthrop. For the Princess appeared almost to have forgotten, for the +time at least, the years spent in the formal society of Rome and to be +remembering only her own early girlhood in this same western country. A +large number of the guests were traveled and cultured persons, the +owners of large ranches and estates; but Jim had asked that all of their +old acquaintances be invited regardless of wealth and position, so that +there were many interesting figures who appeared as "western types" to +Miss Winthrop, but whom the Princess immediately understood and enjoyed. + +Indeed during the evening Jim Colter, who had never liked the Princess +Colonna nor felt entirely comfortable in her presence, confided to Ralph +Merrit that maybe a Princess could after all be a real live woman, +though he hoped to the Lord that Jean Bruce was not going to undertake +the job. Ralph had little comfort to offer either to Jim or to himself +in return for this confidence. For everybody in the ball room who had +heard the gossip concerning Jean and the young Prince had no doubt of +its ultimate outcome. And naturally they marveled over two of the +Rainbow Ranch girls making such distinguished marriages. + +Perhaps Jean was not altogether displeased with this gossip, for she +certainly danced with the young Prince most of the earlier part of the +evening. The exact number of her dances Ralph Merrit could have told, +although he was not conscious of having counted them. For except for +dancing once with each one of the four Ranch girls and once with Ruth, +he had spent the rest of the evening watching the dancers from a safe +corner. For some reason or other he seemed not to feel sufficient energy +for anything else. + +It was a few moments after eleven o'clock that same evening when the +Princess Colonna, feeling a hand laid lightly on her arm and turning, +discovered Jean Bruce alone. The girl seemed to have grown suddenly +tired and pale. + +Fortunately the older woman's companion suggested at this moment that +she might like him to get her an ice, so that she and Jean were +uninterrupted for a moment. + +"I wonder if you could come somewhere with me for a little while, where +we could talk without any one else seeing us?" Jean pleaded. "I know you +will think it strange of me, Princess, but all of a sudden it seemed to +me that you were the only person in the world whom I could ask a certain +question. And I must ask it of you before another hour has passed." + +Jean spoke quietly and with entire self-possession; yet there was no +doubting the girl's earnestness or her necessity. + +Instantly the Princess slipped her arm through Jean's with the +affectionate intimacy which she had always felt for her and the woman +and girl together left the room. Providentially for their opportunity to +be alone, the greater number of guests were now in the supper room. So +without much effort Jean found two chairs at the end of a long veranda +which had been enclosed for the evening's use and made into a kind of +conservatory. There they appeared to be quite free from interruption. + +The older woman sat in the shadow, but could see the girl's face +plainly. And though she could hardly guess what question Jean might +wish to ask her, she was not altogether uncertain of the subject +uppermost in the girl's thoughts, so thoroughly had her nephew taken her +into his confidence. + +"Princess," Jean began, but she was not looking at her friend. Her eyes +were seeing nothing, she was so deeply engrossed. "I wonder if you will +tell me if you were happy in your married life? Oh, yes, I know that +sounds like an impertinence; but I do not believe that you will think of +it in that light. You understand I would ask you for no such reason. The +Prince was a great deal older than you, but then you were very good +friends and you had a splendid title and people everywhere looked up to +you and were proud to meet you. I remember how dreadfully impressed we +girls were when we first saw you on board the steamship. It did not seem +to us then that a Princess could be like other people. And none of us +ever dreamed of knowing you as an intimate friend. Those days when I was +visiting you in Rome it seemed so wonderful to me that you, an American +woman and a western girl like me, could be a leader in European +society!" Jean drew a long breath. "Of course it never occurred to me +then that any such chance could ever come to me. It sounds like a fairy +tale and yet my own family don't understand how I can care so much for +position and a title and all that it must mean." + +"I _understand_," the Princess finally replied when Jean had given her +opportunity to speak, "but there is one thing or at least one person +whom you have not mentioned, my nephew, Giovanni. Do you care for him, +Jean?" + +In answer the girl, whose clear pallor was one of her noticeable +characteristics, flushed hotly. "I like him very much, he is most kind, +he----" + +"You mean that Giovanni is entirely devoted to you and that you regard +him as a friend. I see," the Princess finished softly. "And you think +that after you marry him you will learn to care more for him because you +would most enjoy his title and all it could do for you. I wonder just +what Giovanni would receive in exchange for all he has to give?" + +For a moment the older woman took the girl's cold fingers in her own. + +"I don't mean to hurt your feelings, dear, or to seem unkind. But you +have asked me to talk to you tonight because you believe that better +than any one else I can understand and appreciate your ambition and your +emotions. And you are entirely right. I know just what you are thinking, +just what you have been saying to yourself over and over ever since I +asked your guardian to permit you to marry my nephew. I know because I +have passed through almost exactly the same experience. So I am going to +talk frankly about my marriage to you tonight, Jean, though I never have +and probably never will again to any one else as long as I live. You +see, I, too, was a Western girl, only I was a great deal poorer in the +beginning of my life than you have ever been. And then my father and +mother were plainer people. But one day when I was about twelve years +old my father began making a great fortune, and when I was fourteen, as +is the way in this western country, he was many times a millionaire. In +those days the West was not what it is now, so as my mother was +ambitious for me and believed I was going to be a pretty woman I was +sent East to school. Later on I went to Paris and studied there, and +then to Italy, so that I might learn several languages. Now and then I +used to see my father and mother, but not often. They did not enjoy +Europe and I seemed to have so much to learn there was little time to +stay at home. One or two wonderful summers I spent here in the West with +them, loving this country and its people almost as your cousin Jack +does. But by and by, when I was traveling in Italy with some rich +American friends, I met the Prince Colonna. He asked me to marry him and +I--well, I thought about things pretty much as you are doing, dear. I +wanted to be a Princess; I thought it the most romantic, wonderful fate +possible for a plain American girl with nothing but some prettiness and +her money to exchange for fairyland. True, my Prince was old, but I +liked him and I thought we would be better friends after we married. I +believe we were. But, dear, I was not happy. I have missed the most +wonderful thing that can come into one's life, for by and by I found +that the people with titles were nothing but ordinary human beings. The +people who count most, or at least who count most to me, are the people +who do things for themselves, who have made their own way and their own +positions, like so many of our big American men. Often I was very lonely +and sad and often sorry for a decision I made years ago when I was even +younger than you are tonight." + +The Princess let go Jean's hand which she had been holding. + +"Isn't there any one here in your own country, Jean, whom you like +better than you do Giovanni, whom you would a great deal rather marry if +he had the same position to offer?" she inquired. + +For a moment the girl made no answer. Then she said faintly: "Yes, +Princess, there is, though I have never confessed it to anybody in the +world except you, and scarcely to myself. For you see it is not only the +other man's lack of money and position that comes between us, but Ralph +does not even care for me. Some time ago he did, I think, but I was not +very kind to him then, and now for months and months he has been nothing +more to me than a friend. So I can see that his feelings have changed +entirely. I thought if I went away with Giovanni I too would forget. It +is hard to be right here on the ranch and have to pretend and pretend +all the time that I feel toward him just as I used to when I was a +little girl." + +"Jean," the older woman's voice had quite changed and was now both cold +and stern, "I wonder what kind of a partnership you think marriage is? +Do you think that when men go into business together that one brings +everything to the firm and the other nothing? For that is what you wish +to do with Giovanni. You must play fair, child. Why do you consider that +an Italian is different from other men? Giovanni is young; he is not +unattractive. Unless you loved him, you would soon learn to hate each +other. For his sake if not for yours I could never approve of your +marriage." + +But before Jean could reply the Princess had laid a restraining touch +upon her. "Some one is coming toward us--a stranger, I think. We had +best talk of this another time." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +OLD FRIENDS AND SOMETHING MORE + + +JEAN did not recognize the newcomer at once. Then she held out her hand, +trying to speak naturally. + +"Mr. Parker, I am so glad to see you. I was afraid you were not coming +back at all. Princess, Mr. Parker built our new house. Mr. Parker, this +is our friend and guest, the Princess Colonna." + +The tall man bowed politely. "I was told to bring you and the Princess +Colonna back to the ball room if you would consent to come," he +returned. + +From out of the shadow the slender, blond woman rose quietly, taking a +few steps forward. "I shall be most happy to go back with you, Mr. +Parker," she replied. And then standing within a few feet of her new +acquaintance she stared at him curiously. + +"Theodore Parker, it isn't fair of you after all these years to have me +recognize you when you have forgotten me. It makes me think that I must +look a great deal the older!" + +But with a laugh the woman held out both hands, and now standing in the +light that fell from a yellow shaded lantern the Princess' face and +figure were in plain view. + +"Beatrice, the Princess Colonna! Why of course I have known your name +always. How stupid of me not to have thought! But I could never have +dreamed of meeting you out here in Wyoming. The Prince, your husband?" + +"He is dead," the woman answered. And then turning to Jean: "It is odd, +dear, but Mr. Parker and I have known each other a very long time. It +gives me great happiness to see him again and makes me think of that +girl I have been telling you about. Won't you come back to Mrs. Colter +with us?" + +But Jean shook her head and the man and woman moved away, leaving her +alone. + +It was in this same place that Ralph Merrit, also trying to steal away +from the guests, found her ten minutes later. + +Left to herself, Jean had been crying softly, although she could not +exactly have explained the cause. Life was such a jumble--one wanted so +much and had so little! Then often the very thing that had seemed fair +and desirable turned to bitterness and regret! Well, to one thing she +had at least made up her mind--she would not marry Giovanni. Yet she had +promised to give him an answer within the hour. + +Hearing Ralph's step she started nervously. And then with the +familiarity of old acquaintance she frowned upon him. + +"I thought you were the Prince Colonna," she began crossly. + +Ralph stiffened. "I am sorry that I am not. I had no idea of disturbing +you. But I'll go and find your Prince if you like." + +"He is not my Prince; don't be stupid, Ralph, and do please sit down. I +don't see why you feel it so necessary to avoid me recently." + +"Don't you?" Ralph answered. Then for several moments he said nothing +more. However, though he did not appear to be looking, he had a clear +enough vision of Jean's face, her dark eyes swimming in unshed tears, +her heavy lids and the pallor of her cheeks. + +"Jean," Ralph swung himself around swiftly and Jean saw the firmness of +his lips, the decisive outline of his jaw and his high, almost noble +forehead, "if there is any one in this world, I don't care who or what +he is, who has done anything or said anything to make you unhappy, why +if I can, won't you let me help to straighten things out. You said just +now that the Prince Colonna was not your Prince. Perhaps you were only +angry at my tactless way of expressing things, but if there is any +trouble between you--" the young man hesitated. + +"But there isn't--not the slightest," Jean replied with the familiar +shrug of her shoulders and that demure expression about the corners of +her mouth and in her brown eyes that her old friend remembered so well. +"The truth is, Ralph, that I am tired of your and of other people's +pretending that you believe the Prince Colonna and I are engaged to each +other. Because we are not, and never will be." This was as unreasonable +and inconsistent a speech as any girl could well manage to make. + +"Thank the Lord!" Ralph replied, so unconsciously and so sincerely that, +as he was not looking toward her at the moment, the girl allowed herself +to smile. + +"I don't see why you should be so glad, Ralph?" she murmured. + +"Oh, don't you?" Ralph answered between his teeth. "Then to the best of +my ability I'll tell you, Jean Bruce. I love you, I always have loved +you from the hour I saw you drying your hair by that brook in the +wilderness, say a thousand years ago! So now if you are not going to +marry this Italian youth, why it gives me a longer chance to keep on +working and working until I have something to offer you that you wish, +money, position." + +Swiftly the girl rose, laying her fingers gently against the young man's +lips. + +"Don't say those last words to me again, Ralph. I feel tonight that I +never, never wish to hear them again. You have the thing already I want +most in the world if you are willing to give it to me. Why haven't you +understood in these last few months? I couldn't exactly propose to you, +could I, dear?" Jean questioned demurely. + +Ten minutes afterwards Jean, with a rose-colored shawl wrapped about her +shoulders, arm in arm with Ralph, was walking about outdoors, forgetful +of the autumn coldness, of the guests who were asking for her, of +everything in the whole world except her own happiness. Finally she was +surprised by seeing two other figures approaching them who were equally +oblivious. + +With a low laugh Jean drew herself and her companion into the shadow. + +"Jack and Frank!" she whispered. Then, as the other girl and man were +nearly opposite them, "I thought you both promised Jim not to do this +sort of thing, at least not tonight, Jack Ralston," Jean began +unexpectedly. "Yet I am glad to have found you alone, because I want to +tell you first that I am very happy. I don't want other people to know +it just yet, but I too am going to be married." + +There was a note in Jacqueline Ralston's voice as she replied that to +save her life she could not conceal. + +"I am very glad for your sake, Jean darling," Jack answered. "You know +how much I shall hope for your and Giovanni's happiness." + +"Giovanni's?" Jean's manner now suggested unutterable reproach. Ralph +Merrit stepped forward and stood close beside Jean. + +"Hasn't any member of my beloved family sense enough to guess that I +have always cared for Ralph, or at least I have always cared for him in +the past six months," Jean protested. "It is only that I have had to do +desperate deeds to make him care for me." + +But the girl's next words were smothered in Jack's embrace, while Frank +was giving Ralph's hand such a squeeze that though it was considerably +hardened from labor, it was difficult for him not to wince. + +Then the four young people were so interested in one another that they +paid no attention to two other persons who were seen coming toward them, +until they finally discovered one of them to be Frieda. She was looking +more ethereal than ever in a long pale blue silk coat with a chiffon +scarf about her blond head, and was accompanied by the Professor. + +"Whatever are you doing out here? It seems very rude to our guests," +Frieda murmured reproachfully. "I am sure Jim and Ruth will think it +very rude of you." + +"But, Frieda, baby," Jack protested, "aren't you and Professor Russell +also out here, as you call it? I can't see that we are much more to +blame than you." + +Frieda gazed upward at the serious young man, who returned her glance +with such solemn gravity that Jack felt a shiver of apprehension, while +Jean stared at the new-comers closely, as if trying to solve a puzzle. + +"Oh, no, it is not the same with us," Frieda answered serenely. "You see +Ralph and Jean are not engaged at all, and you and Frank have been +engaged such a long time, Jack, so you ought to be used to it by now. +But Henry and I, why we just become engaged half an hour ago, so of +course we like to be out in the moonlight together," Frieda ended +conclusively. + + * * * * * + +Five years have passed away and Jacqueline Ralston is now "Lady Kent" +with a small son of her own to inherit the title, while Frank is a +well-known Liberal member of Parliament. But they still make frequent +trips back to the old Rainbow Ranch, which Jack, in spite of her +affection for her new home, has never ceased to love better than any +other place on earth. + +And these home-comings of Lord and Lady Kent and the small "James Colter +Kent" are usually the signal for a foregathering of all the four Ranch +girls with their husbands and families under the great sheltering roof +of "Rainbow Castle." + +For no one of the girls now lives continuously at the Ranch, which is +still left to Jim's devoted management. As much as possible of their +time Jean and Ralph and their small daughter, Jacqueline, spend with +them--partly in order that Ralph may continue to supervise the working +of the Rainbow Mine which has not yet failed in its output of gold. +Ralph Merrit has recently become one of the best known mining experts in +the United States, so that his advice is constantly being asked both in +this country and abroad. And wherever he travels Jean and her little +girl accompany him, for Jean has become one of the most devoted and +absorbed of wives. + +After the entirely surprising announcement of Frieda Ralston's +engagement to Professor Russell on the night of their ball at the ranch, +Jack, Ruth and Jim Colter seriously opposed her marriage. In the first +place, Frieda was too young to know her own mind; Professor Russell was +more than ten years her senior and they had not a single taste in +common. So by and by Frieda was brought to consent to having her +engagement postponed. Afterwards she spent one whole year in England +with Jack, seeing as much of society and young men as her sister could +arrange for her. Nevertheless, to everybody's surprise, Frieda stuck to +her original choice and two years after her engagement became Mrs. +Russell. She is exceedingly happy. + +So far Frieda has no children, but lives with her husband's parents, and +as he is an only child, they continue to spoil and adore her. Also the +grave young professor, who has never outgrown his first impression of +Frieda as a glorified doll, still treats her as if the least harshness +would utterly destroy her. + +Olive Van Mater is unmarried and already insists upon calling herself an +old maid. She is not devoting her life to teaching the Indians, although +she has partly fulfilled her old dream. At the close of the year, when +her grandmother's final will was read, to the immense surprise of every +one, Olive inherited one-half her large fortune, the other half being +divided among the Harmon family. For the will announced that if any girl +was able to show such self-will and such disregard of wealth as Olive +had shown, should she fail in the interim to marry Donald, that +therefore she alone deserved her grandmother's inheritance. As this +money was far more than Olive wanted or needed, she was thus enabled to +found an agricultural school among the Indians, which was to teach them +to combine their old knowledge with the new discoveries of science and +so to make life happier, if possible, for a misunderstood race. + +Yet Olive was to marry in the end an artist whom she finally met while +visiting Jack and Frank at Kent House. The young man was poor and +unknown then, but his first success was won with a painting of the head +of his beautiful wife and daughter. + +Possibly Jim and Ruth might have been lonely now and then at the old +ranch, except for the fact that in the course of time they had four +daughters of their own besides Jimmikins and each one bore the name of +one of the former Ranch girls. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Page 26, "contenance" changed to "countenance" (and gentle countenance) + +Page 31, "one" added to text (no one else was) + +Page 73, "frienship" changed to "friendship" (old friendship was) + +Page 80, "you'r" changed to "you're" (way you're running) + +Page 82, "he" added to text (he had recently) + +Page 106, "to day" changed to "today" (today hunting for) + +Page 166, "dreadully" changed to "dreadfully" (you so dreadfully) + +Page 181, "petulence" changed to "petulance" (and of petulance) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ranch Girls at Home Again, by +Margaret Vandercook + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RANCH GIRLS AT HOME AGAIN *** + +***** This file should be named 34928.txt or 34928.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/9/2/34928/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Emmy and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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