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diff --git a/57017-0.txt b/57017-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab68fa9 --- /dev/null +++ b/57017-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9176 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57017 *** + + + + + + + + + +THE HERITAGE OF UNREST + +[Illustration: Logo] + + + + +THE HERITAGE OF UNREST + +BY + +GWENDOLEN OVERTON + +New York +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY +LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. +1901 + +_All rights reserved_ + + +COPYRIGHT, 1901, + +BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + +Set up and electrotyped February, 1901. Reprinted April, twice, 1901; +June, 1901. + +Norwood Press +J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith +Norwood Mass. U.S.A. + + + + +THE HERITAGE OF UNREST + + +It is one thing to be sacrificed to a cause, even if it is only by +filling up the ditch that others may cross to victory; it is quite +another to be sacrificed in a cause, to die unavailingly without profit +or glory of any kind, to be even an obstacle thrown across the way. And +that was the end which looked Cabot in the face. He stood and considered +his horse where it lay in the white dust, with its bloodshot eyes turned +up to a sky that burned like a great blue flame. Its tongue, all black +and swollen, hung out upon the sand, its flanks were sunken, and its +forelegs limp. + +Cabot was not an unmerciful man, but if he had had his sabre just then, +he would have dug and turned it in the useless carcass. He was beside +himself with fear; fear of the death which had come to the cow and the +calf whose chalk-white skeletons were at his feet, of the flat desert +and the low bare hills, miles upon miles away, rising a little above the +level, tawny and dry, giving no hope of shelter or streams or shade. He +had foreseen it all when the horse had stumbled in a snake hole, had +limped and struggled a few yards farther, and then, as he slipped to the +ground, had stood quite still, swaying from side to side, with its legs +wide apart, until it fell. He gritted his teeth so that the veins stood +out on his temples, and, going closer, jerked at the bridle and kicked +at its belly with the toe of his heavy boot, until the glassy eye +lighted with keener pain. + +The column halted, and the lieutenant in command rode back. He, too, +looked down at the horse, pulling at his mustache with one gauntleted +hand. He had played with Cabot when they had been children together, in +that green land of peace and plenty which they called the East. They had +been schoolmates, and they had the same class sympathies even now, +though the barrier of rank was between them, and the dismounted man was +a private in Landor's own troop. Landor liked the private for the sake +of the old times and for the memory of a youth which had held a better +promise for both than manhood had fulfilled. + +"Done up,--is it?" he said thoughtfully. His voice was hard because he +realized the full ugliness of it. He had seen the thing happen once +before. + +Cabot did not answer. The gasping horse on the sand, moving its neck in +a weak attempt to get up, was answer enough. He stood with his hands +hanging helplessly, looking at it in wrath and desperation. + +Landor took stock of the others. There had been five led horses +twenty-four hours before, when they had started on a hot trail after the +chief Cochise. But they had taken the places of five others that had +dropped in their tracks to feed the vultures that followed always, +flying above in the quivering blue. They were a sorry lot, the two score +that remained. + +In the spring of '61, when the handful of frontier troops was pressed +with enemies red and brown and white, the cavalry was not well mounted. + +Landor saw that his own horse was the best; and it bid very fair to play +out soon enough. But until it should do so, his course was plain. He +gathered his reins in his hands. "You can mount behind me, Cabot," he +said. The man shook his head. It was bad enough that he had come down +himself without bringing others down too. He tried to say so, but time +was too good a thing to be wasted in argument, where an order would +serve. There was a water hole to be reached somewhere to the southwest, +over beyond the soft, dun hills, and it had to be reached soon. Minutes +spelled death under that white hot sun. Landor changed from the friend +to the officer, and Cabot threw himself across the narrow haunches that +gave weakly under his weight. + +It went well enough for a time, and the hills seemed coming a little +nearer, to be rougher on the surface. Then the double-loaded horse +fagged. Cabot felt that it did, and grasped hard on the burning cantle +as he made his resolve. When Landor used his spurs for the first time, +he loosed his hold and dropped to the ground. + +Landor drew rein and turned upon him with oaths and a purpled face. +"What the devil are you trying to do now?" he said. + +Cabot told him that he was preparing to remain where he was. His voice +was firm and his lips were set under the sun-bleached yellow of his +beard, but his face was gray, for all the tan. He lapsed into the speech +of other days. "No use, Jack," he said; "it's worse than +court-martial--what I've got to face here. Just leave me some water and +rations, and you go on." + +Landor tried another way then, and leaned from his saddle in his +earnestness. He put it in the light of a favor to himself. But Cabot's +refusal was unanswerable. It was better one than two, he said, and no +horse in the command could carry double. + +"I will try to reach the water hole. Leave a man there for me with a +horse. If I don't--" he forced a laugh as he looked up at the buzzard +which was dropping closer down above him. + +"You could take turns riding behind the men." + +"No," Cabot told him, "I couldn't--not without delaying you. The trail's +too hot for that. If you'll put a fourth and last bullet into Cochise, +the loss of a little thing like me won't matter much." He stopped short, +and his chin dropped, weakly, undecided. + +"Jack," he said, going up and running his hand in and out underneath the +girths. He spoke almost too low to be heard, and the men who were +nearest rode a few feet away. "Jack, will you do something for me? Will +you--that is--there is a fellow named McDonald up at the Mescalero +Agency. He's got a little four-year-old girl he's taking care of." He +hurried along, looking away from Landor's puzzled face. "She's the +daughter of a half-breed Mescalero woman, who was killed by the +Mexicans. If I don't come out of all this, will you get her? Tell +McDonald I told you to. I'm her father." + +He raised his eyes now, and they were appealing. "It's an awful lot to +ask of you, Jack, even for old sake's sake. I know that. But the little +thing is almost white, and I cared for her mother--in a way. I can't let +her go back to the tribe." His lips quivered and he bit at them +nervously. "I kept meaning to get her away somehow." There was a sort of +pity on Landor's face, pity and half contempt. He had heard that from +Cabot so often for so many years, "I kept meaning to do this thing or +the other, somehow, some day." "But it looks as though you might have to +do it now. Will you, lieutenant?" He tugged at the cinchings while he +waited. + +Landor was without impulses; the very reverse from boyhood of the man on +the ground beside him, which was why, perhaps, it had come to be as it +was now. He considered before he replied. But having considered, he +answered that he would, and that he would do his best for the child +always. Once he had said it, he might be trusted beyond the shadow of a +doubt. + +"Thank you," said Cabot, and drew his hand from the girths. He cut +Landor short when he tried to change him again. "You are losing time," +he told him, "and if you stay here from now to next week it won't do any +good. I'll foot it to the water hole, if I can. Otherwise--" the feeble +laugh once more as his eyes shifted to where a big, gray prairie wolf +was going across the flat, stopping now and then to watch them, then +swinging on again. + +They came around him and offered him their horses, dismounting even, and +forcing the reins into his hands. "You don't know what you are doing," a +corporal urged. "You'll never get out alive. If it ain't Indians, it'll +be thirst." Then he looked into Cabot's face and saw that he did know, +that he knew very well. And so they left him at last, with more of the +tepid alkali water than they well could spare from their canteens, with +two days' rations and an extra cartridge belt, and trotted on once more +across the plain. + +He stood quite still and erect, looking after them, a dead light of +renunciation of life and hope in his eyes. They came in search of him +two days later and scoured the valley and the hills. But the last they +ever saw of him was then, following them, a tiny speck upon the desert, +making southwest in the direction of the water hole. The big wolf had +stopped again, and turned about, coming slowly after him, and two +buzzards circled above him, casting down on his path the flitting +shadows of their wings. + + + + +I + + +There was trouble at the San Carlos Agency, which was in no wise unusual +in itself, but was upon this occasion more than ever discouraging. There +had been a prospect of lasting peace, the noble Red-man was settling +down in his filthy rancheria to become a good citizen, because he was +tagged with little metal numbers, and was watched unceasingly, and +forbidden the manufacture of tizwin, or the raising of the dead with +dances, and was told that an appreciative government was prepared to +help him if he would only help himself. + +Then some bull-teams going to Camp Apache had stopped over night at the +Agency. The teamsters had sold the bucks whiskey, and the bucks had +grown very drunk. The representatives of the two tribes which were +hereditary enemies, and which the special agent of an all-wise Interior +Department had, nevertheless, shut up within the confines of the same +reservation, therewith fell upon and slew each other, and the survivors +went upon the warpath--metal tags and all. So the troops had been called +out, and Landor's was at San Carlos. + +Landor himself sat in his tent, upon his mess-chest, and by the light of +a candle wrote a despatch which was to go by courier the next morning. +Gila valley mosquitoes were singing around his head, a knot of +chattering squaws and naked children were peering into his tent, the air +was oven-hot, coyotes were filling the night with their weird bark, and +a papoose was bawling somewhere close by. Yet he would have been +sufficiently content could he have been let alone--the one plea of the +body military from all time. It was not to be. The declared and standing +foes of that body pushed their way through the squaws and children. He +knew them already. They were Stone of the Tucson press, sent down to +investigate and report, and Barnwell, an Agency high official, who would +gladly assist the misrepresentations, so far as in his power lay. + +Landor knew that they were come to hear what he might have to say about +it, and he had decided to say, for once, just what he thought, which is +almost invariably unwise, and in this particular case proved exceedingly +so, as any one could have foretold. On the principle that a properly +conducted fist fight is opened by civilities, however, he mixed three +toddies in as many tin coffee cups. + +They said "how," and drank. After which Stone asked what the military +were going to do about certain things which he specified, and implied +the inability of the military to do anything for any one. Landor smiled +indolently and said "Quien sabe?" Stone wished to be told if any one +ever did know and suggested, acridly, that if the by-word of the Mexican +were poco-tiempo, that of the troops was certainly quien-sabe? Between +the two the citizen got small satisfaction. + +"I don't know," objected Landor; "you get the satisfaction of beginning +the row pretty generally--as you did this time--and of saying what you +think about us in unmistakable language after we have tried to put +things straight for you." + +Stone considered his dignity as a representative of the press, and +decided that he would not be treated with levity. He would resent the +attitude of the soldiery; but in his resentment he passed the bounds of +courtesy altogether, forgetting whose toddy he had just drunk, and +beneath whose tent pole he was seated. He said rude things about the +military,--that it was pampered and inefficient and gold laced, and that +it thought its mission upon earth fulfilled when it sat back and drew +princely pay. + +Landor recalled the twenty years of all winter campaigns, dry camps, +forced marches, short rations, and long vigils and other annoyances that +are not put down in the tactics, and smiled again, with a deep cynicism. +Barnwell sat silent. He sympathized with Stone because his interests lay +that way, but he was somewhat unfortunately placed between the military +devil and the political deep sea. + +Stone was something of a power in Tucson politics, and altogether a +great man upon the territorial stump. He was proud of his oratory, and +launched into a display of it now, painting luridly the wrongs of the +citizen, who, it appeared, was a defenceless, honest, law-abiding child +of peace, yet passed his days in seeing his children slaughtered, his +wife tortured, his ranches laid waste, and himself shot down and +scalped. + +Landor tried to interpose a suggestion that though the whole effect was +undoubtedly good and calculated to melt a heart of iron, the rhetoric +was muddled; but the reporter swept on; so he clasped his hands behind +his head and leaning back against a tent pole, yawned openly. Stone came +to an end at length, and had to mop his head with a very much bordered +handkerchief. The temperature was a little high for so much effort. He +met Landor's glance challengingly. + +"Well done!" the officer commended. "But considering how it has heated +you, you ought to have saved it for some one upon whom it would have had +its effect--some one who wasn't round at the time of the Aravaypa Cañon +business, for instance." + +The Agency man thought a question would not commit him. He had not been +round at that time, and he asked for information. The lieutenant gave it +to him. + +"It was a little spree they had here in '71. Some Tucson citizens and +Papago Indians and Greasers undertook to avenge their wrongs and show +the troops how it ought to be done. So they went to Aravaypa Cañon, +where a lot of peaceable Indians were cutting hay, and surprised them +one day at sunrise, and killed a hundred and twenty-five of them--mostly +women and children." + +The reporter interposed that it was the act of men maddened by grief and +their losses. + +"I dare say," Landor agreed; "it is certainly more charitable to +suppose that men who hacked up the bodies of babies, and abused women, +and made away with every sort of loot, from a blanket to a string of +beads, were mad. It was creditably thorough for madmen, though. And it +was the starting-point of all the trouble that it took Crook two years +to straighten out." + +Stone held that the affair had been grossly exaggerated, and that the +proof thereof lay in the acquittal of all accused of the crime, by a +jury of their peers; and Landor said that the sooner that highly +discreditable travesty on justice was forgotten, the better for the good +fame of the territory. The press representative waxed eloquent once +more, until his neck grew violet with suppressed wrath, which sputtered +out now and then in profanity. The officer met his finest flights with +cold ridicule, and the Agency man improved the opportunity by pouring +himself a drink from the flask on the cot. In little it was the +reproduction of the whole situation on the frontier--and the politician +profited. + +In those days some strange things happened at agencies. Toilet sets were +furnished to the Apache, who has about as much use for toilet sets as +the Greenlander has for cotton prints, and who would probably have used +them for targets if he had ever gotten them--which he did not. Upon the +table of a certain agent (and he was an honest man, let it be noted, for +the thing was rare) there lay for some time a large rock, which he had +labelled with delicate humor "sample of sugar furnished to this agency +under--" but the name doesn't matter now. It was close on a quarter of +a century ago, and no doubt it is all changed since then. By the same +working out, a schoolhouse built of sun-baked mud, to serve as a temple +of learning for the Red-man, cost the government forty thousand dollars. +The Apache children who sat within it could have acquired another of the +valuable lessons of Ojo-blanco from the contractors. + +Beef was furnished the Indians on the hoof and calculated by the pound, +and the weight of some of those long-horn steers, once they got upon the +Agency scales, would have done credit to a mastodon. By this method the +Indian got the number of pounds of meat he was entitled to _per capita_, +and there was some left over that the agent might dispose of to his +friends. As for the heavy-weight steers, when the Apache received them, +he tortured them to death with his customary ingenuity. It made the meat +tender; and he was an epicure in his way. The situation in the +territory, whichever way you looked at it, was not hopeful. + +When the moon rose, Barnwell and Stone went away and left Landor again +with the peeping squaws and the wailing papooses, the mosquitoes and the +legacy of their enduring enmity,--an enmity not to be lightly despised, +for it could be as annoying and far more serious than the stings of the +river-bottom mosquitoes. As they walked across the gleaming dust, their +bodies throwing long black shadows, two naked Indian boys followed them, +creeping forward unperceived, dropping on the ground now and then, and +wriggling along like snakes. They were practising for the future. + + + + +II + + +In the '70's the frontier was a fact and not a memory, and a woman in +the Far West was a blessing sent direct from heaven, or from the East, +which was much the same thing. Lieutenants besought the wives of their +brother officers to bring out their sisters and cousins and even aunts, +and very weird specimens of the sex sometimes resulted. But even these +could reign as queens, dance, ride, flirt to their hearts' content--also +marry, which is not always the corollary in these days. The outbreak of +a reservation full of Indians was a small thing in comparison with the +excitement occasioned by the expectation of a girl in the post. + +There was now at Grant the prospect of a girl, and for days ahead the +bachelors had planned about her. She was Landor's ward,--it was news to +them that he had a ward, for he was not given to confidences,--and she +was going to visit the wife of his captain, Mrs. Campbell. When they +asked questions, Landor said she was eighteen years old, and that her +name was Cabot, and that as he had not seen her for ten years he did not +know whether she were pretty or not. But the vagueness surrounding her +was rather attractive than otherwise, on the whole. It was not even +known when she would arrive. There was no railroad to Arizona. From +Kansas she would have to travel by ambulance with the troops which were +changing station. + +There was only Mrs. Campbell who knew the whole story. Landor had gone +to her for advice, as had been his custom since the days before she had +preferred Campbell to him. "Felipa," he said, "writes that she is going +to run away from school, if I don't take her away. She says she will, +and she undoubtedly means it. I have always noticed that there is no +indecision in her character." + +Mrs. Campbell asked where she proposed running to. + +Landor did not know; but she was part Apache, he said, and Harry Cabot's +daughter, and it was pretty certain that with that blood in her veins +she had the spirit of adventure. + +She asked what he had thought of doing about it. + +"I've thought of bringing her on here. But how can I? In a bachelor +establishment? My sister won't have her at any terms. She suggested an +orphan asylum from the first, and she hasn't changed her mind." + +Mrs. Campbell appliqued a black velvet imp on a green felt lambrequin, +and thought. "Do you ever happen to realize that you have your hands +very full?" + +"Yes," he said shortly, "I realize it." + +He sat staring over her head for a moment of silence. "I foresaw it when +I told Cabot I'd take her." + +"Might not an orphan asylum have been best, after all?" + +"It might for me," he said, "but not for her, and I told Cabot I'd do +my best for her." It had seemed to him his plain duty, and he had done +it, and he asked no approbation. + +Mrs. Campbell took it as he did, for a matter of course. She wasted no +words in expressing admiration for what he had done, but kept to the +main issue, making herself useful, as women are rarely content to do +when they deal with men, without indulging her taste for the +sentimental. "Suppose I were to take her?" she suggested. + +He opposed drawbacks. "You can't keep her always." + +She smiled. "The chances that she will marry are excellent." + +He did not answer at once, but sat watching the trumpeter come out of +the adjutant's office to sound recall. "Yes, she will marry," he agreed; +"if no one else marries her, I will. I am as old as her father would +have been but it would save telling some fellow about her birth." + +"Did the girl know her own story?" she asked. + +She did not. He had merely told her that her father was his friend and +had died on the plains. "She thinks her mother died at Stanton. It is so +near the Mescalero Agency that I let it go at that." + +They argued it from all sides during the whole of a day, and Campbell +lent his advice, and the end of it was that Felipa Cabot came out to the +land of her forbears. + +Pending her arrival, Landor brought himself to look upon it as his +plain duty and only course to marry her. It would save her, and any man +who might otherwise happen to love her, from learning what she was. That +she might refuse to look at it in that way, did not much enter into his +calculations. It required a strong effort for him to decide it so, but +it was his way to pick out the roughest possible path before him, to +settle within himself that it was that of duty, and to follow it without +fagging or complaint. He dreaded any taint of Apache blood as he dreaded +the venom of a rattler. He had seen its manifestations for twenty odd +years, had seen the hostile savage and the civilized one, and shrank +most from the latter. But he had promised Cabot to do his best by the +waif, and the best he could see was to marry her. There was always +before him, to urge him on to the sacrifice, the stalwart figure of his +boyhood's friend, standing forsaken in the stretch of desert with the +buzzards hovering over him in the burning sky. He permitted himself to +hope, however, that she was not too obviously a squaw. + +When the day came he rode out with most of the garrison to meet her. He +was anxious. He recalled Anne of Cleves, and had a fellow-feeling for +the King. By the time they came in sight of the marching troops, he had +worked himself to such an implicit faith in the worst that he decided +that the wide figure, heavily blue-veiled, and linen-dustered, on the +back seat of the Dougherty was she. It is one of the strongest arguments +of the pessimist in favor of his philosophy, that the advantage of +expecting the disagreeable lies in the fact that, if he meets with +disappointment, it is necessarily a pleasant one. + +Felipa Cabot proved to be a lithe creature, who rode beside the +ambulance with the officers, and who, in spite of the dust and tan and +traces of a hard march, was beautiful. In the reaction of the moment +Landor thought her the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. But she +froze the consequent warmth of his greeting with a certain indefinable +stolidity, and she eyed him with an unabashed intention of determining +whether he were satisfactory or not, which changed his position to that +of the one upon approbation. If she had been less handsome, it would +have been repellent. + +Before they had reached the post, he had learned a good deal about her. +The elderly major who had come with her from Kansas told him that a +lieutenant by the name of Brewster was insanely in love with her, that +the same Brewster was a good deal of an ass,--the two facts having no +connection, however,--that she was an excellent travelling companion, +always satisfied and always well. What the major did not tell him, but +what he gathered almost at once, was that the girl had not endeared +herself to any one; she was neither loved nor disliked--the lieutenant's +infatuation was not to be taken as an indication of her character, of +course. But then she was beautiful, with her long, intent eyes, and +strong brows and features cut on classic lines of perfection. So Landor +left the major and cantered ahead to join her, where she rode with +Brewster. + +"Has the trip been hard?" he asked. + +She answered that she had enjoyed it all, every day of it, and Brewster +joined in with ecstatic praises of her horsemanship and endurance, +finishing with the unlucky comment that she rode like an Indian. + +"Apaches ride badly, don't they?" she said, with calm matter of fact. +"If you mean that I am hard on my horse, though, you are right." Her +voice was exquisitely sweet, without modulation. + +In the weeks that followed, Landor spent days and some nights--those +when he sat up to visit the guard, as a rule--attempting to decide why +his ward repelled him. She seemed to be quite like any other contented +and natural young girl. She danced, and courted admiration, within the +bounds of propriety; she was fond of dress, and rather above the average +in intelligence. Usually she was excellent company, whimsical and +sweet-humored. She rode well enough, and learned--to his intense +annoyance--to shoot with a bow and arrow quite remarkably, so much so +that they nicknamed her Diana. He had remonstrated at first, but there +was no reason to urge, after all. Archery was quite a feminine sport. + +When his analysis of her failed, he went to Mrs. Campbell again. "Do you +grow fond of Felipa?" he asked point blank. + +She tried to parry and evade, but he would not have it, and obliged her +to admit that she did not. "Not that I dislike her," she explained. "I +like to have her round. I dare say it is a whim." + +He shook his head. "It is not a whim. It is the same with every one. Of +course Brewster has lost his head, but that argues nothing. The +endearing quality seems to be lacking in her." + +She sat considering deeply. She was rocking the baby, with its little +fair head lying in the hollow of her shoulder, and Landor found himself +wondering whether Felipa could ever develop motherliness. "It is quite +intangible," Mrs. Campbell half crooned, for the baby's lids were +drooping heavily. "I can't find that she lacks a good characteristic. I +study her all the time. Perhaps the fault is in ourselves, as much as +anything, because we insist upon studying her as a problem, instead of +simply a very young girl. She is absolutely truthful,--unless she +happens to have a grudge against some one, and then she lies without any +scruple at all,--and she is generous and unselfish, and very amiable +with the children, too." + +Landor asked, with a gleam of hope, if they were attached to her. + +"Yes," she told him, "they are, and it is that makes me think that the +fault may be ours. She is so patient with them." + +At that moment Felipa herself came up the steps and joined them on the +porch. She walked with the gait of a young athlete. Her skirts were +short enough to leave her movements unhampered, and she wore on her feet +a pair of embroidered moccasins. She seemed to be drawing the very +breath of life into her quivering nostrils, and she smiled on them both +good-humoredly. + +"Look," she said, going up to Landor with a noiseless tread that made +him shiver almost visibly. Mrs. Campbell watched them. She was sorry for +him. + +Felipa held out her hand and showed a little brown bird that struggled +feebly. She explained that its leg was broken, and he drew back +instinctively. There was not a trace of softness or pity in her sweet +voice. Then he took the bird in his own big hand and asked her how it +had happened. "I did it with an arrow," said Diana, unslinging her +quiver, which was a barbaric affair of mountain-lion skin, red flannel, +and beads. + +"I can't see why you should take pleasure in shooting these harmless +things," he said impatiently; "the foot-hills are full of quail, and +there are ducks along the creek. For that matter you might try your +skill on prairie dogs, it seems to me." + +She looked down at the curled toe of her moccasin with a certain air of +repentance, and answered his question as to what she meant to do with it +by explaining that she meant to keep it for a pet. + +He stroked its head with his finger as it lay still, opening and +shutting its bright little eyes. "It won't live," he told her, and then +the thought occurred to him to put her to the test. He held the bird out +to her. "Wring its neck," he said, "and end its misery." + +She showed no especial repugnance at the idea, but refused flatly, +nevertheless. "I can't do that," she said, dropping down into the +hammock and swinging herself with the tip of her foot on the floor. + +"I fail to see why not. You can wound it." + +"But that is sport," she answered carelessly. + +He felt that he ought to dislike her cordially, but he did not. He +admired her, on the contrary, as he would have admired a fine boy. She +seemed to have no religion, no ideals, and no petty vanity; therefore, +from his point of judgment, she was not feminine. Perhaps the least +feminine thing about her was the manner in which she appeared to take it +for granted that he was going to marry her, without his having said, as +yet, a word to that effect. In a certain way it simplified matters, and +in another it made them more difficult. It is not easy to ask a woman to +marry you where she looks into your eyes unhesitatingly. But Landor +decided that it had to be done. She had been in the post four months, +and with the standing exception of Brewster, whom she discouraged +resolutely, none of the officers cared for her beyond the flirtation +limit. + +So one night when they were sitting upon the Campbells' steps, he took +the plunge. She had been talking earnestly, discussing the advisability +of filing off the hammer of the pistol he had given her, to prevent its +catching on the holster when she wanted to draw it quickly. One of her +long, brown hands was laid on his knee, with the most admirable lack of +self-consciousness. He put his own hand upon it, and she looked up +questioningly. She was unused to caresses from any but the two Campbell +children, and her frank surprise held a reproach that softened his voice +almost to tenderness. + +"Do you think you could love me, Felipa?" he asked, without any preface +at all. + +She said "Yes" as frankly as she would have said it to the children. It +was blighting to any budding romance, but he tried hard nevertheless to +save the next question from absolute baldness. He had a resentful sort +of feeling that he was entitled to at least a little idealism. As she +would not give it, he tried to find it for himself, noting the grace of +her long free neck, the wealth of her coarse black hair, and the beauty +of her smiling mouth. But the smiling mouth answered his low-spoken +"Will you marry me then, dear?" with the same frank assent. "Not for a +good while, though," she added. "I am too young." That was all, and in a +moment she was telling him some of Brewster's absurdities, with a +certain appreciation of the droll that kept it from being malicious. + +As he had made Mrs. Campbell his confidante from the first, he told her +about this too, now, and finished with the half-helpless, half-amused +query as to what he should do. "It may be any length of time before she +decides that she is old enough, and it never seems to occur to her that +this state of things can't go on forever, that she is imposing upon +you." "And the most serious part of it," he added after a while, "is +that she does not love me." + +"You don't love her, for that matter, either," Mrs. Campbell reminded +him. But she advised the inevitable,--to wait and let it work itself +out. + +So he waited and stood aside somewhat, to watch the course of +Brewster's suit. He derived some little amusement from it, too, but he +wondered with rather a deeper tinge of anxiety than was altogether +necessary what the final outcome would be. + +One morning Brewster met Felipa coming from the hospital and carrying a +wide-mouthed bottle. He joined her and asked if the little lady were +going to grow flowers in it. The little lady, who was quite as tall as +and a good deal more imposing than himself, answered that it was for a +vinagrone. He remonstrated. She was surely not going to make a pet of +one of those villanous insects. No. She had caught a tarantula, too, and +she was going to make them fight. + +"Were you catching the tarantula yesterday when I saw you lying upon the +ground by the dump heap?" + +"Yes," she said, "did you see me? I dare say you thought I was communing +with Nature in the midst of the old tin cans and horseshoes. Well, I +wasn't. I was watching the trap of a tarantula nest, and I caught him +when he came out. I've watched that hole for three days," she announced +triumphantly. "As for the vinagrone, the cook found him in his tent, and +I bottled him. Come and see the fight," she invited amiably. + +Presently she returned with two bottles. In one was the tarantula, an +especially large and hideous specimen, hairy and black, with dull red +tinges. In the other the vinagrone, yet more hideous. She went down to +the side of the house and emptied both into the wide-mouthed bottle. + +Brewster was in agony. He reached out and caught her hand. "My +darling," he cried, "take care!" + +She turned on him quickly. "Let me be," she commanded, and he obeyed +humbly. Then she corked the bottle and shook it so that the animals +rolled on top of each other, and laying it on the ground bent over it +with the deepest interest. Brewster watched too, fascinated in spite of +himself. It was so very ugly. The two wicked little creatures fought +desperately. But after a time they withdrew to the sides of the bottle, +and were quite still. The tarantula had left a leg lying loose. + +Felipa turned from them and waited, clasping her hands and smiling up at +Brewster. He, misinterpreting, felt encouraged and begged her to leave +the disgusting insects. He had something very different to talk about. +She said that she did not want to hear it, and would he bet on the +tarantula or the vinagrone? + +"Don't bring them into it," he implored. "If you will not come away, I +will tell you now, Felipa, that I love you." He was more in earnest than +Landor had been. She felt that herself. His voice broke, and he paled. + +But she only considered the insects, which were beginning to move again, +and answered absently that she knew it, that he had said it before. "Oh! +Mr. Brewster, bet quickly," she urged. + +He caught her by the arm, exasperated past all civility, and shook her. +"Do you hear me, Felipa Cabot? I tell you that I love you." + +She was strong, slender as she was, and she freed herself almost +without effort. And yet he would not be warned. "Don't you love me?" he +insisted, as though she had not already made it plain enough. + +"No," she said shortly. "You had better bet." + +He made as if to kick the bottle away, but quick as a flash she was on +her feet and facing him. + +"You touch that," she said resolutely, "and I'll let them both loose on +you." + +He turned on his heel and left her. + +Landor and the adjutant came by, and she called to them. The adjutant +backed the vinagrone with a bag of sutler's candy, and Felipa took the +tarantula. It was mainly legless trunk, but still furious. Landor +studied her. She was quiet, but her eyes had grown narrow, and they +gleamed curiously at the sight of the torn legs and feelers scattering +around the bottle, wriggling and writhing. She was at her very worst. + +It ended in victory for the vinagrone, but he died from his wounds an +hour later. Felipa told Landor so, as they started for a ride, early in +the afternoon. "The vinagrone is dead," she said; "Mr. Brewster didn't +like my fighting them." Then she assumed the lofty dignity that +contrasted so oddly sometimes with her childish simplicity. "He lacks +tact awfully. Think of it! He took the occasion to say that he loved me. +As though he had not told me so a dozen times before." + +"And you--what did you say?" asked Landor. He was a little surprised to +find how anxiously he waited, and the extent of his relief when she +answered, "I told him to let me be, or I would set them loose on him." + +Official business called Brewster to the Agency next day. He stopped +overnight, on the way, at a ranch whose owners depended more upon +passing travellers than upon the bad soil and the thin cattle. And here +fate threw in his way one whom he would have gone well out of that way +to find. + +It was a civilian with whom he was obliged to share his room. He did not +fancy having to share his room at all, in the first place, and this and +other things made his temper bad. The civilian, on the other hand, was +in good temper, and inclined to be communicative. He tried several ways +of opening a conversation, and undaunted by rebuffs tried yet once more. +Like Bruce and the spider, it was exactly the seventh time that he +succeeded. + +"How's things up at Grant?" he drawled through his beard, as he took off +that sacred and ceremonious garment known to the true frontiersman as +his vest, and without which he feels as lost as without his high-heeled +boots. + +Brewster mumbled out of a towel that he guessed they were all right, and +implied what the dickens did it matter to him how they were. + +"I hear you got Jack Landor up there?" + +Then Brewster began to listen. + +"Yes," he said, emptying the soap-caked water from the Indian basket +wash basin upon the earth floor; "why?"--"I used to know him in '61. He +came up to the Mescalero Agency then, not long before the Texans overran +the place. I recollect there was a sort of blizzard and it was seventeen +below. He came after a kid me and another feller'd been looking after. +Pretty little cuss, about four years old. I gave her her first bow'n +arrow." + +Brewster took on an elaborate and entirely unnecessary air of +indifference, and yawned to heighten the effect. "What did he want of +the child?" he asked negligently. + +"Her father was dead. He left her to him." + +"Who was her father?" Brewster wanted to know. + +The man told him. "He'd been a private up to Stanton, and had been +killed by some of Cochise's people that summer. Her mother was a +half-breed by the name of Felipa. Good-looking squaw, but dead, +too--killed by Mexicans. Do you happen to know whatever became of the +kid?" + +Brewster told him that she was with Landor at the post now. + +"She must be a woman by this time," reflected the civilian. "Is she +married to him?" + +Brewster explained that she was visiting Captain Campbell's family. + +Did she show the squaw? he asked. "Not unless you knew it was there," +the officer said tolerantly. Then he went to bed and slept with that +peace of mind which comes of a proud consciousness of holding the handle +of the whip. In the morning he got the man's name and address before he +went on up to the Agency. + +There he heard of Landor again. This time it was through Barnwell, and +the descriptions were picturesque. Brewster encouraged them, paying a +good deal more heed to them than to the little complaints of the Indians +he had been sent up to investigate. Then he returned to Grant, taking +with him in the ambulance an enlisted man returning to receive his +discharge. + +Barnwell had told Brewster about him also. "His name is +Cairness,--Charles Cairness,--and he's got a lot of fool theories too," +he explained. "He goes in for art, makes some pretty good paintings of +the Indians, and has picked up some of their lingo. Made himself +agreeable to the squaws, I guess. The interpreter says there's one got +her nose cut off by her buck, on his account." + +Brewster suggested that he thought Crook had put a stop to those +mutilations, but the official shrugged his shoulders. + +"I don't know how true it was, and I certainly ain't going to look her +up in her rancheria to find out." + +The hero of the episode rode in the ambulance, sitting on the front +seat, holding his carbine across his knees, and peering with sharp, +far-sighted blue eyes over the alkali flats. Occasionally he took a shot +at a jack rabbit and brought it down unfailingly, but the frontiersman +has no relish for rabbit meat, and it was left where it dropped, for the +crows. He also brought down a sparrow hawk wounded in the wing, and, +having bound up the wound, offered it to Brewster, who took it as an +opening to a conversation and tried to draw him out. + +"Barnwell tells me," he began, "that you have picked up a good deal of +Apache." + +"Some Sierra Blanca, sir," said the soldier. It was respectful enough, +and yet there was somewhere in the man's whole manner an air of +equality, even superiority, that exasperated the lieutenant. It was +contrary to good order and military discipline that a private should +speak without hesitation, or without offence to the English tongue. + +Brewster resented it, and so the next thing he said was calculated to +annoy. "He says you are quite one of them." + +"He is mistaken, sir." + +"Have you an Indian policy?" + +Cairness's eyes turned from a little ground owl on the top of a mound +and looked him full in the face. "I really can't see, sir," he said, +"how it can matter to any one." + +It did not in the least matter to Brewster, but he was one of those +trying people whom Nature has deprived of the instinct for knowing when +to stop. A very perceptible sneer twitched his lips. "You seem to be +English," he said. + +"I am," announced the soldier. + +Now it is a hazardous undertaking to question an Englishman who does not +care to be questioned. A person of good judgment would about as lief try +to poke up a cross lion to play. But Brewster persisted, and asked if +Cairness would be willing to live among the Apaches. + +"They have their good traits, sir," said the man, civilly, "and chief +among them is that they mind their own business." + +It was impossible to misunderstand, and Brewster was vexed beyond the +bounds of all wisdom. "The squaws have their good traits, too, I guess. +I hear one had her nose cut off on your account." He should not have +said it. He knew it, and he knew that the private knew it, but the man +made no reply whatever. + +The remainder of the drive Cairness devoted to caring for the broken +wing of the hawk, and, during halts, to sketching anything that +presented itself,--the mules, the driver, passing Mexicans, or the cows +trying to graze from ground where the alkali formed patches of white +scum. He also accomplished a fine caricature of the lieutenant, and +derived considerable silent amusement therefrom. + +The night of their return to the post, Cairness, crossing the parade +ground shortly before retreat, saw Felipa. He had been walking with his +eyes on the earth, debating within himself the question of his future, +whether he should reënlist, succumb to the habit of the service, which +is to ambition and endeavor what opium is to the system, or drop back +into the yet more aimless life he had been leading five years before, +when a fit of self-disgust had caused him to decide that he was good for +nothing but a trooper, if even that. + +A long sunset shadow fell across his path, and he looked up. Felipa was +walking beside a little white burro, and holding Mrs. Campbell's +golden-curled baby upon its back. She carried her head superbly erect, +and her step, because of the moccasins, was quite noiseless. The glow of +the sunset shone in her unflinching eyes, and lost itself in the dull +black mass of her hair. She studied his face calmly, with a perfectly +impersonal approval. + +Cairness went on, back to the barracks, and sitting at the troop clerk's +desk, made a memory sketch of her. It did not by any means satisfy him, +but he kept it nevertheless. + +That night he sat upon the edge of his bunk, in the darkness, after +taps, with his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hand, and thought +the matter to a conclusion. The conclusion was that he would not +reënlist, and the reason for it was the girl he had met on the parade +ground. He knew the power that beauty had over him. It was as real, as +irresistible, as a physical sensation. And he thought Felipa Cabot the +most beautiful woman he had ever seen. "She should be done in a heroic +bronze," he told himself; "but as I can't do it, and as I haven't the +right to so much as think about her, I shall be considerably happier at +a distance, so I'll go." + +He went the next day but one, riding out of the post at daylight. And he +saw Felipa once more. She was standing by the creek, drawing an arrow +from her quiver and fitting it to her bow. Then she poised the toe of +her left foot lightly upon the ground, bent back, and drew the bow +almost to a semicircle. The arrow flew straight up into the shimmering +air, straight through the body of a little jay, which came whirling, +spinning down among the trees. Felipa gave a quick leap of delight at +having made such a shot, then she darted down in search of the bird. And +Cairness rode on. + + + + +III + + +"Hullo there!" + +Cairness drew up his pinto pony in front of a group of log cabins, and, +turning in his saddle, rested his hands upon the white and bay flanks. +"Hullo-o-o!" he repeated. + +A mule put its head over the wall of a corral and pricked interrogative +ears. Then two children, as unmistakably Angles as those of Gregory the +Great, came around the corner, hand in hand, and stood looking at him. +And at length a man, unmistakably an Angle too, for all his top boots +and flannel shirt and cartridge belt, came striding down to the gate. He +opened it and said, "Hullo, Cairness, old chap," and Cairness said, "How +are you, Kirby?" which answered to the falling upon each other's neck +and weeping, of a more effusive race. + +Then they walked up to the corral together. Kirby introduced him to his +two partners, Englishmen also, and finished nailing up the boards of a +box stall which a stallion had kicked down in the night. After that he +threw down his hammer, took two big nails from his mouth, and sat upon +the tongue of a wagon to talk long and earnestly, after the manner of +men who have shared a regretted past. + +"And so," said Kirby, as he drew a sack of short cut from his pocket +and filled his brier, "and so you have chucked up the army? What are you +going to do next? Going in for art?" + +"Good Lord! no," Cairness's smile was rueful. "I've lost all ambition of +that sort years since. I'm too old. I've knocked about too long, and I +dare say I may as well knock about to the end." + +Kirby suggested, with a hesitation that was born not of insincerity but +of delicacy, that they would be awfully glad to have him stop with them +and help run the Circle K Ranch. But Cairness shook his head. "Thanks. +I'll stop long enough to recall the old times, though I dare say it +would be better to forget them, wouldn't it? Ranching isn't in my line. +Not that I am at all sure what is in my line, for that matter." + +After a while Kirby went back to his work, directing several Mexicans, +in hopelessly bad Spanish, and laboring with his own hands at about the +proportion of three to one. + +Cairness, talking to one of the other men, who was mending a halter, +watched him, and recalled the youth in spotless white whom he had last +seen lounging on the deck of an Oriental liner and refusing to join the +sports committee in any such hard labor as getting up a cricket match. +It was cooler here in the Arizona mountains, to be sure; but it was an +open question if life were as well worth living. + +When the sun was at midheaven, and the shadows of the pines beyond the +clearing fell straight, the clanging of a triangle startled the +mountain stillness. The Mexicans dropped their tools, and the white +teamster left a mule with its galled back half washed. + +In a moment there were only the four Englishmen in the corral. + +Kirby finished greasing the nut of a wagon. Then he went to the water +trough and washed his hands and face, drying them upon a towel in the +harness room. He explained that they didn't make much of a toilet for +luncheon. + +"Luncheon!" said Cairness, as he smoothed his hair in front of a +speckled and wavy mirror, which reflected all of life that came before +it, in sickly green, "cabalistic word, bringing before me memories of my +wasted youth. There was a chap from home in my troop, until he deserted, +and when we were alone we would say luncheon below our breaths. But I +haven't eaten anything except dinner for five years." + +At the house he met Kirby's wife, a fair young woman, who clung +desperately here in the wilderness, to the traditions, and to as many of +the customs as might be, of her south-of-England home. + +The log cabin was tidy. There were chintz curtains at the windows, much +of the furniture, of ranch manufacture, was chintz covered, the manta of +the ceiling was unstained, there were pictures from London Christmas +papers on the walls, and photographs of the fair women at "home." + +There were also magazines and a few books in more than one language, +wild flowers arranged in many sorts of strange jars, and in the corner, +by an improvised couch, a table stacked with cups and plates of +Chelsea-Derby, which were very beautiful and very much out of place. + +The log cabins were built, five of them, to form a square. The largest +contained the sitting room and a bedroom, the three others, bedrooms and +a storehouse, and the kitchen and dining room were in the fifth. + +When they went into this last, the ranch hands were already at a long +oilcloth-covered table. The Kirbys sat at a smaller one, laid with +linen, and the lank wife of one of the men served them all, with the +help of a Mexican boy. + +Cairness pitied Mrs. Kirby sincerely. But if she felt herself an object +of sympathy, she did not show it. + +The woman fairly flung the ill-cooked food upon the table, with a +spitefulness she did not try to conceal. And she manifested her bad will +most particularly toward the pretty children. Cairness felt his +indignation rise against Kirby for having brought a woman to this, in +the name of love. + +"We have tea at five," Mrs. Kirby told him, as they finished, and her +husband started out to superintend and help with the digging of an +acequia. + +So at five o'clock Cairness, coming again into that part of the cabin +which his hostess persistently named the drawing-room, found the three +Englishmen taking their tea, and a little man in clerical garb observing +the rite with considerable uncertainty. He would have no tea himself, +and his tone expressed a deep distrust of the beverage. By the side of +his chair stood a tall silk hat. It was in all probability the only one +in the territories, or west of the Missouri, for that matter, and it +caught Cairness's eye at once, the more especially as it was pierced by +two round holes. As he stirred his tea and ate the thin slices of +buttered bread, his glance wandered frequently to the hat. + +"Lookin' at my stove-pipe?" asked the Reverend Mr. Taylor. "Only one in +these parts, I reckon," and he vouchsafed an explanation of the holes. +"Them holes? A feller in Tucson done that for me." + +What had he done to the fellow, if he might ask, Cairness inquired. + +"What did I do? The same as he done unto me. Let the air into his +sombrero." He told them that he was studying the flora of the country, +and travelling quite alone, with an Indian pony, a pack-mule, and a +dog--a prospector's outfit, in short. + +After tea the ranchers settled down to smoke and read. The Reverend +Taylor brought out his collection of specimens and dilated upon them to +Cairness. + +"I put them in this here book," he said, "betwixt the leaves, and then I +put the book under my saddle and set on it. I don't weigh so much, but +it works all right," he added, looking up with a naïve smile that +reached from one big ear to the other. "To-morrow," he told him later, +"I'm going to ride over here to Tucson again. What way might you be +takin'?" + +"I think perhaps I'll go with you, if you'll wait over a day," Cairness +told him. He had taken a distinct fancy to the little botanist who wore +his clerical garb while he rode a bronco and drove a pack-mule over the +plains and mountains, and who had no fear of the Apache nor of the +equally dangerous cow-boy. Cairness asked him further about the hat. +"That chimney-pot of yours," he said, "don't you find it rather +uncomfortable? It is hot, and it doesn't protect you. Why do you wear +it?" + +The little man picked it up and contemplated it, with his head on one +side and a critical glance at its damaged condition. Then he smoothed +its roughness with the palm of his rougher hand. "Why do I wear it?" he +drawled calmly; "well, I reckon to show 'em that I can." + +At six o'clock Kirby knocked the ashes from his pipe, the other two men, +who had buried themselves in the last _Cornhill_ and _Punch_ with entire +disregard of the rest of the room, put down the magazines, and all of +them rose. "We dine at seven," Mrs. Kirby said to Taylor and Cairness as +she passed through the door, followed by her husband. + +"Where are they all goin' to?" the Reverend Taylor asked in plaintive +dismay. He had risen to his feet because he had seen Cairness do it, and +now he sat again because Cairness had dropped back on the couch. He was +utterly at sea, but he felt that the safest thing to do would be that +which every one else did. He remembered that he had felt very much the +same once when he had been obliged to attend a funeral service in a +Roman Catholic Church. All the purple and fine linen of the Scarlet +Woman and the pomp and circumstance surrounding her had bewildered him +in about this same way. + +Cairness reached out for the discarded _Cornhill_, and settled himself +among the cushions. "They're going to dress, I rather think," he said. +The minister almost sprang from his chair. "Good Lord! I ain't got any +other clothes," he cried, looking ruefully at his dusty black. + +"Neither have I," Cairness consoled him, from the depths of a rehearsal +of the unwisdom of Ismaïl Pasha. + +The Reverend Taylor sat in silence for a time, reflecting. Then he broke +forth again, a little querulously. "What in thunderation do they dine at +such an hour for?" Cairness explained that it was an English custom to +call supper dinner, and to have it very late. + +"Oh!" said Taylor, and sat looking into the fire. + +A few minutes before seven they all came back into the sitting room. The +men wore black coats, by way of compromise, and Mrs. Kirby and the +children were in white. + +"Like as not she does up them boiled shirts and dresses herself, don't +you think?" was the minister's awed comment to Cairness, as they went to +bed that night in the bare little room. + +"Like as not," Cairness agreed. + +"She's mighty nice looking, ain't she?" + +Cairness said "yes" rather half heartedly. That fresh, sweet type was +insipid to him now, when there was still so fresh in his memory the +beauty of a black-haired girl, with eagle eyes that did not flinch +before the sun's rays at evening or at dawn. + +"I'll bet the help don't like the seven o'clock dinner." + +Cairness suggested that they were given their supper at six. + +"I know that. But they don't like it, all the same. And I'll bet them +cutaways riles them, too." + +Cairness himself had speculated upon that subject a good deal, and had +noticed with a slight uneasiness the ugly looks of some of the ranch +hands. "They are more likely to have trouble in that quarter than with +the Indians," he said to himself. For he had seen much, in the ranks, of +the ways of the disgruntled, free-born American. + +Before he left with Taylor on the next morning but one, he ventured to +warn Kirby. But he was met with a stolid "I was brought up that way," +and he knew that argument would be entirely lost. + +"Over here to Tucson" was a three days' ride under the most favorable +circumstances; but with the enthusiastic botanist dismounting at short +intervals to make notes and press and descant upon specimens, it was +five days before they reached, towards nightfall, the metropolis of the +plains. + +They went at once for supper to the most popular resort of the town, the +Great Western Saloon and Restaurant. It was a long adobe room, the +whitewash of which was discolored by lamp smoke and fly specks and +stains. There were also bullet holes and marks of other missiles. At one +end was a bar, with a tin top for the testing of silver coins. Several +pine tables were set out with cracked sugar bowls, inch-thick glasses, +bottles of pickles and condiments, still in their paper wrappings, and +made filthy by flies, dust, and greasy hands. Already there were half a +dozen cow-boys and Mexicans, armed to the teeth, standing about. + +They glanced sideways at the big Englishman, who appeared to be one of +themselves, and at the little minister. On him, more especially on his +hat, their eyes rested threateningly. They had heard of him before, most +of them. They answered his genial greeting surlily, but he was quite +unruffled. He beamed upon the room as he seated himself at one of the +tables and ordered supper, for which, in obedience to a dirty sign upon +the wall, he paid in advance. + +Having finished, he left Cairness to his own devices, and dragging a +chair under a bracket lamp, set peacefully about reading the newspapers. +For fully an hour no one heeded him. Cairness talked to the bartender +and stood treat to the aimless loungers. He had many months of back pay +in his pocket, and to save was neither in his character nor in the +spirit of the country. + +The ill-smelling room filled, and various games, chiefly faro and monte, +began. At one table two men were playing out a poker game that was +already of a week's duration. The reek of bad liquor mingled with the +smell of worse tobacco and of Mexican-cured leather--like which there is +no odor known to the senses, so pungent and permeating and all-pervading +it is. Several of the bracket lamps were sending up thin streams of +smoke. + +The Reverend Taylor gradually became aware that the air was very bad. He +laid down the newspaper and looked round. + +Then a big cow-boy left the bar and loitering over, with a clink of +spurs, touched him on the shoulder. "The drinks are on you," he menaced. +The minister chose to ignore the tone. He rose, smiling, and stretching +his cramped arms. "All right, my friend, all right," he said, and going +with the big fellow to the bar he gave a general invitation. + +In the expectation of some fun the men gathered round. Those at the +tables turned in their chairs and sat watching and pulling at their +fierce mustaches as they peered from under the brims of their sombreros. +In the midst of them all the little parson looked even smaller than he +was. But he was sweetly undaunted and good-humored. + +When the barkeeper had served the others, he turned to him. "What'll you +take?" he demanded, not too courteously. + +"I'll take a lemon soda, thanks," said Taylor. + +There followed one of those general pauses as explosive as a pistol +shot. + +Then the cow-boy who had touched him on the shoulder suggested that he +had better take a man's drink. + +But he was not to be changed. "I'll take lemon soda," he said to the +tender, with an amiability that the cow-boy made the mistake of taking +for indecision. + +"You better do what I say!" He was plainly spoiling for a fight. + +But the minister still refused to see it. He looked him very squarely in +the eyes now, however. "See here, I am going to take lemon pop, my +friend," he said. + +The friend swore earnestly that he would take what he was told to. + +"You are mistaken, my good fellow, because I won't." There was not the +shadow of hesitation in his voice, nor did he lower his mild blue eyes. + +The cow-boy broadened the issue. "You will, and you'll take off that +plug, too, or I'll know what for." + +"I reckon you'll know what for, then," beamed Taylor, immovably. + +Cairness had been standing afar off, with his hands in his pockets, +watching with a gleam of enjoyment under his knitted brows, but he began +to see that there threatened to be more to this than mere baiting; that +the desperado was growing uglier as the parson grew more firmly urbane. +He drew near his small travelling companion and took his hands suddenly +from his pockets, as the cow-boy whipped out a brace of six-shooters and +pointed them at the hat. + +Slowly, with no undue haste whatever, the Reverend Taylor produced from +beneath the skirts of his clerical garb another revolver. There was a +derisive and hilarious howl. When it had subsided, he turned to the +barkeeper. "Got my lemon pop ready?" he asked. The man pushed it over +to him, and he took it up in his left hand. + +"Drop that!" called the cow-boy. + +"Here's how," said the parson, and raised his glass. A bullet shattered +it in his grasp. + +Cairness, his hand on the butt of his own pistol, wondered, a little +angrily, if Taylor were never going to be roused. + +He had looked down at the broken glass and the stream of water, and then +up quite as calmly but a little less smilingly. "If you do that again, +I'll shoot," he said. "Give me another pop." + +There was a chuckle from the group, and a chorus to the effect that they +would be eternally condemned, the truth of which was patent in their +faces. "Leave the little codger be," some one suggested; "he ain't +skeered worth a sour apple." + +It would have become the sentiment of the crowd in another moment, but +the little codger took up the second glass, and raised it again. Then it +fell smashing to the floor. A second bullet had broken his wrist. + +Cairness started forward and levelled his Colt, but the divine was too +quick for him. He fired, and the cow-boy sank down, struggling, shot +through the thigh. As he crouched, writhing, on the ground, he fired +again, but Cairness kicked the pistol out of his hand, and the bullet, +deflected, went crashing in among the bottles. + +"Now," said Taylor, distinctly, "oblige me with another lemon pop, +mister." A cheer went up, and the minister standing above his fallen +enemy raised the third glass. "Here's to your better judgment next +time, my friend. 'Tain't the sombrero makes the shot," he said. His +seamed, small face was pale underneath its leathery skin, but by not so +much as a quiver of an eyelid did he give any further sign of pain. + +"The gentleman who broke them glasses can settle for his part of the +fun," he said, as he paid his reckoning. Then he drew Cairness aside and +held out the limp wrist to be bound, supporting it with his other hand. +And presently they went out from the restaurant, where the powder smoke +was added to the other smells, and hung low, in streaks, in the thick +atmosphere, to hunt up a surgeon. + +The surgeon, whose lore was not profound, and whose pharmacy exhibited +more reptiles in alcohol than drugs, set the bones as best he knew how, +which was badly; and, taking a fancy to Taylor, offered him and Cairness +lodgings for the night,--the hospitality of the West being very much, in +those times, like that of the days when the preachers of a new Gospel +were bidden to enter into a house and there abide until they departed +from that place. + +In the morning Cairness left them together and started for the San +Carlos Agency. He was to meet a prospector there, and to begin his new +fortunes by locating some mines. + + + + +IV + + +It was a bitterly cold January morning. There had been a rain in the +night, and the clouds yet hung gray over Mt. Graham and the black gap. +The wet wind went howling over the valley, so that the little flag at +the top of the staff snapped and whipped as though it would be torn from +the halyards. Sunday inspection and guard mounting had been chilling +ceremonies, performed in overcoats that were hardly more blue than the +men's faces. Having finished them, Brewster hurried across the parade to +Captain Campbell's quarters. + +He found Felipa curled on the blanket in front of a great fire, and +reading by the glare of the flames, which licked and roared up the wide +chimney, a history of the Jesuit missionaries. It was in French, and she +must have already known it by heart, for it seemed to be almost the only +book she cared about. She had become possessed of its three volumes from +a French priest who had passed through the post in the early winter and +had held services there. He had been charmed with Felipa and with her +knowledge of his own tongue. It was a truly remarkable knowledge, +considering that it had been gained at a boarding-school. + +"You speak with the utmost fluency, my daughter," he had commended, and +she had explained that she found expression more easy in French. + +"It is curious," she said, "but it has always seemed as though English +were not my native tongue." + +When the father returned to Tucson, he had sent her the history, and she +had read and reread it. In a way she was something of a linguist, for +she had picked up a good deal of Spanish from Mexicans about the post, +chiefly from the nurse of the Campbell children. + +There is a certain class of persons to whom it is always irritating to +find any one reading a book. It rubs them the wrong way instantly. They +will frequently argue that their own, and the best, manner of studying +life is from nature--an excellent theory in sound, and commonly accepted +as unanswerable, but about as practical in fact as the study of music on +the instrument alone, without primer or method. + +The mere sight of Felipa on the buffalo robe before the fire, poring +over the old history, exasperated Brewster. "That book again?" he said +crossly, as he drew up a chair and held out his hands to the flames; +"you must know it by heart." + +"I do," she answered, blinking lazily. + +He reflected that it is a trait of the semi-civilized and of children +that they like their tales often retold. But he did not say so. He was +holding that in reserve. Instead, he changed the subject, with an abrupt +inquiry as to whether she meant to ride to-day. "I suppose not?" he +added. + +"I do, though," she said perversely, as she bent her head and tried to +put into order the tumbled mass of her hair. "I am going at eleven +o'clock." + +"Alone?" + +"No, not alone." + +"It is bitterly cold." + +"I don't mind, and neither does Captain Landor." Her guardian had +recently gotten his captaincy. + +Brewster's irritation waxed. "Landor again?" he queried suggestively. + +"Landor again," she yawned, ignoring his meaning-fraught tone. But she +watched his face from under her long lashes. + +He glanced over his shoulder at the door. It was closed; so he leaned +forward and spoke in a lower voice. "Felipa, are you going to marry +Landor, or are you not?" + +It was more than a mere impertinent question, and she did not pretend to +ignore it any longer. She clasped her hands slowly about her knees and +looked straight at him. + +But he was unabashed, "What is he to you?" he insisted. + +She thought for a moment before she answered. Then she spoke +deliberately, and there was a purring snarl under her voice. "It is none +of your business that I can see. But I will tell you this much, he is a +man I respect; and that is more than I have said of you when I have been +asked the same question." + +"It is not only my business," he said, overlooking the last, and bending +more eagerly forward, "it is not only my business, it is the business +of the whole post. You are being talked about, my dear young lady." + +She sprang to her feet so suddenly that her arm struck him a blow in the +face, and stood close in front of him, digging her nails into her palms +and breathing hard. "If you--if you dare to say that again, I will kill +you. I can do it. You know that I can, and I will. I mean what I say, I +will kill you." And she did mean what she said, for the moment, at any +rate. There was just as surely murder in her soul as though those long, +strong hands had been closed on his throat. Her teeth were bared and her +whole face was distorted with fury and the effort of controlling it. She +drew up a chair, after a moment, and sat in it. It was she who was +leaning forward now, and he had shrunk back, a little cowed. "I know +what you are trying to do," she told him, more quietly, her lips +quivering into a sneer, "you are trying to frighten me into marrying +you. But you can't do it. I never meant to, and now I would die first." + +He saw that the game had reached that stage where he must play his trump +card, if he were to have any chance. "You are a mean little thing," he +laughed. "It is the Apache blood, I suppose." + +She sat for a moment without answering. It was less astonishment than +that she did not understand. She knitted her brow in a puzzled frown. + +But he mistook her silence for dismay, and went on. "It is only what one +might expect from the daughter of a drunken private and a Mescalero +squaw." + +She was still silent, but she leaned nearer, watching his face, her +lips drawn away from her sharp teeth, and her eyes narrowing. She +understood now. + +In his growing uneasiness he blundered on rashly. "You didn't know it? +But it is true. Ask your guardian. Do you think he would have you for a +wife?" He gave a short laugh. "He hates an Apache as he does a Gila +monster. Very few men would be willing to risk it." + +She leaned back in her chair, tapping her foot upon the floor. It was +the only sign of excitement, but the look of her face was not good. + +Brewster avoided it, and became absorbed in making the tips of his +fingers meet as he pressed his hands together. + +"Still," said Felipa, too quietly, "I would rather be the daughter of a +drunken private and a Mescalero squaw than the wife of a coward and +sneak." + +He stood up and went nearer to her, shaking his finger in her face. He +knew that he had lost, and he was reckless. "You had better marry me, or +I will tell your birth from the housetops." But he was making the fatal +mistake of dealing with the child that had been, instead of with the +woman he had aroused. + +She laughed at him--the first false laugh that had ever come from her +lips. "You had better go now," she said, rising and standing with her +arms at her side, and her head very erect. + +He hesitated, opening his mouth to speak and shutting it again +irresolutely. + +"I told you to go," she repeated, raising her brows. + +He took up his cap from the table, and went. + +When Landor came in half an hour later he found her in her riding habit, +sitting in front of the fire. She was still alone, and he felt instantly +that there was more softness than ever before in the smile she gave him, +more womanliness in the clinging of her hand. Altogether in her attitude +and manner there was less of the restlessly youthful. He drew a chair +beside hers, and settled back comfortably. + +"Mr. Brewster has just been here," she said at length, and she played +with the lash of her whip, avoiding his eyes, which was also a new way +for her. + +"I wish Brewster would not come so often," he said. + +For answer she put out her hand and laid it upon his, not as she had +often done it before, in the unattentive eagerness of some argument, but +slowly, with a shadow of hesitation. + +He was surprised, but he was pleased too, and he took the long fingers +in his and held them gently. + +"Do you still want me to marry you?" she asked him. + +He told her that he most certainly did, and she went on. + +"Is it because you think you ought to, or because you really want me?" +She was looking at him steadily now, and he could not have lied to her. +But the slender hand was warm and clinging, the voice low and sweet, the +whole scene so cosey and domestic, and she herself seemed so much more +beautiful than ever, that he answered that it was because he wanted +her--and for the moment it was quite true. Had so much as a blush come +to her cheek, had she lowered her earnest gaze, had her voice trembled +ever so little, it might have been true for all time. But she threw him +back upon himself rudely, with an unfeminine lack of tact that was +common with her. "Then I will marry you whenever you wish," she said. + +"I began to tell you," she resumed directly, "that Mr. Brewster was +here, and that he informed me that my mother was a squaw and my father a +drunken private." + +Landor jumped up from his chair. "Felipa!" he cried. At first he was +more shocked and sorry for her than angry with Brewster. + +"I don't mind," she began; and then her strict truthfulness coming +uppermost, she corrected herself: "At least, I don't mind very much, not +so much as you thought I would." + +He strode up and down, his face black with rage, expressing his violent +opinion of Brewster. Then he came to a stop, in front of her. "How did +he happen to tell you?" he asked. + +She explained. "He says he will tell it broadcast," she ended, "but he +won't. It wouldn't be safe, and he knows it." Her cool self-possession +had its effect on him. He studied her curiously and began to calm down. + +She asked him about her father and mother. Going back to his chair he +told her everything that he knew, save only the manner of Cabot's death. +"Then I took you to Yuma," he finished, "and from there to the East, via +Panama." There was a pause. And then came the question he had most +dreaded. + +"Did my father leave me any money?" she asked. + +There was nothing for it but to admit that from the day of her father's +death she had been utterly Landor's dependant,--at a cost to him of how +many pleasures, she, who knew the inadequacy of a lieutenant's pay, +could easily guess. + +She sat thinking, with her chin in her palm, and a quite new look of +loneliness deep in her eyes. He could see that in the last hour she had +grasped almost the fulness of her isolation--almost, but not all; only +the years could bring forth the rest. She gave a heavy sigh. "Well, I am +glad I love you," she said. + +But he knew that she did not love him. She was grateful. It was +sometimes an Apache trait. He realized that it was his curse and hers +that he could not for an instant forget the strain. He read her +character by it, half unconsciously. He saw it in her honesty, her +sinewy grace, her features, her fearlessness, her kindness with +children,--they were all Apache characteristics; and they were all +repellent. From his youth on, he had associated the race with cruelty +and every ghastly sight he had come upon, on the plains and in the +mountains. It was a prejudice with more than the force of a heritage. He +went on with his study of her, as she sat there. He was always studying +her. But he could not decide whether it was that she lacked +sensitiveness and was really not greatly disturbed, or a savage sort of +pride in concealing emotions. + +He rose to his feet, shaking off an impatience with her and with +himself. "Come," he said peremptorily; and they went out and mounted and +rode away in the face of a whipping wind up the gradual slope to the +mountains, black and weird beneath the heavy, low-hanging rain clouds. + +Felipa had taught her horse to make its average gait a run, and she +would have started it running now, but that Landor checked her. It was +high time, he said, that he should teach her to ride. Now she was more +than a little proud of her horsemanship, so she was annoyed as well as +surprised. + +But he went on, instructing her how it was not all of riding to stick +on, and rather a question of saving and seat and the bit. + +"You give your horse a sore back whenever you go far, and you always +bring him back in a lather." + +It was half because she felt it would prick him, and half in humility, +that she answered, "I suppose that is the Indian in me." + +His horse started. He had dug it with the rowels. Then he reined it in +with a jerk that made it champ its curb. "Don't dwell on that all the +time," he said angrily; "forget it." And then it flashed across him, the +irreparable wrong he would be doing her if he taught her to consider the +Apache blood a taint. + +She gave him an odd, furtive glance and did not answer for a time. He +was never quite able to divine with her just how much of his thoughts +she understood, and it put him at some disadvantage. + +Presently she said: "I can't forget. And you can't. As for other +people--they don't matter anyway." In her scheme of things other people +rarely did matter. She hedged herself round with a barrier of +indifference that was very nearly contempt, and encouraged no +intimacies--not even with Landor. And he knew it. + +She made it plainer to him by and by, as she went on to advise his +course about Brewster. "If I were you, I would ignore his having told +me, Jack. I ought to have pretended that I knew it, but I was taken by +surprise. He must not think you resent it as though it were an insult, +though. As for me, I won't have anything more to do with him; but that +is for reasons of my own." + +He demanded that he be told the reasons, but she refused very sweetly +and very decidedly. And he was forced to accept the footing upon which +she placed him, for all time. + + * * * * * * * * + +It was quite in keeping with everything that had gone before that, the +day after a passing Franciscan priest had married them, Landor should +have been ordered off upon a scout, and Felipa should have taken it as a +matter of course, shedding no tears, and showing no especial emotion +beyond a decent regret. + +They had not gone upon a wedding trip for the excellent reason that +there was no place to go; and as they sat at dinner together in their +sparsely furnished quarters, there was a timid ring at the door-bell, +and Landor's Chinaman, the cook of his bachelor days, ushered in the +commanding officer, who looked humble apology for the awkwardness of a +visit he could not delay. He went straight to the matter in hand, in +spite of the tactful intentions that had made him come himself instead +of sending a subordinate. + +"I say, Landor," he began, after having outwardly greeted Felipa and +inwardly cursed his luck at being obliged to tear a man away from so +fair a bride, "I say, there's been the dickens of a row up at the +Agency." + +Landor went on with his dinner coolly enough. "There's quite likely to +be that at any time," he said, "so long as a pious and humane Indian +Bureau sends out special agents of the devil who burn down the Agency +buildings of peaceful Apaches as a means of inducing them to seek +illness and death in malarious river bottoms." + +"That," objected the major, testily, "is ancient history. This trouble +started the way of most of the troubles of this age--whiskey." In his +agitation he carefully spilled a spoonful of salt on the cloth and +scraped it into a little mound with a knife. Then recollecting that +spilled salt causes quarrels, he hurriedly threw a pinch of it over his +left shoulder. "And--and, the worst of the whole business is, old man, +that you've got to go. Your troop and one from Apache are ordered out. +I'm awfully sorry." He would not look at Felipa at all. But he stared +Landor fairly out of countenance, as he waited for a storm of tears and +protestations. + +When, therefore, Mrs. Landor said, with the utmost composure, that it +was too bad, his gasp was audible. + +The captain knitted his thick brows and interposed quickly, talking +against time. "If the Tucson ring and the Indian Bureau had one head, I +should like the detail of cutting it off." His annoyance seemed to be of +an impersonal sort, and the commandant began to feel that he must have +handled the thing rather well, after all. He gained in self-esteem and +equanimity. + +Felipa rose from the table, and going over to her husband laid her hand +on his shoulder. She asked when he must go. "To-night, my dear lady, I +am afraid," soothed the commandant. But she appeared to be in no need of +humoring, as she turned to Landor and offered to do what she might to +help him. + +He had dreaded a scene, but he was not so sure that this was not worse. +"You are the wife for a soldier," he said somewhat feebly; "no tears and +fuss and--all that kind of thing." + +Landor winced as he folded his napkin and stood up. "I am ready," he +said, and going into the long hallway took his cap from the rack and +went with the major out into the night. + +In half an hour he was back, and having produced his scouting togs from +the depths of a sky-blue chest, smelling horribly of tobacco and +camphor, he fell to dressing. + +Felipa sat on the edge of the bunk and talked to him, a little excited, +and very anxious to try what a scout was like for herself. + +As he put on his faded blouse he went and stood before her, holding out +his arms. She moved over to him and laid her head on his shoulder. "Are +you not sorry to have me go?" he asked, in the tones of one having a +grievance. He felt that he was entitled to something of the sort. + +Of course she was sorry, she protested, a little indignant that he +should ask it. She would be horribly lonesome. + +He tried hard to warm her to something more personal. "I might never +come back, you know, dear." He realized that he was absolutely begging +for affection, most futile and unavailing of all wastes of energy. + +But she only answered that that was unlikely and slipped her arm around +his neck, as she added that if anything were to happen to him, she would +not have one real friend in the world. There was something pathetic in +the quiet realization of her loneliness. + +He stroked her hair pityingly. After all, she was only a half-savage +creature bound to him by the ties of gratitude. He had seen the same +thing in a Chiricahua girl baby he had once rescued, horribly burned, +from the fire of an abandoned Indian camp, where she had been thrown by +the fleeing hostiles, because she was sickly and hampered their +progress. The hideous, scarred little thing had attached herself to him +like a dog, and had very nearly pined herself to death when he had had +to leave her for good. Afterward she had married--at the ripe age of +twelve--a buck of her own tribe. He thought of how she also had slipped +her hard, seamed arm around his neck, and he drew away from Felipa. + +When, in the darkness of a cloudy night, he said good-by to her on the +road before his quarters, bending to kiss the warm mouth he could not +see, he knew that it would have been possible for him to have loved her, +had she been nearly all that she was not. + +Then he mounted the horse the orderly held for him, and trotted off. + + + + +V + + +The Gila River cutting straight across the southern portion of Arizona, +from the Alkali flats on the east to the Colorado at Yuma on the west, +flowed then its whole course through desolation. Sometimes cottonwoods +and sycamore trees rose in the bottom, and there was a patch of green +around some irrigated land. But, for the most part, the basin was a +waste of glittering sand and white dust, and beyond, the low hills, bare +of every plant save a few stunted wild flowers, cacti and sage, +greasewood and mesquite, rolled for miles and miles of barrenness. The +chicken hawk and crow sailed through the fiercely blue sky, the air +waved and quivered with incredible heat. At night malaria rose from the +ground, the coyote barked and whined at the light of the brilliant +stars, and the polecat prowled deliberately. + +Here, toward the eastern part of the territory, the government had +portioned off the San Carlos Agency for its Apache wards, and some +thirty miles away, not far from the banks of the river, Camp Thomas for +its faithful soldiery. + +On a day when the mercury registered 120 degrees, Felipa Landor drove +into the camp. Her life, since her marriage three years before, had been +the usual nomadic one of the place and circumstances, rarely so much as +a twelvemonth in one place, never certain for one day where the next +would find her. Recently Landor had been stationed at the headquarters +of the Department of Arizona. But Felipa had made no complaint whatever +at having to leave the gayest post in the territories for the most +God-forsaken, and she refused flatly to go East. "I can stand anything +that you can," she told her husband when he suggested it, which was +apparently true enough, for now, in a heat that was playing out the very +mules, covered as she was with powdery, irritating dust, she was quite +cheerful as he helped her from the ambulance. + +She stood looking round the post, across the white-hot parade ground, to +the adobe barracks and the sutler's store. Then she turned and +considered the officers' quarters. They were a row of hospital, wall, +and A tents, floored with rough boards and sheltered by ramadas of +willow branches. + +In the middle of the line there was a one-room mud hut. This, with the +tents back of it, was her home. Landor had fitted up the hut with Navajo +blankets, Indian baskets, dolls, saddle bags, war bonnets, and quivers; +with stuffed birds and framed chromos, camp-chairs and some rough +quartermaster's furniture. A gray blanket, with a yellow Q. M. D. in the +centre, kept the glare out at the window, and the room was cool enough. +One advantage of adobe--and it has others--is that it retains all summer +the winter cold, and all winter the summer heat. + +Felipa expressed decided approval, and set to work making herself +comfortable at once. Within ten minutes she had changed her travelling +things for a white wrapper, had brushed the dust from her hair, and left +it hanging straight and coarse and dead black, below her waist,--she was +given to loosing it whenever the smallest excuse offered,--and had +settled herself to rest in a canvas lounging chair. + +Landor had come to agree with the major at Grant, that she was an +excellent wife for a soldier. Her tastes were simple as those of a +hermit. She asked only a tent and a bunk and enough to eat, and she +could do without even those if occasion arose. She saw the best of +everything, not with the exasperating optimism which insists upon +smiling idiotically on the pleasant and the distinctly disagreeable +alike, and upon being aggressively delighted over the most annoying +mishaps, but with a quiet, common-sense intention of making the +objectionable no more so for her own part. There were wives who made +their husbands' quarters more dainty and attractive, if not more neat; +but in the struggle--for it was necessarily a struggle--lost much peace +of mind and real comfort. Upon the whole, Landor was very well +satisfied, and Felipa was entirely so. She was utterly indifferent to +being set down at a three-company post, where her only companion was to +be a woman she disliked from the first, openly and without policy, as +was her way. + +The woman called early in the blazing afternoon, appearing clad in +silks, waving a gorgeous fan of plumes, and sinking languidly into a +chair. Felipa sat bolt upright on a camp-stool, and before the close of +an hour they were at daggers' points. The commandant's wife used cheap +French phrases in every other breath, and Felipa retaliated in the end +by a long, glib sentence, which was not understood. She seemed +absolutely dense and unsmiling about it, but Landor was used to the mask +of stolidity. He got up and went to the window to arrange the gray +blanket, and hide a smile that came, even though he was perfectly aware +of the unwisdom of making an enemy of the C. O.'s wife. + +From thenceforth the elegant creature troubled Felipa as little as the +nature of things would permit. She said that Mrs. Landor was _une +sauvage_ and so _brune_; and Mrs. Landor said she was a fool and dyed +her hair. She was not given to mincing words. And she had small patience +with a woman who lay in bed until the sun was high, and who spent her +days lounging under the ramada, displaying tiny, satin-shod feet for the +benefit of the enlisted men and the Indians who wandered over from the +reservation. + +She herself was up before dawn, riding over the hills with her husband, +watching the sun rise above the blue mountains on the far-away horizon, +and strike with lights of gold and rose the sands and the clumps of +sage, visiting the herd where it struggled to graze, under well-armed +guard, and gathering the pitiful wild flowers from the baked, lifeless +soil. She shot quail and owls, and dressed their skins. She could +endure any amount of fatigue, and she could endure quite as well long +stretches of idleness. + +Having no children of her own, she took for protégé a small White +Mountain, son of a buck who hung about the post most of the time, bought +him candy and peanuts at the sutler's store, taught him English, and +gathered snatches of his tribe's tongue in return. + +Landor humored her, but did not quite approve. "If you begin that, every +papoose at the Agency will be brought down to us," he suggested; and +once when he had grown a little tired of having the noiseless, naked +little savage forever round, he offered him a piece of canned lobster. +Whereupon the boy fled wildly, and would not be coaxed back for many +days. Felipa seemed really to miss him, so Landor never teased him after +that, making only the reasonable request that the youngster be not +allowed to scratch his head near him. + +Another of her pets was a little fawn a soldier had caught and given to +her. It followed her tamely about the post. + +One morning, shortly before dinner call, she sat under the ramada, the +deer at her feet, asleep, the little Apache squatted beside her, amusing +himself with a collection of gorgeous pictorial labels, soaked from +commissary fruit and vegetable cans. The camp was absolutely silent, +even the drowsy scraping of the brooms of the police party having +stopped some time before. Landor was asleep in his tent, and presently +she herself began to doze. She was awakened by the sound of footsteps on +the gravel in front of the ramada, and in another moment a tall figure +stood in the opening, dark against the glare. Instantly she knew it was +the man with whom she had come face to face long before on the parade +ground at Grant, though from then until now she had not thought of him +once, nor remembered his existence. + +She rose to her feet, standing slender and erect, the roused fawn on one +side and the naked savage on the other. And they faced each other, +disconcerted, caught mute in the reverberation, indefinite, quivering, +of a chord which had been struck somewhere in the depths of that Nature +to which we are willing enough to grant the power of causing the string +of an instrument to pulse to the singing of its own note, but whose laws +of sympathetic vibration we would fain deny beyond material things. + +The man understood, and was dismayed. It is appalling to feel one's self +snatched from the shifting foothold of individuality and whirled on in +the current of the Force of Things. Felipa did not understand. And she +was annoyed. She crashed in with the discord of a deliberate +commonplace, and asked what she could do for him, speaking as to an +inferior; and he, with a stiff resentment, answered that he wished to +see Captain Landor. + +She did not return to the ramada, but before long her husband came in +search of her. + +"That man is going to stay to luncheon," he told her. + +She echoed "To luncheon!" in amazement. "But, Jack, he was a soldier, +wasn't he?" + +"He was, but he isn't. I sent for him about some business, and he is a +very decent sort of a fellow. He has a little ranch on the reservation." + +"A squaw-man?" she asked. + +"I dare say," he answered carelessly. "Come and meet him. You'll like +him." + +She went, with none too good a grace. + +Cairness said to himself that she was regal, and acknowledged her most +formal welcome with an ease he had fancied among the arts he had long +since lost. + +"I have seen you before, Mrs. Landor," he said after a while. + +"Yes?" she answered, and stroked the head of the fawn. + +"Yes," he persisted, refusing to be thwarted, "once when you were +crossing the parade at Grant, at retreat, and two days afterward when +you shot a blue jay down by the creek." + +She could not help looking at him now, and his eyes held hers through a +silence that seemed to them so enduring, so unreasonable, that Landor +must wonder at it. But he had seen men put at a disadvantage by her +beauty before, and he had grown too used to her lack of conventionality +to think much about it, one way or the other. + +"Can't we send the hostile away?" he suggested, glancing at the small +Apache, who was digging viciously at his head and watching Cairness with +beady orbs. Felipa spoke to him, and he went. + +"Do you like his kind?" the Englishman asked curiously. + +"They have their good points," she answered, exactly as he himself had +answered Brewster's baiting long ago. Then she fastened her gaze on the +roof of the ramada. + +It was evident that she had no intention of making herself agreeable. +Landor had learned the inadvisability and the futility of trying to +change her moods. She was as unaffected about them as a child. So he +took up the conversation he and Cairness had left off, concerning the +Indian situation, always a reliable topic. It was bad that year and had +been growing steadily worse, since the trouble at the time of his +marriage, when Arizona politicians had, for reasons related to their own +pockets, brought about the moving of the White Mountain band to the San +Carlos Agency. The White Mountains had been peaceable for years, and, if +not friendly to the government, at least too wise to oppose it. They had +cultivated land and were living on it inoffensively. But they were +trading across the territorial line into New Mexico, and that lost money +to Arizona. So they were persuaded by such gentle methods as the burning +of their Agency buildings and the destruction of their property, to move +down to San Carlos. The climate there was of a sort fatal to the +mountain Apaches,--the thing had been tried before with all the result +that could be desired, in the way of fevers, ague, and blindness,--and +also the White Mountains were hereditary enemies of the San Carlos +tribes. But a government with a policy, three thousand miles away, did +not know these things, nor yet seek to know them. Government is like the +gods, upon occasions: it first makes mad, then destroys. And if it is +given time enough, it can be very thorough in both. + +In the period of madness, more or less enduring, of the victim of the +Great Powers' policy, somebody who is innocent usually suffers. +Sometimes the Powers know it, oftener they do not. Either way it does +not worry them. They set about doing their best to destroy, and that is +their whole duty. + +Not having had enough of driving to madness in '75 and '76, they tried +it again three years later. They were dealing this time with other +material, not the friendly and the cowed, but with savages as cruel and +fierce and unscrupulous as those of the days of Coronado. Victorio, Juh, +and Geronimo were already a little known, but now they were to have +their names shrieked to the unhearing heavens in the agony of the +tortured and the dying. + +The Powers said that a party of Indians had killed two American +citizens, and had thereby offended against their sacred laws. To be sure +the Americans had sold the Indians poisonous whiskey, so they had broken +the laws, too. But there is, as any one should be able to see, a +difference between a law-breaking Chiricahua and a law-breaking +territorial politician. Cairness refused to see it. He said things that +would have been seditious, if he had been of any importance in the +scheme of things. As it was, the Great Powers did not heed them, +preferring to take advice from men who did not know an Apache from a +Sioux--or either from the creation of the shilling shocker. + +"I am not wasting any sympathy on the Apaches, nor on the Indians as a +whole. They have got to perish. It is in the law of advancement that +they should. But where is the use in making the process painful? Leave +them alone, and they'll die out. It isn't three hundred years since one +of the biggest continents of the globe was peopled with them, and now +there is the merest handful left, less as a result of war and slaughter +than of natural causes. Nature would see to it that they died, if we +didn't." + +"The philanthropist doesn't look at it that way. He thinks that we +should strive to preserve the species." + +"I don't," Cairness differed; "it's unreasonable. There is too much +sympathy expended on races that are undergoing the process of +extinction. They have outgrown their usefulness, if they ever had any. +It might do to keep a few in a park in the interests of science, and of +that class of people which enjoys seeing animals in cages. But as for +making citizens of the Indians, raising them to our level--it can't be +done. Even when they mix races, the red strain corrupts the white." + +Landor glanced at his wife. She seemed to take it without offence, and +was listening intently. + +"It's the old saying about a dog walking on its hind legs, when you come +to civilizing the Indian. You are surprised that he civilizes at all, +but he doesn't do it well, for all that. He can be galvanized into a +temporary semblance of national life, but he is dead at the core, and he +will decay before long." + +"They could kill a good many of us before they died out, if we would +sit still and take it," Landor objected. + +"It's six one, and half a dozen the other. They'd be willing enough to +die out in peace, if we'd let them. Even they have come to have a vague +sort of instinct that that's what it amounts to." + +Landor interrupted by taking the slipper from Felipa's foot and killing +with it a centipede that crawled up the wall of the abode. "That's the +second," he said, as he put the shoe on again. "I killed one yesterday; +the third will come to-morrow." Then he went back to his chair and to +the discussion, and before long he was called to the adjutant's office. + +Felipa forgot her contempt for Cairness. She was interested and suddenly +aroused herself to show it. "How do you come to be living with the +Indians?" she asked. It was rarely her way to arrive at a question +indirectly. "Have you married a squaw?" + +He flushed angrily, then thought better of it, because after all the +question was not impertinent. So he only answered with short severity +that he most certainly had not. + +Felipa could not help the light of relief that came on her face, but +realizing it, she was confused. + +He helped her out. "I have drifted in a way," he went on to explain. "I +left home when I was a mere boy, and the spirit of savagery and unrest +laid hold of me. I can't break away. And I'm not even sure that I want +to. You, I dare say, can't understand." Yet he felt so sure, for some +reason, that she could that he merely nodded his head when she said +briefly, "I can." "Then, too," he went on, "there is something in the +Indian character that strikes a responsive chord in me. I come of +lawless stock myself. I was born in Sidney." Then he stopped short. What +business was it of hers where he had been born? He had never seen fit to +speak of it before. Nevertheless he intended that she should understand +now. So he made it quite plain. "Sidney was a convict settlement, you +know," he said deliberately, "and marriages were promiscuous. My +grandfather was an officer who was best away from England. My +grandmother poisoned her first husband. That is on my mother's side. On +my father's side it was about as mixed." He leaned back, crossing his +booted legs and running his fingers into his cartridge belt. His manner +asked with a certain defiance, what she was going to do about it, or to +think. + +And what she did was to say, with a deliberation equal to his own, that +her mother had been a half-breed Mescalero and her father a private. + +He looked at her steadily, in silence. It did not seem that there was +anything to say. He would have liked to tell her how beautiful she was. +But he did not do it. Instead, he did much worse. For he took a beaded +and fringed leather case from his pocket and held out to her the drawing +he had made of her four years before. She gave it back without a word, +and bent to play with the buckskin collar on the neck of the fawn. + +Cairness put the sketch back in the case and stood up. "Will you tell +Captain Landor that I found that I could not wait, after all?" he said, +and bowing went out from the ramada. + +She sat staring at the white glare of the opening, and listening to his +foot-falls upon the sand. + + + + +VI + + +Landor said that he had put in a requisition for kippered mackerel and +anchovy paste, and that the commissary was running down so that one got +nothing fit to eat. He was in an unpleasant frame of mind, and his first +lieutenant, who messed with him, pulled apart a broiled quail that lay, +brown and juicy, on its couch of toast and cress, and asked wherein lay +the use of taking thought of what you should eat. "Every prospect is +vile, and man is worse, and the sooner heaven sends release the better. +What is there in a life like this? Six weeks from the nearest approach +to civilization, malaria in the air by night and fire by day. Even Mrs. +Landor is showing it." + +"I didn't know that I had made any complaint," she said equably. + +"You haven't, but the summer has told on you just the same. You are +thin, and your eyes are too big. Look at that!" He held out a hand that +shook visibly. "That's the Gila Valley for you." + +"Sometimes it's the Gila Valley, and sometimes it's rum," said Landor. +"It's rum with a good many." + +"Why shouldn't it be? What the deuce has a fellow got to do but drink +and gamble? You have to, to keep your mind off it." + +The lieutenant himself did neither, but he argued that his mind was +never off it. + +Felipa thought it was not quite so bad as that, and she poured herself +another cup of the Rio, strong as lye, with which she saturated her +system, to keep off the fever. + +"You might marry," Landor suggested. "You can always do that when all +else fails." + +"Who is there to marry hereabouts? And always supposing there were some +one, I'd be sent off on a scout next day, and have to ship her back East +for an indefinite time. It would be just my blamed luck." + +The breakfast humor when the thermometer has been a hundred and fifteen +in the shade for long months, is pessimistic. "Don't get married then, +please," said Felipa, "not for a few days at any rate. I don't want +Captain Landor to go off until he gets over these chills and things." + +There was a knock at the door of the tent, and it opened. The adjutant +came in. "I say, Landor--" + +"I say, old man, shut that door! Look at the flies. Now go on," he +added, as the door banged; and he rose to draw a chair to the table. + +"Can't stay," said the adjutant, all breathless. "The line's down +between here and the Agency; but a runner has just come in, and there's +trouble. The bucks are restless. Want to join Victorio in New Mexico. +You've both got to get right over there." + +It was the always expected, the never ceasing. Landor looked at his wife +and stroked his mustache with a shaking hand. His face was yellow, and +his hair had grown noticeably grayer. + +"You are not fit to go," Felipa said resignedly, "but that doesn't +matter, of course." + +"No," he agreed, "it doesn't matter. And I shall do well enough." Then +the three went out, and she finished her breakfast alone. + +In less than an hour the troop was ready, the men flannel-shirted and +gauntleted, their soft felt hats pulled over their eyes, standing reins +in hand, foot in stirrup, beside the fine, big horses that Crook had +substituted for the broncos of the plains cavalry of former years. Down +by the corrals the pack-mules were ready, too, grunting under their +aparejos and packs. A thick, hot wind, fraught with sand, was beginning, +presaging one of the fearful dust storms of the southwest. The air dried +the very blood in the veins. The flies, sticky and insistent, clung and +buzzed about the horses' eyes and nostrils. Bunches of tumbleweed and +hay went whirling across the parade. + +Landor came trotting over from his quarters, followed by his orderly, +and the troops moved off across the flat, toward the river. + +Felipa stood leaning listlessly against the post of the ramada, watching +them. After a time she went into the adobe and came out with a pair of +field-glasses, following the course of the command as it wound along +among the foot-hills. The day dragged dully along. She was uneasy about +her husband, her nerves were shaken with the coffee and quinine, and she +was filled, moreover, with a vague restlessness. She would have sent +for her horse and gone out even in the clouds of dust and the wind like +a hot oven, but Landor had forbidden her to leave the post. Death in the +tip of a poisoned arrow, at the point of a yucca lance, or from a more +merciful bullet of lead, might lurk behind any mesquite bush or gray +rock. + +She set about cleaning the little revolver, self-cocking, with the +thumb-piece of the hammer filed away, that her husband had given her +before they were married. To-night she wanted no dinner. She was given +to eating irregularly; a good deal at a time, and again nothing for a +long stretch. That, too, was in the blood. So she sent the soldier cook +away, and he went over to the deserted barracks. + +Then she tried to read, but the whisper of savagery was in the +loneliness and the night. She sat with the book open in her lap, staring +into a shadowy corner where there leaned an Indian lance, surmounted by +a war bonnet. Presently she stood up, and stretched her limbs slowly, as +a beast of prey does when it shakes off the lethargy of the day and +wakens for the darkness. Then she went out to the back of the tents. + +The stars were bright chips of fire in a sky of polished blue. The wind +of the day had died at dusk, and the silence was deep, but up among the +bare graves the coyotes were barking weirdly. As she looked off across +the low hills, there was a quick, hissing rattle at her feet. She moved +hastily, but without a start, and glanced down at a rattler not three +feet away. + +Landor's sabre stood just within the sitting room, and she went for it +and held the glittering blade in front of the snake. Its fangs struck +out viciously again and again, and a long fine stream of venom trickled +along the steel. Then she raised the sabre and brought it down in one +unerring sweep, severing the head from the body. In the morning she +would cut off the rattle and add it to the string of close upon fifty +that hung over her mirror. But now the night was calling to her, the +wild blood was pricking in her veins. Running the sabre into the ground, +she cleaned off the venom, and went back to the adobe to put it in its +scabbard. + +After she had done that she stood hesitating for just a moment before +she threw off all restraint with a toss of her head, and strapped about +her waist a leather belt from which there hung a bowie knife and her +pistol in its holster. Then slipping on her moccasins, she glided into +the darkness. She took the way in the rear of the quarters, skirting the +post and making with swift, soundless tread for the river. Her eyes +gleamed from under her straight, black brows as she peered about her in +quick, darting glances. + +Not a week before--and then the Agency had been officially at peace--a +Mexican packer had been shot down by an arrow from some unseen bow, +within a thousand yards of the post, in broad daylight. The Indians, +caking their bodies with clay, and binding sage or grass upon their +heads, could writhe unseen almost within arm's reach. But Felipa was not +afraid. Straight for the river bottom she made, passing amid the +dump-heaps, where a fire of brush was still smouldering, filling the +air with pungent smoke, where old cans and bottles shone in the +starlight, and two polecats, pretty white and black little creatures, +their bushy tails erect, sniffed with their sharp noses as they walked +stupidly along. Their bite meant hydrophobia, but though one came +blindly toward her, she barely moved aside. Her skirt brushed it, and it +made a low, whining, mean sound. + +Down by the river a coyote scudded across her path as she made her way +through the willows, and when he was well beyond, rose up on his hind +legs and looked after her. At the water's edge she stopped and glanced +across to the opposite bank. The restlessness was going, and she meant +to return now, before she should be missed--if indeed she were not +missed already, as was very probable. Yet still she waited, her hands +clasped in front of her, looking down at the stream. Farther out, in the +middle, a ripple flashed. But where she stood among the bushes, it was +very dark. The water made no sound, there was not a breath of air, yet +suddenly there was a murmur, a rustle. + +Felipa's revolver was in her hand, and cocked and pointed straight +between two eyes that shone out of the blackness. And so, for an +appreciable time, she stood. Then a long arm came feeling out; but +because she was looking along the sight into the face at the very end of +the muzzle, she failed to see it. When it closed fast about her waist, +she gave a quick gasp and fired. But the bullet, instead of going +straight through the forehead beneath the head band, as she had meant +it to do, ploughed down. The grasp on the body relaxed for an instant; +the next it had tightened, and a branch had struck the pistol from her +hand. + +And now it was a struggle of sheer force and agility. She managed to +whip out the knife from her belt and to strike time and time again +through sinewy flesh, to the bone. The only noise was the dragging of +their feet on the sand, the cracking of the willows and the swishing of +the blade. It was savage against savage, two vicious, fearless beasts. + +The Apache in Felipa was full awake now, awake in the bliss of killing, +the frenzy of fight, and awake too, in the instinct which told her how, +with a deep-drawn breath, a contraction, a sudden drop and writhing, she +would be free of the arms of steel. And she was free, but not to turn +and run--to lunge forward, once and again, her breath hissing between +her clenched, bared teeth. + +The buck fell back before her fury, but she followed him thrusting and +slashing. Yet it might not, even then, have ended well for her, had +there not come from somewhere overhead the sound most dreaded as an omen +of harm by all Apaches--the hoot of an owl. The Indian gave a low cry of +dismay and turned and darted in among the bushes. + +She stood alone, with the sticky, wet knife in her hand, catching her +breath, coming out of the madness. Then she stooped, and pushing the +branches aside felt about for her pistol. It lay at the root of a tree, +and when she had picked it up and put it back in the holster, there +occurred to her for the first time the thought that the shot in the dead +stillness must have roused the camp. And now she was sincerely +frightened. If she were found here, it would be more than disagreeable +for Landor. They must not find her. She started at a swift, long-limbed +run, making a wide detour, to avoid the sentries, bending low, and +flying silently among the bushes and across the shadowy sands. + +She could hear voices confusedly, men hurriedly calling and hallooing as +she neared the back of the officers' line and crept into her tent. The +door was barely closed when there came a knock, and the voice of the +striker asking if she had heard the shot across the river. + +"Yes," she said, "I heard it. But I was not frightened. What was it?" He +did not know, he said, and she sent him back to the barracks. + +Then she lit a lamp and took off her blood-stained gown. There was +blood, too, on the knife and its case. She cleaned them as best she +could and looked into the chamber of her revolver with a contemplative +smile on the lips that less than half an hour before had been curled +back from her sharp teeth like those of a fighting wolf. She wondered +how badly the buck had been hurt. + +And the next day she knew. When she came out in front of her quarters in +the morning, rather later than usual, there was a new tent beside the +hospital, and when she asked the reason for it, they told her that a +wounded Apache had been found down by the river soon after the shot had +been fired the night before. He was badly hurt, with a ball in his +shoulder, and he was half drunk with tizwin, as well as being cut in a +dozen places. + +She listened attentively to the account of the traces of a struggle +among the willows, and asked who had fired the shot. It was not known, +they said, and the sullen buck would probably never tell. + +When she saw the post surgeon come out from his house and start over to +the hospital, she called to him. "May I see your new patient?" she +asked. + +He told her that he was going to operate at once, to remove the ball and +the shattered bone, but that she might come if she wished. His +disapproval was marked, but she went with him, nevertheless, and sat +watching while he picked and probed at the wound. + +The Apache never quivered a muscle nor uttered a sound. It was fine +stoicism, and appealed to Felipa until she really felt sorry for him. + +But presently she stood up to go away, and her eyes caught the lowering, +glazed ones of the Indian. Half involuntarily she made a motion of +striking with a knife. Neither the doctor nor the steward caught it, but +he did, and showed by a sudden start that he understood. + +He watched her as she went out of the tent, and the surgeon and steward +worked with the shining little instruments. + + + + +VII + + +Landor came in a few weeks later. He had had an indecisive skirmish in +New Mexico with certain bucks who had incurred the displeasure of the +paternal government by killing and eating their horses, to the glory of +their gods and ancestors, and thereafter working off their enthusiasm by +a few excursions beyond the confines of the reservation, with intent to +murder and destroy. + +Being shaved of the thick iron-gray beard, and once again in seemly +uniform, and having reported to the commandant, he sat down to talk with +his wife. + +She herself lay at full length upon a couch she had devised out of +packing cases. It occurred to Landor that she often dropped down to rest +now, and that she was sallow and uneasy. + +He looked at her uncomfortably. "I am going to get you out of this, up +into the mountains somewhere," he said abruptly; "you look peaked." + +She did not show the enthusiasm he had rather expected. "I dare say it +is my bad conscience," she answered with some indifference. "I have a +sin to confess." + +He naturally did not foresee anything serious, and he only said, "Well?" +and began to fill his pipe from a buckskin pouch, cleverly sketched in +inks with Indian scenes. "By the way," he interrupted as she started to +speak, "what do you think of this?" He held it out to her. "That fellow +Cairness, who wouldn't stay to luncheon that day, did it for me. We +camped near his place a couple of days. And he sent you a needle-case, +or some such concern. It's in my kit." She looked at the pouch carefully +before she gave it back; then she clasped her hands under her head again +and gazed up at the manta of the ceiling, which sagged and was stained +where the last cloud-burst had leaked through the roof. + +"Well?" repeated Landor. + +"I disobeyed orders," said Felipa. + +"Did you, though?" + +"And I went outside the post the night after you left, down to the +river. Some one will probably tell you about a wounded Sierra Blanca +found down among the bushes in the river bottom that same night. I shot +him, and then I hacked him up with my knife." He had taken his pipe from +his mouth and was looking at her incredulously, perplexed. He did not +understand whether it was a joke on her part, or exactly what it was. + +But she sat up suddenly, with one of her quick movements of conscious +strength and perfect control over every muscle, clasped her hands about +her knees, and went on. "It was very curious," and there came on her +face the watchful, alert, wild look, with the narrowing of the eyes. "It +was very curious, I could not have stayed indoors that night if it had +cost me my life--and it very nearly did, too. I had to get out. So I +took my revolver and my knife, and I went the back way, down to the +river. While I was standing on the bank and thinking about going home, +an Indian stole out on me. I had an awful struggle. First I shot. I +aimed at his forehead, but the bullet struck his shoulder; and then I +fought with the knife. As soon as I could slip out of his grasp, I went +at him and drove him off. But I didn't know how badly he was hurt until +the next day. The shot had roused them up here, and they went down to +the river and found him bleeding on the sand. + +"They put him in a tent beside the hospital, and the next morning I went +over with the doctor to see him. He was all cut up on the arms and neck +and shoulders. I must have been very strong." She stopped, and he still +sat with the puzzled look on his face, but a light of understanding +beginning to show through. + +"Are you joking," he asked, "or what?" + +"Indeed, I am not joking," she assured him earnestly. "It is quite true. +Ask any one. Only don't let them know it was I who wounded him. They +have never so much as suspected it. Fortunately I thought of you and ran +home all the way, and was in my tent before it occurred to any one to +come for me." She burst into a low laugh at his countenance of wrath and +dismay. "Oh! come, Jack dear, it is not so perfectly, unspeakably +horrible after all. I was disobedient. But then I am so sorry and +promise never, never to do it again." + +"You might have killed the Indian," he said, in a strained voice. It +did not occur to either of them, just then, that it was not the danger +she had been in that appalled him. + +She was astonished in her turn. "Killed him! Why, of course I might have +killed him," she said blankly, frowning, in a kind of hopeless +perplexity over his want of understanding. "I came very near it, I tell +you. The ball made shivers of his shoulder. But he was brave," she grew +enthusiastic now, "he let the doctor probe and pick, and never moved a +muscle. Of course he was half drunk with tizwin, even then." + +"You didn't stay to see the operation?" His voice was ominously quiet. + +"For a while, yes. And before I came away I made a sign to show him it +was I. You should have seen his surprise." + +There followed a fury-fraught silence. Landor's face was distorted with +the effort he was making to contain himself, and Felipa began to be a +little uneasy. So she did the most unwise thing possible, having been +deprived by nature of the good gift of tact. She got up from the couch +and drew the knife from its case, and took it to him. "That," she said, +showing the red-brown stains on the handle, "that is his blood." + +He snatched it from her then, with a force that threw her to one side, +and sent it flying across the room, smashing a water jug to bits. Then +he pushed her away and going out, banged the door until the whitewash +fell down from the cracks. + +Felipa was very thoroughly frightened now. She stood in wholesome awe +of her husband, and it was the first time she had ever made him really +angry, although frequently he was vaguely irritated by her. She had had +no idea the thing would infuriate him so, or she would probably have +kept it to herself. And she wished now that she had, as she went back to +the couch and sat on the edge of it, dejectedly. + +When he returned at the end of a couple of hours she was all humility, +and she had moreover done something that was rare for her: made capital +of her beauty, putting on her most becoming white gown, and piling her +hair loosely on the top of her head, with a cap of lace and a ribbon +atop of it. Landor liked the little morning caps, probably because they +were a sort of badge of civilization, but they were incongruous for all +that, and took from the character of her head. His anger was well in +leash, and he gave her the mail which had just come in by the stage, +quite as though nothing had occurred. "And now," he commenced, when he +had glanced over the Eastern papers, "I have seen the C. O.; he wants +the line between here and Apache fixed. He will give me the detail if +you care to go." He plainly meant to make no further reference to her +confession, but she would have been more than woman if she had known +when to let a matter drop. + +Her face lighted with the relief of a forgiven child, and she went to +him and put her arms around his neck. + +"You are so good to me," she said penitently, "and I was so +disobedient." + +He bit his lip and did not reply, either to the words or to the caress. +"You need a month of the mountains, I think," he said. + +The telegraph between Thomas and Apache always gave something to think +about. The Indians had learned the use of the White-eye's talking wire +very promptly. In the early '70's, when it first came to their notice, +they put it to good use. As when an Apache chief sent to a Yuma chief +the message that if the Yumas did not hold to a certain promise, the +Apaches would go on the war-path and destroy them, root and branch. + +The Indians and the cow-boys used the insulators to try their +marksmanship upon, and occasionally--in much the same spirit that the +college man takes gates from their hinges and pulls down street +signs--the young bucks cut the wires and tied the ends with rubber +bands. Also trees blown down by storms fell crashing across the line, +and some scheme for making it a little less tempting and a little more +secure was much needed. Landor had long nursed such an one. So a week +later he and Felipa, with a detail of twenty men and a six-mule wagon, +started across the Gila Valley to the White Mountains. + +By day Felipa was left in camp with the cook, while Landor and the men +worked on ahead, returning at sundown. At times she went with them, but +as a rule she wandered among the trees and rocks, shooting with pistol +and bow, but always keeping close to the tents. She had no intention of +disobeying her husband again. Sometimes, too, she read, and sometimes +cooked biscuits and game over the campfire in the Dutch oven. Her +strength began to return almost from the first, and she had gone back, +for comfort's sake, to the short skirts of her girlhood. + +The Indians who came round talked with her amicably enough, mainly by +signs. She played with the children too, and one day there appeared +among them her protégé of the post, who thereafter became a camp +follower. + +And on another morning there lounged into the space in front of the +tents, with the indolent swing of a mountain lion, a big Sierra Blanca +buck. He was wrapped from neck to moccasins in a red blanket, and +carried an elaborate calf's-hide quiver. He stopped in front of Felipa, +who was sitting on the ground with her back against the trunk of a +fallen tree reading, and held out the quiver to her. + +"How," he said gruffly. + +"How," answered Felipa, as unconcernedly as though she had not +recognized him almost at once for the buck she had last seen in the A +tent beside the hospital, with the doctor picking pieces of bone and +flesh from his shoulder. Then she took the quiver and examined it. There +was a bow as tall as herself, and pliable as fine steel, not a thing for +children to play with, but a warrior's arm. Also there were a number of +thin, smooth, gayly feathered arrows. "_Malas_," he told her, touching +the heads. "_Venadas_" and she knew that he meant that they were +poisoned by the process of dipping them in putrid liver, into which a +rattler had been made to inject its venom. Even then the sort was +becoming rare, though the arrow was still in use as a weapon and not +merely as an attraction for tourists. + +The buck sat down upon the ground in front of Felipa and considered her. +By the etiquette of the tribe she could not ask him his name, but the +boy, her protégé, told her that it was Alchesay. All the afternoon he +hung around the camp, taciturn, apparently aimless, while she went about +her usual amusements and slept in the tent. Once in a way he spoke to +her in Spanish. And for days thereafter, as they moved up along the +rough and dangerous road,--where the wagon upset with monotonous +regularity, big and heavy though it was,--he appeared from time to time. + +For some days Felipa had noticed a change, indefinable and slight, yet +still to be felt, in the manner of the Indians all about. Not that they +were ever especially gracious, but now the mothers discouraged the +children from playing hide-and-seek with her, and although there were +quite as many squaws, fewer bucks came around than before. But Alchesay +could always be relied upon to stalk in, at regular intervals, and seat +himself near the fire, or the hot ashes thereof. + +They had been four days camping on Black River, a mountain stream +rushing between the steep hills, with the roar of a Niagara, hunting +deer and small game, fishing with indifferent success,--to the disgust +of the Apaches, who would much rather have eaten worms than fish,--and +entertaining visitors. There were any number of these. One party had +come out from Fort Apache, another from a camp of troops on the New +Mexico road, and some civilians from Boston, who were in search of a +favorable route for a projected railway. + +In the opinion of Landor, who knew the impracticable country foot for +foot, they were well-intentioned lunatics. But they were agreeable +guests, who exchanged the topics of the happy East for the wild turkey +and commissary supplies of the Far West, and in departing took with them +a picturesque, if inexact, notion of army life on the frontier, and left +behind a large number of books for Felipa, who had dazzled their +imaginations. + +She had read one of the books one afternoon when she was left alone, +until the sun began to sink behind the mountain tops, and the cook to +drag branches to the fire preparatory to getting supper. Then she marked +her place with a twig, and rose up from the ground to go to the tent and +dress, against Landor's return. The squaws and bucks who had been all +day wandering around the outskirts of the camp, speaking together in low +voices, and watching the cook furtively, crowded about the opening. + +She warned them off with a careless "_ukishee_." But they did not go. +Some ten pairs of eyes, full of unmistakable menace, followed her every +movement. She let down the tent flaps and tied them together, taking her +time about it. She was angry, and growing angrier. It was unendurable to +her to be disobeyed, to have her authority put at naught on the few +occasions when she chose to exercise it. She could keep her temper over +anything but that. And her temper was of the silent sort, rolling on and +on, like a great cold swell at sea, to break finally against the first +obstacle with an uncontrollable force. She had never been really angry +but twice in her life. Once when she was in school, and when a teacher +she liked, judging her by her frequent and unblushing lies to a teacher +she disliked, doubted her word upon an occasion when she was really +speaking the truth. It was after that that she had written to her +guardian that she would run away. The second time had been when Brewster +had tried to bully her. She knew that it would soon be a third time, if +the Indians went on annoying her. And she was far more afraid of what +she might do than of what they might do. But she took off the waist of +her gown and began to brush her hair, not being in the least squeamish +about letting the Apaches see her fine white arms and neck, if they were +to open the flaps again. + +Which was what they presently did. She expected it. A long, wrinkled +hand reached in, feeling about for the knots of the tape. She stood +still with the brush in her hands, watching. Another hand came, and +another. She caught up her quirt from the cot, then realizing that the +sting of the lash would only prove an exasperation and weaken her +authority, if she had any whatever,--and she believed that she had,--she +threw it down. The cook was probably in the kitchen tent and did not +know what was going on. And she would have died before she would have +called for help. + +The lean hands found the knots, untied them, and threw back the flaps +defiantly. The ten pairs of eyes were fastened on her again. She +returned the gaze steadily, backing to a little camp table and slipping +her hand under a newspaper that lay upon it. "_Ukishee, pronto_," she +commanded, in the accepted argot. They stood quite still and unyielding; +and she knew that if she were to be obeyed at all, it must be now. Or if +she were to die, it must be now also. But the hand that drew from +beneath the newspaper the little black-butted Smith and Wesson, which +was never out of her reach, did not so much as tremble as she aimed it +straight between the eyes of the foremost buck. "_Ukishee_," she said +once again, not loudly, but without the shadow of hesitation or +wavering. There answered a low muttering, evil and rising, and the buck +started forward. Her finger pressed against the trigger, but before the +hammer had snapped down, she threw up the barrel and fired into the air, +for a big, sinewy arm, seamed with new scars, had reached out suddenly +and struck the buck aside. It was all done in an instant, so quickly +that Felipa hardly knew she had changed her aim, and that it was +Alchesay who had come forward only just in time. + +The cook came running, six-shooter in hand, but Alchesay was driving +them away and lowering the canvas flaps. Felipa told the cook that it +was all right, and went on with her dressing. Although she had no gifts +for guessing the moods and humors of her father's race, she understood +her mother's considerably better, and so she did not even call a +"_gracias_" after Alchesay. She merely nodded amicably when she went out +and found him sitting on the ground waiting for her. He returned the +nod, a degree less graciously, if possible, and began to talk to her in +bad Spanish, evidently putting small faith in her command of the White +Mountain idiom, marvellous, to be sure, in a White-eye squaw, for such +were of even greater uselessness than the average woman, but of no +account whatever in a crisis. And such he plainly considered this to be. + +"_Usted, vaya prontisimo_," he directed with the assumption of right of +one to whom she owed her life. + +She looked down at him in a somewhat indignant surprise. "_Pues +porque?_" she asked, maintaining the haughtiness of the dominant race, +and refusing to acknowledge any indebtedness. "Why should I go away?" + +"_Hombre!_" grunted the Indian, puffing at a straw-paper cigarette, +"_excesivamente peligroso aqui_." + +"Why is it dangerous?" she wanted to know, and shrugged her shoulders. +She was plainly not to be terrorized. + +"_Matarán á Usted._" + +"They will kill me? Who will kill me, and what for?" + +He gave another grunt. "Go away to-morrow. Go to the Fort." He pointed +with the hand that held the bit of cigarette in the direction of Apache. +"Tell your man." + +She threw him an indifferent "I am not afraid, not of anything." It was +a boast, but he had reason to know that it was one she could make good. + +He rolled another cigarette, and sat smoking it unmoved. And she went +into the mess tent. + +Nevertheless she decided that it might be best to tell her husband, and +she did so as they sat together by the fire after the moon had risen +into the small stretch of sky above the mountain peaks. They had bought +a live sheep that day from a Mexican herder who had passed along the +road, and they were now cutting ribs from the carcass that hung from the +branch of a near-by tree, and broiling them on the coals. Felipa +finished an unimpassioned account of the afternoon's happenings and of +Alchesay's advice, and Landor did not answer at once. He sat thinking. +Of a sudden there was a rustle and a step among the pines, and from +behind a big rock a figure came out into the half shadow. Felipa was on +her feet with a spring, and Landor scrambled up almost as quickly. + +The figure moved into the circle of red firelight and spoke, "It is +Cairness." + +Felipa started back so violently that she struck against the log she had +been sitting upon, and lost her balance. + +Cairness jumped forward, and his arm went around her, steadying her. For +a short moment she leaned against his shoulder. Then she drew away, and +her voice was quite steady as she greeted him. He could never have +guessed that in that moment she had learned the meaning of her life, +that there had flashed burningly through her brain a wild, unreasoning +desire to stand forever backed against that rock of strength, to defy +the world and all its restrictions. + +There was a bright I. D. blanket spread on the ground a little way back +from the fire, and she threw herself down upon it. All that was +picturesque in his memories of history flashed back to Cairness, as he +took his place beside Landor on the log and looked at her. Boadicea +might have sat so in the depths of the Icenean forests, in the light of +the torches of the Druids. So the Babylonian queen might have rested in +the midst of her victorious armies, or she of Palmyra, after the lion +hunt in the deserts of Syria. Her eyes, red lighted beneath the +shadowing lashes, met his. Then she glanced away into the blackness of +the pine forest, and calling her dog to lie down beside her, stroked its +silky red head. + +"I knew," Cairness said, turning to Landor after a very short silence, +"that you and Mrs. Landor were somewhere along here. So I left my horse +at a rancheria across the hill there," he nodded over his shoulder in +the direction of the looming pile just behind, "and walked to where I +saw the fire. I saw you for some time before I was near, but I ought to +have called out. I really didn't think about startling you." + +"That's all right," Landor said; "are you hunting?" + +He hesitated. "I have done some shooting. I am always shooting more or +less, for that matter." + +Landor went to the tree and cut another rib from the mutton and threw +it on the coals. Then he walked across the clearing to the tent. + +Cairness and Felipa were alone, and he leaned nearer to her. "Do you +know," he asked in a low voice, "that there have been all sorts of +rumors of trouble among the Indians for some time?" + +She nodded. + +"I have kept near you for a week, to warn you, or to help you if +necessary." + +Her lips parted, and quivered, and closed again. The winds from the wide +heavens above the gap whined through the pines, the river roared +steadily down below, and the great, irresistible hand of Nature crushed +without heeding it the thin, hollow shell of convention. The child of a +savage and a black sheep looked straight and long into the face of the +child of rovers and criminals. They were man and woman, and in the +freemasonry of outlawry made no pretence. + +"You know that I love you?" he said unevenly. + +"I know it," she whispered, but she took her shaking hand from the dog's +head, and, without another word, pointed to the shadow of Landor's +figure, thrown distorted by the candle light against the side of the +tent. + +And he understood that the shadow must rise always between them. He had +never expected it to be otherwise. It was bound to be so, and he bowed +his head in unquestioning acceptance. + +The shadow was swallowed up in darkness. The candle had been blown out, +and Landor came back to the fire. + +"You must get Mrs. Landor into the post to-morrow," Cairness said +abruptly; "Victorio's band is about." + +Landor asked him to spend the night at the camp, and he did so, being +given a cot in the mess tent. + +About an hour after midnight there came thundering through the quiet of +the night the sound of galloping hoofs along the road at the foot of the +ravine. Cairness, lying broad awake, was the first to hear it. He sprang +up and ran to the opening of the tent. He guessed that it was a courier +even before the gallop changed to a trot, and a voice called from the +invisible depths below, "Captain Landor?" with a rising intonation of +uncertainty. + +"Yes," Cairness called back. + +"Is that Captain Landor's camp?" + +A score of voices answered "Yes." They were all aroused now. Landor went +down to meet the man, who had dismounted and was climbing up toward him, +leading his horse. It was a courier, sent out from Apache, as Cairness +had supposed. + +"Sixty of Victorio's hostiles have been at the Agency, and are on their +way back to New Mexico. Will probably cross your camp," the captain read +aloud to the men, who crowded as near as was compatible with discipline. + +Then he went off to inspect the stock and the pickets, and to double the +sentries. "You had better sleep on your arms," he told the soldiers, and +returned to his cot to lie down upon it, dressed, but feigning sleep, +that Felipa might not be uneasy. He need not have resorted to deception. +Felipa had not so much as pretended to close her eyes that night. + +Before dawn Cairness was out, hastening the cook with the breakfast, +helping with it himself, indeed, and rather enjoying the revival of the +days when he had been one of the best cooks in the troop and forever +pottering about the mess chests and the Dutch oven, in the field. As the +sun rose,--though daybreak was fairly late there in the cañon,--the +cold, crisp air was redolent of coffee and bacon and broiling fresh +meat. + +Felipa, lifting her long riding skirt, stepped out from the tent, and +stood with hand upraised holding back the flap. A ray of sun, piercing +white through the pines, fell full on her face. She had the look of some +mysterious priestess of the sun god, and Cairness, standing by the +crackling fire, prodding it with a long, charred stick, watched her +without a word. + +Then she came forward, holding out her hand in the most matter-of-fact +way, if, indeed, any action of a very beautiful woman can be matter of +fact. + +"I shall ride into Apache with you in Captain Landor's stead, if he will +allow me," he told her, and added, "and if you will." + +She bowed gravely, "You are very kind." + +At the instant a cloud floated over the sun, and soon a black bank began +to fill up the sky above the cañon. As they ate their breakfast in the +tent, the morning darkened forebodingly. Felipa finished the big quart +cup of weak coffee hurriedly, and stood up, pushing back her +camp-stool. Her horse and four others were waiting. + +Landor had agreed to trust her to Cairness and an escort of three +soldiers. He could ill spare time from the telegraph line, under the +circumstances; it might be too imperatively needed at any moment. He +mounted his wife quickly. "You are not afraid?" he asked. But he knew so +well that she was not, that he did not wait for her answer. + +Cairness mounted, and looked up anxiously at the sky, as he gathered his +reins between his fingers. The wind had begun to howl through the +branches of the trees. It promised to be a wild ride. "I will be back +to-night, Landor, to report," he said; "that is, if the storm doesn't +delay us." And they started off down the hill. + +He rode beside Mrs. Landor along the road in the ravine bed, and the +soldiers followed some twenty yards in the rear. They were making as +much haste as was wise at the outset, and Felipa bent forward against +the ever rising wind, as her horse loped steadily on. + +There was a mutter of thunder and a far-off roar, a flame of lightning +through the trees, and the hills and mountains shook. Just where they +rode the cañon narrowed to hardly more than a deep gulch, and the river +ran close beside the road. + +"We must get out of this," Cairness started to say, urging his little +bronco; but even as he spoke there was a murmur, a rustle, a hissing +roar, and the rain fell in one solid sheet, blinding them, beating them +down. + +"Take care!" yelled Cairness, as Felipa, dazed and without breath, +headed straight for the stream. He bent and snatched at her bridle, and, +swerving, started up the sheer side of the hill. She clung to the mane +instinctively, but her horse stumbled, struggled, slipped, and +scrambled. She had lost all control of it, and the earth and stones gave +way beneath its hoofs just as a great wall of water bore down the bed of +the river, sweeping trees and rocks away, and making the ground quiver. + +"Let go your stirrup!" cried Cairness, in her ear; and as she kicked her +foot loose, he leaned far from the saddle and threw his arm around her, +swinging her up in front of him across the McLellan pommel, and driving +the spurs into his horse's belly. It had the advantage of her horse in +that it was an Indian animal, sure of foot as a burro, and much quicker. +With one dash it was up the hillside, while the other rolled over and +over, down into the torrent of the cloud burst. + +Cairness slid to the ground, still holding her close, and set her upon +her feet at once. He had not so much as tightened the grasp of his arm +about her, nor held her one-half second longer than there was absolute +need. + +He tried to see if the soldiers were safe, but though they were not a +hundred feet away, the trunks and the mist of water hid them. The rain +still pounded down, but the rush of the wind was lessening sensibly. + +Felipa leaned against the tree under which they were, fairly protected +from the worst of the storm; and Cairness stood beside her, holding his +winded horse. There was nothing to be said that could be said. She had +lost for once her baffling control of the commonplace in speech, and so +they stood watching the rain beat through the wilderness, and were +silent. + +When the storm had fairly passed, they found Felipa's gray lodged in the +root of a tree some distance down the creek; in no way hurt, oddly +enough, but trembling and badly frightened. The saddle, even, was +uninjured, though the pigskin was water-soaked and slippery. + +Cairness sent one of the soldiers back to report their safety to Landor, +and they mounted and hurried on again, swimming the river twice, and +reaching the post some time after noon. + +The commandant's wife took Mrs. Landor in, and would have put her to bed +with hot drinks and blankets, but that Felipa would have nothing more +than some dry clothes and a wrapper in place of her wet habit. The +clothes were her own, brought by one of the men, safe in a rubber +poncho, but the wrapper belonged to her hostess, who was portly, whereas +Felipa was slender. But to Cairness, who had stopped for luncheon, she +seemed, in the voluminous dull red draperies, more splendid than ever +before. + +He rode away at once after they had lunched. And Felipa went to her +room, and dropped down shivering beside the little red-hot iron stove, +moaning between her clenched teeth. + + + + +VIII + + +Six years of fighting, of bloodshed, of heavy loss in blood and treasure +to the government, the careers of the incarnate devils Juh, Victorio, +and Geronimo--all the evils let loose on the southwest from '78 to '85 +were traceable primarily to the selling of bad whiskey to a hunting +party of Chiricahuas by two storekeepers, greedy of gain. + +Of course there were complications following, a long and involved list +of them. Of course the Indians only sought the excuse, and very probably +would have made it if it had not been made for them. And of course the +Interior Department bungled under the guidance of politicians, of whom +the best that possibly can be said is that they were stupid tools of +corrupt men in the territories, who were willing to turn the blood of +innocent settlers into gold for their own pockets. + +And still, those who hated the Apache most--officers who had fought them +for years, who were laboring under no illusions whatever; the Commanders +of the Department of Arizona and of the Division of the +Missouri--reported officially that Victorio and his people had been +unjustly dealt with. And these were men, too, who had publicly +expressed, time and again, their opinion that the Apaches were idle and +worthless vagabonds, utterly hopeless, squalid, untrustworthy; robbers +and thieves by nature. They had none of Crook's so many times +unjustified faith in the red savage,--that faith which, wantonly +betrayed, brought him to defeat and bitter disappointment at the last. +Since Crook had gone to the northern plains, in the spring of '75, the +unrest among the Apaches had been steadily growing, until five years +later it was beyond control, and there began the half decade which +opened with Victorio on the war-path, and closed with the closing of the +career of the unfortunate general--most luckless example of the failing +of failure--and the subjection of Geronimo. + +The never ending changes of the service, which permitted no man to +remain in one spot for more than two years at the utmost limit, had sent +Landor's troop back to Grant, and it was from there that he was ordered +out at the beginning of the summer. + +The curtain-raiser to the tragedy about to come upon the boards was a +little comedy. + +One fine afternoon the post was moving along in its usual routine--that +quiet which is only disturbed by the ever recurring military formalities +and the small squabbles of an isolated community. There had been a lull +in the war rumors, and hope for the best had sprung up in the wearied +hearts of the plains service, much as the sun had that day come out in a +scintillating air after an all-night rain-storm. + +Mrs. Landor sat on the top step of her porch. Landor was with her, also +his second lieutenant Ellton, and Brewster, who in the course of events +had come into the troop. There had been, largely by Felipa's advice, an +unspoken agreement to let the past be. A troop divided against itself +cannot stand well on the inspector general's reports. And as Brewster +was about to marry the commanding officer's daughter, it was well to +give him the benefit of the doubt of his entire sanity when he had been +under the influence of what had been a real, if short-lived, passion for +Felipa. They were all discussing the feasibility of getting up an +impromptu picnic to the foot-hills. + +"Miss McLane will go, I suppose?" asked Felipa. + +Brewster answered that she would, of course. He was rather annoyingly +proprietary and sure of her. + +"But you have no Jill," she said, smiling at Ellton. His own smile was +very strained, but she did not see that, nor the shade of trouble in his +nice blue eyes. + +There fell a moment's pause. And it was broken by the sound of clashing +as of many cymbals, the clatter of hoofs, the rattle of bouncing wheels, +and around the corner of the line there came tearing a wagon loaded with +milk tins. A wild-eyed man, hatless, with his hair on end, lashed his +ponies furiously and drew up all of a heap, in front of the commanding +officer's quarters. + +Landor and his lieutenant jumped up and ran down the walk. "What's all +this, Dutchy?" they asked. + +Dutchy was a little German, who kept a milk ranch some seven miles from +the post. "Apachees, Apachees," he squealed, gasping for breath. + +"Where?" the commandant asked. + +"I see dem pass by my ranch. Dey weel run off all my stock, seexty of +dem, a hundred mebee. I come queek to tell you." + +"You came quick all right enough," said Landor, looking at the lathered +broncos. But Major McLane was inquiring, and the result of his inquiries +was that two troops were hurried in hot pursuit. + +The post was tremendously excited. As the cavalry trotted off up the +slope toward the foot-hills, the men left behind went to the back of the +post and watched, women looked through field-glasses, from the upper +windows, children balanced upon the fences of the back yards, and +Chinese cooks scrambled to the top of chicken coops and woodsheds, +shading their eyes with their hands and peering in the direction of the +gap. Dogs barked and hens cackled and women called back and forth. Down +at the sutler's store the German was being comforted with beer at a +dollar a bottle. + +In the storm-cleared atmosphere the troops could be seen until they +turned into the gap, and shortly thereafter they reappeared, coming back +at a trot. + +The milk ranch and the stock were unhurt, and there were not even any +Indian signs. It was simply another example, on the milkman's part, of +the perfection to which the imagination of the frontier settler could be +cultivated. + +"I see him, I see him all the same," he protested, with tears and +evident conviction. + +"I guess not," said Landor, tolerantly, as he turned his horse over to +his orderly; "but, anyway," he added to Ellton, "we had a picnic--of a +sort." + +And before the next morning the picnic that kept the southwest +interested for five years had begun. Victorio and two hundred hostiles +had left the Mescalero Agency for good and all, killing, burning, +torturing, and destroying as they went, and troops from all the +garrisons were sent out post haste. + +At noon Landor got his orders. He was to leave at four o'clock, and when +he told Felipa she planned for dinner at three, with her usual manner of +making all things as pleasant as possible, and indulging in no vain and +profitless regrets. "We may as well have Mr. Brewster and Nellie McLane, +too," she decided, and went off in search of them, bareheaded and +dancing with excitement. She dearly loved rumors of war. The prospect of +a scout was always inspiriting to her. + +Ellton messed with them regularly, but he was not to go out, because he +was acting adjutant. To his intense disgust and considerable +mortification--for he was young and very enthusiastic and burdened with +ideals--he was obliged to appear spick and span in irreproachable +undress, beside his superiors in their campaign clothes. + +"They're out from Apache, two troops under Kimball and Dutton; Morris +has a band of scouts, Bayard has sent two troops, Wingate one. Oh! it's +going to be grim-visaged war and all that, this time, sure," Brewster +prophesied. + +Ellton could not eat. He bewailed his hard fate unceasingly. + +"Shut up," said Brewster, with malicious glee. "They also serve who +only stand and wait, you know," he chuckled. "You can serve your +admiring and grateful country quite as well in the adjutant's office as +summering on the verdant heights of the Mogollons." + +Ellton retaliated with more spirit. "Or guarding a water hole on the +border for two or three months, and that's quite as likely to be your +fate." + +"True, too," Brewster admitted perforce. + +"I've been talking to a fellow down at the Q. M. corral," Landor said, +"Englishman named Cairness,--Charley Cairness. He's going as a scout. He +can't resist war's alarms. He used to be in my troop a few years ago, +and he was a first-rate soldier--knew his place a good deal better than +if he had been born to it, which he very obviously wasn't." + +"Squaw-man, isn't he?" Brewster asked. + +Landor shrugged his shoulder, but Felipa would not have it so. "You know +he is not, Jack," she said a little petulantly, which was noticeably +unwonted on her part. + +"I don't know anything whatever about it," he answered; "that is none of +my affair. I should be surprised if he were, and I must say I am +inclined to think he is not." + +"I know he is not," she said decisively. + +"I beg pardon," said Brewster, pointedly, accentuating the slight +awkwardness. + +But Landor was not aware that there was any. "Cairness is a very decent +sort of a fellow," he said good-humoredly. "And, personally, I am +indebted to him for having saved Mrs. Landor's life up Black River way." + +Ellton filled in the pause that threatened, with a return to the +dominant topic. "This not having any pack-train," he opined, "is the +very deuce and all. The only transportation the Q. M. can give you is a +six-mule team, isn't it?" + +"Yes; but it happens to be enough for the next few weeks. We are going +to camp around San Tomaso to afford the settlers protection. We can't +follow any trails, those are our orders, so the pack-train doesn't +matter anyway. By that time they will have scared up one." + +As they came out from dinner the orderlies had the horses at the door. +Landor gave his wife parting instructions the while Brewster took an +ostentatiously affectionate farewell of Miss McLane, who was herself +neither so affectionate nor so sorrowful as she might have been expected +to be. The adjutant watched them, furtively and unhappily. Felipa +herself was not as unmoved as usual. + +When Landor had trotted off, and she and the girl were left alone, she +went into the house and came back with a pair of field-glasses. Through +them she could see her husband riding at the head of the column, along +the road, and another figure beside him, mounted on a bony little pinto +bronco. + +So he was near her again. She had not seen him in many months, but she +had felt that he must be always, as he had been through those days in +the fastnesses of the Sierra Blanca, following her afar off, yet near +enough to warn her, if need arose. She was too superstitious to watch +him out of sight, and she turned back into the house, followed by Miss +McLane, just as stable call sounded, and the white-clad soldiers tramped +off to the corrals. + + + + +IX + + +Under the midnight sky, misty pale and dusted with glittering stars, the +little shelter tents of Landor's command shone in white rows. The +campfires were dying; the herd, under guard, was turned out half a mile +or more away on a low mesa, where there was scant grazing; and the men, +come that afternoon into camp, were sleeping heavily, after a march of +some forty miles,--all save the sentry, who marched up and down, +glancing from time to time at the moving shadows of the herd, or taking +a sight along his carbine at some lank coyote scudding across the open. + +But presently he saw, coming from down the road, two larger bodies, +which showed themselves soon, in the light of the stars against the +sands, to be a pair of horsemen and evidently no Apaches. He watched +them. They rode straight up to the camp and answered his challenge. They +wished, they said, to speak to the officer in command. + +The sentry was of the opinion that it was an unseemly hour to arouse a +man who had marched all day, but it was not for him to argue. He walked +deliberately, very deliberately indeed, that the citizens might be +impressed, over to Landor's tent and awoke him. "There's two citizens +here, sir, asking to see you, sir." His tone plainly disclaimed any +part in the affair. + +Landor came out, putting on his blouse, and went over to the horsemen. +One of them dismounted and raised his hat. + +"My name, sir, is Foster." + +Landor expressed pleasure, without loss of words. + +"I represent, sir, the citizens of San Tomaso." + +"Yes?" said Landor. He knew the citizens of the district, and attached +no particular sacredness to the person of their envoy. + +"They have expressed the desire that I should convey to you, Colonel--" + +"I am Captain--Captain Landor." + +"Captain Landor," he corrected urbanely, "pleased to meet you, sir. They +have expressed the desire that I should convey to you, sir, their wish +to accompany you in the search for hostile Apaches." + +That was evidently how it was to go into the papers. The officer knew it +well enough, but he explained with due solemnity that he was acting +under instructions, and was not to follow Indians into the hills. "I am +only to camp here to protect the citizens of the valley against possible +raids." + +The civilian protested. "But there is a big company of us, sir, thirty +or thirty-five, who can put you on the trail of a large band." + +Landor explained again, with greater detail, vainly trying to impress +the nature of a military order on the civilian brain. "It would not do +for me to disobey my instructions. And besides there are several +officers who are to follow trails, out with larger commands. I have no +pack-train, and I can't." + +It did not seem to strike the representative of the citizens of San +Tomaso that that was much of an argument. He continued to urge. + +"Of course," said the officer, "I understand that the hostiles are not +in the immediate vicinity?" + +"Well, not in the immediate vicinity," he admitted. "No; but they passed +along the foot-hills, and stole some stock, an' killed three men no +later than this evening." + +"Say we were to get off at sun-up, then," objected Landor, "they would +even in that way have twelve hours' start of us." + +"Yes, sir. But they ain't likely to travel fast. They'll think +themselves safe enough up there in the mountains. We could easy overtake +them, being as we wouldn't be hampered with drove stock. They stole +about fifty head, an' we could most likely get it back if we started at +once. It is the wish of the citizens of San Tomaso, ain't it?" He turned +to the man who had remained mounted, and who had not opened his mouth. +The man nodded. + +"I couldn't follow more than two days," Landor expostulated hopelessly. +"As I tell you, I've no pack-train. The men would have to carry their +rations in their saddle pockets." + +Foster hastened to assure him that two days would easily do it. "We know +the country round here, Colonel, know it better than the hostiles +themselves; and a big party of us volunteers to put you on the trail and +bring you to them. You can't hardly refuse, seein' as you say you are +here to protect us, and this is the protection we ask, to get back the +stock we've lost." + +Landor stood considering and pulling at his mustache, as his way was. +Then he turned on his heel and went back to the tent for Brewster. He +explained the matter to him. "I tell Mr. Foster," he said, "just what +risk I would take if I acted contrary to orders, but the force of my +argument doesn't seem to strike him. If any harm were to come to the +citizens around here, I'd be responsible." + +"You won't, I don't guess, if it was the citizens' own wish," insisted +the indomitable one. "You wouldn't be gone more than two days at the +outside. And a big party of us will go with you." + +"How many did you say?" he wanted to know, having the laudable intention +of committing the man before Brewster. + +And Foster answered him that there would be thirty or forty. + +Was he quite certain that the trail was of hostiles, and not of cow-boys +or of other troops? + +"Certain, dead sure. It's a band of Apaches that went across the river. +Why, half a dozen seen them." + +Landor consulted with his lieutenant. "Very well," he said in the end, +"I'll go. I take serious risks, but I understand it to be the wish of +the citizens hereabouts." Their envoy assured him that it most +certainly was, and became profuse in acknowledgments; so that Landor +shut him off. He had come many miles that day and must be on the march +again at dawn, and wanted what sleep he could get. "When and where will +you meet me?" he demanded with the curtness of the military, so +offensive to the undisciplined. + +"At eight o'clock, sir," he answered resentfully, "in front of the +dry-goods store on the main street. If that is convenient for your men." + +"That will do," said Landor. "See there is no delay," and he wheeled +about and went back to his tent with Brewster. + +The citizens rode off. + +"They won't be ready. No use making haste, Captain," Cairness suggested +at daybreak, as Landor hurried the breakfast and saddling. They knew +that the chances were ten to one that it would be a wild goose chase, +and the captain already repented him. But at seven the men were mounted, +with two days' rations in their saddle bags, and trotting across the +flat in the fragrance of the yet unheated day, to the settlement of San +Tomaso. + +Two aimless citizens lounged on their horses, rapt in argument and the +heavy labor of chewing--so much so that they barely took notice of the +troops. + +Landor rode up to them and made inquiries for Foster. + +"Foster?" one drawled, "he'll be along presently, I reckon." + +Landor went back to his command and waited. Another man rode up and +joined the two. Ten minutes passed, and the troops grew restless. + +Landor went forward again. "Can you, gentlemen, tell me," he demanded a +trifle wrathfully, "where I can find Mr. Foster?" They reckoned, after +deliberation, that he might be in Bob's saloon. Which might Bob's saloon +be? The man pointed, hooking his thumb over his shoulder, and went on +with his conversation and his quid. A dozen or more loafers, chiefly +Mexicans, had congregated in front of the dry-goods store. + +Landor rode over to Bob's place, and giving his horse to the trumpeter, +strode in. There were eight men around the bar, all in campaign outfit, +and all in various stages of intoxication. Foster was effusive. He was +glad to see the general. General Landor, these were the gentlemen who +had volunteered to assist Uncle Sam. He presented them singly, and +invited Landor to drink. The refusal was both curt and ungracious. "If +we are to overtake the hostiles, we have got to start at once," he +suggested. + +But it was full two hours, in the end, before they did start. Flasks had +to be replenished, farewell drinks taken, wives and families parted +from, the last behests made, of those going upon an errand of death. +Citizens burning with ardor to protect their hearths and stock were +routed out of saloons and dance halls, only to slip away again upon one +pretext or another. + +The sun was now high and blazing down into the one street of the mud +settlement. The enlisted men were angry that Landor, fearing they, too, +would be led astray into dives, would not dismount them. Sitting still +in the full sun, when even in the shade the mercury is many degrees +above the hundreds, is not calculated to improve the disposition. But at +length the volunteers were herded together. The thirty-five promised had +dwindled to eight, and Foster was not of the number. He came lurching up +at the last moment to explain that he would be unable to go. His wife +was in hysterics, he said. + +So the troops and the volunteers rode away without him, and a few miles +off, among the foot-hills, struck the trail. Here Landor, giving ear to +the advice of the citizens, found himself whirled around in a very +torrent of conflicting opinions. No two agreed. The liquor had made them +ugly. He dismounted the command for rest, and waited, filled with great +wrath. + +"I ought to have known better than to come at all," he told Brewster, as +they stood beside their horses; "it is always like this." + +Brewster nodded. He had seen the same thing himself. The territorial +citizen was a known quantity to both of them. + +Cairness came up. "Are we going into camp, Captain?" he wanted to know, +"or are those fellows going to follow the trail?" + +Landor took his arm from the saddle and stood upright, determinedly. "We +are going to stop this mob business, that's what we are going to do," he +said, and he went forward and joined in a discussion that was upon the +verge of six-shooters. He set forth in measured tones, and words that +reverberated with the restrained indignation behind them, that he had +come upon the assurance that he was to strike Indians, that his men had +but two days' rations in their saddle bags, and that he was acting upon +his own responsibility, practically in disobedience of orders. If the +Indians were to be hit, it must be done in a hurry, and he must get back +to the settlements. He held up his hands to check a flood of protests +and explanations. "There has got to be a head to this," his +drill-trained voice rang out, "and I propose to be that head. My orders +have got to be obeyed." + +There was a murmur. They had elected a captain of their own; they were +Indian fighters of experience themselves. + +Landor suggested his own experience of close on two decades, and further +that he was going to command the whole outfit, or going to go back and +drop the thing right there. They assented to the first alternative, with +exceedingly bad grace, and with worse grace took the place of advance +guard he detailed them to, four hundred yards ahead. "You know the +country. You are my guides, and you say you are going to lead me to the +Indians. Now do it." There was nothing conciliating in his speech, +whatever, and he sat on his horse, pointing them to their positions with +arm outstretched, and the frown of an offended Jove. When they had taken +it, grumbling, the column moved. + +"It's only a small trail, anyway," Cairness informed them as a result +of a minute examination he had made, walking round and leading his +bronco, bending double over the signs, "just some raiding party of +twelve or fifteen bucks. Shot out from the main body and ran into the +settlements to steal stock probably." + +Landor agreed with him, "I told the citizens so, but they knew better." + +"They are travelling rapidly, of course. We shan't overtake them." + +"I dare say not," said Landor, his face growing black again; "they'll +cover fifty or seventy-five miles a day. We can't do that, by a good +deal. We couldn't even if those damned civilians would keep their +distance ahead." + +But this the civilians were very plainly not minded to do. They dropped +back, now to cinch up, now to take a drink from the flasks, now to +argue, once for one of their number to recover from an attack of heart +disease. + +Landor swore. He would keep them their proper distance ahead, if he had +to halt at all their halts from now to sunset. + +They were high among the mountains, and here and there in the shadows of +the rocks and pines were patches of snow, left even yet from the winter. +By all the signs the trail was already more than half a day old. + +Landor's fear of leaving the settlements unguarded grew. "We will get up +among these mountains and be delayed, and we are in no condition +whatever to travel, anyway," he told Brewster, as the advance guard +halted again, and Landor, with curses in his heart but a civil tongue +withal, trotted up to them. + +They were fighting. "Captain, what do you say to following this trail?" +they clamored. + +Landor explained to them that he was not doing the thinking, that it was +their campaign. "You are my guides. You know the country, and I don't." +He reminded them again that they had promised to lead him to Indians, +and that he was ready to be led. If they thought the hostiles were to be +reached by following the trail, he would follow it. + +Some of them did think so. Some of them thought on the contrary, that it +would be surer to make a detour, leaving the trail. They knew the spot, +the bed of an ancient mountain lake, where the hostiles were sure to +camp. + +Landor sat and heard them out, silence on his lips and wrath upon his +brow. "We will go wherever you say," he reiterated immovably. + +The captain they had elected for themselves was for following; the seven +others agreed upon a detour. They had ideas of their own concerning +obedience to superiors. They left the trail in spite of the vehement +assurance of their captain that they would without doubt get all manner +of profanity knocked out of them, and hasten their inevitable journey to +Gehenna if they went into the timber. + +The advance guard advanced less and less. Half drunk and ever drinking, +in quaking fear of the timber, it kept falling back. + +"I'll be hanged," opined Landor, as his own horse bit at the croup of a +citizen's horse, eliciting a kick and a squeal, "I'll be hanged if you +shall demoralize my column like this. You'll keep ahead if I have to +halt here all night to make you. I've given you the post of honor. If I +put my men in the van, I'd choose the best ones, and they'd be +flattered, too. You wouldn't catch them skulking back on the command." + +They spurred forward unwillingly, thus urged. At sundown they came to +the old lake bed and camped there. According to the citizens it was a +regular Indian camping-place for the hostiles, since the days of +Cochise. + +The horses were tied to a ground line, to avoid the embarrassment of a +loose herd, in the event of an engagement. Pickets were sent out to give +warning at the approach of Indians. It was winter here in the mountains, +while it was hot summer in the alkali flats below, but the men were +forbidden fires. And it was a fierce grievance to the citizens, as was +also that they were not allowed to go out to shoot wild turkeys. They +remonstrated sulkily. + +Landor's patience was worn out. "It's a confoundedly curious thing," he +told them, "for men who really want to find Indians, to go shooting and +building fires." And he sent them to rest upon their arms and upon the +cold, damp ground. + +But there was no night alarm, and at daybreak it began to be apparent to +the troops that they had been led directly away from all chance of one. +They made fires, ate their breakfast, resaddled, and took their way +back to the settlements, doubling on their own trail. They came upon +signs of a yet larger band, and it was more probable than ever that the +valley had been in danger. + +Landor cursed the malpais and the men who were leading him over it. "How +much more of this rough country is there going to be?" he demanded, as +they stopped to shoe two horses that had come unshod on the sharp rocks. +"Colonel," they made answer with much dignity, "we are more anxious than +you to get back to our defenceless women and children." + +The defenceless women and children were safe, however: a captain, +ranking Landor, reported to that effect when he met them some dozen +miles outside San Tomaso. He reported further that he had a pack-train +for Landor and orders to absorb his troop. Landor protested at having to +retrace their trail at once. His men and his stock were in no state to +travel. The men were footsore and blistered. They had led their horses, +for the most part, up and down rough hills for two days. But the trail +was too hot and too large to be abandoned. They unsaddled, and partaking +together of coffee and bacon and biscuits, mounted and went off once +more. Their bones ached, and the feet of many of them bled; but the +citizens had gone their way to their homes in the valley, and they felt +that, on the whole, they had reason to be glad. + + + + +X + + +It was tea time at the Circle K Ranch. But no one was enjoying the hour +of rest. Kirby sat on the couch and abstractedly ate slice after slice +of thin bread and butter, without speaking. Mrs. Kirby made shift to +darn the bunch of stockings beside her, but her whole attention was +strained to listening. The children did not understand, though they felt +the general uneasiness, and whispered together as they looked at the +pictures in the illustrated paper, months old. + +Kirby's assistants, the two young Englishmen, had not come back when +they were due. One had gone to the mail station in the valley, three +days before, and he should have returned at noon, at the furthest limit. +By three o'clock, the other had jumped on a horse and gone out to look +for him. And now, one was lying in the road five miles from the ranch, +with an arrow through his eye. The other, a mile nearer home, was +propped against a pine trunk, so that the ragged hole beneath his +shoulder blade, where a barb had been torn out, did not show. His wide +eyes, upon the lid of one of which the blood from a head wound had +clotted, looked up sightless through the branches, at a patch of blue +sky. Their end had been a common enough one, and had come to them both +without a moment of warning. + +At noon that day a cow-boy had ridden from the hills with a rumor that +Victorio's people were about. But Kirby had kept it from his wife. It +might not be true. And even if it were, the danger was really small. +With the hands and the two Englishmen, the quadrangle of log cabins, +well stocked with food and ammunition, could withstand any attack. It +had been built and planned to that end. + +The silence, cut by the nervous whispering of the children, became +unendurable. "Are you very uneasy about them?" Mrs. Kirby asked. + +"It's not so much that," he evaded, getting up to put a lump of sugar he +did not need into his tea, "it's not so much that as it is the +everlasting strain of fighting the hands. It would be easier to meet an +open rebellion than it is to battle against their sullen ugliness." + +Mrs. Kirby could understand that very well. She had the same thing to +oppose day after day with the woman, and of late it had been more +marked. + +Out in the corral the cow-boy was holding forth. The men had stopped +work on the instant that Kirby had turned his back. If Kirby could loll +on soft cushions and drink tea, as free-born Americans and free-souled +Irishmen they might do the same. "It's all right," said the cow-boy, +with a running accompaniment of profanity, as he cleaned his brutal +Mexican bit. "Johnny Bull don't have to believe in it if he don't like. +But all the same, I seen a feller over here to the 3 C Range, and he +told me he seen the military camped over to San Tomaso a week ago, and +that there was a lot of stock, hundred head or so, run off from the +settlements. You see, them Apaches is making for the southern +Chiricahuas over in Sonora to join the Mexican Apaches, and they're +going to come this here way. You see!" and he rubbed at the rust +vigorously with a piece of soft rawhide. + +The woman joined her voice. She had a meat cleaver in her hand, and +there was blood on her apron where she had wiped the roast she was now +leaving to burn in the stove. "Like as not we'll all be massacred. I +told Bill to get off this place two weeks ago, and he's such an infernal +loafer he couldn't make up his mind to move hisself." She flourished her +cleaver toward the big Texan, her husband, who balanced on the tongue of +a wagon, his hands in his pockets, smiling ruefully and apologetically, +and chewing with an ardor he never put to any other work. "We been here +four years now," she went on raspingly, "and if you all feel like +staying here to be treated like slaves by these John Bulls, you can do +it. But you bet I know when I've got enough. To-morrow I quits." Her +jaws snapped shut, and she stood glaring at them defiantly. + +The words of a woman in a community where women are few carry almost the +weight of inspiration. Be she never so hideous or so vile, she is in +some measure a Deborah, and the more yet, if she be moved to the lust +and love of revenge of the prophetess who sang in the frenzy of blood +drunkenness, "Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber, the +Kenite, be. Blessed shall she be above women in the tent." + +The Declaration of Independence roused the screeching eagle of freedom +in the breasts of all the white men. With the Mexicans it was a slightly +different sentiment. At best they could never be relied upon for steady +service. A couple of months' pay in their pockets, and they must rest +them for at least six. It is always to be taken into consideration when +they are hired. They had been paid only the day before. And, moreover, +the Greaser follows the Gringo's lead easily--to his undoing. + +The murmurs in the corral rose louder. It was not that Kirby and his +partners underpaid, underfed, or overworked the American citizens. It +was that their language was decent and moderate; and the lash of the +slave driver would have stung less than the sight of the black coats and +the seven o'clock dinner. In the midst of white savages and red, the +four clung to the forms of civilization with that dogged persistence in +the unessential, that worship of the memory of a forsaken home, for +which the Englishman, time and again, lays down his life without +hesitation. That was the grievance. + +While Kirby went through the oppressive rite of afternoon tea within the +slant-roofed log cabin, and tried to hide from his wife the fear which +grew as the shadows lengthened across the clearing out in the corral, +the men had reached open mutiny. The smouldering sullenness had at last +burst into flaming defiance, blown by the gale of the woman's wrath. + +After he had had his tea Kirby got up, went out to the corral, and +called to one of the men, who hesitated for a moment, then slouched +over, kicking with his heavy booted toe as he passed at the hocks of a +horse in one of the stalls. Kirby saw him do it, but he checked his +wrath. He had learned to put up with many things. "Don't you think," he +suggested, "that it might be a good idea for you and some other man to +ride down the road a bit--" + +The man interrupted, "I ain't going daown the road, nor anywheres else +before supper--nor after supper neither, if I don't feel like it." He +was bold enough in speech, but his eyes dropped before Kirby's indignant +ones. + +It was a fatal want of tact perhaps, characteristic of the race, but +then the characteristic is so fine. "You will do whatever I tell you to +do," the voice was low and strained, but not wavering. It reached the +group by the harness-room door. + +With one accord they strode forward to the support of their somewhat +browbeaten brother. What they would do was exactly as they pleased, they +told the tyrant. They shook their fists in his face. It was all in the +brutal speech of the frontier, mingled with the liquid ripple of argot +Spanish, and its vicious, musical oaths. The deep voice of the woman +carried above everything, less decent than the men. It was a storm of +injury. + +Kirby was without fear, but he was also without redress. He turned from +them, his face contracted with the pain of his impotence, and walked +back to the house. "I could order them off the ranch to-night," he told +his wife, as he dropped on a chair, and taking up the hearth brush made +a feint of sweeping two or three cinders from the floor; "but it's ten +to one they wouldn't go and it would weaken my authority--not that I +have any, to be sure--and besides," he flung down the brush desperately +and turned to her, "I didn't want to tell you before, but there is a +pretty straight rumor that Victorio's band, or a part of it, is in these +hills. We may need the men at any time." Neither spoke of the two who +should have been back hours ago. The night closed slowly down. + +The Texan woman went back to the kitchen and finished cooking the supper +for the hands--a charred sort of Saturnalian feast. "She can git her own +dinner if she wants to," she proclaimed, and was answered by a chorus of +approval. + +While the men sat at the long table, shovelling in with knife and +three-pronged fork the food of the master their pride forbade them to +serve, a horse came at a run, up to the quadrangle, and a cow-boy rushed +into the open doorway. "Apaches!" he gasped, clutching at the lintel, +wild-eyed, "Apaches!" + +They sprang up, with a clatter of dishes and overturning of benches and +a simultaneous cry of "Whereabouts?" + +He had seen a large band heading for the ranch, and had found a dead +white man on the north road, he said, and he gesticulated madly, his +voice choked with terror. + +Had it been all arranged, planned, and rehearsed for months beforehand, +the action could not have been more united. They crowded past him out of +the door and ran for the corrals, and each dragged a horse or a mule +from the stalls, flinging on a halter or rope or bridle, whatever came +to hand, from the walls of the harness room. + +But there was more stock than was needed. + +"Turn the rest loose," cried the woman, and set the example herself. + +Kirby, hurrying from the house to learn the cause of the new uproar, was +all but knocked down and trodden under the hoofs of all his stock, +driven from the enclosure with cracking of whips and with stones. Then a +dozen ridden horses crowded over the dropped bars, the woman in the lead +astride, as were the men. + +"What is this?" he shouted, grabbing at a halter-shank and clinging to +it until a knife slashed down on his wrist. + +"Apaches on the north road," they called back; and the woman screamed +above it all a devilish farewell, "Better have 'em to dinner in +claw-hammer coats." + +It was a sheer waste of good ammunition, and it might serve as a signal +to the Indians as well; Kirby knew it, and yet he emptied his +six-shooter into the deep shadows of the trees where they had vanished, +toward the south. + +Then he ran into the corral, and, snatching up a lantern from the +harness room, looked around. It was empty. There was only a pack-burro +wandering loose and nosing at the grains in the mangers. + +He turned and went back to the cabin, where his wife stood at the door, +with the children clinging to her. From down the north road there came a +blood-freezing yell, and a shot, reverberating, rattling from hill to +hill, muffling into silence among the crowding pines. + +As he shut the door and bolted it with the great iron rods, there tore +into the clearing a score of vague, savage figures. It looked, when he +saw it for an instant, as he put up the wooden blinds, like some phantom +dance of the devils of the mountains, so silent they were, with their +unshod ponies, so quick moving. And then a short silence was broken by +cries and shots, the pinge of bullets, and the whizz of arrows. + +There were two rooms to the cabin where they were, the big sitting room +and the small bedchamber beyond. Kirby went into the bedroom and came +out with two rifles and a revolver. He put the revolver into his wife's +hands. "I'll do my best, you know, dear. But if I'm done for, if there +is no hope for you and the children, use it," he said. And added, "You +understand?" + +Of a truth she understood only too well, that death with a bullet +through the brain could be a tender mercy. + +"Not until there is no hope," he impressed, as he put the barrel of his +rifle through a knot hole and fired at random. + +She reloaded for him, and fired from time to time herself, and he moved +from the little round hole in the wall to one in the window blind, in +the feeble, the faithless hope that the Indians might perhaps be +deceived, might fancy that there was more than the one forsaken man +fighting with unavailing courage for the quiet woman who stayed close by +his side, and for the two children, huddled whimpering in one corner, +their little trembling arms clasped round each other's necks. + +Twenty, yes ten, of those who, as the sound of the firing reached their +ears, were making off at a run down the south road for the settlement in +the valley, could have saved the fair-haired children and the young +mother, who helped in the fruitless fight without a plaint of fear. Ten +men could have done it, could have done it easily; but not one man. And +Kirby knew it now, as the light of flames began to show through the +chinks of the logs, and the weight of heavy bodies thudded against the +door. + +It was a strong door, built of great thick boards and barred with iron, +but it must surely cede before fire and the blows. It wrenched on its +huge hinges. + +Kirby set down his gun and turned to his wife, holding out his arms. She +went to him and he kissed her on the forehead and the lips, in farewell. +"Good-by," he said; "now take the children in there." + +No need to tell her that her courage must not falter at that last +moment, which would soon come. He knew it, as he looked straight into +those steadfast, loving eyes. She clung to his hand and stooped and +kissed it, too; then she went to the children and took them, quivering +and crying, into the other room, and closed the dividing door. + +Kirby, with a revolver in each hand, placed himself before it. It would +avail nothing. But a man must needs fight to the end. And the end was +now. + +There was a stronger blow at the door, as of a log used by way of a ram. +It gave, swayed, and fell crashing in, and the big room swarmed with +screaming fiends, their eyes gleaming wildly in the light of the burning +hay and the branches piled against the cabin, as they waved their arms +over their feathered heads. + +The one man at bay whirled round twice, with a bullet in his heart and +an arrow through his neck. "Now!" he made one fierce effort to cry, as +he staggered again and dropped on his face, to be trampled under forty +feet. + +It was the signal to the woman in that other room behind the locked +door, and above all the demoniacal sounds it reached her. Only an +instant she hesitated, until that door, too, began to give. Then a cold +muzzle of steel found, in the darkness, two little struggling, dodging +faces--and left them marred. And once again the trigger was +unflinchingly pulled, as greedy arms reached out to catch the white, +woman's figure that staggered and fell. + + * * * * * * * * + +Cairness and Landor and a detachment of troops that had ridden hard all +through the night, following an appalling trail, but coming too late +after all, found them so in the early dawn. + +There was a mutilated thing that had once been a man's body on the floor +in the half-burned log cabin. And in another room lay two children, +whose smooth, baby foreheads were marked, each with a round violet-edged +hole. Beside them was their mother, with her face turned to the rough +boards--mercifully. For there had been no time to choose the placing of +that last shot, and it had disfigured cruelly as it did its certain +work. + + + + +XI + + +It was not quite an all-summer campaign. The United States government +drove the hostiles over the border into the provinces of the Mexican +government, which understood the problem rather better than ourselves, +and hunted the Apache, as we the coyote, with a bounty upon his scalp. + +Thereafter some of the troops sat down at the water-holes along the +border to watch, and to write back pathetic requests for all the +delicacies supplied by the commissariat, from anchovy paste and caviare +to tinned mushrooms and cove oysters. A man may live upon bacon and +beans and camp bread, or upon even less, when his duty to his country +demands, but it is not in the Articles of War that he should continue to +do so any longer than lack of transportation compels. + +Others of the troops were ordered in, and among them was Landor's. It +had gone out for a twenty days' scout, and had been in the field two +months. It was ragged and all but barefoot, and its pack-train was in a +pitiable way. Weeks of storm in the Mogollons and days of quivering heat +on the plains had brought its clothing and blankets to the last stages. + +Moreover, Landor was very ill. In the Mogollons he had gathered and +pressed specimens of the gorgeous wild flowers that turn the plateaux +into a million-hued Eden, and one day there had lurked among the +blossoms a sprig of poison weed, with results which were threatening to +be serious. He rode at the head of his column, however, as it made for +home by way of the Aravaypa Cañon. + +Were the cañon of the Aravaypa in any other place than Arizona, which, +as the intelligent public knows, is all one wide expanse of dry and +thirsty country, a parched place in the wilderness, a salt land, and not +inhabited; were it in any other place, it would be set forth in railway +folders, and there would be camping privileges and a hotel, and stages +would make regular trips to it, and one would come upon groups of +excursionists on burros, or lunching among its boulders. Already it has +been in a small way discovered, and is on the road to being vulgarized +by the camera. The lover of Nature, he who loves the soul as well as the +face of her, receives when he sees a photograph of a fine bit of scenery +he had felt in a way his own property until then, something the blow +that the lover of a woman does when he learns that other men than he +have known her caresses. + +But in the days of Victorio and his predecessors and successors, +Aravaypa Cañon was a fastness. Men went in to hunt for gold, and +sometimes they came out alive, and sometimes they did not. Occasionally +Apaches met their end there as well. + +There was one who had done so now. The troops looking up at him, +rejoiced. He was crucified upon an improvised cross of unbarked pine +branches, high up at the top of a sheer peak of rock. He stood out black +and strange against the whitish blue of the sky. His head was dropped +upon his fleshless breast, and there was a vulture perched upon it, +prying its hooked bill around in the eye sockets. Two more, gorged and +heavy, balanced half asleep upon points of stone. + +It was all a most charming commentary upon the symbol and practice of +Christianity, in a Christian land, and the results thereof as regarded +the heathen of that land--if one happened to see it in that way. + +But the men did not. It was hardly to be expected that they should, both +because the abstract and the ethical are foreign to the major part of +mankind, in any case; and also because, with this particular small group +of mankind, there was too fresh a memory of a dead woman lying by the +bodies of her two children in a smouldering log cabin among the +mountains and the pines. + +They rode on, along the trail, at a walk and by file, and directly they +came upon the other side of the question. Landor's horse stopped, with +its forefeet planted, and a snort of fright. Landor had been bent far +back, looking up at a shaft of rock that rose straight from the bottom +and pierced the heavens hundreds of feet above, and he was very nearly +unseated. But he caught himself and held up his hand as a signal to +halt. + +There were two bodies lying across the trail in front of him. He +dismounted, and throwing his reins to the trumpeter went forward to +investigate. It was not a pleasant task. The men had been dead some time +and their clothing was beginning to fall away in shreds. Some of their +outfit was scattered about, and he could guess from it that they had +been prospectors. A few feet away was the claim they had been working. +Only their arms had been stolen, otherwise nothing appeared to be +missing. There was even in the pockets considerable coin, in gold and +silver, which Landor found, when he took a long knife from his saddle +bags, and standing as far off as might be, slit the cloth open. + +The knife was one he had brought from home, seizing it from the kitchen +table at the last minute. It was very sharp and had been Felipa's +treasured bread cutter. It came in very well just now, chiefly because +of its length. + +He called the first sergeant to his aid. Brewster was in the rear of the +command, and, as had occurred with increasing frequency in the last two +months, showed no desire to be of any more use than necessary. As for +Cairness, who had been more of a lieutenant to Landor than the officer +himself, he had left the command two days before and gone back to the +San Carlos reservation. + +So the captain and the first sergeant took up the money and the loose +papers, together with a couple of rings from the hands, and wrapping +them in a poncho, carried them off to serve as possible means of +identification, for it had got beyond all question of features. Then two +men moved the bodies from the trail, with long sticks, and covered them +with a pile of stones. Landor found a piece of board by the mouth of the +claim and drew on it, with an end of charred stick, a skull and cross +bones with a bow and arrow, and stood it up among the stones, in sign to +all who might chance to pass thereby that since men had here died at the +hands of the Apaches, other men might yet meet a like fate. + +On the next day they were in the flat, nearing the post. There was a +dust storm. Earlier in the morning the air had grown suddenly more dry, +more close and lifeless than ever, suffocating, and a yellow cloud had +come in the western sky. Then a hot wind began to blow the horses' manes +and tails, to snarl through the greasewood bushes, and to snap the loose +ends of the men's handkerchiefs sharply. The cloud had thinned and +spread, high up in the sky, and the light had become almost that of a +sullen evening. Black bits floated and whirled high overhead, and birds +beat about in the gale. Gradually the gale and the dust had dropped +nearer to the earth, a sand mist had gone into every pore and choked and +parched. And now the tepid, thick wind was moaning across the plain, +meeting no point of resistance anywhere. + +Landor still rode at the head of his column, but his chin was sunk down +on his red silk neckerchief, his face was swollen and distorted under +its thick beard, and his eyes were glazed. They stared straight ahead +into the sand whirl and the sulphurous glare. He had sent Brewster on +ahead some hours before. "You will want to see Miss McLane as soon as +possible," he had said, "and there is no need of both of us here." + +Brewster had taken an escort and disappeared down the vista of white +sands and scrub growth, though it was Landor himself who should have +gone. He swayed now in the saddle, his thick lips hung open, and he +moved in a mental cloud as dense as the one of dust that poured round +him. + +Brewster reached the post some eighteen hours ahead of him. He reported, +and saw Miss McLane; then he made himself again as other men and went +down to the post trader's, with a definite aim in view, that was hardly +to be guessed from his loitering walk. There were several already in the +officers' room, and they talked, as a matter of course, of the campaign. + +"Seen the way Landor's been catching it?" they asked. + +And Brewster said he had not. + +They went on to tell him that it was all in the Tucson papers, which +Brewster knew, however, quite as well as they did themselves. He had +made friends among the citizen volunteers of San Tomaso on the night +they had camped by the old lake bed, and they had seen that he was kept +supplied with cuttings. + +But he pleaded entire ignorance, and the others were at considerable +pains to enlighten him. + +It appeared that Landor was accused of cowardice, and that his name was +handled with the delicate sarcasm usual with Western journalism--as fine +and pointed as a Stone-age axe. + +Brewster poured himself a glass of beer and drank it contemplatively +and was silent. Then he set it down on the bare table with a sharp +little rap, suggesting determination made. It was suggestive of yet more +than this, and caused them to say "Well?" with a certain eagerness. He +shrugged his shoulders and changed the subject, refusing pointedly to be +brought back to it, and succeeding altogether in the aim which had +brought him down there. + +But that same night he picked two for their reputation of repeating all +they knew, and took them into his own rooms and told his story to them. +And he met once again with such success that when Landor rode into the +post the next day at about guard-mounting, three officers, meeting him, +raised their caps and passed on. + +It struck even through Landor's pain-blurred brain that it was odd. But +the few faculties he could command still were all engaged in keeping +himself in the saddle until he could reach his own house, where Ellton +and Felipa were waiting to get him to his room. + +He went upon the sick report at once, and for three days thereafter +raved of crucified women with fair hair, of children lying dead in the +cañon, of the holes in his boot soles, and a missing aparejo, also of +certain cursed citizens, and the bad quality of the canned butter. + +Then he began to come to himself and to listen to all that Felipa had to +tell him of the many things she had not put in her short and labored +letters. He saw that she looked more beautiful and less well than when +he had left her. There was a shadow of weariness on her face that gave +it a soft wistfulness which was altogether becoming. He supposed it was +because she had nursed him untiringly, as she had; but it did not occur +to him to thank her, because she had done only what was a wife's duty, +only what he would have done for her if the case had been reversed. +Toward the end of the day he began to wonder that no one had been to see +him, and he spoke of it. + +"Mr. Ellton was here this morning," Felipa told him, "and he will be in +again before retreat." + +But he was not satisfied. His entry into the post and the cool greeting +of the three officers began to come back to him. + +Felipa could be untruthful with an untroubled soul and countenance to +those she disliked. In her inherited code, treachery to an enemy was not +only excusable, but right. But not even in order to save her husband +worry could she tell him a shadow of an untruth. She did her best, which +was far from good, to evade, however. The others would probably come, +now that he could see them. + +But had they come? he insisted. + +The commandant had sent his orderly with a note. + +He raised himself from the pillows too abruptly for a very weak man. +"What is the matter, Felipa?" he demanded. + +She told him that she did not know, and tried to coax him back to +quietness. + +"There is something," he insisted, dropping his head down again +wearily. + +"Perhaps there is," she admitted unwillingly. + +He lay thinking for a while, then had her send the striker for Ellton, +who promptly, and awkwardly, replied to the anxious question as to what +might be the trouble, that he was not quite sure, but perhaps it had to +do with these--"these" being a small roll of newspaper clippings he took +from his portfolio. + +Landor looked them over and gave them back contemptuously. "Well?" he +said, "there's nothing new in all that. It's devilish exasperating, but +it's old as Hamilcar. I made an enemy of a fellow from Tucson, reporter +named Stone, over at the San Carlos Agency a few years ago. He's been +waiting to roast me ever since. There must be something else." + +The adjutant agreed reluctantly. "I think there is. It wouldn't surprise +me if some one had been talking. I can't get at it. But you must not +bother about it. It will blow over." + +As an attempt at consolation, it failed. Landor fairly sprang into a +sitting posture, with a degree of impulsiveness that was most unusual +with him. His eyes glistened from the greenish circles around them. +"Blow over! Good Lord! do you suppose I'll let it blow over? It's got to +be sifted to the bottom. And you know that as well as I do." He lay +weakly back again, and Felipa came to the edge of the bed and, sitting +upon it, stroked his head with her cool hand. + +Ellton ventured some assistance. "I do know this much, that the C. O. +got a telegram from some Eastern paper, asking if the reports of your +cowardice as given in the territorial press were true." + +Landor asked eagerly what he had answered. + +"I didn't see the telegram, but it was in effect that he had no +knowledge of anything of the sort, and put no faith in it." + +"Doesn't he, though? Then why doesn't he come around and see me when I'm +lying here sick?" He was wrathful and working himself back into a fever +very fast. + +Felipa shook her head at Ellton. "Don't get yourself excited about it, +Jack dear," she soothed, and Ellton also tried to quiet him. + +"He will come, I dare say. And so will the others, now that you are able +to see them. Brewster inquired." + +The captain's lips set. + +Ellton wondered, but held his peace. And the commandant did go to +Landor's quarters within the next few hours. Which was Ellton's doings. + +"I don't know what has been said, Major, but something more than just +what's in the papers must have gotten about. That sort of mud-slinging +is too common to cause comment, even. It must be some spite work. +There's no reason to suppose, surely, that after a quarter of a century +of gallant service he's been and shown the white feather. He's awfully +cut up, really he is. He's noticed it, of course, and it's too deuced +bad, kicking a man when he's down sick and can't help himself." + +The major stopped abruptly in his walk to and fro and faced him. "Do +you know more about it, then, than Brewster who was with him?" + +Ellton fairly leaped in the air. "Brewster! So it's Brewster! The in--" +Then he recollected that Brewster was going to be the major's +son-in-law, and he stopped short. "No wonder he keeps away from there," +he simmered down. + +"He told me it was because he and Landor had had some trouble in the +field, and weren't on the best of terms." + +"I say, Major, if he's got any charges to prefer why doesn't he put them +on paper and send them in to you, or else shut up his head?" He was +losing his temper again. + +The major resumed his walk and did not answer. + +Ellton went on, lapsing into the judicial. "In the meantime, anyway, a +man's innocent until he's proven guilty. I say, do go round and see him. +The others will follow your lead. He's awfully cut up and worried, and +he's sick, you know." + +So that evening when all the garrison was upon its front porches and the +sidewalk, the major and the lieutenant went down the line to Landor's +quarters. And their example was followed. But some hung back, and +constraint was in the air. + +Because of which Landor, as soon as he was up, went in search of the +commanding officer, and found him in the adjutant's office, and the +adjutant with him. He demanded an explanation. "If any one has been +saying anything about me, I want to know it. I want to face him. It +can't be that newspaper rot. We are all too used to it." + +"It seems, Landor," the major said, "to be rather that which is left +unsaid." + +Landor asked what he meant by that. "I'm sick of all this speaking in +riddles," he said. + +The major told him a little reluctantly. "Well, it's this, then: +Brewster will not, or cannot, defend your conduct in the matter of the +San Tomaso volunteers." + +Landor sat speechless for a moment. Then he jumped up, knocking over a +pile of registers. He seized a bone ruler, much stained with official +inks, red and blue, and slapped it on the palm of his hand for emphasis. +"I'll demand a court of inquiry into my conduct. This shan't drop, not +until the strongest possible light has been turned on it. Why doesn't +Brewster prefer charges? Either my conduct was such that he can defend +it openly, or else it was such as to call for a court-martial, and to +justify him in preferring charges. Certainly nothing can justify him in +smirching me with damning silence. That is the part neither of an +officer nor of a man." He kicked one of the registers out of the way, +and it flapped across the floor and lay with its leaves crumpled under +the fair leather covers. + +"By George! McLane, it strikes me as devilish odd that you should all +give ear to the insinuations of a shave-tail like Brewster, against an +old hand like myself. Be that as it may, however, until this thing has +been cleared up, I shall thank all of you to continue in your attitude +of suspicion, and not in any way draw on your charity by extending it to +me. I shall demand a court of inquiry." He laid the ruler back on the +desk. "I report for duty, sir," he added officially. + +It was the beginning of a self-imposed Coventry. He sent in a demand for +a court of inquiry, and Brewster, with much show of reluctance and +leniency, preferred charges. + +The post talked it over unceasingly, and commented on Landor's attitude. +"He stalks around in defiant dignity and makes everybody uncomfortable," +they said. + +"Everybody ought to be uncomfortable," Ellton told them; "everybody who +believed the first insinuation he heard ought to be confoundedly +uncomfortable." He resigned from the acting adjutancy and returned to +his troop duties, that Landor, who had relieved Brewster of most of the +routine duties, and who was still fit for the sick list himself, might +not be overburdened. + +So the demand and the charges lay before the department commander, and +there was a lull, during which Landor came upon further trouble, and +worse. He undertook the examination of the papers he had found in the +dead men's pockets. They had been buried in earth for two weeks. + +He found that it had been father and son come from the Eastern states in +search of the wealth that lay in that vague and prosperous, if uneasy, +region anywhere west of the Missouri. And among the papers was a letter +addressed to Felipa. Landor held it in the flat of his hand and +frowned, perplexed. He knew that it was Cairness's writing. More than +once on this last scout he had noticed its peculiarities. They were +unmistakable. Why was Cairness writing to Felipa? And why had he not +used the mails? The old, never yet justified, distrusts sprang broad +awake. But yet he was not the man to brood over them. He remembered +immediately that Felipa had never lied to him. And she would not now. So +he took the stained letter and went to find her. + +She was sitting in her room, sewing. Of late she had become +domesticated, and she was fading under it. He had seen it already, and +he saw it more plainly than ever just now. She looked up and smiled. Her +smile had always been one of her greatest charms, because it was rare +and very sweet. "Jack," she greeted him, "what have you done with the +bread knife you took with you, dear? I have been lost without it." + +"I have it," he said shortly, standing beside her and holding out the +letter. + +She took it and looked from it to him, questioningly. "What is this?" +she asked. + +Then it was the first, at any rate. His manner softened. + +"It smells horribly," she exclaimed, dropping it on the floor, "it +smells of hospitals--disinfectants." But she stooped and picked it up +again. + +"It is from Cairness," said Landor, watching her narrowly. Her hand +shook, and he saw it. + +"From Cairness?" she faltered, looking up at him with frightened eyes; +"when did it come?" Her voice was as unsteady as her hands. She tore it +open and began to read it there before him. He stood and watched her +lips quiver and grow gray and fall helplessly open. If she had been +under physical torture, she could have kept them pressed together, but +not now. + +"Where did you--" she began; but her voice failed, and she had to begin +again. "Where did you get this?" + +He told her, and she held it out to him. He started to take it, then +pushed it away. + +She put down her work and rose slowly to her feet before him. She could +be very regal sometimes. Brewster knew it, and Cairness guessed it; but +it was the first time it had come within Landor's experience, and he was +a little awed. + +"I wish you to read it, John," she said quietly. + +He hesitated still. "I don't doubt you," he told her. + +"You do doubt me. If you did not, it would never occur to you to deny +it. You doubt me now, and you will doubt me still more if you don't read +it. In justice to me you must." + +It was very short, but he held it a long time before he gave it back. + +"And do you care for him, too?" he asked, looking her straight in the +eyes. It was a very calm question, put--he realized it with +exasperation--as a father might have put it. + +She told him that she did, quite as calmly. Her manner and her tone +said it was very unfortunate, that the whole episode was unfortunate, +but that it was not her fault. + +He went over to the window and stood looking out of it, his hands +clasped behind his back. Some children were playing tag around the +flag-staff, and he watched a long-limbed small daughter of the frontier +dodging and running, and was conscious of being glad that she touched +the goal. + +It was characteristic of Felipa that she forgot him altogether and +reread the letter, her breath coming in audible gasps. + +"I give this to a friend," it ran, "to be delivered into your own hands, +because I must tell you that, though I should never see you again--for +the life I lead is hazardous, and chance may at any time take you away +forever--I shall love you always. You will not be angry with me, I know. +You were not that night by the campfire, and it is not the unwaveringly +good woman who resents being told she is loved, in the spirit I have +said it to you. I do not ask for so much as your friendship in return, +but only that you remember that my life and devotion are yours, and +that, should the time ever come that you need me, you send for me. I +will come. I will never say this to you again, even should I see you; +but it is true, now and for all time." + +Landor turned away from the window and looked at her. It was in human +nature that she had never seemed so beautiful before. Perhaps it was, +too, because there was warmth in her face, the stress of life that was +more than physical, at last. + +It struck him that he was coolly analytical while his wife was reading +the love-letter (if that bald statement of fact could be called a +love-letter) of another man, and telling him frankly that she returned +the man's love. Why could not he have had love, he who had done so much +for her? There was always the subconsciousness of that sacrifice. He had +magnified it a little, too, and it is difficult to be altogether lovable +when one's mental attitude is "see what a good boy am I." But he had +never reflected upon that. He went on telling himself what--in all +justice to him--he had never thrown up to her, that his life had been +one long devotion to her; rather as a principle than as a personality, +to be sure, but then-- And yet she loved the fellow whom she had not +known twenty-four hours in all--a private, a government scout, +unnoticeably below her in station. In station, to be sure; but not in +birth, after all. It was that again. He was always brought up face to +face with her birth. He tried to reason it down, for the hundredth time. +It was not her fault, and he had taken her knowingly, chancing that and +the consequences of her not loving him. And these were the consequences: +that she was sitting rigid before him, staring straight ahead with the +pale eyes of suffering, and breathing through trembling lips. + +But she would die before she would be faithless to him. He was sure of +that. Only--why should he exact so much? Why should he not make the last +of a long score of sacrifices? He had been unselfish with her always, +from the day he had found the little child, shy as one of the timid +fawns in the woods of the reservation, and pretty in a wild way, until +now when she sat there in front of him, a woman, and his wife, loving, +and beloved of, another man. + +He went and stood beside her and laid his hand upon her hair. + +She looked up and tried hard to smile again. + +"Poor little girl," he said kindly. He could not help it that they were +the words of a compassionate friend, rather than of an injured husband. + +She shook her head. "It is the first you have known of it, Jack," she +said; "but I have known it for a long while, and I have not been +unhappy." + +"And you care for him?" + +She nodded. + +"Are you certain of it? You have seen so very little of him, and you may +be mistaken." + +If he had had any hope, it vanished before her unhesitating, positive, +"No; I am not mistaken. Oh, no!" + +He took a chair facing her, as she put the letter back in its envelope +and laid it in her work-basket. It was very unlike anything he had ever +imagined concerning situations of the sort. But then he was not +imaginative. "Should you be glad to be free to marry him?" he asked, in +a spirit of unbiassed discussion. + +She looked at him in perplexity and surprise. "How could I be? There is +no use talking about it." + +He hesitated, then blurted it out, in spite of the inward warning that +it would be unwise. "I could let you free yourself." + +His glance fell before hers of dismay, disapproval, and anger--an anger +so righteous that he felt himself to be altogether in the wrong. "Do you +mean _divorce_?" She said it like an unholy word. + +He had forgotten that the laws and rites of the Church of Rome had a +powerful hold upon her, though she was quite devoid of religious +sentiment. He admitted apologetically that he had meant divorce, and she +expressed her reproach. In spite of himself and what he felt ought +properly to be the tragedy of the affair, he smiled. The humor of her +majestic disapproval was irresistible under the circumstances. But she +had little sense of humor. "What would you suggest, then, if I may ask?" +he said. He had to give up all pathos in the light of her deadly +simplicity. + +"Nothing," she answered; "I can't see why it should make any difference +to you, when it hasn't with me." She had altogether regained the +self-possession she had been surprised out of, with an added note of +reserve. + +And so he had to accept it. He rose, with a slight sigh, and returned to +the examination of his spoils. + +But when he was away from Felipa and her blighting matter of fact, the +pathos of it came uppermost again. Troubles seemed to thicken around +him. His voluntary Coventry was making him sensitive. He had thought +that his wife was at least giving him the best of her cool nature. Cool! +There was no coldness in that strained white face, as she read the +letter. The control she had over herself! It was admirable. He thought +that most women would have fainted, or have grown hysterical, or have +made a scene of some sort. Then he recalled the stoicism of the +Apache--and was back at her birth again. + +He realized for the first time the injury his thought of it did her. It +was that which had kept them apart, no doubt, and the sympathy of +lawlessness that had drawn her and Cairness together. Yet he had just +begun to flatter himself that he was eradicating the savage. She had +been gratifyingly like other women since his return. But it was as +Brewster had said, after all,--the Apache strain was abhorrent to him as +the venom of a snake. Yet he was fond of Felipa, too. + +Someway it had not occurred to him to be any more angry with Cairness +than he had been with her. The most he felt was resentful jealousy. +There was nothing more underhand about the man than there was about +Felipa. Sending the note by the prospectors had not been underhand. He +understood that it had been done only that it might make no trouble for +her, and give himself no needless pain. Cairness would have been willing +to admit to his face that he loved Felipa. That letter must have been +written in his own camp. + +He heard his wife coming down the stairs, and directly she stood in the +doorway. "Will you let me have that knife, Jack dear?" she asked +amiably. + +He turned his chair and studied her in a kind of hopeless amusement. +"Felipa," he said, "if you will insist upon being told, I cut open the +pockets of those dead men's clothes with it." + +"But I can have it cleaned," she said. + +He turned back abruptly. "You had better get another. You can't have +that one," he answered. + +Was it possible that twenty minutes before he had risen to the +histrionic pitch of self-sacrifice of offering her her freedom to marry +another man? + + + + +XII + + +It was unfortunate for Landor, as most things seemed to be just then, +that the Department Commander happened to have an old score to settle. +It resulted in the charges preferred by Brewster being given precedence +over the request for a court of inquiry. The Department Commander was a +man of military knowledge, and he foresaw that the stigma of having been +court-martialled for cowardice would cling to Landor through all his +future career, whatever the findings of the court might be. An officer +is in the position of the wife of Cæsar, and it is better for him, much +better, that the charge of "unsoldierly and unofficer-like conduct, in +violation of the sixty-first article of war," should never come up +against him, however unfounded it may be. + +It was a very poor case, indeed, that Brewster made out, despite a +formidable array of specifications. As it progressed, the situation took +on a certain ludicrousness. The tale of woe was so very trivial; it +seemed hardly worth the trouble of convening twelve officers from the +four corners of the Department to hear it. And there was about Brewster, +as he progressed, a suggestion of dragging one foot after the other, +leaving out a word here, overlooking an occurrence there, cutting off a +mile in one place, and tacking on an hour in another. + +Landor's wrath was mighty, but he smiled as he sat balancing a ruler on +his fingers and hearing how the citizens of San Tomaso, eager to avenge +their wrongs, had met him at early morning, had gone bravely forward, +keen on the scent, had implored him to hasten, while he halted on +worthless pretexts, and had, towards evening, reluctantly left a hot +trail, going from it at right angles, "and camping," said Brewster, +regretfully, "as far away as it was possible to get, considering the +halts." + +At one moment it appeared that Landor had given his command into the +hands of the citizens, at another that he had flatly refused to follow +them into danger, that he had threatened and hung back by turns, and +had, in short, made himself the laughing-stock of civilians and enlisted +men, by what Brewster called "his timid subterfuges." + +Yet somehow "timid subterfuges" seemed hardly the words to fit with the +hard, unswerving eye and the deep-lined face of the accused. It struck +the court so. There were other things that struck the court, notably +that Brewster had criticised his captain to civilians and to enlisted +men. The Judge Advocate frowned. The frown settled to a permanency when +Brewster sought out that honorable personage to complain, unofficially, +that his case was being neglected. It was about upon a par with an +accusation of bribery against a supreme judge in civil life, and +naturally did not do the plaintiff much good when the Judge Advocate +rose, terrible in his indignation, to repeat the complaint officially to +the assembled court at the next sitting. The court was resentful. It +listened and weighed for six days, and then it acquitted Landor on every +charge and specification "most honorably," to make it more strong, and +afterward went over, in a body, to his quarters, to congratulate him. +The rest of the post followed. + +Landor was in the dining room, and Felipa stood in the sitting room +receiving the praises of her husband with much tact. If he were the hero +of the hour, she was the heroine. The officers from far posts carried +their admiration to extravagance, bewitched by the sphinx-riddle written +somehow on her fair face, and which is the most potent and bewildering +charm a woman can possess. When they went away, they sent her boxes of +fresh tomatoes and celery and lemons, from points along the railroad, +which was a highly acceptable and altogether delicate attention in the +day and place. + +The garrison gave a hop in her honor and Landor's. It was quite an +affair, as many as five and thirty souls being present, and it was +written up in the _Army and Navy_ afterward. The correspondent went into +many adjectives over Mrs. Landor, and her fame spread through the land. + +Brewster stood in his own window, quite alone, and watched them all +crowding down to Landor's quarters. The beauty of the Triumph of Virtue +did not appeal to him. He was very uneasy. Countercharges were looming +on his view. To be sure, he had not lied, not absolutely and in so many +words, but his citizen witnesses had not been so adroit or so careful. +It would not have taken much to make out a very fair case of conduct +unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. Practical working texts, anent +looking before leaping, and being sure you are right ere going ahead, +occurred to him with new force. His morality at the moment was worthy +the law and the prophets. He was Experience in person, and as such would +have been an invaluable teacher, if there had been any seeking +instruction. But there was none. They were all with Landor, drinking his +wine and helping success succeed, than which one may find less pleasant +occupations. + +Yet there came a rap at his door directly. It was the McLane's striker, +bearing a note from Miss McLane. Brewster knew what was in it before he +opened it. But he went back to the window and read it by the fading +light. When he looked up it was to see Miss McLane and Ellton going up +the walk together, returning from Landor's house. + +And at another window Felipa also stood looking out into the dusk. There +had been a shower in the afternoon, and the clouds it had left behind +were like a soft moss of fire floating in the sky. A bright golden light +struck slantwise from the sunset. They had all gone away to dine and to +dress for the hop; Landor had walked down to the post trader's for the +mail, and she was left alone. + +She watched the figure of a man coming down the line. Because of the +dazzling, low light behind him, the outline was blurred in a shimmer. At +first she thought without any interest in it, one way or another, that +he was a soldier, then she could see that he was in citizen's clothes +and wore a sombrero and top boots. Even with that, until he was almost +in front of the house, she did not realize that it was Cairness, though +she knew well enough that he was in the post, and had been one of +Landor's most valuable witnesses. He had remained to hear the findings, +but she had kept close to the house and had not seen him before. He was +a government scout, a cow-boy, a prospector, reputed a squaw-man, +anything vagrant and unsettled, and so the most he might do was to turn +his head as he passed by, and looking up at the windows, bow gravely to +the woman standing dark against the firelight within. + +The blaze of glory had gone suddenly from the clouds, leaving them +lifeless gray, when she turned her eyes back to them; and the outlook +across the parade ground was very bare. She went and stood by the fire, +leaning her arm on the mantel-shelf and setting her determined lips. + +Three weeks later she left the post and the West. Landor's health was +broken from the effects of the poisonweed and the manifold troubles of +the months past. In lieu of sick leave, he was given a desirable detail, +and sent on to Washington, and for a year and a half he saw his wife +fitted into a woman's seemly sphere. She was heralded as a beauty, and +made much of as such, and the little vanities that had rarely shown +before came to the surface now. He was proud of her. Sought after and +admired, clothed in purple and scarlet and fine linen, within the limits +of a captain's pay, a creature of ultra-civilization, tamed, she was a +very charming woman indeed. There seemed to be no hint of the Apache +left. He all but forgot it himself. There was but one relapse in all the +time, and it chanced that he had no knowledge of that. + +Yet, in the midst of her little triumph, Felipa fell ill, failing +without apparent cause, and then the uneasiness that had only slept in +Landor for eighteen months came awake again. He did not believe when the +doctors told him that it was the lassitude of the moist, warm springtime +which was making the gray circles about her eyes, the listlessness of +her movements. + +When she lay, one day, with her face, too white and sharp, looking out +from the tangle of hair upon the pillow, he asked her almost abruptly if +she had rather go back to the West. He could not bring himself to ask if +she were longing to be near Cairness. He shrank too much from her frank, +unhesitating assent. + +The face on the pillow lighted quickly, and she put out her hand to him +impulsively. "Could we go back, Jack, even before the detail is up?" she +said. And yet her life of late had surely been one that women would have +thought enviable--most women. + +He himself had never dreamed how it irked her until now. It was many +years since he had been in the East, not, indeed, since Felipa had been +a small child. Keeping his promise to Cabot, as he understood it, had +left him little for such pleasures as that. But he had done his duty +then; he would do it again, and reap once more what seemed to him the +inevitable reward, the reward which had been his all through his +life,--sheer disappointment, in all he prized most, ashes and dust. + +"I can throw up the detail," he said indifferently, "I dare say I might +as well. There is only half a year more of it. Some one will be glad +enough to take that." + +"But you," said Felipa, wistfully, "you do not want to go back?" + +For a moment he stood looking straight into her eyes, yet neither read +the other's thoughts. Then he turned away with a baffled half laugh. +"Why should it matter to me?" he asked. + + + + +XIII + + +Cairness rode at a walk round and round the crowding, snorting, restless +herd of cattle that was gathered together in the pocket of the +foot-hills under the night sky. There were five other cow-boys who also +rode round and round, but they were each several hundred yards apart, +and he was, to all intents, alone. Now and then he quickened the gait of +his bronco and headed off some long-horned steer or heifer, that forced +itself out of the huddled, dark mass, making a break for freedom. But +for the most part he rode heavily, lopsided in his saddle, resting both +hands on the high pommel. He had had time to unlearn the neat +horsemanship of the service, and to fall into the slouchy manner of the +cow-boy, skilful but unscientific. It was a pitchy night, in spite of +the stars, but in the distance, far off across the velvety roll of the +hills, there was a forest fire on the top of a range of mountains. It +glowed against the sky and lighted the pocket and the prairie below, +making strange shadows among the cattle, or bringing into shining relief +here and there a pair of mighty horns. A wind, dry and hot, blew down +from the flames, and made the herd uneasy. + +Not far from where those flames were licking up into the heavens, +Cairness thought as he watched them, had been the Circle K Ranch. In +among the herd, even now, were Circle K cattle that had not yet been cut +out. Those six people of his own race had been all that was left to him +of his youth. To be sure, he had seen little of them, but he had known +that they were there, ready to receive him in the name of the home they +had all left behind. + +And since that gray dawn when he had picked his way through the ashes +and charred logs, and had bent over the bodies of his friend and the +dead mother and the two children, he had been possessed by a loathing +that was almost physical repulsion for all Indians. That was why he had +left the stone cabin he had built for himself in the White Mountains, +forsaking it and the Apaches who had been, in a way, his friends. But he +had done it, too, with the feeling that now he had nowhere to lay his +head; that he was driven from pillar to post, buffeted and chased; that +he was cursed with the curse of the wanderer. If it had not been that he +had an indefinite theory of his own concerning the Kirby massacre, as it +was known throughout the country, and that he meant to, some day, in +some way, avenge it upon the whites who had abandoned them to their +fate, he would have killed himself. He had been very near it once, and +had sat on the edge of his bunk in the cabin with a revolver in his +hand, thinking it all out for an entire evening, before deciding +dispassionately against it. He was not desperate, merely utterly +careless of life, which is much worse. Desperation is at the most the +keen agony of torture at the stake; but indifference toward all that is +held by this world, or the next, is dying in a gradual vacuum. + +He believed that he had no ties now, that friendships, the love of +woman, and the kiss of children all had missed him, and that his, +thenceforth, must be but vain regret. So far as he knew, Felipa had gone +away without ever having received his letter. The man he had intrusted +it to had been killed in the Aravaypa Cañon: that he was certain of; and +it never entered his head that his papers might have fallen into other +hands, and the note have finally been delivered to her. She was leading +the sort of life that would most quickly put him entirely out of her +mind. He was taking the Washington papers, and he knew. She had gone +away, not even sure that he had given her a thought since the night in +the Sierra Blanca when Black River had roared through the stillness, and +they had been alone in all the wild world. What a weird, mysterious, +unearthly scene it had been, quite outside the probabilities of anything +he had imagined or contemplated for a single minute. He had never +regretted it, though. He believed in impulses, particularly his own. + +Two steers, locking their horns, broke from the herd and swaying an +instant so, separated and started side by side across the prairie. He +settled in his saddle and put his cow-pony to a run, without any +preliminary gait, going in a wide circle to head them back. Running +across the ground, thick with coyote and dog holes, was decidedly +perilous; men had their necks broken in that way every few days; but it +would not have mattered to him especially to have ended so. Wherefore he +did not, but drove the steers back to the herd safely. And then he +returned to the monotonous sentry work and continued thinking of +himself. + +What had he done with four and thirty years, putting it at the very +highest valuation? He had sunk so far below the standard of his youth +that he would not be fit for his old companions, even if he had wanted +to go back to them, which, except in certain fits of depression, he did +not. His own mother cared very little what became of him. At Christmas +time she always sent him a letter, which reached him much later, as a +rule, and he answered it. His brothers had forgotten him. His sister, of +whom he had been very fond once, and for whom he had hoped a great deal, +had married well enough and gone to London; but she, too, had forgotten +him long since. + +So much for his past. As for his present. His only friends were +treacherous savages and some few settlers and cow-boys. They would none +of them miss him if he were to be laid under a pile of stones with a +board cross at his head anywhere by the roadside, in the plains or among +the hills. Some of them were honest men, some were desperadoes; none +were his equals, not one understood the things that meant life to him. +He had no abode, not so much as the coyote over there on the top of the +little swell. He made his living in divers and uncertain ways. Sometimes +he sent pictures to the East, studies of the things about him. They +sold well. Sometimes he was a scout or a guide. Sometimes he prospected +and located claims with more or less good luck. Sometimes he hired +himself out as a cow-boy at round-ups, as he was doing now. On the +whole, he was, from the financial standpoint, more of a success than +from any other. + +Also he was in love with the wife of a man he liked and respected--and +who trusted him. Yet in spite of that, he had come near--so near that it +made him cold to think about it--to following in the way of many +frontiersmen and marrying a Mexican. It had been when he had first +learned that Felipa Landor had gone East for two years; and the Mexican +had been very young and very pretty, also very bad. + +It was not a nice outlook. But he found it did not grow any better for +the thought that Felipa might have forgotten all about him, though that +would unquestionably have been the best thing that could have happened +for all concerned, from the standpoint of common sense. But there were +two chances, of a sort, that made it worth while worrying along. One was +that Felipa might some day, in the working out of things, come into his +life. The other was that he could ferret out the truth of the Kirby +massacre. Love and revenge are mighty stimulants. + +As for the Kirby affair, there had been no hint of treachery in the +published or verbal accounts of it. The ranch hands who had escaped had +told a plain enough tale of having fled at the approach of the Indians, +vainly imploring the Kirbys to do the same. It seemed that the most +they could be accused of was cowardice. It had all been set forth in the +papers with much circumstance and detail. But Cairness doubted. He +remembered their dogged ugliness, and that of the raw-boned Texan woman. + +That very day the doubt had attained the proportions of a certainty. The +sight of a Circle K cow had called up the subject of the massacre, and a +cow-boy had said, "Them are the property of Bill Lawton, I reckon." + +Cairness asked who Bill Lawton might be, and was told that he had been +one of the Kirby men, "Big fellow with a big wife. If you was ever +there, you'd ought to remember her. She was a Venus and a Cleopatrer +rolled into one, you bet." The cow-boy was not devoid of lore for all +his lowly station. + +Cairness did remember, but he did not see fit to say so. + +A half dozen cow-boys came riding over from the camp of the outfit to +relieve those on duty. Cairness was worn out with close on eighteen +hours in the saddle, tearing and darting over the hills and ravines, +quick as the shadow from some buzzard high in the sky, scrambling over +rocks, cutting, wheeling, chasing after fleet-footed, scrawny cattle. He +went back to camp, and without so much as washing the caked dust and +sweat from his face, rolled himself in a blanket and slept. + +The round-up lasted several days longer, and then the men were paid off, +and went their way. The way of most was toward Tombstone, because the +opportunities for a spree were particularly fine there. Not because of +these, but because the little parson lived there now, Cairness went +also. Moreover, it was as good a place as another to learn more about +the massacre. Cow-boys coming from other round-ups and getting drunk +might talk. + +The famous mining town was two years old. It had ceased to be a "wind +city" or even a canvas one, and was settling down to the dignity of +adobe, or even boards, having come to stay. But it was far too new, too +American, to have any of the picturesqueness of the Mexican settlements +of the country. + +Cairness tied his cow-pony to a post in front of a low calcimined adobe, +and going across the patch of trodden earth knocked at the door. The +little parson's own high voice called to him, and he went in. + +The Reverend Taylor was tipped back in his chair with his feet upon the +table, reading the Tucson papers. He sprang up and put out his hand in a +delighted welcome, his small face turning into a very chart of smiling +seams and wrinkles. + +But his left hand hung misshapen, and Cairness saw that it did not bend +at the wrist as he motioned to an empty soda-pop bottle and a glass on +the table beside a saucer of fly-paper and water. "That's what I still +take, you see," he said, "but I'll serve you better;" and he opened a +drawer and brought out a big flask. "I reckon you've got a thirst on you +this hot weather." He treated himself to a second bottle of the pop, +and grew loquacious, as another man might have under the influence of +stronger drink; and he talked so much about himself and so little about +his guest that Cairness wondered. Presently the reason made itself +manifest. It was the egotism of the lover. The Reverend Taylor was going +to be married. He told Cairness so with an expression of beatitude that +answered to a blush, and pointed to a photograph on his mantel-shelf. +"She ain't so pretty to look at," he confided, which was undoubtedly +true, "nor yet so young. But I ain't neither, 'sfar as that goes. She's +amiable. That's the great thing after all, for a wife. She's amiable." + +Cairness congratulated him with all solemnity, and asked if she were a +widow. He was sure she must be, for the gallantry of the West in those +days allowed no woman to pass maturity unwed. + +But she was, it appeared, a maiden lady, straight from Virginia. The +Reverend Taylor was the first man she had ever loved. "It was right +funny how it come about," he confided, self absorbed still. "Her mother +keeps the res'rant acrost the street where I take my meals (I used to +have a Greaser woman, but I got sick of _frijoles_ and _gorditas_ and +_chili_ and all that stuff), and after dinner every afternoon, she and +me would put two saucers of fly-paper on a table and we would set and +bet on which would catch the most flies before four o'clock. You ain't +no idea how interestin' it got to be. The way we watched them flies was +certainly intense. Sometimes, I tell you, she'd get that excited she'd +scream when they couldn't make up their minds to light. Once her mother +come runnin' in, thinkin' I was tryin' to kiss her." He beamed upon +Cairness, and accepted congratulations charmingly, sipping his soda-pop +with quite a rakish little air. "What brought you here?" he remembered +to ask, at length. + +Cairness told him that he had been in the 3 C round-up, and then went on +to his point. "Taylor, see here. I want to find out more about the Kirby +massacre. There is more to that than has appeared in print." + +The minister nodded his head. "Yes, I reckon there is," he agreed. + +"You remember that woman," Cairness went on, making and rolling adroitly +a straw-paper cigarette, "the one who was cook on the ranch for so long? +She could tell us what it is, and I'll bet on it." + +The Reverend Taylor nodded again. "Reckon she could. But--" he grabbed +at a fly with one hand, and caught and crushed it in his palm with much +dexterity, "but--she's lit out." + +"So?" said Cairness, with the appearance of stolidity he invariably +assumed to cover disappointment or any sort of approach to emotion. +"Where's she gone to?" + +Taylor shrugged his shoulders. "_Quien sabe?_ Can't prove it by me. Just +_vamoosed_. Fell in love with a little terrier of a Greaser half her +size, and cleaned out. Lawton was in here a day or two ago, lookin' for +her and raisin' particular Cain with whiskey and six-shooters--bawlin' +about her all over the place." + +"Is he here now?" + +He had gone back. + +Cairness made another cigarette and considered. "I think I'll hire to +him," he said, after a while. + +"Hire to him!" exclaimed Taylor, "what for?" + +"For the fun of it, and 'found.' Can you give me a recommendation?" + +The parson said that he could not. "Lawton ain't any use for me. I guess +it's because he remembers me, that's why. He'll remember you, too." + +"No," said Cairness, "he won't. I've met him since. That was a long time +ago, and I was smooth shaven." + +Taylor smiled. Cairness's small, brown mustache, curving up at the ends, +was hardly a disguise. "There's a fellow here who could get you the job, +though," he suggested. "Fellow named Stone. Newspaper man, used to be in +Tucson. He seems to have some sort of pull with that Lawton fellow." + +"I know him," Cairness said; "he used to be round San Carlos when I was +an enlisted man. He won't remember me, either. And you needn't +necessarily mention that I was with Landor in the San Tomaso affair, or +that I was a scout. He may know it, of course. And again, he may not." + +He got up and went to the window, which was iron-barred, after the +Mexican fashion, and stood, with his hands run into his belt, looking +down at a row of struggling, scraggly geraniums in tin cans. They were +the most disheartening part of the whole disheartening prospect, within +or without. + +The Reverend Taylor got his hat. It was still a silk one, but new, and +without holes. They went over to the false front board structure which +was Stone's office. It appeared from the newspaper man's greeting that +it was a case of the meeting of prominent citizens. Taylor presented +Cairness, with the elegant, rhetorical flourishes he was capable of when +he chose. "He is a friend of mine," he added, "and anything that you can +do for him will be appreciated, you _sabe_?--" Stone did understand, and +Taylor left them alone together. + +They opened upon non-committal topics: the weather, which had been +scorching and parched since April, and would continue so, in all +probability, until September; the consequent condition of the crops, +which was a figure of speech, for there were none, and never had been, +deserving of the name; and then Cairness, having plenty of time, brought +it round to the troops. In the tirade that followed he recognized a good +many of the sentiments, verbatim, of the articles in the Tucson papers +of the time of Landor's scout. But he half shut his eyes and listened, +pulling at the small, brown mustache. Stone set him down, straightway, +as an ass, or English, which was much the same thing. + +Cairness was still in his dust-grayed outfit, his hair was below where +his collar would have been had he been wearing one, and his nose was on +its way to at least the twentieth new skin that summer. In all his years +of the frontier, he had never become too well tanned to burn. His +appearance was not altogether reassuring, Stone thought. He was not only +an ass, he was also tough--the sort of a fellow with whom it was as +well to remember that your six-shooter is beneath the last copy of your +paper, on the desk at your elbow. + +"I have never especially liked you," Cairness decided, for his part, +"and I can't say that you improve upon acquaintance, you know. You wrote +those articles about Landor, and that's one I owe you." + +Stone wore his oratory out after a time, and Cairness closed his eyes +rather more, to the end that he might look a yet greater ass, and said +that he wanted to hire out as a cow-boy or ranch hand of some sort. +"Taylor told me you knew a fellow named Lawton, I think it was. Would he +be wanting one now?" He took considerable satisfaction in his own +histrionic ability, and lapsed into the phraseology of the job-hunter. + +Stone thought not. He had not heard Lawton speak of needing help. But he +wrote a very guarded note of recommendation, falling back into the +editorial habit, and dashing it off under pressure. Cairness, whose own +writing was tiny and clear and black, and who covered whole sheets +without apparent labor, but with lightning rapidity, watched and +reflected that he spent an amount of time on the flourish of his +signature that might have been employed to advantage in the attainment +of legibility. + +"I'm a busy man," said Stone, "a very busy man, the busiest man in the +territory." + +No one in the territory was busy. The atmosphere was still too much that +of the Mexican possession; but Cairness said it was undoubtedly so, and +took his leave, clanking his spurs, heavy footed, and stooping his long +form, in continuance of the rôle of ass. He knew well enough that he had +been so summed up. It is a disadvantage the British citizen labors under +in the West. + +The next day he left for the Circle K Ranch. Lawton did not appear to +need help. But he fired a Greaser, nevertheless, and took Cairness on. +He seemed to stand in as abject awe of Stone's note as an Arab might +have stood of a bit of the black covering of the Kaabah stone. + +And Cairness stayed with him, serving seven months, and seeking what he +might discover. But he discovered nothing more than that the Circle K +Ranch, for all that it might be the Texan's in name, was Stone's in +point of fact, and that Lawton's dread of that mighty man was very much +greater than his hope of heaven. + +The knowledge was slight and of no plain value; but it might be of use +some day. Life had taught Cairness, amongst other things, that it +usually proved so. He stored it away with the other gleanings of +experience in his mental barns, and went in search of new adventures. + + + + +XIV + + +The chief Alchise and a half hundred of his kind--one so deaf that he +held to his savage old ear a civilized speaking-trumpet--squatted about +on the ground, and explained to Crook the nature of their wrongs. + +"We were planting our own corn and melons," said Alchise, "and making +our own living. The agent at San Carlos never gave us any rations, but +we didn't mind about that. We were taking care of ourselves. One day the +agent--" He stopped and scowled at a squaw a few yards away, whose +papoose was crying lustily. The squaw, having her attention thus called +to the uproar of her offspring, drew from somewhere in the folds of her +dirty wrappings a nursing-bottle, and putting the nipple in its mouth, +hushed its cries. The chief went on: "One day the agent sent up and said +that we must give up our own country and our corn patches, and go down +there to the Agency to live. He sent Indian soldiers to seize our women +and children, and drive us down to the hot land." + +He was a simple, sullen Apache, and his untutored mind could only grasp +effects. Causes were beyond it. He did not, therefore, understand that +coal had been discovered on his reservation, also silver, and that the +agent and the agent's friends were trying to possess themselves of the +land in order to dispose of it to the Eastern capitalist. + +He knew that his cattle were driven off by the white cow-boys and could +not be gotten back, that he was given but one cup of flour every seven +days, that beef was so difficult to obtain that it practically formed no +part of his diet; but he did not know of the "boys" in Tucson and +officials in Washington who were profiting from the sale of Indian +supplies to white squatters. + +He knew that the stores which should have gone to him were loaded upon +wagon-trains and hurried off the reservation in the dead of night; but +he did not know why the Apache who was sent to humbly ask the agent +about it was put in the guard-house for six months without trial. He +knew that his corn patches were trampled down, but not that it was to +force him to purchase supplies from the agent and his friends, or else +get out. He knew that his reservation--none too large, as it was, for +three thousand adults more or less--had been cut down without his +consent five different times, and that Mormon settlers were elbowing him +out of what space remained. But, being only a savage, it were foolish to +expect that he should have seen the reason for these things. He has not +yet learned to take kindly to financial dishonesty. Does he owe you two +bits, he will travel two hundred miles to pay it. He has still much to +absorb concerning civilization. + +Another thing he could not quite fathom was why the religious dances he +had, in pursuance of his wild pleasure, seen fit to hold on Cibicu +Creek, had been interfered with by the troops. To be sure, the dances +had been devised by his medicine men to raise the dead chiefs and braves +with the end in view of re-peopling the world with Apaches and driving +out the Whites. But as the dead had not consented to the raising, it +might have been as well to allow the Indians to become convinced of the +futility of it in that way. However, the government thought otherwise, +and sent its troops. + +Because they were sent, a fine officer had fallen victim to Apache +treachery of the meanest sort and to the gross stupidity of others, and +Arizona was on the verge of the worst disorder of all its disorderly +history. So Crook was sent for, and he came at once, and looked with his +small, piercing eyes, and listened with his ears so sharp to catch the +ring of untruth, and learned a pretty tale of what had gone on during +his absence on the troubled northern plains. + +A great many delightful facts, illustrative of the rule of the +Anglo-Saxon in for gain, came to his knowledge. There were good men and +just in Arizona, and some of these composed the Federal Grand Jury, +which reported on the condition of affairs at the Agency. When a +territorial citizen had anything to say in favor of the Redskin, it +might be accepted as true. And these jurymen said that the happenings on +the San Carlos Agency had been a disgrace to the age and a foul blot +upon the national escutcheon. They waxed very wroth and scathing as they +dwelt upon how the agent's vast power made almost any crime possible. +There was no check upon his conduct, nor upon the wealth he could steal +from a blind government; and to him, and such as him, they attributed +the desolation and bloodshed which had dotted the plains with the graves +of murdered victims. It was the rather unavailing wail of the honest +citizen caught between the upper and nether millstones of the politician +and the hostile. + +Crook had been recalled too late, and he knew it. Every Apache on the +reservation was ready for the war-path. It was not to be averted. One +man, even a very firm and deft one, could not straighten out in a few +weeks the muddle of ten years of thievery, oppression, and goading. It +takes more than just a promise, even though it is one likely to be kept, +to soothe the hurt feelings of savages who have seen eleven of their +friends jailed for fourteen months without the form of accusation or +trial. They feel bitter toward the government whose minions do those +things. + +The new general was hailed by the territories as deliverer until he +found the truth and told it, after which they called him all manner of +hard names, for that is the sure reward of the seeker after fact. He +prepared for war, seeing how things were, but he tried for peace the +while. He sent to the bucks who lurked in the fastnesses and +strongholds, and said that he was going out alone to see them. He left +his troops and pack-train, and with two interpreters and two officers +repaired to the cañon of the Black River, where he scrambled and slid, +leading his scrambling, sliding mule down the precipices of basalt and +lava among the pines and junipers. + +Bright, black eyes peered down from crevasses and branches. An Apache +lurked behind every boulder and trunk. But only the squaws and the +children and twenty-six bucks in war toilet, naked from shoulder to +waist, painted with blood and mescal, rings in their noses, and heads +caked thick with mud, came down to the conference. + +It was not of much avail in the end, the conference. There was more than +one tribe to be pacified. The restlessness of the wild things, of the +goaded, and of the spring was in their blood. + +The last straw was laid on when an Indian policeman arrested a young +buck for some small offence. The buck tried to run away, and would not +halt when he was told to. The chief of police fired and killed a squaw +by mistake; and though he was properly sorry for it, and expressed his +regret, the relatives and friends of the deceased squaw caught him a few +days later, and cutting off his head, kicked it round, as they had seen +the White-eye soldier do with his rubber foot-ball. Then they, aroused +and afraid too of punishment, fled from the reservation and began to +kill. + +It was a halcyon time for the press. It approved and it disapproved, +while the troops went serenely on their way. It gave the government two +courses,--removal of the Apaches, one and all, to the Indian territory +(as feasible as driving the oxen of Geryon), or extermination--the +catchword of the non-combatant. + +The government took neither course. + +There was but one other resort. The exasperated, impotent press turned +to it. "If the emergency should arise, and it now looks as though it may +come soon," flowed the editorial ink, "enough resolute and courageous +men can be mustered in Tombstone, Globe, Tucson, and other towns and +settlements to settle the question, once and forever: to settle it as +such questions have often been settled before." + +In pursuance of which the resolute and courageous men arose at the cry +of their bleeding land. They have gone down to history (to such history +as deigns to concern itself with the reclaiming of the plains of the +wilderness, in area an empire of itself) as the Tombstone Toughs. + +The exceedingly small respectable element of Tombstone hailed their +departure with unmixed joy. They had but one wish,--that the Toughs +might meet the Apaches, and that each might rid the face of the desert +of the other. But the only Apaches left to meet were the old and feeble, +and the squaws and papooses left at San Carlos. The able-bodied bucks +were all in the field, as scouts or hostiles. + +The resolute and courageous men, led by a resolute and courageous +saloon-keeper, found one old Indian living at peace upon his rancheria. +They fired at him and ran away. The women and children of the settlers +were left to bear the brunt of the anger of the Apaches. It was too much +for even the Tucson journalist. He turned from denunciation of the +military, for one moment, and applied his vigorous adjectives to the +Tombstone Toughs. + +Arizona had its full share of murder and sudden death. But New Mexico +had more than that. Spring passed on there, with warmth for the +snow-wrapped mountains, and blistering heat for the dead plains, and her +way was marked with lifeless and mutilated forms. + +Landor's troop was stationed at Stanton, high up among the hills. It had +come there from another post down in the southern part of the territory, +where anything above the hundreds is average temperature, and had struck +a blizzard on its march. + +Once when Felipa got out of the ambulance to tramp beside it, in the +stinging snow whirls, and to start the thin blood in her veins, she had +looked up into his blanket-swathed face, and laughed. "I wonder if you +looked like that when you took me through this part of the world twenty +years ago," she said. + +He did not answer, and she knew that he was annoyed. She had come to see +that he was always annoyed by such references, and she made them more +frequent for that very reason, half in perversity, half in a fixed +determination not to be ashamed of her origin, for she felt, without +quite realizing it, that to come to have shame and contempt for herself +would be to lose every hold upon life. + +She was happier than she had been in Washington. Landor saw that, but he +refused to see that she was also better. However much a man may admire, +in the abstract, woman as a fine natural animal, unspoiled by social +pettiness, he does not fancy the thing in his wife. From the artistic +standpoint, a regal barbarian, unconfined, with her virtue and her vices +on a big scale, is very well; from the domestic, it is different. She is +more suitable in the garb of fashion, with homemade character of +parlor-ornament proportions. + +Felipa had discarded, long since, the short skirt and moccasins of her +girlhood, and had displayed no inconsiderable aptitude in the matter of +fashions; but she was given to looseness of draperies and a carelessness +of attire in her own home that the picturesqueness of her beauty alone +only saved from slatternliness. There was one manifestation of ill taste +which she did not give, however, one common enough with the wives of +most of the officers. She was never to be found running about the post, +or sitting upon the porches, with her husband's cape around her +shoulders and his forage-cap over her eyes. Her instinct for the +becoming was unfailing. This was a satisfaction to Landor. But it was a +secret grievance that she was most contented when in her riding habit, +tearing foolhardily over the country. + +Another grievance was the Ellton baby. Felipa adored it, and for no +reason that he could formulate, he did not wish her to. He wanted a +child of his own. Altogether he was not so easy to get on with as he had +been. She did not see why. Being altogether sweet-humored and cheerful +herself, she looked for sweet humor and cheerfulness in him, and was +more and more often disappointed. Not that he was ever once guilty of +even a quick burst of ill temper. It would have been a relief. + +Sometimes when she was quite certain of being undisturbed, she took +Cairness's one letter from the desk, and read and reread it, and went +over every word and look she had had from him. She had forgotten +nothing, but though her olive skin would burn and then grow more +colorless than ever when she allowed herself to recall, not even a sigh +would come from between the lips that had grown a very little set. + +Yet she not only loved Cairness as much as ever, but more. Her church +had the strong hold of superstition upon her, but she might have thrown +it off, grown reckless of enforced conventions, and have gone to him, +had not faithfulness and gratitude held her yet more powerfully. + +Landor had been good to her. She would have gone through anything rather +than have hurt him. And yet it was always a relief now when he went +away. She was glad when he was ordered into the field at the beginning +of the spring. Of old she had been sufficiently sorry to have him go. +But of old she had not felt the bit galling. + +Life went on very much the same at the post when there was only the +infantry left in possession. As there was nothing to do at any time, +there was nothing the less for that. On the principle that loneliness is +greatest in a crowd, Stanton was more isolated now than Grant had been +in the days when there had been no railroad west of Kansas. The railroad +was through the southwest now, but it was a hundred miles away. It was +unsafe to ride outside the reservation, there was no one for hops, the +only excitement was the daily addition to the list of slaughtered +settlers. Felipa spent most of her time with the Ellton baby. Miss +McLane had been married to Landor's second lieutenant for a year and a +half, and they were very happy. But Felipa in the knowledge of the +strength of her own love, which gained new might each time that she +wrestled with it and threw it back upon the solid ground of duty, found +their affection decidedly insipid. Like the majority of marital +attachments, it had no especial dignity. It was neither the steadfast +friendship she felt for her husband, nor the absolute devotion she would +have given Cairness. + +But the baby was satisfactory. She amused it by the hour. For the rest, +being far from gregarious, and in no way given to spending all the +morning on some one else's front porch, and all the afternoon with some +one else upon her own, she drew on the post library and read, or else +sat and watched the mountains with their sharp, changing shadows by day, +and their Indian signal flashes by night,--which did not tend to enhance +the small degree of popularity she enjoyed among the post women. + +Some thirty miles to the southeast was the Mescalero Indian Agency. +Landor had consented with the worst possible grace to take her there +sometime when the road should be passable and safe. She had openly +resented his disinclination, though she usually appeared not to notice +it. "It is very natural I should want to see the place where I was +born," she had said, "and I think we should both be more comfortable if +you would not persist in being so ashamed of it." + +The story of her origin was an open secret now. Landor had never been +able to discover who had spread it. The probabilities were, however, +that it had been Brewster. He had been suspended for a year after +Landor's trial, and driven forth with contempt, but he was back again, +with a bold front, and insinuating and toadying himself into public +favor, destined by that Providence which sometimes arouses itself to +reward and punish before the sight of all men, to be short-lived. + + + + +XV + + +Landor sat at the centre table and went over requisition blanks by the +light of a green-shaded student lamp. The reflection made him look livid +and aging. Felipa had noticed it, and then she had turned to the fire +and sat watching, with her soft eyes half closed, the little sputtering +sparks from the mesquite knot. She had been immovable in that one +position for at least an hour, her hands folded with a weary looseness +in her lap. If it had not been that her face was very hard to read, even +her husband might have guessed that she was sad. But he was not thinking +about her. He went on examining the papers until some one came upon the +front porch and knocked at the door. Then he got up and went out. + +It was the post-trader, he told Felipa when he came back, and he was +asking for help from the officer-of-the-day. Some citizens down at the +store were gambling and drinking high, and were becoming uproarious. + +Landor sent for a squad of the guard and went to put them out. It was +just one of the small emergencies that go to make up the chances of +peace. He might or he might not come back alive; the probabilities in +favor of the former, to be sure. But the risks are about equal whether +one fights Indians or citizens drunk with liquor and gaming. + +The men went away, however, without much trouble beyond tipsy protests +and mutterings, and the sutler rewarded the guard with beer, and +explained to Landor that several of the disturbers were fellows who were +hanging round the post for the beef contract; the biggest and most +belligerent--he of the fierce, drooping mustachios--was the owner of the +ranch where the Kirby massacre had taken place, as well as of another +one in New Mexico. + +Landor paid very little attention just then, but that same night he had +occasion to think of it again. + +It was his habit to go to bed directly after taps when he was +officer-of-the-day, and to visit the guard immediately before reveille +the next morning. But the requisitions and some troop papers kept him +until almost twelve, so that he decided to make his rounds as soon as +the clock had struck twelve, and to sleep until sunrise. Felipa had long +since gone off to bed. He turned down the lamp, put on his cape and cap, +and with his revolver in his pocket and his sabre clicking a monotonous +accompaniment went out into the night. + +It was not very dark. The sky was thick with clouds, but there was a +waning moon behind them. The only light in the garrison was in the +grated windows of the guard-house. + +Visiting the guard is dull work, and precisely the same round, night +after night, with hardly ever a variation. But to-night there occurred a +slight one. Landor was carrying his sabre in his arm, as he went by the +back of the quarters, in order that its jingle might not disturb any +sleepers. For the same reason he walked lightly, although, indeed, he +was usually soft-footed, and came unheard back of Brewster's yard. +Brewster himself was standing in the shadow of the fence, talking to +some man. Landor could see that it was a big fellow, and the first thing +that flashed into his mind, without any especial reason, was that it was +the rancher who had been in trouble down at the sutler's store. + +It gave cause for reflection; but an officer was obviously at liberty to +talk to whomsoever he might choose around his own premises, at any hour +of the day or night. So the officer of the day went on, treading +quietly. But he had something to think about now that kept off +drowsiness for the rest of the rounds. Brewster's fondness for the +society of dubious civilians was certainly unfortunate. And the +conjunction of the aspiring beef contractor and the commissary officer +was also unfortunate, not to say curious. Because of this. The beef +contract was about to expire, and the commandant had advertised for +bids. A number of ranchers had already turned their papers in. +Furnishing the government's soldiers with meat is never an empty honor. + +The bids, duly sealed, were given into the keeping of the commissary +officer to be put in his safe, and kept until the day of judgment, when +all being opened in public and in the presence of the aspirants, the +lowest would get the contract. It was a simple plan, and gave no more +opportunity for underhand work than could be avoided. But there were +opportunities for all that. It was barely possible--the thing had been +done--for a commissary clerk or sergeant, desirous of adding to his +pittance of pay, or of favoring a friend among the bidders, to tamper +with the bids. By the same token there was no real reason why the +commissary officer could not do it himself. Landor had never heard, or +known, of such a case, but undoubtedly the way was there. It was a +question of having the will and the possession of the safe keys. + +There were only the bids to be taken out and steamed open. The lowest +found, it was simple enough for the favored one to make his own a +quarter of a cent less, and to turn it in at the last moment. But one +drawback presented itself. Some guileful and wary contractors, making +assurance twice sure, kept their bids themselves and only presented them +when the officers sat for the final awarding. Certainly Brewster would +have been wiser not to have been seen with the big civilian. During the +two days that elapsed before the awarding of the contract, Landor +thought about it most of the time. + +It came to pass in the working out of things that the commandant elected +to spend the night before the opening of the bids, in the small town +some miles away, where one of the first families was giving a dinner. +This left Landor, as next in rank, in temporary command. It had happened +often enough before, in one way or another, but this time the duties of +the position seemed to weigh upon him. He was restless and did not care +to sleep. He sent Felipa off to bed, and sat watching where her lithe +young figure had gone out of the door for some minutes. Then he ran his +hand across his mouth contemplatively, stroked his mustache, and finally +went out of the house and down to Ellton's quarters. + +When the baby began to cry, as it was always quite sure to do sooner or +later, and Mrs. Ellton went up to it, Landor spoke. "If I should come +for you at any hour to-night, I wish you would hold yourself in +readiness to go out with me immediately." + +He was not the sort of a man of whom to ask explanations. Ellton said +"Very well," and proceeded to talk about the troop's hogs and gardens, +both of which were a source of increase to the troop funds. + +Mrs. Ellton returned before long, and Landor went back home. + +"I shall be in and out all night, more or less," he told Felipa. She +reached her hands from the bedclothes and stroked the deep lines on his +forehead, the lines she had had most to do with putting there. But she +did not ask for confidences. She never did. It was not her way. He +kissed her and went out into the night again, to sit upon his porch at a +spot where, through the cottonwood branches, he commanded a view of +Brewster's front door and of the windows of the commissary office. + +The silence of the garrison was absolute. Over in the company clerk's +office of one of the infantry barracks there was a light for a time. +Then, at about midnight, it too was put out. A cat came creeping from +under the board walk and minced across the road. He watched it absently. + +When he looked up again to Brewster's house, there was a chink of faint +light showing through a curtain. He got up then and went down to +Ellton's quarters. + +Ellton himself answered the muffled knock. "I didn't turn in," he said +to the mysterious figure, shrouded in a cape, with a visor down to its +peering eyes. + +Landor told him to get his cap and come out. He followed the shadows of +the trees near the low commissary building, and they stood there, each +behind a thick cottonwood trunk. Landor watched the light in Brewster's +window. It disappeared before long, and they held their breaths. Ellton +began to guess what was expected to happen. Yet Brewster himself did not +come out. + +Landor had almost decided that he had made an ungenerous mistake, when +Ellton came over with one light spring and, touching him on the +shoulder, pointed to the window of the commissary office. A thick, dark +blanket had evidently been hung within, but the faintest red flicker +showed through a tiny hole. + +Then Landor remembered for the first time that there was a back door to +Brewster's quarters and to the commissary. He crept over to the +commissary and tried the door gently. It was fast locked. Then he went +to the window. It was a low one, on a level with his chest, with +wide-apart iron bars. He ran his hand between them now, and, doubling +his fist, broke a pane with a sudden blow. As the glass crashed in, he +grasped the gray blanket and drew it back. Brewster was standing in +front of the open safe, the package of bids in his hands, and the big +rancher was beside him holding a candle and shading it with his palm. +They had both turned, and were staring, terror-eyed, at the bleeding +hand that held back the blanket. + +"Can you see, Ellton?" Landor asked in his restrained, even voice. He +evidently meant that there should be no more noise about this than +necessary, that the post should know nothing of it. + +"I can see, sir," the lieutenant answered. + +Then Landor spoke to the commissary officer. "You will oblige me, Mr. +Brewster, by returning those bids to the safe and by opening the door +for me." He dropped the blanket, drew back his cut hand, warm and wet +with blood, and wrapped it in a handkerchief very deliberately, as he +waited. + +Presently the front door opened. The commissary officer evidently had +all the keys. Landor and Ellton, who were commandant and adjutant as +well, went through the close-smelling storeroom, which reeked with +codfish and coffee, into the office. + +The citizen was still there, still holding the candle and shading it, +scared out of the little wits he had at the best of times. He was too +frightened as yet to curse Brewster and the wary scoundrel back in +Arizona, who had set him on to tampering with the military, and had put +up the funds to that end--a small risk for a big gain. + +Landor pointed to him. "Who is this?" he asked. + +Brewster told him. "It is Mr. Lawton, of the Circle K Ranch." + +"What is he doing here?" + +"He was helping me." + +"Helping you to do what?" + +"To get out the bids." His courage was waxing a little. + +"For what purpose?" went on the cross questions. + +"To take them over to my quarters and keep them safe." + +"Yes?" said Landor. The inflection was not pleasing. It caused Brewster +to answer somewhat weakly, "Yes." + +"Do you think, sir, that you could tell that to twelve officers and make +them believe it?" + +Brewster was silent, but he neither flinched nor cowered, nor yet +shifted his eyes. + +Landor turned to the citizen. "Where is your bid, Mr. Lawton?" + +"I ain't put it in yet," he stammered feebly. + +"Don't put it in, then. Leave the reservation to-night. You understand +me, do you? Now go!" + +Lawton set down the candle upon the desk, and crept away by the rear +door. + +After he had gone, Landor turned to Brewster once more. "Are all the +bids in the safe again?" + +They were. + +"Is it closed?" + +It was. + +"Give me the keys--all the keys." + +He handed them over. + +Ellton stood by the door, with his hands in his pockets, and a +countenance that tried hard to maintain the severity of discipline. But +he was plainly enjoying it. + +"Now, Mr. Brewster," said Landor, going to the safe and resting his +elbow upon it, and leaning forward in his earnestness, "I am going to +tell you what you are to do. It would be better for the service and for +all concerned if you do it quietly. I think you will agree with me, that +any scandal is to be avoided. Come to the opening of the bids to-morrow, +at noon, quite as though nothing of this disgraceful sort had happened. +I will keep the keys until then. But by retreat to-morrow evening I want +your resignation from the service in the hands of the adjutant. If it is +not, I shall prefer charges against you the next morning. But I hardly +think you will deem it advisable to stand a court-martial." He stopped +and stood erect again. + +Brewster started to protest, still with the almost unmoved countenance +of an innocent man. At any rate, he was not an abject, whining +scoundrel, thought Ellton, with a certain amount of admiration. + +Landor held up a silencing hand. "If you have any explanations that you +care to make, that it would be worth any one's time to listen to, you +may keep them for a judge advocate." He pointed to the door. + +Brewster hesitated for a moment, then walked out, a little unsteadily. +They blew out the candle and took down the gray blanket. "A stone can +have broken that pane, and I cut my hand on a bottle," said Landor. + +Ellton answered "Very good," and they went out, locking the door. + + + + +XVI + + +The contract went to a needy and honest contractor when the bids were +opened. And by night the whole garrison was in excitement over +Brewster's inexplicable resignation. It was inexplicable, but not +unexplained. He went around to all the officers with the exception only +of Landor and Ellton, and told that he had some time since decided to +give up the service and to read and practise law in Tucson. No one was +inclined to believe it. But no one knew what to believe, for Ellton and +his captain held their tongues. They left the commandant himself in +ignorance. + +Brewster got hunting leave, pending the acceptance of his resignation, +and went to the railway. In less than a week he was all but forgotten in +a newer interest. + +A raiding party of hostiles had passed near the fort, and had killed, +with particular atrocity, a family of settlers. The man and his wife had +been tortured to death, the baby had had its brains beaten out against +the trunk of a tree, a very young child had been hung by the wrist +tendons to two meat hooks on the walls of the ranch-house, and left +there to die. One big boy had had his eyelids and lips and nose cut off, +and had been staked down to the ground with his remains of a face lying +over a red-ant hole. Only two had managed to escape,--a child of ten, +who had carried his tiny sister in his arms, twenty miles of cañons and +hills, to the post. + +Felipa had taken charge of the two, being the only woman in the place +not already provided with children of her own, and had roused herself to +an amount of capability her husband had never suspected her of. She +belonged to the tribe of unoccupied women, as a rule, not that she was +indolent so much as that she appeared to have no sense of time nor of +the value of it. Landor, who had always one absorbing interest or +another to expend his whole energy upon, even if it were nothing larger +than running the troop kitchen, thought her quite aimless, though he +never addressed that or any other reproach to her. He was contented at +the advent of the hapless orphans for one thing, that they superseded +the Ellton baby, which he secretly detested with a kind of unreasonable +jealousy. + +His contentment was not to last for long, however. The quartermaster +broke in upon it rudely as he sat on the porch one morning after +guard-mounting, "Have you seen the man who came up with the scouts from +Grant?" + +Landor knew that the scouts had come in the afternoon before, and were +in camp across the creek; but he had not seen their chief, and he said +so. + +"Handsome fellow," went on the quartermaster, "and looks like a +gentleman. Glories in the Ouida-esque name of Charles Morely Cairness, +and signs it in full." + +"Sounds rather like a family magazine novel hero, doesn't it?" Landor +said, with a hint of a sneer, then repented, and added that Cairness had +been with him as guide, and was really a fine fellow. He turned his eyes +slowly, without moving, and looked at Felipa. She was sitting near them +in a patch of sun-sifted shade behind the madeira vines, sewing on a +pinafore for the little girl who was just then, with her brother, +crossing the parade to the post school, as school call sounded. He knew +well enough that she must have heard, her ears were so preternaturally +sharp. But the only sign she gave was that her lips had set a little. So +he waited in considerable uneasiness for what might happen. He +understood her no more than he had that first day he had met her riding +with the troops from Kansas, when her indifferent manner had chilled +him, and it was perhaps because he insisted upon working his reasoning +from the basis that her character was complicated, whereas it was +absolutely simple. He met constantly with her with much the same sort of +mental sensation that one has physically, where one takes a step in the +dark, expecting a fall in the ground, and comes down upon a level. The +jar always bewildered him. He was never sure what she would do next, +though she had never yet, save once, done anything flagrantly unwise. He +dreaded, however, the moment when she might chance to meet Cairness face +to face. + +Which happened upon the following day. And he was there to see it all, +so that the question he had not cared to ask was answered forever beyond +the possibility of a misunderstanding. It was stable time, and she +walked down to the corrals with him. He left her for a moment by the +gate of the quartermaster's corral while he went over to the picket +line. The bright clear air of a mountain afternoon hummed with the swish +click-clock, swish click-clock of the curry-combs and brushes, and the +busy scraping of the stable brooms in the stalls. + +Felipa stood leaning against the gate post, her bare head outlined in +bold black and white against the white parasol that hung over her +shoulders. She was watching one of the troop herds coming up from +water,--the fine, big horses, trotting, bucking, rearing, kicking, +biting at each other with squeals and whinnyings, tossing their manes +and whisking their tails. Some of them had rolled in the creek bed, and +then in the dust, and were caked with mud from neck to croup. They +frisked over to their own picket line, and got into rows for the +grooming. + +She was looking at them with such absorbed delight that she started +violently when close behind her a voice she had not heard in four long, +repressed years spoke with the well-remembered intonation: "He had +better go to the farrier the first thing in the morning. I can't have +him stove-up," and Cairness came out of the gate. + +He saw her, and without the hesitation of an instant raised his slouch +hat and kept on. A government scout does not stop to pass the time of +day with an officer's wife. + +It would have been best so, and she knew it, had indeed meant to make +it like this on her part, but a feeling swept over her that if they did +not speak now, they would pass down to their deaths in silence. She +reached out her hand to stop him, and spoke. + +He turned about and stood still, with his head uncovered, looking +straight into her face. Another man might have wished it a little less +open and earnest, a little more downcast and modest, but he liked it so. +Yet he waited, erect and immovable, and she saw that he meant that every +advance should come from her. He was determined to force her to remember +that he was a chief of scouts. + +She waited, too, made silent by sudden realization of how futile +anything that she might say would be. "I am glad to see you again," she +faltered; "it is four years since Black River and the cloud-burst." She +was angry at her own stupidity and want of resource, and her tone was +more casual than she meant it to be. + +His own was instantly as cold. "I supposed you had quite forgotten all +that," he said. + +She had done very well, up to then, but she was at the end of her +strength. It had been strained to the snapping for a long while, and now +it snapped. Slowly, painfully, a hot, dark flush spread over her face to +the black line of her hair. The squaw was manifested in the changed +color. It altered her whole face, while it lasted, then it dropped back +and left a dead gray pallor. Her lips were quivering and yellow, and her +eyes paled oddly, as those of a frightened wild beast do. But still they +were not lowered. + +Cairness could not take his own from them, and they stood so for what +seemed to them both a dumb and horrible eternity, until Landor came up, +and she caught at his arm to steady herself. The parasol whirled around +on its stick and fell. Cairness picked it up, knocked off the dust, and +handed it to Landor. He could see that he knew, and it was a vast +relief. + +It is only a feeble love in need of stimulants and spicing that craves +secrecy. A strong one seeks the open and a chance to fight to the end, +whatever that may be, before the judges of earth and heaven. They stood +facing each other, challenging across the woman with the look in their +eyes that men have worn since long ere ever the warriors of old disputed +the captive before the walls of Troy. + +It made it none the better that only Landor had the right to give her +the strength of his arm, and that only Cairness had the right to the +desperate, imploring look she threw him. It was a swift glance of a +moment, and then she reached out a steady enough hand for the parasol, +and smiled. It had been much too tragic to last--and in those +surroundings. It was a flash of the naked swords of pain, and then they +were sheathed. But each had left a sharp gash. No one had seen it. +Perhaps to many there would have been nothing to see. + +Landor was the first to find speech. In the harsh light of the pause he +saw that it was foolish as well as useless to beg the issue. "Has Mrs. +Landor told you that I found your letter to her on the body of the +prospector, and delivered it to her?" The words were sufficiently +overbearing, but the manner was unendurable. + +It occurred to Cairness that it was ungenerous of Landor to revenge +himself by a shot from the safe intrenchment of his rank. "Mrs. Landor +has had time to tell me nothing," he said, and turned on his spurred +heel and went off in the direction of the post. But it was not a +situation, after all, into which one could infuse much dignity. He was +retreating, anyway it might be looked at, and there is bound to be more +or less ignominy in the most creditable retreat. + +As they walked back to the post, Landor did not speak to Felipa. There +was nothing he could say unless he were to storm unavailingly, and that +was by no means his way. And there was nothing for which he could, with +reason, blame her. All things considered, she had acted very well. She +moved beside him serenely, not in the least cowed. + +Later, when he came in from dress parade, he found her reading in the +sitting room. She looked up and smiled, but his face was very angry, and +the chin strap of his helmet below his mouth and the barbaric yellow +plume added to the effect of awful and outraged majesty. He stopped in +front of her. "I have been thinking things over," he said. She waited. +"Three years ago I offered you your liberty to marry that man. I repeat +the offer now." + +She stood up very deliberately and faced him with a look he had never +seen before in her eyes, dark and almost murderous. But she had her fury +under control. He had guessed that her rage might be a very ugly thing, +but he drew back a step at the revelation of its possibilities. Twice +she tried hard to speak. She put her hand to her throat, where her voice +burned away as it rose. Then it came from the depths of that being of +hers, which he had never fathomed. + +"Are you trying to drive me off?" she said measuredly. "Do you wish me +to go away from you? If you do, I will go. I will go, and I will never +come back. But I will not go to him--not on my own account. It doesn't +matter what happens to me; but on your account and on his, I will never +go to him--not while you are alive." She stopped, and every nerve in her +body was tense to quivering, her drawn lips worked. + +"And if I were out of the way?" he suggested. + +She had never been cruel intentionally before, and afterward she +regretted it. But she raised her eyebrows and turned her back on him +without answering. + + + + +XVII + + +Lawton believed himself to be ill-used. He had written to Stone a +strangely composed and spelled account of the whole matter, and mingled +reproaches for having gotten him into it; and Stone had replied that it +was no affair of his one way or another, but so far as he could make out +Lawton had made a mess of it and a qualified fool of himself. + +Whereupon the rancher, his feelings being much injured, and his trust in +mankind in general shattered, did as many a wiser man has done before +him,--made himself very drunk, and in his cups told all that he knew to +two women and a man. "I'd like to know whose affair it is, if it ain't +his, the measly sneak. He sicked me on,"--oaths, as the grammars phrase +it, "understood." The tears dribbled off his fierce mustache, and the +women and the man laughed at him, but they were quite as drunk as he +was, and they forgot all about it at once. Lawton did not forget. He +thought of it a great deal, and the more he thought, the more he wanted +revenge. + +Now if one cannot have revenge upon the real malefactor himself, because +one is afraid of him, there is still satisfaction to be derived, to a +certain extent, from wreaking it upon the innocent, of whom one is not +afraid. Lawton felt, in his simple soul, that Stone was astute with the +astuteness of the devil and all his angels. On the other hand, he +believed the government to be dull. It was big, but it was stupid. Was +not the whole frontier evidence of that fact to him? Clearly, then, the +government was the one to be got even with. + +He had been in hiding three weeks. Part of the time he had stayed in the +town near the post, small, but as frontier towns went, eminently +respectable and law-abiding. For the rest he had lain low in a house of +very bad name at the exact edge of the military reservation. The poison +of the vile liquor he had drunk without ceasing had gotten itself into +his brain. He had reached the criminal point, not bold,--he was never +that,--but considerably more dangerous, upon the whole. He drank more +deeply for two days longer, after he received Stone's letter, and then, +when he was quite mad, when his eyes were bleared and fiery and his head +was dry and hot and his heart terrible within him, he went out into the +black night. + +It was still early. The mountain echoes had not sung back the tattoo of +the trumpets as yet. There was a storm coming on from the snow peak in +the west, and the clouds, dark with light edges, were thick in the sky. +Lawton was sober enough now. Not so far away in its little pocket among +the hills he could see the post, with all its lights twinkling, as +though one of the clear starry patches in the heavens were reflected in +a black lake in the valley. And the road stretched out faint and gray +before him. + +He went in through the gate, and was once more upon that reservation he +had been commanded by the overbearing tyrant representative of the +military to leave, several weeks before. As he trudged along, tattoo +went. In the clear silence, beneath the sounding-boards of the low +clouds, he heard the voice of one of the sergeants. He shook his fist in +the direction. Tattoo being over, some of the lights were put out, but +there were still plenty to guide him. He did not want to get there too +early, so he walked more slowly, and when he came to the edge of the +garrison, he hesitated. + +The chances of detection would certainly be less if he should go back of +the officers' quarters, instead of the barracks. But to do that he would +have to cross the road which led from the trader's to the quadrangle, +and he would surely meet some one, if it were only some servant girl and +her lover. He had observed and learned some things in his week of +waiting in the post--that week which otherwise had gone for worse than +nothing. He took the back of the barracks, keeping well away from them, +stumbling in and out among rubbish heaps. He had no very clear idea of +what he meant to do, or of why he was going in this particular +direction; but he was ready for anything that might offer to his hand. +If he came upon Landor or the adjutant or any of them, he would put a +knife into him. But he was not going to the trouble of hunting them +out. And so he walked on, and came to the haystacks, looming, denser +shadows against the sky. + +Then taps sounded, ringing its brazen dirge to the night in a long, last +note. It ended once, but the bugler went to the other side of the parade +and began again. Lawton repeated the shaking of his fist. He was growing +impatient, and also scared. A little more of that shrill music, and his +nerves would go into a thousand quivering shreds--he would be useless. +Would the cursed, the many times cursed military never get to bed? He +waited in the shadow of the corrals, leaning against the low wall, +gathering his forces. The sentry evidently did not see him. The post +grew more and more still, the clouds more and more thick. + +Gradually it began to form itself in his softened brain what he meant to +do. It is safest to avenge oneself upon dumb beasts, after all. By and +by he began to feel along the adobe wall, and when he found a niche for +his foot, he started to clamber up. He had climbed so many corral walls, +to sit atop of them with his great, booted legs dangling, and +meditatively whittle when he should have been at work, that it was easy +for him, and in a moment he was on the shingled roof, lying flat. In +another he had dropped down upon a bed of straw. + +He put out his hand and touched a warm, smooth flank. The horse gave a +little low whinny. Quick as a flash he whipped out his knife and +hamstrung it, not that one only, but ten other mules and horses before +he stopped. He groped from stall to stall, and in each cut just once, +unerringly and deep, so that the poor beast, which had turned its head +and nosed at the touch of the hand of one of those humans who had always +been its friends, was left writhing, with no possible outcome but death +with a bullet in its head. + +He was waking now to his work. But he had enough of horses. He stopped, +sheathed his knife, and, feeling in his pockets, drew out a box of +matches. A little spluttering flame caught in a pile of straw, and +showed a hind foot dragging helplessly. It crept up, and the mule +plunged on three legs, dragging the other along. It snorted, and then +every animal in that corral, which was the quartermaster's, smelt danger +and snorted too, and struck from side to side of its stall. Those in the +next corral caught the fear. + +If the sentry outside heard, he paid no attention. It was common enough +for the horses to take a simultaneous fit of restlessness in the night, +startled by some bat flapping through the beams or by a rat scurrying in +the grain. In ten minutes more a flame had reached the roof. In another +ten minutes the sentry had discharged his carbine three times, fire call +had been sounded in quick, alarming notes, and men and officers, half +dressed, had come running from the barracks and the line. + +Any other fire--excepting always in an ammunition magazine--is easier to +handle than one in a stable. It takes time to blind plunging horses and +lead them out singly. And there is no time to take. Hay and straw and +gunny-sacks and the dry wood of the stable go up like tinder. It has +burned itself out before you can begin to extinguish it. + +There were four corrals in the one, and two of them were on fire. They +had spread wet blankets on the roof of the third, but it, too, caught +directly. The big, yellow-hearted flames poured up into the sky. The +glow was cast back again from the blackness of the low clouds, and lit +up the ground with a dazing shimmer. It blinded and burned and set the +rules of fire drill pretty well at naught, when the only water supply +was in small buckets and a few barrels, and the horses had kicked over +two of the latter. + +In the corral where the fire had started and was best under way, and in +the stall farthest from the gate, a little pinto mustang was jerking at +its halter and squealing with fear. It was Cairness's horse. He had been +allowed to stable it there, and he himself was not down with his scouts +in the ill-smelling camp across the creek, but had a room at the +sutler's store, a good three-quarters of a mile from the corrals. As +soon as the bugle call awoke him, he started at a run; but the fire was +beyond fighting when he got there. + +He grabbed a man at the gate, who happened to be the quartermaster +sergeant himself, and asked if his horse had been taken out. + +The sergeant spent more time upon the oaths with which he embellished +the counter-question as to how he should know anything about it, than +would have been consumed in a civil explanation. + +Cairness dropped him and went into the corrals to see for himself. The +fire roared and hissed, flung charred wood into the air, and let it fall +back again. He remembered, in an inconsequent flash, how one night in +the South Pacific he had taken a very pretty girl below to see the +engines. They had stood in the stoke-hole on a heap of coal, hand in +hand, down beneath the motion of the decks where the only movement +seemed to be the jar of the screw working against the thrust block and +the reverberation of the connecting-rod and engines. A luckless, +dust-caked wretch of a stoker had thrown open the door of a furnace in +front of them, and they had seen the roaring, sputtering, seething whirl +of fire within. They had given a simultaneous cry, hiding their scorched +faces in their arms, and stumbled blindly over the coal beds back to the +clattering of the engine rooms. + +It had all been very like this, only that this was a little worse, for +there were half a dozen dead animals lying across the stalls, and others +were being shot. The pistols snapped sharply, and the smell of powder +was more pungent than all the other smells. + +He passed an officer who had a smoking six-shooter in his hand, and +yelled in his ear, "Why are you doing that?" He had forgotten that it +was by no means his place to question. + +"Been hamstrung," the officer bawled back hoarsely. + +In the end stall the bronco was still squealing and whimpering in an +almost human key. He struck it on the flank with his open palm and +spoke, "Get over there." It had been made so much of a pet, and had +been so constantly with him, that it was more intelligent than the +average of its kind. It got over and stood quiet and still, trembling. +He cut the halter close to the knot, turned it out of the stall, and +flinging himself across its back dug his heels into its belly. + +Just for a moment it hesitated, then started with the bronco spring, +jumping the dead mules, shying from right to left and back again, and +going out through the gates at a run. Cairness held on with his knees as +he had learned to do when he had played at stock-rider around Katâwa and +Glen Lomond in the days of his boyhood, as he had done since with the +recruits at hurdle drill, or when he had chased a fleet heifer across +the prairie and had had no time to saddle. He could keep his seat, no +fear concerning that, but it was all he could do. The pony was not to be +stopped. He had only what was left of the halter shank by way of a +bridle, and it was none at all. A Mexican knife bit would hardly have +availed. + +They tore on, away from the noise of the flames, of the falling timber +and the shouted commands, around the haystacks so close to the +barbed-wire fence that the barbs cut his boot, off by the back of the +quarters, and then upon the road that led from the reservation. If the +pony could be kept on that road, there was small danger from dog holes. +He would run himself out in time. The length of time was what was +uncertain, however. A cow-pony can go a good many hours at a stretch. + +Cairness sat more erect, and settled down to wait. The motion was so +swift that he hardly felt it. He turned his head and looked back at the +flaming corrals, and, remembering the dead animals, wondered who had +hamstrung them. Then he peered forward again the little way he could see +along the road, and began to make out that there was some one ahead of +him. Whoever it was scurrying ahead there, bent almost double in his +speed, was the one who had hamstrung the mules and horses, and who had +set fire to the corrals. The pony was rather more under control now. It +could be guided by the halter shank. + +The man, still running, dodged from the road and started across country. +Cairness wheeled and followed him. It was open ground, with not so much +as a scrub oak or a rock in sight. The thick darkness offered the only +chance of escape. But Cairness had chased yearlings in nights as black, +and had brought them back to the herd. Down by the creek where the trees +were thick, there would have been a good chance for escape, almost a +certainty indeed, but there was little here. The man dodged again. It +was just to that very thing that the pony had been trained. Habit got +the better of stampede with it. It, too, dodged sharply. + +Cairness leaned far over and made a grab, but the first time he missed. +The second he caught the neckerchief and held it, dragging the man, who +resisted with all his giant strength, digging his toes into the ground +as they tore along. And he was heavy. Cairness had no stirrup or pommel +to trust to. He saw that it was a case of falling or of leaving go, and +he decided to fall. The man would go underneath anyway. + +The man did go underneath and bravely offered resistance. Cairness had +the twofold strength of his wiry build and of his bull-dog race. But +Lawton--he knew it was Lawton now--would have been stronger yet, save +that the three weeks' spree had told, and he was breathless. + +Cairness sat across him and held a revolver to his mouth. The life of +the plains teaches agility of various sorts, but chiefly in the matter +of drawing a six-shooter. "You fired the corrals," Cairness gasped. + +The fall had knocked the breath from his body. The under dog did not +answer. + +"And you hamstrung those horses." + +No answer still. + +"Why did you do it?" + +No answer. + +"I'll break your jaws if you don't open them." The jaws opened +forthwith, but no sound came, and Lawton struggled feebly. + +It occurred to Cairness then that with no breath in your lungs and with +twelve stone on your chest, speech is difficult. He slid off and knelt +beside the rancher, still with the revolver levelled. "Now, why did you +do it, eh?" He enforced the "eh" with a shake. + +"I dunno. I didn't." + +"Didn't you, then? You did, though, and you can go back with me till we +find out why. Give me your firearms. Lively!" + +Lawton produced a brace of revolvers. + +"And your knife." + +He handed it over also. + +"Now you get up and walk in front of me, and don't you try to bolt. I +can run faster than you can, and, anyway, I'll shoot you if you try it." + +Lawton moved ahead a few steps; then he began to cry, loudly, +blubbering, his nerves gone all to shreds. He implored and pleaded and +wailed. He hadn't known what he was doing. He had been drunk. They had +treated him badly about the beef contract. Stone had gone back on him. +The oaths that he sobbed forth were not new to Cairness, but they were +very ugly. + +"Cheese that cussing, do you hear?" he ordered. + +Lawton stopped. To forbid him swearing was to forbid him speech. He +shuffled ahead in silence. + +When Cairness got him to the post and turned him over to the +officer-of-the-day, the fire had burned itself out and quiet was +settling down again. Big warm drops were beginning to splash from the +clouds. + +The officer-of-the-day put Lawton into the care of the guard and asked +Cairness in to have a drink, calling him "my good man." Cairness was +properly aware of the condescension involved in being asked into an +officer's dining room, but he objected to being condescended to by a man +who doubled his negatives, and he refused. + +"Is there anything, then, that I can do for you? the officer asked. His +intentions were good; Cairness was bound to realize that, too. + +"Yes, sir," he answered; "you can see that I get a mounted man and a +horse at reveille to-morrow. I want to hunt for my pony. I lost it when +I caught that man." + +The officer-of-the-day agreed. And Cairness, not having a hat to raise, +forgot himself and saluted. Then he went back to the sutler's through +the already pelting rain. He was glad he had caught Lawton, mainly +because of what he hoped to get out of him yet, about the Kirby affair. +But he was sorry for the big clumsy fool, too. He had been an +easy-going, well-intentioned boss in the days when Cairness had been his +hand. And, too, he was sorry, very sorry, about the pony. If it were to +fall into the hands of Mexicans or even of some of the Mescalero +Indians, his chances of seeing it again would be slight. And he was fond +of it, mainly because it had helped him to save Mrs. Landor's life. + + + + +XVIII + + +Cairness had made a tune for himself and was putting to it the words of +the ill-fated poet of his own Land of the Dawning. + + + "Oh! wind that whistles, o'er thorns and thistles + Of the fruitful earth, like a goblin elf, + Why should he labor to help his neighbor, + Who feels too reckless to help himself?" + + +He felt altogether reckless. In just such a mood, he reflected, his +grandmother had probably poisoned her first husband. He could almost +have poisoned Landor, the big duty-narrowed, conventional, military +machine. Why could he not have married some one of his own mental +circumspection?--Mrs. Campbell, for instance. He had watched that affair +during his enlistment. More the pity it had come to nothing. Landor +could have understood Mrs. Campbell. Then he thought of Felipa, as he +had seen her first, looking full into the glare of the sunset, and +afterward at him, with magnificent impersonality. + +"He has caught a lioness and tricked her out in fashionable rags and +taught her some capers, and now he thinks he has improved the animal," +he said to himself, and raged inwardly, asking the intangible Fate, +which was always opposing him, if there was not enough little doll +women in the world that such an one as Felipa must be whittled down to +the size. + +The probable outcome of things at the rate they were going was perfectly +apparent. Landor would advance in age, respectability, and rank, and +would be retired and settle down on three-fourths pay. He himself would +end up in some cow-boy row, degraded and worthless, a tough character +very probably, a fine example of nothing save atavism. And Felipa would +grow old. That splendid triumphant youth of hers would pass, and she +would be a commonplace, subdued, middle-aged woman, in whom a relapse to +her nature would be a mere vulgarity. + +He recalled the dark, unbecoming flush that had deepened the color of +her skin just enough to show the squaw, beyond mistaking, at least to +one who knew. It was all very well now. But later, later she would look +like that frequently, if not all the time. With youth she would lose her +excuse for being. He knew that very well. But it was the youth, the +majestic, powerful youth, that he loved. He had seen too many old hags +of squaws, disfigurers of the dead and wounded, drudges of the +rancheria, squatting on hides before their tepees, not to know what +Felipa's decline would be in spite of the Anglo-Saxon strain that seemed +to show only in her white skin. + +Her only salvation, he knew that too, was to keep that strain always +uppermost, to force it to the surface, exactly as Landor was doing now. +Conventional, stately, reserved, in the garb of civilization, she would +have a certain dignity. But youth was too good to sell for that. + + + "Where is the use of the lip's red charm, + The heaven of hair, the pride of the brow, + And the blood that blues the inside arm?"-- + + +He laughed crossly. Evidently he was dropping back into the poetical +tendencies of his most callow youth. He would be doing her a sonnet +next, forsooth. He had done two or three of them in his school days for +Sydney damsels. That was when he had aspired to be ranked in his own +country with Gordon. Good Lord! how many aspirations of various sorts he +had had. And he was a cow-boy. + +Somewhere in that same poem, he remembered, there had been advice +relative to a man's contending to the uttermost for his life's set +prize, though the end in sight were a vice. He shrugged his shoulders. +It might be well enough to hold to that in Florence and the Middle Ages. +It was highly impracticable for New Mexico and the nineteenth century. +So many things left undone can be conveniently laid to the prosaic and +materialistic tendencies of the age. Things were bad enough now--for +Landor, for himself, and most especially for Felipa. But if one were to +be guided by the romantic poets, they could conceivably be much worse. + +He struck his pony with the fringed end of the horse-hair lariat that +hung around his pommel, and cantered on in the direction of the post. +The pony had been found among the foot-hills, without any trouble. +That, at any rate, had been a stroke of luck. He had led it into the +fort just at the end of guard-mounting, and had met a party of riders +going out. + +Mrs. Landor was with them. She had a little battered, brass trumpet +hanging from her horn, and he knew that they were going to play at hare +and hounds. She and the three with her were evidently the hares. They +would take a ten minutes' start; then, at the sound of the trumpet, the +hounds would follow. The riding was sometimes reckless. A day or two +before he had seen Felipa leap an arroyo, the edges of which were +crumbling in, and take a fallen tree on very dangerous ground. + +He looked about now for a sign of either party. Across the creek was +some one riding slowly along the crest of a hill, seeming so small and +creeping that only a very trained eye could have made it out. It was +probably a hound. The hares lay low, in cañons and gullies and brush, as +a rule. As he scanned the rest of the valley, his horse stopped short, +with its fore legs planted stiffly. He looked down and saw that he was +at the brink of a sheer fall of twenty feet or more, like a hole scooped +in the side of the little rise he was riding over. He remembered, then, +that there was a cave somewhere about. He had often heard of it, and +probably it was this. He dismounted, and, tying the pony in a clump of +bushes, walked down and around to investigate. + +It was plainly the cave. He went and stood in the mouth and looked into +the dark, narrowing throat. A weird silence poured up with the damp, +earthy smell. He went farther in, half sliding down the steep bank of +soft, powdery, white earth. There was only the uncanny light which comes +from reflection from the ground upward. But by it he could see +innumerable tiny footprints, coyote, squirrel, prairie-dog, polecat +tracks and the like. It took very little imagination to see yellow teeth +and eyes gleaming from black shadows also, although he knew there were +no dangerous animals in those parts. + +When he was well within, he began to investigate, and he recalled now +that he had heard a great deal of this cave. It was very large, +supposedly, but almost unexplored. Tradition ran that the Spaniards, in +the long-past days of their occupation, had had a big silver mine in +there, worked by padres who had taught the timid Indians to believe that +it was haunted, that they might not take it for themselves, nor yet +guide others to it. And, too, it had been the refuge and hiding-place of +Billy the Kid for years. It was said that since then a corporal and +three men had gone in once, and that a search party had found their +gnawed skeletons by the edge of the river that flowed there underground. +Oddly enough, and thanks to the missionary fathers, it had never served +as an Indian stronghold, though its advantages for such a use were +manifest. + +Cairness sat himself down and tried to listen for the flow of the great +black river yonder in the great black hollow. By dint of straining his +ears he almost fancied that he did catch a sound. But at the same +instant, there came a real and unmistakable one. He started a little, +not quite sure, just at first, what manner of wild beast, or man, or +genius of the cave might pounce out upon him. + +It was only some one standing at the mouth of the hole, however, a +shadow against the shimmering sunlight. And it was a woman--it was +Felipa. + +He sat quite still, clinching his teeth and clawing his fingers tensely. +In the great crises of life, training and upbringing and education fall +away, and a man is governed by two forces, his instincts and his +surroundings. And Cairness's instincts were in entire accord with his +surroundings; they were of the Stone Age, when men fought with the +beasts of the wilderness in their cave homes, and had only the law of +sheer strength. He leaned forward, holding his breath, and watched her. +Had she seen his horse tied up above, and come here to find him--because +he was here? + +She might have seen two dots of light fixed on her from the shadow, if +she had looked that way. But she did not, and came unconcernedly down. +She was sure-footed and agile, and she was daring, too. He himself had +felt a qualm at coming here. But she did not appear to hesitate once. +She came on, close by where he sat, and going to the dark passage peered +in. Then she turned away and caught sight of him. + +He was accustomed to the gloom by now, but she was not. She could only +see that there was some one in the shadow. It flashed through his mind +that she would scream, but the next moment he knew that she would not. + +She drew herself up and grasped her loaded quirt more firmly. There are +some natures to which flight from a thing feared is physically +impossible. They must not only face danger, they must go up to it. It is +a trait, like any other. Felipa took two steps toward him. + +He came out of the rock nook into the half light and spoke her own name. + +She was frightened now. The quirt fell from her hand with a thud. She +loosed her hold upon her long riding skirt and tripped over it. + +If he had not sprung forward, with his arms outstretched to catch her, +she would have fallen, face downward in the dust. It was three times now +he had so saved her. + +He knew even then while her hand grasped at his arm, that he should have +set her upon her feet, as he had done before. He knew that she had +merited at least that. But he held her tight and close, and bending back +her head, his own very close above it, looked into her eyes. + +Then he stopped, with every muscle drawn, for he had seen in her +answering, unflinching gaze that he was losing her, surely, irrevocably +losing her. He let her go, almost throwing her away, and she caught hold +of a ledge of rock to steady herself. He picked up the heavy quirt and +held it out to her, with a shaking hand, shame-faced, and defiant, too. + +She took it, and they both stood for a time without speaking. Then she +turned her head and looked up at the sunshine. "I think I must go," she +whispered. But she did not move. + +He asked her angrily why she had ever come at all, and she explained, +with a piteous whimper, like a penitent child's, that she had left her +horse tied in a little hollow and had come to explore. She had often +meant to explore before this. + +He was still more exasperated, with himself and with her, that he had +allowed himself to think for one moment that she had come on purpose to +find him. Where were the others? How did she happen to be here alone? he +asked. + +She told him that they had all scattered some time before, with the +hounds in full cry. "I must go," she repeated more firmly now, "they +will be looking--" She stopped short. + +There was the crunching of heavy feet up above, on the gravel. It came +to them both, even to her, that for them to be seen there together would +be final. There would be no explaining it away. Cairness thought of her. +She thought of her husband. It would ruin him and his life. + +It was done before either of them was conscious of doing it. The black +throat of the cave was open behind him. Cairness jumped back into it, +and she turned away and stood waiting, stiff with fear, not of the man +whoever it might prove to be up there, but for the one who had stepped +into the unknown dangers of the darkness behind her. + +The man up above showed himself, and putting his hands to his mouth +shouted, "Felipa!" + +She gave a cry of relief. "Mr. Cairness, Mr. Cairness," she called, "it +is only my husband." She went herself a little way into the passage. +"Jack, Mr. Cairness has gone in there, call to him." And she called +again herself. + +Landor came sliding and running down. His face was misshapen with the +anger that means killing. She saw it, and her powers came back to her +all at once. She put both hands against his breast and pushed him back, +with all the force of her sinewy arms. His foot slipped on a stone and +he fell. + +She dropped beside him and tried to hold him down. "He did not know I +was coming here," she pleaded. "It was a mistake, Jack! Will you wait +until I tell you? Will you wait?" She was clinging around his neck and +would not be shaken off. He dragged her in the dust, trying to get free +himself. + +Cairness had groped his way back. He stood watching them. And he, too, +was ready to kill. If Landor had raised his hand against her, he would +have shot him down. + +But, instead, Landor stopped abruptly, rigid with the force of will. "I +will wait. Go on," he said. His voice was low and rasping. + +It dawned upon Cairness that this was rather more than a military +machine after all, that he had underestimated it. + +Felipa stood up and told the truth shortly. "It was my fault, if it was +any one's," she ended. "You may kill me, if you like. But if you hurt +him, I will kill myself." It was she who was threatening now, and she +never said more than she meant. She turned almost disdainfully from +them, and went up and out of the cave. + +Landor stopped behind, looking at Cairness undecidedly for a moment +longer. "It is well for you that I can believe her implicitly," he said. +It had been a relapse to the Stone Age, but the rebound to the +nineteenth century was as quick. + +Cairness bowed, with no realization of the humor of it. "You are equally +fortunate," he said easily, and motioned with his hand to the opening +above, where Felipa was going. He might have been under his own roof, +and that the door. + +Landor went. Felipa waited for him, already mounted. He mounted his own +horse and rode beside her back to the post. They did not speak, and he +was conscious above his anger that his fondness for her had been +gradually turning to dislike, and was now loathing. He had seen her +dragging in the dust before him, pleading abjectly. She had humiliated +him and herself in the presence of Cairness, of all men, and he would +never forget it. A woman who once grovels at a man's feet has lost +thenceforth her power over him. + + + + +XIX + + +If you take even a good-humored puppy of a savage breed and tie him to a +kennel so that all his natural energy strikes in; if you feed him upon +raw meat, when you feed him at all, but half starve him for the most +part; and if you tantalize and goad him whenever you are in search of a +pastime, he is more than likely to become a dangerous beast when he +grows up. He is then a menace to the public, so you have but one course +left--to take him out and shoot him. + +That is the proper way to bring up dogs. It makes them useful members of +society. And it applies equally well to Indians. It has worked +beautifully with them for several hundred years. In Canada they have run +it on another principle. But they have missed much of the fun we have +had out of it. In the territories there was plenty of such fun. And it +had pretty well reached its height in the spring of '83. + +The Indians, being wicked, ungrateful, suspicious characters, doubted +the promises of the White-eyes. But it is only just to be charitable +toward their ignorance. They were children of the wilderness and of the +desert places, walking in darkness. Had the lights of the benefits of +civilization ever shone in upon them, they would have realized that the +government of these United States, down to its very least official +representative, never lies, never even evades. + +"Have I ever lied to you?" Crook asked them. + +And the deaf old chief Pedro answered for them: "No," he said, "when you +were here before, whenever you said a thing, we knew that it was true, +and we kept it in our minds. When you were here, we were content; but we +cannot understand why you went away. Why did you leave us? Everything +was all right when you were here." + +He was but an unlearned and simple savage, and the workings of a War +Department were, of course, a mystery to him. He and his people should +have believed Crook. The thoughtful government which that much-harassed +general represented had done everything possible to instill sweet +trustfulness into their minds. But the Apache, as all reports have set +forth, is an uncertain quantity. + +The quiet, observant, capable man, whose fate it was to be always called +in for the thankless task of undoing the evil work of others, made every +effort to pacify this time, but he failed. + +"Yes, we believe you," said the Apache; "but you may go away again." So +he refused to be cajoled, and going upon the war-path, after much +bloodshed, fled into Mexico. + +The general took a couple of hundred Indian scouts, enlisted for six +months' service, a troop of cavalry, and a half-dozen guides and +interpreters, and followed across the border. + +There was a new treaty, just made to that end. It was the fiercest of +all the Apache tribes, the Chiricahuas, that had hidden itself in the +fastnesses of the Sierra Madre, two hundred miles south of the boundary +line. Geronimo and Juh and Chato, and other chiefs of quite as bloody +fame, were with him. To capture them would be very creditable success. +To fail to do so would entail dire consequences, international +complications perhaps, and of a certainty the scorn and abuse of all the +wise men who sat in judgment afar off. + +The general kept his own counsel then, but afterward, when it was all +over, he confessed,--not to the rejoicing reporter who was making +columns out of him for the papers of this, and even of many another, +land,--but to the friends who had in some measure understood and +believed in him, that the strain and responsibility had all but worn him +out. And he was no frail man, this mighty hunter of the plains. + +The general of romance is a dashing creature, who wears gold lace and +has stars upon his shoulder straps, and rides a fiery charger at the +head of his troops. He always sits upon the charger, a field-glass in +his hand and waiting aides upon every side, or flourishes a sword as he +plunges into the thick of the battle smoke. + +But Crook was not dashing, only quiet and steady, and sure as death. +Upon parade and occasions of ceremony he wore the gold lace and the +stars. To do his life's work he put on an old flannel shirt, tied a +kerchief around his neck, and set a pith helmet over those farseeing, +keen little eyes. He might have been a prospector, or a cow-boy, for +all the outward seeming of it. His charger was oftenest a little +government mule, and he walked, leading it over many and many a trail +that even its sure feet could not trust. + +There were plenty such trails in the Sierra Madre, through which the +Apache scouts were guiding him to their hostile brothers. Cairness had +come along with his own band of scouts. He had seen rough work in his +time, but none equal to this. Eight mules stepped a hand's breadth from +the path, and lay hundreds of feet below at the base of the precipice, +their backs broken under their aparejos. The boots were torn from the +men's feet, their hands were cut with sharp rocks. They marched by night +sometimes, sometimes by day, always to the limit of their strength. And +upon the fourteenth morning they came upon the Chiricahua stronghold. +Without the scouts they could never have found it. The Indian has +betrayed the Indian from first to last. + +It was a little pocket, a natural fortress, high up on a commanding +peak. Cairness crept forward flat along the rocks, raised his head +cautiously and looked down. There in the sunrise light,--the gorgeous +sunrise of the southern mountain peaks where the wind is fresh out of +the universe and glitters and quivers with sparks of new life,--there +was the encampment of the hostiles. It was a small Eden of green grass +and water and trees high up in the Sierra--that strange mountain chain +that seems as though it might have been the giant model of the Aztec +builders, and that holds the mystery of a mysterious people locked in +its stone and metal breasts, as securely as it does that of the rich, +lost mines whose fabled wonders no man can prove to-day. + +There is a majesty about the mountains of the desolate regions which is +not in those of more green and fertile lands. Loneliness and endurance +are written deep in their clefts and cañons and precipices. In the long +season of the sun, they look unshrinking back to the glaring sky, with a +stern defiance. It is as the very wrath of God, but they will not melt +before it. In the season of the rains, black clouds hang low upon them, +guarding their sullen gloom. But just as in the sternest heart is here +and there a spot of gentleness, so in these forbidding fastnesses there +are bits of verdure and soft beauty too. + +And the Indian may be trusted to know of these. Here where the jacales +clustered, there was grass and wood and water that might last +indefinitely. The fortifications of Nature had been added to those of +Nature's man. It was a stronghold. + +But the Apaches held it for only a day, for all that. They were +unprepared and overconfident. Their bucks were for the most part away +plundering the hapless Mexican settlements in the desert below. They had +thought that no white troops nor Mexicans could follow here, and they +had neglected to count with the scouts, who had been hostiles themselves +in their day, and who had the thief's advantage in catching a thief. And +so while the bucks and children wandered round among the trees or bathed +in the creek, while the hobbled ponies grazed leisurely on the rank +grass, and the squaws carried fuel and built fires and began their day +of drudgery, they were surprised. + +The fight began with a shot fired prematurely by one of the scouts, and +lasted until nightfall--after the desultory manner of Indian mountain +fights, where you fire at a tree-trunk or lichened rock, or at some +black, red-bound head that shoots up quick as a prairie dog's and is +gone again, and where you follow the tactics of the wary Apache in so +far as you may. The curious part of it is that you beat him at his own +game every time. It is always the troops that lose the least heavily! + +The Indian wars of the southwest have been made a very small side issue +in our history. The men who have carried them on have gained little +glory and little fame. And yet they have accomplished a big task, and +accomplished it well. They have subdued an enemy many times their own +number. And the enemy has had such enormous advantages, too. He has been +armed, since the 70's, even better than the troops. He has been upon his +own ground--a ground that was alone enough to dismay the soldier, and +one that gave him food, where it gave the white man death by starvation +and thirst. He knew every foot of the country, fastnesses, water holes, +creeks, and strongholds over thousands of miles. The best cavalry can +travel continuously but twenty-five or thirty miles a day, carrying its +own rations. The Apache, stealing his stock and food as he runs, covers +his fifty or seventy-five. The troops must find and follow trails that +are disguised with impish craft. The Apache goes where he lists, and +that, as a general thing, over country where devils would fear to tread. + +Then throw into the scale the harassing and conflicting orders of a War +Department, niggardly with its troops, several thousand miles away, +wrapped in a dark veil of ignorance, and add the ever ready blame of the +territorial citizen and press, and the wonder is, not that it took a +score of years to settle the Apache question, but that it was ever +settled at all. + +The all-day fight in the Sierra Madre stronghold was a very uneven one. +There were two hundred and fifty of the government forces against some +thirty-five bucks. But, after all, the number comes to nothing. You may +as well shoot at one enemy as at a thousand, if he is not to be seen +anyway, and you cannot hit him. + +Cairness reflected upon this as he fired for exactly the seventh time at +a pair of beady eyes that flashed at him over a bush-topped rock by the +creek, not five and twenty yards away, and then vanished utterly. There +was something uncanny about it, and he was losing patience as well as +ammunition. Three bullets from a repeating rifle had about finished him. +One had gone through his hat. The eyes popped up again. Cairness fired +again and missed. Then he did a thoroughly silly thing. He jumped out +from behind his shelter and ran and leapt, straight down, and over to +the rock by the stream. The beady eyes saw him coming and sparkled, with +an evil sort of laughter. + +If Cairness had not slipped and gone sprawling down at that moment, the +fourth bullet would have brought him up short. It sung over him, +instead, and splashed against a stone, and when he got to his feet again +the eyes had come out from their hiding-place. They were in the head of +a very young buck. He had sprung to the top of his rock and was dancing +about with defiant hilarity, waving his hands and the Winchester, and +grimacing tantalizingly. "_Yaw! ya!_" he screeched. Cairness discharged +his revolver, but the boy whooped once more and was down, dodging around +the stone. Cairness dodged after him, wrath in his heart and also a vow +to switch the little devil when he should get him. But he did not seem +to be getting him. + +The fighting stopped to watch the Ojo-blanco playing tag with the little +Apache, right in the heart of the stronghold. The general stood still, +with a chuckle, and looked on. "Naughty little boy," he remarked to the +captain of the scouts; "but your man Cairness won't catch him, though." + +With the sublime indifference to the mockery of the world, +characteristic of his race, Cairness kept at it. It was ridiculous. He +had time to be dimly aware of that. And it certainly was not war. He did +not know that they were affording the opposing forces much enjoyment. He +had not even observed that the firing had stopped. But he meant to catch +that much qualifiedly impudent little beast, or to know the reason why. +And he would probably have known the reason why, if one of the Apache +scouts, embarrassed by no notions of fair play, had not taken good aim +and brought his youthful kinsman down, with a bullet through his knee. + +The black eyes snapped with pain as he fell, but when Cairness, with a +breathless oath at the spoiler of sport, whoever he might be, pounced +down upon him, the snap turned to a twinkle. The little buck raised +himself on his elbow. "How! Cairness," he grinned. "How Mees Landor?" +Cairness stopped short, speechless, with his mouth open. He did not even +dodge after a bullet had hummed past his head. "Who the devil--!" he +began. Then it dawned upon him. It was Felipa's protégé of the old Camp +Thomas days. + +He was standing, and the boy was lying, and the shots of the Apaches +flew about them. He stooped, and catching up his defeated foe, whose +defeat was not half so entire as his own, scrambled out of the pocket +and back among the troops. He carried his prisoner, who kicked +vigorously with his good leg, and struck with both fists in protest +against the ignominy of being held under anybody's arm like a sack of +grain, back to the tied horses. + +"Look out for the little customer, will you?" he said to the medical +officer. "He's a great chum of mine. Many's the can of condensed milk +and bag of peanuts the ungrateful young one has had out of me." "What +are you doing here?" he asked in the White Mountain idiom; "you aren't a +Chiricahua." + +The boy grinned again. "How Mees Landor?" he repeated. His savage +perception had noted that those words had some "medicine" or other that +paralyzed the Ojo-blanco temporarily. Cairness swore at him in good +English, and went off abruptly. + +At sunset the camp surrendered. There were seven dead bucks found, but +no one ever knew, of course, how many had fallen into ravines, or +dragged themselves off to die in nooks. The Apache does not dread death, +but he dreads having the White-man know that he has died. + +The spoils of the rancheria were varied, and some of them interesting as +well. There were quite a hundred mules and horses, and there was money, +to the sum of five thousand dollars or more. Also there were gold and +silver watches and clothes and saddles and bridles--all the loot of the +unhappy haciendas and pueblas down on the flat. But the most treasured +of all their possessions was a little photograph album which had begun +its varied career in the particular home of the misguided Indian +philanthropist, Boston. + +There was human plunder, too--women from the villages, all Mexicans but +one, and that one was American. Cairness, having gone off with some +scouts to reconnoitre, did not see them that night. When he came back it +was already dark, and he took his supper; and rolling himself in his +blanket slept, as he had always for the past fortnight, with only the +faintly radiant night sky above him. + +In the morning, while the cooks were getting breakfast and the steam of +ration-Rio mounted as a grateful incense to the pink and yellow daybreak +heavens, having bathed in the creek and elaborated his toilet with a +clean neckerchief in celebration of victory, he walked over to the bunch +of tepees to see the women captives. + +He knew while he was yet afar off which was the American. She stood, big +and gaunt, with her feet planted wide and her fists on her hips, looking +over toward the general's tent. And when Cairness came nearer, strolling +along with his hands in his pockets, observing the beauties of Nature +and the entire vileness of man, she turned her head and gave him a +defiant stare. He took his hands from his pockets and went forward, +raising his disreputable campaign hat. "Good morning, Mrs. Lawton," he +said, not that he quite lived up to the excellent standard of Miss +Winstanley, but that he understood the compelling force of civility, not +to say the bewilderment. If you turn its bright light full in the face +of one whose eyes are accustomed to the obscurity wherein walk the +underbred, your chances for dazzling him until he shall fall into any +pit you may have dug in his pathway are excellent. + +Nor was he disconcerted that she met him with a stony front and a glare +of wrath. She glanced down at his outstretched hand, and kept her own +great bony one on her hip still. Then she looked at him squarely again. +She did not say "Well?" but she meant it. So he answered it blandly, and +suggested that she had probably forgotten him, but that he had had the +pleasure of meeting her once in the States. She continued to stare. He +held that a husband is a husband still until the law or death says +otherwise, and that it was no part of a man's business to inquire into +the domestic relations of his friends; so he said that he had had the +pleasure of meeting her husband recently. "He was at Fort Stanton," he +added, "upon some little matter of business, I believe. You will be glad +to hear that he was well." He did not see fit to add that he was also in +the county jail, awaiting trial on charge of destruction of government +property. + +"What's your name, young feller?" she demanded. Cairness was hurt. +"Surely, Mrs. Lawton, you have not so entirely forgotten me. I am +Charles Cairness, very much at your service." But she had forgotten, and +she said so. + +He hesitated with a momentary compunction. She must have suffered pretty +well for her sins already; her work-cut, knotty hands and her haggard +face and the bend of her erstwhile too straight shoulders--all showed +that plainly enough. It were not gallant; it might even be said to be +cruel to worry her. But he remembered the dead Englishwoman, with her +babies, stiff and dead, too, beside her on the floor of the charred +cabin up among the mountains, and his heart was hardened. + +"I spent a few days with the Kirbys once," he said, and looked straight +into her eyes. They shifted, and there was no mistaking her uneasiness. +He followed it up instantly on a bold hazard. It had to be done now, +before she had time to retreat to the cover of her blank stolidity. "Why +did you leave them to be massacred? What did you have against her and +those little children?" + +"I didn't. None of your business," she defied him. + +"I beg your pardon, madam," he said. "It happens to be my business, +though." + +Breakfast call sounded. At the first shrill note she started violently. +She was very thoroughly unnerved, and he decided that an hour of +thinking would make her worse so. He told her that he would see her +after breakfast, and raising his hat again left her to the anticipation, +and to helping the Mexican captives cook their meal of mescal root and +rations. + +Later in the day, when the general and the interpreters were engaged in +making clear to the bucks, who came straggling in to surrender, the +wishes and intentions of the Great Father in Washington as regarded his +refractory children in Arizona, he went back to the captives' tepee. The +Texan was nowhere to be seen. He called to her and got no answer, then +he looked in. She was not there. One of the Mexican women was standing +by, and he went up to her and asked for the Gringa. + +The woman shrugged her round brown shoulders from which the rebozo had +fallen quite away, and dropped her long lashes. "_No se_," she murmured. + +"_Ay que si!_ You do know," he laughed; "you tell me _chula_, or I will +take you back to the United States with me." + +She laughed too, musically, with a bewitching gurgle, and gave him a +swift glance, at once soft and sad. "_Ella es muy fea, no es simpatica, +la Gringa._" + +Undoubtedly, as she said, the American was ugly and unattractive; but +the Mexican was pretty and decidedly engaging. Cairness had been too +nearly trapped once before to be lured now. He met the piece of brown +femininity upon her own ground. "You are quite right, _querida mia_. She +is ugly and old, and you are beautiful and young, and I will take you +with me to the States and buy a pink dress with lovely green ribbons, if +you will tell me where the old woman is." + +"_'Stá bajo_," she stuck out her cleft chin in the direction of the +trail that led out of the pocket down to the flat, far below. + +"_De veras?_" asked Cairness, sharply. He was of no mind to lose her +like this, when he was so near his end. + +"Truly," said the little thing, and nodded vehemently. + +He left her ignominiously, at a run. She stood laughing after him until +he jumped over a rock and disappeared. "She is his sweetheart, the +_vieja_," she chattered to her companions. + +Cairness called to four of his scouts as he ran. They joined him, and he +told them to help him search. In half an hour they found her, cowering +in a cranny of rocks and manzanita. He dismissed the Indians, and then +spoke to her. "Now you sit on that stone there and listen to me," he +said, and taking her by the shoulder put her down and stood over her. + +She kept her sullen glance on the ground, but she was shaking violently. + +"Your husband is in jail," he said without preface. He had done with +the mask of civility. It had served its purpose. + +"No he ain't." + +"Yes he is. And I put him there." He left her to what he saw was her +belief that it was because of the Kirby affair. "You'll see when you get +back. And I'll put you there, too, if I care to. The best chance you +have is to do as I tell you." + +She was silent, but the stubbornness was going fast. She broke off a +bunch of little pink blossoms and rolled it in her hands. + +"Your best chance for keeping out of jail, too," he insisted, "is to +keep on the right side of me. _Sabe?_ Now what I want to know is, what +part Stone has in all this." He did not know what part any one had had +in it, as a matter of fact, for he had failed in all attempts to make +Lawton talk, in the two days he had had before leaving the post. + +"Why don't you ask him?" said Mrs. Lawton, astutely. + +"Because I prefer to ask you, that's why--and to make you answer, too." + +He sat down cross-legged on the ground, facing her. "I've got plenty of +time, my dear woman. I can stop here all day if you can, you know," he +assured her. Afterward he made a painting of her as she had sat there, +in among the rocks and the scrub growth, aged, bent, malevolent, and in +garments that were picturesque because they were rags. He called it the +Sibyl of the Sierra Madre. And, like the Trojan, he plied her with +questions--not of the future, but of the past. "Well," he said, "are you +going to answer me?" + +"Didn't you find out from him?" she asked. + +He changed his position leisurely, stretching out at full length and +resting his head on his hand by way of gaining time. Then he told her +that it was not until after he had caught and landed her husband that he +had discovered that Stone was in it. + +"Who told you he was?" she asked. + +"Never mind all that. I'm here to question, not to be questioned. Now +listen to me." And he went on to point out how she could not possibly +get away from him and the troops until they were across the border, and +that once there, it lay with him to turn her over to the authorities or +to set her free. "You can take your choice, of course. I give you my +word--and I think you are quite clever enough to believe me--that if you +do not tell me what I want to know about Stone, I will land you where +I've landed your husband; and that if you do, you shall go free after +I've done with you. Now I can wait until you decide to answer," and he +rolled over on his back, put his arms under his head, and gazed up at +the jewel-blue patch of sky. + +There was a long pause. A hawk lighted on a point of rock and twinkled +its little eyes at them. Two or three squirrels whisked in and out. Once +a scout came by and stood looking at them, then went on, noiselessly, up +the mountain side. + +"What do you want to know for?" asked the woman, at length. + +He repeated that he was not there to be questioned, and showed her that +he meant it by silence. + +Presently she began again, "Well, he wasn't in it at all. Stone wasn't." + +This was not what Cairness wanted either. He persisted in the silence. A +prolonged silence will sometimes have much the same effect as solitary +confinement. It will force speech against the speaker's own will. + +Mrs. Lawton gritted her teeth at him as though she would have rejoiced +greatly to have had his neck between them. By and by she started once +more. "Bill jest told him about it--like a goldarned fool." + +"That," said Cairness, cheerfully, "is more like it. Go on." + +"That's all." + +"Begging your pardon, it's not all." + +"What the devil do you want to know, then?" + +He considered. "Let me see. For instance, when did Lawton tell him, and +why, and exactly what?" + +"You don't say!" she mocked. "You want the earth and some sun and moon +and stars, don't you, though? Well, then, Bill told him about a week +afterward. And he told him because Stone had another hold on him (it +ain't any of your business what that was, I reckon), and bullied it out +of him (Bill ain't got any more backbone than a rattler), and promised +to lend him money to set up for hisself on the Circle K Ranch. Want to +know anything else?" she sneered. + +"Several things, thanks. You haven't told me yet what version of it your +husband gave to Stone." Cairness was a little anxious. It was succeed +or fail right here. + +"Told him the truth, more idjit he." + +"I didn't ask you that," he reminded her calmly. "I asked what he told." + +"Say!" she apostrophized. + +"Yes?" + +"You're English, I reckon, ain't you?" + +"Yes, and you don't like the English, I know that perfectly." + +"You're right, I don't. You're as thick-headed as all the rest of them." + +"Thanks. But you started out to tell me what Lawton told Stone." + +"He told him the truth, I tell you: that when we heard the Apaches were +coming, we lit out and drove out the stock from the corrals. I don't +recollect his words." + +So that was it! It took all the self-command that thirty-five varied +years had taught him not to rise up and knock her head against the sharp +rocks. But he lay quite still, and presently he said: "That is near +enough for my purposes, thank you. But I would be interested to know, if +you don't mind, what you had against a helpless woman and those two poor +little babies. I wouldn't have supposed that a woman lived who could +have been such a fiend as all that." + +The woman launched off into a torrent of vituperation and vile language +that surprised even Cairness, whose ears were well seasoned. + +"Shut up!" he commanded, jumping to his feet. "You killed her and you +ought to be burned at the stake for it, but you shall not talk about her +like that, you devilish old crone." + +She glared at him, but she stopped short nevertheless, and, flinging +down the stone she had been holding, stood up also. "All right, then. +You've done with me, I reckon. Now suppose you let me go back to the +camp." + +He turned and walked beside her. "Don't you believe I know all that I +want to. I've only just begun. So that scoundrel knew the whole +murderous story, and went on writing lies in his papers and covering +you, when you ought to have been hung to the nearest tree, did he?--and +for the excellent reason that he wanted to make use of your husband! I +worked on the Circle K Ranch and on that other one over in New Mexico, +which is supposed to be Lawton's, and it didn't take me long to find out +that Stone was the real boss." + +"He's got Bill right under his thumb," she sneered at her weak spouse. + +They clambered up the mountain side, back to the camp, and Cairness +escorted her to the tepee in silence. Then he left her. "Don't try to +run away again," he advised. "You can't get far." He started off and +turned back. "Speaking of running away, where's the Greaser you lit out +with?" + +She replied, with still more violent relapse into foul-tongued abuse, +that he had gone off with a woman of his own people. "Got me down into +this hell of a country and took every quartillo I had and then +skedaddled." + +Cairness smiled. There was, it appeared, a small supply of poetic +justice still left in the scheme of things to be meted out. "And then +the Apache came down and bore you off like a helpless lamb," he said. +"If I'd been the Apache I'd have made it several sorts of Hades for you, +but I'd have scalped you afterward. You'd corrupt even a Chiricahua +squaw. However, I'm glad you lived until I got you." And he left her. + +But he kept a close watch upon her then and during all the hard, tedious +march back to the States, when the troops and the scouts had to drag +their steps to meet the strength of the women and children; when the +rations gave out because there were some four hundred Indians to be +provided for, when the command ate mescal root, digging it up from the +ground and baking it; and when the presence of a horde of filthy savages +made the White-man suffer many things not to be put in print. + +But they were returning victorious. The Chiricahuas were subdued. The +hazard had turned well. There would be peace; the San Carlos Agency, +breeding-grounds of all ills, would be turned over to military +supervision. The general who had succeeded--if he had failed it would +have been such a very different story--would have power to give his +promise to the Apaches and to see that it was kept. The experiment of +honesty and of giving the devil his due would have a fair trial. The +voices that had cried loudest abuse after the quiet soldier who, +undisturbed, went so calmly on his way, doing the thing which seemed to +him right, were silenced; and the soldier himself came back into his own +land, crossing the border with his herds and his tribes behind him. +There was no flourish of trumpets; no couriers were sent in advance to +herald that the all but impossible had been accomplished. + +On a fine Sunday morning in June the triumphant general rode into a +supply camp twelve miles north of the line, and spoke to the officer in +command. "Nice morning, Colonel," he said. And then his quick eyes spied +the most desirable thing in all the camp. It was a tin wash basin set on +a potato box. The triumphant general dismounted, and washed his face. + + + + +XX + + +There was peace and harmony in the home of the Reverend Taylor. An air +of neatness and prosperity was about his four-room adobe house. The +mocking-bird that hung in a willow cage against the white wall, by the +door, whistled sweet mimicry of the cheep of the little chickens in the +back yard, and hopped to and fro and up and down on his perches, pecking +at the red chili between the bars. From the corner of his eyes he could +peek into the window, and it was bright with potted geraniums, white as +the wall, or red as the chili, or pink as the little crumpled palm that +patted against the glass to him. + +He whistled more cheerily yet when he saw that small hand. He was a tame +mocking-bird, and he had learned to eat dead flies from it. That was one +of the greatest treats of his highly satisfactory life. The hand left +the window and presently waved from the doorway. + +The Reverend Taylor stood there with his son in his arms. The +mocking-bird trilled out a laugh to the evening air. It was +irresistible, so droll that even a bird must know it,--the likeness +between the little father and the little son. There was the same big +head and the big ears and the big eyes and the body that was too small +for them all, a little, thin body, active and quivering with energy. +There were the very same wrinkles about the baby's lids, crinkles of +good humor and kindly tolerance, and the very same tufts of hair running +the wrong way and sticking out at the temples. + +The tufts were fuzzy yellow instead of gray, and the miniature face had +not yet grown tanned and hard with the wind and the sun, but those were +mere details. The general effect was perfect. There was no mistaking +that the lively fraction of humanity in the Reverend Taylor's arms was +the little Reverend. That was the only name he went by, though he had +been christened properly on the day he was six months old, Joshua for +his father and Randolph for his mother, in memory of Virginia, and her +own long maidenhood. She was herself a Randolph, and she wanted the fact +perpetuated. But in Tombstone, Joshua Randolph Taylor was simply the +little Reverend. + +The little Reverend was the first thing on earth to his father. For the +wife had made that step in advance, which is yet a step in descent in a +woman's life, when she becomes to her husband less herself than the +mother of his child. + +The Reverend Taylor grabbed at a fly and caught it in his palm. He had +become very expert at this, to his wife's admiration and his son's keen +delight. It was because the little Reverend liked to see him do it, and +derived so much elfish enjoyment from the trick, that he had perfected +himself in it. He gave the crushed fly to the baby, and held him up to +feed the bird. The bird put its head through the bars and pecked with +its whiskered bill, and the little Reverend gurgled joyfully, his small +face wrinkling up in a way which was really not pretty, but which his +father thought the most engaging expression in the world. + +The puppy which had been born the same day as the little Reverend, a +beast half coyote, half shepherd, and wholly hideous, came and sat +itself down beside them on the sill, looked up with its tongue hanging +out to one side, and smiled widely. The beaming good nature of the two +Reverends was infectious. The baby squealed gleefully, and kicked until +it was set down on the doorstep to pat the dog. + +Presently the nurse came, a big, fat Mexican woman, with all her +people's love of children showing on her moon face as she put out her +arms. She had been with the Taylors since before the baby's birth, and +she had more of its affection than the mother. + +The little Reverend understood only Spanish, and his few words, +pronounced with a precision altogether in keeping with his appearance, +were Spanish ones. The old nurse murmured softly, as she took him up, +"_Quieres leche hombrecito, quieres cenar? El chuchu tiene hambre +tambien. Vamos á ver mamá._" + +The little Reverend was not to be blandished. He was willing to go +because it was his supper time and he knew it, but the big-eyed look of +understanding he turned up to the gentle, fat face said plainly enough +that he was too wise a creature to be wheedled. He submitted to be +carried in, but he cast a regretful glance at the "chuchu," which sat +still in the doorway, and at his father, who was watching the line of +flying ants making their way, a stream of red bodies and sizzing white +wings, out of the window and across the street. + +They had been doing that for three days. They came down the chimney, +made across the floor in a line that never changed direction, nor +straggled, nor lessened, up the wall and out a crack in the window. They +did no harm, but followed blindly on in the path the first one had +taken. And the minister had said they should not be smoked back or +thwarted. + +The little Reverend had been much interested in them also. He had sat +for several hours sucking an empty spool, and observing them narrowly, +in perfect silence. His father had great hopes of him as a naturalist. + +Finally the minister raised his eyes and looked down the street. It was +almost empty, save for two men in high-heeled top boots and sombreros +who sat in chairs tilted back against the post-office wall, meditating +in mutual silence. The only sounds were the rattling of dishes over in +his mother-in-law's restaurant across the street, and the sleepy +cheeping of the little chickens in his own back yard, as they cuddled +under their mother's wing. + +The Reverend Taylor was about to go to the coops and close them for the +night, when he saw a man and a woman on horseback coming up the street. +The woman was bending forward and swaying in her saddle. He stood still +and watched. The red sunset blaze was in his face so that he could not +see plainly until they were quite near. Then he knew that it was +Cairness and--yes, beyond a doubt--Bill Lawton's runaway wife. + +They halted in front of him, and the woman swayed again, so much that he +ran to her side. But she righted herself fiercely. Cairness was +dismounted and was beside her, too, in an instant. He lifted her from +the horse, pulled her down, more or less; she was much too ungainly to +handle with any grace. + +"May I take her in?" he said, nodding toward the open door. + +"Surely," said the minister, "surely." There might have been men who +would have remembered that Mrs. Lawton was a tough woman, even for a +mining town, and who would in the names of their own wives have refused +to let her cross the threshold of their homes. But he saw that she was +ill, and he did not so much as hesitate. + +Cairness put his arm around the big angular shoulders and helped her +into the sitting room. She dropped down upon the sofa, and sat there, +her head hanging, but in sullenness, not humility. + +Mrs. Taylor came to the dining-room door and looked in. "Can I do +anything?" she asked. + +"Come in," said her husband. He was pouring out a drink of whiskey. + +She came and stood watching, asking no questions, while the woman on the +sofa gulped down the raw whiskey and gave back the glass. + +Cairness had gone out to hitch the horses. When he came in he spoke to +Mrs. Lawton, as one possessed of authority. He told her to lie down if +she wanted to. "With your leave, Mrs. Taylor?" he added. Mrs. Taylor was +already beside her, fussing kindly and being met with scant courtesy. + +Cairness took the Reverend Taylor to the door. "You know that is Bill +Lawton's wife?" he said. + +Taylor nodded. + +"The one who sloped with the Greaser?" + +The parson nodded again. + +"Do you object to taking her into your house for a short time?" + +The Reverend Taylor did not object. + +"And your wife?" + +"She will shrink, I guess, at first," he admitted. "Women who ain't seen +much of life kind of think they ought to draw aside their skirts, and +all that. They were taught copy-book morals about touching pitch, I +reckon,"--he was wise concerning women now--"and it takes a good deal of +hard experience to teach them that it ain't so. But she'll take my word +for it." + +"She is ill, you see?" + +The parson had seen. + +"She may be ill some time. Would it be asking too much of you to look +after her?" The bachelor showed in that. + +Taylor realized from the Benedict's greater knowledge that it was asking +a great deal, but still not too much. He assured Cairness that she +should be cared for. + +"She was a captive among the Chiricahuas up in the Sierra Madre. She's +had a hard time of it. That and the return march have been too much for +her." + +The parson expressed pity--and felt it, which is more. + +"Yes," Cairness said, "of course it's hard luck, but she's deserved it +all, and more too. You may as well know the whole thing now. It's only +fair. She and her husband were the cause of the Kirby massacre. Drove +off the stock from the corrals and left them no escape." + +His teeth set. The little man gasped audibly. "Good God!" he said, "I--" +he stopped. + +"I rather thought that might be too much for even you," said Cairness. + +"No, no; it's a good deal, but it ain't too much. Not that it could be +more, very well," he added, and he glanced furtively at the woman +within, who had stretched out on the lounge with her face to the wall. +Mrs. Taylor was fanning her. + +"You will still keep her then?" Cairness wished to know. + +He would still keep her, yes. But he did not see that it would be in the +least necessary to tell his wife the whole of the woman's iniquity. It +took quite all his courage, after they had gotten her safely in bed, to +remind her that this was the same woman who had gone off with the +Mexican. + +Mrs. Taylor folded her hands in her lap, and simply looked at him. + +"Well?" said he, questioningly, setting his mouth. It answered to the +duellist's "On guard!" She had seen him set his mouth before, and she +knew that it meant that he was not to be opposed. Nevertheless there was +a principle involved now. It must be fought for. And it would be the +first fight of their marriage, too. As he had told Cairness once, she +was very amiable. + +"Well," she answered, "I think you have done an unspeakable thing, that +is all." + +"Such as--" + +"To have brought an abandoned woman into our home." + +"If her presence blackens the walls, we will have them whitewashed." + +But she was not to be turned off with levity. It was a serious matter, +involving consequences of the sternest sort. Mrs. Taylor was of the +class of minds which holds that just such laxities as this strike at the +root of society. "It is not a joke, Joshua. She pollutes our home." + +"Are you afraid she will contaminate me?" he asked. He was peering at +her over the top of a newspaper. + +She denied the idea emphatically. + +"Baby, then?" + +Equally absurd. + +"Or the nurse?" + +It was too foolish to answer. + +"Then," said the Reverend Taylor, laying down the paper, "you must be +scared for yourself." + +"Never!" she declared; it was merely because she could not breathe the +same air with that creature. + +"I wonder, my dear, what sort of air you breathed in your mother's +restaurant at meal times?" + +Mrs. Taylor was silent. Her pop blue eyes shifted. + +"Trouble is," he went on evenly, "trouble is, that, like most women, +you've been brought up to take copy-book sentiments about touchin' +pitch, and all that, literal. You don't stop to remember that to eat +with unwashen hands defileth not a man. If she can't do you any harm +spiritually, she certainly ain't got the strength to do it physically. I +can't say as I'd like to have her about the place all the time unless +she was going to reform,--and I don't take much stock in change of +heart, with her sort,--because she wouldn't be a pleasant companion, and +it ain't well to countenance vice. But while she's sick, and it will +oblige Cairness, she can have the shelter of my manta. You think so too, +now, don't you?" he soothed. + +But she was not sure that she thought so. She wanted to know why the +woman could not be sent to the hotel, and he explained that Cairness +wished a very close watch kept on her until she was able to be up. +Curiosity got the better of outraged virtue then. "Why?" she asked, and +leaned forward eagerly. + +But the Reverend Taylor's lips set again, and he shrugged his narrow +shoulders. "I'm not certain myself," he said shortly. + +An eminent student of the sex has somewhere said that women are like +monkeys, in that they are imitative. The comparison goes further. There +is a certain inability in a monkey to follow out a train of thought, or +of action, to its conclusion, which is shared by the major part of +womankind. It is a feminine characteristic to spend life and much energy +on side issues. The lady forgot almost all about her original premise. +She wished especially to know that which no power upon earth would +induce her lord to tell. + +He took up his paper again. "He ain't told me the whole thing yet," he +said. + +She wished to hear as much as he had confided. + +The Reverend Taylor shook his head. "I may tell you sometime, but not +now. In the meanwhile I'm sure you think we had better keep Mrs. Lawton +here, don't you now?" + +She did not. She would as lief touch a toad. + +"Ain't it funny how narrow-minded some good women can be, though?" he +speculated, looking at her very much as he was in the habit of looking +at his specimens. And he quoted slowly, as if he were saying over the +names and family characteristics of a specimen. + +"'And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give +my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.' I +wonder how many women who have lived up to every word of the Decalogue +have made it all profitless for want of a little charity?" + +She asked, with the flat Virginia accent of the vowels, if he would +like her to go and embrace the woman, and request her to make their home +henceforth her own. + +"No," he said, "I wouldn't like you to, and she wouldn't want it, I +reckon." He dropped back into his usual speech. "She ain't any repentant +sinner, by a good deal. But as Cairness wants me to keep an eye on her, +and as she's sick, I wish you to let her stay in the house, and not to +make a rumpus about it. If you really don't like to go near her, +though," he finished, "I'll tell you what I'll do, I'll take her in her +food myself, and nurse can clean out her room." + +Perhaps the Scripture texts had taught their lesson, or perhaps there +yet lingered a hope of learning that which her husband would not tell. +Anyway, for the week which the woman lay on the cot in the little +whitewashed chamber, which had no outlet save through the sitting room +where some one was always on guard night and day, Mrs. Taylor served her +with a good enough grace. + +When she was able to be up, Cairness went in to see her. She was sitting +on a chair, and looking sulkily out of the window. "You got me jailed +all right," she sneered, "ain't you?" and she motioned to the grating of +iron. + +"You can go whenever you like now," Cairness told her. She demanded to +know where she was to go to, and he answered that that was not his +affair, but that he would suggest a safe distance. "Somebody else +getting hold of the truth of the Kirby business mightn't be so easy on +you as I am." + +"How do I know you're done with me yet?" she snapped. + +He told her that she didn't know it, because he was not; and then he +explained to her. "What I want of you now is for you to come over with +Taylor and me to see Stone." + +She jumped to her feet. "I ain't going to do it." + +"Yes," he assured her unmoved, "you are. At least you are going to do +that, or go to jail." + +"What do you want me to say to Stone?" + +"Nothing much," he told her. He and Taylor could take care of the +talking. Her part would be just to stand by and pay attention. + +"And after that?" + +"After that, as I said before, you may go." + +He suggested that the sooner she felt that she could go the better, as +she had been a good deal of a burden to the Taylors. + +She laughed scornfully. "It ain't me that asked them to take me in," she +said; "I'm as glad to go as they are to have me." She wore a calico +wrapper that Cairness had bought for her, and other garments that had +been gathered together in the town. Now she put a battered sombrero on +her head, and told him she was ready. + +He and the parson followed her out of the house. She had not cared to +say good-by to Mrs. Taylor, and she glared at the little Reverend, who +balanced himself on his uncertain small feet and clutched at a chair, +watching her with his precocious eyes and an expression combined of his +mother's virtuous disapproval and his father's contemplative scrutiny, +the while the tufts of his hair stood out stiffly. + +The Reverend Taylor and Cairness had managed, with a good deal of +adroitness, to keep the identity of their patient a secret. Stone was +consequently not at all prepared to have her stride in upon him. But he +was not a man to be caught exhibiting emotions. The surprise which he +showed and expressed was of a perfectly frank and civil, even of a +somewhat pleased, sort. He called her "my dear madam," and placed a +chair for her. She sat in it under protest. He kept up the social aspect +of it all for quite five minutes, but sociability implies conversation, +and Cairness and the minister were silent. So was the woman--rigidly. + +When all his phrases were quite used up, Stone changed the key. What +could be done for Mr. Taylor? Mr. Taylor motioned with his usual +urbanity that the burden of speech lay with Cairness. What could he do +for Mr. Cairness, then? + +"Well," said Cairness, twisting at the small mustache, and levelling his +eyes straight as the barrels of a shot-gun--and they gave the journalist +a little of the same sensation--"I think, Mr. Stone, that you can get +out of the country within the next three days." + +Stone did not understand. He believed that he missed Mr. Cairness's +meaning. "I don't think you do," said Cairness; "but I'll make it +plainer, anyway. I want you to get out of the country, for the country's +good, you know, and for your own. And I give you three days to do it +in, because I don't wish to hurry you to an inconvenient extent." + +Stone laughed and inquired if he were joking, or just crazy. + +"Neither," drawled Cairness. "But Mrs. Lawton, here, has been good +enough to tell me that you have known the exact truth about the Kirby +massacre ever since a week after its occurrence, and yet you have +shielded the criminals and lied in the papers. Then, too," he went on, +"though there is no real proof against you, and you undoubtedly did +handle it very well, I know that it was you that set Lawton on to try +and bribe for the beef contract. You see your friends are unsafe, Mr. +Stone, and I have been around yours and Lawton's ranches enough to have +picked up a few damaging facts." + +"Always supposing you have," interposed Stone, hooking his thumbs in his +sleeve holes and tipping back his chair, "always supposing you have, +what could you do with the facts?" + +"Well," drawled Cairness again,--he had learned the value of the word in +playing the Yankee game of bluff,--"with those about the beef contract +and those about the Kirby massacre, also a few I gathered around San +Carlos (you may not be aware that I have been about that reservation off +and on for ten years), with those facts I could put you in the +penitentiary, perhaps, even with an Arizona jury; but at any rate I +could get you tarred and feathered or lynched in about a day. Or failing +all those, I could shoot you myself. And a jury would acquit me, you +know, if any one were ever to take the trouble to bring it before one, +which is doubtful, I think." + +Stone glanced at the Lawton woman. She was grinning mirthlessly at his +discomfiture. "What have you been stuffing this fellow here with?" he +asked her contemptuously. + +"Just what he's dishin' up to you now," she told him. + +"It's a lot of infernal lies, and you know it." But she only shook her +head and laughed again, shortly. + +Stone made a very creditable fight. A man does not throw up the results +of years of work without a strong protest. He treated it lightly, at +first, then seriously. Then he threatened. "I've got a good deal of +power myself," he told Cairness angrily; "I can roast you in the press +so that you can't hold up your head." + +"I don't believe you can," Cairness said; "but you might try it, if it +will give you any pleasure. Only you must make haste, because you've got +to get out in three days." + +"I can shoot, myself, when it comes to that," suggested Stone. + +Cairness said that he would of course have to take chances on that. "You +might kill me, or I might kill you. I'm a pretty fair shot. However, it +wouldn't pay you to kill me, upon the whole, and you must take +everything into consideration." He was still twisting the curled end of +his small mustache and half closing his eyes in the way that Stone had +long since set down as asinine. "My friend Mr. Taylor would still be +alive. And if you were to hurt him,--he's a very popular man,--it might +be bad for your standing in the community. It wouldn't hurt me to kill +you, particularly, on the other hand. You are not so popular anyway, and +I haven't very much to lose." + +Then the journalist tried entreaty. He had a wife and children. + +Cairness reminded him that Kirby had had a wife and children, too. + +"Well, I didn't kill them, did I?" he whined. + +"Not exactly, no. But you were an accessory after the fact." + +"Why are you so all-fired anxious to vindicate the law?" He dropped +easily into phrases. + +Cairness assured him that he was not. "It is not my mission on earth to +straighten out the territories, heaven be praised. This is purely a +personal matter, entirely so. You may call it revenge, if you like. +Lawton's in jail all safe, as you know. I got him there, and if he gets +out anyway, I'll put him back again on this count." + +Mrs. Lawton started forward in her chair. "What's he in for now? Ain't +it for this?" she demanded. + +"For destruction of government property," Cairness told her, and there +was just the faintest twinkle between his lids. "I didn't know all these +interesting details about the Kirbys until you told me, Mrs. Lawton." + +She sat with her jaw hanging, staring at him, baffled, and he went on. +"I've got Lawton jailed, as I was saying. I'll have you out of the +country in three days, and as for Mrs. Lawton, I'll keep an eye on her. +I'll know where she is, in case I need her at any time. But I'm not +fighting women." + +He stood up. "I'll see you off inside of three days then, Stone," he +said amicably. + +"Where do you want me to go?" he almost moaned, and finished with an +oath. + +"Anywhere you like, my dear chap, so that it's neither in Arizona or New +Mexico. I want to stop here myself, and the place isn't big enough for +us both. You'll be a valuable acquisition to any community, and you can +turn your talent to showing up the life here. You are right on the +inside track. Now I won't ask you to promise to go. But I'll be round to +see that you do." + +He held the door open for the Texan woman and the parson to go out. Then +he followed, closing it behind him. + +Two days later Stone left the town. He took the train for California, +and his wife and children went with him. He was a rich man by many an +evil means, and it was no real hardship that had been worked him, as +Cairness well knew. + +The Lawton woman had heard of an officer's family at Grant, which was in +need of a cook, and had gone there. + +"And now," said the Reverend Taylor, fingering the lock of hair over the +little Reverend's right ear, as that wise little owl considered with +uncertain approval a whistle rattle Cairness had bought for him, "and +now what are you going to do?" + +Cairness stood up, ran his hands into his pockets, and going over to the +window looked down at the geraniums as he had done once, long before. + +"I am going back to my ranch on the reservation," he said measuredly. + +"Cairness," said the parson, fixing his eyes upon the back of the bent +head, as if they were trying to see through into the impenetrable brain +beneath, "are you going to spend the rest of your life at this sort of +thing?" + +"I don't know," Cairness answered, with a lightness that was anything +but cheering. + +"You are too good for it." + +"I am certainly not good enough for anything else." He began to whistle, +but it was not a success, and he stopped. + +"See here," insisted Taylor; "turn round here and answer me." Cairness +continued to stand with his head down, looking at the geraniums. The +parson was wiser than his wife in that he knew when it was of no use to +insist. "What's keeping you around here, anyway? You ought to have +gotten out when you left the service--and you half meant to then. What +is it?" + +Cairness raised his shoulders. "My mines," he said, after a while. The +Reverend Taylor did not believe that, but he let it go. + +"Well," he said more easily, "you've accomplished the thing you set out +to do, anyway." + +"One thing," muttered Cairness. + +"Eh?" the parson was not sure he had heard. + +"Just nothing," Cairness laughed shortly, and breaking off one of the +treasured geranium blossoms, stuck it in a buttonhole of his flannel +shirt. + +"I heard you," said the little man; "what's the other?"--"Oh, I dare say +I'll fail on that," he answered indifferently, and taking up his +sombrero went out to saddle his horse. + + + + +XXI + + +The civilization of the Englishman is only skin deep. And therein lies +his strength and his salvation. Beneath that outer surface, tubbed and +groomed and prosperous, there is the man, raw and crude from the +workshops of Creation. Back of that brain, trained to a nicety of +balance and perception and judgment, there are the illogical passions of +a savage. An adaptation of the proverb might run that you scratch an +Englishman and you find a Briton--one of those same Britons who stained +themselves blue with woad, who fell upon their foes with clumsy swords +and flaming torches, who wore the skins of beasts, and lived in huts of +straw, and who burned men and animals together, in sacrifice to their +gods. + +And the savage shows, too, in that your Englishman is not gregarious. +His house is his castle, his life is to himself, and his sentiments are +locked within him. He is a lonely creature, in the midst of his kind, +and he loves his loneliness. + +But it is because of just this that no scion of ultra-civilization +degenerates so thoroughly as does he. Retrogression is easy to him. He +can hardly go higher, because he is on the height already; but he can +slip back. Set him in a lower civilization, he sinks one degree lower +than that. Put him among savages, and he is nearer the beasts than they. +It does not come to pass in a day, nor yet at all if he be part of a +community, which keeps in mind its traditions and its church, and which +forms its own public opinion. Then he is the leaven of all the measures +of meal about him, the surest, steadiest, most irresistible civilizing +force. But he cannot advance alone. He goes back, and, being cursed with +the wisdom which shows him his debasement, in loathing and disgust with +himself, he grows sullen and falls back yet more. + +It was so with Cairness. He was sinking down, and ever down, to the +level of his surroundings; he was even ceasing to realize that it was +so. He had begun by studying the life of the savages, but he was so +entirely grasping their point of view that he was losing all other. He +was not so dirty as they--not yet. His stone cabin was clean enough, and +their villages were squalid. A morning plunge in the river was still a +necessity, while with them it was an event. But where he had once spent +his leisure in reading in several tongues--in keeping in touch with the +world--and in painting, he would now sit for hours looking before him +into space, thinking unprofitable thoughts. He lived from hand to mouth. +Eventually he would without doubt marry a squaw. The thing was more than +common upon the frontier. + +He was in a manner forgetting Felipa. He had forced himself to try to do +so. But once in a way he remembered her vividly, so that the blood would +burn in his heart and head, and he would start up and beat off the +thought, as if it were a visible thing. It was happening less and less +often, however. For two years he had not seen her and had heard of her +directly only once. An officer who came into the Agency had been with +her, but having no reason to suppose that a scout could be interested in +the details of the private life of an officer's wife, he had merely said +that she had been very ill, but was better now. He had not seen fit to +add that it was said in the garrison--which observed all things with a +microscopic eye--that she was very unhappy with Landor, and that the +sympathy was not all with her. + +"Mrs. Landor is very beautiful," Cairness hazarded. He wanted to talk of +her, or to make some one else do it. + +"She is very magnificent," said the officer, coldly. It was plain that +magnificence was not what he admired in woman. And there it had dropped. + +Cairness remembered with an anger and disgust with himself he could +still feel, that last time he had seen her in the mouth of the cave. +That had been two springs ago. Since then there had been no occupation +for him as a guide or scout. The country had been at peace. The War +Department and the Indian Department were dividing the control of the +Agency, with the War Department ranking. Crook had been trying his +theories as practice. He had been demonstrating that the Indian can +work, with a degree of success that was highly displeasing to the class +of politicians whose whole social fabric for the southwest rested on his +only being able to kill. + +But the star of the politician was once more in the ascendant. For two +years there had been not one depredation, not one outrage from the +Indians, for whose good conduct the general had given his personal word. +They were self-supporting, and from the products of their farms they not +only kept themselves, but supplied the neighboring towns. It was a state +of affairs entirely unsatisfactory to the politician. So he set about +correcting it. + +His methods were explained to Cairness by an old buck who slouched up to +the cabin and sat himself down cross-legged in front of the door. He +meant to share in the venison breakfast Cairness was getting himself. + +"So long as these stones of your house shall remain one upon the other," +began the Apache, "so long shall I be your friend. Have you any +tobacco?" Cairness went into the cabin, got a pouch, and tossed it to +him. He took a package of straw papers and a match from somewhere about +himself and rolled a cigarette deftly. + +"I have been lied to," came the muttering voice from the folds of the +red I. D. blanket, which almost met the red flannel band binding down +his coarse and dirty black hair. It was early dawn and cold. Cairness +himself was close to the brush fire. + +"I have been cheated." + +Cairness nodded. He thought it very likely. + +"The Sun and the Darkness and the Winds were all listening. He promised +to pay me _dos reales_ each day. To prove to you that I am now telling +the truth, here is what he wrote for me." He held it out to Cairness, a +dirty scrap of wrapping-paper scrawled over with senseless words. + +"Yes," said Cairness, examining it, "but this has no meaning." + +"That is a promise," the Indian insisted, "to pay me _dos reales_ a day +if I would cut hay for him." + +The White explained carefully that it was not a contract, that it was +nothing at all, in fact. + +"Then he lied," said the buck, and tucked the scrap back under his head +band. "They all lie. I worked for him two weeks. I worked hard. And each +night when I asked him for money he would say to me that to-morrow he +would pay me. When all his hay was cut he laughed in my face. He would +pay me nothing." He seemed resigned enough about it. + +Cairness gave a grunt that was startlingly savage--so much so that he +realized it, and shook himself slightly as a man does who is trying to +shake himself free from a lethargy that is stealing over him. + +"And then, there was the trouble about the cows. They promised us one +thousand, and they gave us not quite six hundred. And those--the Dawn +and the Sky hear that what I tell you is true--and those were so old we +could not use them." + +Cairness nodded. He knew that the Interior Department had sent an agent +out to investigate that complaint, and that the agent had gone his way +rejoicing and reporting that all was well with the Indian and honest +with the contractor. It was not true. Every one who knew anything about +it knew that. Cairness supposed that also was the work of the +politicians. But there are things one cannot make plain to a savage +having no notions of government. + +The buck went on, the while he held a piece of venison in his dirty hand +and dragged at it with his teeth, to say that there was a feeling of +great uneasiness upon the reservation. + +The Chiricahuas could see that there was trouble between the officials, +both military and civil, and the government. They did not know what it +was. They did not understand that the harassed general, whose word--and +his alone--had their entire belief, nagged and thwarted, given authority +and then prevented from enforcing it, had rebelled at last, had asked to +be relieved, and had been refused. But they drew in with delight the air +of strife and unrest. It was the one they loved best, there could and +can be no doubt about that. + +"Geronimo," mumbled the Apache, "has prayed to the Dawn and the Darkness +and the Sun and the Sky to help him put a stop to those bad stories that +people put in the papers about him. He is afraid it will be done as they +say." The press of the country was full just then, and had been for some +time past, of suggestions that the only good use the much-feared +Geronimo could be put to would be hanging, the which he no doubt richly +deserved. But if every one in the territories who deserved hanging had +been given his dues, the land would have been dotted with blasted trees. + +"Geronimo does not want that any more. He has tried to do right. He is +not thinking bad. Such stories ought not to be put in the newspapers." + +Cairness also thought that they should not, chiefly because they had a +tendency to frighten the timid Apaches. But he went on quietly eating +his breakfast, and said nothing. He knew that only silence can obtain +loquacity from silent natures. He was holding his meat in his fingers, +too, and biting it, though he did not drag it like a wild beast yet; +and, moreover, he had it upon a piece of bread of his own baking. + +"There will be trouble with Geronimo's people soon." + +"Shall you go with them?" asked Cairness. + +"No, I am a friend of the soldier. And I am a friend of Chato, who is +the enemy of Geronimo. I have no bad thoughts," he added piously. + +"And you think there will be trouble?" He knew that the buck had come +there for nothing but to inform. + +"I think that Geronimo will make trouble. He knows that the agent and +the soldiers are quarrelling, and he and his people have been drinking +tizwin for many days." + +Cairness stood up and walked down to the water to wash his hands. Then +he went into the cabin and brought out a small mirror, and all the +shaving apparatus he had not used for months, and proceeded to take off +his thick brown beard, while the Indian sat stolidly watching him with +that deep interest in trifles of the primitive brain, which sees and +marks, and fails to learn or to profit correspondingly. + +And later in the day, when the buck had shuffled off again, Cairness +brought out his pony,--a new one now, for the little pinto one had died +of a rattlesnake bite, from which no golondrina weed had been able to +save it,--and saddled it. Then he went again into the cabin. There was +but one thing there that he valued,--a life-size head of Felipa he had +done in charcoal. It was in a chest beneath his cot. He locked his +chest, and going out locked the door also, and putting both keys upon a +ring, mounted and rode off along the trail. + +It was his intention to go to Crook and to warn him if he needed +warning, which was not probable, since he was never napping. He would +then offer his services as a scout. He was sincerely attached to the +general, and felt his own career in a way involved with that of the +officer, because he had been with him, in one capacity or another, in +every campaign he had made in the southwest. + +Already he felt more respectable at the mere prospect of contact with +his kind again. He was glad that the unkempt beard was gone, and he was +allowing himself to hope, no, he was deliberately hoping, that he would +see Felipa. + + + + +XXII + + +He failed in the warning. He had barely gotten off the reservation +before Geronimo and Nachez and their sympathizers broke out and started +to reach again that fastness in the Sierra Madre from which they had +been routed two years before. But he succeeded without the least +difficulty in obtaining the position of chief of scouts. + +And he succeeded in seeing Felipa. It was most unexpected. He had +believed her to be in Stanton, a good many hundred miles away. But +Landor having been sent at once into the field, she had come on to Grant +to visit the Campbells, who were again stationed there. He met her face +to face only once, and he measured with one quick look all the changes +there were between the girl of ten years before and the woman of to-day. +The great, sad pity that rose within him, and seemed to grasp at his +throat chokingly, was the best love he had felt for her yet. It wiped +out the wrong of the short madness in the cave's mouth. + +She was quite alone, wandering among the trees and bushes in the creek +bottom, and her hands were full of wild flowers. She had pinned several +long sprays of the little ground blossoms, called "baby-blue eyes," at +her throat, and they lay along her white gown prettily. She stopped and +spoke to him, with a note of lifelessness in her high, sweet voice; and +while he answered her question as to what he had been doing since she +had seen him last, she unpinned the "baby-blue eyes" and held them out +to him. "Would you like these?" she asked simply. He took them, and she +said "Good-by" and went on. + +She was broken to the acceptance of the inevitable now,--he could see +that, any one could see it. She had learned the lesson of the ages--the +futility of struggle of mere man against the advance of men. That it had +been a hard lesson was plain. It showed in her face, where patience had +given place to unrest, gentleness to the defiance of freedom. She had +gained, too, she had gained greatly. She was not only woman now, she was +womanly. But Cairness did not need to be told that she was not happy. + +He went on the next day with his scouts, and eventually joined Landor in +the field. Landor was much the same as ever, only more gray and rather +more deeply lined. Perhaps he was more taciturn, too, for beyond +necessary orders he threw not one word to the chief of scouts. Cairness +could understand that the sight of himself was naturally an +exasperation, and in some manner a reproach, too. He was sorry that he +had been thrown with this command, but, since he was, it was better that +Landor should behave as he was doing. An assumption of friendliness +would have been a mockery, and to some extent an ignoble one. + +Landor's troop, with one other, was in the San Andres Mountains of New +Mexico when Cairness joined it. They were on the trail of a large band +of renegades, and it led them through the mountains, across the flats, +and down to the lava beds. + +Once in the æons which will never unfold their secrets now, when the +continent of the Western seas was undreamed of by the sages and the +philosophers of the Eastern world, when it was as alone, surrounded by +its wide waters, as the planets are alone in their wastes of space, when +it was living its own life,--which was to leave no trace upon the scroll +of the wisdom of the ages,--the mountains and the bowels of the earth +melted before the wrath of that same Lord whose voice shook the +wilderness of Judæa. At His bidding they ran as water, and poured down +in waves of seething fire, across the valley of death. + +It is a valley of death now, parched and desolate, a waste of white +sand--the dry bone dust of the cycles. But then, when the lava came +surging and boiling and flaming across the plain, not a thin stream, but +a wide, irresistible current, there was life; there was a city--one city +at least. It is there now, under the mass of sharp, gray, porous rock; +how much of it no one knows. But it is there, and it has given up its +unavailing hints of a life which may have been older than that of +Herculaneum and Pompeii, and is as much more safely hidden from the +research of the inquiring day as its walls are more hopelessly buried +beneath the ironlike stone than are those of the cisalpine cities +beneath their ashen drift. + +And the great river of rock is there, too, frozen upon the land like +some devouring monster changed by a Gorgon head into lifeless stone. It +is a formidable barrier across the hardly less formidable bad lands. It +can be crossed in places where it is narrowest, not quite a mile in +width, that is. But horses slip and clamber, and men cut through the +leather of their heaviest shoes. + +If the sea, whipping in huge waves against the fury of a typhoon, were +to become on the instant rocks, it would be as this. There are heights +and crevasses, hills and gulches, crests and hollows, little caves and +crannies, where quail and snakes and cotton-tails and jack-rabbits, +lizards and coyotes, creatures of desolation and the barrens, hide and +scamper in and out. It is an impregnable stronghold, not for armies, +because they could not find shelter, but for savages that can scatter +like the quail themselves, and writhe on their bellies into the coyotes' +own holes. + +And so the hostiles took shelter there from the cavalry that had pursued +them hard across the open all night, and gave battle after the manner of +their kind. It was a very desultory sort of a skirmish, for the troops +did not venture into the traps beyond the very edge, and the Indians +were simply on the defensive. It was not only desultory, it promised to +be unavailing, a waste of time and of ammunition. + +The Chiricahuas might stay there and fire at intervals as long as they +listed, killing a few men perhaps. And then they might retreat quite +safely, putting the barrier between themselves and the pursuers. +Obviously there were only two courses wherein lay any wisdom,--to +retreat, or to cut off their retreat. Landor said so to the major in +command. + +"And how, may I ask, would you suggest cutting off their retreat?" the +major inquired a little sharply. His temper was not improved by the heat +and by twelve hours in the saddle. + +It was certainly not apparent, on the face of it, how the thing was to +be done, but the captain explained. "I've been stationed here, you know, +and I know the roads. We are about a half a mile or more from where the +Stanton road to the railway crosses the lava. It is narrow and rough, +and about from three-quarters of a mile to a mile wide, but cavalry can +go over it without any trouble. I can take my troop over, and then the +Indians will be hemmed in between us. We might capture the whole band." + +The major offered the objection that it would be foolhardy, that it +would be cutting through the enemy by file. "They'll pick you off, and +you'll be absolutely at their mercy," he remonstrated. "No, I can't hear +of it." + +"Suppose you let me call for volunteers," suggested Landor. He was sure +of his own men, down to the last recruit. + +The major consented unwillingly. "It's your lookout. If you come out +alive, I shall be surprised, that's all. Take some scouts, too," he +added, as he lit a cigar and went on with his walk up and down among his +men. + +The entire command volunteered, as a matter of course, and Landor had +his pick. He took thirty men and a dozen scouts. Cairness rode up and +offered himself. They looked each other full in the face for a moment. +"Very well," said Landor, and turned on his heel. Cairness was properly +appreciative, despite the incivility. He knew that Landor could have +refused as well as not, and that would have annoyed and mortified him. +He was a generous enemy, at any rate. The volunteers mounted and trotted +off in a cloud of dust that hung above them and back along their trail, +to where the road, as Landor had said, entered the malpais. + +Just at the edge of the rock stream there was an abandoned cabin built +of small stones. Whatever sort of roof it had had in the beginning was +now gone altogether, and the cabin itself was tumbling down. Through the +doorway where there was no door, there showed a blackened fireplace. +Once when a party from the post had been taking the two days' drive to +the railroad, they had stopped here, and had lunched in the cabin. +Landor remembered it now, and glanced at the place where Felipa had +reclined in the shade of the walls, upon the leather cushion of the +ambulance seat. She very rarely could be moved to sing, though she had a +sweet, plaintive voice of small volume; but this time she had raised her +tin mug of beer and, looking up to the blue sky, had launched into the +"Last Carouse," in a spirit of light mockery that fitted with it well, +changing the words a little to the scene. + + + "We meet 'neath the blazing heavens, + And the walls around are bare; + They shout back our peals of laughter, + And it seems that the dead are there. + Then stand to your glasses steady, + We drink to our comrades' eyes + One cup to the dead already. + Hurrah! for the next that dies." + + +"Hurrah! for the next that dies," thought Landor himself, with a +careless cynicism. The barrel of a Winchester gleamed above a point of +rock, a little sharp sparkle of sunlight on steel, and a bullet +deflected from the big leather hood of his stirrup. He rode on calmly, +and his horse's shoes clicked on the lava. + +The men followed, sitting erect, toes in. They might have been on +mounted inspection except for the field clothes, stained and dusty. They +were to go down a narrow path for close on a mile, between two rows of +rifle barrels, and that not at a run or a gallop, but at a trot, at the +most, for the lava was slippery as glass in spots. They were willing +enough to do it, even anxious--not that there was any principle +involved, or glory to be gained, but because their blood was up and it +was part of the chances of the game. + +They were not destined to get beyond the first fifty yards, +nevertheless. The rifle that had fired at Landor as he came upon the +malpais went glistening up again. There was a puff of blue-hearted smoke +in the still air, and Cairness's bronco, struck on the flanks, stung to +frenzy, stopped short, then gathering itself together with every +quivering sinew in a knot, after the way of its breed, bounded off +straight in among the jagged boulders. It was all done in an instant, +and almost before Landor could see who had dashed ahead of him the horse +had fallen, neck to the ground, throwing its rider with his head against +a point of stone. + +Landor did not stop to consider it. It was one of the few impulses of +his life, or perhaps only the quickest thinking he had ever done. +Cairness was there among the rocks, disabled and in momentary danger of +his life. If it had been a soldier, under the same circumstances, Landor +might have gone on and have sent another soldier to help him. It was +only a chief of scouts, but it was a man of his own kind, for all +that--and it was his enemy. Instinct dismounted him before reason had +time to warn him that the affair of an officer is not to succor his +inferiors in the thick of the fighting when there are others who can be +better spared to do it. He threw his reins over his horse's head and +into the hands of the orderly-trumpeter, and jumped down beside +Cairness. + +When the sergeant reported it to the major afterward, he said that the +captain, in stooping over to raise the chief of scouts, had been struck +full in the temple by a bullet, and had pitched forward with his arms +stretched out. One private had been wounded. They carried the two men +back to the little cabin of stones, and that was the casualty list. But +the dash had failed. + +They laid Landor upon the ground, in the same patch of shade he had +glanced at in coming by not five minutes before. His glazed eyes stared +back at the sky. There was nothing to be done for him. But Cairness was +alive. They washed the blood from his face with water out of the +canteens, and bound his head with a wet handkerchief. And presently he +came back to consciousness and saw Landor stretched there, with the +bluing hole in his brow, and the quiet there is no mistaking on his +sternly weary face. And he turned back his head and lay as ashy and +almost as still as the dead man, with a look on his own face more +terrible than that of any death. + +After a time, when a soldier bent over him and held a flask to his +teeth, he drank, and then he pointed feebly, and his lips framed the +question he could not seem to speak. + +The soldier understood. "Trying to save you, sir," he said a little +resentfully. + +But Cairness had known it without that. It was so entirely in keeping +with the rest of his fate, that every cup which ought to have been sweet +should have been embittered like this. + +He rolled his cut and throbbing head over again, and watched the still +form. And he was conscious of no satisfaction that now there was nothing +in all the world to keep him from Felipa, from the gaining of the wish +of many years, but only of a dull sort of pity for Landor and for +himself, and of a real and deep regret. + + + + +XXIII + + +It was a splendid spring morning. There had been a shower overnight, and +the whole mountain world was aglitter. The dancing, rustling leaves of +the cottonwoods gleamed, the sparse grass of the parade ground was +shining like tiny bayonets, the flag threw out its bright stripes to the +breeze, and when the sun rays struck the visor of some forage cap, they +glinted off as though it had been a mirror. All the post chickens were +cackling and singing their droning monotonous song of contentment, the +tiny ones cheeped and twittered, and in among the vines of the porch +Felipa's mocking-bird whistled exultantly. + +The sound shrilled sweetly through the house, through all the empty +rooms, and through the thick silence of that one which was not empty, +but where a flag was spread over a rough box of boards, and Ellton sat +by the window with a little black prayer-book in his hand. He was going +over the service for the burial of the dead, because there was no +chaplain, and it fell to him to read it. Now and then one of the +officers came in alone or with his wife and stood about aimlessly, then +went away again. But for the rest, the house was quite forsaken. + +Felipa was not there. At the earliest, she could not return for a couple +of days, and by then Landor's body would be laid in the dreary little +graveyard, with its wooden headboards and crosses, and its neglected +graves among the coyote and snake holes. The life of the service would +be going on just as usual, after the little passing excitement was at an +end. For it was an excitement. No one in the garrison would have had it +end like this, but since what will be will be, and the right theory of +life is to make the most of what offers and to hasten--as the +philosopher has said--to laugh at all things for fear we may have cause +to weep, there was a certain expectation, decently kept down, in the +air. + +It rose to a subdued pitch as there came the gradual rattling of wheels +and the slow tramp of many feet. A buckboard, from which the seats had +been removed, came up the line, and behind it marched the troops and +companies, Landor's own troop in advance. They halted in front of his +quarters, and four officers came down the steps with the long box +between them. The mocking-bird's trill died away to a questioning +twitter. + +The box was laid in the buckboard, and covered with the flag once more. +Then the mules started, with a rattle of traces and of the wheels, and +the tramp of feet began again. The drums thrummed regularly and slowly, +the heart beats of the service, and the fifes took up the dead march in +a weird, shrill Banshee wail. They went down the line, the commandant +with the surgeon and the officers first, and after them the buckboard, +with its bright-draped burden. Then Landor's horse, covered with black +cloths, the empty saddle upon its back. It nosed at the pockets of the +man who led it. It had been taught to find sugar in pockets. And then +the troops, the cavalry with the yellow plumes of their helmets +drooping, and the infantry with the spikes glinting, marching with eyes +cast down and muskets reversed. A gap, then the soldiers' urchins from +the laundress row, in for anything that might be doing. + +The roll of the drums and the whistle of the fifes died away in the +distance. There was a long silence, followed by three volleys of +musketry, the salute over the open grave. And then taps was pealed in +notes of brass up to the blue sky, a long farewell, a challenge +aforetime to the trumpet of the Last Day. They turned and came marching +back. The drums and fifes played "Yankee Doodle" in sarcastic relief. +The men walked briskly with their guns at carry arms, the black-draped +horse curved its neck and pranced until the empty stirrups danced. The +incident was over--closed. The post picked up its life and went on. Two +afternoons later the ambulance which had been sent for Felipa came into +the post. She stepped out from it in front of the Elltons' quarters so +majestic and awe-inspiring in her black garments that Mrs. Ellton was +fairly subdued. She felt real grief. It showed in her white face and the +nervous quiver of her lips. "I am going out to the graveyard," she told +Mrs. Ellton almost at once. Mrs. Ellton prepared to accompany her, but +she insisted that she was going alone, and did so, to the universal +consternation. + +In the late afternoon the lonely dark figure crossed the open and +dropped down on the new grave, not in an agony of tears, but as if there +was some comfort to be gotten out of contact with the mere soil. The old +feeling of loneliness, which had always tinged her character with a +covert defiance, was overwhelming her. She belonged to no one now. She +had no people. She was an outcast from two races, feared of each because +of the other's blood. The most forsaken man or woman may claim at least +the kinship of his kind, but she had no kind. She crouched on the mound +and looked at the sunset as she had looked that evening years before, +but her eyes were not fearless now. As a trapped animal of the plains +might watch a prairie fire licking nearer and nearer, making its slow +way up to him in spurts of flame and in dull, thick clouds of smoke that +must stifle him before long, so she watched the dreary future rolling in +about her. But gradually the look changed to one farther away, and +alight with hope. She had realized that there was, after all, some one +to whom she belonged, some one to whom she could go and, for the first +time in her life, be loved and allowed to love. + +It had not occurred to her for some hours after Mrs. Campbell had told +her of Landor's death that she was free now to give herself to Cairness. +She had gasped, indeed, when she did remember it, and had put the +thought away, angrily and self-reproachfully. But it returned now, and +she felt that she might cling to it. She had been grateful, and she had +been faithful, too. She remembered only that Landor had been kind to +her, and forgot that for the last two years she had borne with much +harsh coldness, and with a sort of contempt which she felt in her +unanalyzing mind to have been entirely unmerited. Gradually she raised +herself until she sat quite erect by the side of the mound, the old +exultation of her half-wild girlhood shining in her face as she planned +the future, which only a few minutes before had seemed so hopeless. + +And when the retreat gun boomed in the distance, she stood up, shaking +the earth and grasses from her gown, and started to carry out her plans. +A storm was blowing up again. Clouds were massing in the sky, and night +was rising rather than the sun setting. There was a cold, greenish light +above the snow peak, and darkness crept up from the earth and down from +the gray clouds that banked upon the northern horizon and spread fast +across the heavens. A bleak, whining wind rustled the leaves of the big +trees down by the creek, and caught up the dust of the roadway in little +eddies and whirls, as Felipa, with a new purpose in her step, swung +along it back to the post. + +She would not be induced to go near her own house that night. When +Ellton suggested it, she turned white and horrified. It had not occurred +to him before that a woman so fearless of everything in the known world +might be in abject terror of the unknown. + +"It's her nature," he told his wife. "Underneath she is an Apache, and +they burn the wigwams and all the traps of their dead; sometimes even +the whole village he lived in." Mrs. Ellton said that poor Captain +Landor had had a good deal to endure. + +The two children whom Felipa had taken in charge two years before had +been left in the care of the sergeant of Landor's troop and his wife, +and they manifested no particular pleasure at seeing her again. They +were half afraid of her, so severely black and tall and quiet. They had +been playing with the soldier's children, and were anxious to be away +again. The young of the human race are short of memory, and their +gratefulness does not endure for long. There is no caress so sweet, so +hard to win, as the touch of a child's soft hand, and none that has +behind it less of nearly all that we prize in affection. It is sincere +while it lasts, and no longer, and it must be bought either with a price +or with a wealth of love. You may lavish the best that is within you to +obtain a kiss from baby lips, and if they rest warm and moist upon your +cheek for a moment, the next they are more eager for a sweetmeat than +for all your adoration. + +"Yes," whispered the little girl, squirming in Felipa's arms, "I am dlad +you's come. Let me doe." + +"Kiss me," said Felipa. + +The child brushed at her cheek and struggled away. "Come, Billy," she +called to the brother who had saved her life; and that small, +freckle-faced hero, whose nose was badly skinned from a fall, flung his +arms around his benefactress's neck perfunctorily and escaped, +rejoicing. + +The Elltons' pretty child was like its mother, gentler and more +caressing. It lay placidly in her arms and patted her lips when she +tried to talk, with the tips of its rosy fingers. She caught them +between her teeth and mumbled them, and the child chuckled gleefully. +But by and by it was taken away to bed, and then Felipa was alone with +its father and mother. Through the tiresome evening she felt oppressed +and angrily nervous. The Elltons had always affected her so. + +She asked for the full particulars of her husband's death, and when +Ellton had told her, sat looking straight before her at the wall. "It +was very like Jack," she said finally, in a low voice, "his whole life +was like that." And then she turned squarely to the lieutenant. "Where +is Mr. Cairness? Where did they take him?" She was surprised at herself +that she had not thought of that before. + +He told her that he had gone on to Arizona, to Tombstone, he believed. +"By the way," he added, "did you hear that Brewster has married a rich +Jewish widow down in Tucson?" + +"Yes, I heard it," she said indifferently. "Was Mr. Cairness really much +hurt?" + +"Very much," said Ellton; "it was a sharp cut on the forehead--went +through the bone, and he was unconscious, off and on, for two or three +days. He seemed to take it hard. He went off yesterday, and he wasn't +fit to travel either, but he would do it for some reason. I think he was +worse cut up about Landor than anything, though he wasn't able to go to +the funeral. I like Cairness. He's an all-round decent fellow; but +after all, his life was bought too dear." + +Felipa did not answer. + +He did not try to discuss her plans for the future with her that night; +but two days afterward, when she had disposed of all her household goods +and had packed the few things that remained, they sat upon two boxes in +the bare hallway, resting; and he broached it. + +"I am going to ask the quartermaster to store my things for the present, +and of course the first sergeant's wife will look out for the children," +she said. + +But that was not exactly what he wanted to know, and he insisted. "But +what is going to become of you? Are you going back to the Campbells?" He +had asked her to stay with his wife and himself as long as she would, +but she had refused. + +"No," she said, "I told the Campbells I would not go to them." + +And he could get nothing definite from her beyond that. It annoyed him, +of course; Felipa had a gift for repulsing kindness and friendship. It +was because she would not lie and could not evade. Therefore, she +preserved a silence that was, to say the least of it, exasperating to +the well-intentioned. + +Early in the morning of the day she was to leave she went to the +graveyard alone again. She was beginning to realize more than she had at +first that Landor was quite gone. She missed him, in a way. He had been +a strong influence in her life, and there was a lack of the pressure +now. But despite the form of religion to which she clung, she had no +hope of meeting him in any future life, and no real wish to do so. + +She stood by the mound for a little while thinking of him, of how well +he had lived and died, true to his standard of duty, absolutely true, +but lacking after all that spirit of love without which our actions +profit so little and die with our death. She had a clearer realization +of it than ever before. It came to her that Charles Cairness's life, +wandering, aimless, disjointed as it was, and her own, though it fell +far below even her own not impossibly high ideals, were to more purpose, +had in them more of the vital force of creation, were less wasted, than +his had been. To have known no enthusiasms--which are but love, in one +form or another--is to have failed to give that impulse to the course of +events which every man born into the world should hold himself bound to +give, as the human debt to the Eternal. + +Felipa felt something of this, and it lessened the vague burden of +self-reproach she had been carrying. She was almost cheerful when she +got back to the post. Through the last breakfast, which the Elltons took +for granted must be a sad one, and conscientiously did their best to +make so, she had some difficulty in keeping down to their depression. + +It was not until they all, from the commandant down to the recruits of +Landor's troop, came to say good-by that she felt the straining and +cutting of the strong tie of the service, which never quite breaks +though it be stretched over rough and long years and almost forgotten. +The post blacksmith to whom she had been kind during an illness, the +forlorn sickly little laundress whose baby she had eased in dying, the +baker to whose motherless child she had been good--all came crowding up +the steps. They were sincerely sorry to have her go. She had been +generous and possessed of that charity which is more than faith or hope. +It was the good-bys of Landor's men that were the hardest for her. He +had been proud of his troop, and it had been devoted to him. She broke +down utterly and cried when it came to them, and tears were as hard for +her as for a man. But with the officers and their women, it rose up +between her and them that they would so shortly despise and condemn her, +that they would not touch her hands could they but know her thoughts. + +Ellton was going with her to the railroad. They were to travel with a +mounted escort, as she had come, on account of the uncertain state of +the country. And they must cross, as she had done in coming also, the +road over the malpais, where Landor had fallen. As the hoofs of the +mules and the tires of the wheels began to slip and screech on the +smooth-worn lava, and the ambulance rattled and creaked up the incline, +Ellton leaned forward and pointed silently to a hollow in the gray rock +a few yards away. It was where Landor had pitched forward over the body +of the mounted chief of scouts. Felipa nodded gravely, but she did not +speak, nor yet weep. Ellton, already thrown back upon himself by her +persistent silence with regard to her intentions, recoiled even more. +He thought her hard beyond all his previous experience of women. + +"I will write to you where you are to send my mail," she told him, when +the train was about to pull out. He bowed stiffly, and raising his hat +was gone. She looked after him as he went across the cinder bed to the +ambulance which was to take him back, and wondered what would have been +the look upon his nice, open face, if she had told him her plans, after +all. But she was the only one who knew them. + +And Cairness himself was startled and utterly unprepared when the +Reverend Taylor opened the door of the room where he lay and let her +pass in. The little parson uttered no word, but there was a look on his +face which said that now the questions he had put with no result were +answered. It was for this that Cairness had given the best of his life. + +Cairness lay white and still, looking up at her. He was very weak and +dazed, and for the instant he could only remember, absurdly enough, the +Andromaque he had seen a French actress play once in his very early +youth when he had been taken with all the children of the Lycée, where +he was then at school, to the theatre on a Thursday afternoon. The +Andromaque had been tall and dark and superb, and all in black, like +that woman in the doorway there. + +And then his thoughts shot back to the present with quick pain. She +should not have come here, not so soon. He had taken a long, hard trip +that had nearly ended in his death, to avoid this very thing, this +meeting, which, just because it made him so terribly happy, seemed a +treachery, a sacrilege. Had she less delicacy of feeling than himself? +Or had she more love? It was that, he saw it in her beautiful eyes which +were growing wide and frightened at his silence. He took his hand from +under the sheets and stretched it out to her. She went to him and +dropped on her knees beside the bed, and threw her arms about him. He +moved his weak head closer to her shoulder, and pressing her fingers to +his face gave a choking sob. He was happy, so very happy. And nothing +mattered but just this. + + + + +XXIV + + +"Cairness!" called Crook, and Cairness, turning aside, came over to +where the general sat upon a big stone eating a sandwich two inches +thick. + +"Well?" said the officer. + +"Well," answered Cairness, "I have been talking to them, chiefly to +Geronimo. They have a good place for their rancheria on that hilltop. It +is an old lava bed, an extinct crater, and it is a perfect fortress. +There are three gulches between us and them, and a thousand men couldn't +take the place." + +"I came here to parley, not to fight," said the general, rather sharply. +"What is their disposition?" + +"I dare say they are willing to surrender, upon terms to suit them. But +they are very much afraid of treachery. They are on the lookout for +deception at every turn. In fact, they are not in altogether the most +amiable frame of mind, for the greater part. However, you can decide +that for yourself when they come over, which will be directly." + +He seated himself upon a low branch of sycamore, which grew parallel to +the ground, and went on to tell what he had seen on the hilltop in the +hostile camp. "They are in capital condition. A lot of them are playing +koon-kan. There were some children and one little red-headed Irishman +about ten years old with them. He was captured in New Mexico, and seems +quite happy. He enjoys the name of Santiago Mackin--plain James, +originally, I suppose." + +The general smiled. He treated Cairness as nearly like an equal as +possible always, and got his advice and comment whenever he could. + +"Then they all have 'medicine' on," Cairness continued, "redbird and +woodpecker feathers, in buckskin bags, or quail heads, or prairie-dog +claws. One fellow was making an ornament out of an adobe dollar. Every +buck and boy in the band has a couple of cartridge belts and any +quantity of ammunition, likewise new shirts and _zarapes_. They have +fitted themselves out one way or another since Crawford got at them in +January. I don't think there are any of them particularly anxious to +come in." + +Another officer came up, and Cairness dropped from the twisted bow and +walked away. + +"That fellow Cairness may be a good scout and all that, but he must be +an unmitigated blackguard too," said the officer, stretching himself on +the ground beside Crook. + +The general turned his head sharply, and his eyes flashed, but he only +asked dryly, "Why?" + +"You know he's the man Landor lost his life saving upon the malpais in +New Mexico?" + +"Yes," said Crook. + +"And inside of a fortnight he and Mrs. Landor went to some Roman +Catholic priest in Tombstone and were married. I call that indecent +haste." + +"What!" ejaculated the general. He was moved altogether from his +imperturbable calm. + +"That's the straight bill. Ask him. He isn't fit to be spoken to." + +"Is that the very handsome Mrs. Landor who was at Grant a year or so +ago?" The general seemed to have difficulty in grasping and believing +it. + +"That same. She was part Mescalero, anyway." + +"Where is she now?" + +"On his ranch, living on the fat of a lean land, I believe. He's rich, +you know. I don't know much about them. I've small use for them. And I +used to like Cairness, too. Thought he was way above his job. Those +squaw-men lose all sense of honor." + +"Cairness never was a squaw-man," corrected Crook. + +"Well, he is now, then," insisted the officer; "Mrs. Landor is a squaw +at bottom. Poor old Jack!" he sat up and fired a stone at the stalk of a +Spanish bayonet, "I guess he's better off in the Happy Hunting Grounds. +His wasn't a bed of roses." + +The general sat silent for a while. "I didn't know that when I sent for +him this time," he said at length, in partial explanation. Then he +turned his head and looked up over his shoulders at the hostiles' +conical hill. A band of Chiricahuas was coming down the side toward the +soldiers' camp. + +It was the first scene of the closing act of the tragic comedy of the +Geronimo campaign. That wily old devil, weary temporarily of the +bloodshed he had continued with more or less regularity for many years, +had sent word to the officers that he would meet them without their +commands, in the Cañon de los Embudos, across the border line, to +discuss the terms of surrender. The officers had forthwith come, Crook +yet hopeful that something might be accomplished by honesty and plain +dealing; the others, for the most part, doubting. + +The character of Geronimo, as already manifested, was not one to inspire +much confidence, nor was his appearance one to command respect. The +supposititious dignity of the savage was lacking entirely. The great +chief wore a filthy shirt and a disreputable coat, a loin-cloth, and a +dirty kerchief wound around his head. His legs were bare from the hips, +save for a pair of low moccasins. His whole appearance was grotesque and +evil. + +The general refused the withered hand he put out, and looked at him +unsmilingly. The feelings of the old chief were hurt. He sat down upon +the ground, under the shadows of the cottonwoods and sycamores, and +explained his conduct with tears in his bleary eyes. The officers and +packers, citizens and interpreters, sat round upon the ground also, with +the few Indians who had ventured into the White-man's camp in the +background, on the rise of the slope. There was a photographer too, who +had followed the command from Tombstone, and who stationed himself afar +off and took snap-shots during the conference, which, like most +conferences of its sort, was vague enough. + +It was the usual tale of woe that Geronimo had to tell, much the same +that the old buck had recited to Cairness in the spring of the last +year. His particular grievance was the request for his hanging, which he +had been told had been put in the papers, and his fear of three +White-men who he believed were to arrest him. "I don't want that any +more. When a man tries to do right, such stories ought not to be put in +the newspapers. What is the matter with you that you do not speak to me? +It would be better if you would look with a pleasant face. I should be +more satisfied if you would talk to me once in a while." The interpreter +translated stolidly. "Why don't you look at me and smile at me? I am the +same man. I have the same feet, legs, and hands, and the Sun looks down +on me a complete man." There was no doubt about that, at any rate, and +perhaps it was not an unmixed good fortune. + +The general's long silence was making the complete man nervous. Beads of +sweat stood out on his forehead, and he twisted his hands together. "The +Sun, the Darkness, and the Winds are all listening to what we now say. +To prove to you that I am telling the truth, remember that I sent you +word that I would come from a place far away to speak to you here, and +you see me now. If I were thinking bad, I would never have come here. If +it had been my fault, would I have come so far to talk with you?" he +whined. + +The general was neither convinced nor won over. He had Geronimo told +that it was a very pretty story, but that there was no reason why forty +men should have left the reservation for fear of three. "And if you were +afraid of three, what had that to do with the way you sneaked all over +the country, killing innocent people? You promised me in the Sierra +Madre that that peace should last. But you lied. When a man has lied to +me once, I want better proof than his word to believe him again." + +The tears trickled down the withered cheeks, and Crook gave a shrug of +exasperation and disgust. "Your story of being afraid of arrest is all +bosh. There were no orders to arrest you. You began the trouble by +trying to kill Chato." Geronimo shook his head, as one much wronged and +misunderstood. "Yes you did, too. Everything that you did on the +reservation is known. There is no use your lying." + +Then he delivered his ultimatum, slowly, watching the unhappy savage +narrowly from under the visor of his pith helmet. "You must make up your +mind whether you will stay out on the war-path or surrender--without +conditions. If you stay out, I'll keep after you and kill the last one, +if it takes fifty years. I have never lied to you," he stood up and +waved his hand; "I have said all I have to say. You had better think it +over to-night and let me know in the morning." + +He walked away, and Geronimo went back to his rancheria on the hilltop, +crestfallen. He had failed of his effect, and had not by any means made +his own terms. + +The troops settled down to wait, and Cairness, having further sounded +some of the Chiricahua squaws, went again in search of Crook. He was +seated under an ash tree with his back against the trunk and a +portfolio upon his knee, writing. When Cairness stopped in front of +him, he glanced up. + +There was an expression in his eyes Cairness did not understand. It was +not like their usual twinkle of welcome. "Wait a moment," he said, and +went on with his writing. Cairness dropped down on the ground, and, for +want of anything else to do, began to whittle a whistle out of a willow +branch. + +Crook closed up the portfolio and turned to him. "I didn't know you were +married, Mr. Cairness, when I sent for you." + +Cairness reddened to the roots of his hair, and the scar on his forehead +grew purple. He understood that look now. And it hurt him more than any +of the slights and rebuffs he had received since he had married Felipa. +He had, like most of those who served under the general, a sort of +hero-worship for him, and set great store by his opinion. It was only +because of that that he had left Felipa alone upon the ranch. It had +been their first separation and almost absurdly hard for two who had +lived their roving lives. + +It was more for her than for himself that the rebuke hurt him. For it +was a rebuke, though as yet it was unsaid. And he thought for a moment +that he would defend her to the general. He had never done so yet, not +even to the little parson in Tombstone whose obvious disapproval he had +never tried to combat, though it had ended the friendship of years. + +But Crook did not look like a man who wished to receive confidences. He +was asking for facts, and seeking them out with a cold, sharp eye. "I +have been married nearly a year," said Cairness, shortly. + +"To Captain Landor's widow, I am told." + +"To Captain Landor's widow, yes;" he met the unsympathetic eyes +squarely. "I came to tell you, general, what I have gathered from the +squaws. It may serve you." + +Crook looked away, straight in front of him. "Go on," he said. It was +not the conversation of equals now. It was the report of an inferior to +a superior. However familiar the general might wish to be upon +occasions, he held always in reserve the right to deference and +obedience when he should desire them. + +It was short and to the point upon Cairness's part, and having finished +he stood up. + +"Is that all?" asked the general. + +"That is all." + +"Thank you," he said; and Cairness walked away. + +The next two days he kept to himself and talked only to his Apache +scouts, in a defiant return to his admiration for the savage character. +A Chiricahua asked no questions and made no conventional reproaches at +any rate. He was not penitent, he was not even ashamed, and he would not +play at being either. But he was hurt, this last time most of all, and +it made him ugly. He had always felt as if he were of the army, although +not in it, not by reason of his one enlistment, but by reason of the +footing upon which the officers had always received him up to the +present time. But now he was an outcast. He faced the fact, and it was +a very unpleasant one. It was almost as though he had been +court-martialled and cashiered. He had thoughts of throwing up the whole +thing and going back to Felipa, but he hated to seem to run away. It +would be better to stop there and face it out, and accept the position +that was allowed him, the same, after all, as that of the majority of +chiefs of scouts. + +And things were coming to an end, anyway. He could see it in the looks +of the Apaches, and hear it in their whispers. They consented to come +in, and even to put themselves at the discretion of the government, but +there was a lack of the true ring in their promises. So when, on the +third morning, before it was yet daylight, two chiefs came hurrying into +camp and awoke the general with bad news, he was not greatly surprised. +He had warned Crook of the possibility, for that matter. + +It was the eternal old story of the White-man's whiskey. A rancher +living some four hundred yards from the boundary line upon the Mexican +side had sold it to the Indians. Many of them were dead or fighting +drunk. The two sober Indians asked for a squad of soldiers to help them +guard the ranchman, and stop him from selling any more mescal. They were +right-minded themselves and really desired peace, and their despair was +very great. + +Geronimo and four other warriors were riding aimlessly about on two +mules, drunk as they well could be, too drunk to do much that day. But +when night came, and with it a drizzling rain, the fears the ranchman +and his mescal had put in their brains assumed real shapes, and they +betook themselves to the mountains again, and to the war-path. + +It was failure, flat failure. The officers knew it, and the general knew +it. It was the indefinite prolongation of the troubles. It was the +ignominious refutation of all his boasts--boasts based not so much upon +trust in himself, as on belief in the nature of the Apache, whose stanch +champion he had always been. + +The fault of this last, crowning breach of faith was not all with the +Red-men by any means. But the difficulty would be to have that believed. +The world at large,--or such part of it as was deigning to take heed of +this struggle against heavy odds, this contest between the prehistoric +and the makers of history,--the world at large would not go into the +details, if indeed it were ever to hear them. It would know just this, +that a band of Indians, terrible in the very smallness of their numbers, +were meeting the oncoming line of civilization from the East with that +of the savagery of the West, as a prairie fire is met and checked in its +advance by another fire kindled and set on to stop it. It would know +that the blood of the masters of the land was being spilled upon the +thirsty, unreclaimed ground by those who were, in right and justice, for +the welfare of humanity, masters no more. It would know that the voice +which should have been that of authority and command was often turned to +helpless complaint or shrieks for mercy. And it would not stop for the +causes of these things; it could not be expected to. It would know that +a man had come who had promised peace, confidently promised it in the +event of certain other promises being fulfilled, and that he had failed +of his purpose. The world would say that Crook had held in his grasp the +Apaches and the future peace of an empire as large as that of Great +Britain and Ireland, France and Germany in one, and that he had let it +slip through nerveless fingers. It was signal failure. + +Such Apaches as had not gone back on the war-path returned to the States +with the troops; but there were five months more of the outrages of +Geronimo and his kind. Then in the summer of the year another man, more +fortunate and better fitted to deal with it all, perhaps,--with the +tangle of lies and deceptions, cross purposes and trickery,--succeeded +where Crook had failed and had been relieved of a task that was beyond +him. Geronimo was captured, and was hurried off to a Florida prison with +his band, as far as they well could be from the reservation they had +refused to accept. And with them were sent other Indians, who had been +the friends and helpers of the government for years, and who had run +great risks to help or to obtain peace. But the memory and gratitude of +governments is become a proverb. The southwest settled down to enjoy its +safety. The troops rested upon the laurels they had won, the superseded +general went on with his work in another field far away to the north. +The new general, the saviour of the land, was heaped with honor and +praise, and the path of civilization was laid clear. + +But before then Cairness returned to his ranch and set his back upon +adventure for good and all. "Crook will be gone soon," he said to +Felipa; "it is the beginning of his end. And even if he were to keep on, +he might not need me any more." + +"Why?" she asked, with a quick suspicion of the dreariness she caught in +his tone. + +He changed it to a laugh. "A scout married is a scout marred. I am a +rancher now. It behooves me to accept myself as such. I have outlived my +usefulness in the other field." + + + + +XXV + + +Felipa sat up in bed, and leaning over to the window beside it drew up +the shade and looked out. The cold, gray world of breaking day was +battling furiously with a storm of rain. The huddling flowers in the +garden bent to the ground before the rush of wind from the mountains +across the prairie. The windmill sent out raucous cries as it flew madly +around, the great dense clouds, black with rain, dawn-edged, charged +through the sky, and the shining-leaved cottonwoods bent their branches +almost to the earth. The figures of Cairness and a couple of cow-boys, +wrapped in rubber coats, passed, fighting their way through the +blur,--vague, dark shadows in the vague, dark mist. + +The storm passed, with all the suddenness it had come on, and Felipa +rose, and dressing herself quickly went out upon the porch. Three +drenched kittens were mewing there piteously. She gathered them up in +her hands and warmed them against her breast as she stood watching the +earth and sky sob themselves to rest. All the petunias in the bed by the +steps were full of rain, the crowfoot and madeira vines of the porch +were stirring with the dripping water. Many great trees had had their +branches snapped off and tossed several yards away, and part of the +windmill had been blown to the top of the stable, some distance off. She +wondered if Cairness had been able to get the cut alfalfa covered. Then +she took the kittens with her to the house and went into the kitchen, +where the Chinese cook already had a fire in the stove. She ordered +coffee and toast to be made at once, and leaving the kittens in the +woodbox near the fire, went back to the sitting room. + +It was a luxurious place. As much for his own artistic satisfaction as +for her, Cairness had planned the interior of the house to be a +background in keeping with Felipa, a fit setting for her, and she led +the life of an Orient queen behind the walls of sun-baked clay. There +was a wide couch almost in front of the roaring fire. She sank down in a +heap of cushions, and taking up a book that lay open where her husband +had put it down the night before, she tried to read by the flickering of +the flame light over the pages. + +She was drowsy, however, for it was still very early, and she was almost +dropping off to sleep when the Chinaman brought the coffee and set it +down upon a table near her, with a deference of manner not common to the +Celestial when serving the Occidental woman, who, he believes, has lost +the right to it directly she shows the inclination to do work herself. +But Felipa was a mistress to his taste. As he bowed himself abjectly +from her presence, Cairness came in. He had taken off his rubber coat +and big hat, and was full of the vigor of life which makes the strong +and healthy-minded so good to look upon at the beginning of a day. + +Felipa, from her place on the couch, smiled lazily, with a light which +was not all from the fire in her half-closed eyes. She put out her hand, +and he took it in both his own and held it against his cold cheek as he +dropped down beside her. She laid her head on his shoulder, and for a +while neither of them spoke. + +Then there came a chuckling scream of baby laughter and a soft reproach, +spoken in Spanish, from across the hall. She stood up and poured the +coffee, but before she took her own she went out of the room and came +back in a moment, carrying her small son high upon her shoulder. + +Cairness watched how strong and erect and how sure of every muscle she +was, and how well the blond little head looked against the dull +blackness of the mother's hair. The child was in no way like Felipa, and +it had never taken her place in its father's love. He was fond of it and +proud, too; but, had he been put to the test, he would have sacrificed +its life for that of its mother, with a sort of fanatical joy. + +She put the baby between them, and it sat looking into the fire in the +way she herself so often did, until her husband had called her the High +Priestess of the Flames. Then she sank down among the cushions again and +stirred her coffee indolently, drowsily, steeped in the contentment of +perfect well-being. Cairness followed her movements with sharp pleasure. + +Later, when the sun was well up in the jewel-blue sky, and the world +was all ashine, they began the real routine of the day. And it would +have been much like that of any of the other days that had gone before +it for two years, had not Cairness come in a little before the noon +hour, bringing with him a guest. It was an Englishman, whom he presented +to Felipa as a friend of his youth, and named Forbes. + +He did not see that there was just the faintest shadow of pausing upon +Forbes's part, just the quickest passing hesitation and narrowing of the +eyes with Felipa. She came forward with unquestioning welcome, +accustomed to take it as a matter of course that any traveller, minded +to stop for a time, should go into the first ranch house at hand. + +He told her, directly, that he was passing through Arizona to hunt and +to look to certain mining interests he held there. And he stayed, +talking with her and her husband about the country and the towns and +posts he had visited, until long after luncheon. Then Cairness, having +to ride to the salt lick at the other end of the ranch, up in the +Huachuca foot-hills, suggested that Forbes go with him. + +It was plain, even to Felipa, how thoroughly he enjoyed being with one +who could talk of the past and of the present, from his own point of +view. His Coventry had been almost complete since the day that the +entire army, impersonated in Crook, had turned disapproving eyes upon +him once, and had then looked away from him for good and all. It had +been too bitter a humiliation for him ever to subject himself to the +chance of it again. + +The better class of citizens did not roam over the country much, and no +officers had stopped at his ranch in almost two years, though they had +often passed by. And he knew well enough that they would have let their +canteens go unfilled, and their horses without fodder, for a long time, +rather than have accepted water from his wells or alfalfa from his land. +He could understand their feeling, too,--that was the worst of it; but +though his love and his loyalty toward Felipa never for one moment +wavered, he was learning surely day by day that a woman, be she never so +much beloved, cannot make up to a man for long for the companionship of +his own kind; and, least of all,--he was forced to admit it in the +depths of his consciousness now,--one whose interests were +circumscribed. + +They had lived an idyl for two years apast, and he begrudged nothing; +yet now that the splendor was fading, as he knew that it was, the future +was a little dreary before them both, before him the more, for he meant +that, cost him what it might, Felipa should never know that the glamour +was going for himself. It would be the easier that she was not subtle of +perception, not quick to grasp the unexpressed. As for him, he had +wondered from the first what price the gods would put upon the unflawed +jewel of their happiness, and had said in himself that none could be too +high. + +Forbes and her husband having gone away, Felipa lay in the hammock upon +the porch and looked up into the vines. She thought hard, and remembered +many things as she swayed to and fro. She remembered that one return to +Nature long ago of which Landor had not known. + +There had been an afternoon in Washington when, on her road to some +reception of a half-official kind, she had crossed the opening of an +alleyway and had come upon three boys who were torturing a small, blind +kitten; and almost without knowing what she did, because her maternal +grandfather had done to the children of his enemies as the young +civilized savages were doing to the kitten there, she stopped and +watched them, not enjoying the sight perhaps, but not recoiling from it +either. So intent had she been that she had not heard footsteps crossing +the street toward her, and had not known that some one stopped beside +her with an exclamation of wrath and dismay. She had turned suddenly and +looked up, the pupils of her eyes contracted curiously as they had been +when she had watched the tarantula-vinagrone fight years before. + +The man beside her was an attaché of the British legation, who had been +one of her greatest admirers to that time, but thereafter he sought her +out no more. He had driven the boys off, and taking the kitten, which +mewed piteously all the way, had gone with her to her destination and +left her. + +She had been sufficiently ashamed of herself thereafter, and totally +unable to understand her own evil impulse. As she lay swinging in the +hammock, she remembered this and many other things connected with that +abhorred period of compulsory civilization and of success. The hot, +close, dead, sweet smell of the petunias, wilting in the August sun, and +the surface-baked earth came up to her. It made her vaguely heartsick +and depressed. The mood was unusual with her. She wished intensely that +her husband would come back. + +After a time she roused herself and went into the house, and directly +she came back with the baby in her arms. The younger of the two children +that she had taken under her care at Stanton, the little girl, followed +after her. + +It was a long way to the salt lick, and the chances were that the two +men would be gone the whole afternoon. The day was very hot, and she had +put on a long, white wrapper, letting her heavy hair fall down over her +shoulders, as she did upon every excuse now, and always when her husband +was out of the way. There was a sunbonnet hanging across the porch +railing. She put it on her head and went down the steps, carrying the +child. + +Back of her, a score or more of miles away, were the iron-gray +mountains; beyond those, others of blue; and still beyond, others of yet +fainter blue, melting into the sky and the massed white clouds upon the +horizon edge. But in front of her the flat stretched away and away, a +waste of white-patched soil and glaring sand flecked with scrubs. The +pungency of greasewood and sage was thick in the air, which seemed to +reverberate with heat. A crow was flying above in the blue; its shadow +darted over the ground, now here, now far off. + +Half a mile beyond, within the same barbed-wire enclosure as the home +buildings and corrals, was a spring-house surrounded by cottonwoods, +just then the only patch of vivid green on the clay-colored waste. There +were benches under the cottonwoods, and the ground was cool, and thither +Felipa took her way, in no wise oppressed by the heat. Her step was as +firm and as quick as it had been the day she had come so noiselessly +along the parade, across the path of the private who was going to the +barracks. It was as quiet, too, for she had on a pair of old red satin +slippers, badly run down at the heel. + +Cairness started for the salt lick, then changed his mind and his +destination, and merely rode with Forbes around the parts of the ranch +which were under more or less cultivation, and to one of the water +troughs beneath a knot of live oaks in the direction of the foot-hills. +So they returned to the home place earlier than they otherwise would +have done, and that, too, by way of the spring-house. + +They caught sight of Felipa, and both drew rein simultaneously. She was +leaning against a post of the wire fence. The baby was carried on her +hip, tucked under her arm, the sunbonnet was hanging by the strings +around her neck, and her head, with its straight loose hair, was +uncovered. The little girl stood beside her, clutching the white wrapper +which had trailed in the spring-house acequia, and from under which a +muddy red slipper showed. That she was imposing still, said much for the +quality of her beauty. She did not hear the tramp of the two horses, +sharp as her ears were, for she was too intent upon watching a fight +between two steers. + +One had gone mad with loco-weed, and they gored each other's sides until +the blood ran, while only a low, moaning bellow came from their dried +throats. A cloud of fine dust, that threw back the sun in glitters, hung +over them, and a flock of crows, circling above in the steel-blue sky, +waited. + +"Felipa!" shouted Cairness. He was angry--almost as angry as Forbes had +been when he had come upon Mrs. Landor watching the boys and the kitten +in the alleyway. + +She heard, and again her eyes met Forbes's. There was a flash of +comprehension in them. She knew what he was thinking very well. But she +left the fence, and, pushing the sunbonnet over her head, joined them, +not in the least put out, and they dismounted and walked beside her, +back to the house. + +Cairness was taciturn. It was some moments before he could control his +annoyance, by the main strength of his sense of justice, by telling +himself once again that he had no right to blame Felipa for the +manifestations of that nature he had known her to possess from the +first. It was not she who was changing. + +Forbes explained their early return, and spoke of the ranch. "It might +be a garden, this territory, if only it had water enough," he said; "it +has a future, possibly, but its present is just a little dismal, I +think. Are you greatly attached to the life here, Mrs. Cairness?" He was +studying her, and she knew it, though his glance swept the outlook +comprehensively, and she was watching the mail-carrier riding toward +them along the road. It was the brother of the little girl who followed +along behind them, and who ran off now to meet him, calling and waving +her hand. + +"Yes," she said, "I am very much attached to it. I was born to it." + +"Do you care for it so much that you would not be happy in any other?" + +"That would depend," she answered with her enigmatical, slow smile; "I +could be happy almost anywhere with Mr. Cairness." + +"Of course," he laughed tolerantly, "I dare say any wilderness were +paradise with him." + +Felipa smiled again. "I might be happy," she went on, "but I probably +should not live very long. I have Indian blood in my veins; and we die +easily in a too much civilization." + +That evening they sat talking together long after the late dinner. But a +little before midnight Felipa left them upon the porch, smoking and +still going over the past. They had so much to say of matters that she +in no way understood. The world they spoke of and its language were +quite foreign to her. She knew that her husband was where she could +never follow him, and she felt the first utter dreariness of +jealousy--the jealousy of the intellectual, so much more unendurable +than that of the material. + +With the things of the flesh there can be the vindictive hope, the +certainty indeed, that they will lose their charm with time, that the +gold will tarnish and the gray come above the green, but a thought is +dearer for every year that it is held, and its beauty does not fade +away. The things of the flesh we may even mar ourselves, if the rage +overpowers us, but those of the intellect are not to be reached or +destroyed; and Felipa felt it as she turned from them and went into the +house. + +There was a big moon, already on the wane, floating very high in the +heavens, and the plain was a silvery sheen. + +"This is all very beautiful," said Forbes, after a silence. + +Cairness did not see that it called for a reply, and he made none. + +"But it is doing Mrs. Cairness an injustice, if you don't mind my saying +so." + +"What do you mean?" asked Cairness, rather more than a trifle coldly. He +had all but forgotten the matter of that afternoon. Felipa had redeemed +herself through the evening, so that he had reason to be proud of her. + +"I used to know Mrs. Cairness in Washington," Forbes went on, +undisturbed; "she has probably told you so." + +Cairness was surprised almost into showing his surprise. Felipa had said +nothing of it to him. And he knew well enough that she never forgot a +face. He felt that he was in a false position, but he answered "Yes?" +non-committally. + +"Yes," answered Forbes, "she was very much admired." He looked a little +unhappy. But his mind was evidently made up, and he went on doggedly: +"Look here, Morely, old chap, I am going to tell you what I think, and +you may do as you jolly well please about it afterward--kick me off the +ranch, if you like. But I can see these things with a clearer eye than +yours, because I am not in love, and you are, dreadfully so, you know, +not to say infatuated. I came near to being once upon a time, and with +your wife, too. I thought her the most beautiful woman I had ever known, +and I do yet. I thought, too, that she was a good deal unhappier with +Landor than she herself realized; in which I was perfectly right. It's +plainer than ever, by contrast. Of course I understand that she is part +Indian, though I've only known it recently. And it's because I've seen a +good deal of your Apaches of late that I appreciate the injustice you +are doing her and Cairness Junior, keeping them here. She is far and +away too good for all this," he swept the scene comprehensively with his +pipe. "She'd be a sensation, even in London. Do you see what I mean, or +are you too vexed to see anything?" + +Cairness did not answer at once. He pushed the tobacco down in his brier +and sat looking into the bowl. "No," he said at last, "I'm not too +vexed. The fact is, I have seen what you mean for a long time. But what +would you suggest by way of remedy, if I may ask?" They were both +talking too low for their voices to reach Felipa through the open window +of her bedroom. + +"That you take them to civilization--the missus and the kid. It's the +only salvation for all three of you--for you as well as them." + +"You heard what Mrs. Cairness said this afternoon. She was very ill in +school when she was a young girl, and still more so in Washington +afterward." He shook his head. "No, Forbes, you may think you know +something about the Apache, but you don't know him as I do, who have +been with him for years. I've seen too much of the melting away of half +and quarter breeds. They die without the shadow of an excuse, in +civilization." + +But Forbes persisted, carried away by his idea and the determination to +make events fit in with it. "She was ill in Washington because she +wasn't happy. She'd be happy anywhere with you; she said so this +afternoon, you remember." + +"She also said that it would kill her." + +Forbes went on without noticing the interruption. "You are a great +influence in her life, but you aren't the only one. Her surroundings act +powerfully upon her. When I knew her before, she was like any other +beautiful woman--" + +"I am far from being sure that that is entirely to be desired, very +far," said Cairness, with conviction. He had never ceased to feel a +certain annoyance at the memory of that year and a half of Felipa's +life in which he had had no part. + +Forbes shrugged his shoulders. "You'll pardon me if I say that here she +is a luxurious semi-barbarian." It was on his tongue's tip to add, "and +this afternoon, by the spring-house, she was nearly an Apache," but he +checked it. "It's very picturesque and poetical and all that,--from the +romantic point of view it's perfect,--but it isn't feasible. You can't +live on honeycomb for more than a month or twain. I can't imagine a +greater misfortune than for you two to grow contented here, and that's +what you'll do. It will be a criminal waste of good material." + +Cairness knew that it was true, too true to refute. + +"I am speaking about Mrs. Cairness," Forbes went on earnestly, "because +she is more of an argument for you than the child is, which is +un-English too, isn't it? But the child is a fine boy, nevertheless, and +there will be other children probably. I don't need to paint their +future to you, if you let them grow up here. You owe it to them and to +your wife and to yourself--to society for that matter--not to +retrograde. Oh! I say, I'm out and out lecturing on sociology. You're +good-tempered to put up with it, but I mean well--like most meddlers." + +"I have the ranch; how could I get away?" Cairness opposed. + +But the argument was weak. Forbes paid small heed to it. "You've a great +deal besides. Every one in the country knows your mines have made you a +rich man. And you are better than that. You are a talented man, though +you've frittered away your abilities too long to amount to anything +much, now. You ought to get as far off from this kind of thing as you +can." + +He did not even hint that he knew of the isolation of their lives, but +Cairness was fully aware that he must, and that it was what he meant +now. "You ought to go to another country. Not back to Australia, either; +it is too much this sort, but somewhere where the very air is +civilizing, where it's in the atmosphere and you can't get away from it. +I'll tell you what you do." He stood up and knocked the ashes from his +pipe against the porch rail. "You've plenty of friends at home. Sell the +ranch, or keep it to come back to once in a way if you like. I'm going +back in the autumn, in October. You come with me, you and Mrs. Cairness +and the boy." + +Cairness clasped his hands about one knee and bent back, looking up at +the stars,--and far beyond them into the infinity of that Cause of which +they and he and all the perplexing problems were but the mere effects. +"You mustn't think I haven't thought it over, time and again," he said, +after a while. "It's more vital to me than to you; but my way isn't +clear. I loved Mrs. Cairness for more than ten years before I could +marry her. I should lose her in less than that, I am absolutely certain, +if I did as you suggest. She is not so strong a woman as you might +suppose. This dry air, this climate, are necessary to her." He hesitated +a little, rather loath to speak of his sentiments, and yet glad of the +chance to put his arguments in words, for his own greater satisfaction. +"You call it picturesque and poetical and all that," he said, "but you +only half mean it after all. It is picturesque. It has been absolutely +satisfactory. I'm not given to talking about this kind of thing, you +know; but most men who have been married two years couldn't say +truthfully that they have nothing to regret; that if they had had to buy +that time with eternity of damnation and the lake of fire, it would not +have come too dear. And I have had no price to pay--" he stopped short, +the ring of conviction cut off, as the sound of a bell is when a hand is +laid upon it. The hand was that of a fact, of the fact that had +confronted him in the Cañon de los Embudos, and that very day by the +cottonwoods of the spring-house. + +"Mrs. Cairness would go where I wished gladly," he added, more evenly; +"but if it were to a life very different from this, it would end in +death--and I should be the cause of it. There it is." He too rose, +impatiently. + +"Think it over, in any case," urged Forbes; "I am going in, good night." + +"I have thought it over," said Cairness; "good night." + +Cairness sat for a long time, smoking and thinking. Then Felipa's voice +called to him and he went in to her. She was by the window in a flood of +moonlight, herself all in flowing white, with the mantle of black hair +upon her shoulders. + +He put his arm about her and she laid her head against his breast. "I +am jealous of him," she said, without any manner of preface. + +He made no pretence of not understanding. "You have no need to be, +dear," he said simply. + +"He gives you what I can't give," she said. + +"You give me what no one else could give--the best things in life." + +"Better than the--other things?" she asked, and he answered, +unhesitating, "Yes." + +There was another silence, and this time he broke it. + +"Why did you not tell me you had known Forbes, Felipa?" If it had not +been that she was commonly and often unaccountably reticent, there might +have been some suspicion in the question. But there was only a slight +annoyance. Nor was there hesitation in her reply. + +"It brought back too much that was unpleasant for me. I did not want to +talk about it. He saw that I did not, too, and I can't understand why he +should have spoken of it. I should have told you after he had gone." She +was not disconcerted in the slightest, only a little vindictive toward +Forbes, and he thought it would hardly be worth his while to point out +the curious position her silence put him in. + +He gathered his courage for what he was going to say next, with a +feeling almost of guilt. "Forbes says that I am doing you an injustice, +keeping you here; that it is no life for you." + +"It is the only one I can live," she said indifferently enough, stating +it as an accepted, incontrovertible fact, "and it's the one you like +best." + +He had told her that many times. It had been true; perhaps it was true +still. + +"He does not understand," she continued; "he was always a society man, +forever at receptions and dances and teas. He doesn't see how we can +make up to each other for all the world." + +She moved away from him and out of the ray of moonlight, into the shadow +of the other side of the window, and spoke thoughtfully, with more depth +to her voice than usual. "So few people have been as happy as we have. +If we went hunting for more happiness somewhere else, we should be +throwing away the gifts of the gods, I think." + +Cairness looked over at her in some surprise, but her face was in the +shadow. He wondered that she had picked up the phrase. It was a common +one with him, a sort of catchword he had the habit of using. But she was +not given to philosophy. It was oddly in line with his own previous +train of thought. + +He laughed, a little falsely, and turned back into the room. + +"The gods sell their gifts," he said. + + + + +XXVI + + +Forbes left the ranch after breakfast the next day, and Cairness went +with him to Tombstone. He had business there, connected with one of his +mines. + +Felipa spent the day, for the most part, in riding about the ranch and +in anticipating the night. Her husband had promised to be back soon +after moonrise. When it had begun to turn dark, she dressed herself all +in white and went out to swing in the hammock until it should be time +for her lonely dinner. + +Before long she heard a horse coming at a gallop up the road, to the +front of the house. She put out her hand and pushed aside the vines, but +could see little until the rider, dismounting and dropping his reins to +hang on the ground, ran up the steps. It was the mail carrier, the young +hero of the Indian massacre. Felipa saw in a moment that he was excited. +She thought of her husband at once, and sat up in the hammock. + +"Well?" she said peremptorily. + +"It's--" the boy looked around nervously. "If you'd come into the +house--" he ventured. + +She went into the bedroom, half dragging him by the shoulder, and shut +the door. "Now!" she said, "make haste." + +"It's Mr. Cairness, ma'am," he whispered. + +"Is he hurt?" she shook him sharply. + +The boy explained that it was not that, and she let him go, in relief. + +"But he is goin' to be. That's what I come so quick to tell you." He +stopped again. + +"Will you make haste?" cried Felipa, out of patience. + +"He's coming back from Tombstone with some money, ain't he?" + +Felipa nodded. "A very little," she said. + +"Well, they think it's a lot." + +"Who?" + +"The fellers that's after him. They're goin' to hold him up fifteen +miles out, down there by where the Huachuca road crosses. He's alone, +ain't he?" + +"Yes," said Felipa. + +"How do you know this?" + +"Old Manuel he told me. You don't know him. It's an old Greaser, friend +of mine. He don't want no one to tell he told, they'd get after him. But +it's so, all right. There's three of them." + +A stable man passed the window. Felipa called to him. "Bring me my +horse, quick, and mount four men! Don't take five minutes and be well +armed," she ordered in a low voice. Hers was the twofold decision of +character and of training that may not be disregarded. The man started +on a run. + +"What you goin' to do?" the boy asked. He was round-eyed with dismay and +astonishment. + +Felipa did not answer. She broke her revolver and looked into the +chambers. Two of them were empty, and she took some cartridges from a +desk drawer and slipped them in. The holster was attached to her saddle, +and she rarely rode without it. + +"You ain't goin' to try to stop him?" the boy said stupidly. "He was +goin' to leave Tombstone at sundown. He'll be to the place before you +ken ketch him, sure." + +"We'll see," she answered shortly; "it is where the Huachuca road +crosses, you are certain?" + +He nodded forcibly. "Where all them mesquites is to one side, and the +arroyo to the other. They'll be behind the mesquite. But you ain't goin' +to head him off," he added, "there ain't even a short cut. The road's +the shortest." + +The stableman came on a run, leading her horse, and she fairly leaped +down the steps, and slipping the pistol into the holster mounted with a +spring. "All of you follow me," she said; "they are going to hold up Mr. +Cairness." + +On the instant she put her horse to a run and tore off through the gate +toward the open country. It was dark, but by the stars she could see the +road and its low bushes and big stones that danced by as her horse, with +its belly to the ground, sped on. She strained her ears and caught the +sound of hoofs. The men were following her, the gleam of her white dress +guiding them. She knew they could not catch her. The horse she rode was +a thoroughbred, the fastest on the ranch; not even Cairness's own could +match it. It stretched out its long black neck and went evenly ahead, +almost without motion, rising over a dog hole now and then, coming down +again, and going on, unslacking. She felt the bit steadily and pressed +her knee against the hunting horn for purchase, her toe barely touching +the stirrup, that she might be the freer in a fall. + +If it went like this, she thought, she might get to the cross-road +first, and beyond. The four men would not matter much then, if she could +but stop her husband. Why had he started back alone--and carrying money +too? It was foolhardy. But then there was so little money, she knew, +that he had probably not thought of it as booty. She turned her +uncovered head and listened. Her hair had fallen loose and was streaming +out in the wind. She could not hear the others now. They must be well +behind. + +There was a faint, white light above the distant mountains in the east. +The moon was about to rise. In a few moments more it came drifting up, +and the plain was all alight. Far away on the edge was a vague, +half-luminous haze, and nearer the shadows of the bushes fell sharp and +black. A mile ahead, perhaps, along the road, she could make out the +dark blot of the mesquite clump. Behind, as she looked again, she could +just see four figures following. + +It occurred to her now for the first time that there was danger for +herself, so far in front, so entirely alone. The chances for passing the +mesquites were not very good. If the men were already there, and that +might be counted upon, they would not let her pass if they could help +it. It occasioned her but one fear--that she could not stop her +husband. If she were to turn from the road out into the open, she would +lose time, even if the horse did not fall, and time was not to be lost. + +The mesquites were very near. She bent down over the horse's neck and +spoke to him. His stride lengthened out yet more. She drew the little +revolver, and cocked it, still bending low. If they were to fire at her, +the white gown would make a good mark; but she would show as little of +it as might be, and she would not waste time answering shots, if it +could be helped. + +The mesquites were directly ahead. A horseman came out from behind them +and placed himself across the road. There was a sheen of moonlight on a +revolver barrel and a shouted "Halt there!" + +He was in front of her, not a hundred feet away; to the left were the +mesquites, to the right the ragged arroyo. There could be no turning +aside. She threw up her own revolver, and fired, not at the man, but at +the head of his horse. It reared and fell, and a moment after her own +rose in the air, touched the ground beyond, and went on. It had leapt +the fallen one and his rider, and was leaving them behind. + +The man on the ground twisted his body around on his crushed leg, pinned +under the pony, aimed deliberately at the white figure, and fired. +Felipa's firm hold upon her revolver turned to a clutch, and her mouth +fell open in a sharp gasp. But very deliberately she put the revolver +into its holster, and then she laid her hand against her side. At once +the palm was warm with blood. + +She drew her horse down to a gallop, and the jar of the changed gait +made her moan. There was no haste now. Her own men had come upon the +desperadoes and there was a quick volley. And ahead, riding fast toward +her from the top of a little rise, was a man on a white horse--her +husband, she knew. + +She gave a dry little sob of unutterable glad relief and tried to raise +her voice and call to him, the call they used for one another when they +rode about the ranch. But the sound was only a weak, low wail. + +The horse came down to a walk. She had lost all control of the reins +now, and clung to the pommel with both hands, swaying from side to side. +She could hear galloping hoofs, behind and in front--or was it only the +blood, the icy cold blood, pounding in her ears? + +The horse stopped, and she reeled blindly in her seat into a pair of +strong arms that caught her and drew her down. A voice was saying words +she could not hear, but she knew the voice so well. And she smiled and +dropped her head down upon her husband's shoulder. "Just--just in time," +she whispered very low. + +"In time, Felipa? In time for what, dear?" but there was no answer. + +He turned her face up to the moonlight, and the head fell heavily back +with the weight of hair. The half-closed eyes looked unseeing up to him, +and the quiet lips smiled still. + +"Felipa!" he cried, "Felipa!" + +But only a coyote barked from a knoll near by. + + + + +ADVERTISEMENTS + + +THE LIFE AND DEATH OF RICHARD YEA AND NAY + +By MAURICE HEWLETT + +_Author of "The Forest Lovers," "Little Novels of Italy," etc._ + +Cloth. 12mo. $1.50 + + +"The hero of Mr. Hewlett's latest novel is Richard Coeur de Lion, whose +character is peculiarly suited to the author's style. It is on a much +wider plan than 'The Forest Lovers,' and while not historical in the +sense of attempting to follow events with utmost exactness, it will be +found to give an accurate portrayal of the life of the day, such as +might well be expected from the author's previous work. There is a +varied and brilliant background, the scene shifting from France to +England, and also to Palestine. In a picturesque way, and a way that +compels the sympathies of his readers, Mr. Hewlett reads into the heart +of King Richard Coeur de Lion, showing how he was torn by two natures +and how the title 'Yea and Nay' was peculiarly significant of his +character."--_Boston Herald._ + +"The tale by itself is marvellously told; full of luminous poetry; +intensely human in its passion; its style, forceful and picturesque; its +background, a picture of beauty and mysterious loveliness; the whole, +radiant with the very spirit of romanticism as lofty in tone and as +serious in purpose as an epic poem. It is a book that stands head and +shoulders above the common herd of novels--the work of a master +hand."--_Indianapolis News._ + +"Mr. Hewlett has done one of the most notable things in recent +literature, a thing to talk about with abated breath, as a bit of +master-craftsmanship touched by the splendid dignity of real +creation."--_The Interior._ + + +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + +66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK + + +WHO GOES THERE? + +The Story of a Spy in the Civil War + +By B. K. BENSON + +Cloth. 12mo. $1.50 + + +"Beyond question the best story of the Civil War that has appeared of +recent years.... Veterans who took part in the campaigns of the Army of +the Potomac will follow every page with absorbed interest ... so +detailed and seemingly so accurate are the descriptions of battlefields +and of the positions occupied by the two armies at different times. The +book deserves to be put among the works of history dealing with the +Civil War, rather than among the works of fiction, so great is the +preponderance of fact. It is due to the author's power for graphic +presentation of detail, and his keen regard for the fears and emotions +of his hero, that his book contains much of the interest of a novel +while containing more historical truth than most historical +fictions."--_The Springfield Republican._ + +"Unquestionably this production ranks with the very best stories that +have been written about the great rebellion.... No veteran of the war +could read of the gallant work done so systematically, yet modestly, by +the almost unknown soldier, Jones Berwick, and add anything to the charm +of the tale."--_Evening Post_, Chicago. + + +THE HOSTS OF THE LORD + +By FLORA ANNIE STEEL + +_Author of "On the Face of the Waters," "Voices in the Night," etc._ + +Cloth. 12mo. $1.50 + + +"'The Hosts of the Lord' is a very dramatic and absorbing story; once +embarked on its broad current, one is carried swiftly to the final +catastrophe.... The novel is not only dramatic in the sense of +presenting a well-defined plot, relating the actors to it and carrying +the narrative on to a tragic climax; it is also full of atmospheric +effects; the languor, the heat, the passion of nature in the East are in +it."--HAMILTON W. MABIE. + + +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + +66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK + + +IN THE PALACE OF THE KING + +A Love Story of Old Madrid + +By F. MARION CRAWFORD + +_Author of "Via Crucis," "Saracinesca," etc._ + +Illustrated by FRED ROE + +Cloth. 12mo. $1.50 + + +"Marion Crawford's latest story, 'In the Palace of the King,' is quite +up to the level of his best works for cleverness, grace of style, and +sustained interest. It is, besides, to some extent a historical story, +the scene being the royal palace at Madrid, and the author drawing the +characters of Philip II. and Don John of Austria with an attempt, in a +broad, impressionist way, at historic faithfulness. His reproduction of +the life at the Spanish court is as brilliant and picturesque as any of +his Italian scenes, and in minute study of detail is, in a real and +valuable sense, true history."--_The Advance._ + +"Mr. Crawford has taken a love story of vital interest and has related +the web of facts simply, swiftly, and with moderation ... a story as +brilliant as it is romantic in its setting. Here his genius for story +telling is seen at its best."--_Boston Herald._ + +"For sustained intensity and graphic description Marion Crawford's new +novel is inapproachable in the field of recent fiction."--_Times Union_, +Albany. + +"Don John of Austria's secret marriage with the daughter of one of King +Philip's officers is the culminating point of this story.... An +assassination, a near approach to a palace revolution, a great scandal, +and some very pretty love-making, besides much planning and plotting, +take place."--_Boston Transcript._ + +"Mr. Crawford wastes no time in trying to re-create history, but puts +his reader into the midst of those bygone scenes and makes him live in +them.... In scenes of stirring dramatic intensity.... It all seems +intensely real so long as one is under the novelist's spell."--_Chicago +Tribune._ + +"No man lives who can endow a love tale with a rarer charm than +Crawford."--_San Francisco Evening Bulletin._ + +"No book of the season has been more eagerly anticipated, and none has +given more complete satisfaction ... a drama of marvellous power and +exceptional brilliancy, forceful and striking ... holding the reader's +interest spell-bound from the first page of the story to the last, +reached all too soon."--_The Augusta Herald._ + + +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + +66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK + + +THE REIGN OF LAW + +A Tale of the Kentucky Hempfields + +By JAMES LANE ALLEN + +_Author of "The Choir Invisible," "A Kentucky Cardinal," etc._ + +Illustrated by J. C. EARL and HARRY FENN + +Cloth. 12 mo. $1.50 + + +"The whole book is a brilliant defence of Evolution, a scholarly +statement of the case. Never before has that great science been so +presented; never before has there been such a passionate yet thrilling +appeal."--_Courier Journal._ + +"This is a tremendous subject to put into a novel; but the effort is so +daring, and the treatment so frank and masterly on its scientific side, +that the book is certain to command a wide hearing, perhaps to provoke +wide controversy."--_Tribune_, Chicago. + +"'When a man has heard the great things calling to him, how they call, +and call, day and night, day and night!' This is really the foundation +idea, the golden text, of Mr. James Lane Allen's new and remarkable +novel."--_Evening Transcript_, Boston. + +"In all the characteristics that give Mr. Allen's novels such +distinction and charm 'The Reign of Law' is perhaps supreme ... but it +is pre-eminently the study of a soul ... religion is here the dominant +note."--_The New York Times' Saturday Review._ + +"In David there is presented one of the noblest types of our fiction; +the incarnation of brilliant mentality and splendid manhood.... No +portrait in contemporary literature is more symbolic of truth and +honor."--_The Times_, Louisville. + +"Mr. Allen has a style as original and almost as perfectly finished as +Hawthorne's, and he has also Hawthorne's fondness for spiritual +suggestion that makes all his stories rich in the qualities that are +lacking in so many novels of the period.... If read in the right way, it +cannot fail to add to one's spiritual possessions."--_San Francisco +Chronicle._ + + +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + +66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The heritage of unrest, by Gwendolen Overton + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57017 *** |