gordon rode aimlessly out of the little town with its twinkling lights. he did not care where he went or what direction he pursued. he wanted to ride off a strange, enervating dejection that had laid hold of him the moment his last testimony had gone in. it all seemed so pitifully inadequate—without williston,—now that it was all in. why had he undertaken it? it could only go for another defeat counted against him. though what was one defeat more or less when there had been so many? it would be nothing new. was he not pursuing merely the old beaten trail? why should the thought weigh so heavily now? can a man never attain to that higher—or lower, which is it?—altitude of strifeless, unregretful hardness? or was it, he asked himself in savage contempt of his weakness, that, despite all his generous and iron clad resolutions, he had secretly, unconsciously perhaps, cherished a sweet, shy, little reservation in his inmost heart that maybe—if he won out—
“you poor fool,” he said, aloud, with bitter harshness.
suppose he did. a brave specimen, he, if he had the shameful egoism to ask a girl—a girl like louise—a gentle, highbred, protected, cherished girl like that—to share this new, bleak, rough life with him. but the very sweetness of the thought of her doing it made him gasp there in the darkness. how stifling the air was! he lifted his hat. it was hard to breathe. it was like the still oppressiveness preceding an electrical storm. his mare, unguided, had naturally chosen the main travelled trail and kept it. she followed the mood of her master and walked leisurely along while the man wrestled with himself.
if he really possessed the hardihood to ask louise to do this for him, she would laugh at him. stay! that was a lie—a black lie. she would not laugh—not louise. she was not of that sort. rather would she grieve over the inevitable sadness of it. if she laughed, he could bear it better—he had good, stubborn, self-respecting blood in him,—but she would not laugh. and all the rest of his long life must be spent in wishing—wishing—if it could have been! but he would never ask her to do it. not even if the impossible came to pass. it was a hard country on women, a hard, treeless, sun-seared, unkindly country. men could stand it—fight for its future; but not women like louise. it made men as well as unmade them. and after all it did not prove to be the undoing of men so much as it developed in them the perhaps hitherto hidden fact that they were already wanting. these latent, constitutional weaknesses thus laid bare, the bad must for a while prevail—bad is so much noisier than good. but this big, new country with its infinite possibilities—give it time—it would form men out of raw material and make over men mistakenly made when that was possible, or else show the dividing line so clearly that the goats might not herd with the sheep. some day, it would be fit for women—like louise. not now. much labor and sorrow must be lived through; there must be many mistakes, many experiments tried, there must be much sacrifice and much refining, and many must fall and lose in the race before its big destiny be worked out and it be fit for women—like louise. down in the southern part of the state, and belonging to it, a certain big barred building sheltered many women, when the sun of the treeless prairies and the gazing into the lonesome distances surrounding their homesteads seeped into their brains and stayed there so that they knew not what they did. there were trees there and fountains and restful blue-grass in season, and flowers, flowers, flowers—but these came too late for most of the women.
louise was not of that sort. the roughness and the loneliness would simply wear her away and she would die—smiling to the last. what leering fate had led her hither to show him what he had missed by choosing as he had chosen to throw himself into the thankless task of preparing a new country for—a future generation? this accomplished, she would flit lightly away and never know the misery she had left behind or the flavor and zest she had filched from the work of one man, at least, who had entered upon it with lofty ambition, high hopes, and immutable purpose. what then would he have wished? that she had not come at all?
he smiled. if louise could have seen that smile, or the almost dewy softness which stole into his eyes—the eyes that were too keen for everyday living! that he loved her was the one thing in life worth while. then why rail at fate? if he had not chosen as he had, he should never have known louise. he must have gone through life without that dear, exquisite, solemn sense of her—in his arms—those arms to which it had been given to draw her back from a cruel death. that fulfilment was his for all time. how sweet she was! he seemed to feel again the soft pressure of her clinging arms,—remembering how his lips had brushed her fair hair. if it had been langford, now, who was guilty of so ridiculous a sentimentalism—the bold, impetuous, young ranchman—he smiled at himself whimsically. then he pulled himself together. he did not think the jury could believe the story jesse black would trump up, no matter how plausible it was made to sound. he felt more like himself,—in better condition to meet those few but staunch friends of his from whom he had so summarily run away,—stronger to meet—louise. man-like, now that he was himself again, he must know the time. he struck a match.
“why, lena, old girl, we’ve been taking our time, haven’t we? they are likely through supper, but maybe i can wheedle a doughnut out of the cook.”
the match burned out. not until he had tossed it away did it come to him that they were no longer on the main trail.
“now, that’s funny, old girl,” he scolded. “what made you be so unreasonable? well, we started with our noses westward, so you must have wandered into the old lazy s branch trail. though, to be sure, it has been such a deuce of a while since we travelled it that i wonder at you, lena. well, we’ll just jog back. what’s the matter now, silly?”
his mare had shied. he turned her nose resolutely, domineeringly, back toward the spot objected to.
“i can’t see what you’re scared at, but we’ll just investigate and show you how foolish a thing is feminine squeamishness.”
a shadowy form arose out of the darkness. it approached.
“is that you, dick?”
gordon was not a superstitious man, yet he felt suddenly cold to the crown of his head. it was not so dark as it might have been. there would have been a moon had it not been cloudy. dimly, he realized that the man had arisen from the ruins of what must have been the old williston homestead. the outlines of the stone stoop were vaguely visible in the half light. the solitary figure had been crouched there, brooding.
“i’m flesh and blood, dick, never fear,” said the man in a mournful voice. “i’m hungry enough to vouch for that. you needn’t be afraid. i’m anything but a spirit.”
“williston!” the astonished word burst from gordon’s lips. “williston! is it really you?”
“none other, my dear gordon! sorry i startled you. i saw your light and heard your voice speaking to your horse, and as you were the very man i was on the point of seeking, i just naturally came forward, forgetting that my friends would very likely look upon me in the light of a ghost.”
“williston! my dear fellow!” repeated gordon again. “it is too good to be true,” he cried, leaping from his mare and extending both hands cordially. “shake, old man! my, the feel of you is—bully. you are flesh and blood all right. you always did have a good, honest shake for a fellow. i don’t know, though. seems to me you have been kind o’ running to skin and bones since i last saw you. grip’s good, but bony. you’re thinner than ever, aren’t you?”
all this time he was shaking williston’s hands heartily. he never thought of asking him where he had been. for weary months he had longed for this man to come back. he had come back. that was enough for the present. he had always felt genuinely friendly toward the unfortunate scholar and his daughter.
“that’s natural, isn’t it? besides, they forgot my rations sometimes.”
“who, williston?” asked gordon, the real significance of the man’s return taking quick hold of him.
“i think you know, gordon,” said the older man, quietly. “it is a long story. i was coming to you. i will tell you everything. shall i begin now?”
“are you in any danger of pursuit?” asked gordon, suddenly bethinking himself.
“i think not. i killed my jailer, the half-breed, nightbird.”
“you did well. so did mary.”
“what do you mean?”
“didn’t you know that mary shot and killed one of the desperadoes that night? at least, we have every reason to think it was mary. by the way, you have not asked after her.”
the man’s head drooped. he did not answer for a long time. when he raised his head, his face, though showing indistinctly, was hard and drawn. he spoke with little emotion as a man who had sounded the gamut of despair and was now far spent.
“what was the use? i saw her fall, gordon. she stood with me to the end. she was a brave little girl. she never once faltered. dick,” he said, his voice changing suddenly, and laying hot, feverish hands on the young man’s shoulders, “we’ll hang them—you and i—we’ll hang them every one,—the devils who look like men, but who strike at women. we’ll hang them, i say—you and i. i’ve got the evidence.”
“is it possible they didn’t tell you?” cried gordon, aghast at the amazing cruelty of it.
“tell me anything? not they. she was such a good girl, dick. there never was a better. she never complained. she never got her screens, poor girl. i wish she could have had her screens before they murdered her. where did you lay her, dick?”
“mr. williston,” said dick, taking firm hold of the man’s burning hands and speaking with soothing calmness, “forgive me for not telling you at once. i thought you knew. i never dreamed that you might have been thinking all the while that mary was dead. she is alive and well and with friends. she only fainted that night. come, brace up! why, man alive, aren’t you glad? well, then, don’t go to pieces like a child. come, brace up, i tell you!”
“you—you—wouldn’t lie to me, would you, dick?”
“as god is my witness, mary is alive and in kemah this minute—unless an earthquake has swallowed the hotel during my absence. i saw her less than two hours ago.”
“give me a minute, my dear fellow, will you? i—i—”
he walked blindly away a few steps and sat down once more on the ruins of his homestead. gordon waited. the man sat still—his head buried in his hands. gordon approached, leading his mare, and sat down beside him.
“now tell me,” he said, with simple directness.
an hour later, the two men separated at the door of the whites’ claim shanty.
“lie low here until i send for you,” was gordon’s parting word.
