The Max Brand Megapack (309 page)

Another pause followed.

“You love the horse,” said the voice of Ephraim, and it was plain that Jacob was beyond power of speech.

“And I shall pay for another. Hold out your hand.”

“I cannot take it.”

Nevertheless, it seemed that he obeyed, for presently the girl continued: “After my father died I sold the house. It was pretty well blanketed with a mortgage, but I cleared out this hundred from the wreck. I went to work and saved what I could. Ten dollars every month, for twenty months—you can count for yourself—makes two hundred, and here’s the two hundred more in your hand. Three hundred altogether. Do you think it’s enough?”

“If there were ten times as much,” said Jacob, “it would not be enough. There—take your money. It is not enough. There is no money price on the heads of the master’s horses.”

But a new light had fallen upon David. Women, as he had heard of them, were idle creatures who lived upon that which men gained with sweaty toil, but this girl, it seemed, was something more. She was strong enough to earn her bread, and something more. Money values were not clear to David Eden, but three hundred dollars sounded a very considerable sum. He determined to risk exposure by glancing around the rock. If she could work like a man, no doubt she was made like a man and not like those useless and decorative creatures of whom Matthew had often spoken to him, with all their graces and voices.

Cautiously he peered and he saw her standing beside the old, broken gray horse. Even old Ephraim seemed a stalwart figure in comparison.

At first he was bewildered, and then he almost laughed aloud. Was it on account of this that Benjamin had warned him, this fragile girl? He stepped boldly from behind the rock.

“There is no more to say,” quoth Jacob.

“But I tell you, he himself will come.”

“You are right,” said David.

At that her eyes turned on him, and David was stopped in the midst of a stride until she shrank back against the horse.

Then he went on, stepping softly, his hand extended in that sign of peace which is as old as mankind.

“Stay in peace,” said David, “and have no fear. It is I, David.”

He hardly knew his own voice, it was so gentle. A twilight dimness seemed to have fallen upon Jacob and Ephraim, and he was only aware of the girl. Her fear seemed to be half gone already, and she even came a hopeful step toward him.

“I knew from the first that you would come,” she said, “and let me buy one horse—you have so many.”

“We will talk of that later.”

“David,” broke in the grave voice of Ephraim, “remember your own law!”

He looked at the girl instead of Ephraim as he answered: “Who am I to make laws? God begins where David leaves off.”

And he added: “What is your name?”

“Ruth.”

“Come, Ruth,” said David, “we will go home together.”

She advanced as one in doubt until the shadow of the cliff fell over her. Then she looked back from the throat of the gate and saw Ephraim and Jacob facing her as though they understood there was no purpose in guarding against what might approach the valley from without now that the chief enemy was within. David, in the pause, was directing Jacob to place the girl’s saddle on the back of Abra.

“For it is not fitting,” he explained, “that you should enter my garden save on one of my horses. And look, here is Glani.”

The stallion came at the sound of his name. She had heard of the great horse from Connor, but the reality was far more than the words.

“And this, Glani, is Ruth.”

She touched the velvet nose which was stretched inquisitively toward her, and then looked up and found that David was smiling. A moment later they were riding side by side down the avenue of the eucalyptus trees, and through the tall treetrunks new vistas opened rapidly about her. Every stride of Abra seemed to carry her another step into the life of David.

“I should have called Shakra for you,” said David, watching her with concern, “but she is ridden by another who has the right to the best in the garden.”

“Even Glani?”

“Even Glani, save that he fears to ride my horse, and therefore he has Shakra. I am sorry, for I wish to see you together. She is like you—beautiful, delicate, and swift.”

She urged Abra into a shortened gallop with a touch of her heel, so that the business of managing him gave her a chance to cover her confusion. She could have smiled away a compliment, but the simplicity of David meant something more.

“Peace, Abra!” commanded the master. “Oh, unmannerly colt! It would be other than this if the wise Shakra were beneath your saddle.”

“No, I am content with Abra. Let Shakra be for your servant.”

“Not servant, but friend—a friend whom Glani chose for me. Consider how fickle our judgments are and how little things persuade us. Abraham is rich in words, but his face is ugly, and I prefer the smooth voice of Zacharias, though he is less wise. I have grieved for this and yet it is hard to change. But a horse is wiser than a fickle-minded man, and when Glani went to the hand of Benjamin without my order, I knew that I had found a friend.”

She knew the secret behind that story, and now she looked at David with pity.

“In my house you will meet Benjamin,” the master was saying thoughtfully, evidently encountering a grave problem. “I have said that little things make the judgments of men! If a young horse shies once, though he may become a true traveler and a wise head, yet his rider remembers the first jump and is ever uneasy in the saddle.”

She nodded, wondering what lay behind the explanation.

“Or if a snake crosses the road before a horse, at that place the horse trembles when he passes again.”

“Yes.”

She found it strangely pleasant to follow the simple processes of his mind.

“It is so with Benjamin. At some time a woman crosses his way like a snake, and because of her he has come to hate all women. And when I started for the gate, even now, he warned me against you.”

The clever mind of the gambler opened to her and she smiled at the trick.

“Yes, it is a thing for laughter,” said David happily. “I came with a mind armed for trouble—and I find you, whom I could break between my hands.”

He turned, casting out his arms.

“What harm have I received from you?”

They had reached the head of the bridge, and even as David turned a changing gust carried to them a chorus of men’s voices. David drew rein.

“There is a death,” he said, “in my household.”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO

The singing took on body and form as the pitch rose.

“There is a death,” repeated David. “Abraham is dead, the oldest and the wisest of my servants. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Glory to His name!”

Ruth was touched to the heart.

“I am sorry,” she said simply.

“Let us rejoice, rather, for Abraham is happy. His soul is reborn in a young body. Do you not hear them singing? Let us ride on.”

He kept his head high and a stereotyped smile on his lips as the horses sprang into a gallop—that breath-taking gallop which made the spirit of the girl leap; but she saw his breast raise once or twice with a sigh. It was the stoicism of an Indian, she felt, and like an Indian’s was the bronze-brown skin and the long hair blowing in the wind. The lake was beside them now, and dense forest beyond opening into pleasant meadows. She was being carried back into a primitive time of which the type was the man beside her. Riding without a saddle his body gave to the swing of the gallop, and she was more conscious than ever of physical strength.

But now the hoofs beat softly on the lawn terraces, and in a moment they had stopped before the house where the death had been. She knew at once. The empty arch into the patio of the servants’ house was eloquent, in some manner, of the life that had departed. Before it was the group of singers, all standing quiet, as though their own music had silenced them, or perhaps preparing to sing again. Connor had described the old servant, but she was not prepared for these straight, withered bodies, these bony, masklike faces, and the white heads.

All in an instant they seemed to see her, and a flash of pleasure went from face to face. They stirred, they came toward her with glad murmurs, all except one, the oldest of them all, who remained aloof with his arms folded. But the others pressed close around her, talking excitedly to one another, as though she could not understand what they said. And she would never forget one who took her hand in both of his. The touch of his fingers was cold and as dry as parchment. “Honey child, God bless your pretty face.”

Was this the formal talk of which Connor had warned her? A growl from David drove them back from her like leaves before a wind. He had slipped from his horse, and now walked forward.

“It is Abraham?” he asked.

“He is dead and glorious,” answered the chorus, and the girl trembled to hear those time-dried relics of humanity speak so cheerily of death.

The master was silent for a moment, then: “Did he leave no message for me?”

In place of answering the group shifted and opened a passage to the one in the rear, who stood with folded arms.

“Elijah, you were with him?”

“I heard his last words.”

“And what dying message for David?”

“Death sealed his lips while he had still much to say. To the end he was a man of many words. But first he returned thanks to our Father who breathed life into the clay.”

“That was a proper thought, and I see that the words were words of Abraham.”

“He gave thanks for a life of quiet ease and wise masters, and he forgave the Lord the length of years he was kept in this world.”

“In that,” said David gravely, “I seem to hear his voice speaking. Continue.”

“He commanded us to sing pleasantly when he was gone.”

“I heard the singing on the lake road. It is well.”

“Also, he bade us keep the first master in our minds, for John, he said, was the beginning.”

At this the face of David clouded a little.

“Continue. What word for David?”

Something that Connor had said about the pride and sulkiness of a child came back to Ruth.

Elijah, after hesitation, went on: “He declared that Glani is too heavy in the forehead.”

“Yes, that is Abraham,” said the master, smiling tenderly. “He would argue even on the death bed.”

“But a cross with Tabari would remedy that defect.”

“Perhaps. What more?”

“He blessed you and bade you remember and rejoice that he was gone to his wife and child.”

“Ah?” cried David softly. His glance, wandering absently, rested on the girl for a moment, and then came back to Elijah. “His mind went back to that? What further for my ear?”

“I remember nothing more, David.”

“Speak!” commanded the master.

The eyes of Elijah roved as though for help.

“Toward the end his voice grew faint and his mind seemed to wander.”

“Far rather tremble, Elijah, if you keep back the words he spoke, however sharp they may be. My hand is not light. Remember, and speak.”

The fear of Elijah changed to a gloomy pride, and now he not only raised his head, but he even made a step forward and stood in dignity.

“Death took Abraham by the throat, and yet he continued to speak. ‘Tell David that four masters cherished Abraham, but David cast him out like a dog and broke his heart, and therefore he dies. Although I bless him, God will hereafter judge him!’”

A shudder went through the entire group, and Ruth herself was uneasy.

“Keep your own thoughts and the words of Abraham well divided,” said David solemnly. “I know his mind and its working. Continue, but be warned.”

“I am warned, David, but my brother Abraham is dead and my heart weeps for him!”

“God will hereafter judge me,” said David harshly. “And what was the further judgment of Abraham, the old man?”

“Even this: ‘David has opened the Garden to one and therefore it will be opened to all. The law is broken. The first sin is the hard sin and the others follow easily. It is swift to run downhill. He has brought in one, and another will soon follow.’”

“Elijah,” thundered David, “you have wrested his words to fit the thing you see.”

“May the dead hand of Abraham strike me down if these were not his words.”

“Had he become a prophet?” muttered David. “No, it was maundering of an old man.”

“God speaks on the lips of the dying, David.”

“You have said enough.”

“Wait!”

“You are rash, Elijah.”

She could not see the face of David, but the terror and frenzied devotion of Elijah served her as mirror to see the wrath of the master of the Garden.

“David has opened the gate of the Garden. The world sweeps in and shall carry away the life of Eden like a flood. All that four masters have done the fifth shall undo.”

The strength of his ecstasy slid from Elijah and he dropped upon his knees with his head weighted toward the earth. The others were frozen in their places. One who had opened his lips to speak, perhaps to intercede for the rash Elijah, remained with his lips parted, a staring mask of fear. In them Ruth saw the rage of David Eden, and she was sickened by what she saw. She had half pitied the simplicity of this man, this gull of the clever Connor. Now she loathed him as a savage barbarian. Even these old men were hardly safe from his furies of temper.

“Arise,” said the master at length, and she could feel his battle to control his voice. “You are forgiven, Elijah, because of your courage—yet, beware! As for that old man whose words you repeated, I shall consider him.” He turned on his heel, and Ruth saw that his face was iron.

CHAPTER T
WENTY-THREE

From the gate of the patio Connor, watching all that time in a nightmare of suspense, saw, first of all, the single figure of David come around the trees, David alone and walking. But before that shock passed he saw Glani at the heels of the master, and then, farther back, Ruth!

She had passed the gate and two-thirds of the battle was fought and won. Yet all was not well, as he plainly saw. With long, swift steps David came over the terrace, and finally paused as if his thoughts had stopped him. He turned as Glani passed, and the girl came up to him; his extended arm halted Abra and he stood looking up to the girl and speaking. Only the faint murmur of his voice came unintelligibly to Connor, but he recognized danger in it as clearly as in the hum of bees. Suddenly the girl, answering, put out her hands as if in gesture of surrender. Another pause—it was only a matter of a second or so, but it was a space for life or death with Connor. In that interval he knew that his scheme was made or ruined. What had the girl said? Perhaps that mighty extended arm holding back Abra had frightened her, and with the wind blowing his long black hair aside, David of Eden was a figure wild enough to alarm her. Perhaps in fear of her life she had exposed the whole plan. If so, it meant broken bones for Connor.