Authors: Zane Grey
Holley slipped away stealthily in the dusk, leaving Slone with a throbbing heart.
"Wherever you go!" he echoed. "Ah! I forgot! I can't stay here."
Lucy's letter made his fingers tingle--made them so hasty and awkward that he had difficulty in kindling blaze enough to see to read. The letter was short, written in lead-pencil on the torn leaf of a ledger. Slone could not read rapidly--those years on the desert had seen to that--and his haste to learn what Lucy said bewildered him. At first all the words blurred:
Come at once to the bench in the cottonwoods. I'll meet you there. My heart is breaking. It's a lie--a lie--what they say. I'll swear you were with me the night the boat was cut adrift. I KNOW you didn't do that. I know who. . . . Oh, come! I will stick to you. I will run off with you. I love you!"
CHAPTER XV
Slone's heart leaped to his throat, and its beating choked his utterances of rapture and amaze and dread. But rapture dominated the other emotions. He could scarcely control the impulse to run to meet Lucy, without a single cautious thought.
He put the precious letter inside his blouse, where it seemed to warm his breast. He buckled on his gun-belt, and, extinguishing the light, he hurried out.
A crescent moon had just tipped the bluff. The village lanes and cabins and trees lay silver in the moon-light. A lonesome coyote barked in the distance. All else was still. The air was cool, sweet, fragrant. There appeared to be a glamour of light, of silence, of beauty over the desert.
Slone kept under the dark lee of the bluff and worked around so that he could be above the village, where there was little danger of meeting any one. Yet presently he had to go out of the shadow into the moon-blanched lane. Swift and silent as an Indian he went along, keeping in the shade of what trees there were, until he came to the grove of cottonwoods. The grove was a black mystery lanced by silver rays. He slipped in among the trees, halting every few steps to listen. The action, the realization had helped to make him cool, to steel him, though never before in his life had he been so exalted. The pursuit and capture of Wildfire, at one time the desire of his heart, were as nothing to this. Love had called him--and life--and he knew death hung in the balance. If Bostil found him seeking Lucy there would be blood spilled. Slone quaked at the thought, for the cold and ghastly oppression following the death he had meted out to Sears came to him at times. But such thoughts were fleeting; only one thought really held his mind--and the one was that Lucy loved him, had sent strange, wild, passionate words to him.
He found the narrow path, its white crossed by slowly moving black bars of shadow, and stealthily he followed this, keen of eye and ear, stopping at every rustle. He well knew the bench Lucy had mentioned. It was in a remote corner of the grove, under big trees near the spring. Once Slone thought he had a glimpse of white. Perhaps it was only moonlight. He slipped on and on, and when beyond the branching paths that led toward the house he breathed freer. The grove appeared deserted. At last he crossed the runway from the spring, smelled the cool, wet moss and watercress, and saw the big cottonwood, looming dark above the other trees. A patch of moonlight brightened a little glade just at the edge of dense shade cast by the cottonwood. Here the bench stood. It was empty!
Slone's rapture vanished. He was suddenly chilled. She was not there! She might have been intercepted. He would not see her. The disappointment, the sudden relaxation, was horrible. Then a white, slender shape flashed from beside the black tree-trunk and flew toward him. It was noiseless, like a specter, and swift as the wind. Was he dreaming? He felt so strange. Then--the white shape reached him and he knew.
Lucy leaped into his arms.
"Lin! Lin! Oh, I'm so--so glad to see you!" she whispered. She seemed breathless, keen, new to him, not in the least afraid nor shy. Slone could only hold her. He could not have spoken, even if she had given him a chance. "I know everything--what they accuse you of--how the riders treated you--how my dad struck you. Oh! . . . He's a brute! I hate him for that. Why didn't you keep out of his way? . . . Van saw it all. Oh, I hate him, too! He said you lay still--where you fell! . . . Dear Lin, that blow may have hurt you dreadfully--shamed you because you couldn't strike back at my dad--but it reached me, too. It hurt me. It woke my heart. . . . Where--where did he hit you? Oh, I've seen him hit men! His terrible fists!"
"Lucy, never mind," whispered Slone. "I'd stood to be shot just for this."
He felt her hands softly on his face, feeling around tenderly till they found the swollen bruise on mouth and chin.
"Ah! . . . He struck you. And I--I'll kiss you," she whispered. "If kisses will make it well--it'll be well!"
She seemed strange, wild, passionate in her tenderness. She lifted her face and kissed him softly again and again and again, till the touch that had been exquisitely painful to his bruised lips became rapture. Then she leaned back in his arms, her hands on his shoulders, white-faced, dark-eyed, and laughed up in his face, lovingly, daringly, as if she defied the world to change what she had done.
"Lucy! Lucy! . . . He can beat me--again!" said Slone, low and hoarsely.
"If you love me you'll keep out of his way," replied the girl.
"If I love you? . . . My God! . . . I've felt my heart die a thousand times since that mornin'--when--when you--"
"Lin, I didn't know," she interrupted, with sweet, grave earnestness. "I know now!"
And Slone could not but know, too, looking at her; and the sweetness, the eloquence, the noble abandon of her avowal sounded to the depths of him. His dread, his resignation, his shame, all sped forever in the deep, full breath of relief with which he cast off that burden. He tasted the nectar of happiness, the first time in his life. He lifted his head--never, he knew, to lower it again. He would be true to what she had made him.
"Come in the shade," he whispered, and with his arm round her he led her to the great tree-trunk. "Is it safe for you here? An' how long can you stay?"
"I had it out with Dad--left him licked once in his life," she replied. "Then I went to my room, fastened the door, and slipped out of my window. I can stay out as long as I want. No one will know."
Slone's heart throbbed. She was his. The clasp of her hands on his, the gleam of her eyes, the white, daring flash of her face in the shadow of the moon--these told him she was his. How it had come about was beyond him, but he realized the truth. What a girl! This was the same nerve which she showed when she had run Wildfire out in front of the fleetest horses in the uplands.
"Tell me, then," he began, quietly, with keen gaze roving under the trees and eyes strained tight, "tell me what's come off."
"Don't you know?" she queried, in amaze.
"Only that for some reason I'm done in Bostil's Ford. It can't be because I punched Joel Creech. I felt it before I met Bostil at the store. He taunted me. We had bitter words. He told before all of them how the outfit I wore you gave me. An' then I dared him to race the King. My horse an' my life against YOU!"
"Yes, I know," she whispered, softly. "It's all over town. . . . Oh, Lin! it was a grand bet! And Bostil four-flushed, as the riders say. For days a race between Wildfire and the King had been in the air. There'll never be peace in Bostil's Ford again till that race is run."
"But, Lucy, could Bostil's wantin' Wildfire an' hatin' me because I won't sell--could that ruin me here at the Ford?"
"It could. But, Lin, there's more. Oh, I hate to tell you!" she whispered, passionately. "I thought you'd know. . . . Joel Creech swore you cut the ropes on the ferry-boat and sent it adrift."
"The loon!" ejaculated Slone, and he laughed low in both anger and ridicule. "Lucy, that's only a fool's talk."
"He's crazy. Oh, if I ever get him in front of me again when I'm on Sarch--I'll--I'll. . . ." She ended with a little gasp and leaned a moment against Slone. He felt her heart beat--felt the strong clasp of her hands. She was indeed Bostil's flesh and blood, and there was that in her dangerous to arouse.
"Lin, the folks here are queer," she resumed, more calmly. "For long years Dad has ruled them. They see with his eyes and talk with his voice. Joel Creech swore you cut those cables. Swore he trailed you. Brackton believed him. Van believed him. They told my father. And he--my dad--God forgive him! he jumped at that. The village as one person now believes you sent the boat adrift so Creech's horses could not cross and you could win the race."
"Lucy, if it wasn't so--so funny I'd be mad as--as--" burst out Slone.
"It isn't funny. It's terrible. . . . I know who cut those cables. . . Holley knows. . . . DAD knows--an', oh, Lin--I--hate--I hate my own father!"
"My God!" gasped Slone, as the full signification burst upon him. Then his next thought was for Lucy. "Listen, dear--you mustn't say that," he entreated. "He's your father. He's a good man every way except when he's after horses. Then he's half horse. I understand him. I feel sorry for him. . . . An' if he's throwed the blame on me, all right. I'll stand it. What do I care? I was queered, anyhow, because I wouldn't part with my horse. It can't matter so much if people think I did that just to help win a race. But if they knew your--your father did it, an' if Creech's horses starve, why it'd be a disgrace for him--an' you."
"Lin Slone--you'll accept the blame!" she whispered, with wide, dark eyes on him, hands at his shoulders.
"Sure I will," replied Slone. "I can't be any worse off."
"You're better than all of them--my rider!" she cried, full-voiced and tremulous. "Lin, you make me love you so--it--it hurts!" And she seemed about to fling herself into his arms again. There was a strangeness about her--a glory. "But you'll not take the shame of that act. For I won't let you. I'll tell my father I was with you when the boat was cut loose. He'll believe me."
"Yes, an' he'll KILL me!" groaned Slone. "Good Lord! Lucy, don't do that!"
"I will! An' he'll not kill you. Lin, Dad took a great fancy to you. I know that. He thinks he hates you. But in his heart he doesn't. If he got hold of Wildfire--why, he'd never be able to do enough for you. He never could make it up. What do you think? I told him you hugged and kissed me shamefully that day."
"Oh, Lucy! you didn't?" implored Slone.
"I sure did. And what do you think? He said he once did the same to my mother! . . . No, Lin, Dad'd never kill you for anything except a fury about horses. All the fights he ever had were over horse deals. The two men--he--he--" Lucy faltered and her shudder was illuminating to Slone. "Both of them--fights over horse trades!"
"Lucy, if I'm ever unlucky enough to meet Bostil again I'll be deaf an' dumb. An' now you promise me you won't tell him you were with me that night."
"Lin, if the occasion comes, I will--I couldn't help it," replied Lucy.
"Then fight shy of the occasion," he rejoined, earnestly. "For that would be the end of Lin Slone!"
"Then--what on earth can--we do?" Lucy said, with sudden break of spirit.
"I think we must wait. You wrote in your letter you'd stick to me-- you'd--" He could not get the words out, the thought so overcame him.
"If it comes to a finish, I'll go with you," Lucy returned, with passion rising again.
"Oh! to ride off with you, Lucy--to have you all to myself--I daren't think of it. But that's only selfish."
"Maybe it's not so selfish as you believe. If you left the Ford--now --it'd break my heart. I'd never get over it."
"Lucy! You love me--that well?"
Then their lips met again and their hands locked, and they stood silent, straining toward each other. He held the slight form, so pliant, so responsive, so alive, close to him, and her face lay hidden on his breast; and he looked out over her head into the quivering moonlit shadows. The night was as still as one away on the desert far from the abode of men. It was more beautiful than any dream of a night in which he had wandered far into strange lands where wild horses were and forests lay black under moon-silvered peaks.
"We'll run--then--if it comes to a finish," said Slone, huskily. "But I'll wait. I'll stick it out here. I'll take what comes. So--maybe I'll not disgrace you more."
"I told Van I--I gloried in being hugged by you that day," she replied, and her little defiant laugh told what she thought of the alleged disgrace.
"You torment him," remonstrated Slone. "You set him against us. It would be better to keep still."
"But my blood is up!" she said, and she pounded his shoulder with her fist. "I'll fight--I'll fight! . . . I couldn't avoid Van. It was Holley who told me Van was threatening you. And when I met Van he told me how everybody said you insulted me--had been worse than a drunken rider--and that he'd beat you half to death. So I told Van Joel Creech might have seen us--I didn't doubt that--but he didn't see that I liked being hugged."
"What did Van say then?" asked Slone, all aglow with his wonderful joy.
"He wilted. He slunk away. . . . And so I'll tell them all."
"But, Lucy, you've always been so--so truthful."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, to say you liked being hugged that day was--was a story, wasn't it?"
"That was what made me so furious," she admitted, shyly. "I was surprised when you grabbed me off Wildfire. And my heart beat--beat --beat so when you hugged me. And when you kissed me I--I was petrified. I knew I liked it then--and I was furious with myself."