Nevada (1995) (42 page)

Often he stopped to listen. Once an elk bugled--wonderful piercin
g
note of the wild.

It was through this extreme caution and the eye of a woodsman tha
t
Lacy came upon Marvie Blaine and Rose Hatt.

They were locked in each other's arms, lost in the enchantment o
f
their dream. But they had chosen a secluded nook, halfway up th
e
grassy pine-dotted slope, from which they could see, by peerin
g
under the low-spreading branches, both up and down the trail. A
t
this moment, however, they would not have become aware of th
e
approach of an army.

Lacy seemed struck to the heart by their rapture and the poignan
t
pang that rent his own breast. He understood. He had lived that.

He knew the sweetness and glory of love. Lacy sank to his knees
,
feeling that he had no right to interrupt their sacred hour.

Marvie bent over Rose, whose head lay back upon his breast, wit
h
her face upturned to his, eyes closed, heavy-lidded, rapt an
d
dreamy. If they were whispering Lacy would not hear, though he wa
s
close. But he doubted that they were whispering. Both bliss an
d
tragedy seemed to hover over these youthful lovers.

Suddenly Lacy heard a sound that cruelly disrupted both the pai
n
and the joy he felt. In a flash he found his equilibrium. Wha
t
was that sound? It had been faint, and therefore hard to locate.

It could have come from either near or far. He listened, while hi
s
eyes roved everywhere. Marvie was deaf to sounds. No doubt ther
e
was a beautiful bell ringing in his soul. Rose lay entranced.

Again Jim heard a sound, which he calculated to be a swish from th
e
tail of a horse. Of course Marvie and Rose had their horse
s
tethered somewhere near. But the first noise had not been like th
e
second. It was not a thud of hoof, nor a step of foot. It seeme
d
to have been a slippery gliding sound, as of a soft substance i
n
contact with one rough and hard. All at once an idea flashed t
o
Jim--buckskin over rock! Cedar Hatt always wore buckskin. Clos
e
at hand there were corners of cliff, ledges, huge slabs of rock.

The instant that thought stood clear in Lacy's mind he grew stiff
,
intense in the grasp of a sensation for which he never found a
n
adequate name. It mounted almost to a power of divination. I
t
always brought the icy steadiness to his nerves.

Then from the dark shadow of pines behind Marvie a lithe figur
e
glided. Silently Jim Lacy drew his gun. The situation wa
s
clarified, and a dread of something he could not see or contro
l
faded away.

Marvie never looked up from the beloved face until Cedar Hat
t
halted. It was clear to Jim that Cedar's sudden violent check cam
e
from the surprise of seeing Rose in Marvie's arms.

Marvie likewise started, so suddenly and rudely that Rose rolle
d
off his shoulder into the grass. She screamed. She swayed up t
o
her knees, and with hands out she backed until the pine tre
e
stopped her.

"So hyar's why you run off from me to-day?" he shouted, fiercely.

The muscles of his neck swelled, his lean jaw protruded.

"Don't--don't hurt me--Cedar!" cried Rose in terror.

"I'll beat you half to death. So hyar's why you played sick to-da
y
an' then run off. You lyin' hussy! Answer me!"

"Yes--yes, Cedar. I--I did," replied Rose, sagging back agains
t
the tree. Her open hands fell to her sides. A paralysis o
f
surprise began to leave her.

"This hyar ain't no accident?" he demanded, with a forceful gestur
e
toward the stricken Marvie.

"No. I come--on purpose."

"How long's it b'en goin' on?"

"Weeks. I--I've come eight times."

"Who's this hyar young buck?"

"I'll never tell," flashed Rose.

Marvie stumbled to his feet and stepped forward, livid of face, bu
t
resolute.

"I'll tell you," he said.

"Don't--don't!" cried Rose. "Never tell him!"

"Who'n hell air you?" queried Cedar, in amaze, as if the factor o
f
Marvie's participation in this treachery of Rose's had just dawne
d
upon him.

"I'm Marvie Blaine," answered the lad.

"Blaine! Huh! thet means nothin' to me."

"I live with Ben Ide. We're related."

"Ben Ide! . . . Oho! You belong to them rich Ide folks, huh, a
s
wouldn't wipe their feet on sich as us Hatts? Wal, damn your whit
e
skin, what you doin' hyar with my sister?"

"I--I love her," answered Marvie, manfully.

Cedar knocked him down.

"I'll kick your guts out," he snarled.

Marvie rolled out of reach, leaped to his feet, and came back, wit
h
fight struggling to master his consternation and distress for Rose.

"I seen you huggin' an' kissin' Rose. An' you got nerve to say yo
u
love her. Playin' with my sister, huh? An' you belong to the
m
Ides!"

"Cedar, it's not--what you think," burst out Rose, with the scarle
t
dyeing her face.

"Git out, you lyin' little devil. If you'll lie about one thin
g
you'll lie about another. . . . All the time you been meetin' thi
s
young buck. Layin' hyar in his arms, huh?"

"You skunk!" retorted Rose, passionately. "He loves me honest. . . .

You're too low-down to understand what that means."

"Didn't I ketch you layin' in his arms?" demanded Cedar, harshly
,
yet with a hint of wonder in his query.

"Yes, you did. An' you might have ketched me there often," crie
d
the girl.

"Ed Richardson will kill you fer this!" hissed Cedar.

"Let him kill an' be damned!" returned Rose, with an equal passion.

"I don't belong to him. I hate him. Did he ever talk honest lov
e
to me? Bah! But Marvie Blaine did. An' he's made a woman out o
f
me."

"Hatt, I've asked--Rose to marry--me," interposed Marvie, besid
e
himself with emotion.

"Yes, an' Miss Ide is goin' to give me a decent home till I'm ol
d
enough," added Rose.

"Oho! Double-crossin' Ed an' all of us, hey? You black-eye
d
cat! . . . Git your hoss, an' soon as I take the hide off thi
s
kid lover of yours, we'll--"

"Cedar Hatt, you'll have to pack me dead--if you take me one singl
e
step. . . . You'll never drag me alive to your Pine Tree--"

"Shut up!" interrupted Cedar, and he struck her down.

Marvie, with furious imprecation, wildly swinging his arms, rushe
d
at Hatt, only to be sent staggering against the tree.

"I'll blow your insides out!" yelled Cedar, reaching for his gun.

But before he could draw, Marvie closed with him, and as Hat
t
dragged the gun out they began a swift struggle for possession o
f
it. Here Jim bounded out of his covert and down the slope, his gu
n
half leveled. Neither of the contestants was aware of hi
s
presence, but Rose saw him, and she shrieked.

Jim tried to get a bead on Cedar. But he had to be sure of hi
s
aim. He did not want to risk injuring Marvie. As they whirled an
d
wrestled, Cedar pulled his arm over his head, his hand clutchin
g
the gun. Marvie clung desperately to that arm.

Jim took a snap shot at Cedar's gun hand. Missed! He snappe
d
another and the bullet almost tore Cedar's hand off. The gun wen
t
flying, while Cedar, backing away from Marvie, cursing hideously
,
suddenly froze stiff at sight of Jim.

Marvie had not yet seen his savior. No doubt he thought the shot
s
had been fired accidentally in the struggle, wounding Cedar. Quic
k
as a flash he snatched up Cedar's gun and, leveling it with bot
h
hands, he worked the trigger. Bang! Bang!

Cedar Hatt clutched at his breast. An awful blank surpris
e
rendered his expression once more human. With gasps his mout
h
opened to emit blood. Then he reeled and fell at Marvie's feet.

Marvie began to sag, changing his crouching position. The smokin
g
gun dropped from his limp hands. Rose, on her knees, with a re
d
stain on her lips, rocked to and fro, mute with terror.

"Wal, Marvie, that wasn't so bad for a youngster," said Jim
,
stepping forward. "I was just about to plug him myself."

As if a giant arm was grinding him around the lad turned.

"WHO'RE--YOU?" he whispered, wildly, almost maudlinly.

"Reckon I'm your old pard, Nevada, of Forlorn River days," replie
d
Jim, and then he grasped Marvie as he collapsed. He embraced hi
m
and half carried him toward the trees, where Rose now clung, tryin
g
to get to her feet. "Brace up, boy. It's all over. There. . . .

An' you, Rose, buck up. Why, you're both showin' yellow after a
s
game a fight as two kids ever made! . . . That's right. Let hi
m
lean against you. Wal, wal!"

Marvie, with eyes starting, cried out: "O my God--it's you--

NEVADA!"

"Shore is, boy, an' glad to meet you again."

"Mister Lacy--do--you--know Marvie?" faltered Rose.

"Wal, I should smile. Me an' Marvie are old pards."

Marvie suddenly seemed to revert to a consciousness that recalle
d
Cedar Hatt. He stared in terror at the prone rustler.

"Nevada, you--you shot him," he said, huskily.

"Me? Nope. I only shot his hand off. You see, you was dancin'
a
round so I couldn't bore him."

"He--he's DEAD?"

"Wal, I reckon so. Has that sort of limp look," replied Jim. "Bu
t
I'll make shore." And Jim rose from his kneeling posture to wal
k
over to Hatt. "Daid as a door nail! Marvie, he was roarin'
a
minute ago aboot blowin' out your insides. An', lo!--there he lay
s
with his own insides blowed out. His own gun! Funny aboo
t
things. . . . Don't look so sick. Wasn't he tryin' to kill you?

Wouldn't he have murdered Rose--or worse?"

Marvie sat up, pallid and wet, with his lower lip quivering and hi
s
eyes losing their fixed horror.

"Nevada! You were here--somewhere?"

"Shore. I was watchin' you an' Rose make love when Cedar sneake
d
up. Reckon I ought to have shot him pronto, but I wanted to hea
h
what he'd say."

"Marvie, it's turrible," interposed Rose. "My own brother! But I
d
on't care. I'm glad. He was a devil. . . . Did he hurt you?

Oh, there's blood on your hands!"

"I'm not hurt. It come off the gun. I felt it--all wet an'
s
liddery."

Jim studied these two brave young people and thrilled to his heart.

What had guided his steps on this eventful day?

"Rose, I reckon you can never be scared by Cedar again," he said.

"No, Mister Lacy. I'm free--saved," replied the girl, i
n
agitation.