the Light Of Western Stars (1992) (44 page)

***

One afternoon a huge storm-cloud swooped out of the sky and enveloped the crags
.
It obscured the westering sun and laid a mantle of darkness over the park
.
Madeline was uneasy because several of her party, including Helen and Dorothy, had ridden off with the cowboys that afternoon and had not returned
.
Florence assured her that even if they did not get back before the storm broke there was no reason for apprehension
.
Nevertheless, Madeline sent for Stewart and asked him to go or send some one in search of them
.

Perhaps half an hour later Madeline heard the welcome pattering of hoofs on the trail
.
The big tent was brightly lighted by several lanterns
.
Edith and Florence were with her
.
It was so black outside that Madeline could not see a rod before her face
.
The wind was moaning in the trees, and big drops of rain were pelting upon the canvas
.

Presently, just outside the door, the horses halted, and there was a sharp bustle of sound, such as would naturally result from a hurried dismounting and confusion in the dark
.
Mrs
.
Beck came running into the tent out of breath and radiant because they had beaten the storm
.
Helen entered next, and a little later came Dorothy, but long enough to make her entrance more noticeable
.
The instant Madeline saw Dorothy's blazing eyes she knew something unusual had happened
.
Whatever it was might have escaped comment had not Helen caught sight of Dorothy
.

"Heavens, Dot, but you're handsome occasionally!" remarked Helen
.
"When you get some life in your face and eyes!"

Dorothy turned her face away from the others, and perhaps it was only accident that she looked into a mirror hanging on the tent wall
.
Swiftly she put her hand up to feel a wide red welt on her cheek
.
Dorothy had been assiduously careful of her soft, white skin, and here was an ugly mark marring its beauty
.

"Look at that!" she cried, in distress
.
"My complexion's ruined!"

"How did you get such a splotch?" inquired Helen, going closer
.

"I've been kissed!" exclaimed Dorothy, dramatically
.

"What?" queried Helen, more curiously, while the others laughed
.

"I've been kissed-hugged and kissed by one of those shameless cowboys!It was so pitch-dark outside I couldn't see a thing
.
And so noisy I couldn't hear
.
But somebody was trying to help me off my horse
.
My foot caught in the stirrup, and away I went- right into somebody's arms
.
Then he did it, the wretch!He hugged and kissed me in a most awful bearish manner
.
I couldn't budge a finger
.
I'm simply boiling with rage!"

When the outburst of mirth subsided Dorothy turned her big, dilated eyes upon Florence
.

"Do these cowboys really take advantage of a girl when she's helpless and in the dark?"

"Of course they do," replied Florence, with her frank smile
.

"Dot, what in the world could you expect?" asked Helen
.
"Haven't you been dying to be kissed?"

"No
.
"

"Well, you acted like it, then
.
I never before saw you in a rage over being kissed
.
"

"I-I wouldn't care so much if the brute hadn't scoured the skin off my face
.
He had whiskers as sharp and stiff as sandpaper
.
And when I jerked away he rubbed my cheek with them
.
"

This revelation as to the cause of her outraged dignity almost prostrated her friends with glee
.

"Dot, I agree with you; it's one thing to be kissed, and quite another to have your beauty spoiled," replied Helen, presently
.
"Who was this particular savage?"

"I don't know!" burst out Dorothy
.
"If I did I'd-I'd-"

Her eyes expressed the direful punishment she could not speak
.

"Honestly now, Dot, haven't you the least idea who did it?" questioned Helen
.

"I hope-I think it was Stewart," replied Dorothy
.

"Ah!Dot, your hope is father to the thought
.
My dear, I'm sorry to riddle your little romance
.
Stewart did not-could not have been the offender or hero
.
"

"How do you know he couldn't?" demanded Dorothy, flushing
.

"Because he was clean-shaven to-day at noon, before we rode out
.
I remember perfectly how nice and smooth and brown his face looked
.
"

"Oh, do you?Well, if your memory for faces is so good, maybe you can tell me which one of these cowboys wasn't clean-shaven
.
"

"Merely a matter of elimination," replied Helen, merrily
.
"It was not Nick; it was not Nels; it was not Frankie
.
There was only one other cowboy with us, and he had a short, stubby growth of black beard, much like that cactus we passed on the trail
.
"

"Oh, I was afraid of it," moaned Dorothy
.
"I knew he was going to do it
.
That horrible little smiling demon, Monty Price!"

***

A favorite lounging-spot of Madeline's was a shaded niche under the lee of crags facing the east
.
Here the outlook was entirely different from that on the western side
.
It was not red and white and glaring, nor so changeable that it taxed attention
.
This eastern view was one of the mountains and valleys, where, to be sure, there were arid patches; but the restful green of pine and fir was there, and the cool gray of crags
.
Bold and rugged indeed were these mountain features, yet they were companionably close, not immeasurably distant and unattainable like the desert
.
Here in the shade of afternoon Madeline and Edith would often lounge under a low-branched tree
.
Seldom they talked much, for it was afternoon and dreamy with the strange spell of this mountain fastness
.
There was smoky haze in the valleys, a fleecy cloud resting over the peaks, a sailing eagle in the blue sky, silence that was the unbroken silence of the wild heights, and a soft wind laden with incense of pine
.

One afternoon, however, Edith appeared prone to talk seriously
.

"Majesty, I must go home soon
.
I cannot stay out here forever
.
Are you going back with me?"

"Well, maybe," replied Madeline, thoughtfully
.
"I have considered it
.
I shall have to visit home some time
.
But this summer mother and father are going to Europe
.
"

"See here, Majesty Hammond, do you intend to spend the rest of your life in this wilderness?" asked Edith, bluntly
.

Madeline was silent
.

"Oh, it is glorious!Don't misunderstand me, dear," went on Edith, earnestly, as she laid her hand on Madeline's
.
"This trip has been a revelation to me
.
I did not tell you, Majesty, that I was ill when I arrived
.
Now I'm well
.
So well!Look at Helen, too
.
Why, she was a ghost when we got here
.
Now she is brown and strong and beautiful
.
If it were for nothing else than this wonderful gift of health I would love the West
.
But I have come to love it for other things-even spiritual things
.
Majesty, I have been studying you
.
I see and feel what this life has made of you
.
When I came I wondered at your strength, your virility, your serenity, your happiness
.
And I was stunned
.
I wondered at the causes of your change
.
Now I know
.
You were sick of idleness, sick of uselessness, if not of society-sick of the horrible noises and smells and contacts one can no longer escape in the cities
.
I am sick of all that, too, and I could tell you many women of our kind who suffer in a like manner
.
You have done what many of us want to do, but have not the courage
.
You have left it
.
I am not blind to the splendid difference you have made in your life
.
I think I would have discovered, even if your brother had not told me, what good you have done to the Mexicans and cattlemen of your range
.
Then you have work to do
.
That is much the secret of your happiness, is it not?Tell me
.
Tell me something of what it means to you?"

"Work, of course, has much to do with any one's happiness," replied Madeline
.
"No one can be happy who has no work
.
As regards myself-for the rest I can hardly tell you
.
I have never tried to put it in words
.
Frankly, I believe, if I had not had money that I could not have found such contentment here
.
That is not in any sense a judgment against the West
.
But if I had been poor I could not have bought and maintained my ranch
.
Stillwell tells me there are many larger ranches than mine, but none just like it
.
Then I am almost paying my expenses out of my business
.
Think of that!My income, instead of being wasted, is mostly saved
.
I think-I hope I am useful
.
I have been of some little good to the Mexicans-eased the hardships of a few cowboys
.
For the rest, I think my life is a kind of dream
.
Of course my ranch and range are real, my cowboys are typical
.
If I were to tell you how I feel about them it would simply be a story of how Madeline Hammond sees the West
.
They are true to the West
.
It is I who am strange, and what I feel for them may be strange, too
.
Edith, hold to your own impressions
.
"

"But, Majesty, my impressions have changed
.
At first I did not like the wind, the dust, the sun, the endless open stretches
.
But now I do like them
.
Where once I saw only terrible wastes of barren ground now I see beauty and something noble
.
Then, at first, your cowboys struck me as dirty, rough, loud, crude, savage-all that was primitive
.
I did not want them near me
.
I imagined them callous, hard men, their only joy a carouse with their kind
.
But I was wrong
.
I have changed
.
The dirt was only dust, and this desert dust is clean
.
They are still rough, loud, crude, and savage in my eyes, but with a difference
.
They are natural men
.
They are little children
.
Monty Price is one of nature's noblemen
.
The hard thing is to discover it
.
All his hideous person, all his actions and speech, are masks of his real nature
.
Nels is a joy, a simple, sweet, kindly, quiet man whom some woman should have loved
.
What would love have meant to him! He told me that no woman ever loved him except his mother, and he lost her when he was ten
.
Every man ought to be loved- especially such a man as Nels
.
Somehow his gun record does not impress me
.
I never could believe he killed a man
.
Then take your foreman, Stewart
.
He is a cowboy, his work and life the same as the others
.
But he has education and most of the graces we are in the habit of saying make a gentleman
.
Stewart is a strange fellow, just like this strange country
.
He's a man, Majesty, and I admire him
.
So, you see, my impressions are developing with my stay out here
.
"