RANG BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE THE HORSES WERE TTNWILLING TO F.NTKR THE CIRCLE OF FTRKI.K;H r Page 181 Originally Published under tht title of BRANSFORD IN ARCADIA OR, THE LITTLE EOHIPPUS BY EUGENE MANLOVE RHODES AUTHOR OF THE DESIRE OF THE MOTH, GOOD MEN AND TRUE, WEST IS WEST, ETC. FRONTISPIBCE BY HARVEY T. DUNN GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS NEW YORK M*de in the United Stale* of Anwic* Copyright, 1913. by CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY Copyright, 1914, by HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY Copyright, 1920, by THE H. K. FLY COMPANY CONTENTS MH PROLOGUE ......... i THE PITCHER THAT WENT TO THE WELL . . ay FIRST AID 35 MAXWELTON BRAES 47 THE ROAD TO ROME 61 THE MASKERS 71 THE ISLE OF ARCADY 86 STATES-GENERAL 95 ARCADES AMBO 106 TAKEN 113 THE ALIBI 125 THE NETTLE, DANGER 136 THE SIEGE OF DOUBLE MOUNTAIN . . . .150 THE SIEGE OF DOUBLE MOUNTAIN (continued) 169 FLIGHT 181 GOOD-BY 194 THE LAND OF AFTERNOON 205 TWENTIETH CENTURY r . . . ; . . 215 AT THE RAINBOW'S END . . . 226 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE BRANSFORD IN ARCADIA PROLOGUE THE long fall round-up was over. The wagon, homeward bound, made camp for the last night out at the Sinks of Lost River. Most of the men, worn with threescore night- guards, were buried under their tarps in the deep sleep of the weary; sound as that of the just, and much more common. By the low campfire a few yet lingered: old- timers, iron men, whose wiry and seasoned strength was toil-proof and Leo Ballinger, for whom youth, excitement and unsated novelty served in lieu of fitness. The " firelighters," working the wide range again from Ancho to Hueco, from the Mai Pais to Glencoe, fell silent now, to mark an unstaled miracle. The clustered lights of Rainbow's End shone redly, near and low. Beyond, above, dominant, the black, unbroken bulk of Rainbow Range shut out the east. The clear-cut crest mellowed to 2 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE luminous curves, feathery with far-off pines; the long skyline thrilled with frosty fire, glowed, sparkled the cricket's chirp was stilled; the slow, late moon rose to a hushed and waiting world. On the sharp crest she paused, irresolute, tip toe, quivering, rosily aflush. Above floated a web of gossamer. She leaped up, spurning the black rim; glowed, palpitant, through that filmy lace and all the desert throbbed with vibrant light. Cool and sweet and fresh, from maiden leagues of clean, brown earth the desert winds made whisper in grass and fragrant shrub; yucca, mes- quite and greasewood swayed so softly, you had not known save as the long shadows courtesied and danced. Leo flung up his hand. The air was wine to him. A year had left the desert still new and strange. " Gee! " he said eloquently. Headlight nodded. " You're dead right on that point, son. If Christopher K. Columbus had only thought to beach his shallops on the sundown side of this here continent he might have made a name for himself. Just think how much different, hysterically, these United States " ' This United States," corrected Pringle dis passionately. Their fathers had disagreed on the same grammatical point. Headlight scowled. " By Jings I ' That this United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States,' " he quoted. " I was PROLOGUE 3 goin' to give you something new to exercise your talons on. You sit here every night, ridin' broncs and four-footin' steers, and never grab a horn or waste a loop, not once. Sure things ain't amusin'. Some variety and doubtful accuracy, now, would develop our guessin' gifts." Aforesaid Smith brandished the end-gate rod. " Them speculations of yours sorter opens up of themselves. If California had been settled first the salmon would now be our national bird in stead of the potato. Think of Arizona, mother of Presidents! Seat of government at Milipitas; center of population about Butte; New Jersey howlin' about Nevada trusts ! " He impaled a few beef ribs and held them over the glowing embers. " Georgia and South Carolina would be in fested by cow-persons in decollete leather panties," said Jeff Bransford. " New York and Pennsyl vania, would be fondly turning a credulous ear to the twenty-fourth consecutive solemn promise of Statehood with the Senator from Walla Walla urging admission of both as one mighty State with Maryland and Virginia thrown in for luck." Headlight forgot his pique. " Wouldn't the railroads sound funny, though? Needles and Eastern, Northern Atlantic, Southern Atlantic, Union, Western, Kansas and Central Atlantic! Earnest and continuous demand for a President 4 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE from east of the Mississippi. All the prize-fights pulled off at Boston." " Columbus done just right," said Pringle de cisively. " You fellers ain't got no imagination a-tall. If this Western country'd been settled first, the maps would read : * Northeast Territory. Uninhabitable wilderness; region of storm and snow, roaming savages and fierce wild beasts.' When the intrepid explorer hit the big white weather he'd say, * Little old San Diego's good enough for me! ' Yes, sir! " " Oh, well, climate alone doesn't account for the charm of this country nor scenery," said Leo. c You feel it, but you don't know why it is." " It sure agrees with your by-laws," observed Pringle. " You're a sight changed from the fur tive behemoth you was. You'll make a hand yet. But, even now, your dimensions from east to west is plumb fascinatin'. I'd sure admire to have your picture to put in my cornfield." " Very well, Mr. Pringle : I'll exchange photo graphs with you," said Leo artlessly. A smoth ered laugh followed this remark; uncertainty as to what horrible and unnamed use Leo would make of Pringle's pictured face appealed to these speculative minds. " I've studied out this charm business," said Jeff. " See if I'm not right. It's because there's no habitually old men here to pattern after, to PROLOGUE 5 steady us, to make us ashamed of just staying boys. Now and then you hit an octagonal cuss like Wes here, that on a mere count of years and hairs might be sized up as old by the superficial observer. But if I have ever met that man more addicted with vivid nonchalance as to further con tinuance of educational facilities than this same Also Ran, his number has now escaped me. Really aged old people stay where they was." " I think, myself, that what makes life so easy and congenial in these latigos and longitudes is the dearth of law and the ladies." Thus Pringle, the cynic. A fourfold outcry ensued; indignant repudia tion of the latter heresy. Their protest rose above the customary subdued and quiet drawl of the out-of-doors man. " But has the law no defenders? " demanded Leo. " We've got to have laws to make us be have." " Sure thing ! Likewise, 'tis the waves that make the tide come in," said Jeff. " A good law is as handy as a good pocketbook. But law, as simply such, independent of its merits, rouses no enthusiasm in my manly bosom, no more than a signboard the day after Hallowe'en. If it occurs to me in a moment of emotional sanity that the environments of the special case in hand call for a compound fracture of the statutes made and provided for some totally different cases that 6 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE happen to be called by the same name I fall upon it with my glittering hew-gag, without no special wonder. For," he declaimed, " I am endowed by nature with certain inalienable rights, among which are the high justice, the middle, and the low!" " And who's to be the judge of whether it's a good law or not? You? " " Me. Me, every time. Some one must. If I let some other man make up my mind I've got to use my judgment picking the man I follow. By organizing myself into a Permanent Commit tee of One to do my own thinking I take my one chance of mistakes instead of two." " So you believe in doing evil that good may come, do you ? " " Well," said Jeff judicially, " it seems to be at least as good a proposition as doing good that evil may come of it. Why, Capricorn, there isn't one thing we call wrong, when other men do it, that hasn't been lawful, some time or other. When to break a law is to do a wrong, it's evil. When it's doing right to break a law, it's not evil. Got that? It's not wrong to keep a just law and if it's wrong to break an unjust law I want a new dictionary with pictures of it in the back." " But laws is useful and excitin' diversions to break up the monogamy," said Aforesaid. " And it's a dead easy way to build up a rep. Look at PROLOGUE 7 the edge I've got on you fellows. You're just supposed to be honest but I've been proved hon est, frequent ! " "Hark!" said Pringle. A weird sound reached them the night wran gler, beguiling his lonely vigil with song. " Oh, the cuckoo is a pretty bird ; she comes in the spring " " What do you s'pose that night-hawk thinks about the majesty of the law? " he said. There was a ringing note in his voice. Smith and Head light nodded gravely; their lean, brown faces hardened. " You haven't heard of it? Old John Taylor, daddy to yonder warbler, drifted here from the East. Wife and little girl both puny. Taylor takes up a homestead on the Feliz. He wasn't affluent none. I let him have my old paint pony, Freckles him being knee-sprung and not up to cow-work. To make out an unparalleled team, he got Ed Poe's Billy Bowlegs, nee Gambler, him havin' won a new name by a misunderstanding with a prairie-dog hole. Taylor paid Poe for him in work. He was a willin' old rooster, Taylor, but futile and left-handed all over. " John, Junior, he was only thirteen. Him and the old man moseyed around like two drunk ants, fixin' up a little log house with rock chim- 8 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE bleys, a horse-pen and shelter, rail-fencin' of the little vegas to put to crops, and so on. " Done you good to drop in and hear 'em plan and figger. They was one happy family. How Sis Em'ly bragged about their hens layin'I In the spring we all held a bee and made their 'cequlas for 'em. Baker, he loaned 'em a plow. ,They dragged big branches over the ground for a harrow. They could milk anybody's cows they was a mind to tame, and the boys took to carryin' over motherless calves for Mis' Taylor to raise. Taylor, he done odd jobs, and they got along real well with their crops. They went into the second winter peart as squirrels. " But, come spring, Sis wasn't doin' well. They had the Agency doctor. Too high up and too damp, he said. So the missus and Em'ly they went to Cruces, where Em'ly could go to school. " That meant right smart of expense rentin' a house and all. So the Johns they hires out. John, Junior, made his dayboo as wrangler for the Steam Pitchfork, acquirin' the obvious name of Felix. " The old man he got a job muckin' in Organ mines. Kept his hawses in Jeff Isaack's pasture, and Saturday nights he'd get one and slip down them eighteen miles to Cruces for Sunday with the folks. " Well, you know, a homesteader can't be off his claim more'n six months at a time. PROLOGUE 9 " I reckon if there was ever a homestead taken up in good faith 'twas the Butterbowl. They knew the land laws from A to Iz- zard. Even named their hound pup Boney Fido! " But the old man waited at Organ till the last bell rang, so's to draw down his wages, pay-day. jThen he bundles the folks into his little old wagon and lights out. Campin' at Casimiro's Well, half way 'cross, that ornery Freckles hawse has a fit of malignant nostolgy and projects off for But terbowl, afoot, in his hobbles. Next day, Taylor don't overtake him till the middle of the evenin', and what with going back and what with Freckles being hobble-sore, he's two days late in reachin' home. For Lake, of Agua Chiquite, that pros perous person, had been keeping cases. He en tered contest on the Butterbowl, allegin' abandon ment. " Now, if it was me but, then, if 'twas me I could stay away six years and two months with out no remonstrances from Lake or his likes. I'm somewhat abandoned myself. " But poor old Taylor, he's been drug up where they hold biped life unaccountable high. He sits him down resignedly beneath the sky, as the poet says, meek and legal. We all don't abnormally like to precipitate in another man's business, but we makes it up to sorter saunter in on Lake, spontaneous, and evince our disfavor with a rope. io BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE But Taylor says, ' No.* He allows the Land Office won't hold him morally responsible for the sinful idiocy of a homesick spotted hawse that's otherwise reliable. " He's got one more guess comin*. There ain't no sympathies to machinery. Your intentions may be strictly honorable, but if you get your hand caught in the cogs, off it goes, regardless of how handy it is for flankin' calves, holdin' nails, and such things. * Absent over six months. Entry can celed. Contestant is allowed thirty days' prior right to file. Next.' " That's the way that decision'll read. It ain't come yet, but it's due soon. " This here Felix looks at it just like the old man, only different though he ain't makin' no statements for publication. He come here young, and having acquired the fixed habit of riskin' his neck, regular, for one dollar per each and every diem, shooin' in the reluctant steer, or a fool hawse pirouettin' across the pinnacles with a nose bag on or, mebbee, just for fun why, natural, he don't see why life is so sweet or peace so dear as to put up with any damn foolishness, as Pat Henry used to say when the boys called on him for a few remarks. He's a some serious-minded boy, that night-hawk, and if signs is any indica tions, he's fixin' to take an appeal under the Win chester Act. I ain't no seventh son of a son-of-a- gun, but my prognostications are that he presently PROLOGUE ii removes Lake to another and, we trust, a better world." " Good thing, too," grunted Headlight " This Lake person is sure-lee a muddy pool." " Shet your fool head," said Pringle amiably. " You may be on the jury. I'm going to seek my virtuous couch. Glad we don't have to bed no cattle, viva voce, this night." " Ain't he the Latin scholar? " said Headlight admiringly. " They blow about that wire Julius Caesar sent the Associated Press, but old man Pringle done him up for levity and precision when he wrote us the account of his visit to the Denver carnival. Ever hear about it, Sagittarius? " " No," said Leo. " What did he say? " "Hie hock hike!" II ESCONDIDO, half-way of the desert, is der signed on simple lines. The railroad hauls water in tank-cars from Dog Canon. [There is one depot, one section-house, and one combination post-office-hotel-store-saloon-stage-station, kept by Ma Sanders and Pappy Sanders, in about the order mentioned. Also, one glorious green cot- tonwood, one pampered rosebush, jointly the pride and delight of Escondido, ownerless, but cherished by loving care and " toted " tribute of waste water. 12 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE Hither came Jeff and Leo, white with the dust of twenty starlit leagues, for accumulated mail of Rainbow South. Horse-feeding, breakfast, gossip with jolly, motherly Ma Sanders, reading and an swering of mail then their beauty nap; so miss ing the day's event, the passing of the Flyer. When they woke Escondido basked drowsily in the low, westering sun. The far sunset ranges had put off their workaday homespun brown and gray for chameleon hues of purple and amethyst; their deep, cool shadows, edged with trembling rose, reached out across the desert; the velvet air stirred faintly to the promise of the night. The agent was putting up his switch-lights; from the kitchen came a cheerful clatter of tin ware. " Now we buy some dry goods and wet," said Leo. They went into the store. " That decision's come ! " shrilled Pappy in tremulous excitement. " It's too dum bad ! Reg istered letters from Land Office for .Taylor and Lake, besides another for Lake, not registered." " That one from the Land Office, too? " said Jeff. "Didn't I jest tell ye? Say, it's a shame! Why don't some of you fellers Gosh! If I was only young! " "It's a travesty on justice!" exclaimed Leo indignantly. " There's really no doubt but that they decided for Lake, I suppose? " PROLOGUE 13 " Not a bit. He's got the law with him. Then him and the Register is old cronies. Guess this other letter is from him unofficial, likely." Jeff seated himself on a box. " How long has this Lake got to do his filing in, Pappy? " " Thirty days from the time he signs the re ceipt for this letter dum him ! " " Some one ought to kidnap him," said Leo. "Why, that's illegal! " Jeff nursed his knee, turned his head to one side and chanted thought fully: " Said the little Eohippus, * I'm going to be a horse, And on my middle finger-nails To run my earthly course * " He broke off and smiled at Leo indulgently. Leo glanced at him sharply; this was Jeff's war- song aforetime. But it was to Pappy that Jeff spoke : " Dad, you're a better'n any surgeon. Wish you'd go out and look at Leo's horse. His an kle's all swelled up. I'll be mixin' me up a toddy, if Ma's got any hot water. I'm feeling kinder squeamish." " Hot toddy, this weather? Some folks has queer tastes," grumbled Pappy. " Ex-cuse me ! Me and Leo'll go look at the Charley-horse. [That bottle under the shelf is the best." He bustled out. But Jeff caught Ballinger by the sleeve. " Will you hold my garments while I stone Stephen? " he hissed. " I will," said Leo, meeting Jeff's eye. " Hit him once for me." " Move the lever to the right, you old retro grade, and get Pappy to gyratin' on his axis some fifteen or twenty minutes, you listenin' reverently. Meanwhile, I'll make the necessary incantations. Git! Don't look so blamed intelligent, or Pap- py'll be suspicious." Bransford hastened to the kitchen. " Ma Sanders, a bronc fell on me yesterday and my poor body is one big stone bruise. Can I borrow some boiling water to mix a small prescrip tion, or maybe seven? One when you first feel like it, and repeat at intervals, the doctor says." " Don't you get full in my house, Jeff Brans- ford, or I'll feed you to the hawgs. You take three doses, and that'll be a-plenty for you." Jeff put the steaming kettle on the rusty store stove, used as a waste-paper basket through the long summer. Touching off the papers with a match, he smashed an empty box and put it in. Then he went into the post-office corner and laid impious hands on the United States Mail. First he steamed open Lake's unregistered let ter from the Land Office. It was merely a few typewritten lines, having no reference to the But- terbowl: "Enclosing the Plat of TP. 14 E. of PROLOGUE IS; First Guide Meridan East Range S. of 3 that and some more big words in that song. I learned that song off of Frank John, just like a poll-parrot" "Sing it! And eohippus isn't Latin. It's Greek." " Why, ma'am, I can't, just now I'm so muddy; but I'll tell it to you. Maybe I'll sing it to you some other time." A sidelong glance ac companied this little suggestion. The girl's face was blank and non-committal; so he resumed: " It goes like this: " Said the little Eohippus, * I'm going to be a horse, And on my middle finger-nails To run my earthly course '- No; that wasn't the first. It begins: "There was once a little animal No bigger than a fox, And on five toes he scampered " Of course you know, ma'am Frank John he told me about it that horses were little like that, 'way back. And this one he set his silly head that he was going to be a really-truly horse, like the song says. And folks told him he couldn't FIRST AID 39 couldn't possibly be done, nohow. And sure enough he did. It's a foolish song, really. I only sing parts of it when I feel like that like it couldn't be done and I was going to do it, you know. The boys call it my song. Look here, ma'am ! " He fished in his vest pocket and pro duced tobacco and papers, matches last of all, a tiny turquoise horse, an inch long. " I had a jeweler-man put five toes on his feet once to make him be a little eohippus. Going to make a watch- charm of him sometime. He's a lucky little eohip pus, I think. Peso gave him to me when never mind when. Peso's a Mescalero Indian, you know, chief of police at the agency." He gingerly dropped the little horse into her eager palm. It was a singularly grotesque and angular little beast, high-stepping, high-headed, with a level stare, at once complacent and haughty. Despite the first unprepossessing rigidity of outline, there was somehow a sprightly air, something endear ing, in the stiff, purposed stride, the alert, inquir ing ears, the stern and watchful eye. Each tiny hoof was faintly graven to semblance of five tinier toes; there, the work showed fresh. "The cunning little monster! " Prison grime was on him; she groomed and polished at his dingy sides until the wonderful color shone out triumphant. " What is it that makes him such a dear? Oh, I know. It's something well, child like, you know. Think of the grown-up child that 40 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE toiled with pride and joy at the making of him dear me, how many lifetimes since! and fondly put him by as a complete horse." She held him up in the sun: the ingrate met her caress with the same obdurate and indomitable glare. She laughed her rapturous delight: "There! How much better you look! Oh, you darling! Aren't you absurd? Straight-backed, stiff-legged, thick- necked, square-headed and that ridiculously bale ful eye! It's too high up and too far forward, you know and your ears are too big and you have such a malignant look! Never mind; now that you're all nice and clean, I'm going to reward you." Her lips just brushed him the lucky little eohippus. The owner of the lucky little horse was not able to repress one swift, dismal glance at his own vast dishevelment, nor, as his shrinking hands, entirely of their own volition, crept stealth ily to hiding, the slightest upward rolling of a hopeful eye toward the leaping waters of the spring; but, if one might judge from her sedate and matter-of-fact tones, that eloquent glance was wasted on the girl. " You ought to take better care of him, you know," she said as she restored the little monster to his owner. Then she laughed. " Hasn't he a fierce and warlike appearance, though? " " Sure. That's resolution. Look at those legs ! " said the owner fondly. " He spurns the FIRST AID 41 ground. He's going somewheres. He's going to be a horse 1 And them ears one cocked forward and the other back, strictly on the cuidado! He'll make it. He'll certainly do to take along 1 Yes, ma'am, I'll take right good care of him." He regarded the homely beast with awe; he swathed him in cigarette papers with tenderest care. " I'll leave him at home after this. He might get hurt I might sometime want to give him to some body." The girl sprang up. " Now I must get some water and wash that head," she announced briskly. " Oh, no I can't let you do that. I can walk. I ain't hurt a bit, I keep telling you." In proof of which he walked to the pool with a palpably clever assumption of steadiness. The girl flut tered solicitous at his elbow. Then she ran ahead, climbed up to the spring and extended a firm, cool hand, which he took shamelessly, and so came to the fairy waterfall. Here he made himself presentable as to face and hands. It is just possible there was a certain expectancy in his eye as he neared the close of these labors ; but if there were it passed unnoted. The girl bathed the injured head with her hand kerchief, and brushed back his hair with a dainty caressing motion that thrilled him until the color rose beneath the tan. There was a glint of gray in the wavy black hair, she noted. 42 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE She stepped back to regard her handiwork. "Now you look better!" she said approvingly. Then, slightly flurried, not without a memory of a previous and not dissimilar remark of hers, she was off up the hill: whence, despite his shocked protest, she brought back the lost gun and hat. Her eyes were sparkling when she returned, her face glowing. Ignoring his reproachful gaze, she wrung out her handkerchief, led the patient firmly down the hill and to his saddle, made him trim off a saddle-string, and bound the handker chief to the wound. She fitted the sombrero gently. "There! Don't this head feel better now?" she queried gayly, with fine disregard for gram mar. "And now what? Won't you come back to camp with me ? Mr. Lake will be glad to put you up or to let you have a horse. Do you live far away? I do hope you are not one of those Rosebud men. Mr. La " She bit her speech off midword. " No men there except this Mr. Lake? " asked the cowboy idly. "Oh, yes; there's Mr. Herbert he's gone riding with Lettie and Mr. White; but it was' Mr. Lake who got up the camping party. Mother and Aunt Lot, and a crowd of us girls La Luz girls, you know. Mother and I are visiting Mr. Lake's sister. He's going to give us a masquerade ball when we get back, next week." FIRST AID 43 The cowboy looked down his nose for consulta tion, and his nose gave a meditative little tweak. "What Lake is it? There's some several Lakes round here. Is it Lake of Aqua Chiquite wears his hair decollete; talks like he had a washboard in his throat; tailor-made face; walks like a duck on stilts; general sort of pouter- pigeon effect? " At this envenomed description, Miss Ellinor Hoffman promptly choked. " I don't know anything about your Aqua Chiquite. I never heard of the place before. He is a banker in Arcadia. He keeps a general store there. You must know him, surely." So far her voice was rather stern and purposely re sentful, as became Mr. Lake's guest; but there were complications, rankling memories of Mr. Lake of unwelcome attentions persistently forced upon her. She spoiled the rebuke by add ing tartly, " But I think he is the man you mean ! " and felt her wrongs avenged. The cowboy's face cleared. " Well, I don't use Arcadia much, you sefc. I mostly range down Rainbow River. Arcadia folks why, they're mostly newcomers, health- seekers and people just living on their incomes not working folks much, except the railroaders and lumbermen. Now about getting home. You see, ma'am, some of the boys are riding down that way " he jerked his thumb to indicate the last flight of the imperfectly gentle horse " and they're right apt to see my runaway eohippus and sure to see the rope-drag; so they'll likely amble along the back track to see how much who's hurt So I guess I'd better stay here. They may be along most any time. Thank you kindly, just the same. Of course, if they don't come at all Is your camp far? " " Not not very," said Ellinor. The mere fact was that Miss Ellinor had set out ostensibly for a sketching expedition with another girl, had turned aside to explore, and exploring had fetched a circuit that had left her much closer to her start ing-place than to her goal. He misinterpreted the slight hesitation. "Well, ma'am, thank you again; but I mustn't be keeping you longer. I really ought to see you safe back to your camp; but you'll under stand under the circumstances you'll excuse me?" He did not want to implicate Mr. Lake, so he took a limping step forward to justify his rudeness. "And you hardly able to walk? Ridiculous! What I ought to do is to go back to camp and get some one get Mr. White to help you." Thus, at once accepting his unspoken explanation, and offering her own apology in turn, she threw aside the air of guarded hostility that had marked ,the last minutes and threw herself anew into this FIRST AID 45 joyous adventure. " When or if your friends find you, won't it hurt you to ride? " she asked, and smiled deliberate encouragement. " I can be as modest as anybody when there's anything to be modest about; but in this case I guess I'll now declare that I can ride anything that a saddle will stay on. . . . I reckon," he added reflectively, " the boys'll have right smart to say about me being throwed." " But you weren't thrown ! You rode mag nificently ! " Her eyes flashed admiration. " Yes'm. That's what I hoped you'd say," said the admired one complacently. " Go on, ma'am. Say it again." " It was splendid ! The saddle turned that's all!" He slowly surveyed the scene of his late ex ploit. " Ye es, that was some riding for a while," he admitted. " But you see, that saddle now, scarred up that way why, they'll think the eohip- pus wasted me and then dragged the saddle off under a tree. Leastways, they'll say they think so, frequent. Best not to let on and to make no excuses. It'll be easier that way. We're great on guying here. That's most all the fun we have. We sure got this joshing game down fine. Just wondering what all the boys'd say that was why I didn't get out of the water at first, before before I thought I was asleep, you know." 46 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE " So you'll actually tell a lie to keep from being thought a liar? I'm disappointed in you." " Why, ma'am, I won't say anything. They'll do the talking." " It'll be deceitful, just the same," she began, and checked herself suddenly. A small twinge struck her at the thought of poor Maud, really sketching on Thumb Butte, and now disconso lately wondering what had become of lunch and fellow-artist; but she quelled this pang with a sage thought of the greatest good to the greatest number, and clapped her hands in delight. " Oh, what a silly I am, to be sure! I've got a lunch basket up there, but I forgot all about it in the excitement. I'm sure there's plenty for two. Shall I bring it down to you or can you climb up if I help you? There's water in the canteen and it's beautiful up there." " I can make it, I guess," said the invited guest the consummate and unblushing hypocrite. Make it he did, with her strong hand to aid; and the glen rang to the laughter of them. While behind them, all unnoted, Johnny Dines reined up on the hillside; took one sweeping glance at that joyous progress, the scarred hillside, the saddle and the dejected eohippus in the background; grinned comprehension, and discreetly withdrew. CHAPTER III MAXWELTON BRAES " Oh the song the song in the blood ! Magic walks the forest; there's bewitchment on the air* Spring is at the flood ! " The Gypsy Heart. "Well, sir, this here feller, he lit a cigarette an' throwed away the match, an' it fell in a powder kaig; an' do you know, more'n half that powder burned up before they could put it out ! Yes, sir ! "^WILDCAT THOMPSON. ELLINOR opened her basket and spread its tempting wares with pretty hostly care or is there such a word as hostessly? " .There! All ready, Mr. I declare, this is too absurd ! We don't even know each other's names! " Her conscious eye fell upon the am- pleness of the feast amazing, since it purported to have been put up for one alone; and her face lit up with mischievous delight. She curtsied. 11 If you please, I'm the Ultimate Consumer! " He rose, bowing gravely. " I am the Personal Devil. Glad to meet you.*' " Oh ! I've heard of you ! " remarked the Ulti mate Consumer sweetly. She sat down and ex- 47 48 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE tended her hand across the spotless linen. " Mr. Lake says " The Personal Devil flushed. It was not be cause of the proffered hand, which he took un hesitatingly and held rather firmly. The blush was unmistakably caused by anger. " There is no connection whatever," he stated, grimly enough, " between the truth and Mr. Lake's organs of speech." "Oh!" cried the Ultimate Consumer tri umphantly. " So you're Mr. Beebe? " " Bransford Jeff Bransford," corrected the Personal Devil crustily. He wilfully relapsed to his former slipshod speech. " Beebe, he's gone to the Pecos work, him and Ballinger. Mr. John Wesley Also-Ran Pringle's gone to Old Mexico to bring back another bunch of black, long-horned Chihuahuas. You now behold before you the last remaining Rose of Rosebud. But, why Beebe?" " Why does Mr. Lake hate all of you so, Mr. Bransford?" " Because we are infamous scoundrels. Why Beebe?" " I can't eat with one hand, Mr. Brtnsford," she said demurely. He looked at the prisoned hand with a start and released it grudgingly. " Help yourself," said his hostess cheerfully. " There's sandwiches, and roast beef and olives, for a mild beginning." "Why Beebe?" he said doggedly. MAXWELTON BRAES 49 " Help yourself to the salad and then please pass it over this way. Thank you." "WhyBeebe?" " Oh, very well then I Because of the little eohippus, you know and other things you said." " I see! " said the aggrieved Bransford. " Be cause I'm not from Ohio, like Beebe, I'm not sup posed " "Oh, if you're going to be fussy! I'm from California myself, Mr. Bransford. Out in the country at that. Don't let's quarrel, please. We were having such a lovely time. And I'll tell you a secret. It's ungrateful of me, and I ought not to; but I don't care I don't like Mr. Lake much since we came on this trip. And I don't be lieve " She paused, pinkly conscious of the unconventional statement involved in this sudden unbelief. " what Lake says about us? " A much- mollified Bransford finished the sentence for her. She nodded. Then, to change the subject: " You do speak cowboy talk one minute and all booky, polite and proper the next, you know. Why? " " Bad associations," said Bransford ambigu ously. " Also for 'tis my nature to, as little dogs they do delight to bark and bite. [That beef sure tastes like more." o c " And now you may smoke while I pack up," 50 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE announced the girl when dessert was over, at long last. " And please, there is something I want to ask you about. Will you tell me truly? " " Um you sing? '* " Yes a little." " If you will sing for me afterward? " " Certainly. With pleasure." " All right, then. What's the story about? " Ellinor gave him her eyes. " Did you rob the post-office at Escondido really?" Now it might well be embarrassing to be asked if you had committed a felony; but there was that behind the words of this naive query in look, in tone, in mental attitude an unflinching and im plicit faith that, since he had seen fit to do this thing, it must needs have been the right and wise thing to do, which stirred the felon's pulses to a pleasant flutter and caused a certain tough and powerful muscle to thump foolishly at his ribs. The delicious intimacy, the baseless faith, was sweet to him. " Sure, I did ! " he answered lightly. " Lake is one talkative little man, isn't he? Fie, fie! But, shucks! What can you expect? * The beast will do after his kind.' ' " And you'll tell me about it? " " After I smoke. Got to study up some plausi ble excuses, you know." She studied him as she packed. It was a good face lined, strong, expressive, vivid; gay, reso- MAXWELTON BRAES 51 lute, confident, alert reckless, perhaps. There were lines of it disused, fallen to abeyance. What was well with the man had prospered; what was ill with him had faded and dimmed. He was not a young man thirty-seven, thirty-eight (she was twenty-four) but there was an unquenchable boyishness about him, despite the few frosty hairs at his temples. He bore his hard years jauntily: youth danced in his eyes. The explorer nodded to herself, well pleased. He was interesting dif ferent. The tale suffered from Bransford's telling, as any tale will suffer when marred by the inevi table, barbarous modesty of its hero. It was a long story, cozily confidential; and there were interruptions. The sun was low ere it was done. "Now the song,' 1 said Jeff, "and then " He did not complete the sentence; his face clouded. " What shall I sing? " " How can I tell? What you will. What can I know about good songs or anything else?" responded Bransford in sudden moodiness and de jection for, after the song, the end of every thing! He flinched at the premonition of irrev ocable loss. The girl made no answer. This is what she sang. No; you shall not be told of her voice. Perhaps there is a voice that you remember, that 52 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE echoes to you through the dusty years. How would you like to describe that? " Oh, Sandy has monie and Sandy has land, And Sandy has housen, sae fine and sae grand But I'd rather hae Jamie, wi' nocht in his hand, Than Sandy, wi' all of his housen and land. " My father looks sulky; my mither looks soor; They gloom upon Jamie because he is poor. I lo't them baith dearly, as a docther should do ; But I lo'e them not half sae weel, dear Jamie, as you ! *' I sit at my cribble, I spin at my wheel ; I think o' the laddie that lo'es me sae weel. Oh, he had but a saxpence, he brak it in twa, And he gied me the half o't ere he gaed awa' ! " He said : ' Lo'e me lang, lassie, though I gang awa' ! * He said : ' Lo'e me lang, lassie, though I gang awa'! ' Bland simmer is cooming; cauld winter's awa', And I'll wed wi' Jamie in spite o' them a'! " Jeff's back was to a tree, his hat over his eyes. He pushed it up. " Thank you," he said; and then, quite directly: "Are you rich?" " Not very," said Ellinor, a little breathless at the blunt query. " I'm going to be rich," said Jeff steadily. " * I'm going to be a horse,' quoth the litde MAXWELTON BRAES 53 eohippus." The girl retorted saucily, though se cretly alarmed at the import of this examination. " Ex-actly. So that's settled. What is your name? " " Hoffman." "Where do you live, Hoffman?" " Ellinor," supplemented the girl. " Ellinor, then. Where do you live, Ellinor? " " In New York just now. Not in town. Up state. On a farm. You see, grandfather's grow ing old and he wanted father to come back." " New York's not far," said Jeff. 'A sudden panic seized the girl. What next? In swift, instinctive self-defense she rose and tripped to the tree where lay her neglected sketch book, bent over and started back with a little cry of alarm. With a spring and a rush, Jeff was at her side, caught her up and glared watchfully at bush and shrub and tufted grass. " Mr. Bransford ! Put me down ! " " What was it? A rattlesnake? " " A snake ? What an idea 1 I just noticed how late it was. I must go." Crestfallen, sheepishly, Mr. Bransford put her down, thrust his hands into his pockets, tilted his chin and whistled an aggravating little trill from the Rye twostep. " Mr. Bransford ! " said Ellinor haughtily. Mr. Bransford's face expressed patient atten tion. 54 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE "Are you lame? " Mr. Bransford's eye estimated the distance cov ered during the recent snake episode, and then gave to Miss Hoffman a look of profound respect. His shoulders humped up slightly; his head bowed to the stroke : he stood upon one foot and traced the Rainbow brand in the dust with the other. " I told you all along I wasn't hurt," he said aggrieved. " Didn't I, now? " "Are you lame?" she repeated severely, ig noring his truthful saying. " c Not very.' " The quotation marks were clearly audible. " Are you lame at all? " " No, ma'am not what you might call really lame. Uh no, ma'am." " And you deceived me like that ! " Indigna tion checked her. " Oh, I am so disappointed in you! That was a fine, manly thing for you to do!" " It was such a lovely time," observed the cul prit doggedly. " And such a chance might never happen again. And it isn't my fault I wasn't hurt, you know. I'm sure I wish I was." She gave him an icy glare. " Now see what you've done ! Your men haven't come and you won't stay with Mr. Lake. How are you going to get home? Oh, I forgot you can walk, as you should have done at first." The guilty wretch wilted yet further. He shuf- MAXWELTON BRAES 35 fled his feet; he writhed; he positively squirmed. He ventured a timid upward glance. It seemed to give him courage. Prompted, doubtless, by the same feeling which drives one to dive head long into dreaded cold water, he said, in a burst of candor: " Well, you see, ma'am, that little horse now - he really ain't got far. He got tangled up over there a ways " The girl wheeled and shot a swift, startled glance at the little eohippus on the hillside, who had long since given over his futile struggles and was now nibbling grass with becoming resigna tion. She turned back to Bransford. Slowly, scathingly, she looked him over from head to foot and slowly back again. Her expression ran the gamut wonder, anger, scorn, withering con tempt. " I think I hate you ! " she flamed at him. Amazement triumphed over the other emotions then a real amazement: the detected impostor had resumed his former debonair bearing and met her scornful eye with a slow and provoking smile. " Oh, no, you don't," he said reassuringly. " On the contrary, you don't hate me at all ! " " I'm going home, anyhow," she retorted bit terly. " You may draw your own conclusions." Still, she did not go, which possibly had a con fusing effect upon his inferences. " Just one minute, ma'am, if you please. How 56 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE did you know so pat where the little black horse was? / didn't tell you." Little waves of scarlet followed each other to her burning face. " I'm not going to stay another moment. You're detestable ! And it's nearly sundown." " Oh, you needn't hurry. It's not far." She followed his gesture. To her intense mor tification she saw the blue smoke of her home campfire flaunting up from a gully not half a mile away. It was her turn to droop now. She drooped. There was a painful silence. Then, in a far-off, hard, judicial tone : " How long, ma'am, if I may ask, have you known that the little black horse was tangled up?" Miss Ellinor's eyes shifted wildly. She broke a twig from a mahogany bush and examined the swelling buds with minutest care. " Well ? " said her ruthless inquisitor sternly. *' Since since I went for your hat," she con fessed in a half whisper. " To deceive me so ! " Pain, grief, surprise, reproach, were in his words. " Have you any thing to say? " he added sadly. A slender shoe peeped out beneath her denim skirt and tapped on a buried boulder. Ellinor regarded the toetip with interest and curiosity. Then, half-audibly : MAXWELTON BRAES 57 " We were having such a good time. . . ., And it might never happen again ! " He captured both her hands. She drew back a little ever so little; she trembled slightly, but her eyes met his frankly and bravely. " No, no ! . . . Not now. . . . Go, now, Mr. Bransford. Go at once. We will have a pleasant day to remember." " Until the next pleasant day," said resolute Bransford, openly exultant. " But see here, now I can't go to Lake's camp or to Lake's ball " here Miss Ellinor pouted distinctly " or any thing that is Lake's. After your masked ball, then what?" " New York; but it's only so far on the map." She held her hands apart very slightly to indicate the distance. " On a little map, that is." " I'll drop in Saturdays," said Jeff. " Do ! I want to hear you sing the rest about the little eohippus." " If you'll sing about Sandy! " suggested Jeff. " Why not? Good-by now I must go." " And you won't sing about Sandy to any one else?" The girl considered doubtfully. " Why I don't know I've known you for a very little while, if you please." She gathered up her belongings. " But we're friends? " "No! No!" said Jeff vehemently. "You won't sing it to any one else Ellinor? " 58 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE She drew a line in the dust. ** If you won't cross that line," she said, " I'll tell you." Mr. Bransford grasped a sapling with a firm clutch and shook it to try its strength. " A bird in the bush is the noblest work of God," he announced. " I'll take a chance." Her eyes were shining. "You've promised!" she said. She paused: when she spoke again her voice was low and a trifle unsteady. " I won't sing about Sandy to any one else Jeff I " Then she fled. Like Lot's wife, she looked back from the hill side. Jeff clung desperately to the sapling with one hand ; from the other a handkerchief hers fluttered a good-by message. She threw him a farewell, with an ambiguous gesture. It was late when Jeff reached Rosebud Camp. He unsaddled Nigger Baby, the little and not en tirely gentle black horse, rather unobtrusively; but Johnny Dines sauntered out during the process, announcing supper. " Huh ! " sniffed Jeff. " S'pose I thought you'd wait until I come to get it? " Nothing more alarming than tallies was broached during supper, however. Afterward, Johnny tilted his chair back and, through ciga- MAXWELTON BRAES '59 rette smoke, contemplated the ceiling with inno cent eyes. '* Nigger Babe looks drawed," he suggested. " Uh-huh. Had one of them poor spells of his." Puff, puff. " Your saddle's skinned up a heap." " Run under a tree." Johnny's look of innocence grew more pro nounced. " How'd you get your clothes so wet?" 11 Rain," said Jeff. Puff, puff. " You look right muddy too." " Dust in the air," said Jeff. " Ah ! yes." Silence during the rolling of an other cigarette. Then: " How'd you get that cut on your head? " Jeff's hand went to his head and felt the bump there. He regarded his fingers in some per plexity. "That? Oh, that's where I bit myself!" He stalked off to bed in gloomy dignity. Half an hour later Johnny called softly: "Jeff!" Jeff grunted sulkily. " Camping party down near Mayhill. Lot o r girls. I saw one of 'em. Young person with eyes and hair." Jeff grunted again. There was a long silence. 6o " Nice bear! " There was no answer. " Good old bear! " said Johnny tearfully. No answer. " Mister Bear, if I give you one nice, good, juicy bite " " Uuggrrh!" said Jeff. " Then," said Johnny decidedly, " I'll sleep in the yard." THE ROAD DCO ROME "Behold, one journeyed in the night He sang amid the wind and rain; My wet sands gave his feet delight- When will that traveler come again?" The Heart of the Road, ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH. A HYPOTENUSE, as has been well said, is the longest side of a right-angled triangle. There is no need for details. That we are all familiar with the use of this handy little article is shown by the existence of shortcuts at every available opportunity, and by keep-off-o'-the-grass signs in parks. Now, had Jeff Bransford desired to go to Ar cadia to that masquerade, for instance his direct route from Jackson's Ranch would have been eater-cornered across the desert, as has been amply demonstrated by Pythagoras and others. That Jeff did not want to go to Arcadia to the masked ball, for instance is made apparent by the fact that the afternoon preceding said ball saw him jogging southward toward Baird's, along the lonely base of that inveterate triangle whereof 61 62 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE Jackson's, Baird's and Arcadia are the respective corners, leaving the fifty-five-mile hypotenuse far to his left. It was also obvious from the tenor of his occasional self-communings. " I don't want to make a bally fool of myself do I, old Grasshopper? Anyhow, you'll be too tired when we get to 'Gene's." Grasshopper made no response, other than a plucky tossing of his bit and a quickening cadence in his rhythmical stride, by way of pardonable bravado. " I never forced myself in where my company wasn't wanted yet, and I ain't going to begin now," asserted Jeff stoutly; adding, as a fervent afterthought: " Damn Lake! " His way lay along the plain, paralleling the long westward range, just far enough out to dodge the jutting foothills; through bare white levels where Grasshopper's hoofs left but a faint trace on the hard-glazed earth. At intervals, tempting cross-roads branched away to mountain springs. [The cottonwood at Independent Springs came into view round the granite shoulder of Strawberry, six miles to the right of him. He roused himself from prolonged pondering of the marvelous silhouette, where San Andres unflung in broken masses against the sky, to remark in a hushed whisper: " I wonder if she'd be glad to see me? " Several miles later he quoted musingly: THE ROAD TO ROME 63 " For Ellinor her Christian name was Ellinor Had twenty-seven different kinds of hell in her ! " After all, there are problems which Pythagoras never solved. The longest road must have an end. Ritch's Ranch was passed far to the right, lying low in the long shadow of Kaylor; then the mouth of Hembrillo Canon; far ahead, a shifting flicker of Baird's windmill topped the brush. It grew taller; the upper tower took shape. He dipped into the low, mirage-haunted basin, where the age-old Texas Trail crosses the narrow western corner of the White Sands. When he emerged the windmill was tall and silver-shining; the low iron roofs of the house gloomed sullen in the sun. Dust rose from the corral. Now Jeff's ostensi ble errand to the West Side had been the search for strays; three days before he had prudently been three days' ride farther to the north. The reluctance with which he had turned back south ward was justified by the fact that this critical afternoon found him within striking distance of Arcadia striking distance, that is, should he care for a bit of hard riding. This was exactly what Jeff had fought against all along. So, when he saw the dust, he loped up. It was as he had feared. A band of horses was in the waterpen; among them a red-roan head he knew Copperhead, of Pringle's mount; con- 4 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE firmed runaway. Jeff shut the gate. For the first time that day, he permitted himself a discreet glance eastward to Arcadia. " Three days," he said bitterly, while Grass hopper thrust his eager muzzle into the water- trough " three days I have braced back my feet and slid, like a yearlin' at a brandin' bee and look at me now! Oh, Copperhead, you darned old fool, see what you done now! " In this morose mood he went to the house. There was no one at home. A note was tacked on the door. Gone to Plomo. Back in two or three days. Beef hangt under platform on windmill tower. When you get it, oil the mill. Books and deck of cards in box under bed* Don't leave fire in stove when you go. GENE BAIRD. N. B.- Feed the cat. Jeff built a fire in the stove and unsaddled weary Grasshopper. He found some corn, which he put into a woven-grass morral and hung on Grasshopper's nose. He went to the waterpen, roped out Copperhead and shut him in a side corral. Then he let the bunch go. They strained through the gate in a mad run, despite shrill and frantic remonstrance from Copperhead. " Jeff," said Jeff soberly, " are you going to be a damned fool all your life? That girl doesn't THE ROAD TO ROME 65 care anything about you. She hasn't thought of you since. You stay right here and read the pretty books. That's the place for you." jThis advice was sound and wise beyond cavil. So Jeff took it valiantly. After supper he hobbled Grasshopper and took off the nosebag. Then he went to the back room in pursuit of literature. Have I leave for a slight digression, to commit a long-delayed act of justice to correct a griev ous wrong? Thank you. We hear much of Mr. Andrew Carnegie and His Libraries, the Hall of Fame, the Little Red Schoolhouse, the Five-Foot Shelf, and the World's Best Books. A singular thing is that the most effective bit of philanthropy along these lines has gone unrecorded of a thankless world. This shall no longer be. Know, then, that once upon a time a certain soulless corporation, rather in the tobacco trade, placed in each package of tobacco a coupon, each coupon redeemable by one paper-bound book. Whether they were moved by remorse to this ac tion or by sordid hidden purposes of their own, or, again, by pure, disinterested and farseeing love of their kind, is not yet known; but the results remain. There were three hundred and three vol umes on that list, mostly but not altogether fiction. And each one was a classic. Classics are cheap. They are not copyrighted. Could I but 66 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE know the anonymous benefactor who enrolled that glorious company, how gladly would I drop a leaf on his bier or a cherry in his bitters ! [Thus it was that, in one brief decade, the cow boys, with others, became comparatively literate. Cowboys all smoked. Doubtless that was a chief cause contributory to making them the wrecks they were. It destroyed their physique; it corroded and ate away their will power leaving them seldom able to work over nineteen hours a day, except in emergencies; prone to abandon duty in the face of difficulty or danger, when human effort, raised to the th power, could do no more all things considered, the most efficient men of their hands on record. Cowboys all smoked: and the most deep- seated instinct of the human race is to get some thing for nothing. They got those books. In due course of time they read those books. Some were slow to take to it; but when you stay at lonely ranches, when you are left afoot until the water- holes dry up, so you may catch a horse in the waterpen why, you must do something. The books were read. Then, having acquired the habit, they bought more books. Since the three hundred and three were all real books, and since the cowboys had been previously uncorrupted of predigested or sterilized fiction, or by " gift," " uplift " and " helpful " books, their composite taste had become surprisingly good, and they THE ROAD TO ROME 67 bought with discriminating care. Nay, more. A bookcase follows books; a bookcase demands a house; a house needs a keeper; a housekeeper needs everything. Hence alfalfa houseplants slotless tables bankbooks. The chain which be gan with yellow coupons ends with Christmas trees. In some proudest niche in the Hall of Fame a grateful nation will yet honor that hith erto unrecognized educator, Front de Boeuf.* * Jeff pawed over the tattered yellow-backed vol umes in profane discontent. He had read them all. Another box was under the bed, behind the first. Opening it, he saw a tangled mass of cloth ing, tumbled in the bachelor manner; with the rest, a much-used football outfit canvas jacket, sweater, padded trousers, woolen stockings, rubber noseguard, shinguards, ribbed shoes all com plete; for 'Gene Baird was fullback of the El Paso eleven. Jeff segregated the gridiron wardrobe with hasty hands. His eye brightened ; he spoke in an awed and almost reverent voice. " I ain't mostly superstitious, but this looks like a leading. First, I'm here; second, Copperhead's here; third, no one else is here; and, for the final miracle, here's a costume made to my hand. [Thirty-five miles. Ten o'clock, if I hurry. H'm ! "Bull Durham." 68 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE ' When first I put this uniform on ' how did that go? I'm forgetting all my songs. Getting old, I guess." Rejecting the heavy shoes, as unmeet for waxed floors, and the shinguards, he rolled the rest of the uniform in his slicker and tied it behind his saddle. Then he rubbed his chin. " Huh ! That's a true saying, too. I am get ting old. Youth turns to youth. Buck up, Jeff, you old fool! Have some pride about you and just a little old horse-sense." Yet he unhobbled Grasshopper, who might then be trusted to find his way to Rainbow in about three days. He went to the corral and tossed a rope on snorting Copperhead. "No; I won't go ! " he said, as he slipped on the bridle. " Just to uncock old Copperhead, I'll make a little horse- ride to Hospital Springs and look through the stock." He threw on the saddle with some dif ficulty Copperhead was fat and frisky. " She don't want to see you, Jeff an old has-been like you ! No, no ; I'd better not go. I won't ! There, if I didn't leave that football stuff on the saddle ! I'll take it off. It might get lost. Whoa, Copper head!" Copperhead, however, declined to whoa on any terms. His eyes bulged out; he reared, he pawed, he snorted, he bucked, he squealed, he did any thing but whoa. Exasperated, Jeff caught the bridle by the cheek piece and swung into the sad- THE ROAD TO ROME 69 die. After a few preliminaries in the pitch ing line, Jeff started bravely for Hospital Springs. It was destined that this act of renunciation should be thwarted. Copperhead stopped and dug his feet in the ground as if about to take root. Jeff dug the spurs home. With an agonized bawl, Copperhead made a creditable ascension, shook himself and swapped ends before he hit the ground again. " Wooh! " he said. His nose was headed now for Arcadia; he followed his nose, his roan flanks fanned vigorously with a doubled rope. "Headstrong, stubborn, unmanageable brute! Oh, well, have it your own way then, you old fool! You'll be sorry I" Copperhead leaped out to the loosened rein. " This is just plain kid napping! " said Jeff. Kidnapped and kidnapper were far out on the plain as night came on. Arcadia road stretched dimly to the east; the far lights of La Luz flashed through the leftward dusk; straight before them was a glint and sparkle in the sky, faint, diffused, wavering; beyond, a warm and mellow glow broke the blackness of the mountain wall, where the lights of low-hidden Arcadia beat up against Rain bow Rim. Jeff was past his first vexation; he sang as he rode: 70 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE " There was ink on her thumb when I kissed her hand, And she whispered : ' If you should die I'd write you an epitaph, gloomy and grand!' ' Time enough for that ! ' says I. "Keep a-movin here, Copperhead! Time fugits right along. "You will play hooky, will you ? * I'm going to be a horse ! ' " CHAPTER V THE MASKERS "For Ellinor (her Christian name was Ellinor) Had twenty-seven different kinds of hell in her." RICHARD HOVEY. IT lacked little of the eleventh hour when the football player reached the ballroom last comer to the revels. A bandage round his head and a rubber noseguard, which also hid his mouth, served for a mask, eked out by 'crisscrossed strips of courtplaster. One arm was in a sling for stage purposes only. As he limped through the door, Diogenes hurried to meet him, held up his lantern, peered hopefully into the battered face and shook his disappointed head. " Stung again ! " muttered Diogenes. Jeff lisped in numbers which fully verified the cynic's misgiving. " 7 1 1 4 1 1 44 ! " he an nounced jerkily. This was strictly in character and also excused him from entangling talk, leav ing him free to search the whirl of dancers. A bulky Rough Rider volunteered his help. He fixed a gleaming eyeglass on his nose and politely 71 72 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE offered Jeff a Big Stick by way of a crutch. " Hit the line hard!" he barked. He bit the words off with a prize-bulldog effect. He had fine teeth. Jeff waved him off. '* 16 2 i!" he pro claimed controversially. He felt his spirits sink ing, with a growing doubt of his ability to identify the Only One, and was impatient of interruption. He kept his slow and watchful way down the floor. Topsy broke away from her partner and stopped Jeff's crippled progress. Her short hair, braided to a dozen tight and tiny pigtails, bristled away in all directions. " Laws, young marsta', you suhtenly does look puny! " she said. Then she clutched at her knee. " Aie!" she tittered, as a loose red stocking dropped flappingly to her ankle. Pray do not be shocked. The effect was startling; but a black stocking, decorously tight and smooth, was be neath the red one. Jeff's mathematics were not equal to the strain of adequate comment. Topsy dived to the rescue. " Got a string? " she giggled, as she hitched the fallen stocking back to place. " I cain't fix this good nohow! " Jeff jerked his thumb over his shoulder. " Man over there with an eyeglass cord maybe you can get that. What makes you act so? " He looked cold disapproval; nevertheless, he looked. Topsy hung her head, still clutching at the stocking-top. " Dunno. I spec's it's 'cause Ise so THE MASKERS 73 wicked ! " Finger in mouth, she looked after Jeff as he hobbled away. A slender witch bounced from a chair and barred his way with a broom. Her eyes were brimming sorcery; her lips looked saucy chal lenge; she leaned close for a whispered word in his ear: "How would you like to tackle me?" Poor Jeff! " 10, 2 10, 2!" he promised huskily. Yet he ducked beneath the broom. " But," said the little witch plaintively, " you're going away! " She dropped her broom and wept. " 8, 2 8, 2 8, 2 ! " said Jeff, almost in tears himself, and again fell back upon English. " Mere figures or mere words can't tell you how much I hate to; but I've got to follow the ball. I'm looking for a fellow." " If he if he doesn't love you," sobbed the stricken witch, " then you'll come back to me won't you? I love a liar! " " To the verv stake ! " vowed Jeff. Such heroic, if conditional, constancy was not to go un rewarded. A couple detached themselves from the 'dancers, threaded their way to a corner of the long hall and stood there in deep converse. Jeff quickened pulse and pace for one was a Red Devil and the other wore the soft gray costume of a Friend. She was tall, this Quakeress, and the hobnobbing devil was of Jeff's own height. Jeff began to hope for a goal. 74 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE Briskly limping, he came to this engrossed couple and laid a friendly hand on the devil's shoulder. " Brother," he said cordially, " will you please go to home? " The devil recoiled an astonished step. " What ? What ! ! Show me your license ! " "Twenty-three! Please! there's a good devil 23 ! I'm the right guard for this lady, I hope. Oh, please to go home! " The devil took this request in very bad part. " Go back fifteen yards for offside play and take a drop kick at yourself ! " he suggested sourly. A burly policeman, plainly conscious of fitting his uniform, paused for warning. " No scrappin' now I Don't start nothin' or I'll run in the t'ree av yees! " he said, and sauntered on, twirling a graceful nightstick. " Thee is a local man, judging from thy let ters," said the Quaker lady, to relieve the some what strained situation. " What do they stand for? E. P.? Oh, yes El Paso, of course!" " I saw you first ! " said the Red Devil. " And with your disposition you would naturally find me more suitable. Make your choice of gridirons! Send him back to the side lines! Disqualify him for interference ! " " Don't be hurried into a decision," said Jeff. " Eternity is a good while. Before it's over I'm THE MASKERS 75] going to be a well, something more than a foot baller. Golf, maybe or tiddledywinks." The Quakeress glanced attentively from one to the other. " Doubtless he will do his best to forward jThy Majesty's interests," she interposed. " Why not give him a chance ? " The devil shrugged his shoulders. " I always prefer to give this branch of work my personal attention," he said stiffly. " A specialty of thine? " mocked the girl. The devil bowed sulkily. " My heart is in it. Of course, if you prefer the bungling of a novice, there is no more to be said." " Thy Majesty's manners have never been questioned," murmured the Quakeress, bowing dismissal. " So kind of you ! " The devil bowed deeply and turned, pausing to hurl a gloomy prophecy over his shoulder. " See you later! " he said, and stalked away with an ill grace. Pigskin hero and girl Friend, left alone, eyed each other with mutual apprehension. The girl Friend was first to recover speech. Her red lips were prim below her vizor, her eyes downcast to hide their dancing lights. ,Timidly she spread out fanwise the dove color of her sober cos tume. " How does thee like my gray gown? " 76 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE " Not at all," said Jeff brutally. " You're no friend of mine, I hope." A most un-Quakerlike dimple trembled to her chin, relieving the firm austerity of straight lips. Also, Jeff caught a glimpse of her eyes through the vizor. They were crinkling and they were brown. She ventured another tentative remark, and there was in it an undertone lingering, softly confidential. "Istheelame?" " Not very," said Jeff, and saw a faint color start to the unmasked moiety of the Quaker cheek. 41 Still, if I may have the next dance, I shall be glad if you will sit it out with me." Painfully he raised the beslinged arm in explanation. Sobre las Olas throbbed out its wistful call; they set their thought to its haunting measure. " By all means ! " She took his undamaged arm. " Let us find chairs." Now there were chairs to the left of them, chairs to the right of them, chairs vacant every where; but the gallant Six Hundred themselves were not more heedless or undismayed than these two. Still, all the world did not wonder. On the contrary, not even the anxious devil saw them after they passed behind a knot of would-be dancers who were striving to disentangle them selves. For, seeing traffic thus blocked, the po liceman rushed to unsnarl the tangle. Magnifi cently he flourished his stick. He adjured them THE MASKERS 77 roughly: "Move on, yous! Move on!" Whereat, with one impulse, the tangle moved on the copper, swept over him, engulfed him, hustled him to the door and threw him out. So screened, the chair-hunters vanished in far less than a psychological moment: for Jeff, in obedience to a faint or fancied pressure on his arm, dived through portieres into a small room set apart for such as had the heart to prefer cards or chess. The room was deserted now and there was a broad window open to the night. Thus, thrice favored of Providence, they found them selves in the garden, chairless but cheerful. A garden with one Eve is the perfect combina tion in a world awry. Muffled, the music and the sounds of the ballroom came faint and far to them; star-made shadows danced at their feet. The girl paused, expectant; but it was the unex pected that happened. The nimble tongue which had done such faithful service for Mr. Bransford now failed him quite: left him struggling, dumb, inarticulate, helpless tongue and hand alike for getful of their cunning. Be sure the maid had adroitly heard much of Mr. Bransford, his deeds and misdeeds, during the tedious interval since their first meeting. Re port had dwelt lovingly upon Mr. Bransford's eloquence at need. This awkward silence was a tribute of sincerity above question. With difficulty Ellinor mastered a wild desire 78 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE to ask where the cat had gone. " Oh, come ye in peace here or come ye in war?" Such inju dicious quotation trembled on the tip of her tongue, but she suppressed it barely in time. She felt herself growing nervous with the fear lest she should be hurried into some all too luminous speech. And still Jeff stood there, lost, speech less, helpless, unready, a clumsy oaf, an object of pity. Pity at last, or a kindred feeling, drove her to the rescue. And, just as she had feared, she said, in her generous haste, far too much. " I thought you were not coming? " The inflection made a question of this state ment. Also, by implication, it answered so many questions yet unworded that Jeff was able to use his tongue again ; but it was not the trusty tongue of yore witness this wooden speech: ' You mean you thought I said I wasn't coming don't you? You knew I would come." " Indeed? How should I know what you would do ? I've only seen you once. Aren't you forget ting that?" " Why else did you make up as a Friend then?" " Oh ! Oh, dear, these men I There's conceit for you ! I chose my costume solely to trap Mr. Bransford's eye? Is that it? Doubtless all my thoughts have centered on Mr. Bransford since I first saw him ! " THE MASKERS 79 " You know I didn't mean that, Miss Ellinor. I- ** Miss Hoffman, if you please! " " Miss Hoffman. Don't be mean to me. I've only got an hour " "An hour! Do you imagine for one sec ond Why, I mustn't stay here. This is really a farewell dance given in my honor. We go back East day after to-morrow. I must go in." " Only one little hour. And I have come a long ways for my hour. They take their masks off at midnight don't they? And of course I can't stay after that. I want only just to ask you " " Why did you come then? Isn't it rather un usual to go uninvited to a ball? " " Why, I reckon you nearly know why I come, Miss Hoffman; but if you want me to say pre cisely, ma'am " " I don't! " " We'll keep that for a surprise, then. Another thing: I wanted to find out just where you live in New York. I forgot to ask you. And I couldn't very well go round asking folks after you're gone could I ? Of course I didn't have any invitation from Mr. Lake; but I thought, if he didn't know it, he wouldn't mind me just stepping in to get your address." "Well, of all the assurance!" said Miss El- 8o BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE linor. " Do you intend to start up a correspond ence with me without even the formality of asking my consent? " " Why, Miss Ellinor, ma'am, I thought " " Miss Hoffman, sir ! Yes and there's an other thing. You said you had no invitation from Mr. Lake. Does that mean, by any chance, that I invited you? " " You didn't say a word about my coming," said Jeff. He was a flustered man, this poor Bransford, but he managed to put a slight stress upon the word " say." Miss Ellinor Miss Hoffman caught this faint emphasis instantly. " Oh, I didn't say anything? I just looked an invitation, I suppose? " she stormed. " Melting eyes and that sort of thing? Tears in them, maybe ? Poor girl ! Poor little child ! It would be cruel to let her go home without seeing me again. I will give her a little more happiness, poor thing, and write to her a while. Maybe it would be wiser, though, just to make a quarrel and break loose at once. She'll get over it in a little while after she gets back to New York. Well ! Upon my word ! " As she advanced these horrible suppositions, Miss Hoffman had marked out a short beat of garden path five steps and a turn; five steps back and whirl again with, on the whole, a caged- tigress effect. With a double-quick at each turn THE MASKERS 81 to keep his place at her elbow, Jeff, utterly aghast at the damnable perversity of everything on earth, vainly endeavored to make coordinate and stumbling remonstrance. As she stopped for breath, Jeff heard his own voice at last, propound ing to the world at large a stunned query as to whether the abode of lost spirits could afford aught to excel the present situation. The remark struck him: he paused to wonder what other things he had been saying. Miss Ellinor walked her beat, vindictive. Her chin was at an angle of complacency. She turned up the perky corners of an imaginary mustache with an air, an exasperating little finger, separated from the others, pointing upward in hateful self- satisfaction. Her mouth wore a gratified mas culine smirk, visible even in the starlight; her gait was a leisured and lordly strut; her hand waved airy pity. Jeff shrank back in horror. " M-Miss Hoffman, I n-never d-dreamed " Miss Hoffman turned upon him swiftly." " Never have I heard anything like it never! You bring me out here willy-nilly, and by way of entertainment you virtually accuse me of throwing myself at your head." " I never ! " said Jeff indignantly. " I did n't " Miss Hoffman faced him crouchingly and shook an indictment from her fingers. " First, you imply that I enticed you to come ; second, expecting you, I dressed to catch your eye; third, I was watching eagerly for you " " Come I say now 1 " The baited and exas perated victim walked headlong into the trap. " The first thing you did was to ask me if I was lame? Wasn't that question meant to find out who I was ? When I answered, * Not very,' didn't you know at once that it was me? " u There I That proves exactly what I was just saying," raged the delighted trapper. " You don't even deny it! You say in so many words that I have been courting you! I had to say some thing didn't I ? You wouldn't ! You were limp ing, so I asked you if you were lame. What else could I have said? Did you want me to stand there like a stuffed Egyptian mummy? That's the thanks a girl gets for trying to help a great, awkward, blundering butter-fingers! Oh, if you could just see yourself! The irresistible con queror! Not altogether unprincipled though! You are capable of compunction. I'll give you credit for that. Alarmed at your easy success, you try to spare me. It is noble of you noble! You drag me out here, force a quarrel upon me " " Oh, by Jove now! Really! " Stung by the poignant injustice of crowding events, Jeff took the bit in his teeth and rushed to destruction. " Really, you must see yourself that I couldn't drag you out here! I have never been in that THE MASKERS 83 hall before. I didn't know the lay of the ground. I didn't even know that little side room was there. I thought you pressed my arm a little " So the brainless colt, in the quicksands, flounders deeper with each effort to extricate himself. If Miss Hoffman had been angry before she was furious now. " So that's the way of it? Better and better! 7 dragged you out! Really, Mr. Bransford, I feel that I should take you back to your chaperon at once. You might be compromised, you know ! " Goaded to desperation, he acted on this hint at once. He turned, with stiff and stilted speech: " I will take you back to the window, Miss Hoffman. Then there is nothing for me to do but go. I am sorry to have caused you even a moment's annoyance. To-morrow you will see how you have twisted I mean, how completely you have misinterpreted everything I have said. Perhaps some day you may forgive me. Here is the window. Good-night good-by!" Miss Hoffman lingered, however. " Of course, if you apologize " " I do, Miss Hoffman. I beg your pardon most sincerely for anything I have ever said or done that could hurt you in any way." " If you are sure you are sorry if you take it all back and will never do such a thing again perhaps I may forgive you." " I won't I am I will! " said the abject and 84 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE groveling wretch. Which was incoherent but pleasing. " I didn't mean anything the way you took it; but I'm sorry for everything." " Then I didn't beguile you to come? Or mask as a Friend in the hope that you would identify me?" "No, no!" Miss Ellinor pressed her advantage cruelly. " Nor take stock of each new masker to see if he possibly wasn't the expected Mr. Bransford? Nor drag you into the garden ? Nor squeeze your arm? " Her hands went to her face, her lissome body shook. " Oh, Mr. Bransford ! " she sobbed between her fingers. " How could you how could you say that? " The clock chimed. A pealing voice beat out into the night: " Masks off ! " A hundred voices swelled the cry; it was drowned in waves of laughter. It rose again tumultuously : "Masks off Masks off! " Nearer came hateful voices, too, that cried: "Ellinor! Ellinor! Where are you?" " I must go ! " said Jeff. " They'll be looking for you. No; you didn't do any of those things. You couldn't do any of those things. Good-by! " "Ellinor! Ellinor Hoffman!! Where are you? " Miss Hoffman whipped off her mask. From the open window a shaft of light fell on her face. It was flushed, sparkling, radiant. " Masks off ! " THE MASKERS 85 she said. " Stupid ! . . . Oh, you great goose ! Of course I did!" She stepped back into the shadow. No one, as the copybook says justly, may be always wise. Conversely, the most unwise of us blunders sometimes upon the right thing to do. With a glimmer of returning intelligence Mr. Bransford laid his noseguard on the window-sill. " Sir! " said Ellinor then. " How dare you ? " .Then she turned the other cheek. " Good-by! " she whispered, and fled away to the ballroom. Mr. Bransford, in the shadows, scratched his head dubiously. " Her Christian name was Ellinor," he mut tered. " Ellinor ! H'm Ellinor ! Very appro priate name. . . . Very! . ,.. . And I don't know yet where she lives I " He wandered disconsolately away to the garden wall, forgetting the discarded noseguard. CHAPTER VI THE ISLE OF ARCADYi "Then the moon shone out so broad and good That the barn-fowl crowed: And the brown owl called to his mate in the wood That a dead man lay in the road! " WILL WALLACE HARVEY. ARCADIA'S assets were the railroad, two large modern sawmills, the climate and printer's ink. The railroad found it a patch of bare ground, six miles from water; put in suc cessively a whistling-post, a signboard, a depot, townsite papers and a water-main from the Alamo; and, when the townsite papers were con firmed, established machine shops and made the new town the division headquarters and base for northward building. The railroad then set up the sawmills, pri marily to get out ties and timbers for its own lanky growth, and built a spur to bring the forest down from Rainbow to the mills. The word " down " is used advisedly. Arcadia nestled on the plain under the very eavespouts of Rainbow Range. The branch, following with slavish fidel- 86 THE ISLE OF ARCADY 87 ity the lines of a twisted corkscrew, took twenty- seven miles, mostly tunnel and trestlework, to clamber to the logging camps, with a minimum grade that was purely prohibitive and a maximum that I dare not state; but there was a rise of six thousand feet in those twenty-seven miles. You can figure the average for yourself. And if the engine should run off the track at the end of her climb she would light on the very roundhouse where she took breakfast, and spoil the shingles. Yes, that was some railroad. There was a summer hotel Cloudland on the summit, largely occupied by slackwire performers. Others walked up or rode a horse. They used stem-winding en gines, with eight vertical cylinders on the right side and a shaft like a steamboat, with beveled cogwheel transmission on the axles. And they haven't had a wreck on that branch to date. No matter how late a train is, when an engine sees the tail-lights of her caboose ahead of her she stops and sends out flagmen. The railroad, under the pseudonym of the Arcadia Development Company, also laid out streets and laid in a network of pipe-lines, and staked out lots until the sawmill protested for lack of tie-lumber. It put down miles of cement walks, fringed them with cottonwood saplings, telephone poles and electric lights. It built a hotel and a few streets of party-colored cottages directoire, with lingerie tile roofs, organdy facades and 88 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE peplum, intersecting panels and outside chimneys at the gable ends. It decreed a park, with nooks, lanes, mazes, lake, swans, ballground, grand stand, bandstand and the band appertaining there unto all of which apparently came into being over night. Then it employed a competent staff of word-artists and capitalized the climate. The result was astonishing. The cottonwoods grew apace and a swift town grew with them swift in every sense of the word. It took good money to buy good lots in Arcadia. People with money must be fed, served and amused by people wanting money. In three years the trees cast a pleasant shade and the company cast a balance, with gratifying results. They discounted the un earned increment for a generation to come. It was a beneficent scheme, selling ozone and novelty, sunshine and delight. The buyers got far more than the worth of their money, the com pany got their money and every one was happy. Health and good spirits are a bargain at any price. There were sandstorms and hot days; but sand promotes digestion and digestion promotes cheerfulness. Heat merely enhanced the luxury of shaded hammocks. As an adventurer thawed out, he sent for seven others worse than himself. Arcadia became the metropolis of the county and, by special election, the county-seat. Courthouse, college and jail followed in quick succession. For the company, Arcadia life was one grand, THE ISLE OF ARCADY 89 sweet song, with, thus far, but a single discord. As has been said, Arcadia was laid out on the plain. There was higher ground on three sides Rainbow Mountain to the east, the deltas of La Luz Creek and the Alamo to the north and south. New Mexico was dry, as a rule. After the second exception, when enthusiastic citizens went about on stilts to forward a project for changing the town's name to Venice, the company acknowledged its error handsomely. When dry land prevailed once more above the face of the waters, it built a mighty moat by way of the amende honorable a moat with its one embank ment on the inner side of the five-mile horseshoe about the town. This, with its attendant bridges, gave to Arcadia an aspect singularly medieval. It also furnished a convenient line of social de marcation. Chauffeurs, college professors, law yers, gamblers, county officers, together with a few tradesmen and railroad officials, abode within. " the Isle of Arcady," on more or less even terms with the Arcadians proper; millmen, railroaders, lumberjacks, and the underworld generally, dwelt without the pale. The company rubbed its lamp again and be hold! an armory, a hospital and a library! It contributed liberally to churches and campaign funds; it exercised a general supervision over morals and manners. For example, in the deed to every lot sold was an ironclad, fire-tested, auto- 90 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE matic and highly constitutional forfeiture clause, to the effect that sale or storage on the premises of any malt, vinous or spirituous liquors should immediately cause the title to revert to the com pany. The company's own vicarious saloon, on Lot Number One, was a sumptuous and mag-| nificent affair. It was known as The Mint. All this while we have been trying to reach the night watchman. In the early youth of Arcadia there came to her borders a warlock Finn, of ruddy countenance and solid build. He had a Finnish name, and they called him Lars Porsena. Lars P. had been a seafaring man. While spending a year's wage in San Francisco, he had wandered into Arcadia by accident. There, being unable to find the sea, he became a lumberjack with a custom, when in spirits, of beating the watchman of that date into an omelet. The indulgence of this penchant gave occasion for much adverse criticism. Fine and imprison ment failed to deter him from this playful habit. One watchman tried to dissuade Lars from his foible with a club, and his successor even went so far as to shoot him to shoot Lars P., of course, not his predecessor the successor's predecessor, not Lars Porsena's if he ever had one, which he hadn't. (What we need is more pronouns.)' He the successor of the predecessor THE ISLE OF ARCADYi 91 resigned when Lars became convalescent; but Lars was no whit dismayed by this contretemps in his first light-hearted moment he resumed his old amusement with unabated gayety. Thus was one of our greatest railroad systems subjected to embarrassment and annoyance by the idiosyncrasies of an ignorant but cheerful sailor- man. The railroad resolved to submit no longer to such caprice. A middleweight of renown was imported, who when he was able to be about again bitterly reproached the president and de manded a bonus on the ground that he had knocked Lars down several times before he Lars got angry; and also because of a disquisi tion in the Finnish tongue which Lars Porsena had emitted during the procedure which ad dress, the prizefighter stated, had unnerved him and so led to his undoing. It was obviously, he said, of a nature inconceivably insulting; the mem ory of it rankled yet, though he had heard only the beginning and did not get the But let that pass. [The thing became a scandal. Watchman suc ceeded watchman on the company payroll and the hospital list, until some one hit upon a happy and ingenious way to avoid this indignity. Lars Por sena was appointed watchman. This statesmanlike policy bore gratifying re sults. Lars Porsena straightway abandoned his absurd and indefensible custom, and no imitator 92 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE arose. Also, Arcadia within the moat the island which was the limit of his jurisdiction, became the most orderly spot in New Mexico. In the first gray of dawn, Uncle Sam, whistling down Main Street on his way home from the masquerade, found Lars Porsena lying on his face in a pool of blood. The belated reveler knelt beside him. The watchman was shot, but still breathed. " Ho I Murder ! Help ! Murder ! " shouted Uncle Sam. The alarm rolled crashing along the quiet street. Heads were thrust from windows ; startled voices took up the outcry; other home-goers ran from every corner ; hastily arrayed householders poured themselves from street doors. Lars Porsena was in disastrous plight. He breathed, but that was about all. He was shot through the body. A trail of blood led back a few doors to Lake's Bank. A window was cut out; the blood began at the sill. Messengers ran to telephone the doctor, the sheriff, Lake. The knot of men grew to a crowd. A rumor spread that there had been an unusual amount of currency in the bank over night a rumor presently confirmed by Bassett, the bare headed and white-faced cashier. It was near pay day; in addition to the customary amount to cash checks for railroaders and millhands itself no THE ISLE OF ARCADY 93 mean sum and the money for regular business, there had been provision for contemplated loans to promoters of new local industries. The doctor came running, made a hasty exam ination, took emergency measures to stanch the freshly started blood, and swore whole-heartedly at the ambulance and the crowding Arcadians. He administered a stimulant. Lars Porsena flut tered his eyes weakly. " Stand back, you idiots ! Bash these fools r faces in for 'em, some one ! " said the medical man. He bent over the watchman. " Who did it, Lars?" Lars made a vain effort to speak. The doctor gave him another sip of restorative and took a pull himself. " Try again, old man. You're badly hurt and you may not get another chance. Did you know him?" Lars gathered all his strength to a broken speech : " No. . ;. . Bank. . . . Found window. . . Midnight . .. . nearly. . . . Shot me. . r . . Didn't see him." He fell back on Uncle Sam's starry vest. " Ambulance coming," said Uncle Sam. " Will he live, doc? " Doc shook his head doubtfully. " Poor chance. Lost too much blood. If he had been found in time he might have pulled 94 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE through. Wonderful vitality. Ought to be dead now, by the books. Still, there's a chance." " I never thought," said Uncle Sam to Cyrano de Bergerac, as the ambulance bore away its un conscious burden, " that I would ever be so sorry at anything that could happen to Lars Porsena after the way he made me stop singing on my own birthday. He was one grand old fighting ma chine!" CHAPTER VII STATES-GENERAE "And they hae killed Sir Charlie Hay And laid the wyte on Geordie." Old Ballad. THAT the master's eye is worth two servants had ever been Lake's favorite maxim. He had not yet gone to bed when the message reached him, where he kept his masterly eye on the proper closing up of the ballroom. He came through the crowd now, shouldering his way roughly, still in his police costume helmet, tunic and belt. In his wake came the sheriff, who had just arrived, scorching to the scene on his trusty wheel. On the bank steps, Lake turned to face the crowd. His strong canine jaw was set to stub- bora lighting lines; the helmet did not wholly hide the black frown or the swollen veins at his temple. " Come in, Thompson, and help the sheriff size the thing up and you, Alec " he stabbed the air at his choice with a strong blunt finger " and Turnbull you, Clarke and you. . ,.; Bassett, you keep the door. Admit no one ! " 95 96 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE Lake was the local great man. Never had he appeared to such advantage to his admirers; never had his ascendency seemed so unquestioned and so justified. As he stood beside the sheriff in the growing light, the man was the incarnation of power the power of wealth, position, prestige, success. In this moment of yet unplumbed dis aster, taken by surprise, summoned from a night of crowded pleasure, he held his mastery, chose his men and measures with unhesitant decision planned, ordered, kept to that blunt direct speech of his that wasted no word. A buzz went up from the unadmitted as the door swung shut be hind him. Lake had chosen well. Arcadia in epitome was within those pillaged walls. Thompson was presi dent of the rival bank. Alec was division super intendent. Turnbull was the mill-master. Clarke was editor of the Arcadian Day. Clarke had been early to the storm-center; yet, of all the investi gators, Clarke alone was not more or less di sheveled. He was faultlessly appareled even to the long Prince Albert and black string tie in which, indeed, report said, he slept. So much for capital, industry and the fourth estate. The last of the probers, whom Lake had drafted merely by the slighting personal pronoun " you," was nevertheless identifiable in private life by the name of Billy White being, indeed, none other than our old friend the devil. His indige- STATES-GENERAL 97 nous mustache still retained a Mephistophelian twist; he was becomingly arrayed in slippers, pa jamas and a pink bathrobe, girdled at the waist with a most unhermitlike cord, having gone early and surly to bed. In this improvised committee he fitly represented Society: while the sheriff repre sented society at large and, ex officio, that incau tious portion under duress. Yetoneelementwasun- represented; for Lake made a mistake which other great men have made of failing to reckon with the masterless men, who dwell without the wall. Lake led the way. "Will the watchman die, Alec, d'you think?" whispered Billy, as they filed through the grilled door to the counting room. " Don't know. Hope not. Game old rooster. Good watchman, too," said Turnbull, the mill- superintendent. Lake turned on the lights. The wall-safe was blown open; fragments of the door were scattered among the overturned chairs. In an open recess in the vault there was a dull yellow mass; the explosion had spilled the front rows of coin to a golden heap. Behind, some golden rouleaus were intact: others tottered pre cariously, as you have perhaps seen beautiful tall stacks of colored counters do. Gold pieces were strewn along the floor. " Thank God, they didn't get all the gold any how I " said Lake, with a sigh of relief. " Then, 98 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE of course, they didn't touch the silver; but there was a lot of greenbacks over twenty-five thou sand, I think. Bassett will know. And I don't know how much gold is gone. Look round and see if they left anything incriminating, sheriff, any thing that we can trace them by." " He heard poor old Lars coming," said the sheriff. " Then, after he shot him, he hadn't the nerve to come back for the gold. This strikes me as being a bungler's job. Must have used an awful lot of dynamite to tear that door up like that! Funny no one heard the explosion. Can't be much of your gold gone, Lake. That com partment is pretty nearly as full as it will hold." " Or heard him shoot our watchman," sug gested Thompson. " Still, I don't know. There's blasting going on in the hills all the time and al most every one was at the masquerade or else asleep. How many times did they shoot old Lars does anybody know? Is there any idea what time it was done? " " He was shot once right here," said Alec, indicating the spot on the flowered silk that had been part of his mandarin's dress. " Gun was held so close it burnt his shirt. Awful hole. Don't believe the old chap'll make it. He crawled along toward the telephone station till he dropped. Say ! Central must have heard that shot ! It's only two blocks away. She ought to be able to tell what time it was." STATES-GENERAL 99 " Lars said it was just before midnight," said Clarke. " Oh 1 did he speak? " asked Lake. " How many robbers were there ? Did- he know any of them?" " He didn't see anybody shot just as he reached the window. Hope some one hangs for this I " said Clarke. " Lake, I wish you'd have this money picked up I'm not used to walking on gold or else have me watched." Lake shook his head, angry at the untimely pleasantry. It was a pleasantry in effect only, put forward to hide uneditorial agitation and distress for Lars Porsena. Lake's undershot jaw thrust forward; he fingered the blot of whisker at his ear. It was a time for action, not for talk. He began his campaign. " Look here, sheriff ! You ought to wire up and down the line to keep a lookout. Hold all suspicious characters. Then get a posse to ride for some sign round the town. If we only had something to go on some clue ! Later we'll look through this town with a finetooth comb. Most likely they or he, if there was only one won't risk staying here. First of all, I've got to tele graph to El Paso for money to stave off a run on the bank. You'll help me, Thompson? Of course my burglar insurance will make good my loss or most of it; but that'll take time. We mustn T t risk a run. People lose their heads so. ioo BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE I'll give you a statement for the Day, Clarke, as soon as I find out where Mr. Thompson stands." " I will back you up, sir. With the bulk of depositors' money loaned out, no bank, however solvent, can withstand a continued run without backing. I shall be glad to tide you over if only for my own protection. A panic is con tagious " " Thanks," said Lake shortly, interrupting this stately financial discourse. " Then we shall do nicely. . . . Let's see to-morrow's payday. You fellows " he turned briskly to the two su perintendents u can't you hold up your payday, say, until Saturday? Stand your men off. The company stands good for their money. They can wait a while." " No need to do that," said Alec. " I'll have the railroad checks drawn on St. Louis. The storekeepers'll cash 'em. If necessary I'll wire for authority to let Turnbull pay off the millhands with railroad checks. It's just taking money from one pocket to put it in the other, anyhow." "Then that's all right! Now for the rob bers ! " The banker's face betrayed impatience. " My first duty was to protect my clients ; but now we'll waste no more time. You gentlemen make a close search for any possible scrap of evidence while the sheriff and I write our telegrams. I must wire the burglar insurance company, too." He plunged a pen into an inkwell and fell to work. STATES-GENERAL 101 Acting upon this hint, the sheriff took a desk. " Wish Phillips was here my deputy," he sighed. " I've sent for him. He's got a better head than I have for noticing clues and things." This was eminently correct as well as modest. The sheriff was a Simon-pure Arcadian, the company's nom inee ; his deputy was a concession to the disgruntled Hinterland, where the unobservant rarely reach maturity. "Oh, Alec!" said Lake over his shoulder, " you sit down, too, and wire all your conductors about their passengers last night. Yes, and the freight crews, too. We'll rush those through first. And can't you scare up another operator? " His pen scratched steadily over the paper. " More apt to be some of our local outlaws, though. In that case it will be easier to find their trail. They'll probably be on horseback." " You were an old-timer yourself, were you not? " asked Billy amiably. " If the robbers are frontiersmen they may be easier to get track of, as you suggest; but won't they be harder to get? " Billy spoke languidly. The others were search ing assiduously for " clues " in the most ap proved manner, but Billy sprawled easily in a chair. " We'll get 'em if we can find out who they were," snapped Lake, setting his strong jaw. He did not particularly like Billy especially since their late trip to Rainbow. " There never was 102 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE a man yet so good but there was one just a little better." " By a good man, in this connection, you mean a bad man, I presume? " said Billy in a meditative drawl. " Were you a good man before you be came a banker? " "Look here! What's this?" The interrup tion came from Clarke. He pounced down be tween two fragments of the safe door and brought up an object which he held to the light. At the startled tones, Lake spun round in his swivel-chair. He held out his hand. " Really, I don't think I ever saw anything like this thing before," he said. " Any of you know what it is?" " It's a noseguard," said Billy. Billy was a college man and had worn a nosepiece himself. He frowned unconsciously, remembering Lis suc cessful rival of the masquerade. " A noseguard? What for? " 11 You wear it to protect your nose and teeth when playing football," explained Billy. " Keeps you from swearing, too. You hold this piece be tween your teeth; the other part goes over your nose, up between your eyes and fastens with this band around your forehead." "Why! Why!" gasped Clarke, "there was 5a man at the masquerade togged out as a football player ! " STATES-GENERAE 103 " I saw him," said Alec. " And he wore one of these things. I saw him talking to Topsy." "One of my guests?" demanded Lake scoff- ingly. " Oh, nonsense ! Some young fellow has been in here yesterday, talking to the clerks, and dropped it. Who went as a football player, White? You know all these college boys. Know anything about this one?" " Not a thing." There Billy lied a prompt and loyal gentleman reasoning that Buttinski, as he mentally styled the interloper who had mis appropriated the Quaker lady, would have cared nothing at that time for a paltry thirty thousand. Thus was he guilty of a practice against which we are all vainly warned of judging others by ourselves. Billy remembered very distinctly that Miss Ellinor had not reappeared until the mid night unmasking, and he therefore acquitted her companion of this particular crime, entirely with out prejudice to Buttinski's felonious instincts in general. For the watchman had been shot before midnight. Billy made a tentative mental decision that this famous noseguard had been brought to the bank later and left there purposely; and re solved to keep his eye open. " Oh, well, it's no great difference anyhow," said Lake. " Whoever it was dropped it here yesterday, I guess, and got another one for the masquerade." " Hold on there 1 " said Clarke, holding the 104 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE spotlight tenaciously. " That don't go ! This thing was on top of one of those pieces of the safe!" For the first time Lake was startled from his iron composure. " Are you sure? " he demanded, jumping up. " Sure ! It was right here against the sloping side of this piece so." " That puts a different light on the case, gentle men," said Lake. " Luck is with us; and " " And, while I think of it," said Clarke, making the most of his unexpected opportunity, " I made notes of all the costumes and their wearers after the masks were off for the paper, you know and I saw no football player there. I remember that distinctly." " I only saw him the one time," confirmed Alec, " and I stayed almost to the break-up. Whoever it was, he left early." " But what possible motive could the robber have for going to the dance at all? " queried Lake in perplexity. " Maybe he made his appearance there in a football suit purposely, so as to leave us some one to hunt for, and then committed the robbery and went back in another costume," suggested Clarke, pleased and not a little surprised at his own ingenuity. " In that case, he would have left this rubber thing here of design." "H'm!" Lake was plainly struck with this STATES-GENERAL 105 theory. " And that's not such a bad idea, either ! We'll look into this football matter after break fast. You'll go to the hotel with me, gentlemen? Our womankind are all asleep after the ball. [The sheriff will send some one to guard the bank. Meantime I'll call the cashier in and find out ex actly how much money we're short. Send Bassett in, will you, Billy? You stay at the