The Eye of Dread Part 16

"They're all here to-day. Martha's teaching in the city, but Betty's at home helping me, as always. The boys are getting such big fellows, and little Janey's as sweet as all the rest."

"There! That's Betty's laugh, I know. I'd recognize it if I heard it out on the plains. I have, sometimes--when a homesick fit gets hold of me out under the stars, when the noise of the camp has subsided. A good deal of that work is done by the very refuse of humanity, you know, a mighty tough lot."

"And you like that sort of thing, Richard?" asked Mary. "I thought when you went to your people in Scotland, you might be leading a very different kind of life by now."

"I thought so, too, then; but I guess for some reasons this is best.

Still, I couldn't resist stealing a couple of days to run up here and see you all. I got off a carload of supplies yesterday from Chicago, and then I wired back to the end of the line that I'd be two days later myself. No wonder I followed you out here. I couldn't afford to waste the precious hours. I say! That's Betty again! I'll find them and say you're hungry, shall I?"

"Oh, they're coming now. I see Martha's pink dress, and there's Betty in green over there."

But Richard was gone, striding over the fallen leaves toward the spot of green which was Betty's gingham dress. And Betty, spying him, forgot she was grown up. She ran toward him with outstretched arms, as of old--only--just as he reached her, she drew back and a wave of red suffused her face. She gave him one hand instead of both, and called to Peter Junior to hurry.

"Well, Betty Ballard! I can't jump you along now over stocks and stones as I used to. And here's everybody! Why, Jamie, what a great man you are! I'll have to take you back with me to help build the new road. And here's Bobby; and this little girl--I wonder if she remembers me well enough to give me a kiss? I have n.o.body to kiss me now, when I come back. That's right. That's what Betty used to do.

Why, h.e.l.lo! here's Clara Dean, and who's this? John Walters? So you're a man, too! Mr. Dean, how are you? And Mrs. Dean! You don't grow any older anyway, so I'll walk with you. Wait until I've pounded this old chap a minute. Why didn't I write I was coming? Man, I didn't know it myself. I'm under orders nowadays. To get here at all I had to steal time. So you're graduated from a crutch to a cane? Good!"

Every one exclaimed at once, while Richard talked right on, until they reached the riverside where the lunch was spread; and then the babble was complete.

That night, as they all drove home in the moonlight, Richard tied his horse to the rear of the Ballards' wagon and rode home seated on the hay with the rest. He placed himself where Betty sat on his right, and the two boys crowded as close to him as possible on his left. Little Janey, cuddled at Betty's side, was soon fast asleep with her head in her sister's lap, while Lucien Thurbyfil was well pleased to have Martha in the corner to himself. Peter Junior sat near Betty and listened with interest to his cousin, who entertained them all with tales of the plains and the Indians, and the game that supplied them with many a fine meal in camp.

"Say, did you ever see a real herd of wild buffalo just tearing over the ground and kicking up a great dust and stampeding and everything?"

said Jamie.

"Oh, yes. And if you are out there all alone on your pony, you'd better keep away from in front of them, too, or you'd be trampled to death in a jiffy."

"What's stampeding?" said Bobby.

So Richard explained it, and much more that elicited long breaths of interest. He told them of the miles and miles of land without a single tree or hill, and only a sea of gra.s.s as far as the eye could reach, as level as Lake Michigan, and far vaster. And how the great railway was now approaching the desert, and how he had seen the bones of men and cattle and horses bleaching white, lying beside their broken-down wagons half buried in the drifting sand. He told them how the trail that such people had made with so much difficulty stretched far, far away into the desert along the very route, for the most part, that the railroad was taking, and answered their questions so interestingly that the boys were sorry when they reached home at last and they had to bid good-night to Peter Junior's fascinating cousin, Richard.

CHAPTER XI

BETTY BALLARD'S AWAKENING

Mary and Bertrand always went early to church, for Bertrand led the choir, and it was often necessary for him to gather the singers together and try over the anthem before the service. Sometimes the rector would change the hymns, and then the choir must have one little rehearsal of them. Martha and Mr. Thurbyfil accompanied them this morning, and Betty and the boys were to walk, for four grown-ups with little Janey sandwiched in between more than filled the carryall.

In these days Betty no longer had to wash and dress her brothers, but there were numerous attentions required of her, such as only growing boys can originate, and "sister" was as kind and gay in helping them over their difficulties as of old. So, now, as she stepped out of her room all dressed for church in her white muslin with green rose sprigs over it, with her green parasol, and her prayer book in her hand, Bobby called her.

"Oh, Sis! I've broken my shoe string and it's time to start."

"I have a new one in my everyday shoes, Bobby, dear; run upstairs and take it out. They're just inside the closet door. Wait a minute, Jamie; that lock stands straight up on the back of your head. Can't you make it lie down? Bring me the brush. You look splendid in your new trousers. Now, you hurry on ahead and leave this at the Deans'.

It's Clara's sash bow. I found it in the wagon after they left last night. Run, she may want to wear it to church.--Yes, Bobby, dear, I sent him on, but you can catch up. Have you a handkerchief? Yes, I'll follow in a minute."

And the boys rushed off, looking very clean in their Sunday clothing, and very old and mannish in their long trousers and stiff hats. Betty looked after them with pride, then she bethought her that the cat had not had her saucer of milk, and ran down to the spring to get it, leaving the doors wide open behind her. The day was quite warm enough for her to wear the summer gown, and she was very winsome and pretty in her starched muslin, with the delicate green buds sprayed over it.

She wore a green belt, too, and the parasol she was very proud of, for she had bought it with her own chicken money. It was her heart's delight. Betty's skirt reached nearly to the ground, for she was quite in long dresses, and two little ruffles rippled about her feet as she ran down the path to the spring. But, alas! As she turned away after carefully fastening the spring-house door, the cat darted under her feet; and Betty stumbled and the milk streamed down the front of her dress and spattered her shoes--and if there was anything Betty liked, it was to have her shoes very neat.

"Oh, Kitty! I hate your running under my feet that way all the time."

Betty was almost in tears. She set the saucer down and tried to wipe off the milk, while the cat crouched before the dish and began drinking eagerly and unthankfully, after the manner of cats.

Some one stood silently watching her from the kitchen steps as she walked slowly up the path, gazing down on the ruin of the pretty starched ruffles.

"Why, Richard!" was all she said, for something came up in her throat and choked her. She waited where she stood, and in his eyes, her aspect seemed that of despair. Was it all for the spilled milk?

"Why, Betty dear!" He caught her and kissed her and laughed at her and comforted her all at once. "Not tears, dear? Tears to greet me? You didn't half greet me last evening, and I came only to see you. Now you will, where there's no one to see and no one to hear? Yes. Never mind the spilled milk, you know better than that." But Betty lay in his arms, a little crumpled wisp of sorrow, white and still.

"Away off there in Cheyenne I got to thinking of you, and I went to headquarters and asked to be sent on this commission just to get the chance to run up here and tell you I have been waiting all these years for you to grow up. You have haunted me ever since I left Leauvite.

You darling, your laughing face was always with me, on the march--in prison--and wherever I've been since. I've been trying to keep myself right--for you--so I might dare some day to take you in my arms like this and tell you--so I need not be ashamed before your--"

"Oh, Richard, wait!" wailed Betty, but he would not wait.

"I've waited long enough. I see you are grown up before I even dreamed you could be. Thank heaven I came now! You are so sweet some one would surely have won you away from me--but no one can now--no one."

"Richard, why didn't you tell me this when you first came home from the war--before you went to Scotland? I would--"

"Not then, sweetheart; I couldn't. I didn't even know then I would ever be worth the love of any woman; and--you were such a child then--I couldn't intrude my weariness--my worn-out self on you. I was sick at heart when I got out of that terrible prison; but now it is all changed. I am my own man now, dependent on no one, and able to marry you out of hand, Betty, dear. After you've told me something, I'll do whatever you say, wait as long as you say. No, no! Listen!

Don't break away from me. You don't hate me as you do the cat. I haven't been running under your feet all the time, have I, dear?

Listen. See here, my arms are strong now. They can hold you forever, just like this. I've been thinking of you and dreaming of you and loving you through these years. You have never been out of my mind nor out of my heart. I've kept the little housewife you made me and bound with your cherry-colored hair ribbon until it is in rags, but I love it still. I love it. They took everything I had about me at the prison; but this--they gave back to me. It was the only thing I begged them to leave me."

Poor little Betty! She tried to speak and tried again, but she could not utter a word. Her mouth grew dry and her knees would not support her. Richard was so big and strong he did not feel her weight, and only delighted in the thought that she resigned herself to him.

"Darling little Betty! Darling little Betty! You do understand, don't you? Won't you tell me you do?"

But she only closed her eyes and lay quite still. She longed to lift her arms and put them about his neck, and the effort not to do so only crushed her spirit the more. Now she knew she was bad, and unworthy such a great love as this. She had let Peter Junior kiss her, and she had told him she loved him--and it was nothing to this. She was not good; she was unworthy, and all the angels in heaven could never bring her comfort any more. She was so still he put his cheek to hers, and it seemed as if she moaned, and that without a sound.

"Have I hurt you, Betty, dear?"

"Oh, no, Richard, no."

"Do you love me, sweet?"

"Yes, Richard, yes. I love you so I could die of loving you, and I can't help it. Oh, Richard, I can't help it."

"It's asking too much that you should love me so, and yet that's what my selfish, hungry heart wants and came here for."

"Take your face away, Richard; stop. I must talk if it kills me. I have been so bad and wicked. Oh, Richard, I can't tell you how wicked.

Let me stand by myself now. I can." She fought back the tears and turned her face away from him, but when he let go of her, in her weakness she swayed, and he caught her to him again, with many repeated words of tenderness.

"If you will take me to the steps, Richard, and bring me a gla.s.s of water, I think I can talk to you then. You remember where things are in this house?"

Did he remember? Was there anything he had forgotten about this beloved place? He brought her the water and she made him sit beside her, but not near, only that she need not look in his eyes.

"Richard, I thought something was love--that was not--I didn't know.

It was only liking--and--and now I--I've been so wrong--and I want to die--Oh, I want to die! No, don't. Do you want to make me sin again?

Oh, Richard, Richard! If you had only come before! Now it is too late." She began sobbing bitterly, and her small frame shook with her grief.

He seized her wrists and his hand trembled. She tried to cover her face with her hands, but he took them down and held them.