The Last Straw Part 58

"I don't want you to think that I am through ... not now. There has been stealing, but that has been only a part of the trouble. There have been other things, things which this man who we know has stolen would not do. Let us not be satisfied with cutting off the top of this weed which has poisoned the range; let us try to get to the roots and tear them out!"

She stood, beautiful in the confidence which, with a sentence, with a gesture, had checked these men in their determination to administer justice as it once had been administered in those hills, which had stilled dissent on their lips, which had switched their reasoning into a new path. Alone among them she could dominate! Her strength, doubted an hour ago, over-rode Riley's influence, created by years of prestige on the range, even made that old cattleman stand back and wait respectfully, wondering what she had to say. Her color was high, eyes bright, lips parted slightly in a grave, a.s.sured smile, and her one extended hand, small, white, delicate held them!

"This thievery was only a symptom, only an indication of what has transpired," she went on. "Just the outward evidence of those desires and impulses which have turned into chaos the peace of this beautiful country. Into that we must inquire and there is one more witness I want to call."

She hesitated, then said gently:

"Bobby Cole."

A low murmur again ran through the group and from the clouds above them came a muttering of thunder.

All turned to look at the girl and so intent were they that they did not see a horseman ride through the trees and stop and look; and dismount. Tom Beck walked slowly toward the group, until he could lay a hand on the hip of Jane Hunter's pinto. Then he stood behind her, eyes curious.

"Will you come up here and talk to me?" Jane asked.

The other girl remained motionless.

"Well now, Miss Hunter, don't you think--" Hepburn began in mild protest.

"I think many things, Mr. Hepburn. My purpose is either to justify or to convince myself that I think wrongly. Will you come ... Bobby?"

Almost mechanically the girl moved forward. Hilton muttered a quick word to Webb and Webb glanced back nervously. Two of his men moved closer.

"But we've found out about your calves, Miss Hunter. What else do you want to know?"

Hepburn's voice was breath-choked though outwardly he maintained composure.

"It makes d.a.m.ned little difference." It was Riley speaking and his hand was on his holster. "Hepburn, you and everybody else stand pat until you're called for."

Hepburn's eyes flared malevolently. He started to speak again, but closed his lips, as in forebearance. Sam McKee coughed with a dry, forced sound.

"What is it you want with me?"

Bobby stopped before Jane and eyed her up and down, gaze settling on the girl's face finally. There was hostility in it; there was hate ...

a degree; but these were softened, subdued, leavened by an outstanding appreciation. Her lips trembled and, almost thoughtlessly, she put out a hand to touch her father's, fingers squeezing his in a movement of affection ... and relief.

For a moment Jane did not speak. Then she began, lowly, rapidly, flushed but resolute and with a light of friendliness in her eyes.

"I want you to understand me ... without any more delay. You and I came into this country at about the same time. Where we should have been friends from the first we have been enemies; it even came to such a pa.s.s that you promised to drive me from the country."

Her voice shook a bit and on the words that old hostility leaped back into Bobby's face.

"I think that was because you did not understand me. You have thought that I wished you bad luck from the first and that is not so. Had I wanted to have vengeance on you, had I wanted to drive you out, I could have done so this afternoon ... only a moment ago. I am not trying to impress you with my generosity because I don't feel that I have been generous. I have tried to be just; that is all. I have tried to do the thing that would mean the most to all of us....

"But there are things with which you can help me. I am sure. There are so many things that we have in common. You see, you and I are very much alike."

That touched the other's curiosity. She was all intent, lips parted, eyes wondering.

"Alike?" She was incredulous.

Jane nodded.

"The thing that you want most of all is the thing that I want more than anything else: That is the respect of men."

She paused and Bobby's brows drew together in perplexity.

"The first time I saw you, you were trying to win the respect of the men in this country with your quirt. Perhaps that helped you. Perhaps it would have helped me had I been able or inclined to take it that way.

"That doesn't matter. The thing that matters, which gives us something in common is this: You found that men did not respect you and so did I.

Men showed their disrespect for you by ... well, by saying unpardonable things. Men have shown their disrespect for me by trying to drive me out of the country, by burning and stealing and shooting at my men....

"You and I are the only women here. These men,"--with a gesture--"can not understand what their respect means to us. It is the only thing worth while in our lives. Isn't that so? No woman can be happy or satisfied unless she has the respect of men. That is because our mothers for generations back have been mothers because men respected them....

"I don't believe from what I know of you that you have ever had much respect from men. I can appreciate what that means to you, because it appears that the man who should have respected me the most in the country where I came from, did not respect me.

"There was one man I used to know who was supposed to give me all the respect that a man could give a woman: he said that he loved me. That man,"--there was a quick movement in the group which she ignored--"followed me west to tell me that he loved me again and when he found that I could not love him, he showed that he did anything but respect me. Do you understand how that could hurt? When a man who had sworn for years that he loved me proved that ... it was something quite different?"

She paused and Bobby, wide-eyed, said:

"He follered you out here to ... try to get you to marry him?"

Jane nodded.

The other girl turned and her eyes sought out Hilton's face, which was contorted with raging humiliation.

"Is that _so?_" she asked.

"That's a lie!" he snarled, but looked away.

"Is that _so?_"

Her tone was lowered, but she hissed the question at him. She strained forward, glaring at him, and averting his face he said again:

"It's a lie."

But the a.s.sertion was without conviction, without strength.

Bobby turned back. Her lips were tight and trembling.

"Well?" she said, tears in her eyes again, and her manner proved that Hilton's denial had fallen far short of being convincing.

"Then there were other factors: As soon as I arrived here things commenced to go wrong. Because I was a woman, people thought they could usurp my rights. My horses were stolen; my hay was burned; my ditches broken. My men were shot at. A note was sent to me, telling me that I'd better leave the country while I had something left.

"You see, don't you, that that meant that men--it must have been men who did it--had no respect for me?

"This water down here was fenced. That was your right, but I thought I could persuade you to help me a little. I think yet that I could have done so but for your misunderstanding....

"I knew that you wanted the respect of men. I knew that about all you had in life was your self respect. I knew that the same man who had made love to me and who had not meant it, was making love to you and not meaning it. I called him to see me and tried to talk him out of it, begged him to go away from you before ... before you had stopped respecting yourself. You must have mistaken my motive in--"