The Motor Maids Across the Continent Part 23

"n.o.body has any intention of moving. Come in," said Daniel Moore.

A big man in a black slouch hat strode in.

"Come out, Jim Bowles. Don't try to escape. The house is surrounded.

You'll git shot for your pains if you do."

"Jim Bowles is not in this house," said Daniel Moore.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Moore. I come from Iowa."

"And who might these be?" demanded the sheriff, pointing to Miss Helen and the girls.

"These ladies are taking a motor trip."

"Let the women answer for themselves. Who are you?" demanded the sheriff roughly.

Miss Campbell drew herself up.

"Would you mind taking off your hat?" she said. "It is easier for me to reply to a man when he is not wearing a hat."

The sheriff removed his hat quickly.

"Excuse me, ma'am," he said. "We don't often see ladies in this wild country."

"We are a party of motorists." said Miss Campbell. "We took the wrong road, and this very kind woman gave us shelter. To-morrow we hope to resume our journey."

"Do you know you are probably in the cabin of one of the worst outlaws in the State?"

"Are you sure, sir? It is very difficult to believe, and where one is treated with so much hospitality one does not look for such things."

The sheriff turned to Minnie:

"Where is your husband, girl?"

"I don't know."

"Is he hiding in this house? Tell me the truth."

"Look for yourself!" cried Minnie, flinging wide the door into the bedroom.

"I believe there's a mistake, Sheriff," said one of the men. "The chief's nest is farther up the mountain. These people could never have found it in a motor car."

Presently the men left the house. There was a long, long interval when they sat listening with strained ears for sounds in the darkness. Once there were shots in the distance. At last, as their heads were drooping with fatigue and they yearned to lie down anywhere and sleep, the door opened and Jim Bowles crept cautiously in.

"Minnie will guide you to the Gap," he said. "I will meet you there, and show you the short cut through the mountains. Good night. And, Miss Campbell, I'll accept your proposition. I've been bad, I suppose, because I thought there wasn't n.o.body good, even the people that claimed to be-an' there wasn't no use of me bein', neither. But I was mistaken, by a long shot. You kin have back the money, too. I reckon I've got enough on hand to give the boys their share and still make it out. I was savin' up to buy a ranch in Idyho. But there's more ways than this of gittin' on. Minnie, I reckon you'll be glad. Ain't you, gal?"

"Glad?" whispered Minnie, moving to his side and resting her cheek against his shoulder.

He kissed her shyly.

"I don't want to git caught-understand?" he said. "But I've done with this old life forever, so help me."

He raised his hand to heaven in token of his solemn oath.

"We'll all help you, Jim," said Daniel Moore.

But Miss Helen Campbell considered Jim and Minnie her private discovery and particular property, and that night, reposing on a steamer rug spread over their bed, she dreamed golden dreams of their future.

CHAPTER XVI.-IN THE ROCKIES.

Billie slept later than her friends next morning. Even their movements about the room as they dressed did not disturb her, and when at last she opened her eyes the sun was pouring his rays through the small window of the cabin and outside was the glory of a mid-summer day; for it was June 21st, and was to be a memorable day in the annals of their trip.

"Dear me," she exclaimed, "why doesn't somebody repeat, 'Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise.' I seem to scent coffee in the air. Chief cook and bottle washer, what have you got for breakfast?"

"Corn bread from Minnie's corn meal," replied Nancy, who answered to this t.i.tle, "and s.h.i.+rred eggs, the last in our storehouse, and chopped beef--"

Billie jumped up.

"You lavish and wasteful young persons," she cried. "How do you know we won't need some of these things before we get back to civilization?"

"There are still baked beans," said Nancy reproachfully. Nancy was a born cook, and, like other born cooks, she was only amiable when she was not interfered with.

"Go out and look at the scenery," she continued, "and leave us in peace.

We won't starve. There's a box of wheaten biscuit left."

"I'd just as soon eat a bale of hay," cried Billie contemptuously. "And there's the Comet. He has to be fed this morning. How do I know that our provisions will last? If the food fails and the gasoline likewise, '_et puis bon jour_,' as the song says."

But Billie wasn't really apprehensive. The day was too fine and her spirits too high.

"The truth is, we are all like the angels in heaven rejoicing over one sinner repented," said Mary in a low voice, for Minnie could be seen approaching with a pail of water from the spring.

Toilets are meagre affairs in a cabin in the Rocky Mountains, and in a quarter of an hour Billie was fully clothed, washed and combed. Mary had closed the door of the cabin while she dressed.

"Don't look out until you see it all at once," she said. "It's too wonderful to take it by piece-meal."

Billie, therefore, had not an inkling of what was in store for her until she stepped out of the cabin.

Nothing on all her journeys with her father could equal the grand panorama which was revealed beyond the cabin door. They appeared to be in a world of peaks-"Mr. and Mrs. Peak, and all the young Peaks," she wrote to her father later. In the far distance were snow-capped peaks and nearer were lesser peaks. The cabin was built alarmingly near the edge of a great canon, at the foot of which, hundreds of feet below, lay a little green valley amazingly peaceful in all this rugged scenery, in which cattle no bigger than pinheads at that distance, were quietly grazing.

Billie trembled to think what they might have climbed the night before without suspecting it. This was certainly a good place for a robbers'

nest. The cabin was perched on a shelf in the side of the mountain, and brave were the men, Billie thought, who dared to climb the path that led to it.

It was a gay breakfast party that gathered around the small table that morning and Minnie's eyes glistened with appreciation at sight of the white cloth and the bunch of wild flowers in the center, which had been Elinor's contribution to the breakfast.