The Forbidden Trail Part 52

"I am glad," replied Charley with a smile that showed her white teeth.

Roger did not speak again for a long time, but he did not release Charley's hand until she said, "Roger, the storm is going down."

Then he rose and stood staring at her until, smiling again, she said, "If you'll push your friend Peter out of the spring, I'll see if I can get clean water for us."

CHAPTER XV

RABBIT TAIL'S GANG

The dust storm died down almost as rapidly as it had risen. By four o'clock the three were on their way home across the strange sea of sand.

They had reached the home range before Roger said to Charley,

"By Jove, you never did show me the Indian writing! What do you mean by such subterfuge? Couldn't you think of any other way to entice a man for a stroll?"

"There were inscriptions all around you!" exclaimed Charley. "You were leaning against the drawing of a horse, all the afternoon. Where were your eyes?"

"That portion of them not blinded by sand was on you, my dear."

"Tut! Tut! Don't try freshman blarney on me, Roger! I'm getting too old for it. Besides one man doesn't blarney another."

Roger looked at Charley quickly. "Hum!" he said, "I'm not at all sure but what you're totally feminine and that I'm a fool."

"Here's the home trail," said Charley. "I hope they haven't worried about us."

Elsa was waiting supper for them and the look of relief on her face as they came in at the door told the story of the day's anxiety.

"Gustav and I have been frantic!" she said. "You poor things! Where did the storm catch you?" Then without waiting for an answer she went on.

"We kept the pump going off and on all day. In fact just as steadily as the Lemon would let us, which was not very steadily, you can be sure.

But I'm so afraid that the second field is gone. The sand was not so bad this time but the heat was frightful. I don't see how anything green could stand up against those heat blasts. The thermometer here in the adobe was 118 at five o'clock this afternoon."

Charley pulled off her hat and sank into a chair. "Well," she sighed, "why worry! Seems to me I've had all the troubles known to women and I'm not going to let the mere loss of the family fortune ruin an otherwise perfect day."

Elsa looked at the two sharply. But Charley went on serenely. "I've been drowned in sand. I've been bullied and baked and burned, I've been----"

"Good gracious, Els, feed her! She's delirious with hunger!" said Roger.

"Well, of course," exclaimed Elsa, "if the owner of that magnificent alfalfa crop----"

She was interrupted by a cheerful call from Gustav who was in the corral.

"h.e.l.lo, d.i.c.k! h.e.l.lo! How vas the leg?"

Elsa set the coffee pot hastily on the table. The smile left Charley's face as d.i.c.k came slowly over the porch and paused just within the door.

"Well," he said huskily, "the bad egg is back."

"How's the leg?" asked Roger, stiffly.

"All right except for a little lameness. I'll sit down though, if you don't mind."

d.i.c.k sank wearily into a chair and there was a moment's silence. Roger could not have believed it possible for a human being to have changed as had d.i.c.k in less than a month. His ruddy brown hair was sprinkled with gray. He was thin, and his usually round face was sunken of cheek with heavy lines showing around his eyes and at the corners of the mouth.

"Supper's just ready," said Elsa. "You must be hungry, d.i.c.k." d.i.c.k pulled himself slowly out of his chair.

"Charley," he said, "and all the rest of you, I've just a few things I want to tell you before I try to pick up the old threads. Nothing you folks can say or do to show how you despise me can hurt me. I'm too low in my own opinion--At first, that afternoon Roger brought Felicia home, I made up my mind to kill myself. The only thing that kept me from it was realizing that Charley couldn't stand much more without losing her mind."

He paused to look at Charley, but she only gazed at him silently in return and he went on.

"When I went into Archer's Springs, I hadn't the slightest intention of ever coming back here. But lying there on the flat of my back, I came to the conclusion that the one way to help Charley endure what's happened would be to have it make a man of me. Then perhaps in the years to come, she would grow to think of Felicia as if she were thinking of the ordinary death of a lovely little child and not with the h.e.l.l of remorse she's having now. As for me, I'll always have that remorse. That's common justice. But there's no reason why Charley should have it.

"I guess that's about all, except this. For two weeks I've gone over every afternoon to the saloon and sat there for two or three hours. And the sight and smell of the booze for the first time in my life made me want to vomit."

d.i.c.k paused again, trembling visibly and staring at Charley.

"I'm sorry, d.i.c.k," she said, her lips stiff, yet quivering. "I'm going to try to care for you again. But I don't know whether I can or not.

Every night when I go to bed I see first your face that night all red and bloated and distorted, then Felicia's, the way Roger and I found her. I--I've got lots to forget, d.i.c.k."

"G.o.d knows you have, Charley. But you're going to give me one more trial, aren't you? Please, Charley!"

"Try if you want to, d.i.c.k. I don't seem to care, one way or the other."

d.i.c.k's head dropped to his chest. With a little inarticulate cry, Elsa ran across the room and pulling d.i.c.k's head over to rest on her soft breast, she kissed him on the forehead.

"I care, d.i.c.ky!" she cried. "I care! It's my whole life whether you make good or not."

d.i.c.k lifted his agonized face and stared into Elsa's tear wet eyes. A slow, twisted smile touched his lips.

"Oh, Elsa! Oh, Elsa!" he breathed. "I think you've saved my soul alive!"

He turned his face against her and Elsa, clasping the gray-touched head to her, looked at the others fiercely.

"Now, who hurts d.i.c.k, hurts me!"

Roger dropped his hand on Charley's shoulder. "Then look to it that he never hurts Charley again," he said sternly.

There was a silence, broken by Gustav, who came into the kitchen with the milk pail.

"Elsa, make me the pans ready!" he called.

"Coming, Gustav," answered Elsa in her normal voice. "The rest of you sit down to supper. Gustav and I won't be a minute."

"Better wash up, Roger," said Charley. "d.i.c.k, your room is ready for you!" and she disappeared into her own bedroom.

When they finally sat down to the belated supper, Roger began at once to tell of the crop conditions and of the call on old Rabbit Tail.

"Let's see, this is Friday and he promises the gang here on Monday. I think we'd better get busy to-morrow and make the drill connections on the old Lemon. What do you think of the whole scheme, d.i.c.k?"