Her Prairie Knight Read online

  "Well, lasso. Where can Richard be? To think the fellow should be so bold! But out here, with miles upon miles of open, and no police protection anything is possible. We might all be murdered, and no one be the wiser for days—perhaps weeks. There, he has caught them." She leaned back and clasped her hands, ready to meet with fortitude whatever fate might have in store.

  "He's bringing them out to us, mama. Can't you see the man is only trying to help us?"

  Mrs. Lansell, beginning herself to suspect him of honest intentions, sniffed dissentingly and let it go at that. The fellow was certainly leading the horses toward them, and Sir Redmond and Dick, appearing over the hill just then, proved beyond doubt that neither had been murdered in cold blood, or in any other unpleasant manner.

  "We're all right now, mother," Dick called, the minute he was near enough.

  His mother remarked skeptically that she hoped possibly she had been in too great haste to conceal her valuables—that Miss Hayes might not feel grateful for her presence of mind, and was probably wondering if mud baths were not injurious to fine, jeweled time-pieces. Mrs. Lansell was uncomfortable, mentally and physically, and her manner was frankly chilly when her son presented the stranger as his good friend and neighbor, Keith Cameron. She was still privately convinced that he looked a criminal—though, if pressed, she must surely have admitted that he was an uncommonly good-looking young outlaw. It would seem almost as if she regarded his being a decent, law-abiding citizen as pure effrontery.

  Miss Hayes greeted him with a smile of apprehension which plainly amused him. Beatrice was frankly impersonal in her attitude; he represented a new species of the genus man, and she, too, evidently regarded him in the light of a strange animal, viewed unexpectedly at close range.

  While he was helping Dick mend the double-tree with a piece of rope, she studied him curiously. He was tall—taller even than Sir Redmond, and more slender. Sir Redmond had the straight, sturdy look of the soldier who had borne the brunt of hard marches and desperate fighting; Mr. Cameron, the lithe, unconscious grace and alertness of the man whose work demands quick movement and quicker eye and brain. His face was tanned to a clear bronze which showed the blood darkly beneath; Sir Redmond's year of peace had gone far toward lightening his complexion. Beatrice glanced briefly at him and admired his healthy color, and was glad he did not have the look of an Indian. At the same time, she caught herself wishing that Sir Redmond's eyes were hazel, fringed with very long, dark lashes and topped with very straight, dark brows—eyes which seemed always to have some secret cause for mirth, and to laugh quite independent of the rest of the face. Still, Sir Redmond had very nice eyes—blue, and kind, and steadfast, and altogether dependable—and his lashes were quite nice enough for any one. In just four seconds Beatrice decided that, after all, she did not like hazel eyes that twinkle continually; they make one feel that one is being laughed at, which is not comfortable. In six seconds she was quite sure that this Mr. Cameron thought himself handsome, and Beatrice detested a man who was proud of his face or his figure; such a man always tempted her to "make faces," as she used to do over the back fence when she was little.

  She mentally accused him of trying to show off his skill with his rope when he leaned and fastened it to the rig, rode out ahead and helped drag the vehicle to shore; and it was with some resentment that she observed the ease with which he did it, and how horse and rope seemed to know instinctively their master's will, and to obey of their own accord.

  In all that he had done—and it really seemed as if he did everything that needed to be done, while Dick pottered around in the way—he had not found it necessary to descend into the mud and water, to the ruin of his picturesque, fringed chaps and high-heeled boots. He had worked at ease, carelessly leaning from his leathern throne upon the big, roan horse he addressed occasionally as Redcloud. Beatrice wondered where he got the outlandish name. But, with all his imperfections, she was glad she had met him. He really was handsome, whether he knew it or not; and if he had a good opinion of himself, and overrated his actions—all the more fun for herself! Beatrice, I regret to say, was not above amusing herself with handsome young men who overrate their own charms; in fact, she had the reputation among her women acquaintances of being a most outrageous flirt.

  In the very middle of these trouble-breeding meditations, Mr. Cameron looked up unexpectedly and met keenly her eyes; and for some reason—let us hope because of a guilty conscience—Beatrice grew hot and confused; an unusual experience, surely, for a girl who had been out three seasons, and has met calmly the eyes of many young men. Until now it had been the young men who grew hot and confused; it had never been herself.

  Beatrice turned her shoulder toward him, and looked at Sir Redmond, who was surreptitiously fishing for certain articles beside the rear wheel, at the whispered behest of Mrs. Lansell, and was certainly a sight to behold. He was mud to his knees and to his elbows, and he had managed to plaster his hat against the wheel and to dirty his face. Altogether, he looked an abnormally large child who has been having a beautiful day of it in somebody's duck-pond; but Beatrice was nearer, at that moment, to loving him than she had been at any time during her six weeks' acquaintance with him—and that is saying much, for she had liked him from the start.

  Mr. Cameron followed her glance, and his eyes did not have the laugh all to themselves; his voice joined them, and Beatrice turned upon him and frowned. It was not kind of him to laugh at a man who is proving his heart to be much larger than his vanity; Beatrice was aware of Sir Redmond's immaculateness of attire on most occasions.

  "Well," said Dick, gathering up the reins, "you've helped us out of a bad scrape, Keith. Come over and take dinner with us to-morrow night. I expect we'll be kept riding the rim-rocks, over at the Pool, this summer. Unless this sister of mine has changed a lot, she won't rest till she's been over every foot of country for forty miles around. It will just about keep our strings rode down to a whisper keeping her in sight."

  "Dear me, Richard!" said his mother. "What Jargon is this you speak?"

  "That's good old Montana English, mother. You'll learn it yourself before you leave here. I've clean forgot how they used the English language at Yale, haven't you, Keith?"

  "Just about," Keith agreed. "I'm afraid we'll shock the ladies terribly, Dick. We ought to get out on a pinnacle with a good grammar and practice."

  "Well, maybe. We'll look for you to-morrow, sure. I want you to help map out a circle or two for Trix. About next week she'll want to get out and scour the range."

  "Dear me, Richard! Beatrice is not a charwoman!" This, you will understand, was from his mother; perhaps you will also understand that she spoke with the rising inflection which conveys a reproof.

  When Keith Cameron left them he was laughing quietly to himself, and Beatrice's chin was set rather more than usual.

  CHAPTER 3. A Tilt With Sir Redmond.

  Beatrice, standing on the top of a steep, grassy slope, was engaged in the conventional pastime of enjoying the view. It was a fine view, but it was not half as good to look upon as was Beatrice herself, in her fresh white waist and brown skirt, with her brown hair fluffing softly in the breeze which would grow to a respectable wind later in the day, and with her cheeks pink from climbing.

  She was up where she could see the river, a broad band of blue in the surrounding green, winding away for miles through the hills. The far bank stood a straight two hundred feet of gay-colored rock, chiseled, by time and stress of changeful weather, into fanciful turrets and towers. Above and beyond, where the green began, hundreds of moving dots told where the cattle were feeding quietly. Far away to the south, heaps of hazy blue and purple slept in the sunshine; Dick had told her those were the Highwoods. And away to the west, a jagged line of blue-white glimmered and stood upon tip-toes to touch the swimming clouds—touched them and pushed above proudly; those were the Rockies. The Bear Paws stood behind her; nearer they were—so near they lost the glamour of mysterious blue shadows, and became m
erely a sprawling group of huge, pine-covered hills, with ranches dotted here and there in sheltered places, with squares of fresh, dark green that spoke of growing crops.

  Ten days, and the metropolitan East had faded and become as hazy and vague as the Highwoods. Ten days, and the witchery of the West leaped in her blood and held her fast in its thralldom.

  A sound of scrambling behind her was immediately followed by a smothered epithet. Beatrice turned in time to see Sir Redmond pick himself up.

  "These grass slopes are confounded slippery, don't you know," he explained apologetically. "How did you manage that climb?"

  "I didn't." Beatrice smiled. "I came around the end, where the ascent is gradual; there's a good path."

  "Oh!" Sir Redmond sat down upon a rock and puffed. "I saw you up here—and a fellow doesn't think about taking a roundabout course to reach his heart's—"

  "Isn't it lovely?" Beatrice made haste to inquire.

  "Lovely isn't half expressive enough," he told her. "You look—"

  "The river is so very blue and dignified. I've been wondering if it has forgotten how it must have danced through those hills, away off there. When it gets down to the cities—this blue water—it will be muddy and nasty looking. The 'muddy Missouri' certainly doesn't apply here. And that farther shore is simply magnificent. I wish I might stay here forever."

  "The Lord forbid!" cried he, with considerable fervor. "There's a dear nook in old England where I hope—"

  "You did get that mud off your leggings, I see," Beatrice remarked inconsequentially. "James must have worked half the time we've been here. They certainly were in a mess the last time I saw them."

  "Bother the leggings! But I take it that's a good sign, Miss Lansell—your taking notice of such things."

  Beatrice returned to the landscape. "I wonder who originated that phrase, 'The cattle grazing on a thousand hills'? He must have stood just here when he said it."

  "Wasn't it one of your American poets? Longfellow, or—er—"

  Beatrice simply looked at him a minute and said "Pshaw!"

  "Well," he retorted, "you don't know yourself who it was."

  "And to think," Beatrice went on, ignoring the subject, "some of those grazing cows and bossy calves are mine—my very own. I never cared before, or thought much about it, till I came out and saw where they live, and Dick pointed to a cow and the sweetest little red and white calf, and said: 'That's your cow and calf, Trix.' They were dreadfully afraid of me, though—I'm afraid they didn't recognize me as their mistress. I wanted to get down and pet the calf—it had the dearest little snub nose but they bolted, and wouldn't let me near them."

  "I fancy they were not accustomed to meeting angels unawares."

  "Sir Redmond, I wish you wouldn't. You are so much nicer when you're not trying to be nice."

  "I'll act a perfect brute," he offered eagerly, "if that will make you love me."

  "It's hardly worth trying. I think you would make a very poor sort of villain, Sir Redmond. You wouldn't even be picturesque."

  Sir Redmond looked rather floored. He was a good fighter, was Sir Redmond, but he was clumsy at repartee—or, perhaps, he was too much in earnest to fence gracefully. Just now he looked particularly foolish.

  "Don't you think my brand is pretty? You know what it is, don't you?"

  "I'm afraid not," he owned. "I fancy I need a good bit of coaching in the matter of brands."

  "Yes," agreed Beatrice, "I fancy you do. My brand is a Triangle Bar—like this." With a sharp pointed bit of rock she drew a more or less exact diagram in the yellow soil. "There are ever so many different brands belonging to the Northern Pool; Dick pointed them out to me, but I can't remember them. But whenever you see a Triangle Bar you'll be looking at my individual property. I think it was nice of Dick to give me a brand all my own. Mr. Cameron has a pretty brand, too—a Maltese Cross. The Maltese Cross was owned at one time by President Roosevelt. Mr. Cameron bought it when he left college and went into the cattle business. He 'plays a lone hand,' as he calls it; but his cattle range with the Northern Pool, and he and Dick work together a great deal. I think he has lovely eyes, don't you?" The eyes of Beatrice were intent upon the Bear Paws when she said it—which brought her shoulder toward Sir Redmond and hid her face from him.

  "I can't say I ever observed Mr. Cameron's eyes," said Sir Redmond stiffly.

  Beatrice turned back to him, and smiled demurely. When Beatrice smiled that very demure smile, of which she was capable, the weather-wise generally edged toward their cyclone-cellars. Sir Redmond was not weather-wise—he was too much in love with her—and he did not possess a cyclone cellar; he therefore suffered much at the hands of Beatrice.

  "But surely you must have noticed that deep, deep dimple in his chin?" she questioned innocently. Keith Cameron, I may say, did not have a dimple in his chin at all; there was, however, a deep crease in it.

  "I did not." Sir Redmond rubbed his own chin, which was so far from dimpling that is was rounded like half an apricot.

  "Dear me! And you sat opposite to him at dinner yesterday, too! I suppose, then, you did not observe that his teeth are the whitest, evenest."

  "They make them cheaply over here, I'm told," he retorted, setting his heel emphatically down and annihilating a red and black caterpillar.

  "Now, why did you do that? I must say you English are rather brutal?"

  "I can't abide worms."

  "Well, neither can I. And I think it would be foolish to quarrel about a man's good looks," Beatrice said, with surprising sweetness.

  Sir Redmond hunched his shoulders and retreated to the comfort of his pipe. "A bally lot of good looks!" he sneered. "A woman is never convinced, though."

  "I am." Beatrice sat down upon a rock and rested her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands—and an adorable picture she made, I assure you. "I'm thoroughly convinced of several things. One is Mr. Cameron's good looks; another is that you're cross."

  "Oh, come, now!" protested Sir Redmond feebly, and sucked furiously at his pipe.

  "Yes," reiterated Beatrice, examining his perturbed face judicially; "you are downright ugly."

  The face of Sir Redmond grew redder and more perturbed; just as Beatrice meant that it should; she seemed to derive a keen pleasure from goading this big, good-looking Englishman to the verge of apoplexy.

  "I'm sure I never meant to be rude; but a fellow can't fall down and worship every young farmer, don't you know—not even to please you!"

  Beatrice smiled and threw a pebble down the slope, watching it bound and skip to the bottom, where it rolled away and hid in the grass.

  "I love this wide country," she observed, abandoning her torture with a suddenness that was a characteristic of her nature. When Beatrice had made a man look and act the fool she was ready to stop; one cannot say that of every woman. "One can draw long, deep breaths without robbing one's neighbor of oxygen. Everything is so big, and broad, and generous, out here. One can ride for miles and miles through the grandest, wildest places,—and—there aren't any cigar and baking-powder and liver-pill signs plastered over the rocks, thank goodness! If man has traveled that way before, you do not have the evidence of his passing staring you in the face. You can make believe it is all your own—by right of discovery. I'm afraid your England would seem rather little and crowded after a month or two of this." She swept her hand toward the river, and the grass-land beyond, and the mountains rimming the world.

  "You should see the moors!" cried Sir Redmond, brightening under this peaceful mood of hers. "I fancy you would not find trouble in drawing long breaths there. Moor Cottage, where your sister and Wiltmar lived, is surrounded by wide stretches of open—not like this, to be sure, but not half-bad in its way, either."

  "Dolly grew to love that place, though she did write homesick letters at first. I was going over, after my coming out—and then came that awful accident, when she and Wiltmar were both drowned—and, of course, there was nothing to go for. I should have hated
the place then, I think. But I should like—" Her voice trailed off dreamily, her eyes on the hazy Highwoods.

  Sir Redmond watched her, his eyes a-shine; Beatrice in this mood was something to worship. He was almost afraid to speak, for fear she would snuff out the tiny flame of hope which her half-finished sentence had kindled. He leaned forward, his face eager.

  "Beatrice, only say you will go—with me, dear!"

  Beatrice started; for the moment she had forgotten him. Her eyes kept to the hills. "Go—to England? One trip at a time, Sir Redmond. I have been here only ten days, and we came for three months. Three months of freedom in this big, glorious place."

  "And then?" His voice was husky.

  "And then—freckle lotions by the quart, I expect."

  Sir Redmond got upon his feet, and he was rather white around the mouth.

  "We Englishmen are a stubborn lot, Miss Beatrice. We won't stop fighting until we win."

  "We Yankees," retorted she airily, "value our freedom above everything else. We won't surrender it without fighting for it first."

  He caught eagerly at the lack of finality in her tones. "I don't want to take your freedom, Beatrice. I only want the right to love you."

  "Oh, as for that, I suppose you may love me as much as you please—only so you don't torment me to death talking about it."

  Beatrice, not looking particularly tormented, waved answer to Dick, who was shouting something up at her, and went blithely down the hill, with Sir Redmond following gloomily, several paces behind.

  CHAPTER 4. Beatrice Learns a New Language.

  "D'you want to see the boys work a bunch of cattle, Trix?" Dick said to her, when she came down to where he was leaning against a high board fence, waiting for her.

  "'Deed I do, Dicky—only I've no idea what you mean."

  "The boys are going to cut out some cattle we've contracted to the government—for the Indians, you know. They're holding the bunch over in Dry Coulee; it's only three or four miles. I've got to go over and see the foreman, and I thought maybe you'd like to go along."