Her Prairie Knight Part 6

She was politely interested in Keith's ranch, and if she clung persistently to her society manner, why, her society manner was very pleasing, if somewhat unsatisfying to a fellow fairly drunk with her winsomeness. Keith showed her where she might look straight up the coulee to her brother's ranch, two miles away, and when she wished she might see what they were doing up there, he went in and got his field-gla.s.s. She thanked him prettily, and impersonally, and focused the gla.s.s upon d.i.c.k's house--which gave Keith another chance to look at her without being caught in the act.

"How plain everything is! I can see mama, out on the porch, and Miss Hayes." She could also see Sir Redmond, who had just ridden up, and was talking to the ladies, but she did not think it necessary to mention him, for some reason; she kept her eyes to the gla.s.s, however, and appeared much absorbed. d.i.c.k rolled himself a cigarette and watched the two, and there was a twinkle in his eyes.

"I wonder--d.i.c.k, I do think--I'm afraid--" Beatrice hadn't her society manner now; she was her unaffected, girlish self; and she was growing excited.

"What's the matter?" d.i.c.k got up, and came and stood at her elbow.

"They're acting queerly. The maids are running about, and the cook is out, waving a large spoon, and mama has her arm around Miss Hayes, and Sir Redmond."

"Let's see." d.i.c.k took the gla.s.s and raised it to his eyes for a minute.

"That's right," he said. "They're making medicine over something. See what you make of it, Keith."

Keith took the gla.s.s and looked through it. It was like a moving picture; one could see, but one wanted the interpretation of sound.

"We'd better ride over," he said quietly. "Don't worry, Miss Lansell; it probably isn't anything serious. We can take the short cut up the coulee, and find out." He put the gla.s.s into its leathern case and started to the gate, where the horses were standing. He did not tell Beatrice that Miss Hayes had just been carried into the house in a faint, or that her mother was behaving in an undignified fashion strongly suggesting hysterics. But d.i.c.k knew, from the look on his face, that it was serious. He hurried before them with long strides, leaving Beatrice, for the second time that morning, to the care of his neighbor.

So it was Keith who held his hand down for the delicious pressure of her foot, and arranged her habit with painstaking care, considering the hurry they were in. d.i.c.k was in the saddle, and gone, before Keith had finished, and Keith was not a slow young man, as a rule. They ran the two miles without a break, except twice, where there were gates to close. d.i.c.k, speeding a furlong before, had obligingly left them open; and a stockman is hard pressed indeed--or very drunk--when he fails to close his gates behind him. It is an unwritten law which becomes second nature.

Almost within sound of the place, d.i.c.k raced back and met them, and his face was white.

"It's Dorman!" he cried. "He's lost. They haven't seen him since we left. You know, Trix, he was standing at the gate."

Beatrice went white as d.i.c.k; whiter, for she was untanned. An overwhelming sense of blame squeezed her heart tight. Keith, seeing her shoulders droop limply, reined close, to catch her in his arms if there was the slightest excuse. However, Beatrice was a healthy young woman, with splendid command of her nerves, and she had no intention of fainting. The sickening weakness pa.s.sed in a moment.

"It's my fault," she said, speaking rapidly, her eyes seeking d.i.c.k's for comfort. "I said 'yes' to everything he asked me, because I was thinking of something else, and not paying attention. He was going to buy your horse, Mr. Cameron, and now he's lost!"

This, though effective, was not particularly illuminating. d.i.c.k wanted details, and he got them--for Beatrice, having remorse to stir the dregs of memory, repeated nearly everything Dorman had said, even telling how the big, high pony put up his front hand, and he shaked it, and how Dorman truly needed some little wheels on his feet.

"Poor little devil," Keith muttered, with wet eyes.

"He--he said you lived over there," Beatrice finished, pointing, as Dorman had pointed--which was not toward the "Cross" ranch at all, but straight toward the river.

Keith wheeled Redcloud; there was no need to hear more. He took the hill at a pace which would have killed any horse but one bred to race over this rough country. Near the top, the forced breathing of another horse at his heels made him look behind. It was Beatrice following, her eyes like black stars. I do not know if Keith was astonished, but I do know that he was pleased.

"Where's d.i.c.k?" was all he said then.

"d.i.c.k's going to meet the men--the cowboys. Sir Redmond went after them, when they found Dorman wasn't anywhere about the place."

Keith nodded understandingly, and slowed to let her come alongside.

"It's no use riding in bunches," he remarked, after a little. "On circle we always go in pairs. We'll find him, all right."

"We must," said Beatrice, simply, and shaded her eyes with her hand. For they had reached the top, and the prairie land lay all about them and below, lazily asleep in the sunshine.

Keith halted and reached for his gla.s.s. "It's lucky I brought it along,"

he said. "I wasn't thinking, at the time; I just slung it over my shoulder from habit."

"It's a good habit, I think," she answered, trying to smile; but her lips would only quiver, for the thought of her blame tortured her. "Can you see--anything?" she ventured wistfully.

Keith shook his head, and continued his search. "There are so many little washouts and coulees, down there, you know. That's the trouble with a gla.s.s--it looks only on a level. But we'll find him. Don't you worry about that. He couldn't go far."

"There isn't any real danger, is there?"

"Oh, no," Keith said. "Except--" He bit his lip angrily.

"Except what?" she demanded. "I'm not silly, Mr. Cameron--tell me."

Keith took the gla.s.s from his eyes, looked at her, and paid her the compliment of deciding to tell her, just as if she were a man.

"Nothing, only--he might run across a snake," he said. "Rattlers."

Beatrice drew her breath hard, but she was plucky. Keith thought he had never seen a pluckier girl, and the West can rightfully boast brave women.

She touched Rex with the whip. "Come," she commanded. "We must not stand here. It has been more than three hours."

Keith put away the gla.s.s, and shot ahead to guide her.

"We must have missed him, somewhere." The eyes of Beatrice were heavy with the weariness born of anxiety and suspense. They stood at the very edge of the steep bluff which rimmed the river. "You don't think he could have--" Her eyes, shuddering down at the mocking, blue-gray ripples, finished the thought.

"He couldn't have got this far," said Keith. "His legs would give out, climbing up and down. We'll go back by a little different way, and look."

"There's something moving, off there." Beatrice pointed with her whip.

"That's a coyote," Keith told her; and then, seeing the look on her face: "They won't hurt any one. They're the rankest cowards on the range."

"But the snakes--"

"Oh, well, he might wander around for a week, and not run across one. We won't borrow trouble, anyway."

"No," she agreed languidly. The sun was hot, and she had not had anything to eat since early breakfast, and the river mocked her parched throat with its cool glimmer below. She looked down at it wistfully, and Keith, watchful of every pa.s.sing change in her face, led her back to where a cold, little spring crept from beneath a rock; there, lifting her down, he taught her how to drink from her hand.

For himself, he threw himself down, pushed back his hat, and drank long and leisurely. A brown lock of hair, clinging softly together with moisture, fell from his forehead and trailed in the clear water, and Beatrice felt oddly tempted to push it back where it belonged. Standing quietly watching his picturesque figure, she forgot, for the moment, that a little boy was lost among these peaceful, sunbathed hills; she remembered only the man at her feet, drinking long, satisfying drafts, while the lock of hair floated in the spring.

"Now we'll go on." He stood up and pushed back the wet lock, which trickled a tiny stream down his cheek, and settled his gray hat in place.

Again that day he felt her foot in his palm, and the touch went over him in thrills. She was tired, he knew; her foot pressed heavier than it had before. He would have liked to take her in his arms and lift her bodily into the saddle, but he hardly dared think of such a blissful proceeding.

He set the pace slower, however, and avoided the steepest places, and he halted often on the higher ground, to scan sharply the coulees. And so they searched, these two, together, and grew to know each other better than in a month of casual meetings. And the gra.s.s nodded, and the winds laughed, and the stern hills looked on, quizzically silent. If they knew aught of a small boy with a wealth of yellow curls and white collar, they gave no sign, and the two rode on, always seeking hopefully.

A snake buzzed sharply on a gravelly slope, and Keith, sending Beatrice back a safe distance, took down his rope and gave battle, beating the sinister, gray-spotted coil with the loop until it straightened and was still. He dismounted then, and pinched off the rattles--nine, there were, and a "b.u.t.ton"--and gave them to Beatrice, who handled them gingerly, and begged Keith to carry them for her. He slipped them into his pocket, and they went on, saying little.

Back near the ranch they met d.i.c.k and Sir Redmond. They exchanged sharp looks, and d.i.c.k shook his head.

"We haven't found him--yet. The boys are riding circle around the ranch; they're bound to find him, some of them, if we don't."

"You had better go home," Sir Redmond told her, with a note of authority in his voice which set Keith's teeth on edge. "You look done to death; this is men's work."

Beatrice bit her lip, and barely glanced at him. "I'll go--when Dorman is found. What shall we do now, d.i.c.k?"