The glow of a certain hard pride burned through the careworn languor of her brown cheek. What she had said was strangely true. This raw-boned woman before him, although scarcely middle-aged, had for years occupied a self-imposed maternal and protecting relation, not only to her husband and brothers, but to the three or four men, who as partners, or hired hands, lived at the ranch. An inherited and trained sympathy with what she called her boyss and her men folk, and their needs had partly unsexed her. She was a fair type of a class not uncommon on the Southwestern frontier; women who were ruder helpmeets of their rude husbands and brothers, who had shared their privations and sufferings with surly, masculine endurance, rather than feminine patience; women who had sent their loved ones to hopeless adventure or terrible vendetta as a matter of course, or with partisan fury; who had devotedly nursed the wounded to keep alive the feud, or had received back their dead dry-eyed and revengeful. Small wonder that Cressy McKinstry had developed strangely under this sexless relationship. Looking at the mother, albeit not without a certain respect, Mr. Ford found himself contrasting her with the daughters graceful femininity, and wondering where in Cressys youthful contour the possibility of the grim figure before him was even now hidden.
Hiram allowed to go over to the schoolhouse and see you this mornin, said Mrs. McKinstry, after a pause; but I reckon ez how he had to look up stock on the river. The cattle are that wild this time o year, huntin water, and hangin round the tules, that my men are nigh worrited out o their butes with em. Hank and Jim aint been off their mustangs since sun up, and Hiram, what with partrollen the West Boundary all night, watchin stakes whar them low down Harrisons hev been trespassinhasnt put his feet to the ground in fourteen hours. Mebbee you noticed Hiram ez you kem along? Ef so, ye didnt remember what kind o shootin irons he had with him? I see his rifle over yon. Like ez not hez only got his six-shooter, and them Harrisons are mean enough to lay for him at long range. But, she added, returning to the less important topic, I spose Cressy came all right.
Yes, said the master hopelessly.
I reckon she looked so, continued Mrs. McKinstry, with tolerant abstraction. She allowed to do herself credit in one of them new store gownds that she got at Sacramento. At least thats what some of our men said. Late years, I aint kept tech with the fashions myself. She passed her fingers explanatorily down the folds of her own coarse gown, but without regret or apology.
She seemed well prepared in her lessons, said the master, abandoning for the moment that criticism of his pupils dress, which he saw was utterly futile, but am I to understand that she is coming regularly to schoolthat she is now perfectly free to give her entire attention to her studiesthatthatherengagement is broken off?
Why, didnt she tell ye? echoed Mrs. McKinstry in languid surprise.
SHE certainly did, said the master with slight embarrassment, but
Ef SHE said so, interrupted Mrs. McKinstry abstractedly, she oughter know, and you kin tie to what she says.
But as Im responsible to PARENTS and not to scholars for the discipline of my school, returned the young man a little stiffly, I thought it my duty to hear it from YOU.
Thats so, said Mrs. McKinstry meditatively; then I reckon youd better see Hiram. That ar Seth Davis engagement was a matter of hern and her fathers, and not in MY line. I spose that Hiram natrally allows to set the thing square to you and inquirin friends.
I hope you understand, said the master, slightly resenting the classification, that my reason for inquiring about the permanency of your daughters attendance was simply because it might be necessary to arrange her studies in a way more suitable to her years; perhaps even to suggest to you that a young ladies seminary might be more satisfactory
Sartain, sartain, interrupted Mrs. McKinstry hurriedly, but whether from evasion of annoying suggestion or weariness of the topic, the master could not determine. Youd better speak to Hiram about it. Ony, she hesitated slightly, ez hes got now sorter set and pinted towards your school, and is a trifle worrited with stock and them Harrisons, ye might tech it lightly. He oughter be along yer now. I cant think what keeps him. Her eye wandered again with troubled preoccupation to the corner where her husbands Sharps rifle stood. Suddenly she raised her voice as if forgetful of Mr. Fords presence.
O Cressy!
O Maw!
The response came from the inner room. The next moment Cressy appeared at the door with an odd half-lazy defiance in her manner, which the master could not understand except upon the hypothesis that she had been listening. She had already changed her elaborate toilet for a long clinging, coarse blue gown, that accented the graceful curves of her slight, petticoat-less figure. Nodding her head towards the master, she said, Howdy? and turned to her mother, who practically ignored their personal acquaintance. Cressy, she said, Dads gone and left his Sharps yer, dye mind takin it along to meet him, afore he passes the Boundary corner. Ye might tell him the teachers yer, wantin to see him.
One moment, said the master, as the young girl carelessly stepped to the corner and lifted the weapon. Let ME take it. Its all on my way back to school and Ill meet him.
Mrs. McKinstry looked perturbed. Cressy opened her clear eyes on the master with evident surprise. No, Mr. Ford, said Mrs. McKinstry, with her former maternal manner. Yed better not mix yourself up with these yer doins. Yeve no call to do it, and Cressy has; its all in the family. But its outer YOUR line, and them Harrison whelps go to your school. Fancy the teacher takin weppins betwixt and between!
Its fitter work for the teacher than for one of his scholars, and a young lady at that, said Mr. Ford gravely, as he took the rifle from the hands of the half-amused, half-reluctant girl. Its quite safe with me, and I promise I shall deliver it into Mr. McKinstrys hands and none other.
Perhaps it wouldnt be ez likely to be ginrally noticed ez it would if one of US carried it, murmured Mrs. McKinstry in confidential abstraction, gazing at her daughter sublimely unconscious of the presence of a third party.
Youre quite right, said the master composedly, throwing the rifle over his shoulder and turning towards the door. So Ill say good-afternoon, and try and find your husband.
Mrs. McKinstry constrainedly plucked at the folds of her coarse gown. Yell like a drink afore ye go, she said, in an ill-concealed tone of relief. I clean forgot my manners. Cressy, fetch out that demijohn.
Not for me, thank you, returned Mr. Ford smiling.
Oh, I seeyoure temperance, natrally, said Mrs. McKinstry with a tolerant sigh.
Hardly that, returned the master, I follow no rule, I drink sometimesbut not to-day.
Mrs. McKinstrys dark face contracted. Dont you see, Maw, struck in Cressy quickly. Teacher drinks sometimes, but he dont USE whiskey. Thats all.
Her mothers face relaxed. Cressy slipped out of the door before the master, and preceded him to the gate. When she had reached it she turned and looked into his face.
What did Maw say to yer about seein me just now?
Not for me, thank you, returned Mr. Ford smiling.
Oh, I seeyoure temperance, natrally, said Mrs. McKinstry with a tolerant sigh.
Hardly that, returned the master, I follow no rule, I drink sometimesbut not to-day.
Mrs. McKinstrys dark face contracted. Dont you see, Maw, struck in Cressy quickly. Teacher drinks sometimes, but he dont USE whiskey. Thats all.
Her mothers face relaxed. Cressy slipped out of the door before the master, and preceded him to the gate. When she had reached it she turned and looked into his face.
What did Maw say to yer about seein me just now?
I dont understand you.
To your seein me and Joe Masters on the trail?
She said nothing.
Humph, said Cressy meditatively. What was it you told her about it?
Nothing.
Then you DIDNT see us?
I saw you with some oneI dont know whom.
And you didnt tell Maw?
I did not. It was none of my business.
He instantly saw the utter inconsistency of this speech in connection with the reason he believed he had in coming. But it was too late to recall it, and she was looking at him with a bright but singular expression.
That Joe Masters is the conceitedest fellow goin. I told him you could see his foolishness.
Ah, indeed.
Mr. Ford pushed open the gate. As the girl still lingered he was obliged to hold it a moment before passing through.
Maw couldnt quite hitch on to your not drinkin. She reckons youre like everybody else about yer. Thats where she slips up on you. And everybody else, I kalkilate.
I suppose shes somewhat anxious about your father, and I dare say is expecting me to hurry, returned the master pointedly.
Oh, dads all right, said Cressy mischievously. Youll come across him over yon, in the clearing. But youre looking right purty with that gun. It kinder sets you off. You oughter wear one.
The master smiled slightly, said Good-by, and took leave of the girl, but not of her eyes, which were still following him. Even when he had reached the end of the lane and glanced back at the rambling dwelling, she was still leaning on the gate with one foot on the lower rail and her chin cupped in the hollow of her hand. She made a slight gesture, not clearly intelligible at that distance; it might have been a mischievous imitation of the way he had thrown the gun over his shoulder, it might have been a wafted kiss.
The master however continued his way in no very self-satisfied mood. Although he did not regret having taken the place of Cressy as the purveyor of lethal weapons between the belligerent parties, he knew he was tacitly mingling in the feud between people for whom he cared little or nothing. It was true that the Harrisons sent their children to his school, and that in the fierce partisanship of the locality this simple courtesy was open to misconstruction. But he was more uneasily conscious that this mission, so far as Mrs. McKinstry was concerned, was a miserable failure. The strange relations of the mother and daughter perhaps explained much of the girls conduct, but it offered no hope of future amelioration. Would the father, worrited by stock and boundary quarrelsa man in the habit of cutting Gordian knots with a bowie knifeprove more reasonable? Was there any nearer sympathy between father and daughter? But she had said he would meet McKinstry in the clearing: she was right, for here he was coming forward at a gallop!
CHAPTER III
When within a dozen paces of the master, McKinstry, scarcely checking his mustang, threw himself from the saddle, and with a sharp cut of his riata on the animals haunches sent him still galloping towards the distant house. Then, with both hands deeply thrust in the side pockets of his long, loose linen coat, he slowly lounged with clanking spurs towards the young man. He was thick-set, of medium height, densely and reddishly bearded, with heavy-lidded pale blue eyes that wore a look of drowsy pain, and after their first wearied glance at the master, seemed to rest anywhere but on him.
Your wife was sending you your rifle by Cressy, said the master, but I offered to bring it myself, as I thought it scarcely a proper errand for a young lady. Here it is. I hope you didnt miss it before and dont require it now, he added quietly.
Mr. McKinstry took it in one hand with an air of slightly embarrassed surprise, rested it against his shoulder, and then with the same hand and without removing the other from his pocket, took off his soft felt hat, showed a bullet-hole in its rim, and returned lazily, Its about half an hour late, but them Harrisons reckoned I was fixed for em and war too narvous to draw a clear bead on me.
The moment was evidently not a felicitous one for the masters purpose, but he was determined to go on. He hesitated an instant, when his companion, who seemed to be equally but more sluggishly embarrassed, in a moment of preoccupied perplexity withdrew from his pocket his right hand swathed in a blood-stained bandage, and following some instinctive habit, attempted, as if reflectively, to scratch his head with two stiffened fingers.
You are hurt, said the master, genuinely shocked, and here I am detaining you.
I had my hand upso, explained McKinstry, with heavy deliberation, and the ball raked off my little finger after it went through my hat. But that aint what I wanted to say when I stopped ye. I aint just kam enough yet, he apologized in the calmest manner, and I clean forgit myself, he added with perfect self-possession. But I was kalkilatin to ask youhe laid his bandaged hand familiarly on the masters shoulderif Cressy kem all right?
Perfectly, said the master. But shant I walk on home with you, and we can talk together after your wound is attended to?
And she looked purty? continued McKinstry without moving.
Very.
And you thought them new store gownds of hers right peart?
Yes, said the master. Perhaps a little too fine for the school, you know, he added insinuatingly, and
Not for hernot for her, interrupted McKinstry. I reckon thars more whar that cam from! Ye neednt fear but that she kin keep up that gait ez long ez Hiram McKinstry hez the runnin of her.
Mr. Ford gazed hopelessly at the hideous ranch in the distance, at the sky, and the trail before him; then his glance fell upon the hand still upon his shoulder, and he struggled with a final effort. At another time Id like to have a long talk with you about your daughter, Mr. McKinstry.
Talk on, said McKinstry, putting his wounded hand through the masters arm. I admire to hear you. Youre that kam, it does me good.
Nevertheless the master was conscious that his own arm was scarcely as firm as his companions. It was however useless to draw back now, and with as much tact as he could command he relieved his mind of its purpose. Addressing the obtruding bandage before him, he dwelt upon Cressys previous attitude in the school, the danger of any relapse, the necessity of her having a more clearly defined position as a scholar, and even the advisability of her being transferred to a more advanced school with a more mature teacher of her own sex. This is what I wished to say to Mrs. McKinstry to-day, he concluded, but she referred me to you.
In course, in course, said McKinstry, nodding complacently. Shes a good woman in and around the ranch, and in any doins o this kind, he lightly waved his wounded arm in the air, there aint a better, tho I say it. She was Blair Rawlins darter; she and her brother Clay bein the only ones that kem out safe arter their twenty years fight with the McEntees in West Kaintuck. But she dont understand gals ez you and me do. Not that Im much, ez I orter be more kam. And the old woman jest sized the hull thing when she said SHE hadnt any hand in Cressys engagement. No more she had! And ez far ez that goes, no more did me, nor Seth Davis, nor Cressy. He paused, and lifting his heavy-lidded eyes to the master for the second time, said reflectively, Ye mustnt mind my tellin yeez betwixt man and manthat THE one ez is most responsible for the makin and breakin o that engagement is YOU!