Chapter XXIV
The Shadow
There was something awaiting Alan Howard at his ranch house that for alittle at least made him forget Sanchia and Courtot and hard climbsahead in the road he must travel. Tired as he was and dispirited whenhe got home late that night he went to bed glowing with content. Atdawn he was in the saddle. The Longstreets, early risers as they hadgrown to be, had only finished breakfast when he came racing into BearValley, waving his hat to them and calling cheerily. A first frowncame when he saw that Sanchia Murray was breakfasting with them, butthe frown did not linger.
'Good morning, everybody,' he greeted them. Helen, sitting in the sunon the doorstep, got to her feet; her father came smiling out to shakehands; even Sanchia, pushing her plate back, rose. She looked at himsearchingly, appearing to note and wonder at his gay mood.
'No, I won't light down and have coffee with you,' he laughed at theinvitation. 'And I won't stop to eat, having devoured a day's rationsbefore I hit the saddle. No, there's nothing you can do for me, Mr.Longstreet; there's nothing in the world I want.' Helen had given himher hand; he held it a little before he would let it free and lookedstraight down into her eyes and kept on laughing gaily as he declaredwith certain unmistakable boldness: 'Right now I've got every blessedthing in the wide world I want.'
Sanchia said sharply: 'You must have been unusually successful in yourlatest deal?'
'It's the next deal I'm thinking of,' he told her lightly, letting herhave the words to ponder on if she liked. But he had scant time forSanchia and his eyes came back to Helen. 'I've got to ride into thenew camp to see Roberts,' he told her. 'He's seen my mules and isbuying. How would an early ride suit you? And I'll show you how easyit is to collect six hundred dollars before most folks have hadbreakfast!'
'My, what a lot of money,' laughed Helen. 'Of course I'll come. Youknow where I keep Danny. If you'll saddle for me I'll get ready and beout in two minutes.'
When they rode away down the trail together, Longstreet was smiling,and Sanchia frowning after them.
'She even eats with you?' queried Howard.
'I just thank Heaven she hasn't brought her bed in yet,' answeredHelen. 'She is as transparent as a piece of glass, and yet dear oldpops lets her pile the wool over his eyes as thick as she pleases. I'mjust giving her plenty of rope,' she added philosophically. 'Do that,and people always get tangled up first and then hang themselves next,don't they?'
'Give me plenty of rope!' he said eagerly. 'I'll just tie myself up,hand and foot, and give you the end of the rope to hold.'
She laughed at him, touched Danny with her new spurs and shot ahead.
'You're nearly dying to tell me some good news,' she said when he hadcome up with her again. 'Aren't you?'
'I want to show you a letter I got when I came in last night. But I'djust as soon think of handing it over to a whirlwind as to you at therate you are going.'
They drew their horses down to a walk. From his pocket Howard took anenvelope; from the envelope brought forth a long blue slip of paper,torn in two, and with a few words penned across the fragments in a bigrunning scrawl. He held the two pieces together for her to read; bynow the horses had stopped and, being old friends, were rubbing noses.Helen read:
'Dear old Al: It took me a few days to see straight. Instead ofblocking your game, let me help whenever I can. Don't need this now;won't have it. Take your time, Al. Good luck and so long.
JOHN.'
'Turn it over!' cried Howard.
Helen obeyed, only then fully understanding. It was a cheque fortwelve thousand five hundred dollars, signed by Alan Howard and payableto the order of John Carr. Again she looked at the brief note; it wasdated, and the date was eight days old. Her face flushed suddenly; thecolour deepened.
'He wrote that the day after I sent my telegram to him!' she criedbreathlessly.
'Telegram?'
'Yes.' She hesitated, then ran on swiftly: 'When Mr. Carr left I lethim think that maybe father and I would follow soon. I don't know thatI had been exactly what you men call square with Mr. Carr. I wanted tobe square with everyone. So I sent him a telegram, saying that weappreciated his generosity but that we would stay here.'
Howard studied the date on the fluttering paper and his mind ran back.
'You sent that wire the day after I came back last time!'
'And if I did?' She met his look serenely.
'You did so because you cared----'
But Helen laughed at him, and again Danny, touched with a sudden spur,shot ahead down the trail.
They clattered like runaway children into the crooked rocky street ofSanchia's Town. Had their thoughts been less busied with themselvesand with a hint of a rosy future and with the bigness of the thingwhich John Carr had done for them, they would have marked long ago thathere something was amiss. But it was only when they were fairly in theheart of the settlement that they stopped abruptly to stare at eachother. Now there was no misunderstanding what had happened! Sanchia'sTown, that had been a busy, humming human hive no longer ago thanyesterday was this morning still, deserted, empty and dead. Those whohad rushed hitherward seeking gold were gone; be the explanation whereit might, shacks stood with doors flung wide; tents had been torn down,outworn articles discarded, dumped helter-skelter into the road. Theatmosphere was like that of a circus grounds when the circus was movingon, only a few things left for the last crew to come for.
'It feels like a graveyard,' whispered Helen. 'What has happened?'
'The old story, I suppose.' He turned sideways in the saddle, lookingabout him for a sign of remaining life. 'It grew in the night; somehowit has pinched out; the bottom has dropped out of it. Nate Kemble ofQuigley bought up two or three claims; I've a notion the rest wereworthless. Anyway, like many another of its kind, Sanchia's Town wasborn, has lived and died like old Solomon Gundy.'
Helen's face was that of one in deep study.
'Papa was saying only day before yesterday,' she said thoughtfully,'that this was going to happen. He said that was why he hadn't takenthe trouble to make a fight for his rights here. He said that Kemblehad bought up all of the land that was worth anything; and that he,himself, had given Kemble the right tip. It begins to look as thoughpapa knew, doesn't it?'
Howard nodded vigorously.
'He knows gold mines and he knows gold signs,' he said positively.'I've felt that all along. But----'
'But,' she took the words out of his mouth, speaking hastily, 'hedoesn't know the first thing about people; about a woman like SanchiaMurray. And now that he says he is going to locate his real mine andwe are leaving him with her----'
'We mustn't be away too long,' he agreed.
'Look. There's some one down there at the lunch counter; at leastthere's a little smoke from the stovepipe. Shall we see who it is?'
It was love among the ruins. Or, in other words, Yellow Barbee leaninghalfway across the lunch counter, toward the roguish-eyed, plump maidwho leaned slowly toward him.
'Hello, Barbee,' called Alan. And when Barbee greeted him withoutenthusiasm, he asked: 'What's happened to the town?'
'Hit the slide,' said Barbee carelessly. 'Bottom fell through, Iguess, and at the same time somebody started a scare about gold beingfound down toward Big Run. The fools,' he scoffed, 'piled out likecrazy sheep. You can find the way they went by a trail of old tin cupsand socks and such stuff dropped on the run.'
'Roberts, the teamster, has gone, I suppose?'
'He'll be back. Pet's old man is still packing his stuff and Robertsis going to haul it this afternoon. I'm sticking along, helping pack,'he grinned. Pet eyed him in high mock scorn.
'A lot of help you are,' she told him. Barbee laughed.
Howard and Helen were reining their horses about to leave when Barbeecame out into the road and put a detaining hand upon Howard's horse'smane.
'Saw Jim Courtot last night, Al,' he said quietly.
'Here?' asked Howard quic
kly. So long had Courtot seemed theembodiment of all that was elusive that it came with something of ashock of surprise that any man had seen him.
'Yes,' Barbee nodded. 'He's trailing his luck with that Murray womanagain. They're a bad outfit, Al; better keep your eye peeled.'
Howard did not smile at Barbee's reference to Sanchia. He hardlyremarked it.
'Tell me about Courtot,' he commanded.
'Something's come over him,' said Barbee vaguely. 'He's differentsomehow, Al; and I can't just get him. If he ain't half crazy he ain'tmuch more than half right. He's got a funny look in his eyes; he's asnervous as a cat; he jumps sideways if you move quick. Last night Ithought he was going to break and run for cover at a little sound noman would pay any attention to,'
'What kind of a sound?'
'Just a fool dog barking! Well, so long, Al. I got to help Pet do herpacking.' And winking his merry eye, Barbee turned back toward thelunch counter.
Howard and Helen rode again toward the hills. Across the girl's face ashadow had fallen. Howard wondered if it were there because the oddsadness of a forsaken town had tinged her spirit with its own weirdmelancholy; or if she had been disturbed by word of Jim Courtot.Barbee had spoken quietly, but Helen might have heard. They rode insilence until Sanchia's Town was lost behind a ridge. Then Helen askedsteadily:
'Is there no way out for you and Jim Courtot but the way of violence?'
He sought to evade, saying lightly that it began to look as though heand Courtot could no more meet than could spring and autumn. But whenshe asked directly, 'What would happen if you did meet?' he answeredbluntly. His mood was not quarrelsome this morning; he wanted noneedless fight with any man. But if Jim Courtot stepped out into histrail and began shooting . . . Well, he left it to her, what wouldhappen. Then he began to speak of Barbee and his new girl, of anythingthat offered itself to his mind as a lighter topic. But Helen was inno responsive mood. It seemed to her that a shadow had crept acrossthe sky; that the warmth had gone out of the sunlight. A fear creptinto her heart, and like many a baseless emotion grew into certainty,that if Alan Howard and Jim Courtot came face to face it would be Alanwho fell. When she saw how straight and virile Howard sat in thesaddle; when she marked how full of life and the sheer joy of life hewas; when she read in his eyes something of his own dreams for thefuture; when then she saw the gun always bumping at his hips, sheshivered as though cold. Her own senses grew sharpened; her fanciesraced feverishly. From every boulder, from every bend in the trail,she feared to see the sinister face of Jim Courtot.