CHAPTER TWELVE
KATE FINDS SOMETHING TO WORRY OVER
Kate may have been wild, but if so she managed to maintain anadmirable composure when Marion walked up to the door of the cabin.She did not greet her best friend with hysterical rejoicings, probablybecause she had been told of her best friend's safety soon after darkthe night before, and had since found much to resent in Marion'spredicament and the worry which she had suffered before Marion'smessage came.
"Well!" she said, and continued brushing her hair. "Have you had anybreakfast?"
"Ages ago. Where's everybody?" Marion flung down her hat and madestraight for the hammock.
"Helping put out the forest fire, I suppose. They had to go lastnight, and I was left all alone. I hope I may never pass as horrible anight again. I did not sleep one minute. I was so nervous that I neverclosed my eyes. I walked the floor practically all night."
"Forevermore!" Marion murmured from the hammock, her cheek droppedupon an arm. "I simply ruined my shoes, Kate, walking through allthose ashes and burnt stuff. You've no idea how long it stays hot. Iwonder what would soften the leather again. Have we any vaseline?"
Kate looked at her a minute and gave a sigh of resignation. "SometimesI really envy you your absolute lack of the finer sensibilities,Marion. I should not have suffered so last night, worrying about you,if I were gifted with your lack of temperament. Yes, I believe we havea jar of vaseline, if that is what worries you most. But for my part,I should think other things would concern you more."
"Why shouldn't it concern me to spoil a pair of nine dollar shoes? Idon't suppose I could get any like them in Quincy, and you know what atime I had getting fitted in Hamburger's. And besides, I couldn'tafford another pair; not till we sell our trees anyway."
"How is the fire? Are they getting it put out?" Kate's face was veiledbehind her hair.
"I don't know, it is down the other side of the mountain now. Butthree hundred men are fighting it, Jack said, so I suppose--"
"Jack!" With a spread of her two palms like a swimmer cleaving thewater, Kate parted her veil of hair and looked out at the girl. "Jackwho? Is that the man up at the lookout station, that you--"
"He's not a man. He's just a big, handsome, sulky kid. When he'scross he pulls his eyebrows together so there's a little lump betweenthem. You want to pinch it. And when he smiles he's got the sweetestexpression around his mouth, Kate! As if he was just so full of theold nick he couldn't behave if he tried. You know--little quirkycreases at the corners, and a twinkle in his eyes--oh, good night!He's just so good looking, honestly, it's a sin. But his dispositionis spoiled. He gets awfully grouchy over the least little thing--"
"Marion, how old is he?" Kate had been holding her hair away from herface and staring all the while with shocked eyes at Marion.
"Oh, I don't know--old enough to drive a girl perfectly crazy if hesmiled at her often enough. Do you want to go up and meet him? He'dlike you, Kate--you're so superior. He simply can't stand me, I'm sucha mental lightweight. His eyes keep saying, 'So young and lovely,and--nobody home,' when he looks at me. You go, Kate. Take him up aloaf of bread; that he had brought from town tastes sour."
"Marion, I don't believe a word you're saying! I can tell by your eyeswhen you're trying to throw me off the track. But old or young,handsome or ugly, it was a dreadful thing for you to spend the nightup there, alone with a strange man. I simply walked the floor allnight, worrying about you! I'd have gone up there in spite of thealtitude, if the fire had not been between. I only hope Fred and theprofessor don't get to hear of it. I was so afraid they would reachhome before you did! But since they didn't, there's no need of sayinganything about it. They left right away, before any of us had gottenanxious about you. If the man who told me doesn't blurt it to everyone he sees--what in the world possessed you, Marion, to phone down tothe Forest Service that you were up there and going to stay?"
"Well, forevermore!" Marion lifted her head from her arm to stare atKate. Then she laughed and lay back luxuriously. "I was afraid youwouldn't know where to look for the bread," she explained meekly, andturned her face away from the sunlight and took a nap.
Kate finished with her hair rather abruptly, considering the leisurelymanner in which she had been brushing it. She glanced often at Marionsprawled gracefully and unconventionally in the hammock with onecinder-blackened boot sticking boyishly out over the edge. Kate's eyesheld an expression of baffled curiosity. They often held thatexpression when she looked at Marion.
But presently the professor came, dragging his feet wearily andmopping his soot-blackened face with a handkerchief as black. He gavethe hammock a longing look, as though he had been counting on easinghis aching body into it. Seeing Marion there asleep, he dropped to thepine needle carpet under a great tree, and began to fan himself withhis stiff-brimmed straw hat that was grimed with smoke and torn bybranches.
"By George!" he exclaimed, glancing toward Kate as she came hurryingfrom the cabin. "That was an ordeal!"
"Oh, did you get it put out? And where is Fred? Shall I make you somelemonade, Douglas?"
"A glass of lemonade would be refreshing, Kate, after the experience Ihave gone through. By George! A forest fire is a tremendous problem,once the conflagration attains any size. We worked like galley slavesall night long, with absolutely no respite. Fred, by the way, is stillworking like a demon."
While Kate was hurrying lemons and sugar into a pitcher, the professorreclined his work-wearied body upon the pine needles and cast hungryglances toward the hammock. He cleared his throat loudly once ortwice, and soliloquized aloud: "By George! I wish I could stretch outcomfortably somewhere."
But Marion did not hear him--apparently being asleep; though theprofessor wondered how one could sleep and at the same time keep ahammock swinging with one's toes, as Marion was doing. He cleared histhroat again, sighed and inquired mildly: "Are you asleep, Marion?"Getting no answer, he sighed again and hitched himself closer to thetree, so that a certain protruding root should not gouge him sodisagreeably in the side.
"Shall I fix you something to eat, Douglas?" The voice of Kate croonedover him solicitously. "I can poach you a couple of eggs in just aminute, over the oil stove, and make you a cup of tea. Is the fireout? And, oh, Douglas! Has it burned any of our timber? I have been soworried, I did not close my eyes once, all night."
"Our timber is safe, I'm happy to say. It really is safer, ifanything, than it was before the fire started. There will be nofurther possibility of fire creeping upon us from that quarter." Hequaffed the lemonade with little, restrained sighs of enjoyment. "Italso occurred to me that every forest fire must necessarily increasethe value of what timber is left. I should say then, strictly betweenyou and me, Kate, that this fire may be looked upon privately as anasset."
The hammock gave an extra swing and then stopped. Kate, being somewhatsensitive to a third presence when she and the professor were talkingtogether, looked fixedly at the hammock.
"If you are awake, dear, it would be tremendously thoughtful to letthe professor have the hammock for a while. He is utterly exhaustedfrom fighting fire all night," she said with sugar-coated annoyance inher tone.
"Oh, don't disturb her--I'm doing very well here for the present," theprofessor made feeble protest when Marion showed no sign of havingheard the hint. "Let the child sleep."
"The child certainly needs sleep, if I am any judge," Kate snappedpettishly, and closed her lips upon further revelations. "Shall Ipoach you some eggs? And then if the child continues to sleep, Isuppose we can bring your cot out under the trees. It is terriblystuffy in the tent. You'd roast."
"Please don't put yourself to any inconvenience at all, Kate. I amreally not hungry at all. Provisions were furnished those who foughtthe fire. I had coffee, and a really substantial breakfast before Ileft them. I shall lie here for a while and enjoy the luxury of doingnothing for a while. By George, Kate! The Forest Service certainlydoes make a man work! Think of felling trees all night long! That isthe way th
ey go about it, I find. They cut down trees and clear awaya strip across the front of the fire where there seems to be thegreatest possibility of keeping the flames from jumping across. Theyeven go so far as to rake back the pine needles and dry cones asthoroughly as possible, and in that manner they prevent the flamesfrom creeping along the ground. It is really wonderfully effectivewhen they can get to work in the light growth. I was astounded to seewhat may be accomplished with axes and picks and rakes and shovels.But it is work, though. By George, it is work!"
"Don't try to root in those needles for a soft spot," Kate advised himpractically. "Not when some persons have more cushions than they needor can use." Whereupon she went over and took two pillows from underMarion's feet, and pulled another from under her shoulder.
These made the professor comfortable enough. He lay back smilinggratefully--even affectionately--upon her.
"You certainly do know how to make a man glad that he is alive," hethanked her. "Now, if I could lie here and look up through thesebranches and listen while a dear little woman I know recites Shelley's_The Cloud_, I could feel that paradise holds no greater joys thanthis sheltered little vale."
The hammock became suddenly and violently agitated. Marion wasturning over with a movement that, in one less gracefully slim, mightbe called a flop.
"Well, good night! I hope you'll excuse me, Kate, for beating it," shesaid, sitting up. "But I've heard The Cloud till I could say itbackwards with my tongue paralyzed. I'll go down by the creek andfinish my sleep." She took the three remaining cushions under her armsand departed. At the creek she paused, her ear turned toward the shadyspot beyond the cabin. She heard Kate's elocutionary voice declaimingbrightly:
"From my wings are shaken the dews that waken The sweet buds, every one--"
She went on a little farther, until she could hear only the highertones of Kate's voice above the happy gurgle of the stream. Shescrambled through a willow tangle, stopped on the farther side tolisten, and smiled when the water talked to her with no interruptionof human voices.
"And Doug thinks he's a real nature lover!" she commented, throwingher cushions down into a grassy little hollow under the bank. "But ifhe would rather hear Kate elocute about it than to lie and listen tothe real thing, he's nothing more or less than a nature pirate." Shecurled herself down among the cushions and stared up through theslender willow branches into the top of an alder that leaned over thebank and dangled its finger-tip branches playfully toward her.
"You pretty thing!" she cooed to it. "What does ail people, that theysit around and talk about you and make up rhymes about you, when youjust want them to come out and love you! You darling! Words only makeyou cheap. Now whisper to me, all about when you woke up last springand found the sun warm and waiting--Go on--tell me about it, and whatyou said to the creek, and all."
Having listened to Kate's dramatic rendition of the poem he liked, theprofessor went over and made himself comfortable in the hammock andbegan talking again about the fire. It was a magnificent spectacle, hedeclared, although he was really too close to it to obtain the bestview. A lot of fine timber was ruined, of course; but fortunately nota tree on any of their claims had been touched. The wind had blown theflames in another direction.
"It would have been terrible to have a fire start in our timber," hewent on. "We should lose all that we have put into the venture sofar--and that would mean a good deal to us all. As it stands now, wehave had a narrow escape. Did you go up where you could obtain a viewof the fire, Kate?"
"No, I didn't." Kate poured herself out a glass of lemonade. "I was soworried about Marion I couldn't think of anything else. And when theman stopped and told me where she was, it was dark and I was afraid togo off alone. Douglas, I never spent as miserable a night in all mylife. The tremendous risk you and Fred were taking made me fairly wildwith anxiety--and then Marion's performance coming up on top ofthat--"
"What was Marion's performance? Did she sit by the creek again untilafter dark, refusing to stir?" He smiled tolerantly. "I know howtrying Marion's little peculiarities can be. But you surely wouldn'ttake them seriously, Kate."
"Oh, no, I suppose not. But when it comes to getting herself caught onthe other side of the fire, and going up to that lookout station andstaying all night, and nobody up there except the lookout man--"
"No! By George, did she do that?"
"Yes, she did, and I think it's perfectly awful! I don't suppose shecould get back, after the fire got started," she admitted grudgingly,"but she might have done _something_, don't you think? She could havegone down the other side, it seems to me. I know I'd have gotten backsomehow. And what hurts me, Douglas, is the way she passed it over, asthough it was nothing! She knew how worried I was, and she didn'tseem to care at all. She made a joke of it."
"Well! By George, I am surprised. But Marion is inclined to be atrifle self-centered, I have noticed. Probably she doesn't realizeyour point of view at all. I am sure she likes you too much to hurtyou deliberately, Kate. And young people nowadays have such differentstandards of morals. She may actually feel that it isn't shocking, andshe may be hurt at your apparent lack of confidence in her."
"She couldn't possibly think that." Kate was too loyal at heart tocontemplate that possibility for a moment. "Marion knows better thanthat. But it does hurt me to see her so careless of her own dignityand good name. We're strangers in this community, and people are goingto judge us by appearances. They have nothing else to go by. I caremore for Marion, it seems to me, than she cares for herself. Why,Douglas, that girl even telephoned down to the Forest Service that shewas up there and going to stay, and wanted them to send word to me.And they are men in that office--human beings, that are bound to thinkthings. What _can_ they think, not knowing Marion at all, and justjudging by appearances?"
"I suppose they understood perfectly that it would be impossible forher to get home across the fire, Kate. By George! I can see myselfthat she couldn't do it. I shouldn't blame the girl for that, Kate.And I can see also that it was a consideration for you that promptedher to send word in the only way she could. Poor girl, you arecompletely worn out. Now be a good girl and go in and rest, and don'tworry any more about it. I shall stay here and keep an eye oncamp--and I want you to promise that you will lie down and take agood, long sleep. Go--you need it more than you realize."
Tears--unreasoning, woman tears--stood in Kate's eyes at the tendersolicitude of his tone. Very submissively she picked up the pitcherand the glasses and went into the cabin. The professor sighed when shewas gone, kneaded the pillows into a more comfortable position andproceeded to keep an eye on camp by falling into so sound a sleep thatwithin five minutes he was snoring gently. It would be cruel tosuspect him of wanting to be rid of Kate and her troubles so that hecould sleep, but he certainly lost no time in profiting by herabsence. Nature had skimped her material when she fashioned ProfessorHarrison. He was not much taller than Kate--not so tall as Marion by afull inch--and he was narrow shouldered and shallow chested, withthin, bony wrists and a bulging forehead that seemed to bulge worsethan it really did because of his scanty growth of hair. He was a kindhearted little man, but the forest rangers had worked him hard allnight. One cannot blame him for wanting to sleep in peace, with nosound but the gurgle of the creek two rods away, and the warbling callof a little, yellow-breasted bird in the alders near by.
It was Fred Humphrey tramping wearily into camp three hours later, whoawoke him. Fred was an altogether different type of man, and he wasnot so careful to conceal his own desires. Just now he was hungry, andso he called for Kate. Moreover, he had with him two men, and theywere just as hungry as he was, even if they did suppress the factpolitely.
"Oh, Kate! Can you scare up something right away for us to eat? Make alot of coffee, will you? And never mind fancy fixings--real grub iswhat we want right now. Where's Marion? She can help you get it ready,can't she?"
Kate was heard moving inside the cabin when Fred first called her. Nowshe looked out
of the door, and dodged back embarrassed when she sawthe two strangers. She was in a kimono, and had her hair down;evidently she had obeyed the professor implicitly in the matter ofgoing to sleep.
"Oh!" she said, "I don't know where Marion is--as usual; but I canhave luncheon ready in a very short time, I'm sure. Is the fire--"
"'Luncheon!'" snorted Fred, laughing a little. "Don't you palm off anyluncheon on us! That sounds like a dab of salad and a dab of sauce andtwo peas in a platter and a prayer for dinner to hurry up and comearound! Cook us some grub, old girl--lots of it. Coffee and bacon andflour gravy and spuds. We'd rather wait a few minutes longer and get asquare meal, wouldn't we, boys? Make yourselves at home. There's allthe ground there is, to sit down on, and there's the whole creek towash in, if the basin down there is too small. I'm going to get someclean clothes and go down to the big hole and take a plunge. How longwill it be before chuck's ready, Kate?"
Kate told him half an hour, and he went off down the creek, keeping atthe edge of the little meadow, with a change of clothing under his armand a big bath towel hung over his shoulder. The two men followed himlistlessly, too tired, evidently, to care much what they did.
Fred, leading the way, plunged through the willow fringe and came uponthe creek bank three feet from where Marion lay curled up on hercushions. He stood for a minute looking down at her before hispresent, material needs dominated his admiration of her beauty--forbeautiful she was, lying there in a nest of green, with her yellowhair falling loosely about her face.
"Hello! Asleep?" he called to her, much as he had called to Kate."Afraid we'll have to ask you to move on, sister. We want to take aswim right here. And anyway, Kate wants you right away, quick. Wakeup, like a good girl, and run along."
"I don't want to wake up. Go away and let me sleep." Marion opened hereyes long enough to make sure that he was standing right therewaiting, and closed them again. "Go somewhere else and swim. There'slots of creek that isn't in use."
"No sir, by heck, I'm going to take my swim right here. I'm toodoggone tired to walk another yard. Suit yourself about going, though.Don't let me hurry you at all." He sat down and began to unlace hisshoes, grinning back over his shoulder at the other two who had notventured down to the creek when they heard the voice of a woman there.
Marion sat up indignantly. "Go on down the creek, why don't you?"
"Oh, this place suits me fine." Fred, having removed one shoe, turnedit upside down and shook out the sand, and began unlacing the other.
Marion waited stubbornly until he was pulling that shoe off, and thenshe gathered up her cushions and fled, flushed and angry. She wasfrequently angry with Fred, who never yielded an inch and never wouldargue or cajole. She firmly believed that Fred would actually havegone in swimming with her sitting there on the bank; he was just thatstubborn. For that she sometimes hated him--since no one detestsstubbornness so much as an obstinate person.
Fred looked after her, still smiling oddly because he had known sowell how to persuade her to go back to the house and help Kate. Fredalmost loved Marion Rose. He admitted to himself that he almost lovedher--which is going pretty far for a man like Fred Humphrey. But healso admitted to himself that she could not make him happy, nor heher. To make Marion happy he believed that he would need to have abouta million dollars to spend. To make him happy, Marion would need totake a little more interest in home making and not so much interest inbeauty making. The frivolous vanity bag of hers, and her bland way ofusing it, like the movie actresses, in public, served to check hisimagination before it actually began building air-castles wherein shereigned the queen.
He could have loved her so faithfully if only she were a littledifferent! The nearest he came to building an air-castle was when hewas lying luxuriously in a shallow part of the pool, where the waterwas not so cold.
"She'd be different, I believe--I'd make her different if I couldjust have her to myself," he mused. "I'd take a lot of thatfoolishness out of her in a little while, and I wouldn't have to berough with her, either. All she needs is a man she can't bluff!"