CHAPTER XIII
A VISIT TO RAINBOW MINE
TWO days later, as things were once more in working order at the RainbowMine, Ralph Merrit suggested that Jim Colter bring Ruth and the girlsand Frank Kent down to see how things were going. And soon afterluncheon the little party started.
A trip to the mine was actually like an expedition to a foreign place,so long a time had passed since the family had been allowed in itsvicinity, and so of course everybody was in especially fine spirits. Itwas well to have Rainbow Mine running again and a relief to find thatthe striking miners had yielded to circumstances so much more readilyand peaceably than their first threats suggested. They had influencedthe mine workers near at home to have nothing to do with Ralph Merrit'smanagement; nevertheless since the arrival of his new force theatmosphere about Rainbow Ranch had remained serene and untroubled, sothat evidently the strikers were not to be heard from.
True, a single ugly letter had mysteriously appeared at daylight thismorning left before the door of the new foreman, but except formentioning it to Ralph, the man had paid no further attention to it. AndRalph, in the interest and excitement of getting things into workingorder at the mine, had given it less consideration than it deserved. Forthe annoyance was not so much in the threat of trouble that the lettercontained, as in the puzzle of its being found at the quarters built forthe Rainbow Mine workers, which were not far from the old Ranch house.No outsider had been seen anywhere about the great ranch either on thepreceding day or night.
Jim and Frank and Jack walked on ahead in order that they might have afew moments' conversation with the new miners; for no one had yet gonedown the shaft into the mine. Before lunch they had been going over themachinery and seeing that the elevators for the men and for the ore werein good working order.
Now Ralph Merrit was insisting that he be lowered first into the miningpit and that his new men with their hammers and chisels and othermining paraphernalia follow after him. However, observing that Ruth andthe other girls were coming nearer he went forward to speak to them. Notsince the evening when he and his friend had taken dinner at the RainbowLodge had he seen any one of them.
"We are awfully pleased, Ralph, that affairs are straightening out socomfortably," Ruth began. "I think we owe you a vote of thanks." She hadnot known what had been making Ralph Merrit so unlike himself for thepast few months, since neither Jim nor Jean had seen fit to confideRalph's weakness to any one else; but she did recognize the change forthe better in him today. She had never before thought of Ralph asspecially handsome, yet he looked so fine and capable; his expressionwas so full of energy and ability that instinctively Ruth held out herhand.
"Go in and win, Ralph," she added, half laughing and half serious. "Idon't just know what it is that you are fighting for, except to makemore money for the girls who don't deserve it. But whatever it is I amgoing to put my money on you, even though betting is against my Puritantraditions; for you'll win in the end. Why, Ralph, you look like thefamous statue of 'The Minute Man' near Boston, except that you have nothis gun or knapsack. You're just as typical an American fighter and justas ready for action."
Crimsoning like a small boy at unexpected praise, Ralph crushed Ruth'shand in reply until she had to repress a cry of pain.
"I'm not worth the powder to blow me up if you really knew the truthabout me, Mrs. Colter; but just the same any kind of fellow likes acompliment now and then, and I don't remember when I have had one," hereturned.
A movement of Jean's graceful shoulders and a single glance from herdemure dark eyes made the young man swing half-way around to face her.
"You are not disputing that statement, are you?" he demanded. "Whyshouldn't a fellow like a compliment as well as a girl?"
Jean slipped off the big pink straw hat she had been wearing and withthe velvet ribbon about it, swung it on her arm like a basket.
"Oh, I am not disputing _that_ part of your statement if you please,sir," she answered. "I am only regretting that you have forgotten allthe other compliments which you have received in the past. For when Iremember how many I have bestowed upon you lately, it is discouragingto think what a failure I have been in trying to make myself agreeable."
Just why recently, indeed ever since their conversation together thatafternoon on the veranda at the Lodge and later here in the shadow ofone of the great rocks, Jean Bruce had been trying to make herselfparticularly agreeable to Ralph Merrit and to win back his formerattention and friendship, the girl herself did not know. On her returnfrom Europe, after a few months at home, she had certainly discouragedRalph's devotion, feeling instinctively that his affection for her hadnow become more serious than in the past when he had looked upon her asonly a half-grown girl. For Jean did not wish to be unkind or unfair,and assuredly Ralph had none of the things to offer her which shedesired. Perhaps because of this she had talked more of wealth and ofworldly ambitions than she might otherwise have done. And Ralph hadeither understood her intention or else had recovered from his formeraffection, for in the past few months, during his foolish and futilestruggle for money through speculations, he had entirely ceased makinglove to her or treating her in any way differently from the othergirls.
At heart Jean was essentially a coquette, one of those girls and womenwho, having once gained a man's admiration, cannot bear to findthemselves losing it. And surely Jack and Frieda and Olive had oftenaccused her of this vice.
Now, knowing that Ralph cared at present more for the successful workingof the Rainbow Mine than for anything else, Jean pointed with apparentlythe deepest concern toward the group of new men.
"Tell us about the new miners, won't you please, Ralph," she asked,"their names and where some of them came from--anything you know? Theyare a splendid-looking lot of fellows!"
But at this moment Frieda interrupted the conversation to ask aquestion. "Who is that thin man over there all by himself in the blueoveralls and old hat? Why isn't he with the others who are beingintroduced to Jim and Frank and Jack? I wonder if Jim knows him?"
Then, quite unaccountably, Ralph Merrit appeared extremelyuncomfortable.
"See here, Frieda, I might as well tell you, for you would be sure tofind out anyhow if I didn't. That fellow isn't one of the new miners.He is Russell, the friend I brought up to the Lodge with me to dinnerthe other night. You see----"
But Frieda's eyes were widening and in truth the other three womenseemed almost equally surprised.
"But I thought Professor Russell had gone away from Rainbow Ranch,"Frieda protested, "why he told us good-by the night he left and saidthat he would have to be off so early the next morning that he could notsee any of us again."
Ralph nodded. "I know," he conceded in some embarrassment. "And you'restill to think he has gone if you please. Don't any one of you go nearenough to Russell to speak to him or he will probably die of confusionbefore your eyes. I am afraid I forgot he was around and he is under theimpression that he is safely disguised. You see the truth of the matteris this. When Russell got me away from the Lodge the other night thereis nothing he did not say to me for having taken him unprepared to aplace where he had to meet four girls. He declared it nearly killed himand he had every intention of sneaking away from the Ranch house thenext morning on foot rather than suffer the chance of meeting any oneof you again. He is an awful ass, but just the same he is a tremendouslyclever fellow and I was awfully anxious to show him the mine and hewanted to see it almost as much. So I persuaded him that he could juststay on at the Ranch house with me for a few days, letting you believehe had disappeared until he saw how things down here looked and worked.I assured him no one of you ever came near the men's quarters, but nowhe is hanging around the mine waiting for me as I promised to take himdown into the pit as soon as we start work. Don't scare him to deathbeforehand."
Ruth and Jean and Olive laughed, and Olive said sympathetically:
"Poor fellow, I can feel for him. I used to feel so shy that nearly allstrangers made me wretched. But I don't see
just why he should be sospecially severe upon girls?"
"Because he is a goose," Frieda returned so sententiously that every oneelse laughed. So plainly was she offended at her own failure to charmtheir strange guest a night or so before.
It was time for Ralph to say good-by. Arrangements at the pit shaft hadbeen made so that the first elevator could be lowered into it. He thenwaved his hand in farewell to his friends, as he and the new foreman ofthe mine and the odd-looking figure of Henry Russell climbed on to theelevator.
"I shall go away before they come up again, so that foolish fellow won'teven have to look at me," Frieda remarked scornfully, as without anyhitch or delay the car slowly disappeared into the bowels of the earth.