CHAPTER X.--STEPTOE LODGE.
"King Borria Bungalee Boo, Was a man-eating African swell, His sigh was a hullaballoo, His whisper a horrible yell--A horrible, horrible yell!
"Four subjects and all of them male To Borria doubled the knee, They were once on a far larger scale, But he'd eaten the balance, you see--Scale and balance is punning, you see!
"Scale and balance is punning, you see!" roared the chorus.
Miss Campbell and the girls exchanged rather amazed glances.
They had drawn up in front of a long low rancho. It was quite dark, butfrom an inside court they could hear the tinkle of a banjo accompanyinga deep baritone voice, with many other deep voices joining in thechorus. The singing went on:
"There was haughty Pish-Tush-Pooh-Bah, There was lumbering Doodle-Dum-Dey, Despairing Alack-a-Dey-Ah And good little Tootle-Tum-Teh! Exemplary Tootle-Tum-Teh,"
rang the chorus.
* * * * *
"My dear, I don't think we'd better try it," said Miss Campbell. "Itsounds very rough. I feel quite uneasy--it's very much of an adventureat any rate."
The truth is the five ladies had done an exceedingly reckless thing.Barney McGee had invited them to come and see a real ranch, and they hadaccepted his invitation. At first Miss Campbell had declined. It wasrather too much to expect him to entertain five guests. Besides, howcould he when he was not owner of the ranch. He was part owner, he said.But if they preferred they could stop at Steptoe Lodge just as theycould at an inn--engage rooms, that is. His cousin, Brek Steptoe and hiswife often had boarders--people who came for their health.
Nebraska was filled with Easterners who were trying to gain health inthe West, and the good State not only often gave them health but wealthtoo--fine strong bodies and work that paid.
Therefore the motorists had taken down detailed directions from BarneyMcGee, but they had not arrived at Steptoe Lodge as soon as they hadexpected. An exploded tire had caused a long delay. No doubt Mrs.Steptoe had given them up for the day now, for it was long after darkwhen they finally found themselves at the rancho.
A light streamed out from a door suddenly opened, and the voices in thecourt yard grew louder as the song progressed.
"There is musical Doh-Reh-Mi-Fah, There is the nightingale Doh-Reh-Mi-Fah."
"Does Mr. McGee live here?" asked Billie timidly of a tall athleticlooking young man who had opened the door. He was dressed in buckskinwith high boots, a blue flannel shirt and a silk handkerchief knottedaround his neck. The girls thought him quite the most picturesque personthey had seen since they left home. Even in the darkness they could seethe deep flush of embarrassment mount to his face.
"There is a Mr. McGee who lives here--yes," he answered, choking withbashfulness.
"Will you ask him to come out at once, please," said Miss Campbell, witha growing uneasiness that there might be some mistake.
But her fears were immediately allayed, for Barney himself came runningaround the side of the rancho.
"Ladies, I hope you'll excuse me for not bein' on the spot as soon asyou arrived. I waited for you some hours on the door step. Tell thefellers to shut up, Jim, and stop starin' there like a wooden injun.Call Rosina. Tell her the ladies have arrived."
The place suddenly became as still as the grave, and by the time theMotor Maids and Miss Helen had alighted and been conducted into acemented courtyard around which the house was built, after the Spanishstyle, there was not a person to be seen except Jim, who followedobediently with some of the luggage.
Rosina Steptoe, who had married Barney's cousin, Brek Steptoe, nowhurried into the room. She was a wiry little woman with a dark swarthyface, beady black eyes, black hair and a rather sweet expression whichsaved her from being really very ugly. The girls thought at first shemight have some Spanish blood. Her manners were gracious and she shookhands with them cordially when Barney made the introductions.
"Will you come right in to supper?" she said, without asking them to goto their rooms. "We want to get through early because Barney is giving adance for you to-night, and the people will be coming before we finishif we don't hurry."
"Dear, dear," ejaculated Miss Campbell under her breath.
They had not counted on being entertained by the cowboy, and began towonder what they had been drawn into.
Feeling very dusty and a little tired from their trip across the plains,they followed Mrs. Steptoe into one of the rooms opening on the court.It was a very large apartment with little furniture in it except a longtable and the inevitable oak sideboard which always gave Billie thehorrors. They afterwards learned that it was the pride of Mrs. Steptoe'sheart, and had been bought in the East at a great sacrifice.
Four men were waiting at the table: Barney McGee, Brek Steptoe, who wasa handsome, middle aged man with a weather-beaten face; Tony Blackstone,whom the girls discovered presently was English. It was he who had donethe singing they found; also he had good manners and was not at allbashful, but very quiet. Jim made the fourth man.
As they sat down at table, a Chinaman thrust his head in the door andthen disappeared. Mrs. Steptoe herself waited on them and the food wasreally much better than they had expected.
Nancy was seated next to Jim, who, when she was not looking, devouredher with his eyes, and when she turned to him, dropped his lids andflushed crimson as if he had been caught in a felony.
"We didn't know there was to be a party," she said to him innocently."You see we aren't traveling with much baggage. I'm afraid we can'tdress up properly."
"Clothes don't matter out here, Miss----" he began.
"Nancy," she finished.
"Miss Nancy," he repeated, and then said it over to himself as if thename pleased him mightily.
"People don't come to see the clothes. It's the dancing they want to seeand--and----"
"And what?" she demanded.
"And the gir--the ladies. You see we don't have many of them out hereand they are all married."
"Every girl is a belle in this part of the country, I suppose," observedNancy. "Even the ugly ones."
Jim assented, regarding Nancy's charming face as if he had never seen agirl before in all his life.
"And as for the pretty ones, Miss----"
"Nancy."
"Miss Nancy, they are fairly worshipped."
"Are there any pretty ones?" she asked.
"There weren't until you came," replied Jim almost in a whisper, andthen dropped his knife on the floor. He stooped for so long to find itthat Nancy thought he must have had a sudden attack of vertigo. She wassure of it when he finally lifted his crimson face.
"I think I have one pretty dress," she said irrelevantly, looking intoJim's eyes with just a ghost of a smile. "I think it would be nice todress up a little. Don't you?"
"I'm afraid I can't," muttered Jim. Then, once more, plucking upcourage, he asked: "Can I have the first dance?"
In the meantime, Mr. Steptoe was explaining many things to Miss Campbellregarding the rounding up of cattle and life on the plains.
"There are no more real cowboys," he said, "except in the Buffalo BillShow. They are passing out. Barney here is about as good arepresentative of the class as there is."
"And Tony," suggested Barney.
"Tony is a good imitation but he's not the real thing because he wasn'tborn to it. Was you Tony?"
The man named Blackstone frowned.
"Birth has nothing to do with it," he answered, and quickly changed thesubject.
"He's the younger son of an English lord," whispered Steptoe, "but hedon't like to have it mentioned."
It was rather surprising on the whole to see how polite these rough menwere. Following Tony's example, they stood up when the ladies filed outof the room, led by Rosina Steptoe.
Bedrooms in the Steptoe rancho were not luxurious apartments by anymeans. There were no bathrooms and only small ewers of water suppliedthe wants of the guests.
"I feel as if I h
ad the yellow jaundice," exclaimed Nancy, as shecritically examined her features in a small wooden framed mirror back ofthe washstand. There was no dressing table.
"To the naked eye you appear to be perfectly healthy and normal,"replied Billie, "but I suppose Miss Nancy-Bell, you are taking noticewith a view to dressing up, and for my part, I think we should go downjust as we are. It's a cowboy dance."
There was a continuous argument about clothes between Nancy and Billiewhich Miss Campbell invariably had to settle. On this occasion MissCampbell was for appearing as spectators at the dance and not as activeguests. She had not counted on being entertained at the Lodge, and shewas unable to conceal her misgivings.
"I think it would be very rude not to dress up," cried Nancy hotly."Mrs. Steptoe is going to wear a pink cotton crepe. She told me she was,and they are all looking forward to seeing us in--well--somethingdifferent than this."
The other girls laughed teasingly.
"Anything to show off that new frock of yours, Nancy," cried Billie."Cowboys and Indians will do if you can't find a better audience."
Nancy was offended. She flushed hotly and her eyes filled with tears.She had very sensitive feelings somewhere hidden under her gay carelessmanner.
"Bless its heart! Are its feelings hurt?" exclaimed Billie, putting herarms around her friend's neck and kissing her warmly. "I wouldn't havegone fer to hurt its feelings for anything in the world. It shall wearits little folderols if it chooses, shan't it, Cousin, and put on allits ribbons and laces."
"Silly old tease," said Nancy, laughing through her tears. "You're justas anxious as anybody to dress up only you're too proud to admit itbecause you're afraid people will think you are vain."
"Go along with you, you foolish children, and get into your clothes,"here interrupted Miss Campbell. "If Nancy wants to appear in a partyfrock, I think it won't do any harm to these poor isolated ranchmen."
It so happened, therefore, that the girls, in another twenty minutes,for the first time since they had left Sevenoaks, the home of theirfriend, Daniel Moore, attired themselves in their prettiest gowns. Onlysimple muslin frocks, but with plenty of hand embroidery and laceinsertions to make them fine, and ribbon bows to set them off.
Nancy, beguiling creature that she was, tied a pink satin ribbon aroundher curly hair, and the picture she made when she entered the diningroom in her white dress with her floating ribbons and dainty littleblack patent leather pumps, was a sight Jim was not to forget in ahurry.
Elinor might have been a young princess who had condescended to step outof the back door of her palace and mingle with her low subjects for abrief space. She held her head with its coronet braids slightly higherthan usual in the strange company which now began to congregate.
She wore a straight white dress all fine tucks and embroidery without asign of lace or ribbon to mar the effect of very elegant simplicity.Billie had tied around the smooth rolls of her light brown hair a bluevelvet band to match the embroidery on her marquisette dress. She was aglowing picturesque figure, her face flushed with interest andenthusiasm. Mary, who always falls to the last in our descriptions,perhaps because she is so small and unassuming, wore a soft white mullefrock with a pale blue Roman sash knotted around her waist, a relic ofher mother's own girlhood.
You may imagine, I am sure, what a sensation our dainty young girls andMiss Campbell, in a beautiful gray silk, made on the rough company nowassembled. There were subdued murmurs of surprise and admiration. Thefew plain weather-beaten looking women who had driven miles across theplains for a glimpse of the Motor Maids, looked down hastily at theirown pitiful attempts at finery, and ranchmen and cowboys craned theirnecks for a glimpse of the fair vision which had been vouchsafed them.
On a table at the far end of the room sat the two musicians, Mexicans.Each with a guitar and a fiddle. The kerosene lamps, hung againstreflectors on the wall, cast a yellow glow on the scene so new to thetravelers. Five chairs had been arranged in a row at the other end ofthe room as places of honor for the Eastern guests, who might have beenfive new prima donnas at the opera for the intense interest theyexcited.
The music now set up a whining jig tune. There was an embarrassedshuffling of feet for a moment, and clearing of throats. Presently twocowboys started to dancing the old fashioned polka together, and in ajiffy the whole company was whirling about the room madly. The fiveEasterners looked on for a while quite gravely. In the joy of the dancethey had been quite forgotten.
Not quite forgotten, for Jim now appeared, handsome as a picture, with anew red silk handkerchief knotted around his neck, his black hair assmooth and slick as brush and water could make it.
"Are you willing to try it?" he asked, bowing before Nancy, who littleknew what struggles between bashfulness and courage now rent his soul.
"I was wondering where you were," she said smiling sweetly as shefloated away with him like a soap bubble on a summer breeze.
Tony Blackstone then asked Elinor to dance, and she had condescended,comforting herself with the secret knowledge that he was the son of anEnglish lord. Barney McGee had led forth Mary. And Mrs. Steptoe, havingintroduced her brother, whose name Billie had failed to catch, thatyoung woman had permitted herself to be circled around once. But herpartner did not please her for some reason and she preferred to sit withMiss Helen and watch the dancers.
"Are you tired so soon?" he asked.
"No," she answered, always truthful under the most trying circumstances,"but I don't care to dance."
The man flashed an angry glance at her and for the first time she lookedin his face. Where had she seen those dark scowling eyes before?
"I didn't catch your name," she said. "I would like to introduce you tomy cousin."
"Hawkes," he answered in an almost threatening tone of voice.
"Why, you are--" but she never finished the sentence for the man namedHawkes had abruptly turned away.
"Strange," said Billie to herself, reflecting inwardly on the passinglikenesses one sees everywhere. "But, no, it is impossible, for this manis very well dressed, better than any man in the room, I think, andbesides he's Rosina Steptoe's brother."