IV
THE SUPERVISOR OF THE FOREST
Young Norcross, much as he admired Berrie, was not seeking to exchangeher favor for her lover's enmity, and he rode away with an uneasy feelingof having innocently made trouble for himself, as well as for a fine,true-hearted girl. "What a good friendly talk we were having," he said,regretfully, "and to think she is to marry that big, scowling brute. Howcould she turn Landon down for a savage like that?"
He was just leaving the outer gate when Belden came clattering up andreined his horse across the path and called out: "See here, you youngskunk, you're a poor, white-livered tenderfoot, and I can't bust you as Iwould a full-grown man, but I reckon you better not ride this trail anymore."
"Why not?" inquired Wayland.
Belden glared. "Because I tell you so. Your sympathy-hunting game hasjust about run into the ground. You've worked this baby dodge about longenough. You're not so almighty sick as you put up to be, and you'd betterhunt some other cure for lonesomeness, or I'll just about cave your chestin."
All this was shockingly plain talk for a slender young scholar to listento, but Norcross remained calm. "I think you're unnecessarily excited,"he remarked. "I have no desire to make trouble. I'm considering MissBerea, who is too fine to be worried by us."
His tone was conciliating, and the cowman, in spite of himself, respondedto it. "That's why I advise you to go. She was all right till you came.Colorado's a big place, and there are plenty other fine ranges for men ofyour complaint--why not try Routt County? This is certain, you can't stayin the same valley with my girl. I serve notice of that."
"You're making a prodigious ass of yourself," observed Wayland, with calmcontempt.
"You think so--do you? Well, I'll make a jack-rabbit out of you if I findyou on this ranch again. You've worked on my girl in some way till she'sjest about quit me. I don't see how you did it, you measly little pup,but you surely have turned her against me!" His rage burst into flame ashe thought of her last words. "If you were so much as half a man I'dbreak you in two pieces right now; but you're not, you're nothing but adead-on-the-hoof lunger, and there's nothing to do but run you out. Sotake this as your final notice. You straddle a horse and head east andkeep a-ridin', and if I catch you with my girl again, I'll deal you awhole hatful of misery--now that's right!"
Thereupon, with a final glance of hate in his face, he whirled his horseand galloped away, leaving Norcross dumb with resentment, intermingledwith wonder.
"Truly the West is a dramatic country! Here I am, involved in a lover'swrath, and under sentence of banishment, all within a month! Well, Isuppose there's nothing to do but carry out Belden's orders. He's theboss," he said as he rode on. "I wonder just what happened after I left?Something stormy, evidently. She must have given him a sharp rebuff, orhe wouldn't have been so furious with me. Perhaps she even broke herengagement with him. I sincerely hope she did. She's too good for him.That's the truth."
And so, from point to point, he progressed till with fine indignation hereached a resolution to stay and meet whatever came. "I certainly wouldbe a timorous animal if I let myself be scared into flight by that bigbonehead," he said at last. "I have as much right here as he has, and thelaw must protect me. It can't be that this country is entirelybarbaric."
Nevertheless, he felt very weak and very much depressed as he rode up thestreet of the little town and dismounted at the hotel. The sidewalks werelittered with loafing cowboys and lumber-jacks, and some of them quiteopenly ridiculed his riding-breeches and his thin legs. Others merelygrinned, but in their grins lay something more insulting than words. "Tothem I am a poor thing," he admitted; but as he lifted his eyes to themighty semicircular wall of the Bear Tooth Range, over which the dailystorm was playing, he forgot his small worries. What gorgeous pageantry!What life-giving air! "If only civilized men and women possessed thisglorious valley, what a place it would be!" he exclaimed, and in the heatof his indignant contempt he would have swept the valley clean.
As his eyes caught the flutter of the flag on its staff above the ForestService building, his heart went out to the men who unselfishly wroughtbeneath that symbol of federal unity for the good of the future. "That iscivilized," he said; "that is prophetic," and alighted at the door in aglow of confidence.
Nash, who was alone in the office, looked up from his work. "Come in," hecalled, heartily. "Come in and report."
"Thank you. I'd like to do so; and may I use your desk? I have a letterto write."
"Make yourself at home. Take any desk you like. The men are all out onduty."
"You're very kind," replied Wayland, gratefully. There was somethingreassuring in this greeting, and in the many signs of skill andscientific reading which the place displayed. It was like a bit ofWashington in the midst of a careless, slovenly, lawless mountain town,and Norcross took his seat and wrote his letter with a sense ofproprietorship.
"I'm getting up an enthusiasm for the Service just from hearing AlecBelden rave against it," he said a few minutes later, as he looked upfrom his letter.
Nash grinned. "How did you like Meeker?"
"He's a good man, but he has his peculiarities. Belden is your realenemy. He is blue with malignity--so are most of the cowmen I met upthere. I wish I could do something for the Service. I'm a thoroughlyup-to-date analytical chemist and a passable mining engineer, and mydoctor says that for a year at least I must work in the open air. _Is_there anything in this Forest Service for a weakling like me?"
Nash considered. "The Supervisor might put you on as a temporary guard.I'll speak to him if you like?"
"I wish you would. Tell him to forget the pay. I'm not in need of money,but I do require some incentive--something to do--something to give medirection. It bores me stiff to fish, and I'm sick of loafing. IfMcFarlane can employ me I shall be happy. The country is glorious, but Ican't live on scenery."
"I think we can employ you, but you'll have to go on as fire-guard orsomething like that for the first year. You see, the work is getting tobe more and more technical each year. As a matter of fact"--here helowered his voice a little--"McFarlane is one of the old guard, and willhave to give way. He don't know a thing about forestry, and is too old tolearn. His girl knows more about it than he does. She helps him out onoffice work, too."
Wayland wondered a little at the freedom of expression on the part ofNash; but said: "If he runs his office as he runs his ranch he surely iscondemned to go."
"There's where the girl comes in. She keeps the boys in the office linedup and maintains things in pretty fair shape. She knows the old man is indanger of losing his job, and she's doing her best to hold him to it.She's like a son to him and he relies on her judgment when a closedecision comes up. But it's only a matter of time when he and all herepresents must drift by. This is a big movement we're mixed with."
"I begin to feel that that's why I'd like to take it up. It's the onlything out here that interests me--and I've got to do something. I can'tloaf."
"Well, you get Berrie to take up your case and you're all right. She hasthe say about who goes on the force in this forest."
It was late in the afternoon before Wayland started back to Meeker's withintent to repack his belongings and leave the ranch for good. He haddecided not to call at McFarlane's, a decision which came not so muchfrom fear of Clifford Belden as from a desire to shield Berea fromfurther trouble, but as he was passing the gate, the girl rose frombehind a clump of willows and called to him: "Oh, Mr. Norcross! Wait amoment."
He drew rein, and, slipping from his horse, approached her. "What is it,Miss Berrie?" he asked, with wondering politeness.
She confronted him with gravity. "It's too late for you to cross theridge. It'll be dark long before you reach the cut-off. You'd better nottry to make it."
"I think I can find my way," he answered, touched by her consideration."I'm not so helpless as I was when I came."
"Just the same you mustn't go on," she insisted. "Father told me to askyou to come in and stay all night.
He wants to meet you. I was afraid youmight ride by after what happened to-day, and so I came up here to headyou off." She took his horse by the rein, and flashed a smiling glance upat him. "Come now, do as the Supervisor tells you."
"Wait a moment," he pleaded. "On second thought, I don't believe it's agood thing for me to go home with you. It will only make further troublefor--for us both."
She was almost as direct as Belden had been. "I know what you mean. I sawCliff follow you. He jumped you, didn't he?"
"He overtook me--yes."
"What did he say?"
He hesitated. "He was pretty hot, and said things he'll be sorry for whenhe cools off."
"He told you not to come here any more--advised you to hit the out-goingtrail--didn't he?"
He flushed with returning shame of it all, but quietly answered: "Yes, hesaid something about riding east."
"Are you going to do it?"
"Not to-day; but I guess I'd better keep away from here."
She looked at him steadily. "Why?"
"Because you've been very kind to me, and I wouldn't for the world doanything to hurt or embarrass you."
"Don't you mind about me," she responded, bluntly. "What happened thismorning wasn't your fault nor mine. Cliff made a mighty coarse play,something he'll have to pay for. He knows that right now. He'll be backin a day or two begging my pardon, and he won't get it. Don't you worryabout me, not for a minute--I can take care of myself--I grew up thatway, and don't you be chased out of the country by anybody. Come, fatherwill be looking for you."
With a feeling that he was involving both the girl and himself in stilldarker storms, the young fellow yielded to her command, and together theywalked along the weed-bordered path, while she continued:
"This isn't the first time Cliff has started in to discipline me; butit's obliged to be the last. He's the kind that think they own a girljust as soon as they get her to wear an engagement ring; but Cliff don'town me. I told him I wouldn't stand for his coarse ways, and I won't!"
Wayland tried to bring her back to humor. "You're a kind of 'newwoman.'"
She turned a stern look on him. "You bet I am! I was raised a freecitizen. No man can make a slave of me. I thought he understood that; butit seems he didn't. He's all right in many ways--one of the best ridersin the country--but he's pretty tolerable domineering--I've always knownthat--still, I never expected him to talk to me like he did to-day. Itcertainly was raw." She broke off abruptly. "You mustn't let Frank Meekerget the best of you, either," she advised. "He's a mean little weasel ifhe gets started. I'll bet he put Cliff up to this business."
"Do you think so?"
"Yes, he just as good as told me he'd do it. I know Frank, he's my owncousin, and someways I like him; but he's the limit when he gets going.You see, he wanted to get even with Cliff and took that way of doing it.I'll ride up there and give him a little good advice some Saturday."
He was no longer amused by her blunt speech, and her dark look saddenedhim. She seemed so unlike the happy girl he met that first day, and thechange in her subtended a big, rough, and pitiless world of men againstwhich she was forced to contend all her life.
Mrs. McFarlane greeted Norcross with cordial word and earnest hand-clasp."I'm glad to see you looking so well," she said, with charmingsincerity.
"I'm browner, anyway," he answered, and turned to meet McFarlane, ashort, black-bearded man, with fine dark eyes and shapely hands--handsthat had never done anything more toilsome than to lift a bridle rein orto clutch the handle of a gun. He was the horseman in all his training,and though he owned hundreds of acres of land, he had never so much asheld a plow or plied a spade. His manner was that of the cow-boss, thelord of great herds, the claimant of empires of government grass-land.Poor as his house looked, he was in reality rich. Narrow-minded inrespect to his own interests, he was well in advance of his neighbors onmatters relating to the general welfare, a curious mixture of greed andgenerosity, as most men are, and though he had been made Supervisor at atime when political pull still crippled the Service, he was loyal to theflag. "I'm mighty glad to see you," he heartily began. "We don't oftenget a man from the sea-level, and when we do we squeeze him dry."
His voice, low, languid, and soft, was most insinuating, and for hours hekept his guest talking of the East and its industries and prejudices; andBerrie and her mother listened with deep admiration, for the youngsterhad seen a good deal of the old world, and was unusually well read onhistorical lines of inquiry. He talked well, too, inspired by hisattentive audience.
Berrie's eyes, wide and eager, were fixed upon him unwaveringly. He felther wonder, her admiration, and was inspired to do his best. Something inher absorbed attention led him to speak of things so personal that hewondered at himself for uttering them.
"I've been dilettante all my life," was one of his confessions. "I'vetraveled; I've studied in a tepid sort of fashion; I went through collegewithout any idea of doing anything with what I got; I had a sort of pridein keeping up with my fellows; and I had no idea of preparing for anywork in the world. Then came my breakdown, and my doctor ordered me outhere. I came intending to fish and loaf around, but I can't do that. I'vegot to do something or go back home. I expected to have a chum of minewith me, but his father was injured in an automobile accident, so he wentinto the office to help out."
As he talked the girl discovered new graces, new allurements in him. Hissmile, so subtly self-derisive, and his voice so flexible and so quietlyeloquent, completed her subjugation. She had no further care concerningClifford--indeed, she had forgotten him--for the time at least. The otherpart of her--the highly civilized latent power drawn from her mother--wasin action. She lost her air of command, her sense of chieftainship, andsat humbly at the feet of this shining visitor from the East.
At last Mrs. McFarlane rose, and Berea, reluctantly, like a child loathto miss a fairy story, held out her hand to say good night, and the youngman saw on her face that look of adoration which marks the birth ofsudden love; but his voice was frank and his glance kindly as he said:
"Here I've done all the talking when I wanted you to tell _me_ all sortsof things."
"I can't tell you anything."
"Oh yes, you can; and, besides, I want you to intercede for me with yourfather and get me into the Service. But we'll talk about that to-morrow.Good night."
After the women left the room Norcross said:
"I really am in earnest about entering the Forest Service. Landon filledme with enthusiasm about it. Never mind the pay. I'm not in immediateneed of money; but I do need an interest in life."
McFarlane stared at him with kindly perplexity. "I don't know exactlywhat you can do, but I'll work you in somehow. You ought to work under aman like Settle, one that could put you through a training in therudiments of the game. I'll see what can be done."
"Thank you for that half promise," said Wayland, and he went to his bedhappier than at any moment since leaving home.
Berrie, on her part, did not analyze her feeling for Wayland, she onlyknew that he was as different from the men she knew as a hawk from asage-hen, and that he appealed to her in a higher way than any other haddone. His talk filled her with visions of great cities, and with thoughtsof books, for though she was profoundly loyal to her mountain valley, sheheld other, more secret admirations. She was, in fact, compounded of twoopposing tendencies. Her quiet little mother longing--in secret--for theplacid, refined life of her native Kentucky town, had dowered herdaughter with some part of her desire. She had always hated the slovenly,wasteful, and purposeless life of the cattle-rancher, and though shestill patiently bore with her husband's shortcomings, she covertly hopedthat Berea might find some other and more civilized lover than CliffordBelden. She understood her daughter too well to attempt to dictate heraction; she merely said to her, as they were alone for a few moments: "Idon't wonder your father is interested in Mr. Norcross, he's veryintelligent--and very considerate."
"Too considerate," said Berrie, shortly; "he ma
kes other men seem likebears or pigs."
Mrs. McFarlane said no more, but she knew that Cliff was, for the time,among the bears.