XXIX
HETTY DECIDES
It was in a pale flash of silvery light that Larry saw the girl againstthe gloom of the trees. The moaning of the birches and roar of the riverdrowned the faint sound her footsteps made, and she came upon him sosuddenly, statuesque and slender in her trailing evening dress andetherealized by the moonlight, that as he looked down on the blanchedwhiteness of her upturned face, emphasized by the dusky hair, he almostfancied she had materialized out of the harmonies of the night. For amoment he sat motionless, with the rifle glinting across his saddle, and atightening grip of the bridle as the big horse flung up its head, andthen, with a sudden stirring of his blood, moved his foot in the stirrupand would have swung himself down if Hetty had not checked him.
"No!" she said. "Back into the shadow of the trees!"
Larry, seeing the fear in her face, touched the horse with his heel, andwheeled it with its head towards the house. He could see the warm gleamfrom the windows between the birches. Then, he turned to the girl, whostood gasping at his stirrup.
"You sent for me, dear, and I have come. Can't you give me just a minutenow?" he said.
"No," said Hetty breathlessly, "you must go. The Sheriff is here waitingfor you!"
Larry laughed a little scornful laugh, and slackening the bridle, satstill, looking down on her very quietly.
"I don't understand," he said. "You sent for me!"
"No," the girl again gasped. "Oh, Larry, go away! Clavering and the otherswho are most bitter against you are in the house."
Instinctively Larry moved his hand on the rifle and glanced towards thebuilding. He could see it dimly, but no sound from it reached him, andHetty, looking up, saw his face grow stern.
"Still," he persisted, with a curious quietness, "somebody sent a note tome!"
"Yes," said Hetty, turning away from him, "it was my wicked maid.Clavering laid the trap for you."
The man sat very still a moment, and then bent with a swift resolutenesstowards his companion.
"And you came to warn me?" he said. "Hetty, dear, look up."
Hetty glanced at him and saw the glow in his eyes, but she clenched herhand, and would have struck the horse in an agony of fear if Larry had nottouched him with his heel and swung a pace away from her.
"Oh," she gasped, "why will you waste time! Larry, they will kill you ifthey find you."
Once more the little scornful smile showed upon Grant's lips, but itvanished and Hetty saw only the light in his eyes.
"Listen a moment, dear," he said. "I have tried to do the square thing,but I think to-night's work relieves me of the obligation. Hetty, can'tyou see that your father would never give you to me, and you must choosebetween us sooner or later? I have waited a long while, and would try towait longer if it would relieve you of the difficulty, but you will haveto make the decision, and it can't be harder now than it would be in thefuture. Promise me you will go back to New York with Miss Schuyler, andstay with her until I come for you."
Hetty trembled visibly, and the moonlight showed the crimson in hercheeks; but she looked up at him bravely. "Larry," she said, "you aresure--quite sure--you want me, and will be kind to me?"
The man bent his head solemnly. "My dear, I have longed for you for eightweary years--and I think you could trust me."
"Then," and Hetty's voice was very uneven, though she still met his eyes."Larry, you can take me now."
Larry set his lips for a moment and his face showed curiously white."Think, my dear!" he said hoarsely. "It would not be fair to you. MissSchuyler will take you away in a week or two, and I will come for you. Idare not do anything you may be sorry for; and they may find you are notin the house. You must go home before my strength gives way."
The emotion she had struggled with swept Hetty away. "Go home!" she saidpassionately. "They wanted to kill you--and I can never go back now. If Idid, they would know I had warned you--and believe--Can't you understand,Larry?"
Then, the situation flashed upon Grant, and he recognized, as Hetty haddone, that she had cast herself adrift when she left the house to warnhim. He knew the cattle-baron's vindictiveness, and that his daughter hadcommitted an offence he could not forgive. That left but one escape fromthe difficulty, and it was the one his own passions, which he had strivento crush down, urged him to.
"Then," he said in a strained voice, "you must come with me. We can bemarried to-morrow."
Hetty held up her hands to him. "I am ready. Oh, be quick. They may comeany minute!"
Larry swept his glance towards the house, and saw a shaft of radiancestream out as the great door opened. Then, he heard Flora Schuyler'svoice, and, leaning downwards from the saddle, grasped both the girl'shands.
"Yes," he said, very quietly, "they are coming now. Spring when I liftyou. Your foot on my foot--I have you!"
It was done. Hetty was active and slender, the man muscular, and both hadbeen taught, not only to ride, but master the half-wild broncho by asuperior daring and an equal agility, in a land where the horse is notinfrequently roped and thrown before it is mounted. But Larry breathedhard as, with his arm about her waist, he held the girl in front of him,and felt her cheek hot against his lips. The next moment he pressed hisheels home and the big horse swung forward under its double burden.
A shout rang out behind them, and there was a crackling in the bluff.Then, a rifle flashed, and just as a cloud drove across the moon, anothercry rose up:
"Quit firing. He has the girl with him!"
Larry fancied he could hear men floundering behind him amidst the trees,and a trampling of hoofs about the house, but as he listened another rifleflashed away to the right of them on the prairie, and a beat of hoofsfollowed it that for a moment puzzled him. He laughed huskily.
"Breckenridge! He'll draw them off," he said. "Hold fast! We have got toface the river."
It was very evident that he had not a second to lose. Mounted men werecrashing recklessly through the bluff and more of them riding at a gallopacross the grassy slope; but the darkness hid them as it hid thefugitives, and the big horse held on, until there was a plunge and asplashing, and they were in the river. Larry slipped from the saddle, andHetty saw him floundering by the horse's head as she thrust her foot intothe stirrup.
"Slack your bridle," he said sharply. "The beast will bring us through."
The command came when it was needed, for Hetty was almost dismayed, andits curtness was bracing. There was no moon now, but she could dimly seethe white swirling of the flood, and the gurgling roar of it throbbedabout her hoarse and threatening, suggesting the perils the darkness hid.Her light skirt trailed in the water, and a shock of icy cold ran throughher as one shoe dipped under. Larry was on his feet yet, but there was afierce white frothing about him, and when in another pace or two heslipped down she broke into a stifled scream. The next moment she saw hisface again faintly white beneath her amidst the sliding foam, and fanciedthat he was swimming or being dragged along. The horse, she felt, had lostits footing, and had its head up stream. How long this lasted she did notknow, but it seemed an interminable time, and the dull roar of the watergrew louder and deafened her, while the blackness that closed in becameinsupportable.
"Larry!" she gasped. "Larry, are you there!"
A faintly heard voice made answer, and Grant appeared again, shoulder-deepin the flood, while the dipping and floundering of the beast beneath hershowed that the hoofs had found uncertain hold; but that relief onlylasted a moment, and they were once more sliding down-stream, until, whenthey swung round in an eddy, the head that showed now and then dimlybeside her stirrup was lost altogether, and in an agony of terror the girlcried aloud.
There was no answer, but after a horrible moment or two had passed ahalf-seen arm and shoulder rose out of the flood, and the sudden drag onthe bridle that slipped from her fingers was very reassuring. The horseplunged and floundered, and once more Hetty felt her dragging skirt wasclear of the water.
"Through the worst!" a voice that reached her faint
ly said, and they weresplashing on again, the water growing shallower all the time until theyscrambled out upon the opposite bank. Then, the man checking the horse,stood by her stirrup, pressing the water from the hem of her skirt,rubbing the little open shoe with his handkerchief, which was saturated.Even in that hour of horror Hetty laughed.
"Larry," she said, "don't be ridiculous. You couldn't dry it that way in aweek. Lift me down instead."
Larry held up his hands to her, for on that side of the river the slope tothe level was steep, and when he swung her down the girl kissed himlightly on either cheek.
"That was because of what we have been through, dear," she said. "Therewas a horrible moment, when I could not see you anywhere."
She stopped and held up her hand as though listening, and Larry laughedsoftly as a faint drumming of hoofs came back to them through the roar ofthe flood.
"Breckenridge! He must have Muller or somebody with him, and they arechasing him," he said. "I didn't know he was following me, but he isgaining us valuable time, and we will push on again. Your friends willfind out they are following the wrong man very soon, but we should getanother horse at Muller's before they can ride round by the bridge."
They scrambled up the slope, and after Hetty mounted Larry ran with hishand on the stirrup for a while, until once more he made the staunch beastcarry a double load. He was running again when they came clattering up toMuller's homestead and the fraeulein, who was apparently alone, stared atthem in astonishment when she opened the door. The water still drippedfrom Larry, and Hetty's light, bedraggled dress clung about her, while themoisture trickled from her little open-fronted shoes. She was hatless, andloosened wisps of dusky hair hung low about her face, which turned faintlycrimson under the fraeulein's gaze.
"Miss Torrance!" exclaimed the girl.
"Well," said Larry quietly, "she will be Mrs. Grant to-morrow if you willlend me a horse and not mention the fact that you have seen us whenTorrance's boys come round. Where is your father?"
Miss Muller nodded with comprehending sympathy. "He two hours since withMr. Breckenridge go," she said. "There is new horse in the stable, and youon the rack a saddle for lady find."
Larry was outside in a moment, and a smile crept into the fraeulein's blueeyes. "He is of the one thing at the time alone enabled to think," shesaid. "It is so with the man, but a dress with the water soaked is notconvenient to ride at night in."
She led Hetty into her own room, and when Larry, who had spent some timechanging one of the saddles, came back, he stared in astonishment atHetty, who sat at the table. She now wore, among other garments that weretoo big for her, a fur cap and coarse, serge skirt. There was a steamingcup of coffee in front of her.
"Now, that shows how foolish one can be," he said. "I was clean forgettingabout the clothes; but we must start again."
Hetty rose up, and with a little blush held out the cup. "You are wet tothe neck, Larry, and it will do you good," she said. "If you don'tmind--we needn't wait until Miss Muller gets another cup."
Larry's eyes gleamed. "I have run over most of Europe, but they grow nowine there that was half as nice as the tea we made in the black can backthere in the bluff. Quite often in those days we hadn't a cup at all."
He drank, and forthwith turned his head away, while a quiver seemed to runthrough him; but when Hetty moved towards him the fraeulein laughed.
"It nothing is," she said. "It is, perhaps, the effect tobacco have, butthe mouth is soft in a man."
Then, as Larry turned towards them she laid her hands on Hetty'sshoulders, and kissed her gravely. "You have trust in him," she said. "Itis of no use afraid to be. I quick take a man like Mr. Grant when he askme."
The next moment they were outside, and when he helped her to the saddle,Hetty glanced shyly at her companion. "The fraeulein is right," she said."But, Larry, will you tell me--where we are going?"
"To Windsor. I have still good friends there. That is the prosaic fact,but there is ever so much behind it. We can't see the trail just now,dear, but we are riding out into the future that has all kinds ofbrightness in store."
A silvery gleam fell on the girl as a billow of cloud rolled slowly from arift of blue, and she laughed almost exultantly.
"Larry," she said, "it is coming true. Of course, it's a portent. There'sthe darkness going and the moon shining through. Oh, I have done withmisgiving now!"
She shook the bridle, and swept from him at a gallop, and thethaw-softened sod was whirling in clods behind them when Larry drew levelwith her. He knew it was not prudent, but the fever in his blood masteredhis reason, and he sent the stockrider's cry ringing across the levels asthey sped on through the night. The damp wind screamed by them, lashingtheir hot cheeks, the beat of hoofs swelled into a roar as they sweptthrough a shadowy bluff, and driving cloud and rift of indigo flitted pastabove. Beneath, the long, frost-bleached levels, gleaming silvery grey nowunder the moon, flitted back to the drumming hoofs, while willow clump andstraggling birches rose up, and rushed by, blurred and shadowy.
They were young, and the cares that must be faced again on the morrow had,for a brief space, fallen from them. They had bent to the strain to thebreaking point, and now it had gone, everything was forgotten but the loveeach bore the other. All senses were merged in it, and while theexaltation lasted there was no room for thought or fear. It was, however,the man who remembered first, for a few dark patches caught his eye whenthey went at a headlong gallop down the slope.
"Pull him!" he cried hoarsely. "'Ware badger holes! Swing to theright-wide!"
The girl swerved, but she still held on with loose bridle, until Larry,swaying in his saddle, clutched at it. Then, as he swung upright, half alength ahead, with empty hands, she flung herself a trifle backwards andthere was a brief struggle; but it was at a trot they climbed the oppositeslope.
"Now," she said, with a happy little laugh, "we are sensible once more;but, while I knew it couldn't last, I wanted to gallop on for ever. Larry,I wonder if we will ever feel just the same again? There are enjoymentsthat can't come to anyone more than once."
"There are others one can have all the time, and we'll think of themto-night," said the man. "There are bright days before us, and we can waituntil they come."
Hetty smiled, almost sadly. "Of course!" she said, "but no bright day canbe quite the same as this moonlight to me. It shone down on us when I rodeout into the night and darkness without knowing where I was going, andonly that you were beside me. You will stay there always now."
They held on across the empty waste while the hours of darkness slippedby, and the sun was rising red above the great levels' rim when the roofsof a wooden town rose in front of them. As the frame houses slowly grewinto form, Hetty painfully straightened herself. Her face was white andweary and it was by a strenuous effort she held herself upright, the bighorse limped a little, and the mire was spattered thick upon her; but shemet the man's eyes, and, though her lips trembled, smiled bravely.
Larry saw and understood, and his face grew grave. "I have a good deal tomake up to you, Hetty, and I will try to do it faithfully," he said."Still, we will look forward with hope and courage now--it is our weddingday."
Hetty glanced away from him across the prairie, and the man fancied he sawher fingers tremble on the bridle.
"It is hard to ask you, Larry--though I know it shouldn't be--but have youa few dollars that you could give me?"
The man smiled happily. "All that is mine is yours, and, as it happens, Ihave two or three bills in my wallet. Is there anything you wish to buy?"
Hetty glanced down, flushing, at the bedraggled dress. "Larry," she saidsoftly. "I couldn't marry you like this. I haven't one dollar in mypocket--and I am coming to you with nothing, dear."
The smile faded out of Larry's eyes. "I scarcely dare remember all thatyou have given up for me! And if you had taken Clavering or one of theothers you would have ridden to your wedding with a hundred men behindyou, as rich as a princess."
Hetty, sitti
ng, jaded and bespattered, on the limping horse, flashed aswift glance at him, and smiled out of slightly misty eyes.
"It happened," she said, "that I was particular, or fanciful, and therewas only one man--the one that would take me without a dollar, in borrowedclothes--who seemed good enough for me."
They rode on past a stockyard, and into a rutted street of bare framehouses, and Hetty was glad they scarcely met anybody. Then, Larry helpedher down, and, thrusting a wallet into her hands, knocked at the door of ahouse beside a store. The man who opened it stared at them, and when Larryhad drawn him aside called his wife. She took Hetty's chilled hand in bothher own, and the storekeeper smiled at Larry.
"You come right along and put some of my things on," he said. "Then, youare going with me to have breakfast at the hotel, and talk to the judge. Iguess the women aren't going to have any use for us."
It was some time later when they came back to the store, and for just aminute Grant saw Hetty alone. She was dressed very plainly in newgarments, and blushed when he looked gravely down on her.
"That dress is not good enough for you," he said. "It is very differentfrom what you have been accustomed to."
Hetty glanced at him shyly. "You will have very few dollars to spare,Larry, until the trouble's through," she said, "and you will be my husbandin an hour or two."