CHAPTER XVI
To the delight of his young passengers Kurt drove at a speed never beforeattempted when they were with him. At the hotel there was a rallyingreunion of the Top Hill family.
"Where is Pen?" Mrs. Kingdon was finally permitted to ask.
"She didn't come with us," said Kurt, grimly enjoying Hebler's quickattention. The children had been previously and carefully coached to makeno mention of Pen's departure.
He made an excuse to leave the hotel parlor and went down to the office.
"Is there an aviator registered here?" he asked the clerk.
"Sure there is," replied the clerk proudly. "Larry Lamont. Some flier,too. He's going over to France soon--into the French service."
Lamont! Kurt turned a little pale. "Is he here now?"
"His things are here, but he's out with his aeroplane somewhere."
Kurt breathed a little easier and resolved to remain at the hotel untilthe aviator should return.
When the rest of the party came through the office on their way to thedining-room, Francis lagged behind and handed Kurt a letter which thelatter abstractedly slipped into his pocket.
At dinner he was seated at the end of the table farthest removed from Mrs.Kingdon, so he had no opportunity for a word with her in regard to Pen. Asthey were going out from dinner she called to him:
"The children are clamoring for a movie. They don't get many opportunitiesto see one, and I haven't the heart to refuse them their first requestafter my long absence. So we are all going. Will you come, too?"
"I can't, I fear. I have a little matter of business to attend to, but Iwill be here after the picture show."
"I imagine we will not be back very soon. Billy always insists on seeing apicture twice at least."
Kurt remained in the office when the others had gone. Presently the clerksaid to him: "Here comes Lamont now!"
A slim, graceful-looking young man smoking a cigarette was just swingingin from the street.
Instantly Kurt went forward to meet him.
"Mr. Lamont?" he asked.
"Yes," admitted the aviator warily.
"My name is Walters. I'm from the ranch where Miss Lamont has beenvisiting. Are you her brother?"
Lamont shook the ashes from his cigarette.
"I beg your pardon," he replied coldly. "I have no sister."
He passed on, leaving Kurt still at sea as to the relationship of theaviator and Pen.
Then he heard Lamont addressing the clerk.
"I want to leave an early call for the first east-bound."
Kurt went out on the street. He could always think more clearly in theopen, and he felt that he had much need for thought. Added to his otherdisturbing emotions was the most stinging one of jealousy. The truth thatstruck home was the knowledge that the supposed theft of the ring hadn'tmade him so wretched as the assurance that she loved another--wasanother's. He hadn't been jealous before--not of Jo nor even of Hebler,but he instinctively felt that this Romeo-like youth whom she had soughtwas the one who had the first claim.
"He shall not have her!" he muttered when he had walked the streets forsome time. "I'll take her from him--from everyone."
He went to the little theatre to tell the Kingdons that he should remainin town all night. Kingdon could drive the car home and Hebler could runthe racer.
He walked into the little lobby. The bill boards showed him it was a wildand wholly western scenario, and he felt certain that no less than twoperformances would satisfy Billy's cravings. He went inside and stoodscanning the well-filled house until he located his little party well upin front--children's choice of seats. He started down the aisle. Thepreliminary pictures of the cast were being shown. On the screen flashedthe lines:
THE THIEF or MEG O' THE PRAIRIES _By Bobbie Burr_
A picture of "Meg O' the Prairies" followed. Kurt turned and walked backto the last row of seats, the only ones vacant.
The theatre was dark. An improvised orchestra was essaying something thatsounded like strains of Dixie, Columbia, America and the Star-SpangledBanner combined, and the audience were continually standing up and sittingdown, in a state of bewilderment and doubt as to which was the nationalair.
Then suddenly on the white screen was enacted the regulation, popularstyle of Western play. Ranch settings, tough bar-room, inevitable cowboys,bandits, Indians, and lovers twain, held the audience enthralled. Therewere the many hair-breadth escapes, pursuits, timely rescues featuring theone girl, daughter of a ranchman, attired in semi-cowboy regalia, who rodelike mad and performed all kinds of wonderful feats, and for whose handthe hero, villain and cowboys hazarded their lives and fortunes. The old,old picture that came with the first film and will last while there areboys and men with the hearts of boys. Look upon it tenderly, promoters ofeducational pictures and uplifting reels, for it carries a romance neverattained in reality and irresistibly appeals to the idealism of youngblood and young hearts.
For an instant, when the first picture of "The Thief" was thrown on thescreen, Kurt felt a queer sensation as one who intuitively perceivessomething of danger in the dark. A swift, warning note like a sharp painstruck him.
With tense nerves, he waited for the scenes in which she would appear. Allthe little well-remembered gestures, the graceful movements, the tendergraces which he had been wont to steel himself against were there. Theybrought him a feeling that was exquisite in its pain. With no outward showof emotion his whole being quivered and throbbed at each appearance of theboyish figure ever recurring on the screen.
Once her eyes, wistful and entreating, seemed to meet his in mutereproach. Then the little theater was lighted, the improvised orchestrarenewed its efforts. He went quickly out and stopped at the hotel to leavea note for Kingdon. Again he walked and lost himself in memories, seeingas in a mirror all the incidents that had so intrigued his interest, butwhich now in the light of his new understanding seemed so very patent.
Suddenly he recalled her letter still unread. That might show some motivefor her incognito and explain her arrest by Bender.
He returned to the hotel. The hour was very late. He learned that theranch party had long since departed and that Larry Lamont had gone to hisroom.
With a queer little catch of expectancy in his throat, he held the letterfor a moment pressed tight in his hand. Then he opened it.
"TO KURT WALTERS, EX-ACTING SHERIFF.
"In taking _French_ leave, I feel that it is due you to inform you who your prisoner really is.
"I was to the stage born. In fact, nearly stage-born, as my mother played her part almost up to the night I made my debut in the great game of Life. My childhood was spent mostly in the flies, and my earliest memories are of being propped up on an impromptu, triangular divan formed by a piece of wood stuck between two joists and covered with cushions; of watching my mother use lip stick and other make-up things; of hearing the warning knock and admonition: 'Thirty minutes, Miss Lamont;' (No 'Mrs.' in stage lore, you know) and later, 'Fifteen minutes Miss Lamont;' of her cheery response, 'Yes, Parks,' and of her never hurrying or being flustered by the flight of time; of her giving me a sticky kiss as the final peremptory call came. Everyone in the company mothered me, so I was not neglected--doubtless received too much attention. I was a very nimble kidlet, and at an early age the stage carpenter, who had once been in a circus, taught me to walk a taut rope and to perform acrobatic feats.
"In due course I played juvenile leads. When I attained the young and tender grass age, I was sent away to school, my mother having been a shrewd manager and investor. The school was equipped with a fine gymnasium; riding and dancing academies were attached. In all of these institutions I excelled.
"When I was sixteen, my mother died, and I went on the stage. I didn't inherit her talent as an actress, having only mediocre ability, but I had a carrying voice, personality, and could
dance, so I soon left the legitimate stage for vaudeville where I made something like a hit.
"Bruce Hebler, who is a motion picture man, persuaded me to come into film land, and if you didn't live at the end of the trail and forego all things that make good cheer, you might have recognized me from billboard pictures and magazine pages as the star of certain woolly West productions. Jo recognized me at once as Bobbie Burr.
"This spring I was a bit under the weather, because we really have to work like dogs and some of our daring stunts--which are not always faked--do get on our nerves, you see. I had to have a vacation, after which I needed another, and was advised to seek recuperation in your hills. My objective point was one hundred or more miles from here at a sort of little isolated inn. En route I missed connections, and having no enthusiasm about my destination, I stayed over in the town nearest Top Hill. In a local paper I read of the arrest of a 'hardened young criminal.' I was curious to see what species of my sex that might be, and followed my impulse to visit her at the jail. Your friend, Bender, gave me permission to visit the 'hardened young criminal.' She was a girl of my own age, size, and altogether what I or any girl could easily have been had it not been for the accident of birth, conditions and environment.
"Fortunately she was an admirer of Bobbie Burr, and I won her confidence and story--Marta's story, which you already know. Things and people had made her put up a bluff of being hardened, but there had come, as you know, the newly awakened desire to 'live straight--like folks who didn't get caught.' To use her own words, 'she wasn't going to let a grand man like _him_ wish himself on such as me.' I felt, then, that thief or no thief, she was the real thing. I only knew one way to get her release and I was rather keen for adventure. We exchanged dress skirts, shoes, hats and coats. I gave her some money, the key to my hotel room, trunk and suitcase and told her to take the next train out while the going was good, and not to show up at the hotel until the night clerk, who had not seen me, came on. I also gave her a letter to some good friends of mine in a town farther west, I knew they would be kind to her, ask no questions and let her stay until she was squared about.
"It was done on an impulse--in a flash--one of those kaleidoscopic impulses we have, but back of it was the wish to help some one, and the curiosity to see if her love, aided by the opportunity, would suffice to reform the kind of girl she was supposed to be.
"She left the jail in my outer clothes, and I stayed in her shabby garments. Old Bender never suspected the transfer. It would have been very easy for me with my agility gained in screen stunts to have swung out from any part of that old jail, and still easier to have given you the slip en route to Top Hill, but I wanted Marta to have plenty of time to get to a far cover before the mistake was discovered.
"Playing a part was second nature to me. I really felt that for the time being I was Marta, but a different Marta from the real one. I always enter into my roles with all my being, so I set the role of a real thief for myself and played up to it so intently that I all but lost my own personality. It was the kind of Marta that Bender supposed her to be who talked to you on that memorable ride to Top Hill. Your wish to be helpful to an unfortunate girl touched me and might have won me to confiding in you, but you were so stern and sometimes so repellant in your manner, I was afraid to trust you. I wasn't sure you would be equal to rising above your chagrin at finding you had been taken in by a 'movie actress' and that you might apprehend poor little Marta.
"By morning I was curious to know your idea of 'the best woman in the world.' Then, too, I thought I could find my needed tonic in your hills and better accommodations than I could obtain at a hotel. So I continued to play my part. When I saw Mrs. Kingdon, I realized she _was_ the best woman in the world. She, like Jo, recognized me at once, having seen me rehearsing in San Francisco. I had the whim to stay incognito and she humored me, insisting, however, that you should be told the next day. But the next day you had gone. In the week that followed I learned the beauty of a home life, hitherto unknown to me.
"Of course those stunts you saw me doing on field day were mere 'horse play' compared with what I have to do in making the pictures. When I met you for a brief space of time that afternoon, I had no opportunity to make my disclosure. When you returned, Mrs. Kingdon was away and I couldn't resist the temptation to play on in my new part. Any one's personality seems more pleasing to me than my own, and I still felt as if I were really Marta.
"My early ideals of manly suitors were patterned slightly on your model; it piqued me, I admit, that you didn't seem to fall for a little romance with me, as many suitors had done.
"When I saved Francis from being thrown (I've turned that trick many a time in pictures) I felt that I had in a way repaid Mrs. Kingdon for her hospitality. You were so homey and nice that night, I almost 'fessed up. I did my best to make you care more--and I thought I had succeeded; but you still made reservations and I thought your reluctance came from my past--Marta's past--
"That night as I stood at my window vaguely regretting my deception, Jo came along. I flew down to him and told him that I had heard from Marta, and we had a nice long talk together. I told him she was living 'straight,' but I respected her wish not to let him know where she was.
"I don't know why, as time went on, I didn't tell you who I was. Maybe it was natural perversity, or the fateful habit of playing a part.
"I ran away to town that day you were all absent and met Larry Lamont, my cousin, the only kinsman I have. He was once a harum-scarum lad and did some flying acts for a company I was with, and one day when he was laid off for 'reasons,' I gave him a calling down and advised him to go to an aviation school and learn to fly scientifically. I hadn't heard from him until I saw him at the hotel, and found he had made good and joined the flying service of France.
"Marta's unexpected arrival upset things. I knew that Mrs. Kingdon was interested in my account of her and in her love for Jo; also that she intended to help them eventually, but I did not know she had communicated with Marta during her own absence. Hebler's sudden appearance was the last straw. He insists I am under contract for another of the wild and woolly pictures I am so tired of playing. I am not posted on the legality of contracts, and it seemed easier to dodge him until he should have to secure some one else. You were very nice about offering to help me evade him. Some way the return of Marta and the sudden arrival of Hebler made me realize I had been playing a part. That night in the library when you told me you loved me and asked me to marry you, I was really myself. I was surprised by the discovery that you loved me; but I wasn't sure of my own feelings. I felt I must think more about it, so pursuing my usual tactics I ran away.
"On passing Hebby's door, that gaudy diamond flashed before me. I'll leave the theft an unsolved mystery.
"When I was forced to reveal my presence to Hebler, I felt that I had balled things up hopelessly and that the only avenue of escape lay in flight--my long suit.
"My only solace in all this bungling mess I have made is that I have brought Jo and Marta together.
"With you at the ranch and Hebler in town, I don't know how I could make my getaway but for Larry. I have telephoned him and he is to meet me near here, and by the time my little carrier dove delivers this, I shall be en route--for France. I'm weary of movies, and life is a delusion anyway.
"I admit it was wrong to deceive you--after the necessity for so doing had passed. You were kind--in intent; still, you might have been a wee bit nicer, don't you think?
"Regretfully, "PENELOPE."
"P. S. Does it hurt _now_ that I use your mother's name?"
He read this letter as one who dreams and is but half conscious that it isa dream. He read it again and again, each time grasping bit by bit therealization of its contents and what they meant to him.
"She was right," he thought. "I didn't know what love meant. I do now--nowthat I missed it. I've lost her more surely than if she were a 'hardened,young criminal.' I shall never try to find her."
It was hardly sunrise when he went down to the office.
"I should like to speak to Mr. Lamont when he comes down," he said to theclerk.
"He has gone," was the reply. "He came down before his call and has goneto the train."
"Maybe it is just as well," thought Kurt. "There is really no message Icould send to her."
"See the picture last night?" asked the clerk chattily. "The Thief, or MegO' The Prairies. Great picture!"
"Yes; I saw it," replied Kurt dismally.
"I always go to see Bobbie Burr. She's my favorite. There was a girl herethe other day who was a dead ringer for her. She had dinner with Lamonthere. I read in a magazine that she gets a big salary. I forget thefigures, but it was more per week than some folks earn in a lifetime."
Kurt's heart registered more downward beats.
He hung about the office until the dining-room was open and then went inand perfunctorily consumed some food. Later he called up an acquaintanceand asked the loan of his car. It was sent around to the hotel, and he wasjust about to start for the ranch when a well-known voice behind himsaid:
"May I ride out to Top Hill with you?"
For a moment the blood left his heart and then returned so rapidly it lefthim quite pale.
"Larry said you were here. I came back on the train just now. I want to goto the ranch for--my things. Will you take me?"
"Yes," he said abstractedly.