CHAPTER XXIII
"THEIR LAST RIDE TOGETHER"
"Good evening, Miss Drew," some one said politely.
Ruth drew in her breath. "Good evening," she returned coldly.
"Kind of surprised to see me?" "Gypsy Joe" inquired. "You have beenhaving great goings on about the ranch lately. I could have told youabout your gold mine in the early part of the summer, but I knew thisman Harmon would give me a better show than your overseer if I put himon to my discovery and he got your ranch away from you."
Ruth turned irresolutely and then faced the man again. "Please don'ttalk to me of your dishonesty," she protested, "and do get off the ranchright away. You know what Mr. Colter told you." Ruth had a frightenedvision of Jim's returning to find this tramp lurking about the rancho,and knew she would have small chance for a quiet evening with her loverafter such a catastrophe.
"Look here, Miss Drew, don't you think you might speak a good word toyour overseer and the young ladies for me?" Dawson whined. "Seems likeit isn't fair for me to have been the first to discover that gold mineand not to have any share in it."
Ruth shrugged her shoulders. "We really can't help that. If you had toldMr. Colter of it first I am sure he would have been fair with you.Surely it is not our fault that you have cheated yourself in trying tocheat us. I really don't see how we owe you anything!"
"Jim Colter, as he calls himself, owes me a whole lot. Say, I'm hard up.Do you think you could get Colter to give me a job as a miner?" "GypsyJoe" urged. "They say the men are making a pretty good thing out ofthat."
Slowly Ruth shook her head, knowing that Jim, who was the most gentle ofmen and the most yielding in little things, was like adamant once hismind was made up.
"I don't know what there is between you and Mr. Colter," Ruth answeredhurriedly, "but I'm sure I could not make him change his opinion of youeven if I wished to try. Do, do go away from here."
"I won't," the man replied. "You've got to hear something first." Ruthmade a movement, but he caught at her skirts. "I'm all-fired tired ofthis man Colter's being so hard on me and having all the people aroundhere treat him like a tin god. I am not living under an assumed name andhe is. I have never done anything to make me proud of being called JoeDawson, but I don't have to hide it. Colter!" Joe Dawson laughed. "Yourfriend is no more named Colter than I am. His name is Carter, JohnCarter, and he hails from Virginia the same as I do. Colter was a prettygood name to select when he came west, since a man named Colter happenedto be one of the first settlers in Wyoming."
"Be quiet and let me go, Mr. Dawson!" Ruth commanded, white with anger."Of course you understand I don't believe a word you have said, but yousha'n't force me to listen to your slander."
"Oh, don't take my word for it," Dawson sneered. "Ask Carter if hedidn't run away from home because he stole a lot of money and broke hismother's and father's hearts. The Carters are a proud lot and notforgiving, and I expect they weren't sorry to have him change his nameto Colter. He and I were school-fellows together, and we have never beenfriendly."
The man let go of her skirts, and Ruth ran back toward the rancho whilehe walked off in the other direction. There could not be a word of truthin what he had told her, yet the girl felt sick and trembling and darednot go in where her friends could see her. Crying softly, Ruth droppeddown in the grass by the side of the road. Suddenly it occurred to herthat Jim had never told her one word of his past history and that theranch girls knew nothing of him before his coming to Wyoming; yet shehad confided every detail of her own narrow story to him, her schooldays in Vermont and the teaching afterward, and then there was nothingelse until she came out west to him.
A horse trotted along the road and shied at the white figure in thegrass.
"Ruth, is anything the matter?" Jim asked in astonishment, recognizingher at once.
"Nothing, only I was waiting for you," Ruth answered.
Jim had ridden close up to her. Now he leaned down from his horse andlifted her up in the saddle with him. "Let's don't go in to the housenow, Ruth," he whispered. "I want to ride with you, alone."
Ruth did not have to speak, for she yielded herself utterly to Jim'sstrength and tenderness. With a touch to his horse the man and womanrode on, feeling the night wind of the prairies with its thousandfragrances blow over them; seeing the sky with its ten million starsabove them and the great wide sweep of the open country beneath.
"It has been more than a week, Ruth, and I am weary of waiting," Jimsaid, when his horse grew tired and they were moving toward home.
She turned her face toward him, flushed now with the joy of the nightand the stars and the new love that enthralled her. "You know I loveyou, Jim," she murmured caressingly, "and I would rather be your wifethan any man's in the world."
After this there did not seem to be need for speech; but the man walkedhis horse slowly, hoping that it might take forever before they reachedhome.
Then Ruth said carelessly, because the tramp's story had passed out ofher thoughts until this moment: "Jim, don't be angry--I didn't want tolisten, but you must make that fellow, Joe Dawson, stop telling dreadfulstories about you. Why, I met him to-night and he told me such absurdthings. He said----"
Suddenly the man's arm stiffened about the woman he loved. "He saidwhat, Ruth?" Jim Colter inquired with a new note in his voice.
Ruth laughed nervously and clung more closely to him, as though shefeared to slip from her seat. "Just that your name was John Carter andnot Jim Colter. Please don't make me tell you any more of his stories,"she begged.
"I would like to hear all, Ruth; it will be better for us in the end,"Jim insisted.
"But I'm ashamed," the girl argued, "because it is so utterly unlike youor anything you could do. You know, I believe you are the soul of honor,Jim, yet this man said you had stolen money when you were a young man,and run away from home to hide."
"The man told you the truth, Ruth," Jim Colter answered. "Don't befrightened. I have done wrong, for I should have told you before. Myname is John Carter under the law, though I have borne the name of JimColter for fourteen years and it seems far more like my own name thanthe other, for I have learned to be a man under it."
Ruth drew herself away, clinging to the horse's mane, her body rigid andher tears dry.
"You mean you have been deceiving me and have asked me to marry youwithout my knowing your real name?" she asked, all her fear andsuspicion of men returning. If Jack had once hated what she called"Ruth's schoolmarm manner," Jim Colter was now to know her in the lightof an upright judge.
"Of course I meant to tell you my story some day, Ruth," he repliedalmost top humbly. "I thought things over a long time and I didn't seehow I was doing you any harm to keep my old name and past a secret fromyou until you learned to love me. Maybe I was mistaken, but I didn'twant you to love the man I used to be, I wanted you to love the man I amnow. I could see that you were growing more understanding every dayabout little things, and not so hard and narrow, and I thought maybe ifyou loved me you'd be able to forgive something that happened so manyyears ago it seems almost like a bad dream."
"I never could marry anyone who deceived me," the girl returnedfrigidly.
"I wasn't deceiving you, I was just waiting to tell you. Maybe you willlisten to the story now?" Jim asked. "It won't take long." Then beforeRuth could reply he went on: "My father and mother had two sons, and Iwas the older. We were an old Virginia family and had been rich beforethe war. I was a good-for-nothing fellow, never studied, had no ambitionand used to spend all of my time out of doors. My brother Ben was adifferent sort, a brilliant, studious chap, and we believed he wouldsome day restore the family fortunes. After graduating at the highschool he went to Richmond to study law, but as I had never studiedanything there was nothing for me to do but to get a job as clerk in astore in our town. Both of us were boys at this time, Ben twenty and Ionly a little older. One night pretty late I was alone in the store, andBen appeared, saying he had come down from Richmond because he had tohave three h
undred dollars quick, that very night. Well, I knew thatfather and mother and I didn't have thirty dollars between us. Bensuggested that I borrow the money from my employer, as I knew thecombination of his safe. In a few days Ben was sure he would have themoney to pay back and I could explain the whole situation. I am notexcusing myself, Ruth. I knew I was sinning when I borrowed anotherman's money without his consent. Ben couldn't pay back, and I told theman I worked for what I had done. I offered to take any punishment thelaw ordered and then to come back to his shop and work until I paid himthe last cent. The man forgave me, Ruth, and was willing to let me workout my salvation; but there was one thing I had not counted on, and thatwas family pride. When my father and mother learned what I had done theyasked me to leave town, change my name and never to come home again."
"Did they know you took the money for your brother?" Ruth queried.
Jim shook his head. "What was the use? My sin was just the same. I paidthe man back years ago, Ruth. Now can you forgive me?"
"I am sorry, Jim," Ruth answered kindly, but in a manner as remote fromhim and his need as though she had been a thousand miles away. "I amsure you will understand, but I must take back my promise. I can't bethe wife of a man who has done wrong, no matter how much he hasrepented. Has no one ever known of what you did in all these years?"
"One man besides Joe Dawson, who is the nephew of the man from whom Itook the money," Jim returned. "He was John Ralston. I told him my storya few days before he died and he left me the guardian of his littlegirls, to manage their property until Jack is twenty-one." And this wasthe only defense Jim Colter ever made for himself.
By and by he put Ruth down on the porch of the rancho and went away tohis tent for the night. In the morning he had gone from Rainbow Ranch toattend to other business.