CHAPTER III
A Woman's Loyalty
The first instinctive thought of a man reveals innate character; thosethat follow, the moral that he has acquired through environment andcircumstances. That Jack Payson was at bottom good man is shown by hisfirst emotion, which was joy, and his first impulse, which was toimpart the glad news to everybody, upon receiving the letter from DickLane telling that he was alive and soon to come home. He was in hishouse at the time. Bud Lane had just brought in the packet of mail fromFlorence, and was riding away. Jack uttered a cry of joy which broughtthe young man back to the door. "What is it?" asked Bud. But Jack hadalready had time for his damning second thought. He was stunned by theconsideration that the promulgation of the news in the letter meant hisloss of Echo Allen. He dissembled, though as yet he was not able totell an outright falsehood:
"It's a letter telling me that I may expect to receive enough money ina month or so to pay off the mortgage. Now your brother's debt needn'ttrouble you any longer, Bud."
"Whew-w!" whistled Bud. "That's great! Where does it come from?"
"Oh, from an old friend that I lent the money to some time ago. But,say, Bud, there's another matter I want to talk with you about. You'vegot to shake Buck McKee. I've got it straight that he is the worst manin Arizona Territory, yes, worse than an Apache. Why, he has been withGeronimo, torturing and massacring lone prospectors, and robbing themof their gold."
"That's a damned lie, Jack Payson, and you know it!" cried thehot-headed young man. "It was Buck McKee who stood by Dick's side andfought the Apaches. And I'll stand by Buck against all the world.Everybody is in a conspiracy against him, Polly and Slim Hoover andyou. Why are you so ready now to take a slanderer's word against his?You were keen enough to accept his story, when it let you out of goingto Dick's rescue, and gave you free swing to court his girl. Let mesee the name of the damned snake-in-the-grass that's at the bottom ofall this!" And he snatched for the letter in Payson's hand.
The ranchman quickly thrust the missive into pocket. The injustice ofBud's reflections on former actions gave to his uneasy conscience justthe pretext he desired for justifying his present course. His causebeing weak and unworthy, he whipped up his indignation by adopting ahigh tone and overbearing manner, even demeaning himself by using hisposition as Bud's employer to crush the younger man. Indeed, at theend of the scene which ensued he well-nigh convinced himself that hehad been most ungratefully treated by Bud while sincerely attempting tosave the boy from the companionship of a fiend in human guise.
"No matter who told me, young man," he exclaimed; "I got it straight,and you can take it straight from me. You either give up Buck McKee orthe Sweetwater Ranch. Snake-in-the-grass!" he was working himself upinto false passion; "it is you, ungrateful boy, who are sinking theserpent's tooth in the hand that would have helped you. I tell youthat I intended to make you foreman, though Sage-brush Charley is anolder and better man. It was for Dick's sake I would have done it."
"No!" Bud burst forth; "for your guilty conscience's sake. It wouldhave been to pay for stepping into Dick's place in the heart of afaithless girl. To hell with your job; I'm through with you!"
And, leaping on his horse, Bud rode furiously back to rejoin Buck McKeein Florence.
Jack Payson's purpose was now cinched to suppress Dick Lane's letteruntil Echo Allen was irrevocably joined to him in marriage. He arguedwith himself that she loved him, Jack Payson, yet so loyal was she bynature that if Dick Lane returned before the wedding and claimed her,she would sacrifice her love to her sense of duty. This would ruin herlife, he reasoned, and he could not permit it. There was honesty inthis argument, but he vitiated it by deferring to act upon thesuggestion that naturally arose with it: Why, then, not take JimAllen, Echo's father, to whom her happiness was the chief purpose inlife, into confidence in regard to the matter? There will be timeenough to tell the Colonel before the wedding, he thought. In themeantime something might happen to Dick,, and he may never return. Heis certain not to get back ahead of his money.
After the time that the note secured by the mortgage fell due, theyoung ranchman had already secured two extensions of it for threemonths each. He arranged a third, and began negotiating for the saleof some of his cattle to take up the note at the time of payment. "Ican't take the money from Dick," he thought, "even if he does owe it tome. And yet if I refuse it, it will be like buying Echo--'paying forstepping into Dick's place,' as Bud expressed it. What to do I don'tknow. Well, events will decide." And by this favorite reflection ofthe moral coward, Jack Payson marked the lowest depths of hisdegradation.
That afternoon Payson rode to Allen Hacienda to see Echo, and to soundher upon her feelings to Dick Lane. He wished thoroughly to convincehimself that he, Jack Payson, held complete sway over her heart.Perhaps he might dare to put her love to the test, and fulfil the trusthis friend had imposed on him, by giving her Dick's letter.
Payson overtook Polly riding slowly on her way home from Florence. Shebarely greeted him. "Has she met Bud, and has he been slurring me?" hethought. He checked his pacing horse to the half-trot, half-walk, ofPolly's mount, and, ignoring her incivility, began talking to her.
"'D'yeh see Bud in Florence?"
"Yep. Couldn't help it. Him an' Buck McKee are about the whole ofFlorence these days."
"Too bad about Bud consorting with that rustler. I've had to fire himfor it."
"Fire him? Well you ARE a good friend. Talk about men's loyalty! Ifwomen threw men down that easy you all would go to the bowwows too fastfor us to bake dog-biscuit. Now, I've settled Buck McKee's hash byputting Slim Hoover wise to that tongue-slittin'. Oh, I'll bring Budaround, all right, all right, even if men that ought to be his friendsgo back on him."
"But, Pollykins--"
"Don't you girlie me, Jack Payson. I'm a woman, and I'm goin' to be amarried one, too, in spite of all you do to Bud. Yes, sirree, bob.I've set out to make a man of him, and I'll marry him to do it if heain't a dollar to his name. But money'd make it lots quicker an'easier. He was savin' up till he run in with Buck McKee."
A sudden thought struck Payson. Here was a way to dispose of DickLane's money when it came.
"All right, Mrs. Bud Lane to be. Promise not tell Bud, and through youI'll soon make good to him many times over for the foreman's wages he'slost. It's money that's coming from an enterprise that his brother andI were partners in, and Bud shall Dick's share. He's sore on me now,and I can't tell him. Besides, he'd gamble it away before he got it toBuck McKee. Bud isn't strictly ethical in regard to money matters,Polly, and you must manage the exchequer."
"Gee, what funny big words you use, Jack! But I know what you mean;he's too free-handed. Well, he'll be savin' as a trade rat until weget our home paid for. And I'll manage the checker business when we'remarried. No more poker and keno for Bud. Thank you, Jack. I alwaysknew you was square."
Polly's sincere praise of his "squareness" was the sharpest thrustpossible at Payson's guilty conscience. Well, he resolved to come asnear being square and level as he could. He had told half-truths toBud and Polly; he would present the situation to Echo as a possible,though not actual, one. If Polly were wrong, and Echo loved him somuch that she would break the word she had pledged to Dick Lane, thenhe would confess all, and they would do what could be done to make itright with the discarded lover.
Echo, observing from the window who was Polly's companion, ran out toJack with a cry of joy. He looked meaningly at Polly. She said: "Oh,give me your bridle; I know how many's a crowd." Jack leaped to theground and took Echo in his arms while Polly rode off with the horsesto the corral, singing significantly:
"Spoon, spoon, spoon, While the dish ran away with the spoon."
Jack and Echo embraced clingingly and kissed lingeringly. "It takes acrazy old song like that to express how foolish we lovers are," saidJack. "Why, I feel that I could outfiddle the cat, outjump the cow,outlaugh the dog, and start an elo
pement that would knock theperformance of the tableware as silly as--well, as I am talking now.I'm living in a dream--a Midsummer Night's Dream, such as you werereading to me."
"The lunatic, the lover, and the poet," quoted Echo suggestively.
Dusk was falling. From the bunk-house rose the tinkling notes of amandolin; after a few preliminary chords, the player, a Mexican, begana love-song in Spanish. The distant chimes of Mission bells soundedsoftly on the evening air.
Jack and Echo sat down upon the steps of the piazza. Jack continuedthe strain of his thought, but in a more serious vein:
"Echo, I'm so happy that I am frightened."
"Frightened?" she asked wonderingly.
"Yes, scared--downright scared," he answered. "I reckon I'm like anIndian. An Indian doesn't believe it's good medicine to let the godsknow he's big happy. For there's the Thunder Bird--"
"The Thunder Bird?"
"The evil spirit of the storm," continued Jack. "When the Thunder Birdhears a fellow saying he's big happy, he sends him bad luck--"
Echo laid her hand softly on the mouth of her sweetheart. "We won'tspoil our happiness, then, by talking about it. We will just feelit--just be it."
She laid her head upon Jack's knee. He placed his arm lightly butprotectingly over her shoulder. They sat in silence listening to theMexican's song. Finally Jack bent over and whispered gently in her ear:
"Softly, so the Thunder Bird won't hear, Echo; tell me you love me;that you love only me; that you will always love me, no matter whatshall happen; that you never loved, until you loved me."
Echo sat upright, with a start. "What do you mean?" she exclaimed."Of course I love you, and you only, but the future and the past arebeyond our control. Unless you know of something that is going tohappen which may mar our love, your question is silly, not at all likeyour Mother Goose nonsense--that was dear. And as for the past, youmean Dick Lane."
"Yes, I mean Dick Lane," confessed Payson, in a subdued tone. "I amjealous of him--that is--even of his memory."
"That is not like Jack Payson. What has come over you? It is theshadow of your Thunder Bird. You know what my feeling was for DickLane, and what it is, for it remains the same, the only differencebeing that now I know it never was love. Even if it were, he is dead,and I love you, Jack, you alone. Oh, how you shame me by forcing me tospeak of such things! I have tried to put poor Dick out of my mind,for every time I think of him it is with a wicked joy that he is dead,that he cannot come home to claim me as his wife. Oh, Jack, Jack, Ididn't think it of you!"
And the girl laid her face within her hands on her lover's knee andburst into a fit of sobbing.
Jack Payson shut his teeth.
"Well, since I have lowered myself so far in your esteem, and sinceyour mind is already sinning against Dick Lane, we might as well go onand settle this matter. I promise I will not mention it again. I,too, have troubles of the mind. I am as I am, and you ought to knowit. I said I was jealous of Dick Lane's memory. It is more. I amjealous of Dick Lane himself. If he should return, would you leave meand go with him--as his wife?"
Again she sat upright. By a strong effort she controlled her sobbing.
"The man I admired does not deserve an answer, but the child he hasproved himself to be and whom I cannot help loving, shall have it.Yes, if Dick Lane returns true to his promise I shall be true to mine."
She arose and went into the house. Payson rode homeward through thestarlight resolved of tormenting doubt only to be consumed by torturingjealousy. He now had no thought of confiding in Jim Allen. Heregretted that he had touched so dangerously near the subject of DickLane's return in talking to Bud and Polly. His burning desire was to besafely married to Echo Allen before the inevitable return of her formerlover.
"Fool that I was not to ask her one more question: Would she forgiveher husband where she would not forgive her lover? What will she thinkof me when all is discovered, as it surely will be? Well, I must takemy chances. Events will decide."
On his return to Sweetwater Ranch he put the place in charge of his newforeman, Sage-brush Charlie, and went out to a hunting-cabin he hadbuilt in the Tortilla Mountains. Here he fought the problem over withhis conscience--and his selfishness won. He returned, fixed in hisdecision to suppress Dick Lane's letter, and to go ahead with themarriage.