The Ranch Girls' Pot of Gold Page 6

  CHAPTER IV

  THE WAY TO ARCADY

  "It can't be, Jim, that you think maybe we will be able to carry out ourscheme," Jean murmured, her voice hushed almost into a whisper fromsheer surprise. She held her fork in the air, hovering between her mouthand her plate, while the other three girls leaned back limply in theirchairs at the breakfast table. To win a battle without a fight when allyour forces are drawn up for action is unsettling.

  "Oh, well, I didn't exactly say I would agree to this caravan trip," Jimhedged. "I don't know that it is a good plan for you to give up yourhome and take to the woods; but I did say that the idea was worthconsidering if Miss Ruth favors it. The thing that troubles me most iswho is to be the leader of this female cavalcade?" Jim frowned andbuttered his fourth hot biscuit. "Don't tell me, Jack Ralston, that youcan go it alone, for you can't. It is a good thing you were born inWyoming, the first state to declare for woman's suffrage, for if ever Imet a real natural born female suffragette, it's you. There isn't athing on this earth that a man does that you wouldn't try if you could.I don't know, Miss Drew, but that we are a little more advanced on thewoman question out here than you are in Vermont," Jim drawled slowly."Kind of seems like it ought to help reconcile you to living among us."

  Ruth laughed girlishly. She had on a white pique frock and looked asdainty as a Dresden china shepherdess; she had plenty of color now andher lips had lost their disapproving curve. "I don't need the vote toreconcile me to living with the ranch girls, Mr. Colter," she insistedsweetly. "And please understand I am just as anxious for the caravantrip as I can be."

  Jim looked thoughtfully at his plate without answering, until Jack gavea little tug at his sleeve. "See here, Jim, dear," she argued quickly,"even I haven't suggested that we undertake our trip without a man forour guide. You know we want to follow one of the old, almost forgottentrails across the state to the Yellowstone Park, and of course we don'twant to get lost; but Jean and Olive and I planned the whole thing outthis morning just perfectly. We know some of the horses we want to takewith us and we have chosen the very man for our escort."

  Jim shook his head obstinately. "You know I am not talking against theboys on our ranch," he answered solemnly; "they are as good a set offellows as can be found anywhere in the business. But there isn't one ofthem that's fit to trust with the finest girls in this country."

  "Oh, our guide is all right; don't worry about him, Jim," Jeanannounced, with the calm assurance of a priestess of the Delphic oracle."I know you will thoroughly approve of him as soon as you hear who heis." Jean tried her best to wink at Ruth, so that she might guess theirmeaning, but Ruth was completely in the dark.

  "I am pretty sure _not_ to approve of him, you mean," Jim interruptedgloomily. "I have thought of every man on the place, and there isn't oneof them I would even consider."

  "Oh, yes, there is one, Jim; just one, and you haven't thought of himyet," Jack argued unhesitatingly.

  Frieda snickered, Olive smiled and Jean shrugged her shoulders, but Ruthlooked as puzzled as Jim.

  "Well, out with your man's name, children," Jim demanded firmly. "Youmust not set your heart on this excursion until I know who _he_ is. I amsorry now that I ever listened to your scheme."

  Jean, who was sitting next Ruth, leaned over and whispered something toher, and Ruth gave a happy laugh and then blushed furiously withoutrhyme or reason.

  "Jim, there is but one person in the world we want to go with us, andyou certainly ought to know who he is," Jack suggested at this moment."Surely you know that it's you. Of course it couldn't be anyone else."

  "Me--me!" Jim Colter exclaimed helplessly, the tired, thoughtfulexpression which his brown face had worn all morning changing suddenlyto one of joy at Jack's proposition. "Why, you are mad as a March hare,Miss Ralston. I know you thought of renting Rainbow Lodge for themagnificent sum of one hundred dollars a month, but I took it thatbargain did not include a thousand or more acres of good Wyoming land,and I would like to know who would look after the ranch while I wasaway."

  "Oh, Jim, you are tiresome," Jean protested. "Do you think the ranchwould go to rack and ruin if you left it for a little while? You knowone of the other men could take charge of things for you. Why, youhaven't taken a holiday from this place in _years_, and when you wentaway last time I suppose it was business, for you never said where youwent nor what happened to you while you were away."

  Jim's face turned so red that Jack was afraid Jean's idle speech hadhurt his feelings, for he probably did not like the idea that theythought anyone as capable of running their ranch for them as he was. Sheslipped away from her place at the table and put her arm over Jim'sshoulder as simply as though she were six instead of sixteen. Jim hadalways been a kind of big brother to the ranch girls. "Dear old Jim,"Jack whispered affectionately, "don't be offended. Of course, Jean doesnot mean that anybody can really manage the ranch except you, but shedoes think, and indeed we all do--Cousin Ruth most of all, though shehasn't said anything yet--that you could come away with us for a while,even if you just take the trip with us to Yellowstone Park and thenreturn to the ranch as you think best. O, Jim!" Jack's words trippedover each other in her eagerness, "you know you would love our caravanexcursion better than anything in the world! It was just because youknew how much you would adore it yourself that you agreed so readily toour scheme when we proposed it to you. Don't you remember how we used toplot and plan just such a journey years and years ago, when Jean andFrieda and I were little girls? You used to tell us stories about yourlong ride all alone across the great desert when you had no one but yourhorse for company, no money, no friends, and no place to go until youfound us." Jack paused for an instant.

  Jim Colter was looking out the window, but his eyes were not on thelandscape before him.

  "Don't you recall, Jim, how you said that even then you learned to lovethe romance of the silent places, even the great loneliness that madeyou feel as though the world were created just for you?" Jack went onpleadingly. "And you said that some day you would take us for a tripacross the prairies, and father promised that we might go when we grewup. Now everything is getting so civilized out west, do let us start onour pilgrimage while there is some of the wilderness left." Jack's nextwords to her friend were spoken in such a low tone that no one elsecould guess what she was saying: "I think father would like you to keepthe promise to us, if you could, Jim, and it would be the most wonderfulopportunity in the world for you with Ruth."

  Jim gazed slowly about the group of girls without the least indicationthat he had understood Jack's suggestion. "Well, I will think thingsover for a few days and kind of see how the land lies," he announcedaloud, "and if there is anybody around who can look after the ranch forme, I think maybe I had better see that you don't come to harm."

  Jack gave Jim a little shake and Jean pulled him up from the breakfasttable. "Don't talk in that tiresome, dutiful fashion, Jim Colter; wewill not stand it," Jean protested; "for you know perfectly well thatyou are as crazy about our jaunt as the rest of us and you wouldn't missit now for worlds!"

  "I DECLARE, I FEEL LIKE I HADN'T SEEN YOU IN A HUNDREDYEARS!"]

  The entire breakfast party had gotten up from the table and werefluttering about the room. A little pine fire burned in the fireplace,but the windows and doors were wide open. Some one walked across thefront porch and knocked, and when no one answered, followed the sound ofthe voices indoors. Frieda gave the first exclamation of surprise attheir visitor, tripped over a rocking chair in running to him and landedin the arms of Frank Kent. "Oh, I am glad to see you!" she exclaimedhappily. "Why, we thought you were at home in England. What can you bedoing here?"

  "I have come to see you, Frieda," Frank answered immediately, "butbesides you, every single other person at the Rainbow Ranch." Frank musthave had half a dozen arms to have shaken hands with all his friends inthe room at the same time, yet somehow, in spite of their greetings, hemanaged to give both his hands to Jack and to grasp hers in the warmfriendliness to which she
was accustomed from him.

  "I declare, I feel like I hadn't seen you in a hundred years," he saidsimply; "and yet it has been only about six months."

  "What are you doing in this part of the world again, Mr. Kent?" JimColter inquired rather coolly. He liked Frank Kent well enough, but theyoung man had gone home to England, when the affairs of the ranch girlswere safely settled with his cousin Daniel Norton, who had tried tosteal their home from them, and Jim had not expected nor desired to seethe English fellow again. He didn't care much for foreigners, evenAnglo-Saxon ones.

  "I am only here for a little while, Mr. Colter," Frank Kent explained,answering the question in Jim's words and in Jack's eyes. "I came backto America on a short business trip. My father heard of some mines inColorado, and as I was so enthusiastic about the West he sent me out toinvestigate them for him. As Colorado is a sister state to Wyoming, Ihad to slip across the border, you know," he ended shyly.

  Olive had let every one else in the room finish their welcome to FrankKent before she attempted to speak to him. Now she put out her slenderhand and held his only for a moment while her face flushed and her darkeyes shone with a soft radiance. "I am truly glad to see you again," shedeclared with more real feeling than any one of the other girls had yetrevealed. Jack, who adored Olive, and was a little jealous of anyaffection she might show for other people, stared at her curiously.

  "O Frank, do let's all go out of doors," Jack suggested. "We have themost wonderful scheme we want to tell you about and we want to knoweverything about your people in England, your father and mother and twosisters and your wonderful estate in Surrey."

  The entire party was just leaving the living room when Aunt Ellen's tallform blocked the door. Her face showed anger and she held the smallIndian boy by his uninjured arm. Carlos' eyes were larger and moremournful than ever and his lips set in an obstinate curve.

  "This boy says he won't eat with Zack and me," Aunt Ellen announcedangrily. "He says he is the son of a chief and the grandson of one andthat he should be fed first; and I won't put up with such nonsense."

  "O Carlos!" Olive came across the room and dropped on the floor in frontof the lad. "How can you be so silly and ungrateful?" she askedpleadingly. "Aunt Ellen, his people are all dead; they were killed in afight on the plains, and I don't know whether Carlos is a chief's son ornot. But of course we can't keep him at the ranch if he istroublesome."

  Olive was such a lovely picture as she knelt on the floor gazing up intothe Indian boy's face that Frank Kent looked at her closely for thefirst time since he entered Rainbow Lodge. She was more changed than anyone of the ranch girls in the six months of his absence, and seemedolder and somehow more graceful and elusive than ever.

  Jim Colter took several great strides across the room toward smallCarlos, without apparently heeding Ruth's little cry of remonstrance norOlive's plea for patience; he seemed so big and fierce and strong andthe Indian boy so little and weak and defiant, that it was like a greateagle pouncing down on an impudent sparrow. Jim swooped Carlos up in hisarms, but instead of devouring him, put the lad down in a chair by thebreakfast table, poured out a glass of milk for him and made him drinkit, for he saw what no one else had, that the boy was almost dying ofhunger.

  "Leave us to ourselves, please," Jim demanded, smiling at Aunt Ellenapologetically. "I want to see after this boy myself for a few minutes.Who knows but we may need just such a little scout in our trip acrossthe prairies."

  Ruth smiled at Jim without a trace of the old-maid disapproval of himwhich she once felt, and Olive gave a sigh of relief, for she had beenworrying all through breakfast about what they could do with Carlos whenthey went on their wonderful caravan trip. It had seemed so unkind todesert him after his long and faithful quest of her.

  A quarter of an hour later Jim came out in the yard, and the Indian ladwent to the kitchen to do as he was bid. Whatever Jim had told himserved to keep him proudly obedient so long as he remained at the ranchhouse.

  In front of the Lodge, Jean, Olive, Frieda and Ruth were still talkingof their journey, while Frank and Jack had wandered off somewheretogether. Jean was flitting about in the sunlight like a brown sparrow,twittering and singing and hopping from very joy at being alive. Shesuddenly seized Jim's hand and forced Ruth to take hold of his otherone, then when Olive and Frieda joined the circle, she made them whirlaround until they were completely out of breath. "I declare, I never wasso happy in my life," Jean panted, when she finally released hervictims. "I believe every good thing in the world comes true if you onlywant it hard enough. But don't you wish we were traveling across theplains right now? It is such a wonderful, wonderful day!"

  Truly it might have been a spring morning in the Garden of Eden. Thepale green leaves of the tall cottonwood trees were shimmering andquivering with each faintest breeze; the birds were rustling softly intheir branches, and, beyond the trees, the alfalfa fields were now adelicate lavender and rose.

  Jean pointed through an opening in the trees, where the landscapestretched almost unbroken to the line of hills on the western horizonand made a little curtsy to Ruth.

  "'Oh, what's the way to Arcady Where all the leaves are merry?'"

  "Tell me, Ruth, dear," she quoted mischievously from a volume of poemsshe and her chaperon had just finished reading.

  Ruth shook her head, but Jim stared at Jean thoughtfully. "Say thatlittle verse again, Jean," he said slowly. "I don't know where Arcadyis, but it is a pretty sounding place."

  Jean laughed roguishly and blew him a kiss. "What has come over you,Jim, to make you willing to listen to poetry?" she inquired. "Arcady isjust an ideal country that poets like to write about, but here's the wayto find it if you like:

  "'What, know you not, old man (quoth he),-- Your hair is white, your face is wise,-- That _love_ must kiss that Mortal's eyes Who hopes to see fair Arcady? No gold can buy you entrance there,-- But beggared love may go all bare-- No wisdom won with weariness, But love goes in with Folly's dress-- No fame that wit could ever win, But only love may lead love in To Arcady, to Arcady.'"

  At the end of her recitation Jean quickly put her hands in Olive's andFrieda's and ran off to see if any flowers had bloomed in their violetbed, leaving Ruth and Jim alone. Ruth was blushing, for she had afar-off idea of what Jean meant to suggest by her quotation, but Jimappeared so sublimely unconscious that she felt relieved. He wasevidently thinking of something very different from love or Arcady, forRuth had to touch him before he seemed to hear what she was saying."When may Jack write the people to say they can have the Lodge?" sheinquired, determined not to be entirely forgotten by her companion, nomatter how glad she was that he had paid no attention to Jean.

  "The Lodge? Oh, any time," he answered vaguely, looking at Ruth in a waythat made her catch her breath. Jim was not thinking at the moment ofanything connected with Rainbow Lodge. He was wondering if a man, whohad something in his past he wished to forget, could ever travel overinto Arcady by the route Jean's poem suggested--Arcady, that country heknew nothing about except that the name had a pleasant sound.