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- Herausgeber: Musaicum Books
- Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017
B. M. Bower's 'Her Prairie Knight, Lonesome Land & The Uphill Climb: Complete Western Trilogy' is a classic collection of Western tales that vividly transport the reader to the rugged landscapes of the American frontier. Through engaging narratives and authentic dialogue, Bower captures the essence of life in the Old West, depicting the challenges and triumphs of pioneers in a harsh and unforgiving environment. Her descriptive prose and attention to detail immerse readers in a bygone era, making each story a captivating and immersive experience. The trilogy showcases Bower's mastery of the Western genre and her ability to create compelling characters and settings that resonate with readers of all ages. Fans of Western literature will appreciate the authenticity and depth of Bower's storytelling, making this collection a must-read for anyone interested in the rich tradition of American frontier fiction.
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Her Prairie Knight, Lonesome Land & The Uphill Climb: Complete Western Trilogy
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Table of Contents
Her Prairie Knight
Chapter 1. Stranded on the Prairie
“By George, look behind us! I fancy we are going to have a storm.” Four heads turned as if governed by one brain; four pairs of eyes, of varied color and character, swept the wind-blown wilderness of tender green, and gazed questioningly at the high-piled thunderheads above. A small boy, with an abundance of yellow curls and white collar, almost precipitated himself into the prim lap of a lady on the rear seat.
“Auntie, will God have fireworks? Say, auntie, will He? Can I say prayers widout kneelin’ down’? Uncle Redmon’ crowds so. I want to pray for fireworks, auntie. Can I?”
“Do sit down, Dorman. You’ll fall under the wheel, and then auntie would not have any dear little boy. Dorman, do you hear me? Redmond, do take that child down! How I wish Parks were here. I shall have nervous prostration within a fortnight.”
Sir Redmond Hayes plucked at the white collar, and the small boy retired between two masculine forms of no mean proportions. His voice, however, rose higher.
“You’ll get all the fireworks you want, young man, without all that hullabaloo,” remarked the driver, whom Dorman had been told, at the depot twenty miles back, he must call his Uncle Richard.
“I love storms,” came cheerfully from the rear seat—but the voice was not the prim voice of “auntie.” “Do you have thunder and lightning out here, Dick?”
“We do,” assented Dick. “We don’t ship it from the East in refrigerator cars, either. It grows wild.”
The cheerful voice was heard to giggle.
“Richard,” came in tired, reproachful accents from a third voice behind him, “you were reared in the East. I trust you have not formed the pernicious habit of speaking slightingly of your birthplace.”
That, Dick knew, was his mother. She had not changed appreciably since she had nagged him through his teens. Not having seen her since, he was certainly in a position to judge.
“Trix asked about the lightning,” he said placatingly, just as he was accustomed to do, during the nagging period. “I was telling her.”
“Beatrice has a naturally inquiring mind,” said the tired voice, laying reproving stress upon the name.
“Are you afraid of lightning, Sir Redmond?” asked the cheerful girl-voice.
Sir Redmond twisted his neck to smile back at her. “No, so long as it doesn’t actually chuck me over.”
After that there was silence, so far as human voices went, for a time.
“How much farther is it, Dick?” came presently from the girl.
“Not more than ten—well, maybe twelve—miles. You’ll think it’s twenty, though, if the rain strikes ‘Dobe Flat before we do. That’s just what it’s going to do, or I’m badly mistaken. Hawk! Get along, there!”
“We haven’t an umbrella with us,” complained the tired one. “Beatrice, where did you put my raglan?”
“In the big wagon, mama, along with the trunks and guns and saddles, and Martha and Katherine and James.”
“Dear me! I certainly told you, Beatrice—”
“But, mama, you gave it to me the last thing, after the maids were in the wagon, and said you wouldn’t wear it. There isn’t room here for another thing. I feel like a slice of pressed chicken.”
“Auntie, I want some p’essed chicken. I’m hungry, auntie! I want some chicken and a cookie—and I want some ice-cream.”
“You won’t get any,” said the young woman, with the tone of finality. “You can’t eat me, Dorman, and I’m the only thing that looks good enough to eat.”
“Beatrice!” This, of course, from her mother, whose life seemed principally made up of a succession of mental shocks, brought on by her youngest, dearest, and most irrepressible.
“I have Dick’s word for it, mama; he said so, at the depot.”
“I want some chicken, auntie.”
“There is no chicken, dear,” said the prim one. “You must be a patient little man.”
“I won’t. I’m hungry. Mens aren’t patient when dey’re hungry.” A small, red face rose, like a tiny harvest moon, between the broad, masculine backs on the front seat.
“Dorman, sit down! Redmond!”
A large, gloved hand appeared against the small moon and it set ignominiously and prematurely, in the place where it had risen. Sir Redmond further extinguished it with the lap robe, for the storm, whooping malicious joy, was upon them.
First a blinding glare and a deafening crash. Then rain—sheets of it, that drenched where it struck. The women huddled together under the doubtful protection of the light robe and shivered. After that, wind that threatened to overturn the light spring wagon; then hail that bounced and hopped like tiny, white rubber balls upon the ground.
The storm passed as suddenly as it came, but the effect remained. The road was sodden with the water which had fallen, and as they went down the hill to ‘Dobe Flat the horses strained at the collar and plodded like a plow team. The wheels collected masses of adobe, which stuck like glue and packed the spaces between the spokes. Twice Dick got out and poked the heavy mess from the wheels with Sir Redmond’s stick—which was not good for the stick, but which eased the drag upon the horses wonderfully—until the wheels accumulated another load.
“Sorry to dirty your cane,” Dick apologized, after the second halt. “You can rinse it off, though, in the creek a few miles ahead.”
“Don’t mention it!” said Sir Redmond, somewhat dubiously. It was his favorite stick, and he had taken excellent care of it. It was finely polished, and it had his name and regiment engraved upon the silver knob—and a date which the Boers will not soon forget, nor the English, for that matter.
“We’ll soon be over the worst,” Dick told them, after a time. “When we climb that hill we’ll have a hard, gravelly trail straight to the ranch. I’m sorry it had to storm; I wanted you to enjoy this trip.”
“I am enjoying it,” Beatrice assured him. “It’s something new, at any rate, and anything is better than the deadly monotony of Newport.”
“Beatrice!” cried her mother “I’m ashamed of you!”
“You needn’t be, mama. Why won’t you just be sorry for yourself, and let it end there? I know you hated to come, poor dear; but you wouldn’t think of letting me come alone, though I’m sure I shouldn’t have minded. This is going to be a delicious summer—I feel it in my bones.”
“Be-atrice!”
“Why, mama? Aren’t young ladies supposed to have bones?”
“Young ladies are not supposed to make use of unrefined expressions. Your poor sister.”
“There, mama. Dear Dolly didn’t live upon stilts, I’m sure. Even when she married.”
“Be-atrice!”
“Dear me, mama! I hope you are not growing peevish. Peevish elderly people—”
“Auntie! I want to go home!” the small boy wailed.
“You cannot go home now, dear,” sighed his guardian angel. “Look at the pretty—” She hesitated, groping vaguely for some object to which she might conscientiously apply the adjective.
“Mud,” suggested Beatrice promptly “Look at the wheels, Dorman; they’re playing patty-cake. See, now they say, ‘Roll ‘em, and roll ‘em,’ and now, ‘Toss in the oven to bake!’ And now—”
“Auntie, I want to get out an’ play patty-cake, like de wheels. I want to awf’lly!”
“Beatrice, why did you put that into his head?” her mother demanded, fretfully.
“Never mind, honey,” called Beatrice cheeringly. “You and I will make hundreds of mud pies when we get to Uncle Dick’s ranch. Just think, hon, oodles of beautiful, yellow mud just beside the door!”
“Look here, Trix! Seems to me you’re promising a whole lot you can’t make good. I don’t live in a ‘dobe patch.”
“Hush, Dick; don’t spoil everything. You don’t know Dorman.’
“Beatrice! What must Miss Hayes and Sir Redmond think of you? I’m sure Dorman is a sweet child, the image of poor, dear Dorothea, at his age.”
“We all think Dorman bears a strong resemblance to his father,” said his Aunt Mary.
Beatrice, scenting trouble, hurried to change the subject. “What’s this, Dick—the Missouri River?”
“Hardly. This is the water that didn’t fall in the buggy. It isn’t deep; it makes bad going worse, that’s all.”
Thinking to expedite matters, he struck Hawk sharply across the flank. It was a foolish thing to do, and Dick knew it when he did it; ten seconds later he knew it better.
Hawk reared, tired as he was, and lunged viciously.
The double-trees snapped and splintered; there was a brief interval of plunging, a shower of muddy water in that vicinity, and then two draggled, disgusted brown horses splashed indignantly to shore and took to the hills with straps flying.
“By George!” ejaculated Sir Redmond, gazing helplessly after them. “But this is a beastly bit of luck, don’t you know!”
“Oh, you Hawk—” Dick, in consideration of his companions, finished the remark in the recesses of his troubled soul, where the ladies could not overhear.
“What comes next, Dick?” The voice of Beatrice was frankly curious.
“Next, I’ll have to wade out and take after those—” This sentence, also, was rounded out mentally.
“In the meantime, what shall we do?”
“You’ll stay where you are—and thank the good Lord you were not upset. I’m sorry,”—turning so that he could look deprecatingly at Miss Hayes—“your welcome to the West has been so—er—strenuous. I’ll try and make it up to you, once you get to the ranch. I hope you won’t let this give you a dislike of the country.”
“Oh, no,” said the spinster politely. “I’m sure it is a—a very nice country, Mr. Lansell.”
“Well, there’s nothing to be done sitting here.” Dick climbed down over the dashboard into the mud and water.
Sir Redmond was not the man to shirk duty because it happened to be disagreeable, as the regiment whose name was engraved upon his cane could testify. He glanced regretfully at his immaculate leggings and followed.
“I fancy you ladies won’t need any bodyguard,” he said. Looking back, he caught the light of approval shining in the eyes of Beatrice, and after that he did not mind the mud, but waded to shore and joined in the chase quite contentedly. The light of approval, shining in the eyes of Beatrice, meant much to Sir Redmond.
Chapter 2. A Handsome Cowboy to the Rescue
Beatrice took immediate possession of the front seat, that she might comfort her heartbroken young nephew.
“Never mind, honey. They’ll bring the horses back in a minute, and we’ll make them run every step. And when you get to Uncle Dick’s ranch you’ll see the nicest things—bossy calves, and chickens, and, maybe, some little pigs with curly tails.”
All this, though alluring, failed of its purpose; the small boy continued to weep, and his weeping was ear-splitting.
“Be still, Dorman, or you’ll certainly scare all the coyotes to death.”
“Where are dey?”
“Oh, all around. You keep watch, hon, and maybe you’ll see one put the tip of his nose over a hill.”
“What hill?” Dorman skipped a sob, and scoured his eyes industriously with both fists.
“M-m—that hill. That little one over there. Watch close, or you’ll miss him.”
The dove of peace hovered over them, and seemed actually about to alight. Beatrice leaned back with a relieved breath.
“It is good of you, my dear, to take so much trouble,” sighed his Aunt Mary. “How I am to manage without Parks I’m sure I cannot tell.”
“You are tired, and you miss your tea.” soothed Beatrice, optimistic as to tone. “When we all have a good rest we will be all right. Dorman will find plenty to amuse him. We are none of us exactly comfortable now.”
“Comfortable!” sniffed her mother. “I am half dead. Richard wrote such glowing letters home that I was misled. If I had dreamed of the true conditions, Miss Hayes, I should never have sanctioned this wild idea of Beatrice’s to come out and spend the summer with Richard.”
“It’s coming, Be’trice! There it is! Will it bite, auntie? Say, will it bite?”
Beatrice looked. A horseman came over the hill and was galloping down the long slope toward them. His elbows were lifted contrary to the mandates of the riding-school, his long legs were encased in something brown and fringed down the sides. His gray hat was tilted rakishly up at the back and down in front, and a handkerchief was knotted loosely around his throat. Even at that distance he struck her as different from any one she had ever seen.
“It’s a highwayman!” whispered Mrs. Lansell “Hide your purse, my dear!”
“I—I—where?” Miss Hayes was all a-flutter with fear.
“Drop it down beside the wheel, into the water. Quick! I shall drop my watch.”
“He—he is coming on this side! He can see!” Her whisper was full of entreaty and despair.
“Give them here. He can’t see on both sides of the buggy at once.” Mrs. Lansell, being an American—a Yankee at that—was a woman of resource.
“Beatrice, hand me your watch quick!”
Beatrice paid no attention, and there was no time to insist upon obedience. The horseman had slowed at the water’s edge, and was regarding them with some curiosity. Possibly he was not accustomed to such a sight as the one that met his eyes. He came splashing toward them, however, as though he intended to investigate the cause of their presence, alone upon the prairie, in a vehicle which had no horses attached in the place obviously intended for such attachment. When he was close upon them he stopped and lifted the rakishly tilted gray hat.
“You seem to be in trouble. Is there anything I can do for you?” His manner was grave and respectful, but his eyes, Beatrice observed, were having a quiet laugh of their own.
“You can’t get auntie’s watch, nor gran’mama’s. Gran’mama frowed ‘em all down in the mud. She frowed her money down in the mud, too,” announced Dorman, with much complacency. “Be’trice says you is a coyote. Is you?”
There was a stunned interval, during which nothing was heard but the wind whispering things to the grass. The man’s eyes stopped laughing; his jaw set squarely; also, his brows drew perceptibly closer together. It was Mrs. Lansell’s opinion that he looked murderous.
Then Beatrice put her head down upon the little, blue velvet cap of Dorman and laughed. There was a rollicking note in her laughter that was irresistible, and the eyes of the man relented and joined in her mirth. His lips forgot they were angry and insulted, and uncovered some very nice teeth.
“We aren’t really crazy,” Beatrice told him, sitting up straight and drying her eyes daintily with her handkerchief. “We were on our way to Mr. Lansell’s ranch, and the horses broke something and ran away, and Dick—Mr. Lansell—has gone to catch them. We’re waiting until he does.”
“I see.” From the look in his eyes one might guess that what he saw pleased him. “Which direction did they take?”
Beatrice waved a gloved hand vaguely to the left, and, without another word, the fellow touched his hat, turned and waded to shore and galloped over the ridge she indicated; and the clucketycluck of his horse’s hoofs came sharply across to them until he dipped out of sight.
“You see, he wasn’t a robber,” Beatrice remarked, staring after him speculatively. “How well he rides! One can see at a glance that he almost lives in the saddle. I wonder who he is.”
“For all you know, Beatrice, he may be going now to murder Richard and Sir Redmond in cold blood. He looks perfectly hardened.”
“Oh, do you think it possible?” cried Miss Hayes, much alarmed.
“No!” cried Beatrice hotly. “One who did not know your horror of novels, mama, might suspect you of feeding your imagination upon ‘penny dreadfuls.’ I’m sure he is only a cowboy, and won’t harm anybody.”
“Cowboys are as bad as highwaymen,” contended her mother, “or worse. I have read how they shoot men for a pastime, and without even the excuse of robbery.”
“Is it possible?” quavered Miss Hayes faintly.
“No, it isn’t!” Beatrice assured her indignantly.
“He has the look of a criminal,” declared Mrs. Lansell, in the positive tone of one who speaks from intimate knowledge of the subject under discussion. “I only hope he isn’t going to murder—”
“They’re coming back, mama,” interrupted Beatrice, who had been watching closely the hilltop. “No, it’s that man, and he is driving the horses.”
“He’s chasing them,” corrected her mother testily. “A horse thief, no doubt. He’s going to catch them with his snare—”
“Lasso, mama.”
“Well, lasso. Where can Richard be? To think the fellow should be so bold! But out here, with miles upon miles of open, and no police protection anything is possible. We might all be murdered, and no one be the wiser for days—perhaps weeks. There, he has caught them.” She leaned back and clasped her hands, ready to meet with fortitude whatever fate might have in store.
“He’s bringing them out to us, mama. Can’t you see the man is only trying to help us?”
Mrs. Lansell, beginning herself to suspect him of honest intentions, sniffed dissentingly and let it go at that. The fellow was certainly leading the horses toward them, and Sir Redmond and Dick, appearing over the hill just then, proved beyond doubt that neither had been murdered in cold blood, or in any other unpleasant manner.
“We’re all right now, mother,” Dick called, the minute he was near enough.
His mother remarked skeptically that she hoped possibly she had been in too great haste to conceal her valuables—that Miss Hayes might not feel grateful for her presence of mind, and was probably wondering if mud baths were not injurious to fine, jeweled time-pieces. Mrs. Lansell was uncomfortable, mentally and physically, and her manner was frankly chilly when her son presented the stranger as his good friend and neighbor, Keith Cameron. She was still privately convinced that he looked a criminal—though, if pressed, she must surely have admitted that he was an uncommonly good-looking young outlaw. It would seem almost as if she regarded his being a decent, law-abiding citizen as pure effrontery.
Miss Hayes greeted him with a smile of apprehension which plainly amused him. Beatrice was frankly impersonal in her attitude; he represented a new species of the genus man, and she, too, evidently regarded him in the light of a strange animal, viewed unexpectedly at close range.
While he was helping Dick mend the double-tree with a piece of rope, she studied him curiously. He was tall—taller even than Sir Redmond, and more slender. Sir Redmond had the straight, sturdy look of the soldier who had borne the brunt of hard marches and desperate fighting; Mr. Cameron, the lithe, unconscious grace and alertness of the man whose work demands quick movement and quicker eye and brain. His face was tanned to a clear bronze which showed the blood darkly beneath; Sir Redmond’s year of peace had gone far toward lightening his complexion. Beatrice glanced briefly at him and admired his healthy color, and was glad he did not have the look of an Indian. At the same time, she caught herself wishing that Sir Redmond’s eyes were hazel, fringed with very long, dark lashes and topped with very straight, dark brows—eyes which seemed always to have some secret cause for mirth, and to laugh quite independent of the rest of the face. Still, Sir Redmond had very nice eyes—blue, and kind, and steadfast, and altogether dependable—and his lashes were quite nice enough for any one. In just four seconds Beatrice decided that, after all, she did not like hazel eyes that twinkle continually; they make one feel that one is being laughed at, which is not comfortable. In six seconds she was quite sure that this Mr. Cameron thought himself handsome, and Beatrice detested a man who was proud of his face or his figure; such a man always tempted her to “make faces,” as she used to do over the back fence when she was little.
She mentally accused him of trying to show off his skill with his rope when he leaned and fastened it to the rig, rode out ahead and helped drag the vehicle to shore; and it was with some resentment that she observed the ease with which he did it, and how horse and rope seemed to know instinctively their master’s will, and to obey of their own accord.
In all that he had done—and it really seemed as if he did everything that needed to be done, while Dick pottered around in the way—he had not found it necessary to descend into the mud and water, to the ruin of his picturesque, fringed chaps and high-heeled boots. He had worked at ease, carelessly leaning from his leathern throne upon the big, roan horse he addressed occasionally as Redcloud. Beatrice wondered where he got the outlandish name. But, with all his imperfections, she was glad she had met him. He really was handsome, whether he knew it or not; and if he had a good opinion of himself, and overrated his actions—all the more fun for herself! Beatrice, I regret to say, was not above amusing herself with handsome young men who overrate their own charms; in fact, she had the reputation among her women acquaintances of being a most outrageous flirt.
In the very middle of these trouble-breeding meditations, Mr. Cameron looked up unexpectedly and met keenly her eyes; and for some reason—let us hope because of a guilty conscience—Beatrice grew hot and confused; an unusual experience, surely, for a girl who had been out three seasons, and has met calmly the eyes of many young men. Until now it had been the young men who grew hot and confused; it had never been herself.
Beatrice turned her shoulder toward him, and looked at Sir Redmond, who was surreptitiously fishing for certain articles beside the rear wheel, at the whispered behest of Mrs. Lansell, and was certainly a sight to behold. He was mud to his knees and to his elbows, and he had managed to plaster his hat against the wheel and to dirty his face. Altogether, he looked an abnormally large child who has been having a beautiful day of it in somebody’s duck-pond; but Beatrice was nearer, at that moment, to loving him than she had been at any time during her six weeks’ acquaintance with him—and that is saying much, for she had liked him from the start.
Mr. Cameron followed her glance, and his eyes did not have the laugh all to themselves; his voice joined them, and Beatrice turned upon him and frowned. It was not kind of him to laugh at a man who is proving his heart to be much larger than his vanity; Beatrice was aware of Sir Redmond’s immaculateness of attire on most occasions.
“Well,” said Dick, gathering up the reins, “you’ve helped us out of a bad scrape, Keith. Come over and take dinner with us to-morrow night. I expect we’ll be kept riding the rim-rocks, over at the Pool, this summer. Unless this sister of mine has changed a lot, she won’t rest till she’s been over every foot of country for forty miles around. It will just about keep our strings rode down to a whisper keeping her in sight.”
“Dear me, Richard!” said his mother. “What Jargon is this you speak?”
“That’s good old Montana English, mother. You’ll learn it yourself before you leave here. I’ve clean forgot how they used the English language at Yale, haven’t you, Keith?”
“Just about,” Keith agreed. “I’m afraid we’ll shock the ladies terribly, Dick. We ought to get out on a pinnacle with a good grammar and practice.”
“Well, maybe. We’ll look for you to-morrow, sure. I want you to help map out a circle or two for Trix. About next week she’ll want to get out and scour the range.”
“Dear me, Richard! Beatrice is not a charwoman!” This, you will understand, was from his mother; perhaps you will also understand that she spoke with the rising inflection which conveys a reproof.
When Keith Cameron left them he was laughing quietly to himself, and Beatrice’s chin was set rather more than usual.
Chapter 3. A Tilt With Sir Redmond
Beatrice, standing on the top of a steep, grassy slope, was engaged in the conventional pastime of enjoying the view. It was a fine view, but it was not half as good to look upon as was Beatrice herself, in her fresh white waist and brown skirt, with her brown hair fluffing softly in the breeze which would grow to a respectable wind later in the day, and with her cheeks pink from climbing.
She was up where she could see the river, a broad band of blue in the surrounding green, winding away for miles through the hills. The far bank stood a straight two hundred feet of gay-colored rock, chiseled, by time and stress of changeful weather, into fanciful turrets and towers. Above and beyond, where the green began, hundreds of moving dots told where the cattle were feeding quietly. Far away to the south, heaps of hazy blue and purple slept in the sunshine; Dick had told her those were the Highwoods. And away to the west, a jagged line of blue-white glimmered and stood upon tip-toes to touch the swimming clouds—touched them and pushed above proudly; those were the Rockies. The Bear Paws stood behind her; nearer they were—so near they lost the glamour of mysterious blue shadows, and became merely a sprawling group of huge, pine-covered hills, with ranches dotted here and there in sheltered places, with squares of fresh, dark green that spoke of growing crops.
Ten days, and the metropolitan East had faded and become as hazy and vague as the Highwoods. Ten days, and the witchery of the West leaped in her blood and held her fast in its thralldom.
A sound of scrambling behind her was immediately followed by a smothered epithet. Beatrice turned in time to see Sir Redmond pick himself up.
“These grass slopes are confounded slippery, don’t you know,” he explained apologetically. “How did you manage that climb?”
“I didn’t.” Beatrice smiled. “I came around the end, where the ascent is gradual; there’s a good path.”
“Oh!” Sir Redmond sat down upon a rock and puffed. “I saw you up here—and a fellow doesn’t think about taking a roundabout course to reach his heart’s—”
“Isn’t it lovely?” Beatrice made haste to inquire.
“Lovely isn’t half expressive enough,” he told her. “You look—”
“The river is so very blue and dignified. I’ve been wondering if it has forgotten how it must have danced through those hills, away off there. When it gets down to the cities—this blue water—it will be muddy and nasty looking. The ‘muddy Missouri’ certainly doesn’t apply here. And that farther shore is simply magnificent. I wish I might stay here forever.”
“The Lord forbid!” cried he, with considerable fervor. “There’s a dear nook in old England where I hope—”
“You did get that mud off your leggings, I see,” Beatrice remarked inconsequentially. “James must have worked half the time we’ve been here. They certainly were in a mess the last time I saw them.”
“Bother the leggings! But I take it that’s a good sign, Miss Lansell—your taking notice of such things.”
Beatrice returned to the landscape. “I wonder who originated that phrase, ‘The cattle grazing on a thousand hills’? He must have stood just here when he said it.”
“Wasn’t it one of your American poets? Longfellow, or—er—”
Beatrice simply looked at him a minute and said “Pshaw!”
“Well,” he retorted, “you don’t know yourself who it was.”
“And to think,” Beatrice went on, ignoring the subject, “some of those grazing cows and bossy calves are mine—my very own. I never cared before, or thought much about it, till I came out and saw where they live, and Dick pointed to a cow and the sweetest little red and white calf, and said: ‘That’s your cow and calf, Trix.’ They were dreadfully afraid of me, though—I’m afraid they didn’t recognize me as their mistress. I wanted to get down and pet the calf—it had the dearest little snub nose but they bolted, and wouldn’t let me near them.”
“I fancy they were not accustomed to meeting angels unawares.”
“Sir Redmond, I wish you wouldn’t. You are so much nicer when you’re not trying to be nice.”
“I’ll act a perfect brute,” he offered eagerly, “if that will make you love me.”
“It’s hardly worth trying. I think you would make a very poor sort of villain, Sir Redmond. You wouldn’t even be picturesque.”
Sir Redmond looked rather floored. He was a good fighter, was Sir Redmond, but he was clumsy at repartee—or, perhaps, he was too much in earnest to fence gracefully. Just now he looked particularly foolish.
“Don’t you think my brand is pretty? You know what it is, don’t you?”
“I’m afraid not,” he owned. “I fancy I need a good bit of coaching in the matter of brands.”
“Yes,” agreed Beatrice, “I fancy you do. My brand is a Triangle Bar—like this.” With a sharp pointed bit of rock she drew a more or less exact diagram in the yellow soil. “There are ever so many different brands belonging to the Northern Pool; Dick pointed them out to me, but I can’t remember them. But whenever you see a Triangle Bar you’ll be looking at my individual property. I think it was nice of Dick to give me a brand all my own. Mr. Cameron has a pretty brand, too—a Maltese Cross. The Maltese Cross was owned at one time by President Roosevelt. Mr. Cameron bought it when he left college and went into the cattle business. He ‘plays a lone hand,’ as he calls it; but his cattle range with the Northern Pool, and he and Dick work together a great deal. I think he has lovely eyes, don’t you?” The eyes of Beatrice were intent upon the Bear Paws when she said it—which brought her shoulder toward Sir Redmond and hid her face from him.
“I can’t say I ever observed Mr. Cameron’s eyes,” said Sir Redmond stiffly.
Beatrice turned back to him, and smiled demurely. When Beatrice smiled that very demure smile, of which she was capable, the weather-wise generally edged toward their cyclone-cellars. Sir Redmond was not weather-wise—he was too much in love with her—and he did not possess a cyclone cellar; he therefore suffered much at the hands of Beatrice.
“But surely you must have noticed that deep, deep dimple in his chin?” she questioned innocently. Keith Cameron, I may say, did not have a dimple in his chin at all; there was, however, a deep crease in it.
“I did not.” Sir Redmond rubbed his own chin, which was so far from dimpling that is was rounded like half an apricot.
“Dear me! And you sat opposite to him at dinner yesterday, too! I suppose, then, you did not observe that his teeth are the whitest, evenest.”
“They make them cheaply over here, I’m told,” he retorted, setting his heel emphatically down and annihilating a red and black caterpillar.
“Now, why did you do that? I must say you English are rather brutal?”
“I can’t abide worms.”
“Well, neither can I. And I think it would be foolish to quarrel about a man’s good looks,” Beatrice said, with surprising sweetness.
Sir Redmond hunched his shoulders and retreated to the comfort of his pipe. “A bally lot of good looks!” he sneered. “A woman is never convinced, though.”
“I am.” Beatrice sat down upon a rock and rested her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands—and an adorable picture she made, I assure you. “I’m thoroughly convinced of several things. One is Mr. Cameron’s good looks; another is that you’re cross.”
“Oh, come, now!” protested Sir Redmond feebly, and sucked furiously at his pipe.
“Yes,” reiterated Beatrice, examining his perturbed face judicially; “you are downright ugly.”
The face of Sir Redmond grew redder and more perturbed; just as Beatrice meant that it should; she seemed to derive a keen pleasure from goading this big, good-looking Englishman to the verge of apoplexy.
“I’m sure I never meant to be rude; but a fellow can’t fall down and worship every young farmer, don’t you know—not even to please you!”
Beatrice smiled and threw a pebble down the slope, watching it bound and skip to the bottom, where it rolled away and hid in the grass.
“I love this wide country,” she observed, abandoning her torture with a suddenness that was a characteristic of her nature. When Beatrice had made a man look and act the fool she was ready to stop; one cannot say that of every woman. “One can draw long, deep breaths without robbing one’s neighbor of oxygen. Everything is so big, and broad, and generous, out here. One can ride for miles and miles through the grandest, wildest places,—and—there aren’t any cigar and baking-powder and liver-pill signs plastered over the rocks, thank goodness! If man has traveled that way before, you do not have the evidence of his passing staring you in the face. You can make believe it is all your own—by right of discovery. I’m afraid your England would seem rather little and crowded after a month or two of this.” She swept her hand toward the river, and the grass-land beyond, and the mountains rimming the world.
“You should see the moors!” cried Sir Redmond, brightening under this peaceful mood of hers. “I fancy you would not find trouble in drawing long breaths there. Moor Cottage, where your sister and Wiltmar lived, is surrounded by wide stretches of open—not like this, to be sure, but not half-bad in its way, either.”
“Dolly grew to love that place, though she did write homesick letters at first. I was going over, after my coming out—and then came that awful accident, when she and Wiltmar were both drowned—and, of course, there was nothing to go for. I should have hated the place then, I think. But I should like—” Her voice trailed off dreamily, her eyes on the hazy Highwoods.
Sir Redmond watched her, his eyes a-shine; Beatrice in this mood was something to worship. He was almost afraid to speak, for fear she would snuff out the tiny flame of hope which her half-finished sentence had kindled. He leaned forward, his face eager.
“Beatrice, only say you will go—with me, dear!”
Beatrice started; for the moment she had forgotten him. Her eyes kept to the hills. “Go—to England? One trip at a time, Sir Redmond. I have been here only ten days, and we came for three months. Three months of freedom in this big, glorious place.”
“And then?” His voice was husky.
“And then—freckle lotions by the quart, I expect.”
Sir Redmond got upon his feet, and he was rather white around the mouth.
“We Englishmen are a stubborn lot, Miss Beatrice. We won’t stop fighting until we win.”
“We Yankees,” retorted she airily, “value our freedom above everything else. We won’t surrender it without fighting for it first.”
He caught eagerly at the lack of finality in her tones. “I don’t want to take your freedom, Beatrice. I only want the right to love you.”
“Oh, as for that, I suppose you may love me as much as you please—only so you don’t torment me to death talking about it.”
Beatrice, not looking particularly tormented, waved answer to Dick, who was shouting something up at her, and went blithely down the hill, with Sir Redmond following gloomily, several paces behind.
Chapter 4. Beatrice Learns a New Language
“D’you want to see the boys work a bunch of cattle, Trix?” Dick said to her, when she came down to where he was leaning against a high board fence, waiting for her.
“‘Deed I do, Dicky—only I’ve no idea what you mean.”
“The boys are going to cut out some cattle we’ve contracted to the government—for the Indians, you know. They’re holding the bunch over in Dry Coulee; it’s only three or four miles. I’ve got to go over and see the foreman, and I thought maybe you’d like to go along.”
“There’s nothing I can think of that I would like better. Won’t it be fine, Sir Redmond?”
Sir Redmond did not say whether he thought it would be fine or not. He still had the white streak around his mouth, and he went through the gate and on to the house without a word—which was undoubtedly a rude thing to do. Sir Redmond was not often rude. Dick watched him speculatively until he was beyond hearing them. Then, “What have you done to milord, Trix?” he wanted to know.
“Nothing,” said Beatrice.
“Well,” Dick said, with decision, “he looks to me like a man that has been turned down—hard. I can tell by the back of his neck.”
This struck Beatrice, and she began to study the retreating neck of her suitor. “I can’t see any difference,” she announced, after a brief scrutiny.
“It’s rather sunburned and thick.”
“I’ll gamble his mind is a jumble of good English oaths—with maybe a sprinkling of Boer maledictions. What did you do?”
“Nothing—unless, perhaps, he objects to being disciplined a bit. But I also object to being badgered into matrimony—even with Sir Redmond.”
“Even with Sir Redmond!” Dick whistled. “He’s ‘It,’ then, is he?”
Beatrice had nothing to say. She walked beside Dick and looked at the ground before her.
“He doesn’t seem a bad sort, sis, and the title will be nice to have in the family, if one cares for such things. Mother does. She was disappointed, I take it, that Wiltmar was a younger son.”
“Yes, she was. She used to think that Sir Redmond might get killed down there fighting the Boers, and then Wiltmar would be next in line. But he didn’t, and it was Wiltmar who went first. And now oh, it’s humiliating, Dick! To be thrown at a man’s head—” Tears were not far from her voice just then.
“I can see she wants you to nab the title. Well, sis, if you don’t care for the man—”
“I never said I didn’t care for him. But I just can’t treat him decently, with mama dinning that title in my ears day and night. I wish there wasn’t any title. Oh, it’s abominable! Things have come to that point where an American girl with money is not supposed to care for an Englishman, no matter how nice he may be, if he has a title, or the prospect of one. Every one laughs and thinks it’s the title she wants; they’d think it of me, and they’d say it. They would say Beatrice Lansell took her half-million and bought her a lord. And, after a while, perhaps Sir Redmond himself would half-believe it—and I couldn’t bear that! And so I am—unbearably flippant and—I should think he’d hate me!”
“So you reversed the natural order of things, and refused him on account of the title?” Dick grinned surreptitiously.
“No, I didn’t—not quite. I’m afraid he’s dreadfully angry with me, though. I do wish he wasn’t such a dear.”
“You’re the same old Trix. You’ve got to be held back from the trail you’re supposed to take, or you won’t travel it; you’ll bolt the other way. If everybody got together and fought the notion, you would probably elope with milord inside a week. Mother means well, but she isn’t on to her job a little bit. She ought to turn up her nose at the title.”
“No fear of that! I’ve had it before my eyes till I hate the very thought of it. I—I wish I could hate him.” Beatrice sighed deeply, and gave her hand to Dorman, who scurried up to her.
“I’ll have the horses saddled right away,” said Dick, and left them.
“Where you going, Be’trice? You going to ride a horse? I want to, awf’lly.”
“I’m afraid you can’t, honey; it’s too far.” Beatrice pushed a yellow curl away from his eyes with tender, womanly solicitude.
“Auntie won’t care, ‘cause I’m a bother. Auntie says she’s goin’ to send for Parks. I don’t want Parks; ‘sides, Parks is sick. I want a pony, and some ledder towsers wis fringes down ‘em, and I want some little wheels on my feet. Mr. Cam’ron says I do need some little wheels, Be’trice.”
“Did he, honey?”
“Yes, he did. I like Mr. Cam’ron, Be’trice; he let me ride his big, high pony. He’s a berry good pony. He shaked hands wis me, Be’trice—he truly did.”
“Did he, hon?” Beatrice, I am sorry to say, was not listening. She was wondering if Sir Redmond was really angry with her—too angry, for instance, to go over where the cattle were. He really ought to go, for he had come West in the interest of the Eastern stockholders in the Northern Pool, to investigate the actual details of the work. He surely would not miss this opportunity, Beatrice thought. And she hoped he was not angry.
“Yes, he truly did. Mr. Cam’ron interduced us, Be’trice. He said, ‘Redcloud, dis is Master Dorman Hayes. Shake hands wis my frien’ Dorman.’ And he put up his front hand, Be’trice, and nod his head, and I shaked his hand. I dess love that big, high pony, Be’trice. Can I buy him, Be’trice?”
“Maybe, kiddie.”
“Can I buy him wis my six shiny pennies, Be’trice?”
“Maybe.”
“Mr. Cam’ron lives right over that hill, Be’trice. He told me.”
“Did he, hon?”
“Yes, he did. He ‘vited me over, Be’trice. He’s my friend, and I’ve got to buy my big, high pony. I’ll let you shake hands wis him, Be’trice. I’ll interduce him to you. And I’ll let you ride on his back, Be’trice. Do you want to ride on his back?”
“Yes, honey.”
Before Beatrice had time to commit herself they reached the house, and she let go Dorman’s hand and hurried away to get into her riding-habit.
Dorman straightway went to find his six precious, shiny pennies, which Beatrice had painstakingly scoured with silver polish one day to please the little tyrant, and which increased their value many times—so many times, in fact, that he hid them every night in fear of burglars. Since he concealed them each time in a different place, he was obliged to ransack his auntie’s room every morning, to the great disturbance of Martha, the maid, who was an order-loving person.
Martha appeared just when he had triumphantly pounced upon his treasure rolled up in the strings of his aunt’s chiffon opera-bonnet.
“Mercy upon us, Master Dorman! Whatever have you been doing?”
“I want my shiny pennies,” said the young gentleman, composedly unwinding the roll, “to buy my big, high pony.”
“Naughty, naughty boy, to muss my lady’s fine bonnet like that! Look at things scattered over the floor, and my lady’s fine handkerchiefs and gloves—” Martha stopped and meditated whether she might dare to shake him.
Dorman was laboriously counting his wealth, with much wrinkling of stubby nose and lifting of eyebrows. Having satisfied himself that they were really all there, he deigned to look around, with a fine masculine disdain of woman’s finery.
“Oh, dose old things!” he sniffed. “I always fordet where I put my shiny pennies. Robbers might find them if I put them easy places. I’m going to buy my big, high pony, and you can’t shake his hand a bit, Martha.”
“Well, I’m sure I don’t want to!” Martha snapped back at him, and went down on all fours to gather up the things he had thrown down. “Whatever Parks was thinking of, to go and get fever, when she was the only one that could manage you, I don’t know! And me picking up after you till I’m fair sick!”
“I’m glad you is sick,” he retorted unfeelingly, and backed to the door. “I hopes you get sicker so your stummit makes you hurt. You can’t ride on my big, high pony.”
“Get along with you and your high pony!” cried the exasperated Martha, threatening with a hairbrush. Dorman, his six shiny pennies held fast in his damp little fist, fled down the stairs and out into the sunlight.
Dick and Beatrice were just ready to ride away from the porch. “I want to go wis you, Uncle Dick.” Dorman had followed the lead of Beatrice, his divinity; he refused to say Richard, though grandmama did object to nicknames.
“Up you go, son. You’ll be a cow-puncher yourself one of these days. I’ll not let him fall, and this horse is gentle.” This last to satisfy Dorman’s aunt, who wavered between anxiety and relief.
“You may ride to the gate, Dorman, and then you’ll have to hop down and run back to your auntie and grandma. We’re going too far for you to-day.” Dick gave him the reins to hold, and let the horse walk to prolong the joy of it.
Dorman held to the horn with one hand, to the reins with the other, and let his small body swing forward and back with the motion of the horse, in exaggerated imitation of his friend, Mr. Cameron. At the gate he allowed himself to be set down without protest, smiled importantly through the bars, and thrust his arm through as far as it would reach, that he might wave good-by. And his divinity smiled back at him, and threw him a kiss, which pleased him mightily.
“You must have hurt milord’s feelings pretty bad,” Dick remarked. “I couldn’t get him to come. He had to write a letter first, he said.”
“I wish, Dick,” Beatrice answered, a bit petulantly, “you would stop calling him milord.”
“Milord’s a good name,” Dick contended. “It’s bad enough to ‘Sir’ him to his face; I can’t do it behind his back, Trix. We’re not used to fancy titles out here, and they don’t fit the country, anyhow. I’m like you—I’d think a lot more of him if he was just a plain, everyday American, so I could get acquainted enough to call him ‘Red Hayes.’ I’d like him a whole lot better.”
Beatrice was in no mood for an argument—on that subject, at least. She let Rex out and raced over the prairie at a gait which would have greatly shocked her mother, who could not understand why Beatrice was not content to drive sedately about in the carriage with the rest of them.
When they reached the round-up Keith Cameron left the bunch and rode out to meet them, and Dick promptly shuffled responsibility for his sister’s entertainment to the square shoulders of his neighbor.
“Trix wants to wise up on the cattle business, Keith. I’ll just turn her over to you for a-while, and let you answer her questions; I can’t, half the time. I want to look through the bunch a little.”
Keith’s face spoke gratitude, and spoke it plainly. The face of Beatrice was frankly inattentive. She was watching the restless, moving mass of red backs and glistening horns, with horsemen weaving in and out among them in what looked to her a perfectly aimless fashion—until one would wheel and dart out into the open, always with a fleeing animal lumbering before. Other horsemen would meet him and take up the chase, and he would turn and ride leisurely back into the haze and confusion. It was like a kaleidoscope, for the scene shifted constantly and was never quite the same.
Keith, secure in her absorption, slid sidewise in the saddle and studied her face, knowing all the while that he was simply storing up trouble for himself. But it is not given a man to flee human nature, and the fellow who could sit calmly beside Beatrice and not stare at her if the opportunity offered must certainly have the blood of a fish in his veins. I will tell you why.
Beatrice was tall, and she was slim, and round, and tempting, with the most tantalizing curves ever built to torment a man. Her hair was soft and brown, and it waved up from the nape of her neck without those short, straggling locks and thin growth at the edge which mar so many feminine heads; and the sharp contrast of shimmery brown against ivory white was simply irresistible. Had her face been less full of charm, Keith might have been content to gaze and gaze at that lovely hair line. As it was, his eyes wandered to her brows, also distinctly marked, as though outlined first with a pencil in the fingers of an artist who understood. And there were her lashes, dark and long, and curled up at the ends; and her cheek, with its changing, come-and-go coloring; her mouth, with its upper lip creased deeply in the middle—so deeply that a bit more would have been a defect—and with an odd little dimple at one corner; luckily, it was on the side toward him, so that he might look at it all he wanted to for once; for it was always there, only growing deeper and wickeder when she spoke or laughed. He could not see her eyes, for they were turned away, but he knew quite well the color; he had settled that point when he looked up from coiling his rope the day she came. They were big, baffling, blue-brown eyes, the like of which he had never seen before in his life—and he had thought he had seen every color and every shade under the sun. Thinking of them and their wonderful deeps and shadows, he got hungry for a sight of them. And suddenly she turned to ask a question, and found him staring at her, and surprised a look in his eyes he did not know was there.
For ten pulse-beats they stared, and the cheeks of Beatrice grew red as healthy young blood could paint them; Keith’s were the same, only that his blood showed darkly through the tan. What question had been on her tongue she forgot to ask. Indeed, for the time, I think she forgot the whole English language, and every other—but the strange, wordless language of Keith’s clear eyes.
And then it was gone, and Keith was looking away, and chewing a corner of his lip till it hurt. His horse backed restlessly from the tight-gripped rein, and Keith was guilty of kicking him with his spur, which did not better matters. Redcloud snorted and shook his outraged head, and Keith came to himself and eased the rein, and spoke remorseful, soothing words that somehow clung long in the memory of Beatrice.
Just after that Dick galloped up, his elbows flapping like the wings of a frightened hen.
“Well, I suppose you could run a cow outfit all by yourself, with the knowledge you’ve got from Keith,” he greeted, and two people became even more embarrassed than before. If Dick noticed anything, he must have been a wise young man, for he gave no sign.
But Beatrice had not queened it in her set, three seasons, for nothing, even if she was capable of being confused by a sweet, new language in a man’s eyes. She answered Dick quietly.
“I’ve been so busy watching it all that I haven’t had time to ask many questions, as Mr. Cameron can testify. It’s like a game, and it’s very fascinating—and dusty. I wonder if I might ride in among them, Dick?”
“Better not, sis. It isn’t as much fun as it looks, and you can see more out here. There comes milord; he must have changed his mind about the letter.”
Beatrice did not look around. To see her, you would swear she had set herself the task of making an accurate count of noses in that seething mass of raw beef below her. After a minute she ventured to glance furtively at Keith, and, finding his eyes turned her way, blushed again and called herself an idiot. After that, she straightened in the saddle, and became the self-poised Miss Lansell, of New York.
Keith rode away to the far side of the herd, out of temptation; queer a man never runs from a woman until it is too late to be a particle of use. Keith simply changed his point of view, and watched his Heart’s Desire from afar.
Chapter 5. The Search for Dorman
“Oh, I say,” began Sir Redmond, an hour after, when he happened to stand close to Beatrice for a few minutes, “where is Dorman? I fancied you brought him along.”
“We didn’t,” Beatrice told him. “He only rode as far as the gate, where Dick left him, and started him back to the house.”
“Mary told me he came along. She and your mother were congratulating each other upon a quiet half-day, with you and Dorman off the place together. I’ll wager their felicitations fell rather flat.”
Beatrice laughed. “Very likely. I know they were mourning because their lace-making had been neglected lately. What with that trip to Lost Canyon to-morrow, and to the mountains Friday, I’m afraid the lace will continue to suffer. What do you think of a round-up, Sir Redmond?”
“It’s deuced nasty,” said he. “Such a lot of dust and noise. I fancy the workmen don’t find it pleasant.”
“Yes, they do; they like it,” she declared. “Dick says a cowboy is never satisfied off the range. And you mustn’t call them workmen, Sir Redmond. They’d resent it, if they knew. They’re cowboys, and proud of it. They seem rather a pleasant lot of fellows, on the whole. I have been talking to one or two.”
“Well, we’re all through here,” Dick announced, riding up. “I’m going to ride around by Keith’s place, to see a horse I’m thinking of buying. Want to go along, Trix? Or are you tired?”
“I’m never tired,” averred his sister, readjusting a hat-pin and gathering up her reins. “I always want to go everywhere that you’ll take me, Dick. Consider that point settled for the summer. Are you coming, Sir Redmond?”
“I think not, thank you,” he said, not quite risen above his rebuff of the morning. “I told Mary I would be back for lunch.”
“I was wiser; I refused even to venture an opinion as to when I should be back. Well, ‘so-long’!”
“You’re learning the lingo pretty fast, Trix,” Dick chuckled, when they were well away from Sir Redmond. “Milord almost fell out of the saddle when you fired that at him. Where did you pick it up?”
“I’ve heard you say it a dozen times since I came. And I don’t care if he is shocked—I wanted him to be. He needn’t be such a perfect bear; and I know mama and Miss Hayes don’t expect him to lunch, without us. He just did it to be spiteful.”
“Jerusalem, Trix! A little while ago you said he was a dear! You shouldn’t snub him, if you want him to be nice to you.”
“I don’t want him to be nice,” flared Beatrice. “I don’t care how he acts. Only, I must say, ill humor doesn’t become him. Not that it matters, however.”
“Well, I guess we can get along without him, if he won’t honor us with his company. Here comes Keith. Brace up, sis, and be pleasant.”
Beatrice glanced casually at the galloping figure of Dick’s neighbor, and frowned.
“You mustn’t flirt with Keith,” Dick admonished gravely. “He’s a good fellow, and as square a man as I know; but you ought to know he’s got the reputation of being a hard man to know. Lots of girls have tried to flirt and make a fool of him, and wound up with their feelings hurt worse than his were.”
“Is that a dare?” Beatrice threw up her chin with a motion Dick knew of old.
“Not on your life! You better leave him alone; one or the other of you would get the worst of it, and I’d hate to see either of you feeling bad. As I said before, he’s a bad man to fool with.”
“I don’t consider him particularly dangerous—or interesting. He’s not half as nice as Sir Redmond.” Beatrice spoke as though she meant what she said, and Dick had no chance to argue the point, for Keith pulled up beside them at that moment.
Beatrice seemed inclined to silence, and paid more attention to the landscape than she did to the conversation, which was mostly about range conditions, and the scanty water supply, and the drought.
She was politely interested in Keith’s ranch, and if she clung persistently to her society manner, why, her society manner was very pleasing, if somewhat unsatisfying to a fellow fairly drunk with her winsomeness. Keith showed her where she might look straight up the coulee to her brother’s ranch, two miles away, and when she wished she might see what they were doing up there, he went in and got his field-glass. She thanked him prettily, and impersonally, and focused the glass upon Dick’s house—which gave Keith another chance to look at her without being caught in the act.
“How plain everything is! I can see mama, out on the porch, and Miss Hayes.” She could also see Sir Redmond, who had just ridden up, and was talking to the ladies, but she did not think it necessary to mention him, for some reason; she kept her eyes to the glass, however, and appeared much absorbed. Dick rolled himself a cigarette and watched the two, and there was a twinkle in his eyes.
“I wonder—Dick, I do think—I’m afraid—” Beatrice hadn’t her society manner now; she was her unaffected, girlish self; and she was growing excited.
“What’s the matter?” Dick got up, and came and stood at her elbow.
“They’re acting queerly. The maids are running about, and the cook is out, waving a large spoon, and mama has her arm around Miss Hayes, and Sir Redmond.”
“Let’s see.” Dick took the glass and raised it to his eyes for a minute. “That’s right,” he said. “They’re making medicine over something. See what you make of it, Keith.”
Keith took the glass and looked through it. It was like a moving picture; one could see, but one wanted the interpretation of sound.
