Part 68

"I'm glad to see you, Mrs. Wetherford," Eleanor said, with the courtesy which was instinctive with her.

"I'm mightily obliged for the chance to come," replied Lize. "I told Reddy--I mean the Supervisor--that you didn't want no old-timer like me, but he said 'Come along,' and Lee she fixed me out, and here I am." She uttered this with a touch of her well-known self-depreciation, but she was by no interpretation sordid or common.

She did, indeed, show Lee's care, and her manner, while manifestly formed upon Lee's instructions, was never ludicrous. She was frankly curious about the house and its pretty things, and swore softly in her surprise and pleasure. "Think of an old cow-boss like me living up to these jimmy-cracks!" As they went to their room together, she made a confession: "The thing that scares me worst is eating. I've et at the Alma times enough, but to handle a fork here with El'nor Redfield lookin' on! Great peter! ain't there some way of takin' my meals out in the barn? I wouldn't mind you and Ross and Reddy--it's the missis."

Ross had not yet arrived at the cabin, but Redfield had warned Lee not to expect him till after dark. "He probably slept late, and, besides, there are always delays on the trail. But don't worry. Swenson will ride to the top of the divide with him, and if it seems necessary will come all the way."

This feeling of anxiety helped to steady Lize, and she got through the meal very well. She was unwontedly silent, and a little sad as well as constrained. She could see that Lee fitted in with these surroundings, that she was at home with shining silver and dainty dishes, and she said to herself: "I could have been something like her if I'd had any sort o' raisin', but it's too late now. But oh, Lord! wouldn't Ed like to see her now!"

It was not yet dark when they came out on the veranda to meet the doctor, who had come to meet Ross, and Lee's anxiety led her to say: "Can't we go up to the cabin and wait for him there?"

"I was about to propose that," replied Redfield. "Shall we walk?"

Lee was instant in her desire to be off, but Lize said: "I never was much on foot and now I'm hoof-bound. You go along, and I'll sit on the porch here and watch."

So Lee, the doctor, and Redfield went off together across the meadow toward the little cabin which had been built for the workmen while putting in the dam. It was hardly a mile away, and yet it stood at the mouth of a mighty gorge, out of which the water sprang white with speed.

But Lee had no mind for the scenery, though her eyes were lifted to the meadow's wall, down which the ranger was expected to ride. It looked frightfully steep, and whenever she thought of him descending that trail, worn and perhaps ill, her heart ached with anxiety. But Redfield rambled on comfortably, explaining the situation to the doctor, who, being a most unimaginative person, appeared to take it all as a matter of course.

At the cabin itself Lee transferred her interest to the supper which had been prepared for the ranger, and she went about the room trying to make it a little more comfortable for him. It was a bare little place, hardly more than a camp (as was proper), and she devoutly prayed that he was not to be sick therein, for it stood in a cold and gloomy place, close under the shadow of a great wall of rock.

As it grew dark she lighted a lamp and placed it outside the window in order that its light might catch the ranger's eye, and this indeed it did, for almost instantly a pistol-shot echoed from the hillside, far above, signalling his approach.

"There he is!" she exclaimed, in swift rebound to ecstasy. "Hear him shout?"

His voice could indeed be heard, though faintly, and so they waited while the darkness deepened and the voice of the stream rose like an exhalation, increasing in violence as the night fell.

At last they could hear the sound of his horse's feet upon the rocks, and with girlish impulse Lee raised a musical cry--an invitation as well as a joyous signal.

To this the ranger made vocal answer, and they could soon see him moving athwart the hillsides, zigzagging in the trailer's fashion, dropping down with incredible swiftness. He was alone, and leading his horse, but his celerity of movement and the tones of his voice denoted confidence and health.

The doctor laughed as he said: "I don't think a very sick man could come down a mountain like that."

"Oh, he isn't sick yet," said Redfield. "What we are afraid of is a possible development."

The ranger, as he came rushing down the final slope, found his knees weakened as much by excitement as by weariness. To hear Lee's clear voice down there, to know that she was waiting for him, was to feel himself the luckiest of men. Escaping contagion and being on his way to a larger position were as nothing compared to the lure of that girlish halloo. He saw the lamp shine afar, but he could not distinguish the girl's form till he emerged from the clump of pine-trees which hid the bottom of the trail. Then they all shouted together, and Redfield, turning to Lee, warningly said:

"Now, my dear girl, you and I must not interfere with the doctor. We will start back to the house at once."

"Not yet--not till we've seen him and talked with him," she pleaded.

"I don't think there's a particle of danger," said the doctor, "but perhaps you'd better not wait."

Cavanagh came up with shining eyes and heavy breath. "I made it--but oh, I'm tired! I never was tired like this before in my life." He looked at her as he spoke. "But I'm feeling fine."

"This is Doctor French, Ross."

"How are you doctor? I'm not shaking hands these days."

"Well see about that," replied the physician.

"I met the sheriff on the way, Mr. Supervisor, and I gave him the story Dunn told me, and I made a request that the reward for the information be paid to Dunn's widow."

"I'll see to that," responded Redfield. "And now we'll leave you to the tender mercies of the doctor."