Meeker read Sutlers letter, which Norcross had handed him, and, after deliberation, remarked: All right, well do the best we can for you, Mr. Norcross; but we havent any fancy accommodations.
He dont expect any, replied Berrie. What he needs is a little roughing it.
Theres plinty of that to be had, said one of the herders, who sat below the salt. is the soft life Im nadin.
Pats strong on soft jobs, said another; and Berea joined the laugh which followed this pointless joke. She appeared to be one of them, and it troubled Norcross a little. She had so little the sex feeling and demanded so few of the rights and privileges of a girl. The men all admired her, that was evident, almost too evident, and one or two of the older men felt the charm of her young womanhood too deeply even to meet her eyes; but of this Norcross was happily ignorant. Already in these two days he had acquired a distinct sense of proprietorship in her, a feeling which made him jealous of her good name.
Meeker, it turned out, was an Englishman by way of Canada, and this was his second American wife. His first had been a sister to Mrs. McFarlane. He was a man of much reading of the periodical sort and the big sitting-room was littered with magazines both English and American, and his talk abounded in radical and rather foolish utterances. Norcross considered it the most disorderly home he had ever seen, and yet it was not without a certain dignity. The rooms were large and amply provided with furniture of a very mixed and gaudy sort, and the table was spread with abundance.
One of the lads, Frank Meeker, a dark, intense youth of about twenty, was Bereas full cousin. The others were merely hired hands, but they all eyed the new-comer with disfavor. The fact that Berrie had brought him and that she seemed interested in him added to the effect of the smart riding-suit which he wore. Id like to roll him in the creek, muttered one of them to his neighbor.
This dislike Berrie perceived in some degree and to Frank she privately said: Now you fellows have got to treat Mr. Norcross right. Hes been very sick.
Frank maliciously grinned. Oh, well treat him right . We wont do a thing to him!
Now, Frank, she warned, if you try any of your tricks on him youll hear from me.
Why all this worry on your part? he asked, keenly. How long since you found him?
We rode up on the stage day before yesterday, and he seemed so kind o blue and lonesome I couldnt help trying to chirk him up.
How will Cliff take all this chirking business?
Cliff aint my guardian yet, she laughingly responded. Mr. Norcross is a college man, and not used to our ways
Mister Norcross whats his front name?
Wayland.
He snorted. Wayland! If he gets past us without being called pasty hes in luck. Hes a lunger if there ever was one.
The girl was shrewd enough to see that the more she sought to soften the wind to her Eastern tenderfoot the more surely he was to be shorn, so she gave over her effort in that direction, and turned
to the old folks. To Mrs. Meeker she privately said: Mr. Norcross aint used to rough ways, and hes not very rugged, you ought o kind o favor him for a while.
The girl herself did not understand the vital and almost painful interest which this young man had roused in her. He was both child and poet to her, and as she watched him trying to make friends with the men, her indignation rose against their clownish offishness. She understood fully that his neat speech, his Eastern accent, together with his tailor-cut clothing and the delicacy of his table manners, would surely mark him for slaughter among the cow-hands, and the wish to shield him made her face graver than anybody had ever seen it.
I dont feel right in leaving you here, she said, at last; but I must be ridin. And while Meeker ordered her horse brought out, she walked to the gate with Norcross at her side.
Im tremendously obliged to you, he said, and his voice was vibrant. You have been most kind. How can I repay you?
Oh, thats all right, she replied, in true Western fashion. I wanted to see the folks up here, anyhow. This is no jaunt at all for me. And, looking at her powerful figure, and feeling the trap-like grip of her cinch hand, he knew she spoke the truth.
Frank had saddled his own horse, and was planning to ride over the hill with her; but to this she objected. Im going to leave Pete here for Mr. Norcross to ride, she said, and theres no need of your going.
Franks face soured, and with instant perception of the effect her refusal might have on the fortunes of the stranger, she reconsidered.
Oh, come along! I reckon you want to get shut of some mean job.
And so she rode away, leaving her ward to adjust himself to his new and strange surroundings as best he could, and with her going the whole valley darkened for the convalescent.
III WAYLAND RECEIVES A WARNING
Living miles apart, and riding the roads but seldom, these lonely gossips tore to tatters every scrap of rumor. No citizen came or went without being studied, characterized, accounted for, and every woman was scrutinized as closely as a stray horse, and if there was within her, the slightest wayward impulse some lawless centaur came to know it, to exult over it, to make test of it. Her every word, her minutest expression of a natural coquetry was enlarged upon as a sign of weakness, of yielding. Every personable female was the focus of a natural desire, intensified by lonely brooding on the part of the men.