The Highgrader Read online

  "What did I do with it?" he asked.

  "How should I know?"

  From his pocket he drew a note book. Between two of its leaves was a slip of paper which he handed to Moya. It was a receipt in full from the treasurer of the Gunnison County Fair association to John Kilmeny for the sum previously taken from him by parties unknown.

  The girl looked at him with shining eyes. "You repented and took the money back?"

  "No. I didn't repent, but I took it back."

  "Why?"

  "That's a long tale. It's tied up with the story of my life—goes back thirty-one years, before I was born, in fact. Want to hear it?"

  "Yes."

  "My father was a young man when he came to this country. The West wasn't very civilized then. My father was fearless and outspoken. This made him enemies among the gang of cattle thieves operating in the country where his ranch lay. He lost calves. One day he caught a brand blotter at work. The fellow refused to surrender. There was a fight, and my father killed him."

  "Oh!" cried the girl softly in fascinated horror.

  "Such things had to be in those days. Any man that was a man had sometimes to fight or else go to the wall."

  "I can see that. I wasn't blaming your father. Only ... it must have been horrible to have to do."

  "The fellow thieves of the man swore vengeance. One night they caught the chief—that's what I used to call my father—caught him alone in a gambling hell in the cow town where the stockmen came to buy provisions. My father had gone there by appointment to meet a man—lured to his death by a forged note. He knew he had probably come to the end of the passage as soon as he had stepped into the place. His one chance was to turn and run. He wouldn't do that."

  "I love him for it," the girl cried impetuously.

  "The story goes that he looked them over contemptuously, the whole half dozen of them, and laughed in a slow irritating way that must have got under their hides."

  Moya, looking at the son, could believe easily this story of the father. "Go on," she nodded tensely.

  "The quarrel came, as of course it would. Just before the guns flashed a stranger rose from a corner and told the rustlers they would have to count him in the scrap, that he wouldn't stand for a six to one row."

  "Wasn't that fine? I suppose he was a friend of your father he had helped some time."

  "No. He had never seen him before. But he happened to be a man."

  The eyes of the girl were shining. For the moment she was almost beautiful. A flame seemed to run over her dusky face, the glow of her generous heart finding expression externally. It was a part of her charm that her delight in life bubbled out in little spasms of laughter, in impetuous movements wholly unpremeditated.

  "I'm glad there are such men," she cried softly.

  "The story of that fight is a classic to-day in the hills. When it ended two of the rustlers were dead, two badly wounded, and the others galloping away for their lives. The chief and his unknown friend were lying on the floor shot to pieces."

  "But they lived—surely they didn't die?"

  "Yes, they lived and became close friends. A few years later they were partners. Both of them are dead now. Sam Lundy—that was the name of my father's rescuer—left two children, a boy and a girl. We call the boy Curly. He was down at the camp fishing with me."

  She saw the truth then—knew in a flash that the man beside her had run the risk of prison to save his friend. And her heart went out to him in such a rush of feeling that she had to turn her face away.

  "You paid back the debt to the son that your father owed his. Oh, I'm glad—so glad."

  "Guessed it, have you?"

  "Your friend was the thief."

  "He took the money, but he's no thief—not in his heart. In England only a criminal would do such a thing, but it's different here. A hold-up may be a decent fellow gone wrong through drink and bad company. That's how it was this time. My friend is a range rider. His heart is as open and clean as the plains. But he's young yet—just turned twenty—and he's easily led. This thing was sprung on him by an older man with whom he had been drinking. Before they were sober he and Mosby had taken the money."

  "I am sorry," the girl said, almost under her breath.

  There was still some hint of the child in the naïve nobility of her youth. Joyce Seldon would have had no doubts about what to think of this alien society where an honest man could be a thief and his friend stand ready to excuse him. Moya found it fresh and stimulating.

  He explained more fully. "Colter by chance got a line on what the kid and Mosby were planning to pull off. Knowing I had some influence with Curly, he came straight to me. That was just after the finals in the riding."

  "I remember seeing him with you. We all thought you should have come up for a few words with us."

  "I intended to, but there wasn't any time. We hurried out to find Curly. Well, we were too late. Our horses were gone by the time we had reached the corral where we were stabling, but those of the other boys were waiting in the stalls already saddled. We guessed the hold-up would be close to the bank, because the treasurer of the association might take any one of three streets to drive in from the fair grounds. That's where we went wrong. The boys were just drunk enough not to remember this. Well, while we were looking for our friends so as to stop this crazy play they were going to pull off, Colter and I met the president of the bank. We had known him in the mining country and he held us there talking. While we were still there news comes of the robbery."

  "And then?"

  "We struck straight back to the corral. Our horses were there. The boys had ridden back, swapped them for their own, and hit the trail. Mosby's idea had been to throw suspicion on us for an hour or two until they could make their getaway. We rode back to the crowd, learned the particulars, and followed the boys. My thought was that if we could get the money from them we might make terms with the association."

  "That's why you were in a hurry when you passed us."

  "That's why."

  "And of course the sheriff thought you were running away from him."

  "He couldn't think anything else, could he?"

  "How blind I was—how lacking in faith! And all the time I knew in my heart you couldn't have done it," she reproached herself.

  His masterful eyes fastened on her. "Did your friends know it? Did Miss Joyce think I couldn't have done it?"

  "You'll have to ask her what she thought. I didn't hear Joyce give an opinion."

  "Is she going to marry that fellow Verinder?"

  "I don't know."

  "He'll ask her, won't he?"

  She smiled at his blunt question a little wanly. "You'll have to ask Mr. Verinder that. I'm not in his confidence."

  "You're quibbling. You know well enough."

  "I think he will."

  "Will she take him?"

  "It's hard to tell what Joyce will do. I'd rather not discuss the subject, please. Tell me, did you find your friends?"

  "We ran them down in the hills at last. I knew pretty well about where they would be and one morning I dropped in on them. We talked it all over and I put it up to them that if they would turn the loot over to me I'd try to call off the officers. Curly was sick and ashamed of the whole business and was willing to do whatever I thought best. Mosby had different notions, but I persuaded him to see the light. They told me where they had hidden the money in the river. I was on my way back to get it when I found little Bess Landor lost in the hills. Gill nabbed me as I took her to the ranch."

  "And after you were taken back to Gunnison—Did you break prison?"

  "I proved an alibi—one the sheriff couldn't get away from. We had gilt-edged proof we weren't near the scene of the robbery. The president of the bank had been talking to us about ten minutes when the treasurer of the association drove up at a gallop to say he had just been robbed."

  "So they freed you."

  "I made a proposition to the district attorney and the directors of the associatio
n—that if I got the money back all prosecutions would be dropped. They agreed. I came back for the money and found it gone."

  "If you had only told me that then."

  "I had no time. My first thought was to tell my cousin the truth, but I was afraid to take a chance on him. The only way to save Curly was to take back the money myself. I couldn't be sure that Captain Kilmeny would believe my story. So I played it safe and helped myself."

  "You must think a lot of your friend to go so far for him."

  "His mother turned him over to me to make a man of him, and if she hadn't I owed it to his father's son."

  Her eyes poured upon him their warm approving light. "Yes, you would have to help him, no matter what it cost."

  He protested against heroics with a face crinkled to humor. "It wasn't costing me a cent."

  "It might have cost you a great deal. Suppose that Captain Kilmeny had picked up his gun. You couldn't have shot him."

  "I'd have told him who I was and why I must have the money. No, Miss Dwight, I don't fit the specifications of a hero."

  Moya's lips curved to the sweet little derisive twist that was a smile in embryo. "I know about you, sir."

  Kilmeny took his eyes from her to let them rest upon a man and a woman walking the river trail below. The man bowed and the Westerner answered the greeting by lifting his hat. When he looked back at his companion he was smiling impishly. For the two by the river bank were Lord and Lady Farquhar.

  "Caught! You naughty little baggage! I wonder whether you'll be smacked this time."

  Her eyes met his in a quick surprise that was on the verge of hauteur.

  "Sir."

  "Yes, I think you'll be smacked. You know you've been told time and again not to take up with strange boys—and Americans, at that. Mith Lupton warned you on the Victorian—and Lady Farquhar has warned you aplenty."

  Her lips parted to speak, but no sound came from them. She was on the verge of a discovery, and he knew it.

  "Hope you won't mind the smacking much. Besides, it would be somefing else if it wasn't this," he continued, mimicking a childish lisp he had never forgotten.

  "Miss Lupton!"

  A fugitive memory flashed across her mind. What she saw was this: a glassy sea after sunset, the cheerful life on the deck of an ocean liner, a little girl playing at—at—why, at selling stars of her own manufacture. The picture began to take form. A boy came into it, and vaguely other figures. She recalled impending punishment, intervention, two children snuggled beneath a steamer rug, and last the impulsive kiss of a little girl determined to exact the last morsel of joy before retribution fell.

  "Are you that boy?" she asked, eyes wide open and burning.

  "It's harder to believe you're that long-legged little fairy in white socks."

  "So you knew me ... all the time ... and I didn't know you at all."

  Her voice trembled. The look she flung toward him was shy and diffident. She had loved him then. She loved him now. Somehow he was infinitely nearer to her than he had been.

  "Yes, I knew you. I've always known you. That's because you're a dream friend of mine. In the daytime I've had other things to think about, but at night you're a great pal of mine."

  "You mean ... before ... we met again?"

  "That's what I mean."

  The pink surged into her cheeks. "I've dreamed about you too," she confessed with an adorable shyness. "How strange it is—to meet again after all these years."

  "Not strange to me. Somehow I expected to meet you. Wasn't that in your dreams too—that some day we should meet again?"

  "I was always meeting you. But—why didn't I know you?"

  "I'll confess that I wouldn't have known you if it hadn't been for your name."

  "You think I've changed, then?"

  "No, you haven't changed. You've only grown up. You're still a little rebel. Sometimes you still think it's howwid to be a dirl."

  "Only when they won't let me do things," she smiled. "And you really remember even my lisp."

  "You have a faint hint of it yet sometimes when you are excited."

  "I'm excited now—tremendously." She laughed to belie her words, but the note of agitation was not to be concealed. Her mouth was strangely dry and her heart had a queer uncertain beat. "Why shouldn't I be—with my baby days popping out at me like this when I thought they were dead and buried? It's ... it's the strangest thing...."

  His blood too responded to a quickened beat. He could not understand the reason for it. Since he had no intention of being sentimental he was distinctly annoyed at himself. If it had been Joyce Seldon now—well, that would have been another tale.

  Over the brow of a hillock appeared Lord and Lady Farquhar walking toward them. One glance told Moya that her chaperone had made up her mind to drive Jack Kilmeny from the field. The girl ran forward quickly.

  "We've just found out the oddest thing, Lady Farquhar. Mr. Kilmeny and I are old friends. We met when we were children," she cried quickly.

  Lady Jim looked at her husband. He cleared his throat in some embarrassment.

  "Mornin', Mr. Kilmeny. If you have time I'd like to have you look over some ore samples sent from our mine."

  The American smiled. He understood perfectly. "I've got all the time there is."

  Moya intervened again. "First let me tell you the news. Mr. Kilmeny has been freed of all suspicion in connection with the robbery. The money has been returned and the whole thing dropped."

  Farquhar's face cleared. "Glad to hear it." He emphasized his words, by adding a moment later: "By Jove, I am glad. Congratulations, Mr. Kilmeny."

  His wife added hers, but there was a note of reserve in her manner. Plainly she was not fully satisfied.

  Eagerly Moya turned to the young man. "May I tell all about it?"

  He hesitated, then nodded shortly. "If you like."

  Her voice vibrant with sympathy, Moya told the story in her ardent way. Kilmeny said nothing, but the corners of his mouth suggested amusement. Something of humorous derision in his blue eyes told Farquhar that the Coloradoan did not take the girl's admiration as his due. Rather, he seemed to regard it merely as an evidence of her young enthusiasm.

  Lord Farquhar shook hands frankly with Kilmeny. "We've done you an injustice. If I had a son I would want him to have played the part you did under the same circumstances."

  His wife backed him up loyally but with misgivings. The character of this young man might be cleared but that did not make him any more eligible. Her smile had in it some suggestion of the reserve of the chaperone.

  "I'm glad to know the truth, Mr. Kilmeny. It does you credit. Your cousins won't be back to lunch but if you can stay——"

  "I can't, Lady Farquhar. Thanks just the same. I've got to ride up into the hills to let the boys know it's all right. We'll be leaving to-morrow to go back to work."

  "We go to-morrow too. I suppose this will be good-by, then." Lady Farquhar offered her hand.

  Kilmeny turned last to Moya. "Good-by, neighbor."

  Her eyes did not shrink as the small hand was buried for an instant in his brown palm, but the youth in her face was quenched.

  "Good-by," she repeated in a colorless voice.

  "Sorry I wasn't able to say good-by to my cousins and Miss Seldon. I understand you're all going up to the mines. Tell Captain Kilmeny I'll try to see him at Goldbanks and make all proper apologies for my bad manners yesterday."

  Moya's face lit up. "Do you live at Goldbanks?"

  "Sometimes."

  He bowed and turned away.

  The girl was left wondering. There had been a note of reservation in his manner when she had spoken of Goldbanks. Was there after all some mystery about him or his occupation, something he did not want them to know? Her interest was incredibly aroused.

  * * *

  CHAPTER XI

  A BLIZZARD

  Moya found in Goldbanks much to interest her. Its helter-skelter streets following the line of least resistance, its slap
dash buildings, the scarred hillsides dotted with red shaft-houses beneath which straggled slate-colored dumps like long beards, were all indigenous to a life the manner of which she could only guess. Judged by her Bret Harte, the place ought to be picturesque. Perhaps it was, but Moya was given little chance to find out. At least it was interesting. Even from an outside point of view she could see that existence was reduced to the elemental. Men fought for gold against danger and privation and toil. No doubt if she could have seen their hearts they fought too for love.

  Miss Seldon was frankly bored by the crude rawness of the place. One phase of it alone interested her. Of all this turbid activity Dobyans Verinder was the chief profiter. Other capitalists had an interest in the camp. Lord Farquhar held stock in the Mollie Gibson and Moya's small inheritance was invested mostly in the mine. The Kilmenys owned shares in two or three paying companies. But Verinder was far and away the largest single owner. His holdings were scattered all over the camp. In the Mollie Gibson and the Never Quit, the two biggest properties at Goldbanks, he held a controlling vote.

  It was impossible for Joyce to put her nose out of the hotel without being confronted with the wealth of her suitor. This made a tremendous appeal to the imagination of the young woman. All these thousands of men were toiling to make him richer. If Verinder could have known it, the environment was a potent ally for him. In London he was a social climber, in spite of his gold; here he was a sole autocrat of the camp. As the weeks passed he began to look more possible. His wealth would give an amplitude, a spaciousness that would make the relationship tolerable. As a man of moderate means he would not have done at all, but every added million would help to reduce the intimacy of the marital tie. To a certain extent she would go her way and he his. Meanwhile, she kept him guessing. Sometimes her smiles brought him on the run. Again he was made to understand that it would be better to keep his distance.

  The days grew shorter and the mornings colder. As the weeks passed the approach of winter began to push autumn back. Once or twice there was an inch of snow in the night that melted within a few hours. The Farquhar party began to talk of getting back to London, but there was an impending consolidation of properties that held the men at Goldbanks. For a month it had been understood that they would be leaving in a few days now, but the deal on hand was of such importance that it was felt best to stay until it was effected.