Her Prairie Knight, Lonesome Land & The Uphill Climb: Complete Western Trilogy. B. M. Bower
seized upon a sack and went off to the fight. She felt that she was out of touch. She was out on the prairie at night, miles away from any house, driving a water-wagon for the men to put out a prairie fire. She had driven a coaching-party once on a wager; but she had never driven a lumber-wagon with barrels of water before. She could not think of any girl she knew who had.
It was a new experience, certainly, but she found no pleasure in it; she was tired and sleepy, and her eyes and throat smarted cruelly with the smoke. She looked back to the hill she had just left, and it seemed a long, long time since she sat upon a rock up there and watched the little, new fire grow and grow, and the strange shadows spring up from nowhere and beat it vindictively till it died.
Again she wondered vaguely who had done it; not Keith Cameron, surely, for Sir Redmond had all but accused him openly of setting the range afire. Would he stamp out a blaze that was just reaching a size to do mischief, if left a little longer? No one would have seen it for hours, probably. He would undoubtedly have let it run, unless—But who else could have set the fire? Who else would want to see the Pine Ridge country black and barren? Dick said Keith Cameron would not sit down and take his medicine—perhaps Dick knew he would do this thing.
As the fighters moved on across the coulee she drove the wagon to keep pace with them. Often a man would run up to the wagon, climb upon a wheel and dip a frayed gunny sack into a barrel, lift it out and run with it, all dripping, to the nearest point of the fire. Her part was to keep the wagon at the most convenient place. She began to feel the importance of her position, and to take pride in being always at the right spot. From the calm appreciation of the picturesque side, she drifted to the keen interest of the one who battles against heavy odds. The wind had veered again, and the flames rushed up the long coulee like an express train. But the path it left was growing narrower every moment. Keith Cameron was doing grand work with his crew upon the other side, and the space between them was shortening perceptibly.
Beatrice found herself watching the work of the Cross men. If they were doing it for effect, they certainly were acting well their part. She wondered what would happen when the two crews met, and the danger was over. Would Sir Redmond call Keith Cameron to account for what he had done? If he did, what would Keith say? And which side would Dick take? Very likely, she thought, he would defend Keith Cameron, and shield him if he could.
Beatrice found herself crying quietly, and shivering, though the air was sultry with the fire. For the life of her, she could not tell why she cried, but she tried to believe it was the smoke in her eyes. Perhaps it was.
The sky was growing gray when the two crews met. The orange lights were gone, and Dick, with a spiteful flop of the black rag which had been a good, new sack, stamped out the last tiny red tongue of the fire. The men stood about in awkward silence, panting with heat and weariness. Sir Redmond was ostentatiously filling his pipe. Beatrice knew him by his straight, soldierly pose. In the drab half-light they were all mere black outlines of men, and, for the most part, she could not distinguish one from another. Keith Cameron she knew; instinctively by his slim height, and by the way he carried his head. Unconsciously, she leaned down from the high seat and listened for what would come next.
Keith seemed to be making a cigarette. A match flared and lighted his face for an instant, then was pinched out, and he was again only a black shape in the half-darkness.
“Well, I’m waiting for what you’ve got to say, Sir Redmond.” His voice cut sharply through the silence. If he had known Beatrice was out there in the wagon he would have spoken lower, perhaps.
“I fancy I said all that is necessary just now,” Sir Redmond answered calmly. “You know what I think. From now on I shall act.”
“And what are you going to do, then?” Keith’s voice was clear and unperturbed, as though he asked for the sake of being polite.
“That,” retorted Sir Redmond, “is my own affair. However, since the matter concerns you rather closely, I will say that when I have the evidence I am confident I shall find, I shall seek the proper channels for retribution. There are laws in this country, aimed to protect a man’s property, I take it. I warn you that I shall not spare—the guilty.”
“Dick, it’s up to you next. I want to know where you stand.”
“At your back, Keith, right up to the finish. I know you; you fight fair.”
“All right, then. I didn’t think you’d go back on a fellow. And I tell you straight up, Sir Redmond Hayes, I’m not out touching matches to range land—not if it belonged to the devil himself. I’ve got some feeling for the dumb brutes that would have to suffer. You can get right to work hunting evidence, and be damned! You’re dead welcome to all you can find; and in this part of the country you won’t be able to buy much! You know very well you deserve to get your rope crossed, or you wouldn’t be on the lookout for trouble. Come, boys; let’s hit the trail. So long, Dick!”
Beatrice watched them troop off to their horses, heard them mount and go tearing off across the burned coulee bottom toward home. Dick came slowly over to her.
“I expect you’re good and tired, sis. You’ve made a hand, all right, and helped us a whole lot, I can tell you. I’ll drive now, and we’ll hit the high places.”
Beatrice smiled wanly. Not one of her Eastern acquaintances would have recognized Beatrice Lansell, the society beauty, in this remarkable-looking young woman, attired in a most haphazard fashion, with a face grimed like a chimney sweep, red eyelids drooping over tired, smarting eyes, and disheveled, ash-filled hair topped by a man’s gray felt hat. When she smiled her teeth shone dead white, like a negro’s.
Dick regarded her critically, one foot on the wheel hub. “Where did you get hold of Keith Cameron’s hat?” he inquired.
Beatrice snatched the hat from her head with childish petulance, and looked as if she were going to throw it viciously upon the ground. If her face had been clean Dick might have seen how the blood had rushed into her cheeks; as it was, she was safe behind a mask of soot. She placed the hat back upon her head, feeling, privately, a bit foolish.
“I supposed it was yours. I took it off the halltree.” The dignity of her tone was superb, but, unfortunately, it did not match her appearance of rakish vagabondage.
Dick grinned through a deep layer of soot “Well, it happens to be Keith’s. He lost it in the wind the other day, and I found it and took it home. It’s too bad you’ve worn his hat all night and didn’t know it. You ought to see yourself. Your own mother won’t know you, Trix.”
“I can’t look any worse than you do. A negro would be white by comparison. Do get in, so we can start! I’m tired to death, and half-starved.” After these unamiable remarks, she refused to open her lips.
They drove silently in the gray of early morning, and the empty barrels danced monotonously their fantastic jig in the back of the wagon. Sootyfaced cowboys galloped wearily over the prairie before them, and Sir Redmond rode moodily alongside.
Of a truth, the glamour was gone.
Chapter 11. Sir Redmond Waits His Answer
Beatrice felt distinctly out of sorts the next day, and chose an hour for her ride when she felt reasonably secure from unwelcome company. But when she went out into the sunshine there was Sir Redmond waiting with Rex and his big gray. Beatrice was not exactly elated at the sight, but she saw nothing to do but smile and make the best of it. She wanted to be alone, so that she could dream along through the hills she had learned to love, and think out some things which troubled her, and decide just how she had best go about winning Rex for herself; it had become quite necessary to her peace of mind that she should teach Dick and Keith Cameron a much-needed lesson.
“It has been so long since we rode together,” he apologized. “I hope you don’t mind my coming along.”
“Oh, no! Why should I mind?” Beatrice smiled upon him in friendly fashion. She