The U. P. Trail Part 16

Neale saw beaver at work, and deer on the hillside.

"It's been three months," he soliloquized, as he paused at the ford which Allie had so bravely and weakly tried to cross at his bidding.

"Three months! So much can have happened. But Slingerland is safe from Indians. I hope--I believe I'll find her well."

He was a prey to dread and yet he did not hurry. Larry, driving the pack-train, drew on ahead and pa.s.sed out of sight in a green bend of the brook. At length Neale saw a column of blue smoke curling up above the trees, and that sight relieved him. If the trapper was there, the girl would be with him.

At this moment his horse shot up his long ears and snorted.

A gray form glided out of the green and began to run down the trail toward him--a lithe, swift girl in buckskin.

"An Indian girl!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Neale.

But her face was white, her hair tawny and flying in the wind. Could that be Allie? It must be she. It was.

"Lord! I'm in for it!" muttered Neale, dismounting, and he gazed with eager eyes. She was approaching quickly.

"Neale! You've come!" she cried, and ran straight upon him.

He hardly recognized her face or her voice, but what she said proclaimed her to be Allie. She enveloped him. Her arms, strong, convulsive, clasped him. Up came her face, white, gleaming, joyous, strange to Neale, but he knew somehow that it was held up to be kissed. Dazedly he kissed her--felt cool sweet lips touch his lips again and then again.

"Allie!... I--I hardly knew you!" was his greeting. Now he was holding her, and he felt her press her head closely to his breast, felt the intensity of what must have been her need of physical contact to make sure he was here in the flesh. And as he held her, looking down upon her, he recognized the little head and the dull gold and ripple of chestnut hair. Yes--it was Allie. But this new Allie was taller--up to his shoulder--and lithe and full-bosomed and strong. This was not the frail girl he had left.

"I thought--you'd--never, never come," she murmured, clinging to him.

"It was--pretty long," he replied, unsteadily. "But I've come.... And I'm very glad to see you."

"You didn't know me," she said, shyly. "You looked--it."

"Well, no wonder. I left a thin, pale little girl, all eyes--and what do I find?... Let me look at you."

She drew back and stood before him, shy and modest, but without a trace of embarra.s.sment, surely the sweetest and loveliest girl he had ever beheld. Some remembered trace he found in her features, perhaps the look, the shape of her eyes--all else was unfamiliar. And that all else was a white face, blue-veined, with rich blood slowly mantling to the broad brow, with sweet red lips haunting in their sadness, with glorious eyes, like violets drenched in dew, shadowy, exquisite, mournful and deep, yet radiant with beautiful light.

Neale recognized her beauty at the instant he realized her love, and he was so utterly astounded at the one, and overwhelmed with the other, that he was mute. A powerful reaction took place within him, so strong that it helped to free him from the other emotions. He found his tongue and controlled his glance.

"I took you for an Indian girl in all this buckskin," he said.

"Dress, leggings, moccasins, I made them all myself," she replied, sweeping a swift hand from fringe to beads. "Not a single b.u.t.ton! Oh, it was hard--so much work! But they're more comfortable than any clothes I ever had."

"So you've not been--altogether idle since I left?"

"Since that day," and she blushed exquisitely at the words, "I've been doing everything under the sun except that grieving which you disliked--everything--cooking, sewing, fis.h.i.+ng, bathing, climbing, riding, shooting--AND watching for you."

"That accounts," he replied, musingly.

"For what?"

"Your--your improvement. You seem happy--and well."

"Do you mean the activity accounts for that--or my watching for you?"

she queried, archly. She was quick, bright, roguish. Neale had no idea what qualities she might have possessed before that fateful ma.s.sacre, but she was bewilderingly different from the sick-minded girl he had tried so hard to interest and draw out of her gloom. He was so amazed, so delighted with her, and so confused with his own peculiar state of mind, that he could not be natural. Then his mood s.h.i.+fted and a little heat at his own stupidity aroused his wits.

"Allie, I want to realize what's happened," he said. "Let's sit down here. We sat here once before, if you remember. Slingerland can wait to see me."

Neale's horse grazed along the green border of the brook. The water ran with low, swift rush; there were bees humming round the autumn flowers and a fragrance of wood-smoke wafted down from the camp; over all lay the dreaming quietness of the season and the wild.

Allie sat down upon the rock, but Neale, changing his mind, stood beside her. Still he did not trust himself to face her. He was unsettled, uncertain. All this was like a dream.

"So you watched for me?" he asked, gently.

"For hours and days and weeks," she sighed.

"Then you--cared--cared a little for me?"

She kept silence. And he, wanting intensely to look up, did not.

"Tell me," he insisted, with a hint of the old dominance. He remembered again the scene at the crossing of the brook. Could he control this wonderful girl now?

"Of course," she replied.

"But--how do you care?" he added, more forcibly. He felt ashamed, yet he could not resist it. What was happening to him?

"I--I love you." Her voice was low, almost faltering, rich with sweetness, and full of some unutterable emotion.

Neale sustained a shock. He never could have told how that affected him, except in his sudden fury at himself. Then he stole a glance at her.

Her eyes were downcast, hidden under long lashes; her face was soft and sweet, dreaming and spiritual, singularly pure; her breast heaved under the beaded buckskin. Neale divined she had never dreamed of owing him anything except the maiden love which quivered on her tremulous lips and hovered in the exquisite light of her countenance. And now he received a great and impelling change in his spirit, an uplift, a splendid and beautiful consciousness of his good fortune. But what could he say to her? If only he could safely pa.s.s over this moment, so he could have time to think, to find himself. Another glance at her encouraged him.

She expected nothing--not a word; she took all for granted. She was lost in dreams of her soul.

He looked down again to see her hand--small, shapely, strong and brown; and upon the third finger he espied his ring. He had forgotten to look to see if she wore it. Then softly he touched it and drew her hand in his.

"My ring. Oh, Allie!" he whispered.

The response was a wonderful purple blaze of her eyes. He divined then that his ring had been the tangible thing upon which she had reconstructed her broken life.

"You rode away--so quickly--I had no chance to--tell," she replied, haltingly and low-voiced. All was sweet shame about her now, and he had to fight himself to keep from gathering her to his breast. Verily this meeting between Allie and him was not what he had antic.i.p.ated.

He kissed her hand.

"You've all the fall and all the winter to tell me such sweet things,"

he said. "Perhaps to-morrow I'll find my tongue and tell you something."

"Tell me now," she said, quickly.

"Well, you're beautiful," he replied, with strong feeling.

"Really?" she smiled, and that smile was the first he had ever seen upon her face. It brought out the sadness, the very soul of her great beauty.

"I used to be pretty," she went on, naively. "But if I remember how I used to look I'm not pretty any more."

Neale laughed. He had begun to feel freer, and to accept this unparalleled situation with some composure.