Bruce of the Circle A Part 39

"She's got th' same kind of stuff, Bruce, or she wouldn't come through neither. Abe made th' run of his life and wasn't hurt by it; she went through about four sections of h.e.l.l an'.... She looked like a Texas rose when she got off th' train last week!"

Bayard rapped the dust from his brush and answered:

"You're right; they're alike, Tommy. It takes heart, courage, to go through things that Ann an' Abe went through ... different kinds. It wasn't so much what happened at th' mine. It was th' years she'd put in, abused, fearin', tryin' not to hate. That was what took th' sand, th'

nerve. If she hadn't been th' right sort, she'd have crumpled up under it."

Clary said nothing for a time but eyed Bruce carefully, undisguised affection in his scrutiny. Then he spoke,

"My guess is that you two'll set a new pace on this here trail to happiness!"

The forenoon dragged. Bruce completed the small tasks of morning and hunted for more duties to occupy his hands. The women would not allow him in the house, and beneath his controlled exterior he was in a fury of impatience. From time to time he glanced speculatively at the sun; then referred to his watch to affirm his judgment of the day's growth.

Ann was still at the Boyd ranch and old Hi was to drive her to her new home before noon. Judson Weyl, who was to marry them, had been called away the day before but had given his word that he would leave Yavapai in time to reach the ranch with an ample margin, for Bruce insisted that there be no hitch in the plans. Long before either was due the big rancher frequently scanned the country to the north and east for signs of travelers.

"You're about as contented as a hen with a lost chicken," Tommy observed.

Bruce smiled slightly and scratched his chin.

"Well, I'd hate to have anything delay this round-up."

Another hour dragged out before his repeated gazing was rewarded. Then, off in the east, a smudge of dust resolved itself into a team and wagon.

"That's Hi with Ann!" he said excitedly. "Our sky pilot ought to be here soon."

"Lots of time yet," Tommy a.s.sured. "He won't be leavin' town for a couple of hours."

"Maybe not, Tommy, but I don't trust that chariot of fire. I'm afraid it'll give its death rattle almost any time, dump our parson in th' road an' stop our weddin'. That'd be bad!"

Tommy roused to the dire possibilities of the situation.

"It would," he agreed. "It takes a preacher, a fool or a brave man to trust himself in a ve-hicle like that. He ought to come horseback. He--

"Say, Bruce, why can't I saddle up an' lead a horse in after him? I can make it easy. That'd keep you from worryin'. Matter of fact, between th'

women in th' house an' you with your fussin' outdoors I'm afraid my nerves won't stand it all! I've been through stampedes on th' Pecos, an'

blizzards in Nebraska; I've been lost in Death Valley an' I've had a silver tip try to box my ears, but I just naturally can't break myself to p'lite society!"

"I don't believe you, but your idea wins," Bayard laughed. "Go on after him. Take ... Say, you take Abe for him to ride back! That's th' thing to do. You put th' parson on Abe an' we'll be as certain to start this fracas on time as I am that his 'bus is apt to secede from itself on th'

road any minute!"

Bruce sent Abe away with Tommy. Ann arrived. Twenty minutes before the time set for the simple ceremony Abe brought the clergyman through the big gate of the Circle A with his swinging trot, ears up, head alert, as though with conscious pride.

"The fact is, Bruce, I'd have been late, if Tommy hadn't come after me,"

Weyl confessed as he dismounted.

"So? I've been expectin' somethin' would happen to you. What was it?"

"Why, Nicodemus, my off horse, kicked four spokes out of a front wheel and, when we were putting on another, we found that the axle was hopelessly cracked."

"I knew that chariot would quit sometime, but this horse, th' stallion shod with fire ... he don't know what quittin' is!"

The sun was slipping toward the western horizon when the last of the few who had attended the ceremony pa.s.sed from sight. For a long time Bruce and Ann stood under the ash tree, watching them depart, hearing the last sounds of wheel and hoof and voice break in on the evening quiet.

The girl was wonderfully happy. The strained look about her eyes, the quick, nervous gestures that had characterized her after the tragedy of Ned Lytton's death and before her return to the East, were gone. A splendid look of peace was upon her; one life was gone, thrown away as a piece of botched work; another was opening.

Far away to the north and eastward snow-covered peaks, triplets, rose against the bright blue of the sky. As Bruce and Ann looked they lost the silver whiteness and became flushed with the pink of dying day. The distant, pine-covered heights had become blue, the far draws were gathering their purple mists of evening. The lilac of the valley's coloring grew fainter, more delicate, while the deep mauves of a range of hills to the southward deepened towards a dead brown. Over all, that incomparable silence, the inexplicable peace that comes with evening in those big places. No need to dwell further on this for you who have watched and felt and become lost in it; useless to attempt more for the uninitiate.

Ann's arm slipped into her husband's and she whispered:

"Evening on Manzanita! Is there anything more beautiful?"

Bayard smiled.

"Not unless it's daytime," he said. "You know, Ann, for a long, long time it's seemed to me as though there's been a shadow on that valley.

Even on the brightest days it ain't looked like it should. But now....

Why, even with the sun goin' down, it seems to me as if that shadow's lifted!

"I feel freer, too. This fenced-in feelin' that I've had is gone. I ...

Why, I feel like life, the world, was all open to me, smilin' at me, waitin' for me, just like that old valley out there.

"What do you s'pose makes it so?"

"Must I tell you?" she asked, reaching her arms upward for his neck.

"Tell me," he said. "With your lips, but without words. That's a kind of riddle, I guess! Do you know the answer?"

Indeed, she did!

THE END