The Trail to Yesterday
His question remained unanswered. He stirred impatiently, and glancing at him Sheila saw that he had raised himself so that his chin rested in his hand, his elbow supported by the saddle.
“You here for a visit?” he questioned.
“Perhaps,” she said. “I do not know how long I shall stay. My father has bought the Double R.”
For a long time it seemed that he would have no comment to make on this and Sheila’s lips took on a decidedly petulant expression. Apparently he was not interested in her after all.
“Then Duncan has sold out?” There was satisfaction in his voice.
“You are keen,” she mocked.
“And tickled,” he added.
His short laugh brought a sudden interest into her eyes. “Then you don’t like Duncan,” she said.
“I reckon you’re some keen too,” came the mocking response.
Sheila flushed, turned and looked defiantly at him. His hand still supported his head and there was an unmistakable interest in his eyes as he caught her glance at him and smiled.
“You got any objections to telling me your name? We ain’t been introduced, you know?” he said.
“It is Sheila Langford.”
She had turned her head and was giving her attention to the window above her. The fingers of the hand that had been supporting his head slowly clenched, he raised himself slightly, his body rigid, his chin thrusting, his face pale, his eyes burning with a sudden fierce fire. Once he opened his lips to speak, but instantly closed them again, and a smile wreathed them – a mirthless smile that had in it a certain cold caution and cunning. After a silence that lasted long his voice came again, drawling, well-controlled, revealing nothing of the emotion which had previously affected him.
“What is your father’s name?”
“David Dowd Langford. An uncommon middle name, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Uncommon,” came his reply. His face, with the light of the candle gleaming full upon it, bore a queer pallor – the white of cold ashes. His right hand, which had been resting carelessly on the blanket, was now gripping it, the muscles tense and knotted. Yet after another long silence his voice came again – drawling, well-controlled, as before:
“What is he coming out here for?”
“He has retired from business and is coming out here for his health.”
“What business was he in?”
“Wholesale hardware.”
He was silent again and presently, hearing him stir, Sheila looked covertly at him. He had turned, his back was toward her, and he was stretched out on the blanket as though, fully satisfied with the result of his questioning, he intended going to sleep. For several minutes Sheila watched him with a growing curiosity. It was like a man to ask all and give nothing. He had questioned her to his complete satisfaction but had told nothing of himself. She was determined to discover something about him.
“Who are you?” she questioned.
“Dakota,” he said shortly.
“Dakota?” she repeated, puzzled. “That isn’t a name; it’s a State – or a Territory.”
“I’m Dakota. Ask anybody.” There was a decided drawl in his voice.
This information was far from being satisfactory, but she supposed it must answer. Still, she persisted. “Where are you from?”
“Dakota.”
That seemed to end it. It had been a short quest and an unsatisfactory one. It was perfectly plain to her that he was some sort of a rancher – at the least a cowboy. It was also plain that he had been a cowboy before coming to this section of the country – probably in Dakota. She was perplexed and vexed and nibbled impatiently at her lips.
“Dakota isn’t your real name,” she declared sharply.
“Ain’t it?” There came the drawl again. It irritated her this time.
“No!” she snapped.
“Well, it’s as good as any other. Good-night.”
Sheila did not answer. Five minutes later she was asleep.
CHAPTER II
THE DIM TRAIL
Sheila had been dreaming of a world in which there was nothing but rain and mud and clouds and reckless-eyed individuals who conversed in irritating drawls when a sharp crash of thunder awakened her. During her sleep she had turned her face to the wall, and when her eyes opened the first thing that her gaze rested on was the small window above her head. She regarded it for some time, following with her eyes the erratic streams that trickled down the glass, stretching out wearily, listening to the wind. It was cold and bleak outside and she had much to be thankful for.
She was glad that she had not allowed the mysterious inhabitant of the cabin to sleep out in his tarpaulin, for the howling of the wind brought weird thoughts into her mind; she reflected upon her helplessness and it was extremely satisfying to know that within ten feet of her lay a man whose two big revolvers – even though she feared them – seemed to insure protection. It was odd, she told herself, that she should place so much confidence in Dakota, and her presence in the cabin with him was certainly a breach of propriety which – were her friends in the East to hear of it – would arouse much comment – entirely unfavorable to her. Yes, it was odd, yet considering Dakota, she was not in the least disturbed. So far his conduct toward her had been that of the perfect gentleman, and in spite of the recklessness that gleamed in his eyes whenever he looked at her she was certain that he would continue to be a gentleman.
It was restful to lie and listen to the rain splashing on the roof and against the window, but sleep, for some unaccountable reason, seemed to grow farther from her – the recollection of events during the past few hours left no room in her thoughts for sleep. Turning, after a while, to seek a more comfortable position, she saw Dakota sitting at the table, on the side opposite her, watching her intently.
“Can’t sleep, eh?” he said, when he saw her looking at him. “Storm bother you?”
“I think it was the thunder that awakened me,” she returned. “Thunder always does. Evidently it disturbs you too.”
“I haven’t been asleep,” he said in a curt tone.
He continued to watch her with a quiet, appraising gaze. It was evident that he had been thinking of her when she had turned to look at him. She flushed with embarrassment over the thought that while she had been asleep he must have been considering her, and yet, looking closely at him now, she decided that his expression was frankly impersonal.
He glanced at his watch. “You’ve been asleep two hours,” he said. “I’ve been watching you – and envying you.”
“Envying me? Why? Are you troubled with insomnia?”
He laughed. “Nothing so serious as that. It’s just thoughts.”
“Pleasant ones, of course.”
“You might call them pleasant. I’ve been thinking of you.”
Sheila found no reply to make to this, but blushed again.
“Thinking of you,” repeated Dakota. “Of the chance you took in coming out here alone – in coming into my shack. We’re twenty miles from town here – twenty miles from the Double R – the nearest ranch. It isn’t likely that a soul will pass here for a month. Suppose – ”
“We won’t ‘suppose,’ if you please,” said Sheila. Her face had grown slowly pale, but there was a confident smile on her lips as she looked at him.
“No?” he said, watching her steadily. “Why? Isn’t it quite possible that you could have fallen in with a sort of man – ”
“As it happens, I did not,” interrupted Sheila.
“How do you know?”
Sheila’s gaze met his unwaveringly. “Because you are the man,” she said slowly.
She thought she saw a glint of pleasure in his eyes, but was not quite certain, for his expression changed instantly.
“Fate, or Providence – or whatever you are pleased to call the power that shuffles us flesh and blood mannikins around – has a way of putting us all in the right places. I expect that’s one of the reasons why you didn’t fall in with the sort of man I was going to tell you about,” said Dakota.
“I don’t see what Fate has to do – ” began Sheila, wondering at his serious tone.
“Odd, isn’t it?” he drawled.
“What is odd?”
“That you don’t see. But lots of people don’t see. They’re chucked and shoved around like men on a chess board, and though they’re always interested they don’t usually know what it’s all about. Just as well too – usually.”
“I don’t see – ”
He smiled mysteriously. “Did I say that I expected you to see?” he said. “There isn’t anything personal in this, aside from the fact that I was trying to show you that some one was foolish in sending you out here alone. Some day you’ll look back on your visit here and then you’ll understand.”
He got up and walked to the door, opening it and standing there looking out into the darkness. Sheila watched him, puzzled by his mysterious manner, though not in the least afraid of him. Several times while he stood at the door he turned and looked at her and presently, when a gust of wind rushed in and Sheila shivered, he abruptly closed the door, barred it, and strode to the fireplace, throwing a fresh log into it. For a time he stood silently in front of the fire, his figure casting a long, gaunt shadow at Sheila’s feet, his gaze on her, grim, somber lines in his face. Presently he cleared his throat.
“How old are you?” he said shortly.
“Twenty-two.”
“And you’ve lived East all your life. Lived well, too, I suppose – plenty of money, luxuries, happiness?”
He caught her nod and continued, his lips curling a little. “Your father too, I reckon – has he been happy?”
“I think so.”
“That’s odd.” He had spoken more to himself than to Sheila and he looked at her with narrowed eyes when she answered.
“What is odd? That my father should be happy – that I should?”
“Odd that anyone who is happy in one place should want to leave that place and go to another. Maybe the place he went to wouldn’t be just right for him. What makes people want to move around like that?”
“Perhaps you could answer that yourself,” suggested Sheila. “I am sure that you haven’t lived here in this part of the country all your life.”
“How do you know that?” His gaze was quizzical and mocking.
“I don’t know. But you haven’t.”
“Well,” he said, “we’ll say I haven’t. But I wasn’t happy where I came from and I came here looking for happiness – and something else. That I didn’t find what I was looking for isn’t the question – mostly none of us find the things we’re looking for. But if I had been happy where I was I wouldn’t have come here. You say your father has been happy there; that he’s got plenty of money and all that. Then why should he want to live here?”
“I believe I told you that he is coming here for his health.”
His eyes lighted savagely. But Sheila did not catch their expression for at that moment she was looking at his shadow on the floor. How long, how grotesque, it seemed, and forbidding – like its owner.
“So he’s got everything he wants but his health. What made him lose that?”
“How should I know?”
“Just lost it, I reckon,” said Dakota subtly. “Cares and Worry?”
“I presume. His health has been failing for about ten years.”
Sheila was looking straight at Dakota now and she saw his face whiten, his lips harden. And when he spoke again there was a chill in his voice and a distinct pause between his words.
“Ten years,” he said. “That’s a long time, isn’t it? A long time for a man who has been losing his health. And yet – ” There was a mirthless smile on Dakota’s face – “ten years is a longer time for a man in good health who hasn’t been happy. Couldn’t your father have doctored – gone abroad – to recover his health? Or was his a mental sickness?”
“Mental, I think. He worried quite a little.”
Dakota turned from her, but not quickly enough to conceal the light of savage joy that flashed suddenly into his eyes.
“Why!” exclaimed Sheila, voicing her surprise at the startling change in his manner; “that seems to please you!”
“It does.” He laughed oddly. “It pleases me to find that I’m to have a neighbor who is afflicted with the sort of sickness that has been bothering me for – for a good many years.”
There was a silence, during which Sheila yawned and Dakota stood motionless, looking straight ahead.
“You like your father, I reckon?” came his voice presently, as his gaze went to her again.
“Of course.” She looked up at him in surprise. “Why shouldn’t I like him?”
“Of course you like him. Mostly children like their fathers.”
“Children!” She glared scornfully at him. “I am twenty-two! I told you that before!”
“So you did,” he returned, unruffled. “When is he coming out here?”
“In a month – a month from to-day.” She regarded him with a sudden, new interest. “You are betraying a great deal of curiosity,” she accused. “Why?”
“Why,” he answered slowly, “I reckon that isn’t odd, is it? He’s going to be my neighbor, isn’t he?”
“Oh!” she said with emphasis of mockery which equalled his. “And you are gossiping about your neighbor even before he comes.”
“Like a woman,” he said with a smile.
“An impertinent one,” she retorted.
“Your father,” he said in accents of sarcasm, ignoring the jibe, “seems to think a heap of you – sending you all the way out here alone.”
“I came against his wish; he wanted me to wait and come with him.”
Her defense of her parent seemed to amuse him. He smiled mysteriously. “Then he likes you?”
“Is that strange? He hasn’t any one else – no relative. I am the only one.”
“You’re the only one.” He repeated her words slowly, regarding her narrowly. “And he likes you. I reckon he’d be hurt quite a little if you had fallen in with the sort of man I was going to tell you about.”
“Naturally.” Sheila was tapping with her booted foot on his shadow on the floor and did not look at him.
“It’s a curious thing,” he said slowly, after an interval, “that a man who has got a treasure grows careless of it in time. It’s natural, too. But I reckon fate has something to do with it. Ten chances to one if nothing happens to you your father will consider himself lucky. But suppose you had happened to fall in with a different man than me – we’ll say, for instance, a man who had a grudge against your father – and that man didn’t have that uncommon quality called ‘mercy.’ What then? Ten chances to one your father would say it was fate that had led you to him.”
“I think,” she said scornfully, “that you are talking silly! In the first place, I don’t believe my father thinks that I am a treasure, though he likes me very much. In the second place, if he does think that I am a treasure, he is very much mistaken, for I am not – I am a woman and quite able to take care of myself. You have exhibited a wonderful curiosity over my father and me, and though it has all been mystifying and entertaining, I don’t purpose to talk to you all night.”
“I didn’t waken you,” he mocked.
Sheila swung around on the bunk, her back to him. “You are keeping me awake,” she retorted.
“Well, good night then,” he laughed, “Miss Sheila.”
“Good night, Mr. – Mr. Dakota,” she returned.
Sheila did not hear him again. Her thoughts dwelt for a little time on him and his mysterious manner, then they strayed. They returned presently and she concentrated her attention on the rain; she could hear the soft, steady patter of it on the roof; she listened to it trickling from the eaves and striking the glass in the window above her head. Gradually the soft patter seemed to draw farther away, became faint, and more faint, and finally she heard it no more.
CHAPTER III
CONVERGING TRAILS
It was the barking of a dog that brought Sheila out of a sleep – dreamless this time – into a state of semi-consciousness. It was Dakota’s dog surely, she decided sleepily. She sighed and twisted to a more comfortable position. The effort awakened her and she opened her eyes, her gaze resting immediately on Dakota. He still sat at the table, silent, immovable, as before. But now he was sitting erect, his muscles tensed, his chin thrust out aggressively, his gaze on the door – listening. He seemed to be unaware of Sheila’s presence; the sound that she had made in turning he apparently had not heard.
There was an interval of silence and then came a knocking on the door – loud, unmistakable. Some one desired admittance. After the knock came a voice:
“Hello inside!”
“Hello yourself!” Dakota’s voice came with a truculent snap. “What’s up?”
“Lookin’ for a dry place,” came the voice from without. “Mebbe you don’t know it’s wet out here!”
Sheila’s gaze was riveted on Dakota. He arose and noiselessly moved his chair back from the table and she saw a saturnine smile on his face, yet in his eyes there shone a glint of intolerance that mingled oddly with his gravity.
“You alone?” he questioned, his gaze on the door.
“Yes.”
“Who are you?”
“Campbellite preacher.”
For the first time since she had been awake Dakota turned and looked at Sheila. The expression of his face puzzled her. “A parson!” he sneered in a low voice. “I reckon we’ll have some praying now.” He took a step forward, hesitated, and looked back at Sheila. “Do you want him in here?”
Sheila’s nod brought a whimsical, shallow smile to his face. “Of course you do – you’re lonesome in here.” There was mockery in his voice. He deliberately drew out his two guns, examined them minutely, returned one to his holster, retaining the other in his right hand. With a cold grin at Sheila he snuffed out the candle between a finger and a thumb and strode to the door – Sheila could hear him fumbling at the fastenings. He spoke to the man outside sharply.
“Come in!”
There was a movement; a square of light appeared in the wall of darkness; there came a step on the threshold. Watching, Sheila saw, framed in the open doorway, the dim outlines of a figure – a man.
“Stand right there,” came Dakota’s voice from somewhere in the impenetrable darkness of the interior, and Sheila wondered at the hospitality that greeted a stranger with total darkness and a revolver. “Light a match.”
After a short interval of silence there came the sound of a match scratching on the wall, and a light flared up, showing Sheila the face of a man of sixty, bronzed, bearded, with gentle, quizzical eyes.
The light died down, the man waited. Sheila had forgotten – in her desire to see the face of the visitor – to look for Dakota, but presently she heard his voice:
“I reckon you’re a parson, all right. Close the door.”
The parson obeyed the command. “Light the candle on the table!” came the order from Dakota. “I’m not taking any chances until I get a better look at you.”
Another match flared up and the parson advanced to the table and lighted the candle. He smiled while applying the match to the wick. “Don’t pay to take no chances – on anything,” he agreed. He stood erect, a tall man, rugged and active for his sixty years, and threw off a rain-soaked tarpaulin. Some traces of dampness were visible on his clothing, but in the circumstances he had not fared so badly.
“It’s a new trail to me – I don’t know the country,” he went on. “If I hadn’t seen your light I reckon I’d have been goin’ yet. I was thinkin’ that it was mighty queer that you’d have a light goin’ so – ” He stopped short, seeing Sheila sitting on the bunk. “Shucks, ma’am,” he apologized, “I didn’t know you were there.” His hat came off and dangled in his left hand; with the other he brushed back the hair from his forehead, smiling meanwhile at Sheila.
“Why, ma’am,” he said apologetically, “if your husband had told me you was here I’d have gone right on an’ not bothered you.”
Sheila’s gaze went from the parson’s face and sought Dakota’s, a crimson flood spreading over her face and temples. A slow, amused gleam filled Dakota’s eyes. But plainly he did not intend to set the parson right – he was enjoying Sheila’s confusion. The color fled from her face as suddenly as it had come and was succeeded by the pallor of a cold indignation.
“I’m not married,” she said instantly to the parson; “this gentleman is not my husband.”
“Not?” questioned the parson. “Then how – ” He hesitated and looked quickly at Dakota, but the latter was watching Sheila with an odd smile and the parson looked puzzled.
“This is my first day in this country,” explained Sheila.
The parson did not reply to this, though he continued to watch her intently. She met his gaze steadily and he smiled. “I reckon you’ve been caught on the trail too,” he said, “by the storm.”
Sheila nodded.
“Well, it’s been right wet to-night, an’ it ain’t no night to be galivantin’ around the country. Where you goin’ to?”
“To the Double R ranch.”
“Where’s the Double R?” asked the parson.
“West,” Dakota answered for Sheila; “twenty miles.”
“Off my trail,” said the parson. “I’m travelin’ to Lazette.” He laughed, shortly. “I’m askin’ your pardon, ma’am, for takin’ you to be married; you don’t look like you belonged here – I ought to have knowed that right off.”
Sheila told him that he was forgiven and he had no comment to make on this, but looked at her appraisingly. He drew a bench up near the fire and sat looking at the licking flames, the heat drawing the steam from his clothing as the latter dried. Dakota supplied him with soda biscuit and cold bacon, and these he munched in contentment, talking meanwhile of his travels. Several times while he sat before the fire Dakota spoke to him, and finally he pulled his chair over near the wall opposite the bunk on which Sheila sat, tilted it back, and dropped into it, stretching out comfortably.
After seating himself, Dakota’s gaze sought Sheila. It was evident to Sheila that he was thinking pleasant thoughts, for several times she looked quickly at him to catch him smiling. Once she met his gaze fairly and was certain that she saw a crafty, calculating gleam in his eyes. She was puzzled, though there was nothing of fear from Dakota now; the presence of the parson in the cabin assured her of safety.
A half hour dragged by. The parson did not appear to be sleepy. Sheila glanced at her watch and saw that it was midnight. She wondered much at the parson’s wakefulness and her own weariness. But she could safely go to sleep now, she told herself, and she stretched noiselessly out on the bunk and with one arm bent under her head listened to the parson.
Evidently the parson was itinerant; he spoke of many places – Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Texas; of towns in New Mexico. To Sheila, her senses dulled by the drowsiness that was stealing over her, it appeared that the parson was a foe to Science. His volubility filled the cabin; he contended sonorously that the earth was not round. The Scriptures, he maintained, held otherwise. He called Dakota’s attention to the seventh chapter of Revelation, verse one:
“And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.”
Several times Sheila heard Dakota laugh, mockingly; he was skeptical, caustic even, and he took issue with the parson. Between them they managed to prevent her falling asleep; kept her in a semidoze which was very near to complete wakefulness.
After a time, though, the argument grew monotonous; the droning of their voices seemed gradually to grow distant; Sheila lost interest in the conversation and sank deeper into her doze. How long she had been unconscious of them she did not know, but presently she was awake again and listening. Dakota’s laugh had awakened her. Out of the corners of her eyes she saw that he was still seated in the chair beside the wall and that his eyes were alight with interest as he watched the parson.
“So you’re going to Lazette, taking it on to him?”
The parson nodded, smiling. “When a man wants to get married he’ll not care much about the arrangements – how it gets done. What he wants to do is to get married.”
“That’s a queer angle,” Dakota observed. He laughed immoderately.
The parson laughed with him. It was an odd situation, he agreed. Never, in all his experience, had he heard of anything like it.
He had stopped for a few hours at Dry Bottom. While there a rider had passed through, carrying word that a certain man in Lazette, called “Baldy,” desired to get married. There was no minister in Lazette, not even a justice of the peace. But Baldy wanted to be married, and his bride-to-be objected to making the trip to Dry Bottom, where there were both a parson and a justice of the peace. Therefore, failing to induce the lady to go to the parson, it followed that Baldy must contrive to have the parson come to the lady. He dispatched the rider to Dry Bottom on this quest.