For Helen Rayner that brief, dark period of expulsion from her home had become a thing of the past, almost forgotten.
Two months had flown by on the wings of love and work and the joy of finding her place there in the West. All her old men had been only too glad of the opportunity to come back to her, and under Dale and Roy Beeman a different and prosperous order marked the life of the ranch.
Helen had made changes in the house by altering the arrangement of rooms and adding a new section. Only once had she ventured into the old dining-room where Las Vegas Carmichael had sat down to that fatal dinner for Beasley.
She made a store-room of it, and a place she would never again enter.
Helen was happy, almost too happy, she thought, and therefore made more than needful of the several bitter drops in her sweet cup of life. Carmichael had ridden out of Pine, ostensibly on the trail of the Mexicans who had executed Beasley's commands. The last seen of him had been reported from Show Down, where he had appeared red-eyed and dangerous, like a hound on a scent. Then two months had flown by without a word.
Dale had shaken his head doubtfully when interrogated about the cowboy's absence. It would be just like Las Vegas never to be heard of again. Also it would be more like him to remain away until all trace of his drunken, savage spell had departed from him and had been forgotten by his friends. Bo took his disappearance apparently less to heart than Helen.
But Bo grew more restless, wilder, and more wilful than ever. Helen thought she guessed Bo's secret; and once she ventured a hint concerning Carmichael's return.
"If Tom doesn't come back pretty soon I'll marry Milt Dale,"retorted Bo, tauntingly.
This fired Helen's cheeks with red.
"But, child," she protested, half angry, half grave. "Milt and I are engaged.""Sure. Only you're so slow. There's many a slip -- you know.""Bo, I tell you Tom will come back," replied Helen, earnestly. "I feel it. There was something fine in that cowboy. He understood me better than you or Milt, either. .
. . And he was perfectly wild in love with you.""Oh! WAS he?"
"Very much more than you deserved, Bo Rayner."Then occurred one of Bo's sweet, bewildering, unexpected transformations. Her defiance, resentment, rebelliousness, vanished from a softly agitated face.
"Oh, Nell, I know that. . . . You just watch me if I ever get another chance at him! . . . Then -- maybe he'd never drink again!""Bo, be happy -- and be good. Don't ride off any more --don't tease the boys. It'll all come right in the end."Bo recovered her equanimity quickly enough.
"Humph! You can afford to be cheerful. You've got a man who can't live when you're out of his sight. He's like a fish on dry land. . . . And you -- why, once you were an old pessimist!"Bo was not to be consoled or changed. Helen could only sigh and pray that her convictions would be verified.
The first day of July brought an early thunder-storm, just at sunrise. It roared and flared and rolled away, leaving a gorgeous golden cloud pageant in the sky and a fresh, sweetly smelling, glistening green range that delighted Helen's eye.
Birds were twittering in the arbors and bees were humming in the flowers. From the fields down along the brook came a blended song of swamp-blackbird and meadow-lark. Aclarion-voiced burro split the air with his coarse and homely bray. The sheep were bleating, and a soft baa of little lambs came sweetly to Helen's ears. She went her usual rounds with more than usual zest and thrill.
Everywhere was color, activity, life. The wind swept warm and pine-scented down from the mountain heights, now black and bold, and the great green slopes seemed to call to her.
At that very moment she came suddenly upon Dale, in his shirt-sleeves, dusty and hot, standing motionless, gazing at the distant mountains. Helen's greeting startled him.
"I -- I was just looking away yonder," he said, smiling. She thrilled at the clear, wonderful light of his eyes.
"So was I -- a moment ago," she replied, wistfully. "Do you miss the forest -- very much?""Nell, I miss nothing. But I'd like to ride with you under the pines once more.""We'll go," she cried.
"When?" he asked, eagerly.
"Oh -- soon!" And then with flushed face and downcast eyes she passed on. For long Helen had cherished a fond hope that she might be married in Paradise Park, where she had fallen in love with Dale and had realized herself. But she had kept that hope secret. Dale's eager tone, his flashing eyes, had made her feel that her secret was there in her telltale face.
As she entered the lane leading to the house she encountered one of the new stable-boys driving a pack-mule.
"Jim, whose pack is that?" she asked.
"Ma'am, I dunno, but I heard him tell Roy he reckoned his name was mud," replied the boy, smiling.
Helen's heart gave a quick throb. That sounded like Las Vegas. She hurried on, and upon entering the courtyard she espied Roy Beeman holding the halter of a beautiful, wild-looking mustang. There was another horse with another man, who was in the act of dismounting on the far side. When he stepped into better view Helen recognized Las Vegas. And he saw her at the same instant.
Helen did not look up again until she was near the porch.
She had dreaded this meeting, yet she was so glad that she could have cried aloud.
"Miss Helen, I shore am glad to see you," he said, standing bareheaded before her, the same young, frank-faced cowboy she had seen first from the train.
"Tom!" she exclaimed, and offered her hands.
He wrung them hard while he looked at her. The swift woman's glance Helen gave in return seemed to drive something dark and doubtful out of her heart. This was the same boy she had known -- whom she had liked so well -- who had won her sister's love. Helen imagined facing him thus was like awakening from a vague nightmare of doubt. Carmichael's face was clean, fresh, young, with its healthy tan; it wore the old glad smile, cool, easy, and natural; his eyes were like Dale's -- penetrating, clear as crystal, without a shadow.