THE SILVER ARROW
Four girls were leading their ponies along a narrow defile.
On either side of them arose tall cliffs. Overhead the sky showed a deep warm blue. A stream of water flowed along, ending in a small lake at some distance ahead.
"Absurd to have undertaken such a trip to-day of all days, Jeanette! Why keep up the pretense that we are not lost? As we will find our way home eventually, ordinarily I should not mind, but to be late this afternoon may create a situation that will be difficult to explain!"
"Nonsense, Lina. What does it matter? I for one do not care if we are not at home when father and our new stepmother reach there. I hope to be polite, but I won't pretend enthusiasm.
"What was the line of poetry we were trying to recall when we followed this new road down into the canyon?" asked Jeanette, wishing to divert her older sister's attention,
"We were dreamers dreaming greatly in the man-stifled town;
We yearned beyond the sky-line, where the strange roads go down."
the other girl repeated with a slight note of self-satisfaction. One so often feels this in remembering what other people have forgotten.
The four girls were daughters of Jim Colter of the Rainbow Ranch. His first wife had died, and he had married Jacqueline Ralston Kent, a former Ranch Girl much younger than himself, and was returning to the ranch with his bride after the honeymoon. The oldest of the girls was about fifteen years of age, the next fourteen, then twelve and eight.
"We have pursued a strange road. We seem to have descended into the heart of the world. Yet we were scarcely stifled at the ranch!" the third girl exclaimed, with a half whimsical, half wistful smile.
"I feel as Lina does, that we should reach home as soon as possible. We left a little after daylight and had we not taken this road down into the canyon would have been there an hour ago. Still it has been a wonderful experience! I did not know there was a canyon in this part of the country that we had not already explored!"
Lina Colter turned.
"Are you tired, Eda? If you wish to ride I can lead both our ponies."
The youngest of the four new Ranch Girls shook her head.
Named in honor of Frieda Ralston, who had been the youngest of another group of Ranch Girls some years before, Frieda Colter—more often called Eda—looked and was as unlike in character to the other Frieda as it was possible to imagine.
Slender and small, she had straight dark hair, deeply tanned skin, with a bright crimson in her cheeks and lips. Her eyes instead of being black, as one might have expected from her other coloring, were a light blue such as one sees in old china.
With her lashes down concealing the blue of her eyes, there was something about her that suggested an Indian. She possessed the grace and lightness of carriage of one who has lived always out of doors, and a peculiar litheness as if she were rarely tired.
Jeanette Colter laughed. The second of the girls, she was the moving spirit of their adventures, as Jacqueline Ralston had been in the past. Her hair was a light brown with obstinate waves. She wore it cut short in order that it should be less troublesome. She had gray-blue eyes, a short nose, a clear fresh skin in which the color came and went swiftly in answer to her moods. Her mouth showed a firm line unusual in so young a person.
"Via, you are more apt to be weary than Eda! You do look a little used up, child! Suppose we sit down and rest a while when we come to the edge of the enchanted lake we saw ahead of us a few moments ago. Although it has disappeared, I am sure we shall discover it again as soon as we pass on the other side of this cliff," Jeanette remarked.
She and Via were especially devoted to each other.
Via—or Olivia, to give her her full name—did appear more frail than her sisters. She had fair hair and dark eyes and a gentle manner.
Lina—short for Jacqueline—the oldest of the four girls, was studious and reserved, not giving her affection easily, but deeply devoted to a few persons.
Jeanette had made no mistake.
The path along the edge of the cliff became steeper and more difficult to follow.
Then turning the bend, the four girls uttered exclamations of delight.
Sheer embankments of stone hedged them in on three sides. Moving upward toward the far horizon was a single, little-traveled road.
Here, at the bottom of the canyon, like a sapphire set amid diamonds, a little lake appeared in the midst of hollowed-out stones.
Jeanette, who had been in the lead, dropped down first, making a cup of her hand.
"I am sure this water must be fresh and pure. How can it be otherwise in such a place? Suppose we drink first and then let the ponies drink. Afterwards we must eat the few sandwiches we have left and be merry. If we do not see father and our new and reverend stepmother"—Jeanette made a little grimace—"before bedtime, why, the misfortune is four times more her own than ours! It does seem absurd for father to have married some one so much younger than himself! He was her guardian, as we know, years before his marriage to our own mother. Personally, I don't believe in second marriages."
Jeanette's attention was now demanded. She held the reins of the two younger girls' ponies while they satisfied their thirst.
Five minutes later the four girls were seated in characteristic attitudes about the edge of the small lake. The ponies, glad to enjoy a brief rest, stood tethered to the forks of bushes that grew out of what seemed solid rock.
Olivia was leaning her fair head against Jeanette's strong young shoulder, a wistful droop to her figure.
Jeanette sat upright, her white teeth closing firmly on a sandwich. Her gray-blue eyes were looking down into the heart of the water. A strange mixture, Jeanette! She possessed an adventurous outdoor nature and yet now and then was oddly given to dreaming.
More intimate with her father and more his companion in the management of Rainbow Ranch than any one of her sisters, Jeanette resented his marriage more than the others.
"I wish, Jeanette dear, that you would not feel so unhappy over the future," Via murmured. The two girls had special names for each other that only a few outside persons employed. "After all, father is the person to consider! If he thinks that it is best for us to spend this summer together at the ranch making friends with our new mother, it need not last forever! If you wish, you and Lina some day can go away to school. Eda and I will be able to survive, I suppose, although it will be hard."
Olivia leaned over and let her slim hand sink into the bright water.
Although Jeanette was his most devoted friend and companion, three of the four new Ranch Girls believed that Via was their father's favorite child. There was an appealing quality in her gentleness and lack of self-reliance.
Eda, the youngest, was possessed of an odd temperament. She did not seem to care for affection. Never, even when a baby, had she permitted any one to treat her as one ordinarily treats a little girl. Not only had she objected to caresses, she did not wish to be amused. Her own projects and ideas were sufficient entertainment. Hours at a time she would play alone, hiding if need be from the other girls.
They would find her swinging her thin legs from the high rafters of one of the barns, or climbing one of the tall cottonwood trees in the road that led to the old Rainbow Lodge. Here the first four Ranch Girls lived before the discovery of their wealth in Rainbow Creek. After building the new house, Frieda Ralston, now Mrs. Henry Tilford Russell, had christened it Rainbow Castle.
"Really, Jeanette, there is no reason why you should be so prejudiced against our new stepmother. Dear me, what shall we call her? She did not wish to be called Lady Kent after the death of her first husband when she returned to live at our ranch," Lina argued.
Jeanette shrugged her shoulders.
"Rainbow Ranch isn't ours, kindly remember. Of course, father now owns a large share of the land, but the rest belongs to our new stepmother and the former Rainbow Ranch Girls. She will never accept the fact that we are the present-day Ranch Girls and I think will always insist upon occupying every position of prominence. As for what name we shall call her by, I intend to say Mrs. Colter. I must either say that, or Jack, and Jack is hardly a respectful title for one's stepmother, whatever one's inward feeling."
Jeanette Colter attempted to speak lightly, yet there was in her voice and manner an intensity of feeling that suggested shoals ahead.
"You have no right to frighten or prejudice the younger girls, whatever you may feel yourself," Lina whispered in an undertone. "I wish I disagreed with you more completely, then I would have more influence. In my heart of hearts I feel almost as uncomfortable as you do," Lina added.
"What a queer mix-up of a family!" said Via. "Father is at least a third older than his new wife, the new wife is a little more than twice as old as we are! There is only one thing we seem to have in common and that is affection for the old Rainbow Ranch! In any case I do hope we may be back at home before the travelers arrive. They were not positive at what hour they would reach home to-night."
As if the matter concerned her but little, Jeanette Colter yawned.
Then her expression softened and she rested her cheek on her younger sister's head, which still pressed against her shoulder.
"Oh, Olivia, you will keep the peace, or do your best! You will help now and then, Lina, when you are not too interested in your stupid old books to know what is taking place in the world. Eda and I probably will create the difficulties. If I am sent away from the beloved old ranch sooner than the rest of you, sorry as I shall be to leave you, don't shed tears for me. It may be I shall soon prefer to be away."
Suddenly Jeanette sat up abruptly. Via raised her head in quick surprise.
"At least there is one thing for which I am truly thankful. We are to be spared for this summer the presence of our new step-brother. He is one of the most objectionable boys I have ever known, and named for father, and father his guardian as well as other things. Oh, dear, it is too mixed-up a family skein for me to unravel!" Jeanette protested.
"Heavenly as this small lake is, lying amid its guard of giant stones, don't you think we should be wending our way upward and onward?" Lina inquired. "Once out of this defile, we shall know the direction we should take for home. Perhaps we shall reach there by dark, or if not there is a moon and a straight road over our own prairies, so what does it matter?"
Jeanette glanced upward, the other three girls following her example.
The first sunset rays had dropped down the western slope of the cliff, lighting it with strange and beautiful colors, mauve and rose and gold.
No sounds could be heard save the four young voices and the restlessness of the four ponies, who were beginning to demand to be taken home.
Suddenly, as if from out of the sky itself, there appeared a small object. Downward, straight as a plummet, it plunged into the surface of the water not far from where the four girls were seated.
Instinctively four hands were thrust forward.
Jeanette's hand drew the object forth.
The tip had been broken by striking against the hard bed of rock, and yet it was plain that the oddly discovered treasure was an arrow made of some dull metal.
The Oddly Discovered Treasure was an Arrow.
Jeanette held it up for the others to observe. The arrow glistened with an unexpected radiance.
Reaching out for it, Lina, who was slightly near-sighted, held it closer to her eyes.
"The arrow is of silver, I believe! From whence could it have come? Who could have shot a silver arrow down into this hidden ravine? Oh, I presume it belongs to you, Jeanette, as you were first to find it."
Jeanette shook her head.
"No, the arrow is no more mine than yours or Via's or Eda's. I simply chanced to be nearest the side of the water where it fell."
"Well, I have something to suggest," Via remarked dreamily. "Suppose we take the arrow home and keep it always. When the day comes that one of us does something braver or better than the other, she is to possess the silver arrow until another earns it in the same fashion—or until some one claims it."
"A beautiful suggestion, Via! But come, we must leave this enchanted lake. At least we should manage to arrive at home by bedtime."
A few moments later the four Western ponies with their riders could be seen moving upward along the narrow trail.