“Why, you don’t need to worry that way,” she cried. “It certainly would be a tough proposition facing the canyon with a scary horse. You go saddle up my Pedro. He’s right there in the barn, and he knows that path and that tunnel like a child knows its prayers. You can have him and welcome, and you can treat him the same as if he was steam driven. You go right on. And while you’re fixing things for Molly down there, we’ll be fixing things for her here. And between us, with God’s help, there’ll be little amiss with her when she gets right back to you and at her home.”
As Lightning moved down towards the barn his manner had undergone a complete transformation. He hurried with long, rapid strides. Somehow his lean body looked straighter and taller. Energy and something like youth seemed to bristle in every movement. Even his eyes had lost their recent expression. They were alight now. They were alight with a sparkle of almost unholy joy. He felt that at long last the great test of his manhood was about to begin.
CHAPTER XXXIII
Night in the Valley
IT was late in the evening. Jim Pryse and his sister were alone in the apartment where Blanche loved to sit in company with her men-folk. The stove was radiating a pleasant warmth, for the summer evenings, so high up in the mountains, were chill with the breezes that came down off the fields of snow. Blanche was still enveloped in the overall of her domestic labours, and Jim was lounging in his favourite rocker, clad in utility garments of his day’s work on the ranch.
A shaded lamp cast its mellow light over the room, and found reflection in the polished walls of red pine. But its light was mainly focused upon those sitting about the stove. Blanche’s busy hands were at work upon her sewing. The door of the room stood ajar, and while she talked, and listened to the deep voice of her brother, there was never a moment when her attention could have missed any sound that came from beyond it. She had left the sick girl asleep. She had left her in the full conviction that her reassurance that noon to Lightning was more than being fulfilled. Now her anxiety was allayed, and she was enjoying the rest she was more than entitled to.
Larry had not yet returned from the work of deporting the four men who had become something more than troublesome to the peace of the valley. He might return that night. On the other hand, he might not return till late next day. His movements were of no particular concern. He had his own methods of dealing with an exodus from the valley. Despard was with him, and one or two others, who were part of his official staff, and the whole thing would be completed with that effectiveness which gave no opportunity for any trickery.
Blanche glanced up from the tangle of silks in her lap. She surveyed her brother, who was sitting with his head inclined forward till his chin pressed deeply against his cotton shirt.
“I’m glad you gave Larry his head about those boys, Jim,” she said. Then she smiled indulgently. “You know, Jim, I’m beginning to think Larry’s pretty bright. He’s got a rare way of sizing men up. He laughs and says things, but there’s always a deal lying back of what he says. He was talking to Lightning after I brought him along last night. I guess I got mad with him for it. I’d seen him looking at the old man in that queer, half-smiling way of his, and wondered what he was thinking. I got it all later.” She laughed softly. “He said—you know his ridiculous way—‘Do you know what you’ve done, heart of my heart? You’ve brought into our perfect haven of purity a tough that would sooner murder than eat. Maybe your friend Lightning’s all you believe him. I haven’t a doubt. But I’d like to tell you he’s a whole lot more. I’m eternally grateful to the folk who figure out the luck of a red-headed guy that I didn’t get across his trail that night you sent me down to the farm as your express-man.’ I wasn’t going to stand for that, and told him it was a pity he hadn’t.”
Jim’s gaze remained on the stove.