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."Mrs.Dale," he said, taking her hands, "I wish you joy.An' now, afterthis here, my crownin' service in your behalf--I reckon I'll claim a reward."Page 231ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlThen he kissed her.Bo came next with her warm and loving felicitations, andthe cowboy, with characteristic action, also made at Helen."Nell, shore it's the only chance I'll ever have to kiss you," he drawled."Because when this heah big Indian once finds out what kissin' is--!"Las Vegas then proved how swift and hearty he could be upon occasions.Allthis left Helen red and confused and unutterably happy.She appreciated Dale'sstate.His eyes reflected the precious treasure which manifestly he saw, butrealization of ownership had not yet become demonstrable.Then with gay speech and happy laugh and silent look these five partook ofthe supper.When it was finished Roy made known his intention to leave.Theyall protested and coaxed, but to no avail.He only laughed and went onsaddling his horse."Roy, please stay," implored Helen."The day's almost ended.You're tired.""Nope.I'll never be no third party when there's only two.""But there are four of us.""Didn't I just make you an' Dale one?.An', Mrs.Dale, you forget I'vebeen married more 'n once."Helen found herself confronted by an unanswerable side of the argument.LasVegas rolled on the grass in his mirth.Dale looked strange."Roy, then that's why you're so nice," said Bo, with a little devil in hereyes."Do you know I had my mind made up if Tom hadn't come around I was goingto make up to you, Roy.I sure was.What number wife would I have been?"It always took Bo to turn the tables on anybody.Roy looked mightilyembarrassed.And the laugh was on him.He did not face them again until he hadmounted."Las Vegas, I've done my best for you--hitched you to thet blue-eyed girl thebest I know how," he declared."But I shore ain't guaranteein' nothin'.You'dbetter build a corral for her.""Why, Roy, you shore don't savvy the way to break these wild ones," drawledLas Vegas."Bo will be eatin' out of my hand in about a week."Bo's blue eyes expressed an eloquent doubt as to this extraordinary claim."Good-by, friends," said Roy, and rode away to disappear in the spruces.Thereupon Bo and Las Vegas forgot Roy, and Dale and Helen, the camp chores tobe done, and everything else except themselves.Helen's first wifely duty wasto insist that she should and could and would help her husband with the workof cleaning up after the sumptuous supper.Before they had finished a soundstartled them.It came from Roy, evidently high on the darkening slope, andwas a long, mellow pealing halloo, that rang on the cool air, burst the dreamysilence, and rapped across from slope to slope and cliff to cliff, to lose itspower and die away hauntingly in the distant recesses.Dale shook his head as if he did not care to attempt a reply to thatbeautiful call.Silence once again enfolded the park, and twilight seemed tobe born of the air, drifting downward.Page 232ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"Nell, do you miss anythin'? " asked Dale."No.Nothing in all the world," she murmured."I am happier than I ever daredpray to be.""I don't mean people or things.I mean my pets.""Ah! I had forgotten.Milt, where are they?""Gone back to the wild," he said."They had to live in my absence.An' I'vebeen away long."Just then the brooding silence, with its soft murmur of falling water andfaint sigh of wind in the pines, was broken by a piercing scream, high,quivering, like that of a woman in exquisite agony."That's Tom!" exclaimed Dale."Oh--I was so--so frightened!" whispered Helen.Bo came running, with Las Vegas at her heels."Milt, that was your tame cougar," cried Bo, excitedly."Oh, I'll neverforget him! I'll hear those cries in my dreams! ""Yes, it was Tom," said Dale, thoughtfully."But I never heard him cry just like that."" Oh, call him in!"Dale whistled and called, but Tom did not come.Then the hunter stalked offin the gloom to call from different points under the slope.After a while bereturned without the cougar.And at that moment, from far up the dark ravine,drifted down the same wild cry, only changed by distance, strange and tragicin its meaning."He scented us.He remembers.But he'll never come back," said Dale [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]