“It is good of you to play for them,” continued the woman from Fairlands Heights, casually. “You must enjoy the society of such famous men, very much. There are a great many people, you know, who would envy you your friendship with them.”
The girl replied quickly, “O, but you are mistaken. I am not acquainted with them, at all; that is–not with Mr. King–I have never spoken to him–and I only met Mr. Lagrange, for a few minutes, by accident.”
“Indeed! But I am forgetting the purpose of my call, and my friends will become impatient. Do you ever play for private entertainments, Miss Andres?–for–say a dinner, or a reception, you know?”
“I would be very glad for such an engagement, Mrs. Taine. I must earn what I can with my music, and there are not enough pupils to occupy all my time. But perhaps you should hear me play, first. I will get my violin.”
Mrs. Taine checked her, “Oh, no, indeed. It is quite unnecessary, my dear. The opinion of your distinguished neighbors is quite enough. I shall keep you in mind for some future occasion. I just wished to learn if you would accept such an engagement. Good-by. Thanks–so much–for your flowers.”
She was upon the point of turning away, when a low cry from the nearby porch startled them both. Turning, they saw the woman with the disfigured face, standing in the doorway; an expression of mingled wonder, love, and supplication upon her hideously marred features. As they looked, she started toward them,–impulsively stretching out her arms, as though the gesture was an involuntary expression of some deep emotion,–then checked herself, suddenly as though in doubt.
Sibyl Andres uttered an exclamation. “Why, Myra! what is it, dear?”
Mrs. Taine turned away with a gesture of horror, saying to the girl in a low, hurried voice, “Dear me, how dreadful! I really must be going.”
As she went down the flower-bordered path towards the street, the woman on the porch, again, stretched out her arms appealingly. Then, as Sibyl reached her side, the poor creature clasped the girl in a close embrace, and burst into bitter tears.
* * * * *
Upon the return of the Taines and James Rutlidge to the house on Fairlands Heights, Mrs. Taine retired immediately to her own luxuriously appointed apartments.
At dinner, a maid brought to the household word that her mistress was suffering from a severe headache and would not be down and begged that she might not be disturbed during the evening.
Alone in her room, Mrs. Taine–her headache being wholly conventional–gave herself unreservedly to the thoughts that she could not, under the eyes of others, entertain without restraint. She was seated at a window that looked down upon the carefully graded levels of the envying Fairlanders and across the wide sweep of the valley below to the mountains which, from that lofty point of vantage, could be seen from the base of their lowest foothills to the crests of their highest peaks. But the woman who lived on the Heights of Fairlands saw neither the homes of their neighbors, the busy valley below, nor the mountains that lifted so far above them all. Her thoughts were centered upon what, to her, was more than these.
When night was gathering over the scene, her maid entered softly. Mrs. Taine dismissed the woman with a word, telling her not to return until she rang. Leaving the window, after drawing the shades close, she paced the now lighted room, in troubled uneasiness of mind. Here and there, she paused to touch or handle some familiar object–a photograph in a silver frame, a book on the carved table, the trifles on her open desk, or an ornamental vase on the mantle–then moved restlessly away to continue her aimless exercise. When the silence was rudely broken by the sound of a knock at her door, she stood still–a look of anger marring the well-schooled beauty of her features.
The knock was repeated.
With an exclamation of impatient annoyance, she crossed the room, and flung open the door.
Without leave or apology, her husband entered; and, as he did so, was seized by a paroxysm of coughing that sent him reeling, gasping and breathless, to the nearest chair.
Mrs. Taine stood watching her husband coldly, with a curious, speculative expression on her face that she made no attempt to hide. When his torture was abated–for the time–leaving him exhausted and trembling with weakness, she said coldly, “Well, what do you want? What are you doing here?”
The man lifted his pallid, haggard face and, with a yellow, claw-like hand wiped the beads of clammy sweat from his forehead; while his deep-sunken eyes leered at her with an insane light.
The woman was at no pains to conceal her disgust. In her voice there was no hint of pity. “Didn’t Marie tell you that I wished to be alone?”
“Of course,” he jeered in his rasping whisper, “that’s why I came.” He gave a hideous resemblance to a laugh, which ended in a cough–and, again, he drew his skinny, shaking hand across his damp forehead “That’s the time that a man should visit his wife, isn’t it? When she is alone. Or”–he grinned mockingly–“when she wishes to be?”
She regarded him with open scorn and loathing. “You unclean beast! Will you take yourself out of my room?”
He gazed at her, as a malevolent devil might gloat over a soul delivered up for torture. “Not until I choose to go, my dear.”
[Illustration: “Well, what do you want? What are you doing here?”]
Suddenly changing her manner, she smiled with deliberate, mocking humor. While he watched, she moved leisurely to a deep, many-cushioned couch; and, arranging the pillows, reclined among them in the careless abandonment of voluptuous ease and physical content. Openly, ostentatiously, she exhibited herself to his burning gaze in various graceful poses–lifting her arms above her head to adjust a cushion more to her liking; turning and stretching her beautiful body; moving her limbs with sinuous enjoyment–as disregardful of his presence as though she were alone. At last she spoke in cool, even, colorless tones; “Perhaps you will tell me what you want?”
The wretched victim of his own unbridled sensuality shook with inarticulate rage. Choking and coughing he writhed in his chair–his emaciated limbs twisted grotesquely; his sallow face bathed in perspiration his claw-like hands opening and closing; his bloodless lips curled back from his yellow teeth, in a horrid grin of impotent fury. And all the while she lay watching him with that pitiless, mocking, smile. It was as though the malevolent devil and the tortured soul had suddenly changed places.
When the man could speak, he reviled her, in his rasping whisper, with curses that it seemed must blister his tongue. She received his effort with jeering laughter and taunting words; moving her body, now and then, among the cushions, with an air of purely physical enjoyment that, to the other, was maddening.
“If this is all you came for,”–she said, easily,–“might have spared yourself the effort–don’t you think?”
Controlling himself, in a measure, he returned, “I came to tell you that your intimacy with that damned painter must stop.”
Her eyes narrowed slightly. One hand, hidden in the cushions, clenched until her rings hurt. “Just what do you mean by my intimacy?” she asked evenly.
“You know what I mean,” he replied coarsely. “I mean what intimacy with a man always means to a woman like you.”
“The only meaning that a creature of your foul mind can understand,” she retorted smoothly. “If it were worth while to tell you the truth, I would say that my conduct when alone with Mr. King has been as proper as–as when I am alone with you.”
The taunt maddened him. Interrupted by spells of coughing–choking, gasping, fighting for breath, his eyes blazing with hatred and lust, mingling his words with oaths and curses–he raged at her. “And do you think–that, because I am so nearly dead,–I do not resent what–I saw, to-day? Do you think–I am so far gone that I cannot–understand–your interest in this man,–after–watching you, together, all–the afternoon? Has there been any one–in his studio, except you two, when–he was painting you in that dress–which you–designed for his benefit? Oh, no, indeed,–you and your–genius could not be interrupted,–for the sake–of his art. His art! Great God!–was there ever such a damnable farce–since hell was invented? Art!–you–_you_–_you_!–” crazed with jealous fury, he pointed at her with his yellow, shaking, skeleton fingers; and struggled to raise his voice above that rasping whisper until the cords of his scrawny neck stood out and his face was distorted with the strain of his effort–“_You!_ painted as a–modest Quaker Maid,–with all the charm of innocence,–virtue, and religious piety in your face. _You!_ And that picture will be exhibited–and written about–as a work of _art!_ You’ll pull all the strings,–and use all your influence,–and the thing–will be received as a–masterpiece.”
“And,” she added calmly, “you will write a check–and lie, as you did this afternoon.”
Without heeding her remark, he went on,–“You know the picture is worthless. He knows it,–Conrad Lagrange knows it,–Jim Rutlidge knows it,–the whole damned clique and gang of you know it, He’s like all his kind,–a pretender,–a poser,–playing into the hands–of such women as you; to win social position–and wealth. And we and our kind–we pretend to believe–in such damned parasites,–and exalt them and what we–call their art,–and keep them in luxury, and buy their pictures;–because they prostitute–their talents to gratify our vanity. We know it’s all a damned sham–and a pretense that if they were real artists,–with an honest workman’s respect for their work,–they wouldn’t–recognize us.”
“Don’t forget to send him a check,”–she murmured–“you can’t afford to neglect it, you know–think how people would talk.”
“Don’t worry,” he replied. “There’ll be no talk. I’ll send the genius his check–for making love–to my wife in the sacred name of art,–and I’ll lie–about his picture with–the rest of you. But there will be–no more of your intimacy with him. You’re my wife,–in spite of hell,–and from now on–I’ll see–that you are true–to me. Your sickening pose–of modesty in dress shall be something–more than a pose. For the little time I have left,–I’ll have–you to–myself or I’ll kill you.”
His reference to her refusal to uncover her shoulders in public broke the woman’s calm and aroused her to a cold fury. Springing to her feet, she stood over him as he sat huddled in his chair, exhausted by his effort.
“What is your silly, idle threat beside the fact,” she said with stinging scorn. “To have killed me, instead of making me your wife, would have been a kindness greater than you are capable of. You know how unspeakably vile you were when you bought me. You know how every hour of my life with you has been a torment to me. You should be grateful that I have helped you to live your lie–that I have played the game of respectability with you–that I am willing to play it a little while longer, until you lay down your hand for good, and release us both.
“Suppose I _were_ what you think me? What right have _you_ to object to my pleasures? Have you–in all your life of idle, vicious, luxury–have you ever feared to do evil if it appealed to your bestial nature? You know you have not. You have feared only the appearance of evil. To be as evil as you like so long as you can avoid the appearance of evil; that’s the game you have taught me to play. That’s the game we have played together. That’s the game we and our kind insist the artists and writers shall help us play. That’s the only game I know, and, by the rule of our game, so long as the world sees nothing, I shall do what pleases me.
“You have had your day with me. You have had what you paid for. What right have you to deny me, now, an hour’s forgetfulness? When I think of what I might have been, but for you, I wonder that I have cared to live, and I would not–except for the poor sport of torturing you.
“You scoff at Mr. King’s portrait of me because he has not painted me as I am! What would you have said if he _had_ painted me as I am? What would you say if Conrad Lagrange should write the truth about us and our kind, for his millions of readers? You sneer at me because I cannot uncover my shoulders in the conventional dress of my class, and so make a virtue of a necessity and deceive the world by a pretense of modesty. Go look in your mirror, you fool! Your right to sneer at me for my poor little pretense is denied you by every line of your repulsive countenance Now get out. I’m going to retire.”
And she rang for her maid.
Chapter XII
First Fruits of His Shame
When the postman, in his little cart, stopped at the home of Aaron King and his friend, that day, it was Conrad Lagrange who received the mail. The artist was in his studio, and the novelist, knowing that the painter was not at work, went to him there with a letter.
The portrait–still on the easel–was hidden by the velvet curtain. Sitting by a table that was littered with a confusion of sketches, books and papers, the young man was re-tying a package of old letters that he had, evidently, just been reading.
As the novelist went to him, the artist said quietly,–indicating the package in his hand,–“From my mother. She wrote them during the last year of my study abroad.” When the other did not reply, he continued thoughtfully, “Do you know, Lagrange, since my acquaintance with you, I find many things in these old letters that–at the time I received them–I did not, at all, appreciate. You seem to be helping me, somehow, to a better understanding of my mother’s spirit and mind.” He smiled.
Presently, Conrad Lagrange, when he could trust himself to speak, said, “Your mother’s mind and spirit, Aaron, were too fine and rare to be fully appreciated or understood except by one trained in the school of life, itself. When she wrote those letters, you were a student of mere craftsmanship. She, herself no doubt, recognized that you would not fully comprehend the things she wrote; but she put them down, out of the very fullness of her intellectual and spiritual wealth–trusting to your love to preserve the letters, and to the years to give you understanding.”
“Why,” cried the artist, “those are almost her exact words–as I have just been reading them!”
The other, smiling, continued quietly, “Your appreciation and understanding of your mother will continue to grow through all your life, Aaron. When you are old–as old as I am–you will still find in those letters hidden treasures of thought, and truths of greater value than you, now, can realize. But here–I have brought you your share of the afternoon’s mail.”
When Aaron King opened the envelope that his friend laid on the table before him, he sat regarding its contents with an air of thoughtful meditation–lost to his surroundings.
The novelist–who had gone to the window and was looking into the rose garden–turned to speak to his friend; but the other did not reply. Again, the man at the window addressed the painter; but still the younger man was silent. At this, Conrad Lagrange came back to the table; an expression of anxiety upon his face. “What is it, old man? What’s the matter? No bad news, I hope?”
Aaron King, aroused from his fit of abstraction, laughed shortly, and held out to his friend the letter he had just received. It was from Mr. Taine. Enclosed was the millionaire’s check. The letter was a formal business note; the check was for an amount that drew a low whistle from the novelist’s lips.
“Rather higher pay than old brother Judas received for a somewhat similar service, isn’t it,” he commented, as he passed the letter and check back to the artist. Then, as he watched the younger man’s face, he asked, “What’s the matter, don’t you like the flavor of these first fruits of your shame? I advise you to cultivate a taste for this sort of thing as quickly as possible–in your own defense.”
“Don’t you think you are a little bit too hard on us all, Lagrange?” asked the artist, with a faint smile. “These people are satisfied. The picture pleases them.”
“Of course they are pleased,” retorted the other. “You know your business. That’s the trouble with you. That’s the trouble with us all, these days–we painters and writers and musicians–we know our business too damned well. We have the mechanics of our crafts, the tricks of our trades, so well in hand that we make our books and pictures and music say what we please. We _use_ our art to gain our own vain ends instead of being driven _by_ our art to find adequate expression for some great truth that demands through us a hearing. You have said it all, my friend–you have summed up the whole situation in the present-day world of creative art–these people are satisfied. You have given them what they want, prostituting your art to do it. That’s what I have been doing all these years–giving people what they want. For a price we cater to them–even as their tailors, and milliners, and barbers. And never again will the world have a truly great art or literature until men like us–in the divine selfishness of their, calling–demand, first and last, that they, _themselves_, be satisfied by the work of their hands.”
Going to the easel, he rudely jerked aside the curtain. Involuntarily, the painter went to stand by his side before the picture.
“Look at it!” cried the novelist. “Look at it in the light of your own genius! Don’t you see its power? Doesn’t it tell you what you _could_ do, if you would? If you couldn’t paint a picture, or if you couldn’t feel a picture to be painted, it wouldn’t matter. I’d let you ride to hell on your own palette, and be damned to you. But this thing shows a power that the world can ill afford to lose. It is so bad because it is so good. Come here!” he drew his friend to the big window, and pointed to the mountains. “There is an art like those mountains, my boy–lonely, apart from the world; remotely above the squalid ambitions of men; Godlike in its calm strength and peace–an art to which men may look for inspiration and courage and hope. And there is an art that is like Fairlands–petty and shallow and mean–with only the fictitious value that its devotees assume, but never, actually, realize. Listen, Aaron, don’t continue to misread your mother’s letters. Don’t misunderstand her as thinking that the place she coveted for you is a place within the power of these people to give. Come with me into the mountains, yonder. Come, and let us see if, in those hills of God, you cannot find yourself.”
When Conrad Lagrange finished, the artist stood, for a little, without reply–irresolute, before his picture–the check in his hand. At last, still without speaking, he went back to the table, where he wrote briefly his reply to Mr. Taine. When he had finished, he handed his letter to the older man, who read:
Dear Sir:
In reply to yours of the 13th, inst., enclosing your check in payment for the portrait of Mrs. Taine; I appreciate your generosity, but cannot, now, accept it.
I find, upon further consideration, that the portrait does not fully satisfy me. I shall, therefore, keep the canvas until I can, with the consent of my own mind, put my signature upon it.
Herewith, I am returning your check; for, of course, I cannot accept payment for an unfinished work.
In a day or two, Mr. Lagrange and I will start to the mountains, for an outing. Trusting that you and your family will enjoy the season at Lake Silence I am, with kind regards,
Yours sincerely, Aaron King.
* * * * *
That evening, the two men talked over their proposed trip, and laid their plans to start without delay As Conrad Lagrange put it–they would lose themselves in the hills; with no definite destination in view; and no set date for their return. Also, he stipulated that they should travel light–with only a pack burro to carry their supplies–and that they should avoid the haunts of the summer resorters, and keep to the more unfrequented trails. The novelist’s acquaintance with the country into which they would go, and his experience in woodcraft–gained upon many like expeditions in the lonely wilds he loved–would make a guide unnecessary. It would be a new experience for Aaron King; and, as the novelist talked, he found himself eager as a schoolboy for the trip; while the distant mountains, themselves, seemed to call him–inviting him to learn the secret of their calm strength and the spirit of their lofty peace. The following day, they would spend in town; purchasing an outfit of the necessary equipment and supplies, securing a burro, and attending to numerous odds and ends of business preparatory to their indefinite absence.
It so happened, the next day, that Yee Kee,–who was to care for the place during their weeks of absence had matters of importance to himself, that demanded his attention in town. When his masters informed him that they would not be home for lunch, he took advantage of the opportunity and asked for the day.
Thus it came about that Conrad Lagrange–in the spirit of a boy bent upon some secret adventure–stole out into the rose garden, that morning, to leave the promised letter and key at the little gate in the corner of the Ragged Robin hedge.
Chapter XIII
Myra Willard’s Challenge
Since her meeting with Conrad Lagrange in the rose garden, Sibyl Andres had looked, every day, for that promised letter. She found it early in the afternoon. It was a quaint letter–written in the spirit of their meeting–telling her the probable time of her neighbor’s return; warning her, in fear of some fanciful horror, to beware of the picture on the easel; and wishing her joy of the adventure. With the note, was a key.
A few minutes later, the girl unlocked the door of the studio, and entered the building that had once been so familiar to her, but was now, in its interior, so transformed. Slowly, she pushed the door to, behind her. As though half frightened at her own daring, she stood quite still, looking about. In the atmosphere of that somewhat richly furnished apartment; poised timidly as if for ready flight; she seemed, indeed, the spirit that the novelist–in playful fancy–insisted that she was. Her cheeks were glowing with color; her eyes were bright with the excitement of her innocent adventure, and with her genuine admiration and appreciation of the beautiful room.
Presently,–growing bolder,–she began moving about the studio–light-footed and graceful as a wild thing from her own mountain home, and, indeed, with much the air of a gentle creature of the woods that had strayed into the haunts of men. Intensely interested in the things she found, she gradually forgot her timidity, and gave herself to the enjoyment of her surroundings, with the freedom and abandon of a child. From picture to picture, she went, with wide, eager eyes. She turned over the sketches in the big portfolios that were so invitingly open; looked with awe upon the brushes stuck in the big Chinese jar–upon the palettes, and at the tubes of color; flitting to the window that looked out upon her garden, and back to the great, north light with its view of the distant mountains; and again and again, paused to stand with her hands clasped behind her, in front of the big easel with its canvas hidden under the velvet curtain. Then she must try the chairs, the oriental couch, and even the stool–where she had seen the artist sitting, sometimes, at his work, when she had watched him from the arbor; and last–in a pretty make believe–she tried the seat on the model throne, as though posing herself, for her portrait.
Suddenly, with a startled cry, she sprang to her feet; then shrank back, white and trembling–her big eyes fixed with pleading fear upon the man who stood in the open doorway, regarding her with a curious, triumphant smile. It was James Rutlidge.
Sibyl, occupied with her childlike delight, had failed to hear the automobile when it stopped in front of the house. Finding no one in the house the man had gone on to the studio, where–with the assurance of an intimate acquaintance–he had pushed open the door that was standing ajar.
At the girl’s frightened manner, the man laughed. Closing the door, he said, with an insinuating sneer, “You were not expecting me, it seems.”
His words aroused Sibyl from her momentary weakness. Rising, she said calmly, “I was not expecting any one, Mr. Rutlidge.”
Again he laughed–with unpleasant meaning. “You certainly look to be very much at home.” He moved confidently to the easel stool and, seating himself continued with a leering smile, “What’s the matter with my taking the artist’s place for a little while–at least, until he comes?”
The girl was too innocent to understand his assumption but her pure mind could not fail to sense the evil in his words.
“I had permission to come here this afternoon,” she said–her voice trembling a little with the fear that she did not understand. “Won’t you go, please? Neither Mr. King nor Mr. Lagrange are at home.”
“I do not doubt your having permission to come here,” he returned, with meaning stress upon the word, “permission”. “I see you even carry a key to this really delightful room.” He motioned with his head toward the door where he had seen the key in the lock, as she had left it.
At this, she grasped a hint of the man’s thought and, for an instant, drew hack in shame. Then, suddenly with a burst of indignant anger, she took a step toward him, demanding clearly; “Are you saying that I am in the habit of coming here to meet Mr. King?”
He laughed mockingly. “Really, my dear, no one, seeing you, now, could blame the man for giving you a key to this place where he is popularly supposed to be undisturbed. Mr. King is neither such a virtuous saint, nor so engrossed in his art, as to resent the companionship of such a vision of loveliness–simply because it comes in the form of good flesh and blood. Why be angry with me?”
Her cheeks were crimson as she said, again, “Will you go?”
“Not until you have settled the terms of peace,” he answered with that leering smile. “Fortune has favored me, this afternoon, and I mean to profit by it.”
For an instant, she looked at him–frightened and dismayed. Suddenly, with the flash-like quickness that was a part of her physical inheritance from her mountain life, she darted past him; eluding his effort to detain her–and was out of the building.
With an oath, the man, acting upon the impulse of the moment, ran after her. Outside the door of the studio, he caught a glimpse of her white dress as she disappeared into the rose garden. In the garden, he saw her as she slipped through the little gate in the far corner of the hedge, into the orange grove. Recklessly he followed. Among the trees, he glimpsed, again, the white flash of her skirts, and dashed forward. At the farther edge of the grove that walled in the little yard where Sibyl lived, he saw her standing by the kitchen door. But between the girl and that last row of close-set trees, waiting his coming, stood the woman with the disfigured face.
Rutlidge paused–angry with himself for so foolishly yielding to the impulse of his passion.
Myra Willard went toward him fearlessly–her fine eyes blazing with righteous indignation. “What are you trying to do, James Rutlidge?” she demanded–and her words were bold and clear.
The man was silent.
“You are evidently a worthy son of your father,” the woman continued–every clear-cut word biting into his consciousness with stinging scorn. “He, in his day, did all he knew to turn this world into a hell for those who were unfortunate enough to please his vile fancy. You, I see, are following faithfully his footsteps. I know you, and the creed of your kind–as I knew your father before you. No girl of innocent beauty is safe from you. Your unclean mind is as incapable of believing in virtue, as you are helpless in the grip of your own insane lust.”
The man was stung to fury by her cutting words. “Take your ugly face out of my sight,” he said brutally.
Fearlessly, she drew a step nearer. “It is because I am a woman that I have this ugly face, James Rutlidge.” She touched her disfigured cheek–“These scars are the marks of the beast that rules you, sir, body and soul. Leave this place, or, as there is a God, I’ll tell a tale that will forbid you ever showing your own evil countenance in public, again.”
Something in her eyes and in her manner, as she spoke, caused the man–beside himself with rage, as he was–to draw back. Some mysterious force that made itself felt in her bold words told him that hers was no idle threat. A moment they stood face to face, in the edge of the shadowy orange grove–the man of the world, prominent in circles of art and culture; and the woman whose natural loveliness was so distorted into a hideous mask of ugliness. With a short, derisive laugh, James Rutlidge turned and walked away.
* * * * *
Aaron King and Conrad Lagrange were returning from town. As they neared their home, they saw one of the Taine automobiles in front of the house. “Company,” said the artist with a smile–thinking of his letter to the millionaire.
“It’s Rutlidge,” said the novelist–noting the absence of the chauffeur.
They were turning in at the entrance, when Czar–who had dashed ahead as if to investigate–halted, suddenly, with a low growl of disapproval.
“Huh!” ejaculated Conrad Lagrange, with his twisted grin. “It’s Senior ‘Sensual’ all right. Look at Czar; he knows the beast is around. Go fetch him, Czar.”
With an angry bark, the dog disappeared around the corner of the porch. The two men, following, were met by Rutlidge who had made his way back through the grove and the rose garden from the house next door. The dog, with muttering growls, was sniffing suspiciously at his heels.
“Czar,” said his master, suggestively. With a meaning glance, the dog reluctantly ceased his embarrassing attentions and went to see if everything was all right about the premises.
In answer to their greeting and the quite natural question if he had been waiting long, Rutlidge answered with a laugh. “Oh, no–I have been amusing myself by prowling around your place. Snug quarters you have here; really, I never quite appreciated their charm, before.”
They seated themselves on the porch. Conrad Lagrange–thinking of Sibyl Andres and that letter which he had left on the gate–from under his brows, watched their caller closely; the while he filled with painstaking care his brier pipe.
“We like it,” returned the artist.
“I should think so–I’d be sorry to leave it if I were you. Mr. Taine tells me you are going to the mountains.”
“We’re not giving up this place, though,” replied Aaron King. “Yee Kee stays to take care of things until our return.”
“Oh, I see. I generally go into the mountains, myself for a little hunt when the deer season opens. It may be that I will run across you somewhere. By the way–you haven’t met your musical neighbor yet, have you?”
The novelist gave particular attention to his pipe which did not seem to be behaving properly.
The artist answered shortly, “No.”
“I’d certainly make her acquaintance, if I were you,” said Rutlidge, with his suggestive smile. “She is a dream. A delightful little retreat–that studio of yours.”
The painter, puzzled by the man’s words and by his insinuating air, returned coldly, “It does very well for a work-shop.”
The other laughed meaningly; “Yes, oh yes–a great little work-shop. I suppose you–ah–do not fear to trust your _art treasures_ to the Chinaman, during your absence?”
Conrad Lagrange–certain, now, that the man had seen Sibyl Andres either entering or leaving the studio–said abruptly, “You need give yourself no concern for Mr. King’s studio, Rutlidge. I can assure you that the treasures there will be well protected.”
James Rutlidge understood the warning conveyed in the novelist’s words that, to Aaron King, revealed nothing.
“Really,” said the painter to their caller, “you are not uneasy for the safety of Mrs. Taine’s portrait, are you, old man? If you are, of course–“
“Damn Mrs. Taine’s portrait!” ejaculated the man, rising hurriedly. “You know what I mean. It’s all right, of course. I must be going. Hope you have a good outing and come back to find all your art treasures safe.” He laughed coarsely, as he went down the walk.
When the automobile was gone, the artist turned to his friend. “Now what in thunder did he mean by that? What’s the matter with him? Do you suppose they imagine that there is anything wrong because I wouldn’t turn over the picture?”
“He is an unclean beast, Aaron,” the novelist answered shortly. “His father was the worst I ever knew, and he’s like him. Forget him. Here comes the delivery boy with our stuff. Let’s overhaul the outfit. I hope they’ll get here with that burro, before dark. Where’ll we put him, in the studio, heh?”
“Look here,”–said the artist a few minutes later, returning from a visit to the studio for something,–“this is what was the matter with Rutlidge. And you did it, old man. This is your key.”
“What do you mean?” asked the other in confusion taking the key.
“Why, I found the studio door wide open, with your key in the lock. You must have been out there, just before we left this morning, and forgot to shut the door. Rutlidge probably noticed it when he was prowling about the place, and was trying to roast me for my carelessness.”
Conrad Lagrange stared stupidly at the key in his hand. “Well I _am_ damned,” he muttered. Then added, in savage and–as it seemed to the artist–exaggerated wrath, “I’m a stupid, blundering, irresponsible old fool.” Nor was he consoled when the painter innocently assured him that no harm had resulted from his carelessness.
That night, as the two men sat on the porch, watching the last of the light on the mountain tops, they heard again the cry of fear and pain that came from the little house hidden in the depths of the orange grove. Wonderingly they listened. Once more it came–filled with shuddering terror.
When the sound was not repeated, Conrad Lagrange thoughtfully knocked the ashes from his pipe. “Poor soul,” he said. “Those scars did more than disfigure her beautiful face. I’ll wager there’s a sad story there, Aaron. It’s strange how I am haunted by the impression that I ought to know her. But I can’t make it come clear. Heigho,”–he added a moment later as if to free his mind from unpleasant thoughts,–“I’ll be glad when we are safely up in the hills yonder. Do you know, old man, I feel as though we’re getting away just in the nick of time. My back hair and the pricking of my thumbs warn me that your dearly beloved spooks are combining to put up some sort of a spooking job on us. I hope Yee Kee has a plentiful supply of joss-sticks to stand ’em off, if they get too busy while we are gone.”
Aaron King laughed quietly in the dusk, as he returned “And I have a presentiment that those precious members of our household are preparing to accompany us to the hills. I feel in my bones that something is going to happen up there”–he pointed to the distant mountains, then added–“to me, at least. I feel as though I were about to bid myself good-by–if you know what I mean. I hope that donkey of ours isn’t a psychic donkey, or, if he is, that he’ll listen to reason and be content with his escorts of flesh and blood.”
As he finished speaking, the quiet of the evening was broken by a lusty, “Hee-haw, hee-haw,” in front of the house.
“There, I told you so!” ejaculated the painter.
Laughing, the two men followed Czar down the walk, in the dark, to receive the shaggy, long-eared companion for their wanderings.
As many a man has done–Aaron King had spoken, in jest, more truth than he knew.
Chapter XIV
In The Mountains
In the gray of the early morning, hours before the dwellers on Fairlands Heights thought of leaving their beds, Aaron King and Conrad Lagrange made ready for their going.
The burro, Croesus–so named by the novelist because, as the famous writer explained, “that ancient multi-millionaire, you know, really was an ass”–was to be entrusted with all the available worldly possessions of the little party. An arrangement–the more experienced man carefully pointed out–that, considering the chief characteristics of Croesus, was quite in accord with the customs of modern pilgrimages. Conrad Lagrange, himself, skillfully fixed the pack in place–adjusting the saddle with careful hand; accurately dividing the weight, with the blankets on top, and, over all, the canvas tarpaulin folded the proper size and neatly tucked in around the ends; and finally securing the whole with the, to the uninitiated, intricate and complicated diamond hitch. The order of their march, also, would place Croesus first; which position–the novelist, again, gravely explained, as he drew the cinches tight–is held by all who value good form, to be the donkey’s proper place in the procession. As he watched his friend, the artist felt that, indeed, he was about to go far from the ways of life that he had always known.
When all was ready, the two men–dressed in flannels, corduroys, and high-laced, mountain boots–called good-by to Yee Kee, respectfully invited Croesus to proceed, and set out–with Czar, the fourth member of the party, flying here and there in such a whirlwind of good spirits that not a shred of his usual dignity was left. The sun was still below the mountain’s crest, though the higher points were gilded with its light, when they turned their backs upon the city made by men, and set their faces toward the hills that bore in every ridge and peak and cliff and crag and canyon the signature of God.
As Conrad Lagrange said–they might have hired a wagon, or even an automobile, to take them and their goods to some mountain ranch where they would have had no trouble in securing a burro for their wanderings A team would have made the trip by noon. A machine would have set them down in Clear Creek Canyon before the sun could climb high enough to look over the canyon walls. “But that”–explained the novelist, as they trudged leisurely along between rows of palms that bordered the orange groves on either side of their road, and sensed the mystery that marks the birth of a new day–“but that is not a proper way to go to the mountains.
“The mountains”–he continued, with his eyes upon the distant heights–“are not seen by those who would visit them with a rattle and clatter and rush and roar–as one would visit the cities of men. They are to be seen only by those who have the grace to go quietly; who have the understanding to go thoughtfully; the heart to go lovingly; and the spirit to go worshipfully. They are to be approached, not in the manner of one going to a horse-race, or a circus, but in the mood of one about to enter a great cathedral; or, indeed, of one seeking admittance to the very throne-room of God. When going to the mountains, one should take time to feel them drawing near. They are never intimate with those who hurry. Mere sight-seers seldom see much of anything. If possible,”–insisted the speaker, smiling gravely upon his companion,–“one should always spend, at least, a full day in the approach. Before entering the immediate presence of the hills, one should first view them from a distance, seeing them from base to peak–in the glory of the day’s beginning, as they watch the world awake; in the majesty of full noon, as they maintain their calm above the turmoil of the day’s doing; and in the glory of the sun’s departure, as it lights last their crests and peaks. And then, after such a day, one should sleep, one night, at their feet.”
The artist listened with delight, as he always did when his friend spoke in those rare moods that revealed a nature so unknown to the world that had made him famous. When the novelist finished, the young man said gently, “And your words, my friend, are almost a direct quotation from that anonymous book which my mother so loved.”
“Perhaps they are, Aaron”–admitted Conrad Lagrange–“perhaps they are.”
So it was that they spent that day–in leisure approach–the patient Croesus, with his burden, always in the lead, and Czar, like a merry sprite, playing here and there. Several times they stopped to rest beside the road, while provident Croesus gathered a few mouthfuls of grass or weeds. Many times they halted to enjoy the scene that changed with every step.
Their road led always upward, with a gradual, easy grade; and by noon they had left the cultivated section of the lower valley for the higher, untilled lands. The dark, glossy-green of the orange and the lighter shining tints of the lemon groves, with the rich, satiny-gray tones of the olive-trees, were replaced now by the softer grays, greens, yellows, and browns of the chaparral. The air was no longer heavy with the perfume of roses and orange-blossoms, but came to their nostrils laden with the pungent odors of yerba santa and greasewood and sage. Looking back, they could see the valley–marked off by its roads into many squares of green, and dotted here and there by small towns and cities–stretching away toward the western ocean until it was lost in a gray-blue haze out of which the distant San Gabriels, beyond Cajon Pass, lifted into the clear sky above, like the shore-line of dreamland rising out of a dream sea. Before them, the San Bernardinos drew ever nearer and more intimate–silently inviting them; patiently, with a world old patience, bidding them come; in the majestic humbleness of their lofty spirit, offering themselves and the wealth of their teaching.
So they came, in the late afternoon, to that spot where the road for the first time crosses the alder and cottonwood bordered stream that, before it reaches the valley, is drawn from its natural course by the irrigation flumes and pipes.
The sound of the mountain waters leaping down their granite-bouldered way reached the men while they were yet some distance. Croesus pointed his long ears forward in burro anticipation–his experience telling him that the day’s work was about to end. Czar was already ranging along the side of the creek–sending a colony of squirrels scampering to the tree tops, and a bevy of quail whirring to the chaparral in frightened flight. The artist greeted the waters with a schoolboy shout of gladness. Conrad Lagrange, with the smile and the voice of a man miraculously recreated, said quietly, “This is the place where we stop for the night.”
Their camp was a simple matter. Croesus asked nothing but to be released from his burden–being quite capable of caring for himself. A wash in the clear, cold water of the brook; a simple meal, prepared by Conrad Lagrange over a small fire made of sticks gathered by the artist; their tarpaulin and blankets spread within sound of the music of the stream; a watching of the sun’s glorious going down; a quiet pipe in the hush of the mysterious twilight; a “good night” in the soft darkness, when the myriad stars looked down upon the dull red glow of their camp-fire embers; with the guarding spirit of the mighty hills to give them peace–and they lay down to sleep at the mountain’s feet.
There is no sleeping late in the morning when one sleeps in the open, under the stars. After breakfast, the artist received another lesson in packing, and they moved on toward the world that already seemed to dwarf that other world which they had left, by one day’s walking, so far below. A heavy fog, rolling in from the ocean in the night, submerged the valley in its dull, gray depths–leaving to the eye no view but the view of the mountains before them, and forcing upon the artist’s mind the weird impression that the life he had always known was a fantastically unreal dream.
And now,–as they approached,–the frowning entrance of Clear Creek Canyon grew more and more clearly defined. The higher peaks appeared to draw back and hide themselves behind the foothills, which–as the men came closer under their immediate slopes and walls–seemed to grow magically in height and bulk. A little before noon, they were in the rocky vestibule of the canyon. On either hand, the walls rose almost sheer, while their road, now, was but a narrow shelf under the overhanging cliffs, below which the white waters of the stream–cold from the snows so far above–tumbled impetuously over the boulders that obstructed their way–filling the hall-like gorge with tumultuous melody. Soon, the canyon narrowed to less than a stone’s throw in width. The walls grew more grim and forbidding in their rocky nearness. And then they came to that point where, on either side, great cliffs, projecting, form the massive, rugged portals of the mountain’s gate.
First seen, from a point where the road rounds a jutting corner on the extreme right, the projecting cliffs ahead appear as a blank wall of rock that forbids further progress. But, as the men moved forward,–the road swinging more toward the center of the gorge,–the cliffs seemed to draw apart, and, through the way thus opened, they saw the great canyon and the mountains beyond. It was as though a mighty, invisible hand rolled silently back those awful doors to give them entrance.
Abruptly, upon the inner side of the narrow passage the canyon widens to many times the width of the outer vestibule; and the road, crossing the creek, curves to the left; so that, looking back as they went, the two men saw the mighty doors closing again, behind them–as they had opened to let them in. It was as though that spirit sentinel, guarding the treasures of the hills, had jealously barred the way, that no one else from the world of men might follow.
Aaron King stopped. Drawing a deep breath, and removing his hat, he turned his face from that mountain wall, upward to the encircling pine-fringed ridges and towering peaks. He had, indeed, come far from the world that he had always known.
Conrad Lagrange, smiling, watched his friend, but spoke no word.
Clear Creek Canyon is a deep, narrow valley, some fifteen miles in length, and approaching a mile in its greatest width; lying between the main range of the San Bernardinos and the lower ridge of the Galenas. The lower end of the canyon is shut in by the sheer cliff walls, and by the rugged portals of the narrow entrance; the upper end is formed by the dividing ridge that separates the Clear Creek from the Cold Water country which opens out onto the Colorado Desert below San Gorgonio Pass and the peaks of the San Jacintos. Perhaps two miles above the entrance the canyon widens to its greatest width; and in this portion of the little valley,–which extends some five miles to where the walls again draw close,–located on the benches above the boulder-strewn wash of Clear Creek, are the homes of several mountain ranchers, and the Government Forest Ranger Station.
At the Ranger Station, they stopped–Conrad Lagrange wishing to greet the mountaineer official, whom he had learned to know on his former trip. But the Ranger was away somewhere, riding his lonely trails, and they did not tarry.
Just above the Station, they left the main road to follow the way that leads to the Morton Ranch in the mouth of Alder Canyon–a small side canyon leading steeply up to a low gap in the main range. Beyond Morton’s, there is only a narrow trail. Three hundred yards above the ranch corral, where the road ends and the trail begins, the buildings of the mountaineer’s home were lost to view. Except for the narrow winding path that they must follow single file, there was no sign of human life.
For three weeks, they knew no roads other than those lonely, mountain trails. At times, they walked under dark pines where the ground was thickly carpeted with the dead, brown needles and the air was redolent with the odor of the majestic trees; or made their camps at night, feeding their blazing fires with the pitchy knots and cones. At other times, they found their way through thickets of manzanita and buckthorn, along the mountain’s flank; or, winding zigzag down some narrow canyon wall, made themselves at home under the slender, small-trunked alders; and added to the stores that Croesus packed, many a lusty trout from the tumbling, icy torrent. Again, high up on some wind-swept granite ridge or peak, where the pines were twisted and battered and torn by the warring elements, they looked far down upon the rolling sea of clouds that hid the world below; or, in the shelter of some mighty cliff, built their fires; and, when the night was clear, saw, miles away and below, the thousands of twinkling star-like lights of the world they had left behind. Or, again, they halted in some forest and hill encircled glen; where the lush grass in the cienaga grew almost as high as Croesus’ back, and the lilies even higher; and where, through the dark green brakes, the timid deer come down to drink at the beginning of some mountain stream. At last, their wanderings carried them close under the snowy heights of San Gorgonio–the loftiest of all the peaks. That night, they camped at timber-line and in the morning,–leaving Croesus and the outfit, while it was still dark,–made their way to the top, in time to see the sun come up from under the edge of the world.
So they were received into the inner life of the mountains; so the spirit that dwells in that unmarred world whispered to them the secrets of its enduring strength and lofty peace.
From San Gorgonio, they followed the trail that leads down to upper Clear Creek–halting, one night, at Burnt Pine Camp on Laurel Creek, above the falls. Then–leaving the Laurel trail–they climbed over a spur of the main range, and so down the steep wall of the gorge to Lone Cabin on Fern Creek. The next day, they made their way on down to the floor of the main canyon–five miles above the point where they had left it at the beginning of their wanderings.
Crossing the canyon at the Clear Creek Power Company’s intake, they took the company trail that follows the pipe-line along the southern wall. From the headwork to the reservoir two thousand feet above the power-house at the mouth of Clear Creek Canyon, this trail is cut in the steep side of the Galena range–overhanging the narrow valley below–nine beautiful miles of it. At Oak Knoll,–where a Government trail for the Forest Ranger zigzags down from the pipe-line to the wagon road below,–they halted.
Conrad Lagrange explained that there were three ways back to the world they had left, nearly a month before–the pipe-line trail to the reservoir and so down to the power-house and the Fairlands road; the Government trail from the pipe-line, over the Galenas to the valley on the other side; or, the Oak Knoll trail down to Clear Creek and out through the canyon gates–the way they had come.
“But,” objected Aaron King, lazily,–from where he lay under a live-oak on the mountainside, a few feet above the trail,–“either route presupposes our wish to return to Fairlands.”
The novelist laughed. “Listen to him, Czar,”–he said to the dog lying at his feet,–“listen to that painter-man. He doesn’t want to go back to Fairlands any more than we do, does he?”
Rising, Czar looked at his master a moment, with slow waving tail, then turned inquiringly toward the artist.
“Well,” said the young man, “what about it, old boy? Which trail shall we take? Or shall we take any of them?”
With a prodigious yawn,–as though to indicate that he wearied of their foolish indecision,–Czar turned, with a low “woof,” toward the fourth member of the company, who was browsing along the edge of the trail. Whenever Czar was in doubt as to the wants of his human companions he always barked at the burro.
“He says, ‘ask Croesus’,” commented the artist.
“Good!” cried the older man, with another laugh. “Let’s put it up to the financier and let him choose.”
“Wait,”–said the artist, as the other turned toward the burro,–“don’t be hasty–the occasion calls for solemn meditation and lofty discourse.”
“Your pardon,”–returned the novelist,–“’tis so. I will orate.” Carefully selecting a pebble in readiness to emphasize his remarks, he addressed the shaggy arbiter of their fate. “Sir Croesus, thy pack is lighter by many meals than when first thou didst set out from that land where we did rescue thee from the hands of thy tormenting trader; but thy responsibilities are weightier, many fold. Upon the wisdom of thy choice, now, great issue rests. Thou hast thy chance, O illustrious ass, to recompense the world, this day, for the many evils wrought by thy odious ancestor and by all his long-eared kin. Choose, now, the way thy benefactors’ feet shall go; and see to it, Croesus, that thou dost choose wisely; or, by thy ears, we’ll flay thy woolly hide and hang it on the mountainside–a warning to thy kind.”
The well-thrown pebble struck that part of the burro’s anatomy at which it was aimed; the dog barked; and Croesus–with an indignant jerk of his head, and a flirt of his tail–started forward. At the fork of the trail, he paused. The two men waited with breathless interest. With an air of accepting the responsibility placed upon him, the burro whirled and trotted down the narrow path that led to the floor of the canyon below. Laughing, the men followed–but far enough in the rear to permit their leader to choose his own way when they should reach the wagon road at the foot of the mountain wall. Without an instant’s hesitation, Croesus turned down the road–quickening his pace, almost, into a trot.
“By George!” ejaculated the novelist, “he acts like he knew where he was going.”
“He’s taking you at your word,” returned the artist. “Look at him go! Evidently, he’s still under the inspiration of your oratory.”
The burro had broken into a ridiculous, little gallop that caused the frying-pan and coffee-pot, lashed on the outside of the pack, to rattle merrily. Splashing through the creek, he disappeared in the dark shadow of a thicket of alders and willows, where the road crosses a tiny rivulet that flows from a spring a hundred yards above. Climbing out of this gloomy hollow, the road turns sharply to the left, and the men hurried on to overtake their four-footed guide before he should be too long out of their sight. Just at the top of the little rise, before rounding the turn, they stopped. A few feet to the right of the road, with his nose at an old gate, stood Croesus. Nor would he heed Czar’s bark commanding him to go on.
On the other side of the fence, an old and long neglected apple orchard, a tumble-down log barn, and the wreck of a house with the fireplace and chimney standing stark and alone, told the story. The place was one of those old ranches, purchased by the Power Company for the water rights, and deserted by those who once had called it home. From the gate, ancient wagon tracks, overgrown with weeds, led somewhere around the edge of the orchard and were lost in the tangle of trees and brush on its lower side.
The two men looked at each other in laughing surprise. The burro, turning his head, gazed at them over his shoulder, inquiringly, as much as to say, “Well, what’s the matter now? Why don’t you come along?”
“When in doubt, ask Croesus,” said the artist, gravely.
Conrad Lagrange calmly opened the gate.
Promptly, the burro trotted ahead. Following the ancient weed-grown tracks, he led them around the lower end of the orchard; crossed a little stream; and, turning again, climbed a gentle rise of open, grassy land behind the orchard; stopping at last, with an air of having accomplished his purpose, in a beautiful little grove of sycamore trees that bordered a small cienaga.
Completely hidden by the old orchard from the road in front, and backed by the foot of the mountain spur that here forms the northern wall of the little valley, the spot commanded a magnificent view of the encircling peaks and ridges. San Bernardino was almost above their heads. To the east, were the more rugged walls of the upper and narrower end of the canyon; in their front, the beautiful Oak Knoll, with the dark steeps and pine-fringed crest of the Galenas against the sky; while to the west, the blue peaks of the far San Gabriels showed above the lower spurs and foothills of the more immediate range. The foreground was filled in by the gentle slope leading down to the tiny stream at the edge of the old orchard and, a little to the left, by the cienaga–rich in the color of its tall marsh grass and reeds, gemmed with brilliant flowers of gold and scarlet, bordered by graceful willows, and screened from the eye of the chance traveler by the lattice of tangled orchard boughs.
Seated in the shade of the sycamores on the little knoll, the two friends enjoyed the beauty of the scene, and the charming seclusion of the lovely retreat; while Croesus stood patiently, as though waiting to be rewarded for his virtue, by the removal of his pack. Even Czar refrained from charging here and there, and lay down contentedly at their feet, with an air of having reached at last the place they had been seeking.
A few days later found them established in a comfortable camp; with tents and furniture and hammocks and books and the delighted Yee Kee to take care of them. It had been easy to secure permission from the neighboring rancher who leased the orchard from the Company. Conrad Lagrange, with the man and his big mountain wagon, had made a trip to town–returning the next day with Yee Kee and the outfit. He brought, also, things from the studio; for the artist declared that he would no longer be without the materials of his art.
The first day after the camp was built, the artist–declaring that he would settle the question, at once, as to whether Yee Kee could cook a trout as skillfully as the novelist–took rod and flies, and–leaving the famous author in a hammock, with Czar lying near–set out up the canyon. For perhaps two miles, the painter followed the creek–taking here and there from clear pool or swirling eddy a fish for his creel, and pausing often, as he went, to enjoy–in artist fashion–the beauties of the ever changing landscape.
The afternoon was almost gone when he finally turned back toward camp. He had been away, already longer than he intended; but still–as all fishermen will understand–he could not, on his way back down the stream, refrain from casting here and there over the pools that tempted him.
The sun was touching the crest of the mountains when he had made but little more than half the distance of his return. He had just sent his fly skillfully over a deep pool in the shadow of a granite boulder, for what he determined must be his last cast, when, startlingly clear and sweet, came the tones of a violin.
A master trout leaped. The hand of the unheeding fisherman felt the tug as the leader broke. Giving the victorious fish no thought, Aaron King slowly reeled in his line.
There was no mistaking the pure, vibrant tones of the music to which the man listened with amazed delight. It was the music of the, to him, unknown violinist who lived hidden in the orange grove next door to his studio home in Fairlands.
Chapter XV
The Forest Ranger’s Story
Perhaps the motive that, in Fairlands, had restrained the artist from seeking to know his neighbor was without force in the mountains. Perhaps it was that, in the unconventional freedom of the hills, the man obeyed more readily his impulse. Aaron King did not stop to question. As though in answer to the call of that spirit which spoke in the tones of the violin, he moved in the direction from which the music came.
Climbing out of the bed of the stream to the bench that slopes hack–a quarter of a mile, perhaps–to the foot of the canyon wall, he found himself in an old road that, where it once crossed the creek, had been destroyed by the mountain floods. Wonderingly he followed the dimly marked track that led through the chaparral toward a thicket of cedars, from beyond which the music seemed to come. Where the road curved to find its way through the green barrier he paused–the musician, undoubtedly, now, was just beyond. Still acting upon the impulse of the moment, he cautiously parted the boughs and peered through into a little, open glade that was closed in on every side by the rank growth of the mountain vegetation, by the thicket of dark cedars and by tangled masses of wild rose-bushes. Opposite the spot where he stood, and half concealed by great sycamore trees, was a small, log house with a thread of blue smoke curling lazily from the chimney. The place was another of those old ranches that had been purchased by the Power Company and permitted to go back to the wilderness from which it had been won by some hardy settler. The little plot of open ground–well sodded with firm turf and short-cropped by roving cattle and deer–had evidently been, at one time, the front yard of the mountaineer’s home. A little out from the porch, and in full view of the artist,–her graceful form outlined against the background of wild roses,–stood Sibyl Andres with her violin.
As the girl played,–her winsome face upturned to the mountain heights and her body, lightly poised, swaying with the movement of her arm as easily as a willow bough,–she appeared, to the man hidden in the cedars, as some beautiful spirit of the woods and hills–a spirit that would vanish instantly if he should step from his hiding place. He was so close that he could see her blue eyes, wide and unmindful of her surroundings; her lips, curved in an unconscious smile; and her cheeks, flushed with emotion under their warm brown tint–as she appeared to listen for the music that she, in turn,–seemingly with no effort of her will,–gave forth again in the tones of the instrument under her chin.
Aaron King was moved by the beauty of the picture as he had never been stirred before. The peculiar charm of the music; the loveliness of the girl herself; the setting of the scene in the little glade with its wild roses, giant sycamores, dark cedars, and encircling mountain walls, all in the soft mystery of the twilight’s beginning; and, withal, the unexpectedness of the vision–combined to make an impression upon the artist’s mind that would endure for many years.
Suddenly, as he watched, the music ceased. The girl lowered her violin, and, with a low laugh, said to some one on the porch–concealed from the painter by the trunk of a sycamore–“O Myra, I want to dance. I can’t keep still. I’m so glad, glad to be home again–to see old ‘San Berdo’ and ‘Gray Back’ and all the rest of them up there!” She stretched out her arms as if in answer to a welcome from the hills. Then, whirling quickly, she gave the violin to her companion on the porch. “Play, Myra; please, dear, play.”
At her word, the music of the violin began again–coming now, from behind the trunk of the sycamore. In the hands of the unseen musician, the instrument laughed and sang a song of joyous abandonment–of freedom and rejoicing–of happiness and love–while in perfect harmony with the spirit and the rhythm of the melody, the girl danced upon the firm, green carpet of grass. Here and there, to and fro, about the little glade shut in from the world by its walls of living green, she tripped and whirled in unstudied grace–lightly as if winged–unconscious as the wild creatures that play in the depths of the woods–wayward as the zephyr that trips along the mountainside.
It was a spontaneous expression of her spiritual and physical exaltation and was as natural as the laughter in her voice or the flush upon her cheeks. It was a dance that was like no dance that Aaron King had ever seen.
The artist–watching through the screen of cedar boughs beside the old wagon road and scarcely daring to breathe lest the beautiful vision should vanish–forgot his position–forgot what he was doing. Fascinated by the scene to which he had been led, so unexpectedly by the music he had so often heard while at work in his studio, he was unmindful of the rude part he was playing. He was brought suddenly to himself by a heavy hand upon his shoulder. As he straightened, the hand whirled him half around and he found himself looking into a face that was tanned and seamed by many years in the open.
The man who had so unceremoniously commanded the artist’s attention stood a little above six feet in height, and was of that deep-chested, lean, but full-muscled build that so often marks the mountain bred. He wore no coat. At his hip, a heavy Colt revolver hung in its worn holster from a full, loosely buckled, cartridge belt. Upon his unbuttoned vest was the shield of the United States Forest Service. From under the brim of his slouch hat, he gazed at Aaron King questioningly–in angry disapproval.
Instinctively, neither of the men spoke. A word would have been heard the other side of the cedars. With a gesture commanding the artist to follow, the Ranger quietly, withdrew along the wagon road toward the creek.
When they were at a distance where their voices would not reach the girl in the glade, the Ranger said with angry abruptness, “Now, sir, perhaps you will tell me who you are and what you mean by spying upon a couple of women, like that.”
The other could not conceal his embarrassment. “I don’t blame you for calling me to account,” he said. “If it were me–if our positions were reversed I mean–I should kick you down into the creek there.”
The cold, blue eyes–that had been measuring the painter so shrewdly–twinkled with a hint of humor. “You _do_ look like a gentleman, you know,” the officer said,–as if excusing himself for not following the artist’s suggestion. “But, all the same, you must explain. Who are you?”
“That part is easy, at least,” returned the other. “Though the circumstance of our meeting _is_ a temptation to lie.”
“Which would do you no good, and might lead to unpleasant complications,” retorted the Ranger, sharply.
The man under question, still embarrassed, laughed shortly, as he returned, “I really was not thinking of it seriously. My name is Aaron King. I am an artist. You are Mr. Oakley, I suppose.”
The officer nodded–beginning to smile. “Yes, I am Brian Oakley.”
The artist continued, “A month ago, Conrad Lagrange and I came into the mountains for an outing. We stopped at the Station, but there was no one at home. Most of the time, we have been just roaming around. Now, we are camped down there, back of that old apple orchard.”
The Ranger broke into a laugh. “Mrs. Oakley was visiting friends up the canyon, the day you came in; but Morton told me. I’ve crossed your trail a dozen times, and sighted you nearly as many; but I was always too busy to go to you. I knew Lagrange didn’t need any attention, you see; so I just figured on meeting up with you somewhere by accident like–about meal time, mebbe.” He laughed again. “The accident part worked out all right.” He paused, still laughing–enjoying the artist’s discomfiture; then ended with a curious–“What in thunder were you sneaking around in the brush like that for, anyway? Those women won’t bite.”
Aaron King explained how he had heard the music while fishing; and how, following the sound, he had acted upon an impulse to catch a glimpse of the unknown musician before revealing himself; and then, in his interest, had forgotten that he was playing the part of a spy–until so rudely aroused by the hand of the Ranger.
Brian Oakley chuckled; “If _I’d_ acted upon impulse when I first saw you peeking through those cedars, you would have been more surprised than you were. But while I was sneaking up on you I noticed your get-up–with your creel and rod–and figured how you might have come there. So I thought I would go a little slow.”
“And you wear rather heavy boots too,” said the artist suggestively. Then, more at ease, he joined in the laugh at himself.
“Catch any fish?” asked the Ranger–lifting the cover of the creel. “Whee!” as he saw the contents. “That’s bully! And I’m hungry as a she wolf too! Been in the saddle since sunup without a bite. What do you say if I make that long deferred social call upon you and Lagrange this evening?”
“I say, good! Mr. Oakley,” returned the artist, heartily. “I guess you know what Lagrange will say.”
“You bet I do.” He whistled–a low, birdlike note. In answer, a beautiful, chestnut saddle-horse came out of the chaparral, where it had not been seen by the painter. “We’re going, Max,” said the officer, in a matter-of-fact way. And, as the two men set out, the horse followed, with a business-like air that brought a word of admiring comment from the artist.
That Aaron King had won the approval of the Ranger was evidenced by the mountaineer’s inviting himself to supper the camp in the sycamores. The fact that the officer considerately told Conrad Lagrange only that he had met the artist with his creel full of trout, and so had been tempted to accompany him, won the enduring gratitude of the young man. Thus the circumstances of their meeting introduced each to the other, with recommendations of peculiar value, and marked the beginning of a genuine and lasting friendship. But, while, out of delicate regard for the artist’s feelings, he refrained from relating the–to the young man–embarrassing incident, Brian Oakley could not resist making, at every opportunity, sly references to their meeting–for the painter’s benefit and his own amusement. Thus it happened that, after supper, as they sat with their pipes, the talk turned upon Sibyl Andres and the woman with the disfigured face.
The Ranger, to tease the artist, had remarked casually,–after complimenting them upon the location of their camp,–“And you’ve got some mighty nice neighbors, less than a mile above too.”
“Neighbors!” ejaculated Conrad Lagrange–in a tone that left no doubt as to his sentiment in the matter.
The others laughed; while the officer said, “Oh, I know how _you_ feel! You think you don’t want anybody poaching on your preserves. You’re up here in the hills to get away from people, and all that. But you don’t need to be uneasy. You won’t even see these folks–unless you sneak up on them.” He stole a look at the artist, and chuckled maliciously as the painter covertly shook his fist at him. “You may _hear_ them though.”
“Which would probably be as bad,” retorted the novelist, gruffly.
“Oh, I don’t know!” returned the other. “You might be able to stand it. I don’t reckon you would object to a little music now and then, would you?–_real_ music, I mean.”
“So our neighbors are musical, are they?” The novelist seemed slightly interested.
“Sibyl Andres is the most accomplished violinist I have ever heard,” said the Ranger. “And I haven’t always lived in these mountains, you know. As for Myra Willard–well–she taught Sibyl–though she doesn’t pretend to equal her now.”
Conrad Lagrange was interested, now, in earnest He turned to the artist, eagerly–but with caution–“Do you suppose it could be our neighbors in the orange grove, Aaron?”
Brian Oakley watched them with quiet amusement.
“I know it is,” returned the artist.
“You know it is!” ejaculated the other.
“Sure–I heard the violin this afternoon. While I was fishing,” he added hastily, when the Ranger laughed.
The novelist commented savagely, “Seems to me you’re mighty careful about keeping your news to yourself!”
This brought another burst of merriment from the mountaineer.
When the two men had explained to the Ranger about the music in the orange grove, Conrad Lagrange related how they had first heard that cry in the night; and how, when they had gone to the neighboring house, they had seen the woman of the disfigured face standing in the doorway.
“It was Miss Willard who cried out,” said Brian Oakley, quietly. “She dreams, sometimes, of the accident–or whatever it was–that left her with those scars–at least, that’s what I think it is. Certainly it’s no ordinary dream that would make a woman cry like that. The first time I heard her–the first time that she ever did it, in fact–she and Sibyl were stopping over night at my house. It was three years ago. Jim Rutlidge had just come West, on his first trip, and was up in the hills on a hunt. He happened along about sundown, and when he stepped into the room and Myra saw him, I thought she would faint. He looked like some one she had known–she said. And that night she gave that horrible cry. Lord! but it threw a fright into me. My wife didn’t get over being nervous, for a week. Myra explained that she had dreamed–but that’s all she would say. I figured that being upset by Rutlidge’s reminding her of some one she had known started her mind to going on the past–and then she dreamed of whatever it was that gave her those scars.”
“You have known Miss Willard a long time, haven’t you, Brian?” asked Conrad Lagrange, with the freedom of an old comrade–for men may grow closer together in one short season in the mountains than in years of meeting daily in the city.
“I’ve known her ever since she came into the hills. That was the year Sibyl was born. All that anybody knows is what has happened since. Sibyl’s mother, even–a month before she died–told me that Myra’s history, before she came to them, was as unknown to her as it was the day she stopped at their door.”
“I can’t get over the feeling that I ought to know her–that I have seen her somewhere, years ago,” said the novelist, by way of explaining his interest.
“Then it was before she got those scars,” returned the Ranger. “No one could ever forget her face as it is now.”
“At the same time,” commented the artist, “the scars would prevent your identifying her if she received them after you had known her.”
“All the same,” said Conrad Lagrange,–as though his mind was bothered by his inability to establish some incident in his memory,–“I’ll place her yet. Do you mind, Brian, telling us what you _do_ know of her?”
“Why, not at all,” returned the officer. “The story is anybody’s property. Its being so well known is probably the reason you didn’t hear it when you were up here before.
“Sibyl’s father and mother were here in the mountains when I came. They lived up there at the old place where Myra and Sibyl are camping now, and I never expect to meet finer people–either in this world or the next. For twenty years I knew them intimately. Will Andres was as true and square and white a man as ever lived and Nelly was just as good a woman as he was a man. They and my wife and I were more like brothers and sisters than most folks who are actually blood kin.
“One day, along toward sundown, about a month before Sibyl was born, Nelly heard the dogs barking and went to see what was up. There stood Myra Willard at the gate–like she’d dropped out of the sky. Where she came from God only knows–except that she’d walked from some station on the railroad over toward the pass. She was just about all in; and, of course, Nelly had her into the house and was fixing her up in no time. She wanted to work, but admitted that she had never done much housework. She said, straight out, that they should never know more about her than they knew, then; but insisted that she was not a bad woman. At first, Will and I were against it for, of course, it was easy to see that she was trying to get away from something. But the women–Nelly and my wife–somehow, believed in her, and–with the baby due to arrive in a month and any kind of help hard to get–they carried the day. Well, sir, she made good. If twenty years acquaintance goes for anything, she’s one of God’s own kind, and I don’t care a damn what her history is.
“We soon saw that she was educated and refined, and–as you can see for yourself–she must have been remarkably beautiful before she got so disfigured. When the baby was born, she just took the little one into her poor, broken heart like it had been her own, until Sibyl hardly knew which was her own mother. When the girl was old enough for school, Myra begged Will and Nelly to let her teach the child. She was always sending for books and it was about that time that she sent for a violin. The girl took to music like a bird. And–well–that’s the way Sibyl was raised. She’s got all the education that the best of them have–even to French and Italian and German–and she’s missed some things that the schools teach outside of their text-books. She has a library–given to her mostly by Myra, a book at a time–that represents the best of the world’s best writers. You know what her music is. But, hell!”–the Ranger interrupted himself with an apologetic laugh–“I’m supposed to be talking about Myra Willard. I don’t know as I’m so far off, either, because what Sibyl is–aside from her natural inheritance from Will and Nelly–Myra has made her.
“When Will was killed by those Mexican outlaws,–which is a story in itself,–Nelly sold the ranch to the Power Company, and bought an orange grove in Fairlands–which was the thing for her to do, as she and Myra could handle that sort of property, and the ranch had to go, anyway. Before Nelly died, she and I talked things over, and she put everything in Myra’s hands, in trust for the girl. Later, Myra sold the grove and the house where you men live, now, and bought the little place next door–putting the rest of the money into gilt-edged securities in Sibyl’s name; which insures the girl against want, for years to come. Sibyl helps out their income with her music. And that’s the story, boys, except that they come up here into the mountains, every summer, to spend a month or so in the old home place.”
The Ranger rose to go.
“But do you think it is safe for those women to stay up there alone?” asked Aaron King.
Brian Oakley laughed. “Safe! You don’t know Myra Willard! Sibyl, herself, can pick a squirrel out of the tallest pine in the mountains with her six-shooter. Will and I taught her all we knew, as she grew up. Besides, you see, I drop in every day or so, to see that they’re all right.” He laughed meaningly as he added,–to Conrad Lagrange for the artist’s benefit,–“I’m going to tell them, though, that Sibyl must be careful how she goes dancing around these hills–now that she has such distinguished but irresponsible neighbors.”
He whistled–and the chestnut horse was at his side before the echo of their laughter died away.
With a “so-long,” the Ranger rode away into the night.
Chapter XVI
When the Canyon Gates Are Shut
If Aaron King had questioned what it was that had held him in the cedar thicket until Brian Oakley’s heavy hand broke the spell, he would probably have answered that it was his artistic appreciation of the beautiful scene. But–deep down in the man’s inner consciousness–there was a still, small voice–declaring, with an insistency not to be denied, that–for him–there was a something in that picture that was not to be put into the vernacular of his profession.
Had he acted without his habitual self-control, the day following the Ranger’s visit, he would, again, have gone fishing–up Clear Creek–at least, to the pool where that master trout had broken his leader. But he did not. Instead, he roamed aimlessly about the vicinity of the camp–explored the sycamore grove; climbed a little way up the mountain spur, and down again; circled the cienaga; and so came, finally, to the ruins of the house and barn on the creek side of the orchard.
Not far from the lonely fireplace with its naked chimney, a little, old gate of split palings, in an ancient tumble-down fence, under a great mistletoe-hung oak, at the top of a bank–attracted his careless attention. From the gate, he saw what once had been a path leading down the bank to a spring, where the tiny streamlet that crossed the road a hundred yards away, on its course to Clear Creek, began. Pushing open the gate that sagged dejectedly from its leaning post, the artist went down the path, and found himself in a charming nook–shut in on every side by the forest vegetation that, watered by the spring, grew rank and dense.
For a space on the gate side of the spring, the sod was firm and smooth–with a gray granite boulder in the center of the little glade, and, here and there, wild rose-bushes and the slender, gray trunks of alder trees breaking through. From the higher branches of the alders that shut out the sky with their dainty, silvery-green leaves, hung–with many a graceful loop and knot–ropes of wild grape-vine and curtains of virgin’s-bower. Along the bank below the old fence, the wild blackberries disputed possession with the roses; while the little stream was mottled with the tender green of watercress and bordered with moss and fragrant mint. Above the arroyo willows, on the farther side of the glade, Oak Knoll, with bits of the pine-clad Galenas, could be glimpsed; but on the orchard side, the vine-dressed bank with the old gate under the mistletoe oak shut out the view. Through the screen of alder and grape and willow and virgin’s-bower the sunlight fell, as through the delicate traceries of a cathedral window. The bright waters of the spring, softly held by the green sod, crept away under the living wall, without a sound; but the deep murmur of the distant, larger stream, reached the place like the low tones of some great organ. A few regularly placed stones, where once had stood the family spring-house; with the names, initials, hearts and dates carved upon the smooth bark of the alders–now grown over and almost obliterated–seemed to fill the spot with ghostly memories.
All that afternoon, the artist remained in the little retreat. The next day, equipped with easel, canvas and paint-box, he went again to the glade–determined to make a picture of the charming scene.
For a month, now, uninterrupted by the distractions of social obligations or the like, Aaron King had been subjected to influences that had aroused the creative passion of his artist soul to its highest pitch. With his genius clamoring for expression, he had denied himself the medium that was his natural language. Forbidding his friend to accompany him, he worked now in the spring glade with a delight–with an ecstasy–that he had seldom, before, felt. And Conrad Lagrange, wisely, was content to let him go uninterrupted.
As the hours of each day passed, the artist became more and more engrossed with his art. His spirit sang with the joy of receiving the loveliness of the scene before him, of making it his own, and of giving it forth again–a literal part of himself. The memories suggested by the stones of the spring-house foundation and the old carvings on the trees; the sunlight, falling so softly into the hushed seclusion of the glade, as through the traceried windows of a church; and the deep organ-tones of the distant creek; all served to give to the spot the religious atmosphere of a sanctuary; while the artist’s abandonment in his work was little short of devotion.
It was the third afternoon, when the painter became conscious that he had been hearing for some time–he could not have said how long–a low-sung melody–so blending with the organ-tones of the mountain stream that it seemed to come out of the music of the tumbling waters.
With his brush poised between palette and canvas, the artist paused,–turning his head to listen,–half inclined to the belief that his fancy was tricking him. But no; the singer was coming nearer; the melody was growing more distinct; but still the voice was in perfect harmony with the deep-toned accompaniment of the distant creek.
Then he saw her. Dressed in soft brown that blended subtly with the green of the willows, the gray of the alder trunks, the russet of rose and blackberry-bush, and the umber of the swinging grape-vines–in the flickering sunshine, the soft changing half-lights, and deep shadows–she appeared to grow out of the scene itself; even as her low-sung melody grew out of the organ-sound of the waters.
To get the effect that satisfied him best, the painter had placed his easel a little back from the grassy, open spot. Seated as he was, on a low camp-stool, among the bushes, he would not have been easily observed–even by eyes trained to the quickness of vision that belongs to those reared in the woods and hills. As the girl drew closer, he saw that she carried a basket on her arm, and that she was picking the wild blackberries that grew in such luscious profusion in the rich, well watered ground at the foot of the sheltering bank. Unconscious of any listener, as she gathered the fruit of Nature’s offering, she sang to the accompaniment of Nature’s music, with the artless freedom of a wild thing unafraid in its native haunts.
The man kept very still. Presently, when the girl had moved so that he could not see her, he turned to his canvas as if, again, absorbed in his work–but hearing still, behind him, the low-voiced melody of her song.
Then the music ceased; not abruptly, but dying away softly–losing itself, again, in the organ-tones of the distant waters, as it had come. For a while, the artist worked on; not daring to take his eyes from his picture; but feeling, in every tingling nerve of him, that she was there. At last, as if compelled, he abruptly turned his head–and looked straight into her face.
The man had been, apparently, so absorbed in his work, when first the girl caught sight of him, that she had scarcely been startled. When she had ceased her song, and he, still, had not looked around; drawn by her interest in the picture, she had softly approached until she was standing quite close. Her lips were slightly parted, her face was flushed, and her eyes were shining with delight and excited pleasure, as she stood leaning forward, her basket on her arm. So interested was she in the painting, that she seemed to have quite forgotten the painter, and was not in the least embarrassed when he so suddenly looked directly into her face.
“It is beautiful,” she said, as though in answer to his question. And no one–hearing her, and watching her face as she spoke–could have doubted her sincerity. “It is so true, so–so”–she searched for a word, and smiled in triumph when she found it–“so _right_–so beautifully right. It–it makes me feel as–as I feel when I am at church–and the organ plays soft and low, and the light comes slanting through the window, and some one reads those beautiful words, ‘The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him’.”
“Why!” exclaimed the artist, “that is exactly what I wanted it to say. When I saw this place, and heard the waters over there, like a great organ; and saw how the sunshine falls through the trees; I felt as you say, and I am trying to paint the picture so that those who see it will feel that way too.”
Her face was aglow with enthusiastic understanding as she cried eagerly, “Oh, I know! I know! I’m like that with my music! When I look at the mountains sometimes–or at the trees and flowers, or hear the waters sing, or the winds call–I–I get so full and so–so kind of choked up inside that it hurts; and I feel as though I must try to tell it–and then I take my violin and try and try to make the music say what I feel. I never can though–not altogether. But _you_ have made your picture say what you feel. That’s what makes it so right, isn’t it? They said in Fairlands that you were a great artist, and I understand why, now. It must be wonderful to put what you see and feel into a picture like that–where nothing can ever change or spoil it.”
Aaron King laughed with boyish embarrassment. “Oh, but I’m not a great artist, you know. I am scarcely known at all.”
She looked at him with her great, blue eyes sincerely troubled. “And must one be _known_–to be great?” she asked. “Might not an artist be great and still be _unknown_? Or, might not one who was really very, very”–again she seemed to search for a word and as she found it, smiled–“very _small_, be known all over the world? The newspapers make some really bad people famous, sometimes, don’t they? No, no, you are joking. You do not really think that being known to the world and greatness are the same.”
The man, studying her closely, saw that she was speaking her thoughts as openly as a child. Experimentally, he said, “If putting what you feel into your work is greatness, then _you_ are a great artist, for your music does make one feel as though it came from the mountains, themselves.”
She was frankly pleased, and cried intimately, “Oh! do you like my music? I so wanted you to.”
It did not occur to her to ask when he had heard her music. It did not occur to him to explain. They, neither of them, thought to remember that they had not been introduced. They really should have pretended that they did not know each other.
“Sometimes,” she continued with winsome confidence, “I think, myself, that I am really a great violinist–and then, again,”–she added wistfully,–“I know that I am not. But I am sure that I wouldn’t like to be famous, at all.”
He laughed. “Fame doesn’t seem to matter so much, does it; when one is up here in the hills and the canyon gates are closed.”
She echoed his laughter with quick delight. “Did you see that? Did you see those great doors open to let you in, and then close again behind you as if to shut the world outside? But of course you would. Any one who could do that”–she pointed to the canvas–“would not fail to see the canyon gates.” With her eyes again upon the picture, she seemed once more to forget the presence of the painter.
Watching her face,–that betrayed her every passing thought and emotion as an untroubled pool mirrors the flowers that grow on its banks or the song-bird that pauses to drink,–the artist–to change her mood–said, “You _love_ the mountains, don’t you?”
She turned her face toward him, again, as she answered simply, “Yes, I love the mountains.”
“If you were a painter,”–he smiled,–“you would paint them, wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t know that I would,”–she answered thoughtfully,–“but I would try to get the mountains into my picture, whatever it was. I wonder if you know what I mean?”
“Yes,” he answered, “I think I know what you mean; and it is a beautiful thought. You wouldn’t paint portraits, would you?”
“I don’t think I _could_,” she answered. “It seems to me it would be so hard to get the mountains into a portrait of just anybody. An artist–a great artist, I mean–must make his picture right, mustn’t he? And if his picture was a portrait of some one who wasn’t very good, and he made it right; he wouldn’t be liked very well, would he? No, I don’t think I would paint portraits–unless I could paint just the people who would want me to make my picture right.”
Aaron King’s face flushed at the words that were spoken so artlessly; and he looked at her keenly. But the girl was wholly innocent of any purpose other than to express her thoughts. She did not dream of the force with which her simple words had gone home.
“You love the mountains, too, don’t you?” she asked suddenly.
“Yes,” he answered, “I love the mountains. I am learning to love them more and more. But I fear I don’t know them as well as you do.”
“I was born up here,” she said, “and lived here until a few years ago. I think, sometimes, that the mountains almost talk to me.”
“I wonder if you would help me to know the mountains as you know them,” he asked eagerly.
She drew a little back from him, but did not answer.
“We are neighbors, you see,” he continued smiling. “I heard your violin, the other evening, when I was fishing up the creek, near where you live; and so I know it is you who live next door to us in the orange grove. Mr. Lagrange and I are camped just over there back of the orchard. May we not be friends? Won’t you help me to know your mountains?”
“I know about you,” she said. “Brian Oakley told us that you and Mr. Lagrange were camped down here. Mr. Lagrange said that you are a good man; Brian Oakley says that you are too–are you?”
The artist flushed. In his embarrassment, he did not note the significance of her reference to the novelist. “At least,” he said gently, “I am not a very _bad_ man.”
A smile broke over her face–her mood changing as quickly as the sunlight breaks through a cloud. “I know you are not”–she said–“a _bad_ man wouldn’t have wanted to paint this place as you have painted it.”
She turned to go.
“But wait!” he cried, “you haven’t told me–will you teach me to know your mountains as you know them?”
“I’m sure I cannot say,” she answered smiling, as she moved away.
“But at least, we will meet again,” he urged.
She laughed gaily, “Why not? The mountains are for you as well as for me; and though the hills _are_ so big, the trails are narrow, and the passes very few.”
With another laugh, she slipped away–her brown dress, that, in the shifty lights under the thick foliage, so harmonized with the colors of bush and vine and tree and rock, being so quickly lost to the artist’s eye that she seemed almost to vanish into the scene before him.
But presently, from beyond the willow wall, he heard her voice again–singing to the accompaniment of the mountain stream. Softly, the melody died away in the distance–losing itself, at last, in the deeper organ-tones of the mountain waters.
For some minutes, the artist stood listening–thinking he heard it still.
Aaron King did not, that night, tell Conrad Lagrange of his adventure in the spring glade.
Chapter XVII
Confessions in the Spring Glade
All the next day, while he worked upon his picture in the glade, Aaron King listened for that voice in the organ-like music of the distant waters. Many times, he turned to search the flickering light and shade of the undergrowth, behind him, for a glimpse of the girl’s brown dress and winsome face.
The next day she came.
The artist had been looking long at a splash of sunlight that fell upon the gray granite boulder which was set in the green turf, and had turned to his canvas for–it seemed to him–only an instant. When he looked again at the boulder, she was standing there–had, apparently, been standing there for some time, waiting with smiling lips and laughing eyes for him to see her.
A light creel hung by its webbed strap from her shoulder; in her hand, she carried a slender fly rod of good workmanship. Dressed in soft brown, with short skirts and high laced boots, and her wavy hair tucked under a wide, felt hat; with her blue eyes shining with fun, and her warmly tinted skin glowing with healthful exercise; she appeared–to the artist–more as some mythical spirit of the mountains, than as a maiden of flesh and blood. The manner of her coming, too, heightened the impression. He had heard no sound of her approach–no step, no rustle of the underbrush. He had seen no movement among the bushes–no parting of the willows in the wall of green. There had been no hint of her nearness. He could not even guess the direction from which she had come.
At first, he could scarce believe his eyes, and sat motionless in his surprise. Then her merry laugh rang out–breaking the spell.
Springing from his seat, he went forward. “Are you a spirit?” he cried. “You must be something unreal, you know–the way you appear and disappear. The last time, you came out of the music of the waters, and went again the same way. To-day, you come out of the air, or the trees, or, perhaps, that gray boulder that is giving me such trouble.”
Laughing, she answered, “My father and Brian Oakley taught me. If you will watch the wild things in the woods, you can learn to do it too. I am no more a spirit than the cougar, when it stalks a rabbit in the chaparral; or a mink, as it slips among the rocks along the creek; or a fawn, when it crouches to hide in the underbrush.”
“You have been fishing?” he asked.
She laughed mockingly, “You are _so_ observing! I think you might have taken _that_ for granted, and asked what luck.”
“I believe I might almost take that for granted too,” he returned.
“I took a few,” she said carelessly. Then, with a charming air of authority–“And now, you must go back to your work. I shall vanish instantly, if you waste another moment’s time because I am here.”
“But I want to talk,” he protested. “I have been working hard since noon.”
“Of course you have,” she retorted. “But presently the light will change again, and you won’t be able to do any more to-day; so you must keep busy while you can.”
“And you won’t vanish–if I go on with my work?” he asked doubtfully. She was smiling at him with such a mischievous air, that he feared, if he turned away, she would disappear.
She laughed aloud; “Not if you work,” she said. “But if you stop–I’m gone.”
As she spoke, she went toward his easel, and, resting her fly rod carefully against the trunk of a near-by alder, slipped the creel from her shoulder, placing the basket on the ground with her hat. Then, while the painter watched her, she stood silently looking at the picture. Presently, she faced him, and, with an impulsive stamp of her foot, said, “Why don’t you work? How can you waste your time and this light, looking at me? I shall go, if you don’t come back to your picture, this minute.”
With a laugh, he obeyed.
For a moment, she watched him; then turned away; and he heard her moving about, down by the tiny stream, where it disappeared under the willows.
Once, he paused and turned to look in her direction “What are you up to, now?” he said.
“I shall be up to leaving you,”–she retorted,–“if you look around, again.”
He promptly turned once more to his picture.
Soon, she came back, and seated herself beside her creel and rod, where she could see the picture under the artist’s brush. “Does it bother, if I watch?” she asked softly.
“No, indeed,” he answered. “It helps–that is, it helps when it is _you_ who watch.” Which–to the painter’s secret amazement–was a literal truth. The gray rock with the splash of sunshine that would not come right, ceased to trouble him, now. Stimulated by her presence, he worked with a freedom and a sureness that was a delight.
When he could not refrain from looking in her direction, he saw that she was bending, with busy hands, over some willow twigs in her lap. “What in the world are you doing?” he asked curiously.
“You are not supposed to know that I am doing anything,” she retorted. “You have been peeking again.”
“You were so still–I feared you had vanished,” he laughed. “If you’ll keep talking to me, I’ll know you are there, and will be good.”
“Sure it won’t bother?”
“Sure,” he answered.
“Well, then, _you_ talk to me, and I’ll answer.”
“I have a confession to make,” he said, carefully studying the gray tones of the alder trunk beyond the gray boulder.
“A confession?”
“Yes, I want to get it over–so it won’t bother me.”
“Something about me?”
“Yes.”
“Why, that’s what I am trying so hard to make you keep your eyes on your work for–because _I_ have to make a confession to _you_.”
“To me?”
“Yes–don’t look around, please.”
“But what under the sun can you have to confess to me?”
“You started yours first,” she answered. “Go on. Maybe it will make it easier for me.”
Studiously keeping his eyes upon his canvas, he told her how he had watched her from the cedar thicket. When he had finished,–and she was silent,–he thought that she was angry, and turned about–expecting to see her gathering up her things to go.
She was struggling to suppress her laughter. At the look of surprise on his face, she burst forth in such a gale of merriment that the little glade was filled with the music of her glee; while, in spite of himself, the painter joined.
“Oh!” she cried, “but that _is_ funny! I am glad, glad!”
“Now, what do you mean by that?” he demanded.
“Why–why–that’s exactly what I was trying to get courage enough to confess to you!” she gasped. And then she told him how she had spied upon him from the arbor in the rose garden; and how, in his absence, she had visited his studio.
“But how in the world did you get in? The place was always locked, when I was away.”
“Oh,” she said quaintly, “there was a good genie who let me in through the keyhole. I didn’t meddle with anything, you know–I just looked at the beautiful room where you work. And I didn’t glance, even, at the picture on the easel. The genie told me you wouldn’t like that. I would not have drawn the curtain anyway, even if I hadn’t been told. At least, I don’t _think_ I would–but perhaps I might–I can’t always tell what I’m going to do, you know.”
Suddenly, the artist remembered finding the studio door open with Conrad Lagrange’s key in the lock, and how the novelist had berated himself with such exaggerated vehemence; and, in a flash, came the thought of James Rutlidge’s visit, that afternoon, and of his strange manner and insinuating remarks.
“I think I know the name of your good genie,” said the painter, facing the girl, seriously. “But tell me, did no one disturb you while you were in the studio?”
Her cheeks colored painfully, and all the laughter was gone from her voice as she replied, “I didn’t want you to know that part.”
“But I must know,” he insisted gravely.
“Yes,” she said, “Mr. Rutlidge found me there; and I ran away through the garden. I don’t like him. He frightens me. Please, is it necessary for us to talk about it any more? I had to make my confession of course, but must we talk about _that_ part?”
“No,” he answered, “we need not talk about it. It was necessary for me to know; but we will never mention that part, again. When we are back in the orange groves, you shall come to the rose garden and to the studio, as often as you like; your good genie and I will see to it that you are not disturbed–by any one.”
Her face brightened at his words. “And do you really like for me to make music for you–as Mr. Lagrange says you do?”
“I can’t begin to tell you how much I like it,” he answered smiling.
“And it doesn’t bother you in your work?”
“It helps me,” he declared–thinking of that portrait of Mrs. Taine.
“Oh, I am glad, glad!” she cried. “I wanted it to help. It was for that I played.”
“You played to help me?” he asked wonderingly.
She nodded. “I thought it might–if I could get enough of the mountains into my music, you know.”
“And will you dance for me, sometimes too?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I cannot tell about that. You see, I only dance when I must–when the music, somehow, doesn’t seem quite enough. When I–when I”–she searched for a word, then finished abruptly–“oh, I can’t tell you about it–it’s just something you feel–there are no words for it. When I first come to the mountains,–after living in Fairlands all winter,–I always dance–the mountains feel so big and strong. And sometimes I dance in the moonlight–when it feels so soft and light and clean; or in the twilight–when it’s so still, and the air is so–so full of the day that has come home to rest and sleep; and sometimes when I am away up under the big pines and the wind, from off the mountain tops, under the sky, sings through the dark branches.”
“But don’t you ever dance to please your friends?”
“Oh, no–I don’t dance to _please_ any one–only just when it’s for myself–when nothing else will do–when I _must_. Of course, sometimes, Myra or Brian Oakley or Mrs. Oakley are with me–but they don’t matter, you know. They are so much a part of me that I don’t mind.”