Ridgway of Montana (Story of To-Day, in Which the Hero Is Also the Villain)
automobile rugs. For a moment her brain, still sodden with sleep, struggled helplessly with her surroundings. She looked at the smoky rafters without understanding, an
und his penciled note, weighted for secur
to be back in an hour, and he had not come, but the strong chirography of the note, recalling the resolute strength
y-line. She shuddered at the arctic desolation of the vast snow-fields. The mountains were sheeted with
range. It had come tearing along the divide with the black storm in its vanguard, and she had heard fearfully
had cried out with terror at this strange wake
to be afraid of," he had said cheerfully,
er rug, she had smiled sleepily at him and fallen asleep
ay out. That he should have tried to find his way through such an untracked desolation amazed her. He could never do it. No puny human atom could fight successfully against the barriers nature had dropped so sull
Here and there were scattered muddy boots and overalls, just as their owner, the prospector, had left them before he had gone to the nea
e door to him upon a house swept and garnished. She would show him that she could be of some us
rdness, the girl went about her unaccustomed tasks with a light heart. It was for her new-found hero that she played at housekeeping. For his commendation she filled the tea-kettle, enveloped herself in a cloud of dust as she wielded the stub of a broom she discovered, and washed the greasy dishes after the water was hot. A childish pleasure suffused her. All her lif
her birdlike carol in the clear frosty air. He emptied his chest in a deep sho
ing," she cried from the open
ve feature was alert with interest, so that the man th
eem long?
must be frozen to an ici
as toast," he
o miles through drifts from three to five feet deep, battling with them every
ack on your back, it's like Santa Cl
nture we may think that box a sure
ing and scattering of snow, he came in. She fluttered about him, dragging a chair up to the fire for him, and taking his h
the firm that has been working. Dishes washed, floor swept, bed made, kitchen fire lit. You've certainly been going some, unless the fairies helped you.
hol to show that I've really been of some
are here simply to decorate the world. Hard world. Hard work is for those who can't gi
. "I can get them in plenty back in the drawing-rooms where I am suppose
he maintained. "I was merely
going to refute the application of your principle and show how useful I've been. No
the fire, had been to make inventory of such provisions as the prospector had left in his cabin. A knuckle of ham, part of a sack of flour, some navy beans, and some tea siftings at the bottom of a tin can;
er she had done so, he marveled alou
he commanded, setting herself ta
should like to make an adventure of it,
scoffed. "That won't do at all. I want to know a
eedn't be afraid that anybody will run away with it for a day or
owerful frame. "I am afraid it must have been a
w a finer, more bracing morning. It's a
nly none with so compelling a vitality. "Such a warm, kind light in
o had attended to the packing of it, had fortunately been used to reckon with outdoor Montana appetites instead of cloyed New
led up in tissue-paper? Deviled eggs and ham sandwiches AND caviar, not to speak of claret frappe. I'm certainly grateful to the gentl
and cake," she said,
k of a special brand! I was expecting to put up at
ested shyly. "Because you bro
mself when he came to think of it. She elected him captain of Fort Salvation, with full power of life and death over th
kling with excitement. "Are we really s
to last. If it should set in to snow, we may be here several days before the relief-party reaches us." But, though he spok
rank from a tin cup, and used a tin spoon the worse for rust. What mattered it to her that the teapot was grimy and the fryingpan black with soot! It was all part of the wonderful new vista that had
sentry fashion to take the deep breaths of clear sharp air he insisted upon. He made it wide enough so that her skirt would not sweep against the snow-bank, and trod down the trench till the footing was hard and solid. T
awing, still piling load after load in the shed. Now and again she came out and watched him, la
fell upon them in earnest and buried them deep with his frozen blanket, and she was a
und her legs, and let her drag wood to the house on a pine branch which served for a sled. She wore her gauntlets to pro
again, making fun of him and the
ned upon him, and she was not satisfied
m with an immediate fall of temperature t
house, but she was
to," she annou
itude he gave raucous m
ficer's orders
tiny," she informed him,
hing already. He picked her up in his arms and ran with her toward the house, setting her down in th
was beginning whe
utenant," came briskly from lips
eels together, saluted, a
er his face was turned her way. He worked like a Titan, reveling in the joy of physi
dlike whimsicality of her imagination. She believed in fairies and heroes with all her heart, which with her was an org
er experience for the most part had been limited. She delighted in his masterful strength, in the confidence of his careless dominance. She liked to see that look of power in his gray-blue eyes softened to the droll, half-tender, expression with which he played the game of make-believe. There wer
rrows that lay before them. Afterward they sat before the fire, in the shadow and shine of the flickering logs, happy and content in each other's presence. She drea
n of her, had stirred his imagination more potently than if he had been the veriest schoolboy nursing a downy lip. He could not keep his eyes from this slender, exquisite girl, so dainty and graceful in
he meaning of this sweet content that filled her. And the voices that should have warned