amelia ellen, stiff from the unaccustomed travel, powdered with the dust of the desert, wearied with the excitement of travel and lack of sleep amid her strange surroundings, stepped down upon the wooden platform and surveyed the magnificent distance between herself and anywhere; observed the vast emptiness, with awful purpling mountains and limitless stretches of vari-coloured ground arched by a dome of sky, higher and wider and more dazzling than her stern new hampshire soul had ever conceived, and turned panic-stricken back to the train which was already moving away from the little station. her first sensation had been one of relief at feeling solid ground under her feet once more, for this was the first trip into the world amelia ellen had ever made, and the cars bewildered her. her second impulse was to get back into that train as fast as her feet could carry her and get this awful journey done so that she might earn[233] the right to return to her quiet home and her faithful lover.
but the train was well under way. she looked after it half in envy. it could go on with its work and not have to stop in this wild waste.
she gazed about again with the frightened look a child deserted gives before it puckers its lips and screams.
hazel was talking composedly with the rough-looking man on the platform, who wore a wide felt hat and a pistol in his belt. he didn't look even respectable to amelia ellen's provincial eyes. and behind him, horror of horrors! loomed a real live indian, long hair, high cheek bones, blanket and all, just as she had seen them in the geography! her blood ran cold! why, oh why, had she ever been left to do this daring thing—to leave civilization and come away from her good man and the quiet home awaiting her to certain death in the desert. all the stories of horrid scalpings she had ever heard appeared before her excited vision. with a gasp she turned again to the departing train, which had become a mere speck on the desert, and even as she looked vanished around a curve and was lost in the dim foot-hills of a mountain![234]
poor amelia ellen! her head reeled and her heart sank. the vast prairie engulfed her, as it were, and she stood trembling and staring in dazed expectancy of an attack from earth or air or sky. the very sky and ground seemed tottering together and threatening to extinguish her, and she closed her eyes, caught her breath and prayed for peter. it had been her habit always in any emergency to pray for peter burley.
it was no better when they took her to the eating-house across the track. she picked her way among the evil-looking men, and surveyed the long dining table with its burden of coarse food and its board seats with disdain, declined to take off her hat when she reached the room to which the slatternly woman showed them because she said there was no place to lay it down that was fit; scorned the simple bed, refused to wash her hands at the basin furnished for all, and made herself more disagreeable than hazel had dreamed her gentle, serviceable amelia ellen ever could have been. no supper would she eat, nor would she remain long at the table after the men began to file in, with curious eyes towards the strangers.
she stalked to the rough, unroofed porch in the front and stared off at the dark vast[235]ness, afraid of the wild strangeness, afraid of the looming mountains, afraid of the multitude of stars. she said it was ridiculous to have so many stars. it wasn't natural. it was irreverent. it was like looking too close into heaven when you weren't intended to.
and then a blood-curdling sound arose! it made her very hair stand on end. she turned with wild eyes and grasped hazel's arm, but she was too frightened to utter a sound. hazel had just come out to sit with her. the men out of deference to the strangers had withdrawn from their customary smoking place on the porch to the back of the wood-pile behind the house. they were alone—the two women—out there in the dark, with that awful, awful sound!
amelia ellen's white lips framed the words "indians"? "war-whoop"? but her throat refused her sound and her breath came short.
"coyotes!" laughed hazel, secure in her wide experience, with almost a joyous ring to her voice. the sound of those distant beasts assured her that she was in the land of her beloved at last and her soul rejoiced.
"coy—oh——" but amelia ellen's voice was lost in the recesses of her skimpy pillow whither she had fled to bury her startled ears. she had heard of coyotes, but she had never[236] imagined to hear one outside of a zoölogical garden, of which she had read and always hoped one day to visit. there she lay on her hard little bed and quaked until hazel, laughing still, came to find her; but all she could get from the poor soul was a pitiful plaint about burley. "and what would he say if i was to be et with one of them creatures? he'd never forgive me, never, never s'long 's i lived! i hadn't ough' to 'a' come. i hadn't ough' to 'a' come!"
nothing hazel could say would allay her fears. she listened with horror as the girl attempted to show how harmless the beasts were by telling of her own night ride up the canyon, and how nothing harmed her. amelia ellen merely looked at her with frozen glance made fiercer by the flickering candle flare, and answered dully: "an' you knew 'bout 'em all 'long, an' yet you brung me! it ain't what i thought you'd do! burley, he'll never fergive me s'long 's i live ef i get et up. it ain't ez if i was all alone in the world, you know. i got him to think of an' i can't afford to run no resks of bein' et, ef you can."
not a wink of sleep did she get that night and when the morning dawned and to the horrors of the night were added a telegram[237] from a neighbour of burley's saying that burley had fallen from the haymow and broken his leg, but he sent his respects and hoped they'd have a good journey, amelia ellen grew uncontrollable. she declared she would not stay in that awful country another minute. that she would take the first train back—back to her beloved new hampshire which she never again would leave so long as her life was spared, unless burley went along. she would not even wait until hazel had delivered her message. how could two lone women deliver a message in a land like that? never, never would she ride, drive or walk, no, nor even set foot on the sand of the desert. she would sit by the track until a train came along and she would not even look further than she need. the frenzy of fear which sometimes possesses simple people at sight of a great body of water, or a roaring torrent pouring over a precipice, had taken possession of her at sight of the desert. it filled her soul with its immensity, and poor amelia ellen had a great desire to sit down on the wooden platform and grasp firm hold of something until a train came to rescue her from this awful emptiness which had tried to swallow her up.
poor peter, with his broken leg, was her[238] weird cry! one would think she had broken it with the wheels of the car in which she had travelled away from him by the way she took on about it and blamed herself. the tragedy of a broken vow and its consequences was the subject of her discourse. hazel laughed, then argued, and finally cried and besought; but nothing could avail. go she would, and that speedily, back to her home.
when it became evident that arguments and tears were of no use and that amelia ellen was determined to go home with or without her, hazel withdrew to the front porch and took counsel with the desert in its morning brightness, with the purple luring mountains, and the smiling sky. go back on the train that would stop at the station in half an hour, with the desert there, and the wonderful land, and its strange, wistful people, and not even see a glimpse of him she loved? go back with the letter still in her possession and her message still ungiven? never! surely she was not afraid to stay long enough to send for him. the woman who had fed them and sheltered them for the night would be her protector. she would stay. there must be some woman of refinement and culture somewhere near by to whom she could go for a few days until her errand[239] was performed; and what was her training in the hospital worth if it did not give her some independence? out here in the wild free west women had to protect themselves. she could surely stay in the uncomfortable quarters where she was for another day until she could get word to the missionary. then she could decide whether to proceed on her journey alone to california, or to go back home. there was really no reason why she should not travel alone if she chose; plenty of young women did and, anyway, the emergency was not of her choosing. amelia ellen would make herself sick fretting over her burley, that was plain, if she were detained even a few hours. hazel came back to the nearly demented amelia ellen with her chin tilted firmly and a straight little set of her sweet lips which betokened stubbornness. the train came in a brief space of time, and, weeping but firm, amelia ellen boarded it, dismayed at the thought of leaving her dear young lady, yet stubbornly determined to go. hazel gave her the ticket and plenty of money, charged the conductor to look after her, waved a brave farewell and turned back to the desert alone.
a brief conference with the woman who had entertained them, who was also the wife[240] of the station agent, brought out the fact that the missionary was not yet returned from his journey, but a message received from him a few days before spoke of his probable return on the morrow or the day after. the woman advised that the lady go to the fort where visitors were always welcomed and where there were luxuries more fitted to the stranger's habit. she eyed the dainty apparel of her guest enviously as she spoke, and hazel, keenly alive to the meaning of her look, realized that the woman, like the missionary, had judged her unfit for life in the desert. she was half determined to stay where she was until the missionary's return, and show that she could adapt herself to any surroundings, but she saw that the woman was anxious to have her gone. it probably put her out to have a guest of another world than her own.
the woman told her that a trusty indian messenger was here from the fort and was riding back soon. if the lady cared she could get a horse and go under his escort. she opened her eyes in wonder when hazel asked if there was to be a woman in the party, and whether she could not leave her work for a little while and ride over with them if she would pay her well for the service.[241]
"oh, you needn't bring none o' them fine lady airs out here!" she declared rudely. "we-all ain't got time fer no sech foolery. you needn't be afraid to go back with joe. he takes care of the women at the fort. he'll look after you fine. you'll mebbe kin hire a horse to ride, an' strop yer baggage on. yer trunk ye kin leave here."
hazel, half frightened at the position she had allowed herself to be placed in, considered the woman's words, and when she had looked upon the indian's stolid countenance decided to accept his escort. he was an old man with furrowed face and sad eyes that looked as if they could tell great secrets, but there was that in his face that made her trust him, she knew not why.
an hour later, her most necessary baggage strapped to the back of the saddle on a wicked-looking little pony, hazel, with a sense of deep excitement, mounted and rode away behind the solemn, silent indian. she was going to the fort to ask shelter, until her errand was accomplished, of the only women in that region who would be likely to take her in. she had a feeling that the thing she was doing was a most wild and unconventional proceeding and would come under the grave condemnation of her aunt, and all her new york friends. she was most thankful that they were far away and could not interfere, for somehow she felt that she must do it anyway. she must put that letter, with her own hands, into the possession of its owner.
it was a most glorious morning. the earth and the heavens seemed newly made for the day. hazel felt a gladness in her soul that would not down, even when she thought of poor amelia ellen crouched in her corner of the sleeper, miserable at her desertion, yet determined to go. she thought of the dear mother, and wondered if 'twere given to her to know now how she was trying to fulfill her last wish. it was pleasant to think she knew and was glad, and hazel felt as though her presence were near and protecting her.
the silent indian made few remarks. he rode ahead always with a grave, thoughtful expression, like a student whose thoughts are not to be disturbed. he nodded gravely in answer to the questions hazel asked him whenever they stopped to water the horses, but he volunteered no information beyond calling her attention to a lame foot her pony was developing.
several times joe got down and examined the pony's foot, and shook his head, with a grunt of worried disapproval. presently as the miles went by hazel began to notice the pony's lameness herself, and became alarmed lest he would break down altogether in the midst of the desert. then what would the indian do? certainly not give her his horse and foot it, as the missionary had done. she could not expect that every man in this desert was like the one who had cared for her before. what a foolish girl she had been to get herself into this fix! and now there was no father to send out search parties for her, and no missionary at home to find her!
the dust, the growing heat of the day, and the anxiety began to wear upon her. she was tired and hungry, and when at noon the indian dismounted beside a water-hole where the water tasted of sheep who had passed through but a short time before, and handed her a package of corn bread and cold bacon, while he withdrew to the company of the horses for his own siesta, she was feign to put her head down on the coarse grass and weep for her folly in coming out to this wild country alone, or at least in being so headstrong as to stay when amelia ellen deserted her. then the thought suddenly occurred to her: how would amelia ellen have figured in this morning's journey on horseback; and instead of weeping she fell to laughing almost hysterically.
she munched the corn bread—the bacon she could not eat—and wondered if the woman at the stopping-place had realized what an impossible lunch she had provided for her guest. however, here was one of the tests. she was not worth much if a little thing like coarse food annoyed her so much. she drank some of the bitter water, and bravely ate a second piece of corn bread and tried to hope her pony would be all right after his rest. but it was evident after they had gone a mile or two further that the pony was growing worse. he lagged, and limped, and stopped, and it seemed almost cruel to urge him further, yet what could be done? the indian rode behind now, watching him and speaking in low grunts to him occasionally, and finally they came in sight of a speck of a building in the distance. then the indian spoke. pointing towards the distant building, which seemed too tiny for human habitation, he said: "aneshodi hogan. him friend me. lady stay. me come back good horse. pony no go more. he bad!"
dismay filled the heart of the lady. she gathered that her guide wished to leave her by the way while he went on for another horse, and maybe he would return and maybe not. meantime, what kind of a place was he leaving her in? would there be a woman there? even if she were an indian woman that would not be so bad. "aneshodi" sounded as if it might be a woman's name.
"is this aneshodi a woman?" she questioned.
the indian shook his head and grunted. "na, na. aneshodi, aneshodi. him friend me. him good friend. no woman!" (in scorn.)
"is there no woman in the house?" she asked anxiously.
"na! him heap good man. good hogan. lady stay. rest."
suddenly her pony stumbled and nearly fell. she saw that she could not depend on him for long now.
"couldn't i walk with you?" she asked, her eyes pleading. "i would rather walk than stay. is it far?"
the indian shook his head vigorously.
"lady no walk. many suns lady walk. great mile. lady stay. me ride fast. back sundown," and he pointed to the sun which was even now beginning its downward course.
hazel saw there was nothing for it but to do as the indian said, and indeed his words seemed reasonable, but she was very much frightened. what kind of a place was this in which she was to stay? as they neared it there appeared to be nothing but a little weather-beaten shanty, with a curiously familiar look, as if she had passed that way before. a few chickens were picking about the yard, and a vine grew over the door, but there was no sign of human being about and the desert stretched wide and barren on every side. her old fear of its vastness returned, and she began to have a fellow feeling with amelia ellen. she saw now that she ought to have gone with amelia ellen back to civilization and found somebody who would have come with her on her errand. but then the letter would have been longer delayed!
the thought of the letter kept up her courage, and she descended dubiously from her pony's back, and followed the indian to the door of the shanty. the vine growing luxuriantly over window and casement and door frame reassured her somewhat, she could not tell just why. perhaps somebody with a sense of beauty lived in the ugly little building, and a man with a sense of beauty could not be wholly bad. but how was she[247] to stay alone in a man's house where no woman lived? perhaps the man would have a horse to lend or sell them. she would offer any sum he wanted if she only could get to a safe place.
but the indian did not knock at the door as she had expected he would do. instead he stooped to the lower step, and putting his hand into a small opening in the woodwork of the step, fumbled there a minute and presently brought out a key which he fitted into the lock and threw the door wide open to her astonished gaze.
"him friend me!" explained the indian again.
he walked into the room with the manner of a partial proprietor of the place, looked about, stooped down to the fireplace where a fire was neatly laid, and set it blazing up cheerfully; took the water bucket and filled it, and putting some water into the kettle swung it over the blaze to heat, then turning, he spoke again:
"lady stay. me come back—soon. sun no go down. me come back; good horse get lady."
"but where is the owner of this house? what will he think of my being here when he comes back?" said hazel, more frightened than ever at the prospect of being left. she had not expected to stay entirely alone. she had counted on finding some one in the house.
"aneshodi way off. not come back one—two—day mebbe! he know me. he me friend. lady stay! all right!"
hazel, her eyes large with fear, watched her protector mount and ride away. almost she called after him that he must not leave her; then she remembered that this was a part of a woman's life in arizona, and she was being tried. it was just such things as this the missionary had meant when he said she was unfit for life out here. she would stay and bear the loneliness and fright. she would prove, at least to herself, that she had the courage of any missionary. she would not bear the ignominy of weakness and failure. it would be a shame to her all her life to know she had failed in this trying time.
she watched the indian riding rapidly away as if he were in hot haste. once the suspicion crossed her mind that perhaps he had lamed her horse on purpose, and left her here just to get rid of her. perhaps this was the home of some dreadful person who would return soon and do her harm.
she turned quickly, with alarm in her heart, to see what manner of place she was in, for she had been too excited at first over the prospect of being left to notice it much, save to be surprised that there were chairs, a fireplace, and a look of comparative comfort. now she looked about to find out if possible just what sort of a person the owner might be, and glancing at the table near the fireplace the first object her eye fell upon was an open book, and the words that caught her vision were: "he that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty!"
with a start she turned the book over and found it was a bible, bound in plain, strong covers, with large, clear print, and it lay open as if the owner had been reading it but a short time before and had been called suddenly away.
with a sigh of relief she sank down in the big chair by the fire and let the excited tears have their way. somehow her fear all vanished with that sentence. the owner of the house could not be very bad when he kept his bible about and open to that psalm, her psalm, her missionary's psalm! and there was assurance in the very words themselves, as if they had been sent to remind her of her new trust in an unseen power. if she was making the most high her dwelling place continually, surely she was under his protection continually, and had no need to be afraid anywhere, for she was abiding in him. the thought gave her a strange new sense of sweetness and safety.
after a moment she sat up wiping away the tears and began to look around. perhaps this was the home of some friend of her missionary. she felt comforted about staying here now. she lifted her eyes to the wall above the mantel and lo, there smiled the face of her dear friend, the mother, who had just gone home to heaven, and beneath it—as if that were not enough to bring a throb of understanding and joy to her heart—beneath it hung her own little jewelled riding whip which she had left on the desert a year ago and forgotten.
suddenly, with a cry of joy, she rose and clasped her hands over her heart, relief and happiness in every line of her face.
"it is his home! i have come to his own house!" she cried and looked about her with the joy of discovery. this then was where he lived—there were his books, here his chair where he sat and rested or studied—his hands had left the bible open at her psalm, his psalm—their psalm! there was his couch over behind the screen, and at the other end the tiny table and the dishes in the closet! everything was in place, and careful neatness reigned, albeit an air of manlike uncertainty about some things.
she went from one end to the other of the big room and back again, studying every detail, revelling in the thought that now, whatever came to her, she might take back with her a picture of himself in his own quiet room when his work was laid aside for a little, and when, if ever he had time and allowed himself, he perhaps thought of her.
time flew on winged feet. with the dear face of her old friend smiling down upon her and that psalm open beside her on the table, she never thought of fear. and presently she remembered she was hungry, and went foraging in the cupboard for something to eat. she found plenty of supplies, and after she had satisfied her hunger sat down in the great chair by the fire and looked about her in contentment. with the peace of the room, his room, upon her, and the sweet old face from the picture looking down in benediction as if in welcome, she felt happier than since her father had died.
the quiet of the desert afternoon brooded outside, the fire burned softly lower and lower at her side, the sun bent down to the west, and long rays stole through the window and across at her feet, but the golden head was drooping and the long-lashed eyes were closed. she was asleep in his chair, and the dying firelight played over her face.
then, quietly, without any warning, the door opened and a man walked into the room!
