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Page 12
On the other band, she contrasted Dick in the essential point of
manliness most favorably with the male butterflies of society
that hovered around her. What one of them was so essentially
chivalrous as the Western man; so modest, so self-sacrificing, so
brave and resolute and resourceful? Dick Lane, or Jack Payson,
for that matter, in all save the adventitious points of education
and culture was the higher type of manhood, and Jack, at least,
if not poor Dick, could hold his own in mental and artistic
perception with the brightest, most cultured of Harvard
graduates.
At the end of the year she came back home to await Dick's return
from the wilds of Mexico. There was great anxiety about his
safety, for Geronimo, attacked by Crook in the Apache stronghold
of the Tonto Basin, had escaped to the mountains of northwestern
Mexico with his band of fierce Chiricahuas.
Now Dick Lane had not been heard from in this region. When he
neither made appearance nor sent a message upon the day appointed
for his return, his brother, Bud, was for setting out instantly
to find him and rescue him if he were in difficulties.
Then it was that Echo Allen discovered the true nature of her
affection for her lover, that it was sisterly regard, differing
only in degree, but not in kind, from that which she felt for his
brother. She joined with Polly in opposing Bud's going, urging
his recklessness as a reason. "You are certain to be killed,"
she said, "and I cannot lose you both." Jack Payson, for whom
Bud was working, then came forward and offered to accompany him,
and keep him with bounds. Again there was a revelation of her
heart Echo, and one that terrified her with a sense of
disloyalty. It was Jack she really loved, noble, chivalric,
wonderful Jack Payson, whom, with a Southern intensity of
feeling, she had unconsciously come to regard as her standard of
all that makes for manhood. Plausible objections could not be
urged against his sacrificing himself for his friend. With an
irresistible impulse she cast herself upon his breast and said:
"I cannot BEAR to see you go."
Payson gently disengaged her arms.
"I must, Echo. It is what Dick would do for me if I were in his
place."
However, while Payson and Bud were preparing for their departure,
Buck McKee appeared in the region and reported that Dick Lane had
been killed by the Apaches. He told with convincing details of
how he had met Lane as each was returning from a successful
prospecting trip in the Ghost Range, and how they had sunk their
differences in standing together against an attack of the
Indians. He extolled Dick's bravery, relating how, severely
wounded, he had stood off the savages to enable himself to
escape.
When he handed over Dick's watch to Echo--for he had learned on
his return that she was betrothed to Lane--as a last token from
her lover, no doubt remained in the minds of his hearers of the
truth of his story, and Payson and Bud Lane gave up their
purposed expedition.
The owner of Sweetwater Ranch, while accepting McKee's account,
could not wholly forget the half-breed's former evil reputation,
and was reserved in his reception of the advances of the
ex-rustler who was anxious to curry favor. Warm-hearted,
impulsive Bud, however, whose fraternal loyalty had increased
under his bereavement to the supreme passion of life, took the
insinuating half-breed into the aching vacancy made by his
brother's death. The two became boon companions, to the great
detriment of the younger man's morals. McKee had plenty of money
which he spent liberally, gambling and carousing in company with
Bud. Polly was wild with indignation at her sweetheart's
desertion, and savagely upbraided him for his conduct whenever
they met, which may be inferred, grew less and less frequently.
It was in revenge she made advances to another man who long
"loved her from afar."
This was William Henry Harrison Hoover, sheriff of the county,
known as "Slim" Hoover by the humorous propensity of men on the
range to give nicknames on the principle of contraries, for he
was fattest man in Pinal County. Slim was one of those fleshy
men who have nerves of steel and muscles of iron. A round,
boyish face, twinkling blue eyes, flaming red hair gave him an
appearance entirely at variance with his personality. A vein of
sentiment made him all the more lovable. His associates--
ranchers, men of the plains, soldiers, and the owners and
frequenters of the frontier barroom--respected him greatly.
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