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Page 43
Dick had ridden first to Sweetwater Ranch, but found the place
deserted. The party, he mused, accounted for this. While he was
planning a way to attract the attention of some one in the house,
and to get Payson to the garden without letting Echo know of his
presence, Sage-brush Charley, who had espied the stranger through
the window, sauntered out on the porch to investigate. Every
visitor to the Territory needed looking over, especially after
the trouble with Buck McKee.
Sage-brush was bound that there should be no hitch at the wedding
of his boss.
"Howdy," greeted Lane pleasantly. "I'm looking for Jack Payson."
"That so?" answered Sage-brush. "Who may you be?"
"I'm a friend of his."
The foreman could see no danger to come from this weak, sickly
man. "Then walk right in," he invited; "he's inside."
Sage-brush was about to reenter the house, when Dick halted him
with the request: "I want to see him out here--privately."
"What's the name," asked Sage-brush, his suspicions returning.
"Tell him an old friend from Mexico."
Sage-brush did not like the actions of the stranger and his
secrecy. He was there to fight his boss's battles, if he had
any. This was not in the contract, but it was a part read into
the paper by Sage-brush.
"Say, my name's Sage-brush Charley," he cried, with a show of
importance. "I'm ranch-boss for Payson. If you want to settle
any old claim agin' Jack, I'm actin' as his substitoot for him
this evenin'."
"On the contrary," said Lane, with a smile at Sage-brush's
outbreak, "he has a claim against me."
It was such a pleasant, kindly look he gave Sage-brush, that the
foreman was disarmed completely.
"I'll tell him," he said over his shoulder.
Dick mused over the changes that had occurred since he had left
the region. Two years' absence from a growing country means new
faces, new ranches, and the wiping out of old landmarks with the
advance of population and the invasion of the railroad. He
wondered if Jack would know him with his beard. He knew--his
mirror told him--that his appearance had changed greatly, and he
looked twenty years older than on the day he left the old home
ranch.
His trend of thought was interrupted by the entrance of Jack on
the porch from the house.
"My name's Payson," Jack began hurriedly, casting a hasty glance
backward into the hallway, for the ceremony was about to begin.
"You want to see me?"
"Jack!" cried Dick, holding out his hand eagerly. "Jack, old
man, don't you know me?" he continued falteringly, seeing no sign
of recognition in his friend's eyes.
Payson gasped, shocked and startled. The man before him was a
stranger in looks, but the voice--the voice was that of Dick
Lane, the last man in the world he wanted to see at that moment.
Frightened, almost betraying himself, he glanced at the half-open
door. If Dick entered he knew Echo would be lost to him. She
might love him truly, and her love for Dick might have passed
away, but he knew that Echo would never forgive him for the
deception that he had practised upon her.
Grasping his friend's hand weakly, he faltered, "Dick! Dick
Lane!"
Jack realized he must act quickly. Some way or somehow Dick must
be kept out of the house until after the marriage. Then he,
Jack, must take the consequences. Dick saw his hesitation. It
was not what he had expected. But something dreadful might have
happened while he was away, there had been so many changes.
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