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Page 47
"Jim!" he cried in his anguish.
"You've got to go back where you came from, Dick," sternly
answered the ranchman. "If ever you loved my daughter, now's
your chance to prove it--she must never know you're livin--"
"But--"
"It's a whole lot I'm askin' of you, Dick," continued Allen. "But
if you love her, as I think you do, it may be a drop of comfort
in your heart to know that by doin' this great thing for her,
you'll be makin' her life better and happier."
"I do love her," cried Dick passionately; "but there must be some
reason--tell me."
Allen held up his hand to warn Dick to be silent. He beckoned
him to follow him. Slowly he led him to the door, and, partly
opening it, motioned him to listen.
"Forasmuch as John Payson and Echo Allen have consented together
in holy wedlock" were the words that fell upon his ears.
As the doomed man stands, motionless, before his judges, and
hears his death-sentence read without a tremor, ofttimes thinking
of some trifle, so Dick stood for a moment. At first he did not
fully realize what it all meant. Then the full depth of his
betrayal flooded him. "What?" he cried. "Payson!" Allen held
him back.
Again the minister's voice fell upon their ears repeating the
solemn words. "And have declared the same before God and in the
presence of these witnesses, I pronounce them husband and wife.
What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder."
Dick, shaken and hurt, slowly sank to his knees, covering his
face with his hands. A dry sob shook his frame. Here was the
end of all his hopes. Here was the sad reward for years of toil
and waiting.
"Now you know why you can't stay here," said Allen, his tones
full of pity.
"Now I know."
Dick staggered to his feet, and started blindly from the house.
"Dick!" cried Allen, in a broken voice, "forgive me. She's my
child, she loves him now."
The betrayed friend took his hand without looking at him. In
vain he tried to hide his deep emotion. "I know," he faltered,
"I'll never trouble her. I'll go away never to return."
"Where'll you go?" asked Allen.
"Back where I came from, back into the desert--into the land of
dead things. Good-by!"
As he wrung the ranchman's hand and turned to walk out of the
life of his old comrades and the woman he loved, he heard the
minister repeat: "The blessing of the Almighty Father rest upon
and abide with you, now and forevermore. Amen."
"Evermore. Amen!" faltered Dick, bidding a last mute farewell to
Allen.
The old ranchman watched him quietly as he mounted his horse and
rode down the trail.
His reverie was interrupted by the bursts of laughter of the
wedding-guests, and the cries of Fresno: "Kiss the bride, Slim!
Kiss the bride!"
CHAPTER X
The Piano
Five weeks had passed since the marriage of Echo and Jack. On
her return from the honeymoon in the little hunting cabin in the
Tortilla Range, the young wife set to work, and already great
changes had been made in the ranch-house on the Sweetwater. Rooms
were repapered and painted. The big center room was altered into
a cozy living-room. On the long, low window, giving an outlook
on fields of alfalfa, corn and the silver ribbons of the
irrigation ditches, dainty muslin curtains now hung. Potted
geraniums filled the sill, and in the unused fireplace Echo had
placed a jar of ferns. A clock ticking on the mantelpiece added
to the cheerfulness and hominess of the house. On the walls,
horns of mountain-sheep and antlers of antelope and deer
alternated with the mounted heads of puma and buffalo. Through
the open window one caught a glimpse of the arms of a windmill,
and the outbuildings of the home ranch. Navajo blankets were
scattered over the floors and seats.
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