The Call of the Canyon by Zane Grey


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Page 12

"Hey, Josh, did you fetch the flour?" called a woman's voice from inside.

"Hullo I Reckon I didn't forgit nothin'," replied the man, as he got down.
"An' say, Mrs. Hutter, hyar's a young lady from Noo Yorrk."

That latter speech of the driver's brought Mrs. Hutter out on the porch.
"Flo, come here," she called to some one evidently near at hand. And then
she smilingly greeted Carley.

"Get down an' come in, miss," she said. "I'm sure glad to see you."

Carley, being stiff and cold, did not very gracefully disengage herself
from the high muddy wheel and step. When she mounted to the porch she saw
that Mrs. Hutter was a woman of middle age, rather stout, with strong face
full of fine wavy lines, and kind dark eyes.

"I'm Miss Burch," said Carley.

"You're the girl whose picture Glenn Kilbourne has over his fireplace,"
declared the woman, heartily. "I'm sure glad to meet you, an' my daughter
Flo will be, too."

That about her picture pleased and warmed Carley. "Yes, I'm Glenn
Kilbourne's fiancee. I've come West to surprise him. Is he here. . . . Is--
is he well?"

"Fine. I saw him yesterday. He's changed a great deal from what he was at
first. Most all the last few months. I reckon you won't know him. . . . But
you're wet an' cold an' you look fagged. Come right in to the fire."

"Thank you; I'm all right," returned Carley.

At the doorway they encountered a girl of lithe and robust figure, quick in
her movements. Carley was swift to see the youth and grace of her; and then
a face that struck Carley as neither pretty nor beautiful, but still
wonderfully attractive.

"Flo, here's Miss Burch," burst out Mrs. Hutter, with cheerful importance.
"Glenn Kilbourne's girl come all the way from New York to surprise him!"

"Oh, Carley, I'm shore happy to meet you!" said the girl, in a voice of
slow drawling richness. "I know you. Glenn has told me all about you."

If this greeting, sweet and warm as it seemed, was a shock to Carley, she
gave no sign. But as she murmured something in reply she looked with all a
woman's keenness into the face before her. Flo Hutter had a fair skin
generously freckled; a mouth and chin too firmly cut to suggest a softer
feminine beauty; and eyes of clear light hazel, penetrating, frank,
fearless. Her hair was very abundant, almost silver-gold in color, and it
was either rebellious or showed lack of care. Carley liked the girl's looks
and liked the sincerity of her greeting; but instinctively she reacted
antagonistically because of the frank suggestion of intimacy with Glenn.

But for that she would have been spontaneous and friendly rather than
restrained.

They ushered Carley into a big living room and up to a fire of blazing
logs, where they helped divest her of the wet wraps. And all the time they
talked in the solicitous way natural to women who were kind and unused to
many visitors. Then Mrs. Hutter bustled off to make a cup of hot coffee
while Flo talked.

"We'll shore give you the nicest room--with a sleeping porch right under the
cliff where the water falls. It'll sing you to sleep. Of course you needn't
use the bed outdoors until it's warmer. Spring is late here, you know, and
we'll have nasty weather yet. You really happened on Oak Creek at its least
attractive season. But then it's always--well, just Oak Creek. You'll come
to know."

"I dare say I'll remember my first sight of it and the ride down that cliff
road," said Carley, with a wan smile.

"Oh, that's nothing to what you'll see and do," returned Flo, knowingly.
"We've had Eastern tenderfeet here before. And never was there a one of
them who didn't come to love Arizona."

"Tenderfoot! It hadn't occurred to me. But of course--" murmured Carley.

Then Mrs. Hutter returned, carrying a tray, which she set upon a chair, and
drew to Carley's side. "Eat an' drink," she said, as if these actions were
the cardinally important ones of life. "Flo, you carry her bags up to that
west room we always give to some particular person we want to love Lolomi."
Next she threw sticks of wood upon the fire, making it crackle and blaze,
then seated herself near Carley and beamed upon her.

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Books | Photos | Paul Mutton | Fri 10th Jan 2025, 3:52