"Oh, you people are slow," cried Nora. "What is keeping you? Come along or we shall be late. Shall we go through the woods straight to the dump, or shall we go around?""Let's go around," cried Kathleen. "Do you know I have not been around for ever so long?""Yes," said Larry, "let's go around by Nora's mine.""Nora's mine!" exclaimed Ernest. "Do you know I've heard about that mine a great deal but I have never seen Nora's mine?""Come along, then," said Nora, "but there's almost no trail and we shall have to hurry while we can. There's only a cow track.""Move along then," said her brother; "show us the way and we will follow. Go on, Ernest."But Ernest apparently had difficulty with his broncho so that he was found at the rear of the line with Kathleen immediately in front of him. The cow trail led out of the coolee over a shoulder of a wooded hill and down into a ravine whose sharp sides made the riding even to those experienced westerners a matter of difficulty, in places of danger. At the bottom of the ravine a little torrent boiled and foamed on its way to join Wolf Willow Creek a mile further down. After an hour's struggle with the brushwood and fallen timber the party was halted by a huge spruce tree which had fallen fair across the trail.
"Where now, boss?" cried Larry to Nora, who from her superior knowledge of the ground, had been leading the party.
"This is something new," answered Nora. "I think we should cross the water and try to break through to the left around the top of the tree.""No," said Ernest, "the right looks better to me, around the root here. It is something of a scramble, but it is better than the left.""Come along," said Nora; "this is the way of the trail, and we can get through the brush of that top all right.""I am for the right. Come, let's try it, Kathleen, shall we?" said Ernest.
Kathleen hesitated. "Come, we'll beat them out. Right turn, march."The commanding tones of the young man appeared to dominate the girl. She set her horse to the steep hillside, following her companion to the right. A steep climb through a tangle of underbrush brought them into the cleared woods, where they paused to breathe their animals.
"Ah, that was splendidly done. You are a good horsewoman," said Ernest. "If you only had a horse as good as mine we could go anywhere together. You deserve a better horse, too. I wonder if you know how fine you look.""My dear old Kitty is not very quick nor very beautiful, but she is very faithful, and so kind," said Kathleen, reaching down and patting her mare on the nose. "Shall we go on?""We need not hurry," replied her companion. "We have beaten them already. I love the woods here, and, Kathleen, I have not seen you for ever so long, for nine long months. And since your return fifteen days ago I have seen you only once, only once.""I am sorry," said Kathleen, hurrying her horse a little. "We happened to be out every time you called.""Other people have seen you," continued the young man with a note almost of anger in his voice. "Everywhere I hear of you, but Icannot see you. At church--I go to church to see you--but that, that Englishman is with you. He walks with you, you go in his motor car, he is in your house every day.""What are you talking about, Ernest? Mr. Romayne? Of course.
Mother likes him so much, and we all like him.""Your mother, ah!" Ernest's tone was full of scorn.
"Yes, my mother--we all like him, and his sister, Mrs. Waring-Gaunt, you know. They are our nearest neighbours, and we have come to know them very well. Shall we go on?""Kathleen, listen to me," said the young man.
At this point a long call came across the ravine.
"Ah, there they are," cried the girl. "Let's hurry, please do."She brought her whip down unexpectedly on Kitty's shoulders. The mare, surprised at such unusual treatment from her mistress, sprang forward, slipped on the moss-covered sloping rock, plunged, recovered herself, slipped again, and fell over on her side. At her first slip, the young man was off his horse, and before the mare finally pitched forward was at her head, and had caught the girl from the saddle into his arms. For a moment she lay there white and breathing hard.
"My God, Kathleen!" he cried. "You are hurt? You might have been killed." His eyes burned like two blazing lights, his voice was husky, his face white. Suddenly crushing her to him, he kissed her on the cheek and again on her lips. The girl struggled to get free.
"Oh, let me go, let me go," she cried. "How can you, how can you?"But his arms were like steel about her, and again and again he continued to kiss her, until, suddenly relaxing, she lay white and shuddering in his arms.
"Kathleen," he said, his voice hoarse with passion, "I love you, Ilove you. I want you. Gott in Himmel, I want you. Open your eyes, Kathleen, my darling. Speak to me. Open your eyes. Look at me. Tell me you love me." But still she lay white and shuddering.
Suddenly he released her and set her on her feet. She stood looking at him with quiet, searching eyes.
"You love me," she said, her voice low and quivering with a passionate scorn, "and you treat me so? Let us go." She moved toward her horse.
"Kathleen, hear me," he entreated. "You must hear me. You shall hear me." He caught her once more by the arm. "I forgot myself.
I saw you lying there so white. How could I help it? I meant no harm. I have loved you since you were a little girl, since that day I saw you first herding the cattle. You had a blue dress and long braids. I loved you then. I have loved you every day since.
I think of you and I dream of you. The world is full of you. I am offering you marriage. I want you to be my wife." The hands that clutched her arm were shaking, his voice was thick and broken. But still she stood with her face turned from him, quietly trying to break from his grasp. But no word did she speak.
"Kathleen, I forgot myself," he said, letting go of her arm. "Iwas wrong, but, my God, Kathleen, I am not stone, and when I felt your heart beat against mine--""Oh," she cried, shuddering and drawing further away from him.
"--and your face so white, your dear face so near mine, I forgot myself.""No," said the girl, turning her face toward him and searching him with her quiet, steady, but contemptuous eyes, "you forgot me."
