That Girl Montana
passed the window and entered the room ere she could conceal them. He
observed her attempt to do so and smiled indulgently.
"Playing with the cards, are you?" he asked, in a careless way. "They are
expensive toys sometimes. But I'll teach you 'seven-up' some day; it's an
easy game."
"Is it?" she said; but did not look up at him. His indifference to the
pretty dress had not yet ceased to annoy her.
"Yes. And see here, 'Tana! I forgot to give you a present I brought you a
little while ago. It's a ring a fellow from the upper lake region worried
me into buying, as he was dead broke. He bought it from an Indian up near
Karlo. Queer for an Indian to have, isn't it?"
"Near Karlo?" she said, and reached out her hand for it.
There was a strange look on her face, a strange choking sound in her
throat. He noticed it, and his voice was very kindly as he spoke again.
"You don't like even to hear of that region, do you? You must have been
very miserable somewhere up there. But never mind, little girl; we'll try
to forget all that. And if the ring fits you, wear it, no matter what
country it comes from."
She tried to thank him, but the words would not come easily, and her
outstretched hand in which the ring lay was tremulous.
"Oh, that's all right," he said hastily, afraid, no doubt, she was going
to cry, as he had seen her do before at kind words. "Never mind about the
thanks. If you care to wear it, that's all that's necessary; though a
snake ring is not the prettiest of ornaments for a girl. It fits, doesn't
it?"
"Yes, it fits," she returned, and slipped it on her finger. "It is very
nice," but she shivered as with cold, and her hand shook.
It was curious enough to attract notice anywhere, a silver and a gold
snake twined together with their heads meeting, and in the flattened gold
head, eyes of garnet gleamed, while the silver head had eyes of emerald.
Not a girlish looking ornament, surely.
"I'll wear it," she said, and dropped the hand to her side. "But don't
tell the rest where it came from. I may want to tease them."
CHAPTER VIII.
THE DANCE.
"Ain't it lovely, Ora?" and 'Tana danced past Ora Harrison, the doctor's
pretty daughter, as if her feet had wings to them. And as Ora's bright
face smiled an answer, it was clear that the only two young girls in the
settlement were enjoying Lyster's party to the full.
For it was a pronounced success. Every "boy" invited was there in as much
of festive outfit as circumstances would allow. All the "family" people
were there. And the presence of Doctor Harrison--the only "professional"
man in the town--and his wife and daughter gave a stamp of select society
to the gathering in Mrs. Huzzard's rooms.
Mrs. Huzzard beamed with pleasure at the great success of it all. She
would have liked to dance, too, and refused most unwillingly when Lyster
tried to persuade her. But a supercilious glance from the captain made her
refusal decided. The doubt as to whether ladies in "sussiety" ever did
dance after forty years, and one hundred and sixty-three pounds weight,
deterred her. Now, if the captain had asked her to dance, she would have
been more assured.
But the captain did not; and, after a while, he was not to be seen. He had
vanished into the little back sitting room, and she was confident he was
engaged in his innocent pastime of a friendly game of cards with the
doctor.
"Go and dance with 'Tana, or that nice little girl of the doctor's,"
she said to Lyster, when he was trying to inveigle her into a
quadrille--"that's the sort of partner for you."
"But 'Tana has disappeared mysteriously; and as Miss Ora is 'bespoke,' I
can't dance with her unless I want a duel with her partner."
"'Tana disappeared! Well, now, I haven't seen her for two dances," said
Mrs. Huzzard, looking around searchingly, "though I never missed her till
this minute."
"Beg pardon, ma'am," said a voice at her elbow; "but is it the--the young
lady with the white dress you are looking for?"
"Yes, it is," answered Mrs. Huzzard, and turned around to face the
speaker, who was an apologetic-looking stranger with drab-colored chin
whiskers, and a checkered shirt, and a slight impediment in his speech.
"Well, ma'am, I saw her go into that room there quite a spell ago," and he
nodded toward the back sitting room. "She hasn't passed out again, as I've
seen."
Then, as Mrs. Huzzard smiled on him in a friendly way, he ventured
further:
"She's a very pretty girl, as any one can see. Might I ask her name?"
"Oh, yes! Her name is Rivers--Miss Tana Rivers," said Mrs. Huzzard. "You
must be a stranger in the settlement?"
"Yes, ma'am, I am. My name is Harris--Jim Harris. I come down from the
diggings with Mr. Overton this morning. He allowed it would be all right
for me to step inside, if I wanted to see the dancing."
"To be sure it is," agreed Mrs. Huzzard, heartily. "His friends are our
friends, and civil folks are always right welcome."
"Thank, you, ma'am; you're kind, I'm sure. But we ain't just friends,
especial. Only I had business in his line, so we picked up acquaintance
and come into camp together; and when I saw the pretty girl in white, I
did think I'd like to come in a spell. She looks so uncommon like a boy I
knew up in the 'big bend' country. Looks enough like him to be a twin; but
he wasn't called Rivers. Has--has this young lady any brothers or cousins
up there?"
"Well, now, as for cousins, they are far out, and we hain't ever talked
about them; but as for brothers or sisters, father or mother, that she
hasn't got, for she told me so. Her pa and Mr. Dan Overton they was
partners once; and when the pa died he just left his child to the
partner's care; and he couldn't have left her to a squarer man."
"That's what report says of him," conceded the stranger, watching her with
guarded attention. "Then Mr. Overton's partner hasn't been dead long?"
"Oh, no--not very long; not long enough for the child to get used to
talking of it to strangers, I guess; so we don't ask her many questions
about it. But it troubles her yet, I know."
"Of course--of course; such a pretty little girl, too."
Then the two fell into quite a pleasant chat, and it was not until he
moved away from beside her, to make room for the doctor's wife, that Mrs.
Huzzard observed that one arm hung limply beside him, and that one leg
dragged a little as he walked. He was a man who bore paralysis with him.
She thought, while he was talking to her, that he looked like a man who
had seen trouble. A weary, drawn look was about his eyes. She had seen
dissipated men who looked like that; yet this stranger seemed in no ways a
man of that sort. He was so quiet and polite; and when she saw the almost
useless limbs, she thought she knew then what that look in his face
meant.
But there were too many people about for her to study one very
particularly, so she lost sight of the stranger, Harris, and did not
observe that he had moved near the door of the sitting room, or that the
door was open.
But it was; and just inside of it Lyster stood watching, with a certain
vexation, a game of cards played there. The doctor had withdrawn, and was
looking with amusement at the two players--'Tana and Captain Leek. The
captain was getting the worst of it. His scattered whiskers fairly
bristled with perplexity and irritation. Several times he displayed bad
judgment in drawing and discarding, because of his nervous annoyance,
while she seemed surprisingly skillful or lucky, and was not at all
disturbed by her opponent's moods. She looked smilingly straight into his
eyes, and when she exhibited the last winning hand, and the captain dashed
his hand angrily into the pack, she waited for one civil second and then
swept the stakes toward her.
"What! Don't you want to play any more, captain?" she asked, maliciously.
"I would really like to have another dance, yet if you want revenge--"
"Go and dance by all means," he said, testily. "When I want another game
of poker, I'll let you know, but I must say I do not approve of such
pastime for young ladies."
"None of us would, if in your place, captain," laughed the doctor. "And,
for my part, I am glad I did not play against her luck."
The captain mumbled something about a difference between luck and skill,
while 'Tana swept the money off the table and laughed--not a pleasant
laugh, either.
"One--two--three--four!--twenty dollars--that is about a dollar a minute,
isn't it?" she asked provokingly. "Well, captain, I guess we are square up
to to-night, and if you want to open another account, I'm ready."
She spoke with the dash and recklessness of a boy. Lyster noticed it
again, and resented it silently. But when she turned, she read the
displeasure in his eyes.
"Oh, it's you, is it?" she inquired airily. "Is it time for our dance? You
see, the captain wanted some amusement, and, as the doctor was nearly
asleep over the cards, I came in and helped them out."
"Beautifully," agreed the doctor.
But Lyster borrowed no cheeriness from their smiles.
"I think it is our dance," Lyster observed. "And if you will come--"
"Certain," she said, with a nod; but at the door she paused. "Won't you
keep this money for me?" she asked. "I've no pocket. And just put a five
in a locked pocket 'for keeps,' please; I owe it to you."
"To me? You won that five."
"No, I didn't; I cheated you," she whispered. "Keep it, please do."
She pushed the money into his hand. One piece of it fell and rolled to the
feet of the stranger, who leaned carelessly against the doorway, but in
such a position that he could easily see into the sitting room.
He stooped and picked up the money.
"Yours, miss?" he said, courteously, and she smilingly reached out her
hand for it--the hand on which Overton's gift, the strange ring,
glittered.
The paralytic stranger barely repressed an exclamation as he noticed it,
and from it his eyes went swiftly, questioningly, to the girl's face.
"Yes, it's mine," she said, with a nod of thanks. Then she smiled a little
as she saw where his attention was given. "Are you wondering if the snakes
you see are the result of odd drinks? Well, they are not; they are of
metal and won't hurt you."
"Beg pardon, miss. Guess I did look at your pretty ring sharp; and it is
enough to make a man shake if he's been drinking. But a little drink will
do me a long time."
Then Lyster and the girl passed on, the girl smiling at the little
exchange of words with the stranger. But Lyster himself was anything but
well pleased at the entire affair. He resented the fact that he had found
her there gambling, that she had shown such skill, that she had turned to
the seedy-looking stranger and exchanged words, as men might do, but as a
girl assuredly should not do. All these things disturbed him. Why, he
could scarcely have told. Only that morning she had been but a little
half-savage child, who amused him by her varying moods and sharp speech.
But to-night, in her graceful white gown, she seemed to have grown taller
and more womanly and winsome. The glances and homage of the most
acceptable youths about revealed to him the fact that she was somewhat
more than the strong swimmer or clever canoeist. She was deemed charming
by others, in a very different fashion than he had thought of her, and she
appeared rather too conscious of the fact. He fancied that she even
delighted in letting him see that others showed deference to her, when
he had only that day teased her as carelessly as he would have teased a
boy into a rage.
Then to stop and jest like that with the insignificant stranger by the
door! Mr. Lyster said a bad word in his mind, and decided that the
presuming masculinity of the settlement would be allowed few chances for