That Girl Montana
favors the remainder of the evening. He intended to guard her himself--a
formidable guard for the purpose, as a man would need a good deal of
self-reliance to try for favor if so handsome a personality as Lyster's
was an opponent.
But the rather shabby stranger, standing by the inner door, scarcely
noticed the noticeable young fellow. All his attention was given to the
girl who had spoken to him so frankly. She passed on and did not observe
his excessive interest. But his eyes lighted up when he heard her voice
speaking to him, and his face flushed with color as he stroked his beard
with his well hand and gazed after her.
"So this is where the trail begins, is it?" he whispered to the trembling
hand at his lips. "Well, I would have looked for it many another place
before commencing with a partner of Mr. Dan Overton--law-and-order man. He
must have gulled this whole territory beautifully to have them swear by
him as they do. And 'Monte' is his _protegee_! Well, Miss--or Mr.
Monte--whichever it is--your girl's toggery is more becoming than the
outfit I saw you wear last; but though your hair is a little darker, I'd
swear to you anywhere--yes, and to the ring, too. Well, I think I'll rest
my weary body in this 'burgh' for a few weeks to come. If the devil hasn't
helped his own, and cheated me, this partner--Mr. 'Rivers'--is yet alive
and in the flesh. If so, there is one place he will drift sooner or later,
and that is to this young gambler. And then--then death will be no sham
for him, for I will be here, too."
To 'Tana--jubilant with her victory over her instinctive antagonist, the
captain--all the evening was made for her pleasure, and she floated in the
paradise of sixteen years; and the world where people danced was the only
world worth knowing.
"I will be good now--I can be as good as an angel since I've got even with
the captain."
She whispered those words to Lyster, whose hand was clasping hers, whose
arm was about her waist, as they, drifted around the rather small circle,
to a waltz played on a concertina and a banjo.
She looked up at him, mutely asking him to believe her. Her desire for
revenge satisfied, she could be a very good girl now.
It was just then that Overton, who stood outside the window, glanced in
and saw her lovely upturned face--saw the red lips move in some pouting
protest, to which Lyster smiled but looked doubtfully down at her. To the
man watching them from without, the two seemed always so close--so
confidential. At times he even wondered if Lyster had not learned more
than himself of her life before that day at Akkomi's camp.
All that evening Dan had not once entered the room where they danced, or
added in any way to their merry-making. He had stood outside the door most
of the time, or sometimes rested a little way from it on a store box,
where he smoked placidly, and inspected the people who gathered to the
dance.
All the invited guests came early, and perfect harmony reigned within. A
few of the unsavory order of citizens had sauntered by, as though taking
note of the pleasures from which they were excluded. But it was not
until almost twelve o'clock--just after Overton had turned away from
watching the waltz--that a pistol shot rang out in the street, and several
dancers halted.
Some of the men silently moved to the door, but just then the door was
opened by Overton, who looked in.
"It was only my gun went off by accident," he said, carelessly. "So don't
let me stampede the party. Go on with your music."
The stranger, Harris, was nearest the door, and essayed to pass out, but
Overton touched him on the arm.
"Not just yet," he said hurriedly. "Don't come out or others will follow,
and there'll be trouble. Keep them in some way."
Then the door closed. The concertina sobbed and shrieked out its notes,
and drowned a murmur of voices on the outside. One man lay senseless close
to the doorstep, and four more men with two women stood a little apart
from him.
"If another shot is fired, your houses will be torn down over your heads
to-morrow," said Overton, threateningly; "and some of you will not be
needing an earthly habitation by that time, either."
"Fury! It is Overton!" muttered one of the men to another. "They told us
he wasn't in this thing."
"What for you care?" demanded the angry tones of a Dutch woman. "What
difference that make--eh? If so be as we want to dance--well, then, we go
in and dance--you make no mistake."
But the men were not so aggressive. The most audacious was the senseless
one, who had fired the revolver and whom Overton had promptly and quietly
knocked down.
"I don't think you men want any trouble of this sort," he remarked, and
ignored the women entirely. "If you've been told that I'm not in this,
that's just where some one told you a lie; and if it's a woman, you should
know better than to follow her lead. If these women get through that door,
it will be when I'm an angel. I'm doing you all a good turn by not letting
the boys in there know about this. No religion could save you, if I turned
them loose on you; so you had better get away quiet, and quick."
The men seemed to appreciate his words.
"That's so," mumbled one.
And as the other woman attempted a protest, one of the men put his hand
over her mouth, and, picking her up bodily, walked down the street with
her, she all the time kicking and making remarks of a vigorous nature.
The humor of the situation appealed to the delicate senses of her
companions, until they laughed right heartily, and the entire tone of the
scene was changed from a threat of battle to an excuse for jollity. The
man on the ground reeled upward to his feet with the help of a shake from
Overton.
"Where's my gun?" he asked, sulkily.
Blood trickling from a cut brow compelled him to keep one eye shut.
"Overton has it," explained one of his friends. "Come on, and don't try
another racket."
"I want my gun--it was him hit me," growled the wounded one, whose spirits
had not been enlivened by the spectacle the rest had witnessed.
"You are right--it was him," agreed the other, darkly; "and if it hadn't
been for breaking up the dance, I guess he'd a-killed you. Come on. You
left a ball in his arm by the looks of things, and all he did was to knock
you still. He may want to do more to-morrow. But as you have no gun,
you'd better wait till then."
The door had been opened, and the light streamed out. Men talked in a
friendly, jovial fashion on and about the doorstep. They saw the forms
moving away in the shadows, but no sign of disturbance met them.
Overton stood looking in the window at the dancers. The waltz was not yet
finished, and 'Tana and Lyster drifted past within a few feet of him. The
serenity of their evening had not been disturbed. Her face held all of
joyous content--so it seemed to the watcher. She laughed as she danced;
and hearing the music of her high, girlish tones, he forgot for a time the
stinging little pain in his arm, until his left hand, thrust into his coat
pocket, slowly filled with blood. Then Dan turned to the man nearest him.
"If Doctor Harrison is still in there, would you do me the favor of asking
him to come outside for a few minutes?" he asked, and the man addressed
stepped closer.
"There is a back way into the house. Hadn't you better just step in that
way, and have him fix you up? He's in the back room, alone, smoking."
Overton turned with an impatient exclamation, and a sharp, questioning
look. It was the half-paralyzed stranger--Harris.
"Oh, I ain't interfering!" he said, amiably. "But as I slipped out through
the back door before your visitors left, I dropped to the fact that you
had some damage done to that left arm. Yes, I'll carry any message you
like to your doctor, for I like your nerve. But I must say it's thankless
work to stand up as a silent target for cold lead, just so some one else
may dance undisturbed. Take an old man's advice, sonny, do some of the
dancing yourself."
CHAPTER IX.
THE STRANGER'S WARNING.
That one festive night decided the immediate future of 'Tana. All her joy
in it did not prevent a decision that it should be the last in her
experience, for a year to come, at least.
It was Lyster who broached the subject, and Overton looked at him closely
while he talked.
"You are right," he decided, at last; "a school is the easiest path out of
this jungle, I reckon. I thought of a school, but didn't know where--I'm
not posted on such things. But if you know the trail to a good one, we'll
fix it. She has no family folks at all, so--"
"I'd like to ask, if it's allowable--"
"Don't ask me about her people," said the other, quickly; "she wouldn't
want me to talk of them. You see, Max, all sorts get caught in whirlpools
of one sort or another, when ventures are made in a new country like this,
and often it's a thoroughbred that goes under first, while a lot of scrub
stock will pull through an epidemic and never miss a feed. Well, her folks
belonged to the list that has gone under--speculating people, you know,
who left her stranded when they started 'over the range,' and she's
sensitive about it--has a sort of pride, too, and doesn't want to be
pitied, I guess. Anyway, I've promised she sha'n't be followed by any
reminder of her misfortunes, and I can't go into details."
"Oh, that's all right; I'm not curious to know whether her folks had a
palace or a cabin to live in. But she has brightness. I like her well
enough to give up some useless pastimes that are expensive, and contribute
the results to a school fund for her, if you say yes. But I should like to
know if her people belonged to the class we call ladies and
gentlemen--that is all."
Overton did not answer at once. His eyes were turned toward his bandaged
arm, and a little wrinkle grew between his brows.
"The man is dead, and I don't think there's anything for me to say as to
his gentlemanly qualities," he said at last. "He was a prospector and
speculator, with an equal amount of vice and virtue in him, I suppose;
just about like the rest of us. Her mother I never saw, but have reason to
think she was a lady."
"And you say every word of that as if they were drawn from you with
forceps," said Lyster, cheerily. "Well, I'll not bother you about it
again. But, you see, there is a cousin of mine at the school I spoke of,
and I wanted to know because of that. It's all right, though; my own
instincts would tell me she came of good stock. But even good stock will
grow wild, you know, if it doesn't get the right sort of training. You
know, old fellow, I'm downright in earnest about wanting to help you about
her."
"Yes, I know. You have, too," said the other. "You've pointed out the
school and all, and we see she can't be left here."
"Not when you are ranging around the hills, and never a man to take your
place as a guard," agreed Lyster. "I feel about two years old ever since I
heard of how you kept annoyances from us last night while we were so
serenely unconscious of your trials. 'Tana will scarcely look at me this
morning, for no reason but that I did not divine the state of affairs and
go to help you. That girl has picked up so much queer knowledge herself
that she expects every one to be gifted with second sight."
Then he told, with a good deal of amusement, the episode of the poker game
and the discomfiture of the captain.
Overton said little. He was not so much shocked or vexed over it as Lyster
had been, because he had lived more among people to whom such pastimes
were not unusual.
"And I offered to teach her 'seven-up,' because it was easy," he remarked
grimly. "Yes, the school is best. You see, even if I am on the ground, I'm
not a fit guardian. Didn't I give her leave to get square with the old