第19章

GWEN

It was not many days after my arrival in the Foothill country that I began to hear of Gwen.They all had stories of her.The details were not many, but the impression was vivid.She lived remote from that centre of civilization known as Swan Creek in the postal guide, but locally as Old Latour's, far up among the hills near the Devil's Lake, and from her father's ranch she never ventured.But some of the men had had glimpses of her and had come to definite opinions regarding her.

"What is she like?" I asked Bill one day, trying to pin him down to something like a descriptive account of her.

"Like! She's a terrer," he said, with slow emphasis, "a holy terrer.""But what is she like? What does she look like?" I asked impatiently.

"Look like?" He considered a moment, looked slowly round as if searching for a simile, then answered: "I dunno.""Don't know? What do you mean? Haven't you seen her?""Yeh! But she ain't like nothin'."

Bill was quite decided upon this point.

I tried again.

"Well, what sort of hair has she got? She's got hair, I suppose?""Hayer! Well, a few!" said Bill, with some choice combinations of profanity in repudiation of my suggestion."Yards of it! Red!""Git out!" contradicted Hi."Red! Tain't no more red than mine!"Bill regarded Hi's hair critically.

"What color do you put onto your old brush?" he asked cautiously.

"'Tain't no difference.'Tain't red, anyhow.""Red! Well, not quite exactly," and Bill went off into a low, long, choking chuckle, ejaculating now and then, "Red! Jee-mi-ny Ann! Red!""No, Hi," he went on, recovering himself with the same abruptness as he used with his bronco, and looking at his friend with a face even more than usually solemn, "your hayer ain't red, Hi; don't let any of your relatives persuade you to that.'Tain't red!" and he threatened to go off again, but pulled himself up with dangerous suddenness."It may be blue, cerulyum blue or even purple, but red--!" He paused violently, looking at his friend as if he found him a new and interesting object of study upon which he could not trust himself to speak.Nor could he be induced to proceed with the description he had begun.

But Hi, paying no attention to Bill's oration, took up the subject with enthusiasm.

"She kin ride--she's a reg'lar buster to ride, ain't she, Bill?"Bill nodded."She kin bunch cattle an' cut out an' yank a steer up to any cowboy on the range.""Why, how big is she?"

"Big? Why, she's just a kid! 'Tain't the bigness of her, it's the nerve.She's got the coldest kind of nerve you ever seen.Hain't she, Bill?" And again Bill nodded.

"'Member the day she dropped that steer, Bill?" went on Hi.

"What was that?" I asked, eager for a yarn.

"Oh, nuthin'," said Bill.

"Nuthin'!" retorted Hi."Pretty big nuthin'!""What was it?" I urged.

"Oh, Bill here did some funny work at old Meredith's round-up, but he don't speak of it.He's shy, you see," and Hi grinned.

"Well, there ain't no occasion for your proceedin' onto that tact,"said Bill disgustedly, and Hi loyally refrained, so I have never yet got the rights of the story.But from what I did hear Igathered that Bill, at the risk of his life, had pulled The Duke from under the hoofs of a mad steer, and that little Gwen had, in the coolest possible manner, "sailed in on her bronco" and, by putting two bullets into the steer's head, had saved them both from great danger, perhaps from death, for the rest of the cattle were crowding near.Of course Bill could never be persuaded to speak of the incident.A true western man will never hesitate to tell you what he can do, but of what he has done he does not readily speak.

The only other item that Hi contributed to the sketch of Gwen was that her temper could blaze if the occasion demanded.

"'Member young Hill, Bill?"

Bill "'membered."

"Didn't she cut into him sudden? Sarved him right, too.""What did she do?"

"Cut him across the face with her quirt in good style.""What for?"

"Knockin' about her Indian Joe."

Joe was, as I came to learn, Ponka's son and Gwen's most devoted slave.

"Oh, she ain't no refrigerator."

"Yes," assented Bill."She's a leetle swift." Then, as if fearing he had been apologizing for her, he added, with the air of one settling the question: "But she's good stock! She suits me!"The Duke helped me to another side of her character.

"She is a remarkable child," he said, one day."Wild and shy as a coyote, but fearless, quite; and with a heart full of passions.

Meredith, the Old Timer, you know, has kept her up there among the hills.She sees no one but himself and Ponka's Blackfeet relations, who treat her like a goddess and help to spoil her utterly.She knows their lingo and their ways--goes off with them for a week at a time.""What! With the Blackfeet?"

"Ponka and Joe, of course, go along; but even without them she is as safe as if surrounded by the Coldstream Guards, but she has given them up for some time now.""And at home?" I asked."Has she any education? Can she read or write?""Not she.She can make her own dresses, moccasins and leggings.

She can cook and wash--that is, when she feels in the mood.And she knows all about the birds and beasts and flowers and that sort of thing, but--education! Why, she is hardly civilized!""What a shame!" I said."How old is she?""Oh, a mere child; fourteen or fifteen, I imagine; but a woman in many things.""And what does her father say to all this? Can he control her?""Control!" said The Duke, in utter astonishment."Why, bless your soul, nothing in heaven or earth could control HER.Wait till you see her stand with her proud little head thrown back, giving orders to Joe, and you will never again connect the idea of control with Gwen.She might be a princess for the pride of her.I've seen some, too, in my day, but none to touch her for sheer, imperial pride, little Lucifer that she is.""And how does her father stand her nonsense?" I asked, for Iconfess I was not much taken with the picture The Duke had drawn.