the Light Of Western Stars (1992) (42 page)

Stewart's horse was on a jog-trot now, and Madeline left the trail more to Majesty than to her own choosing
.
The shadows deepened, and the crags grew gloomy and spectral
.
A cool wind moaned through the dark trees
.
Coyotes, scenting the hounds, kept apace of them, and barked and howled off in the gloom
.
But the tired hounds did not appear to notice
.

As black night began to envelop her surroundings, Madeline marked that the fir-trees had given place to pine forest
.
Suddenly a pin-point of light pierced the ebony blackness
.
Like a solitary star in dark sky it twinkled and blinked
.
She lost sight of it- found it again
.
It grew larger
.
Black tree-trunks crossed her line of vision
.
The light was a fire
.
She heard a cowboy song and the wild chorus of a pack of coyotes
.
Drops of rain on the branches of trees glittered in the rays of the fire
.
Stewart's tall figure, with sombrero slouched down, was now and then outlined against a growing circle of light
.
And by the aid of that light she saw him turn every moment or so to look back, probably to assure himself that she was close behind
.

With a prospect of fire and warmth, and food and rest, Madeline's enthusiasm revived
.
What a climb!There was promise in this wild ride and lonely trail and hidden craggy height, not only in the adventure her friends yearned for, but in some nameless joy and spirit for herself
.

XVI - The Crags Glad indeed was Madeline to be lifted off her horse beside a roaring fire-to see steaming pots upon red-hot coals
.
Except about her shoulders, which had been protected by the slicker, she was wringing wet
.
The Mexican women came quickly to help her change in a tent near by; but Madeline preferred for the moment to warm her numb feet and hands and to watch the spectacle of her arriving friends
.

Dorothy plumped off her saddle into the arms of several waiting cowboys
.
She could scarcely walk
.
Far removed in appearance was she from her usual stylish self
.
Her face was hidden by a limp and lopsided hat
.
From under the disheveled brim came a plaintive moan: "O-h-h!what a-an a-awful ride!" Mrs
.
Beck was in worse condition; she had to be taken off her horse
.
"I'm paralyzed-I'm a wreck
.
Bobby, get a roller-chair
.
"Bobby was solicitous and willing, but there were no roller-chairs
.
Florence dismounted easily, and but for her mass of hair, wet and tumbling, would have been taken for a handsome cowboy
.
Edith Wayne had stood the physical strain of the ride better than Dorothy; however, as her mount was rather small, she had been more at the mercy of cactus and brush
.
Her habit hung in tatters
.
Helen had preserved a remnant of style, as well as of pride, and perhaps a little strength
.
But her face was white, her eyes were big, and she limped
.
"Majesty!" she exclaimed
.
"What did you want to do to us?Kill us outright or make us homesick?"Of all of them, however, Ambrose's wife, Christine, the little French maid, had suffered the most in that long ride
.
She was unaccustomed to horses
.
Ambrose had to carry her into the big tent
.
Florence persuaded Madeline to leave the fire, and when they went in with the others Dorothy was wailing because her wet boots would not come off, Mrs
.
Beck was weeping and trying to direct a Mexican woman to unfasten her bedraggled dress, and there was general pandemonium
.

"Warm clothes-hot drinks and grub-warm blankets," rang out Stewart's sharp order
.

Then, with Florence helping the Mexican women, it was not long until Madeline and the feminine side of the party were comfortable, except for the weariness and aches that only rest and sleep could alleviate
.

Neither fatigue nor pains, however, nor the strangeness of being packed sardine-like under canvas, nor the howls of coyotes, kept Madeline's guests from stretching out with long, grateful sighs, and one by one dropping into deep slumber
.
Madeline whispered a little to Florence, and laughed with her once or twice, and then the light flickering on the canvas faded and her eyelids closed
.
Darkness and roar of camp life, low voices of men, thump of horses' hoofs, coyote serenade, the sense of warmth and sweet rest-all drifted away
.

***

When she awakened shadows of swaying branches moved on the sunlit canvas above her
.
She heard the ringing strokes of an ax, but no other sound from outside
.
Slow, regular breathing attested to the deep slumbers of her tent comrades
.
She observed presently that Florence was missing from the number
.
Madeline rose and peeped out between the flaps
.

An exquisitely beautiful scene surprised and enthralled her gaze
.
She saw a level space, green with long grass, bright with flowers, dotted with groves of graceful firs and pines and spruces, reaching to superb crags, rosy and golden in the sunlight
.
Eager to get out where she could enjoy an unrestricted view, she searched for her pack, found it in a corner, and then hurriedly and quietly dressed
.

Her favorite stag-hounds, Russ and Tartar, were asleep before the door, where they had been chained
.
She awakened them and loosened them, thinking the while that it must have been Stewart who had chained them near her
.
Close at hand also was a cowboy's bed rolled up in a tarpaulin
.

The cool air, fragrant with pine and spruce and some subtle nameless tang, sweet and tonic, made Madeline stand erect and breathe slowly and deeply
.
It was like drinking of a magic draught
.
She felt it in her blood, that it quickened its flow
.
Turning to look in the other direction, beyond the tent, she saw the remnants of last night's temporary camp, and farther on a grove of beautiful pines from which came the sharp ring of the ax
.
Wider gaze took in a wonderful park, not only surrounded by lofty crags, but full of crags of lesser height, many lifting their heads from dark-green groves of trees
.
The morning sun, not yet above the eastern elevations, sent its rosy and golden shafts in between the towering rocks, to tip the pines
.

Madeline, with the hounds beside her, walked through the nearest grove
.
The ground was soft and springy and brown with pine-needles
.
Then she saw that a clump of trees had prevented her from seeing the most striking part of this natural park
.
The cowboys had selected a campsite where they would have the morning sun and afternoon shade
.
Several tents and flies were already up; there was a huge lean-to made of spruce boughs; cowboys were busy round several camp-fires; piles of packs lay covered with tarpaulins, and beds were rolled up under the trees
.
This space was a kind of rolling meadow, with isolated trees here and there, and other trees in aisles and circles; and it mounted up in low, grassy banks to great towers of stone five hundred feet high
.
Other crags rose behind these
.
From under a mossy cliff, huge and green and cool, bubbled a full, clear spring
.
Wild flowers fringed its banks
.
Out in the meadow the horses were knee-deep in grass that waved in the morning breeze
.

Florence espied Madeline under the trees and came running
.
She was like a young girl, with life and color and joy
.
She wore a flannel blouse, corduroy skirt, and moccasins
.
And her hair was fastened under a band like an Indian's
.

"Castleton's gone with a gun, for hours, it seems," said Florence
.
"Gene just went to hunt him up
.
The other gentlemen are still asleep
.
I imagine they sure will sleep up heah in this air
.
"

Then, business-like, Florence fell to questioning Madeline about details of camp arrangement which Stewart, and Florence herself, could hardly see to without suggestion
.

Before any of Madeline's sleepy guests awakened the camp was completed
.
Madeline and Florence had a tent under a pine-tree, but they did not intend to sleep in it except during stormy weather
.
They spread a tarpaulin, made their bed on it, and elected to sleep under the light of the stars
.
After that, taking the hounds with them, they explored
.
To Madeline's surprise, the park was not a little half-mile nook nestling among the crags, but extended farther than they cared to walk, and was rather a series of parks
.
They were no more than small valleys between gray-toothed peaks
.
As the day advanced the charm of the place grew upon Madeline
.
Even at noon, with the sun beating down, there was comfortable warmth rather than heat
.
It was the kind of warmth that Madeline liked to feel in the spring
.
And the sweet, thin, rare atmosphere began to affect her strangely
.
She breathed deeply of it until she felt light-headed, as if her body lacked substance and might drift away like a thistledown
.
All at once she grew uncomfortably sleepy
.
A dreamy languor possessed her, and, lying under a pine with her head against Florence, she went to sleep
.
When she opened her eyes the shadows of the crags stretched from the west, and between them streamed a red-gold light
.
It was hazy, smoky sunshine losing its fire
.
The afternoon had far advanced
.
Madeline sat up
.
Florence was lazily reading
.
The two Mexican women were at work under the fly where the big stone fireplace had been erected
.
No one else was in sight
.

Florence, upon being questioned, informed Madeline that incident about camp had been delightfully absent
.
Castleton had returned and was profoundly sleeping with the other men
.
Presently a chorus of merry calls attracted Madeline's attention, and she turned to see Helen limping along with Dorothy, and Mrs
.
Beck and Edith supporting each other
.
They were all rested, but lame, and delighted with the place, and as hungry as bears awakened from a winter's sleep
.
Madeline forthwith escorted them round the camp, and through the many aisles between the trees, and to the mossy, pine-matted nooks under the crags
.

Then they had dinner, sitting on the ground after the manner of Indians; and it was a dinner that lacked merriment only because everybody was too busily appeasing appetite
.

Later Stewart led them across a neck of the park, up a rather steep climb between towering crags, to take them out upon a grassy promontory that faced the great open west-a vast, ridged, streaked, and reddened sweep of earth rolling down, as it seemed, to the golden sunset end of the world
.
Castleton said it was a jolly fine view; Dorothy voiced her usual languid enthusiasm; Helen was on fire with pleasure and wonder; Mrs
.
Beck appealed to Bobby to see how he liked it before she ventured, and she then reiterated his praise; and Edith Wayne, like Madeline and Florence, was silent
.
Boyd was politely interested; he was the kind of man who appeared to care for things as other people cared for them
.

Madeline watched the slow transformation of the changing west, with its haze of desert dust, through which mountain and cloud and sun slowly darkened
.
She watched until her eyes ached, and scarcely had a thought of what she was watching
.
When her eyes shifted to encounter the tall form of Stewart standing motionless on the rim, her mind became active again
.
As usual, he stood apart from the others, and now he seemed aloof and unconscious
.
He made a dark, powerful figure, and he fitted that wild promontory
.