The Man of the Forest

late herself upon not being so crippled as she had

and of which they were considerably proud. New c

these," Dale had said, w

ad been Bo's

ll get wet enough even if I do cut the

been Helen's rel

gency of the case was manifest to Helen, when she saw how they

hile. The country was wide and flat on the right, and to the left it rolled and heaved along a black, scalloped timber-line. Above this bordering of the forest low, drifting clouds obscured the mountai

go down slowly and the shake-up she received was unpleasant. Moreover, the spirited black horse insisted on jumping the ditches and washes. He sailed over them like a bird. Helen could not acquire the knack of sitting the saddle properly, and so, not only was her person bruised on these o

eep, and a low, soft roar of pattering hoofs. The flock held a compact formation, covering several acres, and grazed along rapidly. There were three herders on horses and several pack-burros. Dale engaged one of the Mexicans in conversation, and passed something to him, then pointed northward and down along the trail. The Mexican g

warrant. The wind increased. A huge black pall bore down from the mountains and it brought rain that could be

mountains altogether and making the gray, wet plain a dreary sight. Helen's feet and knees were as wet as if she had waded in water. And they were cold. Her gloves, too, had not been intended for rain, an

cingly cold. Helen's body kept warm, but her extremities and ears began to suffer exceedingly. She gazed ahead grimly. There was no help; she had to go on. Dale and

Again the gray torrent roared away, the fine mist blew, the clouds lifted and separated, and, closing again, darkened for another onslaught. This one brought sleet. The driving pellets stung Helen's nec

pain. And now the wind pierced right through her. She marveled at her endurance, and there were many times that she believed she could not ride farther. Yet she kept on. All the winters s

own into an immense basin where a reedy lake spread over the flats. They rode along its margin, splashing up to the knees of the horses. Cranes and herons flew on with lumbering motion; flocks of ducks winge

. But at last, just as another hard rain came, the pines were reached. They

harbored only sensations of misery, and a persistent thought-why did she ever leave home for the West? Her solicitude for Bo had been forgotten. Neverth

on Helen came to the edge of a great valley, black and gray, so full of obscurity that she could not see across or down into it. But she knew there was a rushing river at the bottom. The sound was deep, continuous, a heavy, murmuring roar, singul

willow-bordered, treeless space at the bottom of the valley, thro

flanks of their horses. Bo rode into the foaming water as if she had been used to it al

dle, he halted. The stream was fifty feet wide, shallow on the near side, deep on the

lled Dale. "Stick

not the strength left to lift her stirrups and the water surged over them. Ranger, in two more plunges, surmounted the bank,

d up to he

," he said, and the way h

e Bo leaned. Dale had ripped off a saddle and was sp

ournful greeting. The girl was pale, draw

ught you to this-wretch that I am!" cr

heartless, dreary, cold prospect. Just then home was vivid and poignant in her thoughts. Indeed, so utterly miserable was she that the exquisite relief of sitting d

em, and, laying them down, he bent over them. Roy wielded the ax on another log, and each stroke split off a long strip. Then a tiny column of smoke drifted up over Dale's shoulder as he leaned, bareheaded, sheltering the splinters with his hat. A blaze leaped up. Roy came with an armful of strips all white and dry, out of the inside of a log. Cr

orses. A lasso went up between two pines, and a tarpaulin over it, V-shaped and pegged down at the four end

and hot. Rain was falling steadily all around, but over and near that roaring blaze, ten feet high, no water fell. It evaporated.

fore how good a fire c

more food for He

it a different world from the one Helen had anticipated. It blazed and roared, cracked like a pistol, hissed and sputte

pile of red embers upon which the co

girls turkey to-nig

the wind shifts. Th

ake and pie! I never appreciated good things to eat. And I've been a li

nced up

worth learni

ds. In such brief space had she been

as still, except for the steady roar of the stream. A folded tarpaulin was laid between the pine and the fire, well in the l

t an' set with your back

made the improvised tent as bright as day. She could see the smoke, the trunk of the big pine towering aloft, and a blank space of sky. The stream hummed a

urned from hobbling the horses, and bes

day will be hid, I reckon,"

washed out. We've had luck. An' n

's the first I eve

job like this," pr

thet

bout this deal, as he's bound to when you or t

s will side with hi

olks to go where it's hot. He'll bunch his men

d till I can guide him up to your camp. Or, failin

ers ever seen my senaca. But i

der on it. But th

ain't

like a wolf after a bleedin' deer. An' if he ev

as calculatin' you'd go dow

no fight on the stage to make a bee-line back to Pine. He w

n, there's bound to be b

hope I get a look down my old

ou hold straighter tha

good shot," decl

good on mov

I meet up with Beasley. I'm a hossman, not a hunter. You're

by to-morrow night?" que

he girls. But they'll do it or die. Dale, did

le. "I remember some when I was a boy, but I was

ife like that Bo," de

ed a momen

an' you already got a

thet you never heard of a Mormon with two wive

I did hear pertainin' to m

yourself ONE. An' see then if

be more than enou

I always envied you your freedom," sa

ife is love

oy thet's like you-thet you feel will g

hin' the birds an' animals mate in the woods..

n't go in so deep as thet. I mean a son

what you ve got, because it's o

ing stream dominated the forest. An owl hooted dismally. A horse trod thudd

dreams and, awaking, she foun

ad?" came t

esire to move seemed clamped in a vise, and even if

sitting up, and I'd give you a million dollars to lace my boots

und them cold and stiff. Helen unlaced one and, opening it wide, essayed to get her sore foot down into it. But her foot appeared swollen and

hair was tousled, her eye

d up like a real Western g

d ease that tired feeling. The water of the stream where the girls washed was colder than any ice Helen had ever felt. It almost paralyzed her hands. Bo mumbled, and blew like a porpoise

t comin' in very fast with the hosses. I'll rustle off to help him. We've

going to shin

rejoined Roy,

selves for perhaps half an hour; then the horses ca

s up, melting the frost and ice, so that a dazzling,

ver, and tried the c

ind the packs with me-or a short cu

r of two rides," re

ut you'll know you've had a r

had yesterday?"

cold an' wet. To-day w

t meet us to-night," said Roy. "An' I reckon we'll split

and there a clump of dark, silver-pointed evergreens that Roy called spruce. By the time this slope was surmounted Helen's aches were not so bad. The saddle appeared to fit her better, and the gait of the horse was not so unfamiliar. She reflected,

and peered down

all along here,"

het long ago,"

g several tiny depressions in the pine-ne

" said Dale. "Those deer are worki

Then, turning, he waved his sombrero. The pack-animals halted in a bunch. Dale beckoned for the girls to follow and rode up to Roy's horse. This

ed. "An' they've winded us, but don't

orning sunlight. Presently Bo exclaimed: "Oh, look! I see! I see!" Then Helen's roving glance passed something different from green and gold and brown. Shifting back to it she saw a magnificent s

pered Dale. "An' you'

that Roy had hi

n't!" s

ntly nettled Roy. H

can you stand there an' tell me I'm goin

ow for downhill... H

tood perfectly motionless, as if he had indeed been stone. The does,

it thet pine-half a foot over his sho

e buck showed where Roy's lead had struck this time. With a single bound, wonderful t

the face, as he worked the lever of his r

e girls for missing brou

ve had you kill that beaut

certain," remarked Dale, dryly. "An' maybe

they rode down to the bottom, where a tiny brook babbled through willows, and they followed this for a mile

"You'll beat me into my camp, but I

r of yours an' the rest of your menagerie. Recko

om till I get ho

corralled

the run of

, then, an' r

e, he drove the pack-train before him up the op

th that single action which

hrew a stirrup up over the pommel of his sadd

m?" queried B

Milt's pe

anther-a mountain-l

takes a likin' to you he'll love you,

s all

ets, too?" she qu

an' vermin of all kinds, as tame as tame as cows. Too darn tame, Milt says. B

s she shifted her foot to let him

re full of parks; an', say, I don't ever want to see no prettier p

y, and, turning to his own, he ste

here. Come on," he cal

and it looked deep, but t

eerily. "Ride one behind the other-stick close to me-do what I

Roy was keeping to the easy trot that covered ground so well, and he led up a slope to the open pine forest. Here the ride for several miles was straight, level, and open. Helen liked the forest to-day. It was brown and green, with patches of gold where the sun struck. She

and aching bones. These she would bear with. She loved the wild and the beautiful, both of which increased manifestly with every mile

so sharply that he pu

e called,

crea

y! Here! Aw,

aw it! Oh! not like circu

issed her o

oy. Altering his course somewhat, he led to an old rotten log that the bear had b

d and long, climbing to the central uplift, where a number of fringed peaks raised their heads to the vast bare dome of Old Baldy. Far as vision co

d Roy, backing away. "We'll go down

yellowing. Roy led into a grassy glade, and, leaping off his horse, rifle in hand, he prepared to shoot at something. Again Bo cried out, but this time it was in delight. Then Helen saw an immense flock of turkeys, apparently like the turkeys she knew at home, but these had bronze and checks of white, and they looked wild. There must have

turning, he tied two shiny, plump gobblers back of his saddle and remount

red riding through those oak groves, brown and

d Roy. "I see tracks all over. They eat acorns

did not seem to care how close he passed a tree or under a limb, so that he missed them himself; but Helen thereby

and in places covered with a thick scum. But it had a current and an ou

. Cub track. An' look at these scratches on this tree, high

reached up to touch f

I take it particular kind of this old she rustlin'

e over a brook where trout splashed on the brown, swirling current, and leaves drifted down, and stray flecks of golden sunlight lightened the gloom. Here wa

nd on till the sun stood straight overhead. Then he halted for a short rest, unsaddled the horses to let them roll, and gave the

ith deep ravines so steep of slope as to make precarious travel. Mostly he kept to the bottom where dry washes afforded a k

mustang dragged her through more than one brambly place. On the other hand, some of these steep slopes, were comparatively free of underbrush. Great firs and pines loomed up on all sides. The earth was soft and the hoofs san

ed times, hot and wet and throbbing, she was compelled to stop. Always she had been a splendid walker and climber. And here, to break up the long ride, she was glad to be on her feet. But she could only drag one foot up

le way. Helen found that leading Ranger down was worse than riding him. He came fast and he would step right in her tracks. She was not quick enough to get away from h

s-great?" panted Bo,

-gone," panted

r a hundred yards or more, he essayed another attempt. Here there had been a slide, a

p on the up sid

could not watch Bo, because Ranger would no

ome the bette

to follow in their tracks, and when she realized this Ranger was climbing fast, almost dragging her, and it was too late to get above. Helen began to labor

yelled Roy, in warning

slide under Ranger, and that impeded Helen's progre

!" yell

y, and, rearing high, in a mighty plunge he gained solid ground. Helen was buried to her kne

's comment, when at last she

ns. To Helen, one way appeared as wild and rough as another, and all was yellow, green, and bla

ly he s

re turned rou

ot lost?"

, cheerfully. "Never did ride across here I had the direc

at him in co

" she