'Firebrand' Trevison by Charles Alden Seltzer (ebook reader for manga .TXT) 📕

It was three o’clock and the dawn was just breaking when Trevison rode into the Diamond K corral and pulled the saddle from Nigger. Levins had gone home.

Trevison was disappointed. It had been a bold scheme, and well planned, and it would have succeeded had it not been for the presence of the sentries. He had not anticipated that. He laughed grimly, remembering Judge Lindman’s fright. Would the Judge reveal the identity of his early-morning visitor? Trevison thought not, for if the original record were in the safe, and if for any reason the Judge wished to conceal its existence from Corrigan, a hint of the identity of the early-morning visitors—especially of one—might arouse Corrigan’s suspicions.

But what if Corrigan knew of the existence of the original record? There was the presence of the guards to indicate that he did. But there was Judge Lindman’s half-heartedness to disprove that line of reasoning. Also, Trevison was convinced that if Corrigan knew of the existence of the record he would destroy it; it would be dangerous, in the hands of an enemy. But it would be an admirable weapon of self-protection in the hands of a man who had been forced into wrong-doing—in the hands of Judge Lindman, for instance. Trevison opened the door that led to his office, thrilling with a new hope. He lit a match, stepped across the floor and touched the flame to the wick of the kerosene lamp—for it was not yet light enough for him to see plainly in the office—and stood for an instant blinking in its glare. A second later he reeled back against the edge of the desk, his hands gripping it, dumb, amazed, physically sick with a fear that he had suddenly gone insane. For in a big chair in a corner of the room, sleepy-eyed, tired, but looking very becoming in her simple dress with a light cloak over it, the collar turned up, so that it gave her an appearance of attractive negligence, a smile of delighted welcome on her face, was Hester Harvey.

She got up as he stood staring dumfoundedly at her and moved toward him, with an air of artful supplication that brought a gasp out of him—of sheer relief.

“Won’t you welcome me, Trev? I have come very far, to see you.” She held out her hands and went slowly toward him, mutely pleading, her eyes luminous with love—which she did not pretend, for the boy she had known had grown into the promise of his youth—big, magnetic—a figure for any woman to love.

He had been looking at her intently, narrowly, searchingly. He saw what she herself had not seen—the natural changes that ten years had brought to her. He saw other things—that she had not suspected—a certain blasé sophistication; a too bold and artful expression of the eyes—as though she knew their power and the lure of them; the slightly hard curve in the corners of her mouth; a second character lurking around her—indefinite, vague, repelling—the subconscious self, that no artifice can hide—the sin and the shame of deeds unrepented. If there had been a time when he had loved her, its potence could not leap the lapse of years and overcome his repugnance for her kind, and he looked at her coldly, barring her progress with a hand, which caught her two and held them in a grip that made her wince.

“What are you doing here? How did you get in? When did you come?” He fired the questions at her roughly, brutally.

“Why, Trev.” She gulped, her smile fading palely. The conquest was not to be the easy one she had thought—though she really wanted him—more than ever, now that she saw she was in danger of losing him. She explained, earnestly pleading with eyes that had lost their power to charm him.

“I heard you were here—that you were in trouble. I want to help you. I got here night before last—to Manti. Rosalind Benham had written about you to Ruth Gresham—a friend of hers in New York. Ruth Gresham told me. I went directly from Manti to Benham’s ranch. Then I came here—about dusk, last night. There was a man here—your foreman, he said. I explained, and he let me in. Trev—won’t you welcome me?”

“It isn’t the first time I’ve been in trouble.” His laugh was harsh; it made her cringe and cry:

“I’ve repented for that. I shouldn’t have done it; I don’t know what was the matter with me. Harvey had been telling me things about you—”

“You wouldn’t have believed him—” He laughed, cynically. “There’s no use of haggling over that—it’s buried, and I’ve placed a monument over it: ‘Here lies a fool that believed in a woman.’ I don’t reproach you—you couldn’t be blamed for not wanting to marry an idiot like me. But I haven’t changed. I still have my crazy ideas of honor and justice and square-dealing, and my double-riveted faith in my ability to triumph over all adversity. But women—Bah! you’re all alike! You scheme, you plot, you play for place; you are selfish, cold; you snivel and whine—There is more of it, but I can’t think of any more. But—let’s face this matter squarely. If you still like me, I’m sorry for you, for I can’t say that the sight of you has stirred any old passion in me. You shouldn’t have come out here.”

“You’re terribly resentful, Trev. And I don’t blame you a bit—I deserve it all. But don’t send me away. Why, I—love you, Trev; I’ve loved you all these years; I loved you when I sent you away—while I was married to Harvey; and more afterwards—and now, deeper than ever; and—”

He shook his head and looked at her steadily—cynicism, bald derision in his gaze. “I’m sorry; but it can’t be—you’re too late.”

He dropped her hands, and she felt of the fingers where he had gripped them. She veiled the quick, savage leap in her eyes by drooping the lids.

“You love Rosalind Benham,” she said, quietly, looking at him with a mirthless smile. He started, and her lips grew a trifle stiff. “You poor boy!”

“Why the pity?” he said grimly.

“Because she doesn’t care for you, Trev. She told me yesterday that she was engaged to marry a man named Corrigan. He is out here, she said. She remarked that she had found you very amusing during the three or four weeks of Corrigan’s absence, and she seemed delighted because the court out here had ruled that the land you thought was yours belongs to the man who is to be her husband.”

He stiffened at this, for it corroborated Corrigan’s words: “She is heart and soul with me in this deal, She is ambitious.” Trevison’s lips curled scornfully. First, Hester Keyes had been ambitious, and now it was Rosalind Benham. He fought off the bitter resentment that filled him and raised his head, laughing, glossing over the hurt with savage humor.

“Well, I’m doing some good in the world, after all.”

“Trev,” Hester moved toward him again, “don’t talk like that—it makes me shiver. I’ve been through the fire, boy—we’ve both been through it. I wasted myself on Harvey—you’ll do the same with Rosalind Benham. Ten years, boy—think of it! I’ve loved you for that long. Doesn’t that make you understand—”

“There’s nothing quite so dead as a love that a man doesn’t want to revive,” he said shortly; “do you understand that?”

She shuddered and paled, and a long silence came between them. The cold dawn that was creeping over the land stole into the office with them and found the fires of affection turned to the ashes of unwelcome memory. The woman seemed to realize at last, for she gave a little shiver and looked up at Trevison with a wan smile.

“I—I think I understand, Trev. Oh, I am so sorry! But I am not going away. I am going to stay in Manti, to be near you—if you want me. And you will want me, some day.” She went close to him. “Won’t you kiss me—once, Trev? For the sake of old times?”

“You’d better go,” he said gruffly, turning his head. And then, as she opened the door and stood upon the threshold, he stepped after her, saying: “I’ll get your horse.”

“There’s two of them,” she laughed tremulously. “I came in a buckboard.”

“Two, then,” he said soberly as he followed her out. “And say—” He turned, flushing. “You came at dusk, last night. I’m afraid I haven’t been exactly thoughtful. Wait—I’ll rustle up something to eat.”

“I—I couldn’t touch it, thank you. Trev—” She started toward him impulsively, but he turned his back grimly and went toward the corral.

Sunrise found Hester back at the Bar B. Jealous, hurt eyes had watched from an upstairs window the approach of the buckboard—had watched the Diamond K trail the greater part of the night. For, knowing of the absence of women at the Diamond K, Rosalind had anticipated Hester’s return the previous evening—for the distance that separated the two ranches was not more than two miles. But the girl’s vigil had been unrewarded until now. And when at last she saw the buckboard coming, scorn and rage, furious and deep, seized her. Ah, it was bold, brazen, disgraceful!

But she forced herself to calmness as she went down stairs to greet her guest—for there might have been some excuse for the lapse of propriety—some accident—something, anything.

“I expected you last night,” she said as she met Hester at the door. “You were delayed I presume. Has anything happened?”

“Nothing, dearie.” Only the bold significance of Hester’s smile hid its deliberate maliciousness. “Trev was so glad to see me that he simply wouldn’t let me go. And it was daylight before we realized it.”

The girl gasped. And now, looking at the woman, she saw what Trevison had seen—staring back at her, naked and repulsive. She shuddered, and her face whitened.

“There are hotels at Manti, Mrs. Harvey,” she said coldly.

“Oh, very well!” The woman did not change her smile. “I shall be very glad to take advantage of your kind invitation. For Trev tells me that presently there will be much bitterness between your crowd and himself, and I am certain that he wouldn’t want me to stay here. If you will kindly have a man bring my trunks—”

And so she rode toward Manti. Not until the varying undulations of the land hid her from view of the Bar B ranchhouse did she lose the malicious smile. Then it faded, and furious sobs of disappointment shook her.