"She don't love Dan.She thinks she does, but down deep they ain't a damned thing in the world she gives a rap about exceptin' Joan.Men? What are they to her? Marriage? That's simply an accident that's needed so she can have a baby.Delicate, shrinkin' flower, is she? I tell you, my boy, if it was necessary for Joan she'd tear out your heart and mine and send Dan plumb to hell.You fasten on to them words, because they're gospel."It was late afternoon while they talked, and they were swinging slowly down a gulch towards the home cabin.At that very time Kate, from the door of the house where she sat, saw a dark form slink from rock to rock at the rim of the little plateau, a motion so swift that it flicked through the corner of her eye, a thing to be sensed rather than seen.She set up very stiff, her lips white as chalk, but nothing more stirred.A few minutes later, when her heart was beating almost at normal she heard Joan scream from behind the house, not in terror, or pain, as her keen mother-ear knew perfectly well, but with a wild delight.She whipped about the corner of the house and there she saw Joan with her pudgy arms around the neck of Black Bart.
"Bart! Dear old Bart! Has he come? Has he come?"And she strained her eyes against the familiar mountains around her as if she would force her vision through rock.There was no trace of Dan, no sign or sound when she would even have welcomed the eerie whistle.The wolf-dog was already at play with Joan.She was on his back and he darted off in an effortless gallop, winding to and fro among the rocks.Most children would have toppled among the stones at the first of his swerves, but Joan clung like a burr, both hands dug into his hair, shrieking with excitement.
Sometimes she reeled and almost slid at one of those lightning turns, for the game was to almost unseat her, but just as she was sliding off Bart would slacken his pace and let her find a firm seat once more.They wound farther and farther away, and suddenly Kate cried, terror-stricken: "Joan!
Come back!"
A tug at the ear of the wolf-dog swung them around; then as they approached, the fear left the mind of the mother and a new thought came in its place.She coaxed Joan from Bart--they could play later on, she promised, to their heart's desire--and led her into the house.Black Bart followed to the door, but not all their entreaty or scolding could make him cross the threshold.He merely snarled at Kate, and even Joan's tugging at his ears could not budge him.He stood canting his head and watching them wistfully while Kate changed Joan's clothes.
She dressed her as if for a festival, with a blue bonnet that let the yellow hair curl out from the edges, and a little blue cloak, and shiny boots incredibly small, and around the bonnet she laid a wreath of yellow wild flowers.Then she wrote her letter, closed it in an envelope, and fastened it securely in the pocket of the cloak.
She drew Joan in front of her and held her by both hands.
"Joan, darling," she said, "munner wants you to go with Bart up through the mountains.Will you be afraid?"A very decided shake of the head answered her, for Joan's eyes were already over her shoulder looking towards the big dog.And she was a little sullen at these unnecessary words.
"It might grow dark," she said."You wouldn't care?"Here Joan became a little dubious, but a whine from Bart seemed to reassure her.
"Bart will keep Joan," she said.
"He will.And he'll take you up through the rocks to Daddy Dan."The face of the child grew brilliant.
"Daddy Dan?" she whispered.
"And when you get to him, take this little paper out of your pocket and give it to him.You won't forget?""Give the paper to Daddy Dan," repeated Joan solemnly.
Kate dropped to her knees and gathered the little close, close, until Joan cried out, but when she was eased the child reached up an astonished hand, touched the face of Kate with awe, and then stared at her finger tips.
A moment later, Joan stood in front of Black Bart, with the head of the wolf-dog seized firmly between her hands while she frowned intently into his face.
"Take Joan to Daddy Dan," she ordered.
At the name, the sharp ears pricked; a speaking intelligence grew up in his eyes.
"Giddap," commanded Joan, when she was in position on the back of Bart.And she thumped her heels against the furry ribs.
Towards Kate, who stood trembling in the door, Bart cast the departing favor of a throat-tearing growl, and then shambled across the meadow with that smooth trot which wears down all other four-footed creatures.He was already on the far side of the meadow, and beginning the ascent of the first slope when the glint of the sun on the yellow wild flowers flashed on the eye of Kate.It had all seemed natural until that moment, the only possible thing to do, but now she felt suddenly that Joan was thrown away thought of the darkness which would soon come--remembered the yellow terror which sometimes gleamed in the eyes of Black Bart after nightfall.
She cried out, but the wolf-dog kept swiftly on his way.She began to run, still calling, but rapidly as she went, Black Bart slid steadily away from her, and when she reached the shoulder of the mountain, she saw the dark form of Bart with the blue patch above it drifting up the wall of the opposite ravine.
She knew where they were going now; it was the old cave upon which she and Dan had come one day in their rides, and Dan had prowled for a long time through the shadowy recesses.
