登陆注册
5240500000041

第41章 CHAPTER IX. SILVER SPRUCE AND ASPENS(5)

She talked about the dogs, about the caves, the valley, about how hungry she was, till Venters silenced her, asking her to put off further talk till another time. She obeyed, but she sat up in her bed, and her eyes roved to and fro, and always back to him.

Upon the second morning she sat up when he awakened her, and would not permit him to bathe her face and feed her, which actions she performed for herself. She spoke little, however, and Venters was quick to catch in her the first intimations of thoughtfulness and curiosity and appreciation of her situation.

He left camp and took Whitie out to hunt for rabbits. Upon his return he was amazed and somewhat anxiously concerned to see his invalid sitting with her back to a corner of the cave and her bare feet swinging out. Hurriedly he approached, intending to advise her to lie down again, to tell her that perhaps she might overtax her strength. The sun shone upon her, glinting on the little head with its tangle of bright hair and the small, oval face with its pallor, and dark-blue eyes underlined by dark-blue circles. She looked at him and he looked at her. In that exchange of glances he imagined each saw the other in some different guise. It seemed impossible to Venters that this frail girl could be Oldring's Masked Rider. It flashed over him that he had made a mistake which presently she would explain.

"Help me down," she said.

"But--are you well enough?" he protested. "Wait--a little longer."

"I'm weak--dizzy. But I want to get down."

He lifted her--what a light burden now!--and stood her upright beside him, and supported her as she essayed to walk with halting steps. She was like a stripling of a boy; the bright, small head scarcely reached his shoulder. But now, as she clung to his arm, the rider's costume she wore did not contradict, as it had done at first, his feeling of her femininity. She might be the famous Masked Rider of the uplands, she might resemble a boy; but her outline, her little hands and feet, her hair, her big eyes and tremulous lips, and especially a something that Venters felt as a subtle essence rather than what he saw, proclaimed her sex.

She soon tired. He arranged a comfortable seat for her under the spruce that overspread the camp-fire.

"Now tell me--everything," she said.

He recounted all that had happened from the time of his discovery of the rustlers in the canyon up to the present moment.

"You shot me--and now you've saved my life?"

"Yes. After almost killing you I've pulled you through."

"Are you glad?"

"I should say so!"

Her eyes were unusually expressive, and they regarded him steadily; she was unconscious of that mirroring of her emotions and they shone with gratefulness and interest and wonder and sadness.

"Tell me--about yourself?" she asked.

He made this a briefer story, telling of his coming to Utah, his various occupations till he became a rider, and then how the Mormons had practically driven him out of Cottonwoods, an outcast.

Then, no longer able to withstand his own burning curiosity, he questioned her in turn.

"Are you Oldring's Masked Rider?"

"Yes," she replied, and dropped her eyes.

"I knew it--I recognized your figure--and mask, for I saw you once. Yet I can't believe it!...But you never were really that rustler, as we riders knew him? A thief--a marauder--a kidnapper of women--a murderer of sleeping riders!"

"No! I never stole--or harmed any one--in all my life. I only rode and rode--"

"But why--why?" he burst out. "Why the name? I understand Oldring made you ride. But the black mask--the mystery--the things laid to your hands--the threats in your infamous name--the night-riding credited to you--the evil deeds deliberately blamed on you and acknowledged by rustlers--even Oldring himself! Why?

Tell me why?"

"I never knew that," she answered low. Her drooping head straightened, and the large eyes, larger now and darker, met Venters's with a clear, steadfast gaze in which he read truth. It verified his own conviction.

"Never knew? That's strange! Are you a Mormon?"

"No."

"Is Oldring a Mormon?"

"No."

"Do you--care for him?"

"Yes. I hate his men--his life--sometimes I almost hate him!"

Venters paused in his rapid-fire questioning, as if to brace him self to ask for a truth that would be abhorrent for him to confirm, but which he seemed driven to hear.

"What are--what were you to Oldring?"

Like some delicate thing suddenly exposed to blasting heat, the girl wilted; her head dropped, and into her white, wasted cheeks crept the red of shame.

Venters would have given anything to recall that question. It seemed so different--his thought when spoken. Yet her shame established in his mind something akin to the respect he had strangely been hungering to feel for her.

"D--n that question!--forget it!" he cried, in a passion of pain for her and anger at himself. "But once and for all--tell me--I know it, yet I want to hear you say so--you couldn't help yourself?"

"Oh no."

"Well, that makes it all right with me," he went on, honestly.

"I--I want you to feel that...you see--we've been thrown together--and--and I want to help you--not hurt you. I thought life had been cruel to me, but when I think of yours I feel mean and little for my complaining. Anyway, I was a lonely outcast.

And now!...I don't see very clearly what it all means. Only we are here--together. We've got to stay here, for long, surely till you are well. But you'll never go back to Oldring. And I'm sure helping you will help me, for I was sick in mind. There's something now for me to do. And if I can win back your strength--then get you away, out of this wild country--help you somehow to a happier life--just think how good that'll be for me!"

同类推荐
  • 见尹公亮新诗,偶赠

    见尹公亮新诗,偶赠

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 摄大乘论二译

    摄大乘论二译

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 开元释教录

    开元释教录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 倩女离魂

    倩女离魂

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 五阴譬喻经

    五阴譬喻经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 诸神

    诸神

    被赋予上古神话中诸神之名的机甲,拥有移动星辰的力量。穿越到白痴少女身体里的叶澄不巧就拿着一台诸神机甲,还陆续收到几个背景复杂实力强悍的帅哥奴隶。--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 季节已过,爱依旧

    季节已过,爱依旧

    她是不幸的,自小成为孤儿,寄人篱下,受尽人生的苦难;她又是幸运的,城中几大家族的青年才俊同时钟情于她,对她呵护备至。直到有一天,她神秘的身世被残忍揭开,幸与不幸,原来早已注定……
  • DRAMATIC LYRICS

    DRAMATIC LYRICS

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 心法:传习录中的知与行

    心法:传习录中的知与行

    本书以王阳明的人生经历为主线索,以为什么要提出心学、什么是心学、什么是高层次的心学为辅线索,将王阳明一生行事与其弟子所著的记录其言行的《传习录》充分糅合,事迹为行,录为知,穿插来写,上行下知,逐篇解读。全面介绍了王阳明的传奇人生,更解读出阳明心学的核心精髓。
  • 那些伤不起的年轻人

    那些伤不起的年轻人

    有时候内心的小怪兽会跳出来撩骚我们的神经:只要饿不死,辞个职又怎样?去铁马金戈肆意闯荡,去天马行空人生豪放,说不定最终会创造所有人想也想不到的轨迹呢?作者以犀利诙谐、跳脱活泼的笔触绘声绘色地讲述了身边那些非典型励志青年的精彩爆笑故事。内容跳脱有趣,情节饱满生动,文风犀利诙谐,杜绝狗血和鸡汤式的转弯,告别千篇一律、温吞枯燥的说教。一则则鲜活生动、麻辣犀利的非典型奋斗故事,令读者在会心一笑的同时,受到启发。
  • 王健林内部讲话:关键时,王健林说了什么

    王健林内部讲话:关键时,王健林说了什么

    讲述了从将军梦到著名企业家,王健林如何完美转型实现人生梦想;从商业地产到东方好莱坞,王健林如何跨界经营;从中国进军美国、英国,万达如何成为知名跨国公司。王健林告诫创业者:刚刚毕业的大学生,很多人都想创业,都梦想成功。每个人都有成功的机会,但首先你要研究跟别人不一样的地方,就是要有创新的精神。大家千万不要认为:有一个好的创意方案,或者开始很成功,我就成功了。卖一碗担担面,做得很好,开个小店,卖得非常成功,你就觉得马上要开连锁店了。结果一开连锁店,你会发现,连锁店需要的管理模式、人才团队,远远是不能适应的,可能又失败了。深度解析首富王健林顺势而为的卓越商慧完美再现万达集团只做的超强执行力
  • 前尘:民国遗事

    前尘:民国遗事

    文学对既往的书写,与历史教科书的臧否扬抑,着眼点不同;文学对人物的书写,尤看重的并非其端正的思想,标准照似的行止,而是被大时代话语遗忘的栩栩如生的个性。那种率见性情、俯仰自由、我行我素、癖好不遮、胸臆无碍的面目,其实任何时代都有,只不过,大时代的火车轰轰隆隆过后,路边的野菊花狗尾巴草之类,要么零落,要么被遗弃与遗忘的居多。这也是已故作家汪曾祺在上个世纪八十年代发表《受戒》、《大淖纪事》等小说,意在勾沉扶奇的动机。
  • 边塞英雄谱

    边塞英雄谱

    自从清兵入关,奄有华夏,到了康熙、雍正两朝,叛乱悉平,根深蒂固。当时的一班旧臣遗民渐渐感觉处境日危,存身不住,没奈何只得怀着耿耿孤忠、满腔热血,流亡转徙到西北、西南等一带边塞地方去隼路蓝缕,开辟草莱,明以佃渔畜牧为生,暗中却仍奉着前明的正朔,等到生聚有了成效,财富日充,才渐渐号召亲友,招集流亡,欲等机会一到便图匡复大计。
  • 相公这是21世纪

    相公这是21世纪

    【此文独立成篇】让开!让开!不好意思穿回来啦!都让让!我家相公比较自恋,不小心干掉了谁,就不好了!一号相公相当腹黑,不要没事就说他丑,他会记仇的。二号相公脾气不好,基本不当人是人。三号情人,都说了是情人了,我可从不出轨,一边去。宝贝儿子——慕木。娘亲没忘了你,要不是你没事玩你爹的宠物咱也不会倒霉的穿回来呀!你好好等着,皮蹦紧了!【内容介绍】她因车祸曾经穿越,如今反穿而回,变了容貌,有了家累,可曾经她以为过去的就真的会过去吗。谁在车上动了手脚,谁又恨不的让她死。是豪门仇杀还是有人嫉妒她杨家少奶奶之位。当昔日的爱人挽着当年的好友带着她的孩子出现在她面前时,她心里的难堪谁能救赎。再见母亲和亲人谁还能记得她,她刻骨铭心爱过的男人是否还是能勾起她的相思。“敢给老子爱别人,老子现在就把你杀了。”“冷静!我是比喻!只是比喻。”【年少轻狂】杨喵喵:他五岁没了母亲,随着记忆的增长他甚至要淡忘这个词汇,可她出现了,笑的那么漂亮。慕木:他从小就不喜欢他母亲,但他更讨厌有人和他抢母亲,这个据说是他哥哥的生物是天才是吗,来吧我看你接我几招,打死不管。这篇文的姐姐是《穿越之男女皇后》但是我建议大家看她姐姐的时候跳看就好,或者只看番外知道下大概意思,因为那是我第一篇文,写的吧很,很那个。大家也都知道啦呵呵推荐好友文:【残玉飘零】《穿越之王妃有孕》【堕落仙子】《奸臣当道》【玲珑天心】《东宫太子妃》【鹦鹉晒月】《阴毒妃嫔》【甜味白开水】《穿越之霸宠二手妻》【风之孤鸿】《狂夫刁妻》《【茶茶】《我们离婚吧》【79049601】:鸟巢2开通呵呵鹦鹉的圈子:http://m.wkkk.net/今日看点《皇后》中的子墨
  • 我为什么还不结婚

    我为什么还不结婚

    回不到的过去,到不了的未来。胡鹏站在这座城市的天桥上,看着一幢一幢的高楼大厦,还有川流不息的人群。在这座城市来了又走,走了又来,现在的自己已经27了。不知道是自己无能,还是自己没有更好的平台,这些年在这座城市糊里糊涂的成长到了27。27岁对于农村的他来说,意味着结婚生子,家里人不是一次两次的催他了,妈妈经常说:“你看看谁谁家的小孩比你还小已经结婚了,你看看跟你同岁的小孩都会叫爸爸了”。铃铃铃,胡鹏拿出手机一看,是妈妈,不用说又是为了结婚这个事。