The U. P. Trail by Zane Grey (historical books to read TXT) 📗

Neale glanced at Larry and from him to the girl. She dropped her eyes.

“Ruby, do you like Larry?” he queried.

“Sure do,” replied the girl.

“Reddy, do you like Ruby?” went on Neale.

Beauty Stanton smiled her interest. The other woman came back from nowhere to watch Neale. Larry regarded his friend in mild surprise.

“I reckon it was a turrible case of love at fust sight,” he drawled.

“I’ll call your bluff!” flashed Neale. “I’ve just won three thousand dollars. I’ll give it to you. Will you take it and leave Benton—go back—no! go west—begin life over again?”

“Together, you mean!” exclaimed Beauty Stanton, as she rose with a glow on her faded face. No need to wonder why she had been named Beauty.

“Yes, together,” replied Neale, in swift steadiness. “You’ve started bad. But you’re young. It’s never too late. With this money you can buy a ranch—begin all over again.”

“Pard, haven’t you seen too much red liquor?” drawled Larry.

The girl shook her head. “Too late!” she said, softly.

“Why?”

“Larry is bad, but he’s honest. I’m both bad and dishonest.”

“Ruby, I wouldn’t call you dishonest,” returned Neale, bluntly. “Bad—yes. And wild! But if you had a chance?”

“No,” she said.

“You’re both slated for hell. What’s the sense of it?”

“I don’t see that you’re slated for heaven,” retorted Ruby.

“Wal, I shore say echo,” drawled Larry, as he rolled a cigarette. “Pard, you’re drunk this heah minnit.”

“I’m not drunk. I appeal to you, Miss Stanton,” protested Neale.

“You certainly are not drunk,” she replied. “You’re just—”

“Crazy,” interrupted Ruby.

They laughed.

“Maybe I do have queer impulses,” replied Neale, as he felt his face grow white. “Every once in a while I see a flash—of—of I don’t know what. I could do something big—even—now—if my heart wasn’t dead.”

“Mine’s in its grave,” said Ruby, bitterly. “Come, Stanton, let’s get out of this. Find me men who talk of drink and women.”

Neale deliberately reached out and stopped her as she turned away. He faced her.

“You’re no four-flush,” he said. “You’re game. You mean to play this out to a finish.... But you’re no—no maggot like the most. You can think. You’re afraid to talk to me.”

“I’m afraid of no man. But you—you’re a fool—a sky-pilot. You’re—”

“The thing is—it’s not too late.”

“It is too late!” she cried, with trembling lips.

Neale saw and felt his dominance over her.

“It is NEVER too late!” he responded, with all his force. “I can prove that.”

She looked at him mutely. The ghost of another girl stood there instead of the wild Ruby of Benton.

“Pard, you’re drunk shore!” ejaculated Larry, as he towered over them and gave his belt a hitch. The cowboy sensed events.

“I’ve annoyed you more than once,” said Neale. “This’s the last.... So tell me the truth.... Could I take you away from this life?”

“Take me?... How—man?”

“I—I don’t know. But somehow.... I’d hold it—as worthy—to save a girl like you—ANY girl—from hell.”

“But—how?” she faltered. The bitterness, the irony, the wrong done by her life, was not manifest now.

“You refused my plan with Larry.... Come, let me find a home for you—with good people.”

“My God—he’s not in earnest!” gasped the girl to her women friends.

“I am in earnest,” said Neale.

Then the tension of the girl relaxed. Her face showed a rebirth of soul.

“I can’t accept,” she replied. If she thanked him it was with a look. Assuredly her eyes had never before held that gaze for Neale. Then she left the room, and presently Stanton’s companion followed her. But Beauty Stanton remained. She appeared amazed, even dismayed.

Larry lighted his cigarette. “Shore I’d call thet a square kid,” he said. “Neale, if you get any drunker you’ll lose all thet money.”

“I’ll lose it anyhow,” replied Neale, absent-mindedly.

“Wal, stake me right heah an’ now.”

At that Neale generously and still absent-mindedly delivered to Larry a handful of gold and notes that he did not count.

“Hell! I ain’t no bank,” protested the cowboy.

Hough and Ancliffe joined them and with amusement watched Larry try to find pockets enough for his small fortune.

“Easy come, easy go in Benton,” said the gambler, with a smile. Then his glance, alighting upon the quiet Stanton, grew a little puzzled. “Beauty, what ails you?” he asked.

She was pale and her expressive eyes were fixed upon Neale. Hough’s words startled her.

“What ails me?... Place, I’ve had a forgetful moment—a happy one—and I’m deathly sick!”

Ancliffe stared in surprise. He took her literally.

Beauty Stanton looked at Neale again. “Will you come to see me?” she asked, with sweet directness.

“Thank you—no,” replied Neale. He was annoyed. She had asked him that before, and he had coldly but courteously repelled what he thought were her advances. This time he was scarcely courteous.

The woman flushed. She appeared about to make a quick and passionate reply, in anger and wounded pride, but she controlled the impulse. She left the room with Ancliffe.

“Neale, do you know Stanton is infatuated with you?” asked Hough, thoughtfully.

“Nonsense!” replied Neale.

“She is, though. These women can’t fool me. I told you days ago I suspected that. Now I’ll gamble on it. And you know how I play my cards.”

“She saw me win a pile of money,” said Neale, with scorn.

“I’ll bet you can’t make her take a dollar of it. Any amount you want and any odds.”

Neale would not accept the wager. What was he talking about, anyway? What was this drift of things? His mind did not seem clear. Perhaps he had drunk too much. The eyes of both Ruby and Beauty Stanton troubled him.