Part 16 (1/2)
”I thought so,” grinned Keith joyously. ”You're pointing straight toward Claggett.”
”It doesn't matter,” said Beatrice, ”since you know, and you're here.
The important thing is to get to the top of that hill.”
”What for?” Keith questioned.
”Why, to be there!” Beatrice opened her big eyes at him. ”That,” she declared whimsically, ”is the top of the world, and it is mine. I found it. I want to go up there and look down.”
”It's an unmerciful climb,” Keith demurred hypocritically, to strengthen her resolution.
”All the better. I don't value what comes easily.”
”You won't see anything, except more hills.”
”I love hills--and more hills.”
”You're a long way from home, and it's after one o'clock.”
”I have a lunch with me, and I often stay out until dinner time.”
Keith gave a sigh that shook the saddle, making up, in volume, what it lacked in sincerity. The blood in him was a-jump at the prospect of leading his Heart's Desire up next the clouds--up where the world was yet young. A man in love is fond of self-torture.
”I have not said you must go.” Beatrice answered with the sigh.
”You don't have to,” he retorted. ”It is a self evident fact. Who wants to go prowling around these hills by night, with a lantern that smokes an' has an evil smell, losing sleep and yowling like a bunch of coyotes, hunting a misguided young woman who thinks north is south, and can't point straight up?”
”You draw a flattering picture, Mr. Cameron.”
”It's realistic. Do you still insist upon getting up there, for the doubtful pleasure of looking down?” Secretly, he hoped so.
”Certainly.”
”Then I shall go with you.”
”You need not. I can go very well by myself, Mr. Cameron.”
Beatrice was something of a hypocrite herself.
”I shall go where duty points the way.”
”I hope it points toward home, then.”
”It doesn't, though. It takes the trail you take.”
”I never yet allowed my wishes to masquerade as Disagreeable Duty, with two big D's,” she told him tartly, and started off.
”Say! If you're going up that hill, this is the trail. You'll b.u.mp up against a straight cliff if you follow that path.”
Beatrice turned with seeming reluctance and allowed him to guide her, just as she had intended he should do.
”d.i.c.k tells me you have been away,” she began suavely.
”Yes. I've just got back from Fort Belknap,” he explained quietly, though he must have known his absence had been construed differently.