[pg 376]
She heard now a knock at the front door, to which, from her position, she could not have seen anyone approach. She called out, "Come!" but did not turn her head.
A horse stamped, neighed near her door. Her face changed expression. Her eyes grew wide in some strange association of memories suddenly revived.
She heard a footfall on the gallery floor, then on the floor of the hall. It stopped. Her heart almost stopped with it. Some undiscovered sense warned her, cried aloud to her. She faced the door, wide-eyed, as it was flung open.
"Molly!"
Will Banion's deep-toned voice told her all the rest. In terror, her hands to her face, she stood an instant, then sprang toward him, her voice almost a wail in its incredulous joy.
"Will! Will! Oh, Will! Oh! Oh!"
"Molly!"
They both paused.
"It can't be! Oh, you frightened me, Will! It can't be you!"
But he had her in his arms now. At first he could only push back her hair, stroke her cheek, until at last the rush of life and youth came back to them both, and their lips met in the sealing kiss of years. Then both were young again. She put up a hand to caress his brown cheek. Tenderly he pushed back her hair.
[pg 377]
"Will! Oh, Will! It can't be!" she whispered again and again.
"But it is! It had to be! Now I'm paid! Now I've found my fortune!"
"And I've had my year to think it over, Will. As though the fortune mattered!"
"Not so much as that one other thing that kept you and me apart. Now I must tell you--"
"No, no, let be! Tell me nothing! Will, aren't you here?"
"But I must! You must hear me! I've waited two years for this!"
"Long, Will! You've let me get old!"
"You old?" He kissed her in contempt of time. "But now wait, dear, for I must tell you.
"You see, coming up the valley I met the Clerk of the Court of Oregon City, and he knew I was headed up for the Yamhill. He asked me to serve as his messenger. 'I've been sending up through all the valley settlements in search of one William Banion,' he said to me. Then I told him who I was. He gave me this."
"What is it?" She turned to her lover. He held in his hands a long package, enfolded in an otter skin. "Is it a court summons for Will Banion? They can't have you, Will!"
He smiled, her head held between his two hands.
"'I have a very important document for Colonel William Banion,' the clerk said to me. 'It has been for some time in our charge, for delivery to him at once should he come into the Oregon settlements. It is from His Excellency, the President of the United States. Such messages do not wait. Seeing it of such importance, and knowing it to be military, Judge Lane opened it, since we could not trace the addressee. If you like--if you are, indeed, Colonel William Banion'--that was what he said."
[pg 378]
He broke off, choking.
"Ah, Molly, at last and indeed I am again William Banion!"
He took from the otter skin--which Chardon once had placed over the oilskin used by Carson to protect it--the long and formal envelope of heavy linen. His finger pointed--"On the Service of the United States."
"Why, Will!"
He caught the envelope swiftly to his lips, holding it there an instant before he could speak.
"My pardon! From the President! Not guilty--oh, not guilty! And I never was!"
"Oh, Will, Will! That makes you happy?"
"Doesn't it you?"
"Why, yes, yes! But I knew that always! And I know now that I'd have followed you to the gallows if that had had to be."
"Though I were a thief?"
"Yes! But I'd not believe it! I didn't! I never did! I could not!"
"You'd take my word against all the world--just my word, if I told you it wasn't true? You'd want no proof at all? Will you always believe in me in that way? No proof?"
[pg 379]
"I want none now. You do tell me that? No, no! I'm afraid you'd give me proofs! I want none! I want to love you for what you are, for what we both are, Will! I'm afraid!"
He put his hands on her shoulders, held her away arms' length, looked straight into her eyes.
"Dear girl," said he, "you need never be afraid any more."
She put her head down contentedly against his shoulder, her face nestling sidewise, her eyes closed, her arms again quite around his neck.
"I don't care, Will," said she. "No, no, don't talk of things!"
He did not talk. In the sweetness of the silence he kissed her tenderly again and again.
And now the sun might sink. The light of the whole world by no means died with it.
Footnote 1: (return)To get the local descriptions, the color, atmosphere, "feel" of a day and a country so long gone by, any writer of to-day must go to writers of another day. The Author would acknowledge free use of the works of Palmer, Bryant, Kelly and others who give us journals of the great transcontinental trail.
To get the local descriptions, the color, atmosphere, "feel" of a day and a country so long gone by, any writer of to-day must go to writers of another day. The Author would acknowledge free use of the works of Palmer, Bryant, Kelly and others who give us journals of the great transcontinental trail.