During the two years passed by Brick Willock in dreary solitude,conditions about him had changed.The hardships of pioneer life which,fifty years ago,had obtained in the Middle States yet prevailed,in 1882,in the tract of land claimed by Texas under the name of Greer County;but the dangers of pioneer life were greatly lessened.As Lahoma made the acquaintance of the mountain-range,and explored the plain extending beyond the natural horseshoe,Willock believed she ran little danger from Indians.He,himself,had ceased to preserve his unrelaxing watchfulness;after all,it had been the highwaymen rather than the red men whom he had most feared--and after two years it did not seem likely that such volatile men would pre serve the feeling of vengeance.
With the wisdom derived from his experience with wild natures,he carefully abstained from any attempt to force Lahoma's friendship,hence it was not long before he obtained it without reserve.As she walked beside him,grave and alert,she no longer thought of his bushy beard and prodigious mop of harsh hair;and the daily exhibition of his strength caused him to grow handsome in her eyes because most of those feats were performed for her comfort or pleasure.In the meantime he talked incessantly,and to his admiration,he presently found her manner of speech wonderfully like his own,both fluent and ungrammatical.
He knew nothing of grammar,to be sure,but there were times when his mistakes,echoed from her lips,struck upon his ear,and though he might not always know how to correct them,he was prompt to suggest changes,testing each,as a natural musician judges music,by ear.Dissatisfied with his own standards,he was all the more impatient to depart on the expedition after mental tools,despite the dangers that might beset the journey.
His first task prompted by the coming of Lahoma,had been to partition off the half of the dugout containing the stove for the child's private chamber.Cedar posts set in the ground and plastered with mud higher than his head,left a space between the top and the apex of the ceiling that the temperature might be equalized in both rooms.Thus far,however,they did not stay in the dugout except long enough to eat and sleep,for the autumn had continued delightful,and the cove seemed to the child her home,of which the dugout was a sort of cellar.Concerning the stone retreat in the crevice she knew nothing.Willock did not know why he kept the secret,since he trusted Lahoma with all his treasures,but the unreasoning reticence of the man of great loneliness still rested on him.Some day,he would tell--but not just yet.
Lahoma,he said one day,there's a settler over yonder in the mountains across the south plain.How'd you like to pay him a visit?
I don't want anybody but you,said Lahoma promptly.
Willock stood on one leg,rubbing the other meditatively with his delighted foot.Not the quiver of a muscle,however,revealed the fact that her words had flooded his heart with sunshine.Well,honey,that's in reason.But I've got to take you with me after books and winter supplies,and I don't like the idea of traveling alone.It come to me that I might get Mr.Settler to go,too.Time was not so long ago when Injun bands was coming and going,and although old Greer is beginning to be sprinkled up with settlers,here and there,I can't get over the feel of the old times.They ain't no sensation as sticks by a man when he's come to be wedged in between forty-five and fifty,as the feel of the old times.
Well,said Lahoma earnestly,I wish you'd leave me here when you go after them books.I don't want to be with no strangers,I want to just squat right here and bear myself company.
That's in reason.But,honey,while you might be safe enough whilst bearing the same,I would be plumb crazy worrying about you.I might not have good cause for worrying,but worrying--it ain't no bird that spreads its wings and goes north when cold weather comes;worrying--it's independent of causes and seasons.
If you have got to be stayed with to keep you from worrying,they ain't nothing more to be said.
Just so.That there old settler,I have crossed a few words with him,and I believe he would do noble to travel with.He's as gruff and growly as a grizzly bear if you say a word to him,and if he'll just turn all that temper he's vented on me on to any strangers we may run up against on the trail,he'll do invaluable.
I'll go catch up the pony,said Lahoma briefly,for I see the thing is to be did.This will be the first visit I ever made in my life when I wasn't drug by the Injuns.
You mustn't say 'drug,'honey,unless specifying medicines and herbs.I ain't saying you didn't get it from me,and knowing you do get from me all I got,is what makes me hone for them books.You must say 'dragged.'The Injuns DRAGGED you from one village to another.He paused meditatively,muttering the word to himself,while Lahoma ran away to catch the pony.When she came back,leading it by the mane,he said,I've been a-weighing that word,Lahoma,and it don't seem to me that 'dragged'sounds proper.It don't seem no sort of word to use in a parlor.What do you think?DRAGGED!How does that strike you?
I don't like the sound of it,neither,said Lahoma,shaking her head.I think DRUG is softer.It kinder melts in the ear,and DRAGGED sticks.
Well,don't use neither one till I can find out.Presently he was swinging along across the plain toward the southwestern range while the girl kept close beside him on the pony.Their talk was incessant,voicing the soul of good comradeship,and but for the difference between heavy bass and fluty soprano,a listener might have supposed himself overhearing a conversation between two Brick Willocks.
