She was just in time to see Roy Beeman stalk out as if he had never been shot, and with a yell greet a big, gray-clad, gray-faced man -- Dale.
"Howdy, Roy! Glad to see you up," said Dale. How the quiet voice steadied Helen! She beheld Bo. Bo, looking the same, except a little pale and disheveled! Then Bo saw her and leaped at her, into her arms.
"Nell! I'm here! Safe -- all right! Never was so happy in my life. . . . Oh-h! talk about your adventures! Nell, you dear old mother to me -- I've had e-enough forever!"Bo was wild with joy, and by turns she laughed and cried.
But Helen could not voice her feelings. Her eyes were so dim that she could scarcely see Dale when he loomed over her as she held Bo. But he found the hand she put shakily out.
"Nell! . . . Reckon it's been harder -- on you." His voice was earnest and halting. She felt his searching gaze upon her face. "Mrs. Cass said you were here. An' I know why."Roy led them all indoors.
"Milt, one of the neighbor boys will take care of thet hoss," he said, as Dale turned toward the dusty and weary Ranger. "Where'd you leave the cougar?""I sent him home," replied Date.
"Laws now, Milt, if this ain't grand!" cackled Mrs. Cass.
"We've worried some here. An' Miss Helen near starved a-hopin' fer you.""Mother, I reckon the girl an' I are nearer starved than anybody you know," replied Dale, with a grim laugh.
"Fer the land's sake! I'll be fixin' supper this minit.""Nell, why are you here?" asked Bo, suspiciously.
For answer Helen led her sister into the spare room and closed the door. Bo saw the baggage. Her expression changed.
The old blaze leaped to the telltale eyes.
"He's done it!" she cried, hotly.
"Dearest -- thank God. I've got you -- back again!" murmured Helen, finding her voice. "Nothing else matters! . . . I've prayed only for that!""Good old Nell!" whispered Bo, and she kissed and embraced Helen. "You really mean that, I know. But nix for yours truly! I'm back alive and kicking, you bet. . . . Where's my -- where's Tom?""Bo, not a word has been heard of him for five days. He's searching for you, of course.""And you've been -- been put off the ranch?"
"Well, rather," replied Helen, and in a few trembling words she told the story of her eviction.
Bo uttered a wild word that had more force than elegance, but it became her passionate resentment of this outrage done her sister.
"Oh! . . . Does Tom Carmichael know this?" she added, breathlessly.
"How could he?"
"When he finds out, then -- Oh, won't there be hell? I'm glad I got here first. . . . Nell, my boots haven't been off the whole blessed time. Help me. And oh, for some soap and hot water and some clean clothes! Nell, old girl, I wasn't raised right for these Western deals. Too luxurious!"And then Helen had her ears filled with a rapid-fire account of running horses and Riggs and outlaws and Beasley called boldly to his teeth, and a long ride and an outlaw who was a hero -- a fight with Riggs -- blood and death -- another long ride -- a wild camp in black woods -- night -- lonely, ghostly sounds -- and day again -- plot -- a great actress lost to the world -- Ophelia -- Snakes and Ansons --hoodooed outlaws -- mournful moans and terrible cries --cougar -- stampede -- fight and shots, more blood and death -- Wilson hero -- another Tom Carmichael -- fallen in love with outlaw gun-fighter if -- black night and Dale and horse and rides and starved and, "Oh, Nell, he WAS from Texas!"Helen gathered that wonderful and dreadful events had hung over the bright head of this beloved little sister, but the bewilderment occasioned by Bo's fluent and remarkable utterance left only that last sentence clear.
Presently Helen got a word in to inform Bo that Mrs. Cass had knocked twice for supper, and that welcome news checked Bo's flow of speech when nothing else seemed adequate.
It was obvious to Helen that Roy and Dale had exchanged stories. Roy celebrated this reunion by sitting at table the first time since he had been shot; and despite Helen's misfortune and the suspended waiting balance in the air the occasion was joyous. Old Mrs. Cass was in the height of her glory. She sensed a romance here, and, true to her sex, she radiated to it.
Daylight was still lingering when Roy got up and went out on the porch. His keen ears had heard something. Helen fancied she herself had heard rapid hoof-beats.
"Dale, come out!" called Roy, sharply.
The hunter moved with his swift, noiseless agility. Helen and Bo followed, halting in the door.
"Thet's Las Vegas," whispered Dale.
To Helen it seemed that the cowboy's name changed the very atmosphere.
Voices were heard at the gate; one that, harsh and quick, sounded like Carmichael's. And a spirited horse was pounding and scattering gravel. Then a lithe figure appeared, striding up the path. It was Carmichael -- yet not the Carmichael Helen knew. She heard Bo's strange little cry, a corroboration of her own impression.
Roy might never have been shot, judging from the way he stepped out, and Dale was almost as quick. Carmichael reached them -- grasped them with swift, hard hands.
"Boys -- I jest rode in. An' they said you'd found her!""Shore, Las Vegas. Dale fetched her home safe an' sound. . .
. There she is."
The cowboy thrust aside the two men, and with a long stride he faced the porch, his piercing eyes on the door. All that Helen could think of his look was that it seemed terrible.
Bo stepped outside in front of Helen. Probably she would have run straight into Carmichael's arms if some strange instinct had not withheld her. Helen judged it to be fear;she found her heart lifting painfully.
"Bo!" he yelled, like a savage, yet he did not in the least resemble one.
"Oh -- Tom!" cried Bo, falteringly. She half held out her arms.
"You, girl?" That seemed to be his piercing query, like the quivering blade in his eyes. Two more long strides carried him close up to her, and his look chased the red out of Bo's cheek. Then it was beautiful to see his face marvelously change until it was that of the well remembered Las Vegas magnified in all his old spirit.
