Cavanagh, Forest Ranger: A Romance of the Mountain West

Lee expressed a deep satisfaction from the fact of their nearness. “If he is ill we can help him,” she reiterated.

She had put behind her all the doubt and fear which his abrupt desertion of her had caused, and, though he had not been able to speak a word to her, his self-sacrifice had made amends. She excused it all as part of his anxious care. Whatever the mood of that other day had been, it had given way to one that was lofty and deeply altruistic. Her one anxiety now was born of a deepening sense of his danger, but against this she bent the full strength of her will. “He shall not die,” she declared beneath her breath. “God will not permit it.”

There was a touch of frost in the air as they went to their beds, and, though she shivered, Lize was undismayed. “There’s nothing the matter with my heart,” she exulted. “I don’t believe there was anything really serious the matter with me, anyway. I reckon I was just naturally grouchy and worried over you and Ross.”

Lee Virginia was now living a romance stranger and more startling than any she had ever read. In imagination she was able to look back and down upon the Fork as if she had been carried into another world – a world that was at once primeval yet peaceful: a world of dreaming trees, singing streams, and silent peaks; a realm in which law and order reigned, maintained by one determined young man whose power was derived from the President himself. She felt safe – entirely safe – for just across the roaring mountain torrent the two intrepid guardians of the forest were encamped. One of them, it is true, came of Swedish parentage and the other was a native of England, but they were both American in the high sense of being loyal to the Federal will, and she trusted them more unquestioningly than any other men in all that West save only Redfield. She had no doubt there were others equally loyal, equally to be trusted, but she did not know them.

She rose to a complete understanding of Cavanagh’s love for “the high country” and his enthusiasm for the cause, a cause which was able to bring together the student from Yale and the graduates of Bergen and of Oxford, and make them comrades in preserving the trees and streams of the mountain States against the encroachments of some of their own citizens, who were openly, short-sightedly, and cynically bent upon destruction, spoliation, and misuse.

She had listened to the talk of the Forester and the Supervisor, and she had learned from them that Cavanagh was sure of swift advancement, now that he had shown his courage and his skill; and the thought that he might leave the State to take charge of another forest brought her some uneasiness, for she and Lize had planned to go to Sulphur City. She had consented to this because it still left to her the possibility of occasionally seeing or hearing from Cavanagh. But the thought that he might go away altogether took some of the music out of the sound of the stream and made the future vaguely sad.

XV

WETHERFORD PASSES ON

For the next two days Cavanagh slept but little, for his patient grew steadily worse. As the flame of his fever mounted, Wetherford pleaded for air. The ranger threw open the doors, admitting freely the cool, sweet mountain wind. “He might as well die of a draught as smother,” was his thought; and by the use of cold cloths he tried to allay the itching and the pain.

“What I am doing may be all wrong,” he admitted to Swenson, who came often to lean upon the hitching-pole and offer aid. “I have had no training as a nurse, but I must be doing something. The man is burning up, and hasn’t much vitality to spare. I knew a ranger had to be all kinds of things, cowboy, horse-doctor, axe-man, carpenter, surveyor, and all the rest of it, but I didn’t know that he had to be a trained nurse in addition.”

“How do you feel yourself?” asked his subordinate, anxiously.

“Just tired; nothing more. I reckon I am going to escape. I should be immune, but you never can tell. The effect of vaccination wears off after a few years.”

“The women folks over there are terribly worried, and the old lady has made me promise to call her in if you show the slightest signs of coming down.”

“Tell her to rest easy. I am keeping mighty close watch over myself, and another night will tell the story so far as the old man is concerned. I wish I had a real doctor, but I don’t expect any. It is a long hard climb up here for one of those tenderfeet.”

He returned to his charge, and Swenson walked slowly away, back to the camp, oppressed with the sense of his utter helplessness.

Again and again during the day Lee Virginia went to the middle of the bridge, which was the dead-line, and there stood to catch some sign, some wave of the hand from her lover. Strange courtship! and yet hour by hour the tie which bound these young souls together was strengthened. She cooked for him in the intervals of her watch and sent small pencilled notes to him, together with the fish and potatoes, but no scrap of paper came back to her – so scrupulous was Cavanagh to spare her from the faintest shadow of danger.

Swenson brought verbal messages, it was true, but they were by no means tender, for Cavanagh knew better than to intrust any fragile vessel of sentiment to this stalwart young woodsman. Now that Lee knew the mysterious old man was dying, she longed for his release – for his release would mean her lover’s release. She did not stop to think that it would be long, very long, before she could touch Cavanagh’s hand or even speak with him face to face. At times under Swenson’s plain speaking she grew faint with the horror of the struggle which was going on in that silent cabin.

This leprous plague, this offspring of crowded and dirty tenements and of foul ship-steerages, seemed doubly unholy here in the clean sanity of the hills. It was a profanation, a hideous curse. “If it should seize upon Ross – ” Words failed to express her horror, her hate of it. “Oh God, save him!” she prayed a hundred times each day.

Twice in the night she rose from her bed to listen, to make sure that Cavanagh was not calling for help. The last time she looked out, a white veil of frost lay on the grass, and the faint light of morning was in the east, and in the exquisite clarity of the air, in the serene hush of the dawn, the pestilence appeared but as the ugly emanation of disordered sleep. The door of the ranger’s cabin stood open, but all was silent. “He is snatching a half-hour’s sleep,” she decided.

If the guard had carried in his mind the faintest intention of permitting Lize to go to Cavanagh’s aid, that intention came to no issue, for with the coming of the third night Wetherford was unconscious and unrecognizable to any one who had known him in the days of “the free range.” Lithe daredevil in those days, expert with rope and gun, he was as far from this scarred and swollen body as the soaring eagle is from the carrion which he sees and scorns.

He was going as the Wild West was going, discredited, ulcerated, poisoned, incapable of rebirth, yet carrying something fine to his grave. He had acted the part of a brave man, that shall be said of him. He had gone to the rescue of the poor Basque, instinctively, with the same reckless disregard of consequences to himself which marked his character when as a cow-boss on the range he had set aside the most difficult tasks for his own rope or gun. His regard for the ranger into whose care he was now about to commit his wife and daughter, persisted in spite of his suffering. In him was his hope, his stay. Once again, in a lucid moment, he reverted to the promise which he had drawn from Cavanagh.

“If I go, you must take care – of my girl – take care of Lize, too. Promise me that. Do you promise?” he insisted.

“I promise – on honor,” Ross repeated, and, with a faint pressure of his hand (so slender and weak), Wetherford sank away into the drowse which deepened hour by hour, broken now and then by convulsions, which wrung the stern heart of the ranger till his hands trembled for pity.

All day, while the clouds sailed by, white as snow and dazzlingly pure, while the stream roared with joy of exploration, and the sunshine fell in dazzling floods upon the world, the ranger bent above his ward or walked the floor of his cabin marvelling that the air and light of this high place should be so powerless to check the march of that relentless plague. It seemed that to open the doors, to fill the room with radiance, must surely kill the mutinous motes which warred upon the tortured body. But in the midst of nature’s sovereign charm the reek of the conflict went up; and he wondered whether even the vigor which his outdoor life had built up could withstand the strain another day.

Once Lee Virginia approached close enough to hear his voice as he warned her to go back. “You can do nothing,” he called to her. “Please go away.” His face was haggard with weariness, and her heart filled with bitter resentment to think that this repulsive warfare, this painful duty, should be thrust upon one so fine.

He himself felt as though his youth were vanishing, and that in these few days he had entered upon the sober, care-filled years of middle life. The one sustaining thought, his one allurement, lay in the near presence of the girl to whom he could call, but could not utter one tender word. She was there where he could see her watching, waiting at the bridge. “The sound of the water helps me bear the suspense,” she said to Swenson, and the occasional sight of her lover, the knowledge that he was still unbroken, kept her from despair.

The day was well advanced when the sound of rattling pebbles on the hill back of his cabin drew his attention, and a few moments later a man on a weary horse rode up to his door and dropped heavily from the saddle. He was a small, dark individual, with spectacles, plainly of the city.

“Beware! Smallpox!” called Ross, as his visitor drew near the door.

The new-comer waved his hand contemptuously. “I’ve had it. Are you Ross Cavanagh?”

“I am!”

“My name is Hartley. I represent the Denver Round-up. I’m interested in this sheep-herder killing – merely as a reporter,” he added, with a fleeting smile. “Did you know old man Dunn, of Deer Creek, had committed suicide?”

Cavanagh started, and his face set. “No!”

“They found him shot through the neck, and dying – this morning. As he was gasping his last breath, he said, ‘The ranger knows,’ and when they asked, ‘What ranger,’ he said, ‘Cavanagh.’ When I heard that I jumped a horse and beat ’em all over here. Is this true? Did he tell you who the murderers are?”

Cavanagh did not answer at once. He was like a man caught on a swaying bridge, and his first instinct was to catch the swing, to get his balance. “Wait a minute! What is it all to you?”

Again that peculiar grin lighted the small man’s dark, unwholesome face. “It’s a fine detective stunt, and besides it means twenty dollars per column and mebbe a ‘boost.’ I can’t wait, you can’t wait! It’s up to us to strike now! If these men knew you have their names they’d hike for Texas or the high seas. Come now! Everybody tells me you’re one of these idealistic highbrow rangers who care more for the future of the West than most natural-born Westerners. What’s your plan? If you’ll yoke up with me we’ll run these devils into the earth and win great fame, and you’ll be doing the whole country a service.”

The ranger studied the small figure before him with penetrating gaze. There was deliberative fearlessness in the stranger’s face and eyes, and notwithstanding his calm, almost languid movement, restless energy could be detected in his voice.

“What is your plan?” the ranger asked.

“Get ourselves deputized by the court, and jump these men before they realize that there’s anything doing. They count the whole country on their side, but they’re mistaken. They’ve outdone themselves this time, and a tremendous reaction has set in. Everybody knows you’ve held an even hand over these warring Picts and Scots, and the court will be glad to deputize you to bring them to justice. The old sheriff is paralyzed. Everybody knows that the assassins are prominent cattle-ranchers, and yet no one dares move. It’s up to you fellows, who represent law and order, to act quick.”

Cavanagh followed him with complete comprehension, and a desire to carry out the plan seized upon him.

“I’d do it if I could,” he said, “but it happens I am nursing a sick man. I am, perhaps, already exposed to the same disease. I can’t leave here for a week or more. It would not be right for me to expose others – ”

“Don’t worry about that. Take a hot bath, fumigate your clothing, shave your head. I’ll fix you up, and I’ll get some one to take your place.” Catching sight of Swenson and Lize on the bridge, he asked: “Who are those people? Can’t they take your nursing job?”

“No!” answered Cavanagh, bluntly. “It’s no use, I can’t join you in this – at least, not now.”

“But you’ll give me the names which Dunn gave you?”

“No, I can’t do that. I shall tell the Supervisor, and he can act as he sees fit – for the present I’m locked up here.”

The other man looked the disappointment he felt. “I’m sorry you don’t feel like opening up. You know perfectly well that nothing will ever be done about this thing unless the press insists upon it. It’s up to you and me (me representing ‘the conscience of the East’” – here he winked an eye – “and you Federal authority) to do what we can to bring these men to their punishment. Better reconsider. I’m speaking now as a citizen as well as a reporter.”

There was much truth in what he said, but Cavanagh refused to go further in the matter until he had consulted with Redfield.

“Very well,” replied Hartley, “that’s settled. By-the-way, who is your patient?”

Eloquently, concisely, Ross told the story. “Just a poor old mounted hobo, a survival of the cowboy West,” he said; “but he had the heart of a hero in him, and I’m doing my best to save him.”

“Keep him in the dark, that’s the latest theory – or under a red light. White light brings out the ulcers.”

“He hates darkness; that’s one reason why I’ve opened the doors and windows.”

“All wrong! According to Finsen, he wouldn’t pit in the dark. However, it doesn’t matter on a cowboy. You’ve a great story yourself. There’s a fine situation here which I’ll play up if you don’t object.”

Cavanagh smiled. “Would my objection have any weight?”

The reporter laughed. “Not much; I’ve got to carry back some sort of game. Well, so long! I must hit the trail over the hill.”

Cavanagh made civil answer, and returned to his patient more than half convinced that Hartley was right. The “power of the press” might prove to be a very real force in this pursuit.

As the journalist was about to mount his horse he discovered Lee Virginia on the other side of the creek. “Hello!” said he, “I wonder what this pretty maiden means?” And, dropping his bridle-rein again, he walked down to the bridge.

Swenson interposed his tall figure. “What do you want?” he asked, bluntly. “You don’t want to get too close. You’ve been talking to the ranger.”

Hartley studied him coolly. “Are you a ranger, too?”

“No, only a guard.”

“Why are you leaving Cavanagh to play it alone in there?”

Lee explained. “He won’t let any of us come near him.”

“Quite right,” retorted Hartley, promptly. “They say smallpox has lost its terrors, but when you’re eight hours’ hard trail from a doctor, or a hospital, it’s still what I’d call a formidable enemy. However, Cavanagh’s immune, so he says.”

“We don’t know that,” Lee said, and her hands came together in a spasm of fear. “Are you a doctor?”

“No, I’m only a newspaper man; but I’ve had a lot of experience with plagues of all sorts – had the yellow fever in Porto Rico, and the typhoid in South Africa; that’s why I’m out here richochetting over the hills. But who are you, may I ask? You look like the rose of Sharon.”

“My name is Lee Wetherford,” she answered, with childish directness, for there was something compelling in the man’s voice and eyes. “And this is my mother.” She indicated Lize, who was approaching.

“You are not out here for your health,” he stated, rather thoughtfully. “How happens it you’re here?”

“I was born here – in the Fork.”

His face remained expressionless. “I don’t believe it. Can such maidens come out of Roaring Fork – nit! But I don’t mean that. What are you doing up here in this wilderness?”

Lize took a part in the conversation. “Another inspector?” she asked, as she lumbered up.

“That’s me,” he replied; “Sherlock Holmes, Vidocque, all rolled into one.”

“My mother,” again volunteered Lee.

Hartley’s eyes expressed incredulity; but he did not put his feelings into words, for he perceived in Lize a type with which he was entirely familiar – one to be handled with care. “What are you two women doing here? Are you related to one of these rangers?”

Lize resented this. “You’re asking a good many questions, Mr. Man.”

“That’s my trade,” was the unabashed reply, “and I’m not so old but that I can rise to a romantic situation.” Thereupon he dropped all direct interrogation, and with an air of candor told the story of his mission. Lize, entirely sympathetic, invited him to lunch, and he was soon in possession of their story, even to the tender relationship between Lee Virginia and the plague-besieged forest ranger.

“We’re not so mighty disinterested,” he said, referring to his paper. “The Round-up represents the New West in part, but to us the New West means opportunity to loot water-sites and pile up unearned increment. Oh yes, we’re on the side of the fruit and alfalfa grower, because it pays. If the boss of my paper happened to be in the sheep business, as Senator Blank White is, we would sing a different tune. Or if I were a Congressman representing a district of cattle-men, I’d be very slow about helping to build up any system that would make me pay for my grass. As it is, I’m commissioned to make it hot for the ranchers that killed those dagoes, and I’m going to do it. If this country had a man like Cavanagh for sheriff, we’d have the murderers in two days. He knows who the butchers are, and I’d like his help; but he’s nailed down here, and there’s no hope of his getting away. A few men like him could civilize this cursed country.”

Thereupon he drew from three pairs of lips a statement of the kind of man Ross Cavanagh was, but most significant of all were the few words of the girl, to whom this man of the pad and pencil was a magician, capable of exalting her hero and of advancing light and civilization by the mere motion of his hand. She liked him, and grew more and more willing to communicate, and he, perceiving in her something unusual, lingered on questioning. Then he rose. “I must be going,” he said to Lee. “You’ve given me a lovely afternoon.”

Lee Virginia was all too ignorant of the ways of reporters to resent his note-taking, and she accepted his hand, believing him to be the sincere admirer of her ranger. “What are you going to do?” she asked.

“I’m going back to Sulphur to spread the report of Cavanagh’s quarantine.” Again that meaning smile. “I don’t want any other newspaper men mixed up in my game. I’m lonesome Ned in stunts like this, and I hope if they do come up you’ll be judiciously silent. Good-bye.”

Soon after the reporter left, Cavanagh called to Swenson: “The old man can’t last through another such a night as last night was, and I wish you would persuade Mrs. Wetherford and her daughter to return to the valley. They can do nothing here – absolutely nothing. Please say that.”

Swenson repeated his commands with all the emphasis he could give them, but neither Lize nor Lee would consent to go. “It would be heathenish to leave him alone in this lonesome hole,” protested Lize.

“I shall stay till he is free,” added Lee. And with uneasy heart she crossed the bridge and walked on and on toward the cabin till she was close enough to detect the lines of care on her lover’s haggard face.

“Stop!” he called, sharply. “Keep away. Why don’t you obey me? Why don’t you go back to the valley?”

“Because I will not leave you alone – I can’t! Please let me stay!”

“I beg of you go back.”

The roar of the stream made it necessary to speak loudly, and he could not put into his voice the tenderness he felt at the moment, but his face was knotted with pain as he asked: “Don’t you see you add to my uneasiness – my pain?”

“We’re so anxious about you,” she answered. “It seems as though we should be doing something to help you.”

He understood, and was grateful for the tenderness which brought her so near to him, but he was forced to be stern.

“There is nothing you can do – nothing more than you are doing. It helps me to know that you are there, but you must not cross the bridge. Please go back!” There was pleading as well as command in his voice, and with a realization of the passion his voice conveyed, she retraced her steps, her heart beating quickly with the joy which his words conveyed.

At sunset Redfield returned, bringing with him medicines but no nurse. “Nobody will come up here,” he said. “I reckon Ross is doomed to fight it out alone. The solitude, the long trail, scares the bravest of them away. I tried and tried – no use. Eleanor would have come, of course – demanded to come; but I would not permit that. She commissioned me to bring you both down to the ranch.”

Lee Virginia thanked him, but reiterated her wish to stay until all possible danger to Cavanagh was over.

Redfield crossed the bridge, and laid the medicines down outside the door.

“The nurse from Sulphur refused to come when she found that her patient was in a mountain cabin. I’m sorry, old man; I did the best I could.”

“Never mind,” replied Cavanagh. “I’m still free from any touch of fever. I’m tired, of course, but good for another night of it. My main anxiety concerns Lee – get her to go home with you if you can.”

“I’ll do the best I can,” responded Redfield, “but meanwhile you must not think of getting out of the Forest Service. I have some cheering news for you. The President has put a good man into the chief’s place.”

Cavanagh’s face lighted up. “That’ll help some,” he exclaimed; “but who’s the man?”

Redfield named him. “He was a student under the chief, and the chief says he’s all right, which satisfies me. Furthermore, he’s a real forester, and not a political jobber or a corporation attorney.”

“That’s good,” repeated Cavanagh; “and yet – ” he said, sadly, “it leaves the chief out just the same.”

“No, the chief is not out. He’s where he can fight for the idea to better advantage than when he was a subordinate under another man. Anyhow, he asks us all to line up for the work and not to mind him. The work, he says, is bigger than any man. Here’s that resignation of yours,” he said, taking Cavanagh’s letter from his pocket; “I didn’t put it on file. What shall I do with it?”

“Throw it to me,” said Cavanagh, curtly.

Redfield tossed it over the hitching-pole, and Ross took it up, looked at it for a moment in silence, then tore it into bits and threw it on the ground.

“What are your orders, Mr. Supervisor?” he asked, with a faint, quizzical smile around his eyes.

“There’s nothing you can do but take care of this man. But as soon as you are able to ride again, I’ve got some special work for you. I want you to join with young Bingham, the ranger on Rock Creek, and line up the ‘Triangle’ cattle. Murphy is reported to have thrown on the forest nearly a thousand head more than his permit calls for. I want you to see about that. Then complete your maps so that I can turn them in on the first of November, and about the middle of December you are to take charge of this forest in my stead. Eleanor has decided to take the children abroad for a couple of years, and as I am to be over there part of the time, I don’t feel justified in holding down the Supervisor’s position. I shall resign in your favor. Wait, now!” he called, warningly. “The District Forester and I framed all this up as we rode down the hill yesterday, and it goes. Oh yes, there’s one thing more. Old man Dunn – ”

“I know.”

“How did you learn it?”

“A reporter came boiling over the ridge about noon to-day, wanting me to give him the names which Dunn had given me. I was strongly tempted to do as he asked me to – you know these newspaper men are sometimes the best kind of detectives for running down criminals; but on second thought I concluded to wait until I had discussed the matter with you. I haven’t much faith in the county authorities.”