"Thanks, Mr. Bryant. They're my sister's. She was taking them up to your brother. It's very kind of you to take so much trouble. Won't you come in, and let her thank you herself? You see, we're great friends of your brother's. I am Kate Seton, and--the lady you so gallantly sought to help is my sister--Helen."

CHAPTER XIII

LIGHT-HEARTED SOULS

A pair of gray eyes were struggling to glare coldly into a pair of amiably smiling blue eyes. It was a battle of one against an opponent who had no idea battle was intended. From the vantage ground of only partial understanding a pair of dark eyes looked on, smiling with the wisdom which is ever the claim of the onlooker.

"This is my sister, Helen, Mr. Bryant," Kate said, with quiet enjoyment, as her sister, perfectly composed once more, but still angry with the world in general, abruptly entered the room from that part of the house where her bedroom was situated.

As the words fell upon her ears, and she looked into the good-looking, cheerful face of the man, all Helen's feelings underwent a shock, as though a mighty seismological upheaval were going on inside her.

The man who had witnessed her discomfiture--the man who had dared to be within one hundred miles of her when her daintily shod feet, with a display of diaphanous stocking, had been waving in the air like two wobbly semaph.o.r.es celebrating Dominion Day or the Fourth of July, or--or something. Those silly looking prying eyes had seen. How dared he? What right had he to be walking down that particular trail at that particular moment? How dared he whistle, any way? What right had he in Rocky Springs? Why--why was he on earth at all?

At that moment Helen felt that if there was one combination in the world she disliked more than another it was blue eyes and fair hair.

Yes, and long noses were hateful, too; they were always poking themselves into other people's business. Big men were always clumsy.

If this man hadn't been clumsy he--he--wouldn't have been there to see. Yes, she hated this man, and she hated her sister for standing there looking on, grinning like--like a Cheshire cat. She didn't know what a Cheshire cat was like, but she was certain it resembled Kate at that moment.

"How d'you do?"

The frigidity of Helen's greeting was a source of dismay to the man, who had suddenly become aware that she was again dressed in the tailored suit which had so caught his fancy earlier in the day. His dismay became evident to Kate, the onlooker. Helen, too, noted the effect in his sobering eyes, and was resentfully glad.

"It was a lucky chance my coming along," Bill blundered. "You see, if the dew had got on these books they'd have got all mussed. Must have been a sort of fate about my being around, and--and finding 'em for you."

"Fate?" sniffed Helen, with the light of battle in her eyes, while Kate began to laugh.

"Why, sure," said Bill eagerly. "Don't you believe in fate? I do.

Say," he went on, gaining confidence from the sound of his own voice, "it was like this. Charlie and I had been talking a piece, and then he had to go off, and didn't want me. If he had, I should have gone with him. Instead, I set off by myself, making toward the village. Being a sort of feller who never sees much but what's straight ahead of him, it didn't occur to me to look around at things. That's how it was I didn't see you till I caught sight of your----"

"You needn't go into details," broke in Helen icily. "I just think it was hateful your standing there looking on while I fell over that tree trunk."

Bill's eyes took on a sudden blank look of bewilderment, which raised a belated hope in Helen's broken heart, and set Kate chuckling audibly.

"Tree trunk?" he exclaimed. "Did you fall? Say, I'm real sorry, Miss Helen. I surely am. You see, I just caught sight of"--again came Helen's warning glance, but the man went on without understanding--"somebody in white, disappearing through the bushes, on the run. I guessed a rattler, or a bear, or--or something had got busy scaring you to death. So I jumped right in to fix him.

That's how I found these books," he finished up rather regretfully.

"And I was just feeling good enough to sc.r.a.p a--a house."

A thaw had abruptly set in in Helen's frozen feelings. The memory of those unfortunate feet of hers no longer waved before her mind's eye.

It was fading--fading rapidly. _He had not seen--them._ And as the frozen particles melted, she could not help noticing what splendidly cut features the man really had. His nose was really beautifully shaped. She was glad, too, that his eyes were blue; it was her favorite color, and went so well with fair hair, especially when it was slightly wavy.

She smiled.

"Won't you sit down awhile?" she inquired, with a sudden access of graciousness. "You see, we're very unconventional here, and your brother's a great friend of ours." Then, out of the corners of her eyes she detected Kate's satirically smiling eyes. She promptly resolved to get even with her. "Especially Kate's, and--I'll let you into a secret. A great secret, mind. We knew you were coming to-day--had arrived, in fact--and Kate's been dying to see you all day. Said she really couldn't rest till she'd seen Charlie's brother.

Truth."

Bill lumbered heavily into an ample rocker, and Helen propped herself upon the table, while Kate, upon whom had descended an avalanche of displeasure, suddenly bestirred herself.

"How dare you, Helen?" she cried, in an outraged tone. "You--mustn't take any notice of her, Mr. Bryant. You see, she isn't altogether--responsible. She has a naturally truth-loving nature, but she has somehow become corrupted by contamination with this--this dreadful village. I--I feel very sorry for her at times," she added, laughing. "But really it can't be helped. She keeps awful company."

"Well, I like that," protested Helen, now thoroughly restored to good humor by the conviction that Big Brother Bill had not witnessed her shameful trouble. "Mr. Bryant will soon know which of us to believe, after a statement like that."

"I always believe everybody." The man laughed heartily. "It saves an awful lot of trouble."

"Does it?" inquired Kate, as she slipped quietly into the other rocker.

Helen shook her head decidedly.

"Not when you're living in this 'dump' of a village. Say, Mr. Bryant, you've heard of Mr. Ananias in the Bible? If you haven't you ought to have. Well, the people who wrote about him never guessed there was such a place as Rocky Springs, or they'd sure have choked rather than have written about such a milk-and-water sort of liar as Mr. Ananias.

Truth, he's not a--circ.u.mstance. All you need to believe in Rocky Springs is what you come up against, and then you don't need to be too sure you haven't got--visions."

"Yes, and generally mighty unpleasant--visions," chimed in Kate, with a laugh.

Bill's smiling eyes refused to become serious under the portent of these warnings.

"Guess I've been around Rocky Springs about five hours, and the visions I've had, so far, don't seem to worry me a thing," he said.

Helen smiled. She remembered her first meeting with this man.

"What were you doing with Fyles to-day?" she inquired unguardedly.

Bill suddenly brought his fist down on the arm of his rocker.

"There," he cried, as though he had suddenly made a great discovery.

"I knew it was you I saw on the trail. Why," he added, with guileful simplicity, "you were wearing that very suit you have on now. Say, was there ever such a fool, not recognizing you before?"

Helen was deceived--and so easily.

"I didn't think you really saw me," she said, without the least shame.

"You were so busy with the--sights." Bill nodded.

"Yes, we'd just come along down past that mighty big pine. Fyles had told me it was the landmark. I--I was just thinking about things."

"Thinking about the old pine?" inquired Helen.

"Well, not exactly," replied Bill. "Though it's worth it. I mean thinking about----. You see, a fellow like me don't need to waste many big thinks. Guess I haven't got 'em to waste," he added deprecatingly.

Helen shook her head, but her laughing eyes belied the seriousness of her denial.

"That's not a bit fair to--yourself," she said. "I just don't believe you haven't got any big 'thinks.'"

Bill's manner warmed.

"Say, that makes me feel sort of glad, Miss Helen. You see, I'm not such a duffer really. I think an awful lot, and it don't come hard either. But folks have always told me I'm such a fool, that I've kind of got into the way of believing it. Now, when I saw that pine and the valley I felt sort of queer. It struck me then it was sort of mysterious. Just as though the hand of Fate was groping around and trying to grab me."

He reached out one big hand to ill.u.s.trate his words, and significantly pawed the air.