Читать книгу Thunder Moon Strikes - Frederick Schiller Faust - Страница 10
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ОглавлениеAs for the judge, his irritation increased all the way home. No very honest anger sustained him, and for that reason his temper became worse and worse, for he could not help telling himself that the colonel must have meant no insult to him. And, after all, the alliance that had been proposed had been with the eldest son of the most honorable family in the neighborhood. If that eldest son appeared to be more Indian than white man, the appearance was doubtless rather seeming than actual. So the judge got to his house in a white-hot temper, much more out of patience with himself than with his oldest friend.
Straightway, he did what a sulky person usually does. He began to burn his bridges behind him and thereby made the possibility of reconciliation with the colonel more impossible than ever. He sent for his daughter, and Charlotte came to him. He heard her singing through the big echoing halls of Keene House. She came in wearing a riding habit with the long, trailing skirt of that prim day.
The judge looked upon her with a dull eye, for he was seeing not only his daughter but all his dreams of what a woman should be, and in nothing did he find her lacking.
“Charlotte,” said he, “I have broken with Colonel Sutton.”
He waited to let this terrible tidings take effect.
Charlotte merely said, “You silly dear!”
“You don’t understand,” explained her father. “I have severed our old relations with Colonel Sutton!”
“How long have we known the Suttons?” she asked.
“Since you were born, my dear.”
“But before that there were Suttons and Keenes, I take it?”
“Naturally?”
“And they’ve always been friends. They were neighbors in Virginia. They were neighbors in England in the musty old days, weren’t they?”
“Naturally,” said the judge, and he blinked a little as he saw the direction his girl was taking.
“So I don’t see how you and the colonel can break off such a friendship in one moment, father.”
“I’ll show you the reason,” said the judge.
He gathered his evidence in his mind. It was not quite as black as he wanted it to be, and therefore he fell back upon artificial stimulus and brought his brows together darkly.
“Now, Charlotte,” said he, wishing for the sake of his anger that she were farther away from him, “do you know what the colonel has had the audacity to suggest to me?”
“Well, dear?”
“That I give you in marriage to a wild Indian—a Cheyenne—a bloodthirsty—”
“To William!” said the girl.
Her father paused and stared at her. The name came pat enough from her lips.
“You may call him William. His real name is an infernal Indian jumble that means Thunder Moon!”
“That’s ridiculous, don’t you think?” said she.
“Good grief, Charlotte, how can you take it so lightly? A man who has worn war paint and has stolen up on enemies. Stabbed men in the back while they slept—”
“Not a bit!” said the girl. “The Cheyennes thought he was a fool because he insisted on giving his enemies fair warning!”
“How do you know so much about him?” asked her father.
“Simply that I’ve talked with Tom Colfax. Tom knows all about him. He can talk for hours about Thunder Moon. I’ve heard—”
“The fact is,” said her father stiffly, “that at this time I’m not particularly interested in what you’ve heard about that young man. We’ve both seen him, and I’ll trust the evidence of my eyes rather than the gossip of an ignorant—”
“I never saw a finer man,” interrupted the girl.
“Charlotte, you insist on being contrary! Admit that when you saw him come downstairs you were shocked and frightened!”
“Of course, I was frightened! That’s why he’s so wonderful! But how silly of the colonel to want to marry him off at once. Besides, he’s not the sort of a man who would marry at his father’s bidding. Or is that Indian manners?”
“I show you a nightmare, and you smile at it!” exclaimed the judge. “I show you a wild red Indian—”
“Whose name is William Sutton, who has white skin, and who is heir of Sutton House! Go on, father.”
“Bah!” snapped her father.
He glared at her. Then he played his trump card.
“You talk about his savagery without realizing what it is!” said he. “I’m going to show you. Do you remember the ten horses that were brought here today?”
“Of course! How beautiful they looked, standing together there! I wish we could get some of the Sutton strain, father.”
“Damn the Sutton strain!” said her irascible father. “Those ten horses were brought here by Thunder Moon—to buy him a wife!”
“Oh!” cried the girl, and caught her riding crop in both strong hands.
“Yes, sir! Brought over to buy you with, Charlotte!”
“Then he wants me of his own will!”
“The young brute looked out of the window of Sutton House and saw you—and said something about a flower-face—and swore that you must be his wife. Straightway, he takes ten horses and ties them at our door!”
She hesitated.
“Well,” she said at last, “Bob Sherman sent me flowers one day and perfume the next, and the third day he asked me to marry him!”
“Do you think the cases are parallel?” shouted her father, losing his temper.
“Fundamentally about the same,” said she.
“Gracious, Charlotte!” cried the judge. “I believe that you want to many this barbarian from the prairies!”
She puckered her forehead.
“The idea is rather attractive,” said she.
“Charlotte!”
“Well?”
“What do you know about him? This stranger—this wild—”
“I know that he’s a hero, a brave and strong man, a glorious rider, a wonderful fighter, and—and—”
“What else, if you know these things?”
“That he’s kind to his horse.”
“Charlotte, I think you are mad!”
“Not a bit!” said she. “Let him tie ten horses at the door of any other girl around here and see if her head doesn’t swim.”
“I hope not!” said the judge. “I have a higher respect,” he went on bitterly, “for our young women, raised with such care and nurtured so delicately! I could not attribute such thoughts to them!”
She was not insulted. She merely smiled at her father.
“We look very fine,” said she. “We’re not cut on such broad, strong lines as men. But never think that we’re so delicate, dear. Because we’re not, and besides—ah!”
She broke off and pointed through the window. The judge looked and saw two riders sweeping like the wind up the driveway of his house, and one of them was Thunder Moon!
