Overhead she was singing. The voice was clear and sweet and happy. He did not know the melody; some minor1 refrain of broken rhythm which seemed always to die away short of fulfillment. A haunting thing of mystery and glamour2, such mystery and glamour as had irradiated his long and wonderful night. He heard the door open and then her light footsteps on the stair outside. Hot-eyed and disheveled, he rose, staggering a little at first as he hurried to greet her.
She stood poised3 on the lower step.
"Good-morning," he said.
She made no return to his accost4 other than a slow smile. "I thought you were a dream," she murmured.
"No. I'm real enough. Are you better? Your head?"
She put a hand to the bandage. "It's sore. Otherwise I'm quite fit. I've slept like the dead."
"I'm glad to hear it," he replied mechanically. He was drinking her in, all the grace and loveliness and wonder of her, himself quite unconscious of the intensity5 of his gaze.
She accepted the mute tribute untroubled; but there was a suggestion of puzzlement in the frown which began to pucker6 her forehead.
"You're really the station-agent?" she asked with a slight emphasis upon the adverb.
"Yes. Why not?"
"Nothing. No reason. Won't you tell me what happened?"
"Come inside." He held open the door against the wind.
"No. It's musty." She wrinkled a dainty nose. "Can't we talk here? I love the feel of the air and the wet. And the world! I'm glad I wasn't killed."
"So am I," he said soberly.
"When my brain wouldn't work quite right yesterday, I thought that some one had hit me. That isn't so, is it?"
"No. Your train was wrecked7. You were injured. In the confusion you must have run away."
"Yes. I remember being frightened. Terribly frightened. I'd never been that way before. Outside of that one idea of fear, everything was mixed up. I ran until I couldn't run any more and dropped down."
"And then?"
"I got up and ran again. Have you ever been afraid?"
"Plenty of times."
"I hadn't realized before that there was anything in the world to be afraid of. But the thought of that blow, coming so suddenly from nowhere, and the fear that I might be struck again--it drove me." She flung out her hands in a little desperate gesture that twitched9 at Banneker's breath.
"You must have been out all night in the rain."'
"No. I found a sort of cabin in the woods. It was deserted10."
"Dutch Cal's place. It's only a few rods back in."
"I saw a light from there and that suggested to my muddled11 brain that I might get something to eat."
"So you came over here."
"Yes. But the fear came on me again and I didn't dare knock. I suppose I prowled."
"Gardner thought he heard ghosts. But ghosts don't steal molasses pie."
She looked at him solemnly. "Must one steal to get anything to eat here?"
"I'm sorry," he cried. "I'll get you breakfast right away. What will you have? There isn't much."
"Anything there is. But if I'm to board with you, you must let me pay my way."
"The company is responsible for that."
Her brooding eyes were still fixed12 upon him. "You actually are the agent," she mused13. "That's quaint14."
"I don't see anything quaint about it. Now, if you'll make yourself comfortable I'll go over to the shack15 and rustle16 something for breakfast."
"No; I'd rather go with you. Perhaps I can help."
Such help as the guest afforded was negligible. When, from sundry17 of the Sears-Roebuck cans and bottles, a condensed and preserved sort of meal had been derived18, she set to it with a good grace.
"There's more of a kick in tea than in a cocktail19, I believe, when you really need it," she remarked gratefully. "You spoke20 of a Mr. Gardner. Who is he?"
"A reporter who spent night before last here."
She dropped her cracker21, oleomargarine-side down. "A reporter?"
"He came down to write up the wreck8. It's a bad one. Nine dead, so far."
"Is he still here?"
"No. Gone back to Angelica City."
Retrieving22 her cracker, the guest finished her meal, heartily23 but thoughtfully. She insisted on lending a hand to the washing-up process, and complimented Banneker on his neatness.
"You haven't told me your name yet," he reminded her when the last shining tin was hung up.
"No; I haven't. What will you do with it when you get it?"
"Report it to the company for their lists."
"Suppose I don't want it reported to the company?'
"Why on earth shouldn't you?"
"I may have my reasons. Would it be put in the papers?"
"Very likely."
"I don't _want_ it in the papers," said the girl with decision.
"Don't you want it known that you're all right? Your people--"
"I'll wire my people. Or you can wire them for me. Can't you?"
"Of course. But the company has a right to know what has happened to its passengers."
"Not to me! What has the company done for me but wreck me and give me an awful bang on the head and lose my baggage and--Oh, I nearly forgot. I took my traveling-bag when I ran. It's in the hut. I wonder if you would get it for me?"
"Of course. I'll go now."
"That's good of you. And for your own self, but not your old company, I'll tell you my name. I'm--"
"Wait a moment. Whatever you tell me I'll have to report."
"You can't," she returned imperiously. "It's in confidence."
"I won't accept it so."
"You're a most extraordinary sta--a most extraordinary sort of man. Then I'll give you this much for yourself, and if your company collects pet names, you can pass it on. My friends call me Io."
"Yes. I know. You're I.O.W."
"How do you know that? And how much more do you know?"
"No more. A man on the train reported your initials from your baggage."
"I'll feel ever so much better when I have that bag. Is there a hotel near here?"
"A sort of one at Manzanita. It isn't very clean. But there'll be a train through to-night and I'll get you space on that. I'd better get a doctor for you first, hadn't I?"
"No, indeed! All I need is some fresh things."
Banneker set off at a brisk pace. He found the extravagant24 little traveling-case safely closed and locked, and delivered it outside his own door which was also closed and, he suspected, locked.
"I'm thinking," said the soft voice of the girl within. "Don't let me interrupt your work."
Beneath, at his routine, Banneker also set himself to think; confused, bewildered, impossibly conjectural25 thoughts not unmingled with semi-official anxiety. Harboring a woman on company property, even though she were, in some sense, a charge of the company, might be open to misconceptions. He wished that the mysterious Io would declare herself.
At noon she did. She declared herself ready for luncheon26. There was about her a matter-of-fact acceptance of the situation as natural, even inevitable27, which entranced Banneker when it did not appall28 him. After the meal was over, the girl seated herself on a low bench which Banneker had built with his own hands and the Right-and-Ready Tool Kit29 (9 T 603), her knee between her clasped hands and an elfish expression on her face.
"Don't you think," she suggested, "that we'd get on quicker if you washed the dishes and I sat here and talked to you?"
"Very likely."
"It isn't so easy to begin, you know," she remarked, nursing her knee thoughtfully. "Am I--Do you find me very much in the way?'"
"No."
"Don't suppress your wild enthusiasm on my account," she besought30 him. "I haven't interfered31 with your duties so far, have I?"
"No," answered Banneker wondering what was coming next.
"You see"--her tone became ruminative32 and confidential--"if I give you my name and you report it, there'll be all kinds of a mix-up. They'll come after me and take me away."
Banneker dropped a tin on the floor and stood, staring.
"Isn't that what you want?"
"It's evident enough that it's what _you_ want," she returned, aggrieved33.
"No. Not at all," he disclaimed34. "Only--well, out here--alone--I don't understand."
"Can't you understand that if one had happened to drop out of the world by chance, it might be desirable to stay out for a while?"
"For _you_? No; I can't understand that."
"What about yourself?" she challenged with a swift, amused gleam. "You are certainly staying out of the world here."
"This is my world."
Her eyes and voice dropped. "Truly?" she murmured. Then, as he made no reply, "It isn't much of a world for a man."
To this his response touched the heights of the unexpected. He stretched out his arm toward the near window through which could be seen the white splendor35 of Mount Carstairs, dim in the wreathing murk.
"Lo! For there, amidst the flowers and grasses, Only the mightier36 movement sounds and passes, Only winds and rivers, Life and death," he quoted.
Her eyes glowed with sheer, incredulous astonishment37. "How came you by that Stevenson?" she demanded. "Are you poet as well as recluse38?"
"I met him once."
"Tell me about it."
"Some other time. We've other things to talk of now."
"Some other time? Then I'm to stay!"
"In Manzanita?"
"Manzanita? No. Here."
"In this station? Alone? But why--"
"Because I'm Io Welland and I want to, and I always get what I want," she retorted calmly and superbly.
"Welland," he repeated. "Miss I.O. Welland. And the address is New York, isn't it?"
Her hands grew tense across her knee, and deep in her shadowed eyes there was a flash. But her voice suggested not only appeal, but almost a hint of caress39 as she said:
"Are you going to betray a guest? I've always heard that Western hospitality--"
"You're not my guest. You're the company's."
"And you won't take me for yours?"
"Be reasonable, Miss Welland."
"I suppose it's a question of the conventionalities," she mocked.
"I don't know or care anything about the conventionalities--"
"Nor I," she interrupted. "Out here."
"--but my guess would be that they apply only to people who live in the same world. We don't, you and I."
"That's rather shrewd of you," she observed.
"It isn't an easy matter to talk about to a young girl, you know."
"Oh, yes, it is," she returned with composure. "Just take it for granted that I know about all there is to be known and am not afraid of it. I'm not afraid of anything, I think, except of--of having to go back just now." She rose and went to him, looking down into his eyes. "A woman knows whom she can trust in--in certain things. That's her gift, a gift no man has or quite understands. Dazed as I was last night, I knew I could trust you. I still know it. So we may dismiss that."
"That is true," said Banneker, "so far as it goes."
"What farther is there? If it's a matter of the inconvenience--"
"No. You know it isn't that."
"Then let me stay in this funny little shack just for a few days," she pleaded. "If you don't, I'll get on to-night's train and go on and--and do something I'll be sorry for all the rest of my life. And it'll be your fault! I was going to do it when the accident prevented. Do you believe in Providence40?"
"Not as a butt-in," he answered promptly41. "I don't believe that Providence would pitch a rock into a train and kill a lot of people, just to prevent a girl from making a foo--a bad break."
"Nor I," she smiled. "I suppose there's some kind of a General Manager over this queer world; but I believe He plays the game fair and square and doesn't break the rules He has made Himself. If I didn't, I wouldn't want to play at all!... Oh, my telegram! I must wire my aunt in New York. I'll tell her that I've stopped off to visit friends, if you don't object to that description as being too compromising," she added mischievously42. She accepted a pad which he handed her and sat at the table, pondering. "Mr. Banneker," she said after a moment.
"Well?"
"If the telegram goes from here, will it be headed by the name of the station?"
"Yes."
"So that inquiry43 might be made here for me?"
"It might, certainly."
"But I don't want it to be. Couldn't you leave off the station?"
"Not very well."
"Just for me?" she wheedled44. "For your guest that you've been so insistent45 on keeping," she added slyly.
"The message wouldn't be accepted."
"Oh, dear! Then I won't send it."
"If you don't notify your family, I must report you to the company."
"What an irritating sense of duty you have! It must be dreadful to be afflicted46 that way. Can't you suggest something?" she flashed. "Won't you do a _thing_ to help me stay? I believe you don't want me, after all."
"If the up-train gets through this evening, I'll give your wire to the engineer and he'll transmit it from any office you say."
Childlike with pleasure she clapped her hands. "Of course! Give him this, will you?" From a bag at her wrist she extracted a five-dollar bill. "By the way, if I'm to be a guest I must be a paying guest, of course."
"You can pay for a cot that I'll get in town," he agreed, "and your share of the food."
"But the use of the house, and--and all the trouble I'm making you," she said doubtfully. "I ought to pay for that."
"Do you think so?" He looked at her with a peculiar47 expression which, however, was not beyond the power of her intuition to interpret.
"No; I don't," she declared.
Banneker answered her smile with his own, as he resumed his dish-wiping. Io wrote out her telegram with care. Her next observation startled the agent.
"Are you, by any chance, married?"
"No; I'm not. What makes you ask that?"
"There's been a woman in here before."
Confusedly his thoughts flew back to Carlotta. But the Mexican girl had never been in the shack. He was quite absurdly and inexplicably48 glad now that she had not.
"A woman?" he said. "Why do you think so?"
"Something in the arrangement of the place. That hanging, yonder. And that little vase--it's good, by the way. The way that Navajo is placed on the door. One feels it."
"It's true. A friend of mine came here one day and turned everything topsy-turvy."
"I'm not asking questions just for curiosity. But is that the reason you didn't want me to stay?"
He laughed, thinking of Miss Van Arsdale. "Heavens, no! Wait till you meet her. She's a very wonderful person; but--"
"Meet her? Does she live near here, then?"
"A few miles away."
"Suppose she should come and find me here?"
"It's what I've been wishing."
"Is it! Well, it isn't what I wish at all."
"In fact," continued the imperturbable49 Banneker, "I rather planned to ride over to her place this afternoon."
"Why, if you please?"
"To tell her about you and ask her advice."
Io's face darkened rebelliously50. "Do you think it necessary to tattle to a woman who is a total stranger to me?"
"I think it would be wise to get her view," he replied, unmoved.
"Well, I think it would be horrid51. I think if you do any such thing, you are--Mr. Banneker! You're not listening to me."
"Some one is coming through the woods trail," said he.
"Perhaps it's your local friend."
"That's my guess."
"Please understand this, Mr. Banneker," she said with an obstinate52 outthrust of her little chin. "I don't know who your friend is and I don't care. If you make it necessary, I can go to the hotel in town; but while I stay here I won't have my affairs or even my presence discussed with any one else."
"You're too late," said Banneker.
Out from a hardly discernible opening in the brush shouldered a big roan. Tossing up his head, he stretched out in the long, easy lope of the desert-bred, his rider sitting him loosely and with slack bridle53.
"That's Miss Van Arsdale," said Banneker.
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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glamour
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| n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住 | |
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poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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accost
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| v.向人搭话，打招呼 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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pucker
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| v.撅起，使起皱；n.（衣服上的）皱纹，褶子 | |
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wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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twitched
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| vt.& vi.（使）抽动，（使）颤动（twitch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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muddled
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| adj.混乱的；糊涂的；头脑昏昏然的v.弄乱，弄糟( muddle的过去式)；使糊涂；对付，混日子 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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shack
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| adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚 | |
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rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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cocktail
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| n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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cracker
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| n.（无甜味的）薄脆饼干 | |
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retrieving
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| n.检索（过程），取还v.取回( retrieve的现在分词 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息） | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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conjectural
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| adj.推测的 | |
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luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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appall
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| vt.使惊骇，使大吃一惊 | |
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kit
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| n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物 | |
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besought
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| v.恳求，乞求（某事物）( beseech的过去式和过去分词 )；(beseech的过去式与过去分词) | |
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interfered
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| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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ruminative
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| adj.沉思的，默想的，爱反复思考的 | |
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aggrieved
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| adj.愤愤不平的，受委屈的；悲痛的；（在合法权利方面）受侵害的v.令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式)；令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式和过去分词) | |
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disclaimed
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| v.否认( disclaim的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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splendor
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| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
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mightier
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| adj. 强有力的，强大的，巨大的 adv. 很，极其 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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recluse
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| n.隐居者 | |
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caress
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| vt./n.爱抚，抚摸 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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42
mischievously
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| adv.有害地；淘气地 | |
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43
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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44
wheedled
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| v.骗取（某物），哄骗（某人干某事）( wheedle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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insistent
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| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
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afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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48
inexplicably
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| adv.无法说明地，难以理解地，令人难以理解的是 | |
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49
imperturbable
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| adj.镇静的 | |
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rebelliously
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| adv.造反地，难以控制地 | |
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51
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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52
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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53
bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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