Wanderer Of the Wasteland (1982) (50 page)

"Some youngsters and a nice woman," replied Adam. It was on his tongue to tell Genie about the milk and eggs for supper, but in the interest of a surprise he kept silent.

Sunset had passed when Adam got the packs spread, the fire built, and supper under way.

At length the supper appeared to be about ready, except for the milk and eggs that had been promised. Adam set the pot and pan aside at the edge of the fire, and went off in search of some wood that would be needed later. He packed a big log of dead oak back to camp, bending under its weight.

When he looked up he saw a handsome, stalwart lad, bareheaded and in shirt sleeves, standing just beyond the fire, holding out with brown muscular arms a big pan of milk. The milk was spilling over the edges. And on one of his fingers hung a small bucket full of eggs. He had to balance himself carefully while he stooped to deposit the bucket of eggs on the ground.

"Hey, Johnnie, where'll I put the milk?" he called cheerily.

Adam was astounded, and suddenly tickled to see Genie trying to hide behind one of the packs. She succeeded in hiding all but her head, which at the moment, wore an old cap that made her look more than ever like a boy.

"My name's not Johnnie," she flashed, with spirit.

The lad appeared nonplussed, probably more at the tone of voice than the speech. Then he laughed. Adam liked the sound of that laugh, its ring, its heartiness.

"Sammy, then...Come get this milk," called the boy. Genie maintained silence, but she glared over the top of the pack.

"Look here, bub," the lad went on, plaintively, "I can't stand this way all night. Mother wants the pan...Boy, are you deaf?...Say, bub, I won't eat you."

"How dare you call me bub!" cried Genie, hotly.

"Well, I'll be doggoned!" exclaimed the young fellow. "Listen to the kid!...I'll call you worse than bub in a minute. Hurry, bubbie!"

Genie made a quick movement that whirled her around with her cap flying off, and then she got to her knees. Thus with face disclosed, and blazing eyes and curls no boy ever had, she presented a vastly different aspect.

"I'm no boy! I--I'm a--a lady!" she declared, with angry, trembling voice of outraged dignity.

"What!" gasped the lad. Then, in his amaze and horror he dropped the pan of milk, that splashed all over, nearly drowning the fire.

"Hello! What's the trouble?" asked Adam, genially, appearing from the oaks.

"I--I--spilled the milk--mother sent," he replied, in confusion.

"That's too bad! No wonder, such a lot of milk!...What's your name?"

"It's Eugene--sir--Eugene Blair."

"Well, that's queer--Eugene Blair...My name's Wansfell, and I'm glad to meet you," said Adam, offering his hand. "Now let me make you acquainted with Miss Eugenie Linwood."

The only acknowledgment Genie gave to her first introduction was a slow sinking down behind the pack. Her expression delighted Adam. As for the young man--he appeared to be about twenty years old--he was overcome with embarrassment.

"Glad to--to know you Miss--Miss Linwood," he gulped. "Please ex-excuse me. Mother never said--there was a--a girl...And you looked so--I took you for a boy."

"That's all right, son," put in Adam, kindly, "Genie did look like a boy. So I've been telling her."

"Now--if you'll excuse me I'll run back after more milk," said the lad, hurriedly, and, grasping up the pan, he ran away.

"Well, Miss Know-it-all," said Adam, banteringly, "what did I tell you? Didn't I tell you we'd meet some nice young fellow?"

"He--he didn't see me--all of me," replied Genie, tragically.

"What? Why a fellow with eyes like his could see right through that pack," declared Adam.

"He called me bub!" suddenly exclaimed Genie, her tone changing from one of tragic woe to one of tragic resentment. "Bub!...The--the first boy I ever met in my whole life!"

"Why shouldn't he call you bub?" queried Adam. "There's no harm in that. And when he discovered his mistake he apologised like a little man."

"I hate him!" flashed Genie. "I'd starve to death before I'd eat his eggs and milk." With that she flounced off into the clump of oaks.

Adam was seeing Genie in a new light. It amused him greatly, yet he could not help but look ruefully after her, somewhat uncertain. Feminine reactions were unknown quantities. Genie reminded him wonderfully of girls he had known when he was seventeen.

Presently young Blair returned with more milk, and also considerably more self-possession. Not seeing Genie, he evidently took the hint and quickly left.

"Come over after supper," called Adam, after him. "All right," he replied, and then was gone.

Very shortly then Adam had supper prepared, to which he cheerfully invited Genie. She came reluctantly, with furtive eyes on the green beyond camp, and sat down to fold her feet under her, after the manner of an Indian. Adam, without any comment, served her supper, not omitting a generous quantity of fragrant fried eggs and a brimming cupful of creamy milk. Wherewith Genie utterly forgot, or magnificently disdained, any recollection of what she had said. She even asked for more. But she was vastly removed from the gay and lightsome Genie.

"What 'd you ask him back here for?" she demanded.

"I want to talk to him. Don't you?" replied Adam, innocently.

"Me!...When he called me bub?"

"Genie, be sensible. They're nice people. I think I'll camp here a day or so. We'll rest up, and that'll give me time to look around."

"Look around!...What'll become of me?" wailed Genie, miserably.

"You can watch camp. I dare say young Blair will forget your rudeness and be nice to you."

Then Genie glared with terrible eyes upon Adam, and she seemed between tears and rage.

"I--I never--never knew--you could be like this."

"Like what? Genie, I declare, I'm half ashamed of you! Nothing has happened. Only this lad mistook you for a boy. Anyone would think the world had come to an end. All because you woke up and found out you had on boy's clothes. Well, you've got to take your medicine now. You would wear them. You never minded me. You didn't care how I saw you!"

"I don't care how he saw me or sees me, either, so there," declared Genie, enigmatically.

"Oh! Well, what's wrong, then?" queried Adam, more curious than ever.

"I--he--it--it was what he called me," replied Genie, confusedly.

Adam gazed at her downcast face with speculative eyes, intuitively feeling that she had not told the whole truth. He had anticipated trouble with this spirited young wild creature from the desert, once they got into civilisation.

"Genie, I've been mostly in fun. Now I'm serious...I want you to be perfectly natural and nice with these Blairs, or anyone else we meet."

Manifestly she took that seriously enough. Without another word she dragged her blankets and canvas away from the firelight, and at the edge of the gathering gloom under the oaks she made her bed and crawled into it.

A little while after dark, young Blair presented himself at Adam's fire, and took a seat to which he was invited.

"I suppose you folks are ranching it?" asked Adam, by way of opening conversation.

"It's hardly a ranch, though we have hopes," replied Blair. "Mother and I run the farm. My father's not--he's away."

"Looks like good soil. Plenty of water and fine grass," observed Adam.

"Best farming country all around--these valleys," declared the lad, warming to enthusiasm. "Ranchers taking it all up. Only a few valleys left. There's one just below this--about a hundred acres--if I could only get that!...But no such luck for me."

"You can never tell," replied Adam, in his quiet way. "You say ranchers are coming in?"

"Yes. San Diego is growing fast. People are buying out the Mexicans and Indians up in these hills. In a few years any rancher with one of these valleys will be rich."

"How much land do you own?"

"My mother bought this little farm here--ten acres--and the valley, which was about ninety. But my father--we lost the valley. And we manage to live here." Adam's quick sympathy divined that something pertaining to the lad's father was bitter and unhappy. He questioned further about the farm, what they raised, where they marketed it, how many cattle, horses, chickens, ducks they had. In half 'an hour Adam knew the boy and liked him.

"You're pretty well educated for a farmer boy," remarked Adam.

"I went to school till I was sixteen. We're from Indiana--Vincennes. Father got the gold fever. We came West. Mother and I took to a surer way of living."

"You like ranching then?"

"Gee! but I'd love to be a real rancher! There's not only money in cattle and horses, on a big scale, but it's such a fine life. Outdoors all the time!...Oh, well, I do have the outdoors as much as anybody. But for mother and the kids--I'd like to do better by them."

"I saw the youngsters and I'd like to get acquainted. Tell me about them."

"Nothing much to tell. They're like little Indians. Tommy's three, Betty's four, Hal's five. He was a baby when we came West. The trip was too hard on him. He's been delicate. But he's slowly getting stronger."

"Well! You've a fine family. How are you going to educate them?"

"That's our problem. Mother and I must do our best until--maybe we can send them to school at San Diego."

"When your ship comes in?"

"Yes, I'm always hoping for that. But first I'd like my ship to start out, so it can come back loaded."

The lad laughed. He was imaginative, full of fire and pathos, yet clear headed and courageous, neither blind to the handicap under which he laboured nor morose at his fetters.

"Yes, if a man waits for his ship to come in--sometimes it never comes," said Adam.

"I suppose you'll be on your way to town early?" asked Blair, as he rose.

"Guess I'll not break camp to-morrow. Genie is tired. And I won't mind a little rest. Hope we'll see you again."

"Thank you. Good night."

When he was gone, Adam took to pacing along the edge of the oaks. In the light of the camp fire he saw the gleam of Genie's wide-open eyes. She had heard every word of Adam's conversation with young Blair. He felt a great sympathy for Genie. Like a child, she was face to face with new life, new sensations, poignant and bewildering. How might he best help her?

Next morning, when Adam returned from a look around, he discovered Genie up, puttering at the camp fire. She greeted him with undue cheerfulness. She was making a heroic effort to show that this situation was perfectly natural. She did pretty well, but Adam's keen eyes and sense gathered that Genie felt herself on the verge of great and tremendous events.

After breakfast Adam asked Genie to accompany him to the farmhouse. She went, but the free, lithe step wanted something of its old grace. Adam espied the children in the yard, and now he took cognizance of them. Tommy was a ragged, tousle-headed, chubby little rascal, ruddy cheeked and blue eyed. Betty resembled the lad Eugene, having his fine dark eyes and open countenance. Hal was the largest, a red-headed, freckle-faced imp if Adam ever saw one. They regarded the newcomers with considerable interest. Genie approached them and offered to swing Betty, who was sitting in a clumsy little hammock-like affair made of barrel staves. And Adam, seeing the children's mother at the door, went that way.

"Good morning, Mrs. Blair!" he said. "We've come over to chat a bit and see your youngsters."

She greeted them smilingly, and came out wiping her hands on her apron. "Goodness knows we're glad to have you. Gene has gone to work. Won't you sit on the bench here?"

Then she espied Genie. "For land's sake! That your girl in the boy's clothes? Gene told me what a dunce he'd been...Oh, she's pretty! What shiny hair!"

"That's Genie. I want you to meet her--and then, Mrs. Blair, perhaps you can give an old desert codger a little advice," said Adam.

He called Genie, and she came readily, though not without shyness. Despite her garb and its rents, Adam could not but feel proud of her. Mrs. Blair's kindliness quickly put the girl at ease. After a little talk, in which Genie's part augured well for the impression she was to make upon people, Adam bade her play with the children.

"No wonder Gene spilled the milk!" ejaculated Mrs. Blair.

"Why?" queried Adam.

"The girl's more than pretty. Never saw such hair. And her eyes! They're not the colour of hair and eyes I know."

"That's the desert's work, Mrs. Blair. On the desert nature makes colour, as well as life, more vivid, more intense."

"And this Genie--isn't it odd--her name is like my boy Gene's--she's no relation of yours?"

Briefly then Adam related Genie's story and the circumstances of his association with her.

"Laws-a-me! Poor child!...and now she has no people--no home--not a friend in the world but you?"

"Not one. It's pretty sad, Mrs. Blair.'

"Sad? It's worse than that...Strikes me, though, Mr. Wansfell, you must be family and friends and all to that girl...And let a mother tell you what a noble thing you've done--to give three years of your life to an orphan!"