Lost Pueblo (1992) by Zane Grey Read Free Book Online Page B

muddy water all over Janey. Once he went in to his knees and Janey's heart leaped to her throat. But he plowed out safely. It was this sort of thing that so excited and pleased Janey. All so new! And being alone made it tenfold more thrilling. The dusty trail, the zigzag climb, the winding in and out among rocks and through the cedars, with the great red wall looming higher and closer, the dry fragrance of desert and sage, the loneliness and wildness, meant more to Janey this day than ever before. Not for anything would she let Phil Randolph and her father into the secret that she was actually learning to love Arizona. The beauty and color and solitude, the vastness of it had called to something deep in her. First she had complained of the dust, the wind, the emptiness, the absence of people. But she had forgotten these. She was now not so sure but that she might like the hardship and primitiveness of the desert.
    Presently she rode out of the straggling cedars so that she could fully see the great wall. Janey threw back her head to gaze upward.
    "Oh--wonderful!" she exclaimed. "I thought the New York buildings were high. But this!"
    It was a sheer red wall, rising with breaks and ledges to a cedar-fringed rampart high against the blue sky. The base was a slope of talus, where rocks of every size appeared about to totter and roll down upon her.
    Then Janey discovered the cave. It was the most enormous hole she had ever seen, and she calculated that Trinity Church would be lost in it. The upper part disappeared in shadow; the lower showed a steep slope and ruined rock walls, which Janey guessed were the remains of the cliff dwellers' homes. She was being impressed by the weirdness of the scene when she heard a shout and then spotted a man standing at the foot of the cave. It was Randolph. He waved to her and began to descend the slide of weathered rock. As he drew nearer to her level Janey saw that he had indeed been working. How virile he looked! She quite forgot the object of her visit; and almost persuaded herself that if he was particularly nice she would climb up to see him at his work.
    "Howdy, Phil," she called, imitating the trader, as nearly as possible. It struck Janey then that Phil did not appear overjoyed to see her.
    "Is your father with you?" he asked. "No. He went to town."
    "I hope to goodness you didn't ride up here alone," he said.
    "Sure I did. And a dandy ride it was."
    "Janey!" he ejaculated.
    "Yes, Janey!" she returned.
    He did not grasp any flippancy on her part.
    "Why did you do it?" he asked, almost angrily.
    "Well, come to think of it I guess I wanted to see you and your work," she returned, innocently.
    "But you've been told not to ride out alone--away from the post."
    "I know I have, and it makes me sick. Why not? I'm not a child, you know. Besides, there aren't any kidnapers about, are there?"
    "Yes. Kidnapers and worse... Frankly, Miss Endicott, I think you ought to have a good stiff lecture."
    "I'm in a very good humor. So fire away."
    "You're a headstrong, willful girl," he declared, bluntly.
    "Phillip, you're not very kind, considering that, well--I relented a little, and rode out here to see you," she replied, reproachfully.
    "I am thinking of you. Somebody has to stop you from taking these risks. The cowboys let you do anything, though they have been ordered to watch you, guard you. If your father can't make you behave somebody else must."
    "And you've got a hunch you're the somebody?" inquired Janey, laconically.
    "It seems presumptuous, absurd," he answered, stubbornly. "But I really fear I am."
    "We're both going to have a wonderful time," said Janey, with a gay laugh. "But before you break loose on this reforming task let me confess I came alone only part way. I left Ray back down the trail at that gully."
    "You did! But you told me--you lied--"
    "I wanted to see how you would take it," she said, as he hesitated.
    Randolph sat down on a slab of rock and regarded her as one