The Lawless West Read Online Free PDF Page B

bright, but there were enough of them to give collectively a good light. The volume of sound amazed her. Music and trample of boots, gay laughter, deep voices of men all seemed to merge into a loud hum. A swaying wheeling horde of dancers circled past her. No more time then was accorded her to clarify the spectacle, for Springer suddenly confronted her. Heseemed different somehow. Perhaps it was an absence of ranchers’ corduroys and boots, if Jane needed assurance of what she had dreamed of and hoped for. She had it in his frank admiration.
    “Sure it’s somethin’ fine for Bill Springer to have the prettiest girl here,” he said.
    “Thank you…but, Mister Springer…I sadly fear you were a cowboy before you became a rancher,” she replied archly.
    “Sure I was. An’ that you may find out.” He laughed. “Of course, I could never come up to…say…Frank Owens. But let’s dance. I shall have little enough of you in this outfit.”
    So he swung her into the circle of dancers. Jane found him easy to dance with, although he was far from expert. It was a jostling mob, and she soon acquired a conviction that, if her gown did outlast the whole dance, her feet never would. Springer took his dancing seriously and had little to say. Jane felt strange and uncertain with him. Then soon she became aware of the cessation of hum and movement.
    “Sure that was the best dance I ever had,” said Springer with something of radiance in his dark face. “An’ now I must lose you to this outfit comin’.”
    Manifestly he meant his cowboys Tex, Nevada, Panhandle, and Andy who presented themselves four abreast, shiny of hair and face.
    “Good luck,” he whispered. “If you get into trouble, let me know.”
    What he meant quickly dawned upon Jane. Right there it began. She saw there was absolutely no use in trying to avoid or refuse these young men. The wisest and safest course was to surrender, which she did.
    “Boys, don’t all talk at once. I can dance with onlyone of you at a time. So I’ll take you in alphabetical order. I’m a poor old schoolmarm from Missouri. It’ll be Andy, Nevada, Panhandle, and Tex.”
    Despite their protests she held rigidly to this rule. Each one of the cowboys took shameless advantage of his opportunity. Outrageously as they all hugged her, Tex was the worst offender. She tried to stop dancing, but he carried her along as if she had been a child. He was rapt, and yet there seemed a devil in him.
    “Tex…how dare you,” panted Jane, when at last the dance ended.
    “Wal, I reckon I’d aboot dare anythin’ for you, Jane,” he replied, towering over her.
    “You ought to be…ashamed,” went on Jane. “I’ll not dance with you again.”
    “Aw, now,” he pleaded.
    “I won’t, Tex…so there. You’re no gentleman.”
    “Ahuh!” he ejaculated, drawing himself up stiffly. “All right, I’ll go out an’ get drunk, an’, when I come back, I’ll clean out this heah hall.”
    “Tex! Don’t go,” she called hurriedly as he started to stride away. “I’ll take that back. I will give you another dance…if you promise to…to behave.”
    Then she got rid of him, and was carried off by Mrs. Hartwell to be introduced to ranchers and their wives, to girls and their escorts. She found herself a center of admiring eyes. She promised more dances than she could remember or keep.
    Her new partner was a tall handsome cowboy named Jones. She did not know quite what to make of him. But he was an unusually good dancer, and he did not hold her so that she had difficulty in breathing. He talked all the time. He was witty and engaging, and he had a most subtly flatteringtongue. Jane could not fail to grasp that he might even be worse than Tex, but at least he did not make love to her with physical violence. She enjoyed that dance and admitted the singular forceful charm about this Mr. Jones. If he was a little too bold of glance and somehow primitively assured and debonair, she passed it by in the