Meg of Mystery Mountain

Julie had been very eager to ride on the observation platform, but Jane had not wished to go outside because of the dust and cinders which she was sure she would encounter, but now that the small girl was actually going, she could hardly keep from skipping down the aisle as she followed the conductor with Gerald as rear guard.

There was only one occupant of the observation platform, and to Gerald’s delight, he wore the wide brimmed Stetson hat which the boy had often seen on the screen.

“I’ll bet yo’ he’s a cattle-man. I bet yo’ he is!” Gerry gleefully confided to his small sister while their guide said a few words to the Westerner. Then, turning, the conductor beckoned to them.

The stranger arose and held out a strong brown hand to assist the little girl to a chair at his side.

“How do you do, Julie and Gerald?” he said, including them both in his friendly smile. Julie bobbed a little curtsy, but Gerald’s attempt at manners was rudely interrupted by the necessity of seizing his cap.

“We have to watch out for our hats,” the stranger cautioned, “for now and then we are visited by a miniature whirlwind.”

Gerald was almost bursting with eagerness. “Oh, I say, Mr. Packard,” he blurted out, “aren’t you a reg’lar – er – I mean a reg’lar – ” The boy grew red and embarrassed, and so Julie went to his aid with, “Mr. Packard, Gerry thinks maybe you’re a cow-man rancher like we’ve seen in the moving pictures.”

The bronzed face of the middle-aged man wrinkled in a good-natured smile. “I am the owner of a cattle-ranch fifteen miles from Redfords,” he told them.

This information so delighted the boy that Julie was afraid he would bounce right over the rail.

“Gee-golly! That’s where we’re going – Redfords is! Our daddy owns a cabin way up high on Mystery Mountain.”

The man looked puzzled. “Mystery Mountain,” he repeated thoughtfully. “I don’t seem to recall having heard of it.”

Then practical little Julie put in: “Oh, Mr. Packard, that isn’t its really-truly name. Our daddy called it that ’cause there’s a lost mine on it and Dad said it was a mystery where it went to.”

The man’s face brightened.

“O-ho! Then you must mean Redfords’ Peak. That mine was found and lost again before I bought the Green Hills Ranch. Quite a long while ago that was.”

Gerry nodded agreement. “Yep. Dan, our big brother is most twenty-one and he hadn’t been born yet.” Then the boy’s face saddened as he confided: “Dan’s sick. He’s got a dreadful cough. That’s why we’re going to Dad’s cabin in the Rockies.”

“Our doctor said the al-te-tood would make him well,” Julie explained, stopping after each syllable of the long word and saying it very thoughtfully.

Gerald looked up eagerly. “Do you think it will, Mr. Packard? Do you think Dan will get well?”

The older man’s reply was reassuring: “Of course he will. Our Rocky Mountain air is a tonic that gives new life to everyone. Are you three traveling alone?”

Julie and Gerald solemnly shook their heads, and the small girl, in childish fashion, put a finger on her lips as though to keep from saying something which she knew she ought not. It was Gerald who replied: “Our big sister Jane is with us.” The boy said no more, but Mr. Packard was convinced that, devoted as the youngsters were to Dan, Jane, for some reason, was not very popular with them.

Then, as he did not wish to pry into their family affairs, the genial rancher pointed out and described to fascinated listeners the many things of interest which they were passing.

The afternoon sped quickly and even when the dinner hour approached the children were loath to leave their new friend.

“Me and Julie have to eat alone,” the small boy began, but, feeling a nudge, he looked around to see his sister’s shocked little mouth forming a rebuking O! and so, with a shake of his head, he began again: “I mean Julie and I eat alone, and gee-golly, don’t I wish we could sit at your table, Mr. Packard. Don’t I though!”

“The pleasure would be mine,” the man, who was much amused with the children, replied. Then, after naming an hour to meet in the diner, the youngsters darted away and Mr. Packard laughed merrily.

It was quite evident that some one of their elders had often rebuked them for putting “me” at the beginning of a sentence, he decided as he also arose and went within.

Meanwhile Julie and Gerald had quietly opened the door of the drawing-room, and, finding Dan alone, they told him with great gusto about their new friend. “Mr. Packard says he’s a really-truly neighbor of ours,” Gerry said. “How can he be a neighbor if he lives fifteen miles away?”

“I don’t know, Gerald, but I suppose that he does,” Dan replied. “I would like to meet your new friend. I’ll try to be up tomorrow.”

CHAPTER X

A CATTLE-MAN FRIEND

The next day Dan seemed to be much better as the crisp morning air that swept into their drawing-room was very invigorating. By noon he declared that he was quite strong enough to go to the diner for lunch, and, while there, the excited children pointed out to him their friend Mr. Packard.

That kindly man bowed and smiled, noting as he did so that the older girl in their party drew herself up haughtily. The observer, who was an interested student of character, did not find it hard, having seen Jane, to understand the lack of enthusiasm which the children had shown when speaking of her.

Not wishing to thrust his acquaintance upon the girl, who so evidently did not desire it, the man passed their table on his way from the diner without pausing.

It is true that Julie had made a slight move as though to call to him, but this Mr. Packard had not seen, as a cold, rebuking glance from Jane’s dark eyes had caused the small girl to sit back in her chair, inwardly rebellious.

Dan, noting this, said: “I like your friend’s appearance. I think I shall go with you for a while to the observation platform. I cannot breathe too much of this wonderful air.”

Jane reluctantly consented to accompany them there. “Gee-golly, how I hope Mr. Packard is there,” Gerald whispered as he led the way.

The Westerner rose when the young people appeared and Jane quickly realized that he was not as uncouth as she had supposed all ranchers were.

Dan was made as comfortable as possible and he at once said: “Mr. Packard, Gerald tells me that you are our neighbor. That is indeed good news.”

“You have only one nearer neighbor,” the man replied, “and that is the family of a trapper named Heger. They have a cabin high on your mountain.”

Then, turning toward Jane, he said: “Their daughter, whom they call Meg, is just about your age, I judge. She is considered the most beautiful girl in the Redfords district. Indeed, for that matter, she is the most beautiful girl whom I have ever seen, and I have traveled a good deal. How pleased Meg will be to have you all for near neighbors.”

Jane’s thoughts were indignant, and her lips curled scornfully, but as Mr. Packard’s attention had been drawn to Gerald, he did not know that his remarks had been received almost wrathfully.

“Ranchers must have strange ideas of beauty!” she was assuring herself. “How this crude man could say that a trapper’s daughter is the most beautiful girl he has ever met when he was looking directly at me, is simply incomprehensible. Mr. Packard is evidently a man without taste or knowledge of social distinctions.”

Jane soon excused herself, and going to their drawing-room, she attempted to read, but her hurt vanity kept recurring to her and she most heartily wished she was back East, where her type of beauty was properly appreciated. It was not strange, perhaps, that Jane thought herself without a peer, for had she not been voted the most beautiful girl at Highacres Seminary, and many of the others had been the attractive daughters of New York’s most exclusive families.

Dan returned to their drawing-room an hour later, apparently much stronger, and filled with a new enthusiasm. “It’s going to be great, these three months in the West. I’m so glad that we have made the acquaintance of this most interesting neighbor. He is a well educated man, Jane.” Then glancing at his sister anxiously, “You didn’t like him, did you? I wish you had for my sake and the children’s.”

Jane shrugged her slender shoulders. “Oh, don’t mind about me. I can endure him, I suppose.”

Dan sighed and stretched out to rest until the dinner hour arrived.

Julie and Gerald joined them, jubilantly declaring that they were to reach their destination the next morning before sun-up.

“Then we must all retire early,” Dan said. This plan was carried out, but for hours Jane sobbed softly into her pillow. It was almost more than she could bear. She had started this journey just on an impulse, and she did want to help Dan, who had broken down trying to work his way through college that there might be money enough to keep her at Highacres. It was their father who had been inconsiderate of them. If he had let the poor people lose the money they had invested rather than give up all he had himself, she, Jane, could have remained at the fashionable seminary and Dan would have been well and strong.

Indeed everything would have been far better.

But the small voice in the girl’s soul which now and then succeeded in making itself heard caused Jane to acknowledge: “Of course Dad is so conscientious, he would never have been happy if he believed that his money really belonged to the poor people who had trusted him.”

It was midnight before Jane fell asleep, and it seemed almost no time at all before she heard a tapping on her door. She sat up and looked out of the window. Although the sky was lightening, the stars were still shining with a wonderful brilliancy in the bit of sky that she could see. Then a voice, which she recognized as that of Mr. Packard, spoke.

“Time to get up, young friends. We’ll be at Redfords in half an hour.”