Collected Works of Zane Grey, page 280
Withers rode forward presently and halted the pack-train. He had some conversation with Nas Ta Bega, whereupon the Indian turned his horse and trotted back, to disappear in the cedars.
“I’m some worried,” explained Withers. “Joe thinks he saw a bunch of horsemen trailing us. My eyes are bad and I can’t see far. The Indian will find out. I took a roundabout way to reach the village because I’m always dodging Shadd.”
This communication lent an added zest to the journey. Shefford could hardly believe the truth that his eyes and his ears brought to his consciousness. He turned in behind Withers and rode down the rough trail, helping the mustang all in his power. It occurred to him that Nack-yal had been entirely different since that meeting with his mother in the draw. He turned no more off the trail; he answered readily to the rein; he did not look afar from every ridge. Shefford conceived a liking for the mustang.
Withers turned sidewise in his saddle and let his mustang pick the way.
“Another time we’ll go up round the base of the mountain, where you can look down on the grandest scene in the world,” said he. “Two hundred miles of wind-worn rock, all smooth and bare, without a single straight line — canyon, caves, bridges — the most wonderful country in the world! Even the Indians haven’t explored it. It’s haunted, for them, and they have strange gods. The Navajos will hunt on this side of the mountain, but not on the other. That north side is consecrated ground. My wife has long been trying to get the Navajos to tell her the secret of Nonnezoshe. Nonnezoshe means Rainbow Bridge. The Indians worship it, but as far as she can find out only a few have ever seen it. I imagine it’d be worth some trouble.”
“Maybe that’s the bridge Venters talked about — the one overarching the entrance to Surprise Valley,” Said Shefford.
“It might be,” replied the trader. “You’ve got a good chance of finding out. Nas Ta Bega is the man. You stick to that Indian. ... Well, we start down here into this canyon, and we go down some, I reckon. In half an hour you’ll see sago-lilies and Indian paint-brush and vermilion cactus.”
. . . . . . . . . . .
About the middle of the afternoon the pack-train and its drivers arrived at the hidden Mormon village. Nas Ta Bega had not returned from his scout back along the trail.
Shefford’s sensibilities had all been overstrained, but he had left in him enthusiasm and appreciation that made the situation of this village a fairyland. It was a valley, a canyon floor, so long that he could not see the end, and perhaps a quarter of a mile wide. The air was hot, still, and sweetly odorous of unfamiliar flowers. Pinon and cedar trees surrounded the little log and stone houses, and along the walls of the canyon stood sharp-pointed, dark-green spruce-trees. These walls were singular of shape and color. They were not imposing in height, but they waved like the long, undulating swell of a sea. Every foot of surface was perfectly smooth, and the long curved lines of darker tinge that streaked the red followed the rounded line of the slope at the top. Far above, yet overhanging, were great yellow crags and peaks, and between these, still higher, showed the pine-fringed slope of Navajo Mountain with snow in the sheltered places, and glistening streams, like silver threads, running down.
All this Shefford noticed as he entered the valley from round a corner of wall. Upon nearer view he saw and heard a host of children, who, looking up to see the intruders, scattered like frightened quail. Long gray grass covered the ground, and here and there wide, smooth paths had been worn. A swift and murmuring brook ran through the middle of the valley, and its banks were bordered with flowers.
Withers led the way to one side near the wall, where a clump of cedar-trees and a dark, swift spring boiling out of the rocks and banks of amber moss with purple blossoms made a beautiful camp site. Here the mustangs were unsaddled and turned loose without hobbles. It was certainly unlikely that they would leave such a spot. Some of the burros were unpacked, and the others Withers drove off into the village.
“Sure’s pretty nice,” said Joe, wiping his sweaty face. “I’ll never want to leave. It suits me to lie on this moss.... Take a drink of that spring.”
Shefford complied with alacrity and found the water cool and sweet, and he seemed to feel it all through him. Then he returned to the mossy bank. He did not reply to Joe. In fact, all his faculties were absorbed in watching and feeling, and he lay there long after Joe went off to the village. The murmur of water, the hum of bees, the songs of strange birds, the sweet, warm air, the dreamy summer somnolence of the valley — all these added drowsiness to Shefford’s weary lassitude, and he fell asleep. When he awoke Nas Ta Bega was sitting near him and Joe was busy near a camp-fire.
“Hello, Nas Ta Bega!” said Shefford. “Was there any one trailing us?”
The Navajo nodded.
Joe raised his head and with forceful brevity said, “Shadd.”
“Shadd!” echoed Shefford, remembering the dark, sinister face of his visitor that night in the Sagi. “Joe, is it serious — his trailing us?”
“Well, I don’t know how durn serious it is, but I’m scared to death,” replied Lake. “He and his gang will hold us up somewhere on the way home.”
Shefford regarded Joe with both concern and doubt. Joe’s words were at variance with his looks.
“Say, pard, can you shoot a rifle?” queried Joe.
“Yes. I’m a fair shot at targets.”
The Mormon nodded his head as if pleased. “That’s good. These outlaws are all poor shots with a rifle. So ‘m I. But I can handle a six-shooter. I reckon we’ll make Shadd sweat if he pushes us.”
Withers returned, driving the burros, all of which had been unpacked down to the saddles. Two gray-bearded men accompanied him. One of them appeared to be very old and venerable, and walked with a stick. The other had a sad-lined face and kind, mild blue eyes. Shefford observed that Lake seemed unusually respectful. Withers introduced these Mormons merely as Smith and Henninger. They were very cordial and pleasant in their greetings to Shefford. Presently another, somewhat younger, man joined the group, a stalwart, jovial fellow with ruddy face. There was certainly no mistaking his kindly welcome as he shook Shefford’s hand. His name was Beal. The three stood round the camp-fire for a while, evidently glad of the presence of fellow-men and to hear news from the outside. Finally they went away, taking Joe with them. Withers took up the task of getting supper where Joe had been made to leave it.
“Shefford, listen,” he said, presently, as he knelt before the fire. “I told them right out that you’d been a Gentile clergyman — that you’d gone back on your religion. It impressed them and you’ve been well received. I’ll tell the same thing over at Stonebridge. You’ll get in right. Of course I don’t expect they’ll make a Mormon of you. But they’ll try to. Meanwhile you can be square and friendly all the time you’re trying to find your Fay Larkin. To-morrow you’ll meet some of the women. They’re good souls, but, like any women, crazy for news. Think what it is to be shut up in here between these walls!”
“Withers, I’m intensely interested,” replied Shefford, “and excited, too. Shall we stay here long?”
“I’ll stay a couple of days, then go to Stonebridge with Joe. He’ll come back here, and when you both feel like leaving, and if Nas Ta Bega thinks it safe, you’ll take a trail over to some Indian hogans and pack me out a load of skins and blankets.... My boy, you’ve all the time there is, and I wish you luck. This isn’t a bad place to loaf. I always get sentimental over here. Maybe it’s the women. Some of them are pretty, and one of them — Shefford, they call her the Sago Lily. Her first name is Mary, I’m told. Don’t know her last name. She’s lovely. And I’ll bet you forget Fay Larkin in a flash. Only — be careful. You drop in here with rather peculiar credentials, so to speak — as my helper and as a man with no religion! You’ll not only be fully trusted, but you’ll be welcome to these lonely women. So be careful. Remember it’s my secret belief they are sealed wives and are visited occasionally at night by their husbands. I don’t know this, but I believe it. And you’re not supposed to dream of that.”
“How many men in the village?” asked Shefford.
“Three. You met them.”
“Have they wives?” asked Shefford, curiously.
“Wives! Well, I guess. But only one each that I know of. Joe Lake is the only unmarried Mormon I’ve met.”
“And no men — strangers, cowboys, outlaws — ever come to this village?”
“Except to Indians, it seems to be a secret so far,” replied the trader, earnestly. “But it can’t be kept secret. I’ve said that time after time over in Stonebridge. With Mormons it’s ‘sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.’”
“What’ll happen when outsiders do learn and ride in here?”
“There’ll be trouble — maybe bloodshed. Mormon women are absolutely good, but they’re human, and want and need a little life. And, strange to say, Mormon men are pig-headedly jealous.... Why, if some of the cowboys I knew in Durango would ride over here there’d simply be hell. But that’s a long way, and probably this village will be deserted before news of it ever reaches Colorado. There’s more danger of Shadd and his gang coming in. Shadd’s half Piute. He must know of this place. And he’s got some white outlaws in his gang.... Come on. Grub’s ready, and I’m too hungry to talk.”
Later, when shadows began to gather in the valley and the lofty peaks above were gold in the sunset glow, Withers left camp to look after the straying mustangs, and Shefford strolled to and fro under the cedars. The lights and shades in the Sagi that first night had moved him to enthusiastic watchfulness, but here they were so weird and beautiful that he was enraptured. He actually saw great shafts of gold and shadows of purple streaming from the peaks down into the valley. It was day on the heights and twilight in the valley. The swiftly changing colors were like rainbows.
While he strolled up and down several women came to the spring and filled their buckets. They wore shawls or hoods and their garments were somber, but, nevertheless, they appeared to have youth and comeliness. They saw him, looked at him curiously, and then, without speaking, went back on the well-trodden path. Presently down the path appeared a woman — a girl in lighter garb. It was almost white. She was shapely and walked with free, graceful step, reminding him of the Indian girl, Glen Naspa. This one wore a hood shaped like a huge sunbonnet and it concealed her face. She carried a bucket. When she reached the spring and went down the few stone steps Shefford saw that she did not have on shoes. As she braced herself to lift the bucket her bare foot clung to the mossy stone. It was a strong, sinewy, beautiful foot, instinct with youth. He was curious enough, he thought, but the awakening artist in him made him more so. She dragged at the full bucket and had difficulty in lifting it out of the hole. Shefford strode forward and took the bucket-handle from her.
“Won’t you let me help you?” he said, lifting the bucket. “Indeed — it’s very heavy.”
“Oh — thank you,” she said, without raising her head. Her voice seemed singularly young and sweet. He had not heard a voice like it. She moved down the path and he walked beside her. He felt embarrassed, yet more curious than ever; he wanted to say something, to turn and look at her, but he kept on for a dozen paces without making up his mind.
Finally he said: “Do you really carry this heavy bucket? Why, it makes my arm ache.”
“Twice every day — morning and evening,” she replied. “I’m very strong.”
Then he stole a look out of the corner of his eye, and, seeing that her face was hidden from him by the hood, he turned to observe her at better advantage. A long braid of hair hung down her back. In the twilight it gleamed dull gold. She came up to his shoulder. The sleeve nearest him was rolled up to her elbow, revealing a fine round arm. Her hand, like her foot, was brown, strong, and well shaped. It was a hand that had been developed by labor. She was full-bosomed, yet slender, and she walked with a free stride that made Shefford admire and wonder.
They passed several of the little stone and log houses, and women greeted them as they went by and children peered shyly from the doors. He kept trying to think of something to say, and, failing in that, determined to have one good look under the hood before he left her.
“You walk lame,” she said, solicitously. “Let me carry the bucket now — please. My house is near.”
“Am I lame?... Guess so, a little,” he replied. “It was a hard ride for me. But I’ll carry the bucket just the same.”
They went on under some pinon-trees, down a path to a little house identical with the others, except that it had a stone porch. Shefford smelled fragrant wood-smoke and saw a column curling from the low, flat, stone chimney. Then he set the bucket down on the porch. “Thank you, Mr. Shefford,” she said. “You know my name?” he asked. “Yes. Mr. Withers spoke to my nearest neighbor and she told me.”
“Oh, I see. And you—”
He did not go on and she did not reply. When she stepped upon the porch and turned he was able to see under the hood. The face there was in shadow, and for that very reason he answered to ungovernable impulse and took a step closer to her. Dark, grave, sad eyes looked down at him, and he felt as if he could never draw his own glance away. He seemed not to see the rest of her face, and yet felt that it was lovely. Then a downward movement of the hood hid from him the strange eyes and the shadowy loveliness.
“I — I beg your pardon,” he said, quickly, drawing back. “I’m rude. ... Withers told me about a girl he called — he said looked like a sago-lily. That’s no excuse to stare under your hood. But I — I was curious. I wondered if—”
He hesitated, realizing how foolish his talk was. She stood a moment, probably watching him, but he could not be sure, for her face was hidden.
“They call me that,” she said. “But my name is Mary.”
“Mary — what?” he asked.
“Just Mary,” she said, simply. “Good night.”
He did not say good night and could not have told why. She took up the bucket and went into the dark house. Shefford hurried away into the gathering darkness.
VI. IN THE HIDDEN VALLEY
SHEFFORD HAD HARDLY seen her face, yet he was more interested in a woman than he had ever been before. Still, he reflected, as he returned to camp, he had been under a long strain, he was unduly excited by this new and adventurous life, and these, with the mystery of this village, were perhaps accountable for a state of mind that could not last.
He rolled in his blankets on the soft bed of moss and he saw the stars through the needle-like fringe of the pinyons. It seemed impossible to fall asleep. The two domed peaks split the sky, and back of them, looming dark and shadowy, rose the mountain. There was something cold, austere, and majestic in their lofty presence, and they made him feel alone, yet not alone. He raised himself to see the quiet forms of Withers and Nas Ta Bega prone in the starlight, and their slow, deep breathing was that of tired men. A bell on a mustang rang somewhere off in the valley and gave out a low, strange, reverberating echo from wall to wall. When it ceased a silence set in that was deader than any silence he had ever felt, but gradually he became aware of the low murmur of the brook. For the rest there was no sound of wind, no bark of dog or yelp of coyote, no sound of voice in the village.
He tried to sleep, but instead thought of this girl who was called the Sago Lily. He recalled everything incident to their meeting and the walk to her home. Her swift, free step, her graceful poise, her shapely form — the long braid of hair, dull gold in the twilight, the beautiful bare foot and the strong round arm — these he thought of and recalled vividly. But of her face he had no idea except the shadowy, haunting loveliness, and that grew more and more difficult to remember. The tone of her voice and what she had said — how the one had thrilled him and the other mystified! It was her voice that had most attracted him. There was something in it besides music — what, he could not tell — sadness, depth, something like that in Nas Ta Bega’s beauty springing from disuse. But this seemed absurd. Why should he imagine her voice one that had not been used as freely as any other woman’s? She was a Mormon; very likely, almost surely, she was a sealed wife. His interest, too, was absurd, and he tried to throw it off, or imagine it one he might have felt in any other of these strange women of the hidden village.
But Shefford’s intelligence and his good sense, which became operative when he was fully roused and set the situation clearly before his eyes, had no effect upon his deeper, mystic, and primitive feelings. He saw the truth and he felt something that he could not name. He would not be a fool, but there was no harm in dreaming. And unquestionably, beyond all doubt, the dream and the romance that had lured him to the wilderness were here; hanging over him like the shadows of the great peaks. His heart swelled with emotion when he thought of how the black and incessant despair of the past was gone. So he embraced any attraction that made him forget and think and feel; some instinct stronger than intelligence bade him drift.
. . . . . . . . . . .
Joe’s rolling voice awoke him next morning and he rose with a singular zest. When or where in his life had he awakened in such a beautiful place? Almost he understood why Venters and Bess had been haunted by memories of Surprise Valley. The morning was clear, cool, sweet; the peaks were dim and soft in rosy cloud; shafts of golden sunlight shot down into the purple shadows. Mocking-birds were singing. His body was sore and tired from the unaccustomed travel, but his heart was full, happy. His spirit wanted to run, and he knew there was something out there waiting to meet it. The Indian and the trader and the Mormon all meant more to him this morning. He had grown a little overnight. Nas Ta Bega’s deep “Bi Nai” rang in his ears, and the smiles of Withers and Joe were greetings. He had friends; he had work; and there was rich, strange, and helpful life to live. There was even a difference in the mustang Nack-yal. He came readily; he did not look wild; he had a friendly eye; and Shefford liked him more.
