Long into the night Joan lay awake, and at times, stirring the
silence, there was wafted to her on a breeze the low, strange murmur
of the gold-camp's strife.
Joan slept late next morning, and was awakened by the unloading of
lumber. Teams were drawing planks from the sawmill. Already a
skeleton framework for Kells's cabin had been erected. Jim Cleve was
working with the others, and they were sacrificing thoroughness to
haste. Joan had to cook her own breakfast, which task was welcome,
and after it had been finished she wished for something more to
occupy her mind. But nothing offered. Finding a comfortable seat
among some rocks where she would be inconspicuous, she looked on at
the building of Kells's cabin. It seemed strange, and somehow
comforting, to watch Jim Cleve work. He had never been a great
worker. Would this experience on the border make a man of him? She
felt assured of that.
If ever a cabin sprang up like a mushroom, that bandit rendezvous
was the one. Kells worked himself, and appeared no mean hand. By
noon the roof of clapboards was on, and the siding of the same
material had been started. Evidently there was not to a be a
fireplace inside.
Then a teamster drove up with a wagon-load of purchases Kells had
ordered. Kells helped unload this and evidently was in search of
articles. Presently he found them, and then approached Joan, to
deposit before her an assortment of bundles little and big.
"There Miss Modestly," he said. "Make yourself some clothes. You can
shake Dandy Dale's outfit, except when we're on the trail. ... And,
say, if you knew what I had to pay for this stuff you'd think there
was a bigger robber in Alder Creek than Jack Kells. ... And, come to
think of it, my name's now Blight. You're my daughter, if any one
asks." Joan was so grateful to him for the goods and the permission
to get out of Dandy Dale's suit as soon as possible, that she could
only smile her thanks. Kells stared at her, then turned abruptly
away. Those little unconscious acts of hers seemed to affect him
strangely. Joan remembered that he had intended to parade her in
Dandy Dale's costume to gratify some vain abnormal side of his
bandit's proclivities. He had weakened. Here was another subtle
indication of the deterioration of the evil of him. How far would it
go? Joan thought dreamily, and with a swelling heart, of her
influence upon this hardened bandit, upon that wild boy, Jim Cleve.
All that afternoon, and part of the evening in the campfire light,
and all of the next day Joan sewed, so busy that she scarcely lifted
her eyes from her work. The following day she finished her dress,
and with no little pride, for she had both taste and skill. Of the
men, Bate Wood had been most interested in her task; and he would
let things burn on the fire to watch her.