"We do not in the least comprehend the situation here, Mr. Winston,"
she responded, her voice low and steady. "No one has taken the trouble to explain. We realize, of course, it must be serious, but possibly the strain would prove less if we understood clearly what must be met."
The engineer bowed, drawing toward him an empty cracker-box, and sat down facing them both.
"I will relate the circ.u.mstances to you in all their unpleasantness,"
he began quietly. "Perhaps your woman wit may discover some loophole which has escaped us." Clearly, yet rapidly, he reviewed the salient points of the controversy between Farnham and the "Little Yankee," his own brief connection with it, the discoveries made in the lower levels of the "Independence," his desperate struggle with Burke, the swearing out and serving of warrants, the sudden change in situation which had placed them legally in the wrong, the accident to the sheriff, the curt dismissal of his deputy, and the probable consequences. His voice grew deep as he proceeded, marking the intense interest with which they followed his recital. Then he unfolded briefly the plan adopted for relief. It was the impulsive Mexican who broke the silence that followed his conclusion.
"Si, I see dat!" she exclaimed, leaning eagerly forward, her head between her hands. "Eet vas ver" good vay. But you tink dar be fight soon? You tink so? Beell, he tink so? Den you no like dat de Senor Brown be avay? No, no, you no like be lef" alone ven de fight come?
He big, strong, brav"; he bettah as ten men, hey? Eet vas so, I tell you. I go vis de message, si; Senor Brown he stay here. Vould not dat be de bettah?"
Winston shifted uneasily upon his cracker-box, his gaze wandering from the animated face confronting him to that of the other farther back amid the shadows, still grave and full of doubt.
"You?" he exclaimed in surprise. "Surely you do not suppose we would ever permit you to attempt such a thing."
"No? An" vy not, senor?" springing impulsively to her feet, her eyes opening wide. "Maybe you tink I not know how ride? Maybe you tink I vas "fraid of de dark? or dat I lose my vay? You tink me leetle girl,"
and she snapped her fingers indignantly. "Do dat? Of course I do dat!
_Sapristi_! Eet vas easy. Just ride twenty mile. Bah! I do dat lots o" times. My pony he take me in tree, four hour sure. He nice pony, an" he lofe Mercedes."
"But you do not know the way, girl, and the ride must be made at night."
"De vay--poof! You speak ver" foolish. De vay?--you tink I cannot find de vay! Vy, I Mexicana, senor; I know de vay of de desert; I read de sign here, dar, everyvere, like miladi does de book. I know how; si, si. Senor Brown he show me how get down de side of de mountain, den I know de res". Twenty mile south to de rail; I read de stars, I feel de wind, I give de pony de quirt, and it vas done--_bueno_!"
Winston sat silently watching her, impressed by the earnestness of her broken English, the eloquent energy of her gesticulations.
"Vas dat not de bettah vay, senor? I no good here; I just girl in de vay, an" ven de fight come maybe I be "fraid. But Senor Brown he not git "fraid; he fight hard, more as ten men. So I help too; I just ride de pony, but I help. I go San Juan; I see de Distric" Attorney." She clapped her hands, laughing at the thought. "Si, I know de Distric"
Attorney ver" veil. He tink Mercedes ver" nice girl; he tink I dance bettah as any he ever saw; he say so to me. He do vat Mercedes vant, vat she say vas de right ting--sure he do. Vas dat not de bettah, senor?"
"Possibly," yet secretly questioning her motives, "but--but really, you know, I always supposed you to be a friend of Farnham"s!"
The girl instantly flushed crimson to the roots of her black hair, bringing her hands together sharply, her eyes straying from Winston to the suddenly uplifted face of Miss Norvell.
"No, no," she said, at last, her voice softer. "He vas not to me anyting! She know how it vas; maybe she tell you sometime. Not now, but sometime. I jus" vant do right. I vant serve Senor Brown, not dat Farnham no more. No, no! once, maybe, I tink dat man ver" nice; I tink him good friend; he say much promise Mercedes. Now I tink dat no more--I know he lie all de time; I see tings as dey vas right, an" I try be good girl. You sabe all dat, senor?"
"I understand some of it at least," and he smiled back into her pleading eyes, "enough to trust you. If Hicks and Brown consent, your going will be all right with me."
"_Bueno_!" and she dropped him a deep Spanish courtesy, executing a quick dancing step toward the door. "Den eet vill be so. I no "fraid.
I go see dem both. _Adios_."
The door opened, and she flashed forth into the fading sunlight; it closed behind her, and left the two alone among the shadows.
CHAPTER XXIV
AN AVOWAL OF LOVE
Winston sat gazing at the delicate contour of her face, partially turned away from him, the long, silken lashes shading eyes lowered upon the floor. A single gleam of the westering sun rested in golden beauty across her dark hair, stirred by the slight breeze blowing through the open window. In the silence he could hear his heart beat, and distinguish the faint sound of her breathing. She was the first to speak, yet without moving her head.
"Is it true that you are now under arrest?" she questioned, her voice scarcely audible.
"Technically yes, although, as you may perceive, the sheriff is powerless to prevent an escape if I desired to attempt one."
"Is it because of that--that charge he made?"
He arose to his feet in brave attempt at self-control.
"Oh, no, certainly not! I think that was merely a threat, a cowardly threat, utterly without provocation, without purpose, unless he sought in that way to work you a serious injury. The real charge against me is murder. It appears that the man I fought with in the mine later died from his injuries."
She turned both face and body toward him, her eyes filled with agony.
"The man died? Will it be possible for you to prove yourself innocent?"
"It may be possible, but it does not appear easy. I hope to show that all I did was in self-defence. I did not strike the man a deadly blow; in the struggle he fell and was injured on the sharp rocks. In every sense his death was unintentional, yet there is nothing to sustain me but my own testimony. But I shall not flee from the issue. If I have taken human life I will abide the judgment. G.o.d knows I never dreamed of killing the man; never once supposed him seriously injured. You, at least, believe this?"
"I believe all you tell me."
The man"s grasp on the casing of the window tightened, his eyes upon the ma.s.s of black hair.
"Strangely enough," he continued, "this whole affair has gone wrong from the start; nothing has turned out in the natural way. Criminals have been made into officers of the law, and honest men changed into outlaws. Now it seems impossible to conjecture how the adventure will terminate."
She sat looking up at him, scarcely seeing his face, her hands clasped in her lap.
""All the world "s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,""
she said, quoting the familiar words as if in a dream. "We are such puppets in the great play! How strange it all is! How dangerously close real life is, always skirting the precipice of tragedy! Plans fail, lines tangle, and lives are changed forever by events seemingly insignificant. To-morrow is always mystery. I wonder, is it not a dim consciousness of this that renders the stage so attractive to the mult.i.tude? Even its burlesques, its lurid melodramas, are never utterly beyond the possible. Everywhere are found stranger stories than any romancer can invent; and yet we sometimes term our lives commonplace." She leaned back against the wall, a sob coming into her voice. "What--what is going to be the end of this--for me?"
"Whatever you will," he exclaimed pa.s.sionately, forgetful of all but her power over him. "It is you who must choose."
"Yes, it is I who must choose," her face still uplifted. "Because I am not a leaf to float on the air, my destiny decided by a breath of wind, I must choose; yet how can I know I decide rightly? When heart and conscience stand opposed, any decision means sacrifice and pain. I meant those hasty words wrung out of me in shame, and spoken yonder; I meant them then, and yet they haunt me like so many sheeted ghosts.
"Tis not their untruth, but the thought will not down that the real cause of their utterance was not the wrong done me. It had other birth."
"In what?"
She did not in the least hesitate to answer, her eyes clear and honest upon his own.
"In my love for you," she answered, quietly, her cheeks reddening to the frank avowal.
He grasped her hands, drawing her, unresisting, toward him.
"You confess this to me?"
"Yes, to you; but to you only because I trust you, because I know you as an honorable man," she said, speaking with an earnest simplicity irresistible. "I am not ashamed of the truth, not afraid to acknowledge it frankly. If there be wrong in this; that wrong has already been accomplished; the mere uttering of it cannot harm either of us. We know the fact without words. I love you; with all my heart I love you. I can say this to you here in the silence, yet I could not speak it openly before the world. Why? Because such love is wrong?
Under G.o.d I do not know; only, the world would misunderstand, would question my motives, would misjudge my faith. By the code I am not the mistress of my heart; it has been legally surrendered. But you will not misjudge, or question. If I could not trust, I could not love you; I do both. Now and here, I put my hands in yours, I place my life, my conscience, in your keeping. For good or evil, for heaven or h.e.l.l, I yield to you my faith. Tell me what I am utterly unable to decide for myself alone: What is my duty, the duty of a woman situated as I am?"
He held her hands still, crushing them within his own, yet the color, the hope which had brightened his face, faded. A moment the two sat silent, their eyes meeting, searching the depths.
"Beth," he asked at last, "is this right?"