"You"ll have blue mice sailing through the air if you don"t sober up."
"Don"t be in a hurry," hiccoughed Tom. "Don"t leave yoh would-be step-pappy without some kind of reminder. A fiver "d go mighty fine jest now, an" you wouldn"t never miss it!"
Brent had wheeled on him.
"You"re getting in mighty dangerous ground, Tom," he warned sharply.
""Tain"t half as dangerous as that orchard back there, if you didn"t come into it honest!--an" if you did come honest, there ain"t no reason why I can"t borry a fiver--bein" a fam"ly matter, as you might say!"
"I came honest, and I"m leaving honest, you drunken fool," Brent raved at him. "And don"t try any blackmail dodges on me or I"ll beat your head off!"
"Blackmail!" Tom stepped back, not so much in surprise at the word as at Brent"s threatening att.i.tude. "Well, I"ll leave it to the Cunnel, an"
Miss Jane, an" them folks over there, if this ain"t a fair an" squar proposition--all in the fam"ly, as you might say;--bein" as you come honest! For if fine gentlemen like you don"t come honest, they"ll say Gawd pity the gal!"
They"ll say: G.o.d pity the girl! It smote his soul like a whip. Why should they not say it anyhow of the half-read country girl whom he slipped around by back roads to meet at night? Heretofore, he had been more the adventurer than criminal, but now he felt the brand of both.
Some day, after his work was finished and he had gone, Zack would tell of the messages and notes, and all the sacred oaths of all the creeds would not convince Arden and Flat Rock one little mite of her innocence!
Over in the orchard a girl, walking slowly to the house, had stopped, terrified; shrinking for him, not for herself, as with the unerring instinct of her s.e.x she realized how his pride would cringe before such an exposure.
"Tom," he said at last, "you may have the fiver, but not because I"m afraid of anything you can say. Nancy hasn"t a thing in G.o.d"s world to be ashamed of, and neither have I. But it"s plain that I can"t come again as long as you"re drunk and seeing things. Here," handing him a bill. "But it isn"t a loan, or hush money, or anything of the sort;--just hope money."
"How hope money?" Tom grinned, crumpling it eagerly in his hand.
"Because I hope you"ll drink yourself to death with it. Good night."
It was late that night, and not until she had made a hurried walk across the country to Arden, when Nancy stole into the house. Her ears told her that Tom was lost in slumber, and she crept to her room, fastening the door with the back of a chair wedged firmly beneath the k.n.o.b. She was breathing fast--this time from physical exertion. Her skirt showed one or two rents where, in her haste, it had been forced through stiff underbrush, and the knuckles of her hands were stained with fresh earth, as though she might have crouched upon the ground somewhere to escape detection. Only upon her face was there no sign of violence. In it rested a light translatable as a great peace which comes to one who has forgiven n.o.bly, at the sacrifice of toil, an erring friend.
CHAPTER XIII
IN THE CIRCLE OF CEDARS
Brent reached Arden behind a sweaty horse. The meeting with Hewlet was filling him more and more with an agonizing unrest. He wanted to be alone, and he wanted not to be alone. He wanted to think, and he wanted not to think. At least, he could not face the Colonel and the others just now, so turning past the house to the most secluded spot the lawn afforded, he brushed through the screen of cedar branches, felt his way across the tanbark to a seat, and sank into it with a low curse.
Jane had heard the quick approaching steps, and now, because her eyes were accustomed to the shadowy gloom, she recognized at once, not only the man but a measure of his agitation by the way he breathed and jammed one fist into the palm of his other hand. Yet, in a spirit of fun, she remained motionless, wondering how soon he would detect her. Then a deep groan burst from his lips. It was a sound of poignant suffering that went to the depths of her nature. Purposeless as seemed his life, she still felt that it could not be altogether bad. The very charm of his presence, which had a way of stamping him a gentleman born even when in his khaki working clothes, stood for some defense; and, in spite of his laziness, she rather guessed that a generous fund of masculine strength lay within that frame--and of mental strength, if directed toward things of his desire. She knew him to be a dreamer, a scoffer; but had not accredited him with a capacity of worry or grief. The evidence of it now perplexed as much as it stirred her. In the stillness of the place it seemed almost as though she could hear his heart crying beneath its breath in the grip of some remorseless sorrow. At once she was all pity, and slowly, with her eyes resting on his bent head, asked:
"What has happened?"
He sprang up, peered at her, and then tried to laugh.
"You must forgive me," he bowed, "for bringing the dramatic club into your sanctum. I"d no idea anyone was here."
"I know that," she said. Then asked again: "What has happened?"
"You"re a bully fellow," he exclaimed in a tone of sincerity, but not entirely free from the false echo of his laugh, "and I"d love to tell you were you not certain to be bored stiff with it. Let me ask you, instead, what you"re thinking about in this charmed circle?"
"I"m sure you"d be bored stiff," she drily answered.
He waited a moment. Then:
"It wasn"t very courteous of me, I know; but, as a matter of fact, I was just having something out with myself. I"ve--I haven"t been fair to someone; and I"m sorry. So I can"t tell you lest I betray."
She sat more erect with a shade of her former sympathy, asking as though it had been a debatable point:
"Then you have a conscience?"
"I have a sense of proportion," he answered. "That"s more logical than a conscience."
"Will you ever exercise it for those poor mountain people of mine, who are starving for civilization?"
"I already do--all sorts of ways."
He had himself in hand now, and, crossing over, sat down by her.
"I think you"ll be more comfortable on the bench," she suggested, and he returned to the rustic seat.
The pause was rather awkward, and she continued:
"I didn"t mean to pry into your--sense of proportion, but thought you might have had bad news. That"s why I asked. In a place like this, you know, where people are more or less detached from the usual worldly interests, they sometimes feel as though they might help each other without committing an unpardonable affront. That"s all. Have you many more rights of way to secure before the road can go ahead?"
"I should like to think, Miss Jane," he replied, pa.s.sing the matter of railroads, "that I really could turn to you for help sometimes. If there"s a fellow in all the world who needs it, and who abominably hates to let people see he needs it, it"s the luckless devil before you."
"If the world is to be kept in ignorance," she smiled, "you mustn"t come into dark places and begin swearing unless you know they"re uninhabited.
It"s romantic, but dangerous."
"Romantic things are always dangerous; ever think of that?"
"I haven"t, but it isn"t true," she answered.
"I can prove it without any trouble, but--" he arose, feeling his pockets, "my--er--cigarettes! Will you wait a few minutes?"
She bowed, and he went out; not for the cigarettes, but to a side window of the house where he beckoned Zack and told him to build, without delay, a toddy. For Brent had been considerably unstrung by the suddenness with which events moved across his stage since sunset, and he turned to this concoction for temporary steadiness. Then he lighted a cigarette and walked back to her in a more composed frame of mind.
"Now," he said, entering the cedars, "with your permission, why are romantic things dangerous?"
"That happened to be your observation, and not interesting," she answered. "You found your cigarettes?"
"You see I"m smoking," he smiled.
"And temporizing," she drily observed. "Really, Mr. McElroy, the truth is not in you!"
"I beg your pardon?" he stiffened slightly.
"I am saying the truth is not in you," she directly answered. "When you first came here tonight, you took a cigarette from your case and lighted it."