"They"re not. That was a great man--that Pompey!"
"Great," she agreed, a trifle piqued that he ignored her dog.
"Those fights," he said tensely, "were the biggest things a feller ever did!"
"He did something bigger than conquering men," she told him.
"What?" he challenged.
"The battles won over himself," she answered slowly. "His upright life, his unsullied honor toward all those women whom he made captive. In battles of that kind there are great generals today. In that respect everyone can be a Pompey. I wish I could feel," she thought again of the Colonel"s troubled face, "that you, without any doubt at all, were going to be one!"
"I see what you mean," at last he said, turning back to the book; but instantly pushed it away with a gesture of impatience and gazed moodily into the high polish of the mahogany table, as though somewhere down in its ancient graining an answer might be found to his troubled thoughts.
She watched him, with a curious look of interest.
"I don"t understand it," he finally murmured. "By that very teachin", we"re branded worse than any kind of beasts. There"s somethin" wrong, Miss Jane; there"s somethin" wrong!" A soft and peculiar light, which she had often seen when his pupils began to dilate and contract, fitfully crossed and recrossed them.
"I don"t think I understand _you_," she replied.
"Then look!" he turned quickly. Again the curious light. She felt herself being charmed by it, and wondered if a quail might feel so while crouching before the point of a bird-dog. In a whisper-haunted voice he began to speak; "It"s a summer night. A lazy mist hangs in the valley. I can see it--I"ve seen it most a thousand times! It hangs from the mountain"s waist like a skirt on a half dressed woman, and above is all naked in the starlight. The air is still and clear, up thar," he slipped unconsciously into the familiar dialect as he grew more intense, ""n"
the mist below is smooth "n" white. Ye"d think ye could walk acrost on hit. No sign or sound of the world kin touch this place, "n" one might as well be standin" on some crag that overlooks eternity. Back in a cave a wild-cat wakes, "n" sniffs the air; "n" then he yawns, "n" purrs, "n"
gits up "n" walks with soft, padded feet ter look out on this silence.
He sniffs the air, "n" purrs agin, then lays his ears down flat "n"
sends a cry a-tearin" "crost the s.p.a.ce. I"ve seen "im; I"ve heerd "im; I"ve laid back outen the wind "n" watched "im. He crouches "n" waits.
Soft, but nervous-like, his claws dig in "n" out the airth. Then an answer comes, floatin" like a far-off cry of a child in pain. With ears still tight ag"inst his head, he freezes closter ter the ground, lashin"
his stumpy tail from side ter side, "n" purrin" deeper. Then he cries agin, "n" waits. Purty soon, from out that mist, the answer comes agin, "n" like a flash he"s gone. Has he done wrong?"
He paused, still looking at her; and she, too strangely fascinated to turn away her eyes, stared back with parted lips.
"When the fu"st red bars of dawn flash up the sky," he went on, in the same mysterious voice, "showin" folks down in the valley that a day has come, a bird pulls his head out from his wing, "n" blinks. I"ve seen "em; I"ve laid "n" watched "em "most a thousand times. He blinks agin, "n" finds hisse"f a-lookin" squar in ter a pair of twinklin" eyes that seems ter"ve been awake all night, jest a-watchin", with sly longin", from "tween two leaves. Maybe he"d seen those eyes afore, but not jest like this. Maybe only yestidday he pa.s.sed "em by--or even drove "em away from food;--but somethin" strange is in "em now, somethin" strange that happened in the night. So he gives a jump at "em, jest like a spring he didn"t know was in his legs had been let loose; "n" she laughs "n" flies away, I"ve seen it happen "most a thousand times. From tree ter tree, from bush ter bush, he follers. He stops; she stops. But when he tries agin, she flies. The next day they"re buildin" a nest. Have they done wrong?"
He paused, but she did not take her eyes from his face. She might not have known his voice had ceased by the way she looked deep into his pupils--deep into the realm of his fancies. When he did speak again his words were scarcely audible:
"Whether I"m in this misty valley, or up in those scarred rocks "n"
crags--wherever I happen ter be--"n" send my call out ter s.p.a.ce, I reckon I"ve got ter go when the answer comes floatin" back ter me:--whenever a dawn brings two eyes that have been watchin" fer no one else but me, I reckon I"ve got ter follow in jest that very way! We weren"t made ter put up a fight when that call comes--fer that call don"t mean fight, Miss Jane; it means surrender!"
"Oh, my mountain poet," she murmured, leaning gracefully nearer, "how can you wear a modern harness with such a soul! But we cannot live simply, as the animals and birds! Do you not see that a higher civilization has taught us the greater meaning of these things?"
"No," he answered bluntly. "That call is the greatest meaning. Nothin"
don"t stand one, two, three to it! If civilization chokes it, then civilization is wrong!"
A feeling of conflict stirred in her. Here was this towering young G.o.d whom the Great Chiseller had made so awkward, so uncontrollably selfish, yet otherwise so fine, and he was deliberately leaving the one path of all others which she had believed him most sure to follow. Ruth had sent him to her untarnished, and now, while in her keeping, he was drifting away! How could she ever answer those blind eyes if they questioned her with their calm, sightless stare? Her hand left his chair and rested lightly on his shoulder, and the voice which spoke to him seemed almost hard:
"You are stumbling into a false reasoning! Civilization does not choke the cry; it only directs the way men and women shall answer! You are not forgetting your Sunlight Patch, are you?"
He started to speak, but changed his mind; while, without being noticed, she bent nearer, intently watching.
"Well?" she asked.
"I don"t know," he said with a touch of uncertainty, "I reckon maybe it"s all wrong up at Sunlight Patch, too!"
Tremendously moved, startled, fearful lest he drift entirely from her reach, she slipped still lower and looked up into his face.
"What does this mean?" she asked. "What has happened to you, boy?"
Mac, feeling that something had gone wrong, came over and pushed his head beneath her arm; and with this she held him, while her other hand impulsively caught Dale"s sleeve. A feeling of protectorship, a faint consciousness of motherhood, gave her face an exquisite look of entreaty. What men"s lives might be had never taken a definite place in her mind, for she had accepted much and pa.s.sed over more. But she was not pleading now so much for him, as she was for the trust that had been imposed in her--the knowledge that her honor was answerable to the giver of that trust!
"You will not forget your Sunlight Patch, Dale?" she whispered. "You will promise me this?"
Slowly the answer for which she hoped began to frame itself upon his lips, and would have been spoken, had not Brent at this moment entered in search of the mountaineer, and got well within the room before seeing her.
She arose quietly, entirely free of self-consciousness, and was about to make a sign for him to wait until the promise should be put in words.
But he was receiving altogether a different impression of the scene.
Yet, whatever his surprise, or the pain it brought, he was too well bred to be taken unawares, and immediately crossed to the shelves as though his errand were a book. The room was so large, and so deeply shadowed near the door, that he might do this; and, indeed, hoped she would believe herself to have been un.o.bserved.
But the ruse had not deceived her. It had, instead, merely reflected his own thought; and, as this understanding flashed through her mind, she started forward, hurt;--but as quickly halted in confusion.
Rather hastily he took out the first book his fingers touched and was starting back, when again she made as if to follow; but once more stopped before the humiliation of having considered it even necessary to explain to him. Yet one of her hands was still held out, a picture of desperate protest.
Of course he did not see this, for his eyes had not dared to turn in her direction after their first unforunate glance. Thus he went into the hall, and an instant later she was staring at the vacant door, now rapidly becoming blurred.
She gave one backward glance at Dale, but he had forgotten her existence and was poring over the battles of Pompey. Such indifference did not hurt her now:--it was the emptiness of that door! Still staring, silently beating her hands together in impotent rage, her face burning with mortification, two big tears rolled down her cheeks and fell upon the rug. Mac whined. He did not understand--he only felt.
"Mac," she sobbed hysterically, "I wish you--could say all--all those things that go--with d.a.m.n and h.e.l.l!" then pa.s.sionately ran from the room, and came up plump into the Colonel"s ample waistcoat.
"My G.o.d!" the old gentleman cried.
"Oh!" she gasped.
"Ah, "tis you!" he said, his arms still about her. "I thought it was a wild-cat!"
"I thought it was a bear," she sobbed.
"What? Crying? My dear, how is this?" he asked in alarm.
"I can"t tell you," she murmured to his cravat.
"Can"t tell me! But I say you shall!" he hotly commanded.
"I"ll never do anything--when you say shall," she retorted brokenly.
"G.o.d bless my soul," he sputtered. "I want you to understand that you"ll do anything whether I say shall or not, when I find you crying!"
"That sounds funny," she began to laugh, just a little. Then he began to laugh.
She took his hand after this and led him across the hall into the "long room," and when they emerged ten minutes later there were no signs of tears.
"Never fear," he chuckled, "I"ll tell him this very night."