"Then you--you, too----"
He glanced at the road, cut down the speed still more, and looked back into her thoughtful eyes.
"Would you rather that it was Mark King or I who succeeded?"
She was clearly perplexed.
"Mark King is papa"s partner," she said musingly.
"And I? I hope one day to be more than his partner!"
She understood but gave no sign of understanding. He did not press the point.
"Here we are," he said presently as the first of the picturesque old rock-and-mortar houses of Coloma stood forth out of the wilderness. "And you"re dead tired and nearly dead for sleep. I am sorry we can"t have a city hotel up here; but I"ll get you a room where you can lie down. You can sleep and rest for two or three hours; then we"ll start back."
Gloria had been tired and sleepy half an hour ago; not now. Gratton was playing his own hand in his own way--against her father and against Mark King. And Gratton had a way of winning. Something had happened; some one had telegraphed for him to come. Gloria was aquiver with excitement. She watched Gratton while he was watching the road; he, too, was tense and eager.
When he stopped the car she got down, not knowing just what to do or say. He led the way to the little "hotel," and she followed. Since she could not insist on following him about his "business," it was, perhaps, just as well if she lay down. And, alone, thought things out. He placed a chair for her and arranged for her room. He paid for it in advance, saying that they would be leaving in a hurry; he registered for her.
Then Gloria was shown down a long hall and to her room. Here Gratton left her, impatient to be away. She went to her window and stood looking out. She heard a man call; a deep, rumbling ba.s.s voice. She saw Gratton come about the corner of the house and start across the street. A man, a very big man, came to meet him. They stood together talking in the middle of the road, their voices low, their looks earnest. They went away together. She shivered and went to her bed and sat down, her hands tight clasped, a look of trouble in her eyes. Gratton and Swen Brodie together----
"I don"t understand." She said it to herself over and over. "I can"t understand!"
She sprang up and left the room, going in feverish haste back to the front part of the building. The man who had given Gratton the register followed her with his speculative eyes. She went to the door and looked out, seeing neither the dusty road, the deserted house across the way, nor the mountains beyond. She was groping blindly in a mental fog; she was tired, very tired. And uncertain. Something was happening--had happened, or was about to happen, and she did not know which way to turn. Her father, poor old papa, was fighting hard against some kind of money troubles. Mark King, Gratton, Brodie--figures to race through her brain, to confuse her with their own contentions, to baffle and bewilder. Suddenly she felt utterly alone, hopelessly, helplessly alone.
She wanted her mother, and with the impulse wheeled back toward the man watching her.
"I want to use the long-distance telephone," she said. "Where is it?"
"This way, miss," said the man, eager to be of service. Then, with a bashful grin, he amended: "I _beg_ pardon. Mrs. Gratton, I mean!"
Gloria stared at him. Her mouth was open to correct him; she saw how naturally his mistake was made. But before she could speak a wild flutter in her heart stopped the words; she went swiftly to the register. In Gratton"s own hand, set opposite the clerk"s number seven indicating her room, were the words: "Gratton & Wife, S.F." She turned crimson; went white.
"I"ll telephone later," she said faintly, and went again to the door and this time out into the autumn sunshine. All of the high adventure was dead ashes; the "lark" was lost in a sinister enterprise.
Gratton"s wife--Mrs. Gratton----He had done that! She walked on blindly; tears gathered, tears of mortification, of blazing anger. But they did not fall; she dabbed viciously at her eyes. Why had he done that? _Why?_ Never a "why" so insistent in all of the girl"s lifetime.
Never a moment of such blind wonder.
"Howdy, miss?" a voice was saying.
It brought her back to earth from a region of swirling vapours, back to to-day and Coloma. She stopped and looked at the man, startled. He was a stranger, yet dimly familiar. The little store, his own round face, his shirt-sleeves and boots----
"I wanted to ask," he said solicitously, "how your father was this morning."
"My father?" she repeated dully. "Oh, he"s quite well, thank you."
Plainly her words puzzled him. He squinted his eyes as though to make sure of her.
"You"re the young lady that stopped in here one day last spring with Mark King? June it was, wasn"t it? You bought some stuff for lunch."
"Yes," she admitted. She would never have remembered him. But he, who had not seen others like her, remembered.
"Then you"re Ben Gaynor"s girl?"
"Yes," she said again, and was about to go on, resenting his persistent meddlesomeness.
"And you say he"s _well_?"
"Quite well, I believe," she said coolly.
"But wait a minute," he called after her. "Wasn"t he bad hurt last night?"
"Papa hurt?"
"I supposed that was why you was here----"
"How hurt?" she cried sharply. "When? Where? Tell me; why don"t you tell me?"
He looked at her in wonder.
"All I know is just what I heard. And you know how news gets itself all twisted up travelling half a mile. I _heard_ he got hurt at old Loony Honeycutt"s last night. Right bad hurt, they said. But I was just asking you----"
"Where is he?" she cut in excitedly. "Now?"
"Didn"t you just come out of the hotel?" He looked more puzzled than ever. "Wasn"t he there?"
"How do I know? Was he taken there?"
He nodded. "Leastways I heard he was. Last night----"
Gloria did not wait for more. She turned and ran back to the building she had quitted only a moment ago, bursting into the front room, demanding earnestly and in words that came with a rush:
"Is my father here? Is he hurt?"
"Your father? Hurt----Say, you ain"t Ben Gaynor"s daughter, are you?"
"Yes, yes. And papa----"
"They had a doctor over from Placerville last night. He"s coming back again this morning some time."
"Take me to papa. Quick!" said Gloria imperiously. "You should have told me the minute I came."
"But I didn"t know----"
"Quick!" repeated Gloria.
He showed her to the room, only three doors beyond her own. He moved to open the door but Gloria"s hand was first to the k.n.o.b; she opened and went in, closing the door softly. She was trembling, frightened, dreading, oppressed by fear of what might be. Though both windows were open the shades were drawn, the light was dim. She made out a man"s form on the bed; there was a white bandage about his head. He stirred and turned half over.
"Papa!" cried Gloria, her voice catching.