She ran to him and went down on her knees at his bedside, her two hands finding his upon the coverlet, clasping them tight. He looked at her in wonderment; Gloria misread the look in his eyes and for a terrible moment thought that he was dying.
"Gloria!" he said in amazement. "Here----"
"Oh, papa!"
To Ben Gaynor this unannounced coming of his daughter partook of the nature of an apparition and of a miracle. At first he would not believe his senses, fearing that he had just gone off his head. Then it was that the look in his eyes frightened her. But the hands gripping his were flesh-and-blood hands, and, besides, Ben Gaynor was a very matter-of-fact man, little given to prolonged fanciful ideas, even after a night of pain and mental distress.
"By the Lord, we"ll nail their hides to our barn door yet!" were his first words of greeting. He hitched himself up against his pillows.
"What in the world happened?" Gloria asked after a sigh of relief.
"How you happened to be here gets me," said Gaynor. "It"s like magic.
You didn"t hear down in San Francisco that I was hurt, did you?"
"No. I--I just happened to be here. You see, papa----"
"That"ll come later," he broke in. "You"re here; that"s all that counts.
You"re going to do something for me."
Anything, thought Gloria. And she was glad that he did not seek just now the explanation of her presence here; of course she would tell him everything--later. But she was still confused--"Mrs. Gratton "! Did she, down in the depths of her frivolous girl-heart, want to be that? Had she glimpsed, when she so gaily left San Francisco last night, that this escapade was something more than a mere "lark"?
"You are not dangerously hurt, papa?"
"Bless you, no! Not now, that you"re here. Though I believe it would have near killed me if I"d been put out of the running altogether. I got a crack on the head that sickened me; but the tough old skull held out against it. And I got an arm broken and a rib cracked----"
Gloria, aghast, was once more in fear for him. But he cried impatiently:
"Don"t you worry about me. I"ll be on my feet in a week. Now, listen: I"ve got to talk fast before somebody comes in. The doctor is apt to be here any minute, and he"s a stiff-necked tyrant. You know the trail through the mountains to our place; you rode it twice with King."
"Yes."
"I want you to ride it again to-day. You can get a horse at the stable.
Don"t let any one know where you are going. I want you to take a message to King. And it"s got to get to him and into n.o.body"s hands but his.
Understand that, Gloria?"
Gloria did not answer promptly; she wanted to demur. She was tired; she was afraid of the mountains; she did not want to see Mark King. But she saw a terrible earnestness in her father"s eyes and that while he awaited her answer quick fever spots glowed in his cheeks. She squeezed his hands and replied:
"Of course, papa. I"ll do whatever you want."
"G.o.d bless you for that," he muttered. "This is sober, serious business, Gloria; you are the only one here I could trust. King will be at the house; at least I hope he will. I sent him word several days ago that--that something was in the wind, and to meet me there. And, Gloria, I want you to promise, by all that"s good and holy, that you won"t let a word or a sign or a hint slip to anybody else. Not to a soul on earth.
Will you, Gloria?"
"Yes." She looked at him curiously; she had never known her father to be so tensely in earnest.
"Then," he said, "go turn the key in the lock. And hurry. Before any one comes."
She locked the door and returned to him.
"Feel under my pillow. Got it?"
She felt the cold barrel of a revolver and started back; never had she known her father to carry arms. Then, gingerly, she sought again. She found a small parcel and drew it out. It was a flattish affair and rectangular, the size and shape of an octavo volume--a flat box, if not a book. It was wrapped in a bit of soiled cloth.
"Quick," he commanded nervously. "Out of sight with it. Stick it into your blouse, if you can; tuck it away under your arm; it won"t show so much there."
Catching something of his suppressed excitement, she obeyed.
"I managed a little note to Mark," he said when she had b.u.t.toned the loose shirt again and he had sunk back, white and exhausted, among his pillows. "I stuck it inside the cloth. Lord, if I was only on my feet!
But you"ll do it for me, my girl? With never a hint to any one?"
Gloria stooped and kissed him on the forehead.
"I promise, papa," she said a.s.suringly.
"Unlock the door again, then. There"s somebody coming. Sit down over there, across the room. And leave as soon as you can. We"ll let them think you"re going to the log house for--for----"
She was quicker at inventions.
"Doctor Rowell, our family physician, is at Lake Tahoe. I am going to find him. We would telephone, but he is camped out----"
"Pretty late for camping. Oh, that"ll do----"
Gloria sat in her chair across the room, looking innocently the part of a daughter in a sick-room, when the door opened and the Placerville doctor came in. A moment later she slipped out.
She went out into the sunshine. Down the road she saw Gratton. He came quickly to meet her. She saw that he was eyeing her keenly, and her thought was that he was wondering if by chance she had seen the hotel register.
"I don"t know just what to do," said Gratton. "My business is going to hold me here longer than I had thought. I--I promised to go back with you this afternoon. Would it be all right if I got a man to drive you back? I am terribly sorry, Gloria, but----"
"Business is business!" She laughed a trifle nervously. Then her inspiration: "I know! I can go to our mountain home; I"ll phone mamma, and she will come up. We"ll spend a few days, and----"
For an instant his eyes fairly blazed; they were bright with triumph.
"Just the thing! I"ll go for the horses. I"ll ride over with you and get right back here."
"But----"
But already, excusing himself hurriedly, Gratton was off for the horses.
_Chapter XII_
It was mid-afternoon when Gloria and Gratton came to the log house in the woods. Jim Spalding, coming to take their horses away to the stable, though a man of no wild flights of imagination and given to minding his own business, was plainly curious.
"We rode on ahead, Jim," Gloria told him, and Jim detected no false note in her gaiety. "Mamma is coming."