"You sit down right now. Understand, everybody, what Mrs. Charnock says goes."
"Certainly," Wilkinson agreed. "Get off to bed Mossup; you"ll have a swelled head all right to-morrow, as it is. I"ll put out the light, Mrs.
Charnock; guess I"ll do it better than Bob."
"Think I can"t put out a common old lamp?" Charnock inquired. "Destroy the blamed thing "fore I let it beat me."
"You"re not going to try," said Wilkinson, who hustled him and Mossup out of the room and then held the door open for Sadie.
She thanked him, but felt that if she had ground to fear resentment, it was not Mossup"s but his. Wilkinson had manners, but she knew he did not like to be robbed of an easy victim, and it was possible that he had let Bob win until he was drunk enough to be fleeced. She waited a few moments to let the others go, and then went upstairs and stopped in a pa.s.sage that led to her room. Her face was hot and she breathed fast, for her part in the scene had cost her something. It would have been different had Charnock not been there; she could have dealt with the others, but he had made her ashamed. Then she heard his step and turned with pa.s.sionate anger as he came along the pa.s.sage. He stopped and looked at her with drunken admiration.
"By George, you"re a fine thing, Sadie! Handsomest and pluckiest woman in the township!"
Sadie said nothing, but her pose stiffened and her lips set tight.
"Look your best when you"re angry," Charnock went on. "Not quite so "tractive, too pale and want animation, when you"re calm."
She did not answer, but felt a quiver of repulsion. His voice was thick, his eyes had a stupid amorous look, and he smelt of whisky. Sadie was not remarkably fastidious; she had, for several years, managed a hotel, and had used her physical charm to attract the man, but she was jarred.
As yet, she made no appeal to the better side of Bob"s nature, if it had a better side, and his sensual admiration revolted her.
Charnock felt puzzled and somewhat daunted, but tried to put his arm round her waist. Sadie seized his shoulders and pushed him violently back.
"Don"t you touch me, you drunken hog!" she said.
He gazed at her in dull surprise and then braced himself. Sadie had moods, but generally came round if he made love to her. Besides, although she was in one of her rages, her att.i.tude was irresistibly inciting.
"I"m your husband anyhow. Now don"t be a silly little fool----"
She drew back as he advanced and picked up a mop. It was used for polishing board floors and had a long handle.
"You"re my husband when you"re sober; I didn"t marry a whisky-tank. If you touch me, Bob, I"ll knock you down!"
Charnock stopped. When Sadie spoke like that she meant what she said.
She looked at him steadily for a moment or two, and then put down the mop and turned away. He durst not follow, and when she entered a room close by, he shrugged with half-bewildered resignation and stumbled off.
Sadie, leaning with labored breath against the rail of her bed, heard him fall down the three or four steps in the middle of the pa.s.sage and afterwards get up and go on again. Then she laughed, a strained, hysterical laugh.
CHAPTER XII
THE SACRIFICE
Charnock hesitated about meeting Sadie at breakfast, but found her calm and apparently good-humored. He felt embarra.s.sed and his head ached, but she made him some strong coffee in a way he liked. Sadie did not often sulk, and he was grateful because she said nothing about what had happened on the previous night. Indeed, he was on the point of telling her so, but her careless manner discouraged him and he resolved instead that he would stop gambling and keep as steady as he could. After all, Sadie was really treating him well; she might, for example, have stopped his getting liquor. He meant to brace up and give her no more trouble.
He kept his resolve for a fortnight, and then, one morning, a man brought him a note from Wilkinson, asking him to drive over to the range. Charnock told the man he could not go, but presently put down his pen and looked out of the open window of the office of the store. The last of the snow had vanished some time since, and round white clouds drifted across the sky. Flying shadows streaked the wide plain, which gleamed like silver in the sunshine, and the bleached gra.s.s rolled in long waves before the breeze. There was something strangely exhilarating in the air and the dusty office smelt of salt-pork and cheese. It was a glorious day for a drive, he need not stay long at Wilkinson"s, and the team needed exercise. Moreover, Sadie was not about and would not come home until afternoon; he might get back before her. He hesitated for a few minutes and then sent an order to the stable.
At midnight he had not returned, and Sadie sat in the office at the hotel, making futile efforts to fix her attention on a newspaper. The guests had gone to bed and the building was very quiet, but she had kept the ostler up. He might be needed and she could trust him not to talk.
At length she heard the sound she listened for. A beat of hoofs and rattle of wheels came down the street. It was their team, she knew their trot, but she wondered anxiously whether Bob was driving. When the rig stopped she went to the door, where the ostler stood with a lantern, and caught her breath as Wilkinson got down. There was n.o.body else on the seat of the light wagon, and Charnock had set off with a different rig.
"Where"s Bob?" she asked in a strained voice.
"We put him inside," said Wilkinson. "He wasn"t quite able to sit up.
I"d have kept him all night only that I reckoned you might be scared."
Sadie, putting her foot on the wheel when the ostler held up the light, saw Charnock lying on a bundle of sacks. He was in a drunken stupor.
"Help Bill bring him, in," she said with stony calm.
Wilkinson and the other lifted the unconscious man, and staggering along a pa.s.sage, awkwardly climbed the stairs. They put him on his bed and were going out when Sadie stopped them.
"Thank you, Bill; hold the team for a few minutes," she said and turned to Wilkinson. "I want you to wait in the office."
Then she shut the door, and after unfastening Charnock"s collar and vest stood looking at him for a minute or two. He had not wakened, but she had seen him like this before and was not alarmed. His face was flushed and the veins on his forehead were prominent; his clothes were crumpled and sprinkled with bits of hay. Sadie studied him with a feeling of helplessness that changed to contemptuous pity. Her romantic dreams and ambitions had vanished and left her this----
As she turned away her mood changed again. After all, he was her husband and she had schemed to marry him. She was honest with herself about this and admitted that Bob had not really loved her much. But he needed her and she must not fail him. There was some comfort in remembering that he had sought no other woman; her rivals were cards and liquor, and she did not mean that they should win. Obeying a sudden impulse, she turned back and kissed his hot face, and then, noting the smell of whisky, flushed and went out with a firm step.
When she entered the office, however, her face was hard and white. She did not sit down, but leaned against a desk opposite Wilkinson.
"Why did you ask Bob out to the range?"
Wilkinson did not like her look. It hinted that she was in a dangerous mood, but he answered good-humoredly: "I thought he wanted a change. You hold him too tight, Mrs. Charnock. Bob won"t stand for being kept busy indoors all day; he won"t make a clerk."
"He won"t," said Sadie. "I"m beginning to see it now. But you don"t care a straw for Bob. You wanted a pick on me because I made you cut out your game that night."
"No," said Wilkinson, with a gesture of protest. "I certainly thought you were too smart, although it was not my business. Anyhow, if you let him have a quiet game with his friends at home--"
"Pshaw! I know you, Jake Wilkinson, better than Bob does. You meant to make him drunk this evening and empty his wallet, and I guess you didn"t find it hard."
Wilkinson"s face got red, but he saw he would gain nothing by denial.
Besides, there was a matter he was anxious about.
"It wasn"t hard to empty his wallet, because he had only a few small bills."
"Yes; I fixed that. How much did you win from him when he was drunk?"
"He got drunk afterwards," Wilkinson objected. "Then I didn"t win it all; there were three or four others."
Sadie smiled rather grimly. "How much?"
She got a jar when Wilkinson told her, but she fixed him with steady eyes.
"You knew what he had in his wallet, but let him go on? You thought Keller"s would stand for the debt?"
"Yes," said Wilkinson, with some alarm; "we certainly thought so."
"Very well. Keller"s makes good. Take the pen and right out a bill like this--R. Charnock, debtor in losses on a card game."