The girl appeared thoughtful. "Does it?" she said. "Still, do you know, I fancy that if they had tried to drive you out, you would have stayed in spite of them."
"Yes," said Witham dryly, "I believe I would, but the fact that in a very little while they held out a friendly hand to a stranger steeped in suspicion, and gave him the chance to prove himself their equal, carries a big responsibility. That, and your aunt"s goodness, puts so many things one might have done out of the question."
The obvious inference was that the prodigal had been reclaimed by the simple means of putting him on his honour, but that did not for a moment suggest itself to the girl. She had often regretted her own disbelief, and once more felt the need for reparation.
"Lance," she said, very quietly, "my aunt was wiser than I was, but she was mistaken. What she gave you out of her wide charity was already yours by right."
That was complete and final, for Maud Barrington did nothing by half, and Witham recognized that she held him blameless in the past, which she could not know, as well as in the present, which was visible to her. Her confidence stung him as a whip, and when in place of answering he looked away, the girl fancied that a smothered groan escaped him. She waited, curiously expectant, but he did not speak, and just then the fall of hoofs rose from behind the birches in the bluff. Then a man"s voice came through it singing a little French song, and Maud Barrington glanced at her companion.
"Lance," she said, "how long is it since you sang that song?"
"Well," said Witham, doggedly conscious of what he was doing, "I do not know a word of it, and never heard it in my life."
Maud Barrington stared at him. "Think," she said. "It seems ever so long ago, but you cannot have forgotten. Surely you remember Madame Aubert, who taught me to prattle in French, and the day you slipped into the music-room and picked up the song, while she tried in vain to teach it me. Can"t you recollect how I cried, when you sang it in the billiard-room, and Uncle Geoffrey gave you the half-sovereign which had been promised to me?"
"No," said Witham a trifle hoa.r.s.ely, and with his head turned from her watched the trail.
A man in embroidered deerskin jacket was riding into the moonlight, and though the little song had ceased, and the wide hat hid his face, there was an almost insolent gracefulness in his carriage that seemed familiar to Witham. It was not the _abandon_ of the swashbuckler stock-rider from across the frontier, but something more finished and distinguished that suggested the bygone cavalier. Maud Barrington, it was evident, also noticed it.
"Geoffrey Courthorne rode as that man does," she said. "I remember hearing my mother once tell him that he had been born too late, because his attributes and tastes would have fitted him to follow Prince Rupert."
Witham made no answer, and the man rode on until he drew bridle in front of them. Then he swung his hat off, and while the moonlight shone into his face looked down with a little ironical smile at the man and woman standing beside the horse. Witham closed one hand a trifle, and slowly straightened himself, feeling that there was need of all his self-control, for he saw his companion glance at him, and then almost too steadily at Lance Courthorne.
The latter said nothing for a s.p.a.ce of seconds, for which Witham hated him, and yet in the tension of the suspense he noticed that the signs of indulgence he had seen on the last occasion were plainer in Courthorne"s face. The little bitter smile upon his lips was also not quite in keeping with the restlessness of his fingers upon the bridle.
"Is that bridge fit for crossing, farmer?" he asked.
"Yes," said Witham quietly. "You must lead your horse."
Maud Barrington had in the meanwhile stood very still, and now moved as by an effort. "It is time I rode on, and you can show the stranger across," she said. "I have kept you at least five minutes longer than was necessary."
Courthorne, Witham fancied, shifted one foot from the stirrup, but then sat still as the farmer held his hand for the girl to mount by, while when she rode away he looked at his companion with a trace of anger as well as irony in his eyes.
"Yes," said Witham. "What you heard was correct. Miss Barrington"s horse fell lame coming from one of the farms, which accounts for her pa.s.sing here so late. I had just led the beast across the incompleted bridge. Still, it is not on my account I tell you this. Where have you been and why have you broken one of my conditions?"
Courthorne laughed. "It seems to me you are adopting a somewhat curious tone. I went to my homestead to look for you."
"You have not answered my other question, and in the meanwhile I am your tenant, and the place is mine."
"We really needn"t quibble," said Courthorne. "I came for the very simple reason that I wanted money."
"You had one thousand dollars," said Witham dryly.
Courthorne made a little gesture of resignation. "It is, however, certain that I haven"t got them now. They went as dollars usually do.
The fact is, I have met one or two men recently who apparently know rather more about games of chance than I do, and I pa.s.sed on the fame, which was my most valuable a.s.set, to you."
"You pa.s.sed me on the brand of a crime I never committed," said Witham grimly. "That, however, is not the question now. Not one dollar, except at the time agreed upon, will you get from me. Why did you come here dressed as we usually are on the prairie?"
Courthorne glanced down at the deerskin jacket and smiled as he straightened himself into a caricature of Witham"s mounted att.i.tude.
It was done cleverly.
"When I ride in this fashion we are really not very unlike, you see, and I let one or two men I met get a good look at me," he said. "I meant it as a hint that it would be wise of you to come to terms with me."
"I have done so already. You made the bargain."
"Well," said Courthorne smiling, "a contract may be modified at any time when both parties are willing."
"One is not," said Witham dryly. "You heard my terms, and nothing that you can urge will move me a hairsbreadth from them."
Courthorne looked at him steadily, and some men would have found his glance disconcerting, for now and then all the wickedness that was in him showed in his half-closed eyes. Still, he saw that the farmer was unyielding.
"Then we will let it go; in the meanwhile," he said, "take me across the bridge."
They were half-way along it when he pulled the horse up, and once more looked down on Witham.
"Your hand is a tolerably good one so long as you are willing to sacrifice yourself, but it has its weak points, and there is one thing I could not tolerate," he said.
"What is that?"
Courthorne laughed wickedly, "You wish me to be explicit? Maud Barrington is devilishly pretty, but it is quite out of the question that you should ever marry her."
Witham turned towards him with the veins on his forehead swollen.
"Granting that it is so, what is that to you?"
Courthorne nodded as if in comprehension. "Well, I"m probably not consistent, but one rarely quite loses touch with everything, and if I believed that my kinswoman was growing fond of a beggarly farmer, I"d venture to put a sudden stop to your love-making. This, at least, is perfectly _bona fide_, Witham."
Witham had borne a good deal of late, and his hatred of the man flared up. He had no definite intention, but he moved a pace forward, and Courthorne touched the horse with his heel. It backed, and then growing afraid of the blackness about it plunged, while Witham for the first time saw that there was a gap in the loosely-laid planking close behind it. Another plunge or flounder, and horse and rider would go down together.
For a moment he held his breath and watched. Then, as the beast, resisting its rider"s efforts, backed again, sprang forward and seized the bridle.
"Get your spurs in! Shove him forward for your life," he said.
There was a momentary struggle on the slippery planking, and, almost as its hind hoofs overhung the edge, Witham dragged the horse away.
Courthorne swung himself out of the saddle, left the farmer the bridle, and glanced behind him at the gap. Then he turned, and the two men looked at each other steadily. Their faces were a trifle paler than usual.
"You saw it?" asked Courthorne.
"Yes, but not until you backed the beast and he commenced plunging."
"He plunged once or twice before you caught the bridle?"
"Yes," said Witham quietly.
Courthorne laughed. "You are a curious man. It would have cleared the ground for you."
"No," said Witham dryly, "I don"t know that you will understand me, but I scarcely think it would. It may have been a mistake of mine to do what I did, but I have a good deal on my shoulders already."
Courthorne made no answer as he led his horse across the bridge. Then he mounted and looked down on the farmer who stood beside him.