"And I meant you to," Garry murmured almost inaudibly, "I planned that you should--started to plan last night. I--I"ve been hating you for twelve hours--hating you because you were making me ashamed to do the thing I wanted to do most."
He tried to rise and fell back, slack. But his voice was stronger with sudden, swelling bitterness.
"It wasn"t for myself, Steve," he cried. "It wasn"t for what I might get out of it, or--or what it might bring me, I used to scoff at whatever others considered big and fine and clean, but I played it straight, just the same. I played it as well as I knew how--straighter than you"d believe. I thought it would make her happier, because I tried that hard. And she . . . Steve, if I had been a woman--a woman like what I thought she was, little and clean and white--I couldn"t have let a man like him so much as touch my little finger! And she--by G.o.d, she married him!"
The agonized voice broke there--the voice of a boy who had had to learn that it is woman and not women who is fastidious. Garry sat and swallowed, fighting for self-control. His eyes were numb, but Steve"s had taken fire, for he knew that the hour for which he had been waiting had come at last.
"You"ve been trying to help me," Garry found his voice again, "you"ve been trying to throw me a line. And, for a day or two, I tried to catch it, Steve. But it isn"t in me to try that hard, any more. Some men do things for what there is in it--the pecuniary reward, I mean; some men--you for instance--because their self respect won"t let them stop, win or lose. But now and then there happens one who keeps on trying only because there is one other person, at least, who may be the gladder for his success. I don"t expect you to understand; I know it will sound small and cowardly to you. . . . It"s too lonesome living, Steve, when there"s no one who cares whether you live or not!"
"That does not fit your case," Steve objected instantly, "when your danger or your safety keeps a woman watching, white-faced with terror through the night, for your return."
Garry propped himself upon one elbow, the better to see the speaker"s countenance.
"My safety?" he repeated, blankly. "My return?" And then, wanly grateful: "You are not the sort of man who lies convincingly, Steve."
And then Stephen O"Mara let him have it--all the story which had lain so many days in his heart. There were times when Garry went even paler during the short recital; times when everything else was submerged by the incredulity that flooded his face. But before Steve had finished the last trace of doubt was gone. Before the end came Garry had bowed his head, this time in flushed, self-conscious wonder which transfigured him.
"Miriam Burrell!" he breathed. "Proud, intolerant----"
His head came up. The next instant he voiced the words which Steve most wanted to hear.
"You shouldn"t have told me this," said he. "You had no right, unless----"
Steve laughed at him.
"G.o.d bless you, boy," he exclaimed. "I asked her if I might. Why, don"t you understand that she meant to, herself, if I didn"t? You see, she is--far, far braver than you are, Garry."
Garry lifted his hands and hid his face.
So quietly that his exit made no sound Steve slipped to his feet and pa.s.sed outside. It had stopped raining; the hardwood ridges, touched by frost, were flaming streaks of color against the rainwashed evergreens, when he picked his way down to the river and found a dry stone for a seat. An hour and more he sat there, while his thoughts went back over the trail of the years--the trail which had led him from that cabin to a pair of violet eyes and lips that arched like a boy"s.
Steve let his mind turn again, unreservedly, to his own problem that morning; he tried to face, sure-eyed, the road which still stretched ahead. He did not know that Garrett Devereau, the debonaire, the cynical, the world-weary and world-wise, had broken down and was sobbing noiselessly, as men sob, in the room which he had left--shaking with deep and terrible gasps that racked his very soul. But it was already daybreak; it was trail"s-end now for Garry. It does make a difference if one knows that someone cares.
CHAPTER XVII
HONEY!
Upon their return to Thirty-Mile, two nights later, Joe"s att.i.tude of criticism was the first thing which piqued Steve"s interest. There was something ludicrous in the former"s voice as he sat and anathematized the food which the cook-boy brought to the table, even though he devoured hungrily all that his plate would hold. And because Joe was so obviously primed for a sensation that evening, out of sheer perversity Steve struggled to draw him into a discussion of a topic, which, just as obviously, had no appeal just then.
"What I hope to do," he confided gravely to Garry, "is to finish up at Morrison and make possible the transfer of some of those men up here.
We are working only one shift now. With two I figure we could sail along a-fogging. How does that strike you, Joe?"
That was only one of his many attempts, but all of them, save for the inner laughter which they afforded; were totally without result. Joe"s answers were monosyllabic--his attention wandering at best. To that particular question he nodded his head, spiritlessly.
"This b.u.t.ter ain"t none too fresh," he growled sourly, "and I wonder if that cook-boy thinks we dote on ham every meal? I don"t for one. It may be all right, if a man"s plumb starving to death, but it don"t lend no real elegance to a repast."
That gloomy complaint brought little more than a sparkle to Steve"s eyes, but it made Garry lean forward in his place. Throughout the meal while the other two fenced in just such fashion he forgot his own food to listen, delighted antic.i.p.ation in every feature. And when they had finished supper and pushed back their chairs, he stood grinning a little, watching Joe survey that littered room which served as office and sleeping-quarters for the chief engineer of the East Coast Company.
Fat Joe"s gaze swung from wall to wall, from littered corner to heaped-up chair. Then he shook his head in despair.
"It looks to me, Steve," he grunted, "as though you ain"t never had no real training in tidiness, have you? There don"t seem to be no system at all in the way you leave your things around. There"s one boot over in that corner; it"s got a mate, I know, because I saw you take them off last night. I wouldn"t be certain otherwise. And it"s the same way with all your things. Just look at this room! A nice place to receive callers in, now ain"t it?"
That was the first lead he tendered them, but Steve, rather than gratify him with a direct question, chose to go forward in the dark.
He leaned over and followed his usual custom when he wanted to think.
He tapped out his pipe.
"But I can always find everything," he defended, "that is, unless you have taken the trouble to put things away. Then it"s a toss-up that something or other will never be found, until it turns up of its own accord. It"s not so bad, Joe." He, too, swung to survey the room.
"Not so bad! Just a little unsettled, that"s all. Are we likely to have any callers, do you think, who would object to this layout?"
Joe snorted, but his eyes were mournful. He knew that there was nothing else to do but yield, a part at least.
"We ain"t likely to," he murmured. "We"re just naturally bound to have "em. They"re comin" in to-morrow, and I ask you again, ain"t this a pleasing prospect to greet "em?"
For all that he seemed to be staring ruefully down the room, he was watching for the surprise that darted across Steve"s face. Momentarily the latter had forgotten his a.s.sumed air of placidity.
"To-morrow? Who?" And then Steve laughed. "Go ahead and tell us, Joe. I"m beat! I"ll admit that I"m panting with curiosity."
Joe pulled up a chair and dropped into it. It appealed to him--this method--whenever he had the time to spare. His pink face was still innocent of guile.
"I don"t mind the men-folks," he resumed. "That fat party, I mean, who wears the plaid suits, nor Caleb Hunter, either. Both of them are used to such truck as this. And I reckon it"ll tickle the ladies, too. But I can see Honey sticking his nose in the air and sniffin", supercilious like, the first minute he gets his nose in the door. He ain"t going to approve at all, at all--not any way you look at it."
"Honey!"
Both Steve and Garry ignored the rest of Joe"s explanation to gasp that single word in concert.
"Who in the world do you mean by "Honey"?"
"Who could I mean?" Joe demanded collectedly. "I didn"t give him the name, did I? I mean that chap Wickersham who owns the timber north of us. Foreign, ain"t he? Sure, I thought so? Well, every time I run across that man"s path my heart swells with patriotism. I guess I"m just as glad to be born plain United States."
The first part of that statement was listened to closely enough by both men; the last sentence or two, for all that it was heartfelt and sincere, was lost upon them both. And Steve"s mirth was even more hysterical than was that of Garry Devereau.
"Honey!" he panted. "Now isn"t that a wonder? Joe, you"re too good!
You are altogether too good to be wasted on these timbered solitudes.
Men pay two dollars a seat, Joe, to hear performers work who are rank amateurs in comparison with you."
The riverman"s eyes grew belligerent.
"Funny, is it? So awful funny! Well, perhaps you think I can"t read plain print yet, never havin" enjoyed a liberal education. But take a look for yourself."
He pulled up a pile of newspapers which had come in since their absence, sorted out one that was creased open, and handed it to Steve.
It was an announcement of Barbara Allison"s engagement to the Hon.
Archibald Wickersham--that column to which Fat Joe had folded the sheet--a many-days-old announcement, now. But the smile did not even stiffen upon Steve"s lips. The picture which accompanied it was a poor one, heavy-shadowed and smeared and lacking in detail, yet Barbara"s face was unmistakable. The room became quiet. In that hush Garry realized that Joe"s mistaken translation of the t.i.tle had not been, as Joe had himself suggested, due to lack of knowledge, but to a desire to apprise his employer, delicately, of that which he believed was still news to him. And yet, from the easy way in which he read it, word for word, Garry was positive that all this which the New York daily blazoned forth with its customary mixture of sn.o.bbishness and vulgarity was no longer news to Steve. The latter"s eyes lifted and dwelt long upon Fat Joe"s face.
"So that"s where you got it, was it, Joe?" he asked evenly. "You make it "Honey," do you? And when do they come in, Joe?"
"To-morrow night. One of the teamsters brought word this afternoon, just before you got back. Honey is going to have a look at his trees and things, the way I understand it. And the rest of them, I take it, want to look us over in our wild state. Where are we going to put them girls?"