Part 41 (1/2)

One evening Charlie Brooke entered the kitchen of the ranch in search of his friend d.i.c.k Darvall, who had a strange fondness for b.u.t.tercup, and frequently held converse with her in the regions of the back-kitchen.

”I dun know whar he is, ma.s.sa Book,” answered the sable beauty when appealed to, ”he's mostly somewhar around when he's not nowhar else.”

”I shouldn't wonder if he was,” returned Charlie with a hopeful smile.

”I suppose Miss Mary's not around anywhere, is she?”

”I shouldn't wonder if she wasn't; but she ain't here, ma.s.sa,” said the black maid earnestly.

”You are a truthful girl, b.u.t.ter--stick to that, and you'll get on in life.”

With this piece of advice Charlie left the kitchen abruptly, and thereby missed the eruption of teeth and gums that immediately followed his remark.

Making his way to the chamber of his sick friend, Charlie sat down at the open window beside him.

”How d'you feel this evening, my boy?” he asked.

”A little better, but--oh dear me!--I begin to despair of getting well enough to go home, and it's impossible to avoid being worried, for, unless father is sought for and found soon he, will probably sink altogether. You have no idea, Charlie, what a fearful temptation drink becomes to those who have once given way to it and pa.s.sed a certain point.”

”I don't know it personally--though I take no credit for that--but I have some idea of it, I think, from what I have seen and heard. But I came to relieve your mind on the subject, Shank. I wanted to speak with d.i.c.k Darvall first to see if he would fall in with my plan, but as I can't find him just now I thought it best to come straight to you about it. Hallo! There is d.i.c.k.”

”Where?” said Shank, bending forward so as to see the place on which his friend's eyes were fixed.

”There, don't you see? Look across that bit of green sward, about fifty yards into the bush, close to that lopped pine where a thick shrub overhangs a fallen tree--”

”I see--I see!” exclaimed Shank, a gleeful expression banis.h.i.+ng for a time the look of suffering and anxiety that had become habitual to him.

”Why, the fellow is seated beside Mary Jackson!”

”Ay, and holding a very earnest conversation with her, to judge from his att.i.tude,” said Charlie. ”Probably inquiring into the market-price of steers--or some absorbing topic of that sort.”

”He's grasping her hand now!” exclaimed Shank, with an expanding mouth.

”And she lets him hold it. Really this becomes interesting,” observed Charlie, with gravity. ”But, my friend, is not this a species of eavesdropping? Are we not taking mean advantage of a pair who fondly think themselves alone? Come, Shank, let us turn our backs on the view and try to fix our minds on matters of personal interest.”

But the young men had not to subject themselves to such a delicate test of friends.h.i.+p, for before they could make any attempt to carry out the suggestion, d.i.c.k and Mary were seen to rise abruptly and hasten from the spot in different directions. A few minutes later b.u.t.tercup was observed to glide upon the scene and sit down upon the self-same fallen tree. The distance from the bedroom window was too great to permit of sounds reaching the observers' ears, or of facial contortions meeting their eyes very distinctly, but there could be no doubt as to the feelings of the damsel, or the meaning of those swayings to and fro of her body, the throwing back of her head, and the pressing of her hands on her sides. Suddenly she held out a black hand as if inviting some one in the bush to draw near. The invitation was promptly accepted by a large brown dog--a well-known favourite in the ranch household.

Rover--for such was his name--leaped on the fallen tree and sat down on the spot which had previously been occupied by the fair Mary. The position was evidently suggestive, for b.u.t.tercup immediately began to gesticulate and clasp her hands as if talking very earnestly to the dog.

”I verily believe,” said Shank, ”that the blacking-ball is re-enacting the scene with Rover! See! she grasps his paw, and--”

”My friend,” said Charlie, ”we are taking mean advantage again! And, behold! like the other pair, they are flitting from the scene, though not quite in the same fas.h.i.+on.”

This was true, for b.u.t.tercup, reflecting, probably, that she might be missed in the kitchen, had suddenly tumbled Rover off the tree and darted swiftly from the spot.

”Come now, Shank,” said Charlie, resuming the thread of discourse which had been interrupted, ”it is quite plain to d.i.c.k and to myself that you are unfit to travel home in your present state of health, so I have made up my mind to leave you here in the care of honest Jackson and Darvall, and to go home myself to make inquiries and search for your father.

Will this make your mind easy? For that is essential to your recovery at the present time.”

”You were always kind and self-sacrificing, Charlie. a.s.suredly, your going will take an enormous weight off my mind, for you are much better fitted by nature for such a search than I am--to say nothing of health.

Thank you, my dear old boy, a thousand times. As for d.i.c.k Darvall,”