Part 36 (1/2)

”No,” he said, ”I don't think it's unexpected; you knew what I meant from the beginning.”

This was, as a matter of fact, correct, but the color grew plainer in Eleanor's cheek. She had known exactly what her companion's advances were worth, and at times it had cost her a strenuous effort to hold her anger in check. It was, however, characteristic of her that she had made the effort.

”After that, I think it would save both of us trouble if you understood once for all that I will not go,” she said.

Carnforth laughed harshly, while his face flushed with ill-suppressed pa.s.sion. ”Pshaw! you don't mean it. For several months you have led me on, and now that I'm yours altogether, I'm not going to California without you. You know that, too; you have to go.”

”You have had your answer,” and Eleanor rose and faced him with portentous quietness. ”Don't make me say anything more.”

The man moved forward suddenly, and laid a hot grasp on her wrist. There was as yet no dismay in his face, and it was very evident that he would not believe her. There were excuses for him, and the fact that it was so roused the girl, who remembered what her part had been, to almost uncontrollable anger.

”You are going to say that you are willing and coming with me, if I have to make you,” he said fiercely. ”I mean just that, and I am not afraid of you, though at times one can see something in your eyes that would scare off most men. It's there now, but it's one of the things that make me want you. Eleanor, put an end to this. You know you have me altogether--isn't that enough? Do you want to drive me mad?”

He stopped a moment, and broke into a harsh laugh as the girl, with a strength he had not looked for, shook off his grasp. ”Oh,” he said, ”it seems I've gone on too fast. I'll fix about the wedding soon as I break with Merril.”

There was certainly something in Eleanor Wheelock's eyes just then that few people would have cared to face. The vindictive hatred she bore Merril had for the time being driven every womanly attribute out of her, but she remembered how she had loathed this man's advances and endured them. To carry out her purpose she would, indeed, have stooped to anything, for her hatred had possessed her wholly and altogether. Now it was momentarily turned on her companion.

”It would have been wiser if you had made that clear first,” she said, with a slow incisiveness that made the words cut like the lash of a whip. ”Still, I suppose, the offer is generous, in view of the trouble you would very probably bring on yourself by attempting to carry it out.”

The man appeared staggered for a moment, but he recovered himself.

”Well,” he said, with a little forceful gesture, ”there are parts of my record I can't boast about, but there are points on which you'd go 'way beyond me. That, I guess, is what got hold of me and won't let me go. By the Lord, Eleanor, nothing would be impossible to you and me if we pulled together.”

”That will never happen,” said the girl, still with a very significant quietness. ”Don't force me to speak too plainly.”

Carnforth appeared bewildered, for at last he was compelled to recognize that she meant what she said, but there was anger in his eyes.

”Well,” he said stupidly, ”what in the name of wonder did you want? You know you led me on.”

”Perhaps I did. Now that I know what you are, I tell you to go. Had you been any other man I might have felt some slight compunction, or, at least, a little kindliness toward you. As it is, I am only longing to shake off the contamination you have brought upon me.”

She broke off with a little gesture of relief, and moving toward the window flung the shutters back.

”They have finished chopping, and I hear the ox-team in the bush,” she said. ”Forster will be here in a minute or two.”

Carnforth stood still, irresolute, though his face was darkly flushed; and Eleanor felt the silence become oppressive as she wondered whether the rancher would come back to the house or lead his team on into the bush. Then the trample of the slowly moving oxen's feet apparently reached her companion, for with a little abrupt movement he took up his wide hat from the table. He waited a few moments, however, crumpling the brim of it in one hand, while Eleanor was conscious that her heart was beating unpleasantly fast as she watched for the first sign of Forster or his hired man among the dark fir-trunks. At last she heard her companion move toward the door, and when it swung to behind him she drew in her breath with a gasp of relief.

CHAPTER XXVII

JORDAN'S SCHEME

Carnforth had been gone some twenty minutes when Eleanor stood among the orchard gra.s.s, from which the ranks of blackened fir-stumps rose outside the ranch. She had recovered her composure, and was looking toward the dusty road which wound, a sinuous white ribbon, between the somber firs.

Jordan, whom she had not expected to see just then, was walking along it with Forster, and, since it was evident that he must have met Carnforth, she was wondering, with a somewhat natural shrinking from doing so, how far it would be necessary to take him into her confidence. This, as she recognized, must be done eventually; but she was not sure that her legitimate lover would be in a mood to understand or appreciate her course of action when fresh from a meeting with the one she had discarded. Jordan had laid very little restraint upon her, but he was, after all, human and had a temper.

She lost sight of the two men for a few minutes when they pa.s.sed behind a great colonnade of fir-trunks that partly obscured her view of the road, but she could see them plainly when they emerged again from the shadow. Instead of turning toward the house they came toward her, and there was, she noticed, a curious red mark on Jordan's cheek, as well as a broad smear of dust on his soft hat, which appeared somewhat crushed.

His attire was also disordered, and his face was darker in color than usual. Forster, who walked a pace or two behind him, because the path through the gra.s.s was narrow, also appeared disturbed in mind, and when they stopped close by the girl it was he who spoke first.

”I had gone down the road to see whether there was any sign of Mrs.

Forster when I came upon Mr. Jordan; and, considering how he was engaged, it is perhaps fortunate that I did,” he said. ”Although it is not exactly my business, I can't help fancying that you have something to say to him.”