Part 65 (2/2)

”Let's get out of this horrible place!” cried Nan with a convulsive s.h.i.+ver.

Again they had great difficulty in finding any one to get their rigs, but finally repeated calls brought the hostler and Jake himself. The latter made some growl about payment for the entertainment, but at this Keith turned on him with such concentrated fury that he muttered something and slouched away. It was agreed that Krafft should conduct Mrs. Sherwood. They clambered into the two buggies and drove away.

LXXVII

The horse plodded slowly down the gravelled drive of the road house and turned into the main highway. It was very dark on earth, and very bright in the heavens. The afternoon fog had cleared away, dissipated in the warm air from the sand hills, for the day had been hot. Overhead flared thousands of stars, throwing the world small. Nan, s.h.i.+vering in reaction, nestled against her husband. He drew her close. She rested her cheek against his shoulder and sighed happily. Neither spoke.

At first Keith's whole being was filled with rage. His mind whirled with plans for revenge. On the morrow he would hunt down Morrell and Sansome. At the thought of what he would do to them, his teeth clamped and his muscles stiffened. Then he became wholly preoccupied with Nan's narrow escape. His quick mind visualized a hundred possibilities--suppose he had gone on Durkee's expedition? Suppose Mex Ryan had not happened to remember his name? Suppose Mrs. Sherwood and Krafft had not found him? Suppose they had been an hour later?

Suppose--He leaned over tenderly to draw the lap robe closer about her.

She had stopped s.h.i.+vering and was nestling contentedly against him.

But gradually the storm in Keith's soul fell. The great and solemn night stood over against his vision, and at last he could not but look.

The splendour of the magnificent skies, the dreamy peace of the velvet-black earth lying supine like a weary creature at rest--these two simple infinities of s.p.a.ce and of promise took him to themselves.

An eager glad chorus of frogs came from some invisible pool. The slithering sound of the sand dividing before the buggy wheels whispered. Every once in a while the plodding horse sighed deeply.

With the warm cozy feel of the woman, his woman, in the hollow of his arm, his spirit stilled and uplifted by the simple yet august and eternal things before him, Keith fell into inchoate rumination. The fever of activity in the city, the clash of men's interests, greeds, and pa.s.sions, the tumult and striving, the sweat and dust of the arena fell to nothing about his feet. He cleared his vision of the small necessary unessentials, and stared forth wide-eyed at the big simplicities of life--truth as one sees it, loyalty to one's ideal, charity toward one's beaten enemy, a steadfast front toward one's unbeaten enemy, scorn of pettiness, to be unafraid. Unless the struggle is for and by these things, it is useless, meaningless. And one's possessions--Keith's left arm tightened convulsively. He had come near to losing the only possession worth while. At the pressure Nan stirred sleepily.

”Are we there, dear?” she inquired, raising her head.

Keith had reined in the horse, and was peering into the surrounding darkness. He laughed.

”No, we seem to be here,” he replied, ”And I'm blest if I know where 'here' is! I've been day-dreaming!”

”I believe I've been asleep,” confessed Nan.

They both stared about them, but could discern nothing familiar in the dim outlines of the hills. Not a light flickered.

”Perhaps if you'd give the horse his head, he'd take us home. I've heard, they would,” suggested Nan.

”He's had his head completely for the last two hours. That theory is exploded. We must have turned wrong after leaving Jake's Place.”

”Well, we're on a road. It must go somewhere.”

Keith, with some difficulty, managed to awaken the horse. It sighed and resumed its plodding.

”I'm afraid we're lost,” confessed Keith.

”I don't much care,” confessed Nan.

”He seems to be a perfectly safe horse,” said he.

By way of answer to this she pa.s.sed her arms gently about his neck and bent his lips to hers. The horse immediately stopped.

”Seems a fairly intelligent brute, too,” observed Keith, after a few moments.

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