Part 38 (1/2)
”Very well,” he whispers, ”sit down. To-day, fearing to alarm you, I did not tell you all I knew in regard to your father; but it is necessary now that you understand everything about Kruger, the Mormon bishop.”
”Why, he's two hundred miles away.”
”In a few minutes he will be here.”
”Oh, mercy!” The girl leans against her lover, and he can feel her heart throb and pulse with apprehension. His arm goes round her waist, and seems to give her confidence, as he tells her the whole story of her father's blood atonement, from which he saved him. And she gasps: ”You are not deceiving me--my father is not dead?”
”He's as safe as you are!”
”Thank G.o.d!”
”Perhaps safer!” Then he tells her of the revelation Buck Powers has made him this night.
”Ah!” Erma cries; ”Kruger is coming to force me to give up that Utah Central stock.”
”For more!”
”What more?”
”To force you to be his seventh wife.”
But she says very quietly: ”There is no fear of that. I can always die at the last.”
”I know you can _die_; but for my sake you must _live_!” cries Lawrence.
Then he says grimly: ”If there's any dying to-night, Kruger does it!”
”Ah! that may mean your life. For my sake you must live! I've--I've only been happy for a day.” And her tender arms go around him, as she sobs over him, calling him her darling, her betrothed, her future husband, and many other wild terms of endearment she might not use, did she not feel this night might take him from her.
A moment after she cries: ”He is not here yet--let us fly!”
”Fly, where?” asks Lawrence. ”Through those snow-drifts, over those uninhabited plains? In half an hour we should be overtaken. If not, by morning we should be dead.”
”Then, how will you save me?”
”All I know is that I will save you! But to do it, you must follow my instructions. Twelve men I shall not resist openly--except at the last.
Give me your receipt from Wells, Fargo, for that stock.”
She steps into the stateroom, and a moment after hands it to him.
”Now,” he says, ”listen to me! Each word I utter is important. When Kruger comes, you must be in your stateroom, asleep. Nothing must betray to him that you expect or fear his coming! Nothing must inform him that you know of his crime against your father; and, above all, nothing must suggest to him that I am on your train. Our one great hope is, that he does not know I'm here, and may be--just a little careless! Remember, you have nothing to fear as long as I live!”
But Buck Powers breaks in on them at this moment, and mutters: ”Cap, Kruger's here! He's talkin' with the men over there!”
”On which side of the cars? Can he see me if I leave them this way?”
”No!”