Part 43 (2/2)
He knew, indeed, that this girl loved him; but he did not believe that she or any other woman was capable of the sacrifice implied in her answer.
”You mean that--you would have--” He hesitated.
”Yes.”
There ensued a silence that fell like a mist between them, through which neither knew the way. She saw that he had begun, by ever so little, to understand; and she feared to say more lest a wrong word should overtake a right one. As for Haig, his incredulity persisted notwithstanding the unquestionable sincerity of her speech. He did not doubt that she contemplated, in this moment of emotion, the complete and final sacrifice. But he was quite convinced that she would take a different view of the situation when the test should come. She did not yet appreciate, he argued, the peril of their position; she had not realized the hazard of her adventure or she never would have undertaken it; and undoubtedly she still thought there would be a way out for them. Under such a delusion it was easy for her, he concluded, to talk about dying with him. But she was tragically in error. His eyes lifted to the cliff. She should have been up there on her return hours ago. Now it was too late again; for the clouds were black and ugly on the summit, and a distant roaring came to his ears; and he knew what was happening or in preparation in the middle of the flat.
But he must find a way to send her up that trail at dawn the next day; and his gaze dropped to where the revolver lay just visible in the thin gra.s.s into which she had thrown it.
CHAPTER XXV
DIANA
Still no speech came to either of them. After a while Marion rose silently, and went about her work. First, however, she sought the revolver in the gra.s.s, and carried it, with her rifle, to the clump of willows by the brook, where both weapons were safely beyond the present limits of Philip's powers. Then she returned to him with her towel, one end of it wetted and soaped.
”May I, please?” she asked, smiling down at him.
”If you wish,” he answered.
She knelt, and began to wash the grime from his face, to cleanse the wound on his head, and readjust the bandage. Then his hands, after another trip to the stream to rub out the soiled end of the towel; and she was still busy with one of them, when she started back with a cry.
His coat had opened wider, and she saw that his s.h.i.+rt was stained with blood. She had forgotten the revolver-shot!
”It's nothing,” said Haig. ”Only a flesh wound, I think.”
”But why didn't you tell me!” she cried, almost with anger in her alarm.
”It doesn't matter, does it?”
”Let me see it, quick!” she commanded.
He looked at her a moment, then opened the front of his flannel s.h.i.+rt and of the unders.h.i.+rt, and disclosed a flesh wound where the bullet had cut a streak across his chest. Marion bent close, and touched it with her fingers.
”Oh!” she sighed at last, in deep relief.
Haig's reply was a laugh of which the irony did not escape her.
”Philip!” she cried reproachfully.
”Well, isn't it rather droll--and ludicrous, when you come to think of it? First, Sunnysides' punch in my stomach. And now, with my head cut open by a stone, and a broken leg, and two bullet-wounds--I've still got a splendid appet.i.te. I ought to be on exhibition somewhere!”
His sardonic humor hurt her worse than his anger; and she went quickly to the brook to cleanse the towel again. Returning presently, she washed the new wound, and bandaged it; then examined the splints on the broken leg to a.s.sure herself that, as nearly as she could determine, no serious damage had been done to it by his reckless crawl; and finally brought his blankets, and insisted on making a sort of bed for him. After that she cooked two slices of bacon, and on this, with a little bread, they made their first meal of the day. And this brought her to the next and most pressing problem.
”Will you help me think, Philip?” she asked, when they had eaten.
”About what?”
”Food.”
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