Part 17 (1/2)
”It's not an illogical conclusion when he imagines that he lost his papers in our house.”
Clare got up with a red flush in her face and her eyes sparkling. ”It's absurd!” she exclaimed. ”He must have been delirious when he said so.”
”He didn't say so in as many words; Brandon has some taste. But he was perfectly sensible and intended me to see what he meant.”
The girl stood still, trembling with anger and confusion, and Kenwardine felt sorry for her. She was worse hurt than he had expected, but she would rally.
”But he couldn't have been robbed while he was with us,” she said with an effort, trying to understand d.i.c.k's point of view. ”He hadn't an overcoat, so the plans must have been in the pocket of his uniform, and n.o.body except myself was near him.”
She stopped with a gasp as she remembered how she had slipped and seized d.i.c.k. In doing so her hand had caught his pocket. Everything was plain now, and for a few moments she felt overwhelmed. Her face blanched, but her eyes were hard and very bright.
Kenwardine left her, feeling that Brandon would have cause to regret his rashness if he ever attempted to renew her acquaintance, and Clare sat down and tried to conquer her anger. This was difficult, because she had received an intolerable insult. Brandon thought her a thief! It was plain that he did so, because the change in his manner bore out all her father had said, and there was no other explanation. Then she blushed with shame as she realized that from his point of view her unconventional behavior warranted his suspicions. She had asked him to come into the garden and had written him a note! This was horribly foolish and she must pay for it, but she had been mistaken about his character.
She had, as a rule, avoided the men she met at her father's house and had shrunk with frank repugnance from one or two, but Brandon had seemed different. Then he had watched for her when he was ill and she had seen his heavy eyes get brighter when she came into the room. Now, however, she understood him better. She had some beauty and he had been satisfied with her physical attractiveness, although he thought her a thief. This was worse than the coa.r.s.e admiration of the men she had feared. It was unthinkably humiliating, but her anger helped her to bear the blow. After all, she was fortunate in finding out what Brandon was, since it might have been worse had the knowledge come later. There was a sting in this that rankled, but she could banish him from her thoughts now.
CHAPTER XII
d.i.c.k KEEPS HIS PROMISE
Twinkling points of light that pierced the darkness lower down the hill marked the colored laborers' camp, and voices came up faintly through the still air. The range cut off the land breeze, though now and then a wandering draught flickered down the hollow spanned by the dam, and a smell of hot earth and damp jungle hung about the veranda of d.i.c.k's iron shack. He sat near a lamp, with a drawing-board on his knee, while Jake lounged in a canvas chair, smoking and occasionally glancing at the sheet of figures in his hand. His expression was gloomily resigned.
”I suppose you'll have things ready for us in the morning,” d.i.c.k said presently.
”Francois' accounts are checked and I'm surprised to find them right, but I imagine the other calculations will not be finished. Anyhow, it won't make much difference whether they are or not. I guess you know that!”
”Well, of course, if you can't manage to do the lot----”
”I don't say it's impossible,” Jake rejoined. ”But beginning work before breakfast is bad enough, without going on after dinner. Understand that I don't question your authority to find me a job at night; it's your object that makes me kick.”
”We want the calculations made before we set the boys to dig.”
”Then why didn't you give me them when I was doing nothing this afternoon?” Jake inquired.
”I hadn't got the plans ready.”
”Just so. You haven't had things ready for me until after dinner all this week. As you're a methodical fellow that's rather strange. Still, if you really want the job finished, I'll have to do my best, but I'm going out first for a quarter of an hour.”
”You needn't,” d.i.c.k said dryly. ”If you mean to tell the engineer not to wait, he's gone. I sent him off some time since.”
”Of course you had a right to send him off,” Jake replied in an injured tone. ”But I don't quite think----”
”You know what your father pays for coal. Have you reckoned what it costs to keep a locomotive two or three hours for the purpose of taking you to Santa Brigida and back?”
”I haven't, but I expect the old man wouldn't stand for my running a private car,” Jake admitted. ”However, it's the only way of getting into town.”
”You were there three nights last week. What's more, you tried to draw your next month's wages. That struck me as significant, though I'd fortunately provided against it.”
”So I found out. I suppose I ought to be grateful for your thoughtfulness but can't say I am. I wanted the money because I had a run of wretched luck.”