Part 33 (1/2)
”Marion Sinclair wants to know just one thing, George,” said Whispering Smith to McCloud after he had taken him into the dark shop.
”She feels she ought to know because she is in a way d.i.c.ksie's chaperone, you know, and she feels that you are willing she should know. I don't want to be too serious, but answer yes or no. Are you engaged to d.i.c.ksie?”
”Why, yes. I----”
”That's all; go back to the porch,” directed Whispering Smith. McCloud obeyed orders.
Marion, alone in the living-room, was waiting for the inquisitor, and her face wore a look of triumph. ”You are not such a mind-reader after all, are you? I told you they weren't.”
”I told you they were,” contended Whispering Smith.
”She says they are _not_,” insisted Marion.
”He says they are,” returned Whispering Smith, ”And, what's more, I'll bet my saddle against the shop they are. I could be mistaken in anything but that laugh.”
CHAPTER x.x.xIV
A MIDNIGHT VISIT
The lights, but one, were out. McCloud and Whispering Smith had gone, and Marion was locking up the house for the night, when she was halted by a knock at the shop door. It was a summons that she thought she knew, but the last in the world that she wanted to hear or to answer.
d.i.c.ksie had gone to the bedroom, and standing between the portieres that curtained the work-room from the shop, Marion in the half-light listened, hesitating whether to ignore or to answer the midnight intruder. But experience, and bitter experience, had taught her there was only one way to meet that particular summons, and that was to act, whether at noon or at midnight, without fear. She waited until the knocking had been twice repeated, turned up the light, and going to the door drew the bolt; Sinclair stood before her, and she drew back for him to enter. ”d.i.c.ksie Dunning is with me to-night,” said Marion, with her hand on the latch, ”and we shall have to talk here.”
Sinclair took off his hat. ”I knew you had company,” he returned in the low, gentle tone that Marion knew very well, ”so I came late. And I heard to-night, for the first time, that this railroad crowd is after me--G.o.d knows why; but they have to earn their salary somehow. I want to keep out of trouble if I can. I won't kill anybody if they don't force me to it. They've scared nearly all my men away from the ranch already; one crippled-up cowboy is all I have got to help me look after the cattle. But I won't quarrel with them, Marion, if I can get away from here peaceably, so I've come to talk it over once more with you. I'm going away and I want you to go with me; I've got enough to keep us as well as the best of them and as long as we live. You've given me a good lesson. I needed it, girlie----”
”Don't call me that!”
He laughed kindly. ”Why, that's what it used to be; that's what I want it to be again. I don't blame you. You're worth all the women I ever knew, Marion. I've learned to appreciate some few things in the lonely months I've spent up on the Frenchman; but I've felt while I was there as if I were working for both of us. I've got a buyer in sight now for the cattle and the land. I'm ready to clean up and say good-by to trouble--all I want is for you to give me the one chance I've asked for and go along.”
They stood facing each other under the dim light. She listened intently to every word, though in her terror she might not have heard or understood all of them. One thing she did very clearly understand, and that was why he had come and what he wanted. To that she held her mind tenaciously, and for that she shaped her answer. ”I cannot go with you--now or ever.”
He waited a moment. ”We always got along, Marion, when I behaved myself.”
”I hope you always will behave yourself; but I could no more go with you than I could make myself again what I was years ago, Murray. I wish you nothing but good; but our ways parted long ago.”
”Stop and think a minute, Marion. I offer you more and offer it more honestly than I ever offered it before, because I know myself better.
I am alone in the world--strong, and better able to care for you than I was when I undertook to----”
”I have never complained.”
”That's what makes me more anxious to show you now that I can and will do what's right.”
”Oh, you multiply words! It is too late for you to be here. You are in danger, you say; for the love of Heaven, leave me and go away!”
”You know me, Marion, when my mind is made up. I won't leave without you.” He leaned with one hand against the ribbon showcase. ”If you don't want to go I will stay right here and pay off the scores I owe.
Two men here have stirred this country up too long, anyway. I don't care much how soon anybody gets me after I round them up. But to-night I felt like this: you and I started out in life together, and we ought to live it out or die together, whether it's to-night, Marion, or twenty years from to-night.”
”If you want to kill me to-night, I have no resistance to make.”