Part 34 (1/2)

They stood on each side of her, regarding her with secret, growing excitement. Already they had descended too far to know pity for this girl. The wide-open eyes, so dark with terror and in contrast with the stark paleness of her face, the lips that trembled so piteously, the slender, girlish figure so helpless to their depraved desires moved them not at all.

The scene was one of never-to-be-forgotten vividness. The tenderness and mercy, most of all the restraint that has become manifest in men in these centuries since they have left their forest lairs to live in permanent abodes, had no place here. About them ringed the primeval forest, ensilvered by the moon; the fire crackled with a dread ferocity; and at the edge of the thickets the motionless form of Jeffery Neilson lay with face buried in the soft, summer gra.s.s. All was silent and motionless, except the fierce crackling of the fire; except a curious, intermittent, upward twitching of the corner of Ray's lips.

”So you and Ben are bunkies now, are you?” he asked slowly, without emphasis.

But the girl made no reply, only gazing at him with starting eyes.

”A traitor to us, and Ben's squaw!” He turned fiercely to Chan. ”I guess that gives us right to do what we want to with her. And now she can yell if she wants to for her lover to come and save her.”

She did not even try to buy their mercy by informing them where they might find Ben. Only too well she knew that their dreadful intentions could not be turned aside: she would only sacrifice Ben without aiding herself. Ray moved toward her, his eyes deeply sunken, the pupils abnormally enlarged.

”You haven't lost all your looks,” he told her breathlessly. ”That mouth is still pretty enough to kiss. And I guess you won't slap--this time--”

He drew her toward him, his dark face lowering toward hers. She struggled, trying to wrench away from him. Helpless and alone, the moment of final horror was at hand. In this last instant her whole being leaped again to Ben,--the man whose strength had been her fort throughout all their first weeks in the wilds, but whom she had left helpless and sick in the distant cavern. Yet even now he would rise and come to her if he knew of her peril. Her voice rose shrilly to a scream.

”Ben--help me!”

And Ray's hands fell from her shoulders as he heard the incredible answer from the sh.o.r.e of the lake. The brush rustled and cracked: there was a strange sound of a heavy footfall,--slow, unsteady, but approaching them as certain as the speeding stars approach their mysterious destinations in the far reaches of the sky. Ray straightened, staring; Chan stood as if frozen, his hands half-raised, his eyes wide open.

”I'm coming, Beatrice,” some one said in the coverts. Her cries, uttered when her father fell, had not gone unheard. In the last stages of exhaustion, deathly pale yet with a face of iron, Ben came reeling toward them out of the moonlight.

XLII

Ben walked quietly into the circle of firelight and stood at Beatrice's side. But while Ray and Chan gazed at him as if he were a spectre from the grave, Beatrice's only impulse was one of immeasurable and unspeakable thankfulness. No fate on earth was so dreadful but that it would be somewhat alleviated by the fact of his presence: just the sight of him, standing beside her, put her in some vague way out of Ray's power to harm. Exhausted, reeling, he was still the prop of her life and hope.

”Here I am,” he said quietly. ”The letter's in my pocket. Do what you want with me--but let Beatrice go.”

His words brought Ray to himself in some degree at least. The ridiculous fear of the moment before speedily pa.s.sed away. Why, the man was exhausted--helpless in their hands--and the letter was in his pocket. It meant _triumph_--nothing else. All Ray's aims had been attained. With Ben's death the claim, a fourth of which had been his motive when he had slain Ezram, would pa.s.s entirely to him,--except for such share as he would have to give Chan. His star of fortune was in the sky. It was his moment of glory,--long-awaited but enrapturing him at last.

Neilson lay seriously wounded, perhaps dead by now. Whatever his injuries, he would not go back with them to share in the gold of the claim. The girl, also, was his prey,--to do with what he liked.

”I see you've come,” he answered. ”You might as well; we'd have found you to-morrow.” His voice was no longer flat, but rather exultant, boasting. ”You thought you could get away--but we've shown you.”

Ben nodded. ”You are--” he strained for the name he had heard Beatrice speak so often--”Ray Brent?” His eyes fell to the form of Neilson, wounded beyond the fire. ”I see you've been at your old job--killing. It was you who killed Ezra Melville.”

Ray smiled, ever so faintly: this was what he loved. ”You're talking to the right man. Anything you'd like to do about it?”

Ben's face hardened. ”There is nothing I can do, now. You came too late.

But I would have had something to do if I had my rifle. I'm glad it was you, not Beatrice's father. I ask you this--will you accept my proposition. To take Ezram's letter, destroy it and me too--and let the girl go in safety?”

Beatrice stretched her bound arms and touched his hairy wrist. ”No, Ben,” she told him quietly. ”There's no use of trying to make such a bargain as that. Men that murder--and a.s.sault women,--won't keep their word.”

”They were about to attack you, were they?” His voice dropped a tone; otherwise it seemed the same.

”Yes--just as you came.”

He turned once more to Ray, eyeing him with such a look of contempt and scorn that it smarted like a whiplash in spite of the protecting mantel of his new-found triumph. ”Oh, you depraved dogs!” he told them quietly and distinctly. ”You yellow, mongrel cowards!”

Ray straightened, stung by the words. ”And I'll make you wish you was dead before you ever said that,” he threatened. ”I'll tell you what you wanted to know a minute ago--and I tell you no. I won't make any deal with you. We'll do what we like to you, and we'll do what we like with your dirty squaw, too--the woman you've been living with all these months. We've got you where we want you. You're in no fix to make terms.

Chan--put a rope around his legs and a gag in his rotten mouth!”