Part 39 (1/2)
”You must be silent! If they once hear us we have no chance. If we are still, maybe they won't find us.”
After that he moved more guardedly. But still he crowded ahead; once in his excitement, when she brushed against him and he thought that she was going to get in his way, he shoved her violently aside. It was then that Gloria, looking back, saw Brodie's great bulk outlined against the snow outside. He came in; she saw his rifle; his figure was absorbed in the shadows. She saw other men following him; how many she did not know.
One by one they bulked black against the daylight; one by one, as they entered, they were lost among the shadows. She had b.u.mped into a wall of rock. Gratton was there, groping in all directions with his hands; she could hear his quick, dry breathing.
They could go no further. This was the end. Brodie called out loudly, his speech dripping with his habitual vileness; he shouted: ”Gratton!
Better step out lively like a man now. We got you anyway.” Then he began to gather the scattered firewood; a match flared in his hand; his face leaped out of the dark like a devil's. Or a madman's, a man's mad with a rage which l.u.s.ted for the killing of another man. Gloria's heart sank in despair; she felt as though she were going to faint.
But all the time her hands, like Gratton's, had been groping. At the moment when she felt that her knees were giving way under her, she found where an arm of the cave continued, narrow, slanting upward steeply, cluttered with blocks of stone. She tugged at Gratton's sleeve; she crept into this place and felt him close behind her, crowding, trying to press by her. She gave way briefly, felt him sc.r.a.pe past, and began crawling, following. Again only a few feet further on she came up with him again; once more he had come to the end of the tunnel. He was crouching, flattened against the rock wall. They were in a pocket with no outlet save the way they had come. She stood, turned toward the front of the cave, and waited.
”Get a fire going, boys,” Brodie's rumbling ba.s.s was calling. a.s.sured now of having run his quarry to earth, he took a wolfish joy from the moment. There was a horrible note in his laughter, booming out suddenly.
”The little skunk's run to a hole; we'll smoke him out.”
He spoke of Gratton as though he were a frightened animal, and like a frightened animal Gloria felt. She stooped and looked toward the pursuers; thus only could she see them, since when she stood erect the irregularities of the rocks above hid them from her.
Brodie lighted his fire. The other men--dully she counted them now; there were five of them all told--were gathering wood, heaping it on.
The flames leaped, crackled, lifted their voices into a roar; volumes of white smoke shot out, thinned, were gone. The light flared higher, brighter. Dark corners and crevices were made palely fight. She could see the faces of the men now, their eyes reflecting the fire, looking like the eyes of wolves. Brodie carried his rifle as though he fully intended using it. At his side Benny Rudge fidgeted and blinked. By Benny stood that scarecrow of a man, Brail. Close by, interested spectators, were the squat Italian and the man who had brought the ”judge” to marry her to Gratton, the leering Steve Jarrold.
”More fire, boys,” called Brodie. Again his ugly laughter boomed out. ”I think I see where he is.”
Whether or not Brodie already saw them, it appeared clear that immediate discovery was inevitable. For there was no further hiding-place here to creep into; no such refuge as King had urged Gloria to hasten to if Brodie came. She remembered the caution all too late; she thought of King with wild longing, while Gratton cringed and pulled back and tried to screen his body with hers.
”Here's the grub he stole!” It was Benny's cracked, nervous voice, full of wrath.
She could feel Gratton s.h.i.+ver as he crouched against her. Sudden disgust filled her. They knew that he was here; they would take him in a minute; his seeking further to hide was so futile. And yet he was not man enough to stand forth at the end; he was the type who must be dragged whimpering and pulling back, pleading for mercy even when he knew so well that he deserved no mercy, and would have none meted out to him.
Gratton had his one last chance to show if there was the spark of manhood in him; they did not yet know of Gloria's presence, and had he stepped out now, he might have given her a chance to remain unseen. But no such heroism suggested itself to Gratton.
”Come on, Gratton,” shouted Brodie. ”Or do you want me to begin shooting from here?”
The light of the fire flared higher, brighter. The eyes of the men who had just entered from the outside were growing accustomed to this place of shadows. Suddenly the man Jarrold called sharply:
”There's some one with him. There's two of 'em, Brodie. Go easy!”
Brodie cursed him for a fool.
”I don't care how many's with him or who they are,” he bellowed. ”The grub-stealing thief has got his coming to him. Step out, you lily-livered sneak, and take your medicine.”
”That's all right,” muttered Jarrold. ”But it won't hurt to see who they are first, Brodie.”
”Gratton's got no gun with him,” cackled Benny Rudge. ”Neither's that other guy. Come ahead, Steve. Me an' you'll pull 'em out.”
Gloria pressed back against the rock, her flesh quivering. She saw two men and then another two coming toward her. The first sound broke from Gratton's lips now, a little gurgling moan. The men came on; one had heard and laughed. Then Gloria, with more shuddersome thought of rough hands upon her than of a rifle-ball, broke away from her cowering companion and came hastily to meet them.
”I'm coming out,” she cried out to them.
It was all that she could do to hold herself erect and come back into the more open cave. Jarrold and Benny and the men after them came to a dead halt and stared at her. In the flickering half-light she looked a slim frightened boy.
”All of a sudden the woods is gettin' all cluttered up with folks,”
grunted Benny. ”Who in blazes are you, kid? An' where's your mamma?”