Part 42 (2/2)
Jarrold pondered, his stupid little eyes steady and unwinking on her.
”A thousand dollars,” he returned slowly, ”wouldn't do me any good if I never got it: as I wouldn't if none of us got clear of this d.a.m.n' snow; neither would ten I And it wouldn't do me any good if Benny and Brodie shot me full of lead. And it wouldn't be much, anyhow, if we got away with what we found to-day! Everything being as it is, I ain't half as strong for a thousand dollars, nor yet ten, right now as I am for you!
And you know it, don't you?”
He tried to ogle her, and her sick dread nearly overwhelmed her.
”And you got sense, too,” went on Jarrold, leering meaningly. ”It won't be bad to have a man stuck on you that's got all kind of kale, will it, girlie?”
As he poured out his wretched insinuations she was trembling; in her heart she thought that she had spoken truly and would die if they kept her here.
”I am married. To Mr. King,” she said as steadily as she could. ”I want to go to him. You have no right to keep me here.”
”But you don't even know where he is,” Jarrold reminded her slyly.
Brodie and Benny had given over their whispering and came back to the fire, where Brail and the Italian looked up at them sharply. Here was another guarded conference among the four; Gloria, though she could watch them, was unable to hear what they were saying. Jarrold began to grow uneasy, so soon is distrust bred amongst those who have found treasure.
Brodie made a last remark and laughed; the others laughed after him, and the four looked toward Jarrold and Gloria. Brodie, leaning back, caught up a bottle and drank, and thereafter pa.s.sed the bottle to the man nearest him. Gloria was quick to see that he had set his rifle away somewhere against the rock wall in the shadows. Only Brail still clung to his gun; if he should set it aside--if there should come a moment when she could slip to the cave's mouth--in the outside dark, despite the deep snow, she would at least have a chance to escape from them.
Even though she had nowhere to go, she longed wildly to be away from them. When their eyes roved toward her she thought that she would rather be dead, out in the clean, white snow, than here.
She wondered if these men were as utterly callous as they seemed.
Gratton, so newly dead, appeared forgotten. They laughed and drank, they smoked and spat, they soiled her with their eyes and their talk, quite as though they had neither knowledge nor memory of manslaughter done.
Benny alone, for a brief period, appeared nervous. She wondered what he was doing; he had rolled back his coat-sleeve; he was jabbing at his bare forearm with something which now and then caught and reflected the firelight. After a long time she heard a long sigh from Benny; he pulled down his coat-sleeve. The others laughed again.
”It's time we had a little talk,” said Brodie out of a short silence.
”Without anybody's skirt listening in. Leave her back there, further from the front door, Jarrold. Where she can't get an earful, and where she can't make a getaway; you come on over here a minute.”
Gloria made no resistance but sank down limply where Jarrold left her and watched him as he slouched over to the fire. She sought to hear their words, to read the looks on their faces. But she caught only a monotonous mutter, unintelligible but evil, and saw only the bottle pa.s.sing from one to the other. Brodie finished it and hurled it from him so that it broke noisily. A few times she heard them laugh; she could distinguish Brodie's throaty, bull tone and Benny's nervous cackle.
Jarrold did not appear made for mirth, and him she feared most of all; yes, even more than Brodie, whom she had seen do murder, and Benny who, she knew, had done murder. Brail and the Italian said little; they were men to follow where other men led. She fancied that several times Steve Jarrold's little eyes left the bottle, the faces of his companions, and even the pile of gold to quest for her face in the dark.
”Come here,” commanded Brodie.
She started. He was calling to her! She got up and moved forward slowly.
It was obey or be dragged to him. In the pale light by the fire, standing so that the blaze was between the five men and herself, she stopped. Until now she had been very white; suddenly she knew that her face must be flooded with bright red; she could feel the burn of it.
The eyes of the men seemed veritably to disregard her clothes, to make her feel another Lady G.o.diva.
”Gratton's, then King's, then Gratton's again?” Brodie chuckled. ”I don't care whose before Gratton's the first time; but whose after Gratton's the last time, that's it! Who are you for, Bright-Eyes? Me or Steve?”
”No!” she cried, her hands at her breast. ”No! I am not like that! I was not Gratton's; I am ... I am Mark King's wife!”
”So?” admitted Brodie good-humouredly. ”Well, that cuts no ice; it's open and shut you'd gone back to Gratton. Now, come over here. Closer.”
”I won't,” she shuddered. ”You don't dare make me! I ... Oh, won't you let me go? You have your gold there; you have gold and whiskey; you don't want me....”
”Whiskey, gold, and women,” muttered Brodie. ”They go together fine. And quit that little schoolgirl dodge; you make me sick. If you wasn't what you are, you wouldn't be where you are. Come over here and give us a kiss.” He jerked from his pocket a dull lump, one of the smaller, richer nuggets. ”I'm no pincher; come across and I'll give you a whole handful of gold!” His tone was playful.
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