Part 19 (1/2)

The big mine-owner brushed this aside as of no importance. ”We don't leave sick men to die in a blizzard up North. But that's not the point.”

”I think it has a bearing on the matter--that you saved him from the blizzard--and took him in--and nursed him like a brother till he died.”

”I'm not heartless,” said Macdonald impatiently. ”Of course I did that.

I had to do it. I couldn't do less.”

”Or more,” she suggested. ”You may have made a hard bargain with him, but you wiped that out later.”

”That's just what I didn't do. Don't think my conscience is troubling me. I'm not such a mush-brained fool. If it had not been for you I would never have thought of it again. But you are his daughter. What I cheated him out of belongs to you--and you are my friend.”

”Don't use that word about what you did, please. He wasn't a child. If you got the best of him in a bargain, I don't think father would think of it that way.”

The difficulty was that he could not tell her the truth about her father's weakness for drink and how he had played upon it. He bridged all explanations and pa.s.sed to the thing he meant to do in reparation.

”The money I cleaned up from that claim belongs to you, Miss O'Neill.

You will oblige me by taking it.”

From his pocket he took a folded paper and handed it to her. Sheba opened it doubtfully. The paper contained a typewritten statement and to it was attached a check by means of a clip. The check was made out to her and signed by Colby Macdonald. The amount it called for was one hundred and eighty-three thousand four hundred and thirty-one dollars.

”Oh, I couldn't take this, Mr. Macdonald--I couldn't. It doesn't belong to me,” she cried.

”It belongs to you--and you're going to take it.”

”I wouldn't know what to do with so much.”

”The bank will take care of it for you until you decide. So that's settled.” He pa.s.sed definitely from the subject. ”There's something else I want to say to you, Miss O'Neill.”

Some change in his voice warned her. The girl slanted a quick, shy glance at him.

”I want to know if you'll marry me, Miss O'Neill,” he shot at her abruptly. Then, without giving her time to answer, he pushed on: ”I'm older than you--by twenty-five years. Always I've lived on the frontiers. I've had to take the world by the throat and shake from it what I wanted. So I've grown hard and willful. All the sweet, fine things of life I've missed. But with you beside me I'm not too old to find them yet--if you'll show me the way, Sheba.”

A wave of color swept into her face, but her eyes never faltered from his. ”I'm not quite sure,” she said in a low voice.

”You mean--whether you love me?”

She nodded. ”I--admire you more than any man I ever met. You are a great man, strong and powerful,--and I am so insignificant beside you. I--am drawn to you--so much. But--I am not sure.”

Afterward, when she thought of it, Sheba wondered at the direct ease of his proposal. In the romances she had read, men were shy and embarra.s.sed and fearful of the issue. But Colby Macdonald had known what he wanted to say and had said it as coolly and as readily as if it had been a business detail. She was the one that had blushed and stammered and found a difficulty in expressing herself.

”I'm going away for two days. Perhaps when I come back you will know, Sheba. Take your time. Marriage is serious business. I want you to remember that my life has been very different from yours. You'll hear all sorts of things about me. Some of them are true. There is this difference between a man and a good woman. He fights and falls and fights again and wins. But a good woman is finer. She has never known the failure that drags one through slime and mud. Her goodness is born in her; she doesn't have to fight for it.”

The girl smiled a little tremulously. ”Doesn't she? We're not all angel, you know.”

”I hope you're not. There will need to be a lot of the human in you to make allowances for Colby Macdonald,” he replied with an answering smile.

When he said good-bye it was with a warm, strong handshake.

”I'll be back in two days. Perhaps you'll have good news for me then,”