Part 32 (2/2)
The girl's voice was sharp, and she wore that expression of unyouthful weariness that Boyd had noted before. He could not help wondering what bitter experience had taught her disillusion, what strange environment had edged her wits with worldly wisdom.
”We haven't figured Marsh in at all,” he said, tentatively.
”He figures, nevertheless, as I intend to show you to-day. To begin with, please notice that un.o.btrusive man in the gray suit--not now! Don't look around for a minute. You will see him on the opposite side of the street.”
Boyd turned, to observe a rat-faced fellow across the way, evidently bound for the Tacoma boat.
”Is he following us?”
”I see him, everywhere I go.”
Boyd's face clouded angrily, at which Cherry exclaimed: ”Now, for Heaven's sake, don't mimic Big George, or we'll never learn anything!”
”I won't stand for a spy!” he growled.
”And be arrested?”
”No,” he a.s.sured her, grimly. ”It may be as you suspect, but you needn't fear that I'll ever go to jail for a.s.saulting one of Willis Marsh's helpers.”
She glanced up quickly, as if detecting a double meaning in his words; then, at the smouldering fires she beheld, observed, in a gentler tone: ”You care a great deal for Miss Wayland, don't you?”
His only answer was a deep breath and a slow turning of the head, but once she had seen the look in his eyes she needed no other. She could only say: ”I hope she is worthy of all she is causing you to suffer, Boyd, so few of us are.”
She did not speak again, but in her heart was a great heaviness. They reached the dock and lost sight of the spy, only to have him reappear soon after the boat cleared, and while neither spoke of it, they felt his presence during the whole trip.
Before them Rainier lifted its majestic, snow-crowned head high into the heavens, its serrated slopes softened by a purple haze, its soaring crest limned in blazing glory by the sun. The bay beneath them was like a huge silver s.h.i.+eld, flat-rolled and glittering, inlaid with master cunning between wooded hills that swept away into mysterious distances, there to rise skyward in an ever-changing, ever-charming confusion. It reflected fairy-like islands, overgrown till they bowed to their mirrored likenesses. Now a smiling inlet opened up a perspective of golden sand and whispering s.h.i.+ngle; again a frowning bluff slipped past, lost in lonely contemplation of its own inverted image. The day was gorgeous, inspiring.
Their course lay through an enchanted region, so suggestive of splendid possibilities that Boyd was constrained to observe:
”You know, if the Pilgrim Fathers had landed here in the first place, New England would never have been discovered,” a remark at which Cherry nodded in complete agreement.
At Tacoma Boyd left her, to go about his business, but joined her later at lunch, with the joyful announcement:
”I've had better luck, this time. They said there would be no difficulty whatever in handling the matter, and they are to let me know definitely to-morrow.”
”Did Hawkshaw hound you to the bank?” she inquired.
”I rather think so.”
”Then to-morrow will tell the tale.”
”You mean the bank will turn me down?”
”Yes, if I've sized up the situation correctly. I dare say these banks are as cautious as those in Seattle, and a few words over the telephone would do the trick.”
”I'm inclined to give that shadow a little personal attention,” the young man mused; but when she questioned him, he only smiled and a.s.sured her of his caution.
Again on the return trip they discovered the fellow among the pa.s.sengers, but Boyd made no sign until the boat was landing. Then Cherry found that he had edged her into the crowd ma.s.sed at the gangway, and caught sight of the man in gray immediately ahead of them. She noticed that while Emerson maintained a flow of conversation his eyes were constantly upon the fellow's back, and that he kept a position close to his shoulder, regardless of jostling from the others. She could not tell what this foreboded, nor did she gain a hint of Boyd's purpose, until the gang-plank was in place and they were out upon it. A narrow s.p.a.ce separated the boat from the dock; as they crossed this, Boyd slipped and half fell on the slanting planks. She never knew exactly what happened, except that he released her arm and lunged violently against the man in gray, who was next him. It occurred with the suddenness of pure accident, and the next she saw was the stranger plunging downward along the piling, clutching wildly at the vessel's side, while Boyd clung to the guard-rope as if about to lose his balance.
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