Part 11 (1/2)
During the heat of noon he lay in the deep pool below the stump, and rested; but when evening came he set out in search of supper, and frequently he felt so good that he leaped clear of the water, and fell back with a splash that threw s.h.i.+ning spray about him, or lashed out with his tail and sent widening circles of waves rolling from his lurking place. Then the Kingfisher rattled with all his might, and flew for the tunnel in the embankment.
Some of these days the air was still, the earth warmed in the golden suns.h.i.+ne, and murmured a low song of sleepy content. Some days the wind raised, whirling dead leaves before it, and covering the earth with drifts of plum, cherry, and apple bloom, like late falling snow. Then great black clouds came sweeping across the sky, and ma.s.sed above Rainbow Bottom. The lightning flashed as if the heavens were being cracked open, and the rolling thunder sent terror to the hearts of man and beast. When the birds flew for shelter, Dannie and Jimmy unhitched their horses, and raced for the stables to escape the storm, and to be with Mary, whom electricity made nervous.
They would sit on the little front porch, and watch the greedy earth drink the downpour. They could almost see the gra.s.s and flowers grow.
When the clouds scattered, the thunder grew fainter; and the sun shone again between light sprinkles of rain. Then a great, glittering rainbow set its arch in the sky, and it planted one of its feet in Horseshoe Bend, and the other so far away they could not even guess where.
If it rained lightly, in a little while Dannie and Jimmy could go back to their work afield. If the downpour was heavy, and made plowing impossible, they pulled weeds, and hoed in the garden. Dannie discoursed on the wholesome freshness of the earth, and Jimmy ever waited a chance to twist his words, and ring in a laugh on him. He usually found it. Sometimes, after a rain, they took their bait cans, and rods, and went down to the river to fish.
If one could not go, the other religiously refrained from casting bait into the pool where the Black Ba.s.s lay. Once, when they were fis.h.i.+ng together, the Ba.s.s rose to a white moth, skittered over the surface by Dannie late in the evening, and twice Jimmy had strikes which he averred had taken the arm almost off him, but neither really had the Ba.s.s on his hook. They kept to their own land, and fished when they pleased, for game laws and wardens were unknown to them.
Truth to tell, neither of them really hoped to get the Ba.s.s before fall. The water was too high in the spring. Minnows were plentiful, and as Jimmy said, ”It seemed as if the domn plum tree just rained caterpillars.” So they bided their time, and the signs prohibiting trespa.s.s on all sides of their land were many and emphatic, and Mary had instructions to ring the dinner bell if she caught sight of any strangers.
The days grew longer, and the sun was insistent. Untold miles they trudged back and forth across their land, guiding their horses, jerked about with plows, their feet weighted with the damp, clinging earth, and their clothing pasted to their wet bodies. Jimmy was growing restless. Never in all his life had he worked so faithfully as that spring, and never had his visits to Casey's so told on him. No matter where they started, or how hard they worked, Dannie was across the middle of the field, and helping Jimmy before the finish. It was always Dannie who plowed on, while Jimmy rode to town for the missing bolt or buckle, and he generally rolled from his horse into a fence corner, and slept the remainder of the day on his return.
The work and heat were beginning to tire him, and his trips to Casey's had been much less frequent than he desired. He grew to feel that between them Dannie and Mary were driving him, and a desire to balk at slight cause, gathered in his breast. He deliberately tied his team in a fence corner, lay down, and fell asleep. The clanging of the supper bell aroused him. He opened his eyes, and as he rose, found that Dannie had been to the barn, and brought a horse blanket to cover him. Well as he knew anything, Jimmy knew that he had no business sleeping in fence corners so early in the season. With candor he would have admitted to himself that a part of his brittle temper came from aching bones and rheumatic twinges. Some way, the sight of Dannie swinging across the field, looking as fresh as in the early morning, and the fact that he had carried a blanket to cover him, and the further fact that he was wild for drink, and could think of no excuse on earth for going to town, brought him to a fighting crisis.
Dannie turned his horses at Jimmy's feet.
”Come on, Jimmy, supper bell has rung,” he cried. ”We mustn't keep Mary waiting. She wants us to help her plant the sweet potatoes to-nicht.”
Jimmy rose, and his joints almost creaked. The pain angered him. He leaned forward and glared at Dannie.
”Is there one minute of the day whin you ain't thinkin' about my wife?”
he demanded, oh, so slowly, and so ugly!
Dannie met his hateful gaze squarely. ”Na a minute,” he answered, ”excepting when I am thinking about ye.”
”The h.e.l.l you say!” exploded the astonished Jimmy.
Dannie stepped out of the furrow, and came closer. ”See here, Jimmy Malone,” he said. ”Ye ain't forgot the nicht when I told ye I loved Mary, with all my heart, and that I'd never love another woman. I sent ye to tell her fra me, and to ask if I might come to her. And ye brought me her answer. It's na your fault that she preferred ye.
Everybody did. But it IS your fault that I've stayed on here. I tried to go, and ye wouldna let me. So for fifteen years, ye have lain with the woman I love, and I have lain alone in a few rods of ye. If that ain't Man-h.e.l.l, try some other on me, and see if it will touch me! I sent ye to tell her that I loved her; have I ever sent ye to tell her that I've quit? I should think you'd know, by this time, that I'm na quitter. Love her! Why, I love her till I can see her standin' plain before me, when I know she's a mile away. Love her! Why, I can smell her any place I am, sweeter than any flower I ever held to my face.
Love her! Till the day I dee I'll love her. But it ain't any fault of yours, and if ye've come to the place where I worry ye, that's the place where I go, as I wanted to on the same day ye brought Mary to Rainbow Bottom.”
Jimmy's gray jaws fell open. Jimmy's sullen eyes cleared. He caught Dannie by the arm.
”For the love of Hivin, what did I say, Dannie?” he panted. ”I must have been half asleep. Go! You go! You leave Rainbow Bottom! Thin, by G.o.d, I go too! I won't stay here without you, not a day. If I had to take my choice between you, I'd give up Mary before I'd give up the best frind I iver had. Go! I guess not, unless I go with you! She can go to----”
”Jimmy! Jimmy!” cautioned Dannie.
”I mane ivery domn word of it,” said Jimmy. ”I think more of you, than I iver did of any woman.”
Dannie drew a deep breath. ”Then why in the name of G.o.d did ye SAY that thing to me? I have na betrayed your trust in me, not ever, Jimmy, and ye know it. What's the matter with ye?”
Jimmy heaved a deep sigh, and rubbed his hands across his hot, angry face. ”Oh, I'm just so domn sore!” he said. ”Some days I get about wild. Things haven't come out like I thought they would.”
”Jimmy, if ye are in trouble, why do ye na tell me? Canna I help ye?
Have'nt I always helped ye if I could?”