Part 30 (2/2)
”Yes, yes!”
”That's all you know about it Time may act that way perhaps in cities and such places, but out in the hills it is different When you've got the breath of the forest in you, I say it is different Ti ht I've dreah; in every cas a voice to irl with eyes like Necia's calls to ht shows her se Love! Ti in the world that never dies, and ti”
He took up the white slouch hat he had throhen he ca?” inquired the squaw, fearfully
”To the barracks to give reat cry, and seized him about the waist
”You never loved h I knew you were always thinking of her--and had no thought of irl because you loved her I have hated your eneet”
”Forget! What do you et hiht; then ill go to the soldier together, side by side--I am your woman Necia will look after the little ones”
Gale stared at her, and as he gazed the red pig, audy shawl she never ithout, the shapeless, skin-shod feet, the slovenly, ill-fitting garb of a mis-cast wo past, a sli eyes and a soul unspoiled No wo He had robbed her of her people and her Gods He had shi+fted hither and yon at the call of his uncertain fortune, or at a sign of that lurking fear that always dogged him, and she had never left his side, never questioned, never doubted, but always served hi for a part in that other love, without sharing in the caresses he had consecrated to a woame, Alluna, but there's a limit even to what I can take from you,” he said, at last ”I don't ever seeot to do this thing alone to-night, all of it, for you have no place in it, and I can't let the little girl go on like this The sooner that soldier knows the better” He leaned down and touched her browna otten Now you stay here”
He knew he could count on her obedience, and so he left her When he had gone she drew the shawl up over her face and crouched in the doorway, straining her eyes after hian to rock and sway, and then to chant, until the nightof her people
Necia had no idea whither she went; her only thought was to flee from her kin, who could not understand, to hide under cover in some solitary place, to let the darkness s her up, so that she rief and be just a poor, o heart, she wandered, bareheaded, bare-necked, half-des, without sense of her incongruous attire or of the water that squeezed up through the soggy moss at her tread and soaked her frail slippers On she stuht cast out and banished
The night was cloudy and a wind ca at the careless folds of her dress, but she heard nothing save the devil's tattoo that rang in her head, and felt nothing beyond the pain at throat and breast, which in ti froan to weep in a pitiful woman fashi+on, as if her heart would burst The first drops cleared a way for others, and soon she was sobbing freely, alone and without solace, lost in the night
She had not succeeded in thoroughly isolating herself, however, for ahis course by the sense of feel and the wind's direction heard her and paused His steps wereof his presence until he was near enough to distinguish her di wall of a half-completed cabin
To his question, ”What's the trouble here?” she made no answer, butwrong Who are you, anyhow?”
”It's only Necia, Mr Stark,” said the girl, at which he advanced and took her by the arm
”What ails you, child? What in the world are you doing here? Come! It's only a step to my cabin; you ht Why, you'll break your neck in this darkness”
She hung back, but he coness
”No,” he admonished, with unusual kindliness for hio on this way; it's scandalous I won't stand for it I like you toothese last feeeks tonever missed an opportunity to stop and pass a ith her, at the sa her a queer courtesy and consideration quite foreign to his saturnine habits She had never mentioned the fact to her father or the others, for she had developed a sort of sympathy for the man, and felt that she understood him better than they did
He led her inside his cabin, and closed the door in the face of the night wind before he struck a light
”I can't stand to see you cry,” he repeated, as he adjusted the wick
”Now, as soon as--” He stopped in astonishment, for he had turned to behold, instead of the little half-breed girl, this slender, sorrowful stranger in her aly wonderful raiment