Part 10 (1/2)

'They turned and faced me as I came. d.i.c.k's face was red, and in his eyes was agony--no less. Cynthy was very white, her little head held high on her slender neck. Her eyes was brave and clear. Mebbe I was excited, but it seemed to me that she was s.h.i.+nin' from head to foot. You see, to her it was so wonderful.

'We stood there silent for a long minute, lookin' clean into one another's souls. d.i.c.k's eyes and mine met and wrestled. I never fought a fight like that,--without a word nor a blow,--and yet we were fighting for more than our lives.

'His eyes didn't fall. He didn't look shamefaced. Oh, he too had pluck!

'As my brain cleared of the queer mist, that cry of his seemed to sound pitifully in my ears.

'”_O Cynthy, just one kiss!_”

'I don't suppose there's a man on earth that ain't said that from once to fifty times, just as much in earnest as d.i.c.k, and just as little thinkin' them words are the key in the Door--the door that gives on the road runnin' down to h.e.l.l or up to Heaven. You've got to move one way or the other if you open that door. It ain't a road to linger on. Love marches.

'That was the way it come to me then. For most men, love marches.--But me. How about me? The love that come to me had been silent and patient.

It'd sat in my heart like a bird on its nest. Was I different from other men? Did I ask less, give more? I was just a boy--how was I to know?

'It was Cynthy broke the tension. She was always a bit of a mischief.

Suddenly she smiled an' dimpled like the sun comin' out from a cloud.

She caught d.i.c.k's finger-tips quick an' brushed 'em across her lips.

'”Well, Seth!” she says to me, cheerful and confident again.

'”Is he your choice, Cynthy?” said I. ”Dare you leave us--_all_ of us--an' go to him forever?” I asked her, steadying my voice.

'She looked a little hurt and a little puzzled.

'”Has it come to that?” she asked me.

'”Mebbe it hasn't with you,” I answered, ”but it has with d.i.c.k--an' with me, Cynthy.”

'She looked at me as if she didn't know what I meant, and then the color rushed up into her face in a glorious flood.

'”Not--not you too, Seth?” she cried. ”Oh--not you too!”

'”Yes, Cynthy,--now and always.”

'She looked from me to d.i.c.k an' back to me again. In her face I saw she was uncertain.

'”Why didn't you tell me before?” she cried out sharply. ”Why didn't--_you_--teach me? O Seth, he needs me most!”

'd.i.c.k's eyes and mine met and clashed again like steel on steel. But it was mine that fell at last.

'We all went back to the house together without saying any more.

'It come to me just like this. d.i.c.k was tangled in his feelings, and the feelings are the strongest cords that ever bind a boy like him. Cynthy was drawn to him, because to her d.i.c.k was a thing of splendor and it was so wonderful he needed her! I needn't tell you what it was tied me. I still had a fighting chance to get her away from him, but was it fair of me to make the fight?

'Every drop of blood in my body said, Yes! Every cell in my brain said, No! For, you see, life had us in a net--but I was the strong one and _I could break the net_.

'I went off and walked by myself. Sundown come, and milking-time, and supper. But I forgot to eat or work. I walked.

'No man can tell you what he thinks and feels in hours like them. There ain't no words for the awful hopes or the black despairs or the gleams that begin like lightning-flashes and grow to something like the breaking dawn. I couldn't get away from it anyhow I turned. It wasn't a situation I _dared_ leave alone, not with d.i.c.k at white heat and Cynthy so confident of herself and so pitiful. It wasn't safe to let things be.