Part 30 (2/2)

”That is the second time I've tried to kill you,” she whispered. ”I thought it was Leverett.... I'd have died if I had killed you.”

There was a silence.

”Lie very still,” he said huskily. ”I'll be back in a moment to rebandage your feet and make you comfortable for the night.”

”I can't sleep,” she repeated desolately. ”Dad trusted his money to me and I've let Leverett rob me. How can I sleep?”

”I'll bring you something to make you sleep.”

”I can't!”

”I promise you you will sleep. Lie still.”

He rose, went away downstairs and out to the barn, where his campaign hat lay in the weed, drilled through by a bullet.

There was something else lying there in the weeds,--a flat, muddy, shoeless shape sprawling grotesquely in the foggy starlight.

One hand clutched a hunting knife; the other a packet.

Stormont drew the packet from the stiff fingers, then turned the body over, and, flas.h.i.+ng his electric torch, examined the ratty visage--what remained of it--for his pistol bullet had crashed through from ear to cheek-bone, almost obliterating the trap-robber's features.

Stormont came slowly into Eve's room and laid the packet on the sheet beside her.

”Now,” he said, ”there is no reason for you to lie awake any longer.

I'll fix you up for the night.”

Deftly he unbandaged, bathed, dressed, and rebandaged her slim white feet--little wounded feet so lovely, so exquisite that his hand trembled as he touched them.

”They're doing fine,” he said cheerily. ”You've half a degree of fever and I'm going to give you something to drink before you go to sleep----”

He poured out a gla.s.s of water, dissolved two tablets, supported her shoulders while she drank in a dazed way, looking always at him over the gla.s.s.

”Now,” he said, ”go to sleep. I'll be on the job outside your door until your daddy arrives.”

”How did you get back dad's money?” she asked in an odd, emotionless way as though too weary for further surprises.

”I'll tell you in the morning.”

”Did you kill him? I didn't hear your pistol.”

”I'll tell you all about it in the morning. Good night, Eve.”

As he bent over her, she looked up into his eyes and put both arms around his neck.

It was her first kiss given to any man, except Mike Clinch.

After Stormont had gone out and closed the door, she lay very still for a long while.

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