Part 40 (1/2)

”You look like one of Clinch's b.u.ms,” remarked Wier with native honesty.

Darragh, chagrined, went to his bunk, pulled the morocco case from under the pillow, and shoved it into the bosom of his flannel s.h.i.+rt.

”That's the main thing anyway,” he thought. Then, turning to Wier, he asked whether Eve and Stormont had awakened.

It appeared that Trooper Stormont had saddled up and cantered away shortly after sunrise, leaving word that he must hunt up his comrade, Trooper Lannis, at Ghost Lake.

”They're coming back this evening,” added Wier. ”He asked you to look out for Clinch's step-daughter.”

”She's all right here. Can't you keep an eye on her, Ralph?”

”I'm stripping trout, sir. I'll be around here to cook dinner for her when she wakes up.”

Darragh glanced across the brook at the hatchery. It was only a few yards away. He nodded and started for the veranda:

”That'll be all right,” he said. ”n.o.body is coming here to bother her.... And don't let her leave, Ralph, till I get back----”

”Very well, sir. But suppose she takes it into her head to leave----”

Darragh called back, gaily: ”She can't: she hasn't any clothes!” And away he strode in the gorgeous suns.h.i.+ne of a magnificent autumn day, all the clean and vigorous youth of him afire in antic.i.p.ation of a reunion which the letter from his lady-love had transfigured into a tryst.

For, in that amazing courts.h.i.+p of a single day, he never dreamed that he had won the heart of that sad, white-faced, hungry child in rags--silken tatters still stained with the blood of ma.s.sacre,--the very soles of her shoes still charred by the embers of her own home.

Yet, that is what must have happened in a single day and evening. Life pa.s.ses swiftly during such periods. Minutes lengthen into days; hours into years. The soul finds itself.

Then mind and heart become twin prophets,--clairvoyant concerning what hides behind the veil; comprehending with divine clair-audience what the Three Sisters whisper there--hearing even the whirr of the spindle--the very snipping of the Eternal Shears!

The soul finds itself; the mind knows itself; the heart perfectly understands.

He had not spoken to this young girl of love. The blood of friends and servants was still rusty on her skirt's ragged hem.

Yet, that night, when at last in safety she had said good-bye to the man who had secured it for her, he knew that he was in love with her. And, at such crises, the veil that hides hearts becomes transparent.

At that instant he had seen and known. Afterward he had dared not believe that he had known.

But hers had been a purer courage.

As he strode on, the comprehension of her candour, her honesty, the sweet bravery that had conceived, created, and sent that letter, thrilled this young man until his heavy boots sprouted wings, and the trail he followed was but a path of rosy clouds over which he floated heavenward.

About half an hour later he came to his senses with a distinct shock.

Straight ahead of him on the trail, and coming directly toward him, moved a figure in knickers and belted tweed.

Flecked sunlight slanted on the stranger's cheek and burnished hair, dappling face and figure with moving, golden spots.

Instantly Darragh knew and trembled.