Part 17 (1/2)

Gay helped to lift Marice into the two men's arms, and they went ahead with their moaning burden; then she came back to Druro, who was staggering vaguely along.

”Let me help you, Lundi. Lean on me.”

He put out an arm, and she caught it and placed it around her shoulders.

”I can't see, Gay,” he said, in a voice that was quite steady yet had in it some quality of terrible apprehension. She peered into his face.

The moon had become obscured, but she could see that his eyes were wide open with torn lids. There was a great gash down his cheek.

”Come quickly!” she cried, her voice trembling with tears. ”Oh, come quickly, Lundi! We must bathe and dress your wounds as soon as possible. Leopard wounds are terribly poisonous.”

”All right,” he said. ”Sure you don't mind my leaning on you? I hope they get a doctor at once for Mrs. Hading.”

They went forward slowly, he taking curiously uneven steps. She was tall, but he had to stoop a little to keep his hold on her.

”There hasn't been a leopard in these parts for nearly two years,” he mused. ”The last was shot on my mine the day we struck the reef--that is why we called it the Leopard. You remember, Gay? Do you think Mrs.

Hading is badly wounded?”

”Her throat and chest are very much torn, but I don't think the wounds are deep.”

”Poor woman! Good Lord; what bad luck!”

”Try and hurry, Lundi.”

”But I can't see. Perhaps if I could wipe the blood out of my eyes, Gay--where the deuce is my handkerchief?”

”Here is mine--let me do it for you. Sit down for a moment on this ant-heap.”

She knelt by his side and gently wiped away the blood. By the sweat that was pouring down his face, she knew that he must be suffering intense pain, and was almost afraid to touch the wounded eyes.

”Is that better? Can you see now?” she asked fearfully.

”No,” he said quietly. There was a moment of anguished silence between them, then he laughed.

”Cheerful if I am going to be blind!”

The words tore her heart in two, appealing to all that was tender and n.o.ble in her nature, and to that brooding maternal love that was almost stronger in her than lover's love. She seemed, as once before when trouble was on him, to see him as a bright-haired boy with innocent eyes, whom life had led astray, but who was ready with a laugh on his lips to face the worst fate would do. And she cried out, with a great cry, tenderly, brokenly:

”No, no, Lundi; you shall not be blind!”

She put her arms round him as if to ward off the powers of darkness and evil, and he let his b.l.o.o.d.y face rest against the soft sweetness of her breast. Leaning there, he knew he was home at last. Her warm tears, falling like gentle rain upon his wounded eyes, slipped down into his heart, into his very soul, cleansing it, was.h.i.+ng away the shadows that had been between them. Now he knew what the shrouded figure at the back of his mind had waited for so long to say to him--that he loved this girl and should make his life worthy of her. He had always loved her, but had been too idle and careless, too fond of the ways and pleasures of men to change his life for her. Now that he held her in his arms, and could feel the blaze of her love burning through the walls of her, meeting the flame in his own heart, it was too late.

Fate, with lightnings in her hand, had stepped between them, and a woman who held his promise intervened.

”Gay,” he said gently, her name felt so sweet on his lips, ”by a terrible mistake I have destroyed your happiness and mine. Forgive me.”

”There is no question of forgiveness, Lundi,” she whispered; ”I will help you to stand by it.”

He held up his blurred eyes and torn, bleeding lips, and she kissed him as one might kiss the dead, in exquisite renouncement and farewell.

Only that the quick are not the dead--and cannot be treated as such. A more poignant misery waked in both their hearts with that kiss. He could not see her--that was terrible--but the satiny warmth of her mouth was so dear, so exquisitely dear! He suddenly remembered her as she was that night in her little rose-leaf gown with all the dewdrops twinkling on her. He wondered if he would ever see her again in all her beauty.

”You were so sweet that night of the dance, Gay,” he said, ”in your little pinky gown, with the dewdrops winking on you!”