Part 10 (1/2)
”I?” he laughed with a trace of bitterness. ”I am a rolling stone, Miss Murdaugh. My work calls me to the ends of the earth, but I would probably have looked in on you every few years to say 'h.e.l.lo.'
However, you would scarcely have been with my sister as long as that.
Some lucky fellow would have persuaded you to make him happy. You will be a great social success----”
”As if I cared!” She stopped him with her familiar little gesture.
”I--I didn't just understand what you meant. I thought--but it doesn't matter anyway, does it? I've got to get in the game anyway, but you don't suppose I want to, do you? You don't suppose I want the money of that old man who stacked the cards against my poor father, or care about these Halstead people that never knew I was alive? I am doing it because I think Dad would want me to, and because it will help me in something else I've set out to do.”
”The thing you spoke of, that you could not let me or anyone in on?” he asked in surprise. ”Haven't you relinquished it, whatever it was?
You'll be too much taken up with your new life to remember old plans and ideas when you plunge into the society game.”
”'Relinquish'?” she repeated, and he saw her whole form grow tense and rigid. ”Why, it's what I'm living for--what I'm going through with this inheritance outfit for! Dad said the Indians were right, they never forget a kindness or an injury. I'm like them, in that. I'll never forget, never, until the score is wiped clean!”
”Someone has hurt you?” he demanded. ”You have another trouble, aside from your grief? The government will take care of El Negrito, it must be something else. Won't you tell me? It may be that I can help, in some way. I--I would do anything for you!”
”n.o.body can help me.” She shook her head gently. ”I told you once, Mr. Thode, that I must play a lone hand.”
”But you can trust me,” he urged. ”If I could only make you believe that! If I could only make you see how much it would mean to me to be of the slightest service----”
He halted abruptly, and she waited, scarcely breathing, for there was an impetuous fervent ring in his tones which made her heart leap suddenly and then almost cease to beat. But the young man did not continue.
”Thank you,” she said at last, very quietly. ”I am sure that I could trust you, Mr. Thode, but there is nothing you or anyone could do; it is just that I owe a debt to someone, and I mean to pay it. But don't let us talk of that any more. Shall I see you, sometime, up in New York?”
”Perhaps, when my work here is finished.” He turned his head away from her. ”You will have so many new friends that you will scarcely remember those you leave behind down here.”
”How unjust you are!” She faced him hotly. ”Do you think I could ever forget what you did when El Negrito came; how you rode to the barracks at the risk of your life?”
”I had small choice,” he reminded her. ”Had I stayed I would have been killed.”
”So would we all. But it was not for yourself you took the chance, it was for us.” She laid her hand upon his arm. ”I--I don't want you to think that I will ever forget and I hope that we shall be friends.”
”Always that!” He took her small hand in both of his. ”It doesn't seem likely, but if there is ever anything that I can do for you, any service that I can render, I would like to feel, in spite of the little time you have known me, that you would call on me before anyone else you may meet. After all, Gentleman Geoff laid a charge upon me, you know, and I want to be worthy of it. When I return, if I may, I will come to you.”
”Oh, will you?” She flushed and gently withdrew her hand. ”That is, unless you will be ashamed of me. I reckon I'll be kind of a shock to city folks, the same as they'll be to me.”
”Now it is you who are unjust!” he cried. ”I shall always be proud of your friends.h.i.+p, and remember these days in Limasito as the most wonderful I have ever known----”
Thode checked himself once more.
”Good-bye, Billie. When next I see you, it will be Miss Willa Murdaugh who will greet me, but it is Gentleman Geoff's Billie who will linger in my thoughts always. Will you say once again what you said to me in the lane: 'Buena suerte'?”
”Good luck, with all my heart, but not good-bye.” She hesitated. ”I sha'n't see you to-morrow before we start?”
He shook his head.
”The whole town will be on hand to give you a send-off. I would not intrude on the leave-taking of all your old friends, and besides I must ride far out to-morrow,” he prevaricated. ”There is a lease I must look into for the company over near La Roda. So it must be good-bye, now.”
”Not that, but hasta la vista!” She lifted her chin valiantly, although her smile was a trifle wan. ”That means 'until we meet again', you know, and I feel somehow that it will be soon.”
”I hope so, with all my heart!” With a swift, impetuous movement he bent and kissed her hand. ”Hasta la vista!”