Part 41 (2/2)
Klondike Kate said softly. ”Jake gave it to me to keep for you.--Here's what she prized most of anything she had; she put it in my hands herself to keep for her.”
The yellowed paper, unfolded, proved to be the certificate of marriage of Violet Ashton and Ralph Murdaugh, dated January 2, 1896.
The two talked long within the little shack, and when Willa emerged at last the sun had disappeared behind a bank of level, leaden cloud and the still cold which precedes a snowfall had settled down upon the valley.
Since her arrival the night before Willa had fought resolutely against the vague memories which seemed to a.s.sail her at every turn, fearing the snare of mental suggestion, but now she strove wistfully to foster a sense of nearness and familiarity with the dreary scene.
The reaction from her triumphant hour had come, and with it a forlorn hopelessness of spirit. What did it matter, after all? Outcast or reinstated in the empty pomp and circ.u.mstance of society, no one had really cared save Winnie, and he had not counted.
The tragedy of utter isolation from all human ties descended upon her and in the depths of her desolation she was oblivious to the sound of footsteps approaching on the frosty, hard-packed road. It was only when they halted that she glanced up--and found herself looking into the eyes of Kearn Thode.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE SLIPPER OF CINDERELLA
Forgetting for a moment all else but the joy of his presence, she held out both hands with a glad little cry.
”Kearn!”
He took her hands in his, but released them after the merest touch, and in the hungry wistfulness of his gaze there was no answering gladness.
”Miss Murdaugh, I have an explanation to make for my disobedience of your injunction,” he said stiffly. ”I have deliberately followed you here, but it is only that I may put you in possession of certain facts which are of moment to you. Will you forgive me if I intrude upon you for an hour?”
The brightness faded, and she bowed her head in silence. She had forgotten his duplicity and the cold-blooded mercenary game he had played, but the memory of it returned with his first words.
Pa.s.sionately she wished that she might never have learned the truth!
He would have played the game to the last round, he would have been kind at least, and she might have lived on in her fool's paradise.
Then a wave of contempt swept over her for her own cowardice and she straightened.
”I am very glad to see you.” Her tones were gravely conventional. ”If you have followed me out here, as you say, to render me a service it must be one for which I shall be deeply grateful, Mr. Thode. I am staying at the Palace Hotel and if you will walk there with me we can talk, secure from intrusion. How did you know I was here?”
”Winthrop North told me of the sudden change in your plans for the future, and that he knew where you had gone when you left the Halsteads. I made a hurried trip West and there discovered what I have now to tell you.” He spoke slowly as if weighing each word. ”I went back to New York to see you, but could only learn that you had disappeared. However, since you had not gone to Limasito, it occurred to me that you must be here, in an attempt possibly to prove your ident.i.ty.”
”And what you have to tell me bears on that?” Willa asked.
”It does, most conclusively. Starr Wiley must have had a very vital motive in getting you out of the way, for his story was a lie from start to finish; his papers a deliberate forgery!”
”If you have proof of that, Mr. Thode, you have indeed rendered me a service I can never repay!” she cried. ”Once more I am in your debt!”
”My news does not surprise you?” he asked, with a quick glance at her face.
”No. I have suspected it from the moment Starr Wiley announced his discovery, for he had threatened me with it in advance; had tried to bargain with me, in fact.” Willa paused. ”I had intended to go on from here to the Flathead Lake country in Montana and then to Arizona in an effort to establish what you have discovered. I am anxious to know how you stumbled upon the truth.”
It was only when they had reached the little hotel sitting-room and established themselves before the replenished stove that Kearn Thode enlightened her.
”You may remember, Miss Murdaugh, that I knew Starr Wiley before I met him again in Limasito, and that knowledge alone would have impelled me to distrust at sight any claims which he might produce, no matter what their nature,” he began. ”When Winthrop North told me that our friend had been the means of proving you were not the granddaughter of Giles Murdaugh, I doubted, and when I learned the name which Gentleman Geoff was supposed to have signed to the adoption papers with the trapper, I knew the whole thing was a frame-up. Gentleman Geoff's name was not Abercrombie.”
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