Part 31 (1/2)
”When did ye aim ter start--over yon?”
”Hit ought ter be right soon now, while travellin's good. Come snowfall hit'll git ter be right slavish journeyin'--but I don't 'low ter tarry there long. I kain't noways be content away from ye.”
The thoughts that were occupying Dorothy were for the most part silent ones but at length she inquired:
”Why don't ye bring her back with ye, ter dwell hyar with us--her an'
ther baby?”
Thornton shook his head, but his heart warmed because she had asked.
”Hit wouldn't do--jest yit. Folks mout seek ter trace me by follerin'
her. I kin slip in thar an' see her, though, an' mebby comfort her some small degree--an' then slip back home ergin without no man's knowin'
I've ever been thar.”
Instinctively the wife shuddered.
”Ef they _did_ find out!” she exclaimed in a low voice, and the man nodded in frank comprehension.
”Ef they did,” he answered, candidly, ”I reckon hit would be hangin' or ther penitenshery fer me--but they hain't agoin' ter.”
”I don't seek ter hinder ye none,” she told him in a faltering voice, ”despite hit's goin' ter nigh kill me ter see ye go. Somehow hit seems like I wouldn't be so skeered ef ye war guilty yoreself ... but ter hev ye risk ther gallers fer somethin' ye didn't nuver do----”
The words choked her and she stopped short.
”I'm goin' ter hev a mouty strong reason fer seekin' ter come home safe,” he said, softly. ”But even ef hit did cost me my life, I don't see as I could fail a woman thet's my sister, an' thet's been facin' her time amongst enemies, with a secret like thet hauntin' her day an'
night. I've got ter take ther chanst, honey.”
A sound came to them through their preoccupation, and they looked up to see Bas Rowlett crossing the stile.
His case-hardened hypocrisy stood valiantly by him, and his face revealed nothing of the humiliation he must feel in playing out his farcical role of friends.h.i.+p before the eyes of the man to whom it was so transparent.
”I war jest pa.s.sin' by,” he announced, ”an I 'lowed I'd light down an'
make my manners. I'd love ter hev a drink of water, too.”
Without a word Parish turned and went toward the well and the visitor's eyes lit again to their avid hunger as he gazed at the girl.
Abruptly he declared: ”Don't never fergit what I told ye, Dorothy. I'd do most anything, fer _you_.”
The girl made no answer, but she flushed under the intensity of his gaze, and to herself she said, as she had said once before: ”I wonder would he do sich a thing fer me as Cal's doin' fer his sister?”
The scope and peril of that sacrifice seemed to stand between her and all other thoughts.
Then Parish came back with a gourd dipper, and forced himself for a few moments into casual conversation. Though to have intimated his purpose and destination would have been a fatal thing, it would have been almost as foolish to wrap in mystery the fact that he meant to make a short journey from home, so as Bas mounted Parish said:
”I've got a leetle business acrost in Virginny, Bas, an' afore long I'm goin' over thar fer a few days.”
When Elviry Prooner had consented to come as temporary companion for Dorothy, it seemed merely an advent.i.tious happening that Sim, too, felt the call of the road.
”I don't know es I've named hit to ye afore, Parish,” he volunteered the next day as the three sat around the dinner table, ”but I've got a cousin thet used ter be more like a brother ter me--an' he got inter some leetle trouble.”