Part 30 (1/2)

”That is most thoughtful,” the old gentleman murmured. ”But, Brent, that d.a.m.ned half-wit will take savage delight in spreading his story--” the Colonel gritted his teeth and could not finish.

”I hardly think so,” Brent rea.s.sured him. ”It just happens that I've placed him in a most superst.i.tious dread of me--through a little encounter we had because of an attempt Tom Hewlet made to blackmail me.

Though I mention this in confidence, sir.”

”Blackmail! Why, Brent, what does this mean? I feel as though I were dreaming!” But a deeper anxiety came into his eyes as he recalled some whisperings of two months back.

”Don't let it worry you. It has been cooked by proper threats of the penitentiary--” He stopped short, becoming for the first time aware of Aunt Timmie's presence as she was taking up the goblets with more than necessary deliberation. When she left, he added: ”Anyway, what I started out to say is, Tusk will keep his mouth shut forever after I get hold of him. I looked for him in town, and at his half finished cabin, but he wasn't around. So I'll try again today.”

”Do you really think you can stop this?” the Colonel leaned hopefully forward.

”I know it, unless Tom has successfully disillusioned his mind about my being a devil.”

”A matter which would doubtless require more eloquence than Tom possesses,” the old gentleman's eyes twinkled: but he added in the former serious voice: ”If you can't, sir, I--I shall have his life! I will, sir!--by G.o.d, sir. I will!”

Dale had come quietly to the French window. At his place in the library, where he had been poring over books, the conversation could have been heard, but none of it drew his attention until the Colonel's first outburst of rage. He stood now, looking calmly down at the old gentleman's flushed face, then stepped out and approached them.

”You won't have to do that,” he said. ”I killed 'im this mornin'.”

A deadly, sickening hush came over his listeners, and gradually through it the rythmic strokes of a galloping horse fell upon their ears. Brent turned and saw Jane. In a dry voice he said:

”The h.e.l.l you did.”

For once the adaptable engineer seemed helpless to rise to the situation. It was the Colonel who pulled himself together, saying hurriedly:

”Here's Jane! Go out, Brent, and entertain her! I'll take Dale indoors and see what this means!”

”I haven't time,” the mountaineer irritably replied. ”I'm readin', and can't stop!”

”I'll bet you a cooky you can stop, sir,” the old Colonel snapped. ”You come and talk to me! Hurry, Brent!”

Entering the French window to the library he turned nervously to Dale.

”Now, what does this mean?”

”Brent told you,” the mountaineer answered. ”He told you how the varmint yelled, an' what he said. This mornin' I went 'foh sun an' laid out near his cabin. That's all.”

The reproach in the Colonel's eyes fell upon Dale like a lash, and he angrily continued:

”You said you'd do it, didn't you? If I hadn't--or somebody hadn't--he'd kept on shoutin' those things, an' maybe worse, till she wouldn't have opened school next yeah! Would she? Then what would I do? I tell you, Tusk had to be kilt!”

”I was merely angry, and talking, sir,” the Colonel protested, with not the same regard for truth he had formerly boasted.

”An' I was angry an' not talkin',” Dale sullenly retorted.

The silence that followed was broken by the old gentleman's brief question:

”Dead?”

”I reckon. He went down.”