Part 34 (1/2)
”I'm dead sleepy. I'm going to bed. I'm too sleepy to care whether it's polite or not; I'm all in.”
”So am I,” said Kitty, yawning frankly. ”I shall follow my lord and master.”
”And I my amiable chaperon,” said Clyde.
”I'm afraid all I have to follow is an example,” said Casey. He came close to her in the moonlight. ”Perhaps I seemed ungrateful this afternoon. I didn't mean to be. I can't tell you how much I appreciated your offer, your generosity; none the less because I can't possibly accept it.”
”It is nothing,” she said. ”It is not even generosity. Real generosity must cost something in renunciation.”
”No,” he replied; ”the cost has little to do with it. It is the spirit of the offer that counts. Don't belittle it.”
”It cost me something to make the offer,” she said impulsively. ”The money would have been the least part of it.”
”I don't think I understand.”
”I'm glad you don't; and I can't explain now. Some day, perhaps. And now--good night.”
He took her hand and looked down into her eyes. He could feel the hand tremble slightly, but the eyes were steady. Darkened by the moonlight they seemed unfathomable pools, deep, mysterious, holding something which he could almost but not quite discern. In the pale light her face lost colour. It was idealized, purified, the face of a dream. Her marvellous crown of hair shone strand by strand as of twisted gold; it s.h.i.+mmered with halolike glory. Her slightly parted lips, vivid against the white of the face, seemed to invite him.
He bent forward, and plucked himself angrily back from the temptation.
She released her hand.
”Good night,” she said softly.
”Good night,” he responded, hesitated, and turned away to his own quarters.
But as Clyde sought her room she seemed to walk on air. She trembled in every fibre of her strong, young body, but her blood sang in her veins.
The woman within her called aloud triumphantly. It was long before she slept, and when she did so her slumber was a procession of dreams.
She awoke somewhere in the night, with a strange sound in her ears, a detonation distant but thunderous. She rose, went to the window, and peered out.
As she stood, she commanded a view of Casey Dunne's quarters. The door opened, and two men emerged, running for the stables. It seemed not a minute till two horses were led out, ready saddled. The two men went up instantly. They tore past her window in a flurry of hoofs. She recognized Casey Dunne and McHale. Neither was completely dressed. But around the waist of each was a holster-weighted belt, and across each saddle was slanted a rifle. Because of these warlike manifestations Clyde slept no more that night.
CHAPTER XIX
As the night air vibrated with the first explosion Casey Dunne and McHale leaped from their beds, and rushed for the door, opened it, and stood listening. There they heard another and another.
”Dynamite!” cried McHale, reaching for his clothes. ”I'll bet it's our dam. Jump into some pants, Casey. There's just a chance to get a sight of somebody.”
They threw on clothes with furious haste, caught up weapons, and raced for the stables. Their haste communicated itself to their horses, which bolted before the riders were firm in the saddles. Casey, as they tore past the house, thought he caught a glimpse of white at Clyde's window; but just then he had his hands full with s.h.i.+ner, who was expressing his disapproval of such unseemly hours by an endeavour to accomplish a blind runaway.
Halfway to the river they came upon the first evidence of dynamite in the form of a bit of wrecked fluming. Water poured down a sidehill from a ma.s.s of shattered boards and broken, displaced timbers. They scarcely paused to view the ruin, but rode for the dam. There was no dam. Where it had been, remained only a few forlorn and twisted posts between which the muddied water whispered softly. The work had been very complete. McHale swore into the night.
”Our own medicine! Well, watch us take it. We ain't like boys that can't build a little thing like a dam. Which way do you reckon them fellers went?”
”Try the old ford,” said Casey. ”It's all chance, anyway.”