The days added to the doctor's visit were not wholly given to the care
of the sick. One morning Holcomb, who had been cross-cutting back to
camp after looking over some timber in the thick woods through which
chattered a small brook, heard the murmur of voices almost within
reach of his hand. His skill as a still hunter had served him well--so
quick was he to stop short in his tracks and so noiseless had been his
approaching step, that neither Alice nor the doctor, seated beside the
brook, had been aware of his presence.
For the space of a quarter of an hour he stood motionless as a rock.
"It is a serious case," he heard the doctor laugh.
"Very," Alice sighed. "And he will get well?"
"Yes--of course he'll get well, in a week at best."
"And you're not bored in this dreadful place? And are still willing to
stay?"
"Bored? Ah--you have been so sweet to me, dear friend," he ventured.
"I?" she returned. "I have not been even charitable. Your gratefulness
is almost pathetic."
For some moments neither spoke. The still hunter stood his ground; he
became part of the great hemlock beside him, his eyes riveted upon the
man and woman. Now she dipped her hands in the cool, pure water, the
doctor sitting close to her upon the edge of her skirt which she
had spread for him, her trim feet placed firmly against a rock, the
frou-frou of her petticoat framing her silken ankles.
"You see," she resumed at length, as if speaking to a spoiled child,
"because you have been very, very good we are still friends--good
friends--am I not right?"
"Yes," he confessed gloomily, irritated by her words. "And how long am
I to be your model friend?"
"Until you cease to be," she replied, smiling mischievously through
her half-closed eyes.
"And then?" he asked eagerly.
"Then you may go home," she returned in a cool, delicious voice.
With an impatient gesture the doctor tossed his half-smoked cigarette
into the stream. He shrugged his shoulders, gazing absently at the
cigarette bobbing along in the current.
"You cast me off like that," he muttered gloomily, nodding to the
cigarette. "Did you notice," he added, "how it still fought to burn?"
"And how quickly it sizzled and went out when it had to?" she laughed.
Impulsively he took her hand--a hand which she did not withdraw, for
she was trembling. Slowly his face bent nearer her own, his words were
sunk to a whisper, but in his eyes there gleamed the craving of her
lips.
"Don't!" she protested, raising her free hand--"for God's sake don't!
_You shall not_!"
"I must," he answered, hotly.
"You shall not," she replied. "I should only suffer--I am unhappy
enough as it is," and she buried her face in her clenched hands, her
shoulders quivering.
Even the quiver did not evade the eyes of the man stock still beside
the hemlock; no detail of the drama that was being enacted beside the
brook escaped him. He who could observe with ease the smashing of a
moth's wing thirty rods from shore, possessed a clearness of vision
akin to that of a hawk. A bird fluttered in the underbrush near them.
"What was that?" she asked, with a guilty little start, withdrawing
her hand.
"A bird--nothing more dangerous," he laughed outright, amused at her
fright.
Holcomb's features, as he gazed at them, were like bronze. His first
thought, as he gazed out from his ambush, had been Margaret's mother!
His second thought was his dislike for Sperry. He watched half
unwillingly, with a feeling of mingled curiosity and disgust. He had
not pried upon them; it was pure chance that had brought him where he
was. At length he withdrew.
He was still thinking of the incident when he heard the brush crack
ahead of him. Then the smug face of Blakeman emerged from a thicket.
It was the butler's afternoon off, and he was out after birds. He let
down the hammers of his gun as Holcomb drew near.
"Any luck?" asked Holcomb.
The butler drew from the wide pocket of a well-worn leather hunting
coat a pair of ruffled partridges.
"Good enough!" exclaimed Holcomb.
"'Twas a bit of devil's luck," returned Blakeman, dropping into his
native brogue, which he always suppressed in service. "Both birds
jumped back of me, but I got 'em."
"You're a good shot," declared Billy.
"No, my friend," replied Blakeman modestly, "I _used_ to be a good
shot; I'm only a lucky shot now. It's not often I make a double. Where
have you been?"
"Over to look at some timber on the West Branch."
"I heard voices," Blakeman said, "full half an hour ago"--and he
pointed in the direction from which Holcomb had come--"and did you see
anybody?"
"Yes," said Holcomb, after a moment's thoughtful hesitation, "I did."
"Whom?"
"Mrs. Thayor and the doctor, out for a walk."
"Of course," said Blakeman, looking queerly into Holcomb's eyes. "You
saw them quite by chance, I'll wager. You're not the kind of a lad to
prowl on the edge of other people's affairs."
Holcomb did not reply. He was weighing in his mind the advisability
of making a confidant of Blakeman against the wisdom of telling him
nothing.
"When you know these people of the world as well as I do, my friend,"
continued Blakeman, as the two seated themselves to rest, "what you've
just seen won't rob you of much sleep," and he laid his favourite gun
tenderly upon a log. "The very last people in the world--women--whom
you wouldn't suspect--are usually the ones. Most of them do as they
please if they've enough money."
"Blakeman," exclaimed Holcomb, unable to contain himself longer, "the
man whom you and I serve is my friend. Sam Thayor never did a mean
thing in his life--he's not that kind. It's his daughter, too, whom I
am thinking about. You've known them both as well as I do--longer in
fact--"
"And far better," added Blakeman. "It is a pleasure to serve a master
like Mr. Thayor, and Miss Margaret is as good as gold." He scraped the
mud from his boots as he continued: "Didn't I serve an archduke once,
who was a pig in his household and a damned idiot out of it?--but
neither you nor me are getting to the point. What you really want to
talk about is madam, and since I believe in you I intend to post you
further. It may be the means of keeping two people happy who deserve
to be, if nothing else."
"That's about what I was going to say," confessed Holcomb simply,
drawn by the butler's frankness.
Blakeman smiled--a bitter smile that terminated with a sudden gleam in
his eyes as he leaned forward.
"Last winter," he went on hurriedly, as he glanced at the setting
sun, "I stumbled on them both just as you've done, only my trail led
through the conservatory of the New York house. They were both hard
pressed, do you see, for a way out; that's how I first knew about Mr.
Thayor's intention to purchase this property."
"The telegram Mr. Thayor sent, you mean?"
"No--a letter. It meant separation to them. I saw her hand it to the
doctor to read. Do you know what he did? He condemned Miss Margaret's
lungs--told her mother the child had consumption. By God--I could have
strangled him!"
Holcomb gripped the log on which he sat, staring grimly at the butler.
"Yes, ordered her here!" continued Blakeman. "That was _their way
out. Damn him_! Ordered her here--winter and summer, knowing that her
father would go along with her, and let the wife do as she pleased. It
was damnable!"
There are two kinds of anger that seize a man--explosive and
suppressed. Holcomb was now suffering under the latter--a subtle anger
that would undoubtedly have meant serious injury to the immaculate
Sperry had he been unlucky enough to have crossed his path at the
moment.
As Blakeman, little by little, unfolded more of the doctor's villainy,
Holcomb's muscles relaxed and his indignation, which had risen by
degrees until it boiled within him, now settled to reason. He had not
only Thayor's happiness to think of, but Margaret's as well. Both,
he determined, must be kept in ignorance of what, so far, only he and
Blakeman knew.
"The morning the little fellow, Le Boeuf, got hurt," Blakeman went on,
"the doctor took Miss Margaret for a walk. I was in the pantry and
saw them start off together in the woods down by the brook. I followed
them--I couldn't help it; I had a little girl myself once in the old
country, and I've seen too much of Sperry's kind. Europe is full of
them."
The tenseness in Holcomb returned. "What did you see?" he asked
grimly.
"No more than I expected," returned the butler. "The doctor is a
snake--and Miss Margaret is young and pretty; well--he would have
kissed her--but I announced luncheon."
Holcomb caught his breath. "And she was willing?" he asked, looking
sternly at Blakeman.
"Willing! She was frightened to death."
Holcomb threw up his head with a jerk--his clenched fists rigid on the
log.
"I'm telling you this," Blakeman went on, not waiting for him to
reply, "because I believe you can help. I have always made it a
rule in service to keep silent, no matter what passes in a family. I
meddled once at Ostend in an affair of the like of this, and it taught
me a lesson. There'll be trouble here if things go on like this--maybe
later a divorce--and a divorce is the devil in a family like Mr.
Thayor's. Neither you nor me want that; we must stand by the little
girl and the master and avoid it."
"What do you intend to do?" inquired Holcomb, staring grimly at the
ground.
"I'm going to give madame a chance--she's a fool, but she's not
crooked; that is, I don't think she is," Blakeman replied. "Then I'll
speak out."
"Do you think Mr. Thayor suspects anything?" asked Holcomb, after a
moment's hesitation.
"He's not that kind. I dare not tell him--never in the world would
tell him. You might--he would listen to you. Butlers are seldom
believed--I've tried it."
He gathered up the pair of fat partridges and stuffed them in his
pocket.
"And you advise me to tell him?" asked Holcomb slowly.
"No," returned Blakeman, "I don't. It would go hard with him and Miss
Margaret; he's had hell enough in his life already; he's happy now--so
is Miss Margaret. It's not always you find two people happy in the
same family." He buttoned the collar of his shooting coat about his
neck, for the sun was burning below the edge of the forest and with
its last rays the woods grew still and cold. "I propose to watch
madame and find out whether she is bad or whether she's only
losing her head," said Blakeman, as he rose to go. "Mind you do the
same--mind you promise me you will."
Blakeman had lifted his mask. Holcomb saw in him no longer the suave,
trained domestic, but a man of intelligence--a man with a heart and a
wide experience in a world which he as yet knew but little of.
"You can count on me," said Holcomb, as he straightened to his feet.
Blakeman rested his gun in the hollow of his arm.
"We must be going," he said, "or I shall be late for my table. Have
you a short cut home in your memory?"
"Come on," said Holcomb, and the two disappeared in the thick timber.