I LOVE YOU
To be transported instantly from the essence of happiness to the brink
of tragedy--and a tragedy wherein the whole of one's world goes
tottering--engenders a confusion of mind that for a moment leaves one
helpless. And thus it was that the second bullet flashed by us before I
sufficiently gathered my wits to act, to realize that some returning
member of Efaw Kotee's band had stumbled on our little paradise.
I caught Doloria and swung her behind me, at the same time drawing my
automatic and sending two quick shots, aimed high, toward the scoundrel
who was making ready to try his hand again. Almost at once he
disappeared, though I knew he had not been hit for it was extremely
doubtful if, at that range, a revolver bullet could reach him at all.
For the sake of caution he was merely crouching in the grass, and
waiting.
Then I became swept by an inordinate anger; a natural enough feeling in
a man whose life has been sneakingly attempted, but let a life that is a
million times more precious than his own be so fired upon and he will
pass the limit of human rage. With an oath I pushed her down into a
niche of temporary safety, saying:
"Stay there till I come back!"
Immediately I began to scramble over the network of fallen logs; my
intention being to reach the high grass and, dropping to my hands and
knees, crawl out to meet him--as, in all probability, he was now
crawling toward us. But before I got free of the entanglements she had
sprung after me and caught my arm, crying:
"It's insane for you to go out there--with only your automatic against
his rifle! Come back!"
"Go back yourself," I said sternly, shaking off her grasp. "Crouch in
the hole, as I told you! Quick!"
"I won't--unless you do, too! For the love of God--he'll _kill_ you!"
This last she screamed, frantically catching hold of me again as the man
fired a third shot and we felt the breath of his bullet on our faces.
Both of us knew that this was no time for argument, and she began
tugging at my belt like a wild thing, bracing herself to keep me back
and showing no disposition to obey. So without ceremony I picked her up
intending to shove her down between the logs.
"You shan't," she gasped. "He'll kill you if you go--if you don't he'll
leave!"
But I was too terrified for her sake to listen--too determined that the
fellow should not get back and tell his gang.
"Do as I say," I commanded, giving her a shake.
She had stopped speaking and was desperately using her strength. I,
also, had grown desperate. Our position was too unwarrantably exposed to
tolerate this further, and urgently I began to pry open her fingers
when, by some twist of her own or awkwardness on my part, I slipped and
fell out backwards into a deep, narrow slit between the logs, drawing
her down with me and wedging my shoulders as if they were held in a
vise.
It might have been a serious fall--for her, I mean--had not
providentially she landed atop of me; but now, trying to arise, I found
that I had measured neither her strength of purpose nor of muscle. Her
determination had not been cooled by this mishap, rather had it become
more aroused with the consciousness of her advantage; for, in answer to
my first movement, she caught my cheeks and passionately shook me. Her
eyes, scarcely half a foot away, stared down into mine with a
frightened, pleading, commanding look. They were open wider than usual,
giving the impression that this was the first test of physical encounter
she had ever experienced.
"You're safe here!--you shan't move!" she was whispering wildly.
"I must," I declared. "He's got to be stopped, I tell you!"
I did not want to hurt her, yet at all hazards that man had to be
killed, and I began really to struggle.
"No--no!" she panted, pushing down my partially raised head with a jolt
that made me see stars. For she was fighting this time, with the
ferocity of a tigress, and I, held by her weight, found the task of
freeing myself no easy one. I tried working loose one shoulder, growling
between my teeth:
"I _will_ get out of here!"
"You won't--you won't!" She reiterated this as if sheer force of mind
could make me yield. And then her hair, uncoiling, fell softly over my
face and closed my eyes.
There is a mesmeric force about the human hair, a woman's hair, resting
on a man's upturned face--although I do not mean this in a sentimental
sense. It is a natural law; as a wild bird can be put into a state of
mimic sleep by laying it on its back and pressing its eyes with
feathers.
The frenzy of Doloria's clutching fingers that still held my cheeks,
and the pressure of her body whose excited breathing wedged me even
tighter down between the logs, had been to us no more than incidents in
the desperate struggle we were making, each for the other's safety. But,
blinded by her hair, for the moment I desisted and, taking quick
advantage of this, she whispered:
"If you've any wish to please me, listen! I know those men by
heart--each is an arrant coward when alone. So he won't crawl closer. By
the time he brings the others back we'll be inside the fort!"
"That's just it," I retorted. "The fort's no good at night--they'll rush
it! He's got to be stopped, Doloria!"
"Jack, do this for me, please?" she begged. Her lips were very near. "If
we have to die, we will--but I can't see you go out on that prairie
alone--I simply can't!" And I grew still.
Soon I felt her hands upon my chest as she pushed herself up to look
over the logs. By this movement the blindfold was partially lifted and I
could see her--her body curved backward, as a mermaid that raises itself
at arm's length upon the shore. Her lips were parted, her eyes were
steady and level as they gazed searchingly across the sea of grass--as
many a nymph, no doubt, hiding from a company of swashbuckling gnomes,
must have peeped out to see if her glade were safe before venturing from
the wood. In another moment she had left me and run a few steps toward
the prairie, crying:
"Look! He's 'way, 'way off!"
"I can't look," I called after her. "You've put me here for life!"
Indeed, I was so completely held that the first result of my twisting
seemed only to make me lose ground. She came back, this time laughing
without control--but I knew the sign; my nerves, too, had recently been
drunk on relaxation from a strain. Tucking up her hair with a few quick
movements she held down both hands to me and, after more squirming, I
worked myself out. But our enemy had by this time disappeared.
"If that fellow's back, the others are, too," I said, with some display
of temper. "You've made the very devil of a mess!"
"I suppose I have," she looked demurely away. There was nothing of the
tigress, nothing of the willful little fighter, now.
"The consequence is," I continued, "that we have to decide between two
darned slim chances, for they'll be coming back within an hour. We can
stay here, or run for it! What do you think?" But as she remained
silent, gazing across the prairie, I kept irritably on: "If it's run, we
can't reach the forests north, south or east without being seen--and you
know what a fight in the open means against such odds. We might hide in
the grass and travel at night, but if their woodcraft's worth a hang
they'll read our trail on this kind of ground like an electric sign.
There's an Indian in their crowd, too. If we stay, the fort'll keep
them off till night--and there's always a hope of Smilax turning up.
They mightn't rush us after dark, either."
I could see that the fort was our best chance, but still I wanted her
opinion. Something about the way she stood, having no word to say,
rather awed me, and going softly I looked around at her face. Her cheeks
were wet and her lips were trembling with convulsive sobs. Oh, how I
hated myself then!
"Good God," I cried, throwing my arms about her, "see what I've done!"
But she put her palms against my shoulders and held me off, saying
brokenly:
"You haven't done anything."
"I have," I cried again. "I've hurt you--hurt the one I love most in all
the world!"
"Don't," she said, more startled now than at any time when she had been
facing a greater danger. "Quick! Please--let's get the things we need
for the fort!" And she sprang away from me, running toward the pool.
In a very few minutes we were back with the rifles, an ample supply of
cartridges, our canteens, and a blanket I had brought in case we decided
to slip away at night. Helping her over the parapet I followed, and we
stood looking intently for a sign of foes, but the waving grass spoke
only of a brisk wind. It might be a half an hour before Efaw Kotee's
band could get within range of us. Twice I whispered her name, but she
would not answer, so I turned her around until she had to face me.
"I have the right to speak now," I said gently, "because this may be the
last of things. The next few hours will decide. You understand, don't
you, and know that my words are their own excuse?"
There was a serious, calm mystery in her look that answered mine with
simple courage, as she whispered:
"Yes, I understand."
"We can't die," I drew her close to me, "because I love you--I love
you!"
For a quick moment, and then gone, a light shone in her eyes--as though
some fire raging below had been swept through the entirety of her being.
Her fingers that had been clutching my shoulders relaxed, and very
softly her arms crept around my neck, as she murmured: "No more than I
do you!"
It might have been a minute or a year that we drifted in a rapturously
agonizing kiss; but slowly her eyes opened, her lips sighed and,
touching them to my cheek, she whispered my name over and over again.
"We'll win to-day," I cried, giving the prairie a searching look above
her head, "and after that there's a kingdom waiting for you here!"
"I can feel it beating," she whispered adorably. "But if we----" She
could not say it, but let her moist lips cling to mine as if challenging
Death to part us.
Who dares measure time when Cupid perches on the clock! 'Twas a wise
providence that gave severe St. Gregory the making of our calendar, and
not St. Anthony, else some minutes might be spun to days, and hours
squeezed to the fraction of a second.
But the ever present danger had not at any time quite ceased to pierce
the mist of our paradise. She knew I was keeping a careful watch, even
while I held her. Now she drew away, and crossed her arms upon the
parapet.
"When things begin to happen," I said, "you must sit on the ground. I
won't risk your lovely head above the wall!"
"Why?" she asked. "Aren't two rifles better than one?"
"Yes," I admitted, "but I can't shoot unless you're safe."
"Then don't think of me, at all, for I promise to do whatever you say.
Look," she pointed suddenly. "There they are!--I believe every one of
them! Oh, I wonder if they've killed Echochee!"
I, too, wondered; for surely here was the gang that had pursued
them--quite a mile out on the prairie, to be sure, but unquestionably
Efaw Kotee's band, showing as a black smudge above the grass. Whether
this pack of human wolves had lost the trail of Smilax I would not try
to guess, for it was enough to know that they had found our own.
They were still too far off to be counted, but I felt that Doloria had
been right in saying every man of them. That would mean eight if Jess
and the old chief were along, furious devils demanding their revenge,
mad to surround us and take their own good time about placing a shot
where it would do the work. It was only fair that she should know the
odds, so I put my arm around her, saying:
"When they get nearer, they'll scatter out. Some will stay in front,
hiding in the grass and shooting enough to keep us busy, and others will
circle to the trees behind us. It's going to be a close call,
sweetheart, but they'll never get in while I'm up."
"I know that," she answered gently. "We may as well be brave and speak
of it with indifference; it's easier that way; so I want to tell you
that if you--you----" but her voice did choke, yet she raised her chin
and calmly finished, "are killed, I'll follow right away. It's
infinitely preferable to being taken," she hastily added, seeing my look
of horror. "So wait for me just a little while, and I'll catch up with
you."
Was there ever such courage! Looking back into her eyes I saw a light
that by its own vital force was self-translated, requiring no words, nor
the sight of her fingers grasping the handle of that small revolver at
her waist, to tell of her determination. In spite of myself I shuddered;
yet she was so calm, so wonderful in her abiding faith of catching up
with me on that Long Trail that knows no turning back, that my heart,
too, burned with a flame more enduring than the love of mortals. Without
a word I took the small revolver from her hand, and in its place put
mine of larger, more reliable, caliber. Understanding, she looked
gratefully up at me, her eyes filling with tears even as she smiled and
whispered:
"Now I can do it without being afraid."
"By the God above us," I groaned in my agony, "you'll never have to! For
your sake I'll beat off twice that many men!"
"Then don't think of it again, my ferocious, terrible Chancellor," she
laughed a little--but I knew, with a sob tearing at my throat, that her
playful mood, intended as a tonic for my nerves, was the bravest thing
she had yet done. "Look, Jack! They're doing something!"
"They're spreading out," I said, tensely.
Her excitement suddenly died. In its place came a pathetic look of
wistfulness as she raised her face to mine and, with a quick sob,
whispered:
"Oh, very own mine, try to let me cook your dinner again to-night?"