"I hope you haven't felt it," said Grant. "It is cold out here, and I'm
willing to come in and talk to you."
Somebody had moved the box away from the lamp, and Clavering's face showed
up against the wavering shadow as he turned towards his leader. Flora
Schuyler saw a little unpleasant smile on his lips as he pointed
suggestively to the men with rifles he had sent towards the door.
"That would suit us, sir," he said.
Torrance understood him, for he shook his head impatiently. "It wouldn't
pay. There would be too many of his friends wondering what had become of
him. Get the door open and tell him to come in. Light the big lamps,
somebody."
The door was opened, and, as if in confirmation of Torrance's warning, a
voice rose up outside. "We have let him go, but if you try any meanness,
or he isn't ready when we want him, we'll pull the place down," it said.
Larry walked out of the darkness into the blaze of light, and only smiled
a little when the great door swung to behind him and somebody brought the
window banging down. Two men with rifles stepped between him and the
former; but if Torrance had intended to impress him, he had apparently
failed, for he moved forward with quiet confidence. The fur cap he held in
his hand was white, and the great fur coat stood out from his body stiff
with frost, while Hetty winced when she saw the pallor of his face. It was
evident that it was not without a strenuous effort he had made the mob
subservient to him.
But his eyes were grave and steady, in spite of the weariness in them, and
as he passed the girls he made a little formal inclination with his head.
He stopped in front of Torrance, who rose from his seat on the table, and
for a moment the two men looked at one another. Both stood very straight,
one lean, and dark, and commanding, with half-contemptuous anger in his
black eyes; the other of heavier frame and brown of skin and hair save
where what he had done had left its stamp of pallor. Yet, different as
they were in complexion and feature, it seemed to Miss Schuyler, who
watched them intently, that there was a curious, indefinite resemblance
between them. They were of the same stock and equally resolute, each
ready, it seemed, to stake all he had on what he held the right.
Flora Schuyler, who had trained her observation, also read what they felt
in their faces, and saw in that of Torrance grudging approval tempered by
scorn of the man who had trampled on the traditions of those he sprang
from. She fancied that Larry recognized this and that it stung him, though
he would not show that it did, and his attitude pleased her most. It was
unyielding, but there was a deference that became him in it.
"I am sorry I did not arrive soon enough to save you this inconvenience,
sir," he said.
Torrance smiled grimly, and there was a hardness in his voice. "You have
been here a good many times, Larry, and we did our best for you. None of
us fancied that you would repay us by coming back with a mob of rabble to
pull the place down."