Barbara Thorne sat leaning her head on her hand, looking at a photograph
that lay on the table beneath her eyes. She had not intended to look for
_that_ when she pulled out a dusty drawer full of old letters, papers,
and account-books to arrange and set in order. But when in the course of
her rummaging and tidying she found that picture in her hand, she paused
in her task. The neglected drawer stood open, with its dusty packets and
rolls of faded papers. Barbara had forgotten it and all else around her.
She sat there lost in memory, her eyes fixed upon the "counterfeit
presentment" of the face that once had been all the world to her. She
did not often think of Oliver Desmond now; to think of him meant only
pain--pain of outraged pride and wounded love. She had outgrown the time
when she could not tear her thoughts from him, when his face was in her
"mind's eye" by night and day, and yet she shrank with a shuddering
revolt of anguish from those pictures of the past which she could not
banish. For the memory that was the locked-up skeleton of her life--that
rattled its dead bones to-day as Oliver Desmond's pictured eyes smiled
into hers--was a cruel memory indeed, of grief and wrong and bitter
humiliation, of broken troth and shattered faith, insulted love, and
crushed and martyred pride. The blow that had rankled like iron in her
heart for years was base and cowardly as a stab in the back from the
hand that should have shielded and cherished her.
How strange it seemed to her to-day to think she had outlived it
all--the love, the anguish, the bitterness, which once had seemed
undying! There was nothing to disturb her reverie; she was alone, had
been alone all day, and yet not lonely, albeit this solitary Californian
ranch, in a secluded valley amongst the foot-hills of the Sierras, was a
lonesome-looking place enough. But Barbara had been too busy all day to
sit down and realize the loneliness. She lived on the Saucel Ranch with
her married brother and his wife, she and her sister-in-law doing all
the housework between them--servants or "helps" being unattainable
luxuries in those parts. Mr. and Mrs. Thorne had gone out for all the
day and all the night; a nervous woman might well have shrunk from being
thus left alone and unprotected in such a place; but if Barbara had ever
been troubled with the nineteenth century malady of "nerves," she had
lived it down since she had taken up her abode on the Saucel Ranch. Her
hands were always full. Even now, her day's task done, she had set
herself to "improve the shining hour" by "tidying-up" the bureau drawer,
in which she had come across the photograph of Oliver Desmond.
It was rarely indeed that Barbara Thorne indulged in reverie by day; the
night was her time for silence and thought; but now she was so lost in
the train of memories aroused by the sight of his portrait--memories
which had lost their sharpest sting, and only hurt her now with a dull
ache--she had even forgotten that an hour ago she had been looking out
for somebody--somebody who would never allow the long, lonely day to
pass without coming to see her!
Through the open window a flood of sunlight poured in and turned
Barbara's fair hair to gold. Far off, above and beyond the sombre masses
of the evergreen pine forests, a jagged range of mountain peaks, like
tossing billows frozen at their height, shone in snowy silhouette
against a sky of deep and vivid, cloudless blue.
The scene was fair, but Barbara's eyes were not lifted to dwell on its
beauty; they were brooding on the face of the man she had loved,
and--had she ever hated him? Did she hate him now? She did not hear a
sound or a step, till a shadow fell across the sunlight, and a man stood
on the threshold of the long French window, which was open down to the
ground.
Barbara turned with a start, and made a hasty, involuntary movement to
push the photograph aside as she sprang up--a movement that, slight,
swift, and momentary as it was, yet did not pass unnoticed by the
visitor's eye. What, indeed, was ever known to escape the eagle eye of
Rick Jeffreys--better known in the neighbourhood of Eden City (which was
the flattering appellation bestowed by its builders on the nearest
settlement) as "Colonel Jeff"?
He was a tall man, of massive and powerful build, with somewhat harsh
features, black hair and beard just touched with grey, and a sallow
complexion sunburnt as brown as a berry. According to the prevalent
fashion in those latitudes, he wore truculent-looking boots up to his
knees, and a big sombrero hat slouched over his brow. There was a stern,
hard expression about his face, except when he smiled or looked at
Barbara Thorne. He did not look stern now, as she came quickly to meet
him, and welcomed him with a smile that was perhaps less bright, a blush
that was certainly deeper than usual. He spoke no word of greeting at
first, only looked at her as if her face were a magnet that drew and
held his eyes, then put his arm gently round her waist and bent his dark
head to her fair one, and kissed her with infinite tenderness.
Barbara yielded to his caress with the soft yielding of a woman who
loves. She did not belong to the class of those who, deceived by one,
distrust all thenceforth--who hate all men for one false one's sake. And
the time had come which she had never thought to see, when she--even
she, Barbara Thorne, the deserted, slighted, jilted, held up to the
insult of the world's pity--yet trusted, _loved_ again. For this man's
devotion had been balm to her bruised spirit--a healing balsam poured
into the still smarting wounds of her once crushed and outraged pride.
"All alone, my little lady?" he said, softly.
"Yes; Tom and Hatty went off this morning."
"Been lonesome?"
"Oh, no; I've had plenty to keep me brisk and busy."
Colonel Jeff cast a glance at the table, at the photograph which lay
there face upwards. "And who have you there?" he inquired, but not
suspiciously. Barbara conquered a foolish impulse to put out her hand to
intercept his as he went to pick up the portrait.
He glanced at it, first easily, then keenly, and his dark brows lowered
ominously. Colonel Jeff did not look like a person to offend--if one had
the choice.
"You are thinking of that blackguard still?" he said; and in his tone
anger and pain struggled equally matched.
"I found that photograph by chance while I was looking over a drawer
full of old papers," she replied, answering the spirit rather than, the
letter of his words.
"And you were looking at it as if--as if--it was all the world to you!"
he retorted.
"My looks belied me, then. It is a memory only--and a painful one," she
said, with the slightest shade of a tremor in her sweet voice.
"Only a memory?" fixing the stern questioning of his piercing eyes upon
her.
"If it were more, should I be what I am to you?" she replied, meeting
his look frankly.
"What are you to me?" he demanded. The words might have sounded brutal
had the tone been different, but though they were harshly spoken, they
bore no suggestion of denial or rebuff, no faintest hint of insulting
disclaimer. "You know," he continued, "we both know, that you're the one
woman in the world to me--but what more? What beyond that? Are you the
woman who _cares_ for me?"
[Illustration: "HE GLANCED AT IT."]
"For you more than for all the world beside."
"More than for----?" He cast a frowning glance at the photograph.
"Immeasurably more," she answered steadily, and the unconquerable truth
in her forced her to add the word, "to-day!"
"To-day?" he echoed, with mingled anger and reluctant admiration.
"Barbara, you are too honest to deny----" He paused with a quick
indrawing of the breath and setting of the teeth.
"To deny the past?" her soft voice interposed as he paused. "Yes! I
could never deny it! You know, Rick, you always knew, that I could not
give you my yesterdays!"
"Barbara, I am jealous of those yesterdays," he said, after a silence.
"Why begrudge the yesterdays," she pleaded, "when all the to-morrows are
yours?"
His dark eyes kindled with a deep and tender glow.
"All? All? None to share with me, or rob me? All mine?" He framed her
delicate fair face between his big brown hands, and held it thus gently
upturned to his as he gazed intently into it. "Barbara," he added, "do
you know it would be a bad thing for any man who came between me and
you?"
"No one could," she assured him earnestly.
Colonel Jeff clasped her in his strong arms.
"Is that so, indeed, my darling? my Barbara! my own one love," he
whispered, pressing her to his heart.
"You must not be jealous of the past, dear Rick," she murmured.
"Forgive me my blundering roughness," he entreated her. "I ought not to
have spoken so to you. Forgive me if I have hurt you, Barbara!"
"It did hurt me a little," she admitted. "Let us leave the dead bones to
rest in their grave."
"I will never dig them up again," he promised her. "But put that away,"
he added, pushing the portrait aside. "It's very like him, and I hate to
see it near you!"
Colonel Jeff had known Oliver Desmond, at least by sight and passing
acquaintance, and he knew--as who did not?--Barbara Thorne's story; who
had not heard the story of the bride deserted at the very altar, waiting
in her bridal dress amongst the assembled party of her own and his
friends--waiting for the bridegroom who never came?
Sometimes even now, when the memory of that horrible day came over
Barbara, she shivered and turned sick and cold at heart. Only since she
had known Rick Jeffreys loved her she had thought of it less; the scar
of the old wound had ceased to throb.
At first she had thought Oliver Desmond was dead; felt sure that nothing
but death could have kept him from her at that hour! But afterwards she
and all the world--their world--learnt that he had left her for another;
the one palliation of the cruel wrong and insult he had inflicted on his
innocent and trusting betrothed being that it was no new love, but the
resurrection of an old, supposed-to-be-dead passion that had lured him
from her. Then they heard now and again rumours of Oliver Desmond's
career. It seemed to be a downward one. They heard of his drinking and
gambling, sinking from bad to worse; of losses, of utter ruin. Now for
years they had heard nothing of him at all; he had sunk out of
knowledge, gone down under the storm of not unmerited misfortune; and
his world knew him no more.
Their little differences made up, Rick Jeffreys spent a happy hour with
Barbara, stayed until the golden haze of sunset was stealing soft and
slow over the shadows of the sombre pine forest and the azure radiance
of the sky; then he had an appointment to meet an old comrade in Eden
City, and he tore himself reluctantly away from the Saucel Ranch--ready
at the last moment to throw over his engagement and stay, if Barbara had
urged him.
The shades of evening had closed when Barbara, having watched her
stalwart lover out of sight, went into the kitchen, on domestic cares
intent. It was very dark there, and she set the outer-door, which led
into the court-yard, wide open to let in such light as there was, while
she put a fresh log on the low wood fire, and prepared to light the lamp
and make herself some tea. She was thus engaged when she heard a step
outside the open door--not the quick, confident step of a friendly
visitor, but a hurried yet hesitating tread--a tread that suggested
skulking and hanging about.
It was a late hour for tramps, and Barbara, brave woman though she was,
looked round a little anxiously, to see who the stranger might be. She
had but just caught a glimpse of an evidently tired and travel-worn
wayfarer--a haggard, dishevelled figure--when he spoke, raising his hat
as he did so, with the courteous gesture of a gentleman. "Excuse me,
madam, but can you give me a cup of water and a piece of bread, and
shelter for an hour?"
As he spoke, Barbara glanced up with a start. That voice, it struck upon
her ear like an echo from the past. And even in the deepening twilight
there seemed to be something familiar in the outlines of face and form.
"Who--who are you?" she faltered.
It was his turn to start as he heard her voice, and gazed with sudden
searching into her pale face in the gloaming. Then she knew him--knew,
and yet could hardly believe her eyes, her ears, her instincts--could
not realize that in this rough, disordered, unkempt figure, with the
torn clothes and the dark stains on his ragged sleeve, she saw the
handsome, graceful, debonair lover of her girlhood, the recreant
bridegroom who had left her on the very threshold of the altar!
"Oliver!" she said, in a low and trembling tone.
And as the last faint glimmer of the dying day rested on her face he
knew her too.
"Barbara!" he ejaculated, as if with a gasp, fairly staggered by the
recognition. "Is it--can it be--Barbara?"
"Am I so changed?" she rejoined, with a touch of bitterness in her tone.
"I--I didn't know--in this light," he stammered. "If--if I had
known----" He seemed for the moment more agitated than she. She stood
stunned, silent, gazing at him as if in a dream. "I won't intrude on
you, Barbara," he said, in a low, unsteady voice. "I didn't know you
lived here. It isn't to _you_ that I should have come."
"Oliver!" she exclaimed suddenly, waking up as he made a movement to
turn away. "Stay! Did you ask for food and shelter?"
"I ask nothing from you," he replied, painfully.
"Come in," she said, firmly, no longer faltering or tremulous, but with
an almost imperious gesture motioning him to enter. "You are tired?" as
she noticed his stiff and dragging step. "Sit down while I get a light."
She struck a match and lit the lamp. In its yellowish glare she saw that
the stains upon his sleeve were red. "What is the matter? You have had
some accident," she said, with a scrutinizing but not ungentle glance.
"Only a scratch," he answered, in a mechanical way, as if thinking of
something else. "But my coat was nearly torn off my back scrambling
through the chaparral yonder." He had not taken the chair she pointed
out to him, but stood--leaning with the heaviness of fatigue against the
shelf that served as a table--looking at her in the lamp-light. She saw
how pale and haggard and half-famished-looking he was, and turned
promptly to set out the supper.
"Wait, Barbara," he said, abruptly, and evidently with an effort. "Don't
be doing anything for me till you know what you're doing. Those d----
hounds of the Vigilance Committee are after me; they're on my track now.
They'll string me up to the nearest tree if they catch me; it's my life
that's in your hands at this minute. I know too well I don't deserve of
you that you should save it. And on the whole, Barbara," he added, with
a touch of the light and half-mocking coolness she remembered of old,
yet with more of bitterness now, "I don't know that it's worth saving."
[Illustration: "HAGGARD AND HALF FAMISHED."]
Barbara turned even paler than she had been as she listened to his
words. "What is it you have done?" she asked.
"Oh, I've not killed anyone. Better for me if I had! One may shoot a
man, but to take a horse is a hanging matter here."
"Tell me about it, Oliver," she said, preserving her self-possession,
for she was no fragile flower to wilt and droop before the first breath
of danger--no, nor the last.
"It's soon told," he answered. "I had bad luck--I was cleaned out, not a
red cent in my pockets--and so I hired out to a farmer away in Pine
Valley. We had words one day, and he refused to pay me my wages--so I
took a horse out of his stables and rode off."
"It was madness, Oliver," she said; for she knew as well as he did that
for the horse-stealer, in those parts and at that time, there was scant
mercy and short shrift: it was danger to be accused, death to be
detected.
"The horse was worth no more than my fair wages," he rejoined. "I was
warned that they were after me, but I thought I'd got a good start of
them. They were too sharp for me, though--they cut across by Devil's
Ford, and were after me in full chase. They sent a hail of bullets after
me; I sent all I had back--I winged one of them--I fancy he was the
leader, and while they picked him up I got ahead; but, unluckily, before
I was out of shot-range my horse was shot under me. I got clear of the
saddle and bolted into the scrub. I gave them the slip for the time.
I've been crawling like a dog through the chaparral--but you know as
well as I do, those fellows are like blood-hounds on the scent. I was
pretty nearly dead-beat when I caught sight of this place. I little
thought it was _you_ that I should find here."
"What is to be done?" she said, not helplessly wondering, but actively
thinking. "First of all, you must eat and drink. Then--we must see what
is the safest thing for you."
She set bread and meat and milk on the table; and Desmond fell to the
simple meal as if half famished.
"My brother's horse is in the stable," said Barbara, thoughtfully. "He's
fast, is old Sultan, and might take you safe--if we only knew from which
quarter they'd be coming; and I'd take the risk with Tom."
"You must risk nothing for me," he rejoined. "I see, Barbara, you are
what you always were--the salt of the earth! I deserve of you that you
should shut your door on me now--that when they come this way after me
you should send them on my trail. But--you won't do it?"
"No," she replied, slowly. "I will not do it."
He leant forward, resting his arm on the table, and looked at her. The
oil-lamp that stood between them shed a circle of light in which he saw
her face, unshrinking, steadfast, wrought up to high resolve.
"You were always too good for me, Barbara," he said. "Are you such an
angel as to have forgiven me?"
"What has that to do with it?" she rejoined, coldly. "Enough that if I
can help you now, I will."
She was looking at him as intently as he at her. She saw how changed was
the face of the idol of her girlhood--poor shattered idol with the feet
of clay--base metal she had taken for pure gold! It was not only that he
was older--he had aged more than she--but a subtler change had passed
over him; he was hardened, embittered, coarsened, undefinably
deteriorated. She saw the colour mount in his haggard cheek at her calm
words.
"Coals of fire," he said, with a touch of bitter mockery that disguised
pain. "Well, if it's a comfort to you to know it, Barbara, _they burn_."
"Which way are they most likely to come?" she asked, putting personal
questions determinedly aside.
"They'd probably skirt the wood; but yet there's no knowing but what
they might make their way down the gulch and round by the creek yonder."
"Whichever way you go," she said, in deep consideration, "you might run
right into the jaws of danger. And if they found you with another horse,
and that horse discovered not to be yours, it might be worse for you--if
they refused to believe it had been freely lent to you."
"They'd not be likely to waste much time on inquiries," he observed,
drily. "It's not their way to make allowance for priest or prayer.
Perhaps I had better lie low for a time until the heat of the chase is
over. Who is here with you, Barbara?"
"No one to-day. My brother and his wife are out until to-morrow."
"You are alone?" he said, with a softening of tender respect in his
tone. "Forgive my intrusion. You must not risk the least trouble for me.
I'll feel like a king after this rest and refreshment here, and be ready
to go on my way."
They were still discussing the best course to be adopted when a faint
sound in the distance struck on their ears--a sound so faint and far
that, had it not been for the wonderful clearness and stillness of the
dry, crisp, dewless air, it could not have reached them.
"Hark! What is that?" said Desmond, holding his breath.
"We can see the road better from the upstairs windows--come!" she
exclaimed, springing to her feet. She hastily closed the outer door into
the court-yard, which still stood open, and ran upstairs, followed by
Desmond. From the highest window of the house--a sort of landing or
look-out at the top of the stairs--they had a view of the windings of
the white road between wood and hillside.
The night had fallen like a dark mantle over the land; but the sky was
clear; the moon had risen; and in the dusk they could just distinguish
the pale, dim line of the road between the shadows of the trees--could
even discern upon it, though some distance off as yet, what looked at
first like a dark, blurred, swift moving spot, then resolved itself into
a group of mounted men riding straight for the Saucel Ranch.
"There they are," said Oliver Desmond in a low voice; but he was
suddenly and strangely calm now the danger was at his door. "They're
coming here. There's a handy tree I see over yonder, just outside your
gates," he added, with the frequent tendency of men who are used to
carry their lives in their hands to "jest upon the axe which kills
them." Barbara clasped and wrung her hands.
"Too late to fly!" she said. "Before we could get Sultan out of the
stable and saddle him they'll be here! There's no time for escape. You
must _hide_!"
"If they've got dogs, I'm a dead man," he rejoined, staring at the fast
nearing horsemen; "and I shall be dangling from that tree before an hour
has passed!"
Barbara flew to the nearest door and opened it, then the next, and the
next, glancing in wild and eager haste into each room to see in which
any hiding-place might be found--although she knew too well the simple
arrangements of the ranch offered no facilities for concealment. No
secret chambers, no sliding panels, no dark recesses nor trap-doors in
this plain wooden "frame" house. The outhouses? No, they would probably
be the first places searched; the natural idea of the pursuers would be
that he might have sought refuge there unknown to the inmates of the
house. There were no cellars, no possible safe hiding-places on the
lower floor; on the upper floor there were but three rooms--Mr. and Mrs.
Thorne's room, Barbara's room, and the "guest-room." All were plainly
furnished with bare necessaries: no "old oak chests," no tapestries nor
hanging draperies, no curtained recesses, no place to hide a good-sized
dog, much less a full-grown man. Barbara's was the only one of the
bedrooms that could boast of a cupboard--a long, narrow cupboard which
she used as a wardrobe, and kept her dresses there hung on pegs. This
was the only place.
There was not a moment to lose in talk. Barbara had hardly time to go
downstairs, look round the kitchen, and assure herself that there were
no traces of Desmond's presence to be detected there, when the trampling
of horses sounded close at hand. She heard some of the party ride to the
front, some to the back, and she knew they were surrounding the house,
before there was a sharp, imperative knock on the front door. Barbara
opened it. She stood there--a candle she had just lighted in her hand--a
graceful, composed figure, with a placid, inquiring look.
The men who were gathered on the threshold looked somewhat taken aback
by the appearance of a lady then and there.
"Excuse our intrusion, madam," said the foremost; "but we have called to
inquire if there is anyone in this house but the members of your own
family?"
"No one," she replied; and the feeble flicker of the candle showed the
look of innocent, yet naturally somewhat anxious and surprised, inquiry
on her serene, fair face.
"Has any stranger been here?"
"No."
"Miss Thorne," said another of the group--in whom she recognised a
prominent citizen of Eden, with whom she had, however, but a very slight
acquaintance, and who now came forward, doffing his hat with a
deferential bow--"perhaps we had better speak to your brother."
"My brother is out. I represent the family at present, and can answer
any question you may wish to ask. I presume, gentlemen, you come on
business?"
"On business, lady, with which we would not trouble you, if it were not
that we must ascertain whether the person of whom we are in search is
here. We have ordered a search of the outhouses, where a tramp might
take shelter. Meanwhile, with your permission, we will look over the
house. A man might enter by one of the upper windows without your
suspecting it."
"Indeed, I trust not," said Barbara.
"We have reason to believe that the man we want came this way, and he
would be likely to try to gain entrance and get refuge here."
"I hope he will not. But you are most welcome to look round."
Barbara, gracious and self-possessed, accompanied them, in hostess-wise,
from room to room on the ground floor. The kitchen looked cheerful with
the lighted lamp and stove, the kettle singing merrily on the fire; one
cup, saucer, and plate were set out upon the table, with a cake.
Evidently Miss Thorne had been busy preparing her modest tea when their
arrival interrupted her. The whole party were crossing the hall to the
parlour when they heard the clatter of galloping horses' hoofs, and two
horsemen dashed into the court-yard, hastily dismounted, and entered the
house. And one of these was no other than Colonel Jeff! He and his
companion were evidently expected by the "Vigilance" party, who received
them quietly, as a matter of course, and indeed an awaited addition to
their ranks, one of the men from Eden City observing as he nodded a
greeting, "Guessed you wouldn't keep us waiting long."
The Colonel looked at Barbara; she paled a little as she met his gaze,
albeit there was no shadow of suspicion in it, only a tender and
respectful solicitude lest she should be alarmed or agitated by this
invasion. But she compelled herself to return his look calmly and
gently, and he was reassured by her tranquillity.
"Any traces?" he demanded, turning to the one who was apparently the
leader of the committee.
[Illustration: "'ALLOW ME,' SAID COLONEL JEFF."]
"Not yet. We're going through the house."
"Upstairs?" added Colonel Jeff, inquiringly, briefly glancing at
Barbara, and indicating the staircase at the end of the long hall.
"Are merely three sleeping-rooms," she replied--"my brother's, my own,
and our guest-room."
"I perceive that anyone might gain access to your upper rooms by the
roof of the lean-to or by the balcony," observed the leader. "By your
leave, madam, we will go up and look round. It will be to your advantage
also to be assured that there is no one lurking about."
Barbara's heart sank, but she saw it would be fatal to offer any
objection. "Certainly," she said, and led the way towards the staircase.
The gentleman from Eden City, to whom all the Thornes were known,
although not intimately, here put in a suggestion that perhaps it would
be more agreeable to the lady's feelings if they were to depute one, or
say two gentlemen, to accompany her upstairs. The suggestion was
accepted; two searchers were by unanimous vote regarded as sufficient;
and Colonel Jeff and his friend were deputed to go up with Miss Thorne
and examine the bedrooms.
Barbara was cold and sick with terror, but she kept her self-possession,
and tried to cling to one frail straw of hope--that they might by some
providential chance overlook the door of the cupboard (which was papered
like the walls of the room) and pass it by. She trembled lest Oliver,
hearing the tramp of his enemies' steps approaching, should attempt to
make his escape by the windows, in which case he would fall straight
into the hands of the detachment who were surrounding the house and
searching the grounds. Yet--if they should detect and open the cupboard,
and she should see him caught like a rat in a trap, dragged out to his
death! There was no time for thought; the moment was imminent; in
another minute the die of Oliver Desmond's fate would be cast for life
or death. Yet a moment to breathe was hers. She turned to Mr. Thorne's
room first.
"Allow me," said Colonel Jeff, taking the candle from her hand as she
threw open the door and drew back. He stepped in past her and held up
the light. His eagle eye swept the room--searched every corner; he saw
there was no hiding-place there. His comrade stood back respectfully on
the threshold, apparently considerate of the lady's feelings, deeming it
sufficient for one to enter the room, and regarding Colonel Jeff as
competent to conduct the search alone.
They came next to the spare-room, and again the Colonel was the one to
enter and look carefully round. Was it not partly in his liege lady's
own interests, and for _her_ sake, he was assuring himself that no
dangerous intruder lurked in her home and she might sleep in peace?
Then was the turn of Barbara's own room--the sacred temple that
enshrined his treasure!
This time he had kept the candle in his hand. Barbara had made no offer
to take it back; she feared the trembling of her hand might betray her.
Wrought up to a pitch of suspense at which every nerve quivered like a
tense chord, she yet by a desperate effort controlled her features and
steadied her step, but she felt she could not keep her fingers from
trembling. Colonel Jeff's comrade remained as before, standing in the
open doorway, while the Colonel, accompanied by Barbara, stepped into
the room.
As he strode forward she kept near him; it seemed that she could not let
him move an arm's length from her. It took all her self-command to
refrain from flinging herself between him and the cupboard door. Wild
thoughts of appealing to his mercy shot like lightning through her
brain. If only his comrade on the threshold had not been there watching!
With that man looking on, the frail, frail hope would be lost if she
betrayed any sign of fear or agitation.
Colonel Jeff stood casting his keen glance, around. Barbara stood like a
statue, all her life in her strained eyes, as she followed his glance.
Colonel Jeff's eye fell on the cupboard door. He moved towards it. As he
did so, he chanced to turn his look on Barbara's face and met her eyes.
A swift and sudden change passed for a moment over his own rough-hewn
features; his dark eyes blazed upon her with an instant's startled,
piercing scrutiny; he set his hand on the cupboard door. And still
Barbara stood paralyzed, rooted to the ground as if the unveiled horror
of the Gorgon's stare had struck her to stone.
Her lips moved, but no sound came from them. In the whirl of thought
that dazed her she remembered that she did not know, she had never
asked, if Desmond was armed! A desperate man turns at bay, and sells his
life dearly. What if Oliver had a knife or pistol clutched _now_, this
moment, in his hand? What if he shot or stabbed Rick Jeffreys before
the Colonel could draw his own weapon? There would be a moment's
horror--and Rick, her own true, loyal lover, stricken down at her feet,
and Oliver, whom she once had loved--was it a century ago?--dragged out
and murdered before her eyes!
She felt the springs of life stop at her heart as Rick Jeffreys opened
the cupboard door. He raised the flickering candle. For one terrible
moment, in which Barbara tasted the bitterness of death, he stood
looking in.
Then he deliberately drew back, closed the door, turned and crossed the
room to his waiting comrade on the threshold. He did not cast even an
instant's glance at Barbara as he passed her.
[Illustration: "RICK JEFFREYS OPENED THE CUPBOARD DOOR."]
"Is there any loft?" he demanded, in his usual deep, harsh tone, looking
around the passage as if to complete the search.
Barbara heard a voice, that seemed to her not her own, issue from her
parted lips, saying, "No, there is no loft."
They saw there was not, and proceeded downstairs. She followed them with
trembling limbs. She was almost fainting, but followed because she dared
not stay behind. The ominous silence in which Rick Jeffreys had passed
her seemed fraught with something worse than even the horror she had
dreaded.
The Vigilance Committee did not waste their time, but being assured that
the fugitive they sought was not lurking in or about the ranch, they
promptly went on their way--the leader, before they departed, however,
pausing to express his regret for any inconvenience they might have
occasioned the lady by their unexpected inroad.
Colonel Jeff was the last to speak.
"I will make my apologies later," he said, as he took his leave. Barbara
caught the sinister gleam of his eye as he spoke, and she knew that
"later" time would be soon.
Barely an hour had passed since the tramp of the horses of the departing
Vigilantes had died away into the silence of the windless night, when
another knock summoned Barbara to the front door.
"I knew you would come back," she said, as the big, powerful form of
Colonel Jeff towered upon the threshold, tall and dark against the
background of the darkness.
"You knew me well enough for that?" he rejoined, grimly.
She closed the door, and turned towards the parlour.
"In here," she said, quietly.
He looked at her with a kind of fierce astonishment. Into his dark eyes,
that seemed to burn black with smouldering fury, there leapt a flash of
reluctant admiration, that shook and thrilled him with a passion more of
bitter wrath than of love. Instead of being crushed with shame and
humiliation, drooping in fear and beseeching, this woman faced him like
a queen.
"It is not with _you_ that I have come to speak," he said, his deep
voice a trifle huskier than usual. "I have saved you from open shame and
public scandal. That's enough between you and me. I've nothing more to
do with you, but I've an account to settle with your lover. I deal with
him first, and alone. Where is he?"
"Wait," she said, as he made a movement to turn to the door. "He is no
lover of mine."
"You will tell me, I suppose," he retorted, "that he was hidden
_there_"--he ground his teeth upon the word as if he would crush
it--"without your knowledge and consent?"
"I shall not tell you that."
"No, you dare not. I saw your face. I read it in your eyes before I
opened that door. You dare not tell me you did not know of his
presence?"
"No, I dare tell you the truth--that I did!" she replied, meeting the
fiery glance of his sombre eyes fearlessly. In the midst of his
concentrated rage--and Colonel Jeff in wrath was well known to be
dangerous--he could not help admiring this frail, fair, delicate
woman's dauntless courage. "I had no chance of speaking to you alone,"
she continued, "or I would have told you--explained to you----"
"I want no explanation," he said, harshly, bitterly; "I know enough."
[Illustration: "'STAY!' SHE EXCLAIMED."]
"Stay!" she exclaimed, lifting her fair head with a royal gesture. "That
man, the man whom I helped to a hiding-place to save his life--for you
know they would have killed him, they came here for his death----"
"And if they did," he interposed, "what is his life or death to you?"
"That man," she continued, waving his interruption aside, "did me a
cruel wrong--you know it well. He killed my love for him. Love once dead
rises no more. I have no grain of love left for the man who insulted,
wronged, deserted me. But I tell you now that _he_ wronged me less than
_you_ do if you say to me that you 'know enough!' You do _not_ know
enough. You must know all. Rick, you have said you loved me. You have
made me love you. You shall hear me now!" She spoke not pleadingly, but
with passionate resolution.
"What have you to say?" he rejoined, sternly still, but less bitterly.
"That if you love me you must trust me! If you love me you must respect
me! The woman who could turn a helpless, hunted fugitive--even a
stranger--from her doors would be unworthy of love or respect."
"This man was no stranger!"
"He came to me as one, not dreaming that I lived here. Would you ask me,
_because_ he was not a stranger, to revenge myself for a wrong of years
ago by refusing to him the help I would have given to any stranger? You
could not think that I would stoop to so base a revenge as to hand him
over to death when I would have given up no other man who stood in his
place? I would not turn a _dog_ away that came to me for help and
shelter. He came here, not knowing whose house this was--came to ask for
food and help because he was exhausted, famishing. It was as much a
surprise to him to find me here as it was to me to see who the man was
who asked me for shelter. And I promised it to him, and I kept my word.
He told me what he had done, and that the Vigilance Committee were on
his track. I've lived here long enough to know what that means! I would
not see the man who appealed to me to save him lawlessly murdered. He
has done wrong; he deserves punishment; but he does _not_ deserve the
fate they would have dealt to him."
"They'd have strung him up on that big tree outside your gate," said
Colonel Jeff, grim still, but relenting, "and serve him right!"
"I did not think he deserved death," rejoined Barbara, firmly; "I
risked--more than my life"--her voice quivered for the first time--"to
save him."
"You did," he said; "you risked having your good name dragged in the
gutter, for the sake of that worthless scamp."
"I risked more than that," she returned in a lower tone.
"More than that?" He shot a keen, questioning glance at her from under
his dark, heavy brows.
"Yes--I risked--and have I lost?--_your faith_?"
He paused a moment before he answered: "Barbara, when a man loves as I
do, he loves to the end of life--and after!"
A light kindled in her steadfast, questioning eyes.
"Then I have not lost your love, Rick?"
"I love you always."
"But--your faith?" she urged. "One is worthless to me without the
other."
"Do you say that my love is worthless, Barbara?"
"If it is given without your trust, it is the setting without the
jewel. _Trust_ me, Rick--or, _leave me_!"
"I trust you, my love," he replied, catching her hands and holding them
fast and close in his strong clasp. "Who could look in those eyes of
yours and doubt that you're true and pure as truth itself? But, my
darling, you've been foolish--with a woman's noble folly! Rash and
reckless--with an angel's courage! You have ventured too much--in such a
cause. These matters are not for women. Our Vigilante justice may be
rough and ready, but it fits the time and place. Anyhow, we keep the
neighbourhood so that the worst class of characters give it a wide
berth. You should not have crossed its path, my Barbara. It was not safe
for you; and for all that you have hazarded, he is not safe; they'll get
him yet."
"No, they will not; you will not betray him?"
"No. To betray him would be betraying you! Not for his sake, but for
yours, I'll hold my tongue. But what will he do? He cannot stay here."
"He need not. He can have my brother's horse, my brother's overcoat and
hat. He can take the trail up the gully under cover of the night, or
with the first streak of dawn."
"But your brother? Tom Thorne's a pretty hard citizen; what will he
say?"
"I don't know. And, Rick, I don't care! I've taken this on myself, and
I'll see it through. I know Tom may be hard--and Hatty, too. The worst
they can do is to turn me out of the house. And if they do----"
"You'll come to _mine_! Be mistress of all I have--queen of my home--my
_wife_!"
* * * * *
As the first pale pearly streak of dawn was stealing over the
snow-capped peaks of the Sierras, Oliver Desmond bowed his head--as he
had never bent it to mortal man--before the woman who had risked so much
for his safety, and raised her hand to his lips, as if it were the hand
of a shrined saint. And Colonel Jeff stood by, grim and silent. For good
or ill, Rick Jeffreys was thorough. He had promised, and he would keep
his word.
[Illustration: "HE RAISED HER HAND TO HIS LIPS."]
"You are the best and bravest of women," Desmond said. "Forget that I
have ever crossed your path. I shall cross it no more. But I shall never
forget."
Barbara is Colonel Jeff's happy and idolized wife to-day; and between
her and her husband there is no forbidden subject--not even that of
Oliver Desmond. For the faith between them is perfect; Rick knows that
whoever may have ruled her yesterdays--he and he only holds Barbara's
heart to-day, and the shadow of Oliver Desmond has passed from off her
life for ever. It was long after that eventful night that they heard how
his ill-starred career had come to an untimely close; but his last words
to Barbara were true; he crossed _her_ path no more--and I for my part
think that he never forgot.
_The Royal Humane Society._