A MIDNIGHT VISIT
The lights, but one, were out. McCloud and Whispering Smith had gone,
and Marion was locking up the house for the night, when she was halted
by a knock at the shop door. It was a summons that she thought she
knew, but the last in the world that she wanted to hear or to answer.
Dicksie had gone to the bedroom, and standing between the portieres
that curtained the work-room from the shop, Marion in the half-light
listened, hesitating whether to ignore or to answer the midnight
intruder. But experience, and bitter experience, had taught her there
was only one way to meet that particular summons, and that was to act,
whether at noon or at midnight, without fear. She waited until the
knocking had been twice repeated, turned up the light, and going to
the door drew the bolt; Sinclair stood before her, and she drew back
for him to enter. "Dicksie Dunning is with me to-night," said Marion,
with her hand on the latch, "and we shall have to talk here."
Sinclair took off his hat. "I knew you had company," he returned in
the low, gentle tone that Marion knew very well, "so I came late. And
I heard to-night, for the first time, that this railroad crowd is
after me--God knows why; but they have to earn their salary somehow. I
want to keep out of trouble if I can. I won't kill anybody if they
don't force me to it. They've scared nearly all my men away from the
ranch already; one crippled-up cowboy is all I have got to help me
look after the cattle. But I won't quarrel with them, Marion, if I can
get away from here peaceably, so I've come to talk it over once more
with you. I'm going away and I want you to go with me; I've got enough
to keep us as well as the best of them and as long as we live. You've
given me a good lesson. I needed it, girlie----"
"Don't call me that!"
He laughed kindly. "Why, that's what it used to be; that's what I want
it to be again. I don't blame you. You're worth all the women I ever
knew, Marion. I've learned to appreciate some few things in the lonely
months I've spent up on the Frenchman; but I've felt while I was there
as if I were working for both of us. I've got a buyer in sight now for
the cattle and the land. I'm ready to clean up and say good-by to
trouble--all I want is for you to give me the one chance I've asked
for and go along."
They stood facing each other under the dim light. She listened
intently to every word, though in her terror she might not have heard
or understood all of them. One thing she did very clearly understand,
and that was why he had come and what he wanted. To that she held her
mind tenaciously, and for that she shaped her answer. "I cannot go
with you--now or ever."
He waited a moment. "We always got along, Marion, when I behaved
myself."
"I hope you always will behave yourself; but I could no more go with
you than I could make myself again what I was years ago, Murray. I
wish you nothing but good; but our ways parted long ago."
"Stop and think a minute, Marion. I offer you more and offer it more
honestly than I ever offered it before, because I know myself better.
I am alone in the world--strong, and better able to care for you than
I was when I undertook to----"
"I have never complained."
"That's what makes me more anxious to show you now that I can and will
do what's right."
"Oh, you multiply words! It is too late for you to be here. You are in
danger, you say; for the love of Heaven, leave me and go away!"
"You know me, Marion, when my mind is made up. I won't leave without
you." He leaned with one hand against the ribbon showcase. "If you
don't want to go I will stay right here and pay off the scores I owe.
Two men here have stirred this country up too long, anyway. I don't
care much how soon anybody gets me after I round them up. But to-night
I felt like this: you and I started out in life together, and we ought
to live it out or die together, whether it's to-night, Marion, or
twenty years from to-night."
"If you want to kill me to-night, I have no resistance to make."
Sinclair sat down on a low counter-stool, and, bending forward, held
his head between his hands. "It oughtn't all to end here. I know you,
and I know you want to do what's right. I couldn't kill you without
killing myself; you know that." He straightened up slowly. "Here!" He
slipped his revolver from his hip-holster and held the grip of the gun
toward her. "Use it on me if you want to. It is your chance to end
everything; it may save several lives if you do. I won't leave McCloud
here to crow over me, and, by God, I won't leave you here for
Whispering Smith! I'll settle with him anyhow. Take the pistol! What
are you afraid of? Take it! Use it! I don't want to live without you.
If you make me do it, you're to blame for the consequences."
She stood with wide-open eyes, but uttered no word.
"You won't touch it--then you care a little for me yet," he murmured.
"No! Do not say so. But I will not do murder."
"Think about the other, then. Go with me and everything will be all
right. I will come back some evening soon for my answer. And until
then, if those two men have any use for life, let them keep in the
clear. I heard to-night that Du Sang is killed. Do you know whether it
is true?"
"It is true."
An oath half escaping showed how the confirmation cut him. "And
Whispering Smith got away! It is Du Sang's own fault; I told him to
keep out of that trap. I stay in the open; and I'm not Du Sang. I'll
choose my own ground for the finish when they want it with me, and
when I go I'll take company--I'll promise you that. Good-night,
Marion. Will you shake hands?"
"No."
"Damn it, I like your grit, girl! Well, good-night, anyway."
She closed the door. She had even strength enough to bolt it before
his footsteps died away. She put out the light and felt her way
blindly back to the work-room. She staggered through it, clutching at
the curtains, and fell in the darkness into Dicksie's arms.
"Marion dear, don't speak," Dicksie whispered. "I heard everything.
Oh, Marion!" she cried, suddenly conscious of the inertness of the
burden in her arms. "Oh, what shall I do?"
Moved by fright to her utmost strength, Dicksie drew the unconscious
woman back to her room and managed to lay her on the bed. Marion
opened her eyes a few minutes later to see the lights burning, to hear
the telephone bell ringing, and to find Dicksie on the edge of the bed
beside her.
"Oh, Marion, thank Heaven, you are reviving! I have been frightened to
death. Don't mind the telephone; it is Mr. McCloud. I didn't know what
to do, so I telephoned him."
"But you had better answer him," said Marion faintly. The telephone
bell was ringing wildly.
"Oh, no! he can wait. How are you, dear? I don't wonder you were
frightened to death. Marion, he means to kill us--every one!"
"No, Dicksie. He will kill me and kill himself; that is where it will
end. Dicksie, do answer the telephone. What are you thinking of? Mr.
McCloud will be at the door in five minutes. Do you want him in the
street to-night?"
Dicksie fled to the telephone, and an excited conference over the wire
closed in seeming reassurance at both ends. By that time Marion had
regained her steadiness, but she could not talk of what had passed. At
times, as the two lay together in the darkness, Marion spoke, but it
was not to be answered. "I do not know," she murmured once wearily.
"Perhaps I am doing wrong; perhaps I ought to go with him. I wish, oh,
I wish I knew what I ought to do!"