The Red Debt Part 6

His vehement words had startled her. She scrutinized his countenance keenly. What she saw brought the hot blood to her cheeks and left no doubt in her mind as to the significance of his eulogy and his impa.s.sioned eyes.

His look was an insult. She rose and tossed the elf-curls back from her dimpled face. Orlick sat a moment speechless, his mouth open, and studied the graceful length of her back.

Now she faced him again and spoke, and her words carried a volume of reproach.

"Orlick," she began, "why do yo'-all c.u.m t' see th' boys fo'--when you're a drinkin'?"

By way of denial he suddenly gave vent to a raucous guffaw and whipped his knee with his hat, which artifice he calculated would enhance his prestige off-hand. On the contrary, his strident laugh grated strangely upon the girl's mood.

"Drinkin'--drinkin'!" he cried out, amazed. "Why, Belle-Ann, I hain't teched a drap o' liquor fo' six months! An' what's a heap sight mo', Belle-Ann, I hain't never a goin' t'!"

Here he stood up and raised his hand high over his head. "An' I hope Gawd'll paralyze me daid ef I ever touch th' stuff agin!" he declared with a profound, solemn flourish, calculated to emphasize a pledge.

A sudden look of pity grew in the girl's eyes as she studied his face, a look which Orlick mistook for interest.

"Yo' hain't a gittin' down on me like th' tuther fools, air yo', Belle-Ann?"

Belle-Ann smiled ambiguously, lifted her pretty arched brows, and centered her azure eyes upon a red-head which at that instant was hammering a hole into a dead sycamore hard by. Orlick sighed.

"Yo' orten t' git down on a feller lessen he's done somethin' pesky," he resumed tentatively. "What hev I done more'n c.u.m an' go peaceable--an'

make more money than any of 'em? Yo' see, Belle-Ann, our people hain't got no use fer a feller whut's got s.p.u.n.k enough t' git out o' th'

mountains an' make money. Hit's hard draggin' when a feller's tryin' t'

do right an' everybuddy ag'in em."

His words stopped. Belle-Ann gazed his way. Orlick looked like a martyr, the very picture of persecuted righteousness. The left corner of his mouth, usually tilted, descended in emulation of its mate.

His woebegone eyes followed the sky-line, and he appeared to be on the verge of an oral prayer.

Belle-Ann's tender, unsophisticated heart was momentarily swayed with compa.s.sion. She glanced covertly at his averted, forlorn face, and her frigidity thawed a trifle as she was cognizant of an element of truth in Orlick's claims.

She knew that a mountaineer was respected and eligible only while he stayed closely in the mountains.

Orlick sat rigid, immobile, with eyes afar and apparently utterly oblivious of Belle-Ann's presence at that moment. She walked back to the wagon-bed.

Her low, dulcet voice roused him out of his lethargy.

"Orlick," she said, "why don't yo'-all stop traipsin' round an' snookin'

below--an' c.u.m Sabbath an' jine pap's church? Don't yo'-all want t' be a Christian?"

If all the sins of Orlick's past had taken life and come up out of the ground at his feet to confront him he would have been less shocked. He flushed guiltily.

He started perceptibly and squirmed in speechless discomfort.

Belle-Ann's wide, clear eyes were upon him, and as he hesitated her lips parted to speak.

"Eh?" he gurgled.

"I say--don't yo'-all----"

As though not daring to hear that seductive voice repeat its query, he spoke up hastily.

"Why, sho', Belle-Ann!" he blurted in confusion. "O' course, I'd like t'

be a Christian--an' I'll sho' be at th' ded'cation Sabbath. Belle-Ann, air yo' down on me 'cose I go below t' make money what I can't make th'

likes of hyarbouts?"

Orlick suddenly produced the roll of bank-notes, and, shuffling them up, rained them down in one greenish, crisp pile of opulence upon the wagon-bed.

This unexpected spectacle staggered the girl's senses for the moment.

She had never seen so much money in all her life before. Her eyes grew round with astonishment.

CHAPTER V

ORLICK'S MONEY SPURNED

"Oh, Orlick!" she breathed in amazement.

Unconsciously she sat down on the wagon-bed, with the pile of money beside her; and thus, wholly enthralled, she muttered faint exclamations. Orlick's eyes glittered in their devouring scrutiny, fixed upon Belle-Ann's beauty.

"Oh, Orlick," she reiterated, "is thes all yore money? Where did yo' git all thes money, Orlick?"

For an instant he fumbled blindly for words; then found them at the end of his short, ingratiating laugh. He lied with a gusto that reddened his face.

"Git hit!" he echoed blatantly. "Why, Belle-Ann, I worked fo' hit! I'm trainin' hosses below, I git a hundred a month, Belle-Ann; an' I don't drink, an' I 'low t' save my money, I do, 'cose yo' know I 'low t' git married, Belle-Ann; an' hit takes a powerful sight o' money t' keep a wife like I'm aimin' t' do.

"I hain't aimin' t' keep my wife in these mountains. She'll dry up an'

blow away 'fore a buddy kin git to her to bury her. I air a goin' t' buy a nice house in Louisville an' fill hit up with fancy fixin's, an', talk about fine, fancy clothes--well, mebby my wife won't hev some fine things, 'cose I got th' money t' git 'em with, Belle-Ann!"

"Orlick," she said, "how much do yo' 'low is heah?"

So engrossed was she in lifting the bills one by one out of the tangled heap, examining both sides minutely, and laying them in one smooth stack, that she had heard little of Orlick's discourse, being vaguely conscious only that he was talking.

"Why, Belle-Ann," said he, "hit's fo' hundred dollars!"

He chuckled immoderately and pressed his cowlick down, which defiant tuft popped instantly back to its position of attention.

"Yes," he went on, noting every look that crossed her lovely face as she proceeded, deeply absorbed in handling this dazzling pile of wealth.

"Yes--an' a hundred a month comin' long all th' time. Thet hain't powerful bad fo' a boy like me--air hit, Belle-Ann?"

Orlick rubbed his hands in the throes of self-exaltation and added a laugh that grated upon the girl's senses, inspiring her with a sudden impulse to end this conversation without delay.

"I reckon I'll be a goin'. Slab'll c.u.m soon from th' mill, an' I got some bakin' t' do."

She made as if to rise. With a swift stride Orlick stood close to her, defeating this move. The money lay in one even, smooth pyramid on the wagon-bed.

With one hand he s.n.a.t.c.hed up the bills and laid them in Belle-Ann's lap.