The Man Thou Gavest Part 11

Early that morning she had looked, as she did every day, from the hill behind the house and she had seen but one thin curl of smoke from the clearing! If White had not returned the night before the chances were that he would make another day of it! Nella-Rose often wondered why others did not note the tell-tale smoke--a clue which often played a vital part in the news of the hills. Only because thoughts were focussed on the Hollow and on White's absence, was Truedale secure in his privacy.

"I'll hurry mighty fast to the Centre," Nella-Rose concluded, after escaping from Marg's disturbed gaze, "then I'll hide the things by the big road and I'll--go to his cabin. I'll--I'll surprise him!"

Truedale had told her the day before, in a moment of caution, that he would have to work hard for a time in order to make ready for White's return. The fact was he had now got to that point in his story when he longed for Jim as he might have longed for safety on a troubled sea.

With Jim back and fully informed--everything on ahead would be safe.

"I'll surprise him!" murmured Nella-Rose, with the dimples in full play at the corners of her mouth; "old Jim White can't keep me away. I'll watch out--it's just for a minute; I'll be back by sundown; it will be only to say 'how-de?'"

Something argued with the girl as she ran on--something quite new and uncontrolled. Heretofore no law but that of the wilds had entered into her calculations. To get what she could of happiness and life--to make as little fuss as possible--that had been her code; but now, the same restraint that had held Marg from going to the Hollow awhile back, when she thought that, with night, Burke Lawson might disclose his whereabouts, held Nella-Rose! So insistent was the rising argument that it angered the girl. "Why? Why?" her longings and desires cried.

"Because! Because!" was the stern response, and the _woman_ in Nella-Rose thrilled and throbbed and trembled, while the girlish spirit pleaded for the excitement of joy and sweetness that was making the grim stretches of her narrow existence radiant and full of meaning.

On she went doggedly. The dimples disappeared; the mouth fell into the pathetic, drooping lines that by and by, unless something saved Nella-Rose, would become permanent and mark her as a hill-woman--one to whom soul visions were denied.

CHAPTER VI

Wisdom had all but conquered Nella-Rose's folly when she came in sight of Calvin Merrivale's store. But--who knows?--perhaps the girl's story had been written long since, and she was not entirely free. Be that as it may, she paused, for no reason whatever as far as she could tell, and carefully took one dozen eggs from the basket and hid them under some bushes by the road! Having done this she went forward so blithely and lightly that one might have thought her load had been considerably eased. She appeared before Calvin Merrivale, presently, like a refres.h.i.+ng apparition from vacancy. It was high noon and Merrivale was dozing in a chair by the rusty stove, in which a fire, prepared against the evening chill, was already burning.

"How-de, Mister Merrivale?" Calvin sprang to his feet.

"If it ain't lil' Nella-Rose. How'se you-all?"

"Right smart. I've brought you three dozen eggs and ten pounds of pork."

Nella-Rose almost said po'k--not quite! "And you must be mighty generous with me when you weigh out--let me see!--oh, yes, pepper, salt, and sugar."

"I'll lay a siftin' more in the scale, Nella-Rose, on 'count o' yo'

enjoyin' ways. But I can't make this out"--he was counting the eggs--"yo' said three dozen aigs?"

"Three dozen, and ten pounds of pork!" This very firmly.

Merrivale counted again and as he did so Nella-Rose remembered! The red came to her face--the tears to her ashamed eyes.

"Stop!" she said softly, going close to the old man. "I forgot. I took one dozen out!"

Merrivale stood and looked at her and then, what he thought was understanding, came to his a.s.sistance.

"Who fo', Nella-Rose, who fo'?"

There was no reply to this.

"Yo' needn't be afraid to open yo' mind ter me, Nella-Rose. Keeping sto'

is a mighty help in gettin' an all-around knowin' o' things. Folks jest naterally come here an' talk an' jest naterally I listen, an' 'twixt Jim White, the sheriff, an' old Merrivale, there ain't much choosin', jedgmatically speakin'. I know White's off an' plannin' ter round up Burke Lawson from behind, as it war. T'warnt so in my day, lil'

Nella-Rose. When we-uns had a reckonin comin', we naterally went out an'

shot our man; but these torn-down scoundrels like Jed Martin an' his kind they trap 'em an' send 'em to worse'n h.e.l.l. Las' night"--and here Merrivale bent close to Nella-Rose--"my hen coop was 'tarnally gone through, an' a bag o' taters lifted. I ain't makin' no cry-out. I ain't forgot the year o' the fever an'--an'--well, yo' know who--took care o'

me day an' night till I saw faces an' knew 'em! What's a matter o' a hen o' two an' a sack o' taters when lined up agin that fever spell? I tell yo', Nella-Rose, if _yo'_ say thar war three dozen aigs, thar _war_ three dozen aigs, an' we'll bargain accordin'!"

And now the dimples came slowly to the relieved face.

"I'll--I'll bring you an extra dozen right soon, Mister Merrivale."

"I ain't a-goin' ter flex my soul 'bout that, Nella-Rose. Aigs is aigs, but human nater is human nater; an' keepin' a store widens yo' stretch o' vision. Now, watch out, lil' girl, an' don't take too much fo'

granted. When a gun goes off yo' hear it; but when skunks trail, yo'

don't get no sign, 'less it's a smell!"

Nella-Rose took her packages, smiled her thanks, and ran on. She ate her lunch by the bushes where the eggs lay hidden, then depositing in the safe shelter the home bundles Merrivale had so generously weighed, she put the eggs in the basket, packed with autumn leaves, and turned into the trail leading away from the big road.

Through the bare trees the clear sky shone like a s.h.i.+eld of blue-gray metal. It was a sky open for storm to come and pa.s.s unchecked. The very stillness and calm were warnings of approaching disturbance. Nature was listening and waiting for the breaking up of autumn and the clutch of frost.

It was only two miles from the Centre to White's clearing and the afternoon was young when Nella-Rose paused at the foot of the last climb and took breath and courage. There was a tangled ma.s.s of rhododendrons by the edge of the wood and suddenly the girl's eyes became fixed upon it and her heart beat wildly. Something alive was crouching there, though none but a trained sense could have detected it! They waited--the hidden creature and the quivering girl! Then a pair of eager, suspicious eyes shone between the dead leaves of the bushes; next a dark, thin face peered forth--it was Burke Lawson's! Nella-Rose clutched her basket closer--that was all. After a moment she spoke softly, but clearly:

"I'm alone. You're safe. How long have you been back?"

"Mor'n two weeks!"

Nella-Rose started. So they had known all along, and while she had played with Marg the hunt might at any moment have become deadly earnest.

"More'n two weeks," Lawson repeated.

"Where?" The girl's voice was hard and cold.

"In the Holler. Miss Lois Ann helped--but Lord! you can't eat a helpless old woman out of house and home. Last night--"

"Yes, yes; I know. And oh, Burke, Mister Merrivale hasn't forgot--the fever and your goodness. He won't give you up."

"He won't need to. I'm right safe, 'cept for food. There's an old hole, back of a deserted still--I can even have a bit of fire. The devil himself couldn't find me. After a time I'm going--"

"Where? Where, Burke?"

"Nella-Rose, would you come with me? 'Twas you as brought me back--I had to come. If you will--oh! my doney-gal--"

"Stop! stop, Burke. Some one might be near. No, no; I couldn't leave the hills--I'd die from the longing, you know that!"

"If I--dared them all--could you take me, Nella-Rose? I'd run my chances with you! Night and day you tug and pull at the heart o' me, Nella-Rose."

Fear, and a deeper understanding, drove Nella-Rose to the wrong course.

"When you dare to come out--when they-all let you stay out--then ask me again, Burke Lawson. I'm not going to sweetheart with one who dare not show his head."

Her one desire was to get Lawson away; she must be free!

"Nella-Rose, I'll come out o' this."

"No! no!" the girl gasped, "they're not after you to shoot you, Burke; Jed Martin is for putting you in jail!"

"Good G.o.d--the sneaking coward."