The Winds of Chance Part 51

"But I'm not young and silly," his wife interrupted.

"Just the same, you played me a rotten trick," the Count exploded.

"And I don't forget. As for him"--he swore savagely--"he'll learn that it's not safe to humiliate me, to rob me of any woman--wife or mistress. You've never told me the half; I've had to guess. But I'm patient, I know how to wait and to use my eyes and my ears.

Then to strike me! Perdition! I'll follow this through, never fear."

"How did you get a thousand dollars, Henri?" the wife inquired, curiously.

Courteau's gaze s.h.i.+fted. "What difference? I won it on a turn at the North Star; it was given to me; I found it. Anyhow, I had it.

It was a good night for me; yes, a very good night. I had my revenge and I showed my friends that I'm a man to be reckoned with."

In a tone unexpectedly humble the woman said: "I had no idea you cared very much what I did or how I carried on. After all, it was your own fault."

"Mine?" The Count laughed in derision and astonishment.

"Exactly! If you had taken the trouble to show me that you cared-- well, things might have been different. However--" The Countess rose, and with another change of voice and manner said: "Come along. Let's do something for your eye."

The Count stared at her in bewilderment, then he turned away, crying: "Bah! I want no help." At the door he paused to jeer once more. "Pierce Phillips! A common thief, a despicable creature who robs the very man he had most deeply injured. I've exposed him to the law and to public scorn. Sleep on that, my dear. Dream on it."

With a chuckle he traced an uncertain course to the stairs, mounted them to his room, and slammed his door behind him.

He had undressed and flung himself into bed, but he had not yet fallen asleep when the door reopened and his wife entered, bearing in her hand a steaming pitcher of hot water. This she deposited; into it she dipped a folded towel.

"I'm sorry you're disfigured, Henri," she told him, quietly.

Despite his surly protests, she bathed and soothed his swollen features until he dropped asleep, after which she stole out and down to her room on the floor below. There, however, she paused, staring back up the empty stairway, a look of deepest loathing upon her face. Slowly, carefully, she wiped her hands as if they were unclean; her lips curled into a mirthless smile; then she pa.s.sed into her chamber and turned the key behind her.

Rock had spoken truly in a.s.suring 'Poleon that Pierce Phillips'

lot would be made as easy for him as possible. That is what happened. No one at the Barracks appeared to take much stock in Courteau's charge, and even Colonel Cavendish, the commandant, took the trouble to send for him early the next morning and to ask for the whole story in detail. When Pierce had given it the officer nodded. "It looks very much like a spite case. I couldn't imagine your doing such a thing, my boy."

"It is a spite case, nothing else."

"Courteau is a rotter, and your affair with his wife explains his animosity."

"It wasn't exactly an 'affair,' sir." Pierce colored slightly as he went on to explain. "You see, I was perfectly honest. I didn't know there was a count, and when I learned there was I up stakes and ended it. She was the first woman who ever--Well, sir, I admired her tremendously. She--impressed me wonderfully."

"No doubt," the colonel smiled. "She's an impressive person. Are you still fond of her?"

"Not in the same way."

"What about this girl Laure?"

This time Pierce flushed uncomfortably. "I've no excuses to offer there, sir--no explanations. We--just drifted together. It was a long trip and the Yukon does that sort of thing. Force of circ.u.mstance as much as anything, I presume. I've been trying to break away, but--" he shrugged.

"You've been a pretty foolish lad." Pierce remained silent at this accusation, and the colonel went on: "However, I didn't bring you here to lecture you. The Royal Mounted have other things to think about than young wasters who throw themselves away. After all, it's a free-and-easy country and if you want to play ducks and drakes it's your own business. I merely want you to realize that you've put yourself in a bad light and that you don't come into court with clean hands."

"I understand. I put in a wakeful night thinking about it. It's the first time in a long while that I've done any serious thinking."

"Well, don't be discouraged. A little thinking will benefit you.

Now then, I'm going to put Rock at work on your case, and meanwhile you may have the liberty of the Barracks. You're a gentleman, and I trust you to act as one."

Pierce was only too grateful for this courtesy, and to realize that he retained the respect of this middle-aged, soldierly officer, whom he had long admired, filled him with deep relief. He gave his promise readily enough.

Later in the day Broad and Bridges came in to see him, and their indignation at the outrage, their positive a.s.sertion that it was nothing less than a deliberate conspiracy, and so considered among the Front Street resorts, immensely cheered him.

"You remember the holler I let up when them Sheep-Campers wanted to hang McCaskey?" Broad inquired. "It was my mistake. His ear and a hemp knot would go together like rheumatism and liniment."

Bridges agreed. "Funny, us three bein' tillic.u.ms, ain't it?" he mused. "Especially after the way we dredged you. We didn't need your loose change, but--there it was, so we took it."

"You'd of done better if you'd turned on the hollow of your foot that day and romped right back to the old farm," Broad a.s.serted.

"You'd never of doubled up with the McCaskeys and you'd still be the blus.h.i.+ng yokel you was."

"Yes, you're a different kid, now." Both gamblers, it seemed, were in the melancholy mood for moralizing. "Why, we was talkin' to Rouletta about you this morning. She's all bereaved up over this thing; she sent us here to cheer you. You was clean as an apple, then--and easier to pick--now you're just a common bar-fly, the same as us. Laure done it. She's the baby vampire that made a b.u.m of you."

"You're not very flattering." Phillips smiled faintly.

"Oh, I'm sort of repeatin' what Letty said. She put me to thinkin'. She's quite a noisy little missionary when she gets started."

"Missionary!" Broad exclaimed, in disdain. "I don't like the word.

Them birds is about useful as a hip pocket in an unders.h.i.+rt. Why, missionaries don't do no real, lasting good outside of Indian villages! Us sure-thing guys are the best missionaries that ever struck this country. Look at the good we done around Dyea and Skagway. Them gospel-bringers never touched it. We met the suckers on the edge of the Frozen North and we turned 'em back by the score. Them three walnut husks done more good than the Ten Commandments. Yes, sir, a set of cheatin' tools will save more strayed lambs than a s.h.i.+p-load of Testaments."

"Letty figgers that somebody tossed that goldsack over the top of the cage after you follered the Count out."

"Impossible," Pierce declared.

"I got an idea." It was Broad speaking again. "The mere contemplation of physical violence unmans that Frog. He'd about as soon have a beatin' as have a leg cut off with a case-knife.

S'pose me and the Kid lure him to some lonely spot--some good yellin'-place--and set upon him with a coupla pick-handles. We'll make him confess or we'll maim and meller him till he backs out through his bootlegs. What d'you say?"

Pierce shook his head. "Something must be done, but I doubt if that's it. It's tough to be--disgraced, to have a thing like this hanging over you. I wouldn't mind it half so much if I were up for murder or arson or any man's-sized crime. Anything except STEALING!"

"A mere matter of choice," the former speaker lightly declared.

"We got boys around the Rialto that has tried 'em all. They don't notice no particular difference."

For some time the three friends discussed the situation, then, when his visitors rose to go, Pierce accompanied them to the limits of the Barracks premises and there stood looking after them, realizing with a fresh pang that he was a prisoner. It was an unfortunate predicament, he reflected, and quite as unpleasant as the one which had brought him into conflict with the angry men of Sheep Camp. That had been an experience fraught with peril, but his present plight was little better, it seemed to him, for already he felt the weight of the Dominion over him, already he fancied himself enmeshed in a discouraging tangle of red tape.

There was no adventurous thrill to this affair, nothing but an odious feeling of shame and disgrace which he could not shake off.

He was staring morosely at the ground between his feet when he heard a voice that caused him to start. There, facing him with a light of pleasure in her blue eyes, was the girl of the skees.

"h.e.l.lo!" said she. She extended her hand, and her mitten closed over Pierce's fingers with a firm clasp. "I'm awfully glad to see you again, Mr--" She hesitated, then with a smile confessed, "Do you know, you're my only pupil and yet I've never heard your name."

"Phillips," said he.

"You don't deserve to be remembered at all, for you didn't come to the dance. And after you had promised, too."

"I couldn't come," he a.s.sured her, truthfully enough.

"I looked for you. I was quite hurt when you failed to appear.

Then I thought perhaps you expected something more formal than a mere verbal invitation, and in that way I managed to save my vanity. If I'd known who you were or how to find you I'd have had my father send you a note. If it wasn't that, I'm glad. Well, there's another dance this week and I'll expect you."

"I--I'm not dancing," he stammered. "Not at the Barracks, anyhow."