The Gambler Part 98

She could not be a coward in this last moment! She had never been a physical coward!

She stepped back; she took one dazed look at the world that, until yesterday, had been so very fair; she drew one long, tense, shuddering breath, closed her eyes, and went forward.

But at her first step something or some one came rus.h.i.+ng down the cliff behind her. She gave a terrified cry, opened her eyes, and recoiled from the chasm. A moment later she had turned, trembling, crying, utterly unnerved, to find Mick leaping round her.

"Mick!" she said tremulously--"Mick!" Then a voice called to her; and, looking up, she saw Hannah, her hair dishevelled, her eyes still streaming, the yellow envelope of a telegram held in the corner of her ap.r.o.n.

"The fright you gave me, Miss Clodagh!" she began. "Sure, I'd nivver find you at all, only for the dog!"

Then she stopped, looking sharply at her mistress.

"Miss Clodagh, what is it all? Come home!--come home, my lamb!" Her voice, husky from tears, dropped suddenly.

But Clodagh still stood white and shaking. She had been too near the verge to be easily recalled.

"Sure, G.o.d's ways are quare, but 'tisn't for us to be judgin'; maybe He's saved worse, Miss Clodagh! Keep thinkin' that! Maybe He's saved worse!"

Clodagh covered her eyes.

"But here's somethin' for you. G.o.d help us! I was forgettin'! Will you be seein' what is in it?" She came slowly forward, extending her arm.

Clodagh took the telegram. Without thought or interest she tore it open, and her eyes pa.s.sed mechanically over the written words. Then suddenly it slipped from between her fingers, blew a little way across the close gra.s.s, and fluttered down over the edge of the chasm.

As it disappeared, she turned. Her face was entirely without colour; her eyes had the dazed look of one who is confronted with a great light.

"Hannah!" she cried--"Hannah! there is a G.o.d after all!--there is a G.o.d!" She swayed suddenly; and the old servant, rus.h.i.+ng forward, caught her in her arms.

THE END