A Man of Two Countries Part 9

"Oh, keep still! _Keep still!_" cried the exasperated Englishman. This misplaced loquacity!

Eva reached out suddenly, frankly.

"I think it's time we knew each other," she said, sweetly, and their hands met.

That touch! Never had the unsophisticated youth felt such a touch! A thrill of exquisite life went from her hand to his; from his hand to his feet and the vibrations went tingling back to the girl. For the first time Philip looked full into the blue eyes of Eva Thornhill.

"You're a fool, O'Dwyer!" Danvers heard the doctor remark, as they proceeded toward the fort. The humbled trooper, hitching his arm in the improvised sling which Philip had made, groaned doleful a.s.sent. Too late he remembered the barrack-room decision that Miss Thornhill was after every scalp in the Whoop Up Country.

And Eva Thornhill? Her opportunity had come, and she had taken it as a gift from the G.o.ds. Suddenly she knew that Philip was merged in her personality, and she reveled in the bloom of quickly grown, fully developed pa.s.sion. By the time the lieutenant a.s.sisted her from her mare at the colonel's headquarters she was ready to think that there was nothing to keep them apart. So quickly, hotly, does young blood run!

Her answer to the question that was ready to slip from his tongue--what would it be? As Danvers lifted the flus.h.i.+ng girl from her mount, her eyes gave promise beneath their long-lashed veiling that the answer would not be "no."

It was not many days before Major Thornhill took his daughter to task for her neglect of Mr. Burroughs.

"Don't you let go of Burroughs," he counseled, with brutal sordidness.

"These young lawyers and lieutenants haven't a cent, so far as I can find out. Burroughs has money and will have more. Remember that an army officer never has anything to leave to his mourners."

Eva shrugged her shoulders; but her training showed her the wisdom of her father's advice, and she bestowed more favor on the trader than he had received for several days. However, she decided that one more ride with the lieutenant she must have, and so impetuous was Philip that she allowed him to say more than she intended he should. His wooing was eager, headlong.

As they drew near the town on their return from their long ride, the girl saw a squaw peering from the bushes beside the trail.

"Who is that squaw?" she asked, petulantly. "It seems to me that I never go out but she is near me!"

"Oh--er----" he stammered, losing, for a moment, his self-possession as he recognized Burroughs' property. He knew that the trader had pledged his intimates to secrecy as to his relations with Pine Coulee while Miss Thornhill was a visitor at Macleod, and he, while not pledged, would be the last one to bring her in any way to Eva's notice. "Oh," he began again, "she's a Blackfoot."

"That is evasion, pure and simple!" retorted his companion. "She wants either to speak to me--or to kill me, I've not decided which. Wait here!

I am going to speak to her!"

"You are probably the first white woman she ever saw," Philip tried vainly to make a satisfactory explanation; but, to his consternation, Eva was gone.

Pine Coulee stood motionless as the fair-haired girl drew rein beside her. Never had she shown her Indian blood more clearly than in the stolid awaiting of her rival. Danvers drew nearer, fearing results.

"Do you speak English?" Pine Coulee was asked. "I think that you want to speak to me. What is it? What can I do for you?" The look of dejection on the dark face touched even Miss Thornhill.

Silence.

"What a big baby!" was Eva's next effort to gain good-will.

She was sure that the squaw could, at least, understand English; and the gleam of motherhood, kindling at her praise, confirmed her belief.

Silence.

"What is the baby's name?"

Silence prolonged. Eva turned away, impatient that her advances should be met so churlishly. Then, swift, malignant, Pine Coulee spoke:

"Him name Robert Burroughs! _Robert Burroughs!_" The words came with startling distinctness.

Eva's surprise was great. She shuddered uncontrollably.

Pine Coulee understood the incredulity in the girl's eyes, and rushed on, bitterly, in broken English:

"Yes. Robert Burroughs! Ask him!" pointing to Danvers with her lips, as Indians will. "Burroughs mine! You not have him! You take this man! You have everything--Pine Coulee have nothing but Bob and his baby! You sha'n't have him! No! No!" The squaw, crazed with jealousy, started towards Burroughs' house, but turned back with real dignity. "I hate you! Why you come to steal my man?"

Then she abruptly took her bitter way along the trail till--Burroughs blocked her. He gave her one look and rode forward.

"Your father sent me to look for you, Miss Thornhill," he began, as he drew rein. He resolved to carry the matter off boldly, if Eva referred to the Indian woman. "If you like, we will ride back together," he added, nodding to Danvers.

"No, no, no!" cried Eva, hysterically. "I'm afraid of--of that--squaw!"

She pointed to Pine Coulee, who had followed Burroughs like a blighting shadow.

"Git out of here!" Burroughs emphasized his command to the squaw with a vicious kick. Not realizing how much the words would reveal, he added: "I tol' yeh ter stay in the house!"

"I'll care for Miss Thornhill, Burroughs," interrupted Danvers. "Let us pa.s.s, please! Take Pine Coulee back and leave decent white women to others."

"To you?" sneered the trader, with suddenly loosened rage at maid and man.

"Yes, to me!" proudly answered Philip, drawing closer to Eva's mount.

The girl was scarlet with rage.

"Oh, it's that way, is it?" snarled Bob. "You told Miss Thornhill--that's plain to be seen!"

"He did not tell!" Eva slipped from her lover's protection and reined her horse toward Burroughs. "Lieutenant Danvers tried to s.h.i.+eld you.

She--she----" Eva looked at Pine Coulee, nursing her bruised forehead (for Burroughs had kicked to hurt) and changed her words. "The lieutenant never--he never intimated--such--a--horrid--thing. Of course you will understand that I no longer care for your acquaintance!" The reaction came and she begged: "Oh, Lieutenant Danvers, take me to father!"

"Oh, you don't, eh?" sneered the trader. "There are many years ahead of us both, and the time may come when you will want my help! And you,"

turning to Danvers, "I'll get even with you! If I can't win Eva Thornhill, you never shall, mark my words! I'll----"

"You dare to threaten--us? Get out of our way!"

With a touch Danvers quickly started both his horse and Miss Thornhill's. After a brief interval he slowed the pace.

"And now, darling, you must let me care for you always," urged Philip, after he had restored Eva to some semblance of calm. "Let me speak to your father to-night!" He talked on, encouraged by the girl's silent yielding and the long kiss he laid on her willing lips. She was told of his prospects, both in the army and in England, where his father and sister lived. He told her of his lovely American mother, who had died so young. He had enlisted, he said, for sheer love of a military life.

"Father wanted to buy a commission for me, but I knew I could get one--without money!" was the modest close.

The afternoon together ended by Philip's putting his mother's engagement ring on Eva's hand for their plighted troth. She looked at it a moment.

"I cannot wear this now," she said. "If we are engaged, I want it to be kept secret until next spring. Don't you see, dear," she rubbed her face caressingly on Philip's impatient hand, "that it will be better so?

Father will be furious when he knows that I've given Mr. Burroughs his conge, and you'll come into your fortune when you are twenty-one next June. Father'll never consent until then. He'll make me miserable all winter!"

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Chapter IV