The Top of the World - Ethel May Dell (read novels website txt) 📗

regard to Guy. She was amazed at herself for having been so easily content. It was almost as if in that moment she heard Guy's voice very far away, calling to her for help.
And then, swift as a lightning-flash, striking dismay to her soul, came the consciousness of Burke gazing straight at her with that in his eyes which she could not--dare not--meet.
She gripped his arm a little tighter. She was quivering from head to foot. "We could do it between us," she breathed again. "Wouldn't it be worth it? Oh, wouldn't it be worth it?"
But Burke spoke no word. He sat rigid, looking at her.
A feeling of coldness ran through her--such a feeling as she had experienced on her wedding-day under the skeleton-tree, the chill that comes from the heart of a storm. Slowly she relaxed her hold upon him. Her tears were gone, but she felt choked, unlike herself, curiously impotent.
"Shall we go back?" she said.
She made as if she would rise, but he stayed her with a gesture, and her weakness held her passive.
"So you have forgiven him!" he said.
His tone was curt. He almost flung the words.
She braced herself, instinctively aware of coming strain. But she answered him gently. "You can't be angry with a person when you are desperately sorry for him."
"I see. And you hold me in a great measure responsible for his fall? I am to make good, am I?"
He did not raise his voice, but there was something in it that made her quail. She looked up at him in swift distress.
"No, no! Of course not--of course not! Partner, please don't glare at me like that! What have I done?"
He dropped his eyes abruptly from her startled face, and there followed a silence so intense that she thought he did not even breathe.
Then, in a very low voice: "You've raised Cain," he said.
She shivered. There was something terrible in the atmosphere. Dumbly she waited, feeling that protest would but make matters worse.
He turned himself from her at length, and sat with his chin on his hands, staring out to the fading sunset.
When he spoke finally, the hard note had gone out of his voice. "Do you think it's going to make life any easier to bring that young scoundrel back?"
"I wasn't thinking of that," she said, "It was only--" she hesitated.
"Only?" said Burke, without turning.
With difficulty she answered him. "Only that probably you and I are the only people in the world who could do anything to help him. And so--somehow it seems our job."
Burke digested this in silence. Then: "And what are you going to do with him when you've got him?" he enquired.
Again she hesitated, but only momentarily. "I shall want you to help me, partner," she said appealingly.
He made a slight movement that passed unexplained. "You may find me--rather in the way--before you've done," he said.
"Then you won't help me?" she said, swift disappointment in her voice.
He turned round to her. His face was grim, but it held no anger. "You've asked a pretty hard thing of me," he said. "But--yes, I'll help you."
"You will?" She held out her hand to him. "Oh, partner, thank you--awfully!"
He gripped her hand hard. "On one condition," he said.
"Oh, what?" She started a little and her face whitened.
He squeezed her fingers with merciless force. "Just that you will play a straight game with me," he said briefly.
The colour came back to her face with a rush. "That!" she said. "But of course--of course! I always play a straight game."
"Then it's a bargain?" he said.
Her clear eyes met his. "Yes, a bargain. But how shall we ever find him?"
He was silent for a moment, and she felt as if those steel-grey eyes of his were probing for her soul. "That," he said slowly, "will not be a very difficult business."
"You know where he is?" she questioned eagerly.
"Yes. Merston told me to-day."
"Oh, Burke!" The eager kindling of her look made her radiant. "Where is he? What is he doing?"
He still looked at her keenly, but all emotion had gone from his face. "He is tending a bar in a miners' saloon at Brennerstadt."
"Ah!"' She stood up quickly to hide the sudden pain his words had given. "But we can soon get him out. You--you will get him out, partner?"
He got to his feet also. The sun had passed, and only a violet glow remained. He seemed to be watching it as he answered her.
"I will do my best."
"You are good," she said very earnestly. "I wonder if you have the least idea how grateful I feel."
"I can guess," he said in a tone of constraint.
She was standing slightly above him. She placed her hand shyly on his shoulder. "And you won't hate it so very badly?" she urged softly. "It is in a good cause, isn't it?"
"I hope so," he said.
He seemed unaware of her hand upon him. She pressed a little. "Burke!"
"Yes?" He still stood without looking at her.
She spoke nervously. "I--I shan't forget--ever--that I am married. You--you needn't be afraid of--of anything like that."
He turned with an odd gesture. "I thought you were going to forget it--that you had forgotten it--for good."
His voice had a strained, repressed sound. He spoke almost as if he were in pain.
She tried to smile though her heart was beating fast and hard. "Well, I haven't. And--I never shall now. So that's all right, isn't it? Say it's all right!"
There was more of pleading in her voice than she knew. A great tremor went through Burke. He clenched his hands to subdue it.
"Yes; all right, little pal, all right," he said.
His voice sounded strangled; it pierced her oddly. With a sudden impetuous gesture she slid her arm about his neck, and for one lightning moment her lips touched his cheek. The next instant she had sprung free and was leaping downwards from rock to rock like a startled gazelle.
At the foot of the _kopje_ only did she stop and wait. He was close behind her, moving with lithe, elastic strides where she had bounded.
She turned round to him boyishly. "We'll climb to the top one of these days, partner; but I'm not in training yet. Besides,--we're late for supper."
"I can wait," said Burke.
She linked her little finger in his, swinging it carelessly. There was absolute confidence in her action; only her eyes avoided his.
"You're jolly decent to me," she said. "I often wonder why."
"You'll know one day," said Burke very quietly.


CHAPTER IV
THE CAPTURE

A dust-storm had been blowing practically all day, and the mining crowds of Brennerstadt were thirsty to a man. They congregated at every bar with the red sand thick upon them, and cursed the country and the climate with much heartiness and variety.
Burke Ranger was one of the thirstiest when he reached the town after his ride through the desert--a ride upon which he had flatly refused to allow Sylvia to accompany him. He went straight to the hotel where he had stayed for his marriage, and secured a room. Then he went down to the dining-room, where he was instantly greeted by an old friend, Kelly, the Irish manager of a diamond mine in the neighbourhood.
Kelly was the friend of everyone. He knew everyone's affairs and gossiped openly with a childlike frankness that few could resent. Everyone declared he could never keep a secret, yet nearly everyone confided in him. His goodness of heart was known to all, and he was regarded as a general arbitrator among the sometimes restless population of Brennerstadt.
His delight at seeing Burke was obvious; he hailed him with acclamations. "I've been meaning to ride over your way for ages," he declared, his rubicund face shining with geniality as he wrung his friend's hand hard. "I was up-country when you came along last with your bride. Dark horse that you are, Burke! I should as soon have thought of getting married myself, as of seeing you in double harness."
Burke laughed his careless laugh. "You'll come to it yet. No fun in growing old alone in this country."
"And what's the lady like?" pursued Kelly, keen for news as an Irish terrier after a rat. "As fair as Eve and twice as charming?"
"Something that style," agreed Burke. "What are you drinking, old chap? Any ice to be had?"
He conferred with the waiter, but Kelly's curiosity was far from being satisfied. He pounced back upon the subject the moment Burke's attention was free.
"And is she new to this part of the world then? She came out to be married, I take it? And what does she think of it at all?"
"You'll have to come over and see for yourself," said Burke.
"So I will, old feller. I'll come on the first opportunity. I'd love to see the woman who can capture you. Done any shooting lately, or is wedded bliss still too sweet to leave?"
"I've had a few other things as well to think about," said Burke drily,
"And this is your first absence? What will the missis do without you?"
"She'll manage all right. She's very capable. She is helping me with the farm. The life seems to suit her all right, only I shall have to see she doesn't work too hard."
"That you will, my son. This climate's hard on women. Look at poor Bill Merston's wife! When she came out, she was as pretty and as sweet as a little wild rose. And now--well, it gives you the heartache to look at her."
"Does it?" said Burke grimly. "She doesn't affect me that way. If I were in Merston's place,--well, she wouldn't look like that for long."
"Wouldn't she though?" Kelly looked at him with interest. "You always were a goer, old man. And what would your treatment consist of?"
"Discipline," said Burke briefly. "No woman is happy if she despises her husband. If I were in Merston's place, I would see to it that she did not despise me. That's the secret of her trouble. It's poison to a woman to look down on her husband."
"Egad!" laughed Kelly. "But you've studied the subject? Well, here's to the fair lady of your choice! May she fulfil all expectations and be a comfort to you all the days of your life!"
"Thanks!" said Burke. "Now let's hear a bit about yourself! How's the diamond industry?"
"Oh, there's nothing the matter with it just now. We've turned over some fine stones in the last few days. Plenty of rubbish, too, of course. You don't want a first-class speculation, I presume? If you've got a monkey to spare, I can put you on to something rather great."
"Thanks, I haven't," said Burke. "I never have monkeys to spare. But what's the gamble?"
"Oh, it's just a lottery of Wilbraham's. He has a notion for raffling his biggest diamond. The draw won't take place for a few weeks yet; and then only monkeys need apply. It's a valuable stone. I can testify