The Red Debt Part 12

get shut o' me, Belle-Ann?" he pursued vehemently.

She faced about and fixed her liquid eyes upon him. Her heart hurt and she turned away again. And he was instantly sorry that he had accused her.

She stepped over and sat on the spruce-log, dangling her hat and regarding her tan shoes.

"Looky heah," he burst out fervently, "c.u.m, deah little Belle-Ann; c.u.m kiss me."

Very slowly she shook her raven curls.

"I cyant, Lem," she said; "not now." At this refusal from her a pallor swept his features. Utterly crushed, he walked to and fro, a prey to conflicting emotions.

Her mysterious mien and unaccountable frigidity drove the chill of another fear into his being. Could it be that this was the first bud of a fruit that had already started to thrive in Belle-Ann's heart, before she had even reached the school?

She was going out into a new world away from him. Did she already regard herself exalted above the things that made up his humble life?

He looked at her sitting on the log, silent, beautiful, mysterious--another girl from the one he had known all his life.

Abruptly he halted before her. Her eyes sought his face. He fell back a few paces, now white to the lips with feelings that tore him. He stretched his two arms toward her beseechingly.

"Looky heah, Belle-Ann! Look t' me now, little gal!" he cried out in words that tumbled over each other, "Hain't I fittin'? Gawd cyan't find th' bein' thet loves yo'-all like me, Belle-Ann! Hain't I honest? Hain't I knowed yo' all yore little life, Belle-Ann? Whut would maw say, seein'

yo'-all driftin' away from me like thes? Do yo' 'low t' go below an'

never c.u.m back, Belle-Ann? Hain't I alers fit fo' yo'-all, Belle-Ann?

Hain't I fit for yo' all my life?"

He took a step nearer, and with his two strong hands ruthlessly ripped his flannel s.h.i.+rt open and exposed his naked breast to her eyes.

Transfixed, the girl stared at the twenty wide, white scars that criss-crossed his bosom. At sight of this, with sheer will and gallant courage she fought back the tears into her aching heart--fought them back desperately, just as he had fought off the she-bear that had made those marks when they two were children--fought her off single-handed with a club, and saved Belle-Ann's life.

With wide eyes she regarded him as he reached out for her.

His impa.s.sioned words penetrated to her very soul. She heard him on vaguely, struggling to control herself. The tide of emotion past, his pet.i.tions came now in low, entreating accents.

"Gawd 'lows I air honest, Belle-Ann. I hain't pesky, Gawd 'll tell; I hain't sneakin', Gawd 'll tell. Lem wus rise up 'long side o' yo', deah little gal; an' he loves yo' now, same as alers. Why, I'd stan', ef yo'd say th' word, with a laff on my face an' let yo'-all fire on me, an' die a grinnin'--cose I knowed yo' done hit, Belle-Ann.

"I air jest pore regular Lem, little gal, whut has loved yo' all yore life--frum a little bitty gal up t' now. An' my heart's jest heah whar hit alers was--jest heah fo' yo', Belle-Ann, with nothin' hidin' out!"

With back-flung head he paused, his pleading eyes still upon her.

Throughout this, Belle-Ann did not meet his eyes directly. She dared not. She prayed he would stop.

She could no longer withstand his pleadings. She rose up from the log and, in her turn, though more slowly, her little feet trod where Lem had walked.

Unconsciously, her hat dropped to the ground as her fingers relaxed and she placed her two hands upon her bosom. She looked full into his eyes.

"Lem," she breathed, the carmine leaving her cheeks, "yo' axed me t'

marry yo' when I c.u.m back. I cyant promise. Yo' axed t' kiss me, Lem; oh, please, please don't kiss me. I--I----"

She shut her teeth tightly, and pressed hard upon her turbulent bosom.

Alarmed, he sprang up to catch her. With a quick gesture she held him off.

"Lem, I took a vow--I did," she panted. "I took a vow on th'

witch-block. I took hit t' myself--n.o.buddy but Gawd knows. Now, I got t'

tell yo' all, Lem. _I took a vow that no livin' bein' 's gain' t' kiss my face lessen he kills th' revenuer!_ I took a vow thet I'll never--never--_never_--marry n.o.buddy, till th' revenuer's daid; I vowed on hit, Lem!"

CHAPTER IX

ORLICK WORKS EVIL

Lem listened in awe to her panting, hurried words, looking down into her pain-swept features, struck dumb with the earnest vehemence of her avowal. The girl went on:

"I couldn't bust my vow, Lem. Hit air jest heah in my breast by day an'

by night. Hit follers me alers, Lem--follers me like a hant. I don't lay no store by nuthin' till hit air gone away--an' hit'll never go away till th' ghost-man's daid."

Lem lunged forth out of a stupor.

"Gawd'llmoughty, Belle-Ann, yo'-all hain't a-lowin' thet I don't want t'

kill em, air yo'?" he cried, in a tempest of chagrin and amazement.

"No, no, no!" she interposed hastily. "I know thet yore a-watchin' an'

a-waitin' an' a-lookin' fo' em."

She took the hat Lem picked up from the ground, saying:

"Yo'll do somethin' perticlar like, Lem, when yo' do kill em. Keep a-watchin', an' a-tryin', Lem, but don't 'low em t' git first bead on yo', Lem. He air a hant."

"Ef I air lucky, an' kill em--will yo'-all promise then, Belle-Ann?"

implored the boy in low, yearning tones. Side by side they were walking now.

"Yo' jest ax me when th' revenuer's daid, Lem," she returned, looking up, the dimples playing and her small Grecian face aflush with the thought.

He could not mistake the light that flickered between her fluttering lids. There was an answer hovering about the red, bowed lips. Her enhanced loveliness in the new sailor dress ravished his senses.

Such a girl! She had always been his, he told himself. He knew she would come back to him. Then a sober fear a.s.sailed him again, that contradicted his faith.

"Belle-Ann," he queried, "when yo'-all git yore deah little haid stuffed with th' larnin', an' th' high-tucked ways at th' school--an' know all 'bout books an' sich, mebby yo'-all won't never 'low t' c.u.m back heah agin? Mebby I won't never see yo'-all agin, deah little gal, eh?"

She stopped and stood rigid.

"I kin promise thet, Lem. Heah, watch me, I cross my heart thesaway, Lem--see? Now kiss my han'. I'll sho' c.u.m back some day, Lem--I promise."

Eagerly, ravenously, he grasped her small hand, brown, but fine-textured. A dozen times he kissed it hotly, fervently, wrung with sorrow. So much might happen before he saw her again!

At this juncture, a cow-horn sounded, and they knew that Belle-Ann's father was waiting. The time of parting was at hand. That vibrant horn-call sank deep into Lem's smarting soul.

"Kiss me heah, Lem," the girl said, showing the top of her head. He well knew what she meant.