The Cattle-Baron's Daughter Part 33

The wind that roared about them cut short the colloquy, and a minute or two later Allonby became sensible that Clavering was speaking again.

"Larry and the other man must have dropped into the soft snow when the team slowed up on the up grade, knowing the horses would go on until they reached their stable," he said. "Well, they'll be away through the bluff now, and a brigade of cavalry would scarcely find them on such a night. In fact, we will have to trust the beasts to take us home."

Just then the Sheriff, with one or two cow-boys, rode up, and Allonby, who did not like the man, laughed as he signed him to stop.

"You can go back and get your driving horses in. We have been chasing a sleigh with no one in it," he said. "Larry has beaten us again!"

XIX

TORRANCE ASKS A QUESTION

There was but one lamp lighted in the hall at Cedar Range, and that was turned low, but there was light enough to satisfy Clavering, who stood beneath it with Hetty's maid close beside him and a little red leather case in his hand. The girl's eyes were eager, but they were fixed upon the case and not the man, who had seen the keenness in them and was not displeased. Clavering had met other women in whom cupidity was at least as strong as vanity.

"Now I wonder if you can guess what is inside there, and who it is for,"

he said.

The maid drew a trifle nearer, stooping slightly over the man's hand, and she probably knew that the trace of shyness, which was not all a.s.sumed, became her. She was also distinctly conscious that the pose she fell into displayed effectively a prettily rounded figure.

"Something for Miss Torrance?" she said.

Clavering's laugh was, as his companion noticed, not quite spontaneous.

"No," he said. "I guess you know as well as I do that Miss Torrance would not take anything of this kind from me. She has plenty of them already."

The maid knew this was a fact, for she had occasionally spent a delightful half-hour adorning herself with Hetty's jewellery.

"Well," she said, with a little tremor of antic.i.p.ation in her voice, "what is inside it?"

Clavering laid the case in her hand. "It is yours," he said. "Just press that spring."

It was done, and she gasped as a gleam of gold and a coloured gleam met her eyes. "My!" she said. "They're real--and it's for me?"

Clavering smiled a little, and taking her fingers lightly closed them on the case.

"Of course," he said. "Well, you're pleased with it?"

The sparkle in the girl's eyes and the little flush in her face was plain enough, but the man's soft laugh was perfectly genuine. It was scarcely a gift he had made her; but while he expected that the outlay upon the trinket would be repaid him, he could be generous when it suited him, and was quite aware that a less costly lure would have served his purpose equally. He also knew when it was advisable to offer something more tasteful than the obtrusive dollar.

"Oh," said the girl, "it's just lovely!"

Clavering, who had discretion, did not look round, but, though he kept his dark eyes on his companion's face, he listened carefully. He could hear the wind outside, and the crackle of the stove, but nothing else, and knew that the footsteps of anyone approaching would ring tolerably distinctly down the corridor behind the hall. He also remembered that the big door nearest them was shut.

"Well," he said, "it wouldn't do to put anything that wasn't pretty on a neck like that, and I wonder if you would let me fix it."

The girl made no protest; but though she saw the admiration in the man's dark eyes as she covertly looked up, it would have pleased her better had he been a trifle more clumsy. His words and glances were usually bold enough, but, as he clasped the little brooch on, his fingers were almost irritatingly deft and steady. Men, she knew, did not make fools of themselves from a purely artistic appreciation of feminine comeliness.

"Now," she said, slipping away from him with a blush, "I wonder what you expect for this."

Clavering's eyebrows went up and there was a faint a.s.sumption of haughtiness in his face, which became it.

"Only the pleasure of seeing it where it is. It's a gift," he said.

"Well," said the girl, "that was very kind of you; but you're quite sure you never gave Miss Torrance anything of this kind?"

"No. I think I told you so."

The maid was not convinced. "But," she said, looking at him sideways, "I thought you did. She has a little gold chain, very thin, and not like the things they make now--and just lately she is always wearing it."

"I never saw it."

The girl smiled significantly. "I guess that's not astonis.h.i.+ng. She wears it low down on her neck--and the curious thing is that it lay by and she never looked at it for ever so long."

Clavering felt that the dollars the trinket had cost him had not been wasted; but though he concealed his disgust tolerably well, the maid noticed it. She had, however, vague ambitions, and a scarcely warranted conviction that, given a fair field, she could prove herself a match for her mistress.

"Then, if it wasn't you, it must have been the other man," she said.

"The other man?"

"Yes," with a laugh. "The one I took the wallet with the dollars to."

Clavering hoped he had not betrayed his astonishment; but she had seen the momentary flash in his eyes and the involuntary closing of his hand.

"Now," he said firmly, "that can't be quite straight, and one should be very careful about saying that kind of thing."

The girl looked at him steadily. "Still, I took a wallet with dollar bills in it to Mr. Grant--at night. I met him on the bluff, and Miss Torrance sent them him."

It was possible that Clavering would have heard more had he followed the line of conduct he had adopted at first; but he stood thoughtfully silent instead, which did not by any means please his companion as well. He had a vague notion that this was a mistake; but the anger he did not show was too strong for him. Then, he fancied he heard a footstep on the stairway, and laughed in a somewhat strained fas.h.i.+on.

"Well, we needn't worry about that; and I guess if I stay here any longer, Mr. Torrance will be wondering where I have gone," he said.

He went out by one door, and a few moments later Miss Schuyler came in by another. She swept a hasty glance round the hall, most of which was in the shadow, and her eyes caught the faint sparkle at the maid's neck. The next moment the girl moved back out of the light; but Miss Schuyler saw her hand go up, and fancied there was something in it when it came down again.

She had also heard a man's footstep, and could put two and two together.

"Miss Torrance wants the silk. It was here, but I don't see it," she said.

"Who went out a moment or two ago?"

The girl opened a bureau. "Mr. Clavering. He left his cigar-case when he first came in."

She took out a piece of folded silk, and Miss Schuyler noticed the fas.h.i.+on in which she held it.

"It is the lighter shade we want; but the other piece is very like it.

Unroll it so I can see it," she said.

The maid seemed to find this somewhat difficult; but Miss Schuyler had seen a strip of red leather between the fingers of one hand, and understanding why it was so, went out thoughtfully. She knew the appearance of a jewel-case tolerably well, and had more than a suspicion as to whom the girl had obtained it from. Miss Schuyler, who would not have believed Clavering's a.s.sertion about the trinket had she heard it, wondered what he expected in exchange for it, which perhaps accounted for the fact that she contrived to overtake him in the corridor at the head of the stairs.