CHAPTER XIV
THE BREAKING POINT
Eve and Will were at supper. The girl's brown eyes had lost their oldgentle smile. Their soft depths no longer contained that well ofgirlish hope, that trusting joy of life. It seemed as if the curtainof romance had been torn aside, and the mouldering skeleton of lifehad been laid bare to her. There was trouble and pain in her look,there was fear, too; nor was it quite plain the nature of her fear. Itmay have been that fear of the future which comes to natures wherelove is the mainspring of responsibility. It may have been the fear ofthe weaker vessel, where harshness and brutality are threatened. Itmay have been a fear inspired by health already undermined by anxietyand worry. The old happy light was utterly gone from her eyes as shesilently partook of the frugal supper her own hands had prepared.
Will Henderson moodily devoured his food at the opposite end of thetable. The third of their household was not there. Elia rarely tookhis meals with them. He preferred them by himself, for he hated anddreaded Will's tongue, which, though held in some check when he wassober, never failed to sting the boy when Silas Rocket's whiskey haddone its work.
The meal was nearly finished, and husband and wife had exchanged not asingle word. Eve wished to talk; there was so much she wanted to sayto him. The flame of her love still burned in her gentle bosom, but itwas a flame sorely blown about by the storm winds of their briefmarried life. But somehow she could not utter the words she wanted to.There was no encouragement. There was a definite but intangible bar totheir expression. The brutal silence of the man chilled her, andfrightened her.
Finally it was he who spoke, and he made some sort of effort to hidethe determination lying behind his words.
"How much money have you got, Eve?" he demanded, pushing his plateaway with a movement which belied his tone. It was a question whichhad a familiar ring to the ears of the troubled girl.
"Thirty dollars," she said patiently. Then she sighed.
The man promptly threw aside all further mask.
"For God's sake don't sigh like that! You'll be sniveling directly.One would think I was doin' you an injury asking you a simplequestion."
"It's not that, Will. I'm thinking of what's going to happen whenthat's gone. It's got to last us a month. Then I get my money fromCarrie Horsley and Mrs. Crombie. They owe me seventy dollars betweenthem for their summer suits. I've got several orders, but folks aretight here for money, and it's always a matter of waiting."
"Can't you get an advance from 'em?"
That frightened look suddenly leaped again into the girl's eyes.
"Oh, Will!"
"Oh, don't start that game!" the man retorted savagely. "We've got tolive, I s'pose. You'll earn the money. That sort of thing is done inevery business. You make me sick." He lit his pipe and blew greatclouds of smoke across the table. "I tell you what it is, we can'tafford to keep your brother doing nothing all the time. If you insiston keeping him you must find the money--somewhere. It's no use beingproud. We're hard up, and if people owe you money, well--dun 'em forit. I don't know how it is, but this darned business of yours seems tohave gone to pieces."
"It's not gone to pieces, Will," Eve protested. "I've made more moneythis last four months than ever before." The girl's manner had apatience in it that came from her brief but bitter experiences.
"Then what's become of the money?"
But Eve's patience had its limits. The cruel injustice of his sneeringquestion drove her beyond endurance.
"Oh, Will," she cried, "and you can sit there and ask such aquestion! Where has it gone?" She laughed without any mirth. "It'sgone with the rest, down at the saloon, where you've gambled itaway. It's gone because I've been a weak fool and listened to yourtalk of gambling schemes which have never once come off. Oh, Will, Idon't want to throw this all up at you. Indeed, indeed, I don't. Butyou drive me to it with your unkindness, which--which I can'tunderstand. Don't you see, dear, that I want to make you happy,that I want to help you? You must see it, and yet you treat meworse--oh, worse than a nigger! Why is it? What have I done? Godknows you can have all, everything I possess in the world. I would doanything for you, but--but--you---- Sometimes I think you havelearned to hate me. Sometimes I think the very sight of me rousesall that is worst in you. What is it, dear? What is it that hascome between us? What have I done to make you like this?"
She paused, her eyes full of that pain and misery which her tonguecould never adequately express. She wanted to open her heart to him,to let him see all the gold of her feelings for him, but his moodyunresponsiveness set her tongue faltering and left her groping blindlyfor the cause of the trouble between them.
It was some moments before Will answered her. He sat glaring at thetable, the smoke of his pipe clouding the still air of the neatkitchen. He knew he was facing a critical moment in their lives. Hesaw dimly that he had, for his own interests, gone a shade too far.Eve was not a weakling, she was a woman of distinct character, andeven in his dull, besotted way he detected at last that note ofrebellion underlying her appeal. Suddenly he looked up and smiled.But it was not altogether a pleasant smile. It was against hisinclination, and was ready to vanish on the smallest provocation.
"You're taking things wrong, Eve," he said, and the strain ofattempting a conciliatory attitude made the words come sharply. "Whatdo I want your money for, but to try and make more with it? Do youthink I want you to keep me? I haven't come to that yet." His tone wasrapidly losing its veneer of restraint. "Guess I can work all right.No, no, my girl, you haven't got to keep me yet. But money gets money,and you ought to realize it. I admit my luck at 'draw' has beenbad--rotten!" He violently knocked his pipe out on a plate. "But it'sgot to change. I can play with the best of 'em, an' they play astraight game. What's losing a few nights, if, in the end, I get a bigstake? Why Restless helped himself to a hundred dollars last night.And I'm going to to-night."
He sat glaring at the table, the smoke of his pipeclouding the still air of the neat kitchen.]
"But, Will, you've said that every night for the last month. Why notbe fair with yourself? Your luck is out; give it up. Will, give up thesaloon for--for my sake. Do, dear." Eve rose and went round to theman's side, and laid a tenderly persuasive hand upon his shoulder. Shewas only waiting for a fraction of encouragement. But that fractionwas not forthcoming. Instead he shook her off. But he tried to do itpleasantly.
"Here, sit you down, Eve, and listen to me. I'm going to tell yousomething that I hadn't intended to, only--only you're bothering sucha hell of a lot."
His language passed. She was used to it now. And she sat shrinking athis rebuff, but curious and half fearful at what he might have to tellher.
"I'm going to have a flutter to-night, no matter what comes, make yourmind up to that. And, win or lose, it's my last. Get that? But I'vegot a definite reason for it. You see I haven't been as idle as youthink. I've been hunting around on the trail of Peter Blunt. Folks allthink him a fool, and cranky some. I never did. He's been a goldprospector most of his life. And it's not likely he don't know. Well,I'm not giving you a long yarn, and to cut it short, I'm right on to abig find. At least I've got color in a placer up at the head waters,and to-morrow I go out to work it for all it's worth. No, I'm notgoing to tell even you where it is. You see it's a placer, and anybodycould work it, and I'd be cut clean out if others got to know where itwas. You savvee?"
Eve nodded, but without conviction. The man detected her lack ofbelief, and that brutal light which was so often in his eyes nowsuddenly flamed up. But after a moment of effort he banished it, andresorted to an imitation of jocularity.
"So now, old girl, hand over that thirty dollars. I'm going to make a'coup,' and to-morrow begins a period of--gold. I give you my word youshall get it--sure as I'm a living man. I'm not talking foolish. Theshining yellow stuff is there for the taking. And so easy, too."
He waited with a grin of cunning on his lips. He was intoxicated withhis own surety. And, curiously, well as Eve knew him, that certaintycommunicated it
self to her in spite of her reason. But the matter ofhanding over the thirty dollars was different.
A hard light crept into her eyes as she looked down at him from whereshe stood. Though he did not know it, he was rapidly killing all thelove she had for him. Eve was one of those women who can love withevery throb of their being. Self had no place in her. The man sheloved was, as a natural consequence, her all. Kill her love and shecould be as cold and indifferent as marble. At one time in their briefmarried life those dollars would never have been considered. Theywould have been his without the asking. Now----
She shook her head decidedly.
"You can't have them," she said firmly. "They've got to keep us for amonth. If you depend on them for a game, you had better wait till youget the gold from your placer." She moved away, talking as she went."There's not only ourselves to consider. There's Elia. I----"
But she got no further. The mention of her brother's name suddenlyinfuriated the man.
"Don't talk to me of that little devil!" he cried. "I want thosethirty dollars, d'you understand?" He crashed his fist on the tableand set the supper things clattering. "You talk to me of Elia! Thatdevil's imp has been in the way ever since we got married. And d'youthink I'm going to stand for him now?" He sprang to his feet, his eyesblazing with that fury which of late he rarely took the trouble tokeep in check. "See here," he cried, "you've preached to me enough forone night, and, fool-like, I've listened to you. I listen to no more.So, just get busy and hand over those dollars."
But if he was in a fury, he had contrived to stir Eve as he had neverstirred her before.
"You'll not get a cent of them," she cried, her eyes lighting withsudden cold anger.
For a moment they stood eyeing each other. There was no flinching inEve now, no appeal, no fear. And the man's fury was driving himwhither it would. He was gathering himself for a final outburst, andwhen it came it was evident he had lost all control of himself.
"You ----! I'll have those dollars if I have to take 'em!"
"You shall not!"
Will flung his pipe to the ground and dashed at Eve like a madman. Hecaught her by the shoulders, and gripped the warm rounded flesh untilthe pain made her writhe under his clutch.
"Where are they?" he demanded, with another furious oath. "I'm goingto have 'em. Speak! Speak, you ---- or I'll----"
But Eve was obdurate. Her courage was greater than her strength. Heshook her violently, clutching at her shoulders as though to squeezethe information he needed out of her. But he got no answer, and, in asudden access of demoniacal rage, he swung her round and hurled heracross the room with all his strength. She fell with a thud, andbeyond a low moan lay quite still. Her head had struck the sharp angleof the coal box.
In a moment the man had passed into the bedroom in search of themoney. Nor did he have to search far. Eve kept her money in one placealways, and he knew where it was. Having possessed himself of the rollof bills he came out into the kitchen. He looked about him, and hisfurious eyes fell upon the prostrate form of his wife. She was lyingbeside the coal box in the attitude in which she had fallen. He wentover to her, and stood for a second gazing down at the result of hishandiwork.
But there was neither pity nor remorse in his heart. For the time atleast he hated her. She had dared to defy him, she had twitted himwith his gaming, she had refused him--in favor of Elia. He toldhimself all this, and, as he looked down at the still figure, he toldhimself it served her right, and that she would know better in thefuture. But he waited until he detected the feeble rise and fall ofher bosom. Then he went out, conscious of a certain feeling of reliefin spite of his rage.
The One-Way Trail: A story of the cattle country Page 16