CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
THE LONG DAY CLOSES
"Well," observed Sam Prescott, "folks will be sending Bill to Congressnext. Directly or indirectly, he sure has put a crimp in countypolitics."
"Yes," assented his daughter, "now that the grand jury have indictedCraft, Larder, Murray and Rale, there isn't anything left of theCrocker County ring but the hole."
"Maybe now Hazel will make it up with him."
"Maybe." With some indifference.
"Shucks, and he used to like you, Sally Jane."
"But I never liked him--enough." This with more indifference.
"More fool you. Bill's going to get there, and you can stick a pin inthat."
She bounced up from her chair and ruffled her father's grizzled hair."I'd rather stick a pin in you, Samuel. Where did Hazel go?"
"Room, I guess. I don't know what's got into the child. She didn'teat enough breakfast for a fly."
"She has been acting pretty meaching the last few days. I'll go seewhat's the matter."
Sally Jane found Hazel folding up her clothes as fast as she couldfold. The bureau drawers were empty. Everything was on the bed.
"What on earth--" began Sally Jane.
"I'm going home," said Hazel, keeping her face turned away.
The direct Sally Jane cupped a hand under Hazel's chin. "Let me seesomething. I _thought_ so. What's the matter?"
"Nothing," declared Hazel, beginning to sniff a little.
"Then why don't you tell him so?"
"_Him_? Him?"
"Yes, him. Bill. Mr. William H. Wingo. The sheriff of CrockerCounty. That's what _I'd_ do if _I_ loved him."
"I don't love him," snapped Hazel, the shine in her black eyes givingthe lie to her words.
"You blessed child," said Sally Jane, and threw her arms around Hazeland drew her to her breast. "You blessed child. I don't know whatever came between you and Bill, but something did, and if you've got anatom of sense in your head, you'll move heaven and earth to make it upwith him."
"He doesn't love me any more," declared Hazel, her emotion getting thebetter of her.
"Do you love him?" probed the older girls.
A pronounced sniffle.
"Do you?"
"I always have," came the dragging confession.
"Then, for heaven's sake, tell him so! I'll bet he loves you fastenough! Land alive, if you've got Love in your grasp, don't turn itdown! Love is the greatest thing in the world, and if you throw itaway, you'll never have any luck the rest of your life. And you won'tdeserve any either."
Hazel drew out a damp ball of a handkerchief and blew her nosevigorously. "It's no use," she told her friend with a catch in hervoice. "I couldn't tell him. I just couldn't."
Sally Jane flung up her hands. "You're a coward, that's what you are.A moral coward. If I loved a man, which I don't, I'd tell him so, thatis, providing he didn't tell me first," she added thoughtfully.
Hazel stooped to pick up a fallen chemise. "You're--you're different,Sally Jane. Besides, he doesn't love me any more. So it wouldn't doany good."
"Oh, no, of course not," Sally Jane waxed sarcastic. "And they say allmules are quadrupeds! Look here, Hazel, if it hadn't been for him,you'd be in a fine fix right now. Why, that Rale man-- Oh, you makeme so mad I could shake you! I've told you more'n once how much youowe Bill. Look how he fought for you. Look-- Oh, Lord! Haven't yougot any gratitude at all?"
"Plenty," Hazel replied over her shoulder. "But my gratitude can'tmake him love me."
Sally Jane put her hand on her friend's shoulders and turned heraround. "I tell you, you're making a mistake. I tell you he does loveyou. You remember that last winter he came here several times, and hecertainly didn't come to see me or Dad. And you weren't overlycordial, you know, Hazel. You didn't fall on his neck exactly."
"I'm not going to throw myself at any man's head!"
"Oh, don't be so high-strung! You're too proud for any human use! AndBill's just like you, the stiff-necked lollop!"
"He is not!" Hazel cried, with a decided flash of temper. "He's notstiff-necked! He's not a lollop! Oh, Sally dear, don't spoileverything," she begged. "You've been so good to me."
Sally Jane immediately changed her tune. "But why leave here? Why gohome?"
"Because I've imposed on you long enough. I'll be safe there--now."
Sally Jane looked long into the eyes of Hazel Walton. "All right," shesaid shortly. "I'll drive you over myself."
Billy Wingo stretched out his long legs and absent-mindedly hacked theedge of his desk with a pocket knife. "I told her she'd have to cometo me and put her arms around my neck and tell me I was right and shewas wrong, and now I've got to stick to it, damitall! Bill, you idiot,you always did let your tongue run away with you. Always. And now shewon't make it up. Three days now, since I got my job back, and not aword. Not a word. Well, one thing is certain sure, I ain't going torun after her. I ain't, not by a jugful."
"His lips are moving, but he ain't sayin' anything," announced RileyTyler in a loud, cheerful tone. "Do you think he's going crazy,Shotgun, or is it only the beginnings of droolin' old age?"
"I dunno," said Shotgun. "Better watch him. If he begins to gibberand pull out his hair, he's looney and we'll have to tie him down, Iexpect. Is your rope strong, Riley?"
"You fellers," Billy remarked with dignity, "make me more tired than aweek's work."
So saying, he arose and went to the corner where his saddle and bridlelay. Three minutes later he rode out of Golden Bar.
"He's taken the Hillsville trail," said Riley Tyler, his nose flattenedagainst the window pane. "Where do you suppose he's going?"
"Going to spend some of the reward money, I expect. Joke on you,Riley, having to dig up a thousand plunks you haven't got."
"I'd rather owe it to him than cheat him out of it," grinned Riley, whohad long since spent the money obtained from Jack Murray. "Alla same,I'll pay him when I get it. You lend me a hundred, Shotgun."
"Go 'way from me!" snarled Shotgun, flapping both hands at him. "Ifyou're looking for easy money, sit into a game of draw, or rob a bankor somethin'. You won't get a single wheel from me. Nawsir!"
Billy, riding the Hillsville road, came at last to the mouth of thedraw that led to Walton's. He stopped his horse and looked along thedraw. Then he looked along the road.
"Of course, I was going to Hillsville," he lied rapidly to himself,"but I don't suppose it would hurt to sort of ride past her house.Seems to me I heard somethin' about her leaving Prescott's. It may notbe true, and then again-- Let's go, feller."
Feller headed obediently into the draw.
Hazel Walton, sewing in the front room, saw a rider coming up the draw."That looks like Bill's horse," she muttered. "And Bill's hat. It--itis Bill."
Her heart began to pound. Her throat constricted. There was somethingthe matter with her knees. She dropped the sewing in her lap andclasped her hands together. She breathed in little gasps.
Billy Wingo came on. He came quite close--within twenty yards andstopped his horse and rested his hands on the saddle horn, and lookedat the house. Just looked.
Although she knew he could not see her through the scrim curtains, shedrew her chair a little away and to one side.
He pushed back his hat with the old familiar gesture. His face wasexpressionless. There were hollows under his eyes. He looked thin.Poor boy. He had had an awfully hard time. And he had fought for her.He had risked his life for her. Certainly she owed him a gooddeal,--everything, in fact. And here she couldn't even find sufficientcourage to thank him. As though thanks, empty thanks, could possiblybe adequate. Sally Jane was right. She was a coward. And proud.Especially proud. She shivered.
Suddenly Billy pulled his hat forward and picked up his reins. She sawhis heel move. The horse began to turn. It was then that somethingsnapped in Hazel's breast. Strength came to her shaking knees. Shesprang to
her feet, ran to the door, flung it open and dashed out.Billy's startled horse shied away. Billy dragged him back with a jerk.
Six feet from the horse Hazel stopped and stood very straight, her armsstiff at her sides. Her knees began to shake again. She knew that hervoice would tremble. It did. "Bill, I--I've changed my mind. I waswrong. I--you--you did the right thing to see it through. If--if youhadn't, I don't know what would have become of me."
Then, of a sudden, he was off his horse, his arms were around her, andshe knew that all her troubles were over.
THE END
Other Books by William Patterson White
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