Butyou're all a rotten lot----"
"Hold on," he interrupted, "what do you mean by that?"
"I mean that the only men who ever come to Star Pond are crooks," sheretorted bitterly. "I didn't believe you were. You look decent. Butyou're as crooked as the rest of them -- and it seems as if I -- Icouldn't stand it -- any longer----"
"If you think me so rotten, why did you run all the way form Clinch's towarn me?" he asked curiously.
"I didn't do it for _you;_ I did it for my father. They'll jail him ifthey catch him hiding you. They've got it in for him. If they put himin prison he'll die. He couldn't stand it. I _know._ And that's why Icame to find you and tell you to clear out----"
The distant crack of a dry stick checked her. The next instant shepicked up his rifle, seized his arm, and fairly dragged him into aspruce thicket.
"Do you want to get my father into trouble!" she said fiercely.
The rocky flank of Star Peak bordered the marsh here.
"Come on," she whispered, jerking him along the thicket and up the rocksto a cleft -- a hole in the sheer rock overhung by shaggy hemlock.
"Get in there," she said breathlessly.
"Whoever comes," he protested, "will see the buck yonder, and willcertainly look in here----"
"Not if I go down there and take your medicine. Creep into that caveand lie down."
"What do you intend to do?" he demanded, interested and amused.
"If it's one of Harrod's game-keepers," said the girl, drily, "it onlymeans a summons and a fine for me. And if it's a State Trooper, who isprowling in the woods yonder hunting crooks, he'll find nobody here buta trespasser. Keep quiet. I'll stand him off."
* * * * *
IV
When State Trooper Stormont came out on the edge of Owl Marsh, the girlwas kneeling by the water, washing deer blood from her slender,sun-tanned fingers.
"What are you doing here?" she enquired, looking up over her shoulderwith a slight smile.
"Just having a look around," he said pleasantly. "That's a nice fatbuck you have there."
"Yes, he's nice."
"You shot him?" asked Stormont.
"Who else do you suppose shot him?" she enquired, smilingly. She rinsedher fingers again and stood up, swinging her arms to dry her hands, -- alithe, grey-shirted figure in her boyish garments, straight, supple, andstrong.
"I saw you hurrying into the woods," said Stormont.
"Yes, I was in a hurry. We need meat."
"I didn't notice that you carried a rifle when I saw you leave the house-- by the back door."
"No; it was in the woods," she said indifferently.
"You have a hiding place for your rifle?"
"For other things, also," she said, letting her eyes of gentian-bluerest on the young man.
"You seem to be very secretive."
"Is a girl more so than a man?" she asked smilingly.
Stormont smiled too, then became grave.
"Who else was here with you?" he asked quietly.
She seemed surprised. "Did you see anybody else?"
He hesitated, flushed, pointed down at the wet sphagnum. Smith'sfoot-prints were there in damning contrast to her own. Worse than that,Smith's pipe lay on an embedded log, and a rubber tobacco pouch besideit.
She said with a slight catch in her breath: "It seems that somebody hasbeen here. ... Some hunter, perhaps, -- or a game warden. ..."
"Or Hal Smith," said Stormont.
A painful colour swept the girl's face and throat. The man, sorry forher, looked away.
After a silence: "I know something about you," he said gently. "And nowthat I've seen you -- heard you speak -- met your eyes -- I know enoughabout you to form an opinion. ... So I don't ask you to turn informer.But the law won't stand for what Clinch is doing -- whatever provocationhe has had. And he must not aid or abet any criminal, or harbour anymalefactor."
The girl's features were expressionless. The passive, sullen beauty ofher troubled the trooper.
"Trouble for Clinch means sorrow for you," he said. "I don't want youto be unhappy. I bear Clinch no ill will. For this reason I ask him,and I ask you too, to stand clear of this affair.
"Hal Smith is wanted. I'm here to take him."
As she said nothing, he looked down at the foot-print in the sphagnum.Then his eyes moved to the next imprint; to the next. Then he movedslowly along the water's edge, tracking the course of the man he wasfollowing.
The girl watched him in silence until the plain trail led him to thespruce thicket.
"Don't go in there!" she said sharply, with an odd tremor in her voice.
He turned and looked at her, then stepped calmly into the thicket. Andthe next instant she was among the spruces, too, confronting him withher rifle.
"Get out of these woods!" she said.
He looked into the girl's deathly white face.
"Eve," he said, "it will go hard with you if you kill me, I don't wantyou to live out your life in prison."
"I can't help it. If you send my father to prison he'll die. I'drather die myself. Let us alone, I tell you! The man you're after isnothing to us. We didn't know he had stuck up anybody!"
"If he's nothing to you, why do you point that rifle at me?"
"I tell you his is nothing to us. But my father wouldn't betray a dog.And I won't. That's all. Now get out of these woods and come backto-morrow. Nobody'll interfere with you then."
Stormont smiled: "Eve," he said, "do you really think me as yellow asthat?"
Her blue eyes flashed a terrible warning, but, in the same instant, hehad caught her rifle, twisting it out of her grasp as it exploded.
The detonation dazed her; then, as he flung the rifle into the water,she caught him by neck and belt and flung him bodily into the spruces.
But she fell with him; he held her twisting and struggling with all hersuperb and supple strength; staggered to his feet, still mastering her;and, as she struggled, sobbing, locked hot and panting in his arms, hesnapped a pair of handcuffs on her wrists and flung her aside.
She fell on both knees, got up, shoulder deep in spruce, blood runningfrom her lip over her chin.
The trooper took her by the arm. She was trembling all over. He took athin steel chain and padlock from his pocket, passed the links aroundher steel-bound wrists, and fastened her to a young birch tree.
Then, drawing his pistol from its holster, he went swiftly forwardthrough the spruces.
When he saw the cleft in the rocky flank of Star Peak, he walkedstraight to the black hole which confronted him.
"Come out of there," he said distinctly.
After a few seconds Smith came out.
"Good God!" said Stormont in a low voice. "What are you doing here,Darragh?"
Darragh came close and rested one hand on Stormont's shoulder:
"Don't crab my game, Stormont. I never dreamed you were in theConstabulary or I'd have let you know."
"Are _you_ Hal Smith?"
"I sure am. Where's the girl?"
"Handcuffed out yonder."
"Then for God's sake go back and ac as if you hadn't found me. TellMayor Chandler that I'm after bigger game than he is."
"Clinch?"
"Stormont, I'm here to _protect_ Mike Clinch. Tell the Mayor not totouch him. The men I'm after are going to try to rob him. I don't wantthem to because -- well, I'm going to rob him myself."
Stormont stared.
"You must stand by me," said Darragh. "So must the Mayor. He knows methrough and through. Tell him to forget that hold-up. I stopped thatman Sard. I frisked him. Tell the Mayor. I'll keep in touch withhim."
"Of course," said Stormont, "that settles it."
"Thanks, old chap. Now go back to that girl and let her believe thatyou never found me."
A slight smile touched their eyes. Both instinctively saluted. Thenthey shook hands; Darragh, alias Hal Smith, went back into thehemlock-shaded hole in the rocks; Trooper Stormont walked sl
owly downthrough the spruces.
When Eve saw him returning empty handed, something flashed in her pallidface like sunlight across snow.
Stormont passed her, went to the water's edge, soaked a spicy handful ofsphagnum moss in the icy water, came back and wiped the blood from herface.
The girl seemed astounded; her face surged in vivid colour as heunlocked the handcuffs and pocketed them and the little steel chain.
Her lip was bleeding again. He washed it with wet moss, took a cleanhandkerchief
The Flaming Jewel Page 4