XXII
A Woman's Love
It is useless for me to try to picture the consternation which fellupon the four of us when the deputy warden touched me on the shoulderand spoke to me. I can't describe it. I only know that Barrett sprangup, gritting out the first oath I had ever heard him utter; that a lookof shocked and complete recognition leaped into the mild brown eyes ofthe old metallurgist; that Polly was standing up with her armsoutstretched across the table as if she were trying to reach me anddrag me out of the crushing wreck of all our hopes.
When he found that I was not going to offer any resistance, Cummingswas very decent--not to say kindly. He let me walk with the others outof the dining-room; made no show of his authority in the rotunda or atthe elevators to point me out as a prisoner; and in the up-stairs roomto which he took me, pending the departure-time of the earliesteastbound train, he let me see and talk, first with Barrett, andafterward with my wife.
In this most trying exigency Barrett proved to be all that my fancy hadever pictured the truest of friends. His first word assured me that hemeant to stand by me to the last ditch, and I knew it was the word of aman who never knew when he was beaten. While Cummings smoked a cigarin the window-seat I told Barrett the whole pitiful story, beginningwith the night when I had promised Agatha Geddis that I would pull herfather out of the hole he had digged for himself and ending with myappearance in the Cripple Creek construction camp.
Barrett believed the story, and I didn't have to wait for him to tellme so. I could see it in his eyes.
"Jimmie!" he said, wringing my hand as if he would crush it, "you'vegot the two of us behind you--I'm speaking for Gifford because I knowexactly what he will say. We'll spend every dollar that ever comes outof the Little Clean-Up, if needful, to buy you justice! But I wish youhad told me all this before; and, more than that, I wish you had toldPolly."
"My God, Bob!" I groaned; "don't rub it in!" And then I told himbrokenly how I had known Polly as a little girl in Glendale, and how Iwas certain that her father had more than once been on the verge ofrecognizing me. Then, in such fashion as I could, I made my will, ortried to, telling him that Polly must have her freedom, and that hemust help her get it, and that my share in the mine must go to her.
"It is the only return I can make her for the deception I have put uponher," I said; "and I want you to promise me that----"
In the midst of all this Barrett had turned aside, swearing under hisbreath, which was his only way, I took it, of letting me know how itwas rasping him. But now he whirled upon me and broke in savagely:
"Stop it, you damned maniac! If you have lived with Polly Everton awhole month and don't know her any better than that, you ought to beshot! She is waiting now to have her chance at you, and I'm not goingto take any more of her time." Then he went soft again: "You keep astiff upper lip, and we'll get you out of this if we have to retainevery lawyer this side of New York!"
Polly came so soon after Barrett left that I knew she must have beenwaiting in the corridor. Cummings was considerate enough to shift hissmoking-seat to the other window and to turn his back upon us. All thecynics in the world to the contrary notwithstanding, there is a tenderspot in the heart of every man that was ever born, if one can only befortunate enough to touch it.
"_My darling_!" That is what she said when I took her in my arms; andfor a long minute nothing else was said. Then she drew away and heldme at arm's length, and there was that in her dear eyes to make me feellike the soldier who faces the guns with a shout in his heart and asong on his lips, knowing that death itself cannot rob him of the GreatRecompense.
"You needn't say one word--Jimmie--_my husband_! I have known it all,every bit of it, from the first--from that Sunday morning when Daddytook me over to your mine," she whispered. "I--I loved you, dearest,when I was only a foolish little school-girl, and your sister and Ihave exchanged letters ever since Daddy and I left Glendale. So Iknew; knew when they sent you to prison for another man's crime, andknew, even better than your mother and sister did, why you let them doit. Oh, Jimmie!"--with a queer little twist of the sweet lips that washalf tears and half smile--"if you could only know how wretchedlyjealous I used to be of Agatha Geddis!"
"You needn't have been!" I burst out. "But you don't know it all.Last winter--in Denver----"
She nodded sorrowfully.
"Yes, dear; I knew that, too. I knew that Agatha Geddis was using youagain--against your will; and that this time she had a cruel whip inher hand. We had all heard of the broken parole; it was in the homenewspapers, and, besides, your sister wrote me about it."
"And in the face of all this, you----"
She nodded again, brightly this time, though her eyes were swimming.
"Yes, my lover--a thousand times, yes! And I knew this would come,too,--some time; this dreadful thing that has fallen upon us to-day. Iam heart-broken only for you, dear. What will they do to you?"
I told her briefly. They would make me serve the remaining two yearsof the original sentence, doubtless with an added penalty for thebroken regulations.
"Dear God--two years!" she gasped, with a quick little sob; and thenshe became my brave little girl again. "They will pass, Jimmie, dear,and they won't seem so terribly long when we remember what we arewaiting for. I'm going with you, you know--as far as they'll let me;and when things look their blackest you must remember that I'm onlyjust a little way off; just a little way--and waiting--and waiting----"
She broke down at the last and cried in my arms, and when she couldfind her voice again:
"It mustn't be two years, Jimmie; it would kill you, and me, too. They_must_ pardon you--you who have done no wrong! I'll go down on myknees to the Governor, and----"
There was something in this to send the blood tingling to myfinger-tips; to rouse the final reserves of manhood.
"Never!" I forbade. "You must never do that, Polly; and you mustn'tlet Barrett stir hand or foot in that direction. I shall come out anex-convict, if I have to, but never as a pardoned man with thepresumption of guilt fastened upon me for the remainder of my life.Promise me that you won't do anything like that!"
I don't know whether she promised or not. Cummings was stirringuneasily in his window and looking at his watch. I led Polly to thedoor, kissed her, and put her out into the corridor. The agony, thekeenest agony of all, was over, and I turned to the deputy warden."Whenever you are ready," I said.
Barrett was at the train when we went down, as I was sure he would be,and he seemed strangely excited.
"Give me just a minute with your prisoner, Mr. Cummings," he begged;and after the deputy warden had amiably turned his back: "I've just hada telegram from Gifford. The Lawrenceburg lawyers are offering tocompromise. They say that their owners are tired of dragging thequarrel through the courts, and they offer to buy us out, lock, stockand barrel, for five million dollars."
"After they've committed every crime in the calendar to smash us? Notfor a single minute!" I exploded.
"Right you are, Jimmie!--I knew you'd be with me!" he agreed defiantly."We'll fight 'em till the last dog's too dead to bury. There's a holein the bottom of the sea, somewhere, and we'll find it before we'rethrough with that piratical outfit. Here's your conductor: you'll haveto go. Polly will follow you in a day or two. I had a handful of itkeeping her from going on this train; but, of course, that wouldn't do.Put a good, stiff bone in your back, and remember that we shan't letup, day or night--any of us--until you're free again. Good-by, oldman, and God help you!"
Branded Page 22