_CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR_
They had no means of knowing when David would return and the ominousshadow of Joseph, lingering near the patio, determined Connor on a walkout of any possible earshot. They went down to the lake with the singingof the men on the other side of the hill growing dim as they descended.The cool of the day was beginning, and they walked close to the edge ofthe water with the brown treetrunks on one side and the green imagesfloating beyond. Peace lay over Eden valley and the bright river thatran through it, but Ben Connor had no mind to dwell on unessentials.
He had found in the girl an ally of unexpected strength. He expectedonly a difficult tool filled with scruples, drawing back, imperiling hisplans with her hesitation. Instead, she was on fire with the plan. Hethought well to fan that fire and keep it steadily blazing.
"It's better for David; better for him than it is for us. Look at thepoor fool! He's in prison here and doesn't know it. He thinks he'shappy, but he's simply kidding himself. In six months I'll have himchatting with millionaires."
"Let a barber do a day's work on him first."
"No. It's just the long-haired nuts like that who get by with thehigh-steppers. He has a lingo about flowers and trees that'll knocktheir eye out. I know the gang. Always on edge for somethingdifferent--music that sounds like a riot in a junk shop and poetry thatreads like a drunken printing-press. Well, David ought to be differentenough to suit 'em. I'll boost him, though: 'The Man that Brought Outthe Eden Grays!' He'll be headline stuff!"
He laughed so heartily that he did not notice the quick glance ofcriticism which the girl cast at him.
"I'm not taking anything from him, really," went on Connor. "I'm simplysneaking around behind him so's I can pour his pockets full of the coin.That's all there is to it. Outside of the looks, tell me if there'sanything crooked you can see?"
"I don't think there is," she murmured. "I almost hope that thereisn't!"
She was so dubious about it that Connor was alarmed. He was fond of RuthManning, but she was just "different" enough to baffle him. Usually hedivided mankind into three or four categories for the sake of fastthinking. There were the "boobs," the "regular guys," the "highsteppers," and the "nuts." Sometimes he came perilously close toincluding Ruth in the last class--with David Eden. And if he did not doso, it was mainly because she had given such an exhibition of coolcourage only a few moments before. He had finished his peroration, now,with a feeling of actual virtue, but the shadow on her face made himchange his tactics and his talk.
He confined himself, thereafter, strictly to the future. First heoutlined his plans for raising the cash for the big "killing." He toldof the men to whom he could go for backing. There were "hard guys" whowould take a chance. "Wise ones" who would back his judgment. "Fallguys" who would follow him blindly. For ten percent he would get all thecash he could place. Then it remained to try out the grays in secret,and in public let them go through the paces ridden under wraps andheavily weighted. He described the means of placing the big money beforethe great race.
And as he talked his figures mounted from tens to hundreds to thousands,until he was speaking in millions. In all of this profit she and Davidand Connor would share dollar for dollar. At the first corner of theshore they turned she had arrived at a snug apartment in New York. Shewould have a housekeeper-companion. There would be a cosy living roomand a paneled dining room. In the entrance hall of the apartment house,imitation of encrusted marble, no doubt.
But as they came opposite a little wooded island in the lake she hadadded a maid to the housekeeper. Also, there was now a guest room. Someone from Lukin would be in that room; some one from Lukin would gothrough the place with her, marveling at her good fortune.
And clothes! They made all the difference. Dressed as she would bedressed, when she came into a room that queer, cold gleam of envy wouldbe in the eyes of the women and the men would sit straighter!
Yet when they reached the place where the shore line turned north andwest her imagination, spurred by Connor's talk, was stumbling alongdizzy heights. Her apartment occupied a whole floor. Her butler was amiracle of dignity and her chef a genius in the kitchen. On the greattable the silver and glass were things of frosted light. Her chauffeurdrove a monster automobile with a great purring engine that whipped herabout the city with the color blown into her cheeks. In her box at theopera she was allowing the deep, soft luxury of the fur collar to slidedown from her throat, while along the boxes, in the galleries, there wasa ripple of light as the thousand glasses turned upon her. Then shefound that Connor was smiling at her. She flushed, but snapped herfingers.
"This thing is going through," she declared.
"You won't weaken?"
"I'm as cold as steel. Let's go back. He'll probably be in the house bythis time."
Time had slipped past her unnoticed, and the lake was violet and goldwith the sunset as they turned away; under the trees along the terracesthe brilliant wild flowers were dimmed by a blue shadow.
"But I never saw wild flowers like those," she said to Connor.
"Nobody else ever did. But old Matthew, whoever he was, grew 'em andkept crossing 'em until he got those big fellows with all the colors ofthe rainbow."
"Hurry! We're late!"
"No, David's probably on top of that hill, now; always goes up there towatch the sun rise and the sun set. Can you beat that?"
He chuckled, but a shade had darkened the face of the girl for a moment.Then she lifted her head resolutely.
"I'm not going to try to understand him. The minute you understand athing you stop being afraid of it; and as soon as I stop being afraid ofDavid Eden I might begin to like him--which is what I don't want."
"What's that?" cried Connor, breaking in on her last words. When Ruthbegan to think aloud he always stopped listening; it was a maxim of histo never listen when a woman became serious.
"It's that strange giant."
"Joseph!" exclaimed Connor heavily. "Whipping did him no good. He'llneed killing one of these days."
But she had already reverted to another thing.
"Do you think he worships the sun?"
"I don't think. Try to figure out a fellow like that and you get to bejust as much of a nut as he is. Go on toward the house and I'll followyou in a minute. I want to talk to big Joe."
He turned aside into the trees briskly, and the moment he was out ofsight of the girl he called softly: "Joseph!"
He repeated the call after a trifling wait before he saw the big mancoming unconcernedly through the trees toward him. Joseph came closebefore he stopped--very close, as a man will do when he wishes to makeanother aware of his size, and from this point of vantage, he lookedover Connor from head to foot with a glance of lingering and insolentcriticism. The gambler was somewhat amused and a little alarmed by thatattitude.
"Now, Joseph," he said, "tell me frankly why you're dodging me about thevalley. Waiting for a chance to throw stones?"
His smile remained without a reflection on the stolid face of theservant.
"Benjamin," answered the deep, solemn voice, "I know all!"
It made Connor peer into those broad features as into a dim light. Thena moment of reflection assured him that Joseph could not have learnedthe secret.
"Haneemar, whom you know," continued Joseph, "has told me about you."
"And where," asked Connor, completely at sea, "did you learn ofHaneemar?"
"From Abraham. And I know that this is the head of Haneemar."
He brought out in his palm the little watch-charm of carved ivory.
"Of course," nodded Connor, feeling his way. "And what is it that youknow from Haneemar?"
"That you are evil, Benjamin, and that you have come here for evil. Youentered by a trick; and you will stay here for evil purposes until theend."
"You follow around to pick up a little dope, eh?" chuckled Connor. "Youtrail me to find out what I intend to do? Why don't you go to David andwarn him?"
"Have I forgotten the whip?" asked Josep
h, his nostrils trembling withanger. "But the good Haneemar now gives me power and in the end he willbetray you into my hands. That is why I follow you. Wherever you go Ifollow; I am even able to know what you think! But hearken to me,Benjamin. Take back the head of Haneemar and the bad luck that lives init. Take it back, and I shall no longer follow you. I shall forget thewhip. I shall be ready to do you a service."
He extended the little piece of ivory eagerly, but Connor drew back. Hissuperstitions were under the surface of his mind, but, still, they werethere, and the fear which Joseph showed was contagious.
"Why don't you throw it away if you're afraid of it, Joseph?"
"You know as I know," returned Joseph, glowering, "that it cannot bethrown away. It must be given and freely accepted, as I--ohfool--accepted it from you."
There was such a profound conviction in this that Connor was affected inspite of himself. That little trinket had been the entering wedgethrough which he had worked his way into the Garden and started on theroad to fortune. He would rather have cut off his hand, now, than takeit back.
"Find some one else to take it," he suggested cheerily. "I don't wantthe thing."
"Then all that Abraham told me is true!" muttered Joseph, closing hishand over the trinket. "But I shall follow you, Benjamin. When you thinkyou are alone you shall find me by turning your head. Every day bysunrise and every day by the dark I beg Haneemar to put his curse onyou. I have done you no wrong, and you have had me shamed."
"And now you're going to have me bewitched, eh?" asked Connor.
"You shall see."
The gambler drew back another pace and through the shadows he saw thebeginning of a smile of animal-cunning on the face of Joseph.
"The devil take you and Haneemar together," he growled. "Remember this,Joseph. I've had you whipped once. The next time I'll have you flayedalive."
Instead of answering, Joseph merely grinned more openly, and thegambler, to forget the ape-face, wheeled and hurried out from the trees.The touch of nightmare dread did not leave him until he rejoined Ruth onthe higher terrace.
They found the patio glowing with light, the table near the fountain,and three chairs around it. David came out of the shadow of the arcadeto meet them, and he was as uneasy as a boy who had a surprise forgrown-ups. He had not even time for a greeting.
"You have not seen your room?" he said to Ruth. "I have made it readyfor you. Come!"
He led the way half a pace in front, glancing back at them as though toreprove their slowness, until he reached a door at which he turned andfaced her, laughing with excitement. She could hardly believe that thisman with his childish gayety was the same whose fury had terrified theservants that same afternoon.
"Close your eyes--close them fast. You will not look until I say?"
She obeyed, setting her teeth to keep from smiling.
"Now come forward--step high for the doorway. So! You are in. Nowwait--now open your eyes and look!"
She obeyed again and saw first David standing back with an anxious smileand the gesture of one who reveals, but is not quite sure of its effect.Then she heard a soft, startled exclamation from Connor behind her. Lastof all she saw the room.
It was as if the walls had been broken down and a garden let inside--itgave an effect of open air, sunlight and wind. Purple flowers like warmshadows banked the farther corners, and out of them rose a great vinedraping the window. It had been torn bodily from the earth, and now theroots were packed with damp moss, yellow-green. It bore in clusters andsingle flowers and abundant bloom, each blossom as large as the mallow,and a dark gold so rich that Ruth well-nigh listened for the murmur ofbees working this mine of pollen. From above, the great flowers hungdown against the dull red of the sunset sky; and from below the distanttreetops on the terrace pointed up with glimmers of the lake between.There was only the reflected light of the evening, now, but the cuplikeblossoms were filled to the brim with a glow of their own.
She looked away.
A dapple deerskin covered the bed like the shadow under a tree inmid-day, and the yellow of the flowers was repeated dimly on the floorby a great, tawny hide of a mountain-lion. She took up some of thepurple flowers, and letting the velvet petals trail over her fingertips, she turned to David with a smile. But what Connor saw, and sawwith a thrill of alarm, was that her eyes were filling with tears.
"See!" said David gloomily. "I have done this to make you happy, and nowyou are sad!"
"Because it is so beautiful."
"Yes," said David slowly. "I think I understand."
But Connor took one of the flowers from her hand. She cried out, but toolate to keep him from ripping the blossom to pieces, and now he held upa single petal, long, graceful, red-purple at the broader end and deepyellow at the narrow.
"Think of that a million times bigger," said Connor, "and made out ofvelvet. That'd be a design for a cloak, eh? Cost about a thousand bucksto imitate this petal, but it'd be worth it to see you in it, eh?"
She looked to David with a smile of apology for Connor, but her handaccepted the petal, and her second smile was for Connor himself.