_CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE_
David watched them go, and while his back was turned a fierce, softdialogue passed between Ruth Manning and Ben Connor.
"Are you a man?" she asked him, through her set teeth. "Are you going tolet that beautiful little thing die?"
"I'd rather see the cold-hearted fool die in place of Timeh. But whatcan we do? Nothing. Just smile in his face."
"I hate him!" she exclaimed.
"If you hate him, then use him. Will you?"
"If I can make him follow me, tease him to come, make him think I lovehim, I'll do it. I'd do anything to torture him."
"I told you he was a savage."
"You were right, Ben. A fiend--not a man! Oh, thank Heavens that I seethrough him."
Anger gave her color and banished her tears. And when David turned hefound what seemed a picture of pleasure. It was infinitely grateful tohim. If he had searched and studied for the words he could not havefound anything to embitter her more than his first speech.
"And what do you think of the justice of David?" he asked, coming tothem.
She could not speak; luckily Connor stepped in and filled the gap ofawkward silence.
"A very fine thing to have done, Brother David," he said. "Do you knowwhat I thought of when I heard you talk?"
"Of what?" said David, composing his face to receive the compliment. Atthat Ruth turned suddenly away, for she dared not trust her eyes, andthe hatred which burned in them.
"I thought of the old story of Abraham and Isaac. You were offering upsomething as dear to you as a child, almost, to the law of the Garden ofEden."
"It is true," said David complacently. "But when the flesh is diseasedit must be burned away."
He called to Ruth: "And you, Ruth?"
This childish seeking after compliments made her smile, and naturally hemisjudged the smile.
"I think with Benjamin," she said softly.
"Yet my ways in the Garden must seem strange to you," went on David,expanding in the warmth of his own sense of virtue. "But you will growaccustomed to them, I know."
The opening was patent. She was beginning to nod her acquiescence whenConnor, in alarm, tapped on the table, once and again in swifttelegraphy: "No! No!"
The faint smile went out on her face.
"No," she said to David.
The master of the Garden turned a glance of impatience and suspicionupon the gambler, but Connor carefully made his face a blank. Hecontinued to drum idly on the edge of the table, and the idle drummingwas spelling to the girl's quick ear: "Out!"
"You cannot stay?" murmured David.
She drank in his stunned expression. It was like music to her.
"Would you," she said, "be happy away from the Garden, and the horsesand your servants? No more am I happy away from my home."
"You are not happy with us?" muttered David. "You are not happy?"
"Could you be away from the Garden?"
"But that is different. The Garden was made by four wise men."
"By five wise men," said the girl. "For you are the fifth."
He was so blind that he did not perceive the irony.
"And therefore," he said, "the Garden is all that the heart shoulddesire. John and Matthew and Luke and Paul made it to fill thatpurpose."
"But how do you know they succeeded? You have not seen the world beyondthe mountains."
"It is full of deceit, hard hearts, cruelty, and cunning."
"It is full of my dear friends, David!"
She thought of the colt and the mare and Elijah; and it became suddenlyeasy to lure and deceive this implacable judge of others. She touchedthe arm of the master lightly with her finger tips and smiled.
"Come with me, and see my world!"
"The law which the four made for me--I must not leave!"
"Was it wrong to let me enter?"
"You have made me happy," he argued slowly. "You have made me happierthan I was before. And surely I could not have been made happy by thatwhich is wrong. No, it was right to bring you into the valley. Themoment I looked at you I knew that it was right."
"Then, will it be wrong to go out with me? You need not stay! But seewhat lies beyond the mountains before you judge it!"
He shook his head.
"Are you afraid? It will not harm you."
He flushed at that. And then began to walk up and down across the patio.She saw Connor white with anxiety, but about Connor and his affairs shehad little concern at this moment. She felt only a cruel pleasure in hercontrol over this man, half savage and half child. Now he stoppedabruptly before her.
"If the world, after I see it, still displeases me, when I return, willyou come with me, Ruth? Will you come back to the Garden of Eden?"
In the distance Ben Connor was gesturing desperately to make her sayyes. But she could not resist a pause--a pause in which torment showedon the face of David. And then, deliberately, she made her eyessoften--made her lips smile.
"Yes, David, I will come back!"
He leaned a little toward her, then straightened with a shudder andcrossed the patio to the Room of Silence. Behind that door hedisappeared, and left Connor and the girl alone. The gambler threw downhis arms as if abandoning a burden.
"Why in the name of God did you let him leave you?" he groaned. "Why?Why? Why?"
"He's going to come," asserted Ruth.
"Never in a thousand years. The fool will talk to his dummy god inyonder and come out with one of his iced looks and talk about'judgment'! Bah!"
"He'll come."
"What makes you think so?"
"Because--I know."
"You should have waited--to-morrow you could have done it, maybe, butto-day is too soon."
"Listen to me, Ben. I know him. I know his childish, greedy mind. Hewants me just as much as he wants his own way. It's partly because I'mnew to him, being a woman. It's chiefly because I'm the first thing he'sever met that won't do what he wants. He's going to try to stay with meuntil he bends me." She flushed with angry excitement.
"It's playing with fire, Ruth. I know you're clever, but--"
"You don't know how clever, but I'm beginning to guess what I can do.I've lost all feeling about that cruel barbarian, Ben. That poor littleharmless, pretty colt--oh, I want to make David Eden burn for that! AndI can do it. I'm going to wind him around my finger. I've thought ofways while I stood looking at him just now. I know how I can smile athim, and use my eyes, and woo him on, and pretend to be just about toyield and come back with him--then grow cold the next minute and givehim his work to do over again. I'm going to make him crawl on his kneesin the dust. I'm going to make a fool of him before people. I'm going tomake him sign over his horses to us to keep them out of his viciouspower. And I can do it--I hate him so that I know I can make him reallylove me. Oh, I know he doesn't really love me now. I know you're rightabout him. He simply wants me as he'd want another horse. I'll changehim. I'll break him. When he's broken I'm going to laugh in hisface--and tell him--to remember Timeh!"
"Ruth!" gasped Connor.
He looked guiltily around, and when he was sure no one was within reachof her voice, he glanced back with admiration.
"By the Lord, Ruth, who'd ever have guessed at all this fire in you?Why, you're a wonder. And I think you can do it. If you can only get himout of the infernal Garden. That's the sticking point! We make or breakin the next ten minutes!"
But he had hardly finished speaking before David of Eden came out of theRoom of Silence, and with the first glance at his face they knew thatthe victory was theirs. David of Eden would come with them into theworld!
"I have heard the Voice," he said, "and it is just and proper for me togo. In the morning, Ruth, we shall start!"