Fortunately human nature does not readily yield to such behests, and so life is not robbed of its mainspring, and the whole machinery of human nature is not reduced to a chaotic bundle of useless wheels.

For all Helen's boasted scheming, for all Bill's lack of brilliancy, these two were just a pair of simple creatures, loyal and honest, and deeply in love. So they dallied as all true lovers must dally with those first precious moments which a Divine Providence permits to flow in full tide but once in a lifetime.

Charlie Bryant was standing at the bar of O'Brien's saloon. One hand rested on the edge of the counter as though to steady himself. His eyes were bloodshot, a strange pallor left his features ghastly, and the combination imparted a subtle appearance of terror which the shrewd saloonkeeper interpreted in his own fashion as he unfolded his information, and its deductions.

The bar was quite empty otherwise, and the opportunity had been too good for O'Brien to miss.

"Say, I was mighty glad to get them kegs the other night safely. But I'm takin' no more chances. It'll see me through for awhile," he said, as he refilled Charlie's gla.s.s at his own expense. "There's a big play coming right now, and, if you'll take advice, you'll lie low--desprit low."

"You mean Fyles--as usual," said Charlie thickly. Then he added as an afterthought: "To h.e.l.l with Fyles, and all his d.a.m.ned red-coats."

O'Brien's quick eyes surveyed his half-drunken customer with a shrewd, contemptuous speculation.

"That sounds like bluff. Hot air never yet beat the p'lice. It needs a darnation clear head, and big acts, to best Fyles. A half-soused bluff ain't worth h.e.l.l room."

Charlie appeared to take no umbrage. His bloodshot eyes were still fixed upon O'Brien's hard face as he raised his gla.s.s with a shaking hand and drained it.

"I don't need to bluff with no one around worth bluffing," he said, setting the empty gla.s.s down on the counter.

O'Brien's response was to fold his arms aggressively, and lean forward upon the counter, peering into the delicate, pale face before him.

"See here," he cried, "a fellow mostly bluffs when he's scared, or he's in a corner--like a rat. See? Now it's to my interest to see Fyles beat clean out of Rocky Springs. It's that set me ga.s.sin'. Get me? So just keep easy, and take what I got to hand out. I'm wise to the game. It's my business to keep wise. Those two crooks of yours, Pete and Nick, were in this morning, and I heard 'em talkin'. Then I got 'em yarning to me. They've got every move Fyles is making dead right. They're smartish guys, and I feel they're too smart for you by a sight. If things go their way you're safe. If there's a chance of trouble for them you're up against it."

Charlie licked his dry lips as the saloonkeeper paused. Then he replaced the sodden end of his cigarette between them. But he remained silent.

"I've warned you of them boys before," O'Brien went on. "But that's by the way. Now, see here, Fyles has got your play. The boys know that, and in turn have got his play. Fyles knows that to-morrow night you're running in a big cargo of liquor. The only thing he don't know is where you cache it. Anyways, he's got a big force of boys around, and Rocky Springs'll have a complete chain of patrols around it, to-morrow night. Each man's got a signal, and when that signal's given it means he's located the cargo. Then the others'll crowd in, and your gang's to be overwhelmed. Get it? You'll all be taken--red-handed. I'm guessin' you know all this all right, all right, and I'm only telling it so you can get the rest clear. How you and your boys get these things I'm not guessing. It's smart. But here's the bad stuff. It's my way to watch folks and draw 'em when I want to get wise. I drew them boys. They're reckonin' things are getting hot for 'emselves. They're scared. They're reckonin' the game's played out, and ain't worth h.e.l.l room, with Fyles smelling around. Those boys'll put you away to Fyles, if they see the pinch coming. And that's where my interests come in.

They'll put you away sure as death."

If O'Brien were looking for the effect of his solemn warning he was disappointed. Charlie's expression remained unchanged. The ghastly white of his features suggested fear, but it was not added to by so much as a flicker of an eyelid.

"That all?" he asked, with a deliberate pause between the words to obtain clear diction.

O'Brien shrugged, but his eyes snapped angrily at this lack of appreciation.

"Ain't it enough? Say," his manner had become almost threatening, "I'm not doing things for hoss-play. The folks around can build any old church to ease their souls and make a show. Rocky Springs ain't the end of all things for me. I'm out after the stuff. I'll soothe my soul with dollars. That's why I'm around telling you, because your game's the thing that's to give 'em to me. When your game's played I hit the trail, but as long as you make good Rocky Springs is for me. If you can't handle your proposition right then I quit you."

Charlie suddenly shifted his position, and leaned his body against the counter. The saloonkeeper looked for that sign which was to re-establish his confidence. It was not forthcoming. For a moment the half-drunken man leaned his head upon one hand, and his face was turned from the other behind the bar.

O'Brien became impatient.

"Wal?" he demanded.

His persistence was rewarded at last. But it was rewarded with a shock which left him startled beyond retort.

Charlie suddenly brought a clenched fist down upon the counter with a force that set the gla.s.ses ringing.

"Fyles!" he cried fiercely, "Fyles! It's always Fyles! G.o.d's truth, am I never to hear, or see, the last of him? Say, you know. You think you know. But you don't. d.a.m.n you, you don't!"

Before the astonished saloonkeeper could recover himself and formulate the angry retort which rose to his lips, Charlie staggered out of the place.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE SOUL OF A MAN

It was growing dark. Away in the west a pale stream of light was fading smoothly out, absorbed by the velvet softness of the summer night. There was no moon, but the starlit vault shone dazzlingly upon the shadowed valley. Already among the trees the yellow oil lamps were shining within the half-hidden houses.

From within a dense clump of trees, high up the northern slope of the valley, a man's slight figure made its way. His movements were slow, deliberate, even furtive. For some moments he stood peering out at a point below where a woman's figure was rapidly making its way up the steep trail toward the old Meeting House.

The man's eyes were straining in the darkness for the outline of the woman's figure was indistinct, only just discernible in the starlight.

She came on, and he could distinctly hear her voice humming an old, familiar air. She evidently had no thought of the possibility that her movements could be of any interest to anybody but herself.

She reached the Meeting House and paused. Then the watching man heard the rattle of a key in the lock. The humming had ceased. The next moment there was the sound of a turning handle, and a tight-fitting door being thrust open. The woman's figure had disappeared within the building.

The man left the sheltering bush and moved out on to the trail. He pa.s.sed one thin hand across his brow, as though to clear the thoughts behind of their last murkiness after a drunken slumber. He stretched himself wearily as though stiff from his unyielding bed of sun-baked earth. Then he moved down the trail toward the Meeting House, selecting the scorched gra.s.s at the side of it to m.u.f.fle the sound of his footsteps.

His weariness seemed to have entirely pa.s.sed now, and all his attention was fixed upon the rough exterior of the old building, which had pa.s.sed through such strange vicissitudes to finally become the house of worship it now was. With its old, heavy-plastered walls, and its long, reed-thatched roof, so heavy and vastly thick, it was a curiosity; the survival of days when men and beasts met upon a common arena and played out the game of life and death, each as it suited him, with none but the victor in the game to say him nay.

The man felt something of the influence of the place now as he drew near. Nor could he help feeling that the game that went on about it now had changed little enough in its purpose. The rules may have received modification, but the spirit was still the same. Men were still struggling for victory over some one else, and beneath the veneer of a growing civilization, pa.s.sions, just as untamed, raged and worked their will upon their ill-starred possessors.

Reaching the building, he moved cautiously around the walls till he came to a window. It was closed, and a curtain was drawn across it. He pa.s.sed on till he came to another window. It was partially open, and, though the curtain was drawn across it, the opening had disarranged the curtain, and a beam of light shone through.

He pressed his face toward the opening so that his mouth was at its level. Then he spoke softly, in a voice that was little more than a whisper----

"Kate!" he called. "Kate! It is I--Charlie. I've--I've been waiting for you, and want to speak to you."

For answer there was a sound of hurrying footsteps across the floor of the room. The next moment the curtain was pulled aside. Kate stood at the other side of the window in the dim lamplight. Her handsome eyes were startled and full of inquiry, and her rounded bosom rose and fell quickly. When she saw the pale face peering in at her a gentle smile crept into her eyes.

"You scared the life out of me," she said calmly. Then, with a quick look into his bloodshot eyes, she went on: "Why did you wait for me--here?"

Charlie lowered his eyes. "I--guessed you'd be along some time this evening. I wanted to speak to you--alone."

Kate studied him for a moment. His averted, almost shifty, eyes seemed to hold her attention. She was thinking rapidly.

Presently his eyes came back to her face; a deep pa.s.sion was shining in them.

"Can I come around to the door?"

There was just the smallest hesitation before Kate replied.

"Yes, if you must see me here."

Charlie waited for no more. The door was on the other side of the building, overlooking the village below. He hurried thither, and when he thrust it open the place was in darkness.