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"Nick Grylls in the bush," he said, dully pointing back. "Him sick bad. Maybe him die. Him give five dollar for drink of whiskey." Garth filled the bottle from his flask. "Put up your money," he said curtly. The Settlement is upward of three miles from Grier's point. Avoiding the houses for the present, Garth pitched his camp outside, well off the trail.
Lavendar's stern lip trembled with anxiety. "What?" "I chastised him; a little." "You what?" Benjamin Wright nodded; the wrinkled pouches under his eyes grew dully red. "My God!" he said plaintively; "think of that a hasty moment! Thirty-two years; my God! I spanked him." Dr. Lavendar opened his lips to speak, but found no words. "And he was offended! Offended? What right had he to be offended?
I turned, and ran down the bank to where the fire yet glowed dully in the hollow, emitting a faint spiral of blue smoke, dug dirt up with my hands, and covered the coals, until they were completely extinguished. Then I crept back to the bluff summit, and lay down to watch. The canoe rounded the curve in the shore, and headed straight across toward where I rested in concealment.
Skinner broke the news to Cappy Ricks; for, of course, the United Press dispatches had carried it to the later afternoon editions and it would be useless for Mr. Skinner to attempt to lie kindly. Cappy, with bowed head, heard him through; when finally he looked up at Skinner his eyes were dead. "Quite what I expected of him, Skinner," he said dully. "And I'd rather have him die than dog it!
A new emotion invaded him, feeble in the beginning, but gaining strength from instant to instant. It mounted his breast as a tide would mount, until it had shortened his breath, set his heart to thumping dully, choked his throat.
At times their struggle grew audible, smacking blows fell sharply; but there was no other sound except that of the wind tearing at the sashes, thundering dully in the loose tin roof, rocking the dwelling. They fell again, and equally their efforts slackened, their grips became more feeble. Finally, as if by common consent, they rolled apart.
"I I forgot," he faltered at last. "I did not know it was so late. I must have been pretty tired." Slowly the girl's clenched hands came away from her throat while she stared up into his face, brown and lean and very hard and bitter. The ashen terror upon her own cheeks disappeared with a greater, growing comprehension of all that lay behind that dully colorless statement.
And we talked of the things we liked, you know, the sort of house we both liked not like other people's houses!" Charlotte's plain young face had grown bright with the recollection, but now her voice sank lifelessly again. "But M'ma made me promise never to speak to him again, and of course I promised," she said dully. "I see." Rachael was silent. There seemed to be nothing to say.
"Perhaps I can try again if I rest," I thought, and meanwhile drifted out until the roar of the breakers came but dully to my ears out where the water was deep and green. Realizing that I paid for every minute of rest by drifting farther from shore, I rolled wearily over, and with slow strokes started back. At this moment Nab stuck his nose from the water not three feet away.
No one who knew the woman could have disbelieved her, and to the husband who knew her every mental and moral trait this bald, hopeless confession came as a crushing anti-climax to his great effort. It left him not the slightest doubt that she was honest. He said, dully, in a feeble attempt to right himself: "You are shielding him. You want to make me out wrong." But she knew he knew.
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