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"What's wrong; where is Necia? Where is she?" he demanded, and at last seized her roughly, facing her to the light, but Alluna only blinked owlishly at his lantern and shook her head. "Gone away," she finally informed him, and began to weave again in her despair, but he held her fiercely. "Where has she gone? When did she go?" He shook her to quicken her reply. "I don' know. I don' know.
"No! It is not that kind of weeping; this comes from the heart. It is there she is sick. I went to her, but she grew angry, and said I had a black skin and could not understand; then she went out-doors and has not returned." Gale sat down dejectedly. "Yes, she's sick in her heart, all right, and so am I, Alluna. When did she go out?" "An hour ago." "Where is she?"
At last he said, "I've got to tell her, Alluna." "No, no!" cried the woman, aghast. "Don't tell her the truth! Nothing could be worse than that!" But he continued, deliberately: "Love is the biggest thing in the world; it's the only thing worth while, and she has got to have a fair show at it.
Her eyes held such a painful entreaty that he nodded acquiescence as the door opened and her father and Alluna entered. The old man greeted the Lieutenant affably, but as his glance fell on his daughter he stopped stock-still on the threshold. "I told you never to wear that dress again," he said, in a dry, harsh voice.
"I was used to disappointment by now, so I took it quiet and went back to Alluna and the little one, knowing that some day we two men would meet. You see, I figured that God had framed a cold hand for me, but He would surely give me a pair before the game closed.
He is so dear to me that I can't drag him down I can't I can't!" She went to the open door and stood leaning against the casing, facing the cool outer darkness, her face hidden from them, her form sagging wearily, as if the struggle had sapped her whole strength. Alluna crept to the trader and looked up at him eagerly, whispering: "This will end in a little while, John. She is young.
What led me to ask was Miss Necia she is so well she is such a remarkable girl." Gale's face had undergone a change, but he answered, quietly: "I 'ain't never been married." "What?" "When I took Alluna it wasn't the style, and neither one of us has thought much about it since." "Oh, I see," exclaimed Burrell, hurriedly.
"I'll own I was wrong," he said, finally, staring out into the sunshine with an odd expression. "It was thoughtless and wrong, dead wrong; but I've loved you better than any daughter was ever loved in this wide world, and I've worked and starved and froze and saved, and so has Alluna, so that you might have something to live on when I'm gone, and be different to us. It won't be long now, I guess.
He did with little sleep, and many nights he sat alone till Alluna and Necia would be awakened by his heavy step as he went to his bed. That he was a man who could really think, and that his thoughts were engrossing, no one doubted who saw him sitting enthralled at such a time, for he neither rocked, nor talked, nor moved a muscle hour after hour, and only his eyes were alive.
And then, as if he were not tried sufficiently, the girl herself came flying in. "What's this I hear?" she cried. "Alluna tells me " She saw the telltale pile on the counter, and her face grew white. "Then it's true! Oh, Poleon!" He smiled, and spoke cheerily. "Yes, I been t'inkin' 'bout dis trip long tam'." "When are you coming back?"
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