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Updated: May 4, 2025
But when he went, there remained Gratton and his venom. Quicksands all about her in which she would be floundering at this moment but for Mark King Her heart was beating normally again, the pallor left her face, which became delicately flushed.
Gratton, having lingered longest of all, went back to his city affairs, promising to run up again when he could, prophesying smilingly that he would see both Gloria and her mother in town within ten days.
A faint colour seeped into the usually colourless lips at which his dead-white teeth were suddenly gnawing. When she saw the look in his eyes, she stared at him wonderingly. "What is it?" she asked, her voice puzzled. "What is what?" Gratton laughed, but the look was still there. His eyes did not laugh. "What makes you look like that? What are you thinking?" Now it was he who was vaguely puzzled.
Since she could not insist on following him about his "business," it was, perhaps, just as well if she lay down. And, alone, thought things out. He placed a chair for her and arranged for her room. He paid for it in advance, saying that they would be leaving in a hurry; he registered for her. Then Gloria was shown down a long hall and to her room. Here Gratton left her, impatient to be away.
He put his arms about her, thinking that she was going to fall. For an instant he held her tight; he felt her heart beating as though it would burst through her bosom. "You won't let him ?" He moved with her to a chair, placed her in it, and turned toward Gratton, a look like a naked knife in his eyes. "By jings!" muttered old Jim under his breath. "By jings!"
"Shut up!" Brodie cried again disgustedly. "You ain't dead yet, are you? So's you keep your lying face closed I'll give you one show. Step lively; where is it?" Gratton, like a hound in leash suddenly freed, turned and sped toward the spot where he had hid the gold. Brodie, his rifle shifting in his hands, leaped after him, keeping close to him.
It was Jim Spalding, who had been ill at ease all along and now had the brains and perhaps the delicacy to understand that this was no place for him. "If you don't need me after all, I'll go." "And the rest of us with you," said King. "If Miss Gaynor cares to talk things over with Gratton " Gloria put out her hand impulsively, touching King's arm. "You stay. Please. Until he goes."
"I am not trying to get away," said Gratton, though his tone did not convince. "Haven't I made good already? Haven't I kept my promise? Am I not ready to do whatever I can?" "Talk's cheap," retorted Brodie. "Get busy, then." Gratton, struggling already in the meshes of the net drawing ever tighter about him, pointed to Gloria with shaking finger. He swallowed twice and moistened his lips to speak.
But they made the climb safely and hastened into the upper cave eagerly. "It's somewhere back there," said Gratton. "More fire," shouted Brodie. His voice exulted; his blood would be running now with the gold fever. He tossed on an armful of dry wood; the flames caught and roared; shadows quivered and danced. Already Benny was at the far end of the cave; the others ran after him.
Her fingers, already cold when she started, went numb; they were at all times either in pits and pockets of snow or gripping the rough stone that was ice-cold. Painfully but steadily she climbed down and down. She strove not to look down; she had no eyes for Gratton, who now sat upright, his jaw still sagging, and marvelled at her. A dozen times he was prepared to see her slip and fall.
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