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"If I keeps Ezy away from Tess, will ye ?" "Ye air a-wantin' me to do somethin' for ye, Myry?" Ben answered, coming toward her eagerly. "Yep." "What?" "If ye'll kiss the brat when Mammy and Satisfied ain't a-lookin' " "Scoot home, I says. Scoot home," shot from Ben's lips.
Letts, "Ben ain't no likin' for Myry, Ben ain't!" A dull red flush crimsoned Myra Longman's face. She watched Tess enviously as the girl tiptoed through the doorway and disappeared. Ben Letts was stretched out on the rope cot, his massive head and thick neck swathed in bandages. Two huge hands, with patches of plaster here and there lay outside the red Indian blanket.
The fisherman turned impatiently. "What air ye wantin', Myry?" "Be you and Ezy hatin' each other?" "He ain't nothin' but a brat," replied Ben scornfully. "Let him keep out of my way, or I fixes him." "He air a-sayin' the same thing," cautioned Myra. "Ye air a-seekin' Tess? He says as how ye air to keep from her." She was walking beside him, her red hands rolled in her gingham apron.
What Myry seeked for and found, she can have for all of me." The listening girl knew there was hatred in the father's tones for Ben Letts. Well, she had hated Ben too, but he was all Myra's now, and there was no more hatred for the ugly squatter in the heart of Tessibel. "She air a-smilin', Satisfied," Tess said again.
It were only in the storm she found what she were a-seekin'." She turned her head sharply toward the dead. "Ye can see she air a-smilin', Satisfied, can't ye? And Ben air a-huggin' her up to him. That air somethin' Myry wanted. And ye air a-goin' to leave them like that, ain't ye? Don't tear Ben's arms loose, 'cause Myry won't be happy if ye does. Can't ye put 'em in a box, just like they air?"
"Yep; to-day. He air a-growin' a little more pert." "Glad for Myry," was Tessibel's comment. "Ye ain't heard nothin' from yer Daddy, have ye?" asked Ben, presently. "Yep. I had a letter from him. He air a-comin' to the shanty as soon as he air out." "He ain't a-goin' to get out!" "Yep, he air; sure he air." "Air he a-knowin' of yer brat?" Ben was staring at the child. Tess stared back at him.
Tess sprang toward him, and wound her strong young arms about him. "Myry air happy," she burst forth; "happier than when she were livin' with you. She air with Ben Letts." Satisfied, towering over her, blinked confusedly at her words. Puzzling, he drew his heavy brows down darkly. "Myry were a-seekin' Ben," Tess went on hurriedly, "and the brat couldn't stay without its pa and ma.
"Don't hurt you and me bein' friends, does it, Myry," broke in Tessibel impetuously, "'cause I can't love Ezry?" "Nope, I wouldn't love him nuther. Ma don't know all that's to know and I wouldn't a married the brat's pa if I could," and she shivered, for she knew that she had lied to Tess. This was the first time Myra had mentioned her trouble, that is, in just that confidential manner.
"Sop up the tear with the rag, will ye, Tess?" he grunted. "It air burnin' like hell fire." Tessibel took the soiled cloth in her fingers, and not too lightly did as Ben bade her. "Ye didn't tell Myry how I comed sick, did ye?" asked Ben, settling his head back upon the pillow. Tess gave a negative gesture. "Er no one else?" "Nope!"
"She's gone with Ben Letts." "Gone where?" "We don't know, but the officers are looking for them. I think the boy heard me tell the nurse that he would be held as a witness in your father's next trial. He must have warned Letts upon his arrival home, for " "He knowed Myry loved Ben," broke in Tess. "That's what I thought," Young answered. "I found Longman and the mother mourning over the boy.
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