第53章

"I expect you think I'm real foolish," she said, "but I be'n waitin' so awful long--and I got a good deal of worry on my mind till I see Mr.Louden.""I am sorry," Ariel turned from the roses, and faced her and the heavy perfume."I hope he will come soon.""I hope so," said the other."It's something to do with me that keeps him away, and the longer he is the more it scares me." She shivered and set her teeth together."It's kind of hard, waitin'.Icert'nly got my share of troubles.""Don't you think that Mr.Louden will be able to take care of them for you?""Oh, I HOPE so, Miss Tabor! If he can't, nobody can." She was crying openly now, wiping her eyes with her musk-soaked handkerchief."We had to send fer him yesterday afternoon--""To come to Beaver Beach, do you mean?"asked Ariel, leaning forward.

"Yes, ma'am.It all begun out there,--least-ways it begun before that with me.It was all my fault.I deserve all that's comin' to me, Iguess.I done wrong--I done wrong! I'd oughtn't never to of went out there yesterday."She checked herself sharply, but, after a moment's pause, continued, encouraged by the grave kindliness of the delicate face in the shadow of the wide white hat."I'd oughtn't to of went," she repeated."Oh, I reckon I'll never, never learn enough to keep out o' trouble, even when I see it comin'! But that gentleman friend of mine--Mr.

Nashville Cory's his name--he kind o' coaxed me into it, and he's right comical when he's with ladies, and he's good company--and he says, `Claudine, we'll dance the light fantastic,' he says, and I kind o' wanted something cheerful--I'd be'n workin'

steady quite a spell, and it looked like he wanted to show me a good time, so I went, and that's what started it." Now that she had begun, she babbled on with her story, at times incoherently; full of excuses, made to herself more than to Ariel, pitifully endeavoring to convince herself that the responsibility for the muddle she had made was not hers.

"Mr.Cory told me my husband was drinkin' and wouldn't know about it, and, `Besides,' he says, `what's the odds?' Of course I knowed there was trouble between him and Mr.Fear--that's my husband --a good while ago, when Mr.Fear up and laid him out.That was before me and Mr.Fear got married; I hadn't even be'n to Canaan then;I was on the stage.I was on the stage quite a while in Chicago before I got acquainted with my husband.""You were on the stage?" Ariel exclaimed, involuntarily.

"Yes, ma'am.Livin' pitchers at Goldberg's Rat'skeller, and amunchoor nights I nearly always done a sketch with a gen'leman friend.That's the way I met Mr.Fear; he seemed to be real struck with me right away, and soon as I got through my turn he ast me to order whatever I wanted.He's always gen'lemanlike when he ain't had too much, and even then he vurry, vurry seldom acks rough unless he's jealous.That was the trouble yesterday.

I never would of gone to the Beach if I'd dreamed what was comin'! When we got there Isaw Mike--that's the gen'leman that runs the Beach--lookin' at my company and me kind of anxious, and pretty soon he got me away from Mr.

Cory and told me what's what.Seems this Cory only wanted me to go with him to make my husband mad, and he'd took good care that Mr.Fear heard I'd be there with him! And he'd be'n hangin'

around me, every time he struck town, jest to make Mr.Fear mad--the fresh thing! You see he wanted to make my husband start something again, this Mr.Cory did, and he was fixed for it.""I don't understand," said Ariel.

"It's this way: if Mr.Fear attacted Mr.Cory, why, Mr.Cory could shoot him down and claim self-defence.You see, it would be easy for Mr.Cory, because Mr Fear nearly killed him when they had their first trouble, and that would give Mr.Cory a good excuse to shoot if Mr.Fear jest only pushed him.That's the way it is with the law.Mr.Cory could wipe out their old score and git off scot-free.""Surely not!""Yes, ma'am, that's the way it would be.And when Mike told me that Mr.Cory had got me out there jest to provoke my husband I went straight up to him and begun to give him a piece of my mind.

I didn't talk loud, because I never was one to make a disturbance and start trouble the way SOME do;and right while I was talkin' we both see my husband pass the window.Mr.Cory give a kind of yelling laugh and put his arm round me jest as Mr.

Fear come in the door.And then it all happened so quick that you could hardly tell what WAS goin'

on.Mr.Fear, we found afterwards, had promised Mr.Louden that he wouldn't come out there, but he took too much--you could see that by the look of him--and fergot his promise; fergot everything but me and Cory, I guess.

"He come right up to us, where I was tryin' to git away from Cory's arm--it was the left one he had around me, and the other behind his back--and neither of 'em said a word.Cory kept on laughin'

loud as he could, and Mr.Fear struck him in the mouth.He's little, but he can hit awful hard, and Mr.Cory let out a screech, and I see his gun go off--right in Mr.Fear's face, I thought, but it wasn't; it only scorched him.Most of the other gen'lemen had run, but Mike made a dive and managed to knock the gun to one side, jest barely in time.

Then Mike and three or four others that come out from behind things separated 'em--both of 'em fightin' to git at each other.They locked Mr.Cory up in Mike's room, and took Mr.Fear over to where they hitch the horses.Then Mike sent fer Mr.