_ CHAPTER XVI. HOW I WAS FOREMAN
They jumped apart--or farther apart--when I walked out. They wasn't holding hands, but she must of been looking at him and him at her.
"Miss Wright," says I, quiet--the first time I ever called her Miss Wright in all my life--"Miss Wright," says I, "come up to the house."
"Curly," says she, "oh, don't--don't!"
But she seen I didn't have no gun.
"Get across there quick!" says I to him.
"You overheard!" says he. "You overheard what I've been saying?"
"All of it," says I. "It was my business to. Of all the low-down things any man ever done in all his life, that's what you done now. I heard it all."
"Stop!" says he. "I won't stand that for a minute."
"You'll stand it for a lot longer than that," says I. "If you show this side the fence again I'll kill you!"
"Curly!" says he. "Why, Curly!"--like he was surprised. "Is it like that?"
"That's what it's like," says I. "Don't never doubt we can take care of our womenfolks. It's my own fault this has happened. I ought to of watched her closter. I ought never to of allowed you on our dock, let alone mixing with you. I thought you was more of a man than this," says I.
When I said that Bonnie Bell jumped and throwed her arms around my neck, and held on with both hands.
"Curly," says she, "stop! I'll not have this. Stop, I say!"
"You'll have this, and a lot more," says I to her, "till this thing is settled. Let me alone with him. Haven't your pa and me give up our lives for you? It's a fine trade you're trying to make; to trade us for a low-down coward like this. They built that fence, not us. Hell could freeze before your pa or me would ever cross it; but here you're talking the way you done with their hired man--that has sneaked around here to meet you."
He didn't give back none, though he couldn't talk at once.
"Go slow!" says he. "Curly, be careful! I didn't have any other chance."
"Any other chance?" says I. "For what? To make love to a girl that ain't had much experience--to make love to her because she's got a load of money? I've seen some sort of dirt done in my life," says I, "but this is the lowest down I ever seen," says I.
"And Bonnie Bell," says I--she still had me around the neck, holding my arms down, and I didn't want to hurt her--"how'll I tell the old man? You know I've got to come through with him. You, the girl we loved so much, Bonnie Bell," says I, "we never thought you'd class yourself below your own level."
"She hasn't!" says he, right sudden then. "It wasn't her fault. She hasn't promised a thing to me, and you know that. She's not to blame for a thing, and you know that too. She hasn't said a word she couldn't say before all the world. What more do you want? She's too good a girl to get the worst of it. Her father's too good a man to get the worst of it too. She'd never let him."
"She won't have to do that," says I. "I'll take care of that. That's my business."
"Curly," says she, "what are you going to do? Don't you love my father at all--or me? You're like another father to me. And I've loved you; and I always will, whatever you do to me."
I couldn't put her arms down--I wasn't very strong, because I was thinking.
"If you tell my father," says she, "you'd break his heart. Cover it up for me, Curly--I've not promised anything. But, oh, Curly, I didn't mean harm to anyone; and I'll never be happy any more."
"You see what you've done!" says I to him after a while.
He got white now, instead of red.
"How can I make it up? I can't stand to hear her talk that way," he says.
"Whose business is it how she talks?" says I to him. "Damn you! What right have you to come here and make her unhappy for a minute? Didn't you know how we loved her?"
"Everyone does," says he. "Till I die I'll do that. How can I help it any more than you can? And if I've hurt her now," says he, "God do so to me and more also. But I've declared myself--I'll not take back a word. I didn't lie then and I won't now."
He seemed game. Still, so long as it's just talking, you can't always tell how much of a bluff a man is throwing.
"If it'll make her happy for me to go away and never come back," says he, "I'll do that. I don't want to play any game except on the square. Don't start anything that can't be ever mended," says he.
"It's started now," says I. "Maybe you can talk a girl down, but you can't us."
"What're you going to do, Bonnie Bell?" says I to her, and I taken her hands now in mine. "You've heard me and you've heard him. Which do you want, him or us--us that's loved you and give you everything we had, or him, this here coward, that come in the back way--our worst enemy's hired man? You got to choose."
I felt her slip loose from my neck then. She'd kept tight hold of me all the time, so I couldn't do anything. I looked down at her, and she was all loose and white. I reckon she fainted, though I never seen anyone do that before.
I laid her down on the boards, and I was so cold mad clean through now I couldn't of said a word. I've felt that way before. There ain't no law then. But he was white as she was.
"Curly," says he, "what have we done to the poor child?"
"She ain't your pore child," says I; and, with her in my arms and me helpless, I felt hot in my eyes. "She's our pore child. Shut up and go home!"
He didn't go home, but went and got some water in his hat.
"It's cruel, cruel--it's all been cruel for her, who deserves the best that life could give. Can't you believe me, man?" says he.
She couldn't hear us now, and even the water I poured on her face didn't wake her up. I wouldn't let him touch her.
"Lord help us all!" says I. "For now it's a hard thing to say what's best. Tell me," says I, "was there anything I didn't hear? Did she make any sort of promise to you?"
"Not a word," says he--"not a word."
"That's lucky," says I. "The Circle Arrow never went back on its word. I'm glad she didn't promise you nothing," says I.
"There's nothing matters now," he says.
He set back on his heels, looking at me in a way I couldn't stand--with us both bending over her, trying to bring her to.
"I'm better than you think," says he, after a little while. "All this happened because things got criss-crossed."
"You queered the game the way you played it," says I to him. "The Circle Arrow plays wide open, with all the cards on the table. It beats hell how the luck runs in a square game sometimes! The front door is the place for a man that talks to a girl--like Katherine Kimberly comes in, or her brother, Tom."
"Does she know him?" says he, sudden.
"That's our business," says I. I still was pouring water on Bonnie Bell.
"Yes," says he, "that's true. He's not your enemy's servant."
About then Bonnie Bell begun to move her hands and I raised her up against my knees. She set there looking him in the face.
"Kid," says I, "you needn't rub your eyes and ast, 'Where am I?' I'll tell you. You're right in the middle of one hell of a muss!" _