My pulse jumped. So this was one of their plans, those devils. And we had never a one of us dreamed of it. If the money were demanded at the scales it would mean delay, and delay meant that Woodford would win.
So this was Twiggs's part in the ugly work. No wonder he ran his horse. Trust a woman for jamming through the devil's business. Nothing but the good fibre of this honourable man had saved us. But Westfall! He was lighter stuff. How about Westfall?
I looked up sharply into the troubled face of the honest man.
"How about the other cattle," I faltered; "shall we get them?"
"Who went for them?" he asked.
"Ump," I replied; "he left us at the crossroads."
The man took his watch out of his pocket and studied for a moment. "Yes," he said, "you will get them."
It was put like some confident opinion based upon the arrival of an event.
"Mister Marsh," I said, "are you afraid of Ward? Isn't he good for the money?"
"Don't worry about that, my boy," he answered, taking up the candlestick, "I have said that you shall have the cattle, and you shall have them. Let me see about a bed for you."
Then he went out, closing the door after him.
I turned to Jud, and he pointed his finger to a letter lying on the mantelpiece. I arose and picked it up. It bore Cynthia's seal and was open.
Let us forgive little Miss Pandora. Old Jupiter ought to have known better. And the dimpled wife of Bluebeard! That forbidden door was so tremendously alluring!
I think I should have pulled the letter out of its envelope had I not feared that this man would return and find it in my fingers. I showed the seal to Jud and replaced it on the mantelpiece.
He slapped his leg. "Twiggs brought that," he said, "an' he's gone on to Westfall's. What does it say?"
"I didn't read it," I answered.
The man heaved his shoulders up almost to his ears. "Quiller," he said, "you can't root, if you have a silk nose."
I think I should have fallen, but at this moment Nicholas Marsh came back with his candle, and said we ought to sleep if we wished an early start in the morning. I followed him up the bare stairway to my room on the north side of the house. He placed the candlestick on the table, promised to call me early, then bade me good-night and went away.
I watched his broad back disappear in the shadow of the hall. Then I closed the door and latched it. Rigid honesty has its disadvantages. Here was a man almost persuaded to insist upon a right that was valid but unusual, and deeply worried because he had almost yielded to the urging. It takes good men to see the fine shades of such a thing.