In a pathetic attempt to spruce up, he knotted the red bandanna around his neck and punched Salzar's slouch hat into a peak.
"I look like a hootch-running Wop," he said. "Maybe I can get into the house before I meet the ladies----"
"You look like one of Clinch's bums," remarked Wier with native honesty.
Darragh, chagrined, went to his bunk, pulled the morocco case from under the pillow, and shoved it into the bosom of his flannel shirt.
"That's the main thing anyway," he thought. Then, turning to Wier, he asked whether Eve and Stormont had awakened.
It appeared that Trooper Stormont had saddled up and cantered away shortly after sunrise, leaving word that he must hunt up his comrade, Trooper Lannis, at Ghost Lake.
"They're coming back this evening," added Wier. "He asked you to look out for Clinch's step-daughter."
"She's all right here. Can't you keep an eye on her, Ralph?"
"I'm stripping trout, sir. I'll be around here to cook dinner for her when she wakes up."
Darragh glanced across the brook at the hatchery. It was only a few yards away. He nodded and started for the veranda: "That'll be all right," he said. "Nobody is coming here to bother her. ... And don't let her leave, Ralph, till I get back----"
"Very well, sir. But suppose she takes it into her head to leave----"
Darragh called back, gaily: "She can't: she hasn't any clothes!" And away he strode in the gorgeous sunshine of a magnificent autumn day, all the clean and vigorous youth of him afire in anticipation of a reunion which the letter from his lady-love had transfigured into a tryst.
For, in that amazing courtship of a single day, he never dreamed that he had won the heart of that sad, white-faced, hungry child in rags -- silken tatters still stained with the blood of massacre, -- the very soles of her shoes still charred by the embers of her own home.
Yes, that is what must have happened in a single day and evening. Life passes swiftly during such periods. Minutes lengthen into days; hours into years. The soul finds itself.
Then mind and heart become twin prophets, -- clairvoyant concerning what hides behind the veil; comprehending the divine clair-audience what the Three Sisters whisper there -- hearing even the whirr of the spindle -- the very snipping of the Eternal Shears!
* * * * *
The soul finds itself; the mind knows itself; the heart perfectly understands.
He had not spoken to this young girl of love. The blood of friends and servants was still rusty on her skirt's ragged hem.