The Promise: A Tale of the Great NorthwestHendryx, James B. (James Beardsley)
General
The Promise: A Tale of the Great Northwest
Hendryx, James B. (James Beardsley)
Northwestern States -- Fiction; Western stories
Unconsciously her tiny fists doubled, her delicate white jaw squared,
and her eyes narrowed to slits, even as his had narrowed--but her lips
did not smile.
He was _her_ man! She could give him more than this half-breed girl
could give him, and she would fight to win back her own--that which had
been her own from the first.
Almost at her feet upon the floor, just under the edge of the bunk
where it had been carelessly tossed, lay his mackinaw of coarse,
striped cloth. The girl stooped, drew it forth, and smoothed it out.
"His coat," she breathed almost reverently as she patted its rough
folds. "He took it off and wrapped it around Charlie. Oh, it must have
been terrible--_terrible_!"
She was about to hang it upon its peg when something fell to the floor
with a sharp slap--a long, heavy envelope that had dropped from a
ragged tear in the lining where the men had ripped it from the body of
the boy.
She hung the garment upon its peg and stooped to recover the packet.
The envelope was old, and had evidently been exposed to the action of
water, for the flap gaped open and the edges were worn through at the
ends. Upon one side was tightly bound a photograph, dim and indistinct
from the rub of the coarse cloth.
Her lips tightened at the corners as she stepped to the desk and turned
up the lamp. She would see what manner of girl it was who had scored so
heavily against her in this battle of hearts. She held the picture
close to the yellow flame and stared unbelievingly at the nearly
effaced features.
With a swift movement she tore the encircling cord from the packet and
examined it more closely. Her heart beat wildly, and the blood surged
through her veins in great, joyous waves. For the photograph showed,
not the dark features of the Indian girl, but--_her own_!
Worn almost beyond recognition it was, with corners peeled and rolled
back from the warped and water-thickened mounting--but unmistakably
_her picture_.
"He cares! He does care!" she repeated over and over. "Oh, my boy! My
boy!" And then her eyes fell upon the thick envelope with its worn
edges and open flap which lay unheeded upon the desk-top.
Mechanically she reached for it, and her hand came in contact with its
thick, heavily engraved contents. She raised the papers to the light
and stared; there were five in all, neatly folded, lying one upon
another.
The green background of the topmost one was faded and streaked, and a
thin, green wash had trickled over the edges of the others, staining
them.
A yellow slip of paper fluttered to the desk. She picked it up and read
the almost illegible, typewritten lines. It was a memorandum addressed
to Strang, Liebhardt & Co., and bearing the faded signature of Hiram
Carmody.
A sudden numbness overcame the girl. She sank slowly into the chair in
front of the desk and stared dully from the yellowed slip of paper to
the faded green bonds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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