Frontier and pioneer life -- Fiction; Miners -- Fiction; San Francisco (Calif.) -- Fiction; Singers -- Fiction
Then suddenly the policeman drew the small lantern he had carried from
beneath his cape and shot the slide. A cube of clear, steady light cut
through the inky wall in front of them. For a second they all stopped,
the man sending the cylinder of radiance over the shrubs and trees in
swift sweeps. In one of these it crossed a white face, quivered and
rested on it. Barron gave a wild cry and rushed forward.
She was, as the boy described, crouched under a clump of small
fir-trees, the lower limbs of which had been removed. The place was
sheltered from observation from the house and the intrusion of the
elements. As the light fell on her she was kneeling, evidently having
been drawn to that posture by Barron’s voice. The light revealed her as
hatless, with loosened hair, her face pinched, her eyes large and wild.
As she saw Barron she shrieked and tried to move forward, but was
unable to and held out her arms. He was at her side in a moment, his
arms about her, straining her to him, his lips, between frantic kisses,
saying words only for him and for her.
The policeman, with a soft ejaculation, turned the lantern, and its
cube of light fell into the heart of a bed of petunias; then the two
men and the boy stood looking at it silently for a space.
Presently they heard Barron say: “Come, we must go. I must take you
home at once. Turn the light this way, please.”
The light came back upon her. She was on her feet, holding to him.
“Is it Sunday yet?” she said, looking at them with an affrighted air.
“That’s what she keeps asking all the time,” said the boy in a whisper.
“No,” said Barron, “it’s Friday. What do you expect on Sunday?”
“Only Friday,” she said, hanging back. “I thought I’d hide here till
Sunday was over.”
Without answering, he put his arm about her and drew her forward. At
the steps she hesitated again, and he lifted her and carried her down,
the policeman preceding with the lantern. The men helped him into the
carriage, not saying much, while the boy stood with his now liberated
dog at the top of the steps and shouted, “Good night.” Barron hardly
spoke to any of them. A vague thought crossed his mind that he would go
to see the boy some day and thank him.
She lay with her head on his shoulder, and as the carriage passed the
first lamp of the route he leaned forward eagerly to scan her face. It
was haggard, white and thin, as by a long illness. He could not speak
for a moment, could only hold her in his arms as if thus to wind her
round with the symbol of his love.
Presently she groaned, and he said:
“Are you suffering?”
“Yes,” she murmured; “always now. I am sick. I don’t breathe well any
more. It hurts in my chest all the time.”
“Why did you hide under those trees?” he asked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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