The Flaming Jewel
Page 36
Clinchwould come back for some breakfast.
Eve slipped the pack from her back and laid it on the kitchen table.There was kindling in the wood-box. She shook down the cinders, laid afire, soaked it with kerosene, lighted it, filled the kettle with freshwater.
In the pantry she cut some ham, and found eggs, condensed milk, butter,bread, and an apple pie. After she had ground the coffee she placed allthese on a tray and carried them into the kitchen.
Now there was nothing more to do until her father came, and she sat downby the kitchen table to wait.
Outside the sunlight was becoming warm and vivid. There had been nofrost after all -- or, at most, merely a white trace in the shadow -- ona fallen plank here and there -- but not enough to freeze the ground.And, in the sunshine, it all quickly turned to dew, and glittered andsparkled in a million hues and tints like gems -- like that handful ofjewels she had poured into her father's joined palms -- yesterday --there at the ghostly edge of Drowned Valley.
At the memory, and quite mechanically, she turned in her char and drewQuintana's basket pack toward her.
First she lifted out his rifle, examined it, set it against the windowsill. Then, one by one, she drew out two pistols, loaded; the murderousSpanish clasp-knife; an axe; a fry-pan and a tin pail, and the rolled-upmackinaw.
Under these the pack seemed to contain nothing except food andammunition; staples in sacks and a few cans -- lard, salt, tea -- suchthings.
The cartridge boxes she piled up on the table; the food she tossed intoa tin swill bucket.
About the effects of this man it seemed to her as though somethingunclean lingered. She could scarcely bear to handle them, -- threw themfrom her with disgust.
The garment, also -- the heavy brown and green mackinaw -- she dislikedto touch. to throw it out doors was her intention; but, as she liftedthe coat, it unrolled and some things fell form the pockets to thekitchen table, -- money, keys, a watch, a flat leather case----
She looked stupidly at the case. It had a coat of arms emblazoned onit.
Still, stupidly and as though dazed, she laid one hand on it, drew it toher, opened it.
The Flaming Jewel blazed in her face amid a heap of glittering gems.
Still she seemed slow to comprehend -- as though understanding wereparalysed.
It was when her eyes fell upon the watch that her heart seemed to stop.Suddenly her stunned senses were lighted as by an infernal flare. ...Under the awful blow she swayed upright to her feet, sick with fright,her eyes fixed on her father's watch.
It was still ticking.
She did not know whether she cried out in anguish or was dumb under it.The house seemed to reel around her; under foot too.
When she came to her senses she found herself outside the house, runningwith her rifle, already entering the woods. But, inside the barrier oftrees, something blocked her way, stopped her, -- a man -- _her_ man!
"Eve! In God's name!----" he said as she struggled in his arms; but shefought him and strove to tear her body from his embrace:
"They've killed Dad!" she panted, -- "Quintana killed him. I didn'tknow -- oh, I didn't know! -- and I let Quintana go! Oh, Jack, Jack,he's at the Place of Pines! I'm going there to shoot him! Let me go!-- he's killed Dad, I tell you! He had Dad's watch -- and the case ofjewels -- they were in his pack on the kitchen table----"
"Eve!"
"Let me go!----"
"_Eve!_" He held her rigid a moment in his powerful grip, compelled herdazed, half-crazed eyes to meet his own:
"You must come to your senses," he said. "Listen to what I say: theyare _bringing in your father._"
Her dilated blue eyes never moved from his.
"W found him in Drowned Valley at sunrise," said Stormont quietly. "Themen are only a few rods behind me. They are carrying him out."
Her lips made a word without sound.
"Yes," said Stormont in a low voice.
There was a sound in the woods behind them. Stormont turned. Far awaydown the trail the men came into sight.
Then the State Trooper turned the girl very gently and placed one armaround her shoulders.
Very slowly they descended the hill together. His equipment was shiningin the morning sun: and the sun fell on Eve's drooping head, turning herchestnut hair into fiery gold.
* * * * *
An hour later Trooper Stormont was at the Place of Pines.
There was nothing there except an empty trap and the ashes of the dyingfire beyond.
* * * * *
Episode Twelve
Her Highness Intervenes
* * * * *
I
Toward noon the wind changed, and about one o'clock it began to snow.
Eve, exhausted, lay on the sofa in her bedroom. Her step-father lay ona table in the dance hall below, covered by a sheet from his own bed.And beside him sat Trooper Stormont, waiting.
It was snowing heavily when Mr. Lyken, the little undertaker from GhostLake, arrived with several assistants, a casket, and what he called"swell trimmings."
Long ago Mike Clinch had selected his own mortuary site and had driven asection of iron pipe into the ground on a ferny knoll overlooking StarPond. In explanation he grimly remarked to Eve that after death hepreferred to be planted where he could see that Old Harrod's ghostdidn't trespass.
Here two of Mr. Lyken's able assistants dug a grave while the diggingwas still good; for it Mike Clinch was to lie underground that seasonthere might be need of haste -- no weather prophet ever havingsuccessfully forecast Adirondack weather.
Eve, exhausted by shock an a sleepless night, was spared the moreharrowing details of the coroner's visit and the subsequent jauntyactivities of Mr. Lyken and his efficient assistants.
She had managed to dress herself in a black wool gown, intending towatch by Mike, but Stormont's blunt authority prevailed and she lay downfor an hour's rest.
The hour lengthened into many hours; the girl slept heavily on her sofaunder blankets laid over her by Stormont.
All that dark, snowy day she slept, mercifully unconscious of theproceedings below.
In its own mysterious way the news penetrated the wilderness; and out ofthe desolation of forest and swamp and mountain drifted the people whosomehow existed there -- a few shy, half wild young girls, a dozensilent, lank men, two or three of Clinch's own people, who stoodsilently about in the falling snow and lent a hand whenever requested.
One long shanked youth cut hemlock to line the grave; others erected alittle fence of silver birch around it, making of the enclosure a"plot."
A gaunt old woman from God knows where aided Mr. Lyken at intervals: apretty, sulky-eyed girl with her slovenly, red-headed sister cooked foranybody who desired nourishment.
When Mike was ready to hold the inevitable reception everybody filedinto the dance hall. Mr. Lyken was master of ceremonies: TrooperStormont stood very tall and straight by the head of the casket.
Clinch wore a vague, indefinable smile and his best clothes, -- thatsame smile which had so troubled Jose Quintana.
Light was fading fast in the room when the last visitor took silentleave of Clinch and rejoined the groups in the kitchen, where were thefuneral baked meats.
Eve still slept. Descending again from his reconnaissance, TrooperStormont encountered Trooper Lannis below.
"Has anybody picked up Quintana's tracks?" inquired the former.
"Not so far. An Inspector and two state Game Protectors are out beyondOwl Marsh. The Troopers from Five Lakes are on the job, and we haveenforcement men along Drowned Valley from The Scaur to Harrod Place."
"Does Darragh know?"
"Yes. He's in there with Mike. He brought a lot of flowers from HarrodPlace."
The two troopers went into the dance hall where Darragh was arrangingthe flowers from his greenhouses.
Stormont said quietly: "All right, Jim, but Eve must not know that theycame from Harrod's."
Darragh nodded: "How is she, Jack?"
"All in."
"Do you know the story?"
"Yes. Mike went into Drowned Valley early last evening after Quintana.He didn't come back. Before dawn this morning Eve located Quintana, seta bear-trap for him, and caught him with the goods----"
"What goods?" demanded Darragh sharply.
"Well, she got his pack and found Mike's watch and jewelry in it----"
"What jewelry?"
"The jewels Quintana was after. But that was after she'd arrived at theDump, here, leaving Quintana to get free of the trap and beat it.
"That's how I met her -- half crazed, going to find Quintana again.We'd found Mike in Drowned Valley and were bringing him out when I raninto Eve. ... I brought her back here and called Ghost Lake. ... Theyhaven't picked up Quintana's tracks so far."
After a silence: "Too bad this snow came so late," remarked TrooperLannis. But we ought to get