You dont hear anything else?
No.
Nothing likelikelike
Rand, who had been listening with an intensity that distorted the left side of his face, interrupted him impatiently.
Like what?
Like a woman sobbin?
Ruth, said Rand, suddenly looking up in his brothers face, whats gone of you?
Ruth laughed. The fires out, he said, abruptly re-entering the cabin. Im goin to turn in.
Rand, following his brother half reproachfully, saw him divest himself of his clothing, and roll himself in the blankets of his bed.
Good-night, Randy!
Rand hesitated. He would have liked to ask his brother another question; but there was clearly nothing to be done but follow his example.
Good-night, Ruthy! he said, and put out the light. As he did so, the glow in the eastern horizon faded, too, and darkness seemed to well up from the depths below, and, flowing in the open door, wrapped them in deeper slumber.
CHAPTER II
THE CLOUDS GATHER
Twelve months had elapsed since the quarrel and reconciliation, during which interval no reference was made by either of the brothers to the cause which had provoked it. Rand was at work in the shaft, Ruth having that morning undertaken the replenishment of the larder with game from the wooded skirt of the mountain. Rand had taken advantage of his brothers absence to prospect in the drift,a proceeding utterly at variance with his previous condemnation of all such speculative essay; but Rand, despite his assumption of a superior practical nature, was not above certain local superstitions. Having that morning put on his gray flannel shirt wrong side out,an abstraction recognized among the miners as the sure forerunner of divination and treasure-discovery,he could not forego that opportunity of trying his luck, without hazarding a dangerous example. He was also conscious of feeling chipper,another local expression for buoyancy of spirit, not common to men who work fifty feet below the surface, without the stimulus of air and sunshine, and not to be overlooked as an important factor in fortunate adventure. Nevertheless, noon came without the discovery of any treasure. He had attacked the walls on either side of the lateral drift skilfully, so as to expose their quality without destroying their cohesive integrity, but had found nothing. Once or twice, returning to the shaft for rest and air, its grim silence had seemed to him pervaded with some vague echo of cheerful holiday voices above. This set him to thinking of his brothers equally extravagant fancy of the wailing voices in the air on the night of the fire, and of his attributing it to a lovers abstraction.
I laid it to his being struck after that gal; and yet, Rand continued to himself, heres me, who havent been foolin round no gal, and dog my skin if I didnt think I heard one singin up thar! He put his foot on the lower round of the ladder, paused, and slowly ascended a dozen steps. Here he paused again. All at once the whole shaft was filled with the musical vibrations of a womans song. Seizing the rope that hung idly from the windlass, he half climbed, half swung himself, to the surface.
The voice was there; but the sudden transition to the dazzling level before him at first blinded his eyes, so that he took in only by degrees the unwonted spectacle of the singer,a pretty girl, standing on tiptoe on a bowlder not a dozen yards from him, utterly absorbed in tying a gayly-striped neckerchief, evidently taken from her own plump throat, to the halliards of a freshly-cut hickory-pole newly reared as a flag-staff beside her. The hickory-pole, the halliards, the fluttering scarf, the young lady herself, were all glaring innovations on the familiar landscape; but Rand, with his hand still on the rope, silently and demurely enjoyed it.
For the better understanding of the general reader, who does not live on an isolated mountain, it may be observed that the young ladys position on the rock exhibited some study of POSE, and a certain exaggeration of attitude, that betrayed the habit of an audience; also that her voice had an artificial accent that was not wholly unconscious, even in this lofty solitude. Yet the very next moment, when she turned, and caught Rands eye fixed upon her, she started naturally, colored slightly, uttered that feminine adjuration, Good Lord! gracious! goodness me! which is seldom used in reference to its effect upon the hearer, and skipped instantly from the bowlder to the ground. Here, however, she alighted in a POSE, brought the right heel of her neatly-fitting left boot closely into the hollowed side of her right instep, at the same moment deftly caught her flying skirt, whipped it around her ankles, and, slightly raising it behind, permitted the chaste display of an inch or two of frilled white petticoat. The most irreverent critic of the sex will, I think, admit that it has some movements that are automatic.
Hope I didnt disturb ye, said Rand, pointing to the flag-staff.
The young lady slightly turned her head. No, she said; but I didnt know anybody was here, of course. Our PARTYshe emphasized the word, and accompanied it with a look toward the further extremity of the plateau, to show she was not aloneour party climbed this ridge, and put up this pole as a sign to show they did it. The ridiculous self-complacency of this record in the face of a man who was evidently a dweller on the mountain apparently struck her for the first time. We didnt know, she stammered, looking at the shaft from which Rand had emerged, thatthat She stopped, and, glancing again towards the distant range where her friends had disappeared, began to edge away.
They cant be far off, interposed Rand quietly, as if it were the most natural thing in the world for the lady to be there. Table Mountain aint as big as all that. Dont you be scared! So you thought nobody lived up here?
She turned upon him a pair of honest hazel eyes, which not only contradicted the somewhat meretricious smartness of her dress, but was utterly inconsistent with the palpable artificial color of her hair,an obvious imitation of a certain popular fashion then known in artistic circles as the British Blonde,and began to ostentatiously resume a pair of lemon-colored kid gloves. Having, as it were, thus indicated her standing and respectability, and put an immeasurable distance between herself and her bold interlocutor, she said impressively, We evidently made a mistake: I will rejoin our party, who will, of course, apologize.
Whats your hurry? said the imperturbable Rand, disengaging himself from the rope, and walking towards her. As long as youre up here, you might stop a spell.
I have no wish to intrude; that is, our party certainly has not, continued the young lady, pulling the tight gloves, and smoothing the plump, almost bursting fingers, with an affectation of fashionable ease.
Oh! I havent any thing to do just now, said Rand, and its about grub time, I reckon. Yes, I live here, Ruth and me,right here.
The young woman glanced at the shaft.
No, not down there, said Rand, following her eye, with a laugh. Come here, and Ill show you.
A strong desire to keep up an appearance of genteel reserve, and an equally strong inclination to enjoy the adventurous company of this good-looking, hearty young fellow, made her hesitate. Perhaps she regretted having undertaken a role of such dignity at the beginning: she could have been so perfectly natural with this perfectly natural man, whereas any relaxation now might increase his familiarity. And yet she was not without a vague suspicion that her dignity and her gloves were alike thrown away on him,a fact made the more evident when Rand stepped to her side, and, without any apparent consciousness of disrespect or gallantry, laid his large hand, half persuasively, half fraternally, upon her shoulder, and said, Oh, come along, do!