Barker and Stacy both stared at their companion. It was unlike Demorest to regret anythingparticularly a mere social diversion.
They say, remarked Stacy, that if you had known Jack Hamlin earlier and professionally, a great deal of real value would have quitted you before he did.
Dont repeat that rot flung out by men who have played Jacks game and lost, returned Demorest derisively. Id rather trust him thanHe stopped, glanced at the meditative Barker, and then concluded abruptly, the whole caboodle of his critics.
They were silent for a few moments, and then seemed to have fallen into their former dreamy mood as they relapsed into their old seats again. At last Stacy drew a long breath. I wish we had sent those nuggets off with the others this morning.
Why? said Demorest suddenly.
Why? Well, dn it all! they kind of oppress me, dont you see. I seem to feel em here, on my chestall the three, returned Stacy only half jocularly. Its their dd specific gravity, I suppose. I dont like the idea of sleeping in the same room with em. Theyre altogether too much for us three men to be left alone with.
You dont mean that you think that anybody would attemptsaid Demorest.
Stacy curled a fighting lip rather superciliously. No; I dont think THATI rather wish I did. Its the blessed chunks of solid gold that seem to have got US fast, dont you know, and are going to stick to us for good or ill. A sort of Frankenstein monster that weve picked out of a hole from below.
I know just what Stacy means, said Barker breathlessly, rounding his gray eyes. Ive felt it, too. Couldnt we make a sort of cache of itbury it just outside the cabin for to-night? It would be sort of putting it back into its old place, you know, for the time being. IT might like it.
The other two laughed. Rather rough on Providence, Barker boy, said Stacy, handing back the Heaven-sent gift so soon! Besides, whats to keep any prospector from coming along and making a strike of it? You know thats mining lawif you havent preempted the spot as a claim.
But Barker was too staggered by this material statement to make any reply, and Demorest arose. And I feel that youd both better be turning in, as weve got to get up early. He went to the corner of the cabin, and threw the blanket back over the pan and its treasure. There thatll keep the chunks from getting up to ride astride of you like a nightmare. He shut the door and gave a momentary glance at its cheap hinges and the absence of bolt or bar. Stacy caught his eye. Well miss this security in San Franciscoperhaps even in Boomville, he sighed.
It was scarcely ten oclock, but Stacy and Barker had begun to undress themselves with intervals of yawning and desultory talk, Barker continuing an amusing story, with one stocking off and his trousers hanging on his arm, until at last both men were snugly curled up in their respective bunks. Presently Stacys voice came from under the blankets:
Hallo! arent you going to turn in too?
Not yet, said Demorest from his chair before the fire. You see its the last night in the old shanty, and I reckon Ill see the rest of it out.
Thats so, said the impulsive Barker, struggling violently with his blankets. I tell you what, boys: we just ought to make a watch-night of ita regular vigil, you knowuntil twelve at least. Hold on! Ill get up, too! But here Demorest arose, caught his youthful partners bare foot which went searching painfully for the ground in one hand, tucked it back under the blankets, and heaping them on the top of him, patted the bulk with an authoritative, paternal air.
Youll just say your prayers and go to sleep, sonny. Youll want to be fresh as a daisy to appear before Miss Kitty to-morrow early, and you can keep your vigils for to-morrow night, after dinner, in the back drawing-room. I said Good-night, and I mean it!
Protesting feebly, Barker finally yielded in a nestling shiver and a sudden silence. Demorest walked back to his chair. A prolonged snore came from Stacys bunk; then everything was quiet. Demorest stirred up the fire, cast a huge root upon it, and, leaning back in his chair, sat with half-closed eyes and dreamed.
It was an old dream that for the past three years had come to him daily, sometimes even overtaking him under the shade of a buckeye in his noontide rest on his claim,a dream that had never yet failed to wait for him at night by the fireside when his partners were at rest; a dream of the past, but so real that it always made the present seem the dream through which he was moving towards some sure awakening.
It was not strange that it should come to him to-night, as it had often come before, slowly shaping itself out of the obscurity as the vision of a fair young girl seated in one of the empty chairs before him. Always the same pretty, childlike face, fraught with a half-frightened, half-wondering trouble; always the same slender, graceful figure, but always glimmering in diamonds and satin, or spiritual in lace and pearls, against his own rude and sordid surroundings; always silent with parted lips, until the night wind smote some chord of recollection, and then mingled a remembered voice with his own. For at those times he seemed to speak also, albeit with closed lips, and an utterance inaudible to all but her.
Well? he said sadly.
Well? the voice repeated, like a gentle echo blending with his own.
You know it all now, he went on. You know that it has come at last,all that I had worked for, prayed for; all that would have made us happy here; all that would have saved you to me has come at last, and all too late!
Too late! echoed the voice with his.
You remember, he went on, the last day we were together. You remember your friends and family would have you give me upa penniless man. You remember when they reproached you with my poverty, and told you that it was only your wealth that I was seeking, that I then determined to go away and never to return to claim you until that reproach could be removed. You remember, dearest, how you clung to me and bade me stay with you, even fly with you, but not to leave you alone with them. You wore the same dress that day, darling; your eyes had the same wondering childlike fear and trouble in them; your jewels glittered on you as you trembled, and I refused. In my pride, or rather in my weakness and cowardice, I refused. I came away and broke my heart among these rocks and ledges, yet grew strong; and you, my love, YOU, sheltered and guarded by those you loved, YOUHe stopped and buried his face in his hands. The night wind breathed down the chimney, and from the stirred ashes on the hearth came the soft whisper, I died.
And then, he went on, I cared for nothing. Sometimes my heart awoke for this young partner of mine in his innocent, trustful love for a girl that even in her humble station was far beyond his hopes, and I pitied myself in him. Home, fortune, friends, I no longer cared forall were forgotten. And now they are returning to meonly that I may see the hollowness and vanity of them, and taste the bitterness for which I have sacrificed you. And here, on this last night of my exile, I am confronted with only the jealousy, the doubt, the meanness and selfishness that is to come. Too late! Too late!
The wondering, troubled eyes that had looked into his here appeared to clear and brighten with a sweet prescience. Was it the wind moaning in the chimney that seemed to whisper to him: Too late, beloved, for ME, but not for you. I died, but Love still lives. Be happy, Philip. And in your happiness I too may live again?