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Page 75
Las Estrellas lost behind them, they drew their horses down into a
rocking trot, then to a slow walk. Virginia rode with her head up, her
eyes upon the field of stars. Her face, as Norton kept close to her
side, looked very white in the starlight. He would have given much to
have seen her eyes when a little later he began to talk. And she was
conscious of a kindred wish.
"Look yonder," she said. "The late moon is coming up. There will be a
little more light then and. . . . And I want to look at you, Rod
Norton, while we thresh it out."
The thin curved sliver of silver thrusting up over the edge of the
world in the east, ghostly and pale, added little to the throbbing
gleam of the stars; but the waiting for it had put Las Estrellas a mile
behind them, had set them alone together out in the heart of the
silences, had given them that last excuse to be had to set back an evil
moment. Virginia, with a sigh, brought her eyes down from the glitter
of the wide heavens and sought Norton's.
"I am afraid," she said listlessly, "that there is no way out for us,
Rod Norton."
"There is a way!" he began quickly
"There is no way unless you do what I say. If you would only give me
your word to take the stage to-morrow, to go to a competent surgeon, to
submit to the operation. If you would only give me your word. . . ."
"I give you my word," he said sharply, "that that is just the thing
which I will never do. Virginia, breathe deep, fill your lungs with
the wonder of the night; realize what it means to live; think what it
means to die! You say that I am not afraid of death; well, maybe not
if it comes in a guise I have grown up to be familiar with. But to lie
as I saw Tony Garcia lying just now, powerless, unconscious, without
will or knowledge of what was coming to me, and to let a man cut into
me . . . I'd rather die, I think, standing upon my two feet and
fighting it out with a gun! You would go on and tell me that the
chances would be highly in favor of my recovery; and yet you would
admit that the danger would be grave."
"Then you are afraid, after all? That is it? That holds you back?"
She found it hard to believe that he was telling her his true emotion.
"I am merely measuring the chances," he said steadily. "I am satisfied
with life as I find it; I do not believe that there is anything wrong
with me; I see at least the possibility of death and nothing to be
gained by submitting to an operation."
"Then," she said again wearily, "there is no way out."
"But there is! My way, not the one you have thought of. You have
stumbled upon a thing which you must forget; that is all. Give me the
free swing to finish Jim Galloway, to complete certain other
undertakings. Promise me that you will do this; in return I will
promise you not to . . . ."
And here he hesitated.
"Not to commit another theft?" She set the matter squarely before him.
"Can you promise that, Rod Norton? Could you keep the promise were it
once made?"
"Yes."
"No! You could not. You don't understand or you won't understand.
You would obey the impulse which would come just as certainly as the
sun will rise and set again. So I can neither accept your
promise . . . nor give you mine."
"You will tell what you have guessed?"
"Rather what I know! Even if you were my own brother. . . ."
"Or your lover?" he demanded, a challenge in his voice.
"Or my lover. For his sake if not for the sake of others."
For a little while he made no answer. Again there was absolute silence
between him, a troubled silence filled with pain. Then suddenly he
leaned close to her, threw out his hand for Persis's rein, jerked both
horses back to a fretful standstill.
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