At noon Philip Horton made his way through the crowd with a tray and a

tin coffee-pot from the camp kitchen. When he reached the carriage

he found Mrs. Alexander just as he had left her in the early morning,

leaning forward a little, with her hand on the lowered window, looking

at the river. Hour after hour she had been watching the water, the

lonely, useless stone towers, and the convulsed mass of iron wreckage

over which the angry river continually spat up its yellow foam.

"Those poor women out there, do they blame him very much?" she asked, as

she handed the coffee-cup back to Horton.

"Nobody blames him, Mrs. Alexander. If any one is to blame, I'm afraid

it's I. I should have stopped work before he came. He said so as soon as

I met him. I tried to get him here a day earlier, but my telegram missed

him, somehow. He didn't have time really to explain to me. If he'd got

here Monday, he'd have had all the men off at once. But, you see, Mrs.

Alexander, such a thing never happened before. According to all human

calculations, it simply couldn't happen."

Horton leaned wearily against the front wheel of the cab. He had not had

his clothes off for thirty hours, and the stimulus of violent excitement

was beginning to wear off.

"Don't be afraid to tell me the worst, Mr. Horton. Don't leave me to the

dread of finding out things that people may be saying. If he is blamed,

if he needs any one to speak for him,"--for the first time her voice

broke and a flush of life, tearful, painful, and confused, swept over

her rigid pallor,--"if he needs any one, tell me, show me what to do."

She began to sob, and Horton hurried away.

When he came back at four o'clock in the afternoon he was carrying his

hat in his hand, and Winifred knew as soon as she saw him that they had

found Bartley. She opened the carriage door before he reached her and

stepped to the ground.

Horton put out his hand as if to hold her back and spoke pleadingly:

"Won't you drive up to my house, Mrs. Alexander? They will take him up

there."

"Take me to him now, please. I shall not make any trouble."

The group of men down under the riverbank fell back when they saw a

woman coming, and one of them threw a tarpaulin over the stretcher. They

took off their hats and caps as Winifred approached, and although she

had pulled her veil down over her face they did not look up at her. She

was taller than Horton, and some of the men thought she was the tallest

woman they had ever seen. "As tall as himself," some one whispered.

Horton motioned to the men, and six of them lifted the stretcher

and began to carry it up the embankment. Winifred followed them the

half-mile to Horton's house. She walked quietly, without once breaking

or stumbling. When the bearers put the stretcher down in Horton's spare

bedroom, she thanked them and gave her hand to each in turn. The men

went out of the house and through the yard with their caps in their

hands. They were too much confused to say anything as they went down the

hill.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024