CHAPTER V
Demorest, now as self-possessed as his adversary, haughtily waved hishand towards the path. They walked on in silence, without even lookingat each other, until they reached a small summer-house that stood in theangle of the wall. Demorest entered. "We cannot be heard here," he saidcurtly.
"And we can see what is going on. Good," said Blandford, coollyfollowing him. The summer-house contained a bench and a table. Blandfordseated himself on the bench. Demorest remained standing beside thetable. There was a moment's silence.
"I came here with no desire to see you or avoid you," said Blandford,with cold indifference. "A few weeks ago I might perhaps have avoidedyou, for your own sake. But since then I have learned that among themany things I owe to--to your wife is the fact that five years ago shesecretly DIVORCED ME, and that consequently my living presence couldneither be a danger nor a menace to you. I see," he added, dryly, witha quick glance at Demorest's horror-stricken face, "that I was also toldthe truth when they said you were as ignorant of the divorce as I was."
He stopped, half in pity of his adversary's shame, half in surprise ofhis own calmness. Five years before, in the tumultuous consciousness ofhis wrongs, he would have scarcely trusted himself face to face withthe cooler and more self-controlled Demorest. He wondered at and partlyadmired his own coolness now, in the presence of his enemy's confusion.
"As your mind is at rest on that point," he continued, sarcastically,"I don't suppose you care to know what became of ME when I left NorthLiberty. But as it happens to have something to do with my being hereto-night, and is a part of my business with you, you'll have to listento it. Sit down! Very well, then--stand up! It's your own house."
His half cynical, wholly contemptuous ignoring of the real issue betweenthem was more crushing to Demorest than the keenest reproach or mosttragic outburst. He did not lift his eyes as Blandford resumed in a dry,business-like way:
"When I came across the plains to California, I fell in with a man aboutmy own age--an emigrant also. I suppose I looked and acted like a crazyfool through all the journey, for he satisfied himself that I had somesecret reason for leaving the States, and suspected that I was, likehimself--a criminal. I afterwards learned that he was an escaped thiefand assassin. Well, he played upon me all the way here, for I didn'tcare to reveal my real trouble to him, lest it should get back to Northliberty--" He interrupted himself with a sarcastic laugh. "Of course,you understand that all this while Joan was getting her divorce unknownto me, and you were marrying her--yet as I didn't know anything about itI let him compromise me to save her. But"--he stopped, his eye kindled,and, losing his self-control in what to Demorest seemed some incoherentpassion, went on excitedly: "that man continued his persecutionHERE--yes, HERE, in this very house, where I was a trusted and honoredguest, and threatened to expose me to a pure, innocent, simple girlwho had taken pity on me--unless I helped him in a conspiracy ofcattle-stealers and road agents, of which he was chief. I was such acursed sentimental fool then, that believing him capable of doing this,believing myself still the husband of that woman, your wife, and tospare that innocent girl the shame of thinking me a villain, I purchasedhis silence by consenting. May God curse me for it!"
He had started to his feet with flashing eyes, and the indication of anovermastering passion that to Demorest, absorbed only in the stupefyingrevelation of his wife's divorce and the horrible doubt it implied,seemed utterly vacant and unmeaning.
He had often dreamed of Blandford as standing before him, reproachful,indignant, and even desperate over his wife's unfaithfulness; butthis insane folly and fury over some trivial wrong done to that plump,baby-faced, flirting Dona Rosita, crushed him by its unconscious butdegrading obliteration of Joan and himself more than the most violentdenunciation. Dazed and bewildered, yet with the instinct of a helplessman, he clung only to that part of Blandford's story which indicatedthat he had come there for Rosita, and not to separate him from Joan,and even turned to his former friend with a half-embarrassed gesture ofapology as he stammered--
"Then it was YOU who were Rosita's lover, and you who have been hereto see her. Forgive me, Ned--if I had only known it." He stopped andtimidly extended his hand. But Blandford put it aside with a coldgesture and folded his arms.
"You have forgotten all you ever knew of me, Demorest! I am not inthe habit of making clandestine appointments with helpless women whosenatural protectors I dare not face. I have never pursued an innocentgirl to the house I dared not enter. When I found that I could nothonorably retain Dona Rosita's affection, I fled her roof. When Ibelieved that even if I broke with this scoundrel--as I did--I was stilllegally if not morally tied to your wife, and could not marry Rosita, Ileft her never to return. And I tore my heart out to do it."
The tears were standing in his eyes. Demorest regarded him again withvacant wonder. Tears!--not for Joan's unfaithfulness to him--but forthis silly girl's transitory sentimentalism. It was horrible!
And yet what was Joan to Blandford now? Why should he weep for the womanwho had never loved him--whom he loved no longer? The woman who haddeceived him--who had deceived them BOTH. Yes! for Joan must havesuspected that Blandford was living to have sought her secretdivorce--and yet she had never told him--him--the man for whom she gotit. Ah! he must not forget THAT! It was to marry him that she had takenthat step. It was perhaps a foolish caution--a mistaken reservation; butit was the folly--the mistake of a loving woman. He hugged this beliefthe closer, albeit he was conscious at the same time of followingBlandford's story of his alienated affection with a feeling of wonderand envy.
"And what was the result of this touching sacrifice?" continuedBlandford, trying to resume his former cynical indifference. "I'll tellyou. This scoundrel set himself about to supplant me. Taking advantageof my absence, his knowledge that her affection for me was heightened bythe mystery of my life, and trusting to profit by a personal resemblancehe is said to bear to me, he began to haunt her. Lately he has grownbolder, and he dared even to communicate with her here. For it is he,"he continued, again giving way to his passion, "this dog, this sneakingcoward, who visits the place unknown to you, and thinks to entrap thepoor girl through her memory of me. And it is he that I came here toprevent, to expose--if necessary to kill! Don't misunderstand me. I havemade myself a deputy of the law for that purpose. I've a warrant in mypocket, and I shall take him, this mongrel, half-breed Cherokee Bob, byfair means or foul!"
The energy and presence of his passion was so infectious that itmomentarily swept away Demorest's doubts of the past. "And I will helpyou, before God, Blandford," he said eagerly. "And Joan shall, too. Shewill find out from Rosita how far--"
"Thank you," interrupted Blandford, dryly; "but your wife has alreadyinterfered in this matter, to my cost. It is to her, I believe, I owethis wretch's following Rosita here. She already knows this man--has methim twice in San Francisco; he even boasts of YOUR jealousy. You knowbest how far he lied."
But Demorest had braced himself against the chill sensation that hadbegun to creep over him as Blandford spoke. He nerved himself and said,proudly, "I forbade her knowing him on account of his reputation solely.I have no reason to believe she has ever even wished to disobey me."
A smile of scorn that had kindled in Blandford's eyes, darkened with aswift shadow of compassion as he glanced at Demorest's hard, ashenface. He held out his hand with a sudden impulse. "Enough, I accept youroffer, and shall put it to the test this very night. I know--if you donot--that Rosita is to leave here for Los Osos an hour from now in aprivate carriage, which your wife has ordered especially for her. Thesame information tells me that this villain and another of his gang willbe in wait for the carriage three miles out of the pueblo to attack itand carry off the young girl."
"Are you mad!" said Demorest, in unfeigned amazement. "Do you believethem capable of attacking a private carriage and carrying off asolitary, defenceless woman? Come, Blandford, this is a school-girlromance--not an act of mercenary highwaymen--least of all Cherokee
Boband his gang. This is some madness of Rosita's, surely," he continuedwith a forced laugh.
"Does this mean that you think better of your promise?" asked Blandford,dryly.
"I said I was at your service," said Demorest, reproachfully.
"Then hear my plan to prevent it, and yet take that dog in the act,"said Blandford. "But we must first wait here till the last moment toascertain if he makes any signal to show that his plan is altered,or that he has discovered he is watched." He turned, and in hispreoccupation laid his hand for an instant upon Demorest's shoulder withthe absent familiarity of old days. Unconscious as the action was, itthrilled them both--from its very unconsciousness--and impelled them tothrow themselves into the new alliance with such feverish and excitedactivity in order to preclude any dangerous alien reflection, that whenthey rose a few moments later and cautiously left the garden arm-in-armthrough the outer gates, no one would have believed they had ever beenestranged, least of all the clever woman who had separated them.
It was nearly nine o'clock when the two friends, accompanied by thesheriff of the county, left San Buenaventura turnpike and turned intoa thicket of alders to wait the coming of the carriage they were tohenceforth follow cautiously and unseen in a parallel trail to the mainroad. The moon had risen, and with it the long withheld wind that nowswept over the distant stretch of gleaming road and partly veiled itat times with flying dust unchecked by any dew from the clear cold sky.Demorest shivered even with his ready hand on his revolver. Suddenly thesheriff uttered an exclamation of disgust.
"Blasted if thar ain't some one in the road between us and theirambush."
"It's one of their gang--scouting. Lie close."
"Scout be darned. Look at him bucking round there in the dust. He can'teven ride! It's some blasted greenhorn taking a pasear on a hoss for thefirst time. Damnation! he's ruined everything. They'll take the alarm."
"I'll push on and clear him out," said Blandford, excitedly. "Even ifthey're off, I may yet get a shot at the Cherokee."
"Quick then," said Demorest, "for here comes the carriage." He pointedto a dark spot on the road occasionally emerging from the driven dustclouds.
In another moment Blandford was at the heels of the awkward horseman,who wheeled clumsily at his approach and revealed the lank figure ofEzekiel Corwin!
"You here!" said Blandford, in stupefied fury.
"Wa'al, yes, squire," said Ezekiel lazily, in spite of his uneasy seat."I kalkilated ef there was suthin' goin' on, I'd like to see it."
"You cursed prying fool! you've spoiled all. There!" he shouteddespairingly, as the quick clatter of hoofs rang from the arroyo behindthem, "there they go! That's your work, blockhead! Out of my way, or byGod--" but the sentence was left unfinished as, joined by the sheriff,who had galloped up at the sound of the robbers' flight, he darted pastthe unconcerned Ezekiel. Demorest would have followed, but Blandford,with a warning cry to him to remain and protect the carriage, halted himat the side of Corwin as the vehicle now rapidly approached.
But Ezekiel was before him even then, and as the driver pulled up, thatinquiring man tumbled from his horse, ran to the door and opened it.Demorest rode up, glanced into the carriage, and fell back in blankamazement.
It was his wife who was sitting there alone, pale, erect, and beautiful.By some illusion of the moonlight, her face and figure, covered withsoft white wrappings for a journey, looked as he remembered to have seenher the first night they had met in the Boston train. The picture wascompleted by the traveling bag and rug that lay on the seat before her.Another terrible foreboding seized him; his brain reeled. Was he goingmad?
"Joan!" he stammered. "You? What is the meaning of this?"
Ezekiel whom but for his dazed condition he might have seenviolently contorting his features in Joan's face, presumably in equalastonishment--broke into a series of discordant chuckles.
"Wa'al, ef that ain't Deacon Salisbury's darter all over. Ha! Here areye two men folks makin' no end o' fuss to save that Mexican galwith pistols and ambushes and plots and counterplots, and yer's JoanSalisbury shows ye the way ha'ow to do it. And so, ma'am, you succeededin fixin' it up with Dona Rosita to take her place and just sell themrobbers cheap! Wa'al, ma'am, yer sold this yer party, too--for"--headvanced his face close to hers--"I never let on a word, though I knewit, and although they nearly knocked me off my hoss in their fuss andfury. Ha! ha! They wanted to know what I was doin' here, he-he! Tell'em, Joan, tell 'em."
Demorest gazed from one to another with a troubled face, yet one onwhich a faint relief was breaking.
"What does he mean, Joan? Speak," he said, almost imploringly.
Joan, whose color was slightly returning, drew herself up with her oldcold Puritan precision.
"After the scene you made this morning, Richard, when you chose toaccuse your wife of unfaithfulness to her friend, her guest, and evenyour reputation, I resolved to go myself with Dona Rosita to Los Ososand explain the matter to her father. Some rumor of the ridiculous farceI have just witnessed reached us through Ezekiel, and frightened thepoor girl so that she declined--and properly, too to face the hoax whichyou and some nameless impersonator of a disgraced fugitive have gottenup for purposes of your own! I wish you joy of your work! If the play isover now, I presume I may be allowed to proceed on my journey?"
"Not yet," said Demorest slowly, with a face over which the chasingdoubts had at last settled in a grayish pallor. "Believe what you like,misunderstand me if you will, laugh at the danger you perhaps comprehendbetter than I do, but upon this road, wherever or to whatever it wasleading you--to-night you go no further!"
"Then I suppose I may return home," she said coldly. "Ezekiel willaccompany me back to protect me from--robbers. Come, Ezekiel. Mr.Demorest and his friends can be safely trusted to take care of--yourhorse."
And as the grinning Ezekiel sprang into the carriage beside her, shepulled up the glass in the fateful and set face of her once trustinghusband; the carriage turned and drove off, leaving him like a statue inthe road.
*****
The bell of the North Liberty Second Presbyterian Church had just ceasedringing. But in the last five years it had rung out the bass viol andharmonium, and rung in an organ and choir; and the old austere interiorhad been subjected at the hands of the rising generation to an invasionof youthful warmth and color. Nowhere was this more apparent than in thechoir itself, where the bright spring sunshine, piercing a newly-openedstained-glass window, picked out the new spring bonnet of Mrs. Demorestand settled upon it during the singing of the hymn. Perhaps that wasthe reason why a few eyes were curiously directed in that direction, andthat even the minister himself strayed from the precise path of doctrineto allude with ecclesiastical vagueness to certain shining examples ofthe Christian virtues that were "again in our midst." The shrewd faceand white eyelashes of Ezekiel Corwin, junior partner in the firm ofDilworth & Dusenberry, of San Francisco, were momentarily raisedtowards the choir, and then relapsed into an expression of fatiguedself-righteousness.
When the service was over a few worshipers lingered near the choirstaircase, mindful of the spring bonnet.
"It looks quite nat'ral," said Deacon Fairchild, "ter see Joan Salisburyattendin' the ministration of the Word agin. And I ain't sorry shedidn't bring that second husband of hers with her. It kinder looks likeold times--afore Edward Blandford was gathered to the Lord."
"That's so," replied his auditor meekly, "and they do say ez ha'owDemorest got more powerful worldly and unregenerate in that heathencountry, and that Joan ez a professin' Christian had to leave him.I've heerd tell thet he'd got mixed up, out thar, with some half-breedoutlaw, of the name o' Johnson, ez hez a purty, high-flyin' Mexicanwife. It was fort'nit for Joan that she found a friend in grace inBrother Corwin to look arter her share in the property and bring herback tu hum."
"She's lookin' peart," said Sister Bradley, "though to my mind thatbonnet savors still o' heathen vanities."
"Et's the new idees--crept in with that organ," groaned
DeaconFairchild; "but--sho--thar she comes."
She shone for an instant--a charming vision--out of the shadow of thechoir stairs, and then glided primly into the street.
The old sexton, still in waiting with his hand on the half-closed door,paused and looked after her with a troubled brow. A singular and utterlyincomprehensible recollection and resemblance had just crossed his mind.
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