CHAPTER XXVIIITHE FIRST OF THE VULTURESChristmas Day was a farce in which Jake, Maude and Bunny each played their appointed parts with somewhat dreary zest. The brother and sister had drawn much closer to each other during the past fortnight in which they had been thrown together. The old quick understanding, the old comradeship, had revived between them, and on Bunny's part there was added to it a certain protectiveness that created a new and even more intimate element in their intercourse. In a fashion their positions were reversed. Maud leaned upon him as he once had leaned upon her, and his sturdy support comforted her sick heart.As for Jake, he went his way among his animals, spending his time almost exclusively with them during that day and the days that followed. He was very quiet, invariably kind, but there was about him a suggestion of strain behind his composure, a hint of something terrible, as of a man hiding a mortal wound. He never talked about the animals now, and he did not welcome even Bunny in the stables."He's fretting his heart out over them," the boy said, and Maud knew that he spoke the truth. The thought of the coming parting with them hurt him to the soul.Sam Vickers knew this also, and watched him in mute sympathy. He would have given all he had to avert this bitter blow from the boss, but he could only stand and look on.It was on the last day in the year, a biting, sunless day, that he sought him late in the afternoon with a visiting card in his hand.Jake was leaning on the half-door of the loose-box in which was lodged the black colt of his dreams--The Hundredth Chance. The animal's head was nuzzled against his shoulder. There seemed to be a perfect understanding between them.But at sight of Sam the colt started back. He was suspicious of all the world but Jake.Jake looked round, his face grey in the failing light. "Hullo! What is it?"Sam came forward and gave him the card. "Mrs. Bolton was out, sir, and he asked for you; said he'd wait in the yard, sir."Jake bent his brows over the card. It bore a name that seemed vaguely familiar to him though in what connection he could not for the moment recall:--Monterey W. Rafford. Jake looked up. "He's no friend of mine. Do you know what he wants?""Said he was a friend of Dr. Capper, sir," said Sam."Oh, that American chap! I remember now. All right, Sam. I'll see him." Jake gently pushed back the colt's enquiring nose, closed the upper half of the door, and strode off down the stone passage that led to the yard.The visitor was standing under a lamp, a slim young man with a dark, keen face that broke into a smile at Jake's approach. He moved to meet him, speaking in a voice that betrayed his nationality at the first word."I am very pleased to meet you again, sir, though no doubt you have forgotten me."They shook hands. Jake was looking at him with steady eyes. "No," he said, in his slow way, "I think you are the sort of man that doesn't get forgotten very easily."Rafford laughed. He had an easy, well-bred laugh. "Capper doesn't believe in me," he said. "He declares I'll never get there. P'raps he's right. It doesn't concern me very much either way. Anyway, I've given up sending sick people to sleep for the present. I'm out on my own this journey. How is your young brother-in-law? Cure complete?""Absolutely." Jake was still looking at him hard. "If it's not a rude question," he said deliberately, "is that what brought you?"The American met his look with a flicker of the eyes that betrayed a hint of wariness. "It's not a rude question, Mr. Bolton," he said. "And it is not what brought me. I'm after art treasures at the present moment. To be particular, I'm after Saltash's wonder in marble,The Fallen Woman. We did a deal over that marble, he and I, in New York the other day. He was showing me a card-trick, and--I--spotted--the knave."Rafford suddenly drawled, and Jake's eyes grew brighter."Come inside!" he said.But Rafford shook his head. "No, not right away if you don't mind. There's a little light left. Will you show me the animals?"Jake's right hand clenched on his whip. "Have you done a deal over them too?" he said, sinking his voice very low."No. But I've got an idea," Rafford said. "I'll tell you what it is presently. You've got some valuable stock here, I'm told. Say, Mr. Bolton, you don't object to showing me round?"His smile was disarming. Jake swung round on his heel without another word.They went from stable to stable, inspecting one after another of Jake's treasures, Jake himself reciting the record of each. He began the tour almost in silence, speaking only words of bare necessity, but in some magnetic fashion Rafford broke through his reserve. His quiet enthusiasm reached and fired Jake. Gradually the glow kindled, the bitterness passed from him, he became himself in his own element, he opened his heart to the stranger because it seemed that he understood.It was a long inspection, and darkness was upon them before it ended. They came last of all to the home of The Hundredth Chance, and here with his favourite's nose tucked confidingly into his arm Jake told his hopes, his dreams.Rafford listened with a sympathy that was scarcely perceptible in his speech yet of which Jake was very strongly aware, or he had not so expanded. Later he marvelled himself at his own candour, but at the time it seemed wholly natural, even inevitable. By that mysterious force which makes men know each other as comrades even from afar, he recognized in Rafford the one quality that his soul demanded. Circumstance had flung them together for an hour, circumstance would part them again, but for that hour the bond of sympathy between them was complete.In the end he remembered again the coming loss, the crushing failure of all his plans, and the bitterness came down upon him afresh, an overwhelming burden forcing him down. He fondled the colt, and with a gentle hand closed the door upon him. "Yes," he said heavily, "given fair treatment he'll turn out a winner, but I shan't be here to see it.""What's come to Saltash?" Rafford questioned. "He seems ready to throw up everything.""Yes, that's him," Jake said. "But then he hasn't had the working up of the Stud as I have. It's nothing to him to part with the animals. They were no more than a pastime.""And not always a creditable pastime at that?" suggested Rafford. "I guess you're too straight for him, Mr. Bolton. He's a crooked devil--but a curiously likable one." He smiled as if at some reminiscence. "Well, what's your opinion? Do you think he could be persuaded to sell this show privately if he got a good offer?"Jake's reserve came down upon him like a mask. "I can't say. You'd better go to his agent, Bishop."Rafford was still faintly smiling. "I've just come from him. He practically sent me to you. I've just paid him Saltash's price for the statue. She will be on her way to America with me in a fortnight. But I'd like to bring off this deal before we go.""It doesn't rest with me," Jake said, doggedness in every line."No, I know. But I'd like to feel that I've got you behind me. My patron would like to know that.""Who is your patron?" Jake asked."His name is Ruse. You mayn't have heard of him, but he's quite well known in a good many circles--specially on our side. He has taken a fancy for horse-racing and he will probably drop a lot of money over it before he's done; that is, unless he's lucky enough to retain you for his trainer."A hot gleam suddenly kindled in Jake's eyes, and as suddenly died. "I reckon that won't be possible," he said, "Lord Saltash will see to that.""Saltash may not be able to prevent it," Rafford observed quietly. "Ruse will want a trainer, and when I tell him how your heart's in the job, it wouldn't surprise me if he persuaded you to keep it on. You wouldn't be very hard to persuade, I take it?"Jake hesitated momentarily, then passed the question by. "Is your friend in England?" he asked."He will be in England very soon after the deal is completed--if it is completed," Rafford answered."Won't he want to see the Stud first?" Jake's voice was quietly business-like. He seemed to have put all personal considerations away."I doubt it." Rafford said. "The value of the Stud is well-known, and--to let you into a secret--he is mad keen on securing it. You won't tell Saltash that of course, or Bishop, who, I understand, is empowered to act on his behalf. But I think Saltash will get his price without much haggling. My patron is particularly anxious to prevent the Stud coming on the market. He is prepared to offer something better than a market price to make sure of it.""He must be a very remarkable man," observed Jake."He is, sir; a very remarkable man, a man who never misses his opportunities. And in consequence he is on the whole very seldom a loser. It would be a great mistake to let him slip through your fingers--a very great mistake."Rafford spoke with earnestness. His dark face was alight with eagerness.Jake looked at him, faintly smiling. "You have an interest at stake?" he suggested."Only the interest that makes me want to push a thing to success. I have full powers though." Rafford's face reflected his smile. "When my patron got news of this thing, shall I tell you what he said to me? Just 'Clinch!' I shall go to Bishop to-morrow, and carry oat those instructions, if I can, to the letter.""You won't do it in a day," Jake said. "Maybe you'd like to put up at my place pending negotiations."Rafford's hand came out to him with impulsive friendliness. "No, sir. You're more than kind, but I won't do that. I've seen the animate and I've seen you. That's enough. You and I mustn't get too intimate over this deal. You know what Saltash is. When we've pulled it off, I'll be delighted--if there's still time." He gripped Jake's hand hard, looking him straight in the face. "You've given me a real happy hour, Mr. Bolton," he said. "And I shan't forget it. It was mighty generous of you, considering you regarded me as the first of the vultures. Well, I hope I shall be the last. So long!""So long!" Jake said. "I hope you will."He accompanied the young man to the gate, and watched him go.Then squarely he came back again, walked straight up the middle of the yard, looking neither to right nor left, went into his own house, and shut the door.Late that night when Maud rose to go upstairs, he came out of what had apparently been a heavy doze before the fire and spoke for the first time of his own affairs."Bunny told you some time ago that the Stud was to be sold, I believe?" he said.Maud stood still on the hearth, looking down at him. The question evidently startled her, for her breath came suddenly faster. "Yes, he told me," she said."Why didn't you tell me you knew?" said Jake. And then he saw that his abruptness had agitated her and leaned forward to take her hand.She suffered him to take it, but she was trembling from head to foot. "I didn't think--you wished me to know," she said.He bent his head slightly so that only the shining copper of his hair met her look. "It wasn't--that," he said slowly. "At least not at first. Just at first I didn't want to bother you. Afterwards,--well, I guess I'm an independent sort of cuss and I was afraid you'd want to finance me when you knew I was to be kicked out.""I did want to, Jake," she said quickly.He nodded. "I know. I was mighty ungracious over it. I've been sorry since.""Jake!" She stooped a little, a quick dawning of hope in her pale face; but he kept his head bent."No," he said. "The answer is still No. I don't want to hurt your feelings any, but I can't live on any one's charity. If there's anything under the sun that I can do to serve you, I'll do it. But I can't do the pet-dog business. For one thing I'm not ornamental enough. And for another, it ain't my nature."He paused a moment, but Maud made no attempt to speak. Only the hope had all died out of her face, and she looked unutterably tired.Jake went on. "Just when your uncle died, you were feeling extra lonely, and--" his voice sank a little--"you turned to me for comfort. But I didn't flatter myself that I had become permanently necessary to you. I knew you never intended me to think that. I saw it directly we met again. You fancied yourself under an obligation to me. You were willing--because of that--to give me anything I wanted. But it's come to this. What I really want is not in your power to give, and I can't accept less. For that reason, I've got to live in my own house, not in yours. I don't want you to feel bound to live with me, I know my setting never was good enough for you either. You can come to me just sometimes, and I shall be honoured to receive you. But I'd like you to know that you are absolutely free to come or go. I'm not insisting on my rights, just because I've learnt that it doesn't make for happiness on either side."Again he paused, but still she did not speak.Quietly he resumed. "That brings me to what I set out to tell you about the Stud. There is a chance--I think it's a good one--that it may be kept together after all. There is also a chance--a less promising one--that I may be retained as trainer. If I am offered the post, I shall accept it. If I am not offered the post, well, I shall have to start again at the beginning. I shall have to rough it. So if that happens, you will have to go your way and I mine."He ceased to speak, and his hand relinquished hers.Maud stood up. She was no longer trembling, but she was very pale."I hope you will get the post," she said, after a moment. "You--I think you would feel it if you had to part with the horses. They mean--so much to you.""I belong to 'em," Jake said simply.She smiled a little with lips that quivered. "Then I hope you will have them always," she said. "Good night--and thank you for being so--explicit." She looked at his bent head, stretched a hand above it almost as if she would touch it, then drew it swiftly back and turned to go.A few seconds later she was ascending the stairs, still piteously smiling, with the tears running down her face.CHAPTER XXIXTHE DUTIFUL WIFE"Well, my dearie, this is the biggest treat I've had for I don't know how long. Sit you down and tell me all your news! Is it true, what my Tom tells me, as you've come into a pot of money? Well, there now, I am pleased! Put your feet on the fender, my dear! There's a cruel wind blowing to-day. We'll have some hot buttered toast for tea.""I hope you're not busy, Mrs. Wright." Maud clasped the round, dumpy form very closely for a minute."Lor' no, my dear; not a bit. It's early closing to-day. Fancy your thinking of that now! And fancy your coming to see me of all people! Why, I feel just as if a princess had stepped out of a fairy-tale.""I don't feel a bit like a princess," Maud said.She sat down before the cheery little fire in Mrs. Wright's back parlour and stretched out her hands to the blaze.The old woman hovered over her tenderly. "You look like one, my dear," she said. "I think it's just wonderful that you should condescend to be friendly with the likes of me.""Oh, Mrs. Wright, don't--please--put it like that!" Maud leaned quickly back, turning up a face of flushed protest. "I don't like that aspect of myself at all," she said. "I don't think I am that sort of person indeed.""I always think of you as Jake's princess, dear," Mrs. Wright maintained. "I don't see why it should distress you. I like to think of you so."Maud laughed a little. "I wish you wouldn't. And I wish Jake wouldn't either. Perhaps once I was foolish and proud, but really I have got over that now. I am very humble, nowadays.""Are you happy, dearie? That's the great thing," said Mrs. Wright.Maud stooped again over the fire. "I'm--trying to be," she said. "I don't succeed perhaps all the time. But--" She stopped. "Don't let us talk about my affairs till I have heard all yours!" she said. "How is Tom? When is he going to be married?"It was the signal for Mrs. Wright to plunge into personal gossip, and she did so with zest. But she kept a motherly eye upon her visitor notwithstanding, missing no detail of her appearance and general demeanour. There was plenty to be said, Mrs. Wright was always voluble, but she was not a selfish talker. She did not monopolize the conversation, and she never lost sight of her listener.Maud's sympathy was quite unfeigned. She liked to hear about Mrs. Wright's various interests, and there was a genial warmth in the atmosphere that did her good."Let me come into the kitchen with you and help you make the toast!" she begged at length.And after a brief demur, Mrs. Wright consented. Tom was out and there would be no one to disturb them. She would not have dreamed of permitting Tom to sit down in the kitchen with Jake's princess.So to the kitchen they went, and finding it cosier than the parlour, decided to remain there to partake of the meal they had prepared, Mrs. Wright, albeit sorely against her will occupying the wooden armchair of state, while Maud sat close to her knees on the fender."You're looking very thin, dear," Mrs. Wright checked her chatter to observe, as she put down her final cup of tea."It's my nature to be thin," Maud said.Mrs. Wright permitted herself a more critical survey. "I wonder what Jake thinks," she said. "I shouldn't feel happy about you if I were Jake."Maud smiled faintly into the fire and said nothing.Mrs. Wright's plump hand stole down to her shoulder. "I hope as he's being good to you, dearie," she murmured.Maud leaned back against her knee. "He is trying to be," she said. "You know that the Stud has been sold?""It really has?" said Mrs. Wright."Yes, it really has. The animals were to have been sent to Tattersall's, but a man we know--an American--came at the very beginning of the year and made an offer on behalf of a friend of his that Lord Saltash's agent thought too good to refuse. He has gone back to America now, and no doubt his principal will make his appearance soon. The idea is to build new Stables nearer to Graydown. Jake is negotiating about some land there. It's such a pretty part, and there will have to be a house for him too. We shall probably be allowed to stay on at the Burchester Stables till it is all ready. Jake is hoping that it may all be done in a year, I think," she smiled again with a hint of wistfulness. "I think Jake is going to enjoy himself.""And you, dearie?" whispered Mrs. Wright, tenderly persistent.Maud reached up a hand to clasp hers. "I have been lost in the desert for a long, long time, dear Mrs. Wright," she said. "But I am just beginning to find myself."Mrs. Wright stooped impulsively and carried the soft hand to her lips. "May it please the dear Lord to guide you, dear!" she said."He is guiding me," Maud said with simplicity. "But I've some way to travel yet before I reach my goal. And--it's very sandy travelling sometimes, Mother Wright." She lifted her face with its sweet quivering smile. "And there are stones too, sometimes," she said. "But--I'd like you to know that I've passed the worst. I've left off yearning for--for--the mirage. It doesn't draw me any more--at all. I've left it all behind me,--like an evil dream and I can never, never, never be deceived by it again.""My darling!" murmured Mrs. Wright very tenderly. "My darling!"Maud suddenly clung to her closely. "I'm beginning to find out," she whispered tremulously, "that the thing I took for a rank weed growing beside my path is the one flower I have always wanted in my garden. I've tried for ever so long to uproot it, but now--but now--I'm trying to make it grow. I want it--but this is a secret!--more than anything else on earth."Mrs. Wright's own eyes were full of tears. "I am sure you will have it, darling," she said. "I am sure--quite sure--your want will be satisfied."She kissed the quivering face on her bosom and fondled the soft dark hair. They remained so for a space not speaking; then very gently Maud withdrew herself."Did I tell you that Bunny is allowed to play hockey this term? It is horribly dangerous--I went up to watch it last Saturday--but he enjoys it tremendously; and they say it will do him good. He is growing fast, getting quite a man.""I am very pleased to hear it," Mrs. Wright said warmly. "Dearie me, just to think of the poor little weakly thing he was a year ago! Do you remember that day I first looked in on you, and how you gave me them violets? I've never forgotten it."Maud flushed a little. "You were so good to me, and I had been so ungracious. I wonder you ever forgave me.""What rubbish, dear! What rubbish!" softly interpolated Mrs. Wright. "I loved you from the first moment I set eyes on you that night at Giles Sheppard's. And that reminds me. How is your mother doing now?""She is living in London," Maud said. "I believe Giles Sheppard went to Canada. She doesn't seem to trouble about him, but has settled down quite happily in a boarding-house in Bayswater. I invested some of Uncle Edward's money in an annuity for her. It seemed the best plan.""I am so glad you have got that money, dear," said Mrs. Wright simply."Thank you," Maud said. "But--you know--I could have been quite happy without it. At least I think I could. We should have had to emigrate. And I--" she smiled momentarily, "I suppose I should have been a cow-puncher's wife in earnest.""You wouldn't have liked that," said Mrs. Wright with conviction."Shouldn't I? I wonder. I am beginning to think that external circumstances haven't much to do with happiness." Maud spoke thoughtfully. "Still--now I am used to the idea--I am glad to have the money. Uncle Edward left all his affairs in such perfect order that they will probably be wound up very soon now. Mr. Craven, the solicitor, said it was one of the simplest matters he had ever had to deal with, which is all the better for me. He is in a position to raise almost any amount for me even now." Maud was smiling again, that faint, half-wistful smile that had become hers. "It will be useful when it comes to furnishing the new house, won't it?" she said."My dear, you will just love that," said Mrs. Wright. "And what does Jake say to it all? Isn't he pleased to know as you and little Sir Bernard are provided for as befits your rank and station?"Maud's smile became a laugh. "Dear Mother Wright, you are incorrigible!" she declared. "No, Jake is not over and above pleased. I think he has a lurking fear that I want to take him away from his horses and make him lead a life of elegant idleness. He doesn't guess how thankful I was to know that he would not have to give them up after all. For he loves his animals as he loves nothing else on earth.""Oh, tut, tut, dearie!" remonstrated Mrs. Wright. "And it really is settled for him to keep on in his present position?""Practically settled. He says he must wait and see his boss before he regards it as a sure thing. Meantime, he is carrying out Mr. Rafford's instructions as far as possible. He has gone over to Graydown to-day about the building-site for the new stables. I hope he will secure it. It is on a southern slope. It would be splendid for the animals.""Why, you are getting quite enthusiastic!" said Mrs. Wright, with a chuckle."I believe I am," Maud admitted. "I never thought so much of them till it seemed that we were going to lose them. I think it would almost have broken Jake's heart.""He don't keep his heart in the stables," said Mrs. Wright wisely, "nor yet in the training-field. What, my dear, you're not thinking of going yet? Why, it's quite early!""Yes, I ought to be going," Maud said. "I like to be in first, to give him his tea and so on. He is much too polite to say so, but I fancy he likes it.""Of course he likes it, dear. And I think he's a very, very lucky man." Mrs. Wright spoke with great emphasis.Maud was on her feet. She looked down at her half-laughing. "Oh, do you? I wonder why.""To have such a dutiful wife, dear," said Mrs. Wright. "I hope you're not going to spoil him, now. It would be a pity to do that."Maud uttered a funny little sigh. "Oh no, I shan't spoil him. He is most careful not to take anything for granted. In fact, I sometimes wonder--" She paused."What, darling?" Mrs. Wright looked up at her with loving admiration.Maud's face was flushed. "Oh, nothing very much. I was only going to say that I sometimes wonder if he has any real use for the dutiful wife after all. I try to please him, but all he seems really to want me to do is to please myself."Mrs. Wright rose up in her own resilient fashion. "Oh, there now! How like a man!" she said. "They're as cussed as mules, my dear. But never you mind! You'll catch him off his guard one of these days if you keep on. And then'll be your time. You step in and take possession before he can turn round and stop you. It's only a question of patience, dear. It'll come. It'll come."Maud smiled again as she bent to kiss her. "You're such a good friend to me," she said. "I'll be sure to take your advice--if I can.""God bless you, my darling!" said Mrs. Wright, with great fervour.CHAPTER XXXTHE LANE OF FIREAn icy wind was blowing as Maud climbed the steep road by the church. It whirled down on her with a fierceness that made quick progress out of the question. Nevertheless, she fought valiantly against it, fearing that Jake would have returned before her.It was not dark. The tearing wind had chased all clouds from the sky, and the daylight still lingered. Ahead of her the North Star hung like a beacon, marvellously bright. There was a smell of smoke in the air that seemed to accentuate the bitter coldness.The church clock struck six as she passed it, and she sought to quicken her steps, she did not want Jake to come in search of her. For some reason she did not greatly want to tell him how she had been spending the afternoon.Round the bend of the road the wind caught her mercilessly. She had to battle against it with all her might to make any progress at all. It was while she was struggling round this bend that there suddenly came to her the sound of galloping hoofs and a man's voice wildly shouting. She drew to one side, and stood against the hedge; and in a moment a horseman dashed into view and thundered past her. He was lying forward on the animal's neck, urging him like a jockey.He was gone like a whirlwind into the dusk, and Maud was left with a throbbing heart that seemed to have been touched by a hand that was icy-cold. She was nearly sure that the animal had come from the Stables and that the man was Sam Vickers. He was not a furious rider as a rule. What had induced him to ride like that to-night? Something was wrong--something was wrong! The certainty of it stabbed her like a knife. What could it be? What? What? Had Jake met with an accident? Was Sam tearing thus madly down to Fairharbour to find the doctor?The strength of a great fear entered into her. She began to run up the hill in the teeth of the wind. She had only half a mile to go. She would soon know the worst.But she had not gone twenty yards before her progress was checked. She became aware of a drifting mist all about her, a mist that made her gasp and choke. She ran on in the face of it, but it was with failing progress, for the further she went the more it enveloped her like the smoke of a vast bonfire.The coldness at her heart became a tangible and ever-growing fear. She tried to tell herself that the suffocating vapour blowing down on her came from a group of ricks that stood not far from the entrance to the Stables. Some mischievous person had fired them, and Sam had discovered it and gone to raise the alarm. But deep within her there clamoured an insistent something that refused to be reassured. Struggling on through the blinding, ever-thickening smoke, the conviction forced itself upon her that no hayricks were responsible for that headlong gallop of Sam's. He had gone as a man going for his life. His progress had been winged by tragedy.Gasping, stumbling, with terror in her soul, she fought her way on, till a further bend in the road revealed to her the driving smoke all lurid with the glare of flames behind. By that curve she escaped from the direct drift of it and found herself able to breathe more freely. The shoulder of the hill protected her at this point in some degree from the wind also. She covered the ground more quickly and with less effort.It was here that there first came to her that awful sound as of a rending, devouring monster--the fierce crackling and roaring of fire. The horror of it set all her pulses leaping, but its effect upon her senses was curiously stimulating. Where another might have been paralysed by fear, she was driven forward as though goaded irresistibly. It came to her--whence she knew not--that something immense lay before her. A task of such magnitude as she had never before contemplated had been laid upon her; and strength--such strength as had never before been hers--had been given to her for its accomplishment.She did not know exactly when her fear became certainty, but when that happened all personal fear passed utterly away from her. She forgot herself completely. All her being leapt to the fulfilment of the unknown task.The last curve in the uphill road brought her within view of the red flames rushing skyward and curling over like fiery waves before the wind. Through the roar of the furnace there came to her the shouting of men's voices and the wild stampeding of horses. And twice ere she reached the gates she heard the terrible cry of a horse. Then as though she moved on wings, she was there in the stable-yard in the thick of the confusion, with the fire roaring ahead of her and the red glare all around.The whole stone-paved space seemed crowded with men and horses, and for the first few seconds the noise and movement bewildered her. Then she grasped the fact that only one side of the double row of stables was alight and that in consequence of the driving north wind the other side was in comparative safety.They were leading the terrified animals out through a passage that led to further buildings on this safe side. But the task was no light one, for they were all maddened by fear and almost beyond control.As she drew nearer however Maud saw that the men themselves were grappling with the situation with energy and resolution, and there was no panic among them. One--a mere lad--gripping a plunging horse by the forelock, recognized her and shouted a warning through the din.She came to him, unheeding the trampling hoofs. "Is Mr. Bolton back?" she cried.He shook his head, striving to back the animal away from her. He had a halter flung over his shoulder which he had not stopped to adjust.Maud took it from him, and between them, with difficulty, they slipped it over the terrified creature's head. Then, obtaining a firmer hold, the boy shouted further information."No, the boss ain't back yet. He'll be in any minute now. Sam's gone for the fire-engine. He thinks the house will be safe if the wind don't veer. But the other side'll be burnt out before he gets back at this rate. We've got most all the animals out now though.""Not all?" Maud cried the words with a momentary wild misgiving.The boy yelled back again, still wrestling with the struggling horse. "All but The Hundredth Chance. He's gone by this time. We couldn't save 'im. It's like an open furnace along there."Then she knew what it was that lay before her, the task for which this great new strength had been bestowed. She left the boy and ran up the yard in the rear of that raging fire. She did not feel the stones under her feet. The seething crowd of men and horses became no more than shadows on the wall. Twice as she went she narrowly escaped death from the plunging hoofs, and knew it not....The heat was terrific, but the smoke was all blown away from her. She felt no suffocation. But when she reached the stone passage that led to the group of loose-boxes where once she had stood horror-stricken and listened to Jake reprimanding Dick Stevens in the language of the stables, she realized the truth of what the boy had said. It was like an open furnace.Yet there seemed a chance--the faintest chance--that that one loose-box at the southern corner, the best loose-box in the whole of the Stables--might yet be untouched by the devouring flames. The block of buildings was alight and burning fiercely, but it was not yet alight from end to end. It looked like a lane of fire at the end of that stone passage, but she could see the line of loose-boxes beyond, fitfully through wreaths of smoke. All the doors stood open as far as she could see. They had evidently taken the animals in order, and it had been the fate of The Hundredth Chance to be left till last.And how to reach him! It had baffled his rescuers. For the moment it baffled her also. She stood at the entrance to the stone passage looking through, feeling the stones under her feet hot like a grid, seeing the red flames leaping from roof to roof.Then the driving wind came swirling behind her, and she felt as if a hand had pushed her. She plunged into the passage and ran before it.She emerged in that lane of fire. It roared all around her. She felt the heat envelop her with a fiery, blistering intensity, but ever that unseen hand seemed to urge her. She hesitated no more, though she rushed into a seething cauldron of flame.And ever the thought of Jake was with her, Jake who loved his animals as he loved nothing else on earth.She reached that line of boxes, how she knew not. The roof was burning now from end to end, but as she tore past the open doors there came to her an awful cry, and she knew that the colt still lived.The smoke came down on her here, blinding her, but though it stopped her breath it could not stop her progress. It seemed as though no power on earth could do that now until she had reached her goal. Crouching, with lungs that felt like bursting, she forced a way over those last desperate yards.Every door was open save that one, and against that one there came a maddened wild tattoo. The Hundredth Chance was fighting for life.She reached the door through swirling smoke. The flames were shooting over her head. She caught at the bolt. It was burning hot as the door of an oven; but she knew no pain. She dragged it back.Again there came that fearful shriek and the battering of heels against the wood. The animal was plunging about his prison like a mad thing. She mustered all her strength and pushed upper and lower doors inwards at the same moment.Instantly there came the rush of hoofs. She was flung violently backwards, falling headlong on the stones. The Hundredth Chance galloped free; and she was left shattered, inert, with the fire raging all around her.But the deed was done, the great task accomplished. And nothing mattered any more. Jake loved his animals as he loved nothing else on earth....CHAPTER XXXITHE NEW BOSSWhat was that red light burning? Symbol of undying Love! Symbol of the Immortal! The Lamp that burns for ever before the High Altar of Heaven!Over the wide, sandy desert it shone, the only light in leagues and leagues of darkness. A great many wayfarers were drawing towards it, but they were very far away from it and from each other. Billows and billows of sandy waste stretched between. But they could all see the lamp. It shone like a red, still beacon, giving light to the outcast, guiding the feet of the wanderers.Ah, the long sandy ridges--how weary for the feet! Who could have faced the journey if God had not lifted up that lamp in the desert? Who could ever have hoped to reach the goal? Even as it was, the journey was long--so long, and the light so far away!Who was that speaking? Was it the Voice that had not sounded in tempest or fire, but only at the very last, when all other things were past? "Love is only gained by Love,--by the complete renunciation of self. Love is a joyful sacrifice,--to give and give without measure, not counting the cost, rejoicing only in the power to give, till it all comes back a thousand-fold--Love the Invincible. Love the Divine, Love the Perfect Gift."Surely it was Love Itself that spoke those words--Love that had raised that eternal beacon--Love that drew the pilgrims out of the long, dark night! And the sandy desert faded and became a garden where white lilies bloomed--lilies that faded not, such lilies as decked the High Altar of Heaven.There were no wayfarers here. There was no journeying for tired feet. Only a peace ineffable, beyond the power of words to describe. The lilies grew tall and white, unspeakably pure, fairer than any earthly flowers, dazzling in splendour, decked in holiness. Very peaceful was that quiet garden, with no song of birds to break the stillness, no whisper of fountains, no faintest echo of voices. Perfect rest was there, a calm as the calm of still waters, a hush that was Divine. Like a veil the solitude lay spread, stretching into the great spaces of eternity. And the lilies stood waiting, waiting, to be laid upon the Altar of God.How long had they stood waiting thus? Were they yet not pure enough? How long had they still to wait? Would the gates of that garden never open and the angel that served the Altar come to gather the flowers? Ah! Surely they were opening now! There came a waft of air, the scent and sound of the earth. But no one entered, and the lilies never stirred. Only the gates remained open, and the peace that wrapt the garden quivered like a filmy veil.Very far away from that quiet place someone was calling, calling. At first it was suggestion rather than sound, a vague murmur from the old, sad world so many millions of miles away. But gradually it grew till it seemed the echo of a cry, and at last the cry itself became articulate,--a cry of anguish rising from the void."Come back! Come back! O God, send her back to me! Send her back!"The lilies were moving now. They seemed to be listening, whispering together. The wind that blew through the open gates rustled among their ranks. Someone was lost then. Someone was wanted. Someone was sought through the great spaces of eternity. Was it a sod that had drifted free too soon? Would the searcher ever find that drifting soul? Did the one great Bond that nought could ever sever hang between them, linking each to each? It was only by the drawing closer of this Bond that they would ever find each other.And the way back was long and dark and stormy. Other worlds were there, other worlds and other voices. And once there came a great sound of singing as of men and angels praising God before the High Altar of Heaven.Then the darkness of earth rushed upwards like the smoke from a mighty furnace, and all was blotted out....Someone was holding her. Someone was whispering her name. She opened her eyes upon the old world of cloud and sunshine, and knew that the Bond had brought her back. Through all the great spaces of Eternity he bad drawn her to his side. She looked into his face, and it was the face of a man who had suffered agony."Thank God!" he said. "O thank God!"Then she remembered in what cause she had spent herself. "What of--The Hundredth Chance?" she said.He caught his breath. His lips were quivering. "He's safe enough. But--my girl--what made you do it?"She looked at him wonderingly. "But it was all I could do," she said.He bent his head over something that he was holding, and it came to her with a little start of surprise that it was her own hand swathed in bandages."Oh, Jake," she said, "am I ill? Have I been hurt?"He did not look at her. "Thank God, not seriously," he said, speaking with an odd jerkiness. "The colt knocked you down. You were stunned. You scorched your hands over that infernal bolt. But the wind blew the fire away from you. You weren't actually burnt.""Is the fire out?" she asked anxiously. "Tell me what happened!"Jake's head was still bent. She thought that he suppressed a shudder. "Yes, they soon got it under. There wasn't much left to burn that side. It was a good thing the wind held, or the whole show might have been gutted. It's all safe now."Maud's eyes wandered round the panelled parlour and came back to his bent head. "I feel so strange," she said, "as if I had been a long, long journey, and as if it had all happened ages and ages ago. Is it so very long ago, Jake?""About four hours," said Jake. "Dr. Burrowes has been in. He chanced to be passing in his dog-cart. He was on his way to a case, and couldn't stay except to give you first aid. He is coming back presently.""And you have been here with me ever since?" she said, with a touch of shyness. "Didn't you want to be looking after the animals?"He shook his head, gazing steadily downwards."Have you been--anxious about me, Jake?" she whispered."Yes." Just the one word spoken with an almost savage emphasis."But Dr. Burrowes must have known if--if I were in any danger," she said.He answered her with what she felt to be a great effort. "Burrowes was anxious too. He was afraid of the shock for you. He thought there was--danger."She moved her hand a little, and in a moment, as though he feared to hurt her, he laid it gently down."I am so sorry you have been worried about me," she said."It doesn't matter now," said Jake. He reached out for a glass that stood on the table. "Burrowes left this for you. Can you manage to drink it?"He held it to her lips with a hand that was not so steady as usual. She drank and felt revived.Her brain was becoming more active. There was something in Jake's attitude that required explanation. "I am better now," she said. "Tell me a little more! How did I get here? Who found me?""I found you. The Hundredth Chance came tearing out. We had some trouble to catch him. And then one of the boys suddenly said--" Jake stopped and swallowed hard--"said--said you had been in the yard, and must have set him free. I--got to you--just in time.""You saved me?" she said swiftly.He nodded.She raised herself, leaning towards him. "Jake! Were you hurt?""No." He kept his eyes stubbornly lowered."No one has been hurt?" she persisted."No one but you." His tone was almost surly.But something urged her on. "Jake," she said wistfully, "aren't you glad your animals are all safe?""They belong to the new boss," he said doggedly. "They don't belong to me."Her face changed a little. "I think they belong to you first, Jake," she said. "You love them so."He made a sharp gesture. "It's quite likely the new boss will tell me to shunt.""Oh, he won't do that, Jake!" she protested quickly. "I'm sure he won't do that. You--you are one of the best trainers in England."His mouth twitched a little; she thought he wryly smiled. "One of the best blackguards too, my girl," he said grimly.She opened her eyes in surprise. "Jake, what do you mean? Are people saying hateful things against you?"He gripped his hands between his knees. "It ain't that I meant. People can say what they damn please. No, it's just my own estimate of myself. I'm going to chuck the animals. They've come near costing me too dear. I'm going to give in to you now. You can do what you like with me. I'll serve you to the best of my ability, fetch and carry and generally wait around on you till you're tired of me. Then I'll go.""Jake! Jake!" She was half-laughing, but there was remonstrance in her voice. "But I never wanted you to give up the animals. Why, I don't believe you could live without them, could you?"He gave himself an odd, half-angry shake. "I've done with 'em!" he declared almost fiercely. "I can't serve two masters. If the new boss don't chuck me, I shall chuck him.""But the horses, Jake!" she urged. "And The Hundredth Chance! You can't be in earnest. You--you have always loved them better than anything else in the world!"He winced sharply. "You're wrong! And I am in earnest. If--if you had lost your life over the colt, I'd have shot him first and myself after. What sort of brute do you take me for? Do you think I'm without any heart at all? All animal and no heart?"The question was passionate, but yet he did not look at her as he uttered it. He was gazing downwards at his clenched hands.He was formidable at that moment, but she did not shrink from him. Rather she drew nearer. "Of course I don't think so," she said. "But--but--am I first with you, Jake? Am I really first?"He made a choked sound in his throat as if many emotions struggled for utterance. Then, almost under his breath, "An easy first!" he muttered. "An easy first!"Her bandaged hand slipped on to his arm. Her eyes were shining. "Oh, Jake, thank you for telling me that," she said. "You--I know you didn't want to tell me. And--now--I've got to tell you something--that I don't want to tell you either--that I don't know how to tell you. Oh, Jake, do help me! Don't--don't be angry!"He turned towards her, but he did not lift his eyes. He seemed almost afraid to look her in the face. "My girl, you've no call to be afraid of me," he said.But there was constraint in his tone, constraint in his attitude, and her heart sank."I'm so--horribly afraid--of hurting you," she said.A faint, faint gleam of humour crossed his face. "Oh, I guess I'm down," he said. "You needn't be afraid of that either."She tried to clasp his arm. "Jake, if--if I really come first with you, perhaps--perhaps--you'll be able to forgive me. It's because you came first with me too--a very, very long way first--" her voice shook--"that I was able to do it. It's because I wanted you to have what you wanted without--without feeling under an obligation to me or anyone. It's because--because your happiness is more to me--a thousand times more--than anything else in the world!" Her breast began to heave; Jake's eyes were suddenly upon her, but it was she who could not, dared not meet their look. "Ah, I haven't told you yet!" she said brokenly. "How shall I tell you? It's--it's the animals, Jake. It's the Stud!""What about the Stud?" he said. His voice was sunk very low, it sounded stern.With a great effort she mastered her agitation and answered him. "It's yours, Jake, all yours. The new boss is--is just an invention of Mr. Rafford's. You--you are--the new boss.""What?" he said.He got up suddenly, with a movement that verged upon violence, and stood over her, she felt, almost threateningly.Through quivering distress she answered him again."I've played a double game. I met Mr. Rafford first at Liverpool and then I chanced to meet him again here after--after you had refused to have my money. And he was kind and sympathetic and offered to help me. I wanted you so to have the horses. And I couldn't bear to think that you should lose them through me. Oh, Jake, don't look so--so terrible!"She sank back panting on her cushions. That one brief glimpse of his face had appalled her. He had the look of a man hard pressed and nearing the end of his strength. She saw that his hands were clenched.He spoke after several tense seconds. "Why have you done this thing?"She made a piteous gesture. "Oh, Jake, only--only because I loved you.""Only!" he said, and with the word she saw his hand unclench.For a moment a wild uncertainty possessed her, and then it was gone. Jake dropped down on his knees beside her and took her into his arms."Maud--" he said, and again "Maud!"But no further words would come. His voice broke. He hid his face against her breast with a great sob.Her arms were round his neck in an instant, her cheek was pressed against his hair. All doubts were gone forever. "My darling!" she whispered. "My darling!"And through the great storm of emotion that shook Jake, she said the soft words over and over, holding his head against her heart, kissing the cropped hair above his temple, drawing him nearer, ever nearer, to the inner sanctuary of her soul, till at length by the shattering of her own reserve she broke down the last of his also. He lifted his face to her with no attempt to hide his tears, and in the long, long kiss that passed between them they found each other at last where the sand of the desert turns to gold.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE FIRST OF THE VULTURES
Christmas Day was a farce in which Jake, Maude and Bunny each played their appointed parts with somewhat dreary zest. The brother and sister had drawn much closer to each other during the past fortnight in which they had been thrown together. The old quick understanding, the old comradeship, had revived between them, and on Bunny's part there was added to it a certain protectiveness that created a new and even more intimate element in their intercourse. In a fashion their positions were reversed. Maud leaned upon him as he once had leaned upon her, and his sturdy support comforted her sick heart.
As for Jake, he went his way among his animals, spending his time almost exclusively with them during that day and the days that followed. He was very quiet, invariably kind, but there was about him a suggestion of strain behind his composure, a hint of something terrible, as of a man hiding a mortal wound. He never talked about the animals now, and he did not welcome even Bunny in the stables.
"He's fretting his heart out over them," the boy said, and Maud knew that he spoke the truth. The thought of the coming parting with them hurt him to the soul.
Sam Vickers knew this also, and watched him in mute sympathy. He would have given all he had to avert this bitter blow from the boss, but he could only stand and look on.
It was on the last day in the year, a biting, sunless day, that he sought him late in the afternoon with a visiting card in his hand.
Jake was leaning on the half-door of the loose-box in which was lodged the black colt of his dreams--The Hundredth Chance. The animal's head was nuzzled against his shoulder. There seemed to be a perfect understanding between them.
But at sight of Sam the colt started back. He was suspicious of all the world but Jake.
Jake looked round, his face grey in the failing light. "Hullo! What is it?"
Sam came forward and gave him the card. "Mrs. Bolton was out, sir, and he asked for you; said he'd wait in the yard, sir."
Jake bent his brows over the card. It bore a name that seemed vaguely familiar to him though in what connection he could not for the moment recall:--Monterey W. Rafford. Jake looked up. "He's no friend of mine. Do you know what he wants?"
"Said he was a friend of Dr. Capper, sir," said Sam.
"Oh, that American chap! I remember now. All right, Sam. I'll see him." Jake gently pushed back the colt's enquiring nose, closed the upper half of the door, and strode off down the stone passage that led to the yard.
The visitor was standing under a lamp, a slim young man with a dark, keen face that broke into a smile at Jake's approach. He moved to meet him, speaking in a voice that betrayed his nationality at the first word.
"I am very pleased to meet you again, sir, though no doubt you have forgotten me."
They shook hands. Jake was looking at him with steady eyes. "No," he said, in his slow way, "I think you are the sort of man that doesn't get forgotten very easily."
Rafford laughed. He had an easy, well-bred laugh. "Capper doesn't believe in me," he said. "He declares I'll never get there. P'raps he's right. It doesn't concern me very much either way. Anyway, I've given up sending sick people to sleep for the present. I'm out on my own this journey. How is your young brother-in-law? Cure complete?"
"Absolutely." Jake was still looking at him hard. "If it's not a rude question," he said deliberately, "is that what brought you?"
The American met his look with a flicker of the eyes that betrayed a hint of wariness. "It's not a rude question, Mr. Bolton," he said. "And it is not what brought me. I'm after art treasures at the present moment. To be particular, I'm after Saltash's wonder in marble,The Fallen Woman. We did a deal over that marble, he and I, in New York the other day. He was showing me a card-trick, and--I--spotted--the knave."
Rafford suddenly drawled, and Jake's eyes grew brighter.
"Come inside!" he said.
But Rafford shook his head. "No, not right away if you don't mind. There's a little light left. Will you show me the animals?"
Jake's right hand clenched on his whip. "Have you done a deal over them too?" he said, sinking his voice very low.
"No. But I've got an idea," Rafford said. "I'll tell you what it is presently. You've got some valuable stock here, I'm told. Say, Mr. Bolton, you don't object to showing me round?"
His smile was disarming. Jake swung round on his heel without another word.
They went from stable to stable, inspecting one after another of Jake's treasures, Jake himself reciting the record of each. He began the tour almost in silence, speaking only words of bare necessity, but in some magnetic fashion Rafford broke through his reserve. His quiet enthusiasm reached and fired Jake. Gradually the glow kindled, the bitterness passed from him, he became himself in his own element, he opened his heart to the stranger because it seemed that he understood.
It was a long inspection, and darkness was upon them before it ended. They came last of all to the home of The Hundredth Chance, and here with his favourite's nose tucked confidingly into his arm Jake told his hopes, his dreams.
Rafford listened with a sympathy that was scarcely perceptible in his speech yet of which Jake was very strongly aware, or he had not so expanded. Later he marvelled himself at his own candour, but at the time it seemed wholly natural, even inevitable. By that mysterious force which makes men know each other as comrades even from afar, he recognized in Rafford the one quality that his soul demanded. Circumstance had flung them together for an hour, circumstance would part them again, but for that hour the bond of sympathy between them was complete.
In the end he remembered again the coming loss, the crushing failure of all his plans, and the bitterness came down upon him afresh, an overwhelming burden forcing him down. He fondled the colt, and with a gentle hand closed the door upon him. "Yes," he said heavily, "given fair treatment he'll turn out a winner, but I shan't be here to see it."
"What's come to Saltash?" Rafford questioned. "He seems ready to throw up everything."
"Yes, that's him," Jake said. "But then he hasn't had the working up of the Stud as I have. It's nothing to him to part with the animals. They were no more than a pastime."
"And not always a creditable pastime at that?" suggested Rafford. "I guess you're too straight for him, Mr. Bolton. He's a crooked devil--but a curiously likable one." He smiled as if at some reminiscence. "Well, what's your opinion? Do you think he could be persuaded to sell this show privately if he got a good offer?"
Jake's reserve came down upon him like a mask. "I can't say. You'd better go to his agent, Bishop."
Rafford was still faintly smiling. "I've just come from him. He practically sent me to you. I've just paid him Saltash's price for the statue. She will be on her way to America with me in a fortnight. But I'd like to bring off this deal before we go."
"It doesn't rest with me," Jake said, doggedness in every line.
"No, I know. But I'd like to feel that I've got you behind me. My patron would like to know that."
"Who is your patron?" Jake asked.
"His name is Ruse. You mayn't have heard of him, but he's quite well known in a good many circles--specially on our side. He has taken a fancy for horse-racing and he will probably drop a lot of money over it before he's done; that is, unless he's lucky enough to retain you for his trainer."
A hot gleam suddenly kindled in Jake's eyes, and as suddenly died. "I reckon that won't be possible," he said, "Lord Saltash will see to that."
"Saltash may not be able to prevent it," Rafford observed quietly. "Ruse will want a trainer, and when I tell him how your heart's in the job, it wouldn't surprise me if he persuaded you to keep it on. You wouldn't be very hard to persuade, I take it?"
Jake hesitated momentarily, then passed the question by. "Is your friend in England?" he asked.
"He will be in England very soon after the deal is completed--if it is completed," Rafford answered.
"Won't he want to see the Stud first?" Jake's voice was quietly business-like. He seemed to have put all personal considerations away.
"I doubt it." Rafford said. "The value of the Stud is well-known, and--to let you into a secret--he is mad keen on securing it. You won't tell Saltash that of course, or Bishop, who, I understand, is empowered to act on his behalf. But I think Saltash will get his price without much haggling. My patron is particularly anxious to prevent the Stud coming on the market. He is prepared to offer something better than a market price to make sure of it."
"He must be a very remarkable man," observed Jake.
"He is, sir; a very remarkable man, a man who never misses his opportunities. And in consequence he is on the whole very seldom a loser. It would be a great mistake to let him slip through your fingers--a very great mistake."
Rafford spoke with earnestness. His dark face was alight with eagerness.
Jake looked at him, faintly smiling. "You have an interest at stake?" he suggested.
"Only the interest that makes me want to push a thing to success. I have full powers though." Rafford's face reflected his smile. "When my patron got news of this thing, shall I tell you what he said to me? Just 'Clinch!' I shall go to Bishop to-morrow, and carry oat those instructions, if I can, to the letter."
"You won't do it in a day," Jake said. "Maybe you'd like to put up at my place pending negotiations."
Rafford's hand came out to him with impulsive friendliness. "No, sir. You're more than kind, but I won't do that. I've seen the animate and I've seen you. That's enough. You and I mustn't get too intimate over this deal. You know what Saltash is. When we've pulled it off, I'll be delighted--if there's still time." He gripped Jake's hand hard, looking him straight in the face. "You've given me a real happy hour, Mr. Bolton," he said. "And I shan't forget it. It was mighty generous of you, considering you regarded me as the first of the vultures. Well, I hope I shall be the last. So long!"
"So long!" Jake said. "I hope you will."
He accompanied the young man to the gate, and watched him go.
Then squarely he came back again, walked straight up the middle of the yard, looking neither to right nor left, went into his own house, and shut the door.
Late that night when Maud rose to go upstairs, he came out of what had apparently been a heavy doze before the fire and spoke for the first time of his own affairs.
"Bunny told you some time ago that the Stud was to be sold, I believe?" he said.
Maud stood still on the hearth, looking down at him. The question evidently startled her, for her breath came suddenly faster. "Yes, he told me," she said.
"Why didn't you tell me you knew?" said Jake. And then he saw that his abruptness had agitated her and leaned forward to take her hand.
She suffered him to take it, but she was trembling from head to foot. "I didn't think--you wished me to know," she said.
He bent his head slightly so that only the shining copper of his hair met her look. "It wasn't--that," he said slowly. "At least not at first. Just at first I didn't want to bother you. Afterwards,--well, I guess I'm an independent sort of cuss and I was afraid you'd want to finance me when you knew I was to be kicked out."
"I did want to, Jake," she said quickly.
He nodded. "I know. I was mighty ungracious over it. I've been sorry since."
"Jake!" She stooped a little, a quick dawning of hope in her pale face; but he kept his head bent.
"No," he said. "The answer is still No. I don't want to hurt your feelings any, but I can't live on any one's charity. If there's anything under the sun that I can do to serve you, I'll do it. But I can't do the pet-dog business. For one thing I'm not ornamental enough. And for another, it ain't my nature."
He paused a moment, but Maud made no attempt to speak. Only the hope had all died out of her face, and she looked unutterably tired.
Jake went on. "Just when your uncle died, you were feeling extra lonely, and--" his voice sank a little--"you turned to me for comfort. But I didn't flatter myself that I had become permanently necessary to you. I knew you never intended me to think that. I saw it directly we met again. You fancied yourself under an obligation to me. You were willing--because of that--to give me anything I wanted. But it's come to this. What I really want is not in your power to give, and I can't accept less. For that reason, I've got to live in my own house, not in yours. I don't want you to feel bound to live with me, I know my setting never was good enough for you either. You can come to me just sometimes, and I shall be honoured to receive you. But I'd like you to know that you are absolutely free to come or go. I'm not insisting on my rights, just because I've learnt that it doesn't make for happiness on either side."
Again he paused, but still she did not speak.
Quietly he resumed. "That brings me to what I set out to tell you about the Stud. There is a chance--I think it's a good one--that it may be kept together after all. There is also a chance--a less promising one--that I may be retained as trainer. If I am offered the post, I shall accept it. If I am not offered the post, well, I shall have to start again at the beginning. I shall have to rough it. So if that happens, you will have to go your way and I mine."
He ceased to speak, and his hand relinquished hers.
Maud stood up. She was no longer trembling, but she was very pale.
"I hope you will get the post," she said, after a moment. "You--I think you would feel it if you had to part with the horses. They mean--so much to you."
"I belong to 'em," Jake said simply.
She smiled a little with lips that quivered. "Then I hope you will have them always," she said. "Good night--and thank you for being so--explicit." She looked at his bent head, stretched a hand above it almost as if she would touch it, then drew it swiftly back and turned to go.
A few seconds later she was ascending the stairs, still piteously smiling, with the tears running down her face.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE DUTIFUL WIFE
"Well, my dearie, this is the biggest treat I've had for I don't know how long. Sit you down and tell me all your news! Is it true, what my Tom tells me, as you've come into a pot of money? Well, there now, I am pleased! Put your feet on the fender, my dear! There's a cruel wind blowing to-day. We'll have some hot buttered toast for tea."
"I hope you're not busy, Mrs. Wright." Maud clasped the round, dumpy form very closely for a minute.
"Lor' no, my dear; not a bit. It's early closing to-day. Fancy your thinking of that now! And fancy your coming to see me of all people! Why, I feel just as if a princess had stepped out of a fairy-tale."
"I don't feel a bit like a princess," Maud said.
She sat down before the cheery little fire in Mrs. Wright's back parlour and stretched out her hands to the blaze.
The old woman hovered over her tenderly. "You look like one, my dear," she said. "I think it's just wonderful that you should condescend to be friendly with the likes of me."
"Oh, Mrs. Wright, don't--please--put it like that!" Maud leaned quickly back, turning up a face of flushed protest. "I don't like that aspect of myself at all," she said. "I don't think I am that sort of person indeed."
"I always think of you as Jake's princess, dear," Mrs. Wright maintained. "I don't see why it should distress you. I like to think of you so."
Maud laughed a little. "I wish you wouldn't. And I wish Jake wouldn't either. Perhaps once I was foolish and proud, but really I have got over that now. I am very humble, nowadays."
"Are you happy, dearie? That's the great thing," said Mrs. Wright.
Maud stooped again over the fire. "I'm--trying to be," she said. "I don't succeed perhaps all the time. But--" She stopped. "Don't let us talk about my affairs till I have heard all yours!" she said. "How is Tom? When is he going to be married?"
It was the signal for Mrs. Wright to plunge into personal gossip, and she did so with zest. But she kept a motherly eye upon her visitor notwithstanding, missing no detail of her appearance and general demeanour. There was plenty to be said, Mrs. Wright was always voluble, but she was not a selfish talker. She did not monopolize the conversation, and she never lost sight of her listener.
Maud's sympathy was quite unfeigned. She liked to hear about Mrs. Wright's various interests, and there was a genial warmth in the atmosphere that did her good.
"Let me come into the kitchen with you and help you make the toast!" she begged at length.
And after a brief demur, Mrs. Wright consented. Tom was out and there would be no one to disturb them. She would not have dreamed of permitting Tom to sit down in the kitchen with Jake's princess.
So to the kitchen they went, and finding it cosier than the parlour, decided to remain there to partake of the meal they had prepared, Mrs. Wright, albeit sorely against her will occupying the wooden armchair of state, while Maud sat close to her knees on the fender.
"You're looking very thin, dear," Mrs. Wright checked her chatter to observe, as she put down her final cup of tea.
"It's my nature to be thin," Maud said.
Mrs. Wright permitted herself a more critical survey. "I wonder what Jake thinks," she said. "I shouldn't feel happy about you if I were Jake."
Maud smiled faintly into the fire and said nothing.
Mrs. Wright's plump hand stole down to her shoulder. "I hope as he's being good to you, dearie," she murmured.
Maud leaned back against her knee. "He is trying to be," she said. "You know that the Stud has been sold?"
"It really has?" said Mrs. Wright.
"Yes, it really has. The animals were to have been sent to Tattersall's, but a man we know--an American--came at the very beginning of the year and made an offer on behalf of a friend of his that Lord Saltash's agent thought too good to refuse. He has gone back to America now, and no doubt his principal will make his appearance soon. The idea is to build new Stables nearer to Graydown. Jake is negotiating about some land there. It's such a pretty part, and there will have to be a house for him too. We shall probably be allowed to stay on at the Burchester Stables till it is all ready. Jake is hoping that it may all be done in a year, I think," she smiled again with a hint of wistfulness. "I think Jake is going to enjoy himself."
"And you, dearie?" whispered Mrs. Wright, tenderly persistent.
Maud reached up a hand to clasp hers. "I have been lost in the desert for a long, long time, dear Mrs. Wright," she said. "But I am just beginning to find myself."
Mrs. Wright stooped impulsively and carried the soft hand to her lips. "May it please the dear Lord to guide you, dear!" she said.
"He is guiding me," Maud said with simplicity. "But I've some way to travel yet before I reach my goal. And--it's very sandy travelling sometimes, Mother Wright." She lifted her face with its sweet quivering smile. "And there are stones too, sometimes," she said. "But--I'd like you to know that I've passed the worst. I've left off yearning for--for--the mirage. It doesn't draw me any more--at all. I've left it all behind me,--like an evil dream and I can never, never, never be deceived by it again."
"My darling!" murmured Mrs. Wright very tenderly. "My darling!"
Maud suddenly clung to her closely. "I'm beginning to find out," she whispered tremulously, "that the thing I took for a rank weed growing beside my path is the one flower I have always wanted in my garden. I've tried for ever so long to uproot it, but now--but now--I'm trying to make it grow. I want it--but this is a secret!--more than anything else on earth."
Mrs. Wright's own eyes were full of tears. "I am sure you will have it, darling," she said. "I am sure--quite sure--your want will be satisfied."
She kissed the quivering face on her bosom and fondled the soft dark hair. They remained so for a space not speaking; then very gently Maud withdrew herself.
"Did I tell you that Bunny is allowed to play hockey this term? It is horribly dangerous--I went up to watch it last Saturday--but he enjoys it tremendously; and they say it will do him good. He is growing fast, getting quite a man."
"I am very pleased to hear it," Mrs. Wright said warmly. "Dearie me, just to think of the poor little weakly thing he was a year ago! Do you remember that day I first looked in on you, and how you gave me them violets? I've never forgotten it."
Maud flushed a little. "You were so good to me, and I had been so ungracious. I wonder you ever forgave me."
"What rubbish, dear! What rubbish!" softly interpolated Mrs. Wright. "I loved you from the first moment I set eyes on you that night at Giles Sheppard's. And that reminds me. How is your mother doing now?"
"She is living in London," Maud said. "I believe Giles Sheppard went to Canada. She doesn't seem to trouble about him, but has settled down quite happily in a boarding-house in Bayswater. I invested some of Uncle Edward's money in an annuity for her. It seemed the best plan."
"I am so glad you have got that money, dear," said Mrs. Wright simply.
"Thank you," Maud said. "But--you know--I could have been quite happy without it. At least I think I could. We should have had to emigrate. And I--" she smiled momentarily, "I suppose I should have been a cow-puncher's wife in earnest."
"You wouldn't have liked that," said Mrs. Wright with conviction.
"Shouldn't I? I wonder. I am beginning to think that external circumstances haven't much to do with happiness." Maud spoke thoughtfully. "Still--now I am used to the idea--I am glad to have the money. Uncle Edward left all his affairs in such perfect order that they will probably be wound up very soon now. Mr. Craven, the solicitor, said it was one of the simplest matters he had ever had to deal with, which is all the better for me. He is in a position to raise almost any amount for me even now." Maud was smiling again, that faint, half-wistful smile that had become hers. "It will be useful when it comes to furnishing the new house, won't it?" she said.
"My dear, you will just love that," said Mrs. Wright. "And what does Jake say to it all? Isn't he pleased to know as you and little Sir Bernard are provided for as befits your rank and station?"
Maud's smile became a laugh. "Dear Mother Wright, you are incorrigible!" she declared. "No, Jake is not over and above pleased. I think he has a lurking fear that I want to take him away from his horses and make him lead a life of elegant idleness. He doesn't guess how thankful I was to know that he would not have to give them up after all. For he loves his animals as he loves nothing else on earth."
"Oh, tut, tut, dearie!" remonstrated Mrs. Wright. "And it really is settled for him to keep on in his present position?"
"Practically settled. He says he must wait and see his boss before he regards it as a sure thing. Meantime, he is carrying out Mr. Rafford's instructions as far as possible. He has gone over to Graydown to-day about the building-site for the new stables. I hope he will secure it. It is on a southern slope. It would be splendid for the animals."
"Why, you are getting quite enthusiastic!" said Mrs. Wright, with a chuckle.
"I believe I am," Maud admitted. "I never thought so much of them till it seemed that we were going to lose them. I think it would almost have broken Jake's heart."
"He don't keep his heart in the stables," said Mrs. Wright wisely, "nor yet in the training-field. What, my dear, you're not thinking of going yet? Why, it's quite early!"
"Yes, I ought to be going," Maud said. "I like to be in first, to give him his tea and so on. He is much too polite to say so, but I fancy he likes it."
"Of course he likes it, dear. And I think he's a very, very lucky man." Mrs. Wright spoke with great emphasis.
Maud was on her feet. She looked down at her half-laughing. "Oh, do you? I wonder why."
"To have such a dutiful wife, dear," said Mrs. Wright. "I hope you're not going to spoil him, now. It would be a pity to do that."
Maud uttered a funny little sigh. "Oh no, I shan't spoil him. He is most careful not to take anything for granted. In fact, I sometimes wonder--" She paused.
"What, darling?" Mrs. Wright looked up at her with loving admiration.
Maud's face was flushed. "Oh, nothing very much. I was only going to say that I sometimes wonder if he has any real use for the dutiful wife after all. I try to please him, but all he seems really to want me to do is to please myself."
Mrs. Wright rose up in her own resilient fashion. "Oh, there now! How like a man!" she said. "They're as cussed as mules, my dear. But never you mind! You'll catch him off his guard one of these days if you keep on. And then'll be your time. You step in and take possession before he can turn round and stop you. It's only a question of patience, dear. It'll come. It'll come."
Maud smiled again as she bent to kiss her. "You're such a good friend to me," she said. "I'll be sure to take your advice--if I can."
"God bless you, my darling!" said Mrs. Wright, with great fervour.
CHAPTER XXX
THE LANE OF FIRE
An icy wind was blowing as Maud climbed the steep road by the church. It whirled down on her with a fierceness that made quick progress out of the question. Nevertheless, she fought valiantly against it, fearing that Jake would have returned before her.
It was not dark. The tearing wind had chased all clouds from the sky, and the daylight still lingered. Ahead of her the North Star hung like a beacon, marvellously bright. There was a smell of smoke in the air that seemed to accentuate the bitter coldness.
The church clock struck six as she passed it, and she sought to quicken her steps, she did not want Jake to come in search of her. For some reason she did not greatly want to tell him how she had been spending the afternoon.
Round the bend of the road the wind caught her mercilessly. She had to battle against it with all her might to make any progress at all. It was while she was struggling round this bend that there suddenly came to her the sound of galloping hoofs and a man's voice wildly shouting. She drew to one side, and stood against the hedge; and in a moment a horseman dashed into view and thundered past her. He was lying forward on the animal's neck, urging him like a jockey.
He was gone like a whirlwind into the dusk, and Maud was left with a throbbing heart that seemed to have been touched by a hand that was icy-cold. She was nearly sure that the animal had come from the Stables and that the man was Sam Vickers. He was not a furious rider as a rule. What had induced him to ride like that to-night? Something was wrong--something was wrong! The certainty of it stabbed her like a knife. What could it be? What? What? Had Jake met with an accident? Was Sam tearing thus madly down to Fairharbour to find the doctor?
The strength of a great fear entered into her. She began to run up the hill in the teeth of the wind. She had only half a mile to go. She would soon know the worst.
But she had not gone twenty yards before her progress was checked. She became aware of a drifting mist all about her, a mist that made her gasp and choke. She ran on in the face of it, but it was with failing progress, for the further she went the more it enveloped her like the smoke of a vast bonfire.
The coldness at her heart became a tangible and ever-growing fear. She tried to tell herself that the suffocating vapour blowing down on her came from a group of ricks that stood not far from the entrance to the Stables. Some mischievous person had fired them, and Sam had discovered it and gone to raise the alarm. But deep within her there clamoured an insistent something that refused to be reassured. Struggling on through the blinding, ever-thickening smoke, the conviction forced itself upon her that no hayricks were responsible for that headlong gallop of Sam's. He had gone as a man going for his life. His progress had been winged by tragedy.
Gasping, stumbling, with terror in her soul, she fought her way on, till a further bend in the road revealed to her the driving smoke all lurid with the glare of flames behind. By that curve she escaped from the direct drift of it and found herself able to breathe more freely. The shoulder of the hill protected her at this point in some degree from the wind also. She covered the ground more quickly and with less effort.
It was here that there first came to her that awful sound as of a rending, devouring monster--the fierce crackling and roaring of fire. The horror of it set all her pulses leaping, but its effect upon her senses was curiously stimulating. Where another might have been paralysed by fear, she was driven forward as though goaded irresistibly. It came to her--whence she knew not--that something immense lay before her. A task of such magnitude as she had never before contemplated had been laid upon her; and strength--such strength as had never before been hers--had been given to her for its accomplishment.
She did not know exactly when her fear became certainty, but when that happened all personal fear passed utterly away from her. She forgot herself completely. All her being leapt to the fulfilment of the unknown task.
The last curve in the uphill road brought her within view of the red flames rushing skyward and curling over like fiery waves before the wind. Through the roar of the furnace there came to her the shouting of men's voices and the wild stampeding of horses. And twice ere she reached the gates she heard the terrible cry of a horse. Then as though she moved on wings, she was there in the stable-yard in the thick of the confusion, with the fire roaring ahead of her and the red glare all around.
The whole stone-paved space seemed crowded with men and horses, and for the first few seconds the noise and movement bewildered her. Then she grasped the fact that only one side of the double row of stables was alight and that in consequence of the driving north wind the other side was in comparative safety.
They were leading the terrified animals out through a passage that led to further buildings on this safe side. But the task was no light one, for they were all maddened by fear and almost beyond control.
As she drew nearer however Maud saw that the men themselves were grappling with the situation with energy and resolution, and there was no panic among them. One--a mere lad--gripping a plunging horse by the forelock, recognized her and shouted a warning through the din.
She came to him, unheeding the trampling hoofs. "Is Mr. Bolton back?" she cried.
He shook his head, striving to back the animal away from her. He had a halter flung over his shoulder which he had not stopped to adjust.
Maud took it from him, and between them, with difficulty, they slipped it over the terrified creature's head. Then, obtaining a firmer hold, the boy shouted further information.
"No, the boss ain't back yet. He'll be in any minute now. Sam's gone for the fire-engine. He thinks the house will be safe if the wind don't veer. But the other side'll be burnt out before he gets back at this rate. We've got most all the animals out now though."
"Not all?" Maud cried the words with a momentary wild misgiving.
The boy yelled back again, still wrestling with the struggling horse. "All but The Hundredth Chance. He's gone by this time. We couldn't save 'im. It's like an open furnace along there."
Then she knew what it was that lay before her, the task for which this great new strength had been bestowed. She left the boy and ran up the yard in the rear of that raging fire. She did not feel the stones under her feet. The seething crowd of men and horses became no more than shadows on the wall. Twice as she went she narrowly escaped death from the plunging hoofs, and knew it not....
The heat was terrific, but the smoke was all blown away from her. She felt no suffocation. But when she reached the stone passage that led to the group of loose-boxes where once she had stood horror-stricken and listened to Jake reprimanding Dick Stevens in the language of the stables, she realized the truth of what the boy had said. It was like an open furnace.
Yet there seemed a chance--the faintest chance--that that one loose-box at the southern corner, the best loose-box in the whole of the Stables--might yet be untouched by the devouring flames. The block of buildings was alight and burning fiercely, but it was not yet alight from end to end. It looked like a lane of fire at the end of that stone passage, but she could see the line of loose-boxes beyond, fitfully through wreaths of smoke. All the doors stood open as far as she could see. They had evidently taken the animals in order, and it had been the fate of The Hundredth Chance to be left till last.
And how to reach him! It had baffled his rescuers. For the moment it baffled her also. She stood at the entrance to the stone passage looking through, feeling the stones under her feet hot like a grid, seeing the red flames leaping from roof to roof.
Then the driving wind came swirling behind her, and she felt as if a hand had pushed her. She plunged into the passage and ran before it.
She emerged in that lane of fire. It roared all around her. She felt the heat envelop her with a fiery, blistering intensity, but ever that unseen hand seemed to urge her. She hesitated no more, though she rushed into a seething cauldron of flame.
And ever the thought of Jake was with her, Jake who loved his animals as he loved nothing else on earth.
She reached that line of boxes, how she knew not. The roof was burning now from end to end, but as she tore past the open doors there came to her an awful cry, and she knew that the colt still lived.
The smoke came down on her here, blinding her, but though it stopped her breath it could not stop her progress. It seemed as though no power on earth could do that now until she had reached her goal. Crouching, with lungs that felt like bursting, she forced a way over those last desperate yards.
Every door was open save that one, and against that one there came a maddened wild tattoo. The Hundredth Chance was fighting for life.
She reached the door through swirling smoke. The flames were shooting over her head. She caught at the bolt. It was burning hot as the door of an oven; but she knew no pain. She dragged it back.
Again there came that fearful shriek and the battering of heels against the wood. The animal was plunging about his prison like a mad thing. She mustered all her strength and pushed upper and lower doors inwards at the same moment.
Instantly there came the rush of hoofs. She was flung violently backwards, falling headlong on the stones. The Hundredth Chance galloped free; and she was left shattered, inert, with the fire raging all around her.
But the deed was done, the great task accomplished. And nothing mattered any more. Jake loved his animals as he loved nothing else on earth....
CHAPTER XXXI
THE NEW BOSS
What was that red light burning? Symbol of undying Love! Symbol of the Immortal! The Lamp that burns for ever before the High Altar of Heaven!
Over the wide, sandy desert it shone, the only light in leagues and leagues of darkness. A great many wayfarers were drawing towards it, but they were very far away from it and from each other. Billows and billows of sandy waste stretched between. But they could all see the lamp. It shone like a red, still beacon, giving light to the outcast, guiding the feet of the wanderers.
Ah, the long sandy ridges--how weary for the feet! Who could have faced the journey if God had not lifted up that lamp in the desert? Who could ever have hoped to reach the goal? Even as it was, the journey was long--so long, and the light so far away!
Who was that speaking? Was it the Voice that had not sounded in tempest or fire, but only at the very last, when all other things were past? "Love is only gained by Love,--by the complete renunciation of self. Love is a joyful sacrifice,--to give and give without measure, not counting the cost, rejoicing only in the power to give, till it all comes back a thousand-fold--Love the Invincible. Love the Divine, Love the Perfect Gift."
Surely it was Love Itself that spoke those words--Love that had raised that eternal beacon--Love that drew the pilgrims out of the long, dark night! And the sandy desert faded and became a garden where white lilies bloomed--lilies that faded not, such lilies as decked the High Altar of Heaven.
There were no wayfarers here. There was no journeying for tired feet. Only a peace ineffable, beyond the power of words to describe. The lilies grew tall and white, unspeakably pure, fairer than any earthly flowers, dazzling in splendour, decked in holiness. Very peaceful was that quiet garden, with no song of birds to break the stillness, no whisper of fountains, no faintest echo of voices. Perfect rest was there, a calm as the calm of still waters, a hush that was Divine. Like a veil the solitude lay spread, stretching into the great spaces of eternity. And the lilies stood waiting, waiting, to be laid upon the Altar of God.
How long had they stood waiting thus? Were they yet not pure enough? How long had they still to wait? Would the gates of that garden never open and the angel that served the Altar come to gather the flowers? Ah! Surely they were opening now! There came a waft of air, the scent and sound of the earth. But no one entered, and the lilies never stirred. Only the gates remained open, and the peace that wrapt the garden quivered like a filmy veil.
Very far away from that quiet place someone was calling, calling. At first it was suggestion rather than sound, a vague murmur from the old, sad world so many millions of miles away. But gradually it grew till it seemed the echo of a cry, and at last the cry itself became articulate,--a cry of anguish rising from the void.
"Come back! Come back! O God, send her back to me! Send her back!"
The lilies were moving now. They seemed to be listening, whispering together. The wind that blew through the open gates rustled among their ranks. Someone was lost then. Someone was wanted. Someone was sought through the great spaces of eternity. Was it a sod that had drifted free too soon? Would the searcher ever find that drifting soul? Did the one great Bond that nought could ever sever hang between them, linking each to each? It was only by the drawing closer of this Bond that they would ever find each other.
And the way back was long and dark and stormy. Other worlds were there, other worlds and other voices. And once there came a great sound of singing as of men and angels praising God before the High Altar of Heaven.
Then the darkness of earth rushed upwards like the smoke from a mighty furnace, and all was blotted out....
Someone was holding her. Someone was whispering her name. She opened her eyes upon the old world of cloud and sunshine, and knew that the Bond had brought her back. Through all the great spaces of Eternity he bad drawn her to his side. She looked into his face, and it was the face of a man who had suffered agony.
"Thank God!" he said. "O thank God!"
Then she remembered in what cause she had spent herself. "What of--The Hundredth Chance?" she said.
He caught his breath. His lips were quivering. "He's safe enough. But--my girl--what made you do it?"
She looked at him wonderingly. "But it was all I could do," she said.
He bent his head over something that he was holding, and it came to her with a little start of surprise that it was her own hand swathed in bandages.
"Oh, Jake," she said, "am I ill? Have I been hurt?"
He did not look at her. "Thank God, not seriously," he said, speaking with an odd jerkiness. "The colt knocked you down. You were stunned. You scorched your hands over that infernal bolt. But the wind blew the fire away from you. You weren't actually burnt."
"Is the fire out?" she asked anxiously. "Tell me what happened!"
Jake's head was still bent. She thought that he suppressed a shudder. "Yes, they soon got it under. There wasn't much left to burn that side. It was a good thing the wind held, or the whole show might have been gutted. It's all safe now."
Maud's eyes wandered round the panelled parlour and came back to his bent head. "I feel so strange," she said, "as if I had been a long, long journey, and as if it had all happened ages and ages ago. Is it so very long ago, Jake?"
"About four hours," said Jake. "Dr. Burrowes has been in. He chanced to be passing in his dog-cart. He was on his way to a case, and couldn't stay except to give you first aid. He is coming back presently."
"And you have been here with me ever since?" she said, with a touch of shyness. "Didn't you want to be looking after the animals?"
He shook his head, gazing steadily downwards.
"Have you been--anxious about me, Jake?" she whispered.
"Yes." Just the one word spoken with an almost savage emphasis.
"But Dr. Burrowes must have known if--if I were in any danger," she said.
He answered her with what she felt to be a great effort. "Burrowes was anxious too. He was afraid of the shock for you. He thought there was--danger."
She moved her hand a little, and in a moment, as though he feared to hurt her, he laid it gently down.
"I am so sorry you have been worried about me," she said.
"It doesn't matter now," said Jake. He reached out for a glass that stood on the table. "Burrowes left this for you. Can you manage to drink it?"
He held it to her lips with a hand that was not so steady as usual. She drank and felt revived.
Her brain was becoming more active. There was something in Jake's attitude that required explanation. "I am better now," she said. "Tell me a little more! How did I get here? Who found me?"
"I found you. The Hundredth Chance came tearing out. We had some trouble to catch him. And then one of the boys suddenly said--" Jake stopped and swallowed hard--"said--said you had been in the yard, and must have set him free. I--got to you--just in time."
"You saved me?" she said swiftly.
He nodded.
She raised herself, leaning towards him. "Jake! Were you hurt?"
"No." He kept his eyes stubbornly lowered.
"No one has been hurt?" she persisted.
"No one but you." His tone was almost surly.
But something urged her on. "Jake," she said wistfully, "aren't you glad your animals are all safe?"
"They belong to the new boss," he said doggedly. "They don't belong to me."
Her face changed a little. "I think they belong to you first, Jake," she said. "You love them so."
He made a sharp gesture. "It's quite likely the new boss will tell me to shunt."
"Oh, he won't do that, Jake!" she protested quickly. "I'm sure he won't do that. You--you are one of the best trainers in England."
His mouth twitched a little; she thought he wryly smiled. "One of the best blackguards too, my girl," he said grimly.
She opened her eyes in surprise. "Jake, what do you mean? Are people saying hateful things against you?"
He gripped his hands between his knees. "It ain't that I meant. People can say what they damn please. No, it's just my own estimate of myself. I'm going to chuck the animals. They've come near costing me too dear. I'm going to give in to you now. You can do what you like with me. I'll serve you to the best of my ability, fetch and carry and generally wait around on you till you're tired of me. Then I'll go."
"Jake! Jake!" She was half-laughing, but there was remonstrance in her voice. "But I never wanted you to give up the animals. Why, I don't believe you could live without them, could you?"
He gave himself an odd, half-angry shake. "I've done with 'em!" he declared almost fiercely. "I can't serve two masters. If the new boss don't chuck me, I shall chuck him."
"But the horses, Jake!" she urged. "And The Hundredth Chance! You can't be in earnest. You--you have always loved them better than anything else in the world!"
He winced sharply. "You're wrong! And I am in earnest. If--if you had lost your life over the colt, I'd have shot him first and myself after. What sort of brute do you take me for? Do you think I'm without any heart at all? All animal and no heart?"
The question was passionate, but yet he did not look at her as he uttered it. He was gazing downwards at his clenched hands.
He was formidable at that moment, but she did not shrink from him. Rather she drew nearer. "Of course I don't think so," she said. "But--but--am I first with you, Jake? Am I really first?"
He made a choked sound in his throat as if many emotions struggled for utterance. Then, almost under his breath, "An easy first!" he muttered. "An easy first!"
Her bandaged hand slipped on to his arm. Her eyes were shining. "Oh, Jake, thank you for telling me that," she said. "You--I know you didn't want to tell me. And--now--I've got to tell you something--that I don't want to tell you either--that I don't know how to tell you. Oh, Jake, do help me! Don't--don't be angry!"
He turned towards her, but he did not lift his eyes. He seemed almost afraid to look her in the face. "My girl, you've no call to be afraid of me," he said.
But there was constraint in his tone, constraint in his attitude, and her heart sank.
"I'm so--horribly afraid--of hurting you," she said.
A faint, faint gleam of humour crossed his face. "Oh, I guess I'm down," he said. "You needn't be afraid of that either."
She tried to clasp his arm. "Jake, if--if I really come first with you, perhaps--perhaps--you'll be able to forgive me. It's because you came first with me too--a very, very long way first--" her voice shook--"that I was able to do it. It's because I wanted you to have what you wanted without--without feeling under an obligation to me or anyone. It's because--because your happiness is more to me--a thousand times more--than anything else in the world!" Her breast began to heave; Jake's eyes were suddenly upon her, but it was she who could not, dared not meet their look. "Ah, I haven't told you yet!" she said brokenly. "How shall I tell you? It's--it's the animals, Jake. It's the Stud!"
"What about the Stud?" he said. His voice was sunk very low, it sounded stern.
With a great effort she mastered her agitation and answered him. "It's yours, Jake, all yours. The new boss is--is just an invention of Mr. Rafford's. You--you are--the new boss."
"What?" he said.
He got up suddenly, with a movement that verged upon violence, and stood over her, she felt, almost threateningly.
Through quivering distress she answered him again.
"I've played a double game. I met Mr. Rafford first at Liverpool and then I chanced to meet him again here after--after you had refused to have my money. And he was kind and sympathetic and offered to help me. I wanted you so to have the horses. And I couldn't bear to think that you should lose them through me. Oh, Jake, don't look so--so terrible!"
She sank back panting on her cushions. That one brief glimpse of his face had appalled her. He had the look of a man hard pressed and nearing the end of his strength. She saw that his hands were clenched.
He spoke after several tense seconds. "Why have you done this thing?"
She made a piteous gesture. "Oh, Jake, only--only because I loved you."
"Only!" he said, and with the word she saw his hand unclench.
For a moment a wild uncertainty possessed her, and then it was gone. Jake dropped down on his knees beside her and took her into his arms.
"Maud--" he said, and again "Maud!"
But no further words would come. His voice broke. He hid his face against her breast with a great sob.
Her arms were round his neck in an instant, her cheek was pressed against his hair. All doubts were gone forever. "My darling!" she whispered. "My darling!"
And through the great storm of emotion that shook Jake, she said the soft words over and over, holding his head against her heart, kissing the cropped hair above his temple, drawing him nearer, ever nearer, to the inner sanctuary of her soul, till at length by the shattering of her own reserve she broke down the last of his also. He lifted his face to her with no attempt to hide his tears, and in the long, long kiss that passed between them they found each other at last where the sand of the desert turns to gold.