Wolf Breed Page 9

  CHAPTER IX

  "TO THE GIRL I AM GOING TO KISS TO-NIGHT!"

  An odd mood was upon him this afternoon. Perhaps since moods arecontagious, his was caught from the girl, Ygerne. With a sort ofjeering laughter in his heart he surrendered to his inclination. Theworld had gone stale in his mouth; a black depression beat at him withits stiffling [Transcriber's note: stifling?] wings; an hour with thegirl might offer other amusement than the mere angering of Lemarc andSefton. He wanted only one thing in the world; to be whole of body sothat he might fare out on the trail again, a fresh trail now that goldlay at the end of it. But since he might not have the greater wish hecontented himself with the lesser.

  He shaved himself, grimly conscious of the contempt looking out at himfrom the haggard eyes in the mirror. Those eyes mocked him likeanother man's. Then he went to Pere Marquette's store, paying scantattention to the three or four men he found there. He made known hiswants and tossed his gold pieces to the counter, taking no stock ofcurious gazes. He saw that Kootanie George was there and thatKootanie's big boots were gummed with the red mud of the upper trail.He took no trouble to hide his sneer; Kootanie George, too, had beenout in search of his gold and had returned empty handed.

  To each question of Pere Marquette his answer was the same:

  "The best you've got; damn the price."

  Marquette had but the one white silk shirt in the house and Drennentook it, paying the ten dollars without a word. There were many pairsof boots to fit him; one pair alone took his fancy, though he knew therich black leather and the shapely high heels would cause him to hurlthem away to-morrow as things unfit for the foot of man. He selectedcorduroy breeches and a soft black hat and returned to his dugout,leaving fifty dollars upon the counter. And when he had dressed andhad laughed at himself he went back up the muddy road for Ygerne. Butfirst he stopped at Joe's.

  "I want the private room," he said, and Joe nodded eagerly as he sawDrennen's hand emerge from his pocket. "And I want the best dinner fortwo you can put on. Trimmings and all."

  Joe, slipping the first of Drennen's money into his pocket andcherishing high hopes of more, set himself and his boy to work, seeinghis way of arriving at the second gold piece with no great loss of time.

  The long northern twilight was an hour old when Drennen called forYgerne. She came out of her room at Marquette's ready for him. Shehad told him she must "dress" for the occasion. He had thought herjoking. In spite of him he stared at her wonderingly a moment. And,despite her own gathering of will, a flush crept into her cheeks underhis look while her own eyes widened to the alterations a little efforthad made in the man. And the thing each noted swiftly of the other wasscarcely less swiftly noted by all men and women in the Settlementbefore they had gone down to Joe's: he had suddenly become as handsomeas a devil from hell; she as radiant as an angel.

  "Are we just going to step into a ballroom for the masquerade?" shehalf whispered with a queer little intake of breath as she found hisarm with a white gloved hand. "And is all this," waving at theSettlement itself, the river snaking its way through the narrow valley,the frowning fronts of Ironhead and Indian Peak against the saffronsky, "just so much painted canvas for the proper background?"

  He laughed and brought his eyes away from the white throat andshoulders, letting them sweep upward to the mystery of her eyes, thedusky hair half seen, half guessed under the sheen of her scarf,wondering the while at the strange femininity of her in bringing suchdainty articles of dress to such a land. Then, his eyes finding theprettily slippered and stockinged feet, he moved with her to the sideof the road where the ground was harder.

  Joe had seen with amazing rapidity that the "trimmings" were notwanting. With old knowledge born of many years of restaurant work, heknew that any day some prospector might find that which all prospectorsendlessly sought and that then he would grind his bare grubstakecontemptuously under his heel and demand to eat. Upon such occasionsthere would be no questions asked as to price if Joe but tickled thetingling palate. Joe had unlocked the padlock of the cellar trapdoor;he had gone down and had unlocked another padlock upon a great box.And all that which he had brought out, beginning with a whitetablecloth and ending with nuts and raisins, had been a revelation tohis boy assistant. There was potted chicken, there were tinnedtomatoes and peaches, there were many things which David Drennen hadnot looked upon for the matter of years.

  The "private room" into which Joe, even his apron changed for theoccasion, showed them was simply the far end of the long lunch room,half shut off from the rest of the house by a flimsy partition havingno door, but a wide, high arch let into it through which a man at thelunch counter might see the little table and both of the diners.

  Drennen, stepping in front of Joe, took Ygerne's scarf, drew out herchair for her, and having seen her seated, took his own place with thetable between them. He nodded approvingly as he noted that Joe had notbeen without taste; for the restaurant keeper had even thought offlowers and the best that the Settlement could provide, a flaming redsnowplant, stood in the centre of the table in a glass bowl of cleanwhite snow.

  Joe brought the wine, a bucket at which the boy had scrubbed for tenminutes, holding the bottle as the glass bowl held the snow-plant, in abed of snow. When he offered it a trifle uncertainly to Drennen's gazeand Drennen looked at it and away, nodding carelessly, Joe allowedhimself to smile contentedly. Champagne here was like so much moltengold; it was assured that Drennen was "going the limit."

  Drennen lifted his glass. His glance, busied a moment reminiscentlywith the bubbling amber fluid, travelled across the table. YgerneBellaire had raised her glass with him. Her eyes were sparkling, alittle eager, a little excited, perhaps a little triumphant.

  "Isn't it fun?" she said gaily.

  He looked back gravely into her laughing eyes.

  "May I drink your health?" he demanded. "And success to whateverventure has brought you so far from the beaten trail."

  She set down her glass, making a little moue of pretendeddisappointment at him with her red mouth.

  "And I was thinking that I was to have the honour of drawing somethinggallant, at least flattering, something befitting the occasion, fromyou!" she said. "Why don't you say, 'Here's lookin' at you,' and bedone with it?"

  He laughed.

  "Then I'll say what I was thinking. May I drink this to the one womanI have ever seen whom I'd fall in love with . . . if I were a fool likeother men?"

  He drank his wine slowly, draining the glass, his eyes full upon hers.She laughed and when he had done said lightly,

  "At least that's better." She sipped her own wine and set it asideagain. "Why didn't you say that in the first place? Why must youthink one thing and say another?"

  "That way lies wisdom," he told her coolly.

  "Or stupidity, which?" she retorted.

  "Shall a man say all of the foolish things which flash into his brain?"

  "Why not?" She shrugged, twisting her glass in slow fingers. "If allof the nonsense were taken out of life what would be left, I wonder?"

  "I have the honour to entertain the high-born Lady Ygerne Bellaire atdinner," he said in mock deference. "Her request is my command. ShallI voice my second idiotic thought?"

  She nodded, making her mouth smile at him while her eyes were gravelyspeculative.

  "Then," and his bow was in accord with the mockery of his tone, "I wasthinking that for the reason best known to the King of Fools I'd liketo kiss that red mouth of yours, Ygerne!"

  "You'd be the first man who had ever done so," she told him steadily.

  "Quite sure of that?" he sneered.

  "Yes."

  "Tempting me further?" he laughed at her.

  "I don't think you'd dare, with all of your presumption, Mr. Drennen."

  "Because there are a couple of men out there to see, I suppose?"

  "No. I don't think that that would stop you. Because of this."

  A hand, dropped to her lap, came
up to the level of the table top andin its palm he saw the shining barrel of a small automatic pistol.Again he laughed at her.

  "It seems the latest fad for women to carry such playthings," heridiculed her. "I wonder how frightened you'd have to be before youcould pull the trigger?"

  "Just merely angered," she smiled back at him, as the weapon went backinto her lap, and out of sight.

  "It's just a trifling episode, this shooting a man," he suggested. "Isuppose you've done that sort of thing before?"

  "If I hadn't perhaps I shouldn't be here now," she informed him asquietly as he had spoken.

  It flashed upon Drennen, looking straight into her unfaltering eyes,that the girl was telling him the truth. Well, why not? There wasSouthern blood in her; her name suggested it and her appearanceproclaimed it. And Southern blood is hot blood. His instinct wastelling him that she was some new type of adventuress; her words seemedto assure him of the fact.

  "Since I cannot be about my business these days," he said slowly, "I amfortunate in finding so entertaining a lady to share my idleness."

  "And I in finding so gallant a host," she smiled back at him.

  Joe served the first of his lighter courses and withdrew. As timepassed a few men came into the lunch room, their eyes finding the twofigures in the private room. Drennen observed them casually. He sawMarc Lemarc and Captain Sefton. The old hard smile clung for a momentto his lips as he marked the angry stare which the man with the copperyVandyck beard bestowed upon him. He saw Kootanie George enter alone;he saw, a little later, Ernestine Dumont flirting with Ramon Garcia,ignoring the big Canadian. Garcia stepped to Joe's side to arrange forthe use of the room in which Drennen and Ygerne were; Ernestine,thinking the room empty as it usually was, came on to the arch of thedoor before she saw its occupants. As her eyes swept quickly fromYgerne to Drennen a hot flush ran up into the woman's cheeks. Then,with a little, hard laugh, she turned back to find a seat with Garciaat one of the oilcloth covered tables. Garcia, for the first timeseeing Ygerne, bowed sweepingly, his eyes frankly admiring her, beforehe sat down with Ernestine.

  "Ygerne!" said Drennen out of a desultory conversation in which an idlequestion put and unanswered was promptly forgotten.

  "Well?" she asked quietly.

  "I am going to tell you something. You will note that I have had butthe one glass of wine; I have drunk only one toast. Therefore we mayadmit that I am sober and know what I am about. We are going to talkof the thing I have found somewhere in the mountains. That is why weare met to-night . . . so that you may have your opportunity to try tolearn what I alone know, what you and so many others want to know.When we have finished our little banquet you, being a free agent, areat liberty to call upon one of your friends there or even upon Joe, tosee you to your room. Or you can accept my escort."

  While she watched him, her elbows on the table, her chin upon herclasped hands, he poured himself a second glass. She saw the light inhis eyes change subtly as he continued:

  "A second toast, my Princess Ygerne! To the girl I am going to kissto-night on our way between Joe's and Marquette's!" He held his glassup and laughed at her across the top of it. "To the girl I'd love nowwere I a fool; the girl I wouldn't know to-morrow if I saw her! Thegirl who pits the beauty of her body against the calm of a man's brain.The girl whose eyes are as beautiful as shining stars. The girl whoseeyes are filled with the madness of the lust of gold! To asweet-faced, cool-hearted little adventuress . . . My Lady Ygerne! AmI insulting? You knew that before you did me the honour to dine withme. Shall I drink the toast, Ygerne?"

  She sat regarding him gravely, the dimples of a moment ago merely sweetmemories, her eyes stars no longer but deep twin pools, mystery-filled.

  "Was there a time when you were a gentleman, Mr. Drennen?" she askedsteadily.

  "Was there a time when you were as innocent as you look, Ygerne?" heanswered coolly.

  He saw the anger leap up in her eyes, he noted a sudden hard, tensecurving of her lips. Then, lifting her white shoulders, she laughedsoftly as she leaned back in her chair, relaxing.

  "Drink," she said lightly. "As you say, we shall talk of your newstrike. As you say, that is why I am here with you. And then . . ."

  He had tossed off his wine and now said sharply:

  "Then you will allow me the pleasure of escorting you to the door ofPere Marquette's . . . or you will get one of your hangdogs or Joe hereto see you home. Which?"

  "Do you think I am a coward?" she said quickly.

  "All women are, I think," was his blunt answer.

  "Then try to kiss me when you please! Since I am your guest to-night Ishall expect you to see me to my room."

  "I have told you what will happen."

  She smiled at him. He saw the fleeting dimples at the corners of thered lipped mouth. And he saw too, in her eyes, the glint as of steel.

  "Speaking of your discovery, Mr. Drennen. . ."

  He laughed.