Grit Lawless Part 28

"What an orgy!" she exclaimed, with a swift glance round the untidy room. Her wandering gaze came back to his face and rested upon it curiously. "Reaction!" she murmured.

"Eh?" he said.

She put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him towards the door.

"You're looking cheap. Clear out of this. I'll put things right. Come back in half an hour, and you'll find breakfast ready."

"I've breakfasted," he answered indifferently.

"Have you? Then you can return in half an hour and repeat the performance with me."

"I want to ride into town," he said.

"Yes, of course. I'll go with you. You might put in your time now grooming the horses. It'll keep you out of mischief, anyhow... It may be the last ride we'll take together for many a day."

He looked swiftly at her. She was trying to hide her feelings, but it was evident that the near termination of this life in the wilds which he had been contemplating with satisfaction, affected her differently. She had enjoyed the uneventful weeks with only his society to companion the long days. It had been a fresh experience which a really strong affection for him had made altogether agreeable. She turned her back on him, and putting up a hand jerked back the straying lock of hair impatiently.

"Get out, Grit. You're in the way," she said.

He faced about, and without a word strode out into the sunshine.

It was rather a silent ride they took--that last ride together into Stellenbosch. Lawless was preoccupied, and the woman too appeared busy with her thoughts. She asked him once what he purposed doing if Van Bleit decided not to come up, and he answered shortly:

"If he doesn't come to me, I go to him."

She looked him straight in the eyes.

"You mean to best him, Grit," she said.

"Yes."

"Remember, I'm your lieutenant."

"Yes," he said again. And they fell into silence as before.

Van Bleit's answer acted somewhat as a set-back to their plans. Lawless had never contemplated the addition of Denzil to their numbers. It came altogether as a surprise.

"This complicates matters," he said. "Looks fishy... rather as though he had his doubts of me. And yet I'll swear when I last saw him--"

He broke off and thought about the matter.

"It won't be so easy to outwit two," he said. Then a smile of satisfaction dawned in his eyes. "It's safe to predict, if they're both up here, we shall have a chance of seeing those letters..."

Van Bleit and Denzil on their arrival hired a Cape cart from the town and drove the twenty miles across the veld. They congratulated themselves long ere they reached their destination on the foresight that had decided them to bring only a small amount of luggage.

"No man," Van Bleit observed to his companion, "could stick it here for long. What a cheek the fellow has to imagine a woman--and such a woman--is going to find his companionship sufficient to reconcile her to this sort of thing! It's not surprising Tottie scooted."

Denzil looked out across the unvarying scene with increasing dissatisfaction.

"Lots of chaps have the Turk in them. They'd like to veil their women,"

he returned, with no particular interest in the subject.

He was watching without appreciation the wonderful effects of the sunshine on the inimitable blending of colour in the veld, and the slowly moving shadows that swept across it where the clouds veiled the golden light. A soft wind was blowing, a wind that had the warm feel of the spring in it with its promise of early summer. The Cape winter was pa.s.sing, going its way unmarked, even as it had come. But here on the high veld the nights were cold yet, and the crispness of the mornings still reminded a man of the feel of an English spring.

Van Bleit examined his finger-nails--which was a habit with him--and laughed.

"That would be all right if the women didn't prefer being looked at," he said. "The Turk will have to awake to the fact one day that the veil is out of fashion."

It was afternoon when they reached the shanty. They had had three stoppages on the journey owing to the breaking of different parts of the harness, that was, native fashion, repaired with string. The horses were outspanned, and left to graze, while the coloured driver flung himself face downwards in the full rays of the sun to sleep for a couple of hours before making the return journey. Van Bleit settled with him, and bade him return for them in three days.

"Make it four," urged Lawless. "You're in a devil of a hurry to quit."

"I should think so," Van Bleit responded. But he made the alteration in the time. "What on earth do you do with yourself up here? I'd want to cut my throat if I stayed a week."

"Oh! it hasn't been half bad. I was getting a bit sick of my own company, though."

"All alone, eh?"

"All alone," Lawless answered. "It was all right while she was here; but the life was too domesticated for her taste. I was on the point of chucking it myself when I sent you that wire. It occurred to me that this might suit your book."

"Awfully decent of you," Van Bleit replied. But his eyes narrowed vindictively. He had a score to pay off against this man. His treatment at the hands of Mrs Lawless was, he felt convinced, attributable to him somehow. Grit had played him false in more ways than one.

"It's not a bad little hutch," he said, as he looked round the interior.

"Oh! it's all right... A bit cramped." Lawless threw open a door.

"The bedrooms lead out," he explained,--"two of them. Boxes, of course; but they serve for single rooms. You and Denzil can make shift for a few nights. I'll bunk up in here."

Van Bleit walked into the bedroom.

"Nonsense!" he replied decidedly. "We aren't turning you out of your room. Denzil and I will sleep together. I'll not hear of any other arrangement, Grit."

"As you like," Lawless answered.

Van Bleit went into the inner room.

"Check number one, Master Grit," he murmured. Aloud he said: "I'd like a wash, old man. And then, if you've anything to eat, we won't say no."

When they were alone together, Van Bleit drew Denzil's attention to the thinness of the part.i.tion between the two rooms, and laid a significant finger upon his lips.

"Leaks," he said, and winked expressively.

He put his eye to a crack in the boarding.

"That's where he'll spy upon us when he thinks we're unsuspecting," he whispered, coming back. Then, whistling cheerily, he divested himself of his coat and plunged his face into a basin of cold water.

Later, when, having eaten, they sat outside smoking and talking, while the sun dipped below the horizon and the low wind died away, Van Bleit spoke of his trial and the night at the bungalow, giving a word picture of the shooting which by constant repet.i.tion he was beginning to believe. The recital made him something of a hero, but it did not reflect well on Colonel Grey.

"It was a d.a.m.ned trap," he finished, and blew a cloud of smoke into the quiet air. "People who set traps for me are apt to find themselves ensnared."