The Rider of Waroona Part 16

"It was dark--I only saw them against the sky. They had their backs to me as they rode off. I mean it was Eustace who robbed the bank."

"When did you come to that conclusion?"

"I said so at first--I told Brennan. Why did you not arrest him? I told Brennan to go in and arrest him when I left, before you arrived."

"Brennan went to do so, Mrs. Burke."

"Then--how could Eustace be here to-night if Brennan arrested him?"

"Brennan did not arrest him. By the time he reached the dining-room at the bank it was empty. Eustace had disappeared. This handkerchief is the first token of him that has come to light since you saw him."

"Disappeared?"

Her eyes opened to their utmost as she uttered the word. It was as though she could speak nothing more, for she stood staring, her clasped hands pressed to her bosom, her dishevelled hair flowing in great ma.s.ses and framing her face with its dark folds.

"Disappeared--until to-night," he said. "This handkerchief completes the chain of circ.u.mstances which points to Eustace as the person mainly concerned in the robbery."

"How sad, oh, how sad, for his poor wife," she exclaimed. "Why is it, Mr. Durham, that the woman always has to suffer while the man goes free?"

"The man will not go free. There is a net spread for him he cannot possibly escape. Tell me, which way did they ride?"

"You are not going after them? You must not do that--you must not face that risk."

"Risk is the pastime of my life, Mrs. Burke. But in this there is no risk. I shall follow their tracks until I find where they are hiding."

"No, no! You must not go. They will hear you coming; they will see you and then--think! You, who have only just escaped them! What mercy would they show?"

"The mercy I would show them," he answered fiercely. "They have stolen the revolver from my belt. Will you lend me the one you have?"

"It is the only one I have. What shall I do if they come back and I am without it?"

"Then I must go without."

He moved away, but before he had gone two steps she was at his side, her hand on his arm, her face turned appealingly to him.

"No, you must not! Mr. Durham, I ask you. Don't go. You may be throwing your life away. They may come back. Don't leave me alone in the place.

Don't, please don't. For my sake, for my sake, stay till it is light."

Gently he took her hand in his and lifted it from his arm.

"You who have been so brave to-night, would not have me show cowardice,"

he said softly. "These scoundrels must not remain at large a moment longer than we can help. There is more now at stake than the bank's money--I shall not rest till they are captured, for only then shall I feel you are safe."

"But you must not go now."

Her disengaged hand was laid gently, caressingly, on his shoulders; her face, showing white amid the tumbled ma.s.s of her tresses, was close to his, so close he could feel the faint fanning of her breath and catch the subtle perfume from her hair. The fingers of the hand he held gripped his in a clinging, lingering clasp; the hand on his shoulder pressed firmer; she leaned against him.

"You must not go--you must not--for my sake," she murmured.

The head drooped till the tumbled tresses met the caressing hand; one pale cheek was so close to his he had but to bend his head to touch it with his lips. His arm slipped round her, drawing her soft, yielding form yet closer to him, and over him there swept a wave of emotion which in another moment had carried him away upon its crest, away from duty, away from the prosaic material world, away from everything but the woman he held.

"You must not say that," he said hoa.r.s.ely. "You must not. You are the last who should try to turn me from my duty."

"Oh, but I cannot--I cannot let you go--it may be to your death. Wait till day comes," she answered. "There are horses in the paddock. Patsy can fetch you one. If you go now you will only wander aimlessly in the dark while they may turn upon you, if they do not get farther and farther away. Stay till the dawn."

"It will not be dawn for many hours."

"Why, what time do you think it is? It is nearly four."

Nearly four! Then he had slept right through the night so soundly that on waking he thought he had only dozed.

"You will not go? Tell me you will not go?" she whispered, and he felt her hands touch him lightly.

He drew back, fearful lest her fascination again overmastered him.

"Show me which way they went," he said brusquely, as he walked to the steps leading down from the verandah.

As he reached them he turned. Mrs. Burke had drawn back into the shadow beyond the open window.

"Will you show me which way they went?" he repeated.

He saw her hide her face in her hands, and the sound of a choked sob came to him. In a moment he was at her side.

She shrank to the wall as he approached, raising her head and shaking back the loose locks which streamed across her face.

"Go!" she exclaimed. "Go! Leave me! What am I that you should care? Only a poor, weak, sad, and lonely woman. Forget----"

"Do not say that," he answered quickly, his voice vibrating with pa.s.sion. "You--you do not know--I would give my life----"

"I will not give you cause to say I kept you from your duty, Mr.

Durham," she went on. "Forget my weakness. I promise you it shall never occur again."

She slipped past him and stood for a moment at the window, just long enough to flash one look of resentment at him before she pa.s.sed into the room and extinguished the lamp.

CHAPTER VIII

THE NOTE THAT FAILED

When Durham, having walked in from Waroona Downs, arrived at the bank, he found the township in a state of excitement bordering on panic.

The noise of the firing during the night had brought everyone who was awake at the time rushing to the scene. Men had mounted their horses and raced away in the direction the fugitives were supposed to have taken, returning hours afterwards with the information that no trace of them could be discovered, beyond the prints of their horses' hoofs, here and there, right up to the line of rocky rises which formed the commencement of the range.

Durham brushed aside the volley of questions directed at him as to how it came about that he had returned on foot. Pa.s.sing into the bank he asked Harding to come with him into the manager's office, and told Brennan to clear everyone else out of the building.