III
Trumbull looked across the table at Doris. There was a warmth in her eyes as they met his that communicated itself to his heart; she wanted to save him from harm. He would have given a month’s wages to know how much more than sympathy she felt for him. A lovely, rounded forearm was lying upon the table, with fingers drumming against the cloth. A man would be mad to let a shotgun stand between him and a girl like this!
Trumbull looked at the gun. It pointed toward his stomach, and he experienced an inward shudder at the thought of what would happen if the fingers of Orla Wilkins pressed a little harder against the triggers; or just one of the triggers. Trumbull would not live to know anything about the second barrel.
He began to get extremely angry and stubborn. No half-baked reflection on the human race was going to drive him away from the girl he wanted to marry without a fight! But how could a dead man fight? He was a good deal more than half convinced that the first movement toward battle on his part would fill his ears with the roar of doom.
Trumbull would not go, and he could not do anything else, except stay. The possibilities of just staying grew upon him as a sunrise grows. Suppose he were just to stay put where he was for an hour, twelve hours? Wilkins would not dare to shoot him in cold blood; punishment would be too nearly sure. Trumbull leaned back in his chair, tamped the tobacco down in his pipe, and chuckled.
“Ain’t it about time you was going home?” asked Wilkins.
“I don’t intend to go home. Never! I like it too well where Doris is!”
Trumbull caught a gleam in the eye of the girl; the slit in the lower part of Wilkins’ face tightened grimly.
“You’re going to pay for this!” he grunted. “Doris! It’s time for my snack. Go get me some of them fresh doughnuts and cheese, and maybe a little apple sauce and a pitcher of cider.”
Doris Wilkins made a movement to rise, and Trumbull stopped her with a look; into that look he tried to throw all that was in his heart.
“Don’t feed the critter, Doris!” he said earnestly. “That is, if you’re just a little bit on my side of this game; don’t feed him until he puts down that gun and gives me a chance at him!”
“Doris!” bellowed Wilkins. “You get me that stuff to eat!”
“Don’t do it unless you want to see him drive me out!” exclaimed Trumbull.
For a tense moment she seemed to hesitate; then Doris sank into her chair with a toss of her head and a little spot of color in each cheek. “It’s about time I had something to say for myself!” she cried. “I’ll feed both of you when you promise not to quarrel any more!”
Johnny Trumbull grinned at his enemy. The face of Wilkins became troubled. He leaned forward and spoke pleadingly to his sister.
“You know my stomach is used to having something every night just about this time,” he said. “You never acted this way before.”
“Put up that gun, then, and be friends with Mr. Trumbull!”
There was a quality in the voice of Doris Wilkins which was final. Trumbull guessed that her brother had never heard it before, for now his lower jaw sagged a trifle as he stared at her. His finger did not waver upon the trigger of the shotgun, but small beads of perspiration showed upon his forehead, and the end of a pale tongue ran around his lips. He was touched in his weakest spot.
“Trumbull,” he said huskily, “there’s trouble here, and I want you should go. I’ll⸺I’ll even pay you to go!”
“Money couldn’t hire me to leave!” Trumbull chuckled.
Wilkins rediscovered his courage. He swept them both with a baleful look. “All right! I’ll starve to-night, but when I settle with you, Trumbull, it’s going to be terrible!”
Trumbull drew inspiration from his success. He turned carefully so that his movement might not be misinterpreted and smiled at Doris. “If you handed me a doughnut and a piece of cheese I guess I could eat without getting shot.”
The small feet of Doris tripped into the pantry, and a moment later Trumbull was munching slowly before the yearning gaze of Wilkins. He ate his doughnut to the last crumb.
“That’s another debt you’ve got to pay!” muttered Wilkins.