Perhaps he would not come. Surely he would be ashamed to meet her after their last meeting. But she remembered again—and flushed with a little spark of anger again at the memory—his mocking speech and laughter at their parting. Very likely he would come, if only out of sheer bravado. She clenched her hands angrily, and wondered if it would not be cowardly to run away from him, although if she stayed it would be difficult, if not impossible, to treat him as if nothing had ever happened, and others might remark her behaviour if she deliberately avoided speaking to him, as she felt she would have to do.
She hesitated long, and fought the thing out with herself, and finally decided that she would wait till he came, would treat him with indifference, and make it very plain to him that he was nothing and less than nothing to her, and then go down to the station, and so get away.
She went back and told Aleck that she had decided to wait until she could hand over her nurse-ship.
CHAPTER XVI.
As it happened, they were all very near having to wait in vain for Steve to come to the Ridge. He was not down into the township until a couple of days after it was known how Durgan’s death had come about, and when he did make an appearance, everyone remarked how bitter and cynical he was over their congratulations. They noticed, however, how desperately ill and worn he looked, and when it was known that he had seen the doctor, and was suffering from wounds and a resulting touch of fever, his odd manner was put down to that.
As a matter of fact, it was Steve’s heart and mind that were feeling hurt more than his body, although that was still painful enough. The doctor had told him that the ribs were not broken, but severely bruised, that he had had a very narrow escape of serious trouble from the inflamed and festering wounds on his chest, but that these were beginning to heal nicely now. He went to the police station, and met with the heartiest of welcomes from both Dan and Mrs. Dan, and Dan asked him bluntly why he had not gone over to the Ridge.
“Don’t think I’ll go there,” said Steve, indifferently. “I’m thinking of taking the coach down country to-morrow. I’d like to see Aleck Gault first, though, and I might wait here and send him a note to come in and see me.”
“But haven’t ye heard?” said Dan, in astonishment “Aleck is laid up wid a broke leg. We all heard it a couple o’ days back, an’ niver thought to be after mentionin’ it, seem’ it’s stale news it was.”
“Aleck’s leg broke,” said Steve. “That’s a different matter. I’ll get a horse to-night and ride over.”