Rick Tyler looked at her for a moment with a kindling eye. He sprang to his feet, throwing the golden skein—it was only yarn after all, a coarse yellow yarn—upon the floor. He strode across the rude hearth and leaned against the mantelpiece, which was as high as his head. The light fell upon his changed face, the weapons in his belt, his long tawny hair, the flashing fire in his eye. He raised his right hand with an importunate gesture.
'D'rindy Cayce, ye air in love with that man!' he said, in a low passionate voice and between his set teeth. 'I hev seen it afore—long ago; but sence ye hev promised ter marry me, ef ye say his name agin, I'll kill him—I'll shoot him through the heart—dead—dead—do ye hear me—dead!'
She was shaken by the spectacle of his sudden anger, and she was angered in turn by his jealous rage. There was a dull aching in her heart in the voids left by the ebbing of her ecstatic happiness.
This was too precious to lightly let go. She walked over to him and took hold of his right arm, although his hand was toying nervously with his pistol.
'Ye don't b'lieve no sech word, Rick,' she said, 'deep down in yer heart, ye don't b'lieve it. An' how kin ye grudge me from thinkin' well o' the man, an' feelin' frien'ly—oh, mighty frien'ly—when he will hev ter take ten year in the pen'tiary fur givin' ye yer freedom? He rescued ye! An' I'll thank him an' praise him fur it ev'y day I live. My love, ef ye call it love, will foller him fur that all through the prison, an' the bolts an' bars, an' gyards. An' yer pistols can't holp it.'
He put her from him with a mechanical gesture and a perplexed brow. He sat down in the chair he had occupied at first; his hat was still under it, one leg was stretched out to the fire, on the other knee his hand rested; he looked exactly as when he first came into the room, but she had a vague idea, as she stood opposite on the hearth, that it was long ago, so much had happened since.
'D'rindy,' he said, 'he never done it. The pa'son never rescued me.'
She stood staring at him in wide-eyed amaze.
He was silent for a moment, and then he broke into a bitter laugh.
'I do declar,' he said, 'it fairy tickles me ter hear o' one man bein' arrested fur rescuin' me, an' another set bein' s'pected fur rescuin' me, an another set bein' s'pected o' the same thing, when not one of 'em in all the Big Smoky, not one, lifted a hand ter holp me. Whether the gallus or a life sentence 'twar all the same ter them. Accusing' yer dad an' the boys at the still—shucks! Old Groundhog loant me a rifle, an' ter hear him talk saaft sawder 'bout'n it ter Amos Jeemes ye'd hev thunk he war the author o' my salvation! An' arrest the pa'son! he war a likely one ter rescue a body!—too 'feared o' Satan! An' ef all they say air true 'bout'n the word he spoke yander at the meetin' 'fore they tuk him off, he hev got cornsider'ble call ter be afeard o' Satan. Naw, sir! he never rescued nuthin' but the gaynder! Nobody holped me! Nobody on the Big Smoky held out a hand! I ain't goin' ter furgit it, nuther!'