Then they saw that Esmeralda’s lips were moving, and with exhortations, and even friendly blows, they commanded each other to keep silence.
Esmeralda’s lips moved for a moment or two wordlessly, then they heard the voice which they all loved say, in soft and tremulous tones:
“Yes, I have come back—and to stay!”
A cheer, such as had never been heard even in Three Star, threatened to lift the roof off the Eldorado, and Varley, drawing Esmeralda’s arm within his, succeeded, after many herculean efforts, in getting her through the throng and into the open air.
She was sobbing as if her heart would break as they rode back to the hut, for the mighty torrent of love which had been poured out upon her had swept away her power of self-restraint. But not even Varley guessed that her tears were caused not only by the reception which had been accorded her, but by that aching love for Trafford which still throbbed through her whole heart.
Concerning the proceedings of the boys at the Eldorado which immediately followed her exit, and were kept up until the dawn rose above the hills, the kindly historian will be silent. Suffice it that MacGrath’s whisky was completely sold out, and that Taffy was conducted to his virtuous couch by a devious course of something like a mile in length by several fellow-convivialists who, having deposited that hero in bed, deemed it wise and expedient to coil themselves up on the floor beside him.
There had been several “warm nights” at Three Star; but this, the night of Esmeralda’s return, was the very, very warmest that had ever been recorded.
[CHAPTER XXXVI.]
Neither Varley nor any of the boys asked Esmeralda any further questions. The boys seemed to take it as quite a natural thing that she should come back to them and the camp, and when she appeared among them the next day in her old dress, which Melinda had religiously kept, they at once began to forget that she was a great lady, and treated her with the old affection, which had always been of a respectful and even worshiping kind.