He was silent for a little while; then he was evidently over in Australia; and he rambled on about nuggets, gold-dust, and placers. Suddenly Esmeralda was startled by hearing her own name.
“Esmeralda! Esmeralda! Such a beautiful girl! You never saw such hair, Trafford. Bronze, with dashes of gold in it, and all in a wave on her forehead. And when she smiles, it’s like sunlight! And she saved my life, Trafford! The cowardly brute fired from behind a bush, and would have hit me, as sure as fate! She flung herself in front of me. I swear to you it’s true, Trafford! And the bullet went through her hat! You laugh! I tell you there’s a hole in her hat still; and it might have hit her!” He shuddered, and clinched his hands furiously, “I’ll ask her for that hat some day—I’ll ask her for that hat some day if I can pluck up courage. But all the cheek oozes out of me when I’m near her; and when she turns those eyes of hers upon me, I haven’t got a word to say for myself. Saved my life! Bullet through her hat! Such hair! Such beautiful eyes—”
Esmeralda rose from her knees, and drew away from the bed, her face almost as hot as Norman’s; but, as if he were conscious that she was leaving him, he stretched out his shaking hand, and called to her, with a little piteous note of entreaty in his voice:
“Ralda! Ralda!”
She went back to his side, and kneeling down again, laid her cool hand upon his hot brow. The contact of her soft palm seemed to soothe and satisfy him.
He murmured her name again and again, and his lips formed it even when he ceased to speak.
When Mother Melinda hurried in, she found him still and quiet, with his eyes closed, and a faint smile upon his boyish face. Esmeralda drew her hand away quickly.
“Why, lawks alive!” said Mother Melinda, bending over him. “If he ain’t asleep!”
Esmeralda rose, with downcast eyes, and went to the door of the tent without a word. With the flap of the tent in her hand she looked back at the face upon the pillow—a strange look, half puzzled, half frightened; then, still without a word, she went out.