“I’m not dead yet!” he said fiercely, “and no thanks to you!”
Emma could have cried for joy. To her it seemed more than likely that he saw again; but when she noticed how easily Quarry had eluded his big rival, the situation was obscured.
“Did I hurt him?” called Jarlsen eagerly. He had fallen back on his chair, but was sitting on its edge, his eyes burning, and the blood reddening the fine skin on his forehead.
She did not answer, having learned not to waste words on his deafness. She saw Quarry stoop down and lift up the knife he had let fall.
Then she spoke, and very gently. “You’d better stay here, Quarry,” she said; “you’re accustomed to your home here, and there’s most sleep in an old nest.”
And he stayed. Emma turned him in with old Butte, and lighted a new candle, which she left to illumine the rats through the night. Then she locked Jarlsen’s door on the outside, and tied the key around her neck. She reflected with pride that her Swede had only been sitting up for two days, and yet wanted to fight on the evening of the second. In her joy at his returning strength she lost sight of danger.
XI.
THE STRIKE.
“Having ears to hear, let them hear.”
The sleep of young strength puts a wide distance between yesterday’s cares and to-day’s. The dawn that awoke Emma was gray, but it did not suggest the blight of ashes as had last night’s twilight. She was sure of the return of Jarlsen’s faculties, and she also knew that Quarry could have made no disturbance through the night. She was inclined to think that he meant to frighten them, and by daylight his acts seemed more like very bad manners than like an attempt at murder.
In the morning, before setting out, she changed the bandage on Jarlsen’s hand. The wide burns were “guttering,” seaming up in red lines. She told him this, and though he made no reply she felt sure, with unshakable, feminine sureness, that he had heard. She led him out to his hammock and placed him in it. Quarry was haranguing Old Butte, and the sound of his voice seemed to make the Swede nervous. Emma was certain that he had heard him.