“Git out of here, Jinny!”
The woman moved backward.
“She’s exactly right,” said Herbert. “One of you has sense, anyhow!”
But Jinny’s tirade was not taken seriously by her kinsfolk. Sheldon returned and sat down heavily.
“You don’t suppose, boy, that we left her free to run round over the country, do you?”
Herbert shivered. Was a gun-barrel pointed also at Elizabeth? Nevertheless, he did not believe that she would follow the dictation of any gun-barrel. He saw the desperation of these outlaws on one side and Elizabeth’s indifference to danger and her anger at injustice on the other. There was also another element. Elizabeth would be wild with fear for him. At that thought Herbert’s cheeks reddened in the darkness. She would not expect him to be able to help himself!
“Write what we tell you,” said Sheldon, tapping him on the knee.
Herbert glanced down at the paper. The dark night, which seemed actually to press down upon him, the encircling men, the den behind him, the ferocious dogs lurking in the shadow—he was acutely conscious of all. He had always been taken care of by Elizabeth, and now he saw the words formed by his hand, “For my sake, Elizabeth, send them whatever paper you have!”
But what paper was it? Why had she not told him about it? She had no business to keep him in ignorance! What motive could she have had?
Then Herbert answered his own question. Elizabeth’s motive was never a selfish one; she wished always to spare and defend him. Perhaps she had thought that she had found a clue, and losing it, had not wished to disappoint him. Perhaps she had come upon some fact which had ended all her hopes. She had seemed quieter of late. Perhaps, on the other hand, she had really found a clue, and by appealing to her to save him, he would spoil everything.