“Yes,” said Jake; “if you press me, I have.”
“He thought he would make it awkward for you to come here, in fact?”
“Something like that.”
“Then you mean to run the risk?”
“I’m coming, if you’ll allow it,” Jake answered with a twinkle. “The risk isn’t very great, because if I lose any more money in the next few months, the winners will not get paid. The old man certainly won’t stand for it if I get into debt.”
Kenwardine pushed a box of cigarettes across. “I congratulate you on your way of making things clear, and now we understand each other you can come when you like. Have a smoke.”
Jake took a cigarette, but left soon afterwards to do an errand of Bethune’s that had given him an excuse for visiting the town. Then he went back to the dam, and after dinner sat outside Dick’s shack, pondering what Clare had said. She had, of course, had some ground for warning him, but he did not believe yet that Kenwardine meant to exploit his recklessness. It would not be worth while, for one thing, since he had never had much money to lose and now had none. Besides, Kenwardine was not the man to take a mean advantage of his guest, though Jake could not say as much for some of his friends. Anyhow, he meant to go to the house because he felt that Clare might need his help. He did not see how that might be, but he had a half-formed suspicion that she might have to suffer on her father’s account, and if anything of the kind happened, he meant to be about.
Yet he was not in love with her. She attracted him strongly, and he admitted that it would be remarkably easy to become infatuated, but did not mean to let this happen. Though often rash, he had more sense and self-control than his friends believed, and realized that Clare was not for him. He could not tell how he had arrived at this conclusion, but there it was, and he knew he was not mistaken. Sometimes he wondered with a twinge of jealousy what she thought of Brandon.
By and by he roused himself from his reflections and looked about. There was no moon and a thin mist that had stolen out of the jungle drifted past the shack. A coffee-pot and two cups stood upon a table near his chair, and one cup was half empty, as Dick had left it when he was unexpectedly summoned to the dam, where work was going on. The veranda lamp had been put out, because Jake did not want to read and a bright light would have attracted moths and beetles, but Dick had left a lamp burning in his room, and a faint illumination came through the curtain on the open window. Everything was very quiet except when the ringing of hammers and the rattle of a crane rose from the dam.
Looking farther round, Jake thought he distinguished the blurred outline of a human figure in the mist, but was not surprised. Some ironwork that made a comfortable seat lay near the shack and the figure had been there before. For all that, he imagined the man was wasting his time and keeping an unnecessary watch. Then his thoughts again centered on Clare and Kenwardine and some time had passed when he looked up. Something had disturbed him, but he could not tell what it was, and on glancing at the spot where he had seen the figure he found it had gone.