I allowed her to have her own way. Indeed, Aline generally insisted on this, while with many protestations of gratitude Minnie Fletcher departed the next morning, and I hoped that the affair was ended. In this I was disappointed, for, returning with Jasper the next day from an outlying farm, I found Aline awaiting me in a state of suppressed excitement. She was paler than usual, and moved nervously, and the Marlin rifle lay on the table with the hammer drawn back.
When Jasper volunteered to lead the horses in she dropped limply into a chair.
“I have spent a terrible afternoon, Ralph. In fact, 236 though I feel ashamed of myself, I have not got over it yet.”
I eased the spring of the rifle and inquired whether some wandering Blackfoot had frightened her.
“No,” Aline answered, “The Indians are in their own way gentlemen. It was an Englishman. Mr. Thomas Fletcher called to inquire for his wife, and—and—he didn’t call sober.”
Aline choked back something between a laugh and a sob before she continued: “He came in a wagon with another little dark man with a cunning face, and walked into the room before I could stop him. ‘I want my runaway wife, and I mean to find her. Who the deuce are you—another of them?’ he said.”
I found it hard work to keep back the words that seemed most suitable, and perhaps I was not altogether successful, while Aline’s forehead turned crimson and she clenched her hand viciously as she added:
“I told him that I was your sister, and he laughed as he said—he didn’t believe me. Then he swore horribly, and said—oh, I can’t tell you what he said, but he intended to ruin you, and would either shoot his wife or thrash her to death, while the man in the wagon sat still, smiling wickedly, and I grew horribly frightened.”
The rattle of harness outside increased, and turning I saw Jasper striding away from the wagon, which stood near the open doorway, while Aline drew in her breath as she continued: “Then Fletcher said he would make me tell where his wife was, and I determined that he should kill me first. He came toward me like a wild beast, for there were little red veins in his eyes, and I moved backward round the table, feeling perfectly awful, because he reeked of liquor. Then I saw the rifle and edged away until I could reach it, and he stopped and said more fearful things, until the 237 man jumped out of the wagon and dragged him away. I think Fletcher was afraid of the other man. So I just sat down and cried, and wondered whether I should have dared shoot him, until I found there wasn’t a cartridge at all in the rifle.”
After this Aline wept copiously again and while, feeling both savage and helpless, I patted her shoulder, calling her a brave girl, Jasper looked in.