“To tell the truth, I was afraid the news might distress and excite you. You couldn’t do anything until Monday, and I thought it better to let you spend to-day in peace.”
“In peace!” Jernyngham laughed in a jarring manner. “Tormented as I am by suspense that grows beyond endurance!” His eyes glittered and the lines on his face deepened. “And I’m to be kept in ignorance while the villain who robbed and killed my son goes about his work undisturbed!”
There was an awkward silence for a few moments. Mrs. Colston looked distressed, and Gertrude regarded Muriel with a long searching glance. The girl felt that she was being suspected of abetting her brother-in-law for some ulterior purpose. She was of sanguine temperament and wayward temper, and her blood ran warm; but she held in check the anger that she burned to give expression to. Then their visitor, whom they had forgotten, broke in:
“Now, sir, you’re getting ahead too fast. There’s nothing proved against Prescott, and I and others know he never did the thing!” He paused and Muriel, regardless of her companions, flung him a grateful glance as he went on: “Even Curtis can’t bring it home to him!”
“Curtis,” said Jernyngham contemptuously, “is a cautious fool! I’ll communicate with his chiefs at Regina.” He got up with a decided air. “I’ll start for Sebastian at once. Where’s Leslie? I must see him about a team.”
“You stay where you are,” said the farmer, with rude sympathy. “I heard that one of the police bosses will be at the settlement to-morrow and you can see him then; Curtis took a room for him at the hotel. I’m telling you because the sooner all this muss is cleared up the better, and it won’t hurt Prescott.”
He went out and Jernyngham, without speaking to the others, picked up his paper. Muriel took a book from a shelf, but although she determinedly tried to fix her attention on it, she could make no sense of what she read. It was a dreary morning; Colston was soon driven out, and the others were oppressed by a feeling of constraint and tension. They were glad when Jernyngham and Gertrude started for Sebastian in the afternoon. After they had gone, Colston looked at his wife and sister-in-law dolefully.
“This kind of thing will tell upon your nerves; I’m beginning to feel it,” he said. “We must have a long drive to-morrow to get rid of the depression. Those people on the ranch by the bluff pressed us to come back again.”
“There are many excuses for our friends; you couldn’t expect them to be cheerful,” Mrs. Colston replied.
“That’s very true; one must try to remember it. It seems our duty to remain and comfort them as much as possible; but I can’t say that they’re always very grateful. Indeed, I have felt hurt by Gertrude’s reserve, though, considering how trying all this must be for her, one can’t take exception to it.”