Appleby rose and went with him to the room Pancho had made ready, while when they reached it Harding sat down wearily.
“I have another thing to tell you, Appleby,” he said. “My daughter Nettie seems to think a good deal of you.”
“Miss Harding was kind enough to permit me to call upon her once or twice at the banker’s house,” said Appleby quietly.
Harding’s eyes twinkled. “If you had gone there every day it wouldn’t have worried me. Your head is tolerably level, and Nettie has rather more sense than most young women, but that is not the point, anyway. When she was leaving England she wrote to me, and told me I might let you know there were people over there, and one, I believe in particular, who had heard the truth about you.”
Appleby stood still a moment, with a flush on his forehead and a curious glow in his eyes.
“Miss Harding told you nothing more, sir?” he said.
“No,” said Harding reflectively. “It wasn’t very explicit but she seemed to fancy it would be sufficient. Now, I don’t think you need worry about the thing, Appleby. Nettie has a good deal of discretion, and if she decided to take up your hand it’s no more than you did with mine.”
Appleby made no answer, but went out, and leaned upon the veranda balustrade looking up into the soft blueness of the night, while once more an alluring vision seemed to materialize before his eyes. He had a curious faith in Nettie Harding’s capabilities, and remembered the promise she had made him that what he longed for should be his.
[XXVIII — TONY MAKES AMENDS]
THE moon hung low above the clump of cottonwoods that flung their black shadows across the road when Appleby with Harper and four of the Sin Verguenza crept in among the roots which, rising like buttresses, supported the great columnar trunks. Beyond the trees the road wound faintly white towards Santa Marta through the cane that stretched away a vast sweep of dusky blueness, under the moon. The night was hot and almost still, though a little breeze that was heavy with a spicy, steamy smell now and then shook a faint sighing from the cane.