Nasmyth stooped toward her. “In the height of my folly I had an uneasy consciousness that I belonged to you. Afterwards I was sure. It was a very real thing, but I naturally shrank from coming to you. I don’t quite know how I have gathered the courage now.”
Laura sat still, and he laid a hand on her shoulder. Then she turned and looked up at him.
“Well,” she confessed very simply, “I think I loved you in the days when you were building the dam.”
He bent down and kissed her, and neither of them ever remembered exactly what they said.
A few minutes later there was a clatter in the shadow above them, and two men came scrambling down, each leading a jaded horse. Nasmyth rose and turned toward them when they stopped close in front of him.
“You have some business with me?” he inquired.
One of them handed him a sealed paper, and he opened it with deliberation.
“I may as well tell you that I expected this,” he said. He glanced at Laura. “I am summoned to attend in Victoria and show cause why I should not be restrained from injuring the holding of a rancher at the head of the valley. In the meantime I am instructed to carry on the operations in the cañon no further.”
He turned to the men. “You should have come along 327 an hour or two ago. I don’t propose to do anything further in the cañon; in fact, I have accomplished the purpose I had in hand.”
As his meaning dawned on them, the men gazed at each other in evident consternation, until one of them turned to Laura.