Still that was a small question beside the fact that I was out of the snare, was free, was armed. And she was with me, one with me, leaning on my care and protection. I looked round the dreary room; it was changed, it was glorified, I could have shouted with joy. Only now when it had passed from me did I gauge the depth of the shadow of death! Only now did I measure, with a pistol in my hand, my fear of the rope!
True, we were still in peril, but my heart rose to meet the danger, and exulted in it. I knew Levi to be a cur and his men were much of the same kidney. I reckoned that we were hardly two miles from the main road along which our patrols would be constantly passing in the day-time; nor more than four miles as the crow flies, from the detachment at the ferry. A little shooting on Levi’s part or ours would soon bring our people about his ears.
Still, we must, for a time, depend on ourselves and our own resources, and we had only one pistol and six cartridges. A second pistol was a thing much to be desired. So while I kept watch at the window, the girl at a word from me fell to ransacking the men’s blankets and saddle-bags.
The search proved fruitless, but by the time it had failed, the man had taken my message. We heard an outburst of oaths, and the sound of feet running along the road; a moment and several figures showed phantom-like through the mist. There was a second outbreak of blasphemy, then for a time, silence.
“The rascals are consulting,” I said. “That will not raise their courage. Councils of war never fight.”
The girl did not answer and I looked at her. She was sitting on a box rocking herself to and fro, her elbows on her knees, her face hidden in her hands. Then I understood. Our defence, our safety, what was passing here, these were small things to her. It was still the news, the news that she craved, the news for which she pined, the news that she coveted, as she rocked herself to and fro in an agony of impatience.
I thrust my head out of the window. “Are you coming?” I shouted.
At that Levi showed himself, timidly and at a distance. “What cursed trick is this?” he shouted. “What’d she reckon to fetch us here for to jockey us in this fashion? Do you hear, if you don’t come down, I’ll burn the whole house and you in it! S’help me, if I won’t!”
“Then you’ll burn your horses,” I replied. “And bring our detachment from the ferry on you. See? And see this, too, you cowardly rogue. Give up the messenger you’ve seized! Give him up! Or we’ll raise such a racket as shall bring my people on you quickly! We have your horses, and you cannot recover them without coming under fire.”
This was true for we had found two knot-holes in the floor, that commanded the stable below. I fancied that this would go some way towards bringing them to terms, for I knew that in the eyes of such men as these their horses ranked after their own skins.