If the man noticed her tone he gave no sign. He shook his head decidedly.
“We’ve had the district hunted, scoured thoroughly, sure.” Then he shrugged. “But it don’t matter. Psha! I’d sooner it was some half-breed or tough. I’d––I’d be less sorry for him.” He paused and gazed tenderly into her troubled face. “But you don’t need to be so shocked. Why?” he inquired. “This thing can’t hurt you.”
The girl jumped at the chance of denial.
“No, no, of course not,” she exclaimed eagerly. Then, with a pitiful effort at subterfuge, “But you, Jim. To think that you are blamed.”
In an instant his love was uppermost again. Her distress, whatever its cause, appealed to all that was best and manliest in him. Just now he took it to himself. And, in consequence, he found it hard to keep himself within the bounds of restraint. She was so sweet, so desirable in the pathetic picture she made.
“Never you worry, Eve,” he said, with infinite gentleness. “This is up to me, and––I’m going to see it through. But here, I’m so full of my own troubles I’m forgetting all the good things coming your way. Say, I’m mighty glad of your luck. Will’s claim is a bonanza, I’m told. I hear wonderful accounts of it––and of him.” Then his voice lowered and his calm eyes darkened. “He has straightened up, hasn’t he? It’s a great thing. You’ll be happier––now. You––you won’t need my help––I mean for him. They tell me he’s hit the right trail, and is busy traveling it.” He sighed. “I’m glad, real glad––for you.”
But curiously enough his sympathy met with no response. On the contrary, Eve seemed to freeze up. Every word he uttered lashed her until she felt she must blurt out to him the thing she believed to be the truth. But even in her agony of heart and mind she remembered what she conceived to be her duty, and, in self-defense, assumed a cold unresponsiveness.
“They say he’ll be a way up millionaire,” Jim went on, so busy with his own thoughts that he did not notice her silence. “Gee, and so easy, too. It’s queer how fortune runs. Some folks work like––like Dagos, and get––mud. Others have gold poured over ’em, whether they work or not. But he must have worked to find it. Yes, sure. And having found it you can’t blame him for not letting folks into the secret––eh?”
But Eve had not spoken. It was only a look, and an inarticulate sound. But it was a look of such abject terror that it could no longer escape the man’s thoughtful eyes. Eve had betrayed herself in her very dread lest he should suspect. His reference to Will’s secret had suggested suspicion to her, and the rest was the result of her innate honesty and simplicity.