“We can sit here until your father returns. They are not working this end of the stope now,” he said.
She nodded and seated herself with her back against the wall. Silent, with her chin propped firmly in her clenched hands, she strained her eyes to look at the dim lights and shadows at the other end of the stope, and watched the shadows grow into things, as she stared. Far beneath her, in the solid rock, she heard faint indistinct taps. A trifle awed by the mystery she turned to Loring.
“What is that sound?” she asked.
“Those are ‘Tommy knockers,’” he answered gravely. “They are the ghosts of men who were killed in an explosion here, tapping steadily for help.”
“Really?” she asked, half laughing.
“It might be,” answered Loring, “but the fact of it is that those are men drilling on the next level. The sound now and then carries clear through the rock.”
The candle in the niche behind her cast a dim light over the soft curves of Jean’s cheeks, rising delicately above the rough yellow oilskin coat. Loring beside her, looked down at her intently. Turning, she inadvertently brushed against his sleeve, and he quivered as though it had been a blow. The silence was growing oppressive with significance. Suddenly Jean broke it, saying: “Mr. Loring, I may not have another opportunity of speaking with you alone while we are in Kay. I must use this chance to tell you what pleasure it has given me to hear of your achievements here, of your courage in the riot and of—” Jean paused and seemed to choose her words carefully, “of your victory.”
“Oh,” answered Stephen, with an attempt at ease, while all the time his heart was beating like a trip-hammer, “I suppose Baird has been talking about me; but you must not take him too literally. There is no libel law against flattery, and so men speak their minds about their friends as freely as they would like to do about their enemies. Miss Cameron,” he said suddenly, “I have never thanked you for the note which you sent me when I left Quentin. But you must know how grateful I felt. I did not deserve your trust; but I cannot tell you how it helped me.”
She shook her head slowly, and when she spoke her voice was very soft. “I am glad if it helped you, but you would have won your fight without it, I think.” Her tone held a shadow of question.
“The whole struggle would not have seemed worth while without that, and without the truest friend in the world to help. Miss Cameron, Baird Radlett came to me when I had fallen as low as a man could fall. He and your note saved me.”