The Max Brand Megapack. Max Brand
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on you today.”
The latter stepped close, stupefied with wonder.
“Do I hear you right? Are you taking water, Harrigan?”
Harrigan bowed his head, praying mutely for strength to endure.
“Don’t say it!” pleaded McTee. “I’ve hunted the world and worn the roads bare looking for one man who could stand up to me—and now that I’ve found him, he turns yellow inside!”
And he looked upon the Irishman with a sick horror, as if the big fellow were turning into a reptile before his eyes. On the face of Harrigan there was an expression like that of the starving man whom the fear of poison induces to push away food.
“There’s no word I can speak to you, McTee. You could never understand. Go back to the girl. Maybe she’ll explain.”
“The girl?”
At the wild hope in that voice Harrigan shuddered, and he could not look up.
“Harrigan, what do you mean?”
“Don’t ask me. Leave me alone, McTee.”
“Here’s a mystery,” said the Scotchman, “and our little party is postponed. The date is changed, that’s all. Remember!”
He stepped off through the trees in the direction of the shelter on the beach, leaving Harrigan to throw himself upon the ground in a paroxysm of shame and hate.
But McTee, with hope to spur him on—a vague hope; a thought half formed and therefore doubly delightful—went with great strides until he came to Kate where she sat tending the fire. He broke at once into the heart of his question.
“I met Harrigan. He’s changed. Something has happened. Tell me what it is. He says you know.”
He crouched close to her, intent and eager, his eyes ready to read a thousand meanings into the very lowering of her lashes; but she let her glance rove past him.
“Well?” he asked impatiently.
“It is hard to speak of it.”
Cold doubt fell upon the captain; he moistened his lips before he spoke.
“Hit straight from the shoulder. There’s something between you and the Irishman?”
She dropped a hand over his mighty fist.
“After all, you are our only friend, Angus. Why shouldn’t you know?”
He stood up and made a few paces to and fro, his hands locked behind him and his leonine head fallen low.
“Yes, why shouldn’t you tell me! I think I understand already.”
All desire to laugh went from her, and deep fear took its place; her eyes were held fascinated upon his interlaced fingers, white under their own terrific pressure; yet she understood that she must go on. If she failed, this mighty force would be turned against Harrigan; and Harrigan, not less grim in battle, as she could guess, would be turned against him.
She said quickly, to conceal her fear: “I thought there was some trouble between you and Dan. I asked him to promise that he would not fight with you. But I don’t need to ask you to promise not to fight with him, for now that you know—”
He leaped up and beat his hands together over his head.
“And that was why! I taunted him and all the time he was laughing to himself!”
He stopped and then whispered to himself: “Still, it’s only postponed. The tune will come! The time will come!”
She understood the promise.
“Angus! What are you saying?”
He said quietly: “Harrigan’s safe from me while you care for him. Do you think I’m fool enough to make a martyr of him? Not I! But when we get back to the world—”
He finished the sentence by slowly flexing his fingers.
“I love you, Kate, and until the strength goes out of my hands, I’ll still love you. I want you; and what I want I get. You’ll hate me for it, eh?”
He went off without waiting for an answer, stumbling as he walked like one who was dazed. Her strength held with her until he was out of sight among the trees, but then she sank to the ground, panting. Sooner or later they were sure to discover her ruse, and the moment one of them learned that she did not love the other, they would rush into battle. She only prayed that the discovery would not come till they were safely off the island. Once back in the world the strong arm of the law might suffice to keep them apart.
The falling of the fire roused her at last and she set about gathering wood to keep it alive. It was the Irishman who returned first. He waved her to the shade of the shelter and finished collecting the wood.
CHAPTER 14
Afterward he inquired, frowning: “Where’s McTee? I met him an’ he started back to find you.”
“He’s gone off with his thoughts, Dan.”
Harrigan sighed, looking up to the stainless blue of the sky: “Aye, that’s the way of the Scotch. When they’re happy in love, they go off by themselves an’ brood like a dog that’s thinking of a fight. But were I he, I’d never be leavin’ your side, colleen.”
His head tilted back in the way she had come to know, and she waited for the soft dialect: “I’d be singin’ songs av love an’ war-r-r, an’ braggin’ me hear-rt out, an’ talkin’ av the sea-green av your eyes, colleen. Look at him now!”
For the great form of McTee left the circle of the trees and approached them.
“He’s got his head down between his shoulders like a whipped cur. He’s broodin’, an’ his soul is thick in a fog.”
“Dan, I trust you to cheer him up; but you’ll not speak of me?”
“Not I. He’s a proud man, Black McTee, an’ he’d be angered to the core of him if he thought you’d talked about him an’ his love to Harrigan. Whisht, Kate, I’ll handle him like fire!
“The wood,” he began, as McTee came in. “Did you find it on top of the hill, lad?”
McTee rumbled after a pause, and without looking at Harrigan: “There’s plenty of it there. I made a little heap of the driest on the crown of the hill.”
“Then the next thing is to move our fire up there.”
“Move our fire?” cried Kate. “How can you carry the fire?”
“Easy. Take two pieces of burnin’ wood an’ walk along holdin’ them close together. That way they burn each other an’ the flame keeps goin’. Watch!”
He selected two good-sized brands from the fire and raised them, holding one in either hand and keeping the ignited portions of the sticks together. McTee looked from Kate to Harrigan.
“Sit down and talk to Kate. I’ll carry the sticks; I know where the pile of timber is.”
Harrigan made a significant and covert nod and winked at McTee with infinite understanding.
“Stay here yourself, lad. I wouldn’t be robbing you—”
Kate coughed for warning, and he broke off sharply.
“You’ve made one trip to the hill. This is my turn. Besides, you wouldn’t know how to keep the stick burnin’. I’ve done it before.”
McTee stared, agape with astonishment. The meaning of that wink still puzzled his brain. He turned to Kate for explanation, and she beckoned him to stay. When Harrigan disappeared, he said: “What’s the meaning? Doesn’t Harrigan want to be with you?”
She allowed her eyes to wander dreamily after Harrigan.
“Don’t you see? He’s like a big boy. He’s overflowing