Isobel by James Oliver Curwood Read Free Book Online Page B

safe! So I made up my mind to beat on ahead and
take you myself. I want you to understand. And you do know, I guess.
You must have heard, for I thought you were sure-enough dead in the
box, an' I swear to Heaven I meant all I said then. I wouldn't have
come. I was glad you two got away. But this Bucky is a skunk and a
scoundrel— and mebbe if I take you— I can help you— later on.
They'll be here in a few minutes."
    He spoke quickly, his voice quivering with the emotion that inspired
his words, and not for an instant did Scottie Deane allow his eyes to
shift from Billy's face. When Billy stopped he still looked at him for
a moment, judging the truth of what he had heard by what he saw in the
other's face. And then Billy felt his hand tighten for an instant
about his own.
    "I guess you're pretty square, MacVeigh," he said, "and I guess it had
to come pretty soon, too. I'm not sorry that it's you— and I know
you'll take care of her."
    "I'll do it— if I have to fight— and kill!"
    Billy had withdrawn his hand, and both were clenched. Into Deane's
eyes there leaped a sudden flash of fire.
    "That's what I did," he breathed, gripping his fingers hard. "I
killed— for her. He was a skunk— and a scoundrel— too. And you'd
have done it!" He looked at Billy again. "I'm glad you said what you
did— when I was in the box," he added. "If she wasn't as pure and as
sweet as the stars I'd feel different. But it's just sort of in my
bones that you'll treat her like a brother. I haven't had faith in
many men. I've got it in you."
    Billy leaned low over the other. His face was flushed, and his voice
trembled.
    "God bless you for that, Scottie!" he said.
    A sound from the forest turned both men's eyes.
    "She took the dogs and went out there a little way for a load of
wood," said Deane. "She's coming back."
    Billy had leaped to his feet, and turned his face toward the ridge.
He, too, had heard a sound— another sound, and from another
direction. He laughed grimly as he turned to Deane.
    "And they're coming, too, Scottie," he replied. "They're climbing the
ridge. I'll take your guns, old man. It's just possible there may be a
fight!"
    He slipped Deane's revolver into his holster and quickly emptied the
chamber of the rifle that stood near.
    "Where's mine?" he asked.
    "Threw 'em away," said Deane. "Those are the only guns in the outfit."
    Billy waited while Isobel Deane came through low-hanging spruce with
the dogs.

VI - The Fight
*
    There was a smile for Deane on Isobel's lips as she struggled through
the spruce, knee-deep in snow, the dogs tugging at the sledge behind
her. And then in a moment she saw MacVeigh, and the smile froze into a
look of horror on her face. She was not twenty feet distant when she
emerged into the little opening, and Billy heard the rattling cry in
her throat. She stopped, and her hands went to her breast. Deane had
half raised himself, his pale, thin face smiling encouragingly at her;
and with a wild cry Isobel rushed to him and flung herself upon her
knees at his side, her hands gripping fiercely at the steel bands
about his wrists. Billy turned away. He could hear her sobbing, and he
could hear the low, comforting voice of the injured man. A groan of
anguish rose to his own lips, and he clenched his hands hard, dreading
the terrible moment when he would have to face the woman he loved
above all else on earth.
    It was her voice that brought him about. She had risen to her feet,
and she stood before him panting like a hunted animal, and Billy saw
in her face the thing which he had feared more than the sting of
death. No longer were her blue eyes filled with the sweetness and
faith of the angel who had come to him from out of the Barren. They
were hard and terrible and filled with that madness which made him
think she was about to leap upon him. In those eyes, in the quivering
of her bare throat, in the sobbing rise and fall of her breast were
the rage, the grief, and the fear of one whose faith had