Outside all was calm and quiet. The night was fine, and the stars were twinkling brightly overhead. The little front garden lay before the farmer’s eyes bounded by the fence and gate, but neither there nor on the road was any human being to be seen. With a sigh of relief, Ferrier looked to right and to left, until, happening to glance straight down at his own feet, he saw to his astonishment a man lying flat upon his face upon the ground, with arms and legs all asprawl.

So unnerved was he at the sight that he leaned up against the wall with his hand to his throat to stifle his inclination to call out. His first thought was that the prostrate figure was that of some wounded or dying man, but as he watched it he saw it writhe along the ground and into the hall with the rapidity and noiselessness of a serpent. Once within the house the man sprang to his feet, closed the door, and revealed to the astonished farmer the fierce face and resolute expression of Jefferson Hope.

“Good God!” gasped John Ferrier. “How you scared me! Whatever made you you come in like that?”

“Give me food,” the other said, hoarsely. “I have had no time for bite or sup for eight-and-forty hours.” He flung himself upon the cold meat and bread which were still lying upon the table from his host’s supper, and devoured it voraciously. “Does Lucy bear up well?” he asked, when he had satisfied his hunger.

“Yes. She does not know the danger,” her father answered.

“That is well. The house is watched on every side. That is why I crawled my way up to it. They may be darned sharp, but they’re not quite sharp enough to catch a Washoe hunter.”

John Ferrier felt a different man now that he realized that he had a devoted ally. He seized the young man’s leathery hand and wrung it cordially. “You’re a man to be proud of,” he said. “There are not many who would come to share our danger and our troubles.”

“You’ve hit it there, pard,” the young hunter answered. “I have a respect for you, but if you were alone in this business I’d think twice before I put my head into such a hornet’s nest. It‘s Lucy that brings me here, and before harm comes on her I guess there will be one less o’ the Hope family in Utah.”

“What are we to do?”

“To-morrow is your last day, and unless you act to-night you are lost. I have a mule and two horses waiting in the Eagle Ravine. How much money have you?”

“Two thousand dollars in gold, and five in notes.”

“That will do. I have as much more to add to it. We must push for Carson City through the mountains. You had best wake Lucy. It is as well that the servants do not sleep in the house.”

While Ferrier was absent, preparing his daughter for the approaching journey, Jefferson Hope packed all the eatables that he could find into a small parcel, and filled a stoneware jar with water, for he knew by experience that the mountain wells were few and far between. He had hardly completed his arrangements before the farmer returned with his daughter all dressed and ready for a start. The greeting between the lovers was warm, but brief, for minutes were precious, and there was much to be done.

‘Why?’ he repeated, in his strange, soft, penetrating voice.

She looked round at him, rather defiantly.

‘Because I said I was going to be married tomorrow, and he bullied me.’

‘Why did he bully you?’

Her mouth dropped again, she remembered the scene once more, the tears came up.

‘Because I said he didn’t care—and he doesn’t, it’s only his domineeringness that’s hurt—’ she said, her mouth pulled awry by her weeping, all the time she spoke, so that he almost smiled, it seemed so childish. Yet it was not childish, it was a mortal conflict, a deep wound.

‘It isn’t quite true,’ he said. ‘And even so, you shouldn’t SAY it.’

‘It IS true—it IS true,’ she wept, ‘and I won’t be bullied by his pretending it’s love—when it ISN’T—he doesn’t care, how can he—no, he can’t–’

He sat in silence. She moved him beyond himself.

‘Then you shouldn’t rouse him, if he can’t,’ replied Birkin quietly.

‘And I HAVE loved him, I have,’ she wept. ‘I’ve loved him always, and he’s always done this to me, he has—’

‘It’s been a love of opposition, then,’ he said. ‘Never mind—it will be all right. It’s nothing desperate.’

‘Yes,’ she wept, ‘it is, it is.’

‘Why?’

‘I shall never see him again—’

‘Not immediately. Don’t cry, you had to break with him, it had to be—don’t cry.’

He went over to her and kissed her fine, fragile hair, touching her wet cheeks gently.

‘Don’t cry,’ he repeated, ‘don’t cry any more.’

He held her head close against him, very close and quiet.

At last she was still. Then she looked up, her eyes wide and frightened.

‘Don’t you want me?’ she asked.

‘Want you?’ His darkened, steady eyes puzzled her and did not give her play.

‘Do you wish I hadn’t come?’ she asked, anxious now again for fear she might be out of place.

‘No,’ he said. ‘I wish there hadn’t been the violence—so much ugliness—but perhaps it was inevitable.’

She watched him in silence. He seemed deadened.

‘But where shall I stay?’ she asked, feeling humiliated.

He thought for a moment.

‘Here, with me,’ he said. ‘We’re married as much today as we shall be tomorrow.’

‘But—’

‘I’ll tell Mrs Varley,’ he said. ‘Never mind now.’

He sat looking at her. She could feel his darkened steady eyes looking at her all the time. It made her a little bit frightened. She pushed her hair off her forehead nervously.

‘Do I look ugly?’ she said.

And she blew her nose again.

A small smile came round his eyes.