Chapter XV

The Golden Secret

‘Good morning, Mr. Howard!’ cried Helen gaily.  Her cheeks were still rosy, flushed, thought Howard quickly, less with the flood of the dawn than with some sudden rush of blood stirred by something that Carr had been saying.  Then as she gave him her hand, inspired by the imp of the moment, she ran on:  ’You should have been here last night!  Shouldn’t he, Mr. Carr?  Sanchia was here!’

‘Mrs. Murray?’ demanded Howard, wondering and therefore floundering into Helen’s trap.  ‘What was she doing here?’

Helen appeared to be in the lightest of spirits this morning.  Her laughter was one of sheer joyousness.  Her eyes were dancing as she retorted: 

’Mrs. Murray?  Who said Mrs. Murray?  I was talking about Sanchia.  Mr. Chuck Evans rode her over last night, asking if we had seen you.’

Howard bit his lip.  Carr laughed.  Then, seeing the look upon his friend’s face, he grew grave immediately and put out his own hand, saying merely: 

’We wondered what had become of you, Al.  And now to have you come in from that direction—­and on foot!  What’s happened?’

’A side-winder scared my horse into breaking its tie-rope and leaving me on foot.  And I’ve had enough walking to last me seven incarnations.  Hello, Mr. Longstreet,’ as he saw the professor step out of his canvas house.  Howard went forward to meet him, leaving John Carr with Helen.

‘Just the man I was wishing to see,’ beamed Longstreet, shaking hands enthusiastically.  ’I was on the verge of taking up the matter with your good friend Carr last night, but something prompted me to wait until this morning, in hopes you would come.  I—­I seem to know you better, somehow.’  He lowered his voice confidentially.  ’Those two out there are just a couple of youngsters this morning.  You and I will have to be the serious brains of the occasion.’

Howard glanced over his shoulder.  Carr’s broad back was turned to him, Helen’s eyes, glancing toward the shack, were sparkling.

‘Fire away,’ he said colourlessly.  ‘What’s in the wind?’

‘First thing—­Had breakfast yet?’

Oddly, Howard had no longer any appetite for coffee and bacon, though he had hungrily swallowed his last bit of dried meat an hour ago.

‘Then,’ said Longstreet eagerly, ‘come in here where we can talk.’  And to Helen he called, ‘My dear, I want a few words with Mr. Howard.’

‘Oh, we won’t disturb you,’ Helen laughed back at him.  It struck Howard that she would laugh at anything this morning.  ’Mr. Carr and I were just going up on the cliff for the view.’

Longstreet came in and dropped the flap behind him.  Then he stepped to a shelf and took down a roll of paper which he spread upon the table.  Howard looking at it with lack-lustre eyes saw that it was a sort of geological chart of the neighbourhood.  Longstreet set his finger upon a point where he had made a cross in red pencil.