But right on her inquiring Dardie? came another sound and his hand clamped right across her lips. Someone was coming along the woods trail, singing tunelessly.
The messenger?
Before Dards hope was fully aroused it was dashed. He saw a flash of red around a bush and then the wearer of that bright cap came into full view. Dards lips drew back in a half-snarl.
Lotta Folley!
Dessie struggled in his arms and he let her crawl to one side of the tiny shelter. But, though he brought up the rifle, he found he could not aim it. Hew Folleybetrayer and murdereryes. His daughterthough she might be of the same brutal breed-though he might be throwing away freedom and lifehe could not kill!
The girl, a sturdy stout figure in her warm homespuns and knitted cap, halted panting beneath the very tree he must watch. If she glanced up nowif her woodsight was as keen as hisand he had no reason to doubt that it was.
Lotta Folleys head raised and across the open expanse of snow her eyes found Dards strained face. He made no move in a last desperate attempt to escape notice. After all he was in the half-shadow of the shelter, she might not see him the protective playing dead of an animal.
But her eyes widened, her full mouth shaped a soundless expression of astonishment. With a kind of pain he waited for her to cry out.
Only she made no sound at all. After the first moment of surprise her face assumed its usual stupid, slightly sullen solidity. She brushed some snow from the front of her jacket without looking at it, and when she spoke in her hoarse common voice, she might have been addressing the tree at her side.
The Peacemen are huntin.
Dard made no answer. She pouted her lips and added,
Theyre huntin you.
He still kept silent. She stopped brushing her jacket and her eyes wavered around the flees and brush walling in the old road.
They say as how your brothers a stinkman
"Stinkman, the opprobious term for a scientist. Dard continued to hold his tongue. But her next question surprised him.
Dessie Dessie all right?
He was too slow to catch the little girl who slipped by him to face the Folley girl gravely.
Lotta fumbled in the breast of her packet and brought out a packet folded in a piece of grease-blotted cloth. She did not move up to offer it to Dessie but set it down carefully on the end of a tree stump.
For you, she said to the little girl. Then she turned to Dard. You better not stick around. Pa tol the Peacemen about you. She hesitated. Pa didnt come back las night
Dard sucked in his breath. That glance she had shot at him, had there been knowledge in it? But if she knew what lay in the barnwhy wasnt she heading the hue and cry to their refuge? Lotta Folley, he had never regarded her with any pleasure. In the early days, when they had first come to the farm, she had often visited them, watching Kathia, Dessie, with a kind of lumpish interest. She had talked little and what she said suggested that she was hardly more than a moron. He had been contemptuous of her, though he had never showed it.
Pa didnt come back las night, she repeated, and now he was sure she knewor suspected. What would she do? He couldnt use the riflehe couldnt
Then he realized that she must have seen that weapon, seen and recognized it. He could offer no reasonable explanation for having it with him. Folleys rifle was a treasure, it wouldnt be in the hands of anotherand surely not in the hands of Folleys enemyas long as Folley was alive.
Dard caught the past tense. So she did know! Now what was she going to do?
Pa hated lotsa things, her eyes clipped away from his to Dessie. Pa liked t hurt things.
The words were spoken without emotion, in her usual dull tone.
He wanted t hurt Dessie. He wanted t send her t a work camp. He said he was gonna. You better give me that there gun, Dard. If they find it with Pa they aint gonna look around for anybody that ran away.
But why? he was shocked almost out of his suspicion.
Nobodys gonna send Dessie t no work camp, she stated flatly. Dessieshes special! Her ma was special, too. Once she made me a play baby. Pahe found it an burned it up. Youyou can take care of Dessieyou gotta take care of Dessie! Her eyes met his again compellingly. You gotta git away from here an take Dessie where none of them Peacemen are gonna find her. Give me Pas rifle an Ill cover up.
Driven to the last rags of his endurance Dard met that with the real truth.
We cant leave here yet
She cut him off. Some one comin for you? Then Pa was rightyour brother was a stinkman?
Dard found himself nodding.
All right, she shrugged. I can let you know if they come again. But you see to Dessiemind that!
Ill see to Dessie. He held out the rifle and she took it from him before she pointed again to the packet.
Give her that. Ill try to git you some moremaybe tonight. If they think you got away theyll bring dogs out from town. If they do She shuffled her feet in the snow.
Then she stood the rifle against the hollow tree and unbuttoned the front of her jacket. Her hands, clumsy in mittens, unwound a heavy knitted scarf and tossed it to the child.
You put that on you, she ordered with some of the authority of a mother, or at least of an elder sister. Id leave you my coat, only theyd notice. She picked up the rifle again. Now Ill put this here where it belongs an maybe they wont go on huntin.
Speechless Dard watched her turn down trail, still at a loss to understand her actions. Was she really going to return that rifle to the barnhow could she, knowing the truth? And why?
He knelt to wind the scarf around Dessies head and shoulders. For some reason Folleys daughter wanted to help them and he was beginning to realize that he needed all the aid he could get.
The packet Lotta had left contained such food as he had not seen in yearsreal bread, thick buttered slices of it, and a great hunk of fat pork. Dessie would not eat unless he shared it with her, and he took enough to flavor his own meal of the wretched fare they had brought with them. When they had finished he asked one of the questions which had been in his mind ever since Lottas amazing actions.
Do you know Lotta well, Dessie?
She ran her tongue around her greasy lips, collecting stray crumbs.
Lotta came over often.
But I havent seen her since he stopped before mentioning Kathias death.
She comes and talks to me when I am in the fields. I think she is afraid of you andDaddy. She always brings me nice things to eat. She said that some day she wanted to give me a dressa pink dress. I would very much like a pink dress, Dardie. I like Lottashe is always goodinside she is good.
Dessie smoothed down the ends of her new scarf.
She is afraid of her Daddy. He is mean to her. Once he came when she was with me and he was very, very mad. He cut a stick with his knife and he hit her with it. She told me to run away quick and I did. He was a very bad man, Dardie. I was afraid of him, too. He wont come after us?
NO!
He persuaded Dessie to sleep again and when she awoke he knew that he must have rest himself and soon. Impressing upon her how much their lives depended on it, he told her to watch the tree and awaken him if anyone came.
It was sunset when he aroused from an uneasy, nightmare-haunted sleep. Dessie squatted quietly beside him, her small grave face turned to the trail. As he shifted his weight she glanced up.
There was just a bunny, she pointed to small betraying tracks. But no people, Dard. Isis there any bread left? Im hungry.
Sure you are! He crawled out of the shelter and stretched cramped limbs before unwrapping the remains of Lottas bounty.