IT WAS in the evening of this same day, at dinner, that the element of tragedy was first injected into the situation. In addition to Mrs. West and her daughter, May Thurston, and the four young men, there was present Hartley Masters. He had been invited frequently to dine at the cottage, and had for a time accepted every invitation. Latterly, however, the evidences of strained feeling between him and the other men had become so pronounced that he had usually offered some excuse for declining the kindly hospitality of Mrs. West. Another reason that influenced him in this was his own lack of confidence in his self-control, since the incident at the boat-house, which he had had some difficulty in explaining satisfactorily to May. Nevertheless, tonight, he had chosen to rely on his powers of self-restraint, and had accepted at once when Mrs. West suggested his remaining for the evening meal. The construction of the cottage was such[148] that the dining-room was at the back of the house. On the left, as one entered the hall, was the large music-room, which occupied the entire ground floor of the added wing. On the right, the first room was that which had served Abernethey as an office. Beyond this came the dining-room, with one window at the back, and one on the north side. Mrs. West sat at the head of the table, in such a position that she faced the window to the north. Margaret sat opposite her, while Saxe was placed at her right hand. Beyond him was May Thurston, and beyond her Roy. Billy Walker was beside the hostess on the left, and then David Thwing, while Masters filled the place next to Margaret.
The conversation at the table went pleasantly enough, despite the latent hostility between the engineer and the other men. The antipathy of Saxe and his friends was certainly not shared by either Margaret or her mother, unless they concealed their feeling with much skill, for the daughter addressed herself to Masters much of the time, and Mrs. West often included him in the conversation. By tacit agreement the subject of the miser’s gold[149] was not touched on by anyone, and the desultory talk ran the usual gamut of art, literature, the drama, and those innumerable topics that serve as the transient vehicles for individual wit and seriousness.
It chanced that a decanter stood on the table, close to the edge, just by Billy Walker’s right elbow. As he turned to address David on his left, his right arm was moved carelessly, and the decanter was jolted from its place. It poised for a second, balanced on its bottom edge, then fell over the side of the table toward the floor. But the time, brief as it was, had been sufficient for action on the part of Saxe. Naturally of exceeding rapidity of movement, although he held this under restraint ordinarily, so that he appeared rather languid than otherwise, an instantaneous responsiveness of his body to any command of the will had been cultivated by the years of exercise at the piano. So, now, on the instant when he perceived the touch of Billy’s elbow to the decanter, he darted in a single step from his seat to a position behind Mrs. West’s chair with arm outstretched, and in the same second, his nimble fingers had closed on the neck of the falling[150] decanter, to which they clung tenaciously. Before he could again straighten himself, there came a thud against the east wall of the dining-room—with it the sharp crack of a rifle, fired from close at hand.
Saxe stood erect—stared dumbfounded at the others. They stared back at him, wordless for the moment, stupefied. Each looked at first one and then another, unable to surmise as to what had come upon them. It was Masters who finally broke the oppressive silence. The engineer’s face was of a dead white, and as he spoke he tugged nervously at the luxuriant mustache:
“Some hunter’s been mighty careless,” he declared; and he smiled, rather feebly, on Margaret, who had looked up at the sound of his voice.
“He sure was some careless,” agreed David who, at times, relapsed into an early dialect. “Shootin’ promiscuous-like!” He goggled at the startled company through his thick lenses.
Forthwith, a babel broke forth, a confusion of exclamations, in which were voiced alarm, wonder and anger. It was Saxe, still on his feet, who first bethought himself of the thud[151] heard from the direction of the east wall. At once, he went to the sideboard, which was against the wall on that side. Only a brief search was necessary to reveal the hole which the bullet had pierced in the top drawer of the sideboard. Saxe uttered an ejaculation that brought the others crowding about him. He exhibited the opening left by the bullet’s passing, then pulled out the drawer, and found the missile itself imbedded in the back. Roy and David, who had become familiar with deadly weapons on the frontier of the Northland, dug out the bullet, and immediately proceeded to learned discourse anent its character and the caliber of the rifle from which it had been sent. Billy Walker took no interest in this discussion, and, having stood on his feet for a longer time than was his custom, returned to his seat at the table, where he disposed himself with a sigh of relief. The ladies, too, went back to their places, but Saxe, David and Roy, with Masters, ran out of the cottage to search for the person who had fired the shot. From the place in which the bullet had lodged, it was evident that the rifle had been fired from some point on the ridge back of the cottage, and[152] up this the four took their way, scattering as they went to cover a line of considerable length. They made a pretty thorough examination, but came on nothing to indicate who the culprit might have been. The underbrush was thick along the slope, yet the range of space shown by the direction of the bullet was so small that they were enabled to beat the coverts with completeness. In the end, it was the general agreement that some hunter had fired at a squirrel on the slope, probably in ignorance that a dwelling lay beyond the screen of foliage. Afterward, he had gone on his way, without any realization of possible peril from the shot.
The dusk was falling ere they abandoned the hunt, and started on their return to the house. It was just before they reached the cottage that David, who was blest with more humor than are most, threw back his head, and laughed long and heartily with the mellow peals that made those who heard him usually laugh for sheer sympathy before inquiring the cause of his mirth. At the sound, Saxe and Roy smiled expectantly; but Masters only looked on curiously.
[153]“There’s a bit of comedy in this near-tragedy,” David explained, after he had put a period to his merriment. “When you get back to the house, Saxe old man,” he went on, more seriously, “it’s up to you to get down on your marrow-bones, and say, ‘Thank you!’ to your indolent friend, Billy Walker.”
“Why?” Saxe demanded, in astonishment.
“For the simple reason that he came all-fired close to saving your life. In fact, I haven’t any doubt that he actually did save it. If not that, he saved you from a nasty wound.”
“I don’t understand yet,” Saxe said, perplexed.
“It’s just this,” David explained. “From the location of the bullet in the sideboard, I’m strongly of the opinion that you were exactly in the line of it, so that, if you had been sitting in your place at the table, you would have had it clean through the chest. You jumped to catch the decanter Billy knocked off the table with his elbow. That movement on your part saved you. It was Billy’s awkwardness that caused your action; so it’s up to you to thank him for saving your life. And, as a matter of fact, though I laughed, it’s not exactly a subject for mirth.”
[154]Saxe’s expression had grown very grave as he listened. There comes always to the normal man a shock on realizing the imminence of death for himself. The fact that the peril is past alters the nature of the shock, but it hardly lessens it. So, in the present instance, the young man, whose great risk was thus suddenly brought home to him, felt the thrill of deep emotion, in which thankfulness for the fate that had intervened in his behalf was strong. He said nothing for a few moments, nor did Roy, who, in his turn, was affected as he understood the danger that had menaced his friend. Masters uttered an ejaculation, which was indeterminate as to meaning.
They found the others still in the dining-room, and immediately learned that Billy Walker was quite willing to sacrifice his modesty on the altar of fact; for he greeted their return with a roaring statement:
“Saxe, my boy, I saved your life, and I hope you’ll do me credit. From a study of the range of the trajectory of the bullet, I have learned that, had you been in your place at the table, the bullet would have penetrated your breast at a vital point. My clumsiness was the first[155] cause of your escape—examine for yourself.” He waved a hand toward the sideboard.
Saxe, his face still grave, nodded assent.
“I appreciate it, Billy,” he said, “and I’ll not forget it, you may be sure. Dave, too, thought of it.”
“Pooh, no thanks to me,” Billy declared, embarrassed by the emotion in his friend’s voice. “It was only by accident that I interfered—not by volition.”
“I know,” Saxe agreed. “But the fact remains that you were the instrument of salvation, and that is what I shall always remember.” He looked toward Margaret West as he spoke, and saw that her face was very pale. He wondered how much of that pallor—if indeed any of it—had been caused by his own peril. For a fleeting second, the girl’s limpid blue eyes met his, then they were veiled by the thick lashes. He found himself unable to read the meaning that had lain in them. He went to his chair, seated himself, and afterward twisted about to mark the precise line in which the bullet had passed. There could be no manner of doubt: its course had been such that he could have escaped only by a miracle, had he[156] been in his place. There could have been only a slight variation in the direction of the bullet, dependent on the position of the marksman. That variation could by no means have been great enough to save him from a grave, probably a mortal, wound. Saxe shuddered, as the narrowness of his escape was again, and thus visibly, borne in on his consciousness. He looked about the cheery room and into the faces of the others with a sort of wonder in the r............