"WHAT does your son want to say to my daughter?" asked Esther. The
thought of a dramatic interview between them was exceedingly distasteful
to her.
"I don't know," said Mrs. Van Shaw guardedly. "He has been begging me to
come and see you. Oh, he is very ill!" and at that the mother in her, mistaken and distorted though it were, in her training of the boy, broke down and she began to sob.
Esther was moved at the sight, and after a moment she said gently, "We
are all so sorry for you, Mrs. Van Shaw. The shock of it all must have
been terrible for you."
"I am just about prostrated by it. Mr. Van Shaw is expected to-day. He
was in New York when the news reached him. But it surely is not asking
anything improper to ask Miss Douglas to see my boy before you leave. We
shall be obliged to remain here in this dreadful place until the doctor
says Ross can be moved."
"Will you see him?" asked Esther, turning to Helen, and speaking
quietly.
"Yes, I am willing to go," replied Helen in a very low voice. She
dreaded and at the same time courted the interview. It had just the
tinge of dramatic setting in it that appealed to her highly romantic
imagination. She did not know what he wanted to say to her and she was
not in the least prepared for the interview. But it seemed to her that
it would be a piece of foolish affectation to refuse his request and
especially since she would in all probability not have any occasion to
meet him again.
Esther went out of the tent and in a few words told Paul of Mrs. Van
Shaw's visit and its object. Helen would have to be carried over to the
government farmer's house. Clifford called up two of the Indians and
with their help, he and Paul carried Helen over. Bauer, who was hardly
yet fit to sit up, but had already climbed into his place in one of the
chuck wagons, saw the whole thing from where he sat, and again his mind
went into a whirl with jealousy and anger. If Helen's mother had told
her of Van Shaw's character, how could the girl, in spite of all that, go and see him now? It seemed to him like an indication of something coarse and low in Helen's nature, something which contradicted his pure thought of her. He could not understand it, and being ignorant of the fact that Helen was going in response to Mrs. Van Shaw's request, he brooded miserably over the whole affair and sat there gazing gloomily at the little stone house into which the group with Helen had gone.
Paul and Clifford and the Indians soon came out and went on completing
their preparations for the departure.
Meanwhile, in the little room where Ross Van Shaw lay, tortured in mind
and body, a remarkable scene was being enacted.
There was just room close by the door for the cot on which Helen was
sitting, and the moment she was placed there, she was aware of Van
Shaw's face staring at her. The sight of it shocked her almost to the
verge of hysterics. She instantly controlled herself as she quickly
noted the fact that both her mother and Mrs. Van Shaw were watching her.
"I wanted to see you before you went away," Van Shaw was saying, and his
voice sounded very weak and a long ways off to Helen as she saw the
tremble of his hands and the uncertain glance he cast at her, so sharply
different from his previous bold and positive attitude towards her.
"We are so sorry for you," said Helen. "It was a miracle you were not
killed."
"Yes. Thanks to Mr. Clifford, mother tells me. I want to thank him
before he goes. Mother, won't you ask him to come in?"
"Yes, Ross. But do you think you can bear all this excitement? I am
afraid it will be too much for you." The government farmer's wife, who
was acting as nurse, added a word of objection.
"No, it won't," he said irritably. "I want to see him. Didn't you tell
me he saved my life? I ought at least to thank him for it."
"I'll tell him, yes I will!" Mrs. Van Shaw spoke in the hurried, anxious
tone of one who feared a scene if she refused his request.
"Tell him now, then mother. Ask him to come in now."
"I will. I will." Mrs. Van Shaw rose and went out of the room, leaving
Mrs. Douglas and Helen staring at Van Shaw and wondering how he had not
heard the news of his rescue by Bauer.