In the silence he heard steps along the gravel, then on the porch. There was a pause; leaning closer to the door he could hear the rapid, irregular breathing of his visitor. Knocking began at last, a very gentle rapping; silence, another uncertain rap, then the sound of retreating steps from the gravel, and the click of the gate-latch. With one hand covering the weapon in his coat-pocket, he opened the door without a sound and stepped out.
A young girl stood just outside his gate.
"Who are you and what is your business with this house?" he inquired, grimly. The criminal in him was now in the ascendant; he was alert, cool, suspicious, and insolent. He saw in anybody who approached his house the menace of discovery, perhaps an intentional and cunning attempt to entrap and destroy him. All that was evil in him came to the surface; the fear that anybody might forcibly frustrate his revenge--if he chose to revenge himself--raised a demon in him that blanched his naturally pallid face and started his lip muscles into that curious recession which, in animals, is the first symptom of the snarl.
"What do you want?" he repeated. "Why do you knock and then slink away?"
"I did not know you were at home," said the girl, faintly.
"Then why do you come knocking? Who are you, anyway?" he demanded, harshly, knowing perfectly well who she was.
"I am the postmistress at Nauvoo," she faltered--"that is, I was--"
"Really," he said, angrily; "your intelligence might teach you to go where you are more welcome."
His brutality seemed to paralyze the girl. She looked at him as though attempting to comprehend his meaning. "Are you not Mr. Helm?" she asked, in a sweet, bewildered voice.
"I thought you were a gentleman," she continued, in the same stunned voice.
"I'm not," said Helm, bitterly. "I fancy you will agree with me, too. Good-night."
He deliberately turned his back on her and sat down on the wooden steps of the porch; but his finely modelled ears were alert and listening, and when to his amazement he heard her open his gate again and re-enter, he swung around with eyes contracting wickedly.
She met his evil glance quite bravely, wincing when he invited her to leave the yard. But she came nearer, crossing the rank, soaking grass, and stood beside him where he was sitting.