there dawned at last a day hotter and longer than any the summer yet had sent. with break of morning banks of sullen clouds were rolling out of the south into an empty sky. the sun sulked overhead, showing a fitful fiery face, and the air rose steaming from the ground. little winds came out of the south, blew brief nervous breaths, and like silly spendthrifts wore themselves to death. before evening was come, the men and women of surprise had stood again and again in their doorways to eye the sky, to snuff the air, and to declare the rains must break before morning.
in the teeth of these warnings, when afternoon wore out to evening, and dark came down to shroud the stifled day, when in the high sky not one star could find a porthole to look through, power rode down to pelican pool. kaloona, as well as surprise, had read the signs of the heavens, and power judged the storm would burst before dawn. dark had fallen [pg 283]half-an-hour when he guided his horse among the trees by the river.
he drew rein on the edge of the clearing in the timber, and from his seat in the saddle looked across the open. through the doorway of the hut, in a long bright beam, the light came to divide the dark. molly sat upon a box in the doorway against a background of light. black she seemed, and around her was a radiance of light, and outside the light waited the steaming dark. she sat in a reverie, her elbows on her knees, her chin in her hands, and when the sounds of the horse reached her, she gave no sign other than calling out, "is that you, jim?"
"yes, molly." power took the saddle from his horse, and came into the eye of the lamp. the hut was empty when he glanced inside. "alone to-night, molly? are they over at the shaft?"
"no, they went to surprise this morning. they reckoned to be home by dark. i thought you might be them. maybe dad is soaked. mum takes a drop times, too."
"they had better be back soon if they mean to be back dry. the rains are here at last." a mutter of thunder began very far away. "listen!"
power took off his hat and tossed it on the[pg 284] table in the hut. his dress was a shirt wide open at the neck, and his sleeves were rolled up above his elbows. but the night grew hotter moment by moment. molly, on the box, kept her chin in her hands and stared out into the dark, and he felt no more talkative than she. he leaned back against the doorpost. as he did so a second mutter of thunder began very far away. the trees were wrapped from sight in the dark. not one star peered from the sky.
"what's the matter, molly? have we left you too long alone? your little tongue has gone to sleep, thinking there was no more use for it to-night." she did not answer, and he thought she shivered. he bent down this time and spoke sharply. "what's making you shiver, child? you have not a touch of fever, have you? you had better wrap up quick and get away from the open."
"it isn't fever."
something in her voice made him stoop down until they were face to face. "what's the matter? you are changed to-night."
"aw, nothing is the matter."
she would not look round, and must stare on into the dark. power sat on his heels on her right hand. he lit a pipe and waited for the strange mood to pass away. he was damp with perspiration, and the sultriness of the night[pg 285] rested on him like a weight. then he heard a voice.
"the old dog died to-day."
"bluey?"
"yes, bluey."
"bad luck for bluey. he was very old."
"i reckon i shall miss him."
"did you bury him?"
"i couldn't find the shovel. i chucked him in the trees over there. dad can fix him to-morrow."
"is that what you have been thinking of all to-night?"
she ignored him again. the light from the doorway showed every line of her perfect profile, and by putting out a hand he could have touched the hair lying about her brows. though he looked upon her beauty every night, he never found it grow less wonderful; but now he discovered with a curious sense of shame that he contemplated it with the calm born of dying passion. he would never see again so rare a work of art as this casket, but alackaday! he had opened the lid, and the delicate thing was empty.
"jim, i was glad when you came along. it made me feel queer to leave the old dog stretched out over there. do you reckon it true[pg 286] folk sometimes feel in their bones what is to happen?"
"what have you got in your head, child?"
"maybe i am talking moonshine; but i can't get the notion off me that i won't be long following the old dog."
"don't talk nonsense, molly."
she shrugged her shoulders in the brief fashion he found so charming. the growl of thunder came a third time from the distance, grumbling louder and enduring longer than the claps which had sounded before, and on the echo of this final rumble a feverish breeze sprang up, and wooed the hair upon her forehead and laid a kind breath against his cheek. power looked in the track of the storm and saw only the black sky. he began to doubt if the burst would wait for midnight. he wanted to rouse the child into better spirits, but himself must first summon courage to shake off the oppression of the night. now she was speaking again—to herself as much as to him.
"maybe it isn't hard to die. the old dog was curled round quiet and easy when i found him. sometimes when i get fair sick of hearing mum and dad and of doin' the same old things, i think it easier to be dead than to start to-morrow." she broke without warning into low, charming laughter. "when we have sat a few weeks [pg 287]inside there with the rain coming through every crack of the roof and each of us fair tired of looking at the other, we'll reckon it a better game to be dead than alive."
"wise men say there is another life to be lived when this one is done with, molly."
"i've heard that story before, jim. there was a parson round our ways once with a pack-horse. he reckoned there was more business when we had done with this place. i got him talking, for i hadn't seen a feller for a month. but i expect there isn't too much in the tale. what do you think, mister?"
"why mister again?"
"jim."
"if there is, let us hope we make less muddle of things next time."
"phew! it's hot. see the lightning. you will have a wet skin to go home in. no, i don't want to die yet. some things don't happen too bad. i'd be sorry not to ride a horse again or to go fishing or to hear the birds. it isn't too bad of a morning when the sun first comes over the plain, and it isn't too bad to hear the noises in the scrub of a night." she stopped to smile. "and i don't want to say good-bye to you fellows."
"so you like us just a little bit after all?"
for the first time she gave up watching the[pg 288] dark and looked round at him out of grave eyes. he was startled at their solemnity and wondered what she was going to say. she laid a hand upon his arm.
"jim, you and me are near come to the end of things, aren't we? you aren't always fretting to kiss me now as you was. i reckon soon you will be quite through with me."
"molly!"
"yes, it is true."
he said nothing, but presently he moved beside her and put an arm about her. she was staring into the dark again, and he laid his check against her cheek, and they looked together in the direction where the storm was rolling up.
"it is time to talk about things, molly, and there is nobody to disturb us. when the rains come, this riding to and fro will have an end. what is to become of us all—tell me, child? time never stops, you know. life never stands still. and it looks, doesn't it, as if a man or woman can never go back, can never stay still even, but must go on? a long while now three men have come day by day to offer you all they have, but not to one of them have you yet nodded your head. i wish time knew how to stand still, so that we could have stayed as we are for ever, as though love like some enchanter had touched us with his wand; but time is in a[pg 289] hurry, and i think at last you must choose one of us and send the others gently about their business. molly, whisper it. who is it to be?"
"if you was a girl that lived alone all day with only an old dog as mate, you wouldn't find it easy to shake your head when a man said he liked you. why are you always thinking and worrying so? why don't you let things be?"
"it is time, it is not me, who won't let things stand still."
"jim, talk straight with me. you are through with me, aren't you?"
"molly, i would ask you to marry me, but i know we wouldn't be happy very long."
he felt her take her cheek away as though he had startled her. presently, when she spoke, her voice was more gentle than he had ever known it.
"you are a good fellow; but it don't make any difference, nor make me think other of what i know. you have come to the end of me, and it is only because you are a good fellow that you talk of marriage. there's no need to worry over what has gone by. kisses don't last long after they are kissed, and a girl wouldn't come to much harm with such as you." she laughed again. "fancy me the wife of the boss of kaloona. mum and dad, have been rowing me about it since the start. you are a good fellow[pg 290] to come here with a long face and talk about marriage, but you always was a bit soft and none the worse for that."
while she was speaking the breeze wore out in a final timid flutter, and the heat returned to the night, and then, while he sat there acknowledging with a certain grim humour her words left him unmoved, he felt her nestle against him.
"i would not marry you if you wanted, but i will give you a kiss instead, for i know you are a straight fellow, and that is not forgetting what has happened with you and miss neville. come, mister, look this way."
he bent his head and they kissed where the beam of light clove the dark, and it seemed to him there was less passion and more fondness in that kiss than in all the kisses they had kissed before. presently he took his lips from hers, and she laid her head upon his shoulder.
"what has made you so kind to-night, molly?"
he was forgotten again. she was looking into the dark as though her sight pierced it and regarded something beyond. he could see only the outline of her head; but in imagination he looked into her eyes which were sleepy with dreams. a flutter of wind sprang up again in the south—a flash of light opened and shut the heavens—there followed a row-de-dow of[pg 291] thunder. the sudden commotion no whit disturbed her; but a moment after she was speaking.
"mister, i've got a queer feeling. it won't let me be. something is going to happen." she shivered again. "do you reckon there are things that come and go, and we can't see them?"
"no, silly child. we have behaved badly to you. we left you alone all day, and your little brain, which was not meant for hard thinking, has been run away with by big thoughts. come, we still have our talk to finish. we are to tell the truth to-night, and the time has come for you to choose one of us. whisper me the name.... molly, i am waiting for it.... molly.... then i shall have to tell you. mick is the name that tangles up your tongue."
"poor mr. power."
"i have always known."
"and now you are glad."
"are you going to marry him, molly?"
"some day maybe."
"he is a straight man, child. you couldn't choose a straighter one."
once more the wind had fluttered itself to death. she lifted her hair from her brows to cool her forehead.
"it will be a real old man storm and the roof[pg 292] isn't too good. mum and dad will be at it to-morrow as soon as the rain comes through. see the lightning that time?"
now, in a mysterious way, the night began to cool, and a rush of wind leapt up and swept towards them from the distance. it broke upon the timbered country with a loud cry, clapping and clashing the boughs together. and presently it plucked at the hair of his head and snatched at the folds of her dress. and then it had swept by, leaving the night cooler for its passage.
"what are you thinking of, molly?"
"that was how you liked me, and now it has all blown away."
"don't talk like that."
"when are you going to see miss neville?"
"i never see her now. things have become muddled past straightening out."
"but you will be seeing her soon, i reckon?"
"no. i tried to sit on two stools, and i have fallen between them."
she laughed gently, and put a hand into one of his. "why are you so stupid sometimes? you are always so fond of questions. it is my turn. jim, you are in love with miss neville, aren't you?"
"yes, molly."
"then what's wrong?"
"a good deal seems to be wrong, child."
"when you sit there with a long face, i can't help teasing you. i reckon you haven't learnt too much about girls yet. there's something i can tell you, and don't frown and scowl at once. miss neville was round these ways again this afternoon. don't look like that, i said."
"go on, but be kind."
"i won't tell you why she came nor what she said; but i didn't take her up short this time. i was glad to see her, for the old dog dying had made me lonely. when she was going away, she asked if i was marrying you, and i thought to do you a daddy turn at last, for sometimes you are a good fellow. i told her you was through with me, and that you wanted her again only you was too high and mighty to go back. this is straight wire, jim."
silence fell between them. all the while now lightning opened and shut the dark, and a grumble of thunder sounded in the sky. molly was the first to break the spell.
"it's getting late. you had better be making home. the storm will bust soon by looks of things, and you'll be washed off the road."
"i don't like leaving you by yourself."
"you'd better get. dad and mum will be back soon."
"perhaps you are right, molly."
they rose and walked together to the horse, which he saddled. he did not unhitch the rein from the branch. instead, he turned and drew molly close against him.
"i shall never forget you, whatever happens to us. i shall always remember you as something very lovely and evasive. whenever i see a tree in blossom, i shall think of you with a lantern in your hand. whenever i see a star fall down the sky, i shall think of the first kiss i gave you. but, child, it is time we gave by our kissing. your kisses are for someone else, and i must ride my own roads. we shall often see each other again, but this must be our real good-bye."
"jim!" was all she said, though she leant closer to him.
they kissed their last kiss by the shrunken margin of pelican pool. the cloud wrack blotted out the stars; but the trees lifted wide arms above them. they kissed their last kiss in the heat and passion of the young night, while the flying foxes glided on quiet wings over the tree tops, and the insect armies fluttered on their many errands about the dark. as power felt her lips laid against his own, he experienced a surge of regret and thankfulness—regret for what this summer madness had cost him—thankfulness for the widened vision he had[pg 295] gained. presently he took his lips from her lips, and bending again, laid a chaste kiss upon her forehead. then he had drawn himself from her embrace, and had taken the bridle rein in his hands.
