'Will you take some more?' said Graeme. 'You haven't got much; but mind I have stopped playing with you. Put up your gun, Nelson. No one will interfere now.'
Slavin hesitated, then rushed, but Graeme stepped to meet him, and we saw Slavin's heels in the air as he fell back upon his neck and shoulders and lay still, with his toes quivering.
'Bon!' yelled Baptiste. 'Bully boy! Dat's de bon stuff. Dat's larn him one good lesson.' But immediately he shrieked, Gar-r-r-r-e a vous!'
He was too late, for there was a crash of breaking glass, and Graeme fell to the floor with a long deep cut on the side of his head. Keefe had hurled a bottle with all too sure an aim, and had fled. I thought he was dead; but we carried him out, and in a few minutes he groaned, opened his eyes, and sank again into insensibility.
'Where can we take him?' I cried.
'To my shack,' said Mr. Craig.
'Is there no place nearer?'
'Yes; Mrs. Mavor's. I shall run on to tell her.'
She met us at the door. I had in mind to say some words of apology, but when I looked upon her face I forgot my words, forgot my business at her door, and stood simply looking.
'Come in! Bring him in! Please do not wait,' she said, and her voice was sweet and soft and firm.
We laid him in a large room at the back of the shop over which Mrs.
Mavor lived. Together we dressed the wound, her firm white fingers, skilful as if with long training. Before the dressing was finished I sent Craig off, for the time had come for the Magic Lantern in the church, and I knew how critical the moment was in our fight. 'Go,' I said; 'he is coming to, and we do not need you.'
In a few moments more Graeme revived, and, gazing about, asked, 'What's, all this about?' and then, recollecting, 'Ah! that brute Keefe'; then seeing my anxious face he said carelessly, 'Awful bore, ain't it? Sorry to trouble you, old fellow.'
'You be hanged!' I said shortly; for his old sweet smile was playing about his lips, and was almost too much for me. 'Mrs.
Mavor and I are in command, and you must keep perfectly still.'
'Mrs. Mavor?' he said, in surprise. She came forward, with a slight flush on her face.
'I think you know me, Mr. Graeme.'
'I have often seen you, and wished to know you. I am sorry to bring you this trouble.'
'You must not say so,' she replied, 'but let me do all for you that I can. And now the doctor says you are to lie still.'
'The doctor? Oh! you mean Connor. He is hardly there yet. You don't know each other. Permit me to present Mr. Connor, Mrs.
Mavor.'
As she bowed slightly, her eyes looked into mine with serious gaze, not inquiring, yet searching my soul. As I looked into her eyes Iforgot everything about me, and when I recalled myself it seemed as if I had been away in some far place. It was not their colour or their brightness; I do not yet know their colour, and I have often looked into them; and they were not bright; but they were clear, and one could look far down into them, and in their depths see a glowing, steady light. As I went to get some drugs from the Black Rock doctor, I found myself wondering about that far-down light;and about her voice, how it could get that sound from far away.
I found the doctor quite drunk, as indeed Mr. Craig had warned; but his drugs were good, and I got what I wanted and quickly returned.
While Graeme slept Mrs. Mavor made me tea. As the evening wore on I told her the events of the day, dwelling admiringly upon Craig's generalship. She smiled at this.
'He got me too,' she said. 'Nixon was sent to me just before the sports; and I don't think he will break down to-day, and I am so thankful.' And her eyes glowed.
'I am quite sure he won't,' I thought to myself, but I said no word.
After a long pause, she went on, 'I have promised Mr. Craig to sing to-night, if I am needed!' and then, after a moment's hesitation, 'It is two years since I have been able to sing--two years,' she repeated, 'since'--and then her brave voice trembled--'my husband was killed.'
'I quite understand,' I said, having no other word on my tongue 'And,' she went on quietly, 'I fear I have been selfish. It is hard to sing the same songs. We were very happy. But the miners like to hear me sing, and I think perhaps it helps them to feel less lonely, and keeps them from evil. I shall try to-night, if Iam needed. Mr. Craig will not ask me unless he must.'
I would have seen every miner and lumberman in the place hideously drunk before I would have asked her to sing one song while her heart ached. I wondered at Craig, and said, rather angrily--'He thinks only of those wretched miners and shantymen of his.'
She looked at me with wonder in her eyes, and said gently, 'And are they not Christ's too?'
And I found no word to reply.
It was nearing ten o'clock, and I was wondering how the fight was going, and hoping that Mrs. Mavor would not be needed, when the door opened, and old man Nelson and Sandy, the latter much battered and ashamed, came in with the word for Mrs. Mavor.
'I will come,' she said simply. She saw me preparing to accompany her, and asked, 'Do you think you can leave him?'
'He will do quite well in Nelson's care.'
'Then I am glad; for I must take my little one with me. I did not put her to bed in case I should need to go, and I may not leave her.'
We entered the church by the back door, and saw at once that even yet the battle might easily be lost.
Some miners had just come from Slavin's, evidently bent on breaking up the meeting, in revenge for the collapse of the dance, which Slavin was unable to enjoy, much less direct. Craig was gallantly holding his ground, finding it hard work to keep his men in good humour, and so prevent a fight, for there were cries of 'Put him out! Put the beast out!' at a miner half drunk and wholly outrageous.
The look of relief that came over his face when Craig caught sight of us told how anxious he had been, and reconciled me to Mrs.
Mavor's singing. 'Thank the good God,' he said, with what came near being a sob, 'I was about to despair.'
He immediately walked to the front and called out--'Gentlemen, if you wish it, Mrs. Mavor will sing.'
