Here seemed his opportunity. "Yes, but I'm afraid it hasn't the magic of yours. I haven't even got the color. I believe you bewitched your old pan."Her face flushed a little and brightened, and her lip relaxed with a smile. "Go 'long with yer! Ye don't mean to say ye had no luck to-day?""None--but in seeing you."
Her eyes sparkled. "Ye see, I said all 'long ye weren't much o' a miner. Ye ain't got no faith. Ef ye had as much as a grain o' mustard seed, ye'd remove mountains; it's in the Book.""Yes, and this mountain is on the bedrock, and my faith is not strong enough," he said laughingly. "And then, that would be having faith in Mammon, and you don't want me to have THAT."She looked at him curiously. "I jest reckon ye don't care a picayune whether ye strike anything or not," she said half admiringly.
"To please you I'll try again, if you'll look on. Perhaps you'll bring me luck as you did before. You shall take the pan. I will fill it and you shall wash it out. You'll be my MASCOT."She stiffened a little at this, and then said pertly, "Wot's that?""My good fairy."
She smiled again, this time with a new color in her pale face.
"Maybe I am," she said, with sudden gravity.
He quickly filled the pan again with soil, brought it to the spring, and first washed out the greater bulk of loose soil. "Now come here and kneel down beside me," he said, "and take the pan and do as I show you."She knelt down obediently. Suddenly she lifted her little hand with a gesture of warning. "Wait a minit--jest a minit--till the water runs clear again."The pool had become slightly discolored from the first washing.
"That makes no difference," he said quickly.
"Ah! but wait, please!" She laid her brown hand upon his arm; a pleasant warmth seemed to follow her touch. Then she said joyously, "Look down there.""Where?" he asked.
"There--don't ye see it?"
"See what?"
"You and me!"
He looked where she pointed. The pool had settled, resumed its mirror-like calm, and reflected distinctly, not only their two bending faces, but their two figures kneeling side by side. Two tall redwoods rose on either side of them, like the columns before an altar.
There was a moment of silence. The drone of a bumble-bee near by seemed to make the silence swim drowsily in their ears; far off they heard the faint beat of a woodpecker. The suggestion of their kneeling figures in this magic mirror was vague, unreasoning, yet for the moment none the less irresistible. His arm instinctively crept around her little waist as he whispered,--he scarce knew what he said,--"Perhaps here is the treasure I am seeking."The girl laughed, released herself, and sprang up; the pan sank ingloriously to the bottom of the pool, where Fleming had to grope for it, assisted by Tinka, who rolled up her sleeve to her elbow.
For a minute or two they washed gravely, but with no better success than attended his own individual efforts. The result in the bottom of the pan was the same. Fleming laughed.
"You see," he said gayly, "the Mammon of unrighteousness is not for me--at least, so near your father's tabernacle.""That makes no difference now," said the girl quickly, "for dad is goin' to move, anyway, farther up the mountains. He says it's gettin' too crowded for him here--when the last settler took up a section three miles off.""And are YOU going too?" asked the young man earnestly.
Tinka nodded her brown head. Fleming heaved a genuine sigh.
"Well, I'll try my hand here a little longer. I'll put up a notice of claim; I don't suppose your father would object. You know he couldn't LEGALLY.""I reckon ye might do it ef ye wanted--ef ye was THAT keen on gettin' gold!" said Tinka, looking away. There was something in the girl's tone which this budding lover resented. He had become sensitive.
"Oh, well," he said, "I see that it might make unpleasantness with your father. I only thought," he went on, with tenderer tentativeness, "that it would be pleasant to work here near you.""Ye'd be only wastin' yer time," she said darkly.
Fleming rose gravely. "Perhaps you're right," he answered sadly and a little bitterly, "and I'll go at once."He walked to the spring, and gathered up his tools. "Thank you again for your kindness, and good-by."He held out his hand, which she took passively, and he moved away.
But he had not gone far before she called him. He turned to find her still standing where he had left her, her little hands clinched at her side, and her widely opened eyes staring at him. Suddenly she ran at him, and, catching the lapels of his coat in both hands, held him rigidly fast.
"No! no! ye sha'n't go--ye mustn't go!" she said, with hysterical intensity. "I want to tell ye something! Listen!--you--you--Mr. Fleming! I've been a wicked, wicked girl! I've told lies to dad--to mammy--to YOU! I've borne false witness--I'm worse than Sapphira--I've acted a big lie. Oh, Mr. Fleming, I've made you come back here for nothing! Ye didn't find no gold the other day.
