DAVE'S STRATEGY

Waikato Argus, Volume IX, Issue 773, 6 October 1900, Page 1 (Supplement)

DAVE'S STRATEGY

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He stood among the group of men at the little country church, taller than any of them by a goodly number of inches. The men and boys had escaped ftv>m the building within one minute at farthest after the bonedicion was pronouneed ; but it was the custom of (he women to proceed in a more leisurely manner, talking with one another across the backs of the seats and exchanging news on poultry and measles clown the length of the aisle. And the girls—ah, the girls, pink cheeked beneath the ban and pleasantly conscious of their Sunday evening finery—why was it that they always came, out last, looking demurely straight ahead ? 'l'll befc alio gives Dave the go-, by a g'in.'whispered Jim Logging to Bob Spore on the outskirts of the crowd.

' Funny about Dave,' murmured Bob, standing on tip toe and craning his long neck to get a better view. ' Great big tellow like him, that kin lick airy man in the country, an' has licked a good many of ' em, an' there he is afeerd to say his soul's his own when it comes to speakin' his mind to that snip of a girl !' As they came out of the door, those women, the church light behind them made a clear outline for everyone, as though they wore a cameo, and the moonlight outside softened all the harsher outlines until every one of them was almost beautiful. It was the last one, the one in whi'e with the red brown hair and the rose-leaf skin, that r.e ded no adorning. ' May I see you home, Nell V asked her playmate of the old days, and the girl smiled up at him with a wicked light in her eyes.

• Fan an' Mamie an' me's together—they're goin' to stay all night with me,' she said with the softest, cooing speech, ' hut if you'd like to see us all home ' He had seen Fan and Mamie decline the friendly offices of two gollants on the other side of the step*, and his face hardoned. • I'll see ye all home,' he said, grimly. ' That is, I'll walk along behind an' see that no harm don't come to ye—and that's as close as ye want I should get, I reckin.' Everybody had heard it, and there was a breathless silence. The silence would have ended in a subdued chuckle but for the look the young giant cast back over his shoulder as the party moved off up the road.

' Well, by grab !' murmured Jim Loggins, stepping out from the crowd to get a better view, 'if he ain't a drivin' 'em before 'om like a flock o' sheep ! I wisht I could fol ler

'em ! ( ' I'd do it,, said Bob Spore, chewing a pine straw regretfully, 'if it wa'n't that Dave's so quick with his fists.

And with many a lingoring glance up tho road, where the moving figures could still be dimly seen, the crowd dispersed down the other ways. ' The thing with Dave is, he dunno when he's beat,' said old man Spore, filling and lighting his pipe as he svent. ' They's a dozen gals in the country'd be glad to have Dave—oh, I know you wouldn't, Em'line !'—in response to his youngest daughter's too eager dis claimer—' but he's set his mind on that Frazer gal, an' it's hor or nobody with him. Men's plumb funny that way. To a man up a tree she don't look so peslcy different from other gals; nn' yet it'g her or none. An' tho race she's been leadin' ' ini ! In the days when martyrin' was fash'nablo blest if I don't think the martyrin' machines was run by women !' The drover walked grimly and silently up the glimmering road, some yards in the rear of his. flock themselves, there was some little giggling on the part of Fan and Mamie at fir3t, but Well walked swiftly and silently, her head up

fin 1 her cheeks crimsoned. She had expected Dave to drop into the place slit; assigned him, to walk meekly along with the group, and try humbly to get a word with her, nml fail ; and to part from her in deep dejection, as he had done nianj times before. But, somehow, Dave had altered the programme. .' There's the creek,' Fan murmured at last, with a sigh of relief, for just beyond the creek rose the slant of the Ion? hill which was crowned by the Frazer place. Then the three of them stood on the wellworn bank and looked up and down the greek in bewilderment.

' Why, where's the foot log ?' they all cried in a breath.

Dave came strolling up behind them, and examined the place where the log hud been, and leaned forward to look critically across at the other side.

' Somebody's cuf: the log at the other end and pushed it off from this,' he said briefly. ' We'll have to find another log,' He plunged into the heavy shadows; and the three stood there alone, listening to Dave tramping down the bank and breaking the underbrush. After a few moments he came back.

'There's a log about fifty yards down,'he announced coldly. { It'3 mighty little, but I can take ye across all right.' The offer was not flattering in its eagerness, but they accepted it gratefully. Over on that hill the home lights were shining, and down here in the wooded valley it was very dark and lonely. Among the darkest shadows they found the ' mighty little' log, and beneath it one of the deepest pools in the creek lay, smooth and silent, a few tiny gleams of moonlight picked out on its velvety blackness.

' Come on, Fan—you're the heaviest. If it don't break with you, it'll stand the others,'said tie ungallanfc Dave ; and he took her hands firmly, and, walking backward, led her safely across. Manie followed, screaming and waving ; and then the tall, alert figure stepped back along the log, light footed a ns panther, and waited at the end for Nell.

' You'd b9.st come an' get it over with,' he said, coldlj', as she shrank back ; but when she came silently up to him he did not offer to take her hands. He waited instead, until she had grasped the lapels of his coat with trembling fingers, and then he moved backward along the slender bridge until two of them stood above the middle of the pool. At his pause she shuddered and looked down ; but he stood like a statue, and she clung to him.

' Don't be skeered, Nell ; I ain't goin' to let you fall,' he said deliberately. ' But now that I've got ye where ye can't go forrard, nor back, nor sideways, I'll say what I've been tryin' to say to yo ever sence ye camo home from your aunt's. If Fan and Memie want to stay there an' hear it, they can—an' I'll do as much for them when T get a chance.'

Two little screams and a swift scurrying of feet proclaimed that Fan and Manic were protecting their own future, and Nell cried, indignantly— You may say what you please, Dave Lacy, bub you know I hato you—l always have hated you—an' I'll never forgive you for this —never!' ' You'll never be asked to forgire me, Nell,' he said, calmly. ' But now you'll hear what I've been tryin' to tell ye, an' what' you've kep' me from sayin.' I love you, an' 1 want ye to be my wife. I've loved ye from the time you was a little bit of a girl, and I was a big, awkward boy. Nosv I've said it. for the first time an' the last. You're not goin' to get a chance to make sport o' me any more. I'm a man, an' I'm givin ye a man.s talk—an' I'm not to be played with. If you don't answer yes by the time we reach your gale, I'll know that it's all over, an' I'll never go near ye ag'in, Nell.'

He moved quietly backward along the log, and she followed him. They walkeil silently back to the road, where Fan and Mamie made their way discreetly far ahead. He had not even offered his arm. When sho stumbled once, he caught her arm to keep her from falling, but released it at once. Silently into the lane, anH up the 'long slope of bill. Silently to the cornel - of thp great front yard, where the tree and roses and one wakeful mocking-bird had it all to themselves. Without turning her head very much, she stole a swift glance at his face. It was a very white face, with no look of wavering in it. Only a few steps more—Pan and Mamie had gone in. Her hand slipped slyly into his arm. • Dive,' she whispered, softly, ' ['m glad somebody cut the foot log.' His great hand closed over hers. ' I cut it myself,' he siid.