Ethel M. Dell - The Odds

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THE ODDS

_And Other Stories_

By ETHEL M. DELL

Author of "Rosa Mundi," "The Bars of Iron," "The Keeper of the Door,"
"The Knave of Diamonds," "The Obstacle Race," "The Rocks of Valpre,"
"The Way of an Eagle," etc.

1922

CONTENTS

The Odds
Without Prejudice
Her Own Free Will
The Consolation Prize
Her Freedom
Death's Property
The Sacrifice

Other Books By Ethel M. Dell

* * * * *

The Odds

"If he comes my way, I'll shoot him!" said Dot Burton, her blue eyes
gleaming in her boyish, tanned face. "I'm not such a bad shot, am I,
Jack?"

"Not so bad," said Jack, kindly. "But don't shoot at sight, or p'r'aps
you'll shoot a policeman--which might be awkward for us both!"

"As if I should be such an idiot as that!" protested Dot. "I wasn't born
yesterday, anyhow."

"No?" said Jack. "Somehow you look as if you were."

"Don't you be a donkey, Jack!" said his young sister, with an impudent
snap of the fingers under his nose. "Being ten years older than I am
doesn't qualify you for that superior pose. You're only a man, you know,
after all."

"Buckskin Bill is only a man, but he's a pretty tough proposition," said
Burton, with a frown.

She smoothed the frown away with caressing fingers. "I know. That's why
I'd like to shoot him. But he's sure to be caught now, isn't he? They've
got him in a trap. He'll never wriggle through with Fletcher Hill to
outwit him. You said yourself that with him on the job the odds were dead
against him."

"Oh, I know. So they are. But he's such a wily devil. Well, I'd better be
going." Jack Burton arose with the deliberate movements of a heavy man.
"I'm sick of this business, Dot. If it weren't for you, I believe I'd
chuck it all and go into business in a town."

"Oh, darling! How silly!" protested Dot. "What a good thing I came out
when I did! Things seem to be at a rather low ebb with you. But cheer up!
What's a few head of cattle when all's said and done? When once this
rascal is laid by the heels, you'll make up quicker than you know. Of
course you will. Don't let yourself get downhearted! What is the good?"

He smiled a little. There was something heartening in the girl's slim
activity of pose apart from her words. She looked indomitable. He pulled
her to him and kissed her.

"Well, take care of yourself, Dot! You won't be frightened? You needn't
be. He won't come your way. Hill has sworn solemnly to keep an extra
guard in this direction. He may call around himself before the day is
over. It wouldn't surprise me. Don't shoot him if he does! At least,
give him a feed first!"

"Oh, really, Jack!" the girl protested. "I shall be cross with you before
long. You'd better go quick before it comes on."

She put her arms around his neck and gave him a tight hug. Her sunburnt
face was pressed to his. "Now, you won't do anything silly?" she urged
him, softly. "I don't like parting with you in this mood. I wish I were
coming too."

"Rubbish! Rubbish!" he said. "You stay at home, little shepherdess, and
look after the lambs! I won't be late back. Mind you are civil to
Fletcher Hill if he turns up! He'll be a magistrate one of these days if
he plays his cards well."

"If he catches the biggest cattle-thief in Australia?" suggested Dot,
screwing her face into a very boyish grimace. "I wouldn't care to get
promotion for that job, if I were a man. But I'll be vastly polite to him
if he turns up. You've never seen me doing the pretty, have you? But I
can--awfully well--when I try."

Her brother laughed. "Oh, don't be too pretty, my child! It's a dangerous
game. Good-bye! Don't go far away!"

"My dear man! As if I should have time!" ejaculated Dot.

She gave him another squeeze and let him go.

There were a great many things to be done that day, things which a mere
ignorant male would never have dreamt of. There was bread to be baked, an
evening meal to be prepared, countless household duties waiting to be
done, and work enough in Jack's wardrobe alone to keep an ordinary woman
busy for a week. Poor Jack! He was not a great hand at needlework. She
had been shocked at the state in which she had found him. But she had not
shirked her responsibilities. And more than ever was she glad now that
she had come to him. For he needed her in a moral sense as well. She was
too much of a "new chum" to help him in any very active sense outside the
homestead at present. But he needed a good deal of moral backing just at
that moment. She had come to him straight from England, and full of
enthusiasm. He had hewn his own way and begun to enjoy prosperity. But
she had arrived to find that prosperity temporarily checked. A gang of
cattle-thieves were making serious depredations among his stock.

The police were hot on the trail, and it was believed that the gang had
been split up, but so far no notable captures had been made. Buckskin
Bill, the leader, was still at large, and while this remained the case
there could be no security for any one. Every farmer in the district was
keen on the chase, expecting to fall a victim.

And--there was no doubt about it--Buckskin Bill was in a very tight
corner. Inspector Hill had the matter in hand, and he was not a man to
be lightly baffled. Jack regarded him with wholehearted admiration. But
somehow Dot, the new arrival, felt curiously prejudiced against him. She
wanted Buckskin Bill to be caught, but she could not help hoping that
this astute Inspector of Police would not be his captor. She was sure
from Jack's description that she would not like the man, and as she went
about her work she earnestly hoped that he would not come her way, at
least in her brother's absence.

She was busy indoors during the whole of the morning. As midday
approached the heat became intense. Jack usually returned for a meal at
noon, but she was not expecting him that day. He had joined the chase,
and had taken with him every available man. She might have felt lonely
if she had not been so engrossed. As it was, she hummed cheerily to
herself as she went to and fro. There were so many things to think about,
and it was such an interesting world in which she found herself.

In the early afternoon she went out to feed a few motherless lambs that
her brother had placed in her charge. She stood in the shelter of a great
barn with the little things clustering around her, while Robin, the old
black hound, lay watching and snapping at the flies. Miles and miles of
pasture stretched around her, broken here and there by thick scrub and
occasional groups of blue gum trees.

The hot glare of the afternoon sun made the eyes ache, and she was glad
when her task was over. When she stood up at length she was feeling a
little giddy, and she leaned for a moment against the barn wall to steady
herself. A rank growth of grass grew all about her feet, and as she stood
there gazing rather dizzily downwards she saw a ripple pass along it
close to the building.

Any but a "new chum" would have known the meaning of that small
disturbance, for there was no breath of air to cause it. Any but a "new
chum," being quite defenceless, would have beaten instant and swift
retreat.

But Dot Burton in her inexperience had no thought of evil. She was only
curious. She forgot her weariness, and bent down to watch the moving
grass.

At the same moment Robin suddenly raised his head and looked keenly in
the direction of the farm, with a growl. The girl barely heard him, so
interested was she. She even stooped and parted the tall grass with her
hands when unexpectedly it ceased to move.

The next instant she started back with a wild cry of horror. For it was
as if the grass itself had suddenly come to malignant life under her
hands. A shape--long, thin, vividly green--rose up before her, and swayed
with an angry hiss.

Her cry seemed to galvanize Robin into action, for he sprang up fiercely
barking, but his attention was not directed towards her. He leapt instead
towards the house, yelling resentment as he went. And in a flash the
green evil struck at the bare brown arm!

Dot shrieked again, shrieked like a demented creature, and in a moment,
with hands flung wide, she was fleeing across the sun-baked yard.

She reached the open door immediately behind Robin, and sprang in
headlong. Robin had ceased to bark, and was fawning at the feet of a man
who had evidently just entered. He was bent down over the dog, fondling
him with one hand. In the other something bright gleamed, and as he
straightened himself the girl saw that it was a revolver; but she was too
agitated to take much note of the fact.

She burst in upon him in breathless, horrified distress. "I've been
bitten!" she cried to him. "Bitten by a snake!"

"Where?" he said.

He had her by the arm in a second and was pushing up the loose holland
sleeve. Later she marvelled at his promptitude, his instant intuition.
At the moment she was too terrified, too near collapse, to notice any of
these things.

He pushed her down upon a chair and knelt beside her. She found herself
staring down at a shock of straw-coloured hair, while the owner of it
sucked and sucked with an almost brutal force at a place in the crook of
her arm that felt as if a red-hot needle had been plunged into it. She
could feel the drawing of his teeth against her flesh. It was a sensation
almost more horrible than the actual snake-bite had been.

Twice he turned his head and spat into the hearth, and she saw that his
face was smooth and young, the colour of sun-baked brick.

At last he looked up at her with the most extraordinarily blue eyes she
had ever seen, and said, with a kindly twinkle in them, "I don't think
you'll die this time, missis."

She looked from him to her arm. The bite showed no more than the sting of
a nettle, but around it was the deep impress of his teeth. Certainly he
had done his task thoroughly.

The kettle was singing over the fire. He got to his feet and patted Robin
on the head. "Let's wash it," he said. "Is there a basin handy?"

Dot sat in her chair, feeling rather weak. He fetched a bowl and set it
on a chair by her side. He poured water into it from the kettle.

She looked up at him rather apprehensively. "I needn't scald it, need I?"

He smiled down at her in instant reassurance, a vivid smile that warmed
her fear-chilled heart. His teeth were white and regular, like the teeth
of a young wild animal.

"There's some cold water somewhere, isn't there?" he said.

She told him where to find it, and he cooled the steaming water to a
temperature that she could endure without flinching. Then he made her
rest her arm in it.

"That'll comfort it," he said. "Now, have you got any spirits in the
house?"

"I don't drink spirits," she said quickly.

He smiled again. "No? But you must this time--just to complete the cure.
Tell me where to find them!"

His smile was certainly magnetic, for she told him without further
protest.

When he brought the spirits, she looked at him for the first time with
active interest.

"I suppose you are Inspector Hill," she said.

He was pouring whisky into a glass. He gave her a sidelong glance. "Now
that's a very clever guess," he said. "What put you on to that?"

She smiled, mainly because he had meant her to smile. "I've been half
expecting you all day," she said.

He looked down at her more fully as he finished his task. "That's very
interesting," he said. "Who told you to expect me?"

"My brother--Jack Burton," she explained.

"Oh! Jack Burton is your brother, is he?" He contemplated her
thoughtfully for a second or two. "Well, I seem to have turned up
at the right moment," he said.

"Yes." She leaned forward with flushed face upraised. "And I haven't said
'Thank you' yet. I'm so grateful to you. I can't tell you how grateful."

"Don't!" he said. "Don't! Drink this instead! Drink to the lucky chance
that sent me your way! I'm proud to have been of use to you."

She took the glass unwillingly. "I'm sure I shall hate it."

"It's the best antidote to snake-poison out," he said. "I swear it won't
upset you. If it makes you sleepy, well, you're in the right place and
safe enough."

She liked his utterance of the last words. They had a genuine ring. "But,
if I drink, so must you!" she said. "And eat, too! Jack said I was to
give you a meal if you came."

He smiled again, a large, humorous smile. "That's the kindest thing Jack
Burton has ever done," he said, with warm approval. "I'll join you with
pleasure, missis. This man-trapping business is hungry work for all of
us."

Dot frowned a little. It did not please her to be reminded of his
mission. Her former prejudice began to revive within her, his kindness
notwithstanding.

"I don't like the thought of it myself," she told him abruptly. "But, of
course, I'm only a 'new chum.'"

"What?" he said, pausing in the act of pouring himself out a drink. "That
sounds as if you want that scoundrel Bill to get away."

She coloured in some confusion under his look. How could she expect to
make a policeman understand? "No--no!" she said, with vehemence. "I'm not
quite so soft as that. I'd shoot him myself if he came my way. But I hate
to think of a dozen men all on the track of one. It really isn't fair."

He laughed, but without superiority. "And yet you'd swell the odds? Do
you call that fair?"

Dot paused to collect her arguments. It seemed that possibly even this
machine of justice carried a small fragment of sympathy in his soul.
Certainly he was not the judicial automaton she had expected him to be.

"It's like this," she said. "I'd shoot him if he came my way because
he has done us a lot of mischief, and I want to stop it. But I'd
do it squarely. I wouldn't do it when he wasn't looking. And I
wouldn't--ever--make it my profession to hunt down criminals and even
employ black men to help. I think that's hateful. I couldn't live that
way. I'd be above it."

"I see." He lifted his glass to her in a silent toast, and drank a deep
draught. "Then if you chanced to know where he was, I take it you'd just
settle him yourself, if you could. But you wouldn't in any case give him
away to the police. Is that your point of view?"

"It isn't unreasonable, is it?" she said, with a touch of eagerness. "I
mean, if you weren't what you are, wouldn't you do the same?"

"I don't know," he said, smiling at her whimsically. "You see, being what
I am handicaps me rather. I haven't much time for working out nice
problems."

Dot leaned back again. He had disappointed her. But she could not neglect
her duty on that account. She took her arm out of the water and dried it.
Then she arose.

"How does it feel?" he said.

"Oh, only a little stiff," she answered, turning away. "Now I am going to
get you something to eat. Sit down, won't you?"

Her tone was distant, but he did not seem to notice any change. He
thanked her and sat down, facing the open door. Robin sat pressed against
his knee. It was evident that the dog entertained no doubts regarding the
visitor. Having passed him as respectable, he accepted him without
reserve.

This fact presently occurred to Dot as she waited upon her visitor, and,
since it was not her nature to prolong an uncomfortable situation, she
broke the silence to comment upon it.

"He doesn't take to everyone at sight," she said.

"No?" She saw again that frank, disarming smile. "You see, missis, I know
the ways of animals, and a very useful sort of knowledge I've found it."

"I wonder why you call me missis," she said. "I'm Jack's sister, not his
wife."

He looked up at her. "But you're the boss of the establishment, I take
it?"

She smiled also half against her will. "I'm rather new at present. But no
doubt I shall learn."

"And then you'll go and boss some one else?" he suggested.

She coloured a little. "No. I shall stick to Jack," she said, with
decision.

"Lucky Jack!" he said. "But you're quite right. There's no one good
enough for you around here. We're a low breed mostly."

"I didn't mean that!" she protested, in quick distress. "I never thought
that!"

"I know," he said. "I know. But you've sort of felt it all the same. Me,
for instance!" His intensely blue eyes challenged her suddenly. "Haven't
you said to yourself, 'That man may be up to local standard, but he's
made of shocking crude material'? Straight now! Haven't you?"

She hesitated, her face burning under his direct look. "Do you--do you
really want to know what I think?" she said.

"I do." There was something uncompromising in the brief rejoinder, yet
somehow she did not find him formidable.

She answered him without difficulty in spite of her embarrassment. "I
think, then, that it isn't you yourself at all that I feel like that
about. It's just your profession."

"Ah!" He began to smile again. "Once live down that, and I might be
possible. Is that it?"

She nodded, still flushed, yet curiously not uneasy. "Something like
that. Why can't you be a farmer like Jack?"

"I wish I were," he said, unexpectedly.

"Why?" The word slipped out almost in spite of her, but she felt she must
have an answer.

He answered her with his eyes full on her. "Because I'd like to lead the
sort of life you would approve of," he said. "I've a notion it would be
worth while."

She turned aside from his look. "It's only a matter of opinion, of
course," she said.

"Is it?" he said. He turned his attention to the meal before him, and ate
rapidly for a few moments while he considered the matter. At length:
"Yes," he said. "I suppose you're right. Anyhow, you don't feel drawn
that way. You won't feel a bit pleased if Buckskin Bill gets caught by
the police this journey after this?"

Dot shook her head. "I don't think a man ought to be tracked down like a
wild beast," she said, resolutely.

The blue eyes that watched her kindled a little. He finished what was on
his plate and pushed it from him.

"I'm greatly obliged to you," he said, "for your hospitality. I needed
it--badly enough. You'll thank Jack for me, won't you? I must be going
now. But there's just one thing I'd like to say to you first."

He got up and stood before her. It was impossible not to admire his
splendid height and breadth of chest. He could have lifted her easily
with one hand. And yet, strangely, though she felt his power he did not
make her aware of her own weakness.

She looked up at him. "Yes? What is it?"

"Just this, Miss Burton," he said, and somehow he lingered over the name
in a fashion that made it sound musical in her ears. "I'd like to strike
a bargain with you--because you've made a sort of impression on me. I'm
not meaning any impertinence. You know that?"

"Go on!" she whispered, almost inaudibly.

He went on, bending slightly towards her. "The odds are dead against
Buckskin Bill escaping, but--he may escape. If he does, will you--the
next time I come to see you--treat me--without prejudice?"

He also was almost whispering as he uttered the last words.

She drew a sharp breath and looked at him. "You--you--are going to let
him go?" she said, incredulously.

He did not answer. His eyes were drawing hers with a magnetism she could
not resist. And they thrilled her--they thrilled her!

"The odds are dead against him," he said again, after a moment. "Is it--a
bargain?"

Her heart gave a queer little jerk within her. She stood motionless for
a space. Then, with a little quivering smile, she very, very slowly gave
him her hand.

He took it into his great brown one, and though his touch was wholly
gentle she felt the force of the man throbbing behind it, and it seemed
to surge all around and within her.

He stood for a second as if irresolute or uncertain how to treat her.
Then, with a wordless sound that needed no interpretation, he pushed
back the sleeve from the place whence he had sucked the poison. It showed
only a little red now. He bent very low until his lips pressed it again.
Then for one burning moment they neither moved nor breathed.

The next thing that Dot realized was the passing of his great figure
through the doorway out of her sight. She saw him don his slouch hat as
he went.

* * * * *

She cleared the table again and sat down to her work. But somehow all
energy had gone from her. A great lassitude hung upon her. Perhaps it was
caused by the heat, or possibly by the whisky he had made her drink.
There was no resisting it. It pressed her down like a physical weight.
She gave herself up to it at last, and leaning back in her chair like a
tired child she slept.

Robin lay at her feet. The afternoon crawled away. Like the enchanted
princess of old, she reclined in a slumber so deep that life itself
seemed to be suspended.

The sun began to slant towards the west, and the pastures took on a
golden look. The lambs gambolled together with shrill bleatings. But
Dot Burton slept on in her chair, a faint smile on her face of innocence.
Though she could not have been dreaming in so deep a repose, her last
thought ere she slept must have held happiness. Her serenity lay like a
tender veil upon her.

It was drawing towards evening when Robin suddenly raised his head again
with a deep growl. There came the sound of footsteps through the open
door. The girl stirred and slowly awoke.

She stretched up her arms with a sleepy movement, and then, as voices
reached her, roused herself completely and got to her feet.

Her brother and another man--a tall, lantern-jawed stranger--were on the
point of entering.

Jack led the way. "Halloa, Dot!" he said. "Have you seen anything of our
man? He's broken cover in this direction in spite of us. You haven't shot
him by any chance, I suppose?"

Dot looked from him to the man behind him.

"Inspector Hill," said Jack. "Eh? What's the matter?"

"Nothing--nothing!" said Dot. Yet she had gone back a step as if she had
been struck. She held out her hand to the policeman. "How do you do?
I--I--am very pleased to meet you. So you haven't caught him after all?"

Inspector Hill was looking at her keenly. He wore a sardonic expression,
as of one who knows that he has been outwitted. "I have not, madam,"
he said. "Neither, I presume, have you?"

She shook her head, looking him straight in the face. "No, I haven't.
I am afraid I have been asleep. Are you sure he passed this way?"

Her eyes were clear and candid as the eyes of a boy. Inspector Hill
turned his own away.

"Yes. Quite sure," he said, with brevity.

"He's a slippery devil," declared Jack Burton. "Sit down, man! My sister
is a 'new chum.' She probably wouldn't have known him from a man on the
farm if she'd seen him. In fact, if you'd turned up here by yourself she
might have shot you--on suspicion."

"I probably should," said Dot, coldly.

She did not like Inspector Hill, and her manner plainly said so.

At her brother's behest she set food before them, for they were hot and
jaded after their fruitless day; but she left the duties of host entirely
to him, and as soon as possible she went away with Robin to feed the
lambs.

A wonderful glow lay upon the grasslands. It was as if she moved through
a magic atmosphere upon which some enchantment had been laid. Since that
wonderful sleep of hers all things seemed to have changed. Had it all
been a dream? she asked herself. Then, shuddering, she turned up her
sleeve to find that small red patch upon her arm.

She found it. It tingled to her touch. Yet she continued to finger it
with a curious feeling that was almost awe. She thought it must be the
memory of his kiss that made it throb so hard.

Some one came softly up behind her. An arm encircled her. She turned with
the day-dream still in her eyes and saw her brother.

She pulled down her sleeve quickly, for though his face was kind, he
seemed to look at her oddly, almost with suspicion.

"Had a quiet day?" he questioned, gently.

She leaned against his shoulder, feeling small and rather uncomfortable.
"I--I was very busy all the morning," she said, evasively.

"And in the afternoon?" he said.

She nestled to him with a little coaxing movement. "In the afternoon,"
she told him softly, "I went to sleep."

"Yes?" he said.

"That's all," said Dot, lifting her face to kiss him.

He took her chin and held it while he looked long and searchingly into
her eyes.

"Dot!" he said.

She made a little gesture of protest, but he held her still.

"Dot, tell me what has been happening!" he said.

She had begun to tremble. "I'll tell you," she said, "when Inspector Hill
has gone."

"Tell me now!" he said.

But she shook her head with tightly compressed lips.

"You have seen the man!" he said.

Dot remained silent.

His face grew grim. "Dot! Shall I tell you what Hill said to me just
now?"

"If you like," whispered Dot.

"He said, 'She has seen the man, and he has squared her. It's a way he
has with the women. You'll find she won't give him away.'"

That stung, as it was meant to sting. She flinched under it. "I hate
Inspector Hill!" she said, with vehemence.

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