Then the engineer caught sight of the Blight's bewildered face,flushed,gripped his hands in front of him and simply stared.At last he saw me:
"Oh,''he said,"how do you do?''and he turned to his prisoner,but the panting sergeant and another policeman--also a volunteer--were already lifting him to his feet.I introduced the boy and the Blight then,and for the first time in my life I saw the Blight--shaken.Round-eyed,she merely gazed at him.
"That was pretty well done,''I said.
"Oh,he was drunk and I knew he would be slow.''Now something curious happened.The dazed prisoner was on his feet,and his captors were starting with him to the calaboose when he seemed suddenly to come to his senses.
"Jes wait a minute,will ye?''he said quietly,and his captors,thinking perhaps that he wanted to say something to me,stopped.The mountain youth turned a strangely sobered face and fixed his blue eyes on the engineer as though he were searing every feature of that imperturbable young man in his brain forever.It was not a bad face,but the avenging hatred in it was fearful.Then he,too,saw the Blight,his face calmed magically and he,too,stared at her,and turned away with an oath checked at his lips.We went on--the Blight thrilled,for she had heard much of our volunteer force at the Gap and had seen something already.Presently I looked back.Prisoner and captors were climbing the little hill toward the calaboose and the mountain boy just then turned his head and I could swear that his eyes sought not the engineer,whom we left at the corner,but,like the engineer,he was looking at the Blight.Whereat Idid not wonder--particularly as to the engineer.He had been in the mountains for a long time and I knew what this vision from home meant to him.He turned up at the house quite early that night.
"I'm not on duty until eleven,''he said hesitantly,"and I thought I'd----''
"Come right in.''