Ronicky Doones Treasure | Page 7

you," said Ronicky; "and I've heard of Hugh Dawn. I
know that he's in this house. What I want to do is -- "
"Whatever you want to do," broke in that amazingly mild voice, "you
will have to wait till morning. I am alone in this house. I do not intend
to have it entered before daylight comes. Hugh Dawn a not here. If you
know anything about him, you also know that he hasn't been here for
ten years."
And there was the sound of a window being closed with violence.
To persist in efforts at persuasion in the face of such a calm
determination was perfect folly. Besides, there were many explanations.
Perhaps Jack Moon had heard simply that Hugh Dawn was coming
back to his home, and the traitor to the band had not yet arrived at his
destination. Perhaps at that moment the leader was heading straight for
a distant point on the road to lay an ambush. "Dawn is in Trainor," he
had said, but that might be a metaphorical statement. It might simply
mean that he was on the way toward the town. Or perhaps the fugitive
had received a warning and had already fled. At any rate, Ronicky
Doone felt that he had done more than enough to free his conscience.
But there was one thing that upset this conviction as Ronicky swung
back into his saddle and turned the head of weary Lou back down the
road through the pines. This was the memory of the voice of the girl.
There is no index of character so perfect and suggestive as the voice,
and that of Jerry Dawn was soft, quiet, steady. It had neither trembled

with fear nor shrilled with indignation. If any of the blood of Hugh
Dawn ran in her veins, then surely the man could not be altogether bad.
Of course, this was wild guesswork at best, but it carried a conviction
to Ronicky, and when, halfway down to the main road, he remembered
how Jack Moon had returned to the door of the barn to investigate a
suspicion which was based on nothing but the most shadowy material
-- when, above all, he recalled how justified that suspicion was --
Ronicky Doone determined to imitate the maneuver. For were there not
reasons why the girl should refuse to admit that this man Hugh Dawn --
her father, perhaps -- had returned to his house?
No sooner had the determination come to Doone than he turned the
head of his horse and swerved back toward the house for a second time.
He now rode off the noisy gravel, walking Lou in the silent mold
beneath the trees; and so he came back again to the edge of the clearing.
Here he tethered the mare, skirted under shelter of the trees halfway
around the house, and then ran swiftly out of the forest and up to the
steep shelter of the wall of the dwelling. Here he paused to take breath
and consider again what he had done and the possibilities that lay
before him.
He could have laughed at the absurdity of what he had done. He was, in
reality, stalking a big house which contained no more than one poor
girl, badly frightened already, no doubt, in spite of that steady and
brave voice. What he was actually doing was spying on the possibility
of Hugh Dawn -- trying to force himself on the man in order to save his
life!
Very well. He would be a sane and thinking man once more. The devil
might now fly away with Hugh Dawn for all of him. Let there be an
end of this foolishness, Ronicky Doone would turn his back on Dawn
and all connected with him. His own path led otherwhere.
He had made up his mind to this point and was turning away, when he
heard that within the house which made him stop short and flatten his
ear against the wall.

It has already been said that sound and echoes traveled easily in that
frame building, with its time-dried wood. And now what Ronicky
Doone heard was a slow repetition of creaking sounds one after another,
moving through the second story of the building. He recognized the
intervals; he recognized the nature of the squeaking and straining.
Some very heavy person was moving by stealth, slowly, down one of
the upper halls.
Certainly it was not the girl who had spoken to him. Could it be Hugh
Dawn? Or was it a member of Moon's band, who might have slipped
into the building from the rear, say?
Ronicky Doone intended to investigate.

Chapter Four
Warning
He began at once to search for a means of entrance. Ordinarily he
would have attempted to get in