Page:Raymond Spears--Diamond Tolls.djvu/179

 impressive, looking every way but toward the new arrivals.

On all sides the observers, men, women, and children, stopped their work or play. In a breath they heard or felt the tenseness of the incident which was now breaking—Delia, the beautiful stranger, about to meet the river man whom she had so casually shot, or was at least believed to have shot, none knowing exactly what had happened.

Urleigh, uninformed as yet, turned and discovered the strikingly impressive young woman. As he turned, she looked him in the eye, and with a glance appraised him. Gost, wetting his lips, turned and faced her. He glanced to right and left, to see what was the attitude of the other spectators, and under the sharp glances which he met, he quailed a little—weak as he was from his wound.

Delia walked up till she was within ten feet of the man and then she stopped suddenly, speaking sharply:

"Has your visit here anything to do with me?" she demanded.

Gost, whose mind worked in anything but direct lines, stopped where he stood and looked at the ground searching for something to answer, as it seemed. She waited a minute, while he gathered his breath, but she grew impatient.