An Agent for Hallie by Julia Ridgmont

Author:Julia Ridgmont [Ridgmont, Julia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-02T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Jeff rose early the next morning, feeling refreshed and ready to face the day. The air was cool from the rainstorm the night before, but the sky was extra bright and the ground sparkly with raindrops. Anxious to join the men at the top of the rock cliff, he wolfed his breakfast down, aiming a playful smile at Hallie when she gently scolded him the same way Marianne would have done back at the Pinkerton office. On impulse, he kissed her cheek.

“See you later,” he called, biting down on a grin at the shocked look on her face. Following a group of eight men, he discovered several caves in the rock face that weren’t visible from down below, along with a rudimentary trail that meandered all the way to the top.

“Have you ever been in any of these caves?” he asked one of the men.

“No, and I don’t aim to. You never know what might be in there.”

“Bats, probably,” Jeff guessed.

“And snakes.”

One thing he could say about reaching the top of the rock cliff was that the view was spectacular. Also, he was glad to know there was a safe way to get up here from the other side because on this side, he was looking almost straight down into the river below. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea. Feeling light-headed, he took a step away from the edge and immediately felt better.

“How do you boys stand it up here?” he asked the other men. They were already pushing their long-handled tools into the rock crevices to break off a chunk the pack mules would haul down by ropes and wooden slats below.

“Easy,” one man said sarcastically. “Don’t look down.”

The others laughed.

“Even the air feels different up here, harder to breathe in.” Jeff had noticed that from the start.

“Yep,” answered a second one. “Are you going to stand there all day, or do you actually plan on giving us a hand?”

“Oh. Yeah, sorry.” Jeff made his way over to them and did his best to lend his strength.

It took most of the day to pound, chisel, and carve out a slab worthy of their efforts. When, at last, the slab was ready to be moved into position, one of the men volunteered to head back down the mountainside and recruit a few more helpers as well as fetch the mules, rope, and wooden slats.

Jeff sat down by the others and chatted with them while he waited. Although he was still exposed to the hot sun, he was glad he could at least rest for a minute or two.

But then the wait turned into thirty minutes, and then another fifteen, in which time, the conversation among them turned to Meg Ashwood.

“I swear, that daughter of Ashwood’s can melt a man’s heart just with her smile.”

“Clam it, Milton. If the professor heard you say that, he’d take out your tongue. He won’t let anybody get close to her.”

Another man grunted. “Don’t know why anyone would want to, anyway. She sure is pretty, but she’s also dim-witted.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.