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diff --git a/25159-8.txt b/25159-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d454ddc --- /dev/null +++ b/25159-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9839 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Two on the Trail, by Hulbert Footner, +Illustrated by W. Sherman Potts + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Two on the Trail + A Story of the Far Northwest + + +Author: Hulbert Footner + + + +Release Date: April 24, 2008 [eBook #25159] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO ON THE TRAIL*** + + +E-text prepared by Andrew Wainwright, Suzanne Shell, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 25159-h.htm or 25159-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/1/5/25159/25159-h/25159-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/1/5/25159/25159-h.zip) + + + + + +TWO ON THE TRAIL + +A Story of the Far Northwest + +by + +HULBERT FOOTNER + +Illustrated by W. Sherman Potts + + + + + + + +New York +Grosset & Dunlap +Publishers + +All Rights Reserved, Including That of Translation +into Foreign Languages, Including the Scandinavian + +Copyright, 1910, by Outing Publishing Company +Copyright, 1911, by Doubleday, Page & Company +Published, February, 1911 + + + + + To + H. L. D. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. IN PAPPS'S RESTAURANT 3 + II. THE UNKNOWN LADY 13 + III. ON THE TRAIL 29 + IV. THE STOPPING-HOUSE YARD 44 + V. AT MIWASA LANDING 57 + VI. NATALIE TELLS ABOUT HERSELF 72 + VII. MARY CO-QUE-WASA'S ERRAND 81 + VIII. ON THE LITTLE RIVER 100 + IX. THE HEART OF A BOY 116 + X. ON CARIBOU LAKE 130 + XI. THE FIGHT IN THE STORM 142 + XII. THE NINETY-MILE PORTAGE 157 + XIII. THE NEWLY-MARRIED PAIR 175 + XIV. THE LAST STAGE 186 + XV. THE MEETING 199 + XVI. NATALIE WOUNDED 214 + XVII. THE CLUE TO RINA 228 + XVIII. MABYN MAROONED 238 + XIX. GRYLLS REDIVIVUS 253 + XX. SUCCOUR 266 + XXI. THE BROKEN DOOR 284 + XXII. THE BLIZZARD 295 + XXIII. THE SOLITARY PURSUER 315 + XXIV. IN DEATH CANYON 326 + XXV. EPILOGUE: SPOKEN BY CHARLEY 342 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + "Look!" she cried. "Isn't it like the frontispiece + to a book ofadventure!" _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + At the same instant the boat lurched drunkenly; + and they pitched overboard together 150 + + There, clinging to the corner of the cabin for support, + stood the figure of a woman 212 + + It was a grim figure that the first rays of light + revealed sitting on the big rock 336 + + + + + TWO ON THE TRAIL + + + + +I + +IN PAPPS'S RESTAURANT + + +The interior of Papps's, like most Western restaurants, was divided into +a double row of little cabins with a passage between, each cabin having +a swing door. Garth Pevensey found the place very full; and he was +ushered into a cubby-hole which already contained two diners, a man and +a woman nearing the end of their meal. They appeared to be incoming +settlers of the better class--a farmer and his wife from across the +line. Far from resenting Garth's intrusion, they visibly welcomed it; +after all, there was something uncomfortably suggestive of a cell in +those narrow cabins to which the light of day never penetrated. + +Garth passed behind the farmer's chair, and seated himself next the +wall. He had no sooner ordered his luncheon than the door was again +opened, and the rotund Mr. Papps, with profuse apologies, introduced +a fourth to their table. The vacant place, it appeared, was the very +last remaining in his establishment. + +The newcomer was a girl; young, slender and decidedly pretty: such was +Garth's first impression. She came in without hesitation, and took the +place opposite Garth with that serenely oblivious air so characteristic +of the highly civilized young lady. Very trimly and quietly dressed, +sufficiently well-bred to accept the situation as a matter of course. +Thus Garth's further impressions. "What a girl to be meeting up in this +corner of the world, and how I should like to know her!" he added in +his mind. The maiden's bland aloofness was discouraging to this hope; +nevertheless, his heart worked in an extra beat or two, as he considered +the added relish his luncheon would have, garnished by occasional +glances at such a delightful _vis-à-vis_. Meanwhile, he was careful +to take his cue from her; his face, likewise, expressed a blank. + +The farmer and his wife became very uncomfortable. Simple souls, they +could not understand how a personable youth and a charming girl should +sit opposite each other with such wooden faces. Their feeling was that +at quarters so close extra sociability was demanded, and the utter lack +of it caused them to move uneasily in their chairs, and gently perspire. +They unconsciously hastened to finish, and having at length dutifully +polished their plates, arose and left the cabin with audible sighs of +relief. + +This was a contingency Garth had not foreseen, and his heart jumped. At +the same time he felt a little sorry for the girl. He wondered if she +would consider it an act of delicacy if he fastened the door open with +a chair. On second thoughts, he decided such a move would be open to +misconstruction. Had he only known it, she was dying to laugh and, at +the slightest twinkle in his eyes, would have gone off into a peal. Only +Garth's severe gravity restrained her--and that in turn made her want to +laugh harder than ever. But how was Garth to learn all that? Girls, more +especially girls like this, were to him insolvable mysteries--like the +heavenly constellations. Of course, there are those who pretend to have +discovered their orbits, and have written books on the subject; but for +him, he preferred simply to wonder and to admire. + +Since her arrival the objective point of his desire shifted from his +plate some three feet across the table; he now gazed covertly at her +with more hunger than he evinced for his food. She had a good deal the +aspect of a plucky boy, he thought; a direct, level gaze; a quick, sure +turn to her head; and the fresh, bright lips of a boy. But that was no +more than a pleasant fancy; in reality she was woman clear through. Eve +lurked in the depths of her blue eyes, for all they hung out the colours +of simple honesty; and Eve winked at him out of every fold of her rich +chestnut hair. She was quick and impulsive in her motions; and although +she showed such a blank front to the man opposite, her lips flickered +with the desire to smile; and tiny frowns came and went between the +twin crescents of her brows. + +As for her, she was sizing him up too, though with skilfully veiled +glances. She saw a square-shouldered young man, who sat calmly eating +his lunch, without betraying too much self-consciousness on the one +hand, or any desire to make flirtatious advances on the other. Yet he +was not stupid, either; he had eyes that saw what they were turned on, +she noted. His admirable, detached attitude piqued her, though she would +have been quick to resent any other. She was angry with him for forcing +this repression on her; repression was not natural to this young lady. +She longed to clear the air with a burst of laughter, but the thought +of a quick, cool glance of surprise from the steady eyes opposite +effectually checked her. As for his features, they were well enough, she +thought. He had a shapely head, broadest over the ears, and thatched +with thick, straight hair of the ashy-brown just the other side of +blonde. His eyes were of the shade politely called gray, though +yellow or green might be said with equal truth, had not those colours +unpleasant associations. His nose was longish, and he had a comical +trick of seeming to look down it, at which she greatly desired to laugh. +His mouth was well cut, and decisively finished at the corners; and +he had a chin to match. In spite of her irritation with him, she was +reminded of a picture she had seen of Henry Fifth looking out from +his helmet on the field of Agincourt. + +As the minutes passed, and Garth maintained his calm, she became quite +unreasonably wroth. Her own luncheon was now before her. By and by she +wanted salt, and the only cellar stood at Garth's elbow. Nothing could +have induced her to ask for it; she merely stared fixedly. Garth, +presently observing, politely offered the salt-cellar. She waited +until he had put it down on the table, and removed his hand from +the neighbourhood; then took it. + +"Thank you," she murmured indignantly; furious at having to say it. + +Garth wondered what he had done to offend her. + +At this moment there was an interruption; again the apologetic Mr. +Papps with yet another guest. This was a tradesman's comely young wife, +with very ruffled plumage, and the distracted air of the unaccustomed +traveller. She was carrying in her arms a shiny black valise, three +assorted paper-covered bundles with the string coming off, and a hat in +a paper bag; and, although it was so warm, she wore her winter's coat, +plainly because there was no other way to bring it. Her hair was flying +from its moorings; her face flamed; and her hat sat at a disreputably +rakish angle. As she piled up her encumbrances on the chair next to the +girl, and took off her coat, she bubbled over with indistinguishable, +anxious mutterings. At last she sank into the seat by Garth with +something between a sigh and a moan. + +"I've lost my husband," she announced at large. + +Her distress was so comical they could not forbear smiling. + +Encouraged by this earnest of sympathy, the newcomer plunged into a +breathless recital of her mischances. + +"Just came in over the A. N. R.," she panted. "By rights we should have +arrived last night, but day-before-yesterday's train had the right of +way and we was held up down to Battle Run. I tell you, the rails of that +line are like the waves of the sea! I was that sea-sick I thought never +to eat mortal food again--but it's coming back; my appetite I mean. He +was to meet me, but I suppose he got tired after seventeen hours, small +blame--and dropped off somewheres. S'pose I'll have to make a round of +the hotels till I find him. You don't happen to know him, do you?" she +asked Garth. "John Pink, the carpenter?" + +"I'm a stranger in Prince George," said he politely. + +"Oh, what and all I've been through!" groaned Mrs. Pink, with an access +of energetic distress. She shook a warning finger at the girl. "Take my +advice, Miss," she warned, "and don't you let him out of your sight a +minute, till you get him safe home!" + +The girl looked hard at her plate; while for Garth, a slow, dark red +crept up from his neck to the roots of his hair. Yet Mrs. Pink's mistake +was surely a natural one; there they sat lunching privately together in +the secluded little cabin. Moreover, they looked like fit mates, each for +the other; and their air of studied indifference was no more than the air +commonly assumed by young married couples in public places--especially +the lately married. Without appearing to raise her eyes, the girl in some +mysterious way, was conscious of Garth's dark flush. "Serve him right," +she thought with wicked satisfaction. "I shan't help him out." But +Garth's blush was for her more than for himself. + +Mrs. Pink, absorbed in her own troubles, was innocently unaware of +the consternation she had thrown them into. She plunged ahead; still +addressing her remarks to the girl. + +"Perhaps you think there's no danger of losing yours so soon," she went +on; "and very like you're right. But, my dear, you never can tell! Bless +you, when I was on my wedding journey, he hung around continuous. I +couldn't get shet of the man for a minute, and I was fair tired out +of seeing him. But that wears off--not that I mean it would with +you"--turning to Garth--"but nothing different couldn't hardly be +expected in the course of nature." + +Garth considered whether he should stop Mrs. Pink's tongue by telling +the truth. But it seemed ungallant to be in such haste to deny the +responsibility. He felt rather that the disclaimer should come from the +girl; and she made no move; indeed, he almost fancied he saw the ghost of +a smile. Under his irritation with the woman and her clumsy tongue, he +was conscious of a secret glow of pleasure. There was something highly +flattering in being taken for the husband of such an ultra-desirable +creature. The thought of her being really one with his future, as the +woman supposed, and travelling about the country with him made his heart +beat fast. Slender, trim and mistress of herself, she had exactly the +look of the wife he had pictured. + +Mrs. Pink broke off long enough to order her luncheon, and from the +extent of the order it appeared she had entirely recovered her appetite. + +"The next thing I have to do after finding my man," she resumed, with +a wild pass at her hat, which lurched it as far over on the other side, +"is to find a house. They tell me rents are terrible high in Prince +George. Are you two going to settle here?" + +Garth replied in the negative. He had decided if the girl did not choose +to enlighten Mrs. Pink, he would not. + +"It has a great future ahead of it," she said solemnly. "It's a grand +place for a young couple to start life in. And elegant air for children. +Mine are at my mother's." + +Garth swallowed a gasp at this; but the girl never blinked an eye. + +"But how I do run on!" exclaimed Mrs. Pink. "No doubt you've got a good +start somewheres else." + +"Not so very," said Garth with a smile. + +The smile disarmed the young lady sitting opposite, and somehow obliged +her to reconsider her opinion of him. "I believe the creature has a +sense of humour," was her thought. + +"Are you Canadians?" inquired Mrs. Pink politely. + +"I am from New York," said Garth. + +Mrs. Pink opened her eyes to their widest. If he had said Cochin China +she could not have appeared more surprised. For New York has a magical +name in the Provinces; and the more remote, the more glowing the halo +evoked by the sound. + +"Bless me!" she ejaculated. Then, addressing herself to the girl: "How +fine the shops and the opera houses must be there!" + +"I've not been there in some years," she answered coolly. "I am from +Ontario." + +"Well, I declare!" cried Mrs. Pink. "Quite a romance! Where did you +meet?" + +"Here," said Garth readily. There was no turning back now. + +"What a nice man!" now thought this perverse young lady. + +"Well! Well!" exclaimed Mrs. Pink with immense interest. "Ain't that odd +now! Was it long since?" + +"Not so very," said Garth vaguely. He glanced across the table and saw +that his supposed wife had finished her lunch. His heart sank heavily. + +"Three months?" hazarded Mrs. Pink. + +"It was about half an hour ago," came brisk and clear from across the +table. + +Mrs. Pink looked up in utter amazement; her jaw dropped; and a piece +of bread was arrested halfway to her mouth. The girl had risen and was +drawing on her gloves. + +"Good-bye, Mrs. Pink," she said sweetly. "I hope you find your husband +sooner than I find mine!" + +With that she passed out; and the swing door closed behind her. All the +light went with her, it seemed to Garth, and the cabin became a sordid, +spotty little hole. Mrs. Pink stared at the door through which she had +disappeared, in speechless bewilderment. Finally she turned to Garth. + +"Wh-what did she mean?" she stammered. + +"I do not know the young lady," said Garth sadly. + +"Good land, man!" screamed Mrs. Pink. "Why didn't you say so at first?" + + + + +II + +THE UNKNOWN LADY + + +Garth Pevensey was a reporter on the _New York Leader_. His choice of +an occupation had been made more at the dictate of circumstances than +of his free will; and in the round hole of modern journalism he was +something of a square and stubborn peg. He had become a reporter because +he had no taste for business; and a newspaper office is the natural +refuge for clever young men with a modicum of education, and the need +of providing an income. He was not considered a "star" on the force; +and his city editor had been known to tear his hair at the missed +opportunities in Pevensey's copy, and hand it to one of the more glowing +stylists for the injection of "ginger." But Garth had his revenge in the +result; the gingerized phrases in his quiet narrative cried aloud, like +modern gingerbread work on a goodly old dwelling. + +It was agreed in the office that Pevensey was too quiet ever to make a +crack reporter. On a big story full of human interest he was no good. It +was not that he failed to realize the possibilities of such stories; he +had as sure an eye for the picturesque and affecting as Dicky Chatworth +himself, the city editor's especial favourite; but he had an unconquerable +repugnance to "letting himself go." Moreover his stuff was suspected of +having a literary quality, something that is respected but not desired +in a newspaper office. Howbeit, there were some things Garth could do +to the entire satisfaction of the powers; he might be depended on for an +effective description of any big show, when the readers' tear-ducts were +not to be laid under contribution; he had an undeniable way with him +of impressing the great and the near-great; and had occasionally been +surprisingly successful in extracting information from the supposedly +uninterviewable. + +Though his brilliancy might be discounted, Pevensey was one of the most +looked-up-to, and certainly the best-liked man on the staff. He was +entirely unassuming for one thing; and though he had the reputation of +leading rather a saintly life himself, he was as tolerant as Jove; and +the giddy youngsters who came and went on the staff of the _Leader_ with +such frequency liked to confide their escapades to him, sure of being +received with an interest which might pass very well for sympathy. +It was with the very young ones that he was most popular; he took on +himself no irritating airs of superiority; he was a good listener; and +he never flew off the handle. Such a man has the effect of a refreshing +sedative on the febrile nerves of an up-to-date newspaper office. + +Outside the office Garth led an uneventful life. He lived with +his mother and a younger brother and sister, and ever since his +knickerbocker days he had been the best head the little family could +boast of. New York is full of young men like Garth who, deprived of +the kind of society their parents were accustomed to, do not assimilate +readily with that which is open to all; and so do without any. +Young, presentable and clever, Garth had yet never had a woman for +a friend. Those he met in the course of a reporter's rounds made him +over-fastidious. He had erected a sky-scraping ideal of fine breeding +in women, of delicacy, reserve and finish; and his life hitherto had not +afforded him a single opportunity of meeting a woman who could anywhere +near measure up to it. That was his little private grievance with Fate. + +Garth came of a family of sporting and military traditions, which he had +inherited in full force. These, in the young bread-winner of the city, +had had to be largely repressed; but he had found a certain outlet in +joining a militia regiment, in which he had at length been elected an +officer. He had a passion for firearms; and was the prize sharpshooter +of his regiment. Wonderful tales were related of his prowess. + +When the _Leader_ was invited to send a representative on the excursion +of press correspondents, which an enterprising immigration agency +purposed conducting through the Canadian Northwest, Garth was chosen +to go--most unexpectedly to himself, and to the higher-paid men on the +staff. This trip put an entirely new colour on Garth's existence. He had +always felt a secret longing to travel, to wander under strange skies, +and observe new sides of life. From the very start of the journey he +found himself in a state of pleasant exhilaration which was reflected in +the copy he sent back to his paper. Pevensey's articles on the West made +a distinct hit. The editors of the _Leader_ did not tell him so; but in +the very silence from New York that followed him, he knew he had found +favour in their eyes; and he felt the delicious gratification of one +who has been unappreciated. + +When the excursion, lapped in the luxury of a private car (nothing +can be too good for those who are going to publish their opinions of +you), reached Prince George, the outermost point of their wide swing +around the country, the good people of the town outdid themselves in +entertaining the correspondents. Among the festivities, a large public +reception gave the correspondents and the leading men of the country +the opportunity to become acquainted. To Garth the most interesting man +present was the Bishop of Miwasa. His Lordship was a retiring man in +vestments a thought shabby; and the other correspondents overlooked him. +But Garth had heard by accident that the Bishop's annual tour of his +diocese included a trip of fifteen hundred miles by canoe and pack-train +through the wilderness; and he scented a story. The Bishop was one of +those incorrigibly modest men who are the despair of interviewers; but +Garth stuck to him, and got the story in the end. It was the best sent +out of Prince George on that trip. + +During the five days the correspondents spent there, the quiet Garth +and the quiet Bishop became fast friends over innumerable pipes at the +Athabasca Club. They discovered a common liking for the same brand +of tobacco, which created a strong bond. Garth was entranced by the +Bishop's matter-of-fact stories of his long journeys through the +wilderness during the delightful summers, and in the rigorous winters; +and the upshot was, the Bishop asked him to join him in his forthcoming +tour of the diocese, which was to start from Miwasa Landing on the +first of August. + +Garth jumped at the opportunity; and telegraphing lengthily to his +paper to set forth the rich copy that was pining to be gathered in the +North, prayed for permission to go. He received a brief answer, allowing +him two months' leave of absence for the journey at his own risk and +expense; and promising to purchase what of his stuff might be suitable, +at space rates. This was precisely what he wanted; it meant two months' +liberty. By the time he received it, the excursion had left Prince +George behind; and was turned homeward. Garth dropped off at a way +station and made his way back, this time without any fêtes to greet +his arrival. He caught the Bishop as he was starting for the Landing; +and it was arranged Garth should follow him by stage, three days later. +Meantime he was to purchase an outfit. + + * * * * * + +On the evening of the day following his luncheon at Papps's, Garth, in +his room at the hotel, was packing in a characteristically masculine +fashion, preparatory to his start for the North woods next day. + +It would have been patent to an infant that he had something on his +mind. He was not thinking of the romantic journey that lay before him; +that prospect, so exhilarating the past few days, had, upon the eve of +realization, lost its savour. He would actually have welcomed an excuse +to postpone it for a few days--so that he might spend a little more +money at Papps's. It was a pair of flashing blue eyes--for blue eyes do +flash, though they be not customarily chosen to illustrate that capacity +of the human orb--which had disturbed his peace. He was very much +dissatisfied with the part he had played at luncheon the day before. +What he ought to have said and done was now distressingly clear to him; +and he craved an opportunity to put it into practice. He had spent the +whole middle part of this day at Papps's, loitering in the entrance to +make sure the blue eyes should not be swallowed in one of the cabins +without his knowledge; but they had not illumined the place; nor had +his cautious inquiries elicited a single clue to the identity of the +possessor. He felt sure if he had three days more in Prince George he +could discover her: but unfortunately the weekly stage for the North +left the following morning; and the Bishop was waiting for him at +the Landing; likewise the _Leader_ back in New York was waiting for +stories--and not about blue eyes. It was at this point in his circular +train of reflections that he would resume packing with a gusty sigh. + +He was interrupted by a knock on the door, and, upon opening it, was +not a little astonished to receive a note from the hands of a boy, who +signified his intention of waiting for an answer. It was contained in a +thick, square envelope with a crest on the flap; and was addressed in a +tall, angular, feminine hand. Garth, his mind ever running in the same +course, tore it open with a crazy hope in his heart; but the first +words brought him sharply back to earth. + + "Will Mr. Garth Pevensey," thus it ran, "be good enough + to oblige an old lady by calling at the Bristol Hotel this + evening? Mrs. Mabyn will be awaiting him in the parlour; + and as it concerns a matter of supreme importance to her, + she trusts he will not fail her; no matter how late the + hour at which he may be able to come." + +Garth dismissed the boy with a message to the effect that he would +answer the note in person. As he leisurely put his appearance in order, +he thought: "Verily one's adventures begin upon leaving home." He was +human, consequently his curiosity was pleasantly stimulated to discover +what lay before him: but the little adjective in the first sentence of +his appellant's letter was fatal to the idea of any violent enthusiasm +on her behalf. + +The parlour of the Bristol Hotel was on the first floor above the street +level. Garth paused at the door; and cast a glance about the room. It +was empty except for two figures at the further end. The one he could +see more plainly was an old lady sitting in an easy-chair; she was +dressed in black, with a white cap and white wristbands; a spare, erect +little lady. Garth judged her to be the writer of the note. The other +figure, also a woman, was partly hidden in a window embrasure. She +was standing by the window holding the curtain back with one hand, and +looking into the street. She turned her head to speak to the old lady; +whereupon Garth's heart leapt in his bosom, the room rocked, and the +chandeliers burst into song; that clear profile, that slender figure +could belong to none in Prince George but _Her_! He was overcome with +delight and amazement; he could scarcely credit his eyes. He wished in +the same instant he had spent more care on his appearance, and that he +had not kept them waiting so long. + +The younger lady perceived him standing in the shadowy doorway, and came +toward him. + +"Mr. Pevensey?" she began in a voice of cool inquiry. Then she stopped +aghast; and the colour flamed into her face. "_You!_" she exclaimed in +a voice too low to reach the older woman's ears. "Oh, I didn't know--I +never suspected it might be you!" + +Garth was conscious of a complicated feeling of irritation, a kind of +jealousy of himself. "Why did they send for me, if they didn't know it +was me?" was his thought. + +"What must you think of me?" she said in obvious distress. + +"I am in the dark," said Garth helplessly. + +She recovered her forces. "I am not in the habit of going to restaurants +alone," she said. "But the hotel here is so bad! I am afraid you must +think me a frivolous person, and I am anxious you should not think so." + +"I don't," said Garth bluntly. + +She smiled. "Very well," she said; "then there's no harm done." + +"Natalie!" called the old lady, with a hint of irritation. + +"Come and meet Mrs. Mabyn," she said quickly; and led the way. + +"This is Mr. Pevensey, Mrs. Mabyn," she said. + +The old lady regarded Garth with a sharp scrutiny; and Garth looked with +interest at her. She was a fragile, elegant, plaintive little person +of the old "lady-like" régime; but for all her gentleness, Garth was +somehow conscious that he faced a woman of an iron will. She had the +impatient, inattentive manner of one possessed by a single idea. With +the result of her examination she appeared but half satisfied; she +held out a delicate, wrinkled hand, dubiously. + +"How do you do?" she said. "Please sit down." + +"I am Natalie Bland," further explained the girl, who had again +retreated to the window embrasure. "Mrs. Mabyn and I are travelling +together." + +"Dear Natalie is a daughter to me," murmured Mrs. Mabyn with commendable +feeling. + +The two women exchanged a glance which Garth was at a loss to interpret. +He was looking at Natalie and he thought he saw patience, real +affection, and perhaps a little kindly amusement--but there was +something beyond; something grimmer and more determined, a hint +of rebellion. + +"My husband, Canon Mabyn, was the rector of Christ's Church Cathedral +in Millerton, Ontario, up to the time of his death," murmured Mrs. +Mabyn in her dulcet tones, with the air of one delivering all-sufficient +credentials. + +Garth murmured to show that he was suitably impressed. + +"You are from New York, I believe," said Mrs. Mabyn. + +Garth acknowledged the fact. + +"So the newspaper said," she remarked. "Of course, I know very few +Americans, still it is possible we may have common friends. You--er--" +She paused invitingly. + +"Hadn't we better explain why we asked Mr. Pevensey to call?" put in +Natalie quietly. + +"My dear, Mr. Pevensey was just about to tell me of his people," Mrs. +Mabyn said in tones of gentle reproof. + +Garth saw what the old lady would be after. "My father, Lieutenant +Raymond Pevensey, was in the Navy," he said. "He was killed by a powder +explosion on the gunboat _Arkadelphia_, twelve years ago." + +"Dear me, how unfortunate!" murmured Mrs. Mabyn sympathetically; but +it rang chillingly, and her abstracted eyes dwelt throughout upon that +relentless thought of hers, whatever it was. + +"I am related distantly to the Buhannons of Richmond, and the +Mainwarings of Philadelphia," continued Garth, willing to humour her. + +"There was a Mainwaring at Chelsea with my husband as a boy," remarked +Mrs. Mabyn. + +"Probably my great-uncle," he said. "In this part of the world," he went +on, "there is no one who knows me beyond mere acquaintanceship, except +the Bishop of Miwasa--" + +"Pray say no more, Mr. Pevensey," interrupted Mrs. Mabyn. "The mere fact +that the Bishop invited you to accompany him is, after all, sufficient." +She turned to the girl. "You may continue, dear Natalie." + +"We read in this evening's paper," began that young lady with a directness +refreshing after Mrs. Mabyn's circumlocutions; "that you were starting for +Miwasa Landing to-morrow morning, to join the Bishop on his annual tour. +We wished particularly to see you before you started; and that is why +I--why Mrs. Mabyn wrote." + +"We thank you for coming so promptly," put in Mrs. Mabyn with her +gracious air. + +Garth murmured truthfully that the pleasure was his. He felt himself on +the breathless verge of a discovery. Intuition warned him of what was +coming; but he could not believe it yet. + +"Mr. Pevensey," resumed the young lady as if with an effort; she had the +humility of a proud soul who stoops to ask a favour; "we are going to +make a very strange request, as from total strangers." + +Mrs. Mabyn raised an agitated hand. "Wait, wait, my dear Natalie," she +objected. "Perhaps after all, we had better go no further. I--I think we +had better give the plan up," she said in apparently the deepest +distress. + +The girl turned a patient shoulder, and looked into the street again, +abstractedly playing with the cord of the blind. + +"It is really too much to ask of you," continued Mrs. Mabyn distressfully; +"and I am so afraid for Natalie! Natalie is so very dear to me. The +situation is _so_ unusual!" she wailed. + +Poor Garth was sadly perplexed and exasperated by all this. The discovery +he anticipated was now apparently in retreat. + +"We are glad, anyway, to have had the pleasure of making your +acquaintance," said Mrs. Mabyn with an air of finality. + +Suddenly it was borne in upon Garth, partly from the girl's patient +attitude, partly from the other's emphasis upon her distress, that it +was simply, in newspaper parlance, all a bluff on the part of the older +woman. Her fanatic eyes seemed to tell him that she was still bent on +her object, whatever it might be. Experience had taught him that the +quickest way to find out if he were right was to seem to fall in +with her desire. So he promptly rose as if to leave. It worked. + +Mrs. Mabyn's eyes snapped. She did not relish being taken up so quickly. +"One moment, Mr. Pevensey," she said plaintively--and hastily. "Overlook +the distraction of an old woman; I am torn two ways!" + +Garth understood by this that the matter was reopened; and sat down +again. There was a pause, while the old lady struggled, with the air of +a martyr, to regain her composure. The girl continued to look stolidly +out of the window; and Garth simply waited for what was coming. + +"You may continue, Natalie," said Mrs. Mabyn at length, faintly. + +The girl resumed her explanation at the exact point where she left off. +"We expected--that is, we hoped you were an older man--" Garth looked +so disappointed she immediately added: "For that would make the request +seem less strange." She hesitated. + +"What is it?" asked Garth. + +But she parried awhile. "What sort of a man is the Bishop?" she asked. + +Garth described his modesty and his manliness. + +"A very proper person to be Bishop in a wild country," remarked Mrs. +Mabyn, patronizingly. + +"And his wife?" asked Natalie. + +Garth pictured a homely, unassuming body, with a great heart. + +"Of course!" said Mrs. Mabyn. A whole chapter might be devoted to the +analysis of the tone in which she said it. + +"We had heard she accompanies her husband," said Natalie. + +"Yes," said Garth. + +"That simplifies matters!" exclaimed Mrs. Mabyn. + +"Their route takes in Spirit River Crossing, I believe," pursued +Natalie. + +Garth affirmed it, wondering. + +Natalie paused before she went on. "Whatever you may think of what I am +going to tell you, Mr. Pevensey," she said with the same proud appeal in +her voice, "we may count on you, I am sure, not to speak of it to any +one for the present." + +"Indeed you may!" he said warmly. + +"I am obliged to get to Spirit River Crossing at the earliest possible +moment," she said simply. + +Through the wilderness with _her_! Garth had to wait a moment before he +could trust himself to reply with becoming coolness. + +"Have you considered the kind of a journey it is?" he asked quietly. + +"That is the worst of it!" complained Mrs. Mabyn. "I had expected to go +with her; but we find it is out of the question." + +Garth hastened to assure her that it was. + +"I have considered everything," said Natalie. + +"But do you know that you will have to travel two or three weeks in an +open boat in all weathers, a mere canoe in fact; that you will have to +sleep out of doors, and live on the very roughest of fare? Could you +stand it?" he demanded almost sternly. + +"I am perfectly well and strong," answered Natalie. + +"That is quite so, happily," said Mrs. Mabyn. "Otherwise, I would not +hear of it for a moment." + +"If the Bishop's wife can stand it, certainly I can," said Natalie. + +"But she is obliged to do it," said Garth. + +"So am I!" said Natalie quickly. + +There was an awkward pause. Garth said nothing, but his question was +felt. + +"Naturally you wonder what forces me to undertake such a journey," said +Natalie uncomfortably. + +"Couldn't I help you more intelligently if I knew?" suggested Garth. + +"But I cannot tell you," she said. "That is, not yet. Believe me, it is +nothing I need be ashamed of----" + +"Natalie!" exclaimed Mrs. Mabyn indignantly. "Is it not I who urge you +to go?" + +"Yes, I am doing what will be considered a most praiseworthy thing," +said Natalie with what sounded strangely like--bitterness. + +"Yes, indeed!" urged Mrs. Mabyn, who seemed to have forgotten her late +anxiety on Natalie's account. + +"But in telling you," objected Natalie gently, "I would have to trust +you to a far greater extent than you would be trusting me, in lending +me, without knowing my reasons, the assistance of one traveller to +another." + +Garth was ready enough to throw himself at her feet without this +affecting appeal. "Please count on me," he said, moved more than he +would let them see, especially the old woman. "How can I help you?" + +"See me as far as Miwasa Landing," she said simply. "I will then throw +myself on the goodness of the Bishop and his wife; and trust to them +to take me with them the rest of the way--that is, if I wish to go. +The Bishop may be able to give me information," she added darkly. + +"Natalie!" put in Mrs. Mabyn, warningly. "I--I will give her letters to +those good people," she added hastily, to divert Garth's mind from the +strangeness of Natalie's last words. + +But Garth was in no temper to be deflected by a mystery. "I am thankful +for the chance to be of service," he said fervently, having a keen sense +of the poverty of words. + +"Thank you," said Natalie, simply. "Let us talk of ways and means," she +added decisively. "What should I take?" + + + + +III + +ON THE TRAIL + + +At a quarter to eight next morning Garth was waiting again in the +parlour of the Bristol Hotel. Promptly to the minute Natalie came +sailing in, in her own inimitable way, walking all of a piece, with a +sweep like a banner, Garth thought. When he saw her, his last doubt of +the reality of this intoxicating journey vanished. She bore no trace +now of the seriousness of the night before; all smiles and red-cheeked +eagerness, she radiated the very joy of being. + +"Enter Mrs. Pink!" she cried. + +She had a brown valise, a fat bundle, a flat, square package wrapped in +paper, a coat and a parasol. + +"You said trunks were taboo," she explained. "I only had one valise and +I couldn't nearly get everything in. Indeed I sat up half the night +studying how little I could do with." + +"We'll get you a duffle-bag at the Landing," he said. + +"Am I suitably dressed?" she demanded, showing herself. + +Garth smiled. She was perfection; how could he blame her? She had +interpreted his suggestions as to sober, serviceable clothes, in a +diabolically well-fitting suit of brown, the colour of her hair. At the +wrists and neck of her brown-silk waist were spotless bands of white; +and on her head was a dashing little brown hat with green wings. She +exhibited square-toed little brown boots as an evidence of exceeding +common sense; and was pulling on a pair of absurdly small boy's gloves. +This most suitable costume for the North was completed by a brown-silk +parasol. + +"All in place and well tied down," she announced. "Nothing to fly or +catch!" + +Garth pictured to himself the effect likely to be created in the +wilderness by this adorable acme of the feminine, with something between +a smile and a groan. + +They walked to the post office, quaffing deep of the delicious morning +air, Garth glancing sidewise at his exuberant companion, and wondering, +like the old lady in the nursery rhyme, if this could really be he. It +was a day to make one walk a-tiptoe; the sky overhead bloomed with the +exquisite pale tints of a Northern summer's morning; and the bricks of +Oliver Avenue were washed with gold. + +Natalie's face fell a little at the sight of the stage-coach; for it +had nothing in common with the imagined vehicle of romance except the +four horses; and they were but sorry beasts. In fact, it was nothing +but a clumsy, uncovered wagon, which had never been washed since it +was built; and was worn to a dull drab in a long acquaintance with the +alternating mud and dust of the trail. Behind the driver's seat was a +sort of well, for the mail bags and express packages; and behind that, +two excruciatingly narrow seats for the passengers, running lengthwise +between the rear wheels. The entrance was by a step at the tail-board. + +Everything awaited the word to start. The driver, whip in hand, stood +by the front wheel surrounded by a group of idlers; and his two great +mongrel huskies, squatted on the pavement with expectant eyes on their +master. Garth helped Natalie into the body of the wagon; and, climbing +in after her, disposed her baggage with his own already in the well. The +eyes of the driver and all his satellites were promptly transferred in +wide wonder to the girl with the green wings in her hat. Garth, with a +keen sense of difficulties ahead, was indignant and uncomfortable; but +Natalie, serenely conscious that everything was in place, dropped her +hands in her lap, and chatted away, as if quite unaware of her +conspicuousness. + +Garth had put Natalie in the right-hand corner of the little cockpit. +Another woman passenger was already in place opposite; and the aspect of +this lady made an additional element in his uneasiness. She, too, was +gotten up bravely according to her lights. She seemed something under +forty, tall and angular; her hair, a crass yellow, was tied with a large +girlish bow of black ribbon behind; and in her cheeks she had crudely +striven to recall the hues of youth. Around her long neck another black +ribbon accentuated the scrawny lines it was designed to hide; and on +top of all she wore a wide black hat, which had a fresh yet collapsed +effect, as if it had long been cherished under the lid of a trunk. Her +knees touched Natalie's, and Garth's gorge rose at her nearness to his +precious charge--and yet the antique girl greeted them with a sort of +anxious, appealing smile, which disarmed him in spite of himself. + +Promptly at eight o'clock the door of the post office was opened; and +the last bag of mail was thrown into the stage. Still the driver made no +move to climb into his seat; and Garth, becoming restless as the minutes +passed, got out and approached him. + +"Good morning, driver," he said, while the bystanders stared afresh. +"What's the delay?" + +He gazed at Garth with a mild and cautious blue eye; and spat deliberately +before replying. He was one of those withered little men, with a shock of +grizzled hair, and deeply seamed face and neck and hands, who might be +forty-five or seventy. As it turned out, Paul Smiley was within three +years of the latter figure. He had on a pearl Fedora very much over one +ear, a new suit of store clothes with a mighty watch chain, and new boots, +which seemed like little souls put to torment--they screeched horribly +whenever he moved. + +"I couldn't start off and leave Nick Grylls," he said deprecatingly. "He +has spoke for two seats." + +Garth was sensible that he was hearing a great man's name. + +"I tell you it ain't often Nick Grylls travels by the stage," continued +Smiley, addressing the bystanders impressively. "He hires a rig and a +team and a driver to take him to the Landing, _he_ does." + +"Who is this Mr. Grylls?" asked Garth, pursuing the reporter's instinct. + +"Don't know Nick Grylls!" exclaimed old Paul, exchanging a wondering +glance around the circle. "You _must_ be a stranger! Nick Grylls is a +wonderful bright man, wonderful! He's the biggest free-trader in the +North country; trades down Lake Miwasa way. Wonderful influence with the +natives; does what he wants with them. I tell you there ain't much north +of the Landing Nick Grylls ain't in on. Here he comes now! All aboard!" + +As Garth resumed his seat by Natalie he saw a burly, broad-shouldered +figure hurrying along the sidewalk; he saw under the wide, stiff-brimmed +hat, a red face with an insolent, all-conquering expression, and fat +lips rolling a big cigar. There followed after, a young breed staggering +under the weight of a Gladstone bag, which matched its owner. Arrived at +the stage, Nick Grylls flung a thick word of greeting to the bystanders, +and taking the bag from the boy, threw it among the mail bags as one +tosses a pillow; and climbed into the seat by the driver. The breed +sprang on the step behind; another passenger took the place opposite +Garth; old Paul cracked his whip and shouted to his horses; the dogs +leaped and barked madly; and the Royal Mail swung away to the North +with its oddly assorted company. + +As they rattled through the suburbs the fat back on the front seat +shifted heavily; and the red face was turned on them. + +"Hello, old Nell!" shouted Nick. + +The woman simpered unhappily. "How's yourself, Mr. Grylls?" she +returned. + +"Fine!" he bellowed from his deep chest. + +This little manoeuvre in the front seat was merely for the purpose of +obtaining a prolonged stare at Natalie. The insolence of the little, +swimming, pig-eyes infuriated Garth. The young man opposite him too, a +sullen, scowling bravo, was staring boldly at Natalie. Garth stiffened +himself to play a difficult part. + +"I feel like a rare, exotic bird," whispered Natalie in his ear. + +"You are," he returned grimly. "I think it would be better if you did +not speak my name," he added. "I will not address you by yours. We must +be prepared to parry questions." + +"I will be careful," she said. + +To do him justice, Nick Grylls, on a close examination of Natalie, had +the grace to feel a little ashamed of his rough outburst. He altered his +features to what he thought was a genteel expression; but Garth called +it a leer. + +"Bully day for our trip," he said. + +They all agreed in various tones; even Garth. He knew it would not help +Natalie for him to start by inviting trouble. + +"You're the New York newspaper man," said Grylls to Garth. + +"That's right," said Garth quietly. + +"They tell me you're going to write up the country," said Grylls; +exhibiting that curious blend of suspicion, contempt and respect his +kind has for the fellow who writes. "I can tell you quite a bit about +the country myself," he added with a braggadocio air. + +Garth thanked him. + +"It's an onusual trip for a lady," continued Grylls, cunningly trying to +draw Natalie into the conversation; "but nothing out of the way at this +season. The Bishop travels comfortable enough; separate tent for the +women; and an ile stove like." + +His move was not successful; Natalie continued looking charmingly blank. +Old Paul created a diversion by facing them with a confiding smile. The +pert Fedora with its curly brim was comically ill-suited to his seamed +old face, and mild blue eye. He pointed with his whip down a road on the +outskirts of the town. + +"My place is down there," he said simply. "Just sold it last week; three +hundred acres at three hundred dollars an acre. They're layin' it out in +town lots." + +"Good God, man!" cried Grylls. "You could buy me out and have a pile +over!" Every time he spoke, he glanced over his shoulder at Natalie. + +Old Paul smiled up at him admiringly. "But this is only a sort of +accident," he said. "You made yours." + +"What in he--Why are you driving the stage, then?" demanded Grylls. + +"Well," said the old man slowly; "seems though I just got in the way of +it. Seems I just _had_ to keep hanging on to the ribbons, or lose holt +altogether." + +"What are you going to do with all that money?" Grylls wanted to know. + +"Well," said Paul with a quiet grin; "I bought me a new hat like the +swells wear; and a pair of Eastern shoes. They pinch me somepin' cruel, +too." + +"Why don't you travel East, Mr. Smiley?" suggested Nell. She whom they +all addressed so cavalierly was particular to put a handle to each name. + +"Travel! I had enough o' that, my girl," he said. "Forty-five years ago +I travelled East to Winnipeg and got me a wife. Brought her back over +the plains in a Red River cart. Eight hunder miles, and hostile redskins +all the way! What's travellin' nowadays!" + +"Were you born out here?" asked Garth, shaping a story for the _Leader_ +in his mind. + +"At Howard House, west of here in the Rockies," said Paul. "My father +was Hudson's Bay trader there." + +"Paul's an old-timer all right," said Grylls carelessly. He was +becoming bored with the trend the conversation was taking. + +"One of the first eight who broke ground in Prince George," said the old +man proudly. "Yonder's the first two-story house in the country. I built +it. No!" he continued thoughtfully; "I'm keeping my house and ten acres; +and me and the old woman's calc'latin' to stop there and watch the march +o' progress by our door. She wouldn't give up her front step for all the +real-estate sharks in Prince George. But," he added with a chuckle, "I +shouldn't wonder if she was shocked some when them trolley-cars I hear +tell of goes kitin' by." + +"I kin understand just how she feels," remarked old Nell to Natalie, with +her apologetic little smile. "What could take the place of a home with +real nice things in it? I got a house up near the Landing with a carpet +in every room. I just love to buy things for it. You see I never had what +you might call a regular house until just lately. This trip I bought a +pink-and-gold chiny washin' set; and a down comfort for the best room. I +never could tire of fixin' it up. We'll pass there to-morrow afternoon. +I'd just love to have you step in--" + +Grylls laughed boisterously. + +"Ah-h, shut up, Nell!" muttered the dark young man beside her. + +"Thank you, I'd like to see it," said Natalie, with a flash of the blue +eyes. + +They had now left the town behind; and were rolling, or rather bumping, +over the prairie. Here, it is not an empty plain, but a series of +natural, park-like meadows, broken by graceful clumps of poplar and +willow. On a prairie trail when the wheels begin to bite through the +sod, and sink into ruts, a new track is made beside the old--there is +plenty of room; and in turn another and another, spreading wide on each +side, crossing and interweaving like a tangled skein of black cotton +flung down in the green. + +Natalie had never seen such luxuriant greenness; such diverse and +plentiful wild flowers. Nell pointed out the brilliant fire-weed, blending +from crimson to purple, the wild sunflower, the lovely painted-cup, +old-rose in colour; and there were other strange and showy plants she +could not name. Occasionally they passed a log cabin, gayly whitewashed, +and with its sod roof sprouting greenly. These dwellings, though crude, +fulfilled the great aim of architecture; they were a part of the landscape +itself. + +When they stopped at one of these places for dinner, Garth watched +Natalie narrowly to see how she would receive her first taste of rough +fare. But far from quailing at the salt pork, beans and bitter tea, she +ate with as much gusto as if it had always been her portion. "She'll +do," he thought approvingly. + +Afterward as they toiled up a long, sandy rise in the full heat of the +afternoon sun, Paul, the old dandy, had leisure while his horses walked +to devote to his passengers. He was pleased as a child at the interest +shown by Garth and Natalie in his anecdotes. Turning to them now, he +pointed to a high mound topped by a splendid pine standing by itself, +and said: + +"Cannibal Hill. Used to be an Indian called Swift had his lodge there. A +fine figger of a man too; high-chested; beautiful-muscled. He was a good +Indian; and I want to say when a redskin is good, he's damn good--beg +pardon, Miss--he's good and no mistake, I should say. He has a high-minded +way of looking at things, which ought to make a white man blush; but it +don't; for them kind makes the softest tradin'. I been a trader myself. + +"This here Swift had a wife and ten childer, that he thought a power of. +He hunted for 'em night and day; and he come to be known as the best +provider in the tribe. Well, come one winter he went crazy; yes, ma'am, +plumb looney; and he went for 'em with his hatchet. He killed and _et_ +'em one at a time, beginning with the youngest; while the others waited +their turn. You see an old-fashioned Indian was the boss of his family; +and they didn't dast fight him back. Right up there on that hill, under +that very same tree; I seen the ashes of their bones myself. In the +Spring he come down to the settlement and give himself up; said he +didn't want to live no more. Shouldn't think he would." + +Grylls made no secret of his impatience with the old man's yarns. He +interrupted him, careless of his feelings. + +"Are you making the round trip with the Bishop?" he asked Garth. + +Garth answered in the affirmative. + +"I have a rabbit-skin robe at the Landing I'd be glad to lend the lady," +he said leering sidewise at Natalie. + +"Much obliged," said Garth agreeably; "but we really have all we can +use." + +"What does _she_ say?" growled Nick. + +"Thank you very much," said Natalie quickly; "but I could not think of +accepting it." + +He had forced her to speak to him at last; but the words were hardly +to his satisfaction. He flung around in his seat with an ugly scowl. + +Meanwhile old Paul was still pursuing his thoughts about redskins. +"Indians think when they go off their heads they're obliged to be +cannibals," he continued agreeably. "They can't separate the two idees +somehow. So when a redskin feels a screw beginning to work loose up +above, he settles on a nice, fat, tender subject. He says his head's +full of ice, and has to be melted. I mind one winter at Caribou Lake +forty years back, we were all nigh starving, and our bones was comin' +through our skins, like ten-p'ny nails in a paper bag. And one night +they comes snoopin' into the settlement an Indian woman as sleek and +soft and greasy as a fresh sausage--and lickin' her chops--um--um! +There was a man with her and he let it out. She had knifed two young +half-breed widows, as fair and beautiful a two girls as ever I see--and +she et 'em, yes, ma'am! And nobody teched her; they warn't no police +in them days. She lives to the Lake at this day!" + +"Good Law! Mr. Smiley!" cried Nell with an uneasy glance at the grinning +half-breed on the tail-step. + +"Keep cool, old gal!" growled Nick. "Nobody wouldn't pick you out for a +square meal!" + +Nell's companion rewarded this sally with an enormous guffaw; and poor, +mortified Nell made believe to laugh too. Natalie's cheeks burned. + +"I suppose you hunted buffalo in the old days," said Garth to old Paul. + +"Sure, I was quite a hunter," he returned with a casual air. "It +weren't everybody as was considered a hunter, neither. You had to earn +your reppytation. We didn't do no drivin' over cliffs or wholesale +slaughterin'; it was clean huntin' with us, powder and ball. I mind they +used to make a big party, as high as two hundred men, whites, breeds, +and friendly redskins. Everything was conducted regular; camp-guards +and a council and a captain was elected; and all rules strict observed. +Every night we camped inside a barricade. One of the rules was, no tough +old bulls useless for meat should be killed under penalty of twenty-five +dollars. I was had up before the council for that; but I proved it was +self-defense." + +"Tell us about it," suggested Garth. + +The old man scratched his head, and shot a dubious glance at Natalie. "I +ain't sure as this is quite a proper story," he said. "You see, I was +having a wash, as it might happen, at the edge of a slough--a slough is +a little pond in the prairie, Miss, as you're a stranger--and my clothes +and my gun was lying beside me, and my horse was croppin' the grass at +the top of the rise. When I was as clean as slough water would make me, +which isn't much, 'cause I stirred up a power of mud, and soap was an +extravagance them days, I begun to dress myself. Well, I had my shirt +on, and was sittin' down to pull on my pants, when I heard my cayuse +start off on a dead run. I looked up quick-like and blest if there +wasn't old Bill Buffalo a-pawin' and a-bellerin' and a-shakin' of his +head, not thirty yards away! Soon as he see me look up he come chargin' +down on me with his big head close to the ground like a locomotive +cow-catcher. And me in that awkward state of dishabilly!" + +"What did you do, Mr. Smiley?" cried Nell in suspense. + +Paul shifted his quid, spat, and shoved his pearl Fedora a little +further over his ear. "G'lang there," he cried shaking the reins. "I +reached my gun before he reached me," he said; "and I gave him the +charge, bang in his little red eye. He reared up; and come down kerplunk +right on top o' me; only I rolled away just in time!" + + * * * * * + +The trail to the Landing is considered something of a road up North; and +the natives are apt to stare pityingly at the effeminate stranger who +complains of the holes. It is something of a road compared to what comes +after; but Natalie, hitherto accustomed to cushions and springs in her +drives, could not conceive of anything worse. As the afternoon waned, +what with the heat, the hard, narrow seat, and the incessant lurching +and bumping of the crazy stage, which threw her now backward till her +head threatened to snap off, and now forward on Nell's knees, the +blooming roses in Natalie's cheeks faded, and her smile grew wan. +Poor Garth, anxiously watching her, almost burst with suppressed +solicitousness. + +But at last the journey came to its end; and at six o'clock the Royal +Mail with its bruised and famished passengers swung into the yard at +Forbie's, the halfway house, fifty miles from Prince George. Garth had +learned that the men slept in an outside bunkhouse, while the women were +received into the farmhouse itself. He hastened to interview Mrs. Forbie +in private, that the dreadful possibility of Natalie's being asked to +share a room with the other woman passenger might be avoided. It is +doubtful if Natalie would have taken any harm from poor old Nell; but +Garth was a young man falling in love; and so, ferociously virtuous in +judging Nell's kind. Natalie had a room to herself. + + + + +IV + +THE STOPPING-HOUSE YARD + + +Next morning, Old Paul, assisted by Nell's dark companion, and the +half-breed Xavier, was hitching up in the yard of Forbie's, when Nick +Grylls appeared from the house, and walked heavily up and down at some +distance moodily chewing a cigar. Big Nick was wondering dully what +in hell was the matter with him. He had tossed in his bunk the night +through; and now, at the beginning of the day, when a man should be at +his heartiest, he found himself without appetite for his breakfast, and +in a grinding temper, without any object to vent it on. In his little +eyes, bloodshot with the lack of sleep, and unwonted emotion, there was +an almost childish expression of bewilderment. + +A deep sense of personal injury lay at the root of his discomfort. Nick +was accustomed to think of himself as a whale of a fine fellow, as they +say in the West; he heard every day that he was the smartest man up +North; and, of course, he believed it. He regarded himself as a prince +of generosity; for was not his liberality to the half-breed women a +reproach among cannier white men? He was fond of children, too; and one +of his amusements was to distribute handfuls of candy over the counter +of his store. And candy ("French creams," God save the mark!) is worth +seventy-five cents a pound on Lake Miwasa. When any poor fellow froze +to death, or went "looney" in the great solitudes, it was Nick Grylls +who dug deepest in his pocket for the relief of the unfortunate family. +This, then, was the meat of his amazed grievance; that he, the great +man, the patron, should, here in his own country, be coolly ignored +by a mere boy and girl. + +There was good in Nick Grylls; and Garth travelling alone would have got +along very well with him, and worked him for copy; but having Natalie +to look after, he instinctively put himself on his guard against the +triumphant Silenus. Grylls, with an enormous capacity for pleasure, had +carelessly taken his fill. He had to content himself with the coarse +plants of the North; and up to now he had desired no other. But he had +arrived at the age when, the passions beginning to cool, the grossest +man conceives of fastidiousness; and at this crisis Fate had thrust a +perfect blossom before him. Never so close to a woman of Natalie's world +before, he had been free to look at her throughout an entire day; and +she had actually spoken to him once. He did not realize what was the +matter with him yet; but presently, when Natalie came out of the house, +he would know. + +Garth strolled out from breakfast; and filled his pipe while he waited +for Natalie to repack her valise within. Nick's chaotic passions leaped +to meet the aspect of the cool young man, and fastened on him. But there +was no relief here; his hearty and irresistible career over prostrate +necks was suddenly arrested in the light of Garth's cool glance. In his +heart Nick suspected he was despised, and the fact emasculated his rage. +He hung his head, and looked elsewhere. + +When the horses were hitched, Xavier went into the bunkhouse for his +master's bedding, old Paul pottered around the harness, while Albert, +Nell's companion, strolled back to join Grylls. + +"What do you make of this young couple?" asked Nick, assuming an +indifferent air. + +"I dunno," Albert returned lethargically. + +"There wasn't anything about a girl in the newspaper," pursued Nick; +"and young reporters don't generally have coin enough to travel with +a wife." + +"They ain't married," said Albert. + +"What!" exclaimed Nick eagerly. + +"Nell says she heard her call him Mr. Pevensey before the stage started; +and he called her Miss What's-this." + +Nick's little eyes glittered. "Then what in hell are they doing up here +together?" he muttered. + +"Search me!" said Albert indifferently. "Nell says she can't make it +out." + +"She seems to have taken a kind of shine to Nell," suggested Nick +carefully. "Women are sly as links. Pass a quiet word to Nell to draw +her out." + +"She's tried," said Albert. "Nice as you please but mum. Why don't you +pump _him_?" he suggested, indicating Garth. + +"Because he's a damned, self-sufficient dude!" Nick burst out with a +string of curses. "One of these porridge-mouthed Easterners that run up +their eyebrows with a 'my word!' at any free speech or liberality in a +man! The first time he finds himself in man's country he patronizes us! +Going to write us up! My God! My stomach turns over every time I look +at him!" + +"Well, he better not get _you_ down on him," said Albert propitiatingly. + +Natalie came sailing out of the farmhouse as fresh and smiling as +the morning itself. Garth hastened to meet her. A dark flush rose in +Grylls's cheeks, and he gritted his teeth, until the muscles stood +out in lumps on either side his jaw. He felt a desire to possess this +slender, swimming figure mounting in his brain to the pitch of madness. +As she passed him Natalie nodded not unkindly, and the big man's eyes +followed her in a sort of dog's agony. + +Nell followed her out of the house; and Garth handed them both into the +stage. He did not get in himself, but stood on the ground below Natalie, +talking up to her. One of the horses had refused to drink at the trough, +and old Paul, wishing to give him another chance, sent Xavier for a pail +of water. + +This Xavier deserves a word. The young breeds run to extremes of good +looks or ill; and in his case it was the latter. In downright English he +was hideous. A shock of intractable, lank hair hung over what he had of +a forehead; and underneath rolled a pair of whitey-blue eyes, with a +villainous cast in one of them. Some accident had carried Nature's work +even further, for one swarthy cheek was divided from temple to chin by a +dirty white scar. He wore a pair of black-and-white checked trousers, +which, once Nick's, hung strangely on his meagre frame. He was absurdly +proud of this garment. His outer wear was completed by a black cotton +shirt, and the inevitable stiff-brimmed hat, without which no brown +youth feels himself a man. Xavier's face wore an expression of blankness +verging on idiocy; but he was by no means deficient in cunning. His full +name was St. Francois Xavier Zero. + +Returning from the pump with the pail of water, as he passed Nick, +the big man threw him an idle word or two in Cree. Xavier grinned +comprehendingly; and Nick and Albert followed him a little way. Xavier +came up close behind Garth; and in passing him, made believe to stumble. +Some of the water splashed over Garth's legs. Garth swung around, and +took in the situation at a glance; Grylls and Albert were grinning in +the background. There was a crack as his fist met the half-breed's jaw; +and Xavier rolled in the dust. In falling the pail capsized, emptying +its contents on the cherished trousers. + +Nick's guffaw was quickly changed for a scowl; Garth saw that an explosion +was imminent; and that quick thought was necessary. He knew he must at all +cost to his pride avoid trouble until he got Natalie off his hands. He +walked over to Nick; the big fellow clenched his fists as he approached. + +"Hope I haven't hurt the beggar," said Garth blandly. "Perhaps he didn't +mean to spill the water; but you have to deal quickly with a breed. +That's your way, I'm told." + +Nick was completely disconcerted by this unexpected line of action. His +hands dropped; and he muttered something which might pass for agreement. +Garth coolly returned to Natalie. + +The breed picked himself up, and went crouching to his master with a +voluble, whining complaint in his own tongue. Nick lifted his hand; +and with a vicious, backhanded stroke sent Xavier again reeling across +the yard. It was the blow which was meant for Garth. Passion had set +Nick dancing to a strange tune. Albert, seeing the look in his eye, +instinctively edged out of reach. + +Old Nell looked at these things with a resigned air that spoke volumes +for her daily life. Natalie kept perfectly quiet; but a bright spot +burned in either cheek, and she turned a pair of shining eyes on Garth +when he came back to her. His difficulties were by no means over. Old +Paul, feeling that it might be well to forego the pail of water, gave +the word to start. Grylls climbed in by the rear step, and sat next to +Nell with a dogged air. This brought him opposite Garth, and very near +Natalie. Albert and the half-breed following him, they started. Xavier, +covered with dirt, snivelling, and nursing a split lip, was as ugly as +a gargoyle. + +Garth saw a way out in the vacant place beside Paul. "The front seat +would be more comfortable for you; it's wider," he said to Natalie, loud +enough for all to hear. "Paul," he called, "have you room beside you for +the young lady? She wants to hear some more stories." + +Paul, delighted, immediately pulled up, and held out a hand. Natalie +climbed over the mail-bags and took her place beside him. In crossing, +she gave Garth's hand a grateful squeeze; and he returned to his place +with a swelling heart, ready for Nick Grylls and any like him. But he +would not allow himself to depart from the course he had laid out. In +the past he had been compelled to conciliate, to flatter, to mould such +men as Grylls for the advantage of the _Leader_; and he could certainly +do it once more for the sake of Natalie. Nick faced him with a venomous +eye, but was unable to make an opening for more trouble. + +Old Paul, whenever they came to a hill and he could allow his four to +walk, turned around; and half to Natalie, half to Garth, delivered himself +of one of his characteristic stories. Neither was Nick impatient with his +monologues to-day; for when Paul turned Natalie half turned also; and then +Nick could watch her face. + +Garth had asked the old man about the half-breed rebellion. + +"Sure, I was through it all," he began. "I was buildin' boats in Prince +George; and scoutin'. Upwards of three months we hadn't no news from +outside and the settlement was in a continuous state of scare. It was +supposed the Crees had been joined by the Montana Indians; and all said +we was cut off on the south. Women, children and cattle was crowded +together in the stockade; but I didn't bring my family in. My old woman +weren't afraid; and somepin' told me it was just one of these here +panics like. + +"Well, one day up came word to the commandant to send a force down the +river to Fort Pitt, as they called it, to jine with General Middleton. +Then it was Smiley here, and Smiley there, and they couldn't do nothin' +without Smiley. I started down the river at last with two work boats +carryin' fifty men under Major Lewis and Cap'n Caswell. It was a Saturday +night, I mind. Lewis was one of these stuck-up, know-it-all johnnies, not +long breeched. But Caswell was an old Crimea veteran; his face had been +spiled by a powder explosion; but he certainly was a sporter! Me and him +got along fine. My! My! what a randy old feller he was! The men used to +sit around him with their mouths open waitin' to laugh. Grimy Caswell +they called him, along of his speckled face--great big man! + +"We travelled for three days and three nights without stoppin'; and +would you believe it, that damn fool Lewis--'scuse me, Miss--made us +light a lantern at night! A mark for all the reds in the country! I was +steerin' the first boat; and signallin' the channel to Dave Sinclair in +the boat behind, with my hand; this way and so. But the second day Dave +ran her aground. Young Lewis wouldn't allow that we knew how to lift a +boat off a shoal up North. I let him break all the ropes tryin' to drag +her off; then I showed him. Meanwhile, all this time, Grimy Caswell was +dressin' himself up like a redskin in my boat; and smearin' his face +with red earth. When it got dusk-like, he hid in the bushes; and by and +by Lewis came along the shore. All of a sudden, Grimy in his war-paint +popped out in front of him, let out a hell of a screech, and sent a shot +over his head. Say, that young man near died right there. He turned the +colour of a lead bullet; and made some quick tracks to the rear boat. +Grimy sneaked back to ours and washed and dressed; and all night long he +plagued Lewis to light the lantern; but he wouldn't; and the men near +died holdin' theirselves in. Oh! Grimy Caswell was a humorous feller, +he was! + +"We landed at Fort Pitt on the fourth day; and at the same time the +steamboats come up from Battle Run with the whole army. They landed 'em +all; and say, they had a brass band; and General Middleton rode a white +horse. Never see such a grand sight in all my born days; they must have +been all of seven hundred and fifty men!" + +At the foot of another long hill Natalie expressed a wish to walk up; +and Garth helped her down. They set off briskly, ahead of the horses; +and for the first time found themselves free to talk to each other. + +"How good you have been to me!" she murmured. + +"Don't think of thanking me," said Garth, almost roughly. + +"If I had known how literally you would have to take care of me, I would +not have been so quick to ask you." + +"It was nothing, really." + +"Nothing, you mean to what is before us?" she asked quickly. + +"I look for nothing worse," he said. + +"Perhaps my appearance is too conspicuous," she suggested with a +humility new to her. + +"A little, perhaps," Garth admitted. + +"What shall I do?" she said. "I have nothing else." + +"At the Landing I will dress you in a rough sweater, and a felt hat +strapped under your chin," he said with a smile. + +Natalie was aggrieved. "I like to look nice," she protested. + +"You would--even then," said poor Garth. + +She changed the subject. "What a gross beast that big man is!" she said +strongly. + +"Poor devil!" said Garth unconsciously. He understood from his own +feelings a little of what Nick was going through. + +Natalie turned a surprised face on him. "Are you sorry for him?" she +demanded. + +"A little." + +"Why?" + +"Well--I think perhaps he never saw any one like you before," he said +quietly. + +"But he _hates_ you!" + +"Naturally!" + +"Why?" she demanded again--and was immediately sorry she had spoken. + +Garth looked away. "He thinks I am--I am more than I am," he said +oracularly. + +She affected not to hear this. "What shall we do about him?" she asked. + +"He won't trouble us after the Landing," said Garth. "He is bound down +the river to Lake Miwasa, while we go up to Caribou Lake." + +"It's a precious good thing for me I didn't start off alone," she said +feelingly. + +"I'm glad if I've won your confidence a little," said Garth hanging his +head. + +This meant: "Aren't you going to tell me about yourself?" Natalie's +mystery had been a thorn in his flesh all the way along the road. He +was ashamed to speak of it, for seeming to imply a doubt of her; but +he couldn't help approaching it in this roundabout way. + +Natalie understood. "I'll tell you now, gladly," she said at once. "But +not here; there isn't time. We have to get in directly." + +This was precisely what Garth desired her to say. He longed for her to +want to tell him; but for the story itself, he dreaded it, and was quite +willing to have the telling deferred. + +Later in the day they reached Nell's house, quite a fine edifice built +with lumber instead of the usual logs. Natalie, true to her word, +allowed herself to be shown through; and did not stint her admiration +of Nell's treasures. When they drove on, she looked back with a genuine +feeling for the old girl, who was so anxious to please. They left her +standing in the doorway in her finery, with the sullen, black-browed +bravo slouching beside her. + +The way became very much rougher; and Garth was glad of Natalie's having +greater comfort on the front seat. About five o'clock they climbed their +last hill. At the top Old Paul, pulling up his horses, swept his whip +with an eloquent gesture over the magnificent prospect lying below. + +"All the water this side goes to the Arctic," he said. + +Looking over a wealth of greenery, away below them they saw the mighty +Miwasa River coming eastward from the mountains, make its southernmost +sweep, and shape a course straight away for the North. The Miwasa river! +There was magic in the name; they gazed down at it with a feeling akin +to awe. Off to the left lay the roofs of the Landing, farthest outpost +of civilization. + +Presently they were rattling down the steep village street at a great +pace, traces hanging slack; past the factor's house, the "Company's" +store, the blacksmith shop and the "French outfit"; with a dash and +a clatter that brought every inhabitant running to the hotel. Most of +them were already there; for the arrival of the mail is the event of the +week. Old Smiley swept up to the gallery at Trudeau's with a flourish +worthy of coaching's palmiest days. The passengers alighted; and again +the girl with the green wings in her hat became the cynosure of every +eye. Garth delivered her into the comfortable arms of Mrs. Trudeau, who +took her upstairs. Turning back into the general room, he asked the +first man he met where the Bishop lived. + +"Up the street and to the left a piece," was the reply. "But say--" + +"Well?" said Garth. + +"The Bishop and his party started up the river two days ago." + +Garth, turning, saw Nick Grylls listening with an evil grin. + + + + +V + +AT MIWASA LANDING + + +Miwasa Landing is the jumping-off place of civilization; here, at +Trudeau's, is the last billiard table, and the last piano; here, the +wayfarer sleeps for the last time on springs, and eats his last "square" +ere the wilderness swallows him. It is at once the rendezvous, the place +of good-byes, and the gossip-exchange of the North; here, the incomer +first apprehends the intimate, village spirit of that vast land, where a +man's doings are registered with more particularity than in the smallest +hamlet outside. For where there are not, in half a million square miles, +enough white men to fill a room, or as many white women as a man has +fingers, each individual fills a large space in the picture. Away up in +Fort Somervell, three months' journey from Prince George, they speak of +"town" as if it were five miles off. + +And Trudeau's on the river bank, quite imposing with its three stories +and its gingerbread gallery, is the nucleus of it all. Trudeau's is a +reminder of the jolly bustling inns of a century ago. The traders, the +policemen, the mail-carriers, the rivermen and the freighters come and +go; each sits for a day or two in the row of chairs tipped back against +the wall--for no one is ever in a hurry in the North--gives his news, +if he be on the way "out"; takes it if he be coming "in"; and appoints +to meet his friends there next year. The commonest type of all is the +genial dilettante, the man who traps a little, prospects a little, grows +a few potatoes, and loafs a great deal. Trudeau's is also the eddy which +sooner or later sucks in the derelicts of the country, sons or brothers +of somebody, incredibly unshaven and down at heel; capitalists of +bluster and labourers with the tongue. + +Such was the crowd that witnessed Natalie's arrival open-mouthed; and +such the individuals that fastened themselves in turn on Garth, with +the determination of extracting a full explanation of the phenomenon. +Garth succeeded in avoiding at the same time giving offense and giving +information. But he could not prevent a fine podful of rumours from +bursting at the Landing, and scattering seeds broadcast over the North. + +He found a letter awaiting him from the Bishop. + + "I find," he wrote, "that Captain Jack Dexter's steamboat + will be going up the river to the Warehouse in the middle + of the week; and as my preparations are completed a day + or two earlier than I expected, I am starting on ahead + with my outfit. You will probably overtake us in the big + river, as we have to track all the way; but should you be + delayed, I will go on up the rapids; and will see that a + wagon is waiting for you at the Warehouse, to bring you + to me at Pierre Toma's house on Musquasepi. This will be + more comfortable for you, as all this first part of the + journey is tedious up-stream work." + +The good man little suspected when he wrote it what a quandary his kindly +note would throw Garth into. + +After supper, he and Natalie, sitting in the rigid little parlour +upstairs, talked it over; while Mademoiselle Trudeau, aged fifteen, sought +to entertain them by rendering effete popular songs on the famous piano. +From below came the rise and fall of deep-voiced talk, and the incessant +click of billiard balls. + +Natalie made a picture of adorable perplexity to Garth's eyes as she said: +"What would you advise me to do?" + +"How can I advise you?" he said, looking away; "I do not know all the +circumstances." + +"But I can't tell you now," she said appealingly. "Don't you see, my +reasons for going must not be allowed to influence our decision as to +whether I _can_ go?" + +Garth did not exactly see this; but unwilling to beg for her confidence, +he remained silent. + +"My trouble is," she continued presently, "that if we follow the Bishop +and overtake him, he'll virtually be obliged to take me; and I do not +wish to force myself on him." + +"As to that," Garth said, "one has to give and take in the North. It's not +like it is outside. Besides, we pay our own score you know; and carry our +own grub. I'll answer for the Bishop." + +"Then I see no reason why I should not go," she said. + +The journey with her stretched itself rosily before Garth's mind's eye; +but his instinct to take care of her made him oppose it. "There is me," +he said diffidently; "travelling alone with me, I mean. Even in the +North a girl is obliged to consider what people will say." + +Natalie shook her shoulders impatiently. "There's not the slightest +use urging reasons of propriety," she said resolutely. "As long as +my conscience is clear, I can't afford to consider it. This is too +important. It affects my whole life," she added in a deeper voice. +"There's something up there I have to find out!" + +Something in this made Garth's hopes lift up a little; for she did not +speak as one whose heart was in thrall. + +Mademoiselle Trudeau concluded her piece with an ear-tearing discord; +and turned, self-consciously inviting applause. + +"How well you play, dear!" said Natalie, the wheedler. "Isn't it nice +to have music away up here! Try something else." + +The performer, adoring Natalie, promptly turned her pig-tails to them +again, and attacked "Two Little Girls in Blue." Garth groaned. + +"Discourages listeners," remarked Natalie, indicating the curtained +doorway. + +"So," she continued presently, "if you haven't any better reasons to +urge against it, we'll consider the matter settled." + +"Couldn't I go for you?" asked Garth. + +She resolutely shook her head. "I have promised," she said. + +"It was a promise given in ignorance of the conditions," Garth persisted +with rough tenderness. "This wild country is no place for you. I could +not bear to see you wet and hungry and cold and tired, and all that is +before us--besides dangers we may not suspect." + +Natalie faced him with shining eyes. "Clumsy man!" she cried--but there +was tenderness in her scorn too. "Do you think this is persuading me not +to go? I'm not a doll; I won't spoil with a little rough handling! If you +only knew how I longed to experience the real; to work for my living, to +get under the surface of things!" + +Garth, amazed and admiring of her bold spirit, was silenced. + +As they were parting for the night, she said: "As soon as the steamboat +casts off, and it's too late to turn back, I will tell you what I have +to do up there." + + * * * * * + +Next morning Garth sought an interview with Captain Jack Dexter of the +_Aurora Borealis_. At once proprietor, skipper and business manager of +his boat, and serenely independent of competition, he was a type new +to Garth. His single concession to sea-faring attire was a yachting cap +several sizes too small, perched on his spreading brown curls. His face +was red; his eyes anxious, blue and bulging. He had the unwholesome, +frenetic aspect of the patent medicine enthusiast, not uncommon in the +North. Garth interrupted him in a grave discussion of the relative +merits of "Pain Killer" and "Golden Discovery." + +"I may take a run up to the Warehouse," he said guardedly, in answer to +the question. "I'll let you know to-morrow." + +"Aren't you sure of going?" asked Garth in some dismay. + +"Never sure of nothing in this world," said Captain Jack, with a glance +around the circle, sure of applause. + +Garth bit his lip. "Haven't you freight to go up?" he asked quietly. + +"Plenty of freight offered me," said the skipper coolly. "Plenty to go +down-stream too." + +"But it's highly important I should know what you're going to do," said +Garth with increasing heat. + +Captain Jack cocked a wary eye at the sky, and spat. "No water in the +river," he said at length. + +"Then you're _not_ going," said Garth. + +"Didn't say so," said Captain Jack. "May rain shortly, and bring her up +an inch or so." + +The sky was clear and speckless as an azure bowl. "Do you mean I've got +to wait around here indefinitely on the bare chance of its raining?" +demanded Garth. + +"Told the Bishop I'd bring you up," said Captain Jack in his detached +way. "Reckon I can't break my word to the Church." + +"Well, why didn't you say so in the beginning?" said Garth, wondering if +this was a joke. "When will you be starting?" + +"Oh, to-morrow, maybe," said the skipper without suspecting the least +humour in the situation; "or Thursday--or Friday; whenever I can get the +boys together. You just stay around and I'll let you know." + +With this Garth was forced to be content. + +Next there was the business of laying in supplies from the "Company." +Garth tasted to the full the sweets of partnership, as he and Natalie +gauged each other's appetite, and made their calculations. Paul Smiley +accompanied them in the capacity of expert adviser; but the old man was +inclined to be scandalized at the extravagant luxuries Garth insisted on +adding to the five great staples of Northern travel; viz., bacon, flour, +baking-powder, tea and sugar. Garth must have besides, canned vegetables +and milk for Natalie; also cocoa, jam and fresh butter. The whole was +contained in four goodly boxes. + +"Mercy!" exclaimed Natalie. "Fancy our two little selves getting outside +all that! Picture us waddling back to civilization." + +Garth also made the necessary rougher additions to her wardrobe; and +bought her a rifle of small calibre. + +In the afternoon, with strict injunctions to Natalie to remain indoors +during his absence, he set off to a half-breed cabin a mile up the +river, to obtain a supply of moccasins for both. Mademoiselle Trudeau +undertook to bear Natalie company at home. + +He had not been gone long before the Convent-bred child with her precise +phrases began to get on the nerves of the irrepressible Natalie. At the +same time the exquisite clarity of the Northern summer air, the delicate +mantling blue overhead, and the liquid sunshine on the foliage all began +to tempt her sorely. Across the road a field of squirrel-tail, dimpling +silkily in the breeze, stretched to the river bank, and she saw she +could cross it without passing any house. Natalie was never the one to +resist such a lure; she sent the child away on an imaginary errand, and +slipping out by the side door, crossed the field, and gained the bank +without, as she fondly hoped, having been seen by the row of gossipers +with their chairs tipped back against the front of the building. +Rejoicing in her freedom, she followed the path Garth had taken along +the edge of the bank, thinking how pleasant it would be to surprise him +coming home, and planning how she would cajole him into forgiving her +disobedience. The thought of Garth's being angry with her caused a +strange, vague little thrill, half dismay, half pleasure. + +Natalie had not escaped the hotel unobserved; as she went leisurely +waving her banners along the river path, a gross, burly figure with +downcast head followed, pausing when she paused, and taking advantage +of the taller bushes for cover. It was not characteristic of Natalie +to look behind her; she continued her zigzag course all unconscious; +sweeping her skirts through the grass, and ever and anon whistling +snatches like a bird. Presently finding herself among wild raspberry +bushes laden with fruit, she gave herself up to delicate feasting; +searching among the leaves bright-eyed, like a bird, and popping the +berries into her mouth--the raspberries paled beside the bloomy lips +that parted to receive them. At last she plumped down on a stone beside +the path; and gazing up the unknown river of her journey, thought her +birdlike thoughts. + +Nick Grylls appeared around the bushes. For the fraction of a second +she was utterly dismayed; then sharply calling in her flying forces, she +nodded politely, as one nods to a passer-by; and looked elsewhere. + +But the man had no intention of taking the hint. He had the grace to +pull off his hat--the first time he had bared his head to a woman in +many a long day--and he paused, awkwardly searching in his mind for the +ingratiating thing to say. What he finally blurted out was not at all +what he intended. + +"You think I'm a coarse, rude fellow, Miss," he said with the air of a +whipped schoolboy. + +Natalie's thoughts beat their wings desperately against her head. Here, +indeed, was a situation to try the pluck of a highly civilized young +lady. What should she do? What should she say? What tone should she +take? In the end she was quite honest. + +"You have never given me any reason to think otherwise," she said. Her +secret agitation peeped out in the added briskness of her tones. + +Grylls incessantly turned his hat brim in his fat freckled hands. "I am +not as bad as you think," he said dully. "Somehow I seem to have a worse +look when I am by you." + +Natalie let it go at that. + +"I ain't had early advantages," he continued. "I never learned how to +dress spruce; and talk good grammar. But a man may have good metal in +him for all that." + +"Certainly!" said Natalie crisply. + +"There ain't no reason why we shouldn't be friends," he said humbly. + +"None at all," she returned. "Neither do I see any reason why we should +be." + +"But say, I can help you up here," he said eagerly. "I know the ropes. I +have the trick of mastering the breeds. I have money in the country. I +can do what I like." + +"You wouldn't want me to simulate friendship for the purpose of using +you?" said Natalie. + +"Yes, I would," he sullenly returned. "I'd take your good will on any +terms." + +The difficulties of her position, it seemed to her, were increasing at +a frightful ratio. The fact that Garth might at any moment come face to +face with Grylls only added to her fears. But she gave Grylls no sign +of the weakness within. + +"I can't make believe to be friendly," she said briefly. "I give it +gladly when I can." + +"Show me what to do to be friends with you," he pleaded, not without +eloquence. "I have the time and the money and the determination to do +it--anything!" + +But it was impossible Natalie should feel the slightest pity for a +creature of so gross an aspect. "I cannot show you," she said coolly. +"You must teach yourself." + +Grylls began to be encouraged by his own rising passion. "All I ask is +a fair show," he said in a more assured voice. "Give me a chance as well +as this squib of a reporter you picked up in Prince George. What can +_he_ do for you? Let me take you to the Bishop. I can carry his whole +party through the country at a rate he never thought of!" + +Downright anger now came to Natalie's aid. "My arrangements are made," +she said curtly. "I do not care to change them." + +Grylls's eyes quailed again under the direct look of hers; and a deeper +red crept under his skin. His tone changed. "If I can't help, I can +hinder," he muttered. + +"Threats will not help you," said Natalie, instantly and clearly. + +"You don't know what you're up against," he continued, still muttering, +"I tell you I carry the breeds in my pocket. No white man knows them but +me. I can hold you up wherever I please. I've only to give the word and +you'll starve on the trail--you and your reporter!" + +Natalie arose. For the moment she was too angry to speak. The man looked +on her flashing beauty; and in the madness of his desire to possess it +he forgot his awe of her. + +"God! How beautiful you are!" was forced from his breast like a groan. +"You poison a man's blood!" His speech came in thick blurts like +clotting blood. "What business have you got up here? This is no country +for the likes of you!... I was a strong man before you came; and since +I looked at you I'm sick ... sick ... sick ... you've stolen my manhood +out of me! Don't you owe me common civility in return? I'd fawn like a +dog for a kindly look!... But don't you provoke me too far--don't think, +because maybe I can't meet your eye, I couldn't crush you--or have +others do it! You and your damned follower!... Oh, that would give me +ease!" + +Natalie's breath came like a frightened bird's. Flight she realized +was dangerous--but it was as dangerous to stay; and how could she stay +listening to such impieties! Nick Grylls's own bulk cut off her retreat +in the direction of the settlement--but somewhere in the other direction +was Garth. She sized up the man in a darting glance; his swollen bulk +promised shortness of breath. + +He made a move toward her. "What's to prevent me from taking you now?" +he muttered. + +Natalie, turning, fled along the path; running like a bird with +incredibly swift, short steps. + +Nick Grylls plunged after her, passion lending his great bulk lightness +and speed. The path, which is used for tracking boats up-stream, skirted +the extreme edge of a high-cut-bank bordering the river. On the one hand +a single false step would have precipitated them to the beach twenty-five +feet below; on the other hand the branches of an impenetrable undergrowth +scourged their faces as they ran. Here and there the rain had worn deep +fissures, across which leaped the nymph Natalie, with the panting Silenus +close at her heels. She was running desperately over unfamiliar ground, +knowing nothing of what lay ahead. She got away quicker than he; but he +gained on her. The pursuer always has the advantage, in that he can +measure his distance; and the quarry must make the pace. + +The scene flashed past her like the half-sensed panorama of a hideous +dream. She dared not look over her shoulder, but she could hear his +heavy steps falling closer and closer. "He can run faster than I," she +thought; and a dreadful sinking clutched her heart. She hazarded a +fearful glance at the water below. The man's fingers clawed at her back. +In another instant she would have leapt over; but she felt the ground +tremble and give under her feet. She staggered, and with a desperate +leap, gained a firm foothold beyond. Behind her, with a rumble and a +hissing roar a great section of the bank half slid, half fell to the +river beach beneath, carrying down bushes, trees, stones--and her +pursuer. + +She ran on without a backward look. In her thankful heart she could now +spare a glance of pity for the half-crazed man; but it did not carry her +to the length of stopping to see what had befallen him. + +A little way farther on, the bank flattened down into a little valley, +which conveyed a brook to the river. A path struck inland here. Natalie, +leaping from stone to stone across the stream, suddenly saw Garth's +figure heave into sight around a bend in the path. Instantly she +slackened her pace; and her hands went to her breast to control the +agitation of the tenant there. She did not intend he should learn what +had happened. + +So when they met she was perfectly quiet; but her eyes were luminous, +and her voice had a new dove-like note. To tell the truth, at the sight +of him striding along, pipe in mouth, with an interested eye for all +that showed; so cool and strong; so honest and clean and young; after +what she had just been through, Natalie was hard put to it to forbear +casting herself on his breast forthwith, and letting her heart still +itself there. + +He instantly started to scold her for venturing so far alone. She was +glad to be scolded. She could not help slipping her arm through his +for a moment, just to feel that he was there. + +"I will be good," she murmured in a moved, vibrant tone, like the deepest +note of the oboe. "Hereafter I will do exactly as you say." + +Garth trembled at the sound; and was silent in the excess of his +happiness. + +Returning, upon reaching the path up the valley, she made him turn inland; +and they pursued a roundabout course back to the hotel. Nick Grylls, +unhurt except as to certain abrasions of the countenance, and furiously +sullen, had reached there before them. During the rest of their stay he +carefully avoided them; but Garth was more than once conscious of the +venomous little eyes fixed upon him. + + + + +VI + +NATALIE TELLS ABOUT HERSELF + + +The little stern-wheeler lay with her nose tucked comfortably in the +mud of the river bank; and a hawser taut between her capstan and a +tree. Every soul on board, except the three passengers, slept. Garth and +Natalie were sitting in the corner of the upper deck astern, on the seat +which encircles the rail. The third passenger, a mysterious person, who +all unknown to the other two had been making it her business to watch +them, observing where they sat, had softly entered the end stateroom; +and with her head at the window, stretched her ears to hear their talk. + +The _Aurora Borealis_, after the loss of three precious days, during +which Captain Jack endlessly backed and filled, and the water in the +river steadily fell, had finally cast off that afternoon; and after +ascending twenty miles or so, tied up to the bank to await the dawn. +It was now about ten; overcast above; velvety dark below; and still +as death. For the first time Garth and Natalie missed, with a catch in +the breath, the faint, domestic murmur that rises on the quietest night +from an inhabited land. It was so still they could occasionally hear the +stealthy fall of tiny, furry feet among the leaves on shore. The trees +kept watch on the bank like a regiment of shades at attention. The +moment provided Natalie's opportunity to fulfil her promise. + +"I will try to be very frank," she began by saying, "I am so anxious you +should not misunderstand. You have been so good to me!" + +"Please don't," said Garth uncomfortably. "Take me for granted as a man +would. I shall never be at ease with you, if you're going to be thanking +me at every opportunity!" + +"I'll try not to," she said meekly. The darkness swallowed the smile and +the shine her eyes bent on him. + +If Garth expected a sad beginning he was immediately undeceived. +Natalie's invincible spirits launched her gaily on her tale. + +"I've lived all my days in a Canadian city back East," she began; +"too big a place to be simple; and too small to be finished. I never +appreciated the funny side of it until I travelled. You have no idea +of the complacency of such a place, the beautiful self-sufficiency of +the people; you should hear what a patronizing tone they take toward +the outside world! But they have their good points; they're kind and +friendly with each other; and not nearly so snobbish as the people of +little places are generally pictured. Everybody that is anybody knows +all the other somebodies so well, it's like one great family. My people +have lived there for ages; and so everybody knows me; and half of them +are my cousins. + +"We've always been as poor as church mice," she continued in a tone of +cheerful frankness. "We live in a huge house that is gradually coming +down about our ears; the drawing-room carpet is full of holes; the old +silver is shockingly dented and the Royal Worcester all chipped. There +are other household secrets I need not go into. People are kind enough +to make believe not to notice--even when they get a chunk of plaster on +the head. + +"Everybody says it's my father's fault; they say he's a ne'er-do-weel; +and even unkinder things. But he's such a dear boy"--Natalie's voice +softened--"as young, oh! years younger than you! And everything +invariably goes wrong with his affairs," she continued briskly; "but he +is always good-tempered, and never neglects to be polite to the ladies. +My mother has been an invalid for ten years. We do all we can for her; +but, poor dear! she isn't much interested in us! Can you blame her? And +I have half a dozen dear, bad little brothers and sisters. We're all +exactly alike; we fight all the time and love one another to distraction. + +"You see it's not a picture of a well-ordered household I'm drawing you. +Indeed it's a mystery how we ever get along at all; but we do, somehow; +and no one the worse. Fortunately there seems to be something about us +that people like. They just wag their heads and laugh and exclaim, 'Oh, +the Blands!' and don't expect anything better of us. Conversations are +started when some one comes in saying: 'Have you heard the latest about +the Blands?' I'm sure they would be disappointed if we ever reformed. +People have always been so kind to me"--Natalie's voice deepened +again--"Ah! so _very_ kind, it makes my heart swell and my eyelids +prickle when I think of it. I've been carried everywhere in luxury +like an heiress," she briskened, "and there is no doubt I have been +thoroughly spoiled." + +Natalie paused awhile here; and Garth apprehended that, the prologue +finished, the story was about to commence. + +"A man, the first, fell in love with me when I was eighteen--six years +ago," she presently resumed. "Of course I do not count all the dear, +foolish boys before that--they say in Millerton that the boys attach +themselves to me to finish their education--but that's all foolishness. +I'm so very fond of boys! I could laugh and hug them all! They're so--so +theatrical! But the man was different; he was fifteen years older +than I; and alas! another ne'er-do-weel! He had been a football and a +cricketing hero; he was very good-looking in a worn-out, dissipated kind +of a way. He had gone to the bad in all the usual ways I believe--even +dishonesty; though I didn't learn that until long afterward." The fun +had died out of Natalie's voice now. "It's a miserable, ordinary kind +of a story, isn't it?" she said deprecatingly. "Most girls go through +with it safely; but I--well I was the simple sprat that was caught! + +"He was returning to Millerton after a long absence," she went on; "his +people were well known there. He appeared to be perfectly mad about me; +and my poor little head was quite turned. His wickedness was vague and +romantic; for no one ever explained anything to me of course; and the +idea of leading him back into the paths of righteousness was quite +distractingly attractive. I had no one to put me right, you see--but +perhaps I wouldn't have listened if I had had. + +"I won't weary you with all the silly details of the affair. My cheeks +are burning now at the thought of my colossal folly. He won his mother +over to his side. He was an only child; and she would have chopped off +her hand to serve him. She joined her persuasions to his. He swore if I +married him he would go out West, turn over that everlasting new leaf, +and make his fortune. He wanted me to marry him before he went, so that +he could feel sure of me. I did balk at that; I thought my word ought +to be sufficient; but he and his mother pleaded and pleaded with me. +Together, they were too much for me; and so, at last, I gave in. I +thought I would be saving him; I thought I loved him--it is so +easy for children to fool themselves! I married him." + +Natalie paused; and with the ceasing of her voice, the great silence +of the North woods seemed to leap between them, thrusting them asunder. +Garth's heart for the journey was gone. He was thankful for the merciful +darkness that hid his face. + +Presently she resumed in the toneless voice of one who tells what cannot +be mended: "We were married in Toronto. His mother and the clergyman +were the only witnesses. The instant the words were spoken, the whole +extent of the hideous mistake I had made was revealed to me--why is +it we see so clearly _then_? We went direct from the ceremony to the +station, where he boarded his train for the West. I have not laid eyes +on him since. His name is Herbert Mabyn--and that, of course, is my +legal name, which I have never used. It was his mother you met in +Prince George." + +Garth drew a deep breath; and carefully schooled his voice. "Is he +alive?" he asked. + +"Yes," she said. "My journey is to find him." + +"Was it necessary for _you_ to come?" he asked. + +"There was no one else," she said. "No one but Mrs. Mabyn and he and I +know of the marriage. There were many reasons--and complicated ones. I +do wish to be frank with you; but I scarcely know how to explain. Only +one thing is clear to me; I _had_ to come; or never know peace again. + +"I have a conscience," she went on presently; "a queer, twisted thing; +and with every man that became fond of me, thinking I was free, it hurt +me more--though perhaps it did _them_ no real harm. And then there was +Mrs. Mabyn--how can I explain to you about her?" + +"I think I understand," Garth put in. + +"She has been very kind to me all these years; but it was a kind of +tyrannical kindness, too--it was as if she was tying me to her with +one chain of kindness after another. And I wished to live my own life! +And it seemed to me that the only way in which I could discharge my +obligations to her, and win my freedom, was by doing this thing, which +she so ardently desires. She believes, you see, that I am the only one +who can save him." + +Garth muttered something which sounded uncomplimentary to Mrs. Mabyn. + +"But I am really fond of her," Natalie said quickly. "She has a mortal +disease," she added; "one must make allowances for that." + +"Where is _he_?" Garth asked. + +"His last letter, eight months ago, was post-marked Spirit River +Crossing," she said. "We gathered from it that he had a place somewhere +near there. We know very little. At first he wrote often and cheerfully; +he seemed to be getting on: but later, he moved about a great deal; his +letters came at longer intervals; and the tone of them changed. His +mother thinks his health has broken down. I am to find out; and to +save him, if I can." + +There was a long silence here. Garth could not speak for the fear of +betraying an indignation which could only have hurt her; and Natalie +was busy with her own painful thoughts. + +"There is something else," she resumed at last in a very low tone. +"I have not yet been quite frank with you--and I do so wish to be! You +must not think I am undertaking this purely on his mother's account; +for there is a selfish reason too. In the bottom of my heart there is +a hope--perhaps it is a wicked hope--but if you knew how this collar has +galled me!" She stopped; and then quickly resumed. "I married this man +with my eyes open; and I will do my part by him--but if--" her voice +fell again--"if it has not helped him; if in spite of my honest efforts +to save him, and all the letters I wrote, if he has fallen lower than +ever, and has ceased to struggle--then I will consider my part done!" + +There seemed to be no more to say. Garth's heart was beating fast; +and he was longing to tell her that he understood, and that he loved +and admired her for what she had told him, but he could not tell her +coldly, and he would not tell her warmly. As for Natalie, she waited +breathlessly for his first word; mightily desiring his approval, but +too proud to ask it. Finally she could stand the suspense no longer +and pride succumbed. It took her a long time to get the question out. + +"Are you--are you sorry you volunteered to take me?" she faltered. + +"No!" cried Garth in a great voice. + +She found his hand in the darkness; and gave it a swift, grateful +squeeze. "Good night!" she whispered; and ran to her stateroom. + +Garth, with his pipe and the mighty stillness to bear him company, +remained on deck until dawn. In the spirit of the North he discovered +something akin to his own soul; the solitude and the stillness braced +him to deny himself manfully what was not manfully his to have. In the +act of relinquishing Natalie, he felt, what he would not have supposed +possible, a great, added tenderness for her. Before he went in, his +sober cheerfulness had returned; but in the morning he was somehow +more mature. + + + + +VII + +MARY CO-QUE-WASA'S ERRAND + + +At noon next day the little _Aurora Borealis_ was reclining drunkenly +on a shoal in the river at the foot of Caliper island, sixty miles above +the Landing, and fifteen below the Warehouse. This had been the place of +Captain Jack's gloomy forebodings all the way up. The river spread wide, +shallow and swift on either side the island, and neither one channel nor +the other would permit their ascent. The _Aurora_ was having a little +breathing space on the shoal, while Captain Jack and St. Paul, the big +half-breed pilot, debated below on what to do. + +The three passengers looked on from the upper deck. Natalie and Garth +tacitly ignored any change in their relation to-day; and no reference +was made to Natalie's story. They seemed, if anything, more friendly +with each other; nevertheless Constraint, like a spectre standing +between them, intercepted all their communications. + +The third passenger was a half-breed woman nearing middle age, clad in a +decent black print dress, and a black straw hat, under the brim of which +depended a circlet of attenuated, grizzled curls. Her face, like that +of all the natives in the presence of whites, expressed a blank, in her +case a mysterious blank. She was silent and ubiquitous; whichever way +they looked, there she was. Captain Jack had mentioned to Garth that +her name was Mary Co-que-wasa. The off-hand shrug that accompanied the +information, between men, was significant. Garth resented it; and his +sympathies were enlisted. He had made several efforts to talk to the +woman, only to be received with a stupid shake of the head. He thought +she could not speak English. Natalie, more keenly intuitive, took an +active dislike to her. "I'm sure she listens to us," she had said. + +Meanwhile, preparations were undertaken to hoist the _Aurora Borealis_ +by main strength up the rapids. The "skiff," as they whimsically +termed the steamboat's great, clumsy tender--its official name of +"_sturgeon-head_" was more descriptive--was brought alongside; and a +half-mile of hawser, more or less, patiently coiled in the bottom. The +end of this rope was made fast on board the steamer, and the skiff, +pushing off, was poled and tracked up the rapids with heart-breaking +labour, paying out the hawser over her stern as she went. The other end +of the rope was made fast to a great tree on the shore above, and, the +skiff returning, the inboard end was turned about the capstan. Steam +was then turned on, and with a great to-do of puffing and clanking, the +_Aurora_ started to haul herself up hand over hand, as one might say. + +Alas! she had no sooner raised her head than the hawser parted in the +middle with a report like a small cannon, and she settled dejectedly +back on the shoal. + +Captain Jack refreshed himself with a pull at the Spring Tonic bottle; +and started all over. A newer piece of hawser was produced, and the +skiff despatched once more on its laborious errand. The loose end was +finally picked up and knotted, and the capstan started again. But no +better success followed, as soon as the full strain came upon it, the +rope burst asunder in a new place. After this they went around the other +side of the island and tried there. Each attempt consumed an hour or +more, but time is nothing in the North. + +At five o'clock, after the failure of the fourth attempt, Captain Jack +threw up his hands, and turned the _Aurora's_ nose down-stream. The +little boat, which had sulked and hung back in the rapids all day, +picked up her heels, and hustled down with the current, like a wilful +child that obtains its own way at last. + +Garth, in dismay, hastened to Captain Jack. + +"Where are we going?" he demanded. + +Captain Jack cocked an eye, and said with his air of gloomy fatalism: +"The Landing's the only place for me." + +Garth became hot under the collar, as he always did in dealing with the +pessimistic skipper. "But we're only fifteen miles from the Warehouse!" +he cried. + +"Might as well be fifteen hundred," said Captain Jack, "for all I can +get you there." + +"Is there no house anywhere near?" + +The skipper looked at him with gloomy scorn. "Say, do you think you're +in a rural neighbourhood?" he inquired. + +"I asked you a question," Garth repeated. "Is there any one living near +here?" + +Captain Jack shrugged. "Sometimes there's breeds at Bear Portage below," +he said. "But not in the summer." + +"Is there no road?" + +"Not what _you'd_ call a road. How would you carry your outfit?" + +This was a poser, Garth could not deny. "Where are the breeds in the +summer?" he demanded. + +Captain Jack flung up his hands. "God knows!" he said. "Pitching +somewheres about between the East and the West!" + +Garth set his jaw. "Well, there's some way of reaching the Warehouse," +he said, "and I'm going to find it. You stop at Bear Portage, as you +call it, and I'll see what I can do." + +"Sure!" said Captain Jack hopelessly. "As long as you like--But you'll +never make it!" he added with an atrabilious eye. "Never in God's world! +You better take my advice and get out of the country while you can!" + +Garth turned on his heel, and Captain Jack revisited his stateroom for +consolation. Here, two shelves at the foot of his berth contained his +pharmaceutical stock in ancient, torn and fly-specked wrappers. He +bought every new variety of remedy he heard of with the ardour of a +collector. One of his most serious occupations was to lie in bed in +the morning, making up his mind what to begin the day on. Endless and +ingenious were the combinations he made. + +They tied up at Bear Portage and had supper. Afterward, three breed boys +with their scent for happenings in the bush, as unerring and mysterious +as the buzzard's scent for carrion, turned up from nowhere, and at the +same time a fourth came nosing under the bank in a crazy dugout filled +with grass. So soft was the arrival of the last that Garth was not aware +of it, until he happened to catch sight of Mary Co-que-wasa deep in a +whispered consultation with the paddler. Finding Garth's eyes upon her, +Mary, with a hasty word to the boy, embarked, and the canoe's nose was +turned up-stream. As a possible means of transport later, Garth called +after the boy; but he only paddled the faster. The incident caused Garth +a vague uneasiness. + +In the other three he found a means, such as it was, of extricating them +from their dilemma. He learned through St. Paul, who interpreted, that +there was a camp of Indians engaged in cutting wild hay, seven miles +off, and that a wagon and team could be got there next morning, to carry +them and their goods to the Warehouse. At the mention of seven miles, +Garth looked dubiously at Natalie, but she stoutly averred her ability +to do it twice if necessary, and since nothing better offered, Garth +hired the boys to show the way and carry the baggage. + +The _Aurora Borealis_ presently backed off, and blithely kicking up the +water astern, disappeared down the river. Her going out severed their +last bond with the world of civilization and henceforth they must fend +for themselves in the wilderness. Natalie looked around at the grim, +empty woods, and at the strange, alien boys who were to conduct them; +and instinctively put out her hand to Garth. + +The eldest and smartest of the breeds was a beady-eyed youth answering +to the name of Pake. When the _Aurora_ passed out of sight his demeanour +changed. It was not that he became openly insolent, but what was harder +for Garth to deal with, he was blandly and blankly indifferent to the +whites. Garth inwardly fumed, and there was a heavy weight of anxiety, +too, for Natalie. Pake constructed packing harness out of rope, and +divided all their goods into five lots, of which four were of about +equal weight, and the fifth lighter. This one Garth supposed was for +Natalie, though he thought it too heavy, but to his astonishment he +learned Pake intended the light pack for himself, and one of the others +for Natalie. Upon Garth's vigorous objections, Pake coolly added the +greater part of Natalie's load to Garth's. + +Hampered as he was by his augmented pack, Garth still managed to carry +his rifle across his arm. And yet St. Paul, who interpreted for him, had +assured him these were good boys and would treat him well. St. Paul was +right, when Garth had been in the country longer he learned this was +simply the breed way. Only superior, or at least equal, numbers will +impress them, and then they are obsequious enough in good sooth. + +Whatever Natalie thought of their situation, she put on a bold air. As +they started Indian file, under the great trees in the gathering dusk, +the three swarthy youths in advance bowed under their packs: "Look!" +she cried. "Isn't it like the frontispiece to a book of adventure!" + +The breeds inherit from the red side of the house a shuffling half-trot, +produced with steady shoulders and rolling hips, that is a good deal +faster than it looks. Natalie with her tiny bundle had much ado to keep +up, and Garth under his, plodded doggedly behind, with breaking neck and +shoulders. The breeds, careless of their fate, never once looked behind. +Garth had to keep them in sight, or instantly lose the faint trail in +the darkness. + +After several miles of this, without warning, the breeds simultaneously +cast their packs on the ground, and took a rest. Every move these strange +creatures made was unexpected. Garth laboriously ridding himself of his +burden, proceeded to read them a severe lecture on the necessity of +accommodating their pace to the lady's for the rest of the way. It +was received with stolid, uncomprehending stares. + +Among themselves they gossiped freely enough, and from the frequent +recurrence of the word _moon-i-yas_, Garth knew that he and Natalie were +the subject of it all. The discomforting thought did not fail to suggest +itself that they might be hatching a plot in the very presence of their +intended victims. Their outfit, Garth reflected, must seem a very +fortune to the ragged breeds. He watched them closely. + +Presently they set off again as fast as ever, whereupon Garth did as he +should have done at first, lost his temper, and swore at them roundly. +Pake looked around with a gleam of awakened intelligence, and slackened +his pace. After a brief consultation, Pake and another set off in +advance with their share of the goods, leaving the third boy to guide +the feebler steps of the two _moon-i-yas_. Garth wondered if they would +ever see Pake and the boxes again. + +It was a long seven miles; and absolute darkness clothed the lofty +aisles of the pine trees long before they finished passing through; +and beyond there were interminable, misty meadows of wild grass to be +crossed. Garth could no longer distinguish any sign of a trail; but the +breed bent steadily ahead. Once or twice an owl whirred suddenly low +over their heads; and somewhere far off a loon guffawed insanely. In +the end their guide, to cheer his own soul, lifted up his voice in the +strident, unearthly chant of the Crees; and it only needed this to add +the last touch of unreality to their eerie journey. They began to feel +like spirits after death, hurried in the darkness they knew not whither. + +At last a bright light flared suddenly across the hay marsh; and from +their guide's joyful exclamation, they gathered that it marked the end +of their journey. Fire was something human and known; and amazingly +cheering. They covered the last lap at a brisk pace. + +Five tepees, faintly phosphorescent with interior fires, stood in a line +where the pine trees bounded the hay marsh. Garth's mind was relieved to +find Pake waiting with the balance of the outfit intact. The fire they +had seen was from an armful of brush lighted for a beacon to guide +them. The people were all within. The three breed boys dived into the +principal tepee without ceremony, leaving Garth and Natalie standing +rather foolishly outside. They were evidently expected to follow; for +presently a head was stuck inquiringly outside; and what they took +for an invitation to enter was delivered in Cree. + +"Let us go in," whispered Natalie. "I'm crazy to see what it's like!" + +Without more ado, she lifted the flap which covered the entrance, and +crawled, blinking, into the light, Garth close at her heels. + +A fire was built on the ground in the centre of the tepee; and the +smoke, filling the apex, finally found itself out at the top. Around +the fire was grouped a motley, gipsy crew of all ages; the elders in the +place of honour above the fire; the children by the door. The firelight +threw their copper-coloured faces into strong relief; each wore an +expression of stolid expectation. Stolidity is the pet affectation +of the breed; at heart he is as garrulous as an ape. Like mongrels +generally, their manners were bad; a grunt served for welcome, and +places were coolly pointed out where they should sit. + +With that the guests were forthwith yielded up to discussion, while the +whole circle stared at them as if they were vegetables. In especial, the +children sitting across the fire, transfixed them with eyes, under each +mop of raven hair, as hard, bright and unwinking as the eyes of little +birds of prey. Young Pake sat at the right hand of the principal man--a +personage in frayed overalls and cotton shirt, with a scarlet handkerchief +about his temples--and called attention to the points of the two +_moon-i-yas_ like their showman. After all the elders had partaken of +tea, somebody recollected to thrust the battered pot at Garth and Natalie, +with two more than doubtful tin cups. They declined to partake. + +Garth was fuming. "Let's get out," he whispered. + +"Just a minute," Natalie begged, with bright eyes. "Never mind their +manners. It's all so strange and different!" + +Presently the preparations for retiring, which their arrival had +probably interrupted, were resumed. Hideously dirty and torn comforters +with protruding cotton filling, were spread on the ground; and +individuals began to roll up, feet to the fire. A woman indicated a +place for Garth and Natalie, side by side. When her meaning became +clear, they elaborately avoided each other's eyes, and Natalie beat +a hasty retreat outside. She never again expressed a wish to enter a +tepee. Garth, blushing to the roots of his hair, explained that they +preferred to sleep outside. The breeds let them go, with a shrug for +the queer ways of the _moon-i-yas_. + +Garth pitched the little tent he had for Natalie under the pine trees +at a short distance, and spread her bed on balsam boughs inside, with +tender hands. Natalie had suddenly half collapsed like a sleepy child. +She disappeared with a murmured good night, and was heard of no more +until morning. Garth spread his own bed under the stars, athwart the +door of the tent. He remembered, before turning in, that they lacked +water, and returned to the tepee to ask where it was to be procured. As +he entered the second time, his attention was arrested by the sound of +Mary Co-que-wasa's name on Pake's lips. + +"Who is Mary Co-que-wasa?" he asked, recollecting his previous +uneasiness. + +It appeared they could understand English well enough when they had a +mind to. The women visibly bridled, as women white or red will do, +when an erring ewe of the flock is mentioned in company. + +"Mary Co-que-wasa--one--bad--woman," said one, with the toneless +enunciation of a parrot. + +Another volunteered further information in Cree, in which the names +of Mary and Nick Grylls were coupled. + +"What's that?" demanded the startled Garth. + +"Mary Co-que-wasa--Nick Grylls's--woman," said his first informant. + +That was all he could get out of them. It did not conduce to the ease +of his first bed in the wilderness. + + * * * * * + +In the morning Natalie issued forth radiant; and Garth marvelled afresh +at the vision of urban perfection she made in the wilderness. He was +blowing the fire at the time; a typical tenderfoot's fire, all tinder +and no fuel, at which the breeds grinned askance. He soon learned +better. The breeds haunted their camp, enjoying their struggles with +that superior, insulting grin. Natalie, rolling up her sleeves, +announced her intention of cooking the breakfast, while Garth struck +camp. She who had never cooked under the best of conditions, had a +sad time of it balancing a frying pan on a fire of twigs, and keeping +the water in the pot long enough for it to come to a boil. They were +sad-looking lumps of bacon that she offered Garth, burnt withal, and +she gravely informed him there was a small slice of her thumb cooked up +with it. The cocoa, too, which obstinately refused to dissolve in a cold +element, was watery and full of lumps; however they still had civilized +bread and butter; and Garth would have eaten Paris green with gusto, if +offered with the same appealing smile. + +Afterward an ancient box wagon came rattling up, drawn by two champing +cayuses, guided by Pake, the "wise guy" of the bush. The duffle was +thrown in; Pake and one of his brethren coolly preëmpted the box, +allowing Garth and Natalie to dispose themselves as they chose among the +freight; and they set off at a smart pace across the gloriously sunny +meadow. + +It was rough enough in all conscience; and in spite of every effort to +brace themselves in the body of the wagon, they were shaken about like +corn in a hopper. But in the bush it was worse; there, though their pace +necessarily slackened, what with the holes, roots, stumps and fallen +trunks, they had seldom more than two wheels on the ground; and more +than once all that stood between them and a total capsize was Pake's +dexterous wrist. There were deep gullies, down which they precipitated +themselves, almost turning the wagon over on the horses' backs at the +bottom; and the climbs up the other side were heart-breaking. Pake was +often obliged to descend and chop; and on the whole progress was so +slow, Garth decided they might venture to insure their necks by walking. + +So he and Natalie strode on ahead, pausing here and there to pick the +delicious acrid mooseberries, and discussing their problems. Their talk +was chiefly of Nick Grylls. Natalie finally confessed what had happened +at the Landing. + +"You should have told me immediately," Garth said with a frown. + +Natalie looked "poor," as she called it. "I was afraid you'd send me +home," she said. "Now you can't," she added provokingly. + +Garth in turn told her what he had learned the night before. + +"Look here," said Natalie frankly; "what is the use of our hiding these +things from each other? Let us promise to tell everything that happens +after this. You wanted me to take you for granted as if I were a man. +You treat me like a man and I will." + +Garth smiled; and promised to try--just as she had done on a similar +occasion. + +"I wish I had some men's clothes," said Natalie stoutly; frowning as +girls always do, when they see themselves in that character. And in +the very act of wishing it, she forgot; and drove home her femininity. +Tipping a palmful of mooseberries into her mouth, "Wouldn't I look +nice!" she said with a sidewise sparkle. + +Garth, swallowing a sigh, smiled, and allowed that she would. + +They speculated on what Mary Co-que-wasa's errand might be; neither of +them was experienced in villainy. There, in the matter-of-fact daylight, +and, as Natalie said, on Sunday, August the fifth _now_, it was impossible +for the thought of one silent old woman to cause them much uneasiness; +besides, they presently expected to join forces with the Bishop's ample +party. Nothing nearly so simple and devilish as the actual truth occurred +to them; and it was brought home with the force of a blow, when they +reached the Warehouse. + +About eleven, a final descent brought them to the shore of a demure +little river flowing softly between high banks--Musquasepi, that they +were to know so well. Off to the left it merged into the muddier waters +of the "big" river. On the further shore stood the Warehouse they had +heard of so often. + +"Oh!" said Natalie. "Only another little log shack! Why I imagined +a--a----" + +"Five-story stone front?" suggested Garth. + +"Well, I don't know," she said, "but not that!" + +On the hither side was a solitary cabin; and in the doorway stood a +breed, outwardly of a different pattern from any they had seen--but +after all not so different. He was clad in decent Sunday blacks minus +the coat; and wore heavy-rimmed spectacles which he took off when he +really wished to see. On the table within was ostentatiously spread an +open Bible--the sharp-eyed Natalie took note that it was upside down. +This young man had a heavy expression of conscious responsibility, +before which the insouciant Pake visibly quailed. Pake indicated to +Garth that Ancose Mackey stood before him. + +"Where is the Bishop?" Garth demanded impatiently. + +Ancose blandly ignored the question for the present. "How-do-you-do, +sir," he said, like a mechanical doll, at the same time politely +extending his hand. + +Garth, shaking it hastily, repeated his question--but the young man was +not to be hurried over any of his self-pleasing formalities. + +"How-do-you-do, sir," he repeated to Natalie in precisely the same tone, +gravely shaking hands with her. + +Then they must needs come in and sit down, while their host made a +remark on the weather, and informed them, with an air, that he was +a very good reader. He wrapped his Bible in an end of comforter, and +pulling a doll's trunk from under the bed, put it away. Natalie had a +glimpse of the contents of the trunk; she said afterward, it was like +the inside of his head; beside the Bible, there were sundry pieces +of dried moose meat, a gaudy silk handkerchief, tobacco and a brass +watch-chain of the size of a small cable. He took out the latter +and put it on. + +Finally he appeared to hear Garth's question. "Bishop gone up little +river. Four days," he said. + +"Some one was to meet me here," said Garth confidently. + +An expression of genuine concern appeared under Ancose Mackey's solemn +mugging. "You Garth Pevensey?" he asked. + +Garth nodded. + +Ancose's English was not equal to the situation. He turned quickly to +Pake, squatting in the doorway, and exploded in Cree. Pake answered in +kind. It takes a roundabout course to say anything of an abstract nature +in Cree. Finally Garth heard the ominous name of Mary Co-que-wasa enter +into their discourse. + +"What is it?" he demanded impatiently. + +Ancose turned a long face to him. "Bad medicine here," he said. "Bishop +send ol' Pierre Toma down from head of rapids with him team to get you," +he went on, struggling manfully with his English. "Ol' Pierre stay to me +three days of waiting. Las' night come boy up big river in canoe. Boy +say to ol' Pierre, Cap'n Jack stuck at Caliper Island. Boy say, Cap'n +Jack want tell to Bishop, Garth Pevensey no can come. Garth Pevensey him +gone back outside." + +Garth and Natalie looked at each other in dismay. + +"Mary Co-que-wasa do this," added Ancose. "Him no speak never true." + +"Of course!" said Natalie. "She knew they wouldn't believe her, so she +sent the boy up, while she waited below." + +"Where's the boy?" Garth demanded. + +Ancose shrugged. "Gone down," he said. "No can catch now." + +"When did Pierre Toma go back?" + +"Early," said Ancose. "Five hours. Him horses fresh." + +"Maybe we can catch them yet!" cried Garth. "How much to the head of the +rapids, Pake?" + +Pake had ample English to make a good bargain. However, it was finally +struck; and cutting Ancose Mackey's elaborate adieus very short, they +took to the road again. + +They had twenty-five miles to cover. This part of the trail is +considerably used in freighting goods around the rapids, and in the +North it is considered a good road, though the travellers' bones bore +testimony to the contrary for several succeeding days. Pake, with the +prospect of a substantial bonus before him, did not spare his horses; +but the grass-fed beasts had already lost their enthusiasm for the +journey, and they made but indifferent progress. They were presently +compelled to stop a good hour and a half to let them rest and feed. + +Garth, though he strove to hide it, was now very anxious. They had laid +in only two weeks' provisions at the Landing; the trails seemed to be +narrowing both before and behind; and the North closing in. Moreover, he +suspected Nick Grylls was not the man to stoop to mere mischief-making; +and he wondered apprehensively what next move he contemplated. Looking +at his charming Natalie, he could conceive of a man stooping to any +villainy to possess her. However, he strove to keep her spirits up--and +his own--with the oft-expressed belief that the Bishop would not leave +Pierre Toma's until the next morning. + +Six o'clock had passed before they turned into the rough little clearing +on the river bank. The horses were done up. They had passed no other +sign of habitation the whole way. + +A bent old man with a snowy thatch came hobbling out of the cabin. + +His look of surprise, and the quietness of the place, answered Garth's +question before he put it. + +"Where is the Bishop?" + +The old man spread out his hands. "Gone. Four hours," he said. + + + + +VIII + +ON THE LITTLE RIVER + + +The next day found Garth and Natalie afloat on Musquasepi, headed alone +into the North. To be exact, only Natalie was afloat; she sat in the +stern of a tiny boat, keeping her off shore with a paddle devised +from the cover of a grub-box. Their outfit was piled amidships. Garth +harnessed to the end of a towing-line, plodded through the mud and over +the stones of the bank; climbing over fallen trees, and wading bodily +into the river, when necessary to drag his tow around a reef. + +Indecision had attacked Garth the night before--his responsibility was +so great! But Natalie had said, pressing the soft curve out of her lips: + +"_Any_ means to get ahead! If we have to crawl on hands and knees!" + +"Any _safe_ means," Garth amended. + +"Nick Grylls without doubt is counting on our being held up or driven +back," she said. "I have an idea he is not far behind us." + +It was Garth's own idea. + +"So we _must_ keep ahead!" + +"We must do whatever will best ensure your safety," Garth said doggedly. + +That bright red spot had appeared in either of Natalie's cheeks. "Bother +my safety!" she cried. "You will not allow me a shred of pluck! My +honour is engaged on this journey, just the same as if I were a man! I +said I'd do it; and I will! And if I hear another word about my comfort +or my safety, upon my word, I'll go on alone!" + +Garth had smiled at the threat, and given in; because on the whole it +seemed safer to press ahead, than to attempt to return. Secretly, he was +delighted with the spirit she showed. + +They had bought the boat from Pierre Toma, a breed of the more +self-respecting elder generation, in whose aged eyes still twinkled +the spirit of the voyageurs. Pake's magnanimous offer of the wagon and +team at only twice their real value was declined; inasmuch as the trail +was impassible for wagons beyond Toma's place, and ceased altogether at +Caribou Lake. They counted on the boat to carry them as far as the lake; +there, Pierre Toma had assured them, they might very likely overtake the +Bishop, if he were delayed by contrary winds, or christenings. In any +case Wall-eye Macgregor, said Pierre, had a strong boat at the lake that +could take them the eighty miles across. According to the haphazard +measurements of the breeds, Caribou Lake was twenty-five miles from +Pierre Toma's. + +Their own boat was but crazily hung together. Natalie had christened +it the _Flat-iron_ from its shape. It was of extremely simple +construction--two planks laid V-shape, with a shorter plank to close the +end, and boards nailed on for a bottom. Pierre Toma had said with pride, +there was no other boat in the country like it; and after using it a day +they were prepared to agree. It was designed to be propelled with a pole; +and they had started in that manner; but the _Flat-iron_ showed a perverse +disposition to travel in any direction save the desired one; and her +favourite manoeuvre under the impetus of the pole was to swing on her +centre without moving ahead at all. So Garth, after some study, had +constructed the tracking apparatus. + +It was a simple, park-like, little river with brown, foam-flecked water +flowing moderately through a country of small timber; and occasionally +there were natural meadows starred with flowers, where children in their +white dresses should have been picnicking, so intimate and peaceful it +seemed. None the less, it was the strange and lonely North into which +they were thrust, on their own unaided resources--like the babes in +the woods, Natalie said. They were abruptly cast back on the great and +simple verities of existence, where a man, be his wits never so sharp, +must be strong, to survive. Natalie looked at Garth's broad back, as he +slowly put the miles behind him one after another; and considering the +impatient vigour, with which he attacked the multitude of obstacles +strewn along the river, thanked God for sending such a one to her aid. + +The wonder of the unknown was in them both; and their breasts throbbed +a little, as they looked to see what each bend in the stream would have +to show. Only once in the course of the afternoon was there any reminder +of human life; a breed boy suddenly appeared on the bank, only to duck +behind a bush like a little animal, at the startling sight of white +strangers on the river. Tempted forth at last, in response to Garth's +question, he said they were twenty-five miles from the lake. Garth, who +had been doing his best for seven hours to reduce that distance, felt +distinctly aggrieved. + +Natalie insisted on camping early; for it had been a gruelling afternoon +on Garth. They chose a little promontory running into the water; and once +he had started a fire, and put up her tent, she made him lie at length +in the grass, where he stretched his limbs in delicious weariness, and +watched her settling the camp for the night and cooking the supper. She +was proud in the acquisition of a new accomplishment, that of baking +bannock before a fire in the open, learned that morning from Mrs. Toma. +The sight of her, bustling and cheerful, working for him, had a strange +and painful pleasure for him. They two, alone together in the wilderness, +cut off from all their kind!--the thought squeezed his heartstrings; she +was so much his own there--and so little! + +With the sinking of the sun, the awful stillness came stealing to +envelope them; and with insistent fingers seemed to press upon the very +drums of their ears. The little river flowed as stilly and darkly as the +water of Lethe at their feet; and the gaunt pines over the way stood +transfixed like souls that had drunk of it. Under the spell of the silence +they instinctively lowered their voices; and they broke sticks for the +fire with reluctance; so painful was the crash and reverberation up and +down. But there is always one sound that accompanies this stillness; +hardly breaks it, so smoothly it comes stealing on the suspended evening +air--the quavering howl of the coyote. They heard it throb miles off; +and it was answered from immeasurable distances side to side. Little by +little, attracted by the smell of cooking food, the animals drew closer, +and at last stationed themselves in a kind of wide-drawn circle about +their camp on both sides of the river, wailing back and forth like +souls inconceivably tormented. Natalie shuddered. + +"They are cowardly beasts," Garth said reassuringly. "They won't come +any closer." + +They spoke but little to each other. Night, solitude and that spirit of +woe abroad, filled them with a mighty longing for each other's arms. At +last she crept away to her tent. + +As the darkness deepened; and the clear-eyed Northern constellations +looked out, one by one, there were other sounds; a peevish growling and +whining at the top of the bank above them; a frantic scurry when Garth +heaved a stone. The better to ensure Natalie's peace of mind, he +weighted the tent all around with rocks; and heaped wood on the fire. + +Natalie stuck her head out of her cosy refuge. "I can't bear to have +you sleeping unprotected outside," she said anxiously. + +Garth's heart paused breathlessly at the thought of the alternative. He +sprang up and thrust the thought aside. "Nonsense! I'll be all right!" +he cried. "To please you I'll keep the fire going all night." + +Later, he rolled himself in his blankets across the door of her tent, +as before; and lay there smoking, gazing at the fire, picturing Natalie +asleep within; and assuaging his hungry heart as best he might with the +sound of her child-like breathing. + +The day broke gloriously; and shortly after sunrise they were on +their way again, under a sky as tenderly blue as palest turquoise, over +which were flung bright, silken, cloudy scarves. As they ascended, the +character of the river changed; the trees disappeared, giving place to +wide, flat meadows of blue grass as high as a man's waist; the current +slackened, and its course became more circuitous. Along the shores, +steep cut-banks alternated with muddy shoals; and a new set of +problems faced Garth. + +These chiefly took the form of stout willow bushes overhanging the +cut-banks--diabolically malicious, sentient beings, they became to +Garth. He tried crawling underneath with his tow-line, whereupon the +earth gave way, precipitating him in water up to his middle; he tried +crashing bodily through, and the line would invariably knot itself +around the most inaccessible twig. The _Flat-iron_, too, seemed to +rejoice in his discomfiture; and at every interruption of her progress +took the occasion, in spite of Natalie's paddle, to turn about and stick +her nose stupidly into the mud of the bank. Every bush in turn offered +a different and more complicated obstacle than the last; in three hours +they made perhaps twice three hundred yards. Natalie, alarmed by the +spectacle of Garth's set lips, and the swollen veins of his temples, +besought him for goodness' sake to swear and not mind her. + +He finally decided to change his mode of going; and contriving a +second little paddle, he embarked with Natalie. They progressed but +slowly against the current; for the short paddles had about the same +effectiveness as two of those little instruments for making butter pats, +which they strongly resembled. Garth figured they would be making a +mile an hour--but this way was easier on his temper. + +To-day, the little river, placidly flowing between its grassy banks, +had an oddly pastoral look. With the familiar shapes of the overhanging +willows, and the brilliant marsh marigolds on the shallows, all drenched +in the opulent sunshine, they found themselves looking for cows on the +bank; and it seemed incredible that no church spire rose above any +of the distant clumps of trees. They could not rid themselves of the +feeling that this was no more than a day's picnic, with a house awaiting +them just ahead, and company and good cheer. But instead of that, +silently rounding a bend, they were unexpectedly introduced to the true +genius of the country. In the mud of one of the flats at the edge of the +water, sat a large brown bear on his haunches, soberly licking his paws. +He was no more than twenty feet from them--a room's length. At Natalie's +slight gasp of astonishment, he turned his head; and stared at them +agape, with hanging paws, like a great baby. He looked so homely and +comical Natalie burst out laughing. At the sound, Bruin promptly fell +to all fours; and with a great "woof!" of astonishment and indignation, +bundled over the bank out of sight. + +To-day, the delicate, heady air of the Northern summer inspired their +veins like wine. As Olympians, they lunched on the greensward carpeting +the bank of a little inlet; while their shallop floated among tiny white +lilies at their feet. All afternoon their spirits soared into the realms +of incoherent enthusiasm; they filled the air with their full-throated +laughter and foolish, glancing speech. Garth's old friends would have +been astonished then to see how he could "let himself go"; but no one +in the world ever really saw that besides Natalie. + +They loved; their happy eyes confessed it freely, though their tongues +were tied. Nothing needed to be explained, for they were perfectly +attuned to each other; and everything was clear in an exchange of eyes. +The tough old world, with all its tiresome, grimy businesses was thrust +out of sight and out of mind, and they seemed to tread a brand-new sphere, +created as they would have it, empty of all save their two selfish selves. +On such a day, in such surroundings, crosses, hindrances, dangers, what +were they? Life was a great joke: Nick Grylls and his minions were +blithely whistled down the wind. Ascending between the flowery banks of +the little river, _their_ river, nothing mattered so they were not parted. +In the more or less tarnished circlet of life it was their perfect golden +day; and whenever afterward either remembered it, it was as if a delicate +fragrance arose in his soul. All day they saw no sign of human habitation. + +As long as the sun shone they maintained their light-hearted gaiety, +neither remembering nor desiring anything more---- + +"I say, Nat!" it would be, "toss me over the hatchet like a good chap. +Hey, there! not at my head!" + +"What's for supper, Nat? I'm hungry as an ogre!" + +"Bacon _aux tomates à la Bland_ and bannock _Musquasepi avec_ ashes!" + +"Bully! If you taste it so much there won't be any left to go on the +table!" + +"Where's the bag of hard-tack, Garth?" + +"Grub-box number two; port side by the rail." + +"Idiot! You put them on the bottom of the box! The water's leaked +through, and they're all mush underneath!" + +"What's the diff? Stick the soft ones in the lobscouse!" + +But after supper, when the sun had gone down, and the great stillness +crept over them again, Natalie's arms dropped at her sides, Garth's +pipe went out, and an unaccountable sadness fell on both. Then, their +sporadic attempts to keep up the old, friendly rattle rang so false +that both fell silent. Their camp of itself had a gloomy aspect. It was +pitched in an elbow of the river, where a section of the cut-bank had +sunk down, making a little terrace of grass a few feet above the water. +Above, there had been a small grove of trees, through which a fire had +some time swept, leaving only a few slender, charred trunks pointing +askew against the slow, dusky crimson of the west. On the nearest and +tallest of these wrecked monuments, immediately above their camp, as on +a slender pedestal, sat a great owl, the only visible living thing in +all the wide expanse, besides themselves. As long as there was light +enough to see him, he crouched there, motionless. + +Natalie sat huddled on a box, with Garth's coat thrown about her +shoulders. Her chin was in her palm, and her lashes veiled rebellious, +miserable eyes. There are moments when the most ærial spirits sink to +earth; and just now Natalie could make no pretense at a flight. It was +clear he loved her, as she loved him; what then were a few words five +years old, to keep them apart? She tried honestly to arm her breast by +thinking of the laws that separated them; but the insidious part of it +was, they were worldly laws; and here the world was thrust out of sight. +Why did he not take her in his arms, and let her heavy head fall on his +shoulder? her heart reiterated; and that was the only voice she could +hear then. Yet if Garth had betrayed any weakness on his part, Natalie +would have been on the _qui vive_ to repel him. The forces of her soul +were thrown in a sad confusion; while her woman's instinct raged against +him, that he could resist her, she loved him tenfold more for that very +resistance. + +And Garth--seeing her sitting there so small under his coat, and all +relaxed and appealing, her mouth like an unhappy child's, and her eyes +big with unshed tears--his arms ached to enfold her; his brain reeled +with the intensity of his desire to take her as she trembled to be +taken. But her helplessness, which tortured him, nerved him to endure +the torture. In the turmoil of his blood he could not think coherently; +but he could repeat to himself, dully, over and over: "I must take +care of her! I must take care of her!" He busied himself with small +unnecessary tasks; splicing the tracking line, chopping tent-pegs, +cleaning the frying pan with sand. + +Natalie disappeared within her tent--and cried herself to sleep. Garth, +lying outside the door, though she attempted to smother the sound in her +pillow, heard; and it was like little knives hacking in his breast. +Sleep for him was out of the question; he was denied the relief of +tears. He rose, when Natalie's quiet breathing told him she was asleep +at last, and undressing, waded into the river, and swam back and forth +until the cold water chilled him through. Brisk, silent exercise +restored his circulation, and a pipe and communion with the stars +quieted his nerves. In the end he toppled over all standing, and +slept on the grass until daylight. + + * * * * * + +Natalie reappeared with the sun, brave and rosy again, and with little +sign of the night's tumult, save in an added sense of gratitude toward +Garth, which appeared in the pleasure she took in doing little things +for him. His grayish pallor, and kind, tired eyes rebuked her sorely +for having cast the whole burden on him. She vowed to herself it +should not occur again. + +To-day the character of the river changed little; only that the +bends multiplied and sharpened; and where they were horseshoe curves +yesterday, to-day they were hair-pin curves. Sometimes, just over the +bank, they would catch sight again of a particularly marked tree they +had passed a whole laborious hour before. Endless and futile were the +calculations they made as to how far they had gone, and had yet to go. + +They cut across from point to point, keeping under the bank out of the +strength of the current as far as possible, and rounding the inside +of each bend. In this manner they were ascending close under a willow +bush, when suddenly and silently a huge, brown wing, like the wing of +Sinbad's auk, sailed athwart the sky. They caught their breaths in +astonishment. A great gray galley swept around the bend, no more than +two oars' length from them. With her swarthy crew standing about the +deck, their brows bound with bright silk handkerchiefs, and at the +tiller, a great, bearded figure, she was the very picture of a pirate +craft. It would be impossible to state which crew was the more surprised +at the unexpected encounter; the seeming pirates likewise stared +open-mouthed at the _Flat-iron_. Just as the galley was disappearing, +Garth collected presence of mind sufficient to hail, and inquire the +distance to the lake. + +The answer came back: "Twenty-five miles!" + +They began to think there was witchcraft in it. + +The wind had changed; and puffy, white clouds came rolling up from +the west, passing beneath the serene and silky streamers of the upper +air. Gradually the invaders thickened and spread over the field; their +underbodies took on a grayish tint; and the blue openings narrowed. +Finally a sharp shower descended; and the voyageurs sought shelter under +a bush, where they hung, watching the millions of drops plopping roundly +into the surface of the river; each drop with its attendant sprite +leaping at its approach. One shower followed another, with intervals +of hot and sticky sunshine between. It was more uncomfortable under +the steamy, dripping bushes than in the thick of it; and they finally +decided to paddle ahead, let it rain as it would. Luncheon, consisting +of soaked bannock and cold cocoa, was a sorry affair. + +Garth was glum. He had long apprehended that bad weather would treble +their difficulties. "How can I keep her warm and dry throughout the +night?" was his ever-present thought. Natalie, on the other hand, was as +happy as a lark; and she made a very attractive picture in the rain. Her +dress had altered little by little during the last few days; and now +comprised a blue sweater, short skirt and moccasins. The hat with the +green wings was safely wrapped in the duffle-bag; and hitherto she had +gone bareheaded on the river. When it began to rain she pulled a man's +cap close over her head to keep her hair dry. As she industriously plied +her paddle in the bow, ever and anon turning a rosy, streaming face to +him, with a joke on her lips, in her rough get-up poor Garth thought her +lovelier than ever. He was continually having to call himself down, as +he would have said, for presuming to think he had measured the extent +of her charm. + +"Isn't it bully, Garth!" once she cried. "Ever since I was a baby I have +longed to be allowed to play in the rain for just once, and get as wet +as I possibly could--just to see how it felt! And now I shall! Isn't it +funny just to sit and let it come down, without running anywhere? Women +are babies, anyway. I mean never to put up an umbrella again as long as +I live. The rain feels good in my face!" + +Nevertheless, Garth, occupied as he was with the problems of how to find +a dry place to put up the tent, and how to build a fire in a downpour, +was anxious. Little by little the showers merged into each other; and +before the end of the afternoon, it had settled down to rain steadily +all night. + +He learned in the end never to trust the distances given in an +unmeasured land. Rounding one of the endless bends toward five o'clock, +they became aware of a new, indefinable, fresher smell on the air; and +they increased their pace with an eager sense of a discovery awaiting +them in the next vista. The next point proved to be the last; looking +around it, the wind buffeted their faces fresh and cool; the river +stretched away for half a mile, straight as a canal and there, away +beyond, leapt the waves of Caribou Lake on the bar. + +Natalie cheered. "Hooray for the crew of the _Flat-iron_!" she cried. +"We've actually done it!" She reached back. "Shake, partner!" + +Near the head of the river, in the wild waste of sand on the lake shore, +squatted a weather-beaten little log cabin, almost eave-deep behind the +dunes. Smoke arose from the chimney. + +"Good!" cried Garth in high satisfaction. "You can dry your clothes +here, anyway." + +A glance up and down the shore of the river revealed no trace of the +canoes or the outfit of the expedition they were in pursuit of. + +"We've missed him again," said Garth grimly. + +They landed, dripping and stiff; and plodded through the sand to the +tiny door. The outlook was desolate in the extreme; there was no sign +of life anywhere, save only the wisp of smoke from the chimney. At their +left hand, the lake spread bleakly to the horizon, torn and white under +the west wind, and with great billows tumbling on the beach. + +"The _Flat-iron_ could never negotiate that," remarked Garth. + +He knocked on the little door. + +"Come in!" rang instantly from within. + +They looked at each other in astonishment. + +"An English voice!" she whispered. + +"A white man! Thank God!" said he. + + + + +IX + +THE HEART OF A BOY + + +It was a youth who presently faced them on the threshold of the hut; +an apple-cheeked boy of seventeen, who bared two rows of shining white +teeth; and whose blue eyes, at the sight of them, sparkled with the +purest enthusiasm of welcome. + +"Come right in, and dry out!" he cried. "I certainly am glad to see +you!" The haunting reed of boyhood still vibrated faintly in the manlier +notes of his voice. + +Here was a greeting from a stranger to warm the hearts of the wet and +weary wayfarers! It presented the North in a new aspect. Natalie in +especial, beamed on their young host; he was wholly a boy after her +own heart. + +Looking at Natalie more particularly, the boy blushed and faltered +a little. "It isn't much of a place to receive a lady in," he said +apologetically. "I haven't been on my own long enough to get +anything much together." + +It was a characteristically boyish abode. The furniture was limited +to the cook-stove in the centre of the room; and a home-made table and +a bench. His bed was spread on straw in one corner; and another corner +was given up to the heterogeneous assortment of his belongings and his +grub. Apparently the cabin had long served as a casual storehouse to +the boatmen of the river; for pieces of mouldy sails were hung over +the rafters; oars and a mast crossed from beam to beam; and in a third +corner were a pile of chain and an anchor, slowly mouldering into rust. +In wet weather, the present tenant evidently did his chopping within +doors, the floor was littered with chips and broken wood. As they came +in, a yellow and white kitten, retreating to the darkest corner of +the cabin, elevated his back and growled threateningly. + +"That's my partner, Musq'oosis," explained the boy. "He'll make friends +directly. He plays with me by the hour; you'd laugh yourself sick to see +the comical way he carries on. He's great company when you're batching +alone!" + +Natalie liked this boy more and more. + +"Say, I'm having no end of company these days," he went on, with his +happy-go-lucky air. "The Bishop's outfit was here all day yesterday; +they went up on the last of the east wind, this morning. The old +woman--that's what we call Mrs. Bishop, you know; no disrespect--she +baked me a batch of her bread before she went. Real outside bread with +a crackly crust to it! Oh my! Oh my!--with brown sugar! Say, we'll +have a loaf of it for supper!" + +Natalie in the meantime sat on the bench; and taking off her moccasins, +put her feet on the oven sill to dry. Garth sat on a box; and their host +squatted on the floor between. + +"By the way," said this youth; "I'm Charley Landrum." + +Garth introduced himself and Natalie. + +"Hope you'll stay a couple of days," said Charley anxiously--"or longer. +There's great duck-shooting on the sloughs; and we might get a goose or +a wavy around the lake shore. It would be a pleasant change of meat for +the lady." + +Charley addressed all his remarks to Garth, without ever once looking +at Natalie; it was clear, nevertheless, that he was acutely conscious +of her presence; for he blushed whenever she spoke; and his eyes were +continually drawn to her, though he dared not raise them quite to her +face. To Garth and Natalie the nicest thing about this boy was the way +he took her presence for granted. Of all the males they had met in the +North, he alone had not gaped at her in vulgar wonder; and to his honest +heart there was nothing out-of-the-way in the fact that she was Miss +Bland, and Garth Mr. Pevensey. + +"We're obliged to get on as soon as we can," said Garth. "We've been +chasing the Bishop all the way from the Landing." + +"How did you come up the little river?" asked Charley. + +"I bought a boat from Pierre Toma." + +"I know her," he said with a chuckle; "cranky as a bath-tub! You +couldn't go up the lake in her!" + +"Not while it blows like this," said Garth. + +"Then I hope it hits it up for a week!" said Charley, apparently +addressing the hem of Natalie's skirt. + +"I was told one Wall-eye Macgregor had a strong boat," Garth said. + +"Nothing doing!" returned the boy. "He's got it up at the head of the +lake." + +"Then I must try to strengthen the bath-tub and coast around the shore," +said Garth. + +"I'll help you!" said Charley. "We'll pitch in first thing to-morrow." + +"How long have you been in the country, Mr. Landrum?" asked Natalie +softly. + +The boy blushed for pure pleasure; and his voice deepened as he replied: +"Two years next March, Miss. I came in over the ice with a freighter. I +ran away from school. What was the use?--I got a head like a hickory +nut; and I couldn't keep out of trouble. They gave me a bad name; and +everything that happened was put on me. So I cleared out and came +North." + +Gradually the whole naïve, boyish tale came out. + +"I had a lot of fool ideas about the country then; but they were soon +knocked out of me. All the kids that run away soon come sneaking home +and have to eat their brags; and I wasn't going to do that. So I stuck +it out. At first I admit I pretty near caved in with homesickness; but +I'm hardened now. The first year I worked for a trader up at Ostachegan +creek; and this spring I bought this cabin on credit. Frank Shefford up +at Nine-Mile-Point is going to lend me his team and mower when his hay +is put up; and I'll put up hay myself." + +The boy's eyes glowed, as he announced his brave plans for the future. + +"Next winter I'm going to keep a stopping-house for freighters. I've +got a good location here, and stable room already for eight teams. I'll +build to it later. There's money in that; and it's a pleasant life for a +man--plenty of company. And when I get a little money ahead, I'll trade; +there's good chances for a free trader that knows the ropes; and in a +few years I'll branch out and have a whole string of trading posts, +like Nick Grylls. There's a smart one! They say he could sell out +for a hundred thousand any day!" + +Garth was reminded of his own hopeful, spouting youth. + +"I hope you won't be like Nick Grylls," said Natalie gently. + +"Don't you like him?" asked Charley in concern. "I always thought he was +a pretty smart one. No!" he added suddenly. "I don't like him either. +He's coarse!" + +Supper was an affair of joint contributions; Garth's jam for Charley's +bread. In the meantime Charley had surreptitiously swept up the chips; +and had then slipped away to the river bank, for a wash and a tidy-up. +He reappeared with his hair well "slicked," his tip-tilted nose as pink +as his shiny cheeks, and a smile that extended to the furthest confines +of his face. But he was distressed that he had no white collar to honour +the board; and his gratitude was silent and boundless, when Garth +produced one for him from his duffle-bag. + +It was a jovial meal that followed; the spirit of youth presided; and +wisdom and grave speech were thrust under the table. Charley recovered +of his bashfulness so far that he could occasionally nerve himself to +look at Natalie. For all the boy's giddy jollity, his blue eyes had a +kind of stricken look when they rested on her face. But his appetite did +not suffer appreciably; and it did Garth's and Natalie's hearts good to +see the bread and jam disappear between Charley's business-like jaws. +Jam, they agreed, had surely never before been so successful in tickling +the human palate. "Just do without it for a couple of years and see for +yourself," Charley rejoined. + +Afterward the cabin was further swept and garnished for Natalie's use; +and a heap of fragrant hay brought from the stable on which to spread +her blankets. The house was to be yielded up to her for the night. Garth +and Charley shared the little tent outside. Garth, with his simplicity, +and his air of quiet understanding, was above all one to win a boy's +confidence; and by bedtime they were as friendly as brothers--or perhaps +more like a very young father and his oldest son. + +When they rolled up side by side in their blankets Charley seemed to +put off several years. He hunched closer to his bedfellow; and pressed +his shoulder warmly against Garth's. + +"Are you sleepy?" he asked diffidently. + +Garth's heart warmed to the act and the speech. "Why, no!" he said. +"Believe I'll have another smoke before dropping off. Fire away, old +boy!" + +"Say, it's simply great to have somebody young to talk to," said poor +Charley. "Somebody that understands; and that you can let yourself go +with, and say whatever comes into your head to. Say, I never had such +a good time in all my life as to-night. All the fellows up here--they're +a good sort all right--but they're a rough, cursing lot. And of course, +a fellow has to curse too; and talk big just to keep his end up--chuck +a bluff, you know, or they'll think you're a molly. And I just love to +laugh, and act foolish; and I always have to hold myself in. Sometimes +I near bust!" + +"I get like that myself," said Garth encouragingly. + +There was something else on Charley's mind; but for a long time his +tongue sheered off at every approach to it. Finally, rolling over, he +hid a hot cheek on Garth's shoulder; and it came out with a rush. + +"Say! I think she's the prettiest girl I ever laid eyes on!" + +Garth's arm tightened about the boy's shoulders "She's the first white +girl I've seen in nearly two years," he floundered on; "and girls meant +nothing to me then. But I know darned well she's no ordinary white girl. +Isn't it wonderful, the different ways she looks; and all that her voice +seems to mean besides the words she says; and the way she walks and sits +down; and the way she lifts her arm? Isn't it a pretty arm? And the +finest thing about her is, she deals plain with you like a fellow; +no silly fuss and make-believe, and hanging-back about her!" + +If Garth liked the boy before, he was prepared to love him for this. + +"Did you mark how she called me Mr. Landrum?" continued Charley eagerly. +"She just did that to please me, I know. Didn't it sound funny? My chest +expanded two inches, I swear it did! Wasn't she kind to me? She had +no call to be so kind to me. It just makes me want to do something +terrific! Oh, if I could only do something for her!--wouldn't I +just be glad of the chance!" + +He was silent for a while, tossing uneasily in his blanket. "Say, +there's something I want to tell you," he blurted out at last. "I'm +certainly good and ashamed of myself! There's a girl down the shore, her +name is Julia; she's not a bad-looker for a breed. She came around my +cabin sometimes. I was kind of lonesome, you see; and she was young, +like me--" + +Garth let him see that he understood--and he did understand, both the +pitiful little tale, and the boy's reason for wishing to tell him. + +"And to think of _her_ asleep in there now!" he continued remorsefully. +"It makes me sick and disgusted with myself. I'd give anything if it +hadn't happened! You bet I'll have no truck with them in future!" + +"Every man makes mistakes, old boy," said Garth. + +Charley, his mind relieved by confession, in the midst of further +rhapsodies, suddenly fell asleep. + +In the morning he awoke all of a piece, as boys do, and rolling over, +said instantly: + +"Natalie is sure the prettiest name there is!" + + * * * * * + +Later in the day in the middle of their somewhat hopeless deliberations +upon the repairing of the half-submerged _Flat-iron_--her flimsily hung +planks had been started even by her gentle journey on the river--there +was a hail from down-stream. Looking, they saw four swart figures +bending one after another in a tracking-harness, crawling around the +edge of the cut-bank below. Presently a sharp prow nosed around the +bend; and a long, low, double-ended galley swung into view, floating +lazily on the current like a gigantic duck. + +"A York boat!" cried Charley in surprise. "Didn't know any was due! +Here's your chance to cross the lake!" + +"Hm!" said Garth doubtfully. "We'll find out, first, what news she +brings from below." + +At the sight of the open water ahead, the breeds redoubled their +shouting, and hit up their pace. It was interesting to see how, once +having got her under way, they could allow nothing to stop them; but +needs must crash through obstructions regardless; slipping scrambling, +literally clawing their way along. Whenever the rope caught, it was +the part of the fourth man to slip out of his collar, and disengage it, +without stopping the others. It was racking work on the frame of a man; +but the feather-headed breeds ceaselessly chattered and shouted, like +boys out of school; roaring with laughter when any one of the four came +down. In the stern stood the helmsman, pulling her head around, with a +mighty sweep, extending astern; and the other four of the crew, resting +from their spell of tracking, fended her off the bank with poles. The +York boat, pointed bow and stern, low amidships, and undecked, reminded +Garth of the pictures he had seen of ancient Norse galleys. + +Arriving opposite the cabin, they all leaped aboard; and poling across, +landed in front of where Garth and Charley stood. Natalie, not caring to +run the gauntlet of another battery of stupid stares, had retired to the +cabin. On the prow of the boat, which had a dingy, weather-beaten look, +very different from the smart green and white craft of the "Company," was +crookedly painted the name _Loseis_. Making her fast, the breeds, with +furtive stares at Garth, threw themselves on the ground like tired dogs. +It was not long, however, before a "stick-kettle," the invariable tom-tom, +was produced, the ear-splitting chant raised, and a game of _met-o-wan_, +a sort of Cree equivalent for Billy-Billy-who's-got-the-button, started +on the shore. + +The steersman, pausing only to put on a gold-embroidered waistcoat, +approached Garth with a disposition to be friendly--too friendly by +half, Garth thought. He was an undersized man of not more than thirty, +but already somewhat withered; a specimen of the unwholesome, weedy +breed of the settlements. + +"Well, Charley," he said affably. + +They shook hands with the touch of impressiveness that always marks this +ceremony in the North; and then Hooliam, with a shifty glance, extended +his hand to Garth. At the same time he said something in Cree. + +"He says: 'You want to go up the lake,'" translated Charley. + +"How does he know that?" asked Garth quickly. + +Hooliam answered in Cree without waiting for Charley to translate. +Evidently, like most of the breeds, he understood more English than he +cared to confess. + +"He says that Pierre Toma told him," said Charley. + +"Ask him how it is he comes up with such a small load," suggested Garth. + +Charley repeated the question in Cree. Hooliam's answer was prompt and +glib. "He says that the water was too low to bring a full load," +translated Charley. + +"Ask him when he means to go on," said Garth. + +Hooliam gave a glance at the still tossing lake. "As soon as the wind +dies or changes. This wind would blow him right back on the shore," such +the gist of his answer by way of Charley. + +"Tell him to let me know before he starts; and I'll tell him if we wish +to go along," said Garth coolly. + +"I want to have a talk with you," he added in a lower tone for Charley's +benefit. + +They sat down apart on the sand. + +"What do you think of this outfit, Charley?" asked Garth. + +The boy was surprised at the question. "Well," he said, "it does look +a bit queer, their coming all this way with half a load. But you never +can tell about these crazy niggers; they may have dumped out half their +stuff on the bank somewhere, and left it to rot. A French range for the +inspector has been lying on the point across the river for two months." + +"Who is this Hooliam?" Garth asked. + +"He boats back and forth pretty regular. He's a footless kind of +breed--but straight, as far as I know. What do you care?" the boy asked +curiously. "If he takes you on board, he's got to put you across." + +Garth looked at Charley estimatingly. But there could be no doubt of the +boy's straight-eyed, whole-souled devotion to Natalie; and he quickly +made up his mind. He told him briefly what had occurred on the way in. + +Charley whistled in astonishment. "So that's the kind Nick Grylls is!" +he exclaimed. "He sure must have gone clean daft!" + +"This Hooliam," Garth continued, "is too anxious, judging by others of +his kind, to get us on board. I suspect Nick Grylls has a share in this +outfit. On the other hand we have less than a week's grub left. What +have you got, Charley?" + +"Nothing but sow-bosom and beans," said the boy disconsolately; "and +damn little of that! It isn't good enough for _her_!" + +"Any chance of another boat?" asked Garth. + +Charley shook his head. "No Company boat due for three weeks," he said. + +Garth set his jaw. "Then there's no help for it," he said firmly. "We'll +have to go with Hooliam. I'll make him take our little boat along, so we +won't be entirely at his mercy; and I'll watch him close." + +Charley leaned toward Garth. The boy unconsciously clenched his hands; +and in the intensity of his eagerness, his eyes actually filled. "I say, +Garth, take me along with you," he pleaded. + +Garth, looking at him gratefully, thought none but a boy could be so +generous. "But I can't take you away from your own work," he objected. + +Charley brushed it impatiently out of sight. "What does that matter!" +he exclaimed. "It can wait." He redoubled his pleadings. "This was what +I wanted so badly, Garth! To be a little use to her! I could help--you +think I'm just a crazy kid, and maybe I am, but I could think like a +man, and plan like a man for her! You and I could stand watch and watch. +Say, after what you've told me, I'd go near out of my head to see you +two sail away, and me left behind, not knowing what was happening!" + +Garth was more moved than he cared to show. "You're true blue, Charley," +he said in a low tone. "You come along!" + + + + +X + +ON CARIBOU LAKE + + +From sundown until daybreak, the ki-yi-ing and the beating of the +stick-kettle on the shore desecrated the stillness of the night with +scarcely any intermission. Shortly after daybreak, the wind having +gone down, Hooliam sent word to Garth that he would like to start. + +They were ready in a few minutes. At the sight of Charley's bundle +with the others, Hooliam scowled and muttered in Cree. + +"Says he can't take me," said Charley. + +Garth flushed angrily. "This was all it needed," he burst out. "What +reason does he give?" + +"No reason," said Charley coolly. "Just talks foolish." + +Hooliam added something with a great show of plausibility. + +"Says he hasn't got room," said Charley with a laugh. + +"Rubbish!" said Garth. "You tell him he takes the three of us or none! +Give it to him strong!" + +Upon receipt of this ultimatum, Hooliam, shrugging, turned away; and the +three of them boarded the _Loseis_. + +Running out two pairs of clumsy sweeps, which were no more than +good-sized trees a little flattened at one end, they laboriously pulled +out of the river. Before them the lake stretched to the horizon as +smooth and colourless as a lightly frosted pane. Loons, herons and +a little kind of gull; ducks in pairs and squadrons; flocks of brown +geese and shining white swans, wheeled, sailed and swam about them +in countless numbers. + +When they had rowed upward of a mile into the lake a mighty discussion +suddenly arose amongst the crew. The oarsmen ceased their labours to +take part in it. Eight wetted brown forefingers were held aloft. + +"They're scrapping about whether there is any wind," Charley explained. + +To a white man's senses there was no sign of wind; nevertheless the +oars were run in, the cargo shifted, and the heavy mast, with infinite +labour, stepped amidships and guyed. Hooliam looked on indifferently +from the stern, idly swinging his great sweep back and forth. Finally +a dirty square sail was raised. It declined to belly or flap in the +slightest degree; but the breeds, satisfied with what they had done, lay +around the boat, preparing to enjoy themselves in luxurious ease. They +amused themselves by tempting the water-fowl close with imitations of +their cries; and popping at them ineffectively with their twenty-two +"trade-guns." + +Garth stood it as long as he could. + +"Look here!" he said at length to Charley. "Ask him how long this is +going to last." + +Charley translated. Hooliam looked sagely astern, spat, and answered in +Cree. + +"He says there'll be a breeze by and by," said Charley. + +The scarcely veiled insolence of this reply caused Garth inwardly to +fume. However, reflecting that, after all, Hooliam ought to know more +about navigation than he, he possessed his soul in patience for another +half-hour. There was still no sign of wind; and it was growing very hot +in the sun. Garth, setting his jaw, drew out his watch. + +"Tell him I'll give him just fifteen minutes longer," he said quietly. +"If we're not under way by that time, there's going to be trouble." + +Hooliam received the message with apparent indifference. Garth held his +watch in his hand. Three minutes before the expiration of the time, he +had Charley convey a final warning to the breed. Hooliam suddenly became +voluble and expostulatory. + +"He says the boys won't work when there's a breeze coming up," said +Charley. + +"You tell him, then, that I will take command of this boat, and run her +myself," said Garth. + +At the last moment the orders were hastily given. The mast was +reluctantly taken down, and hung over the side; the cargo was shifted +back, and the sweeps run out. The breeds rowed half-heartedly, with +furtive scowls for the _moon-i-yas_ who made them work. + +After a couple of hours during which they covered a scant three miles, +a breeze _did_ spring up from astern; whereupon the whole business +of raising the mast was gone through with again. Little by little it +freshened, and the _Loseis_ began to forge ahead, making a pleasant +little murmur under her forefoot. The hearts of the three passengers +rose in unison. + +But they had not sailed two miles more, when the exasperated Garth +discovered that Hooliam was slyly edging his craft inside a point of the +shore. At first the breed unblushingly denied any intention of stopping; +but when it became apparent that he could not round the point without +hauling down the sail, he coolly admitted that he was going to land. + +"What for?" Garth demanded. + +"They're going ashore to spell--to cook and eat," Charley explained. +"Hooliam says there is no other place to land in fifteen miles." + +Garth was obliged to be content. + +With the characteristic prodigality of the breeds, an enormous fire +was built on the shore, over which their tea was furiously boiled in an +iron pail, and their dried moose meat stewed a little less tough than +moccasins. At a little distance the three passengers made their own +preparations for lunch. + +Natalie, serenely trusting in Garth, put aside all anxiety about the +outcome of their journey; and was frankly interested and amused. + +"Mercy!" she exclaimed. "They'll all die of tannic poisoning! And look +what they eat! The bacon is as green as arsenic!" + +She proved to be using her eyes and ears to good advantage on the way. + +"The tall boy," she said, "the one that looks like an actor; he's the +humourist of the party. He keeps them in fits of laughter by giving +_moon-i-yas_ imitations. He mimics us to our very faces. Their idea of +us is too funny! The good-looking little one is his inseparable friend; +they hold hands when they're not working. The one with the whitey-blue +eyes is called by a very blasphemous name. I watched him turning over +the pages of some stove catalogues that dropped out of a crate, with +_such_ a serious air. And they were all exactly alike, but he didn't +know it, because he held some of them upside down! What do you suppose +he made of a picture of a self-feeder standing on its head?" + +To Garth it seemed as if they took an interminable time to prepare and +eat their simple meal; and afterward there could no longer be any doubt, +from the way they loafed about, that they were soldiering, as a result +of Hooliam's low-voiced encouragement. They grinned with childish +impudence at the scowling _moon-i-yas_. At last Hooliam produced a +pack of cards and a game of "jack-pot" was started on the shore. +This constituted frank defiance; and Garth took instant action. + +"Put up those cards!" he commanded. + +The boys laughed and looked at Hooliam. + +"Get on board the boat," Garth ordered, through Charley. + +Hooliam's eyes bolted; but he made no move. With the sheer perversity +of a child or a savage, he insisted there was no wind, even while the +ripples were washing the stones at his feet. + +Garth, thoroughly exasperated, picked up his rifle. His eyes glinted +dangerously. "There's something behind this nonsense!" he cried. "And +I'm going to stop it! You let him understand that if he opposes me any +further I have eleven cartridges in the magazine of this rifle, and I +would think as little of bringing him down as that wavy up there!" + +A wild swan, most difficult of marks, was sailing high overhead. Garth, +as he spoke, took aim and fired; and the great bird dropped like a +plummet in the shallow water off shore. + +Loud exclamations of admiration broke from the boys. Three of them +dashed enthusiastically into the water to contend for the honour of +bringing back the prize. Garth builded better than he knew. The boys +while scarcely understanding the threat, were instantly impressed with +the successful shot; and with it Garth established himself once and +for all in their eyes. They instinctively began to carry the things +on board as he had ordered; and in the end the scowling Hooliam was +obliged to follow them on board, or be left behind. + +As they were getting under way again, Garth observed Hooliam busy with +the sail. When it was hoisted, it appeared he had taken a reef in it. + +"Shake it out!" Garth commanded. + +Hooliam shrugged and protested. + +"He says the mast is not strong," Charley translated. "This heavy wind +will carry it away," he says. + +"Just now he said there was no wind," Garth said. "Let her go; and if +anything breaks we'll mend it." + +Hooliam in a long harangue, demanded to know through Charley, if Garth +would pay for the damage. + +For answer Garth merely picked up his rifle; and the reef was let out in +a hurry. + +In all this there was something more than mere savage perversity; +Hooliam, it was clear, had an urgent private reason for wishing to delay +the journey. He had not sufficient command of his features to hide his +chagrin at the failure of his several attempts. He sulked all afternoon. +Garth sat with his weapon across his knees; and his steady gaze never +wandered far from the steersman. Willy-nilly, Hooliam was compelled to +hold the _Loseis_ to her course; and by four o'clock, the wind holding +light and steady, they had covered about thirty miles of their journey. + +About this time the mast of another boat was discovered sticking above +the bank of a creek on shore. The usual excited discussion arose--this +time as to the identity of the craft. Finally the _Loseis's_ prow was +turned toward the shore. Garth demanded an explanation. Hooliam, more +obsequious now, said that it was Phillippe's boat on the way out; and he +had messages to deliver him from their common employers at the Landing. +Garth suspected another excuse; but he was very reluctant to interfere +with the real business of the North; and since it was almost time to +spell for another meal, he decided to make no objections. + +With true half-breed impetuosity they chose the worst place in miles on +which to beach the _Loseis_. Her forefoot was run on a bar fully two +hundred yards off shore; and communications were carried on by means of +laborious wading, waist-deep, to and fro. The moment she touched, the +entire crew and the skipper, dropping everything, dashed pell mell for +the beach and across the intervening sand to the camp of the other +boatmen on the shore of the creek. The passengers ferried themselves +ashore in the _Flat-iron_, which had been stowed, much against Hooliam's +will, on board the _Loseis_. + +After supper, as time passed and there was no sign of the returning +crew, Garth sent Charley after Hooliam with a peremptory message. +Hooliam returned, cap in hand, his whole attitude changed. He expressed +a willingness to start immediately; but deprecatingly pointed out that +a storm threatened; and apologized for the unseaworthy condition of the +_Loseis_. This time he had reason on his side; for angry clouds were +heaped about the setting sun; and the orb itself was peering luridly +between parted curtains of crimson rain. Garth, still suspecting him, +was yet taken at a disadvantage. He thought of Natalie on board the +shelterless _Loseis_ in a rainstorm; and finally announced his wish +to remain where they were for the night. Hooliam smirked demurely, +in ill-concealed satisfaction. + +All returned to the _Loseis_ for what was needed during the night. The +preparations to secure the York boat against the threatening storm were +highly characteristic of her hit-or-miss crew. A stake was driven in the +sand of the lake bottom, at either side the stern, and the rudder-post +lashed between. This flimsy apparatus was designed to keep the boat +from being driven broadside on the bar. The practical Garth frowned +impatiently at its utter insufficiency; but the breeds could scarcely +contain their impatience to resume their gambling with the other crew; +and presently they dashed off, leaving the _Loseis_ to her fate. + +Garth pitched his camp under the shelter of a line of willows, marking +the edge of higher ground along the wide waste of sand. The two crews +with their ceaseless tom-tom on the shore of the creek, were upward of +half a mile away. Natalie was made comfortable in her tent; and Garth +and Charley, collecting a pile of firewood, covered it with a tarpaulin, +against the coming rain. Charley, who had slept during the afternoon, +was to watch until two o'clock; and Garth, covering himself with a +piece of sail-cloth, lay down at the door of the tent. + +It seemed to him he had no more than fallen asleep, when Charley shook +his shoulder to awaken him. + +"It's one o'clock," the boy said. "I think something has happened in the +camp over there. They quieted down; but now they have started up again, +and have built up their fire. Looks to me as if somebody had arrived. +Thought I'd better wake you, while I sneaked over and took a look." + +Charley was gone more than an hour. Returning, as soon as he had entered +the circle of the firelight, Garth saw by his face that something +important was in the wind. + +"I was right," the boy said. "Nick Grylls has come. He arrived in a +canoe with a breed; and sent him back. Nick and Hooliam went outside the +camp, and talked by themselves. I listened from behind a willow bush. +Nick Grylls knows a lot more Cree than I do, and I couldn't understand +everything; but I got the gist of it. Nick was giving Hooliam hell all +around--first for making him paddle all night--it seems Hooliam ought +to have waited for him at that point where we spelled this morning--and +then for bringing me. That was the sorest touch; for Nick knows I +understand Cree. He said it upset all his plans." + +"It was a mighty good thing for Natalie and me, that we had you to-day!" +Garth put in. + +The boy blushed with pleasure. + +"Go on," Garth said. + +"Grylls was pretty mum about these plans of his," Charley continued. "I +guess he only lets Hooliam know part. I caught just a word or two. One +thing was clear; you are his mark. I made out there was to have been a +row at the point, and you were to have been put out of business, so you +couldn't keep on with this journey. Then Nick was to happen along as if +by accident; you were to be sent to the half-breeds at Swan river to +be taken care of, and Nick was going to do the friendly act, and help +Natalie on her way. I bet she never would have got there! In some way +Nick has learned all about Natalie; for he seems to know where she's +going; and what for. Anyway, you put his scheme to the bad by winning +over the boys; and he is hot. + +"He acted queer, too," Charley went on. "The first thing he asked +was, if Natalie was well; and his voice sounded crying-like. Say, +he's changed altogether from the hearty old sport, that used to travel +through the country like a lord, handing out cigars. He's losing +flesh. I think he's a bit touched." + +When the boy finished, Garth took a turn, breathing deeply; and finally +returning to the fire, sought that trusty counsellor, his pipe. "I'm +glad he's turned up," he said coolly. "This is more like fighting in the +open. And thanks to you, I'm well warned." + +He smoked a while in silence. "I suspect I'll have my work cut out for +me to-morrow," he resumed reflectively. Presently he gripped Charley's +shoulder, and searched the boy's face. "I'll be damn thankful to have +you along, old fellow," he said. "But I don't think I have any right +to let you in for this. This man is very powerful in the country; and +he can spoil all your chances. You had better go back with Phillippe. +Neither Natalie nor I would ever blame you." + +The boy turned away his head. "I--I can't talk about it," he faltered. +"If you go on that way you'll have me crying like a girl! You could talk +all night, and it wouldn't do any good! What do you think I am? I'm not +going to miss the fun!" + +Garth laughed. "Turn in," he said briefly. "You'll need all the sleep +you can get." + + + + +XI + +THE FIGHT IN THE STORM + + +Garth and Natalie were wondering next morning with what kind of a face +Nick Grylls would greet them. He was the last to come off to the boat. +Hooliam took possession of the punt as a matter of course, to bring +him aboard; but Garth, determined not to allow the slightest act of +insolence to pass unchallenged to-day, curtly ordered it back; and the +fat trader was obliged to wade out like the breeds, and scramble over +the side of the _Loseis_--a very undignified reëntrance upon the scene. + +His demeanour was remarkable. All the way out from the shore he had +probably been shaping the character in which he meant to make his +bow. He threw a leg over the side of the boat, affecting all his old, +blustering heartiness; but the first sight of Natalie and Garth awaiting +him, wholly self-possessed and unconcerned--they had determined +in advance not to stoop to the pretense of any surprise at seeing +him--pricked him like a blown bladder. His eyes bolted; he nodded at +them askance; and he mumbled the words he had been intending to shout. +Catching sight of Charley directly, he attempted to carry off his +discomfiture by assuming an added boisterousness. + +"Hello, Charley!" he cried. "What's the good word, boy?" + +"Hello, Mr. Grylls," returned Charley with a demure grin, that was +highly creditable to his powers of dissimulation. "Where did you drop +from?" + +Grylls guffawed with an overdone assumption of a man at his ease. "Oh, +I got a sudden call up to the Settlement," he said, in a tone meant +to reach Garth's ears. "Got a big deal on to sell out my posts on the +Spirit. I overtook you folks last night; and sent my canoe back. Thought +I might as well save money. Have a cigar?" + +"Thanks," said Charley. The boy lighted it elaborately, and commended +the quality with the air of a connoisseur. + +"You're all right, kid!" cried Nick, clapping him on the back. "I tell +you I'm blame glad to have a white man to talk to on the way up"--this +with a side glance at Garth. "What are you doing away from home at this +season?" + +"Grub running low," said Charley readily. "Had to go to the Settlement +for a fresh supply." + +"Well you go to Jonesy of the French outfit," bellowed Nick; "and tell +him to give you my prices!" + +Nick kept the boy at his side all day, flattering and cajoling him with +an immense patronage, that, coming from the great man of the country, +was meant to turn the head of this, the youngest of its settlers. In +this Nick had a double purpose: he wished, of course, to secure the +boy's interest to himself; but he also wished Garth and Natalie to see +what a fine, generous fellow he could be when he got half a chance. +There was a great deal of the child in the self-indulgent trader; and +he had not lived among the breeds for twenty-five years without imbibing +many of their characteristics. As to the boy, Garth and Natalie felt +not a moment's uneasiness; Charley met Nick's advances with a kind of +imitative bluster, that was a source of great secret delight to Natalie. + +The day's journey was uneventful. Grylls kept himself forward of the +mast, and made no attempt to address either Garth or Natalie. Indeed, +he appeared to ignore their presence on the boat altogether; which, +considering the shortness of the distance separating them, was not +without its ridiculous side. Garth, refusing to be deceived by this +apparent indifference, kept himself quietly on the alert. The breeze +continued favourable but very light; and the day waxed hotter and +hotter. By nightfall they had covered perhaps another thirty miles of +the way. There had been one "spell" on shore, during which Garth and +Natalie elected to remain on board, satisfied with a cold lunch. No +further offers were made by Hooliam to delay the journey; indeed, such +was now their apparent anxiety to complete it, it was announced late in +the afternoon that they would sail all night. They did not even wait +for their supper on shore, but brought it off from the fire in a wading +procession of frying pans, and steaming pails. + +A lovely night succeeded. The velvety floor of heaven was strewn +lavishly with bright stars; and later, the moon, just past the full, +rose out of the lake astern and hung, a lovely pale globe, in the +eastern sky. The breeds fell asleep one by one; and for the first, the +jabbering, the _ki-yi-ing_ and the maddening stick-kettle were all +stilled. The _Loseis_ hovered over the lake with her gigantic wing +spread, like some great bird of the night. The only evidences that she +moved at all were the flecks of foam that drifted slowly astern under +the counter. + +Charley had constructed a little niche for Natalie among the freight +astern--a bale of blankets serving for a seat, with a tall box inclined +behind it for a back to lean against. She had insisted that Charley +share it with her, and the boy had sat beside her too blissful to speak. +In the end they both fell asleep, and Natalie's head dropped on his +shoulder. In his dreams the boy smiled seraphically. + +Garth watched them kindly and very enviously; and for the moment wished +that he, too, were a boy, whom she need not take seriously. There was +no sleep for him. He sat on the narrow seat encircling the stern, with +his back against the gunwale, where, on the one hand he could watch the +steersman elevated on his little platform, while on the other side he +was prepared for any demonstration from the bow. The steersman was +Natalie's humorous breed; his name was Aleck. Nick Grylls and Hooliam +were together somewhere forward of the mast; in the darkness Garth +could not place them. + +Garth's rifle lay across his knees--he would have given it, with much to +boot, for the quicker and handier revolver. He was painfully aware that +nothing would suit Nick Grylls's purpose so well as to knock him swiftly +on the head, and heave his body overboard. He shrewdly suspected that +some such intention was the reason for this night sail. It is easy to +seek danger, to ride at it with a shout, the pulses leaping--but to +_wait_ for it, to wait motionless in the still dark for an attack that +may be delivered one knows not when nor from whence--that is the great +ordeal. Garth clenched the stem of his pipe hard between his teeth; and +with a resolute effort of his will, put down the hysteria that will at +such a time constrict the stoutest throat. + +The first interruption of the awful stillness came, not from man, but +from the elements. All around the western horizon clouds mounted so +swiftly and imperceptibly that neither Garth nor the helmsman was aware +of what was preparing, until they had reached the zenith. Caribou Lake +is known for its swift and terrible summer storms. A sharp crack of +thunder was their first warning. Aleck shouted; and dark forms arose +here and there from their resting places. Garth swallowed a sob of +relief for the diversion. The storm might be playing right into Nick +Grylls's hand; but one could face the bustle and uproar with renewed +courage. + +The sail was brought clattering to the deck; a couple of sweeps were +hastily run out; and the _Loseis_ was pulled for the nearest point of +the shore. With true breed seamanship she was beached on a steep and +stony incline on the lee side of a point. Garth tried his best to +make their folly clear to them; but none of the crew, and least of all +Hooliam, retained presence of mind to comprehend. With united strength +the breeds dragged her up as far as they could, which was but little, +and went through the same business of driving stakes into the bottom of +the lake, and lashing the sternpost between. Garth threw up his hands in +helpless exasperation. Tarpaulins and sails were spread over the cargo +and lashed down. Charley made Natalie snug with a tarpaulin roof over +her seat. Garth commanded him, no matter what might happen, not to +leave her side. + +The storm came roaring down the lake like a vast animate being; and +there, in their exposed position, smote them hip and thigh. Each crash +of thunder fell forth right upon the echo of the last; and the lightning +played like wicked laughter on the face of the destroying heavens. Then +came the rain, with pitiless, whistling whips that lashed the water, and +bit cruelly into exposed flesh. Every man on board, save one, instantly +dived under the sail-cloths; and Hooliam was the first to seek shelter. + +Only Garth dared not relax his watch in the open. He maintained his +place with his back against the stern, a piece of tarpaulin across his +knees to keep his gun dry, and his eyes bent forward in the boat whence +any move must be made on him. So sure was he that Grylls would attack +him, he was scarcely conscious of the tumult that roared about his ears. +The wind tore his hat off; and the cold rain drenched him to the skin. + +Before him, the lightning luridly showed up the trees on the shore, +writhing horridly; and the wet mast and the guy ropes were often wreathed +in faint, bluish flames. The _Loseis_ forward, with her irregularly piled +cargo, and the crouching forms under the sail-cloths, presented a thousand +shifting, fantastic shapes in the playing flashes; and Garth had a score +of false alarms. In the end, his enemy crept almost upon him undiscovered. + +By the light of a great blaze, which held all the earth and the heavens +suspended in flames for a moment, Garth suddenly saw revealed a crouching +figure, and a hideous, distorted face no more than six feet from his own. +In the blinding glare it was outlined with a horrid clearness; in its +grossness and bestial hatred, less human than demoniacal. + +Garth, snatching up his rifle, sprang to his feet, but before he could +point it, Grylls had flung himself upon him, and his mighty arms were +squeezing Garth's ribs into his lungs. The useless weapon dropped to the +deck. Grylls, trusting to his enormous strength, was unarmed; he wished to +crush his adversary without leaving obvious traces of violence. No word +was spoken by either. + +They swayed on the narrow seat encircling the stern; and all sound of +the little human struggle was swallowed up in the dreadful uproar of the +elements. Natalie and Charley, but three yards away, heard nothing. Grylls +was the stronger; Garth contented himself with a dogged resistance, +trusting to his better wind to serve him in the end. Meanwhile the +_Loseis_ was continually heaved under their feet, and dropped heavily +on the stones by the mounting breakers; and they maintained a footing +with difficulty. Nick ceaselessly strained to force Garth to his knees. +Failing, he lifted him clear of the deck. At the same instant the boat +lurched drunkenly; and they pitched overboard together. + +Somehow, they gained their feet, and stood, still locked together, +while the tumbling waves boiled around their waists, and sucked at their +knees. But Garth had struck his head on the gunwale in falling; his +senses were slipping away, and nausea overcame him. He tried to cry out; +but the feeble sound was lost at his lips. Nick forced him slowly down +until the water broke over his head. Garth was dimly conscious of +hearing him laugh--no one knew; and the explanation next day would be +so simple! But the wholesome chill of the water rolling over his head +revived the swooning Garth. He collected his forces for a last effort; +and, suddenly wrenching his shoulders from under the hands that pressed +them down, he gained his feet, and his hands seized upon Grylls's +throat. + +It was the big man's vulnerable point; and a subtle sweetness flooded +Garth's breast as he felt him begin to fail. Foul living was telling in +the end. Grylls struggled for his breath in loud, strangling sobs; and +Garth could hear his bursting heart knock at his ribs. The smith's arms +of him little by little softened of their steely strength; he strove in +vain now to lift Garth off his feet. Garth, cool and strong again, and +always waiting, let him tire himself. He disdained to call for help +now; he even relaxed his grip on the thick throat a little. It was +not necessary to strangle the man; for he had done for himself. + +Meanwhile the waves broke with ever-increasing violence on the frail +bulwark the two bodies offered to their impetuous course, and it was +only a question of moments when they would both be beaten down. Grylls's +knees weakening under him first, down they went, Garth uppermost; and, +the water seizing them, still gripped together, they were rolled over +and over, and finally flung up on the stones. + +Stunned, bruised and breathless as he was, Garth was still able to free +himself from the automatic grip of the other man's arms; but Grylls lay +motionless. + +Briefly satisfying himself that the man still lived, Garth dragged him +out of reach of the waves, and letting him lie in the driving rain, +turned his attention to the boat. + +The _Loseis_ was in a bad way. The waves under her stern had lifted +the driven stakes as easily as pins are drawn from a cushion. She had +immediately swung broadside on the beach; and the waves, crashing under +her counter, were driving over her in clouds of spray while her bottom +heaved, and gave, and pounded sickeningly on the stones. No one on board +required to be told that a very little of this would separate every +plank of her from her aged ribs. The breed boys appeared one by one +from under the coverings; and standing about, dazed and careless of the +downpour, waited to be told what to do. There was no sign of Hooliam. + +Garth climbed painfully on board. Searching for the degenerate captain, +he stepped on something soft, and a hollow groan issued from beneath the +sail-cloth. He threw it back, and dislodged the palpitating Hooliam with +a vigorous foot. The breed struggled to his knees, supporting himself by +a guy rope. Just then there was a blinding flash, and the mast and the +wet ropes were wreathed again for an instant in bluish flame. Partly +shocked, but more from abject fear, Hooliam collapsed with a brutish +moan. + +"Throw this carrion ashore!" Garth commanded with strong disgust. + +The breeds, understanding his gestures, instinctively obeyed; and +Hooliam was dragged over the side, and dropped on the beach, not very +far from the body of his unconscious employer. + +"We'll have to save her ourselves!" shouted Garth to Charley. "Translate +my orders!" + +The storm had a revolving tendency; and the wind had now hauled to the +south, whence it came shrieking across the lake with unabated fury. A +little way ahead, around the shallow crescent of the exposed bay in +which they lay, they could see by the light of the frequent flashes a +point on which the waves were beating wildly; and beyond there was a +promise of smooth water and safety. It was only a little way, scarcely +an eighth of a mile; but the way was beset with heart-breaking +difficulties. + +"All hands ashore to push her off!" cried Garth. + +The breed boys, welcoming a voice of authority in that bewildering +chaos, sprang to do his bidding. Garth and Charley set the example, +and the ten backs were braced under the lee gunwale of the _Loseis_, +measuring their sinews against the crashing blows of the waves on the +other side. They budged her inch by inch, often thrown back again; but +at last she floated, and there they managed to hold her for a moment, +rising and falling. Only one who has measured the strength of the surf +against the smallest craft, may comprehend the magnitude of their +labour. + +"Aleck's crew ahead with the tracking-line," shouted Garth. + +The line is always kept coiled and ready, hanging on the bow. Aleck +seized it, and followed by three others, ran ahead along the beach, +paying it out. The four of them slipped into the harness; and digging +their moccasined toes into the beach, painfully straightened their legs +under the pull. When the _Loseis_, answering, began to move inch by inch +along the shore, Garth put the remaining men on board one at a time, +where, armed with their poles, and braced almost horizontally, they held +her off the stones. + +Natalie had long since deserted her sheltered nook, and, heedless of the +drenching downpour, watched them with eager eyes. Garth, his bruises +forgotten, seemed everywhere at once; he had even time to shout a word +of encouragement to her, and she longed mightily to do something to +help. Looking around, she saw her chance. The steersman's long sweep lay +along the deck; running it aft through its ring in the sternpost, and +pushing with all her strength against the stones astern, she added her +mite to keep the boat headed off. Garth observing, shouted his approval; +and Natalie's heart waxed big in her breast. + +Inch by inch, then foot by foot, they won their painful way along the +lee shore. Over and over in spite of the six poles, she was thrown back +on the stones, whereupon they all leaped overboard and put their backs +under her lee. There was once when, Garth's pole snapping short, he +pitched headlong overboard. He climbed back with blood colouring the +rain in his face, and found another pole. Again, approaching the point, +the four men on the end of the tracking-line crawling slowly around the +edge of a steepish bank, were by a sudden heave of the _Loseis_ all four +jerked into the water. Instantly picking themselves up, they scrambled +ahead with their line through the breakers. Garth's heart warmed over +the half-fed, half-clad boys. Not one of the eight faltered for an +instant, and in the midst of their superhuman labours they could still +be shouting at each other. + +A reef ran out beyond the point; and how they ever got over this, or +how long it took, none could have told. By that time they were merely +insensate machines striving automatically against a mighty inhuman +adversary. The _Loseis's_ ribs yielded and trembled under the renewed +blows on the stones. Dizzy and blind with fatigue they struggled ahead; +but they would never have made it, had not the wind hauled still further +around. Finally a wave greater than any preceding lifted them clear of +the stones, and dropped them in smooth water inside. For a while, unable +to realize they had rounded the point, they continued to struggle; then +the _Loseis_ gently beached herself. The tracking crew scrambled aboard, +and all hands dropped where they stood for a breathing spell. + +Soon after the storm showed signs of abating. In the end it ceased +almost as abruptly as it had begun; and the moon looked wanly forth, as +if ashamed for the recent disturbances aloft. Garth, thinking of Grylls +and Hooliam lying on the beach around the point, consulted with Charley +what had better be done. It took them about three seconds to arrive at a +decision. + +"It is between eight and ten miles to the head of the lake," Charley +said. + +"Let them walk it then," said Garth coolly. + +Presently the same breeze resumed its gentle course up the lake as if +there had been no such thing as a storm. Tired as they were, it was too +good to lose; and with hoisted sail, the _Loseis_ forged through the +rapidly subsiding waters, with Charley at the helm. The breed boys asked +no questions. Having raised the sail, they promptly fell asleep. Hooliam +they had little regard for anyway; and Grylls they may have supposed was +still somewhere under the sail-cloths. In three hours they had reached +Grier's point, the navigable head of the lake; and all hands slept until +long after sunrise. + +Garth and Natalie, meeting in the daylight, exclaimed each at the +appearance of the other; Natalie, with remorseful sympathy, that she +had not sooner learnt the extent of Garth's bruises; and Garth with +delighted wonder at the freshness of her. Natalie was like the lake +in the early sunshine; neither showed the slightest trace of a storm +overnight. + +While they were at their breakfast on the shore, a deplorable figure, +ashen-cheeked and shamed, came shuffling out of the bush. The eight +breeds, as one, instantly set up a merciless, derisive jeering. It was +Hooliam. He bore in his hands a little bottle and a bank-bill. Wretched +as he was, his eyes glinted with satisfaction at the sight of the boat +safe and sound on the shore. He went to Garth. + +"Nick Grylls in the bush," he said, dully pointing back. "Him sick bad. +Maybe him die. Him give five dollar for drink of whiskey." + +Garth filled the bottle from his flask. "Put up your money," he said +curtly. + + + + +XII + +THE NINETY-MILE PORTAGE + + +The Settlement is upward of three miles from Grier's point. Avoiding +the houses for the present, Garth pitched his camp outside, well off +the trail. The first thing they learned was that the Bishop had gone on. +This time they were not surprised; there seemed to be a fatality in it. +The old problem confronted Garth anew. + +"I think you should wait here," he suggested to Natalie; "and let me +ride on for you." + +Natalie, as she always did when this question was brought up, merely +looked obstinate. + +"It is likely we will miss him again at the Crossing," Garth went on; +"and I have learned there are only one or two cabins there, and no white +woman. It would be difficult for you." + +Natalie's silence gave him no encouragement. + +"But here," he urged, "you could stay with the wife of the inspector of +the mounted police; while I go on and bring Mabyn back to you. I do not +think you should put yourself in his hands." + +"He would not come with you," she said evasively. + +"I promise to bring him," said Garth determinedly; "if he is alive." + +"No!" she said with manifest agitation. "That is another reason!" + +"What is?" he asked mystified. + +"I--I could not have any trouble between you," she said in a low tone. + +"But I promise to bring him safely," he said doggedly. + +She still shook her head. + +"I will go to the wife of the inspector," said Garth--"a woman in such +a position is sure to be the right sort--and I will explain our position +frankly. She will be glad to take you in!" + +Natalie shot an odd glance at him. "I will not let you," she said +quickly. + +"But why?" + +"The risk of the humiliation of a refusal is too great," she said. "I +do not doubt she is a good woman; I'm sure she rises splendidly to all +the demands of her position up here. But she _has_ a position to maintain, +you see; no doubt she is bringing up girls. And me!"--Natalie turned +away her head--"consider how extraordinary the story sounds! Only one +woman in a thousand would believe." + +Garth turned a distressed face to her. "I have not taken care of you +properly," he cried remorsefully. + +Natalie veiled her eyes; and her hand stole to her breast. "Let us not +talk about _that_!" she murmured unevenly. + +Garth was perplexed and silent. + +Natalie recovered herself presently; and looked at him with a misty +shine in her eyes. "Why do you worry?" she asked. "We're a thousand +times better off than we were yesterday; for you have laid our enemy +by the heels! Why mayn't I go on with you just the same as before? +I cannot trust any one but you!" + +How was Garth to resist such an appeal? Besides, there was nothing else +to do. + +Garth might have lodged a complaint against Nick Grylls at the barracks; +but any investigation would have seriously delayed their journey; and a +greater reason against it was his care for Natalie's good name. It was +intolerable to him that the dear circumstances of their journey together +should be made the subject of the common gossip of the North. It was +better to let those who saw Natalie on the trail speculate as they +chose, rather than give them an opportunity to put their own coarse +construction upon the truth. He was well assured Nick Grylls would +say nothing. + +For the same reason, he decided to avoid the Settlement altogether. +The two of them remained close in camp; and Charley was dispatched to +purchase ponies and saddles, and what was needful to replenish their +stores. He returned with all they required; and during the afternoon +instructed Garth how to pack the ponies and "throw" the immovable +diamond hitch. Natalie in the meantime, constructed a divided skirt +for herself, since side-saddles are unknown in the North. + +Their route now lay over the ninety-mile portage to Spirit River +Crossing. The road, Garth learned, was straight, and, for the +North, well-travelled. There were no forks or cross-trails, hence no +possibility of their missing the way. They set off before daybreak next +morning. The parting with Charley was a wrench all around: but Garth was +firm in insisting that the boy must go back, and put up his hay. In the +easy-going North it is only too easy to drop one's tools and start off +on a jaunt. Charley bade them an abrupt good-bye; and bustled away to +hide his tears. + +In the mystical gloom which, in northern latitudes, precedes the summer +dawn, Garth and Natalie, each leading a pack pony, rode through the +Settlement, which straggled for several miles around the shore of Moose +Bay, a wide, shallow arm of the lake, once navigable, but now given over +to the wild-fowl. The shacks were infinitely various; for in a land +where every man builds for himself, a house quaintly expresses the +character of its owner. But one thing was common to all; no one wastes +any ornament on his dwelling; and in the luxuriant greenness of the +northern summer, the grim, solid little houses were a reminder of +the coming cold. + +Later in the day they passed the long, gradual climb over the height +of land separating the great watersheds of the Miwasa and the Spirit. +On the other side they came to a flat country and of the same general +character all the way. It was a shining day; and, being young, they +forgot their cares and rode gaily. For the most part the trail lay in +a straight and lofty nave of aspen trees, rearing their slender, snowy +pillars sixty, eighty--even a hundred feet aloft; and mingling their +clusters of nimble, chattering leaves high overhead in the sun. There +was nothing gloomy about this cathedral; the sun found a thousand +apertures through which to launch his rays against the white pillars; +while the green and mutable roof was bathed in almost intolerable +radiance--it was a temple in green and white, Flora's colours. + +Occasionally there were cloistered openings; sunny little meadows +inclining to a spring, where the wild pea-vine, plant beloved of horses, +and infallible sign of a rich soil, grew knee-deep. Such an opening they +learned, however small, was quaintly dignified by the natives with the +name of prairie. + +Their ponies, each exhibiting a distinct individuality, afforded the +excuse for their amusement on the way. Garth's mount, that a previous +owner had christened "Cyclops," and who was tall enough and bony enough +to be called a horse, was, like themselves, a stranger in the bush, and +his face offered a comical study in anxiety, willingness and stupidity, +under these new conditions. Natalie rode a young sorrel rejoicing in the +name of Caspar. He had a dull eye, a long, sheeplike nose and a wagging +under lip; and Natalie vowed he was half-witted. He would not ride +abreast; but insisted on following; and he screamed with terror, +if for an instant he lost sight of the other horses. + +But it was the two pack horses that offered the most diverting study of +character. When they left the Settlement behind, Garth cast off their +leaders. In Emmy, a rotund little mare, they had secured a treasure. +Emmy had an indifferent air toward them, worthy of a breed; but unlike +a breed, she was thoroughly business-like. Where the great mudholes of +unknown depth blocked the trail, and they must strike into the bush, she +required no guidance. They laughed and admired, to see her stop, looking +this way and that, and deliberately pick her way through, always with +due regard to the height and breadth of the pack on her back. Emmy +declined to be hurried; she had an air that said as plainly as words, if +they didn't like her pace, they could leave her behind, and be hanged to +them! + +The remaining animal was Emmy's son, a half-broken colt, whose +only virtue was that he would not stray very far from his mother. +Mistatimoosis was his mouthful of a name. He forgot his pack sometimes, +and striking it full tilt against a tree, would be knocked endwise in +the trail, blinking and dismayed, as who should say, "Who hit me?" The +thing that caused them the heartiest laughter was to see Mistatimoosis's +endless attempts to steal the leadership of the caravan from his mother. +It was the only thing that could tempt Emmy out of her sedate pace. On +a fair piece of road the two of them would race at top speed for half a +mile; and the colt was continually making sly detours into the bush to +get around his mother. But she kept him in his place behind. + +The riders finding they could safely leave the packhorses to follow, had +ridden ahead to spy out grass and water for the noon spell. They were +walking their horses over the turf bordering the trail, when suddenly +from among the trees came with startling distinctness the sound of a +voice. They reined up, astonished. It was the gentle, ambling voice of +a loquacious old man; and his conversation there in the wilderness was +as quiet and intimate as chimney-corner talk. + +"I should say half-past eleven," they heard. "When Mr. Sun sits down on +yonder spruce tree we'll make a break. So work your jaws good, Mother, +old girl; and you Buck, my dear, stop looking around like a fool and get +busy! Meanwhile, we'll pack up the grub-box." + +Garth and Natalie smiled at each other. There was nothing very alarming +about this. + +"Will you have a pipe of baccy now, Tom Lillywhite?" the same voice +resumed. "Thanks, old man, don't mind if I do! Is there any cut? No? +Well shave it close." + +There was a pause here, while the speaker presumably filled his pipe. +Then some one drew an audible sigh of content; and a kind of dialogue +took place--though there was but the one voice full of quaint lifts and +falls. Garth and Natalie, smiling broadly, listened without shame. + +"Ah! a fine day, a bellyful of bacon, and a pipeful of tobacco!--would +you change with a moneyed man, Tom Lillywhite?" + +"Well I don't know, sir! Mebbe he don't enjoy his grub as much as us, +havin' gen'ally the dyspepsy; but how about the winter, old sport, when +we don't fetch up no stoppin'-house; and has to make a bed in the snow, +hey? It's then a flannel bed-gown looks good to old bones; let alone +woolly slippers and a feather bed! Seems I wouldn't kick agin the +job of takin' care o' money in the winter time!" + +"Ah! g'long with you, Tom Lillywhite! You'd a been dead long ago if you +had money! Swole up and bust with good eatin', y'old epicoor! You'd be +havin' a pig killed fresh every week if you had money!" + +"Say, b'lieve I would cut some dash if I had money! I'd build me a house +of lumber clear through, and I'd paint it all over, paint it blue! And +I'd have sawdust on the settin'-room floor and a brass spittoon in every +corner! 'Have a chair,' I'd say to stoppers, not lettin' on I was puffed +up at all. 'Have a ten-cent seegar. Don't mention it! Don't mention it! +I get a case full in every Fall!'" + +Here there was a jolly chuckle. + +Their packhorses joining them noisily, the dialogue was cut short. + +"Some one comin'," said the voice. + +Rounding the clump of bushes, Garth and Natalie found themselves in a +grassy opening in the bush. An untraced wagon stood in the centre; and +two horses browsed. Immediately under the bushes, an old man sat on the +ground. They instinctively looked around for the other persons brought +into his conversation; but, save for the horses, he was alone. + +At the sight of them his face lighted up with the pleased naïveté of +a child. "How do! How do!" he said immediately, without getting up or +raising his voice at all. "My horses are quiet. They won't tech yours. +The spring is down there at the foot of the spruce. Just blow up my fire +a little and it will do for you." He seemed to take them entirely for +granted; and he spoke as if resuming a dropped conversation. + +There was something very troll-like in the old figure, squatting on the +ground; in his bright, glancing eyes, in his incessant, matter-of-fact +loquacity, and the slight, peculiar gesticulation, with which he +illustrated his talk. He was all of a colour; high moccasins, breeches, +shirt and cap were weathered to the same grayish-brown shade--and that +much the colour of his skin. Against a background of withered grass, +only his white hair would have been visible. He was like some +good-tempered, little familiar of the forest. + +He stared hard at Natalie in his bright-eyed, impersonal way; and as +soon as Garth, having made his horses comfortable, came to build up the +fire, he started in with his questions. + +"Where you going?" + +"Spirit River Crossing," said Garth. + +"Thinking of settling?" + +Garth shook his head. + +"No, you don't look like settlers. Company business, maybe?" + +"No," said Garth. + +"Police? Gov'ment survey?" + +"Private business," said Garth--his usual answer to the question direct. + +Baffled inquisitiveness, vice of the kindest natures, made the old man's +face ugly; and for a moment he looked like a wicked troll. For a little +while he preserved an offended silence; but then, probably recollecting +that he would hear the whole story at the Settlement, or simply because +he could not keep still any longer, his face cleared, and he resumed his +engaging, inconsequential babble. + +"See that horse over there, the buckskin? Best horse I ever had! True +buckskin! Mark the zebra stripes round his legs, Miss; and the black +stripe on his backbone. You can't kill a buck; he's got more lives +than a cat. I call the old one Mother; she's good-natured, she is!" + +"You're a freighter, I see," remarked Garth as a leader. + +"Sure thing, stranger! Tom Lillywhite and his team is known to every +settler in the country! Been here thirty-five year; and always on the +move! Never sleep in the same place two nights going! That wagon there, +and the grub-box is my home. It's a variegated life!" + +Garth bethought himself the old man would likely prove a valuable source +of information. "You must know everybody in the country!" he said, +feeling his way. + +"None better!" said Tom Lillywhite, bridling with pride. + +"Are there many white men at the Crossing?" asked Garth. + +"Quite a crowd," said the old man; "eight or nine at the least. There's +the two traders, and Mert Haywood the farmer, and old Turner the J. P., +and the priest, and the English missionary, and the school-master; +that's seven. Then there's old man Mackensie but you wouldn't hardly +call him a white man--smoked too deep, and squaw-ridden." + +"Is that all?" said Garth, disappointed of his quest. + +"Well, there's a sort of another. He doesn't regularly belong to the +Crossing but he comes into the store for his goods once or twict a year. +I forgot him--most everybody's forgot him now. It's Bert Mabyn." + +Garth and Natalie pricked up their ears; and their hearts began to beat. + +"I got good cause to know Bert Mabyn, too," continued old Tom innocently; +while the other two listened still as mice, and apprehensive of +disclosures to be made. "But that's all past. I don't bear him no ill-will +now. He's a cur'us chap, a little teched I guess; but as pleasant a spoken +and amoosin' a feller as another feller could want to have with him on the +road! Want to hear about him?" + +Garth looked at Natalie dubiously. + +"Yes," she said boldly. + +"Well, it was three years ago," began Tom Lillywhite, with the zest of +the true story-teller. "The Gov'ment sent four surveyin' parties in; and +I had more'n I could do freightin' from the Settlement to the different +camps. It was rough haulin', you understand, over the lines they cut +through the bush, straight as a string over muskeg and coulée. You +couldn't load over twenty hundredweight, and sometimes you had to dump +half of that, and go back for it. But right good pay, Gov'ment pay is. + +"I needed another team bad, and I see a good chance to get one on credit +from Dick Staley, with the wagon and all; but I couldn't get no white +men to drive it for me. A breed, you understand, soon kills your horses +on you! + +"Well, it might be I was settin' outside the French outfit, talkin' it +over," he went on tranquilly, little suspecting with what meaning his +story was charged for the two strangers; "when along comes a feller and +asts for me. Say, he was a sight! He was wearin' black clothes, though +it were a workin'-day; and all muddied and tore, showin' the skin under; +and his coat was pinned acrost the neck, with a safety-pin 'cause he +hadn't no shirt. He had a Sunday hat on too--all busted. At the best +he weren't no beauty; his teeth was out." + +Natalie shuddered. + +Garth, suffering for her, could not bear to meet her eyes. "Perhaps +you'd rather hear another story," he suggested. + +She braced herself. "No! Go on!" she said. + +"Soon as I see him, I knew who he was," continued old Tom; "for I hear +the fellers talk about a white man that took passage up from the Landing +on Phillippe's boat. He let them pull him all the way; and when they got +to Grier's point, he hadn't no money. They took it out of his skin; and +say, when a white man is beat by a breed it's good-day to him up here! +In a hundred years he couldn't live it down. + +"'Do you want to hire a man?' says he mumbling-like; he was too far down +to meet your eye. + +"'Hum!' says I thoughtful, 'I want a _man_,' I says. + +"You should have heard the fellers laugh at that! They still talk about +it! 'Tom Lillywhite, he wants a man', they say. It's quite a word in the +country. 'Tom Lillywhite wants a _man_!'" + +The old freighter went off into an interminable chuckling over the +antique jest. + +It was inexpressibly painful to Natalie to have Garth there, a witness +to her humiliation; but she would not stop the story-teller, nor let +Garth stop him. + +"However, thinks I, you can sometimes make a man out of unpromisin' +mater'al," he resumed. "And in the end I took him for his grub. That was +Bert Mabyn. For three months I didn't regret it; he was used to horses, +and was first-rate company on the trail. I didn't give him no money--said +he didn't want none--but I fed him up good, and he soon got fat and sassy. +I give him other things too. I couldn't stand for the poor wretch a +shiverin' by my fire in his buttoned-up coat, so I give him blankets; +and afterward an outfit of clothes. + +"What do you think was the first thing he ever ast me for?--a razor +and a glass! And every day after that he used to shave hisself--every +day mind you, if we was in the thickest part of the bush! And forever +trimmin' of his nails, and polishin' 'em to make 'em shine! Wasn't +that remarkable? + +"He was a great talker. Nights around the fire he used to tell me all +about himself. Seems he comes of real high-toned folks outside; but went +to the bad young. Said he come West three years before that again, full +of good resolutions, which lasted just so long as his money. Since then +he'd been a grub-rider 'round the ranches, and dish-washer in hotels, +and, 'scusin' your presence, Miss, worse than that--but he hadn't no +shame about it! + +"I liked the feller. He wasn't no good, but he had that persuasive way +with him! And he knew so much more than me! You'd think a man 'ud feel +shame to tell such stories on himself; but no! he'd make out as you +ought to like him for bein' such a good-for-nothing waster; and by Gum! +in the end you did! Never see such a feller! + +"Well, all summer we travelled, me and him; him always behind me on the +trail; and I hadn't any fault to find. But come September I had a rush +lot up to Whitefish Lake; and at the same time there was some stuff +wanted in a hurry in Pentland's camp over on the Great Smoky. So for the +first time we divided. I sent him to Pentland's over this very trail! + +"I got back long before he did. After a while word come from Pentland, +where in thunder were the goods? It was after the first snow before +Mabyn come back. He was a wreck and the horses were just alive, and no +more. He told a story how his wagon capsized in the river, and he lost +everything; but the whiskey gave the lie to that. By and by we found +he'd buried a keg of it, outside the Settlement. In the Spring when it +was too late to do anything, it all come out through a breed. Seems away +up by Fort St. Pierre, he met one of them crooked traders, that +sometimes sneaks acrost the mountains; and he sold him the stuff for a +keg of rot-gut. When I hear that I was thankful he brought back the +horses at all. The business near busted me; for I had to make good three +hundred worth of groceries to Pentland; and sacrificed the second team, +'count of the shape they were in. That was what Bert Mabyn cost _me_!" + +"Didn't you have him arrested?" asked Garth indignantly. + +Tom shrugged. "What were the use of that? The inspector was after me to +prosecute; but it was too late to get my money back, and put flesh on +the horses--besides, I was too busy. Of course, it weren't just the same +as robbin' me in cold blood," he added in the tone of one who must be +fair; "for it were the whiskey, you see." + +Natalie kept her face averted from the old man. "And what has become of +this man since?" she asked, steadily controlling her voice. + +"Oh, he hung around the Settlement, sponging on one and another till he +were kicked out; then he come down to the breeds. It was a great honour +for them to have a white man of any kind runnin' after them, you see, so +they put up with him. Then he drifted West, up Ostachegan way; and +lately, I understand, he's taken up a deserted shack he found on +Clearwater Lake, away up on the bench there, northwest of the Spirit. +There they tell me he lives all alone; but no one's seen him in a dog's +age." + + * * * * * + +Garth and Natalie avoided everything beyond the merest commonplaces to +each other until they were alone; and even after Tom Lillywhite, bidding +them farewell, had driven off, chirping to his horses, it was a long +time before either had the courage to make a move toward overcoming the +ghastly constraint his story had caused between them. + +"Haven't we heard enough?" said Garth quietly at last. "Need you go any +further?" + +Natalie in the interim had had time to pass her emotional crisis. She +was very pale, and her eyes were big; but she was now calmer than he. "I +have heard enough, surely," she said; "but after coming all this way it +would seem cowardly, wouldn't it, to be satisfied with hearsay +evidence?--and there is still my promise to his mother." + +Her tone impressed Garth with the utter hopelessness of trying to +dissuade her. "But how can I let you expose yourself to--to what we may +find!" he groaned. + +"I am not a child," said Natalie quietly. "And I shall not quail at the +mere sight of ugliness." She turned away from him. "Besides," she added +in a lower tone, "you know the worst now; and that was the hardest thing +to bear--your hearing it I mean. No," she went on, facing him again, +wistfully and valorously; "it promises to be _very_ ugly, but then I +undertook it, you see. I am going on." + +They could not bear to meet each other's eyes; and miserably turning +their backs, affected to busy themselves with small tasks. Natalie, +quivering with the shame of the lash all unwittingly applied by old Tom, +longed with an inexpressible longing to have Garth with a hint or a look +assure her that he loved her, and so, thrusting the wretch Mabyn out of +their charmed circle, reinstate her in her self-respect. But poor Garth +in his clumsy, masculine delicacy thought that to obtrude himself at +such a moment would only hurt her more. He kept silent, and he averted +his eyes, and Natalie, misunderstanding, tasted the very dregs of +shame. + + + + +XIII + +THE NEWLY-MARRIED PAIR + + +Out on the bosom of that infinite prairie, which rolls its unmeasured +miles north and west of the Spirit River, a last place of mystery and +dreams, still unharnessed by the geographers, and reluctantly written +down "unexplored" on their maps, two human figures were riding slowly, +with their horses' heads turned away from the last habitations of men. +The prairie undulated about them like a sea congealed in motion--but +seemingly vaster than the sea; for at sea the horizon is ever near at +hand; while here the very unevenness of the ground marked, and fixed, +and opened up the awful distances. The grass was short, rich and browned +by the summer sun; and it mantled the distant rounds and hollows with +the changing lights of beaver fur. The only breaks in its expanse were +here and there, springing in the sheltered hollows, coppices or bluffs +of slender poplar saplings, with crowding stems, as close and even as +hair. The leaves were yellowed by the first frosts. + +The man rode ahead, slouching on the back of his wretched cayuse, with +eyes blank alike of inward thought or outward observation. He was not +yet forty years old, but bore the cast of premature decay, more aged +than age. What showed of his hair beneath his hat was sparse and faded; +and of his visible teeth he had no more than a perishing stump or two +left in his jaws. His discontented, satiated, exhausted mien, had a +strange look there in the fresh and potent wilderness. + +The girl who followed with a travoise dragging at her pony's heels, was, +on the other hand, in harmony with the land. Of the extremes to which the +breeds run in looks, she was of the rare beauties of that strange race. +Her features were moulded in a delicate, definite harmony that would have +marked her out in any assemblage of beauty; and the spirit of beauty +was there too. There were actually pride and dignity under the arched +brows--so capricious is Nature in shaping her wilder daughters--and in the +deep soft eyes brooded, even when she was happiest, a heart-disquieting +quality of wistfulness. She was happy now; and ever and anon she raised +her eyes to the slouching back of the man riding ahead with a look of +passionate abandon in which there was nothing civilized at all. She was +slenderer than the run of brown maidens, and her clumsy print dress could +not hide the girlish, perfect contour of her shoulders. In her dusky +cheeks there glowed a tinge of deep rose; testimony to the lingering +influence of the white blood in her veins. + +Topping a rise, the man paused for her to overtake him. + +"Here we are, Rina," he said indifferently. His voice was oddly cracked. +His manner toward her expressed a good-humoured tolerance. His eyes +approved her casually; inner tenderness there was none. + +The girl apparently was sensible of no lack--but the breeds do not bring +up their daughters to expect tenderness. Her eyes sparkled. "How pretty +it is, 'Erbe't!" she breathed. "Ver' moch good land!" She spoke the +pretty, clipped English of the convent school. + +At their feet lay a shallow valley, hidden close until the very moment +of stumbling upon it. In it was a sparkling slough but large enough to +be dignified with the name of lake. It was something the shape of a +gourd, with a long end that curved out of sight below, a very girdle of +blue velvet binding the waists of the brown hills. At their left the +shores of the wider part of the lake, the bulb of the gourd, were, in +unexpected contrast to the bareness of the uplands, heavily wooded with +great cottonwood trees and spruce. A grassy islet ringed with willows +seemed to be moored here like the barge of some woodland princess. Away +beyond, elevated on a grassy terrace at the head of the lake, and +overlooking its whole expanse, stood a tiny weather-beaten shack, +startlingly conspicuous in that great expanse of untouched nature. +Sheltered by the hills from the howling blasts of the prairie above; and +with wood, water and unlimited game at its door, it was a wholly +desirable situation for a Northern dwelling--but it was seventy-five +miles off the trail. + +The girl brought her pony alongside Mabyn's; and slipped her hand into +his. "It is jus' right!" she whispered. "We will be ver' happy, +'Erbe't!" + +He let her hand fall carelessly. "It's damn lonesome!" he grumbled. + +All the shy boldness of an enamoured girl peeped out of Rina's eyes, as +she whispered: "I'm glad it's lonesome! I don' want nobody to come--but +you!" + +Mabyn was unimpressed. He struck the ribs of his tired pony with his +heels. "Come on," he said; and led the way down the incline. + +Later, reaching the shack, on the threshold Rina spread out her arms +with an unconscious gesture. "This is my home!" she cried. "I will jus' +love it!" + +Mabyn looking around at the gaping walls, the empty panes and the foul +litter, laughed jeeringly at her simplicity. + +The girl was too happy to feel the sting. "I will fix it!" she said +stoutly. "I will mak' it like an outside house. It will be as nice than +the priest's parlour in the Settlement!" She clasped her hands against +her breast in the intensity of her eagerness. "Jus' you wait, 'Erbe't! +Some day I will have white curtains in the window! and a piece of carpet +on the floor! and a holy picture on the wall! Oh! I will work so hard!" + +"Get about the supper, Rina," said Mabyn shortly. + +She prepared the meal at the rough mud fireplace built across the corner +of the shack, for they had no stove; and they ate squatting on the floor +in the breed fashion, for neither was there a table. Afterward Mabyn +dragged the bench--a relic of the former tenant, and sole article of +furniture they possessed--outside the door; and sat upon it, smoking, +yawning, looking across the lake with lack-lustre eyes. + +Rina having redd up the shack, came to the doorway, where she stood +looking at him wistfully. Finally she hovered toward him and retreated; +and her hands stole to her breast. She was longing mightily to sit +beside him; but she did not dare. In a breed's wife it would have been +highly presumptuous, and would very likely have been rewarded with a +blow; but Rina had a dim notion that a white man's wife had the right to +sit beside him--still she was afraid. In the end her desire overcame her +fears; drifting hither and thither toward the bench like a frond of +thistledown, she finally alighted on the edge, and her cheek dropped on +his shoulder. The act must have been subtly suggested by the tincture of +white blood in her veins, for it is not a redskin attitude. The man +neither repulsed nor welcomed her. + +"'Erbe't," she whispered, "my head is so full of things I am near crazy +wit' thoughts! And my tongue is in a snare; I cannot speak at all!" + +Mabyn's only comment was a sort of grunt, which meant anything--or +nothing. + +Rina was encouraged to creep a little closer. "Oh, 'Erbe't, I love you!" +she whispered. "I am loving you every minute! I so glad you marry me, +'Erbe't!" + +The man took his pipe out of his mouth, and uttered his brief, jeering +cackle of laughter. "That wasn't altogether a matter of choice, my +girl," he said. "It was a little preliminary insisted on by your father +and mother." + +Rina hardly took the sense of this. "But you do love me, 'Erbe't? jus' a +little?" she pleaded. + +"You're all right, Rina," he said patronizingly. "I never was one to +make much of a fuss about a woman." + +Little by little gathering courage, she began to pour out her soul for +the man she loved. "I never love any man but you, 'Erbe't," so ran the +naïve confession; "the breed boys, they always come aroun' and show off. +I not lak them. They foolish and dirty; they eat same lak cocouche; and +they know not'ing; but they think themself so fine. They mak' me sick! +My mot'er say to me; 'You eighteen year old, Rina; w'en you go to +marry?' I say to my mot'er, 'I never marry a pig-man; I want to stay to +you.'" + +Her voice changed, borrowing the soft, passionate music of the +nightingale she had never heard. "Then bam-bye w'en the spring come, an' +we pitch by Ostachegan creek, an' the crocus flowers are coming up on +Sah-ko-da-tah prairie so many as stars in the sky--then you come by our +camp, 'Erbe't; and you so poor an' sick I feel ver' bad for you! An' you +talk so pretty, and know so much, my heart him fly straight out of my +breast like a bird, 'Erbe't; an' perch on your shoulder; an' him go +everywhere you go; an' I got no heart any more. I empty lak a nest in +the snow-time! + +"So you stay to us," she went on, "and I mad to see all the men mock at +you, an' treat you bad, an' mak' you eat after all have finished, and +mak' you lie outside the fire. They t'ink themself better than a white +man, hey! All the time you ask me to come away from the camp with you; +an' you t'ink I don' want to come, but you don' know. Many, many nights +I not sleep, 'Erbe't. I want so bad to come to the ot'er side of the +tepee where you are, but I hold to my mot'er's blanket!" + +The man looked up. "Hm! You did, eh?" he exclaimed. "If I had known!" + +"But I t'ink I mos' not let you see I love you. So I mak' show I don' +care at all. An' it hurt me ver' moch in my empty breast, 'Erbe't. But +why I do it?--I want you so to marry me! an' bam-bye you marry me; an' I +so scare and happy lak I was lose my head! Four days I married now! You +not mad at me, 'Erbe't, 'cause I mak' you marry me?" + +He shrugged. "What's the diff?" he said carelessly. + +Rina dared to let her arm creep around his shoulders. "But bam-bye you +ver' glad you marry me," she whispered. "For I mak' me ver' nice! I +white woman now. I go no more to the breeds. I spik only Engliss now; we +will sit in chairs and eat pretty with knives and forks; and always say +good morning and good night, lak white people. 'Erbe't, you will teach +me all the ways of white people, lak they do outside? I want so bad to +be ver' nice, jus' lak white woman!" + +"Sure!" said Mabyn vaguely. + +Rina was silent for a while. "'Erbe't," she said at last, "you never +tell me about your folks; about your house where you live outside. +Please tell me." + +He muttered, and writhed uncomfortably on the bench. "What's the use of +bringing that up?" he said at last. "You wouldn't understand if I tried +to tell you." + +"Loving makes me onderstan' moch," she softly pleaded. + +He was silent. + +"Have you any sisters outside, 'Erbe't?" she gently persisted. + +"No," he said. + +"Your mot'er, she is not dead?" + +"No." + +"She mos' be ver' nice, I think." + +"She's a lady!" he blurted out. + +Rina nodded wisely. "I know what that is," she said. "A lady is a ver' +nice woman." Her voice dropped very low. "'Erbe't," she whispered, with +infinite, passionate desire in her voice--stroking his cheek, "will you +teach me to be a lady?" + +He laughed. "You 'tend to your work about the place," he said, "and +don't bother your head over that." + +Tears slowly welled up in Rina's eyes, and stole one after another down +her cheeks. "I do so ver' moch want to be a lady," she whispered, more +to herself than to him. He did not know she wept, she was so still. + +By and by she raised her head, and shook the tears away. "To-morrow, I +will begin to fix things nice for you, 'Erbe't," she said with renewed, +soft tenderness. + +He vented his hopeless, jeering chuckle. "Nice!" he echoed. "My God, +Rina! What are you going to begin on?" + +"I show you!" she said eagerly. "I have a whole tanned buckskin my +father give to me when I go 'way; and my mot'er, she give silk, all +colours. I make seven, eight, maybe ten pairs of glove, with cuffs; and +work them with silk flowers! No woman can work so good with silk than +me! I work all the time there is light; and when all are done I get +forty dollar in trade at the store! And I buy cartridges and traps and +grub, and another skin to work. Not any more will you be poor, 'Erbe't!" + +"Lord! How will we ever drag out the winter in this God-forsaken spot!" +he grumbled--unconsciously shifting the initiative to her shoulders. + +Her arm tightened about him. "We will do fine!" she said eagerly. "We +will mak' moch money. There is no plentier place for fur; and we will +have it all! Me, I can set traps and snares as good as Michel Whitebear. +Maybe I will get a silver fox, or a black one. I know the fox! In the +spring we will have plenty good credit at the store. We can travel to +the Settlement then, and you will not be lonesome. There are many white +men. We could stay in the Settlement all summer; and I would cook meals +for the freighters and the travellers and mak' more money. I am a good +worker, 'Erbe't. Everybody say so!" + +Mabyn partly roused himself. "That's not a bad idea," he said. "Under +cover of the restaurant, it would be dead easy to run in a little +whiskey over the Berry Mountain trail, and make a pot of money. Fifty +cents a drink, by Gad!" + +Rina drew away from him. "I will not help you do that, 'Erbe't," she +said quietly. + +"You'll do what I tell you to do," he said coolly. + +Rina remained silent. Her breast heaved and trembled with terror at her +own temerity in defying her husband--but there were both firmness and +reproach in her attitude. It was more than the weak Mabyn could bear for +long in silence. + +"Good God!" he burst out. "Have I married a breed to tell me what I +ought to do, and ought not to do? Better learn once for all, my girl, +that I'm the head of this outfit, and I mean to do whatever I damned +please!" + +Rina sat gripping her hands together in her lap to control their +trembling. Her head was bowed. "I am only a breed girl," she said. "You +are my 'osban', and you can beat me, and you can kill me, but I would +not cry out, or think bad of you. But you cannot mak' me help you to +mak' a pig of you again. I will mak' you to have good credit, an' to be +a rich and strong man, an' you can go back and spit on the poor breeds +that mock you before. I will not help you trade in whiskey; whiskey mak' +you poor, an' sick, an' crazy!" + +Mabyn got up. "God! Women are all alike, white or brown!" he muttered +indifferently. "Come on in." + +But he had yielded the point. The regeneration of Herbert Mabyn had been +undertaken. + + + + +XIV + +THE LAST STAGE + + +The hours of the afternoon that followed their encounter with +Tom Lillywhite were long and heavy ones for Natalie and Garth. A +haggard misunderstanding rode between them on the trail. Denied the +all-explaining, all-healing touch of hands--or lips, the unreasonable +despair of lovers seized on each; and the sunny way was plunged in murk. +They rode, and camped, and ate their supper in silence; and in silence +they turned in for the night. But there was little sleep for either; they +lay apart, each nursing a burden of unhappiness; unable to say now what +it was all about, only dreadfully conscious that they were divided. + +As soon as it was light enough to see, a pale and heavy-lidded Natalie +crept noiselessly out of her tent. In front of the door she saw Garth +on his knees preparing to build a fire; but the hand that held the +hatchet-helve had dropped nervelessly to the ground; and his eyes, fixed +and staring in the torpor of miserableness, had forgotten what he had +set out to do. At the sight, a rapturous peace came back to Natalie's +harried soul; for, she thought, if he were so unhappy as that, he must +love her in spite of all. And Garth, looking up, saw the tenderness +break in her weary face, and he understood it all too. The forest sprang +into leaf again for them; and presently the sun came gaily up. They +became as wildly and unreasonably happy as they had just been miserable; +and not a word was exchanged either way. It was not necessary. That they +did not fling themselves into each other's arms at that moment, must +surely be written down to their credit somewhere. + +They made but a leisurely progress this day and the next. The labour of +the journey was greater than at any time hitherto, for in addition to +the ordinary routine of making and breaking camp twice a day, Garth had +now the four horses to look after. Catching them was a task of uncertain +duration, even though they were turned out hobbled; in particular, the +exasperating Timoosis developed the proficiency of a very circus horse, +in walking on his hind legs. And once caught, there was all the business +of saddling, packing and drawing the hitch. + +Besides, there was that in both their hearts which delayed them even +more. No ardently desired goal awaited them at the end of this journey; +on the contrary they dreaded what they were to find. The last few miles +of the way together, before the inevitable came between them, was +therefore very dear; and it became ever easier to say "Let's camp!" and +harder to say "Let's move!" + +Their boisterous jollity on the trail gave place to much quiet +happiness; and there was ceaseless friendly contention, where Garth's +every thought was for Natalie; and hers for him. Each was on his mettle +to be worthy of the other's best. Above all they avoided the insidious +danger of contact; but inevitably sometimes in the business of the camp, +their hands did meet--and each to himself stored up and told over the +events like secret treasures. In every labour Natalie insisted on taking +her share like a man; and Garth never ceasing to upbraid her, yet loved +her for it prodigiously. + +Day by day, now, the leaves of the more exposed trees were yellowing; +and on the second night of their journey across the portage, the first +heavy frost of the season descended. Garth, under his sail-cloth at the +door of the tent, awoke covered with rime. + +Toward the end of the third day they had their never-to-be-forgotten +first glimpse of the mighty Spirit, the dream river of the North, whose +name evokes the thought of a garden in a bleak land. The unvarying +flatness of the portage with its standing pools, and the interminable +lofty wood that had hemmed them in for three days, had given them the +sense of travelling on the bottom of the world, and that somewhere ahead +must be a hill to climb. What then was their astonishment this +afternoon, when, without warning they emerged from among the trees on +an abrupt grassy terrace, and beheld the great river lying nearly a +thousand feet _below_. + +It was a view inimitably gorgeous and sublime. Coming so suddenly upon +it they caught their breaths and gazed in silence; for there was nothing +fitting to say. The high point on which they stood overlooked a deep and +narrow gorge at their left, through which a little river fell to the +great stream; and across this they could look up the vast trough for +miles. In the distance the river seemed to rise, until one would say it +issued molten from the low-hung sun itself. + +It had an individual and peculiar look, like no watercourse they had +seen. Its course drew a sharp line between the wooded country and the +prairie. Like a figure dressed in motley, the steep southern bank was +everywhere dark and wooded, while the other side, sweeping up in +countless fantastic knolls and terraces, was bare, except for the brown +grass, and patches of scrub-like hair in the hollows. Far back from the +opposite rim of the vast trough swept the unmeasured prairie, as flat, +in the whole prospect, as the country they had lately traversed. + +It was the wealth of colour that most of all bewitched their eyes. The +river itself was of an odd, insistent green--emerald tinged with milk; +the islands on its bosom hung out the rich bottle-green of spruce; the +grass on the north bank was beaver-brown; the wild-rose scrub glowed +blood-crimson in the hollows; and the aspen bluffs, touched with frost, +were as yellow as saffron. The wild and beautiful panorama was made +complete in their eyes by a great golden eagle perched on the brink of +the immediate foreground and, like themselves, gazing over. Though but a +hundred yards or so distant, he contemptuously disregarded their +arrival. When Garth, full of curiosity, came closer, he spread his vast +wings and drifted indifferently out into space. + +For a long time they gazed at the scene without speaking. It was Natalie +who finally expressed their common thought. + +"Wouldn't it be sweet," she said wistfully, "if our journey had no other +object but to see this! With what satisfied hearts we could now turn +back!" + +Skirting the edge of the steep, presently the Settlement came into view +far below, a hut or two along the river, hugging the base of the cliffs. +The trail zigzagged gradually down, frequently doubling on itself; and +whereas the eagle might have descended in a minute, it promised to be +more like half an hour for them. + +Garth, following his previous policy, did not intend to expose Natalie +to the stares of the Settlement, until he had at least reconnoitred. +Before coming on the houses, therefore, he led his little caravan off +through the bush to the left; and descended to the shore of the smaller +stream they had seen from above. Here, in a private glade beside the +noisy brown water, they pitched their camp; and Garth, leaving Natalie +armed against all eventualities, proceeded into the Settlement. + +His inevitable first question at the store elicited the information that +the Bishop had gone up the river to Binchinnin, Ostachegan Creek and Fort +St. Pierre. Next, the name of Herbert Mabyn called forth contemptuous +shrugs. None of the men could give certain information of his whereabouts, +though Clearwater Lake was mentioned again. He had not been in to the post +for four months; and there was a handful of letters waiting for him. +Garth was referred to the breeds across the river for better news. It was +clearly intimated that all self-respecting white men had cast Mabyn off. + +Inquiring the means of crossing the river, the ferry was pointed out +to Garth, a barge propelled with sweeps. It must be tracked up-stream +for a quarter of a mile before starting across, to allow for the current, +he was told. The trader offered to help him when he was ready. Garth +thanking him, privately resolved to cross before the Settlement was +astir next morning. He saw that his own reticence in answering questions +inspired the three simultaneously with the idea that he was a detective +from outside, in pursuit of Herbert Mabyn for some early sin; and he let +it go at that. + + * * * * * + +Garth roused Natalie long before dawn; and they crossed the river by the +first greenish light of the East. Garth handled one sweep, Natalie the +other; and their labour was great. The incorrigible Timoosis, who never +neglected an opportunity to make trouble, balked furiously at the ferry; +and, finally driven on board and tied, managed to work the other horses +up to a high state of excitement during the passage. + +Finally, when they had almost made the other shore, he succeeded in +breaking his halter; and, leaping over the stern, perversely struck +out for the shore they had left. Cy and Caspar, horses of no character, +blindly leaped after him. For a moment a dire disaster threatened; for +Timoosis, borne down by the weight of his pack, could scarcely keep his +head above water; and they thought they had lost both their horse and +their camp equipment. But the self-contained Emmy, who had not budged +during all the excitement, merely turned her head, and sent an imperious +whinny in the direction of her offspring; whereupon Timoosis, with true +coltish inconsistency, turned about, and came meekly swimming after +the barge, followed by the other two. Since the shore was not above +twenty-five yards off he managed to win it pack and all, and staggered +up on the beach, chilled, exhausted, and much chastened in mind. +Warned by previous experiences, they never trusted him with anything +perishable, so the damage to his pack was slight. + +After an hour's travelling, they halted by the trail at sunrise to eat, +and to dry out what had been wet. This part of the trail traversed the +heavily wooded bottom-lands, before starting to climb the grassy steeps +of the further bank. As they sat on a log discussing their bread and +cocoa, a rollicking song came, as a sound comes fluctuating through the +woods, now from this side, now from that, and curiously deadened. It +finally resolved itself into the air of _Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay_ with words +in Cree. While it still seemed some distance away, suddenly the singer +rode upon them; and reining up his horse, called the song into his +surprised throat. + +He was the handsomest native they had met, a young fellow of twenty-odd, +lean and broad-shouldered, with flashing black eyes and high-bridged +nose. His stiff-brimmed "Stetson" was tilted at a dashing angle; he had +a scarlet silk handkerchief about his throat; and he sat his horse like +a young prince of the woods. Whether pure redskin or breed it was +impossible for them to tell; certainly there was no visible evidence of +a white admixture; but in spite of his strange and savage air, there was +something instantly likeable about the young man--according to Natalie +he was the first native they had met who seemed human. He rode a fine +black horse as bravely accoutred as would become the captain of a +round-up. + +He seemed disposed to be friendly; and Garth invited him to share their +meal. As politeness demanded, he broke a small piece of bread, and drank +some cocoa, which was plainly not at all to his taste. When he sat down +he had the grace to take off his hat, something else they had not seen +before in a native. + +His name, he volunteered, was Gene Lafabe. Since his English was about +on a par with Garth's Cree, communication was difficult. In his +simplicity, the young man was continually forgetting they could not +understand his language; and when Garth shook his head, only shouted the +louder. + +"You know Herbert Mabyn?" Garth asked. + +Gene vigorously nodded his head, adding a stream of information, which, +had they only understood, would have materially altered their subsequent +line of action. + +Garth shook his head hopelessly. "Where is he?" he asked. + +Gene pointed north. "Clearwater Lake," he said; and in the twinkling of +an eye, counted seventy-five with his ten fingers. + +"Where is the trail?" Garth asked. + +Gene shrugged. "Nomoya!" he said. "No trail!" + +Garth had an inspiration. "Can you take us there?" he asked. + +Considerable patience and good-humour were called for from both sides, +in the arduous course of arriving at an understanding; but finally a +bargain was struck. Gene, in addition to the credentials of his person, +bore a highly satisfactory letter of recommendation from the company +trader at the Crossing. Whatever his errand in the first place may have +been, he never gave it another thought; and in half an hour blithely +turned his horse's head, and took the lead on the trail. + +Gene looked at every considerable tree, every little gulley, and every +rise in the ground with the eye of an old friend. In a mile or so, at a +place marked in no way that Garth could see, he abruptly turned out of +the trail; and led them with an air of certainty through the apparently +trackless woods. The trees ended at the steep rise that marked the +bottom of the northern bank; and thereafter they climbed the grass. + +By a devious route known to himself Gene led them through many little +grassy ravines, and over ridges, gradually upward. There was no sense or +order in the arrangement of the knolls and terraces and spurs of +turf--the ground seemed to be pushed up anyhow, like bubbles on the +surface of yeasty dough. For a while they would be swallowed in a +cup-like hollow; then, surmounting a ridge, they would have a brief +glimpse of the distant river behind. It was only when they reached the +top that, looking back over the turbulent rounded masses of earth, they +were able to comprehend the great height to which they had climbed. + +Reaching level ground, Gene with a shout set off at a lope in a bee line +across the prairie; and Garth bringing up the packhorses in the rear, +caused the sedate Emmy to put her best foot foremost. Meanwhile, with +pocket-compass and memorandum book, he made notes of the route they +took; and when opportunity offered tied a strip of white cotton to a +bush. It was his intention to dismiss Gene before coming to Mabyn's hut; +and he wished to be sure of the way back. The guide, comprehending what +he was doing, gave him to understand that Emmy could bring them back +over their own tracks--unless snow should fall. But Garth was neglecting +no precautions. + +Garth and Natalie deplored to each other the inadequacy of their means +of communication with their guide. The bright-eyed Gene had a hundred +things to point out to them on the prairie, most of which they could +only guess at. For one thing, he made them understand he was following +in the tracks of two cayuses that had gone that way three days before. +One was lame, he said, and the other dragged a travoise. All this he +learned from certain marks in the grass, which the other two could not +see at all. In all ways Gene proved himself a very pearl among guides. +Garth, merely from watching him, learned as much trail-craft these two +days as he had picked up during the weeks preceding; and Natalie +confessed that his cooking put her utterly to shame. + +Such was the energy of their pace that they reached the last waterhole +before coming to Clearwater Lake early next afternoon. Here Garth +decided to camp; for he had determined with Natalie to time their +arrival at Mabyn's hut for the morning; so that after the briefest stay, +they could immediately start back. Clearwater Lake was only three miles +distant; and Gene was able to point out a poplar bluff marking the rise +behind which it lay. + +Neither Garth nor Natalie obtained much sleep that night; only Gene, +wrapped in his rabbit-skin robe beyond the fire, slept the sleep of the +savage or the child. They were all astir at dawn; and after eating, they +parted; Gene careering south without a care on his mind; while Garth and +Natalie turned their apprehensive faces toward the lake. What they were +to find there they did not know; but intuition warned them it would be +sufficiently painful. + +When they reached the brow of the last hill, and the lake stretched +vividly below them, they had no eyes for the loveliness of the prospect. +The little hut at the head of the water far to the left was the first +thing they saw; and it was charged with a significance that obliterated +everything else. Facing the early sunlight it stood revealed with +startling distinctness; and even at the distance had a ghastly look; +gray, artificial and decayed in the midst of the mellow autumn +loveliness. + +"I will picket the packhorses down at the edge of the water," Garth +said; "and we'll ride on without them. It will provide us with an +obvious excuse to return immediately." + +Natalie scarcely heard. Her eyes were fixed on the distant shack. "What +do you suppose it hides from us?" she whispered. "Death, misery, or +disgrace?" + +Garth could scarcely forbear groaning in the pain of his solicitude for +her. "Oh, Natalie!" he said hoarsely, "I haven't done right to expose +you to this!" + +"I made you!" she said quickly. "Besides, it's not a question of right +or wrong. As you said we would, we have only done the best we could, +under the circumstances that arose." + +"At least let me ride on ahead a little," he begged. "You stay with the +outfit. I will hurry back." + +She shook her head. "I couldn't stand the suspense," she said simply. +"Do not be afraid on my account," she added; "merely looking with my +outward eyes at something that always faces me within won't hurt me. +Come on!" + +But presently she reined up her pony again, and turning a pair of +brimming eyes on him, extended her hand. "Garth!" she murmured, "I--I +would like to thank you--but I can't!" + +"Oh, don't!" he begged. + +"Whatever we find down there," she said wistfully, "it can't make any +difference, can it? We will still be the same partners of the trail?" + +Garth went pale to his lips--but he contrived to smile at her. He took +her hand and looked at her full. "Until death," he said quietly. + +She drew her hand away, with a deep breath. "Come on," she said. "We've +got to face it!" + + + + +XV + +THE MEETING + + +The spot of the lake shore where Garth picketed the two horses was +something under two miles from Mabyn's hut. The way led among the trees +which filled this part of the valley of the lake; and underfoot they +could distinguish traces of an old trail. The growth ended abruptly at +the edge of a small, dry watercourse, which came down to the lake; and +issuing into the open here, the riders beheld the dreaded goal of their +long journey immediately before them. + +As they crossed the stones, they were ready to fancy they could hear, +each the beating of the other's heart; and the scene before them was +bitten into their brains, to endure hideously vivid and minute while +life endured. The shack presented a three-quarter view, front and side. +It topped a gentle, uneven acclivity of grass, rising from the +watercourse at its side; while in front, the ground extended level a +hundred feet to the edge of a cut-bank. This bank rose out of the lake +sheer and loamy, to the height of a cottage roof; and over the edge hung +a tangled fringe of grass-roots. + +Desolation was the cry of it all; winters upon winters had bleached the +logs of the shack silvery like old hair; the chimney had fallen; and all +four quarters of glass in the single window were out. At one time the +slope between the hut and the bed of the stream had evidently been a +theatre of industry; for the ground was pitted and hummocked and rutted; +but long ago the grass had indifferently muffled it over, like graves in +an old cemetery. In the centre of this waste stood, the picture of +dejection, an Indian-bred cayuse, miserable burlesque of the equine +species, no bigger than a donkey, and incredibly hairy and misshapen. +His back was galled; and one leg, which he painfully favoured, puffed to +treble its size at the hock. Even the great cottonwood trees springing +beyond the hut, with their shattered branches, and blotched and greenish +trunks, breathed decay. An ancient dugout, lying at the mouth of the +watercourse, was, like everything else, rotting and seamed. + +And on the bench at the door of the hut sat the evil genius of the +scene; a man with his legs sprawling in front of him, and his head +fallen over and back against the wall. He made no move at their +approach; and when they came close, they saw that he slept. Pitilessly +revealed in the strong sunlight, he made a spectacle at which the most +indifferent stranger would have shuddered and sickened--and it was +reserved for the woman who had exalted him in her maiden's heart, to see +him then. His mouth hung open; he breathed stertorously; and the flies, +buzzing in and out of the open door beside him, crawled at will over his +ashen face. That his chin was freshly shaven, and his hair brushed, +added to the ghastliness. The whole picture was horribly vivid; the +littlest details of it struck on the retinas of the two observers like +blows--the oblong patch of sunlight cleaving the gloom of the shack +inside the door; six muskrat pelts above the man's head, tacked to the +logs to dry; an old foul pipe with a silver mounting, half fallen from +his relaxed fingers and spilling ashes on the bench; his old-fashioned +rifle leaning against the door-frame. Garth could have furnished the +size, the style and the make of that gun. + +Natalie turned a stony face to Garth. "It is he," she whispered. + +Garth thought of an old photograph she had shown him of a dark-haired +youth sitting on a horse, with a charming, imperious grace of body and +feature, in which there was something godlike and unanswerable; and +looking at this wreck of a man, toothless, bald and livid, he was struck +with awe. + +"You have seen," he whispered to Natalie. "Let us ride back." + +She shook her head. "I must say what I came for," she said. + +"Will you dismount?" he asked. + +Natalie shuddered. "Never, here!" she whispered. + +In a moment she had commanded herself again. "Please speak to him," she +said. + +"Mabyn!" called Garth peremptorily. + +The man's lids parted. Natalie was directly in front of him. As his +sleep-stupefied eyes slowly took her in, he raised himself to an upright +position, and struck his eyeballs sharply with his knuckles. + +Garth instinctively drew away a little. + +"A white woman!" muttered the man, lost in amazement. + +Natalie, her head slightly averted, sat her horse like a carven woman. + +Fear grew apace with wonder in Mabyn's eyes; his breath quickened; he +ceaselessly passed his hand in front of his face. "Natalie!" he +muttered, still in the toneless voice of one who sleeps. "Oh, my God! +It's Natalie!" + +Grasping the edge of the bench, he pulled himself to his feet; and took +a few uncertain steps toward her. He put out his hand fearfully. + +Natalie sharply reined back her horse. "Don't touch me!" she said. + +It broke the spell that held him--but not wholly. His hands dropped to +his sides; a saner light appeared in his eyes; and he looked all around, +as if to convince himself of the realness of his surroundings. On Garth +his eyes lingered stupidly for a moment; then impatiently returned to +Natalie. + +"If it's you, how did you get here?" he asked quietly enough--still +bemused. + +"I came over the prairie, as every one comes," she said sharply. + +Mabyn frowned. "I'm wide awake," he said irritably. "I know where I am. +I fell asleep on the bench half an hour ago--but," his voice deepened +and swelled on the note of awe, "_you_, Natalie! You or your wraith! +I--I can't take it in!" The faded eyes bolted, and swept wearily and +unseeingly over the lake. + +Natalie winced every time he spoke her name. "Try to collect yourself," +she said coldly. "There is no doubt of its being I." + +"The voice too!" he muttered, struck with the new thought. His eyes +returned to her. "Natalie--and not changed at all!" he murmured +dreamily. "But more beautiful!" + +"If you please!" said Natalie haughtily. + +He still stood looking at her with something the air of a bewildered +child, but more of the aged lunatic. "The first time I saw her, she was +on a horse," he said in his dull voice. "But she was better dressed. +Where did you get those clothes?" he asked suddenly. + +Natalie shot an appealing glance at Garth. + +He, in his over-mastering disgust of the man, could not put away the +thought that there was something feigned in this excessive bewilderment. +"Come to yourself, Mabyn!" he said sharply. "We can't stop here!" + +Mabyn darted a startled, spiteful glance at the new speaker, and without +another word, turned and went back to the bench, where he sat, burying +his face in his hands. Natalie and Garth looked at each other, scarcely +knowing how to act. But presently Mabyn lifted his head again; and, +spying his pipe where it had fallen, picked it up, and attentively +knocked out what remained of the ashes in the bowl. + +Natalie thought she might venture to address him again. "I have +something important to tell you," she began. + +Mabyn darted a queer, furtive look at her; shame, suspicion, +obsequiousness and a sudden, reborn passion all had a part in it. +"Won't you shake hands with me?" he asked suddenly. + +Natalie drew the long breath that invokes Patience and looked elsewhere. + +"You've changed toward me," the man whined. + +Indignation suddenly reddened her cheeks, and she levelled her blue eyes +upon him in a glance that should have struck to his soul. + +But it failed to penetrate very far. "I know I've treated you badly," +he went on. "I was coming out in the spring, though; just as soon as I +got things straight. I've worked like a son-of-a-gun too, but luck has +always been against me." His voice gathered assurance from his own +excuses. + +"Never mind that now," said Natalie. "Please listen to what I have to +say." + +But the man, shrinking from matter hateful to his ears, strove to divert +her. He struck his forehead with his knuckles, and jumped up. "By Gad! +What's the matter with me!" he cried. "I never asked you in! It's a +wretched hole, but such as it is----" He had turned to the door. Sudden +recollection chopped off the speech midway; and he turned a furtive, +frightened face over his shoulder to Natalie. + +"N-never mind," he gabbled hurriedly. "Don't come in! It's not fit to +receive you! It's better out here!" Little beads of sweat were springing +out on his forehead. + +His whole bearing had been so wild and stupefied since his waking, that +they attached small importance to this display of terror. Natalie +patiently essayed to speak again; but again he interrupted. + +His face cleared. "You've left your outfit somewhere back on the trail," +he said eagerly. "I'll go back with you; and we can talk things over +quietly there!" He actually started toward the watercourse, walking with +jerky, uneven steps. + +Natalie made no move to follow. "I will say what I have to say here," +she spoke after him. + +Mabyn was voluble, scarcely coherent in his incontinent desire to take +her away from the hut. Natalie waited, letting him talk himself out. +Finally compelled to give in, he returned with strange, apprehensive +glances around the hut, and over the summits of the hills behind. Garth +thought his brain was beginning to be affected by a solitary life. + +However, he now listened patiently enough. + +"You have not written to your mother or to me in many months," began +Natalie coldly; "and your letters for three years past have given us no +information. Your mother's whole thought is of you; and through her +anxiety and suspense she is worn to a shadow of what she was; the +doctors tell her she has a mortal disease that must soon prevail." + +In spite of herself Natalie's voice softened as she delivered her +pitiful plea; but it was not from any kindness for him. "She has been +very kind to me all these years," she went on, "and I, to ease her what +I could of the torment of her mind during her last days, volunteered to +go with her to find you. Her age and her infirmities prevented her from +coming any farther than Prince George. I have been fortunate in finding +friends who have assisted me the rest of the way. I have come to beg +you, on behalf of your mother, to let her see you before she dies. She +is waiting in Prince George. She bade me tell you that neither poverty, +misfortune nor disgrace could abate any of her love for you; that she +would die happy if she might once more press your hand against her +cheek." + +Garth watched Mabyn narrowly while Natalie was speaking. He saw by the +man's rapt expression that her voice charmed his senses, while the +purport of what she said was wholly lost on his consciousness. When her +voice broke a little at the close, Mabyn's lips parted, and his breath +came quicker--but it was no tenderness for a devoted parent, only a +passion purely selfish, that caused his lack-lustre eyes to glitter +again. + +"These letters," concluded Natalie, drawing them forth as she spoke, +"three of which I have brought from the post office, and the fourth +which she gave me herself, will let you know, better than I can tell +you, what she feels." + +Mabyn took the letters; and thrusting them carelessly in his pocket--one +fell to the ground and lay there unheeded--snatched back at Natalie's +hand, and attempted to retain it. Reining her horse back, she wrenched +it free. + +A little shame reached the seat of Mabyn's consciousness. He reddened. +"I'm not a leper," he muttered. "You came to me of your own free will, +didn't you?" + +"Build nothing on that!" said Natalie instantly and clearly. "I allow no +claim on me!" + +Mabyn quickly changed to obsequiousness. "I don't want to quarrel with +you, Natalie," he whined. "Especially not after what you've just done!" + +He went to his bench again; and sat heavily. Again he struck his +forehead with his knuckles. "Gad! I can't yet realize it is you that is +here!" + +Natalie looked at Garth as much as to say that she had accomplished what +she came for. + +The look was not lost on Mabyn. He sprang up. "I'll do just what +you want!" he said hurriedly. "I'll start for Prince George at +once--to-day--this minute! God knows there's nothing to keep me here! You +have a spare horse, I suppose. I've nothing but that galled cayuse and +another as bad!" He uttered his cracked laugh in a tone that was intended +to be ingratiating. "That's the advantage of poverty! I've no preparations +to make; so lead on!" + +Natalie paused irresolutely. This was a contingency she had not foreseen. +She shuddered at the possibilities it opened up. In her perplexity she +looked again at Garth. + +"We will leave you a horse," said he curtly. "And your passage out from +the lake Settlement will be arranged for." + +"And what money you need," added Natalie in a low tone, and blushing +painfully. + +But Mabyn's feelings were not hurt. "I can go with you just as well," he +blustered. + +Natalie looked at Garth once more. + +"You may follow us as soon as you choose," said Garth coolly. "We do not +desire your company on the way." + +For the first time Mabyn appeared to recognize Garth's presence on the +scene. He turned a baleful eye on him; and his lips curled back over his +gums. "Who are _you_?" he snarled, adding an oath. + +"That is neither here nor there," said Garth. "I speak for Miss Bland." + +"Mrs. Mabyn, you mean," sneered the other, thinking to crush him with +the information. + +"She does not use that name," returned Garth imperturbably. + +Mabyn turned furiously to Natalie. "Who is this man?" he cried, his +cracked voice sliding into falsetto; "this sleek young sprig that rides +alone with you through the country! I demand to know! I have a right to +know!" + +"I admit no right!" Natalie said firmly. + +Mabyn, beside himself with jealous rage, no longer knew what he said. +"You won't explain!" he cried. "You _can't_ explain! Here's a nasty +situation for a married woman!" + +Garth's self-control, stretched on the rack through all this scene, +suddenly snapped in twain. Temper with Garth took the form of laughter; +mocking, dangerous laughter, that issued startlingly from his grave +lips. + +He laughed now. "You scoundrel!" he said in cool, incisive tones--though +he was not a whit less blinded by passion than Mabyn himself--"after the +kind of life you've been leading up here, have you still the assurance +to lay a claim upon _her_! And to cast a reflection on _her_ good name! +Have you no mirror to see what you are? Go in the lake, then, and see +the vile record written on your face!" + +Mabyn was staggered. Garth's terrible scorn penetrated the last +wrappings of the warmly nurtured ego within. He shot a startled glance +at Garth; and from Garth to the hut and behind, as if wondering how much +he knew. + +Garth was not through with him. He slipped his stirrups, preparatory to +leaping off his horse. Natalie trembled at the quiet man's new aspect. + +"Garth!" she entreated urgently. + +The sound of her voice recalled him to himself. Settling back in his +saddle, he abruptly turned his horse, and went off a little way, +struggling to regain his self-command. + +Mabyn, misunderstanding, was vastly lifted up by this word of Natalie's, +and the writhing ego within hastened to repair the horrid breach Garth +had made. He approached her, hidden by her horse from Garth. + +"Oh, Natalie!" he gabbled whiningly; "don't listen to him. He's a low +cur! But he can't make trouble between you and me! Send him away! +Natalie, I seem to have acted badly; but I can explain everything! +Circumstances were all against me! In my heart I've never swerved from +you! I dream of you every night in my lonesomeness! Wherever I look I +see your face before my eyes!" + +It was the old trick of passionate speech; Natalie remembered the very +words of old; but the man--she averted her head from the hideous +spectacle. She was afraid to move or cry out, sure that Garth in his +present mind would kill him if he heard. + +Mabyn, conceiving nothing of the sublime irony of the figure he made, +continued to plead. "Natalie, don't turn away from me! You took me for +better or worse, remember! You found me at a disadvantage to-day; I +don't look like this ordinarily. And you can make whatever you like of +me! Remember the old days at home! I am the same man--Bert--your Bert! +Look--he can't see us--I kneel to you as I did then!" + +And down he went on his knees, stretching out his arms to her. + +There was an odd, slight sound behind him. They both looked--and froze +in the attitude of looking. Garth from his station, seeing the new look +of horror overspread Natalie's face, spurred to join her. + +There, clinging to the corner of the cabin for support, stood the figure +of a woman. Her brown skin was blanched to a livid yellow; and her eyes +were the eyes of one dead from a shock. She swayed forward from the +waist as if her backbone could no longer support her. At her feet a tin +pail emptied wild cherries on the ground. + +Mabyn scrambled to his feet, shamed, chagrined, furious. "What do you +want around here?" he cried brutally--even now seeking to outface her. + +The piteous, stricken girl moistened her lips; and essayed more than +once to speak, before any words came. "'Erbe't, who is this woman?" she +said quite simply at last. + +"What is that to you?" he blustered roughly, thinking to beat her down; +perhaps to kill her outright with cruelty. "This is my wife!" + +"Oh, no! no!" whispered Natalie, sick with the sight of so much misery. + +It is doubtful if the girl heard her. She tottered forward; and seized +and clung to Mabyn's arm. Her breast was heaved on hard, quick pants +like a wounded animal's; and her eyes were as frantic, and as inhuman. + +"'Erbe't, who am I?" she breathed. + +Mabyn, seeing that Natalie heard and understood, beside himself, and +reckless with rage, flung out his arm, throwing her heavily to the +ground. "You! damn you!" he cried. "You're just my----" + +Natalie, with a low cry of horror, instinctively clapped her heels to +her horse's ribs, and set off down the hill. Garth wheeled after her. + +"Oh, stay--stay and help her!" she gasped. + +"You come first!" said Garth grimly. + +Mabyn, as Natalie turned, sprang after her; and running desperately, +managed to cling to her stirrup. Casting off the last vestiges of +manliness he wept and prayed her to wait for him. Her horse, Caspar, +kicked out wildly, and struck him off. He lay on the ground sobbing and +cursing; striving to drag himself along with clawing hands. + +Just before they gained the watercourse, Garth looked over his shoulder; +and his heart leapt into his throat. The brown woman was reaching for +Mabyn's rifle. He shouted a warning; and desperately strove to throw +his horse behind Natalie. But it was too late. Hard upon his voice, the +shot rang. A strange, low cry broke from Natalie; and she reeled in her +saddle. Garth, spurring ahead, grasped Caspar's bridle, and caught her +from falling. A pang, far more dreadful than the hurt of a bullet, smote +his own breast. + + + + +XVI + +NATALIE WOUNDED + + +The frightened horses struggled over the watercourse, and gained the +trees before Garth, hampered as he was, succeeded in drawing their heads +together, and stopping them. Slipping out of the saddle without +loosening his grasp of Natalie, he lifted her off, ever careful to +shield her from possible further shots with his own body. He remembered +Mabyn's was a single-shot weapon; and he counted on the time it would +take the Indian woman to obtain ammunition, and reload. Quickly and +tenderly laying Natalie on the ground under shelter of a stump, he +unslung his own rifle. But as he dropped to his knee, and raised it, he +saw the woman on the edge of the cut-bank swing the stock of her gun +around her head, and send the weapon spinning out over the water. +Meanwhile Mabyn was running up the hill toward her with significant +action. No immediate further danger threatened. Garth put the pair out +of his mind, and bent over Natalie. What happened to the woman at +Mabyn's hands was a matter of indifference to him now. + +Natalie's left arm hung useless; and a soaking crimson stain spread +broadly on her sleeve between elbow and shoulder. Her face had gone chalky +white, her eyes were half closed, and her teeth were set painfully in her +blue nether lip. To see his sparkling, vivid Natalie brought so low, was a +sight to open all the doors of Garth's brain to madness. His heart swelled +suffocatingly with rage and grief, but there was no time for that, when +every faculty he possessed must be concentrated on saving her; and forcing +it back, he picked her up again with infinite tenderness. His first and +instinctive thought was to return and seize the hut; so that he might +at least have a roof to cover her. He suspected the other two were now +without arms; but even if they had a weapon, he had a better one; was +a sure shot; and was on his guard. + +At the first move he made in the direction of the hut, Natalie, whom he +had thought unconscious, divined his intention. + +"Garth! Not in his house!" she murmured feverishly. "I will not go in +there! I will not!" + +He paused in a painful perplexity. "But dearest, there is no other +house," he said. + +"Put me down in the open air," she begged. "It would suffocate me! I +will not endure it!" + +So Garth turned back among the trees. He strode over the dead leaves and +the pine needles to the lake shore. Here, between the willows that grew +thickly at the water's verge, and the heavier timber, extended an open +strip of grass, still fresh and green. He laid his burden down upon it; +and, rolling up his coat, put it under her head for a pillow. + +He hastily cut away her sleeve, exposing the injury. The ball had passed +through, making a clean opening where it entered, and a jagged wound +whence it issued. It was clear the bone was broken; but from the +character of the bleeding, even Garth could see that the artery was +uninjured. He brought water from the lake in his hat, and gently washed +the wound; but even in this he doubted if he did right; for the water +was cold--but he had nothing in which to heat it. The best he could do +was to take the chill out of it by pressing the handkerchief between his +hot hands. + +Everything they possessed that might have been of service was two miles +off; and might just as well have been a hundred; for Garth could not +think of leaving her; and he shrank from the thought of inflicting the +agony it would cause her to be carried so far. And even suppose they +gained their own camp, the situation would be little improved; for how +was he in his ignorance to undertake the delicate task of setting the +shattered bone; of improvising splints and bandages; and supplying, what +a glance at the ugly wound showed to be needful, antiseptics? A surgeon, +whatever his skill, rarely dares trust the steadiness of his hand on the +bodies of those he loves; what then was Garth to do, who had no skill at +all? + +He had his dark hour then, tasting ultimate despair. He sat beside her, +gripping his dull head between his hands, and striving desperately to +contrive, where there was nothing to contrive with. Oh, the pity and the +wrong of it, that it was _she_ who must be hurt! he thought; and how +joyfully he would have taken it himself to relieve her. _He_ bled +inwardly; and the physical pain of the most hideous wounds could not +equal the agony he experienced in his helplessness. + +Meanwhile the wound momentarily changed. The arm began to swell and +darken; and Garth knew there was no time to lose. He made one attempt to +proceed, kneading the flesh of the arm very gently to explore the broken +ends of the bone--but Natalie's piteous cry of pain completely unmanned +him. He desisted, shaking like a leaf, and sick with compassion; and he +knew he would never be able to do it. + +What seemed like an age passed; though it was no more than a few +minutes. He was bending over her, doing what little he could to ease her +pain; and with knotted brows rapidly considering, and rejecting, one +after another, the desperate expedients that suggested themselves. +Suddenly looking up he perceived among the trees, at the distance of a +few paces, Rina standing. Hot anger instantly welled up in his breast, +and made a red blur before his eyes. Rina's sex was no protection to her +then. He picked up his gun. + +Observing the action, Rina mutely spread her hands, palms outward. Her +entire aspect had changed; the storm of passion had passed; and she +stood contrite and sullen. It was impossible for the blindest passion +to shoot at a figure in such an attitude. Garth lowered his gun; but he +still kept it across his knees, and his face did not relax. The woman +was loathsome to him. + +"What do you want?" he demanded coldly. + +Rina came a little closer. "I sorry," she said sulkily--like a child +unwillingly confessing a fault. "I t'ink I go looney for a while. I not +hear right. I t'ink she try to tak' my 'osban' from me!" + +Garth glanced at the suffering Natalie with contracted brows. "That's +all very well!" he said bitterly. "But it can't undo what's done!" + +"I can mak' her well, maybe," said Rina, still affecting indifference. +"I know what to do. My mot'er, she teach me. If you let me look at her, +I tell you." + +A wild hope sprang up in Garth's breast. If the girl were only able to +help Natalie, his hate of her could very well content itself a while. +But dare he trust her? With keen, hard eyes he sought to read her face. +Her own eyes avoided his; and she made a picture of savage indifference; +but as he looked he saw two great tears roll down her cheeks. In his +desperate situation it was well worth the risk. + +Raising his gun, he said coldly: "You may look at her. If you try to +injure her, I will send a bullet through your head." + +Receiving the permission, Rina came forward, careless of the threatening +gun; and dropped to her knees beside Natalie. She examined the wound on +both sides; and felt of the fracture with delicate fingers. To judge of +the normal position of the bones, she manipulated her own arm. Garth never +took his eyes from her; but she was tenderer with the patient than he +could have been. + +Finally she raised a mask-like face to Garth. "I can fix it," she said. +"If you let me." + +Whatever her private feelings were, she had a confident air, that could +not but convey some assurance to him. He nodded silently; after what he +had suffered, he scarcely dared believe in such good fortune. + +Rina quickly rose. "You mak' a fire to heat water," she said coolly. "I +go to bring everyt'ing." + +With the words, she was gone among the trees; and Garth, overjoyed to be +able to do something with his hands, hastened to build a fire. + +Before he really expected her, she was back with what she needed, a pot +for heating the water, a basin, several kinds of herbs, some strips of +yellowed linen for bandages, a blanket and a knife. While the water was +heating, she cut a deep segment of the smooth white bark of a young +poplar for a splint--the curve of it was judged to a nicety to fit +Natalie's arm. During the operation of setting the bone, Garth watched +her unswervingly, clenching his teeth to bear the spectacle of Natalie's +agony. For every pang of hers he suffered a sharper; the sweat coursed +down his face. + +But at last it was over; the wound washed and fomented with bruised +leaves, the splint fitted snug, and the whole neatly bandaged. Natalie, +wrapped in the blanket, soon fell into the sleep of exhaustion. + +Rina looked at the pale and shaken Garth with an odd expression. "If you +have whiskey, better tak' a drink," she suggested. + +Garth had his flask; and he obeyed without question. + +Throughout the operation, Rina had preserved an admirable, professional +air, intent and impersonal; and when necessary she had brusquely ordered +Garth to help her. Now that it was all over her face altered; she +continued to kneel at Natalie's side, gazing at her soft hair, and the +whiteness of her skin with a kind of sad and jealous wonder. + +Garth on the alert at the change, which portended he knew not what +explosion of passion in the savage woman's breast, ordered her from +Natalie's side. She obeyed, resuming her sullen mask, but lingered near +him, plainly full of some question she desired to ask. He observed for +the first, a purpling bruise above her temple. Rina saw his eyes upon +it, and her colour changed. + +"I run against a tree," she hastily volunteered. + +At the same time her hand stole to her throat to hide certain marks on +its dusky roundness. Garth knew instinctively that she was loyally +lying. Mabyn had beaten her. He wondered how far the wish to serve the +woman she had injured was Rina's own impulse and how far she had been +forced to it by Mabyn. He began dimly to conceive that the red woman had +good qualities. + +At last the question on her breast was spoken. "Who is she?" she asked, +pointing sullenly at the sleeping Natalie. + +Garth rapidly considered what he should answer. He could not pretend to +himself that he had forgiven the woman; but since Natalie's pain was +mitigated he was cooler; and his sense of justice forced it home on him +that Rina, too, had been through her ordeal. In his present desperate +situation, his only chance of assistance lay in her--Mabyn was an +egomaniac, and utterly irresponsible. Frankness had served Garth in good +stead before this; and finally he told her the plain truth in such terms +that she could understand. + +"This feeling Mabyn has for her," he insisted in the end, "is only a +passing one. If we can get her out of his sight all will go on as +before." + +Rina nodded. Her inscrutable face softened a little, he thought. "I +on'erstan' now," she said quietly. "So I not go crazy wit' t'inking +about it." + +Garth was glad he had told her. + +Rina stood studying him with her strange and secret air. "You love her +ver' moch," she said suddenly, pointing to Natalie. + +Garth bent over the sleeping figure in a way that answered her better +than words. + +"I t'ink she love you too," said Rina gravely. "When I 'urt her, she try +not to cry because it 'urt you so bad." + +A slow red crept under Garth's skin. He hated to betray himself under +the eyes of the red woman; and he bustled about, averting his face from +her. "When can she be moved?" he asked, brusquely changing the subject. + +Rina shook her head. "I not know," she said. "Maybe she have fever. +Three, four week maybe." + +Garth's heart sunk heavily, as he considered their scanty supplies, the +approach of winter--and, more dangerous still, the fruitful opportunities +of conflict the weeks would offer to four souls so strangely opposed, and +so strangely bound together in the wilderness. + +"What is Mabyn doing now?" he asked suddenly. + +Rina's face instantly became as blank as plaster. "I not talk to you +about him," she said coolly. + +Garth was conscious of receiving a rebuke. + +"But I help you," she added presently. "I go bring your outfit in." + +Before she went, she brewed a draught for Natalie with some of the herbs +she had brought; and instructed Garth to administer it when she woke. +For an instant all Garth's suspicions returned; and he looked at her +hard. Rina, divining his thought, coolly lifted the pail to her lips, +and drank of it. Once more he felt himself rebuked. + +Left alone, his thoughts reverted to Mabyn. What would he have been +plotting all this time? he wondered; what stand would he take in this +new posture of affairs? It was too much to hope, he decided, that one so +selfish and so jealous could be persuaded to sink his animosity against +Garth, for the purpose of serving Natalie while she lay injured. Garth's +business had made him more or less familiar with the workings of the +diseased ego; and he was convinced that Mabyn, if for nothing else, +hated him intolerably for having been the spectator of his repulse by +Natalie. + +As time passed, Natalie began to stir and mutter in her sleep and Garth, +bending over her, fearful of fever, put the man out of his head. +Returning to her from the edge of the lake, with cloths wrung out of +cold water, he found her with wide eyes and flushed cheeks. + +"Send him away! Send him away!" she muttered. "I cannot have him near +me!" + +At first he thought her mind wandered, but following the direction of +her eyes, he saw the figure of a man skulking among the trees; and his +face grimmed. Soothing her, he offered Rina's drink; and it had an +immediate effect. She dropped off to sleep again. Then Garth picked up +his gun and strode toward Mabyn. + +The man waited for him with an air oddly mixed of fear and bravado. +As Garth came close he smiled in a way that he intended to be +ingratiating--but Mabyn's smile only rendered him more hideous. +Garth's first look made sure that both his hands were empty. + +"Is there anything I can do?" Mabyn asked with apparent solicitude. + +"Yes, keep away from here," returned Garth curtly. "If I catch you +within a hundred yards of my camp, I'll wing you so you won't move again +as long as we're here." + +Mabyn assumed an aggrieved expression. "You needn't take that tone," he +grumbled. "I came in friendliness. I want to have a talk with you." + +"I'm listening," said Garth. + +Mabyn twisted uneasily. "Damn it! How can a man make friendly advances +when you're standing over him with a gun!" he said. + +"Say what you've got to say, or clear out," said Garth. + +The aggrieved air proving ineffectual, Mabyn substituted offended +silence; offered to go; and came back. "Well, look here!" he said at +last. "This is it. Here are the three of us up here----" + +"Four," amended Garth. + +"Well, four if you like," said Mabyn. "We're stuck here together. We +can't afford to quarrel. We've got to have some working agreement." + +"Is that all?" said Garth uncompromisingly. + +Mabyn looked around with the air of a much-tried man, appealing to the +bystanders--that they were only indifferent trees, rather spoiled the +effect. "I wouldn't take this from any man if it wasn't that I was bent +on avoiding trouble," he blustered. + +Garth suppressed the scornful inclination to laugh. + +"Look here," began Mabyn afresh, with a reasonable air. "I came to offer +you the shack for Natalie. She can't sleep in the open in her condition." + +"Much obliged," said Garth coolly. "I intended to take it in the first +place. But Miss Bland refused to allow herself to be carried there." + +Mabyn's eyes bolted. His control over his facial muscles was imperfect; +and the struggle between the open character he desired to convey, and +the secret feelings that tortured him, was plain. "What are you going +to do?" he asked. + +"Build her a house," said Garth. + +Mabyn, turning his back, appeared to be considering. + +"Is that all you have to say?" asked Garth. + +The other turned a face of obstinate friendliness and good will. "Look +here--" he began all over. "I don't know your name----" + +Garth informed him. + +"Well, Pevensey, I'm sorry for what passed this morning. I regret what I +said. I was only half awake; and scarcely knew what I did. Will you +overlook it?" + +"Talk is cheap," said Garth guardedly. "I will be guided by your actions +henceforth." But his voice was milder; for an apology could not help but +speak to his sense of generosity. + +Mabyn, encouraged, amplified his penitent, ingratiating air. "As to the +future," he said, "I mean to show you. You'll soon be satisfied!" He +came closer. "In the meantime let's make a truce! Shake hands on it!" + +Garth thoroughly distrusted the man; but he could see no harm to Natalie +in accepting his offer, while privately determining to relax none of his +vigilance. It was only too true, as Mabyn had said; neither could afford +to quarrel. Mabyn had no gun, and Garth could not leave Natalie's side +for an instant. + +"I am willing," said Garth readily. "But it's understood this doesn't +affect what I said before. You are not to come within a hundred yards of +this camp!" + +Mabyn shrugged, as at the unworthiness of Garth's suspicions. + +"You agree to it?" Garth persisted. + +"All right!" said Mabyn--a shade too readily. "Shake!" + +Garth shifted his gun; and advanced to take Mabyn's hand. The man could +not keep an ugly little gleam from showing in his shifty gray eye; and +Garth stopped abruptly. Mabyn sneered. Garth, fired by one of the +imperious impulses of the blood of youth, strode forward and grasped the +extended hand defiantly. + +He saw instantly his mistake. Mabyn's face was suddenly transfigured by +the deadly hatred he had long repressed. His right hand closed on +Garth's like a vice; and at the same time a knife slipped out of his +sleeve into the other hand. He jerked the surprised Garth halfway round; +and aimed a blow between his shoulders. Garth was oddly conscious of the +fresh marks of the whetstone on the blade of the knife. With the +incredible swiftness of our subconscious moves, he dropped his useless +gun; and twisting his body around, flung up his free hand, and warded +the descending blow. Seizing Mabyn's wrist, he flung himself forward to +bear the other back. + +It was all very brief. Mabyn, braced to receive Garth's weight, held his +ground. Inspired with a febrile strength, he enjoyed a temporary +advantage. Unable to reach Garth's back, he thrust desperately at his +face, his neck--but only stabbed the air. They were locked together with +their arms crossed--surely as strange a posture as ever men fought in! +But Mabyn had staked all on the first blow; and that failing, there +could be but one result. His fictitious strength suddenly failing, he +collapsed in Garth's arms. Garth wrenched his hand free and hurled him +to the ground, where he lay, livid and sobbing for breath. The attack +had been contrived with devilish cunning; but every design this man +undertook in life was foredoomed to failure. + +Garth secured the knife; and stood looking down at the broken wretch, +with strong waves of disgust welling over him. He laughed briefly. + +"Too contemptible to kill!" he said; and turned on his heel. + + + + +XVII + +THE CLUE TO RINA + + +Rina brought all four horses handily through the wood, bringing up the +rear on the back of old Cy. She slipped off beside Garth, and looked in +the direction where Natalie lay. + +"Still sleeping," Garth said. + +As Rina's eyes fell on him, they suddenly widened; and plain fear broke +through the mask of her face. "'Erbe't been here!" she said breathlessly. + +"How do you know?" he said in surprise. + +Rina pointed to his belt. "You got his knife!" she said. "How you get +his knife?" + +"He tried to murder me with it," said Garth, watching her face narrowly. + +Rina had no more thought for Natalie. "Where is he?" she said agitatedly. +"W'at you do to him?" + +"I let him go," Garth said carelessly. "Murder is not exactly in my +line." + +"He try to kill you an' you let him go!" she breathed incredulously. +Plainly such magnanimity was outside her ken. She walked away from him, +considering it. + +Presently she came back with a swift glide. "You got to promise me not +to 'urt 'Erbe't!" she said, threateningly and passionately. + +"If he attacks me, I defend myself--and her," Garth said coolly. + +Rina studied the ground. It was impossible for him to tell what was +going on behind her inscrutable eyes. In a moment she went to Natalie as +if nothing had happened; and dropping beside her, listened attentively +to her breathing. Garth, ever watchful, followed her close. When she +arose, they moved off a little to avoid disturbing the patient; and +Rina briefly instructed Garth what he should do during the night. + +Garth, not satisfied with merely knowing what to do, asked the reason +of her various measures; whereupon Rina became suddenly evasive. + +"But I must know why you do these things," he insisted. + +Rina looked away. "I not tell you," she said coolly. + +"What does this mean?" he demanded, surprised and frowning. + +Rina met his eyes. "Nobody but me can mak' her well," she said boldly. +"I mak' her well if you not 'urt 'Erbe't. If you go after 'Erbe't, she +can die. I not look at her no more!" + +This at least was honest; and Garth could respect such an opponent. +"He's safe!" he said coolly. "Provided he keeps away from here." + +Rina vouchsafed no comment. "I come to-morrow," she said and disappeared +through the trees. + + * * * * * + +The horses offered Garth his next problem. Since immediately they were +turned out they would bolt for the sweet grass of the prairie above, +there was no way in which he could secure them from Mabyn, or keep them +within reach against a time of need. They might stray for miles over the +plains before he could leave Natalie long enough to round them up. But +there was no help for it; the beasts would all die of starvation, if he +attempted to keep them in his camp. There was a little grass between +the willows and the timber; and he determined to keep old Cy picketed +nearby, to be sure of one mount in the case of an emergency. The other +three he hobbled, hung a bell around Emmy's neck, and turned them loose. + +He was now able to make Natalie more comfortable. Putting up her tent, +he spread a bed of balsam within, and her own blankets upon it. The next +time she awoke, he carried her inside; and at the door of the tent, +where he could look at her, and speak to her, he cooked her the best +invalid's supper the grub-box and his own skill could afford. This same +grub-box was an ever-fresh cause of anxiety to him; allowing for liberal +contributions from his own gun, he could not see much more than a week's +supply for two. This he kept to himself, however, while he joked and +made light of their situation for Natalie's benefit. She was very +quiet; she did not suffer much, she said; but she had little humour to +talk. When Garth thought of her, only the day before, galloping over +the prairie, he ground his teeth afresh. But the silver lining of +this blackest cloud of his was that in her weakness she clung to +him unreservedly. + +Some time after supper she fell asleep again; and Garth prepared for +his night-long vigil. His head was much too busy to allow of any desire +for sleep. Sitting in the dark, he faced the situation open-eyed. There +they were in the remotest wilderness, imprisoned in the narrow valley by +Natalie's injury for weeks to come; with insufficient food and inclement +weather in prospect, and without the remotest chance of succour from the +outside. Moreover, there hovered about them an implacable and half-insane +enemy, whose busy brain was bent on Garth's destruction. The outlook was +enough to unnerve the strongest; there were things in it that Garth in his +courage could only glance at, and hurriedly avert the eyes of his mind. + +The night was so still he could hear the breathing of the horse at fifty +paces. He had let the fire die down, for fear its loud crackling would +awaken Natalie. Overhead the Northern lights flung their ragged pennons +across the zenith, with a ghostly echo of rustling. He suddenly became +conscious of distant human voices in the void of stillness; and presently +distinguished the voice of Mabyn. Rina's answers he could not hear, +though he sensed a second voice. The sound was from the neighbourhood +of the hut. + +Garth was tempted by the opportunity to discover at the same time the +plans of his enemy, and Rina's true disposition toward himself. He glanced +at Natalie; she had but lately fallen asleep, and was sleeping soundly; +there were no animals abroad that could harm her; he need be gone but half +an hour. The rôle of eavesdropper was not at all attractive to him; but he +felt he had no right to refuse to use any weapon that offered. Finally he +fastened the flaps of Natalie's tent, replenished the fire, and stole away +through the trees. + +He crossed the stony watercourse to the left of the usual place and +mounted the slope. Coming closer, he satisfied himself that the speakers +were sitting on the bench at the door of the shack. In the darkness he +almost fell across the figure of the little cayuse, prone in the grass. +The animal scrambled to its feet and trotted away. Garth paused, +listening, his heart in his throat--but Mabyn's voice presently went +on undisturbed. + +He finally gained the top of the rise; and let himself down in the +grass, distant some thirty feet from them. A flash of lightning--or even +the lighting of a lantern would have revealed him clearly. + +He instantly understood that he was the subject of their talk. + +"It's his life or mine," in Mabyn's blustering whine were the first +words he distinctly heard. + +"He could kill you to-day, and he let you go," Rina quietly returned. + +"That's a lie!" blustered Mabyn. "How do you know?" he added +inconsequentially. + +"He tak' your knife from you. I saw it in his belt," said Rina. "And he +let you go." + +Mabyn made no reply. + +"He say to me he not 'urt you, if you keep away from there," Rina went +on. + +"Keep away!" Mabyn fumed. "This is my place! I'll go where I choose on +it! He's trespassing on my land! I've a right to drive him off! I've a +right to kill him if he doesn't go!" + +"He will hear you!" said Rina warningly. + +"Let him hear me!" said the man--nevertheless he lowered his voice. +"They're a quarter-mile off," he added. + +"Listen!" said Rina. + +Over the lake, from an immeasurable distance, came throbbing the +imbecile laughter of a loon. + +"Loon, him three miles off," said Rina significantly. + +Thereafter, Mabyn spoke in a whisper; a wheedling note crept into his +voice. "That was a good scheme of yours, going to the camp to set the +girl's arm," he said. "Now we can find out all they do!" + +"I not go to find out," said Rina sadly. "I go for I sorry I 'urt her. I +shoot her jus' lak a breed I am!" + +Mabyn paid no attention to this. "Keep your eyes open when you're in +their camp every day," he urged. "See how much food they have; find out +where he keeps the shells for his gun. If you could only steal the gun!" + +"He carry it always on his back," said Rina. "He never put it down." + +"I know, he's on his guard now," said Mabyn. "But if you act friendly +all the time, he'll forget. We've got plenty of time; do nothing for a +few days. I'll keep away from there too. He'll think it's all right. +_Then_"--Mabyn's whisper was pure venom--"sneak up behind him and knock +him on the head with an axe! Choose a moment when the girl is asleep or +delirious. We will throw his body in the lake. No one will ever know how +it happened!" + +There was a pause. + +"Will you do it?" said Mabyn eagerly. + +Rina remained silent. + +Mabyn cursed her under his breath. "I believe this smooth-faced young +whelp has cast an eye on you too," he snarled. "You're false to me!" + +A low cry was forced from Rina's lips; she made a rapid move; and Garth +understood that she had thrown herself at the man's feet. "'Erbe't, you +know you don' speak true," she whispered painfully. "You my 'osban'! All +men I hate, but you!" + +"Then do what I tell you," snarled Mabyn. + +"'Erbe't!" she pleaded rapidly and urgently. "Let them go! What have +they got to do with us? To-morrow I go to him. I tell him how to mak' +her well. The man will give me a horse and things. An' you and I will +ride to the Rice River people. They are my people. They will give me a +gun. We will be so ver' happy, and not think of this man and this woman +any more!" + +"You can go, and be damned to you!" said Mabyn sullenly. "I stay on my +own place!" + +Garth understood then, that she drew very close to the man, lavish in +the expression of her sad love and timid caresses, in a desperate effort +to move him. He could not hear it all; but his cheeks burned to be the +intruder on such an exposure of a woman's soul--a white soul, he +thought, whatever the colour of her skin. + +Mabyn was utterly insensible to it all. In the end he became impatient, +and flung her away from him with an oath. She fell to the ground with a +soft thud; and for a while there was no other sound, but the dreadful, +low catch of her breath, as she sought to strangle her sobs. + +"'Erbe't, if you no love me I die," she breathed. + +"Rid me of this man and I'll love you fast enough!" said Mabyn eagerly. +His breath came thick and stertorous. "Ah! Let me once grind my heel in +the smooth, sneering face of him! and you shall do what you like with +me!" Rage robbed him of speech; he made mere brutish sounds in his +throat. + +By and by he managed to control himself; and his voice resumed its +crafty, wheedling tone. "Only do what I tell you, my Rina, and you shall +know what it is to be loved by a white man. I shall have no thought all +day, but of you! Up to now you have done all the loving; I will repay it +twice over! You shall be loved as no red woman was ever loved before!" + +"'Erbe't! 'Erbe't! Don't mak' me do it!" she whispered terror-stricken. + +Garth could stand no more. Springing to his feet, he strode forward, +grasping the barrel of his rifle to use it for a club. Shooting was too +merciful for such a creature. + +"You damned scoundrel!" he cried. + +Mabyn fell back against the wall with a gasping cry of fright. Quick as +Garth was, Rina was quicker. Before he could reach the man, she +scrambled over the ground, and clutched him by the knees. + +"Let him be!" she screamed. "I kill you!" + +Garth struggled vainly to free himself. Finally bending over and seizing +her shoulders, he thrust her away. But the blow he again aimed at Mabyn +never descended; for with incredible swiftness Rina gained her feet, and +darted down hill. + +"I kill _her!_" she shrilled. + +A sickening fear gripped Garth's heart, instantly obliterating all +thought of Mabyn. He dashed after Rina, nerved to a desperate fleetness. +She knew the ground better than he; and hampered, moreover, by the +weight of his gun, he despaired of overtaking the moccasined savage. But +at the watercourse the strange creature stopped dead; and waited for him +to come up. + +"Go back to your white woman!" she cried stormily. "If you 'urt him, I +pull her bandage off, and beat her arm till she die of pain!" + + + + +XVIII + +MABYN MAROONED + + +When Natalie awoke, it was a gray and haggard Garth she saw through the +raised flaps of her tent. His arms, folded on his knees, bore up his +chin; and he stared before him, still pursuing the narrow round of his +troublous thoughts. He was the gainer for his excursion, by valuable +information--but he was no nearer the solution of it all. + +Natalie partly raised herself on her good arm. "My poor Garth!" she said +softly. "How very tired you are!" + +His weary eyes lighted up. "I'm all right," he cried. "And how are you?" + +"Splendid!" she said, matching his tone--while her face was drawn with +pain. "Come in," she added softly. + +He sat a little diffidently on the ground beside her; Natalie's +room--though its walls were of canvas--was a sacred place to him when +she was in it. + +"Look at me!" she commanded. + +He turned his grave, smiling eyes down on her. In spite of difficulties, +dangers and weariness, he had to smile when he looked at her; he loved +her so! His eyes were full of it. + +Natalie's eyes fell; her hand crept into his. "You may tell me to-day," +she whispered. + +He understood. "Oh, my Natalie!" he murmured deeply. "I love you! It +breaks my heart to see you suffer!" + +She caught up his hand, and pressed it to her cheek. "I am cured!" she +whispered with a lift in her voice. + +"There is something I want you to do for me," she said presently. + +"Anything in the world!" he cried. + +"No!" she said. "This is only a little thing--but you mustn't laugh!" + +He immediately smiled. + +"I want to feel, for a moment, that I have helped you too," she +whispered. "Put your head down on my good shoulder." + +He flung himself down beside her, and laid his head where she bid. Her +breath was warm on his cheek. He slipped his over-heavy burden, and +glided into Paradise for awhile. + +"My brave, brave Garth," she whispered in his ear. "All my heart is +yours! I thought about this last night--every time I woke. I thought we +might steal one such moment. I thought, what if something happened to +you, or to me, and we had never known it!" + +She tried to tempt him to sleep a while, but Garth, fearful of tiring +her, and with his responsibilities pressing on him, drew himself away. +He arose, better refreshed, he vowed, than by all the nights of sleep he +had ever had in his life. + +As he rose, their lips met, once and briefly. + + * * * * * + +Garth's first task after breakfast was to clear the growth of willows +that obstructed their access to the lake. The little island was framed +squarely in the centre of the opening made by his axe; and off to the +left, across an estuary formed at the mouth of the watercourse, Mabyn's +shack stood on top of its cut-bank in plain view. + +At sight of the convenient island, Garth was struck by an idea. He +examined it attentively. It lay something less than a quarter of a mile +off shore; and a triangle might have been drawn between his camp, the +island and Mabyn's shack, of which the three sides would have been of +about equal length. The island was about three acres in extent; and +completely ringed about with willow bushes. In the centre, two or three +cottonwood trees elevated their heads above the willows. + +Later, he asked Natalie casually: "Could Mabyn swim, when you knew him, +do you remember?" + +"He could not," she said instantly. "In fact he had a childish horror of +the water." + +Garth turned his head to hide his satisfaction; and his plan began to +take shape. + +While the sun was yet low, Rina, true to her promise, came to attend +upon Natalie. There was no change in her manner; her unreadable eyes +expressed no consciousness of the events of the night before. She +questioned Natalie in her best professional way. It was not yet +necessary to disturb the dressings on the arm; but she volunteered to do +Natalie's hair; and what other offices would contribute to her comfort. +Garth, convinced now that he had as sure a hold on her as she on him, +unhesitatingly allowed her to enter the tent alone. But he kept within +earshot. + +He necessarily overheard part of their talk. Natalie, it seemed, had a +method of her own with Rina. Obliterating the fact that she had received +her injury at the breed's hands, she was unaffectedly grateful for all +that was done for her; and what was more subtle--or kinder--she treated +Rina as her equal, as one who understood in herself the thoughts and the +instincts of a lady. Garth, with the clue he possessed to the unhappy +heart of the girl, could not tell which he ought to commend the more, +Natalie's mother-wit, or her generosity. + +Rina apparently sought to steel her breast against the other's +overtures. For the most part she maintained a hardy silence; and when +she did speak, it was in sullen monosyllables. + +Issuing out of the tent, she surprised Garth by asking, as one who +demands a right, to take old Cy. She needed an herb for Natalie, she +said, that could only be procured on the shore of a slough five miles +away. Garth was prompt with his permission. There was a possibility +that it was merely a pretext to deprive them of the horse; but his heart +leaped at the chance of getting Rina out of the way for an hour. It was +all he needed to complete his plan; and it had seemed an insuperable +bar. If she turned the horse out, he would come back anyway; for Cy was +the town-bred horse, always waiting anxiously about camp for his +vanished stable; and Garth had further trained him to stick to the +outfit, with judicious presents of salt and tobacco. + +Rina, disdaining a saddle, scrambled on his back, and rode off. Garth +waited, not without anxiety, to see what direction she would take. She +presently reappeared, mounting the rise to the shack. Pausing briefly at +the door, apparently to speak within, she continued her way up the slope +behind; and, gaining the prairie, disappeared over the brow. + +Garth instantly put himself in motion. He had his compunctions in thus +moving against Rina while she was absent on an errand for Natalie; but +he consoled himself with the thought that Rina, with all she could do, +had still a heavy score to pay off. He told Natalie what he was about to +do; and at her earnest pleading carried her out of the tent, and propped +her partly upright at the edge of the lake where she would be able to +see him. Then, looking to his gun, he set off a second time for the +shack. + +From the circumstance of Rina's pausing at the door, he was well assured +that Mabyn was within. He had marked that the door stood open. On his +way, he paused to examine the ancient dugout lying at the mouth of the +watercourse; and found it in a sufficiently seaworthy condition to +answer his purpose. A paddle lay in the bottom. + +Garth ascended the grassy slope swiftly and noiselessly; and making a +détour around the window, presented himself suddenly at the door. Mabyn +was revealed to him sprawling on his blankets in the corner, plucking at +his face, and scowling at the rafters, he, too, no doubt, plotting and +scheming. When the armed shadow fell across the floor of his shack, he +started to his elbow; his eyes widened, his flesh blanched and a visible +trembling seized his limbs. + +"What do you want?" he contrived to stammer. + +Strong disgust seized Garth again; so despicable an adversary shamed his +own manhood. He shifted his gun significantly. + +"Get up!" he said. + +Mabyn dragged himself to his hands and knees. It was some moments before +he could control himself sufficiently to stand upright. + +"What are you going to do with me?" he kept muttering. + +Garth stepped backward. "Come outside!" he commanded. + +Mabyn obeyed, making a circuit of the walls for support. His eyes were +always riveted on the gun; and however slightly it was moved, he +experienced a fresh spasm of fear. + +"Face about!" ordered Garth; "and walk to the mouth of the creek!" + +Mabyn became even paler. His skin was like white paper on which ashes +have been rubbed, leaving streaks and patches of gray. "Would you shoot +me in the back?" he said shrilly. "An unarmed man! I will not turn my +back!" + +"Then walk backward!" said Garth, with his laconic start of laughter. + +Mabyn went like a crab down the rise, with his head over his shoulder, a +ludicrous and deplorable figure. He was unable to drag his eyes from the +gun, consequently he stumbled and lurched over every obstacle. Once he +fell flat; and a sharp scream of fright was forced from him. Garth +sickened at the sight, while he laughed. He had to give him a minute in +which to recover himself. + +Mabyn, scarcely coherent, ceaselessly begged for mercy. "Do not kill +me!" he whimpered. "I _can't_ die! Oh, God! Not like this! I never had a +chance! You kill Natalie if you kill me--the breed will fix her!--and my +mother! You'll have three murders on your soul! I _can't_ die yet!" + +"Get up!" commanded Garth. + +Reaching the edge of the water, he ordered him into the dugout. + +Mabyn fell on his knees on the stones. "Not in the water! Not in the +water!" he shrilled. "Kill me here!" + +"No one is going to kill you," said Garth with scornful patience. "Do +what you're told, and you'll not be hurt!" + +Mabyn darted a furtive look of hope and suspicion in Garth's face. He +got up. + +"What are you going to do with me?" he muttered. + +"Put you on the island," said Garth coolly. + +"I'll starve," he whined. + +"Food will be brought you regularly, as long as you obey orders," said +Garth. + +Mabyn, his extreme terror subsiding, showed an inclination to temporize. +"Let me get a few things," he begged. His eyes wandered to the hill over +which Rina had disappeared. + +Garth was anxious on the same score. He fingered the trigger of his gun. +"In with you!" he said. + +Mabyn jumped to obey. + +Garth, sitting in the bow with his weapon in his arms, faced Mabyn; and +forced him to wield the paddle. Mabyn, seeing that he did mean to put +him on the island, realized there had been no occasion for his brutish +terror; but instead of feeling any shame for the self-betrayal, he +characteristically added it to his score against Garth. His gray eyes +contracted in an agony of impotent hate. At that moment unspeakable +atrocities committed on Garth's body would not have satisfied Mabyn's +lust to destroy his flesh. Any move on his part would have overturned +the crazy dugout, but, shivering at the sight of the water, he was +unable to take that way. + +Garth, wary of the furtive gleam in the man's eye, sprang to his feet +the instant they touched the island, and leaped out, careful never to +turn his back. He forced Mabyn to retire a dozen paces, while he took +the place he vacated in the stern; and then he ordered him to push off. + +At the prospect of being left alone, Mabyn's flesh failed him again. He +clung to the bow of the canoe, and gabbled anew for mercy. Garth, +wearying of it all, suddenly sent a shot over his head. His weapon, +silent and smokeless, had an effect of horrible deadliness. Mabyn, with +a moan of fear, pushed the canoe off, and sank back on the grass of the +islet. + +Exchanging his gun for the paddle, Garth hastened back to the mouth of +the creek, pausing only to wave his hat reassuringly at Natalie, whom he +could see reclining on her grassy couch. An essential part of his plan +was yet to be effected; and he knew not how soon Rina might return. +Hastily ransacking the cabin, he gathered together all their meagre +rations; flour, sugar, beans, tea and pork; and he likewise commandeered +everything that might be turned to use for a weapon; an axe, a chisel, +and all knives. Three trips up and down the hill conveyed it to the +dugout. Reëmbarking, he had no sooner brought it all to his own camp +than Natalie's sharp eyes discovered Rina returning on the distant hill. + +Garth carried Natalie into the tent again; and nerved himself to await +the inevitable scene. Meanwhile he could see Rina alight at the door, +search the cabin hastily, and dart about outside, like a distracted ant +returning to find her dwelling rifled. She followed the tracks down to +the water's edge, dragging the horse after her. Seeking over the water, +she soon discovered the dugout lying at Garth's camp; whereupon she +clambered on the horse again. Presently she came crashing through the +bush. + +This was a vastly different kind of antagonist, that slipped from the +horse and faced him with blazing eyes. Rina regarded the weapon in his +hands with as little respect as if it had been a pop-gun. But there was +nothing baffling about her now, she was just the furious woman common to +any shade of skin. + +"Where is he?" she cried--and without waiting for any answer, emptied +the hissing ewer of her wrath over Garth's head. Her careful English was +drowned in a flood of guttural Cree--she fished it up only to curse him. + +Garth received the impact in silence, for at first she was in no +condition to take in the answers she demanded. He suddenly realized, as +a man thinks of an interesting circumstance that does not concern him at +all, how beautiful she was; and the thought gave him greater patience. + +Rina, bethinking herself at last that her Cree was wasted on him, went +back to English. "You wait!" she cried threateningly. "Bam-bye, her +bone, him grow together, and she all the time cry of pain! Then you +want me bad, and I not come! She will have fever and die!" She +passionately threw down the leaves she had brought and ground them under +her heel. + +"Mabyn is unhurt!" Garth repeated patiently more than once. "I put him +on the island." + +At last it seemed to reach her. "What for you do that?" she demanded. + +"He is always trying to kill me," he said. "I have only put him where he +can do no harm!" + +"I tak' him off!" she cried defiantly. "I mak' a raft! You can't stop +me!" + +"I have seized all the food," said Garth quietly. "You will get none for +him unless he stays where he is." + +Rina's anger stilled and concentrated. "You devil!" she hissed. + +Garth turned away. "When you are yourself," he said coolly, "I will talk +to you plainly and honestly about us all." + +"I not talk with you!" she stormed. "You tell lies to me! I not come +again--till some time you sleep--then I come and kill you!" + +He faced her with a sudden imperiousness she could not ignore. "Then the +way is made open for Mabyn to come to _her_!" he cried. "Where will you +be then?--thrown on the ground, as you were yesterday!" + +The shot told. Her arms dropped, she visibly paled. The white man's +blood in Rina's cheeks betrayed her at the moments when most she +desired to secrete her heart. She lowered her head to hide her stricken +eyes from him. Suddenly she turned and fled through the trees. + +Garth was beginning to believe that Rina after all was not so different +from her white sisters; if so, he thought she would come back. Natalie, +who had overheard all that passed, said so too. Garth wished to carry +Natalie out of the tent, that she might help him work with the girl; but +Natalie, with better wisdom, said no, that Rina would be more tractable +if she were out of sight. + +Meanwhile he set to work with an air of unconcern he was far from +feeling--there were a hundred ways this plan of his might miscarry, and +only one way it could succeed! He tied old Cy to his stake again; and +carefully gathered up what remained of the herbs Rina had cast on the +ground. He unloaded the seized supplies and made a temporary cache under +a piece of sail-cloth. + +By and by, while he was so engaged, he became aware that Rina was +hovering about among the trees. He went on with his task, carefully +avoiding any notice of her. She approached by devious stages, like a +child drawn against its will. When it became impossible longer to +conceal herself, she came into the open with her old, wistful, sullen, +inscrutable face. Garth went about his work, displaying no anxiety to +treat. He made her speak first. + +"What you want say to me?" she asked at last, feigning supreme +indifference. + +"Sit down," he said. + +She dropped obediently on the grass; and averted her head. She did not +squat like the other red people; but reclined, supporting herself on one +hand, much as Natalie might have done. + +Garth lit his pipe, considering what simple, figurative form of words +would best appeal to her understanding. + +"I do not wish Mabyn harm," he began mildly. "He is nothing to me. My +heart knows only one wish--to make her well, and to take her back safely +to her friends outside. To accomplish that, I will let nothing stop me!" + +He paused to let it sink in. Rina gave no sign of having even heard. + +"That is your wish, too," he continued. "You want her away from here. +She and I are nothing to you. You were happy before we came!" + +She darted a startled look at the man who could so well read her +feelings. + +"Mabyn is mad because she will not have him!" Garth went on. "He is +always crazy for what he cannot have." + +She turned her head again with the look that said so plainly, "How did +you know that?" + +"When we get her away, he will soon forget. All will be as it was +before!" + +She maintained her obstinate silence. + +"Do I not speak true words?" Garth challenged. + +She evaded the question. "If you go out, you send the police after him," +she muttered. + +He saw Mabyn's hand here. "I will not," he said quickly. "I give you my +word on that!" + +She looked at him incredulously. She did not understand the pledge. + +"There's my hand on it," said Garth, offering it. + +Rina gravely laid her own in it, and let him wag it up and down. This +form of binding an agreement she knew. + +Still she had not committed herself to anything; and Garth paused, +determined to make her speak before he went on. + +She favoured him at last with a walled glance purely savage. "Let +'Erbe't go off the island," she said indifferently. Clearly she asked it +more with the idea to see what he would say, than with any hope of his +agreeing. + +"I will not do that," said Garth firmly. "Night and day he would be +plotting to kill me. Night and day he would be driving you on to do it +for him. You would try to do it. You cannot say no to him! And if you +did bring me down--" Garth sunk his voice--"all, _all_ would be +lost!--Mabyn and you and Natalie and I!" + +Her eyes sought his with a poignant glance; and she paled again. He felt +he had made an impression. + +"I will treat him kindly," he said, seeking to follow up his advantage. +"You shall go to the shack now for everything he needs; and we will take +it to him." + +"Can I spik with him?" asked Rina in a low tone. + +Garth rejoiced--it was the first token of submission. "For five minutes +by my watch," he said. + + + + +XIX + +GRYLLS REDIVIVUS + + +On the next day but one Natalie's condition took a sharp turn for the +worse; and for many days thereafter, Garth put every other thought out +of his head. She fell into a high fever and suffered incessantly and +cruelly. At this call, Rina showed forth in colours wholly admirable; +day or night she seldom left her patient's side; she was never at a loss +what to do; and Garth comforted himself with the thought that Natalie +could scarcely have had better care anywhere. + +During these busy days Rina appeared to forget her own heartache in a +measure; and never once on the occasion of their daily trip to the +island (Garth forcing her to accompany him) did she again express a wish +to speak to Mabyn. At their approach Mabyn always retreated; and they +were accustomed to set his rations down on the shore and immediately go +back. + +But Garth could not trust the breed unreservedly, and unceasing +vigilance was his portion. He had little enough sleep before, and now he +strove to do without it altogether. For three days and three nights he +did not close his eyes. On the fourth day, warned by his tortured, +wavering brain that it must be either sleep or madness, he took his fate +in his hands and lay down on top of the cache, with his gun beside him. + +He was unconscious for nearly twelve hours. When he awoke it was to find +Rina's eyes fixed upon him strangely. He sprang up, and she turned away +her head. He could not read that expression--still he had lain there at +her mercy and she had spared him. Neither had she liberated Mabyn from +the island, for Garth could see him moving about. He began to hope that +his arguments had real weight with the breed; and little by little, +under pressure of his great need, he began to trust her. + +But when the dread promontory was weathered at last, and Natalie, a +wraith of her blooming self, awoke in her right senses, Rina changed +again, resuming her old sullen, moody self; and all his work was undone. +It was clear the unfortunate girl was dragged ceaselessly back and forth +between her new-fledged soul and the old savage impulses of her blood. +She learned to love the irresistible Natalie whom she had snatched back +from death--but she likewise hated her; hated her blindly because Mabyn +loved her; and inconsistently, but naturally, too, hated her because she +despised Mabyn. The same with Garth; over and over she unconsciously +showed she trusted him; but her blood still rebelled because he was +Mabyn's enemy; and he would sometimes find her eyes fixed on him in a +quickly veiled expression of savage, implacable hatred. + +On the first day of his imprisonment, Garth, under threat of withholding +supplies, had forced Mabyn to cut down the willows fringing the hither +side of the island; and his movements about his fire and tepee were in +plain view of those on shore. Concealed from him by a tree, Rina would +often sit by the hour, watching him wistfully. "God knows what course +her harried brain pursues!" Garth, observing her, thought--"if she +thinks at all!" One thing was sure: under the strain of continued +separation, her resistance to Mabyn's evil suggestions was gradually +breaking down. + +Meanwhile Garth was straining every nerve to complete the shack that was +to be at once their habitation and their fortress. Within the shelter of +its walls he hoped to sleep at peace again. His nerves were stretched +like violin strings from the lack of it; for all he could permit himself +was an hour or two in the morning while Natalie was awake and could warn +him. All afternoon he chopped pine trees, which old Cy with an +improvised harness dragged into camp; and far into the night, until +overtaken with complete exhaustion, he trimmed his logs, squared the +ends, and lifted them into place. + +It was their second red-letter day, when the last sod was dropped into +place on the roof, and Garth carried Natalie inside. Strictly considered, +the house was not very much to brag about, perhaps; for it slanted this +way and that like the first pothooks in a child's copybook; but Garth, +fired by Natalie's enthusiastic praises, could not have been prouder +if he had completed the Taj Mahal. + +One end had been partitioned off for Natalie's room; and in finishing +this part Garth had spent all his pains. The floor was made of small +logs, filled and plastered with clay, which he had hardened by building +fires upon it; and had then strewn rushes over the whole. There was a +rough bunk in one corner, with a low table by its side--the latest thing +in rustics, the maker explained. There was a tiny window high up on the +side overlooking the lake; it had no glass, but a stout shutter swinging +on wooden pins, and which fastened with a strong wooden bar. But the +crowning feature of the room, constructed with infinite pains after +countless failures, was the fireplace in the corner. Garth deprecated +it; it wasn't much of a fireplace; only a sort of little arched doorway +of baked clay, so narrow the logs had to stand upright in it, making +cooking very difficult--but when Natalie saw the flames curling up the +chimney in the most natural way possible, she set up a feeble crow of +delight. + +The balance of the interior was to serve for Garth's room and storeroom +combined. It had a very small door, also on the lake side; but he could +not afford a window beside; and he also saved himself the trouble of +flooring it. The door was constructed in the same manner as the shutter, +of matched poles strongly braced behind, and further strengthened with +rawhide lashings. + +Natalie had Garth hang a spare blanket over the doorway between the +two rooms; and she produced a shawl to serve for a table cloth. After +supper, when they locked themselves in and heaped up the fire, Natalie +propped up on her couch, and Garth sitting on a stool, smoking by +especial request--it was as snug as Heaven, Natalie said. The nights had +been growing dreadfully keen of late; and poor Natalie wrapped in all +the blankets they possessed had nevertheless more than once lain awake +with the cold. But now, within thick walls--what matter if they were out +of the perpendicular?--and under a tight roof, with the flames leaping +briskly up the chimney, no king in his palace ever experienced such a +sense of opulent and all-sufficing luxury as Garth and Natalie the first +night in their miserable shack. + +This was the fourteenth day after Natalie's accident. Every day after +the first week had shown a slight improvement in her condition; and +every day had therefore lessened the hold Rina had over them; until now +Garth felt, should it be necessary, he could bring the patient safely +back to health unaided. Rina knew this too; and became daily more morose +and sullen in her demeanour. To separate her longer from Mabyn would be, +Garth felt, simply to promote an explosion. Besides, sufficiently housed +now, well armed, and with the food safely stored, he felt strong enough +to be merciful. On the night they moved into the shack he pointed out +the canoe to Rina, telling her that henceforth she was free to use it as +she would. He would go to the island no more, he added; but Rina might +come every day for rations for both--as long as Mabyn remained where he +was. + +He hoped by this to incite the energetic Rina into planning Mabyn's +escape from the island. They could catch a couple of horses and ride to +their friends at the distant Settlement, or where they would. He felt he +could trust Rina, if she ever got Mabyn among her own people, to keep +him from coming back. Thus he would at the same stroke be rid of them, +and conserve his rapidly diminishing stores. It was no great matter if +they drove off all the horses, for he still had old Cy under his eye for +Natalie to ride; and their own journey back would have to be undertaken +at a walking pace, anyway. He had learned enough of Rina's mixed +character to be sure that this would have a greater chance of coming +about if he let her think of it for herself, so he said nothing to her. + +He was disappointed. Mabyn, too timid to undertake so long a journey +without ample supplies, or perhaps too obstinate to go, they remained on +the island; and Rina came every day for food. If she was grateful for +being allowed to join Mabyn she did not show it. Every trace of her +better nature rapidly disappeared, and she seemed wholly the sullen +savage. Bad treatment was the explanation they thought; and they pitied +her. + +Garth waited five days more. Natalie was by that time moving around +freely; and they had begun to count the days to their ardently desired +retreat from that unhappy valley. The question of food became more and +more pressing--their journey would have to be spread over many slow +stages; and he finally decided to drive Mabyn and Rina away. + +So the next time Rina came, he told her he would give her two days' +rations for two persons the following day; and after that they need +expect no more. In the meantime, he said, she was free to go up on the +prairie and catch the first two horses she met. He even offered her old +Cy to round them up, secure in holding the dugout for a hostage. Rina +betrayed not the least surprise, or any other feeling at his ultimatum, +but coolly rode off as he bid her. She returned within an hour driving +Emmy and Timoosis, which she picketed below Mabyn's hut. + +What passed between Rina and Mabyn when she returned to the island, the +other two could only guess at. However, Garth, up at dawn next morning, +saw them striking the tepee. They made two trips back and forth between +the island and the mouth of the creek; and afterward, while Mabyn +saddled and packed the horses, Rina paddled to Garth's camp to get the +promised rations. They both awaited her on the bank. + +Rina presented the mask-like face they had grown accustomed to, and +maintained a dogged silence. The only sign of feeling she gave was a +shadow-like pain drowned deep in her dark eyes. Natalie's own eyes +filled at the sight of her stubbornness; in the days of her suffering +she had grown very fond of her dark-skinned nurse; and it was she who +had insisted throughout on the existence of Rina's better nature, and +had never given up hope of reclaiming the worser part. And now it +seemed, she must admit herself defeated. + +Garth laid out the food he had allotted them; and packed it in a +flour-bag convenient to carry. He also gave Rina an open letter he had +written, setting forth their situation (without implicating Mabyn or +Rina) and asking that food and an escort be sent. That it would ever +fall into responsible hands was problematical; but it was a chance. He +refrained from any suggestion that it should be concealed from Mabyn, +but Rina of her own accord thrust it in her dress; and he argued well +from the act. + +Rina turned to go without a word; but Natalie called her softly. In her +hand she was holding a round silver locket, in which she had put a tiny +picture of herself. She held it out to Rina with a wistful smile. + +"For you," she murmured. "Keep it because I love you." + +Rina looked at the little picture, struggling to maintain her parade of +unconcern. But suddenly she snatched it out of Natalie's hand; and +thrust it in her own bosom. Her face worked with the pain of those who +weep with difficulty; her eyes filled and overflowed at last. With a +wild, brusque abandon, she flung herself at Natalie's feet and pressed +the hem of her dress to her trembling lips. + +"You good! You good!" she sobbed. Then springing to her feet as abruptly +as she had fallen, she flew away among the trees. + +Half an hour later they heard the two horses passing the trail behind +their camp; the same trail by which they had all first entered the +valley; and the way to Spirit River Crossing. + +At first they dared not believe they could really be free of their enemy +so easily; and they continually found themselves listening for the sound +of their return. Garth saddled Cy at last; and rode along the trail to +the top of the bench. He saw Mabyn and Rina two specks in the distance; +and still travelling south. When he returned with the news to Natalie, +they allowed themselves to rejoice at last; and they were filled with a +great peace. + +Going home! was the burden of their happy speech; home to the land of +friendly faces, the urbane land, the place of comfortable little things, +where life was lapped in ease, sane and well-ordered! How their ears +ached for a human noise again! the bustle of crowded sidewalks, the +clang of gongs, the fall of hoofs on asphalt! How their flesh yearned +for the creature comforts! delicate feasting and good clothes to wear! +One must be plunged into the wilderness for a while to sense the gifts +of civilization at their true value. + +"I can understand now why men are so crazy to be explorers and things," +said Natalie. "They go away just for the tremendous fun of coming back +to it all! Oh-h! Think of dances--and even despised tea-parties now! +Think of theatres and restaurants and going to the races!" + +"And wouldn't I like to take you straight through to New York, though!" +sang Garth. "Oh! Broadway and the Avenue in September! Everything +getting under way again! And Coney Island is still going! Picture Luna +Park dropped down on the island out there!" + +They laughed at the incongruous picture. + +"Where would we dine the first night?" asked Natalie. + +"Martin's," said Garth. "Fancy us in the balcony looking down on the +giddy crowd; and the orchestra sawing off the sextet from _Lucia_ for +dear life!" + +"Lobster à la Newburg and a _pèche Melba_!" cried Natalie in an ecstasy. + +"Not on your life!" said Garth. "Just like a girl's bill-of-fare. +Something sensible for yours when you go out with me! How about a filet +_dernier cri_?" + +"Don't know it," said Natalie. "Besides, I refuse to be sensible in my +imagination," she added. + +Garth described the delicacy. "And a cheese sauce on top all browned, +with strips of red pepper laid criss-cross; and it comes steaming hot +under a little glass cover!" + +Natalie groaned. "Oh, talk about something else!" she said faintly. + +"What will you wear?" asked Garth with a grin. + +Natalie drew a long breath and plunged forthwith into elaborate, excited +descriptions. + + * * * * * + +Their respite was very short--only to the middle of the following +morning. They were still dwelling on the subject of home. Garth had +carefully lifted Natalie into the saddle; and was leading the horse up +and down the strip of grass to see how she bore it. Suddenly she bent +her head, and laid a hand on his shoulder. + +"Horses!" she said. + +Garth sharply pulled up old Cy. "The Indian cayuses, perhaps," he said. + +Natalie shook her head. "Heavier animals than that," she said. "And more +like the steady trot of ridden horses!" + +They listened with strained attention; and presently the pound of hoofs +was clearly audible returning on the same trail through the woods of the +lake shore. The approach of strangers is charged with a tremendous +significance to those immured in a wilderness. They bated their breaths +to hear better. + +Garth scowled. "If they come back they can starve!" he said shortly. +"They'll not get another stiver's worth from our store!" + +Natalie's ears were very sharp. "There are more than two!" she said +suddenly. "Four--six--more than that!" + +Garth's face cleared. "Friends, undoubtedly," he said. "Mabyn could +never enlist anybody, not even breeds, against us!" + +But this was only for Natalie's benefit. Even while he spoke another +thought struck a chill to his heart. Lifting Natalie off the horse, he +sent her into the house; and taking his gun, he struck back through the +woods to the side of the trail, to reconnoitre. He dropped behind a +clump of mooseberry bushes where he could see without being seen. + +The cavalcade was close upon him. The first to ride past was Herbert +Mabyn. His livid face was alight with triumph; and he carried a new +Winchester slung over his back. An ill-favoured breed youth followed; +his face struck a chord in Garth's memory; but so hard is it to +distinguish alien faces that for the moment he could not place him. Next +there came six packhorses, laden with food and camp outfit, and driven +by the next rider, a breed woman, whose face happened to be turned from +Garth as she passed. He had an uncomfortable sense that he knew her too. +Rina followed, turning a sad and troubled face in the direction of their +camp as she rode by. + +This seemed to be all; and Garth was about to rise, when he heard still +another rider approaching. He crouched back with a sure foreboding of +who it was; hence there was little surprise in the actual sight of the +faded check suit enwrapping the burly figure, the broad-rimmed +"Stetson," and the ragged cigar ceaselessly twisted between fat lips. He +looked older, that was all; and he bore marks of illness. Nick Grylls +had found them out. + + + + +XX + +SUCCOUR + + +Garth was thankful he was alone when it happened. The reaction after +their day of joyous hopefulness was too sudden to be borne. Crouching +behind the bush, he dropped his head in his arms. What could he hope +for, single-handed against such overwhelming odds? For a while his heart +failed him utterly, and all his faculties were scattered in clownish +confusion. He knew not which way to turn. At last one thought shone +through the murk of his brain like a star: Natalie must not be rudely +frightened. He got up; and composing his face with a great effort of +will, he hastened back to her. + +But the riders having crossed the bed of the stream, and mounted the +rise, Natalie already knew as much as he. Her first thought was likewise +for him. She turned a solicitous face. + +"My poor Garth!" she said. "More care and danger for you!" + +The simple words acted on him like a strong tonic. His brow smoothed; +his mouth hardened; and he was mightily ashamed for his moment of +weakness. + +"More fun!" he said with his dry, arrogant note of laughter. "Act four +of the drama begins!" + +Natalie caught his spirit and laughed back. + +"Who was the half-breed, do you suppose?" he said. "Whitey-blue eyes, +ugly scar!" + +"Don't you remember?" she said quickly. "The stage to the Landing----" + +"Xavier! Of course!" he cried. + +"And the second woman?" + +"I only saw a ring of gray curls under her hat." + +"Mary Co-que-wasa!" + +"Hm! The entire _dramatis personæ_?" said Garth. + +Natalie, not to be outdone, saluted with her good arm, and asked: +"Orders of the day, Captain?" + +In a truly desperate pass one breaks down--or laughs. Youth laughs. They +bolstered each other's courage with their jests, each secretly wondering +and admiring of the other. + +"We have the house, anyway!" said Garth. "Good old tumbledown shanty!" + +"No! Fort Indefatigable!" amended Natalie. + +"It'll be besieged all right," said Garth. "We must carry in everything +we own, and fill up the rest of the space with wood for the fire. I +would share my room with Cy, but the old boy couldn't get his ribs +through the door!" + +Natalie was told off for sentry duty. She took up her position at the +edge of the shore, where she could report on all that transpired in the +other camp. It seemed to be the design of these people first to overawe +them with a display of force. They pitched camp openly, in and around +Mabyn's hut; and moved about all day in plain view. The men amused +themselves by shooting their guns at various marks, clearly to show the +number and strength of their weapons. Up to dark, Natalie was able to +report that none of the five had left camp. + +Garth, meanwhile, worked like a Trojan. All the wood cut for the fire +was carried inside, and he had, besides, a quantity of logs left over or +discarded from the building of the shack; and these were likewise +stored. The hut was built so near the edge of the bank there was little +possibility of an attack from in front; in each of the other three sides +he cut a loophole for observation and defense. The last hours of +daylight he spent in hunting near camp; and in setting snares to be +visited later. Two rabbits were all that fell to his bag. + +At nightfall they locked themselves in. Garth did not stop then, but +worked for hours piling the spare logs around the three vulnerable sides +of the shack; so that if the bullets should fly, they would be protected +under a double barrier. + +The night passed without alarms. + +In the morning Garth wished to venture forth as if nothing had happened. +Inaction was intolerable to him. He insisted it would be fatal for him +to act as if he were afraid. + +Natalie was all against it. + +"But this is the twentieth century after all," he said; "and we're under +a civilized Government. They would never dare shoot me in cold blood!" + +"Not kill you, perhaps," she said; "but bring you down, helpless!" Tears +threatened here; and Garth was silenced. + +Opening the shutter in Natalie's room, they could still command a view +of the other camp. Grylls and Mabyn were visible; and at intervals the +two women appeared. Xavier was missing. + +"He will be watching us," Natalie said. + +As if to give point to her words, a rifle suddenly barked its hoarse +note, close outside. Garth sprang to the loophole in Natalie's room; and +was in time to see the poor, stupid, faithful old horse, tethered +outside, sink to his knees, and collapse on the grass. + +He leaped up, turning an ominous, wrathful face. + +"Oh! The damned cowards!" he muttered. + +Natalie flew into the adjoining room, and flung herself in front of the +door. "You must not go out!" she cried. "What would I do, if you were +hurt?" + +She was unanswerable, and he turned from the door, sickened with balked +wrath, and flung himself face down on his blankets until he could +command himself. + +As if to give this act time to sink in, nothing further was undertaken +against Garth and Natalie all day; though they were undoubtedly under +surveillance, because the five were never about their own camp at the +same time. It was a bitter, hard day on the besieged; Garth, chafing +intolerably, paced the shack like a newly caged animal; and even Natalie +suffered from his temper. + +At nightfall he eased his pent-up feelings by a cautious sally. He +filled all their vessels in the lake; and revisited his snares, which, +however, yielded nothing. They were too near camp. He saw no sign of any +adversary; but some of them came about later in the night like coyotes; +for in the morning Garth saw that the body of old Cy had been dragged +away--in the fear, perhaps, that his flesh might furnish them with food. + +After breakfast Garth took his pipe to the window, and folding his arms +on the high sill, watched the movements in the camp across the little +bay. They were watching him too; he presently sensed a pair of +field-glasses in Grylls's hands. Garth laughed and obeying a sudden, +ironical impulse, waved his hand. Grylls abruptly lowered the glass and +walked away. + +Garth was still smiling, when all at once, without warning, Rina came +around the corner of his shack and faced him point blank. The smile was +fixed in astonishment; Rina was unperturbed. + +"What do you want?" he demanded, picking up his gun. + +"I got no gun," she said, indifferently, exhibiting her empty hands. +"Nick Grylls, him send you letter." + +Garth reflected that by letting her in, he stood the chance of getting +much useful information; so bidding Natalie stay in her own room, he +opened the door. + +Rina handed him the note from Grylls. It was scribbled in a small, +crabbed hand on the back of a business letter. On the other side Garth +had a glimpse of the time-honoured formula: "_Dear Sir: Yours of the +first instant to hand, and contents noted. In reply we beg to say_----" +It gave him a queer, incongruous start: outside, it seemed, people still +went to and from their offices, absorbed in their inconsequential +affairs--while here in the woods he was fighting for his life, and +Natalie's honour! + +"Where is _she_?" Rina asked--she had never referred to Natalie by name. +"I will fix her hair for her if she want," she added humbly enough. + +Natalie immediately came forward, offering her hand. Rina clung to it +without speaking, turning away her head to hide welling tears. + +"Where did you meet these people?" Garth asked her. + +"On the prairie," she answered, low-voiced. "Yesterday, noon spell. They +coming this way. Nick Grylls, him mak' moch friend with 'Erbe't, and +'Erbe't, him glad. Nick Grylls big man, rich man, everybody lak to be +friend with him. Nick Grylls say him come to help 'Erbe't. Him give +'Erbe't ver' fine gun." + +"Humph! Mabyn will pay dear for it!" Garth exclaimed. + +"I say so him," Rina said eagerly. "Me, I tell 'Erbe't everybody see +Nick Grylls him jus' mak' a fool of you. What he want with you? He want +her for himself. 'Erbe't on'y laugh. 'E say--" Rina's voice sunk very +low--"'Let him help me get her, and I'll keep her, all right!'" + +Garth frowned and clenched his fists. His gorge rose intolerably, at the +thought of this precious pair contending which was to have Natalie. + +Rina went on: "Nick Grylls say to 'Erbe't, mustn't let her get out of +the country. He say 'If she go out she divorce you.'" Rina pronounced +the word strangely. "Nick Grylls say he know a place to tak' her all +winter, Northwest, many days to Death River, where no white man ever go +before. Him think I not hear what he say." + +This was valuable information indeed. + +Garth opened the letter. It was a curious document, for while the +thoughts were like Grylls's, they were clothed in a certain smoothness +of phrase more likely supplied by Mabyn: + + MR. GARTH PEVENSEY, SIR: (Thus it ran) I am astonished beyond + measure at the story I have learned from the lips of my good + friend, Mr. Herbert Mabyn. I assure you, sir, that, though this is + an unsettled country, we are not accustomed to lawlessness; nor do + we propose to stand for it from strangers. You have twice attempted + Mr. Mabyn's life; you have stolen and converted to your own use his + household effects and supplies; you have unwarrantably imprisoned + him on an exposed island to the great detriment of his health. Your + purpose in all this is transparent. You seek to part him from his + wife; and you are at this moment detaining Mrs. Mabyn in your + shack. + + I flatter myself I am not without weight and standing in this + community; and I hereby warn you that in the absence of the regular + police, I mean to see this wrong righted. If Mrs. Mabyn is + immediately returned to her husband, you will be allowed to go + unmolested. If you still detain her, we will seize her by force, as + we have every right, moral and legal, to do. We know you have only + food enough for a few days, so in any case the end cannot remain + long in doubt. + + NICHOLAS GRYLLS. + +Scorn and amusement struggled in Garth's face. His nostrils thinned; he +suddenly threw up his head and grimly laughed. + +"Well, this beats the Dutch!" he said feelingly. + +Natalie, reading the cunningly plausible sentences over his shoulder, +was inclined to be anxious. "Surely he has no legal right over me," she +said. + +"Not a shadow!" Garth said. + +"Grylls may have believed this story Mabyn told him," she said. + +"Not a bit of it!" Garth said quickly. "Grylls is not so simple." He +stuck the letter sharply with his forefinger. "I'm a newspaper +reporter," he went on dryly, "you can believe me, this is a perfect, a +beautiful, a monumental bluff! I'm almost inclined to take off my hat to +him! But the length of it gives them away, rather; they must have spent +all day yesterday cooking this up." + +"What will you do?" Natalie asked. + +A wicked gleam appeared in Garth's eyes. "Oh, wouldn't I love to answer +it in kind!" he said longingly. + +"An innocent, simple little billet-doux that would make them squirm. +Why, that's my business!" + +"Better not," said Natalie anxiously. + +"You're right," he said with a sigh. "It's the first thing you learn: +never to write when you feel that way. But it's mighty hard to resist +it!" + +Rina understood little of all this. "You send answer back?" she asked. + +"No. Tell him there's no answer," said Garth. "Tell him we nearly died +laughing," he added. + + * * * * * + +That night Garth determined not to leave the cabin until shortly before +dawn. He had seen Xavier leave the other camp before dark; and he +guessed the breed youth had been told off to watch them. From what he +had observed of the incontinuity of the breed mind in any given +direction, he strongly suspected if they kept still throughout the first +part of the night Xavier would fall asleep before morning. He had a +little plan in his mind, which he did not confide to Natalie. About +three o'clock, therefore, he called Natalie to bar the door after him; +and he sallied forth, concealing from her that he carried a coil of +light rope. + +He was gone more than an hour, of which every minute was an age to poor +Natalie crouching over the fire and straining her ears. She had +successively pictured every possible accident that might have befallen +him, before her heart leaped at the sound of his signal at the door. + +Garth was for sending her back to bed forthwith, but Natalie apprehended +he had not been gone so long for nothing; and presently she heard him +stand two guns in the corner. + +"What have you got?" she asked eagerly. + +"Oh, I just made a trade." Garth airily returned. "Thirty feet of +clothesline for a Winchester and a bag of cartridges. I threw in a +handkerchief to boot. Pretty good, eh?" + +Natalie pulled him in by the fire, and made him light his pipe and tell +her what had happened. + +"Well, I had a hunch Xavier was watching us to-night," he began. "I bore +a grudge against Xavier's pretty face, and I thought I'd have a little +fun with him, you see." + +Natalie glanced up in alarm. + +"A fellow would go mad, if he couldn't do _anything_," Garth apologized. +"I'll be good now for a week." + +"Xavier?" said Natalie inquiringly. + +"I wouldn't have minded a little bit, giving the brute his quietus," +Garth said coolly. "He killed my horse. But he had no chance to put up a +fight; and I couldn't murder him; so at this present moment he's +unhurt--except his feelings. But Grylls will half kill him in the +morning!" + +"What did you do to him?" she demanded. + +"I was pretty sure he would be watching the path we have made to the +trail," Garth went on. "I figured he would be on my left hand--his +right; it's the position a man instinctively takes. You can't shoot so +well over your right. So I crawled along the path, inch by inch on my +stomach----" + +"Garth!" she cried in horror. "If I had known!" + +"Exactly!" he said. "So I didn't tell you. But there was no danger, +really. It was too dark for him to shoot me--pitchy dark there, under +the trees. I couldn't see an inch before my nose; and as I went I felt +with my hand out in front of me, both sides the path. Thistledown was +nothing to the lightness of my touch. + +"Sure enough, no more than thirty yards behind the house here, I touched +his moccasin--you couldn't mistake the feel of a moccasin. And, just as +I expected, he was sitting on my left. That was a pretty good guess +if----" + +"Oh! Go on! Go on!" she begged. + +"He had his back against a tree. I listened for his breathing. They +breathe very light--tubercular, probably. Finally, I decided he was +asleep. + +"Well, I mosied around behind him; and then I grabbed him. He let out +just one little squawk; and then he shut his mouth. He struggled; +slippery as an oiled cat, but not very strong. Finally I got him gagged +with my handkerchief. Then I tied him up with my rope; round and round; +just like the stories we read when we were kids. I expect I pinched him +some; that was for poor old Cy. + +"Afterward I sat down opposite him; and lit my pipe; and thought over +what I'd do with him, now I had him. We certainly weren't going to feed +his ugly phiz; and he was no use as a hostage, for Grylls wouldn't give +a hang what became of him. Meanwhile I was relieving my mind, by telling +him a few plain truths about making war on dumb beasts. Hope he +understood!" + +Natalie concealed a smile. "What did you say?" she asked. + +"Never mind," said Garth. "It was more forcible than polite. It's been +sizzling inside me for two days. Finally I decided to return him to his +own camp." + +"Their camp!" exclaimed the startled Natalie. + +"Not all the way," he said; "but just where they'd see him in the +morning. Horrible example, and all that, you know. So I hoisted him on +my back, and carried him around to the brook. I propped him against a +tree there, with his face turned home." Garth chuckled. "To finish the +thing up brown, I suppose I ought to have pinned a placard on his +breast: Notice! This is the fate that awaits all who--_et cetera_. But I +didn't think to take any writing materials along with me!" + +"Oh, Garth!" said Natalie reproachfully, as he finished. + +He turned a face of whimsical penitence. "Honest, I won't do it again!" +he said. "But I was under two hundred pounds pressure. It was a case of +blow off or bust!" + + * * * * * + +They could joke for each other's benefit; but privately neither +attempted to disguise from himself what a desperate pass they had +reached. When they parted for the night, Natalie would lie staring +wide-eyed at the fire, and ceaselessly reproaching herself for having +drawn Garth into the sad tangle of her life; while he, tossing on his +blankets on the other side of the partition, blamed himself no less +bitterly for having allowed her to run into danger; and wrung his +exhausted brain for an expedient to save her. + +A little beleaguered garrison watching its small store lessen day by +day, and counting the crumbs--this is the situation of all to try the +soul. But a garrison is always buoyed up by the hope of succour; and +Garth and Natalie could expect none. On the other hand there was no +possibility of treachery within this garrison; no need to measure out +the rations, or to guard the store; for each was jealous of the other's +having _less_; and each sought to give away his share. + +There was no variety in those days. They waited in vain for an +attack--even longed for it; for behind their walls, the odds would be +more nearly equal. But the other party knew this too; and preferred to +starve them out. Garth's snares yielded nothing in four days; the only +flesh they ate during that time was a fish he caught with a line set at +night in the lake. Their stores were reduced to a few handfuls of flour +and a little tea. Meanwhile their enemies feasted insolently all day +about their fire; this siege was child's play for them; they were so +perfectly sure of their prey in the end. + +There came a night at last when Garth and Natalie no longer cared to +keep up the show of joking; they liked to be quiet instead; and they +instinctively drew close together. They sat in the inner room; her head +dropped frankly on his shoulder; and her hand lay in his. It made his +heart ache to see how thin it was. But her spirit was still strong. + +"Garth!" she said suddenly. "Let's make a break for it! Anything would +be better than this!" + +He shook his head. "No go, dearest," he said. "I've been over that, over +and over it, every night for a week!" + +"Couldn't we start down the lake in the canoe?" she said. "And make our +way from some point below? We could cover our tracks that way, and gain +much time. You have a rough map and a compass." + +"They would discover in the morning that the canoe was gone," he said. + +"They might not miss it for a day or two." + +"They have the smoke of our fire to go by, too." + +"They're careless. We might get a good start." + +"Dearest, even if we had many days' start, they know we must make for +the Settlement. How easy it would be to head us off!" + +"But it _might_ succeed," was all she could say. + +"It's seventy-five miles," he said sadly. "You're not strong yet. How +could you walk it, without food to support you on the way?" + +"You have your gun," she said faintly. + +"There's no hunting on the open prairie for a man on foot!" + +Natalie dropped her head back on his shoulder; and said no more. + +Garth's face grew grimmer and grimmer in the firelight. "Do not lose +heart, dear," he said at last, in a gentle voice that was strangely at +variance with his eyes. "Matters will take a turn to-morrow; I promise +you that." + +"What are you going to do?" she asked anxiously. + +"I'm thinking it out," he said, evasively. "I'll tell you when it's +pieced together." + +She was too weary to question him further. + +In the darkness of his own room, he faced the thing. There was to be no +sleep for him this night. The alternative had been there from the first; +but hitherto he had averted his eyes from it, hoping against hope. Now +it could be put off no longer. It was Natalie's life against theirs; and +throughout the hours of the night, he steeled his heart to launch five +souls to eternity--two of them the souls of women. Rina he knew would be +transformed into a tigress by the death of Mabyn; so even Rina, whom +Natalie loved, must go too. He found himself dwelling with horror on the +harmony of her beauty, the deep fire of her eyes, the soft play of +colour in her cheeks--which he was to mar! + +Supposing he succeeded, the dreadful consequences were painfully clear +to him; the hideous noise it would make in the world when they got out; +the ugly look it would have, with no one to bear out his story but +Natalie, and her lawful husband among the dead! Grylls's lying letter +had shown him how easy it would be to paint that side of the story in +the colours of justice. For himself, Garth cared nothing; but the +thought of Natalie, the sport of a world of malicious tongues, maddened +him. But there was no help for it; it had to be done. + +His plan was simple in the extreme. He intended to cross the lake in the +canoe; land well beyond Mabyn's camp; and fire the grass to the windward +of the shack. No rain had fallen in weeks; the grass was as dry as +tinder; and the old bleached shack itself almost as inflammable as +gunpowder. He had, moreover, a small quantity of oil among the things +seized from Mabyn. The night itself seemed to speak for the deed; it was +as dark as Erebus; and there was a blustering, raw wind from the north, +presaging snow. + +After starting the fire, he meant to climb the rising ground behind; and +when they ran to beat out the flames, he would pick them off one by one. +His gun would shoot as fast as he could think; he might get all five +then. And if any regained the hut, they would soon be driven out again. +Whichever way they ran, Garth could run as fast on the higher ground; +and none of them was such a shot as he. Grylls first; then Mabyn; then +the breeds. He meant to wait until dawn, so that if any escaped the +radius of the fire, he could get them by daylight. + +But no executioner may have imagination; in the darkness of his room the +attitudes of the slain were pictured to Garth as clearly as if they +already lay before him: Grylls's gross body huddled in the grass; Mabyn +hideous in death; and Rina cold and still in her wistful beauty. Cries +of terror and agony rang in his ears; and he saw himself afterward +burying the bodies--partly eaten by the flames. Small icy drops broke +out on his forehead. Though he was doing it for her, when it was done, +Natalie could not but shrink from such a bloody wretch. It would part +them forever. But it must be done! + +When his watch showed half-past four--the dawn was later now--he arose +to start. He called Natalie to bar the door after him. He told her he +was going merely to look about and that she must not worry if he was not +back until daylight. Natalie was scarcely awake. He yearned mightily to +take her soft, sleepy form in his arms for once before they were +imbrued; but he dared not, knowing she would instantly interpret the act +as a possible farewell. + +When she closed the door behind him, he felt as one lost to hope. + +As he grasped the canoe, preparatory to pushing it off, he suddenly +became aware through his sharpened senses--he could not have said +how--that some one was very near him. He noiselessly dropped to one +knee; and unslinging his gun, waited. The wind was making confusing +noises and he could not be sure. The suspense became too great to be +borne in silence. + +"Who's there?" he said sharply. + +There came a strange, new, and yet familiar voice out of the darkness: +"Garth, is that you?" + +His heart began to beat wildly. "Who are you?" he whispered. + +"Charley!" returned the voice with the boyish break in it. + +They sprang to their feet simultaneously, not ten paces apart in the +grass. + +"I've brought you grub!" sang the boy. "How's Natalie?" + +In an instant they were in each other's arms. A swift reaction passed +over Garth; his knees weakened under him; he clung to the boy's +shoulders; and lowered his head. + +"Oh, thank God! thank God!" he murmured. + + + + +XXI + +THE BROKEN DOOR + + +Garth beat recklessly on the cabin door crying: + +"Natalie! Natalie! Good news!" + +She was not long in opening. + +"See what I've brought you back!" he shouted. + +They slammed the door shut; and together pulled Charley in by the light +of the fire. + +"Charley! _Charley!_" cried Natalie, quite beside herself with delight; +and flinging her free arm around his neck, she pressed her lips full on +his. + +The honest full-moon face of the boy turned as red as a peony; but his +arms closed around her too, with a right good will; and it was Natalie +in the end, who was obliged gently to disengage herself. + +They all talked at once; they laughed and wept in concert. As soon as +they finished shaking hands all around, they began again. Whenever Garth +was at a loss to express his feelings, he whacked Charley between the +shoulders, until the boy coughed. In the end, speech failing them +completely, they whooped and capered about the shack like wild things. + +"I say!" said Garth suddenly. "We're giving ourselves away nicely! The +news has reached Mabyn and Grylls by this time." + +They quieted down. + +"Tell us your adventures, Charley dear," said Natalie. + +"I'd better bring my stuff in first," said he. + +"Where is it?" + +The boy unslung a bundle from his back. "Thought you might be hungry, so +I brought enough for a couple of squares," he said; "sugar, and tea, and +bacon, and flour. And say, I thought something fancy would go down good; +so there's a tin of sardines and a box of biscuits." + +"Oh! you darling!" said Natalie. + +Charley was much embarrassed. "The rest of the stuff's cached two miles +down the shore," he went on hastily. "I'll trot along and bring it in." + +"Take the canoe," said Garth; "and they can't hold you up." + +"What will I do with the horses?" asked Charley. + +This was a problem. "How many?" Garth asked. + +"Three." + +"How will we keep them out of Grylls's hands?" + +"Why wait at all?" asked Natalie. "Let us all get in the canoe, and +start for home. It will take me just five minutes to get ready!" + +But Garth shook his head. "You can't ride above a walk yet," he said. +"It would mean a running fight all the way. The odds are still too +great against us in the open!" + +"The fellows from the Settlement promised to come look for us in a week +if we weren't home," said Charley. + +"Good!" said Garth. "Then we'll wait for them!" + +"And the horses?" said the boy anxiously. "They're not much to brag +about; but I'm in debt a hundred bones for them." + +Garth clapped him on the back again. "Don't you worry about that, old +boy!" he cried. "The debt is mine! Tell you what we'll do!" he added, +"We'll bring them up here, and swim them off to the island. There's +forage enough over there for a day or two, and they will be right under +our eyes!" + +They set off immediately in the canoe; and it was all accomplished as +planned. Charley brought the precious grub back by water, out of +Grylls's possible reach; while Garth drove the horses in over the trail +at a smart pace. Nothing happened en route; it was probably all done +before their adversaries had time to plan an attack. They swam the +horses to the island, and were both back in the shack, before it was +light enough to aim a gun. + +Breakfast followed; and such a breakfast! They both helped the one-armed +cook. There was bannock light and snowy; bacon fried crisp--"breakfast" +bacon, very different in the North from plain "bacon"; and fried +sardines--delectable morsels! and coffee, and jam. All the delicious +things Garth and Natalie had dreamed of paled beside this homely +reality. Each of the three was delighted, moreover, to see the others +eat; Charley in especial, at the sight of the good he had brought, could +scarcely stop grinning to chew. Afterward he had to be told all that had +happened; and he in return related his adventures. + +"Tell you what! I was sore when Garth sent me back!" Charley began. +"'What's the use!' I thought. 'I can't do any work, not knowing what's +come of them.' In the end I just didn't go back. I had all kinds of +crazy ideas about following you along the trail; but at last I thought +maybe I could be some real use by hanging round the Settlement, and +keeping an eye on Nick Grylls. And I did. + +"Say, he really was knocked out all right, all right. They carried +him in from the lake; and the sisters nursed him in the Convent. +Construction of the brain he had, or something like that. Seems he +got up when he first come to on the shore, walked ten miles, and then +collapsed right near Grier's Point. But they kept that low. Hooliam gave +out a great story, how a big storm came up on the lake, and how Nick +fell overboard, _et cetera, et cetera_; Garth wasn't mentioned in it +at all! + +"Long before Nick was able to be around, he sent down for Mary Co-que-wasa +and Xavier; and then I knew there was more mischief brewing. Say, those +two are the toughest of the whole tough bunch. They say Xavier is Mary's +son. All this time I was getting mighty worried myself, why you didn't +come back, and I was going to look for you anyway. However, as soon as he +was up, Grylls got a big outfit together, and started over the portage +with the two breeds. He gave out that he was going up to Ostachegan +Creek--but I knew! I got a couple of cayuses on credit, and a little +grub; and followed him inside three hours. + +"He beat me by a day to the Crossing, and went right through. Over there +I heard about you from the fellows; and say, I was scared for fair, when +I counted up the grub I knew you had, and then thought how long you'd +been away! I hustled and got another horse and all the grub they would +trust me for. I tried my darnedest to get some of the fellows to come +with me. They laughed at me! They said I'd been reading too many dime +novels--I never read any! You see, every one knows Nick Grylls so well, +and nothing like this ever happened before. Jim Plaskett, the policeman, +would have believed me; but he was away. I left a letter for him. I lost +a couple of good days at the Crossing over this. The most the fellows +would say was, if I didn't bring you back in a week, the bunch would +ride up here. + +"I was so excited with it all, I lost myself like a bloody fool for two +days on the prairie; and I just ran on the lake, by accident, yesterday +afternoon. Say, I almost gave the whole snap away, for I came over the +hill right above Mabyn's shack. Maybe I didn't duck in a hurry! There +was the whole bunch below me! Across the corner of the lake, I could see +this house too. I know it must be yours because it was just built; and +it had a sort of tenderfoot look to it. Say! I wasn't glad to see smoke +coming out of the chimney! Oh, no! + +"Well, that's about all. I took a long sweep around the prairie, and +came down at the place where we got the horses. I thought they would +have you watched, so I figured I'd better wait for night, before trying +to open up communications. When she got good and dark, I crawled around +the shore of the lake. But when I got here, I didn't know how in thunder +to let you know it was me, without bringing down the bunch on us. So I +decided to lay low till morning, and show myself to you, the first +chance I got. Then Garth came out and it was all right!" + +"Just in the nick of time!" said Garth grimly. + +"What were you going to do?" asked Natalie quickly. + +But he never told her. + + * * * * * + +They settled down with what patience they could muster, to wait for +their relief. Two days passed without any hostile demonstration from the +camp on the hill; but that their enemies kept themselves well informed, +they had the best reason to know; for it snowed on the second day, and +on the following morning there were moccasin tracks around the house, +and the rounded marks of two knees under the loophole in Natalie's room. +Garth had taken the precaution to hang a piece of canvas over the hole; +nevertheless, the discovery made them decidedly uncomfortable. Garth +nailed a board over the hole; and they searched the walls anew for any +tell-tale crack that might betray them. + +It grew warm again; and the snow melted off the ground. Frequent +observations of the other camp taught them nothing. This apparent +inactivity puzzled Garth, since the others must know that the game of +starving them out was blocked with the arrival of Charley. They waited +in momentary expectation of attack, or a proposal; but none came. + +Garth's only serious anxiety now was for the three horses. They must by +this time have cropped the limited herbage of the island; and in another +day, when they began to suffer with hunger, they would undoubtedly swim +off; and all his trouble to save them would be lost. He was greatly +tempted by the recollection of a wide, low meadow on the edge of the +lake below, where the blue-joint grass grew as high as a man's thigh, +curing naturally in the sun. With an hour's labour, he reflected, he +could cut enough to last them for a day. + +There was a risk, of course, in depriving the cabin of its principal +defender for even so long; but he would not be at any time more than +half an hour's journey from them; and Charley ought surely to be able +to hold the fort for that time. In case of an attack it might even be +an advantage for him, Garth, to be on the outside of the cabin, where he +could flank the attackers with his gun. + +In the end he went; setting off two hours before dawn, according to his +custom. On issuing from the shack, he found with some anxiety that the +sky had become heavily overcast, and an east wind had sprung up. This +would prevent his hearing as well as he wished; however, he considered +that if Grylls intended a night attack, he would scarcely wait until so +near morning: and he kept on. + +He sat in the stern of the canoe pushing hard against the opposing wind. +The raised bow danced over the water, slapping the little waves, and +sending out musical cascades of drops on either side. The wind had the +same cool, damp smell of the east winds at home; and he was reminded of +a score of nights when he had nothing heavier on his mind than the +approaching end of a vacation. After two days' imprisonment in the +shack, the tussle with the wind was highly exhilarating; and it was very +good to measure the strength of his arms. He sang under his breath as he +worked. Black as it was, he could guide himself by the dimly-sensed +outline of the tree masses; and when they receded he knew he had arrived +opposite the meadow. + +It took him longer than he had counted on to gather what he could carry; +for he was hampered by the intense darkness. He collected the hay into +small armfuls, which in turn he tied into great bundles; and wedged them +into the canoe. Embarking again, he raced back before the wind at double +the speed he had made against it. + +On the way, a single, dull sound, coming muffled through the night, +brought his heart into his throat. He paused; but no other sound +followed, except the song of the water, and the sweep of the wind +through the branches on shore. He redoubled his strokes, filled with a +vague anxiety; and pausing only to cast out his bundles on the shore of +the island, hastened back to the camp. He heard no other untoward +sounds; but crossing from the island, he saw that the fire in the other +camp had died down. This had never happened any night before; and it +added to his uneasiness. The increased chill of the air now heralded the +approach of dawn; but it was not yet any lighter. + +As he landed, the familiar outline of his own house, just as he had left +it, allayed his fears. Everything about the camp was still. Cautiously +drawing up the canoe, he advanced with confidence to give the prearranged +knock on the door. His knuckles beat upon the air. The door was wide open. + +Then Garth's heart shrivelled in his breast; and his throat was +constricted as by sudden deadly fumes. He staggered in. There was +a stale odour of gunpowder in the room. + +"Natalie! Charley!" he called, in a choked whisper. + +The stillness mocked him. + +He ran into Natalie's room, still faintly illumined by the embers of +the hearth. A glance told him it was empty; but he felt with his hands +in all the dim corners, agonizingly whispering her name. There was no +evidence here that any struggle had taken place. + +Running out to the outer room toward Charley's bed, he fell over a body +lying on the floor. A touch told him it was the boy. He disregarded it, +until he had made sure Natalie was not there. Then dragging the body +into the inner room, he built up the fire. He saw the boy was not dead; +he could find no wound on him. He worked desperately to bring him to. + +Charley stirred at last, and opened his eyes. + +"What happened?" besought the distracted Garth. + +The boy only looked at him stupidly. + +"For God's sake collect your wits, and tell me!" he cried. + +Charley, suddenly clutching Garth's arm, raised himself on his elbow. +"Garth!" he cried wildly. "Natalie! Where is she?" + +"God knows!" groaned Garth. + +Terrible recollection returned to the boy's eyes. He sat up dizzy and +nauseated. "I remember now!" he stuttered. + +"Quick! Quick!" implored Garth. + +"It was a little while after you went," Charley continued, getting it +out with difficulty. "Natalie came and shook me. She said she heard a +sound outside.... We waited and listened--a quarter of an hour it +seemed.... We heard nothing.... Then suddenly with one big crack, the +door flew open. They drove a log against it.... I couldn't tell how many +came in--maybe three.... I shoved Natalie behind me in the farthest +corner. I had the Winchester ready in my hands.... They dropped to the +floor when they came in; and scattered. I couldn't tell where they +were--I don't know how long it was.... Suddenly I heard something close +to--somebody breathing. I fired. In the flash I saw them all, Xavier, +Mary, and right over me, Nick Grylls, swinging the butt of his gun--then +my head split in pieces ... and you came!" + +"Oh, my God!" cried Garth. + +He picked up his rifle, and ran like a madman from the cabin. + + + + +XXII + +THE BLIZZARD + + +Garth had no conscious design in running; his muscles merely reacted in +obedience to the grinding tumult in his brain. His eardrums rang with the +fancied sound of Natalie's cries; and his eyeballs were seared with the +picture of her shrinking in the brutal hands of Grylls. As he crashed +through the wood, the little branches whipped his face unmercifully; and +the spiny shoots of the jackpines tore his clothes. He ran full tilt into +unyielding obstacles; and was flung aside, unconscious of the shock. + +He instinctively sought the other camp. He found it deserted; the tent +gone; the door of the empty cabin swinging idly in the wind. He came to +a stop then; and his arms dropped to his sides: without knowledge of the +direction they had taken; and without the craft to follow their tracks +in the grass, in his helplessness he hovered on the brink of sheer +madness. He was sharply called back to himself by the sound of a faint +groan from the edge of the cut-bank. A tinge of gray had by this time +been woven into the unrelieved blackness. Running toward the sound, he +found a human form prone in the grass; and he saw it was a woman lying +on her face. Grasping her shoulders, he rolled her over. It was Rina. + +A tiny hope sprang in his breast. Here at last was a clue. + +"Get up!" he said roughly. + +She made no answer. From her limpness, and her cold, moist hands, Garth +apprehended that she was physically sick. Partly raising her, he poured +part of the contents of his flask down her throat. She choked, and +turned her head away. + +"Let me be!" she murmured. "Let me die!" + +The wildness in Garth's veins subsided. Here he had something tangible +to work upon; and his conscious brain resumed operations; prompting him +at first like a small, strange voice at an immense distance. + +"Tell me what happened!" he said hoarsely. "If they have wronged you, +too, help me to find them, and we'll pay them off together!" + +"No! I want die!" whispered Rina in a voice as dull and hopeless as the +sound of all-day rain in the grass. "I say I kill myself. He laugh. He +see me tak' bad medicine. He don' care. I fall down. He leave me. I +t'ink I die then. I ver' glad. But I tak' too much; and it only mak' my +stomach sick. Bam-by I try to go to lake and jomp in--but my head go +off!" + +In spite of her unwillingness, Garth forced more of the stimulant down +her throat. Presently she was able to sit up. She bowed her back, and +buried her face in her crossed arms. + +"Ride with me after them!" urged Garth. "They have less than an hour's +start! We will overtake them at their first camp. Rouse yourself!" + +But Rina only shook her head; and continued to murmur: "He want me die! +He glad I die!" + +Garth's desperate need brought craft to his aid. "Very well," he said +coolly. "I shoot him on sight! Mabyn goes first!" + +Rina, touched home, raised an agitated face. "No! No!" she said +tremblingly. "Grylls, him took her--not 'Erbe't!" + +"No matter!" he said, feigning to leave her. "Mabyn dies like a +dog--unless you come with me." + +Rina struggled to her knees, and clutched at him. "Wait a minute!" she +stammered. + +"Come with me, and I promise you his life, if I can save it," he urged. +"I will give it to you!" + +She attempted to rise; and he lifted her. She stood swaying dizzily, +clinging to his arm for support. + +"I come," she said faintly at last. "Tak' me to the water, then go get +your horses. When you come back I ride with you." + +She stopped in the cabin, and got an herb she knew of to restore her. +Garth then carried her down the hill, and laying her at the brink of the +water, where she could drink and bathe her face, he hastened back to his +own shack. + +It was now light enough to see a way through the wood. A spectral mist +hung suspended a few feet over the lake; beneath it the water was like a +steel cuirass, reflecting bordering foliage as black as jet. Charley had +gone for the horses as a matter of course and was even now landing them. +The boy's whilom rosy cheeks were as white as the mist; and his face was +twisted with pain. His jaw was set doggedly; and he worked ahead without +question or comment. + +No orders were required; they laboured instinctively. Saddles were +carried out, and flung on the dripping beasts; and while Charley girthed +them, Garth rolled the blankets, and made three bundles of grub, as +heavy as he dared ask each horse to carry, in addition to his rider. +Natalie's little rifle he gave to Charley; the second Winchester had +been won back in the raid, and the twenty-two was the only other weapon +they possessed. In twenty minutes they were ready. Securing the door of +the hut against the entrance of animals, they hastened to pick up Rina. + +They found her waiting, outwardly collected; her old walled, sullen +self--but in the early light her skin showed a deathly, yellowish gray. +Refusing any assistance, she climbed into the empty saddle without +comment; and mutely pointed the way over the hills to the west. Garth +lingered to affix a note to the door of the shack for those they +expected to follow. + +As he caught up to them again, he overlooked his little party with the +eye of a commander. It was not a hopeful view: three wretched, half-fed +beasts he had, complaining at the very start under their loads; and for +his aids an injured boy and a sick girl; with one first-class weapon and +a toy among the three of them. This was all he had with which to meet +and overcome Grylls's strong and well-provided party. The odds were so +preposterous, he put the thought out of his head with a shrug. At the +last there is a moment when the hard-pressed commander must wall up his +brain; and let the tide of his blood carry him. The daylight revealed +Garth's face gaunt and sunken; his lips a grim stroke of red; and his +eyes contracted to two icy points. + +As they climbed the hill Rina said: "They got fourteen horse. Nick +Grylls bring nine, three yours, and two cayuse 'Erbe't's." + +At the top she halted them, while she walked her horse back and forth, +searching the grass. Garth's eyes meanwhile swept the wide, brown, +undulating sea, seeking in the hollows and the coppices for any sign of +motion. But the plain was as empty of life as the gray sky. + +Rina rejoined him. "They break up so we can't see them so good," she +said in her indifferent way. "Seven horse go by the edge of the coulée, +southwest. Five horse go west. Two horse go northwest. Bam-by I t'ink +they come together." + +"What horse was _she_ on?" Garth demanded. + +"Nick Grylls's big roan," she answered. "They mak' a bag for her to sit +in. She sit one side; Mary Co-que-wasa sit the other." + +"Find the roan's tracks," ordered Garth. + +Rina shook her head. "I never follow that horse," she said. + +"Find the heaviest tracks then!" + +She obediently wheeled her horse; and searched the turf again; riding +around them in wide fanlike sweeps, while Garth waited with a deadly +patience. At last she struck off to the northwest, calling to them, and +Garth and Charley spurred after. + +"'Erbe't, Mary and her, go this way," she said briefly, as they came up. +"Nick Grylls take six horse west, and Xavier take four by coulée." + +"If we can overtake her before the others come up!" muttered Garth. + +Rina, looking at their horses, shrugged significantly. + +For half an hour they loped over the prairie without speech. A chill, +damp wind stung their faces. The immense and empty plain with its cold +shadows wore an ominous look under the lowering sky; a look that +clutched at the breast. + +"I t'ink it snow bam-by," Rina had said. + +It would need only snow to complete their difficulties. Garth ground his +teeth; and urged his horse afresh up every little rise, eagerly +searching the expanse ahead from the top. A glance at last at the +stretched nostrils and wet flanks of their mounts told him plainly such +a pace would be slowest in the end. Hardest of all to bear was the +necessity of going slowly. + +"What do you know of their plans?" he demanded of Rina. + +She shook her head. "They not tell me moch," she said. "They t'ink I too +friendly for you!" + +Little by little as they rode, the story was drawn painfully out. "Soon +as Charley come to you, they get ready right away," said Rina. "They +catch all horses, and keep them up coulée, and pack everyt'ing. Mary +Co-que-wasa, her go down and watch your house all the time, for good +chance to tak' _her_. When you go out she mak' little fire under the +bank for signal; and Nick Grylls and 'Erbe't and Xavier, them all go +down. They not tak' me." + +Garth cursed himself to think how he had played directly into their +hands. + +"I wait, and bam-by they bring her back," continued Rina in her toneless +voice. "She ver' quiet. She mak' no cry. By the fire I see her face. It +is the face of a dead woman." + +A groan was forced between Garth's clenched teeth. "Did they hurt her?" +he demanded, waiting for the answer like a condemned man waits for the +final stroke. + +But Rina shook her head. "Nick Grylls, him tak' off his hat, polite," +she said. "'Erbe't not say anyt'ing to her." + +He breathed again. "Did they refuse to take you along?" he asked. + +The stolid brown face was twisted with pain again. She lowered her head, +and clung to the horn of her saddle. "No," she said very low. "They +'fraid to leave me be'ind. But they don' want me. And I want to die when +I see 'Erbe't with _her_. They all glad when t'ink I to die!" + +Garth forbore to question her further. + +His impatience could scarcely brook the necessary pause to let the +horses feed at noon. It was a camp of wretchedness; none of the three +riders thought of eating. All the while the horses cropped, Garth strode +ceaselessly up and down, biting his lips; while the white-faced boy, who +had not spoken all morning, sat holding his bursting head between his +hands; and Rina, crouching apart, gazed over the prairie with unseeing +eyes. + +Garth had it ever in mind to save the horses, but his impatience was +incontrollable; he made them start too soon; and throughout the +afternoon he urged them more than he knew. The animals failed visibly, +hour by hour. It was more than three hours before they came upon the +site of the noon camp of those ahead, showing that they were steadily +losing in the chase. + +To be obliged to stop again two hours short of darkness was a crushing +disappointment to Garth; but the horses could go no farther. He could +never have told how he curbed his impatience throughout that age-long +night. He did not sleep: but an excess of suffering is in the end its +own merciful opiate; and he was not always fully conscious. + +With the morning a fresh blow awaited them. Daylight revealed Garth's +mount lying dead of exhaustion fifty yards from camp. In a wide circle +on the neighbouring heights, the coyotes were squatting on their +haunches, waiting for the sure feast. It was colder than the day before; +and the clouds hung thicker and lower. The three of them approached the +dead animal, and looked down upon it stolidly. + +Garth set his teeth, and laughed his harsh note. "I will walk," he said +shortly. "I can keep going while you are spelling the horses." + +Charley, for the first time, questioned a decision of his leader. "We +can't spare an hour!" he said with a dull decisiveness, in which there +was nothing boyish. "You have got to keep on ahead. Besides, you can't +follow the tracks as well as I can, you would lose yourself. I will +walk." + +Of the two desperate expedients it was clearly the better; and Garth +instantly acquiesced. Possessed by a master idea, he was incapable of +feeling any great compunctions at the idea of the injured boy setting +forth on the prairie alone--that would come later. At present he stood +equally ready to sacrifice Charley, or himself, or all three of them +together, if it would save Natalie. + +The boy doggedly busied himself making a bundle of his blankets, and +food enough to last him three days. The rest of his pack was added to +the complaining backs of the other two horses. + +Garth did not neglect to consider what he could do to ensure the boy's +safety. "Better return to the shack," he urged. "You can do it in two +marches. There's plenty of grub there." + +But Charley flatly refused. + +"Very well," said Garth. "I'll leave a note for you every time we stop, +telling you what time we passed. If you don't overtake us to-night or +to-morrow, I'll leave more grub for you. If we don't catch them in a day +or so," he added with a look at the remaining horses, "we'll all be in +the same boat again." + +It was a grim, brusque leave-taking. The boy averted his head as they +left him, to hide the look of despair in his eyes. He knew what the +lowering, wintry clouds portended on the prairie; and in his heart it +was a final farewell that he bade them. But he kept his chin up, and +strode manfully after. + +Garth did not suspect what was passing in his mind; the city man had +never seen a snowstorm on the prairie. Topping every rise, he looked +back, and waved his hat at the plodding figure, slightly bent under the +weight of his pack. + +"He's tough! He'll come through all right!" he said to Rina more than +once--perhaps because he needed secretly to reassure himself. + +Rina, preoccupied with her own heavy thoughts, did not seem to care +either way. + +About ten o'clock they descended into a considerable coulée whose stony +bed still contained some standing pools. Here, by the water, Grylls's +party had encamped for the night; and the ashes of their fire were still +warm. From the extent of the trampling in the mud, it was clear the +whole party had made a rendezvous here; and beyond the coulée, even +Garth had no difficulty in following the trail of the fourteen horses +over the turf. He rode ahead now; consulting his compass, he saw that +the way always led due northwest. + +Some time later his eye was attracted by a splash of white in the grass. +Throwing himself off his horse, he pounced upon it. It was a plain +little square of linen; and in the border was printed in small neat +characters "N. Bland." The find nearly unmanned him; he fancied the +scrap of linen was still damp with her tears; and the old madness of +desperation surged over him again. He forced his weary horse into a +gallop. Rina indifferently followed. + +Pretty soon the snow began to fall in large, wet flakes, drifting down +as idly and erratically as the opening notes of one who dreams at the +piano--large flakes falling direct to the ground and lingering there +like measured notes; and little white coveys suddenly eddying hither and +thither, like aimless runs up and down the keyboard. + +Rina lifted her brown face to the darkening sky. "We better go back to +the coulée," she called after Garth. + +He frowned. "Nonsense!" he cried irritably. "A flurry of snow can't +hurt anybody! It'll turn into rain directly!" + +She shrugged, and said no more. + +The mute symphony of the snow was played imperceptibly accelerando. The +flakes became smaller, and thicker, and dryer; and each gust of wind was +a hint steadier and stronger than the last. Their radius of view was +little by little restricted: the distant hills faded out of sight, and +the white dome closed over and around them, until at last they seemed to +be traversing a little island of firm ground, with edges crumbling into +a misty void. Presently the ground, too, was overlaid with white; earth +and sky commingled indistinguishably; and all that held them to earth +was the quadruple line of black hoof-marks extending a little way +behind. The horses sulked and hung their heads. + +They came to another and a shallower coulée, which seemed to take a +northeasterly direction across the prairie; whereas all the watercourses +they had crossed hitherto tended to the southeast. Garth, on the watch +for any such evidences, suspected they had crossed a height of land. On +the other side of this coulée he found he could no longer trace the +passage of the preceding cavalcade under the thickening snow. He +impatiently called on Rina; but she merely shrugged, refusing to look. + +"No can follow in the snow!" she said contemptuously. + +At every hint of stoppage, Garth's blood surged dangerously upward. He +pressed his knuckles against his temples, and strove to think. The two +horses, instinctively drawing close together, turned their tails to the +driving flakes. Rina sat hunched in her saddle, as indifferent as a +squat, clay image. + +"I will ride on," he said thickly. + +She gave no sign. + +He consulted his compass. "We have ridden due northwest all the way," he +said. "Where are they heading for?" + +"Death River, I guess," she answered, pointing. "The crossing is +northwest." + +"How far?" he demanded. + +"Two days' journey, maybe seventy-five miles." + +"You wait for the boy in the shelter of the poplar bluff across the +coulée," he said. "When the snow stops, follow on as well as you can." + +"Charley not come any more," said Rina in a tone of quiet fatalism. +"When snow hide our track, he walk round and round. Bam-by he fall down, +and not get up. He die. He know that." + +Garth, ready to push into the storm, reined up again. Her sureness +chilled his impatient hurry; and the oft-told tragedies of prairie +snowstorms recurred to him. + +"Die in the snow!" he repeated dully, hanging in agonizing indecision +between the two images; Natalie ahead, and the solitary boy plodding +behind. On the one hand he thought: "The storm has held them up, +somewhere just ahead! It is my only chance of overtaking them!" and then +he turned his horse's head north. But the other thought would not down. +"The kid knew it meant death to walk; and he chose it!" Garth finally +led the way back over the coulée. + +Rina had no difficulty making herself comfortable among the young poplar +trees. She improvised a shelter out of a blanket stretched over two +inclined saplings; and in front of it she built a fire. Garth meanwhile +changed to the fresher horse, and started back over their own dimming +trail. + +"You never find him now," Rina said hopelessly, as he left her. + +Garth merely set his jaw. + +His watch told him it was past eleven. He calculated they had covered +five miles between the two coulées, and that it would be about +twenty-five miles all told back to their own camping-place. Supposing +the boy to have averaged three miles an hour, he would now be some +twelve miles away, and if he kept walking, Garth, at his present pace, +should come upon him in an hour and a half's riding. + +The marks of their previous passage were soon completely obliterated; +and thereafter Garth rode compass in hand. With the wind behind, his +horse showed a better stomach for travelling; and he made the first +coulée in something under an hour. Here a little search revealed the +half-burned logs of Grylls's fire under the snow; and this put him +directly in the path again. He stood up the logs, to make a better mark +against his return. + +He began to keep a sharp lookout for the boy, frequently shouting his +name. His voice, muffled by the thickly falling flakes, had an odd, +deadened ring in his own ears; and he doubted if he could be heard very +far. When he considered the vast width of the prairie, and the extreme +improbability of two figures, shaping opposite courses, meeting +point-blank in the middle of it, he was ready to despair of finding the +boy. It maddened him to think how close they might pass, without either +being aware. + +Later, he adopted another expedient. Every fifteen minutes he turned his +horse at right angles to his course, and galloping far to the right and +left searched the snow for human tracks; then, picking up his trail +where he left it, he would push a little farther ahead. In this way he +could sweep a path about a mile wide on the prairie. + +But the hours passed, and the snow deepened, and there was neither sight +nor sound of the boy. Garth was not sparing of his bitter self-reproaches +then, for having abandoned him. It seemed to poor Garth in his +hopelessness, as if his whole course through the country had been +marked by a series of hideous blunders. + +Less than three hours of daylight now remained to him, and he was all +of ten miles from his own base. He dared not push farther away, for, +little as he regarded himself, he could take no risks while Natalie's +fate still hung in the balance. But before giving up, he determined +to make one last sortie back and forth across the prairie. Far to the +right, just as hope was expiring, he saw, crossing the white expanse, a +crooked, double row of slight depressions, like little moulds, slowly +filling with powdery snow. + +Flinging himself off his horse, with a beating heart, he hastily scooped +out the snow. A man's footprint was clearly revealed. With a shout, +he mounted again and jerked his horse's head around. The weary animal +balked flatly at facing the storm, but Garth, beside himself, lashed him +until he plunged into it. The tracks momentarily grew plainer. While +they had strayed far to the left of his own course, he wondered to see +that they still held the right direction in the main. + +He redoubled his shouting. At last a muffled, indistinguishable sound +answered him from ahead; and presently out of the wild whirl of flakes, +a spectral figure was slowly resolved--as poignant a symbol of humanity +as the last man on earth. + +"Charley! Charley!" shouted Garth. + +The figure turned uncertainly. Under the snow-laden lashes the eyes were +vague. + +Garth slipped out of the saddle; and, throwing his arm about the boy's +shoulders, caught him to his breast. "Thank God! I was in time!" he +cried in a great voice. + +"It's really you!" the boy murmured. "I thought I was hearing things." + +Garth clapped him between the shoulders. "Buck up, my hearty!" he cried. +"It's all right now!" + +"Have you got Natalie?" the boy said quickly. + +Garth sadly shook his head. + +"You shouldn't have come back then," he said dully. "I didn't expect +it!" + +Garth hugged him anew. "Dear lad!" he cried with a break in his voice. +"I couldn't let you die in the snow!" + +The kindness brought fuller consciousness back to the boy's eyes. He +clung to Garth then; and lowered his head; and whimpered a little. After +all he was only seventeen. + +Garth hoisted him to the saddle; and headed into the storm again. The +horse balked continually, sorely trying his patience. Their progress was +very slow. Garth sought to keep Charley up with cheerful speech. + +"Bully for you to keep going!" he cried. + +"It was because--Natalie might need me," the boy's voice trailed. + +"And right on the course!" Garth sang. "How did you keep it?" + +"When the snow hid your tracks--I remembered--to keep the wind on my +right cheek," he murmured. + +That was the last Garth could get out of him. He was presently alarmed +to find the boy growing increasingly numb and drowsy; even he knew what +this portended in the North. He pulled him out of the saddle; and made +him walk; supporting him with one arm, while with the other he led the +horse. The animal took advantage of his partial helplessness, to plant +his legs and pull back anew. If there was ever an excuse for anger +against a dumb beast, surely hard-pressed Garth had it then. The horse +was crazed with exhaustion, and terror of the storm; and tugs and kicks +were of no avail. Garth could not bring in both boy and horse by main +strength; and in the end, with hearty curses, he was obliged to abandon +the beast to his fate. + +Garth, pulling his hat over his eyes, and drawing the boy's arm across +his shoulders, doggedly pushed into the storm. He thus half supported, +half dragged his companion, who was, nevertheless, compelled to use his +own legs. Charley never spoke except now and then to beg drowsily to be +let alone. In Garth's flask was about a gill of precious stimulant, and, +when the boy's legs failed him, he doled it out in sips. + +They had at least nine miles to cover--and only two hours of daylight +left. Try as he would to banish it, the sense of nine miles' distance +would roll itself interminably out before Garth's mind's eye. Nine miles +into two hours--the sum had no answer. Afterward night and storm on the +empty prairie--what was the use? But when he reached this point, he +would grit his teeth and take a fresh hold of the boy. If he had any +other defined thought besides this painful round, it was to thank God +that he was strong; he needed every ounce of it now. + +Instead of attempting to pick up his own trail--surely obscured by now +in the snow--he shaped his course northwest, trusting to strike the +coulée at its nearest point, and travel down until he hit the mark he +had set up. It was a little longer so; but the result justified it, for +there was some shelter in the coulée; and working down the bottom, they +could not miss the mark. + +It was half-past four by Garth's watch when they laboriously climbed up +the other side; and set their course by compass again for Rina's camp. +It grew colder hourly; and the snowflakes became as hard and sharp as +grains of coarse powder. Charley was kept going automatically by +frequent small doses of the spirit from the flask. Garth dared not spare +any of it for himself. It soon began to grow dark; and long before Garth +could hope they had nearly covered the distance between the two coulées, +it became totally dark; and he could no longer read the face of his +compass. Fortunately the wind held steady from the north; he struggled +ahead, keeping it on his right cheek as Charley had done before him. + +Garth's head became confused; he was no longer sensible of the passage +of time. Only his will kept his legs at their work. Drowsiness crept +over him; and with it a growing sense of the uselessness of struggling +further. He fought it for a while, but with subsiding energy. His knees +began to weaken under him; he sank down. With a desperate effort, he +struggled up again; and won another painful hundred yards. He was +falling again--and this time he did not care--when suddenly the ground +fell away from under his feet, he pitched forward, and he and the boy +rolled down a steep declivity together. + +Garth instantly knew they had reached the second coulée; and the thought +cleared his fogged senses like the draught from his flask which he could +not spare himself. He poured the last drops between Charley's numb lips; +and turned to the right over the stony bed of the watercourse. He +remembered Charley had strayed far to the left of his true course when +guiding himself by the wind; and he had also observed in himself a +tendency to swerve to that side, when working by compass. So he was sure +they were somewhere above the poplar bluff--how far he dared not guess. + +He was right. Utterly worn out by a seeming interminable struggle +through the drifts in the bottom of the coulée, at last a misty, pinkish +aura blushed in the snowy night. It was Rina's fire--warmth and shelter! +and before it a little animal was roasting on a spit. Garth's senses +slipped away in rapture at the smell it sent forth. + + + + +XXIII + +THE SOLITARY PURSUER + + +Sometime during the course of the night the snow ceased to fall; and +morning broke clear and cold. Garth had turned in, intending to rise at +four; but Nature exacted her due, and it was seven before he awoke. The +sky was a bowl of palest, fleckless azure; the sun shone gloriously on +the field of snow; and the air stung the nostrils like the heady fumes +of wine. But he was in no temper to take any delight in morning +beauties; he ached in every bone and muscle as if he had been beaten +with a club; and at the sight of the mounting sun, he bitterly +reproached himself--and Rina, for the lost hours. + +As for Charley, a glance at the boy showed that he was quite incapable +of further travelling for the present. He suffered as much from the blow +on the head as from the exposure in the snow. His mind was hopelessly +confused and wandering. In any case they had but a single horse left; +and only the one course of action was open to Garth. He instructed Rina +to remain where she was and care for the boy, while he pushed ahead. + +Even Rina betrayed some surprise. "What you do?" she said. "Three men to +shoot, and Mary to watch _her_. You got no chance!" + +"I'll find a way!" he said desperately. "This Death River, tell me about +it!" + +Rina pointed northwest. "Big river, moch water," she said. "Come from +mountains. Ver' moch high falls; mak' lak thunder! Above falls, ver' +rough rapids, no can cross. Below falls, deep black hole; breeds say bad +spirits go there. Only one place to cross, half-mile below falls." + +Garth caught the horse, who had fed himself as best he could by pawing +the snow off the grass, and packed his blankets and a supply of food, +including what was left of the little carcass Rina roasted. He learned +it was a lynx; but the flesh was sweet, and he was too thankful for +fresh meat to quarrel with the nature of it. He left Rina and Charley +with a better will, knowing she could doubtless get others, as she had +snared the first. + +There was about ten inches of snow on the flat, with deep encumbering +drifts in the hollows; and his advance was very slow. The ill-nourished +horse wearied immediately; and any pace beyond a walk was out of the +question. Had Garth only possessed snow-shoes he could have made much +better time on foot. The vast expanse was as empty as a clean sheet of +paper; nevertheless, he saw the prairie was not without its busy +population, as evidenced by the number of tracks of little furry paws +that had crossed his course already since the snow finished falling. + +At noon, having made about eleven miles (he figured), he came to the +brink of a coulée wider and deeper than any they had crossed hitherto; +and which contained a stream in the bottom, running blackly around +snow-capped stones. As he refreshed himself, and allowed his horse to +drink, he reflected that Grylls would have reached this stream the day +before about the time the snow commenced; and that it was likely the +outfit had camped on its bank until the storm passed. He determined to +search up and down before pushing ahead. + +Sure enough, no more than two hundred yards down-stream he began to come +upon the tracks of horses and saw the bare patches they had pawed to +reach the grass; and a little farther he ran plump upon the fresh +remains of the camp; two bare spots where tents had been pitched, the +ashes of a fire, and innumerable tracks of men and horses--the whole +startlingly conspicuous in the sweep of unbroken snow. + +Garth's heart swelled with rage and mortification to think what a little +distance had separated them during the night; and how by rising only +three hours earlier, he might perhaps have caught them. But presently +cooler counsels came to his aid; and when he considered the well-beaten +track that led over the hill beyond, he was thankful for so much luck. +He knew that at least until more snow should fall, they could never +shake him off again; and he rode after with a renewed courage. His +horse, too, freed of the entangling drifts, and sensing the other horses +ahead, seemed to overcome his weakness for a while; and loped over the +beaten trail with a good will. + +Beyond this coulée the character of the country began to change. +Crossing a height, Garth saw a range of gleaming mountains off to the +west at no great distance; his course was heading him obliquely into the +foothills. The prairie gradually broke up; the mounds became hills; and +the hollows deepened into valleys. With every mile, almost, the hills +became higher and more conical; outcroppings of rock began to appear; +and the little streams ran in gorges now, instead of coulées. + +In the rougher country the horse's access of courage soon failed. His +wind was gone, he sobbed for breath; and Garth was presently reduced to +the necessity of leading him up every incline. On a wide flat between +two ranges, he mounted after a long walk, and urged him into a run over +this easy piece. The slack-twisted animal was not equal to the effort; +halfway across, his heart broke; and he collapsed in a heap, ploughing +up the snow, and flinging his rider over his head. When Garth returned +to him, he was stone dead. In the midst of his chagrin the man could +spare a glance of pity for the shaggy, misshapen beast. One of the +vulgar equine tribe, at his best neither beautiful nor courageous, he +had nevertheless given his life to the journey. + +Beside the stony watercourse that traversed this little plain, he made a +cache of saddle, bridle and what food he could not carry on his back. +Over the spot he piled a cairn of stones to mark it, and protect the +little store from marauding animals. In addition to blankets, rifle and +ammunition, he carried with him food sufficient for about five days. In +an hour he was on his way again. + +During the rest of the day, and the following day, the character of the +country changed only in degree. The trail never carried him directly into +the mountains, but skirted among the foothills, which raised strange, +abrupt, detached cones on either hand--steep, naked, unreasonable shapes +of earth, like nightmare forms. Each day Garth plodded to the limit of his +strength, reckless of what lay before him, regarding only the beaten trail +which led the way. From various signs it was clear those ahead ever gained +on him; but he kept himself up with the thought that they must sooner or +later make an extended stop to recuperate their horses. Each night he made +his tea with snow-water; and, rolling up in his blankets beside the fire, +slept under the stars; and at dawn he was astir again. Hard work was his +beneficent sedative. + +On the second night as he lay down he heard, or fancied he heard in the +stillness, the breath of a far-off, heavy sound. He ascribed it to the +roar of the great falls Rina had told him of; and the thought lent new +vigour to his limbs next morning. He had another reason to hurry his +steps; for each day had waxed a little warmer; and to-day the snow +melted fast, threatening at last to obliterate the track he followed. + +In the afternoon the going became harder, for the mountains reached down +long spurs athwart his path, over which he had to toil. Like the conical +hills they were bare of all timber; only the valleys and gulches were +wooded. On the first of these ascents, burdened as he was, over-exertion +and insufficient sleep began to tell on Garth; and he became conscious, +for the first, of a terrible weariness in his back. He crushed it down; +he could _not_ fail; he _had_ to keep on. But the next ascent was harder +still; and the shape of fear grew in his breast. + +The third long climb was nearly his finish. He would not allow himself +to pause on the way up, though his heart knocked sickeningly against his +ribs, while flames danced in front of his eyes, and there was a roaring +in his ears. Gaining the summit at last, he flung himself down, afraid +for the moment to look at the obstacles beyond. As he slowly recovered, +a real booming disassociated itself from the noises in his head; and he +eagerly raised his head. His eyes swept over a far and wide expanse of +snow, a dish-like plateau among the hills. His heart leaped; for through +the centre of the plateau ran a black fissure, like a crack in the dish; +and off to the left a fleecy cloud rose lazily from the gorge, blushing +pinkly in the light of the setting sun. This must mark the falls; the +Death River lay at his feet. + +The excitement of this discovery was immediately superseded by a far +greater. In a direct line with him, on the plain beyond the gorge, he +presently distinguished a few scattering, black objects like insects on +the snow--but insects of the shape of horses. From the gorge itself, +perfectly distinct in the crystalline air, rose a thin, blue column of +smoke! + +The haggard furrows in Garth's face smoothed out; his weary eyes shot +forth a quiet glint; and he slowly and grimly smiled. He arose; and +instinctively unslinging his gun, examined the mechanism. A goodly +warmth diffused itself throughout his veins; and he felt strong again. +The end of his journey was in sight. + +Darkness had fallen before he reached the lip of the canyon. With bated +breath he crawled to the edge and looked over--there was a chance they +had escaped him again--but in the bottom of the pit, on the other side +of the river, a fire was flickering redly in the darkness; and there was +a hint of figures sitting around it. His heart beat strongly at the +reassuring sight. + +The tracks in the snow led him to the top of the path, which descended +into the gorge. This path was steep, narrow, tortuous and slippery; and +he knew not what conditions awaited him at the bottom. Prudence +counselled him to wait for daylight to reconnoitre; but it was not +possible to contain his impatience the night through, with Natalie so +near, and he not knowing if she was safe. He started down instantly, +feeling his way foot by foot; and ever careful to dislodge no stone that +might betray him. Within the gorge the boom of the falls was largely +deadened by a bend in the walls above; and lighter sounds became +audible: the lapping of the river on the stones; and, as he came nearer, +someone breaking sticks for the fire below. + +Between him and the fire rolled the river with a deep, swift current. +There was no more than a scant fifty yards between wall and wall of the +gorge at the bottom. Coming still closer, he saw by the light of the +fire that their camp was pitched on a triangle of flat ground, formed +where a steep watercourse had made a perpendicular fissure in the +opposite wall of the gorge. On one side of the fire was pitched a small +"outside" tent--the same tent Garth had watched so long when it stood +outside Mabyn's shack--and on the other side stood a tepee. A small +raft, half drawn out of the water, explained their means of crossing the +river. + +The descending path finally landed Garth on a precipitous incline of +broken rock at the water's edge; and there, across the stream, so close +he could have tossed a pebble into their midst, sat those he had tracked +so far, all unsuspicious of his nearness. They were having their evening +meal. Natalie was among them, facing him, the firelight strong on her. +Her face was set and sad--but still unhumbled; and from this and the +obsequious poise of Grylls's head, when he turned to her, Garth knew she +was so far safe from him. His heart breathed a still hymn of thankfulness. + +Grylls sat on the other side of the fire, with his back against a rock. +He still wore the bewrinkled suit of store clothes which had become so +hateful in Garth's sight; and the broad-brimmed hat was set at a rakish +angle. He was in a jovial humour, judging from the thick unction of his +speech; doubtless, though he seldom looked at her, in his own way he was +seeking to charm his cold and silent prisoner. + +Mabyn's back was turned to Garth; his attitude was furtive; and +apparently he spoke little. Garth did not trouble about him; for he knew +instinctively that so long as the stronger man was by, Natalie stood in +no danger from Mabyn. Mary Co-que-wasa, serving the food, hovered behind +the fire, which threw a strange, exaggerated shadow of her hag-like form +on the cliff. Nearer Garth, at a little distance from the others, Xavier +sat on the ground, busy with his cup and plate. + +Garth watched Natalie with a swelling heart. How brave she was! how +noble and befitting the air with which she faced her terrible situation! +The proud sadness of her face was infinitely more affecting than any +extreme of distress could have been. Garth bled inwardly, to think of +the torments of mind she must have endured. He yearned mightily to let +her know he was near. He crouched at the edge of the water, willing a +message of cheer to her; and heartened himself with the assurance that +she could not but feel it. + +She ate little; and, presently arising, disappeared within the tent. +Grylls drew out the inevitable cigars, and, carelessly tossing one +to Mabyn, lit his own. Mary went about collecting the dishes. Xavier +carried his plate to the river side to wash it. Garth handled his +rifle with fingers itching for the trigger. There were the four of +them, all unconscious, delivered into his hands, it seemed. + +But he spared them for a while. It was not that he shrank from shedding +blood now; taking their lives troubled him no more than killing so much +vermin. But, close as they were, he could not be sure of nailing them +all; a dive outside the firelight, and they were safe. And Natalie was +in their hands; and he had no way of crossing the river. He must rescue +her first. + +Mary went into the tent, which she apparently shared with Natalie; and +presently reappeared with a dishtowel. Lifting a pail of hot water from +the fire, she prepared to wash the dishes. The fire was dying down, and +gathering an armful of brush, she heaped it on to make a light. + +Too late Garth appreciated the significance of this act. He turned to +escape up the path again; and in his hurry dislodged a heavy stone, +which rolled into the water with a splash. He faced about with his rifle +ready. Only Xavier, at the water's edge, heard the sound, and looked up. +At the same instant the fire sprang into a blaze, filling the canyon +with light; and plainly revealing Garth and his shadow behind him on the +rock. The breed sprang to his feet with a cry of warning. It was the +last sound, save one, that he ever made. The sharp, light bark of +Garth's rifle reverberated in the gorge; the breed spun around with a +throaty, quenched cry, toppled over backward into deep water, and was +swept away. + +Before Garth could aim again, Mary Co-que-wasa seized her pail of water, +and flung it hissing on the fire. Absolute darkness filled the canyon. + + + + +XXIV + +IN DEATH CANYON + + +Garth crouched at the water's edge, striving to pierce the murk with his +eyes; but the blackness was like a wall. By and by the outlying embers +of the fire began to glow faintly; but there was another splash, and +every spark was quenched. Bending his head, he strained his ears. For a +long time there was no sound from across the river; then little by +little, and softly, he heard them set to work like mice behind a +wainscot. There was a singular, measured falling of stones, which at +first he could not interpret; then it suddenly occurred to him they were +building a barricade across their little terrace; and he took heart; for +the act was opposed to any design of immediate flight. But then, he +thought, Mary, behind the wall, could easily hold the crossing by +daylight, while the two men escaped with Natalie. Somehow, he must get +across first. + +He searched noiselessly among the stones above the water line for +driftwood; and succeeded in picking up a stick here and a branch there. +Four of the stouter pieces he tied in a square with the rope that bound +his pack; and upon this frame he piled a crib of sticks, of sufficient +buoyancy to float his clothes, his pack and his gun. He stripped to the +skin and waded cautiously into the water. It was of an icy coldness that +bit like a great burn, and forced the breath out of his lungs like a +squeezed bellows. But he set his jaws and struck out, towing his little +raft with the end of the rope between his teeth. + +He headed straight across, leaving it to the current to carry him safely +below the camp. Ordinarily, fifty strokes would have carried him over, +but the terrible cold congealed the very sap of his body; and the clumsy +little raft offered as much resistance as a log. He could not tell how +far he was carried down. Reaching the other side at last, he could +scarcely crawl out on the stones. He was too stiff to attempt to draw on +his clothes; the best he could do was to roll in his blankets, and +writhe to restore the circulation. + +His limbs were rigid; his feet and hands wholly numb--but the will rules +even bodily exhaustion. He would not tolerate the thought of weakness; +he _would_ get warm; and his reluctant blood was forced at last to +resume its course through his veins. Warmth returned with excruciating +pain. He conceded his worn body a little rest--for he knew they could +not get their horses before morning--but in an hour, dressed, and with +his pack and his gun on his back, he was crawling back toward Grylls's +camp. + +This shore of the river, like the other, was formed of fragments and +masses of rock, which had fallen from the cliffs above. He made his way +with infinite caution, giving heed to every foothold, and feeling before +him with his hands. Fortunately there was little snow to obstruct him; +for what had descended into the gorge was lodged in the crevices of the +stones. He crawled over heaps of rubble, digging his toes in, to keep +from sliding into the water; and there were great hundred-ton boulders, +over which he dragged himself on his stomach. Above the canyon there +were no stars visible; and below, it was wrapped in darkness, thick, +velvety, palpable as lamp-black. + +After measuring the inches of a long and painful journey over the +stones, he sensed at last that he was drawing near the camp again. He +redoubled his caution, hugging close to the wall of rock. Presently it +fell away to the right; and before him he distinguished a faint whitish +blur that he knew for the tepee. He stretched himself out to listen. +Under all was the deadened boom of the falls; below him an indefinable +murmur arose from the smooth river, and an occasional eddy slapped the +stones; in front he was vaguely conscious of the three persons moving to +and fro, and he heard the dull chink of each stone, as it ground its +edges on the pile. They had relaxed their caution somewhat; once or +twice a stone, rolling out of place, plumped into the water. They were +at work at the other end of their barricade from Garth. + +He considered what he should do. His brain was working very +clearly--dragging his exhausted body along after, as it were; for +excitement and over-exertion had produced a curious feeling of +detachment from it. As he waited there, the work on the barricade +ceased; and a whispered consultation was held. If he could only hear! +Afterward two figures approached the tepee and entered. Instantly +Garth let himself down over the rocks behind, and snaking his body +through the bit of herbage on the flat, applied his ear to the +bottom of the canvas. + +He heard Mabyn's voice ask querulously: "What was it you said to her?" + +"Told her to sit on top of the wall, and watch," Grylls carelessly +answered. "They can't cross the river until morning, but we're not +taking any chances, just the same. She's to watch, too, that the lady +doesn't try to sneak the raft across to her friends." + +"You're going to clear out in the morning?" Mabyn asked anxiously. + +"Not on your life!" the other coolly returned. "We got shelter and good +water here, the horses are safe above; and we command the only crossing +of the river. We'll sit right here until their grub runs out. They can't +have brought much!" + +"The police may hear," Mabyn murmured. + +"Let 'em come and welcome," said Grylls. "They know me! As for you, I +guess a man can take a journey with his lawful wife, can't he?" + +There was a pause. A match was struck. Garth guessed that Grylls was +resuming his interrupted smoke. + +"Seems to me we hold pretty much all the trumps," he went on complacently. +"My idea is, Pevensey's all alone over there. That was a pretty smart rap +on the nut, the boy got. But even if there's two of them, what can they +do? We've got cover, and they've got to show themselves; it's a funny +thing if we can't pot them easy. We got a right to; they killed our man +first." + +"Hadn't I better ride on with her to the Slavi Indians?" Mabyn suggested +in a tone that he laboured to make sound off-hand. + +Grylls chuckled fatly. "What! And deprive me of the pleasure of her +company!" he said mockingly. "I guess not!" + +Mabyn was silent. Garth dimly apprehended what a torment of impotent +fear and rage the creature must be enduring. He had delivered himself +hand and foot into Grylls's power; and Grylls no longer even kept up a +pretense of hiding his own designs on Natalie. + +"Better turn in," Grylls said indifferently. "No need for you to watch +to-night. I'll have a snooze myself, and go out and relieve Mary before +dawn." + +Garth had heard enough; they were all placed for him; and his way was +clear. He softly drew himself around the further side of the tepee, +pausing long between every move, to listen. Both their lives depended on +his making no sound now; every faculty he possessed was bent on it; he +took half an hour to make thirty feet. He circled the inside edge of the +little triangle of flat ground, keeping in the shadow of the piled +rocks. Crossing the little stream that issued over the flat was hardest; +but he managed it; patiently studying each move in advance. Finally he +approached the tent. Beyond, he fancied he could distinguish the vague +outline of the wall running across; and upon it a huddled figure, a mere +hint of substance against the pit of darkness behind. + +He felt his way around the tent. He found the canvas of the back wall +was made in one piece. With shaking fingers, he drew his knife out of +its sheath; and inserting the point in the centre of the stuff, softly +drew it back and forth, a stroke at a time. His heart was beating like a +steam drill; he swallowed his sobbing breath. Every instant he expected +to hear Natalie scream from within. + +He severed the last thread at last; and put up his knife. He parted the +flaps; and listened for sounds from within in an agony of indecision. He +could not tell if she slept or was awake; he dared not so much as +whisper her name; and if he touched her and she slept, how could she +help but awake with a cry! + +But she was not asleep; and she had all her wits about her. Close to his +ear, a voice soft as a zephyr in the grass whispered his name. A +trembling breath of relief escaped his lips; and instantly an arm was +wreathed about his neck; and a soft cheek pressed against his rough +one. He caught her to him; her slim frame quivered through and through. +It was his own Natalie; the feel of her! the fragrance of her! Life +holds but one such moment. + +"I knew you'd come! I knew you'd come!" she breathed in his ear. + +Her terrible agitation was the means of calming his own. He had to be +cool for both. He pressed her close to him, stroking her hair. + +"Brave, _brave_ Natalie!" he whispered. "Not a sound, till we are +clear!" + +He gave her a moment to recover herself, letting his encircling arms +speak the comfort and cheer he could not utter. Little by little the +piteous trembling subsided and the rigid form relaxed. + +"Ready, now?" he whispered. + +She eagerly nodded. + +"I lead the way," he breathed in her ear; "and you keep close at my +heels. Take it easy. It must be hands and knees, and an inch at a time." + +Natalie pressed his hand to her lips. + +He crawled through the hole, and waited for her outside. She made no +sound. He touched her reassuringly; and realized with a pang how she was +handicapped, with one arm in a sling. They crept back around the foot of +the piled rocks, dragging themselves with tense muscles, a foot at a +time and waiting long between. By the touch of her hand on his foot he +knew she followed close. Looking over his shoulder, he sensed the +huddled figure still motionless on the wall. + +He could not have told what gave the alarm. They had reached the +rivulet, when suddenly Mary leaped off the wall with a cry that brought +the two men tumbling out of the tepee. + +Garth, springing to his feet, seized Natalie's hand, and pulled her +after him. + +"Come on!" he whispered cheerily. "We're safe now!" + +They scrambled up over the stones of the watercourse, careless of the +noise they made. + +"What is it?" they heard Grylls shout below. + +A sentence in Cree explained. + +"Watch the raft!" he shouted. "I'll bring her back!" + +They heard him run heavily toward them. Hastily unslinging his gun, +Garth sent a shot at random through the darkness. They heard the bullet +spring off a stone. The steps ceased. + +"By God! _he's_ up there!" cried Grylls thickly. "Come back, Mabyn! +We'll get 'em easy in the morning!" + +There was no further sound of pursuit. + +As they climbed, Garth searched from side to side, as well as he could +in the darkness, for a suitable spot to make a stand. High above the +level of the river, a huge cube of rock resting squarely in the bottom +of the ravine, and forcing the stream to travel around it, offered what +he wanted. One side of the boulder lay against a steep rocky wall; and +in the angle was a secure niche for Natalie. + +Her courage failed a little when she saw he meant to stop. "Not here! +Not here!" she protested nervously. "We must put miles between us before +morning!" + +"The way home lies back across the river," Garth said gently. + +"Then why did you come up here?" she said a little wildly. "They'll +never let us back!" + +His heart ached for her, at the thought of what she must still go +through. "Courage! for one more day, my Natalie!" he urged, drawing her +to him. "We can't start without horses and food, and those I have to win +for you!" + +"You make me ashamed!" she whispered. + +He heard no more whimpering. + +Garth, appreciating the vital necessity of sleep, if he was to keep his +wits about him next day, lay down in his blankets while Natalie kept +watch. With the first tinge of gray overhead, she woke him, as he had +bidden her. + +"If we only had a good breakfast to begin on!" were his waking words; +"and there's nothing but raw flour and water." + +Natalie, in answer to this prayer, produced a flat package from her +dress which proved to contain bread and meat. "I always kept something, +in case I should be able to get away," she explained. + +They ate, sitting quietly side by side in the darkness--they could even +laugh a little together now--and they arose vastly refreshed. + +Garth climbed the big rock to wait for daylight to reveal the strength +and the weakness of the position he had chosen. The top of the rock +formed a flat plane slightly inclined toward their rear; and, lying at +full length upon it, he could shoot over the edge without exposing more +than the top of his head. He lifted up a heavy stone or two; and stood +them along the edge for further protection. Then he waited--waited for +hours it seemed to him; looking and looking down the ravine until his +eyes were fit to start out of his head; and he could see nothing; but +lo! when he looked again the light was there! + +On the whole he was satisfied. His rock commanded the entire ravine +below; it was as steep as a pair of stairs. There was not a stick of +herbage below; only a trough of heaped and broken rock masses. On either +hand they were shut in by straight lead-coloured walls of rock; and at +the bottom of the ravine, the forbidding, mist-gray wall of the main +gorge cut off the view. In front and on the left they were amply +protected; their right flank was the weak spot. Above them on this side, +part of the wall of the ravine had given way some ages past; and a bit +of the plain had sunk down. The hollow thus formed contained a grove of +gaunt trees and underbrush. If their assailants, under cover of the +rocks on the way, ever climbed to it, Garth and Natalie would be badly +off indeed. + +It was a grim figure that the first rays of light revealed sitting on +the big rock. Garth had lost his hat long ago; and he was both unshaven +and unshorn. He crouched, hugging his knees, with his rifle across his +thighs; and his sheepskin coat hung over his shoulders ready to fling +off, when he needed to act. The flannel shirt beneath was in rags; and +his moccasins, mere apologies for foot-coverings. But to Natalie, +regarding the cool, bright shine of his eyes, as he smiled down on her, +he was wholly beautiful. She was scarcely better off; her pale face was +enframed in a sad wreck of a limp, stained felt hat; but she could smile +too; and Garth had never found her lovelier in her bravery. + +The suspense was well-nigh intolerable--and so they fell to chaffing. + +"If mother could only see us now!" said Garth with a grin. + +"I feel like a white cat coming out of a coal-bin," said Natalie. +"'What's the use!' she says, looking round at herself. 'The job is too +big to tackle. If I was only a black cat it wouldn't show!'" + +"You could walk right on as Liz, the girl bandit of the Rockies," said +Garth. + +"Don't you talk!" she retorted. "You look as if Liz had missed her cue, +and you'd been through the sawmill!" + +And then Garth saw a black sleeve sticking out from behind a rock in +the ravine below; and he got down to business. A little sigh of relief +escaped him at the sight of his enemies at last. He fired. The shot went +wide. + +Natalie sank back in her corner, deathly pale; and with a hand over her +lips, to keep from crying out. Her part was harder than his. + +He called down to her reassuringly. "All right! Only a try-out!" + +Further down, a second figure showed briefly, scrambling up the +right-hand side of the trough. Garth fired--a fraction of a second too +late. He could scarcely credit such nimble agility in a figure so gross. +It was Grylls. Thus two of them were accounted for. Searching for the +third, he saw the black crown of a hat projecting above a stone on the +other side of the ravine. This was an easy shot; he aimed and fired with +a savage satisfaction. The hat disappeared; but again he knew, somehow, +that his bullet had not found its mark. + +At the same moment Grylls won a rock a yard higher up. He was not coming +up the bottom of the ravine, but aiming obliquely up the side for the +trees high above. Garth, grimly covering his shelter, saw him bob his +head around; a bare, cropped, tousled head, like a hiding schoolboy's. +Quick as he was with the trigger, Grylls was quicker. The bullet +flattened itself harmlessly beyond. + +As he shot there was a scramble across the ravine; and he saw the other +figure had mounted. The hat, Mabyn's hat, again showed; and he took +another shot at it. This time the bullet knocked it spinning off the +rifle barrel which upheld it; and in a flash Garth understood how neatly +they were fooling him. Each in turn drew his fire, while the other made +an advance. He resolved to shoot no more. + +Meanwhile the first one he had glimpsed, which must be Mary, had not +moved from the middle of the ravine. Some of the stones were moved, and +he guessed she had made a permanent shelter there. There was a shot from +below, and the bullet spattered itself on the heavy base of rock. +Holding his hand, Garth awaited a second shot. He saw a tiny white puff +at last, and marked the aperture whence it issued. The bullet hurtled +whiningly overhead. Steadying his gun on the edge of the rock, he took +careful aim--but the other spoke first. It was a marvellous shot--or a +chance one. The bullet splintered the edge of the stone protecting +Garth's head, and sang off. A jagged sliver of stone ploughed across the +back of his extended hand. He exclaimed as in casual surprise, and his +gun exploded harmlessly in the air. He looked at his hand stupidly as at +an alien member; then suddenly he understood; and whipping out his +handkerchief, bound up the wound, knotting the linen with teeth and +fingers. + +Up to this moment Garth had been playing a dispassionate game; but he +returned to his loophole conscious of a great surge of cold rage against +those below. He yearned to get even; but he could wait for it. Mabyn +exposed his hat tantalizingly; Grylls shot out a foot, or bobbed up his +head--but Garth saved his bullets. He would not even try to pierce the +sharpshooters' defenses again. An occasional shot came from there; but +never such another as the last. + +Finally Grylls changed his tactics. From behind his rock he taunted +Garth vilely. The walls of the ravine reverberated horridly with the +sound of the sudden human voice. + +But Garth still bided his time; merely adding the insult of the words to +Natalie's ears, to the score of his rage. + +Natalie in the meantime, thankful to have something to do, had been +piling stones as heavy as she could lift, on the rock behind him. She +had torn the sling from her arm; and was using the weaker member to +steady the other. + +Garth, fearful that Grylls might succeed in flanking them at last, +ordered her to climb up behind him; and without turning his head, told +her how to make a little parapet along the top of the rock on the +exposed side. + +Garth finally got his chance. A little stone rolled down from Mabyn's +hiding-place; and he instantly trained his gun on the spot. Mabyn, +miscalculating, or losing his head, suddenly scurried for the next rock. +Garth had marked it. Mabyn gained it, but before he could pull his legs +after him the rifle spoke. There was a scream of pain; and Mabyn's +body, sliding from behind the rock, rolled and dropped heavily from +stone to stone. A leg caught in a fissure and stayed him; he hung head +downward, writhing in hideous, theatrical postures of agony, and +screaming like a woman. Garth, thinking of Natalie, longed to send a +shot to still the noise; but his hand was held by his promise to Rina. + +It was all over in a minute after that. Grylls, careless of the other's +fate, scrambled up from stone to stone. Garth peppered his course with +bullets; but the rocks were scattered so thickly, Grylls needed to +expose himself for scarcely a second at a time. He gained the trees at +last. + +An instant of terrible suspense succeeded. Garth made Natalie lie close +under the little wall she had been building. He crouched over her, +himself fully exposed, searching the hillside with strained eyes. +Suddenly he saw the bloated face not thirty yards away. Grylls had +partly stepped from behind a tree and was deliberately taking aim. Garth +sprang to his knees. The two guns spoke at once. Grylls pitched +headfirst down the steep slope into view; and rolled down the bare rocks +into the tiny stream. + +"I've got him!" shouted Garth triumphantly. + +Even as he spoke he toppled over sideways. Natalie clutched at him +wildly; but his coat was pulled out of her grasp. He slid off the rock +and dropped on the stones behind. In an instant she was at his side. He +was already struggling to rise--his teeth pressed into his lip until the +blood oozed between. + +"Only my left shoulder," he muttered. "I can still shoot. There's Mary, +yet. Help me up." + +Somehow, with her aid, he managed to pull himself back on the rock, one +arm dangling useless. Through his loophole, he saw Mary toiling openly +up the ravine. He showed himself. At the sight of him the old woman +paused and held out her hands as if inviting him to shoot. She had left +her gun. When he made no offer to fire, she quietly continued her climb. +Garth watched her grimly. + +Reaching Grylls's body, she unwound a woollen scarf from about her +waist; and passing it under his shoulders, partly hoisted his great bulk +on her back with an incredible effort; and started down again. Grylls +was quite dead; his heels thudded limply from stone to stone. + +Long before she reached the bottom, Garth lost interest in her progress. +He had fainted. + +Natalie, working to restore him, distracted, hopeless, crazed, suddenly +heard a distant shout; and looking up distinguished a little cavalcade +winding down the face of the great gorge. There was a red coat among +them. + +"Garth! We're saved! We're _saved_!" she cried to his unhearing ears. + + + + +XXV + +EPILOGUE: SPOKEN BY CHARLEY + + +In the city of Winnipeg on a brilliant day toward the end of winter, a +broad-shouldered, ruddy youth, with dancing blue eyes and a capacious +smile, came running down a side street, and catching a certain +fence-post at full speed, swung himself inside the gate with the +dexterity of old practice; sprang up the steps and banged on the door. + +It was opened questioningly by a little mouse of a woman, with great +brown eyes, and gray strands mixing in her bright, brown hair. + +The boy flung his arms around her like a bear. "Mother!" he cried +breathlessly. + +"Charley! My boy!" she gasped. + +He picked her up bodily; and, kicking the door shut, carried her into +the cheerful sitting room, where geraniums bloomed on the sunny +window-sill, and a fire danced in the grate. + +"I'm bigger than you are now!" he chuckled joyously. He put her in her +chair; and waltzed about the room, touching the well-remembered objects. +"By Jolly! the very same pictures, the good old sofa!" he sang. "Oh, +it's good to be home!" + +The mother held out her arms. "My boy! My boy!" was all she could say. + +Dropping to his knees, he embraced her again. "You dear old lady," he +cried. "What a trouble I always was! It's your turn to have a good time +now!" + +"It's enough to have you back," she murmured. + +He gyrated about the room again. "Say, I feel as giddy as a puppy after +a bath! Imagine trolley-cars and baby-carriages and show windows and +silver knives and forks after two years in the North. Say, I've clean +forgot how to eat stylish!" + +"How long are you going to stay?" she murmured. + +He came to a stand beside her. "I'm not going back," he said in a deeper +tone. "It's a bully country and I had a whale of a time--but I belong +here! I'm going to take care of you now, and bring up the kids. I'm a +man now,"--his face changed comically--"Don't laugh!" he begged. "I used +to say that all the time; but it's different now; you'll see! I've had +experience!" + +She held out her arms to him again. "Tell me, my son," she whispered. + +He dropped to the floor beside her; and laid his head against her knee. +There, in front of the fire, while the sun went down, and the early +winter twilight gathered, he told her the story. + +"When Garth rode away leaving me and Rina in the poplar bluff," he +said--reaching that part in due course--"I didn't know much what was +happening. But say, that Rina, she's an out-o'-sight nurse! She brought +me around in great shape; and the second day afterward I was as peart as +you please. That same day the fellows from the Crossing turned up; Jim +Plaskett, the policeman, and three others. It was Jim made them come, +soon as he heard the story. Jim's a peacherino! One of these lean, quiet +chaps you can depend on; decent, too, clean-mouthed--Oh! Jim's looked up +to, I can tell you! + +"They wanted me to rest a while yet, till they came back. But they had +plenty of spare horses, and Rina and I wouldn't stand for being left +behind. We rode like sixty all next day, and camped only fifteen miles +from Death River. We found the bones of Garth's horse on the way--picked +clean; and the note he left every place he camped. You ought to have +heard Jim Plaskett crack up Garth's pluck--and Jim knows! + +"We reached the canyon about half-past six in the morning. I'd heard of +that place from the Indians. Say, it was a fearsome spot! a kind of +crooked, gaping split in the prairie like the pictures in Dante's +Inferno. The walls were as bare and hard and cold as black ice; and way +down in the bottom there was a horrible jelly-like water swirling around +without making any noise. Seems if you couldn't breathe good when you +got into the place! Minded me of the receiving vault in the cemetery. + +"There was a risky little path going down, and we kept right on. Across +the river, there was a break in the wall where a creek came down a +steep, wild-looking ravine. At the bottom of it we could see a tepee and +a tent; but no people. Some said they saw a body in the ravine, but you +couldn't rightly make out." + +Charley paused and shuddered. "Say, it was horrible!" he whispered. +"Glad I don't have dreams! When we got down near the water suddenly we +saw old Mary Co-que-wasa come climbing over a heap of stones that was +piled on the flat; and she was bent almost double, half lifting, half +dragging a man by a rope under his arms. It was Nick Grylls. He looked +dead. + +"We shouted at her; and she looked up just once. I saw her face plain. +It wasn't surprised or glad or anything--just stupid like a breed. She +never stopped walking. She stepped right off the flat rock into the deep +water with the man on her back; and they went out of sight; and some +bubbles came up." + +He stopped, staring into the fire. His mother caught him to her breast. +"Oh, my son! what sights were these!" she murmured. + +"Mary was a deep one!" Charley said slowly. "You couldn't tell about +her! I never heard her open her mouth! + +"We hustled down to the edge of the water," he resumed presently. "Jim +Plaskett threw off his coat; and went in after them. But it was no use; +the current carried them down; and it was too cold to stay in more than +a minute or two. We never saw them again. + +"Jim landed on the other side; and brought us back the raft that was +there; and we all crossed. There was nobody in the tents--blankets in a +heap, as if they'd sprung out of bed suddenly. We started to climb the +ravine. It _was_ a body lying there on the rocks; it was Mabyn. Rina was +halfway to it, before any of us saw. He wasn't dead; but had a bullet +through both legs. + +"Say that place was full of horrors! It stunk of gunpowder; and there +was little thin layers of smoke hanging quiet between the walls. I was +near out of my head, thinking what had become of them. We shouted all +the time; and by and by we got a faint kind of an answer back. By Jolly! +I went up those rocks like a cat! I found them behind a whopping big +rock. Garth was stretched out all bloody and she was trying to get his +coat off; and she couldn't. She looked up at me with a face like chalk; +and when she saw who it was, she just gave a little cry like a baby, and +keeled over. Oh, it was pitiful! I carried her down to the river. I +wouldn't let anybody else touch her. + +"Well, to make a long story short, we decided to raft it down the river +to Fort Ochre, instead of trying to win overland to the Crossing. Garth +had a ball through his shoulder and a gashed hand; and Mabyn was pretty +low. It was longer that way, but we could carry them comfortable. + +"We built another raft and started next morning. Jim Plaskett, Mabyn and +Rina went on the first; and Sandy Arkess, Garth, Natalie and I followed +on the other. The other two fellows were to drive all the horses back +over the prairie. Say, that was quite a journey! Garth was getting +better; and we all felt pretty good, sitting round and swapping yarns, +and looking at the scenery, while the current carried us down. When we +got out of the gorge, coming down so quietly as we were, we saw any +amount of game. Got a moose right on the bank! Gee! that was good meat! +And at night, say it was out o' sight! sitting there talking about going +home, and watching the trees march past, and a bang-up show of Northern +lights up above! It was pretty cold. + +"There was the Dickens of a pow-pow at the Fort, when we got there at +last! It's great sport being a hero! The Bishop and his party were +there, just ready to start for home, and you never saw such a surprised +man, when he saw Garth coming in from the other direction. And the old +woman--I mean Mrs. Bishop--took to Natalie like her long-lost mother. + +"Their party was obliged to start at once for fear of the river's +closing on them; and Garth insisted on sending Natalie out with the old +lady. She kicked like anything at leaving him there wounded; and I +braced him, too, to let her stay; but he told me it was for the sake of +her good name. I didn't quite see that--why any one who _knew_ +Natalie!--but I suppose he knew best. + +"Garth and I stayed at Fort Ochre. The Inspector came down the river; +and there was an official investigation. I was right in the thick of it. +Gee! but it was sport! Colonel Whinyates is a great little chap--cheeks +as red as church cushions, and eyes that pop like gooseberries! It was +great to hear him bawl at the witnesses. But he's all right. Him and I +were good friends! + +"Garth told his story and I told mine, and Rina and Plaskett. And +Natalie had left what they call a disposition behind her. Everything was +all straight, but Garth clinched the matter by calling Mabyn to testify. +He was carried in on a stretcher. And blamed if he didn't tell the +truth! He'd had a close call, you see, and had what Garth called a +change of heart. It was Rina did it; day and night she never left him! + +"The investigation ended in a love feast--that's what Garth called it. +Old Colonel shook hands with Garth and me, and said we were heroes, by +Gad! He's a bird. Garth wouldn't prosecute Mabyn; and he was let out +from under arrest. + +"The winter had set in by that time; and Garth and I couldn't get out +till the ice formed. It was pretty slow up there, you bet! and, as Garth +said, our hearts were outside. We talked about Natalie all the time. +Mabyn got well, and he and Rina set off for their place with a +dog-train. Garth gave them a bang-up outfit! Mabyn was a decent head, +after he got well; and Rina certainly was happy about it. I forgot to +tell you that Mabyn's mother had died in the fall; and there was no need +for him to go out. + +"The first mail got through in January, and we heard from Natalie at last. +Bully news! Garth had sent her another one of those dispositions--Mabyn +swore to it--in the November mail; and it seems that was all she needed in +order to have the courts annul the old marriage they had gone through +together. Natalie has been a free woman since Christmas! + +"We came out with the mail man next day, you bet! That was six weeks ago, +and here we are! Garth is waiting for me down at the station. I wanted +him to come up; but he said he guessed you would want me to yourself +for a while. Gee! I must be hustling! Train goes at six-thirty!" + +"But where are you going?" she asked in dismay. + +Charley kissed her. "East to Millerton, to the wedding, of course! Back +in two weeks! Oh, what larks! What do you think! I'm going to be best +man. Garth is getting me a silk tile and a frock coat! Oh, Crikey! +Good-bye!" + +The door slammed. + + + THE END + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + +The following typographical corrections have been made: + + (page 41) "et'em" to "et 'em" + (page 73) "immeately" to "immediately" + (page 85) "dug-out" to "dugout" + (page 89) comma added after "into the light" + (page 119) added missing quotes after "came North" + (page 152) "heartbreaking" to "heart-breaking" + (page 163) added missing quotes after "Lillywhite" + (page 180) "Erbe't" to "'Erbe't" + (page 197) added missing quotes before "I haven't" + (page 200) "dug-out" to "dugout" + (page 216) "possesssed" to "possessed" + (page 227) "half-way" to "halfway" + (page 238) "," to "--" on 253 after canvas + (page 240) added a comma after "promise" + (page 269) quotation marks removed before "As if" + (page 278) "beleaguered" to "beleaguered" + (page 285) "!" to "?" after "hands" + (page 317) "downstream" to "down-stream" + +The word "manoeuvre" on pages 34 and 102 was printed with an +oe-ligature in the original. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO ON THE TRAIL*** + + +******* This file should be named 25159-8.txt or 25159-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/1/5/25159 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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