CHAPTER XII
THE RAFT
Never in her life had Helen Yardely worked so hard as she worked in the next two hours. She made two journeys to the lake with their possessions, and on the way back the second time she arranged several resting places in preparation for the hardest task of all—the carrying of her injured companion down to the shore.
That, as she knew, was bound to be a terribly painful thing for him, but there was no other way, and harsh necessity made her ruthless. She did what she could with an improvised sling, and helped him to stand on his uninjured leg. The pain he endured was shown in his white face, and in the bitten under lip, which trickled red. She was afraid that he was about to faint, but he recovered himself and three-quarters of a minute later, she was carrying him pick-a-back to the lakeside.
Twice she heard a groan torn from him, but she set her teeth, and pointed on to the first resting place, where, as gently as she could, she set him on the trunk of a fallen tree which, supported by its under branches, lay waist high. Then she turned round and looked at Stane. He was in a state verging on collapse. Instantly she felt for his service water-bottle which she had previously filled with brandy and water, and pouring out some of the liquid she held it towards him.
"Drink," she said, "all of it."
He did so, and when they had rested five minutes, they started again and, after halting twice more, reached the shore, where she set him down on a convenient rock, below which she had piled blankets to support his injured leg. Then for the moment quite overdone, she collapsed on the sand, one hand on her jumping heart, the other on her throbbing head. It was a little time before either of them could speak, and it was the man who did so first.
"Miss Yardely, take a little brandy. I implore you!"
Helen looked up, nodded without speaking, and with shaking hands poured out a little of the spirit for herself. After a time her breath came back, and she rose to her feet.
"You are mortal heavy," she said with an attempt at gaiety. "You were like the old man of the sea on my back.... I hope your leg is all right?"
"Painful! But that is to be expected, and it can't be helped." A drift of smoke came down in the wind and made him cough, and he looked round to mark the progress of the fire. "We haven't much of a margin, Miss Yardely."
"No," she answered, "I must get busy. Now tell me what to do!"
Whilst waiting for her to recover he had noted numerous sun-dried poles scattered about the beach, and those he pointed to.
"Get about seven of those, Miss Yardely, as near equal length as you can. Gather them as close to the water's edge as possible, and then get some saplings for cross pieces. Lash the poles well together with the tent and pack-ropes, and put a little spruce on the top to help us keep dry. We haven't time to build a Noah's Ark, and it will be no end of a job for you to get the thing afloat by yourself."
The girl looked round and pointed to a little creek where the water was very still.
"I could build it afloat there. There's a gravelly bottom and it's not deep."
"Yes!" he said quickly. "That would be better!"
For an hour he sat there watching her work, and marking the swift progress of the fire. The heat grew tremendous, the roar of the flames and of crackling trees filled the air to the exclusion of all other sounds, and the pungent smoke made it difficult to breathe. He had begun to think that after all her endeavours had been in vain, when she approached him, sweat running down her flushed face, and drenched well above the knees.
"You will have to set your teeth," she said, "I shall have to carry you out to the raft."
It was no easy task to get him on to it, but she had pushed the raft well in the reeds so that it could not give, and though it was a painful operation for him, he was presently lying on a pile made of the tent canvas and blankets. Ten minutes later when he opened his eyes, they were afloat, and she was poling the raft into deeper water. She looked at him as his eyes opened.
"This raft is not quite so good as a punt—but it might be worse!"
"They're always awkward things," he said. "You ought to have had a sweep."
"No time," she answered, with a nod towards the shore.
"You will have to pole us out, as far as you can, and then we must drift."
"It is the only way," she agreed. "Fortunately this lake seems very shallow."
Ten minutes later the pole failed to touch bottom, and a current of water setting across the lake began to drift them well from the shore. As he saw that, Stane gave a sigh of relief.
"You can sit down and rest now, Miss Yardely. There is nothing further to be done for the present. It is a case of time and tide now, but I think we are perfectly safe."
Helen glanced towards the shore, and gave an involuntary shudder. The fire was running through the forest like a wild beast. Clouds of smoke, black or leaden-coloured rolled in front, the vanguard of the destroyer, and out of them leaped spouts of fiery sparks, or long tongues of yellow flame, and behind this, the forest under the fan of the wind was a glowing furnace. She looked at the belching smoke and the rocketing flames and listened to the roar of it all, fascinated.
"How terrible," she cried, "and how beautiful."
"The Inferno!" said Stane. "I've seen it before."
"And you wanted me to leave you to that?" she cried.
"Pardon me, no! I did not want you to be caught in it, that is all! Listen!"
Across the water came what might have been the sound of a fusillade of rifles, and with it mingled another sound as of shrieking.
"What is it?" asked the girl.
"Branches bursting in the heat, trees falling."
"How long will it last?"
"Don't know. Weeks maybe! The fire might travel a hundred miles."
Helen shuddered again. "If we had not been near the water——"
"Finis!" he said with a little laugh, and they fell silent again watching the awful thing from which they had so narrowly escaped.
The raft drifted slowly along, borne by a current towards the northern end of the lake and crossing it obliquely, and the girl crouched in her place apparently absorbed in the spectacle the fire afforded. An hour passed, and then glancing at her Stane saw that she had fallen asleep. A little smile came on his face, and was followed by an ardent look of admiration as he continued to stare at her. She was flushed with sleep, and grimy with sweat and smoke and dirt. The grey shirt-sleeves, rolled up above the elbows, showed her scratched forearms, and on one hand, hanging across her knee in the abandon of sleep, with startling incongruity gleamed a diamond ring. The beautiful chestnut hair had escaped from its fastenings, and hung in tumbled masses, and there were ragged tears here and there in the borrowed raiment. Never, thought Stane to himself, had he seen a lady more dishevelled or more beautiful, and as he watched her sleeping, worn out with her herculean labours, his heart warmed to her in gratitude and love.
She slept for quite a long time, and when she opened her eyes, she looked round in surprise. The fire still roared on its way through the woods on the distant shore, over which hung a huge pall of smoke, but the raft was now a long way from the zone of destruction and drifting slowly but surely towards the northern end of the lake. She measured with her eyes the distance they had drifted, and looked towards the shore which they were steadily approaching, then she spoke.
"I must have slept for a long time."
"Three hours, I should say," answered Stane with a smile.
"And you? How is your leg?"
"Fairly comfortable," he answered.
"I am glad of that, I was terribly afraid that it might have suffered some new injury—how hungry I am!"
"Naturally!" was the reply. "It is now past noon and we have not yet had breakfast."
"There is some cold bacon somewhere, left over from yesterday, and that small box of biscuits. I will find them. We must eat. Fortunately we're not likely to be short of water." She laughed a little as she spoke, then rising, began to look for the food, which, when she had found it, she divided between them. "There is not much bacon, but there are biscuits galore for present needs," she said as she put the food before him. "Fall to, sir!"
She herself ate the simple meal with a relish that surprised herself, and then looked round once more. They had drifted nearer the shore, and looking overside she could see the bottom of the lake. At that she clapped her hands.
"The water is shallowing," she cried, "I believe I can resume my punting."
She took up her pole and finding that she could touch bottom, began to pole the raft inshore, and in twenty minutes she was looking for a place to land. She found it in a quiet little bay beyond a tree-crowned bluff, and in a little time she had beached the clumsy craft, and jumped ashore. She anchored the raft to a tree, and then looked around. Just where she had landed, there was a level patch of sward, backed by massive firs and, after considering its possibilities for a moment she spoke:
"We will make our new camp here! It will do as well as anywhere else, and in case the fire travels round we can easily take to the lake again."
Her first action was to gather kindling wood for a fire, and to set the kettle over it, and that done, once more she pitched the tent and made a bed for her patient; then with great trouble and some pain for him, she got him from the raft to the spruce couch; after which she examined the rough splints and bandages. They were in place and hoping that the leg had suffered no harm through the enforced removal, she prepared hot tea and such a meal as their resources allowed.
"I shall have to build a new house for myself, tomorrow," she laughed as she sipped the tea. "And I shall insure it against fire. I shall be quite an expert architect and builder by the time I reach civilization."
"If you ever do!" he laughed.
She looked round the wild landscape, then she also laughed.
"I should not care much if I never did. This sort of life has its attractions, and it offers real interests and real excitements. There are worse things than the wilderness."
"You have not been up here in winter, have you, Miss Yardely?"
"No," she replied, "but I should like to have the experience."
He puffed meditatively at his pipe and made a calculation, then he said rather enigmatically, "You may yet have the chance, Miss Yardely, if you remain to look after me."
"I certainly shall remain," was the uncompromising reply. "But what do you mean, Mr. Stane?"
"Well," he explained, "it will be some weeks at least before I can face the trail, and that means that autumn will be on us before we can move. And you have had a little experience of what trailing and packing one's goods in this country means. Even when we are able to start we shall not be able to travel fast, and the nearest point of civilization is Fort Malsun."
"How long will it take us to reach the fort?"
"I do not know," he replied, shaking his head thoughtfully. "I have only been there on the one occasion you know of—and then by water. Much will depend on the sort of country that lies between here and there, but I am afraid we shall have hard work to make it before winter overtakes us."
"Then we shall have to make the best of things," answered the girl lightly.
"There is, of course, the chance that we may be found by some search-party sent out by your uncle; and there is the further possibility that we may stumble on some Indian camp; but apart from these contingencies, I am afraid we can expect no help but what we can find in ourselves, and it will be very necessary to husband our resources, as I warned you two days ago."
The girl refused to be daunted. "This is a game country," she replied cheerfully. "We shall not starve. Tomorrow I shall go hunting—and you will see, Mr. Stane, oh, you will see! After all it was not for nothing that I went to Scotland every autumn. I will fill the pot, never fear."
He looked at her smiling face, remembered what she had already done, and then spoke enthusiastically.
"I believe you will, Miss Yardely."
No more was said upon the matter until next day, when whilst she was engaged in building a new tepee for herself she hurried into the camp, and picked up the rifle.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Meat," she whispered laughingly, "on four legs and with horns. I don't know the precise name of it, but I think it is a woodland caribou. It has come down to the water just the other side of the bluff. I am going to stalk it."
She hurried away from the camp. Ten minutes passed and Stane still listened for her shot. Then it came, and sharp and clear on the heels of it came a cry of triumph. The injured man smiled with pleasure.
A few minutes later, when Helen returned, there was a gleeful look upon her face. "Got it!" she cried. "We'll have a change of diet today."
"You have still plenty of work before you," said Stane, after congratulating her. "The beast will need skinning and——"
"Ugh!" she interrupted with a little grimace. "I know, and that will be messy work for me, since I know nothing at all about it."
"It is an inevitable part of the work in trailing through the wilds," said Stane with a smile. "But I wish I could take the work over——"
"You can't," she interrupted cheerfully enough, "and if you could I am not sure I should let you now. I've an ambition to complete my wilderness education, and though I'm no butcher, I'll manage this piece of work somehow. You will have to give me instructions, and though I may botch the business, I'll save the meat. Now just give me a lecture in the art of skinning and cleaning and quartering."
As well as he could he gave her instructions, and armed with his long hunting knife, she presently departed. It was two hours before she returned, carrying with her a junk of meat wrapped in a portion of the skin. There was a humiliated look on her face.
"Ask me no questions," she cried with a little laugh of vexation. "I am down in the dust, but I've got most of the meat and that is the essential thing, though what we are going to do with all of it I don't know. We can't possibly eat it whilst it is fresh."
"We will dry, and smoke some of it, or turn it into pemmican."
"Pemmican!" As she echoed the word, her face brightened. "I have read of that," she laughed, "in novels and tales of adventure. It has a romantic sound."
"It isn't romantic eating," he laughed back. "As you will find if we come down to it. But if the worst comes to the worst it will save us from starvation."
"Then we will make pemmican," she said smiling, "or rather I shall. It will be another thing towards the completion of my education, and when this pilgrimage is over I shall demand a certificate from you, and set up as a guide for specially conducted parties to the wilds."
"I think I shall be able to give you one, quite conscientiously," Stane retorted laughingly. "You certainly are a very apt pupil."
"Ah! you haven't seen that hideous mess on the other side of the bluff. The fact is I shudder at the thought of viewing it again. But we must have the meat, I suppose."
Having rested a little, she turned and left the camp again and the man followed her with eyes that glowed with admiration. As he lay there he thought to himself that however she might shudder at the thought of a vilely unpleasant task, she would not shirk it, and as he reflected on the events of the past few days, there was in his heart a surge of feeling that he could not repress. He loved this delicately-nurtured girl who adapted herself to the harsh ways of the wilderness with so gay a spirit; and though a look of bitterness came on his face as he reflected that circumstances must seal his lips, in his heart he was glad that they should have met, and that she should be his pupil in the ways of the wild.
CHAPTER XIII
A LODGE IN THE WILDERNESS
It was six weeks later. The dawn came less early, and nightfall perceptibly sooner.
There was a new crispness in the air, and the leaves on the trees were losing their greenness and taking on every possible shade, from pale yellow to old gold, and from that to dusky red. Both Stane and Helen Yardely noticed the signs. Autumn was upon them and they were still in their camp by the lake, though now Stane was able to hobble about with a pair of crutches made from a couple of forked sticks, padded with moss at the forks for his arms, and covered with caribou skin. Helen herself was busy from dawn to sunset. From words that he had dropped she knew that they had lost in the race with the seasons, and that winter would be on them before he would be able to take the trail. She faced the dreary prospect light-heartedly, but under his instruction omitted no precautions that would make a winter sojourn in the wild land tolerable. Fish were caught and dried, rabbits and hares snared, not merely for meat, but for their skins, which when a sufficient number had been accumulated were fashioned into parkas and blankets against the Arctic cold which was surely marching on them.
The leaves began to fall, light frosts were succeeded by heavier ones, and one morning they awoke to find a thin film of ice on the surface of the still water of the little bay where their camp was located. Stane viewed the ice with ominous eyes. He was incapable of any heavy physical exertion as yet, and knowing the North in all its inimical aspects, he was afraid for his companion, and though he rejoiced in her frank comradeship, he regretted that she had let Ainley and the Indian depart without knowledge of her presence. Guessing that the lake was some sort of waterway between two points, daily, almost hourly, in the frequent absences of the girl, he scanned it for any sign of human presences, but in vain. The lake's surface was unbroken by the movement of canoe or boat; its shores showed no tell-tale column of smoke. They were indeed alone in the wilderness.
But one afternoon the girl returned from a hunting expedition with excitement shining in her grey eyes.
"I have found something," she announced abruptly.
"What is it?"
"There is a cabin up the lake, about three miles away."
"A cabin?"
"Yes, and a very nice one, logs with a stone chimney and a parchment window. There was no one about, and the door was only held by a hasp and a wooden peg, so I ventured to look in. It has a stove, a rough table, a bunk and a couple of logs plainly meant for chairs."
Stane considered her news for a moment and then gave an obvious explanation. "It is some trapper's hut. He is away, and will probably return for the trapping season."
"Yes," she answered with a nod. "I thought that was the explanation. But there is nothing to prevent us taking possession until the owner returns, if he ever does, is there?"
"No," he answered slowly.
"Then tomorrow we will remove house," she said with a little laugh. "It's the only sensible thing to do. The place is clean and warm and comfortable; and if we take possession of it we shall be under no temptation to take the trail before you are really fit."
"But——"
"But me no buts," she cried in mock reproval. "You know that it is the really wise thing to do, for if the weather turns bad, where are we—with a canvas tent and a rather leaky birch-bark tepee? It would be the very rankest folly not to take advantage of my discovery and you know it."
Stane was compelled to admit that she was right, and said so.
"Then tomorrow I will raft you up to our new abode," she answered cheerfully. "There is no wind, and has been none for days. It will be easy to pole the raft along the shore."
Having announced this decision she began to busy herself about the camp, singing softly to herself; and Stane watched her with appreciative eyes. She was thinner than when they had first met, her face was bronzed, her chestnut hair in its outer folds bleached almost golden by the strong sunlight of the past summer. She radiated health and vitality, and though she was dressed masculinely, femininity was the dominant note about her. In the weeks that had passed since he had saved her from the river she had developed amazingly. Apparently there was nothing of the softness of the over-civilized left in her. That had been eliminated by the harsh necessity of labour which circumstances had thrust upon her; and the life of the wilderness had developed in her elemental powers. She was now the strong mate-woman, quick in judgment, resourceful in action, and of swift courage in danger. His eyes glowed as he watched her, and a soft look came on his face. As it happened Helen turned and saw it.
"What is it?" she asked quickly, a look of expectancy in her eyes.
He hesitated. That look challenged him. He knew that if he said all that he felt she would respond. But the unfairness of such action prevented him from doing so, and though he was strongly tempted he turned aside.
"Nothing that I can tell you," he said in answer to her question.
"Oh!" she retorted, "you are a most tantalizing person. Why cannot you tell me? If the matter is secret you have no cause to be afraid. To whom could I whisper it in this wilderness?"
She waved a hand half-round the compass as she spoke, and stood there looking at him, still with the look of expectancy in her eyes, and with a little dash of colour in her bronzed cheeks.
"I am not afraid of your whispering it to any one," replied Stane, with a poor attempt at laughter.
"Then why not tell me?" she urged.
"Because——" began the man, and then stopped. The temptation surged up anew within him, the stress of it almost broke down his resolution. Then he cried, almost violently, "No! I cannot tell you—now."
"Now!" she said, in tremulous laughter. "Now! 'Behold now is the accepted time and now is the day of salvation.' Unless the religious education of your youth was sadly neglected you ought to know that. The present is the only time. But if you will not tell me this tantalizing secret now, you will some time?"
"Some time!" he answered.
"It is a promise," she insisted and now there was no laughing note in her voice, and her face was very serious.
"Yes," he answered, "it is a promise."
"Then I write it on the tablets of my mind. I shall hold you to it, and some day I shall demand its fulfilment."
She turned and resumed her work and singing at the same time, and Stane lay there looking at her with the love shining plainly in his eyes. He had no doubt that she divined that which he would not speak; that indeed it was no secret to her, and that she was glad in the knowledge he could hardly question. Her bearing as well as her singing told him that; and he knew that in the last few minutes they had travelled a very long way towards full revelation of each other; and that the day when he should speak would bring to her nothing that was not already within the sphere of her knowledge.
The next day was spent in removal to the cabin further up the lake, both of them working at poling the raft with all their stores. The cabin was well situated on a small bay, where a fair-sized stream emptied into the lake, and behind it stretched the forest, dark and impenetrable. As he hobbled through the open door, Stane looked round, and under the bunk discovered a number of steel-traps which the girl on her first visit had overlooked. Also on a peg in a dark corner he found a set of dogs' harness hung just as the owner had left it, probably months before. He pointed the traps out to the girl.
"As I guessed, it is a trapper's cabin, Miss Yardely. Any day may bring the owner back."
"Possession is nine points of the law," she laughed. "What is the term the gold-seekers use, Jump?—yes, we will jump the claim, for the present at any rate."
"The owner may come back while there is open water, or he may wait for the ice."
"But we are tenants of the furnished cabin meanwhile," she answered cheerfully, "and may as well make ourselves at home. I'm going to light the stove."
Inside the cabin there was a little wood-pile, and with a few well-chosen logs and dried sticks she soon had the stove roaring, and then began to bestow their possessions tidily. By the time that was accomplished the shadows were creeping across the lake and deepening in the woods, and it was time for the evening meal, and when it was ready they ate it at the rough table, with a sense of safety and comfort that had long been lacking. "This place is quite cosy," said Helen, looking round the firelit cabin. "Tomorrow I shall make a curtain for the doorway out of caribous skins."
"Tomorrow," laughed Stane, "the owner may return."
"But he will not turn us out," cried Helen. "The men of the wilds are all hospitable."
"That is true," agreed Stane, "and I have no doubt that we should be allowed to winter here if we chose. But if the man comes there is a better way. We shall be able to engage him to take us to Fort Malsun, and so to safety and civilization."
"Oh!" laughed the girl, "are you so anxious to go back to civilization?"
Stane's face suddenly clouded, and the old hardness came back to it.
"There is no going back for me—yet," he answered bitterly.
"But you will return, some day," she answered quietly. "I have no doubt of that at all. But I was not thinking of that when I spoke, I was wondering whether you were tired of this primitive life. For my part I quite enjoy it. It is really exhilarating to know that one has to depend upon one's self, and to find unexpected qualities revealing themselves at the call of circumstances. I think I shall never be the same again, my old life seems contemptibly poor and tame when I look back upon it."
"I can understand that," he answered, turning from his bitterness. "The wilderness gets into one's blood."
"Particularly if it is a little wild to start with," she replied cheerfully, "as I really believe mine is."
"There are men who have lived up here for years, enduring hunger and every kind of hardship, hazarding life almost daily, who having stumbled suddenly upon a fortune, have hurried southward to enjoy their luck. They have been away a year, two years, and then have drifted back to the bleak life and hazard of the North."
"It is not difficult to believe that," answered Helen. "The life itself is the attraction up here."
Stane permitted himself to smile at her enthusiasm and then spoke. "But if you had to live it day by day, year in and year out, Miss Yardely, then——"
"Oh then," she interrupted lightly, "it might be different. But——" She broke off suddenly and a sparkle of interest came in her eyes. Pointing to the pile of wood in the corner she cried: "Mr. Stane, I am sure there is something hidden under that wood."
Stane started and stared at the stacked-up logs, a slight look of apprehension on his face. The girl laughed as she caught the look. "It is nothing to be alarmed at; but those logs are misleading I am sure, for at one place I can see something gleaming. What it is I don't know, but I am going to find out."
Rising quickly, she began to throw down the logs and presently uncovered a large square tin that at some time or another had contained biscuits. Pursuing her investigations she uncovered two similar tins and for a moment stood regarding them with curious eyes. Then she lifted one.
"It is heavy," she exclaimed. "What do you think it is—gold?"
Stane laughed. "Judging by the ease with which you lift it, I should say not."
"I'm going to learn," she replied, and promptly began to operate on a close-fitting lid. It took her a little time, but at last, with the aid of Stane's knife, she managed to remove it. Then she gave an exclamation of disappointment.
"What is it?" asked Stane.
"I don't know. It looks like—wait a minute!" she took a small pinch of the contents and lifting it to her mouth, tasted it. "Flour!"
"Flour! You don't say?"
There was a joyous exalting note in the man's voice that made the girl swing round and look at him in surprise.
"You seem delighted!" she said wonderingly.
"I am," he replied.
"But—well I don't exactly see why! If it were gold, I could understand. One always finds gold in these deserted cabins, according to the story-books. And we find flour—and you rejoice!"
"I do," answered Stane joyfully. "Miss Yardely, that flour is a godsend. We were very short, as you told me, only a pound or two left, and I was afraid that we might have to live on meat and fish alone, and you don't know what that means. I do! I lived for three weeks on moose-meat last winter and I haven't forgotten it yet. For Heaven's sake open the other tins."
The girl obeyed him, and presently the remaining tins revealed their contents. One held about nine pounds of rice and the other was three parts filled with beans.
"We're in luck, great luck!" cried Stane. "Just the things we need. Any time during the last fortnight I would have given a thousand pounds for those stores."
"I expect the owner, if he returns, will be glad to sell them you for a good deal less," she retorted with mock petulance. "It was treasure trove I was hoping for."
"You can't live on gold," laughed Stane, "and you can on the contents of these tins. We must annex them. If the owner has deserted the cabin it won't matter; and if he returns he will bring fresh stores with him, those being but the surplus of his last winter's stock. Nothing could have been more fortunate."
"But flour, and rice and beans!" protested Helen in simulated disgust. "They are so unromantic! It will sound so poor if ever I tell the story in a drawing-room!"
Stane laughed again. "There's nothing romantic about straight meat without change. Those cereals are the best of treasure trove for us."
"Well," conceded the girl laughing with him. "You ought to know, and if you are satisfied I must be. If these stores will carry us through the time until we start for civilization I won't grumble."
To Stane the discovery of the stores was a great relief, far greater than the girl knew. Of starvation he had had no fear, for they were in a good game country, but he knew the danger of a meat diet alone, and now that for the time being that danger was eliminated, he was correspondingly relieved; the more so when, two mornings later, the door of the hut being opened they beheld a thin powdering of shot-like snow.
"Winter is here!" said Helen, a little sobered at the sight of the white pall.
"Yes," he answered. "You found this hut just in time."
No more snow fell for over a fortnight, and during that time, despite the cold, Stane spent many hours practising walking without crutches. The fracture had quite knit together, and though his muscles were still weak, he gained strength rapidly, and as far as possible relieved the girl of heavier tasks. He chopped a great deal of wood, in preparation for the bitter cold that was bound to come and stored much of it in the hut itself. He was indefatigable in setting snares, and one day, limping in the wood with a rifle, he surprised a young moose-bull and killed it, and cached the meat where neither the wolves nor the lynxes could reach it. Then at the close of a dull, dark day the wind began to blow across the lake, whistling and howling in the trees behind, and the cold it brought with it penetrated the cabin, driving them closer to the stove. All night it blew, and once, waking behind the tent canvas with which the bunk where she slept was screened, the girl caught a rattle on the wooden walls of the cabin, that sounded as if it were being peppered with innumerable pellets. In the morning the wind had fallen, but the cabin was unusually dark, and investigation revealed that in a single night the snow had drifted to the height of the parchment window. The cold was intense, and there was no stirring abroad; indeed, there was no reason for it, since all the wild life of the forest that they might have hunted, was hidden and still. Seated by the stove after breakfast, Helen was startled by a brace of cracks like those of a pistol. She started up.
"What was that? Some one fired——"
"No!" answered Stane quickly. "Just a couple of trees whose hearts have burst with the cold. There will be no one abroad this weather."
But in that, as events proved, he was mistaken. For when, in the early afternoon, wrapped in the fur garments which the girl had manufactured at their old camp, they ventured forth, not twenty yards away from the hut Stane came suddenly upon a broad snow-shoe trail. At the sight of it he stopped dead.
"What is it?" asked the girl quickly.
"Some one has been here," he said, in a curious voice. Without saying anything further he began to follow the trail, and within a few minutes realized that whoever had made it had come down the lake and had been so interested in the cabin as to walk all around it. The tracks of the great webbed-shoes spoke for themselves and even Helen could read the signs plainly.
"Whoever is it?" she asked in a hushed voice, looking first at the sombre woods and then out on the frozen snow-wreathed lake.
Stane shook his head. "I haven't the slightest notion, but whoever it was watched the cabin for a little time. He stood there on the edge of the wood, as the deeper impression in the snow shows."
"Perhaps the owner whose palace we have usurped has returned."
Stane again shook his head. "No! He would have made himself known, and besides he would most certainly have had a team of dogs with him. Whoever the visitor was he came down the lake and he went back that way."
"It is very mysterious," said Helen, looking up the frozen waste of the lake.
"Yes," answered Stane, "but rather reassuring. We are not quite alone in this wilderness. There must be a camp somewhere in the neighbourhood, but whether of white men or of Indians one can only guess."
"And which do you guess?" asked Helen quickly.
"Indians, I should say, for a white man would have given us a call."
"And if Indians, they may be friendly or otherwise?"
"Yes."
"Then," she said, with a little laugh, "we shall have to keep our eyes lifting and bolt the door o' nights!"
"It will be as well," agreed Stane, as he began to circle round the cabin again. "Indians are not always law-abiding, particularly in the North here. In any case we must try and find out where this one comes from, for if he is friendly we may be able to get dogs, and with dogs our journey to civilization will be easy."
He spoke lightly, but there was a grave look on his face, and as she watched him following the snow-shoe tracks to the edge of the ice-bound lake, Helen Yardely knew that he was much disturbed by the mysterious visit of the unknown man.
CHAPTER XIV
MYSTERIOUS VISITORS
It was snowing again, driving across the lake in the hard wind and drifting in a wonderful wreath about the cabin. To go out of doors would have been the uttermost folly, and Stane busied himself in the fashioning of snow-shoes which now would be necessary before they could venture far afield. The girl was engaged in preparing a meal, and the cabin had an air of domesticity that would probably have utterly misled any stranger who had chanced to look in. Stane, as he worked, was very conscious of the girl's presence, and conscious also that from time to time his companion glanced at him, whilst he bent over the tamarack frames, weaving in and out the webbing of caribou raw-hide. Those glances made his heart leap, though he strove hard to appear unconscious of them. He knew that in her, as in him, the weeks of intimate companionship so dramatically begun had borne its inevitable fruit. The promise she had forced from him but a few days ago came to his mind as he stooped lower over the half-finished snow-shoe. Would he ever be able to redeem it? Would he ever be able to tell her what was in his heart, what indeed had been there since the moment of their first meeting at Fort Malsun?
Between him and the desire of his heart rose those bitter years in prison. Until the stain upon his name was removed and the judgment of the court expurged, he felt he could not tell her what he wished, what indeed he was sure she would not be averse to hearing. Of Helen herself he had no doubt. She already had declared her faith in his innocence, and the generosity of her nature in all its depth and breadth had been revealed to him. To her, the years of his prison life were as though they had never been, or at the most were an injustice which he had suffered, and his name in her eyes had suffered no soiling. That if he spoke she would respond, finely, generously, with all the fulness of her splendid womanhood, he had no doubt. And yet, he told himself, he must never speak until he could do so without blame; for whilst to her the past was nothing, the people among whom she ordinarily moved would remember, and if she united her life with his she would, like himself, become a social exile. And there was a further reason for silence. If he allowed the girl to commit herself to him whilst they were alive in the wilderness, it would be said that he had taken advantage of a rather delicate situation—using it for his selfish ends, and his pride as a man revolted against that. He clenched his teeth at the thought, and unconsciously frowned. No it should never be said that he——
"Why that dark scowl?" asked the girl laughingly. "Is my lord displeased with the odours of the dinner that his servant prepares?"
Stane joined in her laughter. "I was not aware that I was frowning. The dinner has a most appetising smell."
"If only I had a Mrs. Beeton!" sighed Helen. "Though I daresay she wouldn't give any recipe for frozen moose and rice and beans, without even an onion to flavour. The civilized cookery books don't deal with the essentials. When I return to the polite world the first thing I shall do will be to publish a pocket cookery book for happy people stranded in the wilds!"
"Happy!" he echoed, smilingly.
"I speak for myself," she retorted lightly. "You don't suppose that I regret these weeks away from civilization. I never was happier in my life. I have, you will agree, proved myself. I can face an unprecedented situation without fainting. I can cook a dinner without killing a man who eats it. I have set a leg successfully, and built a raft that floated safely, and reared two lodges in the wilderness. I have no nerves, whilst nearly every woman I know is just a quivering bundle of them. Yesterday, when I went out to the wood-pile a big lynx came round the corner of it. His eyes simply blazed at me. Six months ago, I should have run indoors. As it was, I threw a chunk of wood at him and he bolted."
"You never told me," began Stane.
"What need?" interrupted the girl. "You don't inform me every time you see a lynx!"
"But you must be careful," replied Stane anxiously. "At this season of the year, if he is very hungry, the lynx can be a dangerous beast. Remember his claws are like knives and he has ten of them."
"Oh, I will remember," answered Helen cheerfully. She stooped over the pan, and then, announced: "I think this mess of savoury venison is ready, and I don't believe our cook at home could have done it half so well. If my lord and cobbler will put away the snow-shoe we will dine, and after the washing up I will sleep."
It was in this spirit of lightness that she faced all the hardships incidental to their present life, and it was little wonder that at times, between her gaiety and her challenging presence, Stane had much ado to keep his resolve. Half a dozen times a day his resolution was tested, and one of the severest trials came on the afternoon of that very day.
The snow had ceased and the night had fallen, and desiring exercise they left the cabin together to walk in an open glade in the wood which the strong wind had swept almost clear of snow. Except themselves there was nothing moving. The vast stillness of the North was everywhere about them, and a little oppressed by the silence they walked briskly to and fro, Stane using his injured leg with a freedom that showed that it was returning to its normal strength. Suddenly the girl laid a mittened hand on his arm.
"What is it?" he asked quickly.
"Listen!" she said.
He stood there, her hand still on his arm, and a second or two later caught the sound which she had previously heard. Faintly and thinned by long distance it came, a long curdling cry.
"What——" she broke off as the cry sounded afresh, and he answered the unfinished question.
"The hunt-cry of a wolf calling up the pack. There is nothing to fear. It is miles away."
"Oh," she said, "I am not afraid, I was only wondering what it was."
Her hand was still on his arm, and suddenly their eyes met. Something in the grey of hers pierced him like a stab of flame. A fierce joy sprang up within him, filling him with a wild intoxication. His own eyes burned. He saw the girl's gladness glow in her glance, beheld the warm blood surge in her face, and fervent words leaped to his lips, clamouring for utterance. Almost he was overcome, then Helen removed her hand, and turned as the blood cry of gathering wolves broke through the stillness. He did not speak, and Helen herself was silent as they turned towards the cabin, but each had seen deep into the other's heart, and had felt the call that is the strongest call on earth, the call of kind to kind, or mate to mate.
Back in the cabin, the man turned feverishly to the task of snow-shoe making on which he had been engaged. Through his mind with monotonous reiteration beat a phrase that he had read long ago, where, he had forgotten. "My salvation is in work, my salvation is in work!" He worked like a man possessed, without looking up, whilst the girl busied herself with unnecessary tasks. She also knew what he knew, and she held him in a new respect for his silence, understanding the reason therefor, and presently when her leaping heart had steadied a little she began to talk, on indifferent topics, desiring to break a silence that was full of constraint.
"I saw you looking at the traps there, this morning. Are you thinking of using them?"
"Yes," he answered, "I am going to start a trapping line. It will give me something to do; and the walk will excercise my leg. If the owner of the cabin returns we shall be able to pay him rent with the pelts I take."
"Isn't it time he was here now, if he is coming?"
"Yes! But he may be delayed."
"Or he may not intend to return. He may have found a new locality for his operations."
"When he went away he meant to return, or why did he leave his traps here?"
"You think he will come back then?"
"I hope so!"
"And when he comes you will lure him to take us to Fort Malsun?"
"That is my idea," replied Stane, bending over the webbing.
"You are anxious to get away from here, then?"
"I am thinking of you," he answered quickly. "I know what a full winter in the North means."
"And if I get to Fort Malsun, do you think I shall escape the winter?"
"No, but you will have company."
"I have company now," she retorted smilingly, "and believe me I do not feel at all lonely."
"I was thinking you would have the factor's wife for——"
"Pooh!" was the challenging reply. "Do you think a woman cannot live without women?"
He offered no answer to the question, feeling that they were in the danger zone again; and after a moment deliberately turned the conversation backward.
"If I have luck with the traps, you may be able to have a set of furs for a memento of your sojourn here!"
"Oh!" she laughed back, "if that is the only memento I am to have——"
"Yes?" he asked.
For a moment she did not speak, and when she did there was provocation in her voice. "Well, I shall be disappointed, that is all."
He did not ask why. He knew; and his very silence told Helen that he knew, and for a moment both of them were conscious of the surging of that elemental force which had made itself felt out in the forest.
Then the stillness was broken by a sound outside. Both of them heard it, and listened carefully.
"Crunch! crunch! crunch!"
Some one on snow-shoes was walking round the cabin. Whoever it was had halted by the door. Was he coming in? Half a minute passed during which they waited without moving, then Stane flashed a look at his companion. She was leaning forward, a look of curiosity and expectancy on her face, but not a single sign of fear.
He rose slowly from his seat, put the unfinished snow-shoe on the table, and crept towards the door. Whoever the intruder was he had not moved, and Stane had an odd fancy that he was listening there on the other side of the rough timbers. He meant to surprise him, but was disappointed in his purpose, for when he reached the door it was to find that the wooden bar had been dropped in position by Helen when they had re-entered the cabin. The bar fitted tightly across the door, and though he tried his best to move it without noise he failed. The bar stuck, and when at last he threw the door open, and stepped outside he knew that he was too late. He looked into the gathering night. His first swift glance was towards the dark shadows under the trees. There was no one there. He swung round towards the lake, and dimly through the darkness descried a figure retreating rapidly northwards. He looked closely, then suffering something of a surprise, gave a quick hail.
The retreating figure never paused, and never looked round, but kept on in a bee-line over the untrodden snow. Stane knew that it was useless to follow, and the bitter cold was already pinching his face and hands and chilling him to the bone. He turned and hurried into the hut, flinging the door to behind him, and as he did so, Helen rose to her feet.
"You saw him?" she cried in some excitement.
"No. I saw her!" answered Stane. "It was a woman."
Helen's surprise was as complete as his own had been. "A woman! Are you sure?"
"I do not think that I can possibly have been mistaken."
"But who—and why should she come here only to run away?"
"I do not know. I cannot guess, but when I went to the door, I had no idea that whoever was outside was standing there listening."
"It is very mysterious," said Helen thoughtfully, then suddenly something occurred to her, and she looked quickly at Stane as if she were going to speak. He caught the glance.
"You were about to say something?"
"Yes," answered Helen giving a curt little laugh. "But I think I will keep it to myself. It was only a quite silly idea that occurred to me."
Something in her manner, the curtness of her laugh, her way of speaking, puzzled Stane, and moved him to press for an answer. "Never mind the silliness," he said. "Tell me?"
"It really is not worth while," she answered with a little laugh, and notwithstanding the laughter, Stane knew that it was useless to press her further, and desisted from doing so.
For a little time he sat silent, staring into the stove, wondering what was in his companion's mind, whilst the girl herself followed the odd thought which had occurred to her. Was the woman who had twice ventured into the neighbourhood of the cabin without revealing herself, Miskodeed? It was very possible, for what other woman was there likely to be in the locality who could have sufficient interest in them as to visit them in such fashion? As she pursued the idea Ainley's suggestions came back to her with hateful force, and she remembered the Indian girl's attitude after Stane's departure. Other things she remembered and her mind echoed the words which had awakened the man's anger at the time they were uttered.
"Behold an idyll of the land!"
She remembered the girl's wild beauty, her manifest interest in Stane, and once again she was conscious of the hot flame of jealousy in her heart. It stung her to think that possibly this man, whom she had learned to love, had an interest in this girl, who though no better than a savage was rarely beautiful. She laughed in sudden bitterness and scorn of herself, and at the laugh Stane turned quickly towards her.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Just a thought!" she answered easily, though her face flushed.
Stane did not ask her what the thought was. He was conscious of something enigmatic in her attitude, and her evident reserve for a second time prevented him from pursuing the matter further. He waited a moment, then he uttered the thought which had been in his own mind.
"When the storm is over and there is a crust on the snow we will go exploring together. We may find the camp from which this woman comes. If the air keeps still through the night, it will be quite easy to follow her trail in the snow."
Helen looked at him with eyes half-veiled under her long lashes. Did he suspect who the intruder was?
"You are very anxious to find this woman of mystery?" she asked.
"Not particularly so," he laughed in reply, "but I shall be very glad to find out who our neighbours are, and to learn whether we can secure any help from them."
The girl was reassured by the unconcerned answer. It seemed clear now that Miskodeed had not even occurred to his mind, and the reserve in her manner disappeared.
"You think we shall be dependent on their help?" she asked. "You are afraid that we shall not weather through by ourselves?"
Stane laughed again. "Oh no! I have no fears on that score; but it will depend on their possession of dogs whether we have to camp here all winter or not; for we could not possibly make Fort Malsun without them, particularly as I do not know the overland trail. Not that the knowledge is really essential now, since judging from the fact that Ainley went down the lake it seems likely that there is a way to Malsun river in that direction. But we simply must have dogs."
"Then in the morning we follow the mysterious one's trail?"
"Yes, if there is no wind or snow in the night."
But in the night there was both wind and snow and on the morrow the woman's trail was quite obliterated and the snow on the lake made travelling impossible. Helen Yardely noted the fact without regret.
"There will be no exploring party today," she said, "so I will go and look at my rabbit snares."
"And I will accompany you," answered Stane, "the walk in the snow will help to take the stiffness out of my leg."
They set out together, but had gone but a little way when the girl gave a sharp "Hist!"
"What is it?" he asked quietly, thinking that she had seen game of some kind.
"There is a man in those bushes in front of us," she answered in a whisper.
"A man. Are you sure?"
"I am quite sure. I saw him slip across that open space there. He has a gun."
The bushes she had indicated were about three hundred yards away, and Stane examined them keenly. He could see nothing, however, and at the conclusion of his scrutiny he said: "I will go forward. You remain here, Miss Yardely."
"No," she answered. "I will go with you, I would rather."
They advanced together, Stane with his rifle ready for action, since a presence that avoided them might well prove to be an inimical one. He watched the bushes steadily as they advanced but saw nothing and when they reached them, thinking that the girl had been mistaken, he thrust his way through them. Then he stood quite still with an anxious look upon his face. There was no one behind the bushes, but there were the marks of moccasined feet in the snow. He looked down at them, then followed the direction of them with his eyes, and stared into the forest, and as he did so, in its dim recesses, thought he saw the figure of a man slip behind a tree. He still waited and watched, but the figure did not re-appear, then Helen who had walked round the bushes spoke.
"Therewassome one here!"
"Yes," he answered, "and whoever it was did not wish to encounter us. He has made his way into the wood."
"What do you think it means?"
"I do not know," he answered, "but I am afraid that there are hostile Indians about us."
"You think they are watching the cabin—watching us, for a chance to attack?"
"It has that appearance," answered Stane quietly.
The girl was silent for a moment, then she gave a little laugh that had in it a ring of courage. "I am not afraid, but I wish we had another rifle."
Stane flashed at her a glance of admiration, then gave another long look into the silent wood which now seemed full of menace.
"Perhaps we had better return to the cabin."
"No," answered the girl stubbornly. "We will look at the snares first. I'm not going to be frightened from my dinner by a wandering Indian."
And they went forward together.