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She looked at him with some gratitude. Most men wouldn’t have thought of it. Nodding her thanks she opened the thing and was compelled to pull out various articles before she could get at her comb and brush. Her movements were still very nervous. It was embarrassing to be there before that man with one’s hair all undone and awry. Something fell from her hand, striking the edge of the table and toppling to the floor. There was a deafening explosion and the shack was full of the dense smoke of black powder. When Madge recovered from her terror the young man, looking very pale, had bent down and picked up the fallen weapon. For a moment she thought there was a strange look in his eyes.
“I––I’m so sorry!” she exclaimed.
“If––if you were to hit a man with that thing he’d get real mad,” he said, repeating an age-worn joke. “At any rate I’m glad you were not hurt. Rather unexpected, wasn’t it? I really think you’d better let me take the other shells out. It’s a nasty little cheap weapon and, I should judge, quite an unsafe bit of hardware for a lady to handle. Whoever gave you that thing ought to be spanked. But––but, then, of course you didn’t know it was loaded.”
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“I––I did know it was loaded!” cried Madge. “I––I had the man load it for me! I––I thought it might protect me from insult, perhaps, or––or let me take matters in my own hands, if need be. I––I didn’t know what sort of place I would be coming to or––or what sort of man would––would receive me! I––I felt safer with it!”
Maigan was still ferreting out corners of the room, having leaped up at the shot as if the idea had come to him that some rat or chipmunk must lie dead somewhere. There nearly always was something to pick up when his master fired.
“Keep still, boy!” ordered the latter. “I think we’d better count that as a miss. I’ll wait outside until you’ve fixed yourself up, Miss Nelson, and are ready to go. I’ll have to hitch up Maigan first. As soon as you come out I’ll wrap you in my blankets; you’ll be quite comfortable. We haven’t very far to go, anyway.”
“Thank you––it––it won’t take me a minute,” she answered, without looking at him.
She had discovered in a corner of the shack a bit of looking-glass he used to shave by, and stood before it, never noticing that he made a rather long job of drawing on his heavy fur122coat. He went out with his dog and got the sled ready, with a wry look upon his face. Then, as there was nothing more to do, he sat down upon the rough bench that stood near the door. He winced and made a grimace as his hand went up to his shoulder.
“The little fool,” he told himself. “She seems to have been loaded for bear. Glad it was a thirty-two instead of a forty-five Colt. I didn’t think it was anything, just a bad scratch, after the first sting of it, but it feels like fire and brimstone now. It’s an infernal nuisance. Good Lord! Suppose she’d plugged herself instead of me. That would have been a fix for fair!”
This idea evidently horrified him. He had a vision of blood and tears and screams, of having to rush off to Carcajou to telegraph for the nearest doctor. Perhaps people would even have suspected him. He saw Madge with her big dark-rimmed eyes and that perfectly wonderful hair, lying dead or dying on the floor of his shack. It was utterly gruesome, unspeakable, and a strong shiver passed over him.
“But I wonder who the deuce she was going to shoot with that thing?” he finally asked himself. “Oh, she must be crazy, the poor little thing! It’s really too bad!”
“I’m glad you were not hurt. Rather unexpected, wasn’t it”
“I’m glad you were not hurt. Rather unexpected, wasn’t it”
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He then thought of what a fool he had been to give her back that gimcrack pistol. She probably had more shells. He must contrive to get them away from her. There was no saying what an insane person might do.
“I wish Stefan would turn up soon,” he cogitated. “I’d give a lot to find out what he knows about her. It was mighty funny his never stopping here for a minute.”
124CHAPTER VIDeeper in the Wilderness
Within the shack Madge was now ready to start. Hugo’s big woolen cap was pulled down well over her ears and she again wore a coat much too large for her, a thing which, in other days long gone, might have made her laugh.
As she moved to the door she hesitated. Where was she going to? What object was there in moving there or anywhere else? The wild dream that had come upon her in the big city was dispelled and nothing on earth remained but the end that must come in some way or other. Of course she had no desire to remain in this shack, but neither had she any desire for anything else. What was the use of anything she might do? By this time she was stranded high and dry among breakers innumerable, with never the slightest outlook towards safety. The few dollars in her pockets offered no possibility of return. This man might give her enough to get back, if she asked him. It was the least he could do. But125she would rather have torn out her tongue than ask him for money. And it would only be going back to that dreadful city in which she had suffered so much. No, it was unthinkable! Better by far for her to lie down somewhere in that great forest and die. And now she was about to see more strangers and remain over night in new surroundings. Where would she drift to after that?
She made a gesture of despair. Her down-hanging arms straightened rigidly at her side, with the fists clenched as when one seeks to be brave in the face of impending agony. Her head was thrown back and her eyes nearly closed. In that position she remained for a moment, her brain whirling, her head on fire with a burning pain. Then the tension relaxed a little and she cast another look about her, without seeing anything, after which she pushed the door open and stepped out upon the crunching snow.
Hugo rose at once, albeit somewhat stiffly, and spoke to the dog who stood up, with head turned to watch the proceedings.
“I don’t think I’d better take the trunk on this trip,” he explained. “It would make a rather heavy load for just one dog. We’ll take your bag, of course, and I can bring the trunk over to-morrow morning. It will be126perfectly safe there by the road. We haven’t any thieves in this country, that I know of. Now will you please sit down there, in the middle. Maigan will pull you all right. I’ll get the blankets.”
“But––couldn’t I walk? You said it was only a mile. I––I think I could manage that,” ventured Madge, dully.
“I don’t think you could,” he answered. “I’m sure you’re quite played out. In some places the snow is bound to be soft. I could give you a pair of snowshoes but you wouldn’t know how to use them and they’d tire you to death. You’ve already had a pretty hard day, I know. Maigan won’t mind it in the least. He’d take the trunk, too, readily enough, but that would make slow going.”
She obeyed. What did she care? What difference could it make? He wrapped the blankets over her, after she had sat down on an old wolfskin he had covered the sled with. After this he took a long line attached to the toboggan and passed it over his right shoulder, pulling at the side of the dog, who toiled on briskly. When they reached the tote-road it seemed rougher than ever and the country wilder. To her right Madge could see the river that was nothing but a winding jumble of snow-capped rocks and grinding ice, with127here and there patches of inky-looking water, where the ice-crust had split asunder. Also she dully noted places where the water seemed to froth up over the surface, boiling in great suds from which rose, straight up in the still air, a cloud of heavy gray vapor. The cold felt even more intense than earlier in the day. It impressed the girl as if some tremendous force were bearing down mightily upon the world and holding it in thrall. With the lowering of the sun the shadows had grown longer. After a time the slight sound of the man’s snowshoes over the crackling snow, of the scraping toboggan, of the panting dog, began to seem to Madge like some sort of desecration of a stillness in which man was nothing and only an eternal and vengeful power reigned supreme. In spite of the patches of sunlight filtering down through branches or glaring upon the river there was now something dismal in all this, and she began to feel the cold again, penetrating, relentless, evil in its might.
They had gone about half way when, on the top of a slight rise, both dog and man stopped for a moment’s rest. The latter looked quite exhausted. His face was set hard, in an expression she could not fathom.
“Really, I think I could walk,” said the128girl again. “There––there’s no reason you should work so hard for me. And––and you look terribly tired.”
“Oh, no!” he disclaimed, hastily. “I––I could pull you all by myself if––well, it’s only a short distance away now, and Maigan is doing nearly all the work, anyway. I––I don’t think anything I can do for you can quite make up for all that you seem to have gone through.”
He looked at her, very gravely, as he sat down upon a fallen log, close at hand, after clearing off some snow with a sweep of his mitt. There was something very sad, she thought, an expression of pain upon his face which she noted and which led her into a very natural error. She was compelled to consider these things as evidences of regret, of a conscience that was beginning to irk him badly. Her head bent down till she was staring into her lap; she felt that tears were once more dangerously near.
No thought came to her of appealing to this man, of suing for pity and charity, but she began to speak, the words coming from a full heart that gave her pain were spoken in low tones, nearly as if she had been talking to herself.
“I––I’m thinking of the boys who were129stoning the frog,” she began, haltingly. “You remember. It was fun for them but death to the frog. I––I think a good many things work that way in the world, don’t––don’t you, Mr. Ennis? You––you don’t really look like––like a very bad man. If––if you had a sister or mother you’d––you’d probably be kind to them. What––what do you think of it yourself, honestly? A––a girl, who’s a fool, of course, but after all just a girl, is dying of loneliness and misery in a big city. She––she can’t stand it any more, not––not for another day. And then she finds that paper and like––like an utter fool she answers that advertisement. It––it looked like a bare chance of––of being able to keep body and soul together, and––and remain honest and decent, which––which is a hard enough thing for a girl to do, in––in some places. And then the man answers back. She––I never expected he would, but he did, and he offered all sorts of wonderful things that––that looked like heaven itself to––to a hungry failure of a girl to whom life had become too heavy a burden to bear. And––and so she answers that letter and––and tries to tell the truth about herself, and says that––that she is prepared to carry out her part of the bargain if––if the man has spoken truly of130himself––if––if he can respect her––treat her like a woman who––who is ready to do her best to––to deserve a little kindness and consideration. And he tells her again to come––to come as soon as possible, and––and there was nothing to detain her for a moment. The city had been too cruel––too utterly cruel. And then she comes here and finds that––that it was all lies––wicked lies––I’m sorry, it’s the only word I can use.”
Hugo was staring at her, open-mouthed, but before he could utter a word she began again:
“The man had never meant it, of course––he wasn’t awaiting her at all, as he had promised––and when she finally comes to him he speaks coldly, cynically, denying his words, pretending he knows nothing. It––it’s a rather clumsy way of getting out of it, seems to me. Anyway he saw that his joke had been carried too far. It––it hasn’t proved such a very good one, has it? It––it has turned out to be pretty poor fun. I––I dare say I deserve it all. It––it was awful folly on my part, I see it now, and––and I’m ashamed, dreadfully ashamed––I feel the redness mounting to––to the very roots of my hair––and it overwhelms me. Don’t––don’t you feel something of––of the same sort, or––or131do you still think the joke was a good one?”
She had grown rather excited and it was quite true that a deep blush was now mantling her face. In her halting speech––in the words that had come slowly at first, and then had flowed more rapidly, there had been wounded pride beside the deep resentment and the pain.
“Do––do you really believe such a thing?” answered the man, wincing again. “You speak of something that is an abomination, that would stink in a decent man’s nostrils. And––and you speak of shame! Do you think such a word could express all that a man would be overwhelmed with if he had done such a thing? Great Heavens! Miss Nelson, a man having once committed such a crime would be humiliated for the rest of his life, it seems to me. It would be an unpardonable sin for which there could be no forgiveness, none surely on the part of the woman, and none that the man could ever grant himself. It––it surely isn’t possible that any such thing has occurred, that any man could so lower himself beneath all the dirt that his feet have ever trodden.”
He spoke strongly, his face now also high in color, his voice tremulous and indignant,132his hard right fist clenched till the arm vibrated with the strain.
Madge looked at him again. For a moment his tone had been convincing and she had nearly believed that he spoke the truth. But the evidence against him was too strong.
“That––that big Stefan, your friend, the man who says that you saved his life, knew that I was coming,” she faltered, her voice shaking while her body felt limp with the infinite discouragement that had returned to her in full. “He brought you my message, at least he told me so. What––what is the use of my saying anything more? I––I think we might as well be going on, if––if you and your dog are rested. He––he looks like a decent fellow, Maigan does. There are things a dog wouldn’t do, I’m sure.”
“Miss Nelson, as God is my judge, I’m guiltless in this matter,” the man’s voice rang out.
“Go on, Maigan, mush on!” he called, and leaned forward on the rope, passed over one shoulder. Her last words had brought a moment of anger and indignation. Save for the few words he had uttered he felt it useless to protest his innocence, and the notion of her insanity returned to him, strongly. But those were strange things she had said about Stefan133and that message. As soon as possible he would go over to Carcajou and interview his friend the Swede. The girl’s disordered mind must have distorted something that he said. He began to wonder whether there was any truth at all about her story, whether she really came from New York, whether she was not some poor creature escaped from some place for the care of the insane. But then how had she got hold of his name and how had she ever heard of Roaring River? The more he puzzled over these problems the more tangled they appeared to be.
“I dare say I’ll find out about it soon enough,” he told himself, impatiently, for the pain he suffered began to grow worse with every step, and an unaccountable weariness had come over him. That thing on his shoulder must be a mere scratch, he tried to persuade himself, in spite of the sharp pangs it gave him. Manlike he grew more obstinate as his strength began to fail, and pulled harder, with the sweat now running down his clammy forehead and freezing on his face.
Maigan, also, was bending hard to his task, and they went along steadily and rapidly. The toboggan was crackling and slithering over the snow upon which the dark indigo shadows were throwing uncanny designs.134The track was smooth and level now and the dog could manage very well alone, so that Hugo pulled no longer. Once, as he chanced to stumble, the girl thought she heard a groan from him. She began to wish that she had been able to believe him, but it was utterly impossible, although she suddenly found it in her heart to pity him, to extenuate the abomination of his conduct. Why that last sacrilegious lie he had uttered? The man was suffering; it looked as if the iron were entering his soul. Oh! the pity of it! If he had only acknowledged his offence and begged her pardon she might perhaps have forgiven. A moment later, however, the grim outlook before her presented itself again. There were two things for her to choose from; one was that fitly named Roaring River along whose bank the road wound its snaky trail and the other consisted in the cheap little pistol in her bag. Well, there might be comfort after all in this wild land, upon the scented fallen needles of the pines or under that pure white ice. Her features, which for a moment had become stony and hard, now softened again. It was best to endeavor to harbor no more thoughts of contempt and hatred when one’s own soul might soon be suing for forgiveness.
They topped another rise of ground beyond135which there was a hollow, a tiny valley nestled among great firs and poplars and birches. In the middle of it Madge saw another and much larger shack. It might really have been called a house, but for its being made of logs. A film of smoke was rising straight up in the still air, from a chimney built of rough stones, and some dogs began to bark loudly. A woman came out, with a child hanging to her skirts, and shaded her eyes with her hand while she scolded the animals, who slunk away slowly.
“Bonjour,” she called out, cheerfully. “Ah! It is Monsieur Hugo! How you do, sare? Glad for see you! Come along quick. It ees cole again, terrible cole.”
For a second she stared at the young woman on the toboggan, but her civility came at once uppermost and she smiled pleasantly, and rushed up to help Madge arise, brushing off some of the snow that had fallen on her from the trees.
“Come inside quick. I have it good hot in de house. You all perished wid dat cole, Mees. Now you get varm again and I make teatout de suite.”
She had seized Madge’s hands in her own big and capable ones, with the never-failing hospitality and friendliness of the wilderness,136and led her indoors at once. Hugo let Maigan loose, with a word of warning, for the other dogs had begun to circle about him jealously, and growled a little, probably for the sake of form, for they took good care to keep out of reach of his long fangs. They had tried him once before and knew that he was their master. Hugo, thankful that the journey was ended, took up the girl’s bag and followed her into the house, after he had taken off his snowshoes, a job he accomplished with some difficulty.
“Mrs. Papineau,” he began, “this young lady came over to my place, a couple of hours ago, and––and there’s been some––some mistake. She thought there was a village here, I believe. She only expects to remain with you till to-morrow, I think, and till then I will be ever so grateful if you will make her as comfortable as possible. I’m afraid she’s dreadfully tired and cold. I expect to return in the morning to take her back to Carcajou, unless––unless she would prefer to rest a day or two here.”
“Ver ’appy to see de lady,” declared Mrs. Papineau, heartily. “Tak’ off you coat, Monsieur Hugo, an’ sit here by de fire. Hey! Baptiste, you bring more big piece of birch. Colette, put kettle on for bile water qvick.137Tak’ dis seat, lady. I pull off dem blanket. You no need dem more. Turriple cole now. Las’ night we ’ear de wolfs ’untin’ along dem ’ardwood ridges, back of de river; it ees always sign of big cole. And de river she crack awful, and de trees dey split like guns shoot. Glad you come an’ get varm, Mees.”
Madge looked about her, after she had smiled at the woman in thanks. For the second time that day she had entered a home of kindly and well-disposed people that seemed to be built of an altogether different clay from that which composed the folk of the big city. In Stefan’s home the atmosphere had been gentle, one of earnest, quiet toil, with the simple accompaniment of a kindly religious belief according to the Lutheran persuasion. In the dwelling she had now entered, of fervent French Canadians, she noted the vivid chromo of a departed pope facing the still gaudier representation of the British Royal family, if the printed legend could be believed. They were shown in all the colors of the rainbow, as were also some saints whose glaring portraits hung on either side of the door, surmounted by dried palms reminiscent of Easter festivals. There seemed to be any number of children, from an infant lying in a homemade cradle of boards,138one of which displayed an advertisement of soap, to a bashful youth who looked at Hugo as if he worshipped him and a freckled, gawky and friendly-faced girl of fifteen who stood around, evidently delighted to see people and anxious to be civil to them.
And this welcome she had received seemed to be characteristic of all these folks living in the back of beyond. Everywhere she had met friendliness; people had seemed actually eager to help; they smiled as if life had been a thing of joy in which the good things must be distributed far and near and enjoyed by all. They seemed ready to share their possessions with strangers that chanced within their gates. It was a spirit intensely restful, consoling, bringing peace to one’s heart. It gave the girl a brief vision of something that was heavenly. She felt that she could so easily have made her home in this amazing region that opened its arms and actually welcomed new faces. But the thought came to her that she had only been vouchsafed a fleeting glance at it and to gaze, as Moses did of old, upon a Promised Land she could never really enter.
“It is no need for to h’ask, Monsieur Hugo,” Madge heard the woman saying. “Ve do h’all ve can, sure! It ees a gladness to see de yong lady an’ heem pretty face, all139red vid de cole. Come by de fire, mees. Celestine ’ere she pull aff your beeg Dutch stockin’. Dey no belong you, sure. Colette, push heem chair near for de lady. Hippolyte, put couple steeks now on ze fire. Mees, I ’ope you mak’ yourself to home now. Monsieur Hugo, you stop for to h’eat a bite vid us. Ve haf’ in de shed still one big quarter from deorignal, de beeg mose vat my man he shoot two veeks ago. Und dere pleantypatates, pleanty pork, all you vant.”
“No, thank you ever so much, I––I think I’d better be going. It will be dark pretty soon. I know perfectly well that you will take excellent care of Miss Nelson and so I think I’ll say good-by now.”
Some of the children trooped around him, disappointed, and Mrs. Papineau came nearer, eying him curiously. Suddenly her keen eyes caught something and she pointed with a finger.
“Vat de mattaire vid you h’arm?” she asked, excitedly. “’Ow you get ’urted?”
“Oh! That! That’s nothing,” he answered, drawing back. “’Tisn’t worth bothering about. Good-night!”
“You no be one beeg fool, Monsieur Hugo!” she ordered him, masterfully. “Now you sit down an’ let me look heem arm right140avay quick. Ven de cole strike heem he get bad sure, dat h’arm.”
In spite of his objections she laid violent hands on him, insisting on pulling off his coat, whereupon a dark patch had spread. She also drew off the heavy sweater he wore underneath it, which was stained even more deeply. When she sought to roll up the sleeve of his flannel shirt it would not go up high enough, but the remedy was close at hand, in the form of a pair of scissors, and she swiftly ripped up a seam. On the outer part of the shoulder she revealed a rather large and jagged wound that was all smeared with blood, which still oozed from it slowly.
“Who go an’ shoot you?” she asked angrily. “I see de ’ole in de coat an’ de sweater. I know some one shoot. Vat for he shoot?”
“Well, it was just a silly little accident with a pistol,” he acknowledged with much embarrassment. “It––it won’t be anything after it’s washed off. It feels all right enough and I wish you wouldn’t bother about it. I’ll attend to it after I get home. It––it’s stopped hurting now.”
But he was compelled to submit to the washing of his injury and to the application of some sort of a dressing which Mrs. Papineau appeared to put on rather skilfully.141Wounds of all sorts are but too common in the wilderness, unfortunately, and doctors few and far between. The children had crowded around him, looking in awe, and their mother kept ordering them away. Madge had risen from her seat and looked at the injury, horrified and trembling. The man had never said a word when that bullet had found its billet in his shoulder, and yet it must have hurt him dreadfully. He––he might have been killed, owing to her clumsiness, she reflected in consternation. And now he said nothing to explain how it had happened––he actually seemed to be trying to shield her.
“I––I’m dreadfully sorry,” said the girl, impulsively. “It––it was all my fault, because I let the revolver fall and it went off. But I didn’t know he was hurt. He never told me, and he insisted on pulling at that sled, with his dog.”
“Yes, it was just a little accident,” admitted Hugo, “and we’re making altogether too much fuss about it. It really doesn’t amount to anything, Miss Nelson, and it feels splendidly now. I’m ever so much obliged to you, Mrs. Papineau. And so I’ll say good-night. I hope you’ll rest well, Miss Nelson. I’ll be here in good time to-morrow, never fear.”
He shook hands with the housewife, who142took care to wipe her own upon her apron in preparation for the ceremony. To the children he bade a comprehensive farewell, after which he turned again to Madge, advanced a step and then hesitated. He had doubtless meant to shake hands with her also but, at the last moment, probably feared a rebuff. At any rate he nodded, bringing a smile to his features, and opened the door into the bitter cold. After he had put on his snowshoes again and hitched up Maigan to the toboggan he disappeared into the darkness. For an instant Madge listened, but she heard no sound. Everything was still outside, but for the rare crackings of ice and timber. Seeking her chair again she leaned forward now with her elbows resting on her knees and her face held in the hollow of her hands. At this time a little child came to her and touched her arm. She looked at it. The little girl had long straight black hair, great beady eyes and the prettiest mouth imaginable. The cheeks were like red apples. She lifted the little thing to her knees and the child nestled against her bosom. Madge now looked at the woman, busily engaged with her few pots and pans, and a feeling of envy came to her, a longing for the sweet and kindly motherhood that was becoming a fierce craving for that beautiful143peace which appeared to have become so firmly established in these little houses of the frozen wilds. She had elsewhere seen love of children, little ones petted and made much of, husbands coming home to a cheery welcome, but it had not seemed the same. The women so often seemed weary, pale, and worked beyond their strength. Most of them became querulous at times, apt to speak loudly of intolerable wrongs or of ill-doings of neighbors across the dark hallways. Here it looked as if quiet order, cheerful obedience, willingness on the part of all, were ingrained in the people. Indeed, it was ever so different.
By this time the rough table was set and Mrs. Papineau deplored the fact that Hugo had not consented to remain.
“Heem is ’urted more as vat he tink,” she confided to the girl. “To-morrow somebody go to de leetle shack an’ fin’ ’ow he is. One dog heem not much nurse, eh?”
These words made Madge feel uncomfortable. Once or twice the idea had come to her that such a man ought to be punished, that he should be made to suffer, that he deserved anything that could make him realize how heinous his conduct had been. But now she had a vague impression that she was sorry for him, that it was on her account that he had144refused to stay and had gone out at once in the gathering darkness that had come so swiftly. But in spite of these thoughts and of all the emotions she had undergone Madge felt again the besetting pangs of fierce hunger. The slices of moose-meat sizzling in the pan filled the place with appetizing odor. The mother placed her brood at the long table but helped her guest first, and plentifully. How these people ate and expected others to eat! Never could they have heard of the scanty meals of working girls, of the cups of blue milk, of bitter tea, or of the little rolls and bits of meat purchased at so-called delicatessen stores. The girl ate hungrily and the meal was soon over, but as soon as it was finished the terrible weariness came upon her again and she was thankful to lie down upon a hard mattress of ticking filled with the aromatic twigs of balsam fir, beneath heavy blankets and a wonderful robe of hareskins.
Before she could fall asleep, however, the experiences of her crowded day passed weirdly before her eyes; yet her despair seemed to be contending with a strange feeling that was certainly not hope. It was perhaps merely a weak acquiescence to conditions that her immense fatigue and wearied brain made her accept, dully, stupidly, since she had145lost all power of resistance. It was something like the enforced peace of a wounded thing that has just been able to crawl back into its burrow and has found the rest its body craves for.
In the midst of so large a family one could not aspire to the lone possession of a bed. The little girl she had held in her lap had been placed beside her, not without many apologies from Mrs. Papineau. In the darkness she could feel the little warm body nestling against her, and hear the soft and regular breathing. It was comforting since it brought a feeling that the little one protected her, in some strange way, and was leading her in paths of darkness with a little warm hand and a heart that was unafraid and confident of the morrow’s shining sun. Very soon there came a restless sleep which at first was filled with uncanny visions, from which she awakened once or twice in fear. But at last came entire surcease from suffering as the brain that had been overwrought ceased to toil.
In the meanwhile Hugo had slowly made his way back to his shack. If his arm hurt he had now little consciousness of it. The thing that disturbed him most was that girl’s unshakable belief in his villainy. Was she really insane? He had had no opportunity to communicate that thought to Mrs. Papineau.146But then, after her arrival, she had seemed so absolutely rational in all that she had said and done that the idea had, for the time being, passed away from his mind. And what if, at least in part, she had spoken the truth? What if some amazing distortion of reality had truly and honestly given her these beliefs, through evidence that must be all against him? The words she had spoken before starting for the Papineaus’, and the further ones uttered on the tote-road, while he rested, held a drama so poignant that it struck a chill to his heart. She might, after all, have been speaking the truth as she had been misled into believing it! But then there must be some amazing conspiracy at work, some foul doings whose objects utterly escaped him and which left him staring at the little lamp now burning on his table, as if it might perhaps have revealed some key to the amazing problem.
Was it possible that a weak and slender woman could actually be compelled to carry on a fight against hunger and illness, with never a friend on earth, until she was finally so beaten down to the ground that her soul cried in agony for relief? According to her she had seized upon the only resource open to her, in which there was but a dim outlook147towards safety. Then she had found herself the victim of a hellish jest, apparently, or of a conspiracy so base that one sickened at the mere thought of it. There was no doubt that those big eyes of the suffering woman haunted the man, while the accents of her despair still rang in his ears and distressed him. The expression of the crucified had been on that pale face of hers, which had reddened so deeply when a sense of shame had overwhelmed her. It was as if he had beheld a drowning woman and been utterly prevented from extending a saving hand to her. More strongly he began to feel that some one had surely sinned against that woman, and feelings of vengefulness, none the less bitter for all their vagueness, began to obsess him.
Once, on his way back from Papineau’s, Maigan had pressed close to him, as if for safety. From the great hardwood ridges of his right he had heard a long and familiar sound. It was the one the Frenchwoman had mentioned, the fitful baying of wolves on the track of a deer. Picturing to himself the overtaking and pulling down of the victim, he shivered, hardened though he was to the unending tragedies of the wilderness, and hurried along faster, although he knew he stood in no danger.
148
When he had reached his shack by the Roaring River he had entered it and lighted the small lamp. It chanced to be the last match in his pocket that he used for the purpose. There was no need to open the big package that stood on a shelf, since he remembered having left two or three small boxes in his hunting bag. He went over to the corner where he had left it and bent over, somewhat painfully. As he lifted it from the floor he saw an envelope and picked it up. It was addressed to him. Tearing it open he stared at the words “Starting this evening. Please have some one meet me. Madge Nelson.”
With clenched fist he struck the table a blow that startled Maigan, who barked, leaping up to his feet.
“It’s all right, boy,” said his master. “Men are pretty big fools, excepting when they’re nothing but infernal cowards. I tell you, boy, some one will have to pay heavily for this. Good Lord! Who would have thought of such a thing? I––I think I must be getting crazy! But no––she’s over there at Papineau’s, and some one wrote to her, and everything she said was the plain truth, as she understood it. Great Heavens! It’s no wonder she looked at me as if I’d been the dirt under her feet. That thing’s got to be149straightened out, somehow, but first I must see Stefan, of course.”
For a moment a wild idea came to him of going over to Carcajou in the darkness. Such an undertaking was by no means particularly difficult for a strong man, who knew the way, but suddenly he realized that he was played out and would never reach his destination that night. This irked his soul, unbearably, until he had recourse to his old briar pipe. In spite of the fact that his arm was beginning to hurt him badly he sat near the stove, where he had kindled a fire again, thinking hard. He was racking his brain to seek some motive that could have impelled any one he knew to play such a frightful joke. One after another he named every man he had ever known or even merely met in Carcajou and the surrounding, sparsely settled country. But they were nearly all friends of his, he knew, or at least had no reason to bear him ill-will. There was one chap he had had quite a scrap with one day, over a dog-fight in which the man had urged his animal first and then kicked Maigan when he saw his brute having by far the worst of it. But soon afterwards they had shaken hands and the matter had been forgotten. Besides, the fellow was now working in Sudbury, far east down the line.150No, that wasn’t a trail worth following. The more he thought the matter over the more utterly mysterious it seemed to become. But of one thing he was determined. He was going to move heaven and earth to get at the bottom of all this, and when he found out who was responsible the fur would fly.
It was perhaps fortunate for her that the idea of the red-headed girl in old McGurn’s store never entered his head for a moment. She had always been friendly, perhaps even a little forward in her attentions to him, though he had always paid her rather scant notice. He had never been more than decently civil to her.
When he sought his bunk, an hour or two later, a long time elapsed before he could fall asleep. It seemed to him that his head throbbed a good deal, and that shoulder was growing mightily uncomfortable. He hoped it would be better in the morning. Finally he fell asleep, restlessly. Upon the floor, stretched out upon an old deerskin close to the stove, Maigan was sleeping more profoundly, though now and then he whined and sighed in his slumber, perhaps dreaming of hares and porcupines. A cricket ensconced beneath the flat stones under the stove began to chirp, shrilly. Outside a big-horned owl151was hooting, dismally, while the big falls continued to roar out their eternal song. And thus the long night wore out till a flaming crimson and copper dawn came up, with flashing rays that stabbed the great rolling clouds while the trees kept on cracking in the intense frost and the ice in the big pool churned and groaned under the torment of waters seeking to burst their shackles.
152CHAPTER VIICarcajou Is Shocked
After Stefan had started away with Madge, Miss Sophy McGurn, who had been on the watch, was delighted to see Mrs. Olsen coming to the store. She greeted her customer more pleasantly than ever and served her with a bag of beans, two spools of black thread and a pound of the best oleo-butter. The older woman was nothing loath to talk, and confirmed the girl’s suspicion that Stefan had taken that young woman to Hugo’s. Mrs. Olsen insisted on the fact that her visitor was a real pretty girl, though awfully thin and looking as if a breath would blow her over. She also commented on the lack of suitable clothing for such dreadful weather, and on the utter ignorance Madge seemed to display of anything connected with Carcajou or, in fact, any part of Ontario. When questioned, cautiously, she admitted that she knew no reason whatever for the girl’s coming, but she hastened to assert that Stefan had said it was all right, which settled the question, and,153with her rather waddling gait, started off for her house again.
As soon as Stefan returned Sophy saw that he still had a woman on his toboggan. She hurried to meet him and was grievously disappointed when she found out it was Mrs. Carew. But she boldly went up to Stefan.
“Hello! Stefan!” she said. “Where did you leave your passenger of this morning?”
“Hello! Sophy!” he answered, placidly. “I leaf de yong leddy vhere she ban going, I tank.”
“She isn’t coming back to-night?”
“Mebbe yes, mebbe no,” he answered, grabbing Mrs. Carew’s bag and hurrying with her into the station, for the engine’s whistle announced that he had made the journey with little or no time to spare.
Sophy made her way back to the store, meeting Mrs. Kilrea on her way. To this lady she confided that a young woman had gone up to Hugo Ennis’ shack and had not returned. Wasn’t it queer? And Mrs. Olsen had said that she wasn’t Hugo’s wife or sister. Wasn’t it funny? But of course she supposed it was all right.
Mrs. Kilrea called on old Mrs. Follansbee, who told Mrs. McIntosh. This lady was a Cree Indian that had become more or less154civilized. The white women would speak to her on account of her husband Aleck, who was really a very nice man. At any rate all the ladies of Carcajou were soon aware of the unusual happening, scenting strange news and perhaps even a bit of scandal.
Big Stefan, having urged his team to their utmost, now fed them carefully and locked them up in his shed, a local habit providing against bloody fights that were objected to not so much on moral principle as because these contests often resulted in the disabling of valuable animals. It also prevented incursions among the few sheep of the neighborhood or long hunts in which dogs indulged by themselves, returning with sore feet and utterly unable to move for a day or two. The animals, before falling asleep, were biting off the crackling icicles that had formed in the hair growing between their padded toes. The journey had not exhausted them in the slightest and on the morrow they would be perfectly fit for further travel, if need be.
Neither was Stefan weary. After supper he quietly strolled over to the store where some of Carcajou’s choicest spirits were gathered, since the village boasted no saloon. Here the news was discussed, as spread out by the few who got a daily or weekly paper from155Ottawa or Sudbury, or gathered in the immediate neighborhood by the local gossips.
“Hello, Stefan!” exclaimed Miles Parker, who was supposed to watch over the sawmill and see that the machinery didn’t suffer too much during the long period of disuse. “How did ye find the travelin’ to-day? See ye didn’t manage ter freeze them whiskers off’n yer face, did ye?”
“Dey’re yoost vhere dey belongs, I tank,” answered Stefan, quietly. “Miss Sophy, if you haf time I take two plugs Lumberman’s Joy terbacker.”
“Stefan he’s so all-fired big he got to keep a chew on each side of his face,” explained Pat Kilrea, a first-rate mechanic who was then busy with the construction of a little steamer that was to help tow down to the mill some big booms of logs, as soon as the lake opened. “He ain’t able to get no satisfaction except from double action.”
At this specimen of local wit and humor the others grinned but Stefan remained quite unmoved. Miss Sophy waited on him, scanning his face, eager to ask more questions, while she feared to say a word. It may have been her conscience which made her uneasy. Of course she believed that the precautions she had taken rendered it impossible for any one156to accuse her, or at any rate to prove anything. Still, a certain anxiety remained, which she was unable to restrain. She would have given a good deal to know what had taken place. Never had she doubted that the scene would occur right there at the station in Carcajou. That telegram had badly upset her plans, apparently. And then it was queer that Hugo had not come down after receiving it, if only to try to find out what it meant. Finally, one of the men, having none of her reasons for keeping still, came forth with a direct question.
“I reckon you got out to Roarin’ Falls all safe with that there pooty gal, didn’t ye?” he asked.
It was Joe Follansbee who had sought this information, being only too eager to hint at something wrong on the part of a man he had long deemed a rival. At his words, however, Sophy sniffed and turned up her nose.
“I didn’t see anything very pretty about her,” she said.
“Well, I didn’t see as how she was so real awful pretty,” Joe hastened to observe. “She ain’t the style I admire, by no manner of means.”
This strategic withdrawal was destined to meet with entire failure, however. Sophy157turned to the boxes of plug that were stored on the shelves and pretended to busy herself with their order and symmetry. But she was again listening, eagerly.
“What d’ye say, Stefan?” joined Pat Kilrea. “How’d she stand the trip? Did ye see if her nose was still on her face when ye got there?”
“I tank so,” opened Stefan, gravely, “but it wouldn’t matter so much vith de leddy. Maybe she ain’t so much use for it like you haf for yours, to stick into oder people’s pusinesses.”
Stefan continued to shave off curly bits from his plug, while the laughter turned against the engineer. Carcajou, like a good many other places, commonly favored the top-dog when it came to betting. The answering grin in Pat’s face was a rather sour one. If any other man had spoken to him thus there might have been a lively fight, but no one in Carcajou, and a good many miles around it, cared to engage in fisticuffs with the Swede. A story was current of how he had once manhandled four drunken lumberjacks, in spite of peavies and sticks of cordwood.
“Well, you’re getting to be a good deal of a lady’s man, Stefan,” said Aleck McIntosh, a fellow who was supposed to be a scion of158Scottish nobility receiving remittances from his country. The most evident part of his income, however, appeared to be contributed by his Cree wife, who took in the little washing Carcajou indulged in and made the finest moccasins in Ontario. “Going off with one and coming back with another. I dare say you prefer carrying females to lugging the mails around.”
“Mebbe I likes it better but it’s more hard on dem togs,” asserted Stefan, judicially.
“And––and ye left her at Hugo’s shack, did ye?” ventured Pat again, whereat Stefan nodded in assent and lighted his pipe.
“Did she say she was anyways related to him? His sister or something like that?” persisted the engineer.
“Well, I tank she say somethin’ about bein’ his grandmother,” retorted Stefan, “but I can tell you something, Pat. If you vant so much know all about it vhy you not put on your snowshoes an’ tak’ a run down there. It ban a real nice little valk.”
As Pat Kilrea suffered from the handicap of having been born with a club-foot, which didn’t prevent him from being an excellent man with machinery but made walking rather burdensome for him, the others guffawed again while the Swede opened the door and159walked off, the crusted snow crackling under his big feet.
“In course it’s none of my business, like enough,” said Pat, virtuously, as he scratched a match on his trousers’ leg, “but such goings on don’t seem right, nohow. ’Tain’t right an’ proper, because it gives a bad example. I’ve knowed folks rid on a rail or even tarred and feathered for the like of that.”
Carcajou’s sterling sense of propriety, as represented by half a dozen male gossips, immediately agreed with him. The matter, they decided, should be looked into.
“And––and what d’ye think about it, Miss Sophy?” asked Joe, desirous of opening conversation again with the young woman and redeeming himself.
“Things like that is beneath me to talk about,” she asserted, coldly. “And what’s more, I don’t care to hear about ’em. It––it’s time ye got back to the depot, Joe Follansbee and I’m goin’ to close up anyways and give ye all a chance to burn your own oil.”
At this delicate invitation to vacate the premises the men rose and trooped out. Once outside, however, they felt compelled in spite of the bitter cold to comment a little further on the situation.
Sophy McGurn put up the large iron bar160that was used to secure the front door, when the store was closed. Then she put some papers away in the safe under the counter and went up to the family sitting room, where her mother was knitting and her father, with an open paper on his lap and his spectacles pushed up over his forehead, was fast asleep in a big and highly varnished oaken rocker trimmed with scarlet plush.
“I’m goin’ to bed,” she announced; “good-night.”
The old gentleman awoke with a start and the mother, looking over her glasses, bade her good-night and sweet dreams, according to a long-established formula.
“Don’t know what’s the matter with Sophy, she’s that restless an’ nervous,” said her mother.
“She always was, fur’s I know,” answered McGurn. “If she’s gettin’ the complaint worse she must be sickenin’ for something.”
The subject of these remarks, once in her room, was in no hurry to woo the slumber she had expressed a desire for. In her mind anxiety was battling with anger and disappointment. Whether or not she really loved Ennis, or had turned to him merely because his general ways and appearance showed him to be a man of some breeding, with education161superior to the usual standard of Carcajou, such as she would have been glad to marry, at any rate her brow narrowed, her lips closed into a thin straight line and her hands were clenched tight. What she had done would probably utterly prevent any renewal of the friendship she had tried to establish, since Hugo would perhaps be run out of the place. Moreover, that girl was really very pretty, in spite of what she had said downstairs, and this stranger was now over there. Sophy had expected to see her return with Stefan, perhaps also with Hugo, and the girl’s face would have shown marks of tears, and Hugo would have been in a towering rage, and gradually the people of Carcajou would have been made aware, somehow, of what had happened, and the settler of Roaring Falls would be the butt of laughter, if not of scurrilous remarks. But now the dark night had come and Carcajou was very still under the starlight.
The old cat scratching at her door startled her. The profound silence that followed appeared to irk her badly. After a long time there was the shriek of the night-freight’s whistle and the great rumbling of the arriving train, the grinding of brakes, shouts that sounded harshly, various loud thumps as cars were shunted off to the siding. And then the162train started again, groaning and clattering and heaving up the grade through the cut, after which the intense stillness returned and she lay awake, her eyes peering through darkness, her senses all alert and her nerves a-quiver, until nearly the coming of dawn.
But the men who had gone out, before scattering to their homes, had reached a unanimous conclusion. It was true that excitement was rare in Carcajou, but this was a matter of upholding the fair reputation of the mill and four or five dozen shacks and frame houses that constituted the village. It was decided that a committee must go over to the Falls and investigate.
“I won’t say but what Hugo Ennis he’s been mostly all right, fur’s we know,” acknowledged Phil Prouty of the section gang. “But then he warn’t brought up in these here parts an’ he can’t be allowed to flout the morals o’ this community in any sich way. If it’s like we fears, the gal’ll have ter pack off an’ him promise ter behave or leave the country. Them’s my sentiments. We better go to-morrow.”
At this, however, there were some objections. It might be that on the next day the young woman would return. Then their trip would be useless. And then two days later163would be Sunday, on which there would be less interference with their occupations, especially as it was the off day in church, where the services were held but twice a month. It was voted to start then at an early hour. There was a strong team of horses used to lumbering that could be trusted to manage the old tote-road, drawing Sam Kerrigan’s big sleigh.
“Hosses used ter do it,” asserted the latter, “and they kin do it again.”
“Maybe Stefan’d take you up with them dogs of his, Kilrea,” suggested one of the men, grinning.
“No! And by the way, byes. Ye don’t want ter let that there Swede know nothin’ of this. He’s too thick with Hugo, he is, and we don’t want him around raisin’ any ruction if there happens to be a bit o’ loud talk. He’d be liable to raise a rumpus, he would.”
This appeared to be excellent strategy and it met with unanimous approval. The men dispersed to their respective shacks and houses, to discuss the matter further with their wives, in case any of them were still awake. One or two of the sturdier ladies at once volunteered to lend further dignity to the proceedings with their presence and could not164be dissuaded from joining the Carcajou Vigilantes.
In the meanwhile the unconscious objects of all these plans were happily unaware of the fate in store for them. Madge, with a little child that had snuggled into her arms, had found a forgetfulness that was a blessing. In spite of her weariness and of the emotions she had undergone, the good food and pure air had produced some effect upon her. She slumbered perhaps more deeply and restfully than she had for many long months. And Hugo Ennis, in pain, tossed in his bunk, his mind racked with uneasy thoughts and his wounded shoulder throbbing, till he slept also.