next day ralph's preparations for the journey consisted in throwing a change of clothes and a few necessaries into a canvas dunnage bag, rolling the bag inside the blankets from his bed, hoisting the bundle on his shoulder, and locking the door of his shack behind him. no one had been unduly surprised by his announcement that he was going up on the steamboat to have a look at the country. in the unconventional north a man's time is his own, and taking a trip is the best way to while it, and one day is as good as another to start on.
even dan keach, knowing how bored ralph had been, was unsuspicious of the sudden resolution. dan was envious. "i wish to heaven i was going!" he said.
ralph, knowing that dan was firmly tied to his telegraph key, felt safe in echoing his wish. ralph's breast was warmed by a delicious secret excitement. "if they knew!" he thought.
the captain of the steamboat, wes' trickett, a rakish, lubberly, fresh-water sailor, like his boat, likewise dined at maroney's, and after dessert the company adjourned to the river bank, and sat about on piles of lumber to witness the departure. there was no haste about that. agreeable gossip and humorous anecdote mingled with tobacco smoke. when conversation flagged, wes' would say regretfully: "wal, time to pull out, boys!" whereupon some one would suggest a last touch at maroney's bar, and the company would rise as a man with the same expression of deprecatory anticipation. wes', since he supplied the excuse for the gathering, did not feel that it was incumbent on him to pay for anything.
the tewksbury l. swett lay at their feet, with steam up. like the land buildings at fort edward, her architecture was of a casual and strictly utilitarian style. to paraphrase the description of a more famous vessel, she looked like a shoe-box on a shingle, with the addition atop the shoe-box of a lean-to pilot-house with nothing to lean to, and an attenuated smokestack. the stack was made of many lengths of kitchen stovepipe braced all round with a network of wires, which did not, however, quite smooth out the kinks in the joints. the whole thing had a decided inclination to the nor'east, but wes' opined that it would do all right till it fell down.
ralph had not seen his mysterious visitor since she had left his office. loitering among the others on the bank, he was reassured by a glimpse of her sitting in a dark corner within the deckhouse, her back turned to the shore. to ralph's secret relief, dan did not remark her there. dan had an awkward faculty of putting two and two together, and a caustic sense of humour.
many of the old stories of the country were recounted for the benefit of the newcomers. "ever hear tell of tom sadler?" said captain wes'. "tom was the first white man who ever come up the campbell valley. campbell hisself, when he discovered it, he only went downstream. it was mor'n fifty year ago, before the first cariboo gold strike. in them days the city of kimowin was no bigger than fort edward here. tom sadler was one of these here now rovin' fellers that can't rest easy among their own kind. he roved off up the campbell valley and was gone a whole year. the next summer he come back down the river, and capsized in the rapids just above kimowin. they saw him from the settlement and pulled him out of the water more dead than alive. a living skellington he was at that. his canoe and his stuff was nachelly seen no more.
"well, he hung on for a couple of days, and then he up and chivvied out. but that ain't the end of the story. the story is about what he told when he was out of his head. nobody believed what he said, but they tell it to this day for a good story. he went on all about a purty little valley he found in the mountains. all around it was high cliffs that you couldn't get up or down like the sides of a bowl-like. bowl of the mountains was what tom called it. he said the only way you could get in or out was through a long cave under the mountains. a bear that he was after showed him the way in, or he never wouldn't have found it, being the mouth was all hid behind bushes and all.
"well, sirs, they say he said that little valley was as beautiful as paradise; but that wa'n't all. in the middle of it were a little lake, different-coloured water from any on earth, green as a bottle-like, good water, too. little streams come down from the mountains all around, and flowed through meadows of flowers into that lake, and tom said the banks of all those little streams was yellow with gold, yellow with gold, sirs! tom said he stayed there six months and washed two hundred pound of it. them beside his bed laughed, him having nothing to show. if he'd been content with a hundred pounds, now, 'twould have sounded more reasonable. well, they on'y laughed at tom and buried him. and it's got to be a saying-like 'round kimowin when a feller gets a bee in his bonnet, 'oh he's found bowl of the mountains!' they say. but i ain't so sure there ain't something in it. i seen tom's grave in the cemetery at kimowin: 'thomas sadler, who bit july 9th, 1861.' i seen it myself carved on the stone. that ain't no hearsay."
finally about three o'clock, nobody else being disposed to "buy," although wes' provided several good openings, the captain and the passengers made their final farewells and went aboard. the little tewksbury backed out of the mud, and turned her nose upstream, with a heave and a snort at every stroke of the piston, and a great kick-up astern. the little group on the shore adjourned again to maroney's for something to pick them up against the flat feeling that oppresses those who are left behind.
on board the tewksbury the white men gathered on the forward deck around the capstan, and continued their talk. there was wes' trickett, and matthews, his engineer; joe mixer and pete staley, who were taking up an outfit to gisborne portage to start a store, and ralph. meanwhile, the half-breed crew ran the boat. the warmth of the sun, the peace of the river, and the late potations at maroney's joined to produce a lulling effect on the group. conversation became fitful. joe mixer fell asleep with his back against the capstan.
the tewksbury was not exactly a river greyhound; six miles ah hour was her rate, and since the current ran four, her net progress upstream was about two. on the bends of the river, where the deep water ran swiftly under the bank on the wide side of the arc, it was nip and tuck between the little tewksbury and the river. no one on board expressed any impatience.
"you got to go either forward or back," said wes' philosophically, "and if you ain't goin' back you're bound to arrive some time."
"let her puff," said pete staley comfortably. "'tain't comin' out of our lungs."
ralph was happy. the weight of weeks of boredom was lifted from his breast. after all, life was a sporting affair. he never tired of watching the moving brown flood spotted with foam, endlessly and serenely opposing their progress, ever yielding under the vessel's forefoot, without giving back. from the water he lifted his eyes to the clean, pine-clad hills, insolently planting themselves in the path of the river, and forcing it to go around. the afternoon sun was lavishly gilding the southerly slopes. overhead the sky was an inverted bowl of palest turquoise. ralph naturally kept these poetic comparisons to himself. wes' trickett, matthews, mixer, and staley were a hard-headed, scornful, tobacco-chewing quartet.
the deckhouse was a rough shanty with a wide sliding door at each side, and one in front. from where he sat near the capstan ralph could see nahnya within, sitting on a box by one of the side doors with her hands in her lap, and her eyes bent on the river. her quiet and self-contained air stimulated his curiosity. he wondered what she was thinking about. the fact that she had forbidden him to approach her on the boat kept his desire to do so ever fresh. he cast around in his mind for some way to get around her prohibition. she had removed the ridiculous hat to her lap, and her bare head bound round with a thick, black braid of hair was wholly beautiful and graceful against the light.
"where did she get that proud look from?" thought ralph. "all she needs is a diadem and an ermine cloak."
ralph was not the only man on board who had remarked the handsome passenger. by and by joe mixer woke up, and blinked at her sidewise from between his thick lids.
"good-looking gal, joe," said pete staley.
joe grunted by way of affirmation.
joe mixer was a well-known character up and down the campbell. outside he had been a butcher, they said, and had come north owing to an unpleasantness following upon his attempt to carve a piece of human meat. he was a factor in the little community of the river by reason of his bulk and the noise he made, but privately he was not regarded with much affection. in a rough, new society much is condoned through the fear of being thought self-righteous. the first commandment of the frontier is: thou shalt not appear any better than thy neighbour. hence joe was accepted for one of the crowd, while stories were circulated behind his back of lingering butchering tendencies, of a dog he had tortured, of a native woman who had sought safety from him through a priest.
"who is she?" asked staley.
"darned if i know," said wes'. "she ain't any of the cheval noir crowd, that's sure, or from campbell lake neither. says she's goin' to your dump at gisborne."
"she come down the river on a little raft early yesterday morning," said matthews, the engineer. "five o'clock it was, i guess. i come out on deck to take a look at the sky, and i seen her landing below thomson's store there. thinking nobody saw her, she pushed the raft off in the current."
"they're a sly lot," said staley. "a white man never can tell what they're up to."
they continued to discuss nahnya with a freedom that caused ralph to grind his teeth. to avoid arousing their suspicions he was obliged to keep a smooth face, and to enter into the discussion. up to this time ralph had thought of these four as "good enough heads" and had drunk with them at maroney's like everybody else. now they suddenly seemed like foul-mouthed satyrs that a man ought to knock down one by one for decency's sake. they were not as bad as all that, of course; the change was in ralph, not in them.
finally joe said with what seemed to ralph an egregious display of male vanity: "i can handle them. i'll find out who she is."
he went inside the deckhouse with a propitiatory leer on his fat red face that caused ralph's gorge to rise. ralph sat on pins and needles watching out of the corners of his eyes, and straining his ears in vain to hear what was said.
the conversation was like all such conversations.
"hello, dearie!" said joe.
the girl turned a bland, blank face toward him. "hello," she said.
joe pulled up another box and sat down. "thought you might be lonely all by yourself," he said agreeably.
"i like be by myself me," she said, affecting a na?ve simplicity of speech and manner.
joe glanced at her sharply. her eyes were modestly cast down. he decided that she meant no offence, and went on:
"what's your name, girly?"
"mary black, please."
"where do you live when you're home?"
"mcilwraith lake. my fat'er him scarface jack black. him very good hunter."
her air of humble timidity encouraged joe enormously. this was plain sailing. "what do you want to live in the woods for?" he said condescendingly. "that's no place for a good-lookin' gal like you—among a pack of savages."
she shrugged deprecatingly.
"you ought to be down here on the river where there's something doing. white men know how to enjoy life."
"yes," she said demurely.
"if you stayed down at the fort you'd knock the spots off the other gals there. there ain't one of them can touch you!"
"i got no place," she said.
"that's easy," said joe. "i'll build you a shack."
"i think about it," she said.
"dominion day there's going to be a whale of a time at the fort," joe went on. "racing and fireworks and dancing and free eats for everybody. like that?"
"yes, sir."
"well, you come down to my place ahead of time, and we'll float down to the fort on a raft."
"thank you," she said.
joe, overjoyed at the progress he was making, drew his box closer, and laid a ham of a hand on one of her slender brown ones. ralph, observing the move from outside, ground his teeth afresh.
"you're all right!" said joe unctuously. "you and me'll be good friends. i'm a liberal feller, i am. a good-lookin' gal can get what she likes out of me."
the girl drew away. "they see you outside," she said warningly.
joe laughed thickly. "you're shy, eh? that's all right, sis. i like 'em a little bashful at first. me and you'll have a talk later on when there ain't nobody around."
when joe returned to the others it was with the air of a conqueror. ralph's right fist instinctively doubled at the sight of his fat complacency, but for the present he had to content himself with picking out the spots where he would like to plant it.
"she's all right," said joe patronizingly. "nice little gal."
"what's her name? where does she live?" asked staley.
joe repeated what she had told him. ralph breathed more freely.
"she's lying," said staley coolly. "i traded at mcilwraith lake six years off and on. i ought to know. she never come of sikannis stock; they're an undersized people and narrow-eyed."
"well, she's half-white, maybe," said joe.
"she never showed her face on mcilwraith lake when i was there," said staley. "i knew them all. there's no hunter in the tribe called scarface jack black. she was stringing you."
"i don't care," said joe. "it don't hurt her looks any."
during the afternoon each one of the other three men made an occasion to sidle up to the girl; matthews the sardonic scotchman, staley with his pale, sharp, storekeeper's face, and the lubberly old wes' with his wandering pale eye, and his tobacco-stained chin. the girl's manner was the same to each; demure, receptive, simple-minded. ralph could make nothing of her. all this was hard on his temper. he was divided between anger at the ill-concealed grossness of the men, and anger at nahnya for not resenting it. he no longer took any pleasure in the beauty of the river.
at dusk they tied up to a tree on the shore and ran out a plank. the boys built a rousing fire under the pines, and as the darkness increased it made a fantastic chiaroscuro in crimson and black; the fire leaping under the boughs, the silhouettes of the half-breeds moving about it preparing supper, and on the river side the quaint little steamboat sticking her nose into the red glow.
when supper was ready the five white men sat down beside the fire, but the girl, notwithstanding the hearty and jocular invitations of four of them, carried her portion back on the boat.
"let her go," said joe. "she's dainty about eating in company."
his air of proprietorship was almost more than ralph could brook. joe, sitting cross-legged, with his stomach on his knees, was not a beautiful sight. he had divested himself of all unnecessary clothing. he ate and drank with a noisy gusto that was all his own, and his cheeks and the bald spot on his crown became purple with the effort. a mat of dank black hair hung over his forehead, and the long ends of his moustache dripped tea.
nahnya sat down on the deck to her supper in view of the men, for it was not yet perfectly dark. ralph, watching her covertly, was filled with a heavy anxiety at the thought of her position alone on the boat during the night. if she felt apprehensive herself she showed nothing, and it did not affect her appetite.
joe, observing ralph's glances toward the steamboat, laughed in his uproarious way. "the kid's askeered of a petticoat!" he cried. "go ahead, boy; it won't bite you!"
ralph could cheerfully have brained joe where he sat. he was obliged, however, to turn it off with the best smile he could muster. at the same time joe's jibe gave him an idea. he took care to finish before the others, and went on the boat, muttering something about getting tobacco.
"be up and down with her, kid," cried joe. "half measures won't get you nowhere!"
"fine night," said ralph to nahnya, loud enough for those on shore to hear.
"yes," she said, with exactly the same manner she had adopted toward them all.
it dashed him a little. he went on inside to get tobacco out of his dunnage bag. when he came out again, she pointedly looked away across the river.
ralph came close to her, and lowered his voice; anxiety made him rough. "how are you going to manage to-night?" he asked.
"what do you want to know for?" she said coolly, without looking at him.
the blood rushed to ralph's face; his temper had already been put to a strain one way and another. "i was only thinking of your safety," he said hotly.
"you don't have to," she said. "i can take care of myself."
"do you know joe mixer lets on that he has won you?" ralph went on harshly. "that swine! what are you going to do about it?"
"i don't care what he says," she said indifferently. "i know what to do."
ralph did not really suspect her, but it suited his sore and angry mood to make out that he did. "i trusted you!" he said bitterly.
this pierced her inscrutability. her eyes flashed a hurt and angry look at him. "what you want?" she said swiftly and softly. "if i slap joe mixer's ugly face he make wes' trickett stop the boat and put me on shore. i don't want any trouble. i fool them all the same."
"oh!" said ralph, disconcerted and relieved.
"go ashore," she said. "i tell you not to talk to me on the steamboat."
"they all make up to you," ralph explained in justification. "it looks funny if i'm the only one that stays away. they've started to jolly me about it. you let them come around all they want. why can't you be the same to me?"
"go!" she said. "you can't act the same like them to me. they see the difference. if i friendly with you right away there will be trouble. go stay with them."
this was unanswerable. "but i'm anxious about you," ralph persisted in more humble tones. "what are you going to do?"
she shrugged coolly. "do not worry," she said. "i can take care of myself. these are not the first foolish white men i have to manage."
ralph turned over the gangplank more puzzled than ever by her, but on the whole easier in his mind. her confidence in herself was infectious.
as he resumed his place by the fire, joe said with his fat laugh: "nothing doing, eh, kid?"
"a man can't always cop the first prize," ralph returned.
"i was ahead of you on this," joe said with another guffaw.
ralph still smiled. "we'll see," he thought.
the night was drawing on clear and still. the black flies had ceased their malignant activity at sunset, and it was too cold for mosquitoes. joe suggested that they sleep ashore, and it was voted a good idea. the pine needles offered a softer bed than the planks of the steamboat's deck. nevertheless ralph divined an ulterior motive behind the suggestion, and joe's transparent efforts to break up the talk around the fire heightened his suspicions.
"they ain't no rush," said wes' trickett comfortably. "they's all day to-morrow to make the rapids."
"'ain't no rush' is your motter, wes'," remarked pete staley.
"i do' want no better motter," returned the captain. "that's why i come north, i guess. outside men fret theirselves to death tryin' to do each other. what do they get for it?—a gold-plated casket, maybe, and a marble mouse-olium with a angel pointing to the skies. pretty cold comfort, if you ast me. i'd a sight ruther take my ease sleepin' warm under a blanket, and wake up to good bacon and cawfee. there was tinker beasley now, he was always in a sweat. i mind how tinker——"
"oh, for god's sake, wes', i heard that story twenty times!" cried joe mixer. "it's near twelve o'clock. get your blankets off the boat, men."
joe finally prevailed. as soon as the men had taken their blankets ashore, nahnya disappeared inside the deckhouse, closing the front door after her, and likewise closing the door on the side that faced the shore. there were no locks on these doors for her protection.
one by one each white man knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and crawling between his blankets, feet to the fire, added a trumpet to the chorus of snores. the breed boys were already quiet beside their dying fire. ralph lay down with the others, privately resolving not to give way to sleep. he filled his pipe afresh, and propping his head on his elbow, stared at the blushing embers, and assorted the impressions of the day in his mind. looking over his shoulder he could see through the chinks of the boards that nahnya had made a light within her rude cabin.
in spite of him, the still night began to have its way, and peace descended on his spirit. the slow, ruby progress of the fire, the spicy scent of the pines, and the pleasant murmur of the current against the forefoot of the moored steamboat all combined to undermine wakefulness. the very concert of snores irresistibly suggested sleep to his subconsciousness. this was the camp-scene ralph had desirously pictured to himself. it was good. his late agitation began to seem a little foolish to him.
"one would think i was falling in love with the girl," he thought. "that's absurd!"
he repeated "absurd!" to himself several times over for safety's sake. his head gradually slipped off the supporting palm, and pillowed itself on the thick of his arm.
before he was altogether lost to consciousness, joe mixer, two figures removed from him, came to a stop in the middle of a snore, stirred in his blankets, and sat up abruptly, snuffling and shaking his head to rid himself of the incubus of sleep. his little eyes passed with a cautious glance from one to another of the recumbent forms.
ralph was instantly on the alert again. "hello!" he said. "what's the matter?"
joe started and scowled. joe had but an imperfect command over his features; his frustrated design was clearly evident. muttering an unmistakable oath, he lay down again.
ralph's desire to sleep was effectually disposed of. he lay still with his eyes closed. very soon joe, who apparently could go to sleep and wake up at will, recommenced snoring with inimitable naturalness. ralph looked over his shoulder. the light was still burning within the deckhouse. a spring of compassion started in his breast.
"poor girl!" he thought. "she's afraid to turn in!"
he was keenly distressed by the mental picture of nahnya sitting alone, fighting sleep, and awaiting the approach of danger. he got up without having a very clear idea of what he meant to do—except that she must be reassured. he crossed the plank to the boat's deck. he knew he could not open either of the two closed doors without causing a screech sufficient to awaken the entire party, but he found that the door on the river side was still open, for he could see the rays of light streaming out on the dusty surface of the water. there was a narrow deck all the way around outside the house. he made for the open doorway, but stopped before showing himself. ralph had conceived a respect for the resources of this inexplicable girl. one could never be sure in advance of what she might do.
"hello!" he said softly. "it's the doctor."
there was no answer.
with a fast-beating heart he looked in. she was sleeping on the deck in the middle of an open space between the piles of freight forward and the boiler aft. to a beam over her head she had fastened the engineer's lantern, and ralph, instantly comprehending, had to approve both her courage and her good sense. the light was her safeguard.
she had spread a piece of canvas on the deck, and lay wrapped in a gray blanket, her head pillowed on her outflung arm. her face, slightly turned up, was revealed under the light, calm and partly smiling in sleep. the hard, watchful look that had so often nonplussed him during the day had disappeared. once again he was compelled to rearrange all his impressions of her.
"she's only a kid!" he thought tenderly. he had not presumed to take the protective attitude toward her before.
her long, curved lashes swept her dusky cheeks; her lips were a little parted as if in expectation; the hand that was flung out toward him lay palm upward, the fingers bent, as if mutely asking for a comrade hand. abandoned to sleep as she lay, there was something at once appealing and holy in her aspect: something that made his whole being yearn over her, and that caused him to draw back outside the door.
he could not bear to look at her. a feeling he could not have named made him return to the forward deck. he turned up his face to the night sky, and let his heart quiet down. the essence of the poetry of womanhood had been shown to him, and the starry night thrilled with the wonder of it. in a flash there was revealed to him a new understanding of all the love-poems he had ever read, and perhaps secretly despised.
"she sleeps like a lily on the water," he murmured to himself without the least shame.
by and by, prose reasserting itself, he began to reflect upon what he should do next. "if i go back to the fire i'll surely fall asleep," he thought. "but if i lie down here nobody can disturb her without waking me first."
procuring his blankets from beside the fire, he made his bed on the deck in such a position that any one seeking the open door must step over his body. there he waited for sleep, dwelling with rapt tenderness on the sight he had seen, graving it lovingly on his subconsciousness for a shrine that he might revisit as long as consciousness endured. he drifted away to the accompaniment of the distant drumming of a partridge in the woods.
suddenly he found himself wide awake without being able to tell what had aroused him. the campfire was now black out, and nothing but a blacker shadow was visible toward the shore. he waited a little breathlessly for confirmation of the alarm he had received. finally the plank to the shore creaked under a heavy weight, and ralph became aware of a looming figure. he sat up.
the figure stopped at the edge of the deck. "who's there?" came in joe mixer's thick voice, quick with alarm.
"cowdray," said ralph coolly.
"what the hell are you doing here?"
ralph sprang up, kicking his legs free of the entangling blanket. "what the hell are you after?" he retorted.
"i don't have to account to you," snarled joe.
there was a silence. they stood with clenched fists, straining their eyes to take each other's measure in the dark.
evidently joe thought better of his truculence, for when he spoke again it was in conciliatory tones. "gad! you give me a start to see you rise up like that! i thought i had 'em! you shouldn't scare a man to death before you knock him down, doc!"
joe's greasy obsequiousness was more offensive to ralph than his anger. he remained silent.
"when the fire went out i woke up cold," joe went on plausibly. "i come aboard to get me a sweater out of my bag."
ralph was not deceived. the thought of joe's evil, swimming little eyes profaning the picture of the sleeping girl inside, by so much as looking at her, filled him with a cold, unreasonable rage, and he was ready to go to any lengths to prevent it. at the same time he reflected that it would serve her better to avoid a fight, if he could, and he put his wits to work.
"take one of my blankets," he said. "i have more than i need!"
joe demurred. they argued the matter with sarcastic politeness on both sides. each was aware that the other saw through his game.
ralph soon tired of it. "very well, if you want to go in there, you go by the front door, see?" he said shortly.
joe knew as well as ralph that the screech of the door would awaken her before he got in. "what's the matter with you?" snarled joe.
"what's the use of beating around the bush?" retorted ralph. "i tell you straight i won't allow that girl to be bothered."
"you won't let her be bothered!" sneered joe. "holy mackerel, listen to what's talking! did she put you out here as a guard?"
"she did not," said ralph.
"i know darn well she didn't," said joe. "and she wouldn't thank you for it neither. she's got a date with me to-night."
"you lie!" said ralph. rage made him cold.
joe advanced until their bodies almost touched, ralph held himself in readiness. he meant to make joe strike first. but the blow was not delivered.
"damn you!" joe whispered thickly. "i'll make you swallow that some day. i never forget a thing. i make men pay."
"why postpone it?" said ralph clearly.
joe's voice weakened. "well, i don't want to make a racket," he grumbled.
"sure, you don't want to make a racket!" cried ralph with quick scorn. "a racket would spoil your game! you like darkness and quiet, don't you?" suddenly the comic aspect of the situation presented itself to him, and he laughed. "there's nothing doing to-night, joe," he said. "i'm on the job. you might as well go back and have your sleep out."
it was an incontrovertible truth. joe turned abruptly, and went back over the gangplank, swearing under his breath.
