Part 24 (2/2)
Down through a fragrant birch-grown road, smelling of fern and wintergreen and sa.s.safras, we moved, the cool tinkle of moss-choked watercourses ever in our ears, mingling with melodies of woodland birds--shy, freedom-loving birds that came not with the robins to the city. Ah, I knew these birds, being country-bred--knew them one and all--the gray hermit, holy chorister of hymn divine, the white-throat, sweetly repeating his allegiance to his motherland of Canada, the great scarlet-tufted c.o.c.k that drums on the bark in stillest depths, the lonely little creeping-birds that whimper up and down the trunks of forest trees, and the black-capped chickadee that fears not man, but cities--all these I listened to, and knew and loved as guerdons of that freedom which I had so long craved, and craved in vain.
And now I had it; it was mine! I tasted it, I embraced it with wide arms, I breathed it. And far away I heard the woodland hermits singing of freedom, and of the sweetness of it, and of the mercies of the Most High.
Thrilled with happiness, I glanced at Elsin Grey where she rode a pace or so ahead of me, her fair head bent, her face composed but colorless as the lace drooping from her stock. The fatigue of a sleepless night was telling on her, though as yet the reaction of the strain had not affected me one whit.
She raised her head as I forced my horse forward to her side. ”What is it, Mr. Renault?” she asked coldly.
”I'm sorry you are fatigued, Elsin----”
”I am not fatigued.”
”What! after all you have done for me----”
”I have done nothing for _you_, Mr. Renault.”
”Nothing?--when I owe you everything that----”
”You owe me nothing that I care to accept.”
”My thanks----”
”I tell you you owe me nothing. Let it rest so!”
Her unfriendly eyes warned me to silence, but I said bluntly:
”That Mr. Cunningham is not this moment fiddling with my neck, I owe to you. I offer my thanks, and I remain at your service. That is all.”
”Do you think,” she answered quietly, ”that a rebel hanged could interest me unless that hanging smirched my kin?”
”Elsin! Elsin!” I said, ”is there not bitterness enough in the world but you and I must turn our friends.h.i.+p into hate?”
”What do you care whether it turn to hate or--love?” She laughed, but there was no mirth in her eyes. ”You are free; you have done your duty; your brother rebels will reward you. What further have I to do with you, Mr. Renault? You have used me, you have used my kin, my friends.
Not that I blame you--nay, Mr. Renault, I admire, I applaud, I understand more than you think. I even count him brave who can go out as you have done, scornful of life, pitiless of friends.h.i.+ps formed, reckless of pleasure, of what men call their code of honor; indifferent to the shameful death that hovers like a shadow, and the scorn of all, even of friends--for a spy has no friends, if discovered. All this, sir, I comprehend, spite of my few years which once--when we were friends--you in your older wisdom found amusing.” She turned sharply away, brus.h.i.+ng her eyelashes with gloved fingers.
Presently she looked straight ahead again, a set smile on her tight lips.
”The puppets in New York danced to the tune you whistled,” she said, ”and because you danced, too, they never understood that you were master of the show. Oh, we all enjoyed the dance, sir--I, too, serving your designs as all served. Now you have done with us, and it remains for us to make our exits as gracefully as may be.”
She made a little salute with her riding-whip--gracious, quite free of mockery.
”The fortune of war, Mr. Renault,” she said. ”Salute to the conqueror!”
”Only a gallant enemy admits as much,” I answered, flus.h.i.+ng.
”Mr. Renault, am I your enemy?”
”Elsin, I fear you are.”
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