Part 9 (1/2)
”Well, 'No Creek' ca to tell dad and Poleon Then the boat arrived with an old friend of Lee's, a Mr Stark, so Lee told hione back to his creek to stake more claims
They slipped away quietly to prevent suspicion, but I knew there was so up from the way Poleon acted, so I made Alluna tell me all about it They haven't more than two hours start of us, and we can overtake the?”
”Yes, we are,” she insisted, iet a et one I know the way Hurry up!”
”No,” said he, in as firm a tone as he could command ”In the first place, these men don't like me, and they don't want me to share in this”
”What do you care?”
”In the second place, I'm not a miner I don't kno to proceed”
”Never all my life”
”In the third place, I don't think I have the right, for I' for Uncle Sa clai to prevent it, but neither a--are you?”
”Why, of course it's all right,” said Necia, her eager face clouding with the look of a hurt child ”If you don't do it, somebody else will”
But the Lieutenant shook his head ”Maybe I'm foolish, but I can't see my way clear, much as I would like to”
”Oh, dear! Oh, dear!” she exclaio I want you to be rich, and I want to be rich o outside and live like other girls It's--the only chance--I ever had--and I'll never have another Oh, it ! Why, it irl likeof her hopes, and her chin quivered in a sweet, girlish way that made the youth almost surrender on the instant But she turned to theand gazed out over the river, continuing, after a moment's pause: ”Please don't--mind me--but you can't understand what a difference this would make to me”
”We couldn't possibly overtake the to treat with his conscience
”No, but we could beat the, for I went up last winter with Constantine and his dog-team, over a short cut by way of Black Bear Creek We took it coain, but Lee doesn't know that route, so he will follow the summer trail, which is fifteen reat bend to the southward, and heads back towards the river, so by crossing the divide at the source of Black Bear you drop into it a few miles above his cabin”
While she ht with hied to take this trip,since boyhood Thesehim with contemptuous distrust, despite his repeated friendly overtures; wherefore he was hungry to beat thery to thrust himself ahead of the a state of open enmity, if necessary, to this condition of indifferent toleration Moreover, he knew that Necia was coveted by half of theht in the woods alone with her it would stir them up a bit, he fancied By Heaven! That would ht work a wrong upon her; and yet, would it? He was not so sure that it would She had coh to know her irl, after all, who doubtless was not so simple as she seemed Other men had no such scruples in this or any other land, and yet the young irl caain, impulsively:
”Don't be silly, Mr Burrell Come! Please coes of his coat and drew hily It rowing in him all day, or it may have been wholly the sense of her there beside hireat wave to surge up through his veins, caused hi her upturned face again and again, crying softly, deep down in his throat:
”Yes! Yes! Yes! You little witch! I'll go anywhere with you! Anywhere!
Anywhere!” The irew as his lips h, sheherself quietly, till he found her ar close to his Neither of theether, but soon he grew conscious of the beating of her heart against his breast, as she lay there like a little fluttering bird, and felt the throbbing of his own heart swaying hi to his in a sweet surrender, and yet there was nothing ith and ardor had lifted her and drawn her to hireat wave
She drew her face free and hid it against his neck, breathing softly and with shy tihtened her
”I love you I love you, Meade”
It may happen that aintimacy with a woman and never feel the violence or tenderness of passion till there comes a psychic moment or a physical touch that suddenly enwraps them like a flairl in his ar lips, the war pack of mad desires, and it was she who finally drew herself away to re time
”My lips will be here when those mines are worked out,” she said ”No, no!” and she held hi that if they were going they must be off at once, and that he could have notrip, and ill have to sit do and then to rest,” she added, shyly; at which he vowed that he was far fro, and could not walk but a little way at a time, yet even so, he declared, the trail would be too short, even though it led to Canada
”Then get your pack made up,” she ordered, ”for we must be well up towards the head of Black Bear Creek before it grows dark enough to camp”