Part 41 (1/2)
”Will youis ever known, Poleon will kill you--or father”
For a third time he rested on his oars
”Now that we've come to threats, let , but if you don't want to, I'll pass up the formality and take you for uess you're no better than your mother, so your old man can't say much under the circumstances, and if he don't object, Poleon can't Just remember, you're alone with ot toashore and h to choose a landing-place If you agree to coirl, I'll do what's right, but if you don't--then I'll do what's wrong, and maybe you won't be so damned anxious to tell your friends about this trip, or spread your story up and down the river Make up your ain, and the row-locks squeaked Another hour and then another passed in silence before the girl noted that she no longer seeh abysrayness just over the gunwale She saw Runnion h for all else she beheld they ht have been ard day's approach that she could not ht It was a desolate dawn, and showed no glorious glea of a thousand tints, no final burst of glea to a sickly pallor that grew to ashen gray, and then dissolved the low-hung, distorted shadows a quarter of arow of unbroken forest backed by plain,rays Overhead a bleak ruin of clouds drifted; underneath the river ran, a bilious yellow The whole country so far as the eye could range was unmarred by the hand of man, untracked save by the feet of the crafty forest people
She saw Runnion gazing over his shoulder in search of a shelving beach or bar, his profile showing more debased and mean than she had ever noticed it before They rounded a bend where the left bank cru a bristling chevaux-de-frise of leaning, fallen firs awash in the current The short side of the curve, the one nearest theer-like point, and towards this Runnion propelled the skiff The girl's heart sank and she felt her liht lines Moreover, his ood Stark's statement, which so upset Gale and the Lieutenant, had a somewhat different effect upon the Frenchman, for certain facts had been iibe with the garaved to afford foundation for a definite theory What he did knoas this, that he doubted Why? Because certain scraps of a disjointed conversation recurred to him, a feords which he had overheard in Stark's saloon, soh canoe and a wo the waterfront, and of a sudden he decided to see if this one here it had been at dusk; for there were but two ress from Flambeau, and there was but one canoe of this type If Necia had gone up-river on the freighter, pursuit was hopeless, for no boatainst the current; but if, on the other hand, that cedar craft was gone--He ran out of Stark's house and down to the river-bank, then leaped to the shi+ngle beneath
It was just one chance, and if he rong, no matter; the others would leave on the next up-river steamer; whereas, if his suspicion proved a certainty, if Stark had lied to throw them off the track, and Runnion had taken her down-stream--well, Poleon wished no one to hinder hione! He searched the line backward, but it was not there, and his excitere, likewise his haste Still on the run, he stu-post and around to the rear, where, bottouarded jealously, a birch canoe, frail and treacherous for any but a man schooled in the ways of sater and Indian tricks He was very glad now that he had not told the others of his suspicions; they o, and of that he would not be cheated He swung the shell over his shoulders, then hurried to the bank and down the steep trail like soreat,current, then stripped hi call of a hot pursuit was on hiht, he whipped off his garments until he was bare to the middle He seized his paddle, stepped in, then knelt amidshi+ps and pushed away
The birch-bark answered hi beneath the strokes which sprung the spruce blade and boiled the water to a foaes stood out upon his back and arhtened
A half-luloas over the waters, but the banks quickly dropped away, until there was nothing to guide hiht of the di that lashed hian tostream and to coh, only the sound he made was more like the whine of a hound in leash or a wolf that runs with hot nostrils close to the earth
Runnion drove his Peterborough towards the shore with powerful strokes, and ran its nose up on the gravel, rose, stretched hied it farther out, then looked down at Necia
”Well, what is it, yes or no? Do you want me for a husband or for a master?” She cowered in the stern, a pale, fearful creature, finally ive me time”
”Not another hour Here's where you declare yourself; and remember, I don't care which you choose, only you'd better be sensible”
She cast her despairing eyes up and down the river, then at the wilderness on either shore; but it was as silent and unpeopled as if it had been created thatto yield, and then betray him to the first co
”I'll go quietly,” she said, in a faint voice
”I knew you'd see that I' square Come! Get the cramp out of yourself while I make a pot of coffee” He held out his hand to assist her, and she accepted it, but stumbled as she rose, for she had been crouched in one position for several hours, and her li her ashore; then, instead of putting her feet to the ground, he pressed her to hiht hihed and held her the closer
”Ain't I good for one kiss? Say, this is the deuce of an engageasped, writhing like a wild thing; but he crushed his lips to hers again and then let her go, whereupon she dreay fro, dishevelled, her eyes wide and filled with horror
She scrubbed her lips with the back of her hand, as if to erase his ht forth an axe, a bundle of food, and a coffee-pot; then, still chuckling, he gathered a few sticks of driftwood and built a fire She had a blind instinct to flee, and sought for a means of escape, but they ell out upon the bar that stretched a distance of three hundred feet to the wooded bank; on one side of the narrow spit was the scarcely nant water of a tiny bay or eddy, on the other, the swift, gliding current tugging at the beached canoe, while the outer end of the gravelled ridge dwindled down to nothing and disappeared into the river At sight of the canoe a thought struck her, but her face n of it, for theher expression, straightened hily Without a word he stepped to the boat, and, seizing it, dragged it entirely out upon the bar, where her strength would not be equal to shoving it off quickly, and, not content with this, he erness died out of her face, but an instant later, when he turned to the clearer water of the eddy to fill the coffee-pot, she seized her chance and sped up the bar towards the bank The shi+ngle under foot and her noisy skirts betrayed her, and with an oath he followed It was an unequal race, and he handled her with rough, strong hands when he overtook her
”So! You lied to o back on your word like this you'll 'bawl et lad of the chance to o!” she panted ”I'll marry you Yes, yes, I'll do it, only don't touch un to crackle She was so weak now that she sank upon the stones shi+vering
”That's right! Sit down and behave while Ihot to drink You're all in” After a time he continued, as he busied hiet ot a lot of money, or I will have, and once you're Mrs Runnion, nobody'll ever know about this or think of you as a squaw” He talked to her while he waited for the water to boil, his assurance robbing her of hope, for she saas stubborn and reckless, determined to override her will as well as to conquer her body, while under his creed, the creed of his kind, a woman was made from the rib of man and for his service He conveyed it to her plainly He ruled horses with a hard hand, he drove his dog tea lash, and heor consideration
He was still talking when the girl sprang to her feet and sent a shrill cry out over the river, but instantly he was up and upon her, his hand over herthe na reat soiled river, apast the bend above, and was still a long way off--so far away, in fact, that Necia's signal had not reached it, for its occupant held unwaveringly to the swiftest channel, his body rising and falling in the sreat haste, his arlinted and flashed across to the opposite side
Runnion glanced about hurriedly, then cursed as he saw no place of concealh stood out upon the bar conspicuously, as did he and the girl; but the chance remained that this reat, the river a mile in width, and the bend sharp Necia had cried Poleon's name, but her coe-looking voyager; in fact, he could not quite make out as peculiar about the man--perhaps his eyes were not as sharp as hers--and then he saw that the boat opposite theed and held by her captor's hands, struggled and ht have escaped discovery in the gray ht had it not been for the telltale fire--a tiny, crackling blaze no larger than acraft upon which their eyes were fixed whipped about, al fro but a narrow thing, half again the width of a man's body The current carried it down abreast of theirl, who cried out with all her ht to the boatman He made no sound in reply, but drove his canoe shoreith quicker strokes It was evident he would effect his landing near the lower end of the spit, for noithin hearing distance, and driving closer every instant
Necia heard the gambler call: