Part 21 (1/2)
EN ROUTE
Long since Hazel had beco he did swiftly and with inflexible purpose There was noor doubtful hesitation Once his mind was made up, he acted, Thus, upon the third day fro, across a trackless area, traveling by the sun and Bill's knowledge of the country
”Soovernhed over his shoulder, ”for the benefit of the public But _we_ don't need 'eht for the trip in with Li, clothes, and a light shelter tent The black horse, nigger, he of the cocked ear and the rolling eye, carried in a pair of kyaks six weeks' supply of food
Bill led the way, seconded by Hazel on easy-gaited Silk Behind her trailed the pack horses like dogs well broken to heel, patient under their heavy burdens Off in the east the sun was barely clear of the towering Rockies, and the woods were still cool and shadowy, full of aromatic odors from plant and tree
Hazel followed heradventure, just as she had seen it set forth in books, and she found it good For her there was nofearsoh woods and over open ht to lie with her head pillowed on Bill's arlea stars--that was sufficient to fill her days To live and love and be loved, with all that had ever seeround It was alood to be true, she told herself Yet it was indubitably true And she was grateful for the fact Touches of the unavoidable bitterness of life had taught her the worth of days that could be treasured in the memory
Occasionally she would visualize the cabin drowsing lifeless in its e, haunted by the rabbits that played ti deer peering his wide-eyed curiosity fros and curtains were stowed in boxes and bundles and hung by wires to the ridge log to keep the was done up carefully and put away for safekeeping, as beca untenanted
The ave her a tiny pang over the abandoned hoather on the e absence They would co box of the wild
Surely Fortune could not forbear s on adays Rivers barred their way
These they forded or swas, as seerief in thecurrent, and they laid up two days to dry their saturated belongings Once their horses, i, hit the back trail in a black night of downpour, and they trudged half a day through wet grass and dripping scrub to overtake the truants Thunderstor the hush of the land with ponderous detonations, assaulting them with fierce bursts of rain
Haps and mishaps alike they accepted with an equable spirit and the true philosophy of the trail--to take things as they coed them, there was always shelter to be found and fire to warht ease under a pleasant sun, they rode light-hearted and care-free, singing or in silent content, as the spirit moved If they rode alone, they felt none of that loneliness which is so integral a part of the still, unpeopled places Each day was so more than a mere toll of so er-eyed, lurked on the shoulder of each mountain, in the hollow of every cool canon, orup to where the Nachaco debouches from Fraser Lake, with a Hudson's Bay fur post and an Indian e, they ca Bill pulled up, and squinted away down the narrow lane fresh with axoff now? That looks like a survey line of some sort It isn't a trail--too wide Let's follow it a while
”I'll bet a nickel,” he asserted next, ”that's a railroad survey”
They had traversed two miles more or less, and the fact was patent that the blazed line sought a fairly constant level across country ”A land survey runs all saitude Huh!”
Half an hour of easy jogging set the seal of truth on his assertion
They cah a brass instrus of his outspread hands, certain activities of other men ahead of him
”Well, I'll be--” he bit off the sentence, and stared a moment in frank astonishment at Hazel Then he took off his hat and bowed ”Good rinned ”We have s like this around here all the ti in the wilderness, anyway?
Railroad?”
”Cross-section work for the G T P,” the surveyor replied
”Huh,” Bill grunted ”Is it a dead cinch, or is it so that may possibly come to pass in theever is,” the surveyor answered
”Construction has begun--at both ends I thought the fehite folks in this country kept tab on anything as important as a new railroad”
”We've heard a lot, but none of 'em has transpired yet; not in my tiht onI've heard ot past the talking stage What's their Pacific terminal?”