第11章 THE GREAT INTERROGATION(5)

She was in his arms, trembling, and he held her tightly.He rose to his feet...But the snarling of hungry dogs, and the shrill cries of Winapie bringing about peace between the combatants, came muffled to his ear through the heavy logs.And another scene flashed before him.A struggle in the forest,--a bald-face grizzly, broken-legged, terrible; the snarling of the dogs and the shrill cries of Winapie as she urged them to the attack; himself in the midst of the crush, breathless, panting, striving to hold off red death; broken-backed, entrail-ripped dogs howling in impotent anguish and desecrating the snow; the virgin white running scarlet with the blood of man and beast; the bear, ferocious, irresistible, crunching, crunching down to the core of his life; and Winapie, at the last, in the thick of the frightful muddle, hair flying, eyes flashing, fury incarnate, passing the long hunting knife again and again--Sweat started to his forehead.

He shook off the clinging woman and staggered back to the wall.

And she, knowing that the moment had come, but unable to divine what was passing within him, felt all she had gained slipping away.

"Dave! Dave!" she cried."I will not give you up! I will not give you up! If you do not wish to come, we will stay.I will stay with you.The world is less to me than are you.I will be a Northland wife to you.I will cook your food, feed your dogs, break trail for you, lift a paddle with you.I can do it.

Believe me, I am strong."

Nor did he doubt it, looking upon her and holding her off from him; but his face had grown stern and gray, and the warmth had died out of his eyes.

"I will pay off Pierre and the boatmen, and let them go.And Iwill stay with you, priest or no priest, minister or no minister;go with you, now, anywhere! Dave! Dave! Listen to me! You say I did you wrong in the past--and I did--let me make up for it, let me atone.If I did not rightly measure love before, let me show that I can now."She sank to the floor and threw her arms about his knees, sobbing.

"And you DO care for me.You DO care for me.Think! The long years I have waited, suffered! You can never know!" He stooped and raised her to her feet.

"Listen," he commanded, opening the door and lifting her bodily outside."It cannot be.We are not alone to be considered.You must go.I wish you a safe journey.You will find it tougher work when you get up by the Sixty Mile, but you have the best boatmen in the world, and will get through all right.Will you say good-by?"Though she already had herself in hand, she looked at him hopelessly."If--if--if Winapie should--" She quavered and stopped.

But he grasped the unspoken thought, and answered, "Yes." Then struck with the enormity of it, "It cannot be conceived.There is no likelihood.It must not be entertained.""Kiss me," she whispered, her face lighting.Then she turned and went away.

"Break camp, Pierre," she said to the boatman, who alone had remained awake against her return."We must be going."By the firelight his sharp eyes scanned the woe in her face, but he received the extraordinary command as though it were the most usual thing in the world."Oui, madame," he assented."Which way? Dawson?""No," she answered, lightly enough; "up; out; Dyea."Whereat he fell upon the sleeping voyageurs, kicking them, grunting, from their blankets, and buckling them down to the work, the while his voice, vibrant with action, shrilling through all the camp.In a trice Mrs.Sayther's tiny tent had been struck, pots and pans were being gathered up, blankets rolled, and the men staggering under the loads to the boat.Here, on the banks, Mrs.

Sayther waited till the luggage was made ship-shape and her nest prepared.

"We line up to de head of de island," Pierre explained to her while running out the long tow rope."Den we tak to das back channel, where de water not queek, and I t'ink we mak good tam."A scuffling and pattering of feet in the last year's dry grass caught his quick ear, and he turned his head.The Indian girl, circled by a bristling ring of wolf dogs, was coming toward them.

Mrs.Sayther noted that the girl's face, which had been apathetic throughout the scene in the cabin, had now quickened into blazing and wrathful life.

"What you do my man?" she demanded abruptly of Mrs.Sayther."Him lay on bunk, and him look bad all the time.I say, 'What the matter, Dave? You sick?' But him no say nothing.After that him say, 'Good girl Winapie, go way.I be all right bimeby.' What you do my man, eh? I think you bad woman."Mrs.Sayther looked curiously at the barbarian woman who shared the life of this man, while she departed alone in the darkness of night.

"I think you bad woman," Winapie repeated in the slow, methodical way of one who gropes for strange words in an alien tongue."Ithink better you go way, no come no more.Eh? What you think? Ihave one man.I Indian girl.You 'Merican woman.You good to see.You find plenty men.Your eyes blue like the sky.Your skin so white, so soft."Coolly she thrust out a brown forefinger and pressed the soft cheek of the other woman.And to the eternal credit of Karen Sayther, she never flinched.Pierre hesitated and half stepped forward; but she motioned him away, though her heart welled to him with secret gratitude."It's all right, Pierre," she said.

"Please go away."

He stepped back respectfully out of earshot, where he stood grumbling to himself and measuring the distance in springs.

"Um white, um soft, like baby." Winapie touched the other cheek and withdrew her hand."Bimeby mosquito come.Skin get sore in spot; um swell, oh, so big; um hurt, oh, so much.Plenty mosquito; plenty spot.I think better you go now before mosquito come.This way," pointing down the stream, "you go St.Michael's;that way," pointing up, "you go Dyea.Better you go Dyea.Good-by."And that which Mrs.Sayther then did, caused Pierre to marvel greatly.For she threw her arms around the Indian girl, kissed her, and burst into tears.

"Be good to him," she cried."Be good to him."Then she slipped half down the face of the bank, called back "Good-by," and dropped into the boat amidships.Pierre followed her and cast off.He shoved the steering oar into place and gave the signal.Le Goire lifted an old French chanson; the men, like a row of ghosts in the dim starlight, bent their backs to the tow line; the steering oar cut the black current sharply, and the boat swept out into the night.