Show BLACK ACA FEATHER H mir HAROLD vast 0 ilar harold 0 id tirui by aay TITUS 0 0 0 CHAPTER X continued 14 almost daily canoes linked the trading grading post with the camp where been odney shaw recuperated lie he had been sitting up came the word lie he ead had stood on his feet beet later he had kad walked a few steps he was pealing as a man should eat basile came an uneasy light in h his is leyes eyes the trader may return any day 1 he said watching her face what delays him basile she asked pointedly my firmness I 1 plead and argue I 1 invent delays for a week he has bas been going about from lodge to lodge gaining strength rapidly but as well gaining impatience to return here I 1 must prevent that return until until the place is as he left it but mademoiselle quickly when she swayed as from a blow he has forbid den mention of youl you I 1 such a danl man one does not know one knows tie be is in your debt one feels he be should not think such thoughts i but what does one do yes what did one do too long in the forest this basile to determine the strategy which would have brought him and these others peace he was in distress he knew the hotness of young blood should not frustrate the longings of young hearts but how to arrange such matters how to temper prejudice and arrange better understandings he did not know A word to her would have sufficed the repetition of shaws declaration la ration that he had seen her cloak in burke Rick mans quarters and I 1 way to the goal would have been achieved but he had not the fineness of perception the insight into the complexities of youth to realize that he was accustomed to obey shaws orders shaw had banned talk of the girl he could not reason behind that command on such disabilities at times do destinies hinge slowly as one in physical pain annette made her final preparations for departure she prolonged each small operation as one will when loath to leave a place behind and it was near dusk when she finished and closed the small chest and with a deep sigh tossed her head she turned then to tame table and taking ink and quill and paper sat for long writing slowly painstakingly weighing each word she inscribed finished she fol folded ded the paper and left it there a and nd dusk having fallen she told her boatmen to be ready an hour before dawn and until the appointed time she lay staring at the glowing logs in the fireplace numb and resigned during her weeks at fort shaw she had thought now and again of Rick mans menace she was not particularly concerned not afraid still she had chosen such an hour for departure because none would know and she could be well on her way before the news had even a slight chance of spreading up and down the lake still as they breasted the point where rickman sulked she felt a creep through her body and when they were beyond a sense of relief made itself known they stopped but shortly for food after daylight and then kept on going down the slow flowing tributary to the great mississippi later they met a canoe paddled by two women who had been gathering rice they were not pillagers villagers Pil lagers not people of shaws domain though living and hunting on its edge around the bend the woman in the stern said that was the white medicine woman ve man it was she who cured the little trader of his sickness she is the one the woman who married a company runner s says ays th that at flaming hair boasts he will take when he has had rum it is said that both flam flaming ing hair and the little trader want her for a wife she has the sign of running away she has that sign the woman in the stern chewed tobacco rapidly flaming hair would welcome word of her it is so and with only two skins ot of rl rice ce to trade he may open his hands wider if we give him that word you are swift ot of thought wabe gum um let us go fa faster sterl yes it will be good my thoughts are re like spring water CHAPTER XI so rodney shaw came home to his fort gaunt and still a bit pale but erect in his canoe the wind blew chill that day but bu he had refused the capote which his men urged him to wear he was not cold he declared the new life in his veins had plenty of warmth this was true his splendid vitality had rebounded amazingly from the depths to which Monga bullet had reduced it and his body felt no discomfort from the autumnal wind A chill chili however lay upon his heart andin his eyes as they stared across the water to his establishment was a bleakness he felt as he had felt tor for days as if the sun vicere were permanently gone in the beginning he had attributed the sensation to physical weakness but realized that this was an error toughened to hardship with the splendid foundation of vigor on which to rebuild strength his body had regained much of what had been lost not all of course but much he could walk and paddle his heart no longer pounded his ribs at slight exertion his voice had recaptured its vibrant timbre still he felt cold he stepped ashore now without the feeling of achievement which he had anticipated men left tasks and ran to greet him shouting and laughing A halt half a Z 14 31 you are swift of thought Wabe gurn dozen indians loitering about the place stared one of the engages had taken a native wife and rodney stopped to speak to the girl and bid her welcome and try to make a joke about her husband he stood a moment before his quarters looking about A great flock of red winged blackbirds ready for their annual leave taking rose and dipped and whirled above the fort like soot flakes tossing on a gale he was back safe alive treading the ground of his stronghold and it was good good to be there A tingling stab ran his breast as he told himself it was good to be back within that stockade he had ached and hungered to be back thinking return would bring relief from the pall which hung above him he would have been back days before had not basile persisted in his argument that the trade after all that had happened demanded that rodney be seen among the scattered hunters this was reasonable and shaw had yielded to the old mans nagging restless though he had become that feeling of being under a cloud had increased with the days he knew its beginnings the time and the reason but he would not let himself dwell on those he knew it dated from the moment he had sent annette leclere away he had sent her away in bitterness but he had not wanted her to leave his heart had wanted her to remain close to him to comfort him to hear the questions he ached to ask but his mind would not permit that heart to have its way she had been in Rick mans quarters here after pleading in the streets of mackinac with rickman not to leave her surely then she had come to rickman she had served him shaw but only as any woman would serve any man wounded and in need A gnawing wonder harried him had she not once or twice or thrice actually felt the things her looks and touches told him she felt back there at mackinac was there not after all that had happened a chance that her blood might call to his as his once had to hers hed wanted to ask her those things his heart had but his mind filled with animosity and doubt doubt would not let his heart have its way would run no risk of letting that heart demand its way so he had banished her and the pall had settled fish were smoking on racks of withes over a fire A hunter was just then unloading the carcasses of two deer from his canoe rice was heaped yonder on an oilcloth against the wall were newly delivered packs of fur from some native who was already discharging his debt A well stocked profitable establishment this the sort of domain tree free men dreamed of building in the wilderness it was his de spite opposition it was ills his to hold easily now and yet despite all this it was not good to be here the place was filled and yet it was empty the fort had permanence and instability together he had a feeling of homecoming and departure much lay ahead but more behind ably behind he walked into his quarters whore where jacques was making a fire and again that feeling which had swept and rocked him at mackinac reasserted itself again he thought what it would be for a trader coming home to lips and arms and eyes like hers again he saw loneliness and hardship without mellowing tenderness stretching before him down the years voilet Vo ilal ilat muttered jacques rising from the hearth as flames crackled jacques went out closing the door rodney moved slowly about he stopped beside the table staring down at the paper folded there his name was inscribed on it in a fine and delicate script trembling he snatched up the paper opened its folds sank to the bench and began to read mv dear rodney when this comes to your attention your wish that I 1 be gone will be wholly granted I 1 have spent days here unknown to you and I 1 pray you will not be harsh with basile when you become aware of it one of the objects of my coming here was to say to you that nothing you can ever think of me for or the mischief I 1 did will be undeserved I 1 attempted a I 1 to say this at your bedside but you we would u ld not hear me out I 1 bear you no resentment tor for that dismissal I 1 beg 0 of you to consider this when I 1 betrayed your plan to burke R ic kman I 1 was a girl piqued and hurt I 1 have matured I 1 believe in the months that have passed and this maturity has only increased my perception of the enormity ol of my misdeed I 1 shall carry my regrets throughout life this Is all I 1 have to say dear rodney it would have been a privilege to say it rather than write it but being the transgressor I 1 can ask no favor avor I 1 wish you only health and happiness and good fortune annette annet te leclerc he looked slowly up from the paper his mind completely in a swirl she here she preparing for return return where with whom his heart pelted belted at his ribs and his throat swelled A letter such as that sweet gentle humble but her cloak had been in Rick mans quarters quarter sl she had come to him from the company fort jacques esi 1 he called lunging for the door jacques jacques was there not in answer to his call but there eyes large and excited and strained words on his bs bps the clerk rich from the company awaits at the gate he blurted clerk rich company devil take him jacques what of the mam selle was she here when did she leave what was A rising clamor of voices and pound of feet broke his question down he moved slightly to look past jacques and saw conrad rich racing toward him forgive this shawl shaw rich panted coming to a halt they let me in but its moren life and death that fetches me herel rodney was struck by the genuineness of the mans emotion annette he finally got the word out explosively ashes on tho the way out and rickman hes hard after herl her cold within rodney turned to warmth to heat to a fire Is this another wild scheme he snarled Is this another attempt by you company hirelings to suck a man into a trap where he shaw leave off I 1 its no time for talk such as that ayou think id be here if that was so ayou think id risk my skin comin here for trade its a woman this time im to say and theres none at our establishment to stand by her listen en I 1 he said as hold re labed its all hes planned on for days its all hes lived for this chance at her I 1 it drove him wild when she come callin the military back nd he schemed to kill you sos he could have not only the trade but hert herl military she called them back fore god shaw you know but how could you no you 1 listen I 1 rickman sent back tor for the military to come nd drag you out of here to stand trial they come capes but annette knowel it shed worked for you back yonder shed got les lies giles to take your part sos kill the warrant but capes was on th way and there was nobody else to send to call him back so she come th night we fired your place here what touched rickman off I 1 tell you mant it drove him wild she tellin him as how she was alyin when she begged him to stay at mackinac as how she only done it to give you a chance to get tree free and here ahead of us he went mad I 1 tell you man nd ripped her cloak off and she had to run for it he paused again panting and rodney stood before him jaw loose she come to him he be asked in a whisper eh him you know she tell when she was dursin you she give it away him you she come for shaw its you she lovest loves t and ashes goin back and hes after her and be like devils from hell bearin at her tender flesh if he ever gets shaw was past him then spinning him to one side with an arm thrust jerking open the door crying jacques jacquest jacques two men and a light canoe now jacques now an hours start miles of advantage had burke rickman As rodney set his course to the southward to have the strategic shelter of the chain of islands he made the other out far far oil off an hour passed and two without further sight of rickman the last island of the chain was a full league in length and beyond lay much open water when they breasted this final shelter he cursed his boatmen and the canoe quivered as they drove blades deeper jacques in the bow spoke guardedly they have not passed beyond out there was steel blue water sullen under clouds the hue of new iron upon it as far as they bould see floated no other craft turn so rodney extended his left hand the bow swung toward the reed bed at the foot of the island he picked up a rifle and examined the priming critically reeds hissed against the birch bark as they slipped into their cover making on toward the far edge where from concealment he could watch for approach iolande the channel between island and mainland was narrow this thi s oncoming canoe would pass within a stones throw be ready he muttered slowly lowering his head for better screening ready jacques the paddle on the bottom sot silently at first now now the bow swung outward with stout shoves of the paddles they followed the point of the reed bed out toward deeper water out to cross the course of that other canoe they glided from their shelter into full view and shaw rose to his knees swinging the rifle to his shoulder and in the split instant consumed by this movement he saw Rick mans face amazement bewilderment high fright and venomous hatred TO BE CONTINUED |