Show 0 B BLACK A C K FEATHER R by HAROLD TITUS 0 w harold tatu 0 01 CHAPTER X continued 14 almost daily canoes linked trading post with the camp rodney shaw recuperated he been sitting up came the word had stood on his feet later had walked a few steps he eating as a man should eat basile came an uneasy light in eyes the trader may return any day he be said watching her face what delays him basile asked pointedly my firmness I 1 plead and argue I 1 invent delays for a week he has 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 I 1 quickly when she swayed as from a blow he has forbidden mention of youl you such a mant one does docs not know one knows he is in your debt one feels he should not think such thoughts 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 shaves declaration la that he had seen her cloak in burke Rick mans quarters and way to the goal would have been achieved but he had not the fineness of perception the insight t into to 0 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 Kod table and taking ink and quill and paper sat for long writing slowly painstakingly weighing each word she inscribed finished she folded the paper and left it there and 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 Kick Rick mans menace she was not particularly concerned not afraid still she had chosen such an hour for departure because non none e would know and she could be W well ell 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 villagers pillagers Pil Fil 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 it was she who cured the little trader of his sickness she is the one the woman who married a company runner run ner says that flam flaming ing hair boasts he will take when he has had rum it is said that both flaming hair and the little trader want her for or a wife she has the sign of running away she has that sign the woman in the stern chewed tobacco rapidly ap idly flaming hair would welcome word of her it is so and with only two ski skins ns of rice to trade he may open his hands wider if we give him that word you are swift of thought wabe gum let us go 90 basterl fa sterl yes it will be good my thoughts ire 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 he had refused the capote which his men urged him to wear he was not cold he declared the life warmth in in his veins had plenty plenty new of this was true his splendid vitality had rebounded amazingly from the t h e depths to which ch Monga bullet had reduced reduce d it and his body felt no discomfort from the autumnal wind A chill however lay upon his heart and in 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 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 half you are swift of thought Wa Wal begum leguin 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 alave 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 day S 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 hi him 1 m to hear the questions he ached t to 0 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 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 b 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 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 us t then unloading the carcasses of two deer from his canoe rice was heaped y yonder 0 n d e r 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 th the e sort of domain tree free men dreamed of building in the wilderness it was his de spite opposition it was his to hold easily now and yet depute 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 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 Vo ilal 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 my dear rodney when this comes to your attention your wish th that a t I 1 be gone will be u holly gran granted t ed I 1 have spent days here unknown to you and I 1 pray you will not be harsh with basils 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 ot of me tor for the mischief I 1 did will be undeserved I 1 attempted to say this at your bedside but you would not hear me out I 1 bear you no resentment tor for that dismissal I 1 beg of you to consider this when I 1 betrayed your plan to burke rickman 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 ot 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 he transgressor I 1 can ask no favor I 1 wish you only health and happiness and good fortune annette leclere 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 1 she had come to him from the company fortl fort I 1 jacques esl he called lunging for the door jacques esi jacques was there not in answer to his call but there eyes large arge and excited and strained words on his lips the clerk rich from the company awaits at the gate he blurted clerk rich company devil take him I 1 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 rich panted coming to a halt they let me in but B ut its moren life and death that fetches me herel here rodney was struck by the genuineness of the mans emotion an he finally got the word out explosively ashes on 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 11 shaw leave off 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 herl her listen he said as hold re labed its au all hes planned on fr for days its all hes lived for this chance at herl 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 herl military she called them back fore god shaw Y you know but how could you no you 1 listen 1 rickman sent back for the military to co come me 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 so s 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 man it drove him wild she tellin geuin 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 free and here ahead of us he went mad I 1 tell you man nd ripped her cloak off and she had to run tor for it he paused again panting and rodney stood before him jaw loose she come to him he 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 it its I 1 s you she loves 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 jacquest jacques jacques two men and a light canoe NW now 1 jacques bowl 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 C 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 gould 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 ba bark as they slipped into their cover making on toward the far edge where from boncea concealment I 1 ment he could watch for approach the channel between island and mainland was narrow this 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 sol silently at first now now I 1 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 fuu 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 |