DAVID TAKES A MISFORTUNE IN A POOR SPIRIT
David drank tea, Maggie Leblanc holding the tin mug to his lips. The
pain in his arm became more intense as his strength returned. His temper
was raw. He refused the bacon which the girl fried for him.
"Hell!" he exclaimed, "I feel too bad to eat. I feel like the very
devil, Maggie. Arm busted, canoe and outfit lost! Hell!"
"I guess that skunk, Dick Goodine, done you pretty brown," remarked the
girl. "Dick's cute. Always was. He bested you just like he'd best a mink
or a fox. You ain't no match for Dick Goodine, Davy."
David Marsh cursed bitterly.
"That durn half-breed!" he cried. "Me no match for him! You wait and
see, Maggie. I'll get square with him, one of these days."
"Dick ain't no half-breed," retorted the girl. "He's French and
English--and that mixture don't made a breed. Got to have Injin blood,
like me, to make a breed."
"Injin blood's better'n his mixture," said David. "Hell, yes! Dick
Goodine's pure skunk. But I'll do him yet. You just watch, Maggie. Arm
busted! Canoe busted and outfit sunk! He'll pay me for that."
"You think a heap o' yer money, Davy," said Maggie Leblanc.
"You go get the doctor," returned the young woodsman sullenly, "and
leave my affairs alone. Money? Well, I guess I make it hard enough. You
go 'long now, Maggie, like a good girl, and get Doctor Nash--or maybe
I'll never have the use o' this arm again. It's stiffenin' up terrible
quick. I'll make it worth yer while, Maggie. Five dollars! How'll five
dollars do?"
"I'm goin'," answered Maggie. "But you keep yer money. I don't want yer
five dollars. I'll fetch the doc, and I'll help you get square with that
skunk Dick Goodine, all for nothin'. You bet! Lay still, now, and I'll
light out for the settlement."
"I thought you was sweet on Dick Goodine; but you don't seem much that
way now, Maggie. What's he bin doin' to you?" asked David.
"Yer mind yer own business, Davy Marsh," retorted the young woman, "and
don't you give none o' yer cheek to me. I'm helpin' you, ain't I? Then
mind yer manners!"
Then, with a toss of her handsome head, she hurried from the shack.
Left alone under that low roof in the quiet forest, with the afternoon
sunshine flooding in by open door and window, David gave his mind
unreservedly to his accident, considering it from many points of view.
He had accepted Maggie Leblanc's suggestion without question--that
Goodine had caused the disaster by injuring his canoe pole in some way.
Now, alone in the silent forest, he thought of the marks on the card,
and remembered the story that Jim Harley had confided to him. It was
foolishness, of course, to set any store by two red crosses on a playing
card--and yet--and yet----
Queer things happen, he reflected. The devil still takes a hand in the
games of men. The idea of the blow being the work of a supernatural
agency, directed by the marked card, grew upon him. But even so, what
more likely than that Dick Goodine had cut his canoe pole--had been
chosen as the instrument of fate? One has strange fancies when lying
faint and hurt in a silent wilderness, in a golden, empty afternoon.
The sunlight gradually died away from window and door. David thought of
his loss and counted the money that would slip from his fingers, owing
to the broken arm. This was bitter food for the mind of such a man as
David Marsh. Mr. Banks, the rich and generous American sportsman, would
soon be at Samson's Mill Settlement--only, alas, for the profit of some
other than the unfortunate Davy. It was a hard fact to consider, but at
last the sullen young man fell asleep with the weight of it on his mind.
He dreamed of a life-and-death struggle with a Spanish count, who looked
like Dick Goodine dressed up in queer clothes. The Spanish nobleman ran
a knife into his arm and the pain was sickening. The count vanished, and
beside him stood a young man in a blue coat with brass buttons, whom
they called Jackson. This Mr. Jackson had a terrible leer on his face,
and a huge pistol in his right hand. Seizing David by the collar, he
hammered him with the pistol upon the wound made by the Spaniard's
knife. David yelled with the pain of it--and woke up! Above him leaned
Doctor Nash, holding a lantern, and with a finger on the broken arm.
"Quit it!" cried David. "Quit it, doc! That's the busted place yer
pinchin'."
A painful period of twenty minutes followed, and at the end of it
David's arm was in splints and bandages, and David's face was absolutely
colorless. Nash brought him 'round with a long drink of brandy.
"Hell!" said David. "That's all I want to see of you for the rest o' my
life, doc."
The doctor grinned, mopped his heated brow, and set the lantern on the
table. "Oh, that's nothing," he said. "Booh! I've done ten times as much
as that before breakfast. Keep still, now, and give it a chance. Your
arm will be as good as new in a few months."
David groaned. Nash built up the fire.
"I'm hungry," he said. "Where d'you keep your grub? Got anything fit to
eat?"
"I reckon yes," returned the woodsman. "There's plenty of grub in this
camp, and every durn ounce of it is fit for anybody to eat. Well, I
guess! There's eggs in that there box on the floor, and bacon in the
cupboard, and tea and coffee, and everything. Help yourself, doc. It was
bought to feed Mr. Banks--so I guess you'll find it good enough for
you."
"Don't get excited, David," retorted the doctor. "Keep your hair on, or
maybe you'll keep your arm from knitting."
He cooked a good meal, gave a little of it to his patient, and devoured
the choicer, and by far the larger, share of it himself. Then he lit his
pipe and drew a stool close up to the bunk in which David lay.
"You are not fit to move to-night," he said, "so I'll stay here and take
you in to-morrow morning. I managed to get my rig through the mud-holes
without breaking anything, I guess."
David moved his feet uneasily.
"Guess you'll be chargin' me pretty heavy for this, doc," he returned.
"Don't you worry," returned Nash. "I'll only charge what's fair, Davy.
Of course it was quite a serious operation, and a long drive--but don't
you worry."
He drew at his pipe for a little while in silence. At last he said:
"Maggie Leblanc tells me it was Dick Goodine who worked the dirty trick
on you. Is that so?"
"I guess so. Don't see what else. The pole was a good one, far's I
know."
"What's the trouble between you and Dick? I didn't know he was that
kind."
"Well, we had an argyment a while back. Nothin' serious; but he's a
spiteful kind of cuss. Dirty blood in him, I guess."
Nash nodded. "And perhaps you think the marks on that card had something
to do with it. Isn't that so, Davy? I guess Jim Harley has told you what
those marks mean."
"That's all durned foolishness. Marks on a card! How'd them little
crosses break my pole and upset me into the rapids?"
"Sounds fine, Davy; but you are scared of that marked card, all the
same. Don't lie to me--for it's no use. I think the marks on the card
have something to do with your broken arm."
"How, doc? No, yer foolin'! Yer tryin' to make game of me. I ain't a
scholar, like you, doc, but I ain't fool enough to believe in ghosts,
just the same."
"I am not saying anything about ghosts, Davy. You just keep your hair
on, and I'll tell you what I think. In the first place, just remember
that I am a man with a trained mind and a wide knowledge of life."
"Guess yer right, doc. Fire away!"
"Jim Harley told you that long story of his about his grandmother?"
"That's so."
"Do you believe it?"
"Maybe I do--and maybe I don't. What's that to you?"
"Of course you believe it! That's because your mind is untrained, and
you don't know anything of the ways of the world."
"You just leave my mind alone, doc. It ain't hurtin' you, I guess. You
talk as if I hadn't any more brains than a sheep."
Nash grinned, and rubbed his long hands briskly together. He enjoyed
this sort of thing.
"Right you are. You believe Jim's story--and I don't. What I think is
this: Jim Harley marked the card, dealt it to you, and then invented the
yarn. He is trying to scare you away--away from fooling around his
sister."
"You just let his sister alone, doc! And mind yer own business, too!"
"Keep cool, my boy. Well, he scares you a bit with his story. Then he
has a talk to Dick Goodine. He knows Dick and you are not very good
friends. So he fixes Dick, and Dick fixes your canoe pole--and there you
are! Jim and Dick do the busting, and I do the mending. What do you
think of that?"
"Durned foolishness!" retorted David. "Maybe Goodine done it; but Jim
didn't set him to it. I guess I know Jim Harley a durn sight better'n
you do."
"Oh, yes! You are a devilish clever chap, David--in your own opinion.
Just the same, my smart young friend, take the hint from me and stop
thinking about Nell Harley. You are not wanted 'round that vicinity, and
if Jim can't scare you away with his card trick and his silly story,
he'll scare you with something else."
David Marsh was raging; but he was helpless in the bunk, with a broken
arm to remember. He swore like the proverbial trooper--and Doctor Nash
sat and smoked, with his sneering grin broad on his fat face. He did not
say a word in reply to the woodsman's tirade. At last David lay back
weakly, breathless, and empty of oaths. Nash re-filled his pipe.
"Think it over quietly," he said. "Are the red marks after you? Or is
Dick Goodine after you, on his own trick? Or is Jim Harley working a
game on you? Think it over, Davy, and don't swear at your friends."
David's reply was a grunt; but he spent half the night in thinking it
over. The harder he thought the more hopelessly confused he became.
During the drive to the Marsh farm next morning, Doctor Nash carefully
avoided the subject of the marked cards and his suspicions. As there was
not much else to talk of in Samson's Mill Settlement, just then, the
drive was a quiet one. After helping his patient into the house the
doctor drove away.
Jim Harley came over to see David in the afternoon. The sufferer
received him with open suspicion, but Harley's manner soon drove the
shadow away. He listened to the story of the accident with every sign of
distress, and was impressed by the fact that Dick Goodine had helped
load and launch the canoe. He knew that David and the trapper were not
on friendly terms, and he believed the latter to be dangerously
quick-tempered; but he could scarcely bring himself to believe that he
would carry a grudge so far as to endanger a man's life.
"Have you and Dick had words about anything else?" he asked, "anything
more than that argument about guiding sportsmen?"
"I guess he holds something else against me," admitted the guide.
"What is it? What have you ever done to him?" asked Harley.
David shifted about uneasily in his chair, and became very red in the
face. In the depth of his heart he feared Jim Harley.
"I ain't done anything to him," he said falteringly. "I--I ain't said
one uncivil word to him, except that time we had the tongue fight. He
just don't like me, that's all. He don't like me because I'm a smarter
guide than him, and get hold of all the rich sports; and--and I guess he
thinks--well, he thinks----"
"What? What does he think?" demanded Harley.
"Well, you see, Jim, he--I guess he kinder thinks I've got the--the
inside track, so to speak."
"Inside track? You mean with the sportsmen? You have the best camps, and
all that sort of thing. I guess he's right, Davy."
"That ain't just exactly what I mean, Jim. I ain't talking about guidin'
and campin' now. Lookee here, you know as how I'm kinder--well, as how I
am almighty fond o' Nell. You know that, Jim, for I've told you before.
Well, Dick Goodine's struck a bit that way, too, far's I can make out.
Durned cheek; but that's the truth. So I guess that's maybe why he's got
an axe behind his back for me."
Jim Harley sighed and shook his head mournfully.
"I hadn't thought about that," he said; "but now that you mention it,
Davy, I see that it may be so. I've always found Dick a good-hearted
fellow--but I guess he goes on the rip now and again. Not extra
steady--and not the kind to marry my sister. He's not steady, you
see--and he's so danged ignorant."
Jim made these last remarks in a low, reflective voice, as if he were
talking only to himself. Tone and words fanned David's old suspicions
into sudden flame.
"Yes, he's danged ignorant!" he cried. "Danged ignorant, just like me.
That's what you mean, ain't it? You don't want Nell to marry a
bushwhacker like Dick Goodine--nor like me. That's about right, ain't
it, Jim? My first guess was right t'other night, I do believe."
Harley stared at him in angry amazement.
"You are talking like a blasted fool!" he exclaimed. "You were on the
same string before, and I went to a good deal of trouble to set you
right. Too much trouble, I see now. But I tell you again, if I objected
seriously to you, David, you'd damn soon know it. You make me tired."
"I didn't mean to rile you, Jim," returned the guide, "but what with the
gnawin' pain in my arm, and--and that story you told me about them marks
on the card--and them marks being dealt to me--I tell you, Jim, I don't
feel easy. I feel jumpy as a cat. Here I am with my arm busted already,
and a canoe and outfit gone clear to the devil. I never lost a canoe
before--nor bust my arm before."
"I am sorry, David. I am mighty sorry," said Harley. "It is hard luck,
no mistake about that, but all I can say is, I don't wish you any harm,
and never have. If you think Goodine is laying for you, keep your eye on
him. If you think there is anything in those marks on the card--well,
you know the story. Act as you think best for yourself, Davy."
"Thankee. I'll keep my eye skinned; but I tell you now, Jim, I ain't
scart o' them marks on the card. I believe all you told me--but I guess
it was just luck that brought them marks to this settlement and handed
them out to me. I don't think fer one minute they busted my arm or
upset my canoe."
After the evening meal, Jim Harley visited Rayton. The Englishman was in
his sitting room, writing letters before a good fire. He pushed his
papers aside and received his visitor with that manner of perfect
hospitality which was as natural to him as his frequent laughter. He had
already heard rumors of David's accident, but when Jim told the full
story, he replied in forceful terms that Dick Goodine had no part in it.
"But it looks queer," persisted Jim Harley.
"Looks!" retorted the Englishman. "My dear Harley, didn't a canoe pole
ever break before? Is this the first man who ever smashed his arm? Rot!
I know Goodine, and he's the right sort. He's a man."
Harley had great faith in Reginald Rayton's opinions; but he could not
get his suspicions of the trapper out of his head.
"Don't think any more about it," urged his host. "You might as well
suspect Ben Samson--or old Wigmore. Drop it--and have a drink."
So Jim dropped it and had a drink. But he was worried and preoccupied
throughout the evening. When he was about to leave, however, he shook
himself together.
"If you are ever lonely," he said, "come over and see us."
"Thanks very much," returned Rayton, gripping his hand. "I get a bit
lonely, sometimes. Ah--perhaps you'll see me to-morrow night, if that
will be convenient."
At that moment Turk jumped to his feet, uttered a low growl, and ran to
the window. Rayton jumped after him and snatched the curtain aside.
Nothing was to be seen, though a pale half-moon was shining clearly.
"That's queer," said Rayton. "Turk never gives false alarms."