It is a peculiar fact that no one is more deeply moved by the great
works and phenomena of nature than those who live among them. It is the
visitor from distant cities, or the callow youth with tawdry clothes and
tawdry thoughts who disturbs the great silences and austerity of
majestic scenes with half-felt effusive words or cheap impertinences.
Oddly enough, the awe that the wilderness dweller knows at the sight of
some great, mysterious canyon or towering peak seems to increase, rather
than decrease, with familiarity. His native scenes never grow old to
him. Their beauty and majesty is eternal.
Perhaps the reason lies in the fact that the native woodsman knows
nature as she really is: living ever close to her he knows her power
over his life. Perhaps there is a religious side to the matter, too. In
the solitudes the religious instincts receive an impulse that is
impossible to those who know only the works of man. The religion that
this gives is true and deep, and the eye instinctively lifts in
reverence to the manifestations of divine might.
When the swirling waters carried the canoe down into the gorge of the
Yuga both Ben and Beatrice were instinctively awed and stilled. Ever the
walls of the gorge grew more steep, until the sunlight was cut off and
they rode as if in twilight. The stone of the precipices presented a
marvellous array of color; and the spruce, almost black in the subdued
light, stood in startling contrast. Ben saw at once that even were they
able to land they could not--until they had emerged from the
gorge--climb to the highlands. A mountain goat, most hardy of all
mountaineers, could scarcely scale the abrupt wall.
During this time of half-light they saw none of the larger forest
creatures that at first had gazed at them with such wonder from the
banks. The reason was simply that they could not descend and ascend the
steep walls.
Mostly Ben had time only for an occasional glimpse at the colossus above
him. His work was to guide the craft between the perilous boulders.
Occasionally the river slackened its wild pace, and at such times he
stretched his arms and rested his straining eyes.
Both had largely forgotten the danger of the ride. Because she was
trying bravely to make the best of a tragic situation Beatrice had
resolved to keep danger from her thoughts. Ben had known from the first
that danger was an inevitable element in his venture, and he accepted it
just as he had considered it,--with entire coldness. Yet both of them
knew, in their secret thoughts, that the balance of life and death was
so fine that the least minor incident might cast them into darkness. It
would not have to be a great disaster, a wide departure from the
commonplace. They were traveling at a terrific rate of speed, and a
sharp rock too close to the surface would rip the bottom from their
craft. Any instant might bring the shock and shudder of the end.
There would scarcely be time to be afraid. Both would be hurled into the
stream; and the wild waters, pounding against the rocks, would close the
matter swiftly. It awed them and humbled them to realize with what
dispatch and ease this wilderness power could snuff out their mortal
lives. There would be no chance to fight back, no element of
uncertainty in the outcome. Here was a destiny against which the
strength of man was as thistledown in the wind! The thought was good
spiritual medicine for Ben, just as it would have been for most other
men, and his egoism died a swift and natural death.
One crash, one shock, and then the darkness and silence of the end! The
river would rage on, unsatiated by their few pounds of flesh, storming
by in noble fury; but no man would know whither they had gone and how
they had died. The walls of the gorge would not tremble one whit, or
notice; and the spruce against the sky would not bow their heads to show
that they had seen.
But the canyon broke at last, and the craft emerged into the sunlight.
It was good to see the easy slope of the hills again, the spruce
forests, and the forms of the wild creatures on the river bank, startled
by their passing. Noon came and passed, and for lunch they ate the last
of the fudge. And now a significant change was manifest in both of them.
Psychologists are ever astounded at the ability of mortals, men and
animals, to become adjusted to any set of circumstances. The wax of
habit sets almost in a day. The truth was, that in a certain measure
with very definite and restricted limits, both Ben and Beatrice were
becoming adjusted even to this amazing situation in which they found
themselves. This did not mean that Beatrice was in the least degree
reconciled to it. She had simply accepted it with the intention of
making the best of it. She had been abducted by an enemy of her father
and was being carried down an unknown and dangerous river; but the
element of surprise, the life of which is never but a moment, was
already passing away. Sometimes she caught herself with a distinct
start, remembering everything with a rage and a bitter load on her
heart; but the mood would pass quickly.
It is impossible, through any ordinary change of fortune, for a normal
person to lose his sense of self-identity. As long as that remains
exterior conditions can make no vital change, or make him feel greatly
different than he felt before. The change from a peasant to a
millionaire brings only a moment's surprise, and then readjustment.
Beatrice was still herself; the man in the stern remained Ben Darby and
no one else. Very naturally she began to talk to him, and he to answer
her.
The fact that they were bitter foes, one the victim of the other, did
not decree they could not have friendly conversation, isolated as they
were. From time to time Ben pointed out objects of interest on the
shore; and she found herself remarking, in a casual voice, about them.
And before the afternoon he had made her laugh, in spite of herself,--a
gay sound in which fear and distress had little echo.
"We're bound to see a great deal of each other in the next few weeks,"
he had said; and this fact could not be denied. The sooner both became
adjusted to it the better. Actual fear of him she had none; she
remembered only too well the steel in his eyes and the white flame on
his cheeks as he had assured her of her safety.
In mid-afternoon Ben began to think of making his night's camp. From
time to time the bank became an upright precipice where not even a tree
could find foothold; and it had occurred to him, with sudden vividness,
that he did not wish the darkness to overtake him in such a place. The
river rocks would make short work of him, in that case. It was better to
pick out a camp site in plenty of time lest they could not find one at
the day's end.
In one of the more quiet stretches of water he saw the place--a small
cove and a green, tree-clad bank, with the gorge rising behind. Handling
his canoe with greatest care he slanted toward it. A moment later he had
caught the brush at the water's edge, stepped off into shallow water,
and was drawing the canoe up onto the bank.
"We're through for the day," he said happily, as he helped Beatrice out
of the boat. "I'll confess I'm ready to rest."
Beatrice made no answer because her eyes were busy. Coolly and quietly
she took stock of the situation, trying to get an idea of the
geographical features of the camp site. She saw in a glance, however,
that there was no path to freedom up the gorge behind her. The rocks
were precipitate: besides, she remembered that over a hundred miles of
impassable wilderness lay between her and her father's cabin. Without
food and supplies she could not hope to make the journey.
The racing river, however, wakened a curious, inviting train of thought.
The torrent continued largely unabated for at least one hundred miles
more, she knew, and the hours that it would be passable in a canoe were
numbered. The river had fallen steadily all day; driftwood was left on
the shore; rocks dried swiftly in the sun, cropping out like fangs above
the foam of the stream. Was there still time to drift on down the Yuga a
hundred or more miles to the distant Indian encampment? She shut the
thought from her mind, at present, and turned her attention to the work
of making camp.
With entire good humor she began to gather such pieces of dead wood as
she could find for their fire.
"Your prisoner might as well make herself useful," she said.
Ben's face lighted as she had not seen it since their outward journey
from Snowy Gulch. "Thank God you're taking it that way, Beatrice," he
told her fervently. "It was a proposition I couldn't help--"
But the girl's eyes flashed, and her lips set in a hard line. "I'm doing
it to make my own time go faster," she told him softly, rather slowly.
"I want you to remember that."
But instantly both forgot their words to listen to a familiar clucking
sound from a near-by shrub. Peering closely they made out the plump,
genial form of Franklin's grouse,--a bird known far and wide in the
north for her ample breast and her tender flesh.
"Good Lord, there's supper!" Ben whispered. "Beatrice, get your
pistol--"
Her eyes smiled as she looked him in the face. "You remember--my pistol
isn't loaded!"
"Excuse me. I forgot. Give it to me."
She handed him the little gun, and he slipped in the shells he had taken
from it. Then--for the simple and sensible reason that he didn't want to
take any chance on the loss of their dinner--he stole within twenty feet
of the bird. Very carefully he drew down on the plump neck.
"Dinner all safe," he remarked rather gayly, as the grouse came tumbling
through the branches.