Ben wakened refreshed, at peace with the world as far as he could ever
be until his ends were attained; and immediately built a roaring fire.
Beatrice still slept, exhausted from the stress and suspense of her
attempt to escape. When the leaping flames had dispelled the frost from
the grass about the fire Ben stepped to her side and touched her
shoulder.
"It's time to get up and go on," he said. "We have only a few hours more
of travel."
It was true. The river had fallen appreciably during the night. Not many
hours remained in which to make their permanent landing. Although the
river was somewhat less violent from this point on, the lower water line
would make traveling practically as perilous as on the preceding day.
The girl opened her eyes. "I'd rather hoped--I had dreamed it all," she
told him miserably.
The words touched him. He looked into her face, moved by the girlishness
and appeal about the red, wistful mouth and the dark, brimming eyes.
"It's pretty tough, but I'm afraid it's true," he said, more kindly than
he had spoken since they had left the landing. "Do you want me to cook
breakfast and bring it to you here?"
"No, I want to do that part myself. It makes the time pass faster to
have something to do."
He went to look for fresh meat, and she slipped into her outer garments.
She found water already hot in a bucket suspended from the cooking rack,
permitting a simple but refreshing toilet. With Ben's comb she
straightened out the snarls in her dark tresses, parted them, and
braided them into two dusky ropes to be worn Indian fashion in front of
her shoulders. Then she prepared the meal.
It was a problem to tax the ingenuity of any housekeeper,--to prepare an
appetizing breakfast out of such limited supplies. But in this art,
particularly, the forest girls are trained. A quantity of rice had been
left from the stew of the preceding night, and mixing it with flour and
water and salt, she made a batter. Sooner or later fresh fat could be
obtained from game to use in frying: to-day she saw no course other than
to melt a piece of candle. The reverberating roar of the rifle a hundred
yards down the river bank, however, suggested another alternative.
A moment later Ben appeared--and the breakfast problem was solved. It
was another of the woods people that his rifle had brought down,--one
that wore fur rather than feathers and which had just come in from night
explorations along the river bank. It was a yearling black bear--really
no larger than a cub--and he had an inch of fat under his furry hide.
The fat he yielded was not greatly different from lard; and the
pancakes--or fritters, as Ben termed them--were soon frying merrily.
Served with hot tea they constituted a filling and satisfactory
breakfast for both travelers.
After breakfast they took to the river, yielding themselves once more to
the whims of the current. Once more the steep banks whipped past them in
ever-changing vista; and Ben had to strain at his paddle to guide the
craft between the perilous crags. The previous day the high waters had
carried them safely above the boulders of the river bed: to-day some of
the larger crags all but scraped the bottom of the canoe. It did not
tend toward peace of mind to know that any instant they might encounter
a submerged crag that would rip their craft in twain. Ben felt a growing
eagerness to land.
But within an hour they came out once more upon the open forest. The
river broadened, sped less swiftly, the bank sloped gradually to the
distant hills. This was the heart of Back There,--a virgin and primeval
forest unchanged since the piling-up of the untrodden ranges. The wild
pace of the craft was checked, and they kept watch for a suitable place
to land.
There was no need to push on through the seething cataracts that lay
still farther below. Shortly before the noon hour Ben's quick eye saw a
break in the heavy brushwood that lined the bank and quickly paddled
toward it. In a moment it was revealed as the mouth, of a small, clear
stream, flowing out of a beaver meadow where the grass was rank and
high. In a moment more he pushed the canoe into the mud of the creek
bank.
They both got out, rather sober of mien, and she helped him haul the
canoe out upon the bank. They unloaded it quickly, carrying the supplies
in easy loads fifty yards up into the edge of the forest, on
well-drained dry ground.
The entire forest world was hushed and breathless, as if startled by
this intrusion. Neither of the two travelers felt inclined to speak. And
the silence was finally broken by the splashing feet of a moose, running
through a little arm of the marsh that the forest hid from view.
"Is this our permanent camp?" the girl asked at last.
"Surely not," was the reply. "It's too near the river for one
thing--too easily found. It's too low, too--there'll be mosquitoes in
plenty in that marsh two months from now. The first thing is--to look
around and find a better site."
"You want me to come?"
"I'd rather, if you don't mind."
She understood perfectly. He did not intend to give her complete freedom
until the river fell so low that the rapids farther down would be wholly
impassable.
"I'll come." Beatrice smiled grimly. "We can have that picnic we
planned, after all."
They found a moose trail leading into the forest, and leaving the wolf
on guard over the supplies, they filed swiftly along it in that
peculiar, shuffling, mile-speeding gait that all foresters learn. At
once both were aware of a subdued excitement. In the first place, this
was unknown country and they experienced the incomparable thrill of
exploration. Besides they were seeking a permanent camp where their
fortunes would be cast, the drama of their lives be enacted, for weeks
to come.
Almost at once they began to catch glimpses of wild life,--a squirrel
romping on a limb; or a long line of grouse, like children in school,
perched on a fallen log. The trapper had not yet laid his lines in this
land, and the tracks of the little fur-bearers weaved a marvelous and
intricate pattern on the moose trail. Once a marten with orange throat
peered at them from a covert, and once a caribou raced away, too fast
for a shot.
Mostly the wild things showed little fear or understanding of the two
humans. The grouse relied on their protective coloration, just as when
menaced by the beasts of prey. An otter, rarely indeed seen in daylight,
hovered a moment beside a little stream to consider them; and a coyote,
greatest of all cowards, lingered in their trail until they were within
fifty feet of his grey form, then trotted shyly away.
"We won't starve for meat, that's certain," Ben informed her. His voice
was subdued; he had fallen naturally into the mood of quietness that
dwells ever in the primeval forest.
Because the trail seemed to be leading them too far from the waterways,
they took a side trail circling about a wooded hill. Ever Ben studied
the landmarks, looked carefully down the draws and tried to learn as
much as possible of the geography of the country; and Beatrice
understood his purpose with entire clearness. He wished to locate his
camp so that it would have every natural advantage and insurance against
surprise attack. He desired that every advantage of warfare be in his
favor when finally he came to grips with Neilson and his men.
They crossed a low ridge, following down another of the thousand creeks
that water the northern lands. In a moment it led them to a long, narrow
lake, blue as a sapphire in its frame of dusky spruce.
For a moment both of them halted on its bank, held by its virgin beauty.
Lost in the solitudes as it was, perhaps never before gazed upon by the
eyes of men, still it gave no impression of bleakness and stagnation.
Rather it was a scene of scintillating life, vivid past all expression.
Far out of range on the opposite shore a huge bull moose stood like a
statue in black marble, gazing out over the shimmering expanse. Trout
leaped, flashing silver, anywhere they might look; and a flock of loon
shrieked demented cries from its center. The burnished wings of a flock
of mallard flashed in the air, startled by some creeping hunter.
Slowly, delighted in spite of themselves by the lovely spot, they
followed along its shore. They climbed the bank; and now Ben began to
examine his surroundings with great care.
He had suddenly realized that he was in a region wonderfully fitted for
his permanent camp. The low ridge between the lake and the creek gave a
clear view of a large part of the surrounding country, affording him
every chance of seeing his enemies before they saw him. If they came
along the river--the course they would naturally follow--they would be
obliged to cross the beaver marsh--a half-mile of open grassland with no
protecting coverts. Beatrice saw, dismayed, that his gray eyes were
kindling with unholy fire under his heavy, dark brows.
What if he should see them, deep in the wet grass, filing across the
open marsh! How many shots would be needed to bring his war to a
triumphant end? There were no thickets in which they might find shelter:
hidden himself, they could not return his fire. Before they could break
and run to cover he could destroy them all!
Should they cross the narrow neck of the marsh, higher up, he would have
every chance to see them on the lake shore. The site was good from the
point of health and comfort--high enough to escape the worst of the
insect pests, close to fresh water, plenty of fuel, and within a few
hundred yards of a lake that simply swarmed with fish and waterfowl.
Still following a narrow, racing trout stream that flowed into the lake
they advanced a short distance farther, clear to the base of a rock
wall. And all at once Beatrice, walking in front, drew up with a gasp.
She stood at the edge of a little glade, perhaps thirty yards across,
laying at the base of the cliff. The creek flowed through it, the grass
was green and rich, beloved by the antlered herds that came to graze,
the tall spruce shaded it on three sides. But it was not these things
that caught the girl's eye. Just at the edge of a glade a dark hole
yawned in the face of the cliff.
In an instant more they were beside it, gazing into its depths. It was a
natural cavern with rock walls and a clean floor of sand--a roomy place,
and yet a perfect stronghold against either mortal enemies or the powers
of wind and rain.
"It's home," the man said simply.