"All there was time for." His voice changed. "I feel like a hound-pup, to
be snoring on a downy couch like this while you were roughing it on the
floor. How did I come to do it? It's shameful!"
"Don't worry about me. How are you feeling this morning?"
He stretched and yawned. "Fine! That is, I'm sore here and there, but I'm
feeling wonderfully well. Do you know, I begin to hope that I can finally
dominate the wilderness. Wouldn't it be wonderful if I got so I could
ride and walk as you do, for instance? The fact that I'm not dead this
morning is encouraging." He drew on his shoes as he talked, while she
went about her toilet, which was quite as simple as his own. She had
spent two nights in her day dress with almost no bathing facilities; but
that didn't trouble her. It was a part of the game. She washed her face
and hands in Settle's tin basin, but drew the line at his rubber comb.
There was a distinct charm in seeing her thus adapting herself to the
cabin, a charm quite as powerful as that which emanated from Siona
Moore's dainty and theatrical personality. What it was he could not
define, but the forester's daughter had something primeval about her,
something close to the soil, something which aureoles the old Saxon
words--_wife_ and _home_ and _fireplace_. Seeing her through the savory
steam of the bacon she was frying, he forgot her marvelous skill as
horsewoman and pathfinder, and thought of her only as the housewife. She
belonged here, in this cabin. She was fitted to this landscape, whereas
the other woman was alien and dissonant.
He moved his arms about and shook his legs with comical effect of trying
to see if they were still properly hinged. "It's miraculous! I'm not lame
at all. No one can accuse me of being a 'lunger' now. Last night's sleep
has made a new man of me. I've met the forest and it is mine."
She beamed upon him with happy pride. "I'm mighty glad to hear you say
that. I was terribly afraid that long, hard walk in the rain had been too
much for you. I reckon you're all right for the work now."
He recalled, as she spoke, her anguish of pity while they stood in the
darkness of the trail, and it seemed that he could go no farther, and he
said, soberly: "It must have seemed to you one while as if I were all in.
I felt that way myself. I was numb from head to heel. I couldn't have
gone another mile."
Her face clouded with retrospective pain. "You mustn't try any more such
stunts--not for a few weeks, anyway. But get ready for breakfast."
He went out into the morning exultantly, and ran down to the river to
bathe his face and hands, allured by its splendid voice. The world seemed
very bright and beautiful and health-giving once more.
As soon as she was alone with her father, Berrie said: "I'm going home
to-day, dad."
"Going home! What for?"
"I've had enough of it."
He glanced at her bed on the floor. "I can't say I blame you any. This
has been a rough trip; but we'll go up and bring down the outfit, and
then we men can sleep in the tent and let you have the bunk--you'll be
comfortable to-night."
"Oh, I don't mind sleeping on the floor," she replied; "but I want to get
back. I don't want to meet those women. Another thing, you'd better use
Mr. Norcross at the Springs instead of leaving him here with Tony."
"Why so?"
"Well, he isn't quite well enough to run the risk. It's a long way from
here to a doctor."
"He 'pears to be on deck this morning. Besides, I haven't anything in the
office to offer him."
"Then send him up to Meeker. Landon needs help, and he's a better
forester than Tony, anyway."
"How about Cliff? He may make trouble."
Her face darkened. "Cliff will reach him if he wants to--no matter where
he is. And then, too, Landon likes Mr. Norcross and will see that he is
not abused."
McFarlane ruminated over her suggestion, well knowing that she was
planning this change in order that she might have Norcross a little
nearer, a little more accessible.
"I don't know but you're right. Landon is almost as good a hustler as
Tony, and a much better forester. I thought of sending Norcross up there
at first, but he told me that Frank and his gang had it in for him. Of
course, he's only nominally in the service; but I want him to begin
right."