“I knew it!” she cried.
“You’re wrong!” I protested. “I do not think so at this moment.”
“But you have thought so?”
“I have thought you—well, not quite as cautious——”
“Prevaricator! You’ve thought: ‘What sort of a silly madcap is this
girl!’ I know it. Well, I guess you’re right. It was a foolish thing
to do; it’s foolish to be glad at the prospect of adventure. Other
girls wouldn’t do it. They wouldn’t think of it. They’d think a girl
queer who did. That proves it’s foolish, doesn’t it? It isn’t done. I
can’t help it, though; I’ve needed something like this.”
“It is the day of restlessness among American women,” I said
fatuously.
“Restlessness? Is it? Yes, I suppose it is. But my restlessness
doesn’t take the regular, honest truth road, you know. Lots of my girl
friends have felt they wanted to do something, but they’ve wanted to
go suff’ing, or paint, or write, or teach folk-dances, or something
like that. I didn’t, not any more than I wanted to be considered a
doll in pretty clothes all my life.
“I wanted to break away. Well, I did. Here I am. And, scandalous as it
may sound, I’m enjoying every minute. Now, Mr. Pitt, there’s my whole
confession. I have acted foolishly, and I know it, but really, I feel
as if I had broken loose from something that had held me down. I feel
as if it was the beginning of a new life for me—of my real life.”
“A new life?” I said. “Why, that’s what Captain Brack said last
night.”
She looked away.
“Yes, so he did,” she said slowly.
And I thought she shivered a little.
* * * * *
I am afraid I cursed poor George Chanler in unchristian fashion during
the rest of that run up to Kalmut Fiord. For during those days Captain
Brack wooed Miss Baldwin steadily. At each meal he sat at her side;
his eyes were upon her, his magic words were for her alone. And even
while he spoke to her I saw in his eyes that terrible, ruthless look I
knew so well.
“What does the hidden country of Kalmut Fiord hold?” he speculated one
evening. “Ah, Miss Baldwin, if we knew our interest would be
discounted. It is a primitive spot, surely; a primal piece of earth.
Let us pray that it holds Romance, without which there can be no
beginning of a new life.” Once more he repeated: “Hidden country!
There’s some in all of us, and until we explore it we don’t live.”
The effect of his efforts was apparent upon Miss Baldwin. She seemed
to dread each meeting with him, yet she sat beneath his spell in a
state of fascination. So I cursed poor Chanler. Had he been the man
Miss Baldwin had hoped she would have had no attention for Brack.
Near dusk on the third day after changing our course we sighted land
over our bows, a tiny gray smudge on the horizon. Our speed was cut
down to a crawl at once. The captain, after studying the land through
his glasses, ordered our course changed to west by nor’west, and
through the thickening darkness we moved at a foot-pace, gradually
drawing nearer a harboring, fir-lined coast line.
That night, while most of us slept soundly, we slipped into Kalmut
Fiord. The cessation of the yacht’s motion aroused me in the morning,
and half awake I dressed and stumbled out on deck to learn the cause.
In the darkness I had a jumbled impression that the _Wanderer_ was
lying in a small lake surrounded by a circle of small, craggy
mountains. Then, my senses clearing, I realized that I had stepped
into the midst of events of sinister portent.