My Comrade
I could not sufficiently commend the ease and aptness with which my
beautiful comrade wielded her paddle. But in a while the day grew hot,
and I bade her lie back in her place and rest. At first she would not,
till I was compelled to remind her in a tone of railing that I was the
captain in this enterprise, and that good soldiers must obey.
Whereupon, though her back was toward me, I saw a flush creep around to
her little ears, and she laid the paddle down something abruptly. I
feared that I had vexed her, and I made haste to attempt an
explanation, although it seemed to me that she should have understood a
matter so obvious.
"I beg you to pardon me, Madame, if I seem to insist too much," said I,
with hesitation. "But you must know that, if you exhaust yourself at
the beginning of the journey, before you are hardened to the long
continuance of such work, you will be unable to do anything to-morrow,
and our quest will be much hindered."
"Forgive me!" she cried; "you are right, of course. Oh, I fear I have
done wrong in hampering you! But I am strong, truly, and enduring as
most men, Monsieur."
"Yes," I answered, "but to do one thing strenuously all day long, and
for days thereafter, that is hard. I believe you can do it, or I
should have been mad indeed to bring you. But you must let me advise
you at the beginning. For this first day, rest often and save yourself
as much as possible. By this means you will be able to do better
to-morrow, and better still the day after. By the other means, you
will be able to do little to-morrow most likely, and perhaps nothing
the day after."
"Well," she said, turning her head partly around, so that I could see
the gracious profile, "tell me, Monsieur, when to work and when to
rest. I will obey. It is a lucky soldier, I know, who has the
Seigneur de Briart to command him."
[Illustration: Turning her head partly around, so that I could see the
gracious profile]
"But I fear, Madame," said I, "that discipline would sadly suffer if he
had often such soldiers to command."
To this she made no reply. I saw that she leaned back in her place and
changed her posture, so as to fulfil my wish and rest herself to the
best advantage. I thought my words over. To me they seemed to have
that savour of compliment which I would now avoid. I felt that here,
under these strange circumstances, in an intimacy which might by and by
be remembered by her with some little confusion, but which now, while
she had no thought but for the rescue of the little one, contained no
shadow of awkwardness for her clear and earnest soul,--I felt that here
I must hold myself under bonds. The play of graceful compliment, such
as I would have practised in her drawing-room to show her the
courtliness of my breeding, must be forsworn. The admiration, the
devotion, the worship, that burned in my eyes whensoever they dwelt
upon her, must be strictly veiled. I must seem to forget that I am a
man and my companion the fairest of women. Yes, I kept telling myself,
I must regard her as a comrade only, and a follower, and a boy. I must
be frank and careless in my manner toward her; kind, but blunt and
positive. She will think nothing of it now, and will blush the less
for it by and by, when the child is in her arms again, and she can once
more give her mind to little matters.
And so I schooled myself; and as I watched her I began to realize more
and more, with a delicious warming of my heart, what instant need I had
of such schooling if I would not have her see how I was not at all her
captain, but her bondsman.
At the mouth of the Piziquid stream there clustered a few cottages, not
enough to call a village; and here we stopped about noon. A meal of
milk and eggs and freshly baked rye cakes refreshed us, and eager as
was our haste, I judged it wise to rest an hour stretched out in the
shade of an apple tree. To this halt, Mizpah, after one glance of
eager question at my face, made no demur, and I replied to the glance
by whispering:--
"That is a good soldier! We will gain by this pause, now. We will
travel late to-night."
The cottagers of whom we had our meal were folk unknown to me; and
being informed that the Black Abbe had some followers in the
neighbourhood, I durst give no hint of our purpose. By and by I asked
carelessly if two canoes, with Indians of the Shubenacadie, had gone by
this way. I thought that the man looked at me with some suspicion. He
hesitated. But before he could reply his goodwife answered for him,
with the freedom of a clear conscience.
"Yes, M'sieu," she chattered, "two canoes, and four Indians. They went
by yesterday, toward sundown, stopping here for water from our
well,--the finest water hereabouts, if I do say it!"
"They went up the river, I suppose," said I.
"Oh, but no, M'sieu," clattered on the worthy dame. "They went
straight up the bay. Yes, goodman," she continued, changing her tone
sharply, "whenever I open my mouth you glare at me as if I was talking
nonsense. What have I said wrong now, I'd like to know. Yes, I'd like
very much to know that, goodman. Why should not the gentleman know
that they had--"
But here the man interrupted her roughly. "Will you never be done your
prating?" he cried. "Can't you see that you worry the gentlemen? How
should they care to know that the red rascals made a good catch of shad
off the island? Now, do go and get some of your fresh buttermilk for
the gentlemen to drink before they go. Don't you see they are
starting?"
And, indeed, Mizpah's impatience to be gone was plainly evident, and we
had rested long enough. I durst not look at her face, lest our host
should perceive that I had heard what I wanted to hear. I spoke
casually of the weather, and inquired how his apples and his flax were
faring, and so filled the minutes safely until the goodwife came with
the butter-milk. Having both drunk gratefully of the cool, delicately
acid, nourishing liquor, we gave the man a piece of silver, and set out
in good heart.
"We are on the right track, comrade," said I, lightly, steering my
course along the shore toward Cobequid.
Her only answer was to fall a-paddling with such an eagerness that I
had to check her.
"Now, now," I said, "more haste, less speed."
"But I feel so strong now, and so rested," she cried passionately.
"Might we not overtake them to-night?"
"Hardly so soon as that, I fear, Madame," I answered. "This is a stern
chase, and it is like to be a long one; you must make up your mind to
that, if you would not have a fresh disappointment every hour."
"Oh," she broke out, "if it were your child you were trying to find and
save, you would not be so cool about it."
"Believe me, Madame," said I, in a low voice, "I am not perhaps as cool
as I appear."
"Oh, what a weak and silly creature I must seem to you!" she cried.
"But I will not be weak and silly when it comes to trial, Monsieur, I
promise you. I _will_ prove worthy of your confidence. But make
allowance for me now, and do not judge me harshly. Every moment I seem
to hear him crying for me, Monsieur." And her head drooped forward in
unspeakable grief.
I could think of nothing, absolutely nothing, to say. I could only
mutter hoarsely, "I do not think you either weak or silly, Madame."
This answer, feeble as it appeared to myself, seemed in a sense to
relieve her. She put down her paddle, leaned forward upon the front
bar, with her face in her hands, and sobbed gently for a few minutes.
Then, while I gazed upon her in rapt commiseration, she all at once
resumed the paddle briskly.
For my own part, being just lately returned from a long expedition, my
muscles were like steel; I felt that I should never weary. Steadily
onward we pressed, past the mouths of several small streams whose names
I did not know, past headland after headland of red clay or pallid
plaster rock. As the tide fell, we were driven far out into the bay,
till sometimes there was a mile of oozy red flats parting us from the
edge of the green. But as the tide rose again, we accompanied its
seething vanguard, till at last we were again close in shore. A breeze
soon after mid-day springing up behind us, we made excellent progress.
But soon after sunset a mist arose, which made our journey too perilous
to be continued. I turned into a narrow cove between high banks, where
the brawling of a shallow brook promised us fresh water. And there, in
a thicket of young fir trees growing at the foot of a steep bank, I set
up the canoe on edge, laid some poles and branches against it, and had
a secluded shelter for my lady. She looked at it with a gratified
admiration and could never be done with thanking me.
Being now near the Shubenacadie mouth, I durst not light a fire, but we
uncomplainingly ate our black bread; and then I said:
"We will start at first gray, comrade. You will need all the sleep you
can win. Good night, and kindly dreams."
"Good night, Monsieur," she said softly, and disappeared. Then going
down to the water's side, I threw off my clothes, and took a swift
plunge which steadied and refreshed me mightily. Swimming in the misty
and murmurous darkness, my venture and my strange fellowship seemed
more like a dream to me than ever, and I could scarce believe myself
awake. But I was awake enough to feel it when, in stumbling ashore, I
scraped my foot painfully on a jagged shell. However, that hurt was
soon eased and staunched by holding it for a little under the chill
gushing of the brook; after which I dressed myself, gathered a handful
of ferns for a pillow, and laid myself down across the opening which
led into the thicket.