To Roaring River
At last the morning came and Madge awoke. At first she could not
realize where she was. Her limbs ached from their cramped position and
a pain was gnawing at her, which meant hunger. In spite of the heaters
in the car a persistent chilliness had come over her, and all at once
she was seized by an immense discouragement. She felt that she was now
being borne away to some terrible place. Those people called it
Roaring River. Now that she thought of it the very name represented
something that was gruesome and panicky. But then she lay back and
reflected that its flood would be cleaner and its bed a better place
to leap into, if her fears were realized, than the turbid waters of
the Hudson. She knew that she was playing her last stake. It must
result in a life that could be tolerated or else in an end she had
battled against, to the limit of endurance.
She quietly made a meal of the provisions she had brought. Her weary
brain no longer reacted to disturbing thoughts and vague fears and she
felt that she was drifting, peacefully, to some end that was by this
time nearly indifferent to her. The day wore on, with a long interval
in Ottawa, where she dully waited in the station, the restaurant
permitting her to indulge in a comforting cup of coffee. All that she
saw of the town was from the train. There was a bridge above the
tracks, near the station, and on the outskirts there were winding and
frozen waterways on which some people skated. As she went on the land
seemed to take an even chillier aspect. The snow was very deep. Farms
and small villages were half buried in it. The automobiles and wheeled
conveyances of New York had disappeared. Here and there she could see
a sleigh, slowly progressing along roads, the driver heavily muffled
and the horse traveling in a cloud of vapor. When night came they were
already in a vast region of rock and evergreen trees, of swift running
rivers churning huge cakes of ice, and the dwellings seemed to be very
few and far between. The train passed through a few fairly large
towns, at first, and she noted that the people were unfamiliarly clad,
wearing much fur, and the inflections of their voices were strange to
her. By this time the train was running more slowly, puffing up long
grades and sliding down again with a harsh grinding of brakes that
seemed to complain. When the moon rose it shone over endless snow,
broken only by dim, solid-looking masses of conifers. Here and there
she could also vaguely discern rocky ledges upon which gaunt twisted
limbs were reminders of devastating forest fires. There were also
great smooth places that must have been lakes or the beds of wide
rivers shackled in ice overlaid with heavy snow. Whenever the door of
the car was opened a blast of cold would enter, bitingly, and she
shivered.
Came another morning which found her haggard with want of sleep and
broken with weariness. But she knew that she was getting very near the
place and all at once she began to dread the arrival, to wish vainly
that she might never reach her destination, and this feeling continued
to grow keener and keener.
Finally the conductor came over to her and told her that the train was
nearing her station. Obligingly he carried her bag close to the door
and she stood up beside him, swaying a little, perhaps only from the
motion of the car. The man looked at her and his face expressed some
concern but he remained silent until the train stopped.
Madge had put on her thin cloak. The frosted windows of the car spoke
of intense cold and the rays of the rising sun had not yet passed over
the serrated edges of the forest.
"I'm afraid you'll find it mighty cold, ma'am," ventured the
conductor. "Hope you ain't got to go far in them clothes. Maybe your
friends 'll be bringing warmer things for you. Run right into the
station; there's a fire there. Joe 'll bring your baggage inside. Good
morning, ma'am."
She noticed that he was looking at her with some curiosity, and her
courage forsook her once more. It was as if, for the first time in her
life, she had undertaken to walk into a lion's cage, with the animal
growling and roaring. She felt upon her cheeks the bite of the hard
frost, but there was no wind and she was not so very cold, at first.
She looked about her as the train started. Scattered within a few
hundred yards there were perhaps two score of small frame houses. At
the edge of what might have been a pasture, all dotted with stumps,
stood a large deserted sawmill, the great wire-guyed sheet-iron pipe
leaning over a little, dismally. A couple of very dark men she
recognized as Indians looked at her without evincing the slightest
show of interest. From a store across the street a young woman with a
thick head of red hair peeped out for an instant, staring at her. Then
the door closed again. After this a monstrously big man with long,
tow-colored wisps of straggling hair showing at the edges of his heavy
muskrat cap, and a ragged beard of the same color, came to her as she
stood upon the platform, undecided, again a prey to her fears. The man
smiled at her, pleasantly, and touched his cap.
"Ay tank you're de gal is going ofer to Hugo Ennis," he said, in a
deep, pleasant voice.
She opened her mouth to answer but the words refused to come. Her
mouth felt unaccountably dry--she could not swallow. But she nodded
her head in assent.
"I took de telegraft ofer to his shack," the Swede further informed
her, "but Hugo he ain't here yet. I tank he come soon. Come inside de
vaiting-room or you freeze qvick. Ain't you got skins to put on?"
She shook her head and he grasped her bag with one hand and one of her
elbows with the other and hurried her into the little station. Joe
Follansbee had a redhot fire going in the stove, whose top was
glowing. The man pointed at a bench upon which she could sit and stood
at her side, shaving tobacco from a big black plug. She decided that
his was a reassuring figure and that his face was a good and friendly
one.
"Do you think that--that Mr. Ennis will come soon?" she finally found
voice to ask.
"Of course, ma'am. You yoost sit qviet. If Hugo he expect a leddy he
turn up all right, sure. It's tvelve mile ofer to his place, ma'am,
and he ain't got but one dog."
She could not quite understand what the latter fact signified. What
mattered it how many dogs he had? She was going to ask for further
explanation when the door opened and the young woman who had peeped at
her came in. She was heavily garbed in wool and fur. As she cast a
glance at Madge she bit her lips. For the briefest instant she
hesitated. No, she would not speak, for fear of betraying herself, and
she went to the window of the little ticket-office.
"Anything for us, Joe?" she asked.
"No. There's no express stuff been left," he answered. "Your stuff'll
be along by freight, I reckon. Wait a moment and I'll give you the
mail-bag."
"You can bring it over. It--it doesn't matter about the goods."
She turned about, hastily, and nodded to big Stefan. Then she peered
at Madge again, with a sidelong look, and left the waiting-room.
As so often happens she had imagined this woman who was coming as
something entirely different from the reality. She had evolved vague
ideas of some sort of adventuress, such as she had read of in a few
cheap novels that had found their way to Carcajou. In spite of the
mild and timid tone of the letters she had prepared to see some sort
of termagant, or at least a woman enterprising, perhaps bold, one who
would make it terribly hot for the man she would believe had deceived
her and brought her on a fool's errand. This little thin-faced girl
who looked with big, frightened eyes was something utterly unexpected,
she knew not why.
"And--and she ain't at all bad-looking," she acknowledged to herself,
uneasily. "She don't look like she'd say 'Boo' to a goose, either. But
then maybe she's deceiving in her looks. A woman who'd come like that
to marry a man she don't know can't amount to much. Like enough she's
a little hypocrite, with her appearance that butter wouldn't melt in
her mouth. And my! The clothes she's got on! I wonder if she didn't
look at me kinder suspicious. Seemed as if she was taking me in, from
head to foot."
In this Miss Sophy was probably mistaken. Madge had looked at her
because the garb of brightly-edged blanketing, the fur cap and mitts,
the heavy long moccasins, all made a picture that was unfamiliar.
There was perhaps some envy in the look, or at least the desire that
she also might be as well fended against the bitter cold. She had the
miserable feeling that comes over both man and woman when feeling that
one's garments are out of place and ill-suited to the occasion. Once
Madge had seen a moving-picture representing some lurid drama of the
North, and some of the women in it had worn that sort of clothing.
Big Stefan had lighted his pipe and sought a seat that creaked under
his ponderous weight. He opened the door of the stove and threw two or
three large pieces of yellow birch in it.
"Guess it ain't nefer cold vhere you comes from," he ventured. "You'll
haf to put on varm tings if you goin' all de vay to Roaring Rifer
Falls."
"I'm afraid I have nothing warmer than this," the girl faltered. "I--I
didn't know it was so very cold here. And--and I'm nicely warmed up
now, and perhaps I won't feel it so very much."
"You stay right here an' vait for me," he told her, and went out of
the waiting-room, hurriedly. But he opened the door again.
"If Hugo he come vhile I am avay, you tell him I pring youst two three
tings from my voman for you. I'm back right avay. So long, ma'am!"
She was left alone for at least a quarter of an hour, and it reminded
her of a long wait she had undergone in the reception-room of the
hospital. Then, as now, she had feared the unknown, had shivered at
the thought that presently she would be in the hands of strange people
who might or not be friendly, and be lost among a mass of suffering
humanity. Twice she heard the runners of sleighs creaking on the
ground, and her heart began to beat, but the sounds faded away. Joe,
the station agent, came in and asked her civilly whether she was warm
enough, telling her that outside it was forty below. Wood was cheap,
he told her, and he put more sticks in the devouring stove. After she
had thanked him and given him the check for her little trunk he
vanished again, and she listened to the telegraph sounder.
Stefan, returning, was hailed at the door of the store by Sophy
McGurn.
"Who's the strange lady, Stefan?" she asked, most innocently.
"It's a leddy vhat is expectin' Hugo Ennis," he answered.
"How queer!" said the girl, airily.
"Ay dunno," answered the Swede. "Vhen Hugo he do a thing it ain't
nefer qveer, Ay tank."
She turned away and Stefan stepped over to the depot and opened the
door. Madge looked up, startled and again afraid. It was a relief to
her to see Stefan's friendly face. She had feared.... She didn't know
what she dreaded so much--perhaps a face repellent--a man who would
look at her and in whose eyes she might discern insult or contempt.
The big Swede held an armful of heavy clothing.
"Ye can't stay here, leddy," he said. "You come ofer to my house since
Ennis he no coming. Dese clothes is from my ole vomans. Mebbe ye look
like--like de dooce in dem, but dat's better as to freeze to death. An
you vants a big breakfass so you goes vid me along. Hey dere! Joe! If
Ennis he come you tell him come ofer to me, ye hear?"
A few minutes later Madge was trudging over the beaten snow by the
side of her huge companion. Her head was ensconced within the folds
of a knitted shawl and over her thin cloak she wore an immense
mackinaw of flaming hues whose skirts fell 'way below her knees.
Over her boots, protestingly, she had drawn on an amazing pair of
things made of heavy felt and ending in thick rubber feet, that
were huge and unwieldy. Her hands were lost in great scarlet mitts. It
is possible that at this time there was little feminine vanity left in
her, yet she looked furtively to one side or the other, expecting
scoffing glances. She felt sure that she looked like one of the
fantastically-clad ragamuffins she had seen in the streets of New
York, at Christmas and Thanksgiving. But the pair met but one or two
Indian women who wore a garb that was none too æsthetic and who paid
not the slightest attention to them, and a few men who may possibly
have wondered but, with the instinctive civility of the North, never
revealed their feelings.
As a matter of fact she had hardly believed in this cold, at first.
The station agent's announcement had possessed little meaning for her.
There was no wind; the sun was shining brightly now; during the minute
she had remained on the station platform she had felt nothing unusual.
As a matter of fact she had enjoyed the keen brisk air after the tepid
stuffiness of the cars. But presently she began to realize a certain
tingling and sharp quality of the air. The little of her face that was
exposed began to feel stiff and queer. Even through the heavy clothing
she now wore she seemed to have been plunged in a strange atmosphere.
For an instant, after she finally reached Stefan's house, the contrast
between the cold outside and the warm living-room, that was also the
kitchen, appeared to suffocate her.
A tall stout woman waddled towards her, smiling all over and bidding
her a good-day. She helped remove the now superfluous things.
"De yoong leddy she come all de vay from Nev York, vhat is a real hot
country, I expect," explained Stefan, placidly and inaccurately. "Sit
down, leddy, an haf sometings to eat. You needs plenty grub, good an'
hot, in dem cold days. Ve sit down now. Here, Yoe, and you, Yulia,
come ofer an' talk to de leddy! Dem's our children, ma'am, and de baby
in de grib."
Madge was glad to greet the rosy, round-cheeked children, who advanced
timidly towards her and stared at her out of big blue eyes.
Hesitatingly she took the seat Stefan had indicated with a big thumb,
and suddenly a ravenous hunger came upon her. The great pan full of
sizzling bacon and fat pork; the steaming and strongly scented coffee;
the great pile of thick floury rolls taken out of the oven, appeared
to constitute a repast fit for the gods. Stefan and his family joined
hands while the mother asked a short blessing, during which the
children were hard put to it to stop from staring again at the
stranger.
"And so," ventured the good wife, amiably, "you iss likely de sister
from Hugo Ennis, ma'am?"
Madge's fork clattered down upon her enamel-ware plate.
"No," she said. "I--of course I'm not his sister."
"Excoose me. He don't nefer tell nobody as he vas marrit, Hugo didn't.
Ve vas alvays tinking he vos a bachelor mans, yoost like most of dem
young mans as come to dese countries."
"But--but I'm not his wife, either!" cried Madge, nervously.
"I--I don't yoost understand, den," said the good woman, placidly.
"Oh! mebbe you help grub-stake him vhile he vork at de rocks for dat
silfer and you come see how he gettin' along. Ve tank he do very
vell."
"Yes, Hugo he got some ore as is lookin' very fine, all uncofered
alretty," Stefan informed her. "Und it's such a bretty place he haf at
de Falls."
The man doubtless referred to the scenery but Madge was under the
impression that he was speaking of the house in which this Ennis
lived. It was strange that he had said nothing to these people, who
evidently knew him well, in regard to the reason of her coming. It was
probably a well-meant discretion that had guided his conduct, she
thought, but it had caused her some little embarrassment.
"In his letter Mr. Ennis said that I was to come straight to this
place, to Carcajou. He told me that I would be taken to his house at
Roaring River Falls, that I might see it. I--I suppose there is a
village up there or--or some houses, where I may stay."
Stefan stared at her, scratching his touzled yellow head, and turned
to his wife, who was looking at him as she poised a forkful of fat
bacon in the air, forgetfully.
"Maybe de leddy means Papineau's," he said. "But if Hugo Ennis he say
for her to come then it is all right, sure. Hugo vould do only vhat is
right. He is my friend. He safe my life. So if he don't turn up by de
time ve finish breakfast I hitch up dem togs an' take you dere real
qvick. Mebbe he can't come for you, some vay. Mebbe Maigan hurt or
sick so he can't pull toboggan. You vant to go, no?"
"I--I suppose so," faltered the girl. "I--I must see him, as soon as
possible, and--and...."
"Dat's all right," interrupted Stefan. "So long you vants to go I take
you up dere. No trouble for to do anyting for Hugo and his friends. De
dogs is strong an' fresh. Ve go up there mighty qvick, I bet you,
ma'am."
Mrs. Olsen was not used to question her husband's decisions. There
seemed to be something rather mysterious about all this, but she was a
placid soul who could wait in peace for the explanation that would
doubtless be forthcoming. Anyway there was Papineau's house about a
mile away from the Falls, and the girl could find shelter there. She
smiled at her guest pleasantly and urged her to eat more. For some
minutes Madge's appetite had forsaken her. But the temptation of good
food in abundance overcame her alarm. She felt the comfort of a quiet,
God-fearing, civil-spoken household. They were rough people, in their
way, but they seemed so genuine, so friendly, so full of the desire to
help her and put her at her ease, that she was again reassured. Her
hunger assailed her and she ate what she considered a huge breakfast,
though Stefan Olsen's family seemed to wonder at her scanty ability to
dispose of the things they piled upon her plate. When large brown
griddle-cakes were finally placed before her she could eat but a
single one.
"Mebbe," said the good woman, "in Nev York you ain't used to tings
like ve country people have."
Used to them, forsooth! Indeed she had not been used to such things.
She remembered the small bottles of bluish milk, the butter doled out
in yellow lumps of strong taste, the couple of rolls that would make a
meal, the cup of tea or coffee of pale hue, the bits of meat she could
afford but once in several days. No, indeed she had not been used to
such things, in the last two years.
"Vhen you stays in dis coontry for a vhiles den you can eat like a
goot feller and not like a little bird," Stefan assured her,
comfortingly. "Den you get nice and fat, and red on de cheeks, and
strong."
Mrs. Olsen was still smiling at her, as she sat with plump hands
folded on an ample stomach. The two children had become used to her
and came near. A seat was given to her near the stove. Lack of sleep
during the two hard nights spent on the train caused her head to nod,
once or twice.
"Mebbe you vants to rest a bit before ve goes," suggested Stefan.
"Dere's plenty time if you like."
But this roused her to alert attention. She must go, at once, for all
this suspense and uncertainty must be ended. For some happy moments
she had thought no more of the man who was expecting her. The comfort
she had enjoyed had temporarily banished him from her thoughts.
"No--oh, no!" she cried. "I--I'll be glad to leave as soon as you are
ready to take me!"
At this moment she became keenly puzzled. She still had a very few
dollars in her purse and wondered whether she ought to offer payment
for her meal. Instinct wisely prompted her to keep the little
pocketbook in her bag. They would undoubtedly have been surprised and
perhaps offended.
Stefan drew on his great Dutch stockings and pulled his fur cap over
his ears. An instant after he had left the room Madge heard loud
barking. As she looked out of the window, scratching off a little of
the frost that covered the panes, she saw the big Swede surrounded by
five large dogs which he was hitching to a toboggan. Then he got on
the thing and the animals galloped away. A few minutes later he
returned, with her small trunk lashed to the back part of the sled. He
entered the house and took a straw-filled pillow and a huge bearskin
and bore them out.
In the meanwhile Mrs. Olsen was helping Madge to resume her outlandish
garb.
"Mebbe Mr. Ennis he not know you vhen you come so all wrapped up.
Mebbe he tink it is a bear. Yes, put dis on too, you vants it all,"
she declared. "It's all of twelve mile out dere. If you not need de
tings no longer, by and by you send 'em back. It's all right. I no
need 'em. Yoost keep 'em so long vhat you like. Didn't Hugo Ennis tell
you bring varm clothes vid you?"
"No," said Madge. "I--I don't think he spoke of them."
"Mens is awful foolish some times," asserted the good woman. "Dey pay
no attention to tings everybotty knows all about. I tank Stefan he
alretty now, so I say good-by and come again, ma'am. Alvays happy ter
see you again vhen you comes, sure."
The little girl came to Madge and rose upon her toes, for a kiss. More
timidly the boy only proffered a hand. Mrs. Olsen kissed her pale
cheek with a resounding smack.
"Mens is fonny sometimes," she said. "If tings isn't all right like
you expect mebbe at Papineau's you come back here soon as you finish
vhat you haf to do at Roaring Rifer. I haf anodder bed I can fix up in
de back room real easy. Good py, ma'am, and look out careful for your
nose!"
With this incomprehensible bit of advice Mrs. Olsen opened the door,
swiftly, and closed it just as fast. Madge saw her smiling at her
through the window-pane. Stefan made her sit down on the pillow, over
which he had laid the bearskin, which he then wrapped over her
shoulders and body and limbs.
"Now ve starts right off," he told her. "Look out careful for your
nose, leddy," he also advised before calling to his dogs, who strained
away at the long traces and trotted away, pulling heartily.
Wearing a pair of huge snowshoes Stefan followed or kept at the side
of the toboggan. They left the road and struck a sort of path that led
them up a hill. To her right hand she could see a vast expanse of
frozen lake stretching away to the north. In some places the snow
appeared to be quite level while in others it was deeply wrinkled in
ridges caused by the winds. Presently the trees grew more abundant
along the way. They were silvery birches and the yellow ones, and
poplars with slender branches ending in tiny bare twigs. The conifers
still wore thick coats of dark green, excepting the tamaracks, that
only carried a few long golden needles. These big trees were dotted
over with great lumps of snow and ice which occasionally clattered
down through the branches.
Madge looked up and the world seemed to assume a wondrous new beauty
such as she had never known. The blue above was wonderfully clear and
bright. Over the snow the sunlight was beating strongly, though it
appeared to give little or no heat. Yet in the great patches of shadow
through which they passed at times it felt colder still.
"Yoost keep on feelin' yer nose," Stefan told her, as the dogs rested
for a moment at the top of a small hill. "You mustn't let it get
frost-bited, ma'am. It ain't such a awful big nose you got, leddy, but
you sure vouldn't look so bretty if it drop off. Ha, ha!"
He laughed out loudly, apparently enjoying his ponderous joke greatly,
but she felt that she must heed his advice and frequently carried the
big mitt Mrs. Olsen had lent her to her face. They came to a great
expanse of deep forest where, in places, the ground was nearly bare of
snow. The pulling was hard here and the dogs toiled along more slowly
and panted as their cloudy breaths rose in steamy puffs. Madge admired
them. They seemed such strong, willing animals. When they rested for a
moment they would lie down and bite off the little balls of ice that
formed beneath their toes, but at a word they would leap up again and
throw themselves against their breast-bands, eagerly. In one difficult
place Madge protested.
"The poor things are working so hard," she said. "Couldn't I get out
and walk for a while? I don't feel tired at all now, but your poor
dogs do, I'm sure."
"No, ma'am," replied Stefan. "They ain't tired. They yoost look so
because they work hard. In dis country togs and men has to work hard
or go hoongry. In a moment you sees how dey run again, vhen dey get
good going. Dem togs can go dis vay all day and be fresh again
to-morrow. Eferybody here knows vhat my team o' togs can do, ma'am."
It was evident that he was proud of them, and Madge decided that it
was with good reason. They had started again and reached an expanse of
burnt land, upon which the snow was crusted and the road was on a down
grade. The team that had panted so hard, with lolling tongues, threw
itself into the collars and trotted off again, briskly, while Stefan
followed with the short-stepped and effortless flat-footed run that
covers so much ground in the north. The girl had to balance herself
rather carefully at times, for the surface was by no means a level
one. The toboggan swayed and bumped over hidden things that may have
been stumps or rocks, or great buried ruts of the previous fall.
It was all so new and wonderful! A sense of enjoyment actually stole
over her. But for the feeling of stiffness in her face she felt
comfortably warm. Without ever meeting a soul, through a country that
seemed utterly deserted of man, they went on for several miles. Once
Stefan stopped the toboggan in order to show her tracks of a bear. It
was wonderful to think that such animals roamed about her. The Swede
told her that they were utterly harmless, that they always fled as
soon as their keen eyes or sharp ears revealed the neighborhood of
their enemies, the men who coveted their thick and long-haired hides
worth a good many dollars. But she saw few living things; once there
was a great snowy owl that rose heavily and then flew swiftly and in
silence from a stump in a _brulé_, disappearing among the trees like
an animated shadow, yes, a shadow of sudden death to hares and
partridges cowering beneath the fronds of wide-spreading conifers or
in the great tangles of frost-killed long grasses.
It was altogether another world, strange and of rugged beauty. She
felt as if she had been transported from the seething city into the
vast peace of some landscape of moon or stars. Every bit of the old
harsh world was now left behind and there was no longer any hint of
cruelty in the snowy plains and hills and forest; nothing reminded her
of despairing hunger, of the disbelief that had stolen upon her in the
possibility of eking out much longer a life that was too hard to
sustain. What if her errand seemed fantastic, unreal, since this new
world also was like some illusion of a dream? The great stillness
appeared to be friendly--the bent tops of snow-laden trees surely
bowed a welcome to her--the shining sun and the pure air, in spite of
bitter cold, drove the blood more rapidly through her veins and she no
longer deemed life to be a mere form of suffering, such as she had
undergone during the last year of her losing contest in the cruel,
pitiless town.
Suddenly, as Stefan trudged behind in a narrow part of the old
tote-road, a big white hare crossed the path ahead of the dogs,
perhaps seeking to escape the pursuit of some marten or weasel. At
once the team broke into a headlong gallop, a helter-skelter pursuit,
while their master roared at them unavailingly. Down a small declivity
they flew. A moment later one side of the toboggan rose suddenly and
the passenger felt herself being shot off into the snow. As the sled
upset the little trunk lashed to its back caught into something and
firmly anchored the whole contrivance, a few yards further on, and
perforce the animals stopped with hanging tongues and steaming
breaths.
An instant later Stefan was helping Madge arise. He looked at her in
deep concern.
"Dem tamn togs!" he roared. "I hope you ain't hurted none, leddy?"
With his assistance she rose quickly from the snow. It is possible
that she had scarcely had time enough to become afraid. At any rate
this new life that had come to her asserted itself, irresistibly, for
there was something in its essence that would not be denied. In the
heart that had been overburdened something broke, like a flood
bursting its bonds. She threw up her head and uplifted her hands as
laughter, pealing and rippling unrestrained, shook her slender frame
from head to foot until tears ran down the now reddened cheeks and
turned to tiny globes of ice. She was making up for weeks and months
of sombre thoughts, of despair, of shrewd suffering.
"Tank gootness!" roared Stefan. "First I tink dem togs yoost kill you
dead. If so I take de pelts off 'em all alife, de scoundrels!"
"Oh! Please don't punish them," she cried. "It--it was so funny! Oh,
dear! I--I must stop laughing! It--it hurts my sides!"
She ran off among the dogs and threw herself down on the crusted snow,
passing one arm over a shaggy back. The animal looked at her,
uncertainly, but suddenly he passed a big moist tongue over her face.
Could he have realized that her saving grace might avert condign
punishment? The girl petted him as Stefan turned the toboggan and its
load right side up.
"You ain't feared of dem togs," he called to her. "And you vasn't
afraid vhen dey dump you out. You's a blucky gal all right, leddy!"
A moment later she was again wrapped up in the bearskin and the dogs,
loudly threatened but unpunished, owing to her intercession, resumed
their journey. They had gone but a few hundred yards further when
Madge smelled wood-smoke. A few minutes later they came in sight of a
low-built shack of heavy planks evidently turned out in a sawpit and
resting on walls of peeled spruce logs. The dogs trotted toward it and
a woman came out as Stefan stopped his team.
"I got a letter for you, Mis' Carew," he announced. "I got it dis
morning at de post-office and bring it as I come along dis vay."
He searched a pocket of his coat while the woman looked at Madge
curiously.
"Won't you come in and warm yourself a while?" she asked, civilly. "I
can make you a hot cup of tea in a minute."
"Thank you! Thank you ever so much," answered Madge. "I--I think we'd
better hurry on."
Stefan had found the letter and handed it to Mrs. Carew.
"Wait a moment, Stefan, won't you?" asked the woman. "There might
possibly be some message you could take for me."
The man lit his pipe while the woman went indoors. A moment later she
came out, excitedly.
"Oh! Stefan," she cried. "I'm so glad you came. My man's away with the
dogs, gone after a load of moose-meat, and won't be back till
to-morrow. And my daughter Mary's very sick at Missanaibie and wants
me to come right over. Could you take me over to the depot in time for
the afternoon train west? Are you going back to-day?"
Stefan pulled out a big silver watch and studied it.
"Yes, ma'am," he answered. "I'm yoost goin' over to Hugo's wid dis
leddy. If I go real smart I can get back in time, but I got to hurry a
bit. So long! I come right soon back. Leave a vord for Tom und be
ready de moment I come. I make it, sure!"
With this assurance he started off again, while the woman was still
crying out her thanks. There was a long bit of good going now, which
they covered at a good pace. Madge was thinking how helpful all these
people were, how naturally they gave, how readily they asked for the
help that was always welcome, as far as she could see. Yes, it was all
so very different.
"Won't the dogs be dreadfully tired," she asked, "if you go back so
soon?"
"No, leddy," he asserted. "Twenty-four miles ain't much of a trip. Dey
make tvice dat if need come. And me too, sure t'ing!"
As she looked at him she knew that he spoke the simple truth. Even the
people of this country seemed to be built differently. All of them
looked sturdy, self-reliant, strong to endure, and, more than
anything, ready to share everything either with stranger or with
friend. In spite of the weariness she felt after her long journey and
of the ache in her bones that was coming from the unusual manner of
her travelling, she felt that this was a blessed country, a haven of
rest that held promise of wonderful peace. All at once they came in
sight of a river, snow-shackled like all the others, except for black
patches where the under-running flood so hurried in rapid places that
the surface could not freeze. From such air-holes, as they are called,
steam arose that was like the smoke of fires.
"What is that river?" she called.
"Dat's de Roaring Rifer, leddy," Stefan informed her. "Ve's only a
little vays to go now. Maybe five minute."
At this moment, as in a flash, all of her vague and carking fears
returned to the girl, and her hand went to her breast. It was only a
little way now! And it was no dream--no figment of her imagination!
The beginning of the real adventure was at hand! Truth flashed upon
her. In a few moments she would see for the first time the man she was
to marry. She blushed fiery red. Instinctively she looked about her,
like some wild thing vainly seeking for a way to escape impending
peril. What would he be like? What would he think of her? Oh! She now
knew that it had all been a frightful mistake! Her limbs shook with a
sudden bitter coldness that had fallen upon her like one of the masses
that became displaced from the great trees, and she could not keep her
teeth from chattering. Then, in her ears, began to boom a strong
continuous sound that was ominous, threatening.
[Illustration: Truth flashed upon her! In a few moments she would see for
the first time the man she was to marry]
"What's that?" she stammered, trembling.
"Dat's de noise of dem big Falls of Roaring River," answered Stefan.
An instant later, Madge never knew why, the dogs were snarling in a
fight. In a moment Stefan was among them, wielding his short-handled
and long-lashed whip. A trace was broken. By the time the damage was
repaired and the dogs pacified some ten minutes or more had been
wasted. The man looked at his watch.
"I ain't got so much time left," he said. "I got to hurry back for
Mis' Carew. Lucky ve're most dere now."
A few seconds after they had started again they came to an opening,
towards which Stefan pointed, and the girl's heart sank within her.
She saw nothing of the distant falls surrounded by a growth in which
every twig scintillated with the frost lavished by the river's vapor.
She never noticed the great circular pool with its deep banks, or the
wonderful view, far across country, of mountains washed in pale blues
and lavenders, of the sun-flooded bright expanse of open ground,
partly fenced in with axe-hewn rails. She could only stare at a little
shack, the smallest she had seen in that country, and at the thread of
smoke coming from the length of stove-pipe protruding from the
ice-covered roof, and to her it looked like the home of misery.
A few yards farther on the team stopped. From here the hut could only
be faintly distinguished through a growth of birches and firs.
"You can get off de toboggan now, leddy," Stefan told her. "I puts off
your trunk too. Hugo he come and get it. I call to him."
She rose to her feet, speechless, amazed, with fear causing a terrible
throbbing in her throat. She would have protested but could not find
her voice. As soon as Stefan had unlashed the trunk and put it down on
the frozen ground he turned his team around.
"Oh! Hugo!" he bellowed. "Oh! Hugo! Here's de leddy."
For an instant there was no reply, but while Stefan yelled again she
saw, through a small opening in the interlaced branches, that the door
opened. A huge dog came out and rolled in the snow, barking. The man
waved a hand.
"I can't vait a moment. Good-by, leddy, I must go. You tell Hugo why I
hurry so."
The man had jumped on the toboggan and he was already being borne
away, swiftly, by his team of wild shaggy brutes that seemed never to
have known a weary moment in their lives. And she stood there, at the
foot of a great blasted pine, terror-stricken, wondering what further
torture of mind and body the world had in store for her.
But for that hut the place was a frozen desert, with no other sign of
man. And she was alone--alone with him--and the fierce-looking dog was
now running towards her. She leaned back against the tree, feeling
that without some support she must collapse at its foot.