a safe bet that I'd get him coming out. I did; captured him, took him
ashore, built a fire, and told him I was going to roast him alive if he
didn't come across with the facts. He held out for a while, but finally
told me the whole of it: how he had figured to get you two together in
Quebec after he had learned that you, Miss Millington, were due to be
there with the teachers. You see, he knew all about you--both of you.
As Mr. Bankhead's secretary he had made, at Mr. Bankhead's dictation,
all the former inquiries, and, of course, had carefully kept the answers
from reaching the old gentleman. With a little more cooking he told me
how he and the woman had drugged you both, after which he had carried
you in the 'plane to the shore of some unpronounceable lake in the north
woods."
"What did he mean to do?--let us starve to death?" Prime asked.
"Oh, no; nothing so murderous as that! He had it all doped out
beforehand. There is a Hudson Bay post on one of the streams flowing
into the lake, and he had arranged with a couple of half-breed canoe-men
to happen along and pick you up and bring you back, stipulating only
that they should kill time enough to make the return trip use up the
entire month of July. As the fatal date drew near, he grew uneasy and
made the launch trip to see to it personally that you were not getting
along too fast. He found your camp and cut your canoe merely to add a
little more delay for good measure. He couldn't tell me what had become
of his half-breeds."
Prime laughed. "I suppose the old Scotch under-sheriff told you, didn't
he?"
"He tried to tell me that you and Miss Millington had assassinated the
two men and stolen their canoe and outfit. You didn't do that?--or did
you?"
"Hardly," Prime denied. Then he told the story of the finding of the
dead men, capping it with an account of the chance visit of Jean
Ba'tiste.
Grider left his chair and took a turn up and down the room.
"It was a great adventure," he declared, coming back to them. "Some day
you are going to tell me all about it, and the kind of a time you had.
I'll bet it was fierce--some parts of it, anyway. I can't answer for
you, Miss Millington; but what Don doesn't know about roughing it is--or
used to be--good and plenty."
"You sent Bandish back to town after you were through with him?" Prime
inquired.
"Yes. I had taken a pair of handcuffs along, just on general
principles, and I lent him my engineer to run the launch. Afterward, I
kept on up-stream in the _Sprite_, hoping to meet you coming down; and
hoping against hope that we would be able to beat the calendar back to
Ottawa."
"We never should have beaten it if the old Scotchman hadn't taken a
hand," was Prime's comment. "He saved us at least a full day."
Grider was edging toward the door. "I guess you don't need me any more
just now," he offered. "I'm due to go and thank the good-natured lumber
king who lent me the _Sprite_. By and by, after the dust has settled a
bit, I'll come around and show you where Mr. Shellaby holds forth."
"One minute, Mr. Grider," Lucetta interposed hastily. "We can't let you
go without asking your forgiveness for the way in which we have been
vilifying you for a whole month, and for what we both said to you last
night. I must speak for myself, at least, and----"
"Don't," said Grider, laughing again. "It's all in the day's work. As it
happened, I wasn't the goat this time, but that isn't saying that I
mightn't have done something quite as uncivilized if you had given me a
chance. You two gave me one of the few perfect moments of a rather
uneventful life last night when you made me understand that you were
giving me credit for the whole thing--as a joke! I only wish I could
invent one half as good. And that reminds me, Don; can you--er--do you
think you'll be able to put a real woman into the next story?"
For some few minutes after the barbarian had ducked and disappeared a
stiff little silence fell upon the two he had left behind. In writing
about it Prime would have called it an interregnum of readjustment. He
had gone to a window to stare aimlessly down into the busy street, and
Lucetta was sitting with her chin in her cupped palms and her eyes fixed
upon the rather garish pattern of the paper on the opposite wall. After
a time Prime pulled himself together and went back to her.
"It is all changed, isn't it?" he said, in a rather flat voice.
"Everything is changed. You are no longer a teacher, working for your
living. You are an heiress, with a snug little fortune in your own
right."
She looked up at him with the bright little smile which had been brought
over intact from the days of the banished conventions.
"Whatever you say I am, you are," she retorted cheerfully. "Only I can't
quite believe it yet--about the money, you know."
"You'd better," he returned gloomily. "Besides, it is just what you said
you wanted--neither too little nor too much: one hundred thousand at a
good, safe six per cent will give you an income of six thousand a year.
You can travel on that for the remainder of your natural life."
"Easily," she rejoined. "And you can write the leisurely book and marry
the girl. Perhaps you will be doing both while I am getting ready to go
on my travels. You won't insist upon going back to Ohio with me now,
will you? You--you ought to go straight to the girl, don't you think?"
"You are forgetting that I said she was an imaginary girl," he parried.
"You said so at first; but afterward you admitted that she wasn't. Also,
you promised me you would show me her picture after we should get out of
the woods."
"I have never had her picture," he denied. "I said I would show you what
she looks like. Come to the window where the light is better."
She went with him half-mechanically. Between the two windows there was
an old-fashioned pier-glass set in the wall. Before she realized what he
was doing he had led her before the mirror.
"There she is, Lucetta," he said softly; "the only girl there is--or
ever will be."
She started back with a little cry, putting out her hands as if to push
him away.
"No, Donald--a thousand times no!" she flashed out. "Do you think I
don't know that this is only another way of telling me how sorry you are
for me? You know well enough what people will say when they hear how we
have been together for a whole month, alone; and in your splendid
chivalry you would----"
He did not let her finish. The hotel parlor was supposed to be a public
room, but he ignored that and took her in his arms.
"From the first day, Lucetta, dear--from the very first day!" he argued
passionately. "And it grew and grew with your absolute, your simply
angelic trust in me until I was half-mad with the desire to tell you.
But I couldn't tell you then; I couldn't even let you suspect and still
be what you were believing me to be. Don't you think you could learn, in
time, you know, to--to----"
Her face was hidden, but she made her refusal quite positive.
"No, Donald, I can never learn it--again. Because, you see, in spite of
the other girl I was believing in--that you made me believe in--I--Oh,
it was wicked, _wicked_!--but I couldn't help it! And all the time I was
sc-scared perfectly frantic for fear you would find it out!"
"You were, were you?" he laughed happily. "Perhaps I did find it
out--just a little...."
* * * * *
It was something like an hour later, and an overruling Providence had
graciously preserved the privacy of the public parlor for them during
the entire length of the precious interval, when Prime looked at his
watch and said: "Heavens, Lucetta! it's nearly noon! Let's go quickly
and beard the Shellaby in his den before he goes to luncheon. The fairy
fortune may escape us yet if we don't hurry up and nab it."
She had risen with him, and her eyes were shining when she lifted her
face and let him see them.
"As if the money, or anything else in this world, could make any
difference to either of us now, Donald, dear!" she protested, with a
fine scorn of such inconsequent things as fairy fortunes.
And Prime, seeing the unashamed love in the shining eyes, joyously
agreed with her.
The End
Transcriber's Notes:
The Contents section has been modified so that the chapter titles would
match the titles in the book. Specifically, the titles of chapters VII
and XVI were changed from being in quotes to being in italics.
Passages in italics are indicated by _underscores_.
Small caps have been replaced with the text in ALL CAPS.
The original punctuation was retained in all cases.
Typesetting error on page 47: "appeal" changed to "appear".
On page 63, the [oe] ligature was replaced with "oe".
On page 155, the [oe] ligature was replaced with "oe".
Typesetting error on page 206: "think" changed to "drink".