John Dale went directly to his shack. What else was there for him to do
until he could find another trail through the blank that surrounded him?
When he had entered his home the night before, God knew he had been
sorely distressed. He was going back to the woman he loved with her
fetters still unloosened. Worn and spent, he had permitted himself the
relaxation of spending a few days with her before he started out again
on the quest of Jude. He had found the shack deserted, but every pitiful
evidence of Joyce's thought for his comfort was apparent. He had lighted
the fire and lamp; had searched for note or other explanation, and,
finding none, he had eaten hastily and gone to Filmer's house. There
desolation again greeted him.
Finally he had concluded that Joyce had gone to Isa Tate. This was a
poor solace, but it stayed him through the long night; an early visit to
the Black Cat proved this last hope vain.
Now, with the later knowledge searching into his soul, Dale noticed the
careful arrangements Joyce had made, before she slipped back into the
hell from which he had once rescued her.
She had taken only her own poor belongings. The shabby gowns and
trinkets that had been found among the ruins of the home Jude had laid
low.
One silent token of the flight brought the stinging tears to Dale's
eyes.
At the last, there must have been haste, for near the door of Joyce's
bedroom lay the mate of the baby's sock that Isa Tate was hiding at that
very moment.
Poor, dead baby! He was pleading for the pretty mother who in his brief
life had so tenderly pleaded for him.
Isa had wept over the tiny shoe, and now John Dale picked the mate up
reverently, and put it back where he knew Joyce always had kept it.
Manlike he did not give himself blindly up to his misery. Life must go
on somehow--and while he sought a way out of the blackness that
enshrouded him, he must prepare himself.
He replenished the fire, and then when high noon flooded the living room
with a pale glow, he set forth a meagre but nourishing meal.
In the performing of these homely tasks he found a kind of comfort. It
brought Joyce back to him in a sense.
During the early afternoon hours he smoked and thought. Things became
clearer, more fixed in his mind.
Of course Joyce had been driven to Jude by a mistaken idea that she was
proving her deep love. Almost from the first, Dale thought of Ruth Dale
detached from the shock of her mere name as it had struck his brain and
heart in Drew's study. The old, vital charm of Ruth's personality; her
sweet, convincing power, when she chose to exert it, now rose in his
memory. Joyce would be but a baby in the hands of such a woman.
A fierce indignation swayed the man. Gone was the sweet memory of the
control that that same charm had once had over him. Only as it now had
touched Joyce did he consider it, and every fibre of his being rose in
resentment.
The savage in him gained strength. He would follow Joyce and have her
yet--in spite of all that had passed!
When Joyce saw and knew--what would he and she care for the rest? He
could deal with Jude--there was still money.
The wild claimed precedence over the innate refinement in Dale, and he
rose to begin his search. He glanced at the clock. It was four. He could
get--somewhere before dark.
The prospect of action gave him relief and he was just turning to the
inner room, when a timid tap upon the outer door stayed him.
His heart gave a great throb. Had she come? Had she returned to him? Had
she found the way back to hell impossible after he--the man she had
deserted--had shown her a path to heaven?
"Come!" he commanded as if defying any other hold that might have power
over her.
Pale, trembling and enveloped in the fur coat and hood, Ruth Dale
entered and closed the door behind her.
Her eyes were wide and fear-filled, but self-possession was not lost.
"John!" she cried pleadingly; "as soon as they told me--I came."
Her outstretched hands recalled Dale to the present.
"Ruth!" he whispered hoarsely, going to her; "this is--kind of you. Let
me take your wraps. Here, sit down."
It was a relief to have her a little distance from him. He took a chair
on the opposite side of the hearth, and struggled to regain his
composure. For the life of him he could not fix his identity in the
place where the sudden convulsion of events had cast them all.
He was an exile from the past of which this lovely woman was a part, and
the present had no space for her.
In a dazed way he noted how exactly the same Ruth looked. When he had
dropped her hands--way back there in time, she appeared precisely the
same to him as she did now, with those same little jewelled hands lying
white and soft in her lap. She had worn a bright gown then, Dale
recalled, but even the gloomy raiment that now enfolded her had no power
to change the woman of her.
Poor Dale could not comprehend in his new birth and life, that such
women as Ruth Dale are Accomplished Achievements of heredity and ultra
refinement. Generations ago Ruth's type had been perfected; she and
others of her kind, were but repetitions.
Her girlhood had been a brief pause before she had entered her
fore-ordained womanhood--a mere waiting for the inevitable. Thus, Dale
had _last_ beheld her--so his photograph of her had fixed her in his
mind. He saw her now the same, outwardly, and the placidity of the
oft-repeated type held her afar from his rugged place.
Dale himself had been tossed into the fire of temptation, in the rough.
He had fallen to the depths but to rise--a better and stronger man with
the dross burned out. The strong, primitiveness of him was as alien to
anything that was in Ruth as if the two had never seen each other
before.
Like a man struggling with the recollections of a pre-incarnation, Dale
sought to find a semblance of the old passion and fire this woman had
once roused in him. Not even a reflection of them could he summon. Had
she entered his life two years before she might still have been able to
fan the embers into flame among the ashes; now she was powerless! Love,
a great overpowering love, a love having its roots in the life of the
woods and primitive things--held the man for its own.
Looking into the deep eyes that once had pleaded with hers, Ruth Dale,
sitting in the lonely shack, wondered why she could not cope with this
critical situation. It grieved and perplexed her--but it did not daunt
her. Sweet and retiring as she was, and _consciously_ self-forgetful as
she believed herself, Ruth was what ages had made her. Had her
subconscious self asserted itself, it would have boldly proclaimed its
absolute superiority over other women of such make as poor Joyce
Lauzoon. Not merely in the other's shocking lack of moral sense--but in
very essence.
John Dale had suffered--and had tried, in weak man-fashion, to solace
himself. The world had helped to train Ruth Dale. While not admitting
that there should be any palliation for the double code--or even the
appearance of it--such women as she recognized it, and were able, under
sufficiently convincing circumstances, to deal with it. There were
reasons, heaven knew, why she, Ruth Dale, should be lenient with this
silent man across the hearth. The white-souled innocence in her thanked
God, in this brief silence, that the man was _not_ as evil as many a
man, under the circumstances, might have been. She believed Joyce's
statement. It was wonderful, it was most weirdly romantic--and it could
be overlooked!
It would have been absolutely impossible for Ruth Dale to conceive that
John Dale had so far outgrown her in the great human essentials of life,
that he had no further need of her. The life of which she was a part,
the life of which she was, she and her detached kind, the shining
centre, had not enough vitality to hold this man of nature to it. But
the pause was growing painful.
"John--I have come to tell you all."
He overleaped the poor past, and in his hunger to know of her part in
the present, said eagerly:
"Ruth, I am waiting to hear. I might have known you would come."
Then, to his surprise, the pretty sleek head was bent upon the arm of
the chair, and Ruth Dale wept, as the man opposite had forgotten women
_could_ weep. The sobs shook the slender form until pity for her moved
him to touch and soothe her; while the savage in him held him back.
Somehow, in a rough way, it seemed retribution. He was glad she could
suffer. But presently the flood ceased, Ruth looked up, tear-dimmed and
quivering. The torrent had borne away much sentiment; she was able to
face reality.
She told of Philip's dying confession. She delicately and graphically
told of the broken life--after he, John, had passed out of it--and they,
who remained, bravely wound the tangled ends into a noble whole.
Dale followed her words as if the story were of another--and of a life
he had never shared.
"Philip wanted you to have all--everything--of which his weakness had
deprived you!"
Dale started.
"Oh! Yes," he said vaguely; "I see. Well, I can understand that. But
Ruth--not even God could accomplish that miracle. In all such cases it
has to be what a man himself can get out of the wreck. It has to be
_other_ things. New things--or he is--damned."
It was the word more than the thought that caused the shudder in the
crouching woman.
"You have never forgiven us," she whispered.
"Yes, I have, Ruth. When I got to a place, cleansed by suffering, where
I could forgive myself--everything else was easy."
"Oh! John, why could you not have trusted me with your--your brave
secret?"
Why, indeed? John Dale could not have told; he only knew he had never
paused to consider when it came to telling Joyce Lauzoon. The thought
gripped him hard.
"It had to be, Ruth, I imagine. All the ugly factors had to be taken
into consideration when the plan for re-making Phil and me was
designed."
A grim smile touched the corners of the stern mouth.
"He left his fortune to you!"
"I cannot take it." Dale raised one hand as if pushing aside an
insulting offering.
"John--I have my share--and my father's money. Think! Philip meant that
you should prove your forgiveness by--finishing his work. I never saw
greater anguish than in his desire. Can you, dare you, refuse?"
A mist rose in Dale's eyes. Ruth saw it, and it gave her courage.
Strangely enough, now that she groped toward this new man she saw before
her, her aversion to the man she once knew was lost sight of. A dim fear
arose that her sacrifice might escape him and her. Not through any
unwillingness on their parts, but through a misunderstanding. She
bravely strove to down the menace.
"John--I came to this house a few days ago to help a weak, erring woman,
if I could. That is all I knew. Almost at once she made me see the
strange thing that had happened here through the goodness of a strong
man, and the simplicity of--a weak, but loving woman.
"All unknowingly I yearned to help her--save her, but she wanted to save
herself more than I understood at first. She was so brave and direct;
once she saw where her weakness had placed her and the man she loved,
she was strong in her determination to right the wrong. For her, poor
soul, there was but one way--she returned to her husband!
"John--_she_ told me who you were. In some way she knew who I was. I was
so distressed and surprised at the time that I did not question how she
knew me--but she did and"--Ruth could not bring herself to say, "she
gave you back to me."
"John--let the cruel, cruel past be forgotten. Come back to your own.
The world will see you righted. John, say that it shall be as I--as
Philip--desire."
She looked like a spirit as she bent toward him full of compassion, of
entreaty, and the kinship with that which she believed was still in him,
and only waiting for her to call to action.
The minutes passed--her call brought forth no rush of checked emotion
and controlled passion.
Dale looked at her coldly. He was far too simple a man, intrinsically,
to gather the true, inward drift of her thought. He was now seeking to
understand the change that had overcome him. She, the girl of his Past
who had held his love, hope and desire; she no longer moved him except
in wonder and aversion. But he felt that it was due her that he should
meet her as far as possible on this new way they were travelling. He
shifted his position. He knew something more was expected of him than
he could give; but he must give as he could.
"Ruth," he began, and, because his inclination was to move away, he
purposely drew nearer; "I am sure you meant nothing but kindness in
coming to Joyce Lauzoon; I can see that you mean only great good to
me--but you cannot understand. You haven't even touched upon the truth.
I suppose some people are born complete in the little; they only have to
develop. Others are--well--thrown together, and they cannot assume form
and shape until by blows and chiselling they come through the
machine--moulded. You have always been good and true; what you knew of
me, long ago, died and was thrown aside; what little survived, was
nourished apart from, and upon a life you have no conception of. I think
only lately have I realized this myself. I'm a bigger and a smaller man
than you knew, Ruth; I'm stronger and weaker; better and worse," his
hand clenched over the arm of her chair, and her eyes dilated. She was
frightened. She felt his blood rising and she shrank back. It was
horrible to be there--with him alone!
"You cannot understand, but that old life seems to me now to be--used
up, colourless and flabby. The people seem small and--all alike. This
life--is big, free and--in the making. There are souls here that are
only touched by sins that have drifted to them--they are possible of
great things. They are new and keen, and they ring true when you strike
them. The woman who left this house--the other day," Dale's words came
hard and quick, "is the most glorious creature that ever lived. The life
back there could not produce her. Strong, tender, and love itself! Not
for one instant did she pause when she knew who and what I was--she
loved--that was enough! God! how she loved. You--and women like you,
Ruth, might lead the men you love toward heaven; she would go her way
alone to perdition to add to the happiness of the man she loved. But it
would be alone, mind you.
"She's gone back to such a man as your books, even, forbear to portray.
Jude is one of the creatures up here who was born without a soul. She's
gone to him to save me, as she thought--but she'll live alone, alone as
long as she lives at all.
"So you see what trouble comes from such civilization as yours grafted
on to the primitive passions of the backwoods."
"John!"
There was no fear in Ruth Dale now, only a horrible conviction that John
Dale, the man she had come to reclaim and give back to his own, would
have none of her!
"John! John!" So he had sunk so low.
"Do you know where she is?" Dale looked at his companion without noting
her pallid astonishment.
"No; I do not."
"Then--and you will let me see you back to Drew's? I must go and find
her. She shall have the truth, the whole truth, by God! to cool the
fires of that hell she has been thrust into."
Ruth covered her face with her trembling hands. Never before had she
been so near the bare, throbbing heart of things.
Oh! from what had she been saved? And yet--he was standing above her and
he was superb in his strength and power. He was holding her cloak for
her; helping to rid himself of her. The old half-dead, but vital call of
the aboriginal woman rose in her, then ebbed away at birth in a feeble
flickering jealousy.
"I do not wish you to go with me." Ruth felt timidly out for her sweet
dignity; the perquisite and recompense of exquisite refinement. "I
prefer going alone."
"It is quite dark."
"I shall not be afraid," Dale walked with her to the door. Just before
the blackness engulfed her, she turned her little, flower-like face to
him:
"John--I shall always be ready to be--your--friend if you need me."
"I shall remember. Good night."
An hour later Dale walked into the Black Cat Tavern and made a ruinous
bargain with Tate for the use of his horse and sled for an indefinite
time. "I'm going up into the woods," he explained, "I may be gone a
week, a month, I cannot tell; when I reach Camp 7, I'll send your rig
back."
"Going to join Filmer, maybe?" Tate's little eyes rolled in their
cushions of fat.
"Perhaps." And Tate took this as affirmation. Now that Joyce had
rejoined her rightful lord and master--for the story had leaked out--it
was quite natural that Gaston should take to the woods.
"It's one on 'im," Tate confided, as Brown Betty and the sled dashed by.
* * * * *
When Dale started out his purpose was very vague. If he reasoned at all
it was to the effect that Jude, after Joyce rejoined him, would seek
employment as near at hand as possible. It would be like his weak vanity
to parade his victory by going to the men who had known of his defeat.
Besides, if he had sent for Joyce, he must have been in the
neighbourhood. The heavy storm, in any case, would hinder a long
journey, and the men at Camp 7 might perhaps have news of Lauzoon either
before or after Joyce had met him a day or so ago.
It had been a short time. He and Brown Betty were a better pair than
Jude and a heavy-hearted woman. So Dale drove on toward Camp 7.
He tried to keep to the trail, once he struck the forests, but the snow
was unbroken--the heaviest fall had occurred after Billy's return--and
Brown Betty intelligently slackened her speed and felt her way gingerly
through the darkness. It was still as death. Above the trees the stars
pricked the sky, and the intense cold fell like a tangible thing upon
the flesh exposed to it. Dale pulled his fur cap lower, and gladly let
Betty have her will.
* * * * *
Now when Billy had left Joyce at the end of their flight, it was near
the door of the woodman's hut.
"Billy," Joyce had said, lingeringly clinging to him as the last
familiar thing in her happy span of life; "Billy, you must turn back,
and God bless you, dear. You see Jude must not know anything about
you--and it's all right now, Billy."
Billy made an effort to speak, but ended in a sob.
"Never mind, Billy, it's _all_ right now. Just remember that. Kiss me
Billy."
And Billy kissed her like the true gentleman he was on the way to being.
Then Joyce, with her shabby baggage, and basket of provisions went on
alone.
She was stiff and cold, and her heart was like lead within her. With
surprise she noticed that the door of the hut was partly open, and the
snow had drifted in. It was dark and lifeless apparently, and for a
moment Joyce thought that Jude had gone away, and she turned to recall
Billy before it was too late. Then she boldly entered the house. The
little entry was covered with snow and the room door, too, stood as the
outer one did, ajar. Joyce paused and listened--then a horrible fear
took possession of her. The still house overpowered her for a moment,
but she knew that death awaited her in the outer cold and loneliness, so
by superhuman determination she felt her way toward the fireplace--she
had been in the hut more than once and memory served her now. She forced
herself to think only of lighting the fire. Even when she struck a match
she would glance nowhere but at the hearth.
Her teeth were set close, and her breath hardly stirred her bosom. There
had been a fire recently--but the ashes were cold. There was, however,
wood nearby, and Joyce tore the paper from one of her packages and used
it to ignite the smaller wood.
There was a puff, a flare, and the wood caught.
With the growing heat and light a semblance of courage returned, still
Joyce kept her eyes rigidly upon her task. She laid on more wood, and
yet more. It was past midnight and the terrible stillness Was numbing
her reason. Presently she cautiously turned--something compelled her.
She did not expect to find--anything, but she had to look! Away from the
red glare, the shadows concealed their secrets from the fear-haunted
eyes, but only for a moment.
Jude was there! He was lying stretched upon the floor. A bottle was near
his outspread hand. He was asleep.
Joyce did not try to get upon her feet, but she crept toward the still
form. She touched, with stiff fingers, the hand of the man she had come
to meet--the man who was to save her from her love.
"Jude!" she whispered hoarsely; "Jude!"
A falling log started the others to a redder glow. The face of the man
upon the floor lay exposed. The eyes were open--but unseeing, and Joyce
knew that Jude was frozen to death!
She made no cry. Had she been capable of sensation she would have gone
mad, but she was conscious of no emotion whatever.
The room grew hotter and brighter. She drew away from that horrible
shape upon the floor. She must forget it or her head would burst. In the
morning, and it would soon be morning, she could go for help--but for
now she must forget.
Still creeping, she regained the fireplace; there she huddled with her
back to--that long black shadow. Yes; it was but a shadow. She would not
think of it but as a shadow.
She braced against the chimney corner, and set her face to the warm,
soothing light. Once she stirred and threw on more wood, then she
returned to her corner; and kept her eyes in one direction.
An hour passed. The slight form by the fire relaxed, and sank gradually
to an easy position far enough away from the fire to be safe. The pretty
head fell upon a bundle that had earlier been dropped carelessly
there--and a great peace rested on the worn face. Suffering,
hopelessness and fear fled as the calm gently settled from brow to chin;
and all that was conscious of Joyce Lauzoon drifted into the oblivion
that has never been fathomed.
Behind the sealed doors--the miracle was performed. The spirit freed
from its suffering body--but not claimed by Death--was strengthened and
purified. Where it fared--who can tell? How near the Source of eternal
things it wandered none may know, but it drank deep and lost its
earth-stain long enough to carry back with it a faith that would enable
it to live.
The rosy light of day was showing ruddily in the window of the hut when
Joyce opened her eyes. The returning spirit came slowly back with
stately serenity. There was no shock nor start of wonder; it took
possession of the refreshed body that was awaiting it, and accepted its
responsibilities.
Joyce was lying on her back, her hands crossed upon her bosom. The fire
still glowed at heart, and the room was warm. A calmness and saneness
reigned supreme. Joyce wondered what had befallen her? Then slowly, like
a wise mother, Nature gave into her conscious thought the knowledge of
things as they were.
She turned--yes! there was Jude. But she did not shrink nor shudder now.
Young as she was, she had seen death many, many times. She had gone to
the portals, alone, with others beside her poor baby. She rose now, and
walked over to Jude's side. The night had wrought a change in him,
seemingly; or perhaps it was Joyce's regained sanity. The man on the
floor looked calm, peaceful and strangely dignified. His helpless
peacefulness appealed to Joyce. She began to take away all signs of
degradation that remained. The inanimate tokens of poor Jude Lauzoon's
weakness and undoing.
The empty bottle was hidden from sight; the disordered clothing was
straightened, and the hands that were never to work harm again, were
folded over the quiet breast.
God had set Joyce free! and as she did the last, sad service for the man
who had no real place in her life, the words of Ruth Dale recurred to
her.
No; she had never been free before. She never could have been free while
Jude and she walked the same earth. There had been an intangible link
that only death could sever.
Her freedom had come too late--but no! Sitting beside Jude's body, Joyce
felt the convincing truth that, come what might, she could, she would
live as John Dale had shown her how.
Softly, with reverent touch, Joyce covered the grim, white face, and
turned away to prepare for her home journey. She must get others to come
for Jude's body. Her part was all past now forever. She must go to face
her new life, whatever it might be.
As she opened the outer door, the clear, stinging cold brought a sense
of freshness and sweetness with it. It was so alive, and it called to
all that was awakening in her. Her slow blood tingled and her breath
came quick and deep.
For very relief she took off her close hood, and flung her arms wide as
if in welcome to what awaited her.
The unbroken snow spread on every side. Like the first-comer in this
new, pure world she set forth with a high courage and a strange faith.
So she came upon John Dale's vision, and he started back, fearing that
his weariness and heavy heart were playing havoc with his senses. Having
seen smoke rising from the chimney of the hut, he had left his horse and
sled a short distance away, and had come to investigate.
So absorbed was Joyce that she neither saw nor heard the approach of the
man she had put from her life.
Her pale beauty, as she came quickly toward him, struck Dale as almost
unearthly. She was within a few yards of him when she saw him. A rich
colour flushed her face as she recognized him and her eyes widened.
"Jude--is dead!" she said simply. She thought he was still upon his
quest; still ignorant of the happenings that had driven her away from
the shack.
The words had the effect of paralyzing Dale. Had this woman taken a life
in self-preservation? Then the sweet, innocent calm of her face
reassured him. Jude was dead! Every barrier was removed--every obstacle
overcome.
Dale rushed toward her with outstretched arms. The look on his face awed
Joyce--but before she was swept into a bliss that might not be
rightfully hers, she shrank from him. She put her hands out pleadingly
as if imploring him to withhold what her soul was hungering for. Dale
understood.
"Joyce--I have been home. They have told me--all!"
"All?" Joyce panted the one word. "All?"
"Yes. Everything. Now--will you come?"
To his dying day Dale was never to forget the look she cast upon him as
he and she stood alone in the white trackless forest.
Love, such love as worn-out civilization knows not, took possession of
Joyce Lauzoon. A love that controlled and uplifted.
Dale waited--then she came to him, glorious and strong in her power of
joy-giving. She clasped her hands around his neck, and lifted her face
to his; their lips met and their eyes grew wondrously tender.
"And now,"--it was Joyce who recalled him to duty--"where shall we go?"
His promise to Drew followed close on the question; and Ruth Dale's
farewell to him as she slipped from his life came with a new meaning.
"Sweet," he whispered, "they are waiting for us--Drew, and my sister,
Ruth Dale."
THE END
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Transcriber's Note:
1. Punctuation has been normalized to contemporary standards.
2. The Table of Contents was not present in the original book.
End of Project Gutenberg's Joyce of the North Woods, by Harriet T. Comstock