HIGH EXPLOSIVE
There was nothing to tell of any handclasp when I woke in the morning.
Paulette lay in her blankets with her back to me, as if she had lain so
all night; Dunn was making up the fire; Collins was absent, till he
appeared out of his tunnel where he had put Dudley's high explosive the
night before and nodded to me. None of us spoke: we all had that chilly
sort of stiffness you get after sleeping with your clothes on. As we ate
our breakfast I took one glance at Paulette and looked away again. She
was absolutely white, almost stunned looking, and her eyes would not
meet mine. I had an intuition she had waked in the night after I slept
and discovered what she had been doing; but if she were ashamed there
was no need. God knows I would not have reminded her of the thing. I
knew the dark hollows and the tear marks under her eyes were for Dudley,
not for me. But I had to take care of her now, and Collins glanced at me
as I thought it.
"I suppose you realize Charliet's our only line of communication, and
that he and all the La Chance guns are in the hands of the enemy," he
observed drily. "What do you think of doing about it?"
"Get Charliet; all the guns and ammunition he can steal; hold this place
and harry Macartney," I supposed. "What do _you_ think?"
I had turned to Paulette, but she only shook her head with an, "I don't
know, Mr. Stretton!" I had time to decide she had only called me Nicky
by mistake six hours ago, before Collins disagreed with me flatly.
"Stay here? Not much! Won't work--Macartney'd drop on us! Oh, I know he
won't be able to find our real entrance to this place unless Charliet
gives us away, and I'm not worrying about that! But, after he realizes
Miss Valenka has vanished"--he said her real name perfectly
casually--"and when Charliet and most of his guns vanish too, and his
men begin to get picked off one by one, how long do you suppose it will
be before Macartney connects the three things--and smells a rat? He'll
sense Charliet and a girl can't be fighting him alone. For all we know
he'll guess you must have got out of Thompson's stope somehow, and dig
away his rock fence to see! And I imagine we'd look well in here if he
did!"
"It's just what we would look," said I. "You ass, Collins, with
Macartney ignorant of the real way in on us, and he and his gang digging
open Thompson's tunnel against the daylight, with you and me and Dunn in
the dark on that shelf in Thompson's stope we came in here by, we'd have
the drop on the lot. Except--Marcia!" Her name jerked out of me. We
would have to count Marcia in with Macartney's gang; and, remembering
she had known me all her life, it made me smart.
"Oh, Miss Wilbraham--I should let _her_ rip!" Collins returned
callously. "Listen, Stretton; what you say's all very well, only we
can't count on holding this place when we're discovered, while it's a
matter of _if_ Charliet can get guns! Miss Marcia's rifle and her toy
popgun aren't going to save us, and I doubt if Charliet can swipe any
more. What I say is let's cut some horses out of the stable after dark,
all four of us clear out on them to Caraquet, and set the sheriff and
his men after Macartney. Unless," he turned boldly to her, "you don't
want that, Miss Valenka?"
But if she had been going to answer, which I don't think she was, I cut
her off. "We can't let Marcia rip--don't talk nonsense, Collins! She's
Dudley's sister, if she and Macartney are a firm. We can't clear out and
leave her with a man like that!"
"We can't take her to Caraquet," Collins argued with some point. "You
own she doesn't know anything about Macartney's wolf dope; you haven't
any witnesses to prove he tried it on your wagon, or to set the wolves
on Dudley. Miss Marcia would just up and swear your whole story was a
lie--and all Caraquet would believe her! Nobody alive ever heard of such
a thing as wolf dope!"
"That's just where you're wrong!" I remembered the boy I'd left cached
in Skunk's Misery--and something else, that had been in my head ever
since wolves and the smell of a Skunk's Misery bottle seemed to go
together. "Two Frenchmen were run in for using wolf dope in Quebec
province last winter, for I've an account of their trial somewhere that
I cut out of an Ottawa paper. And as for a witness, I've a boy cached at
Skunk's Misery who can prove Macartney made the same stuff there. The
only thing we might get stuck on in Caraquet is the _reason_ for all the
murders he's done--with, and without it!"
"I guess Miss Valenka knows the reason all right," Collins spoke as
coolly as if she were not there, which may have been the wisest thing to
do, for though she flushed sharply she said nothing. He went on with
exactly what she had said herself. "But after Hutton came here to get
her, he saw he'd be a fool not to grab the La Chance mine, too; and
unless we can stop him you bet he and his gang have grabbed it! They've
disposed of Thompson, of all our own men who might have stood by us, of
Wilbraham," categorically; "they think they've disposed of Dunn
and me and buried you alive, and--except for having lost Miss
Valenka--Macartney's made his game! Nobody'll know there's anything
wrong at the mine till the spring, because there's no one interested
enough to ask questions till Wilbraham's bank payments have stopped long
enough to look queer. And by that time Macartney and his gang will be
gone, and the cream of Wilbraham's gold with them. As for us, we can't
fight him by sitting in this burrow _with_ Miss Paulette, and without
any guns, even if he doesn't end by nosing out Dunn's and my gold as
well as Wilbraham's. Why, we depend on Charliet for our food, let alone
anything else; and for all we know, Charliet may have squeaked on us by
this time. I say again, let's get a sheriff and posse at Caraquet, and
come back here and get Macartney! We could do it, if we took Miss
Paulette and hit the trail to-night."
"And Macartney'd get us, if we tried it!" I had thrashed all that out in
my head before, while I was tying up Macartney with Charliet's
clothesline. "We'd be stopped by his picket at the Halfway, if ever we
got to the Halfway, for the Caraquet road's likely drifted solid and
you don't make time digging out smothering horses. No; we'll fight
Macartney where we are! And the way to do it is with Charliet and guns."
"If you'll tell me how we're to connect with either!" Collins was grim.
"It's a mighty dangerous thing calling up Charliet on number one Wolf,
with the whole of La Chance crawling with Macartney and his gang,
hunting for Miss Paulette. But we can go up to the back door and try
it!"
"Oh, no," Paulette burst out wildly, "I'm afraid! I mean I know we must
find out first if Charliet's all right, but you mayn't get him--and
you'll give yourselves away!"
It was almost the first time she had spoken, and it was more to Collins
than to me, but I answered. "We'll get Charliet all right," I began--and
Collins gripped me.
"I dunno," he drawled. "Strikes me some one's going to get us--first!"
He snapped out our candle, which was senseless, since Dunn's red-hot
fire showed us up as plain as day, and all four of us stood paralyzed.
Somebody--running, slipping, with a hideous clatter of stones--was
coming down the long passage Collins called his back door.
"Macartney," said I, "and Charliet's given us away!" And with the words
in my mouth I had Paulette around the waist and shoved out of sight
behind the boulder that separated Collins's cave from his tunnel and the
pierced wall of Thompson's stope. Macartney might be a devil, but there
was no doubt the man was brave to come like that for a girl, through the
dark bowels of the earth where Charliet must have warned him Dunn and
Collins would be lurking. Only he had not got Paulette yet, and he would
find three men to face before he even saw her. I stooped over her in the
dark of Collins's tunnel, where just a knife-edge of the cave firelight
cut over the boulder's top. "Keep still, Paulette--and for any sake
don't move and kick Collins's devilish explosive he's got stuck in here
somewhere," I said, exactly as if I were steady. Which I was not,
because it was my unlooked for, heaven-sent chance to get square with
Macartney. I sprang around the boulder to do it and saw Collins strike
up the barrel of Marcia's rifle in Dunn's stretched left arm.
"Don't shoot," he yelled. "You fool, it's Charliet!"
I stood dead still. It was Charliet, but a Charliet I had never seen.
His French-Canadian face was tallow white, as he tore into the cave,
grinning like a dog with rage and excitement. He brushed Dunn and
Collins aside like flies and grabbed my arm. "Come out," he panted.
"Sacre damn, bring Mademoiselle Paulette and _come out_! It is that
Marcia! She sees you in the shack last night; sees you--alive and out of
Thompson's stope where they buried you--carrying Mademoiselle away! She
tells Macartney so this morning, when he and I get in after hunting for
Mademoiselle all night--praying, me, that I might not make a mistake and
find her, and that you might. Oh, I tell you I was crazy--dog crazy! I
cannot get away from Macartney, I think she may be dead in the snow,
looking for me who was not there, till first thing this morning we come
in--and that she-devil tells Macartney Stretton takes Mademoiselle away!
Not till now, till all are out of the house, do I have the chance to
come and warn you what is coming! They--that Marcia, Macartney, all of
the men--start now to dig you out of Thompson's stope they put you in.
They think they left some hole you crawl out of in the snow and dark,
that you come for Mademoiselle and take her back into. I could not get
you even one small cartridge to hold this place, and--Macartney is
clever! He will be in here, with all his guns, all his men. And then,
_quoi faire_? Come now, all of you, while there is the one chance to
come unseen, and get on horses and go away. Ah," the man's fierce voice
broke, ran up imploringly, "I beg you, Mademoiselle, like I would beg
the Blessed Virgin, to make them come! Before Macartney, or that Marcia,
finds--you!"
I jumped around and saw Paulette, in the cave. I had left her safe in
Collins's tunnel; and there she stood, come out into plain view at the
sound of Charliet's voice. But she was not looking at him, or me, or any
of us. Her eyes stared, sword-blue, at the hole where Charliet had
rushed in from Collins's secret passage: I think all I realized of her
face was her eyes. I turned, galvanized, to what she stared at,--and
saw. Marcia Wilbraham was standing in the entrance from the long
passage, behind us all, except Paulette; meeting Paulette's eyes with
her small, bright brown ones, her lips wide in her ugly, gum-showing
smile. I knew, of course, that she had picked up Charliet's track in the
snow from his kitchen door to Collins's juniper-covered back door, had
followed fair on his heels down the dark passage, instead of going with
Macartney to dig me out of Thompson's stope; that in one second she
would turn and run back again, to show Macartney Collins's back door.
My jump was late. It was Dunn who saved us. He sprang matter-of-factly,
like a blood-hound, and pulled Marcia down. She was as strong as a man,
pretty nearly; she fought fiercely, till she heard the boy laugh. That
cowed her, in some queer way. I heard Dunn say: "You'd better stay here
a while, Miss Wilbraham. It's safer--than with Macartney;" saw Charliet
run to help him, and the two of them placidly tie and gag Marcia
Wilbraham with anything they could take off themselves. It was with a
vivid impression of Charliet's none too clean neck-handkerchief playing
a large part in Marcia's toilette that Collins and I jumped, with one
accord, to Paulette. I don't know what he said to her. I saw her nod.
I said, "We're done for if Macartney gets in on us through Thompson's
stope and finds this place. He'll just send half his men to scout for
the other entrance; they'll find it from Charliet's and Marcia's tracks
and get at us both ways. You stay here with Charliet, while Collins and
I meet Macartney in Thompson's stope. When--if--you hear we can't best
him, run--with Charliet! Dunn'll look after Marcia."
She gave me a stunned sort of look, as if I were deserting her, as if I
didn't--care! I would have snatched her in my arms and kissed her,
Dudley or no Dudley lying dead in the bush, but I had no time. Collins
had me by the elbow, his fierce drawl close to my half-comprehending
ear. We'd no guns but Marcia's popgun and her rifle; two of us, even on
the shelf in Thompson's stope, would do little good with those against
all Macartney's men crowding into the stope and giving us a volley the
second our fire from the shelf drew theirs. We might pick off half a
dozen of them before our cartridges gave out. But there was no sense in
that business. We would have to try----But here I came alive to what
Collins was really talking about.
"That high explosive," he was saying. "It's a filthy trick, but God
knows they deserve it! If we blow them back far enough at the very
entrance of the tunnel, they may never come on again to get in."
I daresay I'd have recoiled in cold blood. But my blood ran hot that
morning. I did think, though; hard. I said, "Can't do it! No fuse."
"Heaps. Dunn's and mine!" I heard Collins grabbling for it, somewhere in
the dark of the tunnel.
Behind me somebody lit a candle; who, I never looked to see. In the
light of it I saw Collins pick up his bundle of blasting powder and
warned him sharply.
"Look out with that stuff! We don't know it; it may work anyway. If it
bursts up in the air the stope roof'll be down on us. It may fire back,
too--and we'd be hit behind the point of burst!"
"We won't be," said Collins, between his teeth. "I'll burst it _out_ the
tunnel, and blow Macartney's gang to rags!"
But that lighted candle at my back had shown me other than explosives:
the silly, pointless snowshoes I had lugged from my own room in the
shack. My conscious mind knew now what my subconscious mind had wanted
them for, like a mill where some one had turned on the current. I swore
out loud. "By gad, Collins, listen! If we don't smash Macartney, and he
gets in on us, he'll get Paulette! I've got to stop that, somehow.
Macartney doesn't _know_ she's here yet; Marcia only guessed it.
Supposing he were to see only me, alone in Thompson's stope, he might
never know she was here too!"
"Dunno what you mean," Collins snapped. And I snapped back:
"I mean that if we blow a clean hole at the tunnel entrance, and I burst
out of it and run, I can get the whole gang after me--and make time for
you and Charliet to get Paulette away somewhere, by the back door."
"But"--Collins halted where he swarmed up into Thompson's
stope--"where'll you go? You can't, Stretton. It's death!"
"It's sense," said I. "As for where I'll go, Lac Tremblant'll do for
me; and I bet it will finish any man of Macartney's who tries to come
after me! Get through into that stope with your fuse, man; I'll hand you
the blasting stuff. Got it? All right. Here you, gimme that candle!" I
turned and took it--out of Paulette's hand!
I gasped, taken aback all standing, before I lied, "It's all right,
Paulette. I'll be back in a minute." And though I knew she must have
heard what I was going to do, I had no better sense than to stoop before
the girl's blank eyes and snatch up my two pairs of snowshoes, that had
been lying beside the explosive I had just passed up to Collins, before
I clambered up through the hole into Thompson's stope, on to the shelf
from whence I had first dropped into Collins's cave.
Collins was down in Thompson's tunnel already, laying his fuse with
deadly skill. Already, too, we could hear Macartney's men outside,
leveraging away the boulders that had plugged up the tunnel entrance
where I was to starve and die. Collins placed the stuff I carried down
to him. I said, "My God, you can't use all that; the whole stope'll be
down on us!" And he answered, "No; I've done it right." That was every
word we uttered till we were back on our high shelf, with a lit fuse
left behind us in the stope. The fuse burned smooth as a dream, and
Collins nudged me with fierce satisfaction. But I was suddenly sick with
horror. Not at the thing we were doing--if it were devil's work we had
been driven to be devils--but at the knowledge that Paulette was
standing within reach of my feet, that were through the stope wall and
were hanging down into Collins's tunnel,--that tunnel every bone in me
knew was amateur, unsafe, a death trap. The shock of a big explosion in
Thompson's stope might well bring its roof down on Paulette, standing
alone in it, waiting,--trusting to me for safety. I turned my head and
yelled at her as a man yells at a dog--or his dearest--when he is sick
with fear for her: "Get back out of that into the cave! _Run!_"
I heard her jump. Heard her----But thought stopped in me, with one
unwritable, life-checking shock. The whole earth, the very globe, seemed
to have blown to pieces around me. The flash and roar were like a
thousand howitzers in my very face; the solid rock shelf I was on leapt
under me; and behind me the whole of Collins's tunnel collapsed, with a
grinding roar. I heard Collins gasp, "Good glory"; heard the rocks and
gravel in the stope before me settling, with an indescribable,
threatening noise, between thunder and breaking china--and all I thought
of was that I'd warned my dream girl in time, that she'd answered me,
that she was back in Collins's cave, and safe. Till, suddenly to eyes
that had been too dazzled and seared to see it clearing, the smoke
before me cleared, the choking fumes lessened, and I saw. Saw, straight
in front of me, where a tunnel had been and was no longer, a clean hole
like a barn door where Thompson's tunnel entrance had been but two-men
wide; saw out, into furious, crimson color that turned slowly, as my
sight grew normal, into the golden, dazzling glory of winter sun on
snow.
There was silence outside in the sun, all but some yells and moaning.
How much damage we'd done I couldn't see; or where Macartney's men were,
dead or alive. But now, while they were paralyzed with shock and
surprise, now was my time to get through them. I lowered myself gingerly
to the rubbish heap that had been the smooth floor of Thompson's stope;
edged to the tunnel entrance; slipped my feet into the toe and heel
straps of the snowshoes I had held tightly against me through all the
unspeakable, hellish uproar of rending rock, and sprang,--sprang out
into the sunlight, out on the clear snow, past wounded men, reeling men,
dying men, and raced as I never put foot to ground before or since, for
Lac Tremblant, glittering clear and free in front of me,--that Lac
Tremblant I had thought of subconsciously when I carried snowshoes into
Collins's cave.
In the beginning of this story I said what Lac Tremblant was like. It
was a lake that was no lake; that should have been our water-way out of
the bush instead of miles of expensive road; and was no more practicable
than a rope ladder to the stars. For the depth of Lac Tremblant, or its
fairway, were two things no man might count on. It would fall in a night
to shallows a child might wade through, among bristling rocks no one had
ever guessed at; and rise in a morning to the tops of the spruce scrub
on its banks,--a sweet spread of water, with never a rock to be seen.
What hidden spring fed it was a mystery. But in the bitterest winter it
was never frozen further than to form surging masses of frazil ice that
would neither let a canoe push through them, nor yet support the weight
of a man. It was on that frazil ice, that some people called lolly, that
I meant to run for my life now, trusting to the resistance of the two
feet of snow that lay on the lake in the mysterious way snow does lie on
lolly, and to the snowshoes on my feet. And as I slithered on to the
soft snow of the lake, from the crackling, breaking shell ice on the La
Chance shore, I knew I had done well. Some--a good many--of Macartney's
men were killed or half-killed by our deadly blast, but not all. He had
been more cautious than I guessed. I saw the rest of his men bunched
some hundred feet from the smashed-out tunnel; saw Macartney, too,
standing with them. But all I cared for was that he should see me and
come out after me on the crust of snow and lolly over Lac
Tremblant,--that would never carry him without the snowshoes he did not
have--and give Paulette her chance to get away. I yelled at him and
skimmed out over the trembling ice like a bird.
Neither Macartney nor his men had stirred in that one flying glance I
had dared take at them. But sheer tumult came out of them now. Then
shots--shots that missed me, and a sudden howled order from Macartney I
dared not turn my head or break my stride to understand. The giving
surface under me was bearing, but a quarter-second's pause would have
let me through. There was no sense in zigzagging. Once I was clear, I
ran as straight as I dared for the other shore, five miles away;
but--suddenly I realized I was not clear! I was followed.
Somebody else on snowshoes had shot out of Thompson's tunnel, over the
crackling shore ice on to the snow and frazil; was up to me, close
behind me.
"Run, Nicky," shrieked Paulette's voice. "_Run!_"
I slewed my head around and saw her, running behind me!