For a time Lida felt unutterably and miserably lonely and helpless. She
had stepped out of everything that was familiar in the way of human
contact and environment; she was facing the new, the untried, something
that was not a woman's job, as her grandfather had declared.
But it was a job for that one of the Flaggs who still had the grit and
the strength to perform it!
With that thought came her reaction. She began to realize that as long
as Dick had been her companion, her guardian, she had not been conscious
of the real exaltation of determination which now glowed in her. She
felt courage born of sacred zeal. She was alone, but no longer did that
thought trouble her. Because she was alone it was up to her! She walked
on with a steadier stride. If she appeared at the drive under the convoy
of old Dick she was only a girl sent to whine a confession of fault and
to wheedle men to help her repair it. Would it not be well to take those
men fully into her confidence? She was resolved to tell them that she
loved Ward Latisan; she was admitting this truth to herself and she was
in a mood to tell all the truth to honest men who would be able to
understand. She was going north to inspire faith and courage and
loyalty. Would not the known granddaughter of Echford Flagg be able to
exert that compelling moral influence over the crew? Those men were
primitive enough to understand the urge of honest love of woman for a
man; and there was the spirit of chivalrous romance in the north
country. She knew it.
Her heart was bolder as she walked on, but her feet ached and the rough
road wearied her. She met no human being; she sat for a time on a
wayside bowlder, hoping that some straggling tote team would come up
from the south and overtake her.
The road snaked along in the Noda Valley, and from time to time she was
close to the turbid flood which swept down ice cakes and flotsam. From
her bowlder she could see a broad and calm stretch--a deadwater of which
she did not know the name.
Then, close to the shore where she waited, came a canoe headed upriver.
Two men were in it, paddling sturdily, taking advantage of eddies and
backwash. Fresh from the city as she was, she felt a thrill of sudden
terror; the men were Indians and wore the full regalia of tribal dress.
As a child she had seen and remembered well the Tarratines of the
region; they had been dressed like other woodsmen. These Indians with
feathers and beads put a strange fear into her in that solitude. She
slid from the rock and crouched behind it. She grasped the staff of the
cant dog more firmly; it was her only weapon of defense. But when her
fingers felt the depressions of the totem mark she turned from terror to
hope. Latisan, at their first meeting, had referred to the status of
Echford Flagg among the Tarratines. Courage was back in her again, along
with her new hope. She leaped to her feet and called to the Indians and
flourished a salute. They hesitated a moment, then drove their craft to
the shore a pebble toss away from her.
She did not speak to them--she held the staff so that the emblem was
shown to them. They disembarked, approached slowly, peered at the totem,
and saluted with upraised palms.
"I have the right to carry it," she told them. "It is Echford Flagg's.
He gave it into my hands. He said it is known along the river and will
help me. I want to go north to his drive. He has sent me. It is on his
business!"
She received no immediate encouragement from their manner; they looked
at each other and turned their gaze again to her.
"Frank Orono," said one, patting his hand on his beaded breast. "Him
brother, Louis Orono."
"The drive is up there. If you're going only a little way in that
direction won't you take me along in your canoe?" she pleaded,
confessing, "I'm so tired. There was an accident to the team--I've had
to walk."
"You see!" said Frank Orono, stroking his hand over the feathers of his
headdress. "Big time for tribe. All dressed up. Him, me, we go to Olamon
Island. Governor live there--Chief Susep Nicola. His girl she marry
to-night. Big time!" He grinned. That evidence of human feeling in the
countenance which had been so impassive heartened the girl.
"And if I can get as far as Olamon with you----"
They ducked their heads in permission.
"Maybe Chief Susep send you on. Chief he much like him!" Frank Orono
pointed to the staff. "Chief cut in totem sign, his own hands. You come.
Be all right."
They spread a blanket for her in the middle of the canoe and paddled on.
It was then past midafternoon of her crowded day.
When at last they swung around a wooded point and beheld the Indian
village of Olamon the dusk was deepening. Many lights twinkled and a
huge bonfire waved flaming tongues.
"Big time!" chuckled Frank Orono. "Pretty girl--nice feller she marry.
Chief be glad to see you--you tell him!"
Those who were gathered at the pull-out place surveyed her with
curiosity. The bonfire lighted the scene and many were able to see the
totem mark on the staff of the cant dog. Those saluted her respectfully
and passed the word to others, who came crowding about.
Therefore, when the brothers Orono escorted her into the presence of
Sachem Nicola, Lida entertained the confidence of one who was among
friends. The chief--or rather, the elected governor of the tribe--dwelt
in a modest cottage, and with him was the priest who had come for the
wedding ceremony. It was the priest who displayed the liveliest interest
in the girl and he promptly began to seek the reason that had brought
her north with that emblem of authority. He questioned her with
kindness, but with much vigor.
But Susep Nicola asked no questions. He seemed to accept her presence as
a quite natural thing. A Tarratine never puts a question to a guest; the
guest may explain or state his business in his own good time. The
sachem set a chair for her and relieved her of the staff and her bag. He
put his finger on the emblem and smiled. There was inquiry in his eyes
whether she knew and understood. She bowed her head.
As best she could she parried the questions of the inquisitive priest
without making it appear that she was trying to hide anything. "It's an
errand, and Mr. Flagg was kind enough to loan the staff as my token in
these parts. You know he is ill and cannot go about any more. He must
leave certain things to others."
"Well," admitted the priest, plainly struggling with a hankering to ask
her bluntly what service a girl could perform for Flagg on the drive,
"the ladies in these days are into all the affairs of men as well as on
the juries, so we must consider it as quite natural that you have been
sent up here by Mr. Flagg. At any rate, we should be grateful that you
are here," he declared, gallantly.
"It's on account of the accident to my team that I'm forced to intrude
at a time like this," she apologized to Nicola. He was an old man, gaunt
and bowed, and his festal trappings seemed rather incongruous
decorations.
"But you bring my brother's staff, and it makes you welcome for yourself
and stands for him because he cannot come."
He called, and a woman appeared. He gave directions, and the woman
offered to conduct Lida to a room in the cottage.
"You are honored guest," said the governor. "In an hour the wedding
takes place in the church, and then the wedding supper!"
"To which I beg permission to escort you," said the priest, bowing low
as Lida went from the room.
She laid off her woods panoply of cap and jacket and made herself fit
for the festival to such an extent as her scanty wardrobe would permit.
Before the wedding procession started for the church she was presented
to the bride, Nicola's youngest daughter. The woman who had shown Lida
to her room had gossiped a bit. The bride was the fruit of the
governor's second marriage and had inherited her French Canadian
mother's beauty. And the groom was a French Canadian, a strapping chap,
a riverman of repute.
Lida was told that the men of the river, the jacks of the driving crews
far and near, were making much of the wedding on account of their liking
for Felix Lapierre. She had looked from her window and had seen bateaus
come sweeping down, loaded with shouting men, the oars flashing in the
light of torches set in the bows of the big boats. She felt more
confident in regard to the morrow; those bateaus would be going back to
the north and she had determined to make her plea for passage. In her
anxiety the halt for the night was irksome. But she concealed her
feelings and took her place in the procession, a post of honor that was
deferentially assigned to her by the chief.
The flares of moving torches lighted all and the smoke from them wavered
above the plumes of the festal costumes and spread the illumination
among the swaying boughs of the spruces and the pines.
An Indian brass band of pretensions rather more than modest led the way
toward the church. The rear guard was made of rivermen who marched in
ragged formation, scuffling, elbowing one another, shouting jokes,
making merry after their manner. Their boots, spurred with drivers'
spikes, crunched into the hard earth and occasionally struck fire from
an outcropping of ledge. They pulled off those boots at the door of the
church and went into the place, tiptoeing in their stocking feet.
So Alice and Felix were joined in marriage.
Lida sat beside the girl's mother during the ceremony.
The tears that are shed by womankind at weddings form a baptism for
sentiments which cannot be easily translated into exact understanding.
It had begun to seem very far away in time and space, that tragedy of
the morning in Adonia, that wreck of a man's love, and the blasting of
what Lida had admitted to herself was her own fond hope. Now, in this
scene, hearing the words which gave lovers the sacred right to face the
world hand in hand, her own grievous case came back to her in poignant
clearness. She wept frankly; there had been honest tears in the mother's
eyes. The two looked at each other and then the mother's hand slid into
the girl's and mutely expressed for the stranger what could not be put
into words. There were no questions and no replies--the situation
required none.
For the more casual guests, the rivermen and others, the supper was
spread out of doors near the water. It was a simple feast which had been
cooked over coals in the open.
The sachem's party ate in a large room; by day it served the women of
the tribe as a workshop. The walls were gay with the handicraft which
had been hung up to clear a space for the tables. There were braided or
woven baskets of all sizes and every hue; there were beaded skins and
frippery of feathered gewgaws and moccasins and miniature canoes and
plaques of birch, hand carved. And subordinating all else, even the
scents and savors of the food, was the perfume of the sweet grass.
Outdoors, in a circle of torches, the band played merry airs.
"You should not be sad, mam'selle," reproved Father Leroque, who had
constituted himself Lida's squire at supper. "This is a very merry
occasion."
"I feel all the more as if I were intruding--bringing my troubles here."
The chatter of many voices made a shield for conversation between the
two. The priest hesitated for some time; then he made sure that nobody
was listening and leaned closer to her.
"I beg your pardon, mam'selle, if I seem presumptuous in touching on a
matter regarding which you have not given me your confidence. I may be
allowed to mention a bit of news. It came to me just before we sat down
to supper. News travels fast in this region, you may know. From mouth to
mouth it flies. Bateaus have come up the river, and the men of those
bateaus have listened to timber cruisers and have heard from the
drivers of tote teams who have come scattering through the woods below.
There is the news of an engagement. I trust I may be allowed to speak of
the news to you because it is my thought that you are the young lady
concerned."
She was not able to reply.
"And there is more news," he persisted. "Pardon me if I mention that,
too. It is my province to console those who are in trouble, as best I
may. Perhaps there is some way in which I can help you. I think highly
of young Latisan. I know him because my duties have taken me into the
Tomah region. There has been trouble between you and him--a
misunderstanding. Is there any way in which I can be a mediator--as his
friend?"
"He has gone away," she choked. "I don't know where he is. It was my
fault. If I could have explained, it might have helped, but he would not
wait to hear me through."
The priest's gentleness had conquered her resolution to keep her secret
till she reached the men of the Flagg drive. He perceived her bitter
need of sympathy.
"I respect confidences, even those given me outside the pale of my
church's confessional. Young Latisan is like his grandfather--tinder for
a stray spark. If I know your fault--if I can tell him, when I see him,
what you would have liked to tell him----"
Hurriedly, in low tones, stammering in her eagerness, she did reveal who
she was, what she had tried to do, and what she hoped to be able to do.
He was instantly alive to her cause with all the sympathy that was in
him--an especially sincere sympathy because as a missionary priest he
was close to the hearts of all the folk of the north country, probing
their affairs with an innocent but vivid interest and striving always to
aid with earnest zeal.
Though Lida had parried his questions at first, protecting her secret,
she was now grateful because he had persisted; his manner and his nature
removed him from the ranks of mere busybodies. A comforting sense arose
from having confided in him.
"In the Tomah I will find young Latisan; I am on my way across the
mountains, mam'selle. He must be awake and himself by now; he must have
gone home. When I tell him the truth he will lift all the trouble from
your shoulders. But till he comes you must be brave. And who knows? You
may be able to smooth the path! If you plead your grandfather's cause up
here, I believe even the great Comas company will listen and be kind.
There are many outside this door who have come down from the drives to
have a bit of fun at the wedding. There must be Flagg men. I will find
out."
"Let me go with you," she urged, anxiously.
He demurred.
"But I'll not speak to them. If I can see them--only a few of them--the
real men of our drive--I believe I shall find courage to go on."
She prevailed, though he was doubtful and warned her that the babbling
of the new gossip might be embarrassing.
And so it proved as Father Leroque feared; men perceived only the
beguilement of Ward Latisan and had heard only the sordid side of the
happenings in Adonia; the girl was glad because she was hid in the gloom
outside the circle of light that was the nimbus of the bonfire. They
were laughing as they discussed a matter which had eclipsed the interest
in the wedding. Her cheeks were hot and she was scarcely restrained by
the priest's monitory palm on her shoulder.
Men were feasting and gossiping; they were herded around the fire,
squatting Turk fashion, steaming pannikins on the ground by their sides,
heaped plates on their knees.
"Fifteen of us," stated a man, answering a question. "And prob'ly more
to follow. Ben Kyle has gone up there in a hurry, grudge and all, and is
hiring for the Comas. If there ain't going to be any fight we may as
well work for the Three C's."
"Stay here!" commanded Father Leroque, patting the girl's arm. "Stay
where they can't see you." He stepped forward into the firelight. "Do I
understand that the Flagg crew is breaking up?"
"Fifteen of us in this bunch," restated the man, rapping his pannikin to
dislodge the tea leaves and holding it out for more of the beverage.
"Wedding brought us down--the news we hear is going to keep us going.
Flagg is done."
"Yes, if his men desert him. You mustn't do it; it isn't square."
The priest found it easy to locate the recreants among the other
rivermen; they shifted their eyes under his rebuking gaze. "Go back to
your work. Another will come in young Latisan's place."
"All respect to you, Father! But we can't do it," said the spokesman.
"We're Latisan's men. The rest of the gang will laugh us out of the crew
if we go back."
"I'll have Latisan himself on the job inside of a few days, my men,"
declared the priest, stoutly.
He had promised to them another who would take the drive master's place;
now he promised Latisan. The men were merely puzzled; they were not
convinced.
"Will you go back?"
"We can't go back." It was said with conviction, and a mumble of voices
indorsed him. "Still, all respect to you, Father! But Latisan won't fit
any longer even if he does go back. He has let himself be goofered."
Father Leroque had set up his temporary altar in many a lumber camp; he
knew woodsmen; therefore, he knew that argument with those men would be
idle.
"You have heard," he said to Lida when the two walked away deeper into
the shadows. "I'm sorry. But so the matter stands."
"But if I go now and talk to them--confess to them----"
"They are Latisan's own men, and the story is fresh, and their
resentment is hot. You will not prevail, mam'selle. And if you fail
to-night with those men you risk failing with all. You must go on to the
drive--talk to the others who are still loyal. I fear much, I must warn
you, but I will not try to keep you from what seems to be your duty. It
would be too great unhappiness for you if you should go back now,
feeling that you had not done your best."
The bandsmen had eaten of the wedding feast and were again valorously
making gay music outside the workshop building from whose windows poured
light and laughter.
"I can't go back in there--I can't!" sobbed Lida. "Right now I want to
hide away."
With gentle understanding the priest escorted her to the door of the
sachem's cottage. "I will pray for you, that the morning may bring good
courage again. I will talk with you then--in the morning."
She stammered broken words of gratitude and escaped to the covert of the
little room.
Father Leroque went back to the wedding party and called the governor
out into the night. For a long time the two conferred, walking to and
fro under the big pines.