*CHAPTER XXXV*
*THE BOAT THAT WAS NOT*
"You will not go!" cried Landless.
"No, I will not!" she answered passionately. "Why should you think sucha thing of me? See! we have been together, you and I, for long weeks!You have been my faithful guide, my faithful protector. Over and overagain you have saved my life. And now, now when you are the helplessone, when it is through me that you lie there helpless, when it isthrough me that you are in this dreadful forest at all, you tell me togo! to leave you to the fate I have brought upon you! to save myself! Iwill not save myself! But the other day it was dishonor in you to leaveme below the falls--almost in safety. Mine the dishonor if I do whatyou bid me do!"
"Madam, madam, it is not with women as with men!"
"I care not for women! I care for myself. Never, never, will I leave,helpless and wounded, the man who dies for me!"
"Upon my knees I implore you!" Landless cried in desperation. "Youcannot save me, you cannot help me. It is you that would make thebitterness of my fate. Let me die believing that you have escaped thesefiends, and then, do what they will to me, I shall die happy, blessingwith my last breath the generous woman who lets me give--how proudly andgladly she will never know--my worthless life in exchange for hers, soyoung, bright, innocent. Go, go, before it is too late!"
He dragged himself a foot nearer, and grasping the hem of her dress,pressed it to his lips. "Good-bye," he said with a faint smile. "Keepbehind the rocks for some distance, then follow the river. Think kindlyof me. Good-bye."
"It is too late," she said. "I can see the river through this crackbetween the rocks. One of those two canoes has just passed, going downthe river. In it were seven Ricahecrians and the mulatto. I saw himquite plainly, for they row close to the bank with their faces turned tothe woods. They will land at some point below this and search for ourtrail. When they do not find it, they will know that we are betweenthem and the rest of the band, and they will come upon us from behind.If I go now, it will be to meet them. Shall I go?"
"No, no," groaned Landless. "It is too late. God help you! I cannot."
The large tears gathered in her eyes and fell over her white cheeks."Oh, why," she said plaintively, "why did He let you hurt yourself justnow?" She turned her face to the rock against which she was standing,and hiding it in her arm, broke into a low sobbing. It went to theheart of the man at her feet to hear her.
Presently the weeping ceased. She drew a long tremulous sigh, anddashed the tears from her eyes. Her hands went up to her disheveled hairin a little involuntary, feminine gesture, and she looked at him with awan smile.
"I did not mean to be so cowardly," she said simply. "I will be bravenow."
"You are the bravest woman in the world," he answered.
Below them waved the painted forest flaunting triumphant banners ofcrimson and gold. A strong south wind was blowing, and it brought tothem a sound as of the whispering of many voices. The shining river,too, murmured to its reeds and pebbles, and in the air was the dullwhirr of wings as the vast flocks of wild fowl rose like dark smoke fromthe water, or, skimming along its surface, broke it into myriad diamondsprays. Around the horizon towered heaped-up masses of cloud--Ossapiled on Pelion--fantastic Jack-and-the-Beanstalk castles, built highabove the world, with rampart and turret and bastion of pearl and coral.Above rose the sky intensely blue and calm.
All the wealth, the warmth and loveliness of the world they were aboutto leave flowed over the souls of the doomed pair. In their hearts theyeach said farewell to it forever. Patricia stood with uplifted face andclear eyes, looking deep into the azure heaven. "I am trying to think,"she said, "that death is not so bitter after all. To-day isbeautiful--but ours will be a fairer morrow! After to-day we will neverbe tired, or fear, or be in danger any more. I am not afraid to die; butah! if it could only come to us now, swiftly, silently, out of the blueyonder; if we could go without the blood--the horror--" she broke offshuddering. Her eyes closed and she rested her head against the rock.Landless watched the beautiful, pale face, the quivering eyelids, thecoral underlip drawn between the pearly teeth, in a passion of pity anddespair. Horrid visions of torture flashed through his brain; he sawthe delicate limbs writhing, heard the agonized screams.... If hekilled the mulatto, it might come to that; if the mulatto lived, he knewthat she would kill herself. He had given her the knife that had beenMonakatocka's, and she had it now, hidden in her bosom.... The glory ofthe autumn day darkened and went out, the bitter waters of afflictionsurged over him, an immeasurable sea; it seemed to him that until thenhe had never suffered. A cold sweat broke out upon him, and with aninarticulate cry of rage and despair he struck at his wounded foot as ata deadly foe. The girl cried out at the sound of the blow.
"Oh, don't, don't! What are you doing? You have loosened the bandage,and it is bleeding afresh."
Despite his effort to prevent her she readjusted the kerchief which shehad wound about the torn and crushed foot, very carefully and tenderly."It must hurt you very much," she said pityingly.
He took the little ministering hands in his and kissed them. "Oh,madam, madam!" he groaned. "God knows I would shed every drop of myblood a thousand times to save you. Death to me is nothing, nor life sofair that I should care to keep it. The grave is a less dreadful prisonthan those on earth, and I think to find in God a more merciful Judge.But you--so young and beautiful, with friends, love--"
She stopped him with a gesture full of dignity and sweetness. "Thatlife is gone forever,--it is thousands of miles and ages on ages away.It is a world more distant than the stars, and we are nearer to Heaventhan to it.... It is strange to think how we have drifted, you and I,to this rock. A year ago we had never seen each other's faces, hadnever heard each other's names, and yet you were coming to this rockfrom prison and over seas, and I was coming to meet you.... And it isour death place, and we will die together, and to-morrow maybe thelittle birds will cover us with leaves as they did the children in thestory. They were brother and sister.... When our time comes I will notbe afraid, for I will be with you ... my brother."
Landless covered his face with his hands.
The shadows grew longer and the cloud castles began to flush rosily,though the sun still rode above the tree tops. A purple light filledthe aisles of the forest, through which a herd of deer, making for someaccustomed lick, passed like a phantom troop. They vanished, and fromout the stillness of the glades came the sudden, startled barking of afox. A shadow darted across a sunlit alley from gloom to gloom, pausedon the outskirts of the wood below the crags while one might count ten,then turned and flitted back into the darkness from whence it came.They beneath the crags did not see it.
Suddenly Landless raised his head. Upon his face was the look of onewho has come through much doubt and anguish of spirit to an immutableresolve. He looked to the priming of his gun and laid it upon the rockbeside him, together with his powderhorn and pouch of bullets. Raisinghimself to his knees he gazed long and intently into the forest below.There was no sign of danger. On the checkered ground beneath two mightyoaks squirrels were playing together like frolicsome kittens, andthrough the clear air came the tapping of a woodpecker. The forest wassilent as to the shadow that had flitted through it. It can keep asecret very well.
Landless sank back against the rock. He had lost much blood, and thatand the pain of his mangled foot turned him faint and sick for minutesat a time. He clenched his teeth and forced back the deadly faintness,then turned to the woman who stood beside him, her hands clasped beforeher, her eyes following the declining sun, her lips sometimes set inmournful curves, sometimes murmuring broken and inaudible words ofprayer. He called her twice before she answered, turning to him witheyes of feverish splendor which saw and yet saw not. "What is it?" sheasked dreamily.
"Come back to earth, madam," he said. "There is that that I wish to sayto you. Listen to me kindly and pitifully, a
s to a dying man."
"I am listening," she answered. "What is it?"
"It is this, madam: I love you. For God's sake don't turn away! Oh, Iknow that I should have been strong to the end, that I should not vexyou thus! It is the coward's part I play, perhaps, but I must speak! Icannot die without. I love you, I love you, I love you!"
His voice rose into a cry; in it rang long repressed passion, hopelessadoration, fierce joy in having broken the bonds of silence. He spokerapidly, thickly, with a stammering tongue, now throwing out his handsin passionate appeal, now crushing between his fingers the dried mossand twigs with which the ground was strewn. "I loved you the day Ifirst saw you. I have loved you ever since. I love you now. My God!how I love you! Die for you? I would die for you ten thousand times!I would live for you! Oh, the day I first saw you! I was in hell and Ilooked at you as lost Dives might have looked at the angel on the otherside of the gulf.... I never thought to tell you this. I know thatnever, never, never.... But this is the day of our death. In a fewhours we shall be gone. Do not leave the world in anger with me. Saythat you pity, understand, forgive.... Speak to me, madam!"
The sun sank lower and the shadows lengthened and deepened, and stillPatricia stood silent with uplifted and averted face, and fingerstightly locked together. With a moan of mortal weakness Landlessdragged himself nearer until he touched with his forehead the lowpedestal of rock upon which she stood. "I understand," he said quietly."After all, there is nothing to be said, is there? Try to forgetmy--madness. Think of it, if you will, as the raving of one at death'sdoor. Let it be as it was between us."
Patricia turned--her beautiful face transfigured. Roses bloomed in hercheeks, her eyes were fathomless wells of splendor, an exquisite smileplayed about her lips; with her nimbus of golden hair she looked a raptmediaeval saint. Her slender figure swayed towards Landless, and whenshe spoke her voice was like the tone of a violin, soft, rich,caressing, tremulous.
"There was no boat," she said.
"No boat!" he cried. "What do you mean?"
"The canoe going down the river. I told you that it held seven Indiansand the mulatto. I lied to you. There were no Indians, no mulatto, nocanoe. The shadows of the clouds have been upon the river, and the wildfowl, and once a fish-hawk plunged. I have seen nothing else."
Landless gazed at her with staring eyeballs. "You have thrown away yourlife," he said at last in a voice that did not seem his own.
"Yes, I have thrown away my life."
"But why--why--"
The rich color surged over her face and neck. She swayed towards himwith the grace of a wind-bowed lily, her breath fanning his forehead,and her hand touching his, softly, flutteringly, like a young bird.
"Can you not guess why?" she said with an enchanting smile.
All the anguish of a little while back, all the terror of the fate thathung over her, all the white calm of despair was gone. The horror thatmoved nearer and nearer, moment by moment, through the painted forest,was forgotten. She looked at him shyly from under her long lashes andwith another wonderful blush.
Landless gazed at her, comprehension slowly dawning in his eyes. Forfive minutes there was a silence as of the dead beneath the crags. Thenwith a great cry he caught her hands in his and drew her towards him."Is it?" he cried.
"Yes," she answered with laughter trembling on her lips. "Death hathenfranchised us, you and I. Give me my betrothal kiss, my only love."
For them one moment of Paradise, of bliss ineffable and supreme. Thenext, the crags behind them rang to the sound of the war whoop.
The Old Dominion Page 35
