The Forge in the Forest
Page 14
Chapter XIII
My Comrade
I could not sufficiently commend the ease and aptness with which mybeautiful comrade wielded her paddle. But in a while the day grew hot,and I bade her lie back in her place and rest. At first she would not,till I was compelled to remind her in a tone of railing that I was thecaptain in this enterprise, and that good soldiers must obey.Whereupon, though her back was toward me, I saw a flush creep around toher little ears, and she laid the paddle down something abruptly. Ifeared that I had vexed her, and I made haste to attempt anexplanation, although it seemed to me that she should have understood amatter so obvious.
"I beg you to pardon me, Madame, if I seem to insist too much," said I,with hesitation. "But you must know that, if you exhaust yourself atthe beginning of the journey, before you are hardened to the longcontinuance of such work, you will be unable to do anything to-morrow,and our quest will be much hindered."
"Forgive me!" she cried; "you are right, of course. Oh, I fear I havedone wrong in hampering you! But I am strong, truly, and enduring asmost men, Monsieur."
"Yes," I answered, "but to do one thing strenuously all day long, andfor days thereafter, that is hard. I believe you can do it, or Ishould have been mad indeed to bring you. But you must let me adviseyou at the beginning. For this first day, rest often and save yourselfas much as possible. By this means you will be able to do betterto-morrow, and better still the day after. By the other means, youwill be able to do little to-morrow most likely, and perhaps nothingthe day after."
"Well," she said, turning her head partly around, so that I could seethe gracious profile, "tell me, Monsieur, when to work and when torest. I will obey. It is a lucky soldier, I know, who has theSeigneur de Briart to command him."
Turning her head partly around, so that I could see thegracious profile]
"But I fear, Madame," said I, "that discipline would sadly suffer if hehad often such soldiers to command."
To this she made no reply. I saw that she leaned back in her place andchanged her posture, so as to fulfil my wish and rest herself to thebest advantage. I thought my words over. To me they seemed to havethat savour of compliment which I would now avoid. I felt that here,under these strange circumstances, in an intimacy which might by and bybe remembered by her with some little confusion, but which now, whileshe had no thought but for the rescue of the little one, contained noshadow of awkwardness for her clear and earnest soul,--I felt that hereI must hold myself under bonds. The play of graceful compliment, suchas I would have practised in her drawing-room to show her thecourtliness of my breeding, must be forsworn. The admiration, thedevotion, the worship, that burned in my eyes whensoever they dweltupon her, must be strictly veiled. I must seem to forget that I am aman and my companion the fairest of women. Yes, I kept telling myself,I must regard her as a comrade only, and a follower, and a boy. I mustbe frank and careless in my manner toward her; kind, but blunt andpositive. She will think nothing of it now, and will blush the lessfor it by and by, when the child is in her arms again, and she can oncemore give her mind to little matters.
And so I schooled myself; and as I watched her I began to realize moreand more, with a delicious warming of my heart, what instant need I hadof such schooling if I would not have her see how I was not at all hercaptain, but her bondsman.
At the mouth of the Piziquid stream there clustered a few cottages, notenough to call a village; and here we stopped about noon. A meal ofmilk and eggs and freshly baked rye cakes refreshed us, and eager aswas our haste, I judged it wise to rest an hour stretched out in theshade of an apple tree. To this halt, Mizpah, after one glance ofeager question at my face, made no demur, and I replied to the glanceby whispering:--
"That is a good soldier! We will gain by this pause, now. We willtravel late to-night."
The cottagers of whom we had our meal were folk unknown to me; andbeing informed that the Black Abbe had some followers in theneighbourhood, I durst give no hint of our purpose. By and by I askedcarelessly if two canoes, with Indians of the Shubenacadie, had gone bythis way. I thought that the man looked at me with some suspicion. Hehesitated. But before he could reply his goodwife answered for him,with the freedom of a clear conscience.
"Yes, M'sieu," she chattered, "two canoes, and four Indians. They wentby yesterday, toward sundown, stopping here for water from ourwell,--the finest water hereabouts, if I do say it!"
"They went up the river, I suppose," said I.
"Oh, but no, M'sieu," clattered on the worthy dame. "They wentstraight up the bay. Yes, goodman," she continued, changing her tonesharply, "whenever I open my mouth you glare at me as if I was talkingnonsense. What have I said wrong now, I'd like to know. Yes, I'd likevery much to know that, goodman. Why should not the gentleman knowthat they had--"
But here the man interrupted her roughly. "Will you never be done yourprating?" he cried. "Can't you see that you worry the gentlemen? Howshould they care to know that the red rascals made a good catch of shadoff the island? Now, do go and get some of your fresh buttermilk forthe gentlemen to drink before they go. Don't you see they arestarting?"
And, indeed, Mizpah's impatience to be gone was plainly evident, and wehad rested long enough. I durst not look at her face, lest our hostshould perceive that I had heard what I wanted to hear. I spokecasually of the weather, and inquired how his apples and his flax werefaring, and so filled the minutes safely until the goodwife came withthe butter-milk. Having both drunk gratefully of the cool, delicatelyacid, nourishing liquor, we gave the man a piece of silver, and set outin good heart.
"We are on the right track, comrade," said I, lightly, steering mycourse along the shore toward Cobequid.
Her only answer was to fall a-paddling with such an eagerness that Ihad to check her.
"Now, now," I said, "more haste, less speed."
"But I feel so strong now, and so rested," she cried passionately."Might we not overtake them to-night?"
"Hardly so soon as that, I fear, Madame," I answered. "This is a sternchase, and it is like to be a long one; you must make up your mind tothat, if you would not have a fresh disappointment every hour."
"Oh," she broke out, "if it were your child you were trying to find andsave, you would not be so cool about it."
"Believe me, Madame," said I, in a low voice, "I am not perhaps as coolas I appear."
"Oh, what a weak and silly creature I must seem to you!" she cried."But I will not be weak and silly when it comes to trial, Monsieur, Ipromise you. I _will_ prove worthy of your confidence. But makeallowance for me now, and do not judge me harshly. Every moment I seemto hear him crying for me, Monsieur." And her head drooped forward inunspeakable grief.
I could think of nothing, absolutely nothing, to say. I could onlymutter hoarsely, "I do not think you either weak or silly, Madame."
This answer, feeble as it appeared to myself, seemed in a sense torelieve her. She put down her paddle, leaned forward upon the frontbar, with her face in her hands, and sobbed gently for a few minutes.Then, while I gazed upon her in rapt commiseration, she all at onceresumed the paddle briskly.
For my own part, being just lately returned from a long expedition, mymuscles were like steel; I felt that I should never weary. Steadilyonward we pressed, past the mouths of several small streams whose namesI did not know, past headland after headland of red clay or pallidplaster rock. As the tide fell, we were driven far out into the bay,till sometimes there was a mile of oozy red flats parting us from theedge of the green. But as the tide rose again, we accompanied itsseething vanguard, till at last we were again close in shore. A breezesoon after mid-day springing up behind us, we made excellent progress.But soon after sunset a mist arose, which made our journey too perilousto be continued. I turned into a narrow cove between high banks, wherethe brawling of a shallow brook promised us fresh water. And there, ina thicket of young fir trees growing at the foot of a steep bank, I setup the canoe on edge, laid some poles an
d branches against it, and hada secluded shelter for my lady. She looked at it with a gratifiedadmiration and could never be done with thanking me.
Being now near the Shubenacadie mouth, I durst not light a fire, but weuncomplainingly ate our black bread; and then I said:
"We will start at first gray, comrade. You will need all the sleep youcan win. Good night, and kindly dreams."
"Good night, Monsieur," she said softly, and disappeared. Then goingdown to the water's side, I threw off my clothes, and took a swiftplunge which steadied and refreshed me mightily. Swimming in the mistyand murmurous darkness, my venture and my strange fellowship seemedmore like a dream to me than ever, and I could scarce believe myselfawake. But I was awake enough to feel it when, in stumbling ashore, Iscraped my foot painfully on a jagged shell. However, that hurt wassoon eased and staunched by holding it for a little under the chillgushing of the brook; after which I dressed myself, gathered a handfulof ferns for a pillow, and laid myself down across the opening whichled into the thicket.