CHAPTER 14
From the edge of the open Pierrot saw what had happened, and he gave agreat gasp of horror. He drew back among the balsams. This was not amoment for him to show himself. While his heart drummed like a hammer,his face was filled with joy.
On her hands and knees the Willow was peering over the edge. BushMcTaggart had disappeared. He had gone down like the great clod he was.The water of her pool had closed over him with a dull splash that waslike a chuckle of triumph. He appeared now, beating out with his armsand legs to keep himself afloat, while the Willow's voice came to himin taunting cries.
"Bete noir! Bete noir! Beast! Beast--"
Savagely she flung small sticks and tufts of earth down at him; andMcTaggart, looking up as he gained his equilibrium, saw her leaning sofar over that she seemed almost about to fall. Her long braids hungdown into the chasm, gleaming in the sun. Her eyes were laughing whileher lips taunted him. He could see the flash of her white teeth.
"Beast! Beast!"
He began swimming, still looking up at her. It was a hundred yards downthe slow-going current to the beach of shale where he could climb out,and a half of that distance she followed him, laughing and tauntinghim, and flinging down sticks and pebbles. He noted that none of thesticks or stones was large enough to hurt him. When at last his feettouched bottom, she was gone.
Swiftly Nepeese ran back over the trail, and almost into Pierrot'sarms. She was panting and laughing when for a moment she stopped.
"I have given him the answer, Nootawe! He is in the pool!"
Into the balsams she disappeared like a bird. Pierrot made no effort tostop her or to follow.
"Tonnerre de Dieu," he chuckled--and cut straight across for the othertrail.
Nepeese was out of breath when she reached the cabin. Baree, fastenedto a table leg by a babiche thong, heard her pause for a moment at thedoor. Then she entered and came straight to him. During the half-hourof her absence Baree had scarcely moved. That half-hour, and the fewminutes that had preceded it, had made tremendous impressions upon him.Nature, heredity, and instinct were at work, clashing and readjusting,impinging on him a new intelligence--the beginning of a newunderstanding. A swift and savage impulse had made him leap at BushMcTaggart when the factor put his hand on the Willow's head. It was notreason. It was a hearkening back of the dog to that day long ago whenKazan, his father, had lulled the man-brute in the tent, the man-brutewho had dared to molest Thorpe's wife, whom Kazan worshiped. Then ithad been the dog--and the woman.
And here again it was the woman. She had appealed to the great hiddenpassion that was in Baree and that had come to him from Kazan. Of allthe living things in the world, he knew that he must not hurt thiscreature that appeared to him through the door. He trembled as sheknelt before him again, and up through the years came the wild andglorious surge of Kazan's blood, overwhelming the wolf, submerging thesavagery of his birth--and with his head flat on the floor he whinedsoftly, and WAGGED HIS TAIL.
Nepeese gave a cry of joy.
"Baree!" she whispered, taking his head in her hands. "Baree!"
Her touch thrilled him. It sent little throbs through his body, atremulous quivering which she could feel and which deepened the glow inher eyes. Gently her hand stroked his head and his back. It seemed toNepeese that he did not breathe. Under the caress of her hand his eyesclosed. In another moment she was talking to him, and at the sound ofher voice his eyes shot open.
"He will come here--that beast--and he will kill us," she was saying."He will kill you because you bit him, Baree. Ugh, I wish you werebigger, and stronger, so that you could take off his head for me!"
She was untying the babiche from about the table leg, and under herbreath she laughed. She was not frightened. It was a tremendousadventure--and she throbbed with exultation at the thought of havingbeaten the man-beast in her own way. She could see him in the poolstruggling and beating about like a great fish. He was just aboutcrawling out of the chasm now--and she laughed again as she caughtBaree up under her arm.
"Oh--oopi-nao--but you are heavy!" she gasped, "And yet I must carryyou--because I am going to run!"
She hurried outside. Pierrot had not come, and she darted swiftly intothe balsams back of the cabin, with Baree hung in the crook of her arm,like a sack filled at both ends and tied in the middle. He felt likethat, too. But he still had no inclination to wriggle himself free.Nepeese ran with him until her arm ached. Then she stopped and put himdown on his feet, holding to the end of the caribou-skin thong that wastied about his neck. She was prepared for any lunge he might make toescape. She expected that he would make an attempt, and for a fewmoments she watched him closely, while Baree, with his feet on earthonce more, looked about him. And then the Willow spoke to him softly.
"You are not going to run away, Baree. Non, you are going to stay withme, and we will kill that man-beast if he dares do to me again what hedid back there." She flung back the loose hair from about her flushedface, and for a moment she forgot Baree as she thought of thathalf-minute at the edge of the chasm. He was looking straight up at herwhen her glance fell on him again. "Non, you are not going to runaway--you are going to follow me," she whispered. "Come."
The babiche string tightened about Baree's neck as she urged him tofollow. It was like another rabbit snare, and he braced his forefeetand bared his fangs just a little. The Willow did not pull. Fearlesslyshe put her hand on his head again. From the direction of the cabincame a shout, and at the sound of it she took Baree up under her armonce more.
"Bete noir--bete noir!" she called back tauntingly, but only loudenough to be heard a few yards away. "Go back to Lac Bain--owases--youwild beast!"
Nepeese began to make her way swiftly through the forest. It grewdeeper and darker, and there were no trails. Three times in the nexthalf-hour she stopped to put Baree down and rest her arm. Each time shepleaded with him coaxingly to follow her. The second and third timesBaree wriggled and wagged his tail, but beyond those demonstrations ofhis satisfaction with the turn his affairs had taken he would not go.When the string tightened around his neck, he braced himself; once hegrowled--again he snapped viciously at the babiche. So Nepeesecontinued to carry him.
They came at last into a clearing. It was a tiny meadow in the heart ofthe forest, not more than three or four times as big as the cabin.Underfoot the grass was soft and green, and thickly strewn withflowers. Straight through the heart of this little oasis trickled astreamlet across which the Willow jumped with Baree under her arm, andon the edge of the rill was a small wigwam made of freshly cut spruceand balsam boughs. Into her diminutive mekewap the Willow thrust herhead to see that things were as she had left them yesterday. Then, witha long breath of relief, she put down her four-legged burden andfastened the end of the babiche to one of the cut spruce limbs.
Baree burrowed himself back into the wall of the wigwam, and with headalert--and eyes wide open--watched his companion attentively. Not amovement of the Willow escaped him. She was radiant--and happy. Herlaugh, sweet and wild as a bird's trill, set Baree's heart throbbingwith a desire to jump about with her among the flowers.
For a time Nepeese seemed to forget Baree. Her wild blood raced withthe joy of her triumph over the factor from Lac Bain. She saw himagain, floundering about in the pool--pictured him at the cabin now,soaked and angry, demanding of mon pere where she had gone. And monpere, with a shrug of his shoulders, was telling him that he didn'tknow--that probably she had run off into the forest. It did not enterinto her head that in tricking Bush McTaggart in that way she wasplaying with dynamite. She did not foresee the peril that in an instantwould have stamped the wild flush from her face and curdled the bloodin her veins--she did not guess that McTaggart had become for her adeadlier menace than ever.
Nepeese knew that he must be angry. But what had she to fear? Mon perewould be angry, too, if she told him what had happened at the edge ofthe chasm. But she would not tell him. He might kill the man from LacBain. A factor was great. But Pierrot, her father, wa
s greater. It wasan unlimited faith in her, born of her mother. Perhaps even now Pierrotwas sending him back to Lac Bain, telling him that his business wasthere. But she would not return to the cabin to see. She would waithere. Mon pere would understand--and he knew where to find her when theman was gone. But it would have been such fun to throw sticks at him ashe went!
After a little Nepeese returned to Baree. She brought him water andgave him a piece of raw fish. For hours they were alone, and with eachhour there grew stronger in Baree the desire to follow the girl inevery movement she made, to crawl close to her when she sat down, tofeel the touch of her dress, of her hand--and to hear her voice. But hedid not show this desire. He was still a little savage of theforests--a four-footed barbarian born half of a wolf and half of a dog;and he lay still. With Umisk he would have played. With Oohoomisew hewould have fought. At Bush McTaggart he would have bared his fangs, andburied them deep when the chance came. But the girl was different. Likethe Kazan of old, he had begun to worship. If the Willow had freedBaree, he would not have run away. If she had left him, he wouldpossibly have followed her--at a distance. His eyes were never awayfrom her. He watched her build a small fire and cook a piece of thefish. He watched her eat her dinner.
It was quite late in the afternoon when she came and sat down close tohim, with her lap full of flowers which she twined in the long, shiningbraids of her hair. Then, playfully, she began beating Baree with theend of one of these braids. He shrank under the soft blows, and withthat low, birdlike laughter in her throat, Nepeese drew his head intoher lap where the scatter of flowers lay. She talked to him. Her handstroked his head. Then it remained still, so near that he wanted tothrust out his warm red tongue and caress it. He breathed in theflower-scented perfume of it--and lay as if dead. It was a gloriousmoment. Nepeese, looking down on him, could not see that he wasbreathing.
There came an interruption. It was the snapping of a dry stick. Throughthe forest Pierrot had come with the stealth of a cat, and when theylooked up, he stood at the edge of the open. Baree knew that it was notBush McTaggart. But it was a man-beast! Instantly his body stiffenedunder the Willow's hand. He drew back slowly and cautiously from herlap, and as Pierrot advanced, Baree snarled. The next instant Nepeesehad risen and had run to Pierrot. The look in her father's face alarmedher.
"What has happened, mon pere?" she cried.
Pierrot shrugged his shoulders.
"Nothing, ma Nepeese--except that you have roused a thousand devils inthe heart of the factor from Lac Barn, and that--"
He stopped as he saw Baree, and pointed at him.
"Last night when M'sieu the Factor caught him in a snare, he bitm'sieu's hand. M'sieu's hand is swollen twice its size, and I can seehis blood turning black. It is pechipoo."
"Pechipoo!" gasped Nepeese.
She looked into Pierrot's eyes. They were dark, and filled with asinister gleam--a flash of exultation, she thought.
"Yes, it is the blood poison," said Pierrot. A gleam of cunning shotinto his eyes as he looked over his shoulder, and nodded. "I havehidden the medicine--and told him there is no time to lose in gettingback to Lac Bain. And he is afraid--that devil! He is waiting. Withthat blackening hand, he is afraid to start back alone--and so I gowith him. And--listen, ma Nepeese. We will be away by sundown, andthere is something you must know before I go."
Baree saw them there, close together in the shadows thrown by the tallspruce trees. He heard the low murmur of their voices--chiefly ofPierrot's, and at last he saw Nepeese put her two arms up around theman-beast's neck, and then Pierrot went away again into the forest. Hethought that the Willow would never turn her face toward him afterthat. For a long time she stood looking in the direction which Pierrothad taken. And when after a time she turned and came back to Baree, shedid not look like the Nepeese who had been twining flowers in her hair.The laughter was gone from her face and eyes. She knelt down beside himand with sudden fierceness she cried:
"It is pechipoo, Baree! It was you--you--who put the poison in hisblood. And I hope he dies! For I am afraid--afraid!"
She shivered.
Perhaps it was in this moment that the Great Spirit of things meantBaree to understand--that at last it was given him to comprehend thathis day had dawned, that the rising and the setting of his sun nolonger existed in the sky but in this girl whose hand rested on hishead. He whined softly, and inch by inch he dragged himself nearer toher until again his head rested in the hollow of her lap.