XVII
THE CLUE TO RINA
Rina brought all four horses handily through the wood, bringing up therear on the back of old Cy. She slipped off beside Garth, and looked inthe direction where Natalie lay.
"Still sleeping," Garth said.
As Rina's eyes fell on him, they suddenly widened; and plain fear brokethrough the mask of her face. "'Erbe't been here!" she said breathlessly.
"How do you know?" he said in surprise.
Rina pointed to his belt. "You got his knife!" she said. "How you gethis knife?"
"He tried to murder me with it," said Garth, watching her face narrowly.
Rina had no more thought for Natalie. "Where is he?" she said agitatedly."W'at you do to him?"
"I let him go," Garth said carelessly. "Murder is not exactly in myline."
"He try to kill you an' you let him go!" she breathed incredulously.Plainly such magnanimity was outside her ken. She walked away from him,considering it.
Presently she came back with a swift glide. "You got to promise me notto 'urt 'Erbe't!" she said, threateningly and passionately.
"If he attacks me, I defend myself--and her," Garth said coolly.
Rina studied the ground. It was impossible for him to tell what wasgoing on behind her inscrutable eyes. In a moment she went to Natalie asif nothing had happened; and dropping beside her, listened attentivelyto her breathing. Garth, ever watchful, followed her close. When shearose, they moved off a little to avoid disturbing the patient; andRina briefly instructed Garth what he should do during the night.
Garth, not satisfied with merely knowing what to do, asked the reasonof her various measures; whereupon Rina became suddenly evasive.
"But I must know why you do these things," he insisted.
Rina looked away. "I not tell you," she said coolly.
"What does this mean?" he demanded, surprised and frowning.
Rina met his eyes. "Nobody but me can mak' her well," she said boldly."I mak' her well if you not 'urt 'Erbe't. If you go after 'Erbe't, shecan die. I not look at her no more!"
This at least was honest; and Garth could respect such an opponent."He's safe!" he said coolly. "Provided he keeps away from here."
Rina vouchsafed no comment. "I come to-morrow," she said and disappearedthrough the trees.
* * * * *
The horses offered Garth his next problem. Since immediately they wereturned out they would bolt for the sweet grass of the prairie above,there was no way in which he could secure them from Mabyn, or keep themwithin reach against a time of need. They might stray for miles over theplains before he could leave Natalie long enough to round them up. Butthere was no help for it; the beasts would all die of starvation, if heattempted to keep them in his camp. There was a little grass betweenthe willows and the timber; and he determined to keep old Cy picketednearby, to be sure of one mount in the case of an emergency. The otherthree he hobbled, hung a bell around Emmy's neck, and turned them loose.
He was now able to make Natalie more comfortable. Putting up her tent,he spread a bed of balsam within, and her own blankets upon it. The nexttime she awoke, he carried her inside; and at the door of the tent,where he could look at her, and speak to her, he cooked her the bestinvalid's supper the grub-box and his own skill could afford. This samegrub-box was an ever-fresh cause of anxiety to him; allowing for liberalcontributions from his own gun, he could not see much more than a week'ssupply for two. This he kept to himself, however, while he joked andmade light of their situation for Natalie's benefit. She was veryquiet; she did not suffer much, she said; but she had little humour totalk. When Garth thought of her, only the day before, galloping overthe prairie, he ground his teeth afresh. But the silver lining ofthis blackest cloud of his was that in her weakness she clung tohim unreservedly.
Some time after supper she fell asleep again; and Garth prepared forhis night-long vigil. His head was much too busy to allow of any desirefor sleep. Sitting in the dark, he faced the situation open-eyed. Therethey were in the remotest wilderness, imprisoned in the narrow valley byNatalie's injury for weeks to come; with insufficient food and inclementweather in prospect, and without the remotest chance of succour from theoutside. Moreover, there hovered about them an implacable and half-insaneenemy, whose busy brain was bent on Garth's destruction. The outlook wasenough to unnerve the strongest; there were things in it that Garth in hiscourage could only glance at, and hurriedly avert the eyes of his mind.
The night was so still he could hear the breathing of the horse at fiftypaces. He had let the fire die down, for fear its loud crackling wouldawaken Natalie. Overhead the Northern lights flung their ragged pennonsacross the zenith, with a ghostly echo of rustling. He suddenly becameconscious of distant human voices in the void of stillness; and presentlydistinguished the voice of Mabyn. Rina's answers he could not hear,though he sensed a second voice. The sound was from the neighbourhoodof the hut.
Garth was tempted by the opportunity to discover at the same time theplans of his enemy, and Rina's true disposition toward himself. He glancedat Natalie; she had but lately fallen asleep, and was sleeping soundly;there were no animals abroad that could harm her; he need be gone but halfan hour. The role of eavesdropper was not at all attractive to him; but hefelt he had no right to refuse to use any weapon that offered. Finally hefastened the flaps of Natalie's tent, replenished the fire, and stole awaythrough the trees.
He crossed the stony watercourse to the left of the usual place andmounted the slope. Coming closer, he satisfied himself that the speakerswere sitting on the bench at the door of the shack. In the darkness healmost fell across the figure of the little cayuse, prone in the grass.The animal scrambled to its feet and trotted away. Garth paused,listening, his heart in his throat--but Mabyn's voice presently wenton undisturbed.
He finally gained the top of the rise; and let himself down in thegrass, distant some thirty feet from them. A flash of lightning--or eventhe lighting of a lantern would have revealed him clearly.
He instantly understood that he was the subject of their talk.
"It's his life or mine," in Mabyn's blustering whine were the firstwords he distinctly heard.
"He could kill you to-day, and he let you go," Rina quietly returned.
"That's a lie!" blustered Mabyn. "How do you know?" he addedinconsequentially.
"He tak' your knife from you. I saw it in his belt," said Rina. "And helet you go."
Mabyn made no reply.
"He say to me he not 'urt you, if you keep away from there," Rina wenton.
"Keep away!" Mabyn fumed. "This is my place! I'll go where I choose onit! He's trespassing on my land! I've a right to drive him off! I've aright to kill him if he doesn't go!"
"He will hear you!" said Rina warningly.
"Let him hear me!" said the man--nevertheless he lowered his voice."They're a quarter-mile off," he added.
"Listen!" said Rina.
Over the lake, from an immeasurable distance, came throbbing theimbecile laughter of a loon.
"Loon, him three miles off," said Rina significantly.
Thereafter, Mabyn spoke in a whisper; a wheedling note crept into hisvoice. "That was a good scheme of yours, going to the camp to set thegirl's arm," he said. "Now we can find out all they do!"
"I not go to find out," said Rina sadly. "I go for I sorry I 'urt her. Ishoot her jus' lak a breed I am!"
Mabyn paid no attention to this. "Keep your eyes open when you're intheir camp every day," he urged. "See how much food they have; find outwhere he keeps the shells for his gun. If you could only steal the gun!"
"He carry it always on his back," said Rina. "He never put it down."
"I know, he's on his guard now," said Mabyn. "But if you act friendlyall the time, he'll forget. We've got plenty of time; do nothing for afew days. I'll keep away from there too. He'll think it's all right._Then_"--Mabyn's whisper was pure venom--"sneak up behind him and knockhim on the head with an axe! Choose a moment
when the girl is asleep ordelirious. We will throw his body in the lake. No one will ever know howit happened!"
There was a pause.
"Will you do it?" said Mabyn eagerly.
Rina remained silent.
Mabyn cursed her under his breath. "I believe this smooth-faced youngwhelp has cast an eye on you too," he snarled. "You're false to me!"
A low cry was forced from Rina's lips; she made a rapid move; and Garthunderstood that she had thrown herself at the man's feet. "'Erbe't, youknow you don' speak true," she whispered painfully. "You my 'osban'! Allmen I hate, but you!"
"Then do what I tell you," snarled Mabyn.
"'Erbe't!" she pleaded rapidly and urgently. "Let them go! What havethey got to do with us? To-morrow I go to him. I tell him how to mak'her well. The man will give me a horse and things. An' you and I willride to the Rice River people. They are my people. They will give me agun. We will be so ver' happy, and not think of this man and this womanany more!"
"You can go, and be damned to you!" said Mabyn sullenly. "I stay on myown place!"
Garth understood then, that she drew very close to the man, lavish inthe expression of her sad love and timid caresses, in a desperate effortto move him. He could not hear it all; but his cheeks burned to be theintruder on such an exposure of a woman's soul--a white soul, hethought, whatever the colour of her skin.
Mabyn was utterly insensible to it all. In the end he became impatient,and flung her away from him with an oath. She fell to the ground with asoft thud; and for a while there was no other sound, but the dreadful,low catch of her breath, as she sought to strangle her sobs.
"'Erbe't, if you no love me I die," she breathed.
"Rid me of this man and I'll love you fast enough!" said Mabyn eagerly.His breath came thick and stertorous. "Ah! Let me once grind my heel inthe smooth, sneering face of him! and you shall do what you like withme!" Rage robbed him of speech; he made mere brutish sounds in histhroat.
By and by he managed to control himself; and his voice resumed itscrafty, wheedling tone. "Only do what I tell you, my Rina, and you shallknow what it is to be loved by a white man. I shall have no thought allday, but of you! Up to now you have done all the loving; I will repay ittwice over! You shall be loved as no red woman was ever loved before!"
"'Erbe't! 'Erbe't! Don't mak' me do it!" she whispered terror-stricken.
Garth could stand no more. Springing to his feet, he strode forward,grasping the barrel of his rifle to use it for a club. Shooting was toomerciful for such a creature.
"You damned scoundrel!" he cried.
Mabyn fell back against the wall with a gasping cry of fright. Quick asGarth was, Rina was quicker. Before he could reach the man, shescrambled over the ground, and clutched him by the knees.
"Let him be!" she screamed. "I kill you!"
Garth struggled vainly to free himself. Finally bending over and seizingher shoulders, he thrust her away. But the blow he again aimed at Mabynnever descended; for with incredible swiftness Rina gained her feet, anddarted down hill.
"I kill _her!_" she shrilled.
A sickening fear gripped Garth's heart, instantly obliterating allthought of Mabyn. He dashed after Rina, nerved to a desperate fleetness.She knew the ground better than he; and hampered, moreover, by theweight of his gun, he despaired of overtaking the moccasined savage. Butat the watercourse the strange creature stopped dead; and waited for himto come up.
"Go back to your white woman!" she cried stormily. "If you 'urt him, Ipull her bandage off, and beat her arm till she die of pain!"