XX
SUCCOUR
Garth was thankful he was alone when it happened. The reaction aftertheir day of joyous hopefulness was too sudden to be borne. Crouchingbehind the bush, he dropped his head in his arms. What could he hopefor, single-handed against such overwhelming odds? For a while his heartfailed him utterly, and all his faculties were scattered in clownishconfusion. He knew not which way to turn. At last one thought shonethrough the murk of his brain like a star: Natalie must not be rudelyfrightened. He got up; and composing his face with a great effort ofwill, he hastened back to her.
But the riders having crossed the bed of the stream, and mounted therise, Natalie already knew as much as he. Her first thought was likewisefor him. She turned a solicitous face.
"My poor Garth!" she said. "More care and danger for you!"
The simple words acted on him like a strong tonic. His brow smoothed;his mouth hardened; and he was mightily ashamed for his moment ofweakness.
"More fun!" he said with his dry, arrogant note of laughter. "Act fourof the drama begins!"
Natalie caught his spirit and laughed back.
"Who was the half-breed, do you suppose?" he said. "Whitey-blue eyes,ugly scar!"
"Don't you remember?" she said quickly. "The stage to the Landing----"
"Xavier! Of course!" he cried.
"And the second woman?"
"I only saw a ring of gray curls under her hat."
"Mary Co-que-wasa!"
"Hm! The entire _dramatis personae_?" said Garth.
Natalie, not to be outdone, saluted with her good arm, and asked:"Orders of the day, Captain?"
In a truly desperate pass one breaks down--or laughs. Youth laughs. Theybolstered each other's courage with their jests, each secretly wonderingand admiring of the other.
"We have the house, anyway!" said Garth. "Good old tumbledown shanty!"
"No! Fort Indefatigable!" amended Natalie.
"It'll be besieged all right," said Garth. "We must carry in everythingwe own, and fill up the rest of the space with wood for the fire. Iwould share my room with Cy, but the old boy couldn't get his ribsthrough the door!"
Natalie was told off for sentry duty. She took up her position at theedge of the shore, where she could report on all that transpired in theother camp. It seemed to be the design of these people first to overawethem with a display of force. They pitched camp openly, in and aroundMabyn's hut; and moved about all day in plain view. The men amusedthemselves by shooting their guns at various marks, clearly to show thenumber and strength of their weapons. Up to dark, Natalie was able toreport that none of the five had left camp.
Garth, meanwhile, worked like a Trojan. All the wood cut for the firewas carried inside, and he had, besides, a quantity of logs left over ordiscarded from the building of the shack; and these were likewisestored. The hut was built so near the edge of the bank there was littlepossibility of an attack from in front; in each of the other three sideshe cut a loophole for observation and defense. The last hours ofdaylight he spent in hunting near camp; and in setting snares to bevisited later. Two rabbits were all that fell to his bag.
At nightfall they locked themselves in. Garth did not stop then, butworked for hours piling the spare logs around the three vulnerable sidesof the shack; so that if the bullets should fly, they would be protectedunder a double barrier.
The night passed without alarms.
In the morning Garth wished to venture forth as if nothing had happened.Inaction was intolerable to him. He insisted it would be fatal for himto act as if he were afraid.
Natalie was all against it.
"But this is the twentieth century after all," he said; "and we're undera civilized Government. They would never dare shoot me in cold blood!"
"Not kill you, perhaps," she said; "but bring you down, helpless!" Tearsthreatened here; and Garth was silenced.
Opening the shutter in Natalie's room, they could still command a viewof the other camp. Grylls and Mabyn were visible; and at intervals thetwo women appeared. Xavier was missing.
"He will be watching us," Natalie said.
As if to give point to her words, a rifle suddenly barked its hoarsenote, close outside. Garth sprang to the loophole in Natalie's room; andwas in time to see the poor, stupid, faithful old horse, tetheredoutside, sink to his knees, and collapse on the grass.
He leaped up, turning an ominous, wrathful face.
"Oh! The damned cowards!" he muttered.
Natalie flew into the adjoining room, and flung herself in front of thedoor. "You must not go out!" she cried. "What would I do, if you werehurt?"
She was unanswerable, and he turned from the door, sickened with balkedwrath, and flung himself face down on his blankets until he couldcommand himself.
As if to give this act time to sink in, nothing further was undertakenagainst Garth and Natalie all day; though they were undoubtedly undersurveillance, because the five were never about their own camp at thesame time. It was a bitter, hard day on the besieged; Garth, chafingintolerably, paced the shack like a newly caged animal; and even Nataliesuffered from his temper.
At nightfall he eased his pent-up feelings by a cautious sally. Hefilled all their vessels in the lake; and revisited his snares, which,however, yielded nothing. They were too near camp. He saw no sign of anyadversary; but some of them came about later in the night like coyotes;for in the morning Garth saw that the body of old Cy had been draggedaway--in the fear, perhaps, that his flesh might furnish them with food.
After breakfast Garth took his pipe to the window, and folding his armson the high sill, watched the movements in the camp across the littlebay. They were watching him too; he presently sensed a pair offield-glasses in Grylls's hands. Garth laughed and obeying a sudden,ironical impulse, waved his hand. Grylls abruptly lowered the glass andwalked away.
Garth was still smiling, when all at once, without warning, Rina camearound the corner of his shack and faced him point blank. The smile wasfixed in astonishment; Rina was unperturbed.
"What do you want?" he demanded, picking up his gun.
"I got no gun," she said, indifferently, exhibiting her empty hands."Nick Grylls, him send you letter."
Garth reflected that by letting her in, he stood the chance of gettingmuch useful information; so bidding Natalie stay in her own room, heopened the door.
Rina handed him the note from Grylls. It was scribbled in a small,crabbed hand on the back of a business letter. On the other side Garthhad a glimpse of the time-honoured formula: "_Dear Sir: Yours of thefirst instant to hand, and contents noted. In reply we beg to say_----"It gave him a queer, incongruous start: outside, it seemed, people stillwent to and from their offices, absorbed in their inconsequentialaffairs--while here in the woods he was fighting for his life, andNatalie's honour!
"Where is _she_?" Rina asked--she had never referred to Natalie by name."I will fix her hair for her if she want," she added humbly enough.
Natalie immediately came forward, offering her hand. Rina clung to itwithout speaking, turning away her head to hide welling tears.
"Where did you meet these people?" Garth asked her.
"On the prairie," she answered, low-voiced. "Yesterday, noon spell. Theycoming this way. Nick Grylls, him mak' moch friend with 'Erbe't, and'Erbe't, him glad. Nick Grylls big man, rich man, everybody lak to befriend with him. Nick Grylls say him come to help 'Erbe't. Him give'Erbe't ver' fine gun."
"Humph! Mabyn will pay dear for it!" Garth exclaimed.
"I say so him," Rina said eagerly. "Me, I tell 'Erbe't everybody seeNick Grylls him jus' mak' a fool of you. What he want with you? He wanther for himself. 'Erbe't on'y laugh. 'E say--" Rina's voice sunk verylow--"'Let him help me get her, and I'll keep her, all right!'"
Garth frowned and clenched his fists. His gorge rose intolerably, at thethought of this precious pair contending which was to have Natalie.
Rina went on: "Nick Grylls say to 'Erbe't, mustn't let her get out ofthe country. He say 'If she go
out she divorce you.'" Rina pronouncedthe word strangely. "Nick Grylls say he know a place to tak' her allwinter, Northwest, many days to Death River, where no white man ever gobefore. Him think I not hear what he say."
This was valuable information indeed.
Garth opened the letter. It was a curious document, for while thethoughts were like Grylls's, they were clothed in a certain smoothnessof phrase more likely supplied by Mabyn:
MR. GARTH PEVENSEY, SIR: (Thus it ran) I am astonished beyond measure at the story I have learned from the lips of my good friend, Mr. Herbert Mabyn. I assure you, sir, that, though this is an unsettled country, we are not accustomed to lawlessness; nor do we propose to stand for it from strangers. You have twice attempted Mr. Mabyn's life; you have stolen and converted to your own use his household effects and supplies; you have unwarrantably imprisoned him on an exposed island to the great detriment of his health. Your purpose in all this is transparent. You seek to part him from his wife; and you are at this moment detaining Mrs. Mabyn in your shack.
I flatter myself I am not without weight and standing in this community; and I hereby warn you that in the absence of the regular police, I mean to see this wrong righted. If Mrs. Mabyn is immediately returned to her husband, you will be allowed to go unmolested. If you still detain her, we will seize her by force, as we have every right, moral and legal, to do. We know you have only food enough for a few days, so in any case the end cannot remain long in doubt.
NICHOLAS GRYLLS.
Scorn and amusement struggled in Garth's face. His nostrils thinned; hesuddenly threw up his head and grimly laughed.
"Well, this beats the Dutch!" he said feelingly.
Natalie, reading the cunningly plausible sentences over his shoulder,was inclined to be anxious. "Surely he has no legal right over me," shesaid.
"Not a shadow!" Garth said.
"Grylls may have believed this story Mabyn told him," she said.
"Not a bit of it!" Garth said quickly. "Grylls is not so simple." Hestuck the letter sharply with his forefinger. "I'm a newspaperreporter," he went on dryly, "you can believe me, this is a perfect, abeautiful, a monumental bluff! I'm almost inclined to take off my hat tohim! But the length of it gives them away, rather; they must have spentall day yesterday cooking this up."
"What will you do?" Natalie asked.
A wicked gleam appeared in Garth's eyes. "Oh, wouldn't I love to answerit in kind!" he said longingly.
"An innocent, simple little billet-doux that would make them squirm.Why, that's my business!"
"Better not," said Natalie anxiously.
"You're right," he said with a sigh. "It's the first thing you learn:never to write when you feel that way. But it's mighty hard to resistit!"
Rina understood little of all this. "You send answer back?" she asked.
"No. Tell him there's no answer," said Garth. "Tell him we nearly diedlaughing," he added.
* * * * *
That night Garth determined not to leave the cabin until shortly beforedawn. He had seen Xavier leave the other camp before dark; and heguessed the breed youth had been told off to watch them. From what hehad observed of the incontinuity of the breed mind in any givendirection, he strongly suspected if they kept still throughout the firstpart of the night Xavier would fall asleep before morning. He had alittle plan in his mind, which he did not confide to Natalie. Aboutthree o'clock, therefore, he called Natalie to bar the door after him;and he sallied forth, concealing from her that he carried a coil oflight rope.
He was gone more than an hour, of which every minute was an age to poorNatalie crouching over the fire and straining her ears. She hadsuccessively pictured every possible accident that might have befallenhim, before her heart leaped at the sound of his signal at the door.
Garth was for sending her back to bed forthwith, but Natalie apprehendedhe had not been gone so long for nothing; and presently she heard himstand two guns in the corner.
"What have you got?" she asked eagerly.
"Oh, I just made a trade." Garth airily returned. "Thirty feet ofclothesline for a Winchester and a bag of cartridges. I threw in ahandkerchief to boot. Pretty good, eh?"
Natalie pulled him in by the fire, and made him light his pipe and tellher what had happened.
"Well, I had a hunch Xavier was watching us to-night," he began. "I borea grudge against Xavier's pretty face, and I thought I'd have a littlefun with him, you see."
Natalie glanced up in alarm.
"A fellow would go mad, if he couldn't do _anything_," Garth apologized."I'll be good now for a week."
"Xavier?" said Natalie inquiringly.
"I wouldn't have minded a little bit, giving the brute his quietus,"Garth said coolly. "He killed my horse. But he had no chance to put up afight; and I couldn't murder him; so at this present moment he'sunhurt--except his feelings. But Grylls will half kill him in themorning!"
"What did you do to him?" she demanded.
"I was pretty sure he would be watching the path we have made to thetrail," Garth went on. "I figured he would be on my left hand--hisright; it's the position a man instinctively takes. You can't shoot sowell over your right. So I crawled along the path, inch by inch on mystomach----"
"Garth!" she cried in horror. "If I had known!"
"Exactly!" he said. "So I didn't tell you. But there was no danger,really. It was too dark for him to shoot me--pitchy dark there, underthe trees. I couldn't see an inch before my nose; and as I went I feltwith my hand out in front of me, both sides the path. Thistledown wasnothing to the lightness of my touch.
"Sure enough, no more than thirty yards behind the house here, I touchedhis moccasin--you couldn't mistake the feel of a moccasin. And, just asI expected, he was sitting on my left. That was a pretty good guessif----"
"Oh! Go on! Go on!" she begged.
"He had his back against a tree. I listened for his breathing. Theybreathe very light--tubercular, probably. Finally, I decided he wasasleep.
"Well, I mosied around behind him; and then I grabbed him. He let outjust one little squawk; and then he shut his mouth. He struggled;slippery as an oiled cat, but not very strong. Finally I got him gaggedwith my handkerchief. Then I tied him up with my rope; round and round;just like the stories we read when we were kids. I expect I pinched himsome; that was for poor old Cy.
"Afterward I sat down opposite him; and lit my pipe; and thought overwhat I'd do with him, now I had him. We certainly weren't going to feedhis ugly phiz; and he was no use as a hostage, for Grylls wouldn't givea hang what became of him. Meanwhile I was relieving my mind, by tellinghim a few plain truths about making war on dumb beasts. Hope heunderstood!"
Natalie concealed a smile. "What did you say?" she asked.
"Never mind," said Garth. "It was more forcible than polite. It's beensizzling inside me for two days. Finally I decided to return him to hisown camp."
"Their camp!" exclaimed the startled Natalie.
"Not all the way," he said; "but just where they'd see him in themorning. Horrible example, and all that, you know. So I hoisted him onmy back, and carried him around to the brook. I propped him against atree there, with his face turned home." Garth chuckled. "To finish thething up brown, I suppose I ought to have pinned a placard on hisbreast: Notice! This is the fate that awaits all who--_et cetera_. But Ididn't think to take any writing materials along with me!"
"Oh, Garth!" said Natalie reproachfully, as he finished.
He turned a face of whimsical penitence. "Honest, I won't do it again!"he said. "But I was under two hundred pounds pressure. It was a case ofblow off or bust!"
* * * * *
They could joke for each other's benefit; but privately neitherattempted to disguise from himself what a desperate pass they hadreached. When they parted for the night, Natalie would lie staringwide-eyed at the fire, and ceaselessly reproaching herself for
havingdrawn Garth into the sad tangle of her life; while he, tossing on hisblankets on the other side of the partition, blamed himself no lessbitterly for having allowed her to run into danger; and wrung hisexhausted brain for an expedient to save her.
A little beleaguered garrison watching its small store lessen day byday, and counting the crumbs--this is the situation of all to try thesoul. But a garrison is always buoyed up by the hope of succour; andGarth and Natalie could expect none. On the other hand there was nopossibility of treachery within this garrison; no need to measure outthe rations, or to guard the store; for each was jealous of the other'shaving _less_; and each sought to give away his share.
There was no variety in those days. They waited in vain for anattack--even longed for it; for behind their walls, the odds would bemore nearly equal. But the other party knew this too; and preferred tostarve them out. Garth's snares yielded nothing in four days; the onlyflesh they ate during that time was a fish he caught with a line set atnight in the lake. Their stores were reduced to a few handfuls of flourand a little tea. Meanwhile their enemies feasted insolently all dayabout their fire; this siege was child's play for them; they were soperfectly sure of their prey in the end.
There came a night at last when Garth and Natalie no longer cared tokeep up the show of joking; they liked to be quiet instead; and theyinstinctively drew close together. They sat in the inner room; her headdropped frankly on his shoulder; and her hand lay in his. It made hisheart ache to see how thin it was. But her spirit was still strong.
"Garth!" she said suddenly. "Let's make a break for it! Anything wouldbe better than this!"
He shook his head. "No go, dearest," he said. "I've been over that, overand over it, every night for a week!"
"Couldn't we start down the lake in the canoe?" she said. "And make ourway from some point below? We could cover our tracks that way, and gainmuch time. You have a rough map and a compass."
"They would discover in the morning that the canoe was gone," he said.
"They might not miss it for a day or two."
"They have the smoke of our fire to go by, too."
"They're careless. We might get a good start."
"Dearest, even if we had many days' start, they know we must make forthe Settlement. How easy it would be to head us off!"
"But it _might_ succeed," was all she could say.
"It's seventy-five miles," he said sadly. "You're not strong yet. Howcould you walk it, without food to support you on the way?"
"You have your gun," she said faintly.
"There's no hunting on the open prairie for a man on foot!"
Natalie dropped her head back on his shoulder; and said no more.
Garth's face grew grimmer and grimmer in the firelight. "Do not loseheart, dear," he said at last, in a gentle voice that was strangely atvariance with his eyes. "Matters will take a turn to-morrow; I promiseyou that."
"What are you going to do?" she asked anxiously.
"I'm thinking it out," he said, evasively. "I'll tell you when it'spieced together."
She was too weary to question him further.
In the darkness of his own room, he faced the thing. There was to be nosleep for him this night. The alternative had been there from the first;but hitherto he had averted his eyes from it, hoping against hope. Nowit could be put off no longer. It was Natalie's life against theirs; andthroughout the hours of the night, he steeled his heart to launch fivesouls to eternity--two of them the souls of women. Rina he knew would betransformed into a tigress by the death of Mabyn; so even Rina, whomNatalie loved, must go too. He found himself dwelling with horror on theharmony of her beauty, the deep fire of her eyes, the soft play ofcolour in her cheeks--which he was to mar!
Supposing he succeeded, the dreadful consequences were painfully clearto him; the hideous noise it would make in the world when they got out;the ugly look it would have, with no one to bear out his story butNatalie, and her lawful husband among the dead! Grylls's lying letterhad shown him how easy it would be to paint that side of the story inthe colours of justice. For himself, Garth cared nothing; but thethought of Natalie, the sport of a world of malicious tongues, maddenedhim. But there was no help for it; it had to be done.
His plan was simple in the extreme. He intended to cross the lake in thecanoe; land well beyond Mabyn's camp; and fire the grass to the windwardof the shack. No rain had fallen in weeks; the grass was as dry astinder; and the old bleached shack itself almost as inflammable asgunpowder. He had, moreover, a small quantity of oil among the thingsseized from Mabyn. The night itself seemed to speak for the deed; it wasas dark as Erebus; and there was a blustering, raw wind from the north,presaging snow.
After starting the fire, he meant to climb the rising ground behind; andwhen they ran to beat out the flames, he would pick them off one by one.His gun would shoot as fast as he could think; he might get all fivethen. And if any regained the hut, they would soon be driven out again.Whichever way they ran, Garth could run as fast on the higher ground;and none of them was such a shot as he. Grylls first; then Mabyn; thenthe breeds. He meant to wait until dawn, so that if any escaped theradius of the fire, he could get them by daylight.
But no executioner may have imagination; in the darkness of his room theattitudes of the slain were pictured to Garth as clearly as if theyalready lay before him: Grylls's gross body huddled in the grass; Mabynhideous in death; and Rina cold and still in her wistful beauty. Criesof terror and agony rang in his ears; and he saw himself afterwardburying the bodies--partly eaten by the flames. Small icy drops brokeout on his forehead. Though he was doing it for her, when it was done,Natalie could not but shrink from such a bloody wretch. It would partthem forever. But it must be done!
When his watch showed half-past four--the dawn was later now--he aroseto start. He called Natalie to bar the door after him. He told her hewas going merely to look about and that she must not worry if he was notback until daylight. Natalie was scarcely awake. He yearned mightily totake her soft, sleepy form in his arms for once before they wereimbrued; but he dared not, knowing she would instantly interpret the actas a possible farewell.
When she closed the door behind him, he felt as one lost to hope.
As he grasped the canoe, preparatory to pushing it off, he suddenlybecame aware through his sharpened senses--he could not have saidhow--that some one was very near him. He noiselessly dropped to oneknee; and unslinging his gun, waited. The wind was making confusingnoises and he could not be sure. The suspense became too great to beborne in silence.
"Who's there?" he said sharply.
There came a strange, new, and yet familiar voice out of the darkness:"Garth, is that you?"
His heart began to beat wildly. "Who are you?" he whispered.
"Charley!" returned the voice with the boyish break in it.
They sprang to their feet simultaneously, not ten paces apart in thegrass.
"I've brought you grub!" sang the boy. "How's Natalie?"
In an instant they were in each other's arms. A swift reaction passedover Garth; his knees weakened under him; he clung to the boy'sshoulders; and lowered his head.
"Oh, thank God! thank God!" he murmured.