XXV
EPILOGUE: SPOKEN BY CHARLEY
In the city of Winnipeg on a brilliant day toward the end of winter, abroad-shouldered, ruddy youth, with dancing blue eyes and a capacioussmile, came running down a side street, and catching a certainfence-post at full speed, swung himself inside the gate with thedexterity of old practice; sprang up the steps and banged on the door.
It was opened questioningly by a little mouse of a woman, with greatbrown eyes, and gray strands mixing in her bright, brown hair.
The boy flung his arms around her like a bear. "Mother!" he criedbreathlessly.
"Charley! My boy!" she gasped.
He picked her up bodily; and, kicking the door shut, carried her intothe cheerful sitting room, where geraniums bloomed on the sunnywindow-sill, and a fire danced in the grate.
"I'm bigger than you are now!" he chuckled joyously. He put her in herchair; and waltzed about the room, touching the well-remembered objects."By Jolly! the very same pictures, the good old sofa!" he sang. "Oh,it's good to be home!"
The mother held out her arms. "My boy! My boy!" was all she could say.
Dropping to his knees, he embraced her again. "You dear old lady," hecried. "What a trouble I always was! It's your turn to have a good timenow!"
"It's enough to have you back," she murmured.
He gyrated about the room again. "Say, I feel as giddy as a puppy aftera bath! Imagine trolley-cars and baby-carriages and show windows andsilver knives and forks after two years in the North. Say, I've cleanforgot how to eat stylish!"
"How long are you going to stay?" she murmured.
He came to a stand beside her. "I'm not going back," he said in a deepertone. "It's a bully country and I had a whale of a time--but I belonghere! I'm going to take care of you now, and bring up the kids. I'm aman now,"--his face changed comically--"Don't laugh!" he begged. "I usedto say that all the time; but it's different now; you'll see! I've hadexperience!"
She held out her arms to him again. "Tell me, my son," she whispered.
He dropped to the floor beside her; and laid his head against her knee.There, in front of the fire, while the sun went down, and the earlywinter twilight gathered, he told her the story.
"When Garth rode away leaving me and Rina in the poplar bluff," hesaid--reaching that part in due course--"I didn't know much what washappening. But say, that Rina, she's an out-o'-sight nurse! She broughtme around in great shape; and the second day afterward I was as peart asyou please. That same day the fellows from the Crossing turned up; JimPlaskett, the policeman, and three others. It was Jim made them come,soon as he heard the story. Jim's a peacherino! One of these lean, quietchaps you can depend on; decent, too, clean-mouthed--Oh! Jim's looked upto, I can tell you!
"They wanted me to rest a while yet, till they came back. But they hadplenty of spare horses, and Rina and I wouldn't stand for being leftbehind. We rode like sixty all next day, and camped only fifteen milesfrom Death River. We found the bones of Garth's horse on the way--pickedclean; and the note he left every place he camped. You ought to haveheard Jim Plaskett crack up Garth's pluck--and Jim knows!
"We reached the canyon about half-past six in the morning. I'd heard ofthat place from the Indians. Say, it was a fearsome spot! a kind ofcrooked, gaping split in the prairie like the pictures in Dante'sInferno. The walls were as bare and hard and cold as black ice; and waydown in the bottom there was a horrible jelly-like water swirling aroundwithout making any noise. Seems if you couldn't breathe good when yougot into the place! Minded me of the receiving vault in the cemetery.
"There was a risky little path going down, and we kept right on. Acrossthe river, there was a break in the wall where a creek came down asteep, wild-looking ravine. At the bottom of it we could see a tepee anda tent; but no people. Some said they saw a body in the ravine, but youcouldn't rightly make out."
Charley paused and shuddered. "Say, it was horrible!" he whispered."Glad I don't have dreams! When we got down near the water suddenly wesaw old Mary Co-que-wasa come climbing over a heap of stones that waspiled on the flat; and she was bent almost double, half lifting, halfdragging a man by a rope under his arms. It was Nick Grylls. He lookeddead.
"We shouted at her; and she looked up just once. I saw her face plain.It wasn't surprised or glad or anything--just stupid like a breed. Shenever stopped walking. She stepped right off the flat rock into the deepwater with the man on her back; and they went out of sight; and somebubbles came up."
He stopped, staring into the fire. His mother caught him to her breast."Oh, my son! what sights were these!" she murmured.
"Mary was a deep one!" Charley said slowly. "You couldn't tell abouther! I never heard her open her mouth!
"We hustled down to the edge of the water," he resumed presently. "JimPlaskett threw off his coat; and went in after them. But it was no use;the current carried them down; and it was too cold to stay in more thana minute or two. We never saw them again.
"Jim landed on the other side; and brought us back the raft that wasthere; and we all crossed. There was nobody in the tents--blankets in aheap, as if they'd sprung out of bed suddenly. We started to climb theravine. It _was_ a body lying there on the rocks; it was Mabyn. Rina washalfway to it, before any of us saw. He wasn't dead; but had a bulletthrough both legs.
"Say that place was full of horrors! It stunk of gunpowder; and therewas little thin layers of smoke hanging quiet between the walls. I wasnear out of my head, thinking what had become of them. We shouted allthe time; and by and by we got a faint kind of an answer back. By Jolly!I went up those rocks like a cat! I found them behind a whopping bigrock. Garth was stretched out all bloody and she was trying to get hiscoat off; and she couldn't. She looked up at me with a face like chalk;and when she saw who it was, she just gave a little cry like a baby, andkeeled over. Oh, it was pitiful! I carried her down to the river. Iwouldn't let anybody else touch her.
"Well, to make a long story short, we decided to raft it down the riverto Fort Ochre, instead of trying to win overland to the Crossing. Garthhad a ball through his shoulder and a gashed hand; and Mabyn was prettylow. It was longer that way, but we could carry them comfortable.
"We built another raft and started next morning. Jim Plaskett, Mabyn andRina went on the first; and Sandy Arkess, Garth, Natalie and I followedon the other. The other two fellows were to drive all the horses backover the prairie. Say, that was quite a journey! Garth was gettingbetter; and we all felt pretty good, sitting round and swapping yarns,and looking at the scenery, while the current carried us down. When wegot out of the gorge, coming down so quietly as we were, we saw anyamount of game. Got a moose right on the bank! Gee! that was good meat!And at night, say it was out o' sight! sitting there talking about goinghome, and watching the trees march past, and a bang-up show of Northernlights up above! It was pretty cold.
"There was the Dickens of a pow-pow at the Fort, when we got there atlast! It's great sport being a hero! The Bishop and his party werethere, just ready to start for home, and you never saw such a surprisedman, when he saw Garth coming in from the other direction. And the oldwoman--I mean Mrs. Bishop--took to Natalie like her long-lost mother.
"Their party was obliged to start at once for fear of the river'sclosing on them; and Garth insisted on sending Natalie out with the oldlady. She kicked like anything at leaving him there wounded; and Ibraced him, too, to let her stay; but he told me it was for the sake ofher good name. I didn't quite see that--why any one who _knew_Natalie!--but I suppose he knew best.
"Garth and I stayed at Fort Ochre. The Inspector came down the river;and there was an official investigation. I was right in the thick of it.Gee! but it was sport! Colonel Whinyates is a great little chap--cheeksas red as church cushions, and eyes that pop like gooseberries! It wasgreat to hear him bawl at the witnesses. But he's all right. Him and Iwere good friends!
"Garth told his story and I told mine, and Rina and Plaskett. AndNatalie had left what they call a disposition behind her. Everything
wasall straight, but Garth clinched the matter by calling Mabyn to testify.He was carried in on a stretcher. And blamed if he didn't tell thetruth! He'd had a close call, you see, and had what Garth called achange of heart. It was Rina did it; day and night she never left him!
"The investigation ended in a love feast--that's what Garth called it.Old Colonel shook hands with Garth and me, and said we were heroes, byGad! He's a bird. Garth wouldn't prosecute Mabyn; and he was let outfrom under arrest.
"The winter had set in by that time; and Garth and I couldn't get outtill the ice formed. It was pretty slow up there, you bet! and, as Garthsaid, our hearts were outside. We talked about Natalie all the time.Mabyn got well, and he and Rina set off for their place with adog-train. Garth gave them a bang-up outfit! Mabyn was a decent head,after he got well; and Rina certainly was happy about it. I forgot totell you that Mabyn's mother had died in the fall; and there was no needfor him to go out.
"The first mail got through in January, and we heard from Natalie at last.Bully news! Garth had sent her another one of those dispositions--Mabynswore to it--in the November mail; and it seems that was all she needed inorder to have the courts annul the old marriage they had gone throughtogether. Natalie has been a free woman since Christmas!
"We came out with the mail man next day, you bet! That was six weeks ago,and here we are! Garth is waiting for me down at the station. I wantedhim to come up; but he said he guessed you would want me to yourselffor a while. Gee! I must be hustling! Train goes at six-thirty!"
"But where are you going?" she asked in dismay.
Charley kissed her. "East to Millerton, to the wedding, of course! Backin two weeks! Oh, what larks! What do you think! I'm going to be bestman. Garth is getting me a silk tile and a frock coat! Oh, Crikey!Good-bye!"
The door slammed.
THE END
Transcriber's Notes:
The following typographical corrections have been made:
(page 41) "et'em" to "et 'em" (page 73) "immeately" to "immediately" (page 85) "dug-out" to "dugout" (page 89) comma added after "into the light" (page 119) added missing quotes after "came North" (page 152) "heartbreaking" to "heart-breaking" (page 163) added missing quotes after "Lillywhite" (page 180) "Erbe't" to "'Erbe't" (page 197) added missing quotes before "I haven't" (page 200) "dug-out" to "dugout" (page 216) "possesssed" to "possessed" (page 227) "half-way" to "halfway" (page 238) "," to "--" on 253 after canvas (page 240) added a comma after "promise" (page 269) quotation marks removed before "As if" (page 278) "beleaguered" to "beleaguered" (page 285) "!" to "?" after "hands" (page 317) "downstream" to "down-stream"
The word "manoeuvre" on pages 34 and 102 was printed with anoe-ligature in the original.
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends