The Long Portage Part 41

Lisle rose and shook out his pipe.

"Then," he responded, "I'll take a look around, and you had better start off the first thing to-morrow and hurry those castings on. There's a good deal to be done if we're to get away when Carsley turns up."

CHAPTER XXV

A RELIABLE MAN

The sun had just dipped behind a black ridge of hills, and the lake lay still, mirroring the tall cedars on its farther sh.o.r.e. A faint chill was creeping into the mountain air, which was scented with resinous smoke, and somewhere across the water a loon was calling. A cl.u.s.ter of tents stood upon the shingle, and in front of the largest Millicent reclined in a camp-chair. Near her Miss Hume sat industriously embroidering; and Nasmyth lay upon the stones. Bella occupied another camp-chair, a young man with a pleasant brown face sitting at her feet; and farther along the beach a group of packers in blue shirts and duck trousers lay smoking about a fire. By and by one rose and when he began to hack at a drift-log the sharp thudding of his ax startled the loon which departed with a peal of shrieking laughter.

The party had reached the fringe of the wilderness after a long stage journey from the railroad through a rugged country. They had met with no mishaps beyond a delay in the transport of some of their baggage, and everything had been made comparatively easy for them; but they knew that henceforward there might be a difference. Man must depend largely upon his own natural resources in the wilds, where, after furnishing the traveler with the best equipment and packers to carry it, the power of wealth is strictly limited. A recognition of the fact hovered more or less darkly in all their minds, but Millicent was the first to hint at it.

"So far we have had absolutely nothing to complain of except a little jolting in the stage," she said. "I'm beginning to understand why adventurous sight-seers are coming out here--it's a glorious country!"

"It's my duty to point out that it won't be quite the same as we go on,"

Nasmyth remarked. "What do you say, Carew?"

"It doesn't matter; he's said it all before," Bella broke in. "I've had to listen to appalling accounts of his previous adventures in Canada, which were, no doubt, meant to deter me; but the reality is that the hotels at Banff and Glacier are remarkably comfortable, and I haven't the least fault to find with this camp. We ought to be grateful to Millicent for letting us come, and though Arthur hinted that it would be a rather sociable honeymoon, I said that was a safeguard. One's illusions might get sooner shattered in a more conventional one." She stooped and ruffled her husband's hair. "Still, he hasn't deteriorated very much on closer acquaintance, and perhaps I'm fortunate in this."

Millicent sat silent for a few moments. She knew, to her sorrow, one man who did not improve the more one saw of him, and that was the man she had tacitly agreed to marry. She could not tell why she had done so--she had somehow drifted into it. Interest, family a.s.sociations, a feeling that could best be described as liking, even pity, had played their part in influencing her, and now she realized that she could not honorably draw back when he formally claimed her. She laughed as one of the packers who had a good voice broke into a song.

"That's the climax; it needs only the c.o.c.kney accent to make the thing complete," she said. "When I was last in London, one heard that silly jingle everywhere. I suppose it's a triumph of the music-halls."

"Or of modern civilization--a rendering of distance of no account,"

suggested Carew. "There's a good deal to be said for the latter achievement, as we are discovering."

"Distance," declared Bella, "still counts for something here. I've been thinking about Jim all day; imagining him dragging his canoe through the timber beyond those hills, and wondering whether he'd find us when he got to the other side."

"She has been doing more," her husband broke in. "Though she hasn't confessed it, she has been looking out for him ever since this morning.

In fact, I discovered that our cook is keeping a supper ready that would satisfy four or five men."

Bella turned to Millicent with a smile.

"Do you think the meal will be wasted?" she asked.

"No; I can hardly believe it."

"Mark the a.s.surance of that answer," commented Carew. "A man couldn't feel it; it's irrational. Miss Gladwyne speaks with a certainty that our guide will come, though she has nothing to base her calculations on--she doesn't know the distance or the difficulties of the way."

"What does that matter?" Bella retorted. "She knows the man."

Carew made a grimace.

"A woman's reasoning. As we've nothing better to do, I'll try to show the absurdity of it. A man, so far as he concerns this discussion, consists of a certain quant.i.ty of bones, with muscles and tendons capable of setting them in motion--"

"Be careful," Bella warned him. "It's safer to avoid these details.

Besides, you're leaving something out; I don't mean the nerve-cells, but the inner personality, whatever it is, that commands them."

"I'm trying to show that, as a mechanical structure, he is capable of moving his own weight and so much extra a limited distance in a given time, so long as he can secure the necessary food and sleep. Neither the weight nor the distance can be increased except by an effort which, if continued, will soon reduce them below their former level."

Bella laughed.

"Yes," she said, "that's how you reason--mechanically. We're different."

"I'll take quite another line," Nasmyth interposed. "Lisle's traversing a country new to him; he can't tell what rapids, ranges, or thick timber may cause delay. No amount of determination will enable one, for instance, to knock more than a few minutes off the time needed to carry a canoe round a portage, nor by any effort can one cross a range as quickly as one can walk up a valley. Isn't that clear, Millicent?"

There was a smile in the girl's eyes.

"Yes," she replied, "but, all the same, Lisle's supper's waiting."

"Such confidence makes one jealous," grumbled Carew. "Lisle, whom I haven't met, is evidently a man who keeps his promise. That means a good deal."

"A very great deal," Bella a.s.sured him. "Since one's bound to meet with difficulties one can't foresee, it proves that one man has resource, resolution, and many other eminently useful qualities; but all this is getting too serious. I'd better point out that Lisle hasn't even promised to meet us here at any particular time." She paused and laughed mischievously. "Millicent merely sent for him, mentioning to-morrow as the day she would like to start."

A little color crept into Millicent's face, but Bella went on:

"She called and I haven't the least doubt that our guide set out, over ranges, up rapids, across wide lakes. One can't imagine that man taking it easily, and there's the obvious fact that Jim will have to keep up with him. He will find it hard, but I dare say it will do him good."

Nasmyth laughed and strolled away with Carew. The sunset green grew dimmer behind the hills and a pale half-moon appeared above the shadowy woods. It was very still, except for the lapping of the water upon the stones.

Bella leaned back lazily in her chair.

"This is delightful," she exclaimed. "Didn't Clarence want to come?"

The unexpectedness of the question startled Millicent into answering:

"He didn't know."

"Ah! Then you didn't tell him? Why didn't you?"

It was difficult to reply, but there was something in Bella's voice that disarmed Millicent's resentment. Bella had grown gentler since her marriage and less often indulged in bitterness.

"I think," said Millicent, "I didn't want any one to distract me; I'm going to make photographs and sketches for the book, you know."

"But you let us come!"

"Yes," a.s.sented Millicent; "you're different."

"That's true. We won't disturb you; and Nasmyth wouldn't count. He's an un.o.btrusive person, only to the front when he is wanted, which is a good deal to say for him; he doesn't expect anything. No doubt, the same applies to Lisle."

Millicent made no answer and Bella wondered whether she had gone too far.

"But didn't Clarence hear that you were going?" she asked.

"He was in Switzerland with his mother. She had been recommended to try a change."