Into the Primitive Part 40

"Please, please stop, Mr. Blake! You don't know how cruel you are!"

"Cruel? Suppose I told you about the millionaire cur that-- Oh, now, don't go and cry! Please don't cry, Miss Jenny! I wouldn't hurt your feelings for the world! I didn't mean anything out of the way, really I didn't! It's only that when I get to thinking of--of things, it sets me half crazy. And now, can't you see how it's going to be ten times worse for me after--with you so altogether beyond me--" He stopped short, flushed, and stammered lamely, "I--I didn't mean to say that!"

She looked down, no less embarra.s.sed.

"Please let us talk of something else," she murmured. "It has been such a pleasant morning, until you--until we began this silly discussion."

"All right, all right! Only mop up the dewdrops, and we'll turn on the sun machine. I really didn't mean to rip out that way at all. But, you see, the thing's been rankling in me ever since we came aboard s.h.i.+p at the Cape, and Winthrope and Lady Bayrose had my seat changed so I couldn't see you-- Not that I hold anything against them now--"

"Mr. Blake, I suppose you know that this African coast is particularly dangerous for women. So far I have escaped the fever. But you yourself said that the longer the attack is delayed, the worse it will be."

Blake's face darkened, and he turned to stare inland along the ridge.

She had flicked him on the raw, and he thought that she had done so intentionally.

"You think I haven't tried--that I've been shamming!" he burst out bitterly. "You're right. There's the one chance-- But I couldn't leave you till the barricade was finished, and it's been only a few days since-- All the same, I oughtn't to've waited a day. I'll start it to-morrow."

"What! Start what?"

"A catamaran. I can rig one up, in short order, that, with a skin sail and an outrigger, will do fairly well to coast along inside the reefs--barring squalls. Worst thing is that it's all a guess whether the nearest settlement is up the coast or down."

"And you can think of going, and leaving me all alone here!"

"That's better than letting you risk two-to-one chances on feeding the sharks."

"But you'd be risking it!"

Blake uttered a short harsh laugh.

"What's the difference?" He paused a moment; then added, with grim humor, "Anyway, they'll have earned a meal by the time they get me chewed up."

"You sha'n't go!"

"Oh, I don't know. We'll see about it to-morrow. There's a grove of cocoanuts yonder. Come on, and I'll get some nuts. I can't see any water around here, and it would be dry eating, with only the flask."

CHAPTER XXIV

A LION LEADS THEM

The palm grove stood under the lee of the ridge, on a stretch of bare ground. Other than seaward, the open s.p.a.ce was hemmed in by gra.s.s jungle, interspersed with clumps of thorn-brush. On the north side a jutting corner of the tall, yellow spear-gra.s.s curved out and around, with the point of the hook some fifty yards from the palms. Elsewhere the distance to the jungle was nearly twice as far.

Blake dropped the bag and his weapons, flung down his hat, and started up a palm shaft. The down-pointing bristles of his skin trousers aided his grip. Though the lofty crown of the palm was swaying in the wind, he reached the top and was down again before Miss Leslie had arranged the contents of the lunch bag.

"Guess you're not extra hungry," he remarked.

She made no response.

"Mad, eh? Well, toss me the little knife. Mine has got too good a meat-edge to spoil on these husks."

"It was very kind of you to climb for the nuts, and the wind blowing so hard up there," she said, as she handed over the penknife. "I am not angry. It is only that I feel tired and depressed. I hope I am not going to be--"

"No; you're not going to have the fever, or any such thing! You're played out, that's all. I'm a fool for bringing you so far. You'll be all right after you eat and rest. Here; drink this cocoa milk."

She drained the nut, and upon his insistence, made a pretence at eating.

He was deceived until, with the satisfying of his first keen hunger, he again became observant.

"Say, that won't do!" he exclaimed. "Look at your bowl. You haven't nibbled enough to keep a mouse alive."

"Really, I am not hungry. But I am resting."

"Try another nut. I'll have one ready in two shakes."

He caught his hat, which was dragging past in a downward eddy of the wind, and weighted it with a cocoanut. He wedged another nut between his knees, and bent over it, tearing at the husk. It took him only a few moments to strip the fibre from the end and gouge open the germ hole.

He held out the nut, and glanced up to meet her smile of acceptance.

She was staring past him, her eyes wide with terror, and the color fast receding from her face.

"What in-- Another snake?" he demanded, twisting warily about to glare at the ground behind him.

"There--over in the gra.s.s!" she whispered, "It looked out at me with terrible, savage eyes!"

"Snake?--that far off?"

"No, no!--a monster--a huge, fierce beast!"

"Beast?" echoed Blake, grasping his bow and arrows. "Where is he?

Maybe only one of these African buffaloes. How'd he look?--horns?"

"I--I didn't see any. It was all s.h.a.ggy, and yellow like the gra.s.s, and terrible eyes--_Oh!_"

The girl's scream was met by a ferocious, snarling roar, so deep and prolonged that the air quivered and the very ground seemed to shake.

"G.o.d!--a lion!" cried Blake, the hair on his bare head bristling like a startled animal's.

He turned squarely about toward the ridge, his bow half drawn. Had the lion shown himself then, Blake would have shot on the instant. As it was, the beast remained behind the screening border of gra.s.s, where he could watch his intended quarry without being seen in turn. The delay gave Blake time for reflection. He spoke sharply, as it were biting off his words: "Hit out. I'll stop the bluffer."

"I can't. Oh, I'm afraid!"

Again the hidden beast gave voice to his mighty rumbling challenge. Still he did not appear, and Blake attempted a derisive jeer: "Hey, there, louder! We've not run yet! It's all right, little woman. The skulking sneak is trying to bluff us. 'Fraid to come out if we don't stampede.

He'll make off when he finds we don't scare. Lions never tackle men in the daytime. Just keep cool a while. He'll--"

"Look!--there to the right!--I saw him again! He's creeping around!

See the gra.s.s move!"

"That's only the wind. It eddies down--G.o.d! he is stalking around.