The Huntress Part 31

In a minute or two he stole after to see if she were indeed getting ready. It was true. Watching from behind the willows, he saw her tie a poplar pole in the bow of the dugout and stay it with a rope.

Upon this rude mast she bound a yard, from which hung one of her blankets with a rope tied to each of the lower corners. Afterward she stowed her baggage in the boat. She worked with a determined swiftness that suggested some particular urgency.

Finally she started back along the beach, whereupon Sam turned and, hastening ahead of her, resumed operations on the raft as if he had never dropped them.

"Now I guess you know why we goin' to the sh.o.r.e," she stated abruptly.

"I'm hanged if I do!" returned Sam.

"You got strong eyes and not see not'ing?" she asked scornfully.

"Look!"

Following the direction of her pointing finger across the lake, he made out a black spot on the water, between them and the head of the river.

"Those men comin' here," she said. "I am think before maybe come to-day. Yesterday I guess they ride down the river and get Johnny Gagnon's boat."

When she pointed it out, the object was clear enough. The rise and fall of oars was suggested. Sam watched it doubtfully. He was ready to welcome relief in any form from his hateful situation, but was this relief?

"How do you expect to sail to the river when they're coming from there?" he asked.

"I wait till come close," she replied eagerly. "Then go round ot'er side of island. They never catch me wit' my sail. Johnny Gagnon's boat got no sail."

Her eagerness made him suspicious. What had she up her sleeve now? he wondered. While he could scarcely regard Jack, Shand, and Joe in the light of deliverers, his galled pride forbade him to put himself in her hands again. He suddenly made up his mind.

"Go ahead!" he said harshly. "Go anywhere you like! I stay here!"

Bela changed colour, and a real fear showed in her eyes. She moved toward him involuntarily.

"They kill you if they find you here," she said.

"Not if they don't find you here, too."

"They kill you!" she insisted. "Two days they are after us. All tam talk together what they goin' do when they catch us, and get more mad.

If they find me gone away, they get more mad again. W'en they catch you, they got kill you for 'cause they say so many times. You are on this little island. n.o.body know. n.o.body see. They are safe to kill you. You don' go wit' me, you never leave here."

Sam, knowing the men, could not but be shaken by her words. He paled a little, but, having announced his decision to her, pride would not allow him to take it back.

"Go on," he said. "I stay."

The old walled look came back over Bela's face. She sat down in the sand, clasping her knees.

"I not go wit'out you," she announced.

Sam affected to shrug.

"Just as you like. You won't help my chances any by staying here."

"They kill you, anyhow," she said in a level voice. "After they kill you they get me. They not kill me."

Sam started and looked at her aghast. A surprising pain stabbed him.

He remembered the looks of the men upon Bela's first appearance in the cabin. Now, after two days' pursuit they would scarcely be more humane than then. The thought of that beautiful creature being delivered over to them was more than he could bear.

"Bela--for G.o.d's sake--don't be a fool!" he faltered.

A subtle smile appeared on her lips. She was silent.

His pride made another effort. "Ah, you're only bluffing!" he said harshly. "You can't get me going that way."

She looked at him with a strange, fiery intensity. "I not bluffin',"

she replied quietly. "I do w'at I say. If I want say I put my hand in the fire, I hold it there till it burn off. You know that."

In his heart he did know it, however he might rage at being forced to do what she wanted him to do.

"I don't care!" he cried. "You can't lead me by the nose! I'm my own master. I didn't get you into this. You'll have to take your chance as I take mine."

Bela said nothing.

Out of sheer bravado Sam set to work again to bind his logs together.

His hand shook. There was little likelihood now that he would need a raft.

The approaching boat had already covered half the distance to the island. They could now make out three figures in it, one steering, each of the other two wielding an oar. The lake was glorious in the strong suns.h.i.+ne. All the little ripples to the east were tipped with gold.

Five minutes pa.s.sed, while obstinacy contended silently with obstinacy. Bela sat looking at nothing with all the stoicism of her red ancestors; Sam maintained his futile pretence of business.

Occasionally he glanced at her full of uncertainty and unwilling admiration. Bela never looked at him.

At the end of that time the boat was less than a quarter of a mile offsh.o.r.e. They saw the steersman point, and the two oarsmen stop and look over their shoulders. Evidently they had discovered the two figures on the beach, and wondered at their supineness. They came on with increased energy.

Bela held the best cards. Sam finally threw down his work with an oath.

"I can't stand it!" he cried shakily. "I don't care about myself, but I can't see a woman sacrificed--even if it's your own mulishness! I don't care about you, either--but you're a woman. You needn't think you're getting the best of me. I'll hate you for this--but I can't stand it!"

Bela sprang up swiftly and resolutely.

"Come!" she exclaimed. "I don' care what mak' you come, if you come!"

She pointed to the longest way round the sh.o.r.e. "This way," she directed. "I want them follow this way so I sail back ot'er side."

As they ran around the beach, a faint shout reached them from the water. As soon as they had pa.s.sed out of sight of the boat, Bela pulled Sam into the bushes, and they worked back under cover to a point whence they could watch their pursuers in comparative safety.

"Maybe they goin' land this side," she suggested. "If they land, run lak h.e.l.l and jomp in my boat."

Sam never thought of smiling.

Five minutes of breathless suspense succeeded. Suppose the men landed and, dividing, went both ways around the beach, what would they do?

However, it appeared that they intended to row around the island and, as they thought, cut off Bela's escape by water. But the watchers could not be sure of this until the boat was almost upon them. Finally Bela looked at Sam, and they dashed together for the dugout.

All was ready for the start, the boat pointing, bow first, into the lake. In the excitement of the last few minutes they had forgotten Sam's blankets. It was too late to think of them now.

Sam got in first and, obeying Bela's instructions, braced his feet against the bottom of the mast. She pushed off and paddled like a wild woman until she could weather the island under her square sail.