Force of habit brought his hand for the twentieth time to his empty pistol holster. Its emptiness added to the caution with which he approached the thick spruce and balsam ahead of him. Taking advantage of a ma.s.s of low snow-laden bushes, he swung out at a right angle to the trail and began making a wide circle. He worked swiftly. Within half or three-quarters of an hour Bucky would reach the ridge.
Whatever he accomplished must be done before then. Five minutes after leaving the trail he caught his first glimpse of smoke and began to edge in toward the fire. The stillness oppressed him. He drew nearer and nearer, yet he heard no sound of voice or of the dogs. At last he reached a point where he could look out from behind a young ground spruce and see the fire. It was not more than thirty feet away. He held his breath tensely at what he saw. On a blanket spread out close to the fire lay Scottie Deane, his head pillowed on a pack-sack. There was no sign of Isobel, and no sign of the sledge and dogs. Billy"s heart thumped excitedly as he rose to his feet. He did not stop to ask himself where Isobel and the dogs had gone. Deane was alone, and lay with his back toward him. Fate could not have given him a better opportunity, and his moccasined feet fell swiftly and quietly in the snow. He was within six feet of Scottie before the injured man heard him, and scarcely had the other moved when he was upon him. He was astonished at the ease with which he twisted Deane upon his back and put the handcuffs about his wrists. The work was no sooner done than he understood. A rag was tied about Deane"s head, and it was stained with blood. The man"s arms and body were limp. He looked at Billy with dulled eyes, and as he slowly realized what had happened a groan broke from his lips.
In an instant Billy was on his knees beside him. He had seen Deane twice before, over at Churchill, but this was the first time that he had ever looked closely into his face. It was a face worn by hardship and mental torture. The cheeks were thinned, and the steel-gray eyes that looked up into Billy"s were reddened by weeks and months of fighting against storm. It was the face, not of a criminal, but of a man whom Billy would have trusted-- blonde-mustached, fearless, and filled with that clean-cut strength which a.s.sociates itself with fairness and open fighting. Hardly had he drawn a second breath when Billy realized why this man had not killed him when he had the chance.
Deane was not of the sort to strike in the dark or from behind. He had let Billy live because he still believed in the manhood of man, and the thought that he had repaid Deane"s faith in him by leaping upon him when he was down and wounded filled Billy with a bitter shame. He gripped one of Deane"s hands in his own.
"I hate to do this, old man," he cried, quickly. "It"s h.e.l.l to put those things on a man who"s hurt. But I"ve got to do it. I didn"t mean to come-- no, s"elp me G.o.d, I didn"t-- if Bucky Smith and two others hadn"t hit your trail back at the old camp. They"d have got you-- sure. And she wouldn"t have been safe with them. Understand ? She wouldn"t have been safe! So I made up my mind to beat on ahead and take you myself. I want you to understand. And you do know, I guess.
You must have heard, for I thought you were sure-enough dead in the box, an" I swear to Heaven I meant all I said then. I wouldn"t have come. I was glad you two got away. But this Bucky is a skunk and a scoundrel-- and mebbe if I take you-- I can help you-- later on.
They"ll be here in a few minutes."
He spoke quickly, his voice quivering with the emotion that inspired his words, and not for an instant did Scottie Deane allow his eyes to shift from Billy"s face. When Billy stopped he still looked at him for a moment, judging the truth of what he had heard by what he saw in the other"s face. And then Billy felt his hand tighten for an instant about his own.
"I guess you"re pretty square, MacVeigh," he said, "and I guess it had to come pretty soon, too. I"m not sorry that it"s you-- and I know you"ll take care of her."
"I"ll do it-- if I have to fight-- and kill!"
Billy had withdrawn his hand, and both were clenched. Into Deane"s eyes there leaped a sudden flash of fire.
"That"s what I did," he breathed, gripping his fingers hard. "I killed-- for her. He was a skunk-- and a scoundrel-- too. And you"d have done it!" He looked at Billy again. "I"m glad you said what you did-- when I was in the box," he added. "If she wasn"t as pure and as sweet as the stars I"d feel different. But it"s just sort of in my bones that you"ll treat her like a brother. I haven"t had faith in many men. I"ve got it in you."
Billy leaned low over the other. His face was flushed, and his voice trembled.
"G.o.d bless you for that, Scottie!" he said.
A sound from the forest turned both men"s eyes.
"She took the dogs and went out there a little way for a load of wood," said Deane. "She"s coming back."
Billy had leaped to his feet, and turned his face toward the ridge.
He, too, had heard a sound-- another sound, and from another direction. He laughed grimly as he turned to Deane.
"And they"re coming, too, Scottie," he replied. "They"re climbing the ridge. I"ll take your guns, old man. It"s just possible there may be a fight!"
He slipped Deane"s revolver into his holster and quickly emptied the chamber of the rifle that stood near.
"Where"s mine?" he asked.
"Threw "em away," said Deane. "Those are the only guns in the outfit."
Billy waited while Isobel Deane came through low-hanging spruce with the dogs.
VI
THE FIGHT
There was a smile for Deane on Isobel"s lips as she struggled through the spruce, knee-deep in snow, the dogs tugging at the sledge behind her. And then in a moment she saw MacVeigh, and the smile froze into a look of horror on her face. She was not twenty feet distant when she emerged into the little opening, and Billy heard the rattling cry in her throat. She stopped, and her hands went to her breast. Deane had half raised himself, his pale, thin face smiling encouragingly at her; and with a wild cry Isobel rushed to him and flung herself upon her knees at his side, her hands gripping fiercely at the steel bands about his wrists. Billy turned away. He could hear her sobbing, and he could hear the low, comforting voice of the injured man. A groan of anguish rose to his own lips, and he clenched his hands hard, dreading the terrible moment when he would have to face the woman he loved above all else on earth.
It was her voice that brought him about. She had risen to her feet, and she stood before him panting like a hunted animal, and Billy saw in her face the thing which he had feared more than the sting of death. No longer were her blue eyes filled with the sweetness and faith of the angel who had come to him from out of the Barren. They were hard and terrible and filled with that madness which made him think she was about to leap upon him. In those eyes, in the quivering of her bare throat, in the sobbing rise and fall of her breast were the rage, the grief, and the fear of one whose faith had turned suddenly into the deadliest of all emotions; and Billy stood before her without a word on his lips, his face as cold and as bloodless as the snow under his feet.
"And so you-- you followed-- after-- that!"
It was all she said, and yet the voice, the significance of the choking words, hurt him more than if she had struck him. In them there was none of the pa.s.sion and condemnation he had expected. Quietly, almost whisperingly uttered, they stung him to the soul. He had meant to say to her what he had said to Deane-- even more. But the crudeness of the wilderness had made him slow of tongue, and while his heart cried out for words Isobel turned and went to her husband. And then there came the thing he had been expecting. Down the ridge there raced a flurry of snow and a yelping of dogs. He loosened the revolver in his holster, and stood in readiness when Bucky Smith ran a few paces ahead of his men into the camp. At sight of his enemy"s face, torn between rage and disappointment, all of Billy"s old coolness returned to him.
With a bound Bucky was at Scottie Deane"s side. He looked down at his manacled hands and at the woman who was clasping them in her own, and then he whirled on Billy with the quickness of a cat.
"You"re a liar and a sneak!" he panted. "You"ll answer for this at headquarters. I understand now why you let "em go back there. It was her! She paid you-- paid you in her own way-- to free him! But she won"t pay you again--"
At his words Deane had started as if stung by a wasp. Billy saw Isobel"s whitened face. The meaning of Buck"s words had gone home to her as swiftly as a lightning flash, and for an instant her eyes had turned to him! Bucky got no further than those last words. Before he could add another syllable Billy was upon him. His fist shot out-- once, twice-- and the blows that fell sent Bucky crashing through the fire. Billy did not wait for him to regain his feet. A red light blazed before his eyes. He forgot the presence of Deane and Walker and Conway. His one thought was that the scoundrel he had struck down had flung at Isobel the deadliest insult that a man could offer a woman, and before either Conway or Walker could make a move he was upon Bucky. He did not know how long or how many times he struck, but when at last Conway and Walker succeeded in dragging him away Bucky lay upon his back in the snow, blood gushing from his mouth and nose.
Walker ran to him. Panting for breath, Billy turned toward Isobel and Deane. He was almost sobbing. He made no effort to speak. But he saw that the thing he had dreaded was gone. Isobel was looking at him again-- and there was the old faith in her eyes. At last-- she understood! Dean"s handcuffed hands were clenched. The light of brotherhood shone in his eyes, and where a moment before there had been grief and despair in Billy"s heart there came now a warm glow of joy. Once more they had faith in him!
Walker had raised Bucky to a sitting posture, and was wiping the blood from his face when Billy went to them. The corporal"s hand made a limp move toward his revolver. Billy struck it away and secured the weapon.
Then he spoke to Walker.
"There is no doubt in your mind that I hold a sergeancy in the service, is there, Walker?" he asked.
His tone was no longer one of comradeship. In it there was the ring of authority. Walker was quick to understand.
"None, sir!"
"And you are familiar with our laws governing insubordination and conduct unbecoming an officer of the service?"
Walker nodded.
"Then, as a superior officer and in the name of his Majesty the King, I place Corporal Bucky Smith under arrest, and commission you, under oath of the service, to take him under your guard to Churchill, along with the letter which I shall give you for the officer in charge there. I shall appear against him a little later with the evidence that will outlaw him from the service. Put the handcuffs on him!"
Stunned by the sudden change in the situation, Walker obeyed without a word. Billy turned to Conway, the driver.
"Deane is too badly injured to travel," he explained, " Put up your tent for him and his wife close to the fire. You can take mine in exchange for it as you go back."
He went to his kit and found a pencil and paper. Fifteen minutes later he gave Walker the letter in which he described to the commanding officer at Churchill certain things which he knew would hold Bucky a prisoner until he could personally appear against him. Meanwhile Conway had put up the tent and had a.s.sisted Deane into it. Isobel had accompanied him. Billy then had a five-minute confidential talk with Walker, and when the constable gave instructions for Conway to prepare the dogs for the return trip there was a determined hardness in his eyes as he looked at Bucky. In those five minutes he had heard the story of Rousseau, the young Frenchman down at Norway House, and of the wife whose faithlessness had killed him. Besides, he hated Bucky Smith, as all men hated him. Billy was confident that he could rely upon him.
Not until dogs and sledge were ready did Bucky utter a word. The terrific beating he had received had stunned him for a few minutes; but now he jumped to his feet, not waiting for the command from Walker, and strode up close to Billy. There was a vengeful leer on his b.l.o.o.d.y face and his eyes blazed almost white, but his voice was so low that Conway and Walker could only hear the murmur of it. His words were meant for Billy alone.
"For this I"m going to kill you, MacVeigh," he said; and in spite of Billy"s contempt for the man there was a quality in the low voice that sent a curious shiver through him. "You can send me from the service, but you"re going to die for doing it!"
Billy made no reply, and Bucky did not wait for one. He set off at the head of the sledge, with Conway a step behind them. Billy followed with Walker until they reached the foot of the ridge. There they shook hands, and Billy stood watching them until they pa.s.sed over the cap of the ridge.
He returned to the camp slowly. Deane had emerged from the tent, supported by Isobel. They waited for him, and in Deane"s face he saw the look that had filled it after he had struck down Bucky Smith. For a moment he dared not look at Isobel. She saw the change in him, and her cheeks flushed. Deane would have extended his hands, but she was holding them tightly in her own.
"You"d better go into the tent and keep quiet," advised Billy. "I haven"t had time yet to see if you"re badly hurt."
"It"s not bad," Deane a.s.sured him. "I b.u.mped into a rock sliding down the ridge, and it made me sick for a few minutes."
Billy knew that Isobel"s eyes were on him, and he could almost feel their questioning. He began to take wood from the sledge she had loaded and throw it on the fire. He wished that Scottie and she had remained in the tent for a little longer. His face burned and his blood seemed like fire when he caught a glimpse of the steel cuffs about Deane"s wrists. Through the smoke he saw Isobel still clasping her husband. He could see one of her little hands gripping at the steel band, and suddenly he sprang across and faced them, no longer fearing to meet Isobel"s eyes or Deane"s. Now his face was aflame, and he half held out his arms to them as he spoke, as though he would clasp them both to him in this moment of sacrifice and self-abnegation and the dawning of new life.
"You know-- you both know why I"ve done this!" he cried, "You heard what I said back there, Deane-- when you was in the box; an" all I said was true. She came to me out of that storm like an angel-- an"
I"ll think of her as an angel all my life. I don"t know much about G.o.d-- not the G.o.d they have down there, where they take an eye for an eye an" a tooth for a tooth and kill because some one else has killed.
But there"s something up here in the big open places, something that makes you think and makes you want to do what"s right and square; an"
she"s got all I know of G.o.d in that little Bible of mine-- the blue flower. I gave the blue flower to her, an" now an" forever she"s my blue flower. I ain"t ashamed to tell you, Deane, because you"ve heard it before, an" you know I"m not thinking it in a sinful way. It "ll help me if I can see her face an" hear her voice and know there"s such love as yours after you"re gone. For I"m going to let you go, Deane, old man. That"s what I came for, to save you from the others an" give you back to her. I guess mebbe you"ll know-- now-- how I feel--"