To the girl crouching at the stern of Runnion"s boat it seemed as if this day and night would never end. It seemed as if the procession of natural events must have ceased, that there was no longer any time, for she had been suffering steadily for hours and hours without end, and began to wonder dreamily whether she had not skipped a day in her reckoning between the time when she first heard of the strike on her claim and this present moment. It occurred to her that she was a rich girl now in her own right, and she smiled her crooked smile, as she reflected that the thing she had longed for without hope of attainment had come with confusing swiftness, and had left her unhappier than ever....
Would the day never come? She pulled the rugs up closer about her as the morning chill made her shiver. She found herself keeping mechanical count with the sound of the sweeps--they must be making good speed, she thought, and the camp must be miles behind now. Had it been earlier in the season, when the river ran full of drift, they never could have gone thus in the dark, but the water was low and the chances of collision so remote as to render blind travel safe. Even yet she could not distinguish her oarsman, except as a black bulk, for it had been a lowering night and the approaching dawn failed to break through the blanket of cloud that hung above the great valley. He was a good boatman, however, as she gathered from the tireless regularity of his strokes. He was a silent man, too, and she was grateful for that. She snuggled down into her blanket and tried to sleep, but she only dozed for a minute, it seemed, to find her eyes fly wide open again. So, restless and tired of her lonely vigil, she gave a premonitory cough, and said to her companion:
"You must be tired rowing so steadily?"
"Oh, I don"t mind it," he replied.
At the sound of his voice she sat bolt upright. It couldn"t be--if this were Runnion he would have spoken before! She ventured again, tremulously:
"Have you any idea what time it is?"
"About three o"clock. I fancy."
"Who are you?" The question came like a shot.
"Don"t you know?"
"What are YOU doing here, Mr. Runnion?"
"I"m rowing," he answered, carelessly.
"Why didn"t you speak?" A vague feeling of uneasiness came over her, a suspicion that all was not right, so she waited for him to explain, and when he did not, she repeated her question. "What made you keep still so long? You knew who _I_ was?"
"Well, it"s the first time I ever took you on a midnight row, and I wanted to enjoy it."
The mockery in his voice quickened her apprehension. Of a sudden the fear of being misjudged impelled her to end this flight that had become so distasteful in a moment, preferring to face the people at the post rather than continue her journey with this man.
"I"ve changed my mind, Mr. Runnion," she said. "I don"t want to go down to the Mission. I want you to take me back."
"Can"t do it," he said; "the current is too swift."
"Then set me ash.o.r.e and I"ll walk back. It can"t be far to town."
"Twenty-five miles. We"ve been out about three hours." He kept on rowing steadily, and although the distance they had gone frightened her, she summoned her courage to say:
"We can make that easily enough. Come, run in to the bank."
He ceased rowing and let the boat drift with dragging sweeps, filled his pipe and lighted it, then took up his oars again and resumed his labors.
"Please do as I ask you, Mr. Runnion. I"ve decided I don"t want to go any farther." He laughed, and the sound aroused her. "Put me ash.o.r.e this minute!" she cried, indignantly. "What do you mean?"
"You"ve got a fierce temper, haven"t you?"
"Will you do it or not?"
When he made no answer, except to continue the maddening monotony of his movements, she was seized with a rash resolve to wrench the oars out of his hands, and made a quick motion towards him, at which he shouted:
"Sit down! Do you want to upset us?"
The unstable craft lurched and dipped dangerously, and, realizing the futility of her mad impulse, she sank back on her knees.
"Put me ash.o.r.e!"
"No," he said, "not till I"m ready. Now, keep your seat or we"ll both drown; this ain"t a ferry-boat." After a few strokes, he added, "We"ll never get along together unless you tame that temper."
"We"re not going to get along together, Mr. Runnion--only as far as the Mission. I dare say you can tolerate me until then, can you not?" She said this bitingly.
"Stark told me to board the first boat for St. Michael"s," he said, disregarding her sarcasm, "but I"ve made a few plans of my own the last hour or so."
"St. Michael"s! Mr. Stark told you--why, that"s impossible! You misunderstood him. He told you to row me to the Mission. I"m going to Father Barnum"s house."
"No, you"re not, and I didn"t misunderstand him. He wants to get you outside, all right, but I reckon you"d rather go as Mrs. Runnion than as the sweetheart of Ben Stark."
"Are you crazy?" the girl cried. "Mr. Stark kindly offered to help me reach the Father at his Mission. I"m nothing to him, and I"m certainly not going to be anything to you. If I"d known you were going to row the boat, I should have stayed at home, because I detest you."
"You"ll get over that."
"I"m not in the humor for jokes."
He rested again on his oars, and said, with deliberation:
"Stark "kindly offered" did he? Well, whenever Ben Stark "kindly"
offers anything, I"m in on the play. He"s had his eye on you for the last three months, and he wants you, but he slipped a cog when he gave me the oars. You needn"t be afraid, though, I"m going to do the square thing by you. We"ll stop in at the Mission and be married, and then we"ll see whether we want to go to St. Michael"s or not, though personally I"m for going back to Flambeau."
During the hours while he had waited for Necia to discover his ident.i.ty, the man"s mind had not been idle; he had determined to take what fortune tossed into his lap. Had she been the unknown, unnoticed half-breed of a month or two before, he would not have wasted thought upon priests or vows, but now that a strange fate had worked a change in her before the world, he accepted it.
The girl"s beauty, her indifference, the mistaken att.i.tude of Stark urged him, and, strongest of all, he was drawn by his cupidity, for she would be very rich, so the knowing ones said. Doubtless that was why Stark wanted her, and, being a man who acknowledged no fidelity to his kind or his Creator, Runnion determined to outwit his princ.i.p.al, Doret, Burrell, and all the rest. It was a chance to win much at the risk of nothing, and he was too good a gambler to let it pa.s.s.
With his brusque declaration Necia realized her position--that she was a weak, lonely girl, just come into womanhood, so cursed by good looks that men wanted her, so stained by birth that they would not take her honestly; realized that she was alone with a dissolute creature and beyond help, and for the first time in her life she felt the meaning of fear.
She saw what a frail and helpless thing she was; nothing about her was great save her soul, and that was immeasurably vexed and worried. She had just lived through a grief that had made her generous, and now she gained her first knowledge of the man-animal"s gross selfishness.
"You are absolutely daft," she said. "You can"t force me to marry you."
"I ain"t going to force you; you"ll do it willingly."
"I"ll die first. I"ll call the first man we see--I"ll tell Father Barnum, and he"ll have you run out of the country--it would only take a word from me."
"If you haven"t changed your mind when we get to his place, I"ll run through without stopping; but there isn"t another priest between there and St. Mike"s, and by the time we get to the mouth of the river, I guess you"ll say yes to most anything. However, I"d rather marry you at Holy Cross if you"ll consent, and I"m pretty sure you will--when you think it over."
"We won"t discuss it."
"You don"t understand yet," he continued, slowly. "What will people say when they know you ran away with me."
"I"ll tell them the truth."
"Huh! I"m too well known. No man on the river would ever have you after that."
"You--you--" Her voice was a-quiver with indignation and loathing, but her lips could not frame an epithet fit for him. He continued rowing for some time, then said: