"He was as frightened as I," she said simply, "and he went back to college that same evening. And when I had become still more frightened and a little saner I wrote asking him if it was really true. It was.
There seemed to be nothing to do; I had no money, nor had he. And there was no love--because I could not endure even his touch or suffer the least sentiment from him when he came back at Easter. He was a boy and silly. He annoyed me. I don"t know why he persisted so; and finally I became thoroughly exasperated.... We did not part on very friendly terms; and I think that was why he did not return to us from college when he graduated. A man offered him a position, and he went away to try to make a place for himself in the world. And after he had gone, somehow the very mention of his name began to chill me. You see n.o.body knew. The deception became a shame to me, then a dull horror. But, little by little, not seeing him, and being young, after a year the unreality of it all grew stronger, and it seemed as though I were awaking from a nightmare, among familiar things once more.... And for a year it has been so, though at night, sometimes, I still lie awake. But I have been contented--until--_you_ came.... Now you know it all."
"All?"
"Every word. And now you understand why I cannot care for you, or you for me."
He said in a deadened voice: "There is a law that deals with that sort of man--"
"What are you saying?" she faltered.
"That you cannot remain bound! Its monstrous. There is a law--"
"I cannot disgrace dad!" she said. "There is no chance that way! I"d rather die than have him know--have mother know--and Jessie and Cecile and Gray! Didn"t you understand that?"
"You must tell them nevertheless, and they must help you."
"Help me?"
"To free yourself--"
Flushed with anger and disdain she drew bridle and faced him.
"If _this_ is the sort of friendship you bring me, what is your love worth?" she asked almost fiercely. "And--I cared for you--cared for the man I believed you to be; bared my heart to you--wrung every secret from it--thinking you understood! And you turn on me counselling the law, divorce, horrors unthinkable!--because you say you _love_ me!... And I tell you that if I loved you--dearly--blindly--I could not endure to free myself at the expense of pain--to them--even for your sake! They took me, nameless, as I was--a--a foundling. If they ever learn what I have done I shall ask their pardon on my knees, and accept life with the man I married. But if they never learn I shall remain with them--always.
You have asked me what chance you have. Now you know! It is useless to love me. I cared enough for you to try to kill what you call love last night. I cared enough to-day to strip my heart naked for you--to show you there was no chance. If I have done right or wrong I do not know--but I did it for your sake."
His face reddened painfully, but as he offered no reply she put her horse in motion and rode on, proud little head averted. For a few minutes neither he nor she spoke, their horses pacing neck and neck through the forest. At last he said: "You are right, Shiela; I am not worth it. Forgive me."
She turned, eyes level and fearless. Suddenly her mouth quivered.
"Forgive _me_," she said impulsively; "you are worth more than I dare give you. Love me in your own fashion. I wish it. And I will care for you very faithfully in mine."
They were very young, very hopeless, deeply impressed with one another, and quite inexperienced enough to trust each other. She leaned from her saddle and laid her slim bare hands in both of his, lifting her gaze bravely to his--a little dim of eye and still tremulous of lip. And he looked back, love"s tragedy dawning in his gaze, yet forcing the smile that the very young employ as a defiance to destiny and an artistic insult in the face of Fate; that Fate which looks back so placid and unmoved.
"Can you forgive me, Shiela?"
"Look at me?" she whispered.
A few moments later she hastily disengaged her hand.
"There seems to be a fire, yonder," he said; "and somebody seated before it; your Seminole, I think. By Jove, Shiela, he"s certainly picturesque!"
A sullen-eyed Indian rose as they rode up, his turban brilliant in the declining sunshine, his fringed leggings softly luminous as woven cloth of gold.
"He--a--mah, Coacochee!" said the girl in friendly greeting. "It is good to see you, Little Tiger. The people of the East salute the Uchee Seminoles."
The Indian answered briefly and with dignity, then stood impa.s.sive, not noticing Hamil.
"Mr. Hamil," she said, "this is my old friend Coacochee or Little Tiger; an Okichobi Seminole of the Clan of the Wind; a brave hunter and an upright man."
"Sommus-Kala-ne-sha-ma-lin," said the Indian quietly; and the girl interpreted: "He says, "Good wishes to the white man.""
Hamil dismounted, turned and lifted Shiela from her saddle, then walked straight to the Seminole and offered his hand. The Indian grasped it in silence.
"I wish well to Little Tiger, a Seminole and a brave hunter," said Hamil pleasantly.
The red hand and the white hand tightened and fell apart.
A moment later Gray came galloping up with Eudo Stent.
"How are you, Coacochee!" he called out; "glad to see you again! We saw the pine tops blue a mile back."
To which the Seminole replied with composure in terse English. But for Mr. Cardross, when he arrived, there was a shade less reserve in the Indian"s greeting, and there was no mistaking the friendship between them.
"Why did you speak to him in his own tongue?" asked Hamil of Shiela as they strolled together toward the palmetto-thatched, open-face camp fronting on Ruffle Lake.
"He takes it as a compliment," she said. "Besides he taught me."
"It"s a pretty courtesy," said Hamil, "but you always do everything more graciously than anybody else in the world."
"I am afraid you are bia.s.sed."
"Can any man who knows you remain non-partisan?--even your red Seminole yonder?"
"I am proud of that conquest," she said gaily. "Do you know anything about the Seminoles? No? Well, then, let me inform you that a Seminole rarely speaks to a white man except when trading at the posts. They are a very proud people; they consider themselves still unconquered, still in a state of rebellion against the United States."
"What!" exclaimed Hamil, astonished.
"Yes, indeed. All these years of peace they consider only as an armed truce. They are proud, reticent, sensitive, suspicious people; and there are few cases on record where any such thing as friendship has existed between a Seminole and a white man. This is a genuine case; Coacochee is really devoted to dad."
The guides and the wagon had now arrived; camp was already in the confusion and bustle of unloading equipage and supplies; picket lines were established, water-jars buried, blankets spread, guns, ammunition, rods, and saddles ranged in their proper places.
Carter unsheathed his heavy cane-knife and cut palmetto fans for rethatching where required; Eudo Stent looked after the horses; Bulow"s axe rang among the fragrant red cedars; the Indian squatted gravely before a characteristic Seminole fire built of logs, radiating like the spokes of a cart-wheel from the centre which was a hub of glowing coals.
And whenever it was necessary he simply shoved the burning log-ends toward the centre where kettles were already boiling and sweet potatoes lay amid the white ashes, and a dozen wild ducks, split and skewered and basted with pork, were exhaling a matchless fragrance.
Table-legs, bench-legs, and the bases of all culinary furniture, like the body of the camp, were made out of palmetto logs driven into the ground to support cedar planks for the tops.
And it was seated at one of these tables, under the giant oaks, pines, and palmettos, that Shiela and Hamil ate their first camp-repast together, with Gray and his father opposite.
Never had he tasted such a heavenly banquet, never had he dreamed of such delicacies. Eudo Stent brought panfuls of fried ba.s.s, still sizzling under the crisp bacon; and great panniers woven of green palmetto, piled high with smoking sweet potatoes all dusty from the ashes; and pots of coffee and tea, steaming and aromatic.
Then came broiled mallard duck, still crackling from the coals, and c.o.o.nti bread, and a cold salad of palm cabbage, nut-flavored, delectable. Then in the thermos-jugs were spring water and a light German vintage to mix with it. And after everything, fresh oranges in a nest of Spanish moss.
Red sunlight struck through the forest, bronzing bark and foliage; sombre patches of shade pa.s.sed and repa.s.sed across the table--the shadows of black vultures soaring low above the camp smoke. The waters of the lake burned gold.
As yet the approach of sunset had not stirred the water-fowl to restlessness; dark streaks on the lake gleamed white at moments as some string of swimming ducks turned and the light glinted on throat and breast. Herons stood in the shallows; a bittern, squawking, rose from the saw-gra.s.s, circled, and pitched downward again.