"And he knew _me_! And he shook hands with me right before all the men--and you ought to seen "em look! And he"s going to teach me how to walk on snowshoes! Oh, ain"t you _glad_! "Cause now you and Bill can----"
"_Charlie!_" The girl"s face flamed, and the word seemed wrung from her very heart. The boy paused for a moment in the midst of his breathless harangue and eyed his sister with disgust.
"You know you _do_ love him," he continued, his eyes flashing defiantly, "even if you did have a sc.r.a.p--and he loves you, too! And that dang St. Ledger"s just nothing but a--a--a _squirt_--that"s what he is--and if I was Bill Carmody I"d punch his head for him if he even _spoke_ to you again--if you was _my_ girl!
"And I"m going to tell him we _know_ he never swiped those bonds, and you stuck up for him when old man Carmody told you he did."
The last words of the boy"s remarks were addressed to an empty chair, for the girl, white and trembling, had fled into the other room and banged the door after her.
Mrs. Appleton, with an unintelligibly muttered excuse, hurriedly followed, leaving her husband gazing from her retreating back to the excited face of the youngster, and muttering: "Bless my soul! Bless my soul!" between the gulps of his coffee, which for once in his life he swallowed with never a growl at the canned milk. A moment later he abruptly left the table and, motioning the boy to follow, led the way to the office.
A half-hour pa.s.sed, and Charlie left the building under the strictest kind of orders not to mention to Bill Carmody either Ethel or the bonds.
Puzzling his small head over the inexplicable doings of grown-up people, he wandered toward the cook-shack to hunt up Daddy Dunnigan, with whom he had already struck up a great friendship.
"She loves him and he loves her," he muttered to himself as he scuffed his brand-new moccasins through the soft snow, "and each one tries to let on they don"t. And Uncle Appleton won"t let me tell Bill _she_ does so he"d go and tell her _he_ does; and then old man Carmody and his bonds could go to the _devil_!
"You bet, I hope I never get in love and act like a couple of fools.
Now, I bet she"ll marry that _sniffit_, and he"ll marry Blood River Jack"s sister." The boy paused and glanced speculatively at the falling snow. "I wonder if he wants to? Anyhow, I can ask him that much."
Later, in the office, Mrs. Appleton broke in upon her husband"s third black cigar. There was no doorway connecting the office with the other two rooms, and the lumberman watched the snowflakes melt on his wife"s hair as she seated herself directly in front of him.
"Well, Hubert Appleton, this is a nice mess you have got us into, I must say!"
"_Me!_" grinned the man. "Why, little girl, this is your party."
"I wish you would tell me who it was that suggested leaving out young Mr. Holbrooke, and coming here so that Ethel could meet this _man_?"
"She--er--met him--didn"t she?"
"You needn"t try to be facetious! What are you going to do about it?"
"Who--me? Oh, just stick around and watch the fun."
"Fun! Fun! Hubert Appleton, aren"t you _ashamed_ of yourself? And that poor girl in there crying her eyes out! Fun, indeed--it"s _tragedy_!"
"There, there, little woman; don"t let"s get excited. It"s up to us to kind of figure things out a bit; but the young folks themselves will be the real actors.
"Now, just how much--or, how little did she tell you?"
"She told me _everything_. Poor dear, it did her good. She has had n.o.body to tell--n.o.body to cry with her and sympathize with her."
When his wife concluded, H. D. Appleton had received a very accurate chronicle of the doings of Bill Carmody from the time of his boyhood until chance threw them together in the smoking-compartment of the west-bound sleeper.
The lumberman listened attentively, without interrupting, until his wife finished.
"Does she think Bill took those bonds?" he asked.
"No. She does not. Even with everything else against him, she cannot bring herself to believe that he is a thief."
"Do _you_ think he took them?"
"Why--I--I don"t know," she hesitated.
"Do you _think_ he took them?"
The little woman looked into her husband"s eyes as she purposely delayed her reply.
"No," she said at length. "I do not. But his own father accused him."
Appleton leaned forward in his chair and brought his fist down upon the desk-top.
"I don"t give a d.a.m.n _who_ accused him!" he cried. "That boy never stole a bond, or any other thing, and I"ll stake my last cent on it!"
"Oh, it isn"t the bonds. Ethel does not believe he stole them. But--the other--you heard what the guide said--and Ethel heard it. She never _can_ get over _that_! He may be honest--but he is a perfect _villain_!"
"Hold on, now. Let"s go easy. Maybe it isn"t so bad as it sounds."
"Not so bad! Hubert Appleton, do you mean to tell me that you would, for a minute, think of allowing your niece to _marry_ such a man?"
Appleton smiled into the outraged eyes of his wife.
"Yup. I think I would," he replied, and then hastened to add:
"Wait here and I will fetch Blood River Jack. He may have told more than he knows, or he may not have told all he knows. When you come to think of it, from what he _did_ tell, we only jumped at conclusions."
He hurried from the office, returning a few minutes later with the half-breed, who seated himself and lighted the proffered cigar with evident enjoyment.
"Now, Jack," Appleton began, speaking with his accustomed brevity, "tell us about Monsieur Bill and this sister of yours. Did you say he was going to marry her?"
The guide looked from one to the other as if silently taking their measure. Finally he seemed satisfied.
"No," he said gravely, "he will not marry Jeanne."
The lumberman cleared his throat and waited while the man looked out upon the whirling snow, for well he knew that the half-breed must be allowed to take his own time--he could not be "pumped." And Mrs.
Appleton, taking her cue from her husband, curbed her impatience, and waited with apparent unconcern.
"It is," the guide began, as if carefully weighing his words, "that you are the good friends of M"s"u" Bill. Also I have seen that you know the men of the logs.
"Wa-ha-ta-na-ta, my mother, who is old and very wise, knows the men of the logs, and, knowing them, hated M"s"u" Bill, and would have returned him to the river, but Jeanne prevented. For Wa-ha-ta-na-ta, knowing of the fatherless breeds of the rivers, hated all white men, and a great fear was in her heart for the girl, who is her daughter, and the daughter of Lacombie whom, she says, was the one good white man; but Lacombie is dead.
"So always in the days of the summer, when these two would leave the lodge to visit the deserted camp of Moncrossen, Wa-ha-ta-na-ta followed them. Stealthily and unknown she crept upon their trail, and always her sharp eyes were upon them, and in the fold of her blanket was concealed a long, keen blade, and behind the unfailing gaze of the black eyes was the mind to kill.
"Thus pa.s.sed the days of the summer, and the hand of Wa-ha-ta-na-ta was stayed, but her vigilance remained unrelenting. For deep in her heart is seared the memory of two winters ago, when Moncrossen gazed upon the beauty of Jeanne, and came to the tepee in the night, knowing I was away, and Wa-ha-ta-na-ta fought him in the darkness until he fled, cursing and swearing vengeance.
"Never since that night has the girl been safe, for Moncrossen, with the cunning of the wolf, is waiting his time--and some day he will strike!
"But I shared not the fear of my mother that harm would come to Jeanne at the hand of the great _chechako_, for I have looked into his eyes, and I know that his heart is good.