Chapter 13

Meanwhile the wound momentarily changed. The arm began to swell and darken; and Garth knew there was no time to lose. He made one attempt to proceed, kneading the flesh of the arm very gently to explore the broken ends of the bone--but Natalie's piteous cry of pain completely unmanned him. He desisted, shaking like a leaf, and sick with compassion; and he knew he would never be able to do it.

What seemed like an age passed; though it was no more than a few minutes. He was bending over her, doing what little he could to ease her pain; and with knotted brows rapidly considering, and rejecting, one after another, the desperate expedients that suggested themselves. Suddenly looking up he perceived among the trees, at the distance of a few paces, Rina standing. Hot anger instantly welled up in his breast, and made a red blur before his eyes. Rina's sex was no protection to her then. He picked up his gun.

Observing the action, Rina mutely spread her hands, palms outward. Her entire aspect had changed; the storm of passion had passed; and she stood contrite and sullen. It was impossible for the blindest passion to shoot at a figure in such an attitude. Garth lowered his gun; but he still kept it across his knees, and his face did not relax. The woman was loathsome to him.

"What do you want?" he demanded coldly.

Rina came a little closer. "I sorry," she said sulkily--like a child unwillingly confessing a fault. "I t'ink I go looney for a while. I not hear right. I t'ink she try to tak' my 'osban' from me!"

Garth glanced at the suffering Natalie with contracted brows. "That's all very well!" he said bitterly. "But it can't undo what's done!"

"I can mak' her well, maybe," said Rina, still affecting indifference. "I know what to do. My mot'er, she teach me. If you let me look at her, I tell you."

A wild hope sprang up in Garth's breast. If the girl were only able to help Natalie, his hate of her could very well content itself a while. But dare he trust her? With keen, hard eyes he sought to read her face. Her own eyes avoided his; and she made a picture of savage indifference; but as he looked he saw two great tears roll down her cheeks. In his desperate situation it was well worth the risk.

Raising his gun, he said coldly: "You may look at her. If you try to injure her, I will send a bullet through your head."

Receiving the permission, Rina came forward, careless of the threatening gun; and dropped to her knees beside Natalie. She examined the wound on both sides; and felt of the fracture with delicate fingers. To judge of the normal position of the bones, she manipulated her own arm. Garth never took his eyes from her; but she was tenderer with the patient than he could have been.

Finally she raised a mask-like face to Garth. "I can fix it," she said. "If you let me."

Whatever her private feelings were, she had a confident air, that could not but convey some assurance to him. He nodded silently; after what he had suffered, he scarcely dared believe in such good fortune.

Rina quickly rose. "You mak' a fire to heat water," she said coolly. "I go to bring everyt'ing."

With the words, she was gone among the trees; and Garth, overjoyed to be able to do something with his hands, hastened to build a fire.

Before he really expected her, she was back with what she needed, a pot for heating the water, a basin, several kinds of herbs, some strips of yellowed linen for bandages, a blanket and a knife. While the water was heating, she cut a deep segment of the smooth white bark of a young poplar for a splint--the curve of it was judged to a nicety to fit Natalie's arm. During the operation of setting the bone, Garth watched her unswervingly, clenching his teeth to bear the spectacle of Natalie's agony. For every pang of hers he suffered a sharper; the sweat coursed down his face.

But at last it was over; the wound washed and fomented with bruised leaves, the splint fitted snug, and the whole neatly bandaged. Natalie, wrapped in the blanket, soon fell into the sleep of exhaustion.

Rina looked at the pale and shaken Garth with an odd expression. "If you have whiskey, better tak' a drink," she suggested.

Garth had his flask; and he obeyed without question.

Throughout the operation, Rina had preserved an admirable, professional air, intent and impersonal; and when necessary she had brusquely ordered Garth to help her. Now that it was all over her face altered; she continued to kneel at Natalie's side, gazing at her soft hair, and the whiteness of her skin with a kind of sad and jealous wonder.

Garth on the alert at the change, which portended he knew not what explosion of passion in the savage woman's breast, ordered her from Natalie's side. She obeyed, resuming her sullen mask, but lingered near him, plainly full of some question she desired to ask. He observed for the first, a purpling bruise above her temple. Rina saw his eyes upon it, and her colour changed.

"I run against a tree," she hastily volunteered.

At the same time her hand stole to her throat to hide certain marks on its dusky roundness. Garth knew instinctively that she was loyally lying. Mabyn had beaten her. He wondered how far the wish to serve the woman she had injured was Rina's own impulse and how far she had been forced to it by Mabyn. He began dimly to conceive that the red woman had good qualities.

At last the question on her breast was spoken. "Who is she?" she asked, pointing sullenly at the sleeping Natalie.

Garth rapidly considered what he should answer. He could not pretend to himself that he had forgiven the woman; but since Natalie's pain was mitigated he was cooler; and his sense of justice forced it home on him that Rina, too, had been through her ordeal. In his present desperate situation, his only chance of assistance lay in her--Mabyn was an egomaniac, and utterly irresponsible. Frankness had served Garth in good stead before this; and finally he told her the plain truth in such terms that she could understand.

"This feeling Mabyn has for her," he insisted in the end, "is only a passing one. If we can get her out of his sight all will go on as before."

Rina nodded. Her inscrutable face softened a little, he thought. "I on'erstan' now," she said quietly. "So I not go crazy wit' t'inking about it."

Garth was glad he had told her.

Rina stood studying him with her strange and secret air. "You love her ver' moch," she said suddenly, pointing to Natalie.

Garth bent over the sleeping figure in a way that answered her better than words.

"I t'ink she love you too," said Rina gravely. "When I 'urt her, she try not to cry because it 'urt you so bad."

A slow red crept under Garth's skin. He hated to betray himself under the eyes of the red woman; and he bustled about, averting his face from her. "When can she be moved?" he asked, brusquely changing the subject.

Rina shook her head. "I not know," she said. "Maybe she have fever. Three, four week maybe."

Garth's heart sunk heavily, as he considered their scanty supplies, the approach of winter--and, more dangerous still, the fruitful opportunities of conflict the weeks would offer to four souls so strangely opposed, and so strangely bound together in the wilderness.

"What is Mabyn doing now?" he asked suddenly.

Rina's face instantly became as blank as plaster. "I not talk to you about him," she said coolly.

Garth was conscious of receiving a rebuke.

"But I help you," she added presently. "I go bring your outfit in."

Before she went, she brewed a draught for Natalie with some of the herbs she had brought; and instructed Garth to administer it when she woke. For an instant all Garth's suspicions returned; and he looked at her hard. Rina, divining his thought, coolly lifted the pail to her lips, and drank of it. Once more he felt himself rebuked.

Left alone, his thoughts reverted to Mabyn. What would he have been plotting all this time? he wondered; what stand would he take in this new posture of affairs? It was too much to hope, he decided, that one so selfish and so jealous could be persuaded to sink his animosity against Garth, for the purpose of serving Natalie while she lay injured. Garth's business had made him more or less familiar with the workings of the diseased ego; and he was convinced that Mabyn, if for nothing else, hated him intolerably for having been the spectator of his repulse by Natalie.

As time passed, Natalie began to stir and mutter in her sleep and Garth, bending over her, fearful of fever, put the man out of his head. Returning to her from the edge of the lake, with cloths wrung out of cold water, he found her with wide eyes and flushed cheeks.

"Send him away! Send him away!" she muttered. "I cannot have him near me!"

At first he thought her mind wandered, but following the direction of her eyes, he saw the figure of a man skulking among the trees; and his face grimmed. Soothing her, he offered Rina's drink; and it had an immediate effect. She dropped off to sleep again. Then Garth picked up his gun and strode toward Mabyn.

The man waited for him with an air oddly mixed of fear and bravado. As Garth came close he smiled in a way that he intended to be ingratiating--but Mabyn's smile only rendered him more hideous. Garth's first look made sure that both his hands were empty.

"Is there anything I can do?" Mabyn asked with apparent solicitude.

"Yes, keep away from here," returned Garth curtly. "If I catch you within a hundred yards of my camp, I'll wing you so you won't move again as long as we're here."

Mabyn assumed an aggrieved expression. "You needn't take that tone," he grumbled. "I came in friendliness. I want to have a talk with you."

"I'm listening," said Garth.

Mabyn twisted uneasily. "Damn it! How can a man make friendly advances when you're standing over him with a gun!" he said.

"Say what you've got to say, or clear out," said Garth.

The aggrieved air proving ineffectual, Mabyn substituted offended silence; offered to go; and came back. "Well, look here!" he said at last. "This is it. Here are the three of us up here----"

"Four," amended Garth.

"Well, four if you like," said Mabyn. "We're stuck here together. We can't afford to quarrel. We've got to have some working agreement."

"Is that all?" said Garth uncompromisingly.

Mabyn looked around with the air of a much-tried man, appealing to the bystanders--that they were only indifferent trees, rather spoiled the effect. "I wouldn't take this from any man if it wasn't that I was bent on avoiding trouble," he blustered.

Garth suppressed the scornful inclination to laugh.

"Look here," began Mabyn afresh, with a reasonable air. "I came to offer you the shack for Natalie. She can't sleep in the open in her condition."

"Much obliged," said Garth coolly. "I intended to take it in the first place. But Miss Bland refused to allow herself to be carried there."

Mabyn's eyes bolted. His control over his facial muscles was imperfect; and the struggle between the open character he desired to convey, and the secret feelings that tortured him, was plain. "What are you going to do?" he asked.

"Build her a house," said Garth.

Mabyn, turning his back, appeared to be considering.

"Is that all you have to say?" asked Garth.

The other turned a face of obstinate friendliness and good will. "Look here--" he began all over. "I don't know your name----"

Garth informed him.

"Well, Pevensey, I'm sorry for what passed this morning. I regret what I said. I was only half awake; and scarcely knew what I did. Will you overlook it?"

"Talk is cheap," said Garth guardedly. "I will be guided by your actions henceforth." But his voice was milder; for an apology could not help but speak to his sense of generosity.

Mabyn, encouraged, amplified his penitent, ingratiating air. "As to the future," he said, "I mean to show you. You'll soon be satisfied!" He came closer. "In the meantime let's make a truce! Shake hands on it!"

Garth thoroughly distrusted the man; but he could see no harm to Natalie in accepting his offer, while privately determining to relax none of his vigilance. It was only too true, as Mabyn had said; neither could afford to quarrel. Mabyn had no gun, and Garth could not leave Natalie's side for an instant.

"I am willing," said Garth readily. "But it's understood this doesn't affect what I said before. You are not to come within a hundred yards of this camp!"

Mabyn shrugged, as at the unworthiness of Garth's suspicions.

"You agree to it?" Garth persisted.

"All right!" said Mabyn--a shade too readily. "Shake!"

Garth shifted his gun; and advanced to take Mabyn's hand. The man could not keep an ugly little gleam from showing in his shifty gray eye; and Garth stopped abruptly. Mabyn sneered. Garth, fired by one of the imperious impulses of the blood of youth, strode forward and grasped the extended hand defiantly.

He saw instantly his mistake. Mabyn's face was suddenly transfigured by the deadly hatred he had long repressed. His right hand closed on Garth's like a vice; and at the same time a knife slipped out of his sleeve into the other hand. He jerked the surprised Garth halfway round; and aimed a blow between his shoulders. Garth was oddly conscious of the fresh marks of the whetstone on the blade of the knife. With the incredible swiftness of our subconscious moves, he dropped his useless gun; and twisting his body around, flung up his free hand, and warded the descending blow. Seizing Mabyn's wrist, he flung himself forward to bear the other back.

It was all very brief. Mabyn, braced to receive Garth's weight, held his ground. Inspired with a febrile strength, he enjoyed a temporary advantage. Unable to reach Garth's back, he thrust desperately at his face, his neck--but only stabbed the air. They were locked together with their arms crossed--surely as strange a posture as ever men fought in! But Mabyn had staked all on the first blow; and that failing, there could be but one result. His fictitious strength suddenly failing, he collapsed in Garth's arms. Garth wrenched his hand free and hurled him to the ground, where he lay, livid and sobbing for breath. The attack had been contrived with devilish cunning; but every design this man undertook in life was foredoomed to failure.

Garth secured the knife; and stood looking down at the broken wretch, with strong waves of disgust welling over him. He laughed briefly.

"Too contemptible to kill!" he said; and turned on his heel.

XVII

THE CLUE TO RINA

Rina brought all four horses handily through the wood, bringing up the rear on the back of old Cy. She slipped off beside Garth, and looked in the direction where Natalie lay.

"Still sleeping," Garth said.

As Rina's eyes fell on him, they suddenly widened; and plain fear broke through the mask of her face. "'Erbe't been here!" she said breathlessly.

"How do you know?" he said in surprise.

Rina pointed to his belt. "You got his knife!" she said. "How you get his knife?"

"He tried to murder me with it," said Garth, watching her face narrowly.

Rina had no more thought for Natalie. "Where is he?" she said agitatedly. "W'at you do to him?"

"I let him go," Garth said carelessly. "Murder is not exactly in my line."

"He try to kill you an' you let him go!" she breathed incredulously. Plainly such magnanimity was outside her ken. She walked away from him, considering it.

Presently she came back with a swift glide. "You got to promise me not to 'urt 'Erbe't!" she said, threateningly and passionately.

"If he attacks me, I defend myself--and her," Garth said coolly.

Rina studied the ground. It was impossible for him to tell what was going on behind her inscrutable eyes. In a moment she went to Natalie as if nothing had happened; and dropping beside her, listened attentively to her breathing. Garth, ever watchful, followed her close. When she arose, they moved off a little to avoid disturbing the patient; and Rina briefly instructed Garth what he should do during the night.

Garth, not satisfied with merely knowing what to do, asked the reason of her various measures; whereupon Rina became suddenly evasive.

"But I must know why you do these things," he insisted.

Rina looked away. "I not tell you," she said coolly.

"What does this mean?" he demanded, surprised and frowning.

Rina met his eyes. "Nobody but me can mak' her well," she said boldly. "I mak' her well if you not 'urt 'Erbe't. If you go after 'Erbe't, she can die. I not look at her no more!"

This at least was honest; and Garth could respect such an opponent. "He's safe!" he said coolly. "Provided he keeps away from here."

Rina vouchsafed no comment. "I come to-morrow," she said and disappeared through the trees.

* * * * *

The horses offered Garth his next problem. Since immediately they were turned out they would bolt for the sweet grass of the prairie above, there was no way in which he could secure them from Mabyn, or keep them within reach against a time of need. They might stray for miles over the plains before he could leave Natalie long enough to round them up. But there was no help for it; the beasts would all die of starvation, if he attempted to keep them in his camp. There was a little grass between the willows and the timber; and he determined to keep old Cy picketed nearby, to be sure of one mount in the case of an emergency. The other three he hobbled, hung a bell around Emmy's neck, and turned them loose.

He was now able to make Natalie more comfortable. Putting up her tent, he spread a bed of balsam within, and her own blankets upon it. The next time she awoke, he carried her inside; and at the door of the tent, where he could look at her, and speak to her, he cooked her the best invalid's supper the grub-box and his own skill could afford. This same grub-box was an ever-fresh cause of anxiety to him; allowing for liberal contributions from his own gun, he could not see much more than a week's supply for two. This he kept to himself, however, while he joked and made light of their situation for Natalie's benefit. She was very quiet; she did not suffer much, she said; but she had little humour to talk. When Garth thought of her, only the day before, galloping over the prairie, he ground his teeth afresh. But the silver lining of this blackest cloud of his was that in her weakness she clung to him unreservedly.

Some time after supper she fell asleep again; and Garth prepared for his night-long vigil. His head was much too busy to allow of any desire for sleep. Sitting in the dark, he faced the situation open-eyed. There they were in the remotest wilderness, imprisoned in the narrow valley by Natalie's injury for weeks to come; with insufficient food and inclement weather in prospect, and without the remotest chance of succour from the outside. Moreover, there hovered about them an implacable and half-insane enemy, whose busy brain was bent on Garth's destruction. The outlook was enough to unnerve the strongest; there were things in it that Garth in his courage could only glance at, and hurriedly avert the eyes of his mind.

The night was so still he could hear the breathing of the horse at fifty paces. He had let the fire die down, for fear its loud crackling would awaken Natalie. Overhead the Northern lights flung their ragged pennons across the zenith, with a ghostly echo of rustling. He suddenly became conscious of distant human voices in the void of stillness; and presently distinguished the voice of Mabyn. Rina's answers he could not hear, though he sensed a second voice. The sound was from the neighbourhood of the hut.

Garth was tempted by the opportunity to discover at the same time the plans of his enemy, and Rina's true disposition toward himself. He glanced at Natalie; she had but lately fallen asleep, and was sleeping soundly; there were no animals abroad that could harm her; he need be gone but half an hour. The rôle of eavesdropper was not at all attractive to him; but he felt he had no right to refuse to use any weapon that offered. Finally he fastened the flaps of Natalie's tent, replenished the fire, and stole away through the trees.

He crossed the stony watercourse to the left of the usual place and mounted the slope. Coming closer, he satisfied himself that the speakers were sitting on the bench at the door of the shack. In the darkness he almost fell across the figure of the little cayuse, prone in the grass. The animal scrambled to its feet and trotted away. Garth paused, listening, his heart in his throat--but Mabyn's voice presently went on undisturbed.

He finally gained the top of the rise; and let himself down in the grass, distant some thirty feet from them. A flash of lightning--or even the lighting of a lantern would have revealed him clearly.

He instantly understood that he was the subject of their talk.

"It's his life or mine," in Mabyn's blustering whine were the first words he distinctly heard.

"He could kill you to-day, and he let you go," Rina quietly returned.

"That's a lie!" blustered Mabyn. "How do you know?" he added inconsequentially.

"He tak' your knife from you. I saw it in his belt," said Rina. "And he let you go."

Mabyn made no reply.

"He say to me he not 'urt you, if you keep away from there," Rina went on.

"Keep away!" Mabyn fumed. "This is my place! I'll go where I choose on it! He's trespassing on my land! I've a right to drive him off! I've a right to kill him if he doesn't go!"

"He will hear you!" said Rina warningly.

"Let him hear me!" said the man--nevertheless he lowered his voice. "They're a quarter-mile off," he added.

"Listen!" said Rina.

Over the lake, from an immeasurable distance, came throbbing the imbecile laughter of a loon.

"Loon, him three miles off," said Rina significantly.

Thereafter, Mabyn spoke in a whisper; a wheedling note crept into his voice. "That was a good scheme of yours, going to the camp to set the girl's arm," he said. "Now we can find out all they do!"

"I not go to find out," said Rina sadly. "I go for I sorry I 'urt her. I shoot her jus' lak a breed I am!"

Mabyn paid no attention to this. "Keep your eyes open when you're in their camp every day," he urged. "See how much food they have; find out where he keeps the shells for his gun. If you could only steal the gun!"

"He carry it always on his back," said Rina. "He never put it down."

"I know, he's on his guard now," said Mabyn. "But if you act friendly all the time, he'll forget. We've got plenty of time; do nothing for a few days. I'll keep away from there too. He'll think it's all right. _Then_"--Mabyn's whisper was pure venom--"sneak up behind him and knock him on the head with an axe! Choose a moment when the girl is asleep or delirious. We will throw his body in the lake. No one will ever know how it happened!"

There was a pause.

"Will you do it?" said Mabyn eagerly.

Rina remained silent.

Mabyn cursed her under his breath. "I believe this smooth-faced young whelp has cast an eye on you too," he snarled. "You're false to me!"

A low cry was forced from Rina's lips; she made a rapid move; and Garth understood that she had thrown herself at the man's feet. "'Erbe't, you know you don' speak true," she whispered painfully. "You my 'osban'! All men I hate, but you!"

"Then do what I tell you," snarled Mabyn.

"'Erbe't!" she pleaded rapidly and urgently. "Let them go! What have they got to do with us? To-morrow I go to him. I tell him how to mak' her well. The man will give me a horse and things. An' you and I will ride to the Rice River people. They are my people. They will give me a gun. We will be so ver' happy, and not think of this man and this woman any more!"

"You can go, and be damned to you!" said Mabyn sullenly. "I stay on my own place!"