God's Country-And the Woman

ught Jean watching him furtively. He made no effort to force a conversation, and when he had finished his pipe he rose and went to the tent which they were to share together. At last he found hi

ted to

the hundred questions which he had asked himself that day, and in the end Josephine remained as completely enshrouded in mystery as ever. Yet of one thing was he convinced. The oppression of the thing under which Jean and the girl were fighting had become more acute with th

d in him the unrest and doubt that sunshine and day had dispelled. An uneasy slumber came at last with this disquiet. His mind was filled with fitful dreams. Again he was back with Radisson and MacTavish, listening to the foxes out on the

, listening, and wondering if the cry had been real. As he sat tense and still in the half daze of the sleep it came again. It was the shrill laughing carnival of a loon out on the lake. More than once he had laughed at comrades who had shivered

d, hung low in the west. The lake lay in a silvery and unruffled shimmer. Through the silence there came to him from a great distanc

to a block of birch twenty paces from the door of Josephine's tent. His head had fallen forward on his chest. He was asleep, but across his knees lay his rifle, gripped tightly in both hands. Quick

e slept? As silently as he had approached he moved away until he stood in the sand at the shore of the lake. There he looked back. He could just see Jean, a dark blot; and all at once the unfairness of his suspicion came upon him. To him Josephine had given proofs of her

was in the air, the stillness of the forest, in the appearance of the stars and moon. To prove himself he looked at his w

he camp did he stop. Then something happened to betray the uneasy tension to which his nerves were drawn. A sudden crash in th

ade the sound, and still chuckling over his nervousness he seated himself o

e darkness was drawing in like a curtain. He loved this hour that bridged the northern night with the northe

ruck it with a stick. And then there swooped down from out of the cover of the black spruce a gray cloudlike thing that came with the silence and lightness of a huge snowflake, hovered for an instant over the porcupine, and disappeared into the darkness beyond. An

till lower notes of the owls, their night's hunt done, and seeking now the densest covers for the day. And then, from deep back in the forests, came a cry that was filled with both hunger and defiance-the wailing howl of a wolf. With these night sounds came the first cheep, cheep, cheep of the little brush sparrow, still drowsy and uncertain, but faintly he

had wondered how they would meet that morning. His face flushed warm as he approached her. The thrill of their kiss was still on his lips, and his heart sent the memory of it burning in his eyes as he came up, Josephine turned to greet him. She was pale and calm. There were dark lines under her eyes, and her voice was steady and without

ell, Josephine. Did I disturb

ut the cries of that terrible bird out on

back in the timber as he cut an armful of dry birch, and he returned to Jean and the girl laughing, the wood piled to his chin and the axe under his arm. Neither showed that they had heard him. The meal was eaten in a chilly silence that filled him with deepest foreboding. J

He was fumbling for it when his heart gave a g

ili

ed him by his name. And yet the speaking of it seemed to put a distance between t

hinking," she said. "It was a terrible

he saw how heroically she was fi

each Adare House. And that is what I dread, the hour when you will know what I am, and how terrible it was for me

he would not dare to have

you as your husband, you knew what I would find at Ada

es

ave me go on? Is it because"-he leaned toward her, and his

do not blame you for what happened last night. The fault was mine. And I have come to you now, so that you will understand that, no matter how I may appear and act, I have faith and trust in you. I would

pathetic as she t

mply because you are a knight among men, and because you have promised. Th

ould be little less than brutal. She had given him to understand that from now on he was to hold himself toward her with greater res

t he had found Josephine alone, had declared that love for her before he knew her name, and had followed it up by act and word which he now felt to be dishonourable. And yet, after all, would he have recalled what had happened if he could? He asked himself that question as he

dinner, and they went on. At times Josephine used her paddle, and not once during the day did she sit

tic, and overhead was a gray-dun mass of racing cloud. A dozen times Jean turned his face anxiously from the fire into the north, and h

"The wind will grow, M'si

d off his outer garments, and buried himself in his sleeping bag. For a long time he lay awake and listened to the increasing wail of the wind in the tall spruce tops. It was not new to him. For months he had fallen asleep with t

e later, wrapped close in a thick red Hudson's Bay coat, and with a marten-skin cap on her head. Something in her first appearance, the picturesqueness of her dress, the jauntiness of the little cap, and the first flush of the fire in her face filled

rly in the afternoon the wind rose again, and Croisset ran alongside them to sug

ded. "If it is not impossible we

ght," replied Jean. "A

ept over the bow i

s." She turned to Philip, as if needing his argument against J

said Philip. "How far

ied Jean, as a wave sent another dash of water ove

oked at J

until to-morrow, Josephine. Look at that s

ht like last night. Why, if anything should happen to us"-she flung back her head and smiled bravely at him through the mist of her w

lf-breed, who had drift

d. "We can make it by keeping

eur; but J

e saw the old life and strength in his face again a

ine looked back she marvelled at the man behind her, bare-headed, his hair drenched, his arms naked to the elbows, and his clear gray eyes always smi

s four miles from Adare House. But ahead of us the wind ru

girl, answering for Ph

ith each minute's progress. Shouting for Jean to hold his canoe for

said. "Pass the dunnage ahead of you to take the place

uched an object in the bottom of the canoe as she came close to him. It was one of his moccasins. She saw now his naked throat and chest. He had s

st comrade in a canoe that I ever saw. Now if we go over all I've got

n's shout came back to him every minute on the wind, and over Josephine's head he answered. He was glad that it was so dark the girl could not see what was ahead of them now. Once or twice his own breath stopped short, when it seemed that the canoe had taken the fatal plunge which he

houted. "Another mile and we wi

e's cap had fallen off, and for a moment his

t?" he cried. "We

ivered. "And

fell from Croisset. Like shadows they moved up the stream between two black walls of forest. A steadily increasing excitement, a feeling that he was upon the eve of strange events, grew stronger in Philip. His arms and back ached, his legs were cramped, the last of his splendid strength had been called upon in the fight with wind

he canoe with her hands. For fifteen minutes more there was not a sound but the dip of the paddles and the monotone of the wind sweeping through the forest tops. Then the dog howled again, much nearer; and this time he was joined by a second, a third, and a fou

Croisset brok

scent, ma Josephine, and they a

y that involuntarily Philip held his canoe back. In another moment Josephine had stepped lightly over the side in a foot of water. He could not see what happened then, except that the bar was filled with a shadowy horde of leaping, crowding, yelping beasts, and that Josephine was the centre of them. He heard her voice clear and command

rift across the skies, and for an instant the moon shone through.

made him stare. A sea of great shaggy heads and crouching bodies surrounded her, a fierce yellow and green-eyed horde flattened like a single beast upon their bellies their heads turned toward her, their throats swelling and their ey

coming,