No More Learning

The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The cricket's song, in the warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
The grasshopper's among some grassy hills.

JOHN KEATS.




A DEAL IN BEARS


When a whaling ship is beset in the ice of Davis Straits, there is
little work for her second engineer, once the engines have been nicely
tallowed down. Now, I am no man that can sit in his berth and laze. If
I've no work to do, I get a-thinking about my home at [v]Ballindrochater
and the ministry, which my father intended I should have adorned, and
what a fool I've made of myself, and this is depressing. I was not
over-popular already on the _Gleaner_ on account of some prophecies I
had made in anger, which had unfortunately come true. The crew, and the
captain, too, had come to fear my prophetic powers.

At last I bethought me of sporting on the ice. There was head-money
offered for all bears, foxes, seals, musk-oxen, and such like that were
shot and gathered. So I went to the skipper, and he gave me a Henry
rifle, well rusted, and eight cartridges.

"Show me you can use those, McTodd," says he, "and I'll give you more. "

I made a big mistake with that rusty old gun. I may be a sportsman, but
before that I'm an engineer, and it seemed to me that Heaven sent metal
into this world to be kept bright and clean. So I took the rifle all to
pieces and made the parts as smooth and sweet as you'd see in a
gun-maker's shop, barring rust-pits, and gave them a nice daubing of oil
against the Arctic weather. Then I put on some thick clothes I had
made, and all the other clothes I could get loaned me, and climbed out
over the rail on to the [v]floe.

The _Gleaner_ lay in a bay some two miles from the shore, and let me
tell you, if you do not know it, that Arctic ice is no skating-rink.
There are great hills, and knolls, and bergs, and valleys spread all
over, and even where it's about level, the underfoot is as hard going as
a newly-metalled road before the steam-roller has passed over it.

The air was clear enough when I left the bark, and though the [v]mercury
was out of use and coiled up snugly in the bulb, it wasn't as cold as
you might think, for just then there was no wind. It's a breeze up in
the Arctic that makes you feel the chill. There was no sun, of course;
there never is sun up there in that dreary winter: but the stars were
burning blue and clear, and every now and then a big [v]catherine wheel
of [v]aurora would show off, for all the world like a firework
exhibition.

My! but it was lonely, though, once you had left the ship behind! There
was just the scrunching of your feet on the frost [v]rime, and not
another sound in the world. Even the ice was frozen too hard to squeak.
And overhead in that purple-black Heaven you never knew Who was looking
down at you. Out there in that cold, bare, black, icy silence, I had
occasion to remember that Neil Angus McTodd had been a sinner in his
time, and it made me shiver when I glanced up toward those blue, cold
stars and the deep purple darkness that lay between and behind them.

It may be that I was thinking less of my hunting than was advisable, for
of a sudden I woke up to the sound of heavy feet padding over the crisp
frost rime. I turned me round sharply enough, but as far as the dim
light carried there was nothing alive to be seen through the gloom. As
soon as I stopped, the footsteps stopped, too, and I don't mind
admitting that my scalp tickled.

However, when I'd hauled up the hammer of the Henry, and it dropped into
position with a good, wholesome _cluck_, my nervousness very soon
filtered out. There's a comfort about a heavy-bore rifle like a
Henry--which is the kind always used by whalers and sealers--that you
can't get from those fancy little guns. And then, as it seemed that the
animal, whatever it might be, wasn't going to move till I did, I
shuffled my high sealskin boots on the crisp snow to make believe that I
was tramping again.

The creature started after me promptly. It was hard to tell the
direction, because every sound in that icy silence was echoed by a
thousand bergs and hummocks of ice; but presently from behind a small
splintered ridge of the floe there strolled out what seemed to me the
largest bear in the Arctic regions. You must know that the night air
there has a [v]deceptive light--it enlarges things--and the beast
appeared to me as standing some five feet six inches high at the
shoulder, and measuring some twenty feet from nose to tail.

There was myself and there was the bear in the dark middle of that awful
loneliness, with no one to interfere; and as there was only one of us to
get home, I preferred it should not be he. So I took a brace on myself,
and stood with the Henry ready to fire.

There was nothing you might call [v]diffidence about that bear. He
slouched along up to me at a steady walk, with the hair and skin on him
swinging about as though it was too large for his carcass and he was
wearing a misfit. He seemed to look upon me as dinner, and no hurry
needful. There was a sort of calm certainty about him that made me
angry.

I was not what you might call a marksman in those days, and so I set a
bit of [v]hummock about ten yards off as a limit where I could not very
conveniently miss, and waited until the bear should come opposite that.
Well, he came to it right enough in his own time. There was, as I have
said before, no diffidence about the creature. And then I raised the
Henry and fired her off.

_Cluck_ went the hammer on the nipple, but there was no bang.

My! it was a misfire, and there was the bear coming down on me as steady
and unconcerned as a [v]traction engine! I clawed out that cartridge
and crammed in another. The bitter cold of the metal skinned my fingers
like escaping steam. Then I cocked the gun again, shouldered it, and
pulled trigger again.

Once more she wouldn't go off!

The bear was now nearly on top of me and was beginning to rear on its
hind legs. Somehow the rifle came into my hand muzzle-end, and I hit the
great brute across the eyes with the butt hard enough to have felled an
ox.

I might as well have struck it with a cane. _Whack_ came a big
yellow-white paw, the Henry went flying, and my wrists tingled with the
jar; and there was I left looking, I've no doubt you'll think, very
humorous.

The bear might have finished me then if it had chosen. But it must needs
turn aside to go snuffling at the rifle and lick the oil off the locks.
I turned and footed it.

Now, at the best of times, I am no [v]sprinter, and in the great
mountain of clothes one wears up there in the cold Arctic night, no man
can make much speed. Besides, the way was that uneven it was a case of
hands and scramble more often than plain running over the sharp, spiky
level.

The bear, once he had finished his snuffle and lick at the Henry, came
on at a dreadful pace, making nothing of those obstacles that balked
me,--he had been born up there, you know. He laid himself out--I could
see over my shoulder--like one of those American trotting horses, caring
nothing for the ups and downs and ankle-breaking ice. In about two
shakes he was snorting at my heels again, till I could almost feel his
hot breath. The bundle of clothes hampered me. I stripped off my outer
over-all and let it drop behind me.

The bear stopped and snuffed that, but I didn't stay to watch him. I got
a good fifty [v]fathoms ahead of him whilst he was thus occupied. But
presently, when he'd got all his satisfaction out of that, on he comes
again, and I had to give him my coat. I hadn't a chance of equaling him
in pace, but the trick with the clothing never tired him. Fifty fathoms
was the least gain I made over a single piece, and as I got lower down
toward my skin he stayed over the clothes longer.

But still the _Gleaner_ was a long way off, over very tumbled ice, and
there I was careering on in a costume which was barely enough for
decency, and certainly insufficient for the climate.

However, it was little enough the bear cared for such refinements as
those. I stripped off my last garment as I ran, and gained nigh on two
hundred yards whilst he investigated it; and there were the bark's upper
spars showing above the hummocks half a mile away, with me in nothing
but my long seal-skin boots!

But there was no help for it. Up came the hot breath behind me, and I
leaned up against a hummock and stripped off a boot. I hailed the
_Gleaner_ with what breath I had left, but no one gave heed. Away went
the other boot, and there I was running, mother-naked, over the jagged
floe, leaving blood on every footmark.

Right up to the vessel did the outrageous beast chase me, and then when
I got on board and called for guns, it slunk away into the shadows of a
berg and was seen no more. My feet were cut to the bone; I was
frost-nipped in twenty places, and you may imagine I had had a poor
enough time of it. But the thought of that canvas over-all which I had
thrown away first kept me cheerful. It was indeed a very humorous
circumstance. Ye see it was a borrowed one.

I got down below to a berth, and the steward, who was rated as a doctor,
tended me. But Captain Black put sourness on the whole affair. He came
down to my bunk and said, "Where's that Henry? "

"Lying quiet on the ice," said I.

"Do you mean to say you left that rifle behind? My rifle! "

"I did that same. The thing wasn't strong enough to fire a cartridge. I
tried two. "

And then Black used violent and unjustifiable language. I was in no
condition to give him a fair exchange. Besides, I made an unfortunate
admission. I owned up to taking the rifle apart and cleaning her. I
owned up, too, that I'd been free with the oil.

Black stuck out his face at me, and his fringe of beard fairly bristled.

"And you call yourself an engineer! You talk about having gone through
the shops! Put your filthy engine-room oil on my Henry's locks, would
you? Why, you idiot, have you yet to learn that oil freezes up here as
hard as cheese, and you've made up the lock space of that poor rifle
into one solid chunk? "

"I never thought of that. "

"To look at your face, you've yet to start thinking at all. "

So we had it out, and as I was now aroused, I gave him some words on the
inefficient way he ran his ship. At last I threatened to prophesy again,
and this cooled him off. I offered to go hunting bears for him and he
became quite polite.

"I'll make you an offer touching those bears," he said. "For every skin
you bring here aboard, I'll give you seven shillings [v]bonus above your
share as a member of the ship's company. I'll give you another rifle,
two rifles if you like, and a fine bag of cartridges. But, you beggar, I
make one condition. You take yourself off and away from the ship to do
your hunting. You may make yourself a snow house to stay in, and live on
the meat you kill. "

"You wish to murder me? "

"I wish to be rid of you, and that's the truth. Man, I believe you're
Jonah resurrected. We've had no luck since first you put your foot on my
deck planks. And, what's more, the crew is of my way of thinking. So,
refuse my offer, and I'll put you in irons and keep you there till I can
fling you ashore at [v]Dundee. "

Now there is no doubt Black meant what he said, and so I did not waste
dignity by arguing with him. I had no taste for the irons, and as for
being turned out on the ice--well, I had a plan ahead. But I didn't
intend to leave Black more comfortable than I could help.

So I shut my eyes and said that the ship would have very bad luck that
winter, that there would be much sickness aboard. (This was an easy
guess. ) I said, considering this fact, I was glad to leave such an
unwholesome ship.

The crew were just aching to get rid of me. This prophesying sort of
grows on a man; once you've started it, you've got to go on with it at
all costs, and I could no more resist just letting my few remarks slip
round amongst the men than I can resist eating when I'm hungry.

The nerves of the _Gleaner_ people were in strings from the cold and the
blackness of the Arctic night, and it put the horrors on the lot of
them. The one thing they wanted was to see the last of me. They gave me
almost anything I fancied, but my means of transport were small. There
was a bit of a sledge, which I packed with some food, two Henry rifles
and a few tools, five hundred cartridges, and the clothes I stood in. No
more could be taken.

Then I went on deck into the bitter cold and over the side, and stood on
the ice, ready to start on my journey. The crew lined the rail to see me
off, and I can tell you their faces were very different. The older ones
were savage and cared little how soon Jonah might die. The younger ones
were crying to see a fellow driven away into that icy loneliness, far
from shelter.

But for myself I didn't care. I had method in all this performance. Soon
after we were beset in the ice, a family of Esquimaux had come on the
_Gleaner_ to pay a polite call and get what they could out of us. They
were that dirty you could have chipped them with a scaling hammer, but
they were very friendly. One buck who stepped down into the engine
room--[v]Amatikita, he said his name was--had some English, and came to
the point as straight as anything.

"Give me a [v]dlink, Cappie," says he.

"This is a dry ship," says I.

"Plenty dlink in that box," says he, handling an oil-can.

"Oh, if that's what you want, take it," I told him, and he clapped the
nozzle between his lips, and sucked down a gill of [v]cylinder
lubricating oil as though it had been water.

"You seem to like it," I said; "have some more. "

But that was his fill. He thanked me and asked me to visit his village
when I could get away from the ship. And just then some of his friends
were caught pilfering, and the whole crew of them were bundled away.

Now I had noted that most of these Esquimaux had bits of bearskins
amongst their other furs, and it was that I had in mind when I fell out
with Captain Black. Amatikita had pointed out the direction in which his
village lay, and it was to that I intended making my way with as little
delay as possible. But I kept this to myself, and let no word of it slip
out on the _Gleaner_. Indeed, when I was over the bark's rails, I headed
off due north across the ice. I climbed and stumbled on in this
direction till I was well out of their sight and hearing amongst the
hummocks, and then I turned at right angles for the shore.

The cold up yonder in that Arctic night takes away your breath; it seems
to take the manhood out of you. You stumble along gasping. By a chance I
came on an Esquimaux sealing, and he beat and thumped me into
wakefulness. Then he packed me on to his dog-sleigh, and took my own bit
of a sled behind, and set his fourteen-foot whip cracking, and off we
set.

Well, you have to be pretty far gone if you can stay asleep with an
[v]Innuit's dog-sledge jolting and jumping beneath you, and I was well
awakened, especially as the Esquimaux sat on top of me. And so in time
we brought up at the huts, and a good job, too. I'd been tramping in the
wrong direction, so it turned out, and, besides, if I had come to the
village, I might well have walked over the top of it, as it was drifted
up level with snow. There was a bit of a rabbit-hole giving entrance to
each hut, with some three fathoms of tunnel underground, and skin
curtains to keep out the draught, but once inside you might think
yourself in a [v]stoke-hold again. There was the same smell of oil, and
almost the same warmth. I tell you, it was fine after that slicing cold
outside.

It was Amatikita's house I was brought to, and he was very hospitable.
They took off my outer clothes and put them on the rack above the
soapstone lamp to dry, and waited on me most kindly. Indeed, they
recognized me as a superior at once, and kept on doing it. They put
tender young seal-meat in the dish above the lamp, and when it was
cooked I ate my part of the stew, and then got up and took the best
place on the raised sleeping-bench at the farther side of the hut. I cut
a fill for my pipe, lit up and passed the plug, and presently we were
all smoking, happy as you please.

Amatikita spoke up like a man. "Very pleased to see you, Cappie. What
you come for? What you want? "

"You're a man of business," I said. "You waste no time. I like that.
What I want is bearskins. The jackets of big, white, baggy-trousered
polar bears, you know; and I brought along a couple of tip-top rifles
for you to get them with. Now, I make you a fair offer. Get me all the
bears in the North Polar regions, and you shall have my Henrys and all
the cartridges that are left over. And as for the meat, you shall have
that as your own share of the game. "

"You want shoot those bears yourself? "

"Not if I can help it. I'm an engineer, and a good one at that. But as a
sportsman I've had but little experience, and don't seem drawn toward
learning. It is too draughty up here, just at present, for my taste.
I'll stay and keep house, and maybe do a bit of repairing and inventing
among the furniture. I've brought along a hand-vice and a bag of tools
with me, and if you can supply drift-wood and some scrap-iron, I'll make
this turf-house of yours a real cottage. "

The deal was made. I worked away with my tools, and whenever those
powdering winter gales eased for a little, Amatikita and his friends
would go off with the howling dog-sledges and the Henrys, and it was
rare that they'd come back without one bear, and often they'd bring two
or even three. These white bears sleep through the black winter months
in hollows in the cliffs, and the Esquimaux know their lairs, though
it's rare enough they dare tackle them. Small blame, too, you'd say, if
you saw the flimsy bone-tipped lances and harpoons, which are all they
are armed with.

With a good, smashing, heavy-bore Henry rifle it is a different thing.
The Esquimaux were no cowards. They would walk up within a yard of a
bear, when the dogs had ringed it, and blow half its head away with a
single shot. And then they would draw the carcass up to the huts with
the dog trains, and the women would skin and dress the meat, and
Amatikita and the others would gorge themselves.

At last the long winter wore away. Amatikita dived in through the
entrance of the hut one day and told me that the ice-floe was beginning
to break. The news affected me like the blow of a whip. I went out into
the open and found the sun up.
The men were overhauling their skin
canoes. The snow was wet underfoot and seafowl were swooping around. The
floe was still sound where it joined the shore, but two seaward lanes of
blue water showed between the ice, and in one of them a whale was
spouting pale gray mist.

It was high time for me to be off. So the bearskins were fastened by
thongs to the sledges and word was shouted to the dog leader of each
team. The dogs started, and presently away went the teams full tilt, the
sledges leaping and crashing in their wake, with the drivers and a
certain Scotch engineer who was unused to such [v]acrobatics clinging
on top of the packs. My! but yon was a wild ride over the rotten,
cracking, sodden floe, under the fresh, bright sunshine of that Arctic
spring morn!

Presently round the flank of a small ice-berg we came in view of the
_Gleaner_. She was still beset in the ice; but the hands were hard at
work beating the ice from the rigging and cutting a gutter around her in
the floe, so that she might float when the time came. They knocked off
work when we drove up.

"Good-day, Captain Black," I said. "I've been troubling myself over
bearskins, and I'll ask you for seven shillings head money on
twenty-nine. "

"You've shot twenty-nine bears? You're lying to me. "

"The skins are there, and you can count them for yourself. "

His color changed when the Esquimaux passed the skins over the side. And
I clambered aboard the ship along with them.

W. CUTCLIFFE HYNE.


=HELPS TO STUDY=

Tell this story briefly, using your own words. What mistake did
McTodd make in preparing for the hunt? What amused you most? How
did McTodd show his shrewdness, even if he was not a good hunter?
What do you learn about the Arctic region?


SUPPLEMENTARY READING

The Frozen Pirate--W. Clark Russell.
The Casting Away of Mrs. Leeks and Mrs. Aleshine--Frank R. Stockton.




LOCHINVAR


Oh, young Lochinvar is come out of the west:--
Through all the wide Border his steed was the best,
And save his good broadsword he weapons had none;
He rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone.
So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war,
There never was knight like the young Lochinvar.

He stayed not for [v]brake, and he stopped not for stone,
He swam the Esk river where ford there was none;
But ere he alighted at Netherby gate
The bride had consented, the gallant came late:
For a laggard in love, and a dastard in war
Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar.

So boldly he entered the Netherby Hall,
Among bride's-men and kinsmen and brothers and all:
Then spoke the bride's father, his hand on his sword
(For the poor craven bridegroom said never a word),
"Oh, come ye in peace here, or come ye in war,
Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar? "

"I long wooed your daughter, my suit you denied;--
Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide--
And now am I come with this lost love of mine,
To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine.
There are maidens in Scotland more lovely by far,
That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar. "

The bride kissed the goblet; the knight took it up,
He quaffed of the wine, and he threw down the cup.
She looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh,
With a smile on her lips and a tear in her eye.
He took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar,--
"Now tread we a measure! " said young Lochinvar.

So stately his form, and so lovely her face,
That never a hall such a [v]galliard did grace;
While her mother did fret, and her father did fume,
And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume,
And the bride-maidens whispered, "'Twere better by far
To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar. "

One touch to her hand, and one word in her ear,
When they reached the hall door, and the charger stood near;
So light to the [v]croup the fair lady he swung,
So light to the saddle before her he sprung!
"She is won! we are gone, over bank, bush, and [v]scar;
They'll have fleet steeds that follow," quoth young Lochinvar.

There was mounting 'mong Græmes of the Netherby clan;
Fosters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran;
There was racing and chasing on Cannobie lea,
But the lost bride of Netherby ne'er did they see.
So daring in love, and so dauntless in war;
Have ye e'er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?

SIR WALTER SCOTT.


=HELPS TO STUDY=

Read the poem through and tell the story briefly. Where is the
scene laid? _Border_ here means the part of Scotland bordering on
England. Who is the hero? Give your opinion of him. Find the
expressions used by the poet to inspire admiration for Lochinvar.
Give your opinion of the bridegroom. Quote lines that express the
poet's opinion of him. What word is used instead of _thicket_ in
the second stanza? a _loiterer_? a _coward_? Why do you suppose the
bride had consented? Why did her father put his hand on his sword?
What reason did Lochinvar give for coming to the feast? Why did he
act as if he did not care? Was the bride willing to marry "the
laggard in love"? How do you know? Describe the scene as the two
danced. What do you suppose was the "one word in her ear"?

Read aloud the lines describing Lochinvar's ride to Netherby Hall.
Read those describing the ride from the hall. Notice the galloping
movement of the verse.




IN LABRADOR


I

Trafford and Marjorie were in Labrador to spend the winter. It was a
queer idea for a noted [v]scientist and rich and successful business man
to cut himself loose from the world of London and go out into the Arctic
storm and darkness of one of the bleakest quarters of the globe. But
Trafford had fallen into a discontent with living, a weariness of the
round of work and pleasure, and it was in the hope of winning back his
lost zest and happiness that he had made up his mind to try the cure of
the wilderness. Marjorie had insisted, like a good wife, on leaving
children and home and comfort and accompanying him into the frozen
wilds.

The voyage across the sea and the march inland into Labrador were
uneventful. Trafford chose his winter-quarters on the side of a low
razor-hacked, rocky mountain ridge, about fifty feet above a little
river. Not a dozen miles away from them, they reckoned, was the Height
of Land, the low watershed between the waters that go to the Atlantic
and those that go to Hudson's Bay. North and north-east of them the
country rose to a line of low crests, with here and there a yellowing
patch of last year's snow, and across the valley were slopes covered in
places by woods of stunted pine. It had an empty spaciousness of
effect; the one continually living thing seemed to be the river,
hurrying headlong, noisily, perpetually, in an eternal flight from this
high desolation.

For nearly four weeks indeed they were occupied very closely in fixing
their cabin and making their other preparations, and crept into their
bunks at night as tired as wholesome animals who drop to sleep. At any
time the weather might break; already there had been two overcast days
and a frowning conference of clouds in the north. When at last storms
began, they knew there would be nothing for it but to keep in the hut
until the world froze up.

The weather broke at last. One might say it smashed itself over their
heads. There came an afternoon darkness swift and sudden, a wild gale,
and an icy sleet that gave place in the night to snow, so that Trafford
looked out next morning to see a maddening chaos of small white flakes,
incredibly swift, against something that was neither darkness nor light.
Even with the door but partly ajar, a cruelty of cold put its claw
within, set everything that was movable swaying and clattering, and made
Marjorie hasten shuddering to heap fresh logs upon the fire. Once or
twice Trafford went out to inspect tent and roof and store-shed; several
times, wrapped to the nose, he battled his way for fresh wood, and for
the rest of the blizzard they kept to the hut. It was slumberously
stuffy, but comfortingly full of flavors of tobacco and food. There
were two days of intermission and a day of gusts and icy sleet again,
turning with one extraordinary clap of thunder to a wild downpour of
dancing lumps of ice, and then a night when it seemed all Labrador,
earth and sky together, was in hysterical protest against inconceivable
wrongs.

And then the break was over; the annual freezing-up accomplished; winter
had established itself; the snowfall moderated and ceased, and an
ice-bound world shone white and sunlit under a cloudless sky.

One morning Trafford found the footmarks of some catlike creature in the
snow near the bushes where he was accustomed to get firewood; they led
away very plainly up the hill, and after breakfast he took his knife and
rifle and snowshoes and went after the lynx--for that he decided the
animal must be. There was no urgent reason why he should want to kill a
lynx, unless perhaps that killing it made the store-shed a trifle safer;
but it was the first trail of any living thing for many days; it
promised excitement; some [v]primitive instinct perhaps urged him.

The morning was a little overcast, and very cold between the gleams of
wintry sunshine. "Good-by, dear wife! " he said, and then as she
remembered afterward came back a dozen yards to kiss her. "I'll not be
long," he said. "The beast's prowling, and if it doesn't get wind of me,
I ought to find it in an hour. " He hesitated for a moment. "I'll not be
long," he repeated, and she had an instant's wonder whether he hid from
her the same dread of loneliness that she concealed. Up among the
tumbled rocks he turned, and she was still watching him. "Good-by! " he
cried and waved, and the willow thickets closed about him.

She forced herself to the petty duties of the day, made up the fire from
the pile he had left for her, set water to boil, put the hut in order,
brought out sheets and blankets to air, and set herself to wash up. She
wished she had been able to go with him. The sky cleared presently, and
the low December sun lit all the world about her, but it left her spirit
desolate.

She did not expect him to return until midday, and she sat herself down
on a log before the fire to darn a pair of socks as well as she could.
For a time this unusual occupation held her attention and then her hands
became slow and at last inactive, and she fell into reverie. Thoughts
came quick and fast of her children in England so far away.

What was that? She flashed to her feet.

It seemed to her she had heard the sound of a shot, and a quick, brief
wake of echoes. She looked across the icy waste of the river, and then
up the tangled slopes of the mountain. Her heart was beating fast. It
must have been up there, and no doubt Trafford had killed his beast.
Some shadow of doubt she would not admit crossed that obvious
suggestion. The wilderness was making her as nervously responsive as a
creature of the wild.

There came a second shot; this time there was no doubt of it. Then the
desolate silence closed about her again.

Marjorie stood for a long time, staring at the shrubby slopes that rose
to the barren rock wilderness of the purple mountain crest. She sighed
deeply at last, and set herself to make up the fire and prepare for the
midday meal. Once, far away across the river, she heard the howl of a
wolf.

Time seemed to pass very slowly that day. Marjorie found herself going
repeatedly to the space between the day tent and the sleeping hut from
which she could see the stunted wood that had swallowed her husband up,
and after what seemed a long hour her watch told her it was still only
half-past twelve. And the fourth or fifth time that she went to look out
she was set a-tremble again by the sound of a third shot. And then at
regular intervals out of that distant brown-purple jumble of thickets
against the snow came two more shots. "Something has happened," she
said, "something has happened," and stood rigid. Then she became active,
seized the rifle that was always at hand when she was alone, fired into
the sky, and stood listening.

Prompt came an answering shot.

"He wants me," said Marjorie. "Something--perhaps he has killed
something too big to bring! "

She was for starting at once, and then remembered this was not the way
of the wilderness.

She thought and moved very rapidly. Her mind catalogued possible
requirements,--rifle, hunting knife, the oilskin bag with matches, and
some chunks of dry paper, the [v]rucksack. Besides, he would be hungry.
She took a saucepan and a huge chunk of cheese and biscuit. Then a
brandy flask is sometimes handy--one never knows,--though nothing was
wrong, of course. Needles and stout thread, and some cord. Snowshoes. A
waterproof cloak could be easily carried. Her light hatchet for wood.
She cast about to see if there was anything else. She had almost
forgotten cartridges--and a revolver. Nothing more. She kicked a stray
brand or so into the fire, put on some more wood, damped the fire with
an armful of snow to make it last longer, and set out toward the willows
into which he had vanished.

There was a rustling and snapping of branches as she pushed her way
through the bushes, a little stir that died insensibly into quiet again;
and then the camping place became very still.

Trafford's trail led Marjorie through the thicket of dwarf willows and
down to the gully of the rivulet which they had called Marjorie Trickle;
it had long since become a trough of snow-covered, rotten ice. The trail
crossed this and, turning sharply uphill, went on until it was clear of
shrubs and trees, and, in the windy open of the upper slopes, it crossed
a ridge and came over the lip of a large desolate valley with slopes of
ice and icy snow. Here Marjorie spent some time in following his loops
back on the homeward trail before she saw what was manifestly the final
trail running far away out across the snow, with the [v]spoor of the
lynx, a lightly-dotted line, to the right of it. She followed this
suggestion of the trail, put on her snowshoes, and shuffled her way
across this valley, which opened as she proceeded. She hoped that over
the ridge she would find Trafford, and scanned the sky for the faintest
discoloration of a fire, but there was none. That seemed odd to her, but
the wind was in her face, and perhaps it beat the smoke down. Then as
her eyes scanned the hummocky ridge ahead, she saw something, something
very intent and still, that brought her heart into her mouth. It was a
big gray wolf, standing with back haunched and head down, watching and
scenting something beyond.

Marjorie had an instinctive fear of wild animals, and it still seemed
dreadful to her that they should go at large, uncaged. She suddenly
wanted Trafford violently, wanted him by her side. Also, she thought of
leaving the trail, going back to the bushes. But presently her nerve
returned. In the wastes one did not fear wild beasts, one had no fear of
them. But why not fire a shot to let him know she was near?

The beast flashed round with an animal's instantaneous change of pose,
and looked at her. For a couple of seconds, perhaps, woman and brute
regarded one another across a quarter of a mile of snowy desolation.

Suppose it came toward her!

She would fire--and she would fire at it. Marjorie made a guess at the
range and aimed very carefully. She saw the snow fly two yards ahead of
the grisly shape, and then in an instant the beast had vanished over the
crest.

She reloaded, and stood for a moment waiting for Trafford's answer. No
answer came. "Queer! " she whispered, "queer! "--and suddenly such a
horror of anticipation assailed her that she started running and
floundering through the snow to escape it. Twice she called his name,
and once she just stopped herself from firing a shot.

Over the ridge she would find him. Surely she would find him over the
ridge!

She now trampled among rocks, and there was a beaten place where
Trafford must have waited and crouched. Then on and down a slope of
tumbled boulders. There came a patch where he had either thrown himself
down or fallen; it seemed to her he must have been running.

Suddenly, a hundred feet or so away, she saw a patch of violently
disturbed snow--snow stained a dreadful color, a snow of scarlet
crystals! Three strides and Trafford was in sight.

She had a swift conviction that he was dead. He was lying in a crumpled
attitude on a patch of snow between [v]convergent rocks, and the lynx, a
mass of blood-smeared, silvery fur, was in some way mixed up with him.
She saw as she came nearer that the snow was disturbed round about them,
and discolored [v]copiously, yellow, and in places bright red, with
congealed and frozen blood. She felt no fear now and no emotion; all her
mind was engaged with the clear, bleak perception of the fact before
her. She did not care to call to him again. His head was hidden by the
lynx's body, as if he was burrowing underneath the creature; his legs
were twisted about each other in a queer, unnatural attitude.

Then, as she dropped off a boulder, and came nearer, Trafford moved. A
hand came out and gripped the rifle beside him; he suddenly lifted a
dreadful face, horribly scarred and torn, and crimson with frozen blood;
he pushed the gray beast aside, rose on an elbow, wiped his sleeve
across his eyes, stared at her, grunted, and flopped forward. He had
fainted.

Marjorie was now as clear-minded and as self-possessed as a woman in a
shop. In another moment she was kneeling by his side. She saw, by the
position of his knife and the huge rip in the beast's body, that he had
stabbed the lynx to death as it clawed his head; he must have shot and
wounded it and then fallen upon it. His knitted cap was torn to ribbons,
and hung upon his neck. Also his leg was manifestly injured--how, she
could not tell. It was evident that he must freeze if he lay here, and
it seemed to her that perhaps he had pulled the dead brute over him to
protect his torn skin from the extremity of cold. The lynx was already
rigid, its clumsy paws asprawl,--and the torn skin and clot upon
Trafford's face were stiff as she put her hands about his head to raise
him. She turned him over on his back--how heavy he seemed? --and forced
brandy between his teeth. Then, after a moment's hesitation, she poured
a little brandy on his wounds.

She glanced at his leg, which was surely broken, and back at his face.
Then she gave him more brandy, and his eyelids flickered. He moved his
hand weakly. "The blood," he said, "kept getting in my eyes.