第16章

Teresa awoke with a start.It was day already,but how far advanced the even,unchanging,soft twilight of the woods gave no indication.Her companion had vanished,and to her bewildered senses so had the camp-fire,even to its embers and ashes.Was she awake,or had she wandered away unconsciously in the night?

One glance at the tree above her dissipated the fancy.There was the opening of her quaint retreat and the hanging strips of bark,and at the foot of the opposite tree lay the carcass of the bear.

It had been skinned,and,as Teresa thought with an inward shiver,already looked half its former size.

Not yet accustomed to the fact that a few steps in either direction around the circumference of those great trunks produced the sudden appearance or disappearance of any figure,Teresa uttered a slight scream as her young companion unexpectedly stepped to her side."You see a change here,"he said;"the stamped-out ashes of the camp-fire lie under the brush,"and he pointed to some cleverly scattered boughs and strips of bark which completely effaced the traces of last night's bivouac."We can't afford to call the attention of any packer or hunter who might straggle this way to this particular spot and this particular tree;the more naturally,"he added,"as they always prefer to camp over an old fire."Accepting this explanation meekly,as partly a reproach for her caprice of the previous night,Teresa hung her head.

"I'm very sorry,"she said,"but wouldn't that,"pointing to the carcass of the bear,"have made them curious?"But Low's logic was relentless.

"By this time there would have been little left to excite curiosity,if you had been willing to leave those beasts to their work.""I'm very sorry,"repeated the woman,her lips quivering.

"They are the scavengers of the wood,"he continued in a lighter tone;"if you stay here you must try to use them to keep your house clean."Teresa smiled nervously.

"I mean that they shall finish their work to-night,"he added,"and I shall build another camp-fire for us a mile from here until they do."But Teresa caught his sleeve.

"No,"she said hurriedly,"don't,please,for me.You must not take the trouble,nor the risk.Hear me;do,please.I can bear it,I WILL bear it--to-night.I would have borne it last night,but it was so strange--and"--she passed her hands over her forehead--"I think I must have been half mad.But I am not so foolish now."She seemed so broken and despondent that he replied reassuringly:

"Perhaps it would be better that I should find another hiding-place for you,until I can dispose of that carcass so that it will not draw dogs after the wolves,and men after THEM.

Besides,your friend the sheriff will probably remember the bear when he remembers anything,and try to get on its track again.""He's a conceited fool,"broke in Teresa in a high voice,with a slight return of her old fury,"or he'd have guessed where that shot came from;and,"she added in a lower tone,looking down at her limp and nerveless fingers,"he wouldn't have let a poor,weak,nervous wretch like me get away.""But his deputy may put two and two together,and connect your escape with it."Teresa's eyes flashed."It would be like the dog,just to save his pride,to swear it was an ambush of my friends,and that he was overpowered by numbers.Oh yes!I see it all!"she almost screamed,lashing herself into a rage at the bare contemplation of this diminution of her glory."That's the dirty lie he tells everywhere,and is telling now."She stamped her feet and glanced savagely around,as if at any risk to proclaim the falsehood.Low turned his impassive,truthful face towards her.

"Sheriff Dunn,"he began gravely,"is a politician,and a fool when he takes to the trail as a hunter of man or beast.But he is not a coward nor a liar.Your chances would be better if he were--if he laid your escape to an ambush of your friends,than if his pride held you alone responsible.""If he's such a good man,why do you hesitate?"she replied bitterly."Why don't you give me up at once,and do a service to one of your friends?""I do not even know him,"returned Low opening his clear eyes upon her."I've promised to hide you here,and I shall hide you as well from him as from anybody."Teresa did not reply,but suddenly dropping down upon the ground buried her face in her hands and began to sob convulsively.Low turned impassively away,and putting aside the bark curtain climbed into the hollow tree.In a few moments he reappeared,laden with provisions and a few simple cooking utensils,and touched her lightly on the shoulder.She looked up timidly;the paroxysm had passed,but her lashes yet glittered.

"Come,"he said,"come and get some breakfast.I find you have eaten nothing since you have been here--twenty-four hours.""I didn't know it,"she said,with a faint smile.Then seeing his burden,and possessed by a new and strange desire for some menial employment,she said hurriedly,"Let me carry something--do,please,"and even tried to disencumber him.

Half annoyed,Low at last yielded,and handing his rifle said,"There,then,take that;but be careful--it's loaded!"A cruel blush burnt the woman's face to the roots of her hair as she took the weapon hesitatingly in her hand.

"No!"she stammered,hurriedly lifting her shame-suffused eyes to his;"no!no!"He turned away with an impatience which showed her how completely gratuitous had been her agitation and its significance,and said,"Well,then,give it back if you are afraid of it."But she as suddenly declined to return it;and shouldering it deftly,took her place by his side.Silently they moved from the hollow tree together.

During their walk she did not attempt to invade his taciturnity.

Nevertheless she was as keenly alive and watchful of his every movement and gesture as if she had hung enchanted on his lips.