Hulbert Footner

“ At the moment the swollen Rice River had the ascendancy, and the brown waters of the Stanley were sullenly backed up as far as one could see. Some skill was required from Chako in order to nose the canoe from the rushing green torrent into the standing brown water safely.
Where the rivers came together there was a broad bar of white sand, and in the middle of the sand Ann beheld an astonishing sight after their many lonely days—a little weather-stained A tent, with a fire before it sending up a thread of smoke. A man came to the water's edge to meet them. ”

“ Ann smiled inwardly.
“Does reading spoil the eyes?”
“Sure!” said Chako. “Everybody who reads wears glasses.”
“Not everybody,” murmured Ann.
“I don't see what good it does you,” observed Chako truculently.
“I don't know that it does one any particular good,” said Ann; “but it's fun.”
“Oh, reading for fun!” said Chako. “I can understand that; but heavy stuff! What makes me tired is the way bookish people think themselves so much better than others.”
“Do I? “inquired Ann, hurt.
“Well, not so much as you did,” replied Chako grudgingly.
“It's true I used to set books too high,” said Ann. ”

“ A quiet and tremulous joy stole into her breast.
“I was right,” she thought. “He has a soul!”
No more was said. The spell passed, and they went on picking up stones again. Soon they started back. Arriving at the little shack, they sat down on a broad, shelving rock at the lake's edge, and tossed pebbles into the water. A heavy constraint lay upon them. Chako still wore his Sunday gravity.
“Joe was a good man,” he said heavily.
At his tone, the shadow of a dimple appeared in Ann's cheek. Whatever befell, Ann had to be natural. In her, laughter and tears were twins. ”

“ Returning light was a simple affair. At the other end of the portage they ate heartily, and Chako said they had time for a sleep before starting to work again. They lay down, each in a blanket, on the pine needles. Ten feet or so separated them.
Ann flung an arm over her eyes, and watched Chako through a hole in the crook of her elbow. Sleep did not immediately visit his eyes. He lay on his back, staring up gravely at the pine boughs. What would not Ann have given to know his thoughts! There had been moments to-day when he had appeared almost human, only to become sullen again directly. ”

“ Ann had no heart for gold.
“Take it,” said Chako. “It's yours.”
“You keep it,” said Ann.
He thrust it into the pocket of his shirt.
“It can go against what you owe me,” he said coolly. “I'll fix everything seemly and proper,” he went on. “I can't make him a coffin, of course, and the earth on these rocks is too thin to make a proper grave. I'll tie him up in his hammock, and carry him to the top of the cliffs, where he can look down the lake. We'll heap a pile of stones over him, and put a cross on top. It'll be a fine grave for a man. ”

“ No more tracking up the rapids for him—no more rain on the trail, and cold grub, and soaked blankets at the end of the day! His work is done. He's gone home!”
“Ah, it isn't that!” murmured Ann. “One wouldn't regret a full life; but such a life! It's so pitiful! Not to love anybody—not to let himself be loved!”
“I wouldn't call it a wasted life,” said Chako queerly. ”

“ Chako got up with a flippant, jarring laugh.
“Gee, what stuff a pretty evening will make a man talk! That's what women lay for, isn't it?”
“Never mind!” thought Ann. “If I am patient, he will come back again.”
On the afternoon of the fifth day from the cañon they rounded a bend no different from hundreds of other bends, and a little choked cry escaped from Ann. The paddle dropped from her limp hands.
“There! There!” she gasped. “We have found it!”
Ahead of them on the river bank, in a clearing just big enough to hold it, stood a little shack built out of logs that had been chopped down. ”

“ The moment he had finished eating, he started back. He forgot that he had asked Ann to go with him. Ann had no desire to see those yellow sands. She hated the place without having seen it. Little yellow grains that in a moment could destroy all that was fine in a man! She felt no resentment against Chako, but only against that which had corrupted him. ”

“ He scowled, but not in anger—a hurt scowl, one might say, if one could conceive of anything hurting the self-sufficient Chako. Ann had been too sorely wounded to be easily convinced that Chako could be human.
They slept.
Of their second trip across the portage little need be said. It was just a dogged struggle for almost every yard of the five miles. How they got the canoe up through the fissure in the cliff Ann could never have told, but get it up they did. Ann did not see how Chako could have managed without her help, small as that might be, but she did not expect him to acknowledge it. ”

“ Ann was moving blindly around the fire, still in a very tumult of emotion. Chako appeared to have forgotten the incident.
Ann gave him a wide berth. A hot little flame of resentment scorched her breast.
“It means nothing to him—nothing!” she thought.
Chako always had an eye cocked toward the sky for weather.
“South wind to-day,” he announced. “We'll be able to sit back and sail up the lake. You watch the coffeepot, Maury, while I rig a sail.”
He used two of the little tent poles and one of his red blankets. The sail made a gay splash of color in the scene. ”

“ Finally they rounded a bend, and a cliff of naked, yellow rock, perhaps a hundred feet high, sprang out of the world of green. It ran right across the vista; the river seemed to end there. Ann did not need to be told that this was their present goal. That rumbling voice issued from somewhere within the cliff. Not until they got quite close could Ann see how the river snaked out sidewise through a cleft in the yellow rock. She searched the shores with strained eyes.
“We never asked which side of the river,” she said breathlessly.
“The backwater works in at the left,” Chako told her. ”

“ Ann went on passionately. “You're empty and hard and shallow. There's nothing to you but your strength. Well, a horse is stronger!”
This got under Chako's skin.
“I know what's biting you, all right,” he snarled. “You want a man to fall in love with you, don't you, and come crawling? Oh, I know women!” ”

“ Ann said nervously.
“Not at this rate,” replied Chako. “We're not doing twenty miles a day.”
“Could we have passed his camp, do you think?” said Ann. “He was so secretive. Perhaps he hid it back from the river.”
“Not likely,” said Chako. “A man's natural instinct is to build on a river. Who would ever follow him up here?”
“How did he ever get a boat up here?” asked Ann.
“Built it.”
“Dugout?”
“There are no cottonwood trees. It was a bark canoe. There were birches around the lake that had been peeled.”
“I see nothing escapes your eyes!” said Ann.
Chako was much flattered. ”

“ Chako closed up instantly.
“Men up here don't talk about their beginnings,” he said.
That was the end of Ann's attempts to question him.
The south wind held during several days. For hours at a time they sat in delicious idleness, letting it waft them. The first lake was Beaver Lake; another stretch of river followed, then a lake without any regular name, Chako said, but called by some Breeches Lake, from its shape. A favorite joke of the country was to send tenderfeet down the left leg of the breeches, which ended nowhere. The last and the largest of the chain was McIlwraith Lake. ”

“ He only lays himself out to please because he hasn't got you yet. Once he had you, he'd treat you like dirt. Such is his savage nature. He doesn't even trouble himself to hide it. Better throw yourself in the river than give yourself in exchange for that!
Chako watched her agitated hands pounding the dough.
“Bet you'd like to do that to me,” he drawled. “I can see it in your eye. Go ahead! I'll hold my hands behind my back. Beat me up, kid! Make you feel better.”
“Don't be silly,” said Ann.
They embarked again without anything having happened, but Ann was despairing. ”

“ Nevertheless, Ann's spirits steadily rose. What terrified her had been that he would cajole her with his infernal attractiveness. When he became merely brutal, she grew strong. He could never intimidate her into giving in. He should never have her against her will.
She knew that the test would come when they camped for the night, and braced herself to meet it. They found a fine camping place on a high, dry bank under virgin pines. The canoe was pulled up on a lower level. Ann cooked the supper, while Chako made all snug for the night. ”

“ Ann reminded him.
“Oh, that was when I had a head on me,” he said, with an empty laugh. “It's different when you got money to spend. I'm not going to stop at a hundred a day, either. Why, in ten years Joe Grouser has scarcely scratched the surface with his trifling pans! I'll bring in a saw and make a sluice. I'll wash thousands for his hundreds!”
Suddenly Chako's thoughts took a new turn.
“By Gad, if he didn't die until the 23rd of July, he'd been here more than a month! There ought to be a tidy little sum in dust somewhere around the shack. Three thousand or more—all in a lump sum! ”

“ Well, by God, no woman's going to trim my wings! None of this love business for me!”
“But it's all right for women to love you, eh?”
“I ask for no more than I give.”
“You're incapable of loving!”
“All right! I'll take 'em and I'll leave 'em. That's all I want.”
“Ah, there's the truth at last! You despise women!” ”

“ If his hunting instinct was aroused, who would be the hunted one but herself?
XIV Throughout the middle part of the day the little river kept them on the qui vive. On every bend there was a tossing rapid, and they were flung around, never knowing what they were to see below. It was madly exciting. They shouted together as they took the plunge.
Sometimes the stream spread out wide and shallow, and Chako had to leap overboard and let the canoe down slowly over the stones. In one narrow place a tree had fallen across from bank to bank, and they just escaped crashing into it. ”

“ I've already got a fat pinch of dust—the first gold I ever washed. Joe Grouser's outfit is there just where he dropped it—the shovel and pans and all. The pans are in bad shape, but they'll last out our stay here. A wonderful place! You must come down there. It's only a small place—just about two claims, I should say—one for you and one for me. You get the side your father's already worked. That's only fair, of course. That's what you'd inherit from him.”
Ann looked at Chako in quick astonishment and pain, but he never noticed her look. ”

“ Ann pulled the canoe up higher, and carried everything ashore. In a little while Chako came back to report that there was a way to scale the cliff, and that they could get the canoe up, too, though it would take some managing. They immediately set about their preparations to continue their journey. Chako made a fire for Ann, so that she could cook a meal while he was making the packs.
“We'll take all we can carry on our backs first,” he said. “If it's far to carry, we'll make camp on the other side. Soon as we make sure he took to the water above, we'll come back for the canoe.” ”

“ Ann's bitterness yielded slowly. She so passionately desired to believe that Chako was human and lovable that she was afraid to let herself believe it.
Chako was envious of Joe Grouser's old range.
“What a fur country!” he would say a dozen times a day. “And not even any Indians to compete with. They wouldn't come in here. Evil spirits live in the cañon, the Indians say.”
“I don't wonder,” said Ann.
They now had the added excitement of searching the shores for evidences of the man they were trailing. On every bend Ann held her breath a little, expecting a discovery ”

“ He came back on the other side as far as a stream that comes in on that side, and he turned up that stream, still walking over the stones, and climbing the fallen timber. Not an ax cut to give him away! In a quarter of a mile or so, thinking he was safe, he struck into the timber, and from that point on there's a trail anybody could follow. He must have gone the same way every year. Almost looks as if he had something in there worth going for, eh?”
With Chako's last words an oddly desirous look leaped up in his eyes. It caused Ann a vague disquiet. ”

“ It was difficult going, for the trail was of the roughest. Ann used up a good half of her strength in stepping over obstacles. They had many a stiff little ascent to climb. Ann conceived a new respect for Chako's strength, seeing how easily he carried his great pack, while she sank under her little one. ”

“ The gold is in them, and those two streams, one on each side, wash it down to the lake. They've filled up that end of the lake with the stuff they've brought down. That's what makes the beach. You can actually see the yellow grains in the sand, if you look close—enough to set a man crazy. ”

“ By Gad!”
In the quality of Ann's silence he perceived something accusing, and pulled up.
“Of course that's yours,” he went on sullenly. He was silent for a moment, looking at Ann with eyes full of cupidity. “I suppose you'd divvy with me, wouldn't you?” he went on in a wheedling voice. “I brought you here. You couldn't have made it without me. It's only fair. If I'd known there was anything like this, I'd have stipulated it before starting.”
“You can have it all,” Ann murmured, sickened. ”