Part 5 (1/2)

”I am not sure where he is. I heard he had gone to Montreal.” And when she had said it she became as white as the dainty lawn blouse she wore.

Roderick made a blundering attempt to apologise for something, he scarcely knew what, and only made matters worse.

”I--I beg your pardon,” he said, ”I shouldn't have asked--but I thought--we understood--at least I mean Billy said,” he floundered about hopelessly, and she came to his aid.

”That Dr. Wells and I were engaged?” She was looking at him directly now, sitting erect with a sparkle in her eye.

”Yes,” he whispered.

”It was true--then. But it is not now.”

”I am so sorry I spoke--” faltered Roderick.

”You need not be,” she broke in. ”It was quite natural--only--” she looked at him keenly for a moment as though taking his measure. ”May I ask a favour of you, Mr. McRae?”

”Oh, yes, I should be so glad,” he broke out, anxious to make amends.

”Then if you would be so good as to make no mention of--of this. I shall be living in Algonquin now for some time probably.”

She stopped falteringly. She could not confess to this strange young man that she had come away to this little town where no one knew her just to escape the curiosity and pity of acquaintances and friends, and that she was dismayed at meeting one on its very threshold who knew her secret. She was relieved to find him more anxious to keep it than she herself.

He a.s.sured her that he would not even think of it again, and then he stumbled upon a remark about the fis.h.i.+ng in Lake Algonquin, and the duck-shooting, two things, he recollected afterwards, in which she could not possibly be interested, and finally he made his escape. He leaned over the bow, watching the channel opening out its green arms to the _Inverness_, and tried to recall all that he had heard about d.i.c.k Wells. Billy Parker, who knew all college gossip, had told him much to which he had scarcely listened. But he remembered something concerning a broken engagement. Wells was to have been married in June to the pretty Miss Murray, Billy had said. She had her trousseau all ready, and then d.i.c.k had gone on a trip to the Old Country alone. No one knew the reason, though Billy had declared it was the same old reason--”Another girl.”

Roderick McRae's chivalry had never before been called into action where young women were concerned. Now he felt something new and strong rising within him. He was suddenly filled with the old spirit which sent a knight out upon the highway to do doughty deeds for the honour of a lady, or to right her wrongs. His warm heart was filled with conflicting emotions, rage at himself for having brought the hurt look into those soft blue eyes, rage at Wells for being the primary cause of it, and underneath all a strange, quite unreasonable, feeling of exhilaration over the fact that he and the girl with the golden hair and the sad eyes had a secret between them.

They were in the Gates now, pa.s.sing slowly through the railroad bridge.

The softly tinted gla.s.sy water of Lake Algonquin, with the green islands mirrored in its clear depths was opening out to view. The channel too, was clear and still like crystal, save where the swell from the bows of the _Inverness_ rolled away to the low sh.o.r.e and set the bulrushes nodding a stately welcome. The echoes of the little engine clattered away into the deep woods, startlingly clear. An ugly brown bittern, with a harsh exclamation of surprise at the intrusion into his quiet domain, shot across the bow and disappeared into the swamp. A great heron sailed majestically down the channel ahead of the boat, his broad blue wings gleaming in the sunlight. It was all so still and beautiful that a sense of peace and content awoke in Roderick's heart.

The _Inverness_ was making her way slowly towards the second bridge.

The channel was very narrow and shallow here and the captain's little whistle that communicated with the powers below was squeaking frantically. Just as the bridge began to turn, a man in a mud-splashed buggy dashed up, a moment too late to cross, and stood there holding his horse, which went up indignantly on its heels every time the _Inverness_ snorted. His fair face was darkened with anger, his blue eyes were blazing. He leaned over the dashboard and shook his fist at the little wheel-house which held the captain.

”Get along there you, Jimmie McTavis.h.!.+” He roared in a voice that was rich and musical even in its anger. ”Can't you see I'm in a hurry, you thundering old mud-turtle? I could sail a s.h.i.+p across the Atlantic while you are dawdling here. Get out of my road, I tell you! I've got to be in town before that five train goes out, and here's that old dromedary of yours stuck in the mud.--How? What? Oh, what in the name of--?” He choked, spluttering with wrath, for with a final squeak the _Inverness_ stopped altogether.

The captain darted out of the wheel-house to call down an indignant enquiry of the Ancient Mariner as to the cause of the delay. Much sailing in all weathers in the keen air of the northern lakes had ruined Captain McTavish's voice, which, at best, had never been intended for any part but a high soprano. And now it was almost inaudible with anger. It ill became the dignity of a sea captain to be thus publicly berated in the presence of his pa.s.sengers.

”If ye'd whisht ye're noise,” he screamed, ”I'd be movin' queek enough.

Come away, Sandy! Come away, Peter, man!”

For all his sailing, the captain was a true landsman, and when under pressure his thin nautical veneer slipped off him, and his language was not of the sea.

”Come away, Sandy,” he called artlessly, ”and gee her a bit. _Gee_!”

”I can have the law on you for obstructing the King's Highway!”

thundered the man on the bridge.

”The water will be jist as much the King's Highway as the road!”

retorted the captain indignantly. ”If you would be leafing other folks' business alone, and attending to your own, you would be knowing the law better. It is a rule of the sea that effery vessel--”

”The sea!” the enemy burst in with an overwhelming roar. ”The sea! A vessel! A miserable fish pond, and an old tub like that, the sea and a vessel! Get away with you! Get out of my sight!”