第128章 THE KEEL BOAT(2)

hard.Ze snag, he grip you like dat,'' and Xavier twined his strong arms around Nick until he was helpless.``Ze bar--he hol' you by ze leg.An' who is to tell you how far he run under ze yellow water, Michie? I, who speak to you, know.But I know not how I know.Ze water, sometime she tell, sometime she say not'ing.''

``A bas, Xavier!'' said Nick, pushing him away, ``Iwill teach you the river.''

Xavier laughed, and sat down on the edge of the cabin.

Nick took easily to accomplishments, and he handled the clumsy tiller with a certainty and distinction that made the boatmen swear in two languages and a patois.Agreat water-logged giant of the Northern forests loomed ahead of us.Xavier sprang to his feet, but Nick had swung his boat swiftly, smoothly, into the deeper water on the outer side.

``Saint Jacques, Michie,'' cried Xavier, ``you mek him better zan I thought.''

Fascinated by a new accomplishment, Nick held to the tiller, while Xavier with a trained eye scanned the troubled, yellow-glistening surface of the river ahead.The wind died, the sun beat down with a moist and venomous sting, and northeastward above the edge of the bluff a bank of cloud like sulphur smoke was lifted.Gradually Xavier ceased his jesting and became quiet.

``Looks like a hurricane,'' said Nick.

``Mon Dieu,'' said Xavier, ``you have right, Michie,''

and he called in his rapid patois to the crew, who lounged forward in the cabin's shade.There came to my mind the memory of that hurricane at Temple Bow long ago, a storm that seemed to have brought so much sorrow into my life.I glanced at Nick, but his face was serene.

The cloud-bank came on in black and yellow masses, and the saffron light I recalled so well turned the living green of the forest to a sickly pallor and the yellow river to a tinge scarce to be matched on earth.Xavier had the tiller now, and the men were straining at the oars to send the boat across the current towards the nearer western shore.And as my glance took in the scale of things, the miles of bluff frowning above the bottom, the river that seemed now like a lake of lava gently boiling, and the wilderness of the western shore that reached beyond the ken of man, I could not but shudder to think of the conflict of nature's forces in such a place.A grim stillness reigned over all, broken only now and again by a sharp command from Xavier.The men were rowing for their lives, the sweat glistening on their red faces.

``She come,'' said Xavier.

I looked, not to the northeast whence the banks of cloud had risen, but to the southwest, and it seemed as though a little speck was there against the hurrying film of cloud.We were drawing near the forest line, where a little creek made an indentation.I listened, and from afar came a sound like the strumming of low notes on a guitar, and sad.The terrified scream of a panther broke the silence of the forest, and then the other distant note grew stronger, and stronger yet, and rose to a high hum like unto no sound on this earth, and mingled with it now was a lashing like water falling from a great height.We grounded, and Xavier, seizing a great tow-rope, leaped into the shallow water and passed the bight around a trunk.

I cried out to Nick, but my voice was drowned.He seized me and flung me under the cabin's lee, and then above the fearful note of the storm came cracklings like gunshots of great trees snapping at their trunk.We saw the forest wall burst out--how far away I know not--and the air was filled as with a flock of giant birds, and boughs crashed on the roof of the cabin and tore the water in the darkness.How long we lay clutching each other in terror on the rocking boat I may not say, but when the veil first lifted there was the river like an angry sea, and limitless, the wind in its fury whipping the foam from the crests and bearing it off into space.And presently, as we stared, the note lowered and the wind was gone again, and there was the water tossing foolishly, and we lay safe amidst the green wreckage of the forest as by a miracle.

It was Nick who moved first.With white face he climbed to the roof of the cabin and idly seizing the great limb that lay there tried to move it.Xavier, who lay on his face on the bank, rose to a sitting posture and crossed himself.Beyond me crowded the four members of the crew, unhurt.Then we heard Xavier's voice, in French, thanking the Blessed Virgin for our escape.

Further speech was gone from us, for men do not talk after such a matter.We laid hold of the tree across the cabin and, straining, flung it over into the water.A great drop of rain hit me on the forehead, and there came a silver-gray downpour that blotted out the scene and drove us down below.And then, from somewhere in the depths of the dark cabin, came a sound to make a man's blood run cold.

``What's that?'' I said, clutching Nick.

``Benjy,'' said he; ``thank God he did not die of fright.''

We lighted a candle, and poking around, found the negro where he had crept into the farthest corner of a bunk with his face to the wall.And when we touched him he gave vent to a yell that was blood-curdling.

``I'se a bad nigger, Lo'd, yes, I is,'' he moaned.``Iain't fit fo' jedgment, Lo'd.''

Nick shook him and laughed.

``Come out of that, Benjy,'' he said; ``you've got another chance.

Benjy turned, perforce, the whites of his eyes gleaming in the candle-light, and stared at us.

``You ain't gone yit, Marse,'' he said.

``Gone where?'' said Nick.

``I'se done been tole de quality 'll be jedged fust, Marse,''

Nick hauled him out on the floor.Climbing to the deck, we found that the boat was already under way, running southward in the current through the misty rain.

And gazing shoreward, a sight met my eyes which Ishall never forget.A wide vista, carpeted with wreckage, was cut through the forest to the river's edge, and the yellow water was strewn for miles with green boughs.

We stared down it, overwhelmed, until we had passed beyond its line.

``It is as straight,'' said Nick, ``as straight as one of her Majesty's alleys I saw cut through the forest at Saint-Cloud.''