Ottwell Binns
The Lady of North Star
“You say you dropped Dick Bracknell’s body through the ice? It was rather a long way to the river. How did you get it there?”
For one second Rayner hesitated. He was not sure of the bearing of the question, but after the brief hesitation he answered, “I carried it, of course.”
Joy had marked the hesitation, and to her came the swift realization that he was lying. She marked his slim form, and remembered Dick Bracknell’s height and bulk, and the sudden conviction deepened. But she gave no hint of it to Rayner, who stood watching her, sure that he could bend her to his will. She offered no comment on his reply, but thoughtfully twisted a ring upon her finger, while her mind sought for a way out of her immediate difficulty.
“Well, Joy,” he asked, “you will marry me?”
She rose abruptly from her chair. “No,” she said on a sudden impulse. “Not on the evidence of Dick’s death that you offer. I cannot consider – ”
“You are not wise!” he interrupted. “You are in my hands, remember.”
“Oh, but you mistake me,” she cried. “I am not saying that I will never marry you. I am only saying that the evidence of Dick’s death is not sufficiently convincing.” She lifted a hand as he would have interrupted her. “No! Let me finish. When we left Corporal Bracknell at North Star, he knew that I was Dick’s wife, and he undertook to find out what had become of Dick’s body. There was some one else in the woods at North Star that night, some one who probably witnessed all that occurred. That person, I fancy, Roger Bracknell means to find. And when I have heard that man’s story – ”
“You shall certainly hear it, for I will find that man myself. I will drag him across the world to tell it to you.”
He spoke vehemently, passionately, but in his bearing there was something besides vehemence and passion. His face had gone white, and in his eyes was a furtive look. Joy noticed these signs, but gave no indication of having done so.
“You!” she cried, “you will go? What will you be able to do?”
“Yes,” he answered sharply. “I will go. I will do what your bungling corporal has not been able to do. I will bring you proof of Dick Bracknell’s death. I will find that man who was in the wood, if there was a man – ”
“There is no question of that,” she broke in. “I found his trail, and Corporal Bracknell found it too. I believe he followed it – ”
“Ah!”
The expression on Rayner’s face, as the interjection broke from him, was one of mingled chagrin and fear. Joy noticed it, and it set her wondering again. Then quite suddenly she remembered something. Roger Bracknell had asked her if Adrian Rayner knew of her marriage with her cousin. She had answered that he did not, but he had known all the time! The significance of the question had not made itself felt at the time, but now it broke on her with startling force, and Rayner saw that something had happened to which he had no clue.
“What is it?” he asked sharply.
“Nothing!” she answered evasively. “But in view of all the circumstances I think I shall return to North Star myself before long.”
He was about to reply when there came an interruption. Miss La Farge entered the room.
“The car is waiting, Joy, and we are behind time. We really must be going if Mr. Rayner can excuse you.”
“Right, Babette. Cousin Adrian was just about to go, as we have finished our discussion, I believe.”
Rayner nodded. “Yes,” he said. “We have finished, and I am going. But I shall see you again, Joy, very shortly, certainly before I go to the North.”
Joy nodded and making his adieu Adrian Rayner passed out of the room.
CHAPTER XIV
MISSING
“MR. RAYNER is going to the North?” questioned Miss La Farge.
“Yes, he is going to Canada – and so am I, as early as possible. You will not mind accompanying me, Babette.”
“Mind! I shall be more than glad to get back to the silent North. This noisy London gets on my nerves, and the smell of the streets is horrible. It is petrol everywhere. The place reeks of it, and after the aromatic spruce woods the air here is like poison. I shall rejoice to go, and to hear the bell of the moose again in place of hideous motor horns.”
She looked at Joy, as she spoke, and there was a question in her eyes. Joy nodded.
“Yes, I will tell you why we go. My cousin Adrian has just asked me to marry him – ”
“Indeed! But I am not surprised. The signs of the weather have been unmistakable for a little time. And of course he does not know of Dick Bracknell!”
“But he does! He has known all the time. He even stooped to use his knowledge so as to bring pressure upon me.”
“How shameful!”
“Yes! But that is of small moment. Don’t you see the significance of the fact that he had knowledge of my marriage? He was aware of it all the time, and as you know he made love to me. Even at North Star – ”
“Yes! Yes! But you do not think that he fired the shot which – ”
“I do not know what to think! I am going to find out. Of one thing I am sure, and that is that cousin Adrian is afraid of what Corporal Bracknell may discover. And Corporal Bracknell has disappeared. He may have learned much that I want to know, and something may have befallen him. He may even be dead, but if he is alive we must find him before Cousin Adrian does. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I think I do! You have grown afraid of what Mr. Rayner may do.”
“I do not trust him. I cannot after – ” She broke off. “I am my own mistress now. There is no need that I should consult any one as to my comings and goings. We will go down to the steamship offices at once. We will not waste even a moment.”
An hour later they entered the office of a famous shipping company in Cockspur Street, and there inquired for a boat sailing for the Dominion.
“There is the Argonaut. She sails from Liverpool in three days. I believe there are vacancies.” The clerk turned away and presently came back with a list in his hand.
“The accommodation is limited, I find. There are only a couple of cabins-de-luxe – ”
“We will take them!” said Joy promptly.
“Thank you! What names, Miss?”
The names were given, and within ten minutes the transaction was completed, and Joy left the office with the tickets in her handbag. Just as her car started a taxi approached from the opposite direction, almost collided with it, and it was only by a decidedly dangerous swerve that an accident was averted. The taxi-driver glanced round at his passenger as if expecting a rebuke, but to his relief the man was leaning far back in the corner as if anxious to avoid observation. The vehicle drew up at the shipping offices, and the passenger left the taxi and entered the offices. He was Adrian Rayner.
The clerk who had completed Joy’s business attended to him and listened to his request.
“Sorry, sir! The last two cabins on the Argonaut have just been taken. There isn’t a vacant berth in the ship.”
Rayner considered. He had not the slightest doubt that Joy Gargrave and her foster-sister had taken those cabins, for he had seen them leaving the offices. A dark frown came on his face, which the clerk misinterpreted for disappointment. An idea occurred to him.
“You are in a hurry, sir?” he inquired
“Yes,” answered Rayner shortly.
“Well, sir, if I may venture to suggest it to you, the Maple Leaf sails at six o’clock from Southampton. She is not a full boat, and if there is a train you might yet catch her.”
“Look at the time table, quick!” was the reply. The clerk obeyed. “There is a train in three quarters of an hour, sir. It is a slow train, but it is due in Southampton five and twenty minutes before sailing time. You should be able to do it easily, sir.”
“Then I’ll book a cabin, please. As quick as you can. I’ve some luggage to pack.”
A few minutes later he left the office, and raced to his chambers, where he kept the taxi waiting whilst he packed a small portmanteau. Then he rang up Sir Joseph Rayner at the office. It was the head clerk’s voice that replied.
“No, Mr. Adrian, Sir Joseph is out. He will not return today. Any message, sir?”
“Yes. Let him know somehow that I’m going to America this evening. Tell him I will write, and – er – Benson – remember that this piece of news is strictly private.”
“Yes, Mr. Adrian.”
He hung up the receiver, lit a cigar, and five minutes after was on his way to Waterloo.
…
“What are you going to do, Joy, when we land?” As she asked the question, Miss La Farge turned from contemplating the greyness of the winter seascape and looked at her foster-sister.
“I am going straight through to Regina to find out if anything has been heard of Roger Bracknell. If they have no news of him at the barracks, then we will go North and ourselves try and learn what has befallen him. He may have news for me, as I certainly have news for him.”
“Do you mean that we shall set out to search for him?”
“Just that, Babette. We know that he was going up the river, and I have a fancy he was following a trail which I myself noticed. You and I know the country well, and with the Indian George, we could look for him. At least we may learn something about him.”
“Yes,” replied Babette thoughtfully. “And if we find him, as you say, he may have news. You may learn what really happened to your hus – ”
“Please! Please, Babette. Don’t call Dick Bracknell that. I can’t bear to think that I am bound to him at all.”
“No, and if he is dead, you are released! What do you really think, Joy?”
“I am in doubt. I have always been in doubt since that night. It was so strange that he should disappear. Sometimes I hope that – ” She stopped, and after a pause continued, “It seems too dreadful a thing to say, but I cannot help feeling it. Dick Bracknell behaved shamefully to me. Apart from all that has happened since, I can never forgive the humiliation of my marriage. It is the simple truth that I should be glad to know that I was free, even if it were by Dick’s death. But I cannot feel that he is dead. Something tells me that he is alive. That we shall yet meet – ”
“I devoutly hope not,” broke in Babette fervently, “for if we do I shall be tempted to – to – ”
“To what?” asked Joy sharply.
“To shoot him myself,” answered the other grimly.
“Babette!”
“Oh, you need not look so shocked,” continued Babette. “You and I have lived in the North, and we know that justice does not always follow the forms of law. And what is it that man Kipling says, ‘There’s never a Law of God or man runs North of fifty-three.’ We’re North of fifty-three at North Star, and a law unto ourselves. If Dick Bracknell is still alive, and came worrying you, I think that I could – ”
“Babette, you must not say it.”
“Very well, I will not. But all the same I feel that I could, for the man is worthless, mere vermin like the wolves in the North. And that woman Lady Alcombe, of whom you told me – ”
“She is dead! I learned that in England. She was killed in a motor accident.”
“It was too merciful an end for her!” said Babette quickly. “She ought to have lived to feel remorse gnawing at her heart day by day and hour by hour – ”
“Lady Alcombe was not the kind of woman to suffer that way,” said Joy slowly. “She had no heart… But here comes the rain. We shall have to go below.”
Nine days later Joy Gargrave walked across the snow to the headquarters of the Mounted Police at Regina, and asked, to see the Commissioner. He, as it appeared, was absent, and the only official immediately available was an inspector, a pleasant soldier-like man in the early thirties. To him she addressed her question.
“Can you tell me anything as to the whereabouts of Corporal Bracknell?”
The inspector looked up from her card, and flashed a keen glance at her, then shook his head.
“I am sorry, Miss Gargrave. We should be glad of news of Bracknell ourselves. He went on a journey several weeks ago, and a patrol that has come through the district where he was likely to be has heard nothing of him, though a sled was found which was unquestionably his. There were the bones of dogs also, so that things look rather black. The timber-wolves may have got him. Reports from two or three districts state they have been very savage this winter.”
Joy’s face went white, but she kept herself in hand.
“Still I suppose there is a possibility that he may have escaped?”
“A bare possibility,” answered the inspector in a voice that betrayed he had little hope. Then he asked suddenly, “I wonder why you wish to find him, Miss Gargrave?”
Joy flushed at the question which to her seemed to border on impertinence.
“It is a private matter,” she answered shortly.
“Please do not be offended, Miss Gargrave. I had a reason for asking. You are the second person to make inquiry about Corporal Bracknell this week.”
“Indeed?” said Joy, growing suddenly alert.
“Yes, a gentleman came here with the same question four days ago.”
“Did you see him? Would you mind telling me what he was like?”
The inspector laughed. “There is no reason why I should not, as it is not a police matter. I can do better than give you his description. I can give you his name, for I have his card somewhere.” He fumbled among some papers on the desk, and in a moment found what he sought. “Here it is! Adrian Rayner, Albany Chambers, London.”
“Adrian Rayner!”
As Joy echoed the name, the inspector glanced at her keenly. “You knew him?”
“Yes,” she replied slowly. “He is my cousin – ”
“Indeed!” said the officer politely, and then added, “Mr. Rayner was anxious to learn where Corporal Bracknell was, but on learning that Bracknell was missing, he did not seem greatly perturbed. I gathered that Mr. Rayner was a lawyer and that it was on legal business that he wished to see Bracknell.”
To Joy it seemed as if the inspector was openly fishing for information, and for one brief moment she hesitated. Should she take him into her confidence, and tell him all? She was strongly tempted to do so, but in the end decided against it.
“Yes,” she said, rising from her chair, “he is a lawyer, and as Corporal Bracknell’s cousin has been killed in England, it is possible that legal business had brought him here. I am greatly obliged to you, Inspector Graham.” She paused, and then added, “I have a little request to make. If you receive any news of Corporal Bracknell will you send it to me at North Star?”
“Yes,” answered the inspector. “But I am afraid you will be some time in receiving it.” He smiled. “As you know, it is something more than a crow’s flight from here to your home.”
“I was thinking of a special courier,” said Joy quickly. “There will be men to be found, and the expense is nothing to me.”
“Very well,” answered the inspector, “I will see that you get whatever news reaches us at the earliest moment! We of the force are too much indebted to your late father and yourself to refuse a trifling request of that kind. There is nothing else that I can do for you, Miss Gargrave?”
Again Joy hesitated. Should she tell him what she thought was the real object of Adrian Rayner’s journey? Sitting there in that quiet room, she suddenly felt that her suspicions would sound ridiculous if put into words. After all, she had so very little to go upon.
“Thank you! There is nothing.”
A moment later, Inspector Graham stood at his window watching her cross the snow. He smiled a little to himself.
“Um!” he muttered, “if Bracknell is still alive he is in the way of being a lucky fellow.”
Ten minutes later Joy found Miss La Farge in their room at the hotel.
“Babette,” she said, “we shall have to hurry. Adrian Rayner is already here. He is four days ahead of us. We must leave Regina within an hour.”
“Yes,” answered her foster-sister, “as Mr. Rayner is evidently in a hurry, we must hurry also. Is there any news of Corporal Bracknell?”
“None, except that his sled has been found.”
“Ah! That is bad, very bad!”
“You must not think that, Babette,” cried Joy a little wildly. “We must search. I will not give up hope. I will find him.”
Her voice quivered and broke, and suddenly she buried her face in her hands. Miss La Farge looked at her for a moment with eyes brimming with sympathy. Then she took a step forward and placed her hand on her foster-sister’s shoulder.
“Joy, my dear, what is the corporal to you?”
“To me,” Joy looked up with confusion in her bearing. “How can he be anything to me? How can any man – ”
“Yet if we do not find him, it will be very bitter?”
“As bitter as death!” answered Joy, hiding her face once more.
“Then we must certainly find him,” answered Miss La Farge gravely. “And by way of a start, I will talk to the clerk about trains.”
She turned and passed from the room, leaving her foster-sister in tears. After a little time Joy looked up. An absent gaze came in her tear-stained eyes.
“If I only knew!” she whispered to herself, “if I only knew!”
CHAPTER XV
AN ENCOUNTER AT THE LODGE
IT WAS MID-DAY, and as they marched between the high banks on a hard trail, Joy Gargrave’s heart grew light.
“Another hour, Babette, and we shall be home.”
“Yes,” was the reply, “home! That is what North Star is to us, and I wonder you ever left it, Joy.”
“I was afraid,” answered Joy. “Dick Bracknell’s letter startled me. He plainly meant to assert himself and I was glad of Sir Joseph’s summons to England, because it helped me to get away from the complications here.”
“It does not matter much where one goes,” answered Babette philosophically, “one carries one’s real complications with her. Here or there – what matters? The heart is ever the same.”
“Yes, that is true,” answered Joy, thinking of the complications of her own life. “We are the victims of our emotions quite as much as of circumstances.”
“Of our inexperience more than our emotions, I should say,” answered Babette – “of our inexperience and the ruthlessness of those who are prepared to take advantage of them. But here, better than in most places, we can live our own life, untrammelled, and for the most part free from the worser cares. This lodge of ours is like a sanctuary in the wilderness, and the serenity, the woods, the snow and the silences have their own healing for the troubles of life.”
“Yes, but there is something to be said for companionship with one’s own kind. I notice we are always a little excited when we have callers at the Lodge. We – ”
A rifle shot cracked in on her words, and before either of them could speak again, a moose broke suddenly from the woods, and plunged down the steep bank not five hundred yards ahead of them. The wolf-dogs in the sleds gave tongue, and notwithstanding the burden behind them, leaped forward. Joy laughed gaily.
“There’s an end of philosophic reflection. The moose is hit. I wonder who – ”
A man emerged from the woods, dropped on one knee, and sighted the wide-horned beast. Then his shot rang, and the moose toppled over in the snow. The hunter stood up and caught sight of the oncoming party. He scrutinized it carefully for a moment and then waved his hand.
“It is George,” cried Babette, naming an Indian servant. “See, he recognizes us.”
The hunter descended the bank, and instead of going to inspect his kill waited for them to come up. As they did so a smile crumpled his grave copper-coloured face.
“How!” he said. “Very glad to see you, Miss Joy and Miss Babette. My words are not as my heart, for my tongue is not easy of speech. But glad am I to behold you, glad as if your coming were the breath of the south spring wind upon the cheek.”
Joy laughed with pleasure. “Not more glad than are we, George. And you must not belittle that tongue of yours. If you only knew it you talk poetry. But tell me, how are things at the Lodge? All right, I hope, and Nanette and the papoose, they are well?”
“They are well,” answered the Indian. “But we dwell not alone. With us are Rayner and two men of the Kwikpak tribe. They are bad men.”
“Rayner!” as she echoed the name Joy’s eyes flashed fire.
“Yes, with two bad men of the Kwikpak tribe.”
“When did they arrive?” asked Joy quickly.
“At nightfall five days ago. They were very weary, having followed the trail hard and long. Rayner brought word from you that he stay to look for some man, but he brought no word of your coming.”
“No, I dare say not,” answered Joy sharply. “He would not expect us so soon. We also have pushed the trail hard. What has Mr. Rayner been doing since he arrived, George?”
“The first day he rest and smoke and ask many questions.”
“Questions? About what?”
“He asked if Nanette or I have beheld two men, one of whom is Corporal Bracknell, who took the Northward trail when you went southward. He ask if we have seen him since that time, and I answer no, for it is the truth, and Rayner he smile to himself as is the way of a man with a hidden thought.”
“And the second man of whom he asked?”
“I know him not!” answered the Indian, “neither him nor the name of Dick which he bore.”
“Dick!” Joy swung round to her companion. “You hear, Babette. He asks after Dick, whose body, as he told me, he had thrust into an ice-hole. I thought when he told me that he lied and now I know.”
She turned to the Indian again. “And the other days?”
“The other days,” answered the Indian gravely, “he drink much brandy and a little coffee, and the two bad men they go on a journey and return yesterday. They bring news I think, for at dawn tomorrow they depart with Rayner.”
“No! Not tomorrow,” cried Joy, “but this very day.”
“That will be as you desire, mistress. When we return – ”
“Where are they going? Do you know, George?”
“They take the Northward trail. Rayner tell me that when he have drunk much brandy. ‘From North Star to the North Star we go,’ he say, ‘you old graven image, and when we come back the girl shall be ours!’ I do not understand such words, for there is no girl there, but such are the words that Rayner speak.”
Joy looked at Babette. “He knows something,” she said.
“Yes,” answered her foster-sister, “but there is one thing he does not know, and that is a woman’s heart. He surely cannot hope – ”
“I do not know what he may hope. I know what I shall do. My cousin Adrian is intolerable in his pretensions.”
“What will you do, Joy? I begin to fancy that away from the restraints of civilization Adrian Rayner is possibly a dangerous man. And we are ‘North of fifty-three!’”
“I do not care. I am not afraid. There is, as you once hinted, the law of the wilderness, and at least I will be mistress in my own house.” She turned to her servant. “We will leave you one of the sleds, George. You will then be able to bring some of the meat home. I will talk with you again when you arrive.”
She gave orders for one team to push on and one to remain, then as she and her foster-sister recommenced their march she spoke again.
“I wonder why Adrian Rayner has lingered so long at North Star?”
“He has evidently been using the Lodge as his headquarters whilst he made the necessary inquiries. Also there is another possibility,” answered Babette.
“And what is that?”
“I have a thought that he may be desirous of assuring himself that you have arrived here. It is only a possibility, but it is there.”
“I do not see why – ”
“Why do you suppose he wished to marry you?” asked Babette quickly. “Because he loved you? Possibly! But you are a rich woman, and I think that may have more to do with the question than you have yet thought. It may have more to do with his journey here than anything else. Have you made a will, Joy?”
“No!” answered Joy quickly. “I have never thought of it. My uncle never suggested it to me.”
“That is not surprising,” was the answer. “After Dick Bracknell, your uncle is your next of kin. He and your cousin are your only blood relatives. Without a will, your marriage being unknown, your estate would fall to them if you were to die.”
Joy’s face showed a dawning horror. “Oh, but my uncle – ”
“Your uncle is human, Joy, and what is more he has his difficulties. Whilst we were at Claridge’s I overheard two men talking. I said nothing to you at the time, regarding it as mere gossip, but they were discussing Sir Joseph, and one of them said that he had gathered some confounded bad eggs during the last year or two, and that he must be very rich to stand it. Supposing he is not very rich. Supposing the bad eggs are more than he can stand. Then your money – ”
“But I cannot think that of my uncle, Babette; it is monstrous.”
“Of your uncle. No! Perhaps not! But your cousin is another matter. Let us suppose that he knows of Sir Joseph’s losses. We know he is not scrupulous. Knowing of your marriage to Dick Bracknell, he paid you attention. He asked you to marry him. He even stooped to threats, as you told me. Why? Because he wanted to be able to control your fortune, to keep the money, some of which was badly needed. You may shake your head, Joy, but that is at least a possibility; and that is why I suggest that it is possible that Adrian Rayner may be desirous of assuring himself of your arrival here. You are beginning to know him; do you think that after his attempt to lure you into a bigamous marriage, and after his threats, that he will be at all chary of using any means that circumstances may offer of putting him in possession of your fortune? I do not! And he has been drinking, if what George says is true; and drink makes a tempted man dangerous. You must be careful, Joy, even diplomatic if necessary.”
“I shall order him to leave North Star the moment we arrive there!” answered Joy stubbornly. “If there is a shadow of truth in your surmises, there is all the more reason why I should do so.”
“You will do as you please, Joy,” replied her foster-sister, breaking into a smile, “and at any rate we have the big battalions on our side. With the drivers and George, and George’s son, Jim, we shall be able to enforce your will.”
“And I shall do so,” answered Joy. “Here I am strong enough to disregard his threats.”
As it happened, the first person they encountered when they left the river trail and swung into the clearing which led to the Lodge, was Adrian Rayner. He was walking towards the river, with a rifle in the crook of his arm, and as he saw them swinging towards him, he halted suddenly, and remained quite still, until Joy reached him. The look on his face betrayed his surprise, and to Joy it was clear that he had not expected to encounter her before his departure from the lodge. He stood there a little nonplussed and it was Joy who spoke first.
“You have not wasted time, Cousin Adrian,” she said, and there was an unmistakable edge to her tones.
“No,” he answered with an awkward laugh. “I promised you I would find that man who was in the wood when you shot your hus – ”
“No!” she interrupted sharply, “not when I did, but when you shot my husband!”
There was accusation in her eyes, her voice, and Rayner visibly quailed before it. Then he cried —
“What confounded nonsense is this?”
“It is not nonsense,” she answered. “It is at least a possibility. You were in the wood that night, and you had a rifle with you. There were two shots, and one of them hit Dick Bracknell. One of those shots came from my rifle, but from whose rifle did the second come? Yours! I say.”
“Mine!” he cried harshly. “You must be mad. You cannot have thought over what you are saying.”
“No,” she countered, “I am not mad, I am quite sane, and I have thought a great deal over the matter.”
“But why should I shoot Dick Bracknell masquerading as Koona Dick? He was not my husband?”
“No,” replied Joy coolly, “but he was mine, and you had somehow become aware of the fact. If I am not mistaken, you yourself aspired to marry me – ”
“Men are sometimes smitten with madness,” he interposed sneeringly. “But there is another possibility that I can suggest to you, of which you do not seem to have thought. That precious corporal who was here; he had a gun! Also, I fancy that he would find the death of Dick Bracknell no heartbreaking business, as it would bring him within a step of the succession to Harrow Fell; and as Jeff Bracknell is now dead, it puts him absolutely on the doorstep. Have you thought of that?”
“There is no need that I should,” answered Joy promptly. “Roger Bracknell had no knowledge that the man whom he knew as Koona Dick was his cousin, until he picked up a note which Dick had written to me, which was some time after the firing had taken place. I know that, and your suggestion is merely preposterous.”
“You think so,” he laughed. “I wonder why?” Something in his tones brought the blood flaming to Joy Gargrave’s face. Her eyes flashed indignantly. Rayner laughed again brutally.
“Not that there is any need for wonder,” he said maliciously. “You seem to be in great vogue with the Bracknells. It must be a family weakness for – ”
“How dare you?” She took a step forward, and suddenly raised the dog whip in her hand. Rayner backed quickly, and instinctively raised his hand. But the long lash smote him on the face, and he gave vent to a savage oath.
“You – virago! Would you?”
He had lost complete control of himself, and what would have happened is only to be conjectured, but at that moment the Indian George stepped quietly from behind some tall bushes. He still carried his rifle, and though there was an impassive look on his brown face, his eyes were blazing. The white man saw him, and as he met those eyes, the wrath in him was checked. The Indian spoke no word, but very deliberately opened the breech of his rifle, as if to assure himself that it was loaded. Then he closed it and looked at Rayner again, and at that second look the white man shivered, for in it he saw something threatening and ominous, which unsealed the springs of fear within him. Joy was the first to speak.
“George,” she said, addressing her henchman, “Mr. Rayner takes the trail in an hour. Anything he needs for his journey he is to have; but he goes within the hour, and never again is he to visit North Star. Do you understand?”
The Indian nodded his head in grave assent, and without another look at Adrian Rayner, Joy turned and went up the road towards the house.