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The sound of the murmuring voices passed suddenly from confused dullness to a sharp clearer-edged speech, telling Ainsley, as plainly as if he could see, that the speaker had risen from behind the sound-deadening ridge of earth and was looking clear over its top, Ainsley lay as still as one of the clods of earth about him, lay scarcely daring to breathe, and with his skin pringling.
In each drooping head and dragging wing, in the forward stoop of each white body, weighing heavily on the slim, black legs, was written utter weariness, abject fatigue. To each even to lower his bill and sip from the cool waters was a supreme effort. And in their exhaustion so complete was something humanly helpless and pathetic. To Ainsley the mysterious visitors made a direct appeal.
So they did not ask to be entertained, but, disregarding him, amused themselves after their own fashion. It was late Friday afternoon. The members of the house-party had just returned from a tramp through the woods and had joined Ainsley on the terrace, where he stood watching the last rays of the sun leave the lake in darkness.
Although the men spoke in low tones, Ainsley whispered a stern command for silence. "We're not so far away," he said, "but that a voice might carry; and you can bet they're jumpy enough for the rest of the night to shoot at the shadow of a whisper. Now come along, and keep low, and drop the instant a light flares."
Clancy had so far recovered that he was able to sit up, and he felt that he should watch beside the girl who he believed had been so devoted to him in his unconsciousness. Dr. Devoe in excuse for Miss Ainsley said, "We can't make too much allowance to-night for every one. Many strong men are utterly overcome and nauseated by these, shocks. No wonder women cannot face them."
No," retorted the good lady with irritation. "Folks don't make no mistake about the hour of their wedding. Not the bridegroom, anyway. No, it's an accident, that's what it is, as sure as my name's Hephzibah Malling. And that's what comes of his staying at Ainsley when he ought to have been hereabouts. To think of a man driving forty odd miles to get married. La' sakes!
There is going to be a rush there this year, isn't there? Oh, I forgot," with real contrition, "I mustn't mention the Yukon, must I? That is where your disaster occurred that caused you to be banished to the one-horsed station of Ainsley." "Not forgetting the reduction of my salary to the princely sum of two thousand dollars per annum," Grey added bitterly.
About one o'clock in the afternoon of the 3rd of December, Park took his leave of Dr. Laidley and Messrs. Ainsley, and rode slowly into the woods. He had now before him a boundless forest, and a country, the inhabitants of which were strangers to civilized life.
"And very mysterious," he added. "Who can account for either?" "There is no reason why they should be accounted for in our case," Miss Ainsley remarked. "Woman should always remain a mystery." "Yes, I suppose she must so remain in her deepest nature," he replied, sotto voce, "but is there any need for small secrecies?" "That question would have to be explained before I could answer it.
If the office were closed when she arrived, her journey would have been in vain, for the operator lived in Ainsley and would have gone home; Hervey would have arrived in Winnipeg, and, by the time the office opened the following morning, the mischief would have been done. She flicked her mare with the end of her reins and touched her flank with her heel. Kitty responded with a forward bound.
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