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"What are you keeping from me." "The Na-che's gone!" Jonas spoke huskily. "How'd she go?" demanded Milton. "A sucking whirlpool up there took her, after we struck a rock at the bottom of the falls," answered Harden. "We struck at such speed that it stove in her bottom and threw us clear of the whirlpool. But she's gone and everything in her." "How about the Ida?"
"Starlight and you and Na-che's little song," murmured Enoch; "I am hard to satisfy, am I not?" He put his arms about Diana and kissed her softly, then let her lead the way down to the spring. And shortly, rolled in his blankets, his feet to the dying fire, Enoch was deep in sleep. Sun-up found them on the trail again. All day the way wound through country that had been profoundly eroded.
"You're using beans and bent wire, just as you did yesterday." "Aha! not just as I did yesterday, boss! This time I tied Na-che's charm just above the hook. No fish could stand that, once they got an eye on it." But evidently no second fish cast an eye on the irresistible charm, and Enoch was unwilling to wait for further luck longer than was necessary to cook the fish and eat it.
But during the day Jonas trolled whenever the water made trolling possible, hopefully spitting on the hook each time he cast it over, casting always from the right hand and muttering Fish! Fish! Fish! three times for each venture. Yet no other fish responded to Na-che's charm that day. But the river treated them kindly.
Come, Na-che, we'll bring the men's bags up and go out to our tent while they shift." The two women were gone before the men could protest. They were back with the bags in a few moments and in almost less time than it takes to tell, the crew of the Ida was reclothed, Enoch in the riding suit that Jonas had left with some of his own clothes in Na-che's care.
"Now the Na-che's gone I suppose I'll have a few attentions again!" said Enoch. "How are you, Milton?" He turned toward the stalwart figure that lay on the shadowy rock beyond the fire. "Better than I deserve, Judge," replied Milton. "What luck, Judge?" cried Harden, who had been watching a game of poker between Agnew and Forrester.
This morning Harden undertook to patch his boat, with this result." He nodded toward the shivering cast-a-way, who had crowded himself to Na-che's fire. "Have you folks any objection to our stopping here to make repairs?" "Lord, no! Glad to have you!" said Mack. Enoch laughed. "Mack, it's no use! You and Curly are doomed to take on guests as surely as a dog takes on fleas.
Plaintively from below rose Na-che's voice in a slow sweet chant. Jonas's baritone hesitatingly repeated the strain, and after a moment they softly sang it together. "Oh, this is perfect!" murmured Enoch. "Perfect!" Then he drew Diana's hand to his lips. How long they sat in silence listening to the wistful notes that floated up to them, neither could have told.
Ain't you got any heart?" Once, when all three of the Na-che's crew had taken a bad plunge, and Jonas had come up with an audible crack of his black head against the gunwale, he began to scold while the others were still fighting for breath. "You shouldn't ship her full of water like that! All that good paint I put on her insides is gone! Hey, Mr.
"Diana's imagination was in working order last night," volunteered Mack. "To my positive knowledge Curly ain't washed or shaved for three days." "You've drunk of the Hassayampa too, Mack!" Curly ran the comb through his black locks vindictively. "What's the effect of that draught?" asked Enoch. "You never tell the truth again," said Curly. Na-che's voice floated in.
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