Was there a
coward streak in him, after all? I turned my back, and did not speak
again.
CHAPTER VIII
PARTNERS
To paddle by day, to work in sun and breeze, is a pastime, but to
paddle by night drains a man's endurance. For long hours our canoes
nosed their way around headland after headland and along wild shores
peopled by beasts and shadows. The black water was a threat and a
mystery, and the moonlight was chill, so that our limbs, which should
have bounded with red blood, were aching and leaden with the cold. I
stretched myself with relief when the red-streaked horizon told me it
was time to land and make camp.
I was prepared for pursuit, but knew that, with Pierre in one canoe and
Labarthe in the other, we must be well in advance of it. Now I
purposed to stop and hide. It is more to my taste to be hound than
hare, and I do not like an enemy snapping at my heels. So I prepared
to land. Once the pursuing canoes had passed us we could take up the
chase on our own part and follow at leisure.
I called the word to the other canoe, and then as we swung shoreward I
turned to look at the Englishman. All night I had heard no sound from
him, nor glanced his way. My thoughts of him had been bitter, for he
was a sore weight on my hands.
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