I
could not see her face distinctly, because of the light, but there was
something in the gentleness and intentness of her listening poise that
made me feel that she welcomed the safeguard of my aimless speech, but
that for the moment she had no similar weapons of her own.
So long as daylight lasted, we traveled swiftly toward the southwest,
but when the sunset had burned itself to ashes, and the sky had blurred
into the tree line, I told the men to shift their paddles, and drift
for a time. The last twenty-four hours had hardened them to surprise.
They obeyed me as they did Providence,--as a troublesome, but
all-powerful enigma.
And so we floated, swinging like dead leaves on the long swells. The
stars came out, the gulls went shoreward for the night, and we were as
alone as if on the sea. The woman's slender figure, wrapped in her
white cloak, became a silent, shining wraith. She was within touch of
my hand, yet unreachably remote. I lost my glib speech. The gray
loneliness that one feels in a crowd came over me. If I had been alone
with my men, I should have felt well accompanied, master of my craft,
and in tune with my condition. It was the presence of this alien
woman, whom I must protect, but not approach, that made me realize that
I was thousands of leagues from my own kind, and that I must depend on
my own judgment--with which I felt much out of conceit--to carry this
expedition safely through the barbarous wilderness.
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