ey would find you out. I could
only wait and hope--and pray!"
"I was in no danger, dear. Didn't the girl tell you I was to take the
place of a man Slosson was expecting? He never doubted that I was that
man until a light--a signal it must have been--on the shore at the head
of the bayou betrayed me."
"Where are we going now, Bruce? Not the way they went--" and Betty
glanced out into the black void where the keel boat had merged into the
gloom.
"No, no--but we can't get the raft back up-stream against the current,
so the best thing is to land at the Bates' plantation below here; then
as soon as you are able we can return to Belle Plain," said Carrington.
There was an interval broken only by the occasional sweep of the great
steering oar as Cavendish coaxed the raft out toward the channel. The
thought of Charley Norton's murder rested on Carrington like a pall.
Scarcely a week had elapsed since he quitted Thicket Point and in that
week the hand of death had dealt with them impartially, and to what
end? Then the miles he had traversed in his hopeless journey up-river
translated themselves into a division of time as well as space. They
were just so much further removed from the past with its blight of
tragic terror. He turned and glanced at Betty. He saw that her eyes
held their steady look of wistful pity that was for the dead man; yet in
spite of this, and in spite of the bounds beyond which he would not
let his imagination carry him, the future enriched with sudden promise
unfolded itself. The deep sense of recovered hope stirred within him. He
knew there must come a day when he would dare to speak of his love, and
she would listen.
"It's best we should land at Bates' place--we can get teams there," he
went on to explain. "And, Betty, wherever we go we'll go together, dear.
Cavendish doesn't look as if he had any very urgent business of his own,
and I reckon the same is true of Yancy, so I am going to keep them
with us. There are some points to be cleared up when we reach Belle
Plain--some folks who'll have a lot to explain or else quit this part of
the state! And I intend to see that you are not left alone until--until
I have the right to take care of you for good and all--that's what
you want me to do one of these days, isn't it, darling?" and his eyes,
glowing and infinitely tender, dwelt on her upturned face.
But Betty shrank from him in involuntary agitation.
"Oh, not now, Bruce--not now--we mustn't s
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