--

"Oh, Mox-mox, the sun was warm and food was plenty, yet you went away;
and when we reach out for you, you are not there. Oh Mox-mox, dead,
dead, dead!"

Then the women again,--

"Oh, Mox-mox, dead, dead, dead!"

And so it went on, till they were embarked and the canoe bore them
from sight and hearing. Down on some _mimaluse_ island or rocky point,
they would stretch the corpse out in a canoe, with the bow and arrows
and fishing spear used in life beside it; then turn over it another
canoe like a cover, and so leave the dead to his long sleep.

The sight gave an added bitterness to Cecil's meditations.

"After all," he thought, "life is so short,--a shadow fleeting onward
to the night,--and love is so sweet! Why not open my heart to the
bliss it brings? The black ending comes so soon! Why not fling all
thought of consequences to the winds, and gather into my arms the love
that is offered me? why not know its warmth and thrill for one golden
moment, even though that moment ends in death?"

The blood rushed wildly through his veins, but he resolutely put down
the temptation. No, he would be faithful, he would not allow himself
even to think of such a thing.

Reluctantly, as before, the sentinels made way for him and he went on
through the wood to the trysting-place, for such it had come to be.
She was waiting. But there was no longer the glad illumination of
face, the glad springing forward to meet him. She advanced shyly, a
delicate color in her cheek, a tremulous grace in her manner, that he
had not observed before; the consciousness of love had come to her and
made her a woman. Never had she seemed so fair to Cecil; yet his
resolution did not falter.

"I have come, you see,--come to tell you that I can come no more, and
to talk with you about your future."

Her face grew very pale.

"Are you going away?" she asked sorrowfully, "and shall I never see
you again?"

"I cannot come back," he replied gently. The sight of her suffering
cut him to the heart.

"It has been much to see you," he continued, while she stood before
him, looking downward, without reply. "It has been like meeting one of
my own people. I shall never forget you."

She raised her head and strove to answer, but the words died on her
lips. How he loathed himself, talking so smoothly to her while he
hungered to take her in his arms and tell her how he loved her!

Again he spoke.

"I hope you will be happy with Snoqualmie, and--"