The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-02
THE HEART OF. A HEATHEN

upon him as the laughing Till had thrown
 itself upon the mighty river, he had
 put her coolly aside And now he had
 come to her, but not for her. No she
 would not deceive herself. He had mere
 ly called, in passing, to rest and sleep.
 For hours, down through the deepening
 twilight, she sat dreaming out long
 rose-tinted, sun-kissed misht-have-been,
 until Ter youthful unspoiled heart woke
 her with it's wild beating. His very
 presence seemed to sweeten and soften
 things. The knowledge that he was near
 was like the unexpected touch of a soft
 warm hand in the dark Above her head
 a wakeful bird was wailing for night
 to fall, knocked his head and sang short
 snatches of the only song he knew, then
 tucked his head under his wing and tried
 to make himself believe 1t was really
 night
 Now it was nearly midnight and she
 rose, drunken with love. that mysterious intoXieant and turne,. toward her tent. Under a tree near the lodge her muf- fled fCot touched something soft, and gancing down the outline of a blanket
 bed grew out fo the dark and presently
 a mans upturned face. The moon that had ben hiding behind a cloud, came
 out and showed the handsome face of her white god. At sight of him. there at her feet, her heart leaped, her head swan, her soul cried out to Wes-a-ka- chaek to help her to hold him. And then like the cruel awakening from a sweet dream, came the killing recollec- l tion that he had sent her from him. | Noiselessly as a cat guards kitten she sank beside him, kneeling She crouched
 above him and absorbed him. She hov- cred over and about him caressing him
 with her hungry eyes and pouring out
 to him the silence of her soul. Now
 began -lra- -Obn npls
 had sent him to her to have and to hold
 and she would hold him. An, even to
 die with him were sweet. By this time
 her wild glood was raging. She would
 hold out her hands to him as a mother reaches for her tottering child, her hot heart-blood tingling down to her finger tips that almost touched his face She 1 longed to throw her troubled self upon
 his quiet breast and then she remem- bered that there was mo room' there
 o. why did Wes-a-k -ka- -chacl<, who made this wilderness, not set among the my
 raids of wild flowers one poisonous plant? l If only she had something to swallow that would still the cry of her beating heart, hush the humping In her dazed head, that she might flow into his peace
 ful slumber, as the troubled Till joined
 the Athabasca, and then they could dream on together into that mysterious
 hereafter in the land where there is always room. They would come and find them there, side by side and they would build one wide grave by the banks of the Athabasca, and there at least, would be plenty of room. And there, according to her wild fancy. they would sleep and dream with the low winds signing in l the eedars and the great wide river sing Ing requiem that would never cease Her troubled soul, soaring Into strange new world would whirl and scurry as a
 Kite caught in conflicting currents tuge | Q hI fpf,,
 to die for him or to take his life with
 her own hands, kissing his wounds and
 smothering his last breath as her pale sister would drink the fragrance of a dying rose crushed by the wild caress l or the lover who had laid 1t upon her ehaste breast. She wondered why Wes-
 a-ka-ehack had sent this white man to 1 her .n the heart of the wild Was if 1 only 10 awaken in her this new incompre- l hensible hunger, and then leave her
 to starve and die alone2s Mo- that was not the way of the God of the Crees.
 He was for her-here and hereafter 1 By now she was mad. Above all rose
 the thought that he must not escape.
 lnstinctvely her hand went to her belt 1 and grasped the handle of the hunting
 knife which had been given her by the
 factor at Dunvegan upon the occasion 1 Of her one peep out of the wilderness. 1 The touch of the cold steel caused a l again to Wes-a- -ka- a-chack, who had watched over her always. who had sent } the mounded moose to stop and stay the l hunger of the wolves when they were 1 chasing her; yho had caused a bough to
 break above her head one summertime
 and the leaping lynx to miss his dive She sat erect and listened to the wild l beating of her heart. but Wes-a-ka- chack was silent. Once more she bent over him A tear-the first her eyes had known-crept down her dark lashes and fell Upon his face. Slowly he opened his eyes and saw her face above him and the bright blade, uplifted, glistening in the moonlight He thought rapidly. as men learn to think who dwell in the wild, as engine-drivers who drill the darkness at eighty miles an hour. And in the fragment of a moment, he re- membered the hurt, wild look in her in-
 nocent eyes when he put her from him
 in his own house. He controlled himself
 and breathed naturally the while the
 naked knife lowered over his heart He pretended to close his eyes and then
 ane one bound tossed the blakets over her and stood up. The girl stood still, staring at him as if recovering from the effect of a stunning blow Above her own hearts beating she heard him breathing, tremulously and deep. He held out his hands to her, as she had reached and yearned for him while he | slept She took one step forward then noticing the knife still in her hands, she tossed 1t from her
 Come" said Bannihan, in Cree, and she took one more short step, Come"
 he repeated, "there Is room" She threw herself into his arms and lay uuivering and softly sobbing on his broad breast
 precisely as a white woman might sob.