Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1924-05-01


steps inside; crawled under the hand
rail to the bank and, with every pre-
caution known to woodcraft to hide
his trail recrossed the island to the
skiff.
He showed the skiff into the water,
rowed up around the head of the
island, down the south channel and
back to the house-boat. Fastening the
skiff to the rail, he unhitched the rope
from the willow on the bank; sprang
lightly to the forward deck, being
careful to keep out of range of the
picked up one of the two light poles
with which such craft are propelled;
pushed off; suffered the snug little
vessel to catch the drift of the cur
rent and, being careful to keep well
within the shadow of the willows, let
it drift down the channel.
Far down toward the lower point of
the island a narrow pocket gashed
into the rather steep bank-a place
well known to the woodsman. Care
fully withdrawing the boat from the
current as he approached, he deftly
turned the prov; poled the little YES
sci into the slack water of the pocket
and far up under the overhanging
vines and branches, where it would
likely escape anything short of the
very closest scrutiny, either from land
or water; hitched it securely to a
ho. IN hn
deck and stood listening.
The girl inside the cabin had re-
peatedly wrenched at the doors as the
vessel drifted down the channel. Sew
eral times she had called the name OF
Hopkins, begging him to release her,
doubtless believing it was he that set
the boat adrift To all this the woods
man had returned no answer.
She must have known when the boat
stopped, must have heard the scrape
of the limbs and vines as it was poled
up into the pocket, for there followed
resist the longing to steal once more
to the narrow crevice where the bar
of candle-light escaped. He brought
his eye close; peeped within.
She was standing near the middle
Of the floor, listening intently and APP
parently in deep thought. AS he
watched, he saw a sudden light leap
to her face and wake the wonder of
her eyes. She crossed the floor; came
close to the door and, with the eau
ton of a woodcraft almost as fine as
his own, softly called:
"Jack-w
It took the utter sum Of the mans
resolution to keep still. He watched
the wonder of her eyes transform to
disappointment and despair; watched
her stand clasping and unclasping the
slim fingers of her shapely small
hands.
One consideration alone restrained
him from beating to fragments the dis
abled paddock and setting her free
right in that stout cabin, with it's
doors secured by damned locks that
could not be opened without breaking,
securely hidden at the end of COW
cred trail, was the safest place in the
F1atwoods for her just then. There
would be hard faces and quick fingers
in the red-roofed cottage that night.
But even so, it was the most diff
cult thing the big woodsman had ever
tried to do in his life to turn away
from that door and go back to the
skiff.
With set and serious face he rowed
up the channel, around the head of
the island, across to the mainland and
carefully stepped ashore; dropped
both oars into the river; set the boat
adrift; stood moment watching 1t
float away and, with extraordinary
pains to hide his trail, hurried back to
Graylock.