“Oh, I don’t want to stay here alone and wait for Andy! And I’m afraid—afraid of what may happen to him! But if I must stay, it’s cruel of you to leave me in ignorance of what to expect. And I can’t even talk it over with Andy, it seems.”
“No, he knows less about it than you do,” Shonto told her. “His parents and I have deceived him into thinking he has had heart trouble for years. And no one but his parents and I know the truth.”
“Oh, that sounds terrible! You think I shouldn’t marry Andy, and yet—”
“If Andy remains all right,” he cut in quickly, “there is no positive reason why you shouldn’t marry him. I think, however, that he is not the man for you—and it’s fair enough for me to make that statement for the simple reason that I’m convinced I’m the man for you. I refuse to call to your mind any of Andy’s faults. I have enough of my own. If he has any, you must find them out for yourself. But I’ll make you marry me instead of him because you will see that I’m the man to make your life complete, and that you’re the woman to make mine complete. You don’t love Andy. I know you don’t. You merely think you do. His magnificent young manhood has carried you off your feet, and you’ve not gone deeper into the matter. Blind, physical love you have given him—but it will pass, Charmian. And that’s enough—positively all. We’ll turn in and try to forget it all for to-night. And to-morrow early I’m off to send Andy to you. I know you’ll care for him if—if he needs it. But if you believe in God, pray to him that he won’t! Good night. My bed is over there by the big oak. Call me if you need me for anything.”
CHAPTER XX
THE INTERIM OF DOUBTS
CHARMIAN did not begin sobbing until, standing at the edge of the grove that surrounded the ruins of the ancient village, she saw a tiny speck moving slowly up the narrow trail which zigzagged along the sides of the cliffs from the Valley of Arcana. The moving speck was Dr. Shonto, and he was leaving her alone in a vast wilderness, filled with doubts and dread and loneliness and grave forebodings. She sank to the ground, laid her arms on a fallen tree, and drenched them with her tears.
He had held her hand a long time in parting, smiling at her in his patient, benign way. His smile had been encouraging, though he had not told her to be brave. It was a compliment to her courage, she thought, that he had taken it for granted that she would be intrepid and had considered mere words of emboldenment as idle. He realized, she reasoned, that a girl who would set out to accomplish such an enormous task as hunting for an unexplored valley in an unmapped wilderness would have the bravery to meet with cheerfulness any unforeseen emergency that might arise.
When her cry was over she returned to camp and began to work as the surest way of overcoming her loneliness. Not many provisions were left, as Shonto had been obliged to take something along with him to sustain life between the valley and the waiting pair in the cañon. Charmian searched for and found a huckleberry patch, black with fruit which so far had resisted frost. She spent the remainder of the morning gathering berries, but realized as she worked that, since she had no way of preserving them, they represented food only for temporary use. She was not fond of fruit, either, but she forced herself to eat quantities of the juicy huckleberries at noon in order to save the staples in her pack.
That afternoon, wandering through the grove, she came upon a hut which was fairly well preserved. The construction was typically Indian. Ordinarily such huts are made by first sinking in the ground a hole about five feet in depth. Around this pit stout poles are planted deep. These are bent in at the tops until they nearly touch, and are bound about with bark or strips of hide. The hole at the top allows the smoke to go through, and it also serves as an entrance. A short ladder or notched pole on the inside leads to the hole, and leaning against the structure on the outside is a corresponding pole or ladder. The entire framework of poles is covered with earth to a depth of several inches.
In this instance, however, the pit was a natural one, formed in solid rock. It probably had been a pothole in an ancient creek-bed. With this substantial beginning, the builder of the hut had constructed the above-ground portion along sturdier lines. Instead of poles he had used the trunks of small redwood trees ten inches in diameter, and no other soft wood resists the ravages of time so well. Unable to sink the butts in the solid stone, he had dragged great slabs of rock and piled them about the base of his dwelling as anchors and had covered the whole with earth in far greater quantities than are commonly employed.