XIX
NEW ACTORS ON THE SCENE
When Ralph got around the house Nahnya was nowhere to be seen. He was not enough of a woodsman to find her tracks in the dead leaves and the pine needles. The river was her natural means of escape; cutting back to the trail, he ran to the point. There was no sign of her. Drawn up on the beach and tied to a branch he saw the dugout she had brought. There were no tracks in the sand to show she had returned, nor any impression of another boat having been pushed off.
Ralph rushed up and down the shore looking for her, or for her tracks. "She must go by the river," he told himself; "the forest is impenetrable." With every minute his heart sank; he knew he was no match for Nahnya in the wilderness. Making a longer sally downstream, he finally found her tracks where she had leaped over the bank, and had set off down the beach. He followed after with renewed hope. After running a quarter of a mile he suddenly pulled himself up. "I'll never catch her this way," he thought. "She must have a boat down here to cross. She'll only leave me stranded on the shore. She's got to go home. I must follow her there by water."
He made his way back to the point, and thence to the work-shack, where he borrowed an axe and an auger, without meeting any one. Returning to the mouth of the creek he searched until he found a great, dry trunk, that had been thrown high by a freshet. He set to work to chop it into four lengths to make a raft. His right arm was still far from fit to swing an axe, but an indomitable resolution kept him at work. Progress was slow; the minutes escaped him maddeningly. "Never mind," he told himself, "I'll go straight to the Bowl of the Mountains. She does not know that I can find my way there."
By and by Jim Sholto pushed his way through the bushes, and, descending the bank, sat down on a boulder. Ralph, with a glance, went on with his work. Jim made a great business of searching for a suitable twig at his feet. He started to peel it, pursing up his lips in a noiseless whistle. Downright Jim had no talent for dissimulation; perturbation, dismay, and anger were plainly visible, struggling with his elaborate unconcern. He was keeping a tight hold on himself.
"So you're going to leave us?" he said, very off-hand.
"I must," muttered Ralph.
"I should 'a' thought you'd had your lesson against travelling alone. You ain't in no shape to swing an axe or drive a paddle!"
"Can't help it," said Ralph.
"What'll you do for food, gun, blankets, to keep life in you?"