It was just a little difficult. Once the men reached the waterside Chilcoot’s assertion was left beyond question. Had the intruder been a man, greeting and possible invitation would have been forthcoming on the instant. As it was even the Irishman was reduced to silence in sheer amazement. The girl was less than twenty yards away beyond the vessels moored, a rampart between herself and the Cheechakos against whom the factor had warned her. Her beautiful blue eyes were unsmiling. Her sunburnt face was almost painfully serious. And her whole manner, and her attitude told the men on the bank that her approach had definite meaning which had nothing to do with idle curiosity. So they waited, and finally the difficulty was solved by the girl herself.
“You’re getting ready for portage?” she called across the water.
“That’s so.”
It was Wilder who replied to her, and a smile lit his angular face as he noted the sweetly girlish tones of the voice that reached him.
“You don’t need to,” came back the Kid’s prompt reply, and her paddle stirred in the water and her little vessel crept in towards the laden canoes. “There’s a deep channel. It’s right along under the bank, and it’ll take the biggest boat you’ve got without a worry.”
Wilder stepped on to the nearest vessel and moved down its length. The prow of the girl’s canoe had come within a yard of him, and he looked down into the wide eyes gazing so confidently up into his.
“That’s just kind of you,” he said, in a tone he intended should escape the listening ears behind him. “It’s a mighty big proposition portaging this outfit, and I was feeling kind of reluctant.” He withdrew his gaze from the fascinating picture of the white girl in the boat and glanced in the direction she had indicated. “The channel cuts in under this bank, you say? And it’s clear all the way?”
“Sure.”
The Kid’s bright eyes were measuring. In her mind was the haunting memory of old Ben’s warning, but somehow it was powerless before her inclination and the sight of this large man with his steady, good-looking eyes, and wholesome, clean-shaven face. Her confidence increased and her impulse became irresistible.
“If you feel like it I’ll give you a lead,” she said. “I know it by heart. You see,” she added, with simple conclusiveness, “I was raised on this river.”