CHAPTER III
ELEVEN YEARS LATER
ANNETTE was standing on the river bank. She was intensely preoccupied. Her willow rod swung up. It whistled through the hot summer air. Then her homemade fly struck the calm surface of the shady pool with a lightness, a dexterity, that displayed her child’s skill.
Her dark eyes were alight. There was eagerness in the pose of her tall, angular body. Her pretty lips were parted, and her breath came quickly. She was very happy.
The boy was watching from beneath the visor of the old cloth cap he had inherited from Pideau. He, too, had all the enthusiasm of a keen fisherman. But he was not fishing. He was squatting on the sun-dried grass of the river bank cleaning his rifle, the breech of which was dismantled, with its parts spread out on a grease rag on the ground beside him.
Two lean husky dogs were at the water’s edge near by. They were great creatures of the trail. But they were also hunting dogs, trained to an efficiency which only the limitless patience of the boy could have achieved. They were searching the distance with eager eyes. Their long muzzles were pointing at a far distant forest line beyond the river. And their bodies were a-quiver with that canine excitement which finds expression so readily.
Farther back from the river, where the haylike grass was abundant, a pinto pony was tethered, grazing. He was without saddle or bridle. He wore only an old rope head collar and the tether by which he was secured.
The valley was bathed in blazing sunshine which told of the summer’s height. Forest, grass, and shrub were ripe with the maturity of the season. The silence and solitude of the mountain world were profound.
The girl cast, and recast again. Then of a sudden her whole body stiffened. And a sharp little ejaculation broke from her. The boy watched the play. And as he waited, the whimper of his dogs broke into a howl that sounded full of mourning in the silence of the valley.
Annette struck sharply. In a moment there was a flash of wriggling silver in the sunshine. Then a large fish lay flapping on the grass, and the girl was on her knees with her strong, brown fingers busy salving her precious fly.
“Say, you!” she cried, flinging the words back over her angular shoulder. “Send your crazy dogs to home. They’re spoilin’ things. I hate ’em.”