CHAPTER XX DICK BRACKNELL LEARNS THE TRUTH

“WE MUST find out what has happened!” said Joy, looking at Bracknell.

“Yes,” he said slowly, “but you must not go alone. If you will wait a moment I will accompany you.”

“But your cough——” Joy began, a tone of solicitude in her voice.

“My cough!” Dick Bracknell laughed bitterly. “That is nothing to what may lie before us, and in any case it is not safe for you to go alone.”

Something in his voice and manner convinced her that he was not speaking idly, and that he had his own reasons for apprehension.

“Very well,” she said, “we will wait for you. We will go down the creek together.”

He turned back into the hut, and the two girls looked at each other. They were used to the stillness of the forest, but somehow the silence that prevailed seemed ominous of fateful things. Both of them were conscious of vague forebodings, and as Babette looked at her foster-sister, and saw the light of apprehension in her eyes, she whispered, “What do you think, Joy? What do you think has happened?”

“I do not know, but I feel that it is something[222] dreadful and I am afraid.” She looked towards the cabin, and added, “He is afraid also. You can see that!”

“Yes! That is very clear.”

They stood waiting until Dick Bracknell appeared, and then without speaking all three started down the creek. A few minutes walking brought them in sight of the main trail, and suddenly Joy gave a cry, and pointed ahead. The figure of a man was lying prone in the snow, and as he caught sight of it, Dick Bracknell broke into a feeble run. For a moment the two girls stood quite still, looking each at the blanched face of the other, then they followed, slowly, the premonition of tragedy mounting in their hearts.

When they reached Bracknell they found him stooping over the figure, with a look of consternation in his eyes.

“Do you know him? Is it your——”

“Oh!” cried Babette. “It is George!”

“George! Who is——”

“He was my father’s man, and he is mine!” said Joy, staring at the fallen Indian with stricken eyes.

“No,” said Dick Bracknell quietly, “he is yours no longer! He has gone to the happy hunting grounds.”

“Dead?” cried Joy, as the truth broke upon her. “George dead! But how? What——”

Bracknell looked up at her, moved by the anguish in her tones, then he pointed to what she had not seen, a feathered arrow head, half hidden by the crook of the arm.

[223]

“Oh!” she sobbed. “He has been killed. He——”

“But where is Jim? Where are the dogs?” cried her foster-sister. “Both have been here! See, here are the tracks, and there goes the trail northward!”

It was as she said, and as Dick Bracknell looked down and read the signs a dark look came on his face. Babette looked from her foster-sister, sobbing in the snow, to the man who was her husband.

“What do you think has happened?” she asked.

He looked from her to Joy commiseratingly. “I can only guess,” he said in a troubled voice. “I think the Indian who was with me is responsible for this, the man who brought you to my shack—you know. When you came to the cabin he had instructions to look out for your men at the mouth of the creek. I—I am afraid he exceeded my instructions. I think that he must have attacked your men——”

“But why should he do that, if you did not tell him?”

As Joy flung this question at him, a troubled look came upon his face.

“I think he wanted your dogs and outfit, that we might get away from here!”

“Our dogs and outfit?”

“Yes. He is devoted to me, but twice lately I have had trouble on that point. Once when my cousin Roger Bracknell came——”

He broke off suddenly as Joy sprang to her feet. “Your cousin Roger has been here?” she cried. “He is alive then?”

[224]

As she flung her questions at him eagerly, impetuously, the man’s face clouded, and again a jealous light came in his eyes. It was a moment before he answered the questions, and to Babette, watching him it appeared that he was struggling hard for self-mastery.

“Yes,” he replied, at last, in a hoarse voice. “He is alive! He came to my cabin by accident. He had broken his leg, and had lain in an Indian encampment for weeks. There he had heard news which had sent him hot foot on the trail of a man who was responsible for your father’s death!”

“For my father’s death?” as she cried the words Joy’s face was white as the snow about her. “But—but——”

Her voice faltered, and guessing what she would have said, Bracknell explained. “I am afraid it will come as a shock to you even after these three or four years, but it appears to be the fact that your father’s death was not altogether accidental.

“My cousin had a very circumstantial story of the affair, and he was on the trail of the man who was responsible for the crime, the same man, as he believes, who shot me on the night when I had arranged that meeting with you at North Star.”

“But who is the man?” asked Joy quickly.

“My cousin gave me no name, indeed he declined to do so. But he had his theory, and he went so far as to tell me that not only did the Indian who was with him know the man, but that he himself believed that he knew him.”

“Ah!” cried Joy.

[225]

Her husband looked at her. “You also guess?”

“Yes!” she answered. “I guess—but no more than guess!”

“Who is the man?” asked Bracknell quickly.

“His name is Adrian Rayner!”

“Rayner!” cried Bracknell excitedly. “The son of old Rayner, your guardian?”

“Yes! He is in the North now. I believe that he is looking for Roger Bracknell.”

“God in heaven!”

“What is the matter?” asked Joy. “You look as if something had occurred to you!”

“Yes!” he said simply. “Something has—something very significant. Two or three days after Roger left the shack a stranger arrived——”

“Mr. Bracknell,” interrupted Miss La Farge, “don’t you think we had better postpone explanations for a little time? If we remain talking here we shall freeze. And there are things to be done. There is Jim to find—and there is the team and the outfit. Then we must bury George. We can’t possibly leave him lying here for the wolves!”

“Yes,” answered Bracknell. “I was forgetting.” He considered a moment and then spoke again. “The sled tracks run up the river. If you two were to follow a little way, till you get to that spur there, you will have a long view of the trail, and possibly you will be able to see something of the team and your man. But don’t go too far. It won’t be safe. Whilst you are away, I will arrange tree-burial for this poor fellow. And when you return we can discuss the situation. Do you agree?”

[226]

“Yes,” answered Joy.

“Then I will waste no time, nor, I hope, will you.”

He turned and began to walk up the creek in a way that revealed what an effort it was for him, and for a second or two Joy watched him with pitying eyes, then as her foster-sister spoke, she turned, and without answering began to follow the sled tracks.

After they had trudged a little way, Babette spoke.

“Dick Bracknell is a strange man. Two hours ago he was within an ace of violence towards you, and now I believe he is really solicitous for your welfare.”

“Yes,” answered Joy. “He is full of contradictions. There are many men like him, I suppose. When he is good he is very good, and when he is bad he is almost satanic. When I first met him he was a gentleman, an attractive one; and but for unfortunate influences he might have continued—but now——”

“Now he is a wreck, physical and moral,” answered Babette, and then asked sharply, “Suppose we do not find Jim and the dogs, Joy?”

“We must find them!”

“But suppose we do not? What then?”

“Then we shall have to take refuge in the cabin.”

She said no more, and Babette asked no more questions. In half an hour they reached the wooded spur round which the river turned, and as they reached the further side, both came to a standstill and looked at the frozen waste.

[227]

For two or three miles the course of the river was visible between low, wooded banks. Snow was everywhere, and nowhere was the white surface broken by any moving figure. It was a land of death—death white and cold. Babette shivered as she looked on it.

“They are not here, Joy,” she whispered. “Neither Jim nor the dogs.”

“No,” answered Joy stonily.

“We shall have to go back to the cabin to—to—your husband.”

“Yes, there is no other way!” A sob broke from her, then she bit her lip, and added, “It is a strange irony that now my safety should depend on him.”

“Dare you trust him—Joy?”

“Yes,” answered Joy thoughtfully. “I can trust him—now. As you have seen he is a very sick man, and in spite of the way in which he raved in the cabin, I believe that now he is greatly concerned for my safety, and yours. Did you notice the sudden change in his attitude after I had mentioned Adrian Rayner’s name?”

“Yes, he was startled. His manner completely altered. Something struck him with your mention of the name. I wonder what it was?”

“I do not know. I cannot even guess, but no doubt we shall hear presently. There is nothing for us to do but to return to the cabin.”

Her foster-sister nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, we shall have to do that. We can do nothing else.” She paused a moment and then asked, “You don’t think George’s son has deserted us, Joy?”

[228]

“No!” answered Joy emphatically. “Something has driven him away. But he will return—if he can. I am sure of that!”

They turned in their tracks and slowly retraced their way to the cabin. Dick Bracknell was standing at the door, evidently waiting for them, and as they approached he flashed a look of inquiry at Joy. She shook her head.

“No,” she said quietly. “There is nothing to be seen anywhere.”

“I am sorry,” answered Bracknell simply. “You must wait here. Perhaps your other man will return, or if he does not my man may.”

He opened the door and held it for them to pass in.

“You can take off your furs,” he said, as they entered. “I have blocked the window with snow, and stretched a blanket over it. I am afraid that it will be rather dark, but that is unavoidable.”

The two girls followed his suggestion and seated themselves by the stove. For a little time no one spoke, and the red glow of the fire shining on their faces showed them very thoughtful. At last, Joy broke the silence.

“You were saying that two or three days after your cousin left here a stranger arrived. Who was it? Do you know?”

Dick Bracknell laughed mirthlessly. “I do not know for certain. I can only guess.”

“And you guess——”

“That it was old Rayner’s son—Adrian, I think you called him. Of course he didn’t tell me who he was, but he let out that he was looking for my[229] Cousin Roger, and posed as a lawyer’s clerk. I’m morally certain, however, that he was young Rayner!”

Joy remembered his sudden change of manner when she had said that Adrian Rayner was in the North, looking, as she believed for Roger Bracknell, and after a moment, urged by something deeper than curiosity, she spoke, “You hinted that something very significant had occurred to you. What was it?”

Dick Bracknell hesitated, and it was evident that he was wondering whether to tell her or not. Then he laughed bitterly. “You may as well know all the kinds of fool I am. This stranger pitched a yarn about you and Roger, and I was fool enough to believe him.”

He broke off and looked at Joy, whose face was flaming. Even in the red glow of the firelight the flush revealed itself to him, but though he frowned a little, he continued in an even voice. “He told me that my brother Geoffrey was dead, and that as I was either dead or as good as dead, Roger quite naturally was reckoned as the heir to Harrow Fell. He said further that you knew of this and that you were looking for Roger with the news and with the intention of marrying him.”

“Oh!”

As the exclamation broke from her, Joy abruptly hid her face in her hands, Bracknell coughed a little and then resumed—

“He claimed to be the agent of old Rayner, and declared he was looking for Roger Bracknell in order to warn him of your previous marriage, and[230] to give him warning that I was alive, in case you—a—should not regard that marriage as binding.”

He looked at Joy again. Her face was still hidden in her hands.

“As I said, I was fool enough to believe him, and that accounts for my amiable reception of you just now. It even accounts for your presence here, for when my man Joe brought news that you were out in the Northward trail, the trail that Roger was following, I was morally certain that you were out upon his track, and I set out to trap you. You must own that your unexpected presence did give colour to Rayner’s story, and that I had some excuse for——”

“I was looking for your cousin Roger,” interrupted Joy, suddenly lifting her face, and meeting his questioning gaze.

He looked at her but did not immediately reply. And in the silence that followed Miss La Farge rose from her seat and began to put on her furs.

“I am going outside,” she said. “It is better that I should. You two have things to say to each other that should only be said between you.”

She passed out, shutting the door behind her, and after a little time, Dick Bracknell spoke again.

“You say you were looking for my Cousin Roger? That is a very damaging admission, is it not? It would seem that, after all, that fellow Rayner was not far off the mark.”

“You do not believe that?” answered Joy, meeting his gaze with steady eyes.

He laughed shortly. “No,” he admitted. “I[231] do not believe it—now, but I will own that I am a little curious as to the reason why you should follow on my cousin’s trail. It is—er—a little unusual.”

“I was following him, as I believed, to save him. Adrian Rayner wanted to marry me, and I had accused him of trying to kill you at North Star. He knew all about my marriage to you, though how he got the knowledge I cannot tell——”

“That is simple enough!” broke in her husband. “I wrote to old Rayner and told him——”

“But my uncle did not know, I am sure he did not know. He himself wanted me to marry Adrian, and I can’t believe he knew.”

“Perhaps not,” admitted Bracknell thoughtfully. “It is possible that young Rayner got hold of my letter to his father and that the old man never saw it at all. But what has this to do with my cousin!”

“This! Adrian Rayner told me that he was coming here in order to prove that you were dead but I was morally certain that he was coming here to find your cousin Roger and to—to——”

“To shoot him, hey? Why should he want to do that?”

“Because he knew that your cousin suspected him of that attempt on your life at North Star!”

“Wanted to get rid of a witness, I suppose. And you were following Roger to warn him.”

“Yes! That was one reason.”

“Um! It’s a nice coil, for sure. I entertain the man who tried to murder me, and I set him on the[232] trail of my cousin who was trying to bring him to justice. That is about as pretty a kettle of fish as——”

“But you did not tell Adrian Rayner where Roger had gone?” cried Joy, springing to her feet. “Surely you did not tell him?”

“At that time,” answered Bracknell slowly, “it seemed to me that I had little cause to love my Cousin Roger. You are to remember that I was in ignorance of much that I have learned this morning.”

“You told him?” cried Joy.

“I certainly put him on the track,” answered the man.

“Then God forgive you! God forgive you!” cried Joy in anguished tones.

Dick Bracknell’s face set hard, and only by an effort was he able to control himself. But after a moment he replied quietly, “As I have said, I did not know Rayner. I had no inkling of his game.”

“No!” said Joy stonily. “I understand that.”

“You hinted that there was another reason,” said Bracknell, watching her closely. “I wonder if you would mind telling me——”

“Oh, I don’t mind at all,” broke in Joy impulsively. “Your brother Geoffrey was killed whilst I was in England. Indeed, I was the one to find him dead. No one knew whether you were alive or dead, even I did not know, and Roger was regarded as the heir. But I knew that when he left North Star that he was going to try and learn what had really happened to you, and I was afraid that if[233] there was a collision between you, and anything dreadful happened, people might say that he—that he——”

She broke off, and hesitated.

“I understand,” said her husband. “You need not say it. I dare say you are quite right. This world is full of Christian charity.”

“I cabled him and tried to get in touch with him. I learned that he was missing. I came out, and at Regina I discovered that nothing whatever had been heard about him, but I discovered also that Adrian Rayner had been making inquiries, that he was on his trail. Then I was certain of his evil purpose, and when I reached North Star and found Adrian there, I accused him, for I was very sure of his intentions. As soon as I could I started to look for your cousin myself——”

“You seem very anxious about my cousin,” broke in her husband quietly.

“Oh, how can I help being?” cried Joy.

Dick Bracknell took a step forward, and put a hand on her shoulder. She did not shrink, and as his eyes searched her face, she met his gaze steadily. They stood there silent for what seemed a long time, then Bracknell dropped his hand.

“I think I understand,” he said wearily, “and I do not blame you. And I am sure that both Roger and you have played the game! Well, I’m crocked, and——”

He broke off and laughed harshly. Then his haggard face grew suddenly convulsed with rage. “That—Rayner! If only I could meet him again I think I could die happily!”

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Joy looked at him, her heart wrung with pity for him. She stretched a hand impulsively, and was about to speak when the door was flung open violently, and Miss La Farge rushed in, hastily barring the door behind her.