The next instant, with a
powerful shove, he sent the empty birchbark speeding far out into the
open water.
Jan caught his breath. He heard Jackpine's cry of amazement behind him.
Then he saw the two men start on a swift run over the portage trail, and
with a fierce, terrible cry he sprang toward his rifle, which he had
leaned against a tree.
In that moment he would have fired, but O'Grady and the Indian had
disappeared into the timber. He understood--O'Grady had tricked him, as
he had tricked him in other ways. He had a second canoe waiting for him
at the end of the portage, and perhaps others farther on. It was unfair.
He could still hear O'Grady's taunting laughter as it had rung out in
Porcupine City, and the mystery of it was solved. His blood grew hot--so
hot that his eyes burned, and his breath seemed to parch his lips. In
that short space in which he stood paralyzed and unable to act his brain
blazed like a volcano. Who--was helping O'Grady by having a canoe ready
for him at the other side of the portage? He knew that no man had gone
North from Porcupine City during those tense days of waiting. The code
which all understood had prohibited that. Who, then, could it be?--who
but Marie herself! In some way O'Grady had got word to her, and it was
the Cummins' canoe that was waiting for him!
With a strange cry Jan lifted the bow of the canoe to his shoulder and
led Jackpine in a run.
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