The King Of Beaver, and Beaver Lights: From "Mackinac And Lake Stories", 1899Catherwood, Mary Hartwell
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The King Of Beaver, and Beaver Lights: From "Mackinac And Lake Stories", 1899
Catherwood, Mary Hartwell
Mackinac Island (Mich. : Island) -- Fiction; Michigan -- Fiction; United States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
Emeline stayed in the house, busying herself with the monotonous duties
of the family three days. She was determined never to go into the woods
path again without Roxy. The fourth day a gray fog gave her no choice
but imprisonment. It had the acrid tang of smoke from fires burning
on the mainland. About nightfall the west wind rose and blew it back,
revealing a land mantled with condensed drops.
Emeline put on her hat and shawl to walk around in the twilight. The
other young creatures of the house were glad to be out also, and Roxy
and Roxy's lover talked across the fence. Emeline felt fortified
against the path through the woods at night; yet her feet turned in that
direction, and as certainly as water seeks its level she found herself
on the moist elastic track. Cow-bells on the farm sounded fainter and
farther. A gloom of trees massed around her, and the forest gave up all
its perfume to the dampness.
At every step she meant to turn back, though a recklessness of night
and of meeting the King of Beaver grew upon her. Thus, without any
reasonable excuse for her presence there, she met Mary French.
“Is that you, Miss Cheeseman?” panted the Prophet's youngest wife.
Emeline confessed her identity.
“I was coming for you, but it is fortunate you are so far on the way.
There is a steamboat at the dock, and it will go out in half an hour.
I could not get away sooner to tell you.” Mary French breathed heavily
from running. “When the steamboat came in the captain sent for my
husband, as the captains always do. I went with him: he knows how I
dread to have him go alone upon a boat since an attempt was made last
year to kidnap him. But this time there was another reason, for I
have been watching. And sure enough, a young man was on the steamboat
inquiring where he could find you. His name is James Arnold. The captain
asked my husband to direct him to you. You will readily understand why
he did not find you. Come at once!”
“I will not,” said Emeline.
“But you wanted me to help you, and I have been trying to do it. We
easily learned by letter from our friends in Detroit who your lover was.
My husband had me do that: he wanted to know. Then without his knowledge
I stooped to write an anonymous letter.”
“To James Arnold?”
“Yes.”
“About me?”
“About you.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I said you were exposed to great danger on Beaver Island, among the
Mormons, and if you had any interested friend it was time for him to
interfere.”
“And that brought him here?”
“I am sure it did. He was keenly disappointed at not finding you.”
“But why didn't he come to the farm?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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