BY MORNING, Haddon had become a trace more possible in his comportment.
He did not need to speak to Joslin further about the joining of forces
up the river, for the latter had his own supplies at the landing early,
ready for the embarkation, and had arranged to send down for his own
boat at a later time. They set about their journey in Haddon’s boat,
as being more commodious and faster. It did fairly well, the out-board
motor chugging along around bend after bend of the ancient river,
awakening echoes whose like had never before that time been known in
these hills where oar and paddle and sweep had served immemorially.
At noon they ate their luncheon on a shaded bank—not too happy a
company, for Haddon was strangely silent, his wife not less so, and
Joslin himself, always taciturn, found no reason for speech. As they
re-embarked Haddon did make some inquiry as to the length and character
of the remaining way.
“By and by, in four or five miles,” answered Joslin civilly, “we’ll
come to the foot of the Narrows. I reckon we’ll have to drag the boat
up through the Narrows. Between here and there we’ll have trouble—the
water shoals out in a good many places.”
This last was fair prophecy, as they were to find. It never occurred
to Haddon that he could go overboard and help in the progress of the
boat when it grounded. Joslin stepped out as he was, took the painter
of the boat across his shoulder, and, bent forward like any beast of
burden, waded on, dragging the heavy craft behind him. Marcia Haddon
sat watching all this, looking from the one man to the other. The
patience of the poor man, the carelessness of the rich man—these
things indeed came to her soul in the nature of a comparison. At length
Haddon had the bad taste and bad judgment to complain querulously about
the slowness of their progress.
“Damn it, man, is that as fast as you can go?” he exclaimed, perhaps
having in mind earlier experiences with half-breed guides in tourist
countries.
Joslin made no immediate reply, but stood rigid for a time, very pale.
At length, the painter of the boat still in his hand, he waded back
alongside the boat and looked the other man in the face, his own eyes
glowing.
“Mr. Haddon,” said he, “get out here in the water. If we both pull on
the line, we can get this lady up there a good deal faster.”
And Haddon, being wise, got out, accoutered as he was. Joslin, somber,
taciturn, did not speak to him at all for a half-hour or more.
At length they came, with an hour or so yet of daylight, to the foot of
the great pool which lay below the Narrows.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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