6
Jim only waited till the proper moment came. And Tom understood. His deep, simple love was equal to all emergencies. He respected his brother's reserve. The obvious desire of John Rossiter to talk and ask questions, for instance, he resisted staunchly as far as he was able. Only when he could help and protect his brother did he yield a little. The talk was brief, even monosyllabic; neither the old Hudson Bay fellow nor the Orkney farmer ran to many words:
"He ain't right with himself," offered John, taking his pipe out of his mouth and leaning forward. "That's what I don't like to see." He put a skinny hand on Tom's knee, and looked earnestly into his face as he said it.
"Jim!" replied the other. "Jim ill, you mean!" It sounded ridiculous.[14]
"His mind is sick."
"I don't understand," Tom said, though the truth bit like rough-edged steel into the brother's heart. "His soul, then, if you like that better."
Tom fought with himself a moment, then asked him to be more explicit.
"More'n I can say," rejoined the laconic old backwoodsman. "I don't know myself. The woods heal some men and make others sick." "Maybe, John, maybe." Tom fought back his resentment. "You've lived, like him, in lonely places. You ought to know." His mouth
shut with a snap, as though he had said too much. Loyalty to his suffering brother caught him strongly. Already his heart ached for Jim. He felt angry with Rossiter for his divination, but perceived, too, that the old fellow meant well and was trying to help him. If he lost Jim, he lost the world--his all.
A considerable pause followed, during which both men puffed their pipes with reckless energy. Both, that is, were a bit excited. Yet both had their code, a code they would not exceed for worlds.
"Jim," added Tom presently, making an effort to meet the sympathy half way, "ain't quite up to the mark, I'll admit that." There was another long pause, while Rossiter kept his eyes on his companion steadily, though without a trace of expression in
them--a habit that the woods had taught him.
"Jim," he said at length, with an obvious effort, "is skeered. And it's the soul in him that's skeered."
Tom wavered dreadfully then. He saw that old Rossiter, experienced backwoodsman and taught by the Company as he was, knew where the secret lay, if he did not yet know its exact terms. It was easy enough to put the question, yet he hesitated, because loyalty forbade.
"It's a dirty outfit somewheres," the old man mumbled to himself.[15]
Tom sprang to his feet, "If you talk that way," he exclaimed angrily, "you're no friend of mine--or his." His anger gained upon him as he said it. "Say that again," he cried, "and I'll knock your teeth----"
He sat back, stunned a moment.
"Forgive me, John," he faltered, shamed yet still angry. "It's pain to me, it's pain. Jim," he went on, after a long breath and a pull at
his glass, "Jim is scared, I know it." He waited a moment, hunting for the words that he could use without disloyalty. "But it's nothing he's done himself," he said, "nothing to his discredit. I know that."
Old Rossiter looked up, a strange light in his eyes. "No offence," he said quietly.
"Tell me what you know," cried Tom suddenly, standing up again.
The old factor met his eye squarely, steadfastly. He laid his pipe aside.
7
"D'ye really want to hear?" he asked in a lowered voice. "Because, if you don't--why, say so right now. I'm all for justice," he added, "and always was."
"Tell me," said Tom, his heart in his mouth. "Maybe, if I knew--I might help him." The old man's words woke fear in him. He well knew his passionate, remorseless sense of justice.
"Help him," repeated the other. "For a man skeered in his soul there ain't no help. But--if you want to hear--I'll tell you." "Tell me," cried Tom. "I will help him," while rising anger fought back rising fear.
John took another pull at his glass. "Jest between you and me like."
"Between you and me," said Tom. "Get on with it."
There was a deep silence in the little room. Only the sound of the sea came in, the wind behind it. "The Wolves," whispered old Rossiter. "The Wolves of God."
Tom sat still in his chair, as though struck in the[16] face. He shivered. He kept silent and the silence seemed to him long and curious. His heart was throbbing, the blood in his veins played strange tricks. All he remembered was that old Rossiter had gone on talking. The voice, however, sounded far away and distant. It was all unreal, he felt, as he went homewards across the bleak, wind-swept upland, the sound of the sea for ever in his ears....
Yes, old John Rossiter, damned be his soul, had gone on talking. He had said wild, incredible things. Damned be his soul! His teeth
should be smashed for that. It was outrageous, it was cowardly, it was not true.
"Jim," he thought, "my brother, Jim!" as he ploughed his way wearily against the wind. "I'll teach him. I'll teach him to spread such wicked tales!" He referred to Rossiter. "God blast these fellows! They come home from their outlandish places and think they can say anything! I'll knock his yellow dog's teeth...!"
While, inside, his heart went quailing, crying for help, afraid.
He tried hard to remember exactly what old John had said. Round Garden Lake--that's where Jim was located in his lonely Post-- there was a tribe of Redskins. They were of unusual type. Malefactors among them--thieves, criminals, murderers--were not punished. They were merely turned out by the Tribe to die.
But how?
The Wolves of God took care of them. What were the Wolves of God?
A pack of wolves the Redskins held in awe, a sacred pack, a spirit pack--God curse the man! Absurd, outlandish nonsense! Supersti-
tious humbug! A pack of wolves that punished malefactors, killing but never eating them. "Torn but not eaten," the words came
back to him, "white men as well as red. They could even cross the sea...."[17] "He ought to be strung up for telling such wild yarns. By God--I'll teach him!" "Jim! My brother, Jim! It's monstrous."
But the old man, in his passionate cold justice, had said a yet more terrible thing, a thing that Tom would never forget, as he never could forgive it: "You mustn't keep him here; you must send him away. We cannot have him on the island." And for that, though he could scarcely believe his ears, wondering afterwards whether he heard aright, for that, the proper answer to which was a blow in the mouth, Tom knew that his old friendship and affection had turned to bitter hatred.
"If I don't kill him, for that cursed lie, may God--and Jim--forgive me!"
3
8
It was a few days later that the storm caught the islands, making them tremble in their sea-born bed. The wind tearing over the treeless expanse was terrible, the lightning lit the skies. No such rain had ever been known. The building shook and trembled. It almost seemed the sea had burst her limits, and the waves poured in. Its fury and the noises that the wind made affected both the brothers, but Jim disliked the uproar most. It made him gloomy, silent, morose. It made him--Tom perceived it at once--uneasy. "Scared in his soul"--the ugly phrase came back to him.
"God save anyone who's out to-night," said Jim anxiously, as the old farm rattled about his head. Whereupon the door opened as of itself. There was no knock. It flew wide, as if the wind had burst it. Two drenched and beaten figures showed in the gap against the lurid sky--old John Rossiter and Sandy. They laid their fowling pieces down and took off their capes; they had been up at the lake for the evening flight and six birds were in the game bag. So suddenly had the storm come up that they had been caught before they could get home.[18]
And, while Tom welcomed them, looked after their creature wants, and made them feel at home as in duty bound, no visit, he felt at the same time, could have been less opportune. Sandy did not matter--Sandy