ode away, blinded and deafened
by the confusion of his feelings. His face was as stubborn as stone.

CHAPTER XIII

ON THE RIVER

When Sam had passed out of sight around the willows, Bela, still
shaken by sobs, went down on her hands and knees to search for the
penknife she had spurned. Finding it, she kissed it and thrust it
inside her dress.

Going to the dugout, she stretched out in it, and gave herself up to
grief. Not for very long, however. Gradually the sobs stilled, and
finally she sat up with the look of one who has something to do. For a
long time thereafter she sat, chin in hand, thinking hard with tight
lips and inward-looking eyes.

Sounds from around the bend above aroused her. She heard the working
of an oar in its socket and the cautious voices of men. An alert look
came into her face.

She glanced over the gunwale at her face in the water and disarranged
her hair a little. Flinging herself down, she commenced to weep again,
but with an altered note; this was self-conscious grief addressed to
the ears of others.

The three men, finding her thus, gaped in boundless astonishment. It
was anything but what they expected to find. They peered into the
bushes for a sign of Sam.

"What the devil is the matter?" demanded Big Jack.

"Where is Sam?" cried Joe.

Bela answered both questions at once. "He leave me," she sobbed with
heart-breaking effect.

"Left you?" they echoed stupidly.

"Gone away," wailed Bela. "Say he done with me for good!"

Black Shand and Jack were genuinely discomposed at the sight of her
tears. Joe with more hardihood laughed.

"Serve you well right!" said he.

Big Jack had the oar. He drove the boat on the bank alongside the
dugout, and they climbed out. Jack and Shand went up the bank.

"He can't have got far," said the former.

A wide sea of grass was revealed to them, stretching to pine ridges on
the horizon. In all the expanse there was no sign of any figure, but
the dense willows marking the tortuous course of the river provided
plenty of cover both up and down stream.

"Which way did he go?" Jack called down.

"I don't know," said Bela. "Down river, I think."

Below, Joe, full of bitter jealousy, was still upbraiding Bela. Jack
returned, scowling.

"Cut it out!" he said peremptorily. "I will get to the bottom of
this." To Bela he said harshly: "What do you expect us to do for you,
girl? You promised us a fair answer yesterday morning, and in the
ni