"New ones, I suppose, of course, unless it be known to the contrary through your means. _I_ have not said a word about it, nor have my family, I feel confident," replied Elwood, demurely.

"Very well; our former acquaintance is then wholly unsuspected here. Let it remain so. But have you ever hinted to any of the settlers what you may have known or heard about me, or any former pa.s.sages of my life, which occurred when I used to operate in this section or elsewhere?"

"No, not one word."

"All is well, then. As you have kept and continue to keep my secrets, so shall yours be kept. It is a dozen or fifteen years since I have been in this section at all. It is filling up with new men. There are but two persons now in the settlement that can ever have seen or known me. And they will not disturb me."

"Then there _are_ two that _have_ known you? Who can they be?"

"One is Wenongonet, an old Indian chief, as he calls himself, still living on one of the upper lakes, they say, but too old to ramble or attend to anybody's business but his own. The other is Phillips, the hunter."

"Phillips! Phillips, did you say? Why, as much as he has been at our house, he has never dropt a word from which one could infer that you were not a perfect stranger to him."

"I did not suppose he had. Phillips is a peaceable, close-mouthed fellow; pretends not to know any thing about anybody, when he thinks the parties concerned would rather have him ignorant; keeps a secret by never letting anybody know he has one; and never means to cross another man's path. I can get along with _him_, too. And the only question now is whether _you_ and I can live together in the same settlement."

"It will probably be your fault if we can't. I shall make war on no one."

"My fault! Why I _wish_ to be on good terms with you; and yet, Elwood, you feel out of sorts with me, and, in spite of all I can do, seem disposed to keep yourself aloof."

"If I do seem so, it may be because the past teaches me that the best way to avoid quarrels is to avoid intimacies. You know how we last parted in that gambling-room. I had no business to be there, I admit; but that was no excuse for your treatment."

"Treatment! Why, Elwood, is it possible you have been under a misapprehension about that, all this time?" responded Gaut, with that peculiar wheedling manner which he so well knew how to a.s.sume when he wished to carry his point with another. "My object then was to save the money for you and me, so that we could divide it satisfactorily between ourselves. I was angry enough at those other fellows, whom I saw getting all your money in that way, I confess; and, in what I said, I was whipping them over your shoulders. I thought you understood it."

"I didn't understand it in that way," replied Elwood, surprised and evidently staggered at the bold and unexpected statement. "I didn't take you so: could that be all you intended?"

"Certainly it was," resumed Gaut, in the same insinuating tone. "Had I supposed it necessary, I should have seen you and explained it at the time.

But it is explained now; so let it go, and every thing go that has been unpleasant between us; let us forget all, and henceforth be on good terms.

Our children, as you may have suspected, seem intent on being friends; and why should not we be friends also? It will be a gratification to them, and we can easily make it the means of benefiting each other. You know how much I once did in helping you to property,--I can do so again, if we will but understand each other. What say you, Elwood? Will you establish the treaty, and give me your hand upon it?"

Elwood trembled as the other bent his fascinating gaze upon him, hesitated, began to demur feebly; but, being artfully answered, soon yielded and extended his hand, which Gaut seized and shook heartily; when at the suggestion of the latter they separated and proceeded by different courses, so that they might not be seen together, to join the company at the house, whom they found, as they expected, in consultation about the proposed trapping and hunting expedition to the upper lakes, the time of starting, and the names and number of those volunteering to join the a.s.sociation, only remaining to be fixed and ascertained. That time was finally fixed on the 15th of September, and the company was formed to consist of the two Elwoods, Phillips, Gurley, Codman, and such others as might thereafter wish to join them. This being settled, they broke up and departed for their respective homes.

CHAPTER X.

"All good to me is lost; Evil, be thou my good"--

The next scene in the slowly unfolding panorama of our story opens at the house of Gaut Gurley, on the banks of the Magalloway. Gaut reached home, on the evening of the logging bee, about sunset; and, having put out his team, entered his house, where he found his wife alone, his daughter being absent on a visit to a neighbor. Contrary to what might have been expected, after the favorable impression he had so evidently made on the settlers that day, and the attainment of the still more important object with him, the regaining of his old fatal influence over Elwood, he appeared morose and dissatisfied. Something had not worked to his liking in the complicated machinery of his plans, and he showed his vexation so palpably as soon to attract the attention of his submissive but by no means un.o.bservant wife, who, after a while, plucked up the courage to remark:

"What is the case, Gaut? Have you been working yourself to death for those Elwoods, to-day, or has something gone wrong with you, that makes you look so sour this evening?"

"I have worked hard enough, G.o.d knows; but that I intended, for I had objects in view, most of which I think I have accomplished, but--"

"But not all, I suppose you would say?"

"Well, yes, there is one thing that has not gone exactly to suit me, over there."

"What is that, Gaut?"

"It is of no consequence that you should know it. If I should name it, you would not see its bearing on my plans, I presume."

"Perhaps not, for I don't know what your plans are, these days. I used to be able to guess out the objects you had in view, before you came here, whether you told me or not. But, since you have been in this settlement, I have been at loss to know what you are driving at; I can't understand your movements at all."

"What movements do you mean, woman?"

"All of them; but particularly those that have to do with the Elwoods."

"What is there in my course toward them, since they came here, that you can't understand?"

"Well, I'll tell you, Gaut. When you believed Elwood to be rich, I could easily see that you thought it would be an object to bring about an acquaintance between his son and only heir, and our Avis; and I knew you was, those days, studying how it could be done, and I always suspected that you in some way disposed of that picture of her for the purpose, instead of sending it to your relations, and----"

"And what?" exclaimed Gaut, turning fiercely on his wife. "Suspected! What business had you to suspect? And you told Avis what you thought, I suppose?"

"Not a word, never one word; for I knew she was so proud and particular, that, if she mistrusted any thing of that kind to have been done, she would flounce in a minute. No, I never hinted it to her, or anybody else, and it was guesswork, after all," replied the abashed wife, in a deprecating tone,--she having been tempted, by the unusual mood which her stern husband had manifested for discussing his private affairs with her, to venture to speak much more freely than was her wont.

"Well, see that you don't hint any thing about that, nor any thing else you may take it into your silly head to guess about my objects," rejoined the other, in a somewhat mollified tone. "But now go on with what you were going to say."

"Well, I could understand your course before Elwood failed; but, when he did, I could see no object, either in following him here, or having any thing particular to do with him, or any of his family. But you seized on the first chance, after we came here, to court them, and have followed it up; first, in the affair of the young man and Avis, and then, in drumming up the whole settlement in getting up this logging bee for the old man.

Now, Gaut, you don't generally drive matters at this rate without something in view that will pay; and, as I can see nothing to be gained worth so much pains, I don't understand it."

"I didn't suppose you did, and it is generally of little consequence whether you see through my plans or not; but, in this case--"

Here Gaut suddenly paused, rose, and took several turns across the room, evidently debating with himself how far it was policy to disclose his plans to his wife; when, appearing to make up his mind, he again seated himself and resumed:

"Yes, as this is a peculiar case, and coming, perhaps, in part within the range of a woman's help, if she knows what is wanted, and one which she may unintentionally hurt, if she don't, I suppose I must give you some insight into my movements, so that you can manage accordingly, help when you can, and do no mischief when you can't; as you probably will do, for you well know the consequences of doing otherwise."

"I will do all I can, if I can understand what you want, and can see any object in it," meekly responded the woman.

"Well, then, in the first place," resumed the other, "you know how many years I slaved myself, and what risks I run, to help Elwood make that fortune; how he threw me off with simple wages, instead of the share I always intended to have for such hard and dangerous services; and how he failed, like a fool, before I got it."

"I knew it all."

"Then you can easily imagine how much it went against my grain to be balked in that manner. At all events, it did; and I soon determined not to give up the game so, even if that was all. And ascertaining that Elwood, by allowances made by the creditors to his wife, and sales of furniture which they allowed the family to retain, brought quite a little sum of money into the settlement,--enough, at any rate, to pay for his place, put him well afloat, and make him a man of consequence in such a new place,--I soon made up my mind on buying and settling, for present purposes, here, too, as we did."

"Yes, but what do you expect to make here more than in any other new country? And what can you make out of the Elwoods, more than any other new settlers?"

"A good deal, if all things work to my mind. There is money to be made here. I could do well in the fur business alone, and at the worst. And, by the aid of one who could be made to favor my interests, there is no telling what could be done. Now, what claim had I on any other settler to be that one to aid me? On Elwood I had a claim to help _me_ to property in turn; and I determined he should do it. But he must first be brought into the traces. He has got out with me, and must be reconciled before I can do much with him."

"Well, I should think he ought to be by this time, after what you have been doing for him, without his asking."

"Without asking? Why, that was just the way to do it. As I calculated, he was taken by surprise, disarmed, and yielded; so that object is accomplished, as well as making the right impression on the other settlers by beating them at their own work."

"I begin to understand, now."

"You will understand more, soon; that was only part of my object."