Adventure, August 1917 — page 7: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Northwoman 5 object, examined it closely and then wheeled to face the young man behind her. There was no surprise, no embarrass- ment, in her face when she saw him stand- ing there. She nadded, smiled, then said: “T think I have your seat.” “How did you know that?” demanded Searles, his amazement transferred so suddenly. 3 “Oh, it was easy to see that you were sit- ting here, and that you have been here be- fore. Let me see. One—two—three—six —eight. Four nights. But you are very wasteful. When these are gone, what will you do? Idon’t imagine that there are any more this side of Winnipeg, unless they have this brand in Port Arthur, and even that is a good two hundred miles.”’ Searles now stood beside her, looking at ‘the place toward which she had been point- ing while she counted. Then he laughed. “T see!” he exclaimed. ‘You saw the cigarets I smoked here. I had begun to think you were unreal, a water spirit after all.”’ She looked up quickly, with just a little flash of sympathy that lasted only an instant before the mischief that crowded after it. | ‘“You—you saw me?” she asked. “T saw you,” he answered, “standing there on the flat rock beside the falls. The mist eddied in, and when it rolled back you were gone.”’ ‘“‘And you thought you had witnessed a tragedy and you named it ‘Maiden’s Leap Falls’ right then,” she taunted. | SEARLES flushed with the indig- nation he had first felt when he saw her sitting on the rock. She saw it and spoke quickly. “Tam sorry [frightened you. Of course, I never saw you up here, never dreamed any one was watching. But I have done it so many times, and it is the only way to get over here unless you go half a mile down the river and paddle.” Again she smiled to temper her teasing, but Searles’s expression did not change. “You must never do it again!’’ he ex- claimed. “You’re not plaguing me, as you think. I discovered that passage beneath the falls the first day I was here. Any one o Ze \ would suspect it from the name, ‘Curtain . Falls.2 But you must never do it again. It is dangerous.” “Dangerous!”? she laughed. “I have done it for years, and so has Stan. Only the- Indians are afraid to go under the water. Why, I didn’t even get wet.” “I know,” Searles answered sharply, for his fear had not entirely left him, and he also wished to impress firmly what he was about © to say. “I went through myself. I saw it all, saw, perhaps, more than you ever did, © and that is the shelf which forms the path beneath the falls is liable to go any time. Just the weight or the jar of a person walk- ing may send it down.” The girl was not frightened. Resent- ment of his tone made her own answer a little vehement. “That passage is on the solid rock,” she declared. “It has been there for ages. Nothing could dislodge it.” “Listen,” said Searles, and he began a description of the geology of the country, the peculiar reason for a straight water- fall in a region of hard granite where falls were invariably only a succession of violent, tumbling rapids, and of the probable his- tory of the formation of the spectacle before them. “You see,” he concluded, “‘that ledge is the last of the soft rock. It has been under- mined clear across the middle, and the drip of water behind has cut off most of the sup- port from the rear. Its own weight may take it down any time. You must never go across again.” ‘“‘Not even now?” she asked a little fear- fully, for his array of scientific terms and facts and his evident knowledge of the sub- ject had been convincing. “T can take you across in my canoe. is down the river below the rapids.” “TI don’t like to put you to all that trouble, and, besides, I’d like to make one more trip through. I don’t like the idea of having my private trails marked ‘No Trespassing.’ ” : “You don’t mean that you would go through there again, after what I have told your” demanded Searles. “Certainly. Just the once more.” “But it’s suicide!” “Tl risk it.” “But why?” “That’s why,’ she smiled, and she jumped down and walked to the edge of the gorge and looked into the whirlpool beneath her. | Searles followed, angry and perplexed. It CoMmicloooks © 5}