making the little cry for help a token, not of love, perchance, but of
some dawning of forgiveness for my desperate wronging of her. And in
that hesitant moment it was borne in upon me that without this slender
chance for hope I should go mad and become a wretched witling at a time
when every faculty should be superhuman sharp and strong for spending in
her service.

So I forebore to wake the Indian; and following out this thought of
service fitness, would force myself to go to sleep and so to gather
fresh strength for the new day's measure.




XXI

HOW WE KEPT LENTEN VIGILS IN TRINITYTIDE


'Twould weary you beyond the limit of good-nature were I to try to
picture out at large the varied haps and hazards of our wanderings in
the savage wilderness. For the actors in any play the trivial details
have their place and meaning momentous enough, it may be; yet these are
often wearisome to the box or stall yawning impatiently for the climax.

So, if you please, you are to conceive us four, the strangest
ill-assorted company on the footstool, pushing on from day to day deeper
and ever deeper into the pathless forest solitudes, yet always with the
plain-marked trail to guide us.