<SPAN name="CHAPTER_V"></SPAN><h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
<br/>
<p>As soon as he had passed from the view of the cabin door Aldous shortened
his pace. He knew that never in his life had he needed to readjust himself
more than at the present moment. A quarter of an hour had seen a complete
and miraculous revolution within him. It was a change so unusual and
apparently so impossible that he could not grasp the situation and the fact
all at once. But the truth of it swept over him more and more swiftly as he
made his way along the dark, narrow trail that led up to the Miette Plain.
It was something that not only amazed and thrilled him. First—as in all
things—he saw the humour of it. He, John Aldous of all men, had utterly
obliterated himself, and for a <i>woman</i>. He had even gone so far as to offer
the sacrifice of his most important work. Frankly he had told Joanne that
she interested him more just now than his book. Again he repeated to
himself that it had not been a surrender—but an obliteration. With a pair
of lovely eyes looking quietly into him, he had wiped the slate clean of
the things he had preached for ten years and the laws he had made for
himself. And as he came in sight of the big Otto tent, he found himself
smiling, his breath coming quickly, strange voices singing within him.</p>
<p>He stopped to load and light his pipe before he faced Mrs. Otto, and he
clouded himself in as much smoke as possible while he explained to her
that he had almost forced Joanne to stop at his cabin and eat partridges
with him. He learned that the Tête Jaune train could not go on until the
next day, and after Mrs. Otto had made him take a loaf of fresh bread and a
can of home-made marmalade as a contribution to their feast, he turned back
toward the cabin, trying to whistle in his old careless way.</p>
<p>The questions he had first asked himself about Joanne forced themselves
back upon him now with deeper import. Almost unconsciously he had revealed
himself to her. He had spread open for her eyes and understanding the page
which he had so long hidden. He had as much as confessed to her that she
had come to change him—to complete what he had only half created. It had
been an almost inconceivable and daring confession, and he believed that
she understood him. More than that, she had read about him. She had read
his books. She knew John Aldous—the man.</p>
<p>But what did he know about her beyond the fact that her name was Joanne
Gray, and that the on-sweeping Horde had brought her into his life as
mysteriously as a storm might have flung him a bit of down from a swan's
breast? Where had she come from? And why was she going to Tête Jaune? It
must be some important motive was taking her to a place like Tête Jaune,
the rail-end, a place of several thousand men, with its crude muscle and
brawn and the seven passions of man. It was an impossible place for a young
and beautiful woman unprotected. If Joanne had known any one among the
engineers or contractors, or had she possessed a letter of introduction to
them, the tense lines would not have gathered so deeply about the corners
of Aldous' mouth. But these men whose brains were behind the Horde—the
engineers and the contractors—knew what women alone and unprotected meant
at Tête Jaune. Such women floated in with the Horde. And Joanne was going
in with the Horde. There lay the peril—and the mystery of it.</p>
<p>So engrossed was Aldous in his thoughts that he had come very quietly to
the cabin door. It was Joanne's voice that roused him. Sweet and low she
was singing a few lines from a song which he had never heard.</p>
<p>She stopped when Aldous appeared at the door. It seemed to him that her
eyes were a deeper, more wonderful blue as she looked up at him, and
smiled. She had found a towel for an apron, and was peeling potatoes.</p>
<p>"You will have some unusual excuses to make very soon," she greeted him.
"We had a visitor while you were gone. I was washing the potatoes when I
looked up to find a pair of the fiercest, reddest moustaches I have ever
seen, ornamenting the doorway. The man had two eyes that seemed about to
fall out when he saw me. He popped away like a rabbit—and—and—there's
something he left behind in his haste!"</p>
<p>Joanne's eyes were flooded with laughter as she nodded at the door. On the
sill was a huge quid of tobacco.</p>
<p>"Stevens!" Aldous chuckled. "God bless my soul, if you frightened him into
giving up a quid of tobacco like that you sure <i>did</i> startle him some!" He
kicked Stevens' lost property out with the toe of his boot and turned to
Joanne, showing her the fresh bread and marmalade. "Mrs. Otto sent these to
you," he said. "And the train won't leave until to-morrow."</p>
<p>In her silence he pulled a chair in front of her, sat down close, and
thrust the point of his hunting knife into one of the two remaining
potatoes.</p>
<p>"And when it does go I'm going with you," he added.</p>
<p>He expected this announcement would have some effect on her. As she jumped
up with the pan of potatoes, leaving the one still speared on the end of
his knife, he caught only the corner of a bewitching smile.</p>
<p>"You still believe that I will be unable to take care of myself up at this
terrible Tête Jaune?" she asked, bending for a moment over the table. "Do
you?"</p>
<p>"No. You can care for yourself anywhere, Ladygray," he repeated. "But I am
quite sure that it will be less troublesome for me to see that no insults
are offered you than for you to resent those insults when they come. Tête
Jaune is full of Quades," he added.</p>
<p>The smile was gone from her face when she turned to him. Her blue eyes were
filled with a tense anxiety.</p>
<p>"I had almost forgotten that man," she whispered. "And you mean that you
would fight for me—again?"</p>
<p>"A thousand times."</p>
<p>The colour grew deeper in her cheeks. "I read something about you once that
I have never forgotten, John Aldous," she said. "It was after you returned
from Thibet. It said that you were largely made up of two emotions—your
contempt for woman and your love of adventure; that it would be impossible
for you not to see a flaw in one, and that for the other—physical
excitement—you would go to the ends of the earth. Perhaps it is this—your
desire for adventure—that makes you want to go with me to Tête Jaune?"</p>
<p>"I am beginning to believe that it will be the greatest adventure of my
life," he replied, and something in his quiet voice held her silent. He
rose to his feet, and stood before her. "It is already the Great
Adventure," he went on. "I feel it. And I am the one to judge. Until to-day
I would have staked my life that no power could have wrung from me the
confession I am going to make to you voluntarily. I have laughed at the
opinion the world has held of me. To me it has all been a colossal joke. I
have enjoyed the hundreds of columns aimed at me by excited women through
the press. They have all asked the same question: Why do you not write of
the good things in women instead of always the bad? I have never given them
an answer. But I answer you now—here. I have not picked upon the
weaknesses of women because I despise them. Those weaknesses—the
destroying frailties of womankind—I have driven over rough-shod through
the pages of my books because I have always believed that Woman was the one
thing which God came nearest to creating <i>perfect</i>. I believe they should
be perfect. And because they have not quite that perfection which should be
theirs I have driven the cold facts home as hard as I could. I have been a
fool and an iconoclast instead of a builder. This confession to you is
proof that you have brought me face to face with the greatest adventure of
all."</p>
<p>The colour in her cheeks had centred in two bright spots. Her lips formed
words which came slowly, strangely.</p>
<p>"I guess—I understand," she said. "Perhaps I, too, would have been that
kind of an iconoclast—if I could have put the things I have thought into
written words." She drew a deep breath, and went on, her eyes full upon
him, speaking as if out of a dream. "The Great Adventure—for you. Yes; and
perhaps for both."</p>
<p>Her hands were drawn tightly to her breast. Something about her as she
stood there, her back to the table, drew John Aldous to her side, forced
the question from his lips: "Tell me, Ladygray—why are you going to Tête
Jaune?"</p>
<p>In that same strange way, as if her lips were framing words beyond their
power to control, she answered:</p>
<p>"I am going—to find—my husband."</p>
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