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"What do you think has happened to him?" I asked

"How a a piece of hickory bark into hisaches in our bellies "We may speculate until the sun co" He did not finish the thought He fondled the polished stock of the rifle lying across his lap, an effort to ease another gnawing ache "I suspect he heard--or thought he heard--so in the bush and like a fool took off after it Perhaps he has decided ‘to hell’ with us and now is seated coh I doubt it"

"Why?"

"He left his rucksack And his canteen He intended to return"

Unless he did not leave of his own accord That possibility the doctor did not give voice to He chewed thoughtfully upon the wood; the firelight flickered in his eyes

"We are lost," he said matter-of-factly "That is the only explanation You observed his reaction to the suggestion yesterday So at first light he struck out to pick up the trail again Darkness caught hiht to come back for us"

"What if he doesn’t?"

The doctor frowned "Why wouldn’t he?"

"He’s afraid" I re from his chapped and swollen lips I did not offer the other reason--that he wouldn’t return because he couldn’t I thought of Pierre Larose, impaled upon a tree

"All the ued the doctor Then, as if he had read hts, he said, "I wouldn’t choose solitude in these circumstances, and I am one who chooses it in nearly every circus incessantly; his eyes shone "Secrets," he murmured

"Secrets, sir?"

"The reason I becaist, Will Henry" He lowered his voice, nohispery warm, as intimate as a lover’s "She cloaks herself in mystery She hides her true face I would unmask her I would strip her bare I would see her as she is"

He lifted his face toward the veiled heavens He considered the treetops genuflecting to the high wind "‘The wind blohere it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh’She is fickle and jealous and completely indifferent--and therefore completely irresistible What mortal woman can approach her? What earthly maiden possesses her eternal youth or can inspire such rapture--and despair? There is so about her, Will Henry, and utterly seductive In , I fell I fellvery far"

Though I sat three feet froeant Hawk, the doctor was co doith a case of "bush fever" If so--if I lost him, too--ould become of hed softly "I warned you I wanted to be a poet"

"Was that a poem?"

"No, of course not"

"It didn’t sound like any poem I’ve ever read"

"You are a clever boy, Will Henry That could be both a conarled bit of wood from his mouth and tossed it into the fire

"Terrible! Like chewing on a chair leg But it’s e have And we must learn to be satisfied e have, no matter how bland or bitter the taste"

We were quiet for a moment The fire cracked and popped The histled in the bowed heads of the spruce and pine Behind us John Chanler entle harmony

"Did he feel the same as you, Doctor?" I asked "Abouther?"

"John has rew up, infox or playing cricket"

"He thought it was fun?" The idea that anyone could find the doctor’s business enjoyable was bizarre