Norton, Andre - Novel 23 Read Online Free PDF Page B

dealing with Honora.
     

3
     
LU- TREADING CAREFULLY
     
                   Afterward, Saranna thought that the cottony
fog into which Gerrad Fowke's river sloop plunged had been, in a way, a warning
of the murky paths which lay before her. The thick tendrils gathering about the
small boat were like a spider's web meant to entangle them past escape. And
with the coming of that fog, the warmth of the spring vanished. The day was
darkly chill. Moisture beaded the deck planking and the rail against which she
stood, dampened her shawl, made her bonnet veil hang
limp and heavy. Yet she shrank from going into the cramped cabin below.
                   The deck, save for a very small portion
through which the crew moved, was piled high with stacks of lumber, barrels and
boxes, as was the hold, so that the sloop rode low in the river. Since the
sails could not be used, the crew were out with
sweeps, three men to a side, walking back and forth to give them a very slow
headway. While Mr. Fowke himself took the wheel post.
                   Millie, her eyes swollen from crying, huddled
on one side of the boxes, a small figure of misery. The maid had shown such
fear ever since Honora had decreed that she accompany Saranna to Tiensin that
Saranna had not been able to get anything coherent out of her. Now Millie
appeared as if facing a doom from which she had no hope of escape, displaying
no interest in her surroundings.
                  For all Sararma's relief at escape from the
house over which Honora had full command, her own uneasiness grew. And the
heaviness of this fog did not dispel any forebodings. Though Mr. Fowke showed
no signs of being aware that anything out of the ordinary was happening, his
complete air of self-confidence and self-assurance drew her now to edging past
the deck cargo and approaching his place of command.
                   The blacks at the sweeps chanted in rhythm
with their swings of the sweeps. She could not understand a word and there was
a strange, eerie note to that song (if song it was) which disturbed her so much
she wanted to cover her ears with her hands. When she peered into the heavy
mists, she could imagine that something or some things lurked within its folds,
ever watching them evilly—
                   Saranna forced a rein on her imagination. Of
course, there was nothing there! And Mr. Fowke knew this waterway as well as
she knew the lanes of Sussex . Unlike its neighbor Virginia, since the
earliest days of settlement, Maryland had used as roads those rivers which cut
and sliced into its lands. The manors had their own wharves and landings, their
own sloops. Neighbor visited neighbor via the water, and it was only since the
beginning of this century that roads had come to link town and city. Still, the
many rivers remained the easiest transportation by which to reach most of the
manors.
                   'This will delay us," Gerrad Fowke's
voice broke through the monotonous song of the scullers. "Unless it lifts,
you may not reach Tiensin, Miss Stowell, until well past moon rise. I am sorry
your introduction to the river had to be so unpromising a one."
                   "That you can move at all through
this," she ventured in return, "is surprising. What if another boat
comes—?"
                   He laughed. "We'd hear and so would they.
We don't need fog warnings with Jason leading the chant." He nodded to the
powerful man at the nearest scull.
                   "I can't understand what they are
saying—or singing— “
                   Mr. Fowke shrugged. "Probably it's some
juju petition to the dark powers. They have their own way of thinking and
believing."
                   Saranna glanced at the sodden lump of misery
which marked Millie. Even in the short distance between them now the black girl
was half-hidden by the mists.