XV
That journey he made with this 'child of nature' among the dripping trees and along soaked paths was one that Eliot never forgot. For him its meaning was unmistakable. His early life again supplied a parallel. He had once seen a wretched man marched out of camp with two days' rations to shift for himself in the wilderness as best he might—a prisoner convicted of treachery, but whose life was spared on the chance that he might redeem it, or die in the attempt. He had seen it done by redskins, he had seen it done by white. And hanging had been better. Yet the crime—stealing a horse, or sneaking another's 'grub-stakes'—was one that civilisation punishes with a paltry fine, or condones daily as permissible 'business acumen.'
In primitive conditions it was a crime against the higher law. It was sinning against Nature. And Nature never is deceived.
Richard Eliot was now being drummed out of camp. And the child who led him, mischief in her eyes and the joy of forbidden pleasure in her heart, was all unconscious of the awful role she played. Yet it was she who as well had pleaded for his life and saved him.
Nature turned him out; the Place rejected him; and Mánya saw him safely to the confines of that
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