This eBook was produced by David Widger
By Gilbert Parker
"Carnac! Carnac! Come and catch me, Carnac!" It was a day of perfectsummer and hope and happiness in the sweet, wild world behind the nearwoods and the far circle of sky and pine and hemlock. The voice thatcalled was young and vibrant, and had in it the simple, true soul ofthings. It had the clearness of a bugle-call-ample and full of life andall life's possibilities. It laughed; it challenged; it decoyed.
Carnac heard the summons and did his best to catch the girl in the woodby the tumbling stream, where he had for many an hour emptied out hiswayward heart; where he had seen his father's logs and timbers caught injams, hunched up on rocky ledges, held by the prong of a rock, whereman's purpose could, apparently, avail so little. Then he had watchedthe black-bearded river-drivers with their pike-poles and their leversloose the key-logs of the bunch, and the tumbling citizens of the woodsand streams toss away down the current to the wider waters below. He wasonly a lad of fourteen, and the girl was only eight, but she—Junia—wasas spry and graceful a being as ever woke the echoes of a forest.
He was only fourteen, but already he had visions and dreamed dreams. Hisfather—John Grier—was the great lumber-king of Canada, and Junia wasthe child of a lawyer who had done little with his life, but had hadgreat joy of his two daughters, who were dear to him beyond telling.
Carnac was one of Nature's freaks or accidents. He was physically strongand daring, but, as a boy, mentally he lacked concentration and decision,though very clever. He was led from thing to thing like a ray of errantlight, and he did not put a hand on himself, as old Denzil, the partlydeformed servant of Junia's home, said of him on occasion; and Denzil wasa man of parts.
Denzil was not far from the two when Junia made her appeal and challenge.He loved the girl exceedingly, and he loved Carnac little less, though ina different way. Denzil was French of the French, with habit of mind andcharacter wholly his own.
Denzil's head was squat upon his shoulders, and his long, handsome bodywas also squat, because his legs were as short, proportionately, as hismind was long. His face was covered by a well-cared-for beard of darkbrown, streaked with grey; his features were rugged and fine; and hiseyes were like two coals