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diff --git a/21205.txt b/21205.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a2a3798 --- /dev/null +++ b/21205.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13211 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Gold Trail, by Harold Bindloss + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Gold Trail + + +Author: Harold Bindloss + + + +Release Date: April 23, 2007 [eBook #21205] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLD TRAIL*** + + +E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +THE GOLD TRAIL + +by + +HAROLD BINDLOSS + +Author of The Cattle Baron's Daughter, +The Greater Power, Winston of the +Prairie, Etc. + + + + + + + +New York +Grosset & Dunlap +Publishers + +Copyright, 1910, by +Frederick A. Stokes Company +All rights reserved +May, 1910 + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I. BOTTOMLESS SWAMP + II. THE PACKER + III. THE MODEL + IV. IDA'S FIRST ASCENT + V. IDA'S CONFIDENCE + VI. KINNAIRD STRIKES CAMP + VII. GRENFELL'S MINE + VIII. IN THE RANGES + IX. A FRUITLESS SEARCH + X. THE HOTEL-KEEPER + XI. IN THE MOONLIGHT + XII. THE COPPER-MINE + XIII. STIRLING LETS THINGS SLIDE + XIV. IDA ASSERTS HER AUTHORITY + XV. THE ROCK POOL + XVI. ON THE LAKE + XVII. SCARTHWAITE-IN-THE-FOREST + XVIII. WESTON'S ADVOCATE + XIX. ILLUMINATION + XX. IDA CLAIMS AN ACQUAINTANCE + XXI. THE BRULEE + XXII. GRENFELL GOES ON + XXIII. THE LODE + XXIV. A QUALIFIED SUCCESS + XXV. STIRLING GIVES ADVICE + XXVI. THE JUMPERS + XXVII. SAUNDERS TAKES PRECAUTIONS + XXVIII. WESTON STANDS FAST + XXIX. THE FIRE + XXX. DEFEAT + XXXI. HIGH-GRADE ORE + XXXII. GRENFELL'S GIFT + + + + +THE GOLD TRAIL + + + + +CHAPTER I + +BOTTOMLESS SWAMP + + +It was Construction Foreman Cassidy who gave the place its name when +he answered his employer's laconic telegram. Stirling, the great +contractor, frequently expressed himself with forcible terseness; but +when he flung the message across to his secretary as he sat one +morning in his private room in an Ottawa hotel, the latter raised his +eyebrows questioningly. He knew his employer in all his moods; and he +was not in the least afraid of him. There was, though most of those +who did business with him failed to perceive it, a vein of almost +extravagant generosity in Stirling's character. + +"Well," said the latter, "isn't the thing plain enough?" + +The secretary smiled. + +"Oh, yes," he said. "Still, I'm not sure they'll send it over the +wires in quite that form." + +His employer agreed to the modification he suggested, and the message +as despatched to Cassidy read simply, "Why are you stopping?" + +After that the famous contractor busied himself about other matters +until he got the answer, "No bottom to this swamp." + +Then his indignation boiled over, as it sometimes did, for Stirling +was a thick-necked, red-faced man with a fiery temper and an +indomitable will. He had undertaken a good deal of difficult railroad +work in western Canada and never yet had been beaten. What was more to +the purpose, he had no intention of being beaten now, or even delayed, +by a swamp that had no bottom. He had grappled with hard rock and +sliding snow, had overcome professional rivals, and had made his +influence felt by politicians; and, though he had left middle-age +behind, he still retained his full vigor of body and freedom of +speech. When he had explained what he thought of Cassidy he turned +again to his secretary. + +"Arrange for a private car," he said. "I'll go along to-morrow and +make them jump." + +The secretary, who fancied there would be trouble in the construction +camp during the next few days, felt inclined to be sorry for Cassidy +as he went out to make the necessary arrangements for his employer's +journey west. + +Stirling had spent a busy morning when he met his daughter Ida and her +friends at lunch. He did not belong to Ottawa. His offices were in +Montreal; but as Ottawa is the seat of the government he had visited +it at the request of certain railroad potentates and other magnates of +political influence. With him he had brought his daughter and three of +her English friends, for Ida had desired to show them the capital. He +had no great opinion of the man and the two women in question. He said +that they made him tired, and sometimes in confidence to his secretary +he went rather further than that; but at the same time he was willing +to bear with them, if the fact that he did so afforded Ida any +pleasure. Ida Stirling was an unusually fortunate young woman, in so +far, at least, as that she had only to mention any desire that it was +in her father's power to gratify. He was a strenuous man, whose work +was his life; subtle where that work was concerned when force, which +he preferred, was not advisable, but crudely direct and simple as +regards almost everything else. + +"I'm going west across the Rockies to-morrow," he said. "We'll have a +private car on the Pacific express. You'd better bring these folk +along and show them the Mountain Province." + +Ida was pleased with the idea; and Stirling and his party started west +on the morrow. + +In the meanwhile, Construction Foreman Cassidy was spending an anxious +time. He was red-haired and irascible, Canadian by adoption and +Hibernian by descent, a man of no ideas beyond those connected with +railroad building, which was, however, very much what one would have +expected, for the chief attribute of the men who are building up the +western Dominion is their power of concentration. Though there were +greater men above Cassidy who would get the credit, it was due chiefly +to his grim persistency that the branch road had been blasted out of +the mountainside, made secure from sliding snow, and flung on dizzy +trestles over thundering rivers, until at last it reached the swamp +which, in his own simple words, had no bottom. + +There are other places like it in the Mountain Province of British +Columbia. Giant ranges, whose peaks glimmer with the cold gleam of +never-melting snow, shut in the valley. Great pine forests clothe +their lower slopes, and a green-stained river leaps roaring out of the +midst of them. The new track wound through their shadow, a double +riband of steel, until it broke off abruptly where a creek that poured +out of the hills had spread itself among the trees. The latter +dwindled and rotted, and black depths of mire lay among their crawling +roots, forming what is known in that country as a muskeg. There was a +deep, blue lake on the one hand, and on the other scarped slopes of +rock that the tract could not surmount; and for a time Cassidy and his +men had floundered knee-deep, and often deeper, among the roots while +they plied the ax and saw. Then they dumped in carload after carload +of rock and gravel; but the muskeg absorbed it and waited for more. It +was apparently insatiable; and, for Cassidy drove them savagely, the +men's tempers grew shorter under the strain, until some, who had drawn +a sufficient proportion of their wages to warrant it, rolled up their +blankets and walked out reviling him. Still, most of them stayed with +the task and toiled on sullenly in the mire under a scorching heat, +for it was summer in the wilderness. + +Affairs were in this condition when Clarence Weston crawled out of the +swamp one evening and sat down on a cedar log before he followed his +comrades up the track, though he supposed that supper would shortly be +laid out in the sleeping-shanty. The sunlight that flung lurid flecks +of color upon the western side of the fir trunks beat upon his +dripping face, which, though a little worn and grim just then, was +otherwise a pleasant face of the fair English type. In fact, though he +had been some years in the country, Englishman was unmistakably +stamped upon him. He was attired scantily and simply in a very old +blue shirt, and trousers, which also had once been blue, of duck; and +just then he was very weary, and more than a little lame. + +He had cut himself about the ankle when chopping a week earlier, and +though the wound had partly healed his foot was still painful. There +were also a good many other scars and bruises upon his body, for the +cost of building a western railroad is usually heavy. Still, he had an +excellent constitution, and was, while not particularly brilliant as a +rule, at least whimsically contented in mind. His comrades called him +the Kid, or the English Kid, perhaps on account of a certain delicacy +of manner and expression which he had somehow contrived to retain, +though he had spent several years in logging camps, and his age was +close onto twenty-five. + +While he sat there with the shovel that had worn his hands hard lying +at his feet, Cassidy, who had not recovered from the interview he had +had with Stirling that morning, strode by, hot and out of temper, and +then stopped and swung round on him. + +"Too stiff to get up hustle before the mosquitoes eat you, when +supper's ready?" he said. + +Weston glanced down at his foot. + +"I was on the gravel bank all afternoon. It's steep. Seemed to wrench +the cut." + +"Well," said Cassidy, "I've no kind of use for a man who doesn't know +enough to keep himself from getting hurt. You have got to get that +foot better right away or get out." + +He shook a big, hard fist at the swamp. + +"How'm I going to fill up that pit with a crowd of stiffs and +deadbeats like those I'm driving now? You make me tired!" + +He did not wait for an answer to the query, but plodded away; and +Weston sat still a few minutes longer, with a wry smile in his eyes. +He resented being over-driven, though he was more or less used to it, +and now and then he found his superior's vitriolic comments upon his +efforts almost intolerably galling. Still he had sense enough to +realize that the remedy open to him was a somewhat hazardous one, +because, while it would be easy to walk out of the construction camp, +industrial activity just then was unusually slack in the Mountain +Province. Besides, he was willing to admit that there were excuses for +Cassidy, and there was a certain quiet tenacity in him. He was also +aware that the man with little money has generally a good deal to +bear, for Weston was one who could learn by experience, though that +faculty was not one that hitherto had characterized the family from +which he sprang. + +None of the Westons had ever been remarkable for genius--a fact of +which they were rather proud than otherwise. They had for several +generations been content to be men of local importance in a secluded +nook of rural England, which is not the kind of life that is conducive +to original thought or enterprising action. They had chosen wives like +themselves from among their neighbors, and it was perhaps in several +respects not altogether fortunate for Clarence Weston that his mother +had been ultra-conservative in her respect for traditions, since he +had inherited one side of her nature. Still, in her case, at least, +the respect had been idealistic, and the traditions of the highest; +and though she had died when he was eighteen she had instilled into +him a certain delicacy of sentiment and a simple, chivalrous code that +had somewhat hampered him in the rough life he had led in the Canadian +Dominion. + +As a very young man he had quarreled with his father over a matter +trifling in itself, but each had clung to his opinions with the +obstinacy of men who have few ideas to spare, and Clarence had gone +out to seek his fortune in western Canada. He had naturally failed to +find it, and the first discovery that there was apparently nobody in +that wide country who was ready to appraise either his mental +attainments or his bodily activity at the value of his board was a +painful shock to the sanguine lad. That first year was a bad one to +him, but he set his teeth and quietly bore all that befell him; the +odd, brutal task, paid for at half the usual wages, the frequent +rebuffs, the long nights spent shelterless in the bush, utter +weariness, and often downright hunger. It was a hard school, but it +taught him much, and he graduated as a man, strong and comely of body, +and resolute of mind. What was more, he had, though he scarcely +realized it, after all, only left behind in England a cramped life +embittered by a steady shrinkage in the rent roll and as steady an +increase in taxation and expenses. His present life was clean, and +governed by a code of crude and austere simplicity. His mother's +spirit was in him, and, being what he was, there were things he could +not do. He did not attempt to reason about them. The knowledge was +borne in upon him instinctively. + +He rose, by and by, and, for he was hungry, limped on to the +sleeping-shanty of the construction gang. It was built of logs and +roofed with rough cedar shingles hand-split on the spot. The sun beat +hot upon them, and they diffused a faint aromatic fragrance, +refreshing as the scent of vinegar, into the long, unfloored room, +which certainly needed something of the kind. It reeked with stale +tobacco-smoke, the smell of cookery, and the odors of frowsy clothes. +A row of bunks, filled with spruce twigs and old brown blankets, ran +down one side of it, a very rude table down the other, and a double +row of men with bronzed faces, in dusty garments, sat about the +latter, eating voraciously. Fifteen minutes was, at the outside, the +longest time they ever wasted on a meal. + +That evening, however, they were singularly short of temper, for +Cassidy had driven them mercilessly all day, and, though not usually +fastidious, the supper was not to their liking. The hash was burnt; +the venison, for one of them had shot a deer, had been hung too long; +while the dessert, a great pie of desiccated fruits, had been baked to +a flinty hardness. That was the last straw; for in the Mountain +Province the lumber and railroad gangs as a rule work hard and live +well; and when the cans of green tea had been emptied the growls +culminated in a call for the cook. + +He came forward and stood before them, a little, shaky, gray-haired +wreck of a man, with the signs of indulgence plain upon him. Whisky is +scarce in that country, but it is obtainable, and Grenfell generally +procured a good deal of it. The man was evidently in a state of +apprehension, and he shrank back a little when a big, grim-faced +chopper ladled out a great plateful of the burnt stew from a vessel on +the stove. + +"Now," he said, "you've been spoiling supper too often lately, and I +guess we've got to teach you plain, cookery. Sit right down and get +that hash inside you." + +The man protested that he had had his supper before they came in; +whereupon the other seized him by the shoulders and thrust him down +roughly into a seat at the table. + +"Well," he said, "you've got to have a little more. If it's good +enough for us, boys, it's not going to hurt him." + +There was a murmur of concurrence when he looked around at the rest; +and the cook, seeing no help for it, made a valiant attempt to eat a +little of the greasy mess. Then he revolted from it and glanced at his +companions supplicatingly. + +"I can't do it, boys. You'll let me off?" he pleaded. + +None of the rest showed any sign of relenting. They were inclined to +be pitiless then, and the rude justice of the chopper's idea appealed +to them. + +"When you've cleaned up that plate," said one. + +The victim made a second futile attempt, and, after waiting some +minutes for him to proceed, they decided that it was too hot in the +shed, so, conveying him outside, they seated him on a great fir stump +sawed off several feet above the ground, with the plate beside him. +Then they took out their pipes and sat around to enjoy the spectacle. +As a rule there is very little cruelty in men of their kind; but they +were very human, and the cook had robbed them of a meal somewhat +frequently of late. Besides, they had smarted all day under Cassidy's +bitter tongue, and they felt that they must retaliate upon somebody. +No one said anything for several minutes, and then the big chopper +once more approached his victim. + +"Now," he said, "since you have to go through with it, you may as well +start in. If you don't, I'll put the blame stuff down your throat." + +It was, perhaps, no more than justice, for the cook was paid well; but +there was one man in the assembly to whom this did not altogether +appeal. The victim was frail and helpless, a watery-eyed, limp bundle +of nerves, with, nevertheless, a pitiful suggestion of outward dignity +still clinging to him, though his persecutors would have described him +aptly as a whisky tank. The former fact was sufficient for Weston, who +did not stop to think out the matter, but rose and strode quietly +toward the fir stump. + +"I think this thing has gone far enough, boys. You'll have to let him +off," he said. + +"No, sir," said the big chopper. "He's going right through. Anyway, +it's not your trouble. Light out before we rope you in too." + +Weston did not move until three or four more strode forward hastily, +when he stooped for an ax that lay handy and swung it round his head. +It came down with a crash on the plate, and the hash was scattered +over the withered redwood twigs. Then, while a growl expressive of +astonishment as well as anger went up, the chopper scraped up part of +the stew with red soil and fir twigs mixed in it. + +"He has got to eat it, and then I'll tend to you. You'll see that they +don't get away, boys," he said. + +Weston clearly had no intention of attempting to do so, and the cook +would have found it hopeless, for the rest closed round the stump in a +contracting ring. While they knew that Cassidy had been summoned to +Stirling's car, they were unaware that there were other spectators of +the little drama. Two young women had, however, just emerged from +among the towering firs that hemmed in the muskeg. One was attired +elaborately in light garments and a big hat that appeared very much +out of place in that aisle of tremendous forest, but there was a +difference between her and her companion. The latter knew the bush, +and was dressed simply in a close-fitting robe of gray. She held +herself well, and there was something that suggested quiet +imperiousness in her attitude and expression. This was, perhaps, not +altogether unnatural, for hitherto when Ida Stirling desired anything +that her father's money could obtain her wish was gratified. She laid +her hand warningly on her companion's arm, and drew her back into the +shadow of the firs. + +"I really don't think we need go away," she said. "They won't notice +us, and you will probably see something that is supposed to be +characteristically western, though I'm not sure that it really is." + +The meaning of the scene was tolerably plain to both of them. The +little cleared space formed a natural amphitheater walled in by somber +ranks of pines; and, standing higher, they could see over the heads of +the clustering men. There was no difficulty in identifying the victim, +the persecutor and the champion, for Weston stood stripped to blue +shirt and trousers, with the big ax in his hand and his head thrown +back a trifle, gazing with curiously steady eyes at the expectant +faces before him. Then as two or three of the men drew in closer he +raised his free hand. + +"This thing lies between Jake and me, and I'm open to deal with him," +he said. "Still, I've got the ax here if more of you stand in." + +The man scarcely raised his voice, but it was clear that he was +quietly and dangerously resolute. Indeed, his attitude rather pleased +some of the rest, for there was a fresh murmuring, and a cry of, "Give +the Kid a show!" + +Then, and nobody was afterward quite certain who struck first, the +trial by combat suddenly commenced. There are very few rules attached +to it in that country, where men do not fight by formula but with the +one purpose of deciding the matter in the quickest way possible; and +in another moment the two had clinched. They fell against the tree +stump and reeled clear again, swaying, gasping, and striking when they +could. It is probable that the Canadian was the stronger man, but, as +it happened, his antagonist had been born among the dales of northern +England, where wrestling is still held as an art. In a few minutes he +hurled the chopper off his feet, and a hoarse clamor went up, through +which there broke a shout: + +"The Kid has him!" + +Then the two men went down together, heavily, and rolled over and +over, until Cassidy came running down the track and burst through the +ring of onlookers. In one hand he carried a peevie, a big wooden lever +with an iron hook on it, such as men use in rolling fir logs. He +belabored the pair with it impartially, and it was evident that he was +not in the least particular as to whether he hurt them or not. Loosing +their hold on each other they staggered to their feet with the red +dust thick on their flushed faces. + +Cassidy flourished the peevie. + +"Now," he cried, "is it fighting ye want?" + +There was a burst of laughter; and the assembly broke up when Cassidy +hustled the chopper off the field. The cook, with commendable +discretion, had slipped away quietly in the meanwhile, and the two +young women, whom nobody had noticed, turned back among the firs. The +girl in the elaborate draperies laughed. + +"I suppose it was a little brutal, and we shouldn't have stayed," she +said. "Still, in a sense the attitude of the one they called the Kid +was rather fine. I could have made quite a striking sketch of him." + +Ida Stirling made no direct reply to this, but, as she found +afterward, the scene had fixed itself on her memory. Still it was not +the intent men or the stately clustering pines that she recalled most +clearly; it was the dominant central figure, standing almost +statuesque, with head tilted slightly backward, and both hands +clenched on the big ax haft. + +"The man they were tormenting must have done something to vex them. +They really are not quarrelsome," she said. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE PACKER + + +Weston was engaged with several others flinging gravel into a flat car +with a long-hafted shovel the next morning when Cassidy strode up the +track; and, though the men already had been working hard, they +quickened the pace a little when they saw him. He could tell at a +glance whether a man were doing his utmost, and nothing less would +satisfy him. He knew also exactly how many cubic yards of soil or +gravel could be handled by any particular gang. If the quantity fell +short, there was usually trouble. However, he said nothing to the +others that morning, but beckoned Weston aside, and stood a moment or +two looking at him, with a grimly whimsical twinkle in his eyes. + +Weston had not suffered greatly during the struggle of the previous +evening, but there was a discolored bruise on one of his cheeks and a +big lump on his forehead. He was glad to stand still a moment, for he +had been shoveling gravel for several hours, and that is an occupation +that conduces to an unpleasant stiffness about the waist. He was, +however, somewhat puzzled by the red-haired Cassidy's sardonic grin. + +"Well," said the latter, with an air of reflection, "I guess you might +do if you got a piece of raw steak from the cook and tied it around +your face." + +"For what?" asked Weston, sharply. + +"For a packer. The boss's friends are going camping in the bush." + +Weston did not answer immediately, for in that country, where roads +are still singularly scarce, packing usually means the transporting of +heavy loads upon one's back. The smaller ranchers are as a rule adept +at it, and when it is necessary, as it sometimes is, will cheerfully +walk over a mountain range with a big sack of flour or other sundries +bound upon their shoulders. Four or five leagues is not considered too +great a distance to pack a bushel or two of seed potatoes, or even a +table for the ranch, and Weston, who had reasons for being aware that +work of the kind is at least as arduous as shoveling gravel, did not +feel greatly tempted by the offer. Cassidy seemed to guess what he was +thinking. + +"It's a soft thing I'm putting you on to, as a special favor," he +explained. "It will be up-river most of the way, and I've got a couple +of Siwash to pole the canoes. All you have to do is the cooking, make +camp, and tend to Miss Stirling's friends when they go fishing." He +waved his hand, and added, as though to clinch the argument, "I've +known people of that kind to give a man that pleased them ten +dollars." + +Weston's face flushed a little, but he said he would go; and the next +day the party started up-river in two Indian canoes. Besides Weston +and the dark-skinned Siwash packers, it consisted of four: a tall, +elderly man called Kinnaird, with the stamp of a military training +plain upon him; his little, quiet wife; his daughter, who was somewhat +elaborately dressed; and Ida Stirling. Kinnaird and his daughter +traveled in the larger canoe with the Indians and the camp gear, and +Mrs. Kinnaird and Miss Stirling with Weston in the other. + +Though Weston was more or less accustomed to the work, he found the +first few hours sufficiently arduous. It is not an easy matter to +propel a loaded canoe against a strong stream with a single paddle, +and it is almost as difficult to pole her alone; while there were two +long portages to make, when the craft and everything in them had to be +hauled painfully over a stretch of very rough boulders. Kinnaird took +his share in it, and Weston was quite willing to permit him to do so; +but the latter was floundering toward the canoes alone, with a heavy +load on his shoulders, when he came to a sharply sloped and slippery +ledge of rock. It was very hot in the deep valley, and the white +stones and flashing river flung up a blaze of light into his eyes; +while he limped a little under his burden, for his foot was still +painful. He had no idea that anybody was watching him; and, when he +slipped and, falling heavily, rolled down part of the slope, +scattering the packages about him, he relieved his feelings with a few +vitriolic comments upon the luxurious habits of the people who had +compelled him to carry so many of their superfluous comforts through +the bush. Then he set about gathering up the sundries he had dropped. +First of all he came upon a lady's parasol, white outside and lined +with green. He regarded it with a rueful smile when he had tried and +failed to open it. + +"Trouble ahead," he commented. "It cost eight or nine dollars anyway, +and now it's broken." + +Then he came to a rather big valise, which swung open and poured out +part of its contents when he lifted it by the handle. They seemed to +consist of voluminous folds of delicate fabric and lace, and he was +gazing at them and wondering how they were to be got back into the bag +when he heard a voice behind him. + +"Will you kindly put that down?" it said. + +Weston dropped the bag in his astonishment; and, swinging around +suddenly, he saw Miss Stirling standing in the shadow of a great +cedar. He had been too busy during the journey up the river to pay +much attention to her; but now it occurred to him that she was not +only pretty but very much in harmony with her surroundings. The +simple, close-fitting gray dress which, though he did not know this, +had cost a good many dollars, displayed a pretty and not over-slender +figure, and fitted in with the neutral tinting of the towering fir trunks +and the sunlit boulders, while the plain white hat with bent-down brim +formed an appropriate setting for the delicately-colored face beneath +it. Still, Weston scarcely noticed any particular points in Miss +Stirling's appearance just then, for he was subconsciously impressed +by her personality as a whole. There was something in her dress and +manner that he would have described vaguely as style, though it was a +style he had not often come across in the west, where he had for the +most part lived in the bush. She was evidently a little younger than +himself, but she had the quiet air of one accustomed to command, +which, as a matter of fact, was the case. + +Then he wondered with a slight uneasiness whether she had heard all +that he said when he fell down. He fancied that she had, for there was +the faintest trace of amusement in her eyes. They met his own +steadily, though he was not sure whether they were gray or blue, or a +very light brown. Indeed, he was never quite sure of this, for they +changed curiously with the light. + +Then she came toward him and looked at the valise. + +"It was locked when I gave it to you," she said, with a trace of +severity. + +"Well," answered Weston, "it doesn't seem to be locked now. I think I +remember noticing that you left the key in it; but it's gone. It must +have fallen out. I'll look for it." + +He looked for some time, and, failing to find it, walked back to the +girl. + +"I'm afraid it's in the river," he said. "Still, you see, the bag is +open." + +"That," replied Miss Stirling, "is unfortunately evident. I want it +shut." + +Weston glanced at the protruding garments with which she seemed to be +busy. + +"I'm very sorry," he said. "I dare say I could squeeze these things +back into it." + +He was going to do so when Miss Stirling took the bag away from him. + +"No," she said a trifle quickly, "I don't think you could." + +Then it occurred to Weston that his offer had, perhaps, not been +altogether tactful, and he was sensible of a certain confusion, at +which he was slightly astonished. He did not remember having been +readily subject to fits of embarrassment when in England, though there +he had never served as porter to people of his own walk in life. +Turning away, he collected a waterproof carry-all, a big rubber ground +sheet, another parasol, a sketching stool, and a collapsible easel, +which also appeared to be damaged. Then as he knelt down and roped +them and the valise together he looked at the girl. + +"I'm afraid Miss Kinnaird will be a little angry, for I think that +easel thing won't open out," he said. "I'm awfully sorry." + +Now "awfully sorry" is not a western colloquialism, and the girl +looked at him attentively. She liked his voice, and she rather liked +his face, which, since he had not been called the Kid for nothing, was +ingenuous. She laughed a little. Then she remembered something she had +noticed. + +"Well," she observed, "I suppose you couldn't help it. That load was +too heavy; and aren't you a little lame?" + +"Not always," said Weston. "I cut my foot a little while ago. If it +hadn't been for that I shouldn't have fallen down and broken Miss +Kinnaird's things." + +"And mine!" + +"And yours," admitted Weston. "As I said, I'm particularly sorry. +Still, if you will let me have the bag afterward I can, perhaps, mend +the lock. You see, I assisted a general jobbing mechanic." + +Ida Stirling flashed a quick glance at him. He had certainly a +pleasant voice, and his manner was whimsically deferential. + +"Why didn't you stay with him?" she asked. "Mending plows and wagons +must have been easier than track-grading." + +Weston's eyes twinkled. + +"He said I made him tired; and the fact is I mended a clock. That is, +I tried--it was rather a good one when I got hold of it." + +The girl laughed, and the laugh set them on good terms with each +other. Then she said: + +"That load is far too heavy for you to climb over these boulders with +when you have an injured foot. You can give me the valise, at least." + +"No," said Weston, resolutely, "this is a good deal easier than +shoveling gravel, as well as pleasanter; and the foot really doesn't +trouble me very much. Besides, if I hadn't cut it, Cassidy wouldn't +have sent me here." + +He was, however, mistaken in supposing that the construction foreman +had been influenced only by a desire to get rid of a man who was to +some extent incapacitated. As a matter of fact, Miss Stirling, who had +been rather pleased with the part he had played two days ago, had, +when her father insisted on her taking a white man as well as the +Indians, given Cassidy instructions that he should be sent. Still, she +naturally did not mention this, and indeed said nothing of any account +while they went on to the canoes. + +It was slacker water above the rapid; and all afternoon they slid +slowly up on deep, winding reaches of the still, green river. +Sometimes it flashed under dazzling sunshine, but at least as often +they moved through the dim shadow of towering pines that rolled, rank +on rank, somber and stately, up the steep hillside, while high above +them all rose tremendous ramparts of eternal snow. Then, as the sun +dipped behind the great mountain wall, the clean, aromatic fragrance +of pine and fir and cedar crept into the cooling air, and a stillness +so deep that it became almost oppressive descended upon the lonely +valley. The splash of pole or paddle broke through it with a startling +distinctness, and the faint gurgle at the bows became curiously +intensified. The pines grew slower, blacker and more solemn; filmy +trails of mist crawled out from among the hollows of the hills; and +the still air was charged with an elixir-like quality when Weston ran +his canoe ashore. + +While he and the Indians set about erecting a couple of tents, he saw +Miss Kinnaird standing near him and gazing up across the misty pines +toward the green transparency that still hung above the blue-white +gleam of snow. + +"This," she said to Miss Stirling, "is really wonderful. One can't get +hold of it at once. It's tremendous." + +The smallest of the pines rose two hundred feet above her; and they +ran up until they dwindled to insignificance far aloft at the foot of +a great scarp of rock that rose beyond them for a thousand feet or so +and then gave place in turn to climbing fields of snow. + +The girl, who was an artist, drew in her breath. + +"Switzerland and Norway. It's like them both--and yet it grips you +harder than either," she added. "I suppose it's because there are no +hotels, or steamers. Probably very few white people have ever been +here before." + +"I really don't think many have," said Ida Stirling. + +Then Miss Kinnaird laughed softly as she glanced at her attire. + +"I must take off these fripperies. They're out of key," she said. "One +ought to wear deerskins, or something of that kind here." + +Weston heard nothing further, and remembered that, after all, the +girl's sentiments were no concern of his. It was his business to +prepare the supper and wait on the party; and he set about it. +Darkness had descended upon the valley when he laid the plates of +indurated ware on a strip of clean white shingle, and then drawing +back a few yards sat down beneath the first of the pines in case they +needed anything further. A fire blazed and crackled between two small +logs felled for the purpose and rolled close together, and its +flickering light fell upon him and those who sat at supper, except at +times when it faded suddenly and the shadows closed in again. He was +then attired picturesquely in a fringed deerskin jacket dressed by +some of the Blackfeet across the Rockies. Kinnaird, who had once or +twice glanced in his direction, gazed hard at him. + +"Have you ever been in India?" he asked. + +"No, sir," said Weston in a formal manner, though "sir" is not often +used deferentially in western Canada. + +Kinnaird appeared thoughtful. + +"Well," he said, "I can't help thinking that I have come across you +somewhere before. I have a good memory for faces, and yours is +familiar." + +"I have never seen you until to-day," said Weston. "I don't remember +your name, either." + +"The curious thing," persisted Kinnaird, "is that while I can't quite +locate you I am almost sure I am right. What makes me feel more +certain is that, though you were younger then, you have grown into the +man I should have expected you to." Then he laughed. "Anyway, it's +clear that you don't remember me." + +He turned to the others, and Miss Kinnaird asked for more coffee, +after which Weston, who brought it, sat still again to wait until he +could take away the plates. It was evident that his presence placed no +restraint on the conversation. At length he became suddenly intent. +Kinnaird was contrasting Canada and England for Miss Stirling's +benefit. + +"Of course," he said, "we have nothing like this, but in the north, +at least, we have odd bits of rugged grandeur where the wildness of +the hills about one is emphasized by the green fertility of the +valleys. There is a typical place where we spent a few months last +year that I should like you to see. If you come back with us, as you +half promised, we will take you there." + +Weston leaned forward a little, for he had still a curious tenderness +for the land of the fells and dales in which he had been born. He did +not know that Ida Stirling, who had watched him closely when Kinnaird +addressed him, had now fixed her eyes on him again. The latter turned +to her as he proceeded. + +"The old house," he said, "would make a picture in itself with its +little stone-ribbed windows, and the much older square tower and +curtain wall that form one wing. There is a terraced garden in front, +and a stream comes frothing out of a wooded ghyll at the foot of it." + +Weston started, for there was no doubt that the house Kinnaird +described was the one in which he had been born. As it happened, the +firelight fell upon his intent face as he waited for the answer, when +Miss Stirling, who had missed his start, asked a question: + +"The people who owned it were friends of yours?" + +"No," said Kinnaird, "I never saw them. I took the place through an +agency for the rough shooting and as a change from London. They had to +let it and live in a neighboring town. The result of slack management +and agricultural depression, I believe." + +Weston set his lips. He had written home once rejecting a proposition +made him, and his people had afterward apparently forgotten him. He +had made up his mind that he would not trouble them again, at least +while he toiled as a track-grader or a hired man; but now, when it +seemed that trouble had come upon them, he regretted many things. + +Kinnaird signed to him that he might take away the plates, and he +gathered them up, scarcely conscious of what he was doing, and then +stumbled and dropped the pile of them. Though made of indurated fiber, +they fell with a startling clatter, and Kinnaird looked at him sharply +as he picked them up; but in another few moments he had vanished +beyond the range of the firelight into the shadows of the bush. + +Ida Stirling had, however, noticed enough to arouse a young woman's +curiosity, especially as there was a suggestion of romance in it, and +before she went to sleep she thought a good deal about the man she had +never seen until two days ago. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MODEL + + +The morning broke clear and still across the scented bush, and Miss +Kinnaird and Ida Stirling, who had been awakened early by the +wonderful freshness in the mountain air, strolled some distance out of +camp. For a time they wandered through shadowy aisles between the +tremendous trunks, breathing in sweet resinous odors, and then, soon +after the first sunrays came slanting across a mountain shoulder, they +came out upon a head of rock above the river. A hemlock had fallen +athwart it, and they sat down where they could look out upon a +majestic panorama of towering rock and snow. + +Arabella Kinnaird gazed at it intently when she had shaken some of the +dew from the frills and folds of her rather bedraggled skirt. + +"It will never be quite the same again," she observed, evidently in +reference to the latter, and then waved one hand as though to indicate +the panorama, for she was usually voluble and disconnected in her +conversation. "This, as I said last night, is wonderful--in fact, it +almost oppresses one. It makes one feel so little, and I'm not sure +that I like that, though no doubt it does one good." + +Her companion smiled. + +"Aren't you going to paint it?" she asked. + +Miss Kinnaird pursed up her face, which was a trick she had. + +"Oh," she said, "I don't know. After all, portraiture is my specialty, +and this silent grandeur is a little beyond my interpretation." + +She paused, and added the next few words in an authoritative manner, +as though she had a truth of some consequence to deliver: + +"The difficulty is that you really can't interpret anything until you +are quite sure what it means. You see, I'm feverishly restless by +temperament, and accustomed to indulge in all kinds of petty, +purposeless activities. They are petty, though the major calls them +duties--social duties--and being, I'm afraid, a rather frivolous +person in spite of my love of art, they appeal to me." + +Ida said nothing. It was not necessary, and as a rule not advisable, +to encourage Arabella Kinnaird when she commenced, as she sometimes +described it, to talk seriously; and she rattled on: + +"My dear, I'm all appreciation, and graciously pleased with the +wonders that you are showing me; but still this valley strikes me as +being short of something. It's too calm and quiet. Even Eden was not +complete until man appeared in it, though, as usual, he made trouble +shortly afterward. It is a thing he has kept on doing ever since." + +Ida laughed. + +"I'm not sure you're sticking to historical facts," she said. + +"Facts," returned her companion, "don't count for much with me. I deal +in impressions; and sometimes I feel full of them. I could astonish +everybody if I could get them out; but that, of course, is the +difficulty. Feeling, unfortunately, isn't quite the same thing as +power of expression. Still, you asked me what I thought about these +mountains, and I'm trying to tell you. You have brought it on +yourself, you see. The key-tone of this place is an almost +overwhelming tranquillity. One rather shrinks from that kind of thing +when one is not used to it, and longs to do something to disturb it. +It's a natural impulse. When you see a smooth sheet of ice you +generally look for a big stone with which to smash it." + +She swung around and favored her companion with a glance of critical +scrutiny; and there was no reason why Ida Stirling should shrink from +it. She sat leaning forward, looking out at the mountains with steady +eyes that had a half-smile in them. Her attitude was reposeful and her +face quiet; but there was something in both that faintly suggested a +decided character. + +"I don't think I'm readily disturbed," she said. + +"No," answered her companion reflectively, "but the disturbance will +no doubt come. You're in harmony with the key-tone of this valley; but +too much serenity isn't good for me; and it's probable that nobody +ever retains it very long. There's always the disturbing element in a +world that's full of men. It was, as I remarked, man who brought +trouble into Paradise." + +Miss Kinnaird was addicted to talking a good deal of nonsense, and she +frequently wearied her listeners; but there was a certain shrewdness +in her, and at times she got near the truth. Indeed, her companion +afterward decided that she had done so in this case. Ida Stirling had +met many rising young men, and some who had made their mark, but none +of them had aroused in her the faintest thrill of unrest or passion. +So far, the depths of her nature had remained wholly unstirred. One +could almost have told it from her laugh as she answered her +companion's last observation. + +"I thought it was woman's curiosity," she said; and then remembered +suddenly that on the previous evening she had certainly been a trifle +curious about the strange packer from the railroad gang. + +Miss Kinnaird made no reply to this; but in a moment she stretched out +a pointing hand. + +"Now," she said, "the disturbing element is obtruding itself." + +Farther down the river there was a flash of something white amidst the +pale green shimmer of the flood. Ida rose, but her companion beckoned +her to sit down again. + +"Oh," she said, a trifle impatiently, "don't be prudish. He's ever so +far off, and I've never had an opportunity to study anybody swimming." + +It was, of course, Weston, who supposed himself far enough from camp +not to be troubled by spectators, swimming with a powerful side-stroke +upstream. Ida sat down again, and both of them watched him as he drew +a little nearer. So many times every minute his left arm swept out +into the sunlight as he flung it forward with far-stretched palm. It +fell with the faintest splash, and there was a little puff of spray as +his head dipped and the water washed across his lips. Then the white +limbs flashed amidst the green shining of the river, and the long, +lithe form contracted, gleaming as a salmon gleams when it breaks the +surface with the straining line. The still river rippled, and a +sun-bronzed face shot half-clear again. Miss Kinnaird watched the +swimmer's progress with open appreciation. + +"Dancing," she said didactically, "isn't to be compared with that! +It's the essence of rhythmic movement! I must certainly study +swimming. I wish he'd come right on." + +Ida was not sure that she agreed with her; and, just then, Weston, +swinging suddenly around, went down into the green depths, and, +shooting up with white shoulders high above the water, swept away +again down-stream. Miss Kinnaird rose as he did so, and turned back +toward the camp. + +"That packer is rather fine, considered as a muscular animal," she +said. + +Ida smiled at this, somewhat sardonically. + +"In your country you wouldn't think of regarding him as anything else. +Doesn't being an artist emancipate one from the conventional point of +view?" + +"No," replied Miss Kinnaird reflectively, "it doesn't, that is, when +you do not paint for your living--which, of course, alters +everything." + +Then her eyes twinkled as she favored her companion with a passable +imitation of her father's didactic tone and manner. + +"As the major says, social distinctions are necessary safeguards, and +cannot lightly be disregarded. If they were not, they could not have +existed as long as they have." + +She laughed. + +"In the case of a man who has inherited his station and his +possessions," she added, "it is a very natural and comfortable creed." + +"Ah," said Ida, "my father worked in a sawmill." + +She spoke quietly, but there was something in her voice that warned +her companion that there were subjects upon which they might have a +clash of opinion. In the east there is pride of possession; but the +pride of achievement, which is, perhaps, more logical, is more common +in the west. + +It was an hour later when Weston laid breakfast before them; and Ida, +who regarded him unobtrusively with careful attention, decided that +Arabella Kinnaird was right. The packer, with his lean, symmetrical +litheness, his pleasant English face, his clear eyes, and his clean, +bronzed skin, was certainly well-favored physically, and she began to +wonder whether her companion could not have gone further in her +comments; until she remembered again that the commencement of a good +many troubles is probably woman's curiosity. + +The canoes were launched after breakfast, and it was afternoon when +they pitched camp beside a still, blue lake. Then Major Kinnaird +strolled away with a trout-rod to a neighboring rapid, and Mrs. +Kinnaird went to sleep in a hammock. Her daughter got out her +sketch-book, and sitting down among the boulders bade Ida summon +Weston. He came, and stood looking at them inquiringly, picturesque in +his wide hat and his fringed deerskin jacket. Miss Kinnaird pursed up +her face. + +"I want to make a sketch of you. You have rather a good head," she +said. + +Weston gazed at her a moment in astonishment, and then a twinkle crept +into his eyes. Her matter-of-fact brusqueness, which made it perfectly +plain that his views in the matter did not count, might have roused a +sense of opposition in some men, but he had acquired a wide toleration +in western Canada. + +"Shall I stand here, miss?" he asked. + +"No," said the girl, "a little farther to the right, where the +sunlight falls upon the trunks behind you; but you mustn't look +wooden. That will do. Still, you'll have to take off that jacket. It's +frippery." + +The suspicion of a flush crept into Weston's face; but, after all, a +loose blue shirt and duck trousers are considered dress enough in the +bush of the Pacific Slope, and he discarded the offending jacket. Miss +Kinnaird, however, was not quite satisfied. + +"Can't you take up that ax and look as if you were ready to use it?" +she said. "Oh, no! That is far too much like a waxwork! Hold up your +head a little! Now, don't move any more than you can help! I think +that will do." + +Weston stood as he was for the best part of an hour. He felt inclined +to wonder why he did it, as he had not found shoveling gravel anything +like so difficult. Then Miss Kinnaird informed him that, as she +desired to make a study of the background, she would not keep him any +longer; and he strolled away to the waterside, where, after stretching +himself wearily, he lay down and took out his pipe. He had not been +there long when Ida, who came out from among the trees, sat down on +one of the boulders not far from him. + +"You must have been horribly cramped, but it didn't strike Miss +Kinnaird, or she wouldn't have kept you there so long," she said. + +"No," answered Weston, reflectively, "I don't think it would strike +Miss Kinnaird. She's English, isn't she?" + +"Of course. But aren't you English, too?" + +Weston's eyes twinkled. + +"I am. Still, I don't want you to think that it's merely because Miss +Kinnaird comes from the same country that I do that I didn't expect +her to realize that to stand posed for an hour or so is apt to cramp +one." + +Ida laughed. It evidently was clear to him that Miss Kinnaird regarded +him as a packer and nothing else, and had decided that he had probably +grown used to physical discomfort. Ida was, however, rather pleased to +see that he accepted the fact good-humoredly and did not resent it. +She was in no way astonished that he should answer her as he had, for, +in the west, a man may speak naturally to any young woman who +addresses him, without feeling called on to remember the distinctions +of caste. + +"I wonder," she said, "whether you would tell me what caused the +trouble you were mixed up in two or three nights ago." + +Weston's face grew slightly flushed, for he was still in certain +respects somewhat ingenuous; but he told her simply what had led up to +the affray. + +"After all you could hardly blame the boys," he added. "They had had a +hard day, and it was not the first time Grenfell had done them out of +their supper." + +"Still, he had spoiled your supper, too," said Ida. "If you couldn't +blame them, why did you interfere?" + +It was rather a difficult question. Weston could not very well tell +her, even had he quite realized it, that there was in him a vein of +rudimentary chivalry that had been carefully fostered by his mother. +The males of the Weston line had clung to traditions, but they had for +the most part been those of the Georgian days, when very little +refinement of sentiment was expected from the country gentleman. The +traditions Agnes Weston had held by, however, went back to an earlier +age. She had been High Church and imaginative, a woman of +impracticable as well as somewhat uncomfortable ideals, and finding +her husband proof against them she had done what she could with her +son. The result was a somewhat happy one, for in the Kid, as his +comrades termed him, her fantasies and extravagances had been toned +down by the very prosaic common sense of the Weston male line. They +were full-fleshed, hard-riding Englishmen who lived on beef and beer. +Though Weston was naturally not aware of it, there were respects in +which Ida Stirling was like his mother. Ida, however, usually kept her +deeper thoughts to herself, which Mrs. Weston had seldom done, but she +shaped her life by them, and they were wholesome. + +"Well," he said diffidently, "it was quite a humiliating situation for +the old man. He was a person of some consequence once--a rather famous +assayer and mineralogist--and I think he felt it." + +"That is not what I asked you," said Ida, with a trace of dryness. + +Weston spread out his hands as though to excuse himself. + +"Then," he said, "they were all against him, and I think Jake--I mean +the big chopper--would have forced the stuff down his throat. It was +horribly burnt. There are," and he hesitated, "things one really has +to do." + +His companion nodded. She liked his diffidence, which, while very +evident, was wholly genuine, and the faint color in his face gave him +an appearance of boyish candor. + +"Even when the odds against you are quite steep?" she said. "In the +case we are discussing the result was no doubt that bruise on your +face." Then she changed the subject. "If he was a famous mineralogist, +why is he cooking in a railroad camp?" + +"Everybody knows," said Weston. "The usual trouble--whisky." + +The girl made a little gesture of comprehension that had in it also a +hint of disgust, and then seeing that he would say nothing further +until she gave him a lead she spoke again. + +"What brought you out here?" she inquired. + +Weston had been asked the same question several times before, and had +never answered it. In fact, he did not know why he did so now. + +"I quarreled with my people. In one respect, anyway, I don't regret +it. It's rather a beautiful country." + +He sat, with his wide hat tilted back and the sun on his face, looking +out upon the blue lake between the towering pines. Their shadows +floated in it, and tremendous slopes of rock ran up toward the +gleaming snow on the farther side. The bush lay very silent under the +scorching sun, and it was filled with the heavy odors of the firs, in +which there was a clogging, honey-like sweetness. + +"It's a little difficult to understand why you seem to be content with +track-grading. One would fancy it to be unusually hard work," said the +girl. + +"Oh, yes," agreed Weston, laughing. "Still, you see, I don't intend to +remain a track-grader indefinitely." + +"No?" said Ida, inquiringly. "What do you mean to do?" + +Weston saw that she was interested, and he was still young enough to +be willing to discuss his own plans and projects--though for that +matter one comes across older men who can talk of nothing else. + +"This country is full of gold and silver," he said. "Other men strike +it now and then, and I really don't see why I shouldn't." + +"When they do, haven't they usually to sell it for almost nothing to +somebody who gets up a company? Besides, do you know anything about +prospecting?" + +Weston laughed. + +"A little. It's my one dissipation; and it's rather an expensive one. +You have to work for months to save enough to buy a camp outfit and +provisions, and if you mean to stay any time in the ranges you have to +hire a horse. Then you come back in rags with a bagful of specimens +that prove to be of no use at all; and you go to work again." + +"You have done that often?" + +"Three or four times." + +"Then," asked Ida, "isn't it foolish to go back again?" + +Weston looked at her a moment hesitatingly, and then made a little +gesture of deprecation. + +"It sounds absurd, of course, but I have a fancy that if I keep it up +long enough I shall strike gold. You see I'm a water-finder, anyway." + +"A water-finder?" + +Weston nodded. + +"It's an old English idea. Water evidently used to be scarcer there, +and even now there are places where good wells aren't plentiful. You +go along with a hazel twig, and it dips when you cross water running +underground. That is, if you have the gift in you. Anybody can't do +it. You think that quite foolish, don't you?" + +Ida really did, though she did not seem to admit it. + +"Have you ever tried the gift out here?" she asked. + +"On the prairie, quite often. A good deal of it is burnt up and dry. I +generally found water." + +"You turned the--power--to account? I mean--you made--money out of +it?" + +There was a sudden change in Weston's face. + +"No," he said, "I never took a cent." + +"But why?" + +"Well," replied the man slowly, "my mother had some old-world belief, +and she said it was a special gift. She knew I had it. She said a +thing of that kind should never be used for money." + +"But haven't all those who claimed special powers--priests, magicians, +medicine-men--always been willing to sell them?" + +Her companion's eyes twinkled. + +"Well, I dare say they have. Still, you see, it's possible that they +never really had the gifts they claimed at all. Now I--can--find +water, and I have a notion that I can find the precious metals too. +Quite absurd, isn't it?" + +Ida thought it was, but the quiet confidence behind his whimsical +manner appealed to her. He was, it seemed, a man of simple character +and few ideas, but she knew that he had nerve and vigor, and, after +all, the western Dominion is the land of strenuous, all-daring, simple +men. Besides, she had watched the resolution flash into his young face +when he stood facing the angry crowd of track-graders with the ax in +his hand, and she had seen very much the same tenacity and +steadfastness stamped on the faces of successful men. Her father was +one, and he was a man who had scarcely been educated, and was +certainly devoid of any complexity of character. Stirling had made his +mark by smashing down opposition, and, when that was not possible, +grimly holding on and bearing the blows dealt him. There was, as she +recognized, something to be said in favor of that kind of man. + +Then Kinnaird came up through the bush with his rod and a few +troutlings, dry-shod and immaculate in a jacket that fitted him like a +uniform, and Ida went back to camp with him. She fancied, however, +that her father or Weston, who sat still and filled his pipe again, +would have come back with a heavy fish, or at least thorn-rent and +dripping wet. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +IDA'S FIRST ASCENT + + +The party had spent another day or two beside the lake when, one +drowsy afternoon, Kinnaird, who sat on the hot, white shingle by the +water's edge, with a pair of glasses in his hand, sent for Weston. +Miss Kinnaird and Ida Stirling were seated among the boulders not far +away. + +"I understand that the river bends around the range, and the crest of +the first rise seems no great height," he said. "There is evidently--a +bench I think you call it--before you come to the snow, and the ascent +should be practicable for a lady. Take these glasses and look at it." + +Weston, who took the glasses, swept them along the hillside across the +lake. It rose very steeply from the water's edge, but the slope was +uniform, and as a good deal of it consisted apparently of +lightly-covered rock and gravel the pines were thinner, and there was +less undergrowth than usual. Far above him the smooth ascent broke off +abruptly, and, though he could not see beyond the edge, there +certainly appeared to be a plateau between it and the farther wall of +rock and snow. + +"I think one could get up so far without very much trouble, sir," he +said. + +"That," replied Kinnaird, "is how it strikes me. My daughter is rather +a good mountaineer, and Miss Stirling is just as anxious to make the +ascent. I may say that we have had some experience in Switzerland, not +to mention the hills among the English lakes. Do you know anything +about climbing?" + +"No, sir," said Weston; "not as it is understood in Switzerland, +anyway. I don't suppose there's an ice-ax in the country, and I never +saw a party roped. Still, I have been up seven or eight thousand feet +several times." + +"What were you doing?" asked Miss Kinnaird. + +Weston saw the faint twinkle in Ida Stirling's eyes, and fancied that +he understood it. Very few of the inhabitants of that country climb +for pleasure, and it is difficult to obtain any of the regulation +mountaineering paraphernalia there; but when the wandering prospector +finds a snow-crested range in his way he usually scrambles over it and +carries his provisions and blankets along with him. The fact that +there are no routes mapped out, and no chalets or club shelters to +sleep in, does not trouble men of that kind. + +"Once or twice we were on the gold trail," he said. "Another time I +packed for a couple of Englishmen who were looking for mountain +goats." + +"Get any?" Kinnaird asked sharply. + +"No, sir. We didn't even see one," said Weston; and again he noticed +Miss Stirling's smile. + +"Well," said Kinnaird, "we are breaking camp tomorrow, and my idea is +that Mrs. Kinnaird should go on with the baggage in the canoes. The +rest of us will follow the bench, and after working around the head of +the big spur yonder come down again to the water by the other slope. +You are, of course, willing to make the ascent with us?" + +"I am under your orders," said Weston. "Still, I shouldn't advise it." + +"Why?" + +It was rather difficult to answer. Weston could not tell the major +that he considered him a little too old for that work, or that he was +dubious about his daughter's stamina and courage. He had seen +self-confident strangers come down from those mountains dressed in +rags, with their boots torn off their bleeding feet. Besides, he felt +reasonably sure that, as he was not a professional guide, any advice +that he might feel it wise to offer would not be heeded. + +"I have heard that there is thick timber on the other slope," he said. +"It's generally rather bad to get through." + +Kinnaird, who never had been in really thick timber, dismissed the +matter with a smile. + +"We will start at six to-morrow, and endeavor to get down to camp +again on the other side in the afternoon. You will arrange about +provisions." + +Weston said that he would do so, but he was not exactly pleased when +he watched the major climb the hillside immediately behind them, with +his glasses, to plot out the route. It seemed very probable that once +he had fixed on one he would adhere to it at any cost, and, perhaps, +the more persistently if the course in question appeared inadvisable +to his companions. Weston did not pretend to be a great judge of +character, but Kinnaird, who, it seemed, had held command in India, +struck him as that kind of man. His wife was a little, placid lady, +whose bodily vigor and any resolution of character she might once have +possessed had apparently evaporated under the Indian sun, and, as far +as Weston had noticed, she invariably agreed with whatever was said. +When he waited on them at supper their talk was of the easier ascents +in Switzerland, and in the mountains of his own land, whose names rang +like music in his ears--the Striding Edge, the Great Gable Needle, and +Saddleback Crags. The Needle was certainly difficult to climb, but the +Striding Edge on a still day was a secure promenade compared with some +of the ledges along which he had seen western prospectors struggle +with a month's supplies. + +Supper, which as usual was prepared about six o'clock, had been over +an hour or two, when, after waiting for an opportunity, he found Ida +alone beside the lake. + +"Can't you persuade these people not to go, Miss Stirling?" he asked. + +The girl smiled. + +"No," she said, "I think you ought to recognize that." + +"Then can't you make some excuse, for stopping behind with Mrs. +Kinnaird?" + +"Why?" + +Weston made a little gesture. + +"It will probably be a tough climb. I'd rather you didn't go." + +Dusk was creeping up the hillside, but there was still a little light +among the misty pines, and the girl flashed a quick glance at him. He +seemed diffident, but it was evident that he did not wish her to go, +and once more she felt that he aroused her curiosity. + +"That," she observed, "is not exactly an answer. Why should I stay +below?" + +Weston was relieved at this, for it seemed preferable to him that she +should be the one to raise the personal side of the question. + +"Well," he said, "for one thing my employer is your father." + +It occurred to the girl that the qualification might as well have been +left out. It was too suggestive, since it conveyed the impression that +the fact he had mentioned was not the only one that influenced him; +but she had noticed already that Weston was not a finished +diplomatist. She became more curious as to why he was especially +concerned about her safety, though, as a matter of fact, he could not +have told her, because he did not know. + +"Major and Miss Kinnaird are his guests," she observed. + +Weston recognized the reproof in this, and stood silent a moment or +two until she spoke again. + +"Are you afraid my nerve may not prove equal to Miss Kinnaird's?" she +asked. + +Weston smiled and answered without reflection. + +"No," he said, "that certainly wasn't troubling me. When the pinch +comes you could be relied on." + +He was conscious that he had gone too far, and, as often happens in +such cases, immediately went further. + +"There is something about you that makes me sure of it." + +"Well," said Ida, coldly, "it is very probable that the pinch won't +come at all." + +She turned away and left him; and Weston frowned at the supper dishes +he had carried down to the lake. + +"I dare say that looked very much like a gratuitous impertinence +from--the packer," he observed. + +He awakened at four the next morning; and the mists were steaming +among the pines when the Indians ferried the party across the lake. +Then for a couple of hours they went up steadily, between apparently +endless ranks of climbing pines, with odd streams of loose gravel +sliding down beneath their feet. Kinnaird led the way; the girls came +behind him climbing well; and Weston brought up the rear with an ample +supply of provisions and a couple of big blankets strapped on his +shoulders. He explained that the blankets would do to sit on, but, +knowing a little about those mountains, he was somewhat dubious about +their getting down again that afternoon. The load was heavy, and by +and by his injured foot commenced to grow painful. + +Then they left the last of the dwindling pines behind, and pushed on +along a slope that was strewn with shattered rock and debris which +made walking arduous. Then they reached a scarp of rock ground smooth +by the slipping down of melting snow, and when they had crossed that +their difficulties began. The scarp broke off on the verge of an +almost precipitous rift, and a torrent that seemed drawn out into +silk-like threads roared in the depths of it. A few pines were +sprinkled about the slopes of the gully, and one or two of them which +had fallen lay athwart the creek. + +They stopped for a few minutes upon a dizzy ledge of rock, from which +they looked far down across battalions of somber trees upon the +gleaming lake below. Here Weston was guilty of an indiscretion. He +admitted afterward that he ought to have known that a man used to +command in India, who claimed some acquaintance with Alpine climbing, +was not likely to be advised by him. + +"I believe we could get down, sir, and there are several logs across +the creek," he said. "We must get over it somehow, and the gully will +probably run into a canon lower down." + +"That," remarked Kinnaird, dryly, "is perfectly evident. It is, +however, my intention to follow up the gully." + +Weston was conscious that Ida Stirling was glancing at him, but his +face remained expressionless; and as he suggested nothing further, +they went on again. The mountain slope had been steadily growing +steeper beneath them, and they had not yet reached the bench. They +went up for another hour, and then came out upon the expected strip of +plateau in the midst of which the gully died out. The plateau, +however, lay on the northern side of a great peak, and was covered +with slushy snow. Kinnaird looked somewhat dubiously at the latter, +which seemed deep in the hollows. + +"The snow will have gone once we get around the western shoulders," he +said. "It must be almost as near to get down from that side, and the +canoes will have gone on by now. Still, it's rather a long time since +breakfast." + +He glanced at the girls, and appeared relieved when Ida said: + +"I think we would better push on a little further before we stop for +lunch." + +They plunged into a snow-drift to the knees, and when they had +floundered through it for thirty yards or so Weston sank suddenly well +over his waist. He flung himself forward, and with the help of +Kinnaird wriggled clear, but when they looked down there was empty +blackness beneath the hole he had made. + +"It's a snow-bridge, I think, sir," he said. "The creek's running +under it. Anyway, I didn't touch anything solid with my feet." + +Kinnaird's face grew graver. + +"If you're right," he observed, "it would be wiser to work around." + +They spent an hour doing it, and then, crossing knee-deep, they sat +down on a ledge of jutting rock while Weston laid out a simple meal. +It was very cold in the shadow of the peak, and a bitter wind that +seemed to be gathering strength whistled eerily about the desolation +of rock and snow. They were wet to the knees, and Weston fancied that +the girls' cheerfulness was a trifle forced. He was ready to admit +that he was somewhat stiff and weary, for he had carried the +provisions and the heavy blankets that the girls had now tucked round +them. + +The latter commenced to flag when they started again; and, as it +happened, the strip of bench they followed rapidly narrowed in and +grew rougher until it became little more than a sloping ledge with the +hillside dropping almost sheer away from it. It was strewn with great +fragments that had fallen from the wall of rock above, and banks of +snow lay packed between them in the hollows. Every now and then one or +another of the party sank deep on stepping down from some ledge of +slippery stone. They were on the northern side of a spur of the higher +range, though they were approaching the angle where it broke off and +fell in a steep declivity facing west. This point they had to turn +before they reached the spot from which Kinnaird purposed descending +to the river. They made very slow progress, while the shadow of the +peaks grew blacker and longer across the hills. At length, when they +had almost reached the corner, Kinnaird stopped to consider, and the +girls sat down with evident alacrity. This time he looked at Weston, +and his manner implied that he was willing to consider any views that +he or the others might express. + +"I'm afraid that I have been a little at fault," he admitted. "In +fact, I quite expected that we would be down again by this time. It is +now well on in the afternoon, and, as we have probably covered about +two-thirds of the distance, it would not be advisable to go back as we +came up." + +"That," said Arabella Kinnaird decisively, "is unthinkable." + +She turned to Weston, who nodded. + +"Anyway, the canoes have gone on, which means that there would be +nothing to eat until we came up with them," he said. "It must be eight +or nine miles, by water, from our last camp to where they are to wait +for us, and the ladies couldn't go so far through the thick timber in +the valley." + +Kinnaird looked beneath him. + +"Well, I don't think anybody could get straight down from here," he +said. + +It was clearly beyond the power of those who were with him, as they +quite realized. A few yards away, the hillside fell almost +precipitously for perhaps a thousand feet to the tops of the pines +below. Part of it was smooth rock, but long banks of gravel lay +resting in the hollows at so steep a slope that it was evident that a +footstep would be sufficient to dislodge them. Indeed, without that, +every now and then some of them broke away and plunged down into the +valley. Close behind the party a wall of crags rose sheer for a +hundred feet at least. Kinnaird glanced up at them with a frown. + +"I fancy we should find another level strip above," he said; "but +since we can't get up the only thing to do is to push on. From what I +saw through my glasses when I went up the lake, there is certainly an +easier slope once we get around the corner." + +They went on, wearily, with the wall of rock creeping out nearer and +nearer to the edge of the declivity, and it became quite clear to +Weston that the girls' strength was rapidly failing. Still, he quietly +urged them on, for it was now becoming a somewhat momentous question +whether they could get down before darkness fell; and as a rule the +white mists settle heavily upon those ranges with the dusk. Then the +margin between rock and declivity almost disappeared, and Weston, +looking down on the somber tree-tops, felt reasonably certain that +there was now another wall of crags between the foot of the slope and +them. + +"I suppose you are quite sure, sir, that the face of the hill is less +steep around the corner in front of us?" he asked. + +"I am," replied Kinnaird. "I traced out the route with my glasses from +the head of the lake. Where I was wrong was in not heading for higher +level. The bench I intended to follow is clearly above us." + +Weston glanced at Ida, and noticed that her face was very weary and a +trifle gray, but she smiled at him reassuringly; and they floundered +on until the wall of rock pushed them right out to the edge of the +declivity. They clung to it here and there with their hands while they +felt for a foothold among the banks of gravel. Suddenly, Ida slipped +and clutched at Weston. Her hand fell upon the package of provisions +that he had slung behind his shoulders with a strip of deerhide, and, +for she was of full stature and not particularly slender, it broke +away. Then there was a roar of sliding stones, and Weston, dropping on +his knees, flung an arm about the girl. She fell as he did it, and +they slid down together a yard or so before he drove one foot deep +into the gravel and brought himself up. Then he risked a glance at +her. + +"Don't look down!" he commanded sharply. + +Her face was set and white, but she met his gaze, and in her eyes +there was something that suggested confidence in him. He felt that he +could be sure of her nerve, but whether her strength or his would +suffice for the scramble back was another matter, and he was horribly +afraid. Kinnaird, lying flat down, held out his hand, and in a moment +or two Weston and the girl stood with the others close beneath the +rock. He did not know how they got there. He was quivering all +through, and the perspiration of tense effort dripped from him. While +he stood there gasping, the packet of provisions, which had apparently +rested for a few moments among the gravel dislodged by his efforts to +climb up, rolled down the slope, and he watched it rush downward until +he turned his eyes away. It was too horribly suggestive; but his gaze +was drawn back again against his will, and he saw the package vanish +suddenly. That made it quite clear that the slope ended in another +wall of crags. + +He did not remember whether Ida or the others said anything to him; +but they crept on again, almost immediately, clinging to the rock, and +scarcely venturing to glance down at the climbing forest which now +appeared to lie straight beneath them but very far away. A cold wind +stung their faces, the rocks above rose higher, but there was, at +least, no snow beneath their feet, and they moved on yard by yard, +scarcely daring to breathe at times, until at length Kinnaird cried +out in a voice that was hoarse with exultation: + +"We are over the worst!" + +Then Weston gasped with sincere relief, for it was clear that they had +crept around the perilous corner. The wall of rock receded, and the +slope became less steep in front of them. It was, however, strewn with +massy fragments and debris carried down by the snow, and the sun that +flung a warm light upon it hung just clear of the peaks across the +valley. There was no doubt that his companions were worn out, and he +fancied that the girls could scarcely drag themselves along, but they +had now no provisions and it was clearly advisable to get down, at +least as far as the timber, where one could make a fire, before +darkness fell; and they pushed on. Arabella Kinnaird, scrambling over +a pile of ragged stones, came down heavily. She cried out as she did +so, and then rising with some difficulty, immediately sat down again +with her face awry. + +"It's my knee," she said faintly. + +Kinnaird scrambled toward her, but she waved him back. + +"Go on with the packer," she said. + +Kinnaird and Weston proceeded a little farther down the slope, which +was practicable, though very steep; and when Ida called them back, +Arabella smiled ruefully. + +"It's horribly bruised, and I'm afraid I've twisted a ligament or +something of that kind," she said. "At least, I can't put any weight +on it." + +There was an expressive silence for the next few moments, and Kinnaird +gazed down into the valley with consternation in his eyes. The sun had +dipped behind the peaks by this time, and the great hollow was growing +dim and hazy. The river was blotted out, and even the climbing forest +seemed indistinct. + +"Could you get along on my arm?" he asked. + +"No," said Arabella sharply, "I don't think I could put my foot on the +ground." + +Weston said nothing, though he realized that the situation was +becoming serious. They had had no more than one hasty meal since early +morning, and they were worn out. It was also, as he knew, very cold up +on the hills at night. While he considered the matter, Kinnaird +stretched out a pointing hand. + +"Look!" he said. + +A trail of filmy vapor crawled out athwart the lower pines and covered +them as it rolled rapidly upward. While they watched it the depths of +the valley were filled and became a dim white plain that extended its +borders as it ascended. Long billows of vapor rolled out from its +edges and slid up the hollows, blotting out the somber ranks of +climbing pines one by one until all had gone and rock scarp and rugged +peak rose isolated from a vast sweep of mist. It crawled up the slope +where they sat, and then stopped and came no higher, leaving the +rampart of rock and snow behind them to glimmer coldly blue and gray +against the clear green radiance of the evening sky. Kinnaird looked +at Weston as if willing to entertain any suggestion. + +"It's clear that we can't get down," he said. + +Weston nodded. + +"I fancy that I could reach the timber, sir," he said. "I'll bring up +a load of branches to make a fire." + +He loosed the blankets from his shoulders, and floundering down the +slope was lost in the vapor. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +IDA'S CONFIDENCE + + +An hour passed, and it was growing dark when Weston scrambled up the +hillside empty-handed. + +"There's a slope between us and the timber, sir, that's too steep to +get down," he announced. "I worked along the edge of it until the +light failed me and the mist got very thick." + +"You did quite right to come back," said Kinnaird. "We shall have to +stay here. What do you suggest?" + +Weston looked around him carefully. + +"There's a little hollow under the ledge yonder. You should keep +fairly warm there close together with the blankets over you." + +Kinnaird demurred to this, but Weston, drawing him aside, spoke +forcibly, and at length he made a sign of acquiescence. + +"Well," he said, "no doubt you're right. After all, the great thing is +to keep the warmth in us. Where are you going?" + +"I'll find a burrow somewhere within call," said Weston quietly. + +He was busy for some little time scraping stones out from the hollow +beneath the ledge, and then he built a rough wall of the larger ones +on two sides of it. After that they got Miss Kinnaird there with some +difficulty, and when she and the others had crept into the shelter and +wrapped the blankets round them, he turned away and stretched himself +out beneath the largest stone he could find. For an hour he lay there +smoking, and then put his pipe away. He had not much tobacco, and it +occurred to him that he might want the little that remained on the +morrow. + +In the meanwhile it had grown bitterly cold, and one never feels the +cold so much as when a day's arduous exertion has exhausted the +natural heat of the body. Weston was also very hungry, and after +beating his numbed hands he thrust them inside his deerskin jacket. +They had probably reached no great height, but summer was only +commencing, and it was evidently freezing. Indeed, the nights had been +cold enough when he lay well wrapped up in the sheltered valley. +Still, the mist, at least, climbed no higher. The stars were twinkling +frostily, and opposite him across the valley a great gray-white +rampart ran far up into the dusky blue. He watched it for a while, and +then it seemed to grow indistinct and hazy, and when some time +afterward he opened his eyes again he saw that there was no mist about +the slopes beneath. + +Then, as he looked about him, stiff with cold, he noticed that a +half-moon had sailed up above the peaks. Its elusive light lay upon +the slope, but ledge and stone seemed less distinct than their +shadows, which were black as ebony. After that he commenced a struggle +with himself, for, numbed as he was, he did not want to move, which is +one of the insidious effects of cold. It cramps its victim's volition +as well as his body, and makes him shrink from any attempt at the +muscular effort which would make it easier for him to resist it. After +all, the endurance of bitter frost is rather a question of moral than +physical strength, as every prospector who has crossed the snow-bound +altitudes on the gold trail knows. + +He forced himself to get up, and stood still, shivering in every limb, +while a bitter wind struck through him as he gathered his resolution +together. Then, stripping off his deerskin jacket, he flung it over +one arm as he turned toward his companions' shelter. Kinnaird was +awake, and his daughter cried out drowsily when Weston stood looking +down at him. + +"It's clearing, and I think I could get down," he said. "It would be +better if Miss Stirling came with me." + +"Yes," said Kinnaird reflectively, "I think she ought to go." + +There was, however, a difficulty when Ida rose to her feet, and stood +looking about her half awake. She could not speak distinctly, but she +seemed bent on staying. Then Kinnaird made a sign to Weston, who +quietly slipped his arm within the girl's and drew her away. She went +with him some little distance, too dazed to resist, and then, +snatching her arm free, turned upon him white with cold and anger. + +"What right have you or Major Kinnaird----" she began, but Weston +checked her with a little forceful gesture. + +"I, at least, have none at all," he admitted. "In a way, however, I +suppose I'm responsible for the safety of the whole party. Could you +have done Miss Kinnaird any good by staying?" + +Cold and half dazed as she was, a moment's reflection convinced Ida +that she could have done very little beyond helping to keep her +companion warm. Weston, who did not wait for her answer, went on: + +"Now," he said severely, "do you feel as comfortable as usual, or are +you almost too cold to move?" + +The girl admitted that the latter was the case, and Weston spread out +his hands. + +"Well," he said, "it will be at least another six hours before the +first sunlight falls on that ledge. Besides, as you may remember, you +have had only one meal since early yesterday morning, and I shall be +especially fortunate if I can get back here with the Indians by noon. +Major Kinnaird and his daughter must stay, but that doesn't apply to +you. Are you still quite sure you have any cause to be angry with me?" + +Ida looked at him with a little flash in her eyes. + +"Oh," she said, "I suppose you're right. Still, is it necessary to +make the thing so very plain?" + +Weston laughed. + +"I just want you to realize that you are in my hands until we reach +level ground," he replied. "In the meanwhile I should like you to put +on this jacket." + +He held out the warm deerhide garment, and the girl flashed a covert +glance at him. He stood close by her in loose blue shirt and thin duck +trousers, and, as far as she could see by the moonlight, his face was +pinched and blue with cold. + +"I won't," she said. + +Weston pursed up his face whimsically. He seldom shone where diplomacy +was advisable. As a rule, he endeavored to bring about the end he had +in view by the most direct means available. In the present instance he +felt very compassionate toward his companion, and recognized only the +necessity of getting her back to camp, where there was food and +shelter, as soon as possible. Still, it not infrequently happened that +his severely simple procedure proved successful. + +"Well," he said, "since I don't intend to wear it we'll leave it here. +I'll leave you for a minute or two while I prospect for an easier +route than the one by which I came up." + +He flung down the jacket, and, striding away, disappeared, while Ida +shivered as she glanced about her. She could no longer see the shelter +she had left, and she stood alone in the midst of a tremendous +desolation of rock and snow, with the valley yawning, a vast dusky +pit, beneath her feet. It was appallingly lonely, and she was numb +with cold, while, since she was sure that she could not climb back to +her companions unassisted, there was only one person on whom she could +rely, and that was the packer, who had insisted on her doing what he +thought fit. When he came back she had put on the jacket, but he had +sense enough to make no sign of having noticed it. + +"I can see our way for the next few hundred feet," he said. + +The way did not prove an easy one, but they went down, with the gravel +sliding beneath them, and now and then a mass of debris they had +loosened rushing past. It occurred to Ida that Weston limped somewhat +awkwardly, and once or twice she fancied that she saw his face +contract as they scrambled over some shelf of jutting stone; but they +pushed on cautiously until they came to a precipitous descent. Ida sat +down gasping, when her companion stopped, and gazed with an +instinctive shrinking into the gulf below. She could now see the +climbing pines, black beneath the moon, and the river shining far away +in the midst of them, but they seemed to go straight down. She was +very weary, and scarcely felt able to get up again, but in a minute or +two Weston held out his hand. + +"I fancy that this ridge dies out somewhere to the left. We'll follow +the crest of it until we can get around the end," he said. + +They went on very cautiously, though there were times when Ida held +her breath and was glad of the firm grasp that her companion laid on +her arm. She would not look down into the valley, and when she glanced +aside at all it was up at the gleaming snow on the opposite side of +it. She seemed to be walking in mid-air, cut off from the comfortable +security of the solid earth below, and she found the clamor of falling +water that came faintly up to her vaguely reassuring. There had been +an almost appalling silence where she had left her companions beneath +the frozen peaks, but now one could hear the hoarse fret of a rapid on +the river, and this was a familiar sound that she welcomed. + +Still her weariness gained on her, and her limbs grew heavier, until +she could scarcely drag herself along. Weston's limp became more +perceptible too, but he went on with an almost cruel persistency, and +forced her forward with his hand on her arm. Sometimes he spoke to +her, and, though his voice was strained, his words were cheering and +compassionate. + +At length, the descent they skirted became less steep, and scrambling +down over a broken slope they presently reached the timber--straggling +juniper, and little scattered firs that by and by grew taller and +closer together; and, though the peril was over, it was then that +their real difficulties commenced. The slope was so steep that they +could scarcely keep a footing, and now and then they fell into the +trees. There were places where these grew so close together that they +could scarcely force a passage through, and others where they had gone +down before a screaming gale and lay piled in a tangled chaos over +which it was almost impossible to flounder. It was dark in the timber, +and they could not see the broken ends of the branches that rent their +clothing; but they went on somehow, down and down, until, when they +reached a clearer space where the moonlight shone through, Ida sank +down limply on a fallen tree. Her skirt was rent to tatters, and one +shoe had been torn almost to pieces. + +"I simply can't go on," she said. + +Weston leaned against a neighboring fir, looking down at her very +compassionately, though she noticed that his face, on which the +moonlight fell, was somewhat drawn and gray. + +"Try to think," he said. + +"I can't," replied Ida, "I only want to sleep." + +Her companion moved forward and quietly laid his hand on her arm as +though to urge her to rise. + +"Don't you understand how it is? Your friends are up yonder in the +frost with nothing to eat. I have to take the Indians back for them." + +"Then you must go on," the girl said faintly. + +Weston shook his head. + +"No," he declared, "not without you. That's out of the question. If +there were no other reason, we should have to come back here for you, +and I expect that in the daylight we shall find a shorter way up. It +will be noon anyway before we get there, and you wouldn't wish to keep +your friends waiting longer." + +Ida rose with an effort, and clung heavily to his arm when they crept +downward again; but the light grew a little clearer as they proceeded, +and the sound of the river rang louder in their ears. Then, in the +gray of the morning, they staggered out upon the bank of the river. +Walking, half awake, Ida floundered among the boulders and through a +horrible maze of whitened driftwood cast up by the stream. Farther on +they fortunately found stretches of smooth sand, and they plodded over +these and through little pools, though she afterward fancied that +Weston carried her across some of the deeper ones. + +The sun was high when they saw the two canoes drawn up on the bank, +and a few moments later Mrs. Kinnaird appeared among the firs. She ran +toward them, stumbling in a ludicrous fashion amidst the boulders, and +then stopped a few yards away and gazed at Ida. The girl could +scarcely stand from weariness, and her dress clung about her, wet with +the river-water and rent to tatters. There was fear in the little +lady's eyes. + +"Where are they?" she asked. + +Weston stepped forward limping, and his face was set and gray. + +"Up yonder, and quite safe," he said. "Miss Kinnaird has hurt her +knee. Nothing serious, but it hurts her to walk. I came for the +Indians to help her down again." + +He raised his hand restrainingly. + +"There is no cause for alarm. Get Miss Stirling something to eat, and +leave the rest to me." + +He turned away abruptly, and limped past them toward the camp. When +Mrs. Kinnaird and Ida reached it, he was hastily getting together +provisions, and the Indians were already hewing down two slender firs. +When they stood waiting, each with a stout fir pole on his shoulder, +he turned to the anxious lady, who seemed bent on going with him. + +"It's quite out of the question for you to undertake that climb. We'll +be back again in a few hours with the major and Miss Kinnaird," he +said. + +Ida went up to him and touched his arm, and, for no very evident +reason, the color crept into her face when he looked at her +inquiringly. + +"Can't the Indians find the way themselves?" she asked. "You are +scarcely fit to go." + +Weston shook his head. + +"I must manage it somehow," he said. "They have nothing to eat up +yonder, and the Indians might not find them until it's dark again." + +He broke off for a moment with a forced smile. + +"Try to reassure Mrs. Kinnaird, and then go to sleep as soon as you +can." + +In another minute he had limped away, and Mrs. Kinnaird found the girl +looking down with a very curious expression at a little smear of blood +on a smooth white stone. There were further red spots on the shingle, +and they led forward in the direction in which the rescue party had +gone. + +"Oh," she said, "he told me he had cut his foot, and he couldn't have +waited long enough to eat anything." + +Then she gasped once or twice, for she was worn out to the verge of a +break-down, and Mrs. Kinnaird, who saw how white her face was growing, +slipped an arm about her and led her back toward the tent. + +The afternoon passed very slowly with the little, anxious lady, and +every now and then she crept softly out of the tent and gazed +expectantly up the steep hillside. Still, each time she did it, there +was nothing that she could see except the long ranks of somber firs, +and the oppressive silence was broken only by the sound of the river. + +Then she slipped back quietly into the tent where Ida lay in a +restless sleep. Now and then the girl moved a little, and once or +twice she murmured unintelligibly. It was very hot, for the sunrays +struck down upon the canvas between the firs, whose clogging, +honey-like sweetness was heavy in the air. + +By and by, however, it grew a little cooler, as the shadow of the +great dark branches crept across the tent. Then they moved out upon +the dazzling river and slowly covered it. Mrs. Kinnaird, rising once +more in an agony of impatience, stumbled against one of the tent +supports. The crutch and ridge-poles rattled, and Ida opened her eyes. + +"Oh," she said drowsily, "you needn't be anxious. He is quite sure to +bring them back." + +She apparently tried to rouse herself, and, failing, went to sleep +again; but she left Mrs. Kinnaird a little comforted. The latter was +observant, and she felt that Ida Stirling had a reason for her +confidence which, she fancied, was not lightly given. + +The sunlight had, however, faded off the valley when she rose for the +last time from the seat she had found outside the tent, for there was +no doubt now that a faint patter of feet on stones mingled with the +clamor of the river. Almost as she did so, a few plodding figures +appeared beneath the firs, and she saw that two of them carried a +litter between them. Then she saw her husband walking very wearily, +and she ran forward with a little cry. She grasped one of the poles +between which a sagging blanket hung, and Weston, who held the ends of +them, looked at her. + +"Miss Kinnaird isn't hurt much," he said harshly. "Don't stop us now!" + +Then she heard her daughter's voice bearing out this assurance, and +she went back with the plodding men, while her husband stumbled along +wearily at her side. In a minute or two Weston, calling to one of the +Indians, laid down his end of the poles, and, staggering away, sat +down heavily. None of them troubled themselves about him, and Ida, who +had risen when she heard their voices, helped to convey Miss Kinnaird +into the tent. In the meanwhile one of the Indians growled to his +comrade when he found the fire out, and stolidly proceeded to relight +it, while Weston lay with his back against a fir and watched him with +half-closed eyes. The Siwash, however, proved that he was capable of +preparing a meal, and when it was finished, Arabella, who appeared +much fresher than the major, proceeded to relate her adventures to Ida +and her mother. + +"It was rather horrible up on the range, and I was almost afraid they +wouldn't get me down," she said. "I don't know how they did it, I'm +sure. Parts of the way were simply awful. They had to cut the little +trees down for yards at a time to get my blanket litter through, and +there were places so steep that they could scarcely crawl down. The +Indians, of course, had to be relieved now and then, and my father and +the packer took turns with them." + +She looked at the major with a smile. + +"When it was especially steep, I preferred an Indian and the packer. +Once, you know, you dropped me; but nothing seemed to disconcert that +young man. He must have been horribly worn out, for he had been up +twice, but he was so steady and reassuringly quiet. I suppose a man of +his kind would appreciate twenty dollars. He really deserves it." + +Ida frowned, and remembered the trail of blood on the white stones +when the packer had started. Kinnaird made a little abrupt movement. + +"I'm afraid that I was forgetting all about the man in my relief at +getting you safely down," he said. "We owe him a good deal, and I'll +go out presently and thank him; but there's another matter. Your knee +ought to be attended to." + +That commenced a discussion, but Arabella persisted that she would get +over the injury if she didn't walk for a few days. + +Then Kinnaird summoned one of the Indians to clear away the meal. The +brown-skinned, dark-haired man appeared in the entrance of the tent +and spoke haltingly in English. + +"They wait," he said, pointing to the supper plates. "Want piece +shirt--handkerchief. Packer man's boot full of blood." + +Those he addressed looked at one another, and Kinnaird, rising, went +out hastily. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +KINNAIRD STRIKES CAMP + + +It was about the middle of the next afternoon when Ida Stirling, +walking slowly along the river-bank, came upon Weston sitting with his +back to a tree. He wore no boot on one foot which was wrapped in +bandages, and when he would have risen Ida checked him with a sign, +and sat down not far away. + +"Is it too hot in the tent?" he asked. + +Ida flashed a swift glance at him. He seemed perfectly contented, and +very much at his ease, and it was a little difficult to believe that +this was the sharp-voiced mart who had ordered her to put on his +jacket early on the previous morning. Now he was smiling languidly, +and there was a graceful carelessness that was almost boyish in his +manner, which made it a little easier to understand why his comrades +had called him the Kid. She was rather pleased with it. + +"No," she said. "At least that was not what brought me out. The major +has gone fishing; Mrs. Kinnaird has gone to sleep; and Arabella +appears a little cross." + +Weston nodded. + +"It's excusable," he said. "How is Miss Kinnaird's knee?" + +"I don't think it's very bad. How is your foot? It doesn't seem to +have affected your temper." + +Weston laughed. + +"I'd forgotten all about it. In some respects I feel a little obliged +to it. You see, for once in a while, it's rather nice to have nothing +to do, and know that one's wages won't immediately stop. Besides, to +be waited on is a pleasant change." + +Ida's eyebrows straightened a trifle as they sometimes did when she +was not exactly pleased. It is by no means an unusual thing in the +west for a packer or a ranch hand to converse with his employers or +their friends on familiar terms, and it occurred to her that it was a +trifle superfluous for him to insist on reminding her of his status +when she was willing to forget it. Still, she was quite aware that +this man had not always been a packer, and she was conscious of an +increasing curiosity concerning his past. + +"That is an unusual experience with you?" she asked. + +"Oh, yes," said Weston. "Anyway, during the last few years." + +She was foiled again, for she could not press the question more +closely; and, sitting still in the shadow, she looked up between the +dark fir branches at the line of gleaming snow and the great rock +rampart beneath which they had crept. + +"Were you ever up so high before?" she ventured. + +"Yes," said Weston. "I believe so; but never for pleasure. In fact, I +think some of the ranges we crossed on the gold trail must have been +considerably higher. I told you that prospecting is one of my +weaknesses." + +"You did," agreed Ida. "It's one I could never understand, though I +have spent some time, in this province. Every now and then it seems +that the rancher must leave his clearing and wander off into the bush. +As you admitted, he generally comes home dressed in rags, and very +seldom brings anything with him. Why do you do it?" + +Weston laughed in a rather curious fashion. + +"Oh," he said, "don't you know? Did you never feel, even in winter in +Montreal, when you had skating-rinks, toboggan-slides, snow-shoe +meets, and sleigh-rides to keep you amused, that it was all growing +tiresome and very stale? Haven't you felt that you wanted +something--something you hadn't got and couldn't define--though you +might recognize it when you found it?" + +Once more Ida's eyebrows straightened. He was going rather deeper than +she had supposed him capable, though she was not altogether +unacquainted with the restlessness he had described. Weston glanced at +her face, and nodded. + +"Well," he said, "that's very much what happens to the rancher and the +track-grader every now and then; and when it does he goes up into the +bush--prospecting. Still, I think you were wrong when you said that we +seldom bring back anything. Did you bring nothing down with you from +the quiet and the glimmering moonlight up yonder above the timber +line?" + +His companion looked up across the climbing forest to the desolation +of rock and snow through which she had wandered with him a little +while ago. It had been her first ascent, and she now felt the thrill +of achievement and remembered how she had come down that apparently +endless slope in the darkness. The feat looked almost impossible, by +daylight. Then she remembered also how her nerves had tingled, and the +curious sense of exaltation that had come over her as she crept along +the dizzy edge of the great rock scarp in the moonlight, far above the +unsubstantial ghosts of climbing trees. For the time being, it had +proved stronger than weariness or the sense of personal danger, and +she had a vague fancy that the memory of it would always cling to her. + +"Yes," she said, "I think I brought down something, or rather it +attached itself to me. What is it?" + +Weston spread out his hands with a boyish laugh. + +"How should I know? Its glamour and mystery, perhaps. Still, though +the prospector knows it, everybody can't feel it. One must have +sympathy. It would make itself felt by you." + +The girl's face checked him. She felt that there was a subtle bond of +mutual comprehension between her and this stranger; but she was not +prepared to admit it to him; and he recognized that he had, perhaps, +gone further than was advisable. + +"Still," he continued, "though it's plainest up on the high peaks, the +bush is full of it. You can recognize it everywhere. Listen!" + +Ida did so. She heard the hoarse fret of the river, and the faint +elfin sighing high up in the top of the firs. + +It was the old earth music, and it drowned the recollection of social +conventions and caste distinctions. It was the same to camp-packer and +rich contractor's daughter. As Ida listened it seemed to stir the +primitive impulses of her human nature. She took alarm and stopped her +ears to it. + +"Is it wise to listen?" she asked. "It leads to nothing but +restlessness." + +"It seldom leads to any material benefit," Weston admitted. "After +all, I think, one has to be a vagabond before one can properly +appreciate it." + +"You seem sure of that?" Ida's curiosity to know more of him would not +permit her to avoid the personal application. + +"I'm afraid there must be a little of the vagabond in me," said +Weston, with a smile. "Once I walked into Winnipeg without a dollar, +and was fortunate in hiring myself to add up figures in a big +flour-mill. The people for whom I worked seemed quite pleased with the +way I did it, and paid me reasonably. I lived in a big boarding-house +like a rabbit-warren. Through the thin partitions I could hear the +people all about me stirring in their sleep at night. I went to the +mill in a crowded car every morning, and up to the office in an +elevator. I stayed with it just a month, and then I broke out." + +"Broke out?" said Ida. + +"Threw the flour-mill people's pens across the office. You see, I was +getting sick for room and air. I presented the concern with my last +week's stipend, and a man at the boarding-house with my city clothes." + +"What did you do then?" + +"Took the trail. There was limitless prairie straight on in front of +me. I walked for days, and slept at night wherever I could find a +bluff. I could hear the little grasses whispering when I lay +half-awake, and it was comforting to know that there were leagues and +leagues of them between me and the city. I drove a team for a farmer +most of that season. Then I went on to a track that they were +strengthening and straightening in this province. It ran between the +rock and the river, and the snow hadn't gone. We worked waist-deep in +it part of the time, and thawed out every stick of giant-powder at the +fire. The construction boss was a hustler, and he drove us +mercilessly. We toiled raw-handed, worn-out and savage, and he drove +us all the harder when one of the boys tried to brain him." + +"And you never longed to be back in the office at the flour-mill?" + +Weston laughed. + +"Didn't you find those sleigh-rides, skating-rinks, and even the trips +west in your father's private car, grow exceedingly tame?" + +"Ah," said Ida, "you must remember that I have never known anything +else." + +"Then you have only to wait a little. It's quite certain that you +won't be able to say that some day." + +It seemed to Ida inadvisable to pursue the subject further, though she +was not sure that he wished to do so. + +"How did you expend your energy after you left the track?" she asked. + +"I don't quite remember. Drove horses, went about with a thrashing +outfit, hewed logs for bridges--but haven't I talked too long about +myself? You have told me nothing of--Montreal." + +Ida risked a chance shot. + +"Don't you know that kind of life? It must be very much the same as +the one your people lead in England. It doesn't count that their +amusements are slightly different." + +Weston foiled her again. + +"Well," he said, with an air of reflection, "I don't quite think it +is; but perhaps I'm prejudiced. I wheeled scrap-iron at the +rolling-mills when I was in Montreal." + +He leaned farther back against the tree, with a little whimsical +smile. It was pleasant to appear as a modern Ulysses in the eyes of a +very pretty girl, but he had, as she was quick to recognize, taken up +the role unconsciously. + +"Where are you going next?" she asked. + +"I shall probably go off prospecting if I can raise the money. That is +partly why I hope that Major Kinnaird will keep me as long as he camps +out in the bush." + +Ida laughed. + +"I think you may count on that. He is rather pleased with you. In +fact, I heard him say that if he'd had you in India he would have made +a capable sergeant of you." + +She saw a shadow creep into his face, and wondered what had brought it +there, for she did not know that in his younger days he had thought of +Sandhurst. Then, seeing that he did not answer, she rose. + +"Well," she said, "Arabella is probably wanting me." + +He watched her move away among the great fir trunks, and then took out +his pipe with a little sigh. Still he had, or so he fancied, sense +enough to refrain from allowing his thoughts to wander in her +direction too frequently, and, soothed by the murmur of the river, he +presently went to sleep. When he awakened it was time to see that the +Indians got supper ready. + +During the evening, Stirling reached the camp; and when the Siwash who +had poled his canoe up the river had drawn it out, they sat down +somewhat limply on the shingle, for he had as usual traveled with +feverish haste. He stayed until the next day, which was rather longer +than any of them expected; and it was not by accident that he came +upon Weston alone before he went away. The latter was then engaged in +lighting a fire, and his employer sat down on a fir branch and quietly +looked him over. + +"Foot getting better?" he asked. + +"I think it is," said Weston. + +Stirling nodded. + +"I understand that you have been of some service to these people; and +they're my daughter's friends," he said. "Is there anything I can do +for you?" + +"No," replied Weston, "I don't think there is." + +The contractor looked at him steadily for a moment or two. + +"Well," he said, "if anything strikes you, there's no reason why you +shouldn't let me know. Feeling anxious to get back to the track?" + +Weston's eyes twinkled. + +"I don't think I am." + +"Then you may stay right where you are, and take care of my daughter. +If she wants to climb mountains or shoot rapids, it's to be done; but +you'll fix things so it can be done safely. You're in charge of this +outfit, and not that major man." + +Stirling was never addicted to mincing matters, but Weston could not +quite repress a grin. + +"It would make things a little difficult if Major Kinnaird understands +that," he said. + +"Then you must see that he doesn't. You can fix it somehow. It's up to +you." + +He rose, as if there were nothing more to be said, and then as he +moved away he turned and waved his hand. + +"I'll have you moved up a grade on the pay-roll." + +He started down the river in another half-hour, and left Weston +thoughtful. He had never seen his employer before; but it was evident +that the latter had made a few inquiries concerning him, and had been +favorably informed. + +For another fortnight Weston tactfully carried out his somewhat +difficult task; and then it was with a curious sense of regret that he +stood one evening in a little roadside station. Major Kinnaird was +apparently counting the pile of baggage some little distance away, his +wife and daughter were in the station-room, and Ida and Weston stood +alone where the track came winding out of the misty pines. She glanced +from him to the forest, and there was just a perceptible hint of +regret in her voice. + +"It has been very pleasant, and in one way I'm almost sorry we are +going to Vancouver," she said. "This"--and she indicated the wall of +hillside and the shadowy bush--"grows on one." + +Weston nodded gravely. + +"It does," he said. "You have been up among the high peaks, and you'll +never quite forget them, even in the cities. Now and then you'll feel +them drawing you back again." + +The girl laughed, perhaps because she realized that the memory of the +last few weeks would remain with her. She also remembered that he had +said that the stillness among the white peaks and in the scented bush +was filled with a glamour that seized on one. + +"Well," she confessed, "I may come back with other friends some day; +and in that case we shall certainly ask for you as guide. I want to +say, as Major Kinnaird did, that we owe a good deal to you. I am only +sorry that the trip is over." + +Then her tone changed a little, and Weston supposed that she was +unwilling to make too great an admission. + +"There are so many little discomforts you have saved us." + +"Yes," he agreed, a trifle dryly, "I suppose there are. However, I +shall probably have gone away when you come back again." + +He broke off for a moment, and then turned toward her quietly. + +"Still," he said, "I seem to feel that I shall see you again some +day." + +His voice was perfectly steady, but, though the light was fading fast, +Ida saw the glint in his eyes, and she answered conventionally. + +"Of course," she said, "that would be a pleasure." + +Then she spoiled it by a laugh when she saw the smile creep into her +companion's eyes; for it was clear to both of them that the formal +expression was in their case somewhat out of place. They realized that +there was more that might have been said; and it was a slight relief +when the shriek of a whistle came ringing down the track and a roar of +wheels grew louder among the shadowy pines. Then the great mountain +locomotive and the dusty cars came clanking into the station, stopped +a few moments, and rolled away again; and Weston was left with the +vision of a white-robed figure in a fluttering dress that leaned out +from a car platform looking back at the gleaming snow and then turned +a moment to wave a hand to him. + +It was an hour later, and the big nickeled lamps were lighted, when +Arabella Kinnaird looked up at her companion as she sat in a lurching +car while the great train swept furiously down the Fraser gorge. + +"Now," she exclaimed, "I remember! That packer has been puzzling me. +His face was familiar. The same thing struck the major, as you heard +him say." + +"Well?" inquired Ida, a little too indifferently. + +Her companion laughed. + +"You overdo it. It would be wiser to admit that you are curious. The +major said he'd seen him somewhere, and so he has, in a way. You +remember his talking about the old North Country Hall he took for the +shooting? Well, the owners had left that young man's photograph among +some other odds and ends in what they probably called the library." + +Ida had no doubt upon the matter, for she recalled the curious +intentness of Weston's face as he sat in the firelight listening to +Kinnaird's description of the house in question. Still, she was not +prepared to display her interest. + +"Well?" she inquired again. + +Arabella Kinnaird made a sign of impatience. + +"Can't you see? They wouldn't have had his photograph unless he had +been a friend of the family or a relative. I wonder whether he told +you his real name?" + +"He didn't." + +"It doesn't matter," said Miss Kinnaird. "I feel tolerably sure it is +Weston, and that is the name of the people who own the place. You +don't appear to understand that the fact has its significance." + +"How?" asked Ida. + +"You haven't been in England or you'd understand. The people who live +in those old places are often very poor, but a certain number of them +have something that the people who have only money would give a good +deal to possess. As a matter of fact, though distinctly human in most +respects, they are--different." + +Ida laughed. + +"Oh," she said, "I've naturally heard of that. It's quite an old +notion, and didn't originate with you English people. Didn't the Roman +emperors claim to have the Imperial purple in their veins? Still, out +here, when we speak of a man appreciatively we say his blood is--red." + +"And that's the color of packer Weston's." + +A faint gleam crept into Ida's eyes as she remembered the white-faced +man who had limped out of camp one morning almost too weary to drag +himself along. + +"Well," she said, "I think you ought to know. When he went back up the +range for you he left a trail of it behind him." + +Her companion had no opportunity for answering, for Major Kinnaird +came back from the smoking end of the car just then, and when he spoke +to Ida his daughter took up a book she had laid down. + +In the meanwhile, a mountain locomotive and a train of flat cars came +clanking into the station where Weston waited. Swinging himself onto +one he took his place among the men who sat on the rails with which +the car was loaded. Then, as the big locomotive slowly pulled them +out, some of his new companions vituperated the station-agent for +stopping them, and one came near braining him with a deftly-flung +bottle when he retaliated. There were a good many more men perched on +the other cars, and Weston concluded, from the burst of hoarse +laughter that reached him through the roar of wheels, that all of them +were not wholly sober. They had been recruited in Vancouver, and +included a few runaway sailormen. One told him that they were going +into the ranges to fill up a muskeg, and he expressed his opinion of +the meanness of the company for not sending them up in a Colonist +train, and offered to throw Weston off the car if he did not agree +with him. He explained that he had already pitched off two of his +companions. + +Weston endeavored to pacify him; but, failing in this and in an +attempt to crawl over the couplings into the adjoining car, he +reluctantly grappled with the man and succeeded in throwing him into a +corner. Then one of the others rose and stood over his prostrate +comrade with a big billet of firwood that had been used to wedge the +rails. + +"I can't sleep with all this circus going on," he said gruffly. "Make +any more trouble and off you go." + +The other man apparently decided to lie still, and his comrade turned +to Weston. + +"Guess the construction boss isn't going to find them tally out right +to-morrow," he observed, "We've lost quite a few of them coming up the +line." + +He went to sleep again soon afterward, and Weston was left in peace. +In front of him the great locomotive snorted up the climbing track, +hurling clouds of sparks aloft. Misty pines went streaming by, the +chill night wind rushed past, the cars banged and clanked, and now and +then odd bursts of harsh laughter or discordant singing broke through +the roar of wheels. It was very different from the deep tranquillity +of the wilderness and the quiet composure of the people with whom he +had spent the last few weeks, but, as Ida Stirling had suggested, +Weston's blood was red, and he was still young enough to find pleasure +in every fresh draught of the wine of life. It was something to feel +himself the equal in bodily strength and animal courage of these +strong-armed men who were going to fill up the muskeg. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +GRENFELL'S MINE + + +It was Saturday evening, and Weston sat on a ledge of the hillside +above the silent construction camp, endeavoring to mend a pair of duck +trousers that had been badly torn in the bush. He held several strips +of a cotton flour-bag in one hand, and was considering how he could +best make use of them without unduly displaying the bold lettering of +the brand, though in the bush of that country it was not an unusual +thing for a man to go about labeled "Early Riser," or somebody's +"Excelsior." His companions had trooped off to the settlement about a +league away, and a row of flat cars stood idle on the track which now +led across the beaten muskeg. On the farther side of the latter, the +tall pines lay strewn in rows, but beyond the strip of clearing the +bush closed in again, solemn, shadowy, and almost impenetrable. There +was a smell of resinous wood-smoke in the air, but save for the +distant sound of the river everything was very still. + +Weston looked up sharply as a patter of approaching footsteps rose out +of the shadows behind him. Some of the men were evidently coming back +from the settlement earlier than he had expected. In a few minutes +three or four of them appeared among the trees, and he recognized them +as some of his friends, small ranchers who had, as often happens on +the Pacific Slope, been forced to leave their lonely, half-cleared +holdings and go out to earn the money that would keep them through the +winter. Two of them were apparently assisting another man along +between them, and when they drew nearer Weston saw that the latter was +Grenfell, the cook. + +"Guess it's 'bout time somebody else took care of you," said one, when +they came up. "Sit right down," he added, neatly shaking Grenfell off +his feet and depositing him unceremoniously at Weston's side. + +Another of the men sat down close by, and Grenfell waved his hand to +the others as they moved away. + +"Bless you! You're good boys," he said. + +The man who remained grinned at Weston. + +"We've packed the blame old deadbeat 'most three miles. If Tom hadn't +promised to see him through I'd have felt tempted to dump him into the +river. The boys were trying to fill him up at the Sprotson House." + +Grenfell, who did not appear to hear him, thrust a hand into his +pocket, and pulling out a few silver coins counted them deliberately. + +"Two--four--six," he said. "Six dollars to face an unkind world with. +It isn't very much." + +He sighed and turned to Weston. + +"You know I've got to quit?" + +"That's right," interposed the other man. "Cassidy's had 'most enough +of him. He never could cook, anyway, and the boys are getting thin. +Last thing he did was to put the indurated plates on the stove to +warm. Filled the thing right up and left them. When he came back the +plates had gone." + +Weston, who had been sent to work some distance from the camp that day +and had not heard of this mishap, felt sorry for Grenfell. The man +evidently had always been somewhat frail, and now he was past his +prime; indulgence in deleterious whisky had further shaken him. He +could not chop or ply the shovel, and it was with difficulty that his +companions had borne his cooking, while it seemed scarcely likely that +anybody would have much use for him in a country that is run by the +young and strong. He sat still regarding the money ruefully. + +"Six of them--and they charge you one for a meal and a drink or two," +he said. "If I hadn't known where there was quartz streaked right +through with wire gold I might have felt discouraged." Then he +straightened himself resolutely. "Seems to me it's time I went up and +looked for it again." + +"How can you know where it is when you have to look for it?" the other +man inquired. + +Grenfell glanced at him severely. + +"I'm not drunk--it's my knees," he pointed out. "Don't cast slurs on +me. I was once Professor of--mineralogical chemist and famous assayer +too. Biggest mining men in the country consulted me." + +The track-grader nodded as he glanced at Weston. + +"I guess he was," he said. "We had a man from back east on this +section who had heard of him." + +Then he turned to Grenfell. + +"Go ahead and explain about the mine." + +"I'm not sure that that's quite straight," Weston objected. "If he +does know anything of the kind----" + +"Oh," said his companion, "I'm not on. If he ever did know I guess he +has forgotten it long ago. He has been forgetting right along whether +he put salt in the hash or not, and each time he wasn't sure he did it +again. That's one of the things that made the trouble." + +Grenfell stopped him with a gesture. + +"I'm going to talk. Don't interrupt. Mr. Weston was once or twice a +good friend to me, and you have seen me through a few times lately. +Now I know a quartz lead that's run through with wire gold quite rich +enough to mill at a profit, but I can't go up and look for it in the +bush myself. When I walk any distance my knees get shaky. Make you +firm offer--even shares to come up with me." + +"Where is it?" + +Grenfell turned and glanced toward the dim line of snow that gleamed +high up above the forests in the north. + +"There's a lake--the Lake of the Shadows--Verneille called it that," +he said dreamily. "It lies in a hollow of the range with the black +firs all round. There's a creek at one side, with a clear pool where +it bends, and I came there one day very hot and hungry with the boots +worn off me. I think"--and by his tense face he seemed to be trying +earnestly to remember something--"we were quite a few days crossing +that range, and our provisions were running put when we hit the +valley." + +"Well?" prompted the track-grader when he stopped. + +"I crawled down to the pool to drink. There were pebbles in it and a +ledge above. There were specks in the pebbles, and specks that showed +plainer in the ledge. The stones were shot with the metal when I broke +one or two of those I took out." + +He fumbled inside his pocket and produced a little bag from which he +extracted a few broken bits of rock. Weston, to whom he passed them, +could see that little threads of metal ran through them. "You're quite +sure it's gold?" the other man inquired. + +"Am I sure!" + +Grenfell smiled compassionately. + +"I was Professor--but guess I've told you that already." + +"The lead?" inquired the other man. + +"Outcrop, a few yards of it. Then it dips on a slight inclination, and +evidently runs back toward the range. An easy drive for an adit. +Stayed there two days, Verneille and I. Quite sure about that gold." + +Weston's face grew intent. + +"You recorded it?" + +"We staked a claim, and started back; but Verneille couldn't find a +deer, and when we first hit the valley provisions were running out. +There was a mist in the ranges, and whichever way we headed we brought +up on crags and precipices. Then we went up to look for another way +across and got into the snow. I never knew how I got out--or where +Verneille went, but when I struck a prospector's camp--he wasn't with +me." + +The track-grader nodded. He had been born among the ranges, and knew +that the prospectors who went out on the gold trail did not invariably +come back. He had heard of famishing men staggering along astonishing +distances half-asleep or too dazed to notice where they were going. He +and Weston had done so themselves, for that matter. + +"You told the prospector about the lead?" Weston inquired. + +"If I did he never found the mine. I was scarcely sensible when I +reached his camp, and I lay there very ill until he went on and left +me with half a deer he'd shot. After that I nearly gave out again +making the settlements." + +"Well," said the track-grader, "where's the lake?" + +Grenfell spread out his hands. + +"I don't know. I went up to look for it three or four times several +years ago." + +He broke off abruptly, and there was silence for a minute or two. +Strange as the thing appeared, it was not altogether an unusual story. +All the way from California to the frozen north one now and then may +hear of men who struck a rich quartz or silver lead in the wilderness, +and, coming down to record it, signally failed to find it again. What +is stranger still, there are mines that have been discovered several +times by different men, none of whom was ever afterward able to +retrace his steps. At any rate, if one accomplished it, he never came +back to tell of his success, for the bones of many prospectors lie +unburied in the wilderness. Indeed, when the wanderers who know it +best gather for the time being in noisy construction camp or beside +the snapping fire where the new wagon road cleaves the silent bush, +they tell tales of lost quartz-reefs and silver leads as fantastic as +those of the genii-guarded treasures of the East, and the men who have +been out on the gold trail generally believe them. + +On the surface Grenfell's task seemed easy. He had to find a lonely +lake cradled in a range; and there are, as the maps show, three great +ranges running roughly north and south in the Pacific Province. Still, +in practice, it is difficult to tell where one leaves off and the +other begins, for that wild land has been aptly termed a sea of +mountains. They seem piled on one another, peak on peak; and spur on +spur, and among their hollows lie lonely lakes and frothing rivers +almost without number, while valley and hill-slopes are usually +shrouded in tremendous forest to the line where the dwindling pines +meet the gleaming snow. Weston was, of course, aware of this, and he +felt, somewhat naturally, that it complicated the question. + +Then Grenfell turned to him and his companion. + +"I've made you my offer--a third-share each," he said. "Are you +coming?" + +The track-grader shook his head. + +"No," he replied, "I guess not. I'm making good wages here. So long as +I can keep from riling Cassidy they're sure." Then he grinned at +Weston. "It's your call." + +Weston sat silent for a full minute, but his heart was beating faster +than usual, and he glanced up from the piles of gravel and blackened +fir stumps by the track to the gleaming snow. A sudden distaste for +the monotonous toil with the shovel came upon him, and he felt the +call of the wilderness. Besides, he was young enough to be sanguine, +although, for that matter, older men, worn by disappointments and +toilsome journeys among the hills, have set out once more on the gold +trail with an optimistic faith that has led them to their death. +Ambition awoke in him, and he recognized now that the week or two +spent in Kinnaird's camp had rendered it impossible for him to remain +a track-grader. At length he turned to Grenfell. + +"Well," he said, "if you're still in the same mind to-morrow I'll +come. Still, if you think better of it, you can cry off then." + +His sense of fairness demanded that; for he would not bind a man whose +senses were, it seemed reasonable to suppose, not particularly clear. +Grenfell evidently understood him, and drew himself up with an attempt +at dignity. + +"My head's quite right when I'm sitting down; it's my knees," he said. +"Want to put the thing through now--half-share each. We'll call it a +bargain." + +The track-grader nodded to Weston. + +"I guess you needn't stand off," he said. "He knows what he's doing." + +They shook hands on it, and then proceeded to discuss ways and means. +It was clear that they might be some time in the wilderness, and would +need provisions, new boots, blankets, a rifle, and a tent; and all of +these things are dear in that country. They recognized that it would +be advisable also to take a horse or mule. Weston did not think that +any of the bush ranchers would hire them one, as horses are not always +brought back from such journeys. This would render it necessary to buy +one; and to meet this expenditure Grenfell had six dollars and Weston +not very much more. + +While they were considering what items they could leave out, two or +three men came up the trail from the settlement, which led close by, +and one of them threw Weston a couple of letters. + +"Mail-carrier rode in before we left, and I guessed I'd bring them +along," he said. + +There was scarcely light enough to see by, and Weston had some little +difficulty in reading the letters. One was from Stirling and ran: + + "Start on Monday for Winnipeg. I want a talk with you and may + make a proposition. Enclose order that will frank you over the + C.P.R." + +Weston gazed at it with a thoughtful face. Winnipeg was a very long +way off, and it was tolerably clear that Stirling, perhaps influenced +by something his daughter or Major Kinnaird had said, meant to offer +him promotion. Still, though he did not know exactly why, he shrank +from accepting any favor from Miss Stirling's father, and, besides +that, he had already pledged himself to Grenfell. He laid down the +letter and opened the second one. Out of this he took an order on one +of the H.B.C. settlement stores, dated at the Vancouver station. It +was marked duplicate, and read: + + "To Agent, Anson's Forks station: + + "Provide Mr. Weston with whatever he may require in the shape + of blankets, provisions, and any sundries in your stock for a + prospecting trip." + +A sheet of paper had been laid beside it, and Weston's face flushed as +he read, "Won't you accept this with the good wishes of your late +companions?" + +It was evidently from Miss Stirling, for it was a woman's writing, and +he did not think an Englishwoman would have said "Won't you," as she +had done. He could recognize the delicacy with which she had refrained +from offering him money, or even stipulating any definite sum in the +order, and it was evident that she had taken some trouble to arrange +the matter with the H. B. C. agent at Vancouver. The thing had been +done in kindness, and yet it hurt him. He could have accepted it more +readily from anybody else. On the other hand, he remembered that she +had known him only as a track-grader, and that he was, as a matter of +fact, nothing else. He could not send the order back without appearing +ungracious or disposed to assert that he was of her own station. Then +another thought struck him. + +"I don't think they knew my name. They called me Clarence," he said. +"Somebody must have thought it worth while to write Cassidy." + +He had forgotten his companions, and when Grenfell looked at him +inquiringly, he laughed. + +"It's something I was thinking of," he said, handing the order across. +Grenfell gazed at it with unqualified satisfaction. + +"This straightens everything out," he said. + +"I'm not quite sure it does," returned Weston, dryly. "In fact in some +respects it rather complicates the thing. That, however, is a point +that doesn't concern you." + +His companion, who appeared to concur in this, glanced with evident +regret at the six dollars which still lay beside him. + +"If I'd known that the order was in the mail, the boys would have had +to carry me every rod of the way back to camp," he said. "It's not the +first time that I've been sorry I practiced economy." + +Weston left him shortly afterward, and went back with the other man +toward the shanty. + +"The chances seem too steep for you?" suggested Weston. + +"Well, I guess he did strike that gold; but I shouldn't be too sure of +it. It's quite likely that he fancied the whole thing. You can't count +on the notions of that kind of man." + +He broke off for a moment, and appeared to consider. + +"There's another point. The old tank has no nerves left, and he's no +use on his legs. Guess, you'll have to carry him over the range." + +Weston fancied that this was probable, and the track-grader, who +turned away to speak to another man, left him in a thoughtful mood. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +IN THE RANGES + + +A month had passed when Weston stood one morning outside the tent he +scarcely expected that he or his comrade would sleep in again. It was +pitched beside a diminutive strip of boggy natural prairie under the +towering range, though the latter was then shrouded in sliding mist +out of which the climbing firs raised here and there a ragged spire or +somber branch. The smoke of the cooking-fire hung in heavy blue +wreaths about the tent, and a thick rain beat into the faces of the +men. + +The few weeks they had spent in the wilderness had made a change in +them. Grenfell had clearer eyes and skin, and was steadier on his +legs, for he had slaked his thirst with river-water for some time now. +Weston was a little leaner, and his face was grimmer than it had been, +for the whimsical carelessness had faded out of it. Both of them were +dressed largely in rags, and their stout boots were rent; and they +were already very wet, though that was no great matter, as they were +used to it. There are a good many rivers among those ranges, and no +bridges. They were then glancing at the horse which was cropping the +harsh grass of the swamp. It was of the Cayuse Indian breed, and not +particularly valuable, but it could be sold for something if they +succeeded in taking it back to the settlements. This, however, did not +appear to Weston very probable. + +"Short hobbles," suggested Grenfell. "There's grass enough to last +awhile, and it's likely that we'll strike this way back. It's a long +way to the settlements, and there'll be quite a load of provisions and +things to pack." + +They had made a cache of most of their provisions the previous night, +after searching in vain for a route by which they could lead the horse +over the range in front of them; but Weston shook his head. + +"No," he said, "we may not come back this way after all, and a horse +is pretty sure to get a hobble of any kind foul round something in the +bush. I can't have the beast held up to starve." + +"Well," said Grenfell, "I guess you understand what leaving it loose +means?" + +Weston did. He recognized that if they ever regained that valley they +would have to push on for the settlements through a most difficult +country, under a heavy load, and even then leave behind them many +things which might have ministered to their comfort. Still, he was +resolute. + +"The beast could find its food somehow if we left it loose, and it's +quite probable that it would work down along the back trail to the +settlements when the grass round here gets scarce," he said. "In any +case we'll give it a chance for its life." + +Grenfell made a sign of acquiescence. + +"Have it your way. If we ever come back to this cache again, and I'm +played out, as I probably will be, you'll have the pleasure of packing +down everything we want." + +Weston did not answer, but there was a little satisfied smile in his +eyes as he watched the horse wander away unhampered into the rain. +After this they sat down to a very simple meal. Then they strapped +their packs on their shoulders--a thick blanket each, a small bag of +flour, some salt pork and green tea, and, while Grenfell carried the +light ax, Weston slung a frying-pan, a kettle and a pannikin about +him, as well as a rifle, for there are black-tail deer in that +country, and they could not be sure that their provisions would last +the journey through. The prospector soon discovers how much a man can +do without, and it is a good deal more than men bred in the cities +would suppose. The oddments rattled and banged about Weston's +shoulders as he went up the steep slope through the thick timber; and +by the time they had cleared the latter, Grenfell was visibly +distressed, and both of them realized that their difficulties had +commenced. + +Any one unaccustomed to the country would probably have considered the +devious march that they already had made arduous enough, but they had, +at least for the most part, followed the valleys and crossed only a +few low divides, and it was evident now that their way led close up to +the eternal snow. There was a rock scarp in front of them, up part of +which they went on their hands and knees. When they reached the summit +of this, the slightly more level strip along which they floundered was +strewn with shattered rock and gravel that had come down from the +heights above with the thaw in the spring; and it was with difficulty +that they made a mile an hour. The gold trail is usually long and +arduous; but the prospector is content to have it so, for once it is +made easier the poor man's day has gone. Then the men of the cities +set up their hydraulic monitors, or drive their adits, and the +free-lance who disdains to work for them rolls up his old blankets and +pushes out once again into the waste. + +They made supper at sunset among the last of the dwindling pines; and +then lay awake shivering part of the night, for a nipping wind came +down from the snow, and they were very wet and cold. It rained again +the next day and most of the following one. Still, they spent the two +days crawling along the farther side of the range, for when they had +struggled through the snow in a rift between two peaks, a great wall +of rock that fell almost sheer cut them off from the next valley. +Somewhat to Weston's astonishment, Grenfell now showed little sign of +flagging. He seemed intent and eager; and when they stopped, gasping, +where the rock fell straight down beneath their feet to the thick +timber that climbed from a thread-like river, he sat down and gazed +steadily below him. + +"They're hemlocks along that bend?" he asked, pointing to a ridge of +somber green that rose above the water. + +"Yes," said Weston, "I think they are." + +Grenfell straightened himself suddenly. + +"My sight's not as good as yours, but I seemed to know they must be. +Can you make out any Douglas firs in the thicker timber?" + +"Yes," said Weston, excitedly, "there's a spire or two higher than the +rest. You recognize the place?" + +His companion sat still with signs of tension in his face, and it was +clear that he was racking his befogged brain. The few weeks of +abstinence and healthful toil had made a change in him, but one cannot +in that space of time get rid of the results of years of indulgence; +and under stress of excitement the man became confused and fanciful. + +"I'm not sure. I'm trying to think," he said, laying a lean, trembling +hand on Weston's arm. "Did you never feel that there was something you +ought to recollect about a spot which you couldn't have seen before?" + +Weston was in no mood to discuss questions of that kind, though the +curious sensation was not altogether unfamiliar to him. + +"There's only one way you could have known there was hemlock yonder," +he asserted. + +Grenfell looked up at him with a dry smile. + +"You have to remember that I have been up in the ranges several times. +Parts of them are very much alike." + +After that Weston sat very still for several minutes, though he found +it exceedingly difficult. He had more than once during the last few +weeks doubted that Grenfell had ever found the quartz-reef at all, for +it seemed quite possible that he had, as the track-grader suggested, +merely fancied that he had done so, and the man's manner had borne out +that supposition. Cut off from the whisky, he had now and then fallen +into fits of morbid moodiness, during which he seemed very far from +sure about the gold. This had naturally occasioned Weston a good deal +of anxiety. He had thrown up his occupation and sunk his last dollar +in the venture, and the finding of the quartz-reef would, he commenced +to realize, open up to him alluring possibilities. At length his +companion spoke slowly. + +"If the river runs across the valley to the opposite range a mile +higher, this is the way I came down when I found the gold," he said. + +Weston scrambled to his feet. Floundering in haste along the edge of +the crag, he stopped some sixty yards farther on, with a little quiver +running through him. From that point he could see that the river ran +straight across to the opposite wall of rock. He flung up his arms +with an exultant shout. Then they went on eagerly when Grenfell joined +him. + +"Yes," said the latter, when he had glanced below, "I must have seen +it the time I struck the gold. Only then I came down the valley." + +They pushed on. Toward sunset a thick rain once more came down, and +filmy mists wreathed themselves about the hills and by and by filled +up the valley, and the strip of mountainside along which the two +lonely men plodded rose isolated from a sea of woolly vapor. They held +on, however, until, when the dusk commenced to creep up the white peak +above them, Weston stopped with a little start. There was a curious +huddled object in a crevice of the rocks not far in front of him. + +"Do you see that?" he asked. "What can it be?" + +Grenfell gazed at the thing steadily, and then turned to his +companion. + +"I think it's Verneille," he said. + +They came a little nearer, and saw that he was right, for presently +Grenfell stooped and picked up a discolored watch. It had fallen away +from the moldering rags, but it had a solid case, and, when at length +he succeeded in opening it, he recognized the dial. He gazed at it +with a softening face, and then slipped it into his pocket. + +"He was a good comrade. A man with long patience, and I think he had a +good deal to bear from me," he said. + +In the meanwhile Weston stood still, with the rain on his face and his +battered hat in his hand. Verneille lay in a cleft of the rocks, where +it seemed he had crawled when he broke down on his last weary march, +but the sun and the rain had worked their will, and there was very +little left of him. Indeed, part of the bony structure had rolled +clear of the shreds of tattered rags. Grenfell gazed at him fixedly, +and neither of the men said anything for the next minute or two. The +peak above them was fading in the growing night, and the stillness of +the great desolation seemed intensified by the soft patter of the +rain. Then Weston roused himself with an effort, for there was +something to be done. + +"We can't leave him lying there," he said. "There is a little soil +among the stones. It's a pity we didn't bring the shovel." + +The shovel was in the cache with one or two other prospector's tools, +which, as the reef they desired to find was uncovered in one place, +they had not thought it worth while to carry over that high ridge; so +they set to work in silence with the rifle butt and their naked hands. +Fortunately, the stones were large, and the soil beneath them soft, +and in about twenty minutes they were ready for the rest of their +task. It was one from which they shrank, but they accomplished it, and +Grenfell straightened himself wearily as they laid the last stone on +the little mound. + +"It's all we can do, but I should feel considerably better if I could +get a hard drink now," he said. + +Then he made a little forceful gesture. + +"After all, he's well out of it. That man was white all through." + +It was Verneille's only epitaph, pronounced most incongruously with +the same breath that expressed his comrade's longing for whisky, but +perhaps it was sufficient, for when one is called a white man it +implies a good deal in that country. Nobody, it seemed, knew where he +came from, or whether there was any one who belonged to him, but he +had done his work, and they had found him sitting high on the lonely +range to point the way. That might have been of no great service if it +were only treasure to which the gold trail led, but in the unclaimed +lands the prospector scouts a little ahead of the march of +civilization. After him come the axmen, the ploughmen and the +artisans, and orchards and mills and oatfields creep on a little +farther into the wilderness. Civilization has its incidental +drawbacks, but, in the west, at least, its advance provides those who +need them with new homes and food; and, when one comes to think of it, +in other respects it is usually the dead men who have pushed on in +advance who point the way. + +A part only of the significance of that fact occurred to Grenfell when +the two men had plodded slowly on and left the little pile of stones +behind, and that was naturally the part applicable to his particular +case. + +"This makes the thing quite certain," he said. "We're on the trail." + +It was not astonishing that Weston had deduced as much already. + +"Have you any idea where you separated?" he inquired. + +"No," said Grenfell, wrinkling his forehead as though thinking hard. +"I've often tried to remember. As I told you, we started out from the +lake with scarcely any provisions left, and we couldn't find a deer. I +was played out and half-dazed, but for a time we pushed on together. +Then one day I found myself in the thick timber alone. Verneille must +have kept the range, and I was in the valley. I was very sick when I +struck the prospector's camp, and when I came round I had only the +haziest memory of the journey." + +"If we can find a spot where the valley dies out into the range, it +will probably be where you left him," said Weston. "It would give us a +point to work from. In the meanwhile we want a place to camp." + +They went down to the first of the timber, and, spreading their +blankets in a cranny of the rocks, built a great fire soon after +darkness fell. Weston, who made the fire, filled the blackened kettle +with water from the creek, and Grenfell, who crouched beside the +snapping branches, also left him to prepare the supper. They had been +on their feet since sunrise, and it was evident that he was very +weary. He recovered a little when he had eaten, but he leaned back +against the wet rock with a furrowed face when Weston took out his +pipe. + +"Abstinence has its drawbacks," he said, shivering in the bitter wind +which whirled the stinging smoke about them. "With a very small +measure of whisky one could be warm and content." He glanced back into +the darkness that hid the towering peaks. "Verneille's to be +envied--he's well out of it." + +"You said that before," said Weston, in whose veins life ran hot and +strong. + +"I did," his companion replied, with a little hollow laugh. "You'll +find out some day that I was right. He was dead when he fell to pieces +in the wind and weather." + +"Of course!" said Weston with a trace of impatience, for Grenfell's +half-maudlin observations occasionally jarred on him; but the latter +still looked at him with a curious smile. + +"Keep clear of drugs and whisky. It's good advice," he said. "You may +go a long way before you die." + +"I'd feel a little more sure of it if we could find the mine. It would +give you a lift up, too." + +Grenfell shook his head. + +"It could never lift me back to where I was," he said. "Could it give +me the steady nerves and the brain I used to have? There was a time +when scarcely a big mine was started in the west before they sent +their specimens to me. What could success offer me now besides a few +more years of indulgence and an opportunity for drinking myself into +my grave in comfort and with comparative decency?" + +Weston supposed that this was the effect of weariness; but his comrade +straightened himself a little, and his uncertain gaze grew steadier. + +"There's one thing it can do," he went on. "It can show those who +remember him as he was that Grenfell the assayer and mineralogist can +still look round a mineral basin and tell just where the gold should +be." + +Weston was no geologist, but he had seen enough of it to recognize +that prospecting is an art. Men certainly strike a vein or alluvial +placer by the merest chance now and then, but the trained man works +from indication to indication until, though he is sometimes mistaken, +he feels reasonably sure as to what waits to be uncovered by the +blasting charge or shovel. Grenfell's previous account of the +discovery had, however, not made quite plain the fact that he had +adopted the latter course. + +"You told me you found the quartz by accident when you went to drink +at a creek," he said. "Any green hand might have done the same." + +Grenfell laughed. + +"The point is that I knew there was gold in the valley. I told you we +stayed there until the provisions had almost run out. I wanted +material proof--and I was satisfied when I found that little strip of +outcrop." + +"A little strip! You said the lead ran right back to the hill and one +could follow it with an adit." + +"It does, although I haven't seen it. The adit would dip a little. The +thing's quite certain." + +Weston once more became sensible of the misgivings that not +infrequently had troubled him. His comrade, he believed, really had +been a famous mineralogist, but now he was a frail and broken man with +a half-muddled brain who could not be trusted to keep the fire going +beneath the pots while he cooked a meal. He was also a prey to maudlin +fancies, and it seemed quite possible that the mine was no more than a +creation of his disordered imagination. There were only two things +that partly warranted his belief in it-a fragment of quartz, and the +presence of the dead man on the lonely range, though Weston admitted +that there was a certain probability of Grenfell's having deluded +Verneille too. He had, however, pledged himself to look for the lead, +and that, at least, he meant to do. The search, in the meanwhile, was +sufficient to occupy him, as he was one who escaped a good many +troubles by confining his attention to the task in hand. + +"Well," he said, dismissing the matter from his mind, "I'll turn out +at sun-up, and when we've had breakfast we'll go on again." + +He lay down near the snapping fire and, drawing up the blanket to keep +the rain from his face, was sound asleep in a few minutes. Grenfell, +however, sat awake for a long time, shivering in the whirling smoke, +and now and then glancing curiously at his companion. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A FRUITLESS SEARCH + + +They had wandered far through the ranges, and camped beside several +lonely lakes, none of which, however, proved to be the one for which +they were searching, when Weston rose one morning from his lair among +the dewy fern. He did it reluctantly, for during the past week he had +carried Grenfell's load as well as his own, and it would have pleased +him to lie still a little longer. His shoulders were aching, and the +constant pressure of the pack-straps had galled them cruelly; but in +one respect it would not have troubled him if his burden had been +heavier, for their provisions were running out rapidly. There was a +river close by, but he no longer felt the least inclination for a +morning swim, or, indeed, for any occupation that was not obviously +necessary. He had lived very sparingly of late, and had contrived that +Grenfell got rather more than his share of the cut-down rations. It +was clear to him that the older man's strength was rapidly failing. + +He kicked the embers of the fire together, and, after laying on a few +resinous billets split the night before, placed an inch or two of pork +in the frying-pan, and then carefully shook out a double handful of +flour from the almost-empty bag. This he beat up with water and poured +into the hot pan when the pork was done. He watched it until it +hardened a little on one side, when he flung it up into the air and +caught it in the pan again. There is an art in making palatable +flapjacks out of nothing but flour and water. When the meager +breakfast was ready, he awakened Grenfell, who sat up grumbling. + +"It's time we made a start. This is our last day," said Weston. + +Grenfell, who did not answer, made his toilet by buttoning his jacket +and stretching himself, after which he blinked at his companion with +watery eyes. + +"There are no marble basins or delicately perfumed soaps in the bush," +he said. + +Weston laughed. + +"I don't remember having seen them at the muskeg camp. In the +meanwhile, breakfast's ready. I'm sorry there isn't a little more of +it." + +His companion glanced at the frying-pan. + +"A scrap of rancid pork, and a very small flapjack--burnt at that! To +think that human intelligence and man's force of will should be +powerless without a sufficiency of such pitiable things. It's +humiliating." + +Then, with a grimace of disgust, he stretched out his hand for the +blackened pannikin. + +"Green tea is a beverage that never appealed to me, and I feel abject +this morning. Now, if I had a little Bourbon whisky I could laugh at +despondency and weariness. That golden liquid releases the mind from +the thraldom of the worn-out body." + +"It depends on one's knees," said Weston, with a trace of dryness. +"Yours have a habit of giving out unexpectedly, and I shouldn't like +to carry you up this valley. Anyway, breakfast's ready, and we have to +find that lake to-day or give up the search." + +They set about breakfast, and again it happened that Grenfell got +rather more than his share. Then Weston, who carried also the heavy +rifle, strapped the double burden on his shoulders, and they started +on their march, walking wearily. The valley that they followed, like +most of the others, was choked with heavy timber, and they pressed on +slowly through the dim shadow of great balsams, hemlocks, and Douglas +firs, among which there sprang up thickets of tall green fern that +were just then dripping with the dew. The stiff fronds brushed the +moisture through the rags they wore and wet them to the skin; but they +were used to that. It was the fallen trees that troubled them most. +These lay in stupendous ruin, with their giant branches stretching far +on either side, and, where tangled thickets rendered a detour +inadmissible, it now and then cost them half an hour's labor with the +ax to hew a passage through. Then there were soft places choked with +willows where little creeks wandered among the swamp-grass in which +they sank to the knees; but they pushed on resolutely, with the +perspiration dripping from them, until well on in the afternoon. + +Once or twice Weston wondered why he had held on so long. It was some +time since they had found Verneille lying high upon the desolate +range, and this was still the only thing which seemed to bear out his +comrade's story. The latter had only a few very hazy recollections to +guide him, and during the last week he had not come upon anything in +the shape, of a mountain spur or frothing creek that appeared to fit +in with them. There was, however, a vein of tenacity in Weston, and he +was quietly bent on going on to the end--that is, until there were no +more provisions left than would carry them back to the cache, marching +on considerably less than half rations. + +They had made, perhaps, two leagues with infinite difficulty, when +toward the middle of the afternoon they came upon a spur of the range +that ran out into the valley. Weston decided that they could probably +see some distance across the timber from the crest of it, so they +climbed up painfully. They were gasping when they reached a ledge of +rock a little below the summit, but that was not why they sat down. +Both shrank from the first momentous glimpse into the head of the +valley, for if there were no lake there they had thrown away their +toil and must drag themselves back to the settlements defeated and +broken men. It is hard to face defeat when one is young, and, perhaps, +harder still when one is old and has nothing to fall back on. Grenfell +expressed part of his thoughts when he turned to his companion. + +"We shall decide the thing in a few more minutes," he said. "I suppose +we couldn't risk going on a little farther to-morrow?" + +Weston shook his head resolutely, though he felt the same temptation. +It was in one sense curious that the older man should defer to him. + +"No," said Weston, "we should have turned back several days ago. It +will be a tough march to reach the cache now." + +Grenfell made a little gesture. + +"Well," he said, "we'll go up and see." + +They went up, part of the way on their hands and knees, and then, +though the slope was less steep, both of them hung back when they +neared the crest of the divide. There was still a faint probability +that their journey had not been futile, and they clung to it +desperately. Grenfell went first, and, when he reached the crest, +stood stone still with his back to Weston, who held his breath as he +scrambled after him. Then Grenfell, turning a little toward him, +suddenly flung out a pointing hand. + +The head of the valley stretched away beneath them, but there was no +gleam from a lonely lake in the midst of it. From hillside to hillside +the close ranks of somber firs ran unbroken. + +Weston's face grew hard and grim. + +"That's the end," he said hoarsely. "There is nothing for it but to +take the back trail." + +Then the strength seemed to melt out of Grenfell, and he sat down +limply. + +"It was the belief that I should find that lake some day that has kept +me on my feet the last eight years," he said. "Except for that I +should have gone under long ago. Now, it's hardly likely that I shall +ever get back here again." + +He turned and blinked at Weston with half-closed eyes. + +"You can't understand. You have the world before you," he said. + +Weston fancied that he could understand in part, at least. His comrade +was an old and frail and friendless man for whom nobody in that +country was, as they say there, likely to have any use, and the fact +that he probably had himself to blame for it did not make things +easier. Weston forgot that he also was a man without an occupation, +and his face grew sympathetic; but in a few minutes Grenfell seemed to +pull himself together. + +"Well," he said, "we'll take the back trail." + +They followed it for a week, but the distance that they covered +diminished day by day. Grenfell would insist on sitting down for half +an hour or so at regular intervals, and when they faced a steep ascent +Weston had to drag him. The man seemed to have fallen to pieces now +that the purpose that had sustained him had failed, and his comrade, +who carried a double burden and undertook all that was necessary each +time they made camp, grew more and more anxious every day, for, though +they did not eat enough to keep the strength in them, their provisions +were almost exhausted. Nor could he find a deer; and it became a +momentous question whether they could reach the cache before the last +handful of flour was gone. Still, they held on along the back trail, +with the burst boots galling their bleeding feet, worn-out, haggard, +and ragged, until, one day on the slope of the range, they lost the +trail, and when evening was drawing in they held a consultation. + +There was a valley; a creek came frothing down not far from them; a +narrow, steep-sided cleft rent through stupendous rocks; and the white +ridge high above it seemed familiar. Weston gazed at the latter +thoughtfully. + +"We could get up that way, and there'll be good moonlight to-night," +he said. "If that snow-ridge lies where I think it does, there's a +ravine running down through the neck of the high spur; and once we +strike the big dip it's a straight trail to the cache. If we started +now we ought to get there to-morrow." + +He broke off for a moment, and opened the almost-empty bag. + +"In fact we have to." + +Grenfell made a sign of acquiescence, and by and by they rose and +forced a passage through the timber into the ravine. Then they went up +and up, through the creek and beside it, crawling over fallen trees, +and dragging themselves across slippery shelves of rock, until, though +still very steep, the way grew a trifle easier. It was Grenfell's last +effort, and Weston had no courage left to cheer him on. At times he +stumbled beside him, and then went on and sat down gasping to wait +until his comrade came up with him again. It was a week since they had +made more than half a meal, and much longer since they had eaten a +sufficient one. They were famishing, worn-out, and a trifle fanciful, +while the light was dying fast and a great wall of mountains, beyond +which the cache lay, still rose in front of them. + +Dusk crept up from the valley and overtook them as they climbed, then +passed ahead and blotted out the battalions of somber pines. The +little breeze that had sighed among the latter died away, and the +hoarse clamor of the creek intensified the deep silence that wrapped +dusky hillside and lonely valley. Then a half-moon sailed out above +the dim white peaks, and its pale radiance gleamed on frothing water +and dripping stone, and showed the two men still climbing. They drew +their breath heavily; the sweat of effort dripped from them; but they +toiled upward, with tense faces and aching limbs. The cache could not +be very far away, and they realized that if once they lay down they +might never commence the march again. + +By and by the creek seemed to vanish, and its roar died away, while +after that they wandered, still ascending, apparently for hours among +dim spires of trees, until the path once more dipped sharply beneath +their feet. They had traversed a wider, shallower valley between the +spur and the parent range. Weston was afterward quite sure of that, +for it had a great shadowy wall of rock on one hand of it. + +"We are coming down upon the cache. We have crossed the neck," he +said. + +They blundered downward, walking now with half-closed eyes, and +sometimes for a few moments with them shut altogether. At times they +fell over boulders and into thickets of rotting branches that lay +around fallen trees, but, though their senses had almost deserted +them, they were certainly going down. The pines grew taller and +thicker; withered twigs and needles crackled beneath their feet; +though in places they plunged downward amidst a rush of slipping +gravel. Still, half-dazed as he was, Weston was puzzled. It seemed to +him that the gully they were descending was longer than it should have +been. It ought to have led them, by that time, out on a plateau from +which the hillside fell to the hollow where they had made the cache. +He did not, however, mention this to Grenfell. + +By degrees the dim black trees grew hazier and less material. They +appeared unsubstantial shadows of firs and pines, and he resented the +fact that they barred his passage, when he blundered into one or two +of them. There was a creek somewhere, but it was elusive, flashing +here and there in the uncertain moonlight and vanishing again. Once or +twice he thought he had left it behind, and was astonished when +shortly afterward he stumbled into it to the knees. He had a +distressful stitch in his side, which, though he had been conscious of +it for several hours, was growing almost insupportable. Sometimes he +called to Grenfell, who seldom answered him, just to break the +oppressive silence. It seemed to enfold and crush him in spite of the +clamor of the creek which indeed he scarcely heard. No man, he +fancied, had crept through those solitudes before; but several times +he felt almost sure that he saw shadowy figures flitting among the +trees, and Grenfell declared that he heard the clank of cowbells. +Weston was not astonished, though he knew that no cattle had ever +crossed that range. + +At last in the gray dawn they came to a little opening where the +ground was soft. It seemed familiar, and both of them stopped. They +certainly had seen before something very much like the slope of rock +that rose in front of them. Weston, blinking about him, discovered in +the quaggy mould two foot-prints half filled with water. He called to +Grenfell, who leaned on his shoulder while he stooped to see them more +clearly. Then he discovered two more footprints a little farther away. +They were fresh, and evidently had not been made by the man who left +the others. Suddenly, he straightened himself with a harsh laugh. + +"That is where we went up last night. We are back again," he said. + +Grenfell gazed at him stupidly. + +"But we went through the valley between the range and the spur," he +insisted. "I remember it. We must have done so." + +Weston's face showed drawn and grim in the creeping light. + +"If you went over all the range by daylight you would never find that +valley again. It will have vanished altogether, like the lake." + +"But I camped beside the lake." + +"Well," said Weston, "we floundered through the valley, and we have +come back to where we started. That's a sure thing. What do you make +of it?" + +Grenfell admitted that it was beyond him. + +"It doesn't count for much in any case. We can't make the cache +now--and I'm going to sleep," he said. + +Weston let his pack drop, and, unrolling their blankets, they +stretched themselves out beneath a great black pine. They had made +their last effort, and their strength was spent. There was, it seemed, +no escape. In the meanwhile, mind and body craved for sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE HOTEL-KEEPER + + +The sun was high in the heavens when Weston awakened, ravenous, with +an almost intolerable stitch in his side. He rose with a stagger, and +then sat down again, while his face went awry, and took out his pipe. +He had still a very little tobacco left, and he fancied that it might +deaden the pangs of hunger. Then he glanced at Grenfell, who lay fast +asleep close by, with his blanket falling away from him. The man's +face was half buried among the withered needles which were thick in +his unkempt hair, and he lay huddled together, grotesque and unsightly +in ragged disarray. Weston vacantly noticed the puffiness of his +cheeks, and the bagginess beneath his eyes. The stamp of indulgence +was very plain upon him, and the younger man, who had led a simple, +strenuous life, was sensible of a certain repulsion from him. + +He realized also that were he alone it was just possible that, before +his strength failed him altogether, he might reach the spot where they +had cached their provisions, and for several minutes he grappled with +the question whether he should make the attempt. Then he brushed aside +the arguments that seemed to warrant it, and admitted that in all +probability Grenfell would have succumbed before he could get back +again. After all, this outcast who had led him into the wilderness on +a fruitless search was his comrade, and they had agreed to share and +share alike. That Grenfell had at the most only a few years of +indulgence still in front of him did not affect the question. The +specious reasons which seemed to prove that he would be warranted in +deserting his comrade would not fit in with his simple code, which, +avoiding all side issues, laid down very simply the things one could +not do. + +Rising stiffly, he laid the flour-bag, which he had not shaken +absolutely empty, by Grenfell's side; and, taking from his pocket an +indelible pencil that he happened to have with him, he moistened the +point of it and scrawled a message across a piece of the almost-empty +package in which they had carried their tea. + +"Gone to look for a deer," it read, and he laid a stone on it where +Grenfell could not fail to see it. + +Then he took up the repeating rifle, and lurching down-hill plunged +into the forest. Both the black-tail deer and the mule-deer are to be +met with in that country, but, somewhat strange to say, they are, as a +rule, more plentiful round the smaller settlements than in the +wilderness, and they are always singularly difficult to see. The +inexperienced sportsman cannot invariably discern one when it is +pointed out to him, and the bush deer very seldom stand silhouetted +against the sky. Their pale tinting blends with that of the fir trunks +and the tall fern, and they seem to recognize the desirability of +always having something near them that breaks their continuity of +outline. Besides, to hunt in the thick bush needs the keenest powers +of observation of both ear and eye, and an infinite patience, of which +a worn-out, famishing white man is very rarely capable. When one steps +on a dry twig, or sets a thicket crackling, it is necessary to lie +still for minutes, or to make a long detour before again taking up the +line of approach to a likely spot; and that morning Weston blundered +noisily into many an obstacle. His eyes were unusually bright and +fiercely keen, but his worn-out limbs would not quite obey him. + +He lay still among the undergrowth about the rocky places where the +deer come out to sun themselves clear of the dew-wet fern, and crawled +into quaggy swamps where the little black bear feeds, but he could +find no sign of life. When he strained his ears to listen there was +only the sound of falling water or the clamor of a hidden creek. Sight +was of almost as little service among those endless rows of towering +trunks, between which the tall fern and underbrush sprang up. There +was no distance, scarcely even an alternation of light and shadow. The +vision was narrowed in and confused by the unchanging sameness of the +great gray colonnade. + +Still, Weston persisted in his search; though it was not patience but +the savageness of desperation that animated him. He would not go back +empty-handed, if he struggled on until he dropped. + +It was late in the afternoon before his search was rewarded. He had +reached a strip of slightly clearer ground when he heard a faint +rustle, and he stiffened suddenly in strung-up attention. There was, +he remembered, a great hemlock close behind him, but he recognized +that any movement might betray his presence, and, standing very still, +he slowly swept his eyes across the glade. A curious, hard glint crept +into them when they rested on one spot where something that looked +very much like a slender, forked branch rose above a thicket. Then a +small patch of slightly different color from the thicket appeared +close beneath, and, though he knew that this might send the deer off, +he sank slowly down until he could sit on his drawn-back right foot. +He could not be sure of the steadiness of his hands, and he wanted a +support for the rifle. Though every nerve in him seemed to thrill, it +was done deliberately, and he found that he could see almost as +clearly from the lower level. + +Then he waited, with the rifle in his left hand, and that elbow on his +knee, until there was a faint crackling, and a slightly larger patch +of fur emerged from the thicket. He held his breath as he stiffened +his left fingers on the barrel and dropped his cheek on the butt. +There would, he knew, be only one shot, a long one, and, while it was +not particularly easy to get the sight on that little patch, it was +considerably handier to keep it there. Besides, he was not sure that +the rear slide was high enough, for the light was puzzling. It might +very well throw him a foot out in the elevation. + +He crouched, haggard, ragged, savage-eyed, steadying himself with a +strenuous effort, while the little bead of foresight wavered. It moved +upward and back again half an inch or so while his finger slowly +contracted on the trigger. Then, as it swung across the middle of the +patch, he added the last trace of pressure. He saw a train of sparks +leap from the jerking muzzle, and felt the butt jar upon his shoulder. +Still, as is almost invariably the case with a man whose whole force +of will is concentrated on holding the little sight on a living mark, +he heard no detonation. He recognized, however, the unmistakable thud +of the bullet smashing through soft flesh, and that was what he +listened for. + +As he sprang to his feet, jerking another cartridge from the magazine, +there was a sharp crackling amidst the thicket and a rustling of the +fern. A blurred shape that moved with incredible swiftness sailed into +the air, and vanished as he fired again. The smoke blew back into his +eyes, and there was a low rustling that rapidly grew fainter. He ran +to the thicket, and found what he had expected--a few red splashes +among the leaves. Where the deer was hit he did not know, but he +braced himself for an effort, for he fancied that he could follow the +trail. + +It proved a long and difficult one, but as he worked along it, +smashing through thickets and crawling over fallen trees, the red +sprinkle still showed among the leaves, and it did not seem possible +that the deer could go very far. Still, by this time the light was +growing dim, and he pressed on savagely with the perspiration dripping +from him in an agony of suspense. Even his weariness was forgotten, +though he reeled now and then. + +At length, when he reached the head of a slope, there was a crackling +amidst the underbrush, and once more a half-seen shape rose out of it. +The rifle went to his shoulder, and, though he had scarcely expected +the shot to be successful, the object in front of him collapsed amidst +the fern. He could no longer see it, but, whipping out the big knife +that he carried in his belt, he ran toward the spot where it had +appeared. The ground seemed to be falling sharply, and he recognized +that there was a declivity not far away. + +The deer rose once more, and, though only a yard or two away, he could +scarcely see it. His eyes seemed clouded, and he was gasping heavily. +Whether he dropped the rifle with intent or stumbled and let it slip +he never knew, but in another moment he had flung himself upon the +deer with the long knife in his hand. Then his feet slipped, and he +and the beast rolled down a slope together. The blade he gripped +struck soil and stones, but at length he knew that it had gone in to +the hilt in yielding flesh, and with a tense effort he buried it +again. After that he staggered clear, half-dazed, but exultant, with a +broad crimson stain on the rags he wore. The beast's limbs and body +quivered once or twice, and then it lay very still. + +Weston took out his pipe and lay down with his back against a tree, +for all the power seemed to have gone out of him, and he did not seem +able to think of anything. The pipe was empty before it dawned on him +that his comrade was famishing, and there was still a task in hand. He +set about it, and, though it was far from heavy, he had some +difficulty in getting the dressed deer upon his shoulders. How he +reached camp with it he never knew, but he fell down several times +before he did so, and the soft darkness had crept up from the valley +when he staggered into the flickering glow of a fire. His face was +drawn and gray, and there was blood and soil on his tattered clothing. +He dropped the deer, and collapsed beside the fire. + +"Now," he said hoarsely, "it's up to you to do the rest." + +Grenfell set about it in wolfish haste, hacking off great strips of +flesh with patches of hide still attached to them; and it was only +when he flung them half-raw out of the frying-pan that Weston roused +himself. Fresh bush venison is not a delicacy even when properly +cooked, and there are probably very few civilized men who would care +to consume much of it. The muscular fiber resembles cordage; and +strong green tea is no doubt not the most desirable beverage to +accompany it; but Grenfell and Weston ate it in lumps and were asleep +within five minutes after they lay down gorged to repletion beside the +sinking fire. It is generally understood that a famishing person +should be supplied with nourishment sparingly, but in the wilderness +the man in that condition eats as much as he conveniently can, and +usually sleeps for about twelve hours afterward. In any case, the sun +was high the next day when Weston awoke, feeling, except for his +muscular weariness, as fresh as he had ever felt in his life. He +roused Grenfell with his foot. + +"Get up," he said, "we have to consider what to do." + +Grenfell blinked at him, with a grin. + +"Consider!" he ejaculated. "I know. The first thing is to eat +breakfast. Then we'll lie down again until it's time for supper." + +They did as he suggested, for there was meat enough to last until they +found the cache. This they managed to do two days later. Somewhat to +Weston's astonishment they found, also, the horse still feeding on the +strip of natural prairie; and, as the beast and the buried camp gear +it could now carry back represented their whole worldly wealth, this +was a source of gratification to both of them. The man without an +occupation or a dollar in his pocket does not, as a rule, find life +very easy. + +They made the first settlement on the railroad safely; and Weston, +hearing that a new sawmill had been started in a neighboring valley, +set out the next morning in search of it, leaving Grenfell to dispose, +of the camp gear and the horse. The manager of the sawmill was, +however, marking trees in the bush, and, as Weston had to wait some +time before he learned that no more hands were wanted, it was evening +before he reached the little wooden hotel where he had left his +comrade. It had a veranda in front of it, and he stopped when he +reached the steps, for it was evident from the hoarse clamor and +bursts of laughter which came out of the open windows that something +quite unusual was going on. Then a man came down the steps chuckling, +and Weston, who stopped him, inquired the cause of the commotion. + +"Two or three of the boys we have no great use for are going out +to-night to the copper vein the Dryhurst people are opening up," said +the stranger. "Your partner has been setting up the drinks for them." + +Weston was not pleased at this, but the other piece of information the +man gave him was interesting. + +"Are they taking on men?" he asked. + +"Anybody who can shovel. Sent down to Vancouver for men a day or two +ago." + +"Then," said Weston, "why didn't this hotel-keeper tell me, instead of +sending me across to the sawmill?" + +His informant laughed. + +"Jake," he said, "is most too mean to live. He strikes you a dollar +for your breakfast and another for supper, though anybody else would +give you a square meal for a quarter. Guess that may have something to +do with it." + +Weston nodded. + +"It's very probable," he said. "They're evidently getting angry about +something inside there. What's the trouble?" + +"Guess it's your partner," said the other man, with a grin. "It seems +Jake bought a horse from him; but you'd better go in and see. I +decided to pull out when one of them got an ax. Struck me it would be +kind of safer in my shanty." + +He went down the stairway; and as Weston went up a raucous voice +reached him. + +"The money!" it said. "The money or the horse! You hear me! Hand out +the blame money!" + +Weston pushed open the door and stopped just inside it. The room was +big, and, as usual, crudely furnished, with uncovered walls and floor, +and a stove in the midst of it. A bar ran along part of one side, and +a man in a white shirt was just then engaged in hastily removing the +bottles from it. Another man, in blue shirt and duck trousers, stood +beside the stove, and he held a big ax which he swung suggestively. It +was evident that several of the others were runaway sailormen, who +have, since the days of Caribou, usually been found in the forefront +when there were perilous wagon bridges or dizzy railroad trestles to +be built in the Mountain Province. There was, however, nothing English +in their appearance. + +"He wants his horse! Oh, bring it out!" sang the man with the ax. + +There was a howl of approval from the cluster of men who sat on a +rough fir table; but the man behind the bar raised an expostulating +hand. + +"Boys," he said, "you have got to be reasonable. I bought that horse. +If the deadbeat who made the deal with me wants it back, all he has to +do is to produce the money." + +Then Grenfell, who leaned on the table, drew himself up, and made a +gesture of protest. He was as ragged and unkempt as ever. + +"I've been called a deadbeat, and I want it taken back," he said. +"It's slander. I'm a celebrated mineralogist and assayer. Tell you how +the deep leads run; analyze you anything. For example, we'll proceed +to put this hotel-keeper in the crucible, and see what we get. It's +thirty parts hoggish self-sufficiency, and ten parts ignorance. Forty +more rank dishonesty, and ten of insatiable avarice. Ten more of +go-back-when-you-get-up-and-face-him. Can't even bluff a drunken man. +I've no use for him." + +There was a burst of applause, but Weston fancied that the +hotel-keeper's attitude was comprehensible in view of the fact that +the drunken man had a big ax in his hand. Crossing the room, he seized +Grenfell's shoulder. + +"Sit down," he said sternly. "Have you sold that man my horse?" + +"He has, sure," said one of the others. "Set us up the drinks +afterward. We like him. He's a white man." + +"How much?" Weston asked. + +"Twenty dollars." + +Then the man with the ax, who appeared to feel that he was being left +out of it, swung the heavy blade. + +"We want our horse!" he said. "Trot the blame thing out!" + +One of the others thereupon raised a raucous voice and commenced a +ditty of the deep sea which was quite unquotable. Weston silenced him +with some difficulty and turned to the rest. + +"Boys," he said, "has the man yonder spent twenty dollars on drinks +to-day?" + +They were quite sure that he had not. He had, they admitted, set up a +round or two, but they were not the boys to impose upon a stranger, +and in proof of this several of them asked the hotel-keeper what he +had received from them. Then Weston turned to the latter. + +"Now," he said, "we'll try to straighten this thing out, but I've no +intention of being victimized. It's quite clear that the boys don't +seem in a humor to permit that either." + +"You've got us solid," one of them assured him. "All you have to do is +to sail right ahead. Burn up the blame hotel. Sling him out of the +window. Anything you like." + +"Well," said Weston, addressing the hotel-keeper, "while I don't know +what your tariff is, it's quite evident to me, after what the others +have said, that my partner couldn't very well have spent more than +five or six dollars. We'll call it eight to make more certain, and +I'll pacify him if you'll hand me twelve." + +"Twelve dollars," sang the axman, "or the horse! Bring them out!" + +"It's worse than holding up a train," complained the hotel-keeper. +"Still, I'll part with it for the pleasure of getting rid of you." + +He did so; and when Weston, who pocketed the money, inquired when the +next east-bound train left, one of the others recollected that it was +in rather less than half an hour. Some of them got up with a little +difficulty, and Grenfell looked at Weston deprecatingly. + +"You mustn't hurry me," he observed, "my knees have given out again." + +They set out in a body, two of them assisting Grenfell, who smiled at +the men assembled in the unpaved street to witness their departure. +There were eight of them altogether, including the man who still +carried the ax, which, it transpired later, belonged to the +hotel-keeper. The soft darkness fell, and the white mists crawled up +the hillside as, laughing harshly, they plodded through the little +wooden town. They were wanderers and vagabonds, but they were also men +who had faced the stinging frost on the ranges and the blinding snow. +They had held their lives lightly as they flung the tall wooden +bridges over thundering canons, or hewed room for the steel track out +of their black recesses with toil incredible. Flood and frost, falling +trees, and giant-powder that exploded prematurely, had as yet failed +to crush the life out of them, and, after all, it is, perhaps, men of +their kind who have set the deepest mark upon the wilderness. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +IN THE MOONLIGHT + + +It was, as far as outward appearances went, a somewhat disreputable +company that had assembled in the little station when the whistle of +the Atlantic train came ringing up the track, and Weston would have +been just as much pleased if the agent had provided a little less +illumination. Several big lamps had just been lighted, though, there +was a bright moon in the sky, and Grenfell, who was dressed for the +most part in thorn-rent rags, sat on a pile of express freight amidst +a cluster of his new comrades discoursing maudlin philosophy. The +other man, who still clung to the hotel-keeper's ax, was recounting +with dramatic force how he had once killed a panther on Vancouver +Island with a similar weapon, and, when he swung the heavy blade round +his head, there was a momentary scattering of the crowd of loungers, +who had, as usual, gathered to see the train come in. + +"Yes, sir, I split that beast right up first time," he said. "I'm a +chopper. You'd have seen the pieces fly if I'd sailed into that hotel +bar a little while ago." + +Weston fancied that this was probable, for the man was dexterous, and +there was applause when he set the bright blade whirling, and passed +the haft from hand to hand. Most of the loungers could do a good deal +with the ax themselves, and the lean, muscular demonstrator made +rather a striking figure as he stood poised in statuesque symmetry +under the lamplight with the bright steel flashing about him. + +In the meantime, Weston leaned on the pile of cases and packages +somewhat moodily. After paying for his ticket and Grenfell's to the +station nearest the copper-mine he had about four dollars in his +pocket, and he did not know what he should do if no employment were +offered him when he got there. He had no doubt that he could provide +for himself somehow, but Grenfell was becoming a responsibility. He +felt that he could not cast the man adrift, and it seemed scarcely +likely that anybody would be anxious to hire him. Still, Grenfell was +his comrade, and they had borne a good deal together during their +journey in the wilderness. That counted for something. There was also +another matter that somewhat troubled Weston. He was not unduly +careful about his personal appearance, but he had once been accustomed +to the smoother side of life in England, and his clothing was now +almost dropping off him. The storekeeper, whom he had interviewed that +morning, had resolutely declined to part with a single garment except +for money down; and, after an attempt to make at least part of the +damage good with needle and thread, Weston found the effort useless +and abandoned it. + +Then two great locomotives came snorting out of the shadows that +wrapped the climbing track, and he grasped the shoulder of his +comrade, who did not appear disposed to get up. There was a little +pointed badinage between those who were starting for the mine and the +loungers, and in the midst of it the big cars rolled into the station. +Weston started, and his face grew darkly flushed, for two white-clad +figures leaned out over the guard-rail of one of the platforms, and +for a moment he looked into Ida Stirling's eyes. There was no doubt +that she had recognized him, and he remembered the state of his +attire, and became uneasily conscious that Grenfell, who clung to his +shoulder, was swaying on his feet. He knew that a man is usually +judged by his company, and it was clear that nothing that she might +have noticed was likely to prepossess Miss Stirling in his favor. The +car, however, swept past him, and with some difficulty he got Grenfell +into another farther along the train. Then, while his companions +exchanged more compliments with the loungers, the big locomotives +snorted and the dusty cars lurched on again. + +They naturally traveled Colonist, and when Grenfell stretched himself +out on a maple board it became evident that he had forgotten his +blanket. Weston threw his own over him, and the old man blinked at his +young companion with watery eyes. + +"You stood by me. You're white," he said; and added with a little +patronizing gesture, "I'm not going to desert you." + +After that he apparently went to sleep, and Weston, who felt no +inclination for the company of the others, went out and sat on one of +the car platforms, glad for the time being to be rid of him. + +There was a moon in the sky, and the silvery light streamed down on +towering hillside and battalions of flitting pines. The great train +swept on, clattering and clanking, and dust and fragments of ballast +whirled about the lonely man. Still, the rush of the cool night wind +was exhilarating, and his mind was busy, though his thoughts were not +altogether pleasant. The few weeks he had spent in Ida Stirling's +company had reawakened ambition in him; and that was why he had set +out with Grenfell in search of the mine. Though he had not reproached +his comrade, and had, indeed, only half believed in the quartz lead, +the failure to find it had been a blow. There was in that country, as +he knew, no great prospect of advancement for a man without a dollar; +and though he realized that it had not troubled him greatly until a +little while ago, he now shrank from the thought of remaining all his +life a wandering railroad or ranching hand. He had also a great desire +for Miss Stirling's good opinion, although he scarcely expected her to +think of him, except as one who had proved a capable guide. + +He knew that he could never quite forget the night they had made the +hazardous descent together, and her courage and quiet composure under +stress and strain had had their effect on him. The imperious anger +with which she had turned on him when he forced her away from Miss +Kinnaird had also stirred him curiously. He could still, when he +chose, see her standing in the moonlight with a flash in her eyes, +questioning his authority to prevent her from snaring her companion's +peril. She was, he felt, one who would stand by her friends. He was +young, and the fact that she had seen him supporting the lurching +Grenfell at the station troubled him. + +He had smoked his pipe out twice when he heard the vestibule door +click, and he started when he looked up, for Ida Stirling stood beside +him. Her light dress fluttered about her, and she stood with one hand +resting on the rail. There was no doubt that she recognized him, and +when he rose and took off his shapeless hat she looked at him steadily +for a moment or two. He wondered whether he were right in his surmises +as to why she did this; and, though his forehead grew a trifle hot, he +decided that he could not blame her. Appearances had certainly been +against him. + +"I am going to join Mrs. Kinnaird. She is in the car behind the +sleeper, and that is farther along;" she said. + +Weston moved so that she might step across to the adjoining car; but +she did not seem to notice this, and leaned on the rail close beside +him. + +"The train is very hot with the lamps lighted," she said. + +Weston understood this to mean that she was disposed to stay where she +was and talk to him awhile, which suggested that she was to some +extent reassured about his condition. + +"Yes," he returned, "it is. In fact, I felt it myself. The smell of +the pines is a good deal pleasanter." + +There was nothing original in the observation, and, though the roar of +wheels made it a trifle difficult to hear, he was careful as to how he +modulated his voice. Perhaps he was superfluously careful, for he saw +a smile creep into Ida's eyes. + +"You seem amused," he said, and, for they stood in the moonlight, the +blood showed in his face. + +"Why did you speak--like that?" his companion asked. + +Weston looked at her gravely, and then made a little deprecatory +gesture. + +"It was very stupid, I dare say. Still, you see, you were out on the +platform when the train came into the station." + +There was something that puzzled him in Ida's expression. + +"Well," she admitted, "I really had my fancies for a moment or two, +though I blamed myself afterward. I should have known better." + +It was rather a big admission, but she said nothing else, and it was +Weston who broke the silence. + +"I have to thank you for the prospecting outfit," he said. + +The girl flashed a quick glance at him. + +"It was partly Major Kinnaird's idea. You made use of it?" + +Weston smiled. + +"Grenfell and I did. That explains the state of my attire. You see, we +have just come down from the bush." + +Then, somewhat to her astonishment, he took out his watch, and pointed +to the guard. It was of plain plaited leather, and had, she fancied, +probably cost about twenty-five cents. + +"I don't know whether this could be considered part of a prospecting +outfit, but they had a bunch of them in the store," he said. "I felt I +should like some trifle that I could wear to remember our trip in the +ranges. I thought you wouldn't mind." + +A momentary trace of embarrassment became visible in his companion's +face. The man was a bush packer, and she had seen him in somewhat +disreputable company, but she was ready to admit that he had aroused +her curiosity. She could be honest, and she would have admitted it as +readily had she never heard from Arabella Kinnaird of his connection +with the old hall in England. She looked at him, with a little laugh. + +"Oh," she said, "everybody likes to be remembered, and I'm no +exception in that respect. There is really no reason why you shouldn't +have bought the guard." + +Weston, who felt that he had gone quite far enough, merely bent his +head in a manner that, as she naturally noticed, the average bush +packer would not have adopted. It was she who first spoke again. + +"You were successful in your search?" she asked. + +Weston laughed. + +"Do I look like a man who has just found a goldmine?" + +"Well," said the girl, with a twinkle in her eyes, "I came across two +successful prospectors in Vancouver not long ago, and there was really +nothing to suggest it in their appearance. So you didn't find the +mine? Won't you tell me about your journey?" + +"It's quite a story. Won't the others miss you?" + +Ida turned toward him suddenly. + +"Don't you mean more than that?" + +"Well," admitted Weston slowly, "I think I did. Perhaps it was a +liberty." + +"It was," said Ida, and, though she laughed, there was a little flash +in her eyes. "Major Kinnaird and his wife are English, and it is quite +possible that they would not be pleased to hear that I had come out to +talk with you on the platform of a car. Still, in Canada we have our +own notions as to what is fitting, and that I consider it perfectly +natural that I should do so is quite sufficient for me. I do not defer +to anybody's opinion as to how I should treat my friends. Now, unless +you have any more convincing excuses, you may tell me about the search +for the mine." + +Weston did so, and, for the mere pleasure of having her near him, he +made rather a long tale of it. She stood where the vestibule of the +car in front partly sheltered her from the rush of the cold night +wind, swaying lightly to the jolting of the platform as the great +train sped on among the pines. Still, her light dress which gleamed +white in the moonlight fluttered about her and now and then flowed +against her companion. The simple tale of stress and effort borne and +made was one that went well with the snorting of the big locomotives +toiling up the climbing track and the rhythmic roar of wheels flung +back by primeval forest or towering wall of rock. The girl had +imagination enough to realize it. + +"Oh," she said, "one likes to hear of such things." + +Then she noticed the gauntness of his bronzed face and how lean he +was. + +"Still," she added, "it has left its mark on you. You failed to find +the mine--it wasn't your fault--what are you going to do now?" + +"Some day," said Weston, "I shall go back and search again." + +He had made the resolution only that moment, but she saw the sudden +glint in his eyes. + +"It was in the meanwhile I meant," she said. + +"I am going a little way up the track with my partner to a +copper-mine." + +"Ah," said the girl reflectively, "I suppose you feel that you must +take that man?" + +"What else could I do with him?" + +Ida's eyes softened curiously. After the scene at the station she +fancied that she understood the responsibility that he had taken upon +himself. + +"And suppose they don't want you at the mine?" + +"In that case we should go on again somewhere else." + +"Of course your partner, who can earn nothing, will go with you." + +Then she spoke almost sharply. + +"How much money have you in your joint possession?" + +"Three or four dollars," said Weston. + +Again she turned toward him with a flush on her face. + +"Now," she said, "I think you can disregard trivial conventionalities. +Won't you let me lend you some?" + +"No," replied Weston quietly. "I shall not forget that you offered it, +but I'm afraid it's quite out of the question." + +She knew that he meant it, and, though she greatly desired to lessen +his difficulties, she was, for no reason that was very apparent at the +moment, pleased with his answer. Then she changed the subject. + +"Can your partner cook?" she asked. + +"No," answered Weston, smiling, "he certainly can't. I and a good many +more of the boys know that from experience." + +"Ah," said Ida reflectively, "that destroys another chance. Well, I am +glad that I have seen you, but I think I must join Mrs. Kinnaird now." + +She held out the hand she had laid on the rail. It happened that as +she did it the train swung around a curve. The car slanted sharply, +and she swayed with the effort to keep her balance. In another moment +Weston's arm was around her waist. Then there was empty blackness +beneath them as the cars sped out upon a slender trestle, and the roar +of a torrent came up from below through the clash and clatter and +clamor of the wheels. There was probably no risk at all, for there +were rails on either side of them, but the girl, who had almost lost +her footing, was glad of the man's steadying hand, and did not draw +herself away until the big locomotives were speeding smoothly on +beneath the shadowy pines again. Then she drew back a pace or two. + +"Thank you," she said quietly. + +Weston took off his battered hat, and, stepping across the platform, +opened the door of the adjoining car. When she had passed through it, +he sat down and took out his pipe, with a curious little thrill +running through him and his nerves tingling. + +Ida, also, felt her face grow a trifle hot, and, though she was as +composed as usual when she joined Mrs. Kinnaird, her thoughts were +busy for some time afterward. The man, she admitted, had done no more +than was warranted, but there was no disguising the fact that his +supporting grasp had had a disconcerting effect on her. Then she +dismissed the thoughts of that, and remembered with compassion how +lean and worn he looked. There was also something that stirred her +sympathy in the idea of his saddling himself with the care of a +helpless comrade who had no real claim on him, though that was, she +decided, after all, the kind of thing one would expect from him. Then, +recognizing that this was admitting a good deal, she endeavored to +interest herself in what Mrs. Kinnaird was saying. + +It was late at night when the train stopped again, and Weston did not +know that when he and his companions alighted at a little desolate +station among the ranges, the blind of one window in the big sleeper +was drawn aside. In a few moments the train went on, but Ida Stirling +did not sleep for some time afterward. She had had a momentary glimpse +of a ragged man standing with the lamplight on his lean face and a +hand laid reassuringly on the shoulder of his half-dazed companion. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE COPPER-MINE + + +The red sun had risen above the dusky firs on a shoulder of the range +when Weston and his companions reached the copper-mine. It consisted +of an opening in the forest which clothed the hillside with the black +mouth of an adit in the midst of it, and a few big mounds of debris, +beside which stood a rude log shanty. The men who had just come out of +the latter gazed at the strangers with undemonstrative curiosity, and +when, saying nothing, they, trooped away to work, the new arrivals sat +down to wait until the mining captain should make his appearance. In +the meanwhile one of them amused himself by throwing stones at a +smaller log building with a galvanized roof which stood among the +firs. He looked at the others for applause when he succeeded in +hitting it. + +"Let up," said a comrade. "The boss lives in there." + +The man flung another stone, a larger one, which rang upon the iron +roof. + +"Well," he said, "I guess that ought to fetch him." + +It evidently did so, for the door of the shanty opened, and a man +attired in shirt and trousers came out. He was a big, lean man, +somewhat hard of face, and he favored the assembly with a glance of +quiet scrutiny, for he was, as it happened, acquainted with the habits +of the free companions. + +"Getting impatient, boys?" he asked, and his voice, which was +curiously steady, had in it a certain unmistakable ring. It suggested +that he was one accustomed to command. "Well, what do you want?" + +"A job," said one of Weston's companions. + +The man looked at him with no great favor. + +"Quite sure it isn't money? You can't have one without the other +here." + +Then Grenfell rose and waved his hand. + +"The explanation, I may observe, is unnecessary. In this country you +don't get money anywhere without first doing a good deal for it. +Unfortunately, it sometimes happens that you don't get it then." + +"How long is it since you did anything worth counting?" asked the +captain. + +One of Grenfell's companions pulled him down before he had a chance to +reply. + +"Now you sit right down before you spoil things," he said. "You can't +put up a bluff on that kind of man. You don't know enough." + +The miner glanced at them again, with a little grim smile. + +"Well," he said, "you may stay there until I've started the boys in +the adit. Then I will come back and talk to you." + +He moved away, and one of those he left relieved his feelings by +hurling another stone which crashed upon the iron roof of the shanty. + +"That's a hustler--a speeder-up," he said. "You can't monkey with +him." + +They waited for about an hour before the man came back, and, sitting +down on a fir stump, called them up one by one. Weston was reassured +to see that each was despatched in turn to the log building where he +presumed the tools were kept; but he and Grenfell were left to the +last, and he was somewhat anxious when he walked toward the stump. The +man who sat there glanced at his attire. + +"Been up against it lately?" he inquired. + +Weston admitted that this was the case; and the other smiled dryly. + +"Can you chop and shovel?" he asked. + +Weston said that he could; and the miner appeared to consider. + +"Well," he said, "I'll put you on at----," mentioning terms which +Weston fancied were as favorable as he was likely to get. "Still, +you'll have to hustle, and we charge usual tariff for board. You may +start in." + +Weston glanced toward Grenfell, who was still sitting where he had +left him. + +"You see," he said, "there's my partner. We go together." + +"I can't help that. You have my offer. I can't have that kind of man +on our pay-roll." + +Weston stood silent for a moment or two. He had arrived at the wooden +hotel too late for supper the previous evening, and, as a rule, +neither blandishments nor money will secure the stranger a meal at an +establishment of that kind after the appointed hour. As the result, he +had eaten nothing since noon, when the sawmill hands had offered him a +share of their dinner; and, having assisted Grenfell along an infamous +trail most of the night, he was jaded and very hungry. Now work and +food were offered him, and there was not a settlement within several +leagues of the spot. He had, however, already decided that he could +not cast his comrade adrift. + +"Well," he said, "perhaps there's a way out of it. If you'll let him +camp with the boys, I'll be responsible for his board." + +"Any relation of yours?" + +"No," replied Weston simply, "he's just my partner." + +The other man looked at him curiously, and then made what Weston +fancied was an unusual concession. + +"Well," he said, "we'll fix it. You may go along and drill with the +boys yonder in the open cut." + +Weston did as he was bidden, and spent the rest of the morning +alternately holding the jarring drill and swinging a hammer. It was +strenuous work which demanded close attention, for the hammer was +heavy, and it is far from easy to hit a drill neatly on the head, +while the man who fails to do so runs the risk of smashing the fingers +of the comrade who holds it. It was not much more pleasant when he +gripped the drill in turn, for, though the other man stood on a plank +inserted in a crevice, Weston had to kneel on a slippery slope of rock +and twist the drill each time the hammer descended. The concussion +jarred his stiffened hands and arms. The distressful stitch also was +coming back into his side, and once or twice his companion cast an +expostulating glance at him. + +"You want to speed up," he said. "Guess that boss of ours knows just +how much the most is that a man can drill, and he has to do it or get +out." + +Though it cost him an effort, Weston contrived to keep his companion +going until the dinner hour arrived, and he found the work a little +easier when he had eaten. Still, he was perplexed about Grenfell, who +did not understand what arrangement he had arrived at with the mine +captain. Grenfell spent the afternoon mending his own and some of +Weston's clothes, which badly needed it, and the evening meal was over +when the latter sat with the others outside the shanty wearing a +jacket which his companion had sewed. Grenfell, however, was not with +them just then. By and by the man who had desired to wreck the hotel +bar turned to Weston. + +"What are you going to do with your partner?" he asked. + +"I don't quite know," said Weston. "In the meanwhile he'll stay here." + +"How's he going to raise his board?" + +"That's not quite your business," said Weston quietly. + +The man laughed good-humoredly. + +"Well," he replied, "in one way I guess it isn't. Still, if you pay +your partner's board you're going to have mighty little money left. +Mended that jacket, didn't he? Won't you take it off?" + +Weston wondered a little at this request, but he complied; and the man +passed the garment around to' the others, who gravely inspected the +sewed-up rents and the patches inserted in it. + +"Quite neat, isn't it?" he commented. + +They admitted that it was; and the chopper, handing the garment back +to Weston, smiled as though satisfied. + +"I've an idea, boys," he announced. + +His companions appeared dubious, but he nodded quietly. + +"I've got one sure," he said. "Now, in a general way, if there's a +store handy, I've no use for mending clothes; but you have to wash +them now and then, and it never struck me as quite comfortable to put +them on with half the stitching rubbed out of them. Well, washing's a +thing I'm not fond of either, and it's kind of curious that when one +man starts in at it everybody wants the coal-oil can." + +They murmured languid concurrence, for, as he said, clothes must be +washed and mended now and then, and the man who has just finished a +long day's arduous toil seldom feels any great inclination for the +task. It usually happens, however, that when one sets about it his +companions do the same, and there is sometimes trouble as to who has +the prior claim on the big kerosene can in which the garments are +generally boiled. + +"Well," said the chopper, "I've a proposition to make. There are quite +a few of us, and a levy of thirty or forty cents a week's not going to +hurt anybody while there's a man round here who can't chop or shovel. +Guess he has to live, and it's a blame hard country, boys, to that +kind of man. Now, it's my notion we make the fellow mender and washer +to the camp." + +There was a murmur of applause, for, when they own any money, which, +however, is not frequently the case, the free companions are usually +open-handed men, and Weston was not astonished at their readiness to +do what they could for his companion. He had been in that land long +enough to learn that it is the hard-handed drillers and axmen from +whom the wanderer and even the outcast beyond the pale is most likely +to receive a kindness. Their wide generosity is exceeded only by the +light-hearted valor with which they plunge into some tremendous +struggle with flood and rock and snow. + +"Make it half a dollar anyway," said one of them. + +Then Weston stood up, with a little flush on his face and a curious +look in his eyes. + +"Thank you, boys, but I have to move an objection," he said. "This is +a thing that concerns me." + +"Sit down," commanded one of them sharply. "It's a cold business +proposition." + +They silenced his objections, and sent for Grenfell, who appeared +disconcerted for a moment when he heard what they had to say. Then he +laughed somewhat harshly. + +"Well," he said, "I'll be glad to do it, and I don't mind admitting +that the offer is a relief to me." + +They strolled away by and by, and Grenfell made a little grimace as he +looked at Weston. + +"When I can tell how the ore should pan out by a glance at the dump, +and plot just how the vein should run, it's disconcerting to find that +the only way I can earn a living is by washing and mending," he said. +"In fact," and he spread out his hands, "the thing's humiliating." + +To a certain extent Weston sympathized with him. The man, it seemed, +had been a famous assayer, and now the one capability which was of any +use to him was that of neatly mending holes in worn-out garments. He +undertook the task cheerfully, however, and things went smoothly for a +week or two. Then a stranger, who appeared to be a man of authority, +arrived at the camp. He was a young man, who looked opinionative, and +when he first appeared was dressed in city clothes. Soon after his +arrival he strolled around the workings with the man whom Weston +hitherto had regarded as the manager. When he spoke sharply to one or +two of the men, the driller who worked with Weston snorted +expressively. + +"Colvin puts the work through, but that's the top boss," he said. "You +can see it all over him. Learned all about mining back east in the +cities, and couldn't sink a hole for a stick of giant-powder to save +his life. Been down at Vancouver fixing up with the directors what +they're going to tell the stockholders. Still, I guess he's not going +to run this company's stock up very much." + +"How's that?" Weston asked. + +The man lowered his voice confidentially. + +"Well," he said, "there's a good deal in mining that you can't learn +from books, and a little you can't learn at all. It has to be given +you when you're born. Colvin's a hustler, but that's 'bout all he is, +and I've a kind of notion they aren't going to bottom on the richest +of this vein. Anyway, it's not my call. They wouldn't listen to me." + +Weston's gesture might have expressed anything. He naturally had been +favored with hints of this kind while he followed other somewhat +similar occupations, for it is not an uncommon thing for the men who +toil with the drill and shovel to feel more or less convinced that +those set over them are not going about the work in the right way. He +had also more than once seen this belief proved warranted. His +companion's suggestions, however, were borne out when he sat smoking +with Grenfell in the bush after supper. + +"I've been in the adit this afternoon," observed the latter. "Colvin +sent me along to where they are putting in the heavy timbering." He +laughed softly. "Well, they're throwing away most of their money." + +"You're sure?" inquired Weston. + +"Am I sure!" expostulated his comrade. "I need only point out that I +ought to be." + +"Then," said Weston, reflectively, "unless they ask your opinion, +which isn't very probable, I'd say nothing about it. Some people don't +take kindly to being told they're wrong. The thing doesn't affect you, +anyway." + +He was a little astonished at the change in his companion, for a +sparkle crept into Grenfell's watery eyes, and his voice grew sharper. + +"You haven't the miner's or the engineer's instinct; it's the same as +the artist's," he said. "He can see the unapproachable, beautiful +simplicity of perfection, and bad work hurts him. I don't know that +it's a crime to throw away money, but it is to waste intelligence and +effort that could accomplish a good deal properly directed. Why was +man given the power to understand the structure of this material +world? I may be a worn-out whisky wreck, but I could tell them how to +strike the copper." + +"Still," said Weston, dryly, "I'd very much rather you didn't. I don't +think that it would be wise." + +His companion left him shortly afterward, and it was some days later +when the subject was reopened. Then Grenfell came to him with a rueful +face. + +"I've had an interview with the manager," he explained. + +"Well," said Weston, sharply, "what did he say?" + +Grenfell shrugged his shoulder. + +"Told me to get out of camp right away." + +Just then Colvin approached them, and his manner was for once slightly +deprecatory. + +"It doesn't pay to know more than the boss," he said; and then he +looked at Weston. "He has to get out. What are you going to do?" + +He had Weston's answer immediately. + +"Ask you for my time." + +"Well," said Colvin, with a gesture of expostulation, "I guess you +know your own business. Still, I'm quite willing to keep you." + +Weston thanked him, and then went with him to his shanty where he was +handed a few bills, and in another hour he and Grenfell had once more +strapped their packs upon their shoulders. He did not know where he +was going, or what he would do, but he struck into the trail to the +railroad, and it was dusk when they reached a little wooden +settlement. He went into the post-office to make a few inquiries +before he decided whether he should stay there that night, and the +woman who kept it, recognizing him as a man from the mine, handed him +a letter. When he opened it he saw, somewhat to his astonishment, that +it was from Stirling. It was very terse, but it informed him that Miss +Stirling and her friends purposed camping among the islands of one of +the eastern lakes, which was then a rather favorite means of +relaxation with the inhabitants of Toronto and Montreal. Stirling +desired him to accompany the party, on terms which appeared very +satisfactory, and added that if he were acquainted with another man +likely to make an efficient camp attendant he could bring him along. + +Weston started a little when he reached the last suggestion, for he +fancied that it was Miss Stirling who had made it. He leaned on the +counter for several minutes, thinking hard; and then, though he was +not sure that he acted wisely, he started for the station to despatch +a telegram, as Stirling had directed. The next morning the agent +handed him tickets for himself and Grenfell, and they set out on the +Atlantic train. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +STIRLING LETS THINGS SLIDE + + +It was early evening when Weston swung himself down from the platform +of the Colonist car in a little roadside station shut in by the pine +bush of Ontario. There was a wooden hotel beside the track, and one or +two stores; but that was all, and the fact that nobody except the +station-agent had appeared to watch the train come in testified to the +industry, or, more probably, the loneliness of the district. While +Weston stood looking about him a man came out of the office, and he +was somewhat astonished to find himself face to face with his +employer. + +The smart straw hat and light summer suit did not become the +contractor. He was full-fleshed and red of face, and the artistically +cut garments striped in soft colors conveyed a suggestion of ease and +leisure which seemed very much out of place on him. One could not +imagine this man lounging on a sunlit beach, or discoursing airily on +a cool veranda. + +"Got here," he said abruptly, and then swung around and looked at +Grenfell. "This is the other man? Well, he can stay and bring along +the baggage. There's most a freight-car full. They'll give him a wagon +and team at the hotel." + +He indicated a great pile of trunks and cases with a wave of his hand, +and, seeing Weston's astonishment, added with a twinkle in his eyes: + +"My daughter and her friends are camping. They have to have these +things." + +Weston understood his employer's smile. This, he recognized, was a man +who could be content with essential things, and in all probability had +at one time esteemed himself fortunate when he succeeded in obtaining +them. + +"Hadn't I better help him load them up?" he asked. + +"No," said Stirling, with a curtness at which Weston could not take +offense. "He can put in the evening that way if it's necessary. It +will supple him, and I guess he needs it. I have a rig ready. You're +coming along with me." + +Weston took his place in the light, four-wheeled vehicle, and found it +difficult to keep it, for the trail was villainous, and Stirling drove +rapidly. Their way led between shadowy colonnades of towering firs, +and the fragile, two-seated frame bounced and lurched into and out of +deep ruts, and over the split trees that had been laid flat-side +downward in the quaggy places--like a field gun going into action was +the best comparison Weston could think of. The horses, however, kept +their feet, and the wheels held fast. Once, when a jolt nearly pitched +him from his seat, Stirling laughed. + +"After the city it's a relief to let them out," he said. "I did this +kind of thing for a living once. The mine was way back in the bush, +leagues from anywhere, and I hired out as special store and despatch +carrier. There was red-hot trouble unless I got through on time when +the mail came in." + +He drove the team furiously at an unguarded log bridge which was +barely wide enough to let the wheels pass. + +"It's quite a way to the lake yet, and we want to make the camp before +it's dark," he explained. "Know anything about sailing a boat?" + +Weston said that he did, and Stirling nodded. + +"That's good," he observed somewhat dryly, "so does the major man." + +Weston ventured to smile at this, and once more his employer's eyes +twinkled. + +"Some of you people from the old country are quite hard to amuse; +though I'm open to admit that we have a few of the same kind on this +side," he said. "My daughter seemed to fancy they wouldn't find a lake +camp quite right without a boat, so I sent along and bought one at +Toronto. Had her put on a flat car, and hired half the teams in the +district to haul her to the lake. Now, I guess there are men in this +country who, if they wanted a boat, would just take an ax and whipsaw +and build one out of the woods." + +Weston laughed. He was commencing to understand the man better, for he +had met other men of Stirling's description in Canada. As a matter of +fact, they are rather common in the Dominion, men who have had very +little bestowed on them beyond the inestimable faculty of getting what +they want at the cost of grim self-denial and tireless labor. Still, +as it was in Stirling's case, some of them retain a whimsical +toleration for those of weaker fiber. + +"It's a bush camp?" Weston asked. + +Stirling smiled good-humoredly. + +"They call it that," he said. "It cost me quite a few dollars. You'll +see when you get there." + +Weston was somewhat relieved when they safely accomplished the first +stage of the journey, and, turning the team over to a man by the +waterside, paddled off to a big, half-decked boat beautifully built +and fitted in Toronto. Stirling, who admitted that he knew nothing +about such matters, sat down aft and lighted a cigar, while Weston +proceeded to get the tall gall mainsail and big single headsail up. He +was conscious that his companion was watching him closely, and when he +let go the moorings and seated himself at the tiller the latter +pointed up the lake. + +"About a league yet--round that long point," he said. + +A moderately fresh breeze came down across the pines, and when Weston, +getting in the sheet, headed her close up to it, the boat, slanting +sharply, leaped forward through the smooth water. He sat a little +farther to windward, and the slant of deck decreased slightly when +Stirling did the same. + +"You can't head there straight?" the latter asked. + +"No," said Weston, "not with the wind as it is. She'll lie no higher." + +"Well," observed Stirling, "she's going, anyway. That pleases me. It +helps one to get rid of the city. We'll have a talk, in the meanwhile. +I sent for you before. Why didn't you come?" + +It was somewhat difficult to answer, and Weston wrinkled his forehead, +stiffening his grasp on the tiller. + +"I was fortunate enough to be of some little service to Miss +Stirling's friends on the range, and I fancied that because of it you +meant to offer me promotion of some kind," he said. + +"Well?" queried Stirling, with his eyes fixed on his companion's face. + +Weston hesitated. He could not very well tell this man that a vein of +probably misguided pride rendered him unwilling to accept a favor from +Ida Stirling's father. + +"I don't think there was any obligation, sir," he said. + +"That," remarked Stirling dryly, "is a kind of feeling that may trip +you up some day. Still, you came this time." + +"I did," said Weston. "You see, the case was rather different. You +offered to hire me to do a thing I'm accustomed to. It's my +occupation." + +His companion made a little sign of comprehension, though there was a +faintly whimsical smile in his eyes. + +"Now, you're wondering why I brought you back east all this way?" + +Weston admitted it, and the contractor fixed his eyes on him. + +"Well," he said, "it seems that there's fishing and sailing to be +done, and I'm not quite sure about that major man. Guess he's always +had people to wait on him, and that doesn't tend to smartness in any +one. When my daughter and her friends go out on the lake, or up the +river, you'll go along with them." + +This was, perhaps, a little hard on Major Kinnaird, but Weston to some +extent sympathized with his employer's point of view. The contractor +was not a sportsman as the term is generally understood, but he was a +man who could strip a gun, make or mend harness, or break a horse. +When he had gone shooting in his younger days it was usually to get +something to eat, and, as a rule, he obtained it, though he rent his +clothes or got wet to the waist in the process. He could not sail a +boat, but if he had been able to do so he would also in all +probability have been capable of building one. Stirling was a man who +had never depended very much on others, and could, if occasion arose, +dispense with their services. He recognized something of the same +resourcefulness in Weston, and, because of it, took kindly to him. + +In the meanwhile the breeze had freshened, and the boat, slanting more +sharply, commenced to throw the spray all over her as she left the +shelter of the woods behind. She met the short, splashing head sea +with streaming bow, and the sliding froth crept farther and farther up +her lee deck as she smashed through it. Then as the water found its +way over the coaming and poured down into her, Stirling glanced at his +companion. + +"Got all the sail she wants?" he asked. "Is she fit to stand much more +of it?" + +"She should be safe with another plank in, but I was thinking of +taking some of the canvas off her now," said Weston. + +Stirling hitched his twelve stone of flesh farther up to windward. + +"Then," he said, "until she puts that plank in you can let her go." + +A wisp of spray struck him in the face, but Weston, who saw the smile +in his eyes, was curiously satisfied. It suggested, in the first +place, an ample confidence in him, which was naturally gratifying, and +in the second, that Stirling in spite of his years could take a keen +pleasure in that particular form of the conflict between the great +material forces and man's nerve and skill. It is a conflict that goes +on everywhere in the newer lands. + +For another half-hour Weston kept the staggering over-canvased craft +on her feet by a quick thrust of the tiller or a slackening of the +sheet, and his companion appeared oblivious of the fact that he was +getting wetter and wetter. She was fast, and she went through the +little curling ridges with an exhilarating rush, while the foam +swirled higher up her depressed deck, and the water flung up by her +streaming bows beat in between her shrouds in showers. Then, when half +the deck dipped under, Weston thrust down his helm, and the craft, +rising upright, lay with her big mainsail thrashing furiously above +her. + +For ten minutes Weston was very busy with it, and, when he had hoisted +it again with a strip along the foot of it rolled up, he crouched +forward in the spray struggling with the big single headsail, which +was a much more difficult matter. Once or twice he went in bodily when +the hove-down bowsprit put which he crawled, dipped under, but he +succeeded in tying up the foot of that sail too, and scrambled aft +again breathless and gasping. He noticed that his employer, who did +not seem to mind it, was almost as wet as he was. + +"I'm sorry, but you told me I could let her go," he apologized. + +Stirling smiled somewhat dryly. + +"I'm not blaming you; but you don't quite finish. Wondering why I did +it, aren't you?" + +Weston did not admit it, but perhaps his face betrayed him, for his +companion nodded. + +"Well," he said, "you told me that you could sail a boat, and I wanted +to make sure of it. Seems to me anybody could hold the tiller when +she's going easy in smooth water. Know how I used to choose when I +wanted a chopper, in the days when I worked along with the boys? Well, +I gave the man an ax, set him up in front of the biggest tree I could +find, and made him chop." + +There could be no doubt about the efficiency of that simple test, and +Weston recognized that it was very much in keeping with his employer's +character, though he fancied that it was one which, if rigorously +applied everywhere, would leave a good many men without an occupation. +He only laughed, however; and nothing more was said until the boat +reached in shoreward on another tack. It carried her round the long +point, and a deep, sheltered bay with dark pine forest creeping close +down to the strip of white shingle which fringed the water's edge +opened up. Then, as the trees slid past one another, a little clearing +in the midst of them grew rapidly wider, and Weston was somewhat +astonished to see a very pretty wooden house grow into shape. He +glanced at Stirling. + +"Yes," said the latter, with a suggestion of grim amusement, "that's +the camp." + +Once more Weston understood him, and, as their eyes met, man and +master smiled. Both of them knew there were hosts of strenuous, +hard-handed men growing wheat and raising cattle in that country who +would have looked on that camp as a veritable mansion. They were, +however, men who had virgin soil to break or stupendous forests to +grapple with, tasks of which many would reap the benefit, and they +very seldom troubled much about their personal comfort. + +After a while, Weston, lowering the headsail, dropped the anchor over +close to the beach, and Major Kinnaird paddled a canoe off gingerly. +He was, as usual, immaculately neat, and Weston noticed the contrast +between him and Stirling, whose garments had apparently grown smaller +with the wetting. The latter pitched his valise into the canoe without +waiting for Weston to see to it, and then stood up endeavoring to +squeeze some of the water from his jacket. + +"It's the only one I've got," he said to Kinnaird. "Anyway, I guess +the thing will dry, and I've had a sail that has made me feel young +again." + +Then they went ashore, and Weston, who was very wet, was left +shivering in the wind to straighten up the gear, until a bush rancher, +who had been engaged to wait on the party until he arrived, paddled +off for him. The rancher had prepared a satisfactory supper; and some +time after it was over, Stirling and Mrs. Kinnaird sat together on the +veranda. There was, at the time, nobody in the house. The breeze had +fallen lighter, though a long ripple still lapped noisily upon the +beach, and a half-moon had just sailed up above the clustering pines. +Their ragged tops rose against the sky black as ebony, but the pale +radiance they cut off from the beach stretched in a track of faint +silvery brightness far athwart the lake. + +Mrs. Kinnaird, however, was not watching the ripple flash beneath the +moon, for her eyes were fixed on two dusky figures that moved through +the shadow toward the water's edge. By and by there was a rattle of +shingle, and presently the black shape of a canoe slid down into the +moonlight. It rose and dipped with the languid ripple, and the two +figures in it were silhouetted against the silvery gleam. One was a +man in a wide hat who knelt and dipped the flashing paddle astern, and +the other a girl. The craft crossed the strip of radiance and vanished +round the point, after which Mrs. Kinnaird flashed a keen glance at +her companion. He sat still, and his face, on which the moonlight +fell, was almost expressionless, but Mrs. Kinnaird fancied he had +noticed as much as she had, and that he had possibly grasped its +significance. In case he had not done the latter, she felt it her duty +to make the matter clear to him. + +"I suppose that is Ida in the canoe," she said. + +"It seems quite likely," replied her companion. "It couldn't have been +your daughter, because she went along the beach not long ago with the +major, and I don't think there's another young lady in the vicinity." + +"Then the other must be--the packer." + +The pause and the slight change of inflection as she said "the packer" +had not quite the effect she had intended. Stirling himself had once +labored with his hands, and, what was more, afterward had a good deal +to bear on that account. He was not particularly vindictive, but he +remembered it. + +"Yes, it's Weston," he said, and his companion felt herself corrected; +but she was, at least where Major Kinnaird was not concerned, in her +quiet way a persistent woman. Besides, Miss Stirling, who was going +with her to England, would some day come into considerable +possessions, and she had a son who found it singularly difficult to +live on the allowance his father made him. + +"Is it altogether advisable that she should go out with him?" she +asked. + +Stirling smiled somewhat dryly, for there was a vein of combativeness +in him, and she had stirred it. + +"You mean, is it safe? Well, I guess she's quite as safe as she would +be with me or the major." + +"Major Kinnaird was a flag officer of a rather famous yacht club," +said the lady, who, while she fancied that her companion meant to +avoid the issue, could not let this pass. She was, however, mistaken +in one respect, for Stirling usually was much more ready to plunge +into a controversy than to back out of it. + +"Well," he said reflectively, "the other man has earned his living +handling sail and people, which is quite a different thing." + +Then he leaned toward her, with a twinkle in his eyes. + +"Madam," he added, "wouldn't you better tell me exactly what you +meant?" + +Mrs. Kinnaird had a certain courage, and she was endeavoring to do her +duty as she understood it. + +"That packer," she said, "is rather a good-looking man, and girls of +Ida's age are sometimes a trifle--impressionable." + +Then, somewhat to her astonishment, Stirling quietly agreed with her. + +"Yes," he said, "that's so. Seems to me it was intended that they +should be. It's part of the scheme." + +He made a little gesture. + +"We'll let that point slide. Anything strike you as being wrong with +Weston?" + +"No," said the somewhat startled lady, "the man is of course reliable, +well-conducted, and attentive; but, after all, when one says that----" + +"When you said reliable you hit it. It's a word that means a good +deal; but couldn't you say a little more than well-conducted? From +something your daughter learned by chance, his relatives are people of +position in the old country. That counts for a little, though perhaps +it shouldn't." + +Once more Mrs. Kinnaird's astonishment was very evident. + +"It shouldn't?" + +"That's just what I meant. If a man is clean of character, and has +grit and snap in him, I don't know that one could reasonably look for +anything further. I can't see how the fact that his grandfather was +this or that is going to affect him. The man we're talking of has +grit. I offered him promotion, and he wouldn't take it." + +"Ah," said his companion, "didn't that strike you as significant?" + +Stirling looked thoughtful. + +"Well," he admitted slowly, "as a matter of fact, it didn't; but it +does now." + +He sat silent for almost a minute, with wrinkled forehead, while Mrs. +Kinnaird watched him covertly. Then, feeling the silence embarrassing, +she made another effort. + +"Supposing that my fancies concerning what might perhaps come about +are justified?" she suggested. + +Stirling faced the question. + +"Well," he said, "whether they're justified or not is a thing we don't +know yet; but I want to say this. I have never had reason to worry +over my daughter, and it seems to me a sure thing that she's not going +to give me cause for it now. When she chooses her husband, she'll +choose the right one, and she'll have her father's money; it won't +matter very much whether he's rich or not. All I ask is that he should +be straight and clean of mind, and nervy, and I guess Ida will see to +that. When she tells me that she is satisfied, I'll just try to make +the most of him." + +He broke off for a moment, and laughed softly. + +"I guess it wouldn't matter if I didn't. My girl's like her mother, +and she's like--me. When she comes across the right man she'll hold +fast by him with everything against her, if it's necessary, as her +mother did with me." + +He rose and leaned against a pillar, with a curious look in his face. + +"The struggle that her mother and I made has left its mark on me. The +friends we left in the rut behind us looked for my failure, and it +seemed then that all the men with money had leagued themselves +together to stop me from going on. Somehow I beat them, one by +one--big engineers, financiers, financiers' syndicates, +corporations--working late and working early, sinking every dollar +made in another venture, and living any way. There were no amenities +in that fight until those we had against us found that it was wiser to +keep clear of me." + +Then, with a little forceful gesture, he took off his hat. + +"What I am, in part, at least, my girl's mother made me. She's asleep +at last, and because of what she bore it's up to me to make things +smoother for her daughter. Madam," he added, turning to his companion +with a smile, "I have to thank you for doing what you must have +figured was your duty; but in the meanwhile we'll--let things slide." + +He turned away and left her before she could answer, astonished but a +little touched by what she had heard. Still, the gentler impression +vanished, and when she informed Major Kinnaird of what had been said +she was once more somewhat angry with Stirling. + +"It is really useless to reason with him," she said. "The man has +wholly preposterous views." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +IDA ASSERTS HER AUTHORITY + + +It was a hot afternoon, and Ida, who was tired of fishing, sat +carefully in the middle of a fragile birch canoe. Her rod lay +unjointed beside her, and two or three big trout gleamed in the bottom +of the craft, while Weston, who knelt astern, leisurely dipped the +single-bladed paddle. Dusky pines hung over the river, wrapping it in +grateful shadow, through which the water swirled crystal clear, and +the canoe moved slowly down-stream across the slack of an eddy. +Farther out, the stream frothed furiously among great boulders and +then leaped in a wild white rush down a rapid, though here and there a +narrow strip of green water appeared in the midst of the latter. The +deep roar it made broke soothingly through the drowsy heat, and Ida +listened languidly while she watched the pines slide past. + +"I wonder what has become of the major," she said at length, with a +little laugh. "It is too hot for fine casting, and he probably has had +enough of it. After all, it really doesn't matter that the fish won't +rise." + +She saw Weston's smile, which made it evident that he was equally +content to drift quietly through the cool shadow with the sound of +frothing water in his ears. Then she wondered whether that was his +only cause for satisfaction, and recognized that, if this were not the +case, she had given him a lead. He did not, however, seem very eager +to make the most of it. + +"We might get another fish in the broken water," he suggested. "Would +you like to try?" + +"No," said Ida, "I wouldn't." + +She was a trifle displeased with him. The man, she felt, might at +least have ventured to agree with her, and there was, after all, no +reason why he should insist on reminding her, in one way or another, +that he was merely her canoe attendant, when she was willing to +overlook that fact. She had once or twice, when it was evident that he +did not know that she was watching him, seen something creep into his +eyes when he glanced in her direction. He was, however, for the most +part, almost unduly cautious in his conversation, and she now and then +wondered whether his reticence cost him anything. + +"It's a pity it isn't always summer afternoon," she said. + +Weston looked at her rather curiously, though for the next few moments +his lips remained set. There was a good deal he could have said in +that connection, but he suppressed it, as he had done more than once +already when similarly tempted. He felt that if he once allowed his +sentiments audible expression they might run away with him. + +"Oh, yes," he said, "I suppose it is." + +Ida wondered whether he was quite insensible to temptation, or +absurdly diffident, for she had now given him two openings, and he had +answered with only the tritest of remarks. She knew he was not stupid, +but there were times when, for no apparent reason, he seemed suddenly +to retire into his shell. She did not know that on these occasions he +had laid a somewhat stern restraint upon himself. + +"This land is not quite as grand as British Columbia, but I think I +almost like it better," she said. "Still, we spent a very pleasant +time in the ranges." + +"Those ranges could hardly be beaten," said Weston. + +He paddled a little more strenuously after this, and Ida abandoned the +attempt to extract any expression of opinion from him. She had made +sufficient advances, and she would go no further. + +"Well," she said, "I don't care to fish any longer. Can't we shoot +that rapid?" + +Weston's answer was given without hesitation. It requires nerve and +judgment to shoot a frothing rapid. Just then, however, the task +promised to be a relief to him. His companion was very alluring, and +very gracious now and then, and that afternoon he found it remarkably +difficult to remember that she was the daughter of his employer, and +that there were a good many barriers between her and himself. + +"Yes," he said, "I think it would be safe enough if you'll sit quite +still." + +Three or four strokes of the paddle drove the canoe out into the +stream, and after that, all he had to do was to hold her straight. +This was, however, not particularly easy, for the mad rush of water +deflected by the boulders swung her here and there, and the channel +was studded with foam-lapped masses of stone. Gazing forward, intent +and strung-up, he checked her now and then with a feathering +backstroke of the paddle, while the boulders flashed up toward her out +of the spray, and the pines ashore reeled by. The foam stood high +about the hollowed, upswept bow, and at times boiled a handbreadth +above the depressed waist, but, while the canoe swept on like a +toboggan, none came in. There was more than a spice of risk in it, and +Ida, who knew what the result would be if her companion's nerve +momentarily deserted him, now and then glanced over her shoulder. When +she did so, he smiled reassuringly, leaning forward with wet hands +clenched hard on the flashing paddle. She felt that he was to be +relied on. + +Then she abandoned herself to the exhilaration of the furious descent, +watching boulder and eddy stream by, while the spray that whirled +about her brought the crimson to her face. At length the pace grew a +little slacker, and Weston drove the canoe into an eddy where a short +rapid divided them from the smooth green strip of water that poured +over what could almost be called a fall. Then she turned toward him +with glowing face. + +"That was splendid!" she exclaimed. "Can't we go right on down the +fall?" + +Weston ran the canoe in upon the shingle before he answered her. + +"No," he said, though it cost him an effort not to do as she wished, +"I'm sorry I can't take you down." + +Ida glanced at the slide of silky green water that leaped out over a +shelf of rock and fell through a haze of spray into a whirling pool. +It did not look altogether attractive, and now that she could see it +more clearly she rather shrank from it; but she was accustomed to +having exactly what she wished, and her companion had not shown +himself quite as ready to meet her views that day as she would have +liked. An impulse that she did not altogether understand impelled her +to persist. + +"The Indians go down now and then," she said. + +"Yes," admitted Weston, "I believe they do." + +"Then why can't you?" + +Weston appeared a trifle embarrassed. + +"It wouldn't be quite safe." + +"You mean to you?" + +The man's face flushed a little. He had done a good deal of river +work, and none of his companions had accused him of lack of nerve, +but, though he had an excellent reason for knowing that the thing was +possible, he had no intention of shooting the fall. + +"Well," he said, "if you like to look at it in that way." + +Ida rose and stepped ashore without taking his proffered hand. Then +she leaned on a boulder while Weston sat still in the canoe, and for a +moment or two they looked at each other. The situation was a somewhat +novel one to the girl, for, in spite of the fact that she desired it, +the packer evidently did not mean to go. This alone was sufficient to +vex her, but there was another cause, which she subconsciously +recognized, that made her resentment deeper. It was that this +particular man should prove so unwilling to do her bidding. + +"It is quite a long way to the lake, and the trail is very rough," she +said. + +"It is," admitted Weston, who was glad to find a point on which he +could agree with her. "In fact it's a particularly wretched trail. +Still, you have managed it several times, and we have generally left +the canoe here." + +"This time," said Ida, "we will take it down to the lake. I may want +it to-morrow. You will have a difficult portage unless you go down the +fall." + +Weston recognized that this was correct enough, for the river was shut +in by low crags for the next half-mile at least, and he remembered the +trouble he had had dragging the canoe when he brought it up. He had +also had Grenfell with him then. + +"Well," he said, "if you would rather not walk back, it must be +managed." + +"I told you I wanted the canoe on the lake tomorrow," said the girl. + +Weston was quite aware that there was another canoe which would serve +any reasonable purpose already on the beach, but he merely made a +little sign of comprehension and waited for her to go. Somewhat to his +annoyance, however, she stood still, and he proceeded to drag out the +canoe. The craft was not particularly heavy, but it was long, and he +had trouble when he endeavored to get it upon his back. He had more +than once carried the Siwash river-canoes over a portage in this +fashion, but there is a trick in it, and the birch craft was larger +and of a different shape. He felt that he could have managed it had +there been nobody to watch him, but to do it while the girl noticed +every movement with a kind of sardonic amusement was quite a different +matter. He was very hot when, after a struggle of several minutes, he +got the craft upon his shoulders; and then, after staggering a few +paces, he rammed the bow of it into a tree. The shock was too much for +him, and he went down head-foremost, with the canoe upon him, and it +felt quite heavy enough then. As the man who attempts the feat has his +hands spread out above him, that fall is, as a rule, a very awkward +one. It was a moment or two before he crawled out from under the +craft, gasping, red in face, and somewhat out of temper, and he was +not consoled by his companion's laugh. + +"I am sorry you fell down, but you looked absurdly like a tortoise," +she observed. + +Weston glanced at the canoe disgustedly. + +"Miss Stirling," he said, "I can't carry this thing while you stand +there watching me. Do you mind walking on into the bush?" + +Ida was not in a very complaisant mood, and she glanced at him coldly. + +"If my presence annoys you, I can, of course, go on," she said. + +She felt that it was a little paltry when she walked on into the bush, +but her action had been dictated at least as much by curiosity as by +petulance. She fancied that she had set the man a task that was almost +beyond his strength, and, knowing that she could release him from it +at any time, she was anxious to see what he would do. She walked on +some distance, and then sat down to wait until he came up with her, +and when half an hour had slipped by and he failed to appear, she +strolled toward the edge of the wall of rock. + +The river swept furiously down a long declivity just there, and the +strip of deeper water flown which one could run a canoe was on the +opposite shore. It would, she fancied, be almost impossible to reach +it from the foot of the rock on which she stood. Then, to her +astonishment, she saw Weston letting the canoe drive down before him +close beneath the rock. There was a short rope made fast to it, and he +alternately floundered almost waist-deep through the pools behind the +craft and dragged it over some thinly-covered ledge. He was very wet, +and looked savage, for his face was set, while by the way he moved she +fancied for the first time that he had hurt himself in his fall. She +could not understand how he had got the canoe down to the river; and +for that matter Weston, who had attempted it in a fit of anger, was +never very sure. Then she became conscious of a certain compunction. +The thing, she felt, had gone quite far enough, and when he drew level +with her she called to him. + +"You needn't take any more trouble. I can go on by the trail, after +all," she said. + +Weston looked up. + +"There's no reason why you should do that," he replied. "I can't leave +the canoe here, anyway, and I can take you in a little lower down." + +He went on without waiting for an answer, and though the trail was +very rough she had no difficulty in keeping abreast of him along the +bank. Indeed, she felt that when he reached the spot where she could +join him, he would have gone quite far enough, in view of the progress +he was making. Once or twice he floundered furiously as the stream +swept his feet from under him, and there were times when it seemed to +require all his strength to prevent the canoe from being rolled over +in the white rush of water that poured across some slippery ledge; but +he slowly plodded on, and, though she did not know why, she was glad +that he did so. It was, she was conscious, not altogether because he +was executing her command. + +At length she joined him where the river flowed deep and smooth +beneath the pines again; and, when she had taken her place and he +dipped the paddle, she turned to him. + +"How did you get the canoe down to the water? The rock is very steep." + +"I'm not quite sure," answered Weston. "I think I let it slide. +Anyway, I shoved it over the edge. It went down too quickly for me to +remember exactly what it did. I'm afraid there are a few rather big +scratches on it." + +"But how did you get down?" + +The man smiled dryly. + +"I believe I slid with it." + +It occurred to Ida, who was commencing to feel a little ashamed of +having exerted her authority in such a manner, that she could afford +to be generous. + +"I'm sorry I put you to so much trouble," she said. "But why didn't +you tell me it would be difficult?" + +Weston ceased paddling a moment, and looked at her steadily. + +"It's my place to do what I'm told. Besides, you said that you didn't +want to go back by the trail." + +A slight flush crept into Ida's face. + +"Wouldn't it have been better if you had done as I wanted, and shot +the fall?" + +"No," said Weston resolutely, "it wouldn't have been safe." + +There was silence for a minute or two, and then Ida spoke again. + +"I must admit that I knew the portage would be a little difficult when +you were by yourself, but I didn't think it would give you quite as +much trouble as it has," she said. "Still, I think you should have +told me. After all"--and she seemed to have some difficulty in finding +the right words--"we have never asked you to do anything +unreasonable." + +Weston understood that what she meant was that she, at least, had not +treated him as a mere camp-packer, and, as she was quick to notice, +the blood crept into his face. Her manner, which was not conciliatory, +had, also, an unsteadying effect on him. + +"Well," he said, with a little laugh, "there are naturally two or +three of my duties which I don't find particularly agreeable, but +that's a very common thing, and you wouldn't expect me to point it +out. They're all in the bargain--and the others make up for them." + +She noticed his swift change of expression, and did not urge him to +explain what he meant. + +"Anyway, what I have to do is a good deal nicer than handling heavy +rails," he added, with a rather grim smile. + +Ida fancied that this was a clumsy attempt to qualify his previous +statement, and she said nothing further until they reached the camp. +Mrs. Kinnaird kept her occupied for the next hour or two; and that +evening when she was sitting on the veranda she heard Grenfell +speaking to his comrade not far away. + +"Why did you bring that canoe down?" he asked. + +"Miss Stirling wanted it," said Weston. + +"What did she want with it, anyway?" + +It was evident from Weston's voice that he was not anxious to pursue +that subject. + +"I don't know," he said. "It paddles easier than the other one." + +"Well," said Grenfell, "you and I are going to have trouble taking the +blame thing up the river again. It's quite different from coming down. +I suppose you shot the fall?" + +"I didn't." + +Grenfell's tone suggested astonishment. + +"You hauled the canoe over the portage! What made you do that, when +you have twice come down the fall?" + +Ida started at this, and leaned forward eagerly to catch Weston's +answer. + +"I fancied there might be a little risk in it, and I had Miss Stirling +with me." + +Ida felt her face grow warm as she remembered that she had twitted him +with having less nerve than the Indians; but Grenfell apparently was +not yet satisfied. + +"You could have sent the girl on, and then have shot the fall," he +said. "It would have saved you quite a lot of trouble." + +"Oh, yes," agreed Weston, who appeared to resent his curiosity. +"Still, I didn't." + +Grenfell moved away, and Ida recognized now that, in spite of a good +deal of provocation, Weston had acted with laudable delicacy. It was +clear that his obduracy in the matter of taking her down the fall had +been due to a regard for her safety. He had also saddled himself with +a laborious task to prevent this fact from becoming apparent. She +fancied that, had she been in his place, she could have arranged the +thing more neatly; but, after all, that did not detract from the +delicacy of his purpose, and she sat very still, with a rather curious +expression in her face, until Grenfell came to announce that supper +was ready. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE ROCK POOL + + +Ida was quietly gracious to Weston during the week that followed his +opposition to her wishes at the portage. This was not so much because +she knew she had been wrong in insisting on his taking her down the +fall, for, after all, that matter was a trifling one, but it was more +because she was pleased by the part that he had played. The man, it +seemed, had preferred to face her anger rather than to allow her to +run any personal risk, and afterward had undertaken a very laborious +task to prevent her from discovering why he had borne it. This was as +far as she would go, though she was aware that it left something to be +explained. + +In any case, there was a subtle change in her manner toward Weston. +She had never attempted to patronize him, but now she placed him +almost on the footing of an intimate acquaintance. It was done +tactfully and naturally, but Mrs. Kinnaird noticed it, and took alarm. +Why she should do so was not very clear, for Stirling certainly had +not encouraged her to put herself to any trouble on his daughter's +account, but perhaps it was because Ida was going to England, and she +had a well-favored son. It is also possible that, being a lady of +conventional ideas, she acted instinctively and could not help +herself. That a young woman of extensive possessions should encourage +a camp-packer was, from her point of view, unthinkable. + +For this reason, perhaps, it was not astonishing that there was for +some little time a quiet battle between the two. When Ida desired to +go fishing, Mrs. Kinnaird suggested something else, or contrived that +the packer should be busy. Failing this, she patiently bore +discomforts from which she usually shrank, and put her companions to a +good deal of trouble by favoring them with her company. The major +naturally did not notice what was going on, and she did not enlighten +him; nor did Weston, for that matter; while Arabella stood aside and +looked on with quiet amusement. It is probable that had Ida stooped to +diplomacy, she would have been beaten, but, as it was, her +uncompromising imperiousness stood her in good stead. + +In any case, she went up the river alone with Weston on several +occasions, in spite of Mrs. Kinnaird, and one morning the two sat +together among the boulders beside a pool not far above the fall. +There had been heavy rain, and the stream, which had risen, swirled in +an angry eddy along the rock that rose close in front of them from +that side of the pool. A great drift-log, peeled white, with only +stumps of branches left, had jammed its thinner top on a +half-submerged ledge, and the great butt, which was water borne, every +now and then smote against the rock. The pines along the river were +still wet, and the wilderness was steeped in ambrosial odors. Ida sat +with thoughtful eyes regarding the endless rows of trunks, through +which here and there a ray of dazzling sunlight struck; but her whole +attention was not occupied with that great colonnade. + +"I think you were right when you said that the bush gets hold of one," +she said. "I sometimes feel that I don't want to go back to the cities +at all." + +Weston smiled, though there was something curious in his manner. It +seemed to suggest that he was trying to face an unpleasant fact. + +"Well," he said, "I told you that would probably be the case. In one +way it's unfortunate, because I suppose you will have to go. You +belong to civilization, and it will certainly claim you." + +"And don't you?" + +Weston made a little whimsical gesture. + +"In the meanwhile, I don't quite know where I belong. It's +perplexing." + +Ida noticed the "in the meanwhile." It had, she fancied, a certain +significance, and hinted that by and by he expected to be more sure of +his station. + +"You don't wish to go back?" she asked. + +"No," said Weston decisively. "Anyway, not to the packed +boarding-house and the flour-mill. Even in winter, when these rivers +are frozen hard and the pines stand white and motionless under the +Arctic frost, this is a good deal nicer." + +"You're getting away from the point," said Ida, laughing. "I meant to +England." + +Weston leaned forward a little, looking at her with a curious +expression in his eyes. + +"For three or four months in the year England is the most beautiful +country in the world," he said. "We haven't your great pines and +foaming rivers, but, even in the land from which I come in the rugged +north, every valley is a garden. It's all so smooth and green and well +cared for. One could fancy that somebody loved every inch of it--once +you get outside the towns. I said the dales were gardens--in summer +they're more like Paradise." + +It was evident that the exile's longing for the old land was awake +within him, and Ida nodded sympathetically. + +"Won't you go on?" she begged. + +"Ah!" said Weston. "If I could make you see them--the wonderful green +of the larch woods, the bronze of the opening oaks, and the smooth +velvet pastures between the little river and the gleaming limestone at +the foot of the towering fell! All is trimmed and clipped and cared +for, down to the level hedgerows and the sod on the roadside banks, +and every here and there white hamlets, with little old-world +churches, nestle among-the trees. You see, it has grown ripe and +mellow, while your settlements are crude and new." + +The girl sat silent a brief space. She had read of the old country, +and seen pictures of it, and it seemed to her that his term, a garden, +described parts, at least, of it rather efficiently. + +Then, though he had already assured her that he meant to stay in the +bush, she wondered whether he never longed to gather a flower of that +trim garden. In fact, it suddenly became a question of some moment to +her. + +"You will go back to it some day?" + +"No," said Weston, with a little wry smile; "I don't think so. After +all, why should I?" + +Ida was sensible of a certain satisfaction, but she desired to make +more sure. + +"There must be somebody you would wish to see, or somebody who would +care to see you?" + +"Ah," said Weston, "the failures are soon forgotten over yonder. +Perhaps it's fortunate that it happens so." + +A shadow crept into his face. + +"No," he added, "unless it is as a successful man, it is scarcely +likely that I shall go back again." + +Ida glanced at him covertly, with thoughtful eyes. Though his attire +was neater than it had been when she had seen him on other occasions, +he still wore the bush packer's usual dress. There was, however, a +subtle grace in his manner, and, though he was by no means a brilliant +conversationalist, there was something in his voice and the +half-whimsical tricks of fancy which now and then characterized him +that made a wide distinction between him and the general hired hand. +Once more it seemed to her that when he had called the old country a +garden it was a somewhat apt description, for this man had evidently +been subjected to careful training and pruning in his youth. He was, +she felt, one who had grown up under a watchful eye. + +"Well," she said, with a little laugh, "perhaps you are wise. One +could almost fancy that the old land is overcrowded, and even on the +richest soil one needs light and air." + +Weston's smile showed that he could understand her train of thought. + +"I certainly think that some of us are hardier for transplanting," he +replied. "It is easier to make a vigorous growth out in the open, in +the wind and the sun. Besides, over yonder every one is pinched and +trimmed back to the same conventional pattern. They sacrifice too much +for uniformity." + +"Still," said Ida, once more harping on the idea that troubled her, +"there are only wild flowers in the wilderness. One understands that +we have nothing like your peerless English blooms." + +Weston looked at her with a little gleam in his eyes. + +"Oh," he said, "one must be honest, and even for the credit of the old +land I can't admit that. It couldn't be, when you have your sunlight +and your crystal skies. It always seems to me that strength is +essential to perfect grace, and one finds both, and sweetness +unexcelled, out here in Canada." + +He rose, and, taking up the rod, straightened the gut trace. + +"There is a big trout rising in the slack," he said. "I think you +could cast from the bank." + +Ida took the rod from him, and a little thrill of satisfaction ran +through her as she poised herself upon a jutting stone at the water's +edge. He had spoken vaguely, and she would have resented any undue +explicitness, but she had watched his face, and it had set her doubts +at rest. If any English girl had ever looked upon this man with favor, +which seemed probable, it was evident that he had long ago forgotten +her; and she fancied that if he had once been stirred to passion he +was not a man who would lightly forget. Then she set about casting for +the trout, which rose again; for, in view of her encounters with Mrs. +Kinnaird, it seemed advisable to take a few fish back with her, if +only to show how she had spent the time. + +At the third cast there was a splash and a sudden silvery gleam, and a +tightening of the line. Then the reel clinked furiously, a bright +shape flashed through the froth of the eddy, and went down, after +which the line ripped athwart the surface of the pool. Weston, who +whipped up the net, waded in knee-deep. + +"Keep the butt down!" he called. "Reel in! Take up every inch of +slack." + +The fish broke the surface and went down again, and a flush of crimson +crept into Ida's face as she stood quivering while the line went round +the pool. Then the strain eased a little, and she spun the reel, until +the fish, showing a gleaming side in the swing of the eddy, made a +rush again. + +"Hold on this time," said Weston. "It's making for the drift-log. +There are branches under it." + +The rod bent, but the moving line led straight toward the drift-log, +until, in a moment, it stopped suddenly. Ida turned to the man with a +gasp. + +"It's in under those branches," she said. + +Weston, glancing at the line, threw down the net, for, though he +scarcely had expected this, the fish evidently had not snapped the gut +trace, which was now entangled among the broken branches. + +"Give me some slack when I call," he said. + +It was rather a long jump, but he managed to reach the butt of the +log, and he scrambled along it toward its thinner top, which stretched +out along the side of the rock. There was deep water under it, and the +eddy swung fiercely toward the rapid which swept on to the fall; but +the trunk provided a tolerably safe pathway to one accustomed to the +bush, and he reached a spot where a snapped-off branch projected into +the river. Then, stripping off his jacket, he lay down and crawled +along the branch. As he lowered one arm and shoulder into the water, +it seemed to Ida that the log rolled a little, and when he raised +himself again, with the water dripping from him, she called out to +warn him. + +"The log's not safe," she said. + +It was not evident that Weston heard her through the roar of the short +rapid above the fall, for he lowered himself once more. Ida was quite +sure that the trunk tilted a little now, but when he turned a wet face +toward her, in her eagerness she forgot that the thing might be +perilous. Weston did not notice that he was disturbing the equilibrium +of the tree. + +"Let your reel run!" he cried. + +He groped around among the branches, with a good deal of the upper +part of his body under water, and when at length he emerged there was +a big, gleaming fish in one hand. Ida saw him jerk its head back, with +his fingers in its gills, and then, standing upright, he hurled it +toward her. + +"It beats the major's largest one!" he announced. + +Ida laid down her rod and scrambled toward the fish; but there was a +splashing sound as she bent over it, and when she looked around +sharply she saw the big pine slide out into the stream. Weston stood +with his back toward her, apparently gazing at the rock, until he +suddenly leaped forward and clutched at it. She could not see what he +clung to, but the surface was uneven, and he evidently had found a +foothold. Then, while a thrill of horror ran through her, she glanced +at the pine and saw it whirl out into the rapid. Twice the top of it, +which swung clear, came down with a splash, and then it plunged wildly +into spray about the fall. She did not care to watch what became of +it, and she clenched her hands hard as she looked around again. + +Weston was clinging to the rock, and his face, which was turned partly +toward her, was set and grim. In a moment he moved forward a little, +feeling with outstretched hand for a fresh hold, while one foot +splashed in the swirling water. Ida held her breath as she watched +him. He swung suddenly forward a yard or so, and then, with a wild +scramble, found a foothold. Ida, who was conscious that her heart was +beating painfully fast, wondered what kept him from falling. There was +not a crevice or a cranny that she could see; but she could not see +anything very well, except the tense figure stretched against the +stone and the set, white face. Dark pines and foaming water had faded +into insignificance. + +He moved again, and crept forward with agonizing slowness, until at +length he stopped and gazed at the wall of rock still in front of him. +That part of it was very smooth and overhung a little between where he +was and the steeply sloping strip of shingle on which the girl stood. +The stream swirled past furiously, and it was evident to Ida that if +he lost his hold it must sweep him down the rapid and over the fall. + +She was never sure how long he clung there, but his white face and the +poise of his strung-up figure impressed themselves indelibly on her +memory. Strain was expressed in every line of his body and in his +clutching hands. Then the strength and decision that was in her +asserted itself, and she overcame the numbing horror that had held her +powerless. Snatching up her rod, she turned to him resolutely. + +"You must jump!" she called. + +Weston looked at the slender point of the rod she held out, and +somewhat naturally hesitated. It was some distance from him, but in +another moment the girl was wading out from the shingle. Her skirt +trailed in the water which swirled by her, but, though the shingle +dropped steeply, it afforded her a foothold, and she stretched out the +rod a little farther. + +"Jump!" she cried commandingly. "Jump right now!" + +The man flung up his hands. As a matter of fact, there was not room +for him to jump at all. Ida braced herself for an effort as he lurched +down from the rock. There was a great splash and a wrench that almost +dragged her off her feet; then he was close beside her, waist-deep in +the stream. He did not stop, but clutched her by the shoulder and +drove her before him up the shingle. Then he sat down, gasping, while +the water ran from him; and she moved back a pace or two and leaned on +a boulder, with her face almost as white as his. + +"You must be very wet. I thought the river had us both," he said. + +Ida laughed, a rather harsh and foolish laugh, for now that the +tension had slackened she felt curiously shaken. The man turned and +looked back at the pool. + +"No," he said, "I don't think I ever could have got out of there +alone." + +Then he scrambled in a half-dazed fashion to his feet, and raised a +hand to where his hat should have been. The hat was, however, a long +way down the river by this time; and when Ida noticed his astonishment +at not finding it on his head, she once more broke into strained +laughter. After that she pulled herself together with an effort. + +"You won't mind? I can't help it," she said. "Didn't you know your hat +was gone?" + +Weston looked at her more steadily than perhaps he should have done. +There was something in her face that suggested that the last few +moments had almost unnerved her. This, as he could realize, was not +altogether unnatural; and then a sudden thrill that set his nerves +tingling ran through him, as their eyes met. The events of the past +minute had shown them, in part, at least, how they stood toward each +other, and for the moment they could not hide it. Then Weston +recovered the self-command that was rapidly deserting him. + +"I don't think that matters," he said, apparently referring to the +hat. "I want to thank you, Miss Stirling. It's quite clear that I owe +a good deal to your quickness and nerve." + +There were signs that his formal tone had cost him an effort, but the +fact that, slightly dazed as he was, he had forced himself to make it, +and had called her Miss Stirling, was significant, and Ida fell in +with the course he had adopted. It was difficult for both of them, but +she recognized that the matter must be passed over as lightly and as +speedily as possible. + +"You shouldn't have gone out on that log at all," she said. "You must +have seen it wasn't safe." + +Weston laughed, though the signs of struggle were still on his face. + +"Did you notice that?" he asked. + +"I didn't," said Ida, and then a curious little thrill of anger ran +through her. The man's attitude was only what should be expected of +him in view of the difference between their stations, but, after all, +it seemed to her that he had almost too much self-control. + +"That is, not at first," she added. "Afterward I did notice it, and I +called to you. You didn't hear?" + +"No," said Weston, "I didn't hear you." + +He looked at her steadily; and the girl, who felt the impulsive desire +to wound him too strong for her, made a little gesture. + +"I am rather ashamed of it, but the next moment I quite forgot that +there was any danger," she said. "You see I was so intent upon the +fish." + +"Then," said Weston, very quietly, "I don't think you could blame me." + +He stooped, and, picking up the rod, set about taking it to pieces +with a curious deliberation. Then he glanced at the girl. + +"I can only offer you my thanks, Miss Stirling, but they're very +sincere," he said. "Don't you think it would be better if we went back +to camp?" + +Ida rose and returned with him through the scented bush, but neither +said anything further, for the same restraint was upon both of them. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ON THE LAKE + + +It was rather late that night when Weston and Grenfell sat smoking +beside the dying fire. The breeze that came off the lake was colder +than usual, and the rest of the party had retired indoors, but one +window of the little wooden house stood open, and Miss Kinnaird's +voice drifted softly out of it. She was evidently singing a selection +from an opera. Grenfell, who lay with his back against one of the +hearth-logs, appeared to be listening critically. + +"It's pretty and nothing more," he said. "That girl's too diffuse--she +spreads herself. She might have painted if she'd been poor; though +that's not a sure thing either." + +"Why isn't it?" asked Weston, who had, however, no great interest in +the matter. + +"She has too level a head," Grenfell said. "It's as fatal in art as it +is in some professions. You have to concentrate, hang on to the one +thing, and give yourself to it. Miss Kinnaird couldn't do that. She +must stop and count the cost. To make anything of this life one now +and then must shut one's eyes to that. There generally has to be a +sacrifice." + +He broke off, and looked at his companion rather curiously. + +"The other girl could make it. She wouldn't ask whether it were worth +while." + +Weston was a trifle startled. He had that very day seen something in +Ida Stirling's eyes that seemed to bear out what his comrade +suggested. It had been there for only a moment, which he felt might +have been fateful to both of them, and he knew that it was beyond his +power to analyze all the qualities that the look had suggested. It +had, however, hinted at a courage sufficient to set at defiance +conventions and the opinions of her friends, and at the capacity to +make a costly sacrifice. + +"You seem sure of that?" + +"Well," said Grenfell, reflectively, "I think I am. You see in one or +two respects I'm like Miss Stirling." + +"You like Miss Stirling!" + +There was an indignant protest in Weston's voice which brought a +twinkle into Grenfell's watery eyes. + +"Just so," he said. "When I know what I want the most, I set about +getting it. I guess that's sense--sense that's way beyond prudence. +What one wants is, in a general way, what one likes, which is a very +different thing from what's good for one. It's very seldom that one +finds the latter nice. Get these distinctions?" + +"I can't see the drift of them," said Weston, impatiently. + +"It may strike you as we proceed. If you stop to consider whether it's +judicious to reach out for the thing you want, you generally end by +not getting it or anything else. Isn't it better to clutch with +courage, even if you have to face the cost?" + +"I'm not sure," said Weston, dryly. "Is it quite impossible to like a +thing it is desirable that you should have?" + +"One doesn't often like it," explained Grenfell, with a grin. "Even +when one does, the same principle applies. As a rule, one can't get it +without a sacrifice." + +"That's the principle you acted on?" + +Grenfell spread out his hands. + +"I guess it is," he said. "In my case the thing I wanted wasn't good +for me. I had to choose between my profession and whisky, and I did. +Anyway, I've had the whisky." + +Weston sat thoughtfully silent a minute or two. It seemed to him that +while the result of the course his comrade advocated might well prove +to be disastrous, as it had certainly done in his particular case, +there was a warranty for it. If it were true that practically nothing +could be obtained without cost, it was clear that the excess of +prudence which shrank from incurring the latter could lead only to +aridity of life. The thoughtless courage which snatched at what was +offered seemed a much more fruitful thing, though one might afterward +bear the smart as well as enjoy the sweet. To accomplish or obtain +anything one must at least face a risk. He remembered how, when he +clung hesitating to the slippery rock, Ida Stirling had bidden him +jump. He was, however, not a moralist, but a man with a simple code +which, a few hours ago, had proved singularly difficult to adhere to. +He had then seen something in Ida Stirling's eyes that set his nerves +tingling, but he could not take advantage of the momentary reaction of +relief at his escape. He wondered, though, why Grenfell had spoken as +he had, until the latter turned to him again. + +"You mentioned that you nearly pulled Miss Stirling in when she held +out that rod," he said. "You didn't notice that she showed any signs +of letting it go?" + +"I don't think she did." + +"You don't think so!" laughed Grenfell. "That girl would have gone +right down the fall before she let you go. She's the kind that sees +things through. I wonder whether she said anything in particular +afterward?" + +Weston's face hardened as he looked at him out of half-closed eyes. + +"She did not. What makes you suggest it?" + +"Well," said Grenfell, reflectively, "she's flesh and blood like the +rest of us. She's also a girl with courage enough not to hesitate. I'm +not sure"--and he spread out his hands--"that I couldn't have made +better use of your opportunities." + +Weston said nothing, though he was hot with anger; and just then +Kinnaird, who appeared in the lighted doorway of the house, moved in +their direction. He stopped close beside them. + +"I think I would better tell you now that we have decided to leave +this place early next week," he said. "You can see about getting the +surplus stores and some of the baggage down the lake to-morrow." + +Weston fancied that he looked at him rather hard; but, though the +unexpected news had filled him with dismay, he sat very still until +Kinnaird, who said nothing further, turned away. Then Grenfell looked +up with a smile. + +"The major," he said, "has perhaps had sufficient fishing, or his +precipitation may be due to the fact that Mrs. Kinnaird is not in some +respects a friend of yours. I'm rather surprised that Miss Stirling, +who must have known it, mentioned the other little matter. Anyway, as +you may feel inclined to point out, that's not my business. The +question is what we're going to do now." + +"Look again for that mine of yours," said Weston, quietly. + +Grenfell made a little sign of comprehension. + +"Well," he said, "we'll go. What's more, I know that one of us is +going to locate that quartz some day." + +He spoke as with conviction, and then, lighting his pipe, slowly +strolled away; but Weston sat beside the sinking fire for another hour +or so. It was clear to him that he must find Grenfell's lost mine. + +It was two days later when he next had any speech with Ida Stirling, +and then, though he did not know that Mrs. Kinnaird had done her +utmost to prevent it, they were crossing the lake alone in the +sailboat. The boat was running smoothly before a little favoring +breeze, and Ida sat at the tiller, looking out upon the shining water. +They had not spoken since they left the beach, but by and by she +turned toward Weston. + +"I am glad it is so fine an evening since it's scarcely likely that I +shall have another sail," she said. "We have decided to leave early on +Monday." + +Weston nodded. It was the first time she had mentioned their departure +to him, and he recognized that unless he were cautious it might prove +a dangerous subject. + +"You are going to Montreal?" he inquired. + +"In the first place. However, we are going to England in a week or +two." + +Though he was on his guard, she saw him start, but he stooped and +coiled up one of the halyards before he answered her. + +"You will, of course, be there some time?" + +"Six months at least, perhaps longer." + +She watched him quietly, but he sat very still with the rope in his +hand. + +"Well," he said, "I think you will like it. You will be in London, I +suppose?" + +Ida felt vaguely sorry for him. Though he had said it was scarcely +probable that he would go back to it, she knew that he had not +forgotten the land from which he was exiled. Indeed, a certain +wistfulness in his eyes suggested that he still thought of it with the +exile's usual tenderness. She was going to take her place in the world +to which she felt reasonably certain he had once belonged, while he +swung the ax or plied the shovel beside some western railroad track; +though she did not mean for him to do the latter if she could help it, +of which, however, she was far from sure. + +"Yes," she said. "Still we shall spend some time at the house in the +north of England you once heard Major Kinnaird mention." + +There was no doubt that this shot had reached its mark, for she saw +his little abrupt movement. Then he turned toward her fully, which he +had not done for the last minute or two. + +"Miss Stirling," he said, with a faint flush in his face, "I am going +to ask you a rather curious thing. If you meet any of the people about +there, I should rather you did not mention my name, though, of course, +it is scarcely likely that you would find any reason to do so." + +He broke off, and hesitated a moment. + +"You see, I know the place." + +"Ah," said Ida, with no sign of surprise. "What were you doing there?" + +The man smiled rather bitterly. + +"I was something similar to head gamekeeper. It wasn't an occupation I +cared much about." + +"You got tired of it?" + +"Anyway, that wasn't why I gave it up. I was turned out. Fired, they +call it in this country." + +Ida for a moment was almost angry with him. She felt, simply because +he had said it, that this must be correct as far as it went, but she +was equally sure that he could have gone a good deal further. She was, +of course, aware that there were a good many men in Canada whose +absence from the old country was not regretted by their friends, and +she was a little hurt that he did not seem to shrink from the +possibility of her setting him down as one of them. She could not know +that he was in a very bitter mood just then. + +"Well," she said, "as you say, it is not likely that I shall have any +occasion to mention you, and I certainly won't do it casually. You +must, however, be content with that." + +"Yes," said Weston. "After all, it really doesn't matter very much +anyway." + +Ida let the matter drop, for she had something else to say, and it had +been in her mind rather often lately. + +"When we leave here you will be without an occupation, won't you?" she +asked; and then proceeded somewhat hastily without waiting for him to +answer. "Now, you have done a good deal to make the time pass +pleasantly both here and in British Columbia." + +"It did pass pleasantly?" + +The question was suggestively abrupt, and Ida saw that, as happened +now and then, the man was for the moment off his guard. This, however, +did not displease her. + +"Of course," she said. "For that matter it couldn't have been very +burdensome to you." + +Weston laughed in a rather curious fashion, and she saw the blood +creep into his face. + +"I'm glad you have enjoyed it," he said. "It seems unfortunately +certain that I shall not have another time like this." + +Ida was aware, of course, that the real man had spoken then, but in +another moment he once more, as she sometimes described it to herself, +drew back into his shell. + +"I interrupted what you were going to say," he observed, with a +deprecatory gesture. + +"It's very simple," said the girl. "If my father or any one else makes +you an offer, I should like you to take it. In one sense, chopping +trees and shoveling gravel on the track leads to nothing." + +The flush Ida had already noticed grew a little plainer in the man's +face, but he smiled. + +"I'm afraid I can't promise to do that," he said. "You see," and he +seemed to search for words, "there is a good deal of the vagabond in +me. I never could stand the cities, and that ought to be +comprehensible to you when you have seen the wilderness." + +"In summer," said the girl dryly. "Isn't it very different during the +rest of the year?" + +"Oh," declared Weston, "it's always good in the bush, even when the +pines are gleaming spires of white, and you haul the great logs out +with the plodding oxen over the down-trodden snow. There is nothing +the cities can give one to compare with the warmth of the log shack at +night when you lie, aching a little, about the stove, telling stories +with the boys, while the shingles snap and crackle under the frost. +Perhaps it's finer still to stand by with the peevie, while the great +trunks go crashing down the rapids with the freshets of the spring; +and then there's the still, hot summer, when the morning air's like +wine, and you can hear the clink-clink of the drills through the sound +of running water in the honey-scented shade, and watch the new wagon +road wind on into the pines. You have seen the big white peaks gleam +against the creeping night." + +It was evident that he was endeavoring to find cause for contentment +with the life before him, but Ida fancied that he wished to avoid the +question she had raised. + +"You forget to mention the raw hands and the galled shoulders, as well +as the snow-slush and the rain. However, that's not quite the point. +As I said, all that leads to nothing. Are you too proud to take a +trifling favor because it comes through me?" + +Weston met her gaze, and there was a grave forcefulness in his manner +which almost astonished her. He evidently for once had suffered his +usual self-restraint to relax, and she felt it was almost a pity that +he had not done so more frequently. + +"Miss Stirling," he said, "you are, as it happens, one of the few +people from whom I could not take a favor of that kind." + +She understood him, and for a moment a flicker of color crept into her +cheek. It was, she felt, a clean pride that had impelled him to the +speech. There were, she admitted, no benefits within her command that +she would not gladly have thrust upon him; but, for all that, she +would not have had him quietly acquiesce in them. Perhaps she was +singular in this, but her forebears had laid the foundations of a new +land's future with ax and drill, clearing forest and breaking prairie +with stubborn valor and toil incredible. They had flung their wagon +roads over thundering rivers and grappled with stubborn rock, and +among them the soft-handed man who sought advancement through a +woman's favor was, as a rule, regarded with quiet scorn. She said +nothing, however, and it was a few moments before Weston looked at her +again. + +"Anyway," he said, "I couldn't do what you suggest. I am going back +into the ranges with Grenfell to look for the mine." + +"Ah," said Ida, "you haven't given up that notion yet?" + +The man smiled grimly. + +"I am keener about it than ever. Perhaps it's somewhat curious, but I +seem certain that we shall strike that quartz lead one of these days." + +Ida was glad to let the conversation take this new turn, for she +understood his eagerness now, and she had felt that they were skirting +a crisis each time she had talked with him of late. She had the +courage to make a sacrifice, and, indeed, had the occasion arisen, +would probably have considered none too costly; but it seemed due to +him as well as to her that he should at least make some strenuous +effort to pull down the barriers between them. + +"Well," she said quietly, "it is very curious that you discovered no +trace of it. You said you found Grenfell's partner lying dead upon the +range, and, as their provisions were running out when he left the +lake, he could not have gone very far. Was it a big lake?" + +"It couldn't have been. Grenfell said he walked round it in a couple +of hours." + +Ida looked thoughtful. + +"Still, when you had the spot where you came upon Verneille to work +from, you should have seen it from one of the spurs of the range." + +"Yes," admitted Weston, "that seems reasonably evident, though we +certainly saw no sign of it." He broke off and laughed. "The whole +thing sounds crazy, doesn't it? Still, as I said, I believe we are +going to be successful." + +He turned away and busied himself with some of the gear; and neither +of them said anything further until they ran into the bay before the +house. Three or four days later Weston conveyed the party down the +lake to the carriage that was waiting to take them to the station; and +Ida laid her hand in his for only a moment before she drove away. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +SCARTHWAITE-IN-THE-FOREST + + +Ida Stirling had spent some time in England when, one autumn evening, +she descended the wide oak staircase of Scarthwaite Hall at +Scarthwaite-in-the-Forest. There was no forest in the vicinity, though +long ago a certain militant bishop had held by kingly favor the right +of venery over the surrounding moors, and now odd wisps of straggling +firs wound up the hollows that seamed them here and there. Nobody +seemed to know who first built Scarthwaite Hall, though many a +dalesman had patched it afterward and pulled portions of it down. It +was one of the ancient houses, half farm and half stronghold, which +may still be found in the north country. They were, until a few +decades ago, usually in possession of the Statesmen who worked their +own land. The Statesmen have gone--economic changes vanquished +them--but the houses they inherited from the men who bore pike and bow +at Bannockburn and Flodden are for the most part standing yet. They +have made no great mark in history, but their stout walls have time +and again been engirdled by Scottish spears, and after such occasions +there was not infrequently lamentation by Esk and Liddell. + +It was clear that Scarthwaite Hall had been built in those days of +foray, for one little, ruined, half-round tower rose from the brink of +a ravine whose sides the hardiest of moss-troopers could scarcely have +climbed. A partly filled-in moat led past the other, and in between +stretched the curtain wall which now formed the facade of the house +itself. Its arrow slits had been enlarged subsequently into narrow, +stone-ribbed windows, and a new entrance made, while the ancient +courtyard was girt with decrepit stables and barns. Most of the deep, +winding dale still belonged to it, but the last Weston had signally +failed to make a living out of it, or to meet his debts. He lived in a +little town not far away, and let Scarthwaite for the shooting when he +could, which explains how Major Kinnaird had taken it. + +Ida looked about her as she came down the stairway. It led into a +dark-paneled, stone-arched hall, which, since habitable space was +rather scarce at Scarthwaite, served as general living-room. A fire +was burning in the big, ancient hearth, and a handful of people were +scattered here and there, waiting for dinner, which should have been +ready a few minutes earlier. Kinnaird, who appeared a trifle +impatient, was standing near his wife and a couple of shooting men, +and his daughter was talking to one or two of his neighbors. Ida +smiled as one of the latter glanced up at her, and she moved toward +him when she reached the foot of the stairway. Ainslie, the owner of +some quarries in the vicinity, was a middle-aged man whom she had met +once or twice before. + +When she had greeted him, she stood still a moment or two, listening +to the murmurs of general conversation. Then she saw Kinnaird, who was +standing not far from her, take out his watch. + +"It's a little too bad of Weston. I shouldn't have waited for anybody +else," he said. "As it is, I suppose we'll have to give him a minute +or two longer." + +The remark was evidently overheard, as perhaps Kinnaird intended. One +of the others laughed. + +"Ralph Weston was never punctual in his life," he said. + +"Considering everything," observed one of the women standing near Ida, +"it is rather curious that Weston should have promised to come at all. +It must be a trifle embarrassing to dine at one's own place as another +man's guest." + +"Oh," said the man beside her, "Weston would go anywhere for a good +dinner and a good glass of wine." + +Ida, as it happened, had not heard what guests Mrs. Kinnaird had +expected, and she started at the name. It was a moment or two later +when she turned to her companion. + +"This house belongs to the man they seem to be waiting for?" she +asked. + +Ainslie nodded. + +"Yes," he said, "I suppose it does." + +"Then why doesn't he live in it?" + +"It takes a good deal to keep up a place of this kind, and, until +Major Kinnaird came, it's some time since anybody seriously attempted +it." + +"Ah!" said Ida. "Mr. Weston's means are insufficient?" + +"It's a tolerably open secret. There are a good many people similarly +situated. A small and badly-kept estate is not a lucrative +possession." + +"Then why don't they keep it up efficiently?" + +"Now," said Ainslie, "you're getting at the root of the matter. In my +opinion it's largely a question of character. In fact, after the +glimpses I've had of the wheat-growers in Dakota, Minnesota, and +western Canada, it seems to me that if our people were content to live +and work at home as they do out yonder they would acquire at least a +moderate prosperity. Still, I'm rather afraid that wouldn't appeal to +some of them. As it is, their wants are increasing, and the means of +gratifying them steadily going down." + +"All this applies to Mr. Weston in particular?" + +"I don't think it would be a breach of confidence if I admitted that +it does. Perhaps, however, I'm a little prejudiced. Weston doesn't +like me. He blames me for encouraging his son in what he calls his +'iconoclastic' notions." + +Ida, who was becoming interested, smiled. + +"After all," she said, "the comparison isn't very unfavorable to the +son. I believe the original iconoclasts were the image-breakers in +Byzantium." + +"Were they? I didn't know it," said Ainslie. "It's a moral certainty +that Weston didn't, either. In fact, I've no doubt he fancies that +Darwin and Bradlaugh, and he'd certainly include Cobden, invented +them. Anyway, the lad wasn't very much of an iconoclast. He believed +in his images, which were not the same as those his father worshiped; +and all he wanted was to see them work. I think it hurt him when they +didn't, or, at least, when they didn't appear to." + +"Ah," said Ida, "that's rather too involved for me." + +"Well," returned her companion, "we'll leave Weston out. I'm not sure +about what he believes in, and it's probable that, he doesn't know +himself, except that it's everything as it used to be. His wife was +High Church, with altruistic notions, and it's no secret that she made +things rather uncomfortable for her husband; but when she took the lad +in hand she succeeded perhaps too well. You see, he wanted to apply +her principles; and altruism leads to trouble when its possessor comes +across formulas that don't stand for anything." + +Just then there was a rattle of wheels outside, and a minute or two +later a little full-fleshed man, with a heavy face, in conventional +dress, entered the hall. He greeted those who stood about, when he had +shaken hands with Kinnaird. + +"Sorry I'm a little behind," he apologized. "Had to post over. I told +Walters at the George to keep me the black mare. Instead, he let that +waterworks chief navvy fellow have her. The horse he gave me would +hardly face Scarside Rise." + +One or two of the guests smiled, for the navvy in question was a +rather famous engineer who had had a difference of opinion with Weston +over certain gravel he desired to quarry on the Scarthwaite estate. +Then Mrs. Kinnaird stepped forward, and they went in to dinner. + +It was not yet dark outside, but the table was lighted; and Ida, who +sat not far from Weston, watched him closely. She had at first been +startled by the likeness between him and the man she had met in +Canada, but she was now conscious of an increasing dissimilarity. +There was a suggestion of grossness in the face of Major Kinnaird's +guest, which had certainly not been a characteristic of Weston the +packer. The older man's expression was petulant and arrogant; that of +the one who had served her as camp attendant had been, as a rule, +good-humoredly whimsical. Nor did she like the half-contemptuous +inattention that Weston displayed when one or two of the others +addressed him. In several cases he merely looked up and went on with +his dinner as though it were too much trouble to answer. Ida felt +reasonably sure that his manners would not have been tolerated in most +of the primitive logging camps of western Canada. It became evident, +however, that there were topics in which he took some interest, when a +man who sat near turned to him. + +"We were in the meadows by Ghyllfoot this afternoon, and they were +looking very sour and rushy," he said. "They were drained once, +weren't they?" + +"They were," replied Weston, sharply. "It's stiff land. In my father's +time, Little used to grow good wheat there. Still, even tile drains +won't last forever. The soil gets in." + +"You're correct about the wheat," said another man. "Little's nephew +still talks about it. They used to grind it at the Ramside mills. +Wouldn't it be worth while to have the meadows redrained, if only for +the grass?" + +Ida, who was watching him, fancied that this was a sore point with +Weston, for he momentarily forgot his dinner. + +"No," he answered curtly. "I took some trouble to make young Little +understand it when he came to me with a nonsensical proposition not +long ago. Like the rest of them, he's always wanting something. I +asked him where he thought the money was coming from." + +Ida was not surprised at this, though she knew that in western Canada +the smaller settlers as a rule stripped themselves of every comfort, +and lived in the most grim simplicity, that they might have more to +give the land. + +Then, as the man did not answer, Weston solemnly laid down his fork, +with the manner of one making a painful sacrifice. + +"There is a good deal of nonsense talked about farming in these days," +he observed authoritatively. "You can put a fortune into drains and +fences and buildings, but it's quite another matter to get two or +three per cent, upon it back. In the old days I hadn't a horse in the +stables worth less than sixty guineas, and my father thought nothing +of giving twice as much. The other things were to match." He looked +down the table with a flush of indignation in his heavy face. "Now, +Walters at the George gives a navvy the horse I hired. Still, what can +you expect when they pile up the taxes on us, and open new doors +continually to the foreigners? We grew wheat at Scarthwaite, and it +was ground at Ramside mill. The last time I looked in, Harvey had his +stores full of flour from Minneapolis and Winnipeg. I asked him +whether he didn't feel ashamed of having any hand in that kind of +thing." + +Ida could not check a smile. In Weston's case, at least, the reason +why western wheat had displaced the local product was tolerably plain. +This full-fleshed man differed, she fancied, in most essentials from +the lean farmers who drove the half-mile furrows, or ripped up their +patches of virgin sod with plodding oxen on the vast expanses of the +prairie. While he indulged his senses and bought sixty-guinea horses, +they rose at four or earlier, and, living on pork and flour and green +tea, worked in grim earnest until it was dark. Blizzard and hail and +harvest frost brought them to the verge of ruin now and then but could +not drive them over it. They set their lips, cut down the grocery +bill, and, working still harder, went on again. A good many of them +had, as she knew, come from England. + +Then Weston appeared to remember his dinner, and made a little vague +gesture which seemed to indicate that there was no more to be said. + +"I don't want to hear about drains and deeper tillage while we let +every foreigner pour his wheat and chilled beef into our market. It's +nonsense," he asserted. + +Some one started another topic; and an hour or so later most of the +little party strolled out on the terrace in front of the house. It was +almost dark now, but the evening was no more than pleasantly cool, and +Ida sat down on an old stone seat. + +Scarthwaite faced toward the west, and she looked out across a deep, +green valley toward the sweep of upland and heather moor that cut +black and solemn against a paling saffron glow. It was very still, +though now and then a bleating of sheep rang sharply out of the wisps +of mist that streaked the lower meadows. Perhaps it was the stillness +or the scent of the firs that climbed the hollow of the ghyll behind +the house that reminded Ida of the man who had strolled with her +through the shadow of the giant redwoods of the Pacific Slope. In any +case, she was thinking of him when Arabella Kinnaird stopped for a +moment at her side and glanced toward Weston, who stood not far away. + +"You heard that man's name. Did you notice a resemblance to anybody we +have met?" she inquired. + +"Yes," said Ida. "Of course, it may be accidental." + +Her companion laughed. + +"I don't think it is. In view of what I once told you on the subject, +it's a matter I mean to investigate." + +She moved away; but it was Ida who first was afforded an opportunity +of deciding the question, for a few minutes later Ainslie strolled +toward her. When he sat down beside her, she indicated the waste, of +climbing pasture, which ran up, interspersed with gorse bushes and +clumps of heather, to the dusky moor. + +"Not a sign of cultivation," she said. "I suppose that grass is never +broken up? How much foundation is there for Mr. Weston's views?" + +Ainslie laughed. + +"I'm afraid I'm hardly competent to decide, but there are people who +agree with him. Still, I think it's reasonably certain that a good +deal of the higher land that now carries a few head of sheep would +grow oats and other things. It's largely a question of economics. +Somebody would have to spend a good deal of money and labor on it +first, and the result, which wouldn't be very apparent for two or +three years, would be a little uncertain then. It depends on how much +the man who undertook it wanted back to make the thing worth while." + +"They are content with food, and sometimes very indifferent shelter, +in western Canada." + +"There," said Ainslie, "you have the thing in a nutshell. You have, no +doubt, formed some idea of Weston's wants, which are rather numerous. +In fact, some of us seem to consider it the correct thing to cultivate +them. The more wants you have the greater man you are." + +Ida smiled a little as she remembered a man of considerable importance +in the wheat-lands of Assiniboia, whom she had last seen sitting, clad +in blue shirt and very old trousers, on a huge machine which a double +span of reeking horses hauled through the splendid grain. He had +driven it since sunrise, and it was dusk of evening then, and his +wants were, as she knew, remarkably simple. He bore his share of the +burden under a burning sun, but it seemed to her that, had Weston been +in his place, he would have ridden around that farm with a gloved hand +on his hip, and would have raised it only now and then, imperiously, +to direct the toilers. Then she thought of another man, who was like +him in some respects, and was then, in all probability, plodding +through the lonely bush. + +"You mentioned a son," she said. "What became of him?" + +"He went out to Canada. Quarreled with his father. As I believe I +suggested, the lad was at heart a rebel." Ainslie smiled rather dryly. +"A good many of us are. He wouldn't see that his mother's ideas were +apt to get him into trouble when he tried to apply them." + +Ida sat silent for a few moments. There was no longer any doubt in her +mind that Weston who had turned his back on Scarthwaite was identical +with Weston the camp-packer. + +"Do you remember what they quarreled over?" she asked at length. + +"Yes," said Ainslie, who was inclined to wonder at her interest in the +subject, "it was water-finding. It's a thing of which you probably +have never heard." + +"I have," said Ida. "Won't you go on?" + +"Well," continued Ainslie, "there was a tenant on this estate who was +rather more badly off than the rest of them. He had a piece of upland +with rock under it, and in a dry season--though we don't often get +one--it was with the greatest trouble he got water enough for his +stock. He asked young Weston to find him a likely spot to drive a +well. The lad was walking over one parched meadow with the hazel twig +in his hand, when his father came upon the procession--everybody +belonging to the farm was out with him. Weston, I heard, went purple +when he saw what was going on, and, from his point of view, his +indignation was perhaps comprehensible. His son was openly, before one +of the tenants and a parcel of farm-hands, making use of a +superstitious device in which no sane person could believe. Weston, as +I remember it, compared him to a gipsy fortune-teller, and went on +through the gamut of impostor, mountebank and charlatan, before he +commanded him to desist on the moment. I don't quite know what came +next, though something was said about a lifted riding-crop, but within +the week Clarence started for Canada." + +"He abandoned the attempt to find water?" + +Ainslie smiled. + +"The farmer dug a well in that meadow, and I believe he uses it still. +He held a lease, and Weston couldn't get rid of him." + +He looked rather hard at Ida, and was slightly astonished at the +sparkle in her eyes. + +"I'm afraid I've been somewhat talkative," he said. + +"No," Ida assured him, and he saw that she was stirred. "Thank you for +telling me." + +He moved away; and by and by Arabella Kinnaird and one of the other +women approached the seat. Arabella left her companion a moment, and +made a little whimsical gesture as she met Ida's gaze. + +"I've been throwing away a good many blandishments on Weston," she +observed. "He appears prudently reticent on the subject of his +relations, and if he has any in Canada, it's evident that he isn't +proud of them. Still, I haven't abandoned the amiable intention of +extorting a little more information from him." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +WESTON'S ADVOCATE + + +A week had passed when Weston, who apparently had some business with +Kinnaird, drove over to Scarthwaite again. This time he brought a +daughter, who, it appeared, lived for the most part with some more +prosperous members of the family. Arriving a little before lunch, they +remained until the evening. As it happened, Miss Weston displayed what +she evidently considered a kindly interest in Ida, and graciously +patronized her as a stranger and a Colonial, who was necessarily +ignorant of a good many of the little amenities of life in the old +country. + +Her intentions were no doubt laudable, but the methods she adopted to +set the stranger at her ease were not those most likely to endear the +insular English to their cousins across the Atlantic. Ida, to begin +with, had not only a spice of temper but also no great reverence for +forms and formulas, and the people that she was accustomed to meeting +were those who had set their mark upon wide belts of forest and long +leagues of prairie. At first she was quietly amused by the patronage +of a woman whose right to bestow it consisted apparently in an +acquaintance with English people of station, and some proficiency at +bridge; but by and by her condescension grew wearisome, and finally +exasperating. Miss Weston, however, could not have been expected to +recognize this. She was a tall, pale woman, with a coldly formal +manner and some taste in dress. + +There were several other guests in the house, and the party spent most +of the hot afternoon about the tennis net and lounging under the +shadow of a big copper beech on the lawn. Once when Miss Weston left +her to play in a set at tennis, Arabella Kinnaird leaned over the back +of Ida's chair. + +"You seem to have made rather a favorable impression upon Julia +Weston, and, as a rule, she's unapproachable," she said, with a +mischievous smile. + +Ida's eyebrows straightened, which, to those acquainted with her, was +a rather ominous sign. + +"Won't you keep that woman away from me?" she begged. "I don't want to +be rude, but if I see very much more of her, I may not be able to help +it. In one way, I'm sorry I met her. You're not all like that." + +"Well," said Arabella, "perhaps it is a pity. There really are some of +us to whom you could talk without having your pet illusions about the +old country shattered. In fact, I can think of one or two women about +here who would strengthen them. Can't you, Mr. Ainslie?" + +Ainslie, who was standing near them, smiled. + +"Oh, yes," he said. "Unfortunately, however, they are, as a rule, +retiring. It's the other kind that is usually in evidence. Do you feel +very badly disappointed with us, Miss Stirling?" + +"No," replied Ida, with a thoughtfulness which brought the smile more +plainly into his eyes. "In fact, I want to think well of you. It's a +thing we wouldn't quite admit, but at bottom I believe we all do." + +Then she turned to Arabella. + +"By the way, what has become of Mr. Weston?" + +"He is shut up with my father in the library; and there are reasons +for supposing that his business requires the consumption of a +considerable quantity of soda and whisky. The major, I am afraid, will +be a trifle difficult to get on with this evening. As a matter of +fact, he isn't used to it, though he was, one understands, rather +popular at the mess table. That's a trifle significant, considering +what is said about us, isn't it, Mr. Ainslie?" + +"Ah," said Ainslie, "we're a maligned people; and the pity of it is +that it's our own people who give us away. You don't believe in doing +that in the Colonies?" + +"No," laughed Ida, "we are rather fond of making it clear that we are +quite above the average as a people. However, it's excusable, perhaps, +for, after all, there's a germ of truth in it. I think Miss Kinnaird +will agree with that." + +Arabella leaned a little farther over her chair. + +"I'll leave you to talk it out with Mr. Ainslie. But there's another +matter. Does Miss Weston recall to you anybody we have met?" + +"No," said Ida, with a somewhat incautious decisiveness. "If you mean +our camp-packer, she certainly does not." + +Arabella understood this to mean that any comparison of the kind +suggested would be derogatory to the packer, which was somewhat +significant. + +"Well," she said, "there is at least a physical resemblance, and +though I haven't probed the matter very deeply, yet I've not abandoned +it." + +Then she laughed and turned to Ainslie. + +"You and Miss Stirling can thrash out the question." + +She strolled away, and Ainslie watched Ida, whose eyes were following +Miss Weston at the tennis net. + +"Yes," he remarked, "we play these games rather well; and, after all, +is there any reason why we shouldn't? There are a good many people in +this country who don't consider them as of the first importance." + +"Oh," said Ida, "I'm really not looking for faults. Why should you +suspect me of such an unpleasant attitude?" + +"Well," observed her companion reflectively, "I can't help thinking +that we now and then give our visitors wrong impressions by showing +them the wrong things. Personally, I should recommend an inspection of +our mines and mills and factories. Besides, one has rather a fancy +that some of our young men, who were brought up, we'll say, to play +tennis well, have shown that they can do rather more than that in +western Canada." + +Ida's eyes softened a little as she recalled a weary, gray-faced man +limping back up the hillside one eventful morning; but the turn that +the conversation had taken had its effect on her, and that effect was +to have its result. Like others born in the newer lands, she believed +first of all in practical efficiency, and she had learned during +journeys made with her father that the man with few wants and many +abilities, or indeed the man with only one of the latter strenuously +applied to a useful purpose, is the type in most favor in western +Canada. Graces do not count for much in the west, nor does the +assumption of ability carry a man as far as it sometimes does in older +communities. As Stirling had once said, when they want a chopper in +that country they make him chop, and facility in posing is of very +little service when one is called on to grapple with virgin forest or +stubborn rock. + +Young as Ida was, she had a grip of essential things, and a dislike of +shams. It generally happened, too, that, when she felt strongly on any +subject, she sooner or later expressed her thoughts in forcible words; +and before that afternoon was over she and Arabella Kinnaird between +them disturbed the composure of more than one of Mrs. Kinnaird's +guests. + +Tea was being laid out on a little table beneath the beech when Weston +strolled across the lawn. He was redder in face than when Ida had last +seen him, and a trifle heavier of expression. Pushing unceremoniously +past two of the women, he dropped into a basket-chair, which bent +under him, and glanced around at the others with coldly, assertive +eyes. Ida, watching him, became conscious of a sense of repulsion and +indignation. This arrogant, indulgent, useless man had, it seemed, not +the manners of a western ranch-hand. He accepted a cup of tea from +Mrs. Kinnaird with an ungraciousness which aroused Ida to downright +anger; and shortly afterward he contrived to spill a quantity of the +liquid upon Arabella's dress, for which he offered no excuses, though +he blamed the narrow-bottomed cup. Then some one, who of course could +not foresee the result, asked Arabella if she would show them some of +her Canadian sketches. + +Miss Kinnaird made no objection, and when, soon after the tea was +cleared away, the easel she sent for had been set up in the shadow of +the beech, she displayed on it several small canvases and water-color +drawings. There were vistas of snow mountains, stretches of frothing +rivers, and colonnades of towering firs, until at last she laid a +canvas on the easel. + +"This," she said, "is, I think, the best figure drawing I ever did." + +Ida, leaning forward in her chair, felt the blood creep into her face. +There was no doubt that the sketch was striking. It showed a man +standing tensely poised, with a big, glinting ax in his hand. He was +lean and lithely muscular, and his face was brown and very grim; but +the artist had succeeded in fixing in its expression the elusive but +recognizable something which is born of restraint, clean living, and +arduous physical toil. It is to be seen in the eyes of those who, +living in Spartan simplicity, make long marches with the dog-sledges +in the Arctic frost, drive the logs down roaring rivers, or toil +sixteen hours daily under a blazing sun in the western harvest field. +In all probability it was as plainly stamped on the honest countenance +of many an unconsidered English Tommy who plodded doggedly forward +with the relief columns across the dusty veldt. Drivers of great +expresses, miners, quarrymen, now and then wear that look. Springing, +as it does, not from strength of body, but from the subjugation of the +latter and all fleshy shrinking and weariness, it links man with the +greatness of the unseen. + +There was only the one figure silhouetted against long rows of dusky +pines, but the meaning of the way in which the hard, scarred hands +were clenched on the big ax was very plain, and Ida could fill in from +memory the form of the big chopper and the clusters of expectant men. + +"Excellent!" said one of the guests. "That fellow means to fight. He's +in hard training, too, and that has now and then a much bigger effect +than the toughening of his muscles upon the man who submits himself to +it. Is it a portrait or a type?" + +The speaker was from the metropolis, and while Arabella hesitated, Ida +answered him with a suggestive ring in her voice. + +"It's both, one should like to think," she said. "The man came from +England; and if you can send us out more of that type we shall be +satisfied." + +Then she and the questioner became conscious of the awkward silence +that had fallen upon the rest. They belonged to the dales, and they +glanced covertly at Weston, who was gazing at the picture, purple in +face, and with a very hard look in his eyes. Ida guessed that it was +the scarred workman's hands and the track-grader's old blue shirt and +tattered duck that had hurt his very curious pride. Still, it was +evident that he could face the situation. + +"Yes," he said, a trifle hoarsely, "it's a portrait--an excellent one. +In fact, as some of you are quite aware, it's my son." + +He rose, and crossing a strip of lawn sat down heavily near Ida. The +latter, looking around, saw Arabella's satisfied smile suddenly +subside; but the next moment Weston, leaning forward, laid his hand +roughly on her arm. + +"Why Clarence permitted that portrait to be painted I don't quite +understand, though he was fond of flying in the face of all ideas of +decency," he said. "You must have met him out yonder. What was he +doing?" + +"Shoveling gravel on a railroad that my father was grading," said Ida, +with rather grim amusement, for she was determined that the man should +face the plain reality, even if it hurt him. + +"Shoveling gravel!" said Weston. "But he is my son." + +"I'm afraid that doesn't count out yonder. In any case, he's in one +sense in reasonably good company. Did you send your son to Sandhurst +or an English university?" + +"I didn't," said the man, gazing at her with hot, confused anger in +his eyes. "For one thing, he hadn't brains enough, and, for another, +there were too many charges on the property. What do you mean by good +company?" + +"Just a moment before I answer. Why did you turn him out?" + +"That does not describe it. He went. We had a difference of opinion. +He would hear no reason." + +"Exactly," said Miss Weston, who now appeared close by. "Since you +seem to have heard a little about the matter, I feel I must say that +my brother deliberately left us at a time when his father had expected +him to be of service to him." + +Ida did not know whether the others could hear what was being said, as +there was a strip of lawn between them and where she sat, but she felt +that it did not greatly matter. She had no pity for this man or his +daughter, who preferred to malign the absent rather than to admit an +unpleasant fact. She would strip them of any solace they might find in +shams, after which there was a little more to be said. + +"The difference of opinion was, I believe, decided with a +riding-crop," she said. "Still, that is a side issue, and I will tell +you what I meant by good company. We have quite a few of your +graduates out yonder laying railroad ties, as well as lawyers who have +got into trouble over trust money, and army men who couldn't meet +their turf debts or were a little too smart at cards. Some of them are +of unexceptionable family--at least from your point of view. As a +rule, they sleep packed like cattle in reeking redwood shacks, and +either dress in rags or mend their own clothes. Among their companions +are ranchers who can't live all the year on the produce of their +half-cleared land, absconders from half the Pacific Slope cities, and +runaway sailormen. The task set before them every morning would kill +most of you." + +Weston, who had winced once or twice, glanced apprehensively toward +the rest. They were sitting very still, and their appearance suggested +that, whether warrantable or not, they were listening. + +"His insane folly has brought him down to that?" he asked. + +Ida straightened herself a little, with a sparkle in her eyes. + +"I don't think there has been any very great descent," she went on. +"You must try to realize that those men are not wastrels now, however +they may have lived in England, Montreal, or the cities down Puget +Sound. They're rending new roads through the mountains to let in +progress and civilization, and making fast the foundations of the +future greatness of a wide and prosperous land. Already, because of +what they and their kind have done, you can travel through it without +seeing a ragged, slatternly woman, or a broken-down, desperate man. +Besides, many of them, and certainly most of the small bush ranchers, +lead lives characterized by the old heroic virtues that seem to have +gone out of fashion in the cities, though you'll find some of them +held up for emulation in the Pauline epistles." + +Weston gazed at her in blank astonishment. She made a little, +half-contemptuous gesture. + +"You can't understand that? Well, one really couldn't expect you to. +You have never starved your body, or forced it day after day to a task +that was crushing you. Those men work in icy water, keep the trail +with bleeding feet, and sleep in melting snow. They bear these things +cheerfully, and I think there are no men on this earth who can match +their wide charity. The free companions never turn away the ragged +stranger. What is theirs is his, from the choicest of their provisions +to the softest spruce-twig bed." + +She laughed, and then continued: + +"That's in a general way. To be particular, I'll try to tell you what +Clarence Weston has done. It's worth hearing." + +She had spoken more clearly the last few moments, and it became +evident at length that she had secured the attention of everybody. +With an impulsive gesture she invited them all to listen. + +"I'll tell you what that picture leaves out," she said. "There was an +old man in the railroad camp, played-out and useless. The boys were +handling him roughly because he'd spoiled their supper rather often, +when Clarence Weston stepped in. The old man, you must understand, +hadn't a shadow of a claim on him. Now, those are not nice men to make +trouble with when they have a genuine grievance, and there were three +or four of them quite ready to lay hands on Weston, while there was +nobody who sympathized with him. He stood facing them, one man against +an angry crowd, and held them off from the stranger who had no claim +on him. Have you heard of anything finer? + +"Again, when Arabella lamed herself up on a great snow range--he'd +carried our food and blankets since sunrise--he went down to bring +help in the darkness, through the timber and along the edge of +horrible crags. The man had badly cut his foot, and the wound opened +on the march, but when he made the camp, almost too weary to crawl, he +went back right away, so that the Indians he took up might get there a +little quicker." + +She broke off for a moment, with a flush in her face and a curious +little laugh. + +"Now," she said, "I think I've made the thing quite plain, and I'm +glad I did." + +There was an expressive silence for a moment or two, and then Major +Kinnaird looked at the others. + +"I know nothing about the first incident, but I think that Miss +Stirling could have gone a little further when she described the last +one," he said. "My daughter, who was badly injured, would probably +have been left another day on the range, without food or any +attention, if it had not been for the courage and endurance the man +displayed. I wish to say, however, that I had no idea he was any +connection of Mr. Weston's until this moment." + +Ida's heart warmed toward Kinnaird. Reserved and formal as he was, the +man could be honest, and it was evident that his few quiet words had +made almost as deep an impression as the outbreak to which she had +been impelled. There was another rather awkward silence; and then +Weston, who seemed to have forgotten the others, made a little abrupt +movement. + +"What had my son to do with you?" he asked. + +The question was flung at Kinnaird, but Ida saw that it was a relief +to him when she answered it. + +"My father hired him. He was our camp-packer, the man who set up the +tents, made the fires, and poled the canoes," she said. + +Weston stood up and, looking hard at Kinnaird, straightened himself. +His face was an unpleasant red, and there was badly-suppressed anger +in his eyes. + +"Time is getting on, and we have rather a long drive," he said. "I may +ask Miss Stirling's leave to call on her later. In the meanwhile, if +Mrs. Kinnaird will excuse us----" + +His hostess made no attempt to keep him; and, as he moved away, his +daughter stopped for a moment beside Ida's chair. + +"I don't know whether what you have done was excusable or not, but you +have, at least, succeeded in making the breach between Clarence and +his father wider than ever," she said. "That was probably what you +intended?" + +Ida was momentarily puzzled. + +"Intended?" she said. "If either of you had done your brother justice, +I don't think I should have mentioned him at all." + +Miss Weston smiled scornfully and moved away, but the blood crept into +the face of the girl she left. That she had outraged these people's +sense of their importance she felt reasonably sure, and their +resentment, which she admitted was, perhaps, more or less warranted, +did not trouble her, but the drift of Miss Weston's last observation +filled her with anger. They evidently regarded her as a raw Colonial, +endued with no sense of what was fitting, who could not expect to be +countenanced by an insolvent land-owning family. This was amusing; but +the suggestion that she recognized the fact, and because of it had +endeavored to alienate Clarence Weston from his relatives, who had +apparently been very glad to get rid of him, was a very different +matter. However, she recovered her composure with an effort, and +succeeded in taking a part in the general conversation which broke out +when Weston drove away. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +ILLUMINATION + + +It was three or four months later when Ida was carried swiftly +westward through the London streets toward twelve o'clock one night. +The motor purred and clicked smoothly, slinging bright beams of light +in front of it as it twisted eel-like through the traffic. The glass +that would have sheltered Ida from the cool night breeze was down, but +she scarcely noticed the roar of the city or the presence of Arabella +and Mrs. Kinnaird. + +She was thinking of that afternoon at Scarthwaite, and wondering, as +she had done somewhat frequently since then, what had impelled her to +speak in that impulsive fashion. It had not been, as she now +recognized, merely a desire to justify Clarence Weston in the eyes of +his English relatives, for she had felt reasonably sure that this was +a thing beyond accomplishment while he remained a railroad-hand or a +bush chopper. The other explanation was that she had spoken to +reassure herself; but that, as she would have admitted, seemed +scarcely necessary, for in this respect he did not need an advocate. +There was the third alternative, that the attitude of Weston and his +daughter toward the absent man had fanned her dislike of shams into a +blaze of downright rage, and that she had merely ridden a somewhat +reckless tilt against her pet aversions. + +One thing, at least, was certain. Weston had not called on her, to ask +for any further information about his son; and, for that matter, she +would have been astonished had he done so. She realized now that there +was truth in what Clarence Weston said when he told her that the +failures were soon forgotten. That, however, was a matter that +depended largely on one's point of view, and she could not regard him +as a failure. + +There was in Ida Stirling a vein of wholesome simplicity which made +for clearness of vision, and she seldom shrank from looking even an +unwelcome truth squarely in the face. That Clarence Weston was +probably shoveling railroad gravel did not count with her, but she was +reasonably sure that the fact that she was a young woman with +extensive possessions would have a deterrent effect on him. She once +or twice had felt a curious compelling tenderness for him when in his +presence, but reflection had come later, and she could not be sure +that she loved him well enough to marry him, should he offer her the +opportunity. During the last few months she had become more uncertain +on this point, for her English visit was having an effect on her that +she had not expected. + +In the meanwhile the insistent clamor of the city was forcing itself +on her attention, until at length she became engrossed by it. The +theaters had just been closed, and the streets resounded with the +humming of motors, the drumming of hoofs and the rattle of wheels. +They also were flooded with what seemed to her garish light, for she +had swept through many a wooden town lying wrapped in darkness beside +its railroad track. The hansoms and motors came up in battalions, and +in most of them she could see men of leisure in conventional white and +black and lavishly dressed women, while the sidewalks streamed with a +further host of pleasure-seekers. She wondered when these people +slept, or when they worked, if indeed in one sense some of them worked +at all. Even in the winter they had nothing like this in Montreal, and +the contrast between it and the strenuous, grimly practical activity +of the Canadian railroad camp or the lonely western ranch was more +striking still. There men rose to toil with the dawn, and slept when +the soft dusk crept up across solemn pines or silent prairie. These +men, however, saw and handled the results of their toil, great +freight-trains speeding over the trestles they had built, vast bands +of cattle, and leagues of splendid wheat. After all, the genius of +London is administrative and not constructive, and it is the latter +that appeals most directly to the Colonial. One can see the forests go +down or the great rocks rent, but the results that merely figure in +the balance-sheet are less apparent. + +There was another matter that claimed Ida's attention. She would meet +Gregory Kinnaird at the dance, and she had seen a good deal of him +during the last few months. He was not formal like his father, and in +most respects she liked the man; and there was no doubt whatever that +he neglected no opportunity for enjoying her company. Indeed, he had +of late drawn rather close to her, and she wondered a little uneasily +how far this approachment was to go. London, she was conscious, was +getting hold of her, and there was, after all, a good deal it had to +offer that strongly appealed to her. + +By and by the motor stopped before a house with balconies and +ponderous pillars, and she and her companions went up the ample +stairway and into several uncomfortably crowded, flower-bedecked +rooms. Ida, however, was getting used to the lights and the music, the +gleam of gems, the confused hum of voices, and the rustle of costly +draperies, and, though she admitted that she liked it all, they no +longer had the same exhilarating effect on her. She danced with one or +two men, and then, as she sat alone for a moment, Gregory Kinnaird +crossed the room toward her. His face was a little more serious than +usual. As a rule, he took things lightly. + +"I think this is mine," he said, as the orchestra recommenced. "Still, +perhaps you have had enough? I can find you a nice cool place where we +can talk." + +She went with him, because it certainly was uncomfortably warm where +she was, and, besides, she was impelled by a certain curiosity to +ascertain just how they stood. He passed through one supper-room into +another, and then drew back a heavy curtain from an open window. + +"It's quiet, anyway," he said, and they passed out on to a little +balcony where, late in the year as it was, a row of potted shrubs cut +them off from view. + +Below, there were dusky, leafless trees, among which a few big lights +gleamed, and the roar of the city came up across them brokenly. Ida +sat down, and a ray of light fell upon her companion, who leaned +against the rails. Gregory Kinnaird was well-favored physically, and +bore the stamp of a military training. He was, she understood, captain +of a rather famous regiment, and she liked his direct gaze, which did +not detract from his easy suavity of manner. However, he appeared +somewhat unusually diffident that evening. + +"You like all this?" he asked, with a little wave of his hand which, +she fancied, was intended to indicate the distant roar of the city as +well as the music and dancing in the rooms behind her. + +"Yes," she said with a smile, for he appeared to take it for granted, +as others had done, that they had no brilliant social functions in +Montreal. "I think I do; but when you have so much of it, the thing +seems a little aimless, doesn't it?" + +"Aimless?" inquired Kinnaird, who appeared to ponder over this until a +light broke in on him. "Well," he admitted, "I suppose it is. Still, +what else could half of them do?" + +Ida laughed good-humoredly; and the man made a little expostulatory +gesture. + +"I generally avoid any discussions of that kind. They never lead to +anything," he said. "I was wondering whether you could learn to like +London as well as Montreal?" + +"I don't know," replied Ida, in her most matter-of-fact manner. + +"Oh," said her companion, "it seems a senseless question, but I want +to explain. I have been offered an opportunity to go away--to do +something--very soon. I should be away two years, at least; and as the +notice is a short one, I have practically to make up my mind +to-night." + +It almost appeared that he had expected Ida to show some sign of +interest, or, perhaps, concern, but none was perceptible. + +"Where are you going?" she asked. + +"To a colony in tropical Africa. They want somebody to hammer a native +levy into shape and keep the niggers in some kind of order." + +"Don't they have fever there?" + +"I believe it isn't a particularly salubrious place," said Kinnaird, +smiling, "but that kind of thing affects only some constitutions, and +it makes promotion quicker." + +Ida, who had perused a good many works of travel, knew a little about +the fevers that afflict the country in question. In fact, she fancied +that she knew more than the man did; but his careless indifference to +the personal hazard pleased her. She noticed that he had spoken +naturally, as he felt, without any idea of producing an effect on her. + +"What is the result of that kind of work?" she asked. + +"The result?" queried Kinnaird, with a puzzled air. "A battalion of +thick-headed niggers with some slight knowledge of civilized drill, +and, perhaps, a few stockades blown up in the bush." + +Then, as he saw the half-veiled amusement in her eyes, a light seemed +to break in on him. + +"If one managed the thing efficiently, it would, perhaps, lead to the +offer of a second-rate semi-administrative post somewhere else in the +tropics, though I believe the emoluments are not what one could call +liberal." + +"That is all?" + +"Yes," said Kinnaird. "I'm afraid one couldn't expect anything +further." + +Ida smiled rather curiously. She liked the man, but it was clear that +his mental capacity had its limits. Though she would not have had him +expatiate on the fact, she had expected him to realize that his +mission was to uphold the white man's supremacy, and establish +tranquillity, commerce and civilization in a barbarous land. It was, +however, evident that he did not understand this. He was going out, as +he said, to drill thick-headed niggers, and would, in all probability, +content himself with doing that. + +Then he turned toward her again. + +"What it leads to doesn't matter very much. I've been getting away +from the point," he said. "You see, I don't know whether I'm going at +all, at the moment. It depends a good deal on what you have to say to +me." + +Ida started a little, though she had expected something of this kind. +Still, she recovered her serenity quickly, and in a moment she looked +at him inquiringly with calm eyes. + +"I didn't mean to say anything for some while yet, but this thing has +forced my hand," he said. "You see, I must let them know during the +next day or two whether I'm going." + +He broke off for a moment, and his manner became diffident. + +"Miss Stirling," he added, "I think I fell in love with you the second +or third time I saw you, if not the first, and as I have seen you +rather often since then, you can, perhaps, imagine what I feel now. +I'm afraid there is no very strong reason why you should look kindly +on such a man as I am, but I came here to-night to ask if you would +marry me." + +Ida quietly met his gaze. The man was well-favored physically, honest, +courteous and considerate, and in many ways she liked him. Indeed, she +wondered with a certain uneasiness how far she had allowed the latter +fact to become apparent, for it was quite another matter to marry him, +as she now realized. + +"Is this offer quite spontaneous?" she asked. + +Kinnaird flushed a little, but she thought the more of him for the +candor with which he answered her. + +"In the first place, I believe my mother put the thing into my head," +he admitted. "After that, it got hold of me--and I was rather glad +that my people were apparently satisfied that it did. It promised to +save trouble, for I should naturally have gone on with it if they had +done their utmost to thwart me." + +He broke off abruptly, and Ida met his gaze. + +"Thank you," she said. "The honesty of that admission would have +counted a good deal in your favor had the thing been possible." + +The man straightened himself and clenched one hand. + +"Ah!" he said. "Then it's quite out of the question?" + +Ida saw the blood rise into his face, and noticed the sudden hardness +in his eyes. Her answer evidently had hurt him more than she expected, +and she felt sorry for him. The man's quietness and control and the +absence of any dramatic protestation had a favorable effect on her, +and she was almost certain that she could have married him had she met +him a year earlier. In the meanwhile, however, she had met another +man, dressed in old blue duck, with hands hard and scarred; and the +well-groomed soldier became of less account as she recalled the man +she had left in the mountains. Then Kinnaird turned to her again. + +"Can't you give me a chance?" he said. "If it's necessary, I'll wait; +and in the meanwhile I may do something worth while out yonder, if +that's any inducement." + +"I'm very sorry," replied Ida. "I'm afraid it wouldn't be." + +She looked him steadily in the eyes, and he had sense enough to +recognize that no words of his would move her. Though it was not an +easy matter, he retained his self-control. + +"Well," he admitted, "it hurts, but I must bear it. And I want to say +that I'm glad in several ways that I met you." Then the blood crept +into his face again. "I should, at least, like you to think kindly of +me, and I'm rather afraid appearances are against me. Because that is +so, there's a thing that I should like you to understand. I'd have +been proud to marry you had you been a beggar." + +"Thank you," said Ida, who saw that he meant it. "I'm more sorry than +ever, but the thing is--out of the question." + +Kinnaird gravely held out his arm, but she intimated by a little sign +that she did not wish to go back with him, and in a moment the +curtains swung to behind him, and he had gone. + +Ida became conscious that she was growing cold; but she sat quite +still for at least five minutes, thinking hard, and wondering why she +felt so sorry to give up Gregory Kinnaird. It was a somewhat +perplexing thing that one could be really fond of an eligible man and +yet shrink from marrying him, and there was no doubt whatever that the +one she had just sent away had in several respects a good deal to +offer her. + +She admitted that London was, as she expressed it, getting hold of +her. She supposed that its influence was insidious, for she no longer +looked on its frivolities with half-amused contempt, as she had at +first. She realized the vast control that that city had over so much +of the rest of the world, and that when some of the men with whom she +had lightly laughed and chatted pulled the strings, new industries +sprang up far away in the scorching tropics or on the desolate +prairie, and new laws were made for hosts of dusky people. It was +certainly a legitimate bargain Kinnaird had suggested. She had wealth +sufficient for them both, and he could offer her the entry into a +world where wealth well directed meant power, and this she undoubtedly +desired to possess. There was a vein of ambition in this girl whose +father had risen to affluence from a very humble origin, and while she +listened to Gregory Kinnaird she had felt that she could rise further +still. + +She knew that she had will and charm enough to secure, with the aid of +her father's money, almost what place she would, and for a few moments +she saw before her dazzling possibilities, and then, with the +resolution that was part of her nature, she turned her eyes away. +After all, though a high position with the power and pride of leading +was a thing to be desired, life, she felt, had as much to offer in +different ways; and she recalled a very weary man limping, gray in +face, up the steep range. The picture was very plainly before her as +she sat there shivering a little, and her heart grew soft toward the +wanderer. She knew at last why nothing that Kinnaird could have said +or offered would have moved her, and she looked down at the lamps that +blinked among the leafless boughs with a great tenderness shining in +her eyes. The stir of the city fell faintly on unheeding ears, and she +was conscious only of a longing for the stillness of the vast pine +forest through which she had wandered with Weston at her side. + +Then she rose abruptly and went back into the lighted room. Though she +danced once or twice, and talked to a number of people who, perhaps +fortunately, did not seem to expect her to say anything very +intelligent, she was glad when Mrs. Kinnaird sent for her, and they +and Arabella drove away together. The elder lady troubled her with no +questions; but soon after they reached home she came into the room +where Ida sat, and as she left the door open the girl saw Gregory go +down the stairway with a letter in his hand. He met his sister near +the foot of it, and his voice, which seemed a trifle strained, came up +to Ida clearly. + +"I'll just run out and post this. I've told those people that I'll go +as soon as they like," he said. + +Then Mrs. Kinnaird quietly closed the door before she crossed the room +and sat down near the girl. + +"It's rather hard to bear," she said. "Perhaps I feel it the more +because Arabella will leave me soon." + +The woman's quietness troubled Ida, and her eyes grew hazy. + +"Oh," she said, "though it isn't quite my fault, how you must blame +me. It's most inadequate, but I can only say that I'm very sorry." + +"I suppose what you told Gregory is quite irrevocable?" inquired her +companion. + +Ida saw the tense anxiety in the woman's eyes, and her answer cost her +an effort. + +"Yes, quite," she said. "I wish I could say anything else." + +"I can't blame you, my dear. I blame only myself," said Mrs. Kinnaird. +"I'm afraid I brought this trouble on Gregory, and it makes my share +of it harder to bear. Still, there is something to be said. I wanted +Gregory to marry you because I wanted him near me, but I can't have +you think that I would have tried to bring about a match between him +and any girl with money. My dear," and she leaned forward toward her +companion, "I am fond of you." + +Ida made a gesture of comprehension and sympathy, and the little quiet +lady went on again. + +"There is just another thing," she said. "Gregory will have very +little--a few hundred a year--but it would not have been a dreadfully +one-sided bargain. He had, after all, a good deal to offer." + +Ida raised a hand in protest. + +"Oh," she said, "I know." + +"Still," continued Mrs. Kinnaird, "I want you to feel quite sure that +he loved you. Without that nothing else would have counted. You will +believe it, won't you? It is due to my son." + +She rose with a little sigh. + +"Things never go as one would wish them to." + +Ida was very sorry for her, but there was so little that could be +said. + +"I shall always think well of Gregory," she answered. "You will try to +forgive me?" + +Then an impulsive restless longing came over her with the knowledge +that she had brought this woman bitter sorrow. + +"I will go home," she broke out. "It will hurt you to see me near you +when Gregory has gone away. There are friends of ours--Mrs. Claridge +and her daughter, you met them--leaving for Paris on Wednesday, and +they sail for New York in a week or two." + +It was a relief to both of them to discuss a matter of this kind, and, +before Mrs. Kinnaird left her, all had been arranged. Still, it was +not Montreal and its winter amusements that Ida thought of then, but +the shadowy bush, and the green river that stole out from among the +somber pines. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +IDA CLAIMS AN ACQUAINTANCE + + +It was early on a fine spring evening when Clarence Weston lay +somewhat moodily on the wooded slope of the mountain that rises behind +Montreal. It is not very much of a mountain, though it forms a +remarkably fine natural park, and from where Weston lay he could look +down upon a vast sweep of country and the city clustering round the +towers of Notre Dame. It is, from almost any point of view, a +beautiful city, for its merchants and financiers of English and +Scottish extraction have emulated the love of artistic symmetry +displayed by the old French Canadian religious orders, as well as +their lavish expenditure, in the buildings they have raised. Churches, +hospitals, banks and offices delight the eye, and no pall of +coal-smoke floats over Montreal. It lies clean and sightly between its +mountain and the river under the clear Canadian sky. + +On the evening in question the faintest trace of thin blue vapor +etherealized its clustering roofs and stately towers, and the great +river, spanned by its famous bridge, gleamed athwart the flat +champaign, a wide silver highway to the distant sea. Beyond it, +stretches of rolling country ran back league after league into the +vast blue distance where Vermont lay. Still, Weston, who was jaded and +cast down, frowned at the city and felt that he had a grievance +against it. During the last week or two he had, for the most part +vainly, endeavored to interview men of importance connected with +finance and company promoting. Very few of them would see him at all, +and those with whom he gained audience listened to what he had to say +with open impatience, or with a half-amused toleration that was almost +as difficult to bear. Perhaps this was not astonishing, as most of +them already had had somewhat costly experiences with what they called +wild-cat mining schemes. + +There was, however, a certain vein of dogged persistency in Clarence +Weston; and, almost intolerably galling as he-found it, he would still +have continued to obtrude his presence on gentlemen who had no desire +whatever to be favored with it, and to waylay them in the hotels, but +for the fact that the little money he had brought with him was rapidly +running out. One can, in case of stern necessity, put one's pride in +one's pocket, though the operation is occasionally painful, but one +cannot dispense with food and shelter, and the latter are not, as a +rule, to be obtained in a Canadian city except in exchange for money. +Weston, who had had no lunch that day, took out the little roll of +bills still left in his wallet, and, when he had flicked them over, it +became unpleasantly clear that he could not prosecute the campaign +more than a very few days longer. Then he took out his pipe, and, +filling it carefully, broke off a sulphur match from the block in his +pocket. He felt that this was an extravagance, but he was in need just +then of consolation. He had wandered up on the mountain, past the +reservoir and the M'Gill University, after a singularly discouraging +afternoon, to wait until supper should be ready at his boarding-house. + +One or two groups of loungers, young men and daintily dressed women, +strolled by; and then he started suddenly at the sound of a voice that +sent a thrill through him. He would have recognized it and the laugh +that followed it, anywhere. He sprang to his feet as a group of three +people came out from a winding path among the trees. For a moment or +two a wholly absurd and illogical impulse almost impelled him to bolt. +He knew it was quite unreasonable, especially as he had thought of the +girl every day since he had last seen her; but he remembered that she +was a rich man's daughter and he a wandering packer of no account, +with an apparently unrealizable project in his mind, and in his pocket +no more money than would last a week. While he hesitated, she saw him. +He stood perfectly still, perhaps a little straighter than was +absolutely necessary, and not looking directly toward her. If she +preferred to go by without noticing him, he meant to afford her the +opportunity. + +She turned toward her father and said something that Weston could not +hear, but he felt his heart beat almost unpleasantly fast when, a +moment later, she moved on quietly straight toward him. She looked +what she was, a lady of station, and her companion's attire suggested +the same thing, while, though Weston now wore city clothes, he was +morbidly afraid that the stamp of defeat and failure was upon him. +Much as he had longed for her it would almost have been a relief to +him if she had passed. Ida, however, did nothing of the kind. She +stopped and held out her hand while she looked at him with gracious +composure. It was impossible for him to know that this had cost her a +certain effort. + +"Where have you come from? We certainly didn't expect to see you +here," she said. + +"From Winnipeg. That is, immediately," said Weston, and added, "I +hired out to bring a draft of cattle." + +Ida, who was quite aware that the tending of cattle on trains was not +a well-paid occupation, and was usually adopted only by those who +desired to save the cost of a ticket, fancied that she understood why +he mentioned this, and was not sure that she was pleased. It was, as +she recognized, the man's unreasonable pride which impelled him to +thrust facts of that kind into the foreground. Just then, however, her +father, who had waited a moment or two, stepped forward and shook +hands with him. + +"Where are you staying in the city?" he asked. + +"At Lemoine's boarding-house," answered Weston, mentioning a street in +the French Canadian quarter, from which any one acquainted with the +locality could deduce that he found it desirable to study economy. + +"Doing anything here?" asked Stirling. + +Weston said that he had some mining business in hand; and he looked +down at his clothes, when Stirling 'suggested that he should come' +home with them to supper, though, from his previous acquaintance with +the man, he was not astonished at the invitation. Stirling laughed. + +"That's quite right," he said. "We call it supper, and that's how I +dress. I don't worry about the little men when I bring them along, and +the big ones don't mind." + +Weston glanced at Ida, and when he saw that she seconded the +invitation, he said that he would run around to his boarding-house +first to see whether there were any letters or messages for him. +Stirling made a sign of comprehension, for this was a thing he could +understand. There had been a time when he had watched and waited for +the commissions which very seldom came. + +"Then you can come straight across as soon as you have called there," +said Ida. + +She presented him to her companion, who, it appeared, came from +Toronto; and then she explained that they had climbed the mountain so +that her friend might see the surroundings of the city. They walked +back together until they reached a spot where two roads led downhill, +and Weston left them. + +It was some little time later when he reached Stirling's house, and +was left to wait a few minutes in a very artistically-furnished room. +Its floor was of polished parquetry with a few fine skins from British +Columbia spread upon it here and there, and the dainty, spindle-legged +chairs, the little tables, the cabinets and the Watteau figures were, +he fancied, either of old French manufacture or excellent copies. The +big basement heater had apparently been extinguished, but a snapping +wood-fire blazed upon the English pattern hearth, and, for the light +was fading outside, it flung an uncertain, flickering radiance about +the room. Weston, sitting down, contrasted its luxury with the grim +bareness of his match-boarded cubicle in the boarding-house, and with +the log shanties of the railroad and logging camps. He frowned as he +did so, for all that his eyes rested on made unpleasantly plain the +distinction between himself and the girl whose room it evidently was. + +Then he rose as she came in, attired in a long, trailing dress that +rustled as she moved. It seemed to become her wonderfully, and he +became conscious of a faint embarrassment. He had not seen her dressed +in that fashion before, and, after the years that he had spent in +lonely bush and noisy railroad camp, her beauty and daintiness had an +almost disconcerting effect on him. She drew a low chair a little +nearer the hearth, and, sinking into it, motioned to him to be seated. + +"My father is busy, and Nellie Farquhar will not be down for a little +while," she said. "We shall probably have half an hour to ourselves, +and I want you to tell me all that you have been doing since we left +you." + +Weston understood that she meant to resume their acquaintance--though +he was not sure that was quite the correct word for it--at the point +at which it had been broken off, and he was rather glad that she asked +him what he had been doing. It was a safe topic and naturally one on +which he could converse, and he felt that any silence or sign of +constraint would have been inadmissible. + +"Oh," he said, "we went up to look for the mine again." + +"You were not successful?" + +"No," said Weston. "It was winter, and we had rather a rough time in +the ranges. In fact, I got one foot frost-bitten, and was lame for +some while afterward. It was the one I cut, which probably made it +more susceptible." + +His face hardened a trifle as he recalled the agony of the march back +through the snowy wilderness, and the weeks he had afterward spent, +unable to set his foot to the ground, in the comfortless log hotel of +a little desolate settlement. + +"Wasn't it rather foolish to go up into the ranges in winter?" Ida +asked. + +"It was," admitted Weston, with a faint, dry smile. "Still, you see, I +couldn't stay away. The thing has become an obsession." + +Ida fancied that she understood. He had on several occasions revealed +to her his stubborn pride, and she knew that, whatever he thought of +her, he would keep it to himself unless he found that mine. She also +had some idea of what one would have to face floundering over the +snow-barred passes into the great desolation in winter time. + +"Well," she asked quietly, "what did you do then?" + +"We worked in a logging camp until spring, and then I went down to +Vancouver to raise money for the next campaign. Nobody seemed inclined +to let me have any, for which one couldn't very well blame them. After +all," and Weston laughed softly, "the thing looks uncommonly crazy. +Later on, we got a pass to do some track-grading back east, on one of +the prairie lines, and when we'd saved a few dollars I started to try +my luck in Montreal." + +Ida said nothing for a few moments. She could fill in most of what he +left untold, and it seemed to her that one who knew how men lived in +the lonely logging camps through the iron winter, or drove the new +track across the prairie through the thaw slush in spring, could make +an epic of such a theme. It was toil that taxed man's utmost strength +of body and mind, under the Arctic frost, and, what was even worse to +bear, in half-thawed mire. She had once seen the track-graders +trooping back, wet to the skin, worn out, and clogged with soil to the +knees, to the reeking shanty which was filled with the foul steam of +drying clothes. As the result of it all, Weston had, perhaps, saved +less money than she often spent on one gown. She felt very +compassionate toward him, and he was troubled by the softness in her +eyes. He felt that if he watched her too closely he might lose his +head. + +"I tried to study a few works on trigonometry and surveying during the +winter, but it was a little difficult," he said. "For one thing, if +you sat near the stove in the logging shack the light was dim, and you +couldn't very well read anywhere else in the frost we had. Besides +that, the boys generally insisted on everybody's playing cards, and if +any one refused they had a playful trick of throwing things at him." + +The girl, who had imagination, could picture the dimly-lighted shanty +and the bronzed and ragged men flinging their long boots, as well as +very pointed badinage, at the comrade who tried to read. It would, she +admitted, certainly be a little difficult to study trigonometry in +such surroundings. + +"You see, I wanted to go into the thing systematically," continued +Weston, who felt that he was safest when he kept on talking. "We have +decided that Verneille couldn't have made more than forty miles from +the lake, and, as he was heading south, that gives us at most a sweep +of about a hundred and twenty miles to search, though the whole of it +is practically a nest of mountains. As I wasn't able to read up the +subject quite as much as I should have liked, we have thought of +hiring a professional surveyor and raising money enough to spend the +whole summer over the thing, even if we have to let the men who help +us take a share in the mine." + +"I wonder whether you would be very much offended if some of your +friends were to offer to bear part of the expense?" Ida asked quietly. + +"I'm afraid I couldn't permit it." The man's face flushed. "They +probably would never get their money back. After all, it's only a +wild-cat scheme." + +"That doesn't sound very convincing," said Ida. "Haven't you another +reason?" + +She had expected to find the suggestion useless when she made it, for +she understood his attitude. He would not take her money, and that, of +course, was in one respect just as she would have had it; but, on the +other hand, there were so many difficulties, and probably hazards, +that she could save him. + +"Well," he said quietly, "it's the only reason I can offer." + +There was silence for almost half a minute, and Ida felt that it was +becoming singularly uncomfortable. So much could have been said by +both of them that their conversation up to this point had suggested to +her the crossing of a river on very thin ice. On the surface it was +smooth, but the stream ran strong below, and there was the possibility +that at any moment one of them might plunge through. Pride forbade her +making any deliberate attempt to break the ice, but she would not have +been very sorry had it suddenly given way. The man evidently was +holding himself in hand, and she felt that she must emulate his +reticence. She clung to the safe topic, in which she really was +interested, as he had done. + +"Won't you go on?" she asked. "You were not successful in Vancouver, +and you tried to raise the money in Montreal. It's a little difficult, +isn't it?" + +"Oh, yes," said Weston, laughing, "as I'm situated, it certainly is. +Of course, a good deal depends on how you set about this kind of +thing, and the correct way would have been to come in on a Pullman +instead of a cattle-car, and then engage a suite of rooms at the +biggest hotel. Financiers and company jobbers seem rather shy of a man +who gives Lemoine's boarding-house as his address, and some of them +are not quite civil when they hear what he has to say to them. In +fact, I'm afraid that I shall have to give them up in a day or two." + +It was evident that he took his defeat quietly; but Ida thought that +she knew what that quietness cost. + +"How are you going to get back?" she asked. + +She felt that it was rather a cruel question, for this was not the man +to give up while he had a dollar in hand, and she was sure that he was +going back to search for the mine again. Still, in one respect, she +was a little vexed with him. His self-control was excellent, but there +was rather too much of it. + +"That," he said, with a whimsical twinkle in his eyes, "is a point +that will require rather careful consideration." + +Ida liked his smile, but the desire to startle him out of his +reticence in one way or another became suddenly irresistible, and she +changed the subject abruptly. + +"I told you I was going to England," she said. "I wonder whether you +would be surprised to hear that I spent a month or two at Scarthwaite +Hall?" + +Weston did not seem exactly astonished, but he was clearly +disconcerted and off his guard. + +"I heard that you did," he said. + +"Then you know that I met your father and sister and didn't keep my +promise, or, at least, that I didn't do what you wanted me to?" + +"Yes," said Weston simply. + +His quietness was too obvious, and she felt that it covered a good +deal. + +"One of them wrote you?" she asked. + +"Yes," admitted Weston, "my father indulged in a few reproaches. He +didn't seem to like the notion of my having served as your +camp-packer. After that, you were in London?" + +He was at fault on two points, for, though compelled to answer her, he +should not have volunteered any information as to what was in the +letter, nor should he have attempted to change the subject, for this +made it clear to Ida that things had been said which he did not wish +her to suspect. There would, of course, be reproaches, but it seemed +probable that there would be a word or two of half-contemptuous advice +as well, and she felt reasonably sure what this would be. Weston of +Scarthwaite had, no doubt, suggested that the man of whom she had +spoken so favorably would be a fool if he did not marry her. A trace +of color crept into her face, and, seeing that there was a certain +diffidence in her companion's manner, she felt that she hated Weston +of Scarthwaite. It was, however, evident that silence would be too +suggestive just then. + +"I didn't make a promise, after all," she said. "Are you afraid that I +gave your people a wrong impression about you?" + +"No," replied Weston quietly, looking her in the eyes. "I know you +would say nothing that was not kind of me. Still, the only thing that +would affect my people would be the fact that I haven't succeeded at +anything yet." He smiled rather grimly. "I'm not sure it wouldn't +please them, in a way. You see, they probably expected it." + +On the whole, both of them were glad that Miss Farquhar came in just +then; and in a few more minutes Stirling appeared, and they went in to +dinner. It was not a very elaborate meal, for the contractor, who had +once toiled much as Weston had done, was, like a good many others of +his kind, in some respects a simple and frugal man. Still, when Ida +and Miss Farquhar left them, he laid a cigar-box on the table and +filled Weston's glass with wine. + +"Now," he said, "if you have no objections, you can tell me what +you're doing in Montreal." + +Weston supplied him with a brief account of his business, and +Stirling, who asked one or two very shrewd questions, sat apparently +reflecting for a minute or two. + +"You struck nobody in Vancouver who seemed inclined to take a hand in +it?" + +"Only one concern, and they seemed very doubtful. Anyway, their terms +were practically prohibitive." + +"Grafton?" + +"No. Norris & Lander." + +"Well," said Stirling, "before you could expect to do anything here, +you'd want to locate the reef and get some big mining man to visit it +and give you a certificate that it was a promising property. If you +had that, and a bag of specimens of high-grade milling ore, people +would listen to you." + +"The trouble is that I can't get them." + +"Then," observed Stirling, "I guess you'll have to fall back on your +friends." + +"I'm afraid that none of my friends have any money to invest; and, in +any case, I'd rather deal with strangers," said Weston. + +His host glanced at him very keenly. + +"Seems to me you have got to let the thing go," he said. + +"No," declared Weston. "In some respects, it's a crazy project; but +I'm going on." + +Stirling quietly turned the conversation into another channel, but +when Western took his departure he called up his secretary on the +telephone. + +"I want you to write Norris & Lander, Vancouver, the first thing in +the morning, and get it off by the Pacific express," he said. "Tell +them they can let a young man named Weston, with whom they've been in +communication, have the money he asks for, to count as stock when he +starts his company, at the biggest discount they can get. They can +charge me usual brokerage, but they're to keep my name out of it." + +The secretary said it should be done, and Stirling sat down to his +cigar with a smile. He was inclined to fancy that Weston would find +Norris & Lander much more amenable after that. It was an hour later +when Ida came into the room, and he looked at her thoughtfully. + +"There's some grit in that young man, and I guess it's just as well," +he observed. "He's up against quite a big proposition." + +He saw the faint gleam in Ida's eyes. + +"If he has taken hold, I think he will put it through," she said. + +She turned away the next moment, and moved a glass on the table; but, +when she looked around again, she saw Stirling's smile. + +"Well," he said, "considering everything, it's quite likely." + +After this, he carefully picked out another cigar, and Ida left him, +wondering what he could have meant. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE BRULEE + + +Stirling, who hitherto, like a wise man, had carefully avoided +wild-cat mining schemes, and, indeed, ventures of any kind outside his +own profession, had for once thrust his prudence into the background +and done what he could to further Weston's project, for a reason which +he would not have admitted to anybody else. He was not famous as a +charitable person, but he had, for all that, unobtrusively held out a +helping hand to a good many struggling men in need of it during his +career, and there were now certain conjectures and suspicions lying +half-formulated at the back of his mind. He had acted on them with the +impulsive promptness which usually characterized him, and it was not +his fault that his efforts proved fruitless, for Weston, as it +happened, neither revisited Vancouver nor communicated with Norris & +Lander. + +A week after he left Montreal, Weston met Grenfell in a little British +Columbian settlement shut in by towering ranges and leagues of shadowy +bush, where they were fortunate enough to find a storekeeper who +seemed inclined to place more credence in their story than any of the +company promoters had done. What was more to the purpose, he offered +to provide them with a horse, camp-gear and provisions, in exchange +for a certain share in the mine should their search prove successful. +The share was rather a large one, but, as the man pointed out, it was +very probable that they might not strike the lode at all. They also +made the acquaintance of a young surveyor who had set up in the wooden +settlement several months earlier and had done very little business +since. He was quite willing to give them the benefit of his +professional services on somewhat similar terms to those the +storekeeper had made. + +The result of this was that early one morning they set out once more +on the gold trail. When they made their first camp at sunset in a +grove of towering pines they held a council. It was almost dark amidst +the serried rows of tremendous trunks, but the light of the snapping +fire fell upon their faces, which were all a trifle grave. In the case +of two of the party, at least, their faces were stamped with a certain +quiet resolution and a hint of the forcefulness which comes of rigid +and continuous self-denial. Men discover in the bush that abstention +from most of the little comforts and amenities of life not +infrequently tends to vigor of body and clarity of mind. This, +however, is a fact that has been accepted long ago, for it is not, as +a rule, the full-fleshed, self-indulgent man who does anything worth +while. Their skin was clear and bronzed, their nerves steady, and, +though Grenfell differed from them in these respects, their eyes were +very keen, with a snap in the depths of them. They were eyes that +could look peril and defeat squarely in the face without flinching. + +Devine, the young surveyor, laughed as he flung his empty enameled +plate aside. + +"It's quite a long time since I had a meal of that kind," he said. +"After all, there is a certain satisfaction in the feeling that you +couldn't eat very much more even if you had it, though that's an +opportunity to which I've not been accustomed lately. I've made my +supper rather frequently on half of a stale flapjack, and had the +other half for breakfast the next day. Having admitted that, suppose +we turn our attention to the proposition in front of us. You were +heading south when you separated from Verneille, Grenfell?" + +"About south. I can't be sure." + +"That," observed the surveyor, "may mean anything between southeast +and southwest; and if we take the spot where you found your partner +afterward, and make a sweep with a forty-mile radius, which is what +we've concluded was the distance he probably covered, it gives us +quite a big tract of country to search. Still, we ought to find a lake +that's a mile or two across." + +Weston laughed softly. + +"It's my third attempt, and I don't know how often Grenfell has tried. +One could almost fancy that the lake has vanished. That sounds a +little absurd, doesn't it?" + +"Well," said Devine, with an air of reflection, "we won't admit that +it's an impossibility. If you can take that for granted, it simplifies +the thing." + +Grenfell, who lay with his back against a fir trunk, roused himself +suddenly. + +"I never thought of it in that way," he said. "Still, lakes as big as +that one don't vanish." + +"Anyway, mines seem to do so. The woods are full of them, if all one +hears is true." + +"It isn't," said Weston dryly, "though I've no doubt there are a few +lost mines. Are you sure you haven't done a crazy thing in joining us +in the hunt for this one? Of course, I've tried to put that aspect of +the matter squarely before you already." + +Devine, who was a young man, flushed slightly. + +"The cold fact is that I was only afraid you wouldn't take me. It's a +big inducement to know that one has a reasonable supply of provisions +in hand." + +"You've evidently been up against it, like the rest of us," Grenfell +suggested. + +"I've lived for three months on the proceeds of the only job I got; +and it's quite likely I shouldn't have held out if I hadn't been +broken into the thing while I got through with my studies in Toronto. +I don't quite know now how I did that, but I had to hire out between +whiles, teaming and dredging up building stone from the lake, to make +my fees, and now and then I lived on one meal a day to spin out the +money. It would have been easier at the settlement, but I had a lesson +soon after I put up my sign. Two city men sent up by a syndicate to +look for a pulp-mill site and timber rights came along one hot day and +found me splitting cedar shingles, with mighty few clothes on. The +result was that while I might have made a small pile of money out of +them, they sent back to Vancouver for another man and paid him twice +as much, though they didn't locate the mill. I felt I had to tell you +this." + +It was not at all an uncommon story in that country, and when Weston +looked at Grenfell with a smile, the latter waved his hand. + +"Oh," he said, "we're a most worshipful company of broken deadbeats, +fed on credit, and out on a forlorn hope; but it seems to me that the +storekeeper who supplied us with provisions is the craziest of all the +crowd." + +"It was the broken men who made this country," said Devine. + +There was a certain truth in this observation, as the rest of them +knew, for, after all, it was the outcast and the desperate who first +pushed grimly on into the wilderness, up tremendous defiles and over +passes choked with snow, and afterward played a leading part in the +Titanic struggle with nature in the strongholds where she had ruled +supreme. The wilderness is merciless; the beaten men died, but the +rest held on, indomitable; and now those who from the security of a +railroad observation-car gaze upon orchard and oat-field, awful gorge +and roaring torrent, can dimly realize what the making of that +province cost the pioneers who marched into it with famine-worn faces +and bleeding feet. That the valor of that army has not yet abated all +are sure who know what the vanguard of the last host had to face on +the trail to Klondyke a few years ago. + +It is unpleasant to sleep in half-thawed slush around a sulky fire, or +to grip canoe pole or paddle until one's swollen fingers will not +straighten and the palms are raw. There is an exhilaration in plunging +down a roaring rapid through a haze of spray, but it loses something +of its charm when each movement required to keep the canoe straight +causes the man who holds the paddle agony from the wounds the floor of +the craft has rubbed on his knees; and a portage through tangled +brushwood and over slippery rock around a fall forms a tolerably +arduous task when he is stiff from constant immersion in very cold +water and has had little to eat for a week or so. It is a little +difficult to convey a clear impression of the sensation experienced +during the execution of these and similar tasks, though they are +undertaken somewhat frequently in that country, and, as it happens, +the men most qualified to speak are not as a rule gifted with +descriptive powers. + +In any case, nobody answered Devine, and instead of moralizing they +presently went to sleep. They were up at sunrise the next day, and +started soon afterward on a march that led them through tangled pine +bush, the tall grass of natural swamp prairies, rotting muskegs, and +over stony hill-slopes. It was repeated with no great variation for +several weeks, except that now and then they swam or ferried +themselves on logs over very cold and rapid rivers. Still, thanks to +the surveyor's professional skill, they were quartering the country +systematically, and, though now and then they had to leave the horse +at a base camp under Grenfell's charge, they had to grapple with no +insuperable difficulty. + +A good many leagues of range and forest had been traversed when they +reached a tract where they had trouble in finding water. There was +snow above them, but it either soaked down through the strata, or the +drainage from it descended on the other side of the divide. It was +also, though not quite summer yet, unusually hot weather, and the +season had been exceptionally dry, and they had contented themselves +for a week with the little muddy fluid they scraped up here and there +from oozy pools that were lined with pine needles and rotting leaves, +when they came to a big brulee. + +It filled a deep valley that was hemmed in by almost precipitous +crags, and though charred logs and branches lay here and there, most +of the burned forest was still standing. As a matter of fact, a fire +in this region very seldom brings the trees down. It merely strips +them. As the men pushed wearily on, endless ranks of blackened trunks +moved steadily back before them. There was not a branch left. The +trees were tremendous, half-calcined columns, and, for it was evident +that any wild wind seldom entered the deep hollow, they might have +stood in that condition a year or more. The trouble in traversing a +brulee is that one cannot tell when, from some cause or other, one of +them may come down. + +It was about noon, and they had with some difficulty dined on +grindstone bread and canned stuff without a drink of any kind, when +Weston, who was leading the horse, pulled it up suddenly. He was +thirsty and short of temper, and in a mood that would have made it +easier for him to smash through an obstacle instead of stopping, but +he fancied that he saw a great blackened trunk close in front of him +lean over a trifle. He was sure of it in another moment, and he urged +the horse aside, for the towering column swayed and oscillated as +though it strove to recover its equipoise, and then suddenly rushed +earthward. He felt the wind it made strike cold upon his cheek, and +then there was a deafening crash, and a cloud of fine black dust rose +up. It whirled and eddied about him like the smoke of a great gun, and +the powder that settled thick upon him clogged his eyelashes and +filled his nostrils. The horse plunged viciously and came near +dragging him off his feet. + +After that there was for a few seconds a silence that seemed +oppressive by contrast, until it was suddenly broken by another +startling crash. It was repeated here and there, as though when each +tree fell the concussion brought down another, and the brulee was +filled with shocks of sound that rang in tremendous reverberations +along the steep rocks. In the meanwhile the men stood fast with tense, +blackened faces peering at the eddying dust out of half-blinded eyes, +until the crashes grew less frequent and there was deep silence again. + +Then Weston, who patted the trembling horse, sat down and pointed to +the great, shapeless pile of half-burned wood and charcoal close in +front of him. + +"A near thing. I think I'll have a smoke," he said. + +"A smoke!" gasped Grenfell. "With your mouth and tongue like an +ash-pit! I'd much sooner have a sherry cobbler, as they used to make +it with a big lump of ice swimming in it, at the--it's the club, I +mean. That is," he added, with a sigh, "if I could get it." + +"You can't," observed Devine, dryly. "I'd be content with water. But +didn't you break off rather suddenly in one place?" + +"You're young," said Grenfell, looking at him solemnly. "If you +weren't, I should regard that observation as an impertinence. I said +the club, which is sufficient. They used to make you really excellent +sherry cobblers there." + +"Well," said Devine, with his eyes twinkling, "I guess it is, and the +name was half out when you stopped. I was naturally never inside the +place in question, but I've been in Montreal. It's kind of curious, +isn't it, to find a man who talks about such things leading a forlorn +hope, as you call it?" + +"No," said Grenfell, "it isn't curious at all. There are cases in +which a fondness for sherry cobblers provides a sufficient explanation +for greater incongruities." + +It was apparently a relief to talk of something, for there was no +doubt that all of them had felt the tension of the last few minutes; +but Weston cut short the discussion. + +"We must get water to-morrow, anyway," he said. "Had you any trouble +about it, Grenfell, the time you struck the lake?" + +Grenfell sat down on a fragment of the charred log and seemed to +consider. + +"No," he said slowly. "That is, we didn't quite run out of it, though +once or twice for several days we came across only a small creek or +two. There were signs that in some seasons it would be a dry country." + +He broke off and looked up at the range, while the faces of the others +grew intent as they watched him. + +"In a way all that's familiar," he said; "but I've felt the same thing +in other places, and I can't be sure." + +"Anyway," remarked Weston, "if there was a lake up yonder, the creek +would naturally flow through the valley. It must have an outlet, and +we're going up-grade." + +"The creek," said Grenfell, sharply, "went down the other side. The +lake lies just over a low divide." + +Weston started a little and put away his pipe. + +"Boys," he said, "we'll get on again." + +They went on, and the memory of that afternoon long remained with +them. They were grimed with black dust and ashes, and the ranks of +charred trunks cast only thin strips of shade, while a scorching sun +poured down an almost intolerable heat into the deep valley. The +ground was ankle-deep in dust and charcoal, and, as they floundered +through it, feathery ash rose in clouds. Their clothing grew crusted +with it, and it worked through and irritated their heated skin; while +every now and then one of them was compelled to stop and splutter. +Their throats, as Grenfell remarked, certainly felt very much like +ash-heaps. None of them had drunk anything since supper the night +before, and then only a very little water that tasted alkaline. + +Still, except for the loose deposit that made walking difficult, the +ground was comparatively clear, and they pushed on, making a detour +only now and then around a fallen tree, or waiting for Grenfell, who +lagged behind and limped, until the slanting rays beat pitilessly into +their faces and their aching eyes were dazzled by the burning glow. +Then Grenfell sat down rather frequently. + +"We're going northwest," said Weston once, while they waited for him. +"You said that was how you headed the day before you struck the lake." + +"Yes," said Grenfell, with an air of trying to recall something. "It +was summer, and at sunset the light was in our eyes. There was a very +rugged strip on the range--not unlike that one yonder. Still, I can't +be sure." + +Nothing more was said. It was quite clear that Grenfell's memory was +not to be trusted, and they were in no mood for talking. They went on +a little more slowly, but Grenfell lagged again, and it was a vast +relief to all of them when the glare that hurt their eyes died out +suddenly as the red sun dipped behind a wall of rock. Half an hour +later the heat of the brulee seemed to dissipate, and a wondrous +invigorating coolness crept in with the dusk, when they made their +camp and picketed the jaded horse. It did not seem worth while to +light a fire, as they had no water to use for tea; and, after eating a +little grindstone bread and salt pork cooked the previous day, they +lay down rolled in their blankets. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +GRENFELL GOES ON + + +Weston, tired as he was, did not sleep well that night. Although they +had a pack-horse he had carried two blankets and a bag of flour, and +when a man has marched from sunrise until dusk under a heavy burden, +his shoulders, as a rule, ache distressfully. In addition to this +discomfort, Grenfell's manner throughout that day's march had roused +an unsettling sense of expectation in his comrades. The man had limped +wearily and continually lagged behind, but he had, in spite of it, +resolutely insisted on their pushing on as fast as possible. He had +also looked about him with a certain suggestive curiosity every now +and then, and though he had once or twice admitted that he could not +positively identify anything he saw, his air of restrained eagerness +had made its impression on Weston. + +A half-moon had sailed up into the eastern sky when the latter wakened +and raised himself drowsily on one elbow. All round him the great +burned pines towered in black and shadowy columns against the silvery +light, and a stillness that was almost oppressive brooded over the +valley. No sound of running water came out of it, and there was not a +breath of wind. It was cool, however, and Weston drew his dusty +blanket higher about his shoulders as he glanced round the camp. +Devine lay close by sleeping like a log; but Grenfell was huddled at +the foot of a tree, and it became evident to his comrade that he, at +least, was wide awake. + +"Haven't you done enough to make you sleep?" Weston asked. + +Grenfell laughed softly. + +"I haven't closed my eyes. I can't keep them off the range in front of +us." + +Weston looked up and saw a huge black rampart cutting sharp and clear +against the blueness of the night. + +"Don't tell me that you recognize it," he said. + +"Three nicks," replied Grenfell. "After the third one, a rounded peak. +I can't tell whether I remember it from another time, but that +description came to me as if I'd used it, and I think I must have done +so. Anyway, you can see them yonder." + +He broke off for a moment, and when he went on again his manner was +deprecatory. + +"Since sunrise I've been troubled with a haunting sense of the +familiar, though when I found the lake with Verneille we marched +through no brulee." + +"That's years ago, and this brulee is probably not more than twelve +months old--I mean as a brulee," said Weston, impatiently, for the +strain of the long march was telling on him. "Anyway, you've been +half-recognizing places ever since we started on this search, and I'd +rather you didn't make half sure of anything else. In fact, I can't +stand much more of it." + +Grenfell, who showed no sign of resentment, laughed again. + +"As I think I told you, I've been troubled with memories that seem +half dreams. I'm not sure that's quite unusual in the case of a man +who has consumed as much whisky as I have. Besides, it's a little +difficult to distinguish between dreams and what we look upon as +realities, since the latter exist only in the perception of our +senses, which may be deceptive. They agree on that point, don't they, +in places as dissimilar as India and Germany?" + +"Are you sure you didn't dream about the lead?" Weston asked bluntly. +"It's a point that has been troubling me for a considerable time." + +"Then why did you come up with me to search for the lake?" + +"I was once or twice told at home that I was a persistent imbecile. +That may account for it." + +"Well," said Grenfell, reflectively, "your action on one or two +occasions seems to warrant the observation--I mean when you stood the +boys off me after I'd spoiled their supper, and the other time when +you decided on my account not to stay on at the copper-mine. Still, I +want to say that while I seem to know I will not make another journey +on the gold trail, I've had a subconscious feeling of certainty since +sunrise yesterday that the lake lies just ahead of us. I know nothing +definite that justifies it, but we'll probably find out to-morrow. +There's just another thing. If I leave my bones up here my share falls +to you." + +He seemed disinclined for any further conversation, and Weston went to +sleep again. When he awakened the moon had sunk behind the range, and +a faint gray light was filtering down beneath the blackened pines. It +showed the pack-horse standing close by, and Devine stretched out +beneath his blanket, a shadowy, shapeless figure, but there was, as +far as Weston could see, no sign of Grenfell anywhere. He called out +sharply as soon as he was sure of this, and his voice rang hollowly up +the valley, but there was no answer until Devine slowly shook clear of +his blankets. + +"What's the matter?" he asked. + +"Grenfell's gone." + +"Gone!" Devine was on his feet in a moment. + +"It looks like it," said Weston, sharply. "Can you see him?" + +Devine gazed into the shadows, but he saw nothing beyond the rows of +dusky trunks. + +"Where's he gone?" + +"That," said Weston, "is naturally just what I don't know. It's up to +us to find out." + +Then he briefly related his conversation with Grenfell, and the two +looked at each other. There was just light enough to show the anxiety +in their faces. + +"Well," said Devine, "it's quite clear to me that he's on the trail; +and it's fortunate in one way that he's left a plain trail behind him. +Whether the whole thing's a delusion on his part, or whether he did +strike that lode, I don't know, but I didn't like the man's looks +yesterday. He seemed badly played out, and it kind of struck me he was +just holding on." He turned toward the pack-horse and pulled up the +picket. "Anyway, we'll get upon his trail." + +They both were men of action, and inside of five minutes they had +lashed their packs together and started without breakfast. Weston led +the horse, while Devine picked up Grenfell's trail. Weston was a +little astonished at the ease with which his companion did this. + +"It's quite simple," said the surveyor, when the other stopped a +moment where the footprints seemed to break off, and questioned his +decision. "He's heading straight on, and not walking like a man with +much strength in him. I wish I knew just how far he is ahead of us." +Then he added in explanation: "I went east for a while, but I was +raised in this country, and this is 'way easier than trailing a deer." + +They went on a little faster after that, for Devine had promptly +picked up the trail again, and by the time the red sun had cleared the +range it led them out of the brulee and into a waste of rock and +gravel, where there were smaller firs and strips of tangled +undergrowth. Here and there Devine stopped for a few minutes, but he +found the trail again, though it led them through thickets, and now +and then they floundered among half-rotten fallen trunks and branches. +Fortunately, the horse was a Cayuse and used to that kind of work. + +It rapidly grew hotter, until the perspiration streamed from them, and +Weston, who had eaten very little the previous evening, became +conscious of an unpleasant stitch in his side; but they pushed on +without flagging, urged by a growing anxiety. At length the ground, +which was a little clearer, rose sharply in front of them. Weston +pulled up the pack-horse and looked significantly at Devine, who +nodded. + +"Yes," he assented, "he said a low divide. The lake lay just beyond +it." + +Then he cast about with his eyes fixed on the loose gravel over which +they had scrambled, until he came to a spot where a wide patch of +half-rotted needles lay beneath another belt of pines. + +"He stopped here and sat down," he commented. "Seemed to have had some +trouble in pulling out again. I don't like those footsteps. You and I +don't walk like that." + +"Get on," said Weston, sharply, and, turning, struck the horse. + +The sun was overhead when they scrambled, gasping, over the crest of +the divide and looked down into another long, winding hollow. Then +they stopped again and looked hard at each other, for the hollow +seemed filled with forest, and there was nowhere any shimmer of +shining water. + +"He can't be far ahead. Went through those vines in front of you," +said Devine. + +Then ensued an hour's wild scramble through undergrowth in shade, +until they broke out, dripping with perspiration, from the gloom among +the pines into a comparatively open space on the edge of a wide belt +of willows. They left the horse tethered on the outskirts of the +latter; and twenty minutes afterward Devine, who had scrambled up and +down among the undergrowth, stopped suddenly. + +"Come here," he cried with a suggestive hoarseness. "We're through +with this trail." + +He was standing waist-deep among the tangled brushwood, and it was a +minute before Weston smashed through it to his side. Then he, too, +stopped and started, for he saw a huddled object in tattered duck +lying face downward at his comrade's feet. The latter made a little +gesture when he met Weston's eyes. + +"We'll make sure," he said quietly. "Still, you see how he's lying." + +Weston dropped on his knees, and with some difficulty turned the +prostrate figure over. Then he took off his battered hat and looked up +at Devine with it in his hand. The latter nodded. + +"Yes," he said, "he has pulled out once for all. Started two or three +hours ago on a trail we can't pick up yet." + +They drew back a little and sat down heavily on a ledge of stone, for +the sight of the huddled figure in the tattered duck troubled them. It +was a minute or two before either of them spoke. + +"Heart trouble of some kind," said the surveyor. "If not, it isn't +going to matter." + +He looked around at his companion with a little wave of his hand which +seemed to deprecate the mention of the subject. + +"He can't tell us now where that lode is." + +Weston said nothing for a minute. After all, there was so little that +could be said. Then he stretched himself wearily. + +"There is something to be done, but I don't feel quite equal to it +yet, and I'm parched with thirst. Willows grow only where there's +water." + +"These," said Devine, "look kind of sickly. You can see quite a few of +them have dried up; but it's a sure thing they had water to start +them. Wish I knew how to strike it. It's most three days since I had +what one could call a drink." + +"Did you ever hear of water-finding?" + +"Yes," answered Devine. "I've read a little about the old country. +Kind of old English charlatanry, isn't it?" + +"Well," said Weston, simply, "I could find water once upon a time. I +know that, because I've done it." + +"Don't you need a hazel fork? You can't get one here." + +"I don't think the hazel matters. The power is in the man. I can cut a +fork out of something." + +Devine made a little gesture which seemed expressive of resignation. + +"Well," he said, "whether we go on or go back we have to have a drink. +That's a sure thing; and I feel, like you, that I want it before we +set about the work that's awaiting us." + +After that they both sat still again. They had to decide whether they +would go back or go on, and both of them realized what the decision +would be. Their guide had left them, and the last expectation of +finding the lead had melted away. At first the sight of his dead +comrade had driven all other thoughts from Weston's mind, but now he +was compelled to admit that he had wasted time and money on a +delusion. That perhaps was no great matter in itself, but it made it +clear that all he could look for was to earn food and shelter as a +packer, logging-hand, or wandering laborer. Impassable barriers +divided Ida Stirling from a man of that kind, and he dare no longer +dream of the possibility of tearing them down. At last, and the +knowledge was very bitter, he was face to face with defeat. He forgot +for the moment that Grenfell lay just beyond the tangled undergrowth. +He gazed straight in front of him, with a hard hand clenched and a +look in his wavering eyes that puzzled his companion. At length he +raised himself wearily to his feet. After all, the needs of the body +would not be denied, and, as Devine had said, before they set about +the task that awaited them they must drink. + +"Well," he said hoarsely, "I'm going to cut a fork." + +He smashed back through the undergrowth toward the pines, unlashed the +ax from the horse's back, and, though he was never afterward sure +whether he cut it from a young fir or a bush of juniper, Devine came +upon him some time later trimming a forked twig with a short stem +where the two slender branches united. The surveyor glanced at it and +smiled. + +"Any water that ran into this hollow must have come from the range," +he said. "We'll try close beneath it and give the thing a show." + +They did as he suggested, and his expression was sardonically +incredulous when Weston proceeded along the foot of the hillside, +where the ground was a little clearer, with a branch of the fork +clutched in each hand. The pointed stem was directed almost +horizontally in front of him, and it remained in that position for +about twenty minutes, when he lowered it with a gesture of +discouragement. + +"Felt nothing yet?" Devine inquired eagerly. "There's a kind of hollow +yonder running into the thicket." + +Weston made no answer, but he turned in among the willows, and for +half an hour or so they stumbled and floundered among the clinging +branches. Still there was no deflection of the fork, and when at +length they stopped again, gasping and dripping with perspiration, +Devine laughed rather grimly. + +"Oh, give it a rest; I guess that's what it wants," he said. "I'll +hang on for another half-hour, and then I'm going prospecting on my +own account. We've got to strike water." + +That, at least, was evident. They were parched with thirst and it was +very hot. No breath of air seemed to enter that dense thicket, and a +cloud of tormenting flies hung about them. Weston's head was throbbing +with the heat, and his sight seemed dazed. Both of them were dusty, +ragged, grim of face, and worn with travel, and the longing for even a +few drops of muddy liquid was becoming almost insupportable. + +It was only by a strenuous effort that Weston went on again. He felt +scarcely capable of further exertion, but he could not overcome the +horrible bodily craving that seemed to grow stronger with every +pulsation of his fevered blood, and he plodded on into the thicket +very wearily. At length Devine saw the twig bend downward for a moment +in his hands, + +"You did that?" he asked sharply. + +"No," said Weston in a strained voice, "I certainly did not." + +"Let me take hold," said Devine, and when Weston handed the fork to +him he walked back a few paces and crossed the same spot again. The +fork, however, pointed straight in front of him. He threw it down and +said nothing, but Weston looked at him with a little grim smile. + +"I've heard it said that anybody could do it, but that's not my +experience," he observed. + +Devine's gesture might have expressed anything. + +"Oh, we were both crazy when we started with Grenfell," he said. + +Weston moved forward with the fork, and, while Devine looked on, the +stem once more inclined. It wavered, tilted downward a little farther, +and then slowly swung back to rest again. Still, Weston held on, and +when there was a further inclination it became clear that his +companion was convinced. + +"The thing's picking up the trail!" he exclaimed. + +For a time they wandered up and down the thicket, Weston apparently +directing his course by the spasmodic movements of the fork, which now +and then would lie still altogether. At length it commenced to jerk +sharply, and Devine looked at his companion in a curious manner. + +"It's heading right back for Grenfell," he said in a hoarse whisper. + +They went on until they almost reached the spot which they had left +more than an hour ago. Then the fork suddenly pointed straight +downward, and Weston stopped. His face was flushed, and his voice was +sharp and strained. + +"Go and bring the shovel!" he said. + +Devine strode into the bush, and Weston struggled through the +undergrowth to where Grenfell lay, scarcely a stone's throw away. +Stripping off his jacket, he laid it over the dead man to keep off the +flies. Then he went back and sat down with a dazed look in his eyes +until the surveyor broke out from among the trees with the shovel. + +"Sit still," said Devine, "I'll go down the first foot or two, +anyway." + +Weary as he was he plied the shovel savagely, flinging out the mould +in showers, but he was knee-deep in the hole before there was a clink +as the blade struck stones. + +"Gravel. The water would work right through that," he said. + +He toiled on until the hole was a yard in depth, but the gravel he +flung out was dry, and at length he stopped and sat on the side of the +excavation, gasping. + +"Nothing yet," he said. "You're sure you struck it?" + +"Yes," replied Weston, quietly, "I'm sure." + +Once more Devine seized the shovel, but in a moment he flung it down +suddenly, with a sharp, glad cry. + +"It's sluicing out!" + +Weston rose and strode to the edge of the hole. There was a little +water in the bottom of it, and this spread rapidly until it crept up +about his comrade's boots. In one place he could see a frothing, +bubbling patch with an edge that was crystal clear. Then Devine +stooped and, filling his wide hat, held it up to him dripping. + +"We're through with one trouble, anyway," he announced exultantly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE LODE + + +Weston, sitting down on the pile of gravel, took the hat from his +comrade, and the trickle from the brim of it splashed refreshingly +upon his hot and grimy face when he tilted it to drink. It was +shapeless, greasy, and thick with dust, and few men who fare daintily +in the cities would have considered it a tempting cup. That, however, +did not occur to Weston, but another thought flashed into his mind as +he glanced toward the undergrowth behind which the man who had led +them there lay. He lowered the hat a moment and rose wearily. + +"A few drops of this might have saved our partner," he said. "Now he +has gone on; may the trail he has taken be a smooth and easy one." + +Then he drank, standing, a deep, invigorating draught, which seemed to +cool his fevered blood and put new life in him. He gasped for a moment +or so, and drank again, and then, flinging wide the splashes upon hot +earth and leaves, sat down heavily. As he fumbled for his pipe, +Devine, who had drunk in the meanwhile, turned to him. + +"No," he said reflectively, "I don't quite think you're right. It +wasn't thirst that brought Grenfell to his end. He had more water than +either of us--you saw to that--and, though it wouldn't have been +pleasant, you and I could have held out another day." + +"What was it then?" asked Weston. + +"The strain of the journey on a played-out constitution, and, as I +think I suggested, the effect of excitement on a diseased heart. The +man was under a high tension the last day or two. It's a sure thing he +had something on his mind. After all, I guess it was a delusion." + +Weston said nothing, but lay still with his pipe in his hand. There +was before him a task from which he shrank, but he was worn-out and +could not nerve himself to undertake it yet, and in the meanwhile he +thought of his dead comrade with a certain regretful tenderness. The +man had had no claim on him, and there had been much that was +dissimilar in their natures, but they had, after all, borne many +hardships together, and that counted for a good deal. Still, in one +way he could not be sorry that Grenfell had gone on, for life, as he +had said, had very little to offer this outcast. It was clear that the +same thing held true in his own case, and he remembered with a little +wry smile that Grenfell had said his share was to go to him if they +found the mine. They had not found it, and there was no prospect of +their doing so, for his faith in the project had vanished now that +Grenfell was dead. It remained for them only to go back to the +settlements, defeated. + +At length Devine broke in upon his reflections. + +"I don't know whether you remember that we've had nothing since supper +last night," he said. "Anyway, I don't feel equal to undertaking +what's before us as I am. Seems to me the pack-horse would like a +drink, too." + +Weston felt a little guilty, for the events of the past hour had +driven all thought of the beast out of his mind. Going back for it, he +led it to the water, after which they made a simple meal. When it was +over, Devine stood up resolutely. + +"Now," he said, "there's a thing that must be done." + +They set about it, and in another hour had laid to rest the man who +had brought them there. Then Devine put down his shovel and turned to +Weston. + +"This thing has had its effect on me, and I guess you feel it too. He +was your partner quite a while," he said. "We want to get a move on +and work this depression out of us. Well, you can make camp--a little +farther back--while I crawl along between the willows and the range. I +want to see what's back of them. There's an idea in my mind." + +Weston, who did not ask him what it was, fell in with the suggestion, +and, when his comrade floundered away through the willows, proceeded +to pitch the camp and build a fire ready for lighting among a few +straggling firs a little back from the water. Then he went to sleep, +and when the horse awakened him as it strove to pull out its picket to +get another drink, he was a little astonished to see that the sun now +hung low down above one range, and that Devine had not come back. He +lay still, however, in the blissful content that only the worn-out +know when, for a few hours, they can cease from toil. Presently he +heard the willows rustle, and, though it cost him an effort, he stood +up when Devine strode into camp. The latter glanced toward the hole +they had dug to reach the water. + +"You've let the horse break the sides down and stand in it," he said. +"We'll clean it down to the gravel and pitch the soil out." + +"Is it worth while?" Weston asked. + +"Yes," said Devine, dryly, "as we'll probably be here a day or two, I +guess it is. I'll tell you about it when we get supper." + +Weston might have noticed that there was something curious in his +manner, but he was very weary, and his mind was a little hazy then. He +took the shovel, and toiled for some few minutes before a strip of +stone he was endeavoring to wrench out broke beneath the blade. He +flung the fragments out of the hole, and one of them caught Devine's +eye. + +"Pitch me up that big round stone," he said sharply. + +Weston did as he was bidden, and his comrade, falling upon his knee, +smashed the fragments into little lumps, and then, clutching some of +them tight in one hand, stood up with a hoarse, exultant laugh. + +"We've struck the lode!" he exclaimed. + +Weston was beside him in a moment, and Devine poured the crushed +fragments into his hand. + +"Look!" he said. + +Weston did so, and while his heart thumped painfully the blood crept +to his face. The little lumps he gazed at were milky white, and +through them ran what seemed to be very fine yellow threads. + +"That is wire gold?" + +"It is," said Devine. "A sure thing." + +Then the surveyor swept off his battered hat and swung round toward +the willows, a grotesque ragged figure with his hands spread out. + +"You weren't crazy, partner. You brought us up out of the swamps and +sloos of poverty, and planked us down right on to the lode," he said. + +Weston said nothing. After all, he was English, and to some extent +reticent, but he felt that his comrade's dramatic utterance was more +or less warranted, for the irony and pathos of the situation was clear +to him. Grenfell had found the mine at last, but the gold he had +sought so persistently was not for him. Men great in the mining world +had smiled compassionately at his story, others with money to invest +had coldly turned their backs on him, and it had been given to a +railroad hand and a surveyor, who had longed for an opportunity for +splitting roofing shingles in return for enough to eat, to prove that, +after all, the skill he had once been proud of had not deserted him. +He had patiently borne defeat, and now the thrill of the long-deferred +triumph had crushed him out of existence. + +In a moment or two Devine spoke again in a different tone. + +"Well, we'll get supper. You want to cool off and quiet down." + +Weston felt that this was true, and it was a relief to start the fire +and prepare the meal, for he had found the rush of emotion which had +swept over him almost overwhelming. It was, however, not until the +meal was ready that he was quite master of himself, and they ate it +before they said anything further about the matter. Then Devine took +out his pipe, and lying with his back against a fir, turned to his +comrade as the soft dusk settled. + +"Whether Grenfell knew where he was going when he started out last +night, or was led by some blind impulse or subconscious memory, is +more than I can tell, and, anyway, it's not a point that greatly +matters now," he said. "The cold fact is that you struck the water on +the creek where, as he told you, he once got a drink." + +"But things don't fit in," objected Weston. + +"Oh," said his companion, "you let me talk. You've been in this +country a few years. I was raised in it. He said that a creek ran from +the range, and, though there's mighty little water in it, I guess it +does that now. There's rock, milling rock shot with gold, under it, +and a small flow of water will filter a long way through gravel." + +"But he described it as an ordinary open creek," persisted Weston. + +"That's easy," said Devine. "It was, quite a while ago, and nature +handles these mountains mighty roughly, as you ought to know. She +sweeps them with cloudbursts that wash half a hillside into the +valleys, and now and then with snowslides and tremendous falls of +rock. One of them filled up that creek, and, as far as I can figure, +it did rather more. It filled up the gully through which the creek +flowed high up on the range, and, while a little water still creeps +through, most of the melted snow goes down another creek. As I took +the trouble to ascertain, it splits right through the lower slopes and +comes out most a league away." + +This seemed reasonable. Most of the streams among those ranges +originate, as Weston knew, in the melting snow, but there was still a +point his comrade had left unexplained. + +"Then where's the lake?" he asked. + +Devine laughed. + +"You're sitting right beside it now." + +Weston gazed at him in blank astonishment, and then a light broke in +on him. + +"The willows?" he said. "The water in that creek would no doubt spread +underground, and this is evidently an unusually dry season. Still, +Grenfell spoke of a mile or two of water. Where has it gone?" + +"That," explained Devine, "seems the simplest thing of all. Anyway, +I'll give you my theory. When I crawled along the edge of the willows +this afternoon, I found the outlet of an old creek and a beaver-dam. +Now we're assuming that the creek I've mentioned once ran into the +lake just here, that is, before a snowslide filled up the ravine with +debris and diverted the creek into the other gully, the mouth of which +is--below--the beaver-dam." + +"You have explained how the water got here, not how it got away," said +Weston, impatiently. + +"No," replied Devine. "I haven't explained either of them yet; but +we'll get on a little. Once, and I don't think it was very long ago, +there was a little water with a creek flowing out of it in this +hollow. A colony of beavers came along and put up their dam across +that creek, and that backed the water up a foot or two. If you'd +skirted this hollow you'd have seen that it's tolerably level, and a +foot rise would spread the water quite a way. I want to say that it +was probably a swamp with only grass on it when the creek ran through +it. Well, the beavers liked the place, and piled up their dam, while +the water went farther and farther back across the swamp. Finally, the +beavers either died off or something drove them out. It was probably +after that that the dam broke down and the water ran off. Then the +snowslide cut off the creek, and as the hollow dried out the willows +spread across it." + +Weston could find no fault with this train of reasoning, which made +comparatively plain Grenfell's long and unsuccessful search. + +"Yes," he admitted, "it's logical, and I think it's correct. I +believe, from what Grenfell once said, that he crossed the range to +the east of us, not far away, some years ago with another man, and he +must have noticed this valley. Further, I now feel reasonably sure +that he and I once stood on the shoulder of the big peak in the +southwest and looked right up the hollow." He smiled rather grimly. +"We naturally saw nothing. We were looking for a lake that had dried +out." + +He lay still for a minute or two, and then broached the subject that +both had held in abeyance. + +"Well," he said, "what's to be done?" + +"Stay here two days," advised Devine. "Gather up a load of specimens +and try to trace the vein. Then we'll put in our stakes, and start +right off for the settlement, to record as many feet of frontage as +the law will allow us. After that, you, as holding the larger share, +will see what can be done about handing it over to a company, while I +come back with provisions and get the assessment work put in. You're +going to have mighty little trouble about raising the money when +people see those specimens." + +He broke off for a moment and glanced back toward the willows. + +"In a way," he added, "it's rough on Grenfell." + +"Ah," said Weston, quietly, "neither you nor I can be sure of that." + +After that there was silence, and it seemed to both of them that the +shadows crept in closer about their flickering fire, and that the +little wind which sighed among the pine-tops had grown colder. The +camp seemed strangely empty, and, glancing around from force of habit +once or twice, they realized with a little start that there was now no +third figure sitting beside the blaze. The man who had made that weary +march with them had taken the unmarked trail. + +It was two days later when they started south. Reaching a little +desolate settlement in due time, without misadventure, they limped +into it, ragged and dusty, leading the pack-horse, which was very +lame. They stopped outside a little wooden store which had a kind of +rude veranda in front of it, where the loungers sat on hot afternoons, +and a man in a white shirt and store trousers came out and leaned on +the railing. He had a hard face, and it grew a trifle more grim as he +looked at them, for the light had not quite gone, although it was late +in the evening. + +"Where's Grenfell?" he asked. + +"Dead," said Weston. + +The man made a gesture of resignation. He had acquired his money with +some difficulty, and there was no great trade in that neighborhood, +while it not infrequently happened that his customers failed to pay +him when the Government became economical and voted no money for the +making of roads, which is the small bush rancher's chief source of +support. + +"Well," he said, "I'm sorry. You're broke?" + +They certainly looked it, and for a moment Weston said nothing. He was +aware that there was a spice of cruelty in this, but he was curious to +see what the man would do. It became evident that he could, at least, +face an unpleasant situation with equanimity. + +"Anyway," he said, "you can come right in, and I'll get you some +supper. You can put the horse in Musgrave's stable yonder." + +Then, while Devine laughed softly, Weston strode up to the veranda and +thrust a heavy bag into the storekeeper's hand. + +"Get a light," he said, "and look at them." + +It was ten minutes later when they sat around a little table in the +back store, which smelt unpleasantly of salt pork and coffee. A big +kerosene lamp hung above their heads, and the storekeeper gazed with +almost incredulous eyes at the litter of broken stones in front of +him. + +"Oh, yes," he said, "it's high-grade milling ore. You'll say nothing +to the boys, and get your record in to-morrow. Then what's your +program?" + +"I'll go on to Vancouver and see about getting a well-known mining man +to go up and certify my statements," said Weston. "Then I'll try to +raise sufficient money to make a start with. I ought to get it there +or in Victoria." + +"No," said the storekeeper, "you go on to Montreal. They've more money +yonder, and it's good policy to strike for the place you're likely to +get the most." + +"One understands that it's difficult for the little man who has a +claim to sell to get much for it anywhere," said Weston, with a smile. + +The storekeeper straightened himself resolutely in his chair. + +"That's a cold fact, but in this case it has to be done. I got my +money hard." In proof of it he held up one hand from which three +fingers were missing. "That was the result of working sixteen hours +right off in a one-horse sawmill. We had one light above the bench, +and when I was too played out to see quite what I was doing I got my +hand drawn in. I made the rest of my pile--it's a mighty little +one--much the same way, and now I'm holding tight to what is mine. I +provided your outfit, for, crazy as it seemed, I believed Grenfell's +tale, and I figured that you were straight men; but I know what +generally happens when the little man goes around the city with a mine +to sell." + +He brought his hand down upon the table with a bang. + +"You're going right into Montreal--I'll find the money--and you'll +stand off just as long as it seems advisable for the biggest figure. +When this thing's floated, we're going to get our share." + +Weston, who sat on a packing-case because there was only one chair, +glanced around the store. Its walls were of undressed pine logs, and +it was roofed with cedar shingles hand-split. There were a few dozen +bags of somebody's "Early Riser" flour standing upon what appeared to +be kegs of nails, and across the room odd cases of canned goods, lumps +of salt pork, and a few bags of sugar apparently had been flung +together any way. Building and stock were of the crudest description, +and there was certainly nothing about either that suggested any degree +of prosperity. Then he glanced at his companions: the storekeeper, +dressed in shirt and trousers of a kind that no fastidious man would +think of wearing, and Devine, who had worn-out boots and was +suggestively ragged and lean. They did not look the kind of men who +were likely to pit themselves successfully against opulent financiers +and stock-jobbers in Montreal, but something in their grim faces +suggested that at least they meant to fight. + +"Well," he said, "I'll start to-morrow, and do what I can. It's quite +likely that before we put the thing through we'll have trouble." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +A QUALIFIED SUCCESS + + +Ida Stirling was sitting by an open window of a very +artistically-furnished room, with an English newspaper lying on the +little table beside her, and _The Colonist_, which is published in +British Columbia, on her knee. She fancied from the writing on the +wrapper that Arabella Kinnaird had sent her the former, and there was +a paragraph in it which had interested her more than a little. + +Trouble, it seemed, had broken out up a muddy African river, and a +white officer lying sick of fever at the time had forthwith set off +for the scene of it, with a handful of half-drilled black soldiery. +They had vanished into the steamy bush, and for several weeks nothing +had been heard of them; then, when those acquainted with the country +had decided that the little detachment had probably been cut off to a +man, half of them had unexpectedly appeared again. They now carried +their leader in a hammock, as he had been wounded by several pieces of +cast-iron fired out of a gaspipe gun; but they also brought back the +dusky gentlemen who had been responsible for the abortive rising. +Gregory Kinnaird had, it transpired, blundered into a couple of +ambushes, but that, and the fact that he had marched straight through +them, did not astonish Ida, who was more or less acquainted with his +character. He was, the paper stated, recovering from his injuries, +though it judiciously refrained from mentioning whether the +authorities applauded or censured him. + +It was not an uncommon story in connection with the country in +question, but it sent a little thrill through the girl as she read it. +The rising from the sick-bed and the blundering into the ambuscades +were so characteristic of the man. He had recognized what was expected +of him, and had immediately set about doing it, without any +consideration for his safety, or, indeed, for that of his men. Gregory +Kinnaird was not a man of marked ability, but he was, at least, one +who could be relied on to attempt the carrying out of a duty he had +undertaken, at any cost to himself, and this is, after all, a good +deal to say in the favor of any man. + +Ida had thought of him with a certain tenderness during the last +half-hour. She liked these simple, downright men, and fancied that the +absence of ostentation which usually characterized them was +essentially English, though she had certainly met a few in that +country who came under quite a different category. They were +continually posing; men who could not afford to be natural lest they +should give themselves away. Though she liked him, Gregory Kinnaird +had, however, passed out of her life. There was a good deal he could +have offered her, but, after all, she had almost as much already in +Canada, and it had become suddenly clear to her, outside of a London +ballroom one evening, that to like the man one would have to live with +was by no means going far enough. She also admitted that she could +have gone considerably further in the case of the man on whose account +she had been somewhat anxiously turning over _The Colonist_, which she +had done regularly during the last few weeks, without, she fancied, +her father, who purchased a good many provincial papers, becoming +aware of it. + +There was, however, once more nothing whatever in it about the +adventures of any prospectors, though the paper in question now and +then detailed such things at length; and she laid it down with a +little sigh of weariness, for two men, in one of whom she was +interested, had gone up into the wilderness some time earlier, and +nothing apparently had been heard of them since. Gregory Kinnaird had, +it seemed, won credit as well as blame, serving the Empire under arms +in steamy Africa; but it was, she felt, a sterner and longer fight the +men who were up against it--and she liked the expressive phrase--made +with savage nature in the west. + +After all, the rush on a rebel stockade was soon over, while it seemed +to her that the march through the black pine forest, half-fed, with +provisions running out, the sleeping in dripping fern or slushy snow, +and the staggering along the rangeside under a crushing load for days +together, with galled feet and shoulders that bled beneath the +pack-straps, was a much more difficult matter. Weston, her camp +attendant, had done all these things, and, as very frequently +happened, had so far gained nothing by them. She was glad that he had +done them, for the pride of a colonizing people was strong in her, +but, after all, that was not why she loved him. Indeed, it was rather +hard to find a reason for the latter fact. The only thing that +mattered was that she admitted it, and now she was wondering, with an +almost torturing anxiety, whether there would be any news of him in +the next issue of _The Colonist_. + +Laying aside the paper, she looked out on the city, which stretched +away before her, with its roofs and spires and towers clear in the +evening light, toward the great gleaming river; but, fair as the +prospect was, her thoughts sped back to the shadowy forests and +towering ranges of the Pacific Slope. As they did so, her eyes grew +curiously soft, for when she had last looked upon those snow-barred +heights the camp-packer had been at her side. Then she turned with a +sudden start and a swift rush of blood to her face as a maid +announced, "Mr. Weston." + +It was, however, a moment or two before the man came in, and she was +then mistress of herself, and it was reassuring to know that if there +was anything dramatic in his appearance at that particular time he was +evidently unaware of it. In fact, he entered the room as though he had +left it just on the previous day, and, taking her hand, merely held it +for perhaps a second longer than was absolutely necessary. Then he sat +down and inquired after her health and Stirling's, at which Ida, who +could not help it, laughed. She did not like effusiveness, but this +conventional formality seemed to her singularly out of place, until +she remembered that she had once or twice already found the +matter-of-fact quietness with which the man made his appearance and +went away again almost disconcerting. If this had been the result of +affectation it would have been provocative, but, as Ida was aware, it +seldom occurred to the man that anybody else was greatly interested in +his doings. She felt, however, that he might have made an exception of +her. + +"Where have you come from now?" she asked. + +Weston named a hotel of repute in that city, and, though this was not +the information Ida had desired, she favored him, unobserved, with a +glance of careful scrutiny. He was attired for once like a prosperous +man, in garments that became him, and, as she had noticed already, he +possessed the knack of wearing anything just as it should be worn, +which, as far as her observation went, was the particular +characteristic of some Englishmen. + +"Then you are not at Lemoine's this time?" + +"No," said Weston, with a whimsical twinkle in his eyes. "You see, we +have at last succeeded in finding the mine." + +Ida started. She regretted this, but she was human, and she knew that +the man loved her. It seemed only reasonable to expect that he would +proceed to make that fact clear to her now that he had found the mine, +but she was a little puzzled about his smile. It indicated rather too +much self-possession for a man on the verge of a proposal, and she did +not know that since he entered the house he had been endeavoring to +impose a due restraint upon himself. + +"Oh," she said hastily, "I'm very glad. You found the mine?" + +"No," replied Weston, gravely, "Grenfell found it." + +"Where is he? Have you brought him with you?" + +"I haven't," said Weston, and she noticed the sudden dropping of his +voice, "Grenfell's dead. He--went on--the night before we struck the +lode up there in the bush." + +"Before you struck the lode? But you said he found it." + +"Yes," admitted Weston, quietly, "I think he did." + +He told her the story in a few forceful words, and when he had +finished, her eyes grew a trifle hazy. She had sympathy and intuition, +and the thought of the worn-out man lying still forever beside the +gold he so long had sought affected her curiously. Weston, who felt +his heart throb painfully fast as he watched her, nodded. + +"Yes," he said, "it was rather pitiful, and there was a certain +ghastly irony in the situation; but, after all, as he once admitted, +there was very little that gold could have given him." + +Ida sat silent a moment or two. She was sorry for Grenfell, but he +had, as his comrade said, gone on, and she was more concerned about +the results of his discovery to those who were left behind. + +"The lode," Weston added, "is all that he described it." + +It cost Ida an effort to sit perfectly calm while she waited for his +next observation. It was, as she recognized, only his stubborn British +pride which had prevented him from declaring what he felt for her +earlier, and now the obstacle that had counted for most with him had +suddenly been removed. As it happened, however, he said absolutely +nothing. + +"Then you and Devine and that storekeeper are prosperous men?" she +asked. + +Weston laughed in a rather curious fashion, and when he spoke it was +as if he felt that an explanation of his attitude were due from him. + +"No," he said, "not yet. In fact, so far we're nothing more than three +remarkably rash adventurers--little men of no account--who have set +ourselves up against the big professional company jobbers. We have won +the first round, but that was fought with nature. It's comparatively +easy to face weariness and wet and frost when one is used to it, but +to fence with the money handler is quite a different matter. To cry +our wares in the market is a thing to which we're wholly new." + +He had said all that was required to make the situation reasonably +clear to a girl of her understanding. The battle was less than half +won, and it seemed that he would not claim her unless he came out +victor, which was, in some respects, as she would have it. Though she +now and then chafed at it, she loved the man's pride, and what he +could win by force she would not have him purchase with the money that +she could give him. She fancied, however, that if she chose to exert +her strength she could sweep away all the resolutions he had formed; +and she made a little of her power felt as she turned and looked at +him. + +"You feel that you must fight this thing out with such weapons as you +have?" she asked. "I suppose you wouldn't allow your friends to +provide you with more efficient ones? I know I have suggested as much +already, and you would not listen, but it would make success so much +easier." + +It was not remarkably explicit, but Weston, to some extent at least, +understood what she had implied, and he gazed at her with a curious +kindling in his eyes. She leaned forward in her chair, wonderfully +alluring, with a suggestive softness in her face, and he felt his +resolution deserting him. It was clear to the girl, who watched every +change of his expression, that the issue of the moment was in her +hands, and had he told her that the rest of the struggle he was +engaged in would be fought out in the snow-bound ranges where men not +infrequently died, she would have exerted all her strength. As it was, +however, and because of her pride in him, she suddenly determined that +she would let him win his spurs. Though it was beyond defining, there +was a subtle change in her manner when she leaned back in her chair. + +"I think," said Weston, "the first course you mentioned is the only +one open to me." + +The words did not cost him as great an effort as they would have a +moment or two earlier. He felt that in the meanwhile something had +snapped and the tension had suddenly slackened. This was a vast relief +to him, and he had recovered a good deal of his composure when the +girl spoke again. + +"Still," she said, "you evidently have no great liking for the +market-place." + +"I'm afraid I haven't," admitted Weston, with a little laugh. "After +all, when one has seen how some of these mining syndicates and +mortgage companies get in their work, a certain prejudice against such +things isn't quite unnatural." + +"Ah," said Ida, who had now decided that the conversation must be kept +within safe limits, "you don't, however, mind using the shovel." + +Weston was quite ready to follow the lead she had given him. + +"What are we to do when we come out here?" he asked, with an air of +whimsical reflection. "Half of us have no professions, and we haven't +a trade. They bring us up to take life easily, and then, when some +accident pitches us out into the Colonies, it's rather a shock to +discover that nobody seems to have any use for us. As a matter of +fact, I don't blame your sawmill bosses, your railroad men and your +ranchers, considering that it takes several years to learn how to chop +a tree, and that to keep pace with an average construction gang is a +liberal education." + +Ida laughed. The further they got away from the crisis now the better +she would be pleased. + +"I fancy there's still a notion in the old country that the +well-brought-up young Englishman excels at anything he cares to +undertake, even if it's only manual labor," she said. + +"Oh, yes," laughed Weston, "I've heard it. Let them keep such notions +over yonder if it pleases them. One naturally likes to think we're as +good as the rest, and perhaps we're warranted, but it seems to me that +the man of equal muscle raised to swing the ax and shovel is going to +beat the one who's new to it every time." + +"But the pride of caste!" said Ida. "Doesn't that count? Doesn't +success even at such things as track-laying or chopping trees depend +on moral _as_ well as physical strength?" + +"I think with most of us courage is largely a matter of experience," +said Weston. "We learn to know what can't hurt us and to avoid the +things that can. As to the other kind, the man who hazards his life +and limbs in half-propped wild-cat adits, or running logs down the +rapids, is hardly likely to be less cool in a tight place than the one +who has never been accustomed to anything of the kind." + +He was evidently expatiating on this subject merely because he felt +that it was safe ground, but Ida, who partly agreed with what he said, +felt that, after all, there was probably something in the insular +English notion that he was too proud to uphold. This man, at least, +possessed a courage that made him willing to carry the fight into the +market-place with wholly unaccustomed weapons, and a pride that +impelled him to lay a stern restraint upon his passion. She fancied +that there were men in Canada who would not have been deterred by her +money had they wished to marry her, and, for that matter, one or two +in England had delicately permitted the fact to become apparent. In +the meanwhile she had decided that he should have his wish. It would +perhaps be possible to offer support in some shape later on, if it +became apparent that he was badly beaten. + +"I suppose it is not a very easy matter to dispose of an undeveloped +mine?" she inquired. + +Weston smiled rather dryly. + +"It can be done without much trouble if you're content to give the +thing away, but it's rather different if you wish to sell it. In fact, +until the last week I'd no idea how hard the latter was." + +"Then you have been here a week?" + +There was a hint of reproach in her tone, and Weston, who understood +her to mean that she was a little astonished that he had not presented +himself earlier, realized that here was an opportunity that he might +have profited by had he only succeeded in selling the mine. As it was, +he let it pass, for he felt that if once he let himself go he would +probably say a good deal more than was advisable. + +"Yes," he said, with a laugh. "Still, at the rate I'm progressing, +several months will hardly see me through." + +Ida had formed a reasonably accurate notion of what was in his mind, +and she was half vexed with him and half pleased. He was, at least, +consistent, and meant to persist in the attitude he had adopted; but +it was significant that he evidently was afraid to venture an inch +outside his defenses. After all, she decided that it was probably +advisable that he should remain behind them in the meanwhile. It was, +however, more or less of a relief to her when her father came in. He +did not appear in the least astonished to see Weston, and shook hands +with him as though it were the most natural thing to find him sitting +there. + +"Business in this city?" he asked. + +"Yes," said Weston, "I've been endeavoring to sell a mine." + +"Then you struck the lode?" + +"I've been abusing Miss Stirling's good-nature with an account of how +we did it." + +Stirling made a little gesture that might have meant anything, but Ida +was pleased with the fact that he expressed no astonishment. It seemed +to her that he had expected Weston to succeed, and she knew that he +was very seldom wrong in his estimate of any man's character. She made +some excuse and left them together; and when the door closed behind +her Stirling turned to Weston. + +"If you'll come along to my room I'll give you a cigar," he said. +"Then, if you feel like it, you can tell me about the thing." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +STIRLING GIVES ADVICE + + +The contractor lay back in an easy-chair when he had lighted a cigar, +and watched Weston, who glanced with evident interest around the room. +Its furniture consisted of very little besides a roll-top desk and a +couple of chairs, but the walls were hung with drawings of machines +and large-scale maps, which had projected railroad routes traced +across them. An Englishman, as a rule, endeavors, with a success which +varies in accordance with his temperament, to leave his business +behind him when he goes home, but across the Atlantic the man of +affairs usually thinks and talks of nothing else. As one result of +this he has very little time to discuss the concerns of other people, +which is apt to become a habit of those who have very few of their +own. Stirling was, however, for private reasons willing to make an +exception of Weston in this respect, and when he noticed how the +latter's eyes rested on two or three models of machines which stood on +a shelf near him, he took down one of them. + +"I bought up the patent rights of that thing," he said. "As you see, +it's a power excavator, and, while it works all right in loose stuff +and gravel, the two I have on the Mule Deer road have been giving me +trouble." + +Weston, who was deeply interested, laid the machine on his knee and +spun it round once or twice. + +"The elevator buckets are the weak point," he said. "They won't +deliver stiff, wet spoil freely." + +Stirling's nod was very expressive, in that it suggested that he had +expected his companion to locate the cause of trouble. + +"You've hit it," he said, and opening the desk took out a little model +of an excavator bucket, beautifully made in burnished copper, and +another one more rudely fashioned out of bent card. He handed Weston +the former. + +"That's a rather famous man's idea," he added, with a little dry +smile. "I had to leave the thing to my secretary when I was west. I've +tried it on the Mule Deer road, and I'm not quite satisfied. The +other's one that I've been thinking over." + +Weston looked at both the models, and then, taking up the card one, +unfolded it, and, after paring part of it away with his knife, bent it +into a slightly different shape. + +"I think that should meet the purpose. I once worked under the +engineer of a very similar machine for a month or two," he said. + +Stirling picked up the model and examined it carefully before he +replaced it in the roll-top desk, which he shut with a snap. + +"Do you feel like taking a hundred dollars for the notion?" he asked. + +"I'd rather make you a present of it," said Weston, quietly. + +"Well," laughed Stirling, "I'll take it. My secretary paid the other +man a good deal more than that for the copper one, and it won't do +quite what is wanted. If that man had run an excavator in the mud and +rain I guess he'd have made it different. He sits tight in a smart +office, and tries to remember what they taught him twenty years ago in +the erecting shop." + +It seemed to Weston that there was a good deal to be said for this +point of view, though it was a matter which did not concern him. His +companion's manner was friendly, and to some extent familiar, but +Weston had already had an uneasy feeling in his presence that he was +being carefully weighed, or measured, by an astonishingly accurate +standard. His only defense, he decided, was to be perfectly natural, +and in this he was judicious, as the assumption of any knowledge or +qualities he did not possess would in all probability have been +promptly detected. He said nothing, which is a very excellent rule +when one does not know what to say, and Stirling changed the subject +when he spoke again. + +"So you have found the mine and come here to sell it," he observed. "I +guess you have had the usual experience?" + +"I don't quite know what is usual," said Weston, with a smile. "Still, +I've been round this city with a bag of what people admit are rather +promising specimens of milling ore, and I certainly haven't succeeded +in selling the mine yet." + +"The trouble is that the specimens might have been obtained from +anywhere," said Stirling, dryly. + +"There's one concern anyway in whose case the objection does not +apply. I got a telegram from my partner, the storekeeper, to the +effect that the Hogarth Combine had sent up Van Staten from Vancouver +to inspect the lode. I gather that one of the boys spotted him, though +he meant to do it quietly. The fact that he didn't announce his name +is rather suggestive. You can read the message." + +He took it from his pocket and handed it to Stirling, who wrinkled his +brows. + +"Well," he observed, "what Van Staten says goes. Very few of the big +concerns would hesitate to purchase when he was satisfied with the +thing. That storekeeper seems quite a smart man. The Hogarth people +have, no doubt, made you an offer since then?" + +"Four thousand dollars, all rights, and they'll meet expenses while I +put in the assessment work and do all that's necessary to get title +from the Crown. They were kind enough to say that it was rather a +hazardous venture, but they wanted another workable reef to round up +their mineral properties. The reason seemed a little vague." + +Stirling smiled rather grimly. "They want everything they can get +their hands on in the shape of a mineral property, as long as it costs +them 'most nothing. What did you tell them?" + +"That they'd have to go up six times, anyway, before I considered the +thing, and then I'd want half payment in ordinary stock. They asked if +I meant to stick to that, and I said I did." + +"Then," asserted Stirling, "you're going to have some trouble in +keeping that mine. The Hogarth people have frozen out more than one +little man who didn't want to part with his property. They're said to +be quite smart at it, and there are various ways of getting hold of +you." + +He studied Weston's face and saw it harden, which, as a matter of +fact, rather pleased him. The stubbornness which had sent this young +man back up the range, aching in every limb, with one boot full of +blood--and Stirling had heard that story--was now, it seemed, +impelling him into a struggle with a group of remarkably clever and +powerful mining financiers. The successful contractor appreciated +ability, especially when it was of the practical order, but perhaps he +was right in rating character higher. + +"Yes," said Weston quietly, "I quite expect that will be the case." + +"Have you had any other offer?" + +"Wannop made me a conditional one. Pending investigation, he talks of +floating a company here or in London. After the success of the +Hazleton and Long Divide concern, he says they're disposed to regard +British Columbian ventures favorably yonder. If it goes through, I'd +have to take most of the vendor's payment in shares, which I'm quite +ready to do. That's a rough sketch of the scheme, sir, but in the +meanwhile it's only tentative." + +Stirling perused the paper handed him with close attention; and before +he answered he lighted another cigar. + +"Wannop's straight, but he and his friends are little men," he said at +length. "You'd have the Hogarth Combine right on to you in London. One +or two of their subsidiary concerns are registered there. Now, I don't +know whether they really want your mine, but supposing they do, and +you won't sell out to them, I guess you have some idea of what their +game would be?" + +"I'm afraid I haven't, sir." + +"Well," said Stirling, "you'll be fortunate if you get half your +authorized capital applied for, and it would be quite an easy thing +for the Hogarth people to send somebody on to the market to sell your +stock down. That would freeze off any other investors from coming in, +and scare those who had applied for stock into selling. You can't put +up a crushing and reducing plant without a pile of money, and dams and +flumes for water-power would cost 'most as much; but you'd have to +have them, for you could never pack your ore out to a smelter through +the kind of country you have described to me. Now, unless you could +get money enough to start clear with, the concern is bound to cave in. +Then somebody acting for the Combine would quietly buy it up." + +He broke off for a moment and looked hard at Weston. + +"Suppose those people let you feel their hand and then make you a +rather higher offer? What are you going to do?" + +"Disregard it," said Weston, quietly. + +Stirling nodded in a manner which suggested that this was what he had +expected. + +"Well," he said, "I guess that's the course most likely to appeal to a +man constituted as you seem to be. But the question is, are you tough +enough to see it through? It's one that may cost you a good deal." + +"I don't know," said Weston. "I can only find out by trying." + +It appeared from his companion's manner that the answer pleased him. + +"Now," he said, "are you open to take advice or help from me?" + +Weston met his gaze, which was now unpleasantly steady. + +"Advice, sir," he answered. "I'm afraid I couldn't take help." + +"From me?" said Stirling, dryly, with an emphasis on the last word +which brought the blood to Weston's cheek. "Well, you can come for the +advice on any matter of detail when you feel like it. In a general way +I can only throw out one suggestion now, and it's at variance with the +views you seem to hold. Go over to the Hogarth people, and make the +most reasonable terms you can with them." + +"That's what you would do in my place?" Weston asked, with a twinkle +in his eyes. + +"I've been a blame fool once or twice in my time," Stirling admitted. +"It's curious that it didn't cost me quite as much as most people +expected. Still, what I've given you is excellent advice." + +He waved his hand as though to indicate that he had closed the +subject, but when Weston took his departure half an hour later the +contractor looked remarkably thoughtful. + +"If he weren't up against the Hogarth Combine he and Wannop might put +that scheme through," he mused. "As it is, I guess one way or another +I've got to help him out." + +Then he rose and descended to the room where his daughter was. + +"I've had an interesting talk with Mr. Weston," he said indifferently. +"That's quite a smart young man, but I guess one could call him a +little obstinate." + +Ida smiled at this, though she suspected her father's observation was +not quite as casual as it seemed. + +"Yes," she said, "in some respects I think he is. But how has he made +that clear to you?" + +Stirling, sitting down opposite her, laughed. + +"He's had an offer for his mine that most of the bush prospectors +would have jumped at, and if he'd played his cards judiciously the +people who made it would no doubt have doubled it. I suggested that +course to him, but it wasn't any use. Mr. Weston is one of the men who +can't make a compromise." + +"Isn't that a reasonable attitude? He presumably wants his rights." + +"The little man," observed Stirling, "has no rights that he isn't +prepared to hold on to in a rather uneven fight. With Weston it's all +or nothing, and just now I don't quite know which he'll get. He and +his partners will have to stake everything they own on a very +uncertain game." + +"Hasn't everybody who goes into business speculations to do that now +and then?" + +"No," said Stirling, reflectively, "I don't think they have. Quite +often the people who deal with them have to face part of the hazard. +In a general way they've something to fall back on if they're men of +position: the money they've settled on their wives, a name that would +get them credit on the market, or friends who'd give them a lift if +they came down with a bang. Now, that young man has nothing. If he +fails, he won't have a dollar to get out of this city with, for the +mine won't count. He can't even hold it unless he puts in his +assessment work on it, and he couldn't do that without something to +live on in the meanwhile. He hasn't a friend in Canada from whom he +could borrow a dollar." + +Ida said nothing, and Stirling added, as if in explanation: + +"I might be willing to give him a lift if it were absolutely +necessary, but it seems that he's quite determined not to take a favor +from me. He didn't offer me any reason for adopting that attitude." + +He looked at the girl rather curiously, and she noticed the +significance of his last sentence. Stirling had not said that he was +unacquainted with Weston's reason, but he seemed to be waiting for her +to make a suggestion, and she found the situation embarrassing. + +"Well," she said, "he probably has one that seems sufficient to him." + +Stirling said nothing further on the subject, and presently went out +and left her; but her expression changed when he had done so, and she +sat very still, with one hand tightly closed, for she now realized +what the cost of her lover's defeat might be. In his case it would not +mean a grapple with temporary difficulties, or a curtailing of +unnecessary luxuries, but disaster complete and irretrievable, perhaps +for years. If he failed, he would vanish out of her life; and it was +becoming rapidly clear that, however hard pressed he might be, there +was, after all, no way in which she could help him. The unyielding +pride or stubbornness which animated him at length appeared an almost +hateful thing. + +Ida did not sleep particularly well that night, and when she went down +to breakfast rather late the next morning there was a letter beside +her plate. She looked up at her father when she had opened it. + +"Susan Frisingham is coming here from Toronto for a day or two before +she goes back to New York," she said. "She suggests taking me back +with her." + +"Ah!" said Stirling, with a barely perceptible trace of dryness. "You +don't want to go just now?" + +Ida flashed another glance at him, and noticed the faint twinkle in +his eyes. She felt almost disconcerted, for it suggested +comprehension, and she certainly did not want to go. She could, it +seemed, do nothing to help the man she loved, and, for that matter, +she could scarcely encourage or sympathize with him openly, but she +would not seek pleasure elsewhere while he fought out the unequal +struggle alone. + +"No," she said, "I should much rather stay here." + +"As you like," said Stirling, who shortly afterward departed for the +city. + +Mrs. Frisingham was a rich widow and a distant connection of +Stirling's. She arrived that day, and on the following day contrived +to spend a few minutes alone with Stirling when he came home from +business. + +"I wanted to take Ida back with me, and I'm a little astonished that +she won't hear of it," she said. + +"In that case, I'm afraid the notion can't be carried out," said +Stirling. + +"Isn't it rather a pity?" suggested the lady. + +Stirling seemed to consider this. The two were old friends, in spite +of the fact that Mrs. Frisingham, who now and then spent a few weeks +in Montreal, had made several determined attempts to regulate the +contractor's domestic affairs. She described him to her friends as +pig-headed, and added that if it had not been for his daughter she +would have given up all idea of making him listen to reason. Stirling, +on his part, said that she no doubt had excellent intentions, but so +had a good many people who contrived to make a considerable amount of +unnecessary trouble. + +"I wonder why you want her at New York?" he asked. + +He had, as his companion was aware, a somewhat Unpleasant habit of +going straight to the point, but on this occasion she was disposed to +meet him. + +"Do you mind telling me what you mean to do with the girl?" + +"No," said Stirling. "I want to keep her with me just as long as she's +willing to stay; but I suppose I can stand it if she marries somebody +by and by." + +"That," said the lady, "is just the point. You would naturally prefer +him to be an eligible person. Now, if you let me have her for a while +I could promise that she would meet nobody who didn't answer that +description." + +Stirling laughed. He had suspected her intention all along, and +surmised that her offer was prompted partly by good-nature and partly +by a recognition of the fact that the presence of a young woman of +considerable wealth, who was beautiful as well as otherwise gifted, +would increase the popularity of the receptions over which she was +fond of presiding. + +"I'm not quite sure her views and yours would coincide," he said. +"Anyway, she has been in New York before--and in England, for that +matter." + +Mrs. Frisingham adroitly shifted her point of attack, and it almost +appeared, though Stirling could not tell how, that she had heard of +the camp-packer. + +"Don't you think there's a certain danger of her going through the +wood and choosing the crooked stick after all?" she asked. + +Stirling smiled. "I don't know that you could call New York or London +a wood. A hothouse would be nearer it," he said with an air of +reflection. "Still, to fall in with the simile, there are no doubt +plenty of sticks in both places, just as there are right here in this +city. In fact," and his eyes twinkled suspiciously, "I'm not quite +sure that isn't an excellent name for them. Quite a few are nicely +varnished, and in a general way they've hall-marked gold or silver +tops. The hallmark, however, guarantees only the trimmings, and from +one or two specimens that I've come across I've a suspicion that in +some cases the timber's rotten. When you choose a stick you want a +sound one--one that you can lean on when you face a hill, and I guess +that's a thing my girl will have to do now and then." + +His tone had grown a trifle graver as he went on, but his companion +waited, feeling that he had a little more to say, and that he might +offer her a hint of some kind, as, in fact, he presently did. + +"The sound sticks don't grow in stove-warmed houses, but out in the +wind and sun," he said. + +That was sufficient for Mrs. Frisingham, who had rather more than a +suspicion that Stirling already had in his mind somebody who had not +been bred in the city. An unknown man who built new railroad bridges +in the wilderness, or a bush rancher, it seemed most probable. + +"Well," she said, "I might perhaps warn you that the right choice is a +rather serious matter, and that, after all, it's wiser to consider the +opinions--call them prejudices if you like--of your own order." + +"When my daughter chooses," said the contractor, smiling, "she'll +choose wisely, and I'm going to be satisfied. I've had the pleasure of +reassuring another lady on that point already. As to the other matter, +the opinions of people of the station to which I now belong don't +count for much with me. For quite a long while they were dead against +my getting here at all; but I did work that this country wanted done, +and I'm where I am. You don't expect me to alter my views out of +deference to them?" + +He broke off for a moment, and nodded to her pleasantly as he went on +again. + +"We're old friends, Susan, and I guess you mean to be kind; but I've +been warned before, and it didn't affect me much," he said. "If Ida +wants to go back with you she may, but we'll leave it at that." + +He turned away, and, strolling into his own room, he took out the card +model of the excavator bucket which Weston had altered, and examined +it critically. + +"Yes," he said, "it will do its work. I guess that's characteristic of +the man." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE JUMPERS + + +Saunders, the storekeeper, lay outside the little tent, with the +pungent pine-wood smoke drifting past him and his feet toward the +fire, while dusk crept up the range and a wonderful stillness settled +down upon the lonely valley. His hands were badly blistered, and he +was aching in every limb, while some of his knuckles had the flesh +torn off them, for Devine had brought a heavy hammer down on them +several times that day instead of on the drill. For all that, he lay +beside the fire in the drowsy state of physical content which is not +infrequently experienced by those who have just enjoyed an ample meal +after a long day of strenuous labor in the open air. However, as +Saunders had reasons for believing that the result of the latter would +in due time prove to be eminently satisfactory, the sensation was in +his case perhaps a little more pronounced than usual. + +He was not more than healthfully weary, and there was an exhilarating +quality in the sweet, cool air, which was heavy with the smell of the +firs, while the wonderful green transparency generally to be seen +after sunset among the mountains of that land still glimmered behind +the peaks on one side of the valley. The rest of the hollow was +wrapped in creeping shadow against which the nearest pines stood out +in dusky ranks. Saunders raised himself on one elbow and gazed at them +reflectively before he turned to Devine, who was sitting near him. +They had been hard at work on the mineral claims of the Grenfell +Consolidated for the last few days. + +"This camping in the woods would be quite nice if one could prowl +round with the rifle instead of pounding the drill," he said, and then +paused to glance ruefully at one of his battered hands. "Anyway, I +don't know that I shouldn't just as soon do that as to hold it." + +"Sorry," said Devine. "Still, you've done some shooting. We brought up +a box of cartridges and now we haven't one. What you want is a +single-shot rifle, or a deer that will stand still." + +Saunders turned and pointed to the dismembered carcass that hung from +a fir branch close at hand. + +"I got that one on the run, and there was a time when I'd have had one +for every ca'tridge, instead of plugging Marlin bullets into trees. It +was a sport I was meant for." He paused and sighed. "I've had to be a +sawmill hand and a storekeeper." + +Devine grinned at this. + +"Well," he said, "you've raked more money out of pork and sugar than I +have out of surveying. For that matter, you've got most of mine; and +you're better off than I am, because the store's still running." + +"Oh, yes," said his companion, with a sardonic smile, "it's being run +by Jim from Okanagan, and he'll have the boys round in the back store +evenings sampling cheese and eating crackers while they help him. +They're kind of curious insects, and it's a blame pity I never +remembered to put those Vancouver invoices where they wouldn't lay +hands on them, for there'll sure be trouble when I get back again. You +have got to strike people for full prices when they don't always meet +their bills. Anyway, the man who spreads himself out on jobs that +don't strictly belong to him is bound to find it cost him something." + +It was significant that he spoke of going back; but both he and Devine +admitted that possibility. The mine was theirs, and they certainly +meant to keep it if they could, though they recognized that this might +be difficult. As a matter of fact, a reef or lode mine is of almost as +much immediate use to a poor man as a sewing-machine would be to a +naked savage. He cannot get out the ore without sinking a shaft or +driving an adit, which, in the general way, means the hiring of labor +and the purchase of costly machines. Then, when that is done, he must +put up a stamp-mill and reducing plant, or arrange for transport by +pack-horse to somebody who has one, which is a very expensive matter +in a mountainous land where roads have still to be cut. As the result +of this, he must in the first place go round and beg the assistance of +men with money to spare; and the latter, as a rule, insist on his +handing over the mine before parting with any of their money. There +are also means of putting pressure on the reluctant seller, and the +usual code of morals does not seem to be considered as strictly +applicable to a mining deal. + +"Well," said Devine, at length, "we have still a good deal of drilling +to do, and unless you're smarter with the hammer than I am we'll want +new hands before we're through." + +"We hold three claims, and that means quite a lot of assessment work +for you and me to put in," Saunders said. "Besides, you'll have to go +down and straighten up things with the Gold Commissioner." + +Devine made a sign of concurrence. When he had staked off the claims +with Weston he had been more concerned about tracing the lode than +anything else, and it had not occurred to him that they might be +contested, as it certainly should have done. As the result of this, he +had neglected one or two usual precautions, and when he filed his +record he had not been as exact as was advisable in supplying bearings +that would fix the precise limits of the holdings. + +"Yes," he said, "now that I've made a second survey, I'll take the +back trail in a day or two. The stakes are planted just where they +should be, but the description I gave the Commissioner wasn't quite as +precise as I should have made it; and, as the thing stands, I'm not +sure we'd have much to go upon if anybody pulled up our stakes and +swung our claim a little off the lode. Anyway, I don't quite see why +the Commissioner shouldn't pass my survey to count for assessment +work." + +The firelight fell on Saunders' face, and he looked thoughtful. Though +the thing is by no means common, claims have been jumped in that +country--that is, occupied by men who surreptitiously or forcibly oust +the rightful owner on the ground that he has not done the work +required by law, or has been inaccurate in his record. + +"I guess you'd better go down to-morrow when the boys come up," he +said. "It's a fact that Van Staten went over to Cedar to see the Gold +Commissioner, and from what one of the boys told me he had quite a +long talk with him. Van Staten's straight, but it would be part of his +duty to examine our record and mention it to the people who sent him +up to investigate." He paused and spread out his hands. "I wouldn't +stake my last dollar on the honesty of any of them." + +"The boys would start when they got the news you sent them," said +Devine. + +Saunders smiled ruefully. He felt reasonably certain that every man in +the settlement would abandon his occupation when he heard the message +they had sent by an Indian they met on the trail soon after they +started. Saunders, it must be admitted, had not sent it until Devine +insisted on his doing so, for, as he shrewdly said, there was not a +great deal of the lode that could be economically worked available, +and he wanted to make quite sure that the Grenfell properties were on +the richest of it, while the boys would be better employed working on +their ranches and buying things from him than worrying over profitless +claims. He added that if the latter broke them he would in all +probability never recover what they owed him. + +"They'll be here, sure, bringing as much of my pork and flour as they +can pack along," he said. "It's quite likely Jim won't have raised +thirty dollars among the crowd of them." + +"Well," said Devine, "if I'm to take the trail tomorrow I'm going +right under my blanket now." + +He rolled it round him and lay down on a pile of spruce twigs outside +the tent. The dew was rather heavy, but he was young and strong, and +it is a luxury to sleep in the open in that elixir-like mountain air. +He went to sleep at once, and it was evidently early morning when +Saunders awakened him, for the moon, which had not cleared the eastern +peaks when he lay down, was now high in the heavens. He sprang to his +feet, and stood a moment or two shivering a little as he looked about +him. It was very cold, and the little open space where the tent stood +was flooded with silvery light, though here and there the shadows of +the firs fell athwart it black as ink and sharp as a fretwork cut in +ebony. Then he saw Saunders close beside him, fumbling with the +magazine of his repeating-rifle. + +"Not a blame ca'tridge left! You'd better take the ax along," he said. + +"The ax?" queried Devine, who was a little startled as well as +puzzled. + +Saunders pointed to the shadowy bush. + +"Sure," he said. "It's jumpers!" + +That was enough for Devine. He flashed a glance at his companion. +Saunders possessed the huckster's heart, and took pleasure in selling +indifferent pork and third-grade flour at the highest prices he could +possibly extort. The clink of the dollar was music to him; but it was +perfectly clear that he could hold his own, on occasion, with a very +tenacious hand. The man was resolutely quiet and evidently quite ready +to meet the jumpers with an empty rifle. + +For the next few moments Devine stood listening with strained +attention. At first he could hear nothing except a little breeze that +sighed among the tops of the firs, but by and by he became sensible of +a stealthy rustling somewhere in the shadows. Then a branch snapped +with a sharp distinctness that set his heart beating a good deal +faster than was comfortable. Making a sign to Saunders, he strode back +to the tent and picked up the ax. + +After that they set out together down the little trail that led past +the willows to the lode, slipping as silently as possible through the +shadows, though now and then a stone clinked beneath their feet, or a +stick or twig snapped as they passed, with a sound that seemed +startlingly loud. Nobody, however, seemed to hear them, and at last +they sank down amidst a brake of tall fern near a little, +neatly-squared stake which had been driven into the soil. The brake +was in black shadow, but a broad patch of moonlight fell on the green +carpet of wineberries a yard or two away. The rustling had ceased, and +they could hear nothing for several anxious minutes; then it commenced +again. A man floundering through that kind of bush makes considerable +noise, even when it is daylight and he can see where he is going. Then +one of the jumpers, who apparently had fallen into a clump of thorns, +broke out into half-smothered expletives, and there was a soft laugh, +evidently from a comrade. + +"Looking for the stake," said Saunders with a rather grim chuckle. +"They mean to put the work through before they come round to call on +us. As far as I can figure, there can't be more than four of them." + +That appeared to Devine quite enough, but he recognized the necessity +for a determined opposition. He knew that he had framed his record +before the Gold Commissioner, and that it would not be difficult for +the men who pulled up that stake to swing his claim a little off the +richest of the lead. This would give them an opportunity for staking +off a good deal of the strip he meant to hold, and once they took +possession it would be a case of proving them wrong; and when it came +to testimony, they were two to one. He felt sincerely sorry that +Saunders had not sent the boys word of his discovery a little earlier. + +In the meanwhile the rustling had ceased once more, and Devine felt +the silence react upon his nerves. What the strangers were doing he +could not tell, but he fancied that they must be consulting together +somewhere among the trees. He felt that it would be a vast relief if +he could only see them; and he glanced around at Saunders. The latter +crouched among the dewy fern, impassively still, a blurred, shadowy +object, with the rifle across his knees. + +Then the crackling of undergrowth commenced again, and Devine fancied +that he could distinguish the movements of four men. He heard the fern +rustle close behind him, and saw that his companion had raised himself +a trifle. The latter appeared to be gazing into the bush, and looking +around sharply the surveyor started as a figure materialized out of +the gloom where the moonlight streamed down between the trees not far +away. The man stood amidst the silvery radiance, and Devine was +relieved to notice that he had nothing in his hand. Then he turned +partly around, and his voice reached the pair who watched him. + +"Have you struck it yet?" he asked. + +An invisible man replied that he had not yet found whatever he was +searching for; and in another moment a sharp snapping suggested that a +third stranger was floundering through the bush. He came into sight +close by the first and stopped. + +"I can't strike that post," he said. "The bush down that way is black +as pitch. Guess I'll have to look for a pine-knot and get a light." + +"They'd hear you chopping," said the man who had appeared first. "The +tent's just back there among the firs. We have got to have that post +shifted before they know we are about." + +There was no doubt as to who it was that he referred to, and Devine +saw Saunders hitch himself forward a little. + +"If I'd only three or four ca'tridges!" he said half aloud. + +Devine sympathized with him. His comrade was a very indifferent shot, +but it would have been a relief to feel that they had something +besides the ax to fall back on as a last resort. Firearms, as he was +aware, are seldom made use of in a dispute in British Columbia, but, +for all that, men have now and then been rather badly injured during +an altercation over a mineral claim. At close quarters a shovel or a +big hammer is apt to prove an effective weapon. + +Then, and neither was afterward quite sure how it happened, Saunders +lost his balance and fell forward amidst the fern. He did not do it +noiselessly, and one of the two jumpers sprang backward a pace. + +"Somebody in that clump of fern," he said, and then apparently +recovered a little from his alarm. "It's that blame fool Charley." + +There was no longer any possibility of concealment, and Saunders +suddenly stood up in the moonlight which had crept close up to the +brake, a tall, gaunt figure with the rifle glinting at his hip. + +"It's not," he said laconically. "It's going to be a funeral unless +you light out of this." + +The men did not stop to consider, but vanished on the instant, and +Devine, breaking into a little laugh from sheer relief, fancied that +they had jumped behind adjacent trees. Saunders, who stood gazing into +the shadows, waved his hand. + +"You'll stop right where you are, boys, if you're wise," he said. +"There'll sure be trouble if you come out again." + +The men did not come out, but there was a smashing of undergrowth as +two more came running up. They were visible for a moment as they +sprang out into the open space between the willows and the first of +the firs, and then apparently they saw Saunders, for they plunged back +among the trees. The storekeeper sank down behind the fern. + +"It's quite a good light, and one of them might have a pistol," he +explained half aloud. + +Devine considered this very probable; and when there was no sign of +their opponents during the next few minutes he once more became +conscious that his heart was beating unpleasantly fast. The jumpers +apparently had vanished altogether, but he fancied that they were +considering some plan of attack. By and by, a voice came out of the +shadows. + +"There's the post close up against the fern," it said. + +"That," remarked Saunders, dryly, "is going to put a hustle on to some +of them." + +He was right, for a moment later a man stepped out into the moonlight. + +"Put down your gun. We want to talk," he said. + +"Then," replied Saunders, who did not stand up, "go ahead; but you'll +stop in the light; and if you feel like sending any of your partners +to work a traverse round this bunch of fern, you can remember that +I've got the forehead plumb on--you." + +The man's gesture indicated that he understood the situation, and, +though he had jumped for cover a little earlier, as most men in his +place would have done, it was evident that he was a courageous rogue. + +"I want to tell you that there are four of us, and we've come up quite +a way to shift that post for you," he said. "There's no use making +trouble, for it has to be done." + +Saunders touched his companion's shoulder. + +"Chip in," he said softly. "Talk like a land agent trying to sell a +ranch. We've got to keep this crowd quiet. The boys can't be far off." + +Devine agreed with his last statement. The moonlight was bright enough +for one to travel by, at least in the brulee, and he was sufficiently +acquainted with western human nature to feel certain that every man in +the settlement would have started when he heard of their discovery, +and, what was more to the purpose, would not waste a moment on the +journey. Men going up to a new gold strike do not, as a rule, trouble +themselves about want of sleep or weariness. On the other hand, he did +not think they could possibly arrive before morning, which meant that +he must keep the jumpers talking for several hours. It appeared very +doubtful whether their patience or his conversational powers would +hold out, but he meant to do what he could. + +"I'm not quite as sure that you're going to move that post as you seem +to be; and, anyway, I don't quite see why you want to do it," he said. +"You can't take possession of a duly recorded claim." + +The jumper laughed. + +"Your record won't hold. You should have made it clearer; given +two-point bearings, or blazed your line on trees." + +"Why?" asked Devine. "This post fixes the key boundary." + +"Trouble is that we're going to move that post," said the other man. + +He did not appear impatient, and Devine deduced two things from the +fact that he was willing to discuss the matter. One was that the +jumper, who evidently had not met the Indian, was unaware that the men +from the settlement were then in all probability pushing on as fast as +possible through the brulee, and the other that the man had no desire +to proceed to extremities. This was reassuring as far as it went, but +it must be admitted that the surveyor was afterward a little +astonished at his collectedness and perspicacity. + +"Why don't you want to move all the posts?" he asked. + +"We couldn't square that with your record," was the candid answer. +"Moving one will swing you across instead of along the lead, and will +let in our new location. I'm telling you this, because you'll probably +be reasonable now that you understand the thing. Light out and don't +make trouble, and you'll still hold quite a strip on the lead." + +"Give us a minute or two to think it over," said Devine. + +"In the meanwhile you'll stop just where you are," Saunders broke in. + +The man waved his hand as though he conceded that point, and Devine +turned to his companion. + +"I've only one excuse to make. When I staked off the claims, I was in +a feverish hurry to prove the lead and get down and record," he said. +"Now, that's not an educated man, but he's got the hang of this thing +as clearly as a surveyor could have done. It's evident that the man +who hired him has drilled it into him, and, what is more, has warned +him that he's to make no unnecessary trouble. We're to be bounced out +of rather more than half our claim, but it's to be done as quietly as +possible. He explained the matter in the expectation that we'd pull +out and leave the field to them." + +"You've hit it," said Saunders. "Don't answer. Let him speak again. +We've got to gain time." + +They waited several minutes in tense anxiety, for, after all, it was +conceivable that, diplomacy failing, the jumper would adopt more +forcible means. Then the man waved his hand. + +"You've got to decide what you're going to do," he said. + +Devine proceeded to urge every reason he could think of, and held him +in play a little longer, until finally the jumper lost his patience. + +"Oh," he said, "you make me tired! Light out and be done with it! +We're going to pull up that post." + +Saunders thrust forward the rifle barrel so that the moonlight +sparkled on it. + +"Then," he said grimly, "come right along and shift it." + +Instead of doing so, the man jumped back into the shadow, which was +perhaps a very natural proceeding. Then there was oppressive silence +for a few minutes. Devine, who could not hear anything, felt horribly +anxious as to what their opponents might be doing. Suddenly there was +a fresh rustling among the undergrowth, and Saunders thrust the rifle +into his companion's hands. + +"Crawling in at the back of us! Let them see you on the opposite +side!" he said. + +Devine wriggled through the fern, and, though he knew that this was +rash, stood up where the moonlight fell upon him, with the long barrel +glinting in front of him. He fancied, though he could not be certain, +that he saw a shadowy figure flit back among the trees, and in any +case the rustling died away again. After that he crawled back to +Saunders, for, as he admitted afterward, he did not like standing on +the other side of that thicket alone. + +He subsequently repeated the maneuver several times, and Saunders once +or twice answered the jumpers' warnings with a sardonic invitation to +remove the post. Neither of them afterward was sure how long the +horrible tension lasted, though they agreed that a very little more of +it would probably have broken down their nerve; but at length a faint +sound came out of the shadows down the valley. It rapidly grew louder, +and when it resolved itself into such a smashing of undergrowth as +might have been made by a body of men, Saunders sprang up and waved +his rifle toward where he supposed the jumpers to be. + +"You'd better git," he said. "The boys from the settlement will head +you off inside five minutes." + +There was no answer, and it appeared that the jumpers had already +departed as silently as possible. A little later the men from the +settlement came limping in, and the foremost of them clustered round +Devine, who sat just outside the fern, while Saunders, whose face +showed a trifle drawn in the moonlight, stood still clutching the +rifle. + +"What's the matter? You're not looking pert, the pair of you," said +one of them. + +"Give me a cigar, if you've got one," said Devine. "Saunders will tell +you about the thing. I've done quite enough talking for one night." + +Saunders told the story tersely, and afterward snapped the magazine of +his rifle up and down with a dramatic gesture. + +"Held them off with that, and not a blame ca'tridge in the thing," he +said. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +SAUNDERS TAKES PRECAUTIONS + + +The men from the settlement had been three weeks in camp. Saunders sat +with his back to a big fir and a little hammer in his hand. There was +a pile of shattered quartz at one side of him and another smaller heap +of fragments of the same material lying on an empty flour-bag at his +feet. Devine, who had just announced that dinner was almost ready, +leaned against a neighboring fir, looking on with a suggestive grin; +and a big, gaunt, old-time prospector, with a grim, bronzed face, was +carefully poising one of the quartz lumps in a horny hand. Saunders, +who had been at work since daylight that morning, had paid the latter +six dollars for his services, and admitted that he was highly +satisfied with the result. He was then engaged in manufacturing +specimens. + +There was already a change in the forest surrounding the lonely camp. +The willows had been hewn down, great firs lay in swaths, with some of +their mighty branches burnt, and a track of ruin stretched back from +Saunders' tent to the side of the range. The Grenfell Consolidated +Mine, three separate claims, occupied what was supposed to be the +richest of the land. It was certainly the most accessible portion, for +payable milling ore was already being extracted from an open cut. It +was not the fault of Saunders that the Consolidated did not occupy the +whole of it, but the law allows each free miner only so many feet of +frontage, and the Gold Commissioner had shown himself proof against +the surveyor's reasoning that, as Grenfell had found the mine, a +fourth location should be recorded in the name of his executors. A +dead man, as the Commissioner pointed out, could not record a mineral +claim. + +The men from the settlement had, however, promptly staked off every +remaining rod of ground along the lead, and, though the spot was +remote from anywhere, another band was busily engaged in an attempt to +trace it back across the dried-up lake. How they had heard of it at +all was not very evident, but as the eagles gather round the carcass +and the flies about the fallen deer, so men with shovels and axes +appear as by enchantment when gold is struck. Distance counts as +nothing, and neither thundering rivers nor waterless deserts can deter +them. + +Saunders listened with great contentment to the ringing of the axes +and the sharp clink of the drills. Men who labor strenuously from dawn +to dark in the invigorating mountain air consume provisions freely, +and, as the storekeeper was quite aware, those engaged on that lode +would be compelled to purchase their pork and tea and flour from him. + +"It was quite a smart idea to give Jim a commission on the sales, +though I was kind of wondering if he'd have the sense to stay where he +is and run the store," he said. "If he hasn't been fool enough to +outfit the boys on credit he must have been raking in money." + +Then he took up the lump of stone the prospector handed him and +knocked most of it to pieces with the hammer; after which he handed +one or two of the fragments to Devine, who grinned more broadly. + +"Since Weston wants more specimens I guess he's got to have them," he +explained. "I don't know any reason why we shouldn't send him the best +we can. This lot should assay out, anyway, several ounces to the ton." + +The prospector made a little grave sign of agreement, for this was a +game to which he was more or less accustomed. Lode ore now and then is +of somewhat uniform quality, but at times it varies in richness in a +rather striking manner; and the storekeeper had spent six or seven +hours picking out the most promising specimens. From these he had +trimmed off every fragment in which, as far as he could discern, the +precious metal was not present, with the result that any mineralogist +to whom they might be handed could certify to the richness of the +Grenfell Consolidated. Saunders was a business man, and quite aware +that the vendor of any kind of goods, when asked for samples, does +not, as a rule, submit indifferent ones. + +"I guess," he added, probably referring to prospective investors, +"this lot ought to fetch them. You asked the boys to come along, +Devine?" + +Devine said he had done so, and in a few more minutes several little +groups of men, in dilapidated long boots and somewhat ragged duck, who +had ceased work for their mid-day meal, gathered round the fir. They +waited mildly curious when Saunders rose and made a sign that he +required their attention, which they were perhaps the more willing to +give because they were all his customers, and bills are apt to run up +in a bush ranching community. + +"Boys," said Saunders, "I want to point out that instead of owning +gold-mines most of you would now be shoveling on the railroads or +humping fir trees at the sawmills, if it hadn't been for me." + +Some of them laughed, and some of them admitted that there was a +certain truth in this, for the bush rancher who buys uncleared land +usually spends several years in very strenuous labor before it +produces enough for him to live on, and in the meanwhile he must +either go away and endeavor to earn a few dollars every now and then +or else fall into the hands of the nearest storekeeper. + +"Our friend is a philanthropist," said one of them, who spoke clean, +colloquial English. "We all admit his favors, but he doesn't mention +that he puts them in the bill." + +"And he doesn't charge anything extra for insects in his flour," said +another man. + +There was a little laughter, but Saunders gazed at them reproachfully. + +"If you think it's easy making money out of the kind of crowd you are, +all you have to do is to start a store and see. But that wasn't quite +what I meant to say," he explained. "Anyway, I put the whole of you +right on to this lead." + +"You were quite a long while doing it," interjected one of the +audience. + +Saunders waved his hand. + +"Am I a blame fool?" he asked. "I've no use for an inquisitive, +grasping crowd worrying round my gold-mine until I've got things +securely fixed. Still, you drove off those jumpers, for which you have +my thanks; and I want in due time to get back the money most of you +owe me." + +"You can count on that, boys," said another of them. "It's a dead sure +thing." + +The storekeeper disregarded this. + +"Well," he continued, "we'll get to the point of it. It's kind of easy +finding a gold-mine when you've a friend of my kind to put you on to +it, but it's quite often a blame hard thing to keep it. Now, you'll +have men from the cities wanting to buy you up, offering you a few +hundred dollars for the claims you've struck, and if you're fools +you'll take it. If not, you'll hold off until the Grenfell Consols go +up on the market and then give us first call on buying the lot. If we +can't take the deal you'll get six or eight times as much in Vancouver +as you would if you let go now." + +One of the men who had spoken broke in again. + +"Boys," he said, "when Saunders makes a proposition of that kind it's +because he sees how he's going to get something out of it. But for all +that, I guess it's sound advice he's giving you." + +There was a little consultation among the men, and then one of them +asked a question that evidently met with the favor of his companions. + +"How are we going to live in the meanwhile?" + +"That's quite easy," said the storekeeper, with a smile. "I'll supply +you with pork and flour, drills and giant-powder, at bed-rock figure, +while you get in your assessment work, and while you live on your +ranches afterward until you make a deal. All I ask is that you won't +sell until the Grenfell's floated, and that you'll give us first call +then. It's a cold fact that if I had the money I'd buy you all up +now." + +There was truth in his last assurance, which was at the same time a +highly diplomatic one, for it occurred to most of the audience that if +there was anything to be made by waiting they might as well have it as +anybody else; and after a further consultation they gave him their +promise. Then they trooped away to prepare their dinner, and Saunders +turned to Devine with a contented smile. + +"I guess," he said, "we've headed those company men right off this +lode, and, what's most as much to the purpose, the boys will have to +trade with me if anybody comes up and starts another store. Just now +I'd feel quite happy if I knew how Jim was running things." + +He was soon to learn, for he had scarcely risen from a meal of salt +pork, somewhat blackened in the frying-pan, and grindstone bread +indifferently baked by Devine, when Jim and several strangers plodded +into camp. He was very ragged, and apparently very weary, but he +displayed no diffidence in accounting for his presence. + +"It was kind of lonesome down there, and I figured I'd come along," he +said. + +Saunders gazed at him for a moment in mute indignation before his +feelings found relief in words. + +"And you raking in money by the shovelful!" he gasped. + +"No," said Jim, decisively, "I wasn't quite doing that. Anyway, it was +your money. I got only a share of it; and you didn't figure I'd stay +back there weighing out flour and sugar when there was a gold strike +on?" + +Saunders contrived to master his anger, and merely made a little +gesture of resignation. He was acquainted with the restlessness which +usually impels the average westerner to throw up ranch or business and +strike into the bush when word of a new mineral find comes down, +though much is demanded of those who take the gold trail, and, as a +rule, their gains are remarkably small. + +"Whom did you leave to run the store?" asked Saunders. + +"Nobody," said Jim. "Except two Siwash, there was nobody in the +settlement; and, anyway, the store was most empty when the boys came +along." He indicated the strangers with a wave of his hand. "As they +hadn't a dollar between them I told them I'd give them credit, and +they could pack up with them anything they could find in the place." + +Saunders appeared to find some difficulty in preserving a befitting +self-restraint, but he accomplished it. + +"What did you do with the money you'd taken already?" was his next +question. + +"Wrapped it up in a flour-bag," said the man from Okanagan, +cheerfully. "Then I pitched the thing into an empty sugar-keg. Wrote +up what the boys owed you, and put the book into the keg too. Anyway, +I wrote up as much as I could remember." + +Saunders looked at Devine, who stood by, and there was contempt beyond +expression in his eyes. + +"That," he said, "is just the kind of blamed fool he is." + +Then he turned to Jim. + +"If I were to talk until to-morrow I couldn't quite tell you what I +think of you." + +Jim only grinned, and, sitting down by the fire, set about preparing a +meal, while Saunders, who appeared lost in reflection, presently +turned again to Devine. + +"I guess I'll go down this afternoon," he said. "We'll have a fresh +crowd pouring in, and they'll want provisions. Anyway, I've headed off +those company men, and if it's necessary I can go through to the +railroad and get hold of Weston by the wires." + +Devine admitted that this might be advisable, and Saunders, who was a +man of action, took the back trail in the next half-hour. He had held +his own in one phase of the conflict which it was evident must be +fought before the Grenfell Consolidated could be floated, and it was +necessary that somebody should go down to despatch the specimens to +Weston. + +They were duly delivered to the latter; and the day after he got them +it happened that he sat with Ida on a balcony outside a room on the +lower floor, at the rear of Stirling's house. It was about four +o'clock in the afternoon and very hot, but a striped awning was +stretched above their heads, and a broad-leafed maple growing close +below flung its cool shadow across them. Looking out beneath the roof +of greenery they could see the wooded slope of the mountain cutting +against a sky of cloudless blue, while the stir of the city came up to +them faintly. Weston had already, at one time or another, spent +several pleasant hours on that balcony. They had been speaking of +nothing in particular, when at length Ida turned to him. + +"Have you ever heard anything further from Scarthwaite?" she asked. + +Weston fumbled in his pocket. + +"I had a letter only a few days ago." + +He took it out and handed it to her, with a little smile which he +could not help, though he rather blamed himself for indulging in it. + +"As you know the place and met my sister, you may enjoy reading it. +Julia's unusually communicative. It almost seems as if I were a person +of some consequence to them now." + +Ida took the letter, and her face hardened as she read. Then she +looked at him with a suggestive straightening of her brows. + +"Isn't that only natural? You have found a mine," she said. + +"The same idea occurred to me," laughed Weston; "but, after all, +perhaps I shouldn't have shown you the letter. It wasn't quite the +thing." + +"Still, you felt just a little hurt, and that I could respect a +confidence?" + +Ida looked at him as if she expected an answer, and it occurred to +Weston that she was very alluring in her long white dress, though the +same thought had been uppermost in his mind for the last half-hour. + +"Yes," he admitted, "I suppose that was it." + +He could have answered more explicitly, but he felt that it would not +be safe, for it seemed very probable that if he once gave his feelings +rein they would run away with him; and this attitude, as the girl +naturally had noticed on other occasions, tended to make their +conversation somewhat difficult. + +"What are you going to do about one very tactfully-worded suggestion?" +she asked. + +"You mean the hint that I should make a few shares in the Grenfell +Consolidated over to my English relatives? After all, considering +everything, it's not an unnatural request. I shall endeavor to fall in +with it." + +Ida's face did not soften. The man was her lover, for, though he had +not declared himself, she was quite aware of that, and she was his +partisan and very jealous of his credit. It was difficult to forgive +those who had injured him, and these people in England had shown him +scant consideration, and had spoken of him slightingly to her, a +stranger. He noticed her expression and changed the subject. + +"I have fancied now and then that you must have said something +remarkably in my favor that day at Scarthwaite," he said. "I never +quite understood what brought up the subject, but Julia once referred +to a picture." + +Ida laughed softly. + +"I'm afraid I wasn't very tactful, and I shouldn't be astonished if +your people still regard me as a partly-civilized Colonial. Anyway, +there was a picture--a rather striking one. Do you remember +Arabella's' making a sketch of you with the ax?" + +"I certainly do. She wasn't complimentary in some of her remarks. She +called me wooden. But the picture?" + +"Would you like to see it before you go?" + +Weston glanced at her sharply, and she nodded, while a faint trace of +color crept into her face. + +"Yes," she said. "I have it here. I made Arabella give it to me." + +She saw the man set his lips, for it seemed scarcely probable to him +that a young woman who begged for the picture of a man would do so +merely because she desired to possess it as a work of art. Besides, he +felt, and in this he was to some extent correct, that she had intended +the admission to be provocative. He was, however, a man with a simple +code which forbade his making any attempt to claim this woman's love +while it was possible that in a few months he might once more become a +wandering outcast. He sat still for a moment or two, and it seemed to +Ida, who watched him quietly, that he had worn much the same look when +he stood beside the helpless Grenfell, gripping the big ax. This was +really the fact, though he now entered upon a sterner struggle than he +had been ready to engage in then. Once more he was endeavoring to do +what it seemed to him right. + +"Miss Kinnaird would have been better employed if she had painted the +big snow peak with the lake at its feet," he said at length. + +Ida abandoned the attempt to move him. She had yielded to a momentary +impulse, but she was too proud to persist. + +"Well," she said, "that peak certainly was rather wonderful. You +remember it?" + +"Yes," said Weston with injudicious emphasis; "I remember everything +about that camp. I can see the big black firs towering above the still +water--and you were sitting where the light came slanting in between +them. You wore that gray fishing suit with the belt round it, and you +had your hat off. The light made little gold gleams in your hair that +matched the warm red glow on the redwood behind you--and you had burst +the strap of one little shoe." + +"Haven't you overlooked Arabella?" suggested Ida, who realized that +his memory was significantly clear. + +"Miss Kinnaird?" said Weston. "Of course, she was with you--but it's +rather curious that she's quite shadowy. I don't quite seem to fix +her, though I have a notion that she didn't fit in. She was out of +key." + +"That," laughed Ida, "was probably the result of wearing a smart +English skirt. Do you remember the day you fell down and broke her +parasol, and what you said immediately afterward about women's +fripperies?" + +"I didn't know that I had an audience," explained Weston, with his +eyes twinkling. "I certainly remember that when you fancied that I had +hurt myself you would have carried half the things over the portage if +I had let you. We went fishing that evening. There was one big trout +that broke you in the pool beneath the rapid. The scent of the firs +was wonderful." + +She led him on with a few judicious questions and suggestions, and for +half an hour they talked of thundering rivers, still lakes and shadowy +bush. He remembered everything, and, without intending to do so, he +made it clear that in every vivid memory she was the prominent figure. +It was here she had hooked a big trout, and there she had, under his +directions, run a canoe down an easy rapid. She had enjoyed all that +the great cities had to offer, but as she listened to him she sighed +for the silence of the pine-scented bush. + +At last he rose with a deprecatory smile. + +"I'm afraid I've rather abused your patience," he said; "and I have to +call on Wannop about the mine." + +"You have told me nothing about it," said Ida. "How is it getting on?" + +A shadow crept into Weston's face. + +"There isn't very much to tell, and it was a relief to get it out of +my mind for an hour or so. As a matter of fact, it's by no means +getting on as we should like it." + +Then, after another word or two, he took up his hat and left her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +WESTON STANDS FAST + + +Business called Weston to Winnipeg a few days after his interview with +Ida, and, as it happened, he met Stirling at the head of the +companionway when the big lake steamer steamed out into Georgian Bay. +Neither of them had any other acquaintance on board, and they sat +together in the shade of a deckhouse as the steamer ploughed her way +smoothly across Lake Huron a few hours later. Weston had arranged to +meet a Chicago stock-jobber who had displayed some interest in the +mine, and he had chosen to travel up the lakes because it was more +comfortable than in the cars in the hot weather, besides being +somewhat cheaper, which was a consideration with him. Stirling, it +seemed, was going to inspect the route for a railroad which an +iron-mining company contemplated building. He lay in a deck-chair, +with a cigar in his hand, apparently looking out at the shining water +which stretched away before them, a vast sheet of turquoise, to the +far horizon. + +"Well," he asked at length, "how's the Grenfell Consolidated +progressing?" + +"It seems to be making most progress backward," said Weston. "Still, I +suppose the fact that somebody evidently considered it worth while to +send up men to jump our claim might be considered encouraging." + +He briefly related what had taken place at the mine, as far as +Saunders' letter had acquainted him with the facts, and Stirling +listened thoughtfully. + +"It's a crude maneuver, so crude that, as you've nothing but +suspicions to go upon, it would be wiser not to mention them to +anybody else," he said. "After all, the jumpers may have been acting +on their own account." + +"You believe they were?" + +Stirling smiled. "I naturally don't know enough about the matter to +decide; but, in a general way, when I come across anything that seems +to the discredit of any gentleman of importance, or big combine with +which I may happen to be at variance, I keep it judiciously quiet +until I have the proofs in hand. I find it an excellent rule." Then he +added in a suggestive manner: "You probably have had another rather +more favorable offer since those jumpers failed?" + +Weston admitted that this was the case and said that he had ignored +the offer. He further stated that, as he had found the mine, he meant +to keep it until he could dispose of it on satisfactory terms. + +"That," said Stirling, dryly, "is a very natural wish, but one now and +then has some trouble in carrying out views of that kind. I've seen +your prospectus. Any applications for your shares?" + +"They're by no means numerous." And a flush of anger crept into +Weston's face. "If that were the result of a depressed market or of +investors' indifference I shouldn't mind so much, but we are evidently +being subjected to almost every kind of unwarranted attack." + +"Any mode of attack's legitimate in this kind of deal, and there's a +rather effective one your friends don't seem to have tried yet. Quite +sure it wouldn't be wiser to make what terms you can and let them have +the mine?" + +"I'm afraid I haven't considered the wisdom of the course I mean to +adopt. Anyway, it's a simple one. If those people want that mine they +must break us first." + +"Well," Stirling said, "I guess if I were you I'd allot very few of +those shares to what one might call general applicants. Locate them +among your friends and Wannop's clerks." + +"There are uncommonly few general applicants, and my friends are not +the kind of men who have money to invest. The same thing probably +applies to Wannop's clerks. It's quite certain that nobody connected +with the Grenfell Consolidated could make them a present of the +shares." + +"Considering everything, that's unfortunate, for, as I once pointed +out, the next move will probably be to sell your stock down. It's a +game that contains a certain hazard in the case of a small concern, +because the stock is generally in few hands; but I've no doubt your +friends will try it." + +"Then we're helpless," said Weston. "We must raise sufficient money +among the general investors, or give up the mine." + +"The situation," said Stirling, dryly, "seems unpleasant, but it's the +kind of one in which a little man who will neither make terms with a +big concern nor let his friends help him might expect to find +himself." + +Weston sat silent awhile, gazing at the steamer's smoke trail which +stretched far back, a dingy smear on the blueness, across the shining +lake; and the contractor watched him with a certain sympathy which, +however, he carefully refrained from expressing. There had been a time +in his career when it had seemed that every man of influence in his +profession and all the powers of capital had been arrayed against him. +He had been tricked into taking contracts the bigger men would not +touch; his accounts had been held over until long after the +convenanted settling day, and he had been compelled to submit to every +deduction that perverted ingenuity could suggest. He had, however, +hardened his heart, and toiled the more assiduously, planning half the +night and driving machine or plying shovel himself by day, whenever a +few dollars could be saved by doing so. He had lived on the plainest +fare, but he had, without borrowing or soliciting favors from any man, +borne the shrewd blows dealt him and struggled on inch by inch uphill +in spite of them. Now it seemed to him that this young Englishman was +bent on doing much the same. At length Weston turned to him with a wry +smile. + +"It's quite possible that you're right, and the thing is too big for +me, but I have got to see it out," he said. + +Stirling made a little sign of comprehension. His companion's +quietness pleased him, and he felt that, though the man must fight +with indifferent weapons and with formidable powers against him, he +would not easily be beaten. What was more to the purpose, the +contractor did not mean him to be beaten at all, if he could prevent +it, though this was a point that he did not consider it advisable to +mention. + +"Well," he said reassuringly, "no one can tell exactly how a game of +this kind will go. All you can do is to hold tight and keep your eyes +open." + +They changed the subject, and nothing more was said about the mine +during the rest of the journey. + +In due time Stirling went ashore at a way port, and Weston met the man +from Chicago in Winnipeg a day or two later. The latter asked a good +many questions about the mine, but he contented himself with stating +that the matter would require investigation, and Weston, who gave him +a small bag of specimens, spent another day in Winnipeg in a very +dejected mood. He felt the hideous cruelty of the system which, within +certain rather ample limits, made it a legitimate thing to crush the +little man and rob him of his few possessions by any means available. +There was, it seemed, no mercy shown to weaklings in the arena he had +rashly entered with none of the weapons that the command of money +supplied to those pitted against him; but in place of shrinking from +the conflict a slow, smoldering rage crept into his heart. + +He remembered the weary marches made in scorching heat and stinging +frost, how his shoulders had been rubbed raw by the pack-straps, and +how his burst boots had galled his bleeding feet. There had been long +nights of misery when he had lain, half-fed and too cold to sleep, +wrapped in dripping blankets beside a feeble, sputtering fire, while +the deluge thrashed the roaring pines. The bustle of the city jarred +on him that afternoon, and he wandered out of it, but the march, +parched with thirst, through the feathery ashes of the brulee, rose up +in his memory as he walked aimlessly toward the prairie, and he +recalled Grenfell lying beside the lode he had died to find. It became +a grim duty to hold his own, and once more he determined that his +enemies should crush him before they laid their grasping hands on the +mine. He shrank, however, from going back to Montreal and waiting +there in suspense, and by the time he retraced his steps to his hotel +he had decided that this was out of the question. He wrote a few lines +to Wannop and started for the bush with the next day's train. + +It was dark when he reached the camp, after an arduous journey, and +found Devine and Saunders sitting beside the fire. The latter, it +transpired, had engaged a clerk in Vancouver to take charge of his +store, and he smiled when Weston inquired whether he expected the man +to remain at the settlement any longer than his predecessor had done +when he heard that there was a new gold find in reach of him. + +"I guess I've fixed that," he said. "I took some trouble to get one +who was very lame." + +Neither of the pair, however, appeared cheerful, and Weston's face +grew hard when he heard what they had to say about the mine. + +"As you'd see by the specimens, we were turning out high-grade milling +ore a little while ago," Devine observed. + +"Well?" + +The surveyor's gesture was expressive. "We're not in it now. Ore's +turned spotty, and it's running deeper. I think I remember your +telling me that Grenfell figured that the lode takes an inclination?" + +"He certainly did." + +"It's another proof that you could count on what he said. There's no +doubt about that inclination. We can't get out ore that will pay for +crushing with an open cut much longer." + +"Then," said Weston, "we can follow it with an adit." + +He looked at Saunders, who smiled in a rather grim fashion. + +"Adits cost money to drive," observed the latter. "You have brought +some along?" + +Weston said that this was not the case, and Saunders spread out his +hands. + +"Well," he said, "I'm broke. Half the men on this location are owing +me quite a pile, and it's clear that I'll never get a dollar out of +them unless they strike it rich, or the Grenfell Consols go up with a +bang. That's how Jim from Okanagan fixed the thing. Now I've got +credit from a Vancouver wholesaler who takes a share in the store, and +that will keep us in pork and flour, but the giant-powder and +detonators in the shack yonder represent this syndicate's available +capital. I bought a big supply when I was in Vancouver, but there'll +be no more to be had when they run out." + +"We'll go on until they do," said Weston, doggedly. + +The next morning he laid his city clothes carefully aside, and +borrowed from his comrades garments more adapted to the bush. They +certainly did not fit him, but that was a matter of no account, and +when he had put them on he commenced work in very grim earnest. He was +hard pressed--up against it, as they say in that country--and every +crashing blow he struck upon the drill was a relief to him. Indeed, he +worked with curious cold-blooded fury that wore out his comrades long +before night came. Saunders had invested the proceeds of several years +of Spartan self-denial in the precarious venture, but that was as +nothing compared with Weston's stake. He must succeed or relinquish +all idea of winning the woman, who, he ventured to think, might listen +to him when he had accomplished his task; and when he desisted at +sunset his hands were bleeding and he had partly lamed Devine by an +incautious stroke of the pick. That, however, was a matter about which +the surveyor protested less than the hazards his comrade quietly took. +He rammed the giant-powder into the holes with reckless haste, and, +though the cheapest fuses are seldom to be relied on, he allowed his +companions scanty time to get out of the mine when he lighted them. + +It was the same the next day, and for most of the next three weeks. +Indeed, Saunders and Devine were never sure how they contrived to keep +pace with him; but they did it for the credit of their manhood, which +would not allow them to be beaten by a Britisher. At nights their +hands and backs were distressfully sore, but the adit they drove crept +on steadily along the dip of the lode. Though they had worked +reasonably hard already, their faces grew gaunter and harder under the +strain, and as yet they had come upon little sign of any richer ore. +In the meanwhile it was very hot, and all day the withering sprays of +the fallen firs emitted heavy, honey-like odors under the scorching +sun. + +Then it occurred to some of the others that, as there had been several +weeks of fierce dry weather, it would be a favorable opportunity to +burn off the slashing, or clear away the branches of the felled trees, +which is usually done before the great logs, which do not readily +burn, are attacked with the saw; and one day, when the wind promised +to drive the conflagration away from the camp, fires were kindled here +and there among the tindery undergrowth. The attempt proved +successful, and in a few hours the fire had spread into the +surrounding forest. It crept on through the latter steadily, springing +up the towering trunks from spray to spray, until the dark firs were +garlanded with climbing flame. Beneath them the brushwood crackled +furiously, and every now and then a mighty limb fell amidst a shower +of sparks, while half-charred logs and rows of blackened stumps marked +out the lode. The smoke obscured the sun until the workings were +wrapped in a haze, and it crept into the adit where Weston and his +comrades toiled; but they held on with their fish-oil lamps burning +until the light outside grew dim, and then, crawling back, sore all +over, to the wooden shack which had now replaced the tent, they lay +down outside it when supper was over. + +It was an impressive spectacle that they gazed upon. The conflagration +was still not far from them, for, as a rule, a forest fire does not +move very rapidly. Across the valley hung a dusky pall of smoke, and +beneath it all trunks stripped to bare spires stood out black against +a sea of flame. The latter, however, was of no very great extent from +wing to wing, and, now that the wind had almost dropped, it made very +little progress, though it crept on down the valley in a confined +belt, rising and falling in pulsations with the sharp crackle of +licked-up undergrowth breaking through the deep-toned roar. Saunders, +lying propped up on one elbow, watched it meditatively. + +"It's a high-class burn," he said. "Going to save somebody quite a lot +of chopping. But if that breeze whipped round there'd sure be +trouble." + +As the men at work on the lode lived either in tents or rude shelters +of bark and logs, this seemed very probable; but Weston was not in the +mood to concern himself about the matter then. + +"How much giant-powder have we got in hand?" he asked. + +"Almost enough to last another three weeks with fuse and detonators to +match. You'll have to find the next lot when that runs out." + +Weston laughed. + +"I've just sufficient money to take me back to Montreal, traveling +Colonist, and I must go back to see how Wannop's getting on before +very long. What are you going to do then?" + +Devine looked at Saunders, who smiled at him. + +"Push the adit right on, if we have to cut every foot of it with the +drill," he said. "Before we let up, we'll rip the rock out with our +naked hands." + +It was a characteristic answer, but Weston was satisfied with it. He +had discovered that if the men of the Pacific Slope were occasionally +a trifle assertive and what he called flamboyant in their +conversation, they nevertheless, as a rule, meant just what they said. +It is, of course, not unusual for an imaginative person to describe +what he intends to do in dramatic periods, but while some people are +wisely content with that, the western bushman generally can be +depended on to carry out the purpose. + +They said nothing further, and presently went to sleep, with the +crackle of the undergrowth through which the fire crawled ringing in +their ears. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE FIRE + + +The shack was full of smoke when Weston awakened, coughing, and +drowsily looked about him. Somebody else was spluttering close by, and +in a moment or two he heard Devine relieve himself with a few +expletives. Then Weston got up from his lair of spruce twigs fully +dressed, for the night was chilly and the shack had only three sides +to it, while the men who live in such places not infrequently take off +their clothes to work and put them on when they go to bed. + +"The wind has evidently dropped, and the smoke's drifting back. I +can't stand much more of this," said Weston. + +Devine, it seemed, had lost his temper. + +"Then why don't you get out, instead of worrying people?" he asked. +"Anyway, it's only one of the little luxuries that Saunders and I are +quite accustomed to. I've been eaten by mosquitoes, sandflies, and +other insects of various kinds. You've 'most smashed my ankle, besides +sticking a grub-hoe into me, and Saunders must work out a big stone +just when I was under it. We've been living most of two months on his +rancid pork and grindstone bread, and now you make a circus about a +little smoke!" + +He broke off in another fit of spluttering, and the storekeeper's +voice rose out of the vapor which seemed to be rapidly thickening. + +"The wind's not dropped. It's shifted, and the fire's working back," +he said. + +In another moment Weston stood gasping in the doorway. A little chilly +breeze, such as often draws down from the ranges in early morning, met +him in the face, and the air was thick with drifting smoke. Hoarse +shouts rose out of it and a patter of running feet, and it became +evident that most of the men were departing hastily for the range or +the remoter forest. Weston, however, could not see them, and it was, +indeed, a few seconds before he saw anything except a confused +glimmering behind a dusky pall of vapor. Then, as the smoke thinned, a +bewildering glare shot up, and ranks of trees were silhouetted against +a sea of fire that flung itself upon the rearmost of them and ran +aloft from spray to spray, while the snapping of the smaller branches +resembled volleys of riflery. After that the smoke drove down again +and blotted out everything. + +Weston, however, was not unduly alarmed. He concerned himself most +about the possibility of their work being delayed during the next day +or two. As a rule, an active man has little difficulty in avoiding a +forest fire, unless it is of unusual extent, or is driven by a strong +wind, and there was a wide space already burned clear to which they +could remove their possessions. It appeared advisable to set about the +latter task at once, for the conflagration was by this time +uncomfortably close to them. + +"Hand me the big flour-bag," he said. + +Saunders hoisted it on his shoulders, and he stumbled away with it, +coughing in the smoke, until he could deposit it in the cleared track +where the fire had passed the previous afternoon. Then he went back +for another load, and had some difficulty in reaching the shack, for +the vapor filled his eyes and almost suffocated him. He fell down once +or twice among the half-burned branches as he retraced his steps with +his burden; but pork and flour and picks and drills were precious +commodities in the bush, and he made a third journey, upsetting +Saunders as he plunged into the shack. In the meanwhile, the other +also had been busy, and at length they sat down gasping beside the +pile of blankets, clothing, tools and provisions, with several other +men who had hastily removed their possessions from adjacent claims. + +"Where are the rest of the boys?" Saunders asked one of them. + +"Some of them are in the workings, some of them on the range, but I +guess it was for Vancouver the Fraser crowd started out. Seemed to me +they meant to get there before they stopped." + +Just then a shower of sparks fell about them and charred a hole or two +in Devine's clothes, while they had a momentary vision of the front of +the conflagration. It was not a reassuring spectacle, for the rolling +sea of fire flung itself aloft in glittering spray to the tops of the +highest firs, and the valley rang with the roar it made. + +"Well," said Saunders, reflectively, "I don't know that I blame the +Fraser crowd, and one of the boys was telling me not long ago that the +settlement he came from was burned out. A thing of that kind makes a +man cautious. Anyway, it's quite hot enough here, and we'll hump this +truck along to the adit." + +The others agreed that it would be advisable, but most of the things +were heavy, and it was some little time later when Weston lighted a +fish-oil lamp in the heading and held it up. The narrow tunnel seemed +half-full of rolled-up blankets, flour-bags and slabs of pork, and a +group of men, some of whose faces were blackened, sat among them. + +"Our lot came in first. Have you got it all?" Weston asked. + +They found the flour and pork, the tea and Saunders' rifle, as well as +a couple of hammers and several drills; but Weston did not seem +satisfied. + +"Where are my clothes?" he asked. + +None of them seemed to know, though it became evident that his city +garments were, at least, not in the adit. + +"Guess they'll be frizzled quite out of fashion if you left them in +the shack," said one of the men. "A miner has no use for getting +himself up like a bank clerk anyway." + +Weston held up the lamp so the rest could see him. His face was black, +and the sleeve of his duck jacket had several big holes in it. His +trousers were rent in places, and one of his long boots was burst, +while Devine's hat, which was too big for him, hung shapeless and +dotted with charred holes on his head. + +"I'm going back to Montreal in a day or two. Can I call on big +stock-jobbers and company floaters like this?" + +"Guess you can buy new ones in Montreal," said the miner. + +"You can," agreed Weston, "when you have the money. The trouble is, I +haven't. Saunders, I'm going back for those clothes." + +They went with him to the mouth of the adit and saw the shack outlined +against a dazzling blaze. It did not seem to be burning yet, but none +of Weston's companions believed that it would be possible for him to +reach it. The smoke had risen, and now rolled among the tops of the +firs, but, though they stood at some distance from the fire, the air +scorched their faces. Weston's showed up in the lurid radiance worn +and very grim, and it was evident to Devine that the curious moodiness +which had troubled him since he came back from the city was at least +as strong as it had been. + +"You can't get them now," he expostulated. + +"Give me your jacket," said Weston, sharply. "It's thicker than the +thing I have on." + +The surveyor hesitated. He could see the sparks and blazing fragments +stream past the shack, and he had no wish to encourage his comrade in +the rashness he contemplated. + +"Well," said Weston, "I'll go as I am." + +Then Saunders remembered something, and seized him by the shoulder. + +"Hold on!" he cried. "Did either of you bring the giant-powder and +detonators along?" + +Weston glanced at Devine, who shook his head. + +"I didn't, anyway," he said. + +For a moment or two there was a silence that was expressive of dismay, +as they realized that in the haste and confusion they had saved only +the things that could be replaced. The result of this might prove +disastrous, for giant-powder and detonators are comparatively dear in +that country, and in any case are not obtainable in the bush. To hire +labor was in the meanwhile out of the question, and the progress two +men could make cutting through hard rock with only the pick and drill +was, as they were quite aware, likely to be remarkably small. Saunders +made a little dejected gesture. + +"Then," he said, "they're still in the lean-to behind the shack; and +it would be kind of wiser to crawl back into the adit. The case of +detonators was lying bang up against the giant-powder." + +This was a significant statement, for it must be explained that +although giant-powder, as dynamite is generally called in the west, as +a rule merely burns more or less violently when ignited by a flame, it +is still a somewhat unstable product, and now and then explodes with +appalling results on apparently quite insufficient provocation. In use +it is fired with a detonator, a big copper cap charged with a +fulminate of the highest power, and when lighted in this fashion the +energies unloosed by the explosion, though limited in their area, are +stupendous. The detonator is almost as dangerous, for a few grains of +the fulminate contained in it are sufficient to reduce a man to his +component gases. At least, this was the case a few years ago. + +Several men besides its owners had sought shelter from the heat and +sparks in the adit, and they evidently agreed with Saunders that it +was advisable to crawl back into shelter as soon as possible; but +Weston stood still. He had for the past few weeks been looking +disaster in the face, and this had produced in him a certain savage +desperation which is not altogether unusual in the case of +hard-pressed men who feel that they have everything against them. In +his mood, which was not a pleasant one, each fresh blow stirred him to +a grimmer effort, made with a curious quiet fury from which his +comrades now and then almost shrank. Turning abruptly, he shook +himself free from Saunders' grip. + +"Well," he said, "I'm going to bring out that powder." + +In a moment he had scrambled up the pile of shattered rock, and was +running across the open space like a deer. It was strewn with +half-burned branches, and here and there with little piles of glowing +fragments, but he went straight through them without a stumble; and it +must be admitted that his comrades stood still and watched him with +consternation before it dawned on them that it was scarcely fitting to +let him go alone. Then Saunders climbed up to the level ground +somewhat deliberately. + +"I guess," he said, "we've got to go after the blame fool!" + +They set out; but Saunders, who had been keeping store for some years, +was not remarkably agile; and one could hardly blame Devine for +proceeding with a certain caution. However, they reached the outside +of the shack soon after Weston had disappeared in it, and they stopped +gasping. The air which scorched their faces seemed to frizzle their +hair, and the smoke, which once more had descended, whirled about +them. They could hear nothing but the roar of the fire. + +Then a half-seen figure reeled out of the shack, and Devine, who was +nearest it, laughed discordantly when his comrade thrust upon him a +bundle of clothes. The thing seemed altogether incongruous, but he +turned and set off toward the adit with his arms full of the garments, +which got loose and flopped about him, until he flung them to another +man who had ventured part of the distance. + +"General Jackson!" exclaimed the miner. "He went back for his +clothes!" + +Devine did not stop to sympathize with his astonishment, but ran back +to the shack, and Weston flung him a partly-filled flour-bag as he +approached it. It fell close beside a glowing fragment, and the +surveyor felt a little shiver run through him as he whipped it up, for +he had some knowledge of the vagaries of giant-powder. He flung the +bag over his shoulder as gently as possible, and once more started for +the adit, though he proceeded with caution. He was desperately anxious +to get rid of his burden, but he had no desire to shake it up unduly. +Giant-powder will now and then go off without any very apparent cause. + +In the meanwhile Saunders clutched at Weston as he turned back toward +the hut. One had to enter it before gaining admission to the smaller +shed in which they kept the giant-powder. + +"You're not going in again? We've got one bag," he said. + +"The other one is still inside," was the hoarse reply. + +Saunders did not waste his breath in expostulation, but grappled with +him, and he had rent part of Weston's jacket off his back in the +effort to detain him when Devine came running up. Then Weston, +wriggling around, struck the storekeeper in the face, and plunged back +into the smoke as the latter dropped his hand. + +They lost sight of him for almost a minute, and then he reeled out of +the shack as the smoke drove away. A stream of sparks whirled past it, +and close above him the roof was blazing, but he held another +flour-bag in his hands, and his comrades, who had reasonably steady +nerves, were almost appalled when he poised himself to throw it. There +was only a thin strip of cotton fabric between the flying sparks and +the plastic yellow rolls of powder. Still, the bag was thrown, and +Saunders set off with it, while Weston stood gasping a moment and +looked at Devine. + +"There's the bag of detonators yet," he said, and, swinging around, +disappeared again. + +Devine remembered that there was no lid to the iron box in which they +kept the detonators, and that they were intended to be ignited by the +sparking of a fuse. He stood some little distance from the shack, and +it did not occur to him that, as one person could carry the box +readily, he was serving no purpose in waiting. Indeed, he was only +conscious of a suspense that made it impossible for him to go away. He +did not know how long he waited, but in the meanwhile the smoke +whirled lower, and he could see nothing for a moment or two. Then it +lifted, and the shack stood out in the midst of a lurid blaze. There +was a horrible crackling, and Weston suddenly sprang into sight, black +against the brightness, with the iron box, which had deer-hide straps +attached to it, slung upon his back. The sparks rained about him, but +he plunged through the midst of them, while the box banged against +him. Then Devine turned and ran. + +They reached the mouth of the adit safely, and when they crawled into +it, Weston sat down and gasped heavily for a while before he turned to +the others and pointed to the two bags of giant-powder lying on the +floor. His duck jacket was burned in patches, and there were several +red spots, apparently where sparks had fallen, on his blackened face +and hands. + +"Haven't you sense enough to take that open lamp farther away from +those bags?" he asked. + +There was a roar of hoarse laughter as his companions recognized the +incongruity of the question; and Weston blinked at them, as though +puzzled by it, until a light broke in on him. + +"Perhaps it wasn't quite in keeping with the other thing, boys," he +admitted. "Give me some tobacco, one of you. Mine seems to have gone, +and I feel I'd like to sit quiet a minute or two." + +The hand he thrust into his pocket came out through the bottom of it, +for the lower part of the jacket was torn and burned; but one of the +others produced a plug of tobacco, and when he had lighted his pipe +Weston leaned back somewhat limply against the side of the adit. + +"Well," he said, "I suppose it was rather a crazy trick, but if we'd +been sensible we'd certainly have let the Grenfell Consolidated fall +into the hands of those city men." + +Then he turned to the storekeeper with a deprecatory gesture. + +"I'm sorry, Saunders, but you would try to hold me. You ought to have +known that you can't reason with a man in the mood that I was in +then." + +Saunders grinned. "I wouldn't worry about the thing. If there isn't a +club handy the next time you feel like doing anything of that kind I'm +going to leave you severely alone." + +Then, through the roar and crackle of the fire, they heard a heavy +crash, and one of the men nearest the mouth of the adit glanced at +Weston significantly. + +"It's kind of fortunate you got through when you did," he said. "A big +branch has fallen right across your shack and broken it up." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +DEFEAT + + +There had been trouble at the Board Meeting, and, now that it was +almost over, the directors of the Grenfell Consolidated sat in +dejected silence, listening to the animadversions of one of their +comrades. They did not agree with everything he said, but it scarcely +seemed worth while to raise minor objections, for they were willing to +admit that the situation was desperate. + +"We should never have proceeded to allotment," he said. "I warned you +that the applications for our stock were quite insufficient to warrant +the flotation of the concern at the time, but you apparently lost your +heads over those specimens, and you overruled me. Now it's +unpleasantly evident that we cannot expect to go on much longer, and I +venture to predict a voluntary liquidation during the next few +months." + +"It certainly looks like that," said one of the others, gloomily. +"Still, you might give us your reasons for counting on the thing, if +you have any." + +The man laughed--a little harsh laugh that had in it a hint of +contempt for the intelligence of his colleagues. + +"Will you let me have those estimates again, Mr. Weston?" he asked. + +Weston, who sat with a set face gazing at the papers in front of him, +handed several of them across the table. It was now some time since he +had left the mine, and in the meanwhile trouble after trouble had +crowded thick upon him. He realized also that he was rapidly losing +the confidence of his companions. They were not men of any great +account in that city, and it was significant that the Board Meeting +was held in Wannop's little back office, where there was scarcely room +for all of them. + +"You have discussed those estimates at length already," he said. "I +should, however, like to point out that I consider them absurdly high. +In fact, I'd undertake to do the work at not more than two-thirds of +the cost." + +"This company," said the first speaker, severely, "has no intention of +taking up road-making and the building of flumes and dams. It has, as +I think you will admit, gentlemen, quite enough already on its hands." + +There was some show of agreement from all but Wannop, and Weston set +his lips. There had been a time when they had listened to his +suggestions, but now it was becoming evident that they regarded him +with suspicion. + +"This," said his colleague, "is a little list of our requirements and +expenditures before we can expect to get to work. Tools, +drilling-machines and labor on the heading." He read out the cost of +each item. "Then we have to provide a stamp-mill, turbines, flumes and +dam; and, though Mr. Weston suggests a wood-burning engine to supply +the crushing power, the saving effected would be no great matter. The +point is that we now discover that the cost of these things will in +one way or another be nearly double what we stated in our prospectus." + +"That," said Wannop, dryly, "isn't altogether unusual." + +"What is more to the purpose is that it will approximately absorb our +whole available capital," said the first speaker, who took up another +paper. "Then we have as an alternative scheme several leagues of road +and trail cutting, including wooden bridges and a strip that must be +dug out of an impassable mountainside. You have to add to it the cost +and maintenance of pack-horses and the rates you'd have to pay the +owners of the nearest crushing-plant to do your reducing. Gentlemen, I +can only move that these estimates stand over, and that in the +meanwhile we merely proceed with the heading." + +They agreed to this. Then another of them spoke. + +"It seems to me that there's a way in which we could save something as +well as our credit," he said. "I've had a hint that another big +concern might be willing to take us over." + +They looked at one another in a manner which suggested that this was +not altogether a new idea. Weston straightened himself suddenly. + +"It will never be done with my consent," he said. + +"Then," remarked the first speaker, "it is quite likely that you will +find yourself in a minority of one." + +"Mr. Weston can count on at least one supporter," said Wannop, +shortly. + +Then there was an awkward silence, until one of the others thrust back +his chair. + +"It's becoming quite clear that we can't go on," he said. "This +concern was started wrong. We should have spent more money, taken +first-class offices, and turned out floods of illustrated pamphlets." + +"I just want to ask how you're going to spend money that you haven't +got?" said Wannop. "I was quite willing to take the money. You +wouldn't put it up." + +There was a little laughter, and the meeting broke up; but Weston +stayed behind with Wannop when the others went down the stairway. The +broker, who sat down again, made a little dejected gesture. + +"I guess the game is up. They're going back on us," he said. "In a +way, I don't blame them. The Hogarth people have scared them off. +They're not big enough." + +"Have you any idea as to what they'll do?" Weston asked. + +Wannop nodded. "Oh, yes," he said. "They'll hold out a month or two, +and piffle away at the adit to save appearances. Then they'll call the +stockholders together, and suggest turning the mine over to the +Hogarth people on such terms as they can get. There are just two +things that could save us--a strike of extra high-grade ore, or a +sudden whim of investors to purchase western mining stock." He smiled +in a wry fashion. "I don't expect either of them." + +Weston sat still a moment, and then rose with an air of weariness. + +"Well," he said, "I'm going back to the mine tomorrow. We'll hold on +as long as possible." + +He left; and a few minutes later Stirling came in. He sat down and +handed Wannop a cigar. + +"Now," he said, "we have got to talk." + +"If you'd come a little earlier you'd have met Weston." + +"Yes," said Stirling, "that's just why I didn't. Now, where's the +trouble?" + +"I'll tell you--though to some extent it's a breach of confidence. +It's the shortage of money, and the fact that our stock is tumbling +down." + +"Tumbling down?" + +Wannop smiled. "I might have said being clubbed down." + +"I want to get the thing quite straight," said Stirling. "What made +you take up this mine?" + +"Mr. Weston's representations. I think I attached as much weight to +them as I did to the specimens. I felt that was a man that I could put +my money on." + +"You feel that now?" + +"I do," Wannop admitted. "In fact, it's hard to believe he will be +beaten, though the rest of us are going back on him." + +Stirling nodded in a manner which might have meant anything. + +"So your stock is being sold down?" he said. "As I pointed out to Mr. +Weston, considering that you haven't a great deal of it, that's rather +a dangerous game. Are any actual holders parting?" + +They had spoken without reticence, in terse, sharp sentences, as men +who recognized the advisability of coming straight to the point, which +is, after all, a custom that usually saves trouble for everybody +concerned. The men who shrink from candor, lest they should give +themselves away, not infrequently waste a good deal of time wondering +what the other person means, and then decide incorrectly. + +"They are," said Wannop. "Besides several small lots, one parcel of +six hundred shares held in England changed hands, though that was when +we stood near par and the stock was only beginning to break away. What +we want is such a strike of ore as will startle mining investors." + +"Anything else?" Stirling asked suggestively. + +"Well," said Wannop, "we're not likely to get it. If a good strong +buyer, who could wait, were to take hold, it would help us as much as +anything." + +"Quite sure?" asked Stirling very dryly. + +"Isn't it evident? It would stiffen prices and scare off the Hogarth +brokers. What's more, it would steady my colleagues' nerves." + +"Yes," admitted Stirling, "it would do all that. However, I want to +suggest that that isn't quite enough. Anyway, that's my view of it." + +They looked at each other steadily for a moment or two, and then +Stirling made a little forceful gesture. + +"Now," he said, "I'm going to take hold of this thing; and in the +first place I'll give you an order on my bank for all the money that +seems necessary. You will take up some of that stock for me; and, as +the Hogarth men will offer more freely as soon as they strike an +actual buyer, in case prices stiffen you'll follow their lead and +pitch the stock you bought on to the market." + +"Some men would consider that was playing the other people's game," +commented Wannop, with a chuckle. + +"It would be, in the meanwhile," said Stirling. "Well, you won't let +your sales--if you make any--get out of hand. You'll have to put on +one or two smart men, and cover or sell at a lower price through +different ones when it appears advisable. I shall naturally lose a +little on every deal of that kind, but the only real trouble will be +when you quietly gather in as much as possible of the stock the other +people are offering. It will have to be done without raising +suspicions, and before their broker can report and ask for +instructions." + +Wannop struck the table. "There's some hazard in it--but it's a great +idea," he said. "They'll club the Grenfell Consols down quite flat." + +"Until settling day. Then, when the other people have to deliver, they +can't get the stock. We'll shove the prices up on them to anything we +like." + +Wannop gazed at him in exultation, but presently he asked a +disconnected question. + +"Why are you doing all this?" + +"For money, for one thing," said Stirling, with a little flush in his +face. "For another, because I've been sweated and bluffed and bullied +by people of the kind you're up against, and now I feel it's 'most a +duty to strike back." He clenched a big, hard hand. "I've watched my +wife scrubbing and baking and patching my clothes in the old black +days when I lived in a three-roomed shack because I was bluffed out of +half my earnings by people who sent their daughters to Europe every +year. I've nothing to say against legitimate dealing, but it's another +thing when these soft-handed, over-fed-men suck the blood out of every +minor industry and make their pile by the grinding down of a host of +struggling toilers. By next settling day one or two of them are going +to feel my hand." + +He reached out for his hat, rather red in face. + +"If I've any other reasons, they don't concern you," he added in a +different tone. "All I expect from you is to do your part judiciously, +and, as a matter of fact, it will have to be done that way." + +He went out, and left Wannop sitting with the light of a somewhat grim +satisfaction in his eyes. + +In the meanwhile, Weston went moodily back to his hotel, and spent an +unpleasant hour or two before he proceeded irresolutely toward +Stirling's house. He realized that this was in some respects most +unwise of him, but he was going away on the morrow and he felt that he +could not go without a word with Ida. + +She was sitting near the fire, which burned upon the open hearth, when +he was shown into a daintily-furnished room. After a swift glance at +him she rose and followed the maid to the door. + +"I cannot receive anybody else just now," she said. + +Then she came back and sat down not far from him, feeling that there +was a crisis on hand, for, though the man's manner was quiet, there +was trouble in his face. + +"You have something to tell me. About your meeting, perhaps?" + +"Yes," said Weston. "I don't, however, wish to trouble you much about +the meeting. I merely want to thank you for your sympathy before I go +away. You see, I'm going west to-morrow." + +"Will you be long away?" + +"Yes," said Weston, with a strained quietness that jarred on her. "In +fact, it's scarcely probable that I shall come back here at all. The +game's up. My directors have lost their nerve. The Grenfell +Consolidated must go down in the next few months." + +It was evident to Ida that whatever could be done must be done by her, +or the man would go away again without a word, and this time he would, +as he had said, not come back at all. For a moment or two she sat very +still. + +"Ah," she murmured, "I needn't tell you that I'm sorry." + +"No," said Weston, simply. "I know you are." + +Then there was, for a minute or two, a silence that both found almost +intolerable and that seemed emphasized by the snapping of the fire. +There was before the girl a task from which she shrank, but it was +clear to her that, since she could not let him go, one of them must +speak. + +"What are you going to do in the west?" she asked. + +"Push on the heading until we have to let the mine go." + +"And then?" + +Weston spread out his hands. + +"I don't know. Act as somebody's camp-packer. Shovel on the railroads. +Work on the ranches." + +It was very evident to Ida that his quietness was the result of a +strenuous effort. The barrier of reticence between them was very frail +just then, and she meant to break it down. She leaned forward in her +chair with her eyes fixed on him, and now the signs of tension in his +face grew plainer. + +"You speak as if that would be easy for you," she said. + +Weston shut his eyes to one aspect of the question. He had not the +courage to face it, and he confined himself to the more prosaic one. + +"As a matter of fact, I'm afraid it won't be," he admitted. "The life +I've led here, and the few weeks I spent at Kinnaird's camp, have +rather spoiled me for the bush. Some of the customs prevalent in the +trail-choppers' shanties and the logging-camps are a little primitive, +and one can't quite overcome a certain distaste for them." + +"That was not quite what I meant," said Ida. + +Weston was startled, but she saw that he would not allow himself to +wonder what she really did mean. + +"Anyway," he answered doggedly, "I suppose I can bear any +unpleasantness of that kind, which is fortunate, because there's +apparently no way out of it. After all, it's one consolation to feel +that I'm only going back to what I was accustomed to before I found +the mine." + +"Ah," said Ida, "you are very wrong in one respect. You speak as if +you could bear the trouble alone. Don't you think it would hurt +anybody else as much to let you go?" Then, while the blood crept into +her face, she fixed her eyes on him. "Yes," she added simply, "I mean +myself." + +Weston rose, and stood leaning on the back of his chair, with one hand +tightly closed. He had struggled stubbornly, but it was evident that +his strength had suddenly deserted him and that he was beaten now. + +"It would hurt you as much?" he said, with a curious harshness. +"That's quite impossible. The hardest, bitterest thing I could ever +have to face would be to go away from you." + +He flung out the closed hand. + +"Now," he said, "you know. I've thrown away common sense and prudence, +all sense of what is fitting and all that is due to you. None of those +things seem to count just now." + +He drew a little nearer. + +"I fell in love with you at Kinnaird's camp, and tried hard to crush +that folly. Then I found the mine, and for a few mad weeks I almost +ventured to believe that I might win you. After that, the fight to +drive your memory out of my heart had to be made again." + +"It was hard?" asked Ida very softly. + +"It was relentlessly cruel." Weston's voice grew sharper. "Still, I +tried to make it. I gave way in only one point--I came to see you now +and then. Now it's so hard that I'm beaten. I've failed in this thing +as I've failed in the other." + +He straightened himself suddenly, with a little forceful gesture. + +"I'm beaten all round, beaten to my knees; but I don't seem ashamed. +Even if you can't forgive me, I'm glad I've told you." + +"I think," said Ida, "I could forgive you for one offense--the one you +seem to think most important--rather easily. It would have been ever +so much harder to do that had you gone away without telling me." + +"You mean that?" cried Weston, and, stooping over her, he caught one +hand and gripped it almost cruelly. + +"Can't you take anything for granted?" Ida asked demurely. "Must one +always explain in full to you?" + +She felt the man's arms close about her, and his lips hot on her +cheek; but in another moment he drew away from her. + +"But this is madness," he said. "I have nothing. In a few more weeks I +shall be an outcast." + +"Ah," said Ida, "you have given me all that counts for anything, +and"--she looked up at him with shining eyes and burning cheeks--"you +belong to me." + +He stood silent for several moments, with trouble in his face, +apparently struggling with himself. + +"What are you thinking of?" she asked, + +Weston raised his head. + +"I dare not think," he said. "I've won you by unfair means--and yet, +knowing that, I'm only filled with the exultation of it. Still, this +thing has to be faced and decided now. You know I love you--but is it +right that you should be bound to a man who may never be able to marry +you?" + +"Is that any great obstacle," asked Ida, "if I don't object?" + +"It is," said Weston, hoarsely. "I want you now." + +The girl was almost startled by the change in him. His restraint had +broken down once for all, at last, and she saw by the tension in his +face and the glow in his eyes that his nature was stirred to its +depths. In a moment or two, however, he seemed to succeed in imposing +a partial control upon himself. + +"I had meant to come to you only when we had made the mine a success," +he said. + +"To save your pride!--you could think of that?" + +Weston laughed harshly. + +"My pride--there isn't a shred of it left. But now, at least, the +situation has to be faced." + +"Is it so very dreadful?" asked Ida, with a smile. "You have told me +that you love me. Is that a thing to be ashamed of? Must I tell you +that I am glad you came to me when you were beaten, and not when you +had won? Is there anything that I should trouble myself about?" + +"Your friends' opinion, your father's opposition----" + +He broke off, and Ida, who turned in her chair, looked around suddenly +with her cheeks flushed. + +"My father," she said, "is able to speak for himself." + +Weston started, for he saw Stirling standing just inside the doorway +looking at them gravely. Their attitude and the girl's expression +would, he realized, be significant to a man of the contractor's +intelligence. Then Ida rose and faced the elder man. + +"I think I would better tell you that I have promised to marry Mr. +Weston when things are propitious," she said. She looked around at +Weston with a smile. "At least, I suppose I have." + +"Ah!" said Stirling, dryly, "the situation rather suggested it. Mr. +Weston has, no doubt, something to say to me." + +Ida glanced at Weston and slipped out of the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +HIGH-GRADE ORE + + +Stirling waited until the door closed before he turned to Weston. + +"Sit down. We've got to have a straight talk," he said. + +Weston complied, feeling that he had to face the most unpleasant few +minutes he had ever spent in his life. He had given way to his passion +in a moment of desperation, and he fancied that he could make no +defense which would appear reasonable to such a man as his companion. +In spite of this, he was filled with a certain reckless exultation. +Ida Stirling loved him. + +"What Miss Stirling told you was correct," he said. "At least, I +intend to marry her if ever--things are propitious; but, as far as I +can remember, she did not bind herself." + +"There are occasions when one's memory gets a little confused," said +Stirling, dryly. "You have made the situation quite clear; but there +are one or two points to consider, and, so far, you haven't troubled +to ascertain my views on the matter." + +"That remark," said Weston, "is quite warranted. I have only this to +say. When I entered your house half an hour ago I hadn't the faintest +notion that I should permit my feelings to run away with me." + +"Then this thing has been going on for quite a time?" + +Stirling's tone was coldly even, but Weston did not like the question. +The form of it rather jarred on him. He realized, however, that he was +on his defense, and would probably have to put up with a good deal +more than that. + +"I have had a strong regard for Miss Stirling since I first met her in +British Columbia," he said. "That, however, is all I can admit. I do +not know how she thought of me, and I have, at least, never knowingly, +until this evening, spoken a word which could show her what my +feelings were." + +"Oh," said Stirling, "you've lived in the woods. If you hadn't, you'd +have found out by now that young women possess a certain faculty of +putting things together. Anyway," he added enigmatically, "I don't +know that the bush isn't as good a place to raise a man in as the +hothouse Susan Frisingham talked about." + +Weston gazed at him in some astonishment, but the contractor made a +little gesture with his hand. + +"Well," he said, "you meant to keep the thing to yourself?" + +"Until I had made the Grenfell Consolidated a success, when I should +have come to you." + +"Quite the proper course," commented Stirling. "It's kind of a pity +you didn't stick to it. When you had arrived at that wise decision, +why did you come here to talk to my daughter?" + +It was a shrewd question, and perfectly warranted, but Weston answered +it candidly. + +"I think I came because I could not stay away," he said. + +"Then it never occurred to you that my daughter might fall in love +with you?" + +A flush crept into Weston's face. + +"At least," he said, "I never came here with the intention of +profiting by that possibility." + +Stirling laughed in a rather dry fashion. + +"Then she was to do it all at once, when you intimated that she had +permission to?" + +"It almost looks like that," Weston admitted, with an embarrassment +that surpassed anything he had expected. "I'm afraid," and he made a +deprecatory gesture, "that I've made a deplorable mess of the whole +affair." + +"You have," said Stirling. "As it happens, however, that's in your +favor. If you'd shown yourself a cleverer man in this matter, it might +have occurred to me that it was Miss Stirling's money that you had +your eyes on." + +Weston turned and gazed at him with the blood in his forehead. + +"I wish with all my heart that Miss Stirling's money were at the +bottom of the sea!" he said passionately. "There's just another thing +I have to say. I came to your house in a fit of desperation a little +while ago, so shaken by what I had just had to face that I was off my +guard. When I told Miss Stirling what I felt for her it was a +folly--but I did it--and I have no excuse to make." + +Then, to Weston's astonishment, the contractor's manner changed +suddenly, and he leaned forward with a smile. + +"Well," he said, "it's possible that she could find one or two for +you. But we have to face the situation. It seems that you love my +daughter, and there is reason for believing that she is fond of you. +Now, Ida has been accustomed to every luxury, and the only thing you +count on is a share in the Grenfell mine, which I guess you will admit +may go under at any time. What do you propose to do?" + +"I don't know," replied Weston, simply. "It's a question that has been +driving me to desperation lately." + +"Well," said Stirling, "I could find a way out of the difficulty. Are +you open to place yourself in my hands, do what I tell you, and take +what I may think fit to offer you?" + +"No," answered Weston. "I'm sorry--but I can't do that." + +"Then, if the Grenfell goes under, you'd rather go back to the bush +and chop trees for the ranchers or shovel on the railroads?" + +Weston sat very still a moment, with his face awry. Then he looked up +resolutely. + +"Yes," he said. "I think that, by and by, Miss Stirling would be glad +I did it. She would not have her husband her father's pensioner. After +all," he added, "one meets with sudden changes of fortune in the +west." + +Then Stirling suddenly stretched out his hand and laid it on his +companion's shoulder. + +"I've been twice warned by short-sighted women that my daughter might +make an injudicious marriage, and on each occasion I pointed out that +when she chose her husband she would choose just right," he said. "Now +it seems that she has done it, and I'm satisfied." + +He let his hand fall, and, while Weston gazed at him in bewilderment, +smiled reassuringly. + +"Go back to the mine when you like," he added. "You admitted that you +would take advice from me, and all I suggest now is that you hold fast +to every share you hold, and make no arrangements of any kind until +after next settling day. In the meanwhile, if you'll go along to the +first room in the corridor it's quite likely that you'll find Ida +there. I've no doubt that she'll be anxious to hear what I've said to +you." + +Weston could never remember what answer he made, but he went out with +his heart beating furiously and a light in his eyes; and when he +entered the other room Ida stretched out her hands to him when she saw +his face. + +"Then it isn't disaster?" she said. "You will stay with me?" + +Weston drew her toward him. + +"Dear, I must still go away to-morrow, but we have, at least, this +evening." + +It was all too short for them, but Weston left in a state of +exultation, with fresh courage in his heart, and it was in an +optimistic frame of mind that he started west the next day. For +several weeks he toiled strenuously under the blinking fish-oil lamps +in the shadowy adit, but there was now, as his companions noticed, a +change in his mood. The grimness which had characterized him had +vanished. In place of toiling in savage silence he laughed cheerfully +when there was any cause for it, and showed some consideration for his +personal safety. He handled the sticks of giant-powder with due +circumspection, and no longer exposed himself to any unnecessary +hazard from falling stones. The man was softer, more human, and on +occasion whimsical. + +For all that, the work was pushed on as determinedly as before, and +both Saunders and Devine experienced the same difficulty in keeping +pace with their comrade's efforts, though they had grown hard and lean +and their hands were deeply scarred. Yard by yard the adit crept on +along the dipping lode, and one evening they stood watching Weston, +who was carefully tamping a stick of giant-powder in a hole drilled in +the stone. The ore had shown signs of getting richer the last few +days, but their powder was rapidly running out, and they had not +decided yet where they were to obtain a fresh supply. His directors +had sent him neither the promised machines nor the money with which to +hire labor, and he chafed at the fact that, as it was a long and +arduous journey to the nearest station where he could reach the wires, +he could not ascertain the cause of the delay. + +The storekeeper nodded when at length Weston carefully clamped down a +big copper cap on a length of snaky fuse and inserted it in another +hole. + +"Well," he said, "I guess this shot will settle whether there's +high-grade ore in front of us." + +He struck a sputtering sulphur match and touched the fuses. + +"Now," he said, "we'll get out just as quickly as possible." + +They ran down the adit, with Devine in front swinging a blinking lamp, +and crawled out, gasping, into the cold evening air as dusk was +closing down. Then they sat around and waited until there was a crash +and a muffled rumbling. Weston stood up, but Saunders made a sign of +expostulation. + +"You just sit down again and take a smoke," he said. "We've got to +give her quite a while yet." + +There was a reason for this. The fumes of giant-powder are apt to +prove overpowering in a confined space, and in case of some men the +distressful effects they produce last for several hours; but when +Weston filled his pipe he scattered a good deal of the tobacco he had +shredded upon the ground. A strike of really rich ore would, he knew, +send the Grenfell Consolidated up, and he had worked since morning in +a state of tense anticipation, for the signs had been propitious. He +contrived to sit still for some minutes, and then stood up resolutely. + +"You may wait as long as you like," he said. "I'm going back to the +adit now." + +They went with him, Saunders expostulating and Devine carrying the +lamp. Thin vapor that turned them dizzy met them as they floundered +into the dark tunnel. The lamp burned uncertainly, but they crept on +by the feeble ray of light over masses of fallen rock, until they +reached a spot where the adit was blocked with the debris. Weston, +dropping on hands and knees, tore out several smaller fragments, and +held up one of them; but as he did it there was a faint, hoarse cry, +and sudden darkness, as Devine fell forward upon the lamp. + +"Get me out! Quick!" he gasped. + +Weston felt for the lamp, and contrived to light it, though he wasted +several matches in the attempt; but he felt greatly tempted to +disregard the dictates of humanity when he hooked it in his hat. + +"Well," he said reluctantly, "I suppose we'll have to take him out." + +They did it with some difficulty, and left him unceremoniously when +they had deposited him, limp and almost helpless, in the open air; for +miners who meet with unpleasantness of that kind recover, and one does +not make a discovery that promises to put thousands of dollars into +one's pockets very frequently. They went back, and, though Weston felt +faint and dizzy, he flung himself down among the smaller stones, and +thrust one or two of them into Saunders' hands. + +"Feel them--and look at the break!" he exclaimed. + +Saunders poised one of the stones carefully, and then glanced at the +rent where it had been torn from the rock. + +"Yes," he said, "we've struck it this time, sure. Guess we'll get out +of this and make supper." + +"Make supper!" Weston gazed at him incredulously. "I don't stir out of +here until sun-up!" + +Then he tore off his tattered shirt and stood up, stripped to the +waist. + +"Get hold of the drill," he said, hoarsely. "You've got to work +to-night." + +Saunders remembered that night long afterward. For the first half-hour +he was troubled by a distressful faintness; and when that passed off, +as the air grew clearer, his back and arms commenced to ache +unpleasantly. He already had toiled since soon after sunrise; but +Weston, too, had done so, and he, at least, seemed impervious to +fatigue. So intent was he that every now and then he swung the heavy +hammer long after his turn had run out, without asking for relief; and +Saunders judiciously permitted him to undertake the more arduous task. +By and by, however, Devine crept back to join them, and, when at +length morning broke and the mouth of the adit glimmered faintly, +Weston glanced at his bleeding hands as he flung down the hammer. + +"I suppose we'll have to let up for an hour or two," he said +reluctantly. + +Saunders staggered when they reached the open air, and Weston seemed +to have some difficulty in straightening himself, but they got +breakfast, and afterward lay smoking beside the fire, almost too stiff +to move. It was getting cold among the ranges now, and they were glad +of the warmth from the blaze. + +"We'll go on for two or three days," said Weston. "Then we'll pack +every load of ore out to the New Passage smelter and get them to +reduce it. Devine and I will take it down to the railroad over the +Dead Pine trail. The freighter from the settlement should be in with +his pack-train by the time we're ready." + +"Nobody ever brought a pack-beast in or out by Dead Pine, and there'll +be deep snow in the pass," Saunders expostulated. + +"Then," said Weston, curtly, "I'm going to do it now. If we can't +raise a stamp and reducing plant, we have got to prove that we can +make a trail to the railroad by which we can get our ore out without +spending a small fortune on packing. If we can get over Dead Pine +divide it should shorten the present trail by half; and I'm under the +impression that if we spend a few thousand dollars on making a road up +the big gully it could be done." + +Saunders looked at Devine, who made a little sign. + +"Oh," he said, "he means to try it. I guess we've got to let him." + +They went back to work by and by; and a few days later Weston and +Devine and a grizzled freighter breakfasted in haste beside a +sputtering fire. A row of loaded pack-horses stood close by in the +rain, and a cluster of dripping men gathered round when at length +Weston rose to his feet. The freighter waved his hand to them with a +little, dry smile. + +"We're going to blaze you out a new road, boys, and it will save me +some in horses if it can be done," He said. "Guess you'll be sorry +when you see what the next man strikes you for, if we don't come back +again." + +There was some laughter; and rude good wishes followed the three wet +men as they plodded away beside the loaded beasts into the rain. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +GRENFELL'S GIFT + + +It was snowing hard, and, though it was still two hours before sunset, +the light was growing dim when Weston pulled the foremost pack-horse +up on the edge of the gully. He and Devine had each a beast in his +charge, and the freighter had started with two, but one of these had +been left behind with a broken leg and a merciful bullet in its brain. +That country is a difficult one, even to the Cayuse horses, which are +used to its forest-choked valleys and perilous defiles. + +In front of them a rugged peak rose above the high white ridge of Dead +Pine. They could see the latter cutting against a lowering sky some +twelve hundred feet above, though the peak showed only a ghostly shape +through its wrappings of drifting mist. In altitude alone the ridge +was difficult to reach, but, while that would not have troubled any of +the men greatly, the ascent was made more arduous by the fact that the +unmarked trail followed the slope of an awful gully. The latter fell +almost sheer from close beside their feet, running down into the +creeping obscurity out of which the hoarse thunder of a torrent rose. +Here and there they could catch a glimpse of a ragged pine clinging +far down among the stones, and that seemed only to emphasize the depth +of the gloomy pit. On the other hand, the hillside rose like a +slightly slanted wall, and the sharp stones of the talus lay thinly +covered with snow between it and the gully. + +The freighter glanced dubiously up the hollow. + +"I've struck places that looked nicer; but we can't stop here and +freeze," he said. "We'll either have to take the back trail and camp +among that last clump of pines or get on a hustle and get up." + +"I'm certainly not going back," said Weston. "We have come out to see +in just what time we can make the journey to the railroad over the new +trail. When we have done it, we'll try to spread the information to +everybody likely to find it interesting." + +"You're not going to worry about how many horses you leave behind, I +suppose?" + +"That," said Devine, with a little laugh, "is one of the facts they +never do mention in a report of the kind. We've lost only one so far, +and two bags of rather high-grade ore." + +"If you've one altogether when you fetch the head of this gully you'll +be blame lucky," said the freighter. "Give that beast a whack to start +him. Get up there!" + +They went on, with the snow in their faces, and the stones they could +not see slipping beneath their feet; and the light grew dimmer as they +proceeded. A bitter wind swept down the gully and drove their wet +clothing against their chilled bodies, while the hillside, growing +steeper, pushed them nearer the brink of the awful hollow. The slope +of the latter, as far down as they could see, was apparently too steep +to afford a foothold, and every now and then there was a roar and a +rattle as the stones they dislodged plunged into the depths of it. +Weston, plodding along behind the freighter, however, kept his eyes +fixed for the most part on the face of the hill, for it seemed to him +that the cost of changing that perilous passage into a reasonably safe +trail would not be excessive. + +When they had climbed for an hour, the snow grew thicker, and it +became evident that the light was dying out rapidly. The freighter +announced that he could scarcely see a dozen yards ahead, and Weston +could discern no more than the blurred shape of the horse that +floundered over the slippery stones a few paces in front of him. He +could, however, hear Devine encouraging the one he led, and +occasionally breaking out into hoarse expletives. + +"It's gluey feet they want," said the latter, when they stopped for a +minute or two. "You can't expect horses to crawl up a wall." + +"They've managed about half of it," Weston declared. "We could make +this quite an easy trail with a little grading. It's the only really +difficult spot." + +"Well," said Devine, dryly, "I guess you could. In this country they +call any trail easy that you can crawl up on your hands and knees. +Still, that little grading's going to cost you about two thousand +dollars a mile." + +They could scarcely see one another when they went on again, and the +sound of their footsteps was muffled by the sliding snow. Weston could +dimly make out something that moved on in front of him, but it had no +certain shape, and he stumbled heavily every now and then as the +stones rolled round beneath him. He gripped the pack-horse's bridle in +a half-numbed hand, but, as he admitted afterward, he made no attempt +to lead the beast. He said he rather clung to it for company, for the +others vanished now and then for minutes amidst the whirling snow. + +Suddenly there was a crash and a cry behind him. For a moment he stood +half-dazed, with his hand on the bridle, while the jaded horse +plunged. Then he let it go as the freighter appeared, and together +they stumbled back to where Devine was clinging to the bridle of +another horse which lay close at his feet amidst a wreath of snow. He +staggered back just as they reached him; there was a frantic +scrambling in the snow, and then the half-seen horse rolled over and +slid away down the white slope of the gully. + +They watched it, horrified, for a moment or two; and said nothing for +a brief space when it vanished altogether into the obscurity. The +sight was more unpleasant because they knew that they had seen only +the commencement of that awful journey. Then Devine, who was white and +gasping, made a deprecatory gesture. + +"I don't know whether it was my fault," he said. "The beast stumbled +and almost jerked me over. Then I guess the bridle either broke or +pulled out." + +"Two horses and four bags of ore, and we're not through yet," +commented the freighter. "Guess it's going to cost you something if +you pack much pay-dirt out over Dead Pine trail. Anyway, you'll have +to get that grading done before I come back here again." + +"Get on," said Weston, quietly. + +They struggled on; and in another half-hour the gully died out and +lost itself in the hillside, after which they made a rather faster +pace over the thinning talus. Still, it was snowing hard, and none of +them was capable of much further exertion when, soaked through and +white all over, they limped into the lee of a ridge of rock on the +crest of the divide. A bitter wind wailed above them, but there was a +little shelter beneath the wall of ragged stone, and, picketing the +jaded horses, they lay down in their wet blankets, packed close +together in a hollow, when their frugal meal was over. There was +nothing they might make a fire with on that empty wind-swept plateau. + +Any one unused to the gold trail would have lain awake shivering that +night, and in all probability would have found it very difficult to +set out again the next morning, for a horrible ache in the hip is, as +a rule, not the least unpleasant result of such experiences; but these +men slept, and took up the trail almost fresh with the first of the +daylight. It was by no means the first time they had slept out in the +open in the frost or rain, and fed on wet, unwarmed food. + +In due time they reached the settlement on the railroad; and, after +delivering the remaining bags of ore to the station-agent and leaving +the freighter with his horses, Weston went back along the trail with +Devine. Descending the gully in clear daylight, they reached the +Grenfell camp without misadventure. + +It was some time later when the freighter, coming up by the other +route, with provisions, brought them a letter. It was from the manager +of the reducing plant, who stated that the yield of the ore sent him +for treatment was eminently satisfactory, and he enclosed a +certificate with particulars, as they had requested. Probably with a +view to further business he also offered to purchase any of the +Grenfell shares they might have to dispose of. + +Saunders' eyes gleamed as he handed the certificate around. + +"I guess that's going to send our stock up with a bang," he said. +"We'll put it right into Wannop's hands, so he can get a notice of the +new mineral field into the papers. The smelter man doesn't seem to +know that the last news we had was that the Grenfell stock was +tumbling down, but when he's open to buy it's a sure thing that he +figures it will soon stand at a big premium." + +Then he waved his hand impressively. + +"After what Weston has told us, boys, you want to get hold of the +significance of that. People have been selling our stock way down, on +the notion that before they had to deliver they could cover at a still +lower figure. Now, they can't buy it. We're going to smash them flat." + +They celebrated the occasion that night with the most elaborate meal +Devine could prepare, and invited as many as possible of their +neighbors, who also had struck what promised to be payable milling +ore. As it happened, their satisfaction was fully warranted, for a few +days after Weston's letter arrived in Montreal two gentlemen connected +with western mines called on Wannop. Stirling was sitting in the +latter's office at the time, and he made no sign of retiring when they +entered. + +"We should like a few minutes' conversation with you about the +Grenfell stock," said one of the strangers. "Naturally, we'd prefer to +have it alone." + +Wannop looked at Stirling, who smiled and answered the man. + +"I'm afraid you'll have to put up with my presence," he said. "In +fact, this is a pleasure that I've been expecting for the last few +days." + +"What standing has Mr. Stirling in this matter?" the stranger asked. + +"I hold most of the Grenfell stock that's likely to be salable," said +Stirling, dryly. "You can't pick up much on the market, which is +presumably why you have come to Wannop. Seems to me you have been +selling rather heavily." + +"If we'd known you were in it, we might have let the thing alone," one +of the men admitted. + +"You're going to realize that it's quite a pity you didn't." + +The men looked at each other, and one of them turned to Stirling. + +"I'll get to the point," he said. "We have certainly been selling, and +now that settling day is almost on us we find that we can't buy in. +Now, of course, if you hold most of the available stock you have the +whip hand of us. We'll admit that right away, and we're quite prepared +to face any reasonable tax you and Wannop may think fit to exact. +Still, it might be wiser to be reasonable." + +"How much do you want?" Stirling asked. + +They told him how many shares, and Stirling appeared to consider. + +"Well," he said, "what are you going to offer?" + +One wrote something on a strip of paper and handed it to the other, +who nodded, and made an offer. + +"That's our idea," he said. "I don't mind admitting that it will cost +us twenty cents on the dollar." + +"No," said Stirling, "it's going to cost you just whatever I like to +call it. I can swing every dollar that stock stands for up to two or +three. Will you do me the favor to glance at that certificate?" + +Wannop handed it to the nearest man, and the latter's face fell. + +"Now," said Stirling, "at the moment, you're the only people anxious +to buy; but I've only to send that certificate and a nicely worked-up +account of the rich new find around to the press, and everybody with a +dollar to spare will be wanting Grenfell stock. Still, there'll be no +shares available--I've made sure of that. I'll ask you, as men with +some knowledge of these matters, where's the price going to?" + +One of the men sat down limply. + +"What'll you take to hold the thing over until after settling day?" he +asked. + +"In money?" inquired Stirling, whose face grew hard. "If you put it +that way, we'll call it half your personal estate." + +The second man, who saw that his companion had been injudicious, +hastily broke in. + +"No," he said; "in the shape of mutual accommodation. Perhaps there's +some little arrangement you might like us to make." + +Stirling laughed, "Anyway, why should you want to make an offer of +that kind? Suppose I held the certificate over, it wouldn't straighten +things out for you. You have to deliver to the people who acted on my +behalf so much Grenfell stock, and you can't get it--now." + +"That's true," was the dejected answer. "What are you going to do?" + +"That," said Stirling, grimly, "is a matter that must stand over until +I can send for the man who found the Grenfell mine. I can't tell you +what course he's likely to adopt, but in the meantime I'd like to +point out just how you stand. You set in motion the laws of supply and +demand to break a struggling man. They're the only ones you recognize; +but, as it happens, they're immutable laws that work both ways, and +you're hard up against them now. It's not a pleasant situation, but I +can't say how far we may be disposed to let you off it until I've had +a talk with Mr. Weston. After that, I'll send for you." + +There was nothing more to be said; and when the two men went out, +Stirling turned to Wannop. + +"If you can get a wire through to Mr. Weston, tell him to come back at +once." + +"I'll have it done," said Wannop. "He said he had sent an Indian to +wait for letters or messages at the nearest railroad settlement. You +have those men in your clutches. You could break them if you wanted +to." + +"Well," laughed Stirling, "on the whole I'm more disposed to make them +hand over a moderate sum, and to let them off after that, on condition +that in the future they keep their hands off the Grenfell +Consolidated." + +"You'd take their word?" Wannop asked. + +"Yes," said Stirling, with an air of whimsical reflection; "in this +case, anyway, I 'most think I could. They've had about enough of the +Grenfell Consols. I guess they found them prickly." + +Then he went out, and Wannop despatched a telegram to Weston, who left +the mine immediately after it reached him. Somewhat to his +astonishment, he, found Stirling awaiting him when he sprang down from +the car platform in the station at Montreal, and the latter smiled +benevolently as he grasped his hand. + +"Ida would have come along if I'd let her," he explained. "I felt, +however, I'd better make things clear to you before you saw her. We'll +go straight to Wannop's office and have a little talk." + +It did not take Wannop long to explain the situation; and when he +judiciously left Weston and Stirling alone together, the latter smiled +at his companion. + +"Well," he said, "as the specimens we have just been handling seem +quite as rich as the last lot, it's evident that your share in the +Grenfell will keep you comfortable, and, as far as I'm concerned, +there's no reason why you and Ida should not set up housekeeping as +soon as you like. Now, it's my intention to hand her a block of the +Grenfell stock as part of her wedding present, on condition that she +takes your advice as to what she does with it. I'd just like to +suggest that you make the people who want that stock subscribe quite +smartly, and then let them off. It's not wise to push a beaten enemy +too far." + +Weston, who agreed with this, expressed his thanks and then asked a +question. + +"Wannop mentioned one lot of six hundred shares. Where did you get +those?" + +"They were thrown on the market by an English holder. I believe you +gave some stock to friends over there?" + +"I did. On condition that they didn't sell without consulting me." + +"Then it seems that somebody must have gone back on you." + +Weston's face grew a trifle flushed. + +"I think," he said, "we'll let that subject drop altogether. It's a +rather painful one." + +Stirling made a sign of comprehension. + +"Well," he said, "I've other business on hand, and I guess Ida is +expecting you." + +Weston took the hint; and not long afterward Ida was smiling up at him +with shining eyes. They had a good deal to tell each other, and some +time had passed when Ida said: + +"We'll go back to the bush again as soon as the snow melts, if only +for a week or two." Then she flashed a quick glance at him. "That is, +unless you are longing for a trip to England." + +A shadow crept into Weston's face as he remembered the six hundred +shares, but he smiled a moment later. + +"No," he said. "We'll go over there together by and by--but not just +now. We'll camp beside the lake where I met you first, instead." + +After a while Ida lifted his right hand gently, and glanced down at +the battered knuckles and broken nails. + +"I'm glad it's hard and strong--strong enough to keep me safe. And +those scars will wear off, dear," she said. "There are scars of +another kind that don't--but with those you and I have nothing to do." + +Then she looked up at him. + +"Do you know what first made me think of you?" + +"I don't," replied Weston, smiling. "In fact, I have often wondered." + +"Then," said Ida, "I'll show you. I mentioned the picture once before, +but you didn't think it worth while to look at it. That was left to +me. I looked at it very often while you were away." + +She led him across the room, and Weston started and flushed when she +took out the picture Arabella Kinnaird had made. + +"No," said Ida, "I really don't think you have any reason to regret +your conduct that eventful evening." + +"I never fancied that you or Miss Kinnaird saw me," laughed Weston. +"I'm afraid it was a remarkably foolish action." + +"It was one of the little actions that have big results," said Ida. +And in this she was correct, for one must reap as one has sown. Then +she looked up at him. + +"If you hadn't taken Grenfell's part that night you would not have +found the mine." + +Weston smiled, and gripped the hand he held in a tightening clasp. + +"The mine!" he said. "Grenfell gave me you!" + + + + +THE END + + + + +A FEW OF +GROSSET & DUNLAP'S +Great Books at Little Prices +NEW, CLEVER, ENTERTAINING. + + +GRET: The Story of a Pagan. By Beatrice Mantle. Illustrated by C. +M. Relyea. + +The wild free life of an Oregon lumber camp furnishes the setting +for this strong original story. Gret is the daughter of the camp +and is utterly content with the wild life--until love comes. A +fine book, unmarred by convention. + + +OLD CHESTER TALES. By Margaret Deland. Illustrated by Howard Pyle. + +A vivid yet delicate portrayal of characters in an old New England +town. Dr. Lavendar's fine, kindly wisdom is brought to bear upon +the lives of all, permeating the whole volume like the pungent +odor of pine, healthful and life giving. "Old Chester Tales" will +surely be among the books that abide. + + +THE MEMOIRS OF A BABY. By Josephine Daskam. Illustrated by F. Y. +Cory. + +The dawning intelligence of the baby was grappled with by its +great aunt, an elderly maiden, whose book knowledge of babies was +something at which even the infant himself winked. A delicious hit +of humor. + + +REBECCA MARY. By Annie Hamilton Donnell. Illustrated by Elizabeth +Shippen Green. + +The heart tragedies of this little girl with no one near to share +them, are told with a delicate art, a keen appreciation of the +needs of the childish heart and a humorous knowledge of the +workings of the childish mind. + + +THE FLY ON THE WHEEL. By Katherine Cecil Thurston. Frontispiece by +Harrison Fisher. + +An Irish story of real power, perfect in development and showing a +true conception of the spirited Hibernian character as displayed +in the tragic as well as the tender phases of life. + + +THE MAN FROM BRODNEY'S. By George Barr McCutcheon. Illustrated by +Harrison Fisher. + +An island in the South Sea is the setting for this entertaining +tale, and an all-conquering hero and a beautiful princess figure +in a most complicated plot. One of Mr. McCutcheon's best books. + + +TOLD BY UNCLE REMUS. By Joel Chandler Harris. Illustrated by A. B. +Frost, J. M. Conde and Frank Verbeck. + +Again Uncle Remus enters the fields of childhood, and leads +another little boy to that non-locatable land called "Brer +Rabbit's Laughing Place," and again the quaint animals spring into +active life and play their parts, for the edification of a small +but appreciative audience. + + +THE CLIMBER. By E. F. Benson. With frontispiece. + +An unsparing analysis of an ambitious woman's soul--a woman who +believed that in social supremacy she would find happiness, and +who finds instead the utter despair of one who has chosen the +things that pass away. + + +LYNCH'S DAUGHTER. By Leonard Merrick. Illustrated by Geo. Brehm. + +A story of to-day, telling how a rich girl acquires ideals of +beautiful and simple living, and of men and love, quite apart from +the teachings of her father, "Old Man Lynch" of Wall St. True to +life, clever in treatment. + + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26th ST., NEW YORK + + + + +GROSSET & DUNLAP'S +DRAMATIZED NOVELS +A Few that are Making Theatrical History + + +MARY JANE'S PA. By Norman Way. Illustrated with scenes from the +play. + +Delightful, irresponsible "Mary Jane's Pa" awakes one morning to +find himself famous, and, genius being ill adapted to domestic joys, +he wanders from home to work out his own unique destiny. One of the +most humorous bits of recent fiction. + + +CHERUB DEVINE. By Sewell Ford. + +"Cherub," a good hearted but not over refined young man is brought +in touch with the aristocracy. Of sprightly wit, he is sometimes a +merciless analyst, but he proves in the end that manhood counts for +more than ancient lineage by winning the love of the fairest girl in +the flock, + + +A WOMAN'S WAY. By Charles Somerville. Illustrated with scenes from +the play. + +A story in which a woman's wit and self-sacrificing love save her +husband from the toils of an adventuress, and change an apparently +tragic situation into one of delicious comedy. + + +THE CLIMAX. By George C. Jenks. + +With ambition luring her on, a young choir soprano leaves the little +village where she was born and the limited audience of St. Jude's to +train for the opera in New York. She leaves love behind her and +meets love more ardent but not more sincere in her new environment. +How she works, how she studies, how she suffers, are vividly +portrayed. + + +A FOOL THERE WAS. By Porter Emerson Browne. Illustrated by Edmund +Magrath and W. W. Fawcett. + +A relentless portrayal of the career of a man who comes under the +influence of a beautiful but evil woman; how she lures him on and +on, how he struggles, falls and rises, only to fall again into her +net, make a story of unflinching realism. + + +THE SQUAW MAN. By Julie Opp Faversham and Edwin Milton Royle. +Illustrated with scenes from the play. + +A glowing story, rapid In action, bright in dialogue with a fine +courageous hero and a beautiful English heroine. + + +THE GIRL IN WAITING. By Archibald Eyre. Illustrated with scenes from +the play. + +A droll little comedy of misunderstandings, told with a light touch, +a venturesome spirit and an eye for human oddities. + + +THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL. By Baroness Orczy. Illustrated with scenes +from the play. + +A realistic story of the days of the French Revolution, abounding in +dramatic incident, with a young English soldier of fortune, daring, +mysterious as the hero. + + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26th ST., NEW YORK + + + + +A FEW OF +GROSSET & DUNLAP'S +Great Books at Little Prices + + +BRUVVER JIM'S BABY. By Philip Verrill Mighels. + +An uproariously funny story of a tiny mining settlement in the West, +which is shaken to the very roots by the sudden possession of a +baby, found on the plains by one of its residents. The town is as +disreputable a spot as the gold fever was ever responsible for, and +the coming of that baby causes the upheaval of every rooted +tradition of the place. Its christening, the problems of its toys +and its illness supersede in the minds of the miners all thought of +earthy treasure. + + +THE FURNACE OF GOLD. By Philip Verrill Mighels, author of "Bruvver +Jim's Baby." Illustrations by J. N. Marchand. + +An accurate and informing portrayal of scenes, types, and conditions +of the mining districts in modern Nevada. + +The book is an out-door story, clean, exciting, exemplifying +nobility and courage of character, and bravery, and heroism in the +sort of men and women we all admire and wish to know. + + +THE MESSAGE. By Louis Tracy. Illustrations by Joseph C. Chase. + +A breezy tale of how a bit of old parchment, concealed in a +figurehead from a sunken vessel, comes into the possession of a +pretty girl and an army man during regatta week in the Isle of +Wight. This is the message and it enfolds a mystery, the development +of which the reader will follow with breathless interest. + + +THE SCARLET EMPIRE. By David M. Parry. Illustrations by Hermann C. +Wall. + +A young socialist, weary of life, plunges into the sea and awakes in +the lost island of Atlantis, known as the Scarlet Empire, where a +social democracy is in full operation, granting every man a living +but limiting food, conversation, education and marriage. + +The hero passes through an enthralling love affair and other +adventures but finally returns to his own New York world. + + +THE THIRD DEGREE. By Charles Klein and Arthur Hornblow. +Illustrations by Clarence Rowe. + +A novel which exposes the abuses in this country of the police +system. + +The son of an aristocratic New York family marries a woman socially +beneath him, but of strong, womanly qualities that, later on, save +the man from the tragic consequences of a dissipated life. + +The wife believes in his innocence and her wit and good sense help +her to win against the tremendous odds imposed by law. + + +THE THIRTEENTH DISTRICT. By Brand Whitlock. + +A realistic western story of love and politics and a searching study +of their influence on character. The author shows with extraordinary +vitality of treatment the tricks, the heat, the passion, the tumult +of the political arena the triumph and strength of love. + + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26th ST., NEW YORK + + + + +A FEW OF +GROSSET & DUNLAP'S +Great Books at Little Prices + + +CY WHITTAKER'S PLACE. By Joseph C. Lincoln. Illustrated by Wallace +Morgan. + +A Cape Cod story describing the amusing efforts of an elderly +bachelor and his two cronies to rear and educate a little girl. Full +of honest fun--a rural drama. + + +THE FORGE IN THE FOREST. By Charles G. D. Roberts. Illustrated by H. +Sandham. + +A story of the conflict in Acadia after its conquest by the British. +A dramatic picture that lives and shines with the indefinable charm +of poetic romance. + + +A SISTER TO EVANGELINE. By Charles G. D. Roberts. Illustrated by E. +McConnell. + +Being the story of Yvonne de Lamourie, and how she went into exile +with the villagers of Grand Pre. Swift action, fresh atmosphere, +wholesome purity, deep passion and searching analysis characterize +this strong novel. + + +THE OPENED SHUTTERS. By Clara Louise Burnham. Frontispiece by +Harrison Fisher. + +A summer haunt on an island in Casco Bay is the background for this +romance. A beautiful woman, at discord with life, is brought to +realize, by her new friends, that she may open the shutters of her +soul to the blessed sunlight of joy by casting aside vanity and self +love. A delicately humorous work with a lofty motive underlying it +all. + + +THE RIGHT PRINCESS. By Clara Louise Burnham. + +An amusing story, opening at a fashionable Long Island resort, where +a stately Englishwoman employs a forcible New England housekeeper to +serve in her interesting home. How types so widely apart react on +each others' lives, all to ultimate good, makes a story both +humorous and rich in sentiment. + + +THE LEAVEN OF LOVE. By Clara Louise Burnham. Frontispiece by +Harrison Fisher. + +At a Southern California resort a world-weary woman, young and +beautiful but disillusioned, meets a girl who has learned the art of +living--of tasting life in all its richness, opulence and joy. The +story hinges upon the change wrought in the soul of the blase woman +by this glimpse into a cheery life. + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26th ST., NEW YORK + + + + +A FEW OF +GROSSET & DUNLAP'S +Great Books at Little Prices + + +WHEN A MAN MARRIES. By Mary Roberts Rinehart. Illustrated by +Harrison Fisher and Mayo Bunker. + +A young artist, whose wife had recently divorced him, finds that a +visit is due from his Aunt Selina, an elderly lady having ideas +about things quite apart from the Bohemian set in which her nephew +is a shining light. The way in which matters are temporarily +adjusted forms the motif of the story. + +A farcical extravaganza, dramatized under the title of "Seven Days" + + +THE FASHIONABLE ADVENTURES OF JOSHUA CRAIG. By David Graham +Phillips. Illustrated. + +A young westerner, uncouth and unconventional, appears in political +and social life in Washington. He attains power in politics, and a +young woman of the exclusive set becomes his wife, undertaking his +education in social amenities. + + +"DOC." GORDON. By Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman. Illustrated by Frank T. +Merrill. + +Against the familiar background of American town life, the author +portrays a group of people strangely involved in a mystery. "Doc." +Gordon, the one physician of the place, Dr. Elliot, his assistant, a +beautiful woman and her altogether charming daughter are all +involved in the plot. A novel of great interest. + + +HOLY ORDERS. By Marie Corelli. + +A dramatic story, in which is pictured a clergyman in touch with +society people, stage favorites, simple village folk, powerful +financiers and others, each presenting vital problems to this man +"in holy orders"--problems that we are now struggling with in +America. + + +KATRINE. By Elinor Macartney Lane. With frontispiece. + +Katrine, the heroine of this story, is a lovely Irish girl, of lowly +birth, but gifted with a beautiful voice. + +The narrative is based on the facts of an actual singer's career, +and the viewpoint throughout is a most exalted one. + + +THE FORTUNES OF FIFI. By Molly Elliot Seawell. Illustrated by T. de +Thulstrup. + +A story of life in France at the time of the first Napoleon. Fifi, a +glad, mad little actress of eighteen, is the star performer in a +third rate Parisian theatre. A story as dainty as a Watteau +painting. + + +SHE THAT HESITATES. By Harris Dickson. Illustrated by C. W. Relyea. + +The scene of this dashing romance shifts from Dresden to St. +Petersburg in the reign of Peter the Great, and then to New Orleans. + +The hero is a French Soldier of Fortune, and the princess, who +hesitates--but you must read the story to know how she that +hesitates may be lost and yet saved. + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26th ST., NEW YORK + + + + +A FEW OF +GROSSET & DUNLAP'S +Great Books at Little Prices + + +HAPPY HAWKINS. By Robert Alexander Wason. Illustrated by Howard +Giles. + +A ranch and cowboy novel. Happy Hawkins tells his own story with +such a fine capacity for knowing how to do it and with so much humor +that the reader's interest is held in surprise, then admiration and +at last in positive affection. + + +COMRADES. By Thomas Dixon, Jr. Illustrated by C. D. Williams. + +The locale of this story is in California, where a few socialists +establish a little community. + +The author leads the little band along the path of disillusionment, +and gives some brilliant flashes of light on one side of an +important question. + + +TONO-BUNGAY. By Herbert George Wells. + +The hero of this novel is a young man who, through hard work, earns +a scholarship and goes to London. + +Written with a frankness verging on Rousseau's, Mr. Wells still uses +rare discrimination and the border line of propriety is never +crossed. An entertaining book with both a story and a moral, and +without a dull page--Mr. Wells's most notable achievement. + + +A HUSBAND BY PROXY. By Jack Steele. + +A young criminologist, but recently arrived in New York city, is +drawn into a mystery, partly through financial need and partly +through his interest in a beautiful woman, who seems at times the +simplest child and again a perfect mistress of intrigue. A baffling +detective story. + + +LIKE ANOTHER HELEN. By George Horton. Illustrated by C. M. Relyea. + +Mr. Horton's powerful romance stands in a new field and brings an +almost unknown world in reality before the reader--the world of +conflict between Greek and Turk on the Island of Crete. The "Helen" +of the story is a Greek, beautiful, desolate, defiant--pure as snow. + +There is a certain new force about the story, a kind of +master-craftsmanship and mental dominance that holds the reader. + + +THE MASTER OF APPLEBY. By Francis Lynde. Illustrated by T. de +Thulstrup. + +A novel tale concerning itself in part with the great struggle in +the two Carolinas, but chiefly with the adventures therein of two +gentlemen who loved one and the same lady. + +A strong, masculine and persuasive story. + + +A MODERN MADONNA. By Caroline Abbot Stanley. + +A story of American life, founded on facts as they existed some +years ago in the District of Columbia. The theme is the material +love and splendid courage of a woman. + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26th ST., NEW YORK + + + + +TITLES SELECTED FROM +GROSSET & DUNLAP'S LIST +REALISTIC, ENGAGING PICTURES OF LIFE + + +THE GARDEN OF FATE. By Roy Norton. Illustrated by Joseph Clement +Coll. + +The colorful romance of an American girl in Morocco, and of a +beautiful garden, whose beauty and traditions of strange subtle +happenings were closed to the world by a Sultan's seal. + + +THE MAN HIGHER UP. By Henry Russell Miller. Full page vignette +illustrations by M. Leone Bracker. + +The story of a tenement waif who rose by his own ingenuity to the +office of mayor of his native city. His experiences while +"climbing," make a most interesting example of the possibilities of +human nature to rise above circumstances. + + +THE KEY TO YESTERDAY. By Charles Neville Buck. Illustrated by R. +Schabelitz. + +Robert Saxon, a prominent artist, has an accident, while in Paris, +which obliterates his memory, and the only clue he has to his former +life is a rusty key. What door in Paris will it unlock? He must know +that before he woos the girl he loves. + + +THE DANGER TRAIL. By James Oliver Curwood. Illustrated by Charles +Livingston Bull. + +The danger trail is over the snow-smothered North. A young Chicago +engineer, who is building a road through the Hudson Bay region, is +involved in mystery, and is led into ambush by a young woman. + + +THE GAY LORD WARING. By Houghton Townley. Illustrated by Will Grefe. + +A story of the smart hunting set in England. A gay young lord wins +in love against his selfish and cowardly brother and apparently +against fate itself. + + +BY INHERITANCE. By Octave Thanet. Illustrated by Thomas Fogarty. +Elaborate wrapper in colors. + +A wealthy New England spinster with the most elaborate plans for the +education of the negro goes to visit her nephew in Arkansas, where +she learns the needs of the colored race first hand and begins to +lose her theories. + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26th ST., NEW YORK + + + + +THE NOVELS OF +GEORGE BARR McCUTCHEON + + +GRAUSTARK. + +A story of love behind a throne, telling how a young American met a +lovely girl and followed her to a new and strange country. A +thrilling, dashing narrative. + + +BEVERLY OF GRAUSTARK. + +Beverly is a bewitching American girl who has gone to that stirring +little principality--Graustark--to visit her friend the princess, +and there has a romantic affair of her own. + + +BREWSTER'S MILLIONS. + +A young man is required to spend _one_ million dollars in one year +in order to inherit _seven_. How he does it forms the basis of a +lively story. + + +CASTLE CRANEYCROW. + +The story revolves round the abduction of a young American woman, +her imprisonment in an old castle and the adventures created through +her rescue. + + +COWARDICE COURT. + +An amusing social feud in the Adirondacks in which an English girl +is tempted into being a traitor by a romantic young American, forms +the plot. + + +THE DAUGHTER OF ANDERSON CROW. + +The story centers about the adopted daughter of the town marshal in +a western village. Her parentage is shrouded in mystery, and the +story concerns the secret that deviously works to the surface. + + +THE MAN FROM BRODNEY'S. + +The hero meets a princess in a far-away island among fanatically +hostile Musselmen. Romantic love making amid amusing situations and +exciting adventures. + + +NEDRA. + +A young couple elope from Chicago to go to London traveling as +brother and sister. They are shipwrecked and a strange mix-up occurs +on account of it. + + +THE SHERRODS. + +The scene is the Middle West and centers around a man who leads a +double life. A most enthralling novel. + + +TRUXTON KING. + +A handsome good natured young fellow ranges on the earth looking for +romantic adventures and is finally enmeshed in most complicated +intrigues in Graustark. + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26th ST., NEW YORK + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLD TRAIL*** + + +******* This file should be named 21205.txt or 21205.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/2/0/21205 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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